"Captain-Tier, we have cleared our home system. All systems check."

"Good Pilot-Tier Craiknot, set the coordinates in the autopilot for E-t38 and give me a time estimate for standard warp."

"Sir, the computer says that the third planet in E-t38 is Stellar Prime...." The young arthropod clacked a bit too excitedly and nervously before realizing the stare of Captain-Tier Moz'toe. "Sorry, Sir."

Moz'toe tensed up his clawed forelegs and widened his largest set of mandibles, showcasing sharp black spines and toothed ridges on an otherwise green-plated exoskeleton. If it had been any other mission, the Captain-Tier might have threatened to crack a stripe on the fresh Pilot-Tier, a clear nepotism grublet chosen and promoted through the ranks by his high noble brood mother and sire during the Calm. A mission onboard the observer class ship Taivga under the command of celebrated General-Elite Yohargay is an unusual but none-the-less prestigious arrangement, too tempting for the likes of the grublet and his ilk. If only by the good Empress Great Mother of Broods could the Kaytibid military throw all the overgrown larva-childs straight out of an airlock....

"Yes, indeed 'sorry' young Pilot-Tier and YES, you saw right."

"Very well, Sir. Standard warp arrival time estimated at five days, six hours, ten minutes, twenty seconds."

"Set us to max warp and send us on our way. Initiate sensor sweeps of the star system and our ship when we arrive, followed up with a deep scan on Stellar Prime and everything in orbit. I want everything you can get me."

"Warp engines engaged, Sir. Arrival estimated at four hours, twenty-one minutes, and fifteen seconds."

"Good. Time to see what the old lump is all about."

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Four hours, twenty-one minutes, and fifteen seconds later...

"Sir, we have arrived as planned. Sensor sweeps indicate all systems check."

"The star system and planet, Pilot-tier?"

"Right...Stellar Prime data still incoming, but all other readings from the system fall within the expected parameters as predicted by navigation data. One thousand-cycle old data...Your orders, Sir?"

"Keep running periodic sweeps of the system while we wait. The General-Elite will be joining us shortly and will be expecting our reports. Miss nothing, Pilot-tier Craiknot."

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Twenty-five minutes later...

A battle-hardened Yohargay motioned for his personal security escort, the five clicking their carapaces all the way from the war room of the Empress' Will to her docking bays; the General-Elite's overwhelming gold-toned, crimson-edged behemoth bulk repeatedly booming an announcement of his impending approach with every footfall. His escorts were of slimmer build; sleek, shiny red bodies with onyx black wings and thorax bands, agile darting compliments to Yohargay's brute force. A varied crew busied about the ship, all claw-picked by his truly from the most experienced of the Kaytibid top positions. Top ranks of everything from military janitors to military doctors to military engineers to military engineers' military robots stopped to raise claws in salute, natural or otherwise.

His two forward guard proceeded him into the interconnecting locks between the imperial war ship and observer class vessel, giving the clear before the rest of the elite party boarded. The dock bay master-tier of the starstrike observer rose to give a crisp salute. "General-Elite, welcome to the Taivga, Captain-Tier Moz'Toe is expecting you on the bridge. Is this to your liking, Sir?"

"It will be fine enough, Dock Master-Tier."

"Right this way when you shall, Sir." The Dock Master-Tier gestured toward the inner entrance of the ship proper with upward-facing, soft-shelled clawed palms.

They moved into the ship, passing by section after section of brightly lit work and storage areas. Labs full of equipment soon to be set to analyzing Her Majesty's prize met the General-Elite's pleased sight. How long the Kaytibid had waited to make good their claim. One thousand cycles and conflict after conflict to secure this zone of the galaxy, with nothing but recent anomalous sensor readings from deep space probes and scans at the edges of their territory to warrant any concern. Strange timing to be sure, for such to appear only so late in the Empire's wait but that was more a problem for those paranoid observer types whose job it was to worry. Their arguments were why the Empress, already rightly keen on her desires regarding this region of space, had sent a rare empress class ship to provide muscle and command for another weaker ship of a different specialization. One Taivga, a ship of the latest build of observer class vessels and whose investigative but likely nervous crew would probably be a bother to the more disciplined crew of the Empress' Will. Regardless of that though, whatever they discover has caused this trouble and ended up contorting the rear end chitin plates of science and security-minded types alike, nature would be nature and handled well enough. For anything else there was Yohargay, the General-Elite pridefully mused.

