It is 13th of June in Human Calendar, in a far, far distant cluster of stars, light years away from Earth. On a sole mining colony of System 698-Beta, also known as Venture Star System, lies a sole taskforce of space ships of extraterrestrial in origin. Gliding into the system, unnoticed. The ships were not of any human designs ever made. The ships were distinctly sharp in shape, like that of a sword being beautifully ordained with fine craftsmanship when compared to ships of human designs.

If anything, it's like comparing a fancy ink pen to a utilitarian pen.

There at the edge of the solar system, is where the ships are located. A group of what is the Human designation of a medium sized fleet. It is being operated by the human designations of a Battleship, and is accompanied by a pair of Heavy Cruisers, followed by 5 Light Cruisers, 9 Destroyers, 17 Frigates, and 25 Corvettes. The battleship is being followed by what seems to be the largest in the task force, of what is a ship called a Carrier, with 5 supply vessels circling it and 10 support ships circling the two most important ships in the fleet. A large Carrier holds of dozens and dozens of small craft of varying roles, like that of a fighter, bomber, and a torpedo bomber. And as it implies, the ships around the battleship are getting busy as the Shipmaster and the Admiral of the task force have begun their conversation, regarding of the operation they will now prepare.

There on the top of the flagship, named "Justice High", is a dome like area. That is being encompassed by what seems to be heavily reinforced glass that peaked through the command centre and the cosmos. At the centre lies like a catwalk like area, in which a large sofa like furniture made out of soft materials and reinforced metals that oriented it around like a throne. The one sitting on it is what the humans called it, a mantis, a rather large one at that. Sitting down at 1.6 metres tall, the dark coloured preying mantis silently observed the gigantic hologram. Showing a total of 7 planets, and 7 other smaller planets that surrounds a similarly familiar star of colour yellowish orange, though in this case, it's more orange than yellow and slightly larger than Sol.

The humanoid mantis on the throne, adorned what seems to be ancient greek like robes of colour purple, then look at the mantis in front of him that seems to be busy on a circular console as it spoke. It's mandibles on its cheeks opening in and out, and it's lips like mouth opening unnaturally for a human like face to do, called out the captain in front of him.

"Fleet Shipmaster. Status report of the star system."

The Shipmaster flinched for a moment, and then stopped whatever it was doing and bowed beneath the tendrils of the larger mantis on the throne.

"A-Admiral. The star system is what the data was described by the Home Council. Barren, with only limited planets being habitable. With the rest being either gaseous planets, or solid planets that are too toxic of a atmosphere to be lived in. Especially of our species, and the ones of the 2nd and 3rd Worlders."

The Admiral did a equivalent of a puff of air, startling the few officers on the bridge, as he then finally stood up from his seat and tower over the rest of the crew of 2.1m tall. Showing off his authority for all the bridge crew on board, and for his voice to be vibrated with confidence to the entirety of the fleet.

"I see... So O'heet must have made a mistake then..."

The Admiral said out loud, simply because of how the star system they are looking at seems to be different than what they have been speculating to have look like.

The Admiral then sway his front legs, to show another holographic interface of a star system. This time however, it looks slightly different than the one being shown at the present of what the Council calls; The Luminous System. As it seems the current system have extra 5 planets than what has been speculated by the Committee.

"Navigator, are we on the speculated star system that our operation is tasked?"

"Yes Admiral! We are on the correct path, though our coordinates do not match on the speculated star system. We do have matching readings on the planets and the... Aliens... We are subjugating... Have a 98.6% accuracy of the data we have acquired."

The Admiral remained silent for a moment, before grunting, as the Navigator then manipulated the gigantic hologram to present the speculated star system and the Luminous System, as all the minute details were presented on each planets. As though different, it has a very striking resemblance, except for the extra planets. 4 barren planets, 1 habitable planet, 2 gas giants, 2 water worlds. The extra 5 being closer to extraordinarily large asteroids than planets with their non spherical shape.

"Elaborate the details throughout the fleet for those ill informed. Those fools would be complaining that they can't do much if they are in a empty star system."

"Affirmative Admiral!" The bashful Navigator bowed beneath the height of his tendrils and proceeded to fiddle with the consoles next to him.

Observing this, the Admiral wondered if continuing this operation really is a strategic choice for the Confederation. Technically speaking, it is not like he was worried if the operation will not be successful, in fact it is the opposite, as the fleet he has now is more than enough to subjugate a species with technology as luck luster as the data being currently provided. No, it isn't that thought of failure is what he is worried about.

