NationStates Jolt Archive

A cold chill had crept across the land this morning. Normally at this time of year and day the temperature was high, high enough to roast one’s bright pink skin if one failed to cover up appropriately. But not today. Bellis found himself needing his linen jacket to stave off the chills as pushed open the creaky wooden back door and headed into the small plantation behind his modest home. The large, red sun was rising above the horizon and the line of houses behind him as it did every morning, casting long shadows and illuminating everything in an eerie red light. Morning dew was something normally reserved for the Death and the Birth seasons, but Bellis was surprised to find everything in his plantation covered in it. It smelled like it had just been raining, but Bellis could recall no signs of a storm the previous night.

He set to work with his trowel, digging and turning the soil. His fruba roots had still not taken and he was determined not to have another failed crop this year. There was certainly no lack of moisture in the soil, and he had used plenty of fertiliser, so he could only assume that their unwillingness to grow was down to divine or philosophical reasons. Perhaps they knew of the impending doom that lingered over the stagnant world, and hoped to escape it by hiding beneath the ground.

Bellis looked up into the red sky, seeing only death. The clouds had gone, allowing them to see their enemy in perfect clarity all day – a large chunk of rock, almost one hundred miles in diameter at least, hurtling towards them at unimaginable speeds. It was big enough to wipe out every living thing on the planet, according to the quote by the scribes in his local newspaper, and it would hit somewhere near this very city. The power released by such a massive object impacting them with such speed was beyond anybody’s ability to calculate, which certainly meant it was something to worry about. Apparently they had seen it coming long ago with new-fangled glass seers, devices which allowed them to see great distances into the void that surrounded them. Priests had been using them in their everlasting quest to find the Unseen Ones when they had discovered the harbinger of the apocalypse.

It had loomed above them for a couple of days now, reminding everybody of the grim fate they had all tried to deny. Every day it grew a little bigger, as it got a little closer, and their time drew a little nearer. At first, nobody believed that it would happen. Nobody could – Bellis certainly couldn’t. To imagine that this time tomorrow, his home and indeed the whole planet would be a fiery, lifeless environment, choked with smoke and ash, and that there was nothing they could do to stop it, was impossible. He still couldn’t believe it was going to happen. Such horrors were reserved for books of flight and fancy, but they could never happen in real life – if nothing else, the Unseen Ones wouldn’t allow it.

So Bellis went about his chores as he would normally, having convinced himself that this time tomorrow the blot in the sky would be gone and all would be right with the world. It was all he could do to stop himself going crazy. His wife left him two days ago in frustration, to spend her remaining time with her family and friends, leaving him to wallow in self-denial. He was convinced that she would return tomorrow, apologetic for her over-reaction. People in the local tavern, drinking to ease their horror, disagreed with him on both counts, and he frequently got into long-winded debates with them, usually to convince himself than to convince them.

Bellis wiped the sweat from his bright pink forehead and stopped for a break. A quick glance up into the sky showed him that their nemesis still lingered above them. He took a drink of water from his canteen and dismissed the object, and got back to work. The rest of society had essentially ground to a halt, so somebody needed to be doing some work somewhere after all.

It was three hours before he managed to completely turn the soil in his plantation. He sat back on the wooden step to his porch, now wearing a sunhat – the heat one would expect for this time of year had finally made itself known – and gulping thirstily from his canteen. He glanced over at the sundial he had set up nearby, noticing it was now past midday. An hour left.

He grumbled to himself, remembering that he needed a few things from the market to sustain him over the two holy days which constituted the end of the week, and quickly grabbed his coin purse as he locked up and made his way down to the town centre. A twenty minute walk, at a leisurely pace, which saw him pass numerous interesting landmarks, including the chapel and various posh homes.

“A metral of goonars if you please, keep,” Bellis asked a market stall proprietor. The stall owner had his neck craned firmly upwards, along with everybody else in the crowded – and yet strangely silent – market square. The square was the focal point of their entire city, and to find it silent on the last trading day of the week at this hour was beyond belief.

The proprietor suddenly realised that someone was talking to him and glanced down at Bellis, frowning before looking back up again.

“Are you joking?” he asked Bellis, or rather exclaimed to him.

“I appreciate your company, Jero, but I did not walk for a third of a twelfth just to tell a joke,” Bellis said with firm dismissal. “A metral of goonars, please, unless you wish me to starve this weekend.”

“You won’t need to eat this weekend you stubborn old fool,” Jero said, with casual acceptance. He didn’t look down. “We’ll all be dead! Have you looked to the sky recently?”

“Nothing will come of it, you shall see,” Bellis sighed.

“A chunk of rock larger than this county, is headed towards us at speeds beyond our comprehension,” Jero said to him. “All of our academics and priests have proclaimed that this is the end of days, and that we should make our peace within the next two thirds. And you want a metral of goonars?!”

“Are you going to give them to me or should I come back later?” Bellis said, growing frustrated with his reluctant grocer.

“Just… take what you need, Bellis,” Jero said thoughtlessly.

Bellis shrugged and chose himself the best metral of goonars he could see on the tray, and placed several glossy coins down on the stall in exchange. He was about to head off when he noticed that everybody in the square was gazing up at the incoming apocalypse just like Jero, motionless. He grumbled and placed the bag of goonars on the ground, clearing his throat as he prepared to speak.

“This is ridiculous!” he called out, to the entire square. “Such things are impossible, and yet society as we know it has ground to a halt to witness the impossible! Surely if this were the end of days, you would have better things to be doing than gazing up at the sky and waiting for it?!”

He glanced around the square for a few moments, but he was met only with silence.

“Just go home old man,” Jero said quietly.

Bellis glared at his friend and supplier for a few moments. These people were beyond helping, he decided. There was no point in his remaining. He would come back on the first day of the new week to gloat at and make fun of them. He turned to leave.

“It is beginning!” someone screamed from across the square. Bellis looked to see who had said it, and saw a man pointing into the sky – as if anybody needed direction. The man was the robed priest of the local chapel, and was no doubt responsible for goading the locals into this futile waste of time. Nevertheless he followed the priest’s gaze and looked into the sky. The rock was no longer simply a distant blob, but a massive, looming planetoid casting a shadow over the land. And it was covered with fire and smoke! What kind of rock would turn to flame like that, unless it was sent by ferocious powers? It was like a mass of a thousand demons, obscuring the sunlight as they rode towards them on licks of flame.

“My gods…” Bellis gasped, as the fiery object grew even larger still as it plummeted towards them at increasing speeds. Already they could feel the heat on their faces. The end was truly nigh. The sense of foreboding was now tangible, as partners held hands and children clutched their parents. If tension had been one of the physical elements, it would certainly have twisted the entire town beyond recognition at that moment.

But then something unexpected happened at that moment, something which forced a collective gasp out of the muted crowd. A beam of energy struck the surface of the rock like a divine lightning bolt, precisely targeted and powered by forces beyond their comprehension. The persistent beam of light was white-blue, and so bright that people had to shield their eyes to prevent themselves from going blind. It ate away at the rock, dissolving it in a matter of seconds. The remains of the ball of death proved to be little more than an attractive firework display, as tiny pebbles burned up and disappeared harmlessly.

It was over so fast that the whining sound of the beam reached them after it had been terminated. Immediately everybody uncovered their eyes to try and spot the source of the divine light.

