NationStates Jolt Archive

Any nation observing space would notice the fleet. Any nation with advanced capacity to observe the fleet would realize the ships had been patched together out of desperation and were en route to Earth on a crash course. The ships varried in size from that of a bus to the largest, around the size of an aircraft carrier. This lead vessel was transmitting on radio in rapid succession, in various dominant Earth languages:

"Home destroyed. Seek refuge. Can you help?"

Estimated time of arrival was one hour.

The Ato-Saran institute of astronomy was a dull place to work, perpetually on a drip feed of funding from the Department of science and not really though of highly. But Jou Ah loved astonomy, he had watched the stars since he was a small child and it was his life's dream to be able to go into space to see them.

Tonight he was sitting at a desk listening to echoes of distant stars and worlds brought back to him by the massive radio telescopes on the hillside above the institute.
Most of it was just static, but to him that static which was just meaningless noise to others wa the very voice of the universe, the stars talking to him across the void.
Jou reached across to pick up his mug of coffe when the words which were to change his life crackled over the headset.

"Home destroyed. Seek refuge. Can you help?"

The mug of coffee dropped to the floor and shattered, spilling its contents of hot liquid over the tiled floor.
The message repeated again in the same voice and tone.
Jou stared motionless in disbelif at what he was hearing.
He was torn on what to do, call his superiors at the depatment of science, investigate more or just put it down to hallucination and got to bed.

For some minutes a bloody campaign of conscience was fought in his mind before rampant curiosity and the hope that he was not insane got the better of him and he asked the computer to give an approximate location of the signal and was given the second shock of the day, it was stravelling fast, straight towards earth and but ten minutesr away.

Thinking quickly he ordered the computer to lock on and track the signal with it's massive radio dish. Up above on the hillside gigantic gears groaned as they rotated the football pitch sized dish into place.
When the lock confirmed window flashed up onto the monitor Juo prepared to do something he had dreamed of doing since he was six years old.
He reached across the desk and draggeda microphone towards him, trembling with excitement he bent over it and spoke one word into it.

"Hello?"

The first ship to enter the atmosphere was like a mace made of fire: a long line of gold in the sky ending with the sphere of explosion.

The next three ships came together, arcing down safely into the ocean, pumping out hot air to slow descent and land safely.

Soon the fleet was coming down by the dozen. Various ships burned up on entry, or came down too fast and were torn apart. A few were even crushed when the main vessel landed, and one of the final craft crashed on top of it. Through all this, the transmissions continued:

"Home destroyed. Seek refuge. Can you help?"

However, when they got a reply, the message changed.

"Need land. Acigoo destroyed home. Followed here to find world to live. Can you help?"

Jou stared confused at the mic, wondering what to do next, summing up all his courage he drove forward.

"Err.. I don't know, if you'll wait a sec i'll check with my superiors."

That said, Jou paused for a moment before making a leaping dash towards the telephone on the other side of the room. After letting the wall stop his momentum he grabbed the receiver and speed dialed the director of department of science.
Han Lau the director of the department of science recognized the caller ID and sighed, he had much better things to do than to talk with crazy Jou Ah.

"Director sir, your not going to believe this...." The director cut him off.

"Jou I'm sorry but some things from space have been raining down into the ocean and the Cheif of the airforce wants to talk to me about, no doubt asking if they could be hostile missiles. Im surprised you didn't see them with that massive rasio telescope of yours." The director was about to put the receiver down when Jou blurted a stream of words out very quickly.

"YessirIknowabouttheobjectsthatswhatIwantedtotalktoyouabout.SirIwasjusttalkingtothem!"
The director paused.

"What!"

"Sir the objects I think they are space craft, they have been asking for help." Dumbfounded the director stared at the receiver."

"How did you talk to them?"

"With the radio telescope sir." Han Lau stared again.

"Jou now listen to me cafefully, don't lose that signal and stay right where you are, Im sending a team over. Right now ive got and go and talk to the military cheifs to convince them we are not under attack."

