Grayhome wrote:Rosen brings up a good point: how does the Union regard prisoners of war, both Umiak they capture and any Loroi the Umiak capture? Are they seen as dishonored for being taken alive and considered for all intents and purposes casualties of war or are all efforts made to reclaim them? What would their reaction to an Unsheathed being taken prisoner? A notable daughter of a member of one of the higher castes? Or goodness forbid a son?
For the Loroi it's losing a battle that is the shame, and dying does not absolve you of that failure. Duty may sometimes mean sacrificing one's life in battle, but it may sometimes require one to bear the humiliation of capture so that one may live to fight another day. Especially since Loroi telepathy means a very real possibility of eventual liberation or escape. Therefore the Loroi do consider it acceptable (if unappealing) to surrender in some situations, and especially during the pre-starflight era of internal Loroi conflicts, it was not unusual for captives to be taken and traded.
The Umiak are very reluctant to take live Loroi captives, because even an unarmed Loroi can be extremely dangerous, as the Umiak learned to their cost when attempting to pacify the occupied populations of Seren and the other captured Steppes colonies. Loroi are nightmare prisoners: they can communicate with each other in telepathic ways you can't overhear or prevent, and even an unarmed civilian Loroi may be able to use her telepathy offensively. Attempting to capture a Mizol or Teidar is nearly out of the question: there is no way (except keeping her permanently unconscious) to prevent a psionic Loroi from using her powers against her captors. And there is no way (uniforms aside) to be sure that Loroi you are trying to capture is
not a Mizol or Teidar, so the Umiak now generally kill any Loroi they come into contact with as a general rule, regardless of whether they appear to be military or civilian.
Because they know that quarter will not be given, the Loroi do not expect it and assume any fight with the Umiak must be to the death. Moreover, the Loroi have horror stories from liberated Seren of what the Umiak actually did to their prisoners when they had them, so there is little thought of surrender. Loroi would be highly suspicious of an Umiak offer to trade prisoners, expecting that the captured Loroi may have been booby-trapped or otherwise tampered with.
The Umiak also know that quarter will not be given, and in addition Umiak culture places a stigma on hubris: valuing one's own safety above the needs of the state is considered shameful, and so Umiak rarely offer to surrender (or even retreat) in a hopeless situation, preferring to fight to the death. However, the Umiak are pragmatic creatures; if for example you captured an Umiak planet and offered the choice of surrender or death for the entire population, there's a good chance they might submit.
However, in space combat it is very unlikely that any ship would be put in a situation in which surrender could even be considered. And there haven't been any major ground operations in many years.