The bridge of the Taivga was chaos. Rank after rank scuttled around the deck tables and consoles, frantically pulling up graph after graph and chart after chart on computer screens while executing commands. Captain-Tier Moz'toe leaned on his supporting appendages as he poured over the latest report from the Taivga's scans one last time before the whole bridge crew jumped straight up at the thunder of the General-Elite and the unmistakable click-clacking of warrior caste escorts making their way around a hallway bend toward command. Saluting limbs shot out almost before the General-Elite had time to enter the room of still twitching subordinates.

Yohargay fancied cracking each and every one of their chitinous bodies for this blatant display of incompetence unbefitting any who had the grace of association with the Empress' Will. Such considerations would have to wait. "Captain-Tieeerrr", he hissed. "What is the meaning of this? Your fretful crew scrambles over themselves like flopping darter nymphs. Give me your report!"

Moz'toe stiffened in an attempt to bring back his composure, mandibles hanging slightly open before bluntly spitting out "Deep scans of Stellar Prime indicate that lunarium still counts for approximately ten percent of prior noted photonphillic mineral deposits at mapped locations on the planet's surface, with solarium now making up eighty percent of the remainder. And there are 'humans'."

"Humans? Those so-called 'research explorers' that our intel claim started randomly popping up out of no where fifty cycles ago near the Galactic Core territories uninvited? Then tried to trick us about ten cycles later in turn?" The General-Elite was incredulous.

"Indeed, these faint energy signatures match what little we have on them." The Captain-Tier paused before adding "I would recommend maintaining a full array of scans of both the planet and the surrounding system to get a better understanding of their signatures in case they flee."

"Do that, and bring up any imagery we may have of them." Yohargay wished to see the face of whatever pest had been snooping around before dealing with the current "issue". The creatures had been caught surveying and sampling an asteroid field bordering the Galactic Core, with one of those "samples" being half as long as their ship. They then paid the Kaytibid a visit near an old colony world that had long been too unstable for the living and tried to buy it from the patrol ship crew when drones were spotted flying down in the atmosphere. Each time trying to make off with prohibited rocks.

Images and videos appeared on a central display, stirring both the Captain-Tier and General-Elite's recollections. Most of them were grainy shots or short clips of what were likely to be bipeds in space suits, given the awkward movements and environs. Most sentient species outside of a confounding and disturbing few could not work or live outside of a ship or station while not in a planet's atmosphere.

After a few minutes of poor quality feeds from devices showing the creatures either slowly moving along the surfaces of crafts or staring out from dark, blurry decks; a sharp, well-defined picture caught everyone's eyes. The crew member working the display excitedly chittered "Sirs, a glance at time stamps shows this just came in to our data base hours before we left our home system. It is part of intel from an agent hired for private security at multi-species trade hub 'Xeno Interfare and Ware' in Border Space 101."

The image centered on two scrawny, brightly colored bipeds whom appeared to be resting at a hydrational nutrient bar counter. A slim orange being with black exoskeleton sections and folded-back wings faced the camera while sipping a drink through a shiny, almost metallic-looking proboscis; relaxing in its seat with its legs crossed while a number of unconscious and wounded known sapient species types lay on the ground around it. Its slightly bigger yellow and black striped companion stood inclined against the countertop, gazing off a bit away from the camera to the side. Large, raised, void black eyes met in the middle of their faces before wrapping around upwards close to equally dark antennae held straight on top the sides of the heads of both creatures.

The General-Elite turned toward the crew member that had spoken up minutes earlier. "Where are they locked up?"

The crew member twisted his mandibles into the kaytibid equivalent of a frown. "No where, Sir. The attached report only says they were detained after a violent incident but somehow slipped out of custody not long after our agent was forced to turn his back and tend to matters elsewhere at his station. The trade hub is still investigating the situation."

If the humans were just as combative, deceptive, and all around trouble on Stellar Prime then maybe a certain General-Elite will earn even more praises from his Empress after buffing even the planet's normal rocks into a shine with them, Yohargay mused. "Captain-Tier Moz'toe, I want your crew to send observer drones to sweep closer to the planet."

The Captain-Tier glanced toward another bridge officer. "Missions Tech Operative-Tier Bie'tet, how would fare the requested drones?"

"If we send a small set out, they should make it to the planet in an hour without any interference but will require 25 minutes to establish an orbit parameter network, Sir. Alternatively, a reasonable number more can set up a wide-spaced 'web' made up of smaller groups of network nodes midway to the planet." An uncomfortable pause suspended before ending with mandible clicks. "If you'd have us risk it, we could send our whole fleet of them. They would number just enough to create both networks but one will have blind spots. We would have to choose."

