Unknown System
Dark Void Colony Crimson Forge

The command center of the colony was deathly silent as the Mekniks assembled could only wait in place until the outer system picket sensors confirmed their preliminary readings. Though the ability to make FTL relays was within their grasp, demands for secrecy and security instead based their comms on a spiderweb of laser-comm relays throughout the wide-spanning comet and debris rings of the system's edge.

Finally, the datafile they were all waiting for arrived. Tapping the holo-key to bring it up, colony governor Atraxis felt her body tense as the detailed sensor report came in. Incoming FTL signals, vectoring towards their system.

"Alright people. Incoming contacts. No Union IFF or comms attempts. I'm ordering the Gambler Protocol into effect as of an hour ago." The governor barked at the shocked Mekniks around her. "All outer-ring stations and ships go dark. All bunkers into lockdown, all garrison troops mobilized, and stage-six comms blackout before they get here. Move! We need to be holes in the ground!"

The command center changed into a tumult of activity as orders were shouted, programs were deployed, and a wave of signals were sent out across the system to silence them all.

By the time the outsiders arrived, they would find the main colony buried within the moon of the largest world. A harsh and arid world, covered with industrial colonies and strip-mining sites while the moon had a number of hab-bunkers buried among it. A industrial colony spanning a fair amount of the inner system.

They would not find anything that was hidden among the outer asteroid belts, buried on the moons of the two outer gas giants, or layered across the system's edge. They would not find the fleet of system defense boats in hidden hangers, or the network of underground army bases where thousands of Mekniks geared up for a hostile first contact.

They would not know how afraid the Meknik's were at the prospects of being discovered, or what it would mean for their future. But the future was coming right to their doorstep regardless. And they would greet it with open arms, or nuclear missiles if necessary.

* * * * * * *

Unknown System
Lost Margin Colony Civitas

"We are not going to survive another rain season like that." Brigadier Fenrov panted, gulping down a canteen of water like ambrosia before dunking half of it's contents over his head. "The River Tribes are uniting in their hatred of us, and they are getting more fucking creative with their Vandite. Those were compound bows with Vandite tips, or I'll eat my beret." He recalled the original briefing based off the orbital scans before the colony ships made landfall. A jungle planet ideal for the Meknik's to rebuild from with only primative natives to pacify and keep away from mining operations. Instead it seemed the entire planet was rising against them, from hostile wildlife to the unification of the squabbling local Bokrak against the Meknik colonists. Barely a century since planetfall and two of the colonies had already fallen to the natives, and now the Central Government was facing outright invasion.

"It could have been worse." Colonel Dynnmal offered in some consolation. "The riverboats will be ready in a week, although shell production is still trying to catch up after we these last few long barrages." Grim memories of the war in the jungles of this world amidst rain and hordes of hostile natives. The great guns of his battery hadn't ceased fire for a week before the natives broke, but only after driving deep into Meknik lines.

"How the hell are they replacing their losses so quickly?" Inquired Colonel Tulev. "They are feudal tribes, we got flash-clone labs and guns. This is the third seasonal assault yet, and we're the ones barely keeping at strength, not them."

"Satellites say we got tribes coming in from across the planet converging on our colonies and mining ops." Dynmal explained. "We got seven U-months before they likely start marching in force again. The governor is starting to get desperate. The twitchy bastard."

Fenrov simply grunted, as some things were too dangerous to say even in the company of apparent friends. The paranoia of the governor was matched by his fear of the natives after assassins nearly killed him four times and gristly murdered three of his Companion-girls. "I'm more worried about what this means for C-Opsec. The strip-mines, the satellite weapons grids, the nukes we dropped. We've been losing ground on our original mission since day one, and someone is bound to notice." He was about to say more before his wrist-comp chimed.

<Attention Brigadier Fenrov, report to HighCom at once. This is a priority-one alert by order of the governor. Repeat, report to HighCom at once.>

"Ugh, what now? Duty calls gentlemen, see to the troops as best as possible. We may have more work on our hands soon."

"Roger." "Good luck brigadier."

Beginning of the Seige of New Columbia

A collab between Lauder and Sigma

-------------



Paradiso System

Deep Space


A pair of Cyclops Frigates were on their usually patrol, so far nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, a rather common phrase to be said in such a system, with the exception of the occasional pirate incursion, the Paradiso System hadn't faced much threats since the end of the Xim War, it was both a blessing and a curse for so many in the Paradiso SDF. However, that unfortunately will change very soon.

In the CIC aboard one of the patrolling frigates, the captain, a brown-furred Dathu sat calmly, or rather, was half-asleep, system wide patrols tend to last quite a while, long enough for one to get some sleep if needed, nothing happens anyway, at least until now. "Captain." the shipboard AI spoke up, the captain snapping back up to attention. "Several dozen warp signatures have been detected entering the system."

"Well...that's quite a few." He replied in a robotic voice, thanks to the translator device around his neck. "Can they be identified?"

"Negative, sir." the AI replied. "I've also attempted to open channels with them, but they refuse to respond."

"That's not good..." the captain said. "Move on a intercept course. Alert the other ship."

"Yes, sir."

With that, both frigates broke off their path and moved to a possible location of the unknown fleet, visual contact was required to ascertain what they were dealing with. A short while later, the pair arrived, much to the horror of the crews on board. "Oh Shu'yih..." the captain muttered as a holographic model of the fleet materialized right before upon the table at the center of the room. "The X'Cor.." so many questions circulated in thier collective minds, "why" are they here?" "Why attack now?" But it matters not, they're here now and the forces left to defend this system would be put to the test, within mere moments, the two ships were under heavy barrage from the X'Cor fleet.

"Warn New Columbia!" The captain ordered the AI. "We're under attack! The X'Cor are here!"

The entirety of the X'Cor war fleet had come, sixty-six ships in total in order to raid this planet that was owned by the Federation. The two ships alone would not last long against the combined barrage of the fleet. It was an easy start to the campaign, hopefully they still retained the advantage of surprise.

With so little point-defense weapons in place, the frigates would not hold against the tide of EMP missiles of the X'Cor. The ships did not even bother stopping for the frigates either. Instead, they continued to keep engines powered while the proceeded to begin tearing the two ships apart. The X'Cor were headed straight for New Colombia, the capital ships preparing their main cannons in case they would need to be used.

"This fight... It will be one the Federation will suffer from," the Fleet Admiral Ver S'sho, chuckled as the ships continued on.



New Columbia


Jackson Monroe, a name well known among the Officers of the Navy, as being the Youngest Officer to be made Admiral at he age of thirty. However, he has earned such a title for good reason. In the final years of the Xim War, the formerly Captain Monroe had proved to be a brilliant strategist and tactician, responsible for the major push into the Occupied Territories. For decades the war was a constant back and forth between the Sol Federation and the Xim Initiative, often with little gains and losses, entrenching themselves. Thanks in part to Monroe's tactics, the Federation had pushed into the occupied systems, and although they had not fully liberated them, the navy had managed to maintain a light presence, keeping the Xim fleets preoccupied and less pressure spent on the ground troops. By the war's end, Jackson had became a War Hero.

A few months later, the Captain was caught off guard with his promotion to Admiral. It was certainly quite an honor, never in the Federation's long history has there been an Admiral at such an age.

Ten years after, Admiral Monroe has now been tasked with defending the Frontier, to observe the Xim and all who pose a threat.

----------------------------------

Aboard USS Vanguard, CIC

Admiral Monroe sat in the dead center of the CIC Room, bored out of his mind, laying his head over his hand as he observed his crew going about daily business as usual, overhearing conversations when possible to pass the time.

"Alright, here's a real shitty one." The Comms officer said. "Two Mabronnans are out on patrol, one of them walks into a wall and collapses, he doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other Mabronnan takes out his communicator and contacts his commander. He gasps: “My partner has collapsed! I don’t know what to do! After a moment, the commander responds: “Calm down, I can help.” “First, let’s make sure your partner is dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the communicator, the Mabronnan says: “Okay, now what?"

That got a few snickers out of the Admiral and others. "Yeah, that joke was shit." He says jokingly.

"You got one, sir?"

"I'm not much a jester myself." Monroe replied. "Carry on, I need to kill this boredom!"

"Aye aye, Admiral." one of the officers replied as they proceeded with their chitchat as the minutes went by, traffic out there was more busy today, of course with the Commonwealth coming along to sign some treaty, you'd bet it would be busy. "Jasie." He called out to the ship's AI. "Give me a situation report. Anything new updates on comms?"

"Searching...." the AI replied, searching through the tactical net, and kept searching until a "bing" sound rang throughout the room. "Confirmed...I have received some..troubling updates."

Monroe slowly sat upward on his seat, his ear perking up. "Go on.."

"We seem have have lost a patrol group...their shipboard AI did not leave much behind in it's message."

"Well? What is it?"

"The message was..."Enemy Attack."

"What?!" The Admiral stood up in surprise, spooking all the staff, sending them into a panic.

"Oh god!"

"Is it the Xim!?"

"Not again.."

"Everyone calm down!" Monroe ordered. "Whoever it is...we're ready. This is like back in the War, we stand and fight, we won't run, not this time." His rather short speech has calmed the CIC staff down, and even inspired them. "Battle stations."

The X'Cor fleet continued to move at full speed towards the planet, until they began to near the planet. They began to slow and the six Capital-classes came to a hault, causing the other sixty cruisers to as well.

"Sir, what target should we prioritize?," a Communications officer aboard the X'Cor ship asked, turning to face the Fleet Admiral.

Ver S'sho thought for a few moments before ordering, "Set the War fleet to prioritize and ships in orbit around the planet. Once those have been destryed, we can take up a defensive formation. For now, have the Cruisers form a wall in front of the command ship. Make sure that they space out a bit so we can have a line to fire."

The Communications officer nodded and relayed the information to the rest of the fleet. So the X'Cor forces formed a wall in front of the Command ships. Immediately the ships began to close on the largest cluster of enemy vessels they could find.

Admiral Monroes's fleet took a more chaotic formation, there was little time for a proper defense, what ships were within vicinity of the USS Vanguard formed up into several scattered groups. The Vanguard took center stage as it advanced with an escort of two cruisers. Two other groups consisted of a dozen warships, of which were a mix of destroyers, frigates and corvettes.

The scattered fleet soon fell under fire from the wall of X'Cor cruisers, a group of light warships wiped out from the barrage. Monroe's carrier, although taking a beat, stood strong in the face of adversity. Deep in the carrier, in the CIC room, every shot and collision caused a fierce tremors that echoed throughout the ship, the crew felling it. Admiral Monroe remained glued to his chair as the CIC staff were in a panic, monitoring the ship's status and the status of the outside. "We got fires on decks 3 and 8!" shouted one officer.

"Shields are at fifty percent!" another riced out.

"We lost fleet group one!"

"Admiral, we got a swarm of small craft emerging from the enemy fleet!"

The Admiral rose up, as adrenaline was coursing through his veins, he never felt this alive and afraid since the war. "Launch all fighters!" He snappily ordered. "And when the hell will those reinforcements arrive?!"

"We still got twenty minutes till the rest of the fleet arrives, sir." the Coordinator replied.

