When humanity first ventured to the stars, they encountered an advanced interstellar organization called the Commonwealth. The embryonic Human Republic, a mere curiosity to the far more advanced members of the Commonwealth, was quickly forgotten about or viewed with pity as they struggled to expand and colonize their area of space. One Commonwealth species, the arboreal Eleani, took active interest in this fledgling polity. They reached out in friendship and offered guidance to the nascent Human Republic. This unsolicited act of kindness was never forgotten by humanity as they took their place among the stars and traversed the void.  Years later, the Insectoid Empire launched another period of swarming and attacked the Commonwealth again. An aggressive, spacefaring hive-mind species of wasp analogues controlled by intelligent queens, this time they did not stop after seizing a few uninhabited border planets like they have always done before. Instead, they drove straight into the very heart of the Commonwealth itself, intent on extermination. After glassing numerous worlds and killing over 100 billion souls as they swarmed, they destroyed over half of the fleet and continued on their path of destruction. The battered Commonwealth Navy retreated to the core worlds, abandoning the periphery and leaving species like the Eleani at the mercy of the swarm.  As the Insectoid fleet headed towards their world, the Eleani broadcast pleas for help to anyone who would listen as they begged the Commonwealth government for protection, which declined to come to their defense. Resigned to their extinction, all hope was lost until they received a message from an unexpected savior, the Human Republic. The Republic fleet was on its way. The humans have answered the call.