Vanda Nosseo lands on a world that fights a lot of wars.
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"I mean, as far as I know he had a much worse reason to go around conquering things?" says Mateo. "Looks like they found the angels," he looks significantly at the accessory-angel, "and in my world we don't have those. But he's very famous."

"The one in Hazel is probably still kicking around," says Avigail. "And presumably the one from Revelation is also fine. I don't know if any of the ones who've died have been resurrected, usually the people who crowdfund for historical figures settle for one instance."

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"Hm." He does not look unduly displeased by the claim that he's famous for going around conquering things. "Well, I'm pleased you were able to locate them. We would appreciate if you could deliver a message to them, if you have a device to trap and record light sequences for delivery, to help update them on the situation?"

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"Light sequences?" inquires Junan.

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"A - very rapid sequence of specific frequencies of light, not always visible? It is one way angels communicate."

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"Delivered optically?"

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"The angels' eyes do not work the way human eyes do; they and We send these messages back and forth, traveling at lightspeed and so on a delay that is sometimes centuries."

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Vëoneo sound-baffles them and then announces that she's done that. "Can your angel hear us?" Junan asks, when this has been accomplished. "They can hear you, right?"

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"Yes," he says, "but not speak with you directly."

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"That's fine, it's just that our translation magic depends on the hearer's native language and we might be able to get more precision that way. Angel," Junan says, "can you signal the Admiral if I land on the right concept - radio, flash drives, lasers -"

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"Lasers."

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And if they narrow it down a bit more from there?

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Yeah, they can figure out how it works.

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Then yes, they can send a message to the other angels from this one if desired.

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Good. A message will be given to pass on.

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Cool.

 

They maintain some slack for when a new planet unexpectedly becomes ten times as complicated. Some of the teams shed a couple members, in various parts of the world. Some other envoys are called in from the reserves or offered bonuses for rescheduling their vacations. They go double-time on the last bits of the envoy curriculum, for the ones who are in training now, and post those in easy locations so they can divert more envoys with experience. They switch places to retail-only coverage a little faster. They pay the precogs a little more to cover more bandwidth in case of emergency, so they can run with fewer other layers of redundancy between them and needing to send a message back in time.

Valerius and Avigail-and-Otrik and Tarwë (among others) go to meet demons.

Vëoneo and Tuturio and Zanro (among others) go to meet angels.

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Vëoneo and Tuturio and Zanro (among others) (in pressure suits) arrive at the largest open space in the largest concentration of angels in this universe!

The largest concentration of angels in the universe is this interior of a large station, which, by their maps, is in an asteroid belt orbiting a white dwarf. Everything is glass and crystal and solid light, colors glancing and shifting like the stained-glass shadows on the floor of a cathedral if a day's full cycle was half a second. There is no floor, only empty space and filled space; angels (all gemstone-looking things of size varying from an inch across to about a foot and a half) are embedded in a variety of crystalline and metallic constructs doing mysterious work on all sides of them. The sound is a constant, dull rumble, as the machinery shifts around them on all sides, working away at its arcane purposes. (The pressure suits are necessary because there is no such dangerously reactive substance as oxygen in their station; they maintain pressure with noble gases and don't maintain much of it.)

What does the first team to visit this civilization do?

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First they play back the message from the angel on the Admiral's arm.

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That gets even more attention. There is a pause. Some of the machinery shifts. Several of the "angels" levitate themselves (the telekinesis appears to involve a light-show similar to the use of the hero crests) and head off in unknown directions through passages much too small for a human.

One of the mid-sized ones levitates itself, and, in the air in front of them, forms light into a shape similar to a featureless humanoid in a pressure suit.

And 'speaks' by directly vibrating their faceplates:

<Greetings and non-hostile intent. Does this method of communications work?>

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"Yes. Can you hear me?" asks Tuturio.

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<Yes,> the 'angel' says. <I have attempted diplomacy with carbon-based life before, and your method of communication is not unusual.>

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"My name is Tuturio," she says, "and these are Vëoneo and Zanro. We're from Vanda Nossëo, which is in another world, as distinct from another planet, and we have recently arrived in this one. Our colleagues met one of your kind on a planet of humans we were introducing ourselves to, and that's where the message we delivered came from."

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<He explained this. And also that you have physics-violating abilities including faster-than-light travel which would suffice to stop the Enemy Of All.>

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"Yes, some worlds have magic," Tuturio says. "And others have physics-based faster than light travel. We have not yet adopted your enmity as our own, but we are here to learn more."

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<If you can provide specifications for your archiving systems and they have sufficient capacity, we can provide you with complete records of our history of our interactions with the Enemy Of All>.

<The physical laws of this universe do not permit faster-than-light travel. No substance that exists or can be synthesized within it is capable of causing anything else to exceed lightspeed>.

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"How much data is it, in terabytes?" Tuturio inquires.

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