Sector 10 - Dalon

Jetil stares at the message, his decoding is interrupted by the report of one of the crew. Jetil takes the pad from his hands and looks at it himself, before handing it back. (Translation) "Decode the message". The man nods and goes to his terminal, pressing a few buttons. Five minutes of decoding the different languages, and it appears on screen. A transmission is sent back to the Zaedrax space craft, based form the information the computer can get form the different languages. (In the same languages back)

Quote :

"Distress signal. Are we unwanted?"

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Eight ships jump into the sector, three Frigates, four Destroyers and the Punisher Class Capital Ship . They are headed by Vice Admiral Chase Constantine of the Third Soter Scouting Fleet. They are responding to the distress call from the planet. The ships scan the area and begin attempting to decipher any transmissions that are picked up.

On a wide band unencrypted channel to all ships within range,

Quote :

This is Vice Admiral Constantine of the Third Soter Scouting Fleet, we are responding to a distress call we received in the area. We are going to land troops at the distress call, but are prepared to help out in any other way if you require it.

Two of the destroyers enter the planet's orbit and begin scanning the planet.

Scans of the planet reveal the abandoned metropolitan city, the EM fluctuations and a majority of bio-signatures, dotting the dense jungles of the planet. Indigenous species, no doubt.

__________________

The Zaedrax come across the same results as the Amundi and Saerid. Their squads come across the main entrance to the tower, and the Ursine warriors that are festering around the source of the distress call at a blacked out military compound.

Fighters fire out of the hangar bays of all the ships and begin forming patrols. Three of the frigates move toward the planet, target the metropolitan and EM emission epicenter, and fire out a series of 240 drop pods containing single soldiers, 120 at each point. Following the drop pods, a series of drop ships leave the hangars of the cruisers and chase the drop pods to each landing zone. They are equipped with tanks and armored personnel carriers and escorted by fighters.

Due to the materials all the vehicles and ships are constructed from, all Soter vehicles are very resistant to any electromagnetic interference.

The Vice Admiral sends a reply to the Zaedrax

Quote :

As we said, we are landing troops regardless, the distress call takes priority, and we offer any assistance we can provide.

The Vice Admiral issues orders to encrypt all communications between ships and soldiers, as well as to monitor all communications from and around the planet to decode and gather intelligence.

As the scanner lands, it would resist the EMP's effects. It begins scanning for the locations of both the EMP emissions and the distress signal. It would also display an improved scan of moving units within its radius.

The pods streak toward the ground in both zones. As they near the lead pods emit an infrared beam. The pods begin contorting and moving closer to the target. The lead pods pick up speed, beyond what any human could withstand, and slam into the ground first creating the homing beacon. In both locations the lead pod opens to reveal no soldier inside. Other pods in the air randomly explode at different stages scattering fragments everywhere. Other pods begin spinning sideways and flying off in random directions. Any computer attempting to track these movements would be severely taxed and have a very hard time targeting any pods due to the interference and fragmented metal shards in the air.

In the metropolis 120 pods filled with soldiers, slam into the ground. Several through various buildings. Three companies of 40 soldiers each begin forming in the metropolis. As soon as they form up the drop ships reach the city unloading tanks and armored personnel carriers. After unloading their cargo they proceed too break off into orbit.

The same events happen near the EM emission, soldiers begin forming perimeters waiting for their vehicles to arrive. Upon arriving the drop ships copy their counterparts and break for orbit.

In orbit aboard the cruisers more drop ships, tanks, armored personnel carriers and soldiers begin loading up in the transports preparing for any requests that the soldiers on the ground may have for support. The rest of the fleet follows suit as their soldiers prepare to disembark and move on any enemy forces on the planet.

The Vice Admiral stands aboard his bridge watching all the encrypted messages bounce about from behind the radio woman's screen. He then walks toward a screen illustrating all the ships in orbit. Turning around he approaches a table surrounded by military personnel illustrating the battlefields in a holographic display. As he zooms out, all the little green dots become troop designations as he moves to see the entire planet's military forces.

The Admiral walks over to the window to gaze upon the planet as it rotates and waits for the next transmission to come through updating him.

Jetil notices the sudden leave of both ships. From getting nothing overly alarming from neither the sensors or the scanner probe, he sends one of the scout ships to report his findings to an H.Q. ship. The scout fades to that glowing blue until dissapearing. On that, the boarding ships fire the five man squad drop pods.

Units

Spoiler:

Half the drop pods are fired at the abandoned city. Somewhere that won't hit any neutral units, or the tops of any buildings. The other half goes a half mile away from where the scanner says the EMP's emissions are coming from. The men will feel a bit 'funny' in the EMP's area of effect, but they will not be shut down. The units, on landing, would go to move out to their designated targets. (EMP squad: x2 Nychta, x1 Kolasi, x2 Xifos, x2 Varys. Distress squad: x1 Nychta, x2 Kolasi, x4 Xifos, x3 Varys. If the EMP pulses and distress signal are in the sam place, then they land close together.) As they are fired out, a transmission is sent from every language they recieved from before

Quote :

"We have released ground units. We request that you leave them be."

Jetil stares at the message for a few moments. The ship starts using the transport beams to bring their troops and drop pods back to the hip. They respond to the transmission

Quote :

"Our objective is to explore...we will leave if you allow it. We do not want hostilities with the outside world."