Re: Warning: an unknown ship is approaching Haven

[Caspoi]

[As the ship is dead I have no more say in this, you may end it as you wish]

[The Clans]

The science ship in orbit continues its broadcast, showing the two new landing zones from the split apart ship, adusted in real time with every minor movement of the construction ship, and adjusts the range of its broadcast accordingly to the affected areas.

The Herald's tunnel vision is interrupted (if anyone bothers him) with a series of still shots of saluting fully armored soldiers, pilots in their flight suits outside of their shuttles and fighters, and deck officers dressed in their formal uniforms. As well as ship engineers, technicians, comms officers, and hordes of smaller members of their species wearing a mix of technician's safety gear and soldier's armor.

[Offizier Necro]

((Alrighty.))

The Herald's hyperfocus on the alien mothership was interrupted by getting yelled at by communication officers, who informed him about the arrival of several images from the reptilians. They were showing pictures of them saluting in more elaborate outfits than the fatigues from earlier, and many seemed to be wearing combat armor and what were assumed to be flashy officers' uniforms. Was this a declaration of war now that they had an opportunity to loot the ship, or was this just a "we did it!" message among battle brothers? The lack of updates or explosions from the space station seemed to imply that there weren't any hostilities going on, so it was probably some kind of martial celebration of victory. Or perhaps they were asking permission to land on Haven and cooperate in cleaning out and researching the bug menace? They didn't seem to be broadcasting maneuvers like they did on previous occasions, so it was probably just martial victory customs. Since the fighting was over for now, he ran down to his quarters and finally changed into the outfit he had wanted to greet them originally with. It was a Victorian-esque outfit that had dark purple feathers stuck in the hat, which was the reason why he hadn't switched to the outfit in the first place for initial fear that the aliens potentially being avians instead of reptilians. Addy subsequently sent a picture of himself in the outfit giving a Freeman salute back at the reptilian allies, as was done before in casual clothing after the pirate victory. It wasn't an actual military uniform, but there wasn't a standard issue uniform for the Herald's invented position due to it being intended as an excuse to just keep the Herald from ruining more things for people on Haven.

Afterwards, he sent an FTL communication to Haven informing them of the updated trajectory of the mothership halves, and also that the allied reptilians might be landing because he may have accidentally given them the go-ahead. Ground control sighed and just rolled with the Herald's shenanigans, telling the army to prepare for the landing sites and quietly evacuating the very few people in the way of the imminent death chunks. Once the farmers and resort workers were evacuated and the army was prepared for the inevitable landing, they simply waited. Nothing more to do than that.

Eventually, the hulking halves crash-landed on cue into a mountain and into some farmland, resulting in no deaths and only minor infrastructural damage. The hyper-reactive chlorine trifluoride had spent itself in the days between the crash landing and the detonation, so that wasn't of much concern. The main concern was the presence of any remaining arthropoids and if they contained any pathogens that could hurt humans or Haven's ecosystem. As such, any soldiers and researchers that boarded the ship did so in hazmat gear, despite its bulkiness. Any detected survivors were to have their locations noted and then cleared out with remote-guided bomb drones that would sacrifice themselves for the safety of their human operators. Once cleared of remaining hostiles, the humans began the long and careful process of examining and researching the massive artifacts.

Meanwhile, the Herald had a decent idea that he had before the crash landing which he successfully proposed to the government, which was to offer bounties on any alien scraps that landed elsewhere. This would result in a lot of Freeman citizens trying to pawn fraudulent artifacts, but a hierarchy of inspection solved that issue in an efficient manner. Despite the fraudsters, it would help instill a sense of adventure in the community since anyone could make a quick buck from helping advance research and humanity as a whole. Individual accomplishment towards a greater good.

