We Thought Wrong (The Complete Story) | HFY

I deliver this recording in what I believe will be the final hour of my life I can only hope that when this message reaches home it will be heard and taken with the utmost seriousness my name is gleen I am or was the commander of the fourth pirti band and I know my world has heard of me for years our Pirates have raided worlds and trade routs with impunity I am sure this part will be censored when or if it is broadcast successfully to our popular a but I want to say it anyway we acted

as agents of the governing council with their permission both tacit and explicit depending on where we were going and who we were attacking sometimes I admit we struck at places outside of the concerns of our government and of course since it was outside of their concerns who cared screams can be heard in the background forgive me the smoke is starting to make its way in it won't be long now I will be quick we raided terara because it was easy and because the race seemed weak I mean whoever heard of a species of intelligent sacrificing

mature and productive adults for their young when they not only can just make more but enjoy doing so at every opportunity when they first ventured into Interstellar space and made contact with our enemies it's probable that they had no idea that the invitation to join a trade Alliance was an invitation to be invaded But once they did hey easy pickings right no Grand milit milary Fleet no massive space stations or networks of defenses they had only begun to draw up plans to harvest the energy of the stars on mass like I said easy so we

hit the place a few capitals blew up some bases oh we had a grand old pirate time as we always have and we put ourselves in reach which was one of our biggest mistakes we took communities easily enough at first but then one of our people during a harvest grew annoyed at the sound of a crying infant of their species they have a horrific whale so he shot it in the arms of what we now know was one of their females no big deal just make another right we thought wrong the woman lost all reason

and attacked our Raiders she was shot 16 times but she beat one of us to death with his own weapon that was when we found the other thing out humans tell stories a lot this story well they recorded it evidently they record a lot and the sight of one of our off officers killing one of their infants in its mother's arms and then her beating him to death with his own weapon before she was finally killed too sparked an outbreak of violence that cost me four companies in a day then one of my idiot officers

decided that since they love children so much we would threaten to kill more of them if they didn't Stand Down big mistake he showed them that we were Kitty killing monsters and when humans decide that something is dangerous to their young they will stop at nothing to destroy it there's gunfire screams cut short the sound of humans shouting Beyond the Door you have to understand it isn't just my band they've decided our entire race is a threat to their young the last interceptions we made of their Communications showed that the Keelan Confederation was going to

trade them weapons and Technology to join the war in Earnest we picked up home Communications the whole planet has gone mad with hatred for us steal their goods nobody cares kill an adult they get upset but kill their young and they lose all reason or care for their own lives if they have any sense of self-preservation left when it comes to wiping us out I can't find it I tried negotiating I tried trading I tried warning and threatening them and all that meant was that their convictions were hardened whatever you do do not Target their

young you'll Doom us all we thought that would make things easy and we thought wrong human shouts intensify scream of pain then silence and that is the last report of the most powerful pirate fleet commander in the last 500 Cycles since that time humans have exterminated four military bases and done self-termination runs against entire fleets crippling operations in 14 quadrants I am afraid the war is as good as lost therefore I recommend we offer terms to the Keelan Confederation that are favorable to peace including a mandate that they cease to supply humans with weapons and

technology in addition in the post-war period I move that we propose to the galactic Union that we make it unlawful to employ human mercenaries or to supply weapons to human armies and make it a war crime to Target human young in any operation under any circumstances perhaps news of that will help them realize that we are not all the same as the late pirate lord will that work many voices asked the question how much longer everybody asked that question North America South America Eastern Europe Asia the Indian subcontinent everywhere there was a story of one

of the pirate band that raided Humanity executing someone's infant for being loud so the question how much longer kept coming the Keelan confederation's ships were tracked on the global net their first Transmissions of technological data for Interstellar travel had already been given to every government on Earth every session of the United government that began to form in the wake of the stories and videos began the same way the sound of a crying child a shot from a pirate weapon and a mother's screams and only then would humans debate it was played in the new shipyards

that were already being built it was being played in the united infantry training grounds that sprung up around the world it was being played in the mech construction factories and training centers and every day new reports about their preparations were sent to the Keelan Confederation government and that same question how much longer began to haunt the Confederation itself because with it their monitoring of Teran Communications came more of their cultural exchange information stories songs poetry movies histories and it was days before the first transport ships were due to arrive on Earth their horror movies are

concerning the chief Anthropologist remarked he stroked his scales in a nervous gesture shedding some of the Dead Flex to the floor not the Alien Invasion movies a politician asked with a huffing noise that passed for laughter those too but not for the reason you think the problem is that every Alien Invasion and every horror movie monster is so over the top it is utterly ridiculous monsters that are Immortal or ghosts that can't die things like that or aliens with such impossible technology that they defy the laws of physics the chief Anthropologist replied his reptilian taale

lashed at his back as his anxiety grew worse why is that so concerning the politician asked because that is the only thing in the universe they consider to be a threat it has to be gods or Angels or demons or impossible monsters or impossible aliens anything less than that they don't consider it reasonable to feel afraid of if it can't break a planet it isn't a problem they're worried about you heard what they did to the admiral of the pirate Fleet didn't you he was basically a lord they tore his limbs off eventually the chief

Anthropologist shuttered I tell you sir I've never seen a species this insanely protective of their young the father of one of the boys dragged one of the Pirates to death behind a two- wheed motorized contraption and handed over only shreds of Flesh to our ambassador when we asked what happened they're insane and they're now convinced that our enemies want to kill their children the chief Anthropologist held out his hands with finger claws upturned we may just be inviting disaster unless we tread carefully I understand we need the reinforcements but this species is the most homicidal

suicidal bloodthirsty species I've ever come across one of their stories has their literal God coming down pissing some of them off and they nail him alive to Wood to Die My Assistant went there on a visit and he chewed on his tongue for a moment and what the politician asked he was assigned to study their military culture to see how it distinguishes from the rest of their casts only to find that they have no casts anyone can fulfill any role they want he asked one of their pilots how they' take down a jamming ship that

kept AI from piloting things and he said just blow up the jamming ship my assistant pointed out that you can't do that because the signal would be jammed and the pilot said that it didn't matter as long as you just used a living pilot instead the chief Anthropologist shuddered the politician Shrugged grossly exaggerated I'm sure I know some of my colleagues are bothered by this but as long as they can help us win I fail to see the problem the chief Anthropologist could only walk away in defeat leaving a nervous trail of shed skin behind

him 3 months later let the humans take the casualties the keelen Admiral said they're asking for the first run it was a request that was happily granted the keelen provided starships were piloted by humans but they were not piloted like kelen Pilots intended the Admiral watched with dismay as Fighters skipped like Smooth Stones over the atmosphere of the planet and sent out a transmission audible to both sides unencrypted does any body have a translation for yippy key yay the Admiral asked heads shook in contradiction to Doctrine the long ships bounced along the atmosphere confusing ground

defenses and Unleashed withering fire on the planetary defenses again contradicting Doctrine which said that ground troops should only come down after the area was Secure the human piloted ships were coming in Fast and descended at dangerous speeds as soon as they were able to breach the atmosphere of the world some sense of for boing or hope or uncertainty or something he could not truly name compelled him to his next orders put the surface on screen the Admiral barked and broadcast this back home the screen came up and showed the transports opening up and the human

jumpers emerging from the bottom of the transports humans are machines he asked and his crew Shrugged it off that was when the second broadcast hit the sound of some wailing a familiar sound of a weapon going off and the scream of a human woman this broadcast was as unencrypted as the rest and clearly intended to be heard by all and it seemed to drive the humans mad then he saw the flesh pilots and the human love of Overkill the machines the humans piloted were heavy lumbering things with massive arms equipped with guns mounted with projectile

weapons the size of a body contemporary strategy involved capturing positions but the the human heavy infantry had no interest in capturing positions each of their mechs had mounted rockets on both shoulders dozens of small ones that were launched at any building in their path the panken alliance had soldiers of Plenty but they fought as if they wished to live the humans fought as if they were there to kill and didn't care if they died in the process the first transports holding secondary light infantry began to land moments after their mechanized Walkers these used light Rocket

Power air sleds that shot over the battlefield these lightly armored soldiers sprayed chaff everywhere to the laser-based weapons of the surviving Defenders the white Mist wreaking havoc on their ability to resist this isn't War this is Revenge are they insane are they insane the Admiral asked the question twice and still got no answer whoever controlled the monitor began to zoom in on the close fighting and saw the Twisted mask of hatred on the tan face of a light infantryman his projectile weapon sharp gleam at the front suddenly had a clear purpose they put knives on

guns the Admiral half stammered as the tan infantryman gutted the pankin alliance Soldier shouting in Rage as if it had been his own young to be killed by the Pirates the Admiral tried to imagine from what Twisted depths of the Abyss can hate like that come from what is he thinking about doesn't he know what he's doing is he a machine he whispered his exclamation sir we have an incoming transmission from the Teran Admiral the officer said without tearing his eyes away from the screen while the screen zoomed out and showed a battl mad tan

pick up a severed arm and beat an unfortunate to death with it what what is he saying the Admiral asked heun's saying that we're unnecessary the pankin turned out not to be as Fierce as he was led to believe the officer on comms and translations waited for his Admiral to answer but as they saw the Teran Banner raised over the last standing building and the human infantry and mechanized forces Set Fire to the last panken stronghold in the area and shoot down those who were trying to flee the Admiral could not argue tell him it's

fine we'll take the next World when we leave next month the Admiral responded his comms and translations officer relayed that and then his scales began to shed horribly there not waiting sir he says follow with supplies but the next world is only one jump away and not ready he didn't use many supplies so we can follow when we're ready weeks later at the Keelan Confederacy assembly 14 worlds in 14 months the war's progress has completely reversed itself the pankin are offering terms of surrender some strange ones some that I can understand but there is another

question we have to ask will the humans be willing to make peace the assembly heard the question asked by their revered speaker and they were silent the Transmissions sent out by the various fleets of human military operations ranged from the insane to the astonishing they were rapidly becoming known across Galactic Civilizations as the war apes and they were beginning to appear in popular media and propaganda regarding the changing fortunes of the war the once slow and Inevitable Defeat was rapidly turning into a total Victory but Taran rage at the pankin had not abated and it

was growing concerning will they fight without allies someone asked and that brought a general round of laughter daring solo operations by human officers were as much a routine as sunrises now they are not a totally irrational species if we offer to make it a war crime Galaxy wide to ever harm their young under any circumstances and to immediately hand anyone who does so over to the tan government for trial and Disposal they might recognize the value of this and make peace with the pankin along with the rest of us the revered speaker suggested will that

really be enough for them it was a reasonable question we think so the revered speaker said and then moved to take a vote ah ambassador to what do I owe the pleasure the Teran Ambassador a faintly whitish male with almond eyes from a region the Teran identified as Japan asked and gave a polite half bow on the video screen the tan face was absurdly expressive compared to The Reptilian scale face of a chenian but once you got used to it it was almost graceful as a species they confused Ambassador calpe they could be very gregarious

open and friendly to a degree that was at first off-putting to the kenian race but the openness of the culture had made it easier to deal with them than most conf Federation members when it came to trade then there was the matter of the war with the panken alliance the vengefulness of the humans who rampaged like Monsters Unleashed became the main focus of propaganda to revitalize the war effort but now after a string of Victories that saw the various member races of the pank and ALU surrender only the pankin remained and they were done I'm

presenting marvelous news the pankin have offered to surrender we wanted to invite you to the negotiations regarding terms calpe trailed off and his tail twitched as the human ambassador's face changed to lose all expression are there conditions unconditional Ambassador Ambassador Nobunaga asked well no Ambassador calpe replied then we aren't finished with them yet Ambassador Nobunaga replied but we can negotiate calpe started to say until the human held up a hand to stop him you may feel free to negotiate all you like but we are not done with them yet when they offer unconditional surrender then

we will dictate terms to them they raided our homes killed our children Taran policy is to never negotiate with the aggressors a surrender to you means nothing to us the Ambassador smile returned but we can negotiate good terms and we aren't done Nobunaga cut the transmission and calpe hissed I told the pankin it wouldn't work all that is left is to die out or Surrender render completely he muttered then thought on the other hand having these Maniacs on our side completely upsets the balance of power in the galaxy in the confederation's favor yes I think

this will work out fine as long as we craft a rational policy two months later the panken Empire the precursor to the panken alliance which had bullied 20 odd races into submission had its foundation on a trio of systems with nine worlds each all of which had been either habitable or easily pank formed to suit their desires many generations earlier these 27 planets comprised the industrial spiritual economic and political heart of their empire as world after World crumbled and the terms of Peace were constantly rejected they grew ever more desperate they understood the Confederation but

they had not understood the confederation's newest member they did not know their enemy some might argue that they could not have known their enemy and that ignorance brought them ever closer to defeat until all that remained were the three core systems the war Apes had no interest in preserving occupying or protecting anything on those worlds while they had shown Mercy to subordinate races pankin were slowly pushed toward Extinction we are offering terms of surrender tell us when you offer unconditional surrender the Teran always reply apped and then cut the transmission going through their Confederate enemies

was a desperate gamble to find some terms other than unconditional and now two months after that debacle Three core worlds had been glassed clean of major cities major sea Lanes had been minded with self-replicating Magnetic mindes and all energy Supply points were utterly eliminated world after World teetered on the brink of returning to a hunter gatherer state to survive at all still the pank and fought on they raised smaller more mobile ships and proclaimed that nobody can fight forever that if they just continued the Teran would give them something the Tern continued to give the

pink and glass worlds within four more months the Confederation was begging their allies stop and by then three worlds remaining that had not been ruined including the pankin home World Ambassador Nobunaga went personally to the Confederation home world for the conference the pankin Ambassador appeared on the screen his own white scales were cracked shreds of skin that hadn't properly Shed from the stress held out his finger claws with desperation if we surrender unconditionally what will you do with us the entire Confederation listened with wrapped attention I will tell you what we will not do the

tan said and I tell you that only so you know we never intend this for anyone we will not make your race into slaves we will not take your religions we will not occupy any world that still has an intact occupation we will not Slaughter what is left of you you can even keep your government they were not exactly terms in the traditional sense it was a list of Will knots which still revealed more Mercy for the pankin than any Taran had shown thus far the great Council was filled with seats of full-time resident races

