The Cleronids were actually the first extraterrestrials we made contact with. In 2045, they returned some radio messages that originated from Earth and added their own responses. Of course, they didn't know what we were saying, and the feeling was mutual. It took several exchanges over a period of about 10 years before we had any mutual intelligibility. They didn't tell us there were other alien species out there we could have been talking with. We were still under a no-contact policy by the Oolians, we later found out. The Cleronids just refused to abide by it, which is a good example of how they operate in general. They don't follow rules they don't agree with, but by and large they are good folks.
Physically, they're humanoids with pale gray skin and stand about three feet tall. They don't look all that much like the "grays" of UFO lore, and they insist they never made contact with humans before 2045, but there are plenty of conspiracy theories that they'd meddled in human affairs for centuries. The Oolians, for their part, insist nothing like that would have been tolerated. I'm not sure I believe that. Our benevolent partners haven't always been completely straight with us, at least not on occasions when it would make them look inept. On the other hand, I have no reason to believe Cleronids in particular would have engaged in animal mutilation, human abduction for nefarious purposes, or the like. Just doesn't seem like them.
Right, but I was talking about their physique. They're short and squishy, and for that reason they put a lot of effort into armor. The cover their bodies in various pieces of metal plate and even style themselves as fearsome warriors. About the only thing they leave uncovered is the head, as they have pronounced foreheads and wispy white hairs on top of it. Supposedly, the head is very bony and well-protected, and their big eyes are kind of scary to have glaring at you, so I suppose they didn't want to do anything to detract from that.
I mentioned the warrior thing and they really do have a thing for blades. Curved, straight, spiral. They've probably invented a hundred types of blades humans never thought of. They're mostly for ritual purposes, I'm told, but sometimes they use them on each other. It's apparently taboo to use them against aliens, as they consider it unsporting. They also have handheld particle weapons which, for whatever reason, are not "unsporting" to use in warfare even though they will handily vaporize you. Go figure.
Our early days of contact consisted of innocuous cultural exchange and learning each other's languages. Or I should say, we had to learn a lingua franca. We gave them English and Chinese which covered most of the population; they gave us the tongue spoken by their most numerous ethnicity. Humans can sort of speak it. Our mouths and tongues are vaguely similar. Their voices are a bit higher pitched than human voices tend to be, though, so they struggle to understand us, at times. Overall, we've found automated translation devices to make things go a lot more smoothly, even if they make the whole interaction more impersonal.
In the late 2060s, while Earth was still recovering from the War, the Cleronids were having some problems of their own. They were never a major power. They sat on the border between the Salmaxians and the Koraxians, controlling their home system but not much else. Evidently, they ran afoul of the Koraxians, who decided they needed to be taught a lesson. The Koraxians put together fifty or so ships, encircled the Cleronid homeworld, and inflicted a Derris Cascade on it. Destabilized the core and provoked a rapid disintegration of the planet itself. Maybe 10,000 Cleronids were offworld at the time, and that constituted the remainder of their species.
So, uh, the Koraxians fucking suck. That's a consistent theme I'm getting.
There are even worse things about them I haven't told you yet, that's the fucked up part! Alright, so the Cleronids were without a homeworld. The Koraxians didn't deem it necessary to hunt down all the survivors, and Salmaxians were kind enough to grant them safe passage, but in no way did they want refugees settling in their domain. This was their experience across the next few empires they encountered, and they ultimately entered Terran space. The logical conclusion would be that they settled somewhere in our space, right? But multiple things worked against them. First, the Oolians were still salty that they'd contacted Earth without approval all those years ago. Second, Earth was still early enough into reconstruction that we didn't feel we could shoulder the burden of alien refugees, even if there were only 10,000 of them. Third, the Cleronids just didn't want human charity. They liked the idea that they were a little better than us, that we'd have to look up to them. They were embarrassed--ashamed, even--at the thought of having to depend on humans for their survival.
So, they kept moving on. I'm not sure exactly where they wound up. They shed the odd handful of their numbers as they traveled as some individuals wanted to make a go of things on their own. They were pretty hardy and could survive in most nitrogen-oxygen atmospheres with gravity a bit higher than Earth's, or less. But as for the bulk of their number, who knows? They passed into Oolian space at one point. It's doubtful the Oolians would have settled them somewhere, or if they did, they made a point of not telling anybody. It's all a shame, really. They weren't a people who went around conquering anyone. They only became enemies of the Koraxians due to proximity. If you're near those guys, you're just a target, period.
What were they actually like, though? I don't have a sense for what these people were about.
That's like asking, "What are humans like?" Most of the ones we encountered and interacted with were of the outgoing, aggressive variety. They wanted to drink and fight but they were also eager to make friends. I think they felt intimidated by us because we were so much taller than them, but they absolutely never wanted to admit that, so they put on a gruff exterior instead. But I heard Cleronids sing in unison. In their view you need ten voices to have a good harmony. They could pitch their voices into registers not possible for any human. They loved to have an audience.
Their homeworld was full of people who didn't necessarily care much about going out into space. From the cultural exchanges we did, they had their own sculptors, painters, musicians, scientists. They really prided themselves on their blacksmiths and armorers. Those were obviously old technologies but they were of great cultural significance to their people, so they kept the traditions alive.
They often lived in cities but not huge cities. They definitely preferred open areas and you could tell this by their ships, the interiors of which were excessively large and no doubt expensive in terms of how many people they could carry. They had lots of farmers and brewers. Their people had outgrown internal violence with the exception of highly ritual conflict. Supposedly, they hadn't had a need for prisons in about a thousand years. If you simply could not fit into Cleronid society, you could retreat to the wilderness, or join with others and take a ship and try your luck out among the stars. Every once in a while you'd hear of a ship of Cleronid bandits, but they weren't really out to rob anyone. They'd just want to board your ship, make a big show of how they bested you, ask to sample the best food and drink you have aboard--then complain about how lousy it is compared to theirs--sing and dance for a few hours, then leave. A lot of human ship captains find the whole thing amusing enough that they usually send along some extra supplies.
They sound like sweet but rowdy people.
Yeah, a lot of them were like that, at least. They weren't the types to hold grudges, either. They couldn't really understand anyone who did. Like, the way the Oolians scolded them for contacting Earth was incomprehensible to the Cleronid mindset. We were there. We were interested in talking with aliens. Why not talk to us? It's not like they were teaching us how to make deadlier weapons, either. I know I mentioned they developed particle weapons but all I ever heard them used for was self-defense. Didn't do much good against the Koraxians, obviously. I don't know. Of all the species humans encountered out among the stars, they were the most like us, and now they're almost all gone. Well, in 100 years they will be, I mean.
Are you crying??
No, my eye is just itching a little.
Nah, you're crying for your little alien buddies.
No lie, a Cleronid captain I ran into once picked a fight on my ship's lounge and I had to pull him off of one of my officers--who was winning, mind you. I finished putting him in his place and he had such a good laugh over it he gave me his chest plate. I kept that hung in my quarters after that. Wish I still had it, sometimes. It's weird to think about how their species was almost completely wiped out while I was still a little kid. I would have loved to spend time among them when they were at the height of their civilization. Everything I've heard tells me they're a great bunch, always the life of the party, and only rude if you struggle to understand their sense of decorum and how they make friends. If a Cleronid punches you in the face, he's saying he likes you enough to get mad at you.
Sounds kinda toxic to me, to be honest.
It would be toxic for a human, no doubt about that. I still miss them, though.