"If there ever was such a thing as an absolute moral prerogative for all of humanity, it would be to explore the cosmos and embrace all within it. For in this dark and unknown forest, we were never meant to explore alone." - Imperial Foreign Affairs Office Motto
Bridge of the ITS Dominion, Unknown star system, Unknown location
Admiral Williams was just coming to after his fleet travelled through the Riftjumper tunnel and he passed out. Everything was still spinning, so he got up slowly while gripping his command console. He saw that the rest of the crew were also waking up just as the red holographic screens flickered back to life. Some of the crew got up slowly, while the ones who had already gotten up gazed out of the windows and the rest just whimpered on the ground and needed their comrades to pick them up. Judging by their continued existence and the fact that their fleet hasn't been transmuted into something else, it appears that their jump was successful.
"Comms officer," Williams weakly said. "Get me the-" He threw up into a trash bin. "Get me the Absolution. Now."
"Aye sir," the communications officer weakly replied as he dragged himself to his seat. They got themselves up and weakly typed on their display. "Absolution comms... comms open, sir. Holy shit my head..."
The sound of Julie throwing up was the first thing Williams heard after establishing comms with the Absolution, which was to be expected. Two minutes of Julie retching, vomiting and gagging later, she finally realized that the comms channel was open.
"Williams? Is that you?" Julie weakly asked. "Holy fucking shit, my head feels like it's about to burst."
"Yeah, same here," Williams said. "How are things on your end?"
"Fine. Well holy shit Williams, I think we made it to a new universe relatively intact!"
"We sure did, Julie. Now then, let's get down to work."
"Agreed," Julie said before terminating the connection.
"Science team to your vessel, begin your survey!" Williams said through the ship comms. "Construction teams, begin outpost and Riftjumper gate construction!"
"Aye, sir!" The science team responded.
"Right away, sir!" The construction teams said.
"I want a full diagnostic of every ship system," William said to the bridge. "Let's not get caught with our pants down."
The room then descended into sounds of tapping and conversation that lasted for thirty minutes before finishing.
"Report?" Williams asked.
"Reporting sir," a crew member said. "Thrust systems undamaged, armour status: untouched, life support: undamaged, hyperdrive: undamaged, shields: depleted, current charge nineteen percent, weapon systems: offline, perdition beam cannon and targeting: offline, FTL inhibitor: offline."
William grimaced. Having the Dominion's weapon systems offline would mean losing a large chunk of the fleet's firepower.
"How fast can you have them back online?" He asked.
"With no starbase support? I don't know, maybe twelve Earth hours?"
"Have every ship report their diagnostics. Let's see how bad our situation is."
Within half an hour, every single ship had submitted their diagnostics. The corvettes were hit the hardest, some even sustaining hull damage from the jump, which was to be expected as they were the smallest ship in the fleet. The destroyers also suffered heavy damage, but at least their armour integrity hadn't been depleted yet. The cruisers, battleships and the Absolution all had their shields depleted, but just sustained minor superficial damage.
"Well then, I propose we give our new step into another universe a name. I dub this system Iliad!" Williams proclaimed, to the applause of the crew.
Just then, an alarm sounded on one of the screens. The associated crew member faced it at once.
"Sir?" They asked. "The Dominion is picking up a psionic signature on Iliad III. It seems to be a... distress signal?"
Williams raised an eyebrow at that.
"Can you translate it?"
"No sir, it does not appear in our language data banks."
Seeing that it would be very impolite to just ignore a distress signal, especially when it was made using an unknown language, Williams made up his mind.
"How fast can we get to Iliad III?"
"At flank speed sir? Thirty minutes."
"Contact the Absolution," William said with a smile. "I'll let Admiral Conner know that she should prepare for first contact."
"Aye, sir."
The Dominion then turned and headed towards Iliad III.
