Reptiliandude: There are many reports from people who have actually encountered my species and described them as wearing large daggers and even swords.

The testimonies of these genuinely astounded and confused people were then promptly marginalized and their reports put in the round file because such statements are incomprehensible to those who’ve bought into the propaganda that is your science fiction.

When the Ael’Kayeen first attacked my world, they possessed technologies that made them invincible to our counter-attacks.

Our technology was just a bit behind yours in some ways and just a little bit more advanced in other ways than your technology is today.

We even had something like your internet, but not quite.

We had large, centrally-based corporate-owned servers that resourced information from libraries and books and then put them all in centrally accessible places which we had to log into with hubs from our homes.

At the time, we didn’t have our own standalone PC equipment like you do.

But hobbyists were building them and making games which looked much like your Pong and vector-based Tempest.

Anyways, not to get off track.

What we discovered is that any metallic projectiles fired at them were instantaneously destroyed.

Nothing could get even close.

As for nuclear weapons, we had none to speak of really, as most of our efforts in that regard were being used for exploring space, for huge construction efforts that required hollowing out rock and finally, for producing inexhaustible power.

We didn’t have a ‘Red Scare’ like you people did or a character like Edward Teller running about encouraging us to create a ‘super’ bomb.

We just didn’t see any reasons to extend weaponizing nuclear fission by promoting the creation of super ‘bombs’ through nuclear fusion.

To do so seemed suicidal and senseless and above all—immoral.

So when they attacked us we were nearly annihilated.

But we put aside conscience and rebounded in a way that changed how we dealt with them and other primate-based species forever.

Ceramic and stone passed easily through their defenses.

So we made daggers out of glass and ceramics.

We made disposable guns that fired ceramic projectiles.

And we discovered that a fungal aid we had used in dealing with a ‘rodent’ problem that had troubled our agriculture industry also had similar effects upon the brains of prisoners we had captured.

We also found a viral means which they had developed to protect meat from bacteria that could be effectively used against them.

All we needed to do was to break through.

Their weapons were genetically encoded but they weren’t counting on us even getting close enough to hack off pieces of them so we could use their own weapons against them.

So to answer your question…

“Putting them to the sword” is both figurative and literal.

All of us carry ‘daggers’ that are non-metallic.

They vary in size, and we do not hesitate to use them.

As for how we deal with executions, that is via decapitation or a thrust directly into the heart.

As for the word ‘Atlantis.’

That was a corruption of a name spoken long ago to Solon by men of the old priesthood.

‘Atlanteans’ were associated with the sea not because they were water bound, but because they had harnessed steam to power great ships.

While it is true that they had their main capital in what is now Indonesia, most of their territories were above water and reached the mainland in those days.

But in Solon’s time the seas had risen a few hundred feet due to the great ice sheets melting.

So Indonesia and the territory around them became ‘islands.’

They had great naval might.

It was their engine technologies that horrified and amazed the people of the lands they were conquering.

“Among their warships they had small vessels that looked the color of copper bracelets that disappeared beneath the waves and then reappeared behind their enemies and ‘set the sea afire.'”

“They had houses made of reeds and bamboo that took to the air and saw all things. These houses possessed great trumpets which sounded to their armies and navies below how to wage war.”

“They could kill from great distances with weapons which let off a thunderous smoke and it is by these things that they broke down many proud walls.”

“They were invincible. That is, until the sons of kings took issue with their cruel deeds, and with those old gods who left their first habitations who walked among them.”

“For those gods demanded sacrifice, and it was not that of beasts but of men whose blood they relished.”

Oh wait…

You haven’t actually discovered this papyrus YET.

Oops…

My bad.