Dotodyne Exploration

For eight systems now they had traversed without meeting anything alive. Just empty systems and seemingly abandoned worlds, there was one a few systems back which had some interesting scenery as they past through. The three ships, Science Vessel and two corvette escorts, were preparing to warp to yet another system.

Daughter-of-the-Khagan Alaqa was hopeful, admittedly the hope was dimmed somewhat from the last eight systems, but hopeful of meeting either aliens or more survivors of the cataclysms in Humanity's past. She was also excited because once they met them they could exchange so much about each other and find all sorts of interesting things. Even if they weren't aliens they would have so much different culturally as all Dotodyne saw when they found the ancestors media storage on the station orbiting Dotodyn. So many films and books and poetry and just other interesting things. And then aliens, or other humans, would have their own take on it all and she was part of the Generation that got to experience it. Oh what a wonderful time to be alive. And-

"Khaganokhin Alaqa, if you would be so gracious as to give the order?" Said Captain Cota of the Corvette Dragonstar. Thinking of all the progress Alaqa had made from the air headed court creature that had board he ship weeks before. Cota knew that she shouldn't think of the Daughter of the Khagan in such a manner but it was true, even if the Khagan's favorite daughter was one of the few Dotodyne blessed with golden hair. But now that the girl had gotten away from the court she was acting as a proper noble should, with a few exceptions.

"Uh yes, sorry. You may warp us out of this system now Captain." Alaqa thought of how well she had been doing in the past few weeks, this was the first time the Captain caught her daydreaming in days. It was all so hard, but she must do better if she hoped to be chosen in a Kurultai for anything. She must do better, well she had some time before they arrived in the next system, maybe they would find something interesting...

The Dotodyne exploratory flotilla continued on towards the ninth system, hoping for meeting exciting new people.

On the fringes of Corps space a survey flotilla and its corvette escort float (fall) in geosynchronous orbit above a tombworld marked for future colonization by Corps soldiers. The survey team knew to be on the lookout for alien vessels, and had been given a loose set of guidelines for interacting with them as well as basic images of the Freemen, but knew nothing of the largest military operation in their history that has been ongoing for the last two weeks.

Military and scientific comms were busy coordinating with their ground teams on the surface as they scoured the wasteland below for structurally sound buildings and loot. Every so often a rain of tungsten rods poured from the corvette to demolish unsound structures, to prevent daredevil scavenging by colonists, and to crack open bunkers for further exploration. Military scans only passively watched for the telltale scans of civilian ships commandeered by pirates. All other anomalous signals were filed away for later investigation during the full system scan. While the small flotilla was visually hidden behind the planet, small ground teams scoured the surface of the bombed out world.

Aside from the high doses of radiation and chaotic weather, the scans pick up several unexplained moving heat signatures accompanied by rising plumes of dust. Closer examination shows them to be angled tracked, wheeled, and hovering vehicles all moving in convoys in separate parts of the planet that range in size from supersized trucks to four door cars. Radar scans also pick up a solitary aircraft flying some hundred miles in front of one of the convoys.

The aircraft pilot recieves a cacaphony of grunts, that could pass for human syllables, intermixed with a variety of hisses and clicks. The aircraft continues on its course when it is pulled up alongside. A few minutes pass before it suddenly pitches upward and performes an aileron roll above the human craft, flattening out as it comes to a stop on the other side of the pilot's wing, having moved from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock. (Thought of including pilot dialog, but I'm not doing that over this cracked screen phone.)

By the time the ground team shows up the convoy had moved off to a nearby ruin to park and unwind after a long drive. If the ground team decides to do recon before approaching they would see humanoid figures dressed in full environmental suits with tails 20% longer than their legs sprouted out of their backside, held several inches off the ground, and elongated angular muzzles for heads.

The pilot of the Dotodyne aircraft routes the other pilot's speech back up to the science ship in low orbit and replies in Dotodyne common.

"Yeah, sure, you too buddy."

The ground team the approaches the convoy at their new stopped position hailing ahead again with radio. They don't stop to do dedicated recon but they do look at anything they can see as they approach. The Dotodyne ground teams vehicles include a dump truck sized mobile scientific base, two smaller ground traversal vehicles and a single armored escort vehicle all designed for rough terrain and hazardous environments, to a degree.

Meanwhile Alaqa has been dragged off the bridge by various servants just prepare her in case she needs to make an appearance or speech. As that happens the ships continue their orbit around the Tomb world, science ship and the corvette Ancestral Defender scanning the planet and the corvette Dragonstar scanning for anything in space that might harm the Dotodyne flotilla.

'dump truck sized':

Scans soon reveal a cluster of vessels on the other side of the planet in low orbit. Five vessels smaller than a corvette or science ship are spread over the opposite hemisphere while a ship that is 20℅ larger than the Khaganate's corvette class looms just above them.

