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“The Sapient Mind was never supposed to understand the concept of war…
We were never meant to wage it… We were meant to enjoy our short lives to the best of our abilities. But when blood is spilt, an arms race occurs to prevent bloodshed from occurring ever again. To prevent threats, you must become a threat…
The Skalgan Empire was faced with a threat far more complicated than originally thought.
With the Federation consisting of almost 300 different species, and the Kol-Sul as the founding species, taking the Kol-Sul head on would result in the extinction of Skalgans and Humanity, and exposing them would be reckless, even if we managed to show proof of species being gene-altered, the Kol-Sul would have too good a reputation to make a dent in. We were afraid that the Skalgan Empire would have had to go back to hiding or, Soligick forbid, negotiate…
That was until we found out that the Kol-Sul’s reputation was artificially inflated. Maintained by their “Shadow Castes” to ensure all species stayed obedient to the “Prey vs Predator” ideology and working tentacle and claw to tie up loose ends.
So we got a little creative…
And, by the way, for the record, when I say, “We”, I mean both Skalgans and Humans.
Anyway, instead of targeting Federation forces themselves, we needed to strictly attack Kolshian and Farsul forces, specifically their Shadow Fleets.
Building up the “Anti-Shadow” Fleet took a lot of time.
But to truly pull this off, we also had to build replicas of Arxur ships, down to the last radio frequency.
Once we slid our forces close enough to the Shadow Fleet’s HQ, we attacked.
And on the other side of the galactic arm, we had Kol-Sul replica ships attack a Dominion fleet.
The Federation media would’ve made headlines about Kolshian militaries getting decimated, but the Kolshian’s damn sure couldn’t allow their Shadow Fleets to be exposed.
The Arxur had their own problems. They were never attacked before. And such a grievance required the attention from their higher chain of command.
And as expected, we spied on 2 ships from opposing factions to meet together on your average remote place in the galaxy, 2 personnel who knew the dark truths of their respective societies…
And we sent those vile creatures straight to the depths of hell.
Nikonous’ and Ginzel’s bodies are still currently floating in space. There were no survivors.
Just a few days after their deaths, we sent First Contact ships to Venlil Prime, and fast tracked our publicity to the Federation as a whole. Of a long lost Venlil cattle-turned soldiers against the Predator menace.
A fantastical story, mostly created by Humans. Realistic enough to be bought by the Venlil and mostly the rest of the Federation.
Obviously, the Kol-Sul knew better. But they couldn’t do anything about it because this occurred right after Aafa’s elections. Aafa’s successor didn’t even have enough time to be initiated into the Shadow Caste. If you were paying attention to Aafa’s politics, you’d see a very specific political party with a very specific individual who rose through the ranks in an unreasonable time frame. The opposing parties were flabbergasted by how many political or PR failures they were constantly on the receiving end.
The nail in the coffin was when the Exterminators just so happened to “find” a “Linked Chains” manifesto in the successor’s private room, which the populace supported a reelection cycle. The “totally not suspiciously successful Kolshian” won the vote by a landslide.
And during that time of Aafa’s manufactured problems, we were making gains by protecting the galaxy and fellow Venlil from the Arxur Menace. By the time Aafa finished electing their Shadow Caste leader, The Skalgan Empire already established itself as a defender species to many.
The Kolshians were too late. Even if they could prove that the Skalgan Empire was solely responsible for their leaders’ deaths, they couldn’t make any accusations until they rebuilt their fleet.
They had no choice but to negotiate… On our terms. And they knew that we knew that their new leader had the inside knowledge of the Shadow Castes. And we had more than enough clout to start a civil war with the blackmail we had.
However, there was one thing that the Kol-Sul had over the Skalgan Empire that made us hesitate to release their blackmail.
They had done extensive research on Venil species, from languages, culture, nations and sub-nations. A massive Archive of it all, and they (quietly) threatened to destroy what was left. And it wasn’t just the Venlil’s history, it was every other species’ history before they were modified to fit in the Federation’s status quo.
After reviewing the transcripts, I wouldn’t say there was a “debate” on releasing the blackmail, rather, we were wondering how to find and release the Archive Files without it being hostage. There were a few strategists who suggested along the lines of, “Screw the Archives, kill the Kol-Sul anyways. We’ll just create new cultures for ourselves.” It wasn’t a popular stance, but it was reserved as a last resort in case the worst occurred.
