Ga’ruk watched as the ship detonated, bringing with it numerous human ships. Tears welled up in his eyes; he clutched the drive tightly in his arms and swore that when the Alliance was ready to wage war against the humans, he would be on the front lines.

“Captain, I will never forget you. You are my savior. I will get revenge for you.”

Ga’ruk was reluctant follow through with the Captain’s last orders. He had been so tempted to ignore orders and fight with his brothers to the bitter end. The word, retreat, was not part of his vocabulary. From day one in the academy, the professors indoctrinated him and his classmates that retreat was dishonorable and a sin punishable by death. On his father’s deathbed, Ga’ruk had sworn that he would never retreat—even if the situation was highly unfavorable—and bring honor to his family. Thus, he volunteered to be part of the security detail; however, the mission ended in failure with him being the lone survivor.

Unfortunately, Ga’ruk understood that because the transmissions were jammed, the mission had changed. His respect for Ca’luc was beyond compare, which is why he didn’t put up too much of a protest when he was ordered to head home with the drive. Ca’luc was the most experienced member of the security detail and the most knowledgeable scholar on mankind. His loss could be thought of as dealing a huge blow to the Alliance. Ca’luc’s death made it more important than ever to deliver the drive and inform the Alliance of what transpired in the human’s home world.

Reality set in when he noticed the remnants of his former ship drift by his escape pod. It was the first time in thousands of chaos cycles that multiple Alliance ships had been on the opposite end of a beat down. If the destruction of several ships by the humans didn’t alarm the Alliance, the loss of Ca’luc certainly would.

As Ga’ruc prepared to initiate hyper drive sequence for home, he paid special attention to what remained of the human’s forces. It seemed to him, that they weren’t as numerous as before. The humans may have won the battle, but the cost of winning was disastrous. Despite being outnumbered, the security detail managed to take a significant number of humanity’s ships with them.

Does it matter anymore? Ga’ruc thought. We came to send the humans back to the Stone Age; however, they managed to turn the tables. Not only did they destroy our ships, but they also killed an important asset.

The mission was a complete failure. Even though they dealt a significant blow to the humans, it was not enough. To them, the loss of hundreds of ships would merely be an inconvenience. The humans would count their losses, examine what went wrong in the battle, and return with greater numbers and advanced weaponry. Perhaps, by the time the Alliance was ready to act, the humans will have expanded their forces and set out to conquer other galaxies.

The humans just fought a skirmish against us and won. Not only have they gained confidence they can hold their own against other civilizations, but they also gained experience. They will not be so careless next time.

As his escape pod drifted to the outskirts of a ringed planet, Ga’ruc reached out and pushed a button to engage hyper drive and set the destination to be the closest Alliance held planet. He knew sustaining hyper drive would be tough for his tiny escape pod, so upon reaching the planet, he would seek to obtain better transportation to the Alliance’s headquarters.

As hyper drive kicked in, Ga’ruc thought of the warning Ca’luc gave the crew moments before their arrival in the humans’ solar system.

“The humans are a brutish, battle hungry civilization. You must never underestimate their capabilities. Their potential is limitless. When we arrive on the humans’ home world, we must proceed with caution.”

These words lingered in his mind. We were cautious and respected the threat the humans posed. We brought along more ships, more men, and our latest weaponry. It didn’t seem possible for us to lose, but we did. What more could we have done to prevent this?

Ga’ruc fidgeted around in his seat. He couldn’t stand being stuck in a cramped space for too long. He felt uneasy—there was no way the humans didn’t notice him—after all the humans managed to discover three cloaked ships. His escape seemed too easy.

Maybe they were preoccupied with counting their losses. Or maybe, the damage done to their ships didn’t allow them to follow in pursuit. Perhaps, we didn’t deal as much damage to the humans and they are preparing an invasion force right now.

Heightened by a newfound sense of urgency, Ga’ruc increased the speed of the pod as far as it could go. He had to make it to the nearest planet and deliver the news.

Learning everything they could about the humans and their universe should now be a top priority for the Alliance and its forces. Before launching an all out assault against the humans, the Alliance had to understand how the humans think. From there, they would create thousands of battle simulations to find the best strategy for fighting the humans and transmit the information their forces.

The Alliance prided itself on its ability to craft pristine battle plans with high success rates. Their strategies were designed to attack their opponent’s weaknesses and wreak as much havoc as possible. Failure was not tolerated, so usually a security detail consisting of battle-tested veterans would be sent to test how well the strategy held up in real combat and from there adjustments would be made.

I must remember to tell the Alliance that they must think several steps ahead of the humans. Anything that they draft up could potentially be useless when our armadas clash. Ga’ruc thought.

He turned his attention back to his screen and began monitoring the radar for enemies. He let out a sigh of relief when he discovered none. It appeared the humans hadn’t managed to travel faster than the speed of light, but did it even matter? Ga’ruc knew he wouldn’t be surprised if the humans achieved it by the time the Alliance set out in full force to eliminate the humans.

Voosh!

His escape pod pulled out of hyper drive upon reaching his destination—A’rai. The Alliance considered A’rai to be one of their crowning achievements as it was home to hundreds—if not thousands—of civilizations who set aside their differences and came together against all odds. Most of the time Ga’ruc felt a sense of pride whenever he saw the planet; however, today was not one of those days. He felt a sense of urgency and sadness—for he knew when war broke out, this could be the first territory devastated by battle.

Upon entering the planet’s atmosphere, Ga’ruc directed the pod towards a nearby space station where he hastily flashed his credentials to the stationmaster, uttered a few lines of explanation, and was given a shuttle to take him directly to Olras, the Alliance’s headquarters.