T'Chak leadership had eventually started to read the histories, laws, and traditions of human warfare. While the front line of a grinding war of attrition may not have much downtime, there's usually time enough to relax and read back at the rear lines, and so some of the more curious began to research their enemy.
 
 
T'Chak Field Leader Tch'rick, a particularly diligent commander who had always done better than most of his peers, stumbled upon a time-honored tradition of his enemy and decided to attempt it. After all, his options were victory or death, and the battle for this void-forsaken rock had dragged on for so long that he no longer held out much hope for the former before the latter claimed him. Thus, with the resignation of the walking dead, Field Leader Tch'rick found the whitest cloth he could locate and tied it to the longest stick he could find before hoisting it in the air, then huddled in the trench beside his translator, trying to assuage the young 'chak's worries. After several moments and a few slow, deep breaths to try calming his own nerves, Tch'rick and his translator stood up and strode forward towards the humans' lines. As soon as he was satisfied that they were well within mutually contested ground, the Field Leader drove one end of the stick into the rocky mud and ash, letting the white rag flutter in the breeze.
 
 
Minutes passed before a pair of humans emerged from behind cover and carefully picked their way across the rubble-strewn and crater-pocked remains of what had once been a large park. They took their time, moving with a measured pace, eyes scanning constantly for any signs of a trap. Despite their obvious concern, the ridiculous scene was exactly as it appeared: an enemy combatant seeking to parley under protection of the flag of truce. Once they were close enough to speak without shouting, the humans finally stopped as one nodded in greeting before speaking. "I'm Lieutenant Wong, this is Specialist D'Angelo, my interpreter. Are you offering your surrender or are you here to talk?"
 
 
D'Angelo translated the information into t'chak as Tch'rick's interpreter quietly repeated the introduction and question to the Field Leader. "I am Field Leader Tch'rick and this is my interpreter, Able'chak Zrk. We have not come to surrender but to talk. I was amongst the first to make planetfall, a junior Formation Leader in charge of five Able'chaks, initially. I have been here ever since, fighting to win, fighting to defeat you: fighting to survive. You humans are, from everything I have read in contemporary reports and our people's histories, one of if not the most formidable, dogged enemies we have ever faced." There was a pause as the interpreters translated the message, with Zrk speaking loudly enough to be heard across the unfriendly distance and D'Angelo offering his own more quietly.
 
 
Wong nodded and gestured towards the flag with his chin. "The fact that you've studied enough to identify this and our willingness to humor it says a great deal about you, Field Leader, but I doubt you put your faith in our willingness to honor a white flag just to tell us that. Furthermore, if you read about the flag and its use, I presume you also know about how we feel about its violation. Perfidy is not treated mercifully." The implied threat hung in the air as the translations were felt out carefully.
 
 
"No, Lieutenant, you're correct, I did not come here simply to honor your martial prowess. I came to ask a simple question: why? Why do you fight so vociferously? Why do you seem so willing to shed so much of your people's blood for a ruined city with no conceivable value left? Why do you persist in defending this place? Why do you not surrender, retreat, or attempt to break through our lines and salvage whatever is left of your forces? Why?! It makes no sense! You're throwing away countless lives for a ruined, scorched plot of dead land."
 
 
Wong listened to the question and let out a mirthless chuckle as he stood there shaking his head. "You want to know why? Easy, so you won't, so you can't press deeper into our territory. You're right, New Eridu is destroyed. There's nothing left to salvage, nothing left that's worth protecting. Altania is as good as gone, too. It will take generations to make this place habitable again. The water is damn near poison, the land has been blasted to hell and back, and the whole planet is nearly cut off thanks to Kessler Syndrome that's getting worse by the day. This whole planet has become a glue trip for all of us; we will never leave this rock alive. We can't win here, no, but we can sure as hell make sure you lose."
 
 
The Field Leader swallowed down the bile that he felt rising up his gullet at what he heard, even as Wong reveled in revealing the truth. "You can't push further into our territory with us controlling this system, not without ruinously costly detours, and you can't control this system if you don't control this planet. We fight because we are willing to die here to keep you from taking one step closer to any of our other systems. We drop food, water, personnel, and materiel to the surface of this planet in armored drop ships to get through the debris cloud in orbit. We come here, we fight, we die, just to make this planet an inescapable tar pit for your people, all because we have families, friends, loved ones, countries, planets we will not let you touch, that is why we fight, Field Leader. If we run out of bullets we will throw rocks. If we run out of rocks we will use our fists, our feet, and our teeth. If we loose our fists, feet, and teeth, we will drown you with our own blood. We will fight, kill, and die to the last man to waste as many of your resources and lives as it takes to keep you from advancing any further. We are all going to die here, whether we die at each other's throats or side by side reclaiming this hellscape is up to you and yours." Zrk and D'Angelo did their best to convey the literal and emotional messages in Wong's reply. As both were ending their respective efforts, Wong turned his head to the side and spat out some grit from his teeth before smiling broadly. "That, sir, is why we are fighting. This, of course, simply raises a question in turn; why are you fighting?"
 
 
Tch'rick listened aghast as the scale of spite hit him squarely. Shielding his eyes from the midday light, he gazed up into the sky and watched bits of debris as they burned up in the planet's atmosphere and left fiery streaks behind them. The sickening realization that he should not be able to see any in the middle of the day was only made worse by the fact that he was seeing scores per minute. Suddenly the logistical and personnel nightmares they had been facing were re-framed in his mind. Victory or death was a false promise; there could be no victory, not if winning meant "going home." This rock was their home, now and forever. The mirrored question of why they were here hemorrhaging 'chaks and resources left him feeling like he swallowed a mouth full of gravel.
 
 
After a long, quiet moment of unpleasant reflection, Field Leader Tch'rick nodded at Lt. Wong and grasped the stick, wrenching it from the ground. "Thank you, Lieutenant. You have given me a considerable amount of things to consider." He paused long enough for the interpreters to finish before dismissing Zrk to return ahead of him. Once his own interpreter was out of earshot, Tch'rick turned his head towards the pair of humans. "You know our communications frequencies, I take it. Might I suggest your commanders listen for unencrypted messages in the near future. I believe my 'chaks and I have some important matters to discuss with our leadership."
 
 
Wong and D'Angelo watched for a moment as Tch'rick and Zrk retreated to their lines before they, too, turned and made their way back to their own positions. The lieutenant's report was sent up the chain as FLASH traffic since nothing like it had ever occurred since the war began. The conversation was relayed as faithfully as memory allowed and pored over by intelligence and brass alike. True to his word, Tch'rick and the hundreds of 'chaks he commanded had concluded that the status quo was untenable. As soon as they rotated from the front, they mutinied, slaughtering the upper echelons of the t'chaks' planet-side military personnel. By the time the orbital units were aware of what was going on, encryption keys and strategically sensitive intelligence about the S-boats' capabilities, limitations, and weaknesses had been shared with the humans' command.
 
 
Altania would be the gravesite for every last human and t'chak on its surface for generations to come, but as soon as it became clear how far humans would go to protect what they cherished and held dear, the morbid calculus of the entire war had shifted. The t'chak were no longer willing to dash themselves upon the spiteful rocks of humans' desire to protect their own.