[b][u]Enned System
Letona's Gaze[/u][/b]

When the captain entered the bridge of the surveyor vessel, he found Professor Shiru at the entrance. She immediately grabbed him by the arm and insistently dragged him over to his tactical overview station, where the message from Jia-Jio was displayed.

"The Azu." He started, equal measures of anger and dismay crossing his face and twisting into an approximation of a snarl. "Professor, I know these aliens. It was a long time ago and I was only the helmsman back then, but this Jia-Jio is not bluffing. If the Federation or Empire attack that behemoth with their drones, it will fire up that engine of its and the crown blast alone will be enough to vaporize the GNT's base camp and everything else for hundreds of kilometers."

"Then tell the Federation and Empire to stand down until these Azu can confer with their superiors!" Shiru's voice was a low and strained hiss. "We cannot risk either the personnel on the ground or the ruins themselves."

"Ha!" The captain snorted. "Professor, we do not have time to play diplomacy with the Azu here. Even if we wanted to entertain them, the Federation and Empire almost certainly will not. Their strike craft will be in range in less than two minutes and their leadership is going to argue with us. We don't have the time. Everyone on that planet is as good as dead, so we may as well issue an order to the GNT forces on the ground to evacuate immediately."

"Absolutely not! We simply cannot permit this to happen!" Shiru shouted at the captain, slamming on the tactical interface with her right arm. "That infrastructure is the single greatest historical and archaeological find in more than two hundred thousand years! If we let this lunatic alien eradicate half of the surface, the blow to xenoarcheology will generate shockwaves across multiple generations! It will be the largest catastrophe and the biggest loss of information since the advent of the Blendecs! I am telling you, we must do SOMETHING..." She turned to glare at the massive vessel filling the viewscreen.

"...Is the FTL Drive functional?" She asked quietly, her eyes narrowed.

"It's still warm from when we arrived and has been prepped due to the shipwide alert, but using it this soon will cause it to blow itself out. It will take weeks to repair and replace." The Captain said cautiously, knowing exactly where the conversation was heading and searching for arguments against that route.

"Do it. We can requisition parts from the Feds. A burnt out FTL Drive is nothing compared to the loss of half the planet's surface and the GNT personnel on the ground." Shiru said, turning back to the captain and giving him a stern look.

"Professor, if it were me in her place, even if we jumped in front of the ship I would still blast us, the planet, and the basecamp. In which case, we would die along with them and this entire outing will have been a complete waste." The captain argued.

"No. She won't. I don't care who these Azu are, if they use those engines on us and the basecamp, they'll start an interstellar war with the Federation and Empire. It would be a political death knell. Nobody is that callous."

The captain hesitated. From what he knew of the incidents at Anuku, in all cases the Azu had only attacked those who had struck at them first. That had been a long time ago though, and any number of things could have changed since then. For all he knew the Azu shot any and all alien vessels on sight. But...

He glanced at Jia-Jio's message again.

[quote=Jia-Jio][b]...I will require proof of your integrity...[/b][/quote]
The captain reached out to the tactical console and switched on one of his bridge officers' lines. "Helm," The single word was shaky, but the captain's next words were clear and firm. "Engage emergency FTL. Position the [i]Letona's Gaze[/i] between the planet and the Azu vessel."

[b][u]The Watchman's Eye[/u][/b]


Jia-Jio's neurological implant again displayed a frenzy of alerts as a ship appeared directly in front of the [i]Watchman's[/i] main exhaust, setting off proximity alarms and warnings of abrupt FTL transition nearby. Seconds later, another message was sent to her from [i]Letona's Gaze[/i]...Which the [i]Watchman's[/i] sensors confirmed was now between the planet and it.

[hider=Letona's Gaze Message][b][i]If you destroy these ruins, you will destroy the greatest archeological find in the entire galaxy in over two hundred thousand years. You will also have killed thousands of innocent personnel. We will not permit you to do so. You will need to destroy us if you wish to desecrate the ruins.

Is this sufficient proof of our integrity? Or must you call forth our devastation - and your own?[/i][/b][/hider]