Nikolien SystemWhile the crews were still celebrating their victory, the tiny ball passed through the system, undetectable by their sensors. Then they were alerted to its presence all too late when it hit Lakfanikolien. The crews panicked and tried to get their captains to leave the system, but Lakfakalle sent orders: nothing gets past Nikolien. The ships were forces to stay in the system, protecting it from any further Ceramus attacks. However, seeing a planet destroyed hurt their moral. Only one person in the entire fleet knew what was going to happen when the nanobots found the enemy homeworld, the rest had not yet been informed. Knowing this, Kuuyi sent a message towards the origin point of the ball. If there was anybody still there, at the very least they would be intimidated. They would probably laugh though.
"You think destroying a planet is power? You have no idea what kind of power we have! People can survive the destruction of planet, but nobody could survive the destruction that we will bring!"
NanobotsThe nanobots have been dispatched! Being equipped with micro warp drives (Actually
cheaper to build than the normal ones), they have been sent out in a circular pattern away from Lakfakalle. Already, new swarms have been produced from the remnants of Lakfanikolien and other such small bodies in systems all around the sector. With any luck, they will find the enemy worlds within a few weeks, at most months. Almost certainly not years. At the current rate, the war will be over before the end of the year!
Operation Free MarketAfter a while, the cadets decided to report in. The military personnel were taking their time with the cube, hoping to wait for the agents in case spies were hidden in the
large cube that could be broken easily with a Triarian weapon.
"We've got a negative here, food court's reporting a negative as well. None of the civilians have reported anyone aside from someone who apparently didn't understand basic customs. Turned out to be a drunk guy. We're coming with you."
The titanium cube was put into a military truck, which gave off a terrible smell and had wheels. Apparently, the LCF had yet to invent antigravity technology. The truck was exactly what one would expect from a low-tech military, laughable green camo, gunpowder weaponry, the usual primitive attachments. Two other vehicles seemed to follow the truck through the city, a police vehicle and a much older car. Both looked as if they had been constructed purely to look good, the frames weren't even made of a light alloy. Had the Triarians remembered the humans in their 1950's, they would recognize the aesthetics. Kind of funny, fifty thousand years later and they end up with the same designs.
The truck stopped at a factory, smoke was billowing out of large towers on top of it, dating the civilization even better than their weapons. The cube was carried off the truck by four Abh using the well-tested "stick stuff under it and carry that stuff with sticks" method. A human certainly couldn't pull that off, though, and the Abh didn't even look that muscular. There was obviously more to them than met the eye.
The cube was carried into the factory, and towards what was almost certainly a metal reclamation facility. A vat of molten metal stood there, being piped into various curved molds. Other vats were there was well, being piped into the same molds. A fully completed construction was being lifted out of the center of the factory by multiple helicopters, flying though an opening in the roof of the building. It was a cylinder, painted white and marked with the words "Royal Space Force" in dark red. The Triarians probably wouldn't recognize what they were building, simply because the device was so ancient in their memory that it was completely alien to them. It was what the humans called a "Rocket".
The cube was put onto a conveyor belt heading towards the vat, to be melted down and then molded into part of a primitive yet beautiful device. If the Triarians didn't get out of it somehow, they too would become part of a primitive yet beautiful device.
Comms TapThe Triarians have once again come across propaganda, apparently, this "Ceramus War" was somewhat important to the LCF. Mainly because they are enraged enough to put out these productions. Interestingly enough, this one seemed to be a news video as well. News combined with propaganda: The mark of a primitive society at war. The only thing that could have made it more stereotypical was if it was in black and white.
"Once again, the enemy attacks the Nikolien system!" Yelled the announcer, with actual, true anger in his voice. "Today, they destroyed the planet Nikolien with a kinetic bombardment device traveling at .95c!" The video was showing footage of the attack, it was a show of power that might even intimidate the Triarians.
The video then switched to a clip of an Abh in a white and gold Star Forces uniform, which contrasted with her blood red eyes. A caption informed the viewer that she was Admiral Spoor, of the Imperial Star Forces.
"They think they have power over us with their new weapon, but we still have the upper hand. As I speak, we are planning a counteroffensive against the alien menace. Their home system will be no more once we find it."
The music from the last propaganda video started, and once more a battle scene was shown. Except this time it was a mock battle between a planetary defense ship and a group of five small craft. The PDS, interestingly enough, had been jokingly painted with the words "Qourux Scum" and "Triarian Oppressors". The small craft flew in, leaving striking blue engine trails, and fired some sort of pulse weapon at the parts of the hull the words were painted on. When the pulses hit, the words and the hull behind them simply disappeared. A caption identified the footage as "Spaceborne Fighter Test A-2"
As the music continued, the video showed
the launch of a Hyphelia 1B orbital shuttle, and a CGI rendition of some sort of giant space station (the CGI was actually incredibly good, considering their computing power). Another caption identified the station as the "Orbital Refining and Construction/Combat Complex (ORCCC)". And of course, it wouldn't be LCF propaganda without a shot of multiple ships flying horizontally while firing weapons. That seems to be a staple of LCF propaganda.
An image was display of the Imperial Star Forces flag once more, just like in the first propaganda video:
Then, the main announcer spoke again, the volume of his voice greatly amplified.
"Join the Imperial Star Forces NOW! Go to your local relations office or call 7785-21-ISF! End the alien scourge! Protect Lakfakalle!"
