Achieving Fast, Safe Intergalactic Travel This Way

Facing the empty pedestal, Cortana immediately began calculating various possibilities:

"Based on the dissipation pattern of the residual energy on the pedestal, the possibilities for the Marker entity's removal include: the Tau Volantians themselves may have moved it somewhere safer for some reason;

It may have been devoured and assimilated by rampaging Necromorphs, or by a Blood Moon that had not yet fully formed, during the early stages of the disaster;

Or..."

"Speculation is still just speculation, child." Halsey interrupted Cortana's list. She trusted evidence more. "You can list dozens of possibilities, but there is only one truth.

Rather than fantasizing here, we should see what clues this civilization left behind at the height of its glory."

Her gaze swept across the entire plaza. Her archaeologist's instincts drove her to listen for the echoes of a long-vanished civilization through these silent structures and symbols.

Halsey walked slowly, her fingers hovering over the exquisitely carved railings and grand archways at the edge of the plaza.

"Look at the scale of these buildings, the details of these carvings. Every part of them reveals an absolute confidence, pride, and disdain for all else."

Halsey offered her assessment, her tone carrying a measured regard for ancient splendor. "When this plaza was built, it was undoubtedly the peak of the Tau Volantis Civilization. They believed they had grasped the key to eternal prosperity."

Her gaze then fell upon several incomplete engravings on the plaza floor, as well as several towering stone pillars in the distance that appeared to be monuments.

Cortana swiftly projected high-resolution scans and began attempting to decipher the writing on them.

"Doctor, these inscriptions record that... not only did they study the Original Marker, they also successfully replicated a large number of devices known as 'Secondary Resonance Entities'—what we call Red Markers.