[b]Sol, Mercury[/b]
"A shuttle will dock with you shortly."

A tiny vessel, not possibly able to hold more than five or so people, launched from the escort. As it approached the hangar, it's passengers began to feel somewhat nervous. The skull certainly didn't make them feel any better, especially it's shape. It was obviously human, like these beings knew what would make a Terran feel fear. Or worse, like they were trying to make a good impression using outdated data. They were obviously bad for different reasons, though.

[b]Sol, Iscandarians[/b]
"All the Iscandarians [i]here[/i]? The message didn't get to everyone else in time, did it?"

[b]Sol, Terran High Command[/b]
"They've covered all bases. If we don't send a leader, then they know that we know who they are. If we do send one, they'll be killed. They try to appear like a bunch of clowns, playfully engaging in mock battle using tactics made for fun, not war. Those miners in the Kuiper Belt are all going to die, and if we tell them then the aliens will realize that we know."

"On the bright side, they do assume that we don't know who they are. We do though, and we also know that they jumped into the system and started shooting, having never made contact with any of the present species. They wouldn't come in with a diplomatic fleet, not from what we know. We have to assume that they have more ships, probably minimizing heat output."

"To do that they'd have to deactivate and purge all of their systems. They'll be extremely vulnerable in that state. Alert the mining vessels, tell them about the situation. Have them ready their antimatter engines. Until then... order them to engage in their play. The illusion must be held."

"What about the leader issue?"

"Our interplanetary network uses quantum transmitters, so they likely haven't gotten in yet. If they come across a facility that has a network connection via standard communications, then they'll have a way in, but for now I doubt they have a single byte of info from it. The Kuiper Belt is too far away to pinpoint our central servers on Terra, so it's safe to assume that they don't know who's in charge. Purge all info about the current Council from the database, have it say that the military took over after Paris was destroyed."

"Who will we send then?"

"It would be wrong for me to send someone as our leader knowing they would die. I'll go. Send a mandatory file to all networked computers, have it say that it's the anniversary of the military freeing the people from the treat of terrorism or whatever, end it with the code phrase AngelFall 00. The net will play along, just in case, censor out anything with any mention to a council. Make it obvious it was censored, they might see it as a strength to control your citizens."

[b]Sol, Draconian Contact[/b]
The mining ships began to jump off of the asteroids, engaging the Draconian ships in their playful mock battle. They were using actual lasers, but they were low-power sensor versions on a different frequency. Still causing no damage, but unwittingly spamming them with worthless gibberish. While they engaged in a carefree manner, another message was sent from Terra.

"I am the leader of the Federation, Kai Vivian." Their voice was higher than that of the admiral at New Condia, implying that they might be of different races or genders. "I shall represent humanity, our belief is that in first contact a species should show who they are in actions as well as words. It would seem as though you have a similar idea, so I shall honor that similarity and give you a glimpse of what humanity is like."

A giant fleet approached, large enough to be entire military force of a species that claimed only two systems. The design of the ships was similar to that of the ones seen at New Condia, though they did not have the two rings that seemed to be a signature of Terran design. Only one had such rings, a giant vessel that was completely unrecognizable as it's original form. It was a dreadnought-sized warship, covered in plasma shield projectors and turrets. It had the same basic design of the Norway-Class, but was no longer built to accommodate any ground forces. All the rotating turret platforms held small craft, instead of the 50/50 ratio of small craft and ground vehicles it would normally have. However, the platforms were roated so that only the small craft were in view, giving the ship the appearance of a very badly designed carrier. In a completely different language, three words were painted on both sides of the ship's bow: [i]Försvarere av Humanity[/i].

"[i]This[/i] is who we are."

[b]Nouvelle[/b]
Praskoviya breathed a sigh of relief, not sure whether the nanobots had worked quickly or if he had recovered naturally. She decided not to assume anything, it wouldn't be right to take credit for his recovery if she actually had nothing to do with it.

"You're on the planet Nouvelle, in an audience with Queen Sabine. You weren't even out long enough to be moved, I'm amazed at your recovery to be honest."

[b]Icarus, Ocean of Jul[/b]
The Terrans were clearly amazed at just how disciplined the crew was. While some branches of the Terran Navy held strict guidelines on their ships, there wasn't a single vessel where the crew would nearly ignore visiting aliens or keep every single door handle shining in a fully lighted corridor. The hallways were extremely large for any kind of ship, making it clear that while they held discipline high, comfort could very well be a close second. They marveled at the layout, having never before seen a military vessel with such large hallways.

When they reached the CIC, the Terrans smiled. It looked just like the bridge of any Terran Naval vessel, though the interactive holographic displays were somewhat surprising. Small Terran holograms couldn't be reliably used as a touch interface device, so they used more standard keyboards and mice for input. The large holographic map of the sea, though, was fully expected. On Terran vessels, they used advanced tracking cameras to scan the observer's hand movements and manipulate the map accordingly. They all secretly hoped to see the map manipulated, wondering if they used the same technique.

Seeing the captain, the man who seemed to be leading the rest spoke to the captain.

"Diplomatic Officer Kipp, commanding officer of the Norway-Class Dreadnought [i]Iceland[/i]. I assume you are the commander of this fine vessel?"

The word "Dreadnought" would likely be translated literally due to the bad translation quality, as though he were telling them not to dread, instead of it's military connotation. The same would likely occur with the name "Iceland", whether or not they would cause confusion would likely depend upon the ability of the captain to speculate about a completely alien culture.