Subject: Ship-Head Uleena

Species: Urakari

Description: Reptilian humanoid, no tail. 5'3" (1.6 m) avg height. 135 lbs (61 kg) avg weight. 105 year life expectancy.

Ship: RSV Lowelana {Fights with Honor}

Location: Sol

"How is the USSS Thanatos a diplomatic vessel?" I asked incredulously.

"How is it not?" Captain Wong countered.

"This is the single most heavily armed ship that I've ever seen!" I spread my hands in disbelief. "And it contains several OTHER heavily armed ships on top of that!"

Captain Reynolds held up his hands, suppressing a smile, "Yes, but it is LESS heavily armed than most carriers. Wait," he paused, "does the Republic use unarmed diplomatic vessels? Shuttles?"

"Yes! How can you expect diplomacy when everyone is armed?"

The room fell silent. I looked around and saw that the humans looked confused at what I had just said. Surely not. I turned to face Director 3.

"How is it possible that you've created a galactic government without unarmed diplomacy?" I asked.

"When we first stepped into the stars we greeted our neighbors with open arms and without weapons. We were emboldened by this decision by the Knuknus, who have always been very peaceful people. However, the Alumari saw our lack of weapons as a weakness and attempted to take advantage. We managed to outpace them technologically, which avoided a war of extinction. After seeing our strength firsthand they decided to join with us and the United Systems was born," Director 3 answered.

He looked very uncomfortable in his armored suit. He shuffled and continued, "Then we encountered the Daluran. We sent an unarmed diplomatic envoy to meet with their government and invite them to join us. They sent our diplomats kidney's back to us, a common insult amongst their kind, and followed it with three fleets."

The Director stood with his hands behind his back, "They took our unarmed diplomacy as an invitation to conquer us. The war was bloody, and we decided it wouldn't happen again. Since then we've made contact with two species using our current diplomatic ships. The Uluna, which have agreed to be uplifted over the next few generations and join us when they're finally space-faring, and the Gont, who joined us without a fight. Well, most of them."

"I understand. Did the Daluran eventually join you too?" I asked.

"No." Director 3 responded curtly.

I looked at the other humans. All of them were avoiding my eyes. Oh, no...

"The Daluran are no longer a space-faring species," Captain Reynolds said without any of his usual cheer.

"Wait, does that mean you didn't wipe them out?" I asked, hopefully. The eyes still avoided my own.

"We didn't wipe them out," began Director 3, "but we definitely considered it. Their attack cost us trillions of lives, and not just humanity was effected. We fought their fleets back out of our systems, and then destroyed them. Then we destroyed their colonies, one by one. Those worlds are still uninhabitable. The only world we left them with was their home-world, and we left them with just enough of a population to sustain itself. To this day we still have vessels in orbit, destroying anything they try to send into space."

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"That's better than wiping them out, though," I said somberly.

It sounds like the Republic had it lucky. The majority of our members were peace-loving people and those that weren't opted to be protectors, after a little persuasion. We had wars with each other, sure, but extinction had never been on the table. Why did humanity have it rougher than we did? How was that fair?

"That was back when the United Systems senate controlled the military. The vote to exterminate them failed by two," Director 3 said. "Some still argue that we should crack the planet and be done with it."

Crack the... what? I realized my mouth was open again and shut it, trying not to look surprised. Now that I thought about it, it wasn't exactly extraordinary that they possessed that kind of weaponry. I thought of our own unification wars.

Even the bloodiest one only had nine-hundred billion combined casualties, and that war had five factions. How would the Urakari have reacted if our side had taken over a trillion?

It was my turn to avoid eye contact, "I'm ashamed to say that my people wouldn't have even put it to a vote. I understand now. You show some force so that you don't have to show all of your force."

"Precisely," Director 3 responded, "and it must be clear that the USSS Thanatos isn't all of our force. We're currently awaiting the arrival of several vessels that will act as the defense for Sol as we travel to your Republic. I hope you understand that I am providing you with this intel in the hopes that you inform your people of exactly what you see."

"I will," I said.

"I can also give you some information on the Republic. Things that will come in handy to know, but won't be compromising," Kriin added.

I had nearly forgotten she was with me. She had been unusually silent the last few minutes. She probably realized the answers to the questions I was asking before I asked them. Or she already knew somehow.

"That would be great!" Captain Reynolds said, smiling for the first time in several minutes.

Director 3 asked, "What can you give us?"

"The Republic is comprised of eight species. I can give you a dossier on them," Kriin said.

Omega appeared in his holographic form and asked, "I would very much appreciate that, Intel Officer Kriin. Do you need to prepare the dossier or is it on your ship's mainframe?"

For some reason it made me jump. I guess I was just a bundle of nerves. I'd heard about so much death in the last few days that I was afraid that it was lurking around every corner. It probably was.

"I will need time to prepare it. It's not something that we just keep on a flash-drive," Kriin said with a smile. Omega nodded and disappeared.

"Well, have a seat," Director 3 pointed towards a table with a holographic display in the center. "They've just exited warp, and will be taking up positions soon."

We watched as the ships entered visual range. Two of them looked almost exactly like the USSS Thanatos, until I realized that they actually had eight MACs. Considering the relative size of the MACs to the Thanatos, they had to be much, much larger. There were four other ships that were also very large, but not quite as big as the others. Also, they were shaped like a stick instead of a piece of driftwood. No, not a stick, like a squared metal rod with a bunch of little rods and bumps stuck to it. I assumed that they were weapons platforms, which would make these Battleships.

Director 3 gestured and the display zoomed in on one of the larger ships. It was rendered in 3D and began to rotate.

"This is the USSS Leviathan. It is a carrier. For clarification, the Thanatos is also technically a carrier, but its primary duty is diplomacy. The Leviathan's primary duty is war. The Thanatos carries ten frigates and one hundred fighters. The Leviathan carries thirty Destroyers and five hundred fighters. It has point defense systems and, as you can see, eight Magnetically Accelerated Cannons. For close anti-fighter defense it has ninety chain guns, forty-five on each side," Director 3 gestured again and the Thanatos appeared next to the projection. "This is the size comparison of the two ships."

I was right about it being much larger. It absolutely dwarfed the Thanatos.

Director 3 gestured again and the Leviathan was replaced by one of the Battleships, "This is the USSS Tripoli. It is a Battleship. It has PDLs, chain guns, and two hundred and fifty anti-ship armaments of various type. We don't use cruisers anymore because our ability to pinpoint FTL gives these ships an extreme maneuverability advantage."

The Battleship was twice as long as the Thanatos, and half as thick. I couldn't shake the image of a training stick for hand to hand combat. Two hundred and fifty cannons would be extremely punishing for anyone stupid enough to attack one. I tried not to smile as the phrase 'humanity's naughty smacking stick' popped into my head.

Director 3 looked at me pointedly. I could tell he was trying to make eye contact even though I couldn't see where his eyes were, "These vessels were what we were able to recall to Sol in short notice. We fully expect that these ships will either successfully defend this system, or buy us enough time to muster an invasion fleet."

An invasion fleet? It had taken the Republic two years to fight the OU back enough to launch an invasion into their territory for the first time. And the United Systems was planning to invade... while being invaded? Absolute madness.

"You're actually going to invade the OU while defending Sol?" I asked, trying to mask my disbelief.

"Yes. The best defense is an overwhelming offense," Captain Wong said with a smile. "So far their offensives have been unimpressive. We want to show them how it's supposed to be done."