The opposing land convoy consisted of an elongated mobile base the size of a semi truck and trailer as one block of a vehicle, only 50% wider with multiple thick tires and weapon mounts along its sides. Its escort consists of a single dedicated combat vehicle with no visible wheels or treads while parked on the ground. Two more smaller but heavy wheeled vehicles with an internal truck bed and not as many weapon mounts. Lastly three small sedan shaped vehicles round out the escort with a weapon mount on the roof.

The radio is met with silence for the moment before they get a reply. "Hey, is the operator having a stroke? Readust your equipment, ours is working fi- What in the...?" Of course to the human ear it came across as a series of nonsensical hisses, clicks, and grunts. Suddenly a platoon's worth of armed and suited reptiles spill out of the building the convoy is parked in front of and rush to start and man their vehicles.

Up in the sky the pilot receives another transmission. "What, no reply? Don't like me being on this side, huh? Or are you just jealous?" The aircraft pitches upward again and spins into position on the plane's 3 o'clock.

The Dragonstar, after much discussion among bridge officers and brief confirmation by an Alaqa barley fending off various stylists to get back on the bridge, hails the the 20% larger ship looming above. The hail consists of a simple 'Hello we're here' message and an image of the various unknown ships from the Dotodyne scanners.

Down below on the planet the ground team stops somewhat near the Yuxun convoy as the armed and suited reptiles come out of the building. They make sure to pass up to the ships in low orbit that these are definitely not Humans. Many of the scientist await orders from the highers ups on the science vessel of whether to begin contact on the ground or generally what to do. They do however strongly hope that orders are given to begin contact, and a few are of the opinion since that their radios has suddenly stopped working for some reason they should just proceed as they seem best, few even think about the aliens being potentially hostile. The escort vehicle in the meantime is doing an excellent job of fretting over how the hell they are gonna keep the scientists safe while not 'acting overly threatening to the aliens.'

In the sky the Dotodyne pilot responds over radio. "Yeah yeah, keep twirling Sparky." Adding to himself as he pulls the aircraft away from the other piloted aircraft and back towards where the ground team is near the alien convoy. "Flips over like dog, lets see if he follow like one."

"Yeah, fuck you too, buddy," the pilot sends back to the retreating aircraft before swapping channels to Command. The pilot relays his position and what he's seen along with its current movements. After a short while he redirects from his course to follow the other aircraft just within range. If it had any hostile intentions toward the ground team, an alien aircraft made just as good of a practice target as some ruin riddled with sensors.

Meanwhile in space, the corvette does not respond while it internally reacts to the transmission. Another space faring race technically qualified as an anomaly and was thus under the jurisdiction of the science squadron. However another group of people was certainly a military threat and would fall into the jurisdiction of the military, especially with the strange reports coming up from the surface. The corvette's warboss and the ranking scientists argued back and forth with each other while both called back in to Command.

With the situation resolved one of the science ships sent a return message, a visual one showing what looks like a periodic table of elements followed by an anatomical image of male and female examples of their species to show that they were in fact intelligent and another race and not something bizarre like a sentient ship or another example of space megafauna. On the surface the scientists beat their human counterparts to the punch of first contact by first playing some music over the sound system of the scientific all terrain vehicle, normally used to make archaeological digs not as boring for the accompanying soldiers, now hopefully used to advertise their if not peaceful intentions then at least neutral intent. After drawing straws to see who will be bait, and potentially make first formal contact, a single scientist with a sidearm and two flanking soldiers walk halfway between the two vehicle groups and stand with several yards between each other. The soldiers behind them keep their weapons trained on their counterpart group.

The science ship further broadcasts an image of their own ship next to their anatomical images and an image of their ground team, as well as that of a captured civilian construction ship and smaller transport freighters and the same anatomical image followed by a more wild and wicked image of the pirates. Next they cycle over to show an image of the Dragonstar followed by their anatomical image and the picture of their ground team. Next they show a cruiser sized alien looking ship with an image taken from their failed boarding attempt of the vessel, small and massively sized bugs. Next an image of another alien ship, that of the Xengari, accompanied by a gray still from not knowing their identity. Lastly they show the Freeman fleet accompanied by a portrait of the enigmatic Herald.

The transmission goes on with an image of Corps, Xengari, and Freemen corvettes with lines drawn between each other with dashed arrowed lines are drawn toward a Yuxu pirate fleet. Next the same thing only with just the Corps and Freemen fleet with lines drawn toward the bug ship. A series of internal images of the ship follows featuring Corps marines, Crucible militia, and the monstrous swarm of bugs followed by several images of the prolonged battle that happening concurrently.

The fighter in the sky keeps a good distance away from the other aircraft as it waits for intercept orders.

