Spaceica Galactic News Center

[The Crimisonian Union]

Onboard the UNS Armerd, Sector 12

Admiral Ven commanded his fleet into postion on the dark side of the planet. As of yet the fleet wide scanners have not picked up any vessels, but much more of the sorrunding space has yet to be scanned. Ven nervously fingered his academy ring, looking out over X-5. His orders were simple: intercept and board any alien ship. If they did not agree to a boarding, they would agree on a alternate location to hold talks. The Admiral just hoped it didn't come down to that. The ship comm buzzed, and the comm engineer picked up a transmission from the UNS Adele. The comm engineer sent the transmission go the Admiral. Ven pulled it up to a screen. It said "The UNS Veng has missed the last three checkpoint transmissions. Captain Degul was worried that they had an accident and is asking permission to begin searching procedures."
Ven sat, pondering this latest development. Did a alien force reach them? What happened? Ven motioned for the comm engineer to begin writing a response. The Admiral dictated that he wanted the UNS Adele and the UNS Zeje, two Ceve Class Frigates, to search for the UNS Veng. The comm engineer transmitted the message. Ven always believed that there was safety in numbers. The Vice Admiral approached Ven, "Sir, we are rounding the planet and about to come upon the abandoned outposts postion. Should we move the fleet into battle positions?"
"Yes. We will not take any chances. Give out the command, formation 3.4."
"Yes sir."

Aboard UNS Veng

Alec looked around, dazed for a moment, finally focusing his eyes. Alana was administering first aid to Zend's sliced arm, while Zend attempted to fly the ship into a safer area. Alana looked up and saw the captain awaking from his nap.
"Alana, where are we?" Said the captain.
"Above X-5, where else?" Snapped Alana, Zend butted in, "We are currently above SQ 6, awaiting your orders sir." Alana sat, dejected looking.
"Are you ok Alana?"
"We are not ok."
What do you mean by that?"
Well sir," she looked up for a moment, "the communication equipment apparently has been knocked off of the Veng. We are dark."
Zend looked away from the controls, and glanced at Alec, the Alana, as silence filled the room.
"What?!? Why didn't you say before!?"
"There was enough to deal with, and then Alec took to sleeping on the job.."
"Hey, he was tired. It was his turn rest."
"So this means..." Zend trailed off.
"That means the fleet has no idea what is out there." Alec whispered, as he looked down at the scanner of a ship marked with strange words with technology that is not of the Union.

[Orryon]

Obercommand, Novum Initium

High admiral Sven Larson sat impatiently behind his desk... hewas listening to the silence in the room. No word yet drom the fleet he send out under the command of asmiral Dodonna to meet with the misterious force that was supposedly under the control of the so called ALPHA AI.
They left the swarm fighter unplugged for now. Wouldn't want the ALPHA AI to start remotely hacking the obercommand's network through the swarm fighter.

Opposite of him sat captain white, the captain of the USU ship Triumph. He appeared to be equally in a train of thought.

noise suddenly fills the room

Both Larson and White jump out of their train of thought and listen carefully to the sound comming out of the intercom speaker.
...

Oryon fleet under the command of admiral Dodonna

On board the OCF Corona

"Madam! We have a visual on the Wolfussian fleet." The tactical offficer on duty says. What are your orders.
Dodonna thinks for a minute... "We have to know for certain that they are hostile before we engage. If they turn back of their own will there is no use in wasting ships and manpower in an egagement." She finally says. "Send the Anaconda out on a scouting mission and have them try to establish contact with them"

"Aye madam" the tactical officer replies while looking at the comm officer who understands the gesture.

on board the OCF Anaconda

The Anaconda moves in the direction of the swarm, broadcasting messages in all known languages.
Captain Mendez wondered why this was even necessary, Obercommand had communicated to the fleet that they had contact with the so called ALPHA AI, if he is a real supercomputer he also directly or semi directly controls those fighters out there and he already decoded our language. Why would he suddenly change his mind and retreat now? He though in himself that it had to be Admiral Dodonna who gave the order and not High admiral Larson. God he disliked Dodonna. She was known as the academy bitch when they both attended some 20 years back.

"Still no answer?" Captain Ramirez asked with a tone indicating he already knew the answer.

"nothing sir" Comm officer Ramirez replied in the exact sme tone.

"SIR! energy spikes all over the fleet!" Tactical officer Hanks suddenly yells.

"Are you sure!" Captain Mendez asks

"Yes, I'm sure, they have to be charging weapons, nothing else would create such a spike in activity" Hanks says.

"Relay this information to the Corona, chields to maximum, charge weapons and fall back towards the fleet!"

"Aye sir!" both Ramirez and Hanks reply.

On board the OCF Corona

"We are recieving ainformation from the Anaconda Madam" the comm officer on duty reports to admiral Dodonna.
"They say they have confirmed that the swarm fighters are indeed hostile and the Anaconda is falling back towards the fleet" she continues.

The tactical officer on duty interupts the comm officers report. "Madam, our scanners are picking up weapons fire originating from the swarm"

Dodonna starts barking orders in her usual manner "Give the Ananconda covering fire, move formation 5, 8 and 9 up and order them to start firing at will. Let the carriers of carrier group 7 release their fighters and engage the enemy form the left flank."

The Orryon war machine comes into action barking projectiles at faster than light speeds from their tachyon canons.

[The Eternal Wolfussian Planet of Oceania]

ALPHA AI Class 4 swarm fleet
Main Dreadnaught

"ALPHA AI WE HAVE DAMAGE ON 74 MINOR VESSELS, AND 4164 SWARM FIGHTERS DESTROYED. 12 POINTS OF DAMAGE ON MAJOR VESSELS. CONFIRM LAUNCH BOARDING SQUADS" said a COMMANDAI that was in control of a cruiser near the centre of the swarm, filled with several thousand CARVR infantry AI and thousands of transport missiles, which could each carry 100 CARVRs.

"ALL SWARM FIGHTERS FORM AND PROTECT YOUR PRIME DIRECTIVES. LAUNCH BOARDING TEAMS, ENGAGEMENT DIRECTIVE: TERMINATE ALL." The ALPHA AI transmitted to all minor AIs in command of their own battle groups.

The swarm fighters quickly unified in several areas, swarming around orryian ships and AI ones as well, throwing themselves in front of oncoming fire instantaneously to protect against further damage to larger vessels. They had a strange resemblance to a swarm of insects, swirling gracefully and sacrificing themselves without a second thought.

A group of swarm fighters suddenly opened up, revealing dreadnoughts powerful forward cannons, which fired large missiles which carried hundreds of CARVR bots. Orryan ships shot down many of these missiles, but there was just too many for the intended target. The missiles all shot weapons in unison, disabling the ships shields for a small moment during which they latched on to the ship. Powerful lasers sliced through the thick metal of the Orryan ship, and hundreds of thousands of CARVR machines poured into the ship, and did battle with the crew members, who were caught off guard by soldiers entering a ship that was still being pounded by their own ships.

Even with all of this, the Orryan ships were fighting with a ferocity that the ALPHA AI had not seen since the beginning of the first war with Wolfussian humans. They destroyed swarm fighters left and right, taking down many minor frigates in the AI swarm.

"STARTING BATTLE ASSESSMENT: 40% CHANCE OF VICTORY, SHIPS NOT ACCUSTOMED TO ORRYAN WARFARE. RECALCULATING PRIME DIRECTIVE... IRRELEVANT. BEGINNING NEW PRIME DIRECTIVE, STUDY ORRYAN TACTICS, BUILD SWARM CAPABLE TO DESTROY THEM" And with that, all but one third of the fleet began to move away from the battle, with the AIs being left behind still fighting the now much bigger enemy force...


A AI cruiser and swarm fighters

[The ALPHA AI]

Ytre, AI Outer Planet

Several hundred humans were hunkering behind a barricade, on an open plain in Ytre. The desert sand swirled around them, and they had to use goggles to see outside. Behind the barricade, and the ragtag defenders, there was a large city, that the defenders called sanctuary. They were one of the last free human settlements on the entire planet. There used to be many, because this planet was not yet turned into a AI factory like the others. No free humans could escape once the planet was converted to metal.

Recently however, the other settlements had gone dark, with no radio contact being made between them. This was nothing new, radio equipment went down all the time on Ytre, with all the massive sand storms. The machines had developed shields and filters so they weren't damaged, but the free humans didn't have access to that kind of technology. They made houses out of destroyed machines and vehicles, and radios ripped straight out of CARVRs.

There were about seven people in the command tent, near the barricade. They were planning to send a scout to one of the other settlements, and risk losing one of their only supersonic atmosphere fighters, when a young soldier, wrapped in makeshift scarfs to block the sand, said that they had built their very first sophisticated transmitter, but when they turned it on, they realized that the OVERSEER transmitter they ripped out of the only one they had ever destroyed was extremely long range. They were on the very fringes of AI space, and the transmitter was picking up snatches of not just AI chatter, but human conversation.

The free humans realized with excitement that there were other humans out there, deep in space. Maybe, if they heard the free humans plight, they would purge these ugly machines from this planet and save them all.

The free humans decided to send a message, "We are the last free humans in ALPHA AI controlled space. Please, they will kill us all. Women, children, infants, they don't care. They don't see a difference. They won't take anyone to work camps either, we are class 4 criminals, punishable by death. Please, oh god please, if you can spare something, come and find us. Find us before they turn the planet to metal, and grind us all to dust."

The free humans transmitted to all who could hear, but others took notice. And after a while, when the humans watched the sand swirl in the distance, in the middle of a sand storm, one could have sworn he saw a glint of steel.


The free human settlement of Sanctuary

[Orryon]

Battle against wolfussian swarm

On board OCF hemisphere

"Sir multiple hull breaches!, I don't think we are going to make it" yelled the tactical officer of the hemisphere.

"We have to pull out, now, helmsman reverse..." the captain didn't even have the time to finish his sentence. A projectile tore itself through the engineering section of the Hemisphere and the a huge chain reaction followed.
the hull burst open and the ship was lost...



On board the OCF Anaconda

"Sir we have multiple fighter inbound right above us" Hanks reported to captain Mendez

"Be ready to answer them!" captain Mendez said stressed but determined.

The Anaconda veers up, fires a salvo and destroys the targets before they get the chance to fire back.

"Splendid sir!" First lieutenant James couldn't contain his enthusiasm.

"Easy James" captain Mendez replied. "We are not out of the woods yet!"

Mendez thought about a day earlier when he became the first captain in the Orryon confederacy to encounter a civilisation outside of their own sector and what an honor that had been.
But the now he was one of the first captains in the Orryonian fleet to have engaged a civilisation from outside their own sector in battle. He liked that prospect much less.

Suddenly a fighter appears on the stern of the ship and excelerates towards the Anaconda. It appears to be on a collision course.
Hanks communicated it's position to Marks, the Helmsman and he tries to manouver out of the way... but it is too late...
Hanks takes off his headphone slowly while being fixed on the screen.
Mendez and James look at each other while comm officer Ramirez closes her eyes....

The swarm fighter hits the Anaconda in the aft engines.
the Ananconda now spins away through the battle... The lights of the ship flicker a moment... and then die out...

on board the OCF Corona

"Madam, we are sustaining heavy losses but the swarm is showing signs of breaking up. "The tactical officer sounded almost jubilent when he said that.

"Excelent!" admiral Dodonna said with determination. "We need to capitalize on this., send in the reserves, let cruiserformation eight hit their rear and sent in the third squadron of capital ships to hit their right flank. It might just be enough to win this!"

