Gods among men [0BBT]

[killermantiss]

While the emperor was in Galactya negotiating in the grand congress, Calerost also had business on the other end of the sector. Not too far from Akropii territory a mirial anomaly was detected. Not quite a wormhole, but a rift seeping into mirial space. With the right tech a wormhole could be opened there. The INS Drop of Rain, one of the first droplet class corvettes in service was sent there to investigate and do research.

“Exiting mirial space in 2.5 minutes captain”

“Excellent. Let’s do this quickly and return home.”

Captain Mírion was a scientist more than a military captain at heart, but was very skilled in the battlefield. He was commanding a battleship in the wormhole war. He requested afterwards to be assigned to a science role and was set to be the captain of the Drop of Rain. The ship was very new and so needed people like him untill the class was fully proven.

What he didn’t know was that on this mission the ship was going to be baptized by fire…

[ZeroXz]

The stellar ships of the Conglomerated State were on their rutinary territorial patrol near Draoplal. An important part of the fleet was in the mission, as most of the personnel in them were in training exercises.

Inside the SS Pobol

“Status of the fleet.”

“Fully operative, boss. SS Brasbrayl and SS Doultla have joined the fleet again after refueling, we can continue at full machine until the next stop.”

“I envy those over at the warp drive ships. You heard about them? They are awesome! They go over the speed of light, and you reach there so fast! Imagine if we-”

“Shut up soldier. What’s that sound?”

“T-that sound?”

“Yes, it’s making me go insane!”

“Mh, seems to be coming from the radar, sir.”

“Well, turn it off, report a problem with the radar systems over at SS Pobol, and assign another ship to rely us information while the gals fix the problem. I don’t know, assign the job to SS Brasbrayl, its filled with a bunch of slackers, he he.”

“On it, sir…”

“How do you think the warp drive works-”

“Sir, SS Brasbrayl communicate to us that their radio suffers the same problems, so does the entire front of the formation.”

“I swear they are going to get all demoted…”

“Sir… their signal is getting stronger…”

Silence plagues the command room.

“Turn our radar back on, continue forward… and tell the firing commands to prepare their weapons…”

[killermantiss]

“Braking out of mirial space in 3, 2, 1…”

A flash of light and pulse of energy is seen in realspace as the ship brakee trough.

“Status report?”

“All systems nominal, braketrough went smooth. Radar… Captain you should probably look at the long range radar”

Mirion pulls it up on his screen and looks in silence. Ships. A lot of them.

“Set combat AI to yellow alert. All hands battle stations. We are in a first contact situation. I want long range scanners on them emediately. Intercept their comms. What do they say?”

“The universal translator seems to be malfunctioning sir, we can’t get a reasonable translation”

“Stupid Emeraldian tech, they should have went for Drakari or other tech. But nope, it’s the one Galactya uses it must be well compatible with our systems too…”

“Sir long range scans indicate that the ships have no antimatter shielding. They’re… Weird. Very primitive looking”

“varying tech levels are to he expected in first contacts. Remember, if combat starts do NOT shoot to kill. Aim for engines and try to also disable weapons. Approach them at a medium speed.”

The mirion enhanced fusion engines light up, glowing a bright blue. The ship starts approaching the unknown fleet at a speed completely average for calerostan ships, but fast for the conglomerated states, getting closer and closer…

[ZeroXz]

A flash blinds momentarily the front lines as the energy wave blacks out shortly all other lights in the fleet, before the crew notices what just happened.

“Have we been hit by some sort of EMP?”

“THAT’S YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN?! THAT SHIP APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE!”

“Is it a FTL ship? It has no Conglomerate marking, neither the comms are in any language understandable.”

“That’s no Conglomerate ship…”

The crew once again stays in silence for a few seconds, this time with the loud beeping of the aboard self-recovery protocols.

“Sir…?”

“Status of the ship…”

“The hull hasn’t been affected, the electronic systems are operative, miraculously.”

“Soldiers, we have found them, they are real. This is the moment we have been waiting for…”

“S-sir…? The unidentified ship is approaching. R-really fast.”

The captain stole the position of the communications, and grabbed onto the microphone.

“Soldiers. This is the end. Full throttle head on, fire everything we have. When we run out of ammunition, ram them. When we run out of fuel, block them. When we run out of ships, fight them with our own hands. Bathe Them in Steel, Bathe Us in Blood, Bathe Our World in Peace.”

