Dragonruby

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@MissingAxis

With the envoy securely within the bay, along with their escorts, the bay doors began to slide closed behind them. They shut with a bit of a rumble, though not an audible one in the vacuum of space, as the bay shakes slightly at their closing. Once the doors are closed however, a quiet hiss begins to fill the air as vents begin to pressurize the room, returning atmosphere to the previous void. The soldiers remain still, however, though some of them shift a little nervously behind their crates.

Several minutes tick by before a set of doors behind armed men slide open with a pneumatic hiss. From the doorway walks Admiral Erling, having since changed into an environment suit, its helmet attached to his side by a clip. Under one arm, he carried a thin looking pad, and behind him was a hurried looking ensign carrying with her a collapsible table. Admiral Erling stops for a second, blinking as he takes in the full size of the aliens in front of him, before he lets out a quiet huff and walks forward with all the confidence he can muster.

The pair of them stop two or three feet in front of the alien envoy, Admiral Erling nodding once in greeting. "Hello there, gentlemen..." The ensign hurriedly sets up the table, glancing towards the Admiral as soon as it's done. Admiral Erling dismisses her with a nod, and the woman quickly hurries out. Erling sets down the pad onto the table, opening it to reveal it as a miniature computer, magnitudes times smaller than the immense hulking box the aliens carried with them. "I see you came prepared as well." Erling said, more for his own benefit than anything else as he waited for the laptop to start up. "I hope that we can come to a peaceful accord here, and that there will be no need for the weapons we have pointed at each other."

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@ClocktowerEchos

I'd be willing to start something with you, though we're honestly a little far away from each other. I'm not too sure what we could start.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@MissingAxis

"Well... At least they gave a response..." Admiral Erling muttered quietly under his breath as he stared out at the ships orbiting them.

"Do you think that was a happy gurgle? Or an angry one?" Erling's XO deadpanned from beside him.

"Sir, it looks like they're sending a shuttle of some sort!"

Instantly, all of Erling's attention returns to the situation at hand. "Is it armed?"

"It... Doesn't seem so, sir... If anything... It's barely a shuttle at all." The bridge crewman was right in that regard. As Erling gave the thing a closer look, especially as it neared their vessel, it seemed more like the skeletal superstructure of a small ship, open to the vaccum and equipped with nothing but engines and propellant tanks.

As it lingered, matching their velocity, they were able to get a good look at the figures within, particularly as the pilots reported in what they saw, and the drones still latched onto the hull of the ship oriented their cameras onto the vessel. Within were three solitary figures, standing stark against the vaccum of space. Each of them wore what looked to be enviroment suits, full body coverings of some sort of dark blue alloy. Two were armed, the third and shorter one was not. An envoy of some sort?

The alien's earlier message seemed mostly clear now. "Alert the marines. Have them get a squad, or more if they can manage, into shuttle bay two. Open up the doors, and pop the landing lights. We're going to be accepting some guests." As the bridge crew moved to relay his orders, Admiral Erling moved to step off the bridge, only stopped by Commander Ruthyard, who clasped him by his shoulder.

"Woah, hold up there. Where do you think you're going?"

"To meet our new guests. What else?" Erling replied back as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Erling gave a snort. "No, not particularly, but who else would go? You? I need you here to take command in case things go sideways. Besides, it's a safer option than bringing them up here to the bridge, don't you think?"

Ruthyard seemed to deliberate that thought slowly, before giving a nod. "I suppose so..."

"Good. Then you have the conn."

-----

A set of bay doors slid open on the outside, near the forward bow, roughly centerline of the ship. Not quite large enough for the shuttle to land in, but the invitation was obvious nonetheless. Several sets of flashing lights lit up in order to bring attention to it, greens and reds lined around the bay.

Within, the boarding party would find a relatively spacious room, though the warriors may find themselves uncomfortably close to the ceiling. All around were metal crates and boxes, haphazardly set up in a semi-circular position as makeshift cover for the roughly dozen men that awaited them. All were dressed in vacuum proofed suits, plated with a combination of thick bullet-resistant padding and titanium alloys, colored a mixture of black and matte gray. In their hands were ballistic rifles, utterly puny compared to the bulk of the Ophisian warriors. The tension in the air seemed to rise as the gathered soldiers first set eyes on the boarders, beginning to doubt if their simple rifles would do much against the seemingly impenetrable armor of the aliens, and several quickly radio for heavier equipment to be prepared if necessary.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@ClocktowerEchos

Considering how old Palamon's faction is, and combining that with the Terran Remnat's supposed ancient history, it's quite possible that humanity knew the Mon'Hali, or maybe even the Aztrovans depending on how long ago they ascended. Just food for though, and something that could be interesting to consider.