Aven reptilian feline among others were many even a species that looked similar to Tern in their apish fles bodies but all were set to muttering with some degree of relief then we surrender unconditionally just please stop the pankin hissed and went down to his knees it was not a traditional pankin gesture but it was one the other ambassadors who had consumed abundant tan media would recognize as intended for a Teran audience then we have peace here are the terms the pankin are prohibited space travel for the next 100 years there remain remaining worlds will be

converted to agrarian industry only and those worlds we have left in panken hands which still have living populations will be open up to immigration to all members of the Confederation but with the first land and territory pick going to Terin for the first 5 years where years are understood to mean the duration of time on those worlds in addition the pank and remaining worlds will be liable to a 20 trillion credit War Indemnity to be provided to our milit Ary veterans government and the families of those children your Pirates slew Ambassador Nobunaga laid out the

terms that the Earth government had settled on and the tale of the pankin Ambassador stiffened as if he had died and undergone rigor mortise it wasn't hard to understand why with those terms the Tern will have taken the best spots of every World in some of the richest systems and utterly crippled the panken home worlds for generations to come with no space travel and an agrarian economy they are essentially prisoners on their own worlds and as for the survivors on the other worlds after most of them starve to death thanks to ruined Supply chains they'll

be a tiny minority with the high populations of humans occupying the top spots and the confederations people following hot on their heels they may just beg for flights back to their intact worlds and just like that the Teran Empire has been born we submit the pankin said his face down his entire body a broken sold husk of its former self as he lived to see the fall of his once Mighty Empire I know Nobunaga replied then turned around to face the Confederation now we are done with them now we maybe we can all live in

and enjoy the fruits of peace with two-way Transmissions from Earth the polite Applause of the Confederation was drowned out by the cheers of the entire Teran home world I hope we didn't make a terrible mistake Ambassador calpe thought as the cheers went on over the next 5 years pankin Society collapsed on the worlds where they still had survivors devoid of both the infrastructure and the knowledge of how to survive outside of a modern world the pankin of countless worlds fell to turning their weapons on one another wiping out entire populations of survivors until they ran

out of modern weapons then resuming the process with whatever they could they no longer had the means for even medieval level Societies in most worlds and were reduced to hunter gatherer Scavenging some never knowing the fates of their home worlds or that peace had come at last all finding out the same way humans the victors in the brutal War touched down and began to settle the most ideal parts of the world and convert it from paninian arid climates to the sorts of Worlds favored by humans the panin who spied these new structures either begged or

fled but they were too broken to actually fight and even if they hadn't been hunter gatherer societies do not always eat well the races of the Victorious Confederation were quick to address the matter of what would happen to the pankin we would like to send observers and scientists to study how they've adapted to the social change and ensure they are not brutalized in the aftermath of the victory the tan government heard several forms of that request independently they say the victory not our Victory and not your Victory I suppose I can't blame them for that

grand presider Jackson thought as he watched The View screen one of the Aven species made it this time he was quick to answer of course you are free to do so but we expect most survivors to request to be relocated to their home system they will not be happy living under us I think however you are free to observe them for a few months as our colonies are established a transmission came in as soon as that one was disconnected this one directly from the official representative of the Keelan the first human Ally and perhaps the

closest and most liked by Humanity as that race had given humans technology and travel capability in the aftermath of the pankin pirate attack on Earth Grand presider Jackson stroked his dark beard the transmission hadn't been accepted yet because he knew what the Kenan was like to ask he took a deep breath we can't keep this secret for long enough to matter it's better that we come clean now he swallowed the question of how humans were colonizing world so quickly was bound to come up he hit the green accept button and the pale lizard man's naturally

severe face came on screen Grand presider of the Teran ascendants I hope you're well great speaker of the Keelan Empire I am and I hope the same for you the two two leaders bowed slightly in their seats despite their differences in species they had common ground that made it easy to get along quite well it didn't hurt that the Keelan had none of the prejudices that had still existed though slowly continued to die out in Jackson's youth over the color of his skin the existence of aliens more advanced than humans made that absurd Outlook even

more marginalized and the pank and murders of children regardless of all other factors buried what was left of it if anyone still thought that way they were quiet enough about it that grand presider James stoneworth Jackson expected it would die when age and time took them I am also the keelen great speaker replied forgive me if I bypass our usual pleasantries I'm afraid I have an important question for you you want to ask about our colonization rate the grand presider asked yes you've placed 20 outposts on over 20 different worlds in the last few months

there is some concern about whether or not your planet can handle the kind of mass immigration it would take to sustain that the Keelan question was clearly carefully constructed to be benign even with good reason not to worry great speaker you my world has had many mass migrations in the past we've learned a great deal about how to handle it and our current Solutions are quite effective Grand presider Jackson promised and he was unable to constrain a smile when he said it our study of your species has shown strangely enough that you put abundant resources

into few young over a long period of time this is strange to us who think nothing of losing a few along the way but it seems this should make things harder not easier for you the great speaker replied and James Jackson politely inclined his head yes but our children are capable of a great deal at a relatively early age so we've adopted two strategies our facility ities on those worlds are cloning from our vast stores of DNA here at home our colonies will then have workers maintaining the minor infrastructure While others will raise and educate

the cloned population if we repeat the process every 10 years and each parental set raises five children and then as adults they plus their parents do five more the grand presider let the sentence Fall Away the great speaker was no mathematician but he didn't need to be exponential population growth he said his eyes ticked a little yes of course we'll continue to send supplies and the billions and credits the pankin will pay will help support buying what we need from our closest allies Grand presider Jackson let that sentence hang as he had the one before

and silence passed between the two leaders the next question was totally benign aren't you concerned about the possible problems that might occur from that what about when people from from World's meat the possibility of incest and the like the nictating membranes of the Keelan Confederation leader eyes had picked up their Pace Grand presider Jackson kept his smile calm we are aware of the possibility but the risk is very low compared to the reward of having a hundred or so viable colonies in a relative handful of years and it isn't anything that can't be solved without

simple mandatory DNA testing to ensure a lack of relation then with a few Generations the many populations will be sufficiently different through our relatively quick pace of mutation that it will cease to be anything but a curiosity great speaker Kalin did not remain on the line with the Teran presider for much longer nor however did he bring his findings to the other leaders in 20 years they'll have fully functional colonies in 40 they will be self-sufficient and begin exporting finished goods of their own in a 100 they'll have an Empire larger than the entire conf

Federation combined the thought was sobering at best the worlds of the former pankin were good ones but they were far from the only ones however most colonies were planned for Generations before finally established immigration was slow for most races but Teran seemed to go mad for exploration phrases like first and Kilroy was here were found burned into moons on uninhabited systems and Rogue colonists were already settling outlying places or venturing off into the unknown where most likely they would die but who knows what we'll find out there one day he asked himself adaptable and clever

the Teran who went rogue and off into the void might survive or even Thrive he walked away from the electron spin communication relay and saw the book that lay on his table Teran books were becoming popular Commodities but because they were heavy bulky physical media most simply got them as electronic documents but this one was a gift the title was from one of their most popular authors of the 21st century and part of a large series who endures about a woman who built an Empire to save the one she loved and burned an Empire to

avenge the ones she lost was he warning me educating me no that can't be it's just a gift enough waiting I have to explain this to the others he told himself and then went to do exactly that while trying not to wonder what kind of fleets aund human world might muster up in another hundred years Grand presider James stoneworth Jackson shook hands with his replacement after three 4-year terms and two of the customary recall options overwhelmingly rejected his term of service was over in front of him the pale hand of Madison Maxwell closed in a

tight grip the former War Hero's silver artificial eye gleamed in the morning light as cheers echoed all over not just world but on 40 worlds of the Teran ascendancy the two men posed shoulder-to-shoulder and waved to the video relays for several minutes before presider Jackson took to the podium for the final time when I began my term of service Humanity faced a threat like no other and it is not my accomplishment but Humanity's accomplishment that we won through in the end the ones to cruy slay our children in their mother's arms are reduced to trading

crops from their home worlds their empire is ashes and memory and ours stands in its place we took our place Among the Stars touched the face of God and thumbed the eyes of the Devils of the Abyss now my time is done and you have chosen a worthy successor I wish him all the success in all the worlds Grand presider Madison Maxwell the podium is yours the Burley former Commander inclined his head and as Grand presider Jackson stepped aside Grand presider Maxwell's y hands gripped the podium in contrast to the studious academic looking Jackson whose

ebony skin was contrasted by the early whitening of his hair through the strain of office he was thin a far cry from his more robust Beginnings teren I prepared to fight the pankin Before the War I fought them throughout the war and I oversaw the resettlement of the last of them after the war now I with your full faith and confidence will do my best to guide us us through a new struggle we are not one world anymore we are many but we remain one people we are spread over many worlds and will spread to

many more and great challenges and hard questions await us we showed our bravery in war now we must show our honor in peace light years away it seems bizarre to replace a competent leader with a new one high Lord aan remarked his feathers ruffled a little bit the other ginian leaders bobbed their heads forward their own feathers similarly ruffled yes but Galen insists this is routine for them and their popular media seems to confirm it the Secretary of the Interior remarked understanding did not make his feathers ruffle less it seems to work they try out

so many new ideas they come to Solutions far faster than any species we've encountered before throwing out what doesn't work and embracing what does they seem wild unpredictable the fleet Admiral didn't just bristle his feathers several fell away to drift down to the floor becoming dark marks on the White Stone floor and Powerful High Lord Avan finished the words for his Grand Marshall of the 40 worlds they've already settled 10 are now self-sustaining their routine of cloning and taking small numbers to raise large ones repeated several times around those worlds has seen their populations rise

exponentially 200,000 will raise five each and then another round of of clones later and then within a handful of years they have a sustainable population to spread out over the world the remaining 30 worlds will get the same treatment in 50 years all 117 pankin worlds will be occupied the pankin space that remains will be surrounded when they can venture out into space again if they ever can they will do so as the supplicants of humans he folded his taloned fingers together and looked around his inner cabinet members every feather ruffled what does that mean

for the rest of us he asked his beak opened and closed without making a sound and the trade Minister spoke up it means we have a vast New Market open up to us 20 of their worlds are two warp jumps away they're an ideal market for our Traders and we have precedency by proximity in negotiations piracy is also nearly non-existent for now which means our long suspicions of pankin sponsorship and support for pirates must have been true after all angry cause filled the room Sympathy For The pankin Plight declined considerably I propose we move our

Fleet away from Human worlds take them Galactic East where tensions are higher the massives have been more demanding a show of force might be in order the Grand Marshall proposed plus it might show the new Empire we have faith in them as allies and help our negotiations enough to allow some of our young to migrate to their worlds what what have they done with the defeated races of the pankin alliance are they exterminated it was a weighty question from the high Lord and the foreign minister spoke up having seen the humans exterminate pankin on mass

before it was widely wondered how they would treat the weaker races of the alliance once they'd been defeated none of them had more than a handful of Worlds so the human penchant for Destruction would have risked their Extinction allowed to surrender and left alone but prohibited expansion they are however allowed to travel within Terran space as long as their ships are not armed that is more generous than I would have expected are you sure of this information High Lord Avan pressed and the flexible neck of the foreign minister bobbed up and down immediately this comes

straight from gilan observers and I have seen the treaty copies their now former leader was quite canny Mercy to the ones dragged to the fight brutality toward the ones who started it a good way to deplete the enemy of allies now I don't think anyone will challenge them not for quite some time it was a relief when the rest of his cabinet bobbed their heads in agreement nobody will do anything stupid so everything will be fine the highl Lord breathed a sigh of relief and called for new business it's a dangerous Universe out there high

