Chapter Seven: First Contact
The Plymouth Modified Evacuation transport, with several Lynxes and Panthers fallowing, bounced upon the rocky surface. It neared the massive landed hulk of the Confederation Starship. Darren was rather nervious, he saw the structures and vehicles surrounding the ship in the distance.
He continued thinking to himself, it at least confirmed that the Confeds are here to stay. He surveyed the vehicles and structures. None of them seem to be armed. However, he did notice upon closer inspection to the ship that there were some pretty suspicious superstructures, clearly a massive turret of some kind.
Darren decided to be optimistic, Turrets usually mean defense, plus, from the size, if the Confeds wanted to blast their convoy to plasma, they would have done so already.
Upon nearing the complex, he was immediatly hailed by a transmission. He immediatly turned on the communications relay. The unknown character appeared on the screen. It was the same person he talked to.
"State your name, and reason for entering Confederation territory. From the desposition of your convoy and from scans, it is very likely that this is a diplomatic convoy."
Darren thought... 'These guys are smart.', he formally responded. "This is the Plymouth diplomatic Convoy, I am Commander Darren. You guessed correct, we are here to talk with the Terran Confederation."
The uniformed man in the screen nodded. "Indeed, the Terran Confederation is opening diplomatic relations with all native factions. You may bring yourselves to the diplomacy table."
Darren Sighed, and sat down as the transmission abruptly ended. One thing the Terran Confederation has, its been abrupt and very to-the-point.
He waited for a few minutes, than noticed something strange. He noticed the communications link between the Diplomatic convoy and Plymouth weaken drastically. It than abruptly switched to complete static. He quickly re-programmed the Plymouth units to fallow the Command Vehicle's direct commands. He quickly looked around the limited landscape, than noticed a phalanx of vehicles moving in his direction.
"Terrans?" Was his questioned remark. However, something was not right. The Convoy was coming from the right. They did not carry any form of IFF Coding.
He immediatly used the optics onboard the vehicle to zoom into the convoy, and saw to his dismay. The colorings were unidentifyable, as the vehicles have multiple ancient blast marks, however, one thing was clear. These vehicles were apparently Eden in origin.
He immediatly snapped out of the daze he drifted in, and immediatly shouted "Red Alert! Incoming Hostiles!" The Evacuation Transport was the only manned vehicle, and was armed with multiple pulse rifles. The military units of the convoy immediatly proceeded to spread apart and go into combat formation. Darren ordered the Evac Transport to move at full speed towards the Terran Base.
This was just in time as well, as immediatly shots began coming quickly. The ground to the right and left sides of the Evac convoy exploded in Railgun shots. The armed Convoy was already returning fire. It was clear that the attackers desired to kill him, Darren thought. Although, the Convoy escorts were hampering any approach to the Evacuation transport.
Darren took a closer look at the attackers, and noticed very quickly that it was heavily armed, It had at least several tigers, and a dozen Panthers. They would dimolish his escourts in no time.
He realized that the Terran base is still a good deal away. While he can outrun the Tigers, and maybe the Panthers, the Lynx units dispatched would catch up with him and tear him into peices.
Putting full throttle to the vehicle, he started closing the distance. He hoped, for once, that the Terrans had some form of Defense System operational. Darren knew that if the Terrans lacked weaponry, that he is as good as dead.
He viewed the rear camera. Already the Eden units virtually plowed through his escourts, only a few lynxes remained and they were no longer trying to stop the attackers. The Lynx in the attackers force immediatly surged ahead to intercept the Evacuation Transport.
He ducked and waited, hoping for something to happen. However, eventually he felt the rumbles as Laser shots started raking across the vehicle's hull. He heard the Pulse Rifles onboard the vehicle respond in turn. The Vehicle than jolted suddenly as a railgun shot impacted the side.
He than felt another Railgun impact the side, than a rather impressive explosion was heard. He immediatly sat up and looked at the status. He noticed a Terran Vehicle in the distance. The chassis looked completely alien. It was indeed a tracked vehicle, however, the front looked armored, but sleek. The barrel of the weapon was square, with the right and left side of the square thicker. He immediatly watched something shoot out of the barrel, fly at a supersonic speed, and impact another enemy vehicle. He watched the fast-moving projectile impact the vehicle, and saw the vehicle explode as the projectile exited out the other side.
Darren immediatly saw the bluish rings, and inherantly identified the weapon as a railgun. However, it was clearly a high-powered railgun, the projectile moved far faster than a standard Railgun, and caused far more damage.
He immediatly saw that this was a Terran Combat vehicle. It was moving at full speed, which, for a heavy chassis, moved pretty damn fast. He watched it fire again, and another one of the vehicles explode. He felt no more railguns in his vehicle, as the Lasers were the only ones remaining.
The Terran Vehicle Fired multiple times, until the entire Lynx detachment was destroyed. Immediatly, it turned its large turret to the Panthers, who were gaining speed on the damaged Evacuation Transport. It than passed the Evac transport, and moved behind it while firing it's main gun.
Even the Panther's large armor could not stop the 'Railgun on Steroids', Darren watched as the Eden combat units turned its guns on the Terran vehicle. They fired, the shots not even reaching the armor of the vehicle, as they impact an energy field. The TCV, Unphased, fires its railgun again.
The battle lasts another 20 more minutes, and consists of the TCV Singlehandedly fending off the Eden assault force. Darren was amazed by the TCV's capabilities. He never seen shield generators in action. He realized that the Eden and Plymouth colonies still have much to learn about War.
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The battered Evacuation transport entered the vehicle garage, with the TCV fallowing closely behind. The TCV Has sustained multiple hits during the battle, it's shield being too weak to sustain damage for long. Darren watches the Evacuation transport be guided into a docking facility, immediatly after docking, it is quickly attacked by Repair drones. They seemed very similar to Plymouth's spiders, but far smaller, and far less armored. He watched a tunnel extend out from the ship side and attach itself to the rear door. Darren walks up to the entrance, and enters the tunnel, who is met by a uniformed soldier.
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The trip, to Darren, seems to take forever, as they eventually reach a room. The starship seems to be fairly small, poorly-lit, but lit enough to see. The soldier motions Darren into the room. Darren walks in to find a fairly compact conference room, with an insignia of the Confederation on the cealing. A single man is standing there, the same Uniformed Officer who he talked to before. The officer sits down at one of the seats, and motions for Darren to do the same.
Darren sits down, and speaks "Your Combat vehicle is clearly impressive."
Neo responds, his expression blank and unchanging. "It is merely a old retrofitted Main Battle Tank. It was originally a key assault vehicle, however, during the times of peace, this one was retrofitted to be only a police vehicle. Its original designation was the 'M1 Abhrams', I beleive."
Darren nods, not quite understanding what Cameron is saying, but is more concerned about the attackers. "Do you have any idea who attacked this convoy?"
Neo shakes his head "I have no information I would disclose about it. However, you are obviously here for a non-agression treaty. Here is a document that contains all we want you to know. I have informed Plymouth to send a more reinforced convoy to escourt you back to the Plymouth Colony. Would that be all?"
Darren nodded slowly, picking up the paper documents on the table, standing up, and walking out of the conference room, fallowing the soldier back to the Vehicle. Apparently, this officer clearly wanted to just get it over with. The Confederation were always the rushing types, it seem.
