Tarentek started shaking his head lightly. He did not know if her stubbornness was usual for her race, or if she was something unique, but she was dead wrong. He just hoped he could get her to see. "You speak without knowledge; you have not seen what I have seen. This army is legion in number, by all accounts. I heard the rumors from the east before it happened, but I did not believe it either. Not until it was too late. Our walls were too strong, we were too well armed; those were the lies we told ourselves. I do not know where this force comes from, or who leads it, but their army has mastered the humans' machines in ways we never thought possible. Like us, they use the humans' weapons, but...they have more than that. They have armor like strange, thick clothing that can stop a bullet from our weapons, something the best metal armor we have cannot do. More frighteningly is the other machines they've mastered. You know the long stretches of roads in and between the Human cities? You know the old metal machines you can often find decaying on the roads? My people have tried to learn about them, but they are magnitudes more complicated than the weapons you and I carry. Somehow, they have learned to repair them. They can move around at speeds far faster than you can fly. They put metal on them for armor, and put large firearms on them that can shoot through anything and everything. That is just the beginning of what I saw them do, and who knows what they can do beyond that? Believe me when I say that to face them unprepared is suicide. Your flight will not save you, unless you are running away."

Tarentek did his best to reach into his memory to convey the gravity of the situation. This enemy was capable almost beyond belief and had mastered technology he thought would be forever lost. It was impressive and frightening in equal measure. He knew little of the woman's race, the Elissics. He had heard the name once or twice in passing, mostly from traders from the west, but all he had heard about them were that they were reclusive. From his impression of this woman, that description was accurate.