[IC] From Stardust, To Stardust

[Keyguyperson]

Sol, Defenders of Harmony Space Station

Fergus turned around, though he didn't look like himself. His skin was a pale white, and his hair seemed to have changed color slightly to a more grey tone. The most obvious oddity was the fact that his entire body seemed to be glowing blue, and his eyes were glowing red. He didn't act like himself either, almost as if he was on some kind of autopilot, possessed by some other being. "It is them. They will be defeated." He said, taking his armor and picking up his plasma saber. "You say that this 'Seed of Harmony' is essential for purifying Faust, a goddess. Tell me where it is, and I will open a portal to it."

Taoshe

The Terrans stared at the imposing being, quote obviously terrified of it. However, the diplomat appeared to be fully composed. While the others seemed paralyzed in fear, he looked as if he was carefully examining the situation. He trusted the Septonians, and believed they wouldn't lead him into a situation where he would die. If he assumed that what had just been said wasn't a threat, then it would signify a major difference in how the two species spoke, and perhaps even thought. Responding in a non-threatening tone could be seen as an insult or a threat to the alien. As such, he chose to simply follow protocol. It wasn't exactly the safest thing to do, if there was even a slight misconception about his actions he would surely be killed. He just hoped that if that happened, his crew would be able to follow through with the protocol instead of starting a fight. He reached out with his left hand, turning his palm up as if he was offering something to the alien. He then reached for a blade with his right hand, drawing it as slow as he could in the hopes that it wouldn't be seen as aggressive. Kneeling down, he held the weapon high above his head, holding the blade's tip with his left palm to let it lay horizontally. The action appeared extremely submissive, something you would expect to see during a shameful surrender instead of a diplomatic meeting. The blade itself was white, and seemed to be some kind of ceramic material. Holes were cut all over it, their edges smooth and almost like a piece of art. The edge of the blade itself was dull, and curved instead of coming to a point. It looked like it would be useless in combat, but a blue glow barely visible from behind the holes seemed to suggest otherwise. "We are humans." He said, his head bowed down with his eyes closed. "Sometimes we are called Terrans, but names do not matter. What matters is who we are, but even we do not know that. Sometimes we say we are great warriors, fighting for our survival against an enemy that would destroy us. Sometimes we say that we are vile monsters, prone to kill without reason and sacrifice ourselves with the sole purpose of causing panic among our own people. Sometimes we say that we are explorers, wanting nothing more than to learn more about the universe. Sometimes we say that we are a wise species, with knowledge unlike any other and experience that goes beyond that of much older species. Sometimes we say that we are a young people, only coming across our knowledge by accident when our scientists refused to follow the natural order of advancement. However, if I had to choose one way to describe us, it would be that we are stubborn. When we were told to surrender, every one of us took up arms and drove the enemy out of our homes. When we thought it was impossible to ever leave our home system, we simply said 'no' and took to the stars. When we saw the atrocities we committed, we pushed onward, trying to redeem ourselves. When we were told to stand by and submit to occupation, we fought the enemy without hope or chance of victory. That is how I would describe humanity: stubborn." He knew the alien likely didn't understand any of it, and the words certainly did not fit his posture, but he felt it was the right choice. Opening his eyes for a brief moment, he found that the rest of the humans were also kneeling, holding up their blades as well. Theirs were significantly less elegant, being simple ceramic cylinders with perfectly circular holes dotted all over them. It made sense, as the diplomat made his blade himself, calculating just how to get the holes positioned correctly using his genetically modified brain.

Sol

The Terran fleet was beginning to be pushed back, but the first missiles from the inner planets began to come in. It was an absolute storm of fire, hundreds of missiles streaking through space leaving behind blue plasma trails as they headed towards the Iscandarian fleet. The impact was spectacular, giant flashes of light confirming the hits as Iscandarian ships dropped to the nuclear and antimatter missiles in droves. With the enemy distracted and weakened due to the missiles, the Terran fleet let loose a barrage of beam and pulse fire. Plasma beams and cannons bit hard into the Iscandarian fleet, shields being obliterated by the hail of plasma. The civilians kept firing their railguns and lasers, acting as slow and weak targets to draw fire from the military vessels. The Terrans weren't using any special tactics, and there was no sing of allied vessels. Though the battle would be bloody, the Terrans would likely loose in the end. With nothing left to stop them in space, the Iscandarians could blitz the Terran planets. While every last Terran would put up a fight, against the highly superior Iscandarian ground forces, they would be nothing but a bug to be squashed. Even tanks were useless against their magic, and thus, the Iscandarians had won the war. The entire Terran fleet doomed to fall, their soldiers and milita powerless, their defenses wasted on the almost hopeless battle. Just like before, escape pods flew at the Iscandarians, a vain attempt to win the battle that did nothing more than condemn every last Terran at the battle to die. As the two fleets orbited around Jupiter, a dot of blue light appeared over the orange, gassy horizon. It was no other planet than Earth, giving the humans one last look at the homeworld they were bound to lose. As if they had been waiting for this moment, a message was sent to the Iscandarians from the lead vessel. A commander with no experience with the Terrans would expect a surrender offer, but Terrans never surrendered. "Hear me Iscandarians!" Called the voice of Kai Vivian, which was soon joined with the voice of thousands of other Terrans. The entire fleet was speaking now, every single person from captain to cook joining to inform the Iscandarians of their coming doom. "REST IN HELL!" With that message, the dot of blue light that was Earth suddenly glowed brighter. It was as if the entire planet had become an impossibly small star, sending out a thick beam of glowing blue light towards the Iscandarian fleet. The laws of physics said that it couldn't reach Jupiter until the fleets had already left the targeted area, but as it got closer and closer it became clear that it was not bound by the laws of physics. It was the same tachyon weapon used in the battle above Earth as the opening move of the Terrans, but it was different. Much larger, thicker, more powerful as a whole. To build more than the thousand ships gathered to fight would be impossible for the Terrans to do on such short notice, especially ones with such a powerful weapon. It was simple reason to believe that the weapon was fired from stationary platforms above Earth, perhaps built after the battle. Even so, it made no sense that they could have been built without anyone noticing their construction. Of course, the oddity of the existence of the weapon certainly didn't cause any drop in its effectiveness. The giant beam smashed into the Iscandarian fleet, avoiding all but a few scattered Terran ships that broke formation. It was a perfectly calculated attacked, something the Terrans had been planning all along. The entire engagement was a trap, and the Terrans knew damn well that the attacking fleet represented the majority of the Iscandarian Navy. This battle would decide the entire war, and they knew it.

Earth, Just Before the Terran Attack

The decades-old bombardment platforms sat like sleeping giants, still ready to destroy The District from orbit if need be. The dormant sattelites didn't know that the war was over or that the threat was gone, all they knew was their programming, and their programming said that an ICBM launch meant bombardment. High Command, of course, knew all of those things. What they also knew was that these bombardment platforms had absolutely nothing to do with railguns. Their design was sent to the European Union during WWIII by a mysterious person who gave no reference to his identity beyond sloppy handwriting and even worse drawing skills. There was no explanation of how their weapons worked or what fueled them, but there was a message that said "Create this, and the war will be won". The design was simple enough, and thus the EU ordered that a prototype be constructed and tested on an Asteroid. The damage caused was incredible, the entire asteroid being vaporized by an energy beam. Further tests showed that the power of the beam could be controlled, just like the blueprints said. With this awesome power, the EU constructed the orbitals now stationed over The District and threatened to destroy the entire country if they didn't surrender. An incredibly timed (and likely planned) assassination of the President forced the Vice President to accept the terms of the surrender out of fear for his own life. Ironically he was executed for war crimes just days later. Having never used the platforms, the secret never got out, with the EU always referring to them as "extremely powerful" in order to dodge any questions about the origin of the technology. The secret of all modern Terran technology was also safely kept, with dozens of remembered inventors receiving similar blueprints and notes that miraculously fixed all of their problems. Warp Drive, Quantum Entanglement Transmission, wormhole generation, plasma sabers, and even the modern coilgun were all made from mysterious blueprints. And with every one of them, there was a note saying "You would have come up with it eventually, so let me do you a favor". These inventions abruptly stopped around 2040, becoming little more than myths in the public's mind. Even so, many believed the stories, and vowed to one day thank the person who practically uplifted humanity. The Terran High Command would not learn until the weapon was deployed in the Second Battle of Sol, but those bombardment platforms used tachyon lance weapons despite being built decades before the technology was supposedly first used. With no records of the mysterious blueprints, it was left as a mystery. Now, however, was the first time the weapons on the platforms would be fired. The hulking masses of armor and maneuvering thrusters rotated to face away from the planet for the first time in their existence, seeming to groan with their waking movement. A timer counted down in High Command, waiting for the time to fire. It reached zero, and the neglected button in the decades-sol bunker was pressed, firing the tachyon lances. Lighting up the night sky of the entirety of the Americas, it streaked out towards Jupiter where the battle for humanity's survival was raging. If the calculations were right, the beam would hit the Iscandarian fleet while missing the Terrans, tearing it apart and ensuring a Terran victory. As the people in High Command cheered, expecting a victory, the man who pressed the button simply stared at the viewscreen. He felt as though someone was talking to him, though he felt it only in his mind, like it was a thought. Even so, he felt compelled to listen to the thought. This is how it was always meant to be used.

