If you guessed Geth, then you fell for my trap. (Ignore this if you don't.) Note that the Geth will not exist until one and a half millennia later. The council declared the Rachni extinct just over four decades ago. Considering the bio-stasis, more ships could have survived at first but starved due to neglect or sufficiently damaged systems.
P.S. I just knew that the Romans had concrete and steam power, forgive my ignorance!
P.S. Thanks for enlightening me about the Romans, history's not my forte, science fiction more or less is.
But that's enough of my rambling, here's the first chapter!
= 6th May, 1340 AD =
Alpha Centauri-a
Orbital Platform 15
Observation Deck 3
3:42 p.m. S.E.T
Sensors are blaring in the neuro links of every office on board the platform. Civilians are told to evacuate the platform through the space elevator. The AIs activate the platform's defenses, thousands of Starship-Grade laser turrets and a hundred Flagship-Grade laser turrets come to life. Combat walkers are activated and TCM pilots rush to their stations. An unknown object is approaching the system at FTL speeds with an ETA of one minute.
Dark matter sensors detected the fast approaching object, an unnaturally high amount of dark matter moving conventionally at superluminal speeds. A distress call is sent to the surface to keep contact with the platform in case of a hostile force. If the comms are abruptly severed, all warships are to immediately enter orbit and engage the threat. Drones are deployed from the platform to intercept and encase the object in a Flagship-Grade energy shield, a recent advancement with the ability to block ten gigatons of explosives before shattering.
Combat walkers begin to organize themselves in formation on the platform's surface and the TCMs prepared their massive energy weapons. A tense minute past and a burst of blue flames emerged from the void. With a nanosecond gap, the drones activate their formation energy shields, locking the object in a 1 km cube of Flagship-Grade shields. The object drifted towards the shield, receiving a hostile repulsion force from the all but transparent shield upon contact. As if reacting to stimuli, the object turned away and stopped moving inside the shield.
As it stopped, the drones quickly and thoroughly scanned the gigantic object. A three dimensional model with naked eye level detail is produced, alongside scans on its internal chambers and all things within it. Composite scans result in an accurate representation of the ship and its contents. The produced image is relayed through the neuro link to the system's high command and to Earth's sudden contact division. Herald's fear of a bad diplomatic contact due to tardiness is reflected in the division's creation a century past.
Mental holo screens projected by the neuro links reveal the appearance of the ship. A 500 m organic looking ship, a light frigate by human standards. It looked like an elongated barnacle with four pairs of spines on its circular portion coupled by an insectoid design that complements its shape. Temperature scans show human like temperatures and a dynamic flow of heat throughout the ship. Composition scans reveal predominantly organic compounds, composite images reach a conclusion, an alien bio ship.
Analysis is still going on and all defenders of the platform are frozen in their combat stance. Turrets are still locked on and guns are a trigger away from blasting the alien vessel to space debris. Communications are relaying a possible biohazard and the population is urged to wear power armor or environment suits for fear of an extremely potent engineered plague. Upon the announcement, the population reacted quite well, quickly finding and equipping their respective power armors and weapons for safe keeping. Virtual decades of simulation have made each citizen a veteran soldier with varying personalities.
Scans by the sealing drones reveal the ship's inhabitants are in stasis and immediately, alert level is reduced and the officers await the diplomatic and scientific team to arrive. All biological operatives are to disengage and be on standby, ready to engage if the ship's inhabitants prove hostile. As for synthetic operatives, they are to keep weapons primed and a close eye on the dormant bio ship.
An hour later, the diplomatic vessel and its escorts arrive. A 5 km long and 12 km tall ship, the Sovereign Grace is a large diplomatic vessel designed to showcase the strength and technological prowess of mankind. Its throne like appearance is also an indicator of man's sovereignity over its stars. Like all vessels of its kind, the Sovereign Grace is equipped with armaments designed to elevate its combat ability to rival warships of its size. Combined with an agility based engine system, the vessel is a nimble and formidable foe in any confrontation.
