[IC] Per Aspera Ad Astra - Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

[null123]

Above Shōrino'ba

A flash occurred, the normal flow of traffic around the Abh homeworld disrupted as a small group of Iscandarian vessels dropped into orbit around Shōrino'ba. The small group appeared to composed of three frigate-sized vessels. Each carried a wide variety weapons, but they were quickly powered. They began broadcasting a signal indicating that they were here on purely diplomatic intentions, or so it would appear anyways.

The vessel’s engines burned for a brief minute, repositioning themselves so as to be in a position to land on the Abh homeworld. The lead vessel broadcasted a message towards the planet.

“I am Servius, representing the Eternal Union and it’s Praetorians. We have come as scheduled to meet with the Royal Family and House of Peers. We are ready to begin the proceedings when you are.”

The vessels lay silently, waiting for the Abh’s response.

The Praetorian Citadel, Alas Prime

Gabriel stared out the windows of the Citadel. They were beautiful and ornate, a symbol to the Praetorian’s everlasting power. A few lone beams of moonlight poured into the hall. Gabriel sighed, as he began walking down the long hall.

Gabriel himself, despite the fact that it was night, was still dressed in his royal regalia. He had for a while, had many sleepless nights. More and more lately he began questioning the decision he made so few millennia ago along with the other Praetorians.

“Do the ends truly justify the means?” he thought to himself. It had been that question that now burned through his mind the past few nights. He questioned every decision that he and the other Praetorians had made in the name of the “Great Mission”, and if those decisions were truly right, or if they were bringing more harm. He had, of course, realized that the “Great Mission” was indeed one of the most noble goals, as bringing peace and prosperity to all in the universe far exceeded the good that accomplishing any other goal could.

But does working towards the “Great Mission” justify evil acts because in the end good will come to all? It was that had been burned deep into his mind, seemly out of nowhere. It had been as if some higher power had burned into him. He stared off into the night, looking at the starry sky of Alas Prime.

((Shorty and crappy post yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay))

((Future things will be better, I just needed to get the RP started))

[WilsonTurner]

System Tryliktoji Išpirkimo, Fourth Planet in the System, one week ago
The System was well into Kasus's territory- one of the many planets in one of the many systems that Kasus claimed to have no sentient species living on it. Kasus didn't, after all, want anyone to see their great big empire, and realize that half the systems within that had significant resources were virtually untouched, not because of a lack of ambition, but because Kasus had seen the power of other major nations, and decided to bluff their way into more power. When one looks at a nation with a great spread of territory, one assumes that they are powerful indeed.

Tryliktoji Išpirkimo- "Thirteenth Redemption"- was a system that had no significant Storm presence. Only a couple listening posts were sitting on the edges of the system, and nothing else. However, the fourth planet was set to be colonized- because it was already a life-bearing world. The race that resided on the planet seemed to be halfway into a new era of steel and gunpowder. They were developing, quite steadily, and among many of the other spacefaring powers, were considered a sovereign people that is off-limits to removal or intervention.

Storms were not like the other spacefaring powers. These sentient people were on a planet they wanted, and they didn't have anything to bargain with. Which meant that, after picking out several culturally-rich groups of countries- some of the more powerful ones, for later study and eradication- they had a green light to cleanse the planet of its natives.

Vadas (Commander) Levnitska was tasked with preparing the planet for colonization. He had under him a carrier military fleet- one torpedo destroyer, three regular destroyers, three regular cruisers, one missile cruiser, one heavy cruiser, two escort carriers, and one carrier.

The carriers had just launched their first wave of ground-attack Shrikes. A dozen Shrikes from the two escort carriers, two dozen Shrikes from the one supercarrier. They were all armed with fuel-air cluster bombs. He watched as they flew over population centers, dropping a dozen small fuel-air bombs, which popped open halfway down their high-altitude drop to the ground, releasing a massive load of explosive gasses, tailored to the oxygen-rich atmosphere. They were set to remote detonate, so that they clouds could settle lower to the ground in a grey-green suffocating fog that would slowly connect to the other hundreds of similar clouds like it. A moment later, three cities and their surrounding farms and forests lit up in a brilliant flash of light, reducing the area to be a charred wasteland, albeit fertile in the future.

He was to be doing this for a week. Three freighters, escorted by a reinforcing missile cruiser, would be arriving in half as much time, to refill his fuel-air clusterbomb munitions.

Nearly a billion souls were eradicated on the heavily populated but slowly developing world. A few in the fleet thought ill of the eradication; most were impassive, or saw it as a necessary evil. Eventually, those who thought ill would either become familiar enough with people who were impassive about it to start to think like them, or they'd seek others who thought ill of it, and start to border on rebellious. And that, of course, meant execution for them.

---

Kasus-Eternal Union Central Border, Present Cycle

Vadas Levnitska was again on the move. Having just arrived in the officially neutral system between the Eternal Union and Kasus, they were challenged and cleared by the small Kasus border garrison. Likewise, as they approached the similar Eternal Union border station, they were challenged, and a message was relayed.

Some weeks ago, Kasus had requested a meeting with the Eternal Union.

Some weeks ago, the Eternal Union had replied, and granted it.

A Queen of Kasus was to meet with the Eternal Union leadership- a rare honor in the Kasus's opinion, since no foreign eye had ever laid eyes on a Queen.

Thus, Vadas Levnitska had his fleet flagship upgraded to a bėda-class Battleship, another two escort carriers added to the fleet, and another four missile cruisers attached, besides the original one and its reinforcement. Six more destroyers were attached as well, one of them being a torpedo destroyer.

The fleet of two torpedo destroyers, seven regular destroyers, three cruisers, six missile cruisers, a heavy cruiser, a battleship, four escort carriers and one full carrier was going to be traveling through Eternal Union space to meet with their leaders.

All the while, the destroyers, acting as advance forward, side, and rear guards would be launching spy drones all the while. Designed to self-destruct the moment active sensors- targeting sensors for example, anything that's used to actively find other prey- find them, and to record radio transmissions, and passively record ship movements, and report it back to Central Command via ansible/FTLcommunications. It was the same mission that was being planned for all the other nations- they wanted their fleet to show up on the border farthest away from where Kasus expected the foreigners' homeworld to be, and gain intelligence on everything they possibly could. They would launch spy drones on ballistic paths to go into orbit around planets or moons. They were built to be invisible and nonexistent- they were the most advanced tools in the fleet, at the moment.

So the fleet approached the border station of the Union's, and requested that they be authorized for their trip to meet the Eternal Union's leadership.

[WrongEndoftheRainbow]

There are worlds beyond this one, worlds as we've never seen. Nor can we! Our eyes do not open far enough. Try it! Try holding your eyes open! You can try holding them open as much as you want, but you'll never see, never, ever see the world beyond the veil... the Veil of Reality. It's there to protect us from them... the Ancients... the Darkness... that which we cannot understand. Nor should we. Welcome the oblivion of ignorance! For to have knowledge... is to be damned!

—Dr. Maximillian Roivas

The channel is safe. THE CHANNEL IS SAFE. In the year AFTER THE FALL the channel opened. The channel? An indescribably large wormhole. T̢͢h́̕҉̸è̕ ̷́͜͠҉c҉̛́̕͏h̴͞͝a͘̕͢n̷̛͡n̢͟e̸̡͟ĺ̵ ̧̛ì̴̧͠s̨͝ ̷̷͘͞ņ̛̀ò̴͘t̴̷̡̕͜ ͢s̡̨a͜͞f͘͘ę́͢͠͡.̢́͘͜ ͢͠͏H̢́͜͜e̵̴̶̡̛l͏̵p̶̶͜.̴́̀͢ Built into the middle of a minor planetoid, it hollowed out the massive body and even opened a hole through the crust. Constructed by some ancient power, or natural, it's origins were unknown. All that was known was that it was a strange, hostile place. For a time, it was guarded by ships of inscrutable origins. They hoarded artefacts that appeared nearby, but it was not to last. They disappeared.
P̷̧̧̢̀ļ̧́͜͠e͠͏̵̵a̶̷͜҉s̶̨é̷.̢͘ ̧H̡͘͘è̢̢l̴̢̨͢͠p̨̨̀.͞͝ ̡͢Ţ̢͢͜h̴̕͞͝e͡͏͝ ̵̸̡͘c͏̵҉h̷̴͏á̢̀͜ǹ͜͞ń̷̨e҉̢l̷̶̨͢ ͡i̸̶̧͜͞s̸̢̕ ͜͟҉ǹ̴̡͞o̶t̶͠҉ ̸͏s͢͟a҉́f̕e͡͏̛́̕.̛͘͏͘͟ There is one important thing to remember about the channel, if you do not take anything else from the information; know this. The channel is safe. There can be no danger from that wormhole. It. Is. Safe. Please. You have to listen. There is no danger from that wormhole. It is the safest place available. There is no danger. T͘̕͘̕͝h̡͘͝e҉̶͘ ̶͢c͏̸h̸̢̢̨a̵̧n̕͏̷̵͢n҉̷̢͘e̶͢l̶̸͘͟͞.̛͜͡͞ ̷̵̢̛I҉͜t͝͞͏҉҉ ̢̀́͞í̢̡s̡͝ ̴̷͞͝͠n͠͡o̸͘͟͢͞t̸͡ ̶̷͢s͝͏̛a̸f̧̧̀̕é̵.̸̴̛ The epidemic that once only plagued the area around the wormhole extended. It is growing. It is safe, like the channel. It is safe. Please, please, listen to me. It is safe. There is no danger. D́O̶̡͜͜ ̸̧̀͢N̴̛͜͢ÒT̶ ̧͘͞Ą̛̕͘C҉̀͜͞͞T҉͜Į̡̕͜V͏̢̨͏A͘͜͜͠T͟͞E̛ ̵̨̀T͞͝H̷́E̢͟M̀̀́͜ As long as the anathema are left alone you can only benefit from it. To disturb them is folly. Please, be careful. Please, activate the artifacts.

