Chapter Ten: First Contact
Harry's POV
He sighed as he leaned back into the comfortable chair that acted as the Captain's seat on board the Infinity. He had gotten a basic simple tour of the ship, only because going to every level and every station would be largely impossible to do in a single day. Considering the ship was built to have its own internally manufacturing plant to supplement any lost equipment and its own agricultural hydroponic farms meant some locations would result in seeing the same thing. He could feel the slight tug on the cord he had connected to his neck and relaxed into the chair as the ship broke orbit from Earth. This was to be the first movement they were to make, away from Earth with the Infinity. He had been instructed by both Admiral Blake and Admiral Pushkov to rendezvous with them at the Sirius system in order to begin training on fleet composition and movement.
He stared at the large wall of swirling light and waited in the silence for them to arrive. Aside from the continuous shuffle of slight movement and responsive quiet beeps from the touch displays there wasn't a single noise noticed. No one spoke aloud if they could help it and he couldn't help but feel that they were far too nervous to do so in front of him. He sat in the silence and dived into the encrypted network connection hoping to find something to stave off the boredom. "Sooo..." He said trailing off as the room became completely silent. He shifted at the fact that everyone decided to listen up for no reason other than the fact that he had opened his mouth. 'This is going to be an incredibly annoying ride.' He thought dryly rubbing his forehead in irritation. 'Miyumi if at least you were here I would have someone to talk to.' He thought feeling a strange sensation in his head.
'Oh, sir? Is there any reason you opened a secure channel with me?' Miyumi asked inside his head. He flinched forwards in surprise getting several systems to flash in warning for a moment. 'Uh, Miyumi, how is it I can speak to you while in Jump and without you onboard and next to me?' He asked getting a small chuckle in his head making him shift at the strange thought. 'Using the Network you can create a connection to another in order to communicate, generally, communication is reserved to physical platforms in order to inform multiple people at once who don't have the same level of clearance.' Miyumi explained making him blink in response before letting the communication fall to silence for a moment. 'What I mean is that certain people have certain security, for those who don't have high enough security clearance they cant host a secure connection, and in a Military setting that could be a disaster if it was monitored by an outside source, but physical communication devices like Holocom, can be secured fairly easily.' Miyumi explained making him nod at the explanation.
'I'm going to assume not many people have the level of clearance to talk to me then?' He thought getting a small laugh in return. 'No not many but those who do are of an exceptional importance.' Miyumi said making him sigh softly. 'Well at least I can talk to someone, the bridge crew seems a little tense with me on board.' He thought getting silence for a moment. 'It is most likely because they haven't adjusted to the ultimate military and civilian authority being in their general area who can literally do what he wants so to speak.' Miyumi said slowly making him snort. 'Yeah of course because I'm totally going to tell them all to space themselves or something...' He thought back getting a loud laugh in return. 'No but I can't help but feel the female's on board might be both afraid and excited by the idea of you ordering them around." Miyumi said making him halt for a moment.
He narrowed his eyes slightly as a rush of thoughts came to his mind and made him swallow and cough at the thought. 'Was that necessary?' He thought his face burning as he pushed the thoughts off. 'Maybe, maybe not, but it helped distract you ad was amusing to me.' Miyumi said making him sigh and look around the room. It was massive in size, of course, it was situated on the topmost section of the ship in a fairly circular design a little closer to the rear. The design was unlike anything that had ever been constructed for other ships. It's sheer size alone blew the concept of cramped out the window, most of the stations were designed to house many more specialized and upgraded systems, using the very best equipment available to make the ship more effective. The front viewport was a large semicircular design, specialized synthetic perma-glass planes, covered with a specialized shielding unit that was separate from the ship shielding with its own back up power generation system, the final safety feature was one hundred and ninety inch steel blast doors that can cover the viewports letting screens inside show the exterior view camera units.
The left and right side further back had their own viewports, the large expanse of metal wall blocking off the front from connecting to the two sides. Each side had their own fire control groups dedicated to specific weapons or area's, the bridge was made up of a total of ten fire groups, with a specialized fire control room with another thirty as an area to carefully take over specific weapons for secure and organized assault. The last feature behind the dividing wall for the forward's bridge was a large Holodeck, used to plan assaults and strategic oversight. The rear portion of the circular section the bridge was a part of, was divided by a large hallway with several stairwells and elevators. The rear section itself was an Electronic Warfare suite, the men, and women inside specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence, it had a small powerful server used to assist in the actions, it was the smallest dedicated computer server on the ship itself. He leaned back waving off the thoughts of the bridge section and remembered the hell it was just to get from the landing pad he had gotten on the ship from to the bridge itself.
The interior of the ship, due to its size had several levels where there were full-fledged road's and highways for the mass transport of materials and vehicles around the ship, with the ships complement of vehicles on board it was necessary to have these roadways. it had taken little over an hour of stop and go driving to finally get to the correct elevator's, it wasn't something he looked forward to going through again. The Complement of vehicles on board varied, for those on the ground, a Light Assault vehicle modeled after the Warthog did exist, but it was a primarily fast response and recon, a Heavy Assault Vehicle was on board as well the thick armor being moved via the four wheels beneath it, the fairly covered and armored machine gun on top being effective arms, another vehicle aboard was an Infantry Fighting Vehicle, it's Eight wheel's assisting in carrying a mass amount of troops and its large profile being two times the height of the average person helping just as much.
