Krauk and the others boarded a typical mammalian corvette. The fleet it belonged to had two large corvettes, one in a mammalian style and the other in a Rock Creature style.
Several smaller vessels accompanied them, likewise a mix of ships in various styles. This made the fleet look like a bizarre mishmash, hardly the regular military of a civilization.
It looked more like a private mercenary force.
Krauk could not help entertaining a host of suspicions, but he quickly buried them. Surrounded by a crowd of aliens, he silently boarded the ship and headed toward the bridge.
The ship was full of bizarre-looking alien species, which made Krauk sick to his stomach.
Although they were within the M'tok Union's territory, the aliens aboard this ship were not all Stone People. Instead, it teemed with other species.
There were humanoids of every skin color, soft-bodied creatures, reptilian creatures, and even insectoids.
As Krauk and the others passed, these aliens turned their visual organs toward them. Krauk could even make out the emotions in their eyes.
Body language, a primitive yet effective means of communication, actually worked across the universe, applying to exchanges between the vast majority of organic species.
The aliens crowded around Krauk and his party of pureblood humans, escorting them to the center of the corvette's spacious bridge.
An enormous alien was waiting there.
It was a gigantic insect, ten meters tall, with eight thick legs like a spider's. Hard alloy armor covered its entire body. It wore no spacesuit, having only wrapped the respiratory organs on its abdomen in a special material.
Judging its status by where it stood, Krauk immediately realized that this insectoid was one of the fleet's senior figures with real authority.
Gurgle, gurgle... hiss, hiss!
The insectoid let out a string of ugly