An Aid for the Alpha of the Eckzahn Union opens the door to an old wolf wearing a SWAF uniform, he is holding a tablet and looking at it anxiously as the door opens. He looks up and briskly walks inside the large eloquently decorated office and salutes. “Sir, I am-”
“I know who you are director, they gave me your profile last night” The Alpha says, quite annoyed.
“Sorry, sir, I am here to give you a proposal from SWAF.”
“Uh huh, let’s hear it.”
“As you know after the ancient human facility was found on SOL 3, we have scanned the planet and have found many more sites similar to the one found by the inhabitants.” The Alpha says nothing and continues to smoke his dwindling cigar. “We believe based on the site found near the southern pole of the planet that the other sites could be just as intact as that one.”
“But”?
“But they are all located around population centers, or at least we couldn’t get to them without violating our no-contact policy.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“While Sol 3 is a primitive society, they do have some advanced technology and a limited space program. Despite this we believe that an invasion of the planet is not only feasible but that it should prove as a good training exercise for some underexperienced commanders”
“Since when was SWAF so concerned about the military’s readiness”?
“I have taken the liberty of asking the opinion of Field Marshall Rayselsohn, he analyzed Sol 3’s military capabilities based on out listening post in that system. He agrees that an invasion to topple Sol 3’s fragile order, occupy the areas around the ancient sites along with certain natural resources will not only be good for SWAF and our goal to locate more ancient technology, but secure our border with The Commonwealth and exploit resources natural to Sol 3.”
The Alpha looks to his desk picks up a tablet, “Why did we have that no-contact policy anyways?”
“Sir, after the Commonwealth surrendered the Sol system in 1270 NDV, we occupied their listening post on one of the moons of a Gas Giant in the system. It was determined at that time that the study of their culture and development was the best option. I believe that an invasion of Sol 3 at that time was deemed too expensive, and there were more pressing matters for the military to consider.”
“Right, and you say that the sites on Sol 3 may have some A Ohhoc tech we don’t have yet?”
“Yes sir, there is no other planet with this many untouched sites as Sol 3, it’s a unique opportunity to find out more about the Ohhoc.”
“You seem very excited about this”.
The SWAF director smiles, “Yes, if we are to believe that the other sites are like the one found in the southern pole, we are looking at doubling our current number of known Ohhoc sites.”
“Do you think the inhabitants of Sol 3 will pose a long-term threat? Say they don’t like us around, are we going to be looking at an assimilation, or an occupation?”
“More likely the latter, unfortunately the inhabitants of Sol 3 are quite confrontational. They value their independence greatly. However, if they resist our governance, our plan has a contingency. We fall back to localized areas, surrounding the Ohhoc sites and perhaps some resources, if the need arises.”
“What level of technology are we talking about, Sol 3 I mean.”
“They have not mastered FTL, or fusion reaction, they are majorly reliant on fossil fuel. They have stockpiled fission nuclear weapons and are poised to launch them at any moment”.
“Barbarians”.
“Yes, on that note, we plan on disabling that capability in the first stage of the invasion to prevent them from destroying anything valuable”.
“Can you guarantee that they won’t launch them?”
“Field Marshall Rayselsohn believes that they will not recognize our ships in orbit as a threat until we strike on the planet first. That is when we will disable their nuclear capabilities” the Alpha nods.
“And what of their military?”
“They have not unified their planet; their military is divided between nation-states. Field Marshall Rayselsohn believes we can cause chaos and maybe even have them fighting their own if the plan is executed correctly”.
“Good.”
“To continue this, their capabilities depend on the nation-state, one is much more influential than the others and serves as a pseudo-leader of the planet, and thus will receive more attention.”
“Well that all sounds like good news. I’ll approve this plan, but first I need lunch.” The Alpha gets up and walks out of the room closely followed by his aid leaving the SWAF director standing in an empty office.
