[b]3rd Coibeyya Exploratory Fleet, 122AIE8 Star System[/b]

Coibeyya, like Ifliington, was conducting its own exploratory forays into the space surround the Confederation, although it had a different objective. Whereas Ifliington was seeking out new life Coibeyya was cataloguing nearby star systems for future colonization. The idea that they might run into an alien fleet had not be seriously considered by the Coibeyya leadership. It was thus that when the Coibeyya 3rd exploratory fleet did, in fact, run into an alien fleet its members found themselves denying what they were seeing. The unknown ships were offhandly explained as being an unknown make of Atryan, Sioelian, or Ifliington ship. Messages of greeting was sent out as the Coibeyya fleet split up into four sections to survey the system; in ignoreance the fleet sealed its own bloody fate.

[b]1st Ifliington Exploratory Fleet, 17A9B6 (Arsena) Star System[/b]

“Unidentified ship detected coming out of hyperspace fifty light seconds from our position! Cross checking the ship’s signatures with our ship’s library…. Match not found! It appears to be alien.” Yl wasn’t surprised as the officer reported that the ship was apparently alien. They were in an alien system after all. What did surprise him was how close it had dropped out of hyperspace. Was it intentional or by accident? “We are also getting some sort of transmission from it…. Its incompatible with our systems.”

“Fifty light seconds…” the ship’s captain quietly whistled, “that’s a tad closer than I like, especially since we don’t know what its capabilities are.” He turned to a nearby officer as he asked “What is the ship’s computer rating that ship as?”

“Corvette sir” Came an almost instantaneous response. “It’s about twenty percent larger than our sentry-class corvettes. We are still unsure about its combat capabilities, however.” The captain brought a hand up to scratch the underside of his head as he listened to the report. 

“Admiral,” he turned towards Yl, “permission to launch a fighter squadron for close air patrol?” The term close air patrol, commonly shortened to simply CAP, was a term dating back to sea navies used centuries ago. While there was no air in space, the term CAP still worked for the space navy’s purposes.

Admiral Yl didn’t respond to the captain’s response, instead gazing at the alien corvette. There were so many unknown variables. He didn’t know what that corvette’s capabilities or intentions were. It could firepower that rivaled the entire confederation’s and be demanding the fleet’s unconditional surrender or it could be a group of merchants asking if they wanted to buy the local delicacy. He simply didn’t know. He also didn’t know how the system’s inhabitants would react to the fleet launching a fighter squadron, even if it was only for CAP. He couldn’t risk starting a war, but he also couldn’t afford to be naive and assume the inhabitants weren’t a threat.

“Permission denied captain.” Yl said after a few seconds of contemplation. “Launch two flights of two TRF-2 Circes each. Recon mission. Have one flight skirt around the edge of the system and see what it can detect, but focus on finding military installations. Have the other get a tad closer to that corvette and see what they can find out about it, but keep them back. No closer than thirty light seconds. If the corvette backs off have our birds back off as well, we don’t want to be too intimidating. I want to know immediately if anything approaches our birds.” He took a breath before continuing “I want that transmission, whatever it was, to be passed to an isolated auxiliary computer and a compatibility program written up ASAP. When possible send our ‘first contact’ suite to that corvette.” The first contact suite was essentially a library of the Nalloth language, as well as math, that was pared with images in an attempt to get a workable translation to whatever the inhabitant’s language might be. “how long will that conversion program take?”

“Hard to say sir” An officer replied. “Basic differences in operating systems alone can be something of a headache. We don’t know what sort of computer system they have their transmission set up for. It could be for a digital binary computer or something we haven’t even considered. Even so I’d say… four hours, though I’d appreciate it if you didn’t hold me to that prediction.”

“Get it done as fast as you can.”

“Aye aye sir.”

[b]*****     *****     *****[/b]
[b]Five hours later[/b]

“The compatibility program has been finished sir!”

“Good job!” Yl said as he brought his mind to the here and now. The previous five hours had been somewhat draining on the aging Nalloth. Waiting and being at level 2 combat readiness was always a wearying experience. “What was the content of the date we received?”

“Checking now… it would appear to be a language suite. I’ve got our systems chewing away at it now, but it’s going to take a while.”

“Can you send a message saying we come in peace?” Yl asked.

“I can try to.”

“Don’t try to. Do it. Also send our ‘first contact’ suite while you’re at it.”

“One moment sir... Aaaand the transmission is away.” The transmission was sent in two parts. One part had the ‘first contact’ suite that would aid in translations. The second part, which was in the inhabitants’ native language would come out as “Desire conflict…not.”

[b]Gosia, Atrya Capital[/b]

“Gentlemen, welcome. I’m sure you are all wondering why I’ve gathered you.” President Knas said as his cabinet and top military advisors took a seat around the massive table that dominated the room. He waited for all present to be seated and the door securely shut and locked before continuing. “We have something of a situation gentlemen.”

“Are you talking about the influx of unidentified ships near our assets?” One of the admirals present inquired.

“I am” Knas confirmed. “It would appear, however, that there is more to the situation than we first thought. AUDEN has been able to confirm similar sightings in all other systems.” Where Ifliington had Aegis, Atrya had AUDEN which was short for AUtonomous Defense Engine. 

“These unidentified ships almost certainly belong to an alien civilization” The disembodied voice of AUDEN commented.

“What makes you say that?” The secretary of defense asked. “Couldn’t these ships belong to Sioelia or Eiclen?”

“While both of those countries possess the industrial capacity to produce those ships, it is highly unlikely that they are the ships’ point of origin. Our intelligence sources within both countries have found no indications of the increased industrial activity that would have been required to produce that many ships. The design of these unidentified ships also differ greatly from past designs of any ship found in the Confederation. The responses from the other countries, while varying, also indicate that they did not produce these ships. Coibeyya and Eiclen are actively trying to catch and, presumably destroy, these ships; meanwhile Ifliington, while not being actively hostile, has stepped up its patrols and is attempting to keep these ships away from its strategic assets. It would appear to be attempting to present a strong front.”

“We have good reason to believe these ships are a scouting force for an invasion fleet.” Knas began, “with that in mind we need to begin to build up our military forces here in the Core systems while the Rim systems buy us time.”

“We’ll step up our military readiness immediately and present a strong front to try and dissuade them from invading.” The secretary of defense stated.

“Don’t bother” AUDEN interjected. “There is likely little you can do to dissuade them from invading. Better to hide your military capacity as much as possible so you can catch them off guard.”

“I am of like mind with AUDEN” Knas stated. “We shall quietly build up our forces while the other countries buy us time.” The gathered Nalloth quickly rose to their feet as Knas stood. “We are the rock on which the Nalloth civilization has been built on. Without us there can be no confederation. Atrya once was and shall once again be the unparallel power in Cormyral, on this I swear to you all.”