An Exile Encounter

The characters are part of the ranks of the Lunar Military and, due to a run in with their superiors in the central systems, they were assigned to a lonely border patrol route designed to keep tabs on Exile movement.

The characters normal patrol route takes them through open space and lasts for more than a month.  They have been patrolling this same system for over nine months now without any incident or even encounter of any type...when they suddenly get an encrypted Governmental (i.e. not a Military) distress signal from an uncharted planet that suddenly appears on their display only moments after receiving the signal.

At the same moment the starship AI informs the characters that an unidentified ship--suspected Exile design with floating spheres orbiting its strange design--is swiftly approaching them and hailing them on a public wavelength.

What now!?