The supply helicopter lands at the Antarctic base, as they land one pilot says “Looks like no-one’s home”
“Maybe they’re at a meeting or something” the other pilot says.
“I don’t know.”
“We’re already behind schedule, let’s go”.
“Alright”. The Chinook departs after its cargo is dumped on the helipad. As they are leaving they are contacted by McMurdo, the supply hub for the base. The operator says “McMurdo, Knight-3, we have been having issues contacting Wilson, did you see signs of any trouble?”
“Knight-3, no signs of anything, place seemed abandoned. Usually we see someone walking around, but we saw no one this time.”
“Copy.”
The Chinook continues back to McMurdo without any other contact.
Several months pass…
As he puts on his space suit, Elijah swears under his breath “I swear if I’m the only one who has to go outside, I’ll-“. His radio in his helmet crackles.
“This is regular equipment check, you name was on the schedule to do it this week” Leola says barely audible from the helmet sitting on the bench.
“You can hear me?”
“I’m supposed to check comms, yours just happened to be on”.
“Shit”.
“You’re lucky Arman didn’t hear you”.
“Yeah, I am”, Elijah finished suiting up” alright, I’m all green, command requesting airlock 2 open.”
“Open” the voice of Arman says through his radio. Elijah steps into the airlock and waits for it to cycle. The outer door opens reveling red sand and a white sky. Arman sets his headset down and walks to Chu Hua after he processes the beeping noise that has been present, but he only just noticed. He sets his hand on top of the monitor, “What is that?”
“I don’t know, I think there is something wrong with deep space radar dish.” Chu says.
“Elijah, why don’t you head right for the radar, we think there is something wrong with it” Arman says.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s showing maybe, 2 dozen small asteroids next to earth, and they all have the same course”.
“When did they show up?” Arman asks.
Chu replies “I don’t know like a minute ago? They just appeared”.
“What’s this?” Arman points to a single asteroid marker next to mars.
“I didn’t see that before” Chu says as she sits up and takes a closer look. “I was more focused on the big group.”
“Ok, we got a check up with Houston in 30 minutes, this better be fixed by then”.
Elijah speaks up “I’m looking at the radar, there doesn’t seem to be any damage.”
Arman responds “Alright, we are going to restart the radar, standby.”
Chu starts the procedure to shut down the radar, and then after a few seconds starts it back up again. Once the radar is back online, the same asteroids appear, but have moved slightly in their previous course.
“блядь” Arman says as he walks away, “shut it down, we’ll say it got his by a sandstorm”.
“Wait, the asteroid near mars, it just split, now there are two”.
“I don’t think the radar is working correctly asteroids don’t just appear, disregard it”.
“it’s changing course”.
“I said disregard it, shut it down, until after the checkup”. Chu keeps the monitor on.
Elijah breaks the silence “Can I get back to the equipment check”?
“Yes” Arman says stressed and annoyed.
Chu continues to look at the monitor and the small asteroid that split off. She notices the bigger of the two has completely stopped, while the smaller has accelerated, and is projected to hit directly next to their base.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Arman, you should look at this.” Chu says.
“I told you to turn it off”.
“Yes”, she points at the bigger asteroid, “this one has stopped, but this one” she points to the smaller one, “Is projected to land right on top of us”.
Arman sets down his mug and walks over. He looks at the monitor and sees what she had described. “This isn’t right”.
“We should check with MRO”.
“I don’t see why”.
“So, we can now for sure if it’s going to hit us or not”.
“The Radar obviously has something wrong with it. It’s not worth it, especially with our checkup any minute now”. Chu turns back to the monitor and stares at the asteroids intensely.
Elijah is securing equipment that had be dislodged by a storm the previous day when he spots something moving in his peripheral vision. He turns to look at the dot moving in the sky. He gives it some note, before returning to his work. As he is finished securing the equipment, he again looks up, and noticed the dot has got much closer and now has a smoke trail behind it. He freezes before fumbling with his radio saying, “We’re not expended to have any touchdowns today, are we?” Arman and Chu look at each other as he races over to the radar’s monitor and answers Elijah back “No, but what do you see”?
