This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Moravian_descendant on 2024-12-25 15:37:14+00:00.

Ship leader’s journal: 17th Blekaan 203 of the interstellar age

My name is Kraahak of the mighty Erdroo empire, I was entrusted the command of this majestic vessel by his grace the Emperor himself. Our goal is to explore and expand the might of our great civilisation even to the darkest and most barbaric corners of this galaxy. This is the first entry to this journal, surely one of many to mark our success.

Ship leader’s journal: 30th Blekaan 203 of the interstellar age

Today we left the borders of our great empire. I have given out the command to start the FTL engines, oh what a glorious day to be alive. The crew is in high spirits

Ship leader’s journal: 8th Valkaan 203 of the interstellar age

At the start of this rotation, our scanners have detected a habitable planet, there seems to be a sentient population. What an opportunity to introduce civilisation to these primitives. In 2 hours we will land on the surface.

Ship leader’s journal: 35th Valkaan 203 of the interstellar age

The planet was inhabited by pre-FTL civilisation, a primitive reptilian civilisation they were freshly united and easily subdued by our superior tactics and technology. The planet is mostly temperate with an average temperature of 308 units. It is perfect for colonization by our mighty empire and it will be far better than if these creatures called it home any longer.

We shall resupply, send a report back to beloved Erdroo and continue on our journey.

Ship leader’s journal: 25th Mikkaan 203 of the interstellar age

It was almost 2 rotations since we found a worthy planet for colonization, but today we arrived at an interesting system, a single star, 4 rocky planets, 2 gas giants, 2 asteroid belts and 2 Ice giants. This should bring my name back to the Emperor as soon as we capture it. I will be the most famous explorer in this program I can see the rewards already, additional ships perhaps, a promotion for sure.

The species in this system seem to be as primitive as was the last.

Ship leader’s journal: 28th Mikkaan 203 of the interstellar age

*data corrupted*

Ship leader’s journal: 30th Mikkaan 203 of the interstellar age

The planet <data corrupted> ancient technology <data corrupted> civilization. <data corrupted> We called for reinforcements.

Losses estimated at <data corrupted> retreat <data corrupted>

**Ship leader’s journal: <**data corrupted> 203 of the interstellar age

**Ship leader’s journal: <**data corrupted> 204 of the interstellar age

**Ship leader’s journal: <**data corrupted> 204 of the interstellar age

Ship leader’s journal: 6th Klinkaan 204 of the interstellar age

This is the last entry, the <data corrupted> damaged our great vessel gravely. The reinforcements will arrive in a matter of several rotations, but by then our life-support systems will fail.

Long live the mighty Erdroo Empire! Long live the Emperor <data corrupted>

“That’s all we got Ord’a?” Asked the captain of the ship. “That is all captain. The data could not be recovered further, it is a miracle we could download it, let alone translate it,” replied Ord’a.

“Fine by me, how old is it anyway, I don’t remember hearing of any Erdroo empire.”

Ord’a raised his digit as a gesture to ask for more time. "It is roughly 350 years old and according to what we could salvage from their databanks we know Erdroo planet is in the northern part of the second quadrant of the Galaxy. And we can locate some of the planets this ship visited if you grant my team a rotation to do so.

“Take all the time you need as long as you get the results, meanwhile as much as I would like to explore the system I cannot ignore the signs.” Said the captain as he looked at the cemetery of ships on the horizon. "Anyway, communication officer Krak, send a message to the Council to put this system on the danger zones list and request aid for further investigation.

Several cycles have passed and the aid arrived in the form of 3 frigates and 3 support ships with various specialists. As soon as they passed the first asteroid belt they received a message to everyone’s horror directly translated into the Kjawran dialect of galactic common.

“You are entering into Terran core domain, shall you bring hostility into this sacred place you shall be utterly annihilated without mercy. Shall you come in peace disable your weapons and proceed to the 4th rocky planet from our star, there you shall be met by our ambassadors.”

“It’s Kjawran dialect, what shall we do captain? What if it is a trap?” Asked the frightened communications officer Krak.

“Disable our weapons if they know Kjawran and live then we stand no chance with 3 frigates.” The captain replied while memories of the horrors he saw in the Kjawran grand crusade against his species played in his mind.

As the fleet approached the place where they should meet this mysterious species they saw all manner of destroyed ships many of them they did not recognize but the sight of Kjawran mothership split precisely in half was enough to confirm his fears. Suddenly came a transmission, all 4 of the captain’s eyes fixed on the screen, this time in proper galactic common.

“This is space station Carthago of the Terran politeia, please dock your ambassador ship to port 34D as sent in the message together with coordination.” As soon as the ship docked Captain was greeted by a bipedal creature roughly 2 units tall with 2 arms and fur only the lower part of its face was pale in comparison to the Captain who looked like a bipedal Terran Blue tiger with 4 eyes.

The creature raised its arm in front of it, which the captain recognised as a formal greeting so he reciprocated the gesture. "I am ambassador Séthanta O’Malley of Celtic Union and I would like to formally welcome you to the Terran system. This is space station Carthago named after an ancient city known for trade and cultural exchange. If you have any questions please do ask.

“I am Captain Voorhas of Ulurian hegemony and a leader of expedicion to deep space for Galactic union. Thank you for your warm welcome, but I do have two questions: Why did you Greet us in Kjawran dialect and then changed to standard galactic common and how did you manage to destroy Kjawran mothership in half?”

Ambasador Séthanta gestured to follow him and while at it began explaining. “The answer is frankly simple, we saw your ship models in their database and then we scanned your communications and updated our translator. And we probably cut them in half with one of the laser defence turrets.”

“I see, so you have such superweapons here?” Asked Voorhas.

“I would not say that they are superweapons, but yes, they are quite powerful.” This worried Voorhas visibly. “Do not worry captain you are safe as long as you are not hostile.” Séthanta tried to soothe him.

“So we found a transmission of some Erdroo empire, do you happen to know something about them? We could not trace them down because the data we found were corrupted and estimated to be about 350 years old.”

The ambassador stroked his beard and thought. “Erdroo empire you say? Yes I remember hearing that name among the list of Empires destroyed by our species, let me check the list.” The man entered something on the vambrace-looking device on his forearm, hologram appeared and after a while Séthanta grinned. "Yes, they are apparently species that attacked Sol, that is abbreviation for Solar system about 435 years ago, that was in the age of rebuilding.

“Oh and we are here.” They stopped at a large wooden door. “We call this first contact room you will see copies of our key historical artefacts and art in here. Please do not be frightened, some of them can be unsettling for some species.”

“I served in the military, so I believe I will be fine.” Replied Captain Voorhas.

Ambassador simply nodded and opened the door. The room was decoraded with golden and silver lining with marble pillars and frescos of arious events. Hunting of a mammoth, March of Legions trough Rome, Destruction of Rome, The middle ages and so on. There were also all sorts of statues and weapons together with a fireplace. In the middle of the room there was a grand table with massive chairs that still looked comfortable.

The two sat across eachother and exchanged basic information for about 2 terran hours, then a second Terran joined them. “This is Kristina Biela she is our expert historian she can explain your questions regarding our history. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

This is my first story, I plan to write the part 2 today. It is a story from my original universe that I created so I have content for further stories if there would be interest in them.

Furthermore this is a shortened version of the story with less descriptions and conversations if you would like I could expand it, besides that I will be glad for suggestions on how to make my stories better.