Lord High Pratulpet looked around the command deck of the ship, her arms crossed and squeezing her forearms with her three fingered hands. Her excitement was infectious and she could see that her crew was feeling the same exhilaration as she was.
The ship still looked alien, despite the three month long trip aboard it. The seats had been modified to fit hier people, since they were originally designed for beings roughly two meters tall, with wide bodies, long legs and arms, and heavy weight.
Still, the crew each held their assigned positions, sometimes two or three crewmen per station to take over the duties that just one of the original crew members had been able to perform.
But the ship was theirs now, the species that created it dead and gone.
The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery had discovered the ship nearly a decade before. A drifting hulk, coasting between the stars. Security charges had done their work and the weapons, drives, molycircs, and more had all been destroyed.
But the hull remained.
The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery had come up with a plan.
Leave the battle damage. Restore the engines, make it space-worthy again.
Then load up a Scientific Discovery Team inside a ship hidden inside the ship. Hide two ships full of Way of the Means military troops within the massive bays.
Use the hulk to penetrate the heavily guarded systems at the edge of Dra.falten space.
The systems were older systems, Forerunner systems, part of the Fallen Confederacy.
It galled the Dra.falten people to admit it, but the Forerunners, as diminished and fading as they were, were still more powerful than the Dra.falten Empire.
Worse, there were hundreds, thousands of stellar systems that the Fallen Confederacy had listed as interdicted, forbidden everyone else from exploring them or gathering the resources still remaining in the system.
Any ships that intruded upon the system, that ignored any warnings, were blasted out of space by horrifically powerful weapons that defied understanding by Dra.falten science.
But Pratulpet knew that this plan would not fail.
Use a Terror hulk to camouflage the three ships. Move in-system to the nearest formerly inhabited planet, and gather relics and scientific data.
"Leaving Induction Space," the Captain called out.
Pratulpet nodded sagely, watching the viewscreen as the colors of the Induction Plane suddenly cleared away as the Terror hulk dropped from the alternate reality and back into what laymen referred to as 'realspace.'
"Shields coming up. Switching power from induction engines to sublight engines," was called out.
Pratulpet just smiled.
"Incoming transmission," the communication officer called out, her ears flattening against her skull in response to her stress. She listened for a moment. "Automated. No lexicon exchange. It's demanding proof of life."
"We're being targeted. Multiple signals, unable to determine all origin points," the Defense Officer said, her muscles tightening across her shoulders.
"Transmit proof of life signals," the Captain ordered.
Pratulpet squeezed her forearms tightly, her three fingers sinking deeply into her fur and the cloth of her uniform.
"Signal accepted," the Communications Officer said.
"Targeting lost. We're clear," the Defense Officer stated.
The Captain looked at Pratulpet, his eyes wide. "We're in," he said, his voice breathless.
"Of course we are," Pratulpet said. "The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery does not fail the Dra.falten Empire or the Dra.falten people," she lowered her chin slightly, making the male Captain duck down slightly. "The Department of Scientific Inquiry formulated this plan, there was no other outcome than success."
"Set course for the third planet. The Terror Forerunners seemed to prefer the third or fourth planets," Patulpet stated.
She stood there, hearing that it was going to take nearly forty hours for the ship to reach the planet. Three sleep periods.
Part of her wanted to stay on the bridge the whole time, watch as the small blue dot eventually swelled to be an entire world.
"NEW CONTACT!" the defensive officer called out. "MULTIPLE SOURCES! TWO, SIX, ELEVEN, TWENTY! MANY MANY SOURCES! ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND KILOMETERS!"
"Who are they?" Pratuplet asked, grinding her teeth as anxiety spiked.
The ships appeared on the viewscreen next to her and she felt her stomach sink.
Fallen Confederacy vessels. Dozens of them.
The computer, and the defensive officer, began to identify them.
Multiple battle wagons, two parasite craft vessels, attack ships.
"They're already deploying offensive and defensive pods," the defensive officer stated.
