The fumigation: 5 minute freewrite

Photo Source
Captain Thane wondered how the denizens of this planet had known what was coming. By the local system's standard, it had only been seven solar orbits, five moon cycles, and five rotations since they had pulled into orbit. Almost instantly they were bombarded with signals from the primitive world.

First radio antennae blared crude attempts at easily translated data, diplomatic emissarys then approached survey units, who had been sent to the surface to preserve the DNA of resident life forms for further study. Little did they know that their fate had already been decided upon before their ships had even arrived.

It had taken them a while to engage in violence, the first conflict being almost a full solar cycle after arrival. A survey team had been destroyed while entering a large colony of the local life forms, resulting in complete destruction of the local populace, as per the empire's procedure. They had not been expecting what came next, an enormous amount of weaponized fission reactors had been launched at the armada, destroying over half of the fleet. The only reasonable explanation having been that the locals had predicted what was coming and attempted a preemptive strike, any other reason would be illogical due to the fact that the use of all of the reactors within the planets atmosphere would result in a similar end result to fumigation.

It was a shame that they had not been able to preserve the DNA of all of the local life forms, but they could not risk further vessels to the warlike species, regardless of how valiant their struggle. Captain Thane pressed the button to begin the fumigation.