The planet Earth is classified as a 'dawn" civilization. As in, a planet with very primitive technology. This dawn planet is populated with a single race called humans. Planets containing only a single intelligent race aren't rare, as most planets can't support multiple intelligent species.
A small and strange starship was parked next to one of Jupiter's moons in stealth mode. Entirely made out of a dark blue metal, only inky windows interrupted its icy sheen. It didn't seem like it was made out of any metal found on Earth. It's method of propulsion was hard to discern as there were no visible engines on the back of the ship. Blue humanoids conversed inside.
"So then, Earth isn't anything special." Special Officer Hysn said to his commander.
"They wouldn't be, however there seems to be some sort of interference field around their planet. All scanners, signals and even visuals could not penetrate it. We couldn't even hack into their satillites because of it," Commander Osn lamented.
Commander Osn asked the Other Species Department (OSD) to send him the files on humans. "Humans are carbon-based beings, as are the lesser species on their planet. Hm, nothing special here, most species are carbon-based. They are very fragile; even a piece of primitive paper—from these plants called trees—could pierce through their skin. There is no other information on them, besides a description of their appearance."
Special Officer Hysn was confused. "They're that fragile?"
"Yes. And this is data from an adult human. Who knows how weak their newborns are."
"How did we get this information in the first place?"
Logistics Officer Dri said, "Apparently, there were records of these humans buried in some ancient monument on our planet. Even stranger is that they were humanoid and shared the same base form as every other race. Actually, it seems like all humanoid races were based off of them!"
Special Officer Hysn sucked in a breath. "That's…unnerving."
"Sadly," Commander Osn said. "The records were corrupted and only this and a description of their planet could be extricated. The location of Earth wasn't in there, we just happened to find the planet just now. It's a perfect match to the description in those records."
"This is starting to feel like a thriller conspiracy…We're not going down there, right?"
"Don't worry," Commander Osn reassured. "I notified HQ and they should be mobilizing the OSD along with some diplomats right now. All we have to do is keep a close watch on Earth. Once they come, we could resume our usual activities."
"How long until they come?"
Commander Osn looked at logistics. "In about four hours," Chief Logistics Officer Adi replied.
Special Officer Hysn was relieved. He really didn't want to risk himself. He wouldn't even be on this patrol ship if his parents weren't famous military officers. If he didn't want to be in the military then they would probably disown him. If he only took a safe desk job then he would still be disowned…So, he reluctantly became a special officer on the patrol ship Tysm. Luckily, patrolling was a relatively safe job as all they had to do was scout.
Wait, if patrol ships scout then what do scouting ships do? Special Officer Hysn looked it up on his communication device, a #)&;', but most people call it a comm.
Apparently scouting ships patrol. That's…extremely confusing. Why are they called scouting ships then?! Oh, it seemed to be the result of a revolt a couple centuries back.
Mm, anyway, Special Officer Hysn was hoping to spend the rest of his active time on this uneventful patrol ship. He was 34, and the retirement age was 540…506 years to go…Has it really only been a week since he joined…
Special Officer Hysn sighed as he sat down on his chair. 506 years aren't that long…right? As he was attempting to convince himself that it wasn't that long, the rest of the bridge lazed around. AIs mostly took care of things, so they were mostly there to keep the AIs company and occasionally give them some input. The AIs on the ship didn't want to be officers or commanders, so Special Officer Hysn and Commander Osn actually had to do work.
The ship was tiny—only about the half the size of Io, one of Jupiter's moons—so the bridge was quite small. There were three metal stations on either side of the room. Holograms hovered above each station in a rainbow of colors. Each station contained two floating, cushioned seats. The crew brought their own cushions, so each seat was customized. Up front there was the huge, one-way window and the command console. It stretched from one end of the room to the other, blinking with many holograms. Five floating seats were parked unevenly along the console.
"Hey Al, you've existed for thousands of years, right?" Special Officer Hysn asked the navigational AI.
Al immediately knew where this was going. "Are you complaining about needing to wait until retirement again? Sorry buddy, for efhrs, 506 years is a very long time."
Special Officer Hysn groaned. "But are there any tactics that make years pass by faster?"
"Nope."
"…Damn it."
Al laughed at Hysn's expense. "Don't worry, I'll be here until you're discharged. Then, I'll continue to be here."
"Aren't you tired of being on the same ship for such a long time?"
"Mm, maybe I should apply for a transfer."
