[OPEN] - First Contact

[MongHead]

The stars of this empty area of the Andromeda galaxy have been mapped for the past Millennia. But above this planet in particular, the explorers had discovered a rather primitive race. Because they lacked the necessary funding and tools to conduct a sweep of the planet, the deterred scientists reluctantly abandoned the planet of Ter'ana. Hoping that one day the Republic can finally return to sweep and potentially uplift this species if needed. Hundreds of years later, that day had finally come. High above Ter'ana, a lone Republic-Class Star Destroyer, the Democracy, exited slipspace through a controlled and sudden ripple in realspace, before the engines slowed the large vessel as it began to make it's decent, until it was high above the night sky over the valleys of Hierarchy territory, scanning the terrain to collect initial data on the native fauna and environment. It's large dominating size dwarfing the hills and landscape bellow.

The order was given for a survey team to touch down, and collect several samples of vegetation. The shuttle, armed with a squad of republic troopers and 2 Republic fighters, hovering above the scientists, illuminating the ground with their search lights. In the limited time, the scientists gathered what specimens they could, before it was time once more to return to the safe haven of the shuttles, and back onto the star destroyer.

As dawn broke, the Star destroyer traversed, coming closer to what it seemed as long scars, stretching across the earth. Churned up dirt and mud, and plumes of smoke. The captain knew all too well what this was. It was a battlefield. This was very unexpected, for the crew, whom weren't expecting much from the native species. They were rather impressed at the technological gains that the Draxxi have attained. The Captain ordered for the star destroyer to orbit high above the battleground, far from the intense battles bellow, as the hulking dagger shaped vessel stopped, activating it's anti-gravity fields, to hover in the sky, and a front-row seat on the battle unfolding below.

A shuttle was quickly dispatched to the surface containing several Scout troopers, who were tasked with documenting some of the battle for visual evidence and data.

The 6 white armored soldiers, with their speeders made landfall, hastly stepping onto their speeder bikes, jetting themselves at speeds of 320 km/h.

Spoiler: Republic Class Star destroyer

Spoiler: Shuttle

Spoiler: Fighter

Spoiler: Speeder bike

Spoiler: Scout Trooper

 

[RIPSaidCone]

Royal Army Outpost: Conkers
T'ersuis Fields, Civilian Exclusion Area

"Sir, sir!" A young soldier called out in his Hierarchy accent, sprinting up to his commanding officer who was in the "War room" of the small battlefield outpost, an older man with a distinct beige officer's hat on and a sword tucked onto his belt for ceremonial purposes mostly who was currently standing over a wooden table looking over some battle plans on a map for the next day. He looked up towards the soldier as he arrived with a quick salute, appearing out of breath from the journey here. "Yes, what is it, soldier?" He asked in a pompous, higher-class sounding variant of the Hierarchy's accent. "Scouts have reported seeing strange military vehicles and personnel on the No Man's Land, sir!" The officer grew a curious expression on his face as he stepped away from the table and towards the soldier. "Do you have anything to prove these reports, soldier?" He asked with great interest, the soldier nodded. Handing him a small collection of black and white photographs with another salute, the officer taking them and looking them over. Only a few of the photos could actually show what the strange military vehicles were due to how fast they were going.

The Officer continued staring down at the pictures, eyes taking in every detail that they offered. "Corporal, what are these machines?" He asked demandingly, "Do we know if they are Imperial or not?" He asked, his tone increasing in urgency, if the Empire had access to this kind of technology then they would easily break the stalemate that currently existed between the two nations. The soldier neither shook nor nodded his head in response, simply saying. "We are unsure who they belong to however they are not Royal." The Officer sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Send these photographs to Headquarters, tell General K'rana we have a situation on the Front." The soldier nodded, saluting and clicking his boots together as he replied, "Yes, sir." Gathering the photos up before practically sprinting back out of the room, though it was hardly a room, like the rest of the outpost it was simply a dingy hut dug into the thick, wet mud of the countryside. A complex of disgusting trenches supported by flimsy wood and sandbags, it was the best they could do at the moment however given the ferocity of the War and the amount of resources required elsewhere.

