| Stardust Exiles: The Otane Incident |
A loud metallic clang echoed throughout the bright hangar as the outer bay doors closed as the alien’s shuttle completed its landing, followed immediately after by the hiss of the outer bay being re-pressurized. An automatic message was transmitted to the alien ship to remind them of scanning procedures, followed a few seconds later by a truncated report on the scan, allowing the Treecu to determine if any information that was saved would be considered too sensitive.
Neiguoji stood as the inner doors opened and the low green glow along the walls indicated the activation of the purification field, nearly invisible save for the quiet humming, that would clean their visitors of any potentially dangerous foreign contaminants as they passed through to the main hangar. As another field passed over her and her guards, She quickly reviewed the most interesting parts of the full scan before erasing it, preparing herself for the beginning of the most important meeting in not only hers but in the entire history of her people. Their weapons were, although unfortunate, of course reasonable considering the current situation between their people, not to mention her own escort, and besides, the security systems that should keep them all safe if the talks failed violently. Either way, despite the events of the past weeks, nay, years, there was no reason to doom the talks before they began with paranoia, after all, these aliens weren’t Them, and now that they were here, all that was left was to fix the mess that they found themselves in, and save her people. Unity, Order, and Freedom
-Motto of the Republic of Ubesii
The Ever Silent and Anxious Kiwi(Bird) of The South Pacific
A "polite scan", that was what the pilot had called it. Locs smiled. Either these aliens weren't that bad after all, or were they just a bit stupid? She decided to ignore the possibility to choose what the aliens would save from their scan. At least for now.
Locs had decided she would do things her own way. Coming over herself before the governor was likely a breach of multiple regulations, but the haughty politicians would get their chance later anyway. She ordered the pilot to open the door to the shuttle. She stepped out first, flanked by the soldiers. Their rifles were still hanging around their necks, pointing downwards. It was their move.
Five of the ten spheres had reported back so far, none finding any evidence related to the Centa Family in the systems they had arrived in, two finding barren systems with no evidence any intelligence had ever graced them, one had found marginally interesting signs of previous inhabitants, a mundane confirmation of outside intelligences, and two had been similarly fruitless, although the small ships they had run into before being destroyed were curious, there was something to the northwest, albeit seemingly somewhat primitive. Nevertheless, the Assets had to be retrieved as soon as possible, some Homes were getting rather restless. Another wave of spheres, twenty in total, were released from the ships, a larger net to cast over the few remaining possibilities.
As the Treecu passed through the field, the hangar loosely shifted back over into its normal low white lighting, fully illuminating the rounded hangar going on over a hundred meters behind the small form of the Governor and her security, and still filled with broken probes - some still hanging like strange black fruit from the ceiling, large equipment, and pockmarked with the occasional sign of significant damage. When the Captain and her escort were less than ten meters away, Neiguoji approached them, spines standing on end and hands folded on her chest as was proper for a formal greeting, and hoping she was translated properly by their hastily made language converters. “On behalf of the Manoni people, welcome to the Kaidara, captain. I hope your experience with the purifier wasn’t overly unpleasant, and hope you haven't been too soured by the rash actions of our Captain. Please come with me a little ways and we'll take a lift to an area more suited to discussion so as to begin these all important talks and find a solution without breaking more spines than necessary.” She gestured to her left with a hand and a nod of her head before returning the appendage to her chest, turning to the exit to walk and discuss the future with the captain. Unity, Order, and Freedom
-Motto of the Republic of Ubesii
The Ever Silent and Anxious Kiwi(Bird) of The South Pacific
Locs signalled to the boarding party to detach two soldiers to guard the shuttle. The other three followed her and the Governor. Locs answered the Governor.
"We all want a swift and peaceful solution to this situation. But I must again stress that it is entirely up to you and your willingness to convince us of your peaceful intentions." Her voice was firm, but not aggressive.
