The First Step

(OOC: From my limited knowledge of Spanish from taking Spanish 1 and currently taking Spanish 2 I can confirm that the Spanish portion is grammatically correct.)

Elizabeth was pleased that the translator has French on it but instead choose to use her own translator to translate to Latin. It only had a handful of Earth languages programmed on to it, but it worked well enough.

She then replied in Latin, "Yes, you are indeed among friends."

"Thank you for the English," High Priest Xenon says in English as he walks into the room, "but Latin will do quite nicely," he finishes in flawless and fluent Latin.

"Since Latin seems to be the accepted tongue, we may begin by offering you all welcome to Bismouth," he continues. An aide walks in as though on cue, and has the right number of glasses of tea, including for the aliens who may or may not even know what to do with it.

"Welcome to Earth," Xenon says to the aliens.

He thanks the aide for the tea and takes some. He also mumbles, "Romanes eunt domus."

New Vegas and the Legion seem to ignore the invitation. Odd for both of them to do so. In fact, A&A also doesn't respond. In the case of the Legion and New Vegas, could be just bad lines of communication. Literally. For A&A, they're really just ignoring it.

(OOC: With how slow I am on my other thread, I don't want to hold this one up too much. )

(OOC: You can easily send an observer from A&A without hindering us at all. And we wouldn't mind!

Either way, Bismouth knows it's weaker than A&A, so it'll probably send a tape of the proceedings to them just to garner brownie points.)

Captain Varro gave a nod to the aid who placed a glass of tea in front of him. He'd never seen the liquid that was inside the cup, but the glass itself was not far off from what Veridians used to serve their own beverages so he deduced that it must have been a drink of some kind. That said, he found it kind of odd they were serve a man in a full spacesuit a drink but figured it must be customary and thus gave the nod of thanks accordingly.

"Allow me to thank the nation of Bismouth for their hospitality" said the Captain. "I would also like to thank all the nations of Earth represented here for their warm welcome to myself and my people. Though we come from a world far from Earth, it is our belief that our ancestors once called Earth home."

"You would not be the only ones," High Priest Xenon replies. "The Swiss and others seem to get material from friends in the stars. Our research suggests that all of the human race might have originated here."

"From varying universes, actually. Much of humanity in this galaxy hails from the universe that the Rheans left. We've had other visitors, of course." He turns his eye briefly to one of his companions in a black leather coat and a strange emblem on right breast.

Elizabeth nodded, and said, "We've seen them come from time to time, although we ourselves do not come in contact with them ourselves. Generally speaking we are somewhat isolationist and focus on building our interior, although it must be said that we've done so very well. Our technology is first rate and most of it has been developed within the last hundred years. Some other nations have been dependent on old technology from before the war. One called the Enclave comes especially to mind."

"Not entirely true in the instance of the Enclave. They have been doing research of their own. Built their own plasma weapons and all. Now, the Brotherhood of Steel, on the other hand, is a different story. They were still dependent on pre-War suits of T-45d and T-51b power armor. The Enclave built their own, later supplemented by antiquated Rutian variants sold to them."

"The point was that they developed them based on pre-existing knowledge, however. We had no such thing and had to build them by ourselves, although much of the development was done during the ZPCI era. Long story, really."

"We understand that at the time of our ancestor's departure from Earth" said the Captain, "the planets and the nations inhabiting it then, were at war. From the archives we have, our ancestors were from the Coalition of Free Nations and their attempt at colonizing our planet, Veridia Prime, was a project to procure new resources for the war against the Eastern Alliance. However, once our ancestors reached Veridia Prime by means of the stargate, the could no longer dial the Earth's gate address and became stranded. We have since theorized that our travel through the gate was not only across space but perhaps even time. After all, my civilization has been growing for over 7 thousand years now (OOC: Veridia Prime was first colonized roughly during the 1700s on Earth) and yet Earth appear roughly, in the same state that our ancestor's left it."

The Captain paused before continuing.

"Our mission was to confirm our theories and each passing moment seems to only go towards that effect. However, with the reality that certain human civilizations also come from different realities, I am left to wonder if perhaps we Veridians are also apart of this phenomena. After all, with all due respect, none of your nation's are ever mentioned in archives and I've so far heard no mention of the Russian Empire, the Caliphate of Paradise, the Genesisian Catholics of Europe or the East African Federation. All these nations and more are among our ancestor's archives."

"You are correct, none of those nations exist on this planet, though I believe the Russian Empire once existed," the High Priest confirms.

If one had been looking, they might have noticed the sour expression on the High Priests' face when the others were discussing their technology from the stars.

