Contact: The Hive

The Hive, Ahlgros, Phahlan, The Hive

The Hive City teemed with life. The ancient city was built so many thousands of years ago by the Ahlgren was still ruled by them, along with a good portion of the galaxy. The layout of the city would seem strange to an alien eye. The surface was made up of giant hills which surrounded the entrances into the underground city. Upon those hills rooms that were mostly for ventilating air into the city were present. Large FTL Radio towers stood near the center of the city which could message across the Hive in a matter of days. There were also giant pipes protruding out of the ground expelling steam from some of the industrial processes below. In between the hills were green valleys of crops that supported the city. It was a peaceful place.

However, go just 20 feet below and you would encounter the enormous caverns of the city. No space was wasted. What wasn't an industrial complex was a pillar supporting the roof. And in the pillars lived the workers of the Hive city. The deeper you went in the city the more royal structures you find. Soon enough you would begin to run into the government structures. Here the Councils met to discuss where newborn Ahlgren would be assigned as well as the status of cities, planets, and systems. Their messages would go up hundreds of feet to the giant Radio towers. Going even further the birthing chambers could be seen. Here the Queens in the Hive City gave birth to Ahlgren larva day in and day out. The Servant Worker Ahlgren worked furiously to transport the larva into the Larva chambers, vast rooms filled with larva. And deeper still you would encounter the Hive Queen Chamber. This chamber held only one Queen, the almighty Hive Queen. She was nearly oblivious to the Ahlgren she was giving birth to, rather her attention was focused on an area far outside of the Hive territory. Something there drew her attention. Through her powerful mind she was able to see the long dead memories of Ahlgren who had traveled through that area so many years before. The memories were blurry and did not flow well, but something there still drew her attention and she could not get passed that.

An Uninhabited System In Centauri Space

Admiral Ulrik Svensgaard stood in the center of the command chamber of the UNS Charybdis with his arms crossed, inspecting data displays and barking orders to his subordinates on the control terminals of the ship as they engaged in military drills with the Bastian Dominion. It was a fine day, as it was the first time that the newly built flagship of the Planetary Defense Force would be brought out of dock to actually engage in some sort of activity. That, and to see the impressive firepower on the ship be used for the first time during live-fire exercises was quite a show, too. Seeing the plasma shards spit out constant streams of melting plasma, the tachyon beams firing out tachyons with massive amounts of kinetic energy, and of course the explosive fusion-powered missiles.

Truly, it was a far cry from the UNS Unity that Admiral Svensgaard was the navigator for all those years ago... a hundred, two hundred? He forgot, it was so long ago. Or the various US Navy vessels, thinking back even further. He thought all this as he directed the drills, interspersed with brief messages to the other ships in his fleet (a carrier, three of the cruisers, and ten light frigates) and messages to his Bastian colleagues. The events were going fairly well... and then, he felt a sudden lump in his throat, and looked at the stars. Something didn't feel right to him - his sailor's intuition told him that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. Then, he shook the thought out of his head as he continued to bark out orders - there was no need for baseless foreboding to bog his thoughts down.

But the thought still remained in his mind, even though he wasn't going to make anything of it.

Admiral Saul Bierbaum*, an engineer by training, smiled as he watched the massive railguns of the DSS Vindicator fire back. Though he was fairly impressed as he admired how far the Centauri pushed the development of energy weapons, he was confident of the general superiority of kinetic weapons. Conservation of momentum and all that. His ears twitched as he shook a nagging feeling in the back of his head but dismissed them as the result of the sight of all these advanced energy weapons, reassuring himself with the equation K = 1/2 mv^2 and the results of flinging a twenty kilogram slug at relativistic velocities towards a target.

*That's his chosen name in Galactic Basic. His Bastian name is unpronounceable for humans.

(OOC: If you're curious, a 20 kg slug fired at 1% of the speed of light would impart about 9 x 10^13 J of kinetic energy on a target.)

(OOC: Hey, we have advanced kinetic weaponry too. Tachyon bolts are kinetic.)

(OOC: I noticed and so did he. He just prefers to have only kinetic weapons. How does it work, by the way?)

(OOC: Firing tachyons at things, I guess. I've given up on trying to comprehend what exactly a lot of things in SMAC are, though I get that tachyons are theoretical particles that go faster than light speed.)

(OOC: Yeah, not getting how that would be a kinetic energy weapon. Seems more like an energy weapon to me, if it has to be classified as one of the two. Not getting much information on it from Google, though.)

A small exploration force of 5 ships had been assembled. Four of the ships were Scout Class and had in-atmosphere capabilities. The fifth was a medium frigate which was the commanding ship of the mission as well as the main military force of it.

