[center][h3]Alas Prime[/h3][/center]

"Very well then." Came the Terran response. "Your world dies."

The Terran battleships opened fire on the Iscandarian vessels, the chaos in their ranks allowing the Terrans to absolutely decimate any resistance. Bombardment vessels moved into their positions, firing on any Iscandarian ships that got in their way. As they each reached their designated position, they transmitted a ready signal to the flagship, which itself had moved into a position over the largest remaining city of Alas Prime. The flagship sent a message to all of the bombardment vessels.

"Charge railguns!"

After a few moments, the responses from the bombardment ships came back. It was perfectly uniform for each and every one of them, like they had rehearsed it dozens of times before. In fact, they had. The truth was, the fleet was never going to spare Alas Prime,

"Railguns charged!"

Another message was sent out from the flagship, and it recieved a response just as uniform.

"Extend missiles."

Every one of the bombardment ships launched off four parts of its hull, one on each side of the giant cigar-shaped masses. Out of each of them, a single missile extended, far larger than any kind of missile used in space or land combat..

"Missiles extended, awaiting command."

"Hold fire. Set reactor output to maximum value and beam power to my vessel."

The bombardment ships followed her orders, bombarding the flagship's energy receiver with lasers. All of the collected power went to the massive vessel's spinal weapon, which began to glow far brighter than it ever had before. Once it seemed like it was as bright as the sun itself, the beaming of power to the flagship abruptly sopped. There was a brief moment that felt like eternity in which nothing happened.

Then it fired.

A giant blue beam shot out of the flagship's bow, expanding to reach a size exponentially larger than the ship that fired it the moment it came out of the firing chamber. It shot towards the planet, completely unimpeded by the atmosphere. It entirely destroyed the city below, tearing apart the very particles it was made of. Anything even marginally near the city went too, cleanly destroyed by the beam. But the destruction didn't stop there.

The beam continued into the planet, puncturing the crust in under a second and tearing its way through the mantle. Getting through the outer core just as quickly as it had breached the mantle, it finally reached its intended target: the inner core of Alas Prime. In a single instant, the inner core was destroyed, and the beam suddenly dissipated, having run out of energy. The planet, having lost its core, "tried" to fill it in with the liquid from the outer core, which in turn caused the mantle to destabilize and the crust to be absolutely devastated.

Earthquakes worse than anyone could have previously imagined ravaged the surface as pseudo-mountains formed and fell apart in seconds. Anything ever built on the planet was torn apart and ground up in the horrifying cataclysm, and waves containing enough water to fill a small ocean stormed across the planet. By the time the disaster was over, Alas Prime was a dead world, not a single plant nor animal still alive. The only evidence that Iscandarian civilization had ever existed was the fact that such a terrifying armageddon had occurred. A message was sent out from the flagship to all other Iscandarian planets, ships, and station in the system. The voice in the message was quiet and emotionless, almost detached somehow.

"Surrender or resist. Choosing the latter is sentencing your people to extinction. Choose wisely."

[center][h3]Sol System[/h3][/center]

[i]How the hell do a bunch of fucking horses build goddamned starships? What kind of idiot names someone "Twilight Sparkle? Why the fuck is that name even in English? Could they be-? No, the Iscandarians are a load of retarded shitheaded bastards, but they're not that stupid. Nobody has a brain fucked up enough to make spies naturally speak the same language as the people they're spying on. Wait, are those things humans? What the fuck? I knew that the humanoid form was common, but really? How the hell do the goddamned Vulcans end up actually existing? Oh, wait, now they're talking about how they reject emotion. Are these horses some kind of sufficiently advanced alien species playing a prank on us? HIS NAME IS POCK. HIS NAME IS LITERALLY POCK. ALIENS. STEAL. CABLE."[/i] Thought the human diplomat, quickly scanning the room for any reactions that might indicate he slipped up and said it out loud. [i]Jesus Christ, if I say some shit like that during negotiations I'll be fired for sure.[/i]

Having forgot to do so, he hastily bowed to the new aliens. 

"Welcome to Jupiter Stations!" He said, almost too cheerfully. "I am Ambassador Lorens Gustaf, representing the United Terran Federation. If it's not against your culture or anything, we'd like to request that you surrender your weapons while on this station. The last nation that said they wanted peace threatened genocide against us. That same nation just attacked us here, their ships are the source of the debris field."

He could have mentioned that the weapons they used to create that debris field mysteriously disappeared after being fired, he instead chose to let them think that Terran ships were just that good. He didn't want a repeat of the First Battle of Earth.