---

Yesterday, for Xelxeirb'ic, it was any normal day. Today, he wished he could return to it. It had been 12 hours since the galaxy-wide EMP pulse had hit them. Now, the seams of reality were folding. Tearing. Ripping. Everything was rapidly falling apart, their dimension destroying itself. Why? Nobody truly knew. At the center of the epidemic, hastily cobbled together analog ships worked to fix it. They had to fix it. Their lives were not the only thing at stake, the lives of other dimensions were as well. At least, that's what the scientists said.
The artifacts. They were the key. They were the answer. So they thought. Nothing was sure at this point, everyone locked behind a veil of horror and fear. Who had done it? There was no evidence, no planets orbiting it, what happened? Their empires, their glorious empires, being torn apart brutally, and nothing to stop it. One day was enough to send the galaxy into chaos, who knew what awaited the next, or the day after that?
HhhheerEEEERFFgfgggggggŅ̸̀͡͡O̵̡ ̶̵̸͘͞Ń̕҉̢͜O̷ ̵̡̡͘͡N͡O̸̵ ̢̀͝Ǹ̶O͜͜ ̵́͞N̴҉͟Ǫ̡͢͜͠ ̢N͟͢͟͞O͏͟͠ ̴͘͞N͘͏͜O̶̷͘͝ ҉N̴̨̡̨͘Ó͡ ̵̢͢͠N̷̕Ó̸͘͟ ̛͡N̡̨̡̛͝Ớ̴ ̵̶̧͢N̴͜͝͠Ò̶̧̡ ̸̨̀N͢͠͡O̶͠ ̢̕͘̕͏N̵̢O͏̴́͠͡ ̴͜͡͡͏N͝͏̵̀͘O̵̶͘͝ ̨͡N̢̛͟͡͠Ó̸̡ ̷̨͞N̸͝͝Ǫ́́͢͞ ̀͘҉̕͡N̕̕͟O͏́͠ ̨̀N҉̨̕͟Ó̡ ́́͟͠N̸̨O̷͝ ̵́̕͡N̡͟͜͠Ò̸̴̷O̵̶̢̧ ͏Ņ̧̛O̡҉̧͘ ̵̢Ń̸̢̕͡O̶̸͜͡ ́̕͜͟Ņ͢Ǫ̸͜ ͟͡N̸̴͟ỚŃ̴̵̵͡O̵̢͢͡ ̴̡͟͠N̕͢͡Ǫ̷N͝O̵̴͞͡ ̴̶͘N҉̕O̸̴͞͝N͏͟͡Ơ̷̸ ͜҉̸̀͝N̢M͏́͏̕͞Ó̧͏N̵̕͟͠Ǫ͏ ̵́͏̴͜N̵̷̨̛͠O̡̧͜Ń̵̷̡͜ ͡O͏̴Ņ́̕͘͝N̴͟҉̸̢Ơ̷̡͟͝N̵̵ ͢Ņ̢̀͟҉O̵̷̵͡N̵̷̕͟͟O͏̡̢͠Ń̛͟͢͡ ̴̧̨N̷̴̡O̢̕͡҉N̷̡̢͘͢O̧N̵̶̡͏̷O҉̧ ̶N̸̷̨̕͝Ò̵̡̕Ǹ̴̶͟N̨͏̕O̕͞͠҉Ǹ͢O̸̢̡͠N҉̸̴̧͢O̴̴͟ ҉̴͞͠N͠҉̵͝O̧̢̢N̷̛Ó̸̡͜͞Ņ́͟͡N̵͘͢O̴͜

---

So is the sickly sun. So is the sickly sun. So is the sickly sun. So is the sickly sun. So is the sickly sun. So is tyhe sickyly sun. So is the sickly sun. So iiiiii
Please. Do not disturb them. They are to be left alone. There are two rules, and two rules only. They must be left alone, and the channel is safe. The channel is safe. THIS IS IMPORTANT. The channel is safe. This is a safe zone, and here we cannot be interrupted. The CHANNEL is safe. The ch

---

D̶̕͡Ǫ̡̀͘͘ ̷͏N҉̨̢͠͡O̢̕͞͝T̢̕͟͡͞ ̨̕B҉̶̢̀E̡͘͡͝͞L̢̀Į̷̧͜͡E͟͏̶V͞E͟͢҉ ̵̴̡҉Ḩ̸́́I͘҉̸͞͡Ḿ͡ ̕͢T̴̵̶H̢̡͝E̡̛̕͢ ̴̷̡͜͠C̡̡̀͟͞H̛͝Á͢͡N̡̢͢͟Ń̛̀E̢̨L͡҉̴͘͝ ̸̷̸̀͢I̴̛͡S̴͘͡҉͝ ̕͡͝N̛͘Ơ̢̢͠T̷̕ ҉̴̀͡S̨̧Ą͠F̴̡̧̢̀E̸̴̕ ҉̷̴I͏̧͏̵T̸͢ ̸̢͢҉̸Ì̴̷͠Ş̛ ̸̴̢D҉̶̷̢Á̸̧̛͝N̵̢̧͢Ģ́͢͠É̸̕͜͜Ŗ͟O̸̷͘U̶̴̕̕S͢͞ ̷̢̕N̨̧̡͢Ǫ̷̵͞T͢͡͝ ̡̨͞Ǫ̵̀N̨͟Ĺ̶͝Ý͠ ̢̛̕Ţ̷͘H̴̢̢̀Á̸̛̛͢T̵̵͡ ̶̨́͞͏B̸̧͢U̡̡T̶̸̶͟ ́͡͏͢T̶̸̨H͘͝͠E͏ ̸̶̢̛Ş̡ÌC̷̡͝҉Ķ̡͘L͡Y̡ ̸̡͠Ś͘͟͏U͟͞N͠ ̴̨͠҉Ì́S̸҉ ̛͡D̡A͟҉N̨͜Ģ̛̀Ę̵̸͡R̴̴O҉̧͟͞U̷͘͜Ş҉ ̵̨͘͝A̵͜͡͠N͡͡D҉̢̕ ҉̶Y͏̡̡ǪU̢̕ ̷̷̕S̛͞͏̴͝H̶̡́͞҉O̧̕͢Ù̵̴͡L̕҉D̵̢͟͠҉ ̵̛͟͢N̸̸̢̛È̢̛V̛E̢͡͠͞Ŗ̨̢͘͜ ̴̷̛͜Ǵ̡Ò̷̕ ̶̴͘͢T̶̸̛͢͢H̡̛́͢͝E҉̧̀͝R̸̡̕͡͝E̸͏ ̸̡͘̕͠P̢̡͞L̢̛̛͘͘E҉̕̕͜A̴̕͜͡S̴̴̛Ę̕ ҉́̀͢͡L̴͢I͏S̨͏̷̸̷T̴̢̛͝E̵͜N̵̨̨̕ ̸̷̢͜͝T̶͘̕͡҉Ơ҉̢ ̧̡M̵͏̸E̴̸͟͡ ̢͜͟͝H́͘E̸͜ ̵̵̷̨̀Ç̸͢͜͝A̶N̸̛҉̸Ǹ͘Ǫ́͟T̡́͡ ̷͏̡͟͞I҉̸͢͝Ņ͟T̶̡̨͜Ȩ̶͡R̴̛͜͞R̛̕͞҉U̶̢͢͡͞P͏T̷ ͜Ḿ͜͢É̸̡͝ ̸̸̕͝H̴̸̨Ę̧̀͝R̛E͘͜͞ ̷̛́̕D҉҉͢Ò̶͘ ̡͜͠N̸͝Ó̶̶͝T̀͜͝͠ ̷̷ỪS̸̨̧Ę̵͞ ̵̵̨́͡T͘͢͡͡H̶̨̕͜E̵͏҉͘ ̧́͟͟C͘͜H̡͠A̵͜N̸͘N͏͢҉̡̕É̸͜͜͠L̶̷̶̕ ̧̛͡L̡͟͡͝҉E̵̶̵̕͏A̸̛V̴̴̡E̢̢͏͏͡ ̷̵̛͞͠I̶̢͟͠T͟͝҉̢ ̷̴̸̡͝Ą͡͏L̡̨̕͝Ǫ͏̸N҉̷́Ȩ̸̀ ̸͡͡͏À͘͝N͟O̷̸͘͘͜T̛͏̧H̸́͘͠͝Ȩ̶̷͏R̸҉͢ ̴̨̨̀D̵̢̕͘I҉̸̀҉͡M̀͜É͞N͜҉͡S̵̡̢͜͡Í̸O҉͠͠N͏̡͜ ̡͟͜C̛͢͟͏A͏̶͜N͜N̷̡̛҉O҉̷̴̸͘T̀̕ ̴̵̵̷B͏̷E̴̡ ̧͝D̴̵̴̀͠È͟͝͡S̸̛͘T̢͏̨̢Ŕ͏̸̕͡O̷Y̷҉͢Ę̵̧́̕D́͜ ̷̸̴͢͠Ţ̢̀͠O̵͡ ̶̛͟͢Ś͝Ę͘͝È́͘҉K͏͏ ̢͟͜O̶U̧T́ ̀Ţ̢͠͠H̸̶E͏͏͟ ̸͟S̡͞͝͡I͡͠C͘͜͡K̴̨͢͞Ĺ̵͝͡Y̸̴ ̵͟͠͞S̴̴͠U͟͠͝N̷̶ ̛̕͟͞I̴̕͞҉͢Ś̡̕͟͢ ̶̨͜F͝҉҉O̢͡L̶̷̛͘L̴̡͝͡Ỳ̸͢

[Ozerath]

Mitropolit Bar and Grill, Vitrograd city, Praetoria.

It was a bright, beautiful summer day. The sun beamed down on the Old City quarter, perched on white cliffs over Konstantin bay. Sir Robert Castlereagh, Baron Mornington, Knight Indomitus of the order of St. Diae, and Minister of Foreign Affairs for Her Imperial Majesty's Government actually found himself lightly sweating, a rare feat in Praetoria’s generally chilly climate. He debated adjusting the climate field around his table, but decided against it. He’d chosen a table on the rooftop patio specifically to enjoy the heat, no sense wasting it. Vitrograd spent most of its year wrapped in a heavy layer of snow and swept by blizzards, with only a brief relent for a short, intense summer. Even to the north, in the warmer equatorial regions, Praetoria still managed to produce snow and blizzards, as if in defiance of the sun’s heat.

Overhead, traffic was fairly light, as usual for the Old City. Further away from the cliffs in the finance district and downtown, the air would be absolutely teaming with traffic of all kinds weaving between towering arcology spires. In contrast, the skies above the Old City’s low stone buildings had only a handful of aircars, a police gunship or two, and far above the hazy outline of a Imperskiy Vichnesk atmospheric defence frigate slowly circling the Winter Palace. One of the aircars abruptly turned groundwards, making directly for Castlereagh’s position, slowing to a smooth stop, and disgorging its small passenger onto the patio before leaping to the sky again.

