Big Dicc Marty
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Drhuvian Black Wall platforms kept their constant surveillance and tracking of local Senti vessels as a number one priority. Making sure that the pirate bastards could not escape the eyes of Isomeria had become their sole job after decades of attacks and intrusions in Drhuvian systems. 31/7, 7 days a week, 61 weeks a year and Glory Days. Work never stops because the Senti don’t.
On a typical day, keeping the giant defense guns trained on the nearest Senti fleet, the Drhuvian sensors keeping eyes on any fluctuations in the data they received from any form of energy expelled or reflected by the continent sized vessels noticed something peculiar. It warranted extra attention, of course. Any possibility that the Senti could change how they are detected by Drhuvian sensors and observers could spell a massive uptick in piracy. The regular game of watch-with-your-finger-on-the-trigger began as it did thousands of times before when the Senti group naturally drifted closer than protocol felt comfortable with. Protocol being followed, a blaring warning was transmitted just in case the rust-skinned captain was too much of a fool to understand their heading or was sleeping on the job like the fat lazy pirates would.
“SENTI VESSELS, DIVERT COURSE FROM DRHUVIAN TERRITORY IMMEDIATELY. YOUR PRESENCE IS NOT WELCOME. COMPLY AND RESPOND.”
The message came as a violent growl of demands. The harsh Dhruvian tongue always seemed to excel when it could threaten someone with a volley of hull-fire and slugs. The communications officer waited patiently after the complete disregard for language differences and niceties, just hoping that the Senti would make their day and stay silent.
The Senti vessels took their sweet time doing so, but the ships that had traveled in their silhouette, did before they changed course themselves. It had taken a few for the translation to come in from their escort fleet, but the NDC vessels were quick to submit to the command out of respect for an unknown force. Any further messages were starting to be recorded in observation of this never before seen presence, high grade optical sensors now focused towards the black wall forces.
A boring, boring day, surely. At least the Drhuvs didn’t need to waste any of the rather expensive ammo on little minnows. Watching them turn off and away was giving them a great view of those foreign ships, enough for them to be entirely certain that those ships are not Senti. At all. After long debate and some loud arguing between the defense platforms observing the situation, it was decided to transmit a secondary message to those ships using translated Senti languages, Drhuvian and Allurian in a much nicer and curious tone,
“Foreign non-Senti vessels, please return communications in any recognized language. Divert course towards the Black Wall for continued contact. You will no longer be targeted during this period. Respond with haste.”
What came back was a message translated in Senti, now that the translation pack was in their systems. “This is the NDV-New Dawn, flagship of the NDC expeditionary fleet Delta. We will comply immediately, and adjust course as requested. We look forward to further interaction.”, came the somewhat enthusiastic reply. All ships would stick to formation, and change direction at a steady burn as they approached the designated point, weapons offline, but shields still active just to be on the safe side.
The captain aboard the flag ship looked to the Operator who had relayed their reply, even as he was giving out orders to the bridge. “So what’s your take on these Dhruvians? Senti don’t seem very fond of the bunch, and the feeling seems more then mutual on their end too. Could just be the Senti’s habits getting them into trouble again.”, came his question as he mulled over the situation, and what they may be flying into.
“I would probably put it more on that with their free spirited natures just rubbing others wrong, but that’s only speculation right now. With how stalwart their defense seen so far is, I would say they’re more then likely steadfast territorial, and not much in the way of conquerors probably.” The operator shifted ever slightly in her chair, as if subconsciously getting more comfortable in the chair she couldn’t even feel.
The expeditionary fleet would soon find itself within the eyes of Drhuvs walking the outside of what was essentially a nearly immobilized gun sat in the middle of space. Any sensor readings would immediately catch the heavy and noisy power and sensor arrays. That platform outputs the signature of a vessel a hundred times its size. The bore of the “gun” could likely fit a fighter snuggly inside, to consider this anything other than a dirty, massive, cobbled-together cannon would be an outright lie. Judging by the other platform a few megameters away, this is the standard design.
After the fleet had come to a halt in front of one of a few thousand bricks in the so-called Black Wall, another transmission was sent in the Senti language.
“New Dawn, what and who are you? What are the NDC? What are your relations with the Senti pirates? You are not Senti. Do you have a representative?”
A flurry of questions coming from a clearly confused but curious officer. They clearly never thought that a foreign ship could retain a color other than honey and gold, staring at the familiar color scheme of gold, red and black. The NDC design was not the signature Drhuvian dirty technology created by backyard scientists, but if they squinted, it almost seemed familiar enough. A representative --the second highest ranking officer on the platform-- was prepared for a hopeful one on one introduction. A lot of the lower ranking troops weren’t too happy with the idea, the thought of letting something not flying the Drhuvian wreath and star this close to the Black Wall was uncomfortable and unprecedented, enough to cause intermittent mumbling and discussion as they awaited an answer from the Senti-speaking aliens.
“We are a collection of races who hail from a world once called Harran, and have made the exodus here to this sector of space. We are the New Dusk Conclave, and have been settled within the sector for the last fifty of our years. We have a scientific agreement with the Senti, for them to escort our ships as guides, so that we may study and learn more about what is present in this sector of space. We come with no ill intentions, and will only be hostile if provoked first, as we seek cooperation over war due to what befell our world of old.”
“I think that is an almost sufficient answer for them, what do you think captain?”, came the Operator’s own question, even as the captain rubbed his temples from the earlier bombardment of such. She gave an apologetic grin, before adding another bit to their reply.
“We have numerous trained as representatives, so that we have at least one who will be most qualified, based on circumstances. Is there a particular vocation, or ranking of personnel that you would prefer most to speak to?” She added, happy to have yet another first contact to add to the history of their people.
The captain however, was just on the edge of his seat, waiting to see the temperament of their hosts. The guns they saw, while a bit rough, were still in significant numbers and range to be a risk to their fleet if angered. He didn’t like taking such risks, but it was what the Archdukes asked of their brave fleets, he only saw to uphold that high opinion they had of them. “I am more curious to see where they wish to hold talks, and if they greet every guest with the biggest fuck off cannon possible.”, the captain grumbled, only getting a dismissive sigh from the younger Operator.
“You old war captains are all so stubborn, much like that Senti woman who made first contact with us months back….. Aliset I believe her name was? She seems quite taken with Archduke Mark-”
“You will not speak a word of that here! If they are on such unpleasant terms with our mutual associates, knowing they have been bedfellows on occasion, may not be looked upon too kindly.” The captain was quick to dissuade her, trying to keep every annoying bit of information that may tip this against them, to an absolute gods fearing minimum.
“We will send an officer. We will spare a small vessel for the meeting. Parties will meet on this spare vessel. A Drhuvian language pack will be provided. This pack uses Senti data and compression systems. Do you accept?”
The officer gave a response, not showing any form of outstanding aggression that may be taken as a poor reception. Hopefully. The defense platform the NDC were watching had begun to show more life, various forms began scrambling to work with most moving away from areas around the main gun towards airlocks to enter the platform. Little else occurs visually, but something is surely happening.
“We do, and excitedly await your arrival. Once the pack has been downloaded, it shall be installed immediately for communication on arrival. Please do not worry about docking compatibility as our airlock tethers are adaptive to a high degree.” Once the Operator had sent their reply, she nodded within her virtual bubble at her handiwork, quite pleased with it. Turning her physical head towards the captain yet again, she then asked “So, who are we choosing, since they didn’t give an answer on that part?”.
The captain only gave a smug look at her, saying only “you.” before relaying orders yet again. He did not wait to see her visibly surprised reaction, that he just blatantly chose her, or even giving chance for protest. They were on a window here of being ready, and she was most qualified given how much data she regularly handled, not to mention the ease of downloading a language pack. Somedays the captain almost forgot they were just very advanced toasters, not that he’d ever tell any of them that out loud.
After a short period of silence, a relatively small language pack was openly transmitted for the NDC to take. The transmission was eerily Senti in identity, an almost perfect replication of their communication protocols with the data pack itself being Senti in origin. The Drhuvian language, from the description the pack provided is “...foolishly simple, aggressive and dehydrating.” The examples of spoken Drhuvian sounded more akin to a dog fight than an actual language. Granted, the examples were mostly the various threats and warnings Senti vessels receive when they decide to stray into Drhuvian territories with one example being a rather snarky and charged meeting between a Senti and Drhuvian representative.
Outside of the virtual walls the operator was comfortable behind, a small civilian Drhuvian ship had flown under the platform and was slowly approaching the fleet. It looked no longer than 50 meters and appeared with a wingspan of maybe 80 meters. It wasn’t exactly pretty with the obvious armored over energy shield design, there wasn’t much of a real design philosophy, its signatures on sensors were just as loud and obnoxious as the platform… There was no real elegance to it. There wasn’t really an airlock for the NDC to lock onto for a personnel transfer, just a landing gear and a ramp. In addition to the ship not showing any signs of faulting, that Drhuvian ship is likely going to try to land onto the hull of that flagship if they aren’t waved off.
“Our vessel is inbound. Do not mind the noises during the docking procedure. No damage will be done.” is transmitted by a warmer masculine voice in the Drhuvian language instead of one of many Senti languages. It is followed by an addition, “Our representative is escorted by two guards. This is not an attack. This is security. Do not attack the representative.”
