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[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Part 1:
Commander Turnall was gazing at the bright blue planet from the comfort of his cabin on the 17th Gunner Launcher of the Emios Empire. The windows of his cabin were designed specifically to give the room a wide 270 degree view. He looked at all the forces of the advance force sent by the Imperial Council. All 180 ships, with 400 destroyers, 80 sharpshooters, 150 gunners, 50 starshields, 18 Gunner Launchers and around 120,000 personnel.
Turnall was delighted when he was informed that he was ordered to command the advance force to the Soleus System, the native star system of the Humans. Turnall, who was partly human himself, loathed the Human race for their amiability and gentleness. The EMIOS had started long ago in Alixir III when the King of the Eliali, Aedealaus declared himself Emperor after subjugating all the surrounding systems after a long war of domination on all fronts. The Eliali, who still hold heavy political sway in the House of the Senate and the Imperial Council regard him as a demi-god and a legend, however rational men including Commander Turnall himself knew that he was not a holy figure but an opportunist who cunningly outwitted his opponents and attacked them when they were at their weakest.
Turnall was given orders to surround the planet in a semi-circular formation and wait them out of submission, his orders were to block any supplies that could be sent from the Colonies on the Mars and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The Humans despite being weak were proud of their Independence and traded with all nations and empires. The marijuana trade was highly profitable and booming, and the humans exported a wide range of elements. They even traded with the Matjl Empire, the most formidable of the rivals of the EMIOS.
Turnall did not like the mission of subjugating the Humans without force. He hated them. *He wanted them destroyed.* Of all things he hated*,* the thing he hated the most was that blue planet of theirs. The Emios called it Gaia 0 and is one of the most habitable places in the universe. Everything about it was perfect. Planet Placement, Size, Atmosphere, Gravitational Force and Abundance of Habitable Space and Stability. Many planets younger than Gaia 0 and Gaia-like planets which were promised to succeed it were outlived by Gaia 0.
Turnall sat and observed the meek satellites and defense systems of the Humans. The Humans were smart. Despite being the bright beacons of peace, love and happiness, they never stopped spending money on defense, but it was of no use now. They were indicted in the Supreme Council for crimes of negative resource-exploitation and slavery. Crimes that were framed upon them by the Secret Agency to facilitate the annexation of the United Nations into the EMIOS. They had always been part of the EMIOS association but were never truly part of the EMIOS proper. The aim was to bring them into the Imperial Fold, Turnall did not want this. He had made up his mind to destroy the Gaia, no matter the loss of life. The Humans will be shattered and the other minor republics of the association and liege states will be frightened. The embargo placed on the Matjl and Kin will be solidified and Turnall will be regarded as a hero. He thirsted for glory and wanted redemption for his failures during the Hock Skirmishes. His promotion was due and his pride as well.
He paced back and forth in wait of the Human Diplomats. When they arrived he couldn't hide his smile. He was searching for some pretext to invade the planet. He had thought over a hundred plans with his most loyal followers and decided that he would have some of his ships destroyed by his own guns. Some of his captains strongly opposed friendly fire, however a compromise was reached and it was decided the selected ships would be left completely vacant. He had to act quickly though, he had heard of news of reinforcements from the Outer Zone were heading towards Gaia and would arrive in 10 Gaia Days, 8 if they made haste.
The Diplomats arrived with a Ranskar guard on both flanks. They greeted him cordially without showing signs of dread. Turnall found it funny. *Your entire existence will be soon wiped, and you will be forgotten. Just like the Manes, the Ibers, the Nam or the Raqqa.*
Turnall advised them to seat and called for the interpretation team. One of the Diplomats blurted out, "Commander Turnall, you do know English, don't you?"
Turnall looked at them with shock. Yes, of course he did. It was his mother tongue. Turnall hated the language and considered it inferior. He tried forgetting the language by learning Lyal and Soran and avoiding it. However, he still dreamed in English, something he couldn't get rid of.
Turnall feigned ignorance, "No. No Cannot. Understand for me, not much".
The Diplomat smiled and nodded.
When the interpreters arrived the negotiations began. The Diplomats denied the allegations and asked to file a motion of reconsideration. They asked for talks between the Imperial Council and the United Nations, and withdrawal of forces. They agreed to cede their Outer Colonies to retain their independence. They asked for a new treaty and were willing to be reassigned as a protectorate. They even tried handing over the Imperial Association their trade control and foreign affairs. Anything, for retaining their independence.
However Turnall and the committee of senators of the House refused all their pleadings. They told that for violating intergalactic law they had to be annexed by the Supreme Council and nothing else. They told them that this was to merely be a transitional occupation and nothing else and their sovereignty would be handed back after a five-year term.
The Humans knew that this was false, the Supreme Council's biggest funder was EMIOS and since the last thirty years a puppet of the Emios Empire. They were literally paid by EMIOS to strike some decisions against them just to pretend impartiality.
The Diplomats were tired and they stood up. The Head of the Human Negotiators Han Xuhan addressed them.
"I am deeply saddened by the failure of our talks. We tried our best to ensure peace but you only talk of war and domination. We therefore will have to be forced to declare war on you. You have trespassed on our sovereignty, and we will fight to protect it."
Turnall couldn't believe his ears, "Declare war?". He was on seventh heaven. They had made his work easier. He will open fire on the first shot. Turnall will have his name etched in history, there will be medals. They will build statues and name institutions in his honor.
When the diplomats left Turnall ordered a meeting of his lieutenants, he advised them to get in a formation so that the sacrificial ships would be closest from the surface. He also told him that the statement might also be a ruse of the diplomats to bide for time and keep them waiting for supposed aggression. He told them that if the ships are not hit soon, they will be forced to destroy it with their own guns. | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Humans were always the strange ones.
While evolution gifted the rest of us with weapons that aided our planetary dominance, Humans had no such gifts. Ancient records tell of early visits to their planet to inspect them, where it was ruled that their ruthless violence and disregard for their planet would cause their early destruction. The galactic community at the time decided it was best to keep them in their system, for although their efforts at war paled in comparison with our many methods, their disregard for their planet was seen as uncouth. After all, what second mother would, after eating the oldest of the first mother, raze their new nest to the ground?
When it was heard that humans had become interplanetary, our species, the Yetan, as well as the Glovris and Hnyid (but notably not the Quinds) paused our everliving war to go fling their planets into their sun. It was here that we would end them once and for all. The humans, bold as always, met the triple fleet head on and made an offer we couldn't refuse. After all, when a species submits readily to your rule, what is the point of their destruction? They agreed to stay quarantined to their own system until further notice, and the ownership of these humans was added to the dominance exchange of the everliving war.
The humans proved to be much different than the ancient records indicated. Where we were told they would seek war, they brokered peace. At every turn, they insisted on negotiation instead of brute strength and dominance. Where the rest of the conquered galaxy would rise up in bloody insurrection, the humans instead introduced this concept of "trade", being the first species to ally with every member of the everliving war. Eventually they grew close to each of our species, and we could no longer pretend they were a conquest of war. If one of us tried to attack them, we knew the others would rise up united against us. Such was the power of the Human's 'trade deals' and 'alliance'.
It was eventually agreed that the humans would be more profitable if we let them expand and explore, so we let them out into the galaxy. They would be the first species to escape quarantine, and all of us were ready to attack if we saw them go back to their ancient ways.
Centuries passed, and still they remained peaceful. Slowly, they used their 'negotiations' to end parts of the everliving war, and taught new concepts like "system ownership" and "coexistance". The Quinds were never able to understand the last of those concepts, complaining that you can't have "ownership" and "coexist" at the same time, but we, the Yetan, and the Hnyid found that we weren't as different as we thought.
The everliving war began to take on new meaning. Instead of a dominance conquest, we began to negotiate on our own. This peace that the humans had discovered was intoxicating, and we couldn't have enough of it. Ironically, this fueled the everliving war as we wanted to be sure we could have more "peace" than the other species to prove our dominance, but the humans still continued to try to teach us.
Millenia passed and eventually a new species reached out. They called themselves the Vgnin and demanded dominance of our arm of the galaxy. They joined our everliving war, shattering whatever flimsy human peace concept we had established with the Glovris, Hnyid, and the Quinds. These creatures didn't know of the peaceful nature of the humans, and decided to dominate the weak creatures just like they dominated every creature in their part of the galaxy.
I remember the day the humans came to us, begging to protect them. The Vgnin decided to divide their fleet between every human planet, station and colony and attack at once. As I spoke with the human leader of Earth, the Vgnin ships were already warming their planetary glassers, demanding eternal slavery or death. I shook my head, knowing it was already too late.
It was strange. I realized then that the human's greatest strength, this peace, was also their greatest weakness. There was no way for them to fight back, just like evolution gave them no way to fight on their own. Once again, the peaceful would die and only the everliving war would remain. This was the way of all life.
The president had that same look of deep sorrow I must have shown. He must have realized that we would be witnessing either the enslavement or destruction of his entire race, and there's nothing any of us could do. He pulled out the instant broadcaster the Hnyid had gifted their race, ready to make the call. What would he decide? Slavery or death? He raised his mouth to the receiver, transmitting his next words to every human leader across the galaxy.
"Humanity must live on. You know what you need to do." slowly he lowered the broadcaster, seeming to shrink. They chose enslavement. I didn't blame them, perhaps they would one day convince the Vgnin of their human peace and trade like they had done to us. Until then, they would once again be servants to the stronger force.
The human seemed to shake as he walked to the window screens of our capital ship, viewing the Vgnin fleet overtop the many human planets, as well as their home, Earth. "Glorious leader of the Yetan," he began, "You invented the Warp Drive which allowed us all to zip across the galaxy, just as the Hynid invented communication faster than light." he slowly inhaled and let it out with a shudder. "Today you will learn of Humanity's great invention, and also our greatest fear."
The air seemed to grow cold as the human leader turned to me. "Our ancestors were crafters of weapons. That is how we dominated our planet." I watched as many small balls slowly rose off each planet, each lazily making their way toward every Vgnin ship.
The Human leader averted his gaze from the screens. "Everything was a weapon in their eyes. Even the atoms of the universe itself. We made a weapon that can destroy all life, and all technology. This is why we only seek peace."
A bright flash lit across every screen at once, the Vgnin ships blasted and sent spiraling through space, blown apart, shields flickering then dead.
Tears began to well in the Human Leader's eyes. "After a discovery like that, war can end in nothing but the end of all life." | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | “High Negotiator, the human ambassador wishes to see you.”
Sil Dunnan, High Negotiator of the Akkarat sighed, and gestured his assent. Of course she wanted to talk. The war was necessary, but still he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d known the ambassador for a long time, and they’d always gotten along well.
The Terrans were the natural choice. Of the Five Ancients, they were by far the least threatening. They didn’t field the horrific armies of the Gene Splicers, or command the AI strategists of the Machine Lords. Despite that, the peace stifled the mighty Akkarat race might as well be called the Pax Terra.
The other forerunner races had grown old and tired. They wouldn’t - couldn’t - maintain the peace themselves through force of arms. It was the humans that did that, not with weapons, but with their relentless sociability and diplomacy. Every government in the known galaxy sported a human ambassador who gently steered that race towards harmonious coexistence.
That peace threatened everything that made the Akkarat the Akkarat. Since unifying, they’d had nobody to fight. The old ways were dying. The galactic order had to be destroyed.
Quiet reconnaissance had been done. To the amazement of the War Council, human ships were essentially unarmed. It was beyond bizarre. Perhaps that was how they afforded their spendthrift aid missions - they had no military budget.
In fact, the humans really only seemed to have one thing going for them: their ships didn’t show up on normal scans.
Space was big, but ships were easy to find. Hyperspace shunts, the technology that turned every wheel in the galaxy, drew power from the endless energies of higher-dimensional space. To perform this miracle, each one of them ripped a tiny hole in space-time that a good sensor could pick up across a star system.
At some point, the humans had found a way to cloak their shunts. Even with their stunted military, this gave them a concerning edge in a prolonged conflict. As a result, a decisive first strike had been ordered.
Naturally, he hadn’t been able to tell the ambassador in advance. No doubt she felt betrayed. The least he could do was answer her questions.
As if on cue, the human ambassador threw open the doors of his audience chamber, his aid trailing rather uselessly behind her. She was visibly distressed.
“Sil!” she shouted as she bore down on him. “Tell me this is a lie, a mistake, anything! Just tell me you haven’t attacked the Terran Confederation.”
He tried to pitch his voice in a manner humans found soothing. “I’m sorry, Maria, I’d have told you sooner, but the War Council bound me to secrecy. Of course, I will ensure that your friends and loved ones are spared as best I can. I know how social your people are-”
“You damned fool,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you understand? *You* are my family. This planet holds everyone I love.”
Without waiting for an invitation, she slumped down into one of the chairs on the far side of his desk. His aide looked at her disapprovingly; Sil waved him out of the room.
The High Negotiator regarded her with concern. “Is there… anything I can do? I realize our nations are at war, but you have served your people and ours well for living memory and beyond. If there is anything in my power that you might need, please, tell me.”
She responded with a dismissive motion. “It’s too late. Had you told me sooner, I could have tried to stop it. But nothing can stop it now.”
Sil chuckled. “No need for that. Human bluffing is good, but it’s not that good. We figured out your secret. No weapons! No military infrastructure! Just myths about the destruction of Terra’s enemies in ages past. As if a psychological operation could keep your peace safe forever!”
“It was clever ruse, yes, very clever. But the age of the Ancients is over. It’s time for conflict, change, and glory. I’m afraid that as a human, you wouldn’t understand.”
Maria laughed, bitter and hollow. “I understand, Sil. That’s why I was posted here. I’ve personally killed an enemy soldier with my bare hands. I can report that it is not glorious at all.”
The High Negotiator frowned. “There is no recorded history of any human war. If such an event had ever happened, it would have predated The Treaty of the Five Forerunners!
To his shock, the normally staid and proper ambassador put her feet up on his desk. "Yeah. I was there.”
Sil stared at her, stunned. “But how?”
“Well, since we’re all about to die it can’t hurt to tell you. See, humans figured out immortality before we were really ready. Our numbers grew, resources ran thin, and we nearly wiped ourselves out.”
“After we came back from the brink of extinction, we decided we’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. It’s a job we ambassadors take very seriously.”
The High Negotiator snorted. “So you melted down your weapons and rely only on words to make this peace you love so much?”
She returned his gaze levelly. “Who says we melted down our weapons?”
A tiny seed of doubt began to take root in Sil’s heart. The look Maria was giving him reminded him more and more of an expression he’d seen only on the battlefield. It was the look of one who no longer has anything to lose.
“Our analysis was thorough, I read the reports myself. Your ships are-”
“Your reports are bullshit or you wouldn’t have done this. I’m going to let you in on a secret, Sil. I’m going to tell you how our stealth systems work.”
“Really? But that’s been the subject of research for centuries; it’s one of humankind’s most closely guarded secrets!”
“Yeah, but again, impending death. Do you want to know or not?”
He regarded her warily. “I suppose I do.”
“We don’t have a stealth system. We just don’t use hyperspace shunts.”
“What?!” Sil surged to his feet. “That’s impossible. A shunt is the only source of power light and powerful enough to fit into a spacecraft. You’d never be able break the hyperspace barrier with chemical fuels or solar power.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied laconically. “Chemical fuels are no good. But it turns out human brains are pretty bad at hyperspace physics. Uniquely bad, in fact. So we just learned to chain the stars instead.”
The hackles rose on the High Negotiator’s shoulders and neck. “You have small stars inside your ships. And these stars generate power all the time, even when the ship is jumping through hyperspace?”
The ambassador nodded. “Yup, that’s my understanding.”
Now it was Sil’s turn to fall back into his chair. “Your ships are practically invisible. And they must have range far beyond anything we could possibly have guessed.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Why are you telling me this? The element of surprise is all you have.”
The human ambassador’s expression was shifting again, this time towards sadness. “No. It’s really not. Do you know how hyperspace interdiction works? I mean, in general terms.”
Sil looked at her with fear as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know how it works, but I am afraid you are about to tell me.”
Maria removed her feet from his desk, resting her chin lightly on a clenched fist. “I am. Hyperspace shunts create a knot that crosses both normal space and h-space. Hyperspace inhibitors work by being a kind of comb that grabs the knot and pulls the ship back into our dimension.”
The High Negotiator blanched. “Hyperspace inhibitors won’t work on Terran ships. An invasion might come at any moment.”
His human friend just shook her head. “There won’t be an invasion. Don’t you get it? We learned to chain the stars *second*. We turned them into weapons first."
“My gods.” It was little more than a whisper. Sil cradled his head in his hands as the awful reality set in. “You can send star weapons through hyperspace. We’ve murdered our entire species.”
“No,” the human replied. “It was my job to stop it. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She walked around the desk and gathered the High Negotiator into her arms. “It’s alright. It won’t hurt. And I’ll be there with you. Gods willing, we’ll be able to walk one another across to the other side.” | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | It's useful, in a general sort of way, to be seen by the galaxy at large as cute, harmless doofuses. Soft, fleshy, tiny little bipeds, always wanting to communicate. To most of them, we're about as threatening as a Labrador puppy.
Understand; our stellar neighborhood is a very scary place. Like Mos Eisly Cantina scary. You've got your hive mind "insectoid" races, your noncorporeal energy beings, and all manner of biologically acrobatic variations in between. And don't even get me started on the only other humanoids, the fucking Greys. Yikes. Those guys suck.
Anyway, when I say "in a general sort of way," it's because there are a few specific and distinct disadvantages to this perception, as well. One of them would be situations where the ambassador from Earth must appeal to the Council of Argherrech. Which is the situation that I, as said ambassador, had to face during what was later called "The VingVa Crisis."
The VingVa, known colloquially just the Ving or even simply V, were a particular obnoxious insectoid neighbor to earth. One day, without any prior notice, a Ving spacehive appeared only a few miles outside lunar orbit and began construction on an hyperspace corridor repeater site. And I don't have to tell you, the radiation those things throw off, when they're active, that close to Earth? Well. This kills the Labrador puppies.
Of course all attempts by the human authorities at communication were ignored. The Ving had communicated to the council that they consider humans a non-sentient lower life-form, and thus unworthy of inclusion in the council or in fact any form of recognition or communication. This was a common perception among hivemind species, who generally only recognized sentience of other hives. Politics, amiright?
As I approached the round which seated the members of the council, I was struck again bye how large of stature and claw and tooth most of them are. Quite intimidating. As I approached and climbed the tiny elevated platform where petitioners stood, I felt their alien perceptions tracking me. I spoke slowly and clearly into the translation assembly.
"Good day and high praises upon all of your excellencies, members of the prestigious and all-knowing Counsel of Argherrech..."
And then I went on like this for some time praising each member of the council individually and debasing myself before them. These guys LOVE flattery. Rather dreary and boring and if you don't mind I'll skip ahead to the important bits.