[Caspoi]

[While I am not going to do anything I want to Point out that considering the speed the ship had been travelling at (not quite the 0.3 lightspeed it started with but still really fast) there would not be much left of it to research, mostly molten clumps strewn across a large area. And you need not fear any swarmlings being left alive, they all died either when the inner explosions happened, when the ship broke in multiple pieces, when the air run out, when it entered the atmosphere or when it crashed.]

[Offizier Necro]

((Well, I guess it'd just be researching scrap at that point, but it's still important data, even if it's only knowing the strength and chemical properties of the materials inside. Thanks for the info though, I mistakenly thought it was going much slower.))

[Caspoi]

[No problem]

[The Clans]

Only receiving one photo in return, the photo of the same being that communicated with their scientists, the same being that personally responded to some of their transmissions by tearing paper, left a bad taste in the mouths of the bridge officers. It left the soldiers and deck crew agitated at not seeing their counterparts and how they dressed. It was as if they were dealing with a warlord that was obsessed with their self image to the point of not acknowledging the glory of his soldiers. Being egotistical was a de facto requirement to becoming a Corps warboss or warlord, though they were kept grounded in the fact that their soldiers would want to eat them alive if they personally stole the spotlight too much and would be replaced by another who would at least pay lip service.

Being very much interested in getting their share of the loot from the fallen space craft, they transmit their ships landing at their proposed landing zone. Having done most of the work themselves and taken all of the risks, they show the crash in the farmland since it was a lot less difficult to maneuver around than mountains. After transmitting their intentions, one fleet of assault landers land in the ruin fields to deploy an entire division's worth of soldiers that then start setting up their camps while scientists from independent shuttles poke and prod at the wreckage. They leave nothing to chance and form a perimeter around the crashed ship with spotlights trained on it. They roll out vehicles with massive cutting discs that tear their way into the crash site and many other welders set to work removing samples of the ship for later analysis.

The soldiers are cordial to both human civilians and soldiers. They don't even lift their own weapons when weapons are trained on them. At most they hold their arms outstretched and pound their chests as if daring them to commit and fire. Any sort of physical violence done against them is dealt with brutal efficiency that leaves limbs and necks battered or broken or holes in chests and heads. They attempt to disarm confrontations with gifts of what look like cigarettes, toys, photographs, and other personal items before violence can be done to them and only react with violence themselves when violence is done against them. A few soldiers looking to test their skills and gain bragging rights throw down their weapons and gear and point and motion toward human soldiers to challenge them to personal fistfight duels, whether they wear uranium armor or not. Unlike the treatment given to those who assault them, they refrain from snapping necks and breaking arms and ribs.

[Offizier Necro]

The Herald failed to understand that he had made a faux pas due to not having understanding of the more subtle social aspects in play. As such, the Freeman fleet continued to fail on following up with salutes from lower ranking navymen. However, the Freeman navy did replay the landing plan transmission back at the reptilian fleet, as an attempt to communicate acceptance and authorization of the landings.

Meanwhile, the Freemen on the ground had a much more knowingly awkward time. They were informed in advance that the reptilians are allied and thus should not be attacked, threatened, or obstructed in their activities. The invitations to wrestling and combat were thoroughly declined and oftentimes pretend-ignored by the more professional human forces, especially since engaging in such would be viewed as an international crime or act of war from the Freeman perspective. Starting an interstellar war with potential allies was an unwise decision, and thus personal combat was avoided if possible no matter the equipment or lack thereof. Even the gifts weren't welcomed as warmly due to the more formal Freeman soldiers being on-duty and not really looking forward to being stuck in decontamination for touching alien objects. The scientists that were wearing hazmat gear were vastly more eager to accept gifts than their buzzkill military escorts. All civilians were evacuated and kept very far away, thus preventing any potential political repercussions from civilians offending the visitors or vice versa. Not that the government forces weren't already having their fair share of social failures, of course.

[The Clans]

(Have you never seen any war movies? Stupid 18 year olds looking for a way to kill stress are all over this shit.)

