A/N: Told you I'd be back. I told you all I'd be back, I just said July at the earliest. I've gotten reviews saying the first bits are a haul to read but I feel I've gone to the opposite end of the spectrum with this current chapter. Well, it is what it is. Enjoy!

Happening Now

Journalist Freed from Federal States Jail

A Pacific States journalist arrested in New Dakota had been released after twelve days with no explanation as to why he was detained

Profile: Federal States of America

412 Journalists Killed in 2332

The Cold War of USA-Successors

GSA "Useless"

in a speech before the Galactic Peoples Congress, Kwame Ayim described the Galactic Socialists Alliance as "antiquated and useless" and argued for the SSC to withdraw

Profile: Socialist Systems of the Congo

Latin-African-Eurasian split deepens amidst GSA debate

Opinion: Why the Alliance matters

New Grenada Bulls serves Wellington Cookes

Salomón "The King" Leon scored the winning goal 3:07 into overtime as the Cookes suffer their seventh straight loss at home

Bears maul Riders 3-0

Duffy leads Gaelics to fourth straight win

Game Day: The Beef serves the Cook

5.9b In Saturday Sales for Storm of the South

The Historical Horror film "Storm of the South" took in an estimated 5.9 billion in Saturday night screenings

Review: Storm of the South

Review: The Death of Will

Photos: Alsava Electronic Entertainment Expo 2341

Tellurian Relics Destroyed in Accident

One of the last remaining collections of Vatican artefacts was damaged in New Washington in a shipping accident with several pieces destroyed

Earth exhibit opens in Concord Tempest Station

46% of SAS students can't find Sol on a map

Opinion: Earth is still relevant

Serbian militant group claims bombing

The anti-Allied "National Sovereignty Corps" has claimed responsibility for the bombing in the Belgrade System that severely damaged a Serbian cargo freighter

Profile: Federation of Yugoslavia

"No quarter to sympathisers," says NSC

Russians deny supplying rebels

Capital Awaits Kings Visit

Excitement builds in Mount Patterson, Planet Wells, as the official visit of the United Kingdom's King James IX draws closer

Profile: The United Kingdom

Leicester MP apologizes for Prince of Wales remarks

Opinion: British Monarchy here to stay

"Hello, this is Jamie Speaking" Final Season Confirmed

The Comedy PDO Series, Miss Secretary, has been confirmed by showrunners Marcus Phillips and Emil Johnson to be having its final season next year

Review: Miss Secretary

Photos: 2341 Academy Awards

Academy Award Nominees

Manhunt on for GLA Smuggler

Majid Adham, an infamous smuggler and a suspected Lieutenant within the Galactic Liberation Army terrorist organization is free again after escaping detention in the Kuwait System

Video: The alarming spread of GLA

Piracy in frontier systems "rapidly rising"

Pacific Front Navy destroys GLA frigate

May 7th 2341 CE.

In orbit of "Shanxi Tuning Fork".

07:03. Shanxi Standard Time.

Velimir was apprehensive towards these aliens. To say he was suspicious would be a gross understatement. The sensor readings all indicate that these alien ships are of different designs from the first ships. Though that means nothing without a working knowledge of all the ship designs from the part of the galaxy these aliens are from. For all they know, those differences could be superficial to them and happen to not differentiate factions. Or possibly not. He couldn't be sure.

Further analysis of the two fleets, despite some silhouette differences, suggested that they share common design philosophy. Both using Element Zero to propel themselves. Apparently, they also use the material to fire projectiles at relativistic speeds. Most of the patrol fleet can attest to that. This branch of technology had only been further developed by the Yuht. That was only just because of the abundance of the material in Yuht space. All other research fields of FTL technology had been exhausted by humanity with the simple reason of Element Zero's absence in human space. Somehow these aliens had enough of the rare element to completely base their warship doctrine upon it. Either that or they're advanced enough to synthesise Dark Matter on an industrial scale. Neither option left Velimir with a good feeling.

At least when it came with that Mentat, he felt impressed. The young Mentat that came to be under his command, Kunlun, had proven as capable as the rumours said about them. Genius level mutated or augmented humans had been around for centuries, but they were always recruited by mega-corporations if their governments didn't already pick them up. That made them out of sight to the greater public. As far as he knew, Mentats aren't just run of the mill humans. They're supposedly Advanced AI. AI that according to scientists have developed sentience and sapience and are then placed in synthetic human bodies. Regardless of Kunluns origins or nature, he's making sure to give her the highest commendations to his superiors when all of this was over. If either of them was even around for that long.

