AN: I understand that Dust only works in Remnant, but I feel like a sufficiently advanced empire could find a way to easily bypass that restriction with some intense experimentation.
"Of course, I don't like the anthropomorphic animals. I run an empire, not a petting zoo." - Imperator Yang XII (current Imperator) on his xenophobic attitudes towards the mammalian races in the galaxy*
*It is noted that the mammalian races in the galaxy have a popular approval rating of only 14%, far behind the humanoid races at 95% and even the lithoid races at 43%.
ITANS Hailong, 75 km off the coast of Menagerie, 11:20 am local time
Admiral Francis Davidson was looking out of the bridge of the ITANS Hailong with binoculars, trying to spot any hostile beings or civilian ships in need. It had been a week since the Technocracy revealed itself to these primitives and two days since Francis and his crew landed on this planet along with other contingents of troops. His ship was tasked with patrolling a section of this world's oceans for any threats and observing any natives to study the civilization's habits on the water. The Hailong is a 320-meter-long, 70-meter-tall aquatic battleship that was heavily armoured and had six large-sized railguns, three along the bow and three along the stern, and an uncountable amount of flak turrets, autocannons and missile launchers, which were the standard for imperial combat tactics; an intense focus on ballistic weaponry and missiles, with an equal emphasis for armour and shields, and laser-based weaponry taking a backseat.
Francis heard the sound of the Wraith strike crafts and Banshee fighter drones flying above his ship and chuckled to himself upon thinking about the AI drones flying around. He remembered reading old Earth science fiction books about a sentient AI deeming humanity a threat that needed to be eliminated. Now, over 10% of citizens are classified as high-sentient, extreme personality matrix possessing AIs and forming bonds with their fellow organics, sometimes intimate and romantic. Sentient AIs are also in the armed forces, and not only as traditional soldiers with laser weaponry; sentient AIs are also present in ship targeting systems, automatic tank pilots and the Banshee drones flying overhead. Even his ship has a dormant sentient AI that makes constant scans for organic signatures and will activate and take over all ship functions if detected signatures fall below 15%. Every Banshee drone has its personality and can converse with organic pilots, although reports say they are "unbearably arrogant."
"Sir," a crew member said, interrupting his thoughts. "We have a vessel on scope. It appears to be a civilian passenger ship, but we are detecting weapon readings from it."
"Pull up its manifest," Francis said. "I want to know everything onboard that vessel."
"Aye sir, one moment please."
The crew member tapped their tablet for a few seconds.
"No one on the vessel stands out sir, but these names were flagged for some reason."
Francis then looked at the two highlighted names.
Belladonna, Blake
Wukong, Sun
He immediately recognized the names of students who attended Beacon Academy.
"Set course alongside that vessel," Francis said.
"Aye, sir. Should we also-"
"Sir!" The yell of a radar technician interrupted the both of them. "Detecting a large serpentine mass heading directly for the vessel!"
Francis immediately sprung into action.
"Set flank speed towards the vessel!" He yelled towards the navigation crew.
"Aye, sir!"
"Gunnery crews, charge the railguns and ready missile batteries!"
"Aye-aye sir!"
As the Hailong moved to assist, the crew on the other ship were in a full-blown panic, scrambling to the weapon systems while the captain tried to steer the ship away from the Feilong. The weapons fire upon it, but it doesn't seem to affect it in the slightest. The main cannon fired but missed it entirely. Blake and Sun both moved to engage the Feilong, distracting it while the crew reloaded the main cannon. The first mate then runs into the bridge in a state of sheer panic.
"Captain!" He yells. "We have an unknown ship approaching us! It's not responding to hails!"
"Keep trying!" he yelled back, hoping, praying that the unknown ship wasn't trying to capitalize on their dire situation.
Meanwhile, Blake and Sun were busy engaging the Feilong, each taking turns fighting it, but seemingly not making a dent at all.
"You're not supposed to be here!" Blake yelled at Sun after she caught him.
"Yeah!? Well, it looks like you can use all the help you can get!" Sun yelled back.
Blake rolled her eyes and dropped him onto the ground.
"Just shut up and fight!"
However, before both of them could react, a series of explosions struck the Feilong, causing it to shift its focus away from the ship and toward the new interloper. Then a massive crack sounded as a large chunk of metal tore through the air and struck the Feilong in the body, tearing a large chunk away from it. Another crack sounded before another large chunk of metal hit the Feilong in the head, decapitating it. As the body sunk beneath the waves, everyone on the ship just stood there in shock and disbelief before a voice sounded from the unknown vessel, causing everyone to look at it.
"Attention civilian vessel," the unknown ship said. "Prepare to be boarded."
As the unknown ship rapidly advanced, everyone on board watched as the unknown ship vertically deployed four bridges that slowly descended onto the deck of the passenger ship. Six figures in high-tech armour emerged from the four doors that the bridges were linked to and walked towards the captain. Blake saw six figures emerge from doors on the other ship and quickly moved across the gap and towards the ship's bridge.
"Greetings captain," one of the figures said. "You probably have many questions."
"U-u-uh yeah," the captain managed to get out. "Who are you?"
"Let's just say we were in the area and decided to come and help out. Now then, where were you going before that... thing interrupting?"
"Menagerie, why?"
"We wish to speak to two certain passengers on your ship and we will not leave until we do."
The rest of the figures moved menacingly, forming a half-circle around the captain.
"W-which passengers?"
"Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong."
The captain nodded nervously and asked the two passengers to come to the bridge via the intercom. Within two minutes, Blake and Sun reached the bridge. She saw the figures that were on the other ship were now surrounding the captain.