And it didn’t take them long to find it. A massive and wondrous construct floated high above them, unmoving and unquestionably powerful. It was glistening in the post-midday sunlight, grey-silver in colour and made up of two long, narrow, parallel parts held together by an enormous circle at one end, and ending in two sharp prongs at the other. The ‘thing’ looked to be larger than the city they stood in, and yet it was held in the sky by an unknown force as though it weighed nothing. The only sound to be heard for miles around was a dim, throbbing, humming noise emanating from the divine vessel, a sound which rumbled the ground beneath their feet and yet for some reason was strangely reassuring.

“The Unseen Ones have revealed themselves to us at long last!” the priest yelled after a prolonged period of awe-inspired silence. “The time of our salvation is upon us!” Immediately, everybody in the square dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in reverence, beginning to recite all manner of prayers. Bellis had somehow known all along that they would live to see another day, but he had never thought that the crisis could have ended so spectacularly.

He suddenly found himself on his knees, with his head bowed and his mouth uttering prayers.

A cold chill had crept across the land this morning. Normally at this time of year and day the temperature was high, high enough to roast one’s bright pink skin if one failed to cover up appropriately. But not today. Bellis found himself needing his linen jacket to stave off the chills as pushed open the creaky wooden back door and headed into the small plantation behind his modest home. The large, red sun was rising above the horizon and the line of houses behind him as it did every morning, casting long shadows and illuminating everything in an eerie red light. Morning dew was something normally reserved for the Death and the Birth seasons, but Bellis was surprised to find everything in his plantation covered in it. It smelled like it had just been raining, but Bellis could recall no signs of a storm the previous night.

He set to work with his trowel, digging and turning the soil. His fruba roots had still not taken and he was determined not to have another failed crop this year. There was certainly no lack of moisture in the soil, and he had used plenty of fertiliser, so he could only assume that their unwillingness to grow was down to divine or philosophical reasons. Perhaps they knew of the impending doom that lingered over the stagnant world, and hoped to escape it by hiding beneath the ground.

Bellis looked up into the red sky, seeing only death. The clouds had gone, allowing them to see their enemy in perfect clarity all day – a large chunk of rock, almost one hundred miles in diameter at least, hurtling towards them at unimaginable speeds. It was big enough to wipe out every living thing on the planet, according to the quote by the scribes in his local newspaper, and it would hit somewhere near this very city. The power released by such a massive object impacting them with such speed was beyond anybody’s ability to calculate, which certainly meant it was something to worry about. Apparently they had seen it coming long ago with new-fangled glass seers, devices which allowed them to see great distances into the void that surrounded them. Priests had been using them in their everlasting quest to find the Unseen Ones when they had discovered the harbinger of the apocalypse.

It had loomed above them for a couple of days now, reminding everybody of the grim fate they had all tried to deny. Every day it grew a little bigger, as it got a little closer, and their time drew a little nearer. At first, nobody believed that it would happen. Nobody could – Bellis certainly couldn’t. To imagine that this time tomorrow, his home and indeed the whole planet would be a fiery, lifeless environment, choked with smoke and ash, and that there was nothing they could do to stop it, was impossible. He still couldn’t believe it was going to happen. Such horrors were reserved for books of flight and fancy, but they could never happen in real life – if nothing else, the Unseen Ones wouldn’t allow it.

So Bellis went about his chores as he would normally, having convinced himself that this time tomorrow the blot in the sky would be gone and all would be right with the world. It was all he could do to stop himself going crazy. His wife left him two days ago in frustration, to spend her remaining time with her family and friends, leaving him to wallow in self-denial. He was convinced that she would return tomorrow, apologetic for her over-reaction. People in the local tavern, drinking to ease their horror, disagreed with him on both counts, and he frequently got into long-winded debates with them, usually to convince himself than to convince them.

Bellis wiped the sweat from his bright pink forehead and stopped for a break. A quick glance up into the sky showed him that their nemesis still lingered above them. He took a drink of water from his canteen and dismissed the object, and got back to work. The rest of society had essentially ground to a halt, so somebody needed to be doing some work somewhere after all.

It was three hours before he managed to completely turn the soil in his plantation. He sat back on the wooden step to his porch, now wearing a sunhat – the heat one would expect for this time of year had finally made itself known – and gulping thirstily from his canteen. He glanced over at the sundial he had set up nearby, noticing it was now past midday. An hour left.

He grumbled to himself, remembering that he needed a few things from the market to sustain him over the two holy days which constituted the end of the week, and quickly grabbed his coin purse as he locked up and made his way down to the town centre. A twenty minute walk, at a leisurely pace, which saw him pass numerous interesting landmarks, including the chapel and various posh homes.

“A metral of goonars if you please, keep,” Bellis asked a market stall proprietor. The stall owner had his neck craned firmly upwards, along with everybody else in the crowded – and yet strangely silent – market square. The square was the focal point of their entire city, and to find it silent on the last trading day of the week at this hour was beyond belief.

The proprietor suddenly realised that someone was talking to him and glanced down at Bellis, frowning before looking back up again.

“Are you joking?” he asked Bellis, or rather exclaimed to him.

“I appreciate your company, Jero, but I did not walk for a third of a twelfth just to tell a joke,” Bellis said with firm dismissal. “A metral of goonars, please, unless you wish me to starve this weekend.”

“You won’t need to eat this weekend you stubborn old fool,” Jero said, with casual acceptance. He didn’t look down. “We’ll all be dead! Have you looked to the sky recently?”

“Nothing will come of it, you shall see,” Bellis sighed.

“A chunk of rock larger than this county, is headed towards us at speeds beyond our comprehension,” Jero said to him. “All of our academics and priests have proclaimed that this is the end of days, and that we should make our peace within the next two thirds. And you want a metral of goonars?!”

“Are you going to give them to me or should I come back later?” Bellis said, growing frustrated with his reluctant grocer.

“Just… take what you need, Bellis,” Jero said thoughtlessly.

Bellis shrugged and chose himself the best metral of goonars he could see on the tray, and placed several glossy coins down on the stall in exchange. He was about to head off when he noticed that everybody in the square was gazing up at the incoming apocalypse just like Jero, motionless. He grumbled and placed the bag of goonars on the ground, clearing his throat as he prepared to speak.

“This is ridiculous!” he called out, to the entire square. “Such things are impossible, and yet society as we know it has ground to a halt to witness the impossible! Surely if this were the end of days, you would have better things to be doing than gazing up at the sky and waiting for it?!”

He glanced around the square for a few moments, but he was met only with silence.

“Just go home old man,” Jero said quietly.

Bellis glared at his friend and supplier for a few moments. These people were beyond helping, he decided. There was no point in his remaining. He would come back on the first day of the new week to gloat at and make fun of them. He turned to leave.

“It is beginning!” someone screamed from across the square. Bellis looked to see who had said it, and saw a man pointing into the sky – as if anybody needed direction. The man was the robed priest of the local chapel, and was no doubt responsible for goading the locals into this futile waste of time. Nevertheless he followed the priest’s gaze and looked into the sky. The rock was no longer simply a distant blob, but a massive, looming planetoid casting a shadow over the land. And it was covered with fire and smoke! What kind of rock would turn to flame like that, unless it was sent by ferocious powers? It was like a mass of a thousand demons, obscuring the sunlight as they rode towards them on licks of flame.

“My gods…” Bellis gasped, as the fiery object grew even larger still as it plummeted towards them at increasing speeds. Already they could feel the heat on their faces. The end was truly nigh. The sense of foreboding was now tangible, as partners held hands and children clutched their parents. If tension had been one of the physical elements, it would certainly have twisted the entire town beyond recognition at that moment.

