[X] "Did they ever meet any aliens?"
"Did they ever meet any aliens?"
Vestige shrugs.
A few. Some of them even sapient. The one that we had the most regular contact with would be the Debris Pests, or ELS as they called them during the AD cycle when they tried to invade Earth. They were a species of spacefaring liquid metal shapeshifters that communicated by fusing with other lifeforms, and had exterminated who knows how many lifeforms because they were too stupid to figure out simple telepathy.
Anyway, they moved around through space in clouds made up of trillions of individuals. Dangerous to isolated colonies, yes, but the better fortified ones had enough people in them to create a telepathic Psycho-Field telling them to fuck off. Usually worked, and if not, we just had to go on an expedition to cull the beasts.
As for non-pest species, there were these fungoid heaps of rot and sewage that would instinctively cling to anyone who gave them the time of day. They were pleasant enough to deal with, if you could tolerate the neediness, but the smell was awful. There was also this mental film they had, a byproduct of them being sapient slime mold, that made being near them feel spiritually unclean, but they weren't bad people.
On the other side of our territory there were these short mammals with oversized heads that worshipped something that translates to 'Property-ism'. They tried to steal some of our technology during the Space Warlord Era, before Satang unified humanity, and got their nearest worlds glassed for their trouble. We didn't see hide nor hair of them after that, not until Satang started wondering and sent a fleet to check if they still existed. They did, but their attempts to expand in our direction were anemic at best.
There were a couple more, like these giant whale things whose Psychic powers surpassed that of any non-assisted human. Agressive bunch, those were...we waged a lot of wars with them over the centuries, all of them bloody, grinding stalemates. They almost wiped themselves out in an AI rebellion that we helped put down, but after that they were never relevant on the galactic stage again.
Vestige sighs.
Gidae slaughtered them all during that first culling, wiping out any spacefaring civilization before he came back to end the FC Cycle. I checked-
Vestige shudders, then snarls.
KREIS checked after he completed Turn X. Between cycles the Turn A would travel the galaxy and exterminate alien species. He never figured out the reason why.
"So I shouldn't expect to meet any aliens anytime soon." You conclude.
Probably not.
*
It is after hanging out with Miashei that you experience a new sense of foreboding. It feels just like when Gavane tried to break the ceasefire, but this time the ominous feeling is coming from the west. More distant than last time and yet, feeling so much more urgent
"I have to check something." You apologize as you break away from Sochie, who hurries to button her jacket back up before running after you.
The officer in the radio tent starts awake when you come charging in. "Get me Headquarters! I need to speak with Lord Guin!"
He hesitates, but complies, and soon enough you are on the phone with Lord Guin.
"Laura? What is the matter?" He asks tiredly. It is getting late after all.
"Sir, the White Doll's long-range sensors detected something." You lie. "Do you know if anything is happening to the west?"
"To the west? Is the Dianna Counter-" The sound of someone coming into Lord Guin's tent and putting something on his desk amid frantic whispering comes over the radio. "Excuse me, Laura. There is an emergency call from the Tejans. Please hold."
You are left sitting there for a few minutes as Lord Guin holds a hushed, if extremely tense, conversation with his Tejan counterpart. Just what is going on-
Lord Guin slams his hands onto his desk, making you jump in your seat. "DENVER!"
"Sir?" You ask into the radio, wondering if he can hear you. It turns out that he can't, for he finishes his conversation before coming back to you.
"Laura, the Coradans have broken the ceasefire. Prince Elbert Denver ordered the Corado Militia to launch an offensive on the northwestern front and the Tejans were forced to keep up lest they create a hole in the defense line." He sounds exhausted as he recounts the events of the evening to you. "Consider your confinement at Kingsley Valley at an end and prepare to move out. I will talk to you later."
Before he hangs up on you he tells you one last thing: "Now I must contact Queen Dianna and explain our side of things. Hopefully we can keep the situation from spiraling out of control."
You turn around, taking the hand of an ashen-faced Sochie as you go. The radio operators all heard what you and Lord Guin discussed, so there is a sullen mood in the tent when you leave it.
The war, it seems, is back on.
[] Stay at Kingsley Valley for now.
[] Rebase to the Military Hospital to the south.
[] Rebase to Headquarters.
[] Take the LRAMDC west and make camp in southern Luzianna.
[] Take the LRAMDC southwest and make camp by the border.
