Neptune's Massif by Ben Winston

forces invading a sector. Shalo understood from the report that the mission had been to secure the system for an assault on a minor race of the Alliance protecting the galaxy. When it finished the Emperor asked him for his opinion.
    "Majesty, it is not my place to question this operation so far into Alliance space, I feel it should have worked. These tactics displayed by this human ship are the most important part of this report. So far, our involvement with the Alliance has been somewhat balanced. The human forces we have encountered prior to this point have not shown themselves to be superior fighters in any way. In fact, they show a notable lack of coordination, poor tactics, and disjointed, almost non-existent offensive ability.
    The ship in this report did not operate as a typical human ship would; this display is very troubling. Was this a fluke in that one commander had a flash of insight that allowed him to so easily evade our forces, or is this a new breed of commanders? Our intelligence has shown that there is trouble within the civilian government of the humans which would lend itself as an explanation for the poor over-all fighting ability of their fleets.
    "If this was not a fluke, and this is a new commander that has taken the field, he must be hunted down and destroyed at all costs. He must not be allowed to pass on his knowledge. He could very well cause us a lot of trouble in our conquest of the galaxy," Shalo said.
    The Emperor nodded his agreement and acceptance of Shalo's evaluation. "There is a lot of this you have no knowledge of. What we are about to tell you cannot leave this room."
    "I understand, Majesty," Shalo again bowed to his ruler.
    "We have received spy reports from within the human faction that they have discovered a lost colony. This colony supposedly found a crashed warship and rebuilt it before the humans discovered them. In that time, they have made technological advances that we do not have any information on. However, there is a report that this new group of humans are nothing like the existing ones. They are ambitious and protective of each other. Much more so that the humans we are familiar with. Unfortunately, we have little knowledge of this new group, as they have refused to join the Talosian faction, thus denying our spies access to them. Even their location is a mystery to us.
    “After reviewing this report, even before we could seek council from them, the priests came to us. They are greatly troubled by this development. They told me that this ‘new race’ of humans would bring an end to this war, and that they would eventually destroy the entire Empire. They told me they had a vision of this new race taking this city, of their warriors entering this palace while the city burned in the background.
    "Shalo, this cannot be allowed to happen. We are sending you to take command of the forces in that galaxy. In addition to prosecuting this war, you will hunt down this new race of humans and destroy them utterly. They represent a danger to this Empire we cannot allow to come to fruition," the Emperor said firmly.
    "I will, of course, do as you command, Majesty, however, are you sure I am the right person for this? Certainly there has to be many commanders on your staff that would be far more experienced for this," Shalo replied.
    The Emperor nodded. "We understand your doubts, Shalo. There are a few we could send, but you have not been conditioned as they have. You are not afraid of failure and I suspect do not see such things as failures but opportunities. Above all, you are not afraid of us." The Emperor smiled. "If we sent one of the others, they would be so afraid of failure that they would not do what needs to be done. They feel we will have them executed for these failures, as we have done to our commanders in the past. They do not understand the situation as you do, Shalo. We could not order you executed for military setbacks because you do not give up when they happen! You