This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Shadeskira on 2024-04-10 05:29:08.

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She looked out over the control station, her otherwise boring command of a defensive installation on a shipping lane had become a hotbed of activity as more and more reaper and war fleets disappeared in the outer reaches of the empire, and who was the culprit? according to strategic command, the Varillias. But she never trusted commands and looked at the rumors and gossip of the passing merchants.

The gossip was hot indeed, according to them a thrall race of her empire was in revolt and winning battle after battle. Their ships’ IFFs show calls for vengeance and war. Primates from some backwater the merchants wouldn’t even think of shipping too, however, all of them spoke of the primates as kind and friendly, oftentimes demanding a single scan before sending them on their way.

She thought it over, uncomfortable with the idea that these primates were letting her allies merchant through even as they waged a war on her people. The food ships too had halted, along with every major resource her empire’s colonies provided. The stockpiles in the center of the empire are more than enough to last for millennia but the nobles such as herself hate rationing.

“Ma’am, we have incoming Arrival signatures, count at forty-five” A Sensor Officer said quickly.

She groans, she doesn’t have a fleet, she has a station. Yes, a powerful and heavily armed station. But still an immovable and static target. “Power Shields to full and activate the secondary and tertiary generators. And send a Data burst to central command for immediate reinforcement.” she barked back, her eyes reading the names of the ships entering her sector of the empire, teeth clenched tight as she recognized some presumed lost cruisers from the Reaper fleet that vanished a month ago to the battle-dreadnought that was part of the last war fleet that lost contact with command.

Her mind noticed a pattern in the naming scheme. Every captured ship of her people was renamed with some kind of insult to her empire, and every ship of these enemies was named in a vengeful manner. This isn’t a revolt, it was a thrall race fighting back. But why and from where?

“Ma’am we are being hailed?” The Communications officer said in confusion.

“Put it through, I will see my opponent’s eyes and judge their merit.” She said back and watched her terminal flickered to life with the Image of a Primate, the computer identified as a seeded thrall race from PS-328-C.

“Greetings Admiral Vostriam vol-Jualmen Kiossmass.” the Primate said with a wide smile “I am Admiral Kenji Watanabe, I am under order to deliver the United Earth’s terms to your emperor, we grow bored of your arrogance, and inability to put up a fight. We are willing to make peace.” The primate said, his tone and voice sounded tired and uninterested.

“Bold of you to presume you can defeat us, the forces you have been picking off are barely full fleets but small detachments from our main forces.” She says back with a snarl, she hates it already, for it to sound so underwhelmed by the sight of her station was irritating to her. “I will commend you on accomplishing this much, to have succeeded in eliminating seven fleets is impressive for you backwater monkeys.”

“Really?” The Primate asked seemingly shocked and confused. “You think kicking your ass into space dust would be hard for us?”

“Of course, I will congratulate you on figuring out space travel and FTL technology, even if you reverse-engineered it. But your effort to deny your purpose is over, surrender and I will personally see to your race’s ethical and fair treatment as honored thralls instead of the common grunt.” She said, making no plans to honor such promises. Her eyes dart to the countdown for the reinforcement fleet from central, their arrival vector hidden behind the moon her station sits beside.

“Oh wow… that sounds so tempting…” the Primate says then orders someone off-screen “Call in the rest of the fleets, it looks like we are doing this the hard way.” before it disconnects the hail.

Her eyes go wide in fury, was she just ignored? Her attention was broken as her tactical display started to beep as more and more arrival signatures pinged into existence. The count of incoming ships from the same vector as the primates grew steadily as their battle line stretched wider. Her heart beat faster and faster as the count surpassed her reinforcement. And she ordered in a small panic “Data burst central, we are about to engage an invasion force!” her order was about to be carried out when the station rocked.

“Ma’am, They just took out our long-range Transmitter…” the Engineering Officer spoke. “It was a dual kinetic attack from their flagship… milliseconds apart…”

Her eyes went back to the tactical display as an armada of four hundred ships was idling in the void of her sector. Even if the ships of the primates were half the size of her people, the range and firepower each possessed was far greater than she imagined. She swallowed hard, as her mind raced not for honor but survival, a disgusting thought of giving in to the primate’s demands sent a chill down her spine.

“Ma’am, they are hailing us again…” The Communications officer said, clearly shaken by the precision and firepower of the primitive apes.

She nodded and waited as the image of the Primate came on again, choosing to be the first to speak she cut the primate off “You have made your point, monkey, I can see now why you don’t fear us. But the Golden Armada of the throne world will not suffer any damage from your weapons, and they will destroy you, unless…” she swallowed, unable to believe she was about to make such a treasonous offer “you have a Noble speaking on your behalf on your ship…”

“The Golden Armada?” the Primate said, pulling up some kind of crude data storage device and swiping its finger on it. “Oh here…. 500 ships…. Mostly super cruisers… and supported by the Halo, a high-power orbital ring around your homeworld armored and armed to the teeth… that Golden Armada?” It asked.

She slowly nodded.

“Yeah… let me make it clear. We will not be entering your home star system, because we don’t need to to kill your empire.” The primate said with a small apologetic smile. “See… we are here to make you deliver our demands. Failure to comply will result in the deployment of a superweapon into your home star system that will destroy everything in that space sector.” it said far too coldly to be a lie.

She went pale, not expecting such a brutal and honest response.

“We pick you as our messenger because you are the empress’s sister. So here is the deal. Peace or eradication. And remember this, the weapons I used to knock out your long-range transmitter was a basic weapon platform on our warships, so you can just guess how accurate we are with our actual big guns” The Primate added quickly.

She sunk into her throne, her mind reeling from the idea of actually asking the empire to recognize these apes as equals if not superior. Her hand hesitantly opened the file the empire had on them and drew a shaking breath as the file ended its active recording during the height of an ape called Alexander and his conquest. Her mind realized her kind were unable to reap them at their threshold and they had achieved a theorized possibility. A thrall race meant for war that didn’t obliterate themselves with nuclear fire.

Her will was shaken, her mind understanding the gravity of the situation and the danger this ape posed, but she filled her lungs and looked up with a determined look “What are your terms…Human?”

The Primate smiled wide “Nothing much, I’ll transmit our demands now.”