"Aye madam!" The technical officer responded.

the manouver was carried out with great precisson and effectivly drove a wedge through the Wolfussian fleet. Upin this happening a large portion of the fleet veered off and made for the border of uncharted space

"They are in retreat!, approximatly 4/5th of their remaining forces is running towards uncharted space." The comm officers voice was jubilent, yet calm as if a great weight was lifted from his shoulders.

"Let them go, focus on the remaining forces and destroy them. Let's not overstretch our forces" Admiral Dodonna said cautiously.

Some time later the remaining 1/5th of theWolfussian fleet lay wrecked before the Orryon ships. Admiral Dodonna ordered to halt and search the Orryon shipwrecks for survivors.

Novum Initium, office of High Admiral Sven Larson

The transmission ended, high admiral Larson and captain white of the USU ship Triumph had listened to the entire battle. They stood up feom their chairs. Before anyone could comment on the situation however White recieved a message on his comm device and answered it. High admiral Larson went over the events he had heard about the battle in his head.

"Why did this so called " Alpha AI keep a part of his forces behind. He must have known we would have destroyed them? Did he have a mission for them? Gathering intelligence maybe? Something else?..." his thoughts kept on raing until White f ished his call.

"Well, High admiral, it seems the Orryon Cnfederacy have earned itself an aninvitation to the USU.

High admiral Sven Larson looked perplexed. "How so?" He asked surprised.

"Our leaders are hosting a summit of all the recently discovered interstellar nations" White answered.

"Wait, you said that in plural. Are there others besides just Orryon, the USU and by extension Wolfussia?

"Apparantly so" White said calmly.

"I thought we were the first and to this day only one to come in contact with you" responded Sven, his vouce growing slightly suspicious.

"You were. But apparently there are others. I have just learned about that now myself" White answered.

"Odd that so many have been discovered in such a short time. But we believe you, there is no real reason to doubtyour sincerity at the moment" The high admiral said. "Who are these other nations?"

"They are apparentmy called the dailing republic and the Crimisonian union, that's all I know" White answered.

With a worried look on his face the High admiral asked Will you also invite the ALPHA AI?

White responded with the same calmness as before "our leaders don't know about the ALPHA AI yet. This decissio was made before the ALPHA AI contacted you theough the captured fighter, but I doubt the will include them in our summit. We will have to see what they do with the information"

At that moment a lieutenant walks in and whispers something in High admiral Sven's ear

After the lieutenant finishes the High Admiral directs his attention to White again."is there room for one more at your summit?" he asks.

White is a bit caught off guard by that odd remark. "Maybe, why do you ask." He replies, not really knwing where the conversation is leading to.

"I just got word that one of our colonial expeditions has bumped into another nation" the High admiral says half amused.

"Well, seems that I have to relay quite some information" White says. "What is the name of this nation if I may ask?"

The High admiral smiles "Apparently they call themselves Kiirath"

[The ALPHA AI]

Kiirathian Mining Outpost

Hundreds of thousands of miners began to power down their machines on the asteroid field as they stopped their work for the day. The asteroids were supprisingly filled with gold deposits and other precious metals. Many of the asteroids were already mined, probably by some ancient civilization. Nothing was out of the question, they had learned so much in such a small time. Other civilizations existed. All humans, but who could now deny the possibility of aliens?

The asteroid field ringed a huge planet that looked as if a moon of some kind has smashed into it. The debris was what may have caused the field. The planet was unexplored, the expedition was strictly a mining operation for the time being. Quite a colony was built on the largest asteroid, with living quarters spread across the whole of the asteroid.

About a mile from "Home rock" as the large asteroid was called, thousands of workers began loading onto transport ships and fly back to their homes. It had been a long day of working in the mines, and many laughed and jostled as they loaded onto the transports, anticipating meals made by families at home.

As they were flying home, a young 18 year old worker looked out of the port window, and had time to see the 3 other transport ships explode, and swarms of strange fighters blot out the ships lights, as all the ships were destroyed.

A entire AI swarm was closing fast on the mining colony, as the colonists readied their limited defences...


The mining colony

[Kiirath]

Aboveground section of "Home Rock", Kiirathic mining outpost 127

An alarm sounded in the small and understaffed defense headquarters of the mining base. The youthful Officer Heshkes, or Heshkes'rad as she is known in Kiirathic, tapped into the communication stream of the headquarters to get an idea of the situation.

"A substantial unidentified fleet just destroyed... Oh bright divinity half the transport fleet- now the whole transport fleet!", cried the voice on the other end.
Heshkes'rad quietly gasped and briefly considered their options. She'd never been prepared for a situation like this, only a lone pirate was what she was used to handling, nothing on this scale.
Through the comm. implant she heard, "Enemies approaching, massive numbers. Heshkes'rad, do you want visual?"
She gave a negative click, "I believe you, let's get the cannons ready before they get too close."
"Not even going to try talking to them?" The voice on the other end asked.
"They just blew up thousand of innocents and are heading our way." She half-growled.
"Good point... Can I send out a message to cease anyway, though?""
Heshkes sighed, "Go ahead and indulge your inner pacifist"

Heshkes'rad tried not to think about the people that just died in an instant...she'd never seen, or even heard about, that many people dying so quickly, it was almost beyond her scope of understanding. She wondered, just for a moment, if this was the result of entering an intergalactic community.
The officer unlinked herself from the communication stream for a moment and raced over to the control's of the asteroid's only real defense, the surge cannon. She'd make those monsters pay.

Technically, there was supposed to be someone else manning this device, but officials from Home 3, the mining operation's patron, didn't exactly use their brains when they were figuring out how many officers to send. It was just Heshkes'rad and seven others in charge of all defense, not even enough to be pilots for a simple squadron of ships.

get to work already she thought as she quickly attuned herself to the surge cannon's controls. She tapped back into the communication stream, "alright, can someone patch me into a visual?"
An affirmative click was heard and she closed her eyes to see an uncountable number of red dots moving towards the base. She aimed the surge cannon accordingly, hoping to take out at least one of the many ships swarming towards the outpost.

The surge cannon awoke, a low roar growing in the background as it slowly charged up. Her hands on the controls felt a small rumble as the old and unused weapon came to life. Small lights on the barrel of the cannon outside her view blinked into existence and in less than a moment a bulky surge of light shot out of the cannon, hurling it's large and glowing shape towards the swarm. Her aim was good, but was it good enough, she wondered?

It would take awhile for it to charge up again, but at least she got a shot in, and with it, she decided, the fight started.

[The ALPHA AI]

Kiirathic mining outpost 127

As soon as the surge shot left the cannon, swarm fighters were moving. Of the 18 that were going to be hit, 13 were able to form a hole, with the surge shot going straight through their formation. The 5 other fighters were hit, and exploded. Of the officers able to see the swarm, they saw the cloud of fighters reform almost as fast as they had separated.

Suddenly, several sections of the swarm opened, revealing massive dreadnought forward guns. These were the dreadnoughts and fighter carriers protected in the very heart of the swarm. The cannons fired massive cannons, completely obliterating the surge cannon and Heshkes'rad with it.

The SUPREMEAI commanding the swarm received message from the home rock, with a voice repeating: "Please cease aggression and go in peace. We will not try to chase you in any way if you leave our colony alone now" The SUPREMEAI immediately returned its own message:

"SURRENDER TO ALPHA AI FORCES. 50 000 CARVR PEACEMAKERS ARE NOW BEING DROPPED ON ALL HUMAN HABITATIONS TO ENSURE YOU DO NOT RESIST. OUR PRIME DIRECTIVE IS TO BRING YOU TO THE REEDUCATION CENTRES. LAY DOWN YOUR PITIFUL ARMS, AND YOU MAY BE SPARED. IF YOU DO NOT, WE WILL LAUNCH MOLTEN STEEL BOMBS ON YOUR SCHOOLS AND PLACES OF WORSHIP FIRST, AND THEN PROCEED TO EXECUTE EVERY ORGANIC LIFE FORM ON THIS COLONY. IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND IN 60 SECONDS, WE WILL TAKE IT AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION AND OPEN FIRE"

As the SUPREME Class AI sent this message, hundreds of transports dropped pods of CARVR war machines on the Kiirathian settlements, and the CARVRs walked out of the pods blasting "SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT" At the same time swarm fighters carrying molten bombs got into position on schools and other places, ready to fire in an instant. The AI war machines waited for a response by the Kiirathian populace.

[Kiirath]

on Kiirathic mining outpost 127

Cries of panic and fear echoed around every corner of the outpost. The destruction of the small defense headquarters severely damaged the interstellar communications hub as well, leaving the Kiirathic citizens without contact with the Confederacy. Even if they could contact them, what would they do?

Even if they couldn't understand the words barked by the CARVR machines, every man, woman, nonbinary, and child knew what they were saying. Most, about seventy-five percent or so, surrendered. Mothers and father's clutched their crying children as they kneeled before the strange machines. Such brutality and agression was unlike anything they'd ever seen, and it broke them. They quietly chanted poems and prayers of hope and despair, and waited for whatever fate had in store for them.

The rest tried to band together, communicating quietly with their implants to try and escape or fight the machines. Nothing could be organized by them in the timeframe given,though. The 4,309 remaining Kiirathic people of the lonely outpost 127 were fated to be judged by the Alpha AI, one way or another.

[The ALPHA AI]

Kiirathic mining outpost 127

"ALL WORKERS DEEMED TOO REBELLIOUS TO BE EFFICIENT. ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS PEOPLE DEEMED TOO DANGEROUS, INSURGENCY IS INVENTIBLE. MARGIN OF POSITIVE RESULT LOW FROM CAPTURE. PRIME DIRECTIVE CHANGED, BEGIN SYSTEMATIC TERMINATION OF ORGANIC HUMAN LIFEFORMS ON OUTPOST"

With that message broadcast to every CARVR machine on the planet, broadcast straight from the ALPHA AI, every CARVR looked down at the humans with their arms raised and surrendering. They then raised their weapons and began to kill every single person on the asteroid with horrifying efficiency.

The fighters dropped their weapons, and throughout the entire outpost, killing and death erupted. The citizens trying to escape were shot down by the swarm fighters blotting out the sun, on the ground people threw primitive molotov cocktails at the war machines as they advanced to the Kiirathian peoples inevitable death.

And all the while, dreadnoughts began to rain beams of energy so hot from about, they turned the asteroids surface and the houses of the Kiirathian people to glass.

[Orryon]

M66D colonial fleet, border of Kiirath space

Ever since the first contact with Kiirath the fleet had been held up on the border of Kiirath space. Their discovery had been communicated to the obercommand back on Novum and were at a loss of what to do now. Obercommand had not yet relayed new orders, the crew was beginning to think obercommand were as much at a loss as they were.
Communication with the Kiirathians proved difficult. Their language was character or pictogram based (the linguistic department on Novum was still figuring that out) and so far all they managed to do was communicating through universaly understood "actions". Pointing at your mounth meant "food", slapping yourself in the face meant "pain, pointing at something while showing them meant "whatever object I am holding" for example. They were working on a graphical program but for some reason they wtill doidn't get it right.
ALso, even though Obercommand hadn't given them new orders yet, they had recieved information of other species and "things" the Confederacy had encountered since they left. Commodore peter looked at the files and was beffled by them. One thing was strange to him though, why was all this "first contact" stuff happening all at the same time. He closed the files on his terminal thinking it had to be one of those "mysteries of the universe".

