Laedomanes

Laedomanes are rare and extraordinarily valuable elements forged by a civilization so ancient that all memory of it has been lost, except for the colossal Space Monoliths they built around artificial stars scattered across the galaxy. Those stars now serve no purpose beyond acting as reservoirs of Laedomanes, and they draw fortune hunters from across known space. The catch: the Monoliths are still guarded by sentient Machines that behave as though their long-dead creators are watching, making every extraction mission a dangerous confrontation with the distant past.