"Damn it!" he shouted. "We'll have to hold til then.."

"Sir! The Commonwealth Cruiser is moving towards out position!"

"Are they mad?! the Ambassadors are on boa-" Monroe was interrupted as the ship shook violently once more, forcing him on his knees. Alarms ringing throughout the ship. "Oh god! We're been boarded! Multiple decks report hostile troops storming in!."

"...Nevermind, we need all the help we can get..."

“Bring us to battle stations! Power up our weapons and thrusters!” Captain Ruag whistled frantically as he watched the light cruiser Argent’s demise. Commanding the heavy cruiser Star-Borne, the protection of Senator Fayyer and the diplomatic team was ultimately his responsibility. One that he had just failed. The likelihood of Fayyer having survived was low at best.

“Did the Federation destroy them?” One of the officers on the bridge quietly asked, bringing out to the open what Ruag himself believed to be true.

Ruag simply grunted before saying “Contact Dagger and Star-Savior. Have them join up with us.” Dagger and Star-Savior were the two Broadsword-class destroyers that had come with them, remaining outside of the star system along with six Sentinel-class corvettes. Someone had had the foresight to prepare for the worst case, realizing that should things turn sour having those two ships on hand could prove invaluable. “And have the marines prepare plans to rescue our citizens still on that station.”

He waited a few moments before adding “Engage main drive. Set course for the Argent’s wreck at battle speed.”

“Aye. Setting course for Argent’s wreck at battle speed.” His helmsman stated.

“Captain” The communications officer spoke up. “Dagger and Star-Savior report that they are five minutes out. They will be coming out of warp ready for combat.”

“Excellent” Ruag responded. “Inform them that I don’t want them opening fire unless I either explicitly order them to or they are fired upon.”

Five minutes later Star-Borne had come considerably closer to both the Argent’s wreck and the human space station Vigilant. All the while Star-Borne, along with the two Confederate destroyers and six corvettes that had just dropped out of warp, had shown increasingly hostile behavior towards the human ships in the area. Star-Borne had even locked on to a human freighter that had drifted too close for comfort, although the captain warned the freighter off instead of opening fire. Even so it would be apparent to all present that the Confederate forces were quite suspicious towards their Federation hosts.

“Captain! I’ve established a solid connection with one of the escape pods!”

“Excellent. Patch me through.” Ruag took a moment to compose himself before speaking again. “This is Captain Ruag of the heavy cruiser Star-Borne. What’s your situation?”

There was a long pause before a reply, barely audible through static, came back. “This…. Lieutenant… The Argent… destroyed by… from inside the ship.”

“Confirm. Argent was NOT destroyed by an outside source.” Ruag demanded.

“Correct…” Ruag wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. It WAS good that the Federation was not at fault. But that meant that this had been an attack from inside the Confederation itself, which was NOT a good thing. In his suspicions towards the Federation Ruag might have also caused irreparable damage to their relations.

“What’s the Senator’s status?” Ruag asked.

“…wounded… shot twice…. His….. hit… debris from… explosion. Urgently needs medic attention.”

If the Senator had been shot… Ruag’s eyes widened as he realized what that could mean. This was a major terrorist attack with the likely objective being the Senator’s death. But towards what end? It was something he would have to contemplate later. For now he had a badly wounded Senator and his heavy cruiser most likely did not have the facilities needed to save his life. Which left him only one option left.

“Connect me to the Federation space station Vigilant.” Ruag ordered. He waited a moment for the connect to be established before speaking again, confident that his ship’s systems would translate to their language automatically. “This is Captain Ruag of the Cormyrean Confederation heavy cruiser Star-Borne to the Solaran Federation authorities on the space station Vigilant. We have confirmed that the light cruiser Argent was destroyed from an internal source. We will be standing down from combat stations and hope that the Federation will aid us in our rescue efforts. We believe Senator Fayyer is badly wounded and needs immediate and extensive medical attention. His medical needs may exceed the capabilities of this heavy cruiser. Therefore, I am requesting that you allow us to send a few of our surgeons over and that you provide the support and facilities we need to save the Senator’s life. Any assistance given will be appreciated and remembered. May the Living Stars watch over us.” He ended his transmission as he turned to the officers on his bridge. He had a rescue effort to oversee.



“What do we have here?” Crex asked as the CCS Dauntless dropped out of warp into the uncharted star system formally called 5A7511A-2. Crex, captain of the Dauntless and something of a war hero back in the Cormyrean Confederation had been tasked with the open ended mission of exploration. Of course there were more specifics to his orders, but simply summing it up as exploring more or less was the sum of those orders.

Thus far his mission had been fairly boring. He had found a lot of barren worlds and gas giants. Occasionally he and his crew found themselves staring at something a bit more interesting such as a pulsar or black hole, but for the most part the mission had been uneventful. That was until the AI on board the ship, referred to by the same name as the ship itself, answered Crex’s question.

“There are signs of an inhabited world” Dauntless reported. “The civilization present is confirmed to in the early space age at least.”

“How could you possibly know that already?” Crex asked.

“I can see their satellites” Dauntless answered without missing a beat. The bridge was dead silent, none of the crew willing to comment on how their captain had made himself sound like a complete idiot.

“Oh” Crex finally broke the silence. “Well shit. Send them the communications packet.”

“Aye captain. Communications packet away.” Dauntless responded with a hint of amusement in “her” tone. The communications packet was something that had been developed to help ease some of the problems involved in making first contact. Mostly it concentrated on helping the recipients convert some of the Nalloth language and concepts into their own. It started by focusing on the universal language of mathematics and all involved. First it would show a dot of light followed by the word “one”. Then it would show two dots of light followed by the word “two”. It would repeat this process using different numbers and other objects, such as stars or rocks. Then it would work on showing the recipients what the Confederation used for math symbols and measurement.

The communications packet had proven to greatly reduce the time needed to make some of those first few and, arguably, most vital attempts at communication when making contact with other civilizations. It also allowed Crex and his crew to put bulk of the burden of translations on the recipients, at least initially. Having sent the package all Crex and his crew could do was wait and observe while those who lived in the system received and responded to the packet.

RCNS Anna Karenina
New Columbia High Orbit

As soon as the X’cor were in range, Anna Karenina had opened up with her long range variant missiles, sending barrage after barrage at the encroaching ships. As the X’cor drew closer, she switched over to high evasion ion missiles, to out-maneuver their point defence and tear at their shields. Her gamma lasers opened fire, mostly invisible but for the occasional flash of violet. Last came the railguns, a broadside of metal that barraged the oncoming ships.

Wellesley chewed his thumb nervously. This was one hell of a tight spot they were in, outnumbered and outgunned. As a battlecruiser, Anna Karenina was well equipped to pack a punch, but she was saddled with a diplomatic delegation that Wellesley was not keen to lose.
“Get the UFS Ambassador and our diplomatic personnel to a launch bay, prep an assault shuttle and tell them to stand by” he ordered. An assault shuttle would be better equipped to survive the firefight blazing across space, but it would still be perilous. Not that they would be much safer planetside, but better there than on an actively engaged warship.

Wellesley would have to do his best to create an opening for the shuttle, but he also had other responsibilities. “Prep 5 courier boats, 3 back to the Commonwealth and 2 to the nearest UFS systems. Load all missile tubes with ECM, and I want salvoes of mixed flak and beam attenuators from the port railguns. Ready all fighters for launch, and await my orders.”

A chorus of “aye’s” and “yes sirs” broke out in response. Wellesley waited patiently until the various stations reported in.
“The diplomats and the courier boats are ready to go sir.”
“All fighters prepared for launch captain.”
“ECM missiles and mixed defensive salvos ready sir.”
Wellesley nodded. “Launch!”

The battlecruiser exploded with activity. A full barrage of ECM missiles streaked towards the X’Cor, laden with jamming signals and decoys, scrambling sensors and generally causing confusion. A huge shell of flak erupted outwards, clearing away X’cor fighters and establishing a deadly perimeter of explosions between the oncoming hostiles and the Commonwealth battlecruiser, interspersed with EM flashes that scattered incoming energy weapons. Fighters were next, dropping from the ship’s main hangars and arching away beyond the flak shell to engage their X’cor counterparts. In the middle of all that, five courier boats and a heavily shielded assault shuttle broke away from Anna Karenina’s starboard hangars. The shuttle blasted towards the planet at breakneck speed, while courier boats hightailed it to a safe warp distance.

“Couriers are away sir,” an officer reported.
“We’ve been granted access to the UFS tac-net Captain,” another said.
“Good,” Wellesley replied. “Helm, move us in to support the UFS carrier, coordinate our defensive fire and targetting with their CIC. Get our fighters in there, I don’t want any more boarders getting through. And open commms to the UFS."
The comms officer obeyed, and Wellesley addressed his battle-forged allies; "This is Captain Wellesley. I know we have yet to conclude any formal diplomatic negotiations, but my ship and my crew are with you to the end!"

It was quiet on the observation deck as Ka'rah'li looked out at the stars of this foreign system. The ships of the delegation carrying Ch'ak's ambassador to the Cormyrean Confederation was identical to that sent to the Sol Federation, though in this case Ambassador Ka'rah'li had had the bar and tables removed from her ship's main observation deck. Instead, it was completely bare aside from an ornate rug. A rug which the Ambassador, an older T'kai, was currently sitting on and meditating. They sat in complete silence, as they thought on the events were to come.

Their position as ambassador was important; from what little they knew of the Confederation is was most compatible with the Ch'ak'ii both politically and culturally. They would likely get along rather well, and of the two diplomatic missions Ka'rah'li was certain that it was the more important of the two. After all, they had been sent along while the Hyu'min had to deal with some young Uy woman Ka'rah'li knew had far less experience. Ka'rah'li, on the other hand, had decades of experience dealing with those few minor races closer to Ch'ak. And because it was so important Ka'rah'li had absolutely no desire to make any mistakes, for even the slightest could spell disaster when it came to dealing with a mostly unknown alien race.

However, the Ambassador's meditation was interrupted by one of the ship's crewmen opening the door. They simply turned to look at the crewmember, saying nothing. They had specifically said that they were not to be interrupted under any circumstances unless it was an emergency or native ships appeared to be moving towards their position or attempting contact. The small warships' sensors had picked up a fair bit of traffic from the worlds closer in, and as such had sent out diplomatic messages. So as to make sure there were no possible misunderstandings from a strange message from strange ships in a strange language, Ka'rah'li had also determined it prudent to send along the visual message the diplomatic ships came with. It was quite simple; footage of peaceful negotiations from Ch'ak's past, some so old it was practically ancient and archival, but it was hoped that their peaceful intentions would come across from the get go.

But that brought Ka'rah'li back to the crewmember poking his head in through the door. If it was important, he'd open his mouth and if it wasn't he'd duck back out again. "Uh, Ambassador?" the man said, seemingly discomforted by Ka'rah'li's silent stare.

They didn't answer back, and simply continued to stare. "Well, Ambassador Ka'rah'li, the Captain told me to inform you that we believe Confederation ships appear to have noticed the delegation."

