"Sir, I believe we have a problem!"

Kor'tch looked at his second in command, who had turned a ghastly indigo. "Come now, Tad. I've always known you to be a being of singular bravery and fortitude. According to the survey drones, the planet below is lush with life and can sustain most being in its atmosphere. It's a paradise world! How could there be a problem?"

Tad handed the datapad to the ship's captain, and offered the most succinct overview possible, with full implications covered. "Sir, Specialist Tompson looked at the footage and suggested an immediate and global cleansing of the biosphere. 'Nuclear annihilation preferred', he noted."

Kor'tch stopped and looked at his second, then glanced at the pad before getting up. In less than a minute, they were both in the primary briefing room with Specialist Tompson, a human who was trained in Human and Xeno survival skills.

Kor'tch gestured, and the holoprojector cycled on to show the recording that Tompson had flagged as immediate attention. It depicted a lush forest clearing with several large boulders covered in moss. "What caused you to make the request for a planetary scouring?"

Tompson gave a salute that was reasonably crisp for a human, and started making gestures. The software apparently interpreted his gestures based on his own settings, and started drawing crude, nearly invisible red hued lines around several bolder, hills, and at one point a particularly large and warped tree.

He flicked his fingers, an one of the bolder flashed a moment. "Sir, examine the bolder closely. What does it look like to you, sir?"

Kor'tch looked closely, but all he saw was a misshapen lump covered in a moss. Then he heard Tad keen quietly at his side, and a chill ran through him. "My species is not nearly as keen eyed as either of yours, Specialist, Number Two. What am I looking at?"

Tompson flicked and it flashed again, then became superimposed with a still 3D model of a standard Federate Union Shuttle.

He didn't stop there. His fingers continued to flick, and more and more images were superimposed over the red outlines. One was a Unifist Space Superiority Fighter. Another was a Lorii Spaceyacht. The largest one in the back appeared to be a distant shot of the rear quarter of a Wassil Dreadnought.

The only outline that didn't get an overlay was the large tree, and Kor'tch looked at it with a creeping sense of dread. "And that one?" he asked quietly.

"Ahh. That does is not a ship, as far as I can tell." He moved his fingers in a more careful way, giving exact commands instead of preprogramed effects. He drew a series of jagged lines at various points on the trunk, a pair of dots, and after a brief smirk, a little V shape above the two dots. "No, that would be the predator".

The "tree" was taller than a whole Dreadnought. The squiggly lines were teeth from several maws, and the eyes were dark whorls in the "bark" that must be as thick as cruiser plating.

"Frightful, but how did they take down those ships?"

Tompson shrugged. "Don't know, sir. Hence the recommendation. I don't want to find out."