“Sir… Yes, yes sir!” the crew shouted in unison

“Full throttle head on, sir!”

The fleet started moving head on as both a thousand engines and a thousand macron guns lighted in a blaze to life.

[killermantiss]

“captain, hostile activity!”

“Launch 4 flechette torpedos between the ships and initiate a tactical warp to outflank them!”

The rapid reload torpedo tubes release one torpedo each, which quickly ignite their engines, flying towards the ships at a acceleration greater than 100g. In the meantime the Drop of Rain does a short warp jump, appearing next to the fleet, and started shooting at enemy ships with it’s coilguns. The shells ware flying at 1% the speed of light and ware aimed for engines and weapons.

[ZeroXz]

“Post reaction ammunition incoming,” the loud self-defence computers announce, as a cloud of disruptive particles launches before the torpedoes, exploding them mid-air, and reducing the speed of the shrapnel.

“Man I love that computer-”

Suddenly, alarms bawl from 4 ships in the left flank.

“SIR, ENGINE FAILURES IN LEFT FRANK!”

“Raise ships in the right flank to shoot them. Defend the right flank with deck ships, and release nuclear charges in the aft and overhead. Wherever they teleport next, I want a bomb in their command room.”

“Yes, sir!”

Upon order, hundreds of proximity H-charges release from every outside ship.

“Track them with every single ship in the fleet, and release a communication to Home to arm the Last Resort.”

“On it sir!”

[killermantiss]

“Sir they seem to be releasing some sort of mines”

“How are our shields holding up?”

“They’re taking damage from the sheer volume of projectiles, but holding up well overall sir”

“Good. Any progress on the universal translator?”

“Negative. It doesn’t seem we’ll fix it any time soon. Should i request backup?”

“Make it so. Do me a nother tactical warp, this time above them!”

“Aye!”

The ship does a second tactical warp, zooming to above the enemy fleet

“Target seeming command vessels, try to knock out their engines and comms! Engines full speed, circle them!”

4 more torpedos shoot from the tubes, and the engine burns like hellfire. The ship is taking a orbit manuever around the fleet, using it’s PDC cannons to try to thin out the mine layer.

---

meanwhile in Tartirion

Archadmiral Osbion, only ranking bellow the emperor himself in the armed forces, looks at the screen with a face of shock.

“this is galactya all over again, but this time we’re the ones who’re godlike”

He says to the officer next to him. He studied that first contact long, fascinated by it. Now he’s in the position held by admiral Luthaleth hundreds of years ago. He knew what to do.

"Show me a list of all the starbreakers that can be fast deployed to there. We will rely on proven tech like the matrix. It will also be a show of power.

A list shows up. A entry emediately caught his eye

NAME: INS SPIRIT OF DEATH
COMMANDING OFFICER: ADMIRAL NARTHADIS NÎNORIEL
LOCATION: ORBITING ILANOR
MISSION STATUS: DORMANT

"perfect. Send in the spirit of death. "

“As you command”

[ZeroXz]

“Sir, they teleported overhead. They are have shoot some missiles, the overhead ships have taken care of them.”

“There are thousands of meters of mines and ships between us, we can hold up. Just make sure to continue firing and releasing mines.”

“What if they call supports?”

“… We’ll do what our predecessors did when they fought the same enemy. If they weren’t able to colonize Home in the past, they won’t be able now.”

“…”

Silence plagues the command room again.

“Make sure we keep them here as long as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

[killermantiss]

“Is there a way we can bypass the mines?”

“Not while not endangering ourselves or them”

“And why would we? We’re just buying time at this moment. Let’s test out some of this new tech, shall we? Enable cloaking and disengage. Keep the engine in maximum power for stealth and get some distance. We’ll try what we did with galactyans.”

Cloaking fields are a relatively new technology in Calerost, but are still developed. Proven to work in the wormhole war and even before that ware incorporated into water line ships. With a press of the console a field covers the ship and it fades away to the enemy, both visually and on their radar. Slowly the Drop of Rain gains more distance from the fleet.

[ZeroXz]

“Sir, they have vanished?”

“Pardon?”

“Umh, they aren’t here…”

“…”

“Sir…?”

“This must an ambush. Why would they leave if we were in a stalemate?”

“Mhh…”

“Where were they before losing contact?”

“Uh, Overhead, approximately 15 degrees or so into Aft.”