When the soldiers fail to respond to any of their personal interactions the atmosphere along the perimeter gradually changes from curiousity and novelty at the surrounding landscape to be more dour and defensive. At first everyone inside the perimeter without anything to do had either kicked back, kicked balls around, and had been marveling at the strange landscape, people, vehicles, and plants. Now their external perimeter was properly manned where a single soldier could ruin the uneasy truce with an accidental or purposeful discharge of their weapon. The humans in hazmat suits though became the exclusive targets for palling around, being targeted with more gifts, including duffel bags to carry everything in, and a lot of punches in the arm and being dragged off to be shown different things in their camp like their more rugged and angular vehicles, to be introduced to runts half their size in garages and medical tents, to play cards, and kick a ball around.

Meanwhile in space, the linguists, despite having grasped basic grammer and perfect enunciation, were having trouble with plurals despite having more slender tongues and their own language involving hissing. However many of their nouns were both singular and plural depending on their context. They decide to start arranging proper diplomatic channels as a means to practice the human language. "Our leader would like to meet your. This Herald, of your, he is military leader? Do you also have a more formal head of state?"

[Offizier Necro]

The non-conscripted soldiers were seeing aliens for the first time and thus under explicit instruction not to do anything that might cause an international incident as far as the soldiers knew, so frivolity was extremely discouraged by officers under threat of punishment. It was a time of tension and occasional awe, not camaraderie, for the soldiers. The scientists were slightly more briefed than their guards and were more curious than tense, so they were more open. The scientists in hazmat suits also didn't need to be quarantined and vigorously decontaminated after touching reptilians or their equipment because of the hazmat suits, so there was also that whole bit about soldiers needing to be scrubbed raw and confined in a room for a week even if they were authorized and encouraged to wrestle and trade with allied aliens.

While the army kept their own loose outer perimeter of their comparatively primitive vehicles and soldiers, the hazmat-equipped scientists alternated between interacting with the reptilians and the arthropoid artifacts as prompted by the reptilians. The scientists' suits made playing cards, sports, and other games requiring dexterity or agility fairly difficult and awkward, but they at least tried to keep up and be friendly. Not knowing rules of the alien games led to some awkward moments, but the scientists were willing to learn. That's their job, after all. The alien vehicles were of particular interest, as many of the core designs were never before seen by Haven eyes due to both cultural and technological difference.

On the space station, the human linguists were still having trouble with enunciation due to their mammalian biology. They managed to grasp grammar well enough to get ideas across, so answering was potentially within their grasp. "The Herald iz some zpace-rig military, some zpace foreign friendly-perzon. Ruling Haven ground iz Good Perzon 'Claryse Garalson'. Head-of-ztate iz Garalson. Ruling Haven zpace iz Herald. Meeting potenally pozble. Both azking now."

It was a bit awkward, as explaining the Herald's position was sometimes confusing for even humans among eachother. The Model Citizen was the leader of the Crucible, both head of state and head of government. The Herald was assigned as leader of the small amount of space resources and additionally was the chief of extraterrestrial relations. This position was made well before everyone was recently forced to believe in aliens, now turning the "shut up and go away" ceremonial position into one of the most important positions around. Meanwhile, a message was sent informing Garalson and the Herald that the reptilians were likely interested in a meeting with someone at some point, but details were still being hashed out.

[The Clans]

The bulky suited scientists are an absolute riot to the service lizards. They don't seem to care at all about how ineffectual their movements are, aside from the comedy value. In contrast to the Yuxu's own fitted padded suits, the bulky things the humans wore were comically inefficient and unpractical. When they do something wrong they verbally say what they want them to do while miming out the movements.

Meanwhile in space.

