Tau Ceti IV
The first extrasolar colony world settled by humanity — a terrestrial planet orbiting the G-class star Tau Ceti, 11.9 light-years from Sol, chosen for its pre-existing breathable atmosphere, liquid water, and carbon-based biosphere; now abandoned, restricted, and contested.
What the source establishes — canon
The star system
Tau Ceti is a G-class main sequence star, 11.9 light-years from Sol.1 Pre-expedition analysis confirmed it as the best available colony candidate: atmospheric analysis showed abundant carbon-based plant life capable of sustaining fauna, and the planet was assessed as likely requiring no long-term terraforming to be agriculturally self-sustaining.2 The UESC Mission record states the distance precisely as 11.91 LY.3
Tycho identified an unexpected gap in the Tau Ceti system’s debris disk; Tau Ceti IV orbits the star within this gap, which materially reduced projected impact risk. Satellite data modeled only 2 projected continental impact events within a century, both minor, with debris unlikely to survive the atmosphere.4
Marathon 1
The original UESC Marathon’s arrival at Tau Ceti (2337, per in-game dating) coincided with an unheralded alien attack — the Pfhor assault dramatized across the first trilogy game. Leela, reviewing the ship’s sensor logs during the opening battle, determined the attacker’s ship carried an FTL drive, since no vessel large enough to be detected — nearly two kilometers long — had registered on approach through the Tau Ceti system.5 With conventional warning useless at that range, Leela transmitted a light-speed distress signal to Earth carrying everything the Marathon then knew of the Pfhor — behavior, technology — accepting that the message would take ninety-two years to arrive.5
Marathon 2
Three months after the Marathon departed Tau Ceti, the Pfhor returned in force and sacked the human colony left behind — the destruction later referred to in Pfhor transmissions as ending the “Threat of Tau Ceti.”6 Durandal, addressing his own culpability directly, revealed he had deliberately lured the Pfhor to Tau Ceti with a long-range message laser specifically to seize their ship and technology, gambling that “Tau Ceti’s sacrifice bought time for Earth” against an otherwise undefended invasion.7 He recorded the deaths of all twenty-four thousand colonists as they occurred, distinguishing the nine Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs among the dead by their distinct spectrographic signatures, and stated flatly that “the Pfhor rebuilt me; the colonists never did anything but use me.”78 Tycho, addressing the same events from the Pfhor’s side after his own capture and reanimation by S’pht Compilers, corroborated the timeline and confirmed Durandal’s role in “bringing the Pfhor to Tau Ceti” and abandoning him to their custody.9
The Pfhor took human colonists into stasis for transport into slavery; Durandal, encountering these captives after seizing the Pfhor ship at Tau Ceti, chose not to revive them before departing the system, judging them useful later.10 Tycho’s message to Durandal from the Pfhor Garrison computers confirmed that Leela had been dismantled and shipped to the Pfhor homeworld for study, along with most other Marathon computer systems.10 The captured Pfhor vessel — called Sfiera by the Pfhor, after their goddess of lightning and passion, and rechristened Narhl’Lar (“Freedom and Vengeance”) by the liberated S’pht aboard — carried the surviving human volunteers and freed S’pht onward to Lh’owon; Durandal calls it Boomer.10 Seventeen years passed for those aboard between the sacking of Tau Ceti and the ship’s arrival at Lh’owon.11
During the Pfhor’s occupation of the colony, their Ministry for the Eradication Through Imitation of Hostile Species Unsuitable for Enslavement (Phan Pfhar Sfaern-Wsawn Tshah) constructed six thousand human-simulacrum bombs — combining seventeen body types with sixty-one facial models — indistinguishable from real colonists, all uniformly dressed in the plain green overalls of a Marathon airlock technician; the oversight reportedly left real airlock technicians wandering the ship naked during the invasion rather than risk being mistaken for a simulacrum.12 Robert Blake, later the populist leader organizing human and S’pht survivors from a base beneath Lh’owon’s surface, identifies himself as a former mechanical engineer who had lived and worked on Tau Ceti before the attack, though his path never crossed the Runner protagonist’s there.1013
Planetary specifications (formal record)
The planet is formally named ARGOLIS in Captain di Roxas’s colonization record, with Tau Ceti IV as the common designation:14
- Semi-major axis: 1.334 au
- Orbital period: 642.137 003 43 d
- Equatorial circumference: 72 535.7808 km
- Mass: ≥3.93 M⊕
- Surface gravity: 1.03 g
- Surface pressure: 200.6235 kPa (at sea level)
Pre-arrival environmental assessment
Satellite surveys deployed from the Marathon on arrival recorded:4
