A/N: It has been an interesting couple of weeks with my PC dying and everything. Had to rewrite almost everything on a phone as all the back ups I created online had a lot of contents missing or they would not open with the word app I had on my phone and with my piss poor memory I couldn't remember what I had written. So I had to improvise and write what I thought I would write or vaguely remember. Anyways this chapter is eventually be re-edited when I get a new PC which would be about a month from now if the shipments arrive in time.

Chapter 8: Hello World

It was utter chaos, within an instant communication with the world ceased. Any information that was being sent or received on electronic devices were replaced with strange images. Millions were left in the dark, confused on what had happened and they began to panic drawing the attention of their ancient enemy.

Unable to contact the various towns and villages inside their kingdom, nor the other kingdoms, the kingdom's governments enacted the various protocols and contingencies that exist for this kind of emergency.

Vale's Militia and the huntsmen living in the kingdom were deployed to the cities and border regions defences to defend against any potential Grimm threats.

A few hours after the event had occurred limited communication was established within the kingdom's council began to address their people.

Councilman Kels sweated profusely as he stood before the thousand men and women massed before the Council building they all wanted answers to what was happening and he had none. His fellow council members had basically thrown him the wolves when they voted for him to be the lead speaker for this conference. He glanced to his left, taking note of his colleague Amara, he wondered how she was able to maintain such a stoic look despite the current crisis at hand. Deep down, he knew she was panicking just like him, just like the others. His mind raced back to the day he ran for office promising the people an opened council one where nothing was hidden from the public now he's going to have to hide information or the lack of information from the public. His eyed burned from the combination of the bright light, flashing before him and the sweat dripping from his balding head into his eyes, he swallowed the what saliva he had in his dried mouth and address the crowd.

"Good evening and thank you all for coming. The purpose of this press conference is to address the crisis we are currently facing. At 11:30 am this morning an event occurred in which a massive beam of light from an unknown source shot up into the sky and causing a shutdown of the CCTS and regional communication networks cutting off communication with the outside world." He paused wiping his forehead. Chatter erupted from various parts of the crowd more specifically the reporters up front shouting questions at him. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "In response to this crisis the council using an alternate communication method issued Article 12 of the Vytal accords and had our militia deployed." The crowd became even louder with persons yelling more questions at him this time coming the back.

Unable to hear himself think he remained silent, he looked to his left, where his only ally on the council Cedric Menthe who offered a hypocritical smile, he never understood how he tolerated that sycophant. The crowd's chatter quieted down a little and he pressed on.

"With the Militia and the available huntsmen, we have in the kingdom, deployed to the border, the Atlesean security forces within our city have agreed to supplement or police force until this crisis has been abated. With the security of our city assured we have shifted our focus to getting the CCTS fully functioning which a reasonable time frame. Now I open the floor for questions,"

The crowded erupted again as persons raised their hands, calling for his attention.

"You there man in the green tie," he pointed the report in the crowd.

The crowd quieted down a bit as the man was handed a microphone. He cleared his throat testing the microphone in the hand. "Thank you, Councilman. Jon Petra of Tower News. In light of these events is there a possibility that this was a terrorist attack perpetrated by The White Fang?"

"That's a good question, as of now we are currently in the early stage of our investigation into what caused this incident. Thank you." He finished pointing another person in the crowd, a bespectacled woman. "You there, madam."

"Thank you," The woman said removing her glasses revealing a face which haunted him throughout his career. "Lisa Lavender, Vale New Network."

'Crap.' He groaned internally feeling.

"With Vale in a State of Emergency and the CCTS inoperable with no resolution insight many of my fellow citizens are wondering, does the Council of Vale plan to expand the power of the Atlas security forces within the city any further?" The woman question had caused the crowd to talk amongst each other with a few giving him questioning looks.

The man silently fumed as the woman finished. Of course, she'll bring that up now of all times his rating will plummet if he answered incorrectly.

"Thank you, Miss… Lavender. The relationship between Vale and Atlas is one great symbolic importance that I…and the Council of Vale takes pride in maintaining ever since the end of the Great War. With Atlas providing here providing additional support to our security forces during the Vytal festival and now during our time crisis is a sign of that symbolic relationship born from decades of cooperation between our kingdoms. So rest a sure that we at Council has the citizens of Vale best interest at heart." He finished, eyeing the woman.

The press conference carried on for another hour before the council returned to their chamber for a meeting with General Ironwood.