[Apollo26]

Taoshe Capital city: Kaljun The Septonian Concordant lacked any sort of anti gravity technology, all of their vehicles still relied on tires for movement. This made for a bumpy ride around the historic capital city of Taoshe because the ancient cobble streets still remained. The city’s skyline was very unimpressive, most of the buildings weren’t higher then two stories and looked about as ancient as the streets. They were simple structures made up of many columns supporting a domed or triangular roof. To the human amongst the group, it would closely resemble ancient Greece and Rome. The city might not be tall but it sure was wide, stretching at least 40-55 miles in every direction from the space elevator. This was only the tip of the iceberg however, the majority of the city sat below ground. To keep the historic image of the city intact, city planners built huge underground additions to each building. Some of these ‘underground buildings can stretch for 40 or 50 stories down into the ground, hiding most of the city from view. The majority of Kaljun’s citizens lived in the small apartment or townhouses above ground but most of them worked, shopped and partied below ground. As the Terrans came down the elevator one large military style truck rolled up infant of the large staircase leading up to the space elevator. It was large and look lightly armored with two large doors towards the rear. The truck was easily capable of holding up to 16 soldiers with all of their gear and weapons, so it comfortably hold the Lorca and the Terran guests. Valag was had already taken a step down towards the street when he heard “ Wait, who are these beings!” from behind him, making him turn on his heel to see what the disturbance was. Instantly recognizing the Terrans, Valag smiled as he turned around the eye the situation. The Lorca and the Terran delegation had already drawn quite a crowd as the citizens of Kaljun witnessed diplomacy in action. Unlike the busy youth and businessmen in orbit, this was the beginning of the harvest festival. Theses civilians had nothing better to do right now then be out amongst the people, most had already started “ celebrating”. The Lorca and Terran guests could not have picked a better time to show up, soon the entire city would be involved in one big celebration. “ It is good to see we are getting along so well” Valag said with a laugh, eyeing the kneeling Terran diplomats before meeting eyes with the Aradite sea captain. The two exchanged some words in Daimet before the captain nodded and walked down the steps towards a lighter military style jeep, military training must continue no matter the circumstances. When both parties were ready Valag and the remaining crew from the Syren would lead their guests into the truck and onward to Naval High command.

[Unfortunately]

Illegal Religious Ritual

Remote Dominion Village, Derabis The rays of naturally red moon of the forested world shone upon the huge circle of stone, let through a small hole in the dark blanket of clouds. Hundreds of unfaithful, self-proclaimed "devotees" of the Karsot were lined up beside each other. Wooden boards stand erected behind them on one side of the circle, eerily stained with the different colors of foreign and local blood. On the side parallel to the boards, a choir stood by, most of them composed of throat-singers and a few tasked to perform the main singing. On the final side, the true devotees gathered in a well-organized crowd, waiting to watch the ritual unfold while the executioner-priests fastened the chains to the unfaithful. Any runners, attempting to escape the bloody ceremony, were paralyzed by dart shots from the executioners before being forced to be locked to the wood slabs. The decennial slaughter begins. The choir begins their eerie song, and the wooden boards flip upside down. Saws, wielded by the priest-executioners, grind their way inbetween the wooden boards as they make their slow approach to their groins. At the point where the saws begin cutting their way through the unfaithful, deafening screams of immense pain pierce the ears of the watching crowd, and many more grisly details that reach the point where it's even illegal to describe further what's even going on. Blood gushes through the canals and towards the circle, feeding the Karsot's Stone in the middle. This stone is said to possess bizarre energies, which grants a single wish in exchange for the blood of hundreds. The screams die down, and the high templar of the sacrificial temple walks to the center. Silence ensues for five minutes as the blood continues to seep into the rock. Once the circle dries down, now dyed in colors of red, orange and yellow. The templar screams out loud: "LET THE NEXT CONTACT WITH THE MEN OF THE STARS END IN BLOOD! MAY IT BE KNOWN: KILL A MAN, YOU'RE A MURDERER! KILL HUNDREDS, YOU'RE A HERO! KILL MULTITUDES, YOU'RE A GOD! GRATITUDE TO THE ALMIGHTY STONE OF KARSOT!" The crowds cheered, and the Stone released its energies to the sky.

[null123]

Iscandar Star System The once vast beauty that Alas Prime held now lay in ruins, scattered to dust as the various political figures and military leaders now fought for supremacy. The cities were ruined as the civilians retreated. Most of the civilians gathered aboard as many vessels as they could, retreating to the outer edges of Iscandarian Territory. The Gamilas on Corus Prime finally rose up, tired of be enslaved. With little attention devoted to them, they quickly retook their homeworld and threw off the shackles that had held them down for so long. The Eternal Empire was no longer Eternal, as much of the civilian population retreated, gathering vessels and forming a giant fleet of sorts, fearing the Terran response to the Eternal Union. They planned to retreat as far as they could, far enough away to prevent the Terrans from ever finding them. Many civilians remained, but many had left. Defenders of Harmony Space Station “It’s.. at a temple on Alas Prime, hidden since it’s creation… Fergus what has happened to you? You are not the same person I trained so long ago.” said Lahnha, stepping back as the other Defenders came to see what had happened. Equiis, the Naval Headquarters The meeting room for the Admirals sat in some chatter as they awaited the Supreme Commander of the Equestrian Military. The table itself included a holo-projector and was also a map of the Milky Way Galaxy, including what Sectors had been named. Systems information was available for most of the systems in the Alpha and Beta Sectors. Limited information was available for some systems in the Gamma Sector, with no information available for the Delta Sector at all. The room finally fell silent as Steelclaw the Griffon stepped through the door, head of the entire Equestrian Military. He wore the same black uniform that most of High Command wore, with multiple pins from rewards he had received over the years. A small silver pin had been sown into the uniform, indicating his position. His feathers were a charcoal black, with his eyes having white around them. He took a seat of at the head of the table, and began speaking. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have called this meeting to inform you of a situation we recently found ourselves in. Yesterday at approximately 12:00am Equiis time a scout ship entered a system only containing barren worlds, and thus it was marked for conversion into factory worlds. However upon entering they detected a Rashine Warbird, and shortly after that they detected a projectile launched a asteroid in the system, and the resulting explosion was found to be a antimatter one. Along with this unconfirmed reports have come out of the Delphan Meritocracy about protest and riots conducted by followers of the Church of Faust. It seems they are getting tired of the Delphans serving the Rashine, who would destroy our religion if they could.” stated Steelclaws, looking towards the Admirals. “This is grave news indeed, however we still have the advantage over them. They likely do not have a great amount of the bombs yet, and we are capable of putting antimatter in our rail-gun projectiles where they are not.” stated one of the Pegasus Admirals. “However we estimated they would not reach development of one so soon, and they still hold a advantage in space cloaking over us.” responded one of the Griffon Admirals. The Admiral at the opposite end of the table, unlike the others, was not commenting on the situation. She was the newest one and a pegasus, the second one to ascend to a position as Admiral. “If I may have the floor for a minute Steelclaws?” asked a Unicorn Admiral. “You may Admiral Jet Set.” responded Steelclaws, as Jet Set proceeded to change the hologram on the table to a large beam like weapon, labeled antiproton streamer. “As well as being a Admiral I oversee the R&D division, and they have begun working on this. This weapon would fire a straight stream of antiprotons, better than any beam weapon the Rashine have. We would gain a huge advantage, and the Princesses have already approved.” said Jet Set. “If that is all, meeting adjourned.” said Steelclaws, all of the Admirals left the room, preparing to go back to the matters in which they were involved with. Delta Sector, Sol System The diplomat aboard the diplomatic ship looked at the system in which they had just arrived. This was the first mission being conducted into the Delta Sector, and it was a combined operation by both the Equestrians and the Saratine, with the Saratine having provided to military escorts for the ship. The three ships hung on the outer edges of the system, raising their shields but deactivating their weapons, as to show that they had come in peace. When the transmission was sent, the message was actually in english, however it did sound different, possibly a dialect of English rather than just straight English. “Greetings, I am Trenderhoof. I have coming representing the Union of Equestria. A few diplomats from the Saratine Republic have come as well. Your system is quite far away from us, and this is infact our first mission being conducted into what we refer as the Delta Sector.”

[Apollo26]

Küch (A-092) Above Haloh First day of the mid year harvest festival “ What am I supposed to do with this?” an army Lieutenant said as he looked at the new rifles laid out on the table in front of him. The rifles looked a little wider then the standard rifle and featured a slightly longer barrel with rails for attaching optics and other accessories. “ These are brand new designs, larger rounds that carry a small explosive charge” the intelligence officer said as he held up one of the rounds. It was nearly the length of his outstretched hand and the width of two of his fingers together. “ These are designed to weaken, disable and destroy shields and then shred anything behind them. The rate of fire has dropped due to the larger rounds, but accuracy, range and raw stopping power has all been increased……shouldn’t be a problem for you Army types.” he finished with a chuckle. The lieutenant chuckled with a slight shrug before picking one of the rifles up and shouldering it. “ Its lighter than the past variants, more rail space too…” the officer said as he brought the weapon up to his shoulder, noticing the iron sights. For years Aradite weapons have used digital HUD reticules as the primary sights for their weapons. These new weapons featured both for some unknown purpose, possibly for use without armor systems. “ Now these are the training variants of the new rounds, unlike the previous training “sims” these have the same ballistic properties as the real thing. The explosive properties will be mimicked by a small shockwave charge, much like the rest of the training explosives we employ.” The intelligence officer smirked “ This should prove to be a fun festival.” he finished with a laugh” Tumen ( BH-828) Somewhere in space ( well within Hau space) Lt Cmdr. Nikal “ Lost…..what do you mean we are lost? How are we lost” the young commander said in a irritated tone. The navigation officer simply shrugged and typed a series of commands into his terminal before shrugging again, throwing his hands into the air. “ We must of damaged the radar array or fried our transponder when we passed by that asteroid….or maybe the supernova, I don’t know..” the officer said as he attempted locate themselves in the vast vacuum. The crew of the Tumen was on their way back to the core worlds for the harvest festival when they encountered and evaded multiple anomalies, burning out multiple sensitive electronic equipment. As a result, the crew has been burning deeper into Hau territory and away from the Shao IX. No stealth protocol had been activated and all of the Tumen’s electronics were on full blast. To any sensor watching, the Tumen would be lit up like a christmas tree with small suns for lights.