"...and so, I come before you today to seek the permission of the council to defend the human homeworld against this unlawful incursion into our space."
There was a silence as the counselors each finished receiving the translation. Though by policy the Ving never acknowledged any human communication, the first reaction was, in fact, from the Ving avatar. There was a series of twitching movements in the top third of it's upper facial appendages, which I had come to understand as a *very* rough analog to human laughter. Wonderful. What followed was a near 10 minute conversation among themselves that, of course, was not translated for my benefit. When they had finished their conference, Basthora, the "chair," spoke into his own translation assembly. What came out my end was a harsh, metallic, very robotic sounding voice.
"If VingVa make war, Human cannot survive. Council will order VingVa allow one earthcycle for evacuation of Humans."
Much as I'd expected.
"Ah, yes, and this is much appreciated, oh most noble and generous rulers, may your reign last an epoch. But, if I may, and with all respect due, I was sent here today by the leaders of Earth to seek the permission of this glorious council to do exactly that. To declare war on the VingVa, and to, erm, to defend ourselves."
Now the "laughter" was more pronounced - not just in the Ving avatar but in the forms of the others as well. A very brief untranslated conversation followed, but from what I had learned of their body language, the response was clear. Assent.
"If Humans wish extinction, they may fight the VingVa to the death. Council grants permission."
Of course, everyone knows what came next. We waited patiently for the V hive to finish constructing the terminal, and turn it on. Fifty H-bombs, casually dumped into the newly opened portal - a straight shot back to their homeworld. One more for the hive that built the damn thing. Funny thing, they didn't even bother trying to stop the tiny ship that did it. Never fired a single shot at it. They literally never knew what hit them. They saw us as so far beneath them, so insignificant, so weak, that even in total annihilation they did not comprehend the threat we posed to them. And they never will.
Because now, there are no more VingVa.
Yes, in a general sort of way, it is quite useful to be seen as cute, harmless doofuses. Though I'd wager that, in the future, maintaining that image may prove slightly more challenging. But, hey...what else are diplomats for?
Edit: a word | "What do you mean its gone?" General Ashak asked, half angry, half confused.
"We've lost communication, we no longer have visual confirmation of its existence, the airspace where the fleet should be is vacant of anything but a bit of debris. It just vanished." The ensign replied.
Ashak closed both sets of eyelids hard enough to see spots of bright color bloom in his mind. His tongue flicked the air in annoyance.
"Did they make hyperspace?" He asked after a long moment of contemplation. He didn't even want this war. He was supposed to retire next year. The humans had never done anything to him. He had no quarrel with them. But the Empress, may the sun forever shine upon her, wanted their technology. Supposedly they had discovered a method of mining rare minerals for almost zero energy cost.
"Our instruments say no. They were there one minute and gone the next."
A young private, probably in his early 400s, barely past his first shed, sprinted onto the deck of the command ship.
"General," he saluted, right fist to left shoulder, first and second claw extended in the traditional manner. "I've been sent with an urgent message. All remaining fleets are to return to the capital. The humans have launched a counter attack."
"With what? Sure they have amazing tech, but when it comes to war they're little more than hatchlings with pointed sticks."
"My apologies, sir, but this private does not know."
"Very well. Spread the word: were preparing to male hyperspace for return to Arin. All crew in their stasis pods withing the half-hour."
---------‐----------------------
2 hours later the stasis pod beeped and opened. Akash stepped out, rubbing his eyes, groggily. He made his way to the bridge and turned on the forward view screen to begin docking procedures.
He flipped the switch on the communications board and said into the mic, "Arin tower this is The Empress' Holy Ship Desert Sun. Reporting for orders and preparing to dock. Please send docking code and stand by for touchdown."
He began flipping more switches as the rest of the flight crew made their way into the room.
"Sir, I dont understand. We were supposed to arrive directly above Arin." The navigator sounded unsure.
Akash looked at the screen for the first time and nearly lost his cool. The screen showed a large crater, with rubble strewn about like a hatchlings playroom. He recognized some buildings, the base where he had trained after joining the military, his hatchlings school and the office building his mate worked in, all little more than crumbling walls and shattered stone. Several more ships materialized in the sky around the Desert Sun. Soon the air waves were crowded with captains and generals demanding to know what happened. Within the next 4 hours, the entire armed forces of the Grellian empire hovered above a city that was no longer there.
A single missile blipped on the instrument panel. Some from another ship laughed hysterically about the humans single missile against the entire military.
Akash thought of his hatchlings and his mate. He missed them already. What sorcery could have done this.
The missile detonated against one of the ships. It was engulfed in a small star in the span of a second. The world went quiet, and akash shut his eyes. He felt the heat wash over him. And the Grellian empire ceased to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Those humans. Those weak, pathetic Humans. Or so we thought. We decided to eradicate them. They where allies with many of our enemies, and had been providing raw materials to them to fuel them in their war with us. We knew they had to die.
And Besides, they where so pathetic. Squishy bodies, lacking a hard chitin to protect them, oversized eyes. They weren't *good* at anything, just average at everything. They can barely run at 10 m/s, have below average smell and sight, even with those weird eyes. Squishy and *cute*.
And they knew nothing of interstellar war. Oh we knew they had a few forays in their history, a few hundred thousand dead there, a million or two here. But they had given in to cowardice and now worked for *galactic peace*.
They didn't expect us, and so we had attacked their home, their precious Earth, before they even realised. Billions dead. That was how to do warfare. Kill enough and break their spirit.
We expected them to militize their economy when we began our assaults, but we didn't expect it to happen overnight. We moved more of our fleets into their space and they began modifying their ships ready for combat within a few months. We hadn't expected how quickly they could adapt to situations. I could almost admire them for it, if I didn't hate them so.
After the first few battles, they proved themselves actually quite talented at killing. Oh they where using Adanai technology, no doubt gotten through one of their many trade deals, but they used it very differently to the Adanai. They experimented with strange tactics, such as using the ability to hyper jump whilst towing small meteors to create a simple yet effective trebuchet of sorts.
When we withdrew from their space to regroup, we thought that would be the end of it. I wish it had been. They kept coming first invading our space, and then blockading our planets. We thought we could match them, ship for ship, and outgun them with our dreadnaughts. But more and more of their ships kept coming. Soon we where not only fighting a defensive war, but one we couldn't win.
They waited till we tried to surrender to begin the extermination. Every planet, bombarded from orbit simultaneously with those bombs. We are somewhat resistant to fallout, but they completely destroyed the atmosphere, turning our worlds into tombs for our people.
And they did not stop until they got to me.
I, Commander *SCRTCH* am the last of my people. They left me alive merely to bear witness to the destruction they had brought. The gift of death was too good for the one who had massacred their home, they said. And so here I stand, on the tomb of my people, recording this message for posterity. If any future civilisation finds this, I tell you, don't cross the humans. They have no concept of honorable warfare. They only bring death. | They descended upon Earth with the full panoply of war. 1,000 starships, each a mile long carrying thousands of Soldiers, equipment and ordinance signified the undisputed might of the Ubojan Conglomerate. An unbreakable iron grip that held a thousand star systems under its hand. The sheer scale of their warmachine pressed upon the tiny blue planet like a boulder on top of a balloon, threatening to obliterate it simply by being there.
Despite this, the tiny blue planet did not submit. The humans who call it home have tried for months to prevent this catastrophe. A species that preferred the sound of words than that of munitioned tried, and failed to appease the Goliath that threatened to snuff them out of existence before their dreams of stepping out into the stars were realized. These humans, peaceful and benign in the eyes of the galactic community were rudely introduced to the brutality of the galaxy that awaited them.
Weak, pathetic... mewling at the edge of a backwater system were the first impressions
that Ubojan Conglomerate had of these Humans. It has been some time since they showed the Galaxy why there were "the masters of the 1000". It is past due that everyone be reminded.
That is until the first salvo hit. As the first starships made their atmospheric drop, the sky lit up in a blinding flash of white. For a moment, the bielectric crystals focuses of the ships detected only rudimentary defenses. projectile ordinance, liquid propelled fighter craft... Giant square water craft that launched these fighters.... millions of tiny ants scurrying about. A helpless hand weakly put up in the face of a beating.... and then again, another white flash.
in minutes 5 starships disintegrated into nothing, the rest doused in lethal radiation. The eerie silence of shock was replaced by the blares of multiple alarm systems. Radiation readings went off the charts, multiple distress signals coalesced into a unified scream for help and status reports on the quantum comms. The remaining ships creaked and buckled as they reached the stratosphere, blown around like wayward kites upon the edge of a hurricane.
"First centari report!!!" Shouted Admiral Ackubar across all channels. He lead the vanguard, the first centari to be the first to make planetfall. Ackubar wanted to be remembered and itched at the opportunity to be the one, the first one to take this planet for the undying empire. His first moments in this tiny blue planet however, when they win, will be scrubbed from histographs back home. "Multple starships destroyed, my lord" Reported his rear admiral, Haluga. "1st, 28th, 49th, 69th and 86th decari destroyed. Radiation levels are lethal within 5 welklans of their last position... 25 starships from respective decari are damaged but still battle worthy." "In the name of the undying how did they do that!!!" Cursed Ackubar.
The first salvo tore through the skies like a needle piercing through an iron sky. Readings indicated ballistic and kinetic ordinance... which should have been useless against ceramo-crystalline hulls. It was their detonation however that most shocked Ackubar. Each hit lit up like a miniature sun enveloping the iron sky in a blaze of white hot fury. In all of his life, in all of his campaigns he has never seen weapons of this kind used before. Ackubar did not fear death. As a warrior of the 1000 worlds it was his duty to serve, and to die is his reward. What he saw flash before his eyes however, instilled in him the unsettling feeling of being afraid.
"I want retaliatory bombardment from the launch site now!!! 57th, 2nd and 10th decari focus fire on these coordinates!!! 29th and 5th decari set bielectric scans to subterranean... all decari near the 5th and 29th for defensive formations!" the quantum comms hummed their affirmatives and within moments, the tendrils of the first centari sprang into action. Like a snake uncoiling each starship moved into their formations. the 57th, 2nd and 10th decari, the most armed of all the starships, launched photon neutrino torpedoes. Huge blue swaths of flame streaked the sky, determined to reach the ground bellow and pummel the very earth below.
Another white flash, then another. the hurried, desperate pace of these flashes became quicker and quicker. 13 starships have been destroyed, including 7 that formed the defensive perimeter around the 5th and 29th. The 5th, 2nd and 10th increased their fire in response, peppering the ground and pockmarking launch sites as they are reported across the quantum comms. "29th and 5th, report scans to flagship!" commanded a nervous Haluga. The hundreds of small and big alarms systems surrounding him are starting to make him lose his composure. "29th and 5th reporting, sub scans inconclusive... elemental readings are suggesting high presence of lead underground.... its like this entire continent is covered in it. requesting permission to form offensive formations" "Negative responded Ackubar. "Maintain scans protocols, adjust for elemental readings. set scans to energy" The 5th and 29th complied. within moments the visual comms of the Ackubar's flagship "the indomitable" lit up. What he saw initially, puzzled him. Moments after, he felt his stomach drop. He superimposed the visual scan with the map and immediately he counted around 100 35 meter deep holes. he ran the scans through a intelligence interpreter and saw that the entire area was covered in these holes.... final count of the interpreter at 5000. They all had energy readings... Thermonuclear.
"Attention all decari! This is Admiral Ackubar speaking. We have sprung a trap, all units disengage, and retreat to exophere immediately!" "57th 2nd and 10th form rear guard to co-" "my lord scans are reading fighter craft approaching formation!" Shoulted Haluga "they are arranged in packs of decans... formations suggest payload delivery!" "All units retreat now now now!" Admiral Ackubar bellowed. "Hunter interceptors engage enemy craft! do not let them within 5 welcans of our ships!"
A torrent of fire and noise erupted in the earth's stratosphere. Like a hive of bees, human and Ubojan fighters engaged each other in waves of death, exploding ordinance and and scattered metal. The first centari lumbered away slowly, agonizingly as they are chased by a swarm of human figthers. The ubojan figthers were killing them off by the dozen, but there was thousands of them. They were faster, more nimble and could overwhelm hunter interceptor packs, swallowing them whole and spitting them out as a ball of molten fire. As random as this hive looked, it hid ominous intentions. in the center of it hid larger craft that suggested they were carriers. dozens of these carriers suddenly shot out of formation and raced their way into the center of the centari formation. several carrier craft exploded near the edge of the formation, creating giant clouds of white heat and light that enveloped entire swaths of the centari. The human hive disengaged, and streaked downwards... desperate to escape the apocalypse that they themselves delivered.
28 flashes of light was what Ackubar counted before oblivion took him. The first centari, the pride of the Ubojan Empire reduced to smoldering ruin thousands of lightyears away in a backwater system. Destroyed by insects... pathetic, weak, mewling insects. Ubojan high command saw it all unfold thousands of miles above the earth. Each member struck dumb with shocked silence, with 900 starships awaiting their command to unleash retribution.
The visual comms of Sovereign Krasistus lit up. Images of unknown human symbols stared back at him. "What is this?" He growled. "It looks like a message your excellency." Reported his chancellor. "Translating now..." "It is... ancient, of the dictates of an Empire long gone..." the chancellor mused. "Gg-gruk?" "geeriik?" He tried to pronounce. "Interpreter compensate. adjust language dictation". The intelligence interpreter whirred its affirmative. "Language compensation complete. Human language discovered. Ancient Greek. Symbol translation. "μολὼν λαβέ" Molon labe. Ubojan translation complete. message reads... "come and take them."
Humans do have a way with words the Ubojan High command concurred. They also have a way with war it seems. The 900 ships remained above the earth's orbit, safely away from their weapons of hate. Friendly and Peaceful they seemed, inside this tiny blue planet. Bristling with rage and an unexpected mastery of brutal warfare they are, on the surface of this this tiny blue planet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Humans were always the strange ones.
While evolution gifted the rest of us with weapons that aided our planetary dominance, Humans had no such gifts. Ancient records tell of early visits to their planet to inspect them, where it was ruled that their ruthless violence and disregard for their planet would cause their early destruction. The galactic community at the time decided it was best to keep them in their system, for although their efforts at war paled in comparison with our many methods, their disregard for their planet was seen as uncouth. After all, what second mother would, after eating the oldest of the first mother, raze their new nest to the ground?
When it was heard that humans had become interplanetary, our species, the Yetan, as well as the Glovris and Hnyid (but notably not the Quinds) paused our everliving war to go fling their planets into their sun. It was here that we would end them once and for all. The humans, bold as always, met the triple fleet head on and made an offer we couldn't refuse. After all, when a species submits readily to your rule, what is the point of their destruction? They agreed to stay quarantined to their own system until further notice, and the ownership of these humans was added to the dominance exchange of the everliving war.
The humans proved to be much different than the ancient records indicated. Where we were told they would seek war, they brokered peace. At every turn, they insisted on negotiation instead of brute strength and dominance. Where the rest of the conquered galaxy would rise up in bloody insurrection, the humans instead introduced this concept of "trade", being the first species to ally with every member of the everliving war. Eventually they grew close to each of our species, and we could no longer pretend they were a conquest of war. If one of us tried to attack them, we knew the others would rise up united against us. Such was the power of the Human's 'trade deals' and 'alliance'.
It was eventually agreed that the humans would be more profitable if we let them expand and explore, so we let them out into the galaxy. They would be the first species to escape quarantine, and all of us were ready to attack if we saw them go back to their ancient ways.
Centuries passed, and still they remained peaceful. Slowly, they used their 'negotiations' to end parts of the everliving war, and taught new concepts like "system ownership" and "coexistance". The Quinds were never able to understand the last of those concepts, complaining that you can't have "ownership" and "coexist" at the same time, but we, the Yetan, and the Hnyid found that we weren't as different as we thought.
The everliving war began to take on new meaning. Instead of a dominance conquest, we began to negotiate on our own. This peace that the humans had discovered was intoxicating, and we couldn't have enough of it. Ironically, this fueled the everliving war as we wanted to be sure we could have more "peace" than the other species to prove our dominance, but the humans still continued to try to teach us.
Millenia passed and eventually a new species reached out. They called themselves the Vgnin and demanded dominance of our arm of the galaxy. They joined our everliving war, shattering whatever flimsy human peace concept we had established with the Glovris, Hnyid, and the Quinds. These creatures didn't know of the peaceful nature of the humans, and decided to dominate the weak creatures just like they dominated every creature in their part of the galaxy.
I remember the day the humans came to us, begging to protect them. The Vgnin decided to divide their fleet between every human planet, station and colony and attack at once. As I spoke with the human leader of Earth, the Vgnin ships were already warming their planetary glassers, demanding eternal slavery or death. I shook my head, knowing it was already too late.
It was strange. I realized then that the human's greatest strength, this peace, was also their greatest weakness. There was no way for them to fight back, just like evolution gave them no way to fight on their own. Once again, the peaceful would die and only the everliving war would remain. This was the way of all life.
The president had that same look of deep sorrow I must have shown. He must have realized that we would be witnessing either the enslavement or destruction of his entire race, and there's nothing any of us could do. He pulled out the instant broadcaster the Hnyid had gifted their race, ready to make the call. What would he decide? Slavery or death? He raised his mouth to the receiver, transmitting his next words to every human leader across the galaxy.
"Humanity must live on. You know what you need to do." slowly he lowered the broadcaster, seeming to shrink. They chose enslavement. I didn't blame them, perhaps they would one day convince the Vgnin of their human peace and trade like they had done to us. Until then, they would once again be servants to the stronger force.
The human seemed to shake as he walked to the window screens of our capital ship, viewing the Vgnin fleet overtop the many human planets, as well as their home, Earth. "Glorious leader of the Yetan," he began, "You invented the Warp Drive which allowed us all to zip across the galaxy, just as the Hynid invented communication faster than light." he slowly inhaled and let it out with a shudder. "Today you will learn of Humanity's great invention, and also our greatest fear."
The air seemed to grow cold as the human leader turned to me. "Our ancestors were crafters of weapons. That is how we dominated our planet." I watched as many small balls slowly rose off each planet, each lazily making their way toward every Vgnin ship.
The Human leader averted his gaze from the screens. "Everything was a weapon in their eyes. Even the atoms of the universe itself. We made a weapon that can destroy all life, and all technology. This is why we only seek peace."
A bright flash lit across every screen at once, the Vgnin ships blasted and sent spiraling through space, blown apart, shields flickering then dead.
Tears began to well in the Human Leader's eyes. "After a discovery like that, war can end in nothing but the end of all life." | They descended upon Earth with the full panoply of war. 1,000 starships, each a mile long carrying thousands of Soldiers, equipment and ordinance signified the undisputed might of the Ubojan Conglomerate. An unbreakable iron grip that held a thousand star systems under its hand. The sheer scale of their warmachine pressed upon the tiny blue planet like a boulder on top of a balloon, threatening to obliterate it simply by being there.