"Thank you all for coming." The General said to the Council members as they took their seats. "Now on the table before you all is a document compiled by the Atlesian forces on the events of today and the subsequent findings during the investigation of the cause of the incident. If you would please take a moment to read through the document before we continued."

"Thank General Ironwood." Said one of the council members, Councilman Kremm. "While we appreciate the formality of the black and white, but we don't need another print out of what we already know."

The General sighed internally as he stared the old man, he wasn't going straight out tell them that aliens were responsible for our current predicament least they dismiss him as a madman. No, he would rather they read and come to the conclusion. "While I understand the bore of reading the same report over and over again, but I implore you… all of you read through the document before we continue."

The council did just that reading through the report, though some skimmed through. One of them paused perplexed, he brought the document closer to his face.

"I am reading this correctly?"

"Yes, Councilman Wolke." Answered Ironwood.

The other council members soon adopted the same look as they continued to read.

"This is a joke," Spoke Councilman Kremm looking at the General. "You can be serious?"

The General said nothing and the man continued.

"Aliens!"

"Yes, Councilman Kremm, as the report states aliens,"

"And you expect us to believe this?"

"Of course not, as hard as it is to believe that is the truth,"

Kremm was about to answer that the man, however, Amara interjected silencing him. "I'm correct in believing this is why you wanted us to read the report first?"

The General nodded. "That is correct." My men and I made contact with the beings"

"And as my colleague was saying this is a somewhat preposterous claim," She gestured to Kremm and I'm sure you have evidence to back this up?"

"I do," Ironwood answered, removing a remote for a projector he had set up in the room. Clicking it, he activated the projector which began to display images of the Alien's ship and troops. "These images were taken on the site of ground zero." He explained cycling through the images of the UNSC humans and the Sangheili.

The council followed along as the man spoke what doubt that was there before disappeared and fear took hold.

"General Ironwood." Councilman Menthe called. The General paused, turning his attention towards him. "Why weren't we informed of this until now. I understand that communication was down, but it shouldn't have taken you people several hours to tell us that aliens caused the biggest communication blackout in Vale's history!"

"Yes, and who gave you the right to represent our kingdom." Joined councilman Kremm. "If I'm reading this correctly, you ceded 1km of our land to these aliens. Now I remember this Council gave you permission to provide additional security for the Vytal festival and nothing else. And yet here you are in this report, negotiating on our kingdoms behalf. Now Mr Ironwood I know you are a fellow councilman from Atlas and I respect all you have done for both our Kingdoms, but right now I believe and I'm sure my fellow council members agree you overstepped your boundary." Kremm finished.

Their reaction had been just as how he and Ozpin had predicted for them to behave Ironwood thought. His decision not to inform the council immediately after making contact with aliens was so they couldn't interject and possibly overruling him and make a mess. "I apologize for not informing you all earlier about the situation, but I stand by my decision to act as a negotiator for not just Vale but for the entirety of Remnant."

"I see General, while I don't agree with how things were handled, I do respect your snap decision to act in this crisis, but only time can tell where your actions lead and judging from your reports these aliens aren't hostile and they would like to meet with us and the other kingdoms' council." Said Councilman Kels.

"Unless it's a ploy for invasion." Added Kremm.

"Don't let your paranoia get the best of you," Kels replied. "Think of the benefits we can gain."

"Or the problems they can cause. They've already taken down our communication on accident or so they claim, who knows what other damages they're capable of inflicting on us." Said Kremm.

It was the first thing that came out the man's mouth that didn't make Ironwood want to punch him in the face. Some of the Council members were showing some agreement with their colleague, which was a good sign at least he knows Vale's council still has a good head on their shoulders. In the coming days, the future of Remnant will be decided and he hopes the other leaders of the world are sensible when deciding.

Two days later limited communications were re-established with the other kingdoms. What messages that could be sent revealed that the other 3 kingdoms were in the same boat as Vale with portions of their territories still without any regional communications.

The kingdoms' councils got busy discussing the events which unfolded in Vale. In the city, life was returning back to normal, people were commuting to and from their jobs or going about their business. The entire kingdom except for a few were still in the dark about the cause of the CCTS crash. Conspiracy theories popped up among the citizenry on the cause of the blackout, but for many, it didn't matter the worst was behind them as the technician work to fully restore CCTS to proper functionality.