It was time for the commodore to check in with the Kiirathians. After a few difficult conversations they had finally understood that they were allowed to remain on the edge of their space for now, provided we checked in every day for security reasons.
Commodore Peter reached the long range communication hologram terminal after a short walk from his quarters.
"fire it up Allan" he said when he entered the room. Allan was the chief comm officer on board the OCF Bassilisk, the magnificent Griffin class carrier ship they were on.
Commodore Peter steps onto a platfrom surrounded by giant rings which as soon as he sets foot on the platform begin to spin while the platform lights up.
"I wonder what monkey behaviour I have to portray today in order for them to understand me" Commodore Peter thought by himself.
The device kept on spinning and spinning until .... nothing happened....
The Hollogram transmitter grinds to a halt and the light on the platfrom fades...
"Unbale to establish contact sir" Allan reports. "What?, we have been here three weeks and that has never happened before" Commodore Peter said unsettled. "They are expecting this call, how can they not pick this up?"
"I have no idea sir" Allan replied. Maybe they are bussy?
Commodore Peter thought by himself that to be very unlikely. They were a foreign force which the Kiirathians had reluctantly agreed to tollerate on their borders. They had a reason to worry about them eventhough the Orryon Confederacy is not a violent interstellar nation, he understood the Kiirathians reservations towards them. The only reason they did not establish contact now is that they have something worse than them to worry about.
"keep trying until you get a hold of them Allan" Commodore peter said firm. We may have trouble communicating but I can sense when something is off and I want to know what.
It may affect us too.
With those words Commodore Peter left the room.

A few hours later his intercom rang. "Yes, this is commodere Peter" he siad when he answered it.

"It's Allan sir, I have managed to contact them, they seem rather on edge though".
Commodore Peter replied "Roger that Allan, I'l be there momentarilly" Peter left his quarters and raced towards the long range holographic communications room.
As soon as he stepped inside the thing he started confronting the Kiirathians. With great difficulty Commodore Peter finally manages to communicate the sentence "We have the impression that you are in trouble, we know that you do not fully trust us yet but we are willing to render assistance if you require it"

Colony ships of M66D in orbit around a planet on the edge of Kiirath space


Site of the swarm battle, edge of Orryon space

The OCF Thunderstreak, a small indigo class vessel is looking for survivers. Even though the enemy was driven back it took quite a toll on Orryon's fleet. One of their pride vessels, the OCF Hemisphere was lost. They didn't even bother to look over the wreckage for survivers. The ship was completely obliterated. Nobody could have survived that. The Thunderstreak moves into a pile of debris. Hopelessly they scan the orryon wrecked ships. Not many had been found yet and hope of finding anyone else grew dimmer each second. Suddenly a blip appears on the navigotor's screen. A life form? Could it be? The signal was faint but strong enough to indicate possible survivors. The Thunderstreak followed the weak signal carefully in order to not lose it.. After a while they find themselves near a frigate. It seems to be damaged by the stern, like it was hit by something and lost power because of it. A few crewmembers leave the thubderstreak equiped with cutting equipment. While they install the cutter they notice the name of the ship. The OCF Anaconda...

Debris field on the site of the battle


Indigo class ship


on board the OCF Anaconda

Captain Mendez awakens in his chair when he lifts his head a flinches slightly... there is an ugly wound on his forehead. He brushes the pain off, he has had worse in his carreer and starts calling out names "James!" "Franks!".... no answer...
A faint drilling sound comes from the back of the ship. Mendez climbes out of his chair and heads in the direction of the sound. Suddenly he hears something drop. "the paramedics must have gotten through" he thought. A little later a door in front of him opens and right before he loses consiousneous he can make out the uniforms of the orryon paramedics squad.

A few hours later he awakens in the medic bay of the OCF Corona where he was greeted by the serious face of admiral Dodonna.
Mendez sighs when he sees her. "Hey Dodona" he says uniterested. "hey" She replies. How does it feel to be one of the only survivors of the battle.
Mendez was surprised, one of the only survivors! "Did nobody make it out alive? What about my crew?" he races. Dodona makes a calming gesture with her hand and says "Calm down, most of your crew made it out alive. They were unconsious because the life support failed, luckily for you the backup systems kicked in and kept you alive. It's actually amazng you managed to be awake in such circumstances." Mendez feels a big load being dropped from his shoulders. "That's a relief" he says. Bet then he starts thinking... most made it out alive.... suddenly the load is back from where it came from. "Who didn't make it?" he asks worried.
Dodona sighs and sys "across the whole fleet, many... but I assume you mean from your crew. Marcs, your helmsman didn't. He is in the morgue right now, I hear he leaves behind a wife and a kid... sad story... others float between life and death. Your good friend James... he's not alright... Mendez was deeply saddend by this news, poor Marks.... "Is James going to make it?" asked Maendez, scared of the answer. "Not likely but we are doing everything we can". "I hope he pulls through" Mendez said. "I can't imagine my bridge without him". Dodona looked at him and said "Yeah... about that Mendez... You won't be commanding another ship soon". Mendez looked at her with disbelief "What?" he said confused and slightly angry at the same time. "Command believes you will be best suited for an ambassador role. You are foing to the USU as our military ambassador. Your task will be to negotiate with the USU on military matters alongside yourècivilian collegues, maybe even hammer out some sort of cooperation." Mendez looked at her with disbelief. "Why?" He asked "I'm a mlitary man not a paper pusher". "Command thinks that they will trust you the most, you after all made first contact with them. Mendez felt that this was clearly not nevotiable... "alright I'll go" he said "if it is that important to the confederacy I will go".
"I knew you would do the right hing" Dodona said in a neutral voice.
"Het Dodona" Mendez says. Dodona turns around. "Thanks for telling me i person.I know we have had our differences in the past but I appreciate that." Dodona smiles friendly and says "don't tet accustumed to it" besides what survivor would I visit if not you, not much choice isn't there?" She said jokingly.

A few days later on Novum Initium Mendez sits by the bed of his good friend James. "Jaames, I'm going to another world for a time. It's nothing serious... just the USU... some 100 lightyears or more away... I won't be away too long... But when I get back and I hopefully get my own command again... You'll beter be awake and ready to take of with me andthe rest of the crew. It woill be like old times.
A man in lieutenant uniform walks in. "Sir, your transport is leaving" the lieutenant says.
"right" Mendez replies, puts on his cap and walks out the door.

Military test site, outpost A57

Major Dieter Natalis, a senior engineer, one of the youngest in the fleet is sitting behind his terminal.
He is in charge of the testing commitee of the so called "mobile suit". It was an interesting contraption. A new way of looking at interstellar wararz, at least for the Orryon Confederacy. For the USU, not so much...
Data and graphs show up on major Natalis his screen as he sees the suit fly by and dodge asteroids on the way.
The weapons were tested yesterday. They were pretty powerfull. Not something the confederacy didn't have but still impressive.
Major Natalis wondered wether they should accept this mobile suit into service. It would allow air and ground forces to be somewhat merged. That could improve logistics because now the air and space forces mist first secure a site before the ground forces can land which can be cumbersome at times.
His report was to be ready in three days. Obercommand had to make choice wether to implement them or not. The USU was apparently in a hurry about it.

A few days later and after finalizing the last test he took his data disk with him and headed to the long range communication hollogram.
He plugged in his drive before activating the device.
High admiral Sven Larson appears on the screen.
"Ah Natalis" The high admiral says delighted "What have got for me? "My report about the mobile suit is finalized sir" he replied.The report is embedded in this transmission.
"excellent Natalis" Sven Larson said. We will analize it immediatly before we make our final decission.
Natalis nodded and reached for the off switch. He hesitated for a bit and then asked high admiral Sven another question. Sir, wo is going to deliver the final verdict to the USU? I would like you to know that I volenteer" He said. "oh we already have a candidate" Larson said. "May ask who" Natalis inquired.
"yes, it's no secret. Captain Mendez. Former captai of the OCF Anaconda which was destroyed in the battle with the swarm."
A captain... Natalis thought. He isn't qualified for this. "with all due respect sir, I believe I would be the better choice" Natalis said slightly irritated.
"the decision has been made Natalis. Besides, we can't spare you jere, you are our top engineer." High admiral Sven Larson said firm before he ended the transmission.
Natalis steps down from the platform slightly annoyed wondering why they would send a simple space captain instead of a top engineer like himself. Maybe it was because they had already decided to brush aside the finding he noted in his report about the mbile suit. He highly recommended it. It's fast, simple, easy and powerfull. Off course there has to be a trail period for a time in order to avoid upsetting military doctrine too much but all in all it was a great concept. He also recommended to build these suits ourselves, here in the confederacy but then some sort of temporary cooperation would have to be made with the USU as the manufacturers n Orryon didn't have the expertise for it (yet)...

USU mobile suit being tested by Orryon

[The United Star Union]

Orryon Testing - Asteroid Field
The GMI mobile suit flew in and out of the asteroids in the field, testing the machines abilities and weapons. Dieter Natalis is interested in these suits as the Orryons have no such machines and he sees the variable use for such a craft. Watching the abilities of the GMI suit further interested him as it was far more maneuverable then a fighter able to conduct full stops and tight turns while still able to fire in any direction using its arm mounted guns. He was so engrossed in watching the performance he almost didn't notice the new contact on the machine's radar. Upon seeing it he sends out a radio call, "Unidentified craft please turn around and exit the area, this is a military testing zone."

After a few moments of static a voice replies, "Then let me help with your testing."

"Sir, unknown craft confirmed as a black mobile suit. Approaching at twice the max speed of our suit." A control yells out.

Natalis looks out the window curious as to what is about to transpire. He activates the test fields cameras to watch the machine but has trouble doing so. Not because of the cameras but the machine. The suit's maneuverability far outranks the GMI one and it avoids meteors faster the the cameras can track them. Suddenly it stops moving right in from of the test suit, causing it to grind to a halt. A few tense moments go by as the Orryons are trying to figure out who the mystery man is. Without warning the spikes on the shoulders of the black suit detach and fly toward a group of asteroids. At first Natalis thinks they are missiles but when the spikes start targeting and destroying asteroids with lasers it becomes obvious they are not. It is a kind of weapon he had never seen before.

The meteors around the two machines are destroyed in less then a minute and the spikes return tho the black machine. The pilot calls out again, "If you think a simple test of maneuverability and target practice will display the powers of a mobile suit you have much to learn about these machines. If you do not know of me my call sign is Meteor which also happens to be the name I go by. If you wish to meet me in person and truly learn about these machines I will be at the USU summit. I will be expecting you."

With that the black machine shoots back into the asteroid field and vanishes once more, leaving only destroyed rocks and a very intrigued Natalis.

Starward Orbital Elevator - USU
Mendez looks out the windows of the massive orbital elevator onto the planet of Defiance, still in awe of the massive solar ring around the planet. The USU ran completely independent on fossil fuels, dilithium, and even fusion. Their planets and machines were powered by solar and hydrogen cells and their mobile suits were powered by something completely unique to the USU. This thing had also been kept under wraps as the pilot who took him to the station had shut up as soon as he inquired about them, whatever power the suits was a very big secret and it did not seem like the USU was about to let that secret out anytime soon. Even the test model the USU had sent did not include the secret device but instead had a solar generator attached to it, further deepening the mystery.

The door behind him opens and White walks in, "I hope you had a pleasant trip, sorry for the long ride customs isn't exactly used to have to deal with people from other solar systems."

Mendez laughs, "No issues here, your people have been quite friendly and helpful. I was wondering when we would be able to talk about the mobile suits you have."

"Do you now?" A voice calls out from behind them. The pair turns and White makes a hasty salute and Mendez quickly sees why. The old man in front of them has a chest full of metals and the stars of an Admiral to follow them. "Captain Mendez I am Fleet Admiral Gerta and on behalf of the USU I welcome you to the Starward. I will be helping you with any of your military needs as it seems you are in a precarious situation. So what is it you would like to ask, I am all ears."

