NationStates Jolt Archive

Having restored unity in their nation and a an era of Pax Whittiera on the earth, the people of Whittier reclaimed their former colony on the moon.
A few years later, Martian Whittier, their colony on Mars, was formally made into a People's Republic within the UPR.
It was a time of total peace between the nations of earth.
The International Olympic Games had been converted from their original purpose to the soviet purpose of deciding international conflicts. Nations who declared war, didn't actually go to war. Instead, they sent mammoth size teams of athletes to the Olympics to beat the crap out of the other nation's teams. Nation who engaged in a "war challenge" as it is called, were required to abide by the official results of the Olympics. The nation that got the lowest score in the Olympics, lost the war. To refuse was to invite military confrontation with the entire planet, not just the opposing nation.
The games used in such "war challenges" were simple and would be recognized by people from the 20th century: american football, basketball, baseball, soccer, track events, ice hockey, boxing, wrestling, horse racing, street racing, kung fu, badminton, swimming, and then there was the Eace, a race that literally went around the world. It started in the capital of one of the nations and had to end in the capital of the opposing nation. And the runners had to go through everysingle nation in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. While in South America, they also had to run down the length of the Antartic Peninsula. The nation of the winning runner, gained 120 points in their "war". The other events were worth 50 points each. All steroids and other body chemistry altering drugs were prohibited upon penalty of death in many nations. Any nation that was found to have won a war through the use of illicit drugs had its victory stripped away by an international committee and the nation itself was usually slapped with economic sanctions and an embargo for at least 5 years. During that period, they were banned from trading with the outside world and airplanes were't allowed into their airspaces.
The people of Whittier had been able to establish colonies on Europa; on Saturns water moon, Enceladus; and on Sedna. There were massive Whittier space cities throughout the solar system. A few orbited the planets Neptune and Uranus. The first space city having been built before humans even set foot on Europa while humans still settled wars through violent primitive means. A space city takes up the area of a typical city on earth ranging the LA class (named for cities the size of Los Angeles) to Beijing class (for cities as big as Biejing. The classes were NY, LV, LA, Beijing, MC, Tokyo, London, Mumbwe, Tel Aviv or TA. Those were the worlds biggest cities at the time when the space city boom began.
But they had never ventured out of the solar system. Until now.
For the past ten years they had been working on an interstellar spaceship to travel to distant stars. The year was 2304. The WSS Goliath had just been built and was about to embark on its maiden voyage. A journey from Earth to Pluto, took 30 minutes with the ships, new advanced drive technology.
Photo of the WSS Goliath:

http://www.30doradus.org/spaceships/new_images/nx01b.jpg

The test flight to Alpha Centauri had occured a couple months back and the photos they had brought back were amazing.

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=8929913


Now the same ship was laiden with colonists and supplies. The desination was Proxima Centauri. They would be establishing Whittier's first interstellar colony.
They had explored their galaxy and now they were stepping out into the next frontier: interstellar space.

Proxima Centauri
Parts of pirate debris littered the battle zone around the 2nd gas giant in-system, an Amazonian Dominion light force concluding the chase over several star sectors of a notorious pirate gang. The conclusion had been messy, with the destruction of the entire pirate faction ships and the loss of three Dominion space craft. The remaining six craft of the fleet, with only one ship over 400m still left intact, was still lurking in the area, waiting for a potential back-up fleet that was said to be en-route.

Engsen Helms looked puzzled.
"Sir, I am picking up a signal."
"Must be the natural radio static of the system itself. It is known that stars and even planets naturally produce radio signals." said the Science Officer, Mr. Slick.

"No sir, I've filtered for that possibility. These appear to be artificial."
replied the Ensen.

Captain Rollerby: "Must be the old television and radio transmissions from earth. They're supposed to be out this far at least."

Comms Officer Corina Williams, "Captain, they not even originating from earth's direction. They're coming from the Centauri system."

Captain Rollerby: "Artificial signals coming from out here? If that was possible why didn't we pick them up on the test voyage?"

Slick: "The ship was not equipped to pick up signals because it was just a test flight. But now that we intend to colonize the system, they thought it would be prudent to install communications equipment."