Looking at the viewscreen, almost as quickly he hoped, the aliens attempted a hail. These were at least courteous enough to not attack them. But considering how many minutes it has been since they entered the system that should have been obvious.

"Sir, the lead ship is pinging a visual-audio feed request. What's our response?", said Lieutenant Menaldo. That's surprising to hear. Audio-visual communication was commonplace among humans and human-like aliens mostly because of their shared ancestry. There are outliers but that was simply the rule around this neck of the galaxy. If they needed an audio-visual feed as well, either they like many other aliens are somehow related to Tellurians or it's a case of convergent evolution. This fact also gave somewhat of a confirmation that they understood their message to them. Whether they comprehended their package completely or simply gleaned the fact the package was in an audio-visual format is unknown to him.

"Provide a single audio-visual feed from my station, keep all other channels secure from them though. Thank you, Lieutenant." Naturally, he wanted to secure the well-being of his crew, even if it was protocol to secure themselves from any foreign cyber-attack while out on duty, he felt a personal obligation to his crewmates.

The image of the alien on his viewscreen is the first sight of a new alien in decades. This would go down in history and here he is the first human to contact these people. The impact of this he does not know and only time would tell. Going out on a leg he speaks first, hoping the translation software works.

"Greetings to you. My name is Velimir and I am a Tellurian. I happen to be the acting Captain of the GSANV Valentia. I assume at this point you know that. And you are?" He was curt and brief, trying to be as polite as possible but wanting answers quick.

"I am called Octarius. Admiral of the Alelius Planetary Defence Fleet. I and my people, Turians, are here to bring a fleet of Pirate-Slavers to justice. I can see the Batarian outlaws have made themselves known in your space. Perhaps we could be of assistance to one another?"

The alien greeted in kind. It's plated face moving about and words coming from its . . . mandibles. Not the strangest look for an alien, he's seen, stranger. It was a sign that the translation is working. That and that they responded in kind to his greeting. This was good news at least.

"Pirate-slavers you say. What was it you called them? Batarians? Is this true? Are you not affiliated with the faction that attacked our people?", asked Velimir. It was rude, out of the blue and wholly undiplomatic. But he was out of patience for foreign invaders now. As damning he might seem to impartial onlookers watching his recording, he needed answers to his question. The aliens could lie. They could easily lie. They could have all reasons to. Maybe they're incapable of lying. All he needed was to gauge this Octarius' reaction.

"Yes, indeed Captain, pirate-slavers. Shipborne outlaws kidnap civilians for the use of slave labour. And yes, I called them Batarians. Although officially these and all pirate-slavers are unaffiliated with the Batarian people or government, they trade with Batarian Slave Markets, are supplied by Batarian Systems and crewed by Batarian people. So, no Captain we are not aligned with these scums."

At the very least the tellurian crew could see the 'Turian' was impassionate with his explanation.

"Very well. I have no choice but to trust you at this point. I have few options until my people send reinforcements. If you would have us, please lend us your aid against these invaders." It only was natural for him to ask for help. If all of this was some elaborate invasion plan by the same faction, the least he'd have to say is how out of the box they think, if it is.

"My crew and I would be honoured to defend your people from such invaders." Velimir could only guess Octarius' gave their equivalent to a smile. He hoped he isn't making a mistake.

May 7th 2341 CE.

Ford Family Property,

Pingyuan,

Shanxi City,

Shanxi.

07:15. Shanxi Standard Time.

Ashton Ford was a tall fellow. Some would say too tall for a human. Well, too tall for a Tellurian at least. And they would be right. He wasn't Tellurian. Not completely. He was half Tellurian and half Taurian.

Most people upon looking at him would assume he would be a labourer or farmer like most Taurian people were. Well according to him they'd be assuming too much but at the same time, they were right. Doesn't change the fact that he'd be pissed for judging a book by his cover. But he supposed that's what's a cover is for anyways.

His appearance and occupation were simply owed to the fact of the Taurian people's world. It was a large world, with wide temperate zones and small oceans. The oxygen was just high enough and the gravity just low enough for the people there to evolve to be taller. Supposedly those factors added up to make people smarter, but he wasn't up for supposing. He didn't feel any smarter than anyone he knew that wasn't Taurian. If he could he'd put himself at average.