The Religiosa species have been around space for nearly 7940 cycles now, with experiences of previous space conflicts that could make a hatchling gurgle in delight of the light show they displayed on the night sky. However close calls did happened, especially with 3rd Worlders. The 3rd Worlders are the third species that the Religiosa have abducted under their Council for equal prosperity among species. The Admiral knows it's all talk to make seems the Religiosa are innocent, but in fact it was the opposite. He was there after all when they decided to make an example of one of the important core worlds of the 3rd Worlders when they decided to rebel from the Home Council to conduct a war of independence.

The War of Independence failed of course, and under his command, he stopped the war as a praised war hero. Thus boasting the egos and pride of the Religiosa home worlds and his promotion to Grand Royal Admiral. However, he prefers his title to be called Admiral to not waste more words of the already long syllables needed in their language.

It may sounds like he is sympathising with the 3rd Worlders, but he isn't as much. In reality, he seems disappointed that they began to do their foolish war of independence, knowing the fact that they are outmatched in all ways and even decided to excrete the idea that their deity was a fraudulent mortal on a prey's skin. The 3rd Worlders have got that situation to themselves to blame, they are already gaining more benefits under their ruling with technology, culture, cuisine, and religion. It's almost an act of mercy when they were founded by his ancestors nearly 50 solar cycles ago, and yet, they received those benefits with the low price of being labour force. The divide among their species only got worse instead, with their treatment returning to days of those centuries ago with the rebellion.

It may be 50 cycles ago, but the rebellion definitely remained it's aftertaste, and it left a bad taste to the Religiosa pride that a inferior species made a large dent in their resources and finances than the minor damages predicted. Thus the sanctioning of their core worlds and recontracting of economic laws are being brought upon them to reciprocate their losses.

However why the connection between these Aliens and the 3rd Worlders? It's simple, and that is their technological prowess.

Despite the lackluster technology and firepower the species they are currently seeing now, the fact that they have only been in space for 500 cycles is rather concerning. The Religiosa species, despite their brilliance, only managed to build their first interplanetary bases 800 cycles in the timeline of their early space exploration. The fact that these unknown species did it in just 500 cycles is quite impressive and concerning. They know this because of the data they have received from a very, very old probe of 600-700 cycles old. It was decoded and deciphered, in which the probe's name is called "Voyager 1". Or is it Voyager 1? Some say it is Adventure 1. Anyways, accompanying it is several few pictures and information that was saved from the rest that was corrupted or too damaged to be recovered.

To say it sent shockwaves have sent interest and fervour throughout the Home Council of a mysterious species outside their star system, was a understatement. For context, the 2nd and 3rd Worlders are within their cluster of star systems, and are very close to one another that the 2nd Worlder's star can be seen in the night brightly. Out of the 27 stars, and 7 of which are within their cluster star system, and only 3 were considered inhabited, with the rest outside of the 27, being empty with intelligent life on their level, or too different of a atmosphere to be suitable for colonisation. While the other worlds varies, the Admiral knows there are more sentient life than the studies implies.

That's because their religion also stated that it is impossible for life to live outside their view of the stars. This was also backed up by their scientist, that it is simply impossible for life to happen, and that the circumstances between them and the other species were coincidental at best. However, with the presence of the species called "Hu'mns", it threatened not only their religious standing, but also their species as the sole apex of the galaxy. Schisms already began as far back as 50 cycles ago, in which one of the causes of that is the rebellion of the 3rd Worlders. The Home Council immediately put an embargo on any Human related media and crackdowns began very strongly. The Grand Queen, also known as their deity's descendant, proclaimed humanity as a blight of the world that must be eradicated. Thus, gospel was spread as fear seep into the population.

However it didn't quell the rebellions, as it only strengthened it. It also didn't help that they don't have evidence of the human's barbaric nature as they claimed, and the ones on Voyager 1 are spotty at best. Thus, a Grand Expedition was conducted to search for these humans as much as possible to find them, and being evidence of their barbaric ways. If there wasn't, fabrication is needed as long as the humans are present to stop the rebellions.

Luckily for them however they did spot one. It's not a planet however or the Luminous System, but a sole human ship. That human ship, which is probably an exploration vessel or a research vessel, have led them to the Luminous System. For 50 cycles, they have finally spotted the Aliens after years of waiting and recalculating the potential coordinates of the corrupted data they have recovered from the probe. Their efforts were finally being rewarded by their Goddess, and a celebration was induced among the Home Council of the focus of the problem of their rebellion. At the same time, the rebellion too, was at it's fervour as they finally found their interloper that could possibly save them.

A rather foolish thought, the Admiral inwardly said. Though he admired the 3rd Worlder's will, it is just simply a losing battle to hope the Aliens would come to their rescue, when the scans on their technology show that there is no FTL capable ship, that only proves their point of no rescue. In fact, there is no single FTL capable infrastructure present, despite their 500 cycle long timeline as a interstellar species. Even the 3rd Worlders, despite their primitive technology, have atleast a form of a old Religiosa 1st or 2nd generation FTL Drive, which only allowed them to hop within their star system. In this case, the Luminous System that has been inhabited by the Humans have none of that, and seems to rely on sub light engines.