"Tell the Captain I will be up shortly," Ka'rah'li replied simply. The man quickly scampered out, leaving the Ambassador alone once again looking at the stars. It was a pain, but as she was the Ambassador she'd be on the bridge in case they needed to respond in any way. After all, the Captain was just that, a Captain. Dealing with alien species on a political level was not his specialty.

------



Overseer Tomosh sat quite comfortably in the command center of his ship. Well, it technically wasn't his ship but he was the one in charge of Worldeater operations in Val'kik. Or rather he would be once the first ships arrived and unpacked their Worldeaters, since only the largest Worldeaters had jump drives. Worldeaters were technically ships since they could move, but truthfully they were more massive complexes with engines strapped to them. But that didn't really matter, since they had ships of the Grand Fleet to patrol and protect them. And since this was the first wave to arrive in-system they had a larger complement: a small fleet of a pair of Kae'resh-Classes supported by nearly a dozen small warships of various classes. It was for protection; in case any pirates had set up shop since the last scouting mission. But as soon as Tomosh's ships entered regular space at the edge of the system, slightly behind the small fleet, they received an urgent message from Admiral Da'ran.

"Overseer, Captain, I need to both of you to turn around and prep your jump drives," came the voice of the Admiral, "Now."

"Are you kidding me?" Tomosh said incredulously, "We just got here!"

"This is not up for discussion Overseer," the Admiral replied, "Do you understand Captain?"

The Captain nodded his head as he was staring at a display, before realizing the Admiral couldn't see him, "Of course, sir."

"What?!" Tomosh said, "How can yo-"

"Overseer, now is not the time. Sensors are picking up something."

At that the Overseer stopped his protests as the Captain began the maneuvers. "Is it pirates?"

"Dunno," the Captain replied, "Maybe".

---

"I don't think we're dealing with simple pirates here," Admiral Da'ran said to one of the crewmen on his Kae'resh-Class, the Abiy Gaa'za, "There's too much here, and if it was all their ships would be making a beeline for us or fleeing for their lives."

The crewman nodded his head, and returned to his attention to his console. Admiral Da'ran, an Uy who had served with distinction for decades in the Grand Fleet and was getting on in years, stood silently in the bridge of the Abiy Gaa'za looking at the holographic display. He wasn't lying, there was far too much for a pirate haven and he didn't recognize what he saw on the scanners. But if it wasn't pirates, then who could it be? He had to keep the Worldeaters safe, which was why he'd ordered them to prep their hyperdrives; if violence broke out they could quickly jump to safety. And once they were safe, he and his men would be able to jump out as well. But first they needed to at least try to find out who these people were, and why they were here. And to that effect, the he sent out a message on all channels.

"Attention unknowns, this is Admiral Da'ran of the Grand Fleet of Ch'ak speaking. This system, designation Val'kik, has been claimed by the Ch'ak'ii state for the purposes of mining and resource extraction and your presence here is in violation of our sovereign territory. Please, identify yourself."

Ingress, Coalition Capital

"Executive Chairman Taff Yamo of the Committee on Committee Efficiency", the little nameplate said. It was brass on coral, and sat weightily on his desk*. Taff's foretentacle softly effused a charcoal flavor. He tapped it with a grasper tentacle. Vice Manager Uti Omo appeared in Taff's wetware.

"This is Taff," he said.
"Executive Chairman, I have the Adjustment Team report from Ragnorak Station," she said.
"Proceed."
"Chief Xam has successfully enforced edict RL-H3R v.0 by removing the potential vigilante from the equation. In process, he has also potentially begun enforcement of edict CL-34N v.3.2 through the acquisition of ears-only data. Unfortunately, circumstances behind his enforcement of edict RL-H3R v.0 necesitated his temporary removal from Coalition Space. His last-filed expense report mentions a yacht charter for two days ago. We have since been unable to reopen communications. Please find all mandated paperwork attached."
"Understood. Need anything?"

Uti's headsack pulsed twice.

"...not yet," she ultimately said. "Though it is believed that Chief Xam's intelligence actionability window may close rapidly. If we are unable to debrief him in the next 24 hours, I recommend we send another Adjustment Team to locate him and do so."
"I'll follow up with the Astry Committee and Xenodiplomacy Committee in the meantime. Perhaps they can find him."
"Thank you, sir. His ship's details are attached with the mandated paperwork."
"Good. Taff out."

He severed the call.

Taff turned an eye toward the view outside his office. The Central Bureaucracy stretched out for miles. It was all one massive, interconnected building by now, with maglevs arcing from one sector to another. A tuft of massive cranes sprouted from CTN-sector, which was the currently-designated sector for repair and upgrades. His wings fluttered anxiously. He pulled up the current Schema - the combined efforts of all members of the C.C.E. went into the making of this map of the Coalition. It wasn't a map of physical space, but rather, an extensive and exhaustively-researched organizational flowchart that updated live.

"Bring up the simplified statistics," Taff ordered his wetware. The nebula of information was replaced by several spreadsheets.

Sampling Accuracy: 67%
Number of Committees: 6,730
Mean Edicts/Committee: 700
Crises Brought to C.C.E. this week by Severity:
Important/Severe/Dire/White-Hot
33/14/2/0

Taff sighed. It was something he'd picked up from Jenny, his executive assistant. "Redisplay Schema," he said. The statistics were replaced by the hierchical cloud of organizations and people. The sampling accuracy had been steadily falling for the past 8 months. Even with the C.C.E. doubling its sampling team and increasing its pool of adjustment teams, they'd only managed to slow its descent. When it reached 50%, Taff had no idea what would happen. The whole point of the C.C.E. was to have a sufficiently high-up view of the Coalition so as to cut out the red tape and ensure reasonability survived.

Ever since the Xim-Federation war, the Coalition had exploded in new member states. It was no surprise; there was always an upswing during major wars, and with the Federation and Xim being so close to the Coalition, member states had grown at an alarming rate.

^{*Cthonic desks are not like human desks. They make maximum use of tentacles, and resemble something closer to gymnastics bars and playground equipment. The Cthon plops itself down in the center of a series of slabs and rods on a rotating platform and spreads its tentacles out in a 230 degree swath. Cthonic brains are wired in such a way to allow multitasking in this fashion, especially for something as simple as paperwork.}

~o~0~o~

"So closes the 745th meeting of the Xenodiplomacy Committee," Executive President Ima Thurwich said. She cracked the ceremonial shell in half. "I yield the floor to Executive Vice President Mao Thrawk." Ima stalked off the central podium with relief, passing the digital key to Mao.
"Enjoy your rest period," Mao said as they passed each other.
"Thanks. I'm glad you got here when you did," she said.

Mao climbed the podium and gathered his tentacles into one almighty stalk, splaying them out near the bottom. It was the most comfortable way to stand for long periods of time. He waited for committee members to filter in and out of the X.C. Hall before slapping the podium with a tentacle. "This marks the beginning of meeting 746 of the Xenodiplomacy Committee," he said. "We shall begin this meeting with the state-of-the-galaxy report, followed by subcommittee reports, followed by crises collection. Ammendments to the speaker schedule are being forwarded to you now. Please note that the current committee state is green, and therefore no alerts may interrupt this order of business unless they are blue or higher."

Mao's wetware immediately supplied the acrid flavor of an indigo interrupt alert. Damnit, couldn't the universe wait for his meeting to start?

The chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs stood. His skin was mottled with the gray patches of age.

"I recognize chairman Sito," Mao said.
"I have taken the liberty of ammending the schedule. I submit to you the following reports," Sito said.

"Based on this data and historical patterns, it is possible that the Solarans are building an alliance against the Xim," Sito said.
"I recognize chairwoman Yanna, of the Subcommittee of Diplomats." Mao said.
"If you excuse the interruption," Yanna started, - [35 to 18 in favor of excusing the interruption] - "I believe that a few chance meetings seen by arms merchants is insufficient to alter our diplomatic stance toward the Solarans."
"Of course it is insufficient," Sito said. "It raises an interesting possibility worth watching, however." @Sigma[28 - 25 in favor of increased intelligence operations against the UFSS]

The undersecretary representing the Committee of Lies and Spies tapped on a wetwared foretentacle furiously.

"Moving on to the ammended schedule-item number two," Sito said, "I move that we request the Committee on Committee Efficiency investigate the possibility of a rogue committee's responsibility for the destruction of the Confederate vessel."

For the first time in Mao's tenure, he could hear the conference room's environment systems.

"That's absurd! What reasonable person would destroy a diplomatic ship? We've survived this long through dedicated neutrality!" Yanna said.
"And who would claim that our current system of governance is reasonable?" Sito countered. "I've heard reports of senior committee members failing to attend meetings because they forgot which committees they were a part of! It's a wonder we accomplish anything. Who knows what would happen should a Coalition member state happen to disagree with one of the thousands of edicts. Why not a rogue committee? Perhaps some felt a need to take diplomacy back into their own hands. I'm simply asking to request an investigation by a committee that I, frankly, had only ever heard of when my assistant forwarded me its name!" [40 to 13 in favor of requesting an investigation]

"With all due respect Ambassador, but I cannot believe nobody in the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs thought to find somebody who knew some of the Hyu'min language," the Captain of the Diplomatic ship said, gazing over at Ambassador T't't as they received the message from the USS USS Guard Post.

The Ambassador was currently sitting down, one of her feet tapping on the ground and her hands fidgeting in her lap. "No offense taken Captain," she responded, clearly exasperated, "Honestly, I can't believe it either. Maybe somebody did, and it was just lost in all the bureaucracy."

The message had been directed to the four warships as well, but at the moment none had come forward as having any idea what it was saying. Though, on the bright side, it didn't sound like a threat. But they were dealing with an alien species, and so naturally that meant very little. But nonetheless they were on a diplomatic mission and so the warships still had their weapons down and had slowed to a stop once the Federation ships had been detected. The Ambassador's smaller ship, however, had traveled slightly forward of the warships and began transmitting another message.

"I hope they're equipped to receive these," T't't said as the message played. This time it was a visual message; hence the Ambassador's worries, as there was no guarantee that the recipient ship would be able to play the message. It was, simply, a series of short videos one after another. But all of them were the same subject: records of political delegations peacefully talking things out. They ranged considerably in age, with the very earliest in grainy black and white, but those aboard the ship hoped that it got the message across to the Federation ships.

All the while, the Command Staff of the Guard Post anxiously awaited the alien response, and several updates were now provided by Oriana. "Captain." The AI spoke. "Upon closer scans, the alien vessels have begun to slow to a halt."

"So...they're either playing and testing us or are sincerely not here for a fight." Captain Maku said, rubbing her small chin. "Either way, they understood us, a good sign if any." such a reaction had lifted some of the tension from the captain and her staff, but the language barrier was all that stood in the way of any proper communication. "Orders ma'am?" one of the ship coordinators asked. The Captain did not hesitate to ponder and gave the order. "Maintain intercept course."

"Aye Aye, Ma'am." he replied and complied with the order. All the while, Jadasi once again picked up the small comm device, pressing down the same sequence of buttons to connect to Interfleet Communications. "All ships are power down engines and maintain cruising speed until further notice." With that, she placed the device down as her ship maintained its current course.