In the war room, we eventually figured out the Archives was underwater on the Farsul's Homeworld. But the hard part was locating exactly where the facility was.
In the meantime, Human operatives were working with low-born Arxur to release… Sapient Cattle in return for non-sapient cattle and meat replicators. The Skalgan Empire disguised it as a released cattle ship or a successful raid, while allies with insider knowledge, such as the Venlil Leadership, understood what the Humans have done to gain their civilians back.
As controversial as it was… There were a few known Arxur who greatly assisted with this “cold war” against the Kol-Sul that the Humans managed to gain trust with… One of them I’ve personally known being “Chief Hunter” Isif…
But due to his “Stature,” he will be mentioned later…
Nevertheless, with the Arxur raids decreasing, Dominion leadership was facing stress against their own people, who didn’t wish to fight a war while having enough cattle or replicators to sustain their populations. It all amounted to a numbers game; there were simply too many Federation species to go to war with.
And finally… the Dominion Civil War occurred.
For obvious reasons, we assisted the Rebellious Arxur by supplying weapons, further rescuing any sapients for payment. I wouldn’t say we were proud of working with them, but it at least incentivised rescuing more of the poor cattle-creatures who were… Anyways, I’m not going into detail on that.
With their leadership occupied, The Skalgan Empire made its move against the Kol-Sul. Courtesy of Human Military Leadership, who dropped submarine vehicles on Talsk, uncovered the Archives, and released them to the public. The plan was, frankly, a gamble. Despite building enough influence, we had to show the public that we were dead serious about their heinous actions. Which meant broadcasting our attack to all planets. Breaking News reports alerted everyone with a comm device about the Skalgan Empire’s attack on Aafa and Talsk.
Our gamble paid off, as around 38% of species supported our efforts, 15% opposed us, and the rest held varying opinions or abstained. While this wasn't the outcome we hoped for, it gave us an advantage and allowed us and our allies to show force against the opposing side, reducing that 15% to about 9%.
After the war was won, they would pay for their injustices every year since the Federation's founding.
Many species, Skalgans included, wanted their planets glassed.
But after discussions with Human leadership, we were concerned that doing so would make our future generations feel ashamed. Ashamed of bloodshed. Our fury was righteous, but it was still unfair to Humanity to make a permanent decision while the galaxy’s rage was white hot. Where permanent solutions would reap permanent consequences.
Humanity figured out a compromise, a fair enough punishment that would instill justice, while not turning everyone into the monsters we feared during our years plotting against.
Will it be one-on-one for how long the Kol-Sul were power? Would it be glassing? Should their crimes be counted for every Sapient they sent off in a pointless war about Prey and Predators?
Many believe the Federation War lasted [a year and a half], but in reality, it began on the day the Kol-Sul alliance committed crimes against Sapience, using their power to prevent prion diseases from spreading. Because they were too deep in their power, they never wavered to step down. It became second nature to them. All of those years since setting foot and tentacle on Skalga have finally come back to haunt them. I only hope that the fallen species' spirits can finally rest easy... Now that justice and vengeance have been served.
Our current punishment for the founders was to use [Kessler Syndrome] on Aafa and Talsk for a thousand years. After we retrieved the Archives, of course. Only time will tell if our future generations will choose to link lost appendages, or bat them away.
As for the Dominion leadership, the rebels have won, and publicly executed the final prophet’s descendant. We shall tolerate their Collective at arm’s length, as there’s too much pain seared in everyone’s hearts to begin proper talks.
As for the Skalgan Empire? Well, it’s no longer Skalgan’s. “The Sol Empire” shall suffice for now, as Skalgan-Venlil kind shall seek where to go after this. Our kind doesn’t really have a home anymore, thanks to the newly freed mixing of current Venlil cultures on Skalga. At the moment, Humanity is catching up on generating their own power, with the hope of eventually being as equally assertive as Skalgans are. We'll help where ever we can... Should Humanity wish for it...
I don’t think any of these solutions would ever truly remedy the lack of power Humanity has. It’s the best we could do for now…”
> Former 7th Skalgan Chief, Ralnik, of the Skalgan Empire. Excerpt from the Skalgan Empire History Museum’s synopsis.
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A/N: Thank you for reading.