“Shoot that direction.”

“What if they have teleported?”

“Maybe they use too much energy to hide and aren’t able to teleport… Ugh, who knows! This is a completely new kind of threat. We can’t take chances. Is there recording of the battle?”

“Yes, besides the data lost in one of the ships in the left flank, we have quite a good bunch of data.”

“Great, start sending it to the closest Matrioshka Node for processing a simulation. Perhaps that will give us some help while these things are away.”

“And meanwhile?”

“Assess damages in the left flank and keep up the shooting. Besides, release disruptive clouds in every direction, and follow any trail left by the ship among the disruptive cloud or the mines, and call for the rest of the fleet for support, they may be invisible, but if they are here they will hit something. We can’t do much more.”

“Great… On it, sir.”

As such, the fleet becomes engulfed by a cloud of particles, except the overhead for shooting and a window in the right flank for data transmission.

[killermantiss]

“Sir they’re shooting at our previous location, they have no clue about our position.”

“excellent. They’re lucky we aren’t here to kill and that I’m commanding the ship. Alright, now let’s see what we could do to try to establish peaceful comms. Any ideas?”

“In the first contact with Galactya there was a atempt at peaceful communication by sending mathematical constants in binary. Could we try that?”

“Are we outside of their weapons range?”

“Will be in 5 minutes sir. The ship moves significantly slower to keep it’s stealth”

“Alright. When we get out of it try sending them the value of π in binary”

"As you say sir. "

The ship slowly gains distance on the alien fleet, untill it is outside of believed weapons range. The cloak lowers, and the ship starts screaming in binary:
11.00100 10000 11111 10110 10101 00010 00100 00101…

[ZeroXz]

“Sir, we have a signal again from the ship.”

“Great, why aren’t they nuked already?”

“Ahem- it’s a message, seems like it’s in binary.”

“Well, at least they are convenient. I guess that we can’t destroy each other, so let’s give them a chance. What does the message say?”

“… Uh… Pi…”

“Mh-hm, what?”

“They sent us the number Pi…”

“I hope they know that we know that number already, lol.”

“If that’s a message, it’s hard to decipher… Whatever, I don’t know, send them the Fibonacci sequence, for example, I guess… As long as they stay here, then it’s safe.”

"On it, sir."

“These aliens got some real weird customs…”

00110000 00100000 00110001 00100000 00110001 00100000 00110010 00100000 00110011 00100000 00110101 00100000 00111000 00100000 00110001 00110011…

[killermantiss]

“Captain it worked, they’re sending back the Fibonacci sequence.”

“Excellent. Approach them slightly, and send something else, let’s say the base of the natural algorithm.”

“As you command”

This was a good sign. They could possibly have ended combat. Mirion hoped so at least. With Galactya they didn’t manage to end it fully then as a unexpected move from their side caused combat to resume. Hopefully it would be better this time.

[ZeroXz]

“Sir, they are approaching.”

“Oh hell nah, they aren’t. Send them their past coordinates and shoot, miss them purposely, let’s see if they get the message. Who knows what they want to do if they get closer.”

“Got it, sir.”

A single macron round fires.

00101101 00110110 00110000 00101110 00110010 00110000 00101100 00100000 00110001 00110000 00110001 00110010 00110000 00101110 00110000 00110000 00101100 00100000 00110001 00110010 00101110 00110000 00110000…

[killermantiss]

"Sir they shot at us again but missed. They’re sending some numbers in binary we do not recognize. "

“Could it have been a warning shot?”

“It is possible, especially considering that they didn’t shoot at all after that one macron blast”

A nother voice pops up

“They’re coordinates! The numbers they sent us are some sort of coordinates! But we have no idea about reference points and measurements they use so they’re useless.”

“Smart observation officer. Stop the ship. We’ll also fire a warning shot back, but i want this one to be a show of power.”

He pulls up a 3D projection of the area and looks at it for a minute

“target lock that ship at the edge. Blow off it’s engine using the mirion lance. They have sensors good enough to recognize superluminal weaponry when they see it, and this will be a firm warning of our capabilities. Afterwards send them the square root of two and aproach them slightly. They’re going to be doing this out way”

He was getting tired of these aliens thinking they have any power in the situation. He would show them what they are truely messing with. Maby then they’d show respect and fear. He usually wasn’t that kind of person but the warning shot upset his honor.

