The Arrival of the Latagonians

[Latagon]

"Did we loose them?"

"Aye sir, I think we did.  The fleet is arriving as we speak."

"What made it out?"

"23 cruisers, 14 Destroyers, 18 Frigates...200 or so colony ships...and um...no.  They didn't make it."

"So the orbital stations were evacuated?"

"Yes sir, but none of the life pods are out there."

"Damn.  That's nearly 1 million lives lost.  Not to mention Jessica..."

"Sir.  I'm sorry sir.  The Maraudersoft fleet just arrived.  Admiral Hale wants to speak with you."

"Put him on comm."

The screen flickers and an image appears of a man, in his late 50s.  He is accompanied by two 'Centurions' in VULCAN Mark VI armor.  "Captain Hayes.  It's good to see your fleet intact.  How many survived?"

"We're still counting the ships, but it looks like most of Flair was lost, Hasadon was decimated, Fallathon is gone, Latagon had minimal survivors, and Tiberius is in ruins.  As for the living we have maybe a couple million, probably less."

"I see.  That's horrible.  My fleet caught them off guard and defeated them at Illusion, and nearly all of the 4 billion survivors were able to jump.  The 'Oyrioni' should be along any minute.  Have you found a good planet to land?"

"Aye sir.  This one.  It's class M.  No civilization seems to be there already, and it seems easily defensible.  We'll put sensor buoys around the system, but for once I think we can finally rebuild."

A light flickers on in the back, and a woman no more than 6" tall, looks about the cabin.  "We AIs would be happy to help in the rebuilding, but we can't really do much, but provide logistics support."  She smiles lightly, but the grimness of the mood settles in again.

"Admiral Hale.  How many of the other fleets survived?"

"Captain..."  His voice trails off.  "It looks like we're all that's left."

[Latagon]

======================================================================================================
Class M Planet.  5th Planet from the star.

"This is it.  This is our new home."

"Captain.  What shall we call this star?"

"This star is 'Hope'."

"And the planet?"

"'New Latagon.'"

"I see.  That's a good name.  Our new planet."

"So, Admiral Hale.  Did any of LATCOM or LATCOMONI survive?"

"The FORTRESS base was destroyed along with all hands.  Most of Illusion's major cities were gone by the time we arrived.  We defeated...them...Anyway, sadly we were only able to rescue around 4 Billion of it's 13 Billion people.  Harvest was obliterated.  Gone.  Flow no longer exists.  It was glassed by the time we arrived."

"My god.  Harvest and Flow?  That's over 12 Billion lives lost."

"Well, you had the inner defenses.  How did they fare?"

"Not well sir.  We rescued most of the Tiberians, around 3 Billion.  We arrived late Fallathon, and nothing was left.  Hasadon was a different story, and was where we lost 40% of our ships.  They disabled the MAC guns, and ended up bombarding the surface.  We rescued 600 Million of the citizens.  We hit Latagon Prime right as...they...arrived.  The Cannons staved off the attack at the beginning, but we were only able to save a few hundred thousand before we were forced to jump."  Hayes slowly stops speaking, and a tear drips down his cheek.  "They destroyed the transports before they could jump.  The transports only had around 2 Million Latagonians in them before...they...got to them.  Around 200 transports survived, most of them were not Latagonian.  I...Admiral there are 16 Billion people still on Latagon Prime.  16 Billion.  I...failed in my defense."

"Hayes.  Snap out of it.  We all lost people.  There was nothing you could have done.  There were Millions of...them...attacking us.  They knew Latagon Prime was our home planet.  They would have sent trillions of ships to attack us.  To stave them off for any amount of time takes heroics that I've only ever seen from one person.  You, Captain."

"Thank you sir."

"The colonists are arriving now, we should go watch."

"Aye sir."

[Latagon]

======================================================================================================
New Latagon, Hope System, Population: Approx. 4.5 Billion.  Fleet Size: Approx 41 Cruisers, 39 Destroyers, 62 Frigates, 1 Titan.  Space-stations:  None.


