Opeyemi Hazen - Foreign Interlopers (4670)

Note from the Facilitator:

"Opeyemi Hazen is the administrator of an astropolis, the Soaked Aerie, orbiting Tandua. This is the first of his letters "to no one in particular" as station administrator. This one documents the visitation of three vessels to the Hyperbrasil system. "

To whatever historians read this,

First day on the job as the administrator of the Soaked Aerie. I can't even believe it. What in Jim's name were they thinking? These guys show up to my station and buy fissiles with, what, a huge statue made of bronze? Why did they even have that much bronze on board what is clearly a foreign military vessel? I can tell it's foreign by its design; galactic west, maybe. It was notably battle-damaged (dents, scratches, punctures, burns, et cetera) and seemed to covered in small ice particles, indicating a considerable amount of time spent away from any star, at least according to the imagery captured.

As the foreign vessels approached Kepule, Omniscience collected data from the signals emitted, heat signatures, et cetera. They were ice-cold, as if they had been inactive for long enough to radiate the heat away. Most surprising of all, they utilized Jericho sonar, thankfully disabling it before reaching the edge of the well.

There were a total of three vessels, all of similar military design, that arrived here, two of which refuelled with fissile material, forgoing hydrolox entirely. They did not appear to be thumpers, at least not like the ones in this star system. Perhaps the combat-focused nature called for something less conventional.

The third ship—the one that did not refuel and seemed to be the most damaged—was evacuated of what little personnel were on board, or, at least, what little personnel were still living. This third ship was then remotely piloted, performing a retrograde burn and plunging into the Tanduan atmosphere. If the ship had been designed to survive reentry, heavy battle-damage prevented it from doing so; it broke apart and landed in a thankfully unpopulated portion of sea. I ordered weaponry to stand down on the other two ships as this seemed to be an act of incompetence rather than malice. No doubt someone below is currently quite upset. I suppose I'll be spending the next day or so putting out metaphorical fires.

Worst of all, my cat scampered out of my new office and I haven't seen her since. I think she misses the previous office.

Administrator Opeyemi Hazen, 4670.