The Rundi councilwoman was very nervous. She had only met humans a few times, five times, not that she was counting, and the creatures unnerved her more than anything ever had. It was a strange experience, a first look into their eyes and you were convinced you were looking into the eyes of a predatory beast, but look closer and you realized the guile and intelligence that drove the creature. An intelligence that lead it to folding space before it even bothered with light speed.

It confused her and scared her. She just wasn't sure how the handle the creature, whether she should treat it more like a dangerous beast or ore like a reasoning sentient being. That thought was still undecided as she walked from the galactic assembly council chambers with her guard, which had been heavily augmented considering who they were meeting with.

The doors ahead of her were open allowing in the light of their main sequence star, a warm yellow in color, and their sky which was a pleasant purple-blue dotted with clouds. It was a pleasant enough day outside though she was racked with what seemed like the weight of an entire galaxy on her back. The Drev war was taking its toll on her. She would very much have liked to accept the suggestions of the Vrul and leave the creatures to rot on their primitive planet, but they were dangerous and intelligent, and they had made threats to the entire galaxy. Destroying their manufacturing plants was the only option, and one that was made increasingly difficult by the Drev proclivity for war.

Then had come the treaty signing with the humans, and out of goodwill they had pledged their own soldiers to the cause with the promise that they did, in fact, know a thing or two about war.

Why didn't that surprise her?

With a deep breath, she stepped out into starlight, and was met with a small army of humans.

There were dozens of the creatures all lined up in perfectly formed rows before the assembly chambers. It was difficult to tell the difference between them as they were all dressed similarly to each other in those strange human garments. The patterns atop them made it very difficult to focus on their forms as they stood straight and still in the morning sun. She shouldn't have felt so afraid, but somehow she couldn't help but feel a small sense of threat with the way they held their perfect rows, with their perfect posture and their unflinching faces staring straight forward.

She had seen humans before, they never remained still, so this just seemed to be a..... A demonstration of their might by showing her they could force such a volatile species into absolute stillness.

That was all accept for a group of humans that stood out in front of her. They were wearing similar uniforms to those of their soldiers, though they had more shiny bits on them . The amount of shiny things worn by humans seemed to be an indicator of their status, also the ones that stood on higher ground seemed to be a good indication. She felt her innards crawl as the humans turned to look at her, their eyes darting the small dark apertures in their centers expanding and contracting as they licked over her body. Just watching them made her dizzy and she wondered how they did not make themselves sick with the strange movement.

They stood taller as she approached, and she shrunk down a little wondering if they intended the movement as an aggression or a show of dominance towards her. As she drew near the frontmost human raised its chin to her exposing it's throat, "Good morning chairwoman, it is a pleasure to meet with you again."

Inside she was internally panicking. All of their features were so much the same that she had a hard time remembering if she had ever met this human before. She frantically looked over the shiny bits on his clothing struggling to remember what she had been told about their ranking falling into great relief when she finally remembered, "Oh, Admiral it is indeed an honor to speak with you again. We cannot express how deeply we thank you for this show of goodwill."

"It has been a human tradition for centuries to help one's allies in war, though it has not always pleased the civilian masses." he held out one of his claw-tipped hands towards the assembled soldiers, "Take a look, see what you think. All of these men and women have been vetted, tested, vaccinated and are ready to fight for the cause of intergalactic peace."

She nervously glanced down at their still standing ranks and swallowed, "Are.... they always so still."

The man laughed, "Only when ordered. They are disciplined to the last movement and the last order." We will demonstrate." The man snapped sharply on his heels, "ATTENTION!"

The chairwoman stepped back in shock and surprise as all the humans, in one synchronized group snapped their legs together brought their arms to their sides, "PRESENT ALL!" A hundred arms snapped upwards as if they were about to bash themselves in the head but stopped right below their temples eyes never moving."AS YOU WERE" Again, like they were all reflections of each other the humans did as told never deviating.

"RIGHT...." Heads snapped to the right, "FACE." With synchronized foot movements they turned to the right.

"ABOUT FACE!" They all turned in the opposite direction.

He leaned in closer to her, "Let's play a little game. DROP OUT DRILL EVERYONE!"