A couple more vehicles remained for ground teams, the Ravager Main Battle Tank had a specialized armor plating made to reflect kinetic rounds and having internal heat shielding to help slow down the damage from plasma or laser weapons. The final two vehicles were the Behemoth and Gargantua class Heavy Railgun Tanks, their massive profile and extremely effective and damaging weapons being a good asset to ground control. Anti-Air wasn't a total necessity, it was utilized but as sub-armaments for each weapon. The fighter vehicles varied, from fast attack craft to interceptor, most never really varying in design. Dropships varied between two designs, the fairly effective Pelican which was good to use in closer cityscapes and for quick insertion and extraction and the Tyche-class Dropship was a mass insertion and vehicle carrier, it was slow and bulky and was best used when a secure landing zone was created or, in the initial assault of a world to be mostly distractions.
His ride aboard the ship had been a Pelican with fighter escort and as usual, he had been let on the ship as quickly as possible and it helped him at least stave off an even longer trip to the bridge. He pulled the cord from his neck carefully and stood up quickly. He could see the guards tense slightly as they prepared to move with him wherever he went. He sighed softly and waved them off seeing the two relax slightly. "You don't need to follow me, I doubt I can really get into trouble on this massive beast. Inform me when the Jump is complete." He said turning to address the navigation officer at the end only to get a nod and salute. He stared at the woman for a moment before saluting back and leaving as quickly as he could. He waited in silence as the elevator dropped to the first region. Each separate leveled section, of which there were four, were considered regions. The first region was located closest to the top and was one of the few to have civilian stores and restaurants for when everyone wasn't on duty, even though the interior of the ship was mostly hallways and rooms some of the nearby area's closest to the roads were open and more like cities, some little parks were made for both aesthetic and oxygen creation reasons. He stopped at the small parking spaces that were lined with LAV's and two HAV's.
He looked over each car before feeling the sudden urge to facepalm since he hadn't bothered to take any training courses on Military driving, let alone regular driving. He felt the flash of information in his mind and shrugged it off knowing it was simply the neural link providing the information to him. He shrugged and walked to the nearest unarmed recon LAV and jumped inside looking over the display in front of him and the steering wheel. He flipped a few switches and felt the truck shudder for a moment before the engine came to life. He tossed the shifter back and glanced in the mirrors before flying back out of the spot. He shifted in his seat and he stopped on the road. 'Gonna need to adjust to this.' He thought before heading down the street at a fairly quick pace. He glanced around looking for anything that would end up catching his attention.
He saw decent looking Italian food restaurant and for a moment he wondered just how many synthetics were on the ship to warrant the number of restaurants and just where the reserves of food were stored for that matter. He pulled off to the side and shut the truck down. He walked into the restaurant and waited for a minuted before a nervously smiling waitress came by to take him to a table. He sat quickly thanking her and took a moment to look himself over. He once again felt the urge to smack himself on the face due to the fact that, he was wearing his Military Dress Uniform and the insignia on the shoulders and his hat was highly recognizable. 'That would explain the nervousness at least. He relaxed a little bit and glanced over the menu selecting a simple pasta dish waiting in the booth for his food as music played at a decent enough level.
The food was good, for being on a military ship, it was certainly restaurant level in its taste so he couldn't complain. He left once he finished dropping a decent tip over the electronic depositing system and found himself once more driving around the large ship taking in everything he could find around him. He eventually found himself back at the elevators to the bridge and waited until he finally reached the bridge. "Oh, sir, we were just about to inform you, we dropped out of jump only a few minutes ago." One of the guards said making him blink and nod in response before taking his familiar seat. He watched the two screen's nearest to him flash to life and glanced over the two serious faces of the Admirals to the two separated sections of the Hom Fleet. Admiral Blake and Admiral Pushkov both stared in silence for a moment. 'Perhaps if they both weren't of the more silent variety, this wouldn't be so awkward.' He thought to himself before sighing outwardly. "Admirals, the Infinity has arrived and is awaiting instruction." He said getting short nods from the both of them.
"Very well, the rest of your section in this fleet are already in position all we need you to do is match speed and course once in position." Admiral Blake said making him shift in his seat and nod. He nodded to the helmsman and felt the ship change course subtly. He could see the massive formation from miles out, and could also see the gaping hole in it obviously meant for the Infinity. 'I wasn't quite expecting the lack of this ship to be so obvious.' He thought as the fleet's course changed and the ship shifted to compensate. None of the ships were in a flat formation resting at the same Z-axis point, which helped make sure the line of fire for each ship wasn't blocked by another ship. Although one of the major concerns he had was the possibility of jumping into a system only to have a ship appear inside them or even worse below or above them taking them by surprise in an ambush maneuver that would keep the primary forward's weapons from being effective or usable until the ship adjusts its position.
"Alright now, each ship is going to interconnect on the Fleetcom Network, this will allow your navigator to see a beacon location of each ship in comparison to your own and allow for seamless fluid fleet movements." Admiral Pushkov said quietly making him glance over for a moment. "How is that done?" He asked getting a blink of surprise. "One of two ways, either Navigation establishes Fleetcom or you can go into the ship systems and create it yourself, as with most systems being usable through your link, this is possible as well." Admiral Pushkov explained slowly. He stared for a moment before glancing at the waiting Navigations officer seeing the man turn quickly to do as was suggested. He glanced at a third display showing an overlay of the solar system with each of the planets orbits logged on screen, aside from his ship showing up in relation to everything in the system nothing was there. It only took a moment for it to update and every ship around them and their position winked into existence.