A holographic representation of the Dawn was pulled up in the middle of the bridge, and the yellow projection of the ship was shown coming in closer. Maybe a bit too close for comfort for those manning defenses, more worried the guns on the ship even twitching would startle their guests.
As the hull very very faintly thudded with their landing, the Operator stood from her seat, having disconnected from the Dawn now. “Guess I’m EVAing, I’ll get going then, but uh… Get a glass of water, and a lozenge ready for me when done. It was a surprisingly small packet, but good fucking gods, I’m going to feel like a tryhard at a screamo concert after this.”, she stated before walking off, donning her officer's coat as she did. Taking her cap into her hands, deployed the helmet of her suit before finding the nearest airlock.
The Drhuvs would see the feminine figure walking along the hull to meet them, before boarding through the ramp, her stance and posture being deliberately peaceful. “I am the bridge Operator of the New Dawn, the vessel you are now currently landed aboard. I come as representative and emissary of the New Dusk Conclave government, and her people. It is a pleasure to meet you, and welcome aboard our vessel.”
The representative found herself in an empty cargo hold with nothing but industrial lights above to give visibility to the three men standing in front of her. The one closest, about two arms lengths away, was maybe five foot seven. His skin color resembled hazelnut brown leather, both in a soft texture and color. On top of a long, sleek black frock coat cuffed with crimson and accented with gold thread stitched into three rings at the shoulder and forearms. A break in the dark colors comes with angelic white buttons over the red lapels with a final touch of gold and white with the Drhuvian wreath and star pinned over the representative’s heart.
Royal purple eyes stared at the solo NDC representative, more curious of the species that had boarded than anything else. They were so… soft looking. It looked weird enough to him that he would tilt his head. He made a disgusted face afterwards, like a cat that had smelled something and wasn’t sure if it was good or not. Behind the representative were two men with opaque glass helmets instead of faces wearing what looked like rubber skin suits that had armor and small pouches tacked on top. Slung across their shoulders were bulky looking weapons, like some odd form of shotgun. It certainly wasn’t a rifle due to the large bore but it looked as heavy and reinforced as a ship cannon. Judging by the multicolor ammo on the caddys at the hips of the guards, it was one hell of a shotty.
“You are alone? Your nation is confident.” The language came like Old Norse with rolling Rs replaced with a throaty groan. It was much more relaxed with the more formal setting, less of that dog fight it would present behind walls of guns and more of a curious croak. The representative’s voice was even smooth to boot, like the voice of a man you could sit and listen to explain old war stories. He didn’t appear that old, just wiser than his age. “I am Chernus. Who are you, smooth skinned one?”
“Aldeayla is what my people call me, and not quite… I would like to point out that you are parked on a battle capable ship, with more then one gun naturally oriented this way. That isn’t a threat by the way, just pointing it out for the sake of conversation.” The silver haired woman simply stated as she disengaged the helmet, letting her hair down, and her caramel skin show. Her expression was hopeful, calm, and oddly kind despite what could probably be considered a tense situation.
“As this is the official start of our dialogue I would guess, what do you wish to know about us, or perhaps ask of us in some way. I’m hoping this will open up further communications between our governments in the future.” She added while replacing the cap on her head, having been holding it in hand up until now.
“What are you? What are your relations with the Senti pirates?” The Drhuvian representative was very immediate with his questions as the simple language demanded. The disgusted face he made earlier relaxes to a neutral expression, no longer framing sets of fangs in discomfort. An odd smell began to emanate from the man as well, an off and musky smell of wet soil.
“I am an Operator, a synthetic being created with advanced biotech, specially designed as the name suggests. To adaptly operate, and meld with advanced craft and technologies, with the mind of an AI at my core.” Aldeayla stated, as if reading off a textbook description, which she more or less was, as she was not really keen on coming up with her own equally dry explanation. Clearing her throat, the operator continued onto the next question, “Though enough about boring me, I am not the only race that makes up the NDC. As for our relation with the senti, we mostly do trade with them as diplomatic associates, as well as contracted as guides around the sector. They, so far, have lightly taken part in our culture, with not much of the reverse given their nomadic and free spirited nature.”
“What species are you modeled after, Operator? Are they capable of speaking with pheromones? Do they even have those?” A new set of questions to pick through as the representative disregards the humanity of Aldeayla. Chernus seems mildly more content with the Senti just being acquaintances. Isomeria knows what damage they could do to the Drhuvian political influence if they were capable of altering the opinions of others. You’d have a world of pacifists without any spirit, lost and hopeless little insects hiding from their true description as a dead and stagnant species waiting to slowly dwindle like a candle with no more wick. The content expression slowly twists to loathing as Chernus contemplates the stories, second-hand and first, that he’s heard about those devils.
"At least one is, I was modeled after my creators, humans and Sykians. They look much the same to me in form, but are widely diverse in aesthetic appearance and build." Guess she shouldn't be surprised to be treated like a household item, it was still common to come up. But it didn't sting any less if she were honest, as the woman still had emotions and life to her.
"We also have the large and physically strong Onikari, the half serpent Garutha, and those who've… mixed blood with much older beings.", Aldaeyla as she opened her palm and with a bit of photon magic, created small projections of each. "Recently we've begun to add two local races to our people via diplomacy. The Tumisians, and Vaigarin."
Chernus seemed a bit in awe at the magic presented to him, curiosity striking him for a moment before chalking it up to a different form of the holographic displays Drhuvs already have, albeit in a much more interesting fashion. Many different species, a bit gross, the idea of that level of cross-breeding. There had been a few previous tests, though mostly to humor some genealogists, about what a Senti-Drhuv mix would look like though trying to even combine the two sets of chromosomes was an impossible feat. Interesting. That’s enough information from her. “Do you have a… human? A human aboard your vessel? I would like to speak to someone organic, Operator.” Nameless being, a fools errand to try and make something you couldn’t. People don’t come from machines, people come from people. Unless this thing in front of him was just the transferred mind of a person, it isn’t any more alive than the vessel he stands on or the gun his guards have slung across their broad shoulders.
The woman blinked at him a bit confused, and half shocked, at suddenly being dismissed. "Well for one, I may be a synth, but I am still largely biological in nature. I can eat, sleep, and breed like any other person. It is rude in my culture to be disregarded based on the place of creation."
She was suddenly a lot less fond of the idea of first contact with these people, a disappointed look having some presence on her features. The Operator also didn't want to just cut off dialogue over some discrimination, but she was rather annoyed at their attitude. "If you truly insist on not being satisfied with the envoy given, then I will have someone else come.", Aldeayla added while trying to not sound grumpy, or admittedly pouty about it.
“There is something in an organic person that a machine could never recreate. Whether you say it’s a soul, a being, whatever you want to call it, it is unique to the birth of something and not manufacturing. An organic envoy would be preferred.” A small huff comes from the man, followed by a woody smell and impatience. He has no time to lecture a machine about its place. No time at all. This meeting is entirely, for him, about defense. Knowing a potential enemy is better than being blind and it is clear that the Drhuvian Collective had been blind to too many potential threats for far too long.
The Operator wanted to protest, declare her essence of life to someone who so ignorantly ignored every living sign of it in her, but something stopped her before she ever would. Taking on an apologetic stance, and a small bow of the head as the neural link buzzed. “Yes Captain, I understand, I will return immediately.”, Aldaeayla replied to not the representatives, but someone somewhere else above her. “A new delegate party is already enroute, I will take my leave now.”
Even as the helmet was replaced, and the ramp lowered again for her exit, the dhruvs would detect three more figures leaving the ship to approach. The captain only gave the Operator a reassuring pat on the shoulder as they passed between each other, and he with his guard boarded the ship now. Once the ramp was closed once more, the helmet went away for an officer's hat much like the Operator’s, but more decorated. His uniform was also very similar, but with more medals and ribbons of previous series, attesting to his age as much as his salt and pepper hair with beard.
“It came to my attention that you were dismissive of my XO due to her race, I will make sure to note that, to keep record of your preferences for future dialogue. Now, how about we get down to brass tacks, and you tell us your intent my good sir. You’ve been professional and direct so far, so I sense there's a focus to your efforts, yes?” His voice was gruffer, older by much, but was human nonetheless as there were no horns on his temples. The two tall armored figures at his side however, had horns, their builds much more bulked like that of the Drhuv beserkers present.
“I hope my Onikari guard does not come off as excessive, they volunteered for the walk.”
Chernus seemed much more pleased, even amused by how they both brought guards far larger than themselves. “Not at all! I should introduce you to a Hunter sometime. They are deadly beyond belief!” Arms open in delight as the throaty groans become more like welcome trills, you’d think by his attitude that he wouldn’t need or think it necessary to be wearing a protective vest just under his uniform coat. “Come, let us get out of this cargo hold, industrial lights are never good for faces.” He turned to the side, guards parting to let the captain through. Behind the representative was a small elevator, maybe 4 people could fit at a time. “The bridge is a much more comfortable place to talk.”
“As someone who works on one everyday, I’ll take a bridge over an office any day.”, came the Captain's humorful reply as he followed. “My name is Captain Adamos Veritru, apologies for skipping the greeting.”