She stares don in concerned awe as the human began barking commands.

" LEFT FACE, RIGHT FACE. RIGHT FACE, RIGHT FACE, LEFT FACE, ABOUT FACE, LEFT, AS YOU WERE, ABOUT FACE, RIGHT FACE, LEFT FACE."

The square was filled with the clattering of the human's feet on the ground in perfect rhythmic synchronization. The longer it took them to drop out the faster the commands came until the humans were practically spinning in circles on the field below.

"W-what is the point of this/" She stammered

The human turned to look at her, his incredibly mobile face bringing the opening of his mouth up at the corners, "It is a demonstration of their ability to follow orders and pay attention. What I am about to show you next is historically the methods used for intimidation, demonstration of superior military might, and synchronization."

Other humans had moved into position behind him and began barking orders forming the humans into tight columns and groups. Around the square, other faces were peering from buildings trying to determine what the commotion was about, "FORWARD MARCH."

"LEFT, LEFT, LEFT RIGHT LEFT." The humans walked past never stopping boots thundering against the ground at the same moment sending chills up her spine as she watched them move in perfect harmony, their bodies no more than rhythm turned into motion. They turned spun, and walked backwards through each other heads never turning to look where they were going, perfectly trusting the commands of their officers.

She found their method of intimidation to be working, and so seemed the rest of her people as they vanished back into the buildings with great haste.

When the demonstration was over she turned to the human, dreading the question she was about to ask, "And what military technology can you bring to the field?"

"That is a good question chairwoman." He motioned to one of his soldiers, who hustled over carrying.... Well it looked like a big black stick with knobby protrusions. He took it carefully in one arm keeping one end pointed towards either the ground or the sky as he demonstrated, "This is a piece of military technology that hasn't changed for the past thousand years accept to be stronger and more accurate. He pulled a lever at the side of the weapon locking open a tiny chamber.

"A round." He ordered, and his soldiers rushed forward.

The human held up the little gold and copper-tipped cylinder up to her eye level/. "This, that pointy bit on the end is a bullet inside the gold part will be an explosive powder." She stepped back, he held up the black stick, "This is a rifle, the bullets are fed into the chamber, the little hole right here where the firing pin will strike the back of the casing lighting the explosive and sending the bullet in a controlled explosion through the barrel at a high rate of speed into your target. Once inside, the more delicate metal is designed to break apart and tumble ripping your enemy apart from the inside."

She stared at him in shock and horror, "You, you use explosives to hurl speeding shrapnel at your enemies."

"Sort of accept for the times that we use explosives to hurl actual shrapnel of our enemies, then we just generally pack the explosives into a ball and throw them at each other."

She swallowed hard, "I... I and what do those do?"

"Rip of limbs, hurl you to the ground, causing a pressure wave so serious that it causes the lungs to fill with fluid, or just kill you instantly, one of a multitude of options. We create them in all sizes, we shoot some from really big guns, drop them from the sky or even bury them in the ground to be triggered by the pressure of a misplaced foot long after we aren't there anymore."

Was he threatening her, was she being threatened?

"I, I see, why-why do you not simply use energy weapons."

The human sighed, "We tried those once upon a time, but it turns out the radius of an effective blast is closer than we would like, and like a taser some humans can sort of just walk them off. Better to rip open their insides to make sure they can't get back up."

She was feeling a bit feint, "I will have you know that the Drev wear full plate armor, and have a hard covering carapace."

"In that case we will use armor piercing rounds. Just make this thing a bit heavier add some tungsten, punch through their hard outsides and into the squishy insides."

She swallowed hard, "Could you please not describe that so graphically?"

The human tilted his head at her, "I wasn't." His strange toothy expression returned, "Anyway each one of my soldiers will be carrying one of these, as well as a small version. A few of them will have the model that can shoot these over distances of thousands of feet." I think we will have your little Drev problem dealt with in short order."

She stammered and swallowed hard, "I.... I sure hope that you do."

He reached out patting her on the arm, and she tried not to flinch, humans were very touchy, and she had a feeling that maybe it had something to do with dominance rituals, but she couldn't be sure.

She just didn't want to be touched by something that she knew could rip her arms off.

What had she gotten herself into.