Caveship

19 || The Lokken Blockade

A sudden shudder and a loud metallic groan awaken Nicholas from his nap, forcing him to quickly sit up. Everyone else seems to be already awake, staring at the viewscreen, the largest monitor in the room showing a green and blue Earth-like planet. Several other planets of varying colors and size are also visible past it, the brilliant yellow star settled in the middle of the system exuding light that reflects off the hulls of the myriad of ships in orbit.

"What's going on?" Nicholas asks as he pushes his way to a stand, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the back of his hand. "Are we there? That wasn't a very smooth slow down. My neck felt that one."

Tah-Kuell looks over when Nicholas speaks, nodding toward him. "The Lokken in this system seem to have set up a warp dampener, and we've entered its field of effect. Though I can't imagine why they would do such a thing."

One of the monitors transitions from its normal view of space to what appears to be an office of some kind with desks and drawers. Inside the office, a green-scaled reptilian creature can be seen from the chest up. His eyes are a pure obsidian black, capable of moving independently but all currently focused on the screen. If chameleons were given ample time to evolve over millions of years, this is probably what they would look like. The green scales seem to taper off into a soft white scale toward his nose, little more than two holes settled a handful of inches above the creature's mouth. His scale seems to harden and spike backward beyond the edges of his mouth and over where eyebrows might have been, meeting toward the back of the creature's head.

The suit he wears is black with silver stripes on his shoulders that denote rank and so looks a formal, standard-issue military suit. Though it's impossible to see completely due to the way the camera has been set to only show everything from the chest up. Though half of an emblem can be seen at chest level on the creature's left side, with an orange, star-like shape in the middle contrasted on a black background with a silver circle surrounding it.

"Unidentified vessel, you have entered restricted Council space, protected by the 506th fleet of the Stellar Guard Corps. Either turn around and leave, or identify yourself and state your business. Failure to comply will be met with aggression," the Lokken speaks casually, but with a hint of curiosity.

"Hello. It's going to be tough to identify our ship, seeing as it's on no typical ship registry," Tah-Kuell explains. "Unfortunately we are unable to alter course as we have no control over this ship. Please refer to your superior for instructions, initiate Protocol Grey, designation Nomad."

The Lokken seems surprised by that, leaning forward to tap away at the console he's at. "Interesting. This is the first time I've ever had to initiate Protocol Grey. You're free to come and go as you please. I've instructed all ships to stand down."

"Thank you," Tah-Kuell smiles, watching as the Lokken's face disappears, the screen once again replaced by space. He turns toward the others. "The situation has been defused for now."

"This is the first time we've seen the Lokken. They look pretty cool," Sophia chimes in, leaning back in her chair. "Think we'll see more of them down on the surface?"

"I doubt they'll simply allow us to land without checking us out even if we've initiated Protocol Grey," Tah-Kuell says. "Lokken are inquisitive by nature."

Darius lifts a hand as if to get Tah-Kuell's attention, moving to a stand from his own chair. "I feel like we're missing some context here. What's Protocol Grey?"

Tah-Kuell seems to mull it over a moment, before deciding to explain. "Well, as you know, my species, the Mowaii, are known to the galaxy as 'Greys'. Much earlier into my people's arrival in this galaxy, it quickly became apparent to the Galactic Council that my species were vastly technologically superior to them, but fortunately for them we were only here to study, and not as an invasive force."