[ WP ] A peaceful alien race is besieged by another race in the same galaxy . As their last planets fall and their home-world comes under threat they do the unthinkable . They ask for aid from the only known creatures more brutal than their foes in exchange for FTL technology . Humans accept the deal .

Ever since first contact, the New Earth government had been wary of our alien benefactors, the Q'ari Republic. 
 
 Every human knew why - it's pretty much in our blood to be suspicious. The Republic claimed control of an eighth of the Milky Way by volume, more than any other power in the galaxy, yet they were just so.... *peaceful*. They did n't have a single weapon in any detail that came to Earth, or to Mars, even when their Chosen ( a rough translation of their word for the position of leader ) was touring the place. 
 
 I mean, really? The New Earth Federation was the only governing body on Earth, rebellion was rare and swiftly doused, and even Mars was mostly under the jurisdiction of the Feds, and President Johnson does n't even go to the bathroom without a bodyguard - I'm sure that if he was touring the homeworld of some alien species we had never met before, but that was only a few hundred years behind our tech, he'd be walking around with an army of soldiers in power armor. Yet, their Chosen walks around a planet that learned that they have to negotiate if they want to settle any more worlds in their own solar system, since this'Republic' claimed the place while we thought we were the center of it, without a guard in sight. 
 
 Now that's suspicious, ask anybody. 
 
 As Director of the Department of the Dry Navy ( to differentiate us from the wet Navy: They patrol the seas, we patrol space ), I was on the committee that met their Chosen, some thirty-two years after they first landed in Germany. 
 
 I wo n't bore you with the details of the conversation that ensued - lots of pleasantries, passed by their delegation with a seeming nervous apprehension, and returned cautiously by ours. I'll keep this short, and skip to the good part, when we figure out why their demeanor was so starkly different. 
 
 As it turned out, one of the many'protectorates' - governments formed within the borders of the Republic with territory they had before meeting and territory they had negotiated for, exactly like the New Earth Federation - had finally gained technological parity with the Republic - They did n't say so, but my first thought was that they managed to get some spies into their shipyards - and this'Galactic Imperium' had been waging a rather successful war against the Republic. So far, to our astonishment, the Imperium had taken all of Republic space, including their core systems and even the binary partner of the star Q'ari ( the Republic capital ) circled, with the stated goal of killing each and every Q'arian in the universe. Their motivation? Revenge for a few hundred years of perceived oppression, which seemed fair enough to me. 
 
 Of course, we were unable to conceive of how a body of a few systems, even with technological parity and the element of surprise, would be able to conquer so much space so quickly - By our estimates, they should have been crushed under the yoke of Republican industry if nothing else. Apparently, the Republic was simply too pacifistic - They had the material, but not the will to use it nor the experience with its use. This was made plainly clear to us as their Chosen lamented that the Imperium built dedicated warships, as if it was brutal to have ships of war. Apparently, that was a trait that very few species shared, to be'brutal' enough to actually field dedicated weapons of war instead of just mounting a few guns on a cruise liner and calling it a battleship. I... still do n't really get that part, but what do I know, I'm only human... 
 
 Anyway. With the details of the Imperium's rapid takeover of Republican space in front of us, President Johnson asked the important question. The Republic only had control over two systems - Sol, and their capital and homeworld. The obvious question is, why did they reinforce Sol, and fight two costly battles to hold it, rather than keeping their own home from being at risk. 
 
 As it turns out, humans are well known to the galaxy to be the most brutal and warlike race known to anyone. So much so, that the Republic was banned by intragalactic treaty to prevent us from obtaining faster-than-light drive, so we would n't go conquering everyone. 
 
'But', as their Chosen said,'we are desperate. The Q'ari race stands at the brink of extinction. Our treaties are no longer an issue - We're blockaded on every side, we ca n't send a ship out, no one else can send a ship in - No one is more brutal on the field of battle than the soldiers of the Galactic Imperium - Except you.' 
 
 His lieutenant stepped in: 
 
'We have with us detailed plans of almost every technological achievement we have made that you have not. Energy shields, zero-point reactors... Faster than light engines, both of the tunneling and warping variety. These plans should be sufficient to.. to allow your scientists and your engineers to develop you to the same level of technology as both us and the Imperium.' 
 
