The Stranded Pearl

It is the 13th of June in the Human Calendar, in a far, far distant cluster of stars, thousands and thousands of light years away from Earth. On a sole frontier mining colony of System 698-Beta, also known as the Venture Star System, lies a sole taskforce of space ships of extraterrestrial origin. Gliding into the star system’s thin cloud of debris, unnoticed and unperturbed at a steady pace. The ships were distinctly sharp in shape, like that of a sword being beautifully ordained with fine craftsmanship when compared to ships of human designs.

If anything, it’s like comparing a fancy ink pen to a utilitarian pen.

There at the edges of the solar system, are where the ships are located. A group of, what is a human designation of a medium sized fleet in an old nautical system structure. The extra terrestrial fleet is being led by a Battleship, and is accompanied by a pair of Heavy Cruisers, followed by five Light Cruisers, nine Destroyers, seventeen Frigates, and twenty-five Corvettes. The battleship is being followed by what seems to be the largest combat oriented ship in the task force, of what is a ship type called a Carrier, with five supply vessels circling it and ten support ships circling the two most important ships in the fleet. Electrostatic chatter surrounded the two largest combat vessels as half a dozen aerospace craft zipped past the screening units and came to a stop on the decks of the alien carrier vessel.

The chatter between vessels came to a high, as information was being transceived to the Shipmaster and the Grand Admiral, regarding the operation that will now commence shortly.

There on the top of the flagship, named ”Justice High“, is a dome like area where the ship’s navigational bridge is located. The structure is encompassed by what seems to be heavily reinforced glass that peaked through the command centre and the cosmos. At the centre lies a catwalk-like area, in which a large sofa-like-furniture made out of soft materials and reinforced metals that oriented it around like a throne. The commanding alien sitting on it is what the humans call an insectoid, or whatever bug resembles it at a rather large size. Sitting down at a meter and sixty tall, the dark coloured alien mantis silently observed the gigantic hologram. Showing a total of seven planets, and seven other smaller planets that surround a similarly familiar star of yellowish orange, though in this case, it’s more orange than yellow and slightly larger than Sol.

The alien mantis on the throne, adorned with what seems to be a uniformed holy tapestry of purple and white, then looks at the other alien mantis in front of him that seems to be busy on a circular console as it opens its mouth. Its mandibles on its cheeks opening in and out, and its lips-like structure, unwinding unnaturally for a human-like face to do, called out the Shipmaster in front of him.

"Fleet Shipmaster. Status report of the star system.”

The Shipmaster flinched for a moment, and then stopped whatever it was doing and bowed beneath the tendrils of the larger mantis on the throne.

"A-Admiral. The star system is what the data was described by the Home Council. Barren, with only limited planets being habitable. With the rest being either gaseous planets, or solid planets that are too toxic of an atmosphere to be lived in. Especially of our species, and the ones of the Second and Third Worlders.”

The Grand Admiral did an equivalent of a puff of air, startling the few officers on the bridge, as he then finally stood up from his seat and tower over the rest of the crew with his eloquent two point eight meter tall frame. Showing off his authority for all the bridge crew on board, and for his voice to be vibrated with confidence to the entirety of the fleet comms.

“I see... So O’heet and his Committee must have made a mistake then...” None there speaks of the bug of ire on his tongue. Not that it was wrong, the information they have currently on the star system happens to be quite different than what was provided.

The Admiral then swayed his front leg, to show another holographic interface of a star system. This time however, it looks slightly different from what they are looking at the present beyond the reinforced glass dome of the Justice High. It lacks the abundance of heavenly bodies, and its worlds are arranged differently than the one currently in front of them. Yet it has a similar star, its class may be different, but it can nonetheless have high potential to create an ecosystem on the lucky world. Yet, the one on the holographic image that was provided by the Committee, is what they call; The Luminous System. A habitable system of just one planet with its eight other compatriots, and lacks its extra five worlds that they are currently witnessing.

"Navigator, are we on the speculated star system that our operation is tasked with? Or am I supposed to be blind to the number of worlds I can count with my naked eye?”

