No Longer Alone [Reboot, IC, Open]

[Hotgrat]

"Earth, our home, the only one humanity has ever known. The year is 2024, technology has ruled the world for the past 40 years. The Information Era, provides every person on the planet with information at our fingertips, we are at the peak of technology, and we were alone in the universe, until now..."

HMAB Rendered, Silberteeth, Northern Hotgrat. 5th of May, 2024, 10:26 local time.

HMAB Rendered was one of three military air bases in Hotgrat. There was a total of three of them, and of the three, Rendered was the second biggest. It served as the main HQ for the SRDC, or Silberteeth Regional Defence Center, with the HNAF. As Silberteeth was a city located in the mountains, the air force was crucial for an effective defence.

Or well, it usualy was. As of right now though, there weren't a single unit stationed on Rendered. Well, if you don't count with the AERT, anyways. And the ATC's, who actually dreamed of being ATC's at the Silberteeth Regional Airport. Oh, and the SRA served as a backup military airport in case that Rendered was captured or bombed useless.

Usualy, around this time of day, there would have been the usual military drills, but today, they had been canceled due to that the pilots were given the day off from work. Of course, most of them spent their time looking at the nightsky at night, but none of them ever considered what was out there.

OOC: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=304450

[Hippie Kiwis]

Geepie Geepie watched as the scout ship left Orion. Many ships like it had been dispatched over the last few yikaa. They were seeking new worlds, worlds that would become hubs of colonization. Worlds that would serve the Embrion Empire to good purpose. This one was headed off to a remote planet known as tosev 3. It had been showing changes in the atmosphere, which caused a closer look. They found the world was covered in liquid water, ripe for colonization... or conquest.

[The Remnants of Kobol]

Sitting in orbit above the planet Earth, The Remnants of Kobol Battlestar Group One was enjoying a bit of shore leave. Officially, they were so far from the Homeworlds in an effort to assist The Northern European Senates Remnants with their first space vessels. Unofficially, only a few hundred techs were needed and nearly three thousand personnel were on the surface enjoying some R&R. As allies in the United Study Group Pact, Senates and Kobol often found themselves side by side in combat. However, for once, they were able to finally enjoy some quiet peace.

For Fleet Admiral Romulus, this R&R meant sipping a drink these Earthlings called Scotch and watching snow fall from a northern winter resort that the Senates had declared closed due to weather. This is so much nicer than the drone of engines and the darkness of space... he thought to himself. Now if only Sophia were here... He smiled at the thought of Rear Admiral Fraya, but alas, she was off conducting a survey mission in Uncharted Territory. There was a knock on his door and he just called out "Come in, it's open." It was a general from the Senates military who Romulus had been getting to know. He'd brought another bottle of alcohol and the two would likely spend the night swapping war stories over it.

Eight thousand kilometers away, the majority of the Kobolian naval personnel on shore leave were enjoying a nice stay on a beach on a tropical island on which they had paid off the inhabitants to ignore them. They were free to enjoy the sun, water, and everything this tropical paradise had to offer. With all wars now over, moral was at the highest point in several years. They finally had nothing to worry about...

High above the planet, in the Strikestar Chimera, the DRADIS operator thought he saw a blip on the screen. It was small, very small, but he was certain it was there. It didn't register on the scans long enough to get a lock or to acquire a reading however. It simply vanished. He assumed it must have been either a USGP vessel on patrol or a systems malfunction. He logged it and continued with the watch. He hoped his replacement would show up early so he could catch the rest of the last game in a championship in this sport Earthlings call "football". The game wasn't as active as Pyramid, but when they scored a goal, it was much more exciting. He quite liked the game though he had no idea who either of the teams were.

[Riflemoor]

2024.5.5, 13:20 Lowcastle time
Massiq Orbital Zone, Riflemoor

"And that should do it," Lian said as she maneuvered the imaging kit into place aboard the massive hulk of Orbital Station Massiq, bolting it down with her EVA mate Percy.

