Star Chronicles: A New Light

[The Governor]

Zocrinus, Meeting Room

As he scanned the room, Autarch Yiska of Zocrinus considered the state of things in the Delieggen Ascendancy. He knew that as things were, they were at an impasse. The intelligence documents before him suggested that despite its heavy losses during the war, the L'Toile Marine was more than powerful enough to destroy several Ascendancy worlds. Even if the humans couldn't destroy the planets themselves, large detachments of groups like Inferno Company and Xenocide Operations continued to massacre his people. Yiska didn't truly care about the lives lost on other planets, but his was a slower-breeding race, and every death was a blow to the larger Ascendancy. There was no doubt about it. The smaller nations, strong as it was, needed help.

As he took a bite from a serving of roast Dothvalian, the Autarch looked across the table at his human advisor. "What do you suggest, Lucas? Your former people in the Confederacy were always better at interacting with others. Who could we approach? We need someone to even the playing field against them. Preferably someone we can use."

"The Acruani Collective, Underlord Yiska. They care primarily for knowledge, and don't have the same scruples as the Confederacy. If we offered them knowledge and technology, I'm sure they would give something in return."

"Very well. But why the Acruani specifically? Surely there are other nations the Confederacy knows of that would be interested in relations?"

"Perhaps Gran Karanus as well. They have long been distant neighbours of the Confederacy. I don't know much about them, except that they are rather secretive. They might also help us, but I'm really not sure."

"We will prepare meetings with each then," the Autarch said evenly. "Make the arrangements with the diplomatic staff. I'll contact both groups."

With that, Yiska left the room, and approached a large communications console. After pressing a broadcast button, he said in Galactic Standard, "Greetings. I am Autarch Yiska of Zocrinus, a planetary ruler of the Delieggen Ascendancy. I am reaching out to the nations of the Acruani Collective and Gran Karanus for a meeting, and hopefully relations. We can trade you high quality plasma weapons, and other pieces of technology." Pausing to twist his monstrous natural body into the much smaller frame and appearance of a human, Yiska added, "But I think we have some less concrete advantages that will interest you much more. We hope to hear from you soon."

As the message ended, Yiska returned to his office, and waited.

 

[Archene]

"Very well then, Rank 4 Acruani Kiitsu, we will send a message to our superiors." The space station orbiting Orvud Prime itself was immediately notified of the recent developments concerning the Acruani Collective and their seemingly benign intentions. Several messages streamed back and forth between the patrol frigate and the station, with the station's commander being a little too lazy for his own good. He questioned if the frigate could just send the message by itself; the immediate answer was a curt no.



Begrudgingly, the station sent out a message towards the nearest communications array, which would then relay the message to the Gran Kanarus High Command within the hour. As such, the frigate and the Acruani vessel would simply stare at each other rather awkwardly. Had their guest been organic, De Costa would have invited them over for tea in the ship's mess hall, but given that it was just a single artificial intelligence, such formalities were out of the question.



After two hours that seemed like an eternity, a trio of warp signatures appeared over the planet of Orvud. The ships breached the fabric of space and time, coming out headfirst as they came to rest over the ruined world that still echoed of ghosts and death. If one were to look at the markings of the hulls, they'd know that these were no ordinary envoys; these were vessels commandeered by the right hand men and women of the overlords of High Command. Those fools couldn't be bothered to leave their posts, so it was these second in commands that led the charge to meet the machine race that had just surprised them.



The three ships were the Speranza, a stealth destroyer with advanced cloaking capabilities; the Aurelios, a diplomatic cruiser; and the Cabrera, another destroyer of less lofty description. These three then advanced towards the Acruani vessel, with the destroyers sticking closely to the envoy vessel.

"This is Terrence Blackmore of the Aurelios, designated envoy to the Acruani Collective. We shall now commence negotiations… by first sharing our history and culture to you."

The Acruani ship would then receive a data stream, a full timeline and history of Gran Kanarus and its predecessors, as well as the varied culture of the myriad peoples that live upon its worlds. This will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

A few hours of wait were nothing for Kiitsu, for an Acruani of its rank even waiting an eternity would feel no worse than a moment. However for this particular Acruani, the wait was more than worth it. Usually, meetings like this could end with a vessel blown up, the minor interaction ending with no further follow ups, generic establishment of diplomatic ties or in the best of the cases, the immediate sharing of information.

The Acruani Vessel remained still as it had been for the last hours as the three ships advanced towards the Acruani Vessel, once communications resumed, there was a reply.

"Greetings. This is Rank 6 Kiitsu of the Acruani Collective, currently responsible for interactions with the Gran Kanarus. We appreciate the information, there may be a small delay as we analyse the information transmitted." And then there was silence. The same stream of information the Acruani vessel just received soon was retransmitted to outside the system. The Acruani vessel, being a Wanderer class vessel, had the required equipment for such long distance transmissions.