Despite this, the tiny blue planet did not submit. The humans who call it home have tried for months to prevent this catastrophe. A species that preferred the sound of words than that of munitioned tried, and failed to appease the Goliath that threatened to snuff them out of existence before their dreams of stepping out into the stars were realized. These humans, peaceful and benign in the eyes of the galactic community were rudely introduced to the brutality of the galaxy that awaited them.
Weak, pathetic... mewling at the edge of a backwater system were the first impressions
that Ubojan Conglomerate had of these Humans. It has been some time since they showed the Galaxy why there were "the masters of the 1000". It is past due that everyone be reminded.
That is until the first salvo hit. As the first starships made their atmospheric drop, the sky lit up in a blinding flash of white. For a moment, the bielectric crystals focuses of the ships detected only rudimentary defenses. projectile ordinance, liquid propelled fighter craft... Giant square water craft that launched these fighters.... millions of tiny ants scurrying about. A helpless hand weakly put up in the face of a beating.... and then again, another white flash.
in minutes 5 starships disintegrated into nothing, the rest doused in lethal radiation. The eerie silence of shock was replaced by the blares of multiple alarm systems. Radiation readings went off the charts, multiple distress signals coalesced into a unified scream for help and status reports on the quantum comms. The remaining ships creaked and buckled as they reached the stratosphere, blown around like wayward kites upon the edge of a hurricane.
"First centari report!!!" Shouted Admiral Ackubar across all channels. He lead the vanguard, the first centari to be the first to make planetfall. Ackubar wanted to be remembered and itched at the opportunity to be the one, the first one to take this planet for the undying empire. His first moments in this tiny blue planet however, when they win, will be scrubbed from histographs back home. "Multple starships destroyed, my lord" Reported his rear admiral, Haluga. "1st, 28th, 49th, 69th and 86th decari destroyed. Radiation levels are lethal within 5 welklans of their last position... 25 starships from respective decari are damaged but still battle worthy." "In the name of the undying how did they do that!!!" Cursed Ackubar.
The first salvo tore through the skies like a needle piercing through an iron sky. Readings indicated ballistic and kinetic ordinance... which should have been useless against ceramo-crystalline hulls. It was their detonation however that most shocked Ackubar. Each hit lit up like a miniature sun enveloping the iron sky in a blaze of white hot fury. In all of his life, in all of his campaigns he has never seen weapons of this kind used before. Ackubar did not fear death. As a warrior of the 1000 worlds it was his duty to serve, and to die is his reward. What he saw flash before his eyes however, instilled in him the unsettling feeling of being afraid.
"I want retaliatory bombardment from the launch site now!!! 57th, 2nd and 10th decari focus fire on these coordinates!!! 29th and 5th decari set bielectric scans to subterranean... all decari near the 5th and 29th for defensive formations!" the quantum comms hummed their affirmatives and within moments, the tendrils of the first centari sprang into action. Like a snake uncoiling each starship moved into their formations. the 57th, 2nd and 10th decari, the most armed of all the starships, launched photon neutrino torpedoes. Huge blue swaths of flame streaked the sky, determined to reach the ground bellow and pummel the very earth below.
Another white flash, then another. the hurried, desperate pace of these flashes became quicker and quicker. 13 starships have been destroyed, including 7 that formed the defensive perimeter around the 5th and 29th. The 5th, 2nd and 10th increased their fire in response, peppering the ground and pockmarking launch sites as they are reported across the quantum comms. "29th and 5th, report scans to flagship!" commanded a nervous Haluga. The hundreds of small and big alarms systems surrounding him are starting to make him lose his composure. "29th and 5th reporting, sub scans inconclusive... elemental readings are suggesting high presence of lead underground.... its like this entire continent is covered in it. requesting permission to form offensive formations" "Negative responded Ackubar. "Maintain scans protocols, adjust for elemental readings. set scans to energy" The 5th and 29th complied. within moments the visual comms of the Ackubar's flagship "the indomitable" lit up. What he saw initially, puzzled him. Moments after, he felt his stomach drop. He superimposed the visual scan with the map and immediately he counted around 100 35 meter deep holes. he ran the scans through a intelligence interpreter and saw that the entire area was covered in these holes.... final count of the interpreter at 5000. They all had energy readings... Thermonuclear.
"Attention all decari! This is Admiral Ackubar speaking. We have sprung a trap, all units disengage, and retreat to exophere immediately!" "57th 2nd and 10th form rear guard to co-" "my lord scans are reading fighter craft approaching formation!" Shoulted Haluga "they are arranged in packs of decans... formations suggest payload delivery!" "All units retreat now now now!" Admiral Ackubar bellowed. "Hunter interceptors engage enemy craft! do not let them within 5 welcans of our ships!"
A torrent of fire and noise erupted in the earth's stratosphere. Like a hive of bees, human and Ubojan fighters engaged each other in waves of death, exploding ordinance and and scattered metal. The first centari lumbered away slowly, agonizingly as they are chased by a swarm of human figthers. The ubojan figthers were killing them off by the dozen, but there was thousands of them. They were faster, more nimble and could overwhelm hunter interceptor packs, swallowing them whole and spitting them out as a ball of molten fire. As random as this hive looked, it hid ominous intentions. in the center of it hid larger craft that suggested they were carriers. dozens of these carriers suddenly shot out of formation and raced their way into the center of the centari formation. several carrier craft exploded near the edge of the formation, creating giant clouds of white heat and light that enveloped entire swaths of the centari. The human hive disengaged, and streaked downwards... desperate to escape the apocalypse that they themselves delivered.
28 flashes of light was what Ackubar counted before oblivion took him. The first centari, the pride of the Ubojan Empire reduced to smoldering ruin thousands of lightyears away in a backwater system. Destroyed by insects... pathetic, weak, mewling insects. Ubojan high command saw it all unfold thousands of miles above the earth. Each member struck dumb with shocked silence, with 900 starships awaiting their command to unleash retribution.
The visual comms of Sovereign Krasistus lit up. Images of unknown human symbols stared back at him. "What is this?" He growled. "It looks like a message your excellency." Reported his chancellor. "Translating now..." "It is... ancient, of the dictates of an Empire long gone..." the chancellor mused. "Gg-gruk?" "geeriik?" He tried to pronounce. "Interpreter compensate. adjust language dictation". The intelligence interpreter whirred its affirmative. "Language compensation complete. Human language discovered. Ancient Greek. Symbol translation. "μολὼν λαβέ" Molon labe. Ubojan translation complete. message reads... "come and take them."
Humans do have a way with words the Ubojan High command concurred. They also have a way with war it seems. The 900 ships remained above the earth's orbit, safely away from their weapons of hate. Friendly and Peaceful they seemed, inside this tiny blue planet. Bristling with rage and an unexpected mastery of brutal warfare they are, on the surface of this this tiny blue planet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | “High Negotiator, the human ambassador wishes to see you.”
Sil Dunnan, High Negotiator of the Akkarat sighed, and gestured his assent. Of course she wanted to talk. The war was necessary, but still he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d known the ambassador for a long time, and they’d always gotten along well.
The Terrans were the natural choice. Of the Five Ancients, they were by far the least threatening. They didn’t field the horrific armies of the Gene Splicers, or command the AI strategists of the Machine Lords. Despite that, the peace stifled the mighty Akkarat race might as well be called the Pax Terra.
The other forerunner races had grown old and tired. They wouldn’t - couldn’t - maintain the peace themselves through force of arms. It was the humans that did that, not with weapons, but with their relentless sociability and diplomacy. Every government in the known galaxy sported a human ambassador who gently steered that race towards harmonious coexistence.
That peace threatened everything that made the Akkarat the Akkarat. Since unifying, they’d had nobody to fight. The old ways were dying. The galactic order had to be destroyed.
Quiet reconnaissance had been done. To the amazement of the War Council, human ships were essentially unarmed. It was beyond bizarre. Perhaps that was how they afforded their spendthrift aid missions - they had no military budget.
In fact, the humans really only seemed to have one thing going for them: their ships didn’t show up on normal scans.
Space was big, but ships were easy to find. Hyperspace shunts, the technology that turned every wheel in the galaxy, drew power from the endless energies of higher-dimensional space. To perform this miracle, each one of them ripped a tiny hole in space-time that a good sensor could pick up across a star system.
At some point, the humans had found a way to cloak their shunts. Even with their stunted military, this gave them a concerning edge in a prolonged conflict. As a result, a decisive first strike had been ordered.
Naturally, he hadn’t been able to tell the ambassador in advance. No doubt she felt betrayed. The least he could do was answer her questions.
As if on cue, the human ambassador threw open the doors of his audience chamber, his aid trailing rather uselessly behind her. She was visibly distressed.
“Sil!” she shouted as she bore down on him. “Tell me this is a lie, a mistake, anything! Just tell me you haven’t attacked the Terran Confederation.”
He tried to pitch his voice in a manner humans found soothing. “I’m sorry, Maria, I’d have told you sooner, but the War Council bound me to secrecy. Of course, I will ensure that your friends and loved ones are spared as best I can. I know how social your people are-”
“You damned fool,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you understand? *You* are my family. This planet holds everyone I love.”
Without waiting for an invitation, she slumped down into one of the chairs on the far side of his desk. His aide looked at her disapprovingly; Sil waved him out of the room.
The High Negotiator regarded her with concern. “Is there… anything I can do? I realize our nations are at war, but you have served your people and ours well for living memory and beyond. If there is anything in my power that you might need, please, tell me.”
She responded with a dismissive motion. “It’s too late. Had you told me sooner, I could have tried to stop it. But nothing can stop it now.”
Sil chuckled. “No need for that. Human bluffing is good, but it’s not that good. We figured out your secret. No weapons! No military infrastructure! Just myths about the destruction of Terra’s enemies in ages past. As if a psychological operation could keep your peace safe forever!”
“It was clever ruse, yes, very clever. But the age of the Ancients is over. It’s time for conflict, change, and glory. I’m afraid that as a human, you wouldn’t understand.”
Maria laughed, bitter and hollow. “I understand, Sil. That’s why I was posted here. I’ve personally killed an enemy soldier with my bare hands. I can report that it is not glorious at all.”
The High Negotiator frowned. “There is no recorded history of any human war. If such an event had ever happened, it would have predated The Treaty of the Five Forerunners!
To his shock, the normally staid and proper ambassador put her feet up on his desk. "Yeah. I was there.”
Sil stared at her, stunned. “But how?”
“Well, since we’re all about to die it can’t hurt to tell you. See, humans figured out immortality before we were really ready. Our numbers grew, resources ran thin, and we nearly wiped ourselves out.”
“After we came back from the brink of extinction, we decided we’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. It’s a job we ambassadors take very seriously.”
The High Negotiator snorted. “So you melted down your weapons and rely only on words to make this peace you love so much?”
She returned his gaze levelly. “Who says we melted down our weapons?”
A tiny seed of doubt began to take root in Sil’s heart. The look Maria was giving him reminded him more and more of an expression he’d seen only on the battlefield. It was the look of one who no longer has anything to lose.
“Our analysis was thorough, I read the reports myself. Your ships are-”
“Your reports are bullshit or you wouldn’t have done this. I’m going to let you in on a secret, Sil. I’m going to tell you how our stealth systems work.”
“Really? But that’s been the subject of research for centuries; it’s one of humankind’s most closely guarded secrets!”
“Yeah, but again, impending death. Do you want to know or not?”
He regarded her warily. “I suppose I do.”
“We don’t have a stealth system. We just don’t use hyperspace shunts.”
“What?!” Sil surged to his feet. “That’s impossible. A shunt is the only source of power light and powerful enough to fit into a spacecraft. You’d never be able break the hyperspace barrier with chemical fuels or solar power.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied laconically. “Chemical fuels are no good. But it turns out human brains are pretty bad at hyperspace physics. Uniquely bad, in fact. So we just learned to chain the stars instead.”
The hackles rose on the High Negotiator’s shoulders and neck. “You have small stars inside your ships. And these stars generate power all the time, even when the ship is jumping through hyperspace?”
The ambassador nodded. “Yup, that’s my understanding.”
Now it was Sil’s turn to fall back into his chair. “Your ships are practically invisible. And they must have range far beyond anything we could possibly have guessed.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Why are you telling me this? The element of surprise is all you have.”
The human ambassador’s expression was shifting again, this time towards sadness. “No. It’s really not. Do you know how hyperspace interdiction works? I mean, in general terms.”
Sil looked at her with fear as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know how it works, but I am afraid you are about to tell me.”
Maria removed her feet from his desk, resting her chin lightly on a clenched fist. “I am. Hyperspace shunts create a knot that crosses both normal space and h-space. Hyperspace inhibitors work by being a kind of comb that grabs the knot and pulls the ship back into our dimension.”
The High Negotiator blanched. “Hyperspace inhibitors won’t work on Terran ships. An invasion might come at any moment.”
His human friend just shook her head. “There won’t be an invasion. Don’t you get it? We learned to chain the stars *second*. We turned them into weapons first."
“My gods.” It was little more than a whisper. Sil cradled his head in his hands as the awful reality set in. “You can send star weapons through hyperspace. We’ve murdered our entire species.”
“No,” the human replied. “It was my job to stop it. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She walked around the desk and gathered the High Negotiator into her arms. “It’s alright. It won’t hurt. And I’ll be there with you. Gods willing, we’ll be able to walk one another across to the other side.” | They descended upon Earth with the full panoply of war. 1,000 starships, each a mile long carrying thousands of Soldiers, equipment and ordinance signified the undisputed might of the Ubojan Conglomerate. An unbreakable iron grip that held a thousand star systems under its hand. The sheer scale of their warmachine pressed upon the tiny blue planet like a boulder on top of a balloon, threatening to obliterate it simply by being there.
Despite this, the tiny blue planet did not submit. The humans who call it home have tried for months to prevent this catastrophe. A species that preferred the sound of words than that of munitioned tried, and failed to appease the Goliath that threatened to snuff them out of existence before their dreams of stepping out into the stars were realized. These humans, peaceful and benign in the eyes of the galactic community were rudely introduced to the brutality of the galaxy that awaited them.
Weak, pathetic... mewling at the edge of a backwater system were the first impressions
that Ubojan Conglomerate had of these Humans. It has been some time since they showed the Galaxy why there were "the masters of the 1000". It is past due that everyone be reminded.
That is until the first salvo hit. As the first starships made their atmospheric drop, the sky lit up in a blinding flash of white. For a moment, the bielectric crystals focuses of the ships detected only rudimentary defenses. projectile ordinance, liquid propelled fighter craft... Giant square water craft that launched these fighters.... millions of tiny ants scurrying about. A helpless hand weakly put up in the face of a beating.... and then again, another white flash.
in minutes 5 starships disintegrated into nothing, the rest doused in lethal radiation. The eerie silence of shock was replaced by the blares of multiple alarm systems. Radiation readings went off the charts, multiple distress signals coalesced into a unified scream for help and status reports on the quantum comms. The remaining ships creaked and buckled as they reached the stratosphere, blown around like wayward kites upon the edge of a hurricane.
"First centari report!!!" Shouted Admiral Ackubar across all channels. He lead the vanguard, the first centari to be the first to make planetfall. Ackubar wanted to be remembered and itched at the opportunity to be the one, the first one to take this planet for the undying empire. His first moments in this tiny blue planet however, when they win, will be scrubbed from histographs back home. "Multple starships destroyed, my lord" Reported his rear admiral, Haluga. "1st, 28th, 49th, 69th and 86th decari destroyed. Radiation levels are lethal within 5 welklans of their last position... 25 starships from respective decari are damaged but still battle worthy." "In the name of the undying how did they do that!!!" Cursed Ackubar.
The first salvo tore through the skies like a needle piercing through an iron sky. Readings indicated ballistic and kinetic ordinance... which should have been useless against ceramo-crystalline hulls. It was their detonation however that most shocked Ackubar. Each hit lit up like a miniature sun enveloping the iron sky in a blaze of white hot fury. In all of his life, in all of his campaigns he has never seen weapons of this kind used before. Ackubar did not fear death. As a warrior of the 1000 worlds it was his duty to serve, and to die is his reward. What he saw flash before his eyes however, instilled in him the unsettling feeling of being afraid.
"I want retaliatory bombardment from the launch site now!!! 57th, 2nd and 10th decari focus fire on these coordinates!!! 29th and 5th decari set bielectric scans to subterranean... all decari near the 5th and 29th for defensive formations!" the quantum comms hummed their affirmatives and within moments, the tendrils of the first centari sprang into action. Like a snake uncoiling each starship moved into their formations. the 57th, 2nd and 10th decari, the most armed of all the starships, launched photon neutrino torpedoes. Huge blue swaths of flame streaked the sky, determined to reach the ground bellow and pummel the very earth below.
Another white flash, then another. the hurried, desperate pace of these flashes became quicker and quicker. 13 starships have been destroyed, including 7 that formed the defensive perimeter around the 5th and 29th. The 5th, 2nd and 10th increased their fire in response, peppering the ground and pockmarking launch sites as they are reported across the quantum comms. "29th and 5th, report scans to flagship!" commanded a nervous Haluga. The hundreds of small and big alarms systems surrounding him are starting to make him lose his composure. "29th and 5th reporting, sub scans inconclusive... elemental readings are suggesting high presence of lead underground.... its like this entire continent is covered in it. requesting permission to form offensive formations" "Negative responded Ackubar. "Maintain scans protocols, adjust for elemental readings. set scans to energy" The 5th and 29th complied. within moments the visual comms of the Ackubar's flagship "the indomitable" lit up. What he saw initially, puzzled him. Moments after, he felt his stomach drop. He superimposed the visual scan with the map and immediately he counted around 100 35 meter deep holes. he ran the scans through a intelligence interpreter and saw that the entire area was covered in these holes.... final count of the interpreter at 5000. They all had energy readings... Thermonuclear.
"Attention all decari! This is Admiral Ackubar speaking. We have sprung a trap, all units disengage, and retreat to exophere immediately!" "57th 2nd and 10th form rear guard to co-" "my lord scans are reading fighter craft approaching formation!" Shoulted Haluga "they are arranged in packs of decans... formations suggest payload delivery!" "All units retreat now now now!" Admiral Ackubar bellowed. "Hunter interceptors engage enemy craft! do not let them within 5 welcans of our ships!"
