Akreonic Reconnaissance

[Joe Joerson]

A New mission was planned and developed, after testing of a prototype vessel five ships would be sent out to scour the region around the Expanding Akreonic Empire for signs of active alien life. Having obtained permission from the government after prototype testing it was given a go ahead. The ships started construction but a secondary mission was considered, using the prototype vessel to look for such signs of alien life. This secondary mission was given approval to proceed and so the first Scout Corvette left the Akreonic borders far behind as it looked for Intelligent active Alien Life.

The ship hurtled along the hyperlanes, pausing only for a short while in a system to scan generally and if nothing note worthy found, move on, searching for any sign of Active, and presumably hostile, intelligences among the stars.

[Joe Joerson]

The Scout Vessel, Christened the "Cautious Hunter", was almost at it's destination. For this hyperlane transit that is.

The Voyage so far had been peaceful, aside from the various navigational hazards and interstellar monstrosities, for it's crew and Captain.

The Captain being of course Viscount Akrot, High Lord, of Cadellia. He now lay across the Captain's Cushion, on the bridge, as they transitioned into from the Hyperlane back into a star system. The Various subordinate officers were at their stations, serving Radar, tactics, scientific, navigation, and the console for the experimental 'Gravitic' sensors the shipwrights installed. The distance between the previous system in this one was long, even the experimental sensors had been unable to scan the system from afar. This was the third from last system until they headed back to Xengari space. No doubt this would be unremarkable, as if any of the previous transitions had been.

As they entered the new solar system, a quite high frequency pulse emitted on the bridge, the ship's alert system automatically entering a form of yellow alert. Something 'unusual' had been detected, it could be nothing, or not.

"Sensors, Report!" Akrot demanded moving into a more suitable position on his Cushion.

The Gravitic Sensor operator responded, "It appears to be a small flotilla of Alien vessels, unlike anything we've encountered before."

The Bridge was silent for a few uncountable moments, finally Akrot broke the silence, speaking to those on the bridge and to the entire ship through device he held close to his rightmost mouth.

"It appears that we have successfully located Intelligent, Active Alien life. We will now proceed to engage in the second portion of our mission. We must determine what threat they pose. I expect every Xengari Lord and Lady to do their duty. For the Race! For the Overlord!"

The Last exultations are echoed throughout the ship. He then speaks again to just the bridge.

"Pilot, move us closer to the Alien flotilla, stay well outside weapons range."

The Scout corvette bursts into movement as the orders are given. It approaches the flotilla.

(OCC, what this is connecting to, Here.)

[Offizier Necro]

On the bridge of the leading corvette, the Herald stood watching over the various officers and technicians as the ship prepared to fire the spooled warp drive. In the next few moments, the ship and its fellows would fire their drives and cross a distance further than the collective distance traveled by every living human on Haven. He raised his hand to the air as the chatter slowly fell silent, and everyone awaited the order. Everyone held on tight to their seats except for the officer that had to push the final button. Then the order came swiftly: "Smash that fuckin' button!"

The officer pushed the button and braced himself like the others to prepare for the incalculable thrust and lurch from the momentum, but nothing seemed to happen. Addy the Herald looked around and asked the bridge officers what was going on, only to receive confirmation of the situation being confusing. One of the officers called down to ask if something was going on outside, followed by an incoherent noise over the radio from the underling manning the periscope. The officer questioned what was happening, only to hear a confirmation that the warp was successful and that they had arrived at the star as planned. A round of cheers could be heard throughout the ship, including from the Herald himself, and was similarly enjoyed across the other ships in the flotilla.

Despite the lack of lurch associated with inertial travel, everything was going to plan. A message was instantly sent back home confirming the situation which led to a person on Haven informing the Model Citizen during his speech. The Herald got on the loudspeaker and radio to inform everyone on doing "damn grand", and asked if there was anything of note in the system that hadn't been picked up by telescope beforehand. After some moments of scanning and looking, the sensors officer confirmed that there was indeed nothing. The Herald sighed and began walking away without informing the officers what he was doing or what they should do while he was gone. They kept the ship as idle as a ship hurtling through space supporting countless crew can be.

Addy walked down the corridor while reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small wrapper labelled "Sweetie Stick" in large colorful letters. He stepped into an elevator and carefully peeled the wrapper apart, paying no attention to the busy workers entering and exiting. Upon reaching the crew quarters deck, he managed to get the wrapper off the prize: A toothpick with a chunk of hard candy at the end. He started sucking on it while passing the kitchen and entering the mess hall, with very few salutes from the crew members. He sat down at a random table and pulled out a deck of cards. He began poking nearby crew and trying to show off magic tricks, which was amusing to some but obnoxious to others.

