An entire fleet of Chiss warships dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Reo system, where it ended up facing the most habitable planet orbiting the lone star in the distance. Of course, given that the planet was a mottled dust ball not too dissimilar to a world like Tatooine, one would think that it was as dead and barren as the rest of the planets in the Reo system. Really, the only difference between this and the other worlds was that somehow, in spite of a lack of suitable resources, the Killik hive of the Thuruht still managed to survive here.
A shuttle dropped out of the hangar bay of one of the leading warships and rocketed down for the planet. Several minutes later, the shuttle landed outside the grounds of the Celestial Palace and its boarding ramp folded out to the ground in order to allow the aging Chiss Ambassador Chaf'orm'bintrano, or Formbi for short, to slowly walk down the ramp with his cane supporting him from falling over. A loyal cabal of guards followed him as they left the vessel with a silver protocol droid ending up as the last one out.
Once Formbi had left the vessel with all of his guards and the droid, they all began a slightly faster walk to the Celestial Palace, which was only fifty meters away. At forty meters, however, the ground before the Chiss party opened up, and a giant, twenty-five meter Killik emerged from the resultant hole to tower over the new arrivals, but it made no subsequent move to attack them. The guards quickly whipped out the charrics from their holsters and aimed them at the giant bug, but Formbi them off.
"Wait!" he barked, turning his head in their direction. "Put your charrics away! We don't need to aggravate another conflict!" He didn't blame the guards for their caution; putting aside for the moment how any non-Killik would revel in horror at such a site as this, the fact remained that the Killiks could still pose a substantial threat to the Chiss Ascendancy as they had so many years before. That, and the fact that they still had to adhere to the Non-Aggression Law that Formbi himself found distasteful but still agreed to follow by.
The guards were hesitant, but they complied with Formbi's demand by holstering their weapons as he looked back to the giant Thuruht representative. "I am Ambassador Formbi of the Chiss Ascendancy," he introduced himself. "We are here to see Raynar Thul. Will you allow us to see him?"
The giant Thuruht rumbled, and the droid translated in its feminine voice, "Raynar Thul is dead. There is only ThurThul."
Formbi groaned in annoyance. "Will you allow us to see ThurThul?"
"What business do you have with the nest of the Thuruht?" the droid translated.
"You know very well what business we have with you," Formbi answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "On behalf of the Ascendancy, I must inform you that we have been very patient with the Killiks for the past six months, ever since you reacquired Raynar Thul as part of your hive mind. You must take us to see ThurThul so we will not spark another conflict between our peoples."
The large Thuruht member rumbled before burrowing itself back into the hole from whence it came. Formbi looked to the droid for a translation as to its departing rumble.
"You may see ThurThul," the droid said.
With that, the Chiss party proceeded around the giant hole and continued for the Celestial Palace. Ten minutes later, they were granted entry at the door by two Killik guards. Upon entering the palace, they were met in the foyer by a smaller member of Thuruht who rumbled briefly, then turned and began walking away. Not needing the droid to translate what it wanted from them, Formbi began following suit, and his guards and the droid wordlessly complied with him.
Five minutes later, the Chiss party entered the throne room of Thuruht, where Raynar Thul, the Jedi Knight who once led the Killik Colony as the badly scarred UnuThul barely a decade before, stood before them in the middle of the room in expectation. Formbi noted how relatively well Thul appeared now since the plastic surgeries he received had repaired what had been damaged when he crash-landed on Yoggoy almost two decades ago.
"To what do the Thuruht owe the pleasure of your company, Ambassador Formbi?" ThurThul asked.
"I believe I stated my case quite clearly with your representative outside this palace," Formbi replied in fluent Basic. "You are quite aware that not half a year ago, the Chiss Ascendancy allowed Jedi Knights Raynar Thul, Lowbacca, Tekli, and their accompanying protocol droid C-3PO to come to this nest and ask for its help. Since that time, with the defeat of Abeloth and the Lost Tribe of the Sith rendering Ray-" Formbi abruptly stopped himself to remember who he was talking to. "-ThurThul's further presence here invalid, the leading Phalanxes on Csilla have grown nervous with the very same Jedi who once ruled over the Killiks now regaining control of even one of its nests."
"We have done nothing to violate the agreement between our civilizations," ThurThul responded.
"Yes, you have," Formbi stated frankly. "Again, you have a Jedi in your hive mind once more, and again, it is the very same Jedi that once led the Colony via the nest of Unu. The Ascendancy has brooked this for six months, as I have mentioned, and we believe that it is time for you to relinquish control of the individual known as ThurThul."
"And why would we want to do that?" ThurThul asked.
Formbi sighed in frustration. "Because it is in violation of the agreement that we signed eight years ago," he answered patiently. "And if you do not adhere to that agreement, the Ascendancy will have no choice but to renew war between our civilizations."
"But within those six months, we have not done anything else to violate the agreement," ThurThul argued. "We have not even expanded anywhere near your boundaries, which was what led you to unfairly open conflict against us at Qoribu."
"You know why we opened up conflict against you at Qoribu," Formbi said. "It was because one of your nests, the Gorog, was feeding off of our people. We had no choice but to act against you."
"We assure you, Ambassador Formbi, that we have no new Dark Nest among us," ThurThul argued. "And even if we did, you still have no real reason to go against us here, and truthfully, we find your reason to be fairly flimsy and paranoid."
"We didn't believe you to be a threat when UnuThul first became part of your collective," Formbi countered.
ThurThul looked curiously at Formbi, apparently missing his point. "And?"
Formbi looked back curiously at the reinstated leader of the Killiks. "Must I remind you that this led to the conflict that inflamed the Swarm War, ThurThul?"
"Again, without a Dark Nest, the Chiss Ascendancy has no real reason to quibble over ThurThul's presence here," he replied.
"We are aware that Jedi Master Cilghal has stated that even without the control of individuals such as Lomi Plo, Welk, or even Alema Rar, there could be a new Dark Nest nevertheless," Formbi said. "And they could once again force the overall Killik collective to pose a threat to the Ascendancy anyway."
"Master Cilghal's assertions are incorrect," ThurThul replied. "The Dark Jedi that you have mentioned were previously individuals, as you have brought up, who corrupted the nest that they were brought into; they were powerful Joiners that made the Gorog into the threat that led to the Swarm War. Aside from ThurThul, there are no other Joiners now."
"That doesn't assure me," Formbi said. "And I doubt it would assure the Phalanxes on Csilla either."
"So you would open up war again even though we have done nothing wrong?" ThurThul asked.
"You violated the agreement by reinstating Raynar Thul into your collective again," Formbi said. "We cannot allow that to pass."
"Well, we certainly do not want another war, but we will not give up ThurThul," ThurThul asserted firmly. "Is there no other way we can resolve this peacefully, Ambassador Formbi?"
Formbi was silent for a moment as he thought. "There is one way," Formbi said. "Would you be so willing as to have the Jedi act as an intermediate party in this matter?"
ThurThul was silent for a while. The air was thick with tension, as ThurThul's next words could very well determine whether or not there would be a new war raging between the Killiks and the Chiss.
He eventually answered with, "We believe that is acceptable."