At most though, the Terran Remnants would have vague and spotty records of the various Aztrovan Lineages.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

It didn't take long for the ship's sensors to begin receiving, and almost immediately the bridge was abuzz with activity and excitement. Ships with nuclear torches burning across the dark sky, satellites orbiting nearby planetary systems, very soon afterwards radio signals old and degraded flooded their antennae. It was evident to everyone present onboard those seven ships that there was life here and it was reacting to them.

Radar came online, mapping the system around them, but even without it they could see a distant cluster of ships near orbit around the frozen world before them. The crew was already gathering firing solutions on these closest vessels, and parasited on the hulls of the various escorts, drone swarms and their accompanying fighters activated, hiding their emissions amog those of the larger escorts and waiting for the order to deploy. Nearly an hour passed as the bridge crew busied themselves with sorting through and decyphering the various sensor readings they'd picked up, or at least doing their best too, and splitting up the work between themselves and their fellow navy vessels.

"Admiral, the unidentified vessels are beginning to reorient and move towards us." One of the bridge crew called out.

"...Stay steady, we remain here. Let them come to us. We won't foul this up by appearing to be hostile." Admiral Erling could feel his veins tighten as he gave that order. Battle doctrine for the Terran Remnants involved shooting first, and then escaping before the enemy had time to orient and return significant fire, especially with their vessels' limited firing arcs. Sitting here and allowing these aliens to take the initiative went against all of his training. At the very least, their position so close to the rip lane meant they could make a hasty retreat back into the safety of an entire carrier fleet.

"We're recieving a hail!" The new, excited sounding, voice screeched shrilly, for an instant seeming to shatter all of the tension that'd been building up in the time spent waiting, before just as quickly seeming to make it twice as thick as the implication struck them. Admiral Erling blinked in response. His body was frozen. This was it. His reponse here would perhaps shape the entirety of Terran Remnant history.

"Nervous, sir?" The voice of Commander Ruthyard from besides him nearly had Erling jump in fright. He'd forgotten the man was there. Commander Ruthyard was his XO and right hand man, and while Admiral Erling was tall and commanding, Commander Ruthyard was easy-going and relaxed. A warm ember to Adiral Erling's cold focus. "You really shouldn't have any reason to be, you know? I mean... You think they'll understand us. You could call them all the worst things you could imagine, and it'd all be the same."

The Admiral simply stared back at the man for a moment before giving a gentle smile. His quiet words had been appreciated, and he nodded at the man before turning back towards the bridge. "Accept the hail. Broadcast my words to them."

He closed his eyes and took a breath, before speaking. Might as well have his first words be professional, no matter how much of a point his XO had made. "This is Rear Admiral Erling of the Terran Remnant Navy from onboard the TRNS Audeamus. Humanity greets you with open arms and open hearts. To whom am I communicating with?"

@MissingAxis

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Me and MissingAxis were chatting elsewhere about how we wanted to do first contact since I ended up placing myself right next to him on accident. We ended up deciding that the Terran Remnants initiating contact with the Ouroboros made more sense, so I threw up the first post to start things off with him.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Very last post of the first page.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

The bridge of the TRNS Audeamus was dim, the red emergency lights overhead the only thing illuminating the room, save for the console screens of the crew at their various positions. As lead ship in the expedition fleet currently burrowing its way to a neighboring star, the Audeamus was tasked with operating their ripper drive, the other half-dozen ships following just a little ways behind. Each ship measured at roughly three-fourths of a kilometer and were crewed by hundreds, and each blazed a trail forth through the strange tides of rip space.

Rear Admiral Anthony Erling drummed his fingers quietly along the side of his pantsleg, right above his knee, as he stood overlooking the bridge. It wasn't like him to be so nervous. The man had always prided himself in his temperment and his ability to remain calm under fire, even when he was only a commander, tasked with captaincy of a single ship rather than a small fleet. He'd proven himself countless times in the Reunification Wars, and such achievements were why he'd found himself as the one-star Admiral he was now. But even his nerves had a breaking point, and he'd like to believe that the task that lied before him would break even the most stalwart and foolhardy of men.