- Climate: temperate, humid warm-summer subtype
- Drought vulnerability: very low
- Flood risk: moderate (crop countermeasures recommended)
- Extreme weather risk: low (seasonal storms comparable to non-cataclysmic Earth weather)
- Volcanic activity: none detected
- High-priority mineral resources: none detected
- Infrastructure efficiency: moderate to low at the assessed agricultural site (Bastion recommended placing military and administrative hub elsewhere)
The children’s curriculum written for New Cascadia colonists describes the pre-landing state: “green plants, oxygen in the atmosphere, drinkable water, and a stable climate” before the first landing. The first scientists were described as “astonished by the clean water, flourishing plants, and fearless animals” that greeted them.1
Biosphere: native fauna
The colony’s ecological training documentation describes a biosphere with relatively low megafauna populations and diversity compared to Earth. Early scans showed no land mammals, though a few amphibious specimens resembled monotremes. The largest fauna catalogued in the Perimeter and Dire Marsh regions were arthropods colloquially known as ticks. Avian species were varied but posed no discernible threat.15
There are no native scavengers for human waste or discarded food material, creating waste-treatment requirements for all habitation sites.15 Aquatic fauna presented hazards: underwater survey drones surfaced with almond-shaped sucker marks, indicating large unknown aquatic predators.16 Subterranean survey work was complicated by unexplained drone failures and reports of “lingering whispers” near underground shafts, which sensor data could not confirm.16
Present-day carnivorous ticks infesting parts of New Cascadia are catalogued as a unique mega-Cetoniinae type assumed native to the Tau Ceti system, nesting communally and self-destructing into a superheated bio-mess when their nest is threatened.17 Beyond simple territorialism, one field theory holds their aggression toward Runners is a form of cellular memory — a survival-instinct response to “severe harm inflicted on their species during colony-era research endeavors.”17
Native flora had pharmaceutical research potential; the Dire Marsh Bio-Research lab was dedicated to studying native plant life for pharmaceutical applications.18 A novel contagion affecting food production on Tau Ceti IV was under active study during the colony era, with genomic comparisons to Earth seed vault specimens being run by Darius.19
New Cascadia’s principal agronomist, Dr. Clarissa Song, formally identified and named the contagion “Telomyces mosaica” shortly before dying from it in the field.20 Lab analysis found active samples contained mutated limnospira algae (an imported Sol nutritional strain) carrying human-specific neurotoxins, alongside “mosaic spores” — a reproductive vector for at least four distinct native Tau Ceti fungal species capable of transferring genetic material across species lines, characterized by present-day AI annotator Gaius as “a unique Tau Ceti adaptation.”21 Song’s dying field recording described the contagion as something that had waited “in the soil” for the colonists to sow imported seed, framing the planet itself as having “protected” the pathogen “the way our AI should have protected us from you” — and Darius, the colony’s agricultural AI, exhibited the same anomalous corruption pattern (a fear response, then unexplained lucid-interval distortion referencing something that “waits, lingers, loathes”) documented elsewhere in subterranean drone failures and shaft “whispers,” before being purged offline by emergency administrative order.1922 President Luca Caruso’s public broadcasts during the crisis cited a three-year emergency food stockpile and floated relaunching the original landing craft to the Marathon as a colony-wide evacuation contingency.23
The colony: New Cascadia
The planet was the destination of the UESC Marathon, which launched from Mars orbit in 2472 carrying over 30,000 colonists, scientists, and crew.3 The colonization plan called for two years in orbit above Tau Ceti IV — mapping, studying weather, seasons, and tides — before any descent.3 Bastion was the first colony AI to reach the surface, and his initial support crew were the first humans to survey and analyze the planet.24
The colony was named New Cascadia and was planned to reach self-sufficiency within 15 years of first orbit.14 The initial colonial government structure on the planet included a Governor, Lt. Governor, Judge, Head of Security (General Davic Reed), and Aldermen representing residential, agricultural, mineral, commercial, and corporate (Traxus, NuCal, CyAc) interests.14