As for its escorts, a pair of 4.5 km, whale shaped warships designed to support the ship rather than protect it during engagements. The Sovereign Grace and its escorts approached the energy shield and hailed the station's command. By Herald's command, the platform is to disarm and await further orders while the Sovereign Grace contact the aliens. The energy shield dissipates and the drones return to the platform, deactivated. Its escorts approach the alien bio ship and flanked it on both sides.
Weapons powered to life and pointed themselves at the bio ship. "Weapons on and target locked." Said the AIs of the escort ships through the neuro link. Captain Ulfric Jöran, a large man of scandinavian descent and the current captain of the Sovereign Grace responded mentally, "Noted, thank you." He turned towards the diplomatic team inside the ship's oval shaped bridge and briefed them with a thick viking accent, "The escorts ships have taken position, prepare to board the ship in approximately five minutes."
The diplomatic team before him consists of 5 people and an escort. On the far left is Natalya Svetlana, a lithe and graceful russian woman who once worked as a KGB operative, now a full fledged diplomat skilled in the art of persuasion. Beside her is Akil Ausar, an egyptian scholar in biology and xenobiology who volunteered to join the division out of an interest in alien life. The man in the middle of this team is Cadmael Gabor, a latino diplomat. The two ladies on his right are Sun Seohyun and Ichika Fujiwara, an AI engineer and Warp Physicist respectively.
Their escort is a man whose very aura intimidated the captain, even when his weapons are nowhere to be seen. The Paragon of KwaZulu-Natal, they called him. The leader of the Zulu Aspect Shrine, a warrior who singlehandedly held back an army of mutated corpses until the apocalypse invasion simulation ended with an Aspect Shrine victory. Despite the Aspect Shrine's relatively new existence, only about two centuries of age, the Zulu Warriors are easily on par with the older and more experienced shrines.
The paragon wore a pair of tribal fur trousers and leather scarfs made from the fur of genetically enhanced predators to be slain in ritualistic combat. He held an ordinary looking spear but anyone knows that the weapons of the Aspect Shrines are deceptively advanced. This fact extends to his tribal armor and his wooden shield. One wouldn't know the difference until the spear slices through Sol metal like a hot knife through butter and the shield's ability to tank missiles with relative ease.
The diplomats exited the room, followed by the Zulu warrior. Visibly relaxed after the warrior's departure, the captain started inputting commands to the ship to tractor beam the ship to its hangar. A ray of light encapsulated the alien ship and moved it gently towards the Sovereign Grace's hangar. Progressing at a speed of 10 m/s, the alien bio ship took five minutes before it entered the hangar. Upon entry, the ship deployed its drones to probe for an entrance. Shortly after, the drones managed to hack into the ship's organic systems and trigger an entrance to open.
The diplomatic arrives just in time to the hangar. All but the paragon wore power armor to protect themselves from a possibly toxic atmosphere. As an extremely modified superhuman, anything less than an hour of space vaccuum will not suffocate the paragon. As the entrance opened, brownish mist billowed forth as harmful gases from a toxic atmosphere escaped the ship. Lead by Natalya, the diplomats and their escort entered the massive alien ship.
First, they entered a corridor with dark colored walls pulsing with dim light and life. Like an insect's shell, the walls were rigid but organic. As they walked for several minutes, their power armor registered higher temperature readings, moisture and faint electrical readings. Soon, they arrived in a large, spherical chamber 50 meters wide. Thousands of pods emerged from the wall, insect figures laying dormant in amniotic fluid. The centerpiece of this chamber was a platform connected to the entrance corridor by a bridge and the human sized egg that lay upon it.
Akil approached the egg and carefully activated his scanning tools. Glowing patterns formed on his power armor's palm and soon, the system alerted Akil of its succesful activation. Gently, he placed his modified power armor's hand upon the egg's armored surface and began taking data. A dim light shone from the palm as readings are taken. The program did many quick readings of the egg, allowing a composite image of its inhabitant and its current state to be defined.