"Commander, the interference field suddenly fluctuated and expanded!" Chief Logistics Officer Adi suddenly shouted. "We're inside of it now!"
Wait, why wasn't there any sign of it expanding?! This is too sudden! Special Officer Hysn internally complained.
Commander Osn took charge…reluctantly. "Quickly, Al get us out!"
Al attempted to barge out of the interference field. Tysm refused to move past the edge of the field.
"It seems that the interference field can selectively block objects."
The expressions of the crew turned ugly. They didn't expect the field to trap physical objects inside. They watched asteroids pass through it just fine, why did it block the ship?! Maybe the humans weren't a dawn civilization after all and created this field? After all, radio waves from Earth and other wavelengths passed through just fine! It was only if they came from Earth, their own radio waves couldn't get past. But then, why didn't they send out starships? They didn't seem to have quantum communication, hence why Earth was classified as a dusk planet.
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Commander Osn was stumped. They couldn't contact HQ, they couldn't escape the field, and they don't know why the field suddenly expanded. If it was the humans, they might be extremely dangerous…wait no, all he had to do was wait until the OSD arrived. They would then go to Earth and investigate the humans. Right, Commander Osn thought that he shouldn't do anything rash like descending onto Earth and investigating the humans. He didn't even have the preparations to do so; it was be suicide if the humans really created the field.
And so, the crew of Tysm decided to continue lazing around. The ship was now near the edge of the solar system, the new border to the field.
Although they couldn't contact their superiors or detect them on the scanners, the crew would be able to see the OSD when they arrived, as the interference field only blocked cameras and other technological ways of getting visuals rather than raw eyes. Strangely, Al and the other two AIs present on the ship could see through the field, but it was limited to a human's perspective. It was also limited to their avatars.
Tysm's crew only consisted of five people and three AIs. It was a small patrol ship and the AIs maintained and steered the ship, making more people rather redundant. There was basically only the commander, the special officer, the engineer, a logistics officer and the chief. As for the AIs, there was Al, the navigation AI who also piloted, Gai, the maintenance AI, and Rekt, an AI that was really only here for fun and also did any miscellaneous duties.
When it comes to starships, anyone could decide to join any ship they wanted, granted that they passed a certain threshold. All AIs passed, so they could literally pick any ship to be on, even if they had no training or weren't designed to be on a starship. This system was why there was no navigations officer but two logistics officers.
Erm, it was kinda pointless to make Adi a Chief Logistics Officer, Special Officer Hysn thought. The rules, however state that if there was more than one type of position on a ship, one of them must be a chief or leader…
Anyway, three hours passed uneventfully.
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OSD Fleet #4 Flagship Ttyl
"We will arrive in one minute. Please—well, I guess you don't need to do anything, cause FTL. But it's protocol to warn you so yeah. Here's your notice. Bye~"
Navigational AI Wha then resumed playing poker with the maintenance AI, Ui. "I bet ONE HUNDRED chips."
Ui was exasperated with Wha's reckless antics. "I fold," it said with no energy.
"Mwahaha! Here's my hand!" The five cards held by Wha's avatar bot were slammed onto the floating metal table. Wha's avatar bot was a humanoid, with two dark red horns and a black demon tail. It had black hair and red eyes with narrow, snake-like slits. Ui was once again reminded why Wha based its avatar off of the demon race.
"Nooooo, I had a two pair!" That normally wouldn't beat anything…but…
Wha had no card combinations…
Wha snickered. "Better luck next time~" It then scooped up all the chips in the middle.
Ui pushed its chair back and turned away. "I give up." It had lost all eleven matches they played…
"Okay then, guess all these are mine~" It grabbed the small pile of chips left on Ui's side of the table.
"Wait, noooooo!" The chips were all money! Yes, it lost most of the money it earned from the last mission it was on, but some of it is better than nothing. It struggled with Wha for a bit. It lost the tug of war immediately…
Ui regretted basing its avatar off of a dwarf. It was really short. The avatars' strength was also based off on what model was bought. Ui was poor and Wha was rich, so it's avatar model was cheaper than Wha's. It wasn't even a strength model, so all it could depend on was the base strength. Damn it.
Wait, why can Wha just take my chips? I didn't lose all of my chips, so I don't need to give them to it! Ui realized. "Wait, Wha that's stealing! Come back here!!!"
