October 3rd, 1252 Standard Time, 2552
Belladonna Residence, Menagerie
When Ghira first met Commander Richard, he didn't truly believe what the man said to be the truth. When he had welcomed Richard into his home, it had not been to discuss any kind of diplomatic future between some sort of extraterrestrial civilization and Menagerie, Ghira had simply wanted to find out Richard's true intentions. Many lairs had claimed to want peace in the past, and Ghira had no reason to assume that this man and his soldiers were any different.
But as Richard spoke, Ghira was surprised at how genuinely honest the man seemed to be. Ghira's time in the White Fang had given him a reliable ability to tell when somebody was lying, and from everything that he could see, Richard was either convinced what he was saying was true, or that it was actually true. Slowly, it began to dawn on him that there was some truth to Richard's words, and as the UNSC Commander continued, Ghira realized that he had no intention of hiding any grizzly truths.
Perhaps due to Richard's occupation in the military, he focused very heavily on his civilizations' history of conflicts. As Earth had no Grimm, there was no one unifying enemy to force Humanity to work together, and without that foe, Humanity had turned on itself. Everything Ghira heard from Richard made his stomach curl up in a knot, for thousands of years, Humanity had butchered each other in a savage bloodlust, seemingly taking any excuse possible to create more devastation. Segregation, totalitarianism, and genocide were apparently not foreign concepts to the UNSC, something made apparent by the glassy stares he recieved from Commander Richard and the woman known as Fairfire when he asked about them.
While war between nations on Remnant was certainly far from a foreign concept, it was rare, sporadic, and often short-lived. The only war that would be considered "major" in the eyes of the UNSC, at least by Richard's claim, was the Great War, which he seemed a little bit too eager to talk about.
He is a military officer, it makes sense that he would want to know more about Remnant's biggest conflict. Ghira thought. Nevertheless, he answered any questions related to conflict as vaguely as he could, Richard still had yet to prove himself as truly trustworthy.
Once they got back onto the topic of Earth's history, Richard skipped over a lot of what he considered "ancient" history, which was apparently only a couple of thousand of years. Compared to Remnant's vast and largely unrecorded history, that seemed rather modest in length. However, he went into far more detail surrounding humanity's space exploration and colonization. He had hoped that once this strange other civilization of humans became spacefaring that things would get better for them, that perhaps Humanity could finally achieve some Semblance of peace, but it seemed that it was not meant to be.
War had followed them, throughout hundreds of years of infighting and civil conflicts, the UNSC had become more a military force than a scientific and exploration branch, as had initially been intended. But as Richard continued to tell his people's story, Ghira began to get the feeling that he was building up to something.
Unfortunately, he was right.
Richard didn't spare any messy details about the Covenant, or the war that had consumed their civilization for the last quarter of a century. He explained how the alien technology far outclassed even the comparatively amazing technologies Richard claimed that humanity had achieved, and how it consistently resulted in defeat after defeat for humanity despite ferocious fighting. Humanity was losing, quite badly, by the sounds of things.
But by far the worst part was the casualties he claimed humanity had suffered, numbering in the tens of billions. Ghira had trouble even wrapping his head around that many people existing, let alone being slaughtered. The Covenant had no regard for civilian safety, in fact, Richard said they actively targeted civilian targets in order to maximize their damage. That particular statement painted uncomfortable parallels between the Covenant and Grimm in his mind. "Glassing" was a word he used frequently, where the Covenant would use immensely powerful energy weapons to burn entire planets, leaving only a fine sphere of glass-like silicates, boiling oceans and burning away the atmosphere in the process.
If he means to make me feel uneasy, he's doing a very good job. I don't even want to think about what a force like that would do to Remnant, let alone Menagerie. Ghira thought, prompting one of Ghira's few interruptions.
"What happens if the Covenant find Remnant?" Ghira asked.
"It's remarkably unlikely." Richard said, offering Ghira some relief. "The odds of us finding you out here are frankly absurd, it shouldn't have been possible."
"You dodged the question." Ghira pointed out grimly.