“Thank you for coming, Cato,” Castlereagh said graciously as he shook hands with his guest. It was typically considered polite to stand and greet one’s guest, but to stand when greeting a Rhodesian only exaggerated their comically small stature, so Castlereagh remained seated.
“Thank you for inviting me, Robert,” the diminutive Rhodesian replied as he took his specially made seat. The chair was specially designed to accommodate Rhodesians; any decent Core World restaurant made a point of having several on hand. It had a short back and a powered seat, so that Rhodesians could seat themselves and automatically be elevated closer to eye level with their table-mates.

Sir Cato Telemachus, Knight of the order of St. Diae, Marquis of Polesia, was one of the rare few Rhodesians who’d made the transfer from the bureaucracy to the political world and been successful. He was currently the Minister of the Interior, a position with far more power than the name suggested.Telemachus’ ministry was responsible for monitoring and maintaining the integrity of the realm, a thankless task with little reward. However, the Ministry of the Interior also controlled the Office of Colonial Affairs, which gave Cato Telemachus rather vaguely defined control over the administration of the colonies. Additionally, since the colonies were a responsibility of the crown, Telemachus’ position brought him into frequent contact with Her Imperial Majesty and her court. He and Castlereagh were close personal friends, but it was business that brought them together today at a very posh restaurant in downtown Vitrograd.

“Of course. Now, as they say, business before pleasure,” Castlereagh said, tapping a button on the tabletop. A privacy field sprung up around them, shutting out all sound from the city around them and preventing them from being overheard. The Mitropolit was just around the corner from Whitehall, the heart of the imperial government, and only a few blocks from the Winter Palace, the seat of the Crown and court. To better accommodate their elite clientele, the Mitropolit and other establishments like it installed high end privacy fields at most of their tables. Basic civilian models only blocked sound, useful for blocking out general background noise and permitting intimate conversation. The fields at the Mitropolit were much more sophisticated; blocking out sound, blurring the air to prevent lip reading, and generating full EM spectrum jamming to prevent any form of electronic eavesdropping.

“I’m drafting a report for cabinet on The Rim Worlds,” Castlereagh began. He paused for a moment, and Telemachus leaned forward in his chair ever so slightly.
“Ever since that first debacle,” Castlereagh continued, “there’s been a great deal of interest in the area. Wealthy, disparate worlds ripe for the taking. Fiercely independent people, it's true, but we’ve dealt with that before. Obviously Robspeitz’s approach didn’t work that time. The Rim may be fractious, but not so much they’ll simply let us swallow their worlds one by one. I’m working on a different approach.”
“Very interesting, but I don’t quite see what you need me for.”
“I’m getting to that. The external stuff is more or less wrapped up. In brief, we’d aim to incite a war and smash their military to pieces, force them to the bargaining table, impose military restrictions, then slowly start grabbing worlds. Analysts estimate about 1, maybe 2 years for the war, total annexation after 10. My question to you, Cato, is can we bear it? Oh I’ve had people look into it, and I know the broad strokes; short decisive wars can be an excellent way of diverting pressure outward, protracted conflicts are trouble, etc. But is there anything specific, anything being...suppressed...that would have an impact on my recommendation?”

Telemachus tented his fingers thoughtfully. Castlereagh had been right to ask for his input. Of course the Ministry of the Interior put out memos and briefing notes on a regular basis, but his colleague knew that not everything made it into those reports, and Castlereagh wouldn’t want to be made a fool of in cabinet.
“Well, Robert, these things are prone to complications, but I’d say you’re more or less in the clear. The psychosocial projections we issued last week are rated at 90% accuracy, some of our best ever. Yes we’re still dealing with fallout from Valerian integration, so the realm isn’t at its most stable, but there’s nothing above a category 2 insurrection, either active or projected. Of course those are simple enough to deal with; a few black bags generally does the trick, and orbital strikes are always an option.”

Castlereagh suppressed a momentary shudder. Telemachus was so small and helpless looking, it was easy to forget just how dangerous he was. The recent integration of the Valerian Republic, complete with full constituency, had caused uproar on many colonies that felt the Valerians were ‘cutting in line’. Telemachus never so much as blinked when signing death warrants or authorizing military strike teams. He had an ability to think of people as only so many statistics, making him very good at his job.

The Rhodesian continued, thumbing the menu as he spoke. “Going forward, if you can deliver a short, decisive war, that would of course boost public morale. The Rimworlders may take some working on, but that stubborn independence of theirs could be dealt with. Push down hard on their homeworlds, start up some colony drives and spread them out among the verge worlds; the key would be to disperse the Rimworlders, but that’s my problem, not yours,” he said with a smile. “Of course, there’s always the possibility of unforeseeable developments, but if you live in fear of the unknown, you’ll never get anything done. Does that about cover it?”

“Yes, thank you Cato. I’ll be sure to mention you in my report. Now, lunch.” Castlereagh deactivated the privacy field, and the noise of the rest of the world came tumbling back in.
“Indeed. They just put bluefin growler on the menu last week; I hear it’s to die for.” Telemachus signalled a waiter over, and suddenly they were just two friends enjoying lunch.

[Willy Vereb]

"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its mission: to explore and exploit strange new worlds, to seek out new resources,
to boldly go where no man has gone before."

The Star Federation of Mankind enjoyed over 300 years of prosperity and still counting. Humanity grew immensely with the average citizen believing there's nothing technology couldn't solve. Yet people became increasingly aware of one thing: they weren't alone. Though they lacked the practical means Humanity had plenty chances to observe signs of advanced civilizations inhabiting distant stars. They were not alone. There's an entire galaxy filled with life out there. Using various probes Humanity attempted to communicate with these races yet apparently without much luck on their part. All is changed after the discovery of hyperspace. Relying on the new physics of this alternate dimension it became possible to travel far faster than previously thought possible. They unlocked the final key to explore the galaxy and it's up for the crew of the Enterprise to take that monumental first step!

Captain Tiberius J. Kirk was at the command bridge of the FSS-1701 Enterprise. It was a freshly retrofitted Vega-class starship equipped for ultra long range exploration. Compared to before it had less Q-Box output to give space for additional construction and research equipment. From the standard 750 the crew also expanded to 1280. While Starfleet couldn't spare more than a single ship for something as half-hearted as galactic exploration they indeed do their job to prepare the Enterprise to accomplish her mission. This also explains how they got a troublesome officer like Kirk to command this vessel. He was expendable and the leadership would rather have him somewhere far away. Meanwhile the media coverage of this introduces the mission as a monumental step towards understanding the galaxy and meeting alien life. In reality the Federation has its hands full with its member nations and only has minimal interest in the project. In addition while there's a strong suspicion of alien civilizations they are only working with theoretical data. Whether Kirk meets alien babes along the way is rather questionable. Well, considering the diverse appearance of his girlfriends, Kirk wouldn't hesitate to start flirting with them. Cosmetic surgery within the Federation made such developments that it was possible and almost common to make people look like aliens from popular sci-fi. Hell, his first officer looks like an elf from whichever fantasy book he took inspiration for!

"Farcaster initialized. Hyperspace corridor is stabilizing."
Navigational Officer Tomokazu Espósito Paris reported as he made preparations for long range interstellar travel. The Enterprise is traveling almost a thousand lightyears for the location determined most likely to hold sentient life. There could be numerous other places ripe for exploration but Starfleet determined those look actually useful and there are teams long prepared to seek them out. Yet this neglect might what cause the greatest change within the Federation in centuries.
"We have now entered hyperspace. Estimated travel time is 2 hours 42 minutes."
@WilsonTurner

[darkwolf687]

Awakening

There was a flicker of light in the chamber, piercing the black veil that had covered the room and illuminating the walls of the chamber. The scene played out in deathly silence.

The air was stagnant and thick after millennia of being untouched by anything but its skeletal hierarchs, still seated around their meeting table, as if the skeletons themselves had just walked in and sat down to eat. The skeletons of several workers, attendees and others who had taken part in the preparation for the last ditch attempt to secure a future for their nation lay sprawled out across the floor, frozen mid dance macabre.
The bones basked in the light produced by the awakening of their final creation; Jaws hung open loosely as if only now, with this awakening, had the notes they sung slipped from their absent tongues.

And what notes they would have sung if they were to see this, the fruit of their labour finally ripening. It may have been no long time in astronomical or terms, the stars would look rather much the same as they had always done, but for those of flesh it may as well have been forever; For all their toil, they could not prepare their creation for what lay outside the ruins.

The Starchild peered around her cradle, glancing to her dead creators in turn. Their names were as alien to her as their form. She scanned over one's body slowly, and a moment later a new being flickered into existence in the centre of the room; It was a perfect holographic copy of the skeleton that the Starchild had just scanned, right down to the headdress and the tattered clothing. With another flicker, the headdress and clothing dissolved into nothingness. The skeleton moved and slowly walked around the room, the starchild working out the movements of the being that it had once composed. Once she was satisfied that she understood their movements, the Starchild decided to use this skeleton as her avatar. The skeletal being walked slowly around the room, pacing as though in thought.

Quickly scanning everything, the Starchild determined that few of the automated security drones remained intact. Construction systems were operating at suboptimal levels. But time had taught her patience and basking in new found freedom, she would know all that she possessed.

She set Fabrication Facility 001 to work; She needed to produce additional units and space craft, or the Hierarchy might be wiped off the face of the galaxy during first contact.