Just when the fun was really getting started, a loudspeaker announcement requested the Herald's presence aboard the bridge. With a frustrated sigh, the bratty Herald packed up and left for the bridge again. Marching aboard the bridge, he kept his frustration to a glare before asking what the occasion was. According to the sensors officer, a new ship arrived in the system and was detected via periscope. Not just any ship, but an alien ship. Unfortunately it would take a few moments for the sensory equipment to pick it up due to the speed of light. It was a tense situation, as they had no way of knowing if it would be dangerous to interact or even be spotted by the vessel. The Herald briefly wondered if it was a psychotic AI hellbent on exterminating all life like in one of the books he's read, but shrugged it off. There was only one way to find out without a common language.

"Sir, should we alert Haven?"

"Nah. I have this covered, we'll phone home in a bit. Get the radio transmitter ready. Let's hope these starbound xenos can still use a radio..."

Meanwhile, the radio chatter of the fleet soon went quiet, with nothing but the quiet static of the universe coming in over the radio. The transmission was then sent through the void towards the lone alien vessel: music.

The crew was kept on alert, and simply waited for the aliens' response. The missile tubes were not loaded for fear of provoking the aliens if their unknown technology level allowed them to see through walls or otherwise know.

[Joe Joerson]

The ship continued moving toward the Alien flotilla, upon receiving the transmission a brief conversation ensued on the bridge.

"We appear to be receiving a transmission from the alien flotilla. Routing to science."

The Science officer upon the data arriving on her terminal sent it off to the ship Xenologists with a brief explanation after decoding with access to some of the powerful ship's computers, she spoke to the Captain.

"Sir, the transmission appears to be audio only. I have sent it off to the Xenologists to see what they can decipher."

The Captain responds, "Give me status reports as they come."

After a brief affirmation from the science officer, the bridge waits as they continue to close to their designated distance fro the alien flotilla. After a short while the Science officer speaks.

"Xenology reports that it is easily within Xengari hearing ranges and that given the distributions the Aliens might not have the upper or lower hearing ranges that Xengari do."

The Captain replies.

"Put it on over the bridge speakers."

As the music plays several members of the bridge crew close their ears. The Captain listens through the whole performance. In the resulting silence the Captain speaks.

"Aside from being a degenerate xeno's love letter to the Overlord, what did I just listen to."

The Xengari from the scientific console, who had also listened to the performance, responded.

"Sir, the Xenologists that we have on board are of the opinion that this is a form of alien music, due to numerous reasons. It is too repetitive to be speech, in their opinion. As well since this is the only transmitted information, they are not sure of any possible intent besides communication. They think we should send a 'reply' a selection music in roughly the same format and range as the transmission."

Captain Akrot listened to his subordinate's report before replying.

"We'll play along, for now. Send whatever 'reply' they think is appropriate."

The Bridge crew waited for the few minutes to pass until the message was sent. The Science officer used her console for a short time before removing a data storage device moving over to the Radar console with the Officer there, they discussed and inputted information. Mainly mimicking the frequencies and data compression that the transmission was sent on. The two officers worked for several minutes, until turning their Heads to the Captain for confirmation.

"Send the 'reply'"

After the Captain spoke the Science officer inputted the routing commands and the message was sent through one of the radio transmitters. Sounding something like this.

[Offizier Necro]

The human officers took note of the alien ship's approach and grew anxious, but were relieved to hear that they sent a song back in return. No one other than Addy enjoyed the strange and mechanical music, but it was still a relief that they weren't immediately hostile. The science ship sent an FTL transmission noting that it was likely generated by a machine through recombining samples from real music, which was considered mildly interesting but relatively unimportant by most of the bridge. The Herald, however, recalled his earlier thought on the possibility of these being omnicidal robots, but kept this note on the side as they were not firing weapons yet and at least made an attempt at some form of communication. For the moment, Addy gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept the ships idle and unloaded. It could even be possible that these were fellow humans such as those discovered in the archives of the ancient ship.

This was a very historical moment, as this is setting a first impression for Haven's first galactic neighbor. The Herald ordered up a transcriber to record future messages sent and ordered the science ship to keep recording any and all transmissions from the alien vessel. The first instinct was to send another song back in kind, but the Herald's first choice in music to send was considered such a silly decision by the rest of the bridge that they refused to cooperate with such nonsense. Addy Konlago then decided on a more standard action: A verbal communication. He didn't organize the speech beforehand or organize it with the concerned bridge officers, but simply made it up as he went along in the audio transmission.

"Hello, travellers! I am Addy Konlago, a human, representing the Crucible of Freemen. I assume that this message will not be understood until we establish translators, but I would still like to just leave a message after the beep saying we're willing and eager to communicate with you when able."

Mentions of the fact that this is humanity's first voyage into the stars and thus the implication of technological inferiority to the presumably-seasoned travellers were entirely omitted by design, as Addy had seen enough movies to know how badly that could go.

[Joe Joerson]

The Scout Vessel continued to move to it's designated location. When the second transmission was received the brdige again broke out into activity.