"Captain, the lead vessel has sent another transmission, it seems to be a record of sorts."

"Go ahead, play it." Jadasi walked over to the holo tabel once more to view whatever the aliens had sent. A series of videos playing in a loop, all sharing a common theme, a theme that left a smile on her face and no doubt in her mind of the aliens intentions, peace and diplomacy.

"I think we got our answer." Jadasi said. "Oriana, help our guests the best you can, they're to follow us back to Arcanis III."

---------

"Well, this looks like it's going well," the Captain said, as he watched the new data received from the Federation ships materialize into a map that appeared to show the ships heading towards the system's one inhabited planet.

"And we can all be thankful for that," T't't said, though secretly thoughts were going through her mind of almost everything that could go wrong. She knew her thoughts were irrational; even from the scant rumours they had of the Federation it didn't seem like that kind of society. But the thoughts were still there, and T't't pushed them as far back into her mind as she could.

"Alright Captain, send this to our escorts and let's head out," she said gesturing to the holo-map, "The sooner we meet in person the sooner we can actually start the mission." She didn't give voice to her thoughts of 'and the sooner I can stop worrying'. Then the Captain nodded in acknowledgement, and quickly sent the holo-map to the four small warships escorting them. After a short back and forth between the various Captains and the group's nominal Admiral they started to move along the course towards the world they didn't know was known as Arcanis III, doing their best to do absolutely nothing that may cause any of the Federation ships to jump the gun.

------

Shortly before

"As you wish, Captain" Oriana complied with the order, and uploaded a rather simple-looking starmap program of the Arcana System, it was simpltsic in that, there was very little detail of the system, what had been mapped were only the five worlds of the system and nothing else, on the map, Arcanis III was the only world to be brightly colored in a shade of green, all others remained dimly blue like the rest of the holo-map. Also on the may were eight arrow shapes, representing the two group and a dotted path leading to Arcanis III.

With that done with, the AI sent to map to the alien vessels. "It is done." The AI spoke.

"Good." The Captain said, then scanning the room, looking to her crew. "Alright people, set a course back home." Jadasi paused a moment before she had realized she had forgotten one important detail. "Oh! And Orinana, alert the bosses back at Arcanis III, they'll want to know and prepare for this."

------

Some Time Later

Ambassador T't't spent much of the flight towards the planet in her personal room, doing her best to get over her nerves. And she was, for the most part, rather successful. This seemed like a lot of effort to go through just to capture or kill them, and she started to feel kind of embarrassed about her previous concerns. Though she did still feel a gnawing sense of apprehension and nervousness; after all, she was the first Ch'ak'ii to make official contact with the Federation. And T't't sincerely hoped she didn't make any mistakes and screw anything up.

As the ship and its escort neared Arcanis III, she made her way to the front lounge once again. This time it wasn't to be alone, which was good since every member of the crew who wasn't needed elsewhere was currently there for the same reason she was. It was to watch the planet slowly drift into view on the great dome. The world was a beautiful one, and aside from her home of Ka'ak it was the first natural planet she'd ever laid her eyes on. And as the ship slowly followed the determined course down through the atmosphere, she and much of the small crowd was enthralled. But when she saw their destination, a city nestled in the mountains, getting larger as they descended she was forced to tear her eyes away. She needed to go get ready and prepare, after all they'd land soon and then her mission would begin.

It didn't take very long for her to prepare, however. She simply made sure she looked presentable and had her small holographic tablet for any notes she may want to take. After a few minutes she was prepared, dressed in a long blue skirt alongside several loose blue strips of cloth wrapped around her torso and arms, and made her way to the airlock to prepare for landing. There she was greeted by her personal guard, lead by Guard-Master Av'ku'sha. They were all dressed in rather basic full body armour and armed with long laser rifles, and all but Av'ku'sha themself were already wearing their full-face helmets. Two of the soldiers were Uy, whilst the other was a T'kai and it was plainly evident even in armour thanks to the size and shape differences between the two species. And even besides that the T'kai, including Av'ku'sha, were standing stock still while the two Uy were constantly checking their armour and weapons and borderline twitchy.

"So, we're finally here" Av'ku'sha said as T't't took her place next to them, "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," T't't said, then after a short moment added, "Yeah, I'm ready for this."

Av'ku'sha simply nodded their head before putting their helmet on, and doing a final check of their weapons before holstering it on their back. And it wasn't long before it was time to enter the airlock, and it seemed like no time at all before the large doors were opening and a ramp extending down towards the ground. And when T't't got her first look of the planet from the surface, she was in awe as it hit her. She was on an alien planet, and actual alien planet Gods knew how far from her home. As the group made their way down the ramp, T't't looked around at the crowds of people she saw. They were strange looking people, and she recognized most of them as Hyu'min from the images she'd seen of the rare example to make it to Ch'ak. She stared at the crowds, and the city, and the sky, and everything for a long moment as everything sunk in. But in no time at all she was over it, since she couldn't stand there forever even if she had any desire to. And finally, the first Ch'ak'ii Ambassador set her first foot on Federation soil.

Arcanis III
Capital City of Unilos

The Ch'akii Ambassadorial ship made its landing in the Unilos Nation Park, a small crowd of several dozen people of various species forming near the landing site, all eager to be among the first to make contact with the aliens. From behind the crowd, a squad of SDF troopers came marching though the crowd, followed by the System Governor and his personal entourage, the governor was a human male in his early forties. Not too long after their arrival, members of the local media soon arrived to capture this moment, and soon share it globally and later, the entire Federation.

Silence fell on the crowd as the same made landing, the boarding ramp lowering down to the ground as the large doors open, smoke escaping the room as they slide open. Several alien figures stepped out of the ship, facing the crowd before them. The Governor stepped forward, walking calmly towards the alien delegates, extending his hand out. "Welcome! I'm am Governor Khalid of the Arcana System, on behalf off everyone present, we all welcome you to Federation Space."

Ambassador T't't looked at the alien in front of her, the Hyu'min who had stepped forward to greet her. She wasn't certain of his position, but she assumed he was a diplomat or someone in the Federation government. She had no idea what the man was saying but it didn't seem threatening in the slightest, though his gesture confused her. T't't assumed it was a greeting of some form, but the Hyu'min seemed to be waiting for her to reciprocate. And so she slowly extended her hand as well, mimicking Khalid's gesture but not comprehending that he expected her to grasp his hand.

The Governor initiated the handshake, no doubt to much to the Ambassador's confused motions. once he loosened his grip, made some hand gestures and motions. "Let's head to my office." He said, making sure to signal the Ch'akii to follow him. All the while he had placed two fingers over the right side of his head. "We're gonna need some top notch translators stat."

Though she wasn't as nervous as she had been on the ship, when the Governor grabbed T't't's hand she nearly wrenched her hand away in surprise; Like many Uy she could be just naturally jumpy at times, and she hadn't been expecting any actual physical contact. But she managed to keep the grip, though she worried that perhaps she'd pulled her hand back too quickly once the man had loosened his grip. And though she still could only guess as to what Khalid was saying, she understood his gestures quite well.

T't't was more than happy to follow the Governor, followed by her four soldier escort. As they made their way forwards she made some notes about hand-to-hand contact and Hyu'min greetings on her holographic tablet, while looking around at the city and the crowds itself. She knew it was only because it was first contact with an alien civilization, but it still made her feel nice to have so much attention focused on her.

Some time much later, the group finally arrived to the Arcanis Capital Building at the heart of the city. Passersby taking notice of the new and strange visitors, some civilians even recording their movements or taking pictures with their mobile devices. Upon reaching the end of the steps leading to the building's doors, a Aldzur woman and a pair of human men in black suits awaited them from the front doors, the aldzur carrying a collar-like device.

"Weclome back, sir." She greeted him. "Are these our guests?"

"That they are miss Uakj." he replied. "Is the translator ready?"

"Yes, sir." She replied. "However, it may take quite a while for it to fully decipher their language."

"That won't be problem, we can certainly wait."

"Very well." she said as she turned to the Ch'akii ambassador. "This device will help us understand one another." She extends her arms, gifting the device to the Ambassador. "Just place it around your neck and soon you'll be able to understand us and us you."

T't't took hold of the translator, and with some instructional gestures was able to quickly figure out that she was meant to stick it around her neck. She had a moment of slight difficulty getting the device over her chin and the crest on the back of her head and the device didn't sit particularly well on her, but it was particularly uncomfortable and at least it fit.

"What is this thing?" she said to herself, shifting it to a more comfortable position on her neck.

"A very good start!" the Aldzur Secretary said in excitement, understanding the Ch'akii Ambassador. "That is what we call the Xeno Vocalizer MKX. A long line of translator devices. As long as you wear that, the device will analyze your language, and eventually we'll able to fully understand you." The Governor stepped up the stairs to their left, facing the two. "It'll take a while of course, but nonetheless, something that pleases me." He looked to his Secretary. " If you'll please, miss Uakj, we have bushiness to attend to with our guests."

"Oh yes, of course, very sorry about that, sir."

"Great! Carry on." he then faced the Ambassador. "Follow me, miss. We can discuss further topics in my office."

Though the sentences were riddled with what she assumed were errors and missing translations, presumably because of the scant samples it had to go on, T't't was able to understand what was being said. And it shocked the Ambassador for a moment; it was an incredible piece of technology and one she's have to see if she could take back to Ch'ak. Her people relied on much more old-fashioned techniques, though their relative isolationism likely had something to do with that.

Though as she followed the Governor, a thought came to her. "You said something about analyzing while I wore it," she said, hoping more complicated messages would be successfully relayed, "If I were to speak in another language while I was wearing it, would that interfere?"

As they continued down the hallways leading his main office, although not facing the Ambassador, the Governor responded to her question. "I would say so, yes, however I'm not exactly an expert on these things." he said as they arrived, the entrance to his office was very old-fashioned, a set of tall wooden doors. "Ah! We're here." His two bodyguards moved ahead, standing on opposite ends of one another as each guard gripped onto the door handles, opening the doors and revealing the office, a brightly lit room, with a wide window at the back, and a large desk at the front. The Governor was the first to step into the room, taking a seat in front of his work desk. "Come in, we have much to discuss. First off, I'm quite curious as to why you had arrived to our little colony."

Ambassador T't't made her in after the governor, followed by her four bodyguards, quickly taking the offered seat. She understood the basics of what the Governor was saying and she wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed as though there were marginally less errors already. But she'd been asked a question, and a rather important one at that. Luckily, it wasn't a particularly difficult question to answer.

"Well, I am T't't is'Oya es'T'zoh'lan, an Ambassador sent on behalf of Ch'ak to establish diplomatic ties with the Sol Federation, and to gather more concrete information of the nations and peoples living here," she told the Governor, hoping the important bits got through translation unscathed, "And I'm sorry, but did you introduce yourself earlier? I do not recall hearing your name since I received the translator."

