chapter 3:Hesitation

The ship drifted into the solar system, introduced to it by an ocean planet, its scanners relaying no signs of life nor anything useful. It ignored it and pressed forward. That's when its scanners picked it up. 

The ship's sensors strained, their quantum arrays struggling to resolve the image. Instead of crisp data, the figure seated within the command nexus was met with a distorted, kaleidoscopic smear—a planet that defied clarity.

As the ship got closer, the planet became more larger. The vessel encountered more planets, but none sparked its interest, except for the gargantuan planet. As it drew closer, the picture being relayed to the figure became even more blurred.

The ship halted right before entering the planet's gravitational pull, watching as its 3 moons orbited around. The planet was gargantuan, bigger than any in the silver figures database, truly a leviathan among worlds, and that was surprising. The amount of resources present would be astronomical, it thought.

The silver figure pressed a button on the holographic panel; in response, the ship sent a wave of energy to the planet. The energy rebounded instantly as it was reflected off the ship.

The figure let out a low hum in understanding; whatever that energy was, it was interfering with its technology. It would need to break that first before it could even plan on landing on that planet. And the fact that no technology was present suggests the planet was home to a low-level species. Good, it would be easy to conquer; its denizens would fall whether willingly or not.

It approached careful not to be swept up by the planet's gravitational pull. 

A beam of scalding beam of gold energy was fired from the ship. It smashed into the energy matrix, causing a ripple in the field. But otherwise it remained standing. The figure tapped something.

But as it prepared to fire another beam.

The silver figure's eyes narrowed, the imperium? It thought. The ship's camera panned to where the energy signatures were coming from. Only for it to be thoroughly stunned.

There in the vacuum of space, 9 organics could be seen floating in space, massive amounts of energy radiating from their being. The silver figure couldn't understand, organics could survive the cold vacuum of space without mechas or suits to support them, but these 9 weren't adorned with such. Illusions, it thought at first, but no matter what type of illusions were used, they should fool his optics. So what he was observing was real.

The figures were human-like, but had some minor differences. 

The figure at the front he judged to be a woman based on her appearance. She wore armor bronze in color; it looked brittle and weak compared to the alloys the escort ship was made of, but something screamed otherwise. Her flaming red hair was blowing back, shocking the silver figure; there was no wind in space for that to be possible at all. She carried a large shield, marked with engravings that glowed a dim red light on one hand, while on the other hand, she had a spear, molten liquid dripping down, her eyes focused on the ship.

The other figure, much like the first it was also a woman. She had green hair, adorned with flowers, and she carried what the silver figure assumed to be a basket of flowers. And unlike the first, she was wearing nothing but a dress; she didn't look as if she were here for a fight.

The third figure couldn't be seen properly, no matter how many times the ship's scanners passed through it. He was covered in a long cloak that appeared to be made out of darkness; it covered his entire being, leaving no features present to be seen. A scythe floated right beside him, radiating an energy the silver figure couldn't recognize.

Behind the three figures, two more figures could be seen, which were nearly twice as large as the rest. Both were bare-chested and heavily engraved, each engraving glowing a golden color. One fist also radiated this golden energy; the ship's scanners detected space bedding at that point. The other figure, though, had a large clock behind him, slowly ticking. Both figures had white hair that flowed from their heads until their backs.

They all stared at the escort ship. They turned to each other, and from what the silver figure could deduce, they were conversing. The energy signature being radiated from them was astonishing; there was no information of organics ever displaying such levels of power. 

The figures began shouting into the cosmos, directed at the ship. The silver figure went through his existing database, aiming to find out the language that was used, only to be surprised. There was no such language in its database. 

The figures suddenly vanished, appearing between the planet and the ship. The silver figure finally understood, they were protecting the planet

For the first time in the silver figure existence it hesitated.