[center][h3]Outpost 12, Common Deck of the Honōnoransu[/h3][/center]

When the alien spoke about their past contacts, Laidach's mouth dropped open. The way they spoke of their history... perhaps their enemy represented the galactic norm. Unlike most speculation, this idea stuck with her, which she took to be a sign of its accuracy. After all, it was said that the small part of the Goddess Abh that remained in all of her children sometimes allowed them higher knowledge. Perhaps she was trying to tell her something.

"It is good that we met now and not earlier. Before the founding of our empire, a first contact would have devastated our species. Now, however, we need not fear that. If you wish, we can move to a meeting room, but we can also stay here on the Common Deck. Since we just won a battle, the crews are celebrating."

The young man started to speak, so soon after Laidach that it was almost as if he cut her off. However, she showed no displeasure at the action at all, so it was likely that she was done speaking already.

"Being the highest ranking officer, I will be performing the victory ceremony after the crews finish celebrating. If we go to the meeting room, we'll all have to leave for the ceremony. For an Abh to not go to it would be disrespectful to those who died in the battle. Since you never opened fire, and don't follow our customs, being absent would be perfectly fine. However, it would be a great honor to us and the dead if you would attend."

[center][h3]Deep Space[/h3][/center]

The Abh crew listened intently to the message, amazed that the aliens were able to send a message in their own language so well. The Captain in particular was scrutinizing every detail, trying to figure out the alien's knowledge and capabilities. It was clear that they did not know too much about the Abh, as they were asking for atmospheric specifications. However, the fact that they knew they both breathed oxygen made it clear that they had scanned the atmosphere of the colony, and that they had determined that it wasn't their homeworld. Luckily, since they didn't know the natural atmosphere that the Abh breathed, they probably hadn't found Shōrino'ba.

Of great interest to the Captain was the fact that they found the Abh arrival early. Normally, the Abh would assume this indicated a lack of FTL technology, but they obviously had such technology. Apparently, their FTL wasn't instantaneous (from an outside perspective, that is). For whatever reason, a thought immediately popped into the Captain's head.

[i]Give them the drive.[/i]

It made no sense for him to think that, and he knew it. For all they knew, these aliens were looking to trade. In that case, giving away such a valuable technology would be possibly one of the worst decisions. Thinking it was just him being impulsive, the Captain began to formulate a response in his head, but the thought of giving the aliens the FTL drive stuck in his head as if it had been permanently ingrained in his brain. For whatever reason, something inside him kept telling him it was the right thing to do. For a brief moment, he considered the idea that the aliens were telepathic, an idea that he tried to dismiss as outlandish. However, the report from the frontlines of the war had said that their enemy had some sort of mind control power.

Paranoia gripped his mind as the wondered if anything he would see on the alien ship was real, if it was perhaps an illusion created by the enemy. After a few moments of intensely scrutinizing the situation, he decided that such a situation was highly unlikely. The enemy clearly had instantaneous FTL, and capturing an insignificant starship would gain them little knowledge about the Abh other than old reports and public documents that floated around planetary computer networks. It made no sense for the enemy to devise such an elaborate ruse.

Reassured that the aliens were really a new and friendly species, he signaled with his right hand for the communications officer to send a response. The nod he got back confirmed that the message was being recorded by the bridge's speakers, and everyone fell as silent as possible in order to avoid saying anything that might be offensive to the aliens.

"It is an honor to meet you Admiral." He began, starting to pace slowly around the bridge. "I am Captain Ator Kyūsei of the warship [i]Rippaisei[/i]. My communications officer will forward our atmospheric requirements shortly, the air pressure is of minimal concern, mind you. You are correct in your observation that we both breath oxygen, our scans of enemy vessels seem to indicate that oxygen breathers are quite common. I apologize if we startled you with our arrival, our FTL reaches its destination instantaneously and we were unaware that non-instantaneous FTL was used." 

