The Lost Army: Part 2

Unnamed System: Vernonis Cascade

Captain Revir remained almost silent as they approached. What was it that could create a signal that strong? He hoped he wasn't sailing his fleet into a trap. His attention was drawn to the map view as it beeped, as a cluster of starships appearing further ahead, somewhere around the planet's sphere of influence. Unknown origin, unknown designation. There was little on them on the map, besides how big they roughly were.
"Unknown targets, sir. Whole bunch of them. Weapons and combat systems reading as offline, if I'm understanding this correctly." One of the crewmen called out.
"Lahrana?"
"The xenos fleet is moving into an orbit around the small terrestrial world, just as we are. If their equipment is anything like ours, I would predict them as moving into an optimum scanning range of the planetary surface. All things considered, it would appear they are here for the same reason we are. As stated, their weaponry is seemingly offline and they are making a degree of evasive manoeuvres. It would appear they do not wish for a fight." Lahrana reported. The Captain nodded.
"Anything on sensors?"
"Not much. I'm getting some distanced signals, it looks similar in nature, and there might be a second fleet already in orbit. Not enough information to display anything meaningful on the map right now, I'm afraid." Tuhri sighed.
"Right. Continue our approach at a solid cruising speeds, but give them a wide berth. We don't want to look like we're moving to engage. Keeps weapons and shields online, for now…" Revir ordered.
"Aye aye, sir. Keeping our distance." The helmsman nodded.
A moment passed. Another.
"Sir?" One of the Communications officers turned in his seat.
"What is it, crewman?"
"I'm getting a signal, from the fleet up ahead. Some kind of transmission. If I'm reading this right, it's an attempt at communications. They may be trying to hail us." The crewman pointed.
"Lahrana, what do you make of it?"
"It is a presently one-way signal. Our sensors are reading it, but not presently acting on it. As the officer stated, it is likely an attempt to communicate."
"Can you open communications with them? And feed their signal to a new screen?"
"Aye aye, Captain. Attempting to open communications." Lahrana nodded. One of the unlit displays lit up, moving forwards to sit under the map view, near the Captain. "Reading signal. I can't say for sure on their end, but if all's working they should be reading our communications attempt now." An officer called.
"I'm sending the signal on multiple wave formats, if they cannot read this their technology is utterly alien." Lahrana blinked.
"Let's see how this goes." Revir sighed.

Mitchell watched the new alien fleet approach his own fleet, getting more than a little worried as they got within weapon range of his own ships, but they had not fired yet, and the message he had sent them had still not been picked up by the other's fleet. "Helmsman, prepare to move to broadside, if they don't receive our message, we'll go to battle stations. Standby." He waited a few moments and his Communications Analyst spoke up "They have received our hail sir, awaiting response."

Mitchell left his chair and stood by the Communications Analyst, watching her screen as they waited to see what would happen. Only moments later, an assortment of different signals came back from the alien fleet. "Sir, it seems that they are fishing for our signal formats, and attempting a 2-way communications line." Mitchell patted her shoulder and said "Good, lock on one of those signals and open communications, I'll attempt to bring them on my communications" he walked back to his chair and opened his comms, the Comms Analyst picking a signal and sending it to the Fleet Commander. "We are ready to broadcast sir"

Mitchell nodded and tried to introduce himself, knowing that they might not understand his language or he might not understand theirs. "This is the Dectrose Empire Fleet Rho, I am Fleet Commander Mitchell Timmer, we mean no hostile intent or harm, please state your name and intentions here."

