[h3][center][b][u]Space Station [i]Vigiliant[/i], Kasius System, Solaran Federation[/u][/b][/center][/h3]

Senator Fayyer perked up as the human ambassador spoke to him. To the Nalloth all humans looked and sounded the same; one was essentially indistinguishable from the next. Thankfully his cyberware and 'personal intelligence' AI kept track of the identities of humans, and other races, and automatically translated what they were saying.

The senator descended the ramp of his shuttle, flanked on either side by a pair of guards outfitted in what the humans could only describe as a mix between a black suit and combat uniform fitted to a spider. Fayyer himself wore a navy blue 'suit' that covered the entirety of his body below his collar bone.

As he approached Ambassador Joshua he held up a tablet that had an emotion or tone followed by a sentence. "-neutral- This will translate what I say until our systems have a better translation system installed." A moment later a new sentence appeared. "-Delighted- I thank you for your welcome and too hope that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship."

The Ambassador clasped his hands together in a positive matter and a grin. "Very good, very good!" He replied. "Let's not keep the others waiting. Follow me." he made some hand gestures towards his guards as they turned and cleared away the crowd, allowing passage for the Ambassador and Confederate Delegates. Cameras still recording every moment as they departed the hanger bay for the conference room just a level above.

“-Inquisitive- Are your news tellers acting like normal?” Fayyer asked, his translation software clearly having a bit of trouble. He held his hand up towards the crowd, similar to a human wave, except his hand didn’t move and was tiled back slightly so his palm was facing upwards. He held his hand up until the crow was behind them before lowering it.
 
“-Inquisitive- Who are the ‘others’? -Tentatively- Your government officials are elected. Correct?” His eyes seemed to roam the hallways of the station as they walked. Most of the time each of his four eyes were looking in a different direction, but occasionally the Nalloth would focus all four on an object of particular interest. After a few moments he added “-Complement- This station is well designed.”

"Well, to answer your first question, we rarely had much contact with your people, even after the war. For you to come forward to us like this is interesting, your people are the few civilizations to cross our path that...were not like the Xim." the group continued down the wide and semi-crowded halls, civilian onlookers taking notice of the group of Nalloth present. "We're quite alone in this corner of the universe, and what allies that can be found in such a hostile starscape is much welcomed." the group paused, stepping onto a moving walkway, giving their legs a break as the machine guided them to their destination.

"As for who will also be attending, well the higher ups at Earth have sent their own delegation to witness this little event, make this officially recognized by all the Federation, and yes, we do elect our officials, quite similar to you." Before long, the walkway came to an end as the elevators were in sight, the group approaching one of the larger elevators, stepping in. One of the guards pressed down the button leading to the Conference Hall. "Yes, the station is quite nice, she's stood strong for over three decades."

“-Sad- Our ancestors once felt the same way Little Brother.” Fayyer did not provide any reason why for he or his translation software referred to Joshua as Little Brother, nor did he give any indication as to why the words had been capitalized. “-Sad- When they looked up at the skies they felt nothing but dread for what they felt was their impending doom. -Serene- It was only after they had committed themselves to saving others from that same impending doom that they managed to save themselves. -Hopeful- I believe your time has come.”

"We can only pray for such a time." Joshua said as the group had finally arrived. Two guards stood at attention by the doors, the doors sliding open as they entered the brightly lit room, a large round table laying at the center with over a dozen chairs set up, on one corner of the table were the Earth Delegation. "Gentlemen, Ladies, welcome." Joshua said to the delegates. He slid to right as he revealed the Nalloth. "May I present to you the Cormyrean Confederation's Delegation."

The lead man of the Earth Delegates stood up and approached the Senator, extending his hand out toward the Nalloth. "A Pleasure to meet you, sir." he said respectfully. "We came quite a distance on behalf of the President and the Senate. My name is Willam Hanes."

"-Respectful- The pleasure is mine. I am Senator Fayyer of the Cormyrean Confederation." He tiled his head to the side as he looked at William's hand. After a moment he added. "-Embarrassed- I must confess that I do not understand the meaning behind you holding your hand out."

The question let out some chuckles from the federation delegates and guards. Willam letting out a deep laugh. "Hah! My mistake, this is what we call a "handshake", it's a general sign of friendly greetings from one being to another."

"-Amused- Little Brothers and Sisters are @$#*^%&@*%... -Unable to find translation. Conducting search of human dictionaries-" Fayyer seemed to be either unaware or unwilling to acknowledge how badly his translation software had just failed him. Instead he placed his table down on the table before slowly reaching out and rather daintily placing his hand on William's. 

The old man humored the Nalloth, shaking his hand, but couldn’t help but let out a small fit of laughter, along with the rest. "No need to feel ashamed my friend!" he said. We'll eventually figured each other out in the long run." He paused once they loosened their grip of each other's hand, Willam clearing his throat. "Now, onto other matters. From what we were told, your government wishes to reach out to the Federation?"