The colonist had been working hard, and slowly a world was being built.  The first city to be "finished" was New Latagon City, the capital of the New Latagonian Republic.  New Latagon developed a distinctly peaceful atmosphere when the first Space Port had been finished.  Hundreds of millions of people had lost loved ones, and no one was willing to return to the home they had left behind.  84 Planets were gone, because of the monsters.  They.  Them.  No words described what these things were.  The Ancient Caldarians had said that they were the essence of evil, highly advanced, mysterious killing machines.  That is, before the Caldari themselves were destroyed by these things.  Not since the fateful battle of 'Char' had a Caldarian Ship been seen.  The only race to have ever successfully combated a single ship of...theirs...were the Maraudersoft.  Their fleet, though, had been destroyed, only to be salavaged nearly 1,000 years later, and put to use by the Latagonians.  That fleet and Hayes's fleet were the only two to survive the onslaught of those things.  The Caldarians called them, "The Enemy" and feared them beyond anything in the universe.  Latagon just called them...them...There was no acounting for these things, and therefore no reason to name them.  They were evil and thats all that mattered to Latagon.

[Validus]

**Deep Space Scout, Marco Class Corvette, DSS-774-A5**

The dark wedge shaped vessel drifted into the system. It soon got a sensor contact. *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* "What the?" the sensor operator peered over the console and started typing onto a keypad next to him.

The pilot looked back at him, "What is it Yeti?"

"I don't know. I am getting a strange contact on sensors. I think this system is populated."

"What? The report said that their was no sentient life in this system." stated the pilot.

Yeti looked over the sensor data again, "Well Mak, it is. I am reading multiple contacts and artificial structures on H2 class planet. Looks like we can make contact."

"Do you know who they are?" asked Mak.

"Neg. I am reading similar power signatures to some known species but no known ship design are like these, tho more primitive then the Dominion. I am reading slow sub-lights." said Yeti.

"Deploy a Comm drone to send back to the Dominion. We are going to make contact. Engines online, propulsion systems active. Vortex systems online, just incase we need to make a quick exit."

The ship which was barely visible less then 30 seconds ago became a bright beaming shot in the sky. flying toward the inhabited planets.

~Thanato

[Latagon]

"Admiral Hale!  We're reading a slipspace signature at coordinates...Delta Alpha One.  Near Planet 7."

"Phfor?"

"No sir..."

"Is it Them?"

"No sir, not...them...either."

"Caldarian?"

"No, this doesn't match any Caldarian signatures either."

"Then who is it?"

"I'm not sure.  Shall we level the MAC guns on it?  I'm pretty sure that 'The Republic's' guns could take it out."

"No, I'm not risking any of our surviving cruisers.  Send in the Frigate...'Gladius'.  That's Captain Lou Bower's ship, right?"

"Yes sir."

"He'll scout out the incoming vessel, and report back."

"Aye sir."

'The Gladius' broke away from the group and powered it's MAC gun, ready to defend itself if totally necessary.  Bowers met the incoming Comm drone about half way to it's destination, and deployed grapple hooks to catch it in mid flight.  It nearly worked, but the Comm drone was too quick and slipped by.

"This is the 'Gladius' to fleet.  Incoming.  Still unidentified.  Recommend defense of New Latagon."

"It's ok Bowers.  I'm gonna take my chance that it's not hostile, and let it come to us.  They...don't know where we are, and it's little chance that the Phfor have returned after 30 years.  My bet, is that this is someone else...Still this could be dangerous.  All ships retreat to defense points, and spread out.  If this is...them...then I want all ships to be able to run before they reach us."

[Validus]

A small purple coloured vortex opened up infront of the comm drone, it slipped inside and disappeared, having the vortex close behind it.

The Corvette rocketed toward the inner system. "Shit, Mak they just tryed to grab the drone before it slipped away,"

"Good, at least we know they wont blow everything up. And home port knows what we are doing now."

"Wow, we have been pinged. Looks like they know were we are."

~Thanato

[Latagon]

"That definitely wasn't...them..."

"So then who was it?"

"I don't know, but they left a transmission, right before they left.  Our translators, or what's left of them, are working on it."

"I see."

A crack came from the comm station and then a voice could be heard.

"Admiral Hale, this is Captain Kilith, we've found one of the alien ships.   Requesting permission to intercept."

"Denied.  We don't know of their intentions, we can't afford to lose a ship."

