"Sir, Transmission incoming!" Comms Officer Ry'leth kept his eyes on his screen, even as his mouth shifted around his body to speak to his Captain directly.
"On screen. No doubt they'll yield now that their token resistance has been given." Captain Yv'ronil adjusted his jacket as he sat in his chair. 'Pride has always caused such ugliness.' He thought to himself, even as he ensured his uniform looked its best. The command deck security holo would be sent back to Fy'loniv, the seat of his people's power, to record for all time the glory of the Empire's expansion into this, Milky Way.
As the transmission appeared on the main screen, an older man's eyes bored into Captain Yv'ronil, and something in them said surrender was not being offered. No, those brown, sleep-deprived eyes were far from the norm seen from the species in question.
"That was damned foolish, Captain. Your presence was already too far. Do you even know what planet that was?" Ambassador Reinwar's voice, even through the translators, was strangely flat. Typically, any human's emotions were so straightforward to hear that the AI's analysis was kept only as a record for the Diplomatic Corps to study. Now, the poor thing was struggling to identify which ones were present. It eventually settled on two words: indignant fury.
Yet more pride. Even in defeat, it seemed they would not bow. Very well, now they must break. "One of a hundred that will be removed from the Slipway's path."
"Heh. I suppose it may not matter in your mind, but it does in ours. You see, that was Earth. My species' home. The place that uncounted trillions of us have fought and died over, against ourselves and even against our galactic neighbours. Not one of them had ever dared attack it. Can you guess why?" Emotion bled back into the Ambassador's voice; his jaw held tight even as he spoke louder and louder.
"Some vague notion of rules in warfare?" Yv'ronil guessed, extrapolating from what little he had cared to learn of these upstarts.
Ambassador Reinwar chuckled at the Captain's guess, a mirthless laugh. The kind of laugh that was utterly alien to the Empire, but any human might recognize it as the kind you give when a puppy slips on the stairs. "Vague notion indeed. Thank you for that. No, the reason no one has dared attack our home is simple. Doing so is a death sentence, and it is writ large. Your people have invaded and attacked unprovoked. You have attacked civilians; do you understand that word? Do you understand how steeped in war we are that we distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable targets? And do you know why we do that?"
"Ambassador, are you going to make a point, or are we just wasting time? We both know your people don't have anything that poses a threat to us." Captain Yv'ronil baited the man, hoping he would reveal too much with the right provocation. The Ambassador's calmness was unsettling and, in every model, unexpected. Something told him the humans had set a trap of their own.
"We distinguish between targets; we abide by rules because, without them, everything is permitted. Say, for example, attacking your home. Terror tactics even. Or any other of a hundred foul tricks we've come up with over thousands of years at war. In short, good luck going home, Captain. It stopped existing the moment you were on our scope."
Captain Yv'ronil immediately trained both eye stalks on Commander Ry'leth, who nervously confirmed that Fy'loniv wasn't responding to any hails. Had the humans truly destroyed his home? "Helmsman! Set course for Fy'loniv, now!"
Elsewhere, Ambassador Reinwar collapsed into his chair, looking at Admiral Finnian, "Bait is set, and they appear to have taken it. Let's hope it pays off." As the Admiral departed from the room, Reinwar pulled a bottle from his desk. Humanity was at war, and possibly a short one if the seat of the Esteemed Empire could be destroyed. They got lucky that Captain Yv'ronil hadn't cared to learn what planets he had annihilated, or else the jelly-like slug would have known that Pluto wasn't Earth.