Aegero Hissania's Story

A few hundred kilometres away from the massive black cube an empty patch of space sparked with energy, an orb of darkness twenty kilometres across, blotting out the spiral arm of stars behind it, grew out of seemingly nothing, space bending around it and a haze of grey smog, sparking with static energy, colossal arcs of blue lightning running along the orbs surface, bursts of electromagnetic and magical energy flaring off of it violently.

For a few moments nothing happened but then five massive disks of blue light spread out horizontally, slowly moving downwards, great spires of steel covered in a faint purple aura sliding out of the blue disks, widening and connecting as five colossal structures, the smallest easily the size of a small town at their disk like bases and the largest of the five thousands of kilometres from side to side. From the bases of the space born fortresses protruded large purple crystalline structures sparking with energy and glowing brightly as large vessels of varying shapes detached themselves from the spires of the hovering structures, bright blue glowing panels along their bases and sides flaring brightly, propelling them into formations as swarms of even smaller vessels buzzed around them with long blue contrails.
The ships and the black orb did nothing as they sat there and waited, cautiously probing the massive cube and the surrounding space, checking for the source of the various transmissions and chatter that had drawn them to this place with various scans and sweeps.

It took the Pandorian Alliance fleet under a minute to register this new arrival, and prepare accordingly. Their largest vessel, "The Catricarch", was still bigger, being a militarized Lifeship, now a Capital ship, and armed with various weapons that would be more then enough to take down a small planet, and a large fleet. It then asked this unknown newcomming "This is the Catricarch, explain who you are, and what you are doing here" the Captain of the Catricarch demanded.

There was a burst of static as the ships returned their hail, tuning into their frequency, a thickly accented voice speaking, "This is the Grand Duke Aegero hailing from the Sky Fort Aldromania of the Aeon Empire, our fleet was Phasing Tunneling through this sector when we detected an abnormal amount of radio chatter. We split off from the fleet to inspect. And to who am I speaking? And what is this cuboid device you seem to be guarding?"

Artemis had been linked into the whole conversation in the meantime, as the Captain of the Catricarch, Raelora Merin, spoke to the new arrival. "Raelora Merin, Captain of the Catricarch, Project Councilor of Defense, and generally not a person you want to piss off. As for the cube, its origin is unknown, and its age is estimated to be as old, maybe even older, as the universe, or somewhere around there".

The Pandorians were not really hiding the cube's existence, or any details about it. They have been actively looking for people for this long enough that half the universe has probably heard about it, though whether they believe it exists is another matter entirely. "Aeon Empire? Who are they?" the captain asked in a demanding voice, and kept her caution, SHe had this knack for not trusting strangers who appear out of nowhere.

Aegero chuckled at the comment of "Not a person you want to piss off" good humoredly.
"Ah worry not, I had no intention of annoying you or your kin, simply investigating all the racket." There was the sound of a throat clearing, most likely Aegero's due to its loudness before he continued speaking. "Never the less, this cube is quite fascinating, none of our scans can penetrate it's surface, and the possibility of it being older than creation? Thats quite a claim..." He sounded slightly dubious but none the less curious then grunted at the final question.
"Ah I'm not overly surprised you haven't heard of us, we're only a small Empire on the galactic scale as of yet, based out beyond the Galactic Rim. Our fleet was only this far into this galaxy because we're blazing a trail on a war path to an old enemy of ours." He sounded bitter at the mention of an old enemy but changed the subject. "But regardless we will be contacting the Empire proper about this enigmatic polygon if you would but let us aid you in what is no doubt a scientific endeavor?"

This is when Artemis broke in. "It is. I am Artemis Baylor, Project Councilor of Science. We represent the Pandorian Alliance, who is leading this endeavor. So far, the only scan that has managed to tell us anything was a Harmonic Frequency Scan, which while being one of the least informational scans in existence, confirmed the box is hallow, and that there is something inside it".

Raelora got caught up in the old enemy. "Is this "Old Enemy" anything we should be concerned with?"

It would not have suprised either one of them if this Aeon Empire did not know them either. The Pandorians had not been taking part in the wars over, around, and based in Terra. They have considered joining the war, but they currently refuse to go near Terra....

Aegero grunted in surprise as Artemis spoke up but remained silent as he spoke, finally saying when he finished to someone elsewhere around, "Contact the Dios Narda and tell them the Endless Horizons is cleared for Phasing." He cleared his throat again, talking directly to Artemis. "Well I guess that's useful to know though our initial scans of your vessels gave us the impression you're not exactly inclined towards the Magical natures, perhaps our own Divine and Arcane techniques may shed some light on the nature of this device... Though the hollow nature of it is concerning... We don't exactly have a good history with massive ominous boxes..." He grumbled something in his own language before speaking again in an understandable language. "And nay, friend, this old enemy is of no concern to you, they are contained upon a blasted and war torn world and we are closing the noose on them quickly. They will be no ones concern soon enough." He said this with a sense of conviction in his voice.
He spoke once more as the dark orb the small formation of ships was hovering around sparked brightly, flashing.
"Ah! The Endless Horizons has arrived, right on time."

A great blue disk, the same as the ones that had heralded the arrival of the other ships formed beside their formation though this one dwarfed even the largest of them, the disk lowering to reveal a massive interlocking set of domed platforms and colossal struts and girders holding orbiting spheres of steel and fixed disks with dark spires rising from them, all built around a black orb, grey and purple lightning arcing constantly over its surface, an incandescent purple shield wrapped around the dark sphere with several large struts running from the complex structure to the shield.
This ship was more of a monstrous space station than anything else.
"This is Yodjryn Akeri, lead researcher of the Endless Horizons Void-Seeker, at your service." A germanic and feminine voice spoke into the connection between Aegero and Artemis. "I appreciate you allowing us to bring our vessel to this mystery of the cosmos."

The Pandorians began organizing another, unused part of the massive Space Station built around the cube to have use. "All right, then. We are organizing some space for your work. In the mean time, I will get you up to date....". In the mean time, Raelora made a request back to high command for more resources and more military vessels.

"Nay we do not usually teleport to random space stations." Aegero replied. "Only to those that are exceptionally noisy and house impenetrable puzzle boxes of cosmic mystery..." He chuckled quietly as more ships of similar design to the Void-Seeker though considerably smaller, a few of which seemed to be comprised solely of interconnected domes filled with all manner of greenery, entire forests suspended in their bubbles. "But alas I must make my way back to the rest of the fleet... From what we can tell we cannot spare a single ship for this particular excursion though we will be sending a few other military vessels to babysit the Endless Horizons.... For security reasons..."
Although Aegero was not visible, a smile could be heard in his voice as he spoke. "Anyway, I bid you farewell, friend." And with that his ship and those escorting it was engulfed once more in a pair of intricate blue disks from the top and bottom, rising and lowering to meet in the middle, the ships completely disappearing from view.

"Well..." Yodjryn spoke up as the Void-Seeker began to orbit the cube slowly. "Any particularly important information we should know about this thing before we start prodding it? I don't think we want it to start prodding back, yes?"

"As far as we know, it has no way of harming us. But those countermeasures may just be waiting for someone to crack the first layer. Additionally, it seems unaffected by all forms of weaponry. So, we better hope it won't attack us...".

"Oh, and there are unknown symbols on one side of it, and just one side. They don't translate into anything, because apparently they are not in any known, or unknown, language. And it exists in every dimension and plane in the exact same spot. Anything else you need to know?" he asked.