Orbit above Tu'an

"Captain, starship sighted in orbit around the planet. They're hailing us."

"Hmph." The captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer Vengeance, a heavyset man with the type of mustache ancient Terrans might have associated with a police officer scrutinized the communication's officer's duty station over his shoulder. "Real-life starships. I was starting to think this backwards bloody galaxy might be empty of everything but savages. Send identification back and show that we're on an exploratory mission for the Galactic Empire."

"Captain," a sensor officer said from across the bridge, "Another ship has appeared. They're moving into flanking position behind the squadron."

"It is an ambush," interjected a large, robed man from beside the captain's usual duty station above the rest of the bridge. Krayt is a Sith in training, large, athletic, and skilled with the lightsaber and telekinesis. He is also notoriously stubborn, refusing to answer to any name but Krayt, an obvious nickname. This is even after Darth Noctus explained that there had already been a Darth Krayt, and he would need a suitable moniker if he aspired to lordship. Krayt can, apparently, care less.

"We must counterstrike immediately."

"Don't be daft," responded the captain. How would these people even know who we are. Nonetheless, form up in attack position on the interloper. They could be pirates."
"Sir, the interloper is a twelve kilometer-long battleship."
"Oh. Well, have the Venator form up in attack position, and we'll keep an eye on the polite cruiser. And calculate a jump to lightspeed for the fleet just in case."

***

The Tau vessel receives a formal message identifying the ships as Imperial Star Destroyers Venator and Vengeance and escorts, on an exploratory mission on behalf of His Imperial Majesty Jeroff Carsus and the Galactic Empire. Seconds afterward, they receive a query about the identity of the battleship.

The Exeter, on the other hand, simply gets a query about their identity, and a warning to cease hostile maneuvers as one of the dagger-like ships swings its bow to follow their movement, two dozen smaller ships moving into a defensive array around the pair of destroyers.