Chương 57: 037 – Interlude: Rain Seira Stars

Extradancer incursion detected. This is not a drill. Extradancer incursion detected. This is not a drill. First contact scenario imminent." Rain looked up in surprise as the incursion alert sounded, as did her crèche-sisters and her guest sitting at the table, interrupting the conversation Commander Bronze and Lorelei had been having about being part of the Teaching branch and her plans to eventually move to the Administration branch.

Thankfully, Commander Bronze had not objected to meeting with new people, so Rain had taken him to meet her friends. The table was bare of the food it would normally be covered with, since it would be rude to eat in front of someone who couldn't indulge in tasty snacks, and was instead covered with the little baskets full of gifts that Lorelei's students and the rest of the little sisters of Quiet Rise elementary school had prepared for their alien visitors.

She hadn't asked them to do it, but apparently Lorelei had set it up as an exercise to keep her class occupied, which had spilled out to the other classes in the school because it had sounded fun. The baskets had been woven from wirevines, polished to a smooth and coppery sheen and painted with boiled oil to protect the wood. A bow had been tied to the basket handle, with the words 'We hope you enjoyed your stay!' written on it.

The basket was filled with cute little things that each little sister had been able to make either make in bulk or assist in making. There wasn't any food—not even candy—because the children had been mindful their gifts might need to go through intense decontamination, and they're still not sure what foods would be good for the non-humans among their visitors. So the little sisters had all tried to make things that anyone would like, regardless of what they were, and ended up with a strange mix of things.

No two baskets contained all the same things, although a few seemed to have gotten ideas from each other.

Rain saw metal plates, each made of a different metal and decorated a different way; small mirrors; dip pens and glass pens, along with bottles of ink in different colors; telescopic sights made to be compatible with what they knew of Confederacy small arms; several different decks of playing cards, possibly for different card games; a set of different-shaped dice that looked like they were made of venecite inside glass; two different chess figures, each notably in a different basket; what look like pieces for shogi, also in different baskets…

The little sisters had been busy with the kind of restless energy that now made Rain want to apologize to her big sisters. Rain had been intending to give their visitors the baskets when it was time to return to their ship, something to commemorate their trip, even if not everything in their basket was something they'd be able to use. She hoped they'd still manage to do that.

Princess was already accessing the scanning network's data, even as Rain mentally composed the message telling all her volunteers—as many former First Contact champions she could get on short notice and Seraphine—to take their guests back to the landing bay and onto their ship.

They didn't know who their new arrivals were—beyond the fact that whoever they were had appeared in the system through what appeared to be a controlled Void breach, which was immensely concerning — but given that the Confederacy were aliens who hadn't invaded Surcease, this was probably the group who intended to invade them.

"It looks like we'll have to end things early today, Commander Bronze," Rain said, getting to her feet as she detached Princess from her forearm mount.

"My apologies, but duty calls. Chloe, can you help guide our guest down to his ship? I need to handle this." Princess had already type up the message to everyone else, so Rain gave it a quick glance and sent it. Her crèche-sister waved a hand.

"Sure, I'll take care of Johnny here. Though I'll need some help with all the gift baskets." Lorelei sighed and gave Rain that pouty look she does whenever her best friend is doing someone a favor.

"I'll take care of it. I'm sure the little sisters will enjoy getting a better view of an alien ship." Rain nodded, giving Commander Bronze another apologetic smile.

"I'm afraid I need to go see to these new arrivals. They're most likely here to invade the planet, so before they arrive we advise that the Venture get out of sight, perhaps hide behind Red Ace or Black Queen. If they can't see you, they're not likely to attack you, and you can make your way out of the system. At least, that's my suggestion." Commander Bronze frowned, but pushed himself up from her special chair, Meiya helping him with a venngravity spell to reduce the weight of his pack.

"If you feel that is best, Paladin Rain," he said.

