How we treat each possible scenario upon First Contact

Officer A1ON5678's Personal Log:

So much work is going on right now. With two more ships commissioned and ready to go into service. The industrial base coming on line and understanding the flora and fauna of space has been exhilarating. Our crews continually run combat drills and defensive perimeters are in the review stages.

It is conceivable that we could discover aliens with the over 20,000 scans running in from both of our stations and the constant exploring and patrol missions we are conducting. We scour the cosmos looking for radio signals, and though we're capable of interstellar space travel, it is remotely possible that we could find what we're looking for. With our Faster Than Light drives, we can warp or jump across the cosmos.

Back in 2018, when NASA landed InSight on Mars. Where life could theoretically exist on Mars, or on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, which appears to have an underground ocean. It's even possible (though highly unlikely) that these nearby life forms could be sentient. It is consistent with current human exploration of the solar system that intelligent beings could have evolved in the deep oceans of Europa.

I am both afraid and curious at the same time. An instiatible human condition that makes us want to keep exploring and wanting to learn about everything. Yet, it comes with risks for both myself and the rest of the human race. Not only with our lives but our entire existence into the future.

Another possibility is that, intelligent extraterrestrial beings have traveled from a distant star system and taken up residence in our solar system. They might be living in an underground base on Mars or the moon, or they could be residing in the asteroid belt (or any number of other plausible, albeit unlikely, options). A monolith could be residing right on our own moon, emitting magnetic pulses. 

Considering these scenarios, what would we do if we encountered an alien race? As it turns out, the question has garnered considerable academic thought, this is not just as an inquiry in human psychology, but also as a way of contemplating what aliens might do if they ever found us. From astronomers to ufologists to anthropologists, scholars who have contemplated the various "contact scenarios" believe our course of action would strongly depend on the relative intelligence level of the newfound beings. 

As we move into the outer Solar System and beyond, the possibility exists that we may encounter an extraterrestrial species engaged in similar exploration. How we approach first contact has been a theme of science fiction for many years in the past. The treatment of how we do that is clearly defined in our training under "First Contact" protocol.

How we use our first contact protocols to handle these precarious situations. A Major General in the US Air Force (now retired) with combat experience in several earth wars, Ken brings a perspective seasoned by command and a deep knowledge of military history to issues of confrontation and outcomes, building on our current rules of engagement to ask how we will manage an encounter with another civilization, one whose consequences would be momentous for our species. But that is based on our earth only experiences. 

Consider this scenario as we are exploring. How do two ships approach each other in a first contact setting? When it happens it will be a pivotal moment for human history. The slightest mistake or misperceived intention could cascade into violence. Therefore even future deep space robotic probes, let alone a true interstellar ship whether crewed by humans or AI, should incorporate courses of action for this possibility.

The development of first contact protocols is obviously rife with unknowns since we only have a one-planet historical data set build on; nevertheless we must proceed. The bulk of the thinking on first contact so far has focused on a remote contact via electromagnetic signal exchange (SETI) or finding non-sentient microbiota (aka Apollo post-mission quarantine), but what if we stumble upon another intelligence in space? Admittedly, this may not be the most likely course of action, but as we start to move deeper into space it is an increasing possibility. Through centuries of trial and error, protocols have been developed for military ship and aircraft encounters on Earth. These earth protocols provide as good a basis as we have for building extraterrestrial first contact protocols.

The treatment of each possible scenario must by considered carefully and thoughtfully. The three fundamental principals we operate by are a) be predictable, b) avoid any appearance of hostile intent and c) attempt communication.

DS02 a new Industrial Base

Officer A1ON5678's log:

A full crew compliment was ready and eager to get underway when I arrived on station. The briefing was to run combat drills. So off we went in our scout ship. Captain Davis ordered us to fly the sector (-7,0) before our engineer said we are bingo fuel. So we turned around and came back to DS00. 

Our combat drill in sector (0,0) was a full on siege. One scout ship against several simulated Terran Ships. We lost both DS00 and DS02 in this exercise and barely survived. Even with a experienced crew, we are still ill prepared for a full on siege invasion. The Admiral has ordered more combat drills for the different crews. Being prepared doesn't hurt anyone and is good exercise to bring different crews together.

