[b][i]CNCV Midnight, Vega - Beta Aquilae node[/i][/b]

Now this was something new to Runa - meeting a species in an active warzone while at a state of war with yet another species whose 16 cruisers were still in the system. The men and women under Admiral Zorea’s command managed to hunt down four of the enemy cruisers, capturing two dozen-odd Vasudans and forcing the remaining cruisers to seek the safety of the asteroid belt, where they were hidden to most forms of conventional detection, within one day. Granted, it wasn’t a fair fight for the PVE crews.

Compared to meeting the Faira aboard the semi-complete Alchemist, she was put on a Lancer fleet Corvette and outfitted with armor of her own. It was decided the Midnight would hold the talks with this new species due to similar atmospheric demands, the Narix atmosphere having only 2% more oxygen than these ‘Terrans’ needed. Quite a weird name. The mud people of planet Soil, who in their right mind would name their homeworld ‘Earth’? Now that she was wearing more protection than a trench coat, she was actually looking forward to it. It was only a matter of time before the Terran envoy arrived.

As this was a warzone, Admiral Libra was for once not called to service, no doubt because the first contact was far from so uncertain as when the Faira have met the Narix. With the Terrans all receptive and a common enemy, this meeting was more about hammering the details of an alliance rather than a race to maintain neutrality and perhaps opening trade. As such, and having already pushed the Terran into doing her will once before with a mix of logic and intimidation, Admiral Cygnus was selected to talk on their part. “Ambassador, nice to see you again. How are things at home? Do we have any directions from the Council? The Admiralty is now unanimously backing a fight, although we are split  on what to do, whether we should defeat the Vasudans into submission or into extinction.”

“Likewise, admiral. Lindros is coming along nicely, they are just about ready to start the first reactor of the power plant and flood damage in Ernoma is almost fixed. The Council has decided the best course of action would be to neutralize their military, put our boot on their throat and keep it there. Thralls are useful, corpses are not. Some protesters mentioned acting like the Relics, only to be promptly told to stuff it, since the Vasudans fired first. The revelation of their religious leanings is troubling, but this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve forcefully reeducated a nation. I heard you’ve managed to rack up an impressive tally already, including live captives and the leader of their fleet. Congratulations. They’re scheduled to be taken to New Frontier for a public trial. One for the history books. What can you tell me about these Terrans, anything we could use in the talks?”

“Not much. We have captured one of the Aten class cruisers intact and are working day and night on getting what intel we can from it, both Vasudan and Terran moves. The terrans, from what limited sample I met, seem like proud people, intelligent, if a bit egoistical, not knowing their strength or place. Optimistic and opportunistic. The navigational data has revealed that the fourth jump node out of Vega leads to a system where they intend to fund more than the one colony they already have there. It is thus likely they will downright lay claim to Vega. The admiralty is of the opúinion that we should well let them, for the small price of free movement through their systems, so we can gain new territories elsewhere, even if far detached from our own.” The admiral informed.

“Agreed, it’s not like there’s much use to this system anyway. We might be able to use their ego against  them. That and our rescue of their destroyer, that must’ve blown a hole in their pride. I trust you will handle the military side of the talks?”

Just then, two Terran cruisers arrived. “This is the GTC Ravage to Confederate vessel, we are carrying the GTA diplomatic mission. Proceed to the Neptune’s port side docking port when ready, the delegates will then transfer to you.”

The Terran delegation was led by an elderly lady with the personality of a belt sander, who was not at all impressed by the Privateer’s layout. The airlocks led straight to the storage bays that stretched 300 meters from bow to midship, directly adjacent to the crew section. One of the breakrooms was cleared out, fitted with a large table and had its gravity lowered to Earth standard. By examining the food package given to Astra, they were able to determine what kinds of food the Terrans could safely eat, and a shipment of high-grade supplies was sent to the Midnight, only to have 90% of it marked as ‘spoiled’ by the ship’s quartermaster and stowed out of sight, leading to good crew morale and giving Runa something to laugh about.

“Good evening.” Runa started the introductions, “Please have a seat. I am Ambassador Taranis, this is admiral Cygnus.”

“Secretary General Sigrid Schreiber, shall we dispense with the introductions and get to it?”