A torrent of fire and noise erupted in the earth's stratosphere. Like a hive of bees, human and Ubojan fighters engaged each other in waves of death, exploding ordinance and and scattered metal. The first centari lumbered away slowly, agonizingly as they are chased by a swarm of human figthers. The ubojan figthers were killing them off by the dozen, but there was thousands of them. They were faster, more nimble and could overwhelm hunter interceptor packs, swallowing them whole and spitting them out as a ball of molten fire. As random as this hive looked, it hid ominous intentions. in the center of it hid larger craft that suggested they were carriers. dozens of these carriers suddenly shot out of formation and raced their way into the center of the centari formation. several carrier craft exploded near the edge of the formation, creating giant clouds of white heat and light that enveloped entire swaths of the centari. The human hive disengaged, and streaked downwards... desperate to escape the apocalypse that they themselves delivered.
28 flashes of light was what Ackubar counted before oblivion took him. The first centari, the pride of the Ubojan Empire reduced to smoldering ruin thousands of lightyears away in a backwater system. Destroyed by insects... pathetic, weak, mewling insects. Ubojan high command saw it all unfold thousands of miles above the earth. Each member struck dumb with shocked silence, with 900 starships awaiting their command to unleash retribution.
The visual comms of Sovereign Krasistus lit up. Images of unknown human symbols stared back at him. "What is this?" He growled. "It looks like a message your excellency." Reported his chancellor. "Translating now..." "It is... ancient, of the dictates of an Empire long gone..." the chancellor mused. "Gg-gruk?" "geeriik?" He tried to pronounce. "Interpreter compensate. adjust language dictation". The intelligence interpreter whirred its affirmative. "Language compensation complete. Human language discovered. Ancient Greek. Symbol translation. "μολὼν λαβέ" Molon labe. Ubojan translation complete. message reads... "come and take them."
Humans do have a way with words the Ubojan High command concurred. They also have a way with war it seems. The 900 ships remained above the earth's orbit, safely away from their weapons of hate. Friendly and Peaceful they seemed, inside this tiny blue planet. Bristling with rage and an unexpected mastery of brutal warfare they are, on the surface of this this tiny blue planet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | They descended upon Earth with the full panoply of war. 1,000 starships, each a mile long carrying thousands of Soldiers, equipment and ordinance signified the undisputed might of the Ubojan Conglomerate. An unbreakable iron grip that held a thousand star systems under its hand. The sheer scale of their warmachine pressed upon the tiny blue planet like a boulder on top of a balloon, threatening to obliterate it simply by being there.
Despite this, the tiny blue planet did not submit. The humans who call it home have tried for months to prevent this catastrophe. A species that preferred the sound of words than that of munitioned tried, and failed to appease the Goliath that threatened to snuff them out of existence before their dreams of stepping out into the stars were realized. These humans, peaceful and benign in the eyes of the galactic community were rudely introduced to the brutality of the galaxy that awaited them.
Weak, pathetic... mewling at the edge of a backwater system were the first impressions
that Ubojan Conglomerate had of these Humans. It has been some time since they showed the Galaxy why there were "the masters of the 1000". It is past due that everyone be reminded.
That is until the first salvo hit. As the first starships made their atmospheric drop, the sky lit up in a blinding flash of white. For a moment, the bielectric crystals focuses of the ships detected only rudimentary defenses. projectile ordinance, liquid propelled fighter craft... Giant square water craft that launched these fighters.... millions of tiny ants scurrying about. A helpless hand weakly put up in the face of a beating.... and then again, another white flash.
in minutes 5 starships disintegrated into nothing, the rest doused in lethal radiation. The eerie silence of shock was replaced by the blares of multiple alarm systems. Radiation readings went off the charts, multiple distress signals coalesced into a unified scream for help and status reports on the quantum comms. The remaining ships creaked and buckled as they reached the stratosphere, blown around like wayward kites upon the edge of a hurricane.
"First centari report!!!" Shouted Admiral Ackubar across all channels. He lead the vanguard, the first centari to be the first to make planetfall. Ackubar wanted to be remembered and itched at the opportunity to be the one, the first one to take this planet for the undying empire. His first moments in this tiny blue planet however, when they win, will be scrubbed from histographs back home. "Multple starships destroyed, my lord" Reported his rear admiral, Haluga. "1st, 28th, 49th, 69th and 86th decari destroyed. Radiation levels are lethal within 5 welklans of their last position... 25 starships from respective decari are damaged but still battle worthy." "In the name of the undying how did they do that!!!" Cursed Ackubar.
The first salvo tore through the skies like a needle piercing through an iron sky. Readings indicated ballistic and kinetic ordinance... which should have been useless against ceramo-crystalline hulls. It was their detonation however that most shocked Ackubar. Each hit lit up like a miniature sun enveloping the iron sky in a blaze of white hot fury. In all of his life, in all of his campaigns he has never seen weapons of this kind used before. Ackubar did not fear death. As a warrior of the 1000 worlds it was his duty to serve, and to die is his reward. What he saw flash before his eyes however, instilled in him the unsettling feeling of being afraid.
"I want retaliatory bombardment from the launch site now!!! 57th, 2nd and 10th decari focus fire on these coordinates!!! 29th and 5th decari set bielectric scans to subterranean... all decari near the 5th and 29th for defensive formations!" the quantum comms hummed their affirmatives and within moments, the tendrils of the first centari sprang into action. Like a snake uncoiling each starship moved into their formations. the 57th, 2nd and 10th decari, the most armed of all the starships, launched photon neutrino torpedoes. Huge blue swaths of flame streaked the sky, determined to reach the ground bellow and pummel the very earth below.
Another white flash, then another. the hurried, desperate pace of these flashes became quicker and quicker. 13 starships have been destroyed, including 7 that formed the defensive perimeter around the 5th and 29th. The 5th, 2nd and 10th increased their fire in response, peppering the ground and pockmarking launch sites as they are reported across the quantum comms. "29th and 5th, report scans to flagship!" commanded a nervous Haluga. The hundreds of small and big alarms systems surrounding him are starting to make him lose his composure. "29th and 5th reporting, sub scans inconclusive... elemental readings are suggesting high presence of lead underground.... its like this entire continent is covered in it. requesting permission to form offensive formations" "Negative responded Ackubar. "Maintain scans protocols, adjust for elemental readings. set scans to energy" The 5th and 29th complied. within moments the visual comms of the Ackubar's flagship "the indomitable" lit up. What he saw initially, puzzled him. Moments after, he felt his stomach drop. He superimposed the visual scan with the map and immediately he counted around 100 35 meter deep holes. he ran the scans through a intelligence interpreter and saw that the entire area was covered in these holes.... final count of the interpreter at 5000. They all had energy readings... Thermonuclear.
"Attention all decari! This is Admiral Ackubar speaking. We have sprung a trap, all units disengage, and retreat to exophere immediately!" "57th 2nd and 10th form rear guard to co-" "my lord scans are reading fighter craft approaching formation!" Shoulted Haluga "they are arranged in packs of decans... formations suggest payload delivery!" "All units retreat now now now!" Admiral Ackubar bellowed. "Hunter interceptors engage enemy craft! do not let them within 5 welcans of our ships!"
A torrent of fire and noise erupted in the earth's stratosphere. Like a hive of bees, human and Ubojan fighters engaged each other in waves of death, exploding ordinance and and scattered metal. The first centari lumbered away slowly, agonizingly as they are chased by a swarm of human figthers. The ubojan figthers were killing them off by the dozen, but there was thousands of them. They were faster, more nimble and could overwhelm hunter interceptor packs, swallowing them whole and spitting them out as a ball of molten fire. As random as this hive looked, it hid ominous intentions. in the center of it hid larger craft that suggested they were carriers. dozens of these carriers suddenly shot out of formation and raced their way into the center of the centari formation. several carrier craft exploded near the edge of the formation, creating giant clouds of white heat and light that enveloped entire swaths of the centari. The human hive disengaged, and streaked downwards... desperate to escape the apocalypse that they themselves delivered.
28 flashes of light was what Ackubar counted before oblivion took him. The first centari, the pride of the Ubojan Empire reduced to smoldering ruin thousands of lightyears away in a backwater system. Destroyed by insects... pathetic, weak, mewling insects. Ubojan high command saw it all unfold thousands of miles above the earth. Each member struck dumb with shocked silence, with 900 starships awaiting their command to unleash retribution.
The visual comms of Sovereign Krasistus lit up. Images of unknown human symbols stared back at him. "What is this?" He growled. "It looks like a message your excellency." Reported his chancellor. "Translating now..." "It is... ancient, of the dictates of an Empire long gone..." the chancellor mused. "Gg-gruk?" "geeriik?" He tried to pronounce. "Interpreter compensate. adjust language dictation". The intelligence interpreter whirred its affirmative. "Language compensation complete. Human language discovered. Ancient Greek. Symbol translation. "μολὼν λαβέ" Molon labe. Ubojan translation complete. message reads... "come and take them."
Humans do have a way with words the Ubojan High command concurred. They also have a way with war it seems. The 900 ships remained above the earth's orbit, safely away from their weapons of hate. Friendly and Peaceful they seemed, inside this tiny blue planet. Bristling with rage and an unexpected mastery of brutal warfare they are, on the surface of this this tiny blue planet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | They descended upon Earth with the full panoply of war. 1,000 starships, each a mile long carrying thousands of Soldiers, equipment and ordinance signified the undisputed might of the Ubojan Conglomerate. An unbreakable iron grip that held a thousand star systems under its hand. The sheer scale of their warmachine pressed upon the tiny blue planet like a boulder on top of a balloon, threatening to obliterate it simply by being there.
Despite this, the tiny blue planet did not submit. The humans who call it home have tried for months to prevent this catastrophe. A species that preferred the sound of words than that of munitioned tried, and failed to appease the Goliath that threatened to snuff them out of existence before their dreams of stepping out into the stars were realized. These humans, peaceful and benign in the eyes of the galactic community were rudely introduced to the brutality of the galaxy that awaited them.
Weak, pathetic... mewling at the edge of a backwater system were the first impressions
that Ubojan Conglomerate had of these Humans. It has been some time since they showed the Galaxy why there were "the masters of the 1000". It is past due that everyone be reminded.
That is until the first salvo hit. As the first starships made their atmospheric drop, the sky lit up in a blinding flash of white. For a moment, the bielectric crystals focuses of the ships detected only rudimentary defenses. projectile ordinance, liquid propelled fighter craft... Giant square water craft that launched these fighters.... millions of tiny ants scurrying about. A helpless hand weakly put up in the face of a beating.... and then again, another white flash.
in minutes 5 starships disintegrated into nothing, the rest doused in lethal radiation. The eerie silence of shock was replaced by the blares of multiple alarm systems. Radiation readings went off the charts, multiple distress signals coalesced into a unified scream for help and status reports on the quantum comms. The remaining ships creaked and buckled as they reached the stratosphere, blown around like wayward kites upon the edge of a hurricane.
"First centari report!!!" Shouted Admiral Ackubar across all channels. He lead the vanguard, the first centari to be the first to make planetfall. Ackubar wanted to be remembered and itched at the opportunity to be the one, the first one to take this planet for the undying empire. His first moments in this tiny blue planet however, when they win, will be scrubbed from histographs back home. "Multple starships destroyed, my lord" Reported his rear admiral, Haluga. "1st, 28th, 49th, 69th and 86th decari destroyed. Radiation levels are lethal within 5 welklans of their last position... 25 starships from respective decari are damaged but still battle worthy." "In the name of the undying how did they do that!!!" Cursed Ackubar.
The first salvo tore through the skies like a needle piercing through an iron sky. Readings indicated ballistic and kinetic ordinance... which should have been useless against ceramo-crystalline hulls. It was their detonation however that most shocked Ackubar. Each hit lit up like a miniature sun enveloping the iron sky in a blaze of white hot fury. In all of his life, in all of his campaigns he has never seen weapons of this kind used before. Ackubar did not fear death. As a warrior of the 1000 worlds it was his duty to serve, and to die is his reward. What he saw flash before his eyes however, instilled in him the unsettling feeling of being afraid.
"I want retaliatory bombardment from the launch site now!!! 57th, 2nd and 10th decari focus fire on these coordinates!!! 29th and 5th decari set bielectric scans to subterranean... all decari near the 5th and 29th for defensive formations!" the quantum comms hummed their affirmatives and within moments, the tendrils of the first centari sprang into action. Like a snake uncoiling each starship moved into their formations. the 57th, 2nd and 10th decari, the most armed of all the starships, launched photon neutrino torpedoes. Huge blue swaths of flame streaked the sky, determined to reach the ground bellow and pummel the very earth below.
Another white flash, then another. the hurried, desperate pace of these flashes became quicker and quicker. 13 starships have been destroyed, including 7 that formed the defensive perimeter around the 5th and 29th. The 5th, 2nd and 10th increased their fire in response, peppering the ground and pockmarking launch sites as they are reported across the quantum comms. "29th and 5th, report scans to flagship!" commanded a nervous Haluga. The hundreds of small and big alarms systems surrounding him are starting to make him lose his composure. "29th and 5th reporting, sub scans inconclusive... elemental readings are suggesting high presence of lead underground.... its like this entire continent is covered in it. requesting permission to form offensive formations" "Negative responded Ackubar. "Maintain scans protocols, adjust for elemental readings. set scans to energy" The 5th and 29th complied. within moments the visual comms of the Ackubar's flagship "the indomitable" lit up. What he saw initially, puzzled him. Moments after, he felt his stomach drop. He superimposed the visual scan with the map and immediately he counted around 100 35 meter deep holes. he ran the scans through a intelligence interpreter and saw that the entire area was covered in these holes.... final count of the interpreter at 5000. They all had energy readings... Thermonuclear.
"Attention all decari! This is Admiral Ackubar speaking. We have sprung a trap, all units disengage, and retreat to exophere immediately!" "57th 2nd and 10th form rear guard to co-" "my lord scans are reading fighter craft approaching formation!" Shoulted Haluga "they are arranged in packs of decans... formations suggest payload delivery!" "All units retreat now now now!" Admiral Ackubar bellowed. "Hunter interceptors engage enemy craft! do not let them within 5 welcans of our ships!"
A torrent of fire and noise erupted in the earth's stratosphere. Like a hive of bees, human and Ubojan fighters engaged each other in waves of death, exploding ordinance and and scattered metal. The first centari lumbered away slowly, agonizingly as they are chased by a swarm of human figthers. The ubojan figthers were killing them off by the dozen, but there was thousands of them. They were faster, more nimble and could overwhelm hunter interceptor packs, swallowing them whole and spitting them out as a ball of molten fire. As random as this hive looked, it hid ominous intentions. in the center of it hid larger craft that suggested they were carriers. dozens of these carriers suddenly shot out of formation and raced their way into the center of the centari formation. several carrier craft exploded near the edge of the formation, creating giant clouds of white heat and light that enveloped entire swaths of the centari. The human hive disengaged, and streaked downwards... desperate to escape the apocalypse that they themselves delivered.
28 flashes of light was what Ackubar counted before oblivion took him. The first centari, the pride of the Ubojan Empire reduced to smoldering ruin thousands of lightyears away in a backwater system. Destroyed by insects... pathetic, weak, mewling insects. Ubojan high command saw it all unfold thousands of miles above the earth. Each member struck dumb with shocked silence, with 900 starships awaiting their command to unleash retribution.
The visual comms of Sovereign Krasistus lit up. Images of unknown human symbols stared back at him. "What is this?" He growled. "It looks like a message your excellency." Reported his chancellor. "Translating now..." "It is... ancient, of the dictates of an Empire long gone..." the chancellor mused. "Gg-gruk?" "geeriik?" He tried to pronounce. "Interpreter compensate. adjust language dictation". The intelligence interpreter whirred its affirmative. "Language compensation complete. Human language discovered. Ancient Greek. Symbol translation. "μολὼν λαβέ" Molon labe. Ubojan translation complete. message reads... "come and take them."
Humans do have a way with words the Ubojan High command concurred. They also have a way with war it seems. The 900 ships remained above the earth's orbit, safely away from their weapons of hate. Friendly and Peaceful they seemed, inside this tiny blue planet. Bristling with rage and an unexpected mastery of brutal warfare they are, on the surface of this this tiny blue planet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Humans were always the strange ones.
While evolution gifted the rest of us with weapons that aided our planetary dominance, Humans had no such gifts. Ancient records tell of early visits to their planet to inspect them, where it was ruled that their ruthless violence and disregard for their planet would cause their early destruction. The galactic community at the time decided it was best to keep them in their system, for although their efforts at war paled in comparison with our many methods, their disregard for their planet was seen as uncouth. After all, what second mother would, after eating the oldest of the first mother, raze their new nest to the ground?
When it was heard that humans had become interplanetary, our species, the Yetan, as well as the Glovris and Hnyid (but notably not the Quinds) paused our everliving war to go fling their planets into their sun. It was here that we would end them once and for all. The humans, bold as always, met the triple fleet head on and made an offer we couldn't refuse. After all, when a species submits readily to your rule, what is the point of their destruction? They agreed to stay quarantined to their own system until further notice, and the ownership of these humans was added to the dominance exchange of the everliving war.
The humans proved to be much different than the ancient records indicated. Where we were told they would seek war, they brokered peace. At every turn, they insisted on negotiation instead of brute strength and dominance. Where the rest of the conquered galaxy would rise up in bloody insurrection, the humans instead introduced this concept of "trade", being the first species to ally with every member of the everliving war. Eventually they grew close to each of our species, and we could no longer pretend they were a conquest of war. If one of us tried to attack them, we knew the others would rise up united against us. Such was the power of the Human's 'trade deals' and 'alliance'.
It was eventually agreed that the humans would be more profitable if we let them expand and explore, so we let them out into the galaxy. They would be the first species to escape quarantine, and all of us were ready to attack if we saw them go back to their ancient ways.
Centuries passed, and still they remained peaceful. Slowly, they used their 'negotiations' to end parts of the everliving war, and taught new concepts like "system ownership" and "coexistance". The Quinds were never able to understand the last of those concepts, complaining that you can't have "ownership" and "coexist" at the same time, but we, the Yetan, and the Hnyid found that we weren't as different as we thought.
The everliving war began to take on new meaning. Instead of a dominance conquest, we began to negotiate on our own. This peace that the humans had discovered was intoxicating, and we couldn't have enough of it. Ironically, this fueled the everliving war as we wanted to be sure we could have more "peace" than the other species to prove our dominance, but the humans still continued to try to teach us.
Millenia passed and eventually a new species reached out. They called themselves the Vgnin and demanded dominance of our arm of the galaxy. They joined our everliving war, shattering whatever flimsy human peace concept we had established with the Glovris, Hnyid, and the Quinds. These creatures didn't know of the peaceful nature of the humans, and decided to dominate the weak creatures just like they dominated every creature in their part of the galaxy.
I remember the day the humans came to us, begging to protect them. The Vgnin decided to divide their fleet between every human planet, station and colony and attack at once. As I spoke with the human leader of Earth, the Vgnin ships were already warming their planetary glassers, demanding eternal slavery or death. I shook my head, knowing it was already too late.
