The Conductor's decision was simple: make contact with the organic beings on their doorstep. In the intelligence they had gathered, the Star Sea Alliance came up frequently. The Conductor and the subordinate Wisdom units concluded that the Legion should not openly make an enemy of the Star Sea Alliance in its early stages.
Once the Legion had gathered enough intelligence, it could calculate how to conquer the entire Star Sea at the lowest possible cost. At that point, the seventy-odd universes under the Star Sea's control would all become fuel for the Legion's growth.
The Conductor's team ultimately concluded that the optimal solution was to learn about it first, then join.
As such, contact and communication were the first step.
And so the Conductor sent a transmission to the Owen Fleet.
At the entrance to the B3397 Universe passage, an operator busily working the controls suddenly frowned.
"Huh?"
Owen looked at him and asked,
"What is it?"
The operator said,
"A communications signal seems to have connected to our starship."
Owen was baffled too. There was a communications signal out here?
Still, Owen said,
"Put it through."
The operator nodded.
"It's already connected."
Accompanied by the crackle of electrical static, a synthesized metallic voice sounded inside Owen's ship.
"Please identify yourselves. Why are you lingering along our border?"
Owen narrowed one eye and asked,
"You're starting with an interrogation? Shouldn't you introduce yourselves first?"
The synthesized metallic voice continued,
"This is the territory of the Mechanicus. Please state your purpose, strangers."
Indeed, Cheng Yu had long since told the Conductor that all their outward-facing identities were to use the name Mechanicus.
Owen narrowed his eyes slightly. The Mechanicus? What the hell was that? Machines and religion?
Were they a technological civilization or one that used supernatural powers?
Owen promptly