“Commander Chernus Vellent. We can keep one of our guards here while the rest go up?” He walked along towards the elevator, reaching over and grabbing the shoulder of the guard to his right flank. “I’m sure my friend here would love to talk with one of yours. The horns are very interesting, I’m sure it would be a fantastic conversation piece and we wouldn’t need to wait on two lifts.” Another smell fills the hold,, like smooth stones drying from a fresh rain under a pale orange sun, it came just after another huff from Chernus.
One of the two Onikari gave a nod in confirmation before the captain continued with the other. Personally, he was almost worried that he’d have to leave the other behind as well. More out of the man’s sense of pride then for the captain’s own safety. But as they entered the lift, the much taller man managed to squeeze in, hunched quite a bit, to practically hang over the captain’s shoulder. It almost made Adamos feel claustrophobic, not that he ever had been, but he remembered the conflicts of old with the Onikari.
“This is why we tend to keep them generally few in number for normal duty tours on ships, otherwise they are very impressive in the field, and more then happy to keep busy with manual labor. Mostly to engineering, cargo holds, and hangars where they can be most useful.”
One of the Berserker guards stayed behind without a second confirmation. He would likely be having quite a chat with that Onikari, even if he couldn’t speak their language.
Chernus, after entering the elevator, clicked the only button available, up. The elevator had two doors and, after making his choice, Chernus turned to face the door opposite the one he entered from. A series of smells began filling the elevator. It was a constant back and forth of woodland scents damp in an odd musk. Chernus and his guard were looking at each other, staring without any movement of their lips. After the shining, Chernus turned to the Captain. “Your friend is going to be hunched until the bridge. We don’t engineer these ships for room. Us Drhuvians quite like being able to see all four walls around us. Did you understand what we were saying?” He questioned as the elevator shuddered, creaked and slowly rose towards the upper level.
“My apologies, but we cannot understand pheromones, at least most of us. I’ll make sure we bring Garutha with us from now on, they can translate such communications.”, Adamos answered before the lift stopped, and they exited. The guard stretched now that he was out of the box, a few faint cracks of joints to be heard as they did. The captain thought to add note to that, adding as he said, “Which is fair, as we have forms of communication that differ mechanically and biologically as well.”
The hallway ahead was not any better than the elevator. It looked more akin to a service tunnel than anything, pipes, electrical panels and a terminal to the sides with just enough space to accompany the Berserker guard though with a bend of the knees.
“Save the effort.” The purple eyed man sighed. “We can give you a language pack and machines to translate our voices but there’s hardly much we can give for our noses. We don’t like long term visitors. Learning the whole language would take too long for comfort. Ironically, I’m fluent in Senti.” A metallic stench fills the room, then a chuckle from the man.
“This is the first room of three before the bridge. This handles the auxiliary systems. There is not much special to see here.” Chernus waved the captain forward, wishing for him to lead just to make sure nobody tries to get too observant with their vessel.
The captain led as directed, respecting the command as a guest, “I respect the maximized use of space on your starship. Very efficient.” The 10ft guard said nothing, a little more annoyed to silence by such tight confines, and remembering how he used to hate bunkers like these. Adamos felt sympathetic for him, and made sure to keep a brisk pace, seeing their host did not want them lingering.
Passing into the second room, Chernus spoke up again. The room had one smooth wall to the right with a bulkhead sectioning off parts of the ship. To the left is a small open compartment with what looks to be a main component of the ship. As the captain and guard approached, they felt their outward connection to magic slip exponentially as they stepped near that component. It didn’t seem to destroy or absorb mana in any way, instead suppressing it, making any presentation of it outstandingly difficult.
“This is the greatest marvel of Drhuvian engineering. Our Hydrogen-Class jump drive. It is the fundamental of what allows us to navigate the stars.” Chernus boasted with obvious pride, finally stopping to allow the guest to look if they were so pleased. Granted, the one panel of 3 that was on had a mess of Drhuvian letters, symbols and colors. Nothing looked bad on the panel, at least nothing flashing red warnings.
The feeling of the air seemed to weigh down on the captain and his guard, both feeling it, even as their DEFs buzzed in error. It wasn’t an oppressive sensation, but it left a tingle upon their nerves, as the mana in their bodies seemed offset from whatever was oppressing its use in the area. Captain Adamos suspected it was due to the function of the drive system, something to add to his report later as it were. He was just happy to not be too sensitive to mana, as he could not imagine the uncomfortable feeling a full mage would be experiencing in here.
“What are the fundamentals and principles of such a drive? It’s not like anything we’ve encountered in shape, or name from our limited archives. I would be interested in hearing more about it if you don’t mind my curiosity.” Adamos offered his question with a casual smile, hoping to learn even some passively about the system.
Chernus stopped for a moment, tinkering with the information he knew of the drive. Enough to answer the question, not enough to be useful. The NDC ship would surely know or find something out anyways by way of witnessing a jump regardless. What would the Senti say?
“The drive works by folding the fabric of space-time. A bubble of controlled fabric forms as the drive becomes active. When we need to get from one star to the other, this drive constricts the front of the bubble relative to the ship’s front and expands the rear of the bubble. This provides faster-than-light travel with little worry.” That is a simple explanation, all information he would have found anyways had he seen a ship jump. Chernus watched the alien captain with mild interest… “Are you okay, Captain?” He questioned with a lean to get a better look at the smooth skinned man. A bit of a piercing stare slowly formed as the Drhuvian Commander took in an instinctual deep breath in search of more complete information. He’d smell it in the Senti, he’s hoping to smell it in this “human.”
“Simply the feelings from a lack of mana in this compartment, something I suspect has to do with how the drive operates. It is no health issue, merely causing a tingle, please not be concerned. That being said, it sounds fascinating, like some form of warp.” Adamos answered calmly and truthfully, seeing no reason to hide what they were feeling in this room. His health nanoes weren’t finding anything of concern anyways, but felt okay to make aware of, perhaps eliciting further explanation from their host.
“Our own drives find entry and formation points for wormholes, and open them for ftl travel, which requires less energy to do so compared to some forms of ftl. It also lowers emissions, speeds travel, but in smaller jump distances.”
The Commander ponders for a moment, gears visibly turning as he thinks on what the alien had just spoken. “Is this mana some sort of… alternate energy you have discovered?” The Drhuvian word for mana hangs heavily in religious connotation and is more aptly described as a connection with a deity. “Your previous representative had shown a small trick. It amused us. Is this ‘mana’ based in quantum physics? Is it another state of matter?” Chernus’ complete confusion is diffused in a facade of I know what you are trying to say. A first of many linguistic differences, surely. He shifted a small bit with almost discomfort.
“It’s essentially understood so far to us, as a sort of lifeforce that most living beings have. As for our earlier representative, yes she used such energy. Despite opinions, our AI and synthetics are at a stage of development where they could have organic bodies much the same as a normal person like ourselves. We call the ability to use such energy, magic.” Adamos gave a small smile, happy to be the one to indulge in sharing info he was enthusiastic about.
The Commander blinked in disbelief and mild annoyance. What is this smooth-skin talking about? Magic? Living AI? This cacophony of horrible information is stowed away, for now. If he pondered on it for longer he would almost become angry at the blatant lying before him. He resolves to a simple unenthusiastic response, “Mmm. Okay.”
Chernus turned about and continued on towards the bridge, the giant black form that was his guard tailing behind until they had approached a metal door that simply retracted into the wall and let a flood of light into the drive room. “Come.” The commander spoke. “Lets sit.”
Adamos looked to his guard with a confused look, the Onikari simply shrugging with a “I dunno”. The captain followed though, stepping onto the bridge, a place that held a significant feeling for a captain no matter the race. He took the seat that he was gesturing towards, “So, down to business then I assume?”
The bridge was constructed in an open triangle. To the fore was the main piloting chair, a rather complex seat with the arms dedicated to a rail throttle and stick. The legs extended forward to make room for yaw pedals. The underseat was a large box connecting the floor to the actual seat. There was a small hatch that opened into the box with unknown contents. A small paper strip was taped over the hatch, presumably to indicate any intrusion.
There were two additional seats located around 3 meters southwest and southeast of the main seat, following the same design of the first with the southeast chair showing a tampered seal.
Each seat shared a large canopy intermittently divided with metal cross sections to prevent total canopy failure in the event of a breach though the two auxiliary seats suffered with poor visibility due to the obscuring wings and hardpoints.
The bridge itself was designed to be spacious and open. To the south were three doors, one to the drive room in the center and two other unlabeled doors to the corners. Between the doors was spare seating with screens above them displaying miscellaneous information of various systems aboard the ship. The main chair is several steps down from the doors with the bridge lowering a step every few feet.
The Commander steps to the side to allow the visitors to enter and observe their surroundings. “Welcome. Disembodied voices would be the onboard AI, Mendicant. Feel free to ask her questions and hold a conversation if you’d enjoy it.” The guard makes his way to the south east chair, maneuvering around and setting himself down. A holographic hud appears around his helmet. Unfortunately, the text is too small to see. The Commander has chosen to sit in the spare seating to the left of the door. The two humans are free to roam.