It was strange. I realized then that the human's greatest strength, this peace, was also their greatest weakness. There was no way for them to fight back, just like evolution gave them no way to fight on their own. Once again, the peaceful would die and only the everliving war would remain. This was the way of all life.
The president had that same look of deep sorrow I must have shown. He must have realized that we would be witnessing either the enslavement or destruction of his entire race, and there's nothing any of us could do. He pulled out the instant broadcaster the Hnyid had gifted their race, ready to make the call. What would he decide? Slavery or death? He raised his mouth to the receiver, transmitting his next words to every human leader across the galaxy.
"Humanity must live on. You know what you need to do." slowly he lowered the broadcaster, seeming to shrink. They chose enslavement. I didn't blame them, perhaps they would one day convince the Vgnin of their human peace and trade like they had done to us. Until then, they would once again be servants to the stronger force.
The human seemed to shake as he walked to the window screens of our capital ship, viewing the Vgnin fleet overtop the many human planets, as well as their home, Earth. "Glorious leader of the Yetan," he began, "You invented the Warp Drive which allowed us all to zip across the galaxy, just as the Hynid invented communication faster than light." he slowly inhaled and let it out with a shudder. "Today you will learn of Humanity's great invention, and also our greatest fear."
The air seemed to grow cold as the human leader turned to me. "Our ancestors were crafters of weapons. That is how we dominated our planet." I watched as many small balls slowly rose off each planet, each lazily making their way toward every Vgnin ship.
The Human leader averted his gaze from the screens. "Everything was a weapon in their eyes. Even the atoms of the universe itself. We made a weapon that can destroy all life, and all technology. This is why we only seek peace."
A bright flash lit across every screen at once, the Vgnin ships blasted and sent spiraling through space, blown apart, shields flickering then dead.
Tears began to well in the Human Leader's eyes. "After a discovery like that, war can end in nothing but the end of all life." | Those humans. Those weak, pathetic Humans. Or so we thought. We decided to eradicate them. They where allies with many of our enemies, and had been providing raw materials to them to fuel them in their war with us. We knew they had to die.
And Besides, they where so pathetic. Squishy bodies, lacking a hard chitin to protect them, oversized eyes. They weren't *good* at anything, just average at everything. They can barely run at 10 m/s, have below average smell and sight, even with those weird eyes. Squishy and *cute*.
And they knew nothing of interstellar war. Oh we knew they had a few forays in their history, a few hundred thousand dead there, a million or two here. But they had given in to cowardice and now worked for *galactic peace*.
They didn't expect us, and so we had attacked their home, their precious Earth, before they even realised. Billions dead. That was how to do warfare. Kill enough and break their spirit.
We expected them to militize their economy when we began our assaults, but we didn't expect it to happen overnight. We moved more of our fleets into their space and they began modifying their ships ready for combat within a few months. We hadn't expected how quickly they could adapt to situations. I could almost admire them for it, if I didn't hate them so.
After the first few battles, they proved themselves actually quite talented at killing. Oh they where using Adanai technology, no doubt gotten through one of their many trade deals, but they used it very differently to the Adanai. They experimented with strange tactics, such as using the ability to hyper jump whilst towing small meteors to create a simple yet effective trebuchet of sorts.
When we withdrew from their space to regroup, we thought that would be the end of it. I wish it had been. They kept coming first invading our space, and then blockading our planets. We thought we could match them, ship for ship, and outgun them with our dreadnaughts. But more and more of their ships kept coming. Soon we where not only fighting a defensive war, but one we couldn't win.
They waited till we tried to surrender to begin the extermination. Every planet, bombarded from orbit simultaneously with those bombs. We are somewhat resistant to fallout, but they completely destroyed the atmosphere, turning our worlds into tombs for our people.
And they did not stop until they got to me.
I, Commander *SCRTCH* am the last of my people. They left me alive merely to bear witness to the destruction they had brought. The gift of death was too good for the one who had massacred their home, they said. And so here I stand, on the tomb of my people, recording this message for posterity. If any future civilisation finds this, I tell you, don't cross the humans. They have no concept of honorable warfare. They only bring death. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | “High Negotiator, the human ambassador wishes to see you.”
Sil Dunnan, High Negotiator of the Akkarat sighed, and gestured his assent. Of course she wanted to talk. The war was necessary, but still he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d known the ambassador for a long time, and they’d always gotten along well.
The Terrans were the natural choice. Of the Five Ancients, they were by far the least threatening. They didn’t field the horrific armies of the Gene Splicers, or command the AI strategists of the Machine Lords. Despite that, the peace stifled the mighty Akkarat race might as well be called the Pax Terra.
The other forerunner races had grown old and tired. They wouldn’t - couldn’t - maintain the peace themselves through force of arms. It was the humans that did that, not with weapons, but with their relentless sociability and diplomacy. Every government in the known galaxy sported a human ambassador who gently steered that race towards harmonious coexistence.
That peace threatened everything that made the Akkarat the Akkarat. Since unifying, they’d had nobody to fight. The old ways were dying. The galactic order had to be destroyed.
Quiet reconnaissance had been done. To the amazement of the War Council, human ships were essentially unarmed. It was beyond bizarre. Perhaps that was how they afforded their spendthrift aid missions - they had no military budget.
In fact, the humans really only seemed to have one thing going for them: their ships didn’t show up on normal scans.
Space was big, but ships were easy to find. Hyperspace shunts, the technology that turned every wheel in the galaxy, drew power from the endless energies of higher-dimensional space. To perform this miracle, each one of them ripped a tiny hole in space-time that a good sensor could pick up across a star system.
At some point, the humans had found a way to cloak their shunts. Even with their stunted military, this gave them a concerning edge in a prolonged conflict. As a result, a decisive first strike had been ordered.
Naturally, he hadn’t been able to tell the ambassador in advance. No doubt she felt betrayed. The least he could do was answer her questions.
As if on cue, the human ambassador threw open the doors of his audience chamber, his aid trailing rather uselessly behind her. She was visibly distressed.
“Sil!” she shouted as she bore down on him. “Tell me this is a lie, a mistake, anything! Just tell me you haven’t attacked the Terran Confederation.”
He tried to pitch his voice in a manner humans found soothing. “I’m sorry, Maria, I’d have told you sooner, but the War Council bound me to secrecy. Of course, I will ensure that your friends and loved ones are spared as best I can. I know how social your people are-”
“You damned fool,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you understand? *You* are my family. This planet holds everyone I love.”
Without waiting for an invitation, she slumped down into one of the chairs on the far side of his desk. His aide looked at her disapprovingly; Sil waved him out of the room.
The High Negotiator regarded her with concern. “Is there… anything I can do? I realize our nations are at war, but you have served your people and ours well for living memory and beyond. If there is anything in my power that you might need, please, tell me.”
She responded with a dismissive motion. “It’s too late. Had you told me sooner, I could have tried to stop it. But nothing can stop it now.”
Sil chuckled. “No need for that. Human bluffing is good, but it’s not that good. We figured out your secret. No weapons! No military infrastructure! Just myths about the destruction of Terra’s enemies in ages past. As if a psychological operation could keep your peace safe forever!”
“It was clever ruse, yes, very clever. But the age of the Ancients is over. It’s time for conflict, change, and glory. I’m afraid that as a human, you wouldn’t understand.”
Maria laughed, bitter and hollow. “I understand, Sil. That’s why I was posted here. I’ve personally killed an enemy soldier with my bare hands. I can report that it is not glorious at all.”
The High Negotiator frowned. “There is no recorded history of any human war. If such an event had ever happened, it would have predated The Treaty of the Five Forerunners!
To his shock, the normally staid and proper ambassador put her feet up on his desk. "Yeah. I was there.”
Sil stared at her, stunned. “But how?”
“Well, since we’re all about to die it can’t hurt to tell you. See, humans figured out immortality before we were really ready. Our numbers grew, resources ran thin, and we nearly wiped ourselves out.”
“After we came back from the brink of extinction, we decided we’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. It’s a job we ambassadors take very seriously.”
The High Negotiator snorted. “So you melted down your weapons and rely only on words to make this peace you love so much?”
She returned his gaze levelly. “Who says we melted down our weapons?”
A tiny seed of doubt began to take root in Sil’s heart. The look Maria was giving him reminded him more and more of an expression he’d seen only on the battlefield. It was the look of one who no longer has anything to lose.
“Our analysis was thorough, I read the reports myself. Your ships are-”
“Your reports are bullshit or you wouldn’t have done this. I’m going to let you in on a secret, Sil. I’m going to tell you how our stealth systems work.”
“Really? But that’s been the subject of research for centuries; it’s one of humankind’s most closely guarded secrets!”
“Yeah, but again, impending death. Do you want to know or not?”
He regarded her warily. “I suppose I do.”
“We don’t have a stealth system. We just don’t use hyperspace shunts.”
“What?!” Sil surged to his feet. “That’s impossible. A shunt is the only source of power light and powerful enough to fit into a spacecraft. You’d never be able break the hyperspace barrier with chemical fuels or solar power.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied laconically. “Chemical fuels are no good. But it turns out human brains are pretty bad at hyperspace physics. Uniquely bad, in fact. So we just learned to chain the stars instead.”
The hackles rose on the High Negotiator’s shoulders and neck. “You have small stars inside your ships. And these stars generate power all the time, even when the ship is jumping through hyperspace?”
The ambassador nodded. “Yup, that’s my understanding.”
Now it was Sil’s turn to fall back into his chair. “Your ships are practically invisible. And they must have range far beyond anything we could possibly have guessed.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Why are you telling me this? The element of surprise is all you have.”
The human ambassador’s expression was shifting again, this time towards sadness. “No. It’s really not. Do you know how hyperspace interdiction works? I mean, in general terms.”
Sil looked at her with fear as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know how it works, but I am afraid you are about to tell me.”
Maria removed her feet from his desk, resting her chin lightly on a clenched fist. “I am. Hyperspace shunts create a knot that crosses both normal space and h-space. Hyperspace inhibitors work by being a kind of comb that grabs the knot and pulls the ship back into our dimension.”
The High Negotiator blanched. “Hyperspace inhibitors won’t work on Terran ships. An invasion might come at any moment.”
His human friend just shook her head. “There won’t be an invasion. Don’t you get it? We learned to chain the stars *second*. We turned them into weapons first."
“My gods.” It was little more than a whisper. Sil cradled his head in his hands as the awful reality set in. “You can send star weapons through hyperspace. We’ve murdered our entire species.”
“No,” the human replied. “It was my job to stop it. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She walked around the desk and gathered the High Negotiator into her arms. “It’s alright. It won’t hurt. And I’ll be there with you. Gods willing, we’ll be able to walk one another across to the other side.” | Those humans. Those weak, pathetic Humans. Or so we thought. We decided to eradicate them. They where allies with many of our enemies, and had been providing raw materials to them to fuel them in their war with us. We knew they had to die.
And Besides, they where so pathetic. Squishy bodies, lacking a hard chitin to protect them, oversized eyes. They weren't *good* at anything, just average at everything. They can barely run at 10 m/s, have below average smell and sight, even with those weird eyes. Squishy and *cute*.
And they knew nothing of interstellar war. Oh we knew they had a few forays in their history, a few hundred thousand dead there, a million or two here. But they had given in to cowardice and now worked for *galactic peace*.
They didn't expect us, and so we had attacked their home, their precious Earth, before they even realised. Billions dead. That was how to do warfare. Kill enough and break their spirit.
We expected them to militize their economy when we began our assaults, but we didn't expect it to happen overnight. We moved more of our fleets into their space and they began modifying their ships ready for combat within a few months. We hadn't expected how quickly they could adapt to situations. I could almost admire them for it, if I didn't hate them so.
After the first few battles, they proved themselves actually quite talented at killing. Oh they where using Adanai technology, no doubt gotten through one of their many trade deals, but they used it very differently to the Adanai. They experimented with strange tactics, such as using the ability to hyper jump whilst towing small meteors to create a simple yet effective trebuchet of sorts.
When we withdrew from their space to regroup, we thought that would be the end of it. I wish it had been. They kept coming first invading our space, and then blockading our planets. We thought we could match them, ship for ship, and outgun them with our dreadnaughts. But more and more of their ships kept coming. Soon we where not only fighting a defensive war, but one we couldn't win.
They waited till we tried to surrender to begin the extermination. Every planet, bombarded from orbit simultaneously with those bombs. We are somewhat resistant to fallout, but they completely destroyed the atmosphere, turning our worlds into tombs for our people.
And they did not stop until they got to me.
I, Commander *SCRTCH* am the last of my people. They left me alive merely to bear witness to the destruction they had brought. The gift of death was too good for the one who had massacred their home, they said. And so here I stand, on the tomb of my people, recording this message for posterity. If any future civilisation finds this, I tell you, don't cross the humans. They have no concept of honorable warfare. They only bring death. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Humans were always the strange ones.
While evolution gifted the rest of us with weapons that aided our planetary dominance, Humans had no such gifts. Ancient records tell of early visits to their planet to inspect them, where it was ruled that their ruthless violence and disregard for their planet would cause their early destruction. The galactic community at the time decided it was best to keep them in their system, for although their efforts at war paled in comparison with our many methods, their disregard for their planet was seen as uncouth. After all, what second mother would, after eating the oldest of the first mother, raze their new nest to the ground?
When it was heard that humans had become interplanetary, our species, the Yetan, as well as the Glovris and Hnyid (but notably not the Quinds) paused our everliving war to go fling their planets into their sun. It was here that we would end them once and for all. The humans, bold as always, met the triple fleet head on and made an offer we couldn't refuse. After all, when a species submits readily to your rule, what is the point of their destruction? They agreed to stay quarantined to their own system until further notice, and the ownership of these humans was added to the dominance exchange of the everliving war.
The humans proved to be much different than the ancient records indicated. Where we were told they would seek war, they brokered peace. At every turn, they insisted on negotiation instead of brute strength and dominance. Where the rest of the conquered galaxy would rise up in bloody insurrection, the humans instead introduced this concept of "trade", being the first species to ally with every member of the everliving war. Eventually they grew close to each of our species, and we could no longer pretend they were a conquest of war. If one of us tried to attack them, we knew the others would rise up united against us. Such was the power of the Human's 'trade deals' and 'alliance'.
It was eventually agreed that the humans would be more profitable if we let them expand and explore, so we let them out into the galaxy. They would be the first species to escape quarantine, and all of us were ready to attack if we saw them go back to their ancient ways.
Centuries passed, and still they remained peaceful. Slowly, they used their 'negotiations' to end parts of the everliving war, and taught new concepts like "system ownership" and "coexistance". The Quinds were never able to understand the last of those concepts, complaining that you can't have "ownership" and "coexist" at the same time, but we, the Yetan, and the Hnyid found that we weren't as different as we thought.
The everliving war began to take on new meaning. Instead of a dominance conquest, we began to negotiate on our own. This peace that the humans had discovered was intoxicating, and we couldn't have enough of it. Ironically, this fueled the everliving war as we wanted to be sure we could have more "peace" than the other species to prove our dominance, but the humans still continued to try to teach us.
Millenia passed and eventually a new species reached out. They called themselves the Vgnin and demanded dominance of our arm of the galaxy. They joined our everliving war, shattering whatever flimsy human peace concept we had established with the Glovris, Hnyid, and the Quinds. These creatures didn't know of the peaceful nature of the humans, and decided to dominate the weak creatures just like they dominated every creature in their part of the galaxy.
I remember the day the humans came to us, begging to protect them. The Vgnin decided to divide their fleet between every human planet, station and colony and attack at once. As I spoke with the human leader of Earth, the Vgnin ships were already warming their planetary glassers, demanding eternal slavery or death. I shook my head, knowing it was already too late.
It was strange. I realized then that the human's greatest strength, this peace, was also their greatest weakness. There was no way for them to fight back, just like evolution gave them no way to fight on their own. Once again, the peaceful would die and only the everliving war would remain. This was the way of all life.
The president had that same look of deep sorrow I must have shown. He must have realized that we would be witnessing either the enslavement or destruction of his entire race, and there's nothing any of us could do. He pulled out the instant broadcaster the Hnyid had gifted their race, ready to make the call. What would he decide? Slavery or death? He raised his mouth to the receiver, transmitting his next words to every human leader across the galaxy.
"Humanity must live on. You know what you need to do." slowly he lowered the broadcaster, seeming to shrink. They chose enslavement. I didn't blame them, perhaps they would one day convince the Vgnin of their human peace and trade like they had done to us. Until then, they would once again be servants to the stronger force.
The human seemed to shake as he walked to the window screens of our capital ship, viewing the Vgnin fleet overtop the many human planets, as well as their home, Earth. "Glorious leader of the Yetan," he began, "You invented the Warp Drive which allowed us all to zip across the galaxy, just as the Hynid invented communication faster than light." he slowly inhaled and let it out with a shudder. "Today you will learn of Humanity's great invention, and also our greatest fear."
The air seemed to grow cold as the human leader turned to me. "Our ancestors were crafters of weapons. That is how we dominated our planet." I watched as many small balls slowly rose off each planet, each lazily making their way toward every Vgnin ship.
The Human leader averted his gaze from the screens. "Everything was a weapon in their eyes. Even the atoms of the universe itself. We made a weapon that can destroy all life, and all technology. This is why we only seek peace."
A bright flash lit across every screen at once, the Vgnin ships blasted and sent spiraling through space, blown apart, shields flickering then dead.
Tears began to well in the Human Leader's eyes. "After a discovery like that, war can end in nothing but the end of all life." | Part 1:
Commander Turnall was gazing at the bright blue planet from the comfort of his cabin on the 17th Gunner Launcher of the Emios Empire. The windows of his cabin were designed specifically to give the room a wide 270 degree view. He looked at all the forces of the advance force sent by the Imperial Council. All 180 ships, with 400 destroyers, 80 sharpshooters, 150 gunners, 50 starshields, 18 Gunner Launchers and around 120,000 personnel.
Turnall was delighted when he was informed that he was ordered to command the advance force to the Soleus System, the native star system of the Humans. Turnall, who was partly human himself, loathed the Human race for their amiability and gentleness. The EMIOS had started long ago in Alixir III when the King of the Eliali, Aedealaus declared himself Emperor after subjugating all the surrounding systems after a long war of domination on all fronts. The Eliali, who still hold heavy political sway in the House of the Senate and the Imperial Council regard him as a demi-god and a legend, however rational men including Commander Turnall himself knew that he was not a holy figure but an opportunist who cunningly outwitted his opponents and attacked them when they were at their weakest.
Turnall was given orders to surround the planet in a semi-circular formation and wait them out of submission, his orders were to block any supplies that could be sent from the Colonies on the Mars and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The Humans despite being weak were proud of their Independence and traded with all nations and empires. The marijuana trade was highly profitable and booming, and the humans exported a wide range of elements. They even traded with the Matjl Empire, the most formidable of the rivals of the EMIOS.