Lord Avan said through his translator to the new human Grand presider you defeated the pankin alliance but don't forget that we fought with you to achieve that your race grows expands be proud but the universe snacks on Galaxies all the peace we now have is dependent on balance there are other Empires some of them very old please exercise care to not provoke them you're saying this because I was one of the soldiers of the last war I assume Grand presider Maxwell asked he opened his hands at his sides in a gesture that briefings told the

golean leader he was presenting him himself with openness I am a warrior is a warrior no matter where he is born but we never put Warriors in charge in times of peace that your species does I will not lie to you it is a matter of some concern it suggests to the Keelan Confederation that your race prizes War more than peace High Lord Avan said his feathers remained unruffled thus far the swarthy looking human with the false eye had given no words indicating anything but peaceful intent hi Lord Avan how much have you studied our

race and its history Grand presider Maxwell asked in a quiet almost gentle voice not as much as I wanted work keeps me busy but I have seen some of your popular books such as that 21st century author his story about the slave and the prince who shaped the fate of Empires by Passion and brutality the strongest in the world I believe it was called a riveting story why do you ask because the history of humanity is one of war with peace being the mere break between two great conflicts the pankin brought us to leave our

world and we have had the first war it is inevitable that a second will at some point bring about the bracket on the other side but I was not chosen to fight it I was chosen to make my people strong enough to Win It Humanity always desires peace in peace our children are safe in peace we can trade and study and explore and prosper but the pankin talk us that the universe is just a larger version of our own world if it weren't you would not have Admirals and fleets of your own the grand presider

said it as reasonably as he could he even wore a smile which horrified High Lord Avan all the more preparing for war is just as natural as breathing the highl Lord realized predatory species among the Confederation and the other independent worlds and alliances that dotted the Galaxy as he knew it they weren't rare but the most common were social sedentary Ambush Predators their intelligence evolved to make hunting prey easier with less work active predatory species rarely evolved into higher intelligence instead favoring strength or speed or a few built-in weapons as part of the body they

evolved from active Predators there's no other explanation what disaster in the universe selected intelligence for intelligent social behavior how did they not wipe themselves out before we encountered them the open question question would Merit asking the anthropology experts which sprang up amidst the xenobiologist in the last few years thanks to widespread media from Earth the science divisions went utterly Wild for the chance to study the new member species that broke all the rules they knew the widely held theory of intelligence selection in evolution had for the first time in Generations not only been challenged but

was now in the process of being overturned as more information on the homo SA and Sapien species came to light the theory held that selection for Creative problemsolving intelligence that would result in the emergence of sapients and sentients in a species required three things a predatory nature a social nature and an ambush or sedentary nature this allowed longer settlement safer predation and slower expansion that kept the genetic mutations selecting for a smarter and smarter population of predators now the human showed otherwise so when the call ended on an amicable note the high Lord summoned his

foreign advisor along with the foremost expert in xenobiology newest Branch anthropology polite introductions aside the old golan's feathers had fallen out in places revealing the pink flesh that was similar in color to the tan Grand presider it was off-putting at the least to see the cracked beak of a golean not long for life and yet despite his slow bobbing walking gate he seemed full of life when he spoke hi Lord you wanted me to brief you on the humans I assume the old golean asked and to this the high Lord bobbed his head and sat

down yes their current leader is not what I expected but he is a bit defensive just a bit but as they're continuing to expand into the old Panky in space and will be our second largest border people I need the best advice possible that can only come from you though I know it hasn't been that long please do your best the high Lord spoke with deference to the Aged professor and the old one sat when a chair was placed opposite the desk to begin I want to explain my theory on why they evolved intelligence I

sought information from their scientists on their own theory of evolution and found something remarkable roughly 200,000 years ago environmental shift nearly wiped their ancestors out the genetic bottleneck shows that this species is descended from an absurdly small population roughly 5,000 strong scattered over an entire continent that was hemmed in by a desert they were omnivorous but they were walking Predators simply put a trained human can run for an entire day as well as drink and eat on the run their species would walk prey to death the old one stopped as the highl Lord's feathers bristled

outward so their long battles that war out the penins best defenses he asked the fruit of near Extinction simply put when a species is near extinct the slow pace of evolution is accelerated because there are fewer members reproducing successfully and in this case their near Extinction during the climate shift resulted in a selection for intelligence and creativity they were already social and predatory but when under the strongest possible selection pressure that didn't quite drive them to Extinction their smartest diffused their most intelligent traits into the small population and thus the old Professor shuddered excited as

he was the implications were not lost on him the high Lord finished the statement we end up with war Apes who can go all day long where other races simply drop from exhaustion it's quite exciting I never thought I'd live to see a revolution in evolutionary intelligence theory the professor was wiggling with excitement in his chair and tapped his sharp finger down on the dek Professor Focus the high lord said and the professor called a few times yes yes of course where sedentary Predators had masses of young to scatter the human focus on their communities

would focus heavily on their young it really isn't uncommon for there to be high investment in young but it has never been seen before in an intelligent predatory species rather than the young killing each other off to remove competition or the parents using them as a food source in dire their times they invest heavily in tribal cooperation and this tells us how to deal with them the very thing that makes them so very dangerous that everywhere they go they form Cooperative communities that invest in their young means that if we make them like part of

the flock if we treat them and their children as if they were adult members of the flock they will regard us favorably you mean War don't you the high Lord asked the professor gave an unhappy Bob of his head some of their numbers have gone off world looking for adventure as private mercenaries Prospectors and explorers feed into their natural urge to form communities around their interests hire their mercenaries and send them to Galactic East to the border with the massives create a policy of flock Aid that renders help to any Teran ship in distress refer

to them as treasured allies if we treat them as part of the flock their Community will be our community and our community will be theirs and if their mercenaries go home with stories of the danger of the massives and the helpfulness of golians we will have a valuable Ally if the tension with the massives ever grows that is a bold bold suggestion we don't even treat the galin as a flock member the high Lord pointed out the galin do not form communities everywhere they go either High Lord for us and for them it is a

long process but you see yourself the humans are going everywhere how do we want to be seen as flock mate or pankin the professor asked and then imitated the open-armed gesture of the grand presider High Lord Avan feathers bristled with the pankin gone are there any aggressive species bordering the Teran ascendancy the Zaliens an insectoid race their six jumps away and always looking to expand the professor replied do you think they would start a war with the newcomers the highl Lord asked I'm not an expert on zalian politics but unless there is something they need

I don't think so the professor replied passively thank you that will be all for now I believe it would be wise to offer the grand presider some of our Fleet to help protect his outlying colonies a token of goodwi and a warning to the Zaliens not to trifle with the Confederation and for that matter perhaps we should suggest the same to some of the other member worlds that should deter the iens I don't think they'd want to pick a fight in those circumstances but if they do the high Lord's feathers relaxed and smoothed out with

new knowledge he felt a tranquil sense of confidence that everything would be all right the zalian queen sat upon the larval bed while she absorbed the great knowing of her Scouts she had no eyes for her eyes were her swarm she had no legs there was no need to move she felt through the senses of her population most of it was just a dull white noise but with her personal attention focused on the signals that came through with the limited autonomous Judgment of importance from her collective population's experience a new resource would generate excitement an

unexpected phenomenon generated curiosity all filtering back to her to create a hierarchy of importance which she was constantly sorting through when the panken alliance was being annihilated the sense of importance and danger that shot through the Swarm observers Drew her full attention her Scout ship Crews skirted the edges of the conflict like opportunistic scavengers watching the war Apes annihilate the once significant border Empire curiosity was the predominant impulse when the danger passed and The zalian Observers continued to hover near Fallen pankin Worlds the war Apes ignored her observers until their populations occupied a world after

which her Scout ships were politely but firmly warned that the area was now Teran ascendant space and they should leave the zalian queen complied each time but they continued to watch and she continued to ask questions of the Keelan Confederation and to have her semi-autonomy drones ask questions of merchants and travelers who passed through War ape space the media of the war Apes was of little value to her and her swarm had very little concept of entertainment however the impressions of the neighbor species had considerable value so she took it very seriously when the golians

and kenian Patrol ships began to appear in Teran space and mix with tan fleets strange so strange and also unacceptable unacceptable because these oversized patrols went from six jumps to three jumps from her species claimed space in part because her species had taken another system but also because the Teran settled two more themselves she activated her communication station and reached the Teran Colonial governor for the sector bordering her own the war ape was dressed in his usual blue his was not the only species that wore clothing but seeing Through The Eyes of her Aid drone

it was nevertheless still confounding to the zalian queen Majesty he said and inclined his head to what do I owe the pleasure I have seen that you took another system there were four worlds there we had our eyes on that one she said to him her mandibles clicked rapidly when she spoke unable to contain her annoyance perhaps you did but we have our ships on it he said you will take no more systems that bring you close to zalian space she gave the brusk command and the human stood in Silence with respect Majesty all worlds

formerly under the Dominion of the pankin are fair for us to seize including those with a surviving population of pankin you have no claim on those systems we do he pointed out you will take no more systems which bring you closer to zali and space she commanded again I will take no orders from anyone but our presider his lips pursed as he spoke and his eyes hardened on the Drone whose kitous Sleek dark body shook with anger if you would like a temporary neutral zone between us where neither of us lands ships in those systems

until such time as an official treaty can be negotiated between our governments I have it in my power to Grant a six-month stay of settlement yes that will be acceptable the zalian queen replied you will land no ships in the Border systems and neither will you he replied pointedly no she answered tell your presider to arrange a meeting at a neutral location we will talk of safe borders I will the governor of the region agreed and sent his recording to the herin government and the Grand presider in turn reached out to the gilan Confederation allies

to act as intermediaries 4 months later The zalian Colony ships touched down on the last few border systems and the panken survivors were hunted to Extinction turned into biomatter the transmission played to the Keelan Confederation Hall and all of their delegates there is no further need for a conference the matter has been resolved to our satisfaction the entirety of the council erupted noise engulfed the Great Hall as the transmissions and inperson delegates alike condemned the occupation an outrageous Act of aggression and violation of faithful terms the Keelan Ambassador pronounced a sentiment echoed by the rest

yet the human Grand presider was silent as the biggest losers in the affair expectant looks fell to the presider allowing him a moment to erupt an outrage of his own yet he said nothing he folded his arms in front of his broad chest and said in a voice like Stone we have a saying on earth when people tell you who they are believe them the zalian have told us who they are killing the pankin there was unnecessary they had regressed technologically to the point of barely industrial levels or in some cases even further returning them

to their home worlds would have been easy and yet the Zaliens chose to exterminate them for no other reason than that the p were there I feel nothing for the pankin but such a pointless Act without even a war he shook his head no this tells us what I need to know about the xenophobic zens and their respect for nonan life more than that their Queen lied pretended a belief in peace and then occupied what we would have been willing to share all but daring us to make war they have shown their true face to

us and we will remember it was an unex expectedly mild response from the Teran presider enough so that it left the assembly quite uncertain over the next year however they began to see what the presider's response entailed Rec combinated clones to increase genetic diversity and hundreds of thousands of couples were relocated to the Border worlds similarly small numbers of other races were invited to settle among the tan populations and the star bases began to expand four successive confederations bills were passed that resulted in super massive space stations repair and construction bays and massive industrial investment

was encouraged or provided from both Earth and closely Allied Worlds the Teran even began encouraging subject allies to relocate their poor or orphaned to the colonies further boosting the employment and Industry The Fleets also grew Zaliens ate the panin what would they do to us the question kept the fleet slowly growing and it was not lost on The zalian Queen We Wish to negotiate terms of trade and free passage to reach other worlds she sent that transmission to many races and found herself blockaded High Lord Avan looked at the proposal which sat on his desk

humans would provide material in the event of any Invasion by the massives and if there were a three system deep push entailing occupation or a two- system deep Push by Annihilation human fleets would render Aid as as long as no travel or trade was conducted with Zaliens and any zalian initiated conflict began one of these reached every border region around zall in space didn't it or something like it the old Professor asked the highl Lord the way his bobbed his whole body spoke of his excitement I assume so the Zaliens are quite bottled up and

they are feeling the strain but it seems that the humans have proven Adept at forming friendships with non-hostile neighbors their diplomatic accur is impressive there's only one uninhabited system within one uninhibited jump of zalian space now and the humans put a science station there that is always a precursor to colonization do you think the queen will take the bait the professor asked she is used to getting her way and she managed to take from the Teran ascendancy once before she probably knows the war apes are behind her difficulty expanding I'd say she'll see this as

a dare and because she was uccessful before she will dare again I think the presider knows it high Lord Avan pointed out I'm not an expert on the Zions but they can't be that stupid the professor insisted to that Avan answered only with silence and bristled feathers before he signed the formal agreement Grand presider Maxwell listened while the zalian queen spoke we will take the place you do not live we have a space station there we are in the process of colonizing it he pointed out your station can go she replied with imperious confidence those

are not mobile it cannot he replied we will pay for it she offered we aren't selling and we have people working on the surface now he responded we will remove your biomatter the zalian queen pushed we do not want them removed that World Is Ours he replied with no change of expression the zalian queen could not frown but the long broad mandibles that were nearly the size of the human's torso clicked back and forth with agitation our worlds are too few to hold us we need space to grow the zalian queen made the point our

galaxy needs peace our peace Needs Trust you showed we could not trust you that is why your ships are not welcome nobody trusts that you won't occupy a world and turn its population into biomatter for your nests Maxwell's hands tensed a little one folded over the other on his desk the zalian queen shook with Fury the truth is bitter to the betrayer he recalled the old expression you did this she hissed did what Maxwell asked barely able to restrain his smile turned our neighbors against us the queen hissed again I only told the truth if

it is bitter to you what can I do about it indeed a better question might be what what can you do about it the grand presider let the question hang the zalian queen sensed the double meaning proving herself not a total fool what do you want war ape the queen pressed you have some things of ours things you took when we placed faith in you return them and it may be that we and your neighbors have less reason to mistrust your ships it may be that as long as you agree for your long Voyage ships

to travel under escort on predetermined routes that trade will be reopened and it may be if you agree to confine your War vessels to patrols inside your space and for your long Voyage ships to travel unarmed that the rest of the Galaxy can begin to trust you again the grand presider terms bit hard but Zaliens did not form alliances only brief Bargains for specific purposes and his proposal flew in the face of standard practice the universe is a large Place Queen of the zalia there can be room for all of us when we are willing