The media continued to provide what little updates they could to the public as the day went on giving them hope of a full restoration of communication within the day or the next day. By sunset, communication was fully restored. Scores of people gathered in the streets to celebrate, billboards and tv stations live-streamed the celebrations from the other kingdoms. The celebration went throughout the night until all the displays throughout the city froze. Many assumed it was due to recent CCTS restoration and them overloading CCTS with their celebration and continued on. They stopped when the billboards blanked out and started to play a message that changed their world.

"Good mornnning Blazzers family! This you host Satchmo and you're listening to The Morning Show on Blazz 501and we are coming to you live from the grounds of Olive Park across from the Blue tree Conference Hall. Today's weather forecast is a partly cloudy day with a pleasant 27 degrees, so get those lazy bones out of bed and make the most of this warm weather because by tomorrow we will be expecting a few light showers of rain. So make hay while the sun shines ladies and gentlemen." The radio host chuckled. "Moving on to today's traffic report. For those of you heading on south road expect major delays as you commute as Creek Street, Fargo road, Margeret street and New Vale street have been all closed off for today's activity at the Conference Hall. Most of the traffic has been routed to Aspen street, so if you are heading into town whatever business you have I would recommend finding an alternate route and that concludes today's traffic report." The man paused for a bit and then continued.

"And now for our sponsors, for those heading down the Blue tree Conference Hall to witness the historical event of a lifetime or to join me your lovely host DJ Satchmo, parking space is available at the Ochre Center. They prove top-notch security to sure your belongings are safe from the grabby clutches of criminals such Roman Torchwick, all for the low, low price of 2.99 lien an hour. Quite the steal I know." The host went on to advertise the various sponsors for his program.

Finished, he continued with his program. "Now for what's happening today and for those of just joining us and are wondering what the heck is going on, why are the roads are being closed, why are there so many people heading into or out of town, why is the Atlas military here, why every geek and nerd in the city are coming out of mother's basement dress as a B movie creature? Now if you have been living under a rock for the past week and not been keeping up the current news today's the today when our esteemed council members from around the world meet with Aliens. Yes, Aliens from outer space are here on Remnant. What a time to be alive people. Now I know what you're asking what do they look like, what the here for? No idea, the council hasn't released any info on them so far. You might have heard from the various sources on the CCT like they're here to study us, invade us, steal our resources and our women and children et cetera. Though I have some doubts about a few of those theories online, but whatever they want they have drawn quite the crowd. In the meantime, I will be playing some of the hottest tunes of this year and I know our sci-fi fans out there are gonna love these selections. First on our list is Moon Man by Starstruck."

Soon the music began to play filling the radio wave as persons move about the city, uncertain about the day will bring.

"Welcome back to VNN's The Correspondent I'm your host Maria Gum and if you're just joining us I'm here with Dr Kingsley Jay a leading researcher on alien culture and physic. He also authored many books which discuss many details on the subject on hand the latest being The Universe at large, which is now available in stores. Now doctor as you were saying before we went on break."

The cameras began to focus on the man seated next to her. He cleared his throat and began. "Thank you, Maria. Now to answer the previous caller's question. There's not much that my colleagues and I can say on the phenomena that happen last week. We speculate that it was a data stream of some sort sending out information to the what we suspect are the aliens in question. What was being sent out or what are they doing to cause the event, I can't say, the Atlas military has cordoned the area where the event took place and restricted access of it. Only a select few like high-level officials are allowed in the exclusion zone."

The camera returned its focus back on Maria."Thank you for that Doctor. We have another question of our viewer this from a Sergi Evergreen and it reads. Doctor, I know you said earlier that the aliens are likely not to have hostile intentions, but I must ask what are the chances of the meeting breaking down and leading to war?" she finished. "Well, doctor?"

"That's a good question I believe that the chance of war happening is extremely-"

"-Inevitable. There is a high chance that these beings, these creatures are here to take over. I mean first, they secretly infiltrated our world for who knows how long, plotting-"

Ruby sighed in utter boredom as the man on the tv when on a tangent about how aliens are secretly plotting the downfall of man. For the past week almost all that was ever on the tv is aliens this, aliens that, aliens abducted my family, aliens stole my gold. She understood the excitement it is a historical event for Remnant. She even appreciated that she got one over Weiss and the other sceptics at her old school, but for all the excitement and speculation would it kill them to show some different for once at least talk about the Vytal Festival something that is right around the corner. Even the radio milking the alien news.

