A Terrible Truth! "The Fleet, Here?!"

The wonders of science were capable of many things once thought impossible. The science of ki was once a mystery, and, many many millennia ago, even faster-than-light travel was deemed an optimistic impossibility. But, now? Now, you could span the diameter of the galaxy in a day.
Fospha, mind you, hadn’t quite done that. No, her trip had a pitstop.

From Vegeta, leaving at the urging of Director Chill, to a space station on alert and, finally, to Earth. Never had there been a more notable unnotable world. Frankly, it was a bit boring, but at least it wasn’t Vegeta… although, it looked a bit like it. At least, this ‘Diablo Desert’ bit that they had landed in did.

”It isn’t the most scenic of locations, is it?”

”It isn’t, Director Fospha.”

”Well, what is there to be done about it?” A rhetorical question, of course. Fospha knew precisely what could be done about it. Indeed, she was to make it so. ”We don’t want to move from our current location too much. For a radius of, let’s say, half a kilometre, let’s run some rudimentary chemical tests.” Fospha was hoping for some water. Being a bronze doragon she was best suited to the coast, but an oasis was basically just an island’s coast in reverse.

”We’re picking up a lot of silicon,” because of course they did, it was a desert, ”there’s less water than the reported planetary average, but nearby there are some crystalline structures.” ‘Structure’ was a loose term. It could mean a castle made from gems, or the diamond on a ring.

Besides, if the rudimentary detection hadn’t detected precisely what it was, that meant that the material was a galactic rarity, which usually meant that it was expensive, which usually meant that Fospha wanted some. ”Yes, OK, let’s give it a look.” She was already preparing to be disappointed.

---

In not long at all, floating ominously closely, was the Erudite.

It was a sleek vessel, aerodynamic despite mainly traversing through space. It also had quite a few guns, cleverly hidden away and ready to strike. But perhaps its appearance wasn’t quite as alarming as its sudden, unexplained appearance and the way it ominously blotted out the sun. ”Oh, yes, this is interesting. What do we have here?” she asked no one, almost breaking out into a giggle. ”Keep the ship here. I wish to make acquaintance with some potential business partners.”

From the perspective of the brawling aliens and a perhaps-unfortunate Earthling, the bottom of the ship would open up. Where there was once uniformity, came stairs. And, coming down those stairs, was a young woman in an orange dress. She had horns and a tail, sure, but that was beside the point.

She smoothly glided down to the common ruffians below and let her scouter do what it did best. There seemed to be a fight going on… perhaps this presented an opportunity. An opportunity to seize by the neck.

Perhaps, a show of power?

Zaps of lightning started to move across Fospha’s skin. Her eyes and the tattoo-like triangle markings below her eyes started to glow with an electric yellow— it intensified, and intensified further still, until she herself was a storm in and of itself!

Those below might’ve felt it, too: the zap of static electricity, the slight rising of their hair; but it would not develop any further than that. For the time being, anyway.

”I am Director Fospha of the World Trade Fleet. You serve me now.”

Howdy!
Fospha had not yet noticed the rubies. She's seen the conflict and its effects, but has not yet singled out Min as its cause.
PL:3,870