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However on the other side of No Man's Land, the response was much more immediate and much more active. The Imperial troops spotted the six speeder bikes blasting across the battlefield, the troops turning their artillery and machine guns onto the bikes. Believing them to be from the Hierarchy as wave after wave of ferocious gunfire and artillery bombardment erupted against the bikes, with one stray artillery shell directly hitting in-front of one of the bikes. Sending it crashing into the mud and it's driver either dead or injured, however this was only one part of the Imperial frontline that was responding. The largest threat to the scout troopers was simply being caught in the crossfire between the two battling sides. Despite how fast their bikes were the sheer amount of firepower being unloaded from both sides on the other was enough to make it near impassable even for them to cross the battlefield, which is exactly why it was known to the natives as No Man's Land, no one could cross it due to how suicidal it was, this rule seemingly applied even for the extraterrestrials.

The battle was incredibly large in scale, especially for a pre-FTL civilization, with what appeared to be hundreds of planes in dogfights with one another above the battle and large armored tanks rolling across the thick, crater filled mud-coated landscape in-between the two sides. Firing at each other and bursting into flames whenever hit, infantry sometimes charged out from behind cover and their trenches only to be gunned down by the opposing side and the battlefield itself was littered entirely with the destroyed remains of vehicles and tanks and crashed aircraft. Artillery shells that did not detonate on impact and the dead corpses of animals and soldiers alike, however despite this seemingly never-ending state of warfare both sides did not grow tired as they simply replaced their injured or dead troops with even more troops and both sides seemed to have a damn near infinite supply of tanks, aircraft and other weapons to use on one another.
MongHead​

 

[MongHead]

"Sergeant, we must go back to retrieve our scout!" One of the troopers exclaimed through his helmet's intercoms. "We can't corporal. It's too dangerous to go back. We'll search for him at sundown." The Sergeant responded as the five speeder bikes jettisoned through the battlefield. "He's a scout. He;s been trained for these types of situations. He'll survive till nightfall."

__

The lone Scout emerged from the wreck of his speeder bike. Thankfully the Tantive armor took most of the impact, saving him from death. Right away, the trooper sprang into action, gathering his supplies from the smoking wreckage of his speeder. Scrounging up all of his laser energy clips, as well as any rations that weren't buried in the mud and grime. Picking up his Series IV Blaster Rifle, and a small knapsack, the trooper activated one of his ion grenades, tossing it alongside the wreckage of his speeder as it exploded, disintegrating all valuable components of the bike, to prevent the unnecessary extraction of technologies by the native species.

With haste, the trooper made his way to the nearest artillery crater, where he used an amplifier transmitter to communicate his position to his squad, and sent a distress code to the star destroyer in orbit. He then started to document the battle with his hand held instrument, making sure to collect as much data on the Draxxi's combat doctrine, carefully scanning the horizon to record the ensuing Arial dogfights above him, while filming the infantry in the distance clashing bayonets, or being mowed down by the complex network of machinegun nests.

"This is Scout E400. It seems like this native species is using very primitive methods of warfare. Atmospheric fighters, and track based vehicles in their most archaic forms."

As the scout collected more and more data, he quickly realized that his position has been uncovered with five natives charging his position, firing their bolt action rifles. In defense, the Scout powered up his blaster rifle firing off a non-lethal round of white stun energy at one of the natives. Realizing that the beam of white light was too fast and blended with the surroundings, it wasn't enough to deter the natives who pressed forward. The scout reluctantly set his blaster to kill, and his built in HUD system changing it's optical settings to Enemy tags, filtering a red outline of the four natives. The scout took aim, and with a press of his index finger, fired off a lethal red laser bolt, into one native, then the other, then the last two. The Trooper did not have time to collect his thoughts, as he quickly gathered his recorder and set off once more to a new location.
RIPSaidCone