When her attention returned back to the screen in front of her the man was still talking this time about proof Grimm mind control and secret alien base in the darkest corner of the Grimmlands. She wasn't sure why she was still listening to the guy sputter paranoid nonsense. She guessed that watching the guy act and yell like a crazed loon was somewhat funny. She chuckled at the idea that she was one of the few people in the world that had an idea of what the UNSC and Swords of Sang- the other aliens were like as the media grasped at straws. It felt like she was a part of a secret group like the ones in her comics and Blake's books. Well, nothing like the ones in Blake's books. Her cheeks ran red as the thought of her teammate's literature entered her mind replacing her previous thoughts. She wasn't lying when she told her they were thought provoking.

Abolishing the degenerate thoughts, she looked at the wall clock, it was fifteen past the hour. Her friends should be back from the city by now. Classes were cancelled due to today's events and Weiss and Yang had gone into town early to buy the final supplies in preparation for the dance that was around the corner. Blake, she wasn't sure where she was, she just upped and vanished without a trace much Yang's annoyance, but she was sure her cat of a teammate will turn up eventually. Hopefully. Turning the TV off, she got up and dusted herself before heading towards her dorm. She, unfortunately, had to also plan the dance as well.

Ironwood sat in his office, mug in hand reading through the reports from his kingdom as the news played in the background. The coffee inside stirred as he sipped from the mug. A wave of relief washed over him as the atlesian blend entered his mouth, the reports as of late have been bad, multiple atlesian military equipments stolen or missing from inventory, an increase White Fang activity in Mantle, stolen dust shipments, and the list goes on. Setting the mug and paper down on his desk, he took a deep breath. He had finished a bit earlier than expected and had some free time left before the meeting with the aliens begin, he allowed himself to relax a bit in his chair. His eyes and ears tuned to a news report on the display from his kingdom.

It was about a protest happening live in Mantel, apparently, they were protesting the meeting the Vale. The segment showed protesters waving signs calling for military action against the occupiers in Vale, and one asking for the aliens to return a long dead celebrity. The journalist reporting from the location stopped a protester and began to interview him. The protester replied voicing his concerns, some of which were valid. Another protester came up from behind and yelled something that was automatically censored by the camera before running off leaving to both report and man startled.

The General sunk further back into his chair as the man continued to speak. A faint beep called his attention,

"Enter!" he said, adjusting himself to seat up properly onto the seat. The door to his slid open and Winter entered. "Specialist Schnee?"

"General," Winter saluted. "Security teams at Blue tree have reported in they have the building secured and are awaiting the diplomats and aliens arrival.

He waved his indicating for her to be at ease. "Excellent, relay the information to the council's security details and I'll see to it that UNSC gets the info as well. And have the teams run another security check we can't afford surprises. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir!" Winter saluted before exiting his office.

With winter gone a message popped up his terminal inbox, his personal inbox. The message didn't state whom it was from but it reads.

HELLO GENERAL. UNSC CAPTAIN LASKY WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ON THE BUILDING SECURITY DETAIL BEFORE HE ARRIVES.

'How did they get his personal contacts?' He thought. He was going to have his cyber team investigate before he responded. Sighing, he got up and poured himself another cup of coffee tasting the bitter juice before adding liquor to cup. He hoped that Atlesian blend will carry him through the rest the day.

Vale

Blue tree Conference Hall

Similar in height to the buildings in Vale, the grandiose white building dominated the landscape with its magnificent design. The building a testament to designers creativity was a twisted mass of steel and concrete, with ridged surfaces that flare outwards like the gills of a bulbous fish a stark contrast to the surrounding buildings. The roads leading to the front of the building were lined with two rows of flags on each side, the crest of the four Kingdoms waved proudly in the light wind high upon the gleaming metal poles. The grounds the main building laid on were pristine, showing the hard work of the countless groundskeepers. At the centre of the grounds was a large flag pole which flew the combined crest of the four kingdoms. Similar to the Vytal Festival emblem it was meant to symbolise a world united in peaceful harmony.

The parking areas had been filled with the vehicles of the many official, representatives and their aides, all of whom present for what was going to be a once in a lifetime event. After all, it certainly isn't every day that you get the responsibility of meeting the first extraterrestrial life forms on Remnant.

Most of the various representatives had chosen to go to the entrance hall, where many of them were conversing about a variety of different matters. Many of them were using this moment of down time to calm or distract themselves. Since for most of them meeting real-life aliens was a slightly nerve-wracking experience.

The sudden booming sound of the doors slamming open caused all present to snap their heads towards the entrance. It was a guard who seemed to be in a hurry.