"Ah, Ms. Belladonna, Mr. Wukong," one of the figures, evidently the leader, spoke. "We've wanted to speak to you for some time now."
"Who or what are you?" Blake asked in a nervous tone.
"Not here. You three, take Mr. Wukong to the bow of the ship."
"Yes sir," another figure said sharply.
"Captain, continue your course. Miss Belladonna, we need to have a chat."
The four walked until they were at the stern.
"So can you tell me just what you are now?" Blake asked.
"Well Ms. Belladonna, we are... not of your planet." The lead figure said.
"...What? What do you mean you're not from this planet? You are a human right?"
The figure chuckled at that. "We are indeed human Ms. Belladonna, but just look at us, look at our armour and look at our ship. You are an intelligent woman, Ms. Belladonna, I'm sure you can piece it together."
Blake did piece it together, although she didn't want to believe it. She also remembered that she saw a similar figure who fought Adam during the fall of Beacon. After a few more minutes of questions and answers, the figures regrouped and four left the ship but two stayed on board, keen to find out what this "Menagerie" was.
"Captain," one of the figures said. "Our ship would like to escort you until you are three kilometres from the shore. Would that be okay with you?"
"Sure," the captain said. "Just... tell them to please tell them to keep their distance."
"Will do."
Sure enough, after around two more hours, the Hailong pulled away and seemingly went along its normal route.
Outpost 乌鸦避山 (Crow's Refuge), western coast of Menagerie, 4:33 pm local time
Unbeknownst to the crew of the civilian ship, the Hailong did not head in the opposite direction of Menagerie after they were three kilometres from the coast. It instead headed around the western coast of the continent towards one of the five outposts that the Technocracy had on Remnant. After another two hours of travelling and an uncomfortable amount of airborne Grimm getting too bold, the Hailong finally arrived at Crow's Refuge. It was a medium-sized outpost, having no less than one hundred and fifty men present at any given time, with a dock and five landing pads for various aircraft. Its location was also a very tactically sound one, as the main population center was along the northern coast and its inhabitants avoid the desert entirely as dangerous fauna reside there, although the outpost hasn't encountered any so far. As the Hailong was docking, another man within the control center was busy overseeing a holographic display of the continent, three red dots marking three members overseeing the settlement.
"Crow's Refuge, come in," the leader of the recon team said. "We have eyes on two members of the Hailong's security detail tailing a girl with cat ears and a boy with a monkey tail. How copy?"
"Loud and clear team leader," the overseer said, adding two red dots and two blue dots on the hologram. "Will you be able to provide fire support when necessary?"
The overseer heard a scoff through his earpiece.
"These abominations? Hah, we could throw a bone then a grenade and we would wipe out half of the settlement's population."
"Answer the question, squad leader."
"Yes, we can. What? I can't voice my disgust over these abominations?"
"No."
"Well, I hope the Technocracy has a plan for dealing with them. Out."
The two members of the Hailong's security detail were lounging around the port, not wanting to venture into the settlement itself. They had already received many looks from the residents, ranging from curiosity and interest, mainly from the children, to nervousness, distrust and even barely disguised disgust. They weren't concerned for their safety, but they were concerned about tracking Blake and Sun through the crowds of people. After about five minutes of not doing anything, one of them had an idea.
"Our armour can morph into anything right?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?" The other member responded.
"They fitted us out with experimental Wraith tech right?"
"Yeah, but we can't possibly change our whole bodies to be- wait, what are you even talking about?"
"You forgot, our armour can take the appearance of anyone, just like what the Wraiths do, so all we need is to," He imitated the motion of getting his neck snapped. "Two of these natives and we'll blend right in. Sure we'd have to avoid water like the plague but it's foolproof!"
The other member sighed. "I seriously cannot believe you're saying this."
"I sold my conscience a long time ago, I don't plan on getting a new one any time soon."
"Well, I say hell-fucking-no. We'll wait here until the ship leaves, we report what we find, and then we come back, with a diplomatic squad."
"You're no fun."
"I am logical. You're not."
"What are you humans even talking about?" A native said from behind the pair, causing both to suddenly turn around.
"Oh, uh, nothing important. Definitely nothing you should be concerned with."
The native stood there for a while, shrugged, then went away.
"I think we should get back on the boat."
"For once, I agree with you."
Information Data Logs
Message from/to Johnathan Liu to/from Gerald Harrs:
To: Harrs, Gerald
From: Liu, Johnathan
Date (in Earth time): January 11th, 2435
Subject: Need Negotiator
CC: Imperial Affairs Office, Imperial Revenue Division
Gerald
I have arranged a meeting with a very prominent family of a native society that we have been keeping tabs on for some time now. This meeting is of the utmost importance and as such, there can be absolutely no room for error or mistakes. If the deal is successful, we could have unfettered access to a substance that, if we could get around its uselessness outside of an atmosphere, would render us unstoppable in combat. If this meeting were to fail, however, the Technocracy would not think twice about invading the planet, killing everyone present and mining it dry. I am already busy with keeping the war hounds away by promising results, but if they were to find out about a substance that could make us unstoppable, no force in the known universe would keep them from invading, and I do not want that.
I know that you had that incident with the Hausian Hegemony, but that was seventy-five years ago now and we own the Hegemony now. To tell you the truth, I'm desperate. My diplomatic skills are laughable and I need this plan to succeed.
Don't fuck this up.
Johnathan
To: Liu, Johnathan
From: Harrs, Gerald
Date (in Earth time): January 13th, 2435
Subject: RE: Need Negotiator
CC: Imperial Affairs Office, Imperial Revenue Division
Johnathan
You had me at "a meeting with a very prominent family." I'll be at your little palace within the week.
Open a bottle of wine for me.
Gerald