Davids and Goliaths: Chalerosto-Galactyan first contact [RETCONED]

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It was supposed to be a standard mission, a visit to a church ship located not too far outside the mirial reflection of Calerost’s realspace borders. The CNS Spark in darkness did this mission before, the only difference this time was a new navigator as the past one retired recently.

“Heading calculated, the telemetry of the church ship is locked, everything ready to initiate the Jump captain.”

“Very well, initiate VIV jump.” Answered Ribedir, the captain of the Spark in darkness. He didn’t expect what would happen next.

The navigator didn’t count for the disturbance caused by the large density mirial clouds caused by the dense starmaking nebula that is on the way. Rookie mistake, usually could be corrected easily by the computer, but the navigator didn’t use autocorections as a show off, in the academy he had a reputation for being unnaturally precise.

The ship misses the beacon by a few meters, not being slowed down enough and damaging the beacon. The ship shakes violently, alarms go off

“WHAT IN THE EMPEROR’S GLORY JUST HAPPENED” Yelled captain Riberdir in pure shock

“Navigational error, we missed the beacon area by a small factor and didn’t decelerate fully. Captain the ship’s trajectory is unstable and chaotic! A emergency exit recommended, but damage is inevitable at this speed!”

"Make it so! Emperor’s glory…

The navigator performs the exit. A bright fiery flash and mirial energy wave shakes realspace, as the ship brakes the barrier between dimensions ingloriously, receiving heavy damage

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Regional Galactyan Date: 18/6/5786 P.E.
Star System: Korelaim
Koreammonius Asteroid Belt
Less than 50 kilometers from Surveillance Satellite S-34

An intense and sudden burst of energy hits S-34, destabilizing it from its pre-determined orbit. After making necessary orbital corrections, the Satellite’s radars pick up a strange signal. S-34 can’t seem to recognize it. All the various signals stored in the Satellite’s data archived didn’t match with this one, not even close. In little time, a small and strange vessel came into view. Because of this, S-34 initiated procedure IntrusionAlarm, sending a warning message to the Unrecognized Flying Object.

WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL, YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON IMPERIAL TERRITORY. DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT THE NECESSARY SIGNATURE.

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On the bridge of the spark in darkness many alarms beeped and lights flashed

“Status report!”

“Many sistems damaged sir! We do not have FTL capability, the shield is very patchy, better to turn it off untill it recovers, sublight drive is relatively intact but offline, and we got full manuvering”

“Comms?”

“Online sir. Sir we’re picking up a radio signal. There’s no doubt it’s artificial in origin, but it’s completely non decodable”

“Can you pinpoint the source”

“Seems to be some sort of satellite, but the sensor readings are weird, very… Foreign”

“On screen”

The image from a external camera zooming in onto the satellite is displayed on the screen. Captain Riberdir looks in complete disbelief. The satellite looks advanced, nothing like what you’d expect from primitives, yet it doesn’t match Calerostan design at all. Just as the officer described it, foreign…

“Record the message and send it, together with sensor logs, our coordinates and a situation report, trough mirial space to high command, and keep a eye on that thing. Do we have weapons online?”

“Not fully, but in about 10 minutes the whole of the undamaged arsenal should be online.”

“Good”

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Regional Galactyan Date: 18/6/5786 P.E.
Star System: Korelaim
Colony: Korelapolat
Korelaimian System Surveillance Complex

The Cubeheads
The Cubeheads600×600 157 KB

Governor Asdariek Qeryuus of the Korelaim System. This photograph was taken during her attendance of the Governance Meeting Of 5726.