"They will be here in a few minutes, their ships have just entered the our airspace." He said quickly retreating as he arrived.

That got everyone's attention, the group in charge of meeting and welcoming the aliens filed out to watch their arrival while the rest retreated into the main conference room.

The media and scores of persons, spectators from near and far were also present locked behind the barricades that setup save for those media personnel who were allowed on the premises.

The alien ships landed gracefully in the area that had been set aside for their use. Those the ships combined engine and thrust created a rather large amount of downdraft as it landed, causing the suits being worn by all of the representatives to flutter and several of the diplomatic aids came very close to losing their balance and embarrassing themselves. To which the media and other persons happily recorded for the history books and future generations to look back on.

The ships themselves were of two different designs, one was an reddish-orange coloured ship that was reminiscent of an aquatic animal with its alien design. The other ships looked fairly unremarkable next to the previous ship with its angles and utilitarian design.

The reddish-orange alien transport's side bay door began to open, and the beings that stepped out of the craft were very much remarkable. Apart from the coloured armour they wore, they were seven feet tall, reptilian in appearance with the most distinguishing features being their four mandibles like lips each lined with razor-sharp teeth and their digitigrade legs.

The other transports doors opened, revealing several tall armoured figures who exited the transports followed by a singular human in a grey uniform. Being told that one of the aliens was humans from space or at least looked human had a different effect than seeing it in person, especially they don't look any different from someone you would likely to see downtown.

The delegates that would be responsible for the meeting between humanity and the aliens stepped forward in near unison.

"Seems like we've drawn quite a crowd," Said Lasky upon seeing the scores of people being kept behind the barricades.

"Well what did you expect Captain this is a historical event for these people. I say we make a decent second impression this time." Came Roland's voice through Lasky's earpiece. The AI or rather the fragment that was currently linked Palmer's neural interface was brought along to provide assistance with selling their goals to local governments of this world and to help with the little cultural exchange they had planned for the meeting, an introduction to the galaxy at large. "Heads up locals are coming."

Before him were what guessed was the welcoming party who were to greet them. Lasky glanced over to where the Arbiter and his men were. His eyes met the sangheili's who nodded at him. The two leaders with escorts trailing behind approached the remnant diplomats.

The two groups now stood face to to face with the remnant delegates offering to best welcoming faces money could buy to the UNSC and Sangheili. One of the delegates, a middle aged man stepped forward bowing slightly at the two leaders.

"Greetings, my name is Alder Kels, Councilman of the Kingdom of Vale." He greeted. "And on the behalf of the my kingdom and rest of the world I officially welcome you all to Remnant."

"Thank you Councilman, I'm Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC. It's a pleasure."

"And I am Thel 'Vadam Leader of the Swords of Sangheilios. It's a pleasure to meet you Councilman Kels." Thel said offering and a handshake and a sangheili smile.

The councilman tensed up when the sangheili spoke to him, even more when the sangheili offered a hand shake. The man quickly took the hand in a nervous handshake.

"Likewise Mr. Thel 'Vadam, likewise." Releasing the hand he let out a silent sigh. "Now that we have been introduced I'm sure you would like to get out of the sun and meet with the rest of the world leaders."

"Of course Mr. Kels, however there is something I must ask of you." Lasky said.

"Go on let's hear it," The man said.

"We've planned a small cultural exchange to give the leader's of your world more insight into the galaxy at large. All the items we need are onboard our transport and it'll take a while to get everything unpacked and ready. If it's no trouble could I ask if you could spare one of your aides escort them the meeting room once they are finished?"

The councilman paused for a bit, his face adopting a look contemplation. Kels then turned to his group and spoke to one of his aides, a young woman. The woman nodded in agreement and Kels returned his attention back to Lasky. "This is Ashley Fern she has agreed to stay behind." He said introducing the young woman.

The woman judging from her tiny horns protruding from her forehead was a faunas. This was the second time Lasky had seen a member of her species and just like the one he had met before she there was almost no differences in appearance to a regular human save for the tiny goat horns. An in terms of resemblance to their animal counterpart the first faunas bared some resemblance to a cat in relation to the eyes and personality, the woman on the other hand didn't seem to outwardly share any other animal traits save for the horns.

"You have my thanks," Lasky said to the two.

"Your welcome Mr. Lasky." They both answered.

"Now that, that's out of the way I think we should meet with the other councilmen I'm sure the wait must be killing them." Kels said.

