Snippet #2791641

Halena half listened to Marlene as she spoke. The other half of her was busy taking in the sights and sounds around her. "Ascendant... What exactly does that mean? What have you ascended, what have you left behind?" She said in a noncommital way, not particularly caring for answers as she inspected the individuals who passed so slowly by in her eyes.

Tolend seemed to somehow step even closer to Halena, all but straddling her in the fork of his legs, he was hovering so close.

At Marlene's question Halena smirked. "Oh that's easy. A primary encounter with Terrans on earth revealed your presence to us. Some bitter individual explained to a spy of ours about how they hated your kind. We did an investigation because if even half of the stories are to be considered true, you would be designated a primary threat. We stole some data from a few companies we found were associated with you, and using that data with a combination of high level scrying and work from the spymasters, we were able to extrapolate the specific nature of your empire. Once we did that, it was determined by the majority of the nobles at court that you were a threat. At that point, we began implementing a plan to eliminate you."

"That's when the Strike Carriers were issued forth. A chance encounter with a particularly entertaining gentlemen provided us with the tools to circumvent your defenses. A shame too, that poor man was so very kind, and when he found out what my people were about, he was very upset. I do hope he got out okay."

"In any case we sent a second team to pull all the information on your weapon systems that we could from the affiliated companies, i'm not sure but I think that line was broken due to a sudden increase in security. In any case, Ilia and the other Strike Carrier's were sent to begin analysis and testing to verify the data we have recovered, as well as to map your territories, catalogue your vessels, the crew commanding them, your planets and a number of other things. That mission is still on going."

"However once that mission is complete, then my father will have the warfleets move in. I'm hoping he'll have Hinoran Freya take the operation, however knowing him and the situation, he's more likely to send Edmund. In any case, once the warfleets move in, they'll begin systematically cleansing planets, burning out all signs of Aschen presence, including history, culture, sciences, and everything else. The goal isn't just to kill all of your people, but to remove all traces of your existence, to essentially wipe the slate clean."

"Now as for me, normally this is something I wouldn't take a stance in as I whole heartedly believe that if your people are a threat then they should be eliminated. However, the evidence and data that has been collected indicates that your people, while not exactly agreeable, are hardly to be considered evil. Whats more, your government has already proven it is both capable of and willing to change. Those two factors alone are enough to warrant a cease fire, at least until we can verify how likely your governement is to turn tracks."

"But I'm afraid that our primary opponent in all of this is not my people, or even yours. The primary obstacle I need to overcome to prevent your people from being destroyed, is time. Every hour that passes in conflict between my people and yours, is providing trillions of nomubytes of data for our militaries highest strategic minds. If we don't find a way to slow things down, the full invasion will commence in a matter of weeks, relative to your perception."

"Which is why I strongly recommend that you have your government present me as a hostage to my people, so that my father will, at least temporarily, pull back Asylian. forces. At the very least the courts will want to verify that I'm really in your custody and not just an illusion being used to fool them."

Halena explains this all in a very matter of fact tone.