The frigate fired a large ray out and in a moment a large spherical portal grew out in front of them. The ships moved into a tight formation to enter the slipspace portal*. Upon traveling through they entered the slipspace, a place where many of the laws of physics are non-existant. Here they would be able to make the long journey a matter of a couple weeks.

A Couple Weeks Later

The weeks had passed by slowly. When you are apart of a society that always has work to do and all must do their part, sitting on a ship doing little everyday makes for a highly strange experience. Despite the lack of self determination, the soldiers on the ship had an antsy feeling which transferred over to the Princess leading them. She was becoming annoyed at the constant feedback from her soldiers as it was not often that she could receive feelings from them. In any case it didn't matter because their journey would be over in only a few more minutes. The Princess prepped the ships for reentry into regular space and fully acknowledged the fact that they could very well come out of slipspace at the doorstep of a gas giant given that their destination was a solar system which had been briefly explored centuries before.

The arrival was getting closer every moment. The ships had been prepped and now only the shock of exiting the slipspace remained. 10... 9... 8... 7.... The Princess counted down in her head. She had never experienced leaving the slipspace before and she was somewhat afraid of the shock. Suddenly, the ship burst out of the slipspace. The shock of leaving the slipspace was not the only shock she felt. The Princess nearly fainted at the sight she was beholding. Before the exploration party was an alien battle and they had nearly popped out right in the middle of it. After a couple moments she gathered her thoughts and began to order the soldiers. The soldiers knew exactly what she wanted at the moment she wanted it because of the female telepathic powers.

All five ships had stopped moving forward and all extra power had been diverted to the forward and side shields. The MAC cannons were warmed up and the Proton missiles loaded. The Princess was well aware that the day could be her last, but she would defend her soldiers and The Hive to the best of her ability.

(OOC: *The slipspace is basically like travelling at hyperspeed, although it happens in another dimension. At 1:32 in this video you can see what the portal looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW19zXYr6UE [and its the blue-black sphere not the part below it]. Also, as the ships near their exit you should detect a build-up of energy up to the point which they come out of slipspace where you should see a spike in the energy.)

(OOC: The way that I interpreted it, the tachyons would simply impact things with massive amounts of kinetic energy as a result of moving faster than even light itself. I'm not sure if this is the way that they're meant to be interpreted, but really it makes sense.)

Admiral Svensgaard watched as the Bastian ship the DSS Vindicator fire back on the UNS Charybdis with heavy slugs from its railguns. He had to admit that he was impressed to some degree by how advanced the kinetic weaponry of the Bastians was, however he felt that their railguns were somewhat crude and unrefined to the Centauri tachyon bolts and that railguns could only go so far. Railguns could do a lot of things, but they certainly couldn't send out faster-than-light particles to impact the enemy. Then, his musings on kinetic weaponry were disrupted when suddenly he heard a general gasp of shock among his subordinates monitoring the data terminals. He looked up at the plasma window, and saw what they were looking at.

A fleet of five ships had appeared in the middle of the battlefield of the exercise, four of them small and the last larger. His mind raced as he tried to determine what exactly was going on, while he shouted to his crew to temporarily stop firing at the new unknown fleet, and to redirect more of the power to shields and carefully scan the new fleet. He tried to reason why exactly this fleet had just shown up - here were travel advisory warning broadcast throughout the galaxy for days on end before the exercises, warning people not to enter the space where the exercises were being held, so it could certainly not be a bumbling civilian fleet. And then the obvious came to him rather quickly as he inspected the ships more carefully - the ships were not of any design that he knew of. Not Centauri, certainly, definitely not Panzerian, nor were they Burnite, nor Rutian, nor Bastian, and not even Veridian. They were yet another race that was undiscovered, up to this point.

With a sigh, he took his communication headset and quickly had it calibrated to send a message to the incoming fleet, hoping that the Universal Translator link would carry him through. Then, rubbing his temple, he said into his headset,

"Attention, incoming unidentified fleet. This is Admiral Ulrik Svensgaard of the UNS Charybdis, a vessel of the Planetary Governate of Alpha Centauri. You are currently disrupting military field exercises between the Planetary Governate and the Bastian Dominion. We request that you identify yourselves immediately or we will continue fire without hesitation."

"Ready the heavy turrets!" barked (meowed?) the admiral. "If they show hostile intent I want them blasted immediately." The Vindicator's two heavy laser turrets lined up and were ready to fire.

(OOC: So yes, they have some energy weapons. Nothing exotic, though. Just very strong lasers.)