[Monkeypants]

Varal flight 71, outskirts of the Imman star system. Three small ships made their way on a routine patrol through the outer most portion of the solar system. Small asteroids were no match for the maneuverable fighters and from outside, it would almost be as if an artist was drawing dim blue lines that gently danced around as they skirted across the page. This was just another routine patrol, like the one before that, and well.. the one before that. The lead fighter, clearly marked with a dark red triangle on the wings led its pack through the field until finally reaching calmer waters. Ahead was the reason for their journey though. A decent sized blocky white colored ship lay lifeless in the abyss. "This is the Ahman Sul armed forces. We are responding to a distress call. Please respond with your name and situation." The fighters began circling the disabled vessel like vultures around a fresh kill. "This is the Ahman Sul armed forces. We are responding to a distress call. Please respond with your name and situation." A minute went by and no hails received. The fighters weren't running any high end scanners as it would compromise their stealth systems. However, one running passive scans finally broke the three pilots silence. A female voice crackled over the fighters comms "Sir, I've got nothing abnormal on the scope." and after a brief pause, continued, "I'm switching to active scanning, check this thing for any life signs." Seconds later, that fighter slowed down and came within nearly fifty feet of the ships hull and activated a spot light from the nose. The fighter slowed to match the ships speed and turned it to face the hull. Once they had achieved a matching speed, the spotlight began moving around the hull, stopping to view airlocks then moving on. As it ran over the hull, scanners were penetrating the ship to determine the fate of this vessel. After a few minutes, the fighters engines did three bursts, causing it to slowly orbit the ship all the while having the nose pointed at it. The light shined through various windows and along the hull were the ships name and number were located. After running it, there was a sad reality that it was a simple- family owned yacht of some type. Seven people should be on the ship but instead, an empty, frozen interior. The female pilot came back on, "Damn, just saw the problem. Seems a coolant leak caused the port engine to overheat." The fighters orbit finally reached the engine in question and the spotlight had verified the scans. A massive tear along the side of the ship. "I bet those people died nearly instantly. none of the bulkheads closed when the hull tore open." A male voice came over, "Lucky bastards. I remember a year ago when something like this happened, a cruise ship lost power and over half of the people ran out of air. and the ones that didn't need air froze to death." "Command, this is Yathra 435, I've got a derelict. No foul play. Requesting a tow." "Roger that." was a simple reply and within about twenty minutes, a warp signature was detected. A privateer towing service more or less had arrived and began scanning the hull for any potentially hazardous situations before hooking up. As the process began, the lead pilot, a male, began speaking. "Hey, Ulsa, Scan grid 88a. I'll shoot a marker beam." After firing a very faint, harmless blue beam, the other fighter pointed in that direction and activated a very high powered sensor. The female responded after a moment "Mac, I've got something." The third fighter pilot whom made the comment about the ships inhabitants being poor bastards chimed in. "Holy shit. Yeah, we are going to need some backup here." --------------------------- Tumen ( BH-828) Somewhere in space As the Aradites unknowingly made their way further in to Trader space, other and far more devious forces took notice. The worst kind of company one wanted to deal with, space pirates.. They had some sort of cobbled together ship that resembled a Lorca Warrior-class Destroyer. It was part of the plan. Pirates favored deceptions but there was no reason to take it as a joke. There was always a chance it was purchased or stolen (Rare but not unheard of) and many ships pirates and privateers alike would buy or try to copy were ones with a reputation of being fierce. The Lorcalike (clever eh?) destroyer started to creep on the lost Septonian ship. No reason to be hasty as it was obvious they weren't detected yet. Its engines were dimmed but still fast enough to gain on their prey. Silence filled the bridge of the ship as only toothy smiles would be seen in the dark.. these people wanted this prize and wanted it bad. Perhaps they had never seen a Septonian vessel worth a damn or just had some collector that reeeally wanted one, really bad. Exotic ships, specifically warships, went for high price on the underworld markets. The ship, upon reaching a safe distance, hit full burn and attempted to overtake the scout. Shields went to full and weapons were locked on every vulnerable spot on the Septonian vessel. These pirates forced a signal through to the ship. "Well hello there! my name is captain Hjanti Du'fan of the blak jak! I would be pleased if this went as smoothly as possible as to avoid any bloodshed." This Hjanti fellow laughed a bit as he spoke the next lines, "You have a choice! We fire on your life support system and you all die and we take your ship.. OR. " He chuckled again and some laughter could be heard in the background "you get to escape pods and we take your ship but you can live, as long as you can." The pirate ship was imposing compared to the Septonian ship. Weapons were hot.. defenses raised and they were actively trying to block any scans or communications that the Aradites might attempt. "You can do this the easy way... or the hard way. The choice is yours."

[darkwolf687]

Taoshe The Minor let out a small growl ad the humans drew their weapons, then let put a sharp bark in the Black Tongue "Such disregard! I should cleave your head from your neck for this dishonour!" The Major silenced him with a wave of hos hand, them approached the human, speaking in broken English. His words were slow, as though he were reading them (which was in fact the case) "Names have power, Terran... I am of the Lorca Empire, may the ancestors smile on us... Sheath your blades. They insult us, they now demand blood." He growled slowly, then thrust his head forwards, his mandibles snapping furiously at the in front of the Terrans face. It looked as thiugh he could fit his jaws around the humans head, if he so desired. He withdrew slowly, and spoke again "Maybe your alledged atrocities do bring you dishonour, I bid you to stand adjudged by what you know. The ancestors shall not forget those who's cords you cut, and forgiveness can be bestowed by none who walk our Middle Earth, no matter how far you seek it." The three Lorca turned towards the military vehicle and climbed inside, waiting awkwardly in the vehicle that was clearly never designed to take their forms. Major Voroei stood, moving his arms further apart for a moment and slowly a piece of parchment formed upon his left shoulder,with another piece forming on his right thigh dangling dowm. The holographic paper was quite clearly some form of ceremonial marker. The Major spoke again a few moments later "Come! Let us not delay..."

[Apollo26]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Hau territory LT. Cmdr.Nikal Lt Cmdr Nikal let out a quiet sigh as the pirate ship communicated with them, space piracy was completely unknown to the Aradites but the blak jak made their intentions very obvious. He shot a -I’m going to kill you- glance towards the navigation engineer before thinking over his options, looking towards his available weapons and the star chart. Running was out of the question, they would destroy his engines and gun then down before they got away. Giving up was not only treason and blasphemy but out of the question, they wouldn’t survive more then a few days in the escape pods before dying of dehydration, starvation or freezing to death. Fighting was really the only option they had left, which didn’t comfort Lieutenant Commander Nikal at all, the pirate ship out classed them and had the perfect position. Lt Cmdr. Nikal had two options for fighting back; deception, which had a chance of initial success and an even small chance of further success and direct conflict which had a slim chance of success overall. The small blackhole class ship had no rear facing weapons except for the 30mm point defense cannons and the missile pods would take at least 15 seconds to arm and fire, all the while looking obviously hostile as the tubs opened. Nickal needed time which he didn’t have nor would he get. “ Engines or life support” he thought as the roll maneuver came to mind, this would buy him the time to arm his missile tubes and get three shots off before becoming vulnerable again. This tactic worried him however, he knew from watching combat videos against the EU that his missiles would be weak against shields, assuming this vessel had them. Given that knowledge, his initial attack would be futile and nothing would stop the pirates from gunning them down. Nickal’s mind then drifted to the 24 Special Operations Marines on board, could they get a charge on the pirates vessel? board it maybe? They may outclass them in space, but once the operators were in pirate vessel they would weave unimaginable havoc on its inhabitants. Could he stall them that long? Nickal would soon find out. “ Greetings Sir Du’fan, this is Comander Nikal of the Septonian Concordant, may we parley on this matter. I have many valuable oddities aboard that I have pillaged, maybe we can reach an agreement?” he said through his command terminal. There was no need to encrypt the message, he was certain they already know where they were. Nikal had no such valuable oddities aboard his ship, the most he had was a large stock of wine and meat for the crew. After sending the message to the Blak Jak he keyed the intercom for the entire ship, “ Everyone is to go to battle stations and don their gear, prepare for rapid decompression. Fourth special operations group, prepare for combat operations, officers report to the bridge.”

[Keyguyperson]

Defenders of Harmony Space Station

"Chaos is planning something. Faust is vital to their plan. Fergus is not here, for he cannot face Chaos yet. Alas Prime is in danger, we cannot go to the temple through conventional transport. I require the magical signature of the area to open a portal, please give it to me."

Taoshe

Never expected a weapons taboo like that, I'll have to petition the council to change the first contact protocols. The diplomat was clearly embarrassed by his folly, and quickly sheathed his sword as the other Terrans did so as well. "Apologies, we are inexperienced. I am, however, glad to know that your people shall judge us fairly. While we may judge ourselves by our past, we have been judged in the extremes for the mere act of fighting, and it is good to know that conquering a world because it's inhabitants fight is not the norm." The Terrans also entered the vehicle, fitting much better than the Lorca. They were quick to take notice of the fact that no accommodation was possible for the Lorca, an unexpected situation when considering the tactile holograms seen aboard the naval vessel. It served as yet more proof that technological advancement was almost never the same on the many inhabited worlds. The knowledge that they had a leg up in accommodating non-humanoid figures due to their "smart furniture" was also nice to have.