But then something unexpected happened at that moment, something which forced a collective gasp out of the muted crowd. A beam of energy struck the surface of the rock like a divine lightning bolt, precisely targeted and powered by forces beyond their comprehension. The persistent beam of light was white-blue, and so bright that people had to shield their eyes to prevent themselves from going blind. It ate away at the rock, dissolving it in a matter of seconds. The remains of the ball of death proved to be little more than an attractive firework display, as tiny pebbles burned up and disappeared harmlessly.

It was over so fast that the whining sound of the beam reached them after it had been terminated. Immediately everybody uncovered their eyes to try and spot the source of the divine light.

And it didn’t take them long to find it. A massive and wondrous construct floated high above them, unmoving and unquestionably powerful. It was glistening in the post-midday sunlight, grey-silver in colour and made up of two long, narrow, parallel parts held together by an enormous circle at one end, and ending in two sharp prongs at the other. The ‘thing’ looked to be larger than the city they stood in, and yet it was held in the sky by an unknown force as though it weighed nothing. The only sound to be heard for miles around was a dim, throbbing, humming noise emanating from the divine vessel, a sound which rumbled the ground beneath their feet and yet for some reason was strangely reassuring.

“The Unseen Ones have revealed themselves to us at long last!” the priest yelled after a prolonged period of awe-inspired silence. “The time of our salvation is upon us!” Immediately, everybody in the square dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in reverence, beginning to recite all manner of prayers. Bellis had somehow known all along that they would live to see another day, but he had never thought that the crisis could have ended so spectacularly.

He suddenly found himself on his knees, with his head bowed and his mouth uttering prayers.

A Neoman Dreadnought sat quietly over the planet.

Capitan Samuel Marlo stood on the bridge analyzing the reports of the energy that the sensors had detected.

The sheet in his hands was of no use to him.

Sensor analysis: Protocol: Alpha, Beta 4

Energy type: unknown
Energy Style: Unknown
Energy event location: Grid 021-34

"Sh--," He said slowly looking back up at the planet on the view screen. In his mind he calculated actions presented to him. An energy that could stop an steroid that size, and still hold it in the sky was something that could prove very useful.

He looked at his X.O a short portly man. "Jeremy, what do you think?" Samuel asked as he set the paper down on his command chair.

Jeremy rubbed his chin "I would say send down a platoon and check it out." He said with a slight grin.

"Organize it," Samuel said with a nod of agreement.

---

20 minutes later a drop ship carrying a platoon of 15 men was rocketing to wards the planet, more specifically where the energy had resonated from.

The drop ship hit the atmosphere, Fire enveloped the drop ships as it neared the city. Using reverse thrusters they slowed down. Taking a wide right handed arc over the city the pilot could see what seemed to be the city square. He could also see what looked like people standing around.

He brought the drop ship lower, only about 200 hundred feet from the rooftops, trying to find a place to land safely.

ooc: Just a few questions i need to answer so i know what I'm talking about.

What is the approximate date of technology for these people.

Are they human.

Shortly before this, the square was bathed in a soft white light, bright but not blindingly so, as two columns of energy appeared atop of the raised staircase leading up to the city council building. The crowds, still on their knees, noticed the bright light and slowly rose to their feet, squinting to look at it. The council building behind the two columns of light seemed to be twisted and distorted, as though being sucked towards them by an unseen force. An ear-piercing whining sound then occurred for a second or two, and the light subsided as quickly as it had appeared. Rubbing their eyes to adjust to the new light levels they looked up at the staircase to see two unbelievable beings. Their saviours.

Standing upright on four spindly legs, the lower half of their body was horizontal, whilst the upper half was bent to be vertical, with two arms mid-way up and a head perched on top. Their faces were triangular, with their small pincer mouths on the bottom corner, a compound eye on each upper corner, and antennae at the top. Their entire bodies were glossy and black, covered with a thick exoskeleton, and they stood at roughly four and a half feet high each – although their entire bodies were probably close to seven or eight feet long. They wore no clothing and carried no visible equipment of any kind, aside from metal cuffs wrapped around their thin forearms, and they moved gently as they looked down at their worshippers. They were surely divine; no creature such as this had ever been seen before!

“All hail the Unseen Ones, Seen at last!” the priest yelled out again. The crowd came alive in muted whispers, whilst Bellis pushed his way through them until he reached the front, wanting to get a better look at the divine beings. He was taken aback by their unusual physiology, but he had expected something different from his gods. Something more akin to his own appearance, perhaps.

“False gods!” somebody from the crowd yelled out in anger, receiving gasps from his fellow townsfolk. Bellis looked behind him to see young Yako, a sceptic in many things but especially in matters of religion. He had never been violent though, as he was now – he lifted a rock above his head and threw it at their visiting deities. Bellis watched in horror as the rock flew across the square, on course for a direct impact with one of the creatures’ heads.

But one of the creatures calmly tapped one of his wristbands with his spindly finger, and the rock vanished from existence as it impacted with some kind of glowing bubble with suddenly surrounded the two. Bellis and the others jumped back, whilst Yako said nothing more, he simply stood in wide-eyed disbelief.

Immediately, the crowd dropped to their knees and bowed their heads, awaiting the judgement of the divines. All they did for the moment was make some strange chittering noises, and make some unusual gestures with their arms. A language beyond mortal comprehension no doubt.


Xithmeksi and Reksil looked down upon the confused natives with curiosity. They had expected some degree of surprise, and were hoping for some kind of gratitude for saving their planet from destruction. They weren’t expecting a rock to be hurled at them, which was promptly disintegrated by their energy field. Nor were they expecting the entire population to apparently submit themselves to servitude as they were doing now. Reksil worked hard with the translation device on his cuff, amplifying their earlier whisperings in an attempt to decipher their unusual mammalian language. They still had not figured out the languages of the universe at large just yet, much less the language of this completely isolated community of primitives.

They presumed the robed man who had shouted at them on arrival was some kind of leader, but trying to get to him through this crowd could prove difficult, especially if someone else decided to throw things at them. And worse still, the people seemed to ignore their calls.

“Deciphered yet?” Xithmeksi asked his hive brother. The Xithis looked up at him with his emotionless compound eyes and released a negative pheromone.

“Difficulty with words,” Reksil said, releasing confusion. He played back a selection of recorded words spoken by the people, in their native language: ‘gods’ was repeated a few times, as it was uttered by various people and called out by their leader, as was ‘worship’. ‘Divine’ was another. None of these words could be translated by the device. The context of ‘unseen ones’ was also confusing to say the least, as although the words themselves had been translated by the device, they made absolutely no sense in Xithisi. As far as Reksil could tell, they meant ‘invisible Xithis’.

“We look for Prime Queen of your world!” Xithmeksi chittered to the crowd that had gathered around them, and he released peaceful intentions.

None of the crowd so much as looked up, let alone identified their leader. Xithmeksi expected that it was wishful thinking to believe they would have any comprehension of Xithisi, just as the Xithis couldn’t understand these people.

Their attempts at communication were disturbed however when a craft flew low overhead, casting a shadow above the square before disappearing out of sight, apparently looking for a landing site. Xithmeksi looked at Reksil, who released a negative. Neither of them recognised the vehicle, and it quite obviously wasn’t the property of these primitives.

“XCTL-281, alien ship,” Xithmeksi said into his cuff as he looked up at the Talyn-class Lacerator that still hovered imposingly overhead. Unfortunately, mobile communicators of this nature did not have artificial pheromones to communicate with, nor any visual inputs, so extremely simple messages were a requirement.

“Know this; tracking,” the response came. This was apparently enough for Xithmeksi and Reksil, who turned their attention back to the natives of this world.