From what was understood from the device, the Governor gave his response. "Oh yes, most of what was said probably didn't go through. Allow me to reintroduce myself, I am Daamir Khalid, Governor of the Arcanis III Colony." He leaned forward onto his desk, getting more comfortable. "As for your mission. While we would accept opening diplomatic channels with your people, we were mostly unaware of your arrival, which unfortunately means I can't do much, I have little authority regarding these things. However, what can be done is this, we provide you passage to Earth, where our leadership is located. However, we will have to alert them ahead of time, for preparations to be made and all. In the mean time, your people can relax under our care, take in the sights."

"Well I must thank you for your hospitality Governor Khalid," T't't said, hoping she managed to not only pronounce his name correctly but had actually said his name, "And that is understandable for a nation such as the Federation. I am certain the crewmen would enjoy seeing more of your world. It is quite beautiful, and most have probably never been on a natural planet for any length of time before."

The Governor raised an eyebrow at her choice of words, now a bit curious and just needed to know. "Natural?" he asked. "Did something happen with your homeworld?"

Ambassador T't't looked at the Governor in confusion over his question before responding. "No, there is nothing wrong with Ka'ak. But not everyone gets the chance to spend long periods of time there," she replied, not realizing that Ch'ak's ability to manufacture artificial worlds would surprise an outsider. For her it was a simple and mundane fact of life; most Ch'ak'ii did live and grow up on them, after all. The thought that the Federation didn't have anything comparable hadn't even crossed her mind.

"Hmm...I see." Gorvenor Khalid replied, still a bit perplexed from the answer Ambassador T't't had provided to him, but he best not dwell on the subject for too long. "Well, I'll have my people begin arrangements for your departure to Earth, as said, it'll take a good while, so enjoy your stay here on Arcanis III." He ended his words with a wide smile.

Civitas Colony
HighCom Bunker

Fenrov wondered why he was recalled to the capital's deepest and most guarded command center for this. A simple tele-chat would have sufficed for all he was doing, sitting in a corner waiting for orders. The governor must be in one of his paranoid moods again, not trusting comms for some reason or another, like the natives knew how to work a radio. All he could do was hurry up and wait, and fret for some reason as he listened to the reports going back and forth.

"Outer sensor picket confirms we have an alien vessel in our system." Finally reported orbital watch command. "Size and capabilities unknown, but likely far beyond anything my gunboats got. Its a big one."

"But they arn't advancing on our planet yet. And just the one?" The governor paced about in place, fretting as usual as the gears were audibly grinding between his ears at the very situation their colony was meant to escape and prepare for was now right on their doorstep. "This can't be the Enemy. One lone capital ship roaming about? A design completely unlike anything we know from the Enemy Coalition? Must be someone else."

"Whether they are the enemy or not sir, I got sixteen gunboats and a couple hidden hangers of LAC's against that behemoth. Advising all possible alternatives before direct combat."

"Dispatch the First Contact package along the lower-E band, and set it to repeat until they send some message of their own indicating understanding." The governor ordered, surprising almost everyone in the room at his rapt command of the situation. "Have the ansible station set to recieve any transmission they send, and alert all other stations to immediately block any anauthorized message packets effective until ordered otherwise. We must keep tight control over whatever data packet they send, lest it wreck havoc among our systems by design or accident. Get our xenologists up to the ansible too, make them earn their keep. Brigadier, mobilize our reserves just in case. The natives may misinterpret the output of a starhip's engines as a symbol or sign to attack again, or our new guests may not be as friendly as they look. Get it done! All of you, now!"

Fenrov nodded and followed orders, still not sure what was still nagging at him despite the outbreak of reason and restraint from the colonial administrator, maybe he wasn't so bad in dealing with threats besides natives. Then it hit him. "OH SHIT! Someone tell Colonel Kalar not to drop the nukes!"

* * * * * *

Along the southern mountain range, a thin line of garrison forts were in almost non-stop conflict with the hordes of enraged natives charging north against the "sky-people". Machine gun ammunition was running low, vehicles couldn't maneuver and were vulnerable to native Vandite armor-piercing weapons, artillery effectiveness was severely reduced due to thickness of jungle canopy and inability to deploy spotters or sensor relays, air support couldn't be maintained or flown under the constant rainstorms. In lieu of all conventional options and resupply becoming increasingly infrequent, the Garrison commander had requested authorization for nuclear bombardment to clear a kill zone and wipe out native resistance before the next charge north.

Seven 5 kiloton-grade tactical nuclear artillery shells were issued in response as the colony itself was growing desperate to beat the natives down quickly to refocus efforts on the Northern front, and the Colonel had wasted little time himself in herding the wild Bokrat wolf-people into concentrated forces before giving the fateful order, ignorant of the dispatches and frantic worries of higher command the moment he gave the order to fire.

Thus when the alien carrier received the first Meknik reply to their first contact package, they would also be greeted by the light of seven tactical nuclear bombs detonating in full view of their sensors, sending a clear message of their own. This world was at war, and not even the arrival of an outside power gave pause to it.

Shortly afterwards, the Meknik's sent a first contact package of their own, consisting of a collection of pictures with attached audio and symbolic meaning in a hopefully universal basic code format. A children's guide to language and concepts in essence, and the foundation of a proper translation package and hopefully proper communication as the xenologists quickly caught onto the meaning of the first contact signals the aliens were sending. With any luck, an update to translation systems could be made within a few days and open talks could begin, if the aliens didn't mind the nukes that is.

* * * * * * * *

Crimson Forge Colony
System Defense Vessel Leoheart

"Firfrek, those are big sons of bitches." Muttered a sensor watch ensign. Nobody chastized the tenderpaw for his outburst, as it matched the thoughts of everyone else on the bridge.

Captain Serin turned to her command chair's personal screen to assess the intruders. Two dreadnought vessels, a dozen ships that ranged from heavy destroyer to grand cruiser class tonnage and size by Meknik standards, and that wasn't even touching the pair of massive.....things that were holding behind them. Motherships? FTL tenders? Whatever they were, they were bigger than even the original colony ships that founded the Crimson Forge by several factors of measurement.

In comparison, those ships made her own Leoheart look like a crude tin-can of a cruiser. Barely five hundred meters long, it was more of a flying railgun with starship parts attached to it, with even more railgun turrets tacked ontop of that. But none of the turrets on those alien ships looked like a railgun to her, and there were a lot of anomalous energy readings her cruiser couldn't even begin to make sense of. Starting a war here and now was likely to end very badly for her.

"Captain! We have an incoming transmission! Signal format is similar to an older video media system. We can process it."

"On screen." Steeling herself, Serin fought the urge to put on her vacsuit helmet to cover her face to hide from the alien. No, she would remain firm and standing. Well, sitting, it was difficult to get out of the crash webbing after getting in it.

What came on screen was.....she didn't even know where to begin to describe the vistage of the alien in front of her as it spoke/growled/intoned itself. "Attention unknowns, this is Admiral Da'ran of the Grand Fleet of Ch'ak speaking. This system, designation Val'kik, has been claimed by the Ch'ak'ii state for the purposes of mining and resource extraction and your presence here is in violation of our sovereign territory. Please, identify yourself."

The bridge was left in confusion at the incomprehensible message, and Serin could tell all eyes and ears were on her to determine how to respond. They counted on her for courage. How could she avoid telling them she had little of her own? Well when in doubt, pretend. "They aren't hostile. If it were the Enemy, they'd be shooting from the start. Ensign, can we play back on that channel? Respond to them?"

"Yes ma'am, easy conversion. But without translators, how could they understand us?"

"We can make them some pretty pictures." Serin said, grabbing for her personal tablet. She honestly had no idea if her mad idea would work, but they had to send a message out quickly to at least make sure they wouldn't come shooting before breaking out the First Contact protocols and in the process exposing more of their operations. Scratching out a few quick pictures, Serin nodded to the comms watch to open the channel and turn on the vid-screen camera.

"This is Captain Serin of the Crimson Forge defense fleet. We are the protectors of this system we call the Crimson Forge in the name of the Meknik Union of Worlds." Serin tapped her tablet and showed the Cogwheel insignia of the Union to the camera before dragging it on the screen to a depiction of the solar system, before then pointing to herself. <We have claimed this system.> was what she was trying to convey.

"We greet you in the name of the Union, and wish to know your intent. Do you come in peace or war?" Drawing upon some archives, the next set of pictures depicting a digital Meknik ship and a alien vessel. In the first instance, the two vessels were flying together. In the second, the two were shooting at eachother. In the third instance, both sets of pictures were set side by side with alternating blinking. <Peace or war?> was the question. Hopefully.

How would these aliens interpret the barks and chitters of Meknikspeak? Serin wondered as she cut the connection and slumped in her seat before flipping her chair display to a tactical overview of the local Meknik assets. A dozen gunboats and fighter-hangers were hidden in the moon of the gas giant the aliens were close by and no matter how big these aliens were, nukes were still nukes right? To engage or not? Did they already know they were there? Questions, questions, questions. And all she could do was wait.

The War Fleet
Everything was coming as expected would happen, the enemy ships fell quickly and there was no general way that they would be taken down. However, that did not explain how a cruiser began coming under heavy fire and their communications were not properly getting through.

"Fleet Master, a new vessel has just come onto scanners," an officer reported in a calm manner, seemingly unfazed that several cruisers where coming under heavy fire from the unknown vessel.

"Our communications are being jammed and scattered," the Communications officer called out in an equally calm manner.

"No matter, have fighters relay information from ship to ship. Order a command ship take a detatchment to deal with that enemy vessel. Also, have any ship going critical go to crash land on the planet and deploy all terror worms and fighters," Ver ordered, a laugh coming to him after the orders were given. This was getting interesting.

---

It took time, but the fleet was coming under better organization once more.

A detatchment of ships, one Command-ship and three cruisers, began headed to face the Battlecruiser that they had not been aware of. Of course, that battlecruiser did sent three cruisers into going critical due to the railgun fire. However, that would come to harm the Federation more as the ships began barreling towards the planet, especially the heavily populated sectors. If a ship was going to go down then it may as well do as much damage as it could.

The main fleet continued it's heavy barrage upon the Federation ships and that fire began slowly diverging towards ships that had not been boarded. They did not want to risk harming their own men, especially when valuable loot could be obtained from a ship that had not been fully destroyed.
Fighters continued to swarm the ships, yet that battlecruiser had caused them to pull back momentarily before they formed once more and continued their attack. However, many did turn to go after the fighters that began pouring out of the Battlecruiser. They began to fire their weapons at long range and began firing missiles at the fghters as well, it seemed they were not so keen in increasing their distance from the main fleet as they took on defensive formations.

The small detatchment began putting all the firepower that it could muster to go after the Battlecruiser, not sparring any expense.

---

The boarding was going swimmingly on the federation ships, the X'Cor slaughtering all those who resisted and taking captives to defensive areas that would be set on those ships. The men were killing many while suffering only minor casualties, it seemed that the Federation were not the challange that the Xim made them seem to be.

No matter. The boarding parties all began manuevering themselves to the engines or any place that seems to control life support before demanding the entire surrender of the crew. Though, that was just the plan as they would need to fight through many humans just to get there.

