Max was given relief from the frustration of trying to decipher the mysterious energy signature when the data came in from Santa Maria about the nearby solar systems. It had analyzed them all for signs of age and instability to see if there was more that he could learn about the state of the region, and this time there was solid evidence and easy-to-interpret data.
Nico was already poring over it and starting to run another set of scans to verify the information which she had seen in the first scan, so Max brought it up on the screens all around them.
Every star system they had scanned had the same signs of instability and the same loose gases around the outer system, which indicated that the star should still be in the middle of the formation and not supporting developed planets with evolved cultures on them.
The asteroid fields and many of the inhabitable planets were ancient, reformed or terraformed in recent history, while the stars were comparatively new and at the start of their life cycle.
"I've got it. When you finish with that section, check this data I'm sending you." Nico announced as Max was analyzing an asteroid field for signs of fossils.
That would be clear evidence that the asteroid in question had been part of a destroyed planet, which would corroborate everything that he had seen in the minds of the Arisen.
Legends and myths are usually loosely based on truth, but they also often get transferred when a species moves, so there was no guarantee that it was about the same region and not just one which was similar to this one.
Nico brought up some more data and linked it to Max as a reference, along with the other batch she sent him. From what this information said, the reformation of the stars was not a natural event. As Max had suspected, it was forced, and both of the nascent stars in sensor range showed faint signs of the same sort of energy signature that Max had found on the Mecha.
He dug deeper into the data to see what he could find and stopped in shock when he found the correlation between the formation of stars and the use of forbidden weaponry.
"It looks like the stars are forming around sloppily formed portals and anywhere that Antimatter is found in abundance. There isn't enough to form a black hole, but there is enough to cause the lighter elements to reach critical mass and form a star.
So, from the looks of it, each of these stars is actually the site of an intense battle between the Darklings and the Arisen at some point in the past. Well, I can't say that it was them for certain, but they are the two primary suspects." Max rambled, thinking out loud.
"It was almost certainly the Darklings. The signatures are so similar to wherever they are going when they portal out that the chances it was someone else seem quite slim. But what I can't tell is if they deliberately rebuilt the stars here, then left them for the various species to inhabit, or if it was accidental." Nico agreed.
Given their past history of harvesting planets full of sentient beings, it likely wasn't an accident, and the species likely didn't get there by accident either.
"Well, that's a good explanation for why we shouldn't use certain weapons and technologies in the area. We've got solid data to pass to the rest of the Reavers on the likely side effects. I don't think anyone else would risk accidentally forming a binary star system because it was easier to use an antimatter weapon against an Arisen attack." Nico added while Max was taking in the data.
"Alright, we should eliminate them from our armaments then. Standard nukes don't seem to be an issue on the same level, and they have been effective, but I suspect that the Arisen will start keeping us out of the fight as much as they can from now on.
When I was close to their ship, I got the impression that they were testing the Koleska to see if they were worthy as a society of survival and if they were capable of withstanding some theoretical battle scenario against higher beings that the Arisen have been planning for.
I don't even know what those species they want to fight are, but according to the Arisen, they destroyed everything here or somewhere like here. If they can do that, I don't think that a few minor species like the Koleska are going to make much difference in a battle."
The thought actually got Nico very excited.
"What if they have an army? Like, slaves or followers that the Arisen think will destroy the sector while they fight against the greater threat? You mentioned that they aren't trying to kill everything, and that's why they're leaving some species alone for long periods of time, only to return and test them later."
Max smiled at her enthusiasm for a prolonged, massive-scale conflict on a level that could destroy star systems outright.
"It's very possible that they have an army. It would only make sense that they would need someone to do their bidding so that they didn't have to waste all their time dealing with petty matters. Remember those Golden Ones in our past life? They used their mortal armies for everything and rarely showed up themselves." Max reminded her.
"Yeah, until you attacked that War God and got tossed so far across the universe that it took you over a year to get back, even using portals." Nico laughed.
Max smiled at the memory. Nico had actually stopped her cultists from expanding after the first few battles because there was no challenge without Max leading his armies. They had spent their entire year building up their bases in preparation for his return so that Nico and her zealots would have the sort of glorious, blood-soaked combat that they yearned for.
She had gotten exactly what she was after too. The next few years saw billions die in combat, and entire planets became uninhabitable until the blood could be cleansed from their rivers and oceans.
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