Sol System

The Equestrian convoy would notice an intense concentration of magical energy pass by them as they sent their message, seeming to coincide with a giant swarm of gravity lens distortions. The magic would seem familiar yet alien, it was certainly another type, but wasn't "there" in any normal sense. While it was strong energy-wise, the Equestrians would get the distinct impression that it was too weak to cast a spell, despite common sense implying otherwise. A response to the message was sent from the third planet in the system, which seemed to be the only habitable one there. It was in English as well, implying that they had highly efficient translation technology. Little did the Equestrians know that the Terrans were thinking the very same thing. Notably, a frighteningly fresh debris field orbited the fifth planet, still clumped closely together. There was enough material there for three hundred ships, and the proximity of the debris implied that the battle took place that very day. "Welcome to the Sol system, we are the United Terran Federation. Your peaceful words reassure us, but we have not had the best of experiences with species that utilize magic. You'll have to understand that our people place a great deal of weight on the word of others, and breaking even the simplest promise can be seen as a major insult. The other magical species we know of apparently has no concept of a promise, and we don't fully understand if this is connected to magical abilities such as telepathy that may or may not exist. Despite our suspicions, we will allow you to dock at one of our major stations above the fifth planet, though our homeworld is off-limits until we have established that you have no hostile intentions. I assume that your defensive shields will hold against debris and residual plasma?"

Gliese 581 System, Alas Prime

The skies of Alas Prime were filled with dots of light speeding towards the planet at faster-than-light speeds, anyone near the swarm of lights would see warships obscured by a gravity lens affect as they passed by faster than anyone could comprehend. They quickly entered the inner system, defense platforms unable to get a firing solution on the unimaginably fast ships. As they slowed (as much as such a term could be applied to a fleet travelling at warp speeds), a flurry of missiles was let loose from the now-STL swarm of ships. For whatever reason, these missiles were designed to intentionally slow their approach, bringing their effectiveness down drastically. Even so, they impacted the defense platforms of Alas Prime, striking serious blows deep into the structures. Those that missed their marks detonated early, the aggressors refusing to utilize them against the planet. The gravity lenses disappeared, revealing countless warships with the distinctive dual-ringed Terran design. The sheer numbers of the fleet made it clear that the entire Armada was there, and if the numbers weren't enough to prove that, the firepower certainly was. All of the ships opened up on the remaining defense platforms with plasma weapons and antimatter missiles, removing any opposition that stood in their way. They advanced towards the planet like a wall, point defenses shredding fighter squadrons sent after them. Each and every ship bore the symbol of the Terran Starfleet, an image of the Earth with a dagger driven through it, and six stars surrounding it. On the lead ship, it was prominently displayed on the bow, with the intent of intimidating anyone who dared to get close enough to view it with the naked eye. The spinal weapons of the dreadnoughts began to glow red-hot, all the heat from their railguns being kept in the metal of the firing mechanism due to the lack of any substance for it to disperse into. The lead ship sent a message to the planet below, translated into perfect Iscandarian automatically by the ship's computer. "This is High Admiral Kai Vivian of the United Terran Federation. Your warships have been destroyed, your defense stations torn apart, and we have weapons of mass destruction aimed at your planet. You surrender, and we will demilitarize your world and keep you confined on it. You refuse, and your cities will become craters, your monuments will fall, and your temples annihilated in the most technical sense of the word. Those are your choices, and whichever you choose, be assured that we will follow through with our threats."

Kaku University, Prefecture 0, the District.

It had been days since the battle of Jupiter, and all the excitement that came with the victory had since disappeared. The fact remained that the war wasn't going to be clean, and even now, the Terran Armada was headed for Alas Prime. Everyone knew that a planet was going to die, and they all knew the blood would be on the hands of every human. Most didn't have a problem with this, after all, the Iscandarians had threatened to destroy an entire star system and humanity with it. However, those in the District could see history repeating itself, the screams of those killed in the the Great Crime echoing in everyone's ears. Even in this perpetual state of unease, life went on as normal, the only difference being that the heads of the civilians were held lower than normal. The holographic billboards still obscured the stars, and road lights made navigation just as easy as if it were day. The lights of the grand skyscrapers of the city shined brightly, not a single room being dark. In the middle of all this life was a quiet university campus, the dorms mostly silent and dark as the students got sleep for the inevitable partying that would take place tomorrow night. After all, it marked the first humans victory in space, when the invading Iscandarian fleet was defeated in the First Battle of Sol. However, one of those dorms was exceptionally active, its lights adding to the already overpowering light pollution. Unlike virtually every other single-person dorm with a light on, there was only one student in it, hunched over a computer. While this student was certainly frustrated, it was for an entirely different reason than every other lit room with one person hunched over a computer in it. Papers were spread out across his desk, lined with equations. His computer displayed a document on magic from the Alcubierre Institute on Luna, detailing the sensor data from the Harold White Facility Disaster. Everyone involved was said to have suffered major neurological damage, and many seemed to lose their very sentience. He scrolled through the document over and over again, each time unsatisfied with what he found. After two hours of reading and sipping coffee, he brought his first down on the table with all the strength he had. As it was two A.M, that strength amounted to gravitational acceleration. Resting his head in his hand and massaging his temples as his already loose glasses continued to slip off his head, he sighed heavily enough to make it quite clear to the rest of those alone and hunched over a computer that he was certainly not having as much fun as the vast majority of those with their lights on. "Nothing!" He exclaimed, leaning back in the cheap office chair that he owned, rubbing his back against the already ripping backrest. The abruptness of the action caused his glasses to fly off of his head and land on the bed behind him, something that he barely noticed due to his frustration. "There's absolutely nothing on how, or even if, they controlled the magical energy! This was my last chance to find anything on magical control! How the fuck does so little information exist on something that would raise us so far up on the Kardashev-Smith Scale!" A faint voice came through the wall, though distorted by it, the man could make out an accusation of being too loud. He groaned, responding by throwing the same accusation right back at them. The sound of a word about to form was heard, then quickly cut off as his neighbors realized how weak the foundation of their argument was. He groaned, leaning further back in the chair and closing his eyes. "Maybe they were right when they said it would take a live specimen from a magic-sensitive species to figure out the control of it." He mumbled to himself, respecting the wishes of his neighbors despite their comically flimsy argument. He sighed, getting up from his chair and retrieving his glasses. He stood between the bed and the chair, contemplating his next action, then picked up his laptop. Resting it on his pillow, he fell into bed facing it, laying on his stomach in an uncomfortable position that he nevertheless preferred to the mundane sitting position he had been in for countless hours. He opened the word processor that came standard on all laptops, and began to write an grant request. Well, this is a stupid idea. He thought as he typed furiously. It just might work. He lay there and typed for hours as his eyes became heavier and heavier, no coffee left to keep him awake. After an amount of time he simply couldn't place, his eyes closed and hands fell limp on the keyboard. Some unquantifiable time later, he woke up to the sight of an entire screen full of nothing but the letter "f". Despite how little sleep he managed to get, he felt refreshed, though this feeling would likely wear off at exactly the time all the parties started if his luck remained the same. Glancing down at his computer's clock, he saw that it was eight in the morning. Before he could even think about why he woke up so early, he heard the voice of a woman from above. "When I saw you on your bed with a laptop, I must say, I had a completely different impression." He looked up, seeing the face of his longtime friend Rin Tomiko, who had chosen to work with him on the daunting task of advancing human knowledge of magical energy in even a marginally significant way. She was born in Prefecture 31 during the reconstruction period, and got a lot of flak for her Japanese heritage until she moved to the northeast. During her childhood, the western parts of the district held quite a substantial bit of racism towards Japan for their involvement in the war. Being the daughter of a JSDF officer, she ended up as the target of much of this racism. "I had a feeling you would, after all, you have more experience with that than I do." He said, smiling tauntingly. "Is that supposed to imply that you have someone to do that for you?" She responded, taking his joke and throwing it right back at him. "Just that I'm obviously a more evolved being with a less active sex drive, much better adapted to urban life." He said, a humorous smile on his face. "Evolution doesn't work like that, Mr. More Evolved Being." The two stared in mock seriousness before bursting out in laughter, the man sitting up in bed. "But seriously, Hugh, what were you writing?" "A grant application, I'm trying to get my hands on the Kaku." Ron's eyes widened in surprise, and it took her a moment to get the words out. "You're asking for command of the university's Bastonge-class?!" She exclaimed, her voice likely disturbing the neighbors. "You really think we could get a starship for our magical studies?" "So far, I've come up with the best equations on magical energy, and I earned weapon rights in that terrorist attack on Mars during the First Battle of Sol. I meet all the necessary requirements, and the university knows damn well that us Americans can handle first contacts. If I can manage to capture a live Iscandarian, then the entire question of magical control will be solved! Think about it, with that knowledge, who knows what we could accomplish!" "I can't argue with that, but do you really think the entirely European university council would give a starship fully capable of battle to a Dist-... American? I mean, the thing has tri-mode magnetic accelerators, those can punch through the military bunker in Paris!" "Not if the American is asking, that's why I'd like to ask you to submit it." She stared at him for a moment, fully understanding the idea, but still with a quizzical look on her face. "You're making this up as you go, aren't you?" "Yep." He replied with not event a hint of shame "Will you do it?" Rin smiled, firmly placing her hand on her head and shaking it. "This is one of those things were either I do it, or you go and screw things up, isn't it?" "Yes. Yes it is." "Alright, I'll do it. If you didn't write it according to regulation, you owe me one hell of a favor."