Turnall did not like the mission of subjugating the Humans without force. He hated them. *He wanted them destroyed.* Of all things he hated*,* the thing he hated the most was that blue planet of theirs. The Emios called it Gaia 0 and is one of the most habitable places in the universe. Everything about it was perfect. Planet Placement, Size, Atmosphere, Gravitational Force and Abundance of Habitable Space and Stability. Many planets younger than Gaia 0 and Gaia-like planets which were promised to succeed it were outlived by Gaia 0.
Turnall sat and observed the meek satellites and defense systems of the Humans. The Humans were smart. Despite being the bright beacons of peace, love and happiness, they never stopped spending money on defense, but it was of no use now. They were indicted in the Supreme Council for crimes of negative resource-exploitation and slavery. Crimes that were framed upon them by the Secret Agency to facilitate the annexation of the United Nations into the EMIOS. They had always been part of the EMIOS association but were never truly part of the EMIOS proper. The aim was to bring them into the Imperial Fold, Turnall did not want this. He had made up his mind to destroy the Gaia, no matter the loss of life. The Humans will be shattered and the other minor republics of the association and liege states will be frightened. The embargo placed on the Matjl and Kin will be solidified and Turnall will be regarded as a hero. He thirsted for glory and wanted redemption for his failures during the Hock Skirmishes. His promotion was due and his pride as well.
He paced back and forth in wait of the Human Diplomats. When they arrived he couldn't hide his smile. He was searching for some pretext to invade the planet. He had thought over a hundred plans with his most loyal followers and decided that he would have some of his ships destroyed by his own guns. Some of his captains strongly opposed friendly fire, however a compromise was reached and it was decided the selected ships would be left completely vacant. He had to act quickly though, he had heard of news of reinforcements from the Outer Zone were heading towards Gaia and would arrive in 10 Gaia Days, 8 if they made haste.
The Diplomats arrived with a Ranskar guard on both flanks. They greeted him cordially without showing signs of dread. Turnall found it funny. *Your entire existence will be soon wiped, and you will be forgotten. Just like the Manes, the Ibers, the Nam or the Raqqa.*
Turnall advised them to seat and called for the interpretation team. One of the Diplomats blurted out, "Commander Turnall, you do know English, don't you?"
Turnall looked at them with shock. Yes, of course he did. It was his mother tongue. Turnall hated the language and considered it inferior. He tried forgetting the language by learning Lyal and Soran and avoiding it. However, he still dreamed in English, something he couldn't get rid of.
Turnall feigned ignorance, "No. No Cannot. Understand for me, not much".
The Diplomat smiled and nodded.
When the interpreters arrived the negotiations began. The Diplomats denied the allegations and asked to file a motion of reconsideration. They asked for talks between the Imperial Council and the United Nations, and withdrawal of forces. They agreed to cede their Outer Colonies to retain their independence. They asked for a new treaty and were willing to be reassigned as a protectorate. They even tried handing over the Imperial Association their trade control and foreign affairs. Anything, for retaining their independence.
However Turnall and the committee of senators of the House refused all their pleadings. They told that for violating intergalactic law they had to be annexed by the Supreme Council and nothing else. They told them that this was to merely be a transitional occupation and nothing else and their sovereignty would be handed back after a five-year term.
The Humans knew that this was false, the Supreme Council's biggest funder was EMIOS and since the last thirty years a puppet of the Emios Empire. They were literally paid by EMIOS to strike some decisions against them just to pretend impartiality.
The Diplomats were tired and they stood up. The Head of the Human Negotiators Han Xuhan addressed them.
"I am deeply saddened by the failure of our talks. We tried our best to ensure peace but you only talk of war and domination. We therefore will have to be forced to declare war on you. You have trespassed on our sovereignty, and we will fight to protect it."
Turnall couldn't believe his ears, "Declare war?". He was on seventh heaven. They had made his work easier. He will open fire on the first shot. Turnall will have his name etched in history, there will be medals. They will build statues and name institutions in his honor.
When the diplomats left Turnall ordered a meeting of his lieutenants, he advised them to get in a formation so that the sacrificial ships would be closest from the surface. He also told him that the statement might also be a ruse of the diplomats to bide for time and keep them waiting for supposed aggression. He told them that if the ships are not hit soon, they will be forced to destroy it with their own guns. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | “High Negotiator, the human ambassador wishes to see you.”
Sil Dunnan, High Negotiator of the Akkarat sighed, and gestured his assent. Of course she wanted to talk. The war was necessary, but still he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d known the ambassador for a long time, and they’d always gotten along well.
The Terrans were the natural choice. Of the Five Ancients, they were by far the least threatening. They didn’t field the horrific armies of the Gene Splicers, or command the AI strategists of the Machine Lords. Despite that, the peace stifled the mighty Akkarat race might as well be called the Pax Terra.
The other forerunner races had grown old and tired. They wouldn’t - couldn’t - maintain the peace themselves through force of arms. It was the humans that did that, not with weapons, but with their relentless sociability and diplomacy. Every government in the known galaxy sported a human ambassador who gently steered that race towards harmonious coexistence.
That peace threatened everything that made the Akkarat the Akkarat. Since unifying, they’d had nobody to fight. The old ways were dying. The galactic order had to be destroyed.
Quiet reconnaissance had been done. To the amazement of the War Council, human ships were essentially unarmed. It was beyond bizarre. Perhaps that was how they afforded their spendthrift aid missions - they had no military budget.
In fact, the humans really only seemed to have one thing going for them: their ships didn’t show up on normal scans.
Space was big, but ships were easy to find. Hyperspace shunts, the technology that turned every wheel in the galaxy, drew power from the endless energies of higher-dimensional space. To perform this miracle, each one of them ripped a tiny hole in space-time that a good sensor could pick up across a star system.
At some point, the humans had found a way to cloak their shunts. Even with their stunted military, this gave them a concerning edge in a prolonged conflict. As a result, a decisive first strike had been ordered.
Naturally, he hadn’t been able to tell the ambassador in advance. No doubt she felt betrayed. The least he could do was answer her questions.
As if on cue, the human ambassador threw open the doors of his audience chamber, his aid trailing rather uselessly behind her. She was visibly distressed.
“Sil!” she shouted as she bore down on him. “Tell me this is a lie, a mistake, anything! Just tell me you haven’t attacked the Terran Confederation.”
He tried to pitch his voice in a manner humans found soothing. “I’m sorry, Maria, I’d have told you sooner, but the War Council bound me to secrecy. Of course, I will ensure that your friends and loved ones are spared as best I can. I know how social your people are-”
“You damned fool,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you understand? *You* are my family. This planet holds everyone I love.”
Without waiting for an invitation, she slumped down into one of the chairs on the far side of his desk. His aide looked at her disapprovingly; Sil waved him out of the room.
The High Negotiator regarded her with concern. “Is there… anything I can do? I realize our nations are at war, but you have served your people and ours well for living memory and beyond. If there is anything in my power that you might need, please, tell me.”
She responded with a dismissive motion. “It’s too late. Had you told me sooner, I could have tried to stop it. But nothing can stop it now.”
Sil chuckled. “No need for that. Human bluffing is good, but it’s not that good. We figured out your secret. No weapons! No military infrastructure! Just myths about the destruction of Terra’s enemies in ages past. As if a psychological operation could keep your peace safe forever!”
“It was clever ruse, yes, very clever. But the age of the Ancients is over. It’s time for conflict, change, and glory. I’m afraid that as a human, you wouldn’t understand.”
Maria laughed, bitter and hollow. “I understand, Sil. That’s why I was posted here. I’ve personally killed an enemy soldier with my bare hands. I can report that it is not glorious at all.”
The High Negotiator frowned. “There is no recorded history of any human war. If such an event had ever happened, it would have predated The Treaty of the Five Forerunners!
To his shock, the normally staid and proper ambassador put her feet up on his desk. "Yeah. I was there.”
Sil stared at her, stunned. “But how?”
“Well, since we’re all about to die it can’t hurt to tell you. See, humans figured out immortality before we were really ready. Our numbers grew, resources ran thin, and we nearly wiped ourselves out.”
“After we came back from the brink of extinction, we decided we’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. It’s a job we ambassadors take very seriously.”
The High Negotiator snorted. “So you melted down your weapons and rely only on words to make this peace you love so much?”
She returned his gaze levelly. “Who says we melted down our weapons?”
A tiny seed of doubt began to take root in Sil’s heart. The look Maria was giving him reminded him more and more of an expression he’d seen only on the battlefield. It was the look of one who no longer has anything to lose.
“Our analysis was thorough, I read the reports myself. Your ships are-”
“Your reports are bullshit or you wouldn’t have done this. I’m going to let you in on a secret, Sil. I’m going to tell you how our stealth systems work.”
“Really? But that’s been the subject of research for centuries; it’s one of humankind’s most closely guarded secrets!”
“Yeah, but again, impending death. Do you want to know or not?”
He regarded her warily. “I suppose I do.”
“We don’t have a stealth system. We just don’t use hyperspace shunts.”
“What?!” Sil surged to his feet. “That’s impossible. A shunt is the only source of power light and powerful enough to fit into a spacecraft. You’d never be able break the hyperspace barrier with chemical fuels or solar power.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied laconically. “Chemical fuels are no good. But it turns out human brains are pretty bad at hyperspace physics. Uniquely bad, in fact. So we just learned to chain the stars instead.”
The hackles rose on the High Negotiator’s shoulders and neck. “You have small stars inside your ships. And these stars generate power all the time, even when the ship is jumping through hyperspace?”
The ambassador nodded. “Yup, that’s my understanding.”
Now it was Sil’s turn to fall back into his chair. “Your ships are practically invisible. And they must have range far beyond anything we could possibly have guessed.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Why are you telling me this? The element of surprise is all you have.”
The human ambassador’s expression was shifting again, this time towards sadness. “No. It’s really not. Do you know how hyperspace interdiction works? I mean, in general terms.”
Sil looked at her with fear as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know how it works, but I am afraid you are about to tell me.”
Maria removed her feet from his desk, resting her chin lightly on a clenched fist. “I am. Hyperspace shunts create a knot that crosses both normal space and h-space. Hyperspace inhibitors work by being a kind of comb that grabs the knot and pulls the ship back into our dimension.”
The High Negotiator blanched. “Hyperspace inhibitors won’t work on Terran ships. An invasion might come at any moment.”
His human friend just shook her head. “There won’t be an invasion. Don’t you get it? We learned to chain the stars *second*. We turned them into weapons first."
“My gods.” It was little more than a whisper. Sil cradled his head in his hands as the awful reality set in. “You can send star weapons through hyperspace. We’ve murdered our entire species.”
“No,” the human replied. “It was my job to stop it. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She walked around the desk and gathered the High Negotiator into her arms. “It’s alright. It won’t hurt. And I’ll be there with you. Gods willing, we’ll be able to walk one another across to the other side.” | Part 1:
Commander Turnall was gazing at the bright blue planet from the comfort of his cabin on the 17th Gunner Launcher of the Emios Empire. The windows of his cabin were designed specifically to give the room a wide 270 degree view. He looked at all the forces of the advance force sent by the Imperial Council. All 180 ships, with 400 destroyers, 80 sharpshooters, 150 gunners, 50 starshields, 18 Gunner Launchers and around 120,000 personnel.
Turnall was delighted when he was informed that he was ordered to command the advance force to the Soleus System, the native star system of the Humans. Turnall, who was partly human himself, loathed the Human race for their amiability and gentleness. The EMIOS had started long ago in Alixir III when the King of the Eliali, Aedealaus declared himself Emperor after subjugating all the surrounding systems after a long war of domination on all fronts. The Eliali, who still hold heavy political sway in the House of the Senate and the Imperial Council regard him as a demi-god and a legend, however rational men including Commander Turnall himself knew that he was not a holy figure but an opportunist who cunningly outwitted his opponents and attacked them when they were at their weakest.
Turnall was given orders to surround the planet in a semi-circular formation and wait them out of submission, his orders were to block any supplies that could be sent from the Colonies on the Mars and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The Humans despite being weak were proud of their Independence and traded with all nations and empires. The marijuana trade was highly profitable and booming, and the humans exported a wide range of elements. They even traded with the Matjl Empire, the most formidable of the rivals of the EMIOS.
Turnall did not like the mission of subjugating the Humans without force. He hated them. *He wanted them destroyed.* Of all things he hated*,* the thing he hated the most was that blue planet of theirs. The Emios called it Gaia 0 and is one of the most habitable places in the universe. Everything about it was perfect. Planet Placement, Size, Atmosphere, Gravitational Force and Abundance of Habitable Space and Stability. Many planets younger than Gaia 0 and Gaia-like planets which were promised to succeed it were outlived by Gaia 0.
Turnall sat and observed the meek satellites and defense systems of the Humans. The Humans were smart. Despite being the bright beacons of peace, love and happiness, they never stopped spending money on defense, but it was of no use now. They were indicted in the Supreme Council for crimes of negative resource-exploitation and slavery. Crimes that were framed upon them by the Secret Agency to facilitate the annexation of the United Nations into the EMIOS. They had always been part of the EMIOS association but were never truly part of the EMIOS proper. The aim was to bring them into the Imperial Fold, Turnall did not want this. He had made up his mind to destroy the Gaia, no matter the loss of life. The Humans will be shattered and the other minor republics of the association and liege states will be frightened. The embargo placed on the Matjl and Kin will be solidified and Turnall will be regarded as a hero. He thirsted for glory and wanted redemption for his failures during the Hock Skirmishes. His promotion was due and his pride as well.
He paced back and forth in wait of the Human Diplomats. When they arrived he couldn't hide his smile. He was searching for some pretext to invade the planet. He had thought over a hundred plans with his most loyal followers and decided that he would have some of his ships destroyed by his own guns. Some of his captains strongly opposed friendly fire, however a compromise was reached and it was decided the selected ships would be left completely vacant. He had to act quickly though, he had heard of news of reinforcements from the Outer Zone were heading towards Gaia and would arrive in 10 Gaia Days, 8 if they made haste.
The Diplomats arrived with a Ranskar guard on both flanks. They greeted him cordially without showing signs of dread. Turnall found it funny. *Your entire existence will be soon wiped, and you will be forgotten. Just like the Manes, the Ibers, the Nam or the Raqqa.*
Turnall advised them to seat and called for the interpretation team. One of the Diplomats blurted out, "Commander Turnall, you do know English, don't you?"
Turnall looked at them with shock. Yes, of course he did. It was his mother tongue. Turnall hated the language and considered it inferior. He tried forgetting the language by learning Lyal and Soran and avoiding it. However, he still dreamed in English, something he couldn't get rid of.
Turnall feigned ignorance, "No. No Cannot. Understand for me, not much".
The Diplomat smiled and nodded.
When the interpreters arrived the negotiations began. The Diplomats denied the allegations and asked to file a motion of reconsideration. They asked for talks between the Imperial Council and the United Nations, and withdrawal of forces. They agreed to cede their Outer Colonies to retain their independence. They asked for a new treaty and were willing to be reassigned as a protectorate. They even tried handing over the Imperial Association their trade control and foreign affairs. Anything, for retaining their independence.
However Turnall and the committee of senators of the House refused all their pleadings. They told that for violating intergalactic law they had to be annexed by the Supreme Council and nothing else. They told them that this was to merely be a transitional occupation and nothing else and their sovereignty would be handed back after a five-year term.
The Humans knew that this was false, the Supreme Council's biggest funder was EMIOS and since the last thirty years a puppet of the Emios Empire. They were literally paid by EMIOS to strike some decisions against them just to pretend impartiality.
The Diplomats were tired and they stood up. The Head of the Human Negotiators Han Xuhan addressed them.
"I am deeply saddened by the failure of our talks. We tried our best to ensure peace but you only talk of war and domination. We therefore will have to be forced to declare war on you. You have trespassed on our sovereignty, and we will fight to protect it."
Turnall couldn't believe his ears, "Declare war?". He was on seventh heaven. They had made his work easier. He will open fire on the first shot. Turnall will have his name etched in history, there will be medals. They will build statues and name institutions in his honor.
When the diplomats left Turnall ordered a meeting of his lieutenants, he advised them to get in a formation so that the sacrificial ships would be closest from the surface. He also told him that the statement might also be a ruse of the diplomats to bide for time and keep them waiting for supposed aggression. He told them that if the ships are not hit soon, they will be forced to destroy it with their own guns. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | Part 1:
Commander Turnall was gazing at the bright blue planet from the comfort of his cabin on the 17th Gunner Launcher of the Emios Empire. The windows of his cabin were designed specifically to give the room a wide 270 degree view. He looked at all the forces of the advance force sent by the Imperial Council. All 180 ships, with 400 destroyers, 80 sharpshooters, 150 gunners, 50 starshields, 18 Gunner Launchers and around 120,000 personnel.
Turnall was delighted when he was informed that he was ordered to command the advance force to the Soleus System, the native star system of the Humans. Turnall, who was partly human himself, loathed the Human race for their amiability and gentleness. The EMIOS had started long ago in Alixir III when the King of the Eliali, Aedealaus declared himself Emperor after subjugating all the surrounding systems after a long war of domination on all fronts. The Eliali, who still hold heavy political sway in the House of the Senate and the Imperial Council regard him as a demi-god and a legend, however rational men including Commander Turnall himself knew that he was not a holy figure but an opportunist who cunningly outwitted his opponents and attacked them when they were at their weakest.
Turnall was given orders to surround the planet in a semi-circular formation and wait them out of submission, his orders were to block any supplies that could be sent from the Colonies on the Mars and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The Humans despite being weak were proud of their Independence and traded with all nations and empires. The marijuana trade was highly profitable and booming, and the humans exported a wide range of elements. They even traded with the Matjl Empire, the most formidable of the rivals of the EMIOS.
Turnall did not like the mission of subjugating the Humans without force. He hated them. *He wanted them destroyed.* Of all things he hated*,* the thing he hated the most was that blue planet of theirs. The Emios called it Gaia 0 and is one of the most habitable places in the universe. Everything about it was perfect. Planet Placement, Size, Atmosphere, Gravitational Force and Abundance of Habitable Space and Stability. Many planets younger than Gaia 0 and Gaia-like planets which were promised to succeed it were outlived by Gaia 0.
Turnall sat and observed the meek satellites and defense systems of the Humans. The Humans were smart. Despite being the bright beacons of peace, love and happiness, they never stopped spending money on defense, but it was of no use now. They were indicted in the Supreme Council for crimes of negative resource-exploitation and slavery. Crimes that were framed upon them by the Secret Agency to facilitate the annexation of the United Nations into the EMIOS. They had always been part of the EMIOS association but were never truly part of the EMIOS proper. The aim was to bring them into the Imperial Fold, Turnall did not want this. He had made up his mind to destroy the Gaia, no matter the loss of life. The Humans will be shattered and the other minor republics of the association and liege states will be frightened. The embargo placed on the Matjl and Kin will be solidified and Turnall will be regarded as a hero. He thirsted for glory and wanted redemption for his failures during the Hock Skirmishes. His promotion was due and his pride as well.
