(Sorry for resurrecting a 5-year-old post, but this seems to be the only thread that actually talks about this particular topic, so I kind of want to share my thoughts here.)
Interesting responses! The responses I read here seem for the most part to a on the assumption that
a) A third alien race is behind this and
b) Wanted to prevent Humanity from making contact in order to further exploit the Loroi-Umiak War in some way.
But this got me thinking. There were already many other races that seemingly had either successfully joined either the Loroi Union or the Umiak Hierarchy in some capacity or another, or were wiped out or driven from their homes for their refusal to do exactly that; Humanity were themselves latecomers to the ongoing war for the most part and were quite aware that they were already well behind the curve when the Scout Corps started to look for an appropriate decision. Furthermore, given Humanity's immensely small industrial and military strength (compared to the two sides), Humanity would be a big help, but it's highly unlikely that Humanity alone would be the one determinant that would completely turn the tide and lead either the Loroi or Umiak to victory, regardless of what they could offer the Loroi (aside, IMO, from the ability to open a second or even third front against the Umiak from any direction while their industrial home bases lay a comfortably safe distance away from the main frontlines --- hey, fighting on two fronts was what eventually caused Germany to fail in
both World Wars!).
So (discounting that we simply might not have had heard of any other such incidents off-screen as yet) my question is this:
Then why would Humanity alone be singled out such that they and they *alone* had to be prevented from joining the Loroi-Umiak War at all costs, while almost every other race is allowed to either take their sides or be wiped out/driven away without consequence?
This is where I'd like to present an alternate (albeit admittedly probably dead wrong) theory in this regard. If the intent of attacking the
Bellarmine was to prevent Humanity from making contact with either the Loroi or Umiak and joining either side, only one race would have anything to really gain from that, and since (while we know a lot about the TCA's military and industrial layout from side material already) we don't really know anything as yet about their overall
political situation, we also don't know what the general consensus back on Earth would be or what the divide is among which side to join or whether or not to actually join the war in the first place. Furthermore, the Terran Capship specs list the
Victory-class Battlecruiser as having Mjolnir Particle Beams, but are they public knowledge among the TCA's own military? (Mjolnir Particle Beams might fit the MO as well if the Scout Corps doesn't know anything about their existence or never saw one being fired that they can be mistaken for Plasma Spikes, as the attackers who shot the
Bellarmine had to do so
up close,
and the Mjolnir Particle Beam had the least range out of all other Particle Beam weapons in existence.)
So what if the attackers that lay waste to the
Bellarmine (and likely the other Scout Ships in a similar vein)
were actually other Humans, either using a prototype ship equipped with the Mjolnir Beam or unknown alien technology that they had acquired (or bought from the Historians?) on their own? Depending on the TCA's unknown true political situation and the identity of these Human attackers, the motives behind the attack could be anything, really, but other radical Humans would still have more of a reason to prevent Humanity from just being another insignificant side in the ongoing conflict. Perhaps in these attackers' point of view, they're truly
protecting Mankind by preventing alien contact (as joining the Loroi or Umiak who were in every way superior to Earth would nonetheless be selling out Humanity's freedom for their survival)? Or perhaps this is a radical faction (a self-styled political or cultural elite) that has delusions that Humanity can stand on its own as a third superpower given time and isolation, becoming a new Space Roman Empire that can eventually fight and even conquer the Loroi and Umiak under their elite leadership? Who knows?