Captain Revir watched the moving symbols on the map, waiting for a response.
"Captain, the unknown fleet is responding. It looks like they've picked up our signals." An officer called. Revir nodded, the transmission coming through. While he didn't understand all of it, bits he did understand. Something something Dentals Empire. Commander Mitchie. No hostile intent, usual stuff from what he could gather. Revir rubbed his brow, where the nose joined the forehead area. Technically, being a transparent, purple-blue being made exclusively of hard light he didn't feel, physically, he was only aware of contact, but still. He looked up. Lahrana looked unconcerned. Lahrana always looked unconcerned.
"Lahrana, begin working on linguistic configuration translators, clean up the mess, if you please." He asked. Lahrana nodded.
"This is Captain Revir, commanding officer of the UNS Oramir and of Recon Combat Fleet 44, of the Artificia Unanimity Navy. We are here to investigate a signal of unknown origin." Revir stated. Hopefully, if Lahrana was quick at translating, what he said should come through clear enough for this Mitchie bloke to understand.
"Sir? The two-way communications are up and stable. If you like, I can try to open visual comms too. Face-to-face and all that." An officer suggested.
"Do it." Revir nodded. "Tuhri, anything on sensors?"
"Have confirmed, the second group of signals is another fleet. Again, different to these guys."
"Okay. Keep an eye on them, we don't know they're friendly or not." Revir nodded.

As Mitchell waited, a responce came on screen from the Communications Analyst, as she said "It's a little rough sir, I've tried to clean it up the best I could." Mitchell nodded and read what was clear enough to read. "This is Captain Revir, commanding officer of the UNS ------ and of Recon Combat Fleet --, of the Artificia Unanimity Navy. We are ---- to investigate a signal of unknown origin." He was pleasantly suprised that they could understand and communicate in General, and his Communications Analyst piped up again. "Sir, they are attempting visual communications, shall we open visual communications?"

Mitchell nodded and looked to his Communications Officer "Bring them on screen", his display springing to life and he raises a brow as he saw a few blotches of blue light that turned into humanoid figures, he turned to his Communications Analyst and turned his comms off "Any way we can get this clearer? It looks like a bunch of humanoids made of light" The Communications Analyst turned slowly to the Fleet Commander with shock on her face "This is the clearest we have it on sir... they are made of light sir."

Mitchell blinked and leaned back in his chair for a moment, astounded that such a being would exist, the shock expressed in his face as he looked at the blue figure looking at him and pulled himself back together, shakily pressing his comms button on and speaking to the strange blue light figures "Hello Captain Revir, I am Fleet Commander Timmer, I suspect that the signal that brought us here has also brought you here? Is there any chance we could combine our efforts to discover the source on the planet?"

Revir sat back in his seat. The visual comms came online, filling most of the communications screen, with only a small side bar displaying signal strength. The screen came to life, displaying this...Commander Mitchie.
Revir scowled. And Mitch looked more surprised, or perhaps bewildered, than anything.
"C...Captain? Is...Is he a-?" Tuhri started.
"Human male. It seems we haven't put so much distance between us and humanity after all, Captain." Lahrana stated, her emotionless face drifting slowly to meet the Commander's eyes on-screen. It was then Revir remembered audio comms were still online. Oh well. Lahrana likely didn't care anyways.
"You are correct, Commander. Our military governor sent us to investigate also." Revir sighed, briefly glancing to his right as that crewman tried to start up The Final Tiger again. Lahrana promptly turned his console off. His...less than friendly glare returned to Commander Mitch.
"Combined efforts would, in theory, be possible yes. But as of the moment, there are too many...unknowns...about this situation for me to make a concrete decision." Revir blinked slowly.
Lahrana looked away as the map screens updated, new information appearing.
"Captain. We are on final approach to a lower mid-range orbit around the uncharted terrestrial world. Long-range scanning information is coming in. Updating map view." She reported. Small boxes and symbols appeared, moving around and changing, the boxes filling with text. Gravitational readings. Atmospheric scans, so forth. At the present, unimportant info.
"Very well. Take the updated info into account, start us on a course to optimum scanning range." Revir sighed. Lahrana nodded, the ships changing direction just slightly.
"If you'd like to arrange an effort of combined forces, Commander, feel free to make the first suggestion, or whatever." Revir sighed. "Because personally, I'm not the most inclined." He muttered under his breath.

"Is it ready?"
"Yes sir. Cruiser entering system in 3, 2, 1-"
An Annoliddan Ceres class cruiser entered the system on the other side of the planet, so that the original fleet of dropships and blockade runners remained in between it and the other fleets. It fired a missile headed toward its own forces, decelerating after passing through the cluster. The projectile shifted into a more rounded shape, extending antennae in the direction of the inbound fleets. The Ceres sent a transmission to Khabaros's vessel.