"Right, we are linked in." He said getting two short nods. "Next will be a few fleet movements in the system going over a category of actions before we move onto the wider galactic fleet movement." Admiral Blake said carefully leaning over to send a list of maneuvers for him to look out for and participate in. He glanced at her seeing the break in the collar of her shirt and a small glimpse of cleavage. 'Damn.' He thought glancing away for a moment. He frowned slightly as a movement made them circle around Sirius I in the atmosphere. He grimaced lightly as heat flared off the shields before cooling down and evaporating. "I would have thought the Infinity wouldn't be recommended for in atmosphere flight." He said getting a small smirk from Admiral Blake. "That is a fairly common thought, and while it isn't suggested you bring any ship in the atmosphere, they all function perfectly fine and can still utilize all weapons easily." Admiral Blake said making him nod slowly.
"Why is that?" He asked getting silence for a moment before Pushkov moved a bit to respond. "It is mostly because certain weapons are enhanced with the atmosphere and lead to a new danger if used against the ship itself, and certain weapons that have an area of effect damage can ultimately blowback on the ship much easier in the atmosphere than in space." Admiral Pushkov said making him sit back and look over the information on the network. "Right, mitigating factors and upscaled danger." He said getting a short nod. "Another question I have has mostly to do with the composition of the Fleet." He said getting two surprised looks from the Admirals. He could feel a few looks from the Bridge crew as well. "Is there a change you are thinking of?" Admiral Blake asked the tension in her body showing the level of discontent with that idea.
"No. I have no plans to change it, but I am curious, the majority of your fleet composition, Admiral Blake, seems to revolve around faster movements and aside from certain larger class of vehicles most are of the smaller classes." He said getting a small nod as surprise flashed across both there faces. "Whereas you, Admiral Pushkov, have it split almost evenly between large and medium class ships using the large as artillery lines and the medium as fast yet powerful flanking ships." He said getting another set of slow nods with surprise again flashing across their faces. "So where does that put me?" He asked getting silence for a moment as the two thought over it. "I'm at the core of the fleet, and aside from a scale-up of the number of classes depending on their size, I'm the only section in the fleet with the largest ship in particular." He said making the two glance towards each other for a moment.
"It was an argument we as well had once but the reasoning that as provided to us made it easier for us to understand." Admiral Blake explained making him nod slowly. "This fleet is considered the Home fleet not because it solely protects the Sol system, it is because this is the largest fleet we have amassed and is considered the Flagship fleet of our military. As such it is used as both a military asset and a form of intimidation, with your ship's size, that level of intimidation is raised higher, on top of that it was well known that the leader would be leading from the Flagship, therefore it was best to allow that ship to be the largest." Admiral Pushkov took over making him sigh and rub his forehead. "So aside from intimidation purposes its simply to keep me alive?" He asked getting two nods and the slight smirk of amusement across both of their faces, while hard to see, told him everything he needed to know.
"Alright, system movement is finished, next we are going to be moving from system to system in a route that has already been planned." Admiral Blake explained sending over the data file making it open on an available screen. He frowned lightly as it took them out of their controlled space and lead pretty far out before swinging around an Ion cloud area that held a few planets and systems in it. "Are we sure this is a safe route, it's based on sensor data from hundred's of years ago." He said getting silence for a moment. "The Expedition Fleet hasn't gotten around to navigating the entire line but it is a most trusted route, aside from that any danger we possibly could have won't be too dangerous by any means with the composition we have right now." Admiral Blake explained making him nod slowly and relax a bit as the ship's jump drive charged up.
He blinked as space swirled and the familiar sight of jump space was in front of him. He saw that the communications were still up as was the link with the fleet but the positioning map was covered with a warning stating the IFF and Positioning transponders were no longer transmitting. "So, what's the ETA on arrival?" He asked getting glances from the two as they were turned away to address something. "An hour, the next jump will force us into a seven-hour transit time." Admiral Blake said before turning back to her work. "Sir, Engineering has a message about the drive." The Bridge Engineer said from his right. "What's the message?" He asked frowning softly and tensing. "The new system put in place is working at optimal levels and has seen no issue's but they're wondering if the standing orders to watch for any issue's stands?" The Bridge Engineer asked making him stare at the man in silence. "Yes. Why wasn't I told a new system was installed?" He asked confused looking around at the Bridge crew.
"Sir, it was a last minute change the scientist's ordered from the Manufacturing Station in the Bernards Star system." The Bridge Engineer said making him rub his temples for a moment. "I really need to get Memo's for this shit." He mumbled softly before trying to relax again. 'Fat chance of that, next I'll be hearing that the weapons were upgraded with untested prototypes.' He thought with a slight roll of his eyes. "I need contact with the Tower on Earth, Patch me through to Miyumi." He said glancing over at the Communications station. He saw a new screen open up showing the slightly frazzled appearance of his secretary. "Did I call at a bad time?" He asked with some light amusement only to get a roll of the eyes. "Haha. No, I had some trouble with a few systems here at the tower and it's been driving me up the wall." Miyumi said slowly before smiling at the end as she relaxed.
