NationStates Jolt Archive

Somewhere far from the mainland Hack, in a newly created somewhat natural harbour, the most work intensive project the fungus had embarked on came into being. A complete, metal ship the size of a small island. It was to serve as the vessel from which the fungus itself could launch diplomatic relations with actual human nations. So as to not provoke any unecessary conflict, the vessel would be as unarmed as possible for a well, sentient fungus.

~~~~

Slowly approaching the Hack proper, the island ship came to a stop at almost four hundred and sixty miles out. Forming a large flash generator, it pulses patterns of light onto the shore in rapid succession. Greetings from the collective, human nation. We are interested in conversing with your officials, regarding several of our basic needs. Note that this vessel carries no physical weapons of any sort, as we do not want to cause any unwanted violence.

"What in the name of the Pipers is that?" Captain Kusek lowered his binoculars, looking to his first mate, "Here, take a look. That's the weirdest fucking thing I've ever seen."

The two officers stood in the bridge of the MGS Tsathoggua, the flagship of the Hack's navy, a massive and old railship purchased from the Federation, back when the Hack was just a favored trading partner, as opposed to a protectorate. It looked much like a battleship, except for the fact that the weapons had been replaced with more advanced railguns.

The two men looked at each other and then back at the ship using a signal light. "Fuck... haven't seen something like that in ages."

"Aye sir. At least we don't have translate further... they've grasped the language."

Kusek smirked, "Yeah, but what the hell are they?" He shrugged, "Oh, never mind. Send back a message."


The is the MGS Tsathoggua. Please approach for more conventional communication.

Approaching them cautiously, the ship switches off the flash generator and swallows it back into it's form with a squelch.
It then creates a hatch and associated hallways within itself for when (or if) they wish to board. Forming a telepathic communications node it reaches out to Captain Kusek, carefully staying on the outside of his mind.

Is this distance acceptable to you, Captain? We/I could create a more fleshy two legged being for 'more conventional communication' if you so wish. We/I do do want to be of any bother.

Captain Kusek stiffened as he felt the presence on the outskirts of his mind. People from the Federation were used to psychics, and used to sharing their minds -- Kusek was indeed used to this, his husband being psychic -- they weren't, however, used to complete strangers doing so. It was rather rude.

This most certainly is not acceptable. Please create a 'two-legged being'.

His first mate looked over, a little concerned, "Everything all right, sir?"

He frowned, "More or less. Damn rude beings..."

I..We..Are sorry, Captain. And it obeys, the ship-thing coming to a complete stop. It populates itself with what it assumes to be reasonable physical copies of Kusek, again assuming him to be an acceptable example of his nations people. It then slowly crafts another assumed copy, but ensures this one has intelligence enough to converse with a welcoming party, life enough that it is independant and strong enough that it can carry out all but the most extreme of tasks. Everything that can be prepared for it has done to the best of it's abilities, but being so inhuman it can only assume that what it does is correct. And to that end, to try and appear to be non-threatening, it generates a weak, background smell of flowers in a field inside of itself. It waits for a response, trying to puzzle out an appropriate form of communication other than the copies.

"These things are pretty damn unnerving..."

"Says the man in charge of a ship named after an eldritch horror," The person speaking this wasn't military. He was dressed in a sharp suit; a representative of the Oligarchy. The Voorm grinning a little, his vaguely rat-like features emphasizing the action. All things considered, he was average for a Voorm: just over five feet tall, grayish fur covering his body save for his right hand, which was cybernetic. At a distance, his eyes seemed a normal shade of amber, but standing this close, Captain Kusek could see that they were, in fact, also cybernetic. Lord only knew what he was seeing. The Voorm, Circ, chuckled some more, "It's a first contact situation, Captain. You should feel honored. Now let's quit with the silly xenophobia and do some contacting." He had a thick Hacker accent and spoke rapidly.

Circ's eyes lost their focus as he gazed out at the strange, fungal ship, stroking the whiskers on his short proto-muzzle, "Probably be easiest if we go over there." His eyes refocused and he glanced at Kusek, "Shall we?" While the Captain nodded and barked orders to prepare a boat, Circ turned back to the strange ship, the modifications in his throat activating. He spoke firmly, his voice amplified and easily carrying to the foreign ship, "We're coming over for a more personal chat. It'll just be a moment." His voice regained normalcy and he laughed a little, "And they told me I'd never find a use for that..."

* * * * *

The small 'ship' released from the Tsathoggua carried Captain Kusek, Circ, and a couple sailors to pilot the thing. As opposed to dealing with the hassel of lowering a vessel and then being forced to look up at the newcomers, the ship was really more of a skiff, manipulating electromagnetic forces to hover across the distance between the two ships, coming to a noiseless stop off the starboard side of the entity. Circ's eyes continually flicked around and in and out of focus as he looked over what they had assumed to simply be a delapadated ship, "Fascinating..."