“It looks like something from high orbit, and it has a smoke trail behind it. Can’t tell what it is yet”. Arman looks at the radar, but it has failed to locate the small asteroid, losing it some minutes ago.
“Hey, it’s getting close, I’m going to head inside”.
“No! Tell me where it’s coming from” Arman says frantically. Elijah checks his compass.
“Northeast, wait, I see exhaust.”
“Exhaust?” Chu asks.
“Yes, it’s black, and there’s blue exhaust coming from engines” Elijah says panicking “Ok I’m going in now” He races back to the airlock as fast as he can with the low gravity, tripping on a rock he failed to see.
“Shit” He looks back, and the ship that it is obvious to him it is, is now landing on the ridge next to the base.
“IT’S A FUCKING SHIP!” He says panickily opening the door.
“A ship?” Arman asks as he walks to the base’s window. He is just in time to see the top of it land, then be covered by the ridge. He says nothing as he walks back to the main room.
“Get me Houston now” he said confidently.
Leola tries but is unable to get a connection “I can’t, it’s not working, it won’t let me connect to Houston.” She says panic growing with each word.
“Alright everyone, just calm down” Arman tries to calm everyone down, but it turns into an unorganized retreat as members individually leave their post, heading to their quarters.
Eilijah comes out of the airlock, with his helmet off and jumping out of his suit, attempting to reach Arman “What the hell was that”? Arman just stares at him and says nothing. Elijah then, finally free of his suit which he left laying strewn out on the ground of the middle of the room, runs for his quarters returning with a small knife.
“What the hell are you going to do with that?” Arman asks.
“I don’t plan on getting taken” Elijah replies as he tries to move a desk to the airlock.
“We don’t even know who they are” Leola returns with a camera and sits back down in her chair, picking up a piece of paper, and a pen.
Arman asks her “What are you doing?”
“Making a sign” she responds sounding determined.
Suddenly there is a banging coming from the airlock. This prompts Elijah to renew his attempt to push a bolted down desk in front of the airlock. However, he stopped when he noticed the airlock cycle had started. He slowly backs away and hides around the corner. Arman remains standing where he is while the inner door starts to open. The door is pushed open with a barrel as a black armor wearing Coyote uses his bodyweight to force open the door leading 5 more canines to follow. Arman raises his hands while Leola stands up and does the same with her sign in her hands. The 5 spread out shouting orders none of them understood, while the coyote closes the door in preparation for the next few to fit in the airlock. As two round the corner they see Elijah pressed up against the wall, raising their blasters Elijah drops the knife and the rush to take him to the ground. As they secure the entrance, the airlock cycles bringing 5 more through. This time one seems to order the rest to clear the rest of the building and all but 3 stay and watch Arman, Leola, and Elijah.
Leola tries to give the sign to one of them, but it is just thrown to the ground without being looked at. The airlock cycles again bring more in, as one by one the base’s staff are brought to the entrance. Leola tries to reach for her sign, which prompts the guard to push her down.
“It’s just a sign, please” she says, trying to communicate that she isn’t a threat. Once everyone was round up in the main room, a taller wolf pressed a few buttons on his wrist-mounted tablet and then spoke “You are under arrest for operating an unlicensed station. You are to be transported to your home world and sentenced.” Speechless, the base crew looked around at each other before Leola spoke up “Who are you, we didn’t know we weren’t allowed to be here”.
“I am Captain Fadeysohn 1st Marine division, are you the leader of this station?” The captain says first in his language, then his translator translates it into English.
Leola responds “No, I’m just an engineer, where are yo- “
“Who is your leader”? Arman raises his hand, and the captain looks over to him. He speaks to him directly “We will take you in our transport off world back to Sol 3, order your men to comply and no one will be hurt”.