"Incoming signal," the communication's officer said.
"Use the overlay," Patulpet said. She stepped forward slightly. "I have studied ancient recordings and will attempt to appear as a Terror."
The screen rippled and Patulpet managed to keep her face blank as the low resolution video manifested on the viewscreen.
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It was a massive insect. Easily two meters tall, a triangular head, two arms with manipulative digits, two arms that terminated in sharp blades, lower body with four legs. It was a dull tan with splotches of light green.
It wore a sash that glimmered with hidden icons, a black and white uniform that covered its body.
And a brimmed hat that had a softly glowing edge that ran through the visible light spectrum in a slow circle around the hat.
The insect lit a white tube and exhaled smoke.
"We are..." Patulpet started.
"Not the TCSFV Fat Freddy Fastbender," the insect said. "That ship was lost during the Terran/Atrekna War with all hands."
Patulpet stopped in mid-syllable.
"You also aren't Terran," the insect said. It shook its head and exhaled smoke again. "I know Terrans, and you aren't Terran."
Patulpet opened her mouth to speak.
"That ship has a Mark IV Warsteel hull. You could have sold it to the Telkan for trillions of credits," the insect said.
Patulpet felt her lip curl in a sneer at the mention of the isolationist and unfriendly Telkan, a Forerunner species known for their warlike ways and belligerence toward the Dra.falten Empire.
"Definitely not Terran," the insect said.
Patulpet made a motion for the overlay to be removed.
"There you are," the insect said. "A Dra.falten, one of the new species out to make a name for themselves."
"Yes. I am of the Dra.falten Empire," Patulpet stated coldly. "We are a peaceful scientific mission to a known Forerunner system."
The big insect slowly nodded. "And the fact that your government has been informed repeatedly that this system has been placed under interdiction?"
"Who are you to tell the Dra.falten Empire where they can and cannot go?" Patulpet snarled, her self-control snapping. "A fading and dwindling species whose strength is spent demanding that the mighty Dra.falten Empire kowtow to your demands."
The insect was silent a moment and Patulpet felt a rush of satisfaction.
Then the insect spoke.
"You new children are the most ungrateful, disrespectful, arrogant species we Treana'ad have ever had the displeasure of encountering," the insect said. "We stop the Mar-gite cold, we even put down the resurgence after you idiots enabled them to spread to a thousand worlds, and we even go toe to toe with rogue autonomous war machines your own people built, and then you come in here waving your dicks around and demanding we give you what you want."
Patulpet opened her mouth to reply but the insect, the Treana'ad, kept speaking.
"In case you haven't notice, Senior Science Agent Patulpet, I have a full task force of Confederacy warships," the insect said.
Patulpet felt her blood run cold as the Treana'ad identified her.
"The weapons on that ship are mockups, its shielding is particle and debris screens only," the huge insect continued. "Where mine, well, mine are all cleared for action."
"We're being targeted," the defensive officer said, their voice choked with fear. "Their combat pods have come online, they've gone to full shields."
The Treana'ad stared for a long moment, then exhaled a cloud of smoke. Patulpet noticed that smoke was rising from behind it too, two little pillars of smoke on either side of the large insect.
"We could blow you out of space with disposable wet-printed gun-pods," the insect said. It suddenly made a motion that the screen informed everyone was 'expresses pleasure/happiness'. "But today's your lucky day!"
Patulpet frowned as the viewscreen suddenly had bright colorful sparkles shower across it with balloons and sparklers. At the bottom a bunch of cartoon Treana'ad all danced and waved pompoms.
"You're a scientific discovery mission, from the highly militarized and pseudo-military Office of Scientific whatever the fuck you called it," the Treana'ad said. "So that means we'll be nice enough to escort you to the third planet and allow you to access the surface of both moons and even the planet itself for your scientific mission, which is obviously not a veneer over the fact you're here hoping to loot weapon and warfare technology and technical information."
Patulpet scowled as she busked her back teeth.