28 minutes later, ITS Dominion hanger bay
Williams and fourteen members of the Punitive Corps assigned to the Dominion were waiting in the hanger bay waiting for the Dominion to arrive in orbit of Iliad III. They all wore their Bastille exoarmor, their XM-599 assault rifles in their hands, their XM-598 pistols holstered on their right and their XM-577 swords holstered on their left. All of them and Julie were extensively augmented with nanites to the point where they could not feel certain emotions or pain, which as a consequence they couldn't re-intergrate back into civilian life, not that they minded. They all wore capes as was standard for members of the armed forces, as they were seen as heroes by both children and adults alike, protecting the Technocracy from all threats. Although the Dominion was moving, ships still landed and departed from the hanger bays, mainly the science ships and construction ships.
"Sir," the dispatch officer said. "We have arrived in orbit around Iliad III. You may proceed to your Falcon."
"Thank you," Williams replied. He and his squad then grabbed a medical cot just in case. Within a minute, their falcon took off and made for the surface of Iliad III.
Elathana had been frantically searching this blasted complex for what seemed like a lifetime. She felt that she was so close, so, so, close yet so far. She had taken multiple shots to her sides and couldn't feel her left arm. All she could do now was to run and evade as she was in no position to fight back. She could only pray that someone was coming for her.
"We're coming up on the landing site now," The falcon's pilot said through the communications. The squad looked out of the viewports of the dropship at the environment below, or more accurately, the lack of one. A massive complex in the shape of a massive old Earth cathedral, where they were now converted into museums of scientific development.
"Holy shit, this place is huge," one squad member said.
"It looks ugly, like some child's drawing," said another, despite the complex being somewhat gilded in gold.
"Thirty seconds, get ready!" The team then stood and lined up in twin parallel lines. Harnesses descended from the ceiling and attached themselves to each squad member's waist. Once everyone made sure their harness was secured tight, each member pushed a button on their left and right sides, respectively. The floor dropped from beneath them as each member saw the polluted and dead ground racing below. A few moments later, the fifteen-man squad dropped from the Falcon which was hovering fifteen feet above the ground.
"Maintain a perimeter around this location and wait for our signal," Williams said while equipping his rifle.
"Copy," the pilot replied.
Williams then pointed to a squad member. "You, do we still have a reading on the psionic signal?"
The squad member took out a holographic tablet and tapped on it. "Straight ahead, seven hundred and fifty meters."
"Let's move then, I'll take point."
With that, like a synchronized machine, a squad of the Imperial Punitive Corps entered the complex. The squad discovered a massacre inside, dozens of corpses in green armour, human corpses, and the corpses of aliens in bone-white armour.
"Holy shit," a squad member said.
"Why didn't they retreat?" Another member asked as they walked past ever more corpses. Williams stopped to look at one.
"Here's why," he said as he reached down and ripped off a piece of paper attached with a wax seal from the chest of a corpse. "Spiritual scripture, no doubt telling each believer to forfeit their lives to some holy deity and to destroy all who aren't them. Looks like humanity in this universe has devolved to blinded fools drowned in lies." Williams said as he crushed the seal with his armoured hand and as the rest made sounds of disappointment.
As they moved deeper into the facility, they encountered living human soldiers in green armour who shot laser rifles at them, which seared or bounced off of their neutronium armour. The squad mowed them down with their rifles, the neutronium .50 BMG rounds piecing their armour and bodies as easily as if it were paper.
"How much further?" Williams asked the member holding the tablet.
"Left here, then another two hundred and twenty meters." The squad member replied.
The squad moved deeper into the facility, killing resistance as they went.
Elathana was drifting in and out of consciousness due to blood loss from her various wounds. She had managed to find a room to hide in like a coward, but she could only focus enough to just minorly heal her wounds, at least she finally found the artifact. To add insult to injury, the sound of las-fire erupted again but this time accompanied by sounds of conventional kinetic weapon fire. A new sound appeared, a conversation but not in a language she recognized.
"这些可怜的傻瓜..." A voice said.
"更加证明招魂术是文明社会的克星," another voice said. Elathana knew from the tone that they were Mon'keigh, but they didn't have the fanatical frenzy that the Imperium was known for. Instead, they were pitiful, disappointed even.
"还有多少?"
"然后还有十米..." That was all she heard before she finally passed out.
"..and right here," The squad member holding the tablet said. Williams pushed on the door and found that it was locked. With a kick, Williams busted open the door.
