[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/0vl4ROj.png[/img]
[color=lightblue][h2]Union/Wo Border, Eastern Fringes[/h2][/color]
[/center]

The Harmony was undoubtedly a crowded place. In every way, one could have described it as a digital metropolis filled to the brim with electronic ghosts, where a solar day in realspace took only a minute to pass there by contrast. It was a place where anything and everything was possible and everyone was a god. Truly a marvel of engineering, the infrastructure required to support such a massive network consumed the very surface of the Wo's homeworld. No forests or deserts or oceans existed anymore to give variety to Hi's appearance. Instead, now it was a ball of black metal glowing with lines of blue light, surrounded by the most sophisticated of orbital defense batteries so dense that xeno astronomers were justified in classifying the deadly formation as the planet's ring - if they somehow found out about their existence.

Ngo Dinh Diem contented himself in the fact that his homeworld's secrecy and security were both absolute and undefeatable. A middle-ranking Guard, he also prided himself in his role to keep the safety of his people true. As such, when he sent out his ghostly tendrils to man his beloved ship, the [i]Auspicious Crane[/i], he felt no sadness in leaving the eternal pleasure of the Harmony. The moans and the laughter, of such great number and intensity that he heard them even within his Brotherhood's cloistered simulation, abruptly ceased to be the moment his conscience was tethered to the [i]Crane's[/i] computer architecture. Now there was only the silence of the Void, the twinkling of the distant stars, and the coming-and-going of a steady stream of Harmonic ships from his new perspective by the close orbit of Hi's moon, Kii.

He then felt a shiver throughout the hull. Routine maintenance upon his warship had finished, right on schedule, and the docking clamps of the Great Shipyard had let go of the vessel. The [i]Crane's[/i] kilometer and a half of metal was left drifting for a moment, before its thrusters at the rear came to an eerie blue life, and the ship gracefully maneuvered out of its berth. Almost immediately, a far greater warship took the [i]Crane's[/i] former place - the battleship [i]Solar Flare[/i], of an incredible fifteen kilometers long, and so wide that it had to be docked right-side up. All the while, Ngo had been conversing with ship captains and other members of the Guard, and particularly with Sun Go-Yang, a well-respected Hero and the commander of the [i]Solar Flare[/i], swapping news and rumors on top of the usual formal dockyard chatter.

It was going to be a routine patrol, just like the thousand others that he'd completed. Yet the monotony of the task would not dissuade Ngo - he was far too disciplined for that. Calm and relaxed but alert, he steadied the [i]Crane[/i] before the swirling, hyperdimensional maw of the first relay station, before resolutely setting throttle to full. He closed his eyes, then, as the [i]Crane[/i] transitioned into a world of madness. There was no point looking into insanity's face. Only when it was finished did he open his eyes again, a hundred star systems away in an instant, before piloting his cruiser to the next relay station and jumping five more times.

Ren Xei Tang's cruiser, the [i]Benevolent Wyvern[/i], was already at the gate. He flashed his thanks to Ngo for relieving him, and Ngo flashed a [i]you're welcome[/i] in return, as courtesy demanded. So began what was going to be a year of patrols as the [i]Wyvern[/i] zoomed into the wormhole behind him: a collection of empty moments and grand celestial vistas separated by quick bursts of the hyperdrive.

At least, that was how it was supposed to have gone. On his second hyperdrive jump, the [i]Crane's[/i] sensors pinged with contacts - five, in fact. Three uniquely-shaped objects displaying electromagnetic activity consistent with xeno ship operations, and two that appeared to be dead. Of the two deceased hulks, one was of a large size and lodged onto the cratered face of a barren world, while the other, a tiny capsule of sorts, flew freely in a standoff between the three active ships.

Ngo laughed, his curiosity piqued, sending electronic vibrations up and down the spine of his beloved ship. "Well," he thought aloud, "this has never happened before."

Almost immediately then, he gave more power to the laser turrets, waking them from sleep and setting them from pre-heat to active. The [i]Crane's[/i] thrusters flared as he set speed from a leisurely three-fourths to the slow battle speed of one-half. Turning the electronic helm, he pointed the bow directly towards the xeno ships. He could see them as clear as day - the dust cloud wherein they lingered was easily defeated by his ship's sensors.

The only thing left now was to send a message, but in what language? He had many to choose from. Indeed, it was wise to have the most recent Murderer Virii send back information to the Harmony as they were destroying an intruding ship's vitals. Of course, the luxury of such sophisticated electronic warfare suites out here on the very edges of Wo space was nonexistent. Here, the task of defense came upon manually-piloted patrol ships.

In the end, Ngo transmitted the message in all the languages installed in his ship's library, playing in sequence and in loop. First it was in Quelsoc, then Savarog, then Sol Standard and so on - but the message was short and simple, and the computer-generated voice that delivered it appropriately menacing:

[b][color=red]"YOU ARE INTRUDING UPON HARMONIC SPACE. LEAVE NOW OR BE PURGED."[/color][/b]

[@Monkeypants][@Natsucooldude]