 I was suspicious. `` Why would you give this to us?'' 
 
 The Chosen turned to me. 
 
'We will give this to you in return for a promise. A promise that you will not turn the weapons we hand you upon us, and a promise that you will shelter us from the onslaught of the Imperium. 
 
 A promise that the Q'ari race will live on.' 
 
 After that, there was pretty much no need for us to discuss what we would do. All the gain, for pretty much no loss? The only debate was if we could hold back this Imperium, and that was indeed a question. The Republic did not have any solid information on the sizes of the enemy fleets, nor of their capacity to produce more. The Republic had summoned its last scraps of fleet, its merchant vessels, its private ships, everything was confiscated and enlisted into their navy for the purpose of holding the Imperium back. They estimated that the Imperium would n't commit much to this last phase, preferring to use its ships to solidify its hold on the territories that would be looking for an edge than to put an end to a defeated enemy, so the estimate was that the Republic would hold for a year before the Imperium punched through and reached Earth. 
 
 With the scientists of the Republic helping us figure things out, well, I liked those odds. We pulled a few asteroids out of the asteroid belt, set up a few lunar mines, and got to work. 
 
 First, we built orbital shipyards. We needed infrastructure if we were going to raise a respectable fleet quickly, and our old docks were n't going to do the trick with the new tech. At the same time, our best engineers set to designing a warship with the new goods: One that was well armed and armored, capable of solo warp flight and surviving wormhole traversal, and most importantly one that was cheap enough and easy enough to manufacture that we could build fleets of them with the resources at hand before the Imperium arrived. 
 
 Once we got going, we even made a few improvements. A test drone was used to find a way to cloak the emissions of the zero-point reactors, sensors, communications, and the warp engines, and we integrated these into stealth frigates, lightly armored, heavily armed, equipped with tons of equipment for intelligence gathering and transmission. Another team managed to get a few more percent efficiency out of the shielding, along with faster charge times, and this coupled with an enhancement to the reactor cooling became the core of a battleship fleet that had double shields, heavy armor, tons of guns, powered by two parallel zero point reactors. One of these ships even became my flagship, the *Salvation*. 
 
 We carried on with the standard routine of preparing for total war - the routine that apparently only humans were actually capable of, the routine of converting industry to a war machine, of training tons of civilians into a military, simple stuff - Until news came that the Imperium had dedicated its whole fleet to a last push, two months early. Q'ari had fallen, and the last Republic ships were headed our way. The Chosen expressed his hope that we were ready, a hope we all reflected. 
 
 Three Republic ships arrived, carrying about three thousand Q'arian citizens, tailed by the Imperium fleet. Our reactions were either shock or laughter - The fleet we had been fearing was one of around 750 ships, and we had raised a fleet of 1,547 ships that were by all indications better armed. The Q'ari reacted with dismay -'What have we done' was a common one, as they watched what we learned was the largest fleet ever gathered slip into a combat formation. 
 
 The Imperium was routed. They engaged us, and we destroyed them, letting their ships burn. We gave no quarter - We fought with the ferocity humans have been fighting each other with since the dawn of time, a ferocity not even the Imperium could match. The Imperium attempted to pull their scattered fleet out of the solar system, but our frigates gave chase - Uncloaked frigates tagged targets, and cloaked ones fired their deadly payloads unseen, much like wet submarine warfare. 
 
 Aboard *Salvation*, the battle report was overwhelming. Even the Mars Rebellion had incurred heavier losses - Over five hours of battle and three days of chasing down the enemy, we had lost three hundred ships, and five hundred had suffered significant damage, for a loss of life of about fifteen thousand after escape pod recovery, plus twenty thousand wounded. We did n't have casualty numbers for the Imperium, but the Republic did n't lose anything once our fleet got under way, and the Imperium lost seven hundred and forty-eight ships, with one disabled ship captured for research and one heavily damaged ship forced to surrender and ordered to return to its superiors and tell them of their losses. 
 
 The Imperium capitulated shortly thereafter when five hundred of our ships appeared at their homeworld and destroyed their orbital stations. The Q'ari regained their home, and we looked to the stars. 
 
 It's late, Johnny. How about we settle down for the night. 
 
 Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about how your dad was at the front of the fleet that united the galaxy.
