Homeworld Conflict

by Lily Lain

Contact

We have arrived.

A planet hung in the starlit universe before them. It flourished with life. Clouds rolled across its atmosphere, and green continents floated in the blue oceans. It was habitable; it had to be.

A missile destroyer and a carrier have mis-jumped, but are in contact. They will arrive in about two hours.

“The stars are differently aligned. Is it possible to discern where we are?”

Analysing data...
We are…
Reanalysing data...
We are outside of the known galaxy.
The stars do not match any of the known charts.

The star of this planet... orbits it.
Comparing readings from all starships...
Yes, that is not a miscalculation; the sun circulates the planet. We are unsure of why this phenomenon occurs.

Fleet Command remained silent for a moment. “Launch the probes.”

Upon arrival, the probes opened into three-armed satellites and scanned the environment. The glass eyes saw lands of wonder that enraptured the engineers who had the luck to gaze at it.

Various life forms detected on the planet, including flora and fauna of different species. No signs of sapience on the orbit of the planet.

“Send in the Cloaked Fighters. There could be sapient species of lower technological advancement.”

Cloaked Fighters launching.

This time, it was only a group of five. All of them were scattered. These weren’t the typical Fighter Scout ships, but the top-notch Cloaked Fighter units, piloted by the elite. They could not be detected with the naked eye, nor with weaker sensors, especially from greater distances.

They were big, however: several times bigger than a Scout, similar to a Corvette, but nonetheless fast enough to be considered a Fighter type of ship. They had to house a Cloak Generator, after all, and projectile cannons for decent firepower. A poet would say they were shaped like the crescent moon. An engineer would instead point to their very close resemblance to a phone receiver from back when these devices were yet a novelty.

Signs of sapience detected.

Stone ruins of an old, forgotten castle showed themselves on the display. It wasn’t much, but enough to tell that the planet had housed life at some point.

Former sapience confirmed.
Use of the ambassador unit advised.

“Pull back the Cloaked Fighers. Send in Ambassador.”

Cloaked scouts pulling back.
Ambassador Corvette dispatching.

Once again the glass eyes registered the environment, but this time much closer. There was the ocean, its waves rippling in the sun, which covered the better part of the globe. The water, although serene, seemed endless. It was a relief when the ambassador unit reached the solid ground.

Further signs of sapience not yet discovered.
Ambassador has detected a potentially advanced fauna species.

An enormous – for the usual fauna standards – reptile-like creature rested on the ground below. It gazed at the spacecraft and leapt in the air, showing its enormous scaled wingspan. With strong, majestic wing beats, it closed the distance between it and the ship, drawing nearer and nearer, yearning for contact with what it could see as a new, shining, perhaps friendly metal being.

“Ambassador, withdraw. Withdraw now!”

The sound registers cracked with a loud roar as the enormous beast charged after the small, retreating Corvette class ship. Having been designed to not pose a threat, the Corvette had no weaponry to defend itself with, and could only fly straight upward, in the hope that the creature’s oxygen-burning muscles would yield faster than the hydrogen-fuelled engine.

In one final attempt at malevolence, the beast shot a burst of flame after the vehicle. The temperature meters went up, but the starship was designed to withstand the heat, being a disarmed version of military technology, and did so with little difficulty. The sanitary equipment aboard the vessel registered a spike in the heartbeat rate of the crew.

Ambassador unit is safe.
Dispatchment of an armed escort advised.

“Dispatch the Scout units with the Ambassador. Dispatch the Interceptors if needed.”

A group of the starships, all of which could break the speed of sound, assembled themselves into a spherical formation around the ambassador unit. That group descended onto the planet again, this time passing at a much higher altitude.

The overdriven equipment registered both vision and heat from afar, allowing the group to pass by any bigger fauna in their search for sapience.

Signs of sapience spotted. It appears to be a defensive, stone structure built on a slope of a mountain.

The group advanced slowly, cautiously.

Further signs of sapience spotted. An assembly of wooden shelters; they appear to be homes.

Having decided against threatening the civilisation in the region, the scout class Fighters retreated from the civilised airspace, returning to the Mothership.

Hailing signal engaged on all frequencies. Heading for the most probable capital settlement.

“Head toward the castle on the slope of the mountain.”

“Received,” said the ambassador unit’s speaker, more to test the equipment for the thousandth time than to confirm his understanding of the order.

We’re facing a low-tech nation. Caution advised.

The unit stopped before the castle and waited. The cameras registered various life-forms going about their daily lives below, but whoever registered the starship turned their gaze toward it with awe.

No automatic hostile reaction has been triggered.
Awaiting reply.

Finally, the cameras focused on the door of the inner keep registered a pair of slightly bigger life-forms. One of them was coloured brightly, the other darkly, creating a sharp contrast. They had a vaguely equine appearance, but had both horns and wings, which could perhaps place them among the tales of myth and superstition.

Two outstanding specimens registered. Presumably the alpha units of the species. Their contrast might indicate male and female alpha units.

The pair flew up to the ship and stopped at a respectful distance, hovering before it. The whole Fleet fell silent and held a collective breath.

“Engage visual stimuli. Try every code. Have the microphones and cameras pick out their language for translation. You can shut off the radio,” Fleet Command ordered.

The Corvette extended a screen with bright lights in it signalling various shapes and frequencies. The radio was shut off. The cameras focused on the alpha specimina and their muzzles showing, quite surprisingly, a puzzled expression.

“Sis, perhaps we should levitate some professors up here to translate these signs for us,” offered the smaller, darker one. “This is not how I imagined an encounter with the aliens.”

“Fleet, this is Ambassador. We have registered... This species is speaking Galactic Standard.” The Ambassador fell silent.

“We have registered that,” confirmed Fleet Command. “Engage auditory contact.”

Comments

[Advent Link]

I just recently started playing homeworld(remastered) and I have to say for a somewhat old game, it was effective in envoking my emotions and the game play is far from "who has the biggest army wins" style of strategy. I'm really interested to see how things go in this story.