Bully? Please

[WP] The Zalrex were feared among the galaxy as the cruelest, most violent, and ruthless species. They would bully, slap hit, and sometimes even kill other species. Nobody could stand in their way.. till they arrived on a small blue planet named Earth.

*****

The vessel hissed and shook as it began entry into the planet’s atmosphere. The view from the command bridge was that of the orange glow of heat that is made when a spacecraft dives head first into the atmosphere. While it was quite average for vessels of this size, the command bridge was quite small compared to other vessels Kercetion had served on. However such large vessels were rarely needed on missions like this.

Another routine conquest was ordered by the Zalrexian Council. This time a small primitive world having barely reached the stars and some primitive industry. The usual. Kercetion then sat in his command chair and had one last look at the new species with his tablet. They supposedly called themselves humans but what they actually called themselves was for debate since multiple languages had different names for themselves, often multiple such as a person or people.

That wasn’t important though, what was important was their physiology. And from that, he could find out what it would take to make them bow. He then used his three-fingered hand to scroll to the physiology part of the file. From what he could read, humans were quite excellent at running, a fit specimen being able to run longer than most sapient species in the galaxy. However they seemed to be quite average in strength and their body is fairly weak, protected only by a thin amount of skin.

“A cowardly species. Excellent.” He thought to himself. “This will be quite easy.”

“Sir!” He heard the pilot call out. “We’re about to land!” Kercetion soon noticed the blue skies and green grass has replaced the orange glow. Kercetion nodded at the pilot and soon got up, donned his cape, and headed towards the ramp. Once he had arrived, Kercetion stood right before the ramp as the small spacecraft landed, the landing gear letting out copious amounts of steam.

As the landing ramp lowered, He could see a large crowd huddled around the craft with what seemed to be guards keeping them at bay. “Pitiful.” He thought to himself as he looked at the crowd. Each one of them looked at his craft and him with a mix of wonder and horror like every other species. This would be easy, just a couple of threats and maybe slaps, and they’d get into line just like the rest. When the ramp was completely lowered, he saw three humans standing in front of the ramp.

They were undoubtedly more impeccably dressed than the rest of the humans with slightly nicer fabric. Still primitive by Zalrexian standards, however, they didn’t have something resembling a cape like all other galactic diplomats. Getting on with the show, Kercetion walked down to the base of the ramp to meet with this human diplomat. The human took a step forward and then reached out with his hand, a customary greeting Kercetion assumed.

“Welcome to Earth.” The human said with a smile. “My name is-“

“Kneel.” Kercetion interrupted.

With a somewhat scared and baffled expression, the human asked, “Excuse me?”

“Kneel,” Kercetion said with extra disdain. Hopefully, that would be enough to make the humans bow.

“I’m sorry, uh, we don’t do that here. Now can we tr-“ The human was then interrupted with a slap to the face. “What the hell…” the human said as he recovered.

“Kneel human, or it will happen again. Or better yet, to everyone here.” Kercetion said, certain that all of humanity would bow at this show of horrendous force.

The crowd looked on with confusion and amusement, meanwhile, the two humans flanking the diplomat quickly took out what seemed to be primitive weaponry. Kercetion was taken aback by this reaction, however, his face did not show it. No species was this quick to react to physical violence, especially with weapons. Kercetion did not panic however, it was most likely a scare tactic. No species would be insane enough to immediately resort to killing.

“Sir please,” the human said as he got up. “we do not want to harm you but we will defend ourselves if need be.” Kercetion noticed the human looked somewhat afraid yet he was still standing his ground. What strange behavior.

No matter, just a bit of insulting and threatening, and this conquest will be back on track. “Protect yourself?” Kercetion said as he laughed wholeheartedly. “You surely must be joking? You can’t even take a slap, let alone a punch. Think you could take that human? A punch?” Kercetion said leaning towards the human.

“I wouldn’t try that if I were you buddy.” the human’s facing has charged from a face of fear to a face of confidence. One that would be easily wiped with a couple of punches and kicks.

“We’ll see about that,” Kercetion said. He then went for a punch to the head, hoping to knock out the human and make the rest cower in fear of his brutality. Before he could reach the human, however, he heard something loud.

Bang. He saw a flash come from one of the guards and soon he was writhing on the ground, howling in pain, purple blood exiting through a hole in his recently molted exoskeleton. He soon heard screaming and the sounds of stampeding in the distance. “Had the punch actually worked and this had all been an accident?” Kercetion thought to himself.

He was soon proven wrong with the same human he had been talking to crouching over him. “Alright, clean this up, capture the crew, kill any that resist.” the human said to his guards.

“Kill?” Kercetion thought to himself. “The first sign of resistance, and they resort to killing?” Kercetion’s face of pain soon changed to abject horror as he realized what he had failed to recognize, the terror overwhelming the pain in his abdomen.

The human guards headed in, and soon Kercetion heard screams and loud bangs come from inside his ship. Kercetion soon felt his heart drop as realized what these sounds meant. “Please,” Kercetion begged in pain. “Please don’t do this, spare my crew!”

“Don’t worry buddy, we won’t kill all of them, just the ones that are a bit too…uncooperative.” The human said right to Kercetion’s face.

Kercetion soon began crying for his beloved crew, becoming louder as the gunshots quieted down. The human soon stood up and turned as if he was gonna leave, but before he did, he turned his head towards Kercetion.

“Oh, and by the way, we aren’t done with you yet.” The human said. “You’re gonna tell us as much as we need to know, whether you want to or not.”

The human soon walked away, calling for a medic. Kercetion writhed in pain but his mind could only think about what was about to happen, to his crew, to him, and possibly to the Galaxy.

*****

THE END