"However, I think you might be overreacting. It seems very unlikely that these strangers would here to invade—""Extradancer incursion identified. Extradancer incursion identified. First contact with Shinkamrai Hegemony imminent. First contact with Shinkamrai Hegemony imminent."

"—however, you know your own procedures better than I would, and I trust you know what you're doing," Commander Bronze continued after a brief pause so he wouldn't have to try talking over Ensis's announcement. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then added, "If it should come to that, the Venture would be quite happy speak to your leaders about establishing an alliance to help you protect your freedom against the Sh—the Hegemony's aggression."

"Oh, that's very nice of you, but hopefully it won't be needed," Rain said.

"I'm sorry, but I need to be going. Chloe will help you get back to your ship."

"Would it be possible for me to contact the Venture so I can report to the Captain?" Commander Bronze askes.

"I need to inform them that we are aware of the situation." Chloe looked at her and Rain nodded.

"Glass Heart will let you contact your captain through them," Chloe said as Rain asked Princess to ping the other buddy the necessary protocols and informing the station's communications department that Glass Heart would be contacting the alien ship.

"We'll do it while we're walking, it's a long way to the landing bay…" The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. As little sisters from Lorelei's classroom approached from where they'd been sitting around making drawings of the visiting alien, putting together lists of questions that they wanted to ask, and eagerly wondering which gift basket he'd choose, Rain quickly made herself scarce as she finally looked down at Princess's screen.

Her buddy immediately brought up the relevant scanning data, bringing up the render of the ship generated from the scans and setting it next to stills clipped from their transmission archive.

While the scan render wasn't exactly like the clips, the shared design aesthetic was there: what would normally be simple geometric shapes were given embellishments—simple painted lines or ridges of additional armor—that that them a vaguely organic feeling, making each ship look like a predatory insect with tentacles about to pounce on something. It was all very pretty, and had been the inspiration for many mecha."

Ship name and serial numbers identified and decoded," Princess informed her, the render rotating to a series of marking that could easily be mistaken for gills or scars on the ship's 'neck'. They were harsh and vaguely claw-like, as if someone had tried to write kanji by with a sword. That was always fun." Ship designation: 'Dhekhajhyde'. Translations: 'maker of memories', 'seeker of remembrances', 'photographer', ''archivist', 'historian'.

If information deduced from transmissions is correct, ship's serial numbers indicate it is likely a deep space science and exploration in force craft.'' Rain nodded. The Shinkamrai Hegemony were firm believers in doing things 'in force', a philosophy the Kaedekin approved of.

The universe was a dangerous place after all, full of alien invaders, dragons, eldritch beings who roamed the darkness between worlds, and probably nanobots too. One needed to be prepared to protect oneself.

Such a craft was exactly the kind to end up going deep enough into space to find the Kaedekin simply from basically traveling around for long enough, especially since transmissions from the humans' war against them indicated the Hegemony was much more free with using their FTL capabilities to retreat and reposition.

That implied that whatever magic or technology they used either had a more readily-available power source or was more efficient than the leyline ship-teleporter and Alcubierre drive that the Confederacy had.

"Current position?" she asked as she wrapped venn around herself, lifting off the ground only to drop immediately down the stairwell shaft." The Dhekhajhyde initially appeared just within the orbit of Xynodob before repositioning to the orbit of Corona. It is now approaching Nightmare at subluminal speeds, propulsion type unknown, high probability magical. Estimated time to arrival, fifteen days." Rain frowned. Subluminal…

"They're trying to be seen," Rain said as she reached her floor, her vector becoming horizontal as she headed for the landing bay where Yuki would be waiting to take her to these new aliens.

"They don't want their appearance to be a surprise." That didn't exactly remove the possibility that this was an invasion, but it at least implied they were trying to be polite." Margaret agrees,"Princess said." Yuki is preparing the fast courier for launch. Namine is packing the picnic basket. Hale has accepted delivery of a personal mecha suit from Mitsuki and has approved it for deployment." Rain blinked.