"Great. Come on back home, you two, we saved some pie for you and Amir," said the Mission Commander, his voice crackling over the radio. He was a big Aseemyen Moor named Bërëdt; uncharacteristically large for an astronaut at a full two metres and a hundred kilograms, he nevertheless had impressive grace in microgravity, and as with all Commanders, he was chosen for his level head under pressure. He'd served with distinction in the Mooric Army as an Avakşem commando before transferring to the Caely, and had led three missions aboard Massiq.

"Is it now or was it ever dehydrated?" Amir asked sarcastically as he and Lian approached the airlock, climbing hand over hand along the ladder rungs lining the surface of OS Massiq between its various equipment hardpoints.

"I hate to tell you this, but..." Bërëdt and the remaining crewmembers started to laugh.

Percy groaned theatrically. "I should have never become an astronaut."

14:32 Lowcastle time
Project KALEIDOSCOPE Monitoring Facility, Cacharanna, Western Province, Riflemoor

"Lieutenant!"

"What's the issue?"

"Lieutenant Walker, sir, we're getting those weird readings again."

"What weird readings?"

"Visible-spectrum electromagnetic interference inconsistent with ordinary light. The scatter pattern is wrong, and it comes through every few days. The period is consistent." The analyst called up a screen on his computer. Sure enough, it showed a sinusoidal curve of... whatever interference it was tracking.

"Have you checked on satellites in the area?" Mark asked.

"Sir, we've had our telescopes pointed at this patch of sky for a while now. If it was just a satellite, we'd know."

"What are you implying?" Walker asked.

"I'm not implying anything. I'm asking you to consider why it is KALEIDOSCOPE was started, and think about what this data is telling us."

Mark was silent for a while. "Tell the engineers to inspect each telescope and scrub them, from the top of the dish to the last circuit board, top to bottom. Roll back all the governing programs. I want to know for sure this isn't some sort of recurring sensor malfunction before we send any kind of report."

[Northern Arcadian Empire]

Arcadian Empire, AE space listening post Alpha, 00:45

Brad sat at is console, he was tired, he was tired of sitting here and just sitting here and listening to static. Nothing was out there! There was no aliens or anything it was just a bunch of smoke, e took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, suddenly there was a transmission Brad put back on his glasses and played the transmission again. It was mostly static but he made out one word "Earth"....

AE space station Orion

Jackson floated down the tunnel, he was floating to sensor array station, he recently got a message form SLP Alpha to check that there sensors and radio tools where working, when he got there the radio was full of static and partial phrases and they weren't human something was out there.....

[West Aurelia]

West Aurelia Space Agency Remote Monitoring Station Charlie, 21:42 Local Time

An alert came up on Albert Caulfield's computer. He cursed. He was already late for a date with some girl he met online. He had spilled his coffee over some of his papers at the end of the day and had to print new ones. The printer was out of ink, and he had to get more from the storeroom at the other side of the building. Now this alert was wasting his time. Well he was having none of that. He didn't even read it as he turned his computer off and walked out the door. "I don't even want to be an astronomer anyway," he muttered.

[The Remnants of Kobol]

"So, leftenant, any activity on the ground?" The XO asked with his farmer's brogue as he walked around the CIC keeping track of all the crewmen that would rather be on some beach in the South Pacific than sitting here.
"No sir, we've gotten some chatter, they seem to know something strange is happening here, but not much else. Our jamming codes we got from The NESR along with the position we took seem to be holding us in the dark, literally and figuratively."
"That's good leftenant. These Earthlings have very little knowledge that races like us exist. Until they are advanced enough to get here themselves, their isolation is best."

On the surface, some techs were working with NESR techs to get their space program up and running more efficiently. At the present, Kobolian techs were having a great deal of trouble trying to understand the NESR technology. Such tech was considered so obsolete by Kobolian standards that there weren't even historic examples to learn from. The most pressing issue was figuring out how to get the ship off the surface without having to jettison most of it and consume the majority of the fuel. The structural supports just weren't there to take a more powerful engine, even if they did have access to such an engine. Policy was though, The Remnants of Kobol was not allowed to simply give more advanced tech to a nation that could not develop it on their own. They could help make it, but they couldn't do it for them.