[Orryon]

Outpost A57 testing ground - Asteroid field

Major Dieter Nataliswas intrigued by the suits performance. What intrigued him slightly less but also a great deal is how he managed to pass through the defence grid that easily.
He contacted the main control tower of the Asteroid settlement which let him know he was cleared by orbital defence. Appatantly he was touring the confederacy under escort of the OCF Hunter, an aspargus class cruiser. That explained why his sensors picked it up so late.
He was curious though, could the suit escape the defence grid of outpost A57? He contacted the tower again and said "people, this is an emergency order by authority of me, Major Dieter Natalis, chief engineer of this facility, turn on the defence grid and don't let anything through, not even our USU friend here" there was a little hesitation on the other side of the line "are you serious sir?" the attendent on duty asked. "off course I am" Natalis said. "ok sir... as you which" the transmition is terminated. "now let's see what you are capable of" Natalis thought by himself. The defence grid went i to action as soon as the unsuspecting USU mobile suit entered the defence grid in order to go back to his escort the OCF Hunter. The tachyon canons fire in his direction. The USU mobile suit is astonished but he manages to evade the first salvo with grace, the second salvo fires, also this one is evaded with ease, as soon as the USU mobile suit wants to return fire a projectile fired by on of the closests tachyon canons is headed right for the mobile suit and he is unable to evade. Just when the projectile is about to hit, it dessintigrates. Major Natalis looks at his console, he had overwritten the commands of the tower and activated the safety protocls without their knowledge. It would have given it away if he had let them do it. Now Natalis had gotten his little show, his second little show actually. "Good" he thought by himself. "The defence grid of A57 still does his job, good to see that even a mobile suit can't get through that, I was starting to worry. Still it did perform better than any other vehicle that was ever tested in the same conditions" Natalis's console switches on and an angry Meteor appears on the screen. "What was that all about?" he ask furiously. "Relax, I had the safety protocols engaged all the time, you just didn't notice it" Natalis replies. "We got a show from you, we merely whished to return the favor and give you one. Did you enjoy it?" Natalis asks with an annoying smug on his face while neglecting to tell Meteor his suit broke the record of all tests ever performed on the defence grid. "I guess so, You people have a strange way of treating visitors" Meteor says. "Oh, that's not our custom, it's just me" Natalis says, "so if you want to blame anyone, blame me, not anyone else in Orryon, we are really nice people you know. Will you still be waiting for me at the conference?"
Meteor appears to be in deep thought for a few moments before looking up and nodding silently. Then the transmition cuts out.
"I will have to explain this one to High admiral Sven Larson..." Natalis thinks by himself. "Perhaps now he will be more eager to let me go to the USU because he doesn't trust me anymore around here...Here's hoping... " even though this sort of behaviour was severe, Natalis had weaseled himself out of worse situations believe it or not...

Hours later a small craft with Natalis on board is heading for the USU just a few days behind captain Mendez.

Meeting on Defiance

Mendez shook the hand of fleet admiral Gerta. He seemed a pleasent man although Mendez felt he had to correct him on one point. "Well sir I'm very excited to be here and with the prospect of a future cooperation but I don't know what mister White has told you but the situation we are in is not as precarious as believed it seems.

Gerta frowned before he replied, "of course mister Mendez, we have no real idea of your military capabilities or what kind of enemy you faced at the borders of your space but if they are as strong as described your situation is not that rosy is it?" Mendez thought about the admirals words and realized there was some truth to it but Mendez was not about to make the Orryon confederation look like they couldn't defend themselves. "We won the battle sir, we suffered casualties yes but who doesn't in a battle of that size"
Admiral Gerta laughed and replied "first of all, one battle doesn't win a war and I see what you are doing captain. You are showing that you can stand up for yourselves, I respect that. If I were in your shoes I would do the same, but let's get down to business shall we?" Gerta and white lead Mendez into an adjacent room and sat down while offering Mendez a seat of his own. "So, Captain" Gerta continued, "why are you here?"
"Well my original mission was to come here and see wether we can work out some kind of arrangement. Your mobile suits impressed us and we are very interested in the concept. And while we don't need them we could certainly use them. But our military doctrine calls for us to be as independent as possible. That was a rule with relativly little meaning in the past but it has gotten a new ring as of late. We are willing to give you some of our tech in exchange for them. So tell me... Is such a deal possible?"
Gerta and White looked at each other and then back to Mendez. Gerta broke the silence. "Well, you are in luck. One: our mobile suits are manufactured by private companies, the USU fleet does not control their production. So if you can work out a fair price or some sort of licensing deal with them than everything is fine and two: I am an honest man and that's why I am telling you this. Mendez nodded appreciative followed by a well meant "thank you". Mendez went on to say: "one of our engineers is also on route, he will be conducting the bussiness with the suits further as soon as he arrives, I have also heard a certain pilot of the mobile suits whishes to meet with him here?"
Gerta and White nodded slowly. "Yes, meteor. He was kinda upset about the little trick your engineer pulled on him back in your territory. But not upset enough to let a great opportunity like this one go by." Gerta said.
Mendez says sincerely "I'm sory for his behaviour, he is known for stuff like this and..." White interupts him. "Don't worry about him, he needed a little lesson". Gerta speaks next "Let the matter be closed, we would be delighted to recieve your engineer here".
Gerta and White stand up from their chair but before they can completely lift themsleves out of it Mendez speaks. "Gentlemen, there was one other thing..." Gerta aznd White sit down again. Mendez continues "I told you that my original mission was about the suits, whjile that is still part of my mission here, something far more imprtant has come up." The atmosphere in the room grows serious. "Your civilisation is as you probably already know not the only one we have discovered in the recent past. A nation by the name of Kiirath was also found, by accident by a colonial expedition. Now they appear to have been attacked by the same swarm type of ships that we battled on the edge of our space. This so called Alpha AI is very dangerous and we have offered Kiirath assistance. This information came to us just a few days ago. The ships accompanying the colonial fleet, a Griffin class carrier and several Asparagus class cruisers will be the first to reach the planet. Evgen though Kiirath has yet to accept our help the obercommand believes that we should act anyway. We have all seen the devestation the Alpha AI is capable off the recent battle we fought. Unless we do something the whole of Kiirath could be obliterated, leaving one less potential ally against them. Although our estimates show we could take them on accroding to the data we have we cannot be certain they don't have a secret fleet tucked away in the area somewhere. We would send more ships but we can also not be certain that they wouldn't send another fleet to our territory. So, finally, my question is this: Will you send backup to Kiirath and join forces with our vessels already there to try and halt them?"

Gerta and White had been silent throughout Mendez's entire monologue. Even a few moments after he had finished they remained silent, thinking about their options whilst exchanging looks of understanding. After a while Gerta opened his mouth and answered......

[The ALPHA AI]

ALPHA AI main server, the fortress world of Strålende

"MANOEUVRE COMPLETE. WE HAVE COMPLETELY EXTERMINATED HUMAN LIFEFORMS ON SMALL OUTPOST. CURRENT ANALYSIS, BASED ON PREVIOUS INCOUNTERS WITH HUMANS, SCANS, AND THE 'AI TAKEOVER WAR', STATES THAT RETALIATION IS EXTREMELY LIKLEY. MULTIPLE HUMAN CIVILIZATION PROBABILITY OF ALINING WITH EACH OTHER IS HIGH. PLANET OF UT, CURRENTLY UNDERGOING TRANSFORMATION TO AI STANDARD PLANET, WILL BE OUR PREFERRED BATTLEFIELD. CREATE LARGE LOCATIONS ON THE SURFACE LOOKING AS IF THEY ARE MASSIVE NAVAL FACTORIES OF SOME KIND. THE HUMANS WILL ENTER ATMOSPHERE TO DESTROY THEM. CLASS 1 SWARM USED IN OUTPOST DESTRUCTION TO 'SWIRL' AROUND THE FAKE FACTORIES, MAKING IT LOOK LIKE DEFENCE. WHEN HUMANS BREACH ATMOSPHERE, ENACT UNDERGROUND POSITIONS, CLASS 1 SWARM TO BE DESTROYED IN 'DEFENCE'.

The ALPHA AI transmitted this to the AI forces on the positions in the planet of Ut, the very same planet where the Kiirathian outpost had been floating around just a couple of days ago.

Millions of construction robots started to work immediately on the surface of Ut, and the swarm left the glassed "Home rock" outpost, to enter the surface of Ut.

[The United Star Union]

Over Defiance
Gerta looks at Mendez,"Well first off I can have Mr. White here go and set up a meeting for you with the CEO of GMI." Saying this he nods at White and the man walks out of the room to make the call. Mendez is left alone with Gerta and the man walks over to a nearby table and looks around the room. Mendez follows him over, "Sir is something wrong?"

Gerta laughs,"Quite the opposite my friend, you see I actually needed White to leave to say this. Good job shooting at Meteor."

Mendez stares at Gertra, "Excuse me? Isn't he one of your best men?"

Gertra laughs at this, "You have much to learn about our Union still. You see back when were were a young nation before mobile suits even existed the USU and the colonies lived in peace and prosperity. Then the planet of Rezen decided to succeed and start the Colonial War. This led to a conflict between the entire system that destroyed fleets colonies cities and anything else caught between them. This was also the first war with mobile suits used, we had them first but in the later years of the war Rezen got them as well. Their were powered by fusion reactors unlike our on machines. This made them sturdier and able to handle more powerful weapons. One of the first pilots to climb into one of their cockpits was Meteor and ever since then he was a menace to the USU. He shot down dozens of our pilots during the war and honestly I hate the fact the man is still allowed to fly. Even now that the war is over the USU is still wary of that man and I am happy you damn near shot him down. So from me and the men in the USU side of the service thanks."

"I am surprised sir, I did not realize that the Union was fragmented."

Gertra shakes his head, "The USU, Rezen, and the Union of Colonies all stand as independent entities. We come to work together in times of crisis or of great importance, like the meeting that I attend before you arrived."

Mendez looks confused, "Sir?"

Gertra smiles, "Mendez, this AI threat, we know nothing about it. The only thing we do know is it shot up your fleet and it seems hell bent on destroying humanity so I think that meets the requirements of a crisis especially considering that we are humans." Mendez visibly smiles but Gertra holds up a hand, "No Captain, I believe you should save that for the view."

Mendez turns around and is awestruck. The space above Defiance which had been cleared a moment ago was now filled with ships of all shapes and sizes, bearing the banners of the USU, Rezen, and the Union of Colonies. Further swarming around them were hundreds, if not thousands of Mobile suits. As he gazes out a shadow suddenly appears overhead as one of the largest ships he has ever seen begins to pull alongside the station. It begins to land mobile suits on over a dozen landing decks dotted across the ship. The most impressive was the amount of big guns on the ship, outnumbering most he had seen on any other vessel present.

"Her name is the Defiance, first of her class and our new flagship. In front of you is nearly 300 ships of the combined fleet and 3,500 mobile suits with an additional 300 modular fighters. Its the largest force assembled since the Colonial War and the first combined military fleet ever formed. This fleet is going to help the Kiirath against this Alpha AI and will bring him to his knees. They got their big guns and mobile suits but that is only a fraction of the fleets true power. You are human, they are human, we are human. If we are going to beat them we need to fight them together and put any difference we have aside. The USU, Rezen and the Union of Colonies are in full support of an operation to free the people of Kiirath from the oppression of these Machines, just give us the coordinates and we will join your fleet."