“You are not impaired my Lord! W-w-we are on the correct path, though our outdated coordinates do not match on the speculated star system with a small 3.2% miscalculation, however, we do have matching readings on the planets and the... Aliens... We are subjugating... Have a 98.6% accuracy of the data we have acquired, and are targets our Grand Queen has authorised.”

The Grand Admiral remained silent for a moment, before grunting, as the Navigator then manipulated the gigantic hologram to present the speculated version of the Luminous Star System and the one at the present, with all the minute details being presented on each planet with excruciating detail. Though clearly different from each other, it has a very striking resemblance, aside from the extra planets unaccounted for. The star system they are observing has four barren planets, one habitable planet, two gas giants, two water worlds. The extra five being closer to extraordinarily large asteroids than planets with their non spherical shape, with some of the heavenly body’s moons even outsizing it.

“Elaborate the details throughout the fleet for those ill informed, we shall reclassify this star system as the Luminous System, as per our findings. Those fools would be complaining that they cannot do much if they are in another empty star system.”

“Affirmative Admiral!” The bashful Navigator bowed beneath the height of the Grand Admiral’s tendrils and proceeded to fiddle with the consoles next to him.

Observing this, the Grand Admiral wondered if continuing this operation really is a strategic use of resources for the Confederation. Technically speaking, it is not like he was worried if the operation will not be successful, in fact, it is the opposite. As the fleet he has now is more than suitable to subjugate a species with technology as lack-luster as the data currently provided, perhaps too much even, but one cannot be too careful. No, it isn’t that the thought of failure is what he is worried about.

The Religiosa species have been around space for nearly seven thousand nine hundred forty cycles now, with experiences of previous space conflicts that could make a hatchling gurgle in delight of the light show they displayed on the setting sky. Of course, in the Confederation’s victory. However close calls did happen, especially with the Third Worlders. The Third Worlders are the third species that the Religiosa have abducted under their Council for equal prosperity among species. The Admiral knows it’s all bugbuzz to make it seem the Confederation is not involved in the insurrection, but in fact it was the opposite. He was there after all when they decided to make an example of one of the important core worlds of the Third Worlders when they decided to rebel from the Home Council to conduct a war of independence.

The War of Independence failed of course, and under his command, he stopped the war as a praised war hero. Thus boasting the egos and pride of the Confederate home worlds and his promotion to Grand Royal Admiral. To the present moment, the Grand Admiral still feels like it was a dream when he was promoted personally by the Grand Queen herself from his original position in the backwaters of Confederate space.

However, he prefers his title to be just, Admiral R’tik, to not waste more words of the already long syllables needed in Confederate Basic. Not that it mattered how he was called to the current hierarchy of order in his fleet.

In any circumstance, the thoughts radiating from the Grand Admiral could have been mistaken for sympathy to the belligerent Third Worlders, but it is much closer to pity more than anything. In reality, he seems disappointed that they began to do their foolish war of independence, knowing the fact that they are outmatched in all ways, and even decided to excrete the idea that their Grand Goddess was a fraudulent mortal on a prey’s skin. The Third Worlders have got that situation to themselves to blame, they are already gaining more benefits under their ruling with technology, culture, cuisine, and protection. It’s almost an act of mercy when they were founded by his ancestors nearly five hundred solar cycles ago, and yet, they received those benefits with the low price of being a part of the labour force. Not a bad placement, considering the rest of the other species… Yet with one single event, it seems their prospects are looking grim.

If there is one thing the Grand Admiral shall give the Third Worlders, that despite the rebellion taking place fifty cycles ago, it definitely made a long lasting aftertaste in the present events in Confederate space, and it left a rather bad taste to the Religiosa Pride. An insult that an inferior species made a larger dent in their resources and finances than the minor damages predicted. Thus the sanctioning of their core worlds and recontracting of economic laws are being brought upon them to reciprocate their losses.

However, why the connection between these aliens and the Third Worlders? It’s simple, and that is their absurd development.