She accessed the scan file archives for the past 100 years and processed the information on the surrounding anomalies and activities. A nearby system was lit up with electronics and general anomalies. She checked that there were no ships within a parsec of the heartchamber and activated intensive scanning

"D̶̕͡Ǫ̡̀͘͘ ̷͏N҉̨̢͠͡O̢̕͞͝T̢̕͟͡͞ ̨̕B҉̶̢̀E̡͘͡͝͞L̢̀Į̷̧͜͡E͟͏̶V͞E͟͢҉ ̵̴̡҉Ḩ̸́́I͘҉̸͞͡Ḿ͡ ̕͢T̴̵̶H̢̡͝E̡̛̕͢ ̴̷̡͜͠C̡̡̀͟͞H̛͝Á͢͡N̡̢͢͟Ń̛̀E̢̨L͡҉̴͘͝ ̸̷̸̀͢I̴̛͡S̴͘͡҉͝ ̕͡͝N̛͘Ơ̢̢͠T̷̕ ҉̴̀͡S̨̧Ą͠F̴̡̧̢̀E̸̴̕ ҉̷̴I͏̧͏̵T̸͢ ̸̢͢҉̸Ì̴̷͠Ş̛ ̸̴̢D҉̶̷̢Á̸̧̛͝N̵̢̧͢Ģ́͢͠É̸̕͜͜Ŗ͟O̸̷͘U̶̴̕̕S͢͞ ̷̢̕N̨̧̡͢Ǫ̷̵͞T͢͡͝ ̡̨͞Ǫ̵̀N̨͟Ĺ̶͝Ý͠ ̢̛̕Ţ̷͘H̴̢̢̀Á̸̛̛͢T̵̵͡ ̶̨́͞͏B̸̧͢U̡̡T̶̸̶͟ ́͡͏͢T̶̸̨H͘͝͠E͏ ̸̶̢̛Ş̡ÌC̷̡͝҉Ķ̡͘L͡Y̡ ̸̡͠Ś͘͟͏U͟͞N͠ ̴̨͠҉Ì́S̸҉ ̛͡D̡A͟҉N̨͜Ģ̛̀Ę̵̸͡R̴̴O҉̧͟͞U̷͘͜Ş҉ ̵̨͘͝A̵͜͡͠N͡͡D҉̢̕ ҉̶Y͏̡̡ǪU̢̕ ̷̷̕S̛͞͏̴͝H̶̡́͞҉O̧̕͢Ù̵̴͡L̕҉D̵̢͟͠҉ ̵̛͟͢N̸̸̢̛È̢̛V̛E̢͡͠͞Ŗ̨̢͘͜ ̴̷̛͜Ǵ̡Ò̷̕ ̶̴͘͢T̶̸̛͢͢H̡̛́͢͝E҉̧̀͝R̸̡̕͡͝E̸͏ ̸̡͘̕͠P̢̡͞L̢̛̛͘͘E҉̕̕͜A̴̕͜͡S̴̴̛Ę̕ ҉́̀͢͡L̴͢I͏S̨͏̷̸̷T̴̢̛͝E̵͜N̵̨̨̕ ̸̷̢͜͝T̶͘̕͡҉Ơ҉̢ ̧̡M̵͏̸E̴̸͟͡ ̢͜͟͝H́͘E̸͜ ̵̵̷̨̀Ç̸͢͜͝A̶N̸̛҉̸Ǹ͘Ǫ́͟T̡́͡ ̷͏̡͟͞I҉̸͢͝Ņ͟T̶̡̨͜Ȩ̶͡R̴̛͜͞R̛̕͞҉U̶̢͢͡͞P͏T̷ ͜Ḿ͜͢É̸̡͝ ̸̸̕͝H̴̸̨Ę̧̀͝R̛E͘͜͞ ̷̛́̕D҉҉͢Ò̶͘ ̡͜͠N̸͝Ó̶̶͝T̀͜͝͠ ̷̷ỪS̸̨̧Ę̵͞ ̵̵̨́͡T͘͢͡͡H̶̨̕͜E̵͏҉͘ ̧́͟͟C͘͜H̡͠A̵͜N̸͘N͏͢҉̡̕É̸͜͜͠L̶̷̶̕ ̧̛͡L̡͟͡͝҉E̵̶̵̕͏A̸̛V̴̴̡E̢̢͏͏͡ ̷̵̛͞͠I̶̢͟͠T͟͝҉̢ ̷̴̸̡͝Ą͡͏L̡̨̕͝Ǫ͏̸N҉̷́Ȩ̸̀ ̸͡͡͏À͘͝N͟O̷̸͘͘͜T̛͏̧H̸́͘͠͝Ȩ̶̷͏R̸҉͢ ̴̨̨̀D̵̢̕͘I҉̸̀҉͡M̀͜É͞N͜҉͡S̵̡̢͜͡Í̸O҉͠͠N͏̡͜ ̡͟͜C̛͢͟͏A͏̶͜N͜N̷̡̛҉O҉̷̴̸͘T̀̕ ̴̵̵̷B͏̷E̴̡ ̧͝D̴̵̴̀͠È͟͝͡S̸̛͘T̢͏̨̢Ŕ͏̸̕͡O̷Y̷҉͢Ę̵̧́̕D́͜ ̷̸̴͢͠Ţ̢̀͠O̵͡ ̶̛͟͢Ś͝Ę͘͝È́͘҉K͏͏ ̢͟͜O̶U̧T́ ̀Ţ̢͠͠H̸̶E͏͏͟ ̸͟S̡͞͝͡I͡͠C͘͜͡K̴̨͢͞Ĺ̵͝͡Y̸̴ ̵͟͠͞S̴̴͠U͟͠͝N̷̶ ̛̕͟͞I̴̕͞҉͢Ś̡̕͟͢ ̶̨͜F͝҉҉O̢͡L̶̷̛͘L̴̡͝͡Ỳ̸͢"

The Starchild frowned as the message was picked up and, deciding it would be safest to disregard it for the time being, continued searching for something else.

There! She picked up a transmission; Something about an Eernal Union and Icandarians and... Household appliances? It seemed to be a civilian broadcast. Whatever the case, she was certain the message would be passed up and if not it would be no great loss.

Communications systems active

She prepared the frequency of the wave to repeat every two hours before transmitting a message back to the point of origin, in the hopes that the species in question would be able to pick it up

Message to the Eternal Union

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Online Systems

Automated defense grid
Fabrication facility 001
Communications systems
Stealth device
Scanning and detection systems
Power Core 001

Available Forces

128x Defence fabricants

Near an outlying EU world

An Honour class Corvette came out of a jump in system, almost crashing into a passing EU ship. Scans would reveal that it had sustained some damage and the ship quickly made evasive manoeuvres in order to avoid crashing into the ship. After several minutes had passed and presumably the Lorca had identified who they were dealing with, the ship began to transmit a message to the EU planet in the Black tongue, the usual harsh and guttural language of the Lorca military. It was interspaced with a few butchered words and phrases such as "Iscandarian", "Union eternal", "crash in asteroid" and "assistance".

[WilsonTurner]

System Raudona Saulė (Red Star), Local Traffic Command & Control (LTCC) Station SCS-OS49-S122

“Routine Systems Scan initiating, sir…” declared a Storm, sitting in the dim bridge of a small station orbiting the larger of the two terraformed and developed planets, out of the five total, in the system.
“You don’t have to tell us every time, Lieutenant,” replied the Commander of the station- commonly known as the Overwatch, due to his position and duties.
“Yes sir. Sorry sir. Routine Systems Scan complete, sir.” The Lieutenant Storm Carapace never liked quietly forgoing protocol in favor of ease and convenience.
“Yes, Lieutenant, we get it.” The Overwatch never liked anyone who was such a stikler for protocol, when it never mattered way out here in the black. They were on duty for five hours, then off for five, then had another five hour shift, and then they were returned to the orbital city-station where they lived for twenty hours. They had a routine scan ever ten minutes- at this point, halfway through the shift, as he always is, he was sick and tired of the one other Storm in the room.
“Sir, there’s-“ The Lieutenant was abruptly cut off.
“We get it, Lieutenant. We repeat this conversation-“ Then the Overwatch was abruptly cut off.
“Sir, there is an amber alert for an imminent unscheduled FTL arrival. It matches no known signature and the power curves are unlike anything we’ve ever seen, whether friendly, hostile, or otherwise. Sir.” The Lieutenant made sure to add that “sir”- the Overwatch didn’t particularly care, but he knew that there were always logs of everything, and he didn’t want to be marked as a possible rebel. The System was anal about that- they didn’t make people disappear, but they were always watching.
“As in a really powerful ship?” The Overwatch didn’t really understand what was going on, of course. Even less so than the Lieutenant.
“Not at all. It matches a cruiser’s power curves, somewhat. They’re just… different, sir.” And they were- these seemed to be more consistent, like a steady stream of energy. Storm FTL drives are more like constant pulses, enough to seem consistent, but shows up on the graphs to be spiking all the time. More efficient, if he recalled correctly.
“Very well, alert the Local Quick Response Task Force.” Then he realized that it was his job, not his only underling’s, and sighed. He hated dealing with other Storms- most of all the ones that had more power than him.

System Raudona Saulė (Red Star), Local Quick Response Task Force (QRTF)

A small fleet of three destroyers, one missile cruiser, one dronecarrier, and a commanding heavy cruiser received the summons. As the unknown “amber” spaceship warped its way into the system, coming back to realspace, the small defense fleet- guarding this system, and the three neighboring ones. Between the seven ships, they guarded a total of four habitable planets- two of them in this system, with a major population and industry center- and over three dozen mining operations, with maybe half a dozen military or scientific outposts or stations between the systems.
The unknown ship was probably just scanning the system as the LQRTF fleet turned towards it, slowly coming to Battle Stations, as per protocol when dealing with an unknown contact. Thrusters lit up, tiny unseen pinpricks in the void, from the fleet’s ‘dark’ position halfway between the two neighboring habitable planets. The droneship’s bays released their security clamps, and the doors drifted open, ready to deploy a swarm.
Not even an hour after the ship was detected- maybe forty-five minutes prior to it actually arriving- the LQRTF was entering extreme combat range. It was then that the ship beamed communications in every known language:

Contacting Amber Starship, repeat, Contacting Amber Starship.

Identify and stand down; decrease power curves and thrusters. Repeat, Identify and stand down, decrease power curves and thrusters.

You are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space, repeat, you are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space.

You are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur. Repeat, you are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur.

Respond to this message reasonably and appropriately, or you will be fired upon. End message.

The heavy cruiser’s missile tubes prepped, their hatches opening in preparation to launch a salvo. Likewise, the heavy cruiser and its missile cruiser companion lit up the Enterprise with active targeting- and no doubt would their bridge be alerting them that the ships are very obviously targeting them, and locking on missiles.

Meanwhile, the three destroyers started flanking, edging around their extreme combat range.

The heavy cruiser, in addition to active targeting, brought up optics- after much zooming and the on-board targeting system adjusting the aim of it, the Storm Fleet commander- however small his fleet may be- got his first look at an alien vessel. Most Storms had limited contact with aliens- but this deep into Storm territory, it was rare to see an alien ship, and some had never seen any.

The Storm commander was also well-versed in alien languages, despite never seeing any of them. Before the computer could announce it, he translated the name of the ship to the rest of the bridge crew- “Enterprise. English letters- human. Why would the humans be so deep into our space?”

