Captain Werta looked at the radar. The H'moj Tef'it 's movements were gradually increasing. Still minuscule, but it was worrying. Werta's crew, supported by a hundred cruisers, were in charge of making sure the kwons stayed where they were. Nobody knew what the H'moj Tef'it or even each individual kwon was capable of, and nobody wanted to find out.
"ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!" shouted a prerecorded voice.
Werta nearly jumped off his chair. He composed himself and shouted, "Where?"
"Sector 4!" shouted the man controlling the nanomachines. A few million kwons had broken off and were heading for the Atlantis M4781.
He got a message from another Myrmidon, 'Troy M76451'
Orders?
He replied instantly,
.Stay back
He couldn't see each individual kwon on the radar because kwons were minuscule creature, the size of ants, but the cluster was far too clear on the screen. The nanomachines controller shouted, this time in a more desperate voice, "It is destroying the nanomachines in its path!"
"Calm down everyone. Get the destroyer nanomachine ready," he said and stood up. He headed over to the nanomachines controller who nodded in affirmative. The destoyer nanomachines were, for the most parts, protein molecules that blocked blood vessels, clogged the air pipes of the creature and generally caused havoc.
"Wait for my signal," said the captain, reading all the reports flashing on the screen. Just as the cluster of kwons reached within 300 meters of M4781, he shouted, "Now!"
Both the nanomachine controller and the captain looked at the screen intently for the results, and as the controller began his procedure, many eyes looking at them with varying emotions. Some were scared, some excited, some nonchalant and some confused. An unprecedented event was unfolding before them. No kwon had ever left the H'moj Tef'it and the H'moj Tef'it had never moved.
Werta removed a cigarette and light it. After taking a long drag, he sighed. The results weren't good, not one bit. The nanomachines had failed for some reason, which surprised the controller. The cluster of kwons was now just outside the ship, waiting for something.
He messaged Troy :
Do it
A few minutes later, as a silver cloud began engulfing the ship and the kwon, came the reply:
May the Gods be with you.
Werta went sat down in the captain's chair. He threw the cigarette down and looked at his men. He couldn't bare looking at their faces. They knew what the silver cloud meant, their deaths. Some broke down crying, some started praying. There was one last thing he needed to do.
He stood up and saluted his men and women. They were his crew and they had stood with him, through good and bad times. Tears ran down his cheeks as he spoke, "The Gods have called us home."
The battle had was still going on. It had been six months ago that the Union's battleships had launched a surprise attack on the Executron One, the flagship of the Ascari Federation. Their attempt to damage the flagship had failed miserably, after all the Executron One is protected by a fleet of over 400 battleships and countless other spaceships. Its support fleet is the same size as the entire Union fleet. The Ascari Federation decided to retaliate with force, and it wasn't going smoothly.
Commander Descratos, a Vilcabamban, looked at the battle plan General Fer!an, a Swer!tz, had given him six months ago. Though the plan looked good on paper, it didn't work well on the battlefield. The plan was use to the kamikazes, automated spaceships carrying a large warhead used for suicide missions, on their home planet but whenever the kamikazes came close to the planet, they would shut off. Anything not made by the Union would shut off. There was a field around the planet, but the explorer nanomachines couldn't get any info on them. Natural? Deadly? Removable? They didn't know.
So most of the fight was fought a few hundred thousand kilometers away from the planet, Caglia, near a asteroid belt. The Union had been considerably weakened, but still undefeated.
Captain Vestlana Dominic, human, entered the room and exchanged salutes. "Well?" Descratos looked at the head of the fighter squadrons. She was a hot tempered woman who always bullied on others, but cared for them in some warped sense of the word.
"Still no data on the field," the vilcabamban said. He move around a few spaceship models around on the table. Nothing worked. Whenever the Union's fleet was loosing they'd run off back inside the field. It was getting really annoying and the support for the war was running dry.
The technicians did find a black box in each Union ship but all that box did was send and receive information.
"You and your stupid plans," Vestlana said, "are starting to bore me. I didn't know the smartass Dernters needed 6 months to solve a simple problem." Descratos sighed. If things didn't get 'exciting' again soon, she'd go mad.
"Uh... sir? They are sending out a spaceship," said the communications officer. "A transport ship."
The transport ship headed towards the Federation's ships. "Blanket her," said Descratos and looked at Vestlana. "Why don't go join the war against the dominion? I hear it is fun."
As the transport ship was covered by a sea of silver, Vestlana replied, "How about you shut the fuck up?"
Descratos smiled. Humans had a weird way of using the word 'fuck', which amused him more than anything. The sea of silver turned red and Descatos sighed. It was a nuclear warhead carrying transport ship after all. This war was going to drag on...
The secretary walked quickly, a man following her. "Are you sure?" she asked the man. The man, a networks engineer, nodded. The secretary still didn't believe the man. A new civilization? The wars against the 3 empires they were fighting would loose even more support.
She increased her pace. There was only one council member here at the moment, Senator Roger Manin, and he was scheduled to leave for Kafka, Ascari One in one hour.
Just as she reached his room, Senator Manin stepped out. "Senator, please wait!" she said and stopped to take a breath. Desk work had kept her out of shape. Roger waited for her to get her breath back and spoke, "Easy there. I can always take the next flight." That wasn't really true. The flight he was going on was for him, so it would wait for him.
"This man here has some interesting news. Says he has found a new Empire," she said. Manin looked at the man, and then at his secretary, "Thank you, miss. That will be all."
The man and Roger walked to towards the exit as the man, "Sir, I'm a networks engineer. While cleaning up the systems I found this message. It seemed to be corrupted, but I salvaged best I could."
Roger looked at the message.
To: The Eāed Leadās ā the Ascari Federation
From: High Coār Chao Lin of the Maāe Empire
Dearest reāer,
We, the āunkee Eāire, would liāe to esāish a peaceful ālomatic cātact and hāefully also economācal trade between oār two fine nations. The Māunkee has much to ofā you, from advanceāpollution freeāāengānes to a revolāonary commuāon system which wāsave time for āying updated with your planets.
If such offā in your interest, please rāond to this āssage and we cārrange for a meetā spot for our ambaā to meet and discuāndebt dāomatic and ecoāical agreāents beāen our two great nātions.
May the Gāer Good be withā both.
~High Coāilor Chāo Lin
"And why should I believe you?" asked Manin.
"Because it was sent from a part of the Galaxy we haven't explored yet, to my knowledge. Grammar too seems a little off."
Manin spoke, "Fine, no harm in sending the explorer."
Manin called up the communications head quarters, 20minutes from where he was and asked them to send a explorer to the location the message originated from.
A lone automated explorer carried with it this:

for the senders of the message, if there a sender. It contained the location of the Federatioan and some information about how to get there.