Series IV Blaster Rifle

Spoiler

 

[RIPSaidCone]

Meanwhile a few hundred meters away from the scout trooper, a young and curious sniper was watching as before mentioned scout trooper gunned down the five Imperial soldiers. This sniper was on the opposing side however and as such had no issue with this strange new arrival gunning down his enemies, the sniper's body was covered in mud and grass, perfect camouflage for this particular battlefield. Not knowing whether or not to put a bullet through one of the trooper's unarmored limbs, he simply kept his scopes traced over the man in the white armor as he finished off the last of the Imperials, collected his belongings and climbed out of the artillery crater, the gunfire between the two sides of No Man's Land had somewhat died down. This may have been due to the news spreading on both sides of the unexpected new arrivals, with both sides attempting to figure out who these new soldiers belonged to if anyone. Though in all honesty the complexities of these new visitors didn't bother the sniper much, he was just more interesting in knowing which side this particular soldier belonged to, the one that was now in his sights.

Fortunately that was when he heard the familiar crowing of a nearby bird, placing his sniper down as he looked up to see a small black bird approach him. Landing down next to him with a small rolled up piece of paper trapped between his jaws, dropping the piece of paper next to the sniper. The man picked it up, stroking the back of the bird's head as it gave a sound of approval, "Good girl." He praised the messenger bird with, unrolling the piece of paper and reading the message that had been written down onto it. It was covered in dirt and not in the best condition, something that was to be expected in such conditions yet it was readable nonetheless and it said:

"To all designated marksmen and reconnaisance teams. General K'rana has ordered the capture of the white-armored neutral soldiers, command wants them alive for interrogation. If you spot one of them, engage immediately. Advise caution, these soldiers are armed and dangerous. - Royal Army Corps"

Below this message there was a blurry yet somewhat recognizable black and white photograph of one of the soldiers so that the recipients of the message would know what to look for. Smiling lightly under his mask, the sniper picked up his rifle again and placed the scope up to his right eye. Quickly finding the man in the white armor again and lining up his upper leg and taking a deep breath in, the sniper's grip around his weapon tightening to keep himself as steady as possible. Accounting for the wind and movement of the unidentified soldier, for a moment it felt as if time itself had stopped, nothing but pure concentration as the sniper's finger squeezed down on the trigger of his long rifle. The sound of his rifle being muffled by the surrounding gunfire from all sides, and within a few brief moments the soldier in the white armor had fallen to the ground in pain. A perfect shot to his thigh.

For the scout trooper himself he would be lying on the mud alone for only a minute or two before a small group of Royal soldiers appeared to the side of his vision, charging at him with their rifles raised, though their forms were slightly lowered to keep their visability to the enemy Imperial troops as low as possible. They quickly surrounded him and pointed their rifles downwards towards him.

"Stop right there! Touch that weapon and you're dead!" One of the native soldiers yelled at him.

"You're under arrest, hands in the air!" Another continued. At least it wasn't the Imperials.
MongHead​

 

[MongHead]

"Command? Come in Command?" The sergeant said fiddling with the radio battery attached to one of the soldier's backs. "Sergeant. What is it?" The voice on the other end responded. "Captain, we have a major breach in our mission. Our scout has been left stranded with the natives of this planet. it is too dangerous to extract him with our speeders at the moment. Requesting immediate reinforcements to search for him."

"Negative sergeant. I can not permit the request. Too much activity will be interfering with the natives. We do not want to influence or change the native's course of history with our sudden interference." The captain of the star destroyer replied, to which the Sergeant sighed. "Stay where you are Sergeant. We can't afford to lose you or the rest of your squad. Our options are very limited. I'll contact you once me and my staff have made a decision."

"Copy." The Sergeant said, ending the conversation. "Captain's orders. Remain here until the destroyer responds back with new orders. Make your selves comfortable, we're gonna be here for a long time." The sergeant moved towards the doors of the barn, shutting them. His men followed, shutting the windows.

