Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 15:55:18 GMT
The great UWA carrier Mayara and her escorts, Alice and Anya, were sailing through space, following the exploration ship, Celestial, which was actually a frigate.
The fleet commander was Captain Valda, a human. As they sailed, the Captain was on board the carrier, inspecting her ships, waiting for news of any discovery, be it a ship or ships, be it a planet or some resourceful rocks in space.
The system they had arrived in was empty, composed of a few lifeless rocky worlds, along with two ice giants, all orbiting a dim red dwarf star. But this was not so important, as the fact that it was in somewhat close proximity to the Nucleans, located just south of the borders of their primary territory within the Ancerious galaxy. As such, the arrival triggered early warning sensors, and a warship was tasked to investigate.
The ship in question was the Onyx Hand, a retrofitted Archon-class battleship, commanded by Forcemaster Coba, who was still assigned to territory rapid response in this area.
Several hundred kilometers from the UWA vessels' location, a section of empty space was suddenly occupied, as the 32.2 kilometer long hull of the Onyx Hand arrived from faster than light jump. In the standard Nuclean fashion, its arrival was rather quiet and unerwhelming compared to that displayed by other civilization's vessels coming out of jump, as it wasn't accompanied by any sort of telltale radiation burst or spatial disturbance before it arrived. The hull was sleek and curved, made of a shiny material which seemed somewhat transparent like extremely polished stone or colored glass, while at the same time being metallic. No telltale flare of reaction drives could be detected on it, however for those with gravimetric and other space time sensors, it would be clear to see the distortion in space of its gravimetric drives as it began its approach. After a moment or two of silence, it sent a to the strange vessels in galactic common "Greetings unidentified vessels, you have entered the Nuclean Ecumene early warning zone. Please identify and state your purpose"
"This is Captain Valda. I am in command of this fleet. I am here because I have been ordered by my country, the United Worlds of Alondra, to investigate and to explore the space around us. I see that you are the Nuclean Ecumene.
On the other hand, I am in command of this carrier and I hold control over these escorts of mine as well as of the frigate ahead of us. We are not hostile. Repeat. Not hostile."
And her ships showed them they were not hostile. All weapons were being disabled by their own crews while shields and other defensive systems remained active. The carrier also had her doors closed, not allowing her ships to leave her body.
They had stopped moving and the Captain said again
"If this means trespassing, we are sorry and we may request permission to leave your space."
Coba considered the response they had received from the new arrivals, apparently belonging to a 'United Worlds of Alondra'. Such a nation did not have an entry in the databases of the Ecumene, meaning that this was a first contact situation. With that in mind, a few moments passed as he quickly contacted headquarters and requested permission to act as diplomat to the UWA, eating a small pastry while he did so. After receiving clearance, he sent a reply back "You are not trespassing, this system is merely near our borders, hence we keep an eye on it. As our nations have not met before, would you like to meet and discuss relations between our two nations?"
"We would love to. Please. Show us where to go and we will follow. Or perhaps we can simply meet here and discuss. Whatever suits you." The response was so.
The ships remained where they were and the Captain then added "If you wish, I will take a ship and leave the rest of my fleet close to your system. Or if you may allow, for their safety, I will bring them into the system but I alone will go with you."
"There is no need to go anywhere actually. You are cordially invited abourd our vessel, to meet, if that is acceptable." Coba replied, pleased at how this first contact scenario was going so far.
"Very well. We will board your ship soon. We carry no weapons and mean no harm. If you betray our trust though...you know." The line was then cut as the ones speaking to them went to get ready to connect their ship to this one.
After the connection was closed, preparations were made onboard the battleship to receive the representatives that would be joining them, as Coba used the vessel's teleportation grid system to move down to one of the cavernous landing bays. Upon approach, the UWA shuttle would be given a flight path directing them to where the Shipmaster was.
The shuttle followed the flight path just as those on board awaited the meeting that was to come. The Captain prayed to her own god that this will be good and that her fleet, her faction will not fall because of mistakes made here or actions done against anyone.
As the shuttle arrived in the hanger bay and moved to the directed position, Coba watched it arrive, as he stood at ease with hands clasped behind his back a safe distance from the landing circle. Behind him were two ranks of marines facing toward each other, each clad in powerarmor that in normal Nuclean fashion, was absolutely spotless, all forming a walkway between them three meters wide.
