Mysterions

Of all the races encountered by Interstel since the rediscovery of superphotonic travel, none is so cloaked in secrecy as the Mysterions. Even their true name is unknown, as the name “Mysterions” is a nickname given to them by the few Interstel crews that have encountered them; no other race refers to them by this name, if they mention them at all. The only message ever received from the Mysterions came in the form of binary code, which they have repeated without variation in every recorded communication. In the intervening years, numerous efforts to break this code have resulted only in frustration for those making the attempt, and its meaning remains as unclear today as it did when first received.

*4/14/2011: The purpose of the Mysterions and their place in SF3 is in the process of being re-written; they may yet have an important part to play in SF3's part, and are going to have a role in SF4 which will require some setting up in SF3. Where changes are being made, notes in italics will appear. This page may change dramatically as time goes on.*

## Basic Characteristics

* *Type*: Plasmoid
* *Durability*: 4
* *Learning Rate*: 9
* ***Science***: Good
* ***Navigation***: Poor
* ***Tactical***: Poor
* ***Engineering***: Engineering
* ***Communication***: Average
* ***Medicine***: Average
* *Genders*: 1
* *Life Stages*: Adolescent at 64 years. Adult at 127 years. Middle age at 339 yrs. Old Age at 509 years. Venerable Age at 615 years.
* *Lifespan*: 660+4d% years.
* *Diameter*: 0.42 meters; 0.32 + (2d5 \* 0.02) meters.
* *Mass*: 8 kilograms; 6 + (2d5 \* 0.4) kilograms.

* *Niche/Symmetry*: Exotic Spherical Consumer
* *Speed/Transit*: Floater, 3 m/rd (2 kph)
* *Volume*: .04 m^3
* *HD*: 48/45/53
* *HP*: 40
* *Unarmed Damage*: 30 HP
* *STV*: 96 MU (2,400 MU/m^3)

## Physical Description

Virtually all that is known about them is what can be gleaned from scans of their ship and what the view screen reveals: A race of multicolored, bubble-like creatures that travel the stars in immense, spherical ships made entirely of Rodnium and boasting incredibly powerful shields.

## Ground Units

*This species is a starborne, plasma-based lifeform; they have no ground units whatsoever.*

## Territory

The location of the Mysterion homeworld location is unknown, though it may be surmised that they reside near the Alpha Sector, since to date they have only been encountered in that area; no sightings of them have ever been recorded in the Delta Sector, in either the present day or in the past, nor does any race native to that sector mention them in their communications.

* **Patrol**:
	+ *Alpha Sector*: Sparse, but Present
	+ *Delta Sector*: *Sparse, but Present*
	+ *Beta Sector*: None
* **Space**:
	+ *Alpha Sector*: No Sphere of Influence
	+ *Delta Sector*: *centered around 205x250, 10 parsecs radius. Also present in Delta Sector Past*
	+ *Beta Sector*: No Sphere of Influence
* **Star**:
	+ *Alpha Sector*: None
	+ *Delta Sector*: *205x250*
	+ *Beta Sector*: None
* **Worlds**:
	+ *Alpha Sector*: None
	+ *Delta Sector*: *TBD (205x250, primary)*
	+ *Beta Sector*: None

## Status

The motivations of the Mysterions remain unknown, as real communications with them are not yet possible. They don't factor into the politics of any known species, and for the most part other races are willing to leave them alone. Those that do bother to attack them are oftentimes frustrated; to date, the destruction of a Mysterion ship by weapons fire has never been recorded, nor has any return fire ever taken place. They are about as neutral as they come.

* **Ally**:
	+ *Initial*: None
	+ *Final*: None
* **Enemy**:
	+ *Initial*: None
	+ *Final*: None

## Economy

* **Economic Status Levels**:
	+ Not Applicable (No Known Homeworlds, *Homeworld is a star, so no trading can take place in any event.*)
* **Specialty Trade Goods Purchased**:
	+ None
* **Specialty Trade Goods Sold**:
	+ None

## Supplemental Information

No further information on this species is currently available.