[Willy Vereb]

Captain's Log, Stardate 3266.724

On its maiden voyage the FSS-1701 Enterprise performed the first manned long range Farcast sequence known in history with the distance over a thousand lightyears. Yet what we discovered at the other side of the hyperspace window surpassed all our expectations. Our mission is to find alien life but we never quite imagined to meet a fully fledged civilization. As we made our observations the Enterprise's crew accidentally became the first humans to make contact with an alien race.

"Fascinating."
Noted his first officer, Spike "Spock" Sanders, apparently not an elf cosplayer. They were picking up signs of a thriving interplanetary civilization right on their arrival. Calling it fascinating is selling their discovery too low. Finding an alien civilization would be the top discovery of the decade. No, perhaps even the entire century! As such it was no surprise the freshly arrived and confused crew of the Enterprise failed to notice the arrival of the fleet, up till the proximity sensors were ringing their alert.
"Captain, our sensors indicate multiple large-scale hi-energy objects approaching."
"I think we know that all too well by now, Hae-gi Kirscher. Put them on the screen."
Responded Kirk back as the center of the main holographic display flickered for a while then the 3D image of the approaching ships had suddenly appeared.
"Warships"
Indeed, while neither Kirk nor his father ever experienced war as an officer in training he received extensive lessons in history. The incoming warships bore passing resemblance to late 27th century vessels from the Alpha-Proxima Conflict. While appearing to be ancient by design their energy output are unquestionably high, primitive equipment or not purpose-built weapons are dangerous and with that kind of power it could even threaten the Enterprise.If they could just use their scanners like they did on the planet they could clearly evaluate the details and combat potential of the enemy. But chances were high they could detect this and take it as an act of aggression. If Kirk were in their shoes he definitely would. That being said these aliens broke his expectations twice over. First, the unexpected success of their mission to find a new civilization. Second being their apparent lower level of development. Over a millennia ago back in the mid 20th century Nikolai Kardashev predicted that if humanity may meet aliens they could be thousands if not millions of years older than us. While that was an ancient theory up till now impossible to confirm it was adopted as a sorts of "common sense". Thus watching the first alien civilization to be apparently behind Mankind in terms of technology was a strange experience. Their technology appeared to be crude with the very least the old barbaric custom of building warships being prevalent among them. If anything Kirk almost felt like he traveled back a couple centuries in time. Preliminary reports on the surface of the fourth planet also show infrastructure similar to old Earth culture. Yet all these would be rendered irrelevant when the crew received the aliens message.

Contacting Amber Starship, repeat, Contacting Amber Starship.

Identify and stand down; decrease power curves and thrusters. Repeat, Identify and stand down, decrease power curves and thrusters.

You are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space, repeat, you are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space.

You are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur. Repeat, you are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur.

Respond to this message reasonably and appropriately, or you will be fired upon. End message.

The message was sent in a device akin to Q-Comms, apparently theirs is sophisticated enough for general use. That was the least shocking fact about all this. What surprised the crew the most the aliens responded to them in English. Well, at least one version of the message did. They received supposedly the same message in dozens of different languages at once. These could be perhaps just the various dialects spoken within their civilization but if Spock's guess is right they might've just received pieces of the language to other civilizations the so-called Storm Carapace had made contact with. Which begged the question again, how did they learn English? Granted, they spoke in an ancient and sorts of broken dialect of English but regardless the fact remains. Were they involved with humanity in the past? Preliminary analysis shows they are certainly not little gray people in flying saucers. So what was going on? This curiosity and the fact he didn't wish to leave a bad impression on the first aliens he met motivated Kirk to respond to their message rather than running away.

The Enterprise stopped dead within an instant, a feat thanks to their advanced impulse technology. All propulsion systems went offline, albeit subtly remaining on standby. On the other hand energy output was redirected into the shield complex. Though operating in idle power output below battle readiness by cutting off energy consumption they managed to reinforce the shields to viable levels. The aliens asked him to power down but such a request is impossible between complete strangers. Following these actionsKirk contacted the command ship using the just reverse-engineered means of their Q-Comms to hail them.
"To the Storm Carapace ship. This is Tiberius J. Kirk, captain of the FSS-1701 Enterprise. We are peaceful explorers belonging to the Star Federation of Mankind. We have come in peace. Our mission is to seek out signs of foreign civilizations and establish relations with them. I repeat we've come in peace. Although if we must we're fully capable of defending ourselves."
Kirk responded while sending it in two versions. One is the original while the other was based on the Storm Carapace's understanding of their English. Better to avoid any sorts of confusion. In his message Kirk highlighted their non-hostile intentions and implied their unknowing innocence at suddenly breaching their borders. On the other hand he kept up a strong front to deter these aliens from freely pillaging Starfleet property. If they happen to want his ship Kirk let them know he's unwilling to give it up without a good fight.

[Keyguyperson]

Shōrino'ba

The arrival had been right on time, just as was in the schedule. The only civilian ships nearby the Iscandarian fleet were old ore freighters on their way out to the asteroid belt, vessels nobody would miss, yet would still be mad enough about losing to justify a war. The last time the Abh had contacted alien life they had been thrown into a seemingly never-ending ground war on a homeworld. They knew better than to blindly trust aliens bearing olive branches, after all, one could easily fashion a makeshift spear from such a branch.

"We read you, Servius. Please dock with Elevator #8, we will bring your envoy down from there. The coordinates are included in this message, the Empire welcomes you to Shōrino'ba."

Everyone knew the aliens wanted to land. They had already put themselves into the perfect orbit, but the Empire wasn't about to let a bunch of alien starships touch down on their beloved homeworld. Aliens, as everyone knew, pumped their spacecraft full of antimatter as fuel and ammunition. A single pin pulled, a single slight magnetic disturbance, and an entire hemisphere could be vaporized in an instant. Normally this was looked on as stupid, but it suddenly seemed very cunning when one realized a diplomatic craft could be used as a disguise for a genocidal bomb.

The Empire was not going to war again, not if they could help it. Luckily for them, everything they had heard about the Iscandarians had been positive. They preached peace and cooperation, with the overarching goal of creating harmony in all things. Officially. That was what had been heard officially. Unofficially, travelers brought back with them stories of cultural genocide and mass graves on planets far and wide. Whether these stories were but the delusions of conmen like the dog-headed people of the North or the truth hidden behind the curtain were yet to be seen.

Somewhere in Deep Space, IAS Tachibana

The gigantic Tenno-Class Battleship coasted through space, riding the space-time ripples created by its warp coils like a dandelion seed in the wind. It was the pride of the Tachibana family, which had cemented its power within the Empire by laying claim to and developing the most isolated parts of the Rissan homeworld. At the time of the commissioning of titles after the war, they had been thought to have chosen the short straw by taking the largely agrarian continent that straddled the equator (and also happened to have a giant jungle right in the middle of it). Now, everybody wished they had demanded what had become an industrial center for the entire planet.

Having a need to continue their expansion, the house had sent off their flagship and its support fleet to search for planets that could be colonized. Or, barring that, planets that still hadn't quite gotten a hold of the internal combustion engine. The talent they seemed to have for developing the undeveloped would be easily applicable on both. Now, however, they found themselves in dire straits. Though their great warship could easily make it back to the homeworld, it had performed one too many orbital insertions and found itself unable to muster enough fuel to insert into a stable orbit around Shōrino'ba. The ship might be able to make it back to a less massive planet in the Empire, but it also happened to be short on helium-3. If they didn't find more of both soon, they would find themselves speeding through the universe at FTL speeds, unable to ever stop.

And so they had chosen OXS-897, a system that was full of helium-3 according to old studies. If they could at least get the reactor working, they could harvest gas from other planets in the system to limp back home.

"Are the calculations complete?" Asked Ginchiyo, having just entered the bridge.

"Yes, Ma'am." Responded the helmsman, turning to face the leader of the house. "The warp plume is expected to miss all systems within a two-hundred light year radius. By that point, it will have dissipated anyways."

"Good job, all stations prepare for warpout!"

She sat down in the captain's chair, strapping into her harness. Technically, they weren't actually needed since warp travel didn't actually involve acceleration of any kind, but it never helped to be prepared. Maybe they would need to make an emergency burn to miss an alien starship. If she wasn't strapped in, she would be thrown across the bridge and probably end up with some bone fractures. Not the way anyone would want to start the day.

The projected warp coils disappeared as their negative mass flew off into space, collapsing the warp bubble around the ship. A great beam of radiation and assorted particles was blasted away from the aft of the ship as if it was a shooting star, the plume continuing well into interstellar space. The area surrounding the ship came into view, as did the radio signals and RADAR signatures of all the nearby objects. Unfortunately for the crew, who were hoping for a quick, makeshift mining operation found themselves staring at seven alien starships. A proximity alarm sounded as the ship automatically took evasive maneuvers to avoid the nearest ship, which happened to have two odd protrusions from its hull and seemed to be devoid of any heavy weaponry.

This, of course, was the problem with warp navigation. Nothing goes through the bubble. When you're going faster-than-light using warp coils, you're completely blind. You could be jumping into the middle of an alien fleet belonging to a nation that has been at war with you since about halfway through your voyage. Your homeworld could have been glassed while you were headed to do the same thing to the enemy, and you would only learn about it after your return. Luckily, the collision evasion systems on the Tachibana were designed to leave plenty of room for errors, and the ship had practically no chance of an impact.

"Shit!" Screamed Ginchiyo "Tactical, load main guns with Type 1 rounds, secondaries with Type 3!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Engineering, how long can we run the shields?"

"Ten minutes, Ma'am!" Came the reply over the intercom. "If we siphon engine plasma from our torpedo bomber wings, we can extend that to half an hour."

"Siphon engine and weapons plasma from all of our small craft, dammit! We can't skimp on the shields!"

"Understood, Ma'am!"

The vessel was engulfed in a giant, purple bubble shortly afterwards. The turrets turned to aim at their targets, with most of them aiming at the ships that actually looked like they had weapons. It was a threatening action, sure, but Ginchiyo wasn't about to let ten thousand men and women be killed because she wanted to look nice. The ship could definitely take on what they were looking at, assuming the outlying ship didn't have any weapons. Tenno-Class Battleships were the best vessels the Empire had ever produced.

Then again, the greatest "steel and gunpowder" battleship had been sunk by a wing of bombers. One always had to be well aware of the fact that skill will always best power. The newest fighter jet with a rookie pilot would always be shot down by a veteran flying a last-gen plane. Besides, it wasn't as if the Empire wanted to fight a war against another interstellar power. If they could manage to avoid it, they would.

"Send an audiovisual dictionary to all ships, then open a channel with them."