He paced back and forth in wait of the Human Diplomats. When they arrived he couldn't hide his smile. He was searching for some pretext to invade the planet. He had thought over a hundred plans with his most loyal followers and decided that he would have some of his ships destroyed by his own guns. Some of his captains strongly opposed friendly fire, however a compromise was reached and it was decided the selected ships would be left completely vacant. He had to act quickly though, he had heard of news of reinforcements from the Outer Zone were heading towards Gaia and would arrive in 10 Gaia Days, 8 if they made haste.
The Diplomats arrived with a Ranskar guard on both flanks. They greeted him cordially without showing signs of dread. Turnall found it funny. *Your entire existence will be soon wiped, and you will be forgotten. Just like the Manes, the Ibers, the Nam or the Raqqa.*
Turnall advised them to seat and called for the interpretation team. One of the Diplomats blurted out, "Commander Turnall, you do know English, don't you?"
Turnall looked at them with shock. Yes, of course he did. It was his mother tongue. Turnall hated the language and considered it inferior. He tried forgetting the language by learning Lyal and Soran and avoiding it. However, he still dreamed in English, something he couldn't get rid of.
Turnall feigned ignorance, "No. No Cannot. Understand for me, not much".
The Diplomat smiled and nodded.
When the interpreters arrived the negotiations began. The Diplomats denied the allegations and asked to file a motion of reconsideration. They asked for talks between the Imperial Council and the United Nations, and withdrawal of forces. They agreed to cede their Outer Colonies to retain their independence. They asked for a new treaty and were willing to be reassigned as a protectorate. They even tried handing over the Imperial Association their trade control and foreign affairs. Anything, for retaining their independence.
However Turnall and the committee of senators of the House refused all their pleadings. They told that for violating intergalactic law they had to be annexed by the Supreme Council and nothing else. They told them that this was to merely be a transitional occupation and nothing else and their sovereignty would be handed back after a five-year term.
The Humans knew that this was false, the Supreme Council's biggest funder was EMIOS and since the last thirty years a puppet of the Emios Empire. They were literally paid by EMIOS to strike some decisions against them just to pretend impartiality.
The Diplomats were tired and they stood up. The Head of the Human Negotiators Han Xuhan addressed them.
"I am deeply saddened by the failure of our talks. We tried our best to ensure peace but you only talk of war and domination. We therefore will have to be forced to declare war on you. You have trespassed on our sovereignty, and we will fight to protect it."
Turnall couldn't believe his ears, "Declare war?". He was on seventh heaven. They had made his work easier. He will open fire on the first shot. Turnall will have his name etched in history, there will be medals. They will build statues and name institutions in his honor.
When the diplomats left Turnall ordered a meeting of his lieutenants, he advised them to get in a formation so that the sacrificial ships would be closest from the surface. He also told him that the statement might also be a ruse of the diplomats to bide for time and keep them waiting for supposed aggression. He told them that if the ships are not hit soon, they will be forced to destroy it with their own guns. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | Part 1:
Commander Turnall was gazing at the bright blue planet from the comfort of his cabin on the 17th Gunner Launcher of the Emios Empire. The windows of his cabin were designed specifically to give the room a wide 270 degree view. He looked at all the forces of the advance force sent by the Imperial Council. All 180 ships, with 400 destroyers, 80 sharpshooters, 150 gunners, 50 starshields, 18 Gunner Launchers and around 120,000 personnel.
Turnall was delighted when he was informed that he was ordered to command the advance force to the Soleus System, the native star system of the Humans. Turnall, who was partly human himself, loathed the Human race for their amiability and gentleness. The EMIOS had started long ago in Alixir III when the King of the Eliali, Aedealaus declared himself Emperor after subjugating all the surrounding systems after a long war of domination on all fronts. The Eliali, who still hold heavy political sway in the House of the Senate and the Imperial Council regard him as a demi-god and a legend, however rational men including Commander Turnall himself knew that he was not a holy figure but an opportunist who cunningly outwitted his opponents and attacked them when they were at their weakest.
Turnall was given orders to surround the planet in a semi-circular formation and wait them out of submission, his orders were to block any supplies that could be sent from the Colonies on the Mars and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The Humans despite being weak were proud of their Independence and traded with all nations and empires. The marijuana trade was highly profitable and booming, and the humans exported a wide range of elements. They even traded with the Matjl Empire, the most formidable of the rivals of the EMIOS.
Turnall did not like the mission of subjugating the Humans without force. He hated them. *He wanted them destroyed.* Of all things he hated*,* the thing he hated the most was that blue planet of theirs. The Emios called it Gaia 0 and is one of the most habitable places in the universe. Everything about it was perfect. Planet Placement, Size, Atmosphere, Gravitational Force and Abundance of Habitable Space and Stability. Many planets younger than Gaia 0 and Gaia-like planets which were promised to succeed it were outlived by Gaia 0.
Turnall sat and observed the meek satellites and defense systems of the Humans. The Humans were smart. Despite being the bright beacons of peace, love and happiness, they never stopped spending money on defense, but it was of no use now. They were indicted in the Supreme Council for crimes of negative resource-exploitation and slavery. Crimes that were framed upon them by the Secret Agency to facilitate the annexation of the United Nations into the EMIOS. They had always been part of the EMIOS association but were never truly part of the EMIOS proper. The aim was to bring them into the Imperial Fold, Turnall did not want this. He had made up his mind to destroy the Gaia, no matter the loss of life. The Humans will be shattered and the other minor republics of the association and liege states will be frightened. The embargo placed on the Matjl and Kin will be solidified and Turnall will be regarded as a hero. He thirsted for glory and wanted redemption for his failures during the Hock Skirmishes. His promotion was due and his pride as well.
He paced back and forth in wait of the Human Diplomats. When they arrived he couldn't hide his smile. He was searching for some pretext to invade the planet. He had thought over a hundred plans with his most loyal followers and decided that he would have some of his ships destroyed by his own guns. Some of his captains strongly opposed friendly fire, however a compromise was reached and it was decided the selected ships would be left completely vacant. He had to act quickly though, he had heard of news of reinforcements from the Outer Zone were heading towards Gaia and would arrive in 10 Gaia Days, 8 if they made haste.
The Diplomats arrived with a Ranskar guard on both flanks. They greeted him cordially without showing signs of dread. Turnall found it funny. *Your entire existence will be soon wiped, and you will be forgotten. Just like the Manes, the Ibers, the Nam or the Raqqa.*
Turnall advised them to seat and called for the interpretation team. One of the Diplomats blurted out, "Commander Turnall, you do know English, don't you?"
Turnall looked at them with shock. Yes, of course he did. It was his mother tongue. Turnall hated the language and considered it inferior. He tried forgetting the language by learning Lyal and Soran and avoiding it. However, he still dreamed in English, something he couldn't get rid of.
Turnall feigned ignorance, "No. No Cannot. Understand for me, not much".
The Diplomat smiled and nodded.
When the interpreters arrived the negotiations began. The Diplomats denied the allegations and asked to file a motion of reconsideration. They asked for talks between the Imperial Council and the United Nations, and withdrawal of forces. They agreed to cede their Outer Colonies to retain their independence. They asked for a new treaty and were willing to be reassigned as a protectorate. They even tried handing over the Imperial Association their trade control and foreign affairs. Anything, for retaining their independence.
However Turnall and the committee of senators of the House refused all their pleadings. They told that for violating intergalactic law they had to be annexed by the Supreme Council and nothing else. They told them that this was to merely be a transitional occupation and nothing else and their sovereignty would be handed back after a five-year term.
The Humans knew that this was false, the Supreme Council's biggest funder was EMIOS and since the last thirty years a puppet of the Emios Empire. They were literally paid by EMIOS to strike some decisions against them just to pretend impartiality.
The Diplomats were tired and they stood up. The Head of the Human Negotiators Han Xuhan addressed them.
"I am deeply saddened by the failure of our talks. We tried our best to ensure peace but you only talk of war and domination. We therefore will have to be forced to declare war on you. You have trespassed on our sovereignty, and we will fight to protect it."
Turnall couldn't believe his ears, "Declare war?". He was on seventh heaven. They had made his work easier. He will open fire on the first shot. Turnall will have his name etched in history, there will be medals. They will build statues and name institutions in his honor.
When the diplomats left Turnall ordered a meeting of his lieutenants, he advised them to get in a formation so that the sacrificial ships would be closest from the surface. He also told him that the statement might also be a ruse of the diplomats to bide for time and keep them waiting for supposed aggression. He told them that if the ships are not hit soon, they will be forced to destroy it with their own guns. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | “High Negotiator, the human ambassador wishes to see you.”
Sil Dunnan, High Negotiator of the Akkarat sighed, and gestured his assent. Of course she wanted to talk. The war was necessary, but still he felt a twinge of guilt. He’d known the ambassador for a long time, and they’d always gotten along well.
The Terrans were the natural choice. Of the Five Ancients, they were by far the least threatening. They didn’t field the horrific armies of the Gene Splicers, or command the AI strategists of the Machine Lords. Despite that, the peace stifled the mighty Akkarat race might as well be called the Pax Terra.
The other forerunner races had grown old and tired. They wouldn’t - couldn’t - maintain the peace themselves through force of arms. It was the humans that did that, not with weapons, but with their relentless sociability and diplomacy. Every government in the known galaxy sported a human ambassador who gently steered that race towards harmonious coexistence.
That peace threatened everything that made the Akkarat the Akkarat. Since unifying, they’d had nobody to fight. The old ways were dying. The galactic order had to be destroyed.
Quiet reconnaissance had been done. To the amazement of the War Council, human ships were essentially unarmed. It was beyond bizarre. Perhaps that was how they afforded their spendthrift aid missions - they had no military budget.
In fact, the humans really only seemed to have one thing going for them: their ships didn’t show up on normal scans.
Space was big, but ships were easy to find. Hyperspace shunts, the technology that turned every wheel in the galaxy, drew power from the endless energies of higher-dimensional space. To perform this miracle, each one of them ripped a tiny hole in space-time that a good sensor could pick up across a star system.
At some point, the humans had found a way to cloak their shunts. Even with their stunted military, this gave them a concerning edge in a prolonged conflict. As a result, a decisive first strike had been ordered.
Naturally, he hadn’t been able to tell the ambassador in advance. No doubt she felt betrayed. The least he could do was answer her questions.
As if on cue, the human ambassador threw open the doors of his audience chamber, his aid trailing rather uselessly behind her. She was visibly distressed.
“Sil!” she shouted as she bore down on him. “Tell me this is a lie, a mistake, anything! Just tell me you haven’t attacked the Terran Confederation.”
He tried to pitch his voice in a manner humans found soothing. “I’m sorry, Maria, I’d have told you sooner, but the War Council bound me to secrecy. Of course, I will ensure that your friends and loved ones are spared as best I can. I know how social your people are-”
“You damned fool,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you understand? *You* are my family. This planet holds everyone I love.”
Without waiting for an invitation, she slumped down into one of the chairs on the far side of his desk. His aide looked at her disapprovingly; Sil waved him out of the room.
The High Negotiator regarded her with concern. “Is there… anything I can do? I realize our nations are at war, but you have served your people and ours well for living memory and beyond. If there is anything in my power that you might need, please, tell me.”
She responded with a dismissive motion. “It’s too late. Had you told me sooner, I could have tried to stop it. But nothing can stop it now.”
Sil chuckled. “No need for that. Human bluffing is good, but it’s not that good. We figured out your secret. No weapons! No military infrastructure! Just myths about the destruction of Terra’s enemies in ages past. As if a psychological operation could keep your peace safe forever!”
“It was clever ruse, yes, very clever. But the age of the Ancients is over. It’s time for conflict, change, and glory. I’m afraid that as a human, you wouldn’t understand.”
Maria laughed, bitter and hollow. “I understand, Sil. That’s why I was posted here. I’ve personally killed an enemy soldier with my bare hands. I can report that it is not glorious at all.”
The High Negotiator frowned. “There is no recorded history of any human war. If such an event had ever happened, it would have predated The Treaty of the Five Forerunners!
To his shock, the normally staid and proper ambassador put her feet up on his desk. "Yeah. I was there.”
Sil stared at her, stunned. “But how?”
“Well, since we’re all about to die it can’t hurt to tell you. See, humans figured out immortality before we were really ready. Our numbers grew, resources ran thin, and we nearly wiped ourselves out.”
“After we came back from the brink of extinction, we decided we’d do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. It’s a job we ambassadors take very seriously.”
The High Negotiator snorted. “So you melted down your weapons and rely only on words to make this peace you love so much?”
She returned his gaze levelly. “Who says we melted down our weapons?”
A tiny seed of doubt began to take root in Sil’s heart. The look Maria was giving him reminded him more and more of an expression he’d seen only on the battlefield. It was the look of one who no longer has anything to lose.
“Our analysis was thorough, I read the reports myself. Your ships are-”
“Your reports are bullshit or you wouldn’t have done this. I’m going to let you in on a secret, Sil. I’m going to tell you how our stealth systems work.”
“Really? But that’s been the subject of research for centuries; it’s one of humankind’s most closely guarded secrets!”
“Yeah, but again, impending death. Do you want to know or not?”
He regarded her warily. “I suppose I do.”
“We don’t have a stealth system. We just don’t use hyperspace shunts.”
“What?!” Sil surged to his feet. “That’s impossible. A shunt is the only source of power light and powerful enough to fit into a spacecraft. You’d never be able break the hyperspace barrier with chemical fuels or solar power.”
“You’re right about that,” she replied laconically. “Chemical fuels are no good. But it turns out human brains are pretty bad at hyperspace physics. Uniquely bad, in fact. So we just learned to chain the stars instead.”
The hackles rose on the High Negotiator’s shoulders and neck. “You have small stars inside your ships. And these stars generate power all the time, even when the ship is jumping through hyperspace?”
The ambassador nodded. “Yup, that’s my understanding.”
Now it was Sil’s turn to fall back into his chair. “Your ships are practically invisible. And they must have range far beyond anything we could possibly have guessed.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Why are you telling me this? The element of surprise is all you have.”
The human ambassador’s expression was shifting again, this time towards sadness. “No. It’s really not. Do you know how hyperspace interdiction works? I mean, in general terms.”
Sil looked at her with fear as realization began to dawn. “I don’t know how it works, but I am afraid you are about to tell me.”
Maria removed her feet from his desk, resting her chin lightly on a clenched fist. “I am. Hyperspace shunts create a knot that crosses both normal space and h-space. Hyperspace inhibitors work by being a kind of comb that grabs the knot and pulls the ship back into our dimension.”
The High Negotiator blanched. “Hyperspace inhibitors won’t work on Terran ships. An invasion might come at any moment.”
His human friend just shook her head. “There won’t be an invasion. Don’t you get it? We learned to chain the stars *second*. We turned them into weapons first."
“My gods.” It was little more than a whisper. Sil cradled his head in his hands as the awful reality set in. “You can send star weapons through hyperspace. We’ve murdered our entire species.”
“No,” the human replied. “It was my job to stop it. I failed you. I’m sorry.”
She walked around the desk and gathered the High Negotiator into her arms. “It’s alright. It won’t hurt. And I’ll be there with you. Gods willing, we’ll be able to walk one another across to the other side.” | Humans were always the strange ones.
While evolution gifted the rest of us with weapons that aided our planetary dominance, Humans had no such gifts. Ancient records tell of early visits to their planet to inspect them, where it was ruled that their ruthless violence and disregard for their planet would cause their early destruction. The galactic community at the time decided it was best to keep them in their system, for although their efforts at war paled in comparison with our many methods, their disregard for their planet was seen as uncouth. After all, what second mother would, after eating the oldest of the first mother, raze their new nest to the ground?
When it was heard that humans had become interplanetary, our species, the Yetan, as well as the Glovris and Hnyid (but notably not the Quinds) paused our everliving war to go fling their planets into their sun. It was here that we would end them once and for all. The humans, bold as always, met the triple fleet head on and made an offer we couldn't refuse. After all, when a species submits readily to your rule, what is the point of their destruction? They agreed to stay quarantined to their own system until further notice, and the ownership of these humans was added to the dominance exchange of the everliving war.
The humans proved to be much different than the ancient records indicated. Where we were told they would seek war, they brokered peace. At every turn, they insisted on negotiation instead of brute strength and dominance. Where the rest of the conquered galaxy would rise up in bloody insurrection, the humans instead introduced this concept of "trade", being the first species to ally with every member of the everliving war. Eventually they grew close to each of our species, and we could no longer pretend they were a conquest of war. If one of us tried to attack them, we knew the others would rise up united against us. Such was the power of the Human's 'trade deals' and 'alliance'.
It was eventually agreed that the humans would be more profitable if we let them expand and explore, so we let them out into the galaxy. They would be the first species to escape quarantine, and all of us were ready to attack if we saw them go back to their ancient ways.
Centuries passed, and still they remained peaceful. Slowly, they used their 'negotiations' to end parts of the everliving war, and taught new concepts like "system ownership" and "coexistance". The Quinds were never able to understand the last of those concepts, complaining that you can't have "ownership" and "coexist" at the same time, but we, the Yetan, and the Hnyid found that we weren't as different as we thought.
The everliving war began to take on new meaning. Instead of a dominance conquest, we began to negotiate on our own. This peace that the humans had discovered was intoxicating, and we couldn't have enough of it. Ironically, this fueled the everliving war as we wanted to be sure we could have more "peace" than the other species to prove our dominance, but the humans still continued to try to teach us.
Millenia passed and eventually a new species reached out. They called themselves the Vgnin and demanded dominance of our arm of the galaxy. They joined our everliving war, shattering whatever flimsy human peace concept we had established with the Glovris, Hnyid, and the Quinds. These creatures didn't know of the peaceful nature of the humans, and decided to dominate the weak creatures just like they dominated every creature in their part of the galaxy.
I remember the day the humans came to us, begging to protect them. The Vgnin decided to divide their fleet between every human planet, station and colony and attack at once. As I spoke with the human leader of Earth, the Vgnin ships were already warming their planetary glassers, demanding eternal slavery or death. I shook my head, knowing it was already too late.
It was strange. I realized then that the human's greatest strength, this peace, was also their greatest weakness. There was no way for them to fight back, just like evolution gave them no way to fight on their own. Once again, the peaceful would die and only the everliving war would remain. This was the way of all life.
The president had that same look of deep sorrow I must have shown. He must have realized that we would be witnessing either the enslavement or destruction of his entire race, and there's nothing any of us could do. He pulled out the instant broadcaster the Hnyid had gifted their race, ready to make the call. What would he decide? Slavery or death? He raised his mouth to the receiver, transmitting his next words to every human leader across the galaxy.