## Importance

The Mysterions will serve the same purpose as they did in SF1, to give act mainly as an easter egg. They may also have their message changed to give away some information (as was done in the Sega Version), but in a completely non-obvious way. As the nature of the Mysterions use of Morse Code has been revealed at this point, a new cryptological algorithm may need to be employed; this will have to be done in such a manner as to appear binary, as was done in the original games. Their ships may be attacked and salvaged, although in exchange for making them vulnerable to attack, the Mysterion ships have been redesigned with heavy weaponry.

*As previously stated, the role of the Mysterions in SF3 is being rewritten; this role, and their importance to SF3 in the revised plot, will be posted as soon as any information is available.*

## Communication Text

*This is the comm text from SF1. See the Notes section for ideas for messages in SF3.*

Neutral Statement:

* 00001 01111 00000 100001 00011 00001 11100 100001 11000 11110 01111 11111

## Notes

From starflt.com: Update 6/16/07 - Patrick O'Halloran points out that the message is simply Morse code. 0’s are dots, 1’s are dashes, and 100001 translates to dash-dot-dot-dot-dot-dash, which is a hyphen. (Verifies here)

00001 01111 00000 100001 00011 00001 11100 100001 11000 11110 01111 11111

* 4 1 5 - 3 4 8 - 7 9 1 0

*Any new mysterion messages will need to be translated in the same manner, for sake of consistency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse\_code has Morse code translation, along with additional symbols (such as punctuation). http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html is a good site to do direct translations.*

A few possibilities, if we want to have some fun with this:

* 1000 0 001101 000 001 010 0 001101 1 111 001101 100 010 00 10 101 001101 1011 111 001 010 001101 111 0001 01 0100 1 00 10 0 (BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE)
* 01 0100 0100 001101 1011 111 001 010 001101 1000 01 000 0 001101 01 010 0 001101 1000 0 0100 111 10 110 001101 1 111 001101 001 000 (ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US)
* 01 1 001101 0100 0 01 000 1 001101 00 001101 0000 01 0001 0 001101 1010 0000 00 1010 101 0 10 (AT LEAST I HAVE CHICKEN)
* 1 0000 0 001101 1010 01 101 0 001101 00 000 001101 01 001101 0100 00 0 010101 (THE CAKE IS A LIE.)
* 0 0001 00 0100 001101 011 00 0100 0100 001101 01 0100 011 01 1011 000 001101 1 010 00 001 11 0110 0000 110011 001101 1000 0 1010 01 001 000 0 001101 110 111 111 100 001101 00 000 001101 100 001 11 1000 010101 (EVIL WILL ALWAYS TRIUMPH, BECAUSE GOOD IS DUMB.)
* 00 0010 001101 1011 111 001 001101 1010 01 10 001101 010 0 01 100 001101 1 0000 00 000 110011 001101 1011 111 001 001101 100 111 10 011110 1 001101 10 0 0 100 001101 110 0100 01 000 000 0 000 010101 (IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU DON'T NEED GLASSES)
* 111 0000 001101 11 1011 001101 110 111 100 110011 001101 1 0000 0 1011 001101 101 00 0100 0100 0 100 001101 101 0 10 10 1011 101011 001101 1011 111 001 001101 1000 01 000 1 01 010 100 000 101011 (OH MY GOD, THEY KILLED KENNY! YOU BASTARDS!)
* 1011 111 001 010 001101 0000 0 01 100 001101 01 001101 000 0110 0100 111 100 0 (YOUR HEAD A SPLODE)
* 11 01 010 1011 001101 0000 01 100 001101 01 001101 0100 00 1 1 0100 0 001101 0100 01 11 1000 110011 001101 00 1 000 001101 0010 0100 0 0 1010 0 001101 011 01 000 001101 011 0000 00 1 0 001101 01 000 001101 000 10 111 011 010101 (MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB, ITS FLEECE WAS WHITE AS SNOW.)
* 1011 111 001 101 10 111 011 10 111 1 0000 00 10 110 110011 0111 111 10 000 10 111 011 010101 (YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW.)

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