Coba wore similar armor to them, but with somewhat less plating, as well as a single gold star on the left side of his chest, denoting his rank. After the shuttle's engines had been shut down, he began walking towards the craft, his helmetless head revealing a serious but neutral expression worn on his face.
All around them, the UWA ships kept close to the other factions ships. The crews and naval infantry all hoped this would end well.
As the ones in the shuttle prepared, the Captain herself allowed the doors to open, her own person emerging out first to meet the man who she could deal with for the first time in terms of inter-faction matters. She spoke well
"I represent the United Worlds of Alondra, Veneshia and Satembi. Captain of the fleet and named Valda. Pleased to meet you."
Coba met her at the bottom of the landing ramp, giving a small polite bow of the head as he did so. All at once, Captain Valda would be able to tell that the Nucleans were definitely alien, having digitigrade legs and flat tails, judging from the shape of their bodies under the armor. And from Coba's uncovered head, she could see a mammalian creature, with brown fur on an elongated face.
The being spoke, speaking with a smooth accent "Welcome aboard the Onyx Hand, Captain Valda. I am Shipmaster Coba. It is a great honor to meet with you."
"It is my honor as well."
Valda, the human, was not surprised. Her companions were also alien. Some had bluish skin and had claws. Others had brownish or darkish skin. They were tall or short, some having armor or scarves to hide themselves.
She smiled and reached out to Coba "Shall we?"
"Yes, please follow me" Coba replied, before turning and leading them forward down the pathway formed by the honor guard, towards the nearest doorway out of the hanger. Once they had exited, they continued down several hallways for around fifty meters, giving the entourage a good view of the architecture within the Nuclean vessel, with decently sized hallways composed of smooth white walls and ceiling with a polished black floor. Along with walls ran colored lines with alien script on them, possibly providing directions to major locations within the massive vehicle.
Eventually, they came to a door, which opened automatically at Coba's approach, revealing a moderately sized meeting room within. A light grey metallic rectangular table with rounded corners greeted them, surrounded by comfortable business chairs for Coba and each representative sent by the UWA, as if the room had been arranged exactly for their meeting.
Coba moved to one side of the table, where his lone chair resided, and motioned across at the empty seats with a polite smile "Please feel free to sit, and again welcome"
She sat down, smiling as her companions also sat down with her. Once that was done, Valda spoke
"Once again, thank you for allowing us to meet with you. I hope I did nothing to offend you as we begin."
"Not at all" Coba smiled, wishing at this point that he had a snack of some sort, or at least something to drink while he was talking. He'd always been one for eating when nervous or bored, and while it didn't show due to the rigorous physical standards the military held him to, nonetheless the desire was there.
But he had to stay focused, and so continued to speak "I guess first of all, I'd like to hear about your nation, the United Worlds of Alondra."
"Well, perhaps it would be better for the both of us if we had something to eat or to drink while we discuss things? I, for one, am hungry. I could use something to eat...like a bowl of mashed potatoes with onions!" The human said with a grin. She then gestured to her XO to give to her a bowl with a cover on it. It had, indeed, mashed potatoes with onions on top. She took it and uncovered it and began to eat as the XO asked Coba "Would you like something from us?"
Coba wasn't sure what mashed potatoes or onions were, although they didn't smell bad. However he merely said "Thank you, but I will be fine. Although I suppose I might have a drink. Care for anything?" As he spoke, he reached outward to his side, as if a cup might be there hovering in midair. And then in his outstreched hand, a metal cup filled with water materialized from the bottom up, the working edge glowing blue until it was fully formed. Once this was done, Coba held it to his lips and drank, enjoying the cool liquid, before setting the empty cup by his chair. A moment after being set down, the cup dematerialized in much the same way.
"Now" he said in a friendly tone with a smile, his gaze narrowing towards the executive officer who had addressed him "Might you tell me about the United Worlds?"