to coexist you Tred to provoke us to fight you War ape she accused him the visual drone shook in time to her rage no I prefer to win without fighting presider Maxwell said plainly war is a stupid destructive waste there's no glory there whatever the stories say just the guilty the dead and the ones who wish it never happened this isn't a provocation this is a warning you wonder why we've built this Coalition Why Us War Apes were so Adept at talking and negotiating until we have you encircled it's because there are only two options

peace or War she finished the thought listening with sudden attention to the war ape yes peace or War humans became very good at diplomacy making it one of our most potent arts and potent weapons because we terrified ourselves apex predators in a world that casually obliterates anything living on it we learned to fight with peace because if we did not we would destroy ourselves now we Face the larger universe including you War becomes more destructive War becomes worse diplomacy becomes more valuable and more potent we used our first weapon against the pankin now we've used

our second against you come to terms or attack the presider replied to her and spread his hands apart on his desk offering her two choices I am making a choice for peace and the entire occupied Galaxy knows it you can do the same give back what was stolen and make peaceful overtures as I've described or attack maybe you take my space station maybe you remove our biomatter maybe you kill our biomatter but think how that would look everybody knows you don't value the lives of any but your own you'll then show that you will not

even respect even terms of Peace nobody is safe with you as a neighbor the presider went quiet so did the zalian queen we give you the systems you stop what you have done she asked less angry and more intrigued one better I will act as a broker with you to help you come to terms with your neighbors for your own Mutual Security the universe is a dangerous place who knows what Terrors lie beyond the distant void the massives make trouble in the galactic East and the first signals of our own Explorer vessels report finding degraded

artificial radio waves meaning there are undiscovered civilizations that may be far more Advanced by the time we reach them in short he gave the zelan queen a very polite smile I destroy you as our enemies when I make you into friends the grand presider watched the way the zalian queen froze he reflected on her response she'd likely heard the concept before and learned of its utility two she saw the tripled strength of the Teran borders when the golians and ganek ships were added to the human strength in the way or at your side you say

this among your people is it not she asked the translation was muddled at best but he recognized her intent something like that in our ancient mythologies people believed in powerful Monsters the worst of which was the devil and it was sometimes said that it was better to be at the devil's right hand than in its path so make your choice zalian queen you are devils she said and killed the the transmission 3 months later the kelan Confederation listened with open-mouthed disbelief I of the zalian People Express regret for the misunderstanding over the previous events regarding

the occupied worlds and will withdraw our swarm from each of the systems our misunderstanding led us to occupy let it be known that the zalia desire peace to Reign between our races and we formally express our regret that this misunderstanding led to the deaths of the few panin left on the surfaces of those Worlds the negotiations that followed were Swift headed by the human presider predetermined routs were laid out over which Zaliens could travel and worlds or moons considered useless to other races resource poor or too expensive to convert to habitable zones were permitted for

Zaliens always under strict conditions of non- industrialization for those worlds allowing the zalia to reduce their overpopulation without posing threats to their neighbors the provoc led to the first formal long-term Treaty of common defense for the entire Galactic West to sign an agreement of common defense fixed military patrols Cooperative actions trade exchanges and Migration by the gods of our abandoned past they did it high Lord Avan said to his genian counterpart they really did it I never thought the zelia would concede anything to anyone they are a frightening race and the queen was no fool

she knew she couldn't take on everyone she was faced with a devil she didn't understand and learned from it the Keelan leader replied he let out the huffing version of his Race's laugh I thought for sure the humans would provoke a war I did not know it was possible to provoke a peace a scary scary race very much so and it worked out well for us this time high Lord aan replied enjoying a polite conversation for a while and more trivial matters before the convers ation ended for 12 years there was unprecedented levels of peace

until Grand presider Maxwell's term of service ended and the human presider became the first non- Ganan to become the speaker for the entire Confederation the first true challenge to his administration came not long after when the massives made their demands on the gosan border and mustered a fleet of thousands and sparked a crisis throughout the quadrant tell me about the massives Maxwell said to the goian xenobiologist the bird creatures were a curious lot very Aven in their traits right down to their feathers and to his eyes they had similar short-term family structures to some bird

species of Earth they mated for a few years then most of them parted ways when their young were grown it was still a Wonder to the xenobiologist of Earth that other species could develop Advanced societies with the structures they had but they were a friendly race and had been quick as the colian under galin to offer ships to help Patrol the new human colonies news back home was strongly pro- alen and pro Confederation sore points remained over the zalia but the Cooperative face- saving move of to allow it to be portrayed as a misunder understanding

between alien species helped smooth things over I should probably feel worse about the few pank and the zalia finished off but that is hard to let go of and I would have to be something of a hypocrite to cry for now the thought came and went from the ex Admiral the new Grand presider was being advised by the first Grand presider to lead Humanity to the stars and James stoneworth Jackson had the sense to ensure that the new one presider did not forget that the zalia taught Humanity another lesson we cannot expect Mercy from the

zalia any War we fight will only be fought once in the eyes of the higher-ups the zalia were potentially worse than the pankin but the zalia queen showed sense and chose the peaceful option whether she understood that she had taught Humanity new lessons about her people or not was anybody's guess but now the massives had all the eyes of the Confederation and the smaller less Affiliated groups including the zyan Empire turned their way the massives are a species evolved from a kind of biological Ignus our study of their earliest Evolution shows that they are descended

from a kind of well if you can imagine a moss made of sand that incorporated rocks into their structure it bonded with their sna uh they're a silicone-based life form quite unique how Maxwell asked they reproduce very slowly but because they require no food feasting on rocks they never had an agricultural period instead they settled around mountains rather than by Rivers as humans did mostly active volcanoes their social structure is centered on dividing up mineral rights since their young grow stronger based on what kind of minerals they consume they banded together to fight over mineral

rights that sounds very human Maxwell thought beused and the xenobiologist looked at him with confusion for a moment until Maxwell waved it away forget it ask one of your specialists in humanity why I find the analogy funny the golean cocked his head for a moment then bobbed it and went on they're hard to kill and so their wars were never too destructive compared to ours or even yours and because they are so hard to kill and because they have not developed a cultural aversion to it they are more willing to wage it they look for

ideal mineral worlds and plant colonies there this seldom brings them into competition with others but over the years their empire has slowly begun running out of space you're kidding Maxwell asked no their civilization is very old and their core worlds are heavily populated the weakness of their species is that rocks well you can't really grow more of them they've consumed their asteroid belts there are no mountains left on their core worlds and they eat a great deal their bodies are almost 2 m tall and twice as wide as one of you when full grown they

are looking to relocate entire worlds and there are not many suitable for that which are not occupied why not just send out massive oh Maxwell stopped and the golean bobbed his head they can't exactly grow food on the ship can they they've reached the limit of their jump drive capability to resupply their ships and I guess not just any rocks will do exactly the golean bobbed his head rapidly volcanic rock and some other materials are good some others like iron or nickel planetary cores and silicone based they could even live on Sand but they wouldn't

live well we know they sent out several ships but we never any Transmissions coming back after they ventured far beyond the known areas we believe they starved in the void divided by entire systems as much as by species it was still a horrible death to think about dying in the abyss of hunger so they're becoming aggressive because if they don't they won't last Maxwell replied again pity in his breast for the unfortunate massives it gets worse the goian xenobiologist replied they understand that blood has iron in it and bones are calcium based and many races

are made of carbon simply put about 3% of our bodies are made of metals as my colleague tells me 2.5% of human bodies are the same other races have similar proportions with the exelans having around 5% Maxwell's face turned faintly green so they want to what turn us all into food sources and raise us as such he asked the xenobiologist refuted that immediately no an intelligent race is a bad model for that this is not one of your world's science fiction films rather they want to use unintelligent animals for that and other races are simply

in the way and they have worlds ready to be used for armies they attacked one small world found an unintelligent species that had a biomass of 15% metallic elements of their most nutritious sort they exterminated that world's inhabitants and began raising the discovered animal the way your species does sheep or cattle so if they were to remove the intelligent life from their path the sentence did not need to be completed I understand wipe a few species out turn their worlds into ranches and consume the material of those worlds to survive until you can create large

harvests they could empty their dying worlds very easily that way and now they're on the glean border Maxwell answered you understand completely now what do you propose to do I prepared for war thinking I would end up fighting on our borders I hope the other Confederation and non-member worlds recognize that it is far far better to fight on the far borders of our neighbors rather than on their own but tell me this do you think the massives will reconsider the military option if they're confronted by a United quadrant he asked the biologist who went very

quiet if they have any other option I think so he answered diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy while looking for a rock Maxwell said while pacing the floor he was not in the Assembly Hall at that moment before the kenian council rather he was in his office on a ship while headed back toward Earth for a conference but in front of him a body scanning projector was monitoring His Image and displaying it on the Council floor and to the many monitors of absent members and unique in the last century and a half non-members

that is a saying on my world and if it helps doggies are predators we eventually tamed he held his hands behind the small of his back while he paced his pacing motion kept their eyes following him focused on him the Ambush Predator nature of most species in the Confederation meant that abundant motion kept them easily focused he turned his Steely eyes the false left one glinting with literal steel that was off-putting and even intimidating to those whose bodies could not handle implants directly at the camera as you know I am going back to Earth to

speak face to face with the current grand presider and I'm transmitting this communication on open calm lines so that the massives themselves can listen if they wish war is a terrible thing even if you think you are hard to kill and even if you win there is a terrible price to be paid it is for that reason that I spoke with peace before the zalian queen and it is for that reason that I sought flock Hood Brotherhood NES hood eggh hood and bonds of trust with all the species of the Confederation and more besides I

sent word to the massives ambassadors that if they stand down and if they withdraw their Fleet six jumps from the border I would exercise the authority of my office to veto any War proposal we will not strike first however if the golians are struck I will propose a common War by all members of the quadrant and if a small planet if an outpost if the zalia if the pankin if any in this quadrant are struck I will move for a general declaration of war by the entire quadrant with a common public treaty proclaiming that no

one planet or people will make peace independent of the rest he let that silence stretch to be taken in he looked away the stars at his back seeming so endless and beautiful a common bond to most of the races he knew they found the Stars to be beautiful if the massives will withdraw the fleet he held out his hands stretched together and CED with Palms up in an approximation of a gesture familiar to the massives to Signal openness I will propose a large scale relief effort we will help Supply the resources you need allocate unoccupied

moons and planetoids and other en environments to help you propagate the species of animal that will help you survive the animal life with proper resources which are not consumable by us we can trade to you this is the chance for peace take it because we already have many rocks ready to use if the government of the massives should choose the path of War zalian home world the queen had no counsel for the zalia were like one and yet that did not make her burden less the humans will fight with us the Confederation will fight with

us what a very strange thing she thought and yet it was not lost on her that this routine of cooperation had yielded the Confederation a superabundance of strength that forced her to reconsider her early plans for conflict so she tried her best to incorporate this new knowing into her way of seeing the universe it was no easy thing and as she sorted Her Mind through the many signals of her race on her worlds she found an analogy a swarm fights as one but there are many drones their cooperation is like making many drones into one

while keeping different Minds like every one of them is a queen unto themselves it was still bizarre but having HIIT upon it with the first massive fleets moving closer to the outlying neighbor systems and the memory of the way the quadrant hemmed her in still fresh in her mind she embraced it with the fervor of a religious convert she made her transmission not long after sending it directly to the entire Council zalia will support this measure if one is struck zalia will strike back when all cease to strike the zalia will cease to strike pankin

home world that the demons who destroyed their empire and nearly drove them to Extinction were now openly proclaiming their willingness to protect the defenseless home worlds was not lost on the survivors and the remaining government sought from this an opportunity their own Council leaders transmitted a crude but simple offer to the Teran ascendancy we will raise volunteers to fight in the war as long as what they are paid can be deducted from our reparations or we are permitted some small reindustrialization on each world no answer was immediately forthcoming when word reached Earth but they knew

all they had to do was wait gosi and home world when word reached the golean systems cheers and protan sentiment were both soaring higher than in the clouds the reputation of the war apes and their destructive capability eased many a trembling heart along the border worlds but nowhere was the relief greater than in the office of High Lord aan it may be self-interest but if it's self-interest or true flock Hood as long as they have their ships on the border that is all I care about but the real question is will the massives take this

seriously they've never fought the War Apes they've never seen Teran violence theyve not seen how far the Tern will go if pressed the information is there if they're smart they'll avoid a war that takes them against an entire quadrant but then they've also never lost a war before and we lost to them once the harsh truth kept the golean highl Lord silent his advisor on the matters of the massives was being truthful but that did not make it less painful it all depends on whether or not they see this as strength or weakness but I

think they will see it as strength the adviser answered massive home World Mountain voice narius grumbled as he looked at the open transmission from the ones the golians had dubbed War Apes so small little hairless bird they think we should fear that his grally voice was echoed by the Admirals of his Fleet and his advisers I think they play up these War Apes to try to make us afraid afraid I think these other peoples all are afraid they unite out of fear and fear is weakness sir we should at least consider what they are offering

perhaps we won't save all our numbers if we accept their offer but if the rest of them are true Stone we will lose fewer than if we fight the council member to speak was on the smaller side and this immediately had him somewhat denigrated by the massives in the chamber the rocky Fist of the mountain voice stood up if we win quickly then we will lose few our ships are big and we have never known defeat destroy a few worlds if we Harvest them then offer peace the whole will crumble sir the zalia refrained from