The Princess realized that some sort of message was being sent from one of the alien vessals. The message was in spoken language similar to what she had to speak to other females. She was convinced, however, that she may be able to talk with them with her telepathy. The moment she tried to communicate with them she was struck with the greatest shock of her life. Her telepathy, unable to penetrate the alien mind, was useless alone. However, she had attempted to communicate when a repeat of the alien message was sent. Her telepathy had jumped straight through the signal into the source. Once in the alien's mind she could see everything he had seen and understood all that he understood. All the memories and thoughts of the conscious and unconscious mind flew through her. The aliens were truly quite alien. In their society there existed no caste system and some beings in the species were not inferior to others. They all had intelligent thoughts and could all solve complex problems. They had no sort of telepathy, but had a highly advanced language system. All the members of the species could choose their own path in life, an idea so foreign to the Princess that she had never even considered it. The aliens referred to themselves as Centaurans and they lived in a system they called Alpha Centauri. They had also had many contacts with other space civilizations including the one they were practicing--not fighting--with before being interrupted.

The Princess collapsed onto her knees. Her head throbbed and her hands trembled. In her realization she had stopped giving orders to the soldiers on board the five ships. They all simply sat their, staring blindly into the face of destruction. That's when she came to and realized she had to leave. There was no way they would survive this encounter. Despite knowing the Centauran language now, the Princess still knew there was no way she could communicate with them. The ships computer was not configured for any such thing and her mouth would not be able to make the Centauran vocal sounds. She had to leave now in order to preserve the vast knowledge which had been obtained.

The escape pod on the frigate was being prepped meanwhile the shields were preparing for a devastating blow that could come at any moment. At the end of the ship the slipspace drive was warming up for the creation of a portal for which the Princess could fly through in the escape pod. The only question now was would everything be ready by the time the aliens opened fire?

(OOC: I think my frigate should narrowly survive one blow from the tachyon beam after which the slipspace portal will be opened and the Princess will maker her escape just before the frigate is destroyed.)

(OOC: Actually, some of the Centauri are capable of telepathy, but only some. Not many. Also, I'd like to note that there actually is a faction called The Human Hive which does not have all of those characteristics.)

Admiral Svensgaard waited impatiently for a response to his message, and there was none. No communication came from the intruding ships, nor did the ships take any real action. Svensgaard frowned, and deciding that they would have to be proactive in their approach and open fire, giving the order for the fleet to fire a salvo of tachyon beams on the alien vessels. He did not make the decision lightly as he was all for peaceful contact with new alien species whenever possible, but when a fleet intrudes on Centauri space in the middle of military exercises he had little desire or will to make mercy when the possibility of danger to his vessels and Alpha Centauri was a risk. Yes, the ships did not appear to be doing anything, but Svensgaard knew that appearances were deceiving and the lack of a response of any kind was incredibly suspect.

With that, tachyon beams fired out from each ship in the fleet at the Hive vessels, ready to smite the vessels with terrible amounts of kinetic energy.

As the Centauri vessels fired, so too did the Bastian vessels. Sending a message across to Svensgaard, Bierbaum says, "I am afraid we must cut short our exercises for today. Something like this must be communicated back to the Dominion. I am certain you will need to do the same for your government."

Svensgaard only replies, "Indeed. You are welcome to leave immediately, we are in control of the situation."

The Princess darted through the ship towards the escape pod. Only moments would be left before the ship was destroyed. She reached her pod only in time to receive the first hit from the Centaurans. The ships lights flickered on and off. The frigate itself was in tact but the shields had been overpowered and likely the shield generators had ruptured. However, it was all irrelevant, there was no possible way it could stand up against the two fleets of aliens.

The frigate fired its slipspace portal out in front of it just in time to absorb some of the hits from the Centauran Tachyon beam. The escape pod then launched and was repositioned toward the portal. It flew through safely but moments before the Princess still saw through the eyes of her soldiers what was going on in the ship. The ships shield generators had ruptured damaging several other systems such as the engines. The slipspace drive was running on fumes because the shield generator had damaged the slipspace drives fuel line. It wasn't going to last long if the alien fleets didn't fire at it.

Meanwhile the four smaller vessals had scrambled and were attacking the alien fleets. Their attacks were weak but could perhaps cause some trouble. Either way the ships would stop attacking once the Princess went through the slipspace portal because her telepathy would be disconnected.