On the beach in the South Pacific, the Kobolians were lounging around. One local had sneaked in to see who these VIPs who rented out the whole island were. But, though he didn't speak the language, he did speak "alcohol". Though the Kobolians didn't understand the significance, this man was going to spend his first encounter with extraterrestrial life getting wasted and partying. Not that he knew that or would even remember.

Some of the Kobolians who had learned an Earth language were allowed to travel to other places and see more of the culture as opposed to just partying on a beach. Not that any complained either way. One such Sergeant Hicks had learned German and was masquerading around West Aurelia as a German tourist. His adventures were taking him around the capital where he was snapping picture after picture for his family back home. He had always wanted to be an archeologist, and yet here he was, walking around a society so much like their past, he could have taken a time machine ten thousand years back.

[Riflemoor]

2024.5.7, 06:21 Lowcastle time
KALEIDOSCOPE Monitoring Facility, Cacharanna, Western Province, Riflemoor

"Scrub's complete, Lieutenant Walker," said the analyst as the door swung open in front of Mark. He made a mental note of the kid's name; RAMIREZ and a corporal's two chevrons were pinned to his shoulder.

"And the collection algorithms?" Mark asked, not missing a stride.

"Scrubbed those too. We're still getting the signal. Whatever it is, it's still there, or our gear is is shot so completely that we don't even know it yet."

"Eyes on the sky?"

"Nothing. The number crunchers and engineers think that if it is an EBEK-class event, it's some kind of cloaked vessel. I have it in writing right here if you-"

Mark deflected the manila folder Ramirez was handing him. "Have you told KALCOM?"

"No, not yet, I was waiting for your OK."

"Okay. Tell 'em."

06:52 Lowcastle time
Massiq Orbital Zone, Riflemoor

"Up and at 'em, boys and girls!" Bërëdt bellowed, awakening the sleeping members of the crew of Orbital Station Massiq. "Orders uuuuup!"

"What is it?" asked Amir as he climbed out of bed and rushed to get ready.

"We've got someplace to fly to. KALCOM thinks there's somethin' there and we need to confirm."

"Is that so? Wild," Amir drawled as he tugged his compression leggings on, and then donned his equivalent shirt.

"Shut up and get in your flight suit. This is the most action we've had in quite a while and I don't intend to be the commander of Massiq who decided it wasn't worth burning a few kilograms of fuel."

[The Remnants of Kobol]

My Strikestar is in very high orbit above the planet in the shadow of the moon. It's using electronic interference to look simply like static on radar/DRADIS/scanners. But it doesn't have any cloaking for visual. So when you see it, you'll see a a roughly 2,500 meter ship.

"Sir, we're interecepting some interesting chatter. They seem to think somethings out here. They're sending one of the sapce crews to come investigate." The ensign looked up at the XO standing over him.
"Well, I would say no surprise there. We're not exactly a Stealthstar. Very well, I want their communication jammed as soon as they're within visual range. Then I want the crew intercepted. We can bring them aboard as guests for the time being. Break out the translator devices. Maybe we can have a pleasant chat with them." Having served five straight combat tours, this was almost boring for the XO. Though he quite enjoyed the peace and looked forward to meeting some of these Earthlings.

Admiral Romulus awoke with a throbbing headache. Scotch was just as potent as some of the ambrosia he had had before. But now he had to go to work. He popped a couple pain meds from his kit and walked out the door for the meeting hall. He had to continue negotiating the transfer of technology to the Northern European Senates Remnants scientific and military teams. Having been allies for so long, he had no fears of the tech being used against him, but he was afraid of breaking an unwritten code four thousand cycles old about not providing less advanced cultures with technology beyond their means. He would continue to push for nothing but mathematics, medicines, and mineral resources. During the negotiations,his disadvantage was his throbbing head. At his advantage was that every other delegate there would be just as hung over as him, if not more so.

[Hippie Kiwis]

My Strikestar is in very high orbit above the planet in the shadow of the moon. It's using electronic interference to look simply like static on radar/DRADIS/scanners. But it doesn't have any cloaking for visual. So when you see it, you'll see a a roughly 2,500 meter ship.