"We've received a second transmission, routing to science."

The Science officer again decoded and sent the message off to the Xenologists.

"Sir, Again they have sent us an audio transmission, I have sent it off to the Xenologists for their determination."

The Captain responds.

"What is it this time? Another Xeno cacophony?"

The Science Officer operated more controls on her console before replying.

"The Xenologists appear to think that it is speech of some form. It's meaning could be anything, a declaration of war to a beg for mercy. The Xenologists are of the opinion that we should send an image back. To attempt to gain more information, elicit a response. If they reply with their speech a few more times we might get a large enough database to figure out some of their language at some point."

Captain Akrot listens and then speak to navigation.

"Stop the ship at the current distance, we don't need to be near engagement range yet."

Speaking to the Science Officer.

"We'll go with the image, send an image of their little flotilla, I want to see what they make of that."

Both Officers say affirming phrases and go to work at their respective tasks.

The Navigational Officer is able to quickly start slowing the ship, and soon stopping it. Shortly after the stopping of the Scout Vessel the Science Officer moves with a portable data storage device to the Radar console once more, and after confirmation Broadcast the signal at the higher frequencies demanded by what they were sending. An image instead of the lower frequency audio channel.

As they waited for a response, or something else, the Captain mused upon the ideas of what they aliens might be like...

[Caspoi]

[Shouldnt this go to the diplomacy section?]

[Joe Joerson]

[Shouldnt this go to the diplomacy section?]

(Moved, fits better to what this will lead to anyway.)

[Offizier Necro]

In the tense waiting period, the human crew remained aboard the bridge. Eventually, a signal returned from the alien vessel. They routed it to the speakers once again, but were only greeted by a loud and unpleasant screeching noise that prompted many to cover their ears. The Herald called the science ship asking "what the fuck that telefacsimile machine noise was", followed by the similar conclusion of the science staff that the aliens were sending either a television signal or a digital file. After playing back the transmission on a black-and-white television set, it was a distorted image of the human flotilla. Clearly at a different resolution, but it was still recognizable. The science ship informed the Herald of this conclusion, whom then ordered a television image sent back as well. It seemed that the aliens were still peaceful and interested in communication, so that was what would be maintained.

After some discussion, it was decided that two images would be sent: An image of alien ship in return, and then an image of a human. The Herald volunteered himself as said human, but it was debated whether he should keep his informal clothing, put on something more formal, or just strip naked. The sexually conservative officers and crew were against sending nudes as humanity's first interspecies broadcast, while the more formal outfits could be construed as either offensive or threatening depending on the phenotype and culture of the aliens. It was decided that Addy would simply show himself as he already was.

The monochrome image of the lone alien vessel was sent first, followed by a short delay, then finally the photograph of Addy was sent.

[The Clans]

(You two mind if a group of pirates in tramp freighters happen to fly by? Feel free to ignore me if you do since I don't want to mirror Skozzy when he busted up a diplomatic thread I had with a war fleet. Also feel free to skip on the turn order in case you're both on at the same time but I'm still asleep.)

A dozen or so small space time distortions show up as blips on the sensors of the two ships. They could be easily mistaken for defects in sensory equipment or a curious scientific anomaly, were it not for the formation-like grouping of the blips. Those with hyperdrive technology would recognize the blips as being characteristic of a ship exiting the dimension of hyperspace, albeit on a much smaller scale. Active scanning would show a flotilla of small, almost shuttle-like angled craft that are dwarfed by the visiting science vessels, being many times smaller than a military corvette.

While they appear to share the same structural foundation, the exterior of these small vessels are dramatically different from each other. The common theme appears to be spikes, with many popping out in some of the most inconvenient of places. Some sport parts of other ships haphazardly welded onto their frames, sporting a variety of cranes, scoops, rams, and patchwork armor plating. Most have garish designs and colors painted onto them varying from the crude and graphic, to the mesmerizing and colorful, and back again to the other end of the spectrum with suggestive and or pornographic depictions of bipedal lizards.

Radio waves explode from the collection of ships in the form of unsecure transmissions not explicily aimed or targeted at the other vessels. After a good five to ten minutes the ships, that haven't, fire their engines and spread out into more loose formation. The number of transmissions decreases though the volume of the remaining ones increase in volume. The fleet of tiny ships begin their approach toward the visiting vessels.

[Joe Joerson]

The Corvette continued to drift at the consistent distance from the Alien Flotilla.

"Another Transmission from the Flotilla, routing to Science."

The Science Officer again attempted to decode what exactly it was that they sent them, as well as sending off the 'finished' result to the Xenologists. She then spoke to the Captain.

"They have sent us an image in reply, sending it to your console now Captain."

Captain Akrot began pulling up the miniature Console by his Cushion when the Radar Technician called out again.

"Yet another Transmission from the Xenos, routing to Science."

She repeats the process that she had for the former transmission. Speaking to Captain Akrot.