“We can’t just walk out there; we need our space suits” Arman says back to him.
“Show me” the captain says as he motions for him to stand up. Arman slowly walks to the closet holding the 10 space suits with one empty spot “We have enough for everyone”.
“Alright tell them to get ready, in 10 minutes you will leave. And no taking personal belongings. We are on a time schedule, if you are not ready, we will leave without you.”
“Alright”
They walk back to the main room where Arman says “We got ten minutes to suit up before they take us… I don’t know, just do it.” The base staff slowly get up and are escorted to the closet room. The crew hurriedly dawn their suits. As they do, they can see some of the soldiers chatting amongst themselves, no doubt gossiping on the weird hairless apes.
The captain turns off his translator and yells at them muffled by the glass on their sleek helmets. They quickly shut up and returned to silently watch the crew. One by one the crew finish suiting up, nervous, others stoic. As they do the captain grabs Arman’s arm turning it around looking for his communication device, like his. After a minute of him searching he gives up and motions him to follow him. The captain walks out and heads for the exit. He along with one of his soldiers drag Arman, Elijah, and another crew member into the air lock and cycle it.
“We could overpower them now” Elijah says to Arman.
“Are you suicidal? There’s bound to be more outside! Not to mention the others inside. Shut your mouth.” The outer door opens and the captain nudges Elijah to step out. 5 more soldiers are standing outside waiting for them.
“I told you” Arman says annoyed. They are escorted about 5 meters away and told to stop. The airlock closes in preparation for the next group. This continues without incident until everyone is outside.
After the captain does a headcount, he grabs Arman and motions him to again follow him. As they are walking Arman looks up to the ridge and spots 3 soldiers crouching on the ridge. They walk to the landed ship, and the captain says something into his radio, and the ramp falls.
Arman pauses but is grabbed by the elbow by a soldier and escorted up the ramp into the bay. The soldier brings him to the last seat farthest away from the entrance and points to the seat, Arman promptly sits. Again, one by one the bases crew is sat down each into his own seat. Some soldiers sit down next to the crew making them uncomfortable. The captain is the last on, and again does a headcount making sure he didn’t miss any of his men or his targets. He radios to the piolets that they were ready.
The ship’s ramp closes and engines power up. A minute later a light starts to flash, and the cabin starts to pressurize. A loud buzz is heard, and the light turns solid. As soon as the buzz was here, multiple soldiers began to undo their helmets revealing a wide range of canines. Many Wolves, a couple foxes, and a jackal. They begin to converse, looking at the humans and laughing amongst themselves.
“You think we can take off our helmets too?” Leola asks. Arman begins to take off his helmet.
“Wait a minute man, what if they breath different air than we do.” Elijah stops him. Arman ignores him and continues to take off his helmet. When he does, he takes a deep breath. A coyote nudges his friend sitting next to him and says something to him and looks at Arman, then they both laugh.
Leola then begins to take off her helmet, this prompts many more to do the same, however some opt to keep their helmets on.
A Fox, who had taken his helmet on turns on his translator and turns to Chu who was sitting next to him and says, “Is it true that humans leak water?”
“What?” she says confused.
“Like when you get hot, you leak water, your skin gets wet. I heard that humans have to bathe every day, or they begin to smell.”
“Well … yes?”
The Wolf sitting next to the fox leans in and says, “I heard that humans only have 2 nipples”. The bay erupts in laughter from the soldiers before the translator is finished translating, and nervous laughs from the base’s crew after the English is said. The captain speaks up and says “Turn off that translator”! and everyone shuts up.
The ride became silent with only occasional beeps and the slight turbulence of the transport heard exiting the atmosphere.