It was undoubtedly true that Admiral Erling had plenty of reasons to be nervous, even before knowing the true intentions of the mission at hand. For one, the usual task of leading an expedition fleet would normally fall to an officer one, or perhaps even two grades lower than him if needs required, and with a task group half as large. In fact, every ship under Admiral Erling's command was a fair bit better armed than than the usual aging or stripped down expedition ships that would be tasked with the personal surveying of new star systems. The gathered seven vessels were instead ships pulled straight from a carrier fleet, and were all proper war vessels, with their home carrier sitting light years behind them now at the other end of the rip lane, waiting for any sign or signal of something going wrong and send word back to Terra Nova where the Admirality ruled from.

Officially, the larger task group was due to the fact that the star system they were jumping into had a quite a few more planetary bodies and usual, and additional ships were tasked to aid in survey and study, however every single crew member had been informed of their true purpose. In actuality, the neighboring colony had been picking up unusual thermal signatures for some time now from this star system, and while it had originally been ignored and even forgotten in the chaos of the civil war, ever since things had begun to stabalize, a great deal of attention is being paid to these unusual emissions as the potential of first contact with alien life was high based upon estimates and studies done by various research organizations. With such terrifying knowledge in mind, a great deal of deliberation went into the decision making process of how exactly to go forwards.

Eventually, it was decided that it was better to be the initiators of this possible first contact, rather than be stuck on the back foot, and every precaution was taken in order to assure the safety of Terran Remnant assets behind them.

"We'll be reaching the lagrange point in one minute and counting, Admiral." Petty Officer Burkhe's professional tone broke through Admiral Erling's private thoughts, and he turned his head ever so slightly to glance in the man's direction.

"Very well. Relay the message to the other ships, and the rest of the crew." He thought for a moment. Perhaps now would be the time for a few words, some speech or uplifting sayings to calm the nerves of those here with him. In the end, he decided against it. What words did he have for such a situation. He'd never been the kind of man to try and have the history books write about, and if it turned out that all the studies and research had been wrong, well... He'd look like a damn fool, wouldn't he? No, better not to say anything at all.

"Breaking real space in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One..." There was a soft shudder as the ship broke out of the rip lane, their arrival foretold by a strange bending of the space around it, growing and expanding and stretching, before reality itself seemed to puncture, an angry red vortex tore itself open in the vaccum seeming almost like an enraged red scar upon the very face of reality.

"Bring all sensors online. Retrograde thrusters, fullstop." Admiral Erling commanded clearly, doing his best to hide his nerves under a loud and commanding voice.

"Brace for fullstop." Another one of the bridge crew called, making sure to call it over the ship intercomm system, and Admiral Erling gripped his hands tightly against the railing in front of him.

Terran Remnant escort vessels could be thought of as living spaces with engines strapped onto both the front and back, pairs of smaller maneuver thrusters strapped onto the sides in order to help with turning. This design was made to allow for quicker stops, and even full reversals of momentum much quicker than normal to aid in quick returns through temporary rip lanes in combat, meaning most Terran Remnant ships relied on broadside weapons as the fore and aft of the ship were taken up by the massive engines.

The fore engine was usually wrapped in armor plating that slid away, as it did now, in order to reveal the series of thrusters past the armored cacoon, all of which burned to life and slowed the ship down until it coasted gently into stillness. It wasn't quite as comfortable for the crew within, as the sudden change in g-forces made the entire hull shake and shudder, and those not properly braced found themselves stumbling.

The other six ships followed suit, all of them coming to a stop in a small cluster just in front of the rip lane as cameras came online and projected a three-sixty degree view of the system around them. What they saw was shocking, and quickly quiet murmuring filled the bridge, as Admiral Erling licked his dry lips and stood a little taller as he sucked in a deep breath to ready himself...

@missingaxis

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

@Palamon My guys would probably be pretty stoked that they're not the only humans in the galaxy. Might be a little disappointed in how stagnant the Ederians have become though, but for sure. Looking forward to them meeting.

[SCI-FI] The Stars Above

Went back and fixed a bunch of little spelling mistakes. That's what I get for writing it out in notepad first. No objections from me on everyone else's sheets though.