There were less than 10 minutes of silence before another reply came.

"We are sorry for the delay. Thank you very much for the depth of information transmitted, The Collective is pleased!" Although up to this point the voice was mostly monotone, the hint of excitement was clear in the last sentence, "We will be sending a similar set of information briefly. Regarding the negotiations, our request is control over this system and its celestial bodies. It contains resources we require and its coordinates facilitate jumping through this area. We are open to compensate for the acquisition of this system and we will keep it open for civilian traffic if necessary. We are also open to further necessary demands given, Historic Value of this system to your people."

Just as that was spoken, a stream of information was sent from the Acruani vessel to Gran Kanarus. The information was mostly current state of affairs of the Collective with relevant information such as what the ranks meant, how were organics treated, what was an Acruani and lastly, a brief history on them. On a note, rank 6 is the highest ranking an organic has gotten in the collective and among other things is already capable of representing and directing a populated planet, or acting as an impromptu envoy to any previously unknown entity. Something that is made clear in the files to be something that gives many benefits to the envoy regardless of how future negotiations with said entity goes.

Zocrinus, Meeting Room

As he scanned the room, Autarch Yiska of Zocrinus considered the state of things in the Delieggen Ascendancy. He knew that as things were, they were at an impasse. The intelligence documents before him suggested that despite its heavy losses during the war, the L'Toile Marine was more than powerful enough to destroy several Ascendancy worlds. Even if the humans couldn't destroy the planets themselves, large detachments of groups like Inferno Company and Xenocide Operations continued to massacre his people. Yiska didn't truly care about the lives lost on other planets, but his was a slower-breeding race, and every death was a blow to the larger Ascendancy. There was no doubt about it. The smaller nations, strong as it was, needed help.

As he took a bite from a serving of roast Dothvalian, the Autarch looked across the table at his human advisor. "What do you suggest, Lucas? Your former people in the Confederacy were always better at interacting with others. Who could we approach? We need someone to even the playing field against them. Preferably someone we can use."

"The Acruani Collective, Underlord Yiska. They care primarily for knowledge, and don't have the same scruples as the Confederacy. If we offered them knowledge and technology, I'm sure they would give something in return."

"Very well. But why the Acruani specifically? Surely there are other nations the Confederacy knows of that would be interested in relations?"

"Perhaps Gran Karanus as well. They have long been distant neighbours of the Confederacy. I don't know much about them, except that they are rather secretive. They might also help us, but I'm really not sure."

"We will prepare meetings with each then," the Autarch said evenly. "Make the arrangements with the diplomatic staff. I'll contact both groups."

With that, Yiska left the room, and approached a large communications console. After pressing a broadcast button, he said in Galactic Standard, "Greetings. I am Autarch Yiska of Zocrinus, a planetary ruler of the Delieggen Ascendancy. I am reaching out to the nations of the Acruani Collective and Gran Karanus for a meeting, and hopefully relations. We can trade you high quality plasma weapons, and other pieces of technology." Pausing to twist his monstrous natural body into the much smaller frame and appearance of a human, Yiska added, "But I think we have some less concrete advantages that will interest you much more. We hope to hear from you soon."

As the message ended, Yiska returned to his office, and waited.

The reply came in 'shortly', a few minutes later. After all, listening to transmissions was a pastime for Acruani. "Greetings Autarch Yiska. This is System Overseer Shadai, Rank 4 Acruani of the Acruani Collective. My system is the one closest to yours, therefore I'll be responsible for our interactions. We are interested in the technology that you offer and we are willing to have further negotiations. We can send an envoy ship for us to personally meet once a time and location for a meeting is decided. You may send a reply in this frequency." That said, the same message also contained the location of the Acruani system Shadai hailed from.

 

[Albion]

GrieveWriter
Xi nodded his head, turning to one of the men and issuing an order to be relayed to the frigates and corvettes. Once the man was away at a steady clip, Xi turned to him. "If you would like, we will allow you to rest in a room near your crewmate," Xi said, beckoning to the medical hall. "In the mean time, however, is there any channel we should communicate to your nation with?" He wondered, tilting his head as the officer he sent off returned. The conversation was interrupted as a lance of light pierced the void, shimmering blue and orange as it collided with the Gourmanti, scything through the armor slowly. Several others joined in, the beams a light show playing havoc on the ship as it was slowly partitioned, each individual piece receiving several missiles to turn it into superheated dust.

Xi watched with keen interest before turning to Grus. "I am sorry," he murmured simply, referencing the fact that any negotiations began like this, that Grus' crewmate was lost, as well as his ship.