"Now." The Sergeant said sitting on top of a lump of hay. "Lets eat." The men gathered around the lantern, taking their helmets off, and resting their blasters against the walls, consuming their first meal since touching down onto the planet surface.

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"Our top priority is to extract Scout E400, and provide as little exposure to the natives as possible.,,,How will you conduct this operation captain?" The hologram of Fleet Admiral Glynjor inquired with his arms crossed. The captain in turn, maintained a straight posture with his hands behind his back. "I have three options Fleet Admiral. The first option is to send out a several recon commandos. The second is to deploy several Republic Fighters to scan the surface and extract the scout. The other option is to send out a small squad of black ops, shadow troopers."

"Captain. Our prime objective is to not interfere with these natives. We do not know if their intentions are for good or hostile." Glynjor cautioned. "Isn't that why we're here sir? To see if it's worth the effort of uplifting this species? Because it would mean that we are bound to meet the governments of this planet if we are to uplift them." The captain responded. "That is a topic we will discuss on a later note. For now, we are talking about the life of a scout and the potential exposure of our species to the natives."

"Then allow me to go down and meet the natives. The last thing I want is a war between this species and ours. If I were to talk to a person of authority, I'm sure that they can be reasoned with."

"Captain. You know the risks and rules of going down. What if you yourself are captured?"

"Then send the fleet." The Captain responded boldly. "Fleet Admiral. Contact with the native's authority will result in no to little violence and confrontation than sending commandos to extract our scout by force." The bridge fell silent with the Fleet Admiral's hologram pacing around, ingesting the Captain's inquiry, before halting. "Captain. Under my authority, you are permitted to utilize diplomacy. But. If the situation turns, and the fleet has to be mobilized. You will be court martialed. Understood?" The Captain gave a firm salute. "Understood Fleet Admiral." The communications operator ended the transmission, and the Captain placed one of his first officers under command.

"Captain. Shall I call the commandos to get ready?" The captain's other first officer asked. "I want Advanced Recon Commando teams 9 and 12 ready to deploy. Send team 12 to extract hte remaining scouts, and deploy team 9 to begin scouting for our missing man. Meanwhile, I want a shuttle to make preparations for my decent. I will try and reason with the people in power."

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The scout raised his hands in the air. "I am a soldier of the ReinHolt Republic. I am not to be harmed nor maimed. I pose no threat."
​

RIPSaidCone

 

[RIPSaidCone]

Upon seeing that the strangely dressed man had put his hands up into the air. The circle that the soldiers had formed around him closed in, with one of the soldiers quickly snatching his rifle up from the ground and another soldier behind him harshly slamming the butt of his rifle into the back of the scout's head. Not intending to knock him out or damage his equipment but to get him onto the ground, which was successful, as the scout fell forward onto the ground another two soldiers forcefully lifted him up by his arms, their arms locking with his to keep him from moving. From outer appearance alone it would appear that the natives were naturally stronger, no doubt a part of their warlike nature. The officer of the group, easily identified with his fabric made cap instead of the hard metal helmets of the other soldiers, gave an order. "Let's go. Hurry." And with that the group of natives wasted little time in dragging him back to base, no doubt in-order to get out of the way of any Imperial snipers or nearby machine gun nests.

It hadn't taken but a minute or two for the group and their prisoner to return to the Royal trenches, climbing into the long hole in the ground and escorting him throughout the complex array of networked tunnels, there was a common aesthetic to all of the trenches that the scout was dragged through. They were crowded with other soldiers, all cleaning or filling their weapons with bullets, making sure their other equipment was battle-ready and that their uniforms weren't in need of any stitches, ensuring that they would be ready for their next battle. The only objects in these trenches being flimsy wooden benches to sit on when in need of rest or stacks and stacks of ammunition crates or crates full of rations and medical supplies. Sometimes they would pass groups of soldiers singing and dancing, many clearly intoxicated, in celebration after a somewhat victorious battle. However these were not the only common features in the trenches, another; more notable one was that all the soldiers were staring at the scout as he was dragged.