"The First image clearly is our ship, the Cautious Hunter, from their view. The second the Xenologists believe to be an image of a member of their Race. The more noteworthy substance is that both of these were transmitted gray scale. Either they do not have very functional eyes, which is doubtful considering their facial arrangement or they do not have that level of technology."

Captain Akrot moved his right most head as if to speak to the Science Officer, and to turn more eyes from the sickly looking creature on the screen in front of him, when another high frequency pulse is emitted and head around the bridge snap to the two sensors consoles, the Gravitics Operator calls out.

"Hyperspace transitions detected. Twelve or so, small, smaller than the Hunter by far. They look more like patchwork constructions than ships."

The Radar Technician adds.

"Transmissions from the ships going wide, don't appear to aimed at anything."

Captain Akrot responds quickly.

"Navigation, move us around the Alie- the First Alien flotilla, put us between the two of them, but don't move further away. Sensors, keep me updated on their movements, both fleets. Send those transmissions to Xenology, let them take care of that. Science Officer if any important comes through Xenology let me know."

He presses a few buttons on his console and pulls up the earlier speaker Device. Lights across the ship go blue and sirens blare in the higher Ultrasonic frequencies.

"All hands to Battlestations, repeat all hands to Battlestations. A second Alien Flotilla has arrived, they appear to different and probably hostile. We will not retreat before this fight. For the Race! For the Overlord!"

The Captain mused upon what the "friendly" aliens might do. Unlikely to be a trap though it is conceivable, should check in and make sure the Capacitors for the weapons were charged. And possibly the Hyperdrive as well.


(Again, sorry for being unavailable for most of the last few hours, but as you can see we have decided to acknowledge the Pirates. Lets see where this goes.)

[Offizier Necro]

The atmosphere was tense once again, especially due to the lack of response from the alien vessel. The scout ship suddenly starting to thrust was not helping the nerves of the humans. After a delay, the fleet of small ships was detected by the Freeman flotilla, which explained the scout ship's change in behavior. The lack of subspace sensors of any kind meant that the speed of light put a delay in the critical moment of detecting the newcomers' arrival, but what was done was done. However, the atmosphere was one of even more tension rather than of relief.

Unlike the manufactured and professionally-built scout ship that was initially encountered, this group of smaller ships seemed to be repurposed vessels with random plating and objects welded on. The alien pornography painted on the sides of some only added to the crude image. Their sloppy and makeshift nature of older vessels getting parts of other ships welded on crudely indicated that these were almost certainly not a standard civilization, since it's unlikely that any nation with industrial capacity would design a regular ship and then add random parts on. These were likely either ships with looted parts, ships of poor people who simply "made it up as they went along" during long travels across the galaxy, or both. The suggestive images meant nothing as nudity and sexuality are too subjective and culturally-based to make anything certain, but the outright pornographic images indicated a loose group with fraternity. The humans found the concept very similar to those of wartime pilots painting attractive women on their aircrafts' hulls. Through these, there were a few suspicions of what these newcomers could be: nomads or other travellers who are too plebeian for professional aftermarket work, some kind of gang of rowdy teenagers of an empire who's developed cheap starships for the masses, or the worst case scenario of full-time pirates. In any case, the lone scout and the newcomers were very likely of different groups from their blatantly different designs.

The scout ship getting between the human flotilla and the scrap fleet could have meant many different things, ranging from "don't shoot" and "I'm an eager puppy seeing new people" to "join me in slaughtering pilgrims" and "buzz off these humans are mine". Continuing the thought of sapient AI, it could be a mother bot leaping to the defense of her rowdy teenage robo-cubs. Making any assumptions at this point could potentially result in the deaths of the entire human flotilla, especially considering that an exchange of fire between the two fleets would possibly threaten the alien scout, so Addy the Herald decided to play it safe in a smug and self-amusing way: Another open-letter audio transmission of music to give the newcomers the benefit of the doubt. Not just any music, but a musical reference to the Terran opera of Der Freischütz, where a huntsman used magical bullets that never miss their mark and would ultimately die after using the prophesized amount.

Not that the aliens would know this, of course. They clearly hadn't translated human languages yet, let alone created a database of human cultural works, so it was both cocky and safe.

[The Clans]

As the little ships approach a much larger ship warps in. The newcomer is more boxy than the smaller craft and sports no visible customizations, save for a painted mural of a desert landscape accented with white muzzled skulls. Scans show a variety of holes in the ship, little more than scaffolding protected by large metal plates. It sports no visible weaponry save for the massive welding and cutting tools needed to build structures in space. The ship wastes no time in deliberation like the smaller ships, it immediately turns its bulk toward the huddled ships and moves into formation with its screen of tiny ships.

