If you're wondering, Ferrum is literally the Latin name for Iron. Though it's not a bad name for an alien species either!

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"What do you MEAN they've literally got iron in their veins!?"

“Yeah the Ferrum literally have melted iron in their veins... hence why we call them Ferrum” explains Smithsky, another soldier in the Tactical Task Unit.

Mule couldn't believe his ears. It was bad enough they were being deployed to the outskirts of The Milky Way on a classified mission without being briefed properly, now the enemy have fuelled by melted iron? The job was getting more ridiculous every passing second.

“That's right kiddies” confirmed Captain Vontec “You don't want to be in the splash zone when those things start bleeding, it will burn through your body armour and bones”.

While Mule knew the Ferrum were best to be avoided, he just assumed it was down to their bad tempers. Plus their size, intelligence, unwillingness to attempt communication, strength... there's a lot of reasons to avoid them. Usually, humans did and there were no problems.

The Ferrum seemed to hate humans being anywhere near their solar systems so there was a tentative peace as long as humans kept their distance. Ferrum have never spoken with humans except to tell them to leave and chase them away. Speaking to us in perfect English during those times but always swapping back to their own strange clicking afterwards. After multiple missions into their territory and even killing some of them, the Ferrum just chased humans away and didn't bother to pursue us outside of their systems. Most humans hated the idea of bothering them.

Naturally, some big time company thought it was a good idea to mine an asterroid that goes through Ferrum space. And now that mining station hasn't been heard from for over two weeks since it entered a distant Ferrum system on the fringe of their space.

Rumours about a mission to retrieve the crew have been circulating for some time. Missions into Ferrum space are highly classified to ensure the public never hears about them. Considering their squad hadn't even been briefed properly yet, Mule and the rest of the squad assumed that's where they were heading.

As long as you don't bother the Ferrum, they don't bother you. Hopefully, the Ferrum just give back the crew from the mining station and claim the station as their own in compensation.