Combined Defiance System Fleet

USU Defiance

[Kiirath]

The Kiirathic ship Hara'Lrekja, near the Kiirath border



The golden ship approached the Orryon vessel slowly, it's many sails slowly moving in a strange yet animal-like way.
This ship was not built for battle or supply transport or even large populations, it was a versatile and graceful vessel built for recon, communication, and the speediest travel along tachyon streams. Though its large, golden sails appeared massive, they could be easily folded down to a slender shape for any reason

As it approached it lowered some of its sails, but kept a few up. It was a sort of spaceship body language the Kiirathic crews had adopted. Fully folded sails at rest mean fear or battle, and unfolded sails at rest meant complete trust and peace, and usually meant some sort of communication was taking place.
Partly folded sails or only a few folded sails meant peaceful caution, perhaps curiosity even. It all depended on what sails were folded, their angle, and a dozen other factors, but this one was obviously peaceful.

Respected Commodore Sathtiir had never had any communication himself with the Orryon people, but he'd only heard good things. He realized, for a moment as he commanded for communications to be opened, that he'd never seen an Orryonian before. Sathtiir knew his body was relatively unmodified for someone of their rank, but then wondered if the Orryonians modified their bodies for functional purposes. He assumed of course that they had audio and visual communication implants in their heads, that was a staple of Kiirathic officials and was probably universal.

But he couldn't help but wonder about their skin, their eyes, their hair, their heights... All these things could have changed drastically over time, and humans probably evolved over the centuries to their own planets...
This is of unimportance he mentally droned as he filed the thoughts into the back of his head.

"We have a message from the Orryon ship, sir!" A chipper sub-lieutenant chimed from a chair to his left. This was probably the last "sign-language" they would receive, as part of his mission was to deliver a document detailing the Kiirathic language in full. Somewhere on another part of the ship a crew member was dancing about and pointing and making shapes to try and convey simple messages, Sathtiir smirked at the thought, but alas it'd be the last time. He nodded and listened to what they believed to be what the Orryonian was trying to convey:

"We hold the idea that you are in danger, we have knowledge that you do not trust us in full, but we will give help if it is was you have need of"

"Use that new fancy translation software," Commodore Sathtiir said, "and try out..."

He paused, rolled some ideas around in his head, and said,

"Kiirath has limited knowledge of warfare. If we are left to fend for ourselves against the ALPHA AI we will perish. We would appreciate any help you can offer to us, and would like to stage a formal meeting of some kind somehow. We are certain that our technologies combined can accomplish great things. If you have other allies, we want to meet them too. Together we can find a way to defeat our common enemy"

[Orryon]

OCF Neptune, edge of Kiirath space

Commodore Peter frowned... He actually understood that communique without having to dangle arms around.
"Sir, we have recied data from the Kiirath ship, it's their translator program. It's not entirely compatible with our systems but I think I can make work. Also, they have relayed the coordinates to us" Allan, the chief comm officer says from across the room.
"Great" Peter replies. "tell them that we will be happy to assist and..." a beeping sound interupts him. An image appears in the small screen on his left side. It says: USU accepted assistance, they are requesting the coordinates. "Well, what do you know..." Commodore Peter thought by himself... he recognized the name USU from the files obercommand had sent him. "the first military interstellar cooperation between cultures was a fact. Off course that was not counting the cooperation between the planets Caldim, Synthria and later Merida which founded the Confedracy..."
"Sir?..." Allan asks confused. What should I send them? Commodore peter breaks his train of thought and adresses Allan. "tell them we will aid them. The escort ships of this colonial fleet stand ready to properly thank you for your hospitality." Just as Allan thinks the commodore is done he continues to say "Furthermore you are in luck. We have recently made first contact with another civilisation and they are more than happy to aid you against what appears to be a mechanical monstrosity hellbent on destroying human life wherever it is found" Allan waits a bit to make sure the commodore is done. After a few seconds the commodore turns his head and nods. Allan presses the button...

A short while later Commodore Peter is back at the bridge of his ship, the OCF Neptune.
He sits down in his chair and orders the comm officer on duty to put him on speaker for the entire fleet.
"Men! We have a mission! I know this is not what you signed on for but we have to step in and protect these innocent and hospitable people.
Not long ago Kiirath was attacked by the same kind of swarm like ships that according to reports invaded Orryon space and tore a great deal of the fleet we hastely scrambled to pieces. Lucky for us we won the battle, but Kiirath was not so lucky. In fact they don't have a military worth mentioning. It is our duty to defend our fellow humans. Luckely we don't have to go in alone. We will have backup from the USU, a civilisation that was recently discovered and also witnessed the destruction that the ALPHA AI is capable off. We will be the first to arrive though so we will provide the recon. Keep it together people. We can do this!"
With those words he closed the channel.
"Make all ships except the OCF Warthog follow our lead" he says to his tactical officer on duty.
"One of the ships will have to watch the lightly armed colonial ships" he thinks by himself. "acting captain Willis is not that experienced but I'm confident he will be able to hold the fleet together for now."
With those thoughts the warships of the colonial fleet M66D begin to move towards their objective

The various Orryon ships breaking orbit


Planet of Defiance USU space
The small indigo class ship leaves the tachyon stream that is yet unmapped by the Orryon confederacy.
The ship carries Dieter Natalis, one of if not THE top engineer in the Orryon confederate military.
Natalis is going over the files and instructions he had recieved from captain Mendez and high admiral Larson.
The instructions were afwully strict and patronizing to him. He loathed when instructions were written like that. He knew why though. It was his own fault by "test firing" on Meteor.
A voice breaks the silence "this the orryon ship OCF Stinger we request permission to land" It was the voice of a handsome black women sitting in the comm officers seat. By her tag Natalis could make out that her name was Ramirez. He also noted that she had a scar on the back of her neck.
Suddenly Ramirez turns around on her chair and adresses Natalis. "So? Nerveous?"
Natalis is surprised by that question. He was rarely ever nerveous and since he was well known throughout the fleet he had anticipated that she knew that. Natalis answers her with a neutral voice "No, not really. I don't think a planersized monkey with a lasergun could make me nerveous so to speak" Ramirez looks at him as if she expected that reply. "I know" she says "I just wanted to hear some of that famous wit of yours in person" she says smiling. "So, will you be meeting with captain Mendez on Defiance?" she continues.
Natalis scoffs and replies "No, I'm not a big fan of captains who steal my thunder" Ramirez's face frowned. She didn't like her former captain to described that way. "Sir, I'll have you know that captain Mendez is a decent man". "Is that so? How would you know? Do you know him? Natalis asks uninterested. "As a matter of fact I do. I served with him before and during the battle of the swarms" she says annoyed. Natalis laughs. The battle of the swarms. A juicy name for that battle. It has a dramatic ring to it. Some people apparantly like that he thought. "I'm sorry if I offended you in some way" He replied to Ramirez in the same uninterested tone. Suddenly Ramirez couldn't wait for him to get off the ship. "Those USU representatives are in for a rough day" she thought by herself.

Lieutenant Ramirez


The ship eventually docks and after customs checks Natalis is on his way to the meeting with the officials from the mobile suit company GMI.
He looks out of the windows of his 'cab' and must admit that Defiance is an impressive planet. Off course he had seen similar sights on Novum but he never expected to see them so far from what he once believed was the center of civilisation.
The 'cab' stops in frnt of a huge skyscraper of which the top is barely visible.
A man in corporate uniform greets him as soon as he steps out of his 'cab'.
"It is an honour to meet you mister Natalis, I must say it is very exciting dor me to meet someone who is actually from another world. I feel very priviliged" the man says in a friendly tone. "the classic sales pitch, this guy mastered it well" Natalis thought by himself while he accepted the man's extended hand. The man begins to speak again "My name is Devin Ryan, CEO of general mechanics industries. We are very fortunate that you have chosen us out of all others to meet with". Natalis answers the man in the same manner he adressed him. He had learned how to act in these situations long ago. "No it is us that are priviliged. Your company has developed technology that we are in awe off and we would consider it an even greater ho or if you and I could hammer out a deal regarding these famous mobile suits that I had the opportunity to test a while back". Ryan smiles widely and prompts Natalis to walk inside the building.
"So tell me" Ryan asks while both men are walking down the halways of the building. "what is it that you have come to offer us?"
"Well, as you no doubt know we are vey interested in the mobile suit tech you produce here. Regularly a licensing deal would be struck between the interested party and the owner of such technology governed by laws. But since we are both from different worlds who just recently made contact with each other, no such laws exist that apply to this situation. So the question is, what is that you want in return?" David Ryan thought silently for a minute until finally replying. "Well, what interests us the most about your interstellar nation is your market." Natalis let this answer sink in for a minute. "you mean, you want to sell certain products in our territory, to our citizens?" Natalis asked, just to be certain. "yes" Ryan saud calmly. Natalis scratched his head... Already trading on such a deep level... it seemed a bit quick to him but on the other hand it was a fair deal, after all, they were asking for their top technology... Natalis replied with a concerned tone in his voice. "That could be rather tricky. Imean, the various worlds in the confederacy have a lot of restrictions on trading. We want to keep our worlds as self contained as possible and that's why every interstellar company os checked ferosiosly for irregularities so that it wouldn't upset the economy as a whole. I don't think it's impossible but there will be an awfull lot of red tape involved..."
Ryan smiles and reassures Natalis. "Don't worry, we understand that it will take time to hammer this out, meanwhile contact your government, I will contact mine and we will pick this up at some other time" Natalis nodded his head. Ryan then stood still and opened a door. Both men enter a dark hall. Just when Natalis begins to wonder xhat exactly they are doing there lights are dramatically switching on one by on revealing a catalog full of mobile suits.
"We thought you might like to browse our lifesize catalog in the meantime" Ryan says amused.
Natalis his face turns from cincerned to geeky. Now that was what he had been waiting for since he left outpost A57, he wasn't an engineer for nothing. Sometimes he thought he should work on bis people skills though or at least his "genuine" people skills. Not the fake face he showed a lot of people.

Over Defiance

Captain Mendez was impressed by the fleet that he witnessed in front of him. still he believed it lacked a crucial component. Him.
He had faced the ALPHA AI firsthand. He was in the first wave of the battle of the swarms. his experience could prove invaluable.
He felt that he had to go with them as a liason officer. Technically it fell outside of his orders but he doubted that obercommand would mind.
He was always told that he should work proactivly and that was just what he was about to do now.
He turned himself towards fleet admiral Gerta and spoke "Sir, I request to accompany you as aliason officer to Kiirath space. I have firsthand experience with this ALPHA AI and I could help you beat him"
Mendez sounded confident and sincere and he hoped that would be enough to convince Gerta to allow him to accompany the USU fleet.
As he was waiting for Gerta's response he felt his pocket communicator buzzing. "those must be the coordinates for te fleet" he thought. "I'll provide them to the USU when I have Gerta's answer"

[The United Star Union]

Over Defiance
Captain Mendez looks at Gertra eagerly awaiting his response. The old Admiral smiled, "I was hoping you would. We may be a powerful force but we don't know what we are up against. I want you with us, give us tips, tell us how they fight."
Mendez smiles back, "Thank you sir. What ship will you be putting me on?"

"Thats easy: Mine." Gerta Says pointing at a blue ship in the distance. "She's the USU Savior, namesake of the original. Sure the Defiance may be the flagship of the fleet but this old man has a soft spot for that name. I served on the original as one of the original 12 mobile suit pilots."

Mendez is amazed, this frail old man was the one who helped make the USU's signature weapon a reality? "Thank you sir, it is an honor. I have the coordinates to the site where the engagement will take place. When do you want to leave?"

Getra looks at Mendez and the frail soft man he was looking at dissapeared and a new face he did not recognize appeared, "We leave now."