A sharp hiss filled the bridge. "I would have to choose, crewman." All heads turned instinctively to a glaring, jaws-spread General-Elite before most mindfully looked back down at their stations.

"Yes, Sir!", nervously and erroneously exclaimed a number of less mindful crewmen who did not include just the offending Bie'tet.

Yohargay narrowed his antennae down condescendingly toward Moz'toe. "Captain-Tier, have your pathetic larvae bed of a bridge send all drones out for both networks but make sure the planet-bound one is the better covered. What we are here for is down on that world and so are our pests." He briefly took in the eyesore once again that was Moz'toe's crew before commenting again. "Our other pests.... I am headed back to the Empress' Will to prepare for possible combat engagements. Open comms and request a patched feed to my bridge when you are done."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Yes, Sir. May the Empress' judgement guide us." With the Captain-Tier's acknowledgement and standard military dismissal, he and the bridge finally saluted the General-Elite goodbye. The behemoth and his escort thundered and click-clacked their way back to the larger, more impressive and to them more important ship and crew. Yohargay was happier for it and unconsidered to him so were those onboard the Taivga.

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

One hour and twenty-five minutes later...

Yohargay roused from his focus at the beeping signal sent from the bridge of the Empress' Will to the ship's war room. Accepting the comms link, the voice of his communications officer came over the channel. "General-Elite Yohargay, this is Vocalizer-Elite Spak'spok calling in. We just received a request from the Taivga to patch a live comms feed in from their bridge to our own. Security level: Meta."

"I will arrive on the bridge shortly. Prepare a channel, match their security level and stay on standby to open it. General-Elite out."

"It will be ready for you, Sir."

The call ended with perfect timing and an unbothered Yohargay made his way to the bridge. Standing on the center pedestal, he clicked his claws slightly in approval of the bridge crew's salutes before nodding in the general direction of his communication officer. "You may open the channel, "Vocalizer-Elite Spak'spok."

The crewman switched the outbound audio and video to the pedestal and did as told. The oversized central monitor of the Empress' Will flickered on, showing a small, woolly, silver-colored body with six long, spined legs and just as many long feathered antennae. "Greetings again, General-Elite. This is Vocalizer-Tier Her'zhay here at Captain-Tier Moz'toe's command. I will be handling the feed coming your way."

Moz'toe stepped into range of the camera before Yohargay could go off on the communications officer for not showing their superior. "Sir, your connection is in good timing. The 'web' network came online not long ago but hasn't shown anything we haven't already noted yet. The drone surveillance around the planet is just now coming in though."

The General-Elite seemed to shimmer and gleam as if his carapace had been waxed and shined upon getting the news. "Finally, what we the Kaytibid Empire have longed to see for a thousand cycles. The power that will put us back on the path of expansion and galactic domination. Her Majesty the good Empress Great Mother of Broods' new crown jewel."

Spak'spok spoke up "Sir, I have set our displays to show video footage from the first drone network on our auxiliary monitors. Similar feed from the second network-the planetary orbit one-will come onto the central screen and nearby sister displays."

The General-Elite nodded his approval. "Very well, get on with it."

Video feeds slowly flickered onto the screens as they were patched in. The dark of space punctuated only by the distant dim light from Stellar Prime, its moon, and specks of even farther off stars was all that welcomed a look at the auxiliary monitors save a couple that showed the bright of the system's sun. A view from one of Stellar Prime's many many beaches showed wondrous, glowing upcropping after brilliant, coveted upcropping of solarium. But then there was the wretched picture a few feet away further from the rocky hills that was closer to the water. Grossly large grubs of an indiscernible species lay on top and sometimes half burrowed into the beach; their pale, beige, and dark larval skins a clear contrast to the oranges, purples and pinks of the sands. Disturbingly worse, they had a thick patch of hair on what likely seemed to be their heads whereas other species had the decency to only occasionally have a small amount on the bulbous back rear of their offspring!

Brown digestive juices tried to part from every mandible. It was lost and drizzled down even the Captain-Tier and General-Elite when one of the grubs got zoomed in on by a drone and turned to face its flank directly to the camera. There were two bulbs side by side, two rears! What abomination needed two behinds?! What was it eating? What horror was it's face?

