The day they came is the day we stopped cowering in one solar system, and became a species capable of so much more, so much greater things. I get ahead of myself, as always. I suppose history has always bored you two, right? Alright, but this is interesting, this is something worth listening to. I'll try and keep it short, then we can go see if your mother is finished with that cake yet.
The Kaencia had just reached Ildus's 4th moon when we made first contact with another species. Our small cosmocraft received a transmission from unknown race, telling us to meet them on our homeworld's moon. Our council of elders convened, and an ambassadorial ship and crew was quickly marshaled together with a full complement of translators, diplomats, soldiers, and scientists. Some of our best and brightest marched onto that ship, never to return.
No Delia, they didn't suffer an accident, now sit still and enjoy the story like your sister. They made it to the coordinates provided, and were met with a battle fleet of some 40 cruisers. No transmission were offered, they simply scanned our ship's computer, extracted its information, and then destroyed the ship. Some of our bravest were lost that day, but fortunately not in vain. We didn't know it happened until the fleet showed up over our homeworld, laser charging and boarding craft descending to the planet. The Kaencia have many flaws, like short attention spans, yes Delia that means you, stop playing with Blake's ears and focus for a few more minutes. One flaw is not, however, inaction.
I still remembered as a kitten watching as my father kissed goodbye to mother and donned his Stalker suit to join the defense. He fought valiantly, they all did, fighting to protect the few planetary guns the council had built decades ago, but they were faced with faceless soldiers wielding personal shields and plasma weapons. Even a species as determined as ours couldn't hold out against that with ballistics, especially with orbit strikes landing on our heads. Even as a kitten, I new something was wrong when my mother took me to the local bomb shelter without dad.
I didn't know how wrong everything was until later. We were pushed up against the wall, a doomed race lashing out against a universe that would exterminate us in our infancy, when instead it offered us a miracle. The strangest miracle ever, but if you asked any soldier that day they would claim the Terrans were the prettiest damn things they'd seen. Blake, don't make that face, I've seen you play with them at school.
They showed up with an entire war fleet, so many our bombed sensor arrays had trouble tracking their movements, and our communication arrays were suddenly flooded with Terran comm chatter. They didn't send in troop transports, they used drop pods to deliver there 'marines' surface side. Even after all these years, its a sight to behold. The Kaencia fight like hunters, stalking and remaining hidden. The Terrans fought, like a wave, a storm of power armored soldiers. Their ships were the same, though we weren't able to see much of the fighting.
When the dust cleared, our attackers lay dead as 45 ships fell from the sky, flaming wrecks of the invaders and the brave alien defenders that paid the ultimate price for us. At first we were afraid, terrified an even stronger foe had come to enslave our fledgling species. My mother had held me tight as those armored and faceless suit marched through our village, distributing supplies at marked with a red cross. Trust came slowly, but in the end, we didn't have a choice.
The elders themselves met the Terran fleetmaster 'Admiral Price', as he landed. I don't know what happened in those talks, but an partnership was forged. Terran and Kaencian stood side by side as we began to rebuild. Their scientists met with ours, their 'engineers' with our builders, and their 'Generals' with our Prowlers. I was still a kitten, but I saw the world change around me with such a rapid pace I could barely learn something before it was altered or the curriculum updated.
We exchanged flora and fauna samples, compared energy technologies, discussion biological and genetic differences, reviewed each other's scientific theories, and both sides eyes were opened to new technologies. Terrans had mastered physics, engineering, and industrialization, while our scientists had mastered bio-engineering, clean energy, and genetic sequencing. When I was nearing the end of my kitten years, we had been with the Terrans for almost a decade. Orbital refueling, research, and industrial stations were now common structures, and each day new technologies and systems were in place. Their AI systems allowed rapid industrialization and resource harvesting, while our energy generators were being shipped to every colony in their Republic. Art, media, movies, all advanced leaps and bounds as their film artists and ours met to create cross-cultural art. It was a golden age. No Blake, I don't care what your history teacher says, I was there, and there was no issues with 'public intoxication and fraternization', their drinks didn't even effect my behavior. Don't raise your eyebrows to me, missy, now let me finish.