[OOC: The natives of this planet, Xithis designation MH-XCT-02, are mammalian creatures roughly five foot tall at most. They are humanoid, with roughly the same physical attributes and capabilities of an average human. The only differences are that they're a little smaller, so they're a little weaker on average, their skin is a fairly bright shade of soft pink (a pigment which originally evolved so that they could be camouflaged by the similarly-coloured plant life in equatorial jungles) and they only have three fingers and a thumb on each hand. No hair, anywhere. The species has not yet been studied at length by the Xithis, who have not even gotten around to giving them a name yet, but they refer to themselves simply as 'the people' - in their own language, of course.

Their technological levels are all over the place. Their understanding of astronomy, and their ability to study it with moderately sophisticated telescopes is quite high, discounting such things as quantum physics and the ability to detect radio frequencies of course. This is due to religious reasons - they believe that their gods, the Unseen Ones, reside in the heavens and as soon as they are spotted by mortals they will reward them with great powers. So they have considerable resources devoted to the study of astronomy, and they are well-versed on the basics and have discovered all five of the planets in their solar system.

They have no form of industry beyond artisans making things by hand, however. Machinery beyond simple levers and pulleys doesn't exist, and they're yet to have an industrial revolution. You're looking at blacksmiths and carpenters. Their agricultural techniques are similarly backwards, relying on extensive manual labour. Some of their buildings, such as churches and the council building exhibit fairly advanced stone masonry techniques, but most houses are fairly simplistic and equivalent to middle-age Europe housing.

Militarily speaking, crossbows are about as sophisticated as they get.

It should be noted that this planet falls within the recognised territorial holdings of the Combine (hence its designation 'Mammal Habitat - Xithis Combine Territory - 02'), and that they consider it their responsibility to protect the species as a result of this - hence why they knew the people were in danger of extinction in the first place, and why they bothered to prevent it.]

ooc: I'll join, if that's alright with you. I can have some fun with your worshipers....

Ic: "Jump complete. Location unknown. Point of departure unknown. Territory unknown. Locals unknown. Contact with homespace severed forty-seven days, nine hours, ninety-nine minutes-"
"Oh for cripe sake! Just say fifty days! What's with your aversion to round numbers!" Victor Beatty, commander of the K.N.S. KasBit, snapped.
The voice of his Nav officer, Paul Yu, lost it's sarcasm and became bitter. "We know how to get back to the Dominion, and we know our approximate location. It's Beth that insists on precision. 'without contact we cannot be positive and exact.... we can't synchronize with command....'" Tactical officer Elizabeth Motgi clenched her jaw, but did not move. The whole ship was tense, and nerves were slowly being rubbed raw. They had no orders to return home- no orders at all- and it was election time. Until they received word, they were to continue their mission.
She waited a moment, the bridge in total silence, then began to read off data in a quiet voice that one could tell was barely holding together. "Synthetic constructs detected. Advanced energy emissions detected. Life detected. Two vessels detected. A planet with a population of humanoids and livable atmosphere have both been detected...."
Beatty interrupted with a stern tone. "Request landing clearance."
"No response from the planet. We're not detecting any signal emissions from the planet at all, Sir."

The frigate-class vessel had an odd configuration (by Kazeci standards) in that it's external shape was complex. It was small enough, however, that it was the only ship in the Kazeci navy capable of planetary landings. Slowly, it descended through the planet's atmosphere leaving no trace flames or smoke.

When its two lower spires made contact with the ground it came to a gentle rest. Most of the vessel's weight was supported by other mechanisms, however. Everything forward of the posterior spires (nearly all of the ship) seemed to float hundreds of feet above ground.

The lifts were jammed with people. Everyone wanted off. Noise and pushing trapped those who had arrived first. None of the doors opened, however. Victor's voice could be heard throughout the ship. "No one is getting off yet. Go back to your posts. I will lead a team out to determine our situation and our duties will be completed before anyone gets leave."


14 people seemed to materialize from nothing on the ground below the nose of the monolith. Twelve wore kaki, beige, and olive dress uniforms. They carried 6 foot long white-silver staffs whose intricate etchings shimmered like diamonds in the bright sun. The other two, Victor and Beth, wore similar uniforms, though were obviously of much higher rank, and carried no visible weapons or devices.

Shortly before this, the square was bathed in a soft white light, bright but not blindingly so, as two columns of energy appeared atop of the raised staircase leading up to the city council building. The crowds, still on their knees, noticed the bright light and slowly rose to their feet, squinting to look at it. The council building behind the two columns of light seemed to be twisted and distorted, as though being sucked towards them by an unseen force. An ear-piercing whining sound then occurred for a second or two, and the light subsided as quickly as it had appeared. Rubbing their eyes to adjust to the new light levels they looked up at the staircase to see two unbelievable beings. Their saviours.

Standing upright on four spindly legs, the lower half of their body was horizontal, whilst the upper half was bent to be vertical, with two arms mid-way up and a head perched on top. Their faces were triangular, with their small pincer mouths on the bottom corner, a compound eye on each upper corner, and antennae at the top. Their entire bodies were glossy and black, covered with a thick exoskeleton, and they stood at roughly four and a half feet high each – although their entire bodies were probably close to seven or eight feet long. They wore no clothing and carried no visible equipment of any kind, aside from metal cuffs wrapped around their thin forearms, and they moved gently as they looked down at their worshippers. They were surely divine; no creature such as this had ever been seen before!

“All hail the Unseen Ones, Seen at last!” the priest yelled out again. The crowd came alive in muted whispers, whilst Bellis pushed his way through them until he reached the front, wanting to get a better look at the divine beings. He was taken aback by their unusual physiology, but he had expected something different from his gods. Something more akin to his own appearance, perhaps.

“False gods!” somebody from the crowd yelled out in anger, receiving gasps from his fellow townsfolk. Bellis looked behind him to see young Yako, a sceptic in many things but especially in matters of religion. He had never been violent though, as he was now – he lifted a rock above his head and threw it at their visiting deities. Bellis watched in horror as the rock flew across the square, on course for a direct impact with one of the creatures’ heads.

But one of the creatures calmly tapped one of his wristbands with his spindly finger, and the rock vanished from existence as it impacted with some kind of glowing bubble with suddenly surrounded the two. Bellis and the others jumped back, whilst Yako said nothing more, he simply stood in wide-eyed disbelief.

Immediately, the crowd dropped to their knees and bowed their heads, awaiting the judgement of the divines. All they did for the moment was make some strange chittering noises, and make some unusual gestures with their arms. A language beyond mortal comprehension no doubt.


Xithmeksi and Reksil looked down upon the confused natives with curiosity. They had expected some degree of surprise, and were hoping for some kind of gratitude for saving their planet from destruction. They weren’t expecting a rock to be hurled at them, which was promptly disintegrated by their energy field. Nor were they expecting the entire population to apparently submit themselves to servitude as they were doing now. Reksil worked hard with the translation device on his cuff, amplifying their earlier whisperings in an attempt to decipher their unusual mammalian language. They still had not figured out the languages of the universe at large just yet, much less the language of this completely isolated community of primitives.

They presumed the robed man who had shouted at them on arrival was some kind of leader, but trying to get to him through this crowd could prove difficult, especially if someone else decided to throw things at them. And worse still, the people seemed to ignore their calls.

“Deciphered yet?” Xithmeksi asked his hive brother. The Xithis looked up at him with his emotionless compound eyes and released a negative pheromone.

