HF - Irziell First Contact

8532 post-unification, Aegialus galaxy, on board T.S. Progress, a science ship sent to explore the area.

"Sir? They are hiding quite well from our scans." says the radar officer
Captain: "Hm, interesting ship of theirs. Contact them, I want to know if they are watching us or something..."
Communication officer: "Sir. They are running on completely unknown protocol..."
Captain: "Ah I see. Well, can we determine anything regardless? Try scanning it."
Radar Officer: "Yes sir, understood.

As they scan this strange alien ship, they find that its does not match anything known in the HSA's database, so this is probably a first contact with an alien species... The captain reads through the report the scanner has produced out of the alien ship, which has a previously unknown species inside it.

Captain: "We have a first contact on our hands.. Tell all of our crew. This is going to be big, for all of us... Bring us a little closer to the alien ship, slowly, and make no sudden movements."
Communication officer: "I'm trying to isolate and receive signals sent from the alien ship, but we don't know their language."
Captain: "Looks like first contact protocol says to capture those signals anyway, it's one of our hopes to decode their language!"
Communication officer: "I see, I will continue to... search... for.." The communication officer says, while returning all focus to his task and computer, the latter of which appeared to be well ahead of those of this unknown ship.

This alien ship was very strange compared to others. Although it has no armament, it was highly reflective and had a very small radar signature, not to mention that it is partially transparent to the visible spectrum of light.

After the HF ship approaches slightly, the alien ship stops what it was doing and shortly begins moving towards the HF ship. The HF ship appears visible for the crew of the alien ship, but the alien ship is not detected in visual range.

Radar officer: "Captain, they should be within visual range now. I still cannot see them, I'll point out their location on the screen."
Captain: "Doesn't seem to surprising, it seems they want to keep their ship hidden. But it should be obvious that we found them by now.."
Soon, a waypoint marker appears on the bridge
Radar officer, calmly: "The alien ship is right there."
Captain: "Understood, this is quite an obvious bearing, it seems they are now trying to get us to see them. Perhaps the systems that make their ship hard to see... perhaps they can't turn them off? I should probably read the protocol again."
Captain, after reading the first contact protocol for a few moments: "Hmm... it might also be worth sending them a SETI transmission designed to convey a message through maths."
Communication Officer: "What do you want me to send? Do we have SETI signals?"
Captain: "Looks like some are available in the Archive. Just send those over and we hope the aliens can figure it out through their mathematicians."
Communication Officer, searching for the signals using his computer, on official sources: "Hmm, SETI signals, SETI signals... ... Ah, this looks like- ... oh it's not. Hmmm... Oh, I think this is, yeah, this is the signal we should use, want to see it, captain?"
Captain: "Yes, coming" As promised, the captain approaches the communication officer but leaves a few seconds late. The captain brought a copy of the first contact protocol.
Communication officer: "It's purely just maths, so they should be able to receive it regardless of their communication protocol... Unless it gets filtered out from their systems, for some reason, but it's worth a try."
Captain, looking at the Communication Officers screen: "Ah, cool, I gotta check this up with the protocol, one moment...
He begins looking between the protocol and the screen occasionally. "Okay yeah that looks like the one, send it!"
Communication Officer: "Yes sir, easy enough." They push a few buttons, and then the transmission is sent.

Captain: "That will take a long time to decode apparently, that will be done while we are taking in every detail of their language.
Radar Officer: "So what else should we do in that time?"
Captain: "Find any other information we can. Can we scan their ship to figure out its composition? Temperature? What about its atmosphere?"
Radar Officer: "Its temperature seems... somewhat similar to that of our ships, perhaps hinting that they live in a similar temperature as us. Its construction material and atmosphere composition will take longer to find out, though.."
Captain: "Go ahead. Communication officer, have you figured out anything new yet?"
Communication Officer: "No progress sir, other than I have sent that transmission."
Captain: "Understood."

A few moments later, the ship receives a message from the HSA
Communication Officer: "Oh.. Captain! Message from the HSA... It says:

'Hyperion Science Association to T.S. Progress:
You are ordered to exit this area. Your new route will be sent via this communication line shortly. The HSA is deploying several pioneering starships to continue first contact protocol.'
Ah, I see.."
Captain: "First contact protocol is quite complex, yes. The protocol said that this message would be sent to us eventually, lets leave. Helm?"
Helmsman: "Yes Captain, I will start up the SAWD drive now, and calculating a jump route out. Our energy signature will increase; would the aliens perceive this as a threat?"
Captain: "Maybe. In that case, we should begin this with the thrusters and engage FTL once we get outside of a certain distance from them."
Helmsman: "Understood, sir."
As the HF science ship began to leave, the irziell ship started following them for a short distance before stopping, and watching the HF ship enter FTL.

Several weeks later, several (6) pioneering ships arrive near where the irziell ship was last found, to perform a proper first contact. They shortly found a different irziell starship and approached, slowly. The irziell ship, initially scared of the small pioneering fleet, initially retreated but the crew were soon overtaken by curiosity, and the alien fleet did not seem to have malicious intention as they were moving so slow. The captain of the irziell ship risked his life for history. 

One thing the pioneering fleet noted was that they have not received any transmissions back from the aliens, meaning they have not yet decoded the mathematical puzzles that the science ship sent them, or they have not received it in the first place. After sending the codes again, they decide to deploy some small drones which would slowly fly towards the irziell ship and appear as unthreatening as possible. The irziell ship retreated a short distance before allowing the drones nearby, but the pioneering fleet did not figure this out so they recalled the drones back to their ships. They hoped that, by performing a deep scan, they could understand more about this species and especially their language, but they did not manage to scan the ship deeply enough to return any meaningful irziell speech. 

After a while, the irziell ship attempted to fly closer to the pioneering fleet, which decided to remain exactly where it was. As the groups got much closer to each other, both sides could get far better views of the other. The pioneering fleet sent several transmissions to the irziell fleet with several HF languages in hopes that the irziell would send transmissions back to the HF ships. After several moments, they did, and irziell languages were starting to be decoded. Meanwhile, they sent a team of pioneers to the irziell ship by flying a transport ship closer to the irziell ship, requesting to dock on by hovering near a part of the ship that most closely resembles a latch for docking. The hatch soon opened, surprisingly, and the HF ship docked to the irziell one, preserving the atmosphere via Hardlight projectors. From the irziell perspective, several shapes began climbing out of the unknown alien ship and ended up in the airlock. As the irziell let them through, it became apparent that they were wearing large suits of armour, possibly to protect them from their atmospheric conditions or to hide what they look like directly. It has been made quite clear, though, that this was a multi species society due to the large variety of shapes occupying the airlock.

The pioneers in the irziell ship soon began recording alien discussions, the data being sent to the HF for decoding as well. Using equipment embedded into their suits, they determined that the conditions of the irziell ship were safe, and soon began removing helmets.