[Monkeypants]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Ahmun Sul territory The Lorcalike warship hovered ominously behind the Aradites. Scanning would conclude that the ship is at least 1km away, close enough to devastate the ship with weaponry but far enough to remove a chance of boarding. A careful commander would also note that the Lorcalike had its sensors trained on the ship and an hatches opened or weapons charging would be instantly noticed. It would soon be even worse... "Greetings Sir Du’fan, this is Comander Nikal of the Septonian Concordant, may we parley on this matter. I have many valuable oddities aboard that I have pillaged, maybe we can reach an agreement?” the Septonians sent... Hjanti brought his fingers to his face, balling his fists for a moment before pinching his nose. The sound of laughter on the bridge was near deafening. "All right, crew.. target their engine drives and all weapon batteries.. hell, use the cutting laser on their torpedo tubes.. Damn! melt every damn orifice on the ship aside from the escape pods." Some of the crew turned to their stations and it was only a matter of seconds. "Sir, targets locked." With a simple snap of his fingers, the Pirate ship fired only a few of their weapons but to devastating effect. Huge explosions would rock the Aradites out of their seats as any artificial gravity would be knocked off-line. Lights would turn off unless they had emergency ones. The drive core, not only the visible engine ports but the actual engineering area would've been hit directly. Turrets? gone. Aft firing torpedo tubes? melted shut. The ships initial barrage was well placed. These people were knowledgeable, straight up butt-holes who had obviously done this a thousand times. Only rudimentary communications and any forward facing-low end visuals would work at this point (unless it has physical windows). The pirates forced one last transmission through. "I'm not quite sure why you'd give me even more reason to take your ship." An audible chuckle could be heard, along with others in the background. "You see, I have no intentions of boarding your ship. Our scanners have penetrated your hull and I know where every single one of your people are." He took a deep breath. "Against my better judgement, I'm going to give you one last chance to make your way towards the escape pods. which I have located as well." Hjanti began strumming his fingers on the arm rests on his chairs console. He stood up and walked to his ships view screen then turned to his crew. "This is pretty damn ridiculous. It's like they think I'm stupid or something. Who the hell tries to parlay with pirates. I mean seriously." The crew laughed and then began talking about what they each intended to steal. Sad to say, that ship is pretty damn screwed.

[Apollo26]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Hau territory LT. Cmdr.Nikal The explosions rocked the ship violently, immediately making hull breach alarms and fires spread around the affected areas. The first effect to be seen was the loss of their torque drive ( Artificial gravity) and their primary lighting system, soon the entire interior of the ship was pitch black. “ Sir, reactor one and two are heavily damaged, I have shut them down and removed the coils.” a voice said over the intercom which miraculously still worked. “ Engineering deck one though three have been breached and open to the vacuum, 10 souls lost sir, two wounded”. Commander Nikal let out a sigh and check in with the rest of his crew, finding similar results. The ship was pock marked and shot to hell, looking more like a piece of swiss cheese then a Septonian combat vessel. Engines were offline or destroyed, Engineering was completely destroyed along with both reactors. Their warp drive and weapons systems were also damaged and not fit for use, the Tumen was dead floating in the vacuum. After a couple seconds the emergency lighting flickered on, starting the two hour battery life each light had. Soon the interior of the ship was bathed in a sinister red hue, as the crew came to their senses. “ 30 dead, 45 wounded in some shape or fashion sir” one of the special operations officers said as he floated up to the bridge. “ Almost the entire ship is depressurized and they punched a hole clean through the ship, I have my corpsmen working on your wounded as we speak.” Nikal thought for a moment before reflexively tapping the star chart button on his command panel before realizing the power was still out. “ shit….” he whispered as he thought of another plan of action, walking around to the rear windows on the bridge to see if he could eye the vessel. With the naked eye it was almost invisible amongst the stars, save for a small black shape that broke the light of the stars in passed over. Letting out a sigh, he calmly walked back to the command chair and produced an old, nearly ancient, spyglass which he quickly extended to its full length. With the added magnification he could easily make out the ship behind them, eyeing the vessel for a few moments before collapsing the spyglass and burying it in his pocket. From the exterior of the ship, the large hole could be seen clearly, along with the bodies and parts of bodies suspended around the Tumen. Metal and other debris littered the area around the ship as the vessel started a slow rotation counter clockwise as it drifted unpowered. Commander Nikal had to assume that they could still see them moving around the ship, but how? Thermal? Very sensitive EM maybe? He really did not have the time to theorize how it worked but he had a plan for how to trick it. “ Everyone, including the dead get to your designated escape pods. Load the dead, take their identification tags and jettison the pods” he said to through the ships intercom “ Everyone still alive and fit for combat, stay behind, seal the compartment and stay still”. The crew passed the messages to the compartments without oxygen as green status lights lit up, confirming that they had received the order. “ The bodies in the escape pods would still be warm, they would show hot in thermals. That should make them think we escaped and left the dead behind. The bodies on our ship would still be warm as well if we were dead, so unless they are using some advanced life scanner, we should look like an abandoned ship”. The pirates scanners would see beings moving around the vessel and collecting around the escape pods before they were jettisoned, followed by an erie stillness. Nothing moved on the Tumen after the escape pods were launched deeper into the vacuum, the handful of signals around the escape pod bays would just be floating there, slowly getting colder and colder.

[null123]

Alas Prime/Gliese 581g No response was sent to the Terrans, rather they just began firing on them immediately. Although infighting still occurred, as several ships fired at the Terrans were destroyed by other Iscandarian ships. It quickly became a bloodbath as scans of the Iscandarian surface revealed that massive amounts of destruction had occurred, not much was left for the Terrans to destroy themselves. It was certain that whatever weapons used had destroyed the few habitable places on Alas Prime, and would require massive amounts of terraforming to be able to used once again. What had taken thousands of years to build and been wiped out in a mere few hours. Another thing to be noted was the lack of civilian ship debris, indicating that some had chosen to escape and get away from the chaos. Defenders of Harmony Space Station Lahnha reluctantly used a spell that gave the magical signature to whatever Fergus had become. She stepped back and began speaking again. "What are you going to do now?" spoke Lahnha, still a bit spooked by Fergus's appearance. Sol System “Our shields are more than capable of holding against some debris. We are proceeding to dock now.” Trenderhoof cut out the transmission as the Saratine diplomats and their aids prepared to meet with the Terrans. Proceeding into his room, which had a simple bunk made of mostly pillows and a small silver table on which to put his possessions, he grabbed a glass bottle. The bottle had a black label simply labeled “Equestria’s Finest Vodka: Apple Flavor”, he sat the bottle in his saddlebag as he felt the ship lurch and begin moving towards the docking location. Another bottle of the same Vodka also sat on his shelf. He used a spell to grab the bottle and bring over to him, looking at for a minute. “Nothing like a shot of vodka to calm the nerves I guess.” thought Trenderhoof, as he was a bit nervous about this upcoming meeting. He also grabbed a shot glass, filling it and then quickly downing it in one shot. He quickly said something under his breath which sounded like Russian as he joined the other diplomats and left the ship, which had docked with the Terran station. Trenderhoof’s body color and equine form were immediately obvious to the Terrans, with his body color being a light brown, and his hair blood. The rest of the delegation consisted of Saratines, who were pretty much human in all features, except that their ears were pointed and their hair all black. Several ponies also had widely differing body colors compared to Trenderhoof, pretty much spanning the entire spectrum. A few griffons also stood with the delegation, acting as guards. “I am Trenderhoof, representing their majesties of Equestria Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. The Union of Equestria wishes for peaceful relations with all peoples of the galaxies and prosperity for all nations who also seek peace.” spoke Trenderhoof, as a older Saratine stepped forth, grey in his hair. “I am Ambassador Pock, representing the Saratine Republic. The Saratine as a whole do not believe in showing emotion, we rather prefer to carry out moral and logical actions. We also wish for peace.” said Ambassador Pock.

[Apollo26]

Taoshe The crew of the Syren quickly piled in the light armored vehicle followed by Valag, closing the door behind him. Velka pounded her fist on the wall twice as the door closed signaling the driver to pull off before the vehicle quickly shot forward. Speed limits were mostly non existent on the empty roads of the capital and the driver made sure take advantage of that fact, pushing the armored vehicle as hard as it can go. For a rather large armored truck the vehicle could really move, pushing 90-120 miles per hour as it whipped around corners. To the Aradites this was normal, speed was a normal part of life on the core worlds but this might be alarming to the other species in the vehicle. Valag looked around the vehicle with a large toothy smile before standing and opening the large top hatch, letting the sun pour into the dark interior. “ This reminds me of when we took this city back from the Kublai family. I was riding in one of these same vehicles going down this same road” he said looking up into the sky. “ It took us three days to take this city, three days of bloody house to house, street to street fighting”. Valag sighed as he looked at the buildings flying by “ It looked a lot different back then, everything was bombed out or on fire. Bodies, destroyed vehicles so much rubble….it was a beautiful sight…..such a glorious victory. Some Aradites go their whole lives without seeing a shred of combat and I never understood why someone wouldn’t want to. When I was younger it was all about the fight, all about combat…I loved it. Now, I see that it was for the moments you dont see every day like having a meal in the remains of a bombed out apartment bloc, or watching a city get pummeled from orbit” he said turning the face the group. “ I am bringing you all here to facilitate war against a nation…..a people…a species, but I also want peace to exist between us. We are all judged by the specters of our past, lets hope it doesn’t sour our relations.” As Valag finished his speech the vehicle came to a smooth stop in front of a large domed building supported by large columns. There was a skeleton guard outside and large black box directly in the center of the open structure. Velka was the first to open the door and jump out of the back of the truck followed by the remained of the Syren’s crew. “ Follow me, what you are about to see will blow your mind” Velka said as she lead the group towards the large black box in the center of the structure. She led the group inside the box and pressed a series of holographic buttons making the door close, bathing the interior of the elevator in darkness. The elevator descended through the ground for a few moments passing lights as it made its way down through the darkness before revealing a large chasm. It would look like an underground city, every inch covered by lights and large skyscraper type buildings. As the elevator stopped at the bottom, the doors slowly opened, revealing a large open room with relics from past conflicts hanging off the walls. There would be another team of admirals and other distinguished officers at the bottom, waiting to greet the new species.