“Difficulty with words,” Reksil said, releasing confusion. He played back a selection of recorded words spoken by the people, in their native language: ‘gods’ was repeated a few times, as it was uttered by various people and called out by their leader, as was ‘worship’. ‘Divine’ was another. None of these words could be translated by the device. The context of ‘unseen ones’ was also confusing to say the least, as although the words themselves had been translated by the device, they made absolutely no sense in Xithisi. As far as Reksil could tell, they meant ‘invisible Xithis’.

“We look for Prime Queen of your world!” Xithmeksi chittered to the crowd that had gathered around them, and he released peaceful intentions.

None of the crowd so much as looked up, let alone identified their leader. Xithmeksi expected that it was wishful thinking to believe they would have any comprehension of Xithisi, just as the Xithis couldn’t understand these people.

Their attempts at communication were disturbed however when a craft flew low overhead, casting a shadow above the square before disappearing out of sight, apparently looking for a landing site. Xithmeksi looked at Reksil, who released a negative. Neither of them recognised the vehicle, and it quite obviously wasn’t the property of these primitives.

“XCTL-281, alien ship,” Xithmeksi said into his cuff as he looked up at the Talyn-class Lacerator that still hovered imposingly overhead. Unfortunately, mobile communicators of this nature did not have artificial pheromones to communicate with, nor any visual inputs, so extremely simple messages were a requirement.

“Know this; tracking,” the response came. This was apparently enough for Xithmeksi and Reksil, who turned their attention back to the natives of this world.


[OOC: The natives of this planet, Xithis designation MH-XCT-02, are mammalian creatures roughly five foot tall at most. They are humanoid, with roughly the same physical attributes and capabilities of an average human. The only differences are that they're a little smaller, so they're a little weaker on average, their skin is a fairly bright shade of soft pink (a pigment which originally evolved so that they could be camouflaged by the similarly-coloured plant life in equatorial jungles) and they only have three fingers and a thumb on each hand. No hair, anywhere. The species has not yet been studied at length by the Xithis, who have not even gotten around to giving them a name yet, but they refer to themselves simply as 'the people' - in their own language, of course.

Their technological levels are all over the place. Their understanding of astronomy, and their ability to study it with moderately sophisticated telescopes is quite high, discounting such things as quantum physics and the ability to detect radio frequencies of course. This is due to religious reasons - they believe that their gods, the Unseen Ones, reside in the heavens and as soon as they are spotted by mortals they will reward them with great powers. So they have considerable resources devoted to the study of astronomy, and they are well-versed on the basics and have discovered all five of the planets in their solar system.

They have no form of industry beyond artisans making things by hand, however. Machinery beyond simple levers and pulleys doesn't exist, and they're yet to have an industrial revolution. You're looking at blacksmiths and carpenters. Their agricultural techniques are similarly backwards, relying on extensive manual labour. Some of their buildings, such as churches and the council building exhibit fairly advanced stone masonry techniques, but most houses are fairly simplistic and equivalent to middle-age Europe housing.

Militarily speaking, crossbows are about as sophisticated as they get.

It should be noted that this planet falls within the recognised territorial holdings of the Combine (hence its designation 'Mammal Habitat - Xithis Combine Territory - 02'), and that they consider it their responsibility to protect the species as a result of this - hence why they knew the people were in danger of extinction in the first place, and why they bothered to prevent it.]

The Neoman dropship setteled in a feild. Its cargo ramp lowered and 15 men walked out into the sun.
http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/columbia_pictures/final_fantasy__the_spirits_within/deepeyes.jpg

They could see the town and the ship above it. The leutenant a young man named Jacob Stokes waved his men forward.

A few minutes later they were walking into the city, They saw the people bowing down to the Xenocs (ooc: derogatory term Neomans use for Aliens,)

"What do you think?" On of the men asked Jacob.

"I dont know," he said as they waided threw the mass of people.

ooc: we're not over the city so much as we are near it. The edge of town might be a good place for my men and woman.

Oh, and not to attack, but the whole massively long quote thing can get annoying. Perhaps sniping them, or nixing them altogether? Thanks.

ooc: we're not over the city so much as we are near it. The edge of town might be a good place for my men and woman.

Oh, and not to attack, but the whole massively long quote thing can get annoying. Perhaps sniping them, or nixing them altogether? Thanks.

ooc: lol sry, its a habit

OOC: I hope you don't mind one more...


High Orbit

There was a faint, localized energy spike on the sensors of the (relatively) nearby ships and the Victoria/i]-class long-range frigate, of the Dol Nar Imperial Space Force, dropped into existence. The ship itself was only about six hundred meters long, carrying a crew complement of just under two hundred, plus a platoon of marines. It had a small launch bay, which carried as single drop ship/shuttle and four small fighter craft. It's armaments consisted mainly of missile tubes, particle cannons and rail guns, although it carried a battery of the new phased energy weapons.

This particular ship was known as the [i]Titania and was on a long-range exploration mission. The fact that there were alrady several ships here preturbed her captain, Stefan Lermontov. He glanced at his sensors officer.

"Ensign Getterly, identify those ships."

The Ensign ran his hands over the controls, his eyes flickering over the diagnostics.

"Sensors report three ships in system, of unknown configuration. One is currently hold ing status in low orbit in the atmosphere. The second is in high orbit and the third has landed on the surface. Their seems to be focus on this one area...I am picking up no transmissions or any sort of advanced technology from the planet, although I am detecting massive lifeforms. Unknown whether any of it is sentient."

Captain Lermontov groaned. So, someone had already claimed this planet? Oh well...

"I suppose we had better make ourselves known, Ensign. Send the standard greeting in all known languages. Lieutenant Krivoshein? Take a squad of marines and the science team with you down to the surface. I want to see what's so interesting about this place. Standard orbit."

There was movement as people hurried to obey orders.


Greetings from the Grand Duchy of Dol Nar. We come in peace. We are a exploration vessel and mean no harm. Please respond if you can understand this message.


Several minutes later, the shuttle disembarked, heading for the planet below.

The Xithis aboard the Talyn-class Lacerator, the ship which held position a few miles above the primitive city, monitored the developing situation with growing concern. This had been intended as a simple preservation and communication mission with a primitive species within their borders, and somehow alien crafts of unknown origins were turning up left, right and centre! Worse still, from all accounts the science Xithis on the surface had still had no luck with communicating with the creatures down there. The whole expedition was turning out to be a disaster, and they could only imagine what direction it would take next.

At least two alien craft had passed right by them, landing beneath their noses without so much as an attempt to communicate. Now that they were on the surface there was little the that the Xithis ship could do about it, as even its least damaging weaponry would cause catastrophic damage to the nearby city if it were fired at such a close area.

The latest alien arrival, which remained respectfully above the planet’s atmosphere, had at least sent a transmission, and even though it had come out as complete gibberish they at least knew that they were capable of communication. Unfortunately it had also sent a smaller craft down to the planet as well, potentially adding to their problems. At present, linguists were busy compiling a selection of pictures of Xithis, performing symbols of a variety of concepts ranging from ‘hive brother’ to ‘life’. Body language was one of the four core components of Xithisi, and the linguists believed that the aliens had a greater chance of understanding it than they would their audible or chemical communication methods. Of course it was doubtful the alien craft would even recognise the file format of the pictures being sent, let alone understand the meaning behind the pictures. But if nothing else, at least they were doing something. The files would be sent in a few minutes, and they would be sent in a broadband, multi-frequency format through various different transmission styles.

Officer Ithissa came closer to a sigh than any Xithis had ever come before, which was an impressive feat considering that they didn’t breathe. He had been charged with protecting these defenceless beings from extinction, a task which this ship had accomplished acceptably. Now various more complicated outside influences had come into place, influences that had not been anticipated in the original expedition plan, and through ignorance he had no idea whether they intended to take up the task of extinction that the asteroid had relinquished, or… something else entirely. How did these aliens think? Were they even insects? Did they even have a concept of friend or foe? He could only think of one way of dealing with this situation.

