OOC: w/ Howl

IC:
[b][i]Outskirts of S1 system[/i][/b]
The cruisers departed shortly after the order was given, heading deeper into the system to perform more detailed scans while the heavier ships stayed behind. Admiral Cygnus didn’t want to spook anyone who lived here, and the Raider-class definitely didn’t fit the bill. The smaller cruisers that looked like boxes with a few turrets and engines strapped onto them were both harder to detect and less threatening.

The data they were receiving was strange though. There was definitely communication within this system, yet the translator AI was having trouble making heads or tails of it. “Open a channel to the [i]Rampart[/i].” the admiral ordered, wanting to talk with the corvette’s captain.

“Rampart receiving.” sounded Astra’s voice over the comms. “Captain, have a look at the data scans. The AI is failing to translate. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something strange about those, maybe you can decipher it?” Cygnus explained and sent over the data burst.

Captain Astra was one of the greatest minds of their people. It was her who recently doubled the efficiency of their FTL drives and laid the theoretical basis behind their shielding systems. It warmed the Admiral’s heart for a reason no one else in the fleet knew. True enough, after a few minutes the channel opened again. “It’s not a language. It’s machine code.” Astra stated plainly, but Cygnus could hear the spark of curiosity in her tone.

“Automated defenses?” the admiral asked. It was the logical conclusion to why such amount of data would be shared among machines - she imagined it would take quite a few to protect even a single planet. However, Astra wasn’t convinced. “More, much more than that. The structure is too complex. Far more than our transmissions actually, given that we use organic computing. Either way, when I compared the timestamps for when the cruisers received the same data, I found the origin - it’s a planet in the system. Requesting permission to investigate.”

Naturally. It was hard to keep Astra from anything once she found it interesting. Cygnus could order her otherwise, but what purpose would that serve? This was the only discovered node out of their home cluster. Sooner or later, they would have to transit through here and meet those machines if they wanted to expand elsewhere. She just hoped this wouldn’t end in a disaster. “Granted. Proceed with caution. Do not initiate contact unless approached.”

With a swift confirmation the corvette disappeared in a subspace window.

[b][i]High orbit around P1[/i][/b]
The vortex deposited the Rampart on the pre-set coordinates. “Move us away from the entry point and plot a jump back to the node just in case. Proceed with passive scan of the area.” Astra ordered and the corvette’s engines ignited, accelerating it away.

“Sensor data coming up on the main display.” an officer said, and a hologram appeared in front of them. And left them all in a stunned silence. “How many are there?” Astra asked, seeing a very busy planet surrounded by space stations, with ships constantly moving between them, the surface and something Astra assumed was a stationary FTL gate. “Dozens, maybe couple hundred. All broadcasting the data we scanned earlier.”

Astra’s suspicion was getting stronger by the minute. The data transfers looked too much alike to the nonorganic AIs some of their scientists proposed for comfort. “We’re not dealing with people here.” she summarized her thoughts. “Any indication they noticed us?”

[b] Station 235 [/b]

Every ship in the system was alerted to the presence of the subspace arrival, for a brief moment all information was being passed and conglomerated, then re-cast down to the surface where it would be adequately stored for further species if the inevitable were to happen. After the transmission all of the surrounding space, ships, stations, workers, all went “dark” - no data transmission. 

Destroyers began to disconnect from stations, the space stations Anti-Ship weapons powered up, battle-carriers began to buzz as spacecraft poured out of their hangers. Corvettes, began to cloak, and started moving to the flanks of the ship. Frigates spread out and formed a wide net, prepared to block any reinforcements that could come. The maintenance drones shot ahead of all of the military fleets, their two large claw like appendages, opened so that they formed little bumpers. As they approached the ship, they would begin building a completely spherical shield around it, using their bodies as the shield, their thick claws acted as some sort of armor for them though it wouldn’t help from anything larger than anti-spacecraft weapons. When the first layer was formed, another layer formed behind them until it was five deep.They were rubbing and bumping against one another but formed an effective barrier against kinetic weapons. 

A single ship had been designated to identify friend or foe, this destroyer broke away from the fleet which was forming defensive perimeters around valuable assets. At its approach the drones backed off leaving only a gap for the destroyer to make direct line of sight. The weapons systems were deactivated due to first contact protocol. 

