"Yeah, I guess." 

Ugh, social interaction. This is terrible, why did he come. Is Magini done setting up the telescope yet. 

...Ah. Better back off, then. 

there's a minute of awkward silence, and then -

Magini gets the telescope set up and connected to the control-view-recording app it's designed to work with on her phone without too much trouble. She plugs in the telemetry from the modeling program she's been tweaking and feeding her stolen commsat data into for the last few weeks, and the telescope begins to whir quietly as it aims itself where she's pretty sure the signal source should be now. 

As it focuses, she casts the video feed over to Ami and Keith's phones via local wireless, so they can all watch on their own phones as the image comes into view.

And when the telescope focuses in the right place—

The lights are the clearest, an odd magenta that no Earth spacecraft or satellites use. From those, the odd, angular shape of the craft can be determined. Its size isn't immediately apparent, until it becomes clear that the tiny red dots swarming around it, like wasps around their nest, are much, much smaller spacecraft. 

Stars.

"...Yeah, that's - that's aliens."

Ami nods as she stares intently at her phone.

(Her fingernails are digging into her palm. She's trembling, a bit, but all 3 of them are too distracted by the image of an ALIEN SPACESHIP to notice.)

Yeah, other people? What other people? 

Aliens are real. 

Then Magini's phone pings with an alert from the telescope software, helpfully telling her that it's picking up... something else?

She peers in confusion, taps a few buttons, and -

One tiny dot in particular, this one purple rather than red, has detached from the main ship. It's heading towards Earth on a collision course. 

They can watch it on the telescope as it comes closer and closer, its trajectory curving towards almost where they're standing. 

As the object approaches, Magini starts poking at her phone furiously, plugging data from the telescope's feed into other apps.

"It's - about the size of a van, I think? And - unless it changes course, it's going to land nearby!"

She turns to look at the other two, unspoken question plain on her face: what should they do?

"How nearby?" 

Keith is dividing his focus between the telescope feed and squinting at the sky, trying to spot the mystery craft as it comes into naked-eye range. 

"Let me..." and she trails off, poking her phone for a bit. 

"... about 5 miles Southeast of here, it looks like. Why?" She shares the location info with the other two. 

Keith starts heading for where he stashed his bike. 

After a moment, he looks over his shoulder. "You two coming?" 

Magini, still squatting next to the telescope, looks up at Ami -

- who nods at her briskly, then moves to follow Keith.

"We should hurry. The Garrison won't be far behind." 

- she glances guiltily at the telescope, weighing options in her head. After a moment, she unplugs her phone from it, stuffs the cables into her bag, and then runs to catch up with the others, leaving the telescope and its case behind. 

Keith's hoverbike is only designed for two people, a driver and a single passenger riding pillion. Either Magini or Ami will have to perch on the back, since there's no way Keith is giving up the driver's seat. 

He barely waits for the girls to be settled before taking off at a reckless speed. 

Magini is shortest, so she climbs on the back, wrapping her arms tight around Ami's waist.

(She's done this kind of things many times before, both with her cousins and with Kani and Thrana, so it doesn't occur to her to consider the contact anything but the obvious safe riding configuration.)

"What's the plan?", she tries to ask, but the wind drowns out her too-quiet voice, and she can't bring herself to ask again. 

In the meantime, the purple dot on the telescope has become a fireball, now visible in the night sky as it plummets through the atmosphere. 

When it lands, it hits the ground hard: probably a survivable crash, but definitely not a controlled landing. 

The three of them are still a few miles out. Behind them, the Garrison base is waking up and disgorging a convoy of armoured trucks, the beams of their headlamps cutting through the darkness. 

Keith floors it. 

She clings on tight, and tries to be excited about a potential first contact situation, but her stomach churns as her anxieties race - they're going to get expelled or maybe even arrested, that landing looked dangerous, is whoever is in that even still alive... 

She hasn't let herself think too hard about the possibilities of what they'll find, all she knows is that they have to get there first or they'll never ever know. 

Luckily, Keith is very good at fast. She smiles grimly.

With Keith driving, they're at the landing site in under five minutes. 

The alien spaceship is an angular black-and-grey wedge with purple running lights, around the size of a van. It's still smoking a little when they get there, and it's left long furrows behind it where it skidded across the ground on landing. 

Keith dismounts, drawing an honest-to-god dagger from under his jacket as he cautiously approaches the craft. 

Ami is right behind him, staring intensely at the craft, waiting for something to happen. 

Alien!! Spaceship!!! 

(The exterior lights are on, so it still has power... is there a visible door? signs of damage? What's it made of?)

She walks towards it to investigate, all caution and anxiety set aside - curiosity is driving now.