"If they do find us, then we will try and fight back. I promise you I will fight to the last man to defend your planet." Richard firmly stated. "But we only have one ship, and a whole planet to defend. The Covenant would almost certainly send more than just one ship, and their ships are far superior to ours. With no other orbital or even planetside forces capable of fighting back, we would almost certainly lose."
"...And then?" Ghira asked, not betraying a hint of emotion.
"Mercy isn't a part of the Covenant's doctrine." The large armored figure known standing beside Richard spoke up. "They would settle for nothing less than your complete annihilation."
The man in the armor, whom Richard only called "Ben", gave Ghira an odd sense of unease he frankly couldn't explain. Putting aside the fact the armor itself looked like it would embarrass even the most talented Atlas engineer, his demeanor suggested an almost robotic attitude. It was only broken by his occasional comment to clarify something Richard said, besides that, the man was like a statue.
Not to mention he's even taller than me, and I've banged my head on enough doorways to know he probably does the same. Ghira thought.
"But like I said, the odds of them finding us are quite literally astronomical." Richard said. "Our shipboard A.I said that since your radio signature was hard to detect by us, and it's likely they would have the same problem. The biggest thing you have to be afraid of is them seeing our ship, which we're already working on fixing."
That's somewhat reassuring. Ghira thought before speaking. Although I wonder what he means by A.I. Could that some form of rank, or does it share the same meaning as it does on Remnant?
"Well, that is certainly good news." Ghira said. "I appreciate your… honesty."
"I figured I would let you know where the rest of Humanity stands, since you're in the dark." Richard replied. "It's up to you if you want to share any of this information, but I suggest you don't for the time being, we don't want to cause a panic."
He still counts us as part of the rest of humanity, I wonder if that's on a national level or if he counts Faunus as just another kind of human? Ghira thought.
"Like I said, it's appreciated." Ghira said. "On that topic, it seems like you are in far more danger than we are. We have our problems, but at least we aren't in constant danger like you are."
"What about the Grimm?" Richard asked. "You said that they're attracted to negative emotions, wouldn't they be drawn to major settlements like this one?"
"They lack coordination." Ghira answered. However, the look of confusion on Richard's face reminded him that he was talking to somebody who genuinely had no idea what a Grimm was until half-an-hour ago. "An individual Grimm can get smarter as it grows older, but even the variations that move in swarms lack any sort of higher-level intelligence. As such, they lack the ability to overwhelm our defenses, but we can't push out into their territory for anything longer than brief time periods. we're at a constant stalemate."
Richard nodded. "That is quite strange. These Grimm, they're unlike anything we've ever encountered."
"I am glad to hear that, although it certainly seems that you haven't had any absence of hardship without them." Ghira said. His mind was still fixated on the horror that the Covenant presented, as they likely would be for some time.
Richard gave a sympathetic nod, apparently having guessed what Ghira was thinking about. "Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to tell you that everything is going splendidly for us. But I have no reason to lie to you, and you and your people deserve to know the truth."
Hmm, he seems rather level-headed, especially for a military man. Ghira thought. I wonder how he would respond to a more direct question, one that he's been avoiding?
"Actually, that brings up another matter you touched on earlier. You said you brought your starship here in search of spare parts, did something go wrong?" Ghira asked.
Richard frowned. "I did mention that, you are correct, and I don't see any reason not to tell you the truth of that matter as well. Our vessel was en-route to another assignment when we suffered an equipment malfunction with a crucial navigation system, as a result, we are stranded in this system for the time being."
Huh, that was much more… direct, than I was expecting. Then again it's hardly the exciting answer I expected. Ghira thought before replying. "I see, could you fix that system?"
"No, we require a replacement slipspace drive." Richard said. Thankfully he realized that Ghira had no idea what that was. "It's the most complicated device on the ship, it permits faster than light travel via wormhole tunneling, keep in mind that's quite a dramatic oversimplification."
Wormhole tunneling… I don't even know what that is. Ghira realized. "I'm uh, afraid we don't have one of those spare."
Richard shook his head in amusement, apparently having found some humor in Ghira's response. "Don't worry, we didn't expect you too. Slipspace drives are extremely complex machines, even some of our best scientists fail to understand exactly how they work."