A direct visual transmission cuts its way through the din of background chatter of hisses, clicks, and grunts, to each of the alien ships. The scarred and bare chested figure sending the transmission never ceases to move, continually nodding its head and impatiently paces back and forth in a bare red sandstone colored room as it waits for a return transmission so it can see who or what it is approaching.

[Joe Joerson]

The Scout Vessel was motionless as it's Bridge was full of activity.

"Another ship detected."

Heads turn to the Gravitics Operator.

"Large, boxier than the small craft, has ship sized construction equipment. Doesn't look complete and is moving in formation with the small craft towards us."

Before anyone could respond the Radar Technician calls out.

"Transmission from the Second Alien Fleet, seems directed to the First Aliens too. Routing to Science."

The Science Officer decodes the transmission, sending the result to the Captain's Console and Xenology.

"Sir, As you can see it appears to be a video transmission from the Second Group of Aliens. In addition Xenology has prepared two videos, our ship moving into the First Alien Formation and our ship moving into the Second Alien Formation. They end with half the view taken up by the image of our ship moving with their ships, the other half with our current position. This is formed as a kind of request, we can ask either one, presumably they would reply with one of the last images. Our ships among theirs if they accept, our current position if they decline."

The Captain is silent for a moment, his central head watching the Alien transmission on his console, rightmost facing the Science Officer. He speaks.

"Send the appropriate one to the First Group of Aliens."

As the Science Officer converts the video to the appropriate formatting mimicking the First Alien's reply, hoping to make the image as intelligible as possible, the Captain looks upon his console to finish watching the Transmission.

The Science Officer asks for confirmation, the Captain gives it, the transmission is sent to the first Alien Flotilla.

Captain Akrot muses upon the fact that the "friendly" aliens looking displeasing, and the overtly hostile aliens are almost not so, almost. He also muses upon the nature of the universe's cruelty.

[Offizier Necro]

The humans were surprised by the larger structure that appeared, but lacked the technology to know that it was primarily scaffolding as opposed to only being a bigger version of it's smaller Franken-ship kin. This left the half-built ship being more intimidating than it had the right to be.

The transmission from the scrap fleet was at least somewhat comforting, as it seemed to imply they wanted to communicate in some way. While the non-avian nature of the reptilians meant that the Herald could grab one of his uniforms, it would take too long to head to his quarters in this risky situation. Instead, he transmitted another photograph of himself in his regular clothing. A video camera was ordered up to the bridge in case it was deemed necessary to send a video recording.

As for the scout ship's transmission, it took some deliberation, but it was eventually considered to be some sort of question or request. The alien scout seemed to be requesting an entry to the formation while ignoring the scrap fleet, giving more evidence to the idea that they were unaffiliated with each other. It was possible that it was asking if the human flotilla intended on surrounding and assaulting the ship, but it was determined unlikely through the lack of combat in the image, since the aliens demonstrated themselves capable of generating effects via machine earlier. Was the alien scout requesting closer communications? Was it asking for protection? Or was it asking for some other form of cooperation, like surrender? The lack of common language was frustrating, but there was nothing to be done about that. It was decided that the humans would keep playing along with the scout ship.

An officer took a copy of the recorded image and cut it in half, then broadcasted the half with the 'integrated' flotilla. The Freeman flotilla communicated silently among themselves via quantum entanglement, then spaced themselves apart into an upside-down triangular formation allowing the alien scout ship to enter the broad front and maneuver safely.

[The Clans]

The reptile sending the transmission becomes more and more and more impatient and erratic as its face and upper body shines with the glow of a monitor as it paces back and forth in its room. It abruptly reaches for its side and holds a handheld barreled weapon to the camera and yells into it. Demanding, or extorting a response from the alien fleet in exchange for the live feed that it is broadcasting.

[Joe Joerson]

The Corvette moved into formation formed by the First Alien Flotilla after their transmission and movement.

Captain Akrot bemusedly watched the Second Alien live feed antics. As the reptile continues to pace he switches it off from his console, ordering a minor officer to watch the feed and inform him of anything important. Some time later when the reptile began threatening with the weapon, the Captain was informed. He broadcast an image of the alien, holding the weapon, to various view screens across the ship as well as an audio message.

"The Xenos dare to threaten us. They dare to suppose that they may approach the majesty of the Xengari. Their minuscule ships," The Image switches to one of the smaller vessels with a comparison to a Corvette. "being both weak and degenerate as their builders, are no match for Xengari Ship building. Alas they outnumber us, but as long as every Xengari does their duty, no Xeno can match Xengari Military Prowess. If every Xengari does their duty, no Xeno will dare THINK themselves near that glory that is the Race! For the Race! For the Overlord!"

The View screens go back to whatever they showed before the announcement as cheers resound from most of Xengari along the ship, only tiny amount look troubled. Even then they quickly hide it and join in.

No transmission is sent to the Second Alien flotilla while the Xengari Scout Corvette moves into the First Alien flotilla's formation.