Lights on the ship turn dim as the lance charges up, and then it fires. A bright blue beam of extra dimensional particles traveling at superluminal speeds lights up the void, and precisely hits the engine of the targeted ship, blowing it clean off with minimal damage to the rest of the ship. Then binary ecoes in radio frequencies again:

1.01101010000010011110…

[ZeroXz]

“Sir, they shoot back, the computers didn’t respond in time. They are sending more numbers.”

“They think we are dumb, scared, or what? God that’s going to be expensive…”

“Next action?”

“Maintain high guard, do not disable the mines, tell the rest of ships to shoot in the rest of directions except the one they are approaching from. If they want to get closer, they’ll do it face to face, not appear out of nowhere like cowards. Also, give them a number.”

“What number?”

“4 4 8.”

“Uh?”

“Basic formulas. I’m done with their superiority complex and their high technology bullshit, sending us numbers we already know instead of sending something that actually means anything. They are even worse than expected, they aren’t as dangerous as we thought, they are just annoying…”

“Got it.”

“How’s the Matrioska going?”

“There’s low traffic, so it’s almost done.”

“Great, download the data, so we are prepared for resuming battle. Just in case, seeing that they like shooting us out of nowhere.”

“Understood, sir.”

Millions of rounds shoot from the exterior of the formation, leaving a single corridor for the enemy ship to approach from.

00110100 00100000 00110100 00100000 00111000

“The next number will be where they are going to send the materials to fix our ships. God-damn aliens get in our territory and go around like hooligans…”

[killermantiss]

“sir they’re shooting but not at us. There’s a cloud of bullets around us from every side. They’re sending numbers… 4, 4, 8? What is that supposed to mean?”

“They’re acting powerful, that’s what they’re doing. Just because we’re holding back. I am tempted to launch a gigaton device at them, or at least as a show of force. But i must admit they’re brave. How long untill the Spirit of Death arrives?”

“A few minutes sir”

“Then we have no reason for drastic actions, but we can have some fun. Blast the national anthem in all radio frequencies at them. A bit of a distraction will make the appearance of the spirit of death even more shocking.”

“Answering to them playing games with us by playing games with them. Not bad, captain”

The sound of bagpipes screams through radio, and meanwhile a nother scream starts to sound on the Trarrusians’ radars…

[ZeroXz]

A song blares through the speakers of the command ship.

“Who put music? I don’t think this is the moment.”

“It’s the enemy, sir. It’s literally in every frequency, a little more and they would be transmitting in gamma rays.”

“I gotta accept they got good taste, it reminds me of the songs in my planet Pryatlou.”

“That place is absolutely horrible.”

“Pardon?”

“I said that place is great.”

“You obviously didn’t say that-”

Suddenly, a loud scream breaks through the speakers and reverberates across the hull.

[killermantiss]

on the INS Spirit of Death

“Captain, approaching target, exiting mirial space in
3 minutes”

“Perfect. All hands battle stations, combat ai code yellow, bring the weapons online and imput the targeting data sent by the INS Drop of Rain, we must be ready if these xenos stupidly decide to still not play nicely.”

Admiral Narthadis Nînoriel was a experienced officer. Same as captain Mirion she fought in the wormhole war, commanding the INS Spark in Darkness II, quite the prestigious position. After the war she was promoted to the rank of admiral, and assigned to the spirit of death in a rotation of a year. No one was set commanding the ship for more than that ever as high command didn’t want anyone to feel at home there, like many noble admirals turned their starbrakers into personal palaces.

The ship was flying troughout mirial space, approaching the terrasians at rapid speed which together with it’s size produced a loud screech on their radar…

[ZeroXz]

“Can someone turn off that goddamn radar already?!”

“It’s turned off already sir!”

“Then cut the cables! I’m sure we can use any other thing that doesn’t scream to IT’S OWN OWNERS!” the captain yells to the machine.

Then, the lights fade out in the entire fleet, together with the screech. Even some of the oldest prosthetics aboard fail, and some thuds against the cold metal floor are heard.

“Ugh…”

“Sir…?”

“… What now…?”

“Umh… nothing answers. I think it was another EMP, this time it was big.”

“Don’t say?”

“You can look at it by yourself- well, we can’t actually see anything.”

“Turn on the emergency generators and try to assess the damages.”

“On it, sir.”

“I thought these aliens would at least fight clean…”