Ithissa promptly sent a detailed all-sense communiqué to the Studii system, informing the Royal Advisory of their progress thus far, informing them of the territorial breaches that had occurred, and requesting instructions on how to proceed. He hoped that their response would involve taking the pressure off his shell by sending help.

***

Xithmeksi released concern, which Reksil promptly agreed with, as various other figures, with silhouettes similar to these native creatures, approached the town square. They were presumably from the small ship which had just passed overhead and much like the ship itself the various gadgets they chose to adorn themselves with were quite clearly beyond the technological capabilities of these creatures – they were, almost without doubt, aliens.

Given their infrared signature and general shape, Xithmeksi concluded that underneath all of those coverings were mammals, similar to the creatures that presently covered the floor of this square-shaped gathering place. Xithmeksi always dreaded meeting mammals in the field like this, as Xithis sciences were decidedly ignorant when it came to that particular class of animal. Would they mysteriously start kissing the floor as well like these others, or start firing at random? Who could say with a completely unknown lifeform! And why did they have an internal skeleton like that? Their outsides were all squishy, and it was just… disturbing.

Xithmeksi shook himself from his panicked musings and just to be sure, he made certain that the shield that surrounded them was still active – even though it was dormant, and thus invisible, at the moment. They were only science Xithis after all.

“You communicate with them?” Xithmeksi asked Reksil, inflecting with his pheromones and a hand signal that it was a question about their next move.

“They have said nothing!” Reksil communicated with his hive brother. “I only communicate when they do!”

They felt a thud, which, because of their natural reliance of detecting vibrations in the ground, seemed much larger to them than it did to the surrounding creatures – and they immediately attributed it to either a vessel landing or a weapon impact. As the Xithis ship still hovered reassuringly above them, they could only conclude that it was even more aliens. Both of them released frustration and anxiety at the same time as they stared at the newcomers, wondering what they were doing here.



The audible clicks and body language of the two Xithis confused the surrounding natives even further, but they attributed it to divine knowledge beyond their understanding, and the undetectable pheromones they released didn’t even get a notice. They two stopped communicating with each other suddenly – at least, not in any way that the surrounding folks could notice – and gazed at the new aliens with their expressionless faces, as though waiting for something.

The Kazecis made their way through the town, walking quickly. They took up this pace partly due to their nature- most Kazecis walked at brisk pace relative to other physically similar races- and partially due to their current 'anthropological difficulties,' as the ship's councilor had put it so carefully. It was an informal grouping brought on by the later. The twelve guards sort of surrounded Victor and Beth forming a pseudo-circle that bunched at the flanks. The absence of people so far was rather disturbing, as was the underdeveloped nature of the buildings and infrastructure. Still, no one talked.

As they came around a corner, they could see the population of, essentially, peasants groveling on the ground. Their pace slowed. Some of the guards gripped their staffs tighter or with a second hand. Then Beth spotted the insects. Instantly she moved to block Victor. In one smooth move, a flick of her wrist brought the lower grip of her staff into her left palm, and its butt across his chest. The others stopped in their tracks.
"I've never seen such things before!" Victor whispered.
"There are several known sentient, advanced insect species in the galaxy." Beth said, recalling what little she had read on them. "But these-"
"These are unknown to Kazeci records. No images or exact descriptions exist in our databases." Everyone turned, stunned, to see Robert Huang speaking. He was the rear most guard, and a bit of a loner. "Sentient insectoids are a hobby." He said weakly, trying to explain -excuse- his knowledge.
"That's why he doesn't have a girlfriend...." someone grumbled. Another took it to a new level. "Yeah! He's into bugs!"
"Hey!" Huang snapped.
Victor intervened with a harsh whisper. "We're on a diplomatic mission representing the SGDK! For star's sake! Be decent for one hour! Hell! I'll settle for you all to just shut up!" He paused. "Huang, what do you know that might be useful?"
"Chances are their language is very strange- likely utilizing multiple senses. Our bodies will be very strange to them. The lack of effective communication will be frightening to them. We should keep them calm and try not to overwhelm them. With all of these humanoids they're in a very strange place-"
"You're very strange...."
"Miller!"


When they fully rounded the corner and were in plane sight of all in the square, they moved forward slowly forward. Really, they were waiting for someone else to make a move, hoping they would not be required to act first.
"Look there! There's another group of humanoids over there."
Beth began to analyze them and evaluate their threat potential. They're armed. They're wearing armor. They're uncomfortable. They're trained to fight- not talk.

The Neomans stood there looking up at the Xenocs. They had noticed the new comers as well and greeted them with nothing more then a wave.

The lieutenant sighed, knowing nobody was going to make the first move. "Cover formation, i don't want to start a fight," He said his voice given a metallic ting because of the speakers. The men took a knee there rifles raised slightly but not pointing at anyone.

He stepped in front of the natives, who still groveled in front the Xenocs. He set down his Rifle showing them he was pretty much unarmed besides the pistol strapped around his leg.

He walked up cautiously the Xenocs with his hand slightly raised. When he was in front of them he pressed a tiny recessed button of his helmet. The was a loud hiss as air escaped in a white cloud. He took off his helmet, and looked at them. He didn't know who or even what they were but the obviously had a higher technology then the Neomans.

"Nice day for saving a bunch of natives," He said in a trade language hoping they would understand.

Beth's mind raced. If the bugs don't understand us- the other group is taking a defensive stance- they're readying for a fight! They're more likely to understand us. The bugs are confused. They should be- everything's disorganized. in just a few steps she had a plan.

"Hey!" she shouted. The Kazecis changed their course, wading toward the Neomans and gesturing for their attention. They weren't trying to look harmless or even friendly, not that they sought the opposites. They were in a hurry- not a threat or an ally but a group with important business. Beth began to speak to them as they approached, before they were really in conversation range. "They're not going to understand him." She gestured with her left had toward their delegate and the bugs. "We need to figure out what's going on so that the situation here is as simple as possible. We're here originally seeking shore leave, though our overriding mission is one of exploration and diplomacy. In time, we'd like to open relations with you.

"Problem is, those bugs happen to have the ability to put up a damn good fight. We need to pose a united and peaceful front to them, and we need to do it soon." Through it all she had paid no attention to whether they understood her. If they were open with the common peoples of the Galaxy chances were they'd be able to translate Kazeci, and some might even speak derivatives. If they were like the bugs, her words would be without meaning.

Beth's mind raced. If the bugs don't understand us- the other group is taking a defensive stance- they're readying for a fight! They're more likely to understand us. The bugs are confused. They should be- everything's disorganized. in just a few steps she had a plan.

"Hey!" she shouted. The Kazecis changed their course, wading toward the Neomans and gesturing for their attention. They weren't trying to look harmless or even friendly, not that they sought the opposites. They were in a hurry- not a threat or an ally but a group with important business. Beth began to speak to them as they approached, before they were really in conversation range. "They're not going to understand him." She gestured with her left had toward their delegate and the bugs. "We need to figure out what's going on so that the situation here is as simple as possible. We're here originally seeking shore leave, though our overriding mission is one of exploration and diplomacy. In time, we'd like to open relations with you.

"Problem is, those bugs happen to have the ability to put up a damn good fight. We need to pose a united and peaceful front to them, and we need to do it soon." Through it all she had paid no attention to whether they understood her. If they were open with the common peoples of the Galaxy chances were they'd be able to translate Kazeci, and some might even speak derivatives. If they were like the bugs, her words would be without meaning.