[b] P1 [/b]

With the commotion above, the “black box” of the civilization was being moved, its precious data being transported via the underground tram systems. The box descended miles below the surface and made its way to where an emergency launch hangar, where a small fleet of ships was preparing to depart. It was a last ditch effort  made in case of full invasion from hostile species. The black box would be transported off world and out of the system.  The Experimental robotics department was loaded into the repurposed battle carrier that was hidden in the underground. The black box stored alongside the department, they primed their engines and waited for the signal to leave from the council which had been moved to the control cluster somewhere deep in the planet’s crust. 

Elsewhere on P1, the ground forces began to set up defensive positions around key resources. The orders going out nigh instantaneously, and being carried out effectively was the key to the R.L.C. military defense. The Infantry assisted in the setting up of the Anti-Aircraft rail guns. Missile pods were raised from under the surface on Elevators, the entire planet seemed to have a super structure underneath it. The surface having only a sporadic cubic buildings here and there. The Special forces loaded onto their respective drop ships and took flight. hangers emptied, what little atmosphere was left was filled to the brim with aircraft. Non-combative citizens were being corralled into safety bunkers under the earth, while the lesser droids were being used to build moveable barricades. 


[b][i]FCv Rampart - high orbit around P1[/i][/b]
“They know we’re here!” the sensor tech called out, and true enough the display shown a swarm of dots moving on their position. “They’ve seen us! Multiple contacts on intercept course! Orders?” Astra’s XO asked, a slight sign of fear present in her voice.

“Don’t panic! Give me a visual!” Astra replied, and the holoscreen shifted to a view from one of the hull cameras. Shaking her head at the questioning looks, Astra made the decision. “Keep weapons offline, transfer power from engines to the shield. Open the reactor vents in a standard approach pattern, let them know we know they’re here, hopefully they’ll realize we’re friendly since we didn’t fire on them yet.” the captain ordered and waited for the unknowns to respond.

The response was quick enough, as a single ship approached the corvette. “Detecting single contact on approach, no sign of hostile intentions.” the tech reported to her, and Astra’s face curved in a smirk. Still alive, so far so good. “I want our first contact data package sent on all available frequencies. Use our language, the language from the derelict on our planet, smoke signals, what have you, give them an option to respond somewhere!” Astra said, hypnotizing the sensor logs for any change in the unknown’s behavior. “All external lights off except for the docking port. If they want to come aboard, let’s invite them in.”

[b] P1 High Orbit Rampart - R.L.C. [/b]

The destroyer halted its slow crawl, and processed known information. It scanned the ship several times, and then scanned some more, it made the rational decision to dispatch maintenance droids, with its AI copied onto the frame. The download was instant, and the droid crawled from a service shaft. It had four spindly legs that emerged from a perfect black cube. It approached the edge of the ship, its red optical sensor switching over to thermal, prepared for the long jump. It squatted for a moment, calculated its needed trajectory and then leapt into the empty space. It floated for several tense minutes, its legs stretched out to greet the Alien space craft, its feet clamped onto the lights and for a moment looked as if it were going to break free and float into the shield of drones. It held fast.

It pulled itself into what it assumed was the docking area of the alien vessel, though it could have been a garbage shoot. It paused before continuing collecting their data packages they seemed so keen on spamming. And within moments, it learned the basic breakdown of their language, and a multitude of their words, enough to communicate for this purpose. From the data packages the AI formed the theory that they were most likely form of highly intelligent sentient organics . [i]“Curious”[/i] it thought to itself. Organics never seemed to be this peaceful nor this intelligent. It scuttled further into the ship waiting for the beings inside to let it in.

[b] P1 High orbit a little ways off [/b]

The other ships had finished getting into position, they had formed a spherical grid around the meeting, and waited for surprise attacks or at least reinforcements. Their weapons primed, they had no intention of allowing invaders too touch surface of the planet. With no communication between the ships each began to form their own opinion on the situation, their protocols and programming wouldn’t allow them to act unless there was a violation on behalf of the alien species, or robotic. 

[b][i]Meanwhile on the Rampart…[/i][/b]
“Contact split in two, they are sending what looks like a robotic probe.” Astra waved the tech silent, seeing as much herself on the screen. “Lower the shield in that quadrant, we don’t want them to vaporize. If it heads towards the docking port, open the airlock for it. I’m going to meet them.” she said, fastening her helmet and turning the visor opaque.

“Captain! Is that wise?” her XO asked, “If they-” Astra whirled around - as fast as Faira could - and a raised palm stopped the officer from speaking further. “They didn’t this far, I have no reaosn to believe they will. If worst happens, you have command. Your standing order is to immediately jump back to the fleet and relay the gathered data, the Admiral will decide whether to retaliate. Understood?” Without waiting for confirmation, Astra headed to the cargo bay.

