AEDEN COMM,
PRESENTS GREETINGS!

HAVING RECEIVED NO ANSWER TO OUR PREVIOUS COMMUNICATION, WE
HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LAND AT ONCE. I AM IMPOSING AN
INFORMATIONAL QUARANTINE TO AVOID RESTIMULATING POSSIBLE
RECESSIVE KULTURVERLAENGERUNG, BUT SUGGEST YOU GUARD
YOURSELVES. OUR CULTURES HAD A COMMON ORIGIN. WE COME IN ARMS,
WITHOUT ENMITY.

ERNSTLI BARON VEN KLAEDEN, COMMANDING STRAFEFLEET THREE,
SPACESTRIKE COMMAND IMPERIAL FORCES OF THE SECESSION

This was even more mystifying than the previous one, even less
meaningful in translation. One thing was clear, however: the fleet was
going to land, without invitation.

Embarrassed, the elders of the Geoark immediately called the tech clans.
"Can you revive the devices that speak across space?" they asked.

"They are revived," answered the tech clans.

"Then let us speak to our brothers from space."

And so it was that the people of the gardens of Earth sang out:

BRETHREN TO BRETHREN, PRESENT LOVE LOVE LOVE.

WE WELCOME YOU TO OUR GLADES AND TO OUR PLACES OF FEEDING AND
OUR PLACES OF SLEEPING. WE WELCOME YOU TO THE BOSOM OF THE
WORLD OF BEGINNING. AFTER TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS, EARTH HAS NOT
FORGOTTEN. COME AMID REJOICING.

THE ELDERS OF THE GEOARK

"I'm afraid Earth will remember more than it wants to," growled Ernstli
Baron ven Klaeden, as he issued the command to blast into an
atmospheric-braking orbit.

And there was thunder in a cloudless sky.

"_O your steed was auld and ye hae mair,
Edward, Edward.
O your steed was auld and ye hae mair,
And some other dule ye dree, O."
"O I hae kill'd my ain father dear,
Mither, mither;
O I hae kill'd my ain father dear,
Alas and woe is me, O._"

--ANONYMOUS

* * * * *

In accordance with the rules of invasion strategy for semi-civilized
planets, the fleet separated itself into three groups. The first group
fell into atmospheric braking; the second group split apart and
established an "orbital shell" of criscrossing orbits, timed and
interlocking, at eight hundred miles, to guard the descent of the first
wave of ships, while the third wave remained in battle formation at
three thousand miles as a rear guard against possible space attack. When
the first wave had finished braking, it fell into formation again and
flew as aircraft in the high stratosphere, while the second