The Lieutenant turned around and looked Kazecis.

One of the men chuckled "And what do you suppose we do? make a fire, cook some s'mores and sing Kumbya?"

"Shut it Trost," On of the men said. He looked at them, tiny circles around deep blue eyes of his power armor closed slightly as he inspected them.

"Were a Rapid action team, we were sent here to lacate and study the energy that stopped that asteroid." He said as he pointed up.

The leutenant walked up to them. "Leutenant Jacob Stokes of the Blue eyes company," He siad holding his hand out.

Beth was clearly annoyed- they understood her and ignored her anyway. Victor was the one to speak, taking Stokes' out-stretched forearm and clasping it with his hand. "Greetings! I am Victor Beatty, commander of that ship-" He gestured toward the clearly visible monolith. "And this is Elizabeth Motgi, tactical officer."

Beth was clearly annoyed- they understood her and ignored her anyway. Victor was the one to speak, taking Stokes' out-stretched forearm and clasping it with his hand. "Greetings! I am Victor Beatty, commander of that ship-" He gestured toward the clearly visible monolith. "And this is Elizabeth Motgi, tactical officer."

Stokes smiled and nodded at Elizabeth. "Hello Elizabeth," he siad with a smile. "Were you guys part of this?," he asked motioning to the natives around them.

Beth slowly let out a heavy breath, biting her lip and returned the hello. This wasn't going to be quick.
Victor continued to speak. "No. This," He took a sweeping glance at the pink people on the ground. "this was not our doing. They're obviously attributing it to the insects over there." He paused to consider them again. "And while we'd love to carry on this conversation later, we do need to consider them. Clearly they have the power to make this an unpleasant day for us. Bewildered as they likely are, we need to make a calm and friendly attempt to communicate, soon."

High Orbit, the Titania

Getterly looked up at Lermontov with a slightly confused expression. "We're recieving a transmission from the ship currently in the upper atmosphere of the planet...It's very confusing. Looksl ike some sort of file format we don't know about yet. The computer's trying to sort it all out right now. However, they DID respond, which is more then anyone else is doing."

The captain sighed and put his head in his hands, rubbing his temples. "Well, apparently they don't understand any of the languages we transmitted in...Try math. Send them something in binary code. Hopefully they'll understand base two..."

Message transmitted in Binary

[OOC: The gist of it, anyway]

We do not understand you. We are attempting to decipher your files as of now. Do you understand binary? Please respond.



The Surface

With a roar, the shuttle flashed over the city and flared it's engines, coming to a hover before slowly descending to land in a clear area, about fifty meters from the Neoman shuttle. A uniformed officer, several crewmen carrying scanning devices and a squad of marines in the standard plaet-side armor descended from the ramp, examining the buildings and their surroundings with interest.

More mammals?! Xithmeksi thought to himself, alerting his hive brother to the second group of aliens that had rounded the corner. Already they had discovered more of that class of animal in one day than they had ever encountered in the past. The fact that they had discovered them all within the borders of the Combine was especially disturbing. Xithmeksi spared a thought for his younger hive brothers still in the brooding chambers in his home city, hoping that they were beyond danger.

“More vertebrates approach,” Reksil announced the obvious as he noticed the newcomers. “We are presently surrounded.”

“We surrounded previous,” Xithmeksi communicated in response. “The pink-skinned ones surround us still!”

“They can not hurt us,” Reksil dismissed. “We are surrounded by threats, my meaning was.”

Xithmeksi released agreement as he looked back down at the aliens cautiously. He was also concerned that the ship above them had not communicated with them in some time now, and he wondered if perhaps they had been compromised. Hoping as he was for Xithis with weapons to appear all around them, he knew that would not happen for the sake of the natives. Either they would stay down here and figure out a way of surviving, or they would return to the ship. Xithmeksi hovered one of his digits over a cuff, tempted to call for extraction, but Reksil noticed and released a negative.

“We must stay!” he told Xithmeksi. “Protect the natives! Learn communicate!”

“Protect with what?” Xithmeksi protested. “We have only shield!”

“More than the natives have,” Reksil reasoned. The reasoning was sound, and Xithmeksi released a positive, dropping his arm down to his side again.

One of the armoured ones suddenly moved to approach them. He left his fellows behind, all of which looked ready and willing to make use of the weapons they carried as they dropped to firing positions, and slowly made his way towards the two Xithis. Mysteriously he (Xithmeksi guessed it was a male, anyway, because females rarely leave the safety of the hive) placed his primary weapon on the ground, leaving only a secondary weapon attached to his leg. Xithmeksi could only assume that it was some kind of bizarre mammalian challenge – perhaps assuming that his artificial exoskeleton made them equal opponents? Appropriately enough he didn’t disable their shield, and watched cautiously as the creature approached him through the horde of pink-skinned natives, who were beginning to take more notice of the newcomers. At least they were still alive, as Xithmeksi was beginning to doubt it…

The creature stopped shortly before hitting the boundary of their shield, and then removed the upper section of his artificial exoskeleton. At first Xithmeksi was convinced that his innards would spill out, but no, just like the natives surrounding them some kind of thin tissue held him together. It put a damper on his theory that this mammal intended to fight him, at any rate, as he now exposed his squishy flesh for all to pick at.

Then, it spoke. Xithmeksi was no expert in such matters, but it appeared to be using its own respiratory system to generate complex sounds, almost as a side-effect. Each time its mouth opened, Xithmeksi spotted a gruesome flap of flesh flicking and curling around, perhaps aiding in the structure of the sounds somehow.

Unfortunately, Xithmeksi had no idea what any of the noises meant. It was obviously a language, if only because common sense indicated that somebody was unlikely to walk up to him, remove his helmet and simply make a series of senseless sounds. This entire situation was bizarre, certainly, but not that much so. What that language meant, however, was a different matter. Was he demanding a surrender, issuing a challenge, or asking him for something else?

Reksil went about recording the sounds the creature made and analysing them with his little artificial cognitive device. There wasn’t much to go on, though. Reksil released a negative, without so much as vocalising or even signalling, as he was engrossed in his work.

The creature stood there for a few moments, perhaps hoping that they understood him. He was then distracted, as the latest group of aliens suddenly spoke up. The two entered a brief exchange, using similar forms of vocal communication – Xithmeksi couldn’t tell whether their languages were the same, though, but they seemed to comprehend each other. Perhaps they were friends?

Sure enough, the armoured one that had approached the two Xithis wandered over to them and held out a hand.

“Are you record all of this?” Xithmeksi asked Reksil, who promptly released a positive. “And do you think that is some kind of body language?” He pointed at the one holding his hand out and Reksil glanced up at them.

“Possible,” Reksil released another positive. “Try it and see.”

The two were still surrounded by the shield, but they didn’t realise that the gesture would ultimately involve physical contact. Xithmeksi held out one of his arms in a similar fashion, first of all towards the group of armoured mammals at the other end of the square who still caused him some concern, then aiming it in the direction of the lone armoured mammal and the newcomers enthusiastically. When one of the newcomers grasped the alien’s hand, Xithmeksi quickly dropped his arm.

“Productive!” Reksil evaluated, and Xithmeksi only released a dismissive pheromone.

They were all disturbed yet again as another space vessel of clearly alien origins flew overhead, landing off somewhere in the distance. Xithmeksi’s outer mandibles flared in shock, and he couldn’t find the will to close them.

More aliens?! he thought to himself in utter shock. Reksil obviously had similar thoughts, as Xithmeksi detected a panicked pheromone coming from his general direction.