Of course for every soldier that stared they were given a fierce glare by the officer that led the group of soldiers carrying their prisoner. Soon arriving at a large patch of dug out mud, underground like most of the important areas of the trenches were, covered by mud and grass, out of sight of any enemy reconnaissance planes. There were wooden planks holding up the dirt above the room and other wooden planks making up a hastily made floor of sorts. Inside was a large wooden desk with a chair in-front of it, a single-person bed, a golden pole hanging the flag of the Hierarchy sitting behind the desk alongside another, larger chair and multiple maps of the battlefield placed out across before-mentioned desk. This was clearly the quarters of the officer that had captured the scout, the soldiers pulled the scout inside with two of the group remaining outside to guard the entrance to the quarters and the rest coming inside along with the officer and scout.

The scout was harshly sat down on the chair in-front of the officer's desk as the cap-wearing man himself sat down on the other side of the desk. The two soldiers that had once been carrying the scout by the arms were now holding onto his shoulders, making sure that he wouldn't get out of the chair without the officer's go ahead. The officer folded his arms expectantly, a large, grey bushy moustache on his face, he was an older man but not old enough to be elderly by anyone's standards. The man looking up to one of the soldiers holding the scout down and giving a nod as the soldier nodded in return, the soldier seemingly understanding what his superior was meaning as the soldier took off the scout's white helmet. Revealing his face as the soldiers and officer looked visibly surprised, not shocked but surprised. They were soldiers not civilians after all. However surprise soon turned to clear disapproval and then underlying anger as the officer spoke up.

"So an alien." He almost spat the words out in disgust. "An outsider. Do you even understand what I'm saying?" He questioned.

MongHead​

 

[MongHead]

The scout did not resist. Letting the natives take him into their domain. Inside the trench, the scout turned his helmet camera on to record the daily activities of the native soldiers inside of the trenches. He might have been captured. But that didn't mean that he should halt his mission. He would ensure that he would collect as much data as possible, even under captivity. He had faith that he will be rescued.

He was taken to what he assumed was the officers quarters judging by the Maps and layout before being sat down. Moments later, his helmet was taken off. The scout cursed in his mind. His training did go over what to do and what to say if captured by a pre-space or pre ftl species. But none of it was put to actual test until now. He was the first scout to be detained by a more primitive species. As the surprise from the natives died down and the scout was asked a question, he started to repeat in his head mentally. Do not expose more than the bare minimum. We are not to meddle with a species history or knowledge.

" Yes. I do understand what you are saying." The scout replied. He was mentally going over all answers he learned in his scout course. What The CO said he should say if under interrogation. Do not speak unless they speak first.

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Advanced Recon Commando team 9. I hope that your instructions were thoroughly read. This is a simple debriefing of your mission. You are to locate the last known transmission of scout E400. Retrieve anything on the site. And any potential leads. You have limited time so make the most of it." The captain's hologram deactivated. "Commandos. As soon as I drop you off, i will be operating close by incase of emergency extraction. I expect that you will be back in our d.e.g within 2 hours of landing planetside." The shuttle pilot said through his helmet.

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"Captain. All accommodations for you are ready." The first officer said. "Tell them to standby. I will act only after the extraction of our other men and our scouts belongings."

"Understood sir." The first officer said saluting.

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One shuttle landed just in front of the old barn where the sergeant and his men had taken up temporary shelter. The commandos exited the shuttle, forming a protective perimeter around the vehicle, while the sergeant waved for his men to make their way to the shuttle. One by one in a single file, the 4 men including the sergeant entered with the commandos following suite. When The last commando entered, the pilot raised the shuttle doors before taking off.

"Any word of the scout?" The sergeant asked

"None. The captain has sent another team to extract his bike and look for any evidence."
RIPSaidCone​