Vigilant Space Control Tower
The Command center of the Space Control Tower was sent into a frenzy, the usually calm atmosphere was drowned out by numorus voices and cries as the command and control staff. Reports of missing persons and casualties were surging through to their ears. All the while the horrifying events unfolded before them as starship debris clashed with the station's shields. At the center of it all was a human male around his early thirties, the Commander of the Station. He attmepted to maintian his composure, keep the fasade of a sturdy commander, but he was just as nerve-wrecked as everyone around him. He shook his head, out of his daze as one of his subordinates called out to him.

"Commander Sanderson! We're being hailed by one of the Cormyrean warships!"

Without much hesitation, Sanderson gave the order." Put it through!." sometime had passed after the Captain hailed and quite frankly, it was alot to take in at once. An internal attack? And an attmepted assassination. "What the hell is going on...?" he muttered to himself, but turned his attention back to Captain Ruag, Sanderson gave a deep breath. "I can assure you Captain Ruag, I have Marine and Emergency Service teams on their way to ground zero, they will assit your efforts to save both your people and ours." he paused a moment and continued. "And we shall have the medbay ready for the Senator's arrival."

Captain Ruag's response came a minute later, the Nalloth seeming excited and on edge, his eyes darting about in every direction as if expecting some predator to jump at him from behind a console. "I have been informed that the senator has been shot, twice, and struck by debris from the explosion. I have been unable to asertain what type of firearm was used on him or the extent of his injuries, but it sounds bad." Ruag focused all four eyes on something offscreen before adding "We've located the senator's escape pod. One of our shuttles will link up with it in five minutes and then take him to you. Our surgeons should be arriving at about the same time."

"Good, we'll have his room ready for treatment." the Commander replied, looking down and grabbing a a comm device from his command chair, pressing down a few keyes before connecting with the Medbay. "This is Commander Sanderson too Medbay, we got a VIP coming in, prep a room for emergency surgery." he placed the device down. "It's done."

Outside the station, a small fleet of shuttlecraft and tug ships sped towards the wreakage, scattering as elelments of Angel Company focused on the destroyed Confederation Cruiser, while the rescue tugs and the rest of Angel Company focused on the civilian ships caught in the blast.

The shuttle carrying the senator arrived at Vigilant a bit before the one carrying the Confederate surgeons. Those present at the landing bay were in for a gruesome sight as the shuttle's crew and a single medic rushed the dying senator out of the shuttle. It was impossible to tell that he had been shot due to the sheer amount of shrapnel that had torn into his body. Blood seemed to ooze out from all along his body, from his head to his feet. Of his eyestalks, only the bottom two remained. His top two eyestalks had been cut off by something, presumibly debris during the first explosion. He was still breathing, but each breath sounded wet and sickly and an experienced individual could hear the telltail sounds of a sucking chest wound.

The medic rushed over to the nearest human he saw, flailing his arms and whistling at the human frantically for a moment before seeming to realize the human wouldn't be able to understand him. The medic, seeming to wince at the thought of wasting precious seconds, grabbed a tablet and held it up to the human to translate what he said. "We can't wait for the fleet surgeons. We need to start operating now or the senator dies."

The human stranger was in a panic from what he had read, unable to be of much use to the frantic Nalloth, however, help had arrived as a doctor from the medbay had rushed over with a pair of SDF troopers. "We're to lead you to the medbay, follow us, quick!"

The group streamed through the corridors, racing for one of elevators before it closed, and to their great fortune, they made it. A minute passes as they arrived to their intended destination, the doors sliding opening, revealing a hosptial lobby filled with people of various species waitng to see their respetive doctors. The Doctor sent to lead the Senator made some hand gestures to follow him to a particular direction, going down another hallway as they pushed through the doors leading to the Operation room. "When can we expect your Surgeons to arrive?"

"Minutes" The Nalloth medic answered. "It'll be too late. He's bleeding out and for all we know there could be some debris sitting next to his heart. We need to start pulling this junk out of him. Now. I've got a few materials on me that should help prevent him from bleeding out before the surgeons get here." He held up a bag full of clear liquid with a tube at the bottom that ended in a needle. He inserted the needle into Senator Fayyer's arm as he held the bag up. The medic then, using his cyberware and personal AI connected Fayyer's own cyberware to the room's computers so that it could provide them with his vitals. The medic then did his best to walk the Federation doctors through how to handle some of Fayyer's wounds, though he was obviously way out of his element.

When one of the doctors pulled out what looked like a comparibly large railgun round the medic's translation software dutifully translated "We haven't used those rounds for decades." He seemed unaware that what he had almost certainly muttered to himself had been printed in words on a monitor behind him.

At last, after what felt like hours what was in fact a few minutes, the Nalloth surgeons arrived and took over. The Nalloth medic, feeling utterly exhausted, excused himself after having provided the surgeons with all of the info they needed to care for the senator.

The human doctor followed the medic's lead, resting outside the operation room. "God that was nerve wrecking..." he said. "I've stuided the anatomy of several species, but Nalloth are outside my expertise. Damn close that we even made progress."

The medic remained silent for a moment before responding. "The senator will probably succomb to his wounds within the next hour." Even to those of a different species it was clear that the medic looked defeated, his entire body slouched, his head held closer to the ground than would be considered normal.

"Oh..." even now the doctor felt defeated as well, despite trying their best to prevent such a fate. "That's a shame..not a good start for the day." All was silent for a few moments until the doctor turned to the nalloth medic, curious about what was said earlier. "So...about that bullet, you mentioned it was phased out for decades. What's the story behind that?"

The medic's eyestalks seemed to stretch as far as they could, each eye looking in a different direction befor focusing on the doctor. "Did I say that outloud?" The medic asked. His eyes slowly came closer to his head. "Yes. We used to use those rounds. Specifically the armies of most of the Confederate's member states used those rounds for their main battle rifles. However after a few uses in the field it was discovered that the round would tumble in flight for some reason. When it struck a living being it would continue to tumble, causing grevious wounds. It was quickly determined to be inhumane to use such rounds on another sentient being, so the Confederate member states quickly phased them out. Well... most of the member states at least."

The doctor rubbed his chin, poundering. "It's out of my field, but something tells me a conspiracy 's afoot." he said. "But that's just me. I'm a Doctor, not a Detective." The two would soon have company as members of the Earth Delegation arrived. "Is Senator Fayyer here?" Joshua, the Kasian Ambassador spoke.

"Yes, Ambassador." the doctor quickly replied. "Unfortunally...my friend here says he won't make it.."

"Oh no..." Joshua said, with a hint of sorrow in his tone. "I pray at least those unfortunate souls still out there will be safe."

"We can only hope." Willams said, placing his hand over his shoulder.

"And things were going so swimmingly too."

"We have stabilized the senator, at least temporarily" A Nalloth surgeon said as he approached. His translated words were 'spoken' instead of simply written out, much in the same way that Fayyer's last words to the Earth Delegation had been. The surgeon's tone was not quite defeated, but certainly lacking in hope. "Even if he does pull through he may wish he hadn't."

"Who could've done this?" Willams asked. "I would think the Xim or X'Cor...but this is not exactly characteristic of either of them, although the Evolvers are not out of the question..but it's impossibe for them to have presence aboard the Confedrate ships.."

The surgeon seemed to shrug as he said "Ask me about medicine and I'll have an answer for you. Anything else and you're on your own." Having spoken his mind he turned and headed back to the operating room in which Senator Fayyer rested.

"Captain Ruag might have some insight" The medic added. "He is the senior Confederate officer in the system."

"Then we must have a word with him, and find the culprits." Willams said. "But for now..we will remain here, in respect to our new friend."

An hour passed. And then two. Then three without word of the senator's passing. Finally one of the nalloth surgeons, the one that had spoken earlier, came out to speak iwth the Earth Delegation.

"He's lasted much longer than we had anticipated" The surgeon said without preamble. His 'voice' seemed to be botth exhausted and somehow upbeat. "He's actually regained conciousness, though without the powerful painkillers we've been giving him he would be in enough pain to put him into shock." He paused for a moment before adding "The painkillers themselves may put him into shock. He's cognitizant enough to understand what the situation is, though his memory regarding the incident are hazy at best. He's asked to speak to a 'William' or 'Joshua'. Are either of them here?"

"Yes, we're both here." One of them, Joshua replied.

"There is something I must inform you before you go in to speak to the senator." The surgeon began. "During the explosion his top two eyestalks were severed." The surgeon pointed at his own top eyestalks. "Unlike most species, we relie almost entirely on our eyes for 'facial' expression. In essense the wounds Senator Fayyer suffered are akin to having had half of his face blown off were he a human. It is something you should be aware of before you speak to him."

"My god..." Willams muttered out, taking a deep breath, both men entered the operation room, lay witnness to a truely horrific sight, the Senator was in terrible shape, almost on the edge of death itself, his top eyestalks now missing, and that had a feeling of wrongness to it. "Senator Fayyer?" Joshua spoke up.

Fayyer's remaining set of eyes slowly looked at Joshua. They seemed limp, half dead, and glazed over. "Ah... little brother." Fayyer did not whistle in his native tongue as the words were translated for the human, instead relying on his cyberware alone to pick up his thoughts and translate them. Otherwise he would have been unable to speak at all. "I tried to catch them... but I couldn't."

"Them..?" Willams speaking as he walked up. "Who is...them? Who did this to you?"

"The bombs! the bombs! Troeca is burning!" Was the only answer Fayyer offered.

The surgeon, having followed Joshua and Williams in to keep an eye on Fayyer's condition grunted "The painkillers are apparently affecting his mind adversely. .... Ah! Of course! He's referring to the bombing raid of Troeca ten years ago."

Both men raised their eyebrows. "Forgive my ignorance." Willams said. "But what occured ten years ago?"

"The Eiclen Revolts" The surgeon said, his 'voice' filled with disinterest as he looked over Fayyer's vitals.

"Troeca! I was there!" Fayyer said, seemingly ignroing the surgeon. One eye was on both Williams and Joshua. "Little brothers! Do not make the same mistake!"

"Calm yourself my friend." Joshua said. "But, I'm not sure what you mean by "mistake" "

"Whatever conspired here..is conntected this this old conflict." Willams said, rubbing his chin, thinking.

"He's probably just reliving another stressful event in his life" The surgeon commented.

"I.... I knew we should have finished the job." Fayyer's 'voice' seemed more subdued now. "We... balked at the idea. Cancer..." His eyes seemed to weave back and forth a bit before regaining some of their strength. "I... I... Why would they bomb Troeca?"

"You should rest, we'll figure this out later." Joshua said, trying to calm the Senator, but to no avail.

"No rest!" Fayyer responded. "Not while Troeca burns. Where is Captain Ruag. He will think this was an attack! I... will not... be the cause... of a war..." Fayyer, having spent the rest of his strength, went limp.

"He's just asleep" The surgeon said before anyone could even form the thought that Fayyer had died. "If he wakes up tomorrow then we will know that the Living Stars have plans for him." The surgeon then saw the two men out before returning his attention back to Senator Fayyer.