"What the..." Williams began as he laid eyes on what he saw. It was a humanoid creature, evidently female and very wounded, wearing the same bone-white armour as the ones he and his squad saw on the corpses throughout the complex. "You two, get the stretcher!"
Two of the squad members unfolded the white medical cot while two others carefully lifted the unconscious figure onto it. As the squad left the room, a group of green-armoured humans with shotguns and laser rifles turned the corner and began firing. Two of the squad returned fire, killing four and forcing the rest into cover.
"Sir, I think we should go!" A squad member shouted over their shoulder as lasers seared their armour while buckshot bounced off.
"Agreed," Williams yelled back. "Pilot, we need to extract, meet us at the drop-off point!"
"Understood," the pilot said.
The squad then rushed through the corridors towards the exit, with two slightly slower to not further damage the figure on the cot they were carrying. Williams saw the Falcon dropship pierce the clouds of the polluted atmosphere of Iliad III, allowing the light of the star to shine in, if only for a moment before the clouds sealed it again. The dropship then landed and allowed thirteen members to board, including the ones carrying the cot. A few moments later, the other two members busted out of the entrance, laser fire following them and searing their armour.
"We need to go, now!" One of the running squad members yelled out. The dropship took off as soon as the last squad member set foot on the interior floor, closing the door behind them and laser fire hitting the hull. There was silence for a long time before Williams spoke up.
"Contact the Dominion," Williams said to the pilot. "I want a full trauma team to meet us in the hangar as soon as we land. Priority one importance."
"Yes, sir," the pilot said. No one said anything else as they flew back to the Dominion.
ITS Dominion medical bay, surgery ward
As soon as the dropship landed, the alien subject was handed over to the waiting trauma team who transferred the subject into a waiting ambulance. As the Dominion is a massive ship, two ambulances were deemed necessary for medical emergencies. Williams headed to the bridge to file a report for the Technocracy and a first contact report while the rest of the squad delivered the alien's spear and pistol to the science labs.
As soon as Williams finished his reports, he rushed to the medical bay, being greeted by the head surgeon as he entered.
"Hey doc," Williams said. "How is she?"
The head surgeon sighed. "Well, we have the best surgeons working on her and the best AI surgeons assisting."
"So she'll make it?"
"Most of her at least, we still don't know if we can save her left arm, however."
"Well do the best you can. It would be very rude if the first thing she sees when she wakes up is a robotic arm replacing her left one."
The head surgeon nodded before returning to the surgery ward. Williams looked on in both worry and fascination at the alien on the operating table. Being the first one to make contact with an alien race was so exciting!
Information Data Logs
帝国惩戒队 (Imperial Punitive Corps): The Imperial Armed Forces, the Saviours, the Monsters and the Demons. These are all names given to the Imperial Punitive Corps. They are the main military branch of the Technocracy, which the current Imperator is the Chief Commander of. They are composed entirely of nanite-augmented individuals with the earliest enrollment age being 18 and the oldest being 50. These augments include; the reinforcement of the skeletal structure with neutronium braces and implants, reinforcing muscles and increasing twitch speed, and the removal of the centers in the brain associated with emotions, mainly fear (with exceptions), sadness (with exceptions) and disgust, and are unfortunately unable to reintegrate into civilian life because of this. They are exceptionally hard to kill, with the only reliable methods being destruction of the brain, destruction of the heart or decapitation, with any other method being quickly healed and negated. It has many subdivisions, from normal divisions and divisions specialized in operations in multiple environments to a specialized boarding division with special weaponry. It is considered the highest honour one can have alongside joining the science division, and all members wear capes with the symbol of the Technocracy.
XM-445 "Bastille" Exoarmour: The Bastille is the armour issued to all members of the Punitive Corps which was inspired by the designs of medieval Chinese armour; it is the magnum opus of imperial combat armour, a full suit of neutronium plates that covers one's body from head to toe, impenetrable to many calibres of projectile armaments, many wavelengths of laser weaponry and extremely blast resistant. For reference, neutronium comprises the armour used for warships and battle tanks. It has an integrated nanite compatibility both responsible for repair and integration into a nanite-augmented body. When not in use, the Bastille dematerializes into the subject's body, with some parts providing benefits with others not providing anything. The helmet is equipped with 25x zoom, real-time target analysis to pinpoint weak spots, vision in many wavelengths and interception technology for communications, the arms combined with the gauntlets allow one to punch through two and a half feet of concrete and the leggings allow one to run at up to 75 kph and jump as high as a two-story building. Essentially, the Bastille allows every member of an army to become their one-man army.
