"What's going on? What's going on?!"
"Are these alien bastards out of their minds?!"
On the M'tok homeworld, Perkin Asland stood inside a pyramid-shaped palace, cursing furiously.
"Asland, don't panic. Our immediate concern is how to respond to the Nier Guardians' declaration of war."
The chairman of the M'tok Union sat upright on a throne built from gemstones, looking every bit like a gigantic stone statue.
"Hmph, these three nations have joined forces against our great Federation! We will never back down!"
"Shut up, Perkin Asland! It's your radical policies that brought them together!" Director Carls Charius snapped angrily from the side.
Charius was a molluscoid whose appearance rather challenged conventional aesthetics. He looked like an enormous, somewhat irregularly shaped chocolate cake.
"Perkin Asland, I've told you before: the days when we could bleed others dry at will are over. Our diplomatic situation has deteriorated significantly, and this is proof."
"Carls Charius! We M'tok built our fortunes on crime and smuggling. If I abandon our traditional industries, wouldn't that leave your Megacorporate Faction with all the power? What are you really after?" Perkin Asland shot back.
"You..." Seeing the argument suddenly turned into a power struggle made Director Charius even angrier.
The country was about to fall, and they were still fighting among themselves!
Another director from the Criminal Enterprise Faction stepped forward. It was a humanoid alien with a hideously oversized head and a thin body.
"Our Federation has mountains of gold and silver we could never spend, and more military fleets than anyone could ever destroy!"
Its voice was shrill and unpleasant to hear, though at least it was slightly better than the grinding noises the Stone People made.
"Whoever dares tamper with our ancestors' rules will lose their HEAD↑↓!"
Were your ancestors Stone People, then?
Director Charius