"Is there anything you need?" Miyumi asked a grin on her face as she moved subtly. 'What's with her and doing this?' He wondered in slight exasperation. "Yes." he said simply seeing the flash of surprise over her face and the two Admiral's as they were subtly listening in. He could see the two Admiral's shift their face to coldness. "I need you to set up a meeting in the future with the Think Tank division, around the time I come back from training." He said seeing the two Admiral's relax as they realized what he was saying before their faces broke out into small barely noticeable smirks pointed towards Miyumi. 'I'm thinking about things too much.' He thought before turning back to Miyumi. "Yes, sir. You wouldn't really need to set a meeting time but I will make sure they are aware of your impending arrival and will be ready for any questions you have at any moment, it should keep them ready for at the longest a month." Miyumi said making him nod in response and smile in amusement at the still put off expression as the communication cut off.
"Any reason why you want to speak with them?" Admiral Pushkov asked her familiar cold tone having a slight hint of curiosity. "I want to know just why the hell they are putting new tech in my ship without me knowing and just what the hell they are working on, research is generally unreleased from the think tank unless it's completed." He said getting a low quiet laugh from the two. 'I thought they were the coldest and most professional Admiral's we had, why are they laughing now?' He wondered silently before brushing it off and simply thanking that fact that he wasn't being treated with cold indifference. He leaned back letting the silence stand and tried relaxing a bit since everything seemed to shift from annoying to not and back again. "So what is the next system we are jumping into?" He asked seeing Admiral Blake glance to her right.
"Siplim, after that is the Selnoc System." Admiral Blake explained making him nod slowly. "Interesting names." He said getting silence in return. "Right. Any particular reason we were assigned this route for the training?" He asked getting the two to glance at each other. "It's one of the route's we can take that will allow us to cross from one arm of the galaxy to another, its one of the only known hyperspace connections between both arms as well so its a well documented safe route." Admiral Blake explained making him nod slowly. "How close will this route bring us to any nations?" He asked getting a large lapse of silence. "You know that our old data is no longer trustworthy, for all we know any of the nations from before are gone and a whole host of new younger ones have been created, we are unsure if we will enter the borders of a nation along this route or meet anyone." Admiral Pushkov explained making him frown.
"So what you are saying is, we are jumping in feet first with no information." He said getting a small cough from the two. "I suppose that would be an accurate conclusion." Admiral Blake said making him sigh and nod before a smile slowly broke out on his face. "Heh, feels a lot like the choices I used to make back before you all found me." He said seeing the slightly amused looks on both their faces. "Considering what we read in the file that was made of you, I would assume so." Admiral Pushkov said slowly. "Sir, we are coming out of jump now." The Navigation's officer states right as the swirling vortex faded away to show a system that had two planets inside the green zone and a few gas giants. "Sir. IFF and transponder location readouts have been updated, they should be showing up on your display now." The Communications officer said aloud. 'Why is it that they all start talking now?' He wondered with slight frustration.
Unknown POV
The sound of a sigh broke out among the comfortable sized office. The person inside was trying to relax as they looked over the documents inside their computer. The sound of running against the floor outside the room caught their attention. "Milady!" The person outside the door called before the door burst open. "Tontor is it necessary to slam open my door?" The woman asked slowly getting the tall man to swallow for a moment. "Milady Miria, sensor data from our stellar probes near the border of FFE-223 shows a massive military fleet has left their territory, it is currently on a route taking them near our colonial borders." Tontor said making a silence fall over the room as the two guards near the door stiffened. "Do we have any information that they are specifically coming here, do we know if they are planning a surprise attack?" Miria asked slowly getting the man to step back for a moment. The narrowed eyed glare did well to curb the man's skittishness from the information.
"No, we do not know for certain if they are coming to attack or even if they will adjust their course towards another location." Tontor said quickly. The silence that fell over the room was tense and Miria glanced to her left seeing a man in full military uniform enter through the side door. "What are the military options we have available?" Miria asked getting a small sigh from the man. "Miria, you know as well based off the data packet we have received even with all available ships we wouldn't do much damage, perhaps we could cut out a sixth of their fleet, if we were lucky, but most likely we would end up losing all of our fleets, and end up defenseless." The man said slowly bringing up the roster of their available fleet. "Cortex you know we can't simply do nothing, panic will end up spreading, the sensor station that gathered this data was a civilian one, not a military sensor." Miria said getting a small sigh. "Yes but all we can hope to do for now is strengthen the border, explain to the civilian masses through the channels that we are taking this information seriously and will be doing all we can to verify the intentions of the incoming fleet." Cortex said getting nods from the two.
"Why would they move now, I know they have been exceptionally more active recently but why this move, it's far beyond what we have speculated they would do." Miria asked getting the two to look towards each other. "You know the scientists and military intelligence are never completely accurate especially with an empire we have no knowledge about and that has existed far longer than we have been in space." Cortex explained making her sigh. "When I woke up this morning this was not in the least what I was expecting." Miria said getting two slow laughs from the two. The light filtering in from the window nearby glinted off the ornaments covering the two short protruding horns from the top of Miria's head the slightly shaggy short red hair did well to cover where the horns connected to her head. The slight rough connection with the wood floor gave away the half flesh half wooden limbs.