“Yes, let’s, before the Vasudans decide that it is a good tactic to use their cruisers as relativistic kill vehicles.” Cygnus said, the two belt sanders coming to grind against each other. “I understand that one of your systems is neighboring the enemy capital. Do you have sufficient forces to hold the node, Secretary General?”

“Admiral Errinwright might have overcalculated, but that is a rare exception among our fleet commanders. The Vasudans haven’t broken through for fourteen years, though they’ve tried, they have much bigger worries elsewhere. The Typhon-class hasn’t been sighted before, leading me to believe it is a new type of ship. Your men might be responsible for the destruction of the sole vessel of this class. I would like to know whether there are other, perhaps yet unexplored nodes in your territory, nodes that could potentially allow us to strike deep in Vasudan territory where they don’t expect it?”

“And yet, neither were you able to break through to them. While I will admit it is a testament to the strength of your economy and the will of your people that your civilization have not bankrupted and your peoples revolted yet, a fourteen year old stalemate is just that: A stalemate. From what I understand, a very bloody and costly one.” Cygnus said in a level voice. “And I would hate to think that this new class of ship could break this stalemate in the advantage of autocratic evangelizing zealots.”

“Having spent several years scanning every system in detail, we can assure you that not only is our branch of the galaxy is not connected anywhere else, it is also a dead end. However, before we talk about taking the fight to the Vasudans, shall we ensure first that there are no accidents between our forces?”

“We are distributing the ship silhouettes you’ve provided to admiral Errinwright throughout our fleets.” she gestured at one of her companions, who handed Cygnus a drive the size of a football. “With the information we’ve learned from your drive, we’ve taken the liberty to convert these to your data standard, you can thank us later. After the Vasudan incident, our people are wary of aliens, but they’ll welcome a helping hand, as long as coming to an agreement with you isn’t half the battle. But now that we know about it, Errinwright’s mistake will not be repeated. I assume saying ‘hello’ in a slightly wrong way won’t spark a war with you?”

Giving a half-smile, Cygnus conceded a little: “No, I believe we are beyond that point. As well, it is logical to ally against the Vasudans. We want to give your attention to what comes afterwards. As I have shared, we are subspace-locked in our current systems. Before the Confederation was formed, my people and the Narix have developed this system for exploration and frictionless expansion of our peoples. It is our hope that you would be open to agreeing to function on a similar model.” Cygnus presented, displaying the visualization of the basic workings of the former Alliance, with the freedom of movement alongside the selected navigational ‘highways’ highlighted.

“We will happily talk about this following the Vasudan’s defeat. Until then, there is no reason for your presence in our systems, much like there’s no point for us to move through your systems if they are truly isolated. As for seized Vasudan systems, it’s best to treat them as jointly captured until the war ends. After the wars end, we can talk of further exploration and this system appears feasible. I am more interested in what you can bring to the table, or shall I say ‘War room’?”

“The fleets currently present in Vega are two of our attack fleets, and two of our exploration fleets that can be used in offense operations if need be. It seems that even in power saving mode of operation, our ships are capable of overpowering Vasudan equivalents one on one. That said, we were rather taken aback at how many destroyer class vessels the Vasudans were capable of fielding on moment’s notice. It suggests they have vast numbers on their disposal, although I believe you would be able to give us better number than we can guess?”

“At this time, we are aware of thirteen Vasudan destroyers of the Pharaoh class, seven of which are accounted for. Well, make that ten and four after yesterday. Their homeworld is two jumps away, of course they’ll have a large number of ships on station, and both Sirius and Deneb systems are important to the PVE, Deneb houses a large colony and medical stations and Sirius is half refinery, half repair yard. The only reason Sirius is still standing is the zealous fanaticism of the Vasudans. Perhaps the best example of their misguided barbarism is the destruction of the GTD Goliath by suicide attacks. If we could break through Deneb, we could strike at their medical facilities, cripple their fleet yards at Sirius and that would be the end of them.”

“I would forego any attempts at invasion until we are ready for one decisive strike. The NFC is not interested in a drawn out campaign, much less when far greater threats than the Vasudans exist in the universe. There is a project in the works back home that will be ready for deployment in about two years, that will make smashing any blockade the Vasudans can pose much easier and less costly.” Cygnus said, thinking of the Halcyon.