XM-599 "Huolong" Assault Rifle: If the Bastille is the shield that protects the soldier, the Huolong is the greatsword that cuts down his enemies. The Huolong is the standard-issued rifle for the Punitive Corps. It fires .50 BMG rounds made out of neutronium at a rate of 8 rounds per second with a sixty-round magazine and is capable of penetrating nearly any armour present on an enemy soldier or enemy vehicle, with one soldier destroying an enemy tank by hitting the ammo racks and detonating the rounds. It is also capable of materializing and dematerializing at the will of a nanite-enhanced individual. It is at the front of the few propaganda featuring the armed forces and has multiple variations, including a quad-barreled version for the boarding party and ship security division of the Punitive Corps. The firing sound has been described as "orgasmic."
XM-598 "Taiping" Pistol: The Taiping is the pistol issued to the Punitive Corps and fires the similar .50 BMG rounds used by the Huolong with less penetrating power. Although it is a pistol, it can still be devastating towards standard infantry and is more than capable of holding its own against the foes of the Technocracy, capable of punching reinforced glass and lightly armoured vehicles and aircraft with ease. Some members of the Punitive Corps preferred the Taiping over the Huolong as their pick for their main weapon, most notably commanders, engineers and medics. Like the Bastille and Huolong, it can also materialize and dematerialize at will.
XM-577 "Ampere" Sword: The Ampere is a monomolecular, katana-style single-handed sword used in every single part of the Technocracy; from the Punitive Corps and Planetary Guard to field teams and civilians. From even before the Interstellar Solar Technocracy even existed, the act of gifting the Ampere was a form of "coming of age" ceremony. Once an individual reaches the equivalent of 18 standard Earth years, regardless of gender, they are to undertake the ceremony. The process of the ceremony is as follows; the participant kneels on their left knee while facing a high-ranking member in their local community (i.e. scientist, soldier etc.). They then place their right hand (or equivalent appendage) over their left and extend both arms towards the high-ranking member who will proceed to stab both hands with the sword to be gifted. Participants are allowed to express pain at this stage but must remain silent throughout the ceremony. This step serves a dual purpose; it acts as both a symbolic bond, the act of binding one's sword to one's self, and a practical bond, the sword is now biometrically coded to the individual and can only be unsheathed by said individual. The participant will then take the sword and scabbard with both hands, stand, attach the scabbard to their left hip, sheath the sword with their right hand while holding the scabbard with their left and bow to the high-ranking member before them. They may now get medical treatment for their wounds. It is not uncommon for those going to war to inscribe the name of a friend, family member or loved one on the scabbard to make any future combat as personal as possible, especially if the enemy claimed the life of said friend, family member or loved one. As the sword is of immense honour to an individual, the loss or destruction of the sword causes immense shame to both the individual and their family members, and it is not uncommon for those who have lost their swords to commit suicide. The theft of a sword by another individual is punished by death via beheading, often by the very sword they tried to steal. Prisoners are often punished by the destruction of their swords in full view of themselves and any family, friends and loved ones to show all that the prisoner is forever dishonoured and can only spend the rest of their miserable life in a labour camp. Like with the Bastille, Huolong and Taiping, it can also materialize and dematerialize at will.
XM-342 "Falcon" Dropship: The XM-342 is the Technocracy's main dropship, troop carrier, and cargo hauler. It has two large engines mounted to its hull, which give it unmatched speed in both atmospheric and space scenarios; autocannons mounted to the top and underneath the cockpit provide it with respectable firepower; and drop-down floors allow for rapid insertion of troops or other teams. It can also double as a respectable fighter, but it's inferior to dedicated fighters. It is also surprisingly durable, with one Falcon landing with half of its control surface blown out and another Falcon delivering cargo in massive storms.