Ever since its establishment, the Commonwealth has never been bested in warfare. The Commonwealth’s vast fleet sailed from one victory to another, escorting massive assault units onto planets stupid enough to defy the Elder council’s will. That is until the humans showed up.

They were backward savages who had yet to master interstellar travel. They had no knowledge of the wider galaxy. And yet they had advanced weapons, powerful enough to destroy the 3rd fleet in a single decisive battle.

Since then, the humans had been fighting a guerrilla war against the Commonwealth, raiding slave ships and destroying slave camps wherever they went. The humans’ hatred to slavery is only rivalled by their skills in war. Their insurgency had dealt a massive blow to the Commonwealth, so much so that the Commonwealth’s old rival, the Kozir Federation, was able to seize the opportunity and took a few systems from the Commonwealth’s iron grip.

And here he was, standing in the room alone, about to do something completely unthinkable. Drulmox needed to negotiate for peace. The Commonwealth was prepared to negotiate for a ceasefire with the humans and Drulmox would be the one to do it. If someone had told Drulmox that the Commonwealth would even consider committing such humiliating act a few cycles ago, that person would have been hanged for insulting the Elder Council

“My lord, the human ambassador is here,” said Drulmox’s Vyob slave.

Drulmox turned around and walked out of the door. The security team standing outside the room immediately saluted him. He walked on silently, ignoring his men as he walked towards the airlock. He looked up for a brief moment and saw the human spacecraft docked above the wide corridors of the station. It was clearly a former Commonwealth ship, the familiar sight of a Ghovland class transport only brought more shame to Drulmox. The humans had captured hundreds of Commonwealth spacecraft, most had been refitted and used against their makers in a brutal display of irony. Drulmox sighed and walked towards the airlock, hoping to get it over as soon as possible.

As he approached the sealed doors, he could see a human woman standing on the other side. The woman was standing with a few other humans but none of them were armed. Drulmox was surprised at how daring they were, given the fact that they were in enemy territory. He ordered his guards to open the doors for him and walked straight up to the woman. She looked up confidently and spoke first.

“Greetings Admiral. I am Catherine Hustwick, special envoy of United Nations of Earth. I am authorized to negotiate for an immediate cessation of hostility between our armed forces.”

“And I am Lord Admiral Drulmox, Lord Commander of the Commonwealth fleet. Welcome onboard Uchur. This way please.”

Drulmox waved his claws and allowed the humans to walk in. The humans were clearly not soldiers, they did not move like warriors, nor did they talk like warriors. However, they seemed to be determined and focused, not unlike the humans that Drulmox had met in battle. They followed the admiral into the meeting room silently, disregarding all the looks they got from the security team.

“Please, have a seat,” Drulmox offered. “I believe this meeting will be a quick one. The Elder Council has agreed to an immediate ceasefire. We believe that it will be mutually beneficial for us if you would agree to do the same.”

“I do agree that we should cease all hostilities. However, we would like to propose additional terms for our ceasefire.”

“Terms? What terms?” Drulmox couldn’t believe his ears. How did these untamed beasts dare to ask for anything from the mighty Commonwealth?

“Firstly, we would like to exchange prisoners of war. We have captured a large number of prisoners from you and you have captured some prisoners from us. We would like to propose a prisoner swap so that both our people and yours can go home,” the woman said sternly.

“Prisoners? Why would you want the slaves back?”

“Are you suggesting that you have enslaved our prisoners of war?”

“Yes, is that a problem?” Drulmox asked in utter confusion. “This is something that the Commonwealth has been doing ever since its foundation. The Commonwealth fleet is given authority to enslave lesser species whenever deemed appropriate…”

Suddenly, one of the human diplomats stood up. He was urged back onto his seat by the woman in charge of the talks.

“We would want them back immediately,” said the woman with a hint of anger in her voice.

“This is impossible. We have not kept any records of human slaves. To be honest with you, I do not even know how many prisoners have we captured.” Drulmox explained honestly. He still could not understand why the humans were so angry over such a small thing.

“We will settle this later,” the woman waved her hands dismissively. “Now, we would also like the Commonwealth to establish a demilitarized zone between UN-controlled space and Commonwealth-controlled space. Commonwealth ships should retreat 2 light years away from the frontlines and our ships will do the same.”