Asdariek Qeryuus, member of the CubeHead Subspecies, had been System Korelaim’s Governor for more than 87 years now. Overseeing all the workings of the System and reporting to her higher-ups, the Council Of SubSpecies, she lived a rich and comfortable life. She was hailed and loved by the Korelaimians, which gained her a good reputation not only between other Governors and the Council, but with the Emperors themselves. This week was a rather important one: after coming back from a long expedition in the Celestial Wall Molecular Clouds, the “Quasar Shooter”, one of the biggest and most resistant Galactyan Warships ever built, was refueling in orbit around Korelapolat. Tomorrow morning, the ship’s personnel were to descend to the surface and rest temporarily on the colony, before heading back to the Capital System. Regardless of Asdariek’s perpetually comfy situation though, things were about to change. And the nature of this change, whether good or bad, was in her hands, and in her hands only.

While she was sorting through various files and production reports in her office, someone knocked at the door. It was her assistant, Xyujik Saqeriuz.

“Governor Qeryuus?”

“Oh, hi Xyujik. Come in, come in.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I believe there’s something you need to see.”

“Uh. What is it, to be exact?”

“Well… one of our Security Satellites might have just picked up an… alien signal.”

“What.”

In little time, Asdariek and Xyujik were both near a terminal connected with the communication servers, and from there it was clear as day: a strange (and clearly damaged) ship was resting near Surveillance Satellite S-34. It had what looked like wings, spread open and almost completely torn apart, spreading from its sleek main body.

“What. The hell. Is that.”

“We don’t really know Governor. It appeared out of nowhere with a big energy blast a couple of minutes ago, and we have no idea what it is, where it comes from or what it’s intentions are. When it appeared it released a huge energy impulse, which we were about to consider as some sort of attack, until we noticed how damaged the vessel was.”

“Stars almighty. Ugh… Okay, I- I think I’ve got this. First of all, make the Satellite S-34 approach the ship and turn on its reconnaissance scanners. Meanwhile, I’ll immediately inform the Quasar Shooter.'s personnel.”

After heading back to her desk, she pressed a “button” on her holoscreen and opened a direct communication line with the Warship.

"QUASAR SHOOTER, DO YOU RECEIVE ME?"

"LOUD AND CLEAR GOVERNOR."

"GOOD. AN UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL HAS ENTERED THE SYSTEM'S TERRITORY. ITS NATURE IS FULLY UNKNOWN. KEEP YOUR WEAPONS AND YOUR ENGINES READY. AWAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."

"OF COURSE GOVERNOR."

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Riberdir sat in his chair, deep in thoughts. They have seen evidence of a advanced alien civilization. In all the years Calerost has been a stellar empire, never have they encountered a civilization as advanced as the satellite suggests. They’ve met primitives, sure, but this was different.

“Captain, the satellite seems to be approaching us.”

“Any signs of it’s intent?”

“Negative sir.”

“Let it get no closer than 25km, and get weapons lock on it. Fire on it at first sign of hostile intent.”

“Yes sir!”

With foreign technology you can never know what’s a weapon and what isn’t. Riberdir knew that too well. Caution could never hurt.

“Computer, turn on Eithron”

“Beep confirmed, turning on Eithron combat assistant on code blue”

The ai springs to life, taking over many sistems of a ship. Combat assistance ai is a staple of all Calerostan ships. It is used on everything from civilian ships to the hardest military vessels. Eithron is the curent gen state of the art ai used by the calerostan navy.

With a lock on the satellite and a distance of 25km the ai keeps constant distance and weapons lock. In case of a attack it can react faster than any Edhel could, if given the authorisation. It currently doesn’t tho

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After receiving orders from the Surveillance Complex on Korelapolat, S-34 started to approach the alien ship, using a small fusion engine that had been installed on it just some years ago. It kept going closer: 45 kilometers…40…35…30…

While it travelled, it started producing a new message:

UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL, DUE TO YOUR INABILITY OR UNWILLINGNESS TO GIVE AN APPROPRIATE SIGNATURE, A SATELLITE IS BEING SENT TO INSPECT THE SHIP. THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT CONDITIONAL.

After less than a minute, it got to around 25 kilometers from the ship.