Another one stretched and rolled lazily, soaking in the light and warmth of the planet's sun, revealing a smaller, soft rounded set of what appeared to be an extra pair of fleshy pseudopods that some of its companions didn't have. Other than that, the pseudopods that Yohargay could make out seemed strangely robust despite being fleshy the way all pseudopods are. Thankfully drones looking at another beach soon showed some of the creatures had matured a bit more and grown a colorful bit of thin chitin over these and some other body sections.

An image of the dark side of the planet showed larvae curled up together in fuller-bodied plating that covered most of their forms. They seemed to be keeping the flames of a fire. Dangerous for mere grubs but what a strange species. More concerning to Yohargay was how many of these images had grubs laying around or propped up against solarium. They seemed especially drawn to it at night, what if they were doing something to it? His claws clamped down in a desire to rend the creatures.

But then it was there, an image of a lit up structure with figures moving in and out carrying containers of glowing materials, likely some of the solarium. Others could be seen making their way out toward the beaches nearby where they seemed to be interacting with the grubs. Yohargay clicked an order to Spak'spok, the compliant officer zooming in on the appropriate feeds to get a better look at the figures. Bipeds with thick dark exoskeletons, but similar in form to the couple that escaped the trade hub. The bridges of both ships tensed up as mandibles slacked, bodies shifted, and claws hung open at the realization.

It was a freaking human mining operation on Her Majesty the Good Great Mother of Broods' crown jewel of a world.

It was a freaking human breeding colony....

Pilot-Tier Craiknot of the Taivga chattered agitatedly "Captain-Tier, General-Elite sirs...."

His superiors were too struck by the absurdity on the monitors to spare him a care for his mannerisms this time. "A large spike in energy is showing up in our scans. A ship appears to be exiting warp near the planet...ship has arrived. Scans show no signs of advanced technology or construction, and no known configuration."

Yohargay to both bridges "We are headed to the planet to deal with these vermin; if they try escape into space, I want fighters on them asap. No more slipping around. I will get answers from the ones we capture and then they will be gone. The Taivga is to hang back between the two networks, pilots trade path trajectory data and coordinates."

Stomaching the sight on his monitors once more, he then clicked "As for that ship, we will hail them upon arrival before we descend on the planet. Captain-Tier, we will provide you our feed this time. Vocalizer-Elite Spak'spok and Pilot-Elite Mov'vett, make it so."

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

Only ten minutes later...

The Empress' Will exited out of low warp close to Stellar Prime and well within range of whatever sensors likely existed on the planet and mystery ship, to which it must have seemed a monster confronting and sizing up its prey. That ought to have gotten their attention, Yohargay mused. Now about the Taivga and that hail. "What of the Taivga?"

"Taivga just exited her jump. Establishing a feed now, Sir." Spak'spok replied. His lower ranked counterpart on the Taivga appeared on a display, sitting next to a standing Captain-Tier Moz'toe. Both saluted their acknowledgement.

Yohargay focused on the blankness of the main view screen. "Hail that vermin-infested vessel, Vocalizer-Elite. Time to play and pay."

"Hail accepted, Sir. Coming in now."

The large view screen lit up to the sight of the most blasted things. Another nasty freakish human grub leaned back relaxed and propped up on a platform in the middle of the other vessel's bridge. Beside it two familiar beings were tensed up at their full bipedal height and staring straight into the bridge of the Empress' Will. The two colorful troublemakers from the trade hub.

The filthy spawn opened its small maw and dared to speak. "I is Matthew James Smith, Captain-Tier of Human starship 'All That Shines' and leader of Terran Outbound Exploration Company. Two beside me are my two right claws, research-tasked servants named one Carmen and one Diego. Whom do we owe pleasantness of speaking with? Much pardon if our software fails proper and honorable translation."

The two mature humans remained quiet. The bridge crews of both the Empress' Will and the Taivga grew dead silent in shock, with not so much a tap or scrape of a body plate against the bridge floors. The audacity to let a pathetic unruly grub chatter on behalf of their species! Was this a sick joke? Where these humans mocking them? Yohargay knew what to do about that and so did the rest of his crew.

"This is General-Elite Yohargay of the Kaytibid Empire, honored servant of Her Majesty the good Empress Great Mother of Broods, commander of the starship Empress' Will and acting commander of the starship Taivga. You intrude on Kaytibid space and dare permit a larva to account for you? What is the meaning of this foul mockery? Answer me now or I will pull each and every one of your people apart all nice and slow until you do, starting with your precious offspring sitting there playing commander!"