Being simpler in design from the get go and integrating much less Relic and Ancient technology, the Narix superdestroyer would actually be finished earlier than the Singularity. Just as well, since it was made to engage from broadsides, whereas the Faira ship was forward oriented. In-system, the Halcyon was more suited for defense and the Singularity could crush anything on the attack, but where node taking was concerned, it was the exact opposite. The Singularity could focus enough firepower on a node to destroy anything coming through, and the Halcyon was able to go through and then engage multiple blockading ships easily.

“But, until then, we could hamper their fleetbuilding process with hit and run strikes on their infrastructure. A tactical bomber wing should be able to run the blockade and proceed into the system. Faira pilots can then easily wait out the months it would take for the opportunity to return to arise.” The Vanguard’s admiral noted.

“Interesting proposal.” The human delegate scratched her chin, “How about this: We organize a little military exercise - your bombers attacking one of our cruisers set to be scrapped, then our bombers do the same. Then we decide what ships would be used for these harassing attacks AND it would let our pilots work together to see how it works. How does that sound to you?” the secretary general proposed “But you mentioned ‘greater threats’. What did you mean by that? Rogue elements of your nation? Or have you encountered more aliens?”

Runa summoned a holographic image of an Ancient, quickly becoming fond of the technology. Perhaps she should’ve warned the Terrans first, as some of them, quite understandably, jumped in their seats at the sight. “We had a few run-ins.” as she spoke, the projection cycled through the known Ancient ships, ending with the footage the Curious captured at the Beetle, especially focused on the Lilith. “Now our fleets have scored several victories, leading to what we believe to be the eradication of these aliens in our systems. But that is not to say there are no more around. Their destroyer managed to remain hidden from detection for months all the way until they deployed it. I suggest you thoroughly sweep your home system.” Getting an idea, she found the gun camera footage of the Claymore wing when it disabled the Demon. “What can your bombers do? This is the firepower the Confederation can provide.”

“The firepower of the Muon is not it’s main advantage though. The craft can accelerate to a kilometer per second in less than ten seconds, meaning that it can avoid all fire on the other side of the node until it can safely jump out. No other strikecraft we possess stands a higher chance of carrying this mission out. That said, the weapon you saw it deploy is the hypervelocity cannon, which is actually it’s primary means of engagement, requiring little in logistical support unlike conventional bombers relying on torpedoes. They can carry six a piece of those as well though, if needed.” Cygnus jumped in, filling them on the details. From what she saw on the Eisenhower and how well they fared in the battle with the Typhon, that alone stood a good chance of the Muon being the go-to craft, unless the Terrans had something hidden elsewhere.

That demonstration seemed to have put a finer belt onto the sander. “Yes… It would appear this Muon is best suited for this. You wouldn’t happen to have the drive signatures of these alien vessels available to you, would you?”

“We do, as well as multiple cannon signatures, just in case you found some alien wreckage and didn’t know who wrecked it. Chances are good it was the Ancients… Have you?” Cygnus fished, as she prepared the files to send over.

Schreiber remained silent, merely shaking her head. The GTI will want to see this, especially the R&D branch. “This will certainly help in our search. When can these bombers be deployed, and how many? The sooner the Vasudans are tied up, the sooner we can send some ships from patrol duties to sweep the systems.”

“I imagine a wing of three could be sent out as soon as the pilots volunteer. It will take some time to find a couple that would be willing to stay behind enemy lines for over twenty months and be ruthlessly engaging any target of opportunity regardless of the number of lives they take. I’d also equip them with the strongest torpedo we can shoehorn in, just in case the vasudan anti-fighter systems on some targets could keep up with the speed. I don’t think more would be needed, depending on how much intel you can supply on the potential targets. In that case, I’d send three wings, one pilot and two AI controlled bombers each.” Cygnus elaborated on her plan. Guerrilla warfare was not fought with armies.

“Very well, I will convey this to the GTA security council. Have you received the signatures of known Vasudan ships?”

“We have gotten them from the Aten we captured.” Cygnus nodded, “Although we do not know if they are complete, so I suggest we let our intelligence people compare notes. We can also bring them up to speed on the Ancients. If that’s is all for Military matters, I will let the Ambassador do the rest of the talking.”