Some time much later, in the Tower Command Center, Commander Sanderson had been sent a request by the Earth Delegates, something he of course will carry out, anything to find the attackers. All was more calmer then before, the crisis had came to an end, but sadly, not without heeavy loss of life. Nonethreless, the ones behind the attack must be brought to justice, and Captain Ruag is a possible lead to discover the group's identity.

------------

"Captain Ruag." Sanderson begun. "Our delegates have small request of you, they wish to board your ship, they wish to discuss something with you."

Ruag seemed to consider his response for a moment before saying "Given the circumstances we will need to screen any guests for weapons or explosives."

"Of course, It's understandable, the shuttle should arrive soon."

"Very well. We will be ready to recieve your shuttle. Now if you'll excuse me, Captain Ruag out." He terminated the connection before turning to one of his bridge officers. "We'll be recieving guests soon. I'll meet them in the conference room."

Half an hour had past, and the Earth Delegation had finally arrived, with their usual greetings, the small meeting was about to begin. The Ambassador and the Delegates sitting on one side, with the Captain and his escorts on the opposing end. "Thank you very much for this, Captain." Willams said with a smile. "We have some questions for you regarding the attack."

"For one." Joshua spoke up. "Does the word "Troeca" mean anything to you?"

"Troeca?" Ruag parrotted. "It does sound familiar."

"It used to be a small town before the Eiclen Revolts." One of Ruag's escorts commented.

"That's why it sounded familiar! Damn that was a nasty affair. How do you know the name?" Ruag asked as eh intently watched Joshua.

"Senator Fayyer ranted and raved about the "Bombing of Troeca", we think it's related to the incident."

"I find that unlikely." Ruag said, his eyes seeming to focus on nothing for a moment. "Ah yes. I'm looking at the medical report from our head surgeon. He commented that a combination of PTSD and the type of painkillers he was on would affect his ability to comprehend where he was and what is going on."

"Are you sure? The Senator said something about "finishing the job", seems he knew what he was talking about, regardless of the ramblings."

"Look" Ruag began "While you were fighting the Xim ten years ago we had some... domestic issues. One of the Confederation's member states, Eiclen, had elements of its government revolt against the Confederate government. We kicked their asses back into Eiclen and after the revolt was over their was a shakeup in their government."

"Troeca used to be a city near the Eiclen border. Their army destroyed it as it retreated back into Eiclen territory. We were never really sure if the act was one of retaliation or simply meant to delay our own advance." One of Ruag's escorts offered.

Ruag let out a grunt before adding "As I said earlier: we won. Full stop. Eiclen is no longer an issue."

"Well...if you say so. However, I also have my doubts." Willasm said. "It's certainly not somethiing to shove away, it must be investigated, if Eiclen is no longer a threat...then whoever this third party is, they must be found, and if they have conntections too Eiclen, well, it seems they're not as pacified as thought."

"We will be investing all possiblities" Ruag stated. "But I feel obligated to state that I find it highly unlikely that an Eiclen agent would be able to smuggle a bomb onto the Argent. Its more likely a case of domestic terrorism."

"I see, well thank you very much for your cooperation, captain." Willams said with a wide grin, silghty bowing his head." I do hope your investiations bare some fruit." he and the rest of the delegation stood up, bidding their farwells as they left the room for the hanger bay, "Until we meet again."

"May the Living Stars watch over you" Ruag said as he inclined his head. "And may they find those responsible for this terrible event to be unworthy of their favor."

Hieff stared at the image of Aspea as his flagship circled the world in a stable orbit. At one time Aspea had been a thriving colony, promising to be the region’s economic and cultural center. That had been until the Xruusk warfleet entered the system on the way to the Cormyral star system. In its wake the warfleet had left Aspea utterly uninhabitable. It had taken the Confederation centuries to get even basic plant life back on the planet and even now the few sentient inhabitants of the world had to remain in domed cities.

“Commodore” The feminine voice seemed to simply drift from the walls as the ship’s AI addressed Hieff, “A collection of ships has entered sensor range. Based off of their maneuvers it is believed that these ships do not have hostile intentions.”

“Do we know where these ships have come from?” Commodore Hieff inquired.

“No sir.”

“Hmm… Very well. Have a few of our light cruisers intercept those ships, but keep them out of weapons range. Also send the first contact package.” Hieff ordered. He seemed to contemplate what else to do before adding. “Inform the governor of the situation and let him know that I will deal with our guests.”

“Understood, commodore.” The AI responded. “Do you wish for me to try hailing those ships in foreign languages?”

“Do it.”

“Welcome to the Ospea System. You are in Cormyrean Confederation territory, please state your intentions.” The AI sent to the alien ships in a hundred different languages along with the first contact package. The languages used ranged from what could be found in the Solaran Federation to individual worlds that had been absorbed by the Confederation.



“Captain,” Dauntless said, “We have received what appears to be a first contact package from the natives. Beginning analysis now.”

“Excellent. Now what do we know about the inhabitants of this system?” Captain Crex inquired.

“We don’t have enough information to accurately gauge their technological capabilities” A crewman offered, “however I do not believe they are native inhabitants of this system, which implies that they have FTL technology.”

“What makes you say that?” Crex asked.

The crewman hesitated for a moment before saying “Thus far we have observed only a small number of population centers and these centers are located in one region of the planet. If they were native to the planet we would expect to see similar population centers all over.”

“Hmm… So they are probably colonists. Well then-“ Crex was cut off by Dauntless.

“Nuclear weapons detected on the planet’s surface.” Dauntless reported.

“By the Living Stars, are they killing themselves off because we’re here?” A crewman asked quietly.

“No.” Crex answered. “If that was the case they wouldn’t have tried to communicate with us. If they are colonists then… they must be fighting the natives. Either that or they are in the midst of a civil war. Let us close with the planet and observe the situation. Dauntless, can you inform the… government here of our intentions?”

“Yes Captain. Message away.”

“What exactly did you say to them?” Crex inquired after a moment. He could feel the ship shake a bit as its thrusters began pushing it bulk towards the inhabited planet.

“Ship come. Ship observe.” Dauntless answered.

“That was the best you could do?” Crex inquired.

“Given that I had only a minute to analyze their communications packet? Yes.” Dauntless responded, sounding a little miffed. “It is difficult to translate complex concepts in languages that our civilization has never encountered before. It is quite possible, in fact, that the word ‘come’ might mean something quite different than it does to us, despite technically meaning the same thing.

Crex just let out a long sigh as his ship’s AI finished her small lecture. The damned thing got more temperamental with each day that passed. Still, Dauntless was a useful tool. “Keep communicating with the locals.” Crex ordered. “Make sure they know we mean them no harm.”

“I will do the best I can” Dauntless replied.

New Columbia
High Orbit
USS Vanguard
A chorus of cheers were let out by the CIC staff as the Captain of the Commonwealth Battlecruiser came to their aid as her captain had assured them. "Good to have your assistance, Captain Wellesley!" Admiral Monroe replied to his transmission, now focusing on the battle at hand. "Give me an update!" he turned to one of his officers. A few moments pass as the officer gave the current status of the battle. "Shit...The Voyager has been boarded, she's been overrun..."

"Sir, Security reports heavy fighting in several decks."

"Good. I want those damn bugs kept at bay." Monroe said. "What of the fighters?

"Only half have launched sir and have engaged the enemy fleet."

Better then nothing. I want all guns targeting the X'Cor ships, have the Commonwealth bttlecruiser lead the charge and support our fighters."

------------------------


Aboard the USS Vanguard
The Carrier itself had become a battlefield, X'Cor soldiers were streaming through the halls, slaughtering the crew that were obsuring their path, their objective. However, they will soon have to contend with the marines.

A squad of ten marines raced down the corridors, following the sounds of weapons fire, before long they had ended up in the main hanger of the carrier, the hanger was a warzone, as burning debris and wreckage of federation ships and X'Cor Terror Worms littered the wide hanger. Security and none-combat personnel were struggling against the overwhelming numbers of X'Cor. "Epsilon Squad, move it!" the marine sergeant shouted out as the squad charged out, spiting into two groups of five as one group took cover behind some wreckage along with a few pinned down crewmen. "Thank god!" one of them cried out. "The Marines!"

"More are coming, we got the situation under control." one of them said.

Ambassador Ka'rah'li stood in the bridge of her ship, her face not betraying even a hint of emotion. The Captain of the vessel, a young Uy, sat at his command post keeping a watch on the variety of readings coming from not only his ship but fed over from the ships of their military escort. Neither of them spoke, the Ambassador because she had no reason to and the Captain not only because he was busy but because he couldn't be certain that his comment wouldn't be some form of jab at the Ambassador. She'd strolled onto his ship and had been commanding him around like he was his subordinate, and it infuriated him to no end. But she was the most important person on board the ship, so he dealt with it but he didn't have to like it.

So when the Captain spoke up, it was only because he had to. "Ma'am, we're receiving both an audio transmission and a packet of information," he said.

Ka'rah'li's face barely registered anything, but she did respond, "What kind of information?"

"From a cursory examination, it seems to be some form of first-contact packet," the Captain explained, "Numbers and math and the like."

"Good, I want that examined and decoded as soon as possible," Ka'rah'li said, "Now play the audio transmission."

"I was planning on it," the Captain replied dryly as he began to play the transmission.

"Well, it sounds like words at least," the Captain said, "I think. I can't make any sense of it at all."

"I wish we had begun planning for this decades ago," Ka'rah'li said, masking the irritation in her voice, "Maybe we would have been able to bring along somebody who actually spoke one of these languages."

"Languages? How in the world can you tell it's more than one?"

"It's quite simple, Captain," Ka'rah'li said, but simply left it and then and didn't bother trying to actually explain it.

But before the Captain, who was becoming exceedingly frustrated with the Ambassador, could say anything about it he noticed something else. "Ambassador, it seems there are several ships making their way towards us," he said.

"Do they appear hostile?"

"I would say no, since they haven't shot us yet," the Captain replied, "But since we're dealing with aliens, we can't be sure."

"Well, in that case I want you to send our own data packets," Ka'rah'li said, "Diplomacy goes both ways, after all."

"Yes Ma'am," the Captain said, exasperated. The data in question was similar to what the Confederation had sent over; long strings of data that gave the basics of both the T'kai and Uy languages, but would likely take a fairly long time to actually decode. So it wasn't considered useful to until after First Contact had been established, but Ka'rah'li had decided that since the Confederation had sent data of their own it only made sense for her to send theirs.

"So, we're just going to sit here?" the Captain asked.

"Well what would you have us do?" the Ambassador asked rather condescendingly, "Until they send us something we can actually understand we do not want to make any movements they might construe as hostile."

The Captain quietly grumbled to himself, since the Ambassador did have a point. So he simply went back to what he'd been doing before at his console while the Ambassador finally decided to take a seat. Though Ka'rah'li still didn't actually do anything aside from sitting there.



Admiral Da'ran, along with everyone on the bridge of the Abiy Gaa'za, watched the video sent over from the unidentified vessel. None of them had ever seen an alien quite like the small, furry thing they saw speaking gibberish and making strange gestures. And when the message ended, all of his men were sitting there waiting for orders and wondering what exactly was going to happen. Admiral Da'ran was definitely not happy about this turn of events, since he was a military man. Throw him into the fray fighting pirates any day, but a possible First Contact was not what he'd been trained for.