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“sir, it is approaching us extremely fast! Without the main engines we have no chance of keeping the distance!”

“Damn it.” says Riberdir, and presses a button to open a direct voice chanel with engineering, “Captain to engineering, what’s the status on the main engine?”

“Semi operstional sir, it can work but only to a maximum of 47% power, but there’s a question of how safe it would be, I’d recommend no higher than 30%. I doubt we can fully fix it outside of a port.”

“That’s not good. What about FTL?”

“Fully offline sir, we can probably get it capable of tactical skips in up to 2 hours, but it will take at least 3 days for full FTL”

“Acknowledged. Lieutenant set a evasive course from the satellite, 30% engine power. Eithron: code yellow. Have a live stream of data be sent to command trough mirial space.”

The engines roar to life, propelling the ship on a avoidance course. Eithron now has permission to autofire defensive weapons, like point defense and anti torpedo missiles. But even with the extra speed, the satellite is still getting closer…

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Suddenly, the alien vessel activated some sort of engines and started speeding away in the satellite’s opposite direction. Regardless of this though, S-34 was still going faster than the ship, and was going to reach it in less than two minutes. But, after a while, the engine’s fuel tank goes in red, warning S-34 that in little time, there wouldn’t be any fuel left for reaching the ship or for returning back in orbit. Therefore…

FUEL RESERVES NOT SUFFICIENT FOR COMPLETION OF TRAJECTORY.
OPENING DRONE PANEL...
RELEASING SCANNING DRONE...

As the satellite slowed down and started heading back towards it’s designated orbital trajectory, a small panel opened on it’s side, releasing a small scanning drone, capable of reaching speed two times faster than the ones the satellite could travel at. Scanning drones were 2 meters wide spheres, outfitted with various scanners and tools, repurposed from research probes used on Orbital Science Stations.

The Drone shot out at a great speed towards the alien vessel, ready to scan it and eventually access its interior. It was going to reach the ship in less than a minute.

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"captain, the craft is braking off, seemingly returning to it’s old treje… VAMPIRE! VAMPI…

while the officer was still saying the call out for a incoming missle, Eithron jumps into action

WARNING! ENEMY TORPEDOID DETECTED!
PDCS DEPLOYED
LOCKING…
LOCKING…
TARGET LOCK ACQUIRED
FIRE

The PDCs spring into action, Quickly taking aim and fiering a shower of tungsten rounds, 60 of them per second per gun. A true shower of death, with four guns fiering the drone doesn’t stand a chance. In a matter of seconds it is ripped to shreads.

TORPEDOID SHOT DOWN, NO FURTHER TARGETS DETECTED, ALERT MAINTAINED

“1 torpedo neutralized with 0 more incoming! Preparing counterattack!”

“Hold!” Yells the captain, “further signs of agression? Is it possible that it wasn’t a weapon?”

“Yes, but unlikely…”

“Bullshit unlikely! If it wanted to destroy us it wouldn’t shoot a single low velocity torpedo! Could have been some sort of probe. Get a lock on it’s drive sistem if possible, but hold fire untill commanded otherwise!”

“Yes sir!”

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As large metallic bars hit the probe at enormous speeds, it was completely annihilated in an instant. Pieces of scanning equipment and radars, broken and carbonized, flew in all directions, some of them reaching the alien vessel. Being notified of the destruction of it’s drone, sent a distress signal to the Surveillance Complex on Keorelapolat.

Colony: Korelapolat
Korelaimian System Surveillance Complex

“Shit… this is bad.”

“I can notify and order the Quasar Shooter to dispose of the vessel, if you wish.”

“No…no. We- we don’t know their intentions. We don’t even know why they’re here
in the first place! We have to figure that out first… Okay, I think I got this. Xyujik, order an Exploration Shuttle to reach the vessel and try to communicate or access the interior.”

“Of course, I’ll do that right away.”

