"Thank you." Tarentek said sincerely, though he was in a position to which he was not accustomed. He had been a warrior all of his life, as well as a student of knowledge in respect to technology, but he had never held any influence over his people's policies. He had never advised their leaders. His experience might qualify him, but it was nevertheless a foreign situation to him. 

"I have had some time to think about this enemy, about what I would say to those who I intended to warn. One option that I can see is to simply flee, to evacuate your people out of their path. You could certainly outrun their expansion. If the old Human maps hold true, there is an entire continent to the southwest that is much, much larger than our region of the Earth. The same holds true to the northwest. There is even a continent on the other side of the oceans, as far from this place as is possible to travel. Your people could flee their expansion and wait until their Empire collapses under its own weight...if they collapse at all. In all honest, this is the option that I believe is most likely to save your people's lives, and I do not believe anyone could fault you if you chose to take it. The other option I see is more dangerous, but it could just work. Our region, for as long as our history records, has never been united. Our cities rule under their own names, making and breaking alliances, but always staying independent. I would be willing to bet our enemy knows this, and is counting on it. They know they can attack us all one by one until there are none of us left, for we will all be focusing so much on ourselves to be able to help the others. If we can convince the cities of our desert, of this region, to stand together against our enemy, we might just have a force larger than this Empire is expecting. We might be able to find a way to stop them together...or, we might all fail together. The latter might be more likely than the former, but it is the only option I see that could truly stop our enemy's advance. Those are the ideas I have had, or, well, there is a third option, but I doubt you would want to take it. I certainly would not. I do not believe that the attack was entirely unforeseen. If the rumors I heard in the days before the attack are true, then the Empire sent a diplomatic envoy to our leaders to demand they willingly surrender the city and join them. If that option were presented to you, then it could save all of your lives, but you would lose the ability to govern yourselves. As I said, it is not the option I would choose." Tarentek explained. He hoped that Raldel would have some other, better idea for fighting their enemy, as gaining the cooperation of all of the cities in the area would be a monumentally difficult task, but Tarentek had not yet been able to find any alternatives.