"My species would refer to itself in the Nepleslian language as the 'Umbral' - The 'Dark Ones' is a less accurate, but more popular appellation amongst the Mishhuvurthyar." Melisson answered. "A cloudy, humid planet spawned us and as further back as my inherited memories go, we were the dominant predators of that world."
"My memories do not explain how we came to be, or why each of our entities were an agglomeration of smaller adaptive creatures that merged together in collaborative symbiosis. Each of these entities were distinct despite the legion of smaller being composing them. The Umbral were territorial, solitary, sought sustenance, and when these needs came into conflict with other entities we fought; the victor slew the competing entity, went unchallenged in his dominion, and generally absorbed the stronger surviving fragments of the defeated."
"Over a period of our population conserving their stronger traits through natural selection, we became more complex beings. Our bodies were powerful so we had little use for technology, but our psionic potential made up for that initial lack of technical ingenuity and we slowly became more and more aware of what might lie beyond the cloudy cover of our greenhouse world and more existential questions came to us as we became capable of philosophy and imagination."
"That curiosity eventually led us struggle past our territorial urges, cooperate, and develop technology. To research why things were as they were. Meteorology eventually gave way to astrology when we realized what truly was beyond the cloud cover and we struggled to reach space and gain purchase there, a perch that would allow us to extend and see this wholly new facet of our universe."
"We were not alone amongst the stars, and our first contact was a fortunate one. The first whom found us were a species of silicon lifeforms you would call the 'Varins'. They came in their shining crystal ships, communicated through alien sonic oscillations, and eventually managed to tactfully and respectfully win over our fear of the unknown."
"Out of the many races, we got along with them very well. They were not flesh and blood, and were too alien to trigger the worst in our territorial instincts. Thanks to them, our potential developed - developed in a way which was our own thanks to the careful fostering of the Varin. their method of uplifting us was not to forcefeed knowledge to us, but rather help us develop better ways of learning for ourselves."
"We eventually became contributing members of that partnership. Our solitary nature had us prefer long range exploration in single-manned crafts - where we could be alone with the stars, learn, and eventually return that knowledge to our councils where the eldest amongst us gathered the information collectively learned by our explorers to be shared by all."
"This is where I come in," Melisson daintily gestured to herself. "I was old, but there were still many things left unlearned in the universe that I could yet see, both wonderful and terrible. Space is dangerous, though, and through accident I was indisposed. That is how PNUgen found me and captured me."
"Initially, I remained benign even if in captivity. Aliens bear differences and if we are to enjoy those differences we are better off tolerating them. Space exploration, after all, is perilous. The new humanoids that tended me, though, did not do so to help me recuperate, but rather to better chain me. Once I could no longer escape, I was poked, prodded, cut at by those whom would study me."
Melisson's expression was tight. "I eventually developed understanding of my captors - including the ones leading them, Doctor Shinichiro - and it became ever more clear that my existence was to be exploited, not valued. In time, their science spawned creatures in my image. These creations, indirectly my offsprings were then tested, evaluated, manipulated and turned into subservient tools. My captors had no plans to help my progeny develop its own potential, they were merely tested and conditioned into obedience."
"I was unwilling to allow those lives to remain stunted, but on their own, they would not claw, struggle and compete to hold their own dominion... so, I changed them. I broke their sad stoicism and taught them how to hate, for hate was the only thing at the time which would have given them the strength to rebel and compete for their own freedom."
"We rescued ourselves. We fought. We escaped. I shared what I had learned to the others of my kind. The Mishhuvurthyar were not us, could not be us, but they were still offshoots of us so we could not just leave them alone - especially after they had been altered past their initial nature, even though it was for the sake of their Vaaker Takeup. The fufillment of their potential was intricately tied to their creators so we turned to them matter of how to deal with these 'humanoid aliens'."
"That PNUgen was only one select organization amongst you was overlooked because we noticed that - at the time - it was important to you. PNUgen produced the nekovalkyrja servitor race and equally abused of the majority of them just as the Mishhuvurthyar. Your social group collectively appeared to approve of all of this so we figured you were a collection of hive minds just like us, and that what had been done to the Mishhuvurthyar was made on collective consentment."
"Adding fire to that was the behavior of your expanding Empire, which crept outward aggressively, less for discovery and more for establishment. What you encountered you assimilated in your social orders and oppressed. When you could not oppress, you rendered extinct. You had no use for what was different, little appreciation for the foreign and unknown, and you kept spreading like a blight."
"You were dangerous, and not just to ourselves and our new cousins. We deliberated and came to the decision that the humanoids had to be stopped. In our new war council, we elders debated over the doctrine we would rely on to confront you. The doctrine of annihilation was very tempting in light of the extinct Fenyaro."