From the Complex’s Spaceport, an Exploration Shuttle departed, soaring above the atmosphere and getting farther and farther away from Korelapolat. Equipped with 15 Exploration Units, advanced anti-matter shielding and equipment capable of penetrating even the hardest of metals, Exploration Shuttles were mostly used to explore asteroids, barren planets and dangerous places in general. When the shuttle got around 800 kilometers away from Korelapolat, it activated it’s Warp Drive, and started travelling towards the alien vessel.

In little over 5 minutes, the aliens would start noticing unusually high energy perturbations in the area around them, signal of the Shuttle’s arrival.

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“captain, warp signature detected!”

“Shit! They’re probably sending in something more substantial to deal with us. We’ve not detected it earlier, right?”

“Negative, long range sensors are still offline. The ship will probably pop up near us in a matter of minutes if not faster.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Yellow alarm! All hands battle stations! We don’t know their intent, but concidering we blew up their probe it could be hostile. Eithron: code orange!”

“Captain may i recomend a code red? When spotting a hunter in a dark forest, it’s best to shoot first, that way you might survive”

“It’s different when you’re a lone warrior in the enemy’s city, commander. One wrong move and you’ll get showered by arrows”

Code orange ment expected battle. All armament is prepared in case they’re necessary. The AI will automatically track all non friendlies in the area, preparing for the possiblity to lock on. It is still limited to only defensive weapons tho, only code black gives it full armament.

The crew was ready, and waiting…

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With a bright flash of colorful light, the Exploration Shuttle appeared around 10 kilometers away from the vessel. While preventively charging up the Exploration Units and all of the scanning systems, it Immediately started broadcasting a message to the alien ship:

UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL, WE HAVE COME HERE TO MEDIATE THE SITUATION. WE DON'T WISH TO HARM YOU. IF YOU ARE CAPABLE OF HEARING US, PLEASE RESPOND.

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As the ship exits warp Eithron goes crazy, like it was spooked by the sudden target. The crew doesn’t reach much differently.

“EMPEROR’S GLORY!!! THAT THING JUST JUMPED TO 10 KILOMETERS IN FRONT OF US!”

“Telemetry!”

“Advancing towards us rapidly sir!”

“Fire up the engine! We need some distance!”

“Doubt we can get a lot sir!”

“Every meter is more time for the defense sistem to react!”

“Sir it is sending radio signals towards us, like it’s trying to communicate, but they’re undeciferable to us.”

"Interesting. Send them over to high command like the ones from the satellite! They might be able to decifer them. "

"Sir they show no sign of stopping their advance "

Riberdir thinks for a second, and then answers:
“Fire a warning shot, but make it clear we’re not targeting them.”

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A large projectile shot out from one of the alien ship’s cannons, it’s trajectory obviously not meant to hit but still awfully close to the Exploration Shuttle. The Shuttle’s then A.I. decided to turn off the fusion engines and stop moving for the moment. The aliens clearly didn’t want the vessel to get any closer. It was going to wait until any other signal was emitted from the ship.

In the meantime, to try and signal inhostility to the aliens, it shot out a firework-like flare, which exploded in a large and glowing purple smiley face. It was used throughout all the Region to symbolize friendship and peace, so it might have worked with the aliens too.

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“Captain the warning shot worked, they’ve killed their engine.”

“Good, monitor them closely, we need to figure something out”

“They seem to have fired some kind of flare. Wait, is that a smiling face?”

The bridge crew looks in utter confusion. The flare was indeed a smiling face.

“I guess that means they have no hostile intent?”

“Possibly, but remember, they’re xenos, most likely not humanoid, that symbol could mean something completely different to them. Increase the distance between us to 25km, but keep weapons lock the entire time. We should also possibly try communicating with them. Think people, what’s something they could possibly understand?”

The bridge crew thinks for a moment, and then a officer anwsers

“Mathematical constants are the same everywhere in the universe. Maby we can send the number π in binary? I can assume it’s value would be the same in binary to them.”

