Yeah, that third side is the worry. Everything is looking like it could actually begin moving peacefully and sensibly, but that other alien group is a concern. You'd have to wonder what their intentions are for Earth and if they have a fleet of their own hidden somewhere. If Earth can find the Jupiter fleet I could easily imagine an opposing alien fleet knows where they are. The real question is, do THEY have a fleet hidden somewhere.

The fleet came prepared for battle so they must have aliens they're in opposition to and there must have been something about the Solar system that made the Commander and fleet pick it for a visit. The commander didn't seem concerned about radio signals so he may well have relaxed and thought whatever encouraged their visit was an undiscovered race as opposed to an advanced opponent.

Actually, the only thing that originally drew the Fifth Fleet to Sol was that it was on the way. Zane was only a mental coinflip away from routing through an adjacent stellar system instead, and missing the First Contact Incident entirely.

Didn't they loose a fleet mysteriously in Andromeda?

Not In Andromeda, on the route to it but still within Milky Way. And it's a vestigial thread left from the very first iteration of the setting (not even the story), so it most likely will bear no relevance to this story. Space is vast, there's room for more than one anomaly. ;)

Yup.

I was referring to the other side of the Earth-people:

There's the side the Major is on (1) and the Alien side however complicated that might be (2) and then the Official Expert Government side (3) that insists on being in control because that's what they do.

Yeah, It's a funny one. She's happy then seems sort of guarded. I guess we need to remember that her own background is military so she's likely accustomed to being guarded with information relating to her own side. She probably could have given details on the fleet's location but the Major's shown her instead.

She wouldn't necessarily know that her fleet has worked out the language or has the satellite hacking through the networks either.

But I can't imagine a request for simply helping to contact them would be worrisome to her. It depends how much of the protocols around interaction with a pre-space species have been drilled into her.

I think it's more relief than happiness. She knows the major at least respects her and her intelligence. This newcomer was just a waste of time, a sort of psychological torture really.

I'm pretty sure that's what she's saying in the 4th panel. Funny, and I can completely relate to that, just from the expression.