In 1106 a powerful radar satellite was launched in the hopes of detecting larger debris belts elsewhere in our star-system. A malfunction in its maneuvering jets caused the satellite to turn towards Kharak and scan the surface. This turned out to have unforeseen benefits when a quick analysis showed the powerful radar had penetrated the equatorial desert sand to a depth of 75 meters and there was strong evidence of an ancient city centered on some sort of metallic structure.

Despite conditions that would daunt personnel in modern enviro suits, by 1110 the first brave excavators managed to uncover what has come to be known as the First City, Khar-Toba. While this discovery was the stuff that Anthroscists dream of, even greater secrets revealed themselves when the central metallic structure was revealed to be the skeleton of some kind of advanced vessel. Though virtually nothing of relevant substance remained except a vast array of structural beams, the real treasure lay in a shielded chamber deep below the surface. While tracing the ancient maze of power cables during the first triad of 1112, engineers opened a shielded chamber containing the wreck of the ancient ship's powerplant. Painstakingly transported to the modern polar capital of Tiir, this ancient device was back-engineered to provide another generation of breakthroughs in power and material sciences. But what catapulted our technology 500 years ahead was the analysis of a module attached to the powerplant. This device was nothing less than a solid state Hyperspace Induction Module. In a decade of analysis, we were ready to take our first steps back out into the galaxy. It was not until 1135 that it was revealed just how far we had to go.

The discovery of the powerplant and hyperspace module was considered the gem of ancient Khar-Toba, and with them safely in research labs in the temperate poles, the old city was left in the hands of a few dedicated Anthroscists. They struggled to do their work under some of the harshest conditions on Kharak. Led by a young woman named Mevath Sagald, they gave our entire civilization an answer and a goal as she pieced together the location of the mythical Observatory Temple of Khar-Toba. Accidents left her to excavate the site nearly single-handedly, but when she opened the inner chamber she recognized immediately the full import of what she found, etched on a single piece of black stone.