"Do we have an infiltration team that we can deploy?", I inquire. Lie'vara calls up an overview of the awakened personnel for me and confirms: "We have an infiltration team among the 121 people who have been awakened from cryosleep. It is ready for action and awaiting your orders." I first take a closer look at the overview. On it, I can see that a total of eight teams of Fleet Troopers, each consisting of 12 people, are ready for action. The Fleet Troopers are elite soldiers, who are specialized for battles on spaceships or technical installations. In addition, there is a 6-person Attonarch team with super-heavy Dreaghnout class combat suits and an infiltration team consisting of 6 agents. The infiltration team has infiltration equipment and Ghost class combat suits with optical camouflage and tracking protection. I intend to use these as scouts to gather more data on the intruders. Then there are the 6 people here on the bridge, my 6 person Fiorell team and myself.

The condition of the installation seems to be very bad. Only the lowest levels are still in a somewhat acceptable condition and have been maintained to some extent by independent maintenance robots. No information is available to me about the upper levels.

I turn back to Lie'vara and order: "Send the infiltration team to the intruders. I want them analyzed psionically first. Then the radio traffic is to be recorded and audio recordings made for a later evaluation of the language. The infiltration team is to gather as much information as possible and collect samples of the intruders' technology as opportunities arise. In addition, three of the eight Fleet Trooper teams are to go on reconnaissance missions around our current location. If possible, confrontations with unknown additional invaders are to be avoided. One of the three teams is to penetrate directly up to the surface."

Lie'vara continues to listen intently and telepathically relays my instructions to her subordinates. I pause for a moment and continue: "I also want a few experts and specialists in various fields to be brought out of cryosleep. The goal is to evaluate the data and samples that the infiltration team is collecting. I will leave the exact selection of people to you." I know that this will take some time. The analysis of the data and gathered samples will consume more time. I don't have time to wait for the results until I interact with the intruders for the first time, but it could prove very useful in the future. So I need to find a method for initial communication that doesn't rely on language. If that doesn't work, there is only the military option.

From what I've seen of the invaders so far, they also seem to orient themselves visually. This means that I could try to work with images. I want the intruders to stop burning their way through the armored bulkhead of the central A.I. system. I grab a tablet on which I can display various graphics and turn to Lie'vara again: "I want a simple sequence of images created within 42 minutes, which I can display on this tablet here. The images should be showing the intruders stopping their machines and retreating from the armored bulkhead of the central A.I. system."

I pause again briefly and continue: "The Attonarch team is to form the spearhead and take up position on the same floor as the intruders, along with four Fleet Trooper teams. They are to stand by outside the detection range of the intruders. In the event of a conflict, no consideration is to be given to collateral damage, rapid elimination of all targets is more important. The last Fleet Trooper team is to position jammers and mobile shield generators one floor above the intruders. The goal of this team is to prevent any communication with the outside world or escape attempts by the intruders. Only upon my command will the teams become active and the prepared equipment activated."

After I have given my orders, I wait a moment to see if there are any questions from Lie'vara. Since there are none, I turn around and leave the command center together with my Fiorell team. The staff in the command center is now busy following my instructions. I myself make my way to the next equipment depot. Once there, I search around a bit and after a few minutes I find something suitable. It is a small flying drone, which is normally used by engineers for maintenance purposes. The Aelliri military does not use armed robotic drones or mobile robots that are under the command of an A.I. system. The reason is that the enemy the Aelliri have been fighting since the creation of their species is a machine civilization that is particularly good at electronic warfare. Combat robots and A.I. systems can be hacked by the enemy and therefore pose a security risk if they are able to harm their biological masters. Therefore, there are a myriad of measures in place to prevent this from happening.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I equip the flyable maintenance drone with the tablet I took from the command center. I simply attach it with some glue and turn it on for a test run. Then I take the controls for the drone and let it fly around a bit. I get some strange looks from Larana, who wonders what I'm doing. I don't enlighten her, as I want her to figure it out for herself. It all works out as I thought and I land the drone again. However, in the few minutes I was testing the drone, the screen from the tablet went out. Probably a power saving option, which I find shortly after in the menus and then turn off. With that, my little robotic ambassador is ready and no one has to approach the heavily armed aliens to try to communicate with them. The maintenance drone is expendable, has no weapons and seems quite harmless. It is perfectly suited for the task ahead of it.

I grab my drone and return to the command center. Once there, the two soldiers who were standing guard before have disappeared. They are probably on standby near the intruders or on a reconnaissance mission, just as I ordered. Instead, the armored door of the command center is now closed and secured with an energy shield against heavy weaponry. I send a message to Lie'vara and am granted entry. I give her a sign that she may speak and Lie'vara greets me with: "Welcome back Verienta, your last orders are still being executed. You can see the progress on the screens in the center."

I take a quick look at the screens and see that everything is going as planned. I turn my attention back to the drone I brought with me, which Lie'vara is now examining with interest. Larana in the meanwhile has found out what I am planning and telepathically informs me of her assumption, which I confirm. For Lie'vara however, I say aloud: "I have attached the tablet on which the image sequence is to be displayed to this flying drone. I want a soldier to come and pick it up as soon as the sequence is fully created and uploaded to the tablet. Then this is to be used for a peaceful communication attempt with the intruders. From now on, I will stay here in the command center and observe the deployment of the troops from here."

I give the drone to Larana, who takes it to a workstation for data uploads in a corner. There it is taken from her by one of Lie'vara's subordinates. In the meantime, I make myself comfortable in a throne-like armchair in the center of the control center. I still have some time left until the contact attempt. I intend to use the time by concentrating on my inner self and trying to work on my psionic powers. I stay away from all offensive abilities for now, as I don't want to cause any destruction here in the command center.

As I concentrate, I can feel the strong psionic energies inside me. I try to take only a small part of this powerful current and shape it around me. I instinctively know how to direct and shape the energies. Slowly these energies stabilize and then I have done it. I turn my attention back to my surroundings and register that I am now surrounded by a faint shimmer, the sign of a psionically generated shield. I focus again on the energies within me and direct more energy into my Psi Shield. There is a faint crackling sound and my Psi Shield begins to slightly ionize the air around me. This should not happen and is a sign of instability. I stop directing more energy into the shield and instead focus on stabilizing the energies within. It takes some time, but in the end I get them under control. The crackling stops and the shield is again barely perceptible. Only a slight shimmer in the air around me reveals that it is active. I practice some more and my control gets better and better. Then I receive a telepathic message from Larana that it is time to attempt contact with the intruders. I concentrate again on what's going on in the control center and can watch several video streams from the soldiers' cameras, as well as the surveillance technology of the installation itself. The live feed is displayed on the screens in front of me, in addition to a three-dimensional holographic representation of the operational area.