[b]Lunar Station[/b]
"I'm sure we will be able to come to an agreement between our governments, what concerns me are the terrorists. They are drawing support from moderate members of most large religions, who think your demons posing as angels or something. To be honest, with Fergus revealing that he is Iscandarian, they might just hate you. Fergus has had some... well... you tell them, Fergus." Said the Constable, motioning to Fergus

"Yeah, a lot of them don;t exactly agree with my views on, er, certain subjects. Usually involving... let's just say that their religious texts specifically say that something I fully support is appalling and all who allow it to exist will go to hell. Even after the whole 'incident' in Huntsville, those intolerant views still persist. Our religious tolerance laws prevent us from stopping them, and as a result, the religious majority of humanity sees your people as demons, in the most literal sense. We might be able to deal with them, orbital strikes can easily-"

An odd sound came from Fergus' pocket, it sounded like music, but definitely not in any language the Iscandarians had been exposed to. In fact, the language was completely alien. it was hard to believe that the cultures that created English and this other language even lived on the same planet. He quickly reached for the source, tapping a few buttons on what appeared to be a small electronic tablet. The music stopped as he put it up to his ear. His face quickly changed from a look of mild worry to a look of horror.

"Well, looks like we'll be testing that a lot earlier." He said "Move into geostationary orbit and open fire. Leave nothing standing, don't send anyone down to take prisoners, just rip that cell apart. Make the others thing twice about trying to murder innocent people because they don't want to commit genocide."

He put the device away, and quickly turned to the diplomats.

"Apologies, more terrorist trouble. We should get to the meeting room, quickly."

He began to float towards the room, which was apparently only a small bit away from the docking port, and in a straight line as well. Extremely helpful in microgravity. After a short float, the group entered the meeting room. It was quite simple, a single table in an architecturally unimpressive room. Interestingly, the walls were decorated with pictures of seagoing vessels, aircraft, and spacecraft. Some appeared quite old, many of the sea vessels had giant masts with what were probably sails hung from them, and one of the aircraft looked absolutely worthless. In fact, it probably wouldn't fly for any practical distance. 

The table had what seemed to be white cloth covering it, almost certainly some sort of tradition. On the table there was a variety of different foods, at least, it was probably food. Some was definitely recognizable, mostly the plant based dishes. Many others seemed more like works of art than food, and others still looked completely ridiculous. One in particular appeared to be a slab of ground up meat sandwiched between two dome-like slices of bread. The meat clearly had more ingredients on top of it, including multiple differently colored pastes, perhaps signifying different flavors. Another one of the dishes was simply repulsive, it was like the odd meat/bread dish, but was instead lengthwise. Instead of ground meat, it had a long cylinder of meat (at least, it was probably meat) in the center, which to be honest, looked like it was manufactured in a factory. Overall, that dish was just repulsive, especially with the erratic toppings it had on it that made one slightly sick. One had to wonder why they would put such repulsive food next to such beautiful dishes. 

"If the sight of meat is repulsive, I can have all dishes involving meat taken out." Said the councilman "We wanted to show you as much of our cuisine as possible, the dishes such as this one are from specific cultures."

He pointed to a plate that seemed to be decorated with brown objects and (surprisingly appetizing) paste, apparently, those objects were actually food. He then pointed at the odd meat/bread dish.

"The ones such as these are taken from the global culture, though they were associated with the United States for a time, it was a large nation in North America. The reason they are so popular is because they are cheap to get, quick to make, and easy to eat. People often eat similar dishes while in their car. Oddly enough, there may also be a genetic disposition towards such food. You see, it is extremely rich in certain nutrients. So rich, in fact, that one meal is usually more than any one human actually needs in a day. Our ancestors hunted prey by simply chasing it until it ran out of energy, at which point they killed it and took any usable parts back to their camp. This required a lot of energy, so we became conditioned to eat the richest food we could find. This is not a good thing by any means, displayed perfectly by the fact that another United States stereotype was that anyone from that nation was morbidly obese."

[b]Saturn[/b]
The moment the fleet realized what had happened, they slowly backed away from the alien vessel. A single message was sent, as they charged their engines in case retreat was required.

"What 'Warden'? We haven't taken a single non-human prisoner in our entire history! This 'Warden' may be in the system, but we definitely don't have her in our possession. Surely we can be reasonable here! We can give you search rights, or even help you! Just give us a description, surely you can understand out situation! We haven't even left our solar system, much less developed the capability to wage war against a species as vastly powerful as yours! We could only gain extinction from lying to you!"