"Sir, we're interecepting some interesting chatter. They seem to think somethings out here. They're sending one of the sapce crews to come investigate." The ensign looked up at the XO standing over him.
"Well, I would say no surprise there. We're not exactly a Stealthstar. Very well, I want their communication jammed as soon as they're within visual range. Then I want the crew intercepted. We can bring them aboard as guests for the time being. Break out the translator devices. Maybe we can have a pleasant chat with them." Having served five straight combat tours, this was almost boring for the XO. Though he quite enjoyed the peace and looked forward to meeting some of these Earthlings.

Admiral Romulus awoke with a throbbing headache. Scotch was just as potent as some of the ambrosia he had had before. But now he had to go to work. He popped a couple pain meds from his kit and walked out the door for the meeting hall. He had to continue negotiating the transfer of technology to the Northern European Senates Remnants scientific and military teams. Having been allies for so long, he had no fears of the tech being used against him, but he was afraid of breaking an unwritten code four thousand cycles old about not providing less advanced cultures with technology beyond their means. He would continue to push for nothing but mathematics, medicines, and mineral resources. During the negotiations,his disadvantage was his throbbing head. At his advantage was that every other delegate there would be just as hung over as him, if not more so.

The small, prospecting vessel slowly sank through the atmosphere of tosev 3. searches from orbit indicated that the planet was life supporting. The native tosevites were perfect. brawny enough for manual labor and intelligent enough for operating machinery, but weak enough to be easily controlled and stupid enough to think of the embrion as gods. The Kishi Kii was going down to capture a few specimens of the native life forms when something blipped on the tachyon radar. The signature, a small craft, streaked up from the planets surface. Cannons were loaded and crewes prepared as the craft ascended towards them.

[Organized States]

SPACOM Headquarters, Stonewell Air Force Base, Organized States

"So, Tom, you got any plans for tonight?" said Lt. Daniels as he leaned back away from his console.

"Why the hell do you want to know, Nick?" said Lt. Ferns as he continued to type away on his console, doing systems checks on the multiple satellites under his command.

"Well, I was going to go to head into town, maybe get a drink." replied Daniels.

"Sorry man, me and the wife are going to dinner tonight."

"Woah man, sorry to intrude. Heh."

"Hold on a minute." said Ferns, as he furiously type on his console.

An alarm began going off loudly, and Ferns loudly cursed his luck.

"No, no, no, oh ****, I've just lost my sat feed!" yelled Daniels as leaned back quickly towards his console.

"Dude, get Major Bernstein, he'll want to see this..." said Ferns, panting as he grabbed one of the phones.

[Hotgrat]

Control Floor, Northern Hotgratian Space Exploration Centre (NHSEC), North of Silberteeth.

"Sir, when will we launch the SS? I can't waaaaaaaait..."

"It will begin soon, calm down..."

The NHSEC was preparing to launch the first ever spaceship Hotgrat had launched, HSESS Broken Star. It wasn't a very big SS compared to most SS's launched by other nations, but for the Hotgratian citizens, it was huge. As a matter of fact, the military had gotten the day off just to watch it's launch. But the launch was 25 minutes late, becuase the fuel transport was late. Bloody idiot driver, why couldn't everything go according to plan, atleast today? The whole city of Silberteeth was watching, yet the rocket was delayed. As the controllers waited for information, a call came in from the driver. It confirmed the worst of their fears. The fuel truck driver had overslept. After yelling through the phone, the controller demanded he got in his truck, put the gas pedal to the floor, and just drove as fast as his truck could. The driver responded, and after hanging up, the controller threw the phone at the ground as hard as he could, breaking some of it.

"****ING IDIOT! WHY THE **** WAS THAT PIECE OF **** OVERSLEEPING? I ****ING SWEAR, I'LL GET HIM FIRED FOR THIS ****! GAH!"

The truck shortly departed from the depot after the call, speeding through the streets at 100 km/h or more.

[Northern Arcadian Empire]

AE Space Station Orion-
Jameson looked out his window, he swore he say something out there but didn't know what, it was probably just a piece of rock. But he felt he was being watched, he floated to the comms array, something was wrong...there was alot of chatter on radio, and non of it was Earth transmission.

