The immediate aftermath of the leaked Vela footage was not panic, but a chilling, unifying silence. National leaders, already briefed on the classified findings of Project NIGHTWATCH, were forced to abandon decades of denial and manage the impending existential crisis. On October 25, $2025$, a mere week after the leak, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency, closed-door session that lasted 72 consecutive hours. The result was the swift and unprecedented creation of the Unified Extraterrestrial Defense Directorate (UEDD), headquartered in the decommissioned Geneva supercollider complex, symbolically embracing the scientific nature of the threat.

The public face of this monumental shift was Secretary-General Elias Thorne (no relation to Dr. Alistair Thorne, though the coincidence fueled countless conspiracy theories), a figure known for his measured pragmatism, who addressed the world in a broadcast now etched into history: “What we face is not an invasion, but an awakening. The universe is vastly larger, and vastly more populated, than we dared to imagine. The craft observed near the object designated ‘3I Atlas’ are a clear, technological presence, and our primary directive is to understand their intent, not to engage in hostilities.”

Behind the diplomatic façade, the military mobilization was frenetic. The core of the UEDD’s operational branch was formed by merging the most advanced elements of NATO, the CSTO, and the PACRIM defense forces, creating a single command structure focused on the development of counter-technologies. Engineers worked around the clock attempting to reverse-engineer the principles glimpsed in the Vela footage, specifically the inertia-dampening fields that allowed the ESI craft to execute $\mathrm{G}$-force defying maneuvers.

The appearance of multiple, smaller, kite-shaped “Scout Craft” (as depicted in the secondary image, emitting intense green beams) confirmed the organized nature of the extraterrestrial presence. These scouts, believed to be reconnaissance drones, were consistently observed maintaining a perfect, silent escort formation around the mᴀssive lenticular flagship as it slowly adjusted its trajectory toward the Kuiper Belt. However, the most unnerving development was the detection of Deep Space Transmissions (DSTs) originating from the flagship. These transmissions were not electromagnetic; they were a complex, structured pulse of gravitational waves, recorded by the LIGO-GEO Collaboration, carrying an immense data payload.

Decoding these DSTs became the UEDD’s top priority. Initial attempts using human language models and complex mathematical algorithms failed completely. The transmission was not a language; it was a pure mathematical construct rooted in geometries and topological states entirely alien to human knowledge, requiring a paradigm shift in data processing. The implications of these gravitational wave transmissions were profound: they suggested a level of communication that transcended conventional radio, capable of instantaneous, lossless communication across vast interstellar distances. The very presence of the fleet, confirmed by global tracking systems to number over thirty vessels—a silent, vigilant escort of an otherwise unremarkable comet, now renamed the “Atlas Sentinel”—solidified the terrifying conclusion. This was not a random flyby; this was a purposeful, organized deployment of a technologically superior force, perhaps retrieving something, or, more ominously, marking its return to a pre-established position. The global alarm was officially sounded not because of an impending attack, but because humanity realized it was merely a supporting player in a cosmic drama whose plot was written millennia ago.