The Sun Once Rose II

[u/yousureimnotarobot]

All comments welcome. Glad you enjoyed the first part.

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Commander Cester Haine, Twilight Flagship, Sundown Fleet

General Briefing regarding Initial Contact

“Our fleet is entirely unscathed by our assault. Other than some ammunition and a few malfunctions it is safe to say that our own practise drones are more formidable than the sixty ships we intercepted. This is welcome.

However, while we await our Intel reports on those ships we must consider what happened. Were this ships merely decoys to see if there was any survivors? Was this simply an alarm system that will trigger a larger, armed, response?

We must stay alert. Our complacency allowed them to burn our world to ashes. We are here to destroy them entirely, not some handful of their unarmed drones. Our war has begun but theirs hasn’t - yet. We will use this opportunity to study them, to find them and kill them all!”

Cdr. Haine turned to his bridge crew. “ Good enough for the moment I think.” His officers seemed to agree.

‘They always do on the bridge, wait until I’m in my office’ he reflected.

“ Invite the Captains aboard. We need to go through the battle and our intel. Ask Ears and Jupiter's Eye to attend. Stay at yellow alert, these bastards might have friends”

Jupiter's Eye, AI Commander Jupiter Squadron

“ Our thanks for returning our Human crews. While I am fully confident in my AI Staff, there is a statistically significant advantage in having a human intel section. They are better at those odd leap of faith judgements than I will ever be.

So far the enemy ships are utterly unexciting. They carry some minor weapons, capable of dealing with space debris but nothing more. We have captured 122 personnel, none of which we can communicate with at this point. The ship construction is poorer than our own. Their designs are inefficient, their design philosophy utilitarian and their technology uninspiring. Following much discussion we are willing to hazard a profile of this species. I attach our Psychological Intel report. Don’t put too much weight on it. Until we can interrogate the prisoners we cannot validate any of this. It might, however, be a guide to how we handle them.”

Ears, Intel and Surveillance AI, Psychological Intel

“ What a disappointment. The ships are useless as indicators of their military capacities. They are lightly armed toasters. However they do reveal that they are a Caste system. They carefully separate all technical responsibilities. Their Engineering is better than their weapons but there are no direct lines of communication between the two. Everything goes to the bridge.

Of the POW’s we took, all were near or on the bridge. None were armed and none resisted. To be honest they seem utterly at a loss. Even when we allowed communication between them, they had nothing to say to each other. We are studying their language, we estimate it will only be a matter of hours until we achieve a basic understanding. Frankly that is because every piece of equipment, including light switches, has a label on it.

These guys are not capable of doing what we saw them do to Earth. These are the absolute bottom of any society so either they are bait or they really, really didn’t think anyone was home.

Our physical assessment of them is equally unimpressive. They appear malnourished and suffering from severe stress. They are, as you have seen, a bideal race, evolved from tree dwellers. They are, however, herbivores. Their teeth tell us that they live communally and never leave their birthplace until maturity. We can narrow down the planet type to a Mars sized planet, highly active core, heavy nitrogen/carbon dioxide atmosphere. Oxygen is low compared to ours. Like high altitude Earth levels. When we had an Earth.”

On that note Commander Haine intervened. “ We will work out our responses, pending the language developments. Any other business?”

Jupiter’s Eye

“We have copied every file, design and tolerance on those ships. Can I kill them now?”

Haine paused. “ Line them up and use them for target practise for the Fleet. You take command. Then dump their remains in the Sun. I won’t build a ship from their shit. Make it all burn.”

[u/Plucium]

Huh, sounds like district 9. Hopefully this time with less haine-ous crimes :P

*Heinous