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We had scheduled meetings between the leaders of the various species of sentient life that have become members of the United Inter-Galactic Federation with the topic of allowing a newly introduced species to be inducted into our council.
Humans, from the Level 10 Death-World, Earth.
I, Mokar'ak, diplomat of the Gracovkar, have been tasked to meet with the captain of the Earth starship, the U.S.S Castaway, as their personal guide and as a secret investigator to learn more of our potential allies. So here I stand at the docking bay of my home planet, waiting for their ship to come to port. Everyone in the UIGF had heard tales of the feared Apex Predators from Earth, how they were advanced, but also the most primitive of the known sentient life forms in the known galaxies.
The first time any other lifeform had ever gotten into contact with the human race, they had just successfully colonized the red, neighboring planet in their solar system. Everyone, my planet included, had sent numerous amounts of disguised scouts to observe the humans and report back to us. The accounts varied from species to species with some reporting humans with different colors, cultures, and regions of their home planet and their newly acquired sister planet. However, the way they described the humans was mostly the same. They were bipedal creatures, walking upright on two legs with a foot on each leg and having only two arms, a hand and five fingers on each one. They had one head with two eyes, one scent reciprocal, a mouth with small teeth, and two sound canals that were surrounded by fleshy skin and cartilage to protrude out from the sides of their face. They did not have scales or spikes of any kind, only skin that, for some humans, would burn as soon as they stepped outside and faced their star. They did have some fur (if you could call it that), but it was mostly on the top of their heads and/or on their faces. They had no claws either, just some built-up keratin that protruded from the front-side of their hands. They held no powers, such as telepathy like the Vradari of Fenu-5 or night vision like the Smenuru of Ydriv-B43, nor did they have any sort of natural body armor like the Hmunurbe of Vega-0943-P or the vast intelligence of my own people. In fact, they had no outward display of strength or power of any kind beyond their crude and primitive weaponry that a small Xlarion child could dismantle.
At first, we were relieved, if not slightly disappointed. We had heard some dark tales of humans killing each other with such malice and contempt that some members of the Federation were convinced that they were nothing but a planet of savages. But with this rather unimpressive report, we thought that though they were a threat to themselves, to us, they were more or less harmless.
We were wrong. So very, very wrong.
The Degartsi of planet Bul’nimsat-3534-L were a way-fairing race, conquering smaller, more obscure planets for their vastly growing empire and enslaving the surviving inhabitants by helping them drain the resources of their planet and any other planet they came across. Standing at 9 rigmas tall (10 ft by Earth standards), they towered over many of the other life forms in the known galaxies, with multiple limbs and a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, both close and long ranged, as well as a full militia fleet with thousands of spaceships, housing well over 100,000 soldiers, both Degartsian and slave alike. They were ruthless, showing no mercy to any lifeform on their newly conquered planets.
Old, young, it didn't matter.
The sheer notion of resistance against them was to guarantee the total annihilation of your entire species and any neighboring planet that would try to assist you. Though the UIGF were able to push them away from the planets under the Federation's protection, it did not come without enormous casualties.
I shuddered at the memory of the day I saw Degartsian ships leave the atmosphere of my own planet in a hasty retreat when I was a youngling, my parents being included amongst the dead after they tried to protect me and the rest of my village after they laid waste to our planet, desecrated our most sacred spaces, burned our crops, taken over our mines, and destroyed our homes. By the time the Federation were able to cause them to retreat, the Gracovkar were almost completely wiped out, our population going from around sixty million to only ten million.
So, when the horde set their eyes towards the human home-world, none of the surrounding Federation members dared to help them. We were even more convinced of the planet’s destruction as the leaders of the planet had refused the horde’s demands for surrender.
Instead, they declared war.
We watched with bated breath as their forces closed in on the little blue and green planet. Surely, such a small planet wouldn't stand a chance against these cruel overlords. All of the Federation planets began to say their prayers and hold memorial services for the planet, expecting the battle to be over in an hour. With such archaic technology that they had, there was no chance that they would win. The fact that they thought they COULD stand a chance was impossible and, in Earth terms, stupid. Noble, but stupid.
That was until the humans began to wipe them out.
To this day, we don’t know what really happened. The majority of the Federation planets had banned travel to Earth due to the impending war, but what few that dared to be near the planet’s solar system all had different testimonies. The J’rutsi people of Quasvi-43G claimed that the human’s atmosphere was filled with noxious gasses that had the horde fleeing back towards the stars. The Muvriadians of Wi’ox-9-3FD reported that the humans had their own weapons of mass destruction that rivaled the size and number of the Degartsi. The Kniphors of Umortina-F435 swore up and down that the humans simply brought down their ships and then hunted the Degartsi until the horde was too tired and too depleted to carry out their plans.
Whatever the cause was, the Degartsi certainly never discussed it, even after their complete and total surrender. Their armies were depleted, their ships were destroyed, and in their surrender, they were confined to their original, dying world, never to traverse the galaxies again and would free any planet that they had enslaved, alongside giving the planet’s inhabitants reparations.
It was at this moment that I heard the low, ground-trembling rumble of a starship as it made its decent from the atmosphere to the docking bay. The ship’s interior was a bright, almost iridescent white, which made the name of the ship stand out in bold, black letters on one side. The once quiet deck began to bustle with activity as the arrival of this new ship brought with it all the curious and cautious alike to welcome our new guest.
Then, the docking bay went silent as with a whoosh, the hatch of the ship opened and one, lone creature stepped out, dressed all in white and a strange, round orb on their head, which I began to realize was a helmet as they began to take it off and reveal themself.
The helmet gone; the face of the human was clear. They were of moderate build, dark brown skin and head full of black, thick braids on top of their head. I couldn’t help but stare. Surely, they never said anything about the humans being beautiful.
I guess they forgot to add that to their reports.
The human glanced around for a moment before I remembered what I was actually there for and made my appearance. I turned my translator on in order to communicate, seeing as Gracvese wasn’t understood by most of the galaxy and made myself known. After getting their attention, I introduced myself.
“Greetings, human. My name is Mokar’ak of the Gracovkar. Welcome to the planet Hedar. I will be your guide and translator during your stay here. And what may I call you?”
The human stared at me, the eyes of an apex predator shining with interest on my form. Then, baring her teeth in what I briefly remembered was supposed to be a form of positive assurance, the human spoke.
“Hello, my name is Tsiri Stephens, I use she/ her pronouns, and I bring you greetings from the planet Earth.”