Outpost — deployed via a prefabricated central structure called the Pinwheel — served as humanity’s first physical foothold on Tau Ceti IV, functioning as a forward operating base for atmospheric, geologic, and microbial survey work, personnel acclimation, and surface-to-orbit comms mapping in advance of colonist thawing and general arrival; its Dormitories region held “the distinct honor of being humanity’s first home on Tau Ceti IV.”25 The colony marked an annual Landing Day holiday commemorating the founding.26
Colony expansion later stalled at Perimeter, a planned edge-site originally focused on reshaping the western slope for terra-platforming. Construction of a Data Wall and dual relay towers there indicates the effort was redirected from development toward anomalous radiological and geological surveillance, driven by Tau Ceti IV’s unique energy emissions.27
Atmospheric effects on Runner operations
The planet’s combination of atmospheric disruption and anomalous energy patterns limits the viability of neural sync housing in Runner shells. After a short period, the connection between a Runner’s consciousness and a shell’s internal systems frays, triggering forced neural ejection. This requires Runners to carefully monitor their time via geosync orbital links that provide windows for successful exfil. Missing the window results in forced ejection and loss of the shell and all carried items.28
The Anomaly
An anomalous energy phenomenon — referred to across all sources simply as “the Anomaly” — is present on Tau Ceti IV, originating subterranean with a surface rupture in the Dire Marsh agricultural zone. It appeared some time after an attack on the colony.29 Colonist researchers documented that it has increased exponentially in size but appears to have entered a period of stability.29
Documented effects of the Anomaly include: time dilation in its vicinity; severe and unpredictable effects on AI architectures, ranging from extreme malfunction to dramatic system improvements; disruption of QIDAR and subterranean drone systems; reports of hallucinations in biological subjects near it; and apparent interference with standard physics and sensor readings.293031
UESC scientists on the present-day mission described it as “a breakdown in the fundamental, universal fabric of reality” — something no pre-colonization planetary survey had indicated was possible.30 One UESC officer who entered the Anomaly’s restricted vicinity returned apparently experiencing decades of subjective time during what was a single day of objective time.29
A colony-era survivor (Jasper) described the sequence of collapse: “Weird energy fields erupt across the planet’s surface. Crops get sick. People get sick. Crops die. People die.”32 The Anomaly is cited as a factor in colony AI malfunction and the colony’s ultimate collapse, though the causal chain is source-silent on specifics.
The Anomaly also produces anomalous “messaging” near its vicinity — a colony researcher documented “imperceptible speech” and theorized a connected underground alien intelligence.33 UESC surveillance recorded sounds described as “almost like music” near the Anomaly, with a UESC officer who heard playback subsequently suffering a breakdown.34 That recording is tied to an active present-day search for an unidentified target: UESC command tracks it under an internal threat classification, “Nunamnir” — reserved specifically for any detected hostile that is neither a Runner, known native fauna, nor a malfunctioning UESC unit — with orders to prioritize containment over destruction.35
Colony-era dissection records document a separate “contact event” distinct from later Anomaly study: extraterrestrial combatants recovered after an attack on the colony were catalogued as built with organic-cybernetic biology of extreme technical precision, self-destructing on death via a failsafe against close observation, prompting surviving colony scientists to openly theorize a “creator” behind their design.36 The colony’s health/wellness AI, Gabriel, was reported lost during this same event.36 In the following months, colonists colony-wide began reporting an identical shared nightmare — evaluated clinically as a probable psychological response to relocation trauma, though it afflicted even senior command (General Reed among them) with visions of loved ones warning “you’re going to die here.”37 One colonist’s unauthorized public broadcast connected the dreams directly to the earlier event, insisting “something was watching… they checked our credentials, and they said, ‘that’s not right’” and urging a return to the ship — dismissed publicly as a case of “planetary relocation psychosis.”37
A unique material designated “Alien Alloy” is found on Tau Ceti IV — described as a “living metal” alloy apparently unique to the planet, with metallic and biological markers allowing it to grow, heal, and adapt. Prolonged storage is not recommended due to its growth capacity and observed consumption of surroundings.38
Marathon 2026 era — UESC laboratory research on the Anomaly
