The Second Contact

The Second Contact is a minor event and the first event to be hosted after the First Invasion. A new type of alien appeared in this event and plays a major role in the Xandrians comeback.

The alien, named Xalithars, is an arising force to combat the Xandrians with both their home planet is Mars. Xalithars are a neutral kind, but will attack when provoked.

## Contact Lost

On Year 63, 10 years after the First Invasion ended, Echelon Aerospace's Perseverance rover lost contact with Mission Control. A transmission from Xalithars was received by the GDO after a few moments and started the long communication between Xalithars and agencies on Earth:

 EA

`X: You have proved your power and ability to those worms... they should be dead.`

`X: Will you help us defeat their forces? We will teach you some technology.`

`EA: We'll help you.`

`X: They underestimate you. They should have used large battleships to combat your forces. They'll probably be coming again at Year 80 with more larger fleets. They should have fixed the issue with the laser cannon on their flagships, so be aware.`

`X: With us being an arising force to defeat them, we have tried a lot of time to raid their bases somewhere in Utopia Planitia.`

`X: We, however, have successfully spied on them for multiple times. We might be able to tell you their progress of preparing the second invasion.`

`X: Oh, and, sorry for taking Echelon's mars rover away, we were planning to take your rover with us and spy on the Xandrians. Is it ok for you to bring your car with us?`

`EA: Yea sure, just give it back once you're done with it.`

`X: Thanks, and sorry about that. We might be able to provide some live feed too. The spying will begin on Earth Year 62.`

## The Spying

### Space Mines

On Year 62, the Xalithars sent a new transmission to the GDO's Transmission Receiving System, indicating the start of the spying.

 EA

`X: We have arrived near their base in Utopia Planitia. The rover should be able to provide live images.`

`EA: Well, technically it's not really live if there's a 12 minute communication delay... anyways, we anticipate your firsthand photos from their base`

`X: Well actually we have already set up a teleportation devices around a nearby crater.`

`X: There should be live feed now.`

`EA: Telepo- what? Wait how did you-`

`EA: (faint chatter from background) bro we need those teleporters we can actually start on colonization since we don't have to keep conducting crew transfers, and one on ECHO too.`

`EA: (more faint chatter) yea you're right bill that would be good.`

`X: no sh*t, let just enjoy their plans shown to us without having to get caught.`

`X: (faint chatter) Sysby8B+Ltqo1Psja2HqIwhxQrC277PsY5RJ/Q+kwjCf2oM0iDeenOCj/C2PdKefVtPaHpndryP+HspBBhYCQQ==`

`X: (more faint chatter) 6E2sQMmFDWFoxNzqSNnbLm/P0ZeU1WxS06d8pPIQFBY=`

`X: As you can see, they are testing space mines. The mines won't explode, but they disrupt tech instead.`

`EA: Should we check Phobos and Deimos? In case they dig there, likely for more resources.`

`X: Resources?? Haha, on Mars there is plenty of minerals. Deimos contains space diamonds. Phobos, well...`

`X: We don't recommend landing on it...`

`EA: That's weird, we didn't find anything on Deimos when our landers landed there, or when Ares landed there too.`

`EA: I think we landed on Phobos like twice already...`

`X: They have placed mines and more detection instruments on Phobos. We mean, in Phobos.`

`EA: Ah. We still have the MRN online, so we can likely turn some of our orbiters around to look at Phobos and Deimos.`

`X: They might be drilling more in Deimos, so if you want to harness the space diamonds be quick. Their main strategy might be sneak attacks and space mines.`

`EA: Alright then, we'll send a message to the higher-ups to inform them. Currently all of our senior guys are busy working on something to ascend from Venus, don't know what that is, told it was above my paygrade.`

`EA: Also, do you mind sharing your teleporter blueprints?`

`X: Well, later, maybe later. We have to return to our base. They might be testing the mines in our location`

`X: (Fu** our teleporters)`

`X: (Will they work next time?)`

`X: (I hope they won't find out)`

While the Xalithars hurried back to their base, Echelon planned an uncrewed sample return mission to Deimos dubbed "Hemos 5", starting the first search for diamond samples on Deimos.