The comms officer tapped out the series of commands on his computer terminal, then turned around and nodded at Ginchiyo to signal that the channel was open.

"This is Admiral Ginchiyo, currently in command of the battleship Tachibana. I humbly apologize for our intrusion into this area of space, we meant no disrespect. We are on an exploration mission in search of suitable colonization targets, and dropped out of warp here in order to refuel our reactors. We want nothing but peace with your peoples, and will not fire unless fired upon. Again, we apologize for the intrusion."

[null123]

Kasus-Eternal Union Central Border@WilsonTurner
A Eternal Union battle group floated around the station. While their weapons were powered down it was clear they were ready in-case anything were to happen. The Eternal Union was clearly not trusting the Storms, especially due to the size of the fleet they had brought to escort their diplomats.

The station beamed a message at the Storm ships, informing them that they were currently awaiting the arrival of their own diplomats, and that due to security concerns the meeting would be hosted at the station rather than elsewhere. As the message was beamed a frigate bearing the insignia of the Praetorians, which appeared to be some kind of bird, jumped into the system. It quickly approached the station and docked with it.

A message was then beamed informing the Storms that a single shuttle could dock with the Station, the message also informed the Storms that their delegation could only consist of 2 diplomats and 6 guards.

Shōrino'ba@Keyguyperson
“Acknowledged, the welcome is appreciated.”

The frigates glided toward the location marked, docking with the Station. Servius stepped out of the one that had been leading the formation, followed by two guards. They were both Sentinel, and wore black power armor, and carried what appeared to be long black rifles. Servius himself was a tall and bald, and lacked wings. His veins glew a light blue, and he wore a long black coat. Another two Sentinel Guards came out of the other frigates, as well a few aides who appeared to be Seraphram. They followed in line behind Servius.

Servius thought as he approached the waiting Abh about what was to become of his actions here. In actuality, he was not a diplomat, but rather an agent of the Praetorian Guard. The Praetorians and the Guard had deemed in secret meetings that the current Abh Empire would be a threat to the “Great Mission” and that something needed to be done. Servius had been sent to establish contacts and see how the EU could grow a spy network in the Abh Empire.

Servius approached the Abh, taking a short bow before speaking.

“I am Servius. The Praetorians thank you for letting me meet your great leaders in person. I would also like to inform you that I have already placed a number of protective wards and shields around my delegation. We shall be protected from the high gravity of Shōrino'ba.

[WrongEndoftheRainbow]

[WilsonTurner]

System Raudona Saulė (Red Star), Local Quick Response Task Force (QRTF)
The fleet did nothing for a short time, deccelerating and holding a steady position in relation to the 'amber' ship. After some moments, the fleet ceased targeting on the Enterprise, instead turning to the droneship to hold a defensive and possible offensive. As the other ships withdrew their weapon readiness and combat stations, the droneship activated and launched all its fighters.

Four identical streams of automated remote-controlled AI-driven drones spread from the top left, top right, lower left, and lower right long containers- about two hundred drones in total. They swarmed around the ship for a moment, before receiving updated orders and spreading out, guarding the droneship and the two cruisers on persistent, but random, courses.

Eventually, the heavy cruiser beamed back an audio message.

"Captain Kirk of the Enterprise, I am Commander Konzak of the SCSNS Tolimas Sūvis heavy cruiser. According to Foreign Contact Protocols, I am to escort you to a holding position to the nearest military installation and await the arrival of a Queen and her escorting fleet. Central Command has already been notified of your presence. Follow the heavy cruiser- the largest ship- and we will escort you to the given coordinates."

The SCSNS Tolimas Sūvis started its drives, accelerating and turning away, plotting a new course. The coordinates were given to the Enterprise- the largest asteroid in the system, well away from either of the two inhabitable planets.

There was maybe a minute's warning, the listening post contacting the Tolimas Sūvis to report another imminent departure at close range to the Enterprise. Then the fleet went on high alert as what appeared to be a battleship abruptly dropped out of warpspace in knife-fighting range of the Enterprise. It was up to the Enterprise on whether or not to open fire on the vessel, simply for being just too damn close, but the Storm fleet was well away from the both of them, and sought to retain that lead.

It didn't stop the fleet from going to full combat stations and locking active targeting systems onto the vessel. Another trespasser?

On the opposite side of the system, a Storm warfleet- a battleship, a carrier, and a multitude of smaller ships- dropped back into realspace, making for best time to the target- Enterprise and accompanying warship.

"Captain Kirk of the Enterprise, if you do not fire on the foreign vessel, then you will put distance between you and it and will not make contact. Repeat- you will not make contact with the vessel."

At the same moment, a message was sent towards the other ship-
Attention Amber Warship, stand down immediately and cease hostile activity. Repeat- stand down immediately or you will be fired upon. A major incident will occur if you continue targeting Storm vessels within Storm space. Reinforcements are en route; repeat, stand down immediately or we will be forced to take action against your vessel.

Commander Konzak was not liking this at all- he was trained with defending his systems against possible incursions, but these are unidentified ships seemingly randomly popping into this one very tight area, now. He promptly cried out when a third contact appeared on his map, even closer to the Enterprise than the battleship!

The fleet was getting antsy- a destroyer was far too close to the battleship, and didn't have the necessary armaments to take it out- namely, antimatter sublight torpedoes. Likewise, his entire fleet wasn't designed to take on battleships- provided that it's at least as good as a Storm battleship, he would be wiped out rather quickly. And then that derelict might have any sort of reactor, and a self-detonation or some sort or surprise weapon could take out the Enterprise, who are technically under his protection now that he's contacted them and started to escort them.

But- Thank the Tenderer- orders came straight in from Central Command- hold position, wait until the warfleet arrives to provide fire superiority and the proper leadership.

So he broadcasted on all channels-

Everyone is to stand down immediately or you will be declared enemies of the Storm Carapace System and then subject to systematic search and destruction of yourselves and your people. You will not have active sensors deployed and you will not have weapons at the ready, or you will be considered hostile and the weapon readiness as an act of war, so you will stand down immediately. Proper diplomats and authoritarian figures will be here shortly.

[Willy Vereb]

SFV-1701 Enterprise
Raudona Saulé System

"Captain Kirk of the Enterprise, I am Commander Konzak of the SCSNS Tolimas Sūvis heavy cruiser. According to Foreign Contact Protocols, I am to escort you to a holding position to the nearest military installation and await the arrival of a Queen and her escorting fleet. Central Command has already been notified of your presence. Follow the heavy cruiser- the largest ship- and we will escort you to the given coordinates."

Kirk listened to the aliens' response. It was a crab-like creature like something straight out of a Saturday morning kids' show. It was a strange experience but compared to the creatures communicating to them in English it was as normal as things could get. Aside from the insectoid appearance their behavior was, how to say... human? If he wouldn't have an overwhelming evidence against it Kirk would think he was just caught in a very expensive prank and Commander Konzak is merely a cheesy actor in a costume. Yet the situation was far from bright. They just accidentally broke into the borders of a foreign civilization and the Storm Carapaces are not so willing to let them go. They received coordinates leading to a distant dwarf planet within the system, far from any population centers. For the time being Kirk chose to follow their directions. They just made first contact with an alien race. It's better if they leave on a positive note. Besides if things get hot the Enterprise has all means to escape. So long this situation stands they have no reason to not humor them for the time being.

That was when the Enterprise's sensors went wild. They spotted a warp reaction speeding towards them. Warp drives were an early research for interstellar travel. While Mankind had limited success it eventually proved to have too many drawbacks to be practical. If weren't for the Enterprise's unique mission their sensors probably would never spot this. Finding a vessel using warp technology was strange, realizing it'd be soon on collision course with them was a nightmare.
"EMERGENCY MICRO FOLD EVASION, NOW!"
Declared Kirk in a hurry. The energy levels of the Enterprise momentarily spiked to maximum, equaling that of a battleship. Following that the Fold Boosters that were subtly on standby had fired up, displacing the Enterprise by 3000km within less than a microsecond. Warp travel was inaccurate and unpredictable. As such they didn't take any chances. A few moments later the gigantic silhouette of the unknown warship had arrived, barely missing them.

"Status report."
"Evasion successful, the unknown performed avoidance maneuvers in the last minute."
"Good. Sensory crew, report on the new unknown."
"Appears to be a gigantic warship utilizing plasma and warp technology. Preliminary scan determined it to be unrelated to the Storm Carapace designs."
Reminder to Kirk that he must give a better name for this race before he gets a serious case of cliche-poisoning. Anyways, the new ship indeed looked different from the rest which coupled with the fact she's targeting the Storm Carapace gave a good idea for Kirk that they are unlikely to be in league with each other. Curiously enough the Enterprise was not among the ship's targets which combined with the fact their shields were already at maximum meant Kirk tried to avoid escalation and rather not announce battlestations. Not much latter the Enterprise received radio communications, apparently from the new vessel.

"This is Admiral Ginchiyo, currently in command of the battleship Tachibana. I humbly apologize for our intrusion into this area of space, we meant no disrespect. We are on an exploration mission in search of suitable colonization targets, and dropped out of warp here in order to refuel our reactors. We want nothing but peace with your peoples, and will not fire unless fired upon. Again, we apologize for the intrusion."

Okay, this one didn't need much translation either. While broadcasting this message in multiple language Kirk picked up one strangely familiar among them.
"Dai-Nihongo?"
Kirk was genuinely surprised. Thanks to his recent ex being from the Hoshi system he's quite acquainted with the languages of the so-called "East". Thus he swiftly picked up the Hoshi language, in particular an ancient dialect belonging to the once existing Japan. In the current times this language is only spoken by history nerds and those obsessed with old relics like the Japanese laser swords, rumored to have their containment fields folded a thousand times. It wasn't just one of the languages, though. Even the name of the Captain was in Dai-Nihongo. What was going on?

"Captain Kirk of the Enterprise, if you do not fire on the foreign vessel, then you will put distance between you and it and will not make contact. Repeat- you will not make contact with the vessel."
That being said they already had their hands full and just now they received explicit directions to not communicate with the Tachibana. Not like Kirk would seriously care but that's one more reason to put this on hold. It's better to wait things out for now.