fighting the Teran ascendency we beat the zalian incursions but that doesn't mean it is easy we still have time to starve Mountain voice aarius of the massive said with blunt dismissal when the rest of the fleet has reached the Border attack the goian Border stations and worlds War Apes lizards insects uran none of them matter massives Tower overall what after all could threaten us nothing nothing I think the heavy stomping feet in the chamber drowned out the few who dared to object and War carried the day H War Apes stupid name you are new to

the Galaxy and we will teach you to be afraid of it it was a satisfying feeling to the mountain voice and he sat back down to absorb the praise that was hurled his way a long time ago our people fought a truly massive war well massive relative to the time can you guess what caused it Maxwell asked the golean highlord I doubt it the golean replied as the pair walked through the Tree Garden on the glean home World your race invented a form of longdistance communication through wires we did also we called them telephones and

ran them along high poles one of the greatest wars of our history was sparked by an international argument over rebuilding or paying for those from the previous fight 20 years earlier it was a little nothing of a spark that launched flames of war that would end in nuclear fire great things begin from very small causes in our experience in ours also High Lord Avan remarked with a mild cluck like chuckle it seems we have that common our race gained its Unity after a fight over nesting grounds the great Lords decided that they should just have

their children pair off there and after that it became easier to unite still slow but it was inevitable and everyone knew it Unity for us finally came when the pankin did they killed thousands of our young but it was killing one that was caught on camera that sparked the Flames of their destruction they taught Humanity a valuable lesson that to be disunited is to be vulnerable able and that there were threats beyond our knowledge that we had to meet do you know what that band was there for that day moel asked but he didn't wait

for an answer he answered it himself they were there for ginger snaps apparently their Commander developed a taste for them and there was a little small town in the midwest that had a warehouse storing a lot of them the woman was there to visit her husband during lunch and brought their infant to see him he was crying as I heard the story because she'd forgotten the formula and she forgot the formula because she slept in and had to rush she slept in and had to rush because she stayed up late listening to her brother unload

about his wife's Affair now here we are maybe things would have happened this way eventually anyway but if the Confederation didn't have human Aid what was the timetable for defeat about a year aan admitted suppose our outrage hadn't taken hold then no human armies equipped with Confederation technology the Confederation would be Gravely weakened the panken alliance was not exactly kind in Victory I have heard humans might have made the leap to space at large eventually but we would have been alone it would have been a very hard fight if we were lucky likely we would

have at most become a xenophobic Backwater surrounded by a powerful and brutal enemy they might have fought the zalia and won or lost eventually or not and now with the mass massives on the move I doubt the pankin would have helped and whatever was left of the Confederation couldn't have the broad-shouldered Teran speaker point became abundantly clear the Teran ascendancy the annihilation of the pankin Empire the largest Confederation membership in a century and a half and now a grand Coalition on the way to your borders all because one woman cheated on her husband and a

pirate lord liked Ginger Snaps then sparked a series of events that led us to the present the universe is absurd isn't it he asked with a deep hearty laugh I suppose it is I suppose it is high Lord Avan replied while the human looked on with Fascination at the great High trees I take it that since you're here the Teran ascendancy voted as you wished they did we recognize that it is far better to fight far from home than in your own streets we need only wait to see what the massives will do Maxwell replied

and laid a hand on a large purple bark tree beautiful garden it reminds me of the forests at home other than the wildly colored trees ours are all mostly gray or brown in the trunk thank you these Gardens have been carefully tended for centuries it's a point of Pride that each continent manages them for seven years competition to be one of the ones to work here is fierce the high Lord pred a bit at the praise meeting the former Admiral in person was proving to be a unique experience what do you have on the way

already the highl Lord asked the 49th will be here in a few weeks comprised 12 Battleship class and their escorts we even took a page out of the zalia Playbook and made a few swarm carriers a good idea from arrival is still a good idea after all Maxwell chuckled but it made Avan head spin they're so mad for new things that they rethink their whole Doctrine every few years he kept that thought to himself when Maxwell went on the blood miners will be along shortly that's kind of a showy group there formally referred to as

the 42nd but they named themselves after a group of rebels in a book by the author I mentioned escaped slaves that went on a killing Rampage after they were set free by the one in that book referred to as the mother of Terror they paint their ships red and focus on encircling their prey to bring them down during the war against the pankin they brought down the flagship that way we'll have several more inbound over the next few weeks beyond that the massives could destroy a number of Border worlds before then if they struck tomorrow

High Lord avin looked up at the green Sky overhead with a shudder we will have to hope they don't but if it helps Maxwell then handed the high Lord a tablet and the feathery figure swept through the data on screen that many he asked with dismay I just got word a little while ago I'm sure that information is on the way to you already I admit you may lose the Border worlds but by the time they're done there the whole quadrant will have showed up for the fight and if it comes down to it we'll

help you rebuild even if we have to use the bodies of the massives to make bricks Maxwell said and put a hand up on the Slender Aven Leader's shoulder any response he could have given was cut off when both of their communicators went off at once the two traded wide-eyed looks that crossed the boundaries of species and then as one they answered their devices the sound was horrific crashing metal and showers of Sparks the gouts of flame were being fought but even while the golean on the other end was screaming out his message into Avan

screen the viewport Beyond made it clear enough what was happening a massive ship was in full view with its weapon ports glowing a super massive asteroid hollowed out and converted into a Starship the thing was pockmarked with the evidence of a feudal resistance as much as it was the little impact craters of countless eons of time the transmission cut off a moment later Maxwell's communication however continued the massives have just penetrated the glean border and destroyed the relay stations before Communications were cut they managed to transmit energy signatures sir this won't be easy we'll make

it a lot harder on them a lot harder relay the vote to the council a quadrant wide declaration of war on the Empire of the massives when we're done with them their language will be spoken only in Hell Admiral egona watched as the golean forward offensive became a defensive and the defensive became a withdrawal the withdrawal became a route and a route became their Last Stand they did as well as they could but what is metal but weak Stone he watched the Last Ship begin to list burning in space as the gas caught it would

burn out soon most of the others did too the golians seemed to like their bird-like designs and whether by Artistry or accident they intuitively designed their Craft Like a Bird with the bridge at the head instead of buried deep within their ship soared compared to the way the massives seemed to Tumble forward the interior groscop balanced within the thick asteroid rotation it creat a naturally cycling armor and made their ships weapons and systems very hard to pierce they have other fleets Admiral this was only the Forefront of their defense the first officer replied as the

first golean planet came into view the Admiral ignored that population he asked it's only a colony world not even 50 years old 20 million mainly concentrated on a single continent and six cities the first officer answered remove them the Admiral ordered the Admiral did not watch the button being pushed instead he zoomed in on The View screen as broken hulks of the forward Fleet tilted off and crashed against the asteroid turned ship his view of the golean Cities showed a disgusting mess of greenery trees and other hideous things and after a mere few seconds the

fire of their weapons began to cleanse the gazan cities the Aven race ran of course or tried to but the devastation of the withering fire reduced the cities to Ash what about the outlying communities towns Villages the first officer asked leave them they won't pose a threat when our infantry finally hit ground they can clean up move on to the next world he gave the order and his Fleet obeyed six border worlds were burned of high population density areas in the days that followed until the smoke of each world was visible from space itself nor

was his the only Fleet a dozen light years away Admiral ignol pushed the button himself and down below a furry species of the Frozen Tundras began to feel Flames lick at their bodies and another 100 million died either quickly or in pain as the population was neutralized to make way for the invasion it was a small indepedent planet on the golean border one of two occupied by a more recently space fairing species 800 light years away the massive largest Armada began its move against against the Border worlds that encircled the outlying zalian territory and found

the very first surprise Admiral igam turned his body to look down at his first officer is that a zalian fleet it can't be can it the calm light came on Admiral of the massives the zalian queen warns you to turn back your Fleet aggression will be responded to with aggression you will go no further the transmission cut off without allowing him the courtesy of a response sir the other border species have sent ships this may not be the easy part IG balam thought that over briefings did indicate that some semblance of unity existed in this

quadrant absurd as it sounds they aren't of the same Mountain tension hung in the air his Fleet began to curve out at the wings on screen the fleshy ships of the zalia with their shiny carapace like armor their undulating designs with their many Forefront weapons were complemented by the smaller ships shaped like triangles and bristling with small projectile weapons less Advanced species they survived chiefly because the bordered the massives the gosens and the zalia and anyone attacking them would be considered a likely threat toward the others and now it was so open fire break the

bugs he gave the order and their weapon systems powered on in the Keelan Confederation Hall the video of the massives wiping out Mass populations a final transmission of a golean ship before the maker themselves succumbed to whatever killed him in the black void of space played before the entire quadrant the motion passes uniform war against the massives until they have surrendered entirely there will be no peace for one until there is peace for all Maxwell's image said and around the quadrant the cheers of approval went up but nowhere not on in the office of galin

not even on the home world of the gleans was it more celebrated than on Earth not paradoxically because they loved War but because the chance to fight it before it came for themselves again was presented the whale of the mother's despair had become an almost cult-like symbol in the years since the war against the pankin introduced Humanity to the abyss at large human culture changed between our children and the desolation of the Abyss became the slogan that brought Human Weapon research to The Cutting Edge as they studied the biology and structure of every species they

encountered how best to kill that one it was the first question to be asked and investment in ship technology medicine and production Advanced to new heights The Fleets of humanity left Teran space weeks before the massives launched their attack jump after hyper jump they and the others Advanced on the best possible position for a fight ready to make a stand even if they had to concede a few worlds but along the way they did something else information is the enemy of lies and if a man shows you who he is believe him they were not

just Teran Expressions some form of them existed on most worlds with intelligent life to that end small drones barely the size of microchips were fired toward the worlds that would need to be given up in order toy by time to gather their forces together these drones did nothing more than record and transmit and as they did so They Carried the stories of the xenophobic massives out across the quadrant golians uans colians and they kept these Transmissions going all the way through the destruction and through the landing of the Infantry the massives cleanup operations the people

could not be saved but their stories were and they were told then retold through video screens around the quadrant with a message added by the teran's grand presider translated into every language in the quadrant they are coming for you too will you let them weeks became months as the massives and their supply ships and Replacements conducted campaigns of Destruction zalia and neighbor World raids kept the two fleets constantly at odds but the massives were slowly pushing forward and it was this situation which presented itself when the fighting 49th the 42nd blood Miners and the first

war Apes combined with the bulk of the kenian Confederation Fleet and the golean high flock in an unusual move Maxwell despite not being an active Admiral took position on the tan Flagship the Perry and assumed command of a unified Force as they embarked he whispered quietly to himself while they sailed into the void into the abyss that terrified and entranced poets adventurers Scholars and warriors to which The Devout once prayed to and which the milk of Hera and which was now a road to war he spoke to no one but himself saying now I am

become death the destroyer of worlds worlds are a dime a dozen that's what makes the massives so foolish there are planetoids useless planets asteroids even if what they need to survive is scarce if they could just see beyond their own disdain and take the slightly harder Choice then they might be fine maybe they would lose some Popple but nowhere near what they're going to with their decisions now so why do this Maxwell asked he was sitting at the table in the flagships private meeting room and around him other chairs were filled with the images of

leaders from the other species of the newly christened Grand Confederation because they desire the easy Worlds the easy matter it is obvious is it not war po ape the zalian queen replied her mandibles chittering when she spoke because they don't value the species on those worlds pushing them aside means nothing to them the golean highl Lord said from aboard his own Flagship it was a sobering thought exactly you're both right they want the worlds and don't care what was on there many of my world's worst aspects of History were born of desire and indifference hatred

that often came later but first they just didn't value the lives of those who were already there hate was often used to justify it later many of my people still despise the pankin to the point where they want the entire race wiped out not content with the humiliation not content with returning them to agricultural stages not content with debt they want genocide you opposed that didn't you the kenian asked I did I broke a threat nothing more nothing less I don't mind telling you now I violated a few orders and objections from my own crew

back then but I don't regret it worlds are cheap but species species that will never appear again that is another thing entirely who cares about Worlds the universe produces them in such quantities and numbers that even the act of destroying one ensures that new ones will be formed from the rubble even if we scattered their molecules all over the cosmos gravity would draw the pieces together around stars and again there would one day be world worlds but a species a species never occurs twice we've seen millions of worlds in our telescopes and satellites but a

look at the fossil record of any World shows countless forms of life that will never be again not if we search the whole of the universe why bring this up War ape the zalia queen asked because I have asked the Xeno biologists of every single member of the Confederation searching for something else I sought some proof any proof that we could make a trustworthy long-term peace with the massives I spared the pankin we spared the pankin but we knew they could learn to get along with others they' done so before and could again I can

find nothing to support this about the massives I can find no instance of them being willing to live away from their own kind or share space with anyone else studies of their biology show them to be excessively territorial to the point where any attempt at sharing space with them has resulted in extermination I poured over histories of the early Confederation and found that they were known to have wiped out other species of intelligent life before their xenophobia seems only to be limited by their ability to exterminate other life can somebody anybody tell me otherwise there

was silence around the table anything any instance where they have shown Mercy or lived cooperatively with others or at least benignly ignored their neighbors if the neighbors had had something they wanted is there any option at all to live with them Maxwell asked the question and there was clear silence and nothing more in response how have they lasted this long he asked almost unable to believe it they are strong the zalia queen acknowledged their ships are hard to pierce and their bodies hard to kill even my own Warriors must drown them in our ior sometimes

to kill them you are new war ape but they have fought many War Wars and one each time the only reason they stop we have said often is because they had enough they are a swarm of stone now they have not enough the swarm of stone moves again we fight but we are losing two of our worlds have fallen and you have not engaged how much longer days their Fleet approaches the cloud we are now hiding in a small number of golean ships have rallied around a station protecting a small Colony when the massives approach