### Teleportation failures

After some moments the Xalithars have returned to their base and resumed the communication.

`X: Well, we have evaluated the ability to make the teleporter, and we think you should be able to design and produce it.`

`EA: alright, are you sure it's safe?`

`X: Well, we do have concerns. According to the principle of teleporters, each atom, in humans and their clothing will be disassembled and transported through a device, or a tube and reconstructed on the other end.`

`EA: so the worry is if it can't be reconstructed correctly?`

`X: Unfortunately, yes...`

`X: The probability is, a worrying 1 in 6 tries.`

`EA: Welp, alright since we have the blueprints we can either make modifications on our end.`

`X: If if something disturbed the process, this will result in a fail. Objects fused together. Other nightmares-`

`X: (faint worrying screams) fu** they know we had spy on them all the time.`

`EA: Hmm, alright then, we will have to fix it quickly then.`

`X: Yes, sorry about that, your rover is fine back in where we found it. Or is it a car?`

`EA: Alright cool, we're going to get to tinkering on our end now.`

`EA: And it's a rover.`

`X: Nevermind, we talk again someday.`

## Can AI prevent failures?

Echelon started experimenting their teleporters with inanimate objects and got some interesting results.

 EA
 GDO

`EA: Hey, we did our own tests with the teleporter, and it turned a cardboard box (a cube) into a perfect sphere`

`X: (faint sounds) Wow, perfect spheres.`

`EA: Do you have any other test results? Also, have you ever transported humans- or your own species using it?`

`X: Once we transported a mars rock. The machine turned it into an icosahedron.`

`EA: Weird...`

`EA: Well, we're moving onto biological tests now. We're not throwing humans in there first, we're gonna use test subjects like rats.`

`X: Well, beware, they might get fu**** up very bad.`

`EA: Don't worry, if they become any eldritch horror abomination after coming out the other end, the military has agreed to send troops to take it down before it can even leave the facility.`

`X: Once we experimented with a Zyolthyte. Turns out it was transformed into a half jelly half rock substance`

`EA: A... what?`

`X: Oh, think of it as mars spiders.`

`X: When executed with the slightest amount of error, subjects might deform, or change into a completely different substance. Its probably related about the reconstruction process of the atoms, causing an error.`

`EA: Well, that's good knowledge.`

`X: Ugh, we lost them already.`

`EA: Yeah, we can't really monitor the reconstruction process. If we can monitor it and quality check everything before it comes out, we can-`

`EA: I think I have an idea.`

`EA: We can use an AI linked to a supercomputer to check the entire atom reconfiguration process.`

`X: What is an AI? Wait...`

`X: (why cant the translator work properly?? That's the tenth time already. I think we have to make some more.)`

`X: (shuffling sounds)`

`EA: It's artificial intelligence... basically a really smart robot.`

`X: (AYO MY TOE) (Sorry mate) Hmm, can it do math?`

`EA: It can do a lot of stuff, heck, our species has made a lot of novels about it taking over our planet.`

`X: Robots can go wrong, I mean, they might not detect changes. Hopefully they can get lectured. Is that the wrong word? I don't know actually.`

`X: Even if it detects changes and shuts the teleporter off, the atoms will still remain in the receiving teleporter. The atoms wont disappear like nothing`

`EA: Our current thought process is that we imagine the teleporter like a train tunnel, with atoms (represented as people) riding a teleporter (represented as a train), from one destination to another (represented as train stations), through a quantum tunnel (represented as a normal tunnel).`

`EA: Using this analogy, the AI won't start the train until everything is checked out.`

`EA: If any of the people enter the train incorrectly, it stays at the original train station.`

`X: Fair point, but how can you collect and remove them?`

`EA: We don't even send the train off if we detect the people entering the wrong way. This means that as the train moves, the chance of error is kept to a minimal.`

