Verity Falling
Leaving Rciba, the Dr. Peter Weller (Alex Murphy undercover) embarked for Verity en route for Imhotep. Kovak performed the jump successfully. Upon arrival, the ship received a distress call from the Collective outpost on Verity 2. It was initiated three light hours ago, and the FTL distress call at not been received yet.
Traveling across the system from their initial position, they looped around the central star to find that the station was under attack. The aggressors were neither G’frar or the Avalonians, and the ships were not of Collective design. There were three ships that were all larger than the Alex Murphy.
Grrr noted that the ships were positioning themselves to besiege the station. The opposing signals were on slightly lower level of sophistication and Collective standards, and on a non-standard frequency using unfamiliar encryption. Alex started to process the signals when a fourth ship came into view orbiting Verity-1.
The aggressors were jamming frequencies, but not the ones used by the Collective. The station showed signs of damage around the shuttle bays, enforcing the siege hypothesis. Bletherin sent an FTL message back to Rciba alerting them of the attack. The Alex Murphy closed at best speed.
Alex continued to make progress deciphering the signals. Grendel’s analysis of the ships determined they were of a slightly lower tech level than Collective standard, but the ships will still bigger and well-armed. Grrr’s assessment of the vessels noted that the ships were slow and not very maneuverable.
Alex noted that the ship had not been detected by the alien vessels, and maneuvered it to come out of the sun toward Verity-2. There was no reaction from them until the ship was much closer, where one turned to intercept.
Bletherin made contact, identified the ship as a science ship, and ordered the aggressors to stand down. The response was garbled but effectively commanded them to stand down. Grrr could not line up a shot.
The Alex Murphy buzzed the nearer ship. Grrr did not notice anything special about the alien vessels. Grended detected lifeforms on the vessel as well as on the station.
Alex translated part of the initial message as Stand down, we only want… As the outpost was not responding to hails, Alex made contact with the station’s computer. He learned that the ships came into the system about six hours before. There were several hours of attempts at failed communications before the new arrivals damaged the station’s communications. There were a few injuries, one serious, but no fatalities.
Bletherin ordered the ship to dock with the station. The aliens fired a warning shot. Grrr determined that their weaponry was similar to the Alex Murphy’s. Bletherin then ordered the ship to Verity-1 to assess the situation on the inhabited planet. Grendel transmitted cat videos in the clear in to allow the aliens to decipher their video signals.
The aliens did not interfere with their journey to the planet of the plant-beings, but they sent a repeating signal of their initial Stand down, we only want… message. Alex was finally able to decrypt the signal, which provided more nuggets to assist in the translation.
Grrr noted the arrival of three Collective warships. They established a direct laser transmission to them and provided them the intelligence the Alex Murphy had collected. Bletherin realized that he knew the first officer of one of the warships. He advised the warships of his intention to go to Verity-1.
Approaching the planet, there were no immediate signs of hostilities. The alien vessel was orbiting the planet and conducting a deep survey of it. They were in a mapping orbit.
Alex attempted to contact the Collective satellites in orbit to see if anything had occurred recently. Kovak succeeded. Apparently the intruders attempted to hack the satellites, but failed. The ship did some initial orbits and then initiated the mapping orbit. The satellites had not identified any significant events on the planet.
The Collective warships advanced toward the aggressors.
Alex deciphered a messages saying Why send maps? and What furry creatures? Communication had been established. Bletherin told them that they were pets who did amusing things. The aliens then sent a similar creature doing similar things. Bletherin asked them to clarify what they were looking for.
The Alex Murphy then received two simultaneous transmissions. The lead Collective ship sent We have a problem. The aliens said they were looking for a Garlan. Bletherin asked why they wanted them. The reply was You let them out.
Grendel transmitted images of the fossil they had found on the abandoned Garlan colony and asked what it was. The response was that it was an untranslatable word and where was it found. They also sent an image of themselves: mammalian centauroids with long, furry coats.
When asked what they would do if they were sent Garlan, the response was to put them somewhere where they could not cause trouble. They were informed that the fossil was found on an abandoned world whose inhabitants had evacuated and their whereabouts were unknown. The aliens appeared to accept that.
Bletherin pursued information about the fossil creature. The response was that the other party was not known.
When asked why they were looking on Verity-1, the response was that they had to be sure that there were none on that planet.
The Collective fleet transmitted that the aliens had shown up on Soeg a few days earlier. There was a route on the G’frar charts between the two worlds. There was also a G’frar route from coreward space to the Verity system.
Analysis of the communication with the outpost indicated that the aliens had asked for them to hand over people and the station refused. Alex sent a stealth probe to assist with his hacking, while Kovak and Grendel took a shuttle to the planet as a distraction.
Alex was then able to determine that the alien security was substandard. He downloaded star charts to identify the alien point of origin. It was more coreward than Imhotep, but off the Collective star charts. It was on the G’frar charts marked as a potential trading partner.
The aliens, who called themselves the Aritai, had colonized four planets in their coreward region. Sending four ships on this mission indicated that the retrieval of Garlan was significant to them. The image that was sent was a stylized version of a Garlan, as if copied from an illuminated manuscript (e.g., an image made by someone who had never actually seen one).
There was a communication between the Aritai vessels, and the survey ship stopped mapping Verity-1, and they departed, followed by the Collective ships, toward the nearest dark point. Bletherin was informed that the fleet was going to continue negotiations at a location where there were fewer distractions.
Bletherin commanded the crew to dock the Dr. Peter Weller with the science station to assist with repairs while awaiting new orders. While docked, review of the recordings appeared to suggest that, in Aritai ancient history, the Garlan once had a vast empire, enslaved the galaxy, there was a rebellion, and the Garlan were confined to their home world.