[Monkeypants]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Ahman Sul territory The Blak Jak hovered ominously in the distance. Guns still trained on the defenseless Septonian vessel. Many eyes were locked on the ship, each having its own vision of the outcome but better than that, what riches they would gather. One set though, wasn't watching the prize but rather thermal and EM signals from inside. It was obvious to him who was alive and who was not as the sensors clearly shown the ones moving and the bodies drifting. "I wonder what they are up to now." Hjanti said under his breath. Perhaps he was admiring the tenacity or perhaps just letting them have hope before crushing them beneath his heels. Aradite forces were swift in their captains task, loading the dead in to the escape pods for their one last mission in to the void. All the while the bridge crew watched closely. As they completed the loading, the primary sensors officer seemed overly thrilled. "Captain! they're launching escape pods! Gonna get that ship now." Hjanti placed his hand against his forehead and stated with the utmost sarcasm, "I'm happy someone was here to tell me what I was seeing." He lowered his hand and turned to his weapons officer, "Target the escape pods. Kill them." and with an evil grin, that officer trained the Point defense weapons on the decoys. Turrets snapped in to place as they targeted the fleeing pods and with a few dim flashes of red light, thin beams hit the pods and caused them to explode in a faint blast. After the last one exploded, the Blak Jak slowly moved towards the now-trapped Aradites. "Captain, what about the existing heat signatures." one asked. "Don't worry about them." Hjanti said. He knew something was up. He had met Aradites before and knew they could be difficult. A few minutes later on board the Aradite ship, The remaining bridge crew would be caught by that deafening silence before seeing a bright contrail fly right over the bridge and then turn sharply to the right. Seconds later, another blared by followed a trailing volley of small torpedoes. The second contrail launched a flare, sending the missiles away right before the contrail seemingly disappeared. If the crew were to turn around, the Blak Jak was firing point defense weapons wildly in all directions. Tracers from kinetic weapons and thin red beams dotted the area around the still approaching warship. The crew may be delighted to watch but would be shaken by a extremely loud metal clanking sound that would indeed rock the ship. Seconds later, the entire Septonian vessel had made a 180. Its bridge having full visual of the battle that they were now slowly moving away from. The Blak Jak turned to seemingly broadside the Septonian vessel but not before a ship just slowly appeared in front of them. The warship wasn't extremely large but its role as a warship was beyond obvious. It turned and the two exchanged heavy cannon fire. Rounds exploded or bounced off both ships shields as the Septonians were pulled away. Another one of those seemingly friendly warships flew right over the bridge before firing a volley of its own and then six more of those faint contrails darted by as well. The Blak Jak was now surrounded and outgunned. Hjanti forced a visual in to the Septonian vessel. He was human, maybe. Gruff but well kept. He only stared at the crew of the ship. "I'll catch ya later." and with a grin, the visual ended and the Blak Jak could be seen rotating away from the fight and then doing a quick jump from the area. Problems were not over for the Aradites now though. Another violent explosion rocked the ship, sending parts flying in all directions. After a moment, the entire aft section of the ship could be seen floating behind the bridge crew. As they were continuously pulled away, the aft section exploded in a bright array of colors. The actual situation was that an un-exploded round had lodged itself in near the ships primary drive core. A dick move by the pirates that if they were to flee, the munition would explode, destroying the would be lucky survivors. More bright lights would be seen as the vessel was encased in a very faint green field before being pulled in to warp speed. -Hours later- The Aradite vessel would find itself near a busy world surrounded by orbital structures and what would seemingly be a free-way of sorts. Ship engine lights stretching far in to the distance. This was one of the hub worlds of the Ahman Sul nation. A few more moments passed by, repair drones would be seen flying about the ship before another image would be seen, but not in the form of a hologram. A small Varal fighter rose up to face the ship at near point blank. It forced comms through. "Y'all are lucky.. Had we not picked up a distress call a few hours before you warped in, that Pirate ship would've sank you quick. Though, I'm not sure why it didn't just outright destroy your ship." A few moments passed by. "If you'd be so kind as to allow teams aboard your.. well whats left of a ship, they can get your people medical aid and help you depart your ship." At the aft areas of the ship where the hallways were now exposed due to having half the ship removed. A group of people in space suits floated. They made sure they were in obvious, very visible locations. All had side arms but to any commander, that precaution would be understandable. They waited for any sign, a door to open, a flare, anything. Behind them a sign was lit up and written in clear Aradite it read, Welcome, to Ahman Sul.

[darkwolf687]

Taoshe Voroei felt himself shaken around like a ragdoll. He was certainly not used to wheeled vehicles as opposed to the gravitational ones, the inferiority of the device drove him to insanity. Gravitational vehicles ran smoother due to their design. The speed however, was far from unknown to him even in these "civilian" environments. He merely grunted in response to Valag "Were war easy, the wordsmiths of old would turn in their tombs." There was a small chuckle from one of the minors, who cut in sharply "'War bellows blazing in Scarlett Battalions' Would hardly be impactful, were war a simple thing" The three trooped out after Velka, sharing whispers in their alien tongues among themselves. Past the guard box and to the elevator. As it descended slowly to the city floor, revealing an underground city scape. One of the minors moved closer to Voroei, whispering in the black tongue, the Aradite translator potentially picking it up "Remind you of the mines, brother?" "The descent reminds me of the tombs..." The Minor gave a solemn nod and withdrew himself slowly from the Major, who turned is head towards Velka "You have a beautiful city; Why hide it in the ground so none will see it and the rocks may one day reclaim it?" The Lorca left the elevator, peering around the room and running their eyes over the relics that adorned the room, and then the relics of rank they saw before them. Voroei let out a soft grunt and approached, lowering his gaze to their faces as his minors took up position on either side of him

[yoshua171]

The Legion Collective

Having sent out what amounted to a small exploratory fleet, composed of what would appear one ship, Legion had decided to once again seek out other species. Curious beings by nature, the Collective wished to discover more, to research the biological nature of other races, and the inner workings of their governmental structures. Doing so was an idea that greatly intrigued Legion, and so it was with jubilation that one of their exploratory ships detected activity. Without any hesitation the ship, appearing as a massive capital-class craft, exited its quantum tunnel at the edge of a highly trafficked zone of space. Upon exiting the tunnel the vessel activated its defensive fields and extended its quantum communication relay range outwards in an attempt to begin decoding and translating the language of those within the nearby space. If they were lucky, they might even be contacted directly.

[Apollo26]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Ahman Sul territory Everyone but a skeleton crew remained on the bridge, those who were left we dog tired and beat up from the battle. None of the sensors or other electronics were operational, they were hopeless and defenseless. The flashes from the exploding escape pods could be seen from the bridge as the floated through the void, only adding to the despair of the crew. “ What Savages, there is no honor in this place…” one of the bridge officers said quietly, prompting nods from the remainder of the people in the room. The Aradites hunkered down and prepared for the worst as the pirates began to line up on them again. Oddly enough thoughts of rapid decompression and subsequent suffocation was calming compared to the thought of being enslaved for life. Most of the bridge crew would rather be dead then become slaves. “ Sir!, incoming fire coming from port side” another bridge officer said as rocket raced over the bridge and towards the pirates vessel. More fire followed closely behind as the pirates point defenses went wild, trying to destroy the incoming fire. A deep groaning sound could be heard throughout the ship, as something attached itself to the ship and began to move it, violently flipping them around to face backward. The Aradites could now see the battle infant of them, foreign ships moved against the pirate vessel, shielding the remains of the Tumen from further attack as something pulled them farther away from the fierce battle. As if it wasn’t bad enough, another explosion rocked the ship, this time feeling like it came from inside of the Tumen. The aft section of the Aradite vessel was quickly sheared off and floated behind them before what remained of the ship was incased in a green vortex and transported elsewhere. -Hours Later- Upon exiting the warp field Commander Nikal immediately vomited all over the inside of his visor, continuing to vomit in zero g as he tore the helmet from head. “ where are we?” he said after gaging a few more times, looking up at the bridge crew who was equally as disoriented. “ I don’t know, sir” another officer said in a shaky almost scared voice “ But I don’t think we have to wait to long to find out” she said looking out of the forward veiwscreen at what appeared to be a fighter. Suddenly it all made sense to Nikal, either these were friendly entities or they were really destined for a live of slavery. “ Sir….beings are floating up to the aft of the ship, they are armed..” an operator said over the intercom “ We are waiting in ambush, whats your order?” he said before another message was forced though. "Y'all are lucky.. Had we not picked up a distress call a few hours before you warped in, that Pirate ship would've sank you quick. Though, I'm not sure why it didn't just outright destroy your ship. If you'd be so kind as to allow teams aboard your.. well whats left of a ship, they can get your people medical aid and help you depart your ship." A ruse? maybe or were they sincere? It wasn’t like they had much choice in the matter, they either died here or took their chances. “ Greet them, let them take our wounded and accept their hospitality, we will find out what they want” Nikal said over the intercom as he looked around the bridge for a moment. “ Destroy everything, not one scrap of our tech gets into their hands” he said aloud before donning his helmet again to make his way off the ship. Towards the aft of the ship, 24 armed operators waited in ambush as they observed the beings in space suits get closer to the Tumen. As the order to stand down and make contact was given everyone visibly relaxed and emerged two or three at a time. There would be no flare or doors to open, the signal would come from a helmet mounted strobe light, flashing in the distance.