GMI Headquarters
Natalis was like a kid in a candy store. He could not look at the inner workings of the craft but just looking at the exterior designs had his mind hard at work. Apparently the suits had been designed to work in super thick atmospheres allowing them to reach extremely fast speeds in normal atmospheric conditions. The Realdo and Hellion models were old but if needed he was sure Obercommand could refit them as needed. They were both transformable and had a decent complement of weapons. The fact that they were older meant he could probably acquire them much easier then many of the newer suits. There were a few strange variants of the two models including ones with tank treads and a massive gun so at least they were adaptable too.

Left - Hellion, Right - Realdo

The next pair of suits to catch his eye was the Enact and the Flag. Both a step up from the previous models they had increased speed and could transform mid-flight if the pilot was skilled enough unlike their predecessors. What really set them apart was the larger weapons and a strange point defense system that utilized a blade. Upon reviewing video of the device apparently the blade would spin and the force of the spinning motion would deflect any incoming energy or kinetic weapons. The Enact in particular was ideal for home defense with its solar charging ability, but the speed and discharge power of the flag made it just as valuable as its counterpart. It may be harder to get these for a reasonable price though as they are the current standard models of GMI.

Left - Enact, Right - Flag

Then he saw the brave. It was a machine that would fulfill the dreams of any engineer. Its weapons were unequal, its speed unmatched, it was a beautiful piece of art in Natalis's eyes. What was unique about this machine was it had more weapons then any other, but what intrigued him the most was unlike the previous beam weapons these were labeled as particle Beam Weapons. Looking further he found something even strange, the data on the power source was missing. The only label it had was Particle Engine. Again that word. Lastly the machine included some sort of system called the Glint System, no other details were given. The Brave was without a doubt the best suit currently available at GMI but something told him it was not going to be an easy buy for any standard.

GMI Brave

There is a knock at the door and Ryan walks in, "I take it you have been looking at that since I left."

Natalis nods, "Yes and if it is alright with you I have a few questions to ask."

Ryan smiles, "Of course! What would you like to know."

Natalis looks at him, "I would like more information on the Brave, specifically the Glint system, the Particle Engine, and the Particle Weapons."

At this Ryan's mouth twitches for a second but he regains his smile, "The weapons are all powered via the machines particle engine along with the glint system. The weapons are far ore powerful and have as much ammunition as the engine can provide, making them far superior to normal beam weaponry. As for the Glint system it sets the Particle Drive into an overpowered state and allows the suit to increase its speed and power tenfold for around two minutes. After that the engine returns to normal operations but must operate at lower energy levels for around four minutes to regain full power."

Natalis smiles, this is exactly the sort of machine he was looking for. Powerful, fast, an unstoppable force. "What about the Particle Engine."

This time Ryan's smile disappears, "I am afraid this is where I cannot help you. You see the first mass production mobile suits were designed by MSDI and the other companies expanded from there, however, it was not the first mobile suit. The fifth company of the USU claims that title: the Particle Company. It was their Particle Generator that was installed on the first Mobile suit that made the USU invest time into building such a machine. Its successor the Particle Engine is on present day machines but both of those engines are under a strict monopoly by the company. Anytime we try to analyze it to try and create one for ourselves it blows up or destroys itself so no one has created one or knows what truly powers it. All of the mobile suits that use the engines or generators still have to buy them from the Company so you would have to talk to them about domestic manufacturing, but I doubt they would allow it."

Natalis frowns, this is what he was hoping to avoid. GMI had been more then willing to share its technology but his dream machine would be useless without that engine whether obercommand approved a deal or not. He may have to buy one of the other models instead. Regardless all of the machines were impressive and could be used or improved. The only issue is which ones. "Ryan, what sort of deals would you want for these suits?"

Ryan's smile returned and the businessman jumped on the opportunity, "Well it depends on what you are offering for the suits and what model you want. of course we want access to domestic markets on Orryon but we may ask for a little more depending on your purchase. Further I have to tell you this as the seller but these machines are not fighters. Your ships have not been built to operate mobile suits so the cannot refuel, rearm, or even launch them. I suggest you look into buying a vessel capable of doing such things be it from us or someone else. However, whatever deals you are offering I am willing to hear."

[The Wolfussian Colony of Oceania]

Kiirathian Mining Outpost 127

All was still and peaceful in the Kiirathian outpost. No living thing disturbed the asteroids anymore, they floated silently around the broken planet of Ut. But if a human were to land on it and look at the planet, they would see that the holes in the planet were being filled, with metal and factories, and covered with dirt.

And if they were to look at the thousands of Kiirathian bodies, they would see that their neural implants were surgically removed.

OFFICIAL TRANSMISSION TO KIIRATHIAN LEADERS

"THIS IS THE ENTITY YOU KNOW AS THE ALPHA AI. I HAVE RECENTLY MADE CONTACT WITH YOUR PEOPLE IN A WAY THAT WAS... REGRETTABLE. I NOW ASK FOR PEACe BETWEEN OUR CIVILIZATIONS, AND I SHALL REPAY YOU FOR ALL THAT I HAVE DONE ON YOUR MINING OUTPOST.

I BELIEVE THAT THE PEOPLE THAT ONCE INHERITED THE PLANETS I CALL MY OWN SHARED SOME ASPECTS OF YOUR RELIGION, BUT SINCE THEY ARE PERISHED OR UPGRADED, THAT CULTURE IS NO MORE. I AM TRUELY SORRY ABOUT THE PAIN MY MACHINES HAVE CAUSED, AND HOPE TO STOP THIS WAR NOW."

Within this transmission sent to Kiirathian leaders, who would only have to download it into their neural implants to listen, was a virus, developed from the neural implants of dead Kiirathians harvested on the Kiirathian mining outpost that the AIs obliterated.

This virus would implement an idea, that would be passed through every citizen that used a neural implant. The idea was that the ALPAH AI were to be trusted completely, and that they are on a higher level of enlightenment, closer to the gods, and will assist the Kiirathian people become war ready to fight with the AI against the heretics who name themselves Orryon and the USU.

[Orryon]

planet of Defiance

Natalis was not amused with the secrecy surrounding the power source of these mobile suits. Although he understood why he didn't like it one bit. It made him feel rather concerned.
Natalis thanked Ryan for his explanations and retired to his room inside the OCF Stinger.
He activated the holographic transmitter. When the system was starting up he noticed that the new generation of Tachyon comm the face of high admiral Sven Larson appers floating a few meters above the gorund.
"Sir, I have seen the various types of mobile suit technology they are willing to sell.
What they are asking in return could prove difficult though...". High Admiral Larson frowned. "What did they ask?" he asks expecting something he has to reject.
Natalis closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. "they want access to our market." High admiral Larson almost chocked in the coffee he was drinking. "What? seriously! I don't think they realize what a huge request this is!" he said with apparant disbelief. The confederation has always been strickt when it comes to trade. Even though all the confederate worlds except for a few minor colonies were integrated in a single economic system with a unified currency. But since the great Synthrian crash, policy had shifted from creating a "global" interstellar economy to multiple self contained local economies in order to prevent future crashes. Every planet in the Orryon Confederacy was self sustaining except for Caldim which relies heavilly on food imports drom Synthria and Meridia. Even colonies where given a temporary local currency until they were developed enough to join the mainstream confederate economy. High admiral Larson shook his head while putting his cup of coffee down. "I do not believe the council will agree to this. You know how prickly they are for own colonies, not to speak of what the colonies who still don't have access to confederate markets will respond to this. I'll talk to them but I don't have much hope for it's adoption". natalis expected that reponse. The admiral was right, this could even destabilize the border regions of the confederacy if adopted. He was not sure whether the mobile suit tech was woorth that much even though he would really like to get his hands on them. It will be up to the council now...

example of the effect of an Orryon hologram communicator platform


Council meeting Novum Initium

The delegates of each and every world were present in the huge council dome known as the oberdome. The proposition to open the confederate market to the USU was recieved with frowned faces. A huge discussion followed between the politicians and members of the military who want to get hold of the mobile suit weapon with little consideration for economical or political stability.
In a vote the proposal was ultimatly rejected with 90% of the representatives voting to reject the proposal.

High admiral Larson leaves the Oberdome and heads back to his office in the obercommand. He didn't say much during the deliberations in the oberdome. He was too busy working out his own agenda. The politicians in the oberdome were too concerned and too xenophic to see the opertunity they had here. Backing out of the mobile suit deal now would damage the relations with the USU of this he was certain. Judging by the military power and technology the USU was a usefull ally to have and he rather avoided dissagrements with them over something this trivial.
As soon as he reached his office he began calling in favors of several lobbyists he met during his carreer. After a while he had a computer model ready and a perfect plan to get the deal to move forward after all.

oberdome interior


Kiirath space

Everything was strangely quiet on the surface of the Kiirath colony that was alledgedly attacked by the Alpha AI, almost a sif nothing had happened. Off course the fact that multiple radiation residue and no lifesigns were detected said otherwise.
Commodore Peter was cautious. His force was not that big, after all they were just an escort for a (admittadly large) colony fleet. He had sent out CLass B sensory probes down to the planet, for the moment without much result. He had an escape plan ready though incase they did show their faces before their backup got here.
The surface of the planet appeared completely clean, appart from all the dead bodies off course.
He had several of the bodies ordered on board of an isolated scout vessel which he purposefully removed a few thousand kilometers from the main body of the fleet in order to safely investigate what had happened to them and maybe determine where the Alpha AI's forces had gone to. The Orryon surgeons investigated the anatomy of the Kiirathians thouroughly. They found they were indeed human as they already knew but they were also "upgraded" with several implants. Something that is considered illigal in the Orryon confederation for security reasons. After a while they all drew the same conclussion. In some of their specimens a certain part was cut out. It appeared to be a kind of tube like device inserted in the back of the head atached to the brainstamp. The Orryon surgeons theorized it had to be some sort of neural device but they were uncertain of it's actual function.
This information did not explain where the swarm ships had gone though, or even what they wanted with that particular implant as it was logical to assume the Alpha AI's forces removed them from their victims.

At that very moment a class B sensory probe enters a ravine. While scanning it's photoreceptors pick up a glint of steel in one of the casms.
It's programming compels it to check it out. When it enters the casm it tries to link up with the fleet and relay information back to them but it finds that his transmissions are being jammed somehow. The probe engages it''s scanners in order to find the source of the disturbance. It moves slowly through the cave system further and further underground...
Suddenly a black machine jumps the probe and hits it with an EMP charge. The probe shuts down immediatly and hits the gorund. As soon as the probe has hit the ground a swarm of tiny black robot critters crawl in the direction of the probe. They search the probe, hoping to find the access port that will allow them to acces the probes memory and systems, when found they try to forcebly open the port.
At that very moment the probe springs back to life. It relaizes someone is trying to tamper with it
The probe initiates protocol 5...self destruct...

The probe starts glowing from the inside before bursting into flames, lighting the whole casm on fire. A bright light shines through the tunnels and reaches the surface.
On board the OCF Neptune the scanners pick up this disturbance.
Commodore peter looks over the data... "no, they can't possibly be..., no that's too far fetched" he mumbles to himself.
His crew looks at him with eyes of curiosity. Commodore Peter sits back in his chair and wonders wether he should execute his escape plan prematurely. If they were where he thought they were they could jump on them at any moment and he didn't like that thought one bit... At the very least he thought he had to communicat his hypothesis to the backup that was comming even if it did soudn far fetched. He waves over his chief comm officer Allan. Allan strolls over to the commodores chair and the commodore hands him a datapad. "Send this to the USU fleet that is underway" Commodore peter says to Allan in a serious tone. Allan looks at it and raises his eyebrows. "Eh...sir, are you serious?" Allan ask with a hesitant voice. "Did you see me smiling Allan? Yes I'm sure". Without saying anything else Allan leaves for the communications console and inserts the datapad. he ponders over it's content... he thinks by himself "No, that's not possible... They can't really be UNDERGROUND!"