AE Space command-
After receiving reports of something was trying to contact Earth, director Simon decided to investigate a little more.
//Transmission//
To Space Station Orion
Form AE space command
Can you try to narrow down where the transmission came from
//End Transmission//

[West Aurelia]

WASA RMS-C, 21:47 Local Time

"David, I think Albert's gone," Rob said.

"Alright, let's do it."

David and Rob were two of Albert's co-workers who held a grudge against him. They were going to log onto some "sites" on his work computer. The idiot didn't have a password, although you couldn't blame him. Being a radar technician, he only used it to access the radar.

David pressed the on button. "What an idiot! He didn't even shut down properly."

"Makes everything quicker for us."

The alert remained on the screen. "Hmm, there's some electronic interference coming from the moon," David said.

"Why the hell was he even scanning the moon? It's not even the idiot's job," Rob said.

"This looks big. It's completely screwing the radar. We should probably report it. Then we'll get all the credit."

"Alright, I'll notify the boss."

A Few Minutes Later

Their boss Tom had arrived. "This does look big. Our moon sats are jammed too. Look, I'll have to notify someone higher up. Good job boys."

[The Remnants of Kobol]

"Sir, systems are reporting that the Earthlings are targeting us with their scanning technology. They have no idea what we are, but they're seeing something." The DRADIS tech looked over at the XO.
"Cat's out of the bag now. Better get the Admiral up here. He's got more politics under his belt than I do." The XO turned back to call in the Romulus.

---

After receiving word of the new developments, the council agreed that Romulus was best back on his ship. His raptor immediately took off and sped back for the Chimera. Passing through the atmosphere, the ECO could have sworn he saw another ship on DRADIS, but that couldn't be.

---

Against popular opinion, it was decided to withdraw several hundred of the Kobolians from the surface back to the ship. Just in case. Raptors began shuttling the crewmen ten at a time. They'd have at least a little more than a skeleton crew on board.

Sorry for the short post. Until I have a little more to go off of, there's not much I can write... I'm just trying to stay active.

[Riflemoor]

2024.5.7, 10:10 Lowcastle time
Low Earth orbit

The flight of Tern space fighters proceeded further toward the site of the disturbance, their sensors set to passive. All they had running were electromagnetic illumination sensors, the battle net, and the fighters' ACRD systems, which could detect and shoot down missiles, given enough time. Using lasers. Amir had always thought it was a pretty cool system.

"Confirm no visual," the flight leader, an elite pilot named Burke, called over the close-range radio network the Terns maintained.

"Confirm," Lian responded.

"Confirm," Amir added.

"Confirmed, no visual. Contacts are either not present or using some kind of as-of-yet unknown technology to mask their presence," Burke noted for the benefit of the mission black-box, which would synchronize its contents to servers aboard Massiq as soon as they enabled general band communications. "Proceeding."

It was only a few minutes more before lights started to blink on on Amir's dashboard. "Green Leader, this is Green Two. I've got an EM warning light. Spectrum consistent with general radio frequency jamming. We've been lit up by radar. No targeting lasers as far as I can tell."

"Confirm entry into jamming field," Burke said. "Source unknown. Deploying transmitter and proceeding," he said, jettisoning a small container of equipment. The transmitter was essentially a flash drive and a radio antenna strapped to a small missile, with the black box and flight data among the data recorded in its memory; it would fly out toward the station and attempt to 'phone home'. They'd been installed on the Terns when KALEIDOSCOPE had been initiated in case of capture of a human pilot, so that any information the Tern had been carrying could be saved and used against any alien threats.

The human vessels flew further into the jamming field.

[Hotgrat]

Control Floor, NHSEC, North of Silberteeth.

The air was tense. Everyone in the NHSEC was waiting for news on the fuel, and time was running out. The NHSEC had been ordered that if the launch was delayed by more then one hour and 15 minutes, the launch would be cancelled. And time was running out. The launch only had 20 minutes to go. The astronaut chosen to fly the HSESS Broken Star, John Blackbone, had even gone out of the rocket and went to the dressing room. He had even taken off his helmet. He pondered if it was a good idea to ask the controllers for permission to go home. But just as he stood up again and turned to the door, the SCMA (Space Centre Message Announcer) sparked to life. Probably everyone on the Control Floor turned their attention to it at just that moment.