Ghira raised an eyebrow. "If that's the case, what is your plan?"
"Currently, we have nothing set in stone." Richard answered fairly bluntly. "However, we would have to develop a number of advanced industries here on Remnant to effectively produce any kind of slipspace drive, let alone one advanced enough to get us where we need to go."
"I see." Ghira said. "Menagerie has never been the most industrious nation in the world, but we'd be happy to try and work out a mutually-beneficial agreement."
Richard nodded, but he was very clearly conflicted on the matter. "While there's a hefty amount of protocol suggesting I avoid bartering with a foreign power, I believe that the circumstances mean I can't afford to follow every regulation in the book."
"Any reasonable man would realize that." Ghira tried to reassure him. Although his knowledge of military protocols in general was admittedly quite limited, let alone those used by an extraterrestrial military, he imagined that Richard's superiors would tolerate his breach of a few troublesome rules.
"I certainly hope so." Richard said before waving his hand. "But I'm afraid all of that will have to wait. My men were attacked by a foreign force, and dealing with that takes priority."
"That's more than understandable." Ghira said. "I would recommend contacting the Atlesian government first, that way, you can make it clear and obvious that you mean no harm."
"Sir, that could be a problem." Ben interjected. "Our communications systems aren't compatible with Remnant's international infrastructure."
He seems… oddly well-informed. Ghira thought, had the soldier simply been paying attention, or did he know more than he was saying? Judging by the man's bizarre nature, he was more inclined to believe the former.
"I'm sure we could jury rig some kind of modification to our systems, at least, if we knew how anything works on this planet." Fairfire commented, her voice rich with annoyance.
Richard seemed to think it over for a moment before turning back to face Ghira. "Chieftain, do you know where we could learn more about your planet's communication infrastructure? As much as I appreciate your hospitality, I hope you understand that landing a fully-armed squad in a major city was not my first choice."
"I apologize Commander, but I've never been an expert on that sort of thing." Ghira said. "But if you want to talk to a few, there's a Relay Station for the Cross Continental Transmit System. It's the large white building next to the large tower with all of the Radio Equipment. It is technically Atlesian property, but if I asked them, they would probably allow you in, especially since it's been having some technical problems lately."
"I see, we'll see if we can help them." Richard offered. "Well, thank you for your assistance Chieftain, I'll send a squad with some technicians down to your CCTS tower in a few hours. We'll see about fixing your issues and patching our ship's communication network into yours, that way I don't have to land in your front lawn again."
Ghira laughed, it seemed that Richard did have a sense of humor. "It was no problem at all, I'll make sure to let them know that you're coming. I'll also see about finding a place for you to land your ships in the future."
"That would be greatly appreciated." Richard said as he stood up. "As soon as I have this situation sorted out, I'll make sure to contact you again, we have plenty of things to discuss."
"My schedule may be busy, but I can certainly clear some time up." Ghira said before standing up to shake the man's hand, which he accepted.
As the UNSC packed themselves back up into their 'Pelican' Dropship, Ghira wasn't surprised to find Kali had been waiting to talk to him.
"What did they want?" She asked, standing beside him and reaching out to hold his hand.
Ghira held onto her firmly, he understood her nervousness about the UNSC. In fact, the odds were good that he was probably a good deal more nervous than she was. "Just some information. They wanted to know a lot of basic things about Remnant, and about the Schnee Dust Company, apparently there was a fight."
Kali's eyes widened in shock. "The Schnee Dust Company? Oh dear… What do you think they'll do when they find out about..."
She didn't need to finish her statement, Ghira knew well what foul cruelties the SDC was capable of. "I don't know, but whatever happens, I know that we'll be safe."
But it wasn't just Menagerie's safety that Ghira was worried about anymore. While he certainly had no love for the SDC, he knew that the innocent people of Atlas and Mantle could be unwilling victims to any kind of conflict.
Author's Notes: I'm much happier with this rewritten first contact than the original, it may be shorter, but trust me when I say it's much better.