"This doesn't count as first contact if everyone leaves before I get to even talk to them." Nico complained as the battlefield emptied of ships.

"I will keep that in mind. There are some life signs on the planet's surface, so there is a chance that you can go down and make contact with them." Max replied with a smile, then brought up the data that he was referring to.

Nico brought them up in better detail and found that while there were life signs, the number was decreasing, and there were signs of energy weapon fire.

"Oh, it looks like they're not done with all the fun down there. This is the perfect time to go and say hello, Our arrival will have everyone's attention. It's a shame that we didn't bring the Super Heavy Mecha."

"It is a bit of a shame, but we can do our best with what we have. I made versions of your new Light Mecha for my team, so we can go as a unified force." Khan laughed.

"Well, in that case, we should get this shuttle headed for the surface. How well will this cloaking technology hold up during an atmospheric entry?" Max asked.

Khan shook her head. "Not well, if at all. But with the new adaptive paint, it might be harder to find it once we have landed, so we should be able to buy ourselves time to disembark and cloak the vessel again before the locals find us."

Max nodded. "That will have to be enough. We don't know if they're going to be hostile yet, but there is every reason to believe that this force will be, since we are showing up in the middle of a battle, and they were already in combat with the Myceloids a few minutes ago.

We should get everyone suited up and the Androids prepared for battle as soon as we can."

Those were magic words both for the Hunters and for Nico, who had already started stealthily moving toward the storage bay at the back of the ship where her Mecha for the mission was prepared.

All of the organic beings on the ship had been prepared Command pattern Mecha, as opposed to the standard units that the Androids were using, so they could be immediately identified in combat. The differences were subtle enough that the aliens might not notice right away, but these weren't the Myceloids, they weren't here for a challenge and a proper fight.

From the looks of it, the invaders were intent on eliminating an entire colony full of the small aliens, and they weren't being gentle about it, preferring brute force to any sort of infiltration.

[We are entering the atmosphere.] The ship's computer informed them, right before the shuttle began to violently shake.

The use of the cloaking device limited their power usage, including the gravity dampeners, which Nico promptly turned back on.

The giant fireball in the sky would be hard to miss either way, so there was no point in trying to hide right now. They could do that later, when they were closer to the ground and more likely to be targeted by alien weapons.I think you should take a look at

"The Cloaking Device is now offline. Shields are holding at one hundred percent, gravitational stability has been restored, and hull temperature has been stabilized without any damage to the paint." The Android in charge of Piloting noted.

"Thank you for that. Find us a good quiet spot near the conflict and set us down. Then cloak the ship and keep it hidden from the enemy as well as possible while we make contact." Max verified the orders, since everyone else was already getting suited up for the departure.

The shuttle set down without incident fifty kilometres from the site of the ongoing battle, and they finally got their first images of the force that was fighting the small gray aliens.

They appeared humanoid, with blood soaked and ornate power armour. It appeared to be deliberate, as the blood wasn't all black, and it seemed to be layered over dried blood from previous battles.

Khan opened a channel to Nico once she received that data, so she could ask the most pertinent question on her mind.

"You don't know these people do you? They're a bit big for humans at two and a half metres, but they seem to have a lot in common with your ideology and combat style." The Huntress joked.

"I think that we could have very good battles together, but going by the way they fight, they're halfway mad already, and rapidly losing themselves. I'm not sure that they are even going to be sane enough to make a proper contact with them, other than on the battlefield." Nico replied.

"Well, that won't get any complaints from me. If they want a fight to determine who is in charge we can give that to them. I have great confidence in the skills of our team and your androids." Khan laughed.

The fact that the Mecha were twice as tall as the enemy, and equipped with a weapons loadout that was optimized for orbital-scale battles might have had something to do with that level of confidence, but confidence was confidence.

It seemed impossible for the combatants not to have noticed at least the general area where they had landed, but neither side was sending any fighters their way. That suggested that this fight was either long running or personal, so Max proposed a route that would bring them at the battle from the side, arriving on the line between the two forces, then holding back to see what the response would be.

"I guess we gave the biodome good advice. Don't send any signals, whatever they find, it is going to be hostile." One of the away team members laughed.

"You've got that right. There doesn't seem to be much that is friendly in the universe, we just happened to stumble across the friendly people alliance first." Max joked.

"After starting a millennia long war with two of the species in your galaxy that is." Khan agreed.historical