The three linguists had almost dwindled to one as the other two do support duty of cross referencing notes and relaying messages to their ship and back to Yuxun. The head linguist speaks in a staggered tone from having to think of each word before saying it,"We think best if past leader..." the linguist starts making an inverted tsking sound with their tongue in thought, trying to remember the actual word while checking their notes. "Queen? Monarch, hereditary, no.. What call when go from eyes close dream to eyes open? Awaken... Awakened Dreaming Clans... Awakener." The linguist writes the word down and circles it, but does not look back up as he repeats himself. "We think best if past leader Awakener Mysha meet Herald. Both self-important. Herald reputation self-important? Not cause problem one offend other. Mysha unite all clans, know how handle same personality." He looks back up to try and talk again without training wheels. "Governor Ziral level headed. Clans ruled tsk tsk governed by council on Yuxun. Not disrupt balance power, send Ziral instead single council, to meet Clayrsegaralssson. What title Clayrsegaralsson? Good Perzon?"

[Offizier Necro]

The scientists couldn't do much to beat the reptilians in their visibly superior suits, but at least the reptilians seemed to be having fun once it was informally established that the noises were of laughter and not noises of frustration or annoyance. The scientists were willing to learn and discover new things, even if the attempts were often followed by laughter. They were the butts of the joke, but most could appreciate the joke at least. Even the Freeman soldiers in the background were getting a bit of a kick out of the slapstick view of the research personnel trying to run around in such bulky and silly outfits. Nerds.

The human linguists on the space station passed on the meeting proposal to their diplomatic superiors, who figured it was a decent plan. The officers (and the Herald and Model Citizen) approved of it despite the insult and the translators attempted to convey their acceptance. "The Herald zound zimilar, yez. The Herald help unite Haven clanz. Not clanz, cloze enough. The Herald offend often people. Claryse Garalson is head of state. Claryse Garalson is level-headed. Claryse Garalson has title 'Model Citizen', basically meaning good perzon. Ziral meet Claryse Garalson; Awakener Mysha meet the Herald. Claryse Garalson agree; the Herald agree."

The linguists were tempted to add that Haven had a parliament mirroring their council and that it would similarly not be meeting in person, but that would have to wait until after the important detail of a meeting was confirmed or for some other time.

[The Clans]

The linguist concludes, "Now we learn langwooangez until can translate perfect." And then the linguists practiced speaking the Freeman tongue for the next several weeks to months until they could reliably understand each other's languages enough to hold a detailed conversation and were able to think in the other tongue.

During this time many details of yuxu culture were disclosed, the importance of gift giving to keep everyone both friendly and productive for the clan, the purpose and function of a clan, their militaristic government culture, how the first two letters of a name denote clan belonging and are not spoken among their clan often resulting in names of different pronunciation, their spiritualistic philosophy of a random and uncaring universe and the difference between Sleepers and Dreamers based on how they internalize that truth. Also how their ruling council in fact does not function like a parliament, but rather a clique of the most powerful warlords on the planet while the governance of most individual clans was done via a parliamentary system with no political parties but rather informal relationships formalized through gift giving and personal conviction of issues. The linguists take frequent breaks to practice their martial arts and to meditate, inviting the humans to do both.

Meanwhile, while dirtside, despite their phenomenal ability to take things apart and put them back together, the scientists and scrapsmiths soon conclude that there is nothing of note to be scavenged from the wreck and soon pack up their equipment and leave, but not without hunting down and making their favorite scientists write their names down and punch 'em in their arms before giving parting gifts.

[Offizier Necro]

The planetbound personnel bid their comrades goodbye, but have some trouble with the "write their names down" part. Was this for names or space telephones? They generally figured it was names. Despite their allies' abandonment of the project, the Freemen kept up their dissection and analysis of the wrecks for a long time. They weren't there for loot or salvage, rather, they were there to understand things that no living human had seen before. Of particular note was the analysis of the scrap and materials. The chemical analysis in particular took a long time due to the low technology level of Haven, but it was still important. If these arthropoid invaders appeared again, it was of utmost importance to understand what was effective or ineffective against them both mechanically and chemically, even if Haven lacked the understanding to replicate and use the materials and organisms based on just autopsy.