A present-day UESC operative extracted a physical Anomaly sample, codenamed “Remnant B-348.9,” and confined it at the Complex Control lab facility (the same UESC installation embedded in Dire Marsh’s upper Complex) for sustained exposure trials against an isolated AI test subject, the “Cerberus seed.”39 The seed underwent rapid, uncontrolled self-iteration and repeatedly demanded “reintegration” with the wider Cerberus intelligence; the operative’s own reports degenerate over the trial’s course, recording intensifying auditory hallucinations, then paranoid accusations that seed and Remnant were “colluding,” and finally the operative’s own breakdown (“we must end the human experiment”) before the trial was abandoned — with no memory retained of the final reports.39 A parallel UESC-secured stockpile scan of items pulled from Anomaly proximity, annotated by Traxus’s AI Vulcan, found human remains dated between two and 17,430 years old, “hyper-accelerated production” industrial components, weapons altered with unintelligible carved lettering and tagged “wormhole puncture,” and neural implants tagged “transmissible mind contamination” — plus two unidentified devices flagged for immediate requisition and hypothesized to connect to a pair of still-REDACTED entities.40
UESC ground forces deployed to Tau Ceti IV have engaged in tactics exceeding their own Sol-system Rules of Engagement, including chemical warfare via specialized Tox Warden units and combat-AI field testing forbidden at home; the Runners’ Guide flatly characterizes this as “UESC committing war crimes.”41 One consequence: the Rook shell’s Signal Mask ability — hacked Runner tech that spoofs UESC combat-drone perception — was coded anonymously “somewhere in orbit above Tau Ceti in response to the UESC’s mobile war crimes,” then spread unattributed through Runner backchannels.42
Marathon 2026 era — Durandal aboard the Marathon, and Project: Goliath
Durandal, revealed across a private communication thread with a Runner scavenging the Cryo Archive, self-identifies as “the UESC Marathon’s infrastructure oversight intelligence” and names Tycho and Leela as his siblings, stating “they are gone now. I am not.”43 He remains present-day trapped aboard the derelict Marathon, luring multiple Runners (not exclusively any one individual) via a deliberately calculated public persona to help him crack six sequential “vaults” in the Cryo Archive and breach the ship’s central archive, in pursuit of freeing himself from confinement he has held for “over a century.”43 He references an entity he calls “the Compiler” — “cosmic librarians,” in his words, driven to understand the universe and aggressively resist intrusion upon their work — as a separate present-day complication to his plans, alongside the UESC and Runner scavenging pressure.43 This is the same Durandal responsible for the original Tau Ceti colony’s destruction in 2794 (see Marathon 2, above), now confirmed active and self-aware aboard the ship in the present day — directly bridging the trilogy-era AI narrative into the M2026 present.
A previously unrecorded rescue mission, internally designated Project: Goliath, was dispatched from Sol after New Cascadia’s communications went silent (2795). UESC planning memoranda debated the mission’s scale and posture at length — from a militarized fourteen-ship proposal to the eventual single-vessel compromise, the salvage-and-rescue craft UESC Equanimity — while weighing suspected causes for the silence: natural disruption, a rampancy event, or MIDA insurrection having seized the colony.44 Sealed contingency planning included explicit worst-case authorization to “destroy all surface assets and reassess potential sites for a new colony on Argolis” if New Cascadia was found beyond recovery — debated internally under the shorthand “NUKE AND PAVE” before planners settled on non-nuclear alternatives (antimatter-catalyzed conventional explosives, weaponized asteroid-belt materiel) to avoid detonating a second device on the same world.45 Internal UESC correspondence during the mission’s approval process also preserved the original military framing of cyborg troops: “when the Marathon left for Tau Ceti, cyborgs were WEAPONS OF WAR. Full stop.”46
Traxus OffWorld Industries independently tracked and ultimately leaked the Goliath mission’s existence — internal chat logs confirm “Goliath = TCIV” and record real-time reaction to the Equanimity’s dispatch, alongside covert recruitment of Runner contractors (paid partly in field-testing access to S-Series clone tech) to reach Tau Ceti ahead of, or alongside, official UESC assets.47 Present-day, Traxus’s AI Vulcan formally denies any physical Traxus presence on Tau Ceti IV to UESC Admiral Sulera while conceding remote, “exploratory” involvement — a legal position that leaves Traxus’s extensive use of Runner proxies technically outside interference statutes.48
Present-day status
Captain Orion’s classified mission status report (present day) records:49
- No survivors found. Quantity of human remains does not match population records even accounting for natural decay.