"The United Worlds of Alondra, Veneshia and Satembi is a faction dedicated to democracy in unity and freedom...and the way of our army. We do not believe in simply staying in one place nor do we believe in lying down for our coming enemies to take us so they could draw blades across our throats and see our blood spurt out as we expire. No. We believe in doing that to them first. We want allies not enemies. And if factions dare to oppose us so they could destroy us...we don't want that."
Coba nodded attentively as the representative spoke, clasping his hands and resting his forearms on the table between them as he did so. Recording devices in the room listened to the Alondrian's words, creating audio and text records for later, which were at the same time analyzed by the ship's AI, with notes being sent to Coba's neural implants.
"An understandable, although somewhat aggressive stance I suppose" Coba replied "Please continue"
"Is there anything in particular you wish to know though? I cannot explain everything because I wish to be specific."
"Well, could you elaborate on your foreign policy more?" Coba inquired, interested to hear more about the Alondrians.
"As long as we see no slavery being done with your country and if you are friendly enough to us, we wish to be allies."
"Ah, that is definitely something we can work with" Coba replied with a smile. "I think we can definitely start out with a non aggression pact to start things off and go from there."
She agreed, already furnishing a digital pen from her own chest pocket
Coba nodded, and snapped his fingers of his right hand, mentally routing a command via his neural implants to the ship's AI, which in turn activated the room's matterconverters. On the table in front of them, a hardcopy of the Nuclean's standard non-aggression pact assembled in much the same way as the glass before it.
On the document, written in galactic common, were the basic terms anyone would expect on such a treaty, forbidding war between the two except if one attacked the others' allies, which along with attacking each other would render it null and void.
Coba pushed it over to the Alondrian representatives. "If those terms are acceptable to you, then go ahead and sign"
The woman nodded and signed it quickly. After that, she gave it back to Coba and said "I accept these terms. I hope you will stick to them as I will stick to them. I pray that this will be the beginning of a great friendship."
"The Ecumene honors its agreements with other nations, and if it is neccesary to void this agreement, it will be under the terms already given in the document." He pulled it back and drew his finger in a horizontal line on the empty signature space, which was then populated with his signature by the smart paper upon which the document had been printed. A digital copy of the signed document was then transmitted to the UWA ships for recordkeeping.
Coba smiled "I share your sentiment. Friends are always better than enemies, and we always welcome the opportunity to add to ours"
The fleet commander was Captain Valda, a human. As they sailed, the Captain was on board the carrier, inspecting her ships, waiting for news of any discovery, be it a ship or ships, be it a planet or some resourceful rocks in space.
The system they had arrived in was empty, composed of a few lifeless rocky worlds, along with two ice giants, all orbiting a dim red dwarf star. But this was not so important, as the fact that it was in somewhat close proximity to the Nucleans, located just south of the borders of their primary territory within the Ancerious galaxy. As such, the arrival triggered early warning sensors, and a warship was tasked to investigate.
The ship in question was the Onyx Hand, a retrofitted Archon-class battleship, commanded by Forcemaster Coba, who was still assigned to territory rapid response in this area.
Several hundred kilometers from the UWA vessels' location, a section of empty space was suddenly occupied, as the 32.2 kilometer long hull of the Onyx Hand arrived from faster than light jump. In the standard Nuclean fashion, its arrival was rather quiet and unerwhelming compared to that displayed by other civilization's vessels coming out of jump, as it wasn't accompanied by any sort of telltale radiation burst or spatial disturbance before it arrived. The hull was sleek and curved, made of a shiny material which seemed somewhat transparent like extremely polished stone or colored glass, while at the same time being metallic. No telltale flare of reaction drives could be detected on it, however for those with gravimetric and other space time sensors, it would be clear to see the distortion in space of its gravimetric drives as it began its approach. After a moment or two of silence, it sent a to the strange vessels in galactic common "Greetings unidentified vessels, you have entered the Nuclean Ecumene early warning zone. Please identify and state your purpose"
"This is Captain Valda. I am in command of this fleet. I am here because I have been ordered by my country, the United Worlds of Alondra, to investigate and to explore the space around us. I see that you are the Nuclean Ecumene.
On the other hand, I am in command of this carrier and I hold control over these escorts of mine as well as of the frigate ahead of us. We are not hostile. Repeat. Not hostile."
