The war is about the Precursor Stone and room to live in and eco and food and people wanting each other's body parts and the fact that we're in the habit of being at war. In descending order of importance.

"What's the Precursor Stone for?"

It's an egg.

"One of yours?"

A species we knew before we were stuck in the rift. Definitely not the locals.

...Models of the Precursor Stone's parent(s).

More than two ottsels, each of which is individually smaller than the Precursor Stone.

"Ottsels," he diagnoses.

Is that what they're calling them these days? How do you do that?

"Magic. Why do you want an ottsel egg?"

Why does it matter to you?

"Trying to end the war, remember?"

That explains why it matters THAT we want the egg.

"It's why it matters why you want it! I'd like to get everybody what they want peacefully and you could get what you want from the egg another way, like if I make you a planet, then that will help a lot."

We are not going to leave an egg of that species in their hands because of our history with its parents. THEY can use a different power source. And I'm not qualified to be making deals with you but I think our leader would agree leave them alone if we got the egg, they left us alone, and we got an entire planet with lots of food and eco and other things we want from a planet.

"I can't make eco in particular, unfortunately."

What else can't you make?

"Vacuum, antimatter, people. - can make eggs."

They confer amongst themselves briefly.

Under what circumstances would you make the eggs of things that can choose whether to cooperate?

"...why the phrasing 'choose whether to cooperate'?"

Imagine I want a rock to be grey. I can tell the rock to be grey but that won't change anything. Imagine I want you to make me a grey rock. I can tell you to do it and that will change something. If you do it and I bite you then you won't do it again. If you do it and I give you something you want then you will do it again. I know that, so I would not bite you if you did something I asked you to do. It is wrong to punish people who help you or reward people who hurt you. But at the very beginning, you aren't paying me back. You have a choice. Unlike a rock. Unlike some animals. So when would you make eggs of things that have that choice?

"...well, I draw the important line somewhere else. I'd make you a chicken egg with fewer assurances than a person egg. I would need to be very confident that you planned to treat a person that hatched from an egg well and that this wouldn't have strategic effects that would concern me."

Species that choose not to cooperate start wars of extermination. I'm not qualified to say for sure but I think we have enough of those and don't need more right now. I think our leader will probably be more worried about convincing you not to make eggs. But why would you care whether we planned to treat the person well?

"I care about people in general and want them treated well and object to creating situations in which I am responsible for that not being the case."

Do you object to the death penalty?