The Humans were in meeting with the Galactic assembly again. It was the seventh peace talk that they had had in the last few months. This time an entire human envoy had come from Earth to participate. The chairman of the UN had been joined by at least seven other representatives, and the resulting military forces. To say that the planet was on edge would have been a massive understatement. The night was falling and the blue and red moons shared the sky above with their green moon having sunk below the horizon. Human troops and alien troops stood across from each other in front of the conference chambers staring each other down with nervous fidgeting.

Some of the humans seemed rather relaxed under the alien sky, but the newer humans glanced around in worry and awe. The alien troops, standing across from them, looked on in worry at the strange predatory creatures, lines in lines of them in perfect geometric rows, moving only occasionally to take a deep breath and a drink of water. The alien soldiers watched in horror as the poisonous dihydrogen monoxide dripped down their chins and onto their skin. New medical information having been posted to the soldiers told them that the humans were an upwards of 60+% water, required it to live, and even shed it when they were hot for a cooling affect.

It would be dangerous for certain species to touch them, it would be even more dangerous for certain species to be around them when they breathed. Moisture came out in their breath, collected on their skin, and moistened their mouths noses and eyes. It was everywhere, and everyone knew it. Their officers were trying to keep them appraised of the situation. The humans couldn't help their poison breath or their poison skin..... But that didn't mean they weren't scary. Scary humans with their front facing eyes and their sharp pointed teeth and their sharp nails, and heir predatory instincts.

The way their eyes darted around tracking movement, it was just.... Unnatural

The hours pressed on like that, with the humans on one side and the other soldiers on the other sitting and staring at each other in tense silence, than boredom... great amounts of boredom.

Humans grew restless easily.

And then one of the humans piped up.

"Hey, anyone want to play a game." The aliens were aware of this human by now. He was lightly pigmented in color with a light yellow hair and green eyes. This human was particularly friendly to aliens, though no one was really sure what to make of it. Some of the species thought it was oddly charming, and others were very paranoid, maybe it was another tactic to get close to them, make them feel at ease before he struck.

At the mention of a game, even the most gruff of the humans raised their grey heads in response. The younger, light human almost skipped into the space between the two groups. The older humans watched in amusement eyes rolling occasionally at the younger humans odd antics. Like they were watching a young animal bounce around.

"What kind of game?" One of the older humans asked.

The young human shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, tag, sharks and guppies, red rover, anything to stretch my legs, I'm dying."

One of the humans sorted, "Come on LT, what are you, Five."

"I would rather be five and occupied than twenty and bored out of my mind. So you can sit there like a fat lump of dirt, or you can come and we can play a game."

The human glanced over at the aliens and grinned, "You can play if you want.... I don't know if you guys get bored, but.... Still."

The aliens glanced at each other, not really sure what to do. The meaning of the word.... Play was a bit alien to them, just like the humans. The idea of boredom was also rather abstract. Some of the aliens understood the meaning better than others, but all of them declined for the moment ok with watching the humans at first.

The younger human took a little longer trying to convince the other humans to play. Many of them were much older, some of them with silver in their hair. Odd that, how humans turns silver when they grow old.

But one by one, all of them, older and younger caved in to the young human some with shakes of their head, but most with growing enthusiasm. They lined up their bags in neat rows just outside the square and then huddled together arguing about which game they should play.

Arguably a simple game of tag seemed good enough for the group of them, the older group argued that since the younger one came up with the insane idea in the first place that he should be the one to start out. All the aliens looked on in confusion as the younger human stood at the center of the field. He looked up at the sky and began to count backwards from ten.

The other humans moved from their original positions and began circling around the open space. The alien ranks turned to watch some of the humans who conveniently moved to stand behind them as if hiding.

Finally, the young human raised his head, and the entire group of aliens stepped back in unison. The pupils had widened considerably, his body hunched low hands out knees slightly bent. Those same wide and primed eyes searched around the clearing locking onto the nearest other human, and then.... Suddenly, charged.

The aliens scattered back towards the perimeter of the yard as the human charged towards one of his companions, on the instant and without warning. The human being chased reacted almost immediately, supernaturally fast ducking out of the way as the young human spilled onto the ground. But he was up as soon as he was down pursuing like with his predatory gate.

They faced against each other shoulders hunched chins down knees bent dodging back and forth, pouncing and racing until, the young human leaped into the air, and slammed into another's back throwing both of them to the ground in a chorus of Oooos by the other humans. The young human rolled onto his back panting. The other human gave him an eye and lunged.

"NO TAG BACKS." The younger human yelled leaving the older human with a grudging frown crouching over him.

Then he turned to the crowd, and then the aliens screamed as the human charged towards them. They tried to run, and only the Rundi were able to make it, but even then the human ignored them skidding through their ranks weaving and ducking with lightning reflexes that should have had him skidding into a wall.

Another human ducked out of the way, but a quick strike form the human caught her a glancing brush just across the back. They continued like that for some time growing more aggressive as they went, their hunting instincts too much to fight down, and they hunted each other with vigor, a single predator among an agile prey. The unspoken rules seemed to indicate that harassing someone not of their species was against the rules, but that didn't stop the humans using the Rudi soldiers like shields putting them between the hunter and the hunted running in circles around the confused and scared creature to avoid being tagged by the other human.