The moment when the Princess went through she knew she was safe. It was a much different story for her soldiers. Without being told what to do, the soldiers simply stopped working and stood or sat in place. The slipspace portal closed allowing the tachyon beams to hit the frigate. In a moment the frigate was torn to shreds. These shreds would only be seen for a few moments as the slipspace drive, which had not been hit in the barrage of tachyon beams, ruptured. A large wormhole/blackhole erupted from where the slipspace drive had been. It pulled all of the frigates parts toward it and then teleported them into the slipspace, and because of the nature of slipspace ruptures, the pieces could not exit through the rupture. They would forever be junk floating about in the slipspace. The rupture finally ate itself through its own energy and dissipated to reveal the entire situation that had just unfolded.

The Princess fell onto the floor to gather her thoughts together. She felt so empty and alone without the feelings and emotions of all the soldiers. It was a feeling that most females in the Hive would never feel. But perhaps that was a good thing. In any case, the Princess had two weeks of travel ahead of her before she would reach The Hive.

Admiral Svensgaard watched as a strange wormhole appeared after the frigate was destroyed and the smaller vessels soon after. They had not posed any real resistance as their ships were easily destroyed and none of the ships did much other than harry the Centauri fleet. He felt a bit uneasy at just how easily destroyed this enemy fleet was, and briefly wondered if they were really hostile, however he decided that he would not bog himself down with feelings of regret and would simply return to Alpha Centauri to report the news. After leaving a cruiser and five frigates to patrol, the majority of his fleet returned to Chiron, where he was quickly and sternly debriefed by the Commander of the Spacefleet Andreus Aaron and was told to wait for further orders.

***

Brother Lal's Chamber, U.N. Headquarters

Brother Lal shook his head as the faces of the leaders of the factions appeared on his viewscreen, each with their own rectangle, worried deeply by the events that had occurred only hours earlier in Centauri space during the middle of the military exercises with the Bastian Dominion. He quickly read through the formal introduction to the meeting, before beginning actual discussion.

"As you all know from the reports that have widely circulated out and the press release the Planetary Defense Force has issued to clear up what has happened, an unknown alien fleet interrupted the military exercises between the Planetary Governate and the Bastian Dominion. They did not respond to communications protocols and Admiral Svensgaard made the order to fire on the fleet, in spite of the fact that they never attacked. I have assembled all of you before me in order to discuss what is to be done if and when these aliens respond and what is to be done with Admiral Svensgaard for having potentially fired upon a non-hostile species."

Colonel Santiago was the first to reply, as she shook her head to Brother Lal and said,

"Lal, what is there to discuss? Admiral Svensgaard did nothing wrong - we did not know of their intentions, and he took a proactive approach and decided to attack. I see no issue with having taken action to protect Chiron. As for what happens when they respond, we will simply do what we did today. If they do not respond to communications protocols, we fire back."

Exasperated, Brother Lal shook his head and said frustratedly,

"Well of course I'd have expected you to say that, Santiago. But a lack of communications does not necessarily suggest a desire to harm. Perhaps they lack the proper technology to receive or send communications, or intended on using another method of communication, or perhaps they cannot even understand what was being said as a result of a lack of proper translation technologies. You cannot be so forward to assume that all species intend to destroy us. Yes, there was the Sith, but the small fleet we saw today was no Sith battle fleet and as far as we could tell there were no Sith masters on the ship with the intent on harming our own planet.

"However, you are right in the sense that there is no need to discuss anything, as I will hereby use my powers as Planetary Governor to direct the actions of the Planetary Defense Force. From this point on Commander Aaron will take care of any events regarding this alien species, but Svensgaard will not be punished, only temporarily removed from duty. I suppose he can be given the benefit of the doubt, though I am not too keen on doing so myself. We will try to find a more peaceful solution to this... issue, if they resurface, and I will ordain that patrols be increased and civilian traffic reduced in the meantime for the security of all. Meeting adjourned."

With that, the faces vanished.

Jenova Incinerator and Doctor Thorgood of the Burninite Remnants issue a joint condemnation of the actions of the Dominion and UN space forces that soon appears on international news feeds.

There is no other Burninite reaction.

The Veridian Embassy, Chiron...


"Yes Triumvir, the entire episode is most curious" said the Ambassador, sitting at his desk. Triumvir Marcus or at least his face, was plastered across the screen that sat on the Ambassador's desk. He had contacted the Dominion as soon as the new broke. Marcus was quit to inquire about the identity of the attackers, fearing perhaps that the Dominion's recent actions with the Sith might have provoked them into another incursion into Alpha Centauri space.

"The government isn't saying much and the media seems to have little answers either. From what I have gathered, the ships were not of none design, suggesting a new race that has become space travelers."

"I see, very well then" said Marcus. "Express the Dominion's support of Alpha Centauri, offer whatever assistance we might be able to produce, and continue to monitor the situation."