[Offizier Necro]

The alien corvette moved into position as presumably agreed upon and didn't seem to press for anything more, so that was a relief. However, the reptilians were clearly threatening the human flotilla, as was obvious from the handgun being pointed at the screen combined with verbal aggression. The majority of officers were very concerned and were unsure what to do next in this novel situation, but Addy simply scratched his beard in thought. The film camera ordered up earlier was set up, and some wooden folding furniture was set up as well. The Herald gave an announcement over the loudspeakers to be ready for combat, but not to fill the missile launch tubes just yet. Defense gunners were to remain vigilant. The final preparation for the transmission was simply taking out an unloaded revolver and a speedloader. The video recording was broadcasted, while an analogue television camera was ordered up to the bridge to initiate live broadcasting if necessary.

The transmitted video was silent and in black-and-white, and only featured Addy sitting at the desk nonchalantly with the revolver and speedloader laid out. He calmly picked up the revolver and opened it, allowing him to load the speedloader. After doing so, he spun the chambers and cocked the revolver, before calmly placing the handgun to the side of the desk while looking at the camera. He raised his hand afterwards and lowered it infront of himself, pantomiming a calm attempt to lower the reptilian's held weapon. The transmission then ended once the series of events was over.

[The Clans]

The reptile calms once it receives the broadcast. However its calm features quickly distort to a look of discomfort, and then silent horror as its mouth stands agape and its eyes rapidly wander over its viewscreen. The transmission abruptly cuts followed by the larger ship igniting the afterburners of its engines, speeding the larger bulkier vessel forward. Four of the smaller ships swerve out of the way, unable to keep up with the mother ship's greater speed from its greater momentum capacity. It moves in to close range without any sign of stopping, with the smaller ships struggling to keep up.

[Joe Joerson]

The minor officer informs the Captain of the changes in the transmission right up to it's end. The Gravitics Operator informs the Bridge of the movement of the Large ship.

The Xengari Scout Corvette fires off three shots from it's triple barreled cannon in quick succession into the projected course of the large ship and moves as fast as it can back out of the formation and near the projected area for the large ship.

It appears that the Xengari scout is moving into a position in which it can better engage the ships without getting in the way of the large ship. The Turreted cannon moves so as to keep following the projected course of the large vessel, it's target is slightly further back than center, aiming for the engines or some such.

[Offizier Necro]

Things seemed to be going well at first. It seemed that the reptilian under stood the message at first, but the results were clearly contrary to what most of the humans were expecting and striving for. The shocked look followed by the ceasing of communication and the initiation of an aggressive charge seemed to imply the start of the Freemen's first battle in the void. Addy looked at the static-filled television for a few moments as the chaos began to unfold... and seemed pretty satisfied with it all. Welcome to the true man's world.

As the bulky television-broadcasting equipment was hauled in, he informed them that they needed to put it back alongside the regular film camera and the folding furniture. The muscular men sighed, but were startled back to work once the Herald publicly announced that everyone "should probably go head to combat stations" and "get ready to party". With that announcement, missiles began getting loaded into the launch tubes and people across the flotilla began securing things and otherwise preparing for battle and possible emergencies.

The Freeman ships began thrusting out of the way of the predicted path of the 'murder cube' (as Addy referred to it), for two reasons. One, it takes an equal force to stop a moving object as it does to move it to begin with, so the hulking mass would likely have trouble chasing after the purpose-built and -engineered corvettes. Two, it would likely allow better ability to target the pirate fleet with minimal risk of the primitive homing missiles hitting the allied alien vessel.

The three bigger Freeman ships formed a 'ring segment' at a good distance from the pirate fleet and fired a large volley of missiles toward the pirate fleet. The missiles had automated guidance to the nearest large object upon reaching a calibrated distance, and would detonate upon getting too close to the target or being too damaged. The payload was a shaped charge that would fire a superheated jet of thermite mixture at about 5000°F (2760°C).

Meanwhile, the smaller Freeman vessel with more maneuverability quietly remained behind its three big sisters. And all the while, Addy was playing some dissonant music over the loudspeakers.

[The Clans]

The kinetic barrage does little more than create deep dents in the hulk's armor plating, having little effect in this early stage. However, the human missiles burn holes in the plating and rend and tear the plates off of it, showing the empty scaffolding underneath. Nonetheless the weaponless ship continues on its collission course. The smaller ships, however, make token efforts to move out of the way of the missiles. Their beefier burners allow them to easily move out of the way of the missiles, but make no attempt to get further away than necessary to pass them. Most of the smaller ships are blown apart in the first salvo.

Despite, and because of, its hulk the box ship has no problem keeping up with the smaller and less advanced corvettes in the frictionless environment of space. As it barrels its way into the human flotilla, slabs of armor plate slide back to fire harpoons into the flotilla to keep them from escaping without risking further damage to their hulls. The large equipment meant to cut and weld together metal beams in space fire up in preparation of cutting through whatever gets close. A swarm of space suited bodies in open skiffs spill out into the surrounding space to attach themselves to the hull and make use of their personal welding torches.