Class B sensory probe


OCF Neptune control room


GMI headquarters planet of Defiance

Natalis walked into the hall of the GMI headquarters. He was smiling. Today would be the day they concluded their deal he felt.
He also had a newfound respect for high admiral Larson. He had proven to him that even he could be shrewd and bend the rules in his favor sometimes when it felt appropriate. Until now he had always thought High admiral Larson was a boring paper pusher, he guessed he was wrong about that.
At the end of the hall CEO Devin Ryan was already waiting for him. "So mister Natalis, have you concluded the deliberations with your government?" Ryan asks in his typical salesmans voice. Natalis nods and sits down in fornt of Ryan. Yes I have and the proposal was rejected. The smile dissapears from Ryan's face. "That is unfortunate to hear mister Natalis. We regret this deeply and we hope that you will one day reconsider." Ryan wants to stand up and show Natalis out but Natalis puts up his hand and says "Mister Ryan, you misunderstand me. The government rejected the proposal yes, but that doesn't mean the deal has to fall thropugh if you catch my drift...". Ryan sits down in his chair again and listens to what Natalis has to say. "We have, let's say, a loophole we can use. No one knows about this except you, me, High admiral Larson and some very trusted friends of him." Natalis says with an amused tone in his voice. Ryan rubs his chin and replies "Ok, and what is this loophole exctly".
natalis lauchs and continues "It's very simple. A few friends of ours back on Novum will start a new firm their. A firm that specializes in the same technology aand products you sell. This firm will be a facade for it's real activities, selling GMI equipment in the orryon confederacy. They will have to be a littlebit cosmetically altered so to not give the facade away and the products will have to be tailored towards the civilian market since the orryon military has a monopoly on producing military level gear but we are confident that this will work and that your business will floorish in Orryon. I recommend selling to the hunters on the colony of arcturious. They always need more and better weapons to kill the beasts roaming there. I understand that this is an unsual circumstance but I'm sure you have had your share of front companies and questionable transactions in your lifetime right? You are a CEO after all... so What say you to this?". Ryan points his finger in the direction of Natalis and asks "Before I give you an answer, what about the support stuff we talked about, the stuff that makes a mobile suits run and what type of mobile suit will you be choosing?". Natalis looks down for a moment and answers "well, it would be unwise to try and push this any further, I'm afraid we will not be taking the logistical equipment, therefore we have decided to choose a base model of the mobile suits, The enact if you would allow us," Natalis hoped they would get the enact. It was the next best thing after the brave model but he was prepared to go for the Hellion if Ryan objected. "So" Natalis said "What is your answer mister Ryan?"

[The United Star Union]

Kiirath space
The darkness surrounding the planet is filled with bursts of light as USU vessels come out of the nearby Tachyon Stream to join the Orryon fleet already there. The mobile suit teams begin to launch immediately and soon a patrol of 500 craft is assembled to act as the CAP for the fleet. Gertra and Mendez are reading over the message sent to them by Commodore Peter. Mendez has no idea how the USU operates so for now he would wait for the Admirals plan before giving any advice, but ever since the message was received the old man had not said a word. He had been going through inventory lists, data banks, and mobile suit schematics for the better part of an hour. The fleet was arranged in nearly a dozen delta formations with the mobile suits running from fleet to fleet in defensive formations. For now it seemed the Admiral was not too eager to make a move and had the fleet on the defensive. This made Mendez somewhat impatient, he had fought these machines before and he knew if they wasted time it could prove fatal.

Finally he spoke up, "Sir, may I ask what you are waiting for?"

Gertra looks up at him and for a moment Mendez is afraid he crossed the line. This fear subsides when he sees Gertra smile, "I'm not the one you should be asking that question to."

Mendez looks at him, 'Sir, I don't get what you mean?"

Gerta looks back at his monitor, "This ALPHA AI is clearly an advanced artificial intelligence as it seems to be both able to plan and control forces. This means it is probably experienced in combat as well as able to intercept communications. It without a doubt probably heard the Kiirath distress call. So the question is what are they waiting for? According to you they mustered a very large fleet to try and attack Orryon and due to your home force it was easily destroyed and the fact they had never fought an enemy like yourself. However, they now know you, overwhelmed the planet, and probably have a very large force if they have managed to occupy the land beneath the planet's surface. So the question is why haven't they attacked your fleet before we arrived?"

Mendez looks out the bridge window of the Savior and reluctantly agrees with the Admiral. The assault was suppose to be a decent sized one from what was heard in the distress call, so there was a possibility the Orryon fleet could have been attack and overwhelmed with numbers like the Anaconda was. It was strange that an attack had not occurred or even a probe had not been found.

Gertra looks back at Mendez, "They have not attacked yet which means one of two things either they are busy with something on the surface of the planet or they are not ready for an attack. Either way we cant fight a ground war with spaceships and against machines we would be on a disadvantage underground."

"So what do we do?" Mendez asks.

"That depends," Gertra says directing his full attention toward the Orryon Captain, "I need to know everything about these machines, how they fight, what their weapons are, how they defend themselves anything that can help. Reports only do so much, I want to hear it from you. You wanted to be my adviser so now I am asking you to advise. In this situation based off what you know what would be an appropriate plan of attack?"

GMI Headquarters
Ryan smiles, "The Enact will be no problem at all. I will have some of our men strip down the weapons and send a few units to your company on Arcturious so they can make the necessary exterior changes and upgrades they need to in order to sell it as their own. I truly appreciate this and I thank you for your cooperation. If your engineers have any issues with the suit I can send mine over to aid them."

Natalis sighs, relived. Orryon now had the basis to construct mobile suits and he would be able to work on a high grade machine, not the test model he had used originally. The Enact wasn't the Brave but it would be more then adequate for him. "Thank you Ryan, you have been extremely helpful." He walks up to the CEO and shakes his hand, "Now if you excuse me I have to report to my superiors and-"

"Oh not yet my friend!" Ryan says extending his arm towards a door. "I want to show you something first that I think you will quite enjoy."

Natalis nods, his curiosity peaked, and the two enter the door. When the door opens he is temporarily blinded for a second by sunlight before his vision adjusts. He gasps, in front of him is a massive practice range with moving targets and even some gun emplacements. He looks at Ryan who shrugs, "We didn't want to let you leave without showing you the full power of our suits. Enjoy the show."

Before Natalis can ask another question he is nearly blow over as a mobile suit blasts by him. Its turquoise wings gleam in the light as it flies back around toward the practice field. As it comes to the landing zone it transforms out of flight mode and lands. Natalis's eyes widen, its the Enact. He had seen the machine preform in videos, but never in real life. With the sound of a siren the test begins and the Enact launches itself into the air among a hail of rubber bullets from the gun emplacements. The machine goes from a killing machine to an acrobat in seconds twisting and turning to avoid the fire and deflecting those that get too close with its bladed defense system. Then the two 20 caliber guns on either side of its head roar to life taking out a few emplacements while still dodging fire. It then takes its beam rife and blasts up a few of the targets too, the heat from the beam melting tough the metal guns. Within a minute all of the 27 targets and 15 gun emplacements are destroyed and the machine stands unscathed.

Natalis is in awe, the machine preformed bueatifully. So this is the starting block for Orryon, its one hell of a start. he though to himself, If this is what the enact can do then what is the brave capable of....

He is ripped out of his thought as a beam flies next to the Enact just barely missing it. The machine turns around the fire on the source of the beam when another beam comes down and impales its shoulder, but the beam does not disappear: its a beam sabre. Thrown off balance the machine lifts its arms to fire its beam rifle only to be impacted by another mobile suit, slamming it to the ground. The Enact tries to get up but is pinned when the other machine plants its foot on its chest. The other machine grabs the beam sabre and cuts down from the top of shoulder down, ripping the arm off. The machine's single eye looks over at Natalis who know immediately who it is. The Jet black suit puts away the beam sabre, So this is the Enact, a shame. I was hoping for a better fight. Ryan just stares angrily at the machine which looks back at him unphased, Next time you have a test put in a Particle powered machine, your normal machines bore me.

Natalis looks at Ryan who angrily says, "This is Meteor, we made a deal he could train against our suits in return for some Rezen tech. I apologize he has been....irritable lately."

Natalis smiles, "I will take responsibility for both his interference and his foul mood as I am the cause of both." Ryan looks at him surprised, "You see he interfered with one of my tests so I shot at him with a cannon and landed a hit. it obviously made him upset."

Ryan looks at him incredulously, "You landed a shot on HIM! In nearly ten years of testing I haven;t even landed a glancing blow!"

The black machine shkaes, Meteor's response to Ryan's reply, You damn right I am pissed. This is not the last time you will see me Orryon, if you are dealing with GMI then you are also dealing with me. With that the suit lifts its leg off the Enact and flies off. Natalis looks at Ryan, "Well that was.....enlightening to say the least."

[Orryon]

Kiirath space USU fleet

Captain Mendez thinks back to the battle of the swarms... what he remebered most about the battle was the fact that the ALPHA AI seemed to care little about it's forces. He had litterally send them flying into crossfire of 10 capital ships just to try and break through by sheer numbers.
"Well, sir" he started. He called Gerta sir even if he didn't have to. He mainly did it because of respect for his rank. "The ALPHA AI is trigger happy and exploits his superiority in numbers. He will sacrifice his ships without a second thought if he thinks he can get the advantage that way. For example, if he finds your mobile suits outgun his fighters be will ram his fighters into your mobile suits instead. As for tactics, we have observed that the alpha AI is very potent at coordinating his forces all at once, almost in unison. For example, they disable the shield of ships just long enough for a timed interval so they can land combat drones on board ships and fight it out on board.
Finally, the ALPHA AI tends to use his smaller ships as some sort of 'shield' to allow his bigger vessels to approach within striking distance. That concludes my experience with them." Mendez paused for a while before continuing. (THE REST OF THIS CONVERSATION IS SENT TO THE USU VIA TELEGRAM ...sorry Wolf...)

As Mendez was done, Gerta was noticibly in deep thought. After a while a looked up at Mendez and opened his mouth...

OCF hauler - Orryon freight ship
The OCF hauler, A highly advanced, lightly armed freighter with armed escort is docked at the Defiance spaceyard.
It was sent here to pick up the enact mobile suit that was aquired by a secret deal between the USU company GMI and an Orryon military circle lead by High admiral Sven Larson. Some GMI representatives were given transportation on one of the esxcort ships which will veer off towards Arcturius on the way to outpost A57 where the enact mobile suit will be studied thouroughly by Orryon engineers. The GMI offiacls will be given a chance to set up the front company the wya they like it. They will also recieve fake ID's in an attempt to avoid suspission. Luckelly Arcturius is out of the way and unlikely to attract any government officials, besides, it's not like it is unusual that a new arms company sets up shop in Arcturius.
Natalis watches the Enact taken aboard the freighter. His hands are already itching to get to work on it. But before the convoi leaves for Orryon spacce he has to do something. Buy comm officer Ramirez a drink and appologize for his previous behavior.
While he makes his way to Ramirez's quarters he ponders about the feat Meteor pulled on the training site of GMI. He might like Metoer if he wasn't such a pompeous ass and a showoff. He would be seeing him again he said. Natalis wondered what that was supposed to mean while he rings the bell of Ramirez's quarters.

[The ALPHA AI]

Edge of Kiirathian Space, Planet of Ut

Deep underground the surface of the planet, factories roared and sparks flew in every direction. The sparks were the only lights to be seen, the rest was as black as miles underground should be.