"Humanity must live on. You know what you need to do." slowly he lowered the broadcaster, seeming to shrink. They chose enslavement. I didn't blame them, perhaps they would one day convince the Vgnin of their human peace and trade like they had done to us. Until then, they would once again be servants to the stronger force.
The human seemed to shake as he walked to the window screens of our capital ship, viewing the Vgnin fleet overtop the many human planets, as well as their home, Earth. "Glorious leader of the Yetan," he began, "You invented the Warp Drive which allowed us all to zip across the galaxy, just as the Hynid invented communication faster than light." he slowly inhaled and let it out with a shudder. "Today you will learn of Humanity's great invention, and also our greatest fear."
The air seemed to grow cold as the human leader turned to me. "Our ancestors were crafters of weapons. That is how we dominated our planet." I watched as many small balls slowly rose off each planet, each lazily making their way toward every Vgnin ship.
The Human leader averted his gaze from the screens. "Everything was a weapon in their eyes. Even the atoms of the universe itself. We made a weapon that can destroy all life, and all technology. This is why we only seek peace."
A bright flash lit across every screen at once, the Vgnin ships blasted and sent spiraling through space, blown apart, shields flickering then dead.
Tears began to well in the Human Leader's eyes. "After a discovery like that, war can end in nothing but the end of all life." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | The Warfang watched the pathetic excuse for a human diplomat before him. This mission was a study in boredom, and had not intergalactic relations demanded the prescence of his delegation they would have done away with the whole thing and just attacked.
Already the Concordates warships were hurtling through the human home system, less than a day away from orbit. Its mass drivers would kill what needed to be killed and its dropships would conquer the rest. Whatever the old decrepit man in front of him might say, would do less of a difference than a fart in a space suit.
”We have heard your demands”, the old man grated. ”Actually we’ve had them repeated without any signs of compromise for months now.”
”It seems to us that they are designed to make these talks no more and no less than a show for the benefit of the galactic council?” he stated. ”Please correct me if I’m wrong.”
The Warfang didn’t deign an answer. What was the purpose anyway? After all, the greybeard had hit the nail on the head. This was just a show, and nothing happening between these delegations would change anything that was to come.
”You are making a serious mistake, Warfang”, the old diplomat said. ”You and your Concordate are mistaking our strife for galactic peace for weakness…”
”It is not…”
The old mans smile held a sudden tinge of remorsefull sadness. It was curious to the Warfang how two such different species could share so much of facial expressions, that he intuitively understood the sentiment. It suddenly made his skin crawl, as if someone held a blade to his neck. And just as he was trying to formulate a question to solve the enigma, the diplomats eyes went to the big hologram covering the whole side of the room. His own eyes automatically followed the other mans focus.
On the display pinpricks of light started to erupt throughout the invading fleet. Wherever they lit up, icons of Concordate ships disappeared. Not even just in ones or twos, but in droves.
His mouth fell open, unconciously showing predator teeth. And as his eyes snapped back to the old diplomat, the old mans sad smile hade returned with twice the force.
”I am afraid your fleet is done for Warfang.” he said. ”If the Concordate had had more interest in actually studying the cultures you subjugate, you would have found out we were pretty damn close to wiping ourselves out a time or two. In reality we’re among the most warlike races of any that we’ve met, we have just tried to get ourselves beyond those instincts.”
The Warfang was stunned, not a sound came out of his mouth even as he tried to say something.
”I’m afraid that our peaceful stance has been dearly bought”, the old man continued. ”Our perpetual wars finally came to the point where our stark choice was cooperation or death. We chose cooperation, but the knowledge of how easy it is to kill never really left us.”
”But how?…” the words finally coming out of the Warfangs mouth sounded weak and shaky. He cursed himself under his breath.
”Not that hard actually. Just the power of the stars themselves, enhanced to the point where nothing really can stand against it.”
The old man shook his head, he no longer looked decrepit.
”We don’t expect the Concordate to yield, not when the foundation of their existense and identity as conquerors are threatened.” he said. ”So our own ships are already moving.”
The peculiar human eyes were no longer just sad, but also hard as stone.
”As we sit here, they are already on their way to all military centers within onehundred and fifty light years from our home system.
”I am afraid that those systems will become as close to uninhabitable as to not make much difference for at least a generation or two.”
”Our civilians”, the Warfang said with a keen.
”Yes, your civilians”, the diplomat answered. ”You had less than no appreciation for our civilians as recently as a few minutes ago. It was never our wish to have this war on our hands. But there is an old human saying that fits the situation all to well.”
The Warfangs look asked the question he couldn’t make himself utter in words.
”Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
The old man stood up and pushed the chair under the table.
”You are no longer welcome here. You, as a diplomat are of course free to go wherever you wish. We will not try to stop you, hurt you or in any way delay you”, he said. ”I suspect we might meet again in the galactic council. Or maybe we won’t, I’m not certain if you or I will be the chosen delegates. Until then all I can say is that this is not a cause for celebration as far as we are concerned.”
He wished to call the man back as he left the room. He wished to shout, scream, claw something. He wished to rend and tear flesh. Onehundred and fifty light years, that covered nine tenths of the Concordates primary systems, including the Capital. If those weapons were numerous enough and as efficient on the ground, the Concordate would all but cease to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | The Warfang watched the pathetic excuse for a human diplomat before him. This mission was a study in boredom, and had not intergalactic relations demanded the prescence of his delegation they would have done away with the whole thing and just attacked.
Already the Concordates warships were hurtling through the human home system, less than a day away from orbit. Its mass drivers would kill what needed to be killed and its dropships would conquer the rest. Whatever the old decrepit man in front of him might say, would do less of a difference than a fart in a space suit.
”We have heard your demands”, the old man grated. ”Actually we’ve had them repeated without any signs of compromise for months now.”
”It seems to us that they are designed to make these talks no more and no less than a show for the benefit of the galactic council?” he stated. ”Please correct me if I’m wrong.”
The Warfang didn’t deign an answer. What was the purpose anyway? After all, the greybeard had hit the nail on the head. This was just a show, and nothing happening between these delegations would change anything that was to come.
”You are making a serious mistake, Warfang”, the old diplomat said. ”You and your Concordate are mistaking our strife for galactic peace for weakness…”
”It is not…”
The old mans smile held a sudden tinge of remorsefull sadness. It was curious to the Warfang how two such different species could share so much of facial expressions, that he intuitively understood the sentiment. It suddenly made his skin crawl, as if someone held a blade to his neck. And just as he was trying to formulate a question to solve the enigma, the diplomats eyes went to the big hologram covering the whole side of the room. His own eyes automatically followed the other mans focus.
On the display pinpricks of light started to erupt throughout the invading fleet. Wherever they lit up, icons of Concordate ships disappeared. Not even just in ones or twos, but in droves.
His mouth fell open, unconciously showing predator teeth. And as his eyes snapped back to the old diplomat, the old mans sad smile hade returned with twice the force.
”I am afraid your fleet is done for Warfang.” he said. ”If the Concordate had had more interest in actually studying the cultures you subjugate, you would have found out we were pretty damn close to wiping ourselves out a time or two. In reality we’re among the most warlike races of any that we’ve met, we have just tried to get ourselves beyond those instincts.”
The Warfang was stunned, not a sound came out of his mouth even as he tried to say something.
”I’m afraid that our peaceful stance has been dearly bought”, the old man continued. ”Our perpetual wars finally came to the point where our stark choice was cooperation or death. We chose cooperation, but the knowledge of how easy it is to kill never really left us.”
”But how?…” the words finally coming out of the Warfangs mouth sounded weak and shaky. He cursed himself under his breath.
”Not that hard actually. Just the power of the stars themselves, enhanced to the point where nothing really can stand against it.”
The old man shook his head, he no longer looked decrepit.
”We don’t expect the Concordate to yield, not when the foundation of their existense and identity as conquerors are threatened.” he said. ”So our own ships are already moving.”
The peculiar human eyes were no longer just sad, but also hard as stone.
”As we sit here, they are already on their way to all military centers within onehundred and fifty light years from our home system.
”I am afraid that those systems will become as close to uninhabitable as to not make much difference for at least a generation or two.”
”Our civilians”, the Warfang said with a keen.
”Yes, your civilians”, the diplomat answered. ”You had less than no appreciation for our civilians as recently as a few minutes ago. It was never our wish to have this war on our hands. But there is an old human saying that fits the situation all to well.”
The Warfangs look asked the question he couldn’t make himself utter in words.
”Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
The old man stood up and pushed the chair under the table.
”You are no longer welcome here. You, as a diplomat are of course free to go wherever you wish. We will not try to stop you, hurt you or in any way delay you”, he said. ”I suspect we might meet again in the galactic council. Or maybe we won’t, I’m not certain if you or I will be the chosen delegates. Until then all I can say is that this is not a cause for celebration as far as we are concerned.”
He wished to call the man back as he left the room. He wished to shout, scream, claw something. He wished to rend and tear flesh. Onehundred and fifty light years, that covered nine tenths of the Concordates primary systems, including the Capital. If those weapons were numerous enough and as efficient on the ground, the Concordate would all but cease to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | It's useful, in a general sort of way, to be seen by the galaxy at large as cute, harmless doofuses. Soft, fleshy, tiny little bipeds, always wanting to communicate. To most of them, we're about as threatening as a Labrador puppy.
Understand; our stellar neighborhood is a very scary place. Like Mos Eisly Cantina scary. You've got your hive mind "insectoid" races, your noncorporeal energy beings, and all manner of biologically acrobatic variations in between. And don't even get me started on the only other humanoids, the fucking Greys. Yikes. Those guys suck.
Anyway, when I say "in a general sort of way," it's because there are a few specific and distinct disadvantages to this perception, as well. One of them would be situations where the ambassador from Earth must appeal to the Council of Argherrech. Which is the situation that I, as said ambassador, had to face during what was later called "The VingVa Crisis."
The VingVa, known colloquially just the Ving or even simply V, were a particular obnoxious insectoid neighbor to earth. One day, without any prior notice, a Ving spacehive appeared only a few miles outside lunar orbit and began construction on an hyperspace corridor repeater site. And I don't have to tell you, the radiation those things throw off, when they're active, that close to Earth? Well. This kills the Labrador puppies.
Of course all attempts by the human authorities at communication were ignored. The Ving had communicated to the council that they consider humans a non-sentient lower life-form, and thus unworthy of inclusion in the council or in fact any form of recognition or communication. This was a common perception among hivemind species, who generally only recognized sentience of other hives. Politics, amiright?
As I approached the round which seated the members of the council, I was struck again bye how large of stature and claw and tooth most of them are. Quite intimidating. As I approached and climbed the tiny elevated platform where petitioners stood, I felt their alien perceptions tracking me. I spoke slowly and clearly into the translation assembly.
"Good day and high praises upon all of your excellencies, members of the prestigious and all-knowing Counsel of Argherrech..."
And then I went on like this for some time praising each member of the council individually and debasing myself before them. These guys LOVE flattery. Rather dreary and boring and if you don't mind I'll skip ahead to the important bits.
"...and so, I come before you today to seek the permission of the council to defend the human homeworld against this unlawful incursion into our space."
There was a silence as the counselors each finished receiving the translation. Though by policy the Ving never acknowledged any human communication, the first reaction was, in fact, from the Ving avatar. There was a series of twitching movements in the top third of it's upper facial appendages, which I had come to understand as a *very* rough analog to human laughter. Wonderful. What followed was a near 10 minute conversation among themselves that, of course, was not translated for my benefit. When they had finished their conference, Basthora, the "chair," spoke into his own translation assembly. What came out my end was a harsh, metallic, very robotic sounding voice.
"If VingVa make war, Human cannot survive. Council will order VingVa allow one earthcycle for evacuation of Humans."
Much as I'd expected.
"Ah, yes, and this is much appreciated, oh most noble and generous rulers, may your reign last an epoch. But, if I may, and with all respect due, I was sent here today by the leaders of Earth to seek the permission of this glorious council to do exactly that. To declare war on the VingVa, and to, erm, to defend ourselves."
Now the "laughter" was more pronounced - not just in the Ving avatar but in the forms of the others as well. A very brief untranslated conversation followed, but from what I had learned of their body language, the response was clear. Assent.
"If Humans wish extinction, they may fight the VingVa to the death. Council grants permission."
Of course, everyone knows what came next. We waited patiently for the V hive to finish constructing the terminal, and turn it on. Fifty H-bombs, casually dumped into the newly opened portal - a straight shot back to their homeworld. One more for the hive that built the damn thing. Funny thing, they didn't even bother trying to stop the tiny ship that did it. Never fired a single shot at it. They literally never knew what hit them. They saw us as so far beneath them, so insignificant, so weak, that even in total annihilation they did not comprehend the threat we posed to them. And they never will.
Because now, there are no more VingVa.
Yes, in a general sort of way, it is quite useful to be seen as cute, harmless doofuses. Though I'd wager that, in the future, maintaining that image may prove slightly more challenging. But, hey...what else are diplomats for?
Edit: a word | The Warfang watched the pathetic excuse for a human diplomat before him. This mission was a study in boredom, and had not intergalactic relations demanded the prescence of his delegation they would have done away with the whole thing and just attacked.
Already the Concordates warships were hurtling through the human home system, less than a day away from orbit. Its mass drivers would kill what needed to be killed and its dropships would conquer the rest. Whatever the old decrepit man in front of him might say, would do less of a difference than a fart in a space suit.
”We have heard your demands”, the old man grated. ”Actually we’ve had them repeated without any signs of compromise for months now.”
”It seems to us that they are designed to make these talks no more and no less than a show for the benefit of the galactic council?” he stated. ”Please correct me if I’m wrong.”
The Warfang didn’t deign an answer. What was the purpose anyway? After all, the greybeard had hit the nail on the head. This was just a show, and nothing happening between these delegations would change anything that was to come.
”You are making a serious mistake, Warfang”, the old diplomat said. ”You and your Concordate are mistaking our strife for galactic peace for weakness…”
”It is not…”
The old mans smile held a sudden tinge of remorsefull sadness. It was curious to the Warfang how two such different species could share so much of facial expressions, that he intuitively understood the sentiment. It suddenly made his skin crawl, as if someone held a blade to his neck. And just as he was trying to formulate a question to solve the enigma, the diplomats eyes went to the big hologram covering the whole side of the room. His own eyes automatically followed the other mans focus.
On the display pinpricks of light started to erupt throughout the invading fleet. Wherever they lit up, icons of Concordate ships disappeared. Not even just in ones or twos, but in droves.
His mouth fell open, unconciously showing predator teeth. And as his eyes snapped back to the old diplomat, the old mans sad smile hade returned with twice the force.
”I am afraid your fleet is done for Warfang.” he said. ”If the Concordate had had more interest in actually studying the cultures you subjugate, you would have found out we were pretty damn close to wiping ourselves out a time or two. In reality we’re among the most warlike races of any that we’ve met, we have just tried to get ourselves beyond those instincts.”
The Warfang was stunned, not a sound came out of his mouth even as he tried to say something.
”I’m afraid that our peaceful stance has been dearly bought”, the old man continued. ”Our perpetual wars finally came to the point where our stark choice was cooperation or death. We chose cooperation, but the knowledge of how easy it is to kill never really left us.”
”But how?…” the words finally coming out of the Warfangs mouth sounded weak and shaky. He cursed himself under his breath.
”Not that hard actually. Just the power of the stars themselves, enhanced to the point where nothing really can stand against it.”
The old man shook his head, he no longer looked decrepit.
”We don’t expect the Concordate to yield, not when the foundation of their existense and identity as conquerors are threatened.” he said. ”So our own ships are already moving.”
The peculiar human eyes were no longer just sad, but also hard as stone.
”As we sit here, they are already on their way to all military centers within onehundred and fifty light years from our home system.
”I am afraid that those systems will become as close to uninhabitable as to not make much difference for at least a generation or two.”
”Our civilians”, the Warfang said with a keen.
”Yes, your civilians”, the diplomat answered. ”You had less than no appreciation for our civilians as recently as a few minutes ago. It was never our wish to have this war on our hands. But there is an old human saying that fits the situation all to well.”
The Warfangs look asked the question he couldn’t make himself utter in words.
”Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
The old man stood up and pushed the chair under the table.
”You are no longer welcome here. You, as a diplomat are of course free to go wherever you wish. We will not try to stop you, hurt you or in any way delay you”, he said. ”I suspect we might meet again in the galactic council. Or maybe we won’t, I’m not certain if you or I will be the chosen delegates. Until then all I can say is that this is not a cause for celebration as far as we are concerned.”
He wished to call the man back as he left the room. He wished to shout, scream, claw something. He wished to rend and tear flesh. Onehundred and fifty light years, that covered nine tenths of the Concordates primary systems, including the Capital. If those weapons were numerous enough and as efficient on the ground, the Concordate would all but cease to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | The Warfang watched the pathetic excuse for a human diplomat before him. This mission was a study in boredom, and had not intergalactic relations demanded the prescence of his delegation they would have done away with the whole thing and just attacked.
Already the Concordates warships were hurtling through the human home system, less than a day away from orbit. Its mass drivers would kill what needed to be killed and its dropships would conquer the rest. Whatever the old decrepit man in front of him might say, would do less of a difference than a fart in a space suit.
”We have heard your demands”, the old man grated. ”Actually we’ve had them repeated without any signs of compromise for months now.”
”It seems to us that they are designed to make these talks no more and no less than a show for the benefit of the galactic council?” he stated. ”Please correct me if I’m wrong.”
The Warfang didn’t deign an answer. What was the purpose anyway? After all, the greybeard had hit the nail on the head. This was just a show, and nothing happening between these delegations would change anything that was to come.
”You are making a serious mistake, Warfang”, the old diplomat said. ”You and your Concordate are mistaking our strife for galactic peace for weakness…”
”It is not…”
The old mans smile held a sudden tinge of remorsefull sadness. It was curious to the Warfang how two such different species could share so much of facial expressions, that he intuitively understood the sentiment. It suddenly made his skin crawl, as if someone held a blade to his neck. And just as he was trying to formulate a question to solve the enigma, the diplomats eyes went to the big hologram covering the whole side of the room. His own eyes automatically followed the other mans focus.
On the display pinpricks of light started to erupt throughout the invading fleet. Wherever they lit up, icons of Concordate ships disappeared. Not even just in ones or twos, but in droves.
His mouth fell open, unconciously showing predator teeth. And as his eyes snapped back to the old diplomat, the old mans sad smile hade returned with twice the force.
”I am afraid your fleet is done for Warfang.” he said. ”If the Concordate had had more interest in actually studying the cultures you subjugate, you would have found out we were pretty damn close to wiping ourselves out a time or two. In reality we’re among the most warlike races of any that we’ve met, we have just tried to get ourselves beyond those instincts