"-Agreement- Correct! We of the Confederate Senate have come to the consensus that it is past time we have offered you a hand of friendship. The Tribune has tasked me with overseeing the development of permanent diplomatic relations between our two countries. -Shame- We should have come to your aid when the Xim invaded, but used the Eiclen Revolts as an excuse not to." Fayyer bowed his head for a moment before seeming to perk up again. "-Upbeat- But now we are ready to help our brothers and sisters in the Solaran Federation."

"No need to apologize, despite the losses, we stood strong in the face of a vastly superior threat. And I, and others who have come as official representatives of the Federation Central Government, will very much gladly accept your offer of friendship. Our first step of course will require an official document." He paused once more and turned to a nearby assistant, a Dathu, the large furry creature stepped forward as it presented a small case, opening it to reveal a piece of paper with several ink pens to its left. The Dathu placed the case onto the table and stood back as Willam stepped forward. "With this Treaty, we can cement our Alliance." He picked up one of the pens and handed it over to Fayyer, assuming he knew how to use one.

Fayyer took the offered pen, his eyes quickly scanning over the contents of the treaty as he spun the pen in his hand. After a few moments he brought the pen down onto the paper and marked it with a variety straight and curved lines that looked similar to written Japanese or Chinese characters. He looked over the treaty a second time before stepping back so Williams could sign it as well.

Willam followed suit, wrote down on the treaty to finalize it all, a small camera hovers around the group, recording every moment of the signing. "And that's that." Willam said, putting down the pen. "And footage has been saved as well, On behalf of the Federation, we thank for this, I see good things for us in the future." Willam was silent for a moment, until his curiosity got the better of him. "Although I would like ask you something. Why refer to us as your younger sibling?"

"I was sort of wondering as well." Joshua said. "But, Didn't want to seem rude."

Fayyer tilted his head to the side as he answered "-Amused- Because Little Brother is Little Brother." He let that answer hang for a moment before seeming to realize that he hadn't actually answered the question. "Upbeat- We are all offspring of the living stars. Therefore, we are all brothers and sisters. Even the Xruusk and Xim are our siblings, pitiful as they may be."

Willam rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment, "Seems understandable. An interesting perspective on the universe and its living things."

"-Amusement- It is the best perspective" Fayyer commented. "-Serious- We will be setting up an embassy at your capital soon and will engage on comprehensive talks in regards to defense. I must make it clear now that we will not support offensive wars against the Xim, nor will the Confederation allow the Xim to become the victims of genocide even should they themselves start a war. Is this understood and acceptable?"

Genocide, a very unpleasant word, yet...to apply it to the Xim wouldn't make Willam's heart heavy, he personally wouldn't actively seek it, but it were to be a natural consequence, he wouldn't shed a single tear of remorse. But, he won't let his personal feelings towards the Xim ruin a chance of an alliance. "These are...agreeable terms." Willaim replied with a small hint of doubt in his tone.

"-Neutral- Independent member-states of the Confederation may be willing to negotiate different terms, but the Confederation as a whole will not be compelled to honor the commitments made by an independent member-state." He paused for a moment before adding "-Amused- The next time we speak I may be representing my homeland Atrya instead of the Confederation as a whole."

"Very well, until we meet again, friend." Willam said, extending his hand out once again. "May peace be everlasting."

As Fayyer reached for William's hand, his personal intelligence AI informed him that it had gathered enough data from the humans had had been speaking to attempt vocal real time translations. He felt a sense of amusement as instead of a written response his tablet 'spoke' the words "And may the Living Stars watch over you and all your kin" in warm tones. "We shall meet again Little Brother."

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After finishing the conference Senator Fayyer left behind a small diplomatic team as he boarded the shuttle that would take him back to the light cruiser [i]Argent[/i]. The diplomatic team would travel back to Earth with the Federation delegates to begin the process of opening an embassy. Meanwhile Fayyer had his own work back in the Confederation to see to.

The shuttle docked with [i]Argent[/i], the Confederate light cruiser began to head out of the system towards its heavy cruiser escort. All seemed well until it reached the halfway point between the human space station and nalloth heavy cruiser.

[i]Argent[/i] seemed to shake before its thrusters shut down. It seemed to just drift in space for a moment before an explosion almost tore the light cruiser in half. The force of the explosion warped the cruiser into a ‘C’ shape, with only a small part of its structure holding its front and back parts together. As escape pods began spitting forth from the wrecked light cruiser it was shook by a second explosion. This one far larger than the first and utterly destroying the front section of the ship.

The second explosion had thrown debris into the space around the [i]Argent[/i] wreck. Some of the escape pods endured what could only be described as a light shower of metal shards. Most of these metal shards simply bounced off the pods, although a few either pierced through the pods or tore off an important piece of equipment on the pods’ outside. Those were the lucky escape pods. Others found themselves close enough to the wreck at the time of the explosion to have been obliterated by the explosion itself. Others were struck by large pieces of the ship, some larger than the pods themselves, moving at high speeds. Of those pods there was little left.

The Confederate heavy cruiser, having seen all of this occur, began powering up its weapons systems as it moved into the system towards what remained of the [i]Argent[/i].