"The Russian Empire has been dead since 1918, well over three hundred and sixty years ago. Its successor state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics died in the madness of October 23, 2077. We, in the Confederated Empire of Greater Switzerland, however, have incorporated its successor, the Reborn Coalition of Soviet Nations. General Artyom Orlov, the former Marshal of the RCSN, is now a highly influential member of the Parliament."

Elizabeth only nods and listens on while recording some information.

"Interesting" said the Captain, "October 23, 2077 you say. No, this is far different from the archives our ancestors left us. Though the first Russian Empire did indeed fall in 1918 and saw the rise of the Soviet Union thereafter, our history is recorded differently. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the same year a coup was launched against the leadership, causing a civil war in the Russian Republic. Bloody, it saw the rise of monarchist long exiled from Russia, a new white movement. The Russian Empire thereafter existed as a constitutional monarchy, and was a strong military forces during the Dominion Wars. It remained a world power during the time of war in which our ancestors left Earth."

The Captain sat back in his chair, marveled by the idea that his people were not only from a different period in time but also a different reality entirely. He would have sat scratching his chin, were it not for the fact that he was wearing a space helmet.

"I if is possible, I would be very grateful to the people of Earth is me and my crew can take back with us a history of this world, as complete as is possible. There is many question my people will undoubtedly have and I feel such a resource would be invaluable. Beyond that, I am open to answer any questions that this delegation may have although I will confess I am not authorized by my government to act in an ambassador capacity."

High Priest Xenon sends Helium out of the room, presumably to go get something resembling a history book. In Latin.

Yeah, he won't be back for a little while.

"Out of curiosity," High Priest Xenon asked, "why have you kept your space suits on?"

The man in black says, "Prevention of disease. We don't know what diseases they are carrying that could harm us and we don't know what we are carrying that could harm them."

The High Priest arches an eyebrow. "Nothing that couldn't be solved by a quick detox," he responds. "And we've already been exposed to galactic viruses, unless they're so weak they can't even survive on the surfaces of that spacesuit. And I doubt you all deal with your galactic allies behind spacesuits the whole time."

Elizabeth shakes her head at the High Priest and says, "Perhaps, but for all you know inside the spacesuit there's a disease that's worse than the Spanish flu and the plague put together. Better safe than sorry, really."

She then turns to the Captain, and says, "I could provide you with some history about the region of North America, although not much more than that I'm afraid. We're more of a regional power and we're quite turned in on ourselves. While I suppose we do have records of pre-War history, I'd expect that the Swiss and Bismouthis could provide better records."

"It is for my protection as well as your own" said the Captain. "Before leaving my ship, the suit was scrubbed by an environmental system designed to make the surface of the suit as sterile as possible. Of course once off my ship, I'm sure this suit has been bombarded with diseases my people have not experienced in roughly 7.000 years. Likewise Veridia Prime, though similar in the basics of being Earth-like in its environment, is a very different environment as well. Our history records several instances of epidemics, both natural and man-made, that broke out in regions on our planet. During most instances, including those that happened during war, our civilizations were ill-prepared and it nearly drove us to extinction on one or two occasions. The decisions to wear the suit was a customary gesture of good-will, I apologize if it has offended."

The Captain then turned toward the direction of Elizabeth Côté.

"That would be most appreciated, can I assume that Goreprime Enterprises is no longer the successor state of the United States government?"

"No, that was the Enclave and they have been destroyed by a group called Caesar's Legion, but not before they destroyed one of the most stable states in North America, the New California Republic. The NCR had defeated the Enclave before but combined with the problems of the Legion, they fell. Quite a shame, really. Their territory is now under the nominal control of New Vegas, though the Swiss do devote some resources there."

"It has not," the High Priest responds to the Veridian, "I am merely surprised that we have the most faith in our ability to detoxify things."

High Priest Helium returns with a rather old and dusty looking manuscript. It's pretty big.

"This goes from prehistory to 75 years ago," he tells Xenon in English.

"We have another copy?" Xenon asks.

"Several," Helium responds.

High Priest Xenon places the book in front of the Veridian. He also switches back to Latin. "This is a general history book in this language from prehistory until 75 years ago. You may have it."

Elizabeth nods, and adds on, "What he said is true, although we consider ourselves, the United Municipalities of North America, to be the true successor state of the United States in spirit. In any case, I have managed to get some history files on North America run through on a translator, however I lack a hard copy and I don't believe that using a digital one would be very conducive."

She then turned to High Priest Xenon, and asked, "Sir, would it be possible for me to send this file to your offices so that it could be printed? If it is, I would be extremely grateful."

"Yes, compatibility issues between Earth's operating systems is a problem as it is. Using an entirely alien system would be an ... incredible challenge." Master of understatement, he is. If your perception is high enough, you'll be able to tell he speaks from first-hand experience regarding alien systems.