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You decide to deal with the issue of the outbreak of flu on the planet's factories and work camps with a <span class="mu-i">mass survey</span>. Naturally, this will disrupt a lot of activity and slow down your production of AI cores, not to mention the even more amount of people who will get sick from exposure given the workload of cataloging this planet's entire biosphere...
Surprisingly, during this time, you find the <span class="mu-s">Swall</span> to be extremely useful in catching many of the smaller bugs and species on the planets. Jaxtians are arboreal omnivores, Vetuckers are large-bodied herbivores, both prey animals, but the Swall are piscivores- predators. However, you are fairly certain this disease is not exactly natural.
<span class="mu-g">"Light sensitivity so they can't go outside or stare at a screen, joint stiffness so they can't tap buttons, sore throat so they can't give voice commands, and a short enough incubation and symptom phase that shipping in new recruits would be less efficient then simply waiting for recovery? This is obviously a custom made disease. But who sent it, that is the question..."</span>
Eventually, the source of the disease is caught. It's a type of small flying insect that ingeniously releases the virus only when its in the air, as the virus doesn't survive on surfaces. Attracted to large bodied creatures moving around it, it was almost like whoever designed it new all three Hegemony species would be the only targets of the disease. Its genetics seem to confirm its artificiality: this disease was specifically designed to slow down and cause disruptions to your industry on this planet. But how did it get here?
Due to the disruption to your AI core manufacturing, the Esaal have cause for annoyance and complaint.
<span class="mu-r">"Jaxtians! Where are the AI cores you promised!?"</span>
<span class="mu-g">"We hit a snag. We will continue production and make up for the loss as soon as we can."</span>
<span class="mu-r">"You do that! We gave you a whole planet, remember?! The one thing the Esaal cannot stand is someone who breaks their promises! We need those cores to crush the puny Aristocrats!"</span>
<span class="mu-g">"We will hold up our end of the bargain, honorable ones. Don't you worry."</span>
<span class="mu-r">"Alright, funny blue and yellow and green monkies. We'll wait for now. Just don't break out trust. You're the only ones in space that have any honor as warriors, so we want to be your friends... Esaal Admiral, out!"</span>
It just seems unusual. You checked all over the genetics of the insects: clearly a bioweapon, but too sophisticated for the Esaal. Why would they want to poison their allies anyway? You suppose the mystery of who sent this disease to you will remain <span class="mu-s">unsolved</span>. Unfortunate.