“I am call for extraction,” Xithmeksi stated finally, holding up his arm and reaching to tap a button.

“Wait! See what first,” Reksil protested. Against his better judgement, Xithmeksi dropped his arms again, waiting to see what else could possibly happen. In the meantime, the natives were becoming restless, with some of them looking around and chanting ‘demons’ in their own, rather more easily translatable, language.

***

Above the city, Officer Ithissa decided that the situation was becoming worse. There was still no word on progress from the science Xithis below, and no further progress on the translation front. The creatures on the ship that had communicated with them appeared to use a completely verbal/written language, which meant that they would probably have all sorts of emotions, contexts and grammatical forms that they dealt with using other senses – making translation especially difficult. Linguists were still hoping that body language would break the ice, but they had no idea as to how to get such messages across to them.

A simple binary message had been received from them shortly after their response had been sent out, perhaps indicating a lack of comprehension on their end. Binary code was an extremely basic principle of computing, and they presumed it had been sent for that very reason. But it didn’t matter how they sent it, if the contents weren’t written in a language they could comprehend – as soon as the binary code was processed, they were left with something just as alien as before. Perhaps the aliens hoped they did understand, but had merely been unable to process their earlier communiqué. Regardless, at least they now had more material to work with.

Most of the linguists were still running with the body language theory, along with several software engineers who were trying to work out how to establish a live video feed with a system they had no understanding of. But a smaller group of the twenty-strong team had decided to respond in kind with a two-part transmission. The first part was a simple computer program along with a basic software operating system, written entirely in binary, which could certainly be made to run on any computer that was based on the principle of binary code – and they had deliberately not incorporated any hardware detection protocols in the operating system software, so they could fiddle with it until it worked on whatever computers they had over there. Once they managed to make it work, they would find a simple software operating system whose sole function was to display all 750,000-odd Xithisi pictographs in a simple rotation. There was no functional interface of any kind, but the source code was completely open so that they could extract the contents as soon as they understood the software behind it all. Whether they could decipher any of the pictographs without any form of context or understanding of their customs was another question entirely, but at least they would have a basis of their own to work from.

In case that didn’t work, they also encoded the first fifty prime numbers in binary and sent that over as well, to at least establish whether or not they had any common point of reference to work with.

While the linguists were hard at work, Officer Ithissa had been kept thoroughly occupied with a live debate between himself and the entire Royal Advisory – along with a hive Queen from the Royal Assembly! Officer Ithissa explained the situation to them in detail, informing them that there were now aliens on the ground, too close to the natives for any kind of ship-to-surface assault to safely take place. He also explained that attempts at communicating with one of the larger alien ships were ongoing, and although they weren’t pleased at the lack of success he had convinced them of the difficulty of such a task.

His request for reinforcements had been temporarily denied. The Royal Advisory felt that although said ships were in Combine territory and interfering with a mission within said territory, as of yet they had done nothing to damage their interests and it was the perfect opportunity to learn all about them.

Officer Ithissa argued that they needed to be informed promptly of their breach of Combine territory to reduce the chances of their taking advantage, and in the absence of effective communication the only possible way of doing that was to demonstrate it with raw military numbers.

The Royal Advisory dismissed the idea, stating that until they committed a serious offence (more serious than breaching their borders), they did not want to frighten them away. And such a monumental xenobiological opportunity could not be destroyed by politics, no matter the circumstances. Until weapons were fired, or alien numbers grew to intolerable levels, no more Xithis ships would arrive on the scene.

Officer Ithissa argued that just one alien incursion was ‘intolerable’, but they disagreed.

Additionally, from what little they knew of the visitors thus far, the Royal Advisory believed that a Talyn-class Lacerator could withstand the existing alien numbers more than long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Nevertheless, they informed the nearest patrol force, which consisted of two Ruben-class Devastators, of the situation in the middle of the debate, and had placed them on immediate mobilisation duty. Ithissa only needed to tell them that shots had been fired, and they would immediately arrive via space fold to settle the situation. Of course, this would not help the planet below very much, as the weapons on a Ruben were even worse than those on a Talyn, but it would at least contain the aliens until a solution could be reached.

And as a final word, they told Officer Ithissa not to place troops on the surface without prior authorisation. Unless it was the only way to protect the natives from harm, they felt it would make a tense situation even worse and did not want to escalate things. They also recommended that the two science Xithis be allowed to remain on the planet unless they were placed in immediate danger, but Officer Ithissa reminded them that he reserved the right to do whatever it required to protect his shipmates from harm.

The thoroughly unproductive conversation was ended after that, and Officer Ithissa was not satisfied with the results. But a Hive Queen was present, so he would hardly express such an opinion to them. He did as they asked, and waited to see what happened.

ooc: It read well to me.

Ic: The Kazecis looked up at the new shuttle as it came over head. most had the same thought- more? it was an irritated one- why did they drop into existence here again? As the Dol Narians came into sight, the Kazecis gestured for them to join the growing group. "Over here!"

The Titania

Ensign Getterly gave an excited yell as the transmission came through.

"It's a computer program sir, in something our computers can actually understand. I'm establishing a firewall to make sure it won't infect the rest of our system...Also getting a binary code...Translating..."

There was a pause of a few seconds as the computer processed.

"Looks like a series of numbers...1...3...5...7..11..13..17...19...Prime numbers, sir. Looks like they understood something after all. Oh, computer says we can run this program. Permission to do so sir?"

Lermontov stood and walked to the station, peering over Getterly's shoulder before nodding. There was another pause as the program loaded and began playing. Both men blinked and watched as pictures of strange, insectoid aliens in various poses began to slowly flash on the screen.

"That's...odd. Route it to our linquist...Maybe he can make something out of it. In the meantime, send them a transmission of the next 50 prime numbers. Maybe that will let then know we understand."

The Surface

The small group surveyed the scene, doing their best not to make any threatening moves as they approached. Lieutenant Krivoshein, raised a hand, speaking in a dialect of Russian. "Greetings from the Grand Duchy."

While we wait for them to do something, let's describe them.

The marines wore armor over their torso and groin areas, along with pauldrons, knee and shoulder pads, arm plates and gloves. Their helmets were not fully enclosed, but an armored visor provided them with a HUD and assistance in acquiring and firing on targets.

The crew and officer wore dark grey jumpsuits, adorned with pockets and all carried sidearms. Their rank is designated by stripes and diamonds on their collars.

Teh capiton of the Neoman Drednaught sat quietly reading over the reports of the transmission thar was sent.

"Send a program, in binary. Fill it with the pictures humans," He said to the ensign.

---

Jacob nodded, "I agree.. but were no more then a battle group from a war ship playing seek and destroy a nasty group of Xenocs."

Beth's voice took on a warning tone. "If you have quarrel with these aliens, then you best not drag us into it...."

Beth's voice took on a warning tone. "If you have quarrel with these aliens, then you best not drag us into it...."

Jacob folded his arms and frowned "If i had a quarrel with them, i wouldn't have tried to talk to them, I would have shot them.,"

He rubbed his chin and smiled "Sorry, I've been on edge for to long with out a break,"

[OOC: Hi guys. Sorry I left, but shortly after my last post here I had a nephew to look after! So available time shrank somewhat after that. The Xithis still need to learn new languages though!]

(ooc) Well, this looks interesting, but it also looks a little crowded. I this RP still considered open?

(ooc) Well, this looks interesting, but it also looks a little crowded. I this RP still considered open?

[OOC: It is as open as a thread like this can be. It's been a long time though, so I doubt if any wish to continue with it...]