"Though it will take a message from us 30 days to reach earth." finished Rollerby. "All men to quarters. This may be our first contact with an extraterrestrial race and we don't know if they are friendly or hostile. We are not built for combat operations but if they try to take our ship or scan our brains to find the location of earth in preparation for earth, we must be ready to destroy the ship and ourselves. "
"If they are peaceful, we'll have to bar our people from going to their world's, ships and bar them from coming over here," cautioned Dr. Ekky, "we don't want to risk the exchange of diseases. We might end up accidentally causing the extinction of the race that is native to this system or we might catch a deadly pandemic from them. In the event of such event, we should quarantine ourselves to this sector and ban travel back to earth."


OOC: First contact, they won't be able to communicate with your people cause the language and alphabet and a few other things will be totally alien to them.
Kind of like the indians and europeans in the 1490's. Except these guys are taking precautions.

Exterior - Alpha Centarui Star System

A fleet of five Penetrator class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_penetrator.gif) assault cruisers, ten Inclement class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_inclement.gif) supply ships, one Growler class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_growler.gif) communications ships, five Provider class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_may_reptend.gif) repair ships, and one Na'Shantaa class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/NaShantaa.gif) cruiser dropped to sublight in the in the Alpha Centauri star system. Their only purpose in-system, currently, was to restock the fuel reserves of the Inclements.

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"Admiral," hissed Captain Sillruik, "We have arrived."

"Good," Admiral Grilluike hissed back, "Begin the refueling procedure."

"Aye, sir," replied the Captain.

Exterior

All the Gorn ships began to move as close to the near-by star as was safe before beginning to suck up the stellar Hydrogen.

OOC: Here are the ship lengths.
Penetrator class: 792 meters
Growler class: 702 meters
Provider class: 1,080 meters
Inclement class: 1,080 meters
Na'Shantaa class: 2,480 meters
Oh, and I doubt a mammelian species (like the humans) would have any contagions that would harm my reptilian species (the Gorn).

On the bridge of the lead ship in the Dominion fleet, the Legacy-class cruiser Indominatable, Captain Teyan Ryvar, in charge of the operation, picked up the incoming sensor feeds from the Goliath coming in-system.

"Incoming craft, Captain." replied his sensors officer.
"Launch a scout squadron, I want to find out what that is." was Ryvar's response.
"Copy, squadron launching."

From the hanger bay came a squadron of Retribution interceptors, the speedy and manueverable craft jetting out to where the Goliath was coming in. Wraith lead, commander of the squadron, didn't have a visual lock on the ship yet, but assumed it was a standard craft of the galaxy, with the usual comm interpretations. He sent out a standard hail message, hence, to VID the ship.

"Unidentified craft, state your presence and actions."

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"Admiral, long-range scans of the system are picking up transponders of at least two different national orgins. Neither of which we have encountered yet."

"Interesting. The Penetrators can protect the other ships. Plot an interecept course for the Na'Shantaa and engage at full impulse."

"Aye, sir."

Exterior

The Na'Shantaa banked, came about, and headed for the spot where the Amazonian Beasts craft and the Goliath were located at 0.25c, better known as the full cruise impulse speed. It wasn't faster, like the speeds used in combat, due to realitivistic effects.

"Second sensor pings are showing that we've got other players, Captain." the sensor officer noted.
"Right, get another squad out there to hail them. If we've got pirates anywhere, i want them dead."

Another interceptor squadron rocketed out of the Indominatable's hanger, as the fighters accelerated towards the Na'Shantaa.

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"We've got incoming fighters, Admiral. Should we deploy our own?"

"Negative. We don't know if they have hostile intent. Ignore them for now and continue on course for the intercept with the larger ships."

"Aye, sir."

Exterior

Unless the Amazonian fighters did anything other than flit about, the Gorn cruiser would just brush right past them.

Alpha Squadron continued heading towards the Gorn crusier, breaking off to initiate a sensor sweep of the craft. After a few minutes of scan, Alpha Lead reported back.

"Not pirates, command, but some race we've never had conact with."

