Years before The Federation came about to power, with humans still struggling to master space flight, a cold war gripped most of the species in the system. The aggressive, most destructive alliance called themselves Honors Illusion. This alliance, led by the extremely powerful Mantis race, consisted of mostly Mantis, Slug, and Lanius races. This was a extremely effective fighting force. Well led, Well equipped, and highly experienced fleets roamed the border begging for a chance to charge across with weapons firing furiously. It was simple; they wanted a fight and there was only 1 other group that could challenge them, the alliance that formed in response to this outright aggression; the Maydays United Alliance.
While the Maydays United Alliance could be considered the non-aggressors, they indeed played a part in creating this beast by encouraging the weaker races to challenge the Mantis for territory, and sometimes outright taking territory for their own. They were led by the mighty Rockmen, and while being slightly more diplomatic then the Mantis, they were capable as being just as savage. The Engi and Zoltan, forced to play a roll or be outright annihilated, joined up with the Rockmen in hopes that this would balance the power between these two races and prevent galactic wide war.
All that was needed was a simple spark to ignite one of the bloodiest wars the galaxy would ever see.
That fateful day came when a young Mantis captain named KazaaakplethKilik was on the receiving end of a miss-calculation. One of his slug ships under his command picked up a small convoy of Engi and Rockman ships on his sensors on their side of the border. Enraged, and convinced that these ships were here for nothing but spying, he ordered his task force to warp in and crush these invaders. Several of his Mantis ships had been equipped with state of the art weapon pre-igniters. It was a situation that KazaaakplethKilik could see no fault in.
The Manti ships warped in and opened fire without hesitation. Several of the Engi ships broke apart immediately; no ship on the Maday United Alliance even had there shields online. Two Rock Cruisers who were better equipped to survive the initial barrage responded with small arms fire, but that did nothing but bounce off the Manti war ships shields. The slower slug ships then came warping in, finishing off the remaining Engi ships and one of the Rock Cruisers. Secondary explotions ripped though the remaining Rock Cruiser. All ships of the Honors Illusion stopped firing. They had won this fight.
A communications request came from the sinking Rock Cruiser. Confident that this was a beg for mercy, KazaaakplethKilik striated his poise and accepted the request. What came on the monitor shocked him into silence.
A bleeding Rockman with a look of disbelieve met his eyes. A white flag of peace in the background was barely viable in a sea of smoke. KazaaakplethKilik realized he had just destroyed a diplomatic convoy of the Mayday United Alliance. Before the Rockman could say anything KazaaakplethKilik furiously ordered to beam survivors directly to the medbay. "Its too late for that son. You've done it. You've killed us all." The Rockman murmured as a last exploitation ripped his ships to pieces.
With the crew in a daze, they all looked to KazaaakplethKilik for orders. What was he to do? Warp away and pretend he knew nothing? Say the convoy shot first? Before he could do anything another warp signature was registered. It was a pair of Zoltan ships with a small Lanius escort. Several comm calls were placed before KazaaakplethKilik answered. A angry broadcast from Zoltan and Lanius captains.
"What have you done?"