I will unleash our newest weap happens which brings me to one final question is there anyone in this region that opposes returning the massives to the Stone Age Maxwell looked around the Confederation species at the table were numerous and yet there was no one Speaking then I am now more terrible than Shiva and the finger of judgment is pointed at the massives the link died and Admiral Maxwell sat and waited he waited at the table then he waited in in his office then he waited in his quarters he waited until he slept and a bright

fresh-faced youth came to his quarters to alert him sir the Armada is closing they will be in range within the next 4 hours the golians are scrambling at The Outpost Admiral Maxwell got up he brushed his teeth he washed himself he put on his cleanest uniform and walked to the bridge of the Perry when he got there his weapons experts were waiting with big grins on their faces 2 hours remained the others are in place write down to the music Admiral the youngest of the lot said to him but what if I could ask sir

is Ride of the Valkyries trust me you'll love it the Admiral replied to the young woman asked she brushed back her short blonde hair and Shrugged if you say so sir she had a pearly white smile that caught the light just right and let him briefly forget just why she was happy War Apes he thought accurate name many light years away the hitandrun campaigns of the zalia and the neighbor planets were slowly pushing back the massives not far behind him other tan fleets were on the move to go assist those States and still others were

on rout and linking arms to provide further assistance to the zalia on the massives flagship one little star base and a handful of Fighters then another golean system the first officer said almost board only 20 small ships for now keep watch there are a lot of places to hide out this way if they're going to pick a fight it will be here the Admiral commanded and his ships began to close in for the kill it was beautiful watching the great gifts of the the lifemaker rolling forward through the endless Darkness the many sublight Rockets now

providing direction would emerge provide direction or speed and retract again everything was rotational making it impossible for these types of crafts to be caught off guard they were the screening force and well suited to resisting golean ship to ship weapons their tendency to put weapons on the wings and beneath the ships made them a little bit predictable true to his expectations out of the great gray blue gas cloud soared a number of golean and cenan ships the cenans were Sleek smooth and made of a green alloy not readily familiar to the Admiral but their weap

weapons were packed to the tops of the ships missiles rods plasma shots lasers they filled the void of space as the two sides fired back and forth as I predicted an ambush the Admirals Aid with smug confidence as the hundreds of ships began the long route that put them in between the planet and the massives keep it up the Admiral said as the withering fire battered and shook their ships the rotating exterior of their giant to small a asteroid molded ships made an effective shield in addition to the field forces that blunted most energy-driven damage

thus always presenting a fresh front to their more vulnerable enemies for several hours the Confederation front stretched out and the massives moved ship for ship and Cannon for Cannon more ships than I thought there would be but fine the comm's light began to Blink an open Channel they can't want to surrender already he mumbled and nodded to his first officer what he heard next was the most awful noise to strike him in all his days on board the Perry do you think they're enjoying Ride of the Valkyries Admiral Maxwell asked as the tan Flagship emerged

from the cloud in all its Glory I don't know sir but I like it may I do the honors the young blonde officer asked and he inclined his head toward her please be my guest she pushed the button and the ports opened and the drones shot out electron spin guided drones allowed War fighting from far beyond the speed of light's ability to transmit data and so the development of advanced drone technology meant that an entirely new form of War fighting was possible Gamers became gods of War tens of thousands of drones shot out like rockets

while squads of players at home on Earth paid for the privilege While others hired as leaders drilled everybody constantly against simulated massive technology using realistic physics and endless lives for 18 hours per day Gamers gamed and guided drones piloting against known massive tactics their little drones were cheap but packed a punch and these swarms targeted the weapons cannons and thrusters of the massive ships whenever they emerged like a video game end boss whose weakness appeared for seconds at a time the war Apes urged to play became the means by which they killed firing hypervelocity micr

tubules which Laden with explosives began to create eruptions inside the ships themselves behind the massive came the next round of ships skeleton Crews they had two key features designed to deal with the immediate foe the ships were long and cigar-shaped except for the base which was rounded and held an abundance of propulsion power the next was a slew of cables as the god lians and cenans pounded the forward Shields thus weakening the rest until the drones made them irrelevant these ships fired their cables with carbon fiber drills at the tips that began to dig into

the Rock with no real damage at first except for the Transmissions of other massive ships their presence would have been little noted until the propulsion began to kick in and their cables snapped TT it seemed pointless until more began to latch on and the most powerful propulsion systems of the Teran ascendancy and the asteroid ships of the massives were pulled toward their own Maxwell tried very hard not to laugh at the expression he imagined on the face of the massives Admiral as his smaller ships were turned into projectile weapons the cable bearing ships of the

Teran cut their ties and zipped away as the inexurable crash rocked the ships and the asteroids began to break apart next Maxwell said and the more traditional battleship began to emerge the Swarms of drones were taking what they would count as casualties while back on Earth bets were being placed and new drones bought by players eager to further the fight the Armada of the massives began to shift to deal with the new threat and in so doing they exposed their cannons to the drones while the traditional battleships contradicted Doctrine and aimed not at the nearest

ships but at the most distant their weapons rods rods that hit the weaker Shields and detonated with the force of nuclear weapons the tide was beginning to turn ready the next let's target their Flagship as soon as I give the signal call for the ruse Maxwell gave the order and leaned forward toward the view screen Whispering smile for me you son of a at top the Parry the cannon aimed Cobalt cased tip projectiles were not unheard of but because they were a threat most ships had anti missile defenses of some sort usually chaff or targeted

lasers that would strike at electronically guided materials a handful of the little drones were hit this way but while the Swarm went on and Ride of the Valkyries began to reach its peak on yet another playthrough the capital ship of the humans fired a very primitive solution javelins Cobalt javelins with tungsten steel lines the sharp tips pierced the stone and the human Flagship began to pull back send in the ruse Maxwell shouted the order with excitement and the human star Marines on various parts of the ship took their positions on the elevators that would carry

them up to the platforms from which the drones launched before them equipped with state-of-the-art field suites they could easily survive the icy cold of space as soon as they reached the top shouts over the radio of go go go were echoed across to every team H the shouts went up as the star Marines rushed for the cables swarming over the hull of the ship and firing the rocket packs off to propel them forward they grabbed the cables and began to shoot over the distance between the largest of the massive asteroid ships and their own Maxwell

had a little smile on his face when he got the message from the zalia queen knowing the battle was coming it was inevitable that she would have ensured she got a transmission of it in real time as surely as the others did war ape what are those she asked her mandibles clicked with rapid jerking motions Maxwell couldn't hold his grin at that we call them ruse after a kind of animal called a kangaroo the animal jumps to get around our star Marines are known that way because he waved to the view screen where the Teran

star Marines were jumping off the hull grabbing cables and after quickly snapping themselves into place rocketing towards the enemy ship you don't think you invented the idea of a swarm did you Queen of the zalia he asked wait and see the Teran Marines zipped across the void and hit the asteroid dead on and for the edification of his allies he let them watch over a secure frequency the Marines hit close to disabled weapons points of egress and Drew from their sides not Firearms but long single-handed rods which they proceeded to stab into the Rock what

are those High Lord Avan asked the Eggheads call them rotational heat arrays but they're more commonly referred to as plasma chainsaws a Nifty little tool perfect for cutting up rocks and what is it these creatures are made of mostly again no answer came none was needed the Swarms of Teran Marines quickly widened the gaps around the dead guns and made their way within tearing open the asteroid they began to enter catching the crews entirely off guards I don't know what the massives are expecting but rocket powered plasma chainsaw swarms of infantry probably are not on

the list Maxwell said with a hearty laugh as he laughed one ship crashed especially hard into another their surfaces cracked the hull breached and even from afar the view screen caught sight of the thousands of massive crew members in both ships being blown out into space spewed out of the ships like a spray of spit at the face of the universe the drones were starting to run out of targets the rate of fire from the massive ships was beginning to slow down thanks to the love of gaming nerds all over my home world are going

to be funding more drones more launch craft this war might be a bigger economic boom for us than the fight against the panen the goans and the Keelan ships began to rally and Target disabled massives but their rate of fire too was starting to slow down on board the flagship of the massives what do you mean Intruders there can't be any Intruders we're not docked the Admiral shouted reality however contradicted him as he heard the death growls of his crew over their Communications and this Dreadful horrible howls like unto the wind of one of the

great Gorges of his home world the sound of hissing popping and screaming hit his ears he turned his head toward his first officer view screen on the deck where that transmission came from the monitor changed and on it he saw something he had never seen before waves of helmeted bipedal creatures were running over the area killing as they went They Carried long rods in their hands with small spinning purple line that protruded just a little from out of the center and it did the impossible it cut through massive bodies like they were barely there despite

being much taller and stronger and made of silicate the massives in that area were unarmed and the bipedal creatures worked in teams of four to six to surround and strike the crew m members security the Admiral shouted and the button was pushed immediately he felt his body tense War Apes these are the war Apes no Golian or kananian would do this are they insane he wondered about that while the internal sealed doors would do to keep his ship from a blowout except for where they'd cut their way in through the gunports the whole point of

a door was for it to be possible to pass through the war AE took full advantage of that and worse massive security was both few in number and equipped to handle brawls a boarding action of this sort was Unthinkable order a retreat All Ships General Retreat the Admiral commanded and order all compromised ships to self-destruct we can't let ourselves be taken we will not let this ship be hauled off like a prize plasma chainsaws are the best thing ever mckill cried out as he cut his way through the door I hope they start selling these

commercially and you ask why they call us War Apes Franchesca asked from beneath her helmet it was a comradely sort of derision and he could feel the smile even if he couldn't see it point taken now everybody get ready this is a security station there's bound to be a bunch of rocks in here they lined up behind six AB breast the light roaring noise of their weapons as they began swinging them in the door patterns they'd been taught to use creating more and more molten metal drippings as they cut their way within the sound of

the massives getting ready hit his ear as they broke the first gaps through each side ready to die Muhammad James Gabriella three count for support squads then them up male shouted and a kick of six heavy boots broke down the secure door and the war Apes rushed in they howled like maniacs the first wave two humans went down before the Gap could be closed the massives were Brave at least not just big but the squads of six knew what to do each successive rank to enter took position to surround and cut the giant rock people

down to Pebbles bit by bit the fight was brief and brutal and repeated all over the ship and from those with cameras transmitted back to the flagship to in turn be broadcast to the entirety of the Allied Forces zalia home World they have swarms they have swarms the queen muttered to herself it had been ages since another swarm had faced off against her own and that had been a rival queen of her own race before the unification this changed everything War apes are adaptable flexible their lack of unity I thought was weakness but they make

it into strength I must rethink everything penin home world the new penin Council watched the transmission of War ape Madness nor were they alone the government was now totally transparent after the debacle of allowing its secrecy before so the transmission of the war ape infantry invasion of the massives flagship was broadcast on view screens on each of their few remaining worlds some were fascinated some were horrified some however were enthralled with the kind of culture that could birth a people like the war Apes that had once not only humbled and nearly wiped them out but

which was now acting as as impossible as it was to believe Protectors of the quadrant the very young who had no living memory of the nightmare that had taken so many began to view the Terren very differently than their Elders aboard the Perry most of the massives fleet was in disarray several had exploded the great gouts of heat and Flame that extinguished itself in the Endless Night of the Void fading away and taking any surviving crew member members with them other massive ships began to attempt suicide runs using their asteroid ships as Rams time for

something else Admiral Maxwell said and broadcast word to the Allied Fleet we're going to pursue join us if you can remain behind if you can't oh and enjoy the music he said and turned to his comm's officer with a devilish little smile make sure the massives know everyone let it be said throughout the whole galaxy that Teran War Apes go into battle with music at their backs Play Beethoven's Ninth in D the dramatic version the Teran Fleet formed up again their ships keeping order where the massives retreated in chaos some ships dropping back as they

were damaged and unable to continue to withdraw massive home world the transmission reached the home world with the Teran music still playing they fight like demons our Fleet is in chaos they have taken most of the flagship and continue to advance I may have to self-destruct send out everything you can muster they follow after us the transmission became fuzzy hit the self-destruct they're breaking through and the Hall of the massive great Council chamber sat in stunned silence as a trio of maskless Flesh faces charged into view howling out a dreadful noise as they began to

cut down the Towering men of stone little things really but they moved moved in groups to compensate in silent burning horror the council saw their best and brightest cut to Pieces under the everpresent war screams while War ape music accompanied the slaughter the transmission cut out just as the war Apes raised their plasma chainsaws up and let loose something that was the same across all cultures and races including the massives a shout of Victory we can't be broken we are massives somebody said in protest but the black screen dared them to make a better argument

than that and none was offered the music of the Teran spread out over 10,000 10,000 networks the music of Taran children singing something entitled a Christmas Cannon the music went on a full loop and began to fade into the background with the appearance of the grand presider on the screen the massive Invasion has been stalled they were stopped before they could penetrate into the interior and even as I address you all we are in Pursuit with some of their captured ships as everyone is now aware another assembled Fleet of our Allied States is coming together