The captain took that as a subtle sign that the man was uninterested in talking to them, at least for now, perhaps cooling off from the earlier topic. “Mendicant, is there any information you could share with us? Cultural, technical, law, economics, philosophical, or other topics that would allow us to know your creators better?”, Adamos asked the AI, his guard rather uninterested as he simply stood at attention in waiting.
Chernus chuckled as a voice chimed into the air. It sounded as if it were coming just an arms length away from the captain. There is no holographic image or even android to speak to, just a voice. “The Drhuvs are not fond of visitors, being naturally territorial and having poor past relations with the Senti.”
“It makes a good point.” Chernus clears his throat and speaks up. “We were not aware of another species other than Senti prior to you and your four-armed friend. The Senti are not welcome guests…” He pauses and thinks for a moment on the new guests and their presence around the rust skins. “I think you, the NDC, could be a great help in this.” The Commander appears to be a little more cheerful and interested as a new idea forms in his head. He shifts in the seat, crossing one leg over another and holding on his knee. “Your people are well acquainted with the Senti, no? Perhaps friendly? We saw your vessel with a local detachment from their flotilla, the one they call Katamura.”
“We’re amicable, yes, making use of their knowledge of this region of space. Doing trade, gathering mapping data, and other things of the sort.”, Adamos replied, rubbing his chin in thought at what the Drhuv was getting at with the question. “Is it correct in my assumption that you would like us to deal with them on your behalf then?”
He wasn’t too worried if that was the case, and everything he had told them was true, not entailing more personal connections. Those who took companions and lovers from the race, were not important in terms of interactions between the two when it came to the governmental level. Not that he thought that the Drhuvs would care too much about that anyways, but best to play it safe with this one, given his reaction to certain things so far. A small itch for a cigarette was starting to grow, but he pushed it down, eager to hear what the xeno would say next.
“No no no, of course not.” Chernus gave in a hasty reply. “If we were to involve other nations to do our diplomacy for us, well, it wouldn’t be our diplomacy, would it?” Chernus shifted away from the sinking posture he had began to fall in, sitting straight to continue speaking. “Our governments will work together to fix this problem with the Katamurans. We will even offer handsome rewards for simple information. The Collective is unaware of the location of the flotilla and the Senti are crafty. Were we to know this location, the Collective would be able to preemptively prevent further incursions in our borders and increase our defense. We offer you, in exchange, anything from weapons, loaned soldiers, resources or even representatives and diplomats if that would please you.”
He let his offer stand for just a moment or, thinking of ways to manipulate wording into a better deal. He plucked from a hand of reasons why this new government wouldn’t enjoy the deal, then carefully twisted the truth to ease this man’s potential fears. “We do not intend to harm the Senti, not one bit. The Collective, as you may have seen, gives ample warning and prior advisement before firing upon a vessel that stumbles into our territory. We simply want to get a small token of knowledge as another layer of protection, so that the first thing the Senti see aren’t the defense platforms, where it may be too late.”
Adamos was afraid of getting a request like that, but gave it to the xeno for having the stones to ask such a steep question just on the first meeting. The rubbing of his chin paused briefly as the question was asked, a small frown crossing his lips, as possible ramifications came to mind immediately. “That… is unfortunately not info I have the clearance to freely give. I hope you understand that we take relations with other entities seriously, and therefore are careful about dealing with the handling of data on them. To avoid unnecessary incidents of course, so I can only point you to our intelligence division once cleared with the royal government. It is simply protocol I’m afraid.” The captain gave his reply calmly, not saying outright no, but also praising his superiors for making rules that let his betters handle such issues.
He wasn’t a lazy man, but even he was not always the smoothest in matters other then war, and knew when to let the chain of command take the brunt of more delicate matters. With a small apologetic smile, he figured the answer would be enough to politely dissuade the topic, and let spooks and suits deal with handling that later. “As much as that may be, perhaps there is some other way we can help? I can more freely hand out information on our own territory, share mapping for the regions we’ve explored, or have obtained from third party means to an extent. Or perhaps anything more immediate, maybe technical, or of other natures if possible?”
The denial was met with another flush of earthy smells. The Commander looked disappointed and took in a deep sigh. Close, very close. Just too far away for now. He clasped his hands together and returned the breath he lost before speaking again. “That is unfortunate. I had hoped we could prevent the loss of more lives today.” He perked up in spite of the failure, searching of a way to still get something from this interaction. “Navigational data would be appreciated. I must ask, are there any other nations besides the Collective, Senti and NDC? Few have wondered just how alone we are or if our isolation had been perfect in avoiding a complex galaxy teeming with competing factions.”
The guard who had been sitting in a co-pilot's seat smelled the message his commander gave. He hadn’t been listening but still heard and felt that annoyance of coming up just short on something great. The guard began to send information to the defense platform, hoping that these talks would start getting some attention from higher ups who likely hadn’t heard of there being another nation until now. Hopefully another proceeds from this talk, where the discussion of Katamura would be the main point. Even this guard hopes for the day he could prevent Seni pirates from stealing valuables and abandoning ships with shattered pride and only a bridge to safely traverse.
“We’re aware of a few, mainly on this side of the region, and have heard possible tidbits of others. You know the Senti already, but there is also a collection of allied nations, referred to as the UNS. From a few of those we know out of the Senti, we’ve been made aware of a group known as the Conglomerate, who we have not made contact with, but are in the same sector as our own nation. There are a few outliers as well, along with artifacts and remains of an advanced civilization.” Adamos casually pulled a datapad from his officer’s coat, before pulling up several files up on the device, then ran it through the translation pack provided earlier.
With a few more keystrokes, and making sure only what he wanted had been locally saved to the device, offered the pad before continuing. The pad contained what limited information they had on the mentioned groups so far, and where they had been roughly located, or sighted. “A pair of independent militant groups are based around the scarlet nebula, north of our territory. They go by Nexus Private Security and are run by an… outlying member of the royal family. The other being the Iron Company, a bunch of crude and crass mercenaries who have natural anti-magic fields from their own bodies. Not much is known about the conglomerate, and a month ago, we did get our borders buzzed by an unknown.”
Chernus looked more than pleased with this treasure of information he had been given. It isn’t Katamura, but maybe one of these other nations would give that if not the NDC. In fact, maybe one of these other nations could be a potential proxy for Drhuvian interests, one with shared goals…
His superiors would be very pleased.
He took the pad from the Captain and grinned. “Thank you for this, it is greatly appreciated.” Chernus took a moment away from the talk to skim through some of this information, impressed with how much more work the Drhuvs had to do to ensure their borders were truly secure from outside interests. He eventually stopped on the group mentioned at the end.
“We did have a non-Senti vessel intrude on us recently, very recently. It is stardust now, perhaps this is your unknown?” The Commander looked up from the data pad, setting it next to him for later. “You NDC were relatively lucky, you turned around, they didn’t. Nosey people.” A small grunt of disgust came for the leather skinned man, then a chuckle. “Ah well. When we get on more official talks, perhaps that is something our nations can both work together to observe.”
“We try to get the hint when they’re given, and when meeting unknowns, we tend to take care in being cautious. As for the unknown, we did record the signatures they left, and it seems like they were trying to exit in a hurry. Perhaps they match with that of the one you dealt with?” This was getting interesting now, after having only been given the tail lights on their mysterious guests. Perhaps indeed they could combine their findings, and see if anything could be gleaned from what signs both had left. “I don’t suppose there were any fragments left over that you had collected?”, Adamos added in query.
“Unfortunately, no. The explosion afterwards was, quite literally, like a star. Nebulous even. It was a bit impressive. We quite literally only had star dust to research afterwards.” An unfortunate waste of a round for nothing in gain.
“However, we did get some varying intelligence on what it looked like.” Another musky smell began to fill the room as he spoke, prompting the guard to stand and approach with a small tablet. “We typically deal with Senti vessels so observing something out of that class isn’t really our forte. Maybe you can make something of it.”
The guard approached and handed the tablet to his superior. Chernus took it and dismissed the man, scrolling through various pictures and other forms of information regarding quite literally anything the Drhuvian sensors read while tracking that vessel. He then handed it to Adamos for him to look through. “There. Does that look familiar?”
Silently, the captain looked over it carefully, reading the details as they were translated in time. He gave a few “Hmmm”s as he did, seeing some similar notes here and there, but nothing concrete. “Well the signatures seem to match with what we have at least, and we only got a silhouette before they got the hell out of dodge. From comparing both, it looks like a corvette with small craft in escort. Bit on the large size, but not anything meant to put up a fight with anything of a capital nature.” Adamos gave his honest answer as he looked it over once more, “For all intents and purposes, it was definitely just a scout unit. And having lost that, will likely be putting a closer watch on the area, so expect some form of watch post. It’s either that, or they simply avoid you as a no fly zone.”
“If we encounter any others, we can assume the former, no?” A hearty chuckle rose. “It was good to meet with you, Captain.” Chernus stood up and offered a hand to shake. “Perhaps we will see each other again! Maybe without me ready to shoot you first, huh?” Another playful chuckle followed.