Exterior - Alpha Centarui Star System

A fleet of five Penetrator class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_penetrator.gif) assault cruisers, ten Inclement class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_inclement.gif) supply ships, one Growler class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_july_growler.gif) communications ships, five Provider class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/ge_may_reptend.gif) repair ships, and one Na'Shantaa class (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Schematics/NaShantaa.gif) cruiser dropped to sublight in the in the Alpha Centauri star system. Their only purpose in-system, currently, was to restock the fuel reserves of the Inclements.

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"Admiral," hissed Captain Sillruik, "We have arrived."

"Good," Admiral Grilluike hissed back, "Begin the refueling procedure."

"Aye, sir," replied the Captain.

Exterior

All the Gorn ships began to move as close to the near-by star as was safe before beginning to suck up the stellar Hydrogen.

OOC: Here are the ship lengths.
Penetrator class: 792 meters
Growler class: 702 meters
Provider class: 1,080 meters
Inclement class: 1,080 meters
Na'Shantaa class: 2,480 meters
Oh, and I doubt a mammelian species (like the humans) would have any contagions that would harm my reptilian species (the Gorn).
OOC: Human to reptile I don't know. But I have heard of contagions spreading from reptiles to humans.

OOC: Human to reptile I don't know. But I have heard of contagions spreading from reptiles to humans.

OOC: According to all my research, most likely, it would be impossible to spread a disease between species. The contagion would be formated, so to speak, for one species, but not another. Toxins, on the other hand, are a different story all together.

IC: Exterior

The Na'Shantaa stopped one megameter away from the other ships.

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"Tactical, begin scanning those ships. I want to know what we are dealing with."

"As you command, Admiral."

Exterior

Active and passive scans began sweeping over the ships representing the other two nations. The Gorn were more interested in seeing if these ships had the ability to harm them than gathering any plans of their interiors.

OOC: The goliath would not have sensors. If they were more advanced they would detect your sensors cause sensors operate by giving off some form of radiation which bounces off objects or objects within objects or by collecting radiative info about objects.

IC:

"Sir we are detecting a large object heading for us. And a second heading this way also."

"Meteors? Asteroids?"

"There Metallic and hollow according to our X ray scopes."

"Sir according to our heat sensors, these these objects are generating heat some how. If they are asteroids, they seem to be geologically active."

"Captain, we've detected several smaller asteroids heading our way." said Slick.

"Probably some kind of asteroid grouping like we have in our own system." inquired Captain Rollerby.

"Not likely captain, some of the artificial signals we are picking up emanating from the smaller objects and from the two bigger objects" replied Mr. Slick.

"What?" stated Rollerby.

The asteroids seem to be the source of the artificial radio signals.

"Turn the optical cam about. Let's see what we have." said Rollerby.

As the cam turned, the smaller craft came into view then the large Amazonian Beast Craft came into. Still turning they found the Gorn craft also then turned back to the AB craft.

"Call full stop" ordered Rollerby. The ship came to a dead halt.

"Captain, we just got a signal from one of the smaller craft that appears to be targeting our ship."

"We haven't the foggiest as to their language" whispered Rollerby.

"It seems our arrival has attracted their attention. I would note that we seem to have been noticed by two different nationalities of the species of this system as you can note the differences in the structures of the two main vessels. The smaller ones seem to be escorts for the one in front of us. Much like they used to do for aircraft carriers and battle fleets back on earth." noted Mr. Slick.

"We need to make sure this historic event ends peacefully. I want you to set up a team, take who ever you need and get to work on trying to contact this race Mr. Slick. We can't talk to them directly maybe you can find another method." said Rollerby.

Mr. Slick replied "I have already chosen a team and a plan of action."

Within 30 minutes, the team was in the science/tech research hold of the ship. They were trying various means of communicating with the alien vessel.

Their first attempt consisted of taking huge search lights, deploying them out of the ship via a boom, and then flashing the lights off and on in a random pattern to see if they could get the extraterrestrial's attention.

OOC: According to all my research, most likely, it would be impossible to spread a disease between species. The contagion would be formated, so to speak, for one species, but not another. Toxins, on the other hand, are a different story all together.

IC: Exterior

The Na'Shantaa stopped one megameter away from the other ships.

