Luga system, The Fringes
A juvenile monitor with a orange-white, plaster-like exoskeleton named Klidli on Dominion Watch with two other cohorts, one of which a meddling officer in a small and rather cramped craft has noticed flares of activity surging by after quite some time of boring, tedious ship movement tracking. The officer is insistent on it and has been insistent that this fleet will lead to something big. She's not sure what and being given a trainee alongside a Tikallian more suited for Planetary Ops has not made things easier. The officer is not very jive with Klidli's performance so far. She nearly got detected twice already. The officer is of duller color as per her age and is almost statue-like for the most part. Klidli herself finds the stone-like nature of the officer creepy but is terrified to even question it. You never know how they react.
The officer notices the data and cranes her head at it, looking at the intense heat signatures radiating from the antimatter bombardments and says "It would seem the Dominion has a severe fetish for destroying planets. Perhaps they can't help it, like some middling nymph nearing metamorphosis that can't stop rubbing itself all over the place. They just keep doing it and doing it like the oversize and dense things they are. You should see how huge they get Klidli, you could fit five Tikali inside some of them. Thankfully today we observe them from a distance. Less thankfully it is in a situation where they outnumber and outmatch us in space and the only reason we aren’t charred smithereens orbiting this star is because of the stealth systems. You couldn’t believe how dead we would be otherwise."
A terrified and anxious Klidli is not at all assured by any of this and just watches the radar in trepidation despite the Dominion ships being at least a dozen Au away not saying a word beyond some weird squeaks.
The third Tikali who was in the back checking all the shielding systems and initially absent from concerns about the possibility that one of the Dominion Ships may notice them and splatter them with a proverbial hammer peers out from his chamber and basically out of nowhere asks "What if there's something important here? They seemed oddly fast on this one. I've seen a couple of this sorts of events before, the intelligence claims it's to do with ongoing civilian revolts but who knows. What is odd is that they usually take a some more time before unloading the rings of fire."
The officer looks back at the darker colored Tikali and tells him "Perhaps they’re more impatient after all the operations your strike team has done.”
“The Charcoal Delight?” he replies with some confusion, surprised she even knows of this.
“Yes Nsulpor.” She affirms.
Nsulpor jitters a bit and fiddles with his front limbs before getting a hold of himself and simply saying “For that reason perhaps you should hear me on this. I’ve been on these planets sometimes and it rarely is this quick the punitive fleets go in and bombard. They often planet slog before going in with the rings of fire. What if this is near the site of their leader? Killing their leaders would lead to a total destabilization of the dominion and-”
The officer cuts him off, “It is clear you simply want to microwave someone since you let boredom get to you so quick. How many times has assassinating leaders actually caused major rifts? Rarely, even than nothing that has destabilized the dominion into fragments. It’s this sort of thinking that is why this Grand Mission to wipe out an entire civilization has dragged on for nearly a hundred generations now. What is needed is something bigger than a few microwaved Chelonians, something far more impactful at the very least.”
Nsulpor pauses a bit, but insistently suggest “And perhaps that exists in this system?”
“If it does, it is not for this mission. When we get to the base, whichever one it will be this time, you can recommend this system for further investigation, but for now our task is to follow these fleet movements and analyze Dominion activity.” The officer tells Nsulpor.
Nsulpor goes huddles back into his chamber while the officer goes back to standing in place like a statue, looking down at Klidli. Klidli, still jittering sheepishly asks “... How much longer?”
“A few more hops of time and the quota will be fulfilled.” The officer iterates.
-----
Outpost Vented Thoughts off the Line, above the cloudscape of a brown dwarf
The ominous, dark red infrared light of the hellish depths where storms of metallic rain clack away underscore a monolithic station. Not built for beauty- a crude, disc shaped hunk of metal colored only by the darkening tint it receives from the cooking it receives from the very star that powers it. It is a not that hot here- it’s the radiation that is hellish. It is a silent, floating and unnatural giant in a place no life is possible. One of the higher achievements of the Tikali, and it is abandoned with but one inhabitant left. A wretched individual by the name of Ludiki.
A somewhat drab Tikalli, short haired and sulfuric yellow in her eyes and rather under surveillance. Ludiki is not in a happy situation at all. There’s always a bot Tikalli following her as she meekly walks with six of her limbs down the walkways absent of activity. The bot’s purpose as far as Ludiki can tell is meaningless now. The debris and junk all about the place, all the garbage, ornamental clothing and finger toys just lying around the corners should be picked up before that happens, it is only proper. Leaving a mess is just bad, even if the Dominion is preparing to nuke us. Or whatever they meant by “unknown force has detected this station, all personnel evacuate until further action is taken”
One mystery thing and everyone’s packing up as if this station’s about to fall into the sun. Still, they might be sending a team here to investigate soon Ludiki presumes as she just casually walks to the upper decks towards where the hanger should be.
Echoing through the rather spacious foyer of the station, Ludiki’s chittering translated to English would say something like “So this is what happens to those who seek what is actually good and well for the Silent Imperium. They get left to die on a brown dwarf. Very cowardly as usual, my daughter being like this is bad enough, the authorities of this station cowering like this is simply shameful.”
She didn’t get any word on this, perhaps out of the hastiness, perhaps out of a genuine contempt. Always assume the worst for these things, especially with the Silent Imperium.
“The best words are those not abused. Haste happened. The Investigation will be here, expect to be evacuated with them.” The machine replies.
With disdain Ludiki starts rattling “Killed, evacuated, terminated, erased, expunged, deleted, microwaved, incinerated, shattered, immolated, crushed, executed, all great terms for what they will actually do to me.”
“Level one punishment does not include execution.” The machine tells her.
Suddenly Ludiki just starts ranting, saying “What I did was treasonous by most standards. They just favor me a bit now for past operations as usual. What I will do will warrant execution and for that reason need a spaceship to leave this place before they arrive. I have a game that needs playing, for if the Tikali are to make a galactic empire we must test every species on their nature and make proper judgement. Asivir lunacy must be pacified, the Dominion doesn’t deserve to exist and the mysterious new species on the fringes have yet to get judged. I want to make a test for them, so that when the Silent Imperium becomes the Imperium in needs to be we will know which species in this galaxy are monsters and which ones are fellow Samaritans. Send someone, even myself to them, and see their first instinct when meeting something not another trunk walker is. Do they just shoot you or do they rip you apart alive to get data? Or perhaps something more civil? I do not know of any instance when the Silent Imperium killed something on first contact, but there's been all sorts of stories of a first contact being ended in death by the iniater because the native society was terrified. Perhaps with justification, but what good is further aggravating a monster that knows where you live already? Regardless of that, simply observing will not advance the Silent Imperium forward- we must go into the light.”
“Level Two punishment potentially includes execution.” The Machine casually mentions without so much changing its monotonous tone.
“All the more reason to find the last ship. I have the identity chip for it and just need to locate its-“
Suddenly something inexplicable catches her attention.
Something bigger than her.
She nearly panics, but finds herself more baffled by its sudden incursion than terrified and just finishes her sentence with a confused chittering saying “A trunk walker?”