[Monkeypants]

STC Tumen ( BH-828) High orbit, Havurna. Ahman Sul core world. The repair crews sat anxiously outside the aft section of the ship as small drones began moving about the outside hull of the ship. They were removing destroyed plates of armor and scanning the insides. Had their mission been to secure new technologies, they would've been denied at this point due to the quick actionss of the Aradite crew. Luckily, the last thing on the Traders minds was to gain new technology. The Aradites would find out soon enough that the trader nation had plenty of tools of its own. Behind the Septonian ship was a tower of sorts, about twice as long as the Aradite ship and right about in the middle was a ring lined with what looks like black square windows. This was the control area for dock 12D, where the Tumen was resting. Inside was a vast array of personel, many races working together for the sake of one thing... coin. In the middle of this room sat a desk with two people standing there. An female Valkarian and beside that a being known as a Karaut which is a 5 ft upright bi-pedal frog esque creature, walked towards the forward windows. "Display the ship." The Karaut said. In front of him, a large 3-d holographic image of the ship appeared. The detail of the image was incredible, every variation in plate width, radiation burns, everything was processed and accounted for. The Karaut slid his hand through the display, causing the ships structure to cut in half. Inside, he could see every innard that scanners could see. "Here, have team four repair these links." He said then pointed to another section. "Team two has this area. We may as well stabilize it then kick it out of the dock. put it in storage slot seven-four." The Valkrian began keying in coordinates amongst other things while two tugs moved in front of the ship. Behind the ship, the teams floated there waiting for a sign from the ship and after a while they finally got it. "Team one to bridge, we have a light signal." The Karaut looked down at the teams. "All right, Be careful moving in. If any of your teams has an Aradite in its ranks, leading with him or her might be wise." Indeed one did serve in the ranks. No one could say how he got to be in trader space, maybe a refugee or something else. Regardless, he moved in front of team one and they began moving towards the closest hole in the ship. "Lets go." he said before activating manuevering thrusters on his suit. As he started, the others began moving as well but were interrupted by the crew starting to exit the ship. The Teams stopped and stared for a moment but upon seeing heavily injured people coming out, went in to rapid action. A section of space directly behind the teams started to emit a purple hue. That area then took the shape of a square and slowly moved towards the aft of the ship. It was a very high powered shield that became an artificial environment to sit the injured down in without the need for suits. Emergency surgeons and nurses sat in this field as the teams began moving Aradites in to it. The situation was pretty intense at this point but depending on how well the Aradites cooperated is how quickly the ship would be evacuated. When the ship would be empty, the tugs would pull it out a pretty fair distance from the dock and then place it in what looked like a rib cage type structure where it would sit lifeless. At the same time, the commander of the ship would likely be pointed towards the primary airlock behind the ship where the Karaut would be waiting. The Karaut will have four soldiers defending him, all heavily armed and well armored. Trade lane 875 I-W. Collective first contact As the collective ship emerged from its tunnel, sensors went crazy that monitored the areas near all the lanes. These sensors were there to detect pirate vessels or other hazards and divert traffic away from that area all the while signally authorities to respond. The nearby ships began diverting away from the area. The Collective ship would be quick to notice the real lack of alarm in the ships, just the fact they were merely going around. After a few minutes, directly ahead of the ship, a blue warship had decloaked and was approaching at high speed. There was no doubt at all that this was a warship as the turrets and heavily sloped armor would be a dead giveaway. Its shields were raised and active ECM was deployed. Right as the ship got within visual range without any magnification, two more would have entered the Collective ships sensors range, on a direct intercept course from the Collectives left and right. It was a clear surrounding tactic. As the lead vessel slowed down, it began sending messages, to which the Collective would likely see as garbage signals but in reality it was greeting messages in every language the traders have ever processed. Each of these messages had basic codes in them, basic computer algorythms that would hopefully help an advanced race unlock the basic language of their choice. Hopefully one would fit the Collectives fancy and allow them to talk with the authorities. After all, the traders had never encountered a ship from the collective before.

[yoshua171]

The Legion Collective

Trade lane 875 I-W.

Noting the three warships far before they came into the radius of their visual scanners, Legion noted the change in the flow of space traffick so as to avoid their form, but not in such a way as to flee. Considering the trajectory of the warships, they were headed in their direction, but were clearly not going to open fire in the midst of their own lane. With this in their minds, the Collective began its work while the ships closed the distance, the internal structure of their ship rearranging somewhat as they waited. The biological members of Legion had been awoken and after they'd stretched and eaten, an activity which was done more through the absorption of nutrients and a form of processed energy stored by the ship, they headed to what was becoming the ship's Bridge. It was at this time that the warships would have closed the distance and began relaying varies messages, which the Collective almost immediately decoded and processed throughout both their ship's systems and their planetary ones, all of which were quantumly linked. After several short seconds they had almost fully organized the statements into different languages, drawn links between them, and noted the nature of the message itself. However, so as not to intimidate they waited several minutes, the outer portions of the ship shifting slightly so as to reveal windows, layered with null fields and energy shields, for their biological kin. By the time the ship had finished its shifting a minute would have passed and it was two minutes later that a return message was sent in every language stating roughly as follows, as one--no matter their technology and intelligence, cannot glean the entirety of a language from a single phrase, "Greetings. No attacking. Peace" this was followed by a series of raw code of a simplified nature from their own systems, which, when translated, it asked for more language samples. While Legion could have simply utilized this code to communicate, they preferred not to, and so made their simple request. Hopefully the computers of the warships were capable enough to decode their message.

The Legion Ship

[Keyguyperson]

Alas Prime

"Very well then." Came the Terran response. "Your world dies." The Terran battleships opened fire on the Iscandarian vessels, the chaos in their ranks allowing the Terrans to absolutely decimate any resistance. Bombardment vessels moved into their positions, firing on any Iscandarian ships that got in their way. As they each reached their designated position, they transmitted a ready signal to the flagship, which itself had moved into a position over the largest remaining city of Alas Prime. The flagship sent a message to all of the bombardment vessels. "Charge railguns!" After a few moments, the responses from the bombardment ships came back. It was perfectly uniform for each and every one of them, like they had rehearsed it dozens of times before. In fact, they had. The truth was, the fleet was never going to spare Alas Prime, "Railguns charged!" Another message was sent out from the flagship, and it recieved a response just as uniform. "Extend missiles." Every one of the bombardment ships launched off four parts of its hull, one on each side of the giant cigar-shaped masses. Out of each of them, a single missile extended, far larger than any kind of missile used in space or land combat.. "Missiles extended, awaiting command." "Hold fire. Set reactor output to maximum value and beam power to my vessel." The bombardment ships followed her orders, bombarding the flagship's energy receiver with lasers. All of the collected power went to the massive vessel's spinal weapon, which began to glow far brighter than it ever had before. Once it seemed like it was as bright as the sun itself, the beaming of power to the flagship abruptly sopped. There was a brief moment that felt like eternity in which nothing happened. Then it fired. A giant blue beam shot out of the flagship's bow, expanding to reach a size exponentially larger than the ship that fired it the moment it came out of the firing chamber. It shot towards the planet, completely unimpeded by the atmosphere. It entirely destroyed the city below, tearing apart the very particles it was made of. Anything even marginally near the city went too, cleanly destroyed by the beam. But the destruction didn't stop there. The beam continued into the planet, puncturing the crust in under a second and tearing its way through the mantle. Getting through the outer core just as quickly as it had breached the mantle, it finally reached its intended target: the inner core of Alas Prime. In a single instant, the inner core was destroyed, and the beam suddenly dissipated, having run out of energy. The planet, having lost its core, "tried" to fill it in with the liquid from the outer core, which in turn caused the mantle to destabilize and the crust to be absolutely devastated. Earthquakes worse than anyone could have previously imagined ravaged the surface as pseudo-mountains formed and fell apart in seconds. Anything ever built on the planet was torn apart and ground up in the horrifying cataclysm, and waves containing enough water to fill a small ocean stormed across the planet. By the time the disaster was over, Alas Prime was a dead world, not a single plant nor animal still alive. The only evidence that Iscandarian civilization had ever existed was the fact that such a terrifying armageddon had occurred. A message was sent out from the flagship to all other Iscandarian planets, ships, and station in the system. The voice in the message was quiet and emotionless, almost detached somehow. "Surrender or resist. Choosing the latter is sentencing your people to extinction. Choose wisely."