I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"Tactical, begin scanning those ships. I want to know what we are dealing with."

"As you command, Admiral."

Exterior

Active and passive scans began sweeping over the ships representing the other two nations. The Gorn were more interested in seeing if these ships had the ability to harm them than gathering any plans of their interiors.
OOC: you can get echoli from handling reptiles, and we know that Mad Cow disease can pass from cows to humans when humans eat cow meat. Also there is that flesh eating disease that humans can get from mice. A corona something.

OOC: @S.W.: By interspecies, I meant one from different planets of origin. Of course, with the massive amounts of humans RP'ed by nations, that point becomes kind of mute.

IC: I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"We are picking up X-ray radiation eminating from the smaller craft," hissed the tactical officer.

"Evaluation?"

"Most likely some form of early scanning device."

"Hail them. Lets get a sample of their language and see if its similar to one we have on file for the translator program."

"Aye, sir."

Messages

Transmitted, in binary, to all ships:

This is the I.G.S. Na'Shantaa of the Gorn Hegemony. We request samples of your languages to compare to the ones we already have translation protocauls for.

OOC:
The average Gorn stands 6'7" (2.7 meters) tall and weighs 320 pounds (145 kg). They have compound eyes, cold blood, little sense of smell, bumpy skin, and an extremely high metabolism. They can heal injury at a rate of two pounds (1 kg) of flesh per hour, and knit bones in less than 15 minutes. The only way to kill a Gorn for good is *Censored* (I'm not going to reveal this tidbit this early in the game).
Pics Of A Typical/Standard Gorn:
T.O.S. Style (Warrent Officers/Line Officers):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Star20Trek20Gorn20Action20Figure.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/StarTrek-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/270px-StarTrek-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Gorn.jpg
T.A.S. Style (Enlisted/Civilian):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-GornTAS.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/GornTAS.jpg
Ent Style (Flag Officers/Governmental):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-Gorn2005.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Gorn2005.jpg

Oh, and I already have a Gorn-English/English-Gorn translation protocaul for my universal translator program (due to it being known and recognized as the Universal Standard Language by me and several of my region mates).

OOC: @S.W.: By interspecies, I meant one from different planets of origin. Of course, with the massive amounts of humans RP'ed by nations, that point becomes kind of mute.

IC: I.G.S. Na'Shantaa - Bridge

"We are picking up X-ray radiation eminating from the smaller craft," hissed the tactical officer.

"Evaluation?"

"Most likely some form of early scanning device."

"Hail them. Lets get a sample of their language and see if its similar to one we have on file for the translator program."

"Aye, sir."

Messages

Transmitted, in binary, to all ships:



OOC:
The average Gorn stands 6'7" (2.7 meters) tall and weighs 320 pounds (145 kg). They have compound eyes, cold blood, little sense of smell, bumpy skin, and an extremely high metabolism. They can heal injury at a rate of two pounds (1 kg) of flesh per hour, and knit bones in less than 15 minutes. The only way to kill a Gorn for good is *Censored* (I'm not going to reveal this tidbit this early in the game).
Pics Of A Typical/Standard Gorn:
T.O.S. Style (Warrent Officers/Line Officers):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Star20Trek20Gorn20Action20Figure.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/StarTrek-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/270px-StarTrek-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-Gorn.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Gorn.jpg
T.A.S. Style (Enlisted/Civilian):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-GornTAS.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/GornTAS.jpg
Ent Style (Flag Officers/Governmental):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/200px-Gorn2005.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y160/DragoonKVess/Character%20Pics/Gorn2005.jpg

Oh, and I already have a Gorn-English/English-Gorn translation protocaul for my universal translator program (due to it being known and recognized as the Universal Standard Language by me and several of my region mates).