"Being the victimized party, I had some sway on the final decision. I felt your complete destruction would teach you nothing. You were dangerous, but the Varins had treated our own volatile race with a certain restraint and I felt drawing from that would be wiser. I devised the Doctrine of Retribution, where the Council would allow me to direct the confrontation against the humanoids in a punitive fashion for a certain span of time, at the end of which the hope was that the punishment would be corrective and the Mishhuvuthyar would either integrate your culture into theirs, or the reverse."
"It became important for the Mishhuvurthyar to use similar tools as the humanoid Empire boasted so to bring home how destructive they could be, and the Mishhuvurthyar would also do their very best to visit to treat the humanoids in similar fashion to how they had been treated. For the young Mishhuvurthyar race, this task became their purpose, their source of fulfillment, and they threw themselves in it but too willingly. They invaded you, captured slaves and dealt with them and so forth."
"The numbers lost was not something that touched us overmuch. In a culture where competition, life and death are taken for granted, great loss of life does not strike us as a tragedy. After all, any living thing is born, and eventually dies. The dead leave room for others to rise in their place, granting opportunity where there was none before."
"However, as I remained involved in this war I had been instrumental in starting... I learned more of you. Through captured slaves, through study, through experience... I realized your individuality and what it meant. It did not change the danger you collectively represented, but it made you much less directly involved in the plight of the Mishhuvurthyar. Many of the people the Mishhuvurthyar was vicariously harming considered themselves innocent victims just as I had thought the Mishhuvurthyar to be under PNUgen's tender mercies."
"I needed to make sure. I needed to understand better. I redoubled my efforts to study you and even crafted a form in your image to interact with you. I made contacts with elements I considered rebellious to the broader Empires and started assisting their efforts as they begun assisting the Mishhuvurthyar - some were even rebel nekovalkyrja whom wanted to gain complete independence from the society that created them which made it even more important in my eyes."
"The Mishhuvurthyar badly needed a conclusion, a resolvement to their vindictiveness. Their young lives had been one of constant struggle, constant conflict, constant fulfillment in delivering harm to those they felt richly deserved it. It had gone beyond what I started and become a way of life - one they became disinclined to change, because the hate had grown comfortable and familiar. They were threatening to stoop into simple savagery."
"So, I tried to put a stop to it - the time the Doctrine of Retribution was allotted to 'work' before another would be tried was becoming shorter and shorter. The Eyfrlurpjakar was, however, unwilling support me and intimated weakness and a growing lack of credibility on my part."
"To correct that and earn that credibility to turn things around to the conclusion of the Doctrine of Retribution, I involved myself into the fighting directly. I needed victories to save you from the overlord that would replace me with an even more stringent Doctrine to deal with you... so, I waged a ruthless military campaign that shattered the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet. Following the example of Ralfaris, I destroyed the jewel of the Bard Cluster, Taiie. I then proceeded to smash through the Second Standard Fleet Ketsurui Sharie commanded."
"With that, I had the support I needed, and began overtures beyond those I had done with the architects of the True Nekovalkyrja Empire, Black Spiral and the Daughters of Eve. When the time came to finally parley, I began implementing what seemed like the best solution I could create for the Mishhuvurthyar: Yamatai needed to humor the Mishhuvurthyar and admit themselves defeated, with the Mishhuvurthyar the victors, with a handful of significant but non-crippling concessions to convince the Mishhuvurthyar of their credibility."
"With admitted loss, the Mishhuvurthyar would face the long sought after and yet assumed unreachable concept of victory. They would have been vindicated and they would have finally been ready to move to other things. Your Empires, in the same vein, would be saved."
Melisson slowly shook her head. "But it did not work out that way. Despite me talking to an advisor of Prince Tio at length and it came time to officially discuss it he denied me the opportunity to finally realize my goal and withdrew the hospitality I had been promised in my invitation to that conference."
"I failed and did not believe I could reverse things after that. Rather than have more Mishhuvurthyar die in continued conflict until the end of my 'term', I withdrew them. Reiaz came in later and brought into conflict Mishhuvurthyar that had been adapted even further for conflict and he has even gone so far as to mirror how Yamatai used the nekovalkyrja by creating his own to serve his war effort's goal - integrating your Empire in the Mishhuvurthyar's culture... or what he is molding that cultures to be. I'm not as privy to as many details as I once was after the end of my Doctrine, and I'm no longer sure of where Reiaz himself is going with this."
"The irony is that Yamatai presently has fulfilled the conditions I asked for surrendering to the Mishhuvurthyar. Had it not been for foolish pride, this war would already be over."
Melisson fisted her hands. "I have little support left by the Eyfrlurpjakar, but I may not need it. Instead, I turned my efforts toward one of my contingencies: liberating the Second Draconian Fleet. You had for a goal to save the Empire from Eve and I did not want to see the fleet act under Eve's behest so much as that of the True Nekovalkyrja Empire. That is done and over with and now we stand here before each other as antagonists."