to rush to the aid of the Swarm the zalia will not fight alone the flagship Sparta and its sister ship the Athens are leading the strike he let that statement hang what lies ahead is a long War a war that should never have happened the hostility of the massives was known to all and yet they attacked why he didn't leave them wondering long because they thought they could win they saw a disunited quadrant and believed they could win because of it they thought it would be easy because we all stood only for ourselves true we

have our confederation but there are many others not party to it and could the Confederation have won by itself the ugly question had a nasty answer admissible in trillions of private Minds unlike past leaders the Teran chose to speak to every citizen in the Alliance his words reaching their radios video monitors listening devices and more streamed on every channel public screen and more at his back was the empty void through which he sailed the massives will lose this war our swarms our Allied ships they prove a greater truth that is as Timeless as time that

together we are strong apart we invite weakness United the Galaxy is open to us all let no planet in the quadrant stand alone there is room enough for all in this universe if they are willing to live in peace but we know that in this universe not everybody will trillions of galaxies are simply not enough for them a planet began to grow larger on the screen therefore I propose a change a change to how we as a quadrant do things we are many we are different but if we put forth first and foremost the right

of all peaceful races to live peacefully we can unite as never before we can enshrine this in a law that all will follow a three- tier government a single presider a senate composed of two representatives of each people and a representative house which represents the numbers of sentients to protect the interests of all the powers of each will be divided further the top legal minds of every race will craft a common set of laws which hold true in space between every World in doing this we craft the first Stellar hegemony a United Federated system of

peoples that will allow us to face the universe together in the background the quiet music calmed and Dreadful lyrics began to reach every ear or semblance of ear the name of the music in a small Corner tear down the bridges and for those who will not live in peace there can be only one end against the might of a United hegemony the world loomed large and across the many view screens the name of the massive World scrolled he pushed a button with his fall hand as he entered orbit and said go on give them back

their ship for a moment the quadrant was confounded until the view showed the asteroid ship looming large and descending toward the planet with its thrusters on so that it traveled at 1/3 light speed toward the surface that asteroid is eight of our miles wide a sixmile wide impact at far less speed caused a mass extinction on my world over 65 million years ago the massives were kind enough to arm us with with a number of these weapons we're going to give them back until they submit unconditionally or there are no more of them left to

surrender for the first time in an age from the zalia Queen's Nest to the pankin council to the tan home world the entire quadrant was silent at once we will Forge Unity from our disunity if you are willing and settle the whole of the Galaxy together in peace in Brotherhood in security and may any God there are preserve those who stand in our way because together we will win through he looked down at his officer take us to the next World we have more ships to return to the massives the transmission cut out and were

there any Gods looking down on the living of the many worlds the roar that followed would have rendered them deaf then the words Stellar hegemony was on every mandible beak tongue and more the massives of the home World watched the open transmission with alarm send another Fleet how many fleets do you think we have all of them every single ship we can still beat them we just have to hit them hard before they reach the core worlds will that really work I think so most echoed the agreement that it could but for some the question

could only be asked what have we done the galactic Union was never more than a name a loose Association in which the various Interstellar bodies met and talked more of a social club than anything else it had no power it had no Authority or agencies it was nothing more than one single space station that held the H hundred or so odd intelligent species from around that part of the Galaxy permanent diplomatic presence with the diplomats all living on site various planets and Empires all providing for their own personnel and supporting it financially and materially by

Lottery it did have one thing going for it however and that was that it facilitated vast cultural exchanges and any Ambassador who liked something another culture created tended to rapidly popularize it back on their home worlds in short a social club and a cultural exchange Nexus a lot of interstellar negotiations took place there on an unofficial basis but the only thing that had been agreed upon in the last ever was that it should be a war crime to Target Taran young most of the Galaxy's species found this bizarre they formed friendships yes but it was

those that were intense the idea of caring so much for quickly replaceable young was staggeringly unusual similarly odd was the natural divisiveness of the Teran species the meme let's start an argument this is a rock with a picture of what was obviously a rock resulted in great confusion around the quadrant particularly as they saw humans actually arguing over it as if that were done for fun equally bizarre was the Teran tendency to unite as quickly as they divided with horrifying results the pankin were now regarded as endangered and had not launched anything into space except

for soldiers in service to the fight against the massives a dreadful fear of the danger of space was borne from their experience against the Keelan Confederation and their War ape allies now it was questionable about whether they had a future off their own worlds it was into this environment that the Admiral and revered speaker of the teran's grand Armada cast his speech calling for unification as if they had timed it the Teran cultural exchange division released the totality of human history culture art and music from subsaharan Africa to Suburban Los Angeles from Milan to Tokyo

a cultural Blitz C was Unleashed on the galactic Union an offering of friendship a sharing a gift and a warning unspoken perhaps even unintended but it was a warning nonetheless do not with war Apes the history of the Tern was one of conflict with peace the gap of time between two Wars born from surviving two near extinctions having won the battle for survival on a world with five major mass extinctions overall rising to become an apex predator on a planet that casually obliterated walking and swimming killing machines the offer of unity peacefully carried with it

the unstated fact that war Apes had emerged to travel the void Between Worlds and it was easy to be at their side and at their back and hard to be in front of them the common population of most species didn't truly grasp this for them the stories the music the art all these things were simply new and unlimited media for consumption anything less unified than the zalia Swarm was interested in that and the zalia were the first to say Unity is good with total control over her population growth the zalia queen recognized how much her

race could benefit from unification peaceful expansion and a whole other swarm to call on how could she say no the other races the minor ones who lived too close to the border with the massives or other larger Nations or Empires also quickly jumped on board with the idea a way to Traverse the stars without fear new worlds could open up new trade lanes and New Opportunities the Keelan confeder ation wasn't far behind and from there a domino effect began to take hold consumption of Teran media ideals and the everpresent promise of Total Security under an

Amalgamated Empire was too good to resist and no people wanted to be the odd ones out let alone surrounded by Voices who were on board but while that was going on the fleet continued to return ships to the massives on The View screen was a scene being transmitted across the cosmos A Massive asteroid ship kening toward another massive world and causing Untold catastrophe there was a beautiful terrible Simplicity to the Teran Admirals approach I don't have to take their worlds I have to disable their worlds if I do that we can go back and take

them any time the massives are Hardy big strong but they're not invincible and a total collapse of their planets through environmental destruction will do the trick just fine so on they went the massives had their great ships harvested from many asteroids around many worlds hollowed out as needed but otherwise the Rock left over from the formation of planets was mostly intact jump to jump system to system but the massives had many many worlds ample time to raise another Fleet hence the Allied Advance paused periodically to take on more ships soaring through the endless void the

Teran Admiral watched The View screen showing the ever growing Fleet and listening to the tally of electing worlds he raised his brow when he heard that the pankin remnant voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the galactic hegemony seeing the Teran recreate the KT Extinction might have helped the kelan the zalia one by one the larger Empires voted or otherwise decided that the lesson of the massive Invasion would not need to be repeated it's the threat as much as the promise Great Master uran said in conversation with his sometime auran rival as they sat around over

drinks in the grand space station on The View screen the war ape Admiral was pointing to another massive world and one of the ships that was previously weaponized hit and the world cracked how many massives do you think were on that world the giant fur covered Great Master asked his short snout exhaled briefly not enough for my liking the auran feathers ruffled not enough he dipped his beak in the long glass to drink they'll be more endangered than the panins soon but then that's the point isn't it shatter the biggest and most destructive Empire in

the quadrant then talk about Unity they're expanding more all the time who ever heard of using clones from home to settle new worlds you're rambling the auran smoothed his white feathers and then went back to drinking you're not wrong but you're rambling another hundred years maybe less they'll have more colonies than the zalia if the whole quadrant unites maybe we can finally find out what's out there in the great beyond where even the massives couldn't reach dreamer but I can't say the idea doesn't have merits free trade between all planets and he was cut off

when the realtime view screen showed the unexpected the asteroid ships of the massives hundreds of them the war ape far from fearful had an expression on his face that the the rest of the Galaxy had started to refer to as War ape bloodlust play some music for them nobody should die without good music in whatever passes for their ears Triumph by tapanes oh and raise the alarm for our allies tell them it's payback time for the terror the massives exerted over this quadrant we're going in first they can do whatever they want a moment later

he took his seat in his command chair strapped in and said open a channel to the massive Admiral back on the station the buzz was clear are they really serious transmitting all this showoffs but the admiration the eagerness to watch it unfold from one species to another was clear the massive Admiral appeared on the tan Admiral's screen are you coming to offer us your unconditional surrender the tan Admiral asked of course not what stone submits to meat the Admiral asked affronted Every Mountain we've ever climbed the war ape answered and now it's your turn to

be mounted and since you're not going to surrender and you're about to learn that even rocks can break there's one thing I've always wanted to say one of my favorite authors from the 21st century wrote of an occasion where a noble Champion attempted to challenge an Invader to a duel announcing his name his status and drawing his sword for The Clash against the woman known as the mother of Terror can you guess how it went the mass Admiral seemed more confused than anything looking behind him at his crew the war ape laughed she completely missed

that he'd even offered the duel gutted him and moved on without noticing but as she charged she said to him what I say to you now thee he bellowed killed the transmission and bellowed over the Comm lines break those rocks though the sublight speed rods were fired off by the hundreds as the Tern began their attack run far far from the battle amidst the Stars votes were being tallied decisions made and as the quadrant watched the Teran War Apes go howling into the void as if they were born there and so unafraid to die in

it the first Galactic hegemony was born what kind of war cry is that the zena Ambassador asked his comrade while the galactic union members sat around watching the fighting unfold old thee how undignified he sniffed with his long nose upturned it makes more sense than yippy kayay we still don't have a proper translation for that His companion uttered with a roll of his long ey stocks oh I don't know the uran answered when he sat down to join his companions it may be crude but that's humans through and through they can be as reserved and

dignified one minute bloodthirsty than next they're civilized War Apes whatever they need to be they become don't you know anything about the human home world no not really I've heard it's absurdly dangerous though the zena Ambassador muttered I'm friends with the Keelan Confederation Ambassador that first visited their home world it's exceptionally dangerous volcanoes are still active their continents drift high mountains and low valleys huge storms look they have crazily diverse biomes and they breathe a corrosive atmosphere that would kill most others there is a reason they're often referred to as death breathers if it hadn't

been for the kelan Confederation trading them internal breathing modulators we might not have them going all over the place now hph what's your point the zena asked his long nose wiggled a little the small whiskers at the end shook with annoyance and his hunched armored body did the same a moment later on screen they watched as Teran drones swarmed a massive asteroid ship and blew a hole in it while Teran Marines followed into the breach wielding plasma chain saws the open comms meant that the war Apes cries of bloody murder were heard across the quadrant

that she said and Shrugged a place that kills its own species over 99% of the them created the ultimate Predator they're the Sons and Daughters of the few species to survive their mass extinctions survival of the fittest isn't just about strength it's about the responsiveness to change when the panken Pirates threatened to exterminate Teran infants to impose compliance they changed the rules of survival hatred love wild and bloodthirsty Madness they a species of great extremes maybe so but still the Zen sha huffed it's not very polite neither is declaring deao war on the quadrant she

replied the keelin and the pankin brought Tern into the fold we changed their games now they're changing ours the zalia have never given diplomatic ground to anyone not in 300 Cycles but they did when the tan diplomats box them in the zalia queen isn't much for change but the tan Admiral framed it as something she knew understood and loved Unity the Keelan wanted trade so the Tern offered the possibility of Limitless free trade the smaller worlds want security just at that moment a massive ship exploded in a burst of flame as the rods of the