"We'll shadow you, make sure you don't try anything else," the Treana'ad said. The celebratory graphics vanished as the Treana'ad leaned forward. "You try to fuck me, and I'll blow your ship up, drag it back to where you came from, and use it to perform a kinetic kill on your shitty little empire's capital."
The signal cut out before Patulpet could reply.
She stood there, busking her teeth, the grinding soothing her nerves.
After a moment she looked at the Captain.
The planet had two moons, the smaller one in a closer orbit, the larger one on the outer orbit moving faster than the smaller one. The planet turned at a fairly brisk pace, completing one revolution every 23.5 hours. The axial tilt was extreme, nearly 16.5%, with the orbit elliptical. It was only 8.5 light minutes from the stellar mass, meaning it was constantly bombarded by high levels of radiation.
As the ship slid into orbit between the small moon and the planet itself, the Captain ordered scanning probes launched at the moons and the planet.
Everyone aboard the ship ignored that six Fallen Confederacy vessels that kept appearing and disappearing on the scanners.
Patulpet had slept poorly, having dreamed of being chased by a red-eyed creature through dark halls and dark rooms, her clawed feet slipping on the tiles, bumping off of unseen furniture, always moving slowly no matter how fast she ran.
Now she stood in the Display Center, looking over what the probes had mapped and scanned.
She took in the tilt, the thickness of the various atmospheric layers, the distance from the stellar mass. Patulpet knew that the world would suffer extreme weather variation, possibly even violent weather events.
The amount and variation of flora and fauna was staggering.
Even more surprising was just how many predator species the probes had found.
But that wasn't what bothered her.
She stared at the maps, moving through them.
"Are you sure this is correct?" she asked the Chief Scanner Director.
The male nodded, wringing his hands. "Yes, Senior Agent," he said, ducking his head.
Patulpet had to resist having the four females of the Way of the Means Military Guard beat the truth out of the male.
She stared at the map some more, as if she could will what she wanted to manifest.
"Where are the cities? The manufacturing centers? The habitation complexes?" she asked.
"Any structures that the probes were able to find were heavily overgrown by flora," the cringing male said, his voice trembling and servile.
"Vehicles? Space ships? Any life forms higher than animals?" Patulpet asked.
"No, Senior Agent," the male said.
Patulpet busked her back teeth, reaching out to grab the bar and squeeze it. She flicked her ears in irritation as she stared at the map.
The scanners and probes had found almost nothing. A world completely empty of higher life forms. No cities, no towns, no industrial complexes. There were a few buildings, but they were skeletal structures covered by foliage, standing alone in the middle of low hills covered in vegetation.
"We found four complexes on the two moons. Three on the larger, one on the smaller," the cringing male said softly.
"No orbital facilities?" Patulpet asked.
The male signified a negative.
"Any energy sources?" she asked.
"Slight energy readings from the four lunar complexes. Other than that, nothing," the male said. "However, we have always had difficulty detecting Terror power sources, especially the kind they use in beacons, satellites, and warning buoys."
Patulpet snarled, squeezing the railing hard enough her hands hurt.
"Why are they protecting these regions so fiercely? What is here that they feel such a need to keep everyone else away from them?" Patulpet asked, staring at the maps.
She looked up at the Ways of the Means Military Guard shift leader.
"Gather four teams. There will be two Senior Scientists that you will be guarding," she snapped.
The officer nodded curtly.
"Weapons and armor, use an armored shuttle for each team," Patulpet stated. She looked back at the maps of the two orbital bodies.
The facilities were largely covered in dust, almost invisible.
But all four had obvious entry-points that were visible with a simple scan.
"Take Means of the End Engineer Specialists with you," she said. She reached out and tapped the largest of the three complexes on the larger body. "This one has power," she smiled, a slow ugly thing. "It is time for the Terrors to relinquish their Forerunner secrets to the Dra.falten Empire. Once we have those, we will end this long protracted war and move onto what is truly important."
She looked up, still expressing pleasure.
"The time of the Forerunners, the Precursors, and the Fallen Confederacy is at an end."