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Somewhere within the Andoen vault, a few pods remain unopened. These duds contain worms, or nothing at all, but one is a curiosity. The pod is stuck in stasis, not opening with the others, with a very fat worm inside. Your medical scanners indicate the inside of this worm is filled with biological matter, as though it had just finished a great meal, but the exact origin of it is unknown.
<span class="mu-g">”That could be a Andoen alien! Secure that pod, don't let it be opened up or sabotaged. We need to preserve it.”</span>
The mashed up, half-digested fossilized slurry may be disgusting and pathetic, but it may be the last remnants of the ancient precursor aliens that once lived on this planet. Of course, even so, getting any useful genetic data out of it remains a dream. The Andoen aliens left many ruins, traces, and fossil remains; but no DNA. You only know scant little about them as beings; other then their large size and triocular vision, so this pod may prove useful in the future. Though even with your advanced technology and AI, being able to perfectly separate the digested bits with the worm predator would be too difficult and require too much guesswork, even to create a clone. It will have to be saved for later.
Meanwhile, in open space, you begin the process of getting back at the worms the one way you know how; disrupting some of their natural habitats. The worms are a parasitical species, living in the bellies of gigantic space whales, which is likely their evolutionary path of developing <span class="mu-i">Starsight</span> to jump into new hosts, and many still seem to naturally live inside these majestic animals. While your reach is only a portion of the wider galaxy; at the very least all of the space whales who pass thru the Hegemony's original star cluster and the newly acquired Hazaar cluster, will be rid of the worms. Using ship-sized weapons to perform surgery and UV radiation from nearby stars to fry the worms out hiding within, the whales give off a grand rumbling sound, emitting all sorts of Hyperspace signals, which almost seem to give off the feeling of thankfulness.
The worms are furious. Ships who attempt this are attacked by transporting juvenile worms, teleporting into cargo holds in an attempt to eat their crews, but you are prepared for this. As for now, the worms can't do anything about it.
Among your civilians; a shift occurs. With treating the Space Whales with kindness, comes a great sense of humility and wonder in living in a wider universe. The Vetuckers, seeing themselves in the gentle giants, feel more appreciated by the Hegemony. Not to mention that crews sent to clean up the whales often need Vetuckers for security and labor, and they claim to feel like they're “really helping” the whales. It quickly becomes considered a great honor among the Vetuck to be selected to join with the “whalers”. They gain a small amount of social weight in the Hegemony.
>Jaxtian 75%
>Vetucker 20%
>Swall 5%