Their race was a strange one, being humanoid in structure but far from human, half their DNA was clearly similar to that found in plant life, mostly tree's the other half was an amalgamation between slightly human and perhaps goat considering the horns. The mixture of DNA did well to help them in battle being able to somewhat control the plant like DNA to strengthen limbs and in dire cases create a shield of plant material out of their bodies to defend themselves and the humanoid structure allowed them to adapt to most other humanoid kingdom's technology. It was a lucky draw that they evolved this way, with a little genetic DNA splicing allowed them to change them from over eighty percent plant-based DNA to more humanoid DNA they had gathered from several other races during battles. This change made diplomatic connections with other nations easier.
Aside from internal control, they had some minor control over some plant's that they connected to through allowing the plants to absorb a small portion of blood. most of those plants were laid around the main cities allowing any possible invading forces that come in from outside the city to be slowed down or even killed before entering the city itself. Most of the control was based on some mind control. The soft sigh that broke out was loud enough to break the silence in the room, while thoughts on their species could get interesting and introspective, it wasn't the best idea to be doing them in the middle of a possible national emergency. "Right well it's mostly out of our hands, lets just do what we can and wait. Maybe a diplomatic approach will be possible." Miria said getting a small nod as Tontor tilted his head listening in on a com piece.
"There's been an update, long-range scanners have picked up the Delegation from Kindolia. They will be crossing paths with the incoming fleet far before the fleet reaches us, while they have a meeting with one of the nearby kingdom's, I don't believe they know of the fleet." Tontor explained getting a small frown Miria. "Should we inform them?" Tontor asked getting a small sigh. "Where do sensor's put them?" Miria asked after a moment of thinking. "They seem to have just initiated a jump to the system where they will run across the fleet." Tontor said getting a sigh. "We can't do anything now, even if we could establish conversation in the middle of hyperspace, it wouldn't help them. Sending a small group of ships wouldn't help either, it would only cause aggravation to be turned on us more if they are aggravated at all." Miria said getting two simultaneous sighs. "I suppose so, let's hope for the best." Tontor said. "Plan for the worst." Cortex finished before leaving them. "Nothing is ever easy." Miria said to the empty room once both were gone.
Kondolia Delegation POV
The small three ship delegation held a tight formation in Hyperspace, it would take a small bit of time to reach the nearby system. It was part of the reason the food supplies on board each ship was as large as it was. Metarra was relaxing in one of the lounge chairs made for the diplomatic cruiser, the two following ships being defense destroyers. Centila was humming softly to herself as she played a game. "Once this little meeting is over with we will finally be able to get back home, on our little corner of the galaxy and relax, hopefully for a much longer time than the last time." Metarra said getting a small laugh in return. "You know as well as I that Stilla won't allow us to take to long off work." Centila said the words causing a physical show of irritation to appear on Metarra's face. "Yes maybe so but it doesnt hurt to hope now does it?" Metarra asked getting a small nod.
"How is the food coming along?" Metarra asked loudly getting a guard near the door to bow slightly. "The chef is almost done with the food, it will be out shortly, milady." The guard said getting her to sigh softly and nod. "Calm down sister, the food will be done when it is done." Centila said making the woman groan softly. "Maybe so but hunger doesnt just disappear with the thought that food will be done soon, it disappears when it has been eaten." Metarra said spinning the chair around in a slow circle. "You could always rest in the suite if you wanted to wait out the time." Centila suggested getting a raised eyebrow. "It's just a suggestion." Centila mumbled softly. "We are a bit close to the Faun Kingdom aren't we?" Metarra asked getting a short nod from one of the guards. "The bridge crew said that all it would take is a short detour to be within their borders and in nearby orbit of their newest colony planet." The second guard said slowly.
"What is our relationship with them?" Centila asked getting a short sigh. "It isn't anything really, they have minimal contact with us, and we haven't ever really considered sending a diplomatic team." Metarra explained getting a sound of confusion. "Why not, they have a decent level of technology and their terraformation plans for several smaller planets in their borders is ambitious and worth getting good communication with them about." Centila explained letting her question hang for a moment. "Mostly because they have been mostly isolationist in nature, at least from what we understand they aren't totally xenophobic like several other nations we know well." Metarra said getting a nod in return. "At least we aren't that way, I can't see us having gotten as far as we have if we acted the same way." Centila said getting a short laugh in return. "I suppose that's true, but it could be better as well, especially with some of our neighbors closing their borders, getting around has become much harder." Metarra said.
"Did we anger them that much?" Centila asked getting a sigh in frustration. "It was more because of our actions on the farther reaches of the arm, advancing a race into the stars and creating a new empire wasn't looked well upon, especially since they are more militaristic in nature now. It shined a negative light on us and our choices. Of course, the swiping up of several easily livable planets from other nations may have a little more to do with it." Metarra explained. "Most of the galaxy is still empty though, especially entire systems." Centila said. "That is true but you have to remember the reason why that it has to do with the fact that most of those systems don't have planets that are naturally livable and require a massive amount of resources to terraform to a liveable standard." Metarra explained getting a small sigh and slow nod in response.
"That and most don't have a military or civilian advantage to owning or putting in the amount of resources necessary, finding a large enough planet worth the effort is difficult to do." The first guard explained catching both of their attention. "I suppose that's one reason among many." Metarra said as the subtle shift from the ship showed they had just exited Hyperspace. "We are in the system now?" Centila asked excited to look out at a system she hasn't yet seen. "Yes, your dinner is ready as well and will be available in the port dining room, you should have a good view of the system itself as we move for the next vector point." The first guard said opening the door for them both. "Finally let's hope we get some time to relax in this system." Metarra said getting the two guards to look at each other. "That may be possible, the bridge crew is considering stopping in the system to rest and continue the movement tomorrow." The commander said getting a bright smile from Centila.