"Alright, first I want the databases searched for anything like that alien; I want to be certain this is actually First Contact. We're also going to need to send a message back; looks like they were asking if we were peaceful or hostile so I want one of you to take out that image of the two ships flying together and just send that back to them. And I want you to power down all weapons, but make sure the shields are at full power. Understood?" Admiral Da'ran said, his voice sure and full of confidence despite his not being entirely sure of the whole situation. The orders to power down weapons were relayed to all of the ships under his command, while those on his bridge worked on his other two orders.

"Sir, I have the video cut out of their video; shall I transmit it to them on a loop?" one of the Admiral's men asked.

The Admiral nodded, and the video was sent. It was quite simple; just the short sample of the Meknik vessel flying alongside another put on a loop. Da'ran honestly hoped he hadn't misunderstood the message they'd been trying to get across, especially when another one of his men spoke up.

"Admiral, I've looked up all the databases we have," the man said, "And there's no record at all of any aliens like these. Not even anything secondhand."

The Admiral sighed as this information, and sent a message to the Overseer aboard the World Eater carriers. And it wasn't long before the pair of them were activating their hyperdrives and making their way to Cha'ak itself to inform them of the current True First Contact situation Admiral Da'ran was currently dealing with. And he'd decided it best to keep his fleet here to keep an eye on things and possibly engage in contact with the new aliens, though he couldn't wait for Cha'ak to send a proper ambassador over. Assuming nothing made this end in violence.

RCNS Anna Karenina
New Columbia High Orbit

The Commonwealth battlecruiser shuddered as X’Cor railguns punched through the flak shell and smashed against the shields. A division of cruisers had broken off from the main fleet and was specifically targeting the Anna Karenina, and her shields were beginning to wither under their combined fire. Though she was at the head of the Federation formation, the battlecruiser was keeping herself slightly angled off axis against the X’Cor ships, exposing her heaviest defences to their fire while keeping her more vulnerable areas protected.

Captain Wellesley’s eyes flickered around the main display, absorbing a thousand details every minute. The assault shuttle turned VIP transport was safely on world; the safety of the UFS and Commonwealth delegations lay squarely in the Federation’s hands now. It occurred to Wellesley that he might never see Ribbentrop again, but he clamped down on that line of thought before it led to darker places. The courier boats had popped into warp; they’d be arriving in nearby UFS systems within a few hours. The three headed into the Commonwealth would soon be across the border, and then their message would race across the subspace network to Corinthene and Praetoria. Wellesley briefly pondered the diplomatic implications of the X’Cor incursion. They would almost certainly find themselves at war with the Federation after such a brazen attack, and likely the Commonwealth as well. It was hard to say who between the X’Cor and Wellesley had actually shot at eachother first, but with relations already tense, there was no way the Commonwealth would tolerate what could be described as “an unprovoked and illegal attack on a Commonwealth warship”.

It was unlikely that any forces from the Commonwealth would arrive in time to make a difference in this opening engagement, but UFS forces might. “Comms!” Wellesley barked, “Ask Admiral Monroe if we can expect Federation reinforcements, and when they might arrive. Tactical, charge axial weapons, bring railgun defensive fire to 100%, prepare five delayed missile salvoes for simultaneous alpha strike.” A chorus of ‘aye sir’ was the reply.

The composition of Anna Karenina’s broadside noticeably changed. The number of high velocity rounds pummeling the X’Cor diminished, while the flashes of flak and EM charges increased in intensity. The constant barrage of missiles stopped as well. It was an entirely too ominous pause. In the clear space within the battlecruiser’s defensive fire perimeter, missiles were carefully being ejected and positioned with the tiniest tuffs from maneuvering thrusters. The loss of initial acceleration from the launchers reduced the missiles’ maximum speed, making them easier to shoot down, but the sheer volume of missiles from delayed salvoes more than offset that hindrance. Deep within the Commonwealth battlecruiser, her axial weapon began powering up, causing lights to flicker and dim throughout the ship as massive amounts of power were siphoned up for the spinal mounted superlaser.

On the bridge, a X’Cor cruiser was selected, and targeting sensors honed in on its signature. Wellesley didn’t display so much as a flicker of emotion as he spoke: “Fire.”

A veritable hellstorm blasted towards a single X’Cor cruiser. First, the missiles flared to life and blazed towards their target. The first wave erupted into false signals and jammers, easing the path of the ion warheads behind them. Some were of course taken out by point defence, but not enough. Three salvoes of ion warheads swept away the cruiser’s shields in seconds, and glowing plasma detonations raked its hull in the seconds that followed. In the same instant, all four gamma laser turrets lashed out in rapid fire mode, melting armour and piercing the ship’s vitals. Barely half a second later, the axial superlaser smashed into the cruiser in a torrent of heat and radiation. At some point, one--or perhaps both--of the X’cor vessel’s twin nuclear reactors were breached, and the cruiser vanished in fiery inferno.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

City of Vandea
Sthis Eban

Martuf was doing his best to relax. Really, he was trying, but relaxing wasn’t something that came easily to him these days. Even here, on his world, one of the few places he could feel safe, he was still like a tightly coiled spring. The drinks and the narcotics and the dancers were doing their best to take the edge off, but Martuf found he could barely focus on any of them. His companions were certainly enjoying themselves; a variety of sycophants and lackeys that inevitably surrounded most people in positions of power, especially in the Yanissan Principalities. The dancers, males and females of half a dozen different species, certainly were alluring, each in their own way. Occasionally one of Martuf’s companions would call one or two over and the lot of them would disappear into a backroom, emerging later with satisfied smiles. Martuf smiled slightly as a Valerian dancer approached him and put on a truly stunning display of acrobatic sensuality. Sthis Eban certainly was a vast improvement over Praetoria. Vit’azny brothels didn’t compare to anything in the Principalities. They reflected the Vit’azny mindset; to the point and pragmatic, with minimal luxury. In the Principalities, it was all about subtlety and mystique, hence the popularity of dancers; one should never be able to tell the difference between entertainment and a proposition.

The dancer’s routine concluded to lazy applause, and he gave Martuf a pointed look. Martuf lightly shook his head, but the dancer persisted. “Are you sure, my Lord? I have a new dance I’d like to show you in private. I call it the Kingkiller.”
Martuf sighed. Duty called.

The two of them retired to one of the salon’s private rooms. As the dancer closed the door and activated a privacy field, Martuf felt a twinge of irritation. “I’m trying to relax here, if you hadn’t noticed, I can hardly be on duty all the time,” he said peevishly.
“You were doing a terrible job of it,” the dancer commented blandly. “Besides, you are on duty all the time.”
“Fine. What’s so important that it couldn’t wait?”
“Some odd shipments going into the Cormyrean Confederation. There’s no formal contact with the Confederation, so this is all private trade we’re talking about. CID keeps an eye on traffic headed to the Confederation, but we didn’t notice a pattern in their data until a few hours ago. Weapons, armour, first aid supplies; all the basics for supplying an uprising.”

Martuf scratched his chin.“So somebody in the Commonwealth is funding a rogue faction in the Confederation. I can’t say I saw that coming.”
The dancer nodded. “It’s certainly out of the blue. We’re working the suppliers on this end, but whoever’s doing this has it buried deep. We’ll need time to unwrap the layers. Do you want us to intercept all future shipments?”
“No, I’m rather curious. Let’s find out who they’re going to. Put Javelin on it.”
“Javelin? You think it’s that important?”
“It might be, but otherwise we’re having a quiet month so I think we can spare her. And tell Bolthole to cycle Kingkiller out of the code list. Now, you’d better actually have a new dance ready, every idiot with a thing for feathers is going to want to see it now.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday Martuf.”
“Good. Let’s see it.”

It was actually a very good dance, and Martuf finally felt himself begin to relax.

Frostbiter
Deep Space

"How long has it been?" Abe asked the technician sitting opposite him.
"About a hour..." the young technician said, turning his head to the clock on his personal device, reclining on the table beside them. A rumble of giggles and faint laughter echoed from the seats surrounding them.
"No, in Alsibassi" Abe responded with frustration. Dumbfounded surprise wiped over the technician's dark face.

"Oh uh... Sek...mirconna... uh... majar tar?" The technician's accent became clunky and slurred with the foreign words tumbling out of his mouth.
A device pinged itself and another person got out of their seat and left, treading between the curtains and crates of the research hanger. Half of Abe's drop in class on Alsibassi had to fit their education between work duties, thus the preference for a drop in class.

"That was... alright, though I can tell you haven't gotten far on the audio-guides I provided to you all" Abe swayed his head to tell the rest of the class and the empty seats.
"I hadn't got the time this week, a dozen of our escort satellites were hauled in for repair and barely any are back out" the technician defended himself, Abe could see the scratches and scabs on his hands.
"Okay well we'll leave it at that for today I guess" before Abe could finish, people already rose from their seats.

Soon all the chairs was empty, and Abe was regulated to packing up after his own classroom, folding and stacking chairs back into a sealant frame.
"Class is quiet huh?" Wing commander Willow shouted, Abe quickly turned in surprise as was locking the frame.
"They literally just left Commander" Abe told the officer pilot as he trapesed down to him.

"Well good, now that you've packed up, the Captain has called us up to the CIC" Willow retorted, picking up the papers on the table like he'd left them there himself.
"Did the Captain say why?" Abe asked, moving to collect his things on the said table as if pushed into a rush.
"We're heading into a new solar system and a nice little planet needs some boots on it's ground" Willow told Abe, leaning against the table.

"Okay well give me a second" Abe asked the commander.
"I got yah, though I've been itching to get into a cockpit for weeks. There's only so much theory and manoeuvre plans you can write up, ya know?" the Wing Commander informed the envoy.
"Yeah" Abe didn't, but the tedium was suitable for a tedious man.

-=-=-

The images lifted themselves from the holo-table and wrapped themselves around an invisible sphere. The blue haze of the sphere coated itself on everything surrounding it, on consoles and work stations, it glazed the faces of everyone present around the holo-table.
"That's a rather soaked planet" Willow commented with a smirk to the captain and Abe.

"It's an entirely oceanic world. A dozen drones are already on the surface making sub-scans for life in it's depths. I'd like boots on the ground and set up an observation post, before we start investigating it's waters" The Captain said to the wing commander, the head researcher, the tactical envoy and Lieutenant Tethys.

"If I may Captain..." Abe started, the Captain's deep blue eyes slung up to match his. "Why do we require such a strong military presence?" A wing of strikecraft and teams of dispatchers seemed a bit too much for the envoy.
"Well Mr Var Constavos, I'd prefer having too many people than too few" the Captain answered and got back to the briefing as if to quickly move on.

"You'll enter the atmosphere with the outpost foundations, probably on a near surface atoll or reef. Any other questions?" The Captain asked and scanned her vision around those at the holo-table. With a lack of further questions In the space between them, the Captain dismissed them all and Abe had a light fluttering in his stomach all of a sudden. It wouldn't be that bad, would it? Abe thought as he thought about what he needed to bring planetside.

*Ignore*