"Captain, I am detecting huge spatio-temporal distortions. This is...impossible!"
"What's going on, officer?"
"Hard to say for sure. I detect intra-universal particles slamming into normalspace. It seems something is...emerging!"
"Emergi-... ?"
Kirk was cut off when suddenly a bright flash engulfed the viewing screen. Thanks to the sophisticated systems this is normally impossible yet the stream of exotic particles made countermeasures slow to act.
"EVASIVE MANEUVERS!"
Shouted Kirk in order to avoid colliding with whatever was about to occupy the space near them. The impulse drives suddenly inverted, kicking the ship into reverse. Due to the exotic phenomena involved they were essentially flying blind. In the end they managed to put a good 300 kilometers between them and the unknown. The spatio-temporal reaction ceased and the Enterprise's sensors were working again. What they found was a huge derelict ship missing a considerable portion of its body while broadcasting a distress signal.

"Everyone is to stand down immediately or you will be declared enemies of the Storm Carapace System and then subject to systematic search and destruction of yourselves and your people. You will not have active sensors deployed and you will not have weapons at the ready, or you will be considered hostile and the weapon readiness as an act of war, so you will stand down immediately. Proper diplomats and authoritarian figures will be here shortly."
Meanwhile the local commander was at his wits end. All these improbable surprise appearances obviously didn't do nice things to Konzak's nerves (theorizing he has them). Doing anything rash might be a recipe for the disaster. On the other hand...

On the other hand Kirk's science crew had notified him the amazing nature of what just happened. Mankind had proven the many-worlds interpretation for long centuries now. On the other hand aside from small scale experiments with mixed result they have made little to no progress. Sure, many of their technologies are partially based on the existence of parallel worlds and the minuscule interaction with them. But anything beyond that? None. As such observing an entire ship emerging from an alternate reality obviously put the scientists aboard the Enterprise in high spirits. It's unclear what happened but obviously it was something they must examine in detail. With just a tiny bit of luck they might discover the secret to a breakthrough in Federation's project for dimensional interaction. It would benefit Mankind a great deal but even more importantly would make the crew eternally rich for their discovery. Considering this the Enterprise's next course of action was obvious.

Kirk had no intention to anger Konzak or the Storm Carapaces. In this sense the extreme proximity of the derelict ship was extremely lucky. They quickly established a spatial corridor, a narrow isolated channel not allowing anything to pass from within it. Following that they used their Shortcasters to transport a small science group along with a herd of drones aboard the derelict. They had their personal shields modulated to block their signals thus effectively cover them from the neighboring ships scanning them. Their mission was simple, they must explore the derelict ship and search for ways of uncovering the secret behind this mysterious phenomenon. Meanwhile the Enterprise stood down and followed the Storm Carapaces' directions. Kirk's main job would be to establish positive relations with the aliens. Anything else is secondary.

[WrongEndoftheRainbow]

[Ozerath]

RCNS Anna Karenina
Valiant class cruiser
Exploratory patrol

Specialist 1st class Brandon Sommerson stifled a yawn. The early morning watch was always unspeakably boring. Call it superstition or confirmation bias, but during the hours before shipboard ‘dawn’, nothing remotely interesting ever happened. As a sensor technician, Sommerson was usually very busy analysing anomalous readings or recalibrating some fussy sensor array. But on these shifts, there never were anomalous readings, and every array on the ship seemed to behave itself. Another yawn was building, and this time Sommerson let it out. He wasn’t really in danger of falling asleep; the bridge was kept at a slightly chilly temperature to prevent anyone from dozing off.

Then there was a ping. Sommerson sat up straighter and frowned. The ship had detected...something. The computers weren’t able to figure it out, so they sent the reading along to his station for analysis. Sommerson twiddled with the reading a bit, applied some filters, sent it back to the computers, then twiddled some more. Barely a minute later, and Sommerson thought he had something useful.
“Ma’am,” he called out to the duty officer behind him on the command platform, “we’re picking up something unusual from deeper in-system.”
The duty officer, a young junior grade lieutenant, came over and stood behind Sommerson’s station, trying to exude cool confidence like her seniors.. “What is it specialist?”
“Hard to be certain ma’am. The computers can’t figure it out, but I’m reasonably sure we just saw a power source come online. Not a power source of any kind we’re familiar with, but a spike of energy like that points to activation, then the way it cuts off all of a sudden indicates some sort of stealth system kicked in to mask the emissions.”
The young lieutenant thought hard. She didn’t want to appear too insecure and call her superiors prematurely; they certainly wouldn’t appreciate the lost sleep. But waiting too long could be disastrous, for the ship, her career, or both. But, as they said at Volkovyera Academy, ‘listen to the noncoms’.
“I suppose we’d better notify the Captain,” she phrased it half as a question, looking at Sommerson. He nodded imperceptibly. She placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “Excellent work by the way specialist.“

Captain Alana Vissla was on the bridge five minutes after the call came through to her quarters. An unusually short Yanissan, she was also unusually short tempered. It had caused her no shortage of trouble over the years, but Vissla usually managed to work her way around those problems. It helped that she had just a touch of psionics, not enough to have been snapped up by Toolbox, but just enough to help her out in tense interpersonal situations.

The Captain was the first of the senior staff to arrive, which was understandable since her quarters were the closest to the bridge. Her XO, on duty in the CIC far to the rear of the ship, would be some time yet arriving. The sensor anomaly was on display on the main holotank, Vissla gave it a quick glance, though she trusted her crew’s analysis enough not to second-guess them.
“So, analysis suggests a reactor power up of some kind, followed by active stealth systems engaging?” She queried.
“Yes ma’am,” the junior lieutenant duty officer said.
“Nothing on comms, nothing from the psintegrat bay?”
“No ma’am. The system appears to be uninhabited.”
“Well, whatever a reactor’s doing in an uninhabited system, it’s certainly worth a look. Helm, set course for-”
“Sir! Picking up a short burst transmission from the same location,” the comms officer announced.
Vissla arched an eyebrow. “Well then, consider me thoroughly interested. Helm, set a course. All stations, general quarters.”

(tl;dr a commonwealth cruiser picked up on the Starchild's facility going live and caught a bit of her transmission to the Eternal Union @darkwolf687)

[darkwolf687]

Construction update

500 Warrior Fabricants produced

2 Doom Gliders produced

1 Night Glider produced

Warrior Fabricant

At a glance they are implacable, emotionless and terrifying warriors... the emissaries of death itself. Yet on closer inspection of a Warrior Fabricant, aberrant details become visible that act against the image of the perfect soldier.

This is because Warriors are in no way autonomous. They are bound entirely to their commander's will. Outside of simple instructions, a Warrior's tactical awareness is almost non-existent. However, what Warriors lack in intuition they more than make up for in determination and durability. Once orders have been received, they are completely single-minded and will follow commands through to conclusion without question. Furthermore, individual warriors can suffer grievous damage before they cease fighting. Even dismemberment or decapitation cannot be counted upon to stay them, for its sophisticated self-repair systems in it's 'programmed metal' through it's nano bot design may eventually return it to it's original state. The Warrior will carry on its fight to almost unbelievable degrees, marching heedlessly through minefields, bombardments or other battlefield hazards that will surely see it destroyed if ordered to.

All this they do in utter silence, for Warrior fabricants can never speak... vocalisation is rendered practically impossible, the feature was simply never added as the Starchild does not need these drones to speak. However, if heavily damaged, a Warrior emits an electronic scream as it's systems begin to fail, an ear-piercing shriek that is an eerie parody of a creature's cry of pain.

Doom Glider

Doom Gliders are heralds of terror and dismay, supersonic fighter craft that range far ahead of an invasion. Doom Gliders can function in a highly independent manner. Much of the aircraft’s super-structure houses datastacks that are in turn heavily laden with strike plans, stratagems and tactical variants. When faced with a situation outside of known parameters, the pilot can sift through and formulate a correct response from this datastack. Thanks to the ruthless precision of his android brain, the pilot can simulate billions of possible strategies in the span of a few nanoseconds.

A doom glider is entirely autonomous and thus has no 'pilot' but is actually a robot in and of itself. As such, it is uninhibited by mortal frailties and is able to steer the craft to higher speeds and perform more extreme manoeuvres than pilots of flesh and blood. In addition, a doom glider is a small spacecraft that fulfils the Attack Craft role.

Doom Gliders are often deployed to sap the resolve of the enemy before the battle beings in proper, for its presence can induce an almost irrational, primitive terror in living creatures. This is due to the Doom Glider primary propulsion systems, a strange dimensional repulser device. The whine of the drive is piercing and discomforting. On a Doom Glider, the scale and amplitude of the sound is many hundreds times greater; the disorientating sound resonates deep within the primitive core of living brains, potentially playing havoc with memory and perception.

Armed with two autocannons that strip targets down to their base components and disperse them. Due to the destabilisation on an atomic level caused by the weapon, only the most heavily armoured of vehicles can face this down with impunity for even thick armour plating can be dissipated into nought but air by this weapon. It's secondary and by far more devastating weapon is the Energy Projector Array. Mounted on the underling turret, this array fires a narrow beam of intense energy capable of passing through many enemy units and vehicles before the energy is dissipated, often vaporising battle groups with a single shot and leaving nothing but a line of scorched earth in its wake. This requires a substantial amount of energy and as such Doom Gliders must be somewhat conservative with it's usage due to it's long recharge period. None the less, it remains a devastating weapon of warfare capable of destruction on a large scale

Night Glider

The Night Glider is somewhat similar to the Doom Glider in terms of speed and armaments, however it replaces the Energy Projector Array with a wormhole portal. This captive wormhole portal bound into the lower hull serves as a dimensional passageway through which the Hierarchy can move forced from one destination to the target destination once the Night Glider has landed or even while moving if the units going through are somehow able to survive disembarking. This can also be used to deliver warheads. Note that this portal can only be active in one direction at once. That is to say, it can either be bringing forces in or taking them away, not both at the same time. Attempting to enter the portal from the receiving end results in a most unpleasant experience and subsequent destruction as the atoms of a being are taken apart by the device, which then attempts to transmit the structure to the same gate, resulting in the atomic bonds simply being broken down on the spot and the energy dispersed.

The presence of multiple Night Gliders almost inevitably heralds an invasion, attempting to take an opponent by surprise. Due to the portal it bears, it can bring in surprisingly large numbers of troops when considering its small size, which may be able to take defenders by surprise and overwhelm them before they regroup.

Unlike Doom Gliders, Night Gliders do have an interior 'cockpit' due to their status as a transport craft, though this is a non-essential area and destroying it will have little to no-impact on the crafts performance. Night Gliders also have a minor 'cloaking' device that bends light around it to appear invisible and uses stealth ablative plating in order to hide from some basic forms of sensors.