“Aye, and likewise, a pleasure to have met you as well. I hope for more interactions in the future, and maybe sometime, aiming our guns in the same direction.”, Adamos answered as he accepted the hand with a chuckle of his own, firmly shaking it back. “Maybe next time, it will be us giving the ship tour.”
“I hope so, friend. I hope so.”
On a typical day, keeping the giant defense guns trained on the nearest Senti fleet, the Drhuvian sensors keeping eyes on any fluctuations in the data they received from any form of energy expelled or reflected by the continent sized vessels noticed something peculiar. It warranted extra attention, of course. Any possibility that the Senti could change how they are detected by Drhuvian sensors and observers could spell a massive uptick in piracy. The regular game of watch-with-your-finger-on-the-trigger began as it did thousands of times before when the Senti group naturally drifted closer than protocol felt comfortable with. Protocol being followed, a blaring warning was transmitted just in case the rust-skinned captain was too much of a fool to understand their heading or was sleeping on the job like the fat lazy pirates would.
“SENTI VESSELS, DIVERT COURSE FROM DRHUVIAN TERRITORY IMMEDIATELY. YOUR PRESENCE IS NOT WELCOME. COMPLY AND RESPOND.”
The message came as a violent growl of demands. The harsh Dhruvian tongue always seemed to excel when it could threaten someone with a volley of hull-fire and slugs. The communications officer waited patiently after the complete disregard for language differences and niceties, just hoping that the Senti would make their day and stay silent.
The Senti vessels took their sweet time doing so, but the ships that had traveled in their silhouette, did before they changed course themselves. It had taken a few for the translation to come in from their escort fleet, but the NDC vessels were quick to submit to the command out of respect for an unknown force. Any further messages were starting to be recorded in observation of this never before seen presence, high grade optical sensors now focused towards the black wall forces.
A boring, boring day, surely. At least the Drhuvs didn’t need to waste any of the rather expensive ammo on little minnows. Watching them turn off and away was giving them a great view of those foreign ships, enough for them to be entirely certain that those ships are not Senti. At all. After long debate and some loud arguing between the defense platforms observing the situation, it was decided to transmit a secondary message to those ships using translated Senti languages, Drhuvian and Allurian in a much nicer and curious tone,
“Foreign non-Senti vessels, please return communications in any recognized language. Divert course towards the Black Wall for continued contact. You will no longer be targeted during this period. Respond with haste.”
What came back was a message translated in Senti, now that the translation pack was in their systems. “This is the NDV-New Dawn, flagship of the NDC expeditionary fleet Delta. We will comply immediately, and adjust course as requested. We look forward to further interaction.”, came the somewhat enthusiastic reply. All ships would stick to formation, and change direction at a steady burn as they approached the designated point, weapons offline, but shields still active just to be on the safe side.
The captain aboard the flag ship looked to the Operator who had relayed their reply, even as he was giving out orders to the bridge. “So what’s your take on these Dhruvians? Senti don’t seem very fond of the bunch, and the feeling seems more then mutual on their end too. Could just be the Senti’s habits getting them into trouble again.”, came his question as he mulled over the situation, and what they may be flying into.
“I would probably put it more on that with their free spirited natures just rubbing others wrong, but that’s only speculation right now. With how stalwart their defense seen so far is, I would say they’re more then likely steadfast territorial, and not much in the way of conquerors probably.” The operator shifted ever slightly in her chair, as if subconsciously getting more comfortable in the chair she couldn’t even feel.
The expeditionary fleet would soon find itself within the eyes of Drhuvs walking the outside of what was essentially a nearly immobilized gun sat in the middle of space. Any sensor readings would immediately catch the heavy and noisy power and sensor arrays. That platform outputs the signature of a vessel a hundred times its size. The bore of the “gun” could likely fit a fighter snuggly inside, to consider this anything other than a dirty, massive, cobbled-together cannon would be an outright lie. Judging by the other platform a few megameters away, this is the standard design.
After the fleet had come to a halt in front of one of a few thousand bricks in the so-called Black Wall, another transmission was sent in the Senti language.
“New Dawn, what and who are you? What are the NDC? What are your relations with the Senti pirates? You are not Senti. Do you have a representative?”
A flurry of questions coming from a clearly confused but curious officer. They clearly never thought that a foreign ship could retain a color other than honey and gold, staring at the familiar color scheme of gold, red and black. The NDC design was not the signature Drhuvian dirty technology created by backyard scientists, but if they squinted, it almost seemed familiar enough. A representative --the second highest ranking officer on the platform-- was prepared for a hopeful one on one introduction. A lot of the lower ranking troops weren’t too happy with the idea, the thought of letting something not flying the Drhuvian wreath and star this close to the Black Wall was uncomfortable and unprecedented, enough to cause intermittent mumbling and discussion as they awaited an answer from the Senti-speaking aliens.
“We are a collection of races who hail from a world once called Harran, and have made the exodus here to this sector of space. We are the New Dusk Conclave, and have been settled within the sector for the last fifty of our years. We have a scientific agreement with the Senti, for them to escort our ships as guides, so that we may study and learn more about what is present in this sector of space. We come with no ill intentions, and will only be hostile if provoked first, as we seek cooperation over war due to what befell our world of old.”
“I think that is an almost sufficient answer for them, what do you think captain?”, came the Operator’s own question, even as the captain rubbed his temples from the earlier bombardment of such. She gave an apologetic grin, before adding another bit to their reply.
“We have numerous trained as representatives, so that we have at least one who will be most qualified, based on circumstances. Is there a particular vocation, or ranking of personnel that you would prefer most to speak to?” She added, happy to have yet another first contact to add to the history of their people.
The captain however, was just on the edge of his seat, waiting to see the temperament of their hosts. The guns they saw, while a bit rough, were still in significant numbers and range to be a risk to their fleet if angered. He didn’t like taking such risks, but it was what the Archdukes asked of their brave fleets, he only saw to uphold that high opinion they had of them. “I am more curious to see where they wish to hold talks, and if they greet every guest with the biggest fuck off cannon possible.”, the captain grumbled, only getting a dismissive sigh from the younger Operator.
“You old war captains are all so stubborn, much like that Senti woman who made first contact with us months back….. Aliset I believe her name was? She seems quite taken with Archduke Mark-”
“You will not speak a word of that here! If they are on such unpleasant terms with our mutual associates, knowing they have been bedfellows on occasion, may not be looked upon too kindly.” The captain was quick to dissuade her, trying to keep every annoying bit of information that may tip this against them, to an absolute gods fearing minimum.
“We will send an officer. We will spare a small vessel for the meeting. Parties will meet on this spare vessel. A Drhuvian language pack will be provided. This pack uses Senti data and compression systems. Do you accept?”
The officer gave a response, not showing any form of outstanding aggression that may be taken as a poor reception. Hopefully. The defense platform the NDC were watching had begun to show more life, various forms began scrambling to work with most moving away from areas around the main gun towards airlocks to enter the platform. Little else occurs visually, but something is surely happening.
“We do, and excitedly await your arrival. Once the pack has been downloaded, it shall be installed immediately for communication on arrival. Please do not worry about docking compatibility as our airlock tethers are adaptive to a high degree.” Once the Operator had sent their reply, she nodded within her virtual bubble at her handiwork, quite pleased with it. Turning her physical head towards the captain yet again, she then asked “So, who are we choosing, since they didn’t give an answer on that part?”.
The captain only gave a smug look at her, saying only “you.” before relaying orders yet again. He did not wait to see her visibly surprised reaction, that he just blatantly chose her, or even giving chance for protest. They were on a window here of being ready, and she was most qualified given how much data she regularly handled, not to mention the ease of downloading a language pack. Somedays the captain almost forgot they were just very advanced toasters, not that he’d ever tell any of them that out loud.
After a short period of silence, a relatively small language pack was openly transmitted for the NDC to take. The transmission was eerily Senti in identity, an almost perfect replication of their communication protocols with the data pack itself being Senti in origin. The Drhuvian language, from the description the pack provided is “...foolishly simple, aggressive and dehydrating.” The examples of spoken Drhuvian sounded more akin to a dog fight than an actual language. Granted, the examples were mostly the various threats and warnings Senti vessels receive when they decide to stray into Drhuvian territories with one example being a rather snarky and charged meeting between a Senti and Drhuvian representative.
Outside of the virtual walls the operator was comfortable behind, a small civilian Drhuvian ship had flown under the platform and was slowly approaching the fleet. It looked no longer than 50 meters and appeared with a wingspan of maybe 80 meters. It wasn’t exactly pretty with the obvious armored over energy shield design, there wasn’t much of a real design philosophy, its signatures on sensors were just as loud and obnoxious as the platform… There was no real elegance to it. There wasn’t really an airlock for the NDC to lock onto for a personnel transfer, just a landing gear and a ramp. In addition to the ship not showing any signs of faulting, that Drhuvian ship is likely going to try to land onto the hull of that flagship if they aren’t waved off.
“Our vessel is inbound. Do not mind the noises during the docking procedure. No damage will be done.” is transmitted by a warmer masculine voice in the Drhuvian language instead of one of many Senti languages. It is followed by an addition, “Our representative is escorted by two guards. This is not an attack. This is security. Do not attack the representative.”