Meanwhile on the ground, neither the scientist or the accompanying soldiers know what to do next when their counterparts approach. The scientist turns their head back and forth under their reflective domed head, unsure of what to do before he goes for his sidearm, draws it, and offers it to the being in front of him by the handle.

The bridge crew watches with interest on the Dragonstar through the cycling of images until reaching the image of the Freeman and fleet and then the Herald sends the crew from their relatively calm interest into active excitement. Not only did were these aliens, they were aliens who knew more aliens and Humans. Although the next series of images is slightly confusing the meaning that some are connect and others are not. It is unclear whether the dotted lines some form of rift or conflict between the groups until the images of the fighting with the bugs which explains the earlier images more clearly, however it raises more questions about the disappearance of the Xengari vessel in the images and the Yuxu pirates. Reactions to the bugs are mostly silent all across the bridge. In any case the Dotodyne formulate and broadcast their own response.

The Broadcast is of Khaganokhin Alaqa, wearing a rather ornate blue and silver Deel. She has a golden sash across her waist that matches her hair and a rounded shepherd's hat. Behind her are two bannermen wearing ceremonial uniforms carrying large banners of the Dotodyne flag. She wears gloves they may be silk but much more likely being a synthetic material, in addition she makeup applied to Dotodyne court standards of beauty, while likely meaningless to any aliens she likely couldn't get away with less. She speaks.

"Greetings from the Great Khaganate of Dotodyn. I am Khaganokhin Alaqa, daughter of the supreme ruler of the Dotodyne Humans, Khagan Naranbaatar, and I am also penultimately in charge of this peaceful scientific expedition. Under that authority I wish for nothing but peace between our peoples as I know we may not understand each others' words yet but it would please those of the Khaganate nothing more than to have friends such as yourselves among the stars."

The broadcast goes on with Alaqa smiling with closed lips, not wanting to threaten the aliens if they find bared teeth threatening, and just waiting for a reply.

On the ground the scientist is embarrassed not having something similar to give in return, until she remembers her multi-tool which she hands in return. The multi-tool is laser based, having functions for range finding, light, cutting at various powers and sampling material through vaporization by shock induction. It looks like a long tube with various controls and buttons as well as two separate screens for reading information gathered from the functions. She proffers it out as she reaches for the handle offered.

(Sorry for the late response, real life catches up sometimes.)

(EDIT: Giving some reference material in images.)

Hat and Flag:

Little did the Dotodyne humans know that smiling without showing teeth was taken as a sign of insincerity. Luckily for them, the science team orchestrating communications knew that they were dealing with a species unlike their own and would be unwise to even speculate on the meaning behind the gross undulations of the being's flat unmuzzled smooth and discolored face. This was the first time a Yuxun expedition had encountered another species and had not immediately joined it in battle with some other threat. Yuxu culturally distrusted unknown groups; the medium of battle and being forced to communicate out of convenience instilled a sense of camaraderie with the Freemen in the hearts and minds of the military. Even luckier for the Dotodyne, the military was not in charge at the moment.

Several of the scientists aboard never dreamed that they would actually meet aliens, especially since most of the planets they had come across, that were not gas giants or otherwise unrealistically inhabitable, were bombed out ruins that could only barely support life. They were divided at how to proceed with the rest of the encounter. Unbeknownst to the military brass, the science ships that had made first contact with the Freemen, had shared their findings with their peers so that it would be known what crew was the first to have met aliens that were not degenerated troglodytes that attacked everything on sight. Reviewing the date, they had considered cutting out the mathematics part of first contact as it was mainly used to establish a similar understanding of universal constants to be able to understand a star chart. This group sent over an image of the known galaxy with stars shaded in khaki representing their own holdings, with any markings for the Freemen absent to keep the hatchling empire protected.

The difference in skin tone and other superficial features kept the scientists from drawing direct comparisons between the Dotodyne and the Freemen. Without DNA or enough immersion with the two races to be able to tell faces apart, the two races were like cats and dogs to the Yuxu, both figuratively four legged, covered in hair, vaguely triangular ears, a muzzle, and padded feet with enough differences to know they were obviously different species. What were the chances that two sickeningly flesh covered creatures would turn out to be of the same parent race? Much less having fallen to the same technological base and worked themselves up to faster-than-light space travel at the exact same time as the other and had decided to explore in the same galactic region toward each other within the exact same months? These impossible odds only made those crockpots who drew the conclusions between them only that much more zealous in their assertions.