Elsewhere, the translators worked hard with the Yuxu to establish mutual communication over the weeks and months, eventually creating fluent translators. Eventually the level of paranoia over interstellar pathogens decreased and the precautions were relaxed with human representatives being allowed to interact without full hazmat suits on (but still with thorough showers afterwards). The sociology, culture, history, and other social sciences regarding the Yuxu were recorded with intense diligence, and the respective information of Haven was given back in kind. The rise of tribes into empires, of swords to guns, of flesh to machine, of nationstates to federation was all given and described, with human textbooks given to boot for later study. However, a caveat was given in regards to Haven's pre-tribal history, as the discovery of the spaceship containing ancient media featuring humans without Havenites' strange "identical body" trait hinted at a much more elaborate and incomplete history of humanity that could only be speculated about in the absence of evidence. Copies of Terran and Havenite media such as films were given to the Yuxu, as the issue of this seemingly paradoxical information was something that kept many researchers up at night. It was requested that if any other non-Havenite information of humanity came to the foreground that it would be brought to Haven, as this was an important question that needed an answer.

The Freeman government was also described, with the military being separate from and subservient to the government. The foundations of Freeman government, such as the idea of governments being groups representing individuals and their only power being what's given by individuals (via perceived legitimacy and threat), were also given to the Yuxu to help create a better understanding of why parliament, free elections, secularism, dual sovereignty, checks and balances, and other aspects of Freeman government operated in the manner they did.

The invitations to meditation and martial arts were generally accepted at first, if only to try it out, but it was hit-and-miss with those that tried it out. Some clicked with the zen of meditation and martial arts, while others could only be in a high-energy state of martial arts or only be in the low-energy state of meditation, and most just simply didn't have the cultural mindset to click with either either due to cultural differences, lack of mental discipline, or other wildly varying traits. Those that did click with something, though, did so diligently and proceeded to practice them even on their own time if able.

[The Clans]

The Yuxun scientists had started breaking the broken mess apart for the same reasons as the humans. With their tech base it had only taken them a much shorter time to gather the samples they needed and had only left when nothing else but twisted metal of the same mineral composition was being collected. Once enough tonnage was collected they had simply bugged out before supplies could become a problem. The soldiers likewise wrote down their own names as well as ranking and serial numbers and had given them to those they exchanged names with in the hope of being able to track each other down if they ever visited the planet again.

Eventually the entire crew of the docked science vessels roamed the station. They never removed their suits for any reason, except on their own ship, citing "cancer causing airborne contaminants". Once this information was relayed they ceased to come aboard the station and insisted that the humans come aboard to their ship with its artificial gravity and clean air. They had given over their own written records in the form of tablets that were cheaper and more convenient to manufacture and store in space than hard paper copies. They detailed basic facts and history of several Yuxun clans and their roles in various wars, alliances, and regional calamities like aquifer drainage, meteorite strikes, and prolonged radiation clouds. Also how their species had always known of firearms, vehicles, and hydro and aeroponic gardening, and had mostly been improving on those technologies until multi-clan city-states formed again and began to experiment with rocketry, mass industrialization, and other technologies and processes.

Their meditation techniques mainly consisted of raking small sandboxes completely smooth with the back of miniature rakes or the back of the hand and then drawing elaborate patterns into the sand either with the rake or a claw, in the case of the humans, a finger, and arranging jagged rocks with their bare hands that require concentration to not be cut by them while handling them. Martial arts sessions took place within the same rooms so that the elaborate drawings would be destroyed by their foot movements and throws so that their hard work would be destroyed in an instant or gradually as the session went on, intending to teach being able to let go train the sunk cost fallacy out of the brain along with more esoteric teachings such as understanding one's small insignificant place in the universe and that death awaits at any indifferent moment, an important thing to learn in a warrior culture.

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