Oblivious to the incoming binary code, the team continues efforts to get the aliens attention. While one group continues flashing the bright beams of light at the two spacecraft, another team has begun radio transmissions of mathematical formulas.
Another group begins broadcasting music (bach and beethoven, Hank Williams Jr, Oak Ridge Boys, The Eagles, Aerosmith, 50 cent, and couple of other music samplings. The song transmissions used just the instrumentals, not the vocals) at the two vessels via radiowaves.
Math and music are thought by humans to be the ultimate universal languages of the universe. If the aliens understood that 2 dots added to 2 dots made for 4 dots, they would have a starting point. From there they could try out the binary language that would involve stuff like the structure of DNA and things like that.
They also began broadcasting live video images of two volunteers toward the two vessels.
If the aliens had the ability to communicate via radio they should be pick up the transmissions on their comms systems. The crew was sending the broadcasts on the frequencies the incoming signals seemed to be on.

Bridge

"We're picking up strange energy emissions from the smaller ship."

"Evaluation?"

"Can't tell for sure, but it appears to be old-style light-speed radio signals."

"Intersting."

"Sir, our subspace radio message wasn't on the same frequency they are apparently using."

"Is it one we can send on?"

"Yes, with a few minutes of work, sir."

"Then get to it."

"Aye, sir."

Once the modifications were done, the binary message would be retransmitted to the Goliath. In the meantime, all the emissions she was putting out were being recorded for later analysis.

Ensen Kelson "Sir, I've determined the code from the second vessel appears to be binary in form. We haven't been able to interpret it though."

"Keep working on it" said Mr. Slick.

The Amazonian battleship recieved the transmission requesting language samples, and as the Dominion used galactic standard English, a quick comm was sent back, notifying.
The music was next intercepted by the cruiser, and the bridge crew looked strangely at each other. The light flashes and video imaging was just as strange. The comms crew was struggling to figure out the language, and put together a basic code to send back to the Goliath. The comm was a standard transmission, with each letter substituted for a number which corresponded to the letter's position in the alphabet, one of the most basic codes for Galactic Standard English, with A=1 all the way to Z=26. The comm, encoded as such, was sent out to the Goliath:

Your transmission and communication baffles us. Do you use Galactic Standard English, as many human cultures do, or have you a communicator on board?

The Amazonian battleship recieved the transmission requesting language samples, and as the Dominion used galactic standard English, a quick comm was sent back, notifying.
The music was next intercepted by the cruiser, and the bridge crew looked strangely at each other. The light flashes and video imaging was just as strange. The comms crew was struggling to figure out the language, and put together a basic code to send back to the Goliath. The comm was a standard transmission, with each letter substituted for a number which corresponded to the letter's position in the alphabet, one of the most basic codes for Galactic Standard English, with A=1 all the way to Z=26. The comm, encoded as such, was sent out to the Goliath:

OOC: As unlikely as this would be, I'll go with it.

IC:
Ensen Kelly reported the signal from the main craft. "Sir, there is a new signal coming from the main ship. It appears targeted at us. Looks at an attempt at communication. It appears to be some form of binary."

"Interesting" said Mr. Slick, who had just beamed an image of the structure of DNA and the structure of the hydrogen atom to both alien craft. "Let's see if they respond to that" he thought to himself. If they are intelligent species from advanced civilizations, they should recognize DNA and hydrogen.

The signal Kelly got was composed of a series of dots intespaced by spaces. Groups of series were seperated by double spaces. They appeared to be word groupings. But how to translate it. The devil was in the details.

OOC: Not neccessarily unlikely, seeing how most of the FTers use English.

OOC: Not neccessarily unlikely, seeing how most of the FTers use English.
OOC: I was speaking of what would most likely happen in the event of a first contact in a rl situation in the future. FTers, on this site and others, simplify things by ignoring the concept that seperate species from different worlds would have developed different languages, alphabets and means of communicating and just assuming everyone speaks english. It simplifies things. The people who make sci fi movies make the same assumptions. That is why everyone on Stars Wars or Star Trek ends up speaking english.
But because of the complexity of attempting to rp what would happen in rl, we are only rping a simplification of the issue. So that we can move onto to the establishment of relations more quickly lest anyone who thinks the intricacies of a first contact to be boring and hence find this rp to be uninteresting. I just wanted to put enough in here to point out the complexities of just trying to establish communication between our race and an alien race, let alone two alien races.
Hope you don't mind if I just took your codes and made them look like a series of dots. I think that is how a binary code from an alien race would look in real life. Binary being a form of mathematical language. With one dot, two dots, and so on.