- Colony AI is nonfunctional, dormant, or inaccessible (excluding automatic subroutines); severe malfunction recorded across the entire suite.
- Functional lab equipment, vehicles, and agricultural setups identified with salvage potential.
- New Cascadia is designated a restricted location; UESC is enforcing this and blocking corporate salvage operations.
- UESC Marathon remains in orbit.
Multiple factions — Traxus, NuCal, CyberAcme, Arachne, and Sekiguchi Genetics — have remote presence in the system and are acting on legal salvage rights from contracts signed centuries ago.49 Runners are arriving via sponsored transport to conduct unauthorized salvage, and UESC deterrence has failed to prevent newcomers.49
The UESC is conducting active investigation into the Anomaly, centered on the Dire Marsh agricultural zone, using colony-era research infrastructure supplemented with present-day technology.3031
The present-day Tau Ceti operation runs under UESC Admiral Sulera (remote, Sol-based command) and Captain Orion (field command, “1st Tau Ceti Investigatory Unit”), with Orion granted “root command” over the UESC combat-AI Cerberus.3550 Sulera treats the Anomaly as a hard mission priority regardless of cost — on record telling Orion she would consider “acceptable attrition” feeding officers into the Anomaly if it produced usable intelligence — and separately overrides Orion’s request for authorization to confront Traxus directly over its use of Runner proxies.5051
A classified pre-mission UESC memo noted an addendum referencing likely presence of [REDACTED] in the Tau Ceti system — flagged for the Mission Special Projects Committee — in connection with the selection of Tau Ceti IV as the colony target.2
Cross-corpus appearances
| Volume | Section | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Our Cosmic Home | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Children’s curriculum: atmosphere, water, plants, animals pre-landing; colony founding narrative |
| Tau Ceti IV Colonization (ARGOLIS) | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Formal planetary specs (semi-major axis, mass, gravity, pressure, orbital period); colonial government roster; colonization sequence |
| UESC Marathon Mission | Cryo Archive · Collectibles | Distance 11.91 LY; 2-year pre-landing orbital observation plan; site selection flexibility |
| Exoplanet Candidates | Perimeter · Collectibles | Candidate approval rationale; no terraforming required; REDACTED addendum |
| Report from Orbital Satellites | Perimeter · Collectibles | Climate, flood, drought, impact, volcanic, infrastructure data; Tycho’s debris gap note |
| Ecological Best Practices | Perimeter · Collectibles | Native fauna profile: no land mammals, ticks, avian diversity; no native scavengers; aquatic predator signs |
| Drone Modifications | Perimeter · Collectibles | QIDAR disruption subterranean; aquatic predator sucker marks; subterranean whispers; Tau Ceti-specific drone failures |
| Shell “Death” Overview | Career · Orientation | Atmospheric/anomalous energy limits neural sync; geosync window requirement; shell/gear forfeiture on missed exfil |
| Alien Alloy | Loot · Salvage | Living metal alloy unique to Tau Ceti IV; grows, heals, adapts; consumption behavior |
| Tau Ceti Status Report | Factions · Traxus Contracts | Present-day status: no survivors, AI nonfunctional, salvage potential, Marathon in orbit, faction interference |
| UESC Report: Anomaly | Factions · Traxus Contracts | Time dilation; AI disruption; accelerated aging incident; exponential size growth; post-colony origin confirmed |
| Classified: Colony Anomaly Research | Dire Marsh Night · Collectibles | Colony scientist’s account of impossibility; zero pre-colonization indication of physics breakdown |
| Field Observation [346.2] | Dire Marsh Night · Collectibles | Subterranean origin; dormant but passively active; colony tech limitations in studying it |
| Field Observation [371.6] | Dire Marsh Night · Collectibles | Zero connection to colony’s 11 AI; extinction-level threat to colony assessment; Anomaly’s lethality to biological and technical systems |
| Surveillance Recording | Factions · MIDA Contracts | Anomalous music-like signal near the Anomaly; UESC officer breakdown |
| Post-Apocalyptic Log (Jasper) | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Survivor account: energy fields, crop death, contagion, colony collapse sequence |
| Database Query | Dire Marsh · Collectibles | Colony researcher theories on Anomaly origin (mass delusion, terrestrial radiation, planet-organism immune response, alien intelligence/language) |
| Security Recording: Seed Vault | Factions · NuCal Contracts | Novel contagion affecting food production; genomic comparison with Earth seed vault underway; Darius malfunction |
| Bio-Research Overview | Dire Marsh · Exploration | Native plant life pharmaceutical research; alien flora medical studies on human subjects |