An hour later a team of Dept. of Science people and military intelligence officers who had come at the insistance of General Hap Kaei had arrrived at the institute facility, upon which the military officers declared that the installation was now under airforce command. The last known co-ordinates of the tranmission was obtained with some protestaion by Jou Ah and transmitted over to the military headquarters.

OOC: Bold text is in Offworlder language, so wouldn't be understood if overheard. It sounds like a mix of Japanese and Spanish to the untrained ear.
IC:

On board the main refugee ship, the commander of the fleet sighed in relief. The man had spoken using the vernacular, which his people had picked up more of from the radio transmissions than the language proper.

"Commander Aekir! Excellent news!" One of his officers came scrambling up, careful not to trip over the pipes that had been shaken loose by planetfall. We've checked the microbiology of the planet. It's close enough so that it won't jeopardize our immune systems!"

"What about our diseases? If anything we brought along is unfamiliar to the local system, they'll try to isolate us and wipe us out."

"No problem, sir. We removed all the active diseases on the trip over, so there's no way we could spread anything harmful short of blood transfer, which simply wouldn't happen."

Aekir nodded and gestured toward his new translator. The previous one had died of old age during the trip through the system, but his replacement had learned enough in his short life, barely four of the local years.

"Translate for me, Kito."

"Yes, sir."

"There are roughly sixteen million of us. Our food and water supplies are scarce. We breathe oxygen and have already checked for disease. We need help as soon as possible."

The translator nodded and took the speaker unit. "There are about one hundred million of us in base eight math. Supplies are low. We breathe oxygen. We have no disease. Send help as soon as possible."

Small neighbor hardly noticed by other nations and according to the populace, thankfully so.

"This is a time to jump on and get some credit with these guys." Dar, young and new leader of the lost Psyker tribe of Bearzerkers, held his sword like a comfort blanket. His aid spoke again. "If they came here from some other system, even if they aren’t extremely advanced, surly they can offer something. We have building supplies and food as our main industries, of course after book publishing. Just imagine, if we give them food and shelter, we can get something else in return, 'give receive' non?"

The last word was to signal that an answer was expected, non being negative and a question, yan being positive and an answer.

Dar spoke, "Take no weapons, not one. We are truly barbarians, by definition non? We killed a true nation to be our own, yan. Billions they were, now they are gone, not one day goes by that I think of the man who had the title of 'The Suicide King', ritual suicide was not what... He took himself out of the trance. Now is a time for piece, yan! What ever we can immediately spare, now, go." Dar shivered, no sound left his lips but he surely meant to say, "Peace?"

"This is an interesting development." The agents had met in an abandoned warehouse, one of the few safe meeting places thanks to the war with Palixia and Spooty. They'd both probably be dead if not for Aequatio's help. "Indeed. Should we get involved?"

"Not yet. There will be fighting for access to the alien technology. We'll wait until the dust clears, and smuggle the good stuff from the victor. Clean, safe, and potentially helpful in the war."

"We may be able to get it clean if they believe in free flow of information." The first agent shook his head. "They're too desperate. Charity won't be an option. Threats, maybe, but whoever tried would be stopped by other interested parties."

"We watch?"

"For now, we watch."

OOC: Fancy TAG.

OOC: Rather than just bump since the fleet has not received any actual contact, I'll provide some useful information. My race is about seven feet in height thanks to the extra joints in their legs (between feet and knees, inverted) but are physically weaker due to a long trip in space and a low gravity homeworld. They only have three digits instead of five, are hairless, and their ears and nose are smoothed out compared to the human counterpart. Their life cycle is a quarter that of humans in all respects, but their notably superior medicle technology keeps them going into the human equivolent of the one hundred forties.

Admiral Jia Long's brow creased and he brought his hands together in a pensieve gesture.

"You are sure?"

"Yes sir, the planetfall location was confirmed an hour ago at the institute and we have a spotter plane enroute to the area now."

The old Admiral looked long and hard around the confernece room full of senior military officials.

"Well then, I suggest the we move to secure the area, nothing much just a defence group with a Guard assault ship accompanying them.
The fleet will remain at a distance untill contact has been made and then will secure the area around the site.
Gentlemen that will be all"

The admiral got slowly up and was escorted out by two Jade Guardsmen.
The rest of the conference room reamined in silence for a few moments as they absorbed what had been fully related at the meeting before a bustle of conversation breaking out.