"Sir, if they are hostile, I can be back with a warning before anything could happen.  Then we could defend New Latagon."

"You've got me.  Permission granted, go for it, but Kilith, if they aren't hostile, then you're our first diplomat."

"Aye sir."

The 'Fury' powered it's engines and moved towards the Dominion corvette.

[Validus]

OOC: The Corvette Didn't jump away. . . the Communication Probe did because it was beign sent back to the United Terran Dominion to tell them that they are about to make first contact with a new species. So you are sending that ship back to the United Terran Dominion after the probe.

~Thanato

[Latagon]

OOC: Oh.  I'll edit it.

[Validus]

"Mak, we got company. A large vessel is moving to intercept. Want me to broadcast an interstellar 'hello'?" asked Yeti.

"Sure thing, lets let them know we are not hostile. In the meantime I think I will power up the PDLs (OOC: Point defence Lasers). Now lets hope these guys aren't hostile." stated Mak.

The Corvette changed courses and headed toward the alien vessel.

~Thanato

[Latagon]

"Captain, we're receiving a transmission.  I think the aliens are saying...'Hello'."  He almost laughed.

"I see.  Broadcast our hello, and power down the engines."

[Validus]

"Mak," stated Yeti, "Translators have well translated this language. . . its not from this corner of the Galaxy thats for sure. "

"How did you manage that?" asked Mak.

"Comm traffic in the system, their is a lot of it." he paused for a moment, "Mak they are replying to our message. Its a greeting and a general order of stand down engines."

"Well, I guess we should do what they say, don't want to start an incident here, eh."

"Aye."

Maks hands moved to a lever on the control pannel, she slowely lowered down the lever to the 0 thurst marker. "Ok engines powered down, drifting now. I say could drift at this speed for about an hour before the planets start slowing us down."

"Don't think thats what they meant but what ever," Yeti laughed outloud.

The Corvette would of been 100% invisible if it wasn't for the signal lights along the hull and the sensor marker activated.

~Thanato

[Latagon]

"Captain, they're stopping...well...their engines are shutdown.  Their momentum is still carrying them towards New Latagon."

"Would you say that's a good or bad sign?"

"I'd say that it means they're intent on reaching New Latagon, but it looks like they're willing to talk on the way..."

"I see.  Thrusters on, lets get in step with them, maybe we could convince them to fall back, before the fleet rips them apart."

"Aye sir.  Thrusters engaged."

"Send them a message.  'Alien ship, you are entering space controlled by the Republic of Latagon.'"

"Aye sir, transmitting.  Let's see if they give a response...Should we power up the MAC?"

"No...I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.  If they were hostile they'd have attacked by now."

[Validus]

"Mak, they are catching up to us. Wait, incoming transmission, reads 'Alien ship, you are entering space controlled by the Republic of Latagon.' Thought this system was in the outback?"

"It is, actually it was explored just over a decade ago an no one was here." She looked down at the flight pannel, "Yeti, I'm sounding all stop. Launch another Comm drone, I want the Dominion to know about this."

"Aye," Yeti punched some buttons on the key board, drone launched. The small drone flew away from the Corvette, when it reached 100km it disappeared into a vortex.

~Thanato

[Latagon]

"Captain, they're stopping."

"All stop.  Bring us along side."

"Aye sir."

"Transmit another message.  'Alien Captain.  I wish to speak with you, so that we may work out an agreement between our two ships.  We are opening our docking bays, if you can understand this please send a contingent so that we may work out an agreement.'"

"Transmitting sir.  I hope you know what you're doing.  If they are hostile, we'll all be killed."

"It's ok Marko.  I've never seen a ship like that before, but they haven't shown themselves to be hostile yet."

"Captain, might I remind you of the 'Levana'.  The Phfor didn't attack, they just boarded.  They killed over 600,000 colonists before they were defeated.  They're strong, and we don't have any Legionaries on board."

A older looking many looks up from his station.  "That's not quite true.  No one is supposed to know it, but I think it's time the secret got out.  Jason-119 is on board."

The entire bridge crew looks up.  Whispers all over flood the Frigate's bridge.  "Jason?  The hero of Char?"  "How the?"

"Well wake him.  We may need him.  Oh and please power up his VULCAN Mark VII for him."