[b][u]System Raudona Saulė (Red Star), Local Traffic Command & Control (LTCC) Station SCS-OS49-S122[/u][/b]

	“Routine Systems Scan initiating, sir…” declared a Storm, sitting in the dim bridge of a small station orbiting the larger of the two terraformed and developed planets, out of the five total, in the system.
	“You don’t have to tell us every time, Lieutenant,” replied the Commander of the station- commonly known as the Overwatch, due to his position and duties. 
	“Yes sir. Sorry sir. Routine Systems Scan complete, sir.” The Lieutenant Storm Carapace never liked quietly forgoing protocol in favor of ease and convenience.
	“Yes, Lieutenant, we get it.” The Overwatch never liked anyone who was such a stikler for protocol, when it never mattered way out here in the black. They were on duty for five hours, then off for five, then had another five hour shift, and then they were returned to the orbital city-station where they lived for twenty hours. They had a routine scan ever ten minutes- at this point, halfway through the shift, as he always is, he was sick and tired of the one other Storm in the room.
	“Sir, there’s-“ The Lieutenant was abruptly cut off.
	“[i]We get it,[/i] Lieutenant. We repeat this conversation-“ Then the Overwatch was abruptly cut off.
	“[b]Sir[/b], there is an amber alert for an imminent unscheduled FTL arrival. It matches no known signature and the power curves are unlike anything we’ve ever seen, whether friendly, hostile, or otherwise. Sir.” The Lieutenant made sure to add that “sir”- the Overwatch didn’t particularly care, but he knew that there were always logs of everything, and he didn’t want to be marked as a possible rebel. The System was anal about that- they didn’t make people disappear, but they were always watching.
	“As in a really powerful ship?” The Overwatch didn’t really understand what was going on, of course. Even less so than the Lieutenant.
	“Not at all. It matches a cruiser’s power curves, somewhat. They’re just… different, sir.” And they were- these seemed to be more consistent, like a steady stream of energy. Storm FTL drives are more like constant pulses, enough to seem consistent, but shows up on the graphs to be spiking all the time. More efficient, if he recalled correctly.
	“Very well, alert the Local Quick Response Task Force.” Then he realized that it was his job, not his only underling’s, and sighed. He hated dealing with other Storms- most of all the ones that had more power than him.

[b][u]System Raudona Saulė (Red Star), Local Quick Response Task Force (QRTF)[/u][/b]

A small fleet of three destroyers, one missile cruiser, one dronecarrier, and a commanding heavy cruiser received the summons. As the unknown “amber” spaceship warped its way into the system, coming back to realspace, the small defense fleet- guarding this system, and the three neighboring ones. Between the seven ships, they guarded a total of four habitable planets- two of them in this system, with a major population and industry center- and over three dozen mining operations, with maybe half a dozen military or scientific outposts or stations between the systems. 
	The unknown ship was probably just scanning the system as the LQRTF fleet turned towards it, slowly coming to Battle Stations, as per protocol when dealing with an unknown contact. Thrusters lit up, tiny unseen pinpricks in the void, from the fleet’s ‘dark’ position halfway between the two neighboring habitable planets. The droneship’s bays released their security clamps, and the doors drifted open, ready to deploy a swarm. 
	Not even an hour after the ship was detected- maybe forty-five minutes prior to it actually arriving- the LQRTF was entering extreme combat range. It was then that the ship beamed communications in every known language:

[color=burlywood][i]Contacting Amber Starship, repeat, Contacting Amber Starship. 

Identify and stand down; decrease power curves and thrusters. Repeat, Identify and stand down, decrease power curves and thrusters. 

You are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space, repeat, you are illegally trespassing into Storm Carapace System Space. 

You are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur. Repeat, you are required to identify and stand down, or an incident will occur. 

Respond to this message reasonably and appropriately, or you will be fired upon. End message.[/i][/color]

The heavy cruiser’s missile tubes prepped, their hatches opening in preparation to launch a salvo. Likewise, the heavy cruiser and its missile cruiser companion lit up the Enterprise with active targeting- and no doubt would their bridge be alerting them that the ships are very obviously targeting them, and locking on missiles. 

Meanwhile, the three destroyers started flanking, edging around their extreme combat range. 

The heavy cruiser, in addition to active targeting, brought up optics- after much zooming and the on-board targeting system adjusting the aim of it, the Storm Fleet commander- however small his fleet may be- got his first look at an alien vessel. Most Storms had limited contact with aliens- but this deep into Storm territory, it was rare to see an alien ship, and some had never seen any.

The Storm commander was also well-versed in alien languages, despite never seeing any of them. Before the computer could announce it, he translated the name of the ship to the rest of the bridge crew- “Enterprise. English letters- human. Why would the humans be so deep into our space?”