Whether out of recognition that the humans pose the greatest threat with their homing murder missiles, or out of simple impotent rage and horror that comes from seeing several vehicles full of comrades be wiped away in an instant, three of the remaining four combat shuttles tear themselves from their busted formation to haphazardly fly toward the human fleet, leaving only one to charge at the machinegun nest of a ship without support.

Six more ships exit the hyperlanes, one of comparable size to the alien corvettes with 20% more mass and a larger build. The other five ships are part of a tight formation independent of the larger escort. Both sets of ships are of a sleeker design in comparison to the box ship, but still angular and rugged. The armor, where it is visible, is obviously incorporated as part of the design rather than haphazardly slapped on.

The corvette's engines fire almost immediately as well as its forward guns, shooting shell after shell across the system and into the back of the box ship. The five other ships stay behind in the relative same spot, loosening their formation to make themselves harder to be hit.

Within the span of ten minutes a transmission originating from the fleet broadcasts to the alien ships consisting of a hasty computer rendered animation showing the rough representation of each combat ship shooting at the box ship with only a few frames of animation.

"I really don't see the point in all of this there's no need to waste a whole rig just to-" yells the distressed Seeker Virtuula before getting cut off by the resigned and tired Warboss Ar'valiim.

"Every salvaging flotilla has been assigned a rig in case of-"

"Salvaging?! Is that what you think I do?! What all of this equipment is for?!"

Ar'valiim sets aside his sweet smoke stick and takes a breath of fresh air before tearing into the uppity science officer after muting the scientist's mic on his client "I won't pretend to understand what you think you're doing. What I know is that every flotilla has been assigned an escort in case of bandit attacks over a month ago. And over the course of two months of ignoring transmissions you've lost 60% of your crew and officers rummaging around in glorified graveyards that not even outcasts would wander into without a bomb implanted in their head. So, for whatever reason, Command thinks my crew is more expendable than yours and that my talents are better served watching you like a damned hatchling instead of killing bandits. No, I'm not even going to call you that. Hatchlings will at least sit down and shut up if you tell them a story, and I can still see you ranting at nobody. You're free to operate within your mission parameters, and only that. Welcome to the world of oversight."

"That's all well and good, slayer, but your goons and gangs have no place doing the job of seekers!" She fires back at nobody, the call having been dropped. It was more for her own psyche and pride than for anyone to actually hear her. Her mission was to scan every planet and asteroid she came across in an unsurveyed system like a glorified tool, report in and relay findings back to command like a a computer monitor, and to drop everything at the drop of a hat if Command wanted her to like some kind of slave. This was nothing like she had been promised. The reclusive astrophysicist was promised total and free autonomy to analyze any strange anomoly she saw fit, but if anyone had actually told her this no one was claiming responsibility for it. She would rather be back on her surface observatory. It was all very humiliating.

It took a good few days in hyperspace to arrive in the system, long enough for initial tempers to cool down. So what if a bunch of armed goons wanted to poke around abandoned stations and ruins instead? Better them than her fellow seekers, but better her fellows than herself.

When all six ships arrived, a quick scan relealed that a construction ship looted from the dockyards of Suxur was engaged in combat alongside several distribution freighters engines multiple vessels of unknown origin. "It looks like we're going to see some action after all. Fire the engines and stage for boarding."

Alarms ring out over the ship and whine five times before going silent. Technicians and boatswains hurry to man their stations in preparation of maintaining the ship in combat. Flight crews check over their gunboats and boarding shuttles while the marines and pilots that man them sit and rest outside of the hangar in meditation to clear their minds for the coming combat.

"Ar'valiim sends one simple transmission to the science flotilla before launching the first kinetic shell at the bandit commandeered vessel and taking off toward it. "Stay back, Seeker, this is why I'm here." Down below the gunnery crews load their next shells for immediate fire from the magnetized guns.

While the corvette springs into action, Virtuula sits stupified at what she is seeing. Alien vessels. Actual alien vessels. Not alien skeletons, not pits full of preserved tools and toys, not even degenerated tomb dwelling troglodytes. Actual living aliens aboard ships in their prime. Or at least some kind of automated ships with the coordinates of their homeworld buried within its computers. Who would be the best candidates to send over in case they went into emergency warp...? She breaks out of her thought process and flags down the nearest ensign "Those ships are attacking bandits! Bandits of our species! Make sure they know we're different! Make aaaaa.... Rendered images of our ships firing at theirs! Us and the alien ships shooting at the bandits! Do it quick!" She lets go of the ensign to send a reply transmission to her escort, "You had better not so much as scratch the paint on those other ships!"