"I am glad." Centila said as she caught sight of the system itself looking over the blue star and several planets orbiting it. The sighe of one of the defense destroyer's crossed outside the port and his the system from view for a moment. The food had smelled amazing to both and the taste was equal to its smell. "It is an interesting sight, not many systems nearby have this type of star." Metarra said glancing out the window. An alarm rang out a few moments after her comment and made the two glance around in surprise. "Miladies, long-range sensor's have picked up an energy build up near the edge of the system, we arent sure what to expect but we should begin emergency maneuvers as soon as the power plant has finished its warm up." The commander said entering the room quickly his body tense. "What should we do?" Centila asked worry bleeding into her tone. "Move to the safe room I will advise you went to come out." The commander said getting the two to move quickly.
Harry's POV
The sight of the newest system they were visiting slowly forming in front of him made him relax slightly. The quick return of the fleet's position in the System maping made him relax further. "Sir, I'm detecting three power plants in the system, they look to be small, possibly three ships." The Sensor Officer called out making him sit up straighter. "Do a wide spectrum sweep of the system, I want the possible ship classes these three are. I want the fleet to stop all forward movement, we are switching to DEFCON 3, I want all ships ready for any action taken by the unidentified ships." He said as the bridge broke out into a flurry of movement and commands. The lighting inside the bridge dimmed and switched orange as the alert rang out through the ship. "What are the ships doing?" He asked getting silence for a moment. "It looks like the ships are powering up, their weapon systems haven't spooled up yet but their engines are warming it's entirely possible they are looking to run." The Sensor Officer said getting a clearing of the throat from one of the displays.
"Sir, it's also possible they will be making a beeline for us here, and due to their position they would be fairly unopposed on their route to your ship, as you can see the are situated below you, and while they are a far distance in front of our fleet. They could easily make the distance before one of the large ships could block their path, they also have the advantage of being mostly pointed in our direction." Admiral Blake explained making him frown and nod he looked over at the communication's officer. "Send out a hail on all frequencies." He said making all action stop in the bridge. "Sir?" Admiral Pushkov asked making him sigh lightly. "We don't know who it is, this is a first contact scenario, as such we need to treat it as such, and communication is necessary to make sure no unnecessary actions are taken." He explained getting two hesitant nods.
He waited for a moment in the tense silence before a large monitor flashed to life. "Sir, they've answered our request for a hail." The Communication's Officer said as the screen flashed for a moment before showing a scene of three people, two in armor and one with a strange uniform. He blinked in surprise since they looked human until he saw the slightly translucent wings on their backs and interesting eyelids. 'Huh who knew other species could look slightly human.' He thought before frowning slightly as it seemed to be a military ship. "To whom are we speaking?" He asked slowly getting the middle man in the uniform to frown slightly. "Commander Nitork of the KRN's diplomatic oversight fleet." The man said making him nod slowly. "Who exactly are you?" Nitork asked a little roughly making him look at the man bemused.
"Supreme Commander Harrison James Potter, Ruler of the United Nations Space Command." He said simply seeing the dead silence fall over the other ship and smirked internally as he could see the flash of panic in the eyes of the commander. He glanced at both Admiral Blake and Pushkov to see the first was biting the inside of her cheek and the other was looking away slightly. 'You know I never really understood why they went with UNSC, I should probably ask sometime soon, but I swear if it's because of a Video Game, I'm gonna lose it.' He thought to himself as the three on the other side whispered to each other before one left quickly. 'Right, this has to be one of the strangest first contacts on record.' He thought as Nitork cleared his throat. "I apologize for the wait, we had to discuss what to do with this information, I am not high enough in rank to begin negotiations, therefore we have sent a guard to retrieve our Diplomats that are onboard." Nitork said making him nod slowly.
"Wait-" He started only to get cut off. "We will call back as soon as they are ready to discuss negotiations." Nitork said before the contact cut off. "What?" He asked getting two quiet laughs. "Looks like they think you are going to ask for their surrender and probably going to use them as a hostage negotiation against their empire. "Why, why this situation?" He asked sighing loudly as he rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. "Well, you are the leader of our people, it should be expected that you will act as the voice in contact with another nation." Admiral Pushkov explained making him sigh and lean back in his chair as his mind wandered. "Still this wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I was told about First Contact and the possibility of me acting as the voice!" He said in exasperation seeing the two sympathetic glances. "That's not helping." He said simply as he looked back at the blank screen.
Centila's POV
She nervously nudged a small electronic display on the table nearby making it switch to another page on the book it was displaying. "Do you believe everything is ok?" She asked getting a sideways look from Metarra. "I doubt that but we will see." Metarra said making her tense slightly. She tried to do a little bit of reading, anything to take her mind off the situation, whatever that may be, but it wasn't working too well. "There was silence for a few moments before a small knock on the door sounded out. "Miladies, the Commander has asked that you join him on the bridge." A guard said making her stand up slowly while Metarra opened the door and stepped out of the room calmly.
