NUMBAH II

"Subsequently, after the sudden assault of Garmillas ship on Yamato and her crew, a four-hundred long unidentified vessel with design and insignia bearing no known civilization or nation, opened its gun port and opened fire on the assaulting Garmillas. Judging by their actions so far, we can conclude roughly that they had no wish of conflict with us as there's no following attack after the destruction of the offending Garmillas ship. That's all." Sanada Shiro, the XO of Yamato, dutifully read his report.

The tactical room atmosphere was filled with trepidation, worry for the newcomer. All eyes glued to the hologram of the new vessel, if a fight should break out, they wouldn't know what happened. And they're not even out of the solar system yet!

"How about Mamoru and Mori, any news about them?" Daisuke Shima asked. He's the pilot and navigation officer assigned to Yamato in their journey to save the earth.

"The new ship appeared right above them. It's safe to say that they're currently in their custody." Shiro shook his head.

"Are they really friendly? Maybe they're one of the secret projects from other nations. How about the US or China?"

"That too can be considered, however, as one of the personnel who was working on Project Izumo and Yamato, Earth had no resources or stockpile enough to build a vessel that large. All resources were diverted to Yamato to complete its construction, this I can say in certainty." Shiro said.

Another voice chimed in, supplementing with more info about their current situation. It was the intelligence officer, Kaoru Niimi, "Please look at this." She said bringing the attention from the rest of the room inhabitant, Niimi highlighted the ship's hologram to its bow, zooming it so everyone could see what she was pointing, "The letter is written in alphabet phonetic, 'UFS Takao', if they're not from earth, where else could it be?"

"Who cares if they're not from earth or not? The most important subject we need to decide is whether to contact them or not, and importantly, they have officer Kodai and Mori aboard that ship!"

Shiro Sanada nodded at the suggestion, "Nanbu-kun is correct. We can't act recklessly and disunited in front of that ship. How would it be, Captain?"

Everyone turned to the ever-silent captain of Yamato, but a whisper of his word, everyone would fall in line, "The choice is clear. Open up all channels."

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Asatsuki took a deep breath. It had almost become his recent ritual to clear his mind and ease it from the accumulated stress. No longer than a few hours ago he was just an unremarkable man from unremarkable background, now he's bearing the burden to conduct diplomacy to this version of humanity for another kind of humanity while he is not from either of humanity.

At least, Ortlinde is rather carefree in their first contact since most have the mindset of "shoot and talk later when all the enemies are buried six feet under and their home planet cracked."

He was about to let out a small laugh if only the door would not open so soon. Two pairs of eyes bore him the moment they stepped in. Takao is behind him, following every one of his motions.

"We apologize for the wait. I do hope you understand in this rather tense situation. Now, please relax, we're not here to let the gun do the talking. We have no intention harming either of you or that ship of yours." Asatsuki said.

"Human…" The female of the pair muttered in shock. Asatsuki only let a smile grace his feature.

"Imagine what we said when we saw you as well."

"May we ask for a clarification on this?" The male of the pair said, wanting an answer for the confusing situation.

"Before we get to that part, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Asatsuki Iwamura, the captain of this lovely vessel, heavy-cruiser Takao. The person who is standing behind me is the ship XO, Takao."

"Just Takao." Takao supplemented. Right, Ortlinde doesn't have surname until they're married. He ought to remember that.

Asatsuki has made a few arrangements with Takao and her crew, including to not reveal his true identity. There's various reasons but for him it's that he didn't want to be treated as a sort of dignitary, and that would only make the situation awkward.

The young man quickly stood up and bowed his head in apology, "Please pardon me. My name is Kodai Susumu, tactical officer of Yamato. Pleased to meet you."

So, it truly is Yamato. The ship is remarkably similar to the one that was sunk in the operation Ten-Go, maybe they repurposed the wreck and turned it into a space-faring vessel? He ought to like these people more and more.

Then it was the turn of the young woman, "I'm Mori Yuuki, Radar Operator for Yamato. Pleased to meet you."

Subsequently after that he explained with a few redacted details of Takao's current predicament leading to their eventual meeting on Enceladus, one of moon of the Saturn they were flying above to.

"Trans-dimensional accident? How could that even be possible." Yuuki asked.

Asatsuki simply shook his head, "It's being investigated by our research department. Until then, we can conclude that we will have to stay in this world for an indefinite amount of time. How about yourself? What's the situation on earth? Our scanner indicated that it couldn't support life anymore above the surface but we've detected artificial underground activity beneath but had to conclude whether it's human or not."

There's a few similar accident Takao brought forward to his attention before this; one of them being an exploration vessel that surveyed a spatial anomaly during their voyage that made the said vessel disappear into alternate dimension, after a year of searching, the ship beacon active once again, and it was found the ship to be empty except the scientist leader who had mind thoroughly broken and unrecovered.

Asatsuki knew about that accident, for it was one of the generic events in the game. Here are a few results from the said event. Either the ship leader survives with new negative or positive trait, the ship survives but returns empty, or it's lost forever in the void.

"The situation is graver than you would think. We, the Yamato, are currently on a mission to Iscandar in hope to recover earth to what it used to be. And for that to happen, we have the time of one year to go and return before the Earth could collapse. It's the Garmillas, they bombed our planet with constant large-scale bombardment until it turned unhospitable. You've seen it by now, Yamato is the last gambit for Humanity to survive."

He closed his eyes in thought. This humanity isn't even able to leave the solar system yet, and they made first contact with an expansionist empire. Talk about horrible misfortune. He can share Garmilla's sentiment for he'd do the same with any primitive world.

Then again, he was human. He'd to - no, it's his duty to support humanity, a small salvation for what he'd done if some cared about justification. Hypocrisy? Is it hypocrisy when your foes lie lifeless and can't even mutter 'hypocrisy'? What a joke.

"Takao, what do you think?" Asatsuki slightly swiveled his head behind so his eyes could meet with Takao.

"I apologize for this, but frankly thought, we need to assist them, Captain. Strategically and tactically it would be wise. I'm sure the rest of the crew would share my sentiment."

Ortlinde might have exterminated humanity, but unlike most Xenos, they held no enmity for humans. From humanity that it was created and able to flourish. Also, there's no Ortlinde here. Assisting with small matters would be the best way to build friendship and support until we can return to our world.

He was about to stand when there was a message from the opposing vessel.

"Captain, there's a call from Yamato."

Asatsuki let a smile grace his feature. Plus, he wanted to know how he could fare in this unknown world.