After repeated scanning to increase accuracy of results, a composite 3d image of the creature was generated. A large dark blue creature sporting many bioluminescent white dots, an alien cross between an ant and a spider. It stood on four multi jointed legs and sported a pair of tentacles ending in pod shaped claws. To be careful, Akil checked its vitals, to make sure that the scans are not disturbing or damaging the creature. To his relief, bioelectric and brain wave readings suggest a dormant or developing state, no signs of damage are detected.
Akil cross checked this alien species with the eusocial insects of all human worlds as he noticed its great similarity to black ants. It seemed to have the pheromone sacs common in ants and bees. Morphology suggests closest in relative to ants as its exoskeleton and general appearance are much like ants compared to other species. Based on its size and placement, Akil deduced that this must be a queen sub species and all the beings inside these pods must be its subjects, its workers. Considering its likely developing stages, the egyptian xenobiologist assumes an older queen leaving these workers behind for the young one, hinting a likely refugee situation.
Akil quickly uploaded his findings and deductions to the division via the neuro link. He decided to inspect the ship further for more details on this species. The rest of the diplomatic team divide themselves into two groups and venture inside the ship, the Zulu Paragon accompanying the xenobiologist. Hours and hours were spent by the teams mapping and analyzing the ship, every data and deduction delivered to the division. Soon, the team left the ship after extensive examination of the ship and its suspended occupants.
The next day, the ship is carried to Earth for research and resuscitation of the vessel.
= 17th May, 1340 AD =
The structure in Charon now known as a 'Mass Relay' has its systems cracked. A wide network of relays are spread throughout the galaxy and each of them have been located. The element Neferium has been discovered from it and research into its mass bending properties are underway. A massive amount of unprocessed data still stands, AIs estimate two decades of work in filtering, processing and interpreting the 990 brontobytes of data.
= 31st October, 1340 AD =
On Halloween, scientists succesfully developed an organic terminal to access the alien ship's biological storage systems. The data is expected to be fully understood and ready for public view by Christmas. First contact news is broadcasted as rumors.
= 27th December, 1340 AD =
Webpage on the Rachni is placed online. Much about the galaxy at large is learned from the Rachni computer. The Rachni are a hivemind insectoid race from the tidally locked world of Suen, where extreme temperature fluctuations and a toxic atmosphere forged the Rachni into formidable race. The Rachni are divided into four subspecies with different functions in serving their hives.
Queens are the largest of the Rachni, measuring 50 feet long upon adulthood. The queen acts as the matriarch of the hive, birthing the population and guiding it, much like a bee queen.
Brood Warriors are the senior combatants and male specimens of the Rachni hive. Heavily armored and equipped with powerful snapping claws and acid, the Brood Warriors are the hive's answer to elite enemy troops.
Soldiers, the infantry of the hive. They are generally sexless and degenerated versions of brood warriors, but make up the loss with their sheer numbers and teamwork.
Workers, small and green aphid like members of the hive. The workers' function are self explanatory, acting as the hive's construction and maintenance staff. When threatened, the workers perform suicide explosion to spray its enemies with highly concentrated acid.
The Rachni are completely ignorant of the greater galaxy until one day, the Rachni are visited by travelers from beyond the relay who came to build colonies. Upon finding a viable planet but colonized by Rachni, these travelers suddenly opened fire on the Rachni, assuming that they are wildlife. Driven by their rage over intrusion and unprovoked assault, the Rachni retaliated and captured the ship.
The Rachni gained knowledge from the trespassers and improved their ships to travel through the stars. Using Neferium, the Rachni aggressively colonized other worlds to grow more hives and spread their "song", a form of synthetic perception of sound as sound and color. However, they discovered a coalition of alien races who promptly provoked them and refused to leave them alone. When they chased the aliens away, they returned days later to attack them and so, the Rachni fought back in self defense.
Battles were launched as the Rachni retaliated upon dozens of worlds, overwhelming defenses and claiming more for their own. The war had progressed in the Rachni's favor for sixty years, the coalition driven back battle after battle. Suddenly, a new alien race emerged and gradually defeated the Rachni. Unhindered by the toxic atmosphere of Rachni core worlds, this species slaughtered the Rachni Queens and rendered the species extinct by the greater galaxy's knowledge.