A holographic representation of the Dawn was pulled up in the middle of the bridge, and the yellow projection of the ship was shown coming in closer. Maybe a bit too close for comfort for those manning defenses, more worried the guns on the ship even twitching would startle their guests.
As the hull very very faintly thudded with their landing, the Operator stood from her seat, having disconnected from the Dawn now. “Guess I’m EVAing, I’ll get going then, but uh… Get a glass of water, and a lozenge ready for me when done. It was a surprisingly small packet, but good fucking gods, I’m going to feel like a tryhard at a screamo concert after this.”, she stated before walking off, donning her officer's coat as she did. Taking her cap into her hands, deployed the helmet of her suit before finding the nearest airlock.
The Drhuvs would see the feminine figure walking along the hull to meet them, before boarding through the ramp, her stance and posture being deliberately peaceful. “I am the bridge Operator of the New Dawn, the vessel you are now currently landed aboard. I come as representative and emissary of the New Dusk Conclave government, and her people. It is a pleasure to meet you, and welcome aboard our vessel.”
The representative found herself in an empty cargo hold with nothing but industrial lights above to give visibility to the three men standing in front of her. The one closest, about two arms lengths away, was maybe five foot seven. His skin color resembled hazelnut brown leather, both in a soft texture and color. On top of a long, sleek black frock coat cuffed with crimson and accented with gold thread stitched into three rings at the shoulder and forearms. A break in the dark colors comes with angelic white buttons over the red lapels with a final touch of gold and white with the Drhuvian wreath and star pinned over the representative’s heart.
Royal purple eyes stared at the solo NDC representative, more curious of the species that had boarded than anything else. They were so… soft looking. It looked weird enough to him that he would tilt his head. He made a disgusted face afterwards, like a cat that had smelled something and wasn’t sure if it was good or not. Behind the representative were two men with opaque glass helmets instead of faces wearing what looked like rubber skin suits that had armor and small pouches tacked on top. Slung across their shoulders were bulky looking weapons, like some odd form of shotgun. It certainly wasn’t a rifle due to the large bore but it looked as heavy and reinforced as a ship cannon. Judging by the multicolor ammo on the caddys at the hips of the guards, it was one hell of a shotty.
“You are alone? Your nation is confident.” The language came like Old Norse with rolling Rs replaced with a throaty groan. It was much more relaxed with the more formal setting, less of that dog fight it would present behind walls of guns and more of a curious croak. The representative’s voice was even smooth to boot, like the voice of a man you could sit and listen to explain old war stories. He didn’t appear that old, just wiser than his age. “I am Chernus. Who are you, smooth skinned one?”
“Aldeayla is what my people call me, and not quite… I would like to point out that you are parked on a battle capable ship, with more then one gun naturally oriented this way. That isn’t a threat by the way, just pointing it out for the sake of conversation.” The silver haired woman simply stated as she disengaged the helmet, letting her hair down, and her caramel skin show. Her expression was hopeful, calm, and oddly kind despite what could probably be considered a tense situation.
“As this is the official start of our dialogue I would guess, what do you wish to know about us, or perhaps ask of us in some way. I’m hoping this will open up further communications between our governments in the future.” She added while replacing the cap on her head, having been holding it in hand up until now.
“What are you? What are your relations with the Senti pirates?” The Drhuvian representative was very immediate with his questions as the simple language demanded. The disgusted face he made earlier relaxes to a neutral expression, no longer framing sets of fangs in discomfort. An odd smell began to emanate from the man as well, an off and musky smell of wet soil.
“I am an Operator, a synthetic being created with advanced biotech, specially designed as the name suggests. To adaptly operate, and meld with advanced craft and technologies, with the mind of an AI at my core.” Aldeayla stated, as if reading off a textbook description, which she more or less was, as she was not really keen on coming up with her own equally dry explanation. Clearing her throat, the operator continued onto the next question, “Though enough about boring me, I am not the only race that makes up the NDC. As for our relation with the senti, we mostly do trade with them as diplomatic associates, as well as contracted as guides around the sector. They, so far, have lightly taken part in our culture, with not much of the reverse given their nomadic and free spirited nature.”
“What species are you modeled after, Operator? Are they capable of speaking with pheromones? Do they even have those?” A new set of questions to pick through as the representative disregards the humanity of Aldeayla. Chernus seems mildly more content with the Senti just being acquaintances. Isomeria knows what damage they could do to the Drhuvian political influence if they were capable of altering the opinions of others. You’d have a world of pacifists without any spirit, lost and hopeless little insects hiding from their true description as a dead and stagnant species waiting to slowly dwindle like a candle with no more wick. The content expression slowly twists to loathing as Chernus contemplates the stories, second-hand and first, that he’s heard about those devils.
"At least one is, I was modeled after my creators, humans and Sykians. They look much the same to me in form, but are widely diverse in aesthetic appearance and build." Guess she shouldn't be surprised to be treated like a household item, it was still common to come up. But it didn't sting any less if she were honest, as the woman still had emotions and life to her.
"We also have the large and physically strong Onikari, the half serpent Garutha, and those who've… mixed blood with much older beings.", Aldaeyla as she opened her palm and with a bit of photon magic, created small projections of each. "Recently we've begun to add two local races to our people via diplomacy. The Tumisians, and Vaigarin."
Chernus seemed a bit in awe at the magic presented to him, curiosity striking him for a moment before chalking it up to a different form of the holographic displays Drhuvs already have, albeit in a much more interesting fashion. Many different species, a bit gross, the idea of that level of cross-breeding. There had been a few previous tests, though mostly to humor some genealogists, about what a Senti-Drhuv mix would look like though trying to even combine the two sets of chromosomes was an impossible feat. Interesting. That’s enough information from her. “Do you have a… human? A human aboard your vessel? I would like to speak to someone organic, Operator.” Nameless being, a fools errand to try and make something you couldn’t. People don’t come from machines, people come from people. Unless this thing in front of him was just the transferred mind of a person, it isn’t any more alive than the vessel he stands on or the gun his guards have slung across their broad shoulders.
The woman blinked at him a bit confused, and half shocked, at suddenly being dismissed. "Well for one, I may be a synth, but I am still largely biological in nature. I can eat, sleep, and breed like any other person. It is rude in my culture to be disregarded based on the place of creation."
She was suddenly a lot less fond of the idea of first contact with these people, a disappointed look having some presence on her features. The Operator also didn't want to just cut off dialogue over some discrimination, but she was rather annoyed at their attitude. "If you truly insist on not being satisfied with the envoy given, then I will have someone else come.", Aldeayla added while trying to not sound grumpy, or admittedly pouty about it.
“There is something in an organic person that a machine could never recreate. Whether you say it’s a soul, a being, whatever you want to call it, it is unique to the birth of something and not manufacturing. An organic envoy would be preferred.” A small huff comes from the man, followed by a woody smell and impatience. He has no time to lecture a machine about its place. No time at all. This meeting is entirely, for him, about defense. Knowing a potential enemy is better than being blind and it is clear that the Drhuvian Collective had been blind to too many potential threats for far too long.
The Operator wanted to protest, declare her essence of life to someone who so ignorantly ignored every living sign of it in her, but something stopped her before she ever would. Taking on an apologetic stance, and a small bow of the head as the neural link buzzed. “Yes Captain, I understand, I will return immediately.”, Aldaeayla replied to not the representatives, but someone somewhere else above her. “A new delegate party is already enroute, I will take my leave now.”
Even as the helmet was replaced, and the ramp lowered again for her exit, the dhruvs would detect three more figures leaving the ship to approach. The captain only gave the Operator a reassuring pat on the shoulder as they passed between each other, and he with his guard boarded the ship now. Once the ramp was closed once more, the helmet went away for an officer's hat much like the Operator’s, but more decorated. His uniform was also very similar, but with more medals and ribbons of previous series, attesting to his age as much as his salt and pepper hair with beard.
“It came to my attention that you were dismissive of my XO due to her race, I will make sure to note that, to keep record of your preferences for future dialogue. Now, how about we get down to brass tacks, and you tell us your intent my good sir. You’ve been professional and direct so far, so I sense there's a focus to your efforts, yes?” His voice was gruffer, older by much, but was human nonetheless as there were no horns on his temples. The two tall armored figures at his side however, had horns, their builds much more bulked like that of the Drhuv beserkers present.
“I hope my Onikari guard does not come off as excessive, they volunteered for the walk.”
Chernus seemed much more pleased, even amused by how they both brought guards far larger than themselves. “Not at all! I should introduce you to a Hunter sometime. They are deadly beyond belief!” Arms open in delight as the throaty groans become more like welcome trills, you’d think by his attitude that he wouldn’t need or think it necessary to be wearing a protective vest just under his uniform coat. “Come, let us get out of this cargo hold, industrial lights are never good for faces.” He turned to the side, guards parting to let the captain through. Behind the representative was a small elevator, maybe 4 people could fit at a time. “The bridge is a much more comfortable place to talk.”
“As someone who works on one everyday, I’ll take a bridge over an office any day.”, came the Captain's humorful reply as he followed. “My name is Captain Adamos Veritru, apologies for skipping the greeting.”