“Good idea, coms, do as he said”

The communications officer follows the order, and sends a message trough radio waves:

11.00100 10000 11111 10110 10101 00010 00100…

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After sending the flare, the alien vessel sent another message. It was in binary code, or at least something similar. After deciphering it, it turned out to be…

π?

Everyone was confused. Both the Shuttle’s Artificial Intelligence and the control team on Korelapolat. What the hell was this supposed to mean?

Regardless of this, a message like that meant that the aliens could hear them and were trying to communicate without fighting, which was a good sign.

”We have to respond too now!”

”Yeah, but what do we say?”

”We should try and send another mathematical constant as well. It worked for us, so it’s gotta work for them.”

”What about… the golden ratio!”

”Of course! Let’s send it immediately.”

They put the constant in the shuttle’s remote control terminal, and waited. In less than 10 seconds, the shuttle started sending the message:

00110001 00101100 00110110 00110001 00111000 00110000…

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“captain, it looks like it worked. They’re sending back a binary string too”

“What is it?”

“Seems to be the golden ratio sir”

“Golden ratio, hmmmm. Try sending the base of the natural logarithm, they should understand that too”

“Yes sir!”

The coms officer does as told, and a nother binary string is sent:

10.10110111111000010101

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It worked! The aliens sent another message, this time it was the base of the natural logarithm in binary. This was a pretty clear message that the aliens had no hostile intent, at least that’s what it looked like. On order from the Surveillance Complex, the Shuttle was going to execute protocol Ambassador, which was preventively installed on all Galactyan Exploration Shuttles to know what to do in case of alien contact.

UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL, WE ARE GOING TO SEND AN EXPLORATION UNIT TO YOU TO PROPERLY MEDIATE THE SITUATION. ANY ATTEMPTS TO HARM THE UNIT WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONSIDERED AN ATTACK ATTEMPT AND WILL RESULT IN A DIRECT COUNTERATTACK.

Opening it’s airlock, the Shuttle released one of the already activated Exploration Units. After floating for a couple of seconds, the unit activated a small fusion engine in a backpack like structure on its back, propelling itself at high speeds towards the alien vessel, ready to access it. It was outfitted with a Genesis Pulse Rifle and a Multitool Melting Gun, capable of reaching temperatures hot enough to melt Tungsten.

And these things it was outfitted with, were going to be the start of conflict.

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“Captain, they seem to have launched some sort of drone!”

“On screen!”

The display lights up, showing the “drone”. It is humanoid in shape, and robotic in nature. The sensors show that it seems armed with strange weaponry. A robotic solider.

“It looks, like a android?”

“A heavily armed android, sir”

“How long untill it reaches us?”

“With our curent distance of 40 kilometers, around maby 2 minutes maximum, most likely less”

“Alright. Fire a nother warning shot, and get one of the coil guns aimed at it. Aim the other one at the origin craft, and also get missile lock on it. We don’t know why they broke peace, but we sure won’t hesitate to anwser”

“Yes sir!”

The spark fires a last warning shot, showing what will happen next. At this point a battle seems inevitable.

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HOSTILITY DETECTED.
RETRIEVING EXPLORATION UNIT 12.

Due to the newly detected hostility, the Exploration Shuttle ordered Exploration Unit 12 to return to the ship immediately, so that it could be safe from further attacks. This, was a direct attack. This, was WAR. To make the aliens understand what they had just done, the Shuttle released another flare, this time a red angry face, followed by several small red stars shining with red anger.

After a minute, the Unit reached the Shuttle. As soon as the Exploration Unit re-entered, the ship activated it’s antimatter shields and started the Attack Protocol.

INITIATE ATTACK PROTOCOL.
ACQUIRING TARGET LOCK...
TARGET LOCK ACQUIRED.
ACTIVATING NANO-PARTICLE TURRET...
LOADING ENERGY RESERVE NPT-1...
OPEN FIRE.

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