The End of the Beginning
The success of the Great Counter-Offensive had been total; a victory crushing enough to take the wind out of the Raumen sails. The decision to conduct diplomacy thereafter had been made difficult by that fact. The public was baying for blood, now that it seemed the blood flowing might be from Raumeni wounds. Codexia, proud winners of the most significant battles of the war, hitherto, was now determined to extend the proverbial hand of peace, or the olive branch, if you will. It was not destined to be a simple process. There were a number of further skirmishes, as Codexian vessels attempted to approach known Raumeni concentrations with their missile ports closed; disengaging when attacked, only to return later and probe further.
Continuous offers of a dignified cease fire were broadcast on all frequencies, with no Raumeni response. Laser comms were similarly unsuccessful - it was weeks before the techies finally figured out that the insectoids considered them to be target designators. It was only after a happenstance switch to MASER communication arrays was made that a flicker of a startled response from a Raumen outpost was picked up. Long messages were exchanged of what must have been garbled nonsense to both sides. Eventually, the universal language of mathematics came into use, and a rudimentary understanding was reached. Contact had finally been established! That contact was followed by a wave of initial euphoria. What the Codexian government learned over the next several months, however, proved almost impossible to digest.
The Raumeni turned out to be a deeply individualistic (even hyper-individualistic) and family oriented people. Artisans and merchants with a mean streak, they nonetheless avoided conflict, unless attacked. They may have resembled oversized Codexian insects very closely, but they were not those insects, in fact. The war Codexia had been so desperately waging was considered by the Raumeni Confederacy to be a 'local dispute' between outsiders and two Raumeni clans who had laid a claim to the area. It had never been a strategic war of annihilation for them. Rather, it was a traditionally Raumeni conflict of feints, small-scale confrontations and raids. The insectoids were deeply surprised by the Codexian reaction to the affair. When the Codexian General Staff learned the scale of the Confederacy as a whole (a thousand lightyears of settled territory and almost two dozen densely settled worlds) the implications gave them nightmares.
Almost purely by chance, they had avoided drawing in more than two clans and their closest allies into the war. And now... it was all over. Peace. Peace was finally upon Codexianity. Nearly two years of suffering was at an end. The de-mobilization that followed was slow and ponderous; the economy ruined. The people were both thankful that the war was over, and unhappy at the futility of their sacrifices. Getting back to 'normal' was going to take time. The government now had to prioritize.
Do you... concentrate your resources in the resuscitation of the shattered economy, alleviating the pressures of the war on your people?
OR
Do you... let the economy stitch itself back together naturally, instead prioritizing technological development?
OR
Do you... use this opportunity to strengthen your fleets, maintain a powerful military and to institute laws fortifying the powers of the central government?
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