The Visitors

I.S.C Hostile Takeover, জাদুঘোগ

The grand battlecruiser floated through the corona of the small star orbiting the center of one of the most unusual systems that the Science Ministry had ever discovered, scouting out the area to see if the planet at the center could be taken as a colony of the Empire. The scans were unclear, but visual imaging showed some kind of planet-wide civilization on the surface that seemed to really like big colourful sexplosions that didn't do any actual damage to the planet.

The captain of the ship looked across the rows of control stations controlling every aspect of the ship and looking as closely as they could at the area around it at the massive projections of the data streaming in on the vast amounts of mysterious energy centered on the central planet and its satellites, gathering as much information as they could from both onboard scanners and the probes launched.

"Science Officer, have we made any progress on the energy?"

"No sir, but the probes on planet have revealed a wealth of information." Pulling out a small tablet, she flicked several images onto the main screen, and enlarged one of a small, brightly coloured being atop a grassy hill. "The energy is mainly centered on the continent inhabited by these beings. The ones such as this, with the protrusion from its head, can manipulate the energy with various levels of dexterity to perform a variety of tasks, from simply lifting objects to full blown teleportation, and observations show that ability cannot be predicted by any factor other than age, it developing as they do from birth, though some younglings appear to randomly become quite able for varying lengths of time. They appear to be often centered towards the higher echelons of society, becoming those who manage the lives of others. The second type," she continued, switching to a second image," have no protrusions upon their heads. Rather, they appear to passively manipulate the energy to make up for the incredibly inefficient designs of their forms and achieve flight, constructing entire settlements out of clouds and controlling the weather, and some are presumed capable of supersonic flight utilising the energy, based upon admittedly unclear observations. They appear to take mainly military and sport roles, as well as acting as a primitive messaging system. The third type appear at first to be the most useless of the three main types, having no additional body parts. However, they use the energy passively as well to perform great feats of strength and endurance, and almost entirely keep the civilization going through their agricultural prowess as far as we can tell. There is also a fourth type that appears to be venerated as royalty throughout, though only four examples have been seen. The first appears to be some sort of representative of the light and the daytime, appearing only then and decorated in gold and white, while the second appears to be a representative of the dark and the night-time, appearing only then and decorated in dark blues and black. Each are guarded by their own force, with the night one having a sup-species of the flying ones, with membranous wings, slit pupilled eyes and clearly carnivorous teeth. The two of them also appear to be the ones keeping the satellites going around the planet, but we have measured the approximate power output during this process, and this is only about a third of what they could theoretically utilise, thus presumably why they are in charge. The third is much smaller, more in line with the rest of them, and lives in some sort of crystalline city far to the south, protected from the cold by a massive shield of the energy, and ruling over some sort of affected varient of the natives with bodies that appear to also be formed from crystal, though we suspect this to be an effect of the energy emanating from a crystal at the center of the settlement, below what we presume to be the palace. The fourth is slightly smaller, and lives in a second cystal palace, though smaller and situated within a small village, and emanates the energy like you wouldn't believe. The civilization appears to be attempting to advance without damaging their climate, and has grand cities of glass and metal yet has vehicles of wood pulled by others, and has no flight technology beyond the gasbag. The other civilizations of the world are much less interesting, as none appear to be able to utilise the energy at all, and yet are at a similar level of technological advancement. This is all we have gathered, and while we should be able to wipe them out easily, colonizing afterwards would be impossible. A much more personal and drawn out war would accomplish what we want, but we have no real idea how to protect against being attacked by the energy and as such, I would advise caution."

The captain sat for a while. The he sat some more. He sat for several hours in total, until he finally made a decision. He stood, and activated the intercom system.

"Crew, this is your captain speaking. Prepare for a ground invasion. Expect it to be easy at first, but to last a while. We are going up against a defenceless looking species lead by a being that can hold together a star every second of every day and not even break a sweat while moving it around a planet for, as far as we can tell, thousands of years. Expect heavy resistance during ground engagements, especially when they have the upper hand. We will win this, but it will not be easy. Prepare to fight, prepare to die. For the glory of the Emperor!"

He deactivated the com, and turned to the bridge crew.

"Weapons Team, prepare for ground bombardment"

"Yes, Captain."

"Flight Control, prepare my shuttle, and get us to deorbit above wherever we've marked their capital."

"Yes Captain."

"Comms, do we have a translator packet?"

"Yes Captain."

"Upload it to my helmet and get me a ground security team. Let's see if we can end this before it begins."