[center][h3]Kibō-hosh, Ground Battle[/h3][/center]

[i]"Paranoia is such a common response to situations because the paranoid are the ones that survive. If you expect a knife in your back, when the blow finally comes, you will evade it."[/i]
-Taiyō Kyūsei, ancient Abh strategist

When the Romans opened fire on the buildings, the Abh soldiers leapt off of them, falling right on top of the Roman troop columns in the streets. Being on the fifth floor of the buildings, they could take the fall easily thanks to the low gravity of the planet. They fired all the way down, shredding the Roman troops as they fell from above. When they landed, they continued to use the planet's gravity to their advantage, jumping multiple times higher than the Romans could and shooting them while still in midair. It was a brave, some would say insane, act. It seemed to depend on something more.

As fate would have it, it did.

The civilians in the buildings took up their own arms, which had been hidden away behind the barricades. They spread out across the many floors of the buildings, firing down on the Romans. The two groups formed a formidable force, which bit down hard into the Roman infantry and armor in the streets. In the city center, the Abh military continued to hold off the Romans. They had a major advantage from the Roman doctrine of "throw men at it until it dies". While it would have been quite effective in an open area, the Abh city center had been well fortified and was only accessible through the streets in which the Romans were being slaughtered. In the planetary theater as a whole, Abh victory was all but assured. A doctrine of overwhelming numbers only works if your total force outnumbers the enemy, which can never be true in a planetary invasion.

The drop pods of the Roman marines were fired upon by the AA guns while they slowed their descent, which took out a non-trivial number of them before they even hit the ground. Those that reached the ground found that while the tanks were easy to take, the infantry were significantly harder. Their mobility and numbers afforded them an advantage over the marines in groups, with small squads of infantry splitting off from the main defense line to take care of the dropping marines. More anti-infantry tanks moved up, with the Roman armor being decimated, they could focus more on the infantry. The new plasma throwers added to the line made the Guardsmen drop faster than flies. They were being killed just as quickly as they reinforced, with the Abh machine gun emplacements in the trenches making short work of anyone that dared to come out of cover. Those that in cover were taken care of by railguns, which shot straight through any cover they could find.

[center][h3]Kibō-hosh, Air Battle[/h3][/center]

The Carrier's antigravity systems were decimated by the blast, along with the control circuits for the engines. It plummeted towards the ground as red mist rose from it, constantly flying upward just as fast as the ship fell. Its engines continued to burn, pushing it straight into multiple blocks of skyscrapers involved in the resistance against the Roman invasion. The Romans and Abh alike looked on in horror as the giant hulk fell towards them, crashing through skyscrapers on its way. Multiple Roman columns were absolutely anhilliated by the ship, and the skyscrapers that fell as a result of the impact did even more damage, causing the entire area around the impact to become nothing more than a twisted pile of steel and concrete.

However, the destruction was not yet over. A few moments after the initial destruction, the carrier's explosive ammunition exploded all at once, devastating the area further and sending shrapnel into other Roman columns and Abh resistance fighters. With the Roman Knightmares down, the Abh air forces focused all of their fire on the incoming fighters and bombers. AA guns from the Abh airships shredded the oncoming fighters in droves, intent on making the Romans learn that one does not bring small craft squadrons to bear against an Abh air fleet.

[center][h3]Kibō-hosh, Kitoshi Spaceport[/h3][/center]

The Roman rounds came down into the night sky of the city, smashing into the Abh military bases and taking out all the surrounding civilian buildings. The spaceport itself shook as rounds landed on it, the Romans not knowing that it wasn't a designated military base. Chaos erupted in the building, with dozens of passengers and soldiers rushing to get out before their section got it. In the middle of all this chaos, five shots of a pistol rang out, broadcast all over the section using the PA system.

A woman holding a smoking coilgun stepped into an opening that used to be a window, a microphone clipped to her HUD headset. She wore a uniform similar to that of a Spaceborne Navy Captain, but with the normal white becoming a sharp black and the rank patch replaced with an image of the Demigod Emirra holding her signature holy katana (Which glowed blue in accordance with the myths, which said that it contained the power of Ningen himself). Everyone stopped to look at her, as if seeking guidance from her.

"Alright, you fuckers!" She yelled, making it clear with her tone and word choice that she didn't plan to be calm in any sense of the word. "There's only one way out of this damn building, and it's on our ships! If you're willing to run the goddamned blockade those alien demons have set up, then get your asses over to the starship bays! If you're not there in ten minutes or whenever an alien round blows up this section- whichever comes first -then your life's in Urania's hands!"

The chaos began again, with everyone now rushing for the starship bays. As she ran towards her ship, the woman called up her collaborators.