“In that case, I’ll be happy to talk. My name is John Blunt, speaker of the General Assembly for the Sol system.” A man from Schreiber’s group introduced himself.

“Very well. While we have our own reasons to want to see Vasuda Prime burn, all of these talks will be for nought if we can’t agree on a lasting non-aggression pact. We have already proposed a post-war system of travel through each other’s territories, one the secretary general agreed to, but that is just a small part of it. For obvious reasons, mutual defense is out of the question for the time being outside of the Vasudan War. On another note, fourteen years of war couldn’t have taken kindly to your economy. Although we have several large construction projects in the works, I’m sure we could bring useful resources to the table, provided your side has something in return.”

“Yest, the proposed system should be more or less acceptable as is, once the proper infrastructure is in place. Since you are locked in your region of space, I imagine we would have to come to some form of agreement on dividing any newly explored systems between us sooner or later or we’ll inevitably find ourselves in another war, am I correct?” the speaker said bluntly. 

“Pretty much, and we’ve seen how our ships fare compared to your standards.” Runa commented, “As far as dividing new systems, that would apply to jointly discovered and explored systems. Otherwise, it’s finders-keepers, though trading systems for other systems or resources is on the table. At least the uninhabited ones if morality is a concern.”

“I would prefer to find none, nonsentient, primitive and susceptible and fully evolved inhabitants anywhere, in that order. After the Vasudans… Let us just say we are all very glad and relieved your views on matters align better with ours than theirs. Hopefully we’ll be finding a whole lot of empty systems. Regarding exploration though… What methods do you use to search for jump nodes? It takes us years to fully chart a system. I am a bit worried about possible entry points for these Ancients, as you call them.” Blunt inquired.

Somehow Runa had a feeling the Terrans didn’t need to know about the Faira mindspace capabilities. Not until much later. Fortunately, it looked like none of these people even knew the Ancients existed, which meant they had a bit more time. It also meant there was a friendly, reasonable buffer to one side and a hostile, fanatical one to the other.

“They may not even need entry points, they may already be in your systems. Detection varies from system to system. Some we can detect across an entire system, and some have evaded our attention until a few months ago despite being located in our home system.” She made a reference to the Naris - Transfer node, although that was an exception worth its own chapter, “The system itself also plays a huge role. As for the practical realisation of node detection, it involves the Scout Fleet, their corvettes and patience. Although there are ways of predicting where a node is likely to be, it’s still a coin toss whether it’s actually there.”

“Yes, our boffins are still puzzled about it as well, more or less. We have been missing nodes left and right, discovering them fifteen years after we colonized the system and moved on to another behind it. Then there was Talania. A system so rich that if we didn’t before, the Vasudans and us would have likely gone to war over it. Three garden words.Only after we moved in three fleets we noticed that the nodes were getting weaker. Turned out they were phasing, about 200 years stable, 500 years almost nonexistent repeating cycle. It was the only cease-fire during the war, when both us and the Zods joined forces to get everybody out before the nodes shut down. Unfortunately, it didn’t last.” The speaker summarized.

“Which only means that those Ancients can show up at any time in any place without warning. You aren’t giving me a whole lot of good news to bring home, Ambassador.” he sighed, “Back on track though-” he said, knowing now that he said it out loud that there probably was no point in inviting the NFC to help them scan their systems, “I do not know how much you were able to ascertain from the captured Aten, but our territory is rather vast - we do not have much need for any resources, not ones we know of though - whether you have some exotic materials in your part of space that our science didn’t describe yet, that remains to be seen and is potentially worthy to look at. We are more interested in some of the technologies you posses, but before we talk trade, alliance or anything beyond this one war, I would like to know who it is I am negotiating with. If you wouldn’t mind enlightening me to your nation’s history and philosophies?”