"This station is basically a city, so you'll be clearly visible the moment we leave this specific facility. If you want to do anything to make you feel safer out there, do it now. I managed to get us a reservation at a popular restaurant here, as well as a meeting with some other representatives there. We'll obviously need your physiology to properly serve you any kind of food, so you'll have to either submit to a short scan or give us all of the data. If you someh-... [i]happen[/i] to not know the compounds you can digest and those you cannot, and refuse to be scanned, we can't feed you anything. General protocol."

[i]That could have gone way worse.[/i]

[center][h3]Taoshe[/h3][/center]

As the Aradites spoke about the past war, the Terrans were visibly uncomfortable. It was clear that they had a distinct aversion to war, despite coming in a giant warship meant for planetary invasions. Even so, not a one said anything about it, not wanting to offend anyone. They knew that the odd love of war the Aradites had was a part of their culture, and that their own aversion of the same was a part of their own culture. Voicing their discomfort would make the Aradites feel the same way they were feeling, and then they'd both be uncomfortable.

In other words: They knew when to keep their mouths shut.

When Velka pressed the holographic buttons, the Terrans looked on in great interest. They lacked tactile holograms, and the stupid looks on their faces made that fact obvious to anyone that could read the expression. The moment they saw the city, however, that stupid look was replaced with an even stupider one. They were absolutely dumbfounded by the city, not entirely by the buildings, but by the giant underground chamber. They couldn't imagine how hard it must have been to hollow it out, not to mention keep it supported. The Terrans all thought there was an antigravity system keeping the "ceiling" of the chamber from falling.

Once they all reached the room, the Terrans were clearly interested in the relics on display. They observed them from a distance, all of them speculating on the importance of the objects. They took some kind of pleasure in that- speculating on the cultures of other species. Luckily for them, that odd trait made them look quite respectful (not always in the professional way, obviously) of alien cultures. Hearing the major speak to Velka, the Terran diplomat felt an urge to voice his speculations on their reasons, but he knew he really shouldn't be voicing his speculations on their culture. Even so, he decided to join in, as he himself wanted to know, and getting it right would make him look good.

"I was wondering that was well. While it obviously acts an an effective deterrent against orbital bombardment, I doubt this underground chamber was built when that was a major problem. The aesthetic is quite different, perhaps you didn't want to lose the historic beauty of the capital?" 

[center][h3]TSS [i]Kaku[/i], Ahmun Sul Space[/h3][/center]

The [i]Kaku[/i] would have seemed ridiculously extravagant to any military officer. Being a long-range science vessel, the [i]Kaku[/i] was designed to keep its crew is peak mental and physical health, as well as providing the maximum amount of comfort possible in such a small vessel. The entire inner hangar had been converted into an atrium, with the former hanger doors being replaced with a plasma window that allowed anyone inside to look out into space. The usual hallways that ran the length of the ship had been equipped with a ski tow-like transport system that made moving around inside the microgravity environment require far less precision. 

The crew quarters were all completely overhauled. Since the fighter maintenance systems were no longer needed in the turret compartments, there was more room that could be used for crew quarters. Instead of making the rooms larger, every room had been equipped with a centrifuge that generated artificial gravity inside of it. As a result, the crew quarters had to become significantly larger, and the crew complement of the ship was cut in half. Since half of the crew of the original ship were fighter pilots, this worked out quite well.

The Captain's quarters were situated in what was once a secondary turret compartment, the turret having been removed to make room for it. The normal centrifuge section was there, but outside the centrifuge, there was a microgravity lounge that looked out into space. It was here that the captain (A Discrict-Dweller university student named Hugh) was floating, looking out at the dull grey glow that could be seen out of every window while the ship was at warp. At such high speeds, the wavelength of all light shifted, making background radiation become visible light and visible light become X-ray radiation. This effect (when combined with the extensive shielding of the craft) caused the dull grey light that everyone on the ship now saw. It was a disorienting sight for most, especially those in the atrium, as it made them feel as if the ship were the only thing in the universe.

A quite beeping notified Hugh of an incoming message on the comm panel in the lounge, which he flew over to using a small air jet he had strapped to his arm. Grabbing a hold of the rail "above" the comm panel, he swung himself around to a small platform with another rail on it (which he placed his feet under, holding onto it so as not to float away). He pressed the "answer" button on the panel, which lightly pushed him away. As he corrected the slight movement with his feet, the face of Rin Tomiko appeared on the screen.

"Hugh, I know this isn't your shift, but the Captain ought to be the one to make this decision." She said, the sound of multiple crewmembers talking behind her being broadcast as well.