"What does he need to tell us? What is going on?" Metarra asked seriously as she followed her sister nervously. "That will be explained in a short moment Milady." The guard said before opening the door to the bridge. "Commander, what is going on?" Metarra asked quickly not even giving the man a moment to prepare. "A large fleet under the command of Supreme Commander Harrison James Potter, the current leader of the United Nations Space Command appeared at the edge of the System, right where the energy anomaly was spotted." Nitork said making Metarra frown in confusion. "And, I didnt think a few ships would require us here." Metarra said simply only to get a choking sound from the bridge crew and a light cough from Nitork. "Milady, it isn't just a few ships, the fleet is well over seventy-eight ships." Nitork making Metarra cough up the small glass of water she took to drink.
"What? That's a fleet that could completely eradicate most any empire's forces without any real contest!" Metarra said making Nitork nod slowly. "Why did you call us here then?" She asked getting a bout of silence for a short moment. "We have no real choice but to surrender, the charge up of the power systems are taking far to long for us to escape, we need you to negotiate the surrender of our ships and men and hopefully get fair treatment." Nitork said getting Metarra to frown. She shifted nervously at the request unsure if she could do so. "I see, then let's get this over with." Metarra said with a short sigh. The screen came to life as their request was sent. "What if they should deny the request?" She asked getting a tense silence to fall over everyone. "We hope for the best I suppose." Metarra said slowly nervously looking at the screen.
Harry's POV
He rubbed his forehead slightly as he thought over the obvious misunderstanding. 'And of course, I am the person that has to deal with this.' He thought to himself trying to relax as much as possible before the probable slugfest that was negotiations. "Sir, we have a request for communication from cruiser class ship." The Communications Officer stated making him nod slowly. He stared at the screen as it flashed to life and two young women were on screen with the Commander just behind them. He stared for a moment and blinked in surprise. The women were fairly beautiful and seemed to blink in shock at him as well. "Hello, My name is Diplomatic Counselor Metarra and this is Diplomatic Counselor Centila, the situation has been explained to us and we offer our full surrender all we ask is that you do not treat the crew or the ship badly, other than that you may do with us what you wish." Metarra explained making the entire bridge crew look at him.
He stared in silence trying to ignore the stares of interest directed at him. "I am certain we can entertain you enough to ensure their survival and good treatment." Metarra said making his eyes widen at the implication even though he noticed the disdain she had when using the word entertain. He glanced at the two Admirals and noticed the slight twitching of their eyebrows while their mouths were twitching as well. He opened his mouth to respond before shutting it with a click as he could possibly see a way out of this mess. He rubbed at his forehead desperately wishing the pain in his head would fade away. He felt relief quickly and sighed before staring at the ceiling for a moment. "Yes. I understand what you are saying but I feel that will be unnecessary." He said getting silence for a brief moment before Metarra exploded in desperation.
"Please, I ask that you accept." Metarra said making him give a strangled out scream and stare her down seeing her words die in her mouth. "Sir. Please, we would like to resolve this in such a way that all those aboard these ships get to return to their families, our Sister is currently the ruler of our Empire she can easily offer some form of payment for our return." Centila said softly making him mentally weep at how this was all going down. "A small shuttle craft will be dispatched with Centila, our Commander, and Myself. Please allow us to board." Metarra said just before the connection cut. He stared at the screen and let his head drop in his hands. "We may have started a war just by jumping into a system and a small misunderstanding." He said slowly taking his hat off and rubbing his head. "Well look at it this way, you can always explain once they are on board." Admiral Blake said making him sigh softly.
"Yeah, I guess. Send a general communication to all ships, do not fire on the shuttlecraft launched by the Cruiser." He said getting a nod in response and leaned back in the chair as he saw a small object leave the cruiser and move towards his ship. "What bay are they being guided into?" He asked as he noticed the two fighters leave the ships hanger system and turn to guide the shuttle to them. "Bay 3-45." The Traffic Control Officer said making him relax and turn to the two Guards and nodded. He watched the two open the door and lead him to the Elevator. He waited as it slowly lowered to the appropriate floor leading to the third region. He found himself lead to a waiting group of vehicles and got in the passenger seat for one before seeing the group pull off onto the road and move for one of the larger groupings of landing bays.
He got out quickly as he saw a small grouping of guards waiting near the blast door protected airlock into the bay. He let them group up around him before he walked into the bay proper staring at the shielding around the open entrance. He could see the two fighters pull back to follow the shuttle in from behind as it crossed through the shield and hovered over the ground slightly. He heard the dull thud of the landing gear making contact with the metal grating around the solid metal flooring that made up the pad. The small hiss as the drawbridge door lowered caught the attention of several maintenance crew workers. He waited while ignoring the sounds of work that echoed through the bay as the three people inside slowly moved down the walkway and onto the bay floor. He stepped out from behind the guards and up towards the small group of three.
"Supreme Commander Harrison James Potter, welcome aboard my ship." He said slowly offering his hand seeing the two girls look at it for a moment before Metarra slowly offered her hand. He shook it for a moment before letting go. "As was explained we surrender ourselves to you." Metarra said while Centila blushed brightly. He sighed softly and nodded before turning to the side. "Perhaps it would be best if we talked about this in a more comfortable location." He said seeing both women blush for a moment. "I suppose comfort would be appreciated." Centila said softly making him stare at the two for a moment. 'I can't help but feel like they are taking what I am saying way out of context.' He thought before having one of the guards lead them to a closed off secure meeting room used for visiting officials and military members to speak with him before departing.