"This is lower cargo deck. FT has arrived. I repeat, the fuel is here. Commencing fueling."

A moment of silence corrured after the message, and no one moved. It was like a game of dance stop, and the music was paused. Then a united sigh of relief was drawn. Shortly after, the astronaut emerged from the dressing room, with his helmet on this time. He proceeded to the rocket, and waited for the fueling to finish. Which took merely 18 minutes, but the deadline was closing in. But finally, the rocket was ready for launch.

"CCA JB, this is Homeberry, do you copy?"

Homeberry was the callsign of the NHSEC in astronaut to FO communications. The name was picked through a competition, where people were to come up with something that either hinted at home, or contained the words directly. The top three candidates had been Long Way Home, Homeberry and Base Plate.
And CCA simply meant Civilian Class Astronaut.

"Homeberry, this is CCA JB, i got you loud and clear."

"Have you performed the last mission checks yet, CCA?"

"Of course i have, over. All systems are a go."

The final countdown for the launch was initiated. 30... 29... 28... As the timer counted down, people from Silberteeth turned their focus to the NHSEC. Moments passed, and the final ten seconds were then announced on the SCMA.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five!"

At the count of five, the engines started up, releasing alot of smoke in the process.

"Four! Three! Two! One! Lift off!"

As the last words were yelled, the rocket lifted off the ground. And finally, the personell at NHSEC could relax. Oh, and yeah, the fuel truck driver was indeed fired. From every truck job there was.

[The Remnants of Kobol]

"Sir, DRADIS contacts are entering the jamming field. They'll have visual contact in four minutes."
"Roger that. I want three vipers dispatched to intercept them. And send a hail. We're going to direct them aboard then keep them entertained. This is just getting worse and worse." The XO started to walk away.
"Sir, why can't we just jump?"
"Because we'll be leaving 80% of our crew on the surface of this planet" Admiral Romulus stepped into the CIC. "We cannot leave until we have all our men aboard. We don't leave them in combat, we don't leave them in peace. We'll direct these few craft aboard and then we do what we no longer have any choice about. We will declare our presence to the primary governments of this world. It's the only way to keep a lid on the situation." Romulus looked around CIC. He saw several shocked and even appalled faces. "Knowledge of our existence has not jeopardized The NESR, yet even their populous knows of us. Our presence has not destroyed other cultures we have met. I see no reason it would harm this world."

Outside, three viper MkVIIs had launched and would appear in flanking positions to this new flight of craft approaching. Their signals were jammed and Chimera Actual sent out a message, through the translation software that had been developed through years of alliance with NESR and their allies.

Earth Contacts. This is Admiral Romulus of the Remnants of Kobol. You have encroached on our area of operation. Please follow the three fighters you see to our port hanger pod. You will not be harmed. Please acknowledge.

[Lolloh]

CFS Divine Beauty, 150,000km from Earth
The Divine Beauty was a luxury craft in the military, meant for exploration of low-hostility planets like this Earth. Coming out of hyperdrive speed a safe distance from the planet, Captain Fillis Makamori nodded at the figures on her screen. ETA was 5 hours at their current speed, at which point they'd go into orbit around this new, mostly-water planet, with the intention of exploring it in the name of the Federation.
Licking a paw, Fillis relaxed in her chair as one of her (significantly smaller) male slaves servants came up and began polishing her claws. The Federation was an extremely matriarchal society, with males being subordinated in a bond system to females. As a military officer, Fillis had over 100 male bonds, a sign of her status and respect within the military, as many only had one. Of course, she was a xenobiologist, so she was invariably interested in what this new society might be like.

[Northern European Senates remnants]

So do I carry from last reboot or start again

[Hippie Kiwis]

So do I carry from last reboot or start again

OoC: this is a reboot, think about what it means. (we're starting over.)

[The Remnants of Kobol]

"DRADIS contact! It's not from Earth." The tech ensign turned to the Admiral.
"Now we've got problem. I want these pilots aboard. Launch the alert vipers and set condition two. This contact doesn't reach Earth unless we clear it first." Romulus looked around the CIC. "We're not at war. We don't anticipate conflict, but this planet is a designated ally planet and we cannot allow any hostile forces to reach it."