He could suppose though that he was smart at what he did. If there's anything he knows better than most it's farming, or as his degree called it agriculture. He could also suppose that his home planet affected Taurian culture just as much as their height. The majority of native Taurian cultures were farming cultures and no wonder. Their worlds O2 levels did wonders for plants. The atmosphere there supposedly had twice as much as Terras. Forget breadbasket, they were the bread caravan of the galaxy.

He supposed that these were reasons as to why he was here right now, right here in the middle of nowhere teaching these calves what to when it comes to farming.

He says calf but looking around they're near heifers. It's not the first time he's dealt with minotaurs. His family literally have minotaur's in their blood. But he was used to real farmers, not these city cattle.

He doesn't know whether it's sad or a source of pride to have first or second or however many generations migrants needing to learn their own heritage. Some of them need work. Cream and Urt being the worst offenders. Those seven-foot-tall women couldn't even catch a lost group of goslings.

Ashton's a bit short-staffed to be really qualified as any kind of work-placement for these college kids. Especially twenty of them. It'll be even more of a nightmare when a group of twenty more were to come. He only got notified last week. He's not sure he could even handle Satyr and Pan. Pan was fine but Satyr has a certain... reputation.

Help could not arrive sooner with the better news of support coming from some farmers from the other side of the planet coming with the new farmhands. A pair by the name of Cathyl and Merino. Hopefully, they would cover for him in guiding this lot. He already must cook for everyone as well as... other duties. Why him? Of all Taurian farmers?

He would think back on this and almost laugh at how much he took for granted how fortunate his situation was. And even more at how unfortunate it would be. For supposedly the plains south-west of the Shanxi's Capital, also named Shanxi, is the perfect landing spot for a certain brand of glorified space bandits. Well, supposedly.

Codex Entries:

Religion:

Religion is a social-cultural system of designated behaviours and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates sentients to the supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.

There are an estimated 25,000 distinct religions galaxy-wide. About 84% of the galaxy's population is affiliated with either Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or some form of folk religion. The religiously unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists, and agnostics. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs.

Sanctified Places:

In the modern era, most sacred sites remain neutral to all powers. In moves similar to when Benito Mussolini released all claims to the Catholic Churches land, the leaders of the world post-war made endeavoured in doing the same.

The Foehn Federation released Constantinople/Istanbul, Mecca, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem as city-states, with many more minor holy sites under their closest city-states jurisdiction.

The Grand Alliance of Nations in turn released Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar as independent cities.

Religious Demographics:

Islam:

The Foehn Federation contains 88 per cent of the total Muslim population of the galaxy, making it by far the state with the largest Muslim population. The majority of Foehn's Muslim population adhere to the post-GWWIII sect of Islam, Dueat al-Salam.

The Solidarity of Allied Systems contains the second largest population of Muslims at 6 per cent of the total Muslim population. The majority of them follow Sunni Islam and with a minority of followers of Shia Islam.

The Galactic Socialists Alliance contains only 0.65 per cent of all Muslims, by far the nation with the lowest population of Muslims.

The remaining 5.35 per cent of Muslims live either across neutral systems or within the Baathist Colony on the extragalactic planet of 357d-Aura.

Christianity:

The Galactic Socialists Alliance is the largest Christian Nation at 44 per cent of the total Christian population. With 68 per cent of their Christian population being Catholic Christians and a remaining 30 per cent being Orthodox Christian. The remaining 2 per cent are Protestant Christians.

The second-largest Christian nation would be the Solidarity of Allied Systems at 39 per cent of the total Christian population. With the majority of SAS Christians identifying as Protestant at 87 per cent and the remainder identifying as Catholic.

The Foehn Federation contains only 17 per cent of the total Christian population, the near totality of which identify as Orthodox.

Hinduism:

A near-total of identified Hindus live within the Solidarity of Allied Systems, at 97 per cent of the galaxy-wide Hindu populations.

A small but present minority of Hindu worshipers live within other nations, primarily as student migrants.

Buddhism:

The largest Buddhist nation is the Foehn Federation, at 52 per cent. Many of which were descended from post-GWWIII converts and migrants.

The second-largest Buddhist Nation is near tied with SAS and GSA having near equal populations of Buddhists. With the SAS at 23.1 per cent and the GSA at 23.4 per cent.

A/N: If anyone wonders if I'm biased to any of the political ideologies of my fictional version of humanity, I can proudly say that I support Tribalism.

Put on your face paint, then skewer those that are different from you!

Edit: Minor typo and continuity edits.