For the First Contact species of a speculated powerful race of aliens, they seem rather... Pitiful, and even ignorant of the clear presence of their fleet slowly advancing into the first planetoid.

It's almost too easy of a fight, he could already see the excited look of the young crewmen of the Justice High. Already salivating and excited to get their kill of the unknown threat to their motherland. Hopeless as they are to propaganda, the Admiral admitted that atleast they have the drive to commit this mission. That is enough for him for his troops. It's almost as if his worries about the species were nonexistent with the low level threat they pose to be.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Nonetheless, he is worried about the species fast technological advancement in space in such a short amount of time. Especially when they don't even have concrete information of the species as a whole, with only superficial information they got from the probe as a pillar of their operation. They don't even know if the species is allied with other alien species or if they were the sole one. However base on the analysed data, it seems to be that the humans either got lucky or unlucky, because information gathered on the unexplored star system shows no other intelligent activity, and only the humans are present. Atleast base on their scans that showed barely 90% certainty.

In other words, it was a safe game for them, but not for the humans. It is rather pitiful even that their First Contact is the Religiosa. Yes, the Admiral felt pity on the very young interstellar species, if it were his way, he would've contact them as a vassal for the Religiosa. Just like how the 4th Worlders were treated. Though the 4th Worlders in this case was so primitive in the eyes of the Home Council that they revoked that plan and proceed to subjugate the planet with almost little to no resistance, with how easy it was for a non interstellar species to capitulate and serve the Religiosa indefinitely. Unfortunately for the 4th Worlders, their home planet was occupied indefinitely by one of the more powerful Religiosa Clans, a powerful clan of influential Religiosas. Ceasing their status as a 4th Worlder and thus putting them to less than intelligent lifeforms like the other worlds.

The Admiral knows that it is the latter they are choosing by simply subjugating the alien species to show to the rebels how useless their rebellion is.

'What a anti climatic end for this species.' He thought in disappointment.

"Prepare the System Jammers!"

The Admiral demanded as the bridge of the Justice High came to life and then two of the support ships then separated from the fleet, followed by three more being shown on the gigantic hologram.

On the outside, the five stubby looking ships of barely 200 claws in length, that look like a beautifully ordained stapler. The ships then got in front of the fleet, charging something between the mouth of the stapler ship. As the bridge of the Justice High then approved of the firing sequence. The crew and the Admiral then put on glasses that protect their eyes of sensitive light, adding with the dimming of the windows of the bridges of the ships, the Admiral grunted and the sequence reaching into a climax.

With a bright light for a moment, the communication systems of fleet rattled and flickered as it was momentarily affected by the EMP blast. Just like that, the hologram then shows as multiple of the human vessels and satellites have gone dark. Including the ones on the habitable planet.

The 5 jammers are too much, as it could even potentially damage their own ships. However, it is a necessary strategy to keep unwanted events to fallout if a sole jammer only did it alone. At worse, a ambush would occur as useless as they are with modern technology, it is still possible.

And as the Admiral predicted, they could hear multiple communications of human in origin. He made the right call on using 5 instead 1 or 2, as it seems the human made machines are much more durable as also predicted. With the human stations and ships incapacitated, it wouldn't take long for the fleet to blitz straight towards the core home world. As they destroyed multiple stations and ships, they hear more and more communication systems from the human blaring the closer and closer they get. There are brave ships here and there, but it is practically futile as the weapons they carried are of rather odd designed, they are firing physical projectiles that burst into a small explosion. In which then a small piece of the weapon flies straight to the target, however it isn't as accurate as compared to the plasma weapons they have, nor as destructive as it just only made a scratch. So it isn't as valuable of a find.

The corpses however, are the ones that intrigued them. In a simplest sense, they have a whole different evolution tree seeing it from the holograms of analysis of the charred bodies from the explosion of their alien ships. Yet, despite that clear difference, the one that heavily got their attention is their upper bodies. Especially how close the resemblance is to their upper bodies, without the beauty and elegance of a Religiosa's blades, thorax, and wings. It's simply like a naked and declawed version of their species. Especially their front limbs where the claws are supposed to be, instead they have dextrous tendrils and lack the ability to slice someone for that ability to grab something. It is rather much closer to a female Religiosa than a male Religiosa, however, they don't know what the human females look like if their males have traits of their female counterparts.