Outside, 150 viper MKVIIs launched from the tubes and set up a screen at the edge of the interference zone. All of the major gun batteries trained on the direction of this new contact. Inside, scans were being taken, but the information was inconclusive as the tech had never been seen before. A message was drawn up and sent via direct beam to the new ship.

Unknown contact,
You are entering a protected zone around a planet called Earth. The surrounding space is under the protection of the Imperial Republic of the Remnants of Kobol. Please state your intentions and submit to a search by Kobolian personnel if you wish to proceed to the planet. If not, we are willing to conduct diplomacy aboard our vessel or yours. If neither of these options sounds acceptable to you, you are free to turn around and leave without incident. If you proceed without communication, we will resort to force to stop you. This planet is susceptible to disease and has not yet made significant extraterrestrial contact. We intend to allow this planet to advance on its own pace and protect it from exploitation. Please respond, over.

Fleet Admiral Romulus

[Hippie Kiwis]

"DRADIS contact! It's not from Earth." The tech ensign turned to the Admiral.
"Now we've got problem. I want these pilots aboard. Launch the alert vipers and set condition two. This contact doesn't reach Earth unless we clear it first." Romulus looked around the CIC. "We're not at war. We don't anticipate conflict, but this planet is a designated ally planet and we cannot allow any hostile forces to reach it."

Outside, 150 viper MKVIIs launched from the tubes and set up a screen at the edge of the interference zone. All of the major gun batteries trained on the direction of this new contact. Inside, scans were being taken, but the information was inconclusive as the tech had never been seen before. A message was drawn up and sent via direct beam to the new ship.

Unknown contact,
You are entering a protected zone around a planet called Earth. The surrounding space is under the protection of the Imperial Republic of the Remnants of Kobol. Please state your intentions and submit to a search by Kobolian personnel if you wish to proceed to the planet. If not, we are willing to conduct diplomacy aboard our vessel or yours. If neither of these options sounds acceptable to you, you are free to turn around and leave without incident. If you proceed without communication, we will resort to force to stop you. This planet is susceptible to disease and has not yet made significant extraterrestrial contact. We intend to allow this planet to advance on its own pace and protect it from exploitation. Please respond, over.

Fleet Admiral Romulus

The Kishi Kii was drifting. A nearby ship was there. They avoided it. Suddenly, several smaller object sprouted from the side of the unidentified ship and raced towards them. Garbling was received over the radio waves. An alien communication? the captain did not know. The ship was on high alert. Cannons were extended from the hull and tracked targets. Conflict was imminent. Fearing these might be his last moments, the captain sent a message back to orion. It was a cry for help.

Hostile entities have been identified in the atmosphere of tosev 3. Please send reinforcements.

I didn't understand your transmission, you are speaking an alien language and have no idea what you are saying.

[The Remnants of Kobol]

"Sir, the target is just sitting there. We're receiving no communications."
"Very well, put us between Earth and this contact. And nobody bloody fire! We're not going to start a war above Earth over a misunderstanding." Admiral Romulus looked at the scanner and the reports on the vessel. If it came down to fighting, this vessel would be relatively easy to destroy, but it managed to send a communication out. "Recall all personnel from the surface now. We need to be at full strength. Send a signal to call in Battlestar Groups One and Ten. Have them set up on the edge of the system just out of sensor range. We don't want to spook these guys, but we have to assume they requested backup. Oh, and send the message again. This time in every language we have record of."

His orders were followed with great precision and everything was moving according to plan. The fighters were still sitting at the edge of range and the new vessel had not yet fired or responded. All the while, the Chimera slid gracefully into position between this vessel and Earth. Maybe they would simply understand the vessel merely wanted to keep the planet safe and did not mean them any harm.

[Hippie Kiwis]

The Kishi Kii was now receiving all kinds of gibberish over the radio. The captain, in his annoyance, had turned the speaker to mute several minutes ago. The ship was maneuvering between them and the planet. Maybe they were a species posing as the gods of the tosevites? trying to protect their worshipers from harm? The captain did not know.