[ WP ] There 's an old adage in the galaxy about humanity : roughly translated , it means `` Never push the pink-skins to the thin ice . ''

Not many know this, but the adage has an interestingly literal origin. 
 
 It was many revolutions ago when we first made contact with the humans. We were deep in an interstellar war with the Roxari at the time, and were desperately struggling to keep up; the truth was, they had us outgunned and outmanned at every turn. During one heated battle where my troop suffered 60 % casualties, I ordered a sudden retreat into slip-space, without programming exit coordinates; this was very dangerous but it let us flee the enemy without being tracked. Or so we thought; when we reappeared back in matter-verse, we found to our dismay that several Roxari fighters and a destroyer had somehow tailed us. It was a sizable challenge for the remaining, battered ships I had under my control, and I grimly prepared for an all-or-nothing duel to our deaths. As I shouted maneuvering orders to my fighters and my own cruiser prepared to fire, my thoughts went to my sons and daughters, some of whom had already perished in this wretched war. I remember having the very tangential regret that our first entry into this heretofore unexplored sector was such a violent one; there was an enormous planet just a few thousand kilometers away, with beautiful rings of sparkling ice. It was majestic to behold, and such a shame that I could not sit back to enjoy it. 
 
 And that's when I ( and presumably, the Roxari commander ) received the most startling radio message; not so because of the content, for that was some alien gibberish, but due to the source: it was neither Roxari nor Altho in origin. 
 
 The human ships came into view, covered with strange blinking lights of various colors. Most of the ships were very small, and un-manned, though I did not know that at the time. I just assumed the organisms piloting them must be very small beings. The larger ships were much fewer in number, and were slightly larger than our fighters, though still easily dwarfed by our cruiser or the Roxari destroyer. One ship, the largest one of all, had sent the message, and continued to inquire further; we sent a few replies back, but of course in Althon and so incomprehensible to the humans. The whole situation was so unexpected that it actually paused our altercation; it must have looked a strange sight, three different fleets floating in space, uncertain as to what action to take next. We technically had a protocol for dealing with the meeting of a completely new xeno-sapient, but everyone was too slack-jawed in light of our battle to look for that book. 
 
 The intermission lasted only briefly, however. Suddenly, the Roxari began firing! One of my fighters went down in a blaze of brilliant white fire, and I roared the order for immediate retaliation. The human ships, suddenly realizing the unfortunate situation they had stumbled onto, turned and began to maneuver away, perhaps to some hidden orbiting station. But as they fled, one Roxari fighter zoomed after them and began firing hot plasma, destroying several of the smaller probes and eventually hitting a larger ship, which began to drift uncontrollably toward the gas giant planet. I was deeply shocked that this had occurred; even the Roxari restrained from excessive force on noncombatants, never mind a race that we had just met. One of my fighters managed to subdue the rogue Roxari one, and the human ships sent out a flurry of panicked messages as they dove down, following the drift of their burning ship. Another Roxari fighter went after them, and they all disappeared beyond the rings of ice. I would've liked to aid them, but I feared that I could hardly aid myself at this point, and so I kept all my ships in formation. The best I could do was send them schematic diagrams, encoded in x-ray waves, detailing possible weak points on Roxari spacecraft, and hope that they had any weapons at all on their ships. 
 
 As the battle dragged on, the situation grew more and more grave. My cruiser was badly damaged, and only a few fighters remained at my side. The Roxari had no more fighters, but their destroyer was nearly untouched and still shielded. It looked hopeless, and I gave the grim order to fight to our last breath, knowing that we had little chance left at all. But then, something incredible happened. Out of those shining ice rings, the smaller human ships burst forth, flying in a scattered pattern at much higher velocities right toward the Roxari destroyer. The alarmed Roxari quickly shot out lasers that destroyed the probes with a single shot, but their movement was too haphazard for precise aiming, and many slipped right past the Roxari ship's shielding and *crashed* themselves onto the hull - specifically, the vulnerable underbelly, where the life-support, and shield systems were housed. 
 
 I wasted no time. As soon as the first human ship crashed, I ordered the remaining fighters and my own cruiser to empty all offensive power onto the destroyer. When the final plasma torpedo cleaved the ship asunder, all of my officers cheered in victory, and I sank back down to my seat, exhausted. Soon after, we received another message, an image, from the human ships, which had begun to re-emerge from the ice: A rough sketch of the Roxari destroyer under fire by our ships as well as the humans', with angry black slashes X'ed over the Roxari ship. I grinned. 
 
 I do n't know who originally coined the phrase; whether it was Altho or Roxari, though I sometimes entertain the idea that it was one of my crew aboard my cruiser during that firefight. But i once told it to Commander Brennard, a human warrior whom I have become strong friends with, and he laughed and added: *If you push us onto thin ice, it might break and we might fall, but you can be sure that we'll swim right through that frozen hell and return the favor. * 
 
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