As the lift started, rapidly taking them to their final destination Neiguoji turned to address her guest,
"Of course, we understand how the rash actions of our Captain have started us off in an unfortunate state of affairs, and the sudden appearance of uninvited guests must have caused trepidation on your part, but I assure you, we are nothing more than we've said, refugees running from the destruction of our home and trying to find a new one. The Captain, as wrong as he was, was merely acting in what he perceived as self defense. After all, the only aliens we've met besides you chased us and tried to destroy us. We aren't violent, just worried for our future. Now that we've secured a cease-fire between our ships, however, I'm confident we will be able to quickly find a solution that satisfies both our people." The lift stopped, the door opening into a brown room empty save for a long, low metallic table of which the midsection was filled with a large projector screen, and around which lay piled fabrics. Neiguoji sat in the left center of the table, and motioned for the Captain to sit opposite her. Unity, Order, and Freedom
-Motto of the Republic of Ubesii
The Ever Silent and Anxious Kiwi(Bird) of The South Pacific
Just as Locs was about to sit down a small communications device on her wrist beeped. It was a priority message. There were two characters:
![[Image: SwDJ5SI.png]](https://i.imgur.com/SwDJ5SI.png){kind=small} The first character meant that it was message for her eyes only directly from the governor, and the second was a reference to an item in a list of standard orders. She knew exactly what the governor wanted and cursed him in a little bit too loud whisper. Her orders were clear: destroy the alien ship with all available force. How typical of the governor. She pictured him in some interview, bragging about how he had removed a fierce threat to the Star Empire. There would probably some ridiculous medal involved too. Her communicator had already sent back a notification that she had read the message, now she had to confirm her orders. This was the defining moment. She signalled for her escort to leave the room, then she sat down, just looking Neiguoji in her eyes for a few moments. Then she spoke up. "I will be completely honest with you. I just received orders to immediately destroy your ship. Orders that I'm about to ignore... From what I've seen so far, that action would be premature, at best. The local governor, who issued the order, is probably looking for a short cut to fame and hero status. But we are an enlightened people, this is not our true way." Locs sighed. "The tactical situation greatly favours the Treecuu, that is an indisputable fact. And the governor knows this from my report. The only way for this to end peacefully is for us two to work out a way to persuade him of something else, that still would let him have his stupid fame and save your ship." The little device on her wrist beeped angrily to remind her to confirm her orders.
The weight that had been lifting ever so slightly from the Governor came back with full force with the captain's statements. She paused for a moment to weigh what options they had left. There had to be something they could offer that would sate the Treecu governor. Either way, without more information, she wasn't likely to get far in figuring out what.
"What can you tell me about both the governor, and about your Star Empire? What kinds of things would garner him the fame he's looking to achieve in your society?" Unity, Order, and Freedom
-Motto of the Republic of Ubesii
The Ever Silent and Anxious Kiwi(Bird) of The South Pacific
"Before I can answer that I need more information about your situation. Can you tell me more about who you are fleeing from, and why? Are they coming after you?"
Traversal complete...scanning local ar-target located...begin return transmission...
"Of course, we-" Before the Governor could continue, the lights in the room (as well as the rest of the ship, for that matter) changed from their normal soft white to harsh yellow, followed quickly by a high-pitched whine that could mean only one thing, which was confirmed immediately after by the message that appeared on the table and monitor: ![[Image: VfAzbtc.jpg?3]](https://i.imgur.com/VfAzbtc.jpg?3) Even to her alien guest, the horror of her expression must have been clear. They'd found them, and now there was almost certainly no way to escape. She looked back at the Captain, taking a brief moment to collect herself before continuing. "We've been found. As your squadron has likely also detected, a probe has just tunneled in at the northern pole of your star, and it has certainly already detected us. It won't be long now before it sends a report back, and in fact it has likely already begun opening a singularity tunnel. If it manages to send that message, they will come in force and, to give you the briefest introduction to them you'll need, they will be ruthless, they will not compromise, and their genocidal war machine will not stop until all of us-" she said as she gestured between the two of them, "-are either dead or enslaved." Over the ship's com came the the voice of Seilu, automatically translated for the Captain by Neiguoji's translator, "Permission to intercept, Governor?" Meanwhile, despite having requested permission from the governor and, by extension, the Alien, the stealth probe was already carrying out its orders, hurtling through the vacuum at top speed and arming what weapons it had to destroy the hostile, despite the distance making a successful mission unlikely at best. They had to do something, after all, didn't they? Unity, Order, and Freedom
-Motto of the Republic of Ubesii
The Ever Silent and Anxious Kiwi(Bird) of The South Pacific
Locs acted quickly. She confirmed the orders given to her by the governor. Then she sent an order to her fleet.
PRIORITY TARGET ALIEN NORTH STAR DESTROY Locs spoke up with determination in her voice. "I'm going to trust you, even though they could have a just cause in hunting you down, as far as I know... I just ordered the fleet to engage and destroy the alien probe." She paused as if to hear her ships open fire. "I would say this probe might just provide us with what we need for an improvised plan. Governor, could your ship manage one more jump, approximately 3.5 LY? If so, I want you to plot a course for a specific star." Locs let her wrist device project a map over nearby systems, highlighting a small blue star. "During war games a few years ago, one of my ships found this anomaly that enabled it to hide from all our sensors. I'm confident no one could find you there. You need to maintain an orbit at about 1/9 of its radius. Our governor will see that we've opened fire. I just have to say you managed to escape, or that we pushed you into the star here, leaving no trace... I will then meet you at the small blue star, and we take it from there." |
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Spoiler
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