The Rachni Queen egg in Rome is likely the last of her kind and as children of the Most High, we are obligated to save her race and lead her to the right path.
= 5th February, 1341 AD =
Scientists manage to hatch the Rachni Queen's egg. The queen opens her eyes to the laboratory and the scientists use pheromones to communicate with her. The Rachni Queen accepts the name Sarai, for she will be the mother of the reborn Rachni. Sarai is expected to reach adulthood in a decade, Venus is designated to be the place for her hive.
= 8th May, 1341 AD =
Contact with non-humanoid Rachni is expected to increase tolerance towards alien. Herald adds tolerance lessons in schools via simulations and curriculum to further this increase.
= 1342 AD =
The first Rachni in pods are released, the Queen immediately soothes them with her pheromones. Tests are conducted to see the extent of her control and her mental prowess. Sarai will undergo a five year education programme to bring her technology standards up to Spooky Drive FTL.
= 1345 AD =
The Proxima fleet is accomplished ahead of time. A 100 light year radius prompts rapid expansion to occur, economy begins to boom.
= 1347 AD =
Sarai finishes her study programme. She commands her workers to incorporate the new technology to her bio-ship. A decade is expected to be taken to develop an organic cold fusion reactor and spooky drive.
= 1348 AD =
Herald approaches Sarai and asks for permission to genetically modify her. The queen complies and spends her last two years from prematurity in an undisclosed Trismegistus laboratory. Her servants are brought with her to prevent them from rampaging in fear.
= 1350 AD =
Sarai emerges as a stronger and greater being, now of a new and great stage of the Rachni Queen's life cycle, a Rachni Empress. A plate like head crest now rests on her forehead and a pair of mandibles extended from her head. She gains a centaur like build, a humanoid upper body with two pairs of arms ending in four claws and an elongated spider like torso with eight multi jointed legs. She possesses a psychic brain capable of large scale and superluminal telepathy. Her psychic abilities are expected to grow upon expanding her hive.
She begins laying eggs and establishing the foundations of her hive on Venus. The toxic environment of the planet did not hinder her progress, her natural resistance as a Rachni and her modifications have made her immune to the hellish world's extreme conditions. To aid her, Herald built towers to collect water from the atmosphere and used his powers to halve the pressure.
The removed atmosphere is converted into solid carbon based molecules and oxygen, placed deep underground. The reduced pressure caused a major cooling effect to occur as the planet's temperature drops to 213C.
= 1353 AD =
A sizable hive is established on Venus, a new generation of Rachni is born. Genetic modifications on the queen result in an extra sub species to emerge. The Tyrantguard, sentient semi humanoid Rachni with four arms and wings for short ranged flight. The Tyrantguard heavily resemble beetles but retain the general Rachni appearance. They stand 3 m tall and possess the brain capacity to wield human weaponry such as energy blades and laser pistols.
The Tyrantguard are provided simulation training as a gesture of goodwill from Herald, a century of training are now encoded in their genetic memory.
= 1355 AD =
The second generation of TCMs are available, 25 m tall and equipped with spaces of several customizations to be built. Combat modules Hekatoncheires, Valkyrie and Jotunn are available.
= 1358 AD =
The hive successfully creates its first Non-Neferium bio ship. At 2 km long, it was the largest Rachni vessel ever constructed. Christened as the "Colorful Whisper", it allows the Rachni to expand beyond Venus. Herald designates several star systems at least 70 light years away for Rachni colonization, Sarai complies and accepts this gift.
= 1360 AD =
Combat Station Yggdrasil is converted for future civilian use and its design is changed. Based on its new design by Herald himself, it will approximately take 130 years to complete. Thankfully, the economic boom of expansion will not be affected by this grandiose project.
Sorry if this doesn't have as much plot as you expected!
So yes, the Rachni are the first contact.
I'm thinking of setting up a citadel council outside the relay system, and make it outdo everything the council in every aspect, especially its stupid and prominent laws. Maybe I can steal member species, hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Thanks for reading!