He offered a seat for the both of them and waved to any of the open ones for their commander friend. He took the seat at the head of the table and pulled his hat from his head. He ran a hand over his fairly short hair before setting the cap down on the table in front of him. "Let's get down to business." He said as he nodded to the two guards who stepped outside the room and the locking indicator on the doors flashed red. "I am surprised you would be so trusting to allow us in here with you alone." Metarra said before narrowing her eyes. "Although, while I was expecting living quarters of some sort, should you get to that point I ask you only use me. I would prefer my sister gets away with her innocence intact." Metarra said just as he opened his mouth to say something. He closed it with a click as he looked over the two and sighed.
His sigh carried over the entire room while he slumped in his seat somewhat. "You know, we got off on the wrong foot." He said seeing the confusion on both Metarra's and Centila's face. "Before I explain can I have your name?" he asked turning to their commander friend. "Nitork." The man said simply his eyes hard. "Right, This is all a misunderstanding, I didn't contact you to demand your surrender, in fact for my people this is a First Contact scenario, I didn't even know you would be in this system." He said seeing their faces drop into shock. "We are currently on a classified mission that happened to take us into the same system you were seemingly stopped in for the night." He explained seeing both the women's faces light up red. He could see the slight anger in their eyes and backtracked quickly.
"Mind you, I appreciate that if I had been asking for a surrender that it wouldn't lead to conflict and the unneeded death's of yourselves and your crew and I do find you both to be incredibly beautiful, however, I don't feel like you need to worry about what will happen." He said seeing both calm down for a moment before blushing at his words. "I am glad to have you aboard though, as this is a First Contact scenario I need to formally apologize for scaring you all and would like to ask if I could speak with you or your leader at another time." He said seeing the surprised look on their faces and slow nods. "I don't see that as much of a problem. Our leader is normally fairly busy so she may ask us to venture to your capital or a meeting point to speak in greater detail. However, at the moment we can speak now." Metarra explained getting a little hopeful at the end.
"I would love nothing more than to continue talking but I doubt my Admiral's will appreciate our mission being delayed much longer." He said before the door opened quickly showing both Admirals. "I don't think it will be much of a problem, sir. After all, this is a fairly momentous occasion and is considered a higher priority over our current mission." Admiral Blake said making him relax into his chair. "Ah, that is good news to hear. Then if you are still willing shall we begin?" He asked as both Admirals took seats on either side of him closest to him and for some reason slide their chairs closer. He saw Metarra and Centila watch both of them and the slight narrowing of the eyes at the action but for the life of him couldn't figure out what was going on between the four of them, or why the tension seemed to skyrocket the moment both of them sat down. 'Well, this ought to be an interesting meeting.' He thought leaning forwards to begin and hopefully cut the tension. Needless to say he failed at that.
The talks didn't break down, luckily for him they actually went really well, but the tension was constantly there no matter what he did. "It is nice to know that even though we would have been giving ourselves up to you, that you wouldn't have done anything unspeakable." Centila said quietly making him laugh slightly to himself. "You don't really need to concern yourself with that, I'm not exactly one to tolerate that type of thing let alone actually participate in it myself." He said getting two smiles in return. "If you want to I am certain you can return to your ship." He said getting the two to glance at each other. "No. We would like to spend the night here if possible, this is the largest ship we have ever seen before and it's from an empire no one in the galaxy really knows anything about, or if they do they aren't saying anything." Metarra explained a little bit of excitement in her voice.
"Very well." He said getting both Admiral's to stare at him and he sighed. "However for any movements outside of your room's I will request a guard be with you, and I need you to understand if they say there is anywhere you cannot go, you must listen I cannot allow military secrets to get out or for you to go somewhere that isn't safe, an international incident is the last thing we need." He said getting the two to smile and nod happily. "Will we be able to meet with you the following day for some time before we need to head back to our ship?" Centila asked making him nod slowly. "I am certain I can meet with you for a short time if you feel it is necessary." He said as a group of guards came in and escorted the three out and towards the living questers used by visiting officials and officers. "Let me explain." He said as he could see both women open their mouths to speak.
"By allowing them this I not only get on the good side of two ambassadors from this new nation. I also make sure they are only subjected to what we want them to see." He said seeing both close their mouths and mull it over. "I suppose this is an appropriate move to make, it does limit what information or knowledge they obtain to what we deem acceptable and it paints us in a much better light to whoever is their leader." Admiral Blake said relaxing somewhat. "I should hope that it won't go wrong though that would leave an undesirable side effect for us." Admiral Pushkov commented coldly. "I wouldn't think anything wrong would happen, but let's not tempt it. Take care on your way back to your own ships." He said watching as they both stood and saluted making him snap one back before leaving the room. He sighed and relaxed into his chair. 'Well, there is one stressful situation over with, onto the next one.' He thought sarcastically.
A/N: Whelp. I hit 10k words in one chapter, and I am very happy with how it turned out, it was pretty much what I wanted. Mind you the beginning of the chapter doesnt seem like anything special that's because I was trying to show how not everything in his life is suppoer exciting or awesome he still has to deal with the day to day bullshit. I hope you enjoyed this chapter the next following one might be a bit longer to produce and release for you since I am going to keep on attempting to make large chapters like this.