And her ships showed them they were not hostile. All weapons were being disabled by their own crews while shields and other defensive systems remained active. The carrier also had her doors closed, not allowing her ships to leave her body.
They had stopped moving and the Captain said again
"If this means trespassing, we are sorry and we may request permission to leave your space."
Coba considered the response they had received from the new arrivals, apparently belonging to a 'United Worlds of Alondra'. Such a nation did not have an entry in the databases of the Ecumene, meaning that this was a first contact situation. With that in mind, a few moments passed as he quickly contacted headquarters and requested permission to act as diplomat to the UWA, eating a small pastry while he did so. After receiving clearance, he sent a reply back "You are not trespassing, this system is merely near our borders, hence we keep an eye on it. As our nations have not met before, would you like to meet and discuss relations between our two nations?"
"We would love to. Please. Show us where to go and we will follow. Or perhaps we can simply meet here and discuss. Whatever suits you." The response was so.
The ships remained where they were and the Captain then added "If you wish, I will take a ship and leave the rest of my fleet close to your system. Or if you may allow, for their safety, I will bring them into the system but I alone will go with you."
"There is no need to go anywhere actually. You are cordially invited abourd our vessel, to meet, if that is acceptable." Coba replied, pleased at how this first contact scenario was going so far.
"Very well. We will board your ship soon. We carry no weapons and mean no harm. If you betray our trust though...you know." The line was then cut as the ones speaking to them went to get ready to connect their ship to this one.
After the connection was closed, preparations were made onboard the battleship to receive the representatives that would be joining them, as Coba used the vessel's teleportation grid system to move down to one of the cavernous landing bays. Upon approach, the UWA shuttle would be given a flight path directing them to where the Shipmaster was.
The shuttle followed the flight path just as those on board awaited the meeting that was to come. The Captain prayed to her own god that this will be good and that her fleet, her faction will not fall because of mistakes made here or actions done against anyone.
As the shuttle arrived in the hanger bay and moved to the directed position, Coba watched it arrive, as he stood at ease with hands clasped behind his back a safe distance from the landing circle. Behind him were two ranks of marines facing toward each other, each clad in powerarmor that in normal Nuclean fashion, was absolutely spotless, all forming a walkway between them three meters wide.
Coba wore similar armor to them, but with somewhat less plating, as well as a single gold star on the left side of his chest, denoting his rank. After the shuttle's engines had been shut down, he began walking towards the craft, his helmetless head revealing a serious but neutral expression worn on his face.
All around them, the UWA ships kept close to the other factions ships. The crews and naval infantry all hoped this would end well.
As the ones in the shuttle prepared, the Captain herself allowed the doors to open, her own person emerging out first to meet the man who she could deal with for the first time in terms of inter-faction matters. She spoke well
"I represent the United Worlds of Alondra, Veneshia and Satembi. Captain of the fleet and named Valda. Pleased to meet you."
Coba met her at the bottom of the landing ramp, giving a small polite bow of the head as he did so. All at once, Captain Valda would be able to tell that the Nucleans were definitely alien, having digitigrade legs and flat tails, judging from the shape of their bodies under the armor. And from Coba's uncovered head, she could see a mammalian creature, with brown fur on an elongated face.
The being spoke, speaking with a smooth accent "Welcome aboard the Onyx Hand, Captain Valda. I am Shipmaster Coba. It is a great honor to meet with you."
"It is my honor as well."
Valda, the human, was not surprised. Her companions were also alien. Some had bluish skin and had claws. Others had brownish or darkish skin. They were tall or short, some having armor or scarves to hide themselves.
She smiled and reached out to Coba "Shall we?"
"Yes, please follow me" Coba replied, before turning and leading them forward down the pathway formed by the honor guard, towards the nearest doorway out of the hanger. Once they had exited, they continued down several hallways for around fifty meters, giving the entourage a good view of the architecture within the Nuclean vessel, with decently sized hallways composed of smooth white walls and ceiling with a polished black floor. Along with walls ran colored lines with alien script on them, possibly providing directions to major locations within the massive vehicle.
Eventually, they came to a door, which opened automatically at Coba's approach, revealing a moderately sized meeting room within. A light grey metallic rectangular table with rounded corners greeted them, surrounded by comfortable business chairs for Coba and each representative sent by the UWA, as if the room had been arranged exactly for their meeting.
