First Contact

The night was, as it had been for weeks, dark and foggy in the capitol. LawSec vehicles moved by in threes, never alone, no LawSec or CorpSec or even the vaunted ExeSec moved in any numbers less than six. No longer did they just wear sashes and carry a single neural pistol, now they moved in full riot armor carrying rifles, grenades, personal protection fields, and direct communication to the nearest High Threat Response Team Headquarters. When they trotted down the street, they had drones up, not just armed with neural poppers but armed with high velocity slug throwers, lasers, stunners, even micro-missiles. They moved through the broad decorated streets, reduced to claustrophobic seas of fog and mist, as if they were invading enemy territory.

Many felt they were.

Squad 883A4 of the 241th Precinct moved in formation, their duralloy shod hooves clattering as they trotted down the middle of the road, rifles held in their hands, two members of the 12-Lanaktallan team were watching the VI controlled drones that were keeping a watch for any signs of heat or any movement that they could detect.

Last night an entire HTR team had come up missing only to be found in dumpsters behind the library with "READ A BOOK!" shaved into their hide.

The fog suddenly swirled and cleared.

The Most High of the squad saw it first. His patty hit the ground as the rest of the team saw it.

The Night Terran.

On his terrible three wheeled pedal vehicle.

The Most High hit the stud, waving his men to get in a line.

"Under Council Regulation, you are under arrest for being the Night Terran," the Most High managed to choke out.

The Night Terran simply tilted his head and stared at the Most High, his cape flapping and snapping in the wind that only the Night Terran could feel.

"DISMOUNT THE VEHICLE!" the Most High yelled over his broadcaster.

"Reinforcements 2 minutes out, Most High" one of the drone watchers whispered over the comlink.

The Night Terran simply stared.

"Team, advance," the Most High ordered.

Together they all clopped forward into the strangely fog free area of the intersection.

"One minute, Most High. HRT with vehicle support," the coms trooper said quietly.

The Night Terran just stared, his narrow face pale, his eyes faintly glowing red in the street lights.

The Lanaktallan troopers stopped just in front of the Night Terran, who stared up from his fearsome three wheeled vehicle. The front wheel was massive, the steering bar wide with tassels on it, the smaller wheels behind the high backed seat the Night Terran was leaned back on. The Most High could see a friction/pressure operated hand-brake against one wheel. The whole body of the vehicle was made of orange plastic.

There was the scream of thrusters and the wail of stressed grav-drives as the two heavy vehicles landed behind the squad, covering the lanes. The sides dropped down and twenty Lanaktallan in full armor, carrying rifles, trotted out of the two APC's. On the top turrets turned to face the Night Terran with a slight whine.

The fog stayed away from the APC's, showing the intersection and the APC's clearly as the image was broadcast through the entire planet, a composite made up of multiple traffic and security cams. The signal went to GalNet, flooding out to the video hosting sites, the VR chat rooms and bars, slowly spreading across Lanaktallan space.

The Lanaktallan on the ground had no idea that their entire Unified Council Space was watching or would be watching them.

Memes started appearing. People started giggling.

The heavily armed and armored Lanaktallan stared at the Night Terran.

"STAND UP AND MOVE AWAY FROM YOUR VEHICLE!" the Most High yelled over his microphone as the Night Terran stared at him with his cape snapping and flowing in the wind that only affected his cape but not the surrounding Lanaktallans or the tassels on the ends of the steering bar.

The Night Terran suddenly held up on hand, his finger next to his opposable thumb straight up. It was long, bulged at the two knuckles on the digit itself, with a long pointed black nail at the end.

The Lanaktallan flinched back even as they charged their weapons and brought them up to their shoulders, drawing pistols and riot control grenades with their lower two hands.

"SURRENDER NOW! YOU ARE ILLEGALLY BEING THE NIGHT TERRAN!" the Most High tried again.

The Night Terran slowly bent his wrist so his finger was pointing down.

"THIS IS AN OFFICIAL WARNING!" the Most High said, nervously opening his rear eyes to stare at his reinforcements. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw they were all still there. He could see from his side-eyes that the drone operators were rebooting their pads.

The Night Terran reached down and touched a lever next to a silver dome.

All of GalNet and the Unified Broadcast System watchers inhaled in anticipation.

"STOP BEING THE NIGHT TERRAN RIGHT NOW!" the Most High yelled.

The Night Terran flicked the lever twice.

bring bring

The little ratcheting bell sound echoed through the foggy night.

Everyone started to giggle.

A Lanaktallan, all black, wearing a black sash and black flank coverings that were studded with shiny chrome spikes, galloped through the intersection from left to right, behind the Night Terran, it's hooves wreathed in fire and its hands replaced by curved blades, whinnying in a high pitched screech. The mist behind the Night Terran began to swirl.

The Lanaktallan drew back in fear.

The two APC's suddenly shut down, settling the ground. They hissed, mist escaping the edges of the door as they mag-locked down.

Inside each of them the six manning Lanaktallans began to suddenly choke on the halon from the fire suppression system going off.

It was invisible inside.

The mist parted and several Lanaktallan screamed.

Behind the Night Terran were two rows of more Night Terrans. Two rows of six. The first row mounted on the orange plastic three wheeled conveyance with the oversized front wheel. The back row mounted on the smaller red and white three wheeled pedal vehicles.

All twelve rand their little bells.

briiiing briiiiing

The Night Terran put his hand back on the steering handle and the other twelve mimicked him right down to the timing.

"ALL OF YOU! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR BEING... THE NIGHT TERRAN?" The Most High sounded confused at the end.

The two drone operators stared at their screens.

There was nothing in the intersection according to their screens.

As they watched a cartoon version of the Night Terran suddenly rode across the screen on the back of a cartoon Lanaktallan.

They shook their datapads and when the video display was showing the Night Terran standing majectically on the back of the galloping Lanaktallan with his cape streaming off to the side, they reboot their systems including the drones.

People giggled as they watched.

GalNet was full of memes.

The Lanaktallan all nervously shuffled.

The street light went from red to green.

All of the Night Terrans suddenly began to pedal furiously. Their tongues slowly flowed out of their mouths and streamed behind them, the ends wagging around and spraying saliva everywhere, their capes streaming behind them as the Night Terrans began to move forward, pedaling so quickly that smoke was billowing out from under the two rear wheels of each vehicle. They all smiled widely, showing off sharp fangs as they advanced upon the Lanaktallan, pedaling furiously as they moved forward.

Inches at a time.

They all let go of the right handed grip of the steering bar and began snapping their fingers in perfect time as they furiously pedaled toward the Lanakatallans.

Viewers burst into laughter.

The Lanaktallan High Threat Response members, reallizing they only outnumbered the Night Terrans five to one, whirled in place and ran at the APC's, ordering the crews inside to drop the boarding ramps.

The first two ran face first into the sides of the APC's and bounced off, only to be smashed against it by their fellows.

"WE'RE TRAPPED!" a Lanaktallan voice screamed over their headsets as the fog rolled over them.

As the viewers watched the Lanaktallan High Threat Response teams broke and galloped into the fog.

The Night Terrans all pedaled across the intersection and vanished into the fog.

All across Lanaktallan Space everyone viewing saw the words come up before the broadcast cut out.

"THESE ARE THE ONES WHO THINK THEMSELVES YOUR MASTER"