"Of course Triumvir" said the Ambassador, "Dedication to the Dominion." Giving the Dominion salute, the transmission was cut and the Ambassador began preparing a formal statement that would be given to the local media, broadcast both locally and as far out galactically as these sorts of things went.

Official Statement of the Veridia Prime Dominion
The Dominion stands by the actions of the Alpha Centauri as they were no doubt acting in the best interest of their people and with the security of their domain in mind. Should the Planetary Governate need any assistance that Veridia Prime can provide, they need only ask for it.[

The Centauri government does not reply to either the condemnation of the PDF nor the offering of support from the Veridians.

The Rhean government stays neutral on this issue. The Bastians are offering many of the same reason for their actions, plus the fact that the Centauri were already firing on them.

The Princess drifted through the slipspace at speeds that would in the real world be faster than light. She had been laying on the floor for several days now, but really, what else could she do. There was nothing she could do but wonder about what was to become of her. With a slipspace jump done so hastily there was a great chance things could go wrong. She could end up exactly where she needs to be at the Ahlgros Orbiting Ports, but there was a good chance that she could end up lightyears away as well. There was no real way of knowing. If she had a radio on board the pod she would be able to contact the Hive and figure out exactly where her exit point would be, but her pod did not have a radio--something overlooked when building the escape pod.

So the Princess was left to her own quiet and lonely mind. Without being in command of thousands of soldiers her mind was left to itself. She could only see through her own eyes and could only see things from one perspective. This alone could drive an Ahlgren insane, however she had things to keep her mind together such as what she had learned from the Centaurans. She knew so much about these aliens and how truly alien they were. She constantly searched the memories of the man she had gained the knowledge from searching for the answers to how a society works when everybody has the thinking capabilities of a female Ahlgren. She also wondered how this society could even maintain order. That is when she found it. It was through the will to be stronger than the others and to better oneself before everyone else. Survival of the fittest. This was how most creatures were in the Ahlgros ecosystem, but she had never thought that such a thing could be done in such a way that it helped sentient life. It was a way of life that no member of the Hive could ever truly expierience.

Days Later...
She was only minutes away from her slipspace exit. By now if she was going to even close to Ahlgros the energy sensors would have detected an incoming slipspace exit. Now the only question was if she was close enough to be detected? She prepared for the worst as she counted down the seconds until exit. 3... 2... 1... Suddenly the pod burst into flames, for a moment she thought she had exited near a star, but then she realized that she had exited in atmosphere. She had not thought about what would happen if she was in atmosphere. Her heart raced as she realized nothing would be able to catch her like it could in space. She would either have to slam into the ground or into the water, and she hoped and prayed that it would be the water. Then the Princess was thrown forward the side of the pod and was rendered unconscious.

She blinked a few times only seeing a blur. She couldn't remember what had happened. The only thing she could remember was silence... THAT WAS IT, she gasped as she felt the feelings of thousands of Ahlgren although not in her control, there presence was there. She could see through their eyes once more. Then the memory of the Centaurans came back. The Princess sat up and looked around she could only faintly make out the shape of a Queen next to her. She began to ask what Queen was next to her, but the Queen simply said with her mind, "Be silent, for all your thoughts are already known. Rest once more." She then realized that she was in the presence of the Hive Queen, the only female that could speak to other females using telepathy. However she could ask no questions, she was too tired...

The Princess awoke again to see that she was in a hospital. Had she only imagined seeing the Hive Queen? She ordered a worker to fetch another Princess so she could find out. And after talking to the other Princess she found that not only did the Hive Queen know about the existance of the Centaurans but she had already ordered and invasion force tobe assembled and head to the Alpha Centauri system. However, she was calmed in knowing that the Hive Queen did not want to murder every last Centauran, though the Hive would do what needed to be done in order to achieve peace.

(OOC: Shall I respond as if the invasion is at hand? I'm not quite sure if you want me to respond that way given the way your post was written.)

OOC: No, I'd say you ought to keep doing the posts that you guys have been doing. Perhaps paranoia about the strange aliens coming.

(OOC: I'm really not sure what I can keep saying in that vein, as all of the reactions have been made and a future course of action as been decided on. It would probably be best to go to the invasion.)

OOC: Well I had something in mind for how I wanted it to introduce my people in your system. So perhaps you could RP noticing the energy signatures of the incoming slipspace portals, linking that to what happened at the first contact, and preparing for the incoming ships. And I'd imagine it would be close to impossible not to notice these as there should be close to 80 energy signatures. Then with my post I'll RP leaving the Hive arriving at Alpha Centauri and making my first moves towards that mining station in your asteroid belt.