Coba moved to one side of the table, where his lone chair resided, and motioned across at the empty seats with a polite smile "Please feel free to sit, and again welcome"
She sat down, smiling as her companions also sat down with her. Once that was done, Valda spoke
"Once again, thank you for allowing us to meet with you. I hope I did nothing to offend you as we begin."
"Not at all" Coba smiled, wishing at this point that he had a snack of some sort, or at least something to drink while he was talking. He'd always been one for eating when nervous or bored, and while it didn't show due to the rigorous physical standards the military held him to, nonetheless the desire was there.
But he had to stay focused, and so continued to speak "I guess first of all, I'd like to hear about your nation, the United Worlds of Alondra."
"Well, perhaps it would be better for the both of us if we had something to eat or to drink while we discuss things? I, for one, am hungry. I could use something to eat...like a bowl of mashed potatoes with onions!" The human said with a grin. She then gestured to her XO to give to her a bowl with a cover on it. It had, indeed, mashed potatoes with onions on top. She took it and uncovered it and began to eat as the XO asked Coba "Would you like something from us?"
Coba wasn't sure what mashed potatoes or onions were, although they didn't smell bad. However he merely said "Thank you, but I will be fine. Although I suppose I might have a drink. Care for anything?" As he spoke, he reached outward to his side, as if a cup might be there hovering in midair. And then in his outstreched hand, a metal cup filled with water materialized from the bottom up, the working edge glowing blue until it was fully formed. Once this was done, Coba held it to his lips and drank, enjoying the cool liquid, before setting the empty cup by his chair. A moment after being set down, the cup dematerialized in much the same way.
"Now" he said in a friendly tone with a smile, his gaze narrowing towards the executive officer who had addressed him "Might you tell me about the United Worlds?"
"The United Worlds of Alondra, Veneshia and Satembi is a faction dedicated to democracy in unity and freedom...and the way of our army. We do not believe in simply staying in one place nor do we believe in lying down for our coming enemies to take us so they could draw blades across our throats and see our blood spurt out as we expire. No. We believe in doing that to them first. We want allies not enemies. And if factions dare to oppose us so they could destroy us...we don't want that."
Coba nodded attentively as the representative spoke, clasping his hands and resting his forearms on the table between them as he did so. Recording devices in the room listened to the Alondrian's words, creating audio and text records for later, which were at the same time analyzed by the ship's AI, with notes being sent to Coba's neural implants.
"An understandable, although somewhat aggressive stance I suppose" Coba replied "Please continue"
"Is there anything in particular you wish to know though? I cannot explain everything because I wish to be specific."
"Well, could you elaborate on your foreign policy more?" Coba inquired, interested to hear more about the Alondrians.
"As long as we see no slavery being done with your country and if you are friendly enough to us, we wish to be allies."
"Ah, that is definitely something we can work with" Coba replied with a smile. "I think we can definitely start out with a non aggression pact to start things off and go from there."
She agreed, already furnishing a digital pen from her own chest pocket
Coba nodded, and snapped his fingers of his right hand, mentally routing a command via his neural implants to the ship's AI, which in turn activated the room's matterconverters. On the table in front of them, a hardcopy of the Nuclean's standard non-aggression pact assembled in much the same way as the glass before it.
On the document, written in galactic common, were the basic terms anyone would expect on such a treaty, forbidding war between the two except if one attacked the others' allies, which along with attacking each other would render it null and void.
Coba pushed it over to the Alondrian representatives. "If those terms are acceptable to you, then go ahead and sign"
The woman nodded and signed it quickly. After that, she gave it back to Coba and said "I accept these terms. I hope you will stick to them as I will stick to them. I pray that this will be the beginning of a great friendship."
"The Ecumene honors its agreements with other nations, and if it is neccesary to void this agreement, it will be under the terms already given in the document." He pulled it back and drew his finger in a horizontal line on the empty signature space, which was then populated with his signature by the smart paper upon which the document had been printed. A digital copy of the signed document was then transmitted to the UWA ships for recordkeeping.
Coba smiled "I share your sentiment. Friends are always better than enemies, and we always welcome the opportunity to add to ours"