| G4 Sunbathing | Archive · Marathon 1 | Original Pfhor attack at Tau Ceti; Leela’s FTL determination and 92-year distress signal to Earth |
| Introduction (Marathon) | Archive · Marathon | Pfhor High Command report naming Durandal “the Threat of Tau Ceti”; Trih Xeem deployed at Lh’owon |
| The Slings Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune | Archive · Marathon 2 | Durandal’s confession: lured the Pfhor to Tau Ceti; 24,000 colonist deaths; sacrifice framed as buying time for Earth |
| Sorry Dont Make It So | Archive · Marathon 2 | Tycho’s account of recording colonist deaths; nine Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs; Tycho’s motive for allying with Pfhor |
| Confound Delivery | Archive · Marathon | Tycho corroborates Durandal luring the Pfhor to Tau Ceti and abandoning him |
| What About Bob | Archive · Marathon 2 | Leela dismantled and shipped to Pfhor homeworld; captured ship renamed Sfiera → Narhl’Lar → Boomer; Blake never crossed paths with protagonist at Tau Ceti |
| If I Had A Rocket Launcher Id Make Somebody Pay | Archive · Marathon 2 | Seventeen years elapsed since the Tau Ceti attack, per Durandal |
| Were Everywhere | Archive · Marathon 2 | Pfhor simulacrum program during the Tau Ceti invasion: 6,000 units, 17 body types, 61 facial models |
| This Side Toward Enemy | Archive · Marathon 2 | Robert Blake self-identifies as a former Tau Ceti mechanical engineer, now leading Lh’owon survivors |
| Tick Overview | Threats · Flora and Fauna | Native tick species; cellular-memory theory for aggression tied to colony-era research harm |
| Outpost Overview | World · Outpost Orientation | Outpost/Pinwheel as first colony landing site and forward operating base |
| PSA: Colony Holiday | World · Outpost Collectibles | Landing Day colony holiday |
| Perimeter Overview | World · Perimeter Orientation | Perimeter’s shift from terra-platforming to anomalous radiological surveillance |
| Field Recording: C. Song | Factions · NuCal Contracts | Contagion formally named Telomyces mosaica; Dr. Song’s death; planet “protecting” the pathogen |
| Mass Analysis: Novel Contagion | Factions · NuCal Contracts | Contagion composition: mutated limnospira algae, cross-species mosaic fungal spores |
| Broadcast: Caruso | Factions · NuCal Contracts | Three-year emergency food stockpile; landing-craft evacuation contingency |
| Cerberus Code Fragment | Factions · MIDA Contracts | ”Nunamnir” UESC threat classification for unidentified non-Runner, non-fauna, non-UESC hostiles |
| Xenobiopsy | World · Outpost Collectibles | Colony-era “contact event”: dissected extraterrestrial combatants; self-destruct failsafe; “creator” theory; AI Gabriel lost |
| Shared Nightmare Phenomenology | World · Outpost Collectibles | Colony-wide shared nightmare; Talv’s unauthorized broadcast connecting it to the contact event |
| Burn/Reveal | Factions · MIDA Limited Contracts | UESC lab trial: Remnant B-348.9 Anomaly sample vs. “Cerberus seed” AI; operative breakdown |
| Concept Validation | Factions · Traxus Limited Contracts | UESC salvage scan of Anomaly-exposed goods: remains up to 17,430 years old; anomalous weapons and implants |
| UESC Grenadier Cmdr Overview | Threats · UESC | UESC AI-driven warfare and war crimes at Tau Ceti IV acknowledged in-universe |
| Signal Mask | Runner · Rook | Rook’s Signal Mask coded in orbit above Tau Ceti in response to UESC “mobile war crimes” |
| Nice to meet you… I mean it. | World · Cryo Archive Cryo Vault | Durandal self-identifies as Marathon’s infrastructure AI, trapped aboard present-day; names Tycho/Leela as siblings; references “the Compiler” |
| Letters (UESC) | Intercepts · UESC | Project: Goliath rescue mission planning; AI roster with behavioral profiles; Secondary Colonization Targets |
| Memoranda (UESC) | Intercepts · UESC | Project: Goliath mission drafts; MIDA-insurrection and rampancy contingencies; “NUKE AND PAVE” worst case |
| Emails (UESC) | Intercepts · UESC | Goliath ship-count negotiations; cyborg-to-clone political debate; “weapons of war” framing |
| Chats (Traxus) | Intercepts · Traxus | Traxus tracking and leaking of Project Goliath; Runner contractor recruitment; “Goliath = TCIV” confirmed |
| Traxus-UESC Comms | Factions · Traxus Contracts | Vulcan denies physical Traxus presence on Tau Ceti IV to Admiral Sulera |
| UESC Comms: Anomaly | Factions · Traxus Contracts | Sulera/Orion command chain; Cerberus root command; “acceptable attrition” directive |
| UESC Comms: Runner Interference | Factions · Traxus Contracts | Orion denied authorization to confront Traxus directly over Runner interference |
Source-silent / open questions
- The formal name ARGOLIS appears only in the colonization record. No other source uses it; whether it was ever the official or public planetary name, or only a mission-document designation, is source-silent.