“Commander Chernus Vellent. We can keep one of our guards here while the rest go up?” He walked along towards the elevator, reaching over and grabbing the shoulder of the guard to his right flank. “I’m sure my friend here would love to talk with one of yours. The horns are very interesting, I’m sure it would be a fantastic conversation piece and we wouldn’t need to wait on two lifts.” Another smell fills the hold,, like smooth stones drying from a fresh rain under a pale orange sun, it came just after another huff from Chernus.
One of the two Onikari gave a nod in confirmation before the captain continued with the other. Personally, he was almost worried that he’d have to leave the other behind as well. More out of the man’s sense of pride then for the captain’s own safety. But as they entered the lift, the much taller man managed to squeeze in, hunched quite a bit, to practically hang over the captain’s shoulder. It almost made Adamos feel claustrophobic, not that he ever had been, but he remembered the conflicts of old with the Onikari.
“This is why we tend to keep them generally few in number for normal duty tours on ships, otherwise they are very impressive in the field, and more then happy to keep busy with manual labor. Mostly to engineering, cargo holds, and hangars where they can be most useful.”
One of the Berserker guards stayed behind without a second confirmation. He would likely be having quite a chat with that Onikari, even if he couldn’t speak their language.
Chernus, after entering the elevator, clicked the only button available, up. The elevator had two doors and, after making his choice, Chernus turned to face the door opposite the one he entered from. A series of smells began filling the elevator. It was a constant back and forth of woodland scents damp in an odd musk. Chernus and his guard were looking at each other, staring without any movement of their lips. After the shining, Chernus turned to the Captain. “Your friend is going to be hunched until the bridge. We don’t engineer these ships for room. Us Drhuvians quite like being able to see all four walls around us. Did you understand what we were saying?” He questioned as the elevator shuddered, creaked and slowly rose towards the upper level.
“My apologies, but we cannot understand pheromones, at least most of us. I’ll make sure we bring Garutha with us from now on, they can translate such communications.”, Adamos answered before the lift stopped, and they exited. The guard stretched now that he was out of the box, a few faint cracks of joints to be heard as they did. The captain thought to add note to that, adding as he said, “Which is fair, as we have forms of communication that differ mechanically and biologically as well.”
The hallway ahead was not any better than the elevator. It looked more akin to a service tunnel than anything, pipes, electrical panels and a terminal to the sides with just enough space to accompany the Berserker guard though with a bend of the knees.
“Save the effort.” The purple eyed man sighed. “We can give you a language pack and machines to translate our voices but there’s hardly much we can give for our noses. We don’t like long term visitors. Learning the whole language would take too long for comfort. Ironically, I’m fluent in Senti.” A metallic stench fills the room, then a chuckle from the man.
“This is the first room of three before the bridge. This handles the auxiliary systems. There is not much special to see here.” Chernus waved the captain forward, wishing for him to lead just to make sure nobody tries to get too observant with their vessel.
The captain led as directed, respecting the command as a guest, “I respect the maximized use of space on your starship. Very efficient.” The 10ft guard said nothing, a little more annoyed to silence by such tight confines, and remembering how he used to hate bunkers like these. Adamos felt sympathetic for him, and made sure to keep a brisk pace, seeing their host did not want them lingering.
Passing into the second room, Chernus spoke up again. The room had one smooth wall to the right with a bulkhead sectioning off parts of the ship. To the left is a small open compartment with what looks to be a main component of the ship. As the captain and guard approached, they felt their outward connection to magic slip exponentially as they stepped near that component. It didn’t seem to destroy or absorb mana in any way, instead suppressing it, making any presentation of it outstandingly difficult.
“This is the greatest marvel of Drhuvian engineering. Our Hydrogen-Class jump drive. It is the fundamental of what allows us to navigate the stars.” Chernus boasted with obvious pride, finally stopping to allow the guest to look if they were so pleased. Granted, the one panel of 3 that was on had a mess of Drhuvian letters, symbols and colors. Nothing looked bad on the panel, at least nothing flashing red warnings.
The feeling of the air seemed to weigh down on the captain and his guard, both feeling it, even as their DEFs buzzed in error. It wasn’t an oppressive sensation, but it left a tingle upon their nerves, as the mana in their bodies seemed offset from whatever was oppressing its use in the area. Captain Adamos suspected it was due to the function of the drive system, something to add to his report later as it were. He was just happy to not be too sensitive to mana, as he could not imagine the uncomfortable feeling a full mage would be experiencing in here.
“What are the fundamentals and principles of such a drive? It’s not like anything we’ve encountered in shape, or name from our limited archives. I would be interested in hearing more about it if you don’t mind my curiosity.” Adamos offered his question with a casual smile, hoping to learn even some passively about the system.
Chernus stopped for a moment, tinkering with the information he knew of the drive. Enough to answer the question, not enough to be useful. The NDC ship would surely know or find something out anyways by way of witnessing a jump regardless. What would the Senti say?
“The drive works by folding the fabric of space-time. A bubble of controlled fabric forms as the drive becomes active. When we need to get from one star to the other, this drive constricts the front of the bubble relative to the ship’s front and expands the rear of the bubble. This provides faster-than-light travel with little worry.” That is a simple explanation, all information he would have found anyways had he seen a ship jump. Chernus watched the alien captain with mild interest… “Are you okay, Captain?” He questioned with a lean to get a better look at the smooth skinned man. A bit of a piercing stare slowly formed as the Drhuvian Commander took in an instinctual deep breath in search of more complete information. He’d smell it in the Senti, he’s hoping to smell it in this “human.”
“Simply the feelings from a lack of mana in this compartment, something I suspect has to do with how the drive operates. It is no health issue, merely causing a tingle, please not be concerned. That being said, it sounds fascinating, like some form of warp.” Adamos answered calmly and truthfully, seeing no reason to hide what they were feeling in this room. His health nanoes weren’t finding anything of concern anyways, but felt okay to make aware of, perhaps eliciting further explanation from their host.
“Our own drives find entry and formation points for wormholes, and open them for ftl travel, which requires less energy to do so compared to some forms of ftl. It also lowers emissions, speeds travel, but in smaller jump distances.”
The Commander ponders for a moment, gears visibly turning as he thinks on what the alien had just spoken. “Is this mana some sort of… alternate energy you have discovered?” The Drhuvian word for mana hangs heavily in religious connotation and is more aptly described as a connection with a deity. “Your previous representative had shown a small trick. It amused us. Is this ‘mana’ based in quantum physics? Is it another state of matter?” Chernus’ complete confusion is diffused in a facade of I know what you are trying to say. A first of many linguistic differences, surely. He shifted a small bit with almost discomfort.
“It’s essentially understood so far to us, as a sort of lifeforce that most living beings have. As for our earlier representative, yes she used such energy. Despite opinions, our AI and synthetics are at a stage of development where they could have organic bodies much the same as a normal person like ourselves. We call the ability to use such energy, magic.” Adamos gave a small smile, happy to be the one to indulge in sharing info he was enthusiastic about.
The Commander blinked in disbelief and mild annoyance. What is this smooth-skin talking about? Magic? Living AI? This cacophony of horrible information is stowed away, for now. If he pondered on it for longer he would almost become angry at the blatant lying before him. He resolves to a simple unenthusiastic response, “Mmm. Okay.”
Chernus turned about and continued on towards the bridge, the giant black form that was his guard tailing behind until they had approached a metal door that simply retracted into the wall and let a flood of light into the drive room. “Come.” The commander spoke. “Lets sit.”
Adamos looked to his guard with a confused look, the Onikari simply shrugging with a “I dunno”. The captain followed though, stepping onto the bridge, a place that held a significant feeling for a captain no matter the race. He took the seat that he was gesturing towards, “So, down to business then I assume?”
The bridge was constructed in an open triangle. To the fore was the main piloting chair, a rather complex seat with the arms dedicated to a rail throttle and stick. The legs extended forward to make room for yaw pedals. The underseat was a large box connecting the floor to the actual seat. There was a small hatch that opened into the box with unknown contents. A small paper strip was taped over the hatch, presumably to indicate any intrusion.
There were two additional seats located around 3 meters southwest and southeast of the main seat, following the same design of the first with the southeast chair showing a tampered seal.
Each seat shared a large canopy intermittently divided with metal cross sections to prevent total canopy failure in the event of a breach though the two auxiliary seats suffered with poor visibility due to the obscuring wings and hardpoints.
The bridge itself was designed to be spacious and open. To the south were three doors, one to the drive room in the center and two other unlabeled doors to the corners. Between the doors was spare seating with screens above them displaying miscellaneous information of various systems aboard the ship. The main chair is several steps down from the doors with the bridge lowering a step every few feet.
The Commander steps to the side to allow the visitors to enter and observe their surroundings. “Welcome. Disembodied voices would be the onboard AI, Mendicant. Feel free to ask her questions and hold a conversation if you’d enjoy it.” The guard makes his way to the south east chair, maneuvering around and setting himself down. A holographic hud appears around his helmet. Unfortunately, the text is too small to see. The Commander has chosen to sit in the spare seating to the left of the door. The two humans are free to roam.
The captain took that as a subtle sign that the man was uninterested in talking to them, at least for now, perhaps cooling off from the earlier topic. “Mendicant, is there any information you could share with us? Cultural, technical, law, economics, philosophical, or other topics that would allow us to know your creators better?”, Adamos asked the AI, his guard rather uninterested as he simply stood at attention in waiting.