Sol System

How the hell do a bunch of fucking horses build goddamned starships? What kind of idiot names someone "Twilight Sparkle? Why the fuck is that name even in English? Could they be-? No, the Iscandarians are a load of retarded shitheaded bastards, but they're not that stupid. Nobody has a brain fucked up enough to make spies naturally speak the same language as the people they're spying on. Wait, are those things humans? What the fuck? I knew that the humanoid form was common, but really? How the hell do the goddamned Vulcans end up actually existing? Oh, wait, now they're talking about how they reject emotion. Are these horses some kind of sufficiently advanced alien species playing a prank on us? HIS NAME IS POCK. HIS NAME IS LITERALLY POCK. ALIENS. STEAL. CABLE." Thought the human diplomat, quickly scanning the room for any reactions that might indicate he slipped up and said it out loud. Jesus Christ, if I say some shit like that during negotiations I'll be fired for sure. Having forgot to do so, he hastily bowed to the new aliens. "Welcome to Jupiter Stations!" He said, almost too cheerfully. "I am Ambassador Lorens Gustaf, representing the United Terran Federation. If it's not against your culture or anything, we'd like to request that you surrender your weapons while on this station. The last nation that said they wanted peace threatened genocide against us. That same nation just attacked us here, their ships are the source of the debris field." He could have mentioned that the weapons they used to create that debris field mysteriously disappeared after being fired, he instead chose to let them think that Terran ships were just that good. He didn't want a repeat of the First Battle of Earth. "This station is basically a city, so you'll be clearly visible the moment we leave this specific facility. If you want to do anything to make you feel safer out there, do it now. I managed to get us a reservation at a popular restaurant here, as well as a meeting with some other representatives there. We'll obviously need your physiology to properly serve you any kind of food, so you'll have to either submit to a short scan or give us all of the data. If you someh-... happen to not know the compounds you can digest and those you cannot, and refuse to be scanned, we can't feed you anything. General protocol." That could have gone way worse.

Taoshe

As the Aradites spoke about the past war, the Terrans were visibly uncomfortable. It was clear that they had a distinct aversion to war, despite coming in a giant warship meant for planetary invasions. Even so, not a one said anything about it, not wanting to offend anyone. They knew that the odd love of war the Aradites had was a part of their culture, and that their own aversion of the same was a part of their own culture. Voicing their discomfort would make the Aradites feel the same way they were feeling, and then they'd both be uncomfortable. In other words: They knew when to keep their mouths shut. When Velka pressed the holographic buttons, the Terrans looked on in great interest. They lacked tactile holograms, and the stupid looks on their faces made that fact obvious to anyone that could read the expression. The moment they saw the city, however, that stupid look was replaced with an even stupider one. They were absolutely dumbfounded by the city, not entirely by the buildings, but by the giant underground chamber. They couldn't imagine how hard it must have been to hollow it out, not to mention keep it supported. The Terrans all thought there was an antigravity system keeping the "ceiling" of the chamber from falling. Once they all reached the room, the Terrans were clearly interested in the relics on display. They observed them from a distance, all of them speculating on the importance of the objects. They took some kind of pleasure in that- speculating on the cultures of other species. Luckily for them, that odd trait made them look quite respectful (not always in the professional way, obviously) of alien cultures. Hearing the major speak to Velka, the Terran diplomat felt an urge to voice his speculations on their reasons, but he knew he really shouldn't be voicing his speculations on their culture. Even so, he decided to join in, as he himself wanted to know, and getting it right would make him look good. "I was wondering that was well. While it obviously acts an an effective deterrent against orbital bombardment, I doubt this underground chamber was built when that was a major problem. The aesthetic is quite different, perhaps you didn't want to lose the historic beauty of the capital?"

TSS Kaku, Ahmun Sul Space

The Kaku would have seemed ridiculously extravagant to any military officer. Being a long-range science vessel, the Kaku was designed to keep its crew is peak mental and physical health, as well as providing the maximum amount of comfort possible in such a small vessel. The entire inner hangar had been converted into an atrium, with the former hanger doors being replaced with a plasma window that allowed anyone inside to look out into space. The usual hallways that ran the length of the ship had been equipped with a ski tow-like transport system that made moving around inside the microgravity environment require far less precision. The crew quarters were all completely overhauled. Since the fighter maintenance systems were no longer needed in the turret compartments, there was more room that could be used for crew quarters. Instead of making the rooms larger, every room had been equipped with a centrifuge that generated artificial gravity inside of it. As a result, the crew quarters had to become significantly larger, and the crew complement of the ship was cut in half. Since half of the crew of the original ship were fighter pilots, this worked out quite well. The Captain's quarters were situated in what was once a secondary turret compartment, the turret having been removed to make room for it. The normal centrifuge section was there, but outside the centrifuge, there was a microgravity lounge that looked out into space. It was here that the captain (A Discrict-Dweller university student named Hugh) was floating, looking out at the dull grey glow that could be seen out of every window while the ship was at warp. At such high speeds, the wavelength of all light shifted, making background radiation become visible light and visible light become X-ray radiation. This effect (when combined with the extensive shielding of the craft) caused the dull grey light that everyone on the ship now saw. It was a disorienting sight for most, especially those in the atrium, as it made them feel as if the ship were the only thing in the universe. A quite beeping notified Hugh of an incoming message on the comm panel in the lounge, which he flew over to using a small air jet he had strapped to his arm. Grabbing a hold of the rail "above" the comm panel, he swung himself around to a small platform with another rail on it (which he placed his feet under, holding onto it so as not to float away). He pressed the "answer" button on the panel, which lightly pushed him away. As he corrected the slight movement with his feet, the face of Rin Tomiko appeared on the screen. "Hugh, I know this isn't your shift, but the Captain ought to be the one to make this decision." She said, the sound of multiple crewmembers talking behind her being broadcast as well. "What is it, Rin?" Asked Hugh, grabbing onto two rail son either side of the comm panel to relieve some of the effort from his legs. "You guys find something?" "Yeah, last time we dropped out of warp to take some scans, our sensor suites picked up abnormal numbers of radio transmissions. You were asleep then, and we didn't want to disturb you unless we confirmed the artificiality of the signals. They're heavily degraded, but I think we just found the Wall Street Journal of space." "What do you mean?" "Exactly what I said. The transmissions are mostly stock market data, and reference innumerable species. This whole time we thought we were making a name for ourselves in the galaxy, it turns out we were just sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a giant lake. There's bound to be some data we can get there, provided we have the dough." "Meaning?" "This galactic community they have going on is extremely capitalistic, it's like America before the war, but with more ads." "That's a lot of ads, then." Said Hugh, remembering his father's stories. "Either way, there's a chance we can get some data there, and the crew is getting sick of the whole 'It's either night, or the sky is grey' thing. They could use some shore leave." "Yeah, but what could we possibly sell them?" "Aside from fuel and ammunition? I don't know. The reports we got suggested that at some point they paid money for information on foreign civilizations, but that could have just been a market trend that passed. You know how true free markets work, always fluctuating." "Just how far away is this system?" "Our next dropout point comes up in a few minutes, from there, the system is just an hour away." "Punch it into the autopilot, I'll be on the bridge shortly." "Understood, shall I bring the ship to yellow alert?" "Yes, we don't want to drop into a war without shields up." "Aye aye, Captain!" She said jokingly. Hugh had made it a general order to not call him by his technical rank, and Rin knew that being addressed by it got on his nerves. He rolled his eyes, an action of fake frustration that was betrayed by his smile. Cutting off the video feed, he floated back up to his main quarters and began his journey to the bridge.

Sevren System, Ahman Sul Space

While the many ships in the system went about their business, an odd anomaly appeared. It took the form of a gravitational lens, and flitted about the system at FTL speeds as if looking for something. Nothing could catch up with it due to its speed, and every scan turned back no useful data, no matter how advanced the system. After two hours of causing problems for police call centers, it finally began to slow. Once it reached the orbital velocity of Sevren IV, it moved closer to the planet, and its gravitational lens suddenly disappeared. A giant blast of radiation erupted from its aft section, and a fountain of relativistic particles soon followed. Had any ship been in its way, it would have been anhilliated. Luckily, whoever was piloting the odd craft had taken the time to wait for an opening. With the gravitational lens effect gone, the craft could be seen clearly. It was a large ship, but not Dreadnought-sized. Sensor dishes lined its hull, with the only weapon in sight being a circular opening on its bow. Given that just above that opening there was a shield of some kind that stood between a giant room full of plants and the vacuum of space, it didn't look like the ship was meant to use it that often. Assuming that they had a translation device, the ship sent a message to the port authority of the station "Proephus Origin". Despite the design having never seen before by anyone in the system, it seemed to know its way around. "This is the Terran Science Vessel Kaku, requesting docking permission. We meet Terran Military safety standards, utilize antimatter and chemical rocket propulsion, and we are equipped with a standard negative-mass ringed Alcubierre drive. Weapons systems include one shackled Tachyon lance, eight dual-barrel ship-to ship tri-mode magnetic accelerator cannons, and a complement of two scout drones. The cannons can fire raw tungsten shells, which hold concentrated space-to-ground damage capability, plasma-coated tungsten rounds, and pure plasma bolts. Our vessel is protected by a projected plasma shield capable of being utilized as a short-range weapon, which will remain inactive as long as we are docked. The atmosphere aboard our spacecraft is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide, and water vapor. We breath oxygen and output carbon dioxide as a waste product of our respiration. Our vessel hails from the planet Terra, in the Sol system. We are here on a scientific venture related to the implementation of our knowledge of theoretical physics. We are carrying no cargo aside from provisions, though we do have a number of plants onboard. We utilize nanobots in a multitude of systems, and all of us carry them to assist our immune system. Though it is almost entirely impossible that they will affect any non-Terran species, it is possible that we are carrying both viruses and bacteria on our vessel. Due to overuse of medical products, these bacteria will likely be resistant to any chemical-based treatment. If there is a problem with anything we have stated, or if you require more information, just let us know and we will deal with the problem to the best of our ability. Kaku out."