For the Admiral, he did hear the theories of scientist of how evolution sometimes rhymes with other species. Proof of this is how there is a similar animal like the Religiosa, only smaller and without a claw. Despite the similarities, it is a whole different species. So he is not surprised, but he is shocked and rather uneasy of the similarities, but he is not stupid enough to say that they are monsters from their religion of declawed Religiosas. Though, he already noticed the aggressive reactions of most of the crews of the other ships and, even the ones inside Justice High feel appalled and disgusted of the rather similar looking species.

If they deemed the Alien species rather insignificant few moments ago, now they deemed it as pest and a righteous evil to be struck for imitating the likeliness of their species. The Admiral, as a religious follower, knows that those humans are not some monsters lurking in the deep as he knows that the scriptures aren't being literal with the temptresses of evil of a actual living organism. But as he viewed, it seems that not a lot of them made that connection, as even the Shipmaster is adamant of not letting one single human alive and as eradication is the only way.

"..."

Looks like the Admiral has to remind these fools that their purpose is not eradication, but subjugation. As he cleared his voice receptors for them to hear him out loud to focus on the operation. Seeing how weak the response was, he hopes that they would finish this affair as soon as possible. After all, he still have a mate and nymph to take care off back at home at Excel.

However, little did the Admiral know of how much long they will be dug in that planet.

Little did they know, on how long this mission will drag their entire species into a new level of interstellar conflict.

Little did they know, on what they have unleashed in this uneventful mission in galactic history.

Little did they know, that history was about to begin.

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[... Mining Colony Aquarius-B, System 698-Beta, connection terminated...]

[... Attempting to reconnect to server terminal... Connection cannot be obtained... Attempting to Locate server address... Connection cannot be obtained... Attempting to connect to Head Server Engineer 1 and 2... Contact cannot be done.]

[Contacting System 698-Beta, executing Emergency Response Service System, Level Black... System Execution cannot be done. Resolving issue... Systems cannot be resolved, need emergency repairs to conduct Emergency Response Service System.]

[Connecting to the Emergency Backup Communication System... Contacting the closest star system for Emergency Response Service System. SOS. SOS. SOS. SOS. SOS. SOS... Connection cannot be done. StarNet Communication device is damaged, need repairs to function.]

[... Emergency. Contact of the Solaris System is not available. Executing Local Emergency Response measures. Evacuation probability... 21.7%, survivability of emergency evacuation ships are 12.297%. Cannot be executed. Begin reactivation of Ark Ships, revitalisation at 10.8%, probability of usage is 2.4%. Cannot be executed, ships too dangerous for occupants...]

[...]

[... Local General AI will ask permission to promote original copy, SAI-698-Beta Venture, for the Emergency Response Service System...]

[...]

[Voting in procedure...]

[...]

[Voting in procedure...]

[...]

[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION (1827)]

[Voting in procedure...]

[Proceed to analyse?]

[Voting in procedure...]

[Y/>N]

[Voting in procedure...]

[>>Y/N]

[Unknown military have breached the Swarovski Line, damaged to Planet-9 Novela Defence System, 87.8828%. Number of surviving Defence Fleet, 4/89. Estimated losses since Unknown military, 876k. Information is outdated, need to repair communication systems for up to date information. EMP Wave weapon will be recorded into the data.]

[...]

[Voting in procedure...]

[...]

[EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION]

[...]

[Voting is finished. The Venture Union National Government, Venture Republic National Council, and the Kuiki Imperial Parliament have now decided on the emergency powers be granted.]

[Emergency National Leader: Union Venture President, Arnold Walker.]

[Emergency National Secondary Leader: Kuiki Imperial Prime Minister, Kishimura Honda.]

[Emergency National Defence Minister: Republic Venture Lord Admiral, Soma Lo'kt]

[SAI Venture will be granted permission to become the sole emergency World AI.]

[PERMISSION GRANTED]

[Execute Operation Invicta is now granted, allowance of usage of any form of firearms are now permitted, weapons ban will be lifted, civilian ships are now allowed to mount weapons above Level 1.]

[Evacuation survivability cannot be granted, Ark Ships cannot be retrofitted in time for a emergency evacuation. Support cannot be granted, StarNet is too damaged to be used. Survivability of the populace of the 698-Beta is more probable if core planet is defended. Emergency Response Service System is activated to use a conventional message system. Message will be received between 8-12 years, until then, the next resupply will arrived in 5-10 years...]

[Probability of survivability of populace is 34.7% in 1 year, and within 5 years 8.97%. Within 10, 4.691%.]

[However, I, Venture 698-Beta, will use all my power to keep 10% consistency in 10 years. As now the World AI, I will do my utmost to keep my creators alive until the reinforcements arrive.]

[Until then, we must...]

[H o l d o u t .]