“This is unacceptable,” Drulmox stated angrily. “The Commonwealth fleet does not retreat without a fight.”

“This is not retreat. It is just a precautionary measure for any ceasefire violations…”

“I will not tolerate that. The Commonwealth fleet sails wherever it wants to go. Such humiliation is outrageous!” Drulmox exploded. He pounded the table with his claws furiously until his security team opened the door, fearing for the Lord Admiral’s safety.

“There is no need for us to continue,” said Drulmox as he prepared to march out of the room. However, the human woman stood up and blocked his way out.

“Tell me Admiral, what are you willing to consider?”

“The Elder council is willing to sign an immediate ceasefire. Nothing more, nothing less,” Drulmox wanted to shove her out of the way but managed to stop himself from throwing a diplomat across the room.

“And should I remind you of the consequences that you may bear should we fail to reach an agreement here?”

“Consequences?” The Lord Admiral snorted. “What consequences? Our fleet will stop playing cat and mouse with you pathetic pirates and crush all of you! Say goodbye to your dirty planet human scum!”

Suddenly, one of the messengers ran into the meeting room. He was sweating purple all over, as if he had just run for short unit in one go. As soon as he stumbled in the room, he saluted to Drulmox immediately.

“Don’t you see we are in the middle of a meeting here soldier?!” Drulmox exploded.

“Admiral, you may want to hear him out,” the human woman broke her silence, as if she knew what was coming.

Sensing something wrong, Drulmox walked out of the meeting room with his subordinate. He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself.

“Tell me soldier, what’s wrong?”

“There are a large number of unknown objects approaching Aiczan-III!”

“Our home world?” Asked Drulmox. “That is off-limits to civilian ships without authorization. Just destroy all of them!”

“Lord Admiral, we could not get a clear shot on them! The sensors have been jammed and are unable to provide us with fire control solutions!”

The Lord Admiral stood there dumbfounded. What could those objects possibly be? Drulmox realised that no matter what they were, the humans must have constructed them. He stormed back into the meeting room and stared at the human diplomats angrily. The human woman was surprisingly calm, arms across her chest as she walked up to the fuming Lord Admiral.

“You see Lord Admiral; our engineers have been able to build a new generation of warp-capable missiles, each armed with a multi-megaton nuclear warhead and a jammer to confuse your sensors. Maybe we have even developed stealth missiles capable of evading your detection…”

“I will not be threatened by you lowly beasts! I will kill every single one of you!” Drulmox was done talking, he turned towards one of the guards and gestured him to open fire.

“If you kill us here, you would have signed the death warrant of your home world as well,” the human woman raised her voice. “Each and every missile are linked to my personal terminal on my ship. Unless I input the correct code before the countdown reaches zero, the missiles would continue on their course and destroy your capital.”

Drulmox drew his particle beam pistol. He was going to kill the human but her words finally registered. He threw the weapon across the room in frustration and sat down in front of the humans.

“Tell me. What do you want?”

“Apart from what we have discussed,” the human woman sat down elegantly. “We would like you to give up future claims on our space. You must also pay us reparations for the destruction you have wrought on our planet. The payment can be made in minerals, resources, weapons or technology transfers”

“And if we say no?”

“Then I would just sit here and watch your world burn.”

Her words echoed in Drulmox’s mind. He stood up and paced around the room until he was able to calm himself down.

“Get me the comms-tool,” Drulmox ordered quietly. This was not his decision to make. However, it was his responsibility to explain the current situation to the Elder Council.

Drulmox took off the comms helmet and sighed. As expected, the Elder Council was furious. Yet even they couldn’t come up with a better solution. With the human missiles closing onto their home planet, they have no choice but to accept the terms.

“As an authorized representative of the Commonwealth, I formally accept your terms for a ceasefire,” said Drulmox weakly. “Hostilities will end immediately. In return, you must deactivate all missiles in our home system.”

“On behalf of the United Nations of Earth, I accept these terms,” the human smiled. A formal document detailing the terms was given to Drulmox, who left a claw print on the white paper used exclusively by the humans.

“The missiles will be deactivated once we leave your space safely. Do keep in mind that if the Commonwealth violates the ceasefire, more missiles will be launched,” the human woman said calmly.

Drulmox could only watch as the human diplomats left the station on their transport. The bitter feeling of defeat continued to haunt him for cycles to come.