Chapter 12: Intelligent Life?
---=== 49,797 ===---
The first clue that that system was harbored life was the Garden World. The second planet in the system with clouds, big oceans, and multiple continents. They had two moons, the whole shebang. The first clue that it was intelligent life was when I found some satellites in orbit.
Given that I had no way to organically receive, send or detect radiowaves I flew down, towards the coastline of one of the landmasses. Just entering the exosphere, I notice a rather large and developed city on that coast, I changed my descent angle to land about ten kilometers distant. When I get low enough in the atmosphere, I'm met with an escort of propeller planes, though their design is far different from what humans will eventually develop. The propeller on the rear, forwards-angled wings, and small nose-wings. They don't attack, but they do buzz around me and observe as I continue lowering.
Once I land in the ocean with a gentle splash, I lower my back end down and stay put. They'd send someone to 'greet' me soon enough. Time to prepare my avatar.
As I've mentioned before, reverse jointed legs and four arms. It took a long time to decide the look I was going for and what kind of image I wanted to portray, the Ancient Elder Race.
I think I nailed it.
---=== 2 Hours Later ===---
My Avatar floats in front of my body as a fleet of ships approach it, guns pointed at me. They look like railguns, which is surprising considering the prop-planes. Not that they would actually do anything to me, but these people don't know that. They stay a good kilometer from my body, while a speedboat approached me.
The natives looked... surprisingly human, but for a few key differences. The white's of their eyes were black and the irises bioluminescent. Their skins were various shades of blue, hairless, with ridges on their heads. Their ears mostly merged into their heads, with small points at the tips. They were also... Much smaller than my avatar.
I float down to the level of the boat, both sets of arms crossed. The one wearing an elegant robe clears its throat, then speaks in a very smooth language while making grand, sweeping gestures. After it's finished, I lower myself down in front of the boat.
I quickly extend a mental tendril into its head and carefully rummage around, looking for its language centers. Locating it, I copy the language. It's very long winded, with a lot of descriptors and adjectives.
I modify the vocal cords of the avatar, then step back and speak in a deep bass tone.
"Now that I have learned your language, let me introduce myself. I am Zeratus of the Primal Zerg. I would ask you to repeat your speech, now that I would understand it."
The space-elves' eyes widened at my speaking in their language flawlessly. The one I copied the language from collects him(?)self, then speaks once again.
"My name is Lilitian, of the Elthari Confederation. May I ask how you learned to speak our language?" I don't understand more than the words to their language, so tone and inflection is lost on me but I assume that he(?) being politely curious.
"We know many languages." Technically true. "Now that you have reached the appropriate level of technological development, it was decided to warn you of the dangers of this galaxy so that you would be prepared."
The envoy shares a startled look with his guards, then turns back to me. "Perhaps it would be best if you shared this with our leaders." I nod my head.
The boat turns and speeds off to the fleet behind it and I fly along with it, startling them slightly. When my main body starts to glide through the water towards the city as well, the fleet escorts it.
---=== 1 Hour Later ===---
I stand in what I assume is their governmental building, before a panel of Elthari. They are a bi-gendered species, given the slighter frame, mammaries, and colorful crests of around half the people in the room.
I clear my throat as the male I met had before speaking, gaining their attention.
"Leaders of the Elthari species. I am Zertus of the Primal Zerg. I have come to inform you of the dangers present in this galaxy so that you would be prepared should you face any of them in the future."
The one sitting in the center of the long table nods. "We thank the Zerg people for their dedication and wisdom. Please, tell us of these dangers."
"I will begin with the most imminent threat. Recently, a great tragedy befell my species. A being with designs on the universe created an abomination that snared the minds and bodies of an entire world of my people, twisting them into mere drones. These Zerg, who we named the Swarm, are driven to consume and dominate the universe, replacing all life with itself." This calm delivery, along with the implications, obviously terrifies them.
"After turning the world, our Homeworld Zerus, into a barren wasteland, it left through a wormhole to an unknown destination. All of us who remained on the world, the Primals, were reduced dramatically. After re-building our civilization, we searched the local systems for them, but it seems they have traveled far beyond our borders."
The leaders along the table and the many Elthari in the room behind me begin murmuring and whispering to each other. The one in the middle speaks again. She must be important.
"Before we further delve into this topic, is there anything further you are to inform us of?" They almost look afraid of the answer.
"Yes, there is. The being that created the Zerg Swarm, Amon, is a member of a species called the Xel'naga. They genetically modify and create species in pursuit of 'purity of form' and 'purity of essence'. The Zerg was one of these and currently, the other is a species called the Protoss. We do not currently know where to find this species, but from what we've learned they were reduced to the stone age by another unknown threat, so their threat level is low, with the chance to increase."
With no context, it seems they believe the Protoss to be as bad as the Swarm.
All to plan...
I couldn't think of a way to describe what I was thinking for the Avatar, so here's an image. The Space-Elves were inspired by the Stellaris species portraits.