The larva seemed to jerk nearly off its platform, turning to look at its mature guardians whom glanced both its way and each others. One moved to what appeared to be some sort of display, observed it for a moment before giving the others a nod.

A soft mandible clack from Pilot-Elite Mov'vett caught Yohargay's attention "Sir, our sensors are picking up another anomaly."

The General-Elite turned back to the screen. "Make one move, I dare you vermin."

All three beings on the other side of the screen threw their heads back and made a loud, repetitive noise that irritated Yohargay but also reminded him of the chilling, heckling cries of a thankfully rare number of disturbing predatory species seen on some worlds that tracked their prey until it collapsed exhausted and terrified from the stress.

The so-called "Captain-Tier Matthew James Smith" dared speak again. "Larva you call me? I is no larva or what may is your young. I is actually older than my servants here. And mockery? Playing commander? Going harm our people? WE is here five whole cycles while YOU not is here whole time! WE have stakes here now, SIR! What makes you think YOU have business threatening humans? Here or anywhere?! YOU have another thing coming now if YOU not answer ME!"

"Arrogant fragment of-" A beep from the Vocalizer-Elite's station interrupted Yohargay's slur of impending insults and curses. "Who is hailing us, Vocalizer-Elite?"

"Sir, I can not tell by our readings precisely where the hail is coming from. It is like it is coming from all directions at once. I hate to admit it, but this is a first for me even in all my cycles doing this work."

"Answer it anyways."

"Yes Sir. It is coming in now."

Another screen flickered to life beside the main one that still showed the humans, whom seemed quiet and curiously intent on watching his crew now.

The screen stayed black and blank and the attached audio equipment silent.

The General-Elite started to speak. "Identify you-"

Suddenly a body of text scrolled across the blank screen and with it came a cold, calm almost dead mechanical-sounding voice. "Connection attempt successful. Communication protocols activated: [Translations: Galactic English <-- --> Kaytibid Click-Clack] [Communication Types: Text <-- --> Speech Communication Only] [Communication Style: Stone Cold Offspring-Producing Female Member of Species Name @#$!* (Error: Incomplete Translation, Please Check or Update Associated WikiGalactic Page for Galactic Languages)]. Commencing..."

"...Intruder vessel, I is Angel-L.I.N.E (Angel-Linkway.Intelligence.Network.Enforcement), chief artificial intelligence of this sector of space. I noticed you when you intruded on my associated human masters' space. I warn you now leave because you threaten my masters and their charges, which by extension is my charges. Leave or face consequences of your actions. How you respond?"

Captain-Tier Moz'toe clicked "So the probes we sent out before we even arrived...."

"Floating ruined in space. Gone by my claws. Your drones will float too. Only technology I use, choose allow, or is ordered allowed by my masters is permitted here."

Moz'toe stared in anger at the text-filled screen he felt forced to read despite the accompanying voice. "Curses...this is bad. If we do not do something the Taivga will be all but blind aside from her in ship sensors and scans. Not to mention the scraping off of carapaces my crew and me are going to receive when we get back to a military base."

Yohargay scoffed "You observer types are all the same, always wanting to sneak around and observe but hardly ever get into the thick of it unless you are dragged in. Get your cowards straight and take our enemies on if you wish to save your precious drones. In fact, that is an order. We will find this abomination of a mockery of life out there and snuff it out."

"I would apologize if I actually could or would bother care.", The voice of the AI remarked coldly. The humans once again threw their heads back and did that disturbing repetitive sound.

Pilot-Tier Craiknot jumped as a massive red alert came in. "Sirs...there is an unbelievable spike in energy going off all around us!"

The revelation resulted in kaytibid jumping and flipping their arthropod bodies all over each other on the bridge of the Taivga. Those on the bridge on the Empress' Will fought to avoid the same, joints nearly going weak for once in their exemplary military careers.

Craiknot dragged his dizzy form up off the floor by his claws to reach his station. "Warp gates everywhere, Sirs! Vessels bearing human energy signatures have appeared! They are surrounding us en masse!" Images of such horrors of every size and shape imaginable filled every display except those connecting the sapients present, allowing them all to either distress, revel, or simply observe nearly everyone and everything.

"Humans and my kind prefer call them link gates because of whole chain we successfully established and hid from likes of you.", The abomination corrected him nonchalantly.

More insults and curses sprang forth fresh and coursed through the wide open mandibles of both the Captain-Tier and General-Elite.

"Oh, and General-Elite Yohargay?" The AI dead-panned. "Wrong choice."