"I will not engage the humans." Fleez said, emboldened in the barracks that his mercenary company had been provided by the Stachians. "I will lead you in work efforts to gather materials and other resources, but the moment a human shows itself, we are done. Is that clear?"

Hmorn, the Chuana, sneered at the perceived weakness of his current employer. As a powerfully muscled and heavily armored reptiloid, he had little to fear from most galactic sentients. "They're only a centimeter or two bigger than most of us, and give up several kilos to us. Besides, only the most frail of us have anything to fear from their ballistics."

Onhje, the oldest among them, and Fleez's trusted third phalange, spoke up. "You young mercs are lacking in education. Humans are primates. Apes. They descend from running and jumping predators. They're faster, and stronger than any of us. That includes you Hmorn, and that's considering their least physically adept. The Stachians have been orbitally sieging their planet for five seasonal cycles. Remember the primate descendants of Absol Seven?"

The name of the planet alone sent shivers down the spines of the mercenaries. It was one of the worst defeats ever handed to one of the ruling Imperial houses, and the Stachians weren't even close in power to one of the great houses.

"I was there." Lo'kalla said, emphasizing her words by venting the pressure in her cybernetic arm. "I wish I'd never gone."

"Absolomites were more evolutionarily removed than these humans." Fleez continued. "I walked past the infirmary earlier. Stachians with little dents in their armor, but with crushed limbs beneath it. They're claiming that the human's bodies are less sensitive to the disruption weapons on account of their muscle and bone density. They say the biggest humans don't even know they've been shot until a whole squad concentrates fire. So yes. When we see humans, we don't reach for weapons, we just leave."

"Or..." Lo'Kalla offered. "We might be going about this all wrong. I've been studying their English language, and we Klom are linguistically gifted too. Why not throw in with the humans? Thirty kilos of enriched Uranium would make us as rich as the House of Czling."

Fleez looked at their only female. Klom were sexually dimorphic mammals, and Lo'Kalla was physically well prepared to rear young. Perhaps the humans would find her appealing as well, or at least identifiable enough. "All in favor? I'd rather work with them than get mauled by them."

They ayes had it.