`X: A nice idea.`

`X: How large is your teleporter?`

`EA: It has a diameter of 1m, only large enough for one person to step in at a time. Making a bigger teleporter is likely possible, but if more things are sent through, the AI has to do more calculations, taking a longer time.`

`X: Yes, with this size, it is possible. That's why, I, *Ash Mandelv Enguino*, agree that this is a brilliant idea.`

`EA: (faint sounds) Alien name reveal no way.`

`X: It is in short form, lots of our kind, even their kind has the same name.`

`X: However we wont be able to experiment on your suggestion. Firstly, they have destroyed our teleporter near their facility as they have tested their space mine on our spying location. Secondly, they might have discovered that we have spied on them for literal years.`

`X: Also, there is bad and worse news. Bad news is, they might be starting the second invasion on Year 70.`

`EA: Oh shoot...`

`X: Worse news is, we have discovered that their space mines have an unknown ability`

`EA: What is it?`

`EA: (faint noises) Inform the administrators about this, and cross-check our schedule to see how much progress we would have done by Year 70.`

`X: The mines are already able to evade radar.`

`EA: So they're harder to notice...`

`X: If a ship manages to evade them, they might be able lock onto the spacecraft and act as an offensive weapon while being a mine, defensive weaponary, implying that there are secret cameras, which are able to spy.`

`EA: There's cameras on the mines, I think we can jam those.`

`EA: (papers rustling and faint noises are heard) Alright, I'll take it from here. Thanks, Andrea.` `(papers rustling). Yeah, given our progress. I think we can make it. By Year 70, assuming no errors, we would have finished hypercomputer and AI development, and human-rate the teleporters, probably even having sent one to our space station already... We would also have finished Project Vulcan... and a partnership with the military would likely have been finalised by then. I will send the partnership notice to the military first.`

`X: But after some calculation, to interfere with those mines isn't hard.`

`X: Also, they may start to prepare for the invasion on Year 70 and declare war on Year 80 instead.`

`EA: Interesting plans.`

`GDO: Not very much is known about the Xandrians response to the last war they have tried to eliminate us, humans. Most importantly, not much is known about their new and reinforced strategies.`

`GDO: We would like to ask, can you guess what is their entire attack plan and what are their checkpoints in order to completely wipe out humanity?`

`GDO: If backup is needed, are you willing to help us during the war when we cannot withstand their invasions?`

`X: So far we've speculated, their entire strategy is to conquer the moons of Earth - the one humans call it the Moon. They might be planning to land on it first.`

`X: Since swarm fleets proved useless in taking the lead, they might be utilizing swarms for sneak attacks. Orbital defenses and detectors are needed.` `And yes, we can provide backup, but our fleets might not be as good as yours.`

`GDO: Thanks a lot.`

`X: Echelon, does Earth really have moons? This might sound like a stupid question to you, sorry.`

`EA: Uh... yea we do? We have one moon, which we call "the moon", but recently we believe a second object has been orbiting the Earth, called "the captured asteroid".`

`EA: The discovery of the captured asteroid was very recent, only 70 years ago, however it predated the founding of Echelon Aerospace.`

`X: Ohh, two moons? I wonder if that would be cool.`

`X: But if theres water on Earth, there would be tides meters high!`

`EA: The second one is less than 300m in diameter, it can barely be seen from the earth's surface, even with commercially-available telescopes.`

`X: Earth is strange...`

`X: So Echelon and that organization, we pray for the best on your development on teleporters. I'll be off to an urgent meeting.`

`EA: Alright.`

`GDO: Thanks for the help and guides on improving technology. Hope to communicate soon.`

`GDO: BTW, we are the Global Defense Organization. Call us GDO for short.`

## Results

After the confronting of Xalithars, GDO has continued the partnership with ASync Innovative Labs and improved the design of the SpaceJets while Echelon Aerospace continued experimenting on teleporters. The Xalithars have also agreed to help the humans in the war.

The Comeback officially started at Year 80, and agencies prepared defenses at Year 70 to prevent Xandrians from invading Earth.