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The intersystem alliance wrote:

The I.A.S.S. Eratosthenes
Entering the Heliopause of the Cybele System

The cramped square shaped halls seemed to grow tighter as the majority of the Eratosthenes' science and security crews moved as one from crew quarters to the bridge. A few of the light panels above flickered as they walked past, the orange and yellow striping running parallel to the grey metal panel floors in desperate need of a new paint job. Despite the President's and the Office of the Interior's requests, the illustrious Fleet Admiral Harper of the Home Fleet gave the Cybele Expedition the 'legendary' explorer ship Eratosthenes instead of the practically brand new Magellan. In truth, while the Erat had served in the Navy for 87 years and surveyed 39 star systems during the Golden Age, the ship was barely holding together. Patch jobs and partial system overhauls were the only thing keeping the expedition crew members from cold abyss of space. It's not that the Magellan was unavailable or even attached to a service cycle. The ship had been sitting in Drydock #397 on Luna. No, this was a matter of politics, an ancient institution that never failed to rear it's ugly head within the Human civilization. It was a matter of party lines and whose hand to shake while stabbing another in the back. While the Intersystem Alliance Armed Forces answered to the President, having close friends within the senatorial opposition put Fleet Admiral Harper in a bad position. Instead of focusing on helping the Alliance as a whole by working together, he chose to hold strong to his own policies that aligned sharply with his party, showing his hatred for President Walker by waving around a sword of bureaucracy capable of keeping the Expedition on hold for at least three months. President Walker backed down, and so the Mission received the legendary Eratosthenes.

The teams arrived on the bridge to see the titanium plate shutters open up across the array of windows. They gazed at the faint dot of yellow-white light, not all that different from Sol when viewed from the same distance back in the Sol System.

"So this is it? The Cybele system. Home sweet home." Stated Staff Sergeant Henry Hayes, servicemember of the Intersystem Alliance Marine Corps and chief of security of the Expedition. All eight members of the science team and eight members of the security team were present as Captain Trevon Corpier entered the bridge from the elevator leading to his cabin. An older man, Captain Corpier served aboard six different vessels before retiring in his late 40s. By age 46, he was back in, first on reserve duties, then returned to full time service with the rank of Captain, a full three ranks higher than what he was when he retired. Instead of giving him command of his own Atlantis or even a Dagger, he gets the Erat. Despite a posting to an old ship, he acted proud of it. Proud of an old ship like this that's lived past it's expiration date.

As the teams got caught up on their objectives, the ship's crew was dealing with an alternate set of problems. Such as why their system-wide scanners were picking up artificial signals from orbit of Harvest.

Kotaris Orbit

A technician would be startled by his terminal
“Sir, our scanners are detecting a ship.” He reported
“Do we know who it belongs to?” Hitoma responded.
“It doesn’t match our data on any Imperial or Juruk ship.”

Minor Lieutenant Jon Tulso would approach the workstation.
“It’s neither, maybe we’re dealing with a new civilization.” He inferred
“Maybe.. Try to send out a message in whatever form you can.” Hitoma ordered

The Terresan ship then began broadcasting to the foreign vessel both verbally and in morse code: “We are a peaceful exploration from the Federation of Terresa. Please identify yourself.”

Kotaris Surface

“Kotaris exploration log 2, we have had remarkable success in researching this foreign world and have identified many similarities to Terresa. However there are major differences, we have observed bioluminescence in many of the local flowers and trees glowing in odd colors such as blue and pink. In terms of animal life we managed to identify many local fauna. Most of these creatures seem to be reptilian judging by their scales, however we have noticed many large mammals. None of the creatures have been overly hostile towards so far, but we’ll begin building the perimeter wall in the morning.This is ST1 Biologist Ino Jikal signing off.” The biologist recorded, he then shut off the device and took a short walk to the makeshift mess hall.

However some of the members of ST1 had become worried over the recent messages beamed by their vessel. The team leader was now attempting contact with ST2 however their connection was extremely poor.

The I.A.S.S. Eratosthenes
Approaching the Termination Shock

"All hands to general quarters. Repeat, all hands to general quarters by order of the Captain." The intercom said across the Eratosthenes. While the ship's crew knew how to proceed in a serious situation such as this, the expedition was confined to quarters and ordered to secure themselves in their station chairs. In case of kinetic impact on the ship, station chairs were built to withstand heavy impacts that could possibly knock out artificial gravity and any crew not secured would be in for a very bumpy, very dangerous ride.

But Captain Corpier had other plans. This was a science ship, nothing more. It had the basic CR-10GW Shield Grid, but it was rated for atmospheric entry and asteroid defense, not weapons. The same could be said for it's 5-inch Multipurpose turret, for asteroid defense. This system had been held top secret by the highest levels of Alliance government. No one, outside of the ship or the Citadel should have known of it's existence. If it had been, it would have been standard procedure for a Dagger-Class Cutter to accompany a science mission for proper security from pirates or corporate hit-squads, which were becoming more prevalent in the Outer Colonies. The fact that several scans of this odd vessel returned absolutely no matches or serial numbers from any ship in Alliance space only caused the Captain to become more wary. Activity on the surface of the planet suggested whoever piloted the ship was also just as interested as they were.

"Captain, I'm receiving audio transmissions.....from the ship." Said First Lieutenant Agazi, Upon listening, it was evident that this was becoming something way above his own pay grade. This was leaning less toward a pirate operation and more towards a first contact scenario. While the language matched nothing they've ever heard before, it was highly odd that a series of dots and dashes from the other ship matched ancient morse code, something gone long unused but still taught in Officer's School. None took the class seriously, not even Corpier.

"Return message. Same channel. This is Captain Trevon Corpier of the Intersystem Alliance Science Ship Eratosthenes. This system has been claimed by the Intersystem Alliance, please state your intentions in this system."

He was quite positive that whoever would receive the message would have no clue what was being said to them, but at least he couldn't say he didn't try to respond.

"I want all data and messages copied and sent to Alliance Command, immediately. Until we receive orders, we continue with the mission. Any direct hit will be a killshot on us so make sure the decoys and our E-W Suite is online. It won't be much, but it'll give us enough time to FTL out of here."

"Aye, aye, sir. We are entering the termination shock, now."

Hello friends, it is I, the Void Dragon. How have you all been getting on?

Useless as ever, Zarathoft. Ten days late, and a crummy joke. The reliability and wit of a public servant; you should apply at the DMV.

And what super power did you end up with?

I name you Deep Throat, Hero of Man!

Woah there! I literally just got here

So..I guess since it's been a few, I should introduce myself properly.

I'm Tachan, a rather average sized, typical sci-fi planet that somehow has floral life similar to earth, normal stuff really. I'm an avid roleplayer, and I'm hoping I can add myself to this community..considering that I already have some sort of staff role, I think I've already done that..hehe

Anyways, I hope to see everything this region has, and I hope that this region sees everything I have.

*nation issue about totems*

Scientists: These totems have an unfamiliar energy, we can use them to further scientific advancements

Me: *picks that option*

SA: *drops by .65*

Your scientists were obviously more pseudo-scientists.

So I heard that this place had some RP elements in it, is there a map or something that i can use?

Taledonia wrote:

Who did you hear that from?

Well It's a tag on the region, so I thought it was.

Taledonia wrote:

Well there is no map, no. But a lot of people here are active on the forums.

*oh god the forums*

Not a fan of the forums, but I can do that type of thing