ResearchTheirLanguage

Humanity FirstThe ResistanceProject ExodusThe InitiativeThe AcademyThe ProtectorateThe Servants

Communicate with Captured Hydra
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
How do you interrogate something that talks half in clicks and half by smell? Well, that's what the language teams are trying to figure out. We'll be giving them working access to the Hydra ... under close supervision.		Well, that was a headache. We've had multiple teams working around the clock trying a dozen different methods. In the end it was the Swiss team from ETH Zurich who came up with a solution – a jury-rigged automated analyzer modified to measure pherocyte levels from second to second. Combined with audio analysis, they're pretty confident they can understand what it's saying. Talking back is going to be harder, but we're building up a database of Hydra click vocabulary that should be enough for basic conversation. It's not going to be pretty, but it won't be the first time I've had to do an interrogation where I don't speak the language. At least it's in a proper facility this time instead of a safe house with a table and chair.
Quote
We're cracking their code, Colonel.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Capture a Live Hydra
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
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Objective List • Factions

Communicate with Captured Hydra
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
We have been aware for some time that communicating with the aliens will be a challenge. A team of linguists have been working on the problem, and they believe they have developed a baseline vocabulary that would, if our theories are correct, allow us to communicate with the captured Hydra via a combination of chemical and auditory means. They are requesting priority access to the containment facility to complete their research.		The linguists have compiled enough data from the captive to establish a sort of Hydran Rosetta Stone. By listening to the alien's clicking noises, comparing to every recorded instance of alien audio we have, and measuring it against the filtration readouts, the team believes their system is 70-80 percent accurate. The process still needs refinement, but it should be enough to conduct a crude interrogation of our captive Hydra. Unfortunately, while we can approximate the auditory component of the Hydra language, the emotion and meaning conveyed by the Hydra pherocytes have proven far more difficult to translate. Subtleties in the Hydra's communications will probably be lost, and we may struggle to convey our own intentions in any great detail.
Quote
Commander, we're finally getting somewhere with our captive.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Capture a Live Hydra
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
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Objective List • Factions

Communicate with Captured Hydra
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
While we have good reason to expect our Hydra to be less than fully cooperative, the possibility of communication with another sentient species carries tremendous potential. Our linguistics team has requested priority access to the captive Hydra. Our biology team, unsurprisingly, has requested the same.		Our linguistics team have been working around the clock to compile the first ever English-Hydra translation tool. By analyzing every recorded instance of alien audio that we have, and comparing it to the Hydra's behavior and pherocyte production, they believe they have managed to translate the Hydra clicking sounds into comprehensible sentences. Audio playback should allow us to "talk" to the Hydra in return. Unfortunately, it appears that a great deal of Hydra communication is carried out by pherocytes; the audible component of their language is only a skeleton, which the pherocytes build upon to transmit context and meaning. Since we cannot reproduce Hydra pherocytes ourselves, and exposing our team to the Hydra pherocytes is probably inadvisable, we will be restricted to audio exchanges only. This will make any communication crude and limited. Still, it represents a significant milestone.
Quote
We have made progress in communicating with the alien, Director.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Capture a Live Hydra
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
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Objective List • Factions

Communicate with Captured Hydra
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
Pherocyte research is underway, but our plans require a greater understanding of Hydra culture and organization. Developing a means of communication is the first step towards this.		A team of linguists and biologists have assembled an apparatus which they claim will allow for crude communication with our captive Hydra. The details are (apparently) scientifically interesting but appear largely irrelevant, apart from the detail that the Hydra pherocytes also play a role in their own communications. This raises some intriguing possibilities.
Quote
We have exchanged simple communications with our alien subject.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Capture a Live Hydra
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
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Objective List • Factions

Learn Their Language
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
For our plan to have any chance of working, we must acquire real fluency with the Hydra language. Both the pro- and anti-alien factions are developing their own crude methods of communicating with the aliens; our objectives require something more sophisticated.		We had expected the Hydra language to be more sophisticated than ours. The truth – interestingly – has turned out to be the exact opposite. The grammar of the Hydra language resembles a simpler version of Mandarin or Cantonese, and compared to the intricate rules of English it is remarkably straightforward. The sounds are of course impossible to produce with human vocal chords, but this is easily solved by audio playback. To our linguists, raised on the enormous variety and complexity of Earth languages, deciphering the rules of Hydra speech has been quite easy. Unfortunately, the reason the Hydra language is so simple is that it is designed to work in conjunction with Hydra pherocytes. Hydra pherocyte communication provides the emotional depth and sophistication that their auditory language lacks; the words alone are more of a skeleton, with pherocytes providing context and intent. Communicating audio-only with a Hydra is the equivalent of speaking atonal Chinese, or English with a vocabulary limited to perhaps a few hundred nouns and verbs. Still, crude communication is better than nothing.
Quote
We are making progress understanding the Hydra spoken language, Chancellor.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Capture a Live Hydra Or Contact the Aliens
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
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Objective List • Factions

Learn Their Language
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
The alien language teaching devices are extremely advanced. We should be able to bring a core group of our members to fluency in a remarkably short space of time, though fully speaking the Hydra language will unfortunately be beyond human capabilities. We have also tracked down the deserters from our abortive first contact. The debate among the Council has been bitter, but in the end a majority of our members have agreed that they must not be allowed to disseminate their story. The stakes are simply too high.		The language teaching program is complete. Our security teams found the deserters. They did not come willingly. There was a fight. I don't know the details. It shouldn't have had to come to this. Our head of security, Lavrentiy, suggested that I did not need to review the footage. I watched it anyway. It is hard to see how the shooting started. There was one exchange with one of our diplomats – I remember him, very passionate. He keeps on saying over and over again that I'd promised that no harm would come to them. The footage cuts out abruptly. I shouldn't have watched those videos.
Quote
The only direction to go is forward, Commissioner.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Contact the Aliens
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
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Learn Their Language
Solution
Conduct the "Hydra Language" research project when it becomes available.
Description		Resolution
Meeting the emissaries has taken a great weight off my mind. I had been prepared to be a sacrifice; my great fear had been that the rest of our people would be sacrificed, too. Now that I know this will not happen, my fears are gone. All will be well.		Learning the language of the Hydras – for so the emissaries are called – has been an interesting process. The audible components are simple enough to come to recognize. Reproducing them, with the aid of mechanical devices, is also straightforward. However, truly understanding their language requires us to stand in their presence. Their aura envelops us, providing emotion, connection, purpose. Without it, their language is a pale shadow of itself, limited and clumsy. Unfortunately, it seems that we will never be able to share the emissaries' aura. We can understand their words, but we can never reproduce them. We will be children born without the gift of speech, forever spectators, never able to fully participate in their exchanges. It will be our curse, yet perhaps in it we may find insight. The vow of silence is an ancient one.
Quote
Understanding precedes devotion, Superior.
Prerequisite Objective(s)
Contact the Aliens
Can be completed by Project:		Hydra Language
Notes
Data Sources
TIMissionTemplate_EN • TIObjectiveTemplate_CSV • TIObjectiveTemplate_EN • TIOrgTemplate_EN • TIProjectTemplate_CSV • TIProjectTemplate_EN
Related Pages
Objective List • Factions