[Joe Joerson]

The Xengari ship tries to burst down the lone ship with several rapid firings of their cannon. Once the lone ship is down their intention is to make an attack on the large ship with the harpoons, attempting to target the harpoons, one releasing "friendly" ships and two penetrating deeper into the presuming that there is not additional armor behind the armor that was moved to allow the harpoons to fire.

In addition to their combat maneuvers they send back the the animation from the new alien flotilla with the Xengari ship highlighted in blue. Attempting to convey a sense of agreement or acknowledgement.

[Offizier Necro]

The human flotilla was surprised by being successfully caught by the cuboid hulk, and was greatly concerned at the harpoons and the swarms of aliens trying to cut into the ship by hand. This was identical to the Age of Sail's boarding actions, so the command assumed it was some kind of boarding action rather than considering the alternate possibility of "steal plating and run off with it". Thankfully, the defense gunners on all Freeman ships formed a counter to this tactic of manual boarding despite being originally designed with point-defense in mind. The remotely-controlled ball turrets fired rifled ammunition at the aliens in space suits, intending to kill, puncture, and/or scare off as many of them as possible. The armor-piercing rounds could only hit their own ship at very low angles, reducing any self-damaging shots to undamaging scratches.

Meanwhile, another salvo was fired from the larger trio of ships away from the hulk they were attached to. The missiles tried to home in on their mother ships and began turning immediately to deal friendly fire, but by the time they had circled around and turned to beat their parents in their ethanol-powered rage, the hulk was closer and thus was targeted instead. The hulk was honed in on by the thermate missile swarm, aiming towards the sides with the majority closer to the rear.

The arrival of new ships resembling the pirates was concerning, but as they were trying to help kill the pirate fleet it wasn't protested. Enemy of my enemy and all that. The transmission seemed to communicate that they thought similarly at the very least. The human flotilla sent back a modified copy of the newcomer's animation as a reply, with some lines and spikes drawn in red ink moving from the Freeman ships to the pirate box to indicate missile paths and overexaggerated explosions.

[The Clans]

The single ship bum rushing the Xengari ship attempts to twist and turn and pull off a variety of maneuvers to evade incoming fire, which works only for a time. The first shot to hit it disables it, and the second pops it into loose scrap. The Xengari fire also manages to break some of the harpoon cables keeping the human ships tethered to the box ship, the accuracy of their small guns allowing them to fire into a few of the hidden gun ports and disable them before the covering armor can be replaced.

The thermite missiles continue to burn and tear the exterior armor plating off from the box ship, revealing the scaffolding and vulnerable completed decks beyond it. The remaining three cobbled strike craft intercept the missile firing human ships. They narrowingly forget to swing around and fire their engines in the reverse direction. They scrape along the top of the ships, nearly getting flung back into space until their own harpoon launchers sink into the larger boats' plating and winch themselves closer until they sit pretty on top of their targets. Once in position their commandeered construction equipment starts to tear an entry hole to board from. The operators of the larger dying hulk flail their cranes and grinders at the ships closest to them while the harpoon winches whir and grind to ratchet the human ships closer and in range. The space suited pirates attempt to crawl, kick, and some air jet their way to the other side of their targets to escape from the withering fire of the ball turrets and set up on more vulnerable points, while those that have nowhere to go attempt to give their welders cover by firing their personal weapons at the ball turrets. However their gyrojet rounds do little to nothing against the ship armor, relying completely on random chance to hopefully knock out the cameras from volume of fire, though most drop dead before they can reload another ten round magazine.

"Slow our approach, exploit the gaps in the rear armor and take out the engines and fire into the scaffolding. We're not going to risk a boarding reclaiming that thing, not with the light show going on. They may think that we're vultures and turn on us the second the construction ship is down. We're going to bank on the boarders weakening them to the point where they aren't willing to turn their guns on us if they do believe we are. It's better that they make it out alive and damaged so they'll be prepared to repel this shitshow of a boarding rather than a proper one."

The corvette slows its approach, continuing to lob shell after shell into the back of the construction ship to similar effect of the Xengari guns, except where their shells hit true and exploit the weaknesses opened up by the human missiles.

Meanwhile back on the science flotilla, Seeker Virtuula, having calmed back down knowing that the outcome of the battle is completely out of her hands. She personally monitors the responses given back to her by the alien ships. One was transmitted back with no alterations other than for one of the ships being... blue. The second transmission was just a static frame with wavy lines and explosions. "What else did I expect? They sent a hatchling's drawing and a hatchling's drawing is what I get back. Of course. Wait..." She sits up and leans forward, comparing the two transmissions, one in the same quality sent out with one model highlighted in blue, and the other retransmitted in a more archaic resolution with drawings on it. Could these ships be separate entities? Was this how the Yuxu entered the galactic stage? Making first contact with two species at the same time? The odds of that happening were... staggering. Were she biologically capable of shuddering, she would have in realization at just how improbable that was, but yet was happening before her eyes.

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