[b]Sazkarjhit Contact[/b]
"This is the bulk transport [i]Icarus[/i], we apologize that you have been transferred to us, but the vessel you contact is multiple light minutes away. The comms lag would be far too great. Our vessel is only a few hundred kilometers out, and they have decided to let us make first contact. I'm no diplomat, so don't expect me to be that formal. We're kind of surprised that you responded, you see, that transmission was actually meant for a different vessel. What surprises us even more is that you didn't run, instead you calmly explained why you were here. That's good enough for us, you've earned quite a bit of trust through that action. I'm willing to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability."

[b]Mars, Sol[/b]
A blue patch of light stood out against the red Martian sky, just above the setting sun. If the same color was in the sky on Earth, nobody would care, but on Mars it was an alien color. One only seen through telescopes. Sure, cryogenic trips from Mars to Earth in an hour or so were possible, but nobody outside of the military and those funded by major corporations actually had the money to pay for the expensive process. So they made do with that rare patch of sky that reminded them of their homeworld, which now felt like a distant place, alien in all ways.

However, as is human nature, they were not content with the harsh red rocky soil and gigantic biospheres, in which they grew just enough food to last until the next trade ship. They wanted something more, the ability to breathe outside the artificial biospheres, the right to tell any visitor that they earned that ability. It was an odd goal, for it would not be accomplished for centuries. For some reason, though, they decided that they might as well get on with it. Thus they planted the algae. With no life to consume the oxygen it put out, the terraforming project was making good progress compared to the somewhat pessimistic predictions.

A convoy of odd vehicles rolled over a hill on treads, obscuring that little patch of Earthly blue. Headlights illuminated the red ground in front of them as they rolled up onto the rim of the awe-inspiring crater. The tank-like vehicles were gigantic, probably closer to the size of an old 18th century frigate than the side of a tank. With the light gravity and thin atmosphere of Mars, they worked perfectly fine. 

As they rolled over the rim, their crews began to swarm for a good view. Most of them were fresh out of university, trying to get something that would look good on a resume. Not the best choice for an inspection crew, but the head of the project had learned that if someone is offering to do something for just room and board, then you should always say yes. Especially if they're actually more qualified than some of the people asking for money.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Said the head of the project, staring out into the vast expanse of green algae. "We've got one of these in every nearby crater, this is the largest though."

She pointed to a small building in the center of the crater, barely visible from the rim. It was definitely prefab though, just like every other building outside a biosphere.

"And there's our home for the next couple weeks, now remember, no matter how welcoming it looks, don't take off your helmet. You do that, you're dead in minutes."

The crew didn't listen, they were too busy taking in the sight. Most of them had never seen anything green outside of a biosphere before, the algae aside the red soil didn't quite register for them. Suddenly, one of them called out to the project lead.

"What's that?"

She quickly got up, leaving the driver's seat to a nearby botanist. The person that called out was one of the interns, a man who had majored in xenobiology. With the Iscandarians, it suddenly seemed like his major had actually meant something. He was looking out of one of the telescopes, which he quickly surrendered to the project lead.

"There was something moving out there." He said "Can you see it?"

"Oh my god..." She responded, her breath taken away "Whatever it is, it's not a vehicle, and it's not in an environmental suit."

The convoy came to a stop, and the rest of the crew just stared at the two. Finally, someone spoke.

"There's no way algae could produce enough oxygen for that in a few years!"

"Then what the hell is this?" Said another "Some remake of Red Planet? Are we going to be attacked by space cockroaches now?"

"A bunch of aliens that literally look like angels are on Luna Station right now, talking over dinner." Replied the first "I think that's plausible at this point."

"Move us in!" Said the project lead, turning to face the botanist. "I'm suiting up."

After what seemed like an eternity of driving, the convoy reached the unidentified lifeforms. It was clear by now, they were not human. It must have been an intimidating sight, gigantic vehicles lumbering towards you over a sea of algae. The convoy, despite being made up of large vehicles, was still able to outmaneuver the aliens, forming a circle around them. They did, however, go to great lengths to appear non-hostile. They moved in a deliberate fashion, taking great care to not go anywhere near the aliens in case it would look like they would try to run them over.

The hatch on the largest vehicle opened, and the project lead stepped out. She was accompanied by the man that first sighted the aliens and another man who had served in the military for a few years in order to get his education paid for. They slowly walked towards the aliens, with their hands kept far away from suit pockets. They stopped a few meters away, and activated the external speakers of their suits. They didn't expect the aliens to translate the language, but they thought that a soothing tone and the intent to communicate could go a long way.

"I am Oumou Nasri," She began, pointing to herself "I am a citizen of the United Terran Federation, we mean you no harm. We wish to welcome you to the planet Mars, the closest planet to our homeworld, Earth. We are attempting to terraform it, these plants were put here artificially to produce oxygen, the element we require to survive. If you can somehow understand any of this, please respond. No harm will come to you."