"Wait, what was that last?"" It was meant to be a surprise.

"Princess said, sounding slightly disappointed." A standard drydock suit was deemed insufficient protection should this become an invasion scenario, so Mitsuki, Reiko and Tomoko designed and built a personal mecha suit for you that emulated the unarmed appearance of a drydock suit." Oh! That was so sweet and thoughtful!

"That's so sweet and thoughtful!" Rain said as she turned and dropped down another stairwell. They'd reached the industrial floors of the station, where the mass manufacturing areas run by the Supply branch were located. The hallways were wider here, and Rain saw more automated carts ferrying around finished materials, and fewer reservists and little sisters.

"What's the loadout?" The suit was similar to the one that Tomoyo had to remedy her lack of flight, although it didn't have the ability to fold down into a pack so that it could be tucked out of the way at Tomoko's destination. It opened up like a puzzle for Rain to step into from the back, inserting her arms and legs into the suits limbs before the whole suit closed around her, everything magnetically sealing shut to make the suit air tight and spaceworthy.

"Mitsuki always does the best work," Rain grinned as she rolled her shoulders, the mecha suit matching her range of motion with no difficulty as Princess updated the suit's HUD to their prefrences. The suit's external appearance emulated that of a drydock suit, although the helmet had been made slightly oversized so it would fit more armor plating and sensors. She flexed her fingers, and save for feeling like she was wearing particularly thick gloves, there was no loss of dexterity.

Her stride was similarly unimpeded, and when she got a running start, jumped, did a forward flip, and extended one foot in a 'final attack-sure-hit-monster-killing kick', the suit's actuators augmented her movements perfectly.

"Mobility tests, verified no problems," Hale said happily. She had the look of someone deciding what she'd be building next.

"Ready for loadout readiness check."

"Ready!"

"Right forearm plasma blaster and plasma blade?"

"All systems green."

"Plasma fuel?"

"Fully loaded!"

"Left forearm shockwave cannon?"

"Green!"

"Forearm freeze rays?"

"Green!"

"Internal freeze ray cooling array, while we're at it?"

"Green!"

"Venn emitters?"

"All green!"

"Primary battery?"

"All green, fully charged!"

"Backup power?"

"All green, full charged!"

"Suit venecite supply?"

"Fully loaded!"

"Emergency thruster fuel?"

"Fully loaded!"

"Emergency forcefield generator?"

"Systems green, on standby!"

"Emergency air supply?"

"Fully loaded!" Hale nodded in satisfaction.

"All right. Come over her so we can attach the auxiliary backpack." Rain dutifully did so, turning to present her back's attachment point. Hale picked up the standard auxiliary pack—the same one they used when wearing the drydock suits—and attached it into place. The two locked together, and Rain, Princess, and the suit's firmware all adjusted to the additional weight.

"All right… auxiliary inventory check! Extra air?"

"Check!"

"Water supply?"

"Check!"

"In-suit food?"

"Check!" Ooh, leadberry jam and beef jerky!

"Auxiliary inventory, confirmed. Attaching writing board." Rain waited, and there was subtle click.

"Writing board, check!" Namine stepped forward and held out the welcome picnic basket.

"Picnic basket, check!" Rain confirmed, holding it in both hands. It had already been vacuum sealed by the pink.

"The basket has leadberry jam pocket pies, knugrind burritos, a flask of leadberry juice, yakisoba with notrice noodles, corned beef pandesal, and a burger steak with mushroom sauce bento," Namine said.

"To the best of our knowledge it should all be compatible with the digestive systems and nutritional requirements of any of the six Hegemony races." Rain nodded.

"Got it." She took a deep breath, then turned to Margaret, who'd been coordinating with the rest of the station.

"I'm ready." It was time to see if she could pull off a miracle and keep them from being invaded… again. … Well, trying to perform miracles was what a magical girl was all about, so she was just living up to her ideals.