"Ciaca, there's way too many people here! How the hell do you expect us to get them all a place on the ship?!" Yelled a voice through her headset, making her cringe slightly.

"First come, first serve you idiot! The better they are, the better our chances of braking that blockade! Have as many people as possible on our destroyer by the time I get there or else I slash your pay!"

"Y-yes Ma'am!"

"My name is Ciaca and I expect to be addressed by it!"

"Understood ma- Ciaca!"

[b]Ten minutes later, to the second[/b]

The hum of antigravity systems filled the ears of everyone on the block as ten starships rose from the spaceport. Nine were freighters, hastily modded with military grade weaponry. One of them was a destroyer, and the absence of any military markings made it clear to everyone that it was the [i]Burakkusutā[/i]. It broadcast a message across the entire planet, one that anyone inside the atmosphere and with a radio would be able to hear.

"Keep fighting, people of Kibō-hosh! Help is coming, and mark my words, we [i]will[/i] drive back the invaders before the end of this week!"

[center][h3]Kibō-hosh, Orbit[/h3][/center]

Ten starships came up from the ground, glinting in the sunlight as they came into the daylight side of the planet. Nine of them were clearly visible, but the tenth had its space-time bubble generator active. There wasn't enough power put into it to elevate the ship to the fifth dimension, but there was enough to mask it from radar. It flew through space undetected, maintaining radio silence with the other ships. Everyone knew their part to play and they were prepared to play it was well as a professional actor.

Passive scans of the system alerted the Abh to the Draconian presence, which made their job significantly easier. The engines of the tenth ship suddenly opened up at full burn, rocketing it into the Roman blockade at multiple gs of acceleration. The sheer speed of the craft made it nearly impossible to target, and the space-time bubble made missile locks absolutely out of the question. The nine other ships came right after it at similar speeds, opening fire with their weapons. The nine were transports, likely carrying evacuees in an attempt to get off the planet. None of them seemed to have FTL, which implied that getting through the blockaded Hasichi would be necessary. A message was sent from the destroyer, which was dodging fire left and right, as if the ship itself had a mind of its own.

"It's far past time that you learned a very important lesson: [i]Abh never surrender[/i]!"

[center][h3]Cathacia, Planet Arcadia[/h3][/center]

The woman slowly came to, finding herself in some kind of medical facility. Her wounds had been healed, but there was still plenty of pain, likely a result of either the alien medical technology or their understanding of Abh physiology. It was obvious that it wasn't any kind of major hospital, but her wounds had been severe, so keeping her in the town was the best choice. The room itself was similar to the hospital rooms she had seen, but all of the equipment was completely alien.

She found that she couldn't move without extreme pain, but that she was very much capable of moving if she had to. She decided to thank the low gravity for this, as with her injuries, she wouldn't be able to move at all on Shōrino'ba. She lifted her head as high as she could, which to her delight, caused little pain. Any pain would have indicated a neck injury and signal her death. The door to her room was open, and outside she could see multiple aliens, most of them were Abhoids with pale grey skin, but there were multiple different species. She hadn't expect this, if anything, she expected a fractured species with multiple different nations vying for control just like in the Pre-Empire days.

Turning towards the medical equipment, she found that it seemed to use standard digital computers. She scrutinized the equipment, looking for an interface port. Not to hack into it, but to figure out if the aliens could also interface with computers. Finding none, she frowned.

[i]Are we really the exception?[/i] She thought, still staring at the computer. A sudden realization came to her, something that she had never thought of before. [i]We're just as alien to them as they are to us.[/i]

She snapped out of it when she heard the voices of two aliens talking just outside of her room. Tilting her head back up, she opened her mouth to speak when a mind shot through her head: [i]What if they were Romans?[/i] The idea didn't make much sense, but being in her state, she couldn't think of a reason they couldn't be. For a moment, she was paralyzed with fear, but then she shook it off, reminding herself that nothing ever got done without taking a risk. She called out to them, hoping they could hear her. She didn't expect them to be able to understand her, as she hadn't ever thought of a translation device as a plausible reality.

"Who are you?" She called, as loud as she could (which was about as loud as her normal speech). "Your species, I mean. My people are at war, and for all I know, you're the enemy."