In the interest of mimicking the other others' behavior a live broadcast is sent to the other ship. Unlike the ground team below in their feature covering environmental suits, the being before them had nothing obscuring the khaki colored leathery scales of its bald head and face. It sat dressed in what could be considered a robe-like lab coat judging by the instruments in its breast pockets. The colorful swirling patterned coat had one half of it wrapped over the other and secured by a belt. The being speaks in a collection of clicks, grunts, and hisses, that aren't so much different from human speech that it could be another human language, if it wasn't for the rolling tongue clicks that human mouths are unable to recreate and hissing that stretches longer than a short S sound. "I am Seeker Kahvalum. On behalf of the Yuxu, the people of the Dreaming Planet, and on behalf of the Colonial Corps that governs our activities in space, I welcome you to as if you were our own. The galaxy is as exciting as it is indifferent to our existence, and we hope that we may one day increase our odds of survival against its whims by joining together in friendship, even though it is impossible for you to understand me now."

On the surface, the scientist took the offered multi-tool in his hand, though he did not immediately inspect it. Internally he hoped that the gift wasn't important to the other scientist, especially not mission critical, and could be replaced. On Yuxun, an immediate exchange of gifts showed an amicable end to a relationship. No debt had been transferred, no social responsibility or standing, just a simple exchange as equals. An exchange that was normally followed by both parties walking away from each other without further words until they next met. However the scientist knew that this could not be the case, the other suited being was likely just mimicking his behavior to be polite. This knowledge did not keep him from standing awkwardly and unsure of what to do next, however.

As this was the first time that the Dotodyne had met another intelligent species at all, and a seemingly friendly one at that, they were both excited and wary of the other race. While they wanted to be friends with the aliens they did not fully trust them, as they do not yet know them. In response to the image of the local galactic area with what appeared to be a map of the aliens' territory of control they sent a modified version of that map that placed a golden highlight around the star systems that were considered under their own control. There was a strong desire to ask about the other Humans however they held off as having not established reliable communications they didn't wish to confuse anything. In any case the officers in the bridge watch the alien response, it is forwarded both to Alaqa and the science vessel. As the scientists aboard their vessel try to deduce what they can from the broadcast, Alaqa responds.

"We presume friendly intentions from your broadcast as you did respond to our own. We hope you will allow us to come together and speak more so as to understand each others' tongue."

After this portion of speech from Alaqa she has the bridge crew broadcast an animation of the alien vessel that they have been conversing with and the Dragonstar going forward to each other and docking.

On the planet, the scientist seeing perhaps some awkwardness in the alien's position, or at least thinking to have seen it, brings up her data pad and pulls up an animation of the Dotodyne ground team's vehicles approach and stopping near the Yuxun convoy. After this numerous more suited human figures move out the vehicles to where some suited Yuxu figures meet them, the animation ends. The scientist replays this animation for the Yuxu, holding out the data pad for them to see.

In orbit one of the five small science ships is chosen and follows through with the animation's request while the larger frigate looms just out of its own weapons' range, ready to move in and avenge the sacrificed science ship if the aliens do anything untoward to it. The ship pulls alongside and, finding that their airlocks are incompatible with each other from a minor difference in airlock dimensions and unable to properly dock with each other., The ship pulls in as close as its pilot is comfortable before offloading a team to spot weld eye hooks around the airlock before extending several wires with tarps draped over them to provide a covered walkway and to keep the two ships together. A small team of scientists move out of their airlock and jump through the connecting tunnel in zero G and wait for the exterior airlock to open.

Down on the ground the scientists quickly shoots down the suggestion by frantically moving his arms back and forth and then motions toward himself and the other scientist and then to both of their guards before sitting crosslegged on the dusty ground. Being the collectivists that they were, they could not under any circumstance open their main group up to any sort of manipulation or close quarters sneak attacks. Those that were sent out to meet with other groups were, in the heat of the moment, completely expendable. Any future interactions between the two groups had to rely on the small group becoming fscreen.

Unable to think of anything else, the scientist pulls out a rugged handheld device, a blend of rusting metal and polymer, and taps on the reflecting screen. He shows the screen to his counterpart, showing an image of collection of Yuxu lined in a row dressed in a variety of colorful robes in an internal environment bordered by an interface covered in glyphs. He swipes to the next image of a desert world with a few buildings in the background, taken from an angle showing it to be in the air. Next a closeup, presumably of himself and another individual covered in scars with headrests behind their heads and rows of occupied seats behind them. Next several robe or space suit wearing individuals carrying bags weave around each other in a cramped packed terminal. Next a series of shots of a ragged looking almost ruined structure that steadily has its holes patched with prefab materials, spartan furniture, artifacts, electronics, and weapons.

A smaller example of his species enters the picture, head height almost above his pelvis, initially dressed in a harness and held close by on a leash enters the picture. Several images of them are taken together inside of the previous structure and outside of what looks like a noodle shop with several other members of the species. As the images go on the smaller one gets incrementally bigger, they're seen wearing full body grey and drab uniforms together, each sporting a different model of environment suit than the one currently worn in front of an approaching sandstorm, before and after pictures at a firing range, hand to hand combat in a formalized setting, sand raking, and each of them drawing and correcting what appear to be engineering designs.