DS02, a newly built Industrial Base was almost fully operational before we took it out. Equipped with an experimental jump drive, we moved DS02 to sector (2,2) without too much trouble. While everyone was getting use to operating a Base rather than a starship, Captain Davis ordered a combat drill with our 10 fighters. The primary cannon was online by that time, while we watch it in action. 

Sector (0,0)

There was much enthusiasm on bridge, it's been a while since crews have been deployed to completed different missions. Word from above has it that a light cruiser and a bulk cargo ship is currently being built and should be ready soon. The crew agreed that some sort of fueling station needs to be setup further out from (0,0). Where exactly, I guess we will find out when the orders come down.

Sector (2,2)

2018-11-26 9:12:19 PM
2018-11-26 11:01:16 PM

Crew Manifest
Davis : Captain 
Bubba : Science 
Dave : Communications 
Starry : Pilot-Alpha 
Kennon : Weapon 
Cadet Bismarck : Helm 
UE : Engineering 

DamCon Team
Oliver Williams
Georgia Bergeron
Chloe Bergeron
Theo Boucher
Peyton Morin
Adalyn Clark
Aubree Anderson
Léa Gagné
Samuel Gauthier
Evelyn Wong
Felix Williams
Georgia Lavoie
John Patel
Stella Morin
Brooke Pelletier
Dylan Chan
Lylah Ouellet

Mason Simard

Here's the current verified sector report on that mission.
Sector (1,0), (1,1), (-1,0), (-1,-1): Nebula and asteroids.
Sector (2,2): Black holes, some whales and new home position for DS02.
Sector (4,5): pods of whales.
Sector (-2,0) to (-7,0): empty space.

Current Fleet:
DS00: Command Base
DS02: Industrial Base
TSN-Aegis: Scout Ship
TSN-Intrepid: Mine Layer Ship

Being built:
BC01: Bulk Cargo

TSN-Excalibur: Light Cruiser

Exploring and returning officer Jimmy

Officer A1ON5678's log:

Starry and I completed a mine laying mission a few days ago. Although we didn't completely follow the requirements specifications to a tee, the mines were laid. These mines have a 10x damage yield and replicate themselves after a period of time. It is highly recommended to not get within 500 meters radius of any of them. Here's what we were able accomplish within 40 minutes. The draw back is the Command Base can only produced so many mines in a period of time, so we were limited to about 50 mines at the high yield. My understanding that the industrial base will be able to produce mines at a much higher rate given its crew and onboard specialization.



I was part of a new crew to run a patrol mission with our scout ship. Jimmy had been on leave for the last several years, but returned and was assigned acting Captain. We were able to brief him on the new shuttles and weapons ordnance onboard our new vessels. We journeyed out to sector (-2,-1) then came back around to confirm the last crew's report of each sector. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary than space whales, nebula and singularities.

Here's the current verified sector report on that mission.
Sector (1,0), (1,1), (-1,0), (-1,-1): Nebula and asteroids.
Sector (2,2): Black holes, anomalies, some whales
Sector (4,5): pods of whales

We didn't head out to Sector (-10,-1) where nebula and asteroids were reported.

We did perform a combat training session in open space. Just to give our returning officer a chance to get his bearings again. I feel Captain Jimmy will be a great asset to our future missions as we expand our presence.

Crew Manifest
UE : Science
Jimmy : Captain
Bubba : Helm
Dave : Weapon




I believe if we continue to push further out into the frontier with our scout ship, we will discover more wonderful events to scan and understand.

Our scout vessel and DS00

Officer A1ON5678's log: It has come to our attention that we are to bring our efforts to prioritize the creation of a defensive system. That would mean constructing an industrial base to produce mines to lay down at higher rates than our Command Base.

So the Admiral has ordered the commissioning of DS02, our first industrial base. Along with that, a mine layer vessel is currently available. Our current scout ship has done amazing discoveries in the sectors adjacent to us recently. Our Command Base DS00 is strong and will be able to defend itself. But fears of an alien attack is currently unfounded. There's nothing out there at the moment from the sensor readings we've gathered.

The crew's assignment is to lay mines according to these plans and to treat it as a recommended guideline as it is their first ever mine laying mission. They are calling this scenario as "Siege".

Let's see how well the crew assigned to this task lay these mines down according to the specifications. 

At the moment, our fleet compliment consists of a scout and mine layer vessel, one Command Base and an Industrial Base currently being built.