-------------------Southern Pacific ocean, 14:00 AST---------------------

The large B-52 startegic bomber rolled over the skies towards the are in which the Offworlders had landed.
Captain Juan Ki stared at the endless ocean below as she guided the huge plane towards the target zone. She checked her fuel and when she lloked up was met by the sight of thousand of small dot covering the surface.
still in awe she orderd the bomb bay doors opened and opened a channel back to her home base.

"This flight Delta-four we have the target zone in sight and are on delivery run. Do we have go ahead to continue mission? over."

The clear reply came back over the radio in the gruff tones of Admiral Jia Long.

"Delta-four you have authorization to continue. I repeat autorization has been given. Good luck over."

Captain Jaun banked the unweildy plane onto the delivery course.

"Bombadier, release on my mark."

The flight officer nodded in recognition and as they passed over the cemtre of the huddle of landed ships she gave the order and a small bouy dropped out of the cavernous bombay and hurtled towards the water before a parachute opened and guided safely to the surface.
Once their it began to transmit a meesage over and over again.

"Greeting travellers, welcome to earth. We are the Empire of Ato-Sara and are willing to help you and learn more about you. Please respond to this message and we wil begin to communicate."

meanwhile the bomber circled around and closed its bomb bay doors before setting off back home.
Just of the Ato-Saran coast a small flotilla of navy ships was geeting underway.
It consisted of five Jianghu-III Missile Frigates,
four Luda- III Destroyers, two Kilo class Submarines and two Iowa Class Super cruisers all steaming on a direct course for the target zone.

Soon, messages from hundred of ships were conveying the same message, although worded slightly differently in each case:

"Hello Ato-Sara. Go to biggest ship to see Earthspeaker and leader of our ships. They will explain things."

Admiral Jia Long's brow creased and he brought his hands together in a pensieve gesture.

"You are sure?"

"Yes sir, the planetfall location was confirmed an hour ago at the institute and we have a spotter plane enroute to the area now."

The old Admiral looked long and hard around the confernece room full of senior military officials.

"Well then, I suggest the we move to secure the area, nothing much just a defence group with a Guard assault ship accompanying them.
The fleet will remain at a distance untill contact has been made and then will secure the area around the site.
Gentlemen that will be all"

The admiral got slowly up and was escorted out by two Jade Guardsmen.
The rest of the conference room reamined in silence for a few moments as they absorbed what had been fully related at the meeting before a bustle of conversation breaking out.


-------------------Southern Pacific ocean, 14:00 AST---------------------

The large B-52 startegic bomber rolled over the skies towards the are in which the Offworlders had landed.
Captain Juan Ki stared at the endless ocean below as she guided the huge plane towards the target zone. She checked her fuel and when she lloked up was met by the sight of thousand of small dot covering the surface.
still in awe she orderd the bomb bay doors opened and opened a channel back to her home base.

"This flight Delta-four we have the target zone in sight and are on delivery run. Do we have go ahead to continue mission? over."

The clear reply came back over the radio in the gruff tones of Admiral Jia Long.

"Delta-four you have authorization to continue. I repeat autorization has been given. Good luck over."

Captain Jaun banked the unweildy plane onto the delivery course.

"Bombadier, release on my mark."

The flight officer nodded in recognition and as they passed over the cemtre of the huddle of landed ships she gave the order and a small bouy dropped out of the cavernous bombay and hurtled towards the water before a parachute opened and guided safely to the surface.
Once their it began to transmit a meesage over and over again.

"Greeting travellers, welcome to earth. We are the Empire of Ato-Sara and are willing to help you and learn more about you. Please respond to this message and we wil begin to communicate."

meanwhile the bomber circled around and closed its bomb bay doors before setting off back home.
Just of the Ato-Saran coast a small flotilla of navy ships was geeting underway.
It consisted of five Jianghu-III Missile Frigates,
four Luda- III Destroyers, two Kilo class Submarines and two Iowa Class Super cruisers all steaming on a direct course for the target zone.