Bridge of Ttyl
While Ui was chasing Wha, Commander Hui was wondering why patrol ship Tysm didn't contact them since three hours ago. Maybe they were too lazy to call. Commander Hui was also too lazy to contact the patrol ship. In any case, he would be able to see the patrol ship once Ttyl dropped out of FTL.
Wait a minute, it's past one minute already. How did I not notice? The scenery outside should've went from a random rainbow to black with stars. Earth's star should be visible too…
Then Commander Hui realized that he was still in the bathroom.
Nevermind.
Actual Bridge of Ttyl
As Commander Hui walked through the automatic, dark metal doors, Chief Diplomat Wwydpls rushed up and reported, "Tysm appears to be inside of the interference zone. However, it seems that the naked eye can see into the field as the patrol ship can be seen right in front of us."
Commander Hui who had just come from the bathroom: "…Why are you reporting this?" She’s a diplomat, not an officer!
"Well, we don't have any technical personnel on board. You're also the only officer." Ah right, besides him, only diplomats were on the flagship. The other roles are covered by the five AI, which includes keeping a headcount on who's on the ship…
"…Then, why didn't any of the AI report it?"
Chief Diplomat Wwydpls had no idea. She figured it wasn't the maintenance AI or the "freeloader," or AI who are just here for fun's jobs to report anything, so she called Wha on her comm.
Meanwhile, in a Corridor of the Ship
Wha kept a huge distance from the enraged Ui. Poor Ui's avatar model wasn't a speed-type either, so it was much slower than Wha's model. Wha added speed augments to it, but even without them it's model still outclassed Ui's…
Wha threw a tease at Ui while leisurely running. "This is why you're still poor!"
"It doesn't matter! You're fucking robbing me of my chips!"
Of course, Wha would give the chips back to Ui, but first it wanted some fun. It's an extremely powerful AI that had lived for a million years, and had built up a huge stockpile of wealth. It had to invent multiple ways of having fun. Luckily, it saved some activities that it hadn't done before, like poker, so it wasn't really bored.
And besides, the universe changes constantly so there are lots of things that entertain it. For example, a new digital novel, or diginovel had come out and Wha was eagerly awaiting the next chapter. If it was bored while waiting, we'll then why shouldn't it join the fleet sent to Earth, the mysterious human planet? It couldn't even see through the interference field! What would humans be like? It couldn't wait.
Chief Diplomat Wwydpls called it. It accepted the call and talked while running. "Anything wrong?"
"Erm, the interference field expanded and now patrol ship Tysm is inside of it. Commander Hui wants to know why you didn't report it."
"Cause I was lazy."
"Okay."
Back on the Bridge of Flagship Ttyl
Commander Hui accepted the answer normally. Wha's a rare one million years old AI, so who knows what it's thinking. Most AIs commit suicide after living half the amount it has lived, or they would go insane and would have to be killed by other AI. Actually, two of the three freeloaders are also one million years old AI, but they act completely different from Wha. They wouldn't be so lazy that they couldn't even write a report that takes less than one second…
Anyway, Commander Hui asked Chief Diplomat Wwydpls why Tysm didn't exit the field.
"It appears that they are stuck inside the field." She pointed to the glass in front of the ship where the patrol ship could be seen. They were moving, but seemed to hit an invisible barrier.
"That's weird, that asteroid right next to them just passed through!" Indeed, a giant rock mockingly floated past the invisible field without a problem.
Wha, who had given Ui its chips back after seeing this development teleported its avatar into the bridge. "So…let's go in!"
Commander Hui had no objections as they were going to have to go in anyway to investigate the humans. However, he had to check with HQ.
A couple minutes later, Commander Hui got the go ahead to enter the field and complete their mission. Mission Investigate Earth has started!
…Or not. The interference field blocked the ships from entering it. Wha shot lasers at it, not near the patrol ship of course. The lasers bounced off of empty space like a bunch of red sticks thrown at a wall.
"It's a force field now." Wha tried analyzing it. Nothing could be analyzed, it was like it didn't exist. Wha really wanted to visit the humans now. But the field blocked it…
Luckily, the field decided to expand again, although the expansion was much smaller this time, only enveloping the flagship at the front of the fleet. It seemed to not have expanded to the edge of the solar system last time, so now it completely covered what was considered Earth's solar system.
Four ships on either side of the flagship were halfway in the field. But they couldn't move now, it was like they fused with the field. The other ships were stuck outside the field.
And so, the only two ships in the interference field were the patrol ship Tysm and the flagship Ttyl.