[b]Some distance behind the Nouvelle-facing Prowler[/b] Energy fluctuated wildly as seven ships came out of warpspace. Three Varrens lead the way, headed only by an Explorer, the last to leave the Valkian home system, with only four left in the home system, one exploring. Behind the four military ships were two obviously civilian ship- a weak passenger ship, presumably with Valkian people on it, though it's actually filled with about half its capacity of soldiers, and the other half filled with military equipment, ranging from walkers to ammunition and construction or repair drones. The other civilian ship was a freighter. While a freighter, when without cargo, really resembles a bridge, a very large stubby cylinder that contains the primary engines, and the thorium reactor, with a long 'stick' of clamp-studded steel girders. When at full capacity, it rivaled the size of an Explorer, with either hard goods, such as supplies, ammunition, or otherwise, in large rectangular containers, or liquid goods, such as highly-concentrated liquid thorium or water, stored in large ball containers. Behind all of these, as if it were the highest priority to NOT be harmed, was a ship similar to the freighter, except obviously much more sophisticated and refined, with only four large, long containers positioned on the front half of the ship. More numerous engines glowed from its rear, and point defense turrets could be seen on it, as well as four external Swarmer missile launchers. In comparison to all Valkian military ships, it was remarkably unarmored or unarmed, and showed signs of it just recently being finished in the drydock. The point defense turrets showed signs of a skilled designer, but only in construction, not in theory. They were rough in theory, single-barreled light railguns, designed to take down Draconian fighters... in theory and simulation. The ship was naught but a prototype, and not built with the best of materials, due to it being built in secret. But it held a great deal of drones, and that means that if there were a fight, it might be useful for a back-up plan... if it worked correctly. The skeleton crew aboard were all volunteers, and had all advocated that it would be combat-effective, even with civilian-grade armor and tech, instead of the stuff used on military vehicles. Either way, the twenty drone commanders- each commanding ten drones at one time- and the single Primary Drone Commander, who coordinates them all, were very optimistic- they thought that they could do anything, with their drones, and not take any harm. Maybe they were right. The fleet, coming out of warp a mere three kilometers from the creeping alien Prowler (Darkwolf), immediately began moving forward with all active sensors offline, besides an initial scan of the space surrounding it. Finding nothing, meaning that they skipped right over the foreign vessel without detecting it, they moved forward under light stealth. Their destination was most obviously Nouvelle, and their origin was most obviously out-of-system. [b]Queen Sabine and the Nouvelle Diplomatic Conference[/b] [quote=duck55223] "Oh? They deployed forces to the ground? I was never made aware of this, this must be some rogue military commander acting on his own. It has happened several times in the past." spoke Tullen. [/quote] At this, the Tinkerer hissed, speaking with an unknown emotion in his voice- a Valkians' voiced emotion is different from an aliens' completely different one, "Just like how your most prominent, most decorated, most well-known and most prestigious leaders decided to attack a completely innocent and vulnerable race for little reason? Rogue commanders happening all the time is a weakness, is a sign of a lack of discipline and loyalty- the opposite of what you might claim." "My people in orbit will rid the system of this 'rogue' commander, but I suggest that you return to your dropship and [i]stay[/i] there. I have no way of ensuring that you are not with your peoples' tendency to try and kill everyone you meet, and so I ask that you leave immediately. I will make no attempt at secrecy with this- you are a risk to the Queen of this planet. Queen Sabine, if you would please retreat to a safe bunker of some sort. If the battle above turns to war, your safety is priority. If you will not leave, then I will order reinforcements to do so immediately. Do not make this difficult, Iscandarians, my people have no wish for war. Unfortunately, your people seem bent on the opposite of that statement." With this, the Valkian turned to the Queen, eyes fiercely alight with an anger that gave them a red tint. "Queen Sabine, if you would allow, I would like to accompany you." [b]Nouvellian Orbit[/b] The Explorer, still guarding its Varren charge, got the momentary beam from the hidden reinforcements, and launched its next phase. The reinforcing fleet arrived just in time for the first Explorer to beam a message to the Eternal Union fleet. [i]Attention Eternal Union Personnel and Command. We have come to the conclusion that you are purposely attempting to ignite war against multiple nations, and that you have no disregard for law or order except for your own. Due to your lack of compliance in your illegal activities in foreign territory, it has come to the point where warnings are no longer acceptable. All Eternal Union vessels are hereby marked as hostile until otherwise revised. Intervention is now necessary.[/i] With this, four Varrens turned about forty dual railgun turrets against the Iscandarian fleet, an amount of firepower that would heavily damage or destroy even an Explorer if half the rounds hit. The two Explorers began advancing on the Eternal Union ships, while the Droneship, emitting a series of disruption software that would possibly distort the position of itself and the Varrens behind it, as well as provide it with additional data of the space around it. Filled with about two hundred experimental drones, each armed with a small particle cannon, a small experimental antimatter power cell, a series of thrusters, a gyroscope that took up most of its center, and yet another experimental device attached to the back. This part made it so expensive- a small microwarp system, similar to sublight, that would allow the drones to deploy much farther away from its mothership, allowing Droneships to stay safely removed from combat while commanding the swarm in real-time, disrupting enemy communications and scans with its own electronic warfare devices. It was insanely fragile when compared to even a Valkian freighter, but was probably as heavily armored as a scout of another nation.