Vrillex~

Captain Vrillex was reasonably sure that these "Terrans" were a militant race based on their ship, a militant race with technology that bested anything he'd ever seen, even with his substantial security clearance. With that knowledge, Vrillex decided that the council would need to do whatever it could to survive against these monsters. On top of all that he had lost three of the finest minds the Atteni had produced in generations to these Xenos.

He shot a glance at Zrin "Send an expedited message to the High council. They have to know exactly how grave this situation is. Attach the video files from what we saw of the Terran ship as well. The message must be flagged as an extinction-level priority so that it goes directly to Councilor Kane."

Zrin opened a comm channel linked to the High Council's speaking chamber through micro-wormhole technology ensuring that his Captain's message would be near-instantaneous. Zrin ensured that everything was in working order and hit record as he signaled ready to Vrillex.

Vrillex straightened his Galactic compact High Vanadis dress blues and began his message. "High councilors of the seventeen races that make up our galactic compact... We have encountered a likely aggressive Xeno race dubbed "Terrans", of technological progression that are several magnitudes above our own... To the eyes of myself and my crew, they seemed almost like gods. Yet even with a ship that had guns we could fit our ship inside of, they felt the need for an obvious deception which hints that they will stoop to dirty tactics quickly and likely have a malicious mentality. The video attached will explain a lot, however, it gets worse."

He took a small pause and drew a deep breath before continuing, "We lost two of our greatest xenobiologists, and an engineer with a security clearance nearly as great as my own, if they manage to torture our secrets from them... then we have already lost what little we had by way of information warfare. If these "Terrans" did not eat them upon sight then they have likely already undergone severe torture. Their final words are attached to the message along with the attached video... There may be nothing we can do other than prepare. I wish you luck Councilors, Goddess be with you."

As soon as he finished Zrin cut the recording. Seeing the little blue light of the recording dim Vrillex slumped into his seat and let out a long sigh. Raiala put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed," you're getting gray around the ears captain." she said with a crestfallen tone.

Vrillex didn't even respond, he just shut his eyes and let silence take him. The rest of the bridge crew wasn't much better off. Seeing the enemy that was Terrans and then seeing their captain so utterly defeated played havoc with their nerves. To them serving with Vrillex was a privilege. He had a legendary career as a freelance explorer/mercenary.

He had managed to map out over a thousand lightyears of uncharted space and had made a name for himself during the battle of Palentie by destroying a Fellis battle cruiser in an exploration vessel with only light weaponry, the council had even made a new rank for him because of his exceptional performance and efficiency. His exploits alone put mercenaries in a better light, even more so after he was officially accepted into the Galactic Compact Navy.

over 1000 lightyears away from Vrillex

High councilor Kane of the Atteni had been the first to the speaking chambers when he heard that the Captain Vrillex had sent a message flagged as a possible extinction-level event for the entirety of the Galactic Compact. Kane was not a coward, but seeing one of the few heroes of his people so obviously at a loss as to what to do he felt incredibly nervous. He, however, resolved himself to watch the attached video to see just what they were now going to have to deal with one way or the other.

The other 16 High councilors filtered into the room and once they saw Kane, they all froze in shock. Kane had curled himself into a ball, burying his terrified face in his Councilor's robes. They could hear panicked mutterings alongside the occasional soft sob, "T-they are gods... Twisted amalgamations of the goddess and her people... Their ship looked so... e-evil, like a destructive god just waiting to be unleashed upon the universe. What could they be fighting that would require such destruction? How many civilizations could they have felled? We have no option... We must bend our knees and hope they do not strike us as we bow our heads..."

Within the High Council Chamber of Law, the lights had been dimmed all around the main podium where a fierce debate was raging between the High Councilor of the Rasen, a race of bipeds eerily similar to Rabbits, and the High Councilor of the Armanas, a similarly bipedal species similar to earth's own honey badgers.

The councilors had all been up since they got the message from Vrillex two days prior and as such their patience was at its utmost limits so they needed to come to a resolution soon.

The high councilor of the Rasen people, Venn, was calling for war. "You all would roll upon your back and let them do what they will with you? You who has led the Armanas for 60 years!? You are weaker than I had assumed then! These "Terrans" may be too strong for us to realistically defeat but that doesn't mean we should just give in to these creatures and let them have their way with all of our races! I had thought you all understood that after our war with the Razeri alliance!" he yelled, as he swept his paw over the stands where the other councilors watched.

The high councilor of the Armanas, Tarma, was a renowned war hero who successfully defended a hospital from an entire Razeri death squad. Tarma's goals were simple, he wanted to protect the people. "You go too far, Venn. You have done little other than insult me, the other councilors, and fearmonger to go to war with an entity that you yourself admitted we cannot defeat. I would like to think that we are all calm and rational beings. Despite the somewhat higher likelihood of these Terrans being hostile based on the behavior during their message, we have received no attacks, we have received no declaration of war, nor have we even received a message demanding capitulation to their will. Perhaps the fact that they have not sent us a message at all yet means that we simply interacted with a singular entity within their species that had no ties to their government, perhaps this being was an exception and not the rule. I say we take the initiative to make real first contact."

The rest of the council started murmuring to each other in optimistic tones. Venn visibly recoiled from the loss of the crowd's favor and thought it was time to play a card they all feared. "You all saw Kane! He hasn't stopped muttering on and on about the Terrans being evil gods! Clearly, the Terrans used some kind of unseen attack to break Kane's mind! How do you know they haven't already made contact with the Razeri?! We must dedicate as many resources as possible to the defense of our compact!" He yelled out, hysterically. A few councilors murmured fearful assent with Venn's sentiments.

Tarma observed Venn with the patience of a longtime veteran. Venn's ears pointed down and to the sides and his nose twitching, he was obviously nervous as all get out. His fear was sincere. "You are not wrong Venn, we do indeed need to prepare for war with these Terrans just in case I am wrong. However, I would hope that you are not all so naïve that you would allow your emotions to cloud your judgment so much that you would strike out at these "gods" so easily knowing full well what their single ship seemed capable of! To do so would simply be an invitation to a swift ascension into the arms of the Goddess!"

Venn admired Tarma as he maintained the unflinching demeanor that his people were famous for. He knew that his people were just different, but he disliked that he felt so scared so easily and it clouded his emotions more than he liked.

The Zenni councilor, a bipedal resembling a Doberman stood tall and pronounced the victor and conditions. "With all the great powers vested in me, Azariah, I declare Tarma the victor of the debate. However, we are also going to be leaning more towards the production of a new armada as well as the conscription of forces. You have one week to put together a delegation to meet with these Terrans and determine their true intentions. Past that... we will be assuming your death and moving to avenge you." she said with a booming voice that didn't at all fit her body.

Tarma looked Azariah up and down, fully observing her body language to find any deceit, Her tail isn't wagging around, Her ears are perked up and forward, and her eyes are soft. No deceit. "Very well Azariah. I will set out immediately," he said as he turned and walked past Venn to head to the exit and ready a delegation. "I must stop this farce before it turns into a war that will cause the deaths of quadrillions..." he whispered to himself.