Rundi soldiers and their other nonhuman counterparts pressed themselves up against the walls and perimeter of the square as the humans continued with their antics, charging, tackling, and chasing each other.

An older human raced after his younger green-eyed counterpart. The young one was faster, but the older human was wily chasing him straight towards the Assembly Chamber doors in order to trap him. They had almost reached the stairway when the doors were thrown open. In surprise, the young human lost his footing and went careening right into the steps. There was an audible crack, and the entire square went dead silent.

The Galactic Assembly chairman stood at the head of a column of delegates frozen in the doorway next to the UN representative and Admiral for the UNSC deep space division. The other humans quickly charged backwards forming up into their ranks, standing as still as possible.

The older human had crouched down to help the younger human, who was rubbing his head in pain.

The chairwoman of the Galactic Assembly took an uncertain step back staring out at her confused and terrified soldiers pressed up against the perimeter of the square.

The UN chairwoman didn't seem to know what to make of the scene either, so the Admiral took over stepping down the steps with his eyes on the older human, "Sargent!" He barked raising his voice to levels only humans were capable of. His powerful voice sent tremors through the air. The GA soldiers stepped back heads down. At the bottom of the stairs, the older human looked up from where he was examining the younger human, "Yes, Sir?"

"What in the HELL are you doing!"

The Sargent, still having a hand on the younger man's shoulder responded, "Playing tag, Sir."

The Admiral seemed taken aback by the answer, "Aren't you supposed to be protecting the assembly chambers."

"With all due respect, Sir." He motioned towards the perimeter of the square, "Our presence here seems to be doing a good job against nonhuman invaders if, indeed there are any."

A set of steel-grey eyes swept over the square taking note of cowering nonhuman soldiers, "And which one of you yahoos started this mess?"

There was a long silence before the young man at the front raised his hand, "It was me.... Sir."

The admiral looked down his nose at the young man who had a hand against his head. He wobbled to his feet with the help of the older man.

"I know you...... Lieutenant Vir, isn't it. The first contact kid."

"Yes, Sir."

"Do you want to explain to me why my men are playing tag instead of fulfilling their duty like they should be?"

Lieutenant Vir lifted his head though his eyes remained lowered guiltily to the floor, "It was my fault sir, I was bored, and I coerced the others into it."

Over their heads, the red moon was beginning to sink towards the horizon, as the Admiral was shaking his head, "Lieutenant how old are you?"

"Twenty, Sir."

The admiral sighed, "I suppose this is what we get for hiring children. Back to your ranks men."

"Wait." The voice broke quietly over the square, and to the surprise of the humans, the assembly woman stepped forward on her long, skinny legs, and dark robes. Her rather insectoid face looked unblinking at the group of them as she did so. Despite that, she had an air of command about her. Both the Sargent and the Lieutenant saluted her quickly. She turned to look at the admiral, "I think we deserve to understand the antics of your troops. From what I see, my soldiers appear threatened." She turned her insectoid head back to the Lieutenant, "I would like to be assured that is not the case."

The two humans were shaking their heads vigorously, and she jabbed a hand at the younger of the two, "You, the instigator, explain yourself."

The lieutenant stammered for a moment before, "Of course madam charwoman .... I.... well what do you want me to explain, we were just playing a game."

"My race is not familiar with this terminology."

"Oh...." He rubbed the back of his head, "that's kind of sad.... Um. So I Guess, you play a game, and a game is an activity with a specific set of rules that everyone who plays has to follow. We were playing Tag, and the rules of tag are there is one person who is "it" and their job is to touch someone, anyone to make that other person "it". If you get touched by the "it" person than you are "it" and you have to pass it on to someone else, but you can't tag the person who just tagged you....."

The chairwoman eyed the young human skeptically as the last light of their red moon dipped before the horizon. The nonhuman troops were only now beginning to filter back to their position, "And what is the point of this?"

The young human floundered around for a moment mouth opening and closing with uncertainty, but the chairwoman waited until finally, "Well, ma'am humans need a couple of things that game playing fulfils. The first is stimulation, humans don't like to be doing nothing, we weren't built for that. We always have to have something for our brain to do, or all of our energy is translated into restlessness which makes us want to do something. Furthermore play results in social bonding with other members of our species. Children generally tend to use it to make friends and foster group cohesion. Adults tend to play differently than children, but the idea is the same..... Social cohesion. It helps us to get along."

"And why are my troops cowering in fear?"

The young man shrugged, "Can't say I know ma'am.... I suppose some evolutionary scientists theorize that games like that are a way for young humans to practice predatory hunting behaviors, but..... well we don't hunt like that anymore and haven't for millions of years...... so..... it doesn't really apply."

The galactic assembly would remain unconvinced of this last assumption. Weather humans were willing to recognize it or not, they are predators, and they will never be able to shake their predatory nature. Humans love chasing things, tracking things with their eyes, and attempting to dominate each other. Take a look at human behavior the next time you see one, everything they do is shaped by their predatory nature, and the entire galaxy fears what it could mean.