[center][h2]Taoshe[/h2][/center]

The Terran diplomat simply listened to the councilors as they explained the various reasons why they would never bombard a planet and why the Terrans were honorless dogs. After everything was over, he spoke, his words taking the place of a heavy sigh that was building up for quite some time.

"We were talking about the shields. Since you are confident that you can invade one of their worlds, I have already composed a message to our High Admiral requesting that no further orbital bombardments take place. You are far more experienced than my people in interstellar warfare, and if you say you can do something, I have no doubts in your ability. I cannot deny that this weapon was designed to bombard and kill the populace of a planet, but you must understand that we had no choice. As you have likely noticed, my species is quite frail and our planetside weapons technology is not quite up to par. Do not get me wrong, orbital bombardment was the last thing we ever wanted. You can claim us to be ignorant, you can say that we are blind, and you can say that we are cowards, but in all those I must respectfully say that you are wrong. We know the horrors of genocide quite well, thanks to our own blunders. You might be able to argue that the dehumanization-pardon the term-that results from the impersonal murder of millions from orbit makes us blind, but what I refuse to let you say is that we are cowards. A hundred thousand of our warriors died fighting in a battle they could have refused, only to have the survivors return to say that the Iscandarians had destroyed the planet they were asked to protect. It is an insult to them and every other Terran servicemen and women that has died in this war."

[center][h2]Sol System[/h2][/center]

"The only reliable method of translation we have is cranial nanobots, and we only use those if we have no idea what is being said... no, there must be some explanation... but... do we speak the same language?"