There are dozens of species in the Confederacy.
Every single one of them has been encountered by the Ornislarp Noocracy.
Every single one of them has been eaten by the Ornislarp.
They are rated by taste, volu, and even if they could survive multiple feedings.
Even the young.
Far back in the past, before the Second Precursor War, they had even tried the Terrans.
They were, to nobody's surprise, toxic. Those who ate them, even cooked, died screaming.
After long hours.
They had learned that the only species that could eat Terrans were the Mantid Warrior Caste.
And the Terrans had completely obliterated them.
The Noocracy had watched the Confederacy. Prodded and probed. Militarily, economically, politically.
The Noocracy's leaders looked at the Confederacy as one giant larder that rely needed taken.
In a way, the Noocracy understood the Lanaktallan's 'gentling' of other species.
They understood the Atrekna's desire for food species.
They understood the Precursor Autonomous War Machine's desire to hoard resources.
Except, they understand that the galactic arm spur was just a small part of a galaxy that was one of millions of galaxies in a universe that was still expanding.
There was plenty of ti to expand to take over the whole galaxy, then the local galactic cluster, then look at the rest.
After all, they knew that the gravitational forge that was a singularity created new suns. The science they had developed themselves as well as what they had scraped from the Confederacy made it so that a singularity could be used to generate stellar masses as well as other galactic matter systems.
When the Terrans vanished, the Noocracy made so probing attacks. They were rebuffed from about half of the systems they attacked, but were able to hold onto half of what they took during the cease fire.
It went on like that. Grabbing a few dozen, a few score of systems. Hold them. Test their equipnt against the Confederacy. Test military tactics and theory. When it got too hot, sue for a cease-fire and grab as many systems as possible.
During that ti, the Noocracy spread out 'behind' themselves. Moving up and down from the border with the Confederacy.
Any species that could not be 'gentled' (to use the Lanaktallan phrase) and/or was not tasty was eliminated completely. Two out of three species had to be xenocided.
For so reason that Noocracy scientists could never figure out, the Confederacy was completely edible.
And delicious.
True, so of the larger mbers had to be eaten young or had to be prepared by a chef, but they were delicious anyway.
For tens of thousands of years it went on.
Every hundred or so years, snatch out a few systems to keep the Confederacy concentrated on the border, not what was going on deeper in, the other side of the Noocracy. The cease fire ant that the Confederacy did not expect full trade or permission to explore the entire Noocracy.
The last thing the Noocracy wanted was so delicious delicious food species being able to bleat "I need help" at a wandering Confederate.
Or, worse, so Confederate finding so of the populations.
Over the centuries, over the millennia, the Noocracy had managed to take prisoners. Tens of thousands of them. Moving them so that they were not found. Taking them from the planets that the Noocracy had attacked to habitable planets further 'back' in the Noocracy.
After all, no need for the Confederacy to find out that Pubvians and Skelmark and Hikken were delicious and were kept on 'cattle worlds' further 'back' into the system.
The Noocracy finally had a hit of luck. They had found a massive Terran fleet drifting through space, heading in the sa direction and at the sa speed they had possessed when they had dropped from jumpspace. They had found it, boarded, and sent their techslaves aboard the fleet. A few years and the fleet was turned around and brought back to the Noocracy pri systems.
There's where it all ca apart. The foodslaves and the techslaves had seized control of those massive ships with 'obsolete' Terran technology and attacked the Noocracy ships, driving for Confederate space.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the Noocracy had heard the sa roar that everyone else heard.
The return of Terrasol.
A quick discussion had led to the decision.
They were from forty-thousand years ago. Who cared what they wanted. The diplomatic assignnts were catering to a nearly extinct species with a single stellar system.
A nova-strike bomb would fix their little plans.
So the word went out to declare war in the way the Noocracy preferred.
With direct diplomatic solutions.
The Noocracy wasn't concerned. It would take the Confederacy months, maybe years to declare war. By that ti, the Noocracy would either have everything they wanted or would be present to cast their own vote.
The knowledge that the Mar-gite were pressuring the Confederacy was no concern.
The Noocracy had learned that the Mar-gite were delicious and nutritious if properly prepared, although many liked them raw.
To the Ornislarp, everyone else was food. They was only "Eater" and "Eaten/To be eaten
Reviews
All reviews (0)