The Tyrus Imperium vs. The Anlashok Alliance

In the Year 2403.9 of the Anlashok Alliance

Captain Desmond leaned back in his command chair to stare at the ceiling. ‘This is such a boring job,’ the captain thought to himself. Stuck for long months if not years away from any civilized planet, survey ships were generally uneventful assignments. That is not to say that it did not have its moments, such as the rush of seeing a new system that no one had ever lain eyes upon. Indeed, almost every survey captain thrived on the excitement, the wanderlust that came with exploring. No, the dullness came over the several months it took to map out a system. Only then could they move on to the next warp point and the next unknown. Unfortunately, Captain Desmond and his crew had been in this worthless system for only a little less than five weeks.
"Captain … You’d better have a look at this."
Desmond looked over at his sensor tech, wondering what little discovery had broken up his ponderings. The tension and anxiety he saw though, disturbed more than his ponderings. “What is it lieutenant?”
"You’d had better see for yourself, Sir."
Desmond walked over to the sensor tech and looked at his screen. ‘Crap’ he thought, ‘there shouldn’t be anybody else out here.’ “Lieutenant, get as much information on that vessel as possible. It will be limited unless we enter combat range, but anything will be valuable.”
“Aye, Aye, Sir”
“Communications send a message to the Dauntless, have them warp back through to Mentocka and have them alert Alliance Command, they should still be out of the new vessel’s scanner range. Navigation, take us into orbit around Praxis II, it should keep us in sensor range of the vessel and its warp point entrance while leading it away from the Dauntless.”
“Roger, Captain, but who are they and what do they want.”
“I’m not sure Lieutenant, but lets see if we can find out. Communications, when you have finished with Dauntless, send the unidentified vessel the following message:

‘Hail fellow Space Traveler,

We were not expecting to find another intelligent race in this quadrant. Are your intentions peaceful?

-Anlashok Alliance ‘

Meanwhile in the Qikiltrin System

“Captain Arlock, unidentified vessel has entered combat range.”
“I see Ensign. Weapons, what’s our status?”
“Green across the board, Cap, but these survey vessels are simply old converted defense frigates, and we haven’t fired a shot in years.”
“ Hopefully that wont matter Weapons. Sensors, what are we facing?”
“Sir, they just turned around and started fleeing. It appears they are unarmed.”
“Interesting, they must have entered combat range to examine our ship …. Hmmm … Well we got sensor data on them too. Communications send an updated packet to Alliance command and include the latest sensor scans. Command will have to decide how to proceed.”

Two Weeks Later in Alliance Command

The news had shook the Alliance to the core. A new race had been spotted in two separate systems within mere days of each other. In addition, they had gotten scans of the one of the Alliance survey vessels. Alliance Command was deeply divided on how to proceed. One side argued for a quick military build up and war to catch the aliens off guard. They hoped a quick show of strength and a few victories would compel a surrender. The other side, emphasizing the unknown nature, size and tech of the new race, encouraged caution and possibly peace with the new race. Which side of the argument would win was still up in the air.