At UNSA (Formally NASA)’s operation center in Houston there was a commotion. The Mars base’s check-in was 30 minutes late, and now, just like the Mars base their deep space radar has spotted several dozen objects appearing above Earth and Mars. Many ideas as to why the mars base had missed their communication, and the objects spotted on radar were thrown around, however they concluded that they were both caused by the same thing. The running theory was that a solar flare, one that they had previously rated as harmless, was causing more trouble than they thought it should. Senior staff at UNSA were satisfied with this answer and were determined to shut down sensitive equipment and wait out the storm.
This didn’t stop a small group of staff who thought of a different theory. They gathered evidence to prove that the objects were of extraterrestrial origin. Once organized they presented their theory to UNSA’s senior staff. They didn’t bother setting up a meeting preferring to crash an ongoing meeting about the ‘solar flare’. The leader of the group barged through the doors with his laptop in his hand and took control of the presentation, “Excuse the intrusion, but I’m willing to wager my career on this. We believe that the objects spotted above earth are not anomalies created by a solar flare, and instead real objects.”
The board of senior staff collectively groan, but do not make a move to stop the presentation, “Alight fine, let’s hear it” one member said.
“My colleagues and I disagree about the specifics, but we all believe that we are in more danger than just a solar flare. We believe that these objects could potentially be spacecraft, built by … extraterrestrials”. Another longer groan filled the room, with one executive speaking, “So, if they are extraterrestrials, why are they just sitting there? If they wanted to contact us, they could have by now. Hell, if they wanted to destroy us, they could have done so by now, what are they doing, assuming you are correct.”
“Well obviously there’s no consensus, but assuming that they are spacecraft, they could be waiting for us to do something. They could want to see if we panic, or if we try to contact them first, y’know to measure our intelligence. Or if we want to assume they are hostile, to see what we do to counter them.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do?” The leader of the group looks at his colleagues and says “We should try to contact them, and if they are not there and the objects seen on the deep space radar are made from the solar flare no harm done. But if they are real we could be preventing something horrible”
“Alright, what would we say?” said a different board member.
Again, he looks nervously at his colleagues and stutters as he says “H-hello, we see you, would you like to talk?”
“And I’m sure they’ll know what ‘hello’ means” a board member says under his breath.
“So, what if they don’t, it’ll let them know the same message. We are here, we see you, and we would like to talk.” The board members look around at each other before one stands up and says “Thank you for your opinion we will consider all the options” almost in a sarcastic tone. As the group exits, one says “They won’t do anything”.
“Yeah, is there anyone that we can talk to, who will listen?” another says.
“I need to get back to work, my break ended 5 minutes ago” one says while leaving.
“What? So we’re just going to give up? We could be sitting on the golden opportunity to talk to another intelligent lifeform, we need to think of something.” The leader of the group speaks up as the one is leaving. “We’ll take it to the military” he says confidently “They’ll listen if we emphasize the potential threat, maybe then they could convince the board to start talking.”
While talking they heard lots of chatter coming from the operation hall, as soon as they do they run in to hear it.
“Houston, are you seeing this, I swear I just saw something move close to the station, I mean I saw a shadow on earth move fast like it just passed us.” An astronaut about the ISS said over video.
“No, we haven’t seen anything, what did you see?” an operator says.
“Look there, another one, it flew by like we were standing still, going retrograde against us.”
“We cannot see anything, can you put the camera against the glass?” the operator asks. The Astronaut does so, and for a few seconds nothing out of the ordinary is spotted. That is until the sun, that was fully visible just before, was blocked out by something. “Oh my god, what is that” the operator says.
The group of staff who presented their theory to the board now split, they each went to their separate stations. Just as the leader sat down, he looked up at the screen to see it cut out. The operator tried several times to contact the astronaut but failed. All subsequent attempts to contact the ISS also failed.
At this point the board’s meeting had adjourned, and the executives entered the control room while it was in a panic, multiple people attempting to contact the ISS, and others furiously working at their stations.
“What the hell happened here”? one said.
The operator who was originally talking with the ISS spoke “we just lost contact with the ISS”
“What?!” another executive said while the rested were in stunned silence.