Chernus chuckled as a voice chimed into the air. It sounded as if it were coming just an arms length away from the captain. There is no holographic image or even android to speak to, just a voice. “The Drhuvs are not fond of visitors, being naturally territorial and having poor past relations with the Senti.”
“It makes a good point.” Chernus clears his throat and speaks up. “We were not aware of another species other than Senti prior to you and your four-armed friend. The Senti are not welcome guests…” He pauses and thinks for a moment on the new guests and their presence around the rust skins. “I think you, the NDC, could be a great help in this.” The Commander appears to be a little more cheerful and interested as a new idea forms in his head. He shifts in the seat, crossing one leg over another and holding on his knee. “Your people are well acquainted with the Senti, no? Perhaps friendly? We saw your vessel with a local detachment from their flotilla, the one they call Katamura.”
“We’re amicable, yes, making use of their knowledge of this region of space. Doing trade, gathering mapping data, and other things of the sort.”, Adamos replied, rubbing his chin in thought at what the Drhuv was getting at with the question. “Is it correct in my assumption that you would like us to deal with them on your behalf then?”
He wasn’t too worried if that was the case, and everything he had told them was true, not entailing more personal connections. Those who took companions and lovers from the race, were not important in terms of interactions between the two when it came to the governmental level. Not that he thought that the Drhuvs would care too much about that anyways, but best to play it safe with this one, given his reaction to certain things so far. A small itch for a cigarette was starting to grow, but he pushed it down, eager to hear what the xeno would say next.
“No no no, of course not.” Chernus gave in a hasty reply. “If we were to involve other nations to do our diplomacy for us, well, it wouldn’t be our diplomacy, would it?” Chernus shifted away from the sinking posture he had began to fall in, sitting straight to continue speaking. “Our governments will work together to fix this problem with the Katamurans. We will even offer handsome rewards for simple information. The Collective is unaware of the location of the flotilla and the Senti are crafty. Were we to know this location, the Collective would be able to preemptively prevent further incursions in our borders and increase our defense. We offer you, in exchange, anything from weapons, loaned soldiers, resources or even representatives and diplomats if that would please you.”
He let his offer stand for just a moment or, thinking of ways to manipulate wording into a better deal. He plucked from a hand of reasons why this new government wouldn’t enjoy the deal, then carefully twisted the truth to ease this man’s potential fears. “We do not intend to harm the Senti, not one bit. The Collective, as you may have seen, gives ample warning and prior advisement before firing upon a vessel that stumbles into our territory. We simply want to get a small token of knowledge as another layer of protection, so that the first thing the Senti see aren’t the defense platforms, where it may be too late.”
Adamos was afraid of getting a request like that, but gave it to the xeno for having the stones to ask such a steep question just on the first meeting. The rubbing of his chin paused briefly as the question was asked, a small frown crossing his lips, as possible ramifications came to mind immediately. “That… is unfortunately not info I have the clearance to freely give. I hope you understand that we take relations with other entities seriously, and therefore are careful about dealing with the handling of data on them. To avoid unnecessary incidents of course, so I can only point you to our intelligence division once cleared with the royal government. It is simply protocol I’m afraid.” The captain gave his reply calmly, not saying outright no, but also praising his superiors for making rules that let his betters handle such issues.
He wasn’t a lazy man, but even he was not always the smoothest in matters other then war, and knew when to let the chain of command take the brunt of more delicate matters. With a small apologetic smile, he figured the answer would be enough to politely dissuade the topic, and let spooks and suits deal with handling that later. “As much as that may be, perhaps there is some other way we can help? I can more freely hand out information on our own territory, share mapping for the regions we’ve explored, or have obtained from third party means to an extent. Or perhaps anything more immediate, maybe technical, or of other natures if possible?”
The denial was met with another flush of earthy smells. The Commander looked disappointed and took in a deep sigh. Close, very close. Just too far away for now. He clasped his hands together and returned the breath he lost before speaking again. “That is unfortunate. I had hoped we could prevent the loss of more lives today.” He perked up in spite of the failure, searching of a way to still get something from this interaction. “Navigational data would be appreciated. I must ask, are there any other nations besides the Collective, Senti and NDC? Few have wondered just how alone we are or if our isolation had been perfect in avoiding a complex galaxy teeming with competing factions.”
The guard who had been sitting in a co-pilot's seat smelled the message his commander gave. He hadn’t been listening but still heard and felt that annoyance of coming up just short on something great. The guard began to send information to the defense platform, hoping that these talks would start getting some attention from higher ups who likely hadn’t heard of there being another nation until now. Hopefully another proceeds from this talk, where the discussion of Katamura would be the main point. Even this guard hopes for the day he could prevent Seni pirates from stealing valuables and abandoning ships with shattered pride and only a bridge to safely traverse.
“We’re aware of a few, mainly on this side of the region, and have heard possible tidbits of others. You know the Senti already, but there is also a collection of allied nations, referred to as the UNS. From a few of those we know out of the Senti, we’ve been made aware of a group known as the Conglomerate, who we have not made contact with, but are in the same sector as our own nation. There are a few outliers as well, along with artifacts and remains of an advanced civilization.” Adamos casually pulled a datapad from his officer’s coat, before pulling up several files up on the device, then ran it through the translation pack provided earlier.
With a few more keystrokes, and making sure only what he wanted had been locally saved to the device, offered the pad before continuing. The pad contained what limited information they had on the mentioned groups so far, and where they had been roughly located, or sighted. “A pair of independent militant groups are based around the scarlet nebula, north of our territory. They go by Nexus Private Security and are run by an… outlying member of the royal family. The other being the Iron Company, a bunch of crude and crass mercenaries who have natural anti-magic fields from their own bodies. Not much is known about the conglomerate, and a month ago, we did get our borders buzzed by an unknown.”
Chernus looked more than pleased with this treasure of information he had been given. It isn’t Katamura, but maybe one of these other nations would give that if not the NDC. In fact, maybe one of these other nations could be a potential proxy for Drhuvian interests, one with shared goals…
His superiors would be very pleased.
He took the pad from the Captain and grinned. “Thank you for this, it is greatly appreciated.” Chernus took a moment away from the talk to skim through some of this information, impressed with how much more work the Drhuvs had to do to ensure their borders were truly secure from outside interests. He eventually stopped on the group mentioned at the end.
“We did have a non-Senti vessel intrude on us recently, very recently. It is stardust now, perhaps this is your unknown?” The Commander looked up from the data pad, setting it next to him for later. “You NDC were relatively lucky, you turned around, they didn’t. Nosey people.” A small grunt of disgust came for the leather skinned man, then a chuckle. “Ah well. When we get on more official talks, perhaps that is something our nations can both work together to observe.”
“We try to get the hint when they’re given, and when meeting unknowns, we tend to take care in being cautious. As for the unknown, we did record the signatures they left, and it seems like they were trying to exit in a hurry. Perhaps they match with that of the one you dealt with?” This was getting interesting now, after having only been given the tail lights on their mysterious guests. Perhaps indeed they could combine their findings, and see if anything could be gleaned from what signs both had left. “I don’t suppose there were any fragments left over that you had collected?”, Adamos added in query.
“Unfortunately, no. The explosion afterwards was, quite literally, like a star. Nebulous even. It was a bit impressive. We quite literally only had star dust to research afterwards.” An unfortunate waste of a round for nothing in gain.
“However, we did get some varying intelligence on what it looked like.” Another musky smell began to fill the room as he spoke, prompting the guard to stand and approach with a small tablet. “We typically deal with Senti vessels so observing something out of that class isn’t really our forte. Maybe you can make something of it.”
The guard approached and handed the tablet to his superior. Chernus took it and dismissed the man, scrolling through various pictures and other forms of information regarding quite literally anything the Drhuvian sensors read while tracking that vessel. He then handed it to Adamos for him to look through. “There. Does that look familiar?”
Silently, the captain looked over it carefully, reading the details as they were translated in time. He gave a few “Hmmm”s as he did, seeing some similar notes here and there, but nothing concrete. “Well the signatures seem to match with what we have at least, and we only got a silhouette before they got the hell out of dodge. From comparing both, it looks like a corvette with small craft in escort. Bit on the large size, but not anything meant to put up a fight with anything of a capital nature.” Adamos gave his honest answer as he looked it over once more, “For all intents and purposes, it was definitely just a scout unit. And having lost that, will likely be putting a closer watch on the area, so expect some form of watch post. It’s either that, or they simply avoid you as a no fly zone.”
“If we encounter any others, we can assume the former, no?” A hearty chuckle rose. “It was good to meet with you, Captain.” Chernus stood up and offered a hand to shake. “Perhaps we will see each other again! Maybe without me ready to shoot you first, huh?” Another playful chuckle followed.
“Aye, and likewise, a pleasure to have met you as well. I hope for more interactions in the future, and maybe sometime, aiming our guns in the same direction.”, Adamos answered as he accepted the hand with a chuckle of his own, firmly shaking it back. “Maybe next time, it will be us giving the ship tour.”
“I hope so, friend. I hope so.”