"Starlight criminals You will be destroyed unless You surrender now"
No, too literal.
Oulomb stirred in his chair. About him on the bridge, other Ilithid officers went quietly about their work. The Iron Octopus hummed as it sped along the hyperspace route to the Sechi system.
"Starlight denizens --"
No, no poetry in "denizens" whatsoever.
Admiral Oulomb, the supreme commander of the Ilithid Navy, was engaged in a vital task that must be completed before they arrived in the Sechi system. Among all the officers and crew of the Octopus, only Oulomb could complete this task. Indeed, although other Ilithid were qualified for the task, throughout the Navy Oulomb was widely regarded as the master, the ace, the indispensable expert whose capabilities ensured success.
Oulomb was a poet, and he was composing a poem for the annexation of Starlight Station.
"Beings in Starlight... Awaiting fall of endless night..."
Too many syllables in that line.
Other species were often surprised to discover the Ilithid penchant for poetry. They saw the tentacles around the beaked mouth, they heard stories (anti-Ilithid propaganda, really) about brains forcibly extracted from the heads of living people, and were too quick to judge the Ilithid as foul monsters without soul or beauty. They did not understand the full depths of the Ilithid's unique capability, psychic power.
An ensign brought a status report for the Admiral to review. The test of the newly-installed ghost cloak was successful, and the test subjects had no recollections of the Octopus. Oulomb ordered the subjects prepared for dinner - it was only fitting to include them - and signed off the report.
Psionics require a disciplined, well-ordered mind. To tap into the hidden powers of the mind, one needs focus and precision, concentrating on just the right thought in the right way. After all, the natural state of the mind is not to take direct action in the physical world through its own power, because that requires effort; much easier to simply move the body housing the mind, or create tools that that body can use, as the other intelligent species do.
"Beings in Starlight, Endless night surrounds you... ", no, "surroundING you... Give in to the night"
No, that just wouldn't do.
Poetry as an art form also requires a disciplined, well-ordered mind. Choosing just the right words, conveying a precise thought or image in a particular way - poetry has much in common with the basis of psionics. In fact, the Ilithid theorize that the ability to compose good poetry is a prerequisite for the development of psionics.
The helmsman reported they would arrive in the Sechi system in a centon. Oulomb had Communications confirm the Iron Squid was also on schedule, and then ordered the Ilithid Monitors team prepared. He would send them over to Starlight as soon as they arrived, and bring the ultimatum to this "Mister Ewell" that the Ilithid Protectorate Embassy diplomatic team reported was the chief administrator at Starlight - in so far as Starlight had any administration.
Among the Ilithid, the word (or concept - psychic beings had little use for discrete words) for poetry could best be translated into English as "well-tempered concept" or "elegant thought". The Ilithid admired the ability to express a concept in a simple manner that conveyed multiple levels of meaning - what they would call elegance. They found much in common with the poetic form known among Humans as haiku, and indeed were quite surprised that the Humans had not yet managed to develop psionics. Too busy blowing each other up, it seemed. Ah well.
The thing to do was to go more metaphorical. The inhabitants of Starlight were like little shining bits in the vast void of space, their tiny minds like bright sparks, hints of starlight in space... Wait, yes: Bright sparks of Starlight.
The Octopus shuddered, and the streaks of light in the viewport resolved into the bright sparks of stars, as the ship dropped out of hyperspace. "Sechi System!" announced the helmsman. "Activate the ghost cloak," ordered Oulomb. The Ilithid Protectorate wanted to annex Starlight Station in as peaceable a manner as possible, given it was a known criminal outpost, so as not to disrupt the diplomatic negotiations taking place with the Ironforge mining settlement. Still, there was no sense approaching Starlight without taking precautions, and Oulomb also hoped to demoralize them by demonstrating the new abilities of the Octopus and the Squid. The Ilithid warships would materialize out of the darkness, lying in wait, prepared to bring all of Starlight into that darkness if necessary... ah, that was it! The poem was complete!
"Bright sparks of Starlight Engulfed by darkness profound: Octopus awaits."