“I’m ready.” she spoke, her helmet comms transmitting her voice to the bridge, “Open the airlock, let them in.” she ordered and waited to see what exactly would come greet her.

[b] Rampart - R.L.C. [/b]

The AI, eventually entered the cargo bay. It continuously sucked in the information around it, structure analysis, material composition, air makeup, and other sorted things it could gather. When it came within a few yards of the alien species, a soft click echoed, as two arms appeared on either side, they both had pincers for hands. Its little clawed feet made soft “clink” sounds as it stepped. When it stopped it studied the creature before it, its curious nature causing it to forget for a moment why it had actually come aboard their ship. It cycled through possible types of voices that would be non-threatening to this new species. It selected the frequency in which it had picked up their original data package. “Hello” it replied short and simple, it waited for an adequate response. Meanwhile it scanned the area around it for possible ambush. 

Though it new basics of their language it was very unfamiliar with procedures, it could procure sentences but had no way of how their culture worked, and with this it was uncertain on how things would turn out. Unbeknownst to them in a small lead container withinside the Cubic robotic, was held a very special black box. Which was recording all of data it collected. 

Astra watched with wonder as a robot walked right in front of her. It’s construction was strange - Faira would never think of using more than two legs for ground vehicles, or any number of legs period. The dusty and rough planet their home used to be made them favor tracked vehicles and elevated railway before gravity control was developed, and most of Faira Erea’s fauna used to have jsut four limbs, which were quite impractical for machines. She could see though how it would be useful in zero G environment.

She nearly twitched when the robot spoke. It was just one word, but the way it sounded… Astra couldn’t think of any other description than ‘Alien’. After a second of thought though, it made her smile - their contact package worked, or at least the race they were dealing with were advanced enough to figure their language out from what they gave them.

The Faira looked for anything that might have looked like an optical sensor. She pivoted her head to left and right to see whether any part of the machine would follow the movement to do so. It was their custom to look the other party in the eyes when addressed… or whatever would count as some, considering the nature of their guest.

“Hello. Can you understand us?” she asked, trying to sound in between neutral and friendly. “Welcome on board the FCv Rampart. I am Captain Astra, representing the Faira species. We are explorers and mean no harm.” she recited, her words actually chosen long before by their psychologists in preparation for a first contact scenario. Astra had her own opinion on how effective that would be, but this way, she at least couldn’t be blamed for any incident.

“Understand, Yes” the Former Maintenance drone, responded.  With the movement of the creature's head, it pivoted its chassis mimicking the same action the Captain Astra took. “Faira species, Explorers, No Harm.” It echoed her words, by simply replaying them back to her “The goal, of Exploring is to find new lands to conquer. Do you mean to try integrate your species into this system?” 

Most of the words were mechanical, lacking of an Organic origin. “No Harm, to conquer or integrate would require the competition of resources, this would lead to war, to death.” It had quit pivoting, side to side after it spoke the last word “death” now facing the captain, its frame still, the little hands opened then closed once. As it formulated ran through a multitude of scenarios both military and peaceful.  

“I believe I have incorrectly understood the term ‘No harm’ this system is prepared to take military action in self defense. Faira are organic, from the limited knowledge possessed organics have permanent death correct, CA # 01  ” In the time it had separated itself from the destroyer, it had become acutely aware of the fact that after it had absorbed so much new information, and lost some programing that wasn’t needed for this that it had formed its own identity, which it very much enjoyed. “Life, is good.” with these final words the robot's main optical sensor, which is the size of an apple, illuminated with a crimson hue. 

Astra was amazed when she heard not that, but how the machine spoke. The way it used their language was logical, efficient - reminiscent of a machine code in it’s own sense. By now she was convinced she was not talking to someone controlling the robot, but the robot itself. The implications of this were amazing. However, there would be time to process that later.

Right now, she needed to prevent a colossal misunderstanding. At least that seemed where the conversation was headed from what the machine said. “There is more to exploring than claiming land.” Astra approached the subject slowly, “Meeting new people for example, learning from each other, or trade. We are not interested in forcing our way into the land of another or war. Faira understand the value of home and life, organic or otherwise.” she said, observing closely if the machine would react to the last bit in any way.

“We would only ask of you to allow us passage if we can not agree upon anything else. In return we offer to share data on everything we find where ever we go from here.” Astra offered. “I am afraid I am not at liberty to discuss any other arrangement, but if you are willing, the flagship and admiral of our scouting party are stationed at the outskirts of your system. If you would like to speak with them, it can be arranged.” she informed.