Space Barnacles discovered in Elite: Dangerous
Aliens. Or, er, "It's life, but not as we know it". Or perhaps "Oh God, nuke it! Nuuuuuke it!" There is life in Elite: Dangerous, discovered by Commander Octo (live on stream at time of writing). Expect Merope 5C to become very busy in the near future as pilots come from far and wide to survey the monstrous space barnacles.
Frontier has long teased the existence of alien life in Elite as part of a sprawling ARG involving mysterious alien artefacts that were all discovered 130-150 lightyears from the Merope system in Pleiades. The creatures' exact coordinates are -026.3496°, -156.4044°.
Naturally, the first instinct of everyone involved was to shoot at the alien life. So far, they've dropped nickel, which suggests their impending extinction by pilots in a rush to gather basic materials. The mystery seems far from solved, and perhaps the massive scientific mission that's preparing to embark will uncover more than they bargained for.
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