//System Reina reporting. Annoliddan main fleet has been linked with the colonization vessel, and Inquisitor Re'geist is proceeding with the effort. Using your collected communication data, a comm buoy with self-sustained intranet has been deployed. Anything else I can do for you Inquisitor?\\

Khabaros mused over the AI's transmission, fumbling through his options. Communications were important, but faltered from what his true objective was...

"Reina, maintain...normalcy with these folk. I'm leading my forces planetside." With this, Khabaros and the other dropships descended into the planet's stratosphere, searching for a clearing. The blockade runners slowly drifted in orbit to link up with the cruiser.

Reina opened up a two-way comm channel to all present and soon to be available fleets, using the comm buoy's intranet, always making the opening statement, //Greetings. As representative of the Annoliddan Inquisition, I welcome you all to open communication between our people during this endeavour. As you can see, Inquisitor Khabaros is already headed to the planet's surface to locate the source of the signal that brought us all here. If it suites you, I would recommend joining his effort.\\
This transmission was sent using a format mimicking those already sent between the fleets, with the audio sounding feminine in English. Where video or hologram was enabled, it showed a plainly dressed Annoliddan woman, along with various texts that spelled out the audio in a variety of writing styles.

Mitchell was just about to retort to the muttering Artificia Captain when the Emerald Jewel III detected a new arrival to the system, a cruiser-sized ship, belonging to the other faction in this system. His heart skipping a beat before his augments corrected his pulse rate as the cruiser fired an object that appeared to be a missile. He turned off communications with the Artificia and rushed over to his Weapon's Officer "Trace that trajectory! Will it hit us?" The Weapons Officer tapped his keys and projected the course of the missile, aimed at the other faction that they haven't made contact with yet. "Is it a rival sub-faction? Do they bear different signals?" He asked his Communication's Analyst, and she shook her head "No sir, there are of the same faction."

Mitchell watched for a moment until the missile slowed down and probe-like antennae spurted out of it, his Communications Analyst soon decoding the message easily and looked over to the Fleet Commander, twitching her short tail "Sir, it appears to be a Comms Satellite, it's been tailored to match General almost flawlessly." Mitchell looked to her and nodded, sitting in his chair "Seems like someone's been listening in, alright, open and leave on all communications from the factions here via the Comm Satellite."

Mitchell then looked over to Rear Admiral Landow's Gebeiter II Carrier, and opened up comms, the thick voice of the Rear Admiral coming through. "Yes, Fleet Commander Timmer?" Mitchell looked at the ground force the Annoliddians have launched and turned back to the comms "Sir, I recommend we launch a Whale III with.. Say.. an Army Company and an Air Force Company? Mostly Heli's and VTOL for the Air Force, and Troop Transports with IFV's in the Army?" Rear Admiral Landow thought for a moment, rubbing his upper lip in thought, then swayed his hand and nodded "Yes, that'll do, inform these other factions then land on the planet, Order the Emerald Jewel III to scan the planet. I'll ready the Whale III for departure."

Mitchell nodded and opened comms with the Emerald Jewel III "Move closer to the planet and begin your scans, see if you can pinpoint the signal." Then broadcast the information to the Comms Satellite "The Dectrose Empire will be landing on the planet to assist with the search momentarily".

