Fiction:Battle for Dardum

Things were tense in the SETI Room of the Department of Defense Headquarters. They often were-- ever since the people of the Silvan-inhabited world of Dardum pointed their telescopes and radio recievers to the heavens they were assaulted by a whole manner of troubling signals and indisputable signs of extraterrestrial life. Stars disappearing under the shade of Dyson swarms, the highly visible emissions of interstellar starships; radio signals so powerful and consistent as to almost certainly be artificial. The signs were so clear, that in the Republic of Modasi; Dardum's foremost superpower; it was considered a legitimate national security threat. Enough to warrant a high-tech warroom with the latest, most powerful instruments.

Instruments which would soon pick up something rather concerning.

"...Can somebody bring the general over...?" Nakk asked over his shoulder. He was one of the 'grunts' in this department. His job was to read the data for anything fishy, and that meant mulling over radio telescope readings. It was dull work, and not what he was expecting to do with his life, but it paid well enough as long as you had the good sense to keep your mouth shut about it. Soon, General Ftill and several of his ubiquitous aides were humming over Nakk's shoulder, looking to the monitor.

"You called?" Ftill asked.

As far as the stereotype for a general went, Ftill was the opposite. He was relatively young, a theorist more than he was a field commander, and as far as Nakk knew held several relevant scientific degrees at a surprisingly high level. Even the manner in which Ftill carried himself and spoke was more fitting for a newly minted, enthusiastic professor than a man of the military.

"Radio signal," Nakk said, "directed right at us. No mistake about it." Ftill grunted. He considered his next question carefully. He always did.

"Origin? Do we know what alien civilisation its coming from?" While obviously the Modasian SETI project did not know the actual names of the civilisations they were dealing with, they did have a catelogue of Tuurosian civilisations which they had observed and roughly identified from afar, each given a four-character designation.

"My guess? Some of the signatures in the signal and the direction its coming from would tell me Civilisation A3B0. But..." Nakk trailed off.

"...But what? What is it?" Ftill asked impatiently.

"...Well. If I'm reading this right, the signal's coming from within our solar system. Not far from here."

Silence filled the room. Ftill verified that for himself, having experience as a radio astronomer himself. Immediately afterward, the professorial general showed his military stripes.

"Everybody! Action stations!" He shouted, as the large warroom exploded into a frenzy of activity. People slammed into chairs and bore their noses into their monitors, analysing data, requesting assistance, and calling other radio observatories across the Republic to turn their dishes toward the origin of the repeating signal.

"I want a fucking line to the Premier and I want it now! Quick!" Ftill shouted over the din. Seconds later, a red telephone was in his hands; the colour-coded type to get a direct line to the executive office.

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Premier Huvv was beginning to feel pretty good about going back on his campaign promise to defund SETI right about now.

"You're telling me its coming from within the solar system?" Huvv asked incredulously. He too had gripped in his hand the handpiece for his own red telephone, bolted to his office desk as it was.

"Yes, your Excellency. We have confirmed reports that an alien radio signal is being transmitted directly towards Dardum from a distance of no more than fifty million kilometres. It is likely that any other SETI programs acrost the world have also picked up this signal. It won't be long until this becomes public knowledge sir, we may have a day or two at most to draft a plan."

Huvv rubbed his furry forehead. "Don't we have contingencies in place as it is? Enact the most appropriate one."

"Yes, sir, but its not that simple. To be quite honest, those are more like guidelines. All of their predictions; for time to react, nature of the threat and signal, international response; are optimistic to say the least."

Huvv huffed. He was an average statesman, brought in at a time of relative peace and prosperity as one of the few free nations on Dardum. He wasn't prepared for this kind of stress, nor did he have the skill to solve this issue. But, his main strength was his ability to realise such. He got the Premiership by choosing the right people to surround himself with-- he'd do the same as Premier.

"Effective immediately I am activating the Strategic Command Council. I want all relevant intelligence and members in the Council-room in twenty minutes."

The Strategic Command Council was essentially a fancy name for an emergency meeting of Cabinet members and other key government operatives in a classified setting, given the power to make executive decisions instantaneously. While the concept was first invented to deal with the many nuclear crises that occurred in the past few decades on Dardum, nobody doubted that it would also be activated in the case of alien first contact. What people did doubt was its ability to make the right call in that circumstance. The Dardumites knew little of Tuuros, but what they did know was not encouraging with regards to remaining at peace. General Ftill went first.

"The situation stands as follows: At 0934 our radio telescopes picked up an extremely powerful radio signal, indisputably artificial. At 0936 it was confirmed to originate from within our solar system, about fifty million kilometres away. At 0940 decryption work began on the signal to see if it contained any data, and at 0945 reports started piling in that radio frequencies across the world have began to be jammed. Our radio telescopes are now blind, but as of 0945 the alien fleet the signal originated from was only forty-five million kilometres away from our world."

"...So these aliens are headed towards us, and they're jamming our world's radios?" Nagt, the ironically no-nonsense head Diplomat of the Republic asked. "Sounds hostile, to me. They clearly don't want a response back and they're being a big pain in the ass while they do it."

"Sounds hostile to me too," said Hajk, Huvv's aide. "why can't we get the jump on them and bomb them out of the sky? We spend enough on ICBMs as it is."

"It isn't that simple." Said the rather grouchy Air Force commander, Guil. "An ICBM can't hit targets in space, and certainly not from millions of kilometres away." Guil huffed. "Why did you even bring your aide along, Your Excellency?" Nobody in the SCC happened to be terribly big fans of Huvv's aide. He was a bit of an ignoramus most of the time.

"Because he has a certain set of skills." Huvv said mysteriously. The Premier sometimes indulged in strange games such as that; apparently enjoying the idea he could restrict the flow of knowledge in some way to some people. At least, that's how Guil and his inferiors saw it.

In truth, Huvv had a very good reason as to why he hid away certain details about Guil.

By 1130 hours the SCC had come to a conclusion and a plan of action. The Republic of Modasi would immediately begin mobilising its military and coordinating with the other great powers of Dardum on a coherent strategy. Telephone and telegraph lines were unmolested which meant that the major arteries of communication for the government were undisrupted though the lack of radio would pose a huge problem later on. Technicians still plugged away at decoding the alien transmission-- if there was anything to decode-- as the conclusion was made to assume hostility on the part of the alien interlopers. The Modasian military-- twenty million men strong and armed with the latest equipment available on Dardum-- was stationed mainly around the major urban centres of the large Republic. The finest among the Modasian military-- the Republican Guard Corps-- were stationed in and around Milissy, the capital.

By 1200 the other great powers had been contacted and similar mobilisations were underway. As the extraterrestrial threat approached, and first contact beckoned, the little world of Dardum prepared for war.

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