"All ship engines, preheat! Taking off in three minutes!"
Piercing alarms blared continuously throughout the Mars shipyard. All sailors scrambled for an emergency assembly. The situation was urgent, yet most of them were clueless about what was happening until they were on board. Only then did they learn their mission: to intercept an unknown spaceship.
Initially, most people weren't too concerned. They assumed it was a routine interception of a civilian ship hijacked by some crazy organization—a situation that happened occasionally. But when they observed the ship, the Ishimura, still traveling at nearly half the speed of light, their relaxed expressions vanished.
"All weapons, begin preheating, ready to fire at any moment!"
Everyone knew their ships were too slow to actually chase down and intercept the spaceship. Their only option was to take off and hold their ground in Mars' orbit. According to calculations from the ICA (Interplanetary Commerce Association), the Ishimura would gradually decelerate and eventually dock in the same orbit.
Meanwhile, rumors began to spread through the ICA's fleet. "That's a spaceship from an unknown extraterrestrial civilization, and it even has spatial jump technology." Nobody knew who leaked the news, as the ICA's board of directors had already classified the information. Logically, these sailors shouldn't have known anything. But thanks to the incredible speed of information in this age, the rumor quickly reached every sailor. Panic set in.
This wasn't an unarmed civilian ship they were dealing with; it was a vessel from an unknown civilization with vastly superior technology. Nobody knew if the Ishimura carried powerful weapons. None of the mid-to-low-level officers and soldiers wanted a real war, because win or lose, those on the front lines would suffer heavy casualties. However, the real decision-making power did not lie with these grunts. It rested with the high-ranking ICA directors—or at least, that's what the directors thought.
"Approaching Jupiter, beginning deceleration. Estimated to reach Mars orbit in an hour and a half."
Marcus nodded, about to speak, when he was interrupted by a sudden report: "Three armed spaceships detected accelerating towards us." On the screen, images of the three intercepting warships dispatched by the ICA appeared. These warships had been on missions near Jupiter, which was why they were sent to handle the mid-course interception.
"Ignore them; bypass them directly," Marcus ordered. He wanted to avoid conflict with the Earth of the Avatar World. Even though the Ishimura had started decelerating, the ICA's slower warships still couldn't catch up to the spaceship, which was leaving everyone in the dust. The three ICA warships, which had just started accelerating, could only watch helplessly as the Ishimura flew past them. Their ship-borne weapons didn't even have time to lock onto the target. Even if they had fired, the shots wouldn't have hit. The only thing in the Pandora World's Earth that could pose a real threat to the Ishimura was an anti-matter bomb. However, Marcus wasn't worried. After all, an anti-matter bomb is useless if it can't hit its target.
"This is the Jupiter Interception Team. Target speed is too fast. Interception failed."
The report was soon delivered to the ICA's Board of Directors, who had already anticipated the failure. "How is the Mars fleet preparing?" Barry asked the liaison responsible for contacting Mars.
"They have entered Level 1 combat readiness. All warships have taken off."
"To be honest, although this is our first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, isn't this a bit too tense?" one director spoke. "If those idiotic sailors have an accidental discharge, things will spiral out of control."
"We can't just sit by and do nothing. Necessary measures must be taken, no matter what," Barry said, glancing at the director. Most of the ICA directors were only concerned with what benefits the Ishimura could bring to their companies. Barry was different; he was more concerned with whether the Ishimura would bring destruction or new life to all of humanity.
"Target is about to reach Mars orbit. Weapon systems are locked. No unusual movements detected from the target yet."
On the Ishimura, the piercing red alarm blared before being quickly manually shut off.
"Ignore them; dock directly at the designated position," Marcus said, looking calm.
"Yes! Entering Mars orbit, beginning docking procedure."
A strange calm permeated the space between the Ishimura and the ICA's Mars fleet. Neither side was making a move, but neither would voluntarily shut down their weapon systems. It wasn't until the Ishimura was completely stable in Mars orbit that Marcus spoke.
"Send the pre-arranged message, and dispatch the Courage."
Compared to the 1.6-kilometer-long Ishimura, the Courage, which was only a few hundred meters, was clearly more suitable for the current diplomatic situation.
"Quick, quick, quick! Designated personnel, begin boarding!"
The team assigned to the first-contact operation began boarding the Courage, which then detached from the Ishimura and slowly flew toward the heavily arrayed ICA fleet. The Ishimura's crew only accounted for a minority of this group. Most of the rest were crew members from the Star of Entrepreneurship. This was Marcus's gesture of goodwill to the ICA.
"Finally, we can go back," most of the Star of Entrepreneurship's crew felt a sense of relief. But upon remembering the Psychic Contract they had signed, nobody dared to speak up.
"I guess we're traitors to Earth now, aren't we?" the first mate said with a self-mocking tone.
"I don't think these people have any ill will towards Earth," the captain of the Star of Entrepreneurship said. Over their time with the Ishimura, he had come to understand why they were being sent back.
"When we go back, we'll definitely be imprisoned by the RDA and ICA. Honestly, it might be better not to go back," a crew member who understood the nature of the RDA and ICA spoke, and the others agreed. What awaited them wasn't torture, but almost certainly house arrest.
"Ahem!"
A light cough drew the crew's attention.
"You don't have to worry. The Ishimura will protect your legitimate rights and interests. After all, if you're captured, how can you work for the Ishimura?" The diplomatic team responsible for the contact was from the Biochemical Crisis world, led by the famous Alex Wesker, the female Wesker. Originally, she was in charge of developing the Tyrant, but Marcus had dispatched her on the Courage to handle diplomacy.
"The other party has agreed to our contact request."
"Begin hovering."