"Lead on ahead human," Thel said gesturing towards the door.

With that the councilman turned and walk towards the main door with his aides and the UNSC-Sangheili delegation in tow leaving the aide and a squad of Spartans behind with the transports.

Kels didn't know what to think of these aliens trailing behind him, as he led them to main chamber. The first thought that came to when he saw the aliens in persons was that they would have completely different customs from them so the standard Remnant way of greeting wouldn't work here. So when he approached them he tried the most neutral way he could of think of.

To his surprise they responded back to a way similar that one would see and use in an everyday first time meeting. It was a behaviour he had hope the human aliens to have or at least be familiar with and not interpret as some different, but it was the four jawed alien in golden armour that caught him off guard in both appearances and first impressions. He had honestly thought that the creature was going to do some weird alien ritual when it offered a handshake which actually turned out to be just a handshake a regular human or rather Remnant greeting with nothing special about it. It show a they both parties had an understanding of human behaviour and it made him realize that today wasn't going all that eventful as he thought.

He had planned multiple contingencies in event that a miscommunication takes place ignoring the cries of complaints from his fellow councilmen that Ironwood's report shows that the aliens have a understanding of Remnant's language and others cultural things. Turns out they were right but it was better to be safe than unprepared after all they couldn't afford repeated worldwide blackout with more ill intentions due to someone saying the wrong thing to them. A part of him wished the four jawed creature performed a weird greeting.

Arriving at the entrance of the room in which the future of Remnant he paused, resting hands on the double doors he could hear the feint noise of chatter and camera shutter coming through through the doors. The future of his world will begin as soon as he opens the doors. He hoped that if the aliens were allowed to stay and complete their task they would usher in a new chapter in Remnant's story, a new age technological development and understanding like the technological renaissance of old. One that will free them of the trappings of Grimm. He also hoped that his fellow councilmen of Vale and the other kingdoms would see some light in the reasoning he has and not fall deep into paranoia which the Atlesean are currently at. He took two breaths in and out before turning his head towards alien delegation. "Behind these doors lies the future of both our peoples on this world. I hope for the all of us that things go exactly how I… we want it." Finished he pushed the doors open revealing inside the main chamber.

Inside the leaders of the world were already seated in the front row, a few rows behind were other top officials both political and military, and in the back row which held the media personnel. The building guards stood at various points of the chamber giving a watchful eye of the newcomers.

The sound of camera shutters echoed throughout the room as the UNSC and Sangheili group entered the room. The various seated officials took the time to get a look at the faces the aliens that visited their world. Some of them wore the look of shock when they saw Lasky human face among a sea of visors and alien faces. Other showed no such emotion remaining completely stoic. The Headmaster of Beacon was present in middle row smiling knowingly at Lasky and Thel as they passed, the General was seated upfront with the other councilmen watching them as they passed.

The councilman led to the front of the room towards the stage where the podium and several empty seats were being kept. Lasky and Thel took a seat behind the podium the latter's chair creaked in protest of the amount of weight the Sangheili was placing on it. Lasky's and Thel's escorts took up positions on both ends of the stages with Palmer standing right next to the Captain. The councilman Kels found himself standing at podium with one of his aides whispering into his to which he replied with a nodded and the aide left the stage.

"Now that everyone's here I would like for everyone in the room to settle down and let us begin this session. Also, I would like to ask my fellow colleagues and officials of the Vale and the other kingdoms to withhold any questions until the floor is opened. Thank you." Kels said to which the members of his audience agreed to with silence. "Now I would like to have our esteemed visitors to introduce themselves to the world.

On cue, Lasky and The Arbiter stood up and made their way to the podium.

"I am Thel 'Vadam, Leader of the Swords of Sangheilios and Arbiter of the Sangheili race." Thel introduced, his golden armour glistening in the artificial light of the room reinforcing the titles he had earned.

"And I am Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity, I'm the commanding officer of all UNSC personnel present on the world and in space and the acting representative for the United Nations Space Command and the United Earth Government." Lasky said following in the Arbiter's footsteps. "And on behalf of UNSC and UEG, I would like to say hello world and welcome to the wider galaxy.

A/N: I always love the stories that have first contact scenarios. I just love the feeling of fear, uncertainty, hopefulness and general anxiety, that people go through in those types of scenarios. So when I was writing the outline for chapter 8, I thought it would be best to focus on Remnant throughout the chapter.

I just realized that this chapter is being released on my birthday.