"What is it, Rin?" Asked Hugh, grabbing onto two rail son either side of the comm panel to relieve some of the effort from his legs. "You guys find something?"

"Yeah, last time we dropped out of warp to take some scans, our sensor suites picked up abnormal numbers of radio transmissions. You were asleep then, and we didn't want to disturb you unless we confirmed the artificiality of the signals. They're heavily degraded, but I think we just found the [i]Wall Street Journal[/i] of space."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. The transmissions are mostly stock market data, and reference innumerable species. This whole time we thought we were making a name for ourselves in the galaxy, it turns out we were just sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a giant lake. There's bound to be some data we can get there, provided we have the dough."

"Meaning?"

"This galactic community they have going on is [i]extremely[/i] capitalistic, it's like America before the war, but with more ads."

"That's a lot of ads, then." Said Hugh, remembering his father's stories.

"Either way, there's a chance we can get some data there, and the crew is getting sick of the whole 'It's either night, or the sky is grey' thing. They could use some shore leave."

"Yeah, but what could we possibly sell them?"

"Aside from fuel and ammunition? I don't know. The reports we got suggested that at some point they paid money for information on foreign civilizations, but that could have just been a market trend that passed. You know how true free markets work, always fluctuating."

"Just how far away is this system?"

"Our next dropout point comes up in a few minutes, from there, the system is just an hour away."

"Punch it into the autopilot, I'll be on the bridge shortly."

"Understood, shall I bring the ship to yellow alert?"

"Yes, we don't want to drop into a war without shields up."

"Aye aye, Captain!" She said jokingly. Hugh had made it a general order to not call him by his technical rank, and Rin knew that being addressed by it got on his nerves.

He rolled his eyes, an action of fake frustration that was betrayed by his smile. Cutting off the video feed, he floated back up to his main quarters and began his journey to the bridge.

[center][h3]Sevren System, Ahman Sul Space[/h3][/center]

While the many ships in the system went about their business, an odd anomaly appeared. It took the form of a gravitational lens, and flitted about the system at FTL speeds as if looking for something. Nothing could catch up with it due to its speed, and every scan turned back no useful data, no matter how advanced the system. After two hours of causing problems for police call centers, it finally began to slow. Once it reached the orbital velocity of Sevren IV, it moved closer to the planet, and its gravitational lens suddenly disappeared. A giant blast of radiation erupted from its aft section, and a fountain of relativistic particles soon followed. Had any ship been in its way, it would have been anhilliated. Luckily, whoever was piloting the odd craft had taken the time to wait for an opening.

With the gravitational lens effect gone, the craft could be seen clearly. It was a large ship, but not Dreadnought-sized. Sensor dishes lined its hull, with the only weapon in sight being a circular opening on its bow. Given that just above that opening there was a shield of some kind that stood between a giant room full of plants and the vacuum of space, it didn't look like the ship was meant to use it that often. Assuming that they had a translation device, the ship sent a message to the port authority of the station "Proephus Origin". Despite the design having never seen before by anyone in the system, it seemed to know its way around.

"This is the Terran Science Vessel [i]Kaku[/i], requesting docking permission. We meet Terran Military safety standards, utilize antimatter and chemical rocket propulsion, and we are equipped with a standard negative-mass ringed Alcubierre drive. Weapons systems include one shackled Tachyon lance, eight dual-barrel ship-to ship tri-mode magnetic accelerator cannons, and a complement of two scout drones. The cannons can fire raw tungsten shells, which hold concentrated space-to-ground damage capability, plasma-coated tungsten rounds, and pure plasma bolts. Our vessel is protected by a projected plasma shield capable of being utilized as a short-range weapon, which will remain inactive as long as we are docked. The atmosphere aboard our spacecraft is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, an insignificant amount of carbon dioxide, and water vapor. We breath oxygen and output carbon dioxide as a waste product of our respiration. Our vessel hails from the planet Terra, in the Sol system. We are here on a scientific venture related to the implementation of our knowledge of theoretical physics. We are carrying no cargo aside from provisions, though we do have a number of plants onboard. We utilize nanobots in a multitude of systems, and all of us carry them to assist our immune system. Though it is almost entirely impossible that they will affect any non-Terran species, it is possible that we are carrying both viruses and bacteria on our vessel. Due to overuse of medical products, these bacteria will likely be resistant to any chemical-based treatment. If there is a problem with anything we have stated, or if you require more information, just let us know and we will deal with the problem to the best of our ability. [i]Kaku[/i] out."