Revir was caught slightly off-guard by Mitchell suddenly turning off communications. Hm. Well, whatever. Revir wasn't too thrilled by the idea of talking with humans anyway. Still. What had caused that.
"What happened?" Revir asked.
"Manual disengagement of communications. Captain Mitchell turned them off himself, we are not suffering any technical difficulties." Lahrana explained.
"Right. Well, in that case disengage ours too. Why did he turn off communications?" Revir raised en eyebrow.
"Another contact has moved into planetary orbit. They match the signals of the other fleet." Tuhri called.
"Anything else?"
"Said ship has deployed a missile. I can't quite tell what kind, but neither its trajectory nor signal output conforms to what you would expect of an offensive munition." Lahrana tilted her head just slightly to the side. Revir glanced at her. Her face still remained as blank as ever, though.
"Right. Track it with CIWS. If it gets too close, shoot to kill. We don't want any sleeper missiles sitting pretty too close to our ships." Revir ordered.
"Aye aye sir. Charging CIWS systems and setting tracking target to the projectile. Setting a fire distance." The main gunner nodded.
"Alright. Maintain course." Revir sighed, sitting back.
"Sir? I'm picking up signals. The source appears to be the missile." Someone called.
"What do you mean, signals?"
"They match open-form communications signals, Captain. If what I am reading is correct, it would appear that this is a communications satellite." Lahrana explained.
"She's right, Captain. This satellite is trying to establish a communications channel with us."
"What linguistic data, if any?"
"...English. Again."
"Does everyone out here speak the same old outdated language?" Revir grumbled.
"Bringing auto-translators online, sir."
"I'm also getting a more specific transmission, sir."
"Show me." Revir nodded. An image appeared on the communications screen, displaying some form of alien. Roughly humanoid. Tall. Something about some inquisition with this 'Khabaros' or whatever already headed to the surface. 'Aid him in his effort' blah blah. What if the Unanimity wanted to perform their own efforts groundside?
"What do you suggest, Lahrana?"
"Agreeing to collaborate would help to avoid hostilities, but may leave our ground forces at a tactical disadvantage if it came to them anyway. Performing our own operations would give us greater freedom in such things, but may upset our...acquaintances, and we would have to be much more careful." Lahrana explained her projected scenarios for 'Yes' and 'No'.
"Right. Well. I suppose we might be able to lend some assistance." Revir sighed.
"Your orders, sir?"
"Send a message to...whoever's listening on that comms satellite. 'Unanimity forces will be arriving to assist momentarily.' Whoever's on intra-comms, inform the carrier, tell them to deploy a Light Combat Group to the planetary surface. Scan for anything of importance, find us a decent landing site."
"Aye aye sir. And the LCG's orders?"
"Assist these other people in locating the source of the unknown signal."
"Very well, Captain."
"What about all us?"
"Bring us into orbit." Revir ordered.

As the fleet of submarine-like ships moved into orbit around the terrestrial world, the large, rounder ship relatively close to the fleet's centre opening the hangars near its back. Somewhere around two or three dozen dropships all left first, followed by larger, boxier vehicles and groups of what appeared to be regular aerial gunships. Small clusters of tiny missiles were dispersed amongst the group. As they headed towards the planetary surface, a force of fighters escorted them, ready to turn around and head back to the fleet once the force neared atmosphere.

Space distorted and suddenly five compact spaceships appeared spread out in a loose formation, a good distance away from the system's star, above the ecliptic. Their shields shimmered as waves of hard radiation washed across them, spreading from the jump point across the system, announcing their presence to all. Moments later another space distorted again and eight more ships appeared.
Asna surveyed the comparatively tiny star system, combining the input of her own sensors with that of the four other cruisers spread out around the refitted freighters. She winced as the chatter from various other factions hit her seemingly all at once. There was encrypted communication, probably originating within the various fleets present, but there was even more easy to read and translate chatter on open frequencies.
With one ear she kept listening to the proposals made by the other factions present while dedicating most of her attention to arranging her fleet for a quick landing operation. The target would be the single small terrestrial world, surprisingly close by given how small the system was. “Match my course and speed! Cruisers shield the freighters until they enter the atmosphere, then accelerate out of the gravity well again. Deploy your fighters before rising to our final orbit. They will descend with the marines to provide air cover.”
With those orders given and the fleet underway she started to focus on the other factions present properly. After a while she focused on the communication satellite deployed by one of the other fleets. So far they sounded reasonable enough. Time would tell, if they really were. Composing a virtual avatar, she sent an answer. “Commodore Asna Sé of the Summer Court speaking. We will coordinate our efforts with you. Commencing landing operation.”
The shields of the ships started glowing red as they entered the planet's atmosphere. The freighters and the deployed fighters decelerated further, while the cruisers that had escorted them started rising again. For a brief moment the ships shot across the sky like a shower of meteorites. Then the landing force reached the ground, the large freighters straining as they touched down, immediately starting to deploy troops, while the fleet’s small fighter complement kept circling overhead.

(Between )