Summary
[Captain] Hunter 125-45 of the Great Temple with the Two Pillars sat in his ready room, aboard the starship they commanded. They grabbed for some [fermented cactus-equivalent juice], as they watched the live-broadcast of the conference room on the planet, a thousand kilometers below them. This was possibly one of the most important conferences in the history of all three species. As the captain pondered about this, they thought back to the past few months. It had been the busiest few in their entire career. Since the Toshra, Pakoph and Jre had made First Contact, relations had been tense. The Jre had always hoped to find alien life in the universe, to contact new cultures, each one with thousands of exotic goods and collectables they could trade with. They had wanted to find friends, allies even, in the stars to keep them company. And of course, the first two species they encounter were xenophobic, un-wanting to trade and a threat to the collective. To top it all off, relations had only soured since First Contact. After the initial shock had gone away, the three species had only been at odds over resources and ideology.
The Toshra had a superiority-complex, and an obsession with perfection, whilst the Pakoph were religious nutjobs that believed anything different to them to be demonic. Hunter 125-45 [scoffed], and took another sip of his drink as they thought back to the countless insults the other two species had hurled their way in the past. Of course, these ‘vocal conflicts’; were far from the only conflict that had arisen between the three. Whilst none of them shared a border as of yet, all three species were rapidly expanding outwards. There had already been conflicts over certain resource-rich, or otherwise strategically important systems. On several occasions, these conflicts degraded into outright violence. And even though nobody had died yet, the captain knew it was only a question of time before it’d happen. It seemed inevitable to them. [The Captain] thought it’d d be better if the Jre just isolated themselves from the other species.
Regardless, representatives of the three species had agreed to meet on this as of yet unclaimed planet, right in between the three territories. Engineers had set up dwellings, and a conference room for this specific meeting, and even a rudimentary translator. Even if it took it 5 minutes to translate anything, it was still quite an impressive feat, the captain thought. Each group of representatives had also brought a small group of military ships with them. A sort of ‘mutually assured destruction’ as it were. The plan, or at least the plan as the Jre had understood it, was to negotiate over who would be controlling which systems, and a possible demilitarised zone between the three empires. This had, so far, utterly failed. Not that this was surprising to the captain. The Toshra had apparently seen it as an admission of surrender, and the Pakoph seemed to not be able to make up their mind on anything, and probably only attended because certain schisms within their strange church weren’t yet convinced that all aliens were demons. At several occasions, the talks had almost degraded to violence. [The Captain] had long ago lost the little hope they had in the talks producing anything useful.
Then, something interesting happened on their monitor. Something that [the Captain] was sure meant no good for any of them. One of the Pakoph representatives appeared to have had enough, and began to hurl insults towards the Toshra. Something about the Toshra being horrible, narcissistic sea demons. Now, Hunter 125-45 was somewhat glad someone finally told those annoying [sea slug-equivalents] the truth, but they were less happy at the context it happened in. Who in their right mind would insult a foreign dignitary like that in the middle of a peace conference? The Toshra, for his part, appeared to take the bait and began hurling insults back at the Pakoph, something about them being imperfect and inferior beings. The translation had been rather rudimentary in both cases. Regardless, both the Toshra and the Pakoph continued to throw insults at each other, and some other representatives also joined in. The captain was somewhat glad to see that none of the Jre seemed to do so, though. After about 10 minutes of this, the two parties did something the Captain had never expected they’d actually do; they began to fight. Hive-gods! This was not good. Not good at all! The Toshra and the Pakoph fought savagely, and soon the Jre had gotten into it as well. Then, the worst possible scenario happened. One of the Toshra killed the Pakoph that had started it in the first place. With a simple strike from the Toshra’s claws to the neck, the much more fragile and weaker Pakoph fell to the ground. Dead. To add to this, one of the Toshran ships moved closer to the planet. Then, the captain heard a beeping sound. One of his crewmen, in charge of the sensors. “sir, the Toshra appear to powering up their weapons! It is hard to tell, but it seems like they are targeting the conference room!”
In a boust of fear, and hive-instincts acting up, [the Captain] did something they probably should not have.
Captain Eshromar Pokroosh watched in horror, as the alien [imperfect savages] began to fight with the representatives from both the Shakar Kingdom, and the Moshrokon Empire. This had not been the plan. Realm Above, this had not been the plan. They agreed to this conference, because they thought they might be able to get some reason out of the [imperfect savages], and get them to, at least partially, submit to the Kingdom. They had expected the aliens to see the inherent superiority and perfection present in Toshra. But they didn’t; they simply didn’t. The Perfect Ones must be testing the Toshra as the Jre seemed to think this was a peace conference (the idea alone!), and the Pakoph just wanted to prove to their heretical cults that the Toshra and Jre were demons (another piece of evidence of their inherent inferiority). And now, the Pakoph had baited their representatives into performing an act of imperfection! Realm Above, they were here as diplomats, not warmongers! Regardless, Eshromar had quickly realised the Pakoph would not let this go unpunished. He had moved his ship closer to the planet, and prepared to fire a warning shot down at the surface, just missing the conference room. Then, an alarm beeped. The Jre ship had moved in closer. Oh, Realm Above. One of his underlings turned to him, and said “Captain! The Jre ship is preparing to fi-”
Captain Phovokoren Mevakeros Aterephomoros watched as the two ships engaged each other. The Jre ship had responded far faster to the Toshran attempt to destroy the faithful, then they ever could. This was rather disappointing, the captain had really hoped these beings were true children of Meterovor. Sadly, it turned out they were actually demonic, as so many of the faithful had already claimed. What a pity. Prophets be silent, what a pity. This had been rather unexpected though. Phovokoren wondered why the two ships that turned out to be demonic had engaged each other. Perhaps this was all a clever ruse? An attempt to make the faithful believe that at least one of the demons was on their side? Or perhaps the demonic hordes were not as united as was once believed? Perhaps they also had rivaling factions? She brought herself to order, when she realised this was really a question for the prophets. Regardless, the Toshran ship had been hit in some area of personal quarters. A heavy hit, but not enough to bring them down. The Toshran ship attempted to go to a new position, and fire back, but the Jre ship fired another round of missiles. This time, they were hit in one of their fusion reactors, and the ship violently exploded. Then, the other Jre and Toshra ships also began to fight each other. Divine be praised! At least the demons had turned on eachother, like rabid [wolf equivalents].This would make it a bit easier, at least. She waited a few minutes for the two demonic fleets to weaken themselves. She knew she was probably going to die. The Toshran war ships were far superior to the Pakoph ones. But she couldn’t let the death of their fallen diplomat go unavenged. And, if anything, her sacrifice would convince the few remaining Pakoph of the demonic nature of the Toshra and Jre. Like she had been. Eventually, and with a heavy heart, she gave the order for her ships to enter the battle. She knew their sacrifice would be remembered as the beginning of the war to vanquish the demons. With some luck, they’d be able to destroy them without much death on the sides of the faithful. Maybe they’d even meet true children of Meterovor. If the divine will it, at least.