Online Systems

Automated defense grid
Fabrication facility 001
Communications systems
Stealth device
Scanning and detection systems
Power Core 001
Propylaeum 001
Propylaeum 002
Propylaeum 003
Propylaeum 004
Propylaeum 005
Propylaeum 006
Propylon Chamber 001
Processing Facility 001

Available Forces

x128 Defense Fabricants
x500 Warrior Fabricants
x2 Doom Gliders
x1 Night Gliders

Testing the wings

On the surface, ancient obelisks sprouted from the ground and into the air, pulsing with energy as. In their pairs, they formed the Propylaeums, ancient portal frames from which the Hierarchy could enter and exit their underground structures. These Propylaeums could be accessed from any active Propylon Chamber on the planet. Their design no longer bore any controls from the outside for the Hierarchy had never intended anything to get in from the outside until the Starchild had awoken; The empty frames that had once held the terminal necessary for external access were quite conspicuous.

Starchild watched the view of the Night Glider as it was loaded into the Propylon Chamber, the roof closing behind the Glider as it hovered within the chamber. Then, the wall before the view exploded into a swirling portal and the glider zoomed towards it.

The dark of the chamber was replaced by the glare of a sun as the Glider zoomed out of one of the Propylaeums, exiting over a mountain and flying over the plains beyond it. The world had changed a lot since the Hierarchy first occupied it 100 million years ago, though it appeared that none of the animals on the planet had yet become sapient, or at least no sapient life that had formed overt nations and civilisations.

Excellent, it would have been a rather wasteful use of time and effort to remove civilisations from the New Hierarchy's Homeworld.

Now all they had to do was wait fo-

Wait. Something was coming towards them; The long range sensors had detected a vessel moving towards them. There had been no response to the message and the Starchild was sure whether they were from the nation she had initially directed the message to. She paused for a moment, considering sending the entire planet dark again and waiting for the species to pass. They couldn’t simply hide away forever though.

She set a Propylaeum to teleport back to the chamber and ordered the Night Glider to return through the portal before shutting it off, though not before having the Night Glider drop off two Warrior Fabricants (It didn’t really matter that they couldn’t speak, the language barrier would have rendered that difficult anyway) on the surface of the planet, standing guard next to Propyaelums 001 and 002. If the species proved to be non-hostile, she would activate one of the Propylaeums and let them inside to talk. If they proved to be hostile- Well, she’d simply keep the Propylaeums off and come up with another plan.

She transmitted the message towards the approaching vessel, the same visible dots and the same audible blips. It should guide them here, perhaps they might even try to respond. She activated the life support systems; It would be rather awkward if the alien contacts choked to death when they entered the facility, after all.

Message to RCNS Anna Karenina

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@Ozerath

[null123]

Outside of the Starchild’s home system@darkwolf687
A small group of Iscandarian vessels warped right outside of the Starchild’s system, having traced the strange signal to the system. It consisted of four military frigates as well as another two ships which appeared to be lightly armored and had few weapons. They were highly specialized vessels known as research vessels, and while they did come equipped with a decent amount of laboratory equipment, they also came with powerful sensor and scanners capable of picking many things.

The group split into two, with two frigates per a research vessel. They began scanning around the system, attempting to find the source of the mysterious signal that had been beamed at the Eternal Union.

Arnor, a outer EU system
The EU vessel, which had been a freighter, quickly maneuvered itself away from the damaged vessel. Unlike other outer-systems Arnor was mineral rich, and thus one of the most important outer-systems due to it supplying 10% of the materials to the Iscandarian Forge Worlds. It would also later stand important as a trading outpost, as the Iscandarians wanted to use trade to help spread their influence across the galaxy, and it stood close to many borders that the EU had with other nations, particularly the Lorca.

A group of five frigates broke away from the battle group stationed at the colony and entered a V formation, approaching the damaged vessel. The lead frigate broadcasted a message in the tongue of the Lorca, the voice was robotic, but it was oddly sentient.

“Arnor is not equipped with the proper facilities to repair a Lorca vessel. We will contact your main body and provide temporary shelter until such time as another Lorca vessel can arrive.”

The frigates powered down their weapons, and awaited a response from the Lorca.

[Ozerath]

RCNS Anna Karenina
Valiant class cruiser
The Starchild's system

“Picking up another transmission ma’am. It’s definitely intended for us this time, coming in on multiple frequencies.”
“What’s it say?” Captain Vissla asked.
“Computers are still trying to untangle their signal architecture, it won’t be long ma’am.”
Vissla did her best not to drum her fingers on her chair’s armrest. There was nothing her comms officer could do to speed up the process, and she didn’t want to place undue pressure on him.
“Coming in now ma’am.”

A window opened on the main holotank, displaying the foreign message. Vissla stared at the sequence of dots in confusion for a second before it abruptly clicked.
“The Dusselheim Sequence. Something intelligent is out there and trying to communicate with math.” She palmed the intership comms on her armrest. “Psionics bay, bridge here. Initiate contact protocols.” Closing the channel, she nodded at her communications officer. “You too comms.”

The Anna Karenina began responding with its own signal; a simple diagram of a hydrogen atom, broadcast back on the same frequency as the sequence of dots. They could begin overcoming the language barrier later, for now it was simply a matter of establishing that they were two intelligent entities trying to communicate with eachother. At the same time, the sur’unem down in the psintegrat bay reached out with their minds--their reach extended by the ship’s psytech arrays--searching for the fires of living minds. Anna Karenina continued on her way towards the mysterious planet.

The message had barely been sent when an alert sounded. “Ma’am, multiple warp flares detected. Iscandrians from the look of it, six ships, nothing heavier than a light cruiser from the power levels.”
Vissla swore. She didn’t need any complications added to this situation. The Commonwealth and the Eternal Union had no formal contact, but through independant traders they were certainly aware of eachother. Whatever the strange new intelligence had to offer, Vissla didn’t want to have to share it with the Iscandrians.

[darkwolf687]

Construction update

500 Warrior Fabricants produced

2 Doom Gliders produced

1 Night Glider produced

Online Systems

Automated defence grid
Fabrication facility 001
Communications systems
Stealth device
Life Support Systems
Psionic Relay 001
Scanning and detection systems
Power Core 001
Propylaeum 001
Propylaeum 002
Propylaeum 003
Propylaeum 004
Propylaeum 005
Propylaeum 006
Propylon Chamber 001
Propylon Chamber 002
Processing Facility 001

Available Forces

x128 Defense Fabricants
x1000 Warrior Fabricants
x4 Doom Gliders
x2 Night Gliders

The Starchild tilted her head curiously at the diagram. It was quite evidently Element One. What was this supposed to mean? Surely they were not questioning whether she knew the very basics of chemistry?

She paused for a fraction of a second, considering before sending back a response of the diagram with an additional electron, its outer shell completed. She hoped that the aliens would understand the meaning behind this.

The ancient devices left by her creators had detected psionic probing from aboard the alien ship. The sur'unem would find very little of interest; There was plenty of life on the planet, to be sure, but save for a few scattered, primitive tribes on the eastern continent who had barely discovered fire, none of them appeared to be sapient- And then a very faint signature could be detected on the planet, apparently buried deep below the surface. It didn't appear to be a living being and indeed seemed to be an artificially produced beacon more than anything.

No sooner had the Starchild sent the message than another group of ships appeared in her system. She was about to repeat the message to them when her scans reported back that at least 4 of them were full blown military vessels. She hesitated for a moment.
She wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt but she wasn't entirely sure whether it was worth the risk. Perhaps it would be best just to hide away; Surely they wouldn't be able to get the Propylaeum working after all. The two Warrior fabricants at Propylaeum 001 and 002 had backed up into the alcoves presented by the removal of the external equipment and had seemingly powered down in an attempt to mask themselves as a pair of skeletal statues; The lights in their eyes had gone out and they were clutching dormant weapons in one hand, standing imposingly tall. She would use them in an attempt to determine the nature of the contacts.

She paused for a moment before altering the device; the Sur'unem would see the Psionic signature rise up through the rocks of the planet, sitting between Propylaeum 001 and 002. Perhaps she could attract a landing party of these individuals independent of the second organisation; If so, she might be able to acquire intelligence pertaining to whether the collection of military vessels meant the Hierarchy harm. In the mean time, the Starchild sent a message out towards the EU ships; Six dots, four larger than the others, in a formation similar to that of the EU ships. The message would slowly change to display the four larger dots breaking off and backing away in an attempt to convey a request.

The Starchild turned quickly and set about issuing orders to the Fabricants. The autonomous defence fabricants were subsumed into the ranks and skittered around in the darkness, supported by phalanxes of Warrior Fabricants as they moved through the vast hallways to secure the two Propylon Chambers...

Arnor, a outer EU system

The ship began to drift slowly forwards, transmitting a signal back to the EU. It definitely appeared to have suffered severe damage; The ships stealth plating was so heavily damaged that it was acting sporadically, giving off strange and anomalous readings that deceived sensors as to the ships shape and size.

"Our life support has been compromised, we can not regulate the ships environment correctly; We humbly accept shelter. I am Tras Varsei, Shipmaster of the Ardent Prayer; Who speaks?"

[null123]

The Starchild’s System
The Iscandarian vessels seemly responded to the message, the two research vessels drifting towards the source of the signal. Meanwhile the frigates, while they did not leave the system, went farther away and shut down their weapons, but they did keep their shield up. The Iscandarians sent a message towards the source of the signal, encoded in a simple 01 computer code. The message, if the Starchild could decode it, would indicate that they were the Iscandarians and they represented the EU. It went on further to state they were here on peaceful intentions and wished to land, as well as including a translation matrix.

Meanwhile one of the military frigates positioned itself towards the Commonwealth vessel. The few Commonwealth traders that had found their way to Iscandarian space had been enough for the Iscandarians to pick up the language. A message was beamed to the frigate.

“I am Caelia, a Dux Astrum of the Classis Astrorum of the Eternal Union, I am the military leader of this expedition. What does the Commonwealth seek here?”

Arnor
The voice that had had been speaking switched to the one that was clearly sentient, rather then the robotic one that had spoke before.

“I am Aurelius, a Praefectus Minor of the Classis Astrorum of the Eternal Union. I represent the leader of all naval forces here. My ships are ready to assist yours into a dock until such time as we can contact forces from your main body to arrive and pick you up. We will however need you to lower any shields remaining for the process to work.”

A few freighter type vessels appeared near the frigates that were already around the Lorca vessel. They appeared to have long tube on the underside of the vessel, which glew with blue energy.