A New Day

[Silanon]

"I am not sure if I understand the reference - never heard about the wars you are talking about. But the idea itself is familiar: When I fought alongside my people, we were most successful when our opponents did not expect to be vulnerable - they prepared for a giant invasion, forgetting that even the hungriest slave can still pull the trigger of a gun. And we lost brave souls whenever we had an easy, exposed target at hand, because they knew that we were coming." For a moment, the Garudanian stops speaking, his eyes mustering the table as if wisdoms of highest importance are carved into it. "I have been on guard since I made my first wary steps, and it would be surprising if they do not make another attempt to get what we supposedly have - they will not find us unaware of their threat a second time. While some of us are looking for answers, I suggest the other half to watch over them, making sure that whatever we find will not be taken away from us before it can be put to use. By now, the Haydonites should know better than to teleport themselves into the midst of our squad."


His paw points at his surrounding, especially focussing on the children amongst them. "And make sure that enough people watch over those important to us or our cause - if the machines know about something we are not aware of ourselves, they certainly know about our weaknesses." Once again, his gaze hits the table in front of him. "Considering its hatred, the core certainly spent all of its available ressources to find out as much as possible - and it might have more of them than we will ever be able to handle."

 

[The Rose and Phoenix]

Orran


He paused and looked over at the shortest member of their squad before laughing. With a fluid, practiced motion, he held up coffee in one hand, scooped the child up with his other and stood at the same time. "Oh, I'm sorry Shykrad. Star Wars isn't a war, it's a set of movies. One of these days I'll sit ye down and we'll eat pizza, drink beer, and watch them all. We'll start off with the original trilogy and the original cut."


He shifted the child and brought her over to where there were more biscuits. Setting his coffee cup down, he nabbed another biscuit and gave it to Sakura even as he filled his cup with something much more kid friendly.


"Ya gotta watch the original as it was meant ta be. And then we'll advance your education with the other versions before we go onto the prequel. And then we'll get to the last three episodes. And then we'll complete your education with Firefly, Harry Potter, Dresden Files, The Belgariad- oh, aye, there're worlds and worlds awaitin' ye."

 

[WlfSamurai]

Rufaro

Effe sips her coffee. It's perfect. The brew and the temperature are just right. She snags a biscuit and takes a bite. She chews and swallows. "References aside, Shykrad's right. Though, I don't think they have to consider as much now. I think they've already done a lot of the thinking and observing awhile ago. I think they're toying with us. Or maybe," she considers words a moment. "maybe not toying. Maybe more like letting us live. For some purpose. Whatever that may be."

 

[Sherwood]

Time passes and eventually, everyone goes on back to their own rooms to spend the night.  You all know that the next day will be a long one. 


Under strict orders from the command staff to find out what is in that data cache that would make the Haydonites tip their hands and show a capability to attack a ship in fold space, nearly all of the technically trained officers onboard the ship are now hip deep, data diving through the mountain of information gathered and stored on Dr. Crowley's computers.  Hour after hour, under the watchful eye of the Admiral, the data is sifted as you search for gold.  Occasionally, a promising piece of data is unearthed that requires a closer look by Evangeline.  Finally, you find something.


The Haydonites are a coalition, and not a single species, even though you have only dealt with just a single one.  Your studies show that there is a total of three different races that are working together; a insectoid race, a avian race, and the leaders are the ones that you associate with the name 'Haydonite'.  They have all three banned together with the overriding goal of genocide of all the races that you currently know of: the Garudans, Paraxians, Zentraedi, Carbonarians, Invid, Robotech Masters, and Humans.  For some reason, there is no option available for negotiation or peace at all while even a single one of your species still live.


The reason for this is still unknown, but at least you are closer to an answer than you were before.


The next surprise you come across is a set of stellar coordinates.  You do not yet know if it is the homeworld that Shykrad saw in his vision, but it is a lead.

 

[Silanon]

Dozens and dozens of people, trying to find the knowledge that was relevant enough to start a direct assault at the ship. Shykrad watched them carefully, more concerned about their safety than about helping them out - apart from the vision, he knew little, and his knowledge of human computer systems pretty much excluded anything but those things he needed to keep his veritech operational. His mind wandered off while he waited for the Haydonites to make a move or some genius to find a clue - back to Garuda, their target right until they had been attacked from yet another angle. We might be losing hundreds with every hour wasted on this search - is that what they wanted to do? Delay us, until we are too late? They might just count on the Invids doing what they had in mind themselves.


Walking around restlessly, he was about to leave to not disturb the others when suddenly, there was something to do. At first, just a few vague clues about the Haydonites' history, nothing of importance. But then, things became more concrete: data about different subspecies, united to plan nothing else than genocide for all other living beings. As long as only one group fought the alliance head to head, the other subgroups made no difference - but it proved that there was something to be found, and it gave the Garudanian work to do. Of course, the impression of the core had been overshadowing everything else in his vision - but underneath that, he was certain he had seen those other varieties, probably without even noticing. Asking the successful officer to open those files they had found so far, he soon enough delved into them, trying to combine the words with those things he had seen. The result was a series of sketches, aiming to describe those beings he had only seen for split-seconds. "Ancestors, let me deduce this knowledge from your vision as accurately as possible."


Hours later, he was about to let the officer open yet another file when someone mentioned that they had found coordinates, possibly of their home world. "Excuse me for a moment." Standing up, he went over to where the admiral stood, coordinating mankind's attempts to find out anything of use. "Did we fnally come upon something? I heard someone deduced coordinates from the files - do we know anything about them, other than the numbers? The ancestors showed me the core, as if telling me to go there first before trying to free my home world. But there could be hundreds of other coordinate sets hidden in there, each one nothing more than a bait for us to leave our path."