“Do you want the long answer, the compressed version, or the one propagandists would tell you?” Runa asked with a great deal of sarcasm. “We are two nations united: The Narix Republic and the Exiles of Faira. A democratic republic forged by a prolonged war and a military nation born of necessity respectively. We have encountered each other as we left our homes for the first time, quickly finding common ground and forming a loose alliance. It was the Faira knowledge of the Ancients existence and later encounters with them that pushed us to unification, giving birth to the Confederation you see today. As you may have noticed based on the fact the Cydonia’s survivors have been returned and not dissected for research purposes, we prefer a meeting to a sword, although as the Vasudans have learned, aren’t afraid to take up arms against anyone who would threaten us. Neither of our species has any religions at this time. If that doesn’t cover it, ask away. If it does, I’d like to know more about your alliance as well.”

“Your nations are… united? I mean, your individual nations, not the Confederation as a whole. That is interesting. The Galactic Terran Alliance is just that: An alliance of independent systems, and our homeworld, unlike the other planets and systems, is to this day divided between over a hundred nations, although they have one voice in the assembly. We have had many differences, and like you, have waged many wars between ourselves. Sometimes over reasons constructed by maniacs. I am not certain whether religious wars fit into that category, but they are nonews to us either.” Blunt shared. “How did the Faira come to know about the Ancients prior to any encounter with them?”

“Yes, our unification was in part made possible by the violent eradication of any religion from our society almost 1400 years prior to the Republic’s creation. What is the religious situation like among your kind?” She touched a sensitive topic. “As for the Ancient contact, I was referring to our first contact with them, as in seeing what they can do first hand. It’s one thing being told by your allies that they’d found some advanced debris a while back, it’s another being jumped by three ships while exploring a dead end system. Speaking of contact,” she summoned a projection of the strange probe the then-NSS Privateer and the ECR Durable found when first charting Naris, “Does this look familiar to you?”

“How?” Blunt said, pulling up an image of the Voyager in pristine condition off of the Extranet, “It’s ours alright, but it shouldn’t have been anywhere that far! What the hell happened to it?” he wondered aloud. “Well, I suppose our boffins would like to have a look at it, maybe something can be salvaged from it’s recording equipment. Back to your question though, I doubt we could get a count, but there are four dominant religions on Earth, only one of them mildly violent. You can imagine, that religions take a big hit once you reach into space and find no evidence of it. Most people nowadays keep them as a moral code more than anything, and we value the freedom of choice in the matter.” Blunt was a little bit disturbed by the fact that the Narix disposed of religion violently, that could probably cause problems somewhere down the line, once somebody would inevitably try to convert some of them. “What happened to the Faira that forced them into a military existence? You mentioned they called themselves Exiles?”

“Sadly, the probe seems to have passed through a dust cloud or a nebula, causing surface damage. Last I heard it was taken to a secure lab in my home system, but I do not know what became of it.”

“Mildly violent? And you tolerate them?” Damn, these people were stupid. “Where do you stand on the matter?” she posed a question of personal importance. “We will of course respect your decisions as long as you respect ours. But I will advise against sending emissaries to us, enough blood has been spilled over make-believe nonsense as it is. I would also like to be sent copies of whatever sacred texts these religions claim to follow.” Mr. Blunt probably wouldn’t be happy to know the Narix safety board would fill the shoes of the Spanish Inquisition.

“Firstly, don’t confuse a Faira exile and a Narix exile. Every Faira would call themselves an exile, whereas Narix exiles are criminals condemned to life outside of our society. It is also considered a grave insult among my people. I believe that question is best left for a Faira to answer anyway, as that is something only related to them.”

“Very well. The texts I can download for you from the net, although to put your mind at ease, no one sent an emissary anywhere in hundreds of years. These days, you have to go to a church, mosque, temple or what have you to sign up, if you can find one. Why do we allow for that religion to exist? About hundred thousand people follow it, and only few percent are the violent sort. It is easy to keep an eye on them, and every generation there is less of them, as the new generations do not take easily to those concepts. We give religions a few more hundred years to disappear completely. About 98% of our population is atheist, although phrases originally referring to a religion have been accepted into the common way of speaking, such as calling for god when a person is emotionally distressed. You should make nothing of it. Myself, I was born into a religious family, but like most of the children in my age, I just see nothing in it. I found that a money transfer gets a lot more done than a prayer.” he smiled. “Put your mind at ease though, the jump node to your systems will be well off-limits to our civilian traffic probably even after the whole Vasudan situation is solved. Your idea of a transfer station to act as customs and meeting point would work well.”