Teran Flagship pierced a reactor or perhaps it detonated itself shattering rocks and bodies out into the void to sail on forever and they're offering their security my point gentlemen isn't that the war apes are only War Apes it's their diplomats and their flexibility that makes them so dangerous in one blow they United the quadrant set themselves a relative newcomer to Stellar politics at center stage and establish themselves as War leaders as much as political power Brokers we're thinking a lot about them as War apes and missing where their greatest strengths truly lie in their ability

to understand us all approach us with our deepest desires and lead us into following them it is the peace that they will win not just this war and once they have it I think we'll give this Stellar hegemony and them not only all the power they need to rule for eons but they'll make us think it was our own idea and glad we did it War Apes but peace demons get used to it because she stopped as another massive ship exploded on the screen and some of the Allied ships rushed into the gap of the

field of fire while the Teran battleships provided cover there's no getting around it after this we'll all be their subjects in fact if not in name and it's only the facts that matter she dipped her long beak into the drink in hand and set it down on the table empty at last you're full of outlandish thoughts the zena Ambassador groused it's an outlandish universe and I've been right before just a word advice old friend when the tan Ambassador Praises you for something pay attention to what ideas are put into your head I'll bet you it's

something they want she laughed and stood up I'd best be going my home world is petitioning for favored tourism status and the sweet sweet credits that come with it creating that standing for trade purposes and promotion was my best idea yet I had it while I was talking with the tan Ambassador and now we're looking at a resource and Technology exchange to facilitate it she couldn't smile with her beak but she gave them all a long lingering stare to let that all sink in and quietly made her exit on screen a zalia swarm was digging

into a massive ship while a Teran Cruiser was picking off massive interceptors attempting to stop it when the ship exploded neither Ambassador at the table could think of what else to say though privately they wondered was that really her idea or was she giving us an example of Teran do you know what surprised humans the most about the rest of the species of the mega quadrant when when we ended up joining the interstellar Community Grand presider Albert Anderson asked when he sat down at the table around him Sat other species enss who seemed at first

very beike with their large robust bodies and thick fur until you realized those large bodies held eggs that would hatch a dozen young and only about three would survive even if everything went perfectly the pankin a lizard species which had hundreds of young of which only a dozen might reach adulthood and only a fraction of which would reproduce the kelen another lizard-like species but which had live young however they were sure to have three or four but thanks to yearr round sexuality and constant fertility as well as lowcost pregnancy and fast lives produced vast numbers

in a lifetime per female The zalia Voice a creature which had only a mouth and ears but no ability to digest anything and which would die in very short order the definition of disposable and most unusually of them all a massive a speaker from the last massive City his species was the rarest of all still but was the result of infused bacteria into particular types of stone making their silicate bodies essentially a centiant colony with a high energy cost but also made reproduction easy what war ape the zalian queen asked through her representative's mouth she

out of them all was one of the most dedicated to the galactic hegemony as an idea but even a century after the war that destroyed the Empire of the massives she still retained a particular Fascination for the human Imperium regardless of who the presider was it was how little you all give a damn about your children he said his beige skin was wrinkled and he gave a little smile before rubbing the whitening beard on his face we still teach the pankin incident in schools though he glanced toward the uncomfortable looking pankin Ambassador we put the

blame more on the Pirates being pirates for political convenience now we don't need old grudges lingering but that does still Fascinate our race he gestured to the cenan and the orian you two are friends and can form bonds even close ones despite being different races you can and do do the same within your communities that much we have in common but nobody here forms meaning ful bonds with their young except us he shook his head we what we call a kype species we put a lot of resources into our young and reproduce slowly everybody else

in the mega quadrant is an R type low investment with many offspring or a hive mine that is just an extension of the self- gestating queen or something like that it's really fascinating to our Xeno biologists he took up a knife and fork as soon as the plates were set down in front of the guests and began to cut his meat meat the thick smell of steak filled his nostrils and the others looked at his meal with curiosity as they dined on their own preferential Foods the human propensity for cooking wasn't unheard of but it

was still odd to most whose bodies had no real concern for the toxins food could carry it made War ape dominance a greater curiosity still when they thought of how many natural vulnerabilities the humans seem to have for us children are worth dying for even enemies May may feel pity for the young of those they kill one of our most famous films featured an early war in which a young man promised to look after the children of the very man he killed a child who dies never marries never has a first time with another person

never marries never experiences the Wonder grandchildren a great deal is lost when a child dies your race is similarly curious remember if we the norm War ape you are the Curiosity the zalia queen pointed out and the human inclined his head toward her you speak the truth and that Curiosity whatever the cause brings us all here today Among the Stars in a station on the edge of the mega quadrants into contact with one another curiosity is the foundation of civilization in my view the grand presider said and waited for argument none came but that also

leads us into danger and that danger is out there he pointed to a window into outer space it led out into the empty vastness of the dark in the direction from which no one had ever returned it was the massive speaker who addressed the issue you speak of the Void my race tried to cross it for centuries in search of resources nothing comes back from there exactly right the grand presider said and took a sip of red wine the tart flavor exploded on his tongue that is why this space station is here to monitor out

there and to serve as a lookout an early warning system in case anything comes back this way did something the massive speaker asked yes the grand presider said and the guests hushed they ceased chewing sucking licking and absorbing those who used implements dropped them with a clatter to their bowls and plates and cups we managed to draw back one of your ships what was left of it our scientists have experimented for a very long time with reverse graviton attraction blank stairs met him sorry it was in the brief but who reads those he Shrugged off

the rhetorical question basically everything has gravity but the greater mass will always draw the smaller and with force in proportion to its density a higher gravity pulls harder than a weaker the idea was to use electron spin resonance to create high density substances remotely to pull ships forward then dismantle the substance and reassemble it ahead thus creating a form of what we call pull pulsion and because electron spin can impact molecular assembly even from a great distance with a very low energy cost it's as close to perpetual energy as we're currently able to get the

drawback of course is that gravity affects everything so it has to be done quickly with rapid navigation controls he waved his hands and shook his head forget it I'm rambling he sighed forgive me the point is that we've been experimenting with this passive energy of gravity-based pulsion for some time along with some of our closest allies meaning the ones who have actually chosen to put funding into the galactic science commission he let that hang while some of those at the table mentally began wondering how much they should reallocate out of their budgets and during one

of the test runs out into the void the propulsion system made a mistake and created neutronium we fixed the problem and the neutronium was destroyed before it could wreak any localized Havoc a quantity fit to cap my finger could destroy a planet in the wrong spot but when they got to the area they were being pulled toward they found one of your old ships speaker the massive looked down at the human and leaned forward name the vessel I will tell you what I can warpe xg2 4601 the grand Pres Ider replied the massive speaker pulled

up the Virtual Console tied to his home world and began to type on Keys nobody could see a moment later he was addressing the human a prison ship 600 of your years ago one of our early attempts at entering the void the crew was dead but more notably large parts of the ship were how should I put this fossilized I suppose or how did the Eggheads put it he cleared his throat the structure of the ship was encased in so much accumulated space dust and debris that the ship itself was rendered unnoticable to the naked

eye until it crashed into something that knocked some of the material loose our ship was buried in Space the massive speaker asked the grand presider nodded yes more or less if as you say it was only 600 of our years ago there's no way it could have happened so quickly not by any known means according to to one scientist if it hadn't been pulled free of wherever it was given a few thousand more years it might have become a small Moon so either there is an unknown natural phenomenon out there the likes of which we've

never even put on the drawing board or some intelligent species is playing around with time itself I called you all here because you each have either firsthand knowledge of the Void or you have colonies on the outskirts along with us you have a vested interest in this beyond the rest of the galactic hegemony you'll be given all the information we have and then in a few days we'll decide how we proceed Grand presider Anderson took a bite out of his Stak again and noticed his plate had become tragically empty weaponizing time is actually a pretty

good idea if it can be done the rest of them are probably thinking the exact same thing I am I suppose and can't wait to learn what's out there he thought and put a smile on his face as he reached out for his cup to finish the last of his wine I need a translation for you done up as soon as possible Admiral iston said as the ninth admiral of the outermost system of the exaa hegemony he followed his protocols to the letter when coming across a new race that has yet to offer resources to

the home World destroy the outermost colony of the offender and offer their authorities the chance to submit after a display of might in this case it was a small Colony belonging to a bipedal species that identified itself as Homo sapiens on First Contact before his Salvo obliterated them you done up was their last transmission to him before his second Salvo killed what was left the colony was an isolated one near very rare stable Wormhole the world was almost worthless the only thing it had to offer was a superabundance of plant life it was poor in

minerals small and had no worthwhile animal life more importantly probes sent Through the Wormhole reported nothing for hundreds of light years not even a space station they were still reporting nothing the day they disappeared and stopped transmitting sir the antenna of his language expert wiggled a little as he spoke the red carapace glinted in the faint glow of the lights his mandibles clicked together as he spoke there is no direct translation at first glance it seems they wanted to come up and have sex with us but that can't be right I believe that they were

using sex as a metaphor for mistake AK that we made a mistake of some sort could it be that they have already offered tribute to the home world the Admiral ruled that out immediately he read the reports thoroughly before every new encounter and none of their ships had come out this way in years let alone encountered this race a funnyl looking soft body like that one would have been remembered I wonder how they survive he dismissed the idle question and sent the transmission off to the home world per protocol assigned vessel would be dispatched to

evaluate the remnants Easton gave it no more thought for months until he received his courtesy copy of the report detailing the findings on the colony world he had obliterated self-repairing bodies bones growing through their sound holes and stained with meat muscle total pull capacity exceeding 17 tons if they could pull in the same direction entertainment featuring primitive gods and demons lots of violence mildly interesting but no more noteworthy than any of the other subject species which must tribute the hegemony iscan gave it no more thought again for two more years until he turned on his

view screen at his desk one day and saw the face of their Emperor iscan Fleet Admiral you are the one who destroyed the bipedal colony of homo sapiens 2 years and 2 months and 6 weeks ago the emperor skipped all formality a shocking departure from protocol but he at least kept the ordering of events by timeline I did he answered but he was cut off from anything more they have responded the emperor's antenni flitted about madly as the view changed the Wormhole was open again and through it poured a sea of white ships each of

them dozens and dozens of times larger than his Flagship the transmission of the homo sapiens came on screen this is Admiral triu fleet commander for the great Teran amalgam by order of the interstellar Senate the protected status of your Empire is now forfeit for centuries we have left you alone so that we would not impede your natural development however due to your wanten and unprovoked aggression you are hereby ordered to stand down your Fleet at once and offer surrender and begin negotiations for a peace settlement that will ensure this never happens again this will of

course include the liberation of all tribute states which will be placed under the protection of the Teran amalgam immediately we who command a 100 systems are to be shyan's words might not have been audible to the Teran but they might as well have been the teran's face vanished and a map appeared on screen for a moment Emperor and Admiral alike swelled with pride as the map of their empire appeared so Grand and glorious in its bright red shade then the tribute States dozens of single worlds or small numbers of minor civilizations having two or three

worlds or systems but as the map zoomed out it reached the Wormhole then the view changed and the Teran amalgam came into view it grew and grew and grew and grew and grew until it was a great mass of blue an ocean to the hegeman's Raindrop make your choice hostiles or we will make it for you the Admiral killed the transmission and ison's antenni flailed about as he recalled the last transmission of the Little Colony they were right he thought and from the way the emperor's antenni moved he knew it too with the recovery of

the lost massive ship the mega quadrant contributions to the scientific research division of the hegemony was practically doubled almost overnight Research into time manipulation began in Earnest the first devices were simple they were spinning things orbiting a small chamber and at first there were differences of mere micros seconds later models included motion and efforts at manipulating light speed manipulation brought about differences of minutes but the Breakthrough came not from pulsion or motion studies but rather from the study of black holes where the gravity of these collapsed Stars slowed down time close to the event horizon

while it went on normally around it unsurprising to the rest of the hegemony Teran fanaticism and work Obsession the evident routine of one of the rare active hunting species to evolve intelligence led the way the scientists of other hegemony member species continued to expand as the Teran spear Point forged ahead like an arrow which was narrow at the tip and wider at the base it pried into the Flesh of ignorance and forced the universe to surrender up its secrets and in this way the truth was revealed true to form it was the tan Grand presider

who made the announcement speaking into view screens that would be seen from one corner of the mega quadrant to the other and to an audience of many member races which were present on the station where rule over their M of the Galaxy was emanated High Spirits were everywhere at long last The Mystery of the barrier void was solved a new frontier was to be opened for all I won't bore you with a long- winded speech the scientists who did their jobs did them well and have earned Eternal Fame in their fields all to be remembered

as they should be for opening up to us the way forward into the grand unknown like our many ancestors who first took all of us to space to commemorate their work all their names should be etched in stone monuments at every Aerospace University in the hegemony the grand presider couldn't hear the cheers of scientists from world to world or see The Shining eyes of the watching youth whose Ambitions shifted unexpectedly in one moment the answer to the barrier void does lie in the manipulation of time just as we have manipulated space some race unknown yet

in time so ancient we doubt that any of our species were even single celled organisms yet learned to manipulate time itself in order to travel according to the scientists the barrier void is was not created by any willful intent or not likely instead it appears that these ancient space Mariners created this problem by accident or accidental intent theoretically speaking if they attempted to manipulate time in the wrong way the fabric of time within SpaceTime could be warped to a permanent Accel eration making Crossing it an arduous and even impossible task since our existing warp drives

are trying to warp SpaceTime and the time itself is already warped failure was inevitable as he explained a pin dropping could have been heard in any watching room in the known universe the energy built in every living body capable of it as they waited with baited breath for the grand reveal now that we know what the problem is we also have two solutions generational ships what we once called Dyson spheres built on the model of the massives but vastly larger these entirely self-sustaining vessels will house generational clones which will replace one another as they die

along with a robotic crew to Aid them and they will establish warp conduits powered by energy siphoned from stars that will let us cut through from point to point modifying our propulsion warp technology probes measuring Chrono warp levels into indicate that the Great Barrier is 30 million light years across so if we all work together as one we can carve a Northwest Passage through the void in only one generation then we can see what's on the other side the cheer that went up kept doctors of many races busy for weeks healing the injured ears or

other sound receptors on those who were not prepared for that level of noise the vote was unanimous as the project was laid out even reticent peoples were enthusiastic in their cont contributions and the Dyson Sphere development Crews had no shortage of support from everything from The zalia Voice to even pankin protectorates and volunteers for the Voyages lined up for a shot at Immortal Fame as the first to cross the void and establish the conduit waypoints but among the many who were enthusiastic there were some doubting voices what if whatever is on the other side is

hostile what if this accident was done intentionally to isolate something on the other side what if if there are other powerful Empires that we can't even imagine the questions made the rounds and became a more formal debate which ran throughout the construction of the Spheres there wasn't an obvious answer to that except we tried to establish peaceful relations and prepare to shut the conduit down if the threat is too great but even The doubters Wanted the project to go forward resulting in a compromise in the form of an automated Fleet that would establish first contact

with anyone on the other side and learn what was really out there and most dismissed their own concerns when precautions were made saying in their heart of hearts would anyone really just attack a group who crossed the barrier void just like that just for showing up no of course not nobody would be so daed and War crazy