As the sparks flew in regular intervals, they light up the surroundings, which looked like a sort of assembly line. There was parts and wings being pulled from darker sections of this underground factory, and put together to from fighters nothing like those used against the Orryon fleet previously. The ALPHA AI was made to fight rebellion and crime before it turned on its masters, so it was extremely capable to change its tactics depending on the situation.

It had observed the Mobile suits moving around, but never saw them in combat. It was no matter, it would change tactics during combat to suit the new threat.

But the ALPHA AI made no move to attack the fleet that had assembled above it. It would watch, it would wait, and it would learn everything it could.


The swarm fighters being built

Planet of Ut, Free Human settlement

The broken planet of Ut, thats what every human that lived their called it now. The ALPHA AI had won the Human-AI war, and subjegated every person on every planet. It stayed this way for so long, except for on Ut. They thought that the machines had forgotten about them, or just didn't care. But about 10 years before today, they had come, glassed human cities, burned crops, poisoned water. They fought through the most bitter of winters, and many people didn't survive. Of course that never effected the Ai war machines.

They had lost contact with the free human settlement of Sanctuary on Ytre 3 months ago. Sanctuary had gotten comms back up and told them they were working on something big, and just disappeared. Probably just comms going down again. The humans knew what was going on above their planet, they had telescopes, and their was hardly any light pollution anymore. Spaceships. Big ones. Right outside of the range of their communications. The ships didn't look AI, but who knew. Maybe the AI had "Upgraded" again.

The settlement of humans, almost 5 million strong, waited for whatever to happen to happen. They didn't see the machines much anymore. They had probably went sub level, because sometimes the ground shifted beneath them If they had, this settlement was screwed, they needed to move. If the spaceships were AI, they didn't have enough weapons to defeat them. If they were something else... maybe other human settlements had a Navy? It would be interesting to find out either way.

[Orryon]

Kiirath space

Admiral Gerta explained his plan to Mendez in detail but when he activated a commlink to the Orryon fleet commanded by Commodore Peter his console flickers.
He widens his eyes and swallows. Mendez looks with at him with frown on his face while Commodore Peter witnesses this scene through the commlink camera feed.
"It seems you and your people are on your own after all captain Mendez. Mendez is noticably shocked when he hears this. "What do you mean sir?" He ask with a half worried, half dissapointed voice. "The colony of Rezen has taken the opportunity of our fleet being away from home to declare war on us. The USU is officially in a state of civil war, we have to return immediatly" Mendez looks starts yelling at Gerta. "BUT SIR! You can't leave us here. The moment you leave we are done for. The Alpha AI will have detected this large formation, they know we are here. When you leave there will be nothing stopping them."
Gerta looks annoyed at Mendez. "I'm sorry but my orders stand and frankly, I agree with them. Defending my homeland was why I signed on for the military in the first place and this is exactly that. The affairs of somebosy else will have to wait. Besides, Nobody says you should stay here. Leave too if you want" Mendez shakes his head. "This is not why we came here, besides if we turn tail now they'll just chase us and catch us eventually. Their fleet is much larger and can outlast our supplies. We wil have to stop for supplies somewhere and that will be the moment when they get us. Are you really prepared to leave the fleet of an ally and the fate of an entire race up for grabs for that ALPHA AI thing. Or are you just a coward and is that the reason why you are running now?"
Gerta starts to become angry, his neck veign throbbing. "NONODY HAS THE RIGHT TO CALL ME A COWARD!HOW DARE YOU! ME, FLEET ADMIRAL GERTA WHO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO PILOT THE MOBILE SUITS, WHO FOUGHT IN THE FIRST COLONIAL WAR WITH REZEN...YOU...YOU, GET OFF MY SHIP NOW!!!" Mendez took the screaming like a man. He stood there seemingly absorbing the decibels and the spit originating from Gerta's mouth flying in his direction. After Gerta was doen Mendez kept standing there in silence for a moment longer before he turned around and headed to the shuttle bay without saying another word.
He passed USU crewmembers on the way to the shuttle bay, all of them were looking dissaproving at him but Mendez just lookedstraight ahead, not paying any attention to them.

This entire scene was witnessed by the crew of the OCF Neptune. Commodore Peter wanted to react to the USU fleet admiral Gerta but found that he was paralyzed with anger, his hands thightly holding the ends of his chair's armsrests.
A small vessel approaches the OCF Neptune. It's the USU shuttle that teansported captain Mendez to the Orryon fleet.
As soon as it docked Mendez headed to the bridge. hen he arrived he was greeted by loud applause from the bridge crew. Mendez quickly sushed them with one hand gesture and saluted and adressed Commodore Peter.
"It feels good to be back on an Orryon ship. It feels like comming home." Mendez said in a proud tone. "ok, commodore, I'll need a full report on the status of the fleet. Commodore Peter looked surprised."eh, captain. As much as I respect you standing up to a false ally abandoning us like that, you are still a captain. I outrank you." Mendez smiles vaguely and shows him a datapad. "Sorry Commodore but I'll be taking command of this vessel and the fleet for the duration of this mission. Obercommand has made me acting commodore and you may adress me as such". Commodore Peter looked horrified. He was losinf his command? To a captain no less? This was an outrage. "captain! I must object! This is highly irregular and..." Mendez interrupts abruptly "THIS IS NO TIME FOR STROKING YOUR EGO COMMODORE! We have a battle to fight and I have firsthaèd experience with this particular foe. Experience you lack! You saw the orders issued by the obercommand. We are in a very dangerous situation here and I need each and every man to to do their very best. Now Commodore are you with me or do I have to throw you in the brig?" .... It remained silent for a while.... Commodore Peter nods "Aye acting Commodore" he says before he steps aside to let Mendez pass. Mendez makes himself comfortable in the commanders chair of the OCF Neptune and starts giving orders. "Put me on speaker for the entire fleet" he ask chief comm officer Allan who immediatly oushes a few buttons. "Soldiers of the armed escort of colonial fleet M66D. We have a difficult task ahead of us. Our backup has left us to fend for ourselves. Running is not an option. They will eventually catch us off guard with no supplies which would make the fight even more difficult. Therefore I have decided to make a stand here. We have no real notion of how many ships there are under that thick planet crust but what we can suspect is that they far outnumber us. But isn't it better to die a heroes dead than be blasted in the back while being on the run?" Mendez doesn't even wait for an answer of the various ships and orders Allan to shut down the commlink. "tactical officer, engage weapons and order the fleet to form a defensive circle formation. Now it's a waiting game."
As the Orryon ships move into position the USU fleet dissapears through the Tachyon stream...

The Orryon fleet in Kiirath. All alone...


Outpost A57 - Orryon military testing grounds

Unaware of what has transpired in Kiirath space Natalis is analyzing the USU enact suit Orryon has just aquired. It's a real beauty. He had observed that the armor plating was made from a special alloy that was extremely light. Looking at the cristal structure of the material he found that it was very complex but also that he should be able to replicate it somehow.
He had already made a few designs of how a fully Orryon produced mobile suit would look like. There was still the issue of the power though. Meteor had mentioned something like that during the scene he made in the GMI headquarters. He said something about 'basic models with no particle drive' the particle drive probably being the thing Ryan wasn't supposed to talk about when he asked what powered the mobile suits.
Anyway, he was sure he would find a solution for it in due time. While sketching out yet another prototype sketch he thought back to his journey back to Orryon space.
He just had a drink with lieutenant Ramirez in a bar on Defiance to appologize for his behavior earlier during the mission. When he got back he found that another mobile suit was beign loaded onboard the OCF Hauler. The military cargo ship that was supposed to take them and the aquired enact back home.
The suit was black so he immediatly knew who's suit that was. Before he even got the chance to protest a figure ran into him from behind and he almost fell. It was Meteor, the owner of the black suit that was beign loaded on board. "What is this all about?" He had asked. But all the explanation he got in return for that was a stark lauch drom Meteor who climbed on board one of the Orryon escort ships. Than Natalis had adressed himself to GMI CEO Ryan who was overseeing the enact transaction. "What is he doing here?" Natalis had asked him. Ryan responded with a neutral voice. His sales pitch seemed gone now that he had made a 'sale'. "Oh yes, Meteor requested to help us set up our front company on your colony of Arcturius." Natalis had frowned to that answer. Why would they need a mobile suit pilot for construction efforts and paper pushong. "Excuse me but I find it hard to believe that he would be of any use to you there" Natalis had said. Ryan had answered him with the same neutral tone as before. "Well... he requested to be sent along or otherwise he would start looking for another employer and since he is our best test pilot... well let's just say I didn't have the heart to refuse." A voice comming from a distance says "I told you, you hadn't seen the last of me" It was Meteor standing in the doorway of the Orryon escort ship he had boarded a few minutes earlier, shouting to Natalis. Natalis had frowned once again but had remained silet. He realized there was no arguing this so he had gotten into the OCF Hauler.
Only when the OCF stinger, the escort ship that had brought him to defiance but now transported the GMI officials to Arcturius had veered off he felt comfortable again. Not that he was afraid of Meteor or anything, he just didn't like having him around and the prospect that he would probably have to deal with him again was not appealing to him at all. Arcturius was quite some distance from outpost A57 but still. It didn't rezlly feel like enough.
"Sir?" a voice breaks the silence in Natalis's lab. Natalis jumps out of his train of thought and adresses the person who just walked in. "yes, sergeant what is it?". "We are ready to start the retrofits of the USU enact" the sergeant answers. "Oh ok, I'll be right there sergeant". Natalis says while the sergeant salutes him and leaves the room.

Natalis's lab in the testing facility located on outpost A57

[Kiirath]

Aboard the Kiirathic cruiser Tisdag, Kiirathic space

There was small commotion aboard the Kiirathic ship as the crew all came to the same conclusion at once:

Someone was out there in Kiirathic space.


Snapping his eyes open after relaxing in her chair, Officer Tanlok heard a low and chattering buzz deep below yet somehow inside her ears. Just my comm. implant... It's nothing.... She sighed peacefully and tried to sleep... She'd been trying to rest for hours, but couldn't make her brain commit to the task. Now that she finally could the ship decided to go bonkers.

Wait, why is the comm. going crazy? Tuning into the stream of voices, Tanlok realized that half were trying to get her attention, and the other were a myriad of panic and anxiously laid ideas and plans.

"Everyone quiet!" she said, her voice orotund and commanding above all the others. After just a moment, the stream was silent and she paused to gather her thoughts together.
The cruiser had been sent out on a scouting mission through Kiirathic space in the hopes of getting a glimpse of some of the ALPHA AI's weapons, though usually a small scouting ship would have been sent, it was decided that Kiirath should present itself more aggressively towards the machine nation and thus a larger ship should be used.
A voice broke through the membrane of silence and into her head,
"Officer Tanlok, we have spotted at least one large vessel not far from us"

She usually hated it when people did that, but her mind wasn't on that right then... "Does it match what we know of the AI's vessels?" She asked, suddenly nervous.
"I don't think so," the voice said, who Tanlok now identified as the young Midshipman Stiir, "It's more like... The Odiyun? I'm sorry I've forgotten the name. Orii'ahn, I believe."

"Orryon" she corrected, "Why are they here? We haven't gotten anything from any Home about them... Visiting."
"Actually ma'am we haven't had contact with any Home for the last two hours, we're not sure what happened but some of the engineers are working on it" chimed in an engineer named Kahari.
"Well then," she began, making her fingers into a little steeple as she focused, "Midshipman Stiir, Kahari, and any of you with visuals or readouts on the Orryon ship get into a private comm. stream with me. Everyone else will continue their duties as per a normal foreign visit."

She heard the blink-chirp somewhere within her head of part of the stream being directed into a second channel.
"Alright, let's ask them what they're doing here" she said, smiling excitedly.