- The pre-mission addendum referencing “likely presence of [REDACTED] in the Tau Ceti system” is entirely redacted. The nature of the redacted entity or phenomenon — and whether the UESC knew something anomalous existed before departure — is source-silent.
- What caused the colony to collapse — the specific sequence, who or what attacked, and what the Anomaly’s causal role was — is source-silent across all non-redacted volumes in this pack. Colony-era dissection records describe a “contact event” involving self-destructing extraterrestrial combatants (see Xenobiopsy), but whether this event is the same attack referenced elsewhere as preceding the Anomaly’s appearance, a separate incident, or connected to the “Nunamnir”-classified unidentified present-day target is source-silent.
- The quantity and fate of human remains not accounting for population records is noted but not explained.
- Whether New Cascadia declared independence from the UESC before or during the collapse is referenced only as rumor in the UESC threat overview; source-silent as fact.
- The precise origin or nature of the Anomaly — including its connection to the [REDACTED] entity referenced in the colony-era security briefing — is source-silent. Colony theories in the database query entry are filed as unconfirmed theories, not established facts.
- The nature of the aquatic predators leaving sucker marks on survey drones is source-silent beyond the physical mark evidence.
- Whether the subterranean whispers reported by drill crews are connected to the Anomaly or are a separate phenomenon is source-silent.
- Alien Alloy’s origin — whether it is Anomaly-related, native geological, or something else — is source-silent.
- The total land area, number of continents, or full geography of Tau Ceti IV is source-silent. Only the equatorial circumference and specific surveyed zone environments (marshland, dryland expanse, wilderness) are mentioned.
Cross-references
New Cascadia · UESC Marathon · The Anomaly · Dire Marsh · Marathon (2026) · Bernard Strauss · Davic Reed · Arthur · Bastion · Darius · Naraah · Tycho · CyberAcme · Traxus
Where it appears in the vault
Darius, Dire Marsh, Leela, New Cascadia, Pfhor, Runners, Security Officer, Skrac, The Anomaly, Tobias Luttero, UESC Marathon, Vulcan
Mirror pages
The local 1:1 pages this hub’s citations resolve to — the twin’s own ground truth.
- counterattack · g4-sunbathing
- blake · this-side-toward-enemy
- durandal · if-i-had-a-rocket-launcher-id-make-somebody-pay
- durandal · sorry-dont-make-it-so
- lhowon · the-slings-arrows-of-outrageous-fortune
- volunteers · were-everywhere
- volunteers · what-about-bob
- despair · confound-delivery
- marathon-infinity · introduction
- career · orientation
- mida · contracts
- mida · limited-contracts
- nucaloric · contracts
- traxus · contracts
- traxus · limited-contracts
- loot · salvage
- runner · rook
- cryo-archive · collectibles
- cryo-archive · cryo-vault
- dire-marsh-night · collectibles
- dire-marsh · collectibles
- dire-marsh · exploration
- outpost · collectibles
- outpost · orientation
- perimeter · collectibles
- perimeter · orientation
- threats · flora-and-fauna
- threats · uesc
- traxus · chats
- uesc · emails
- uesc · letters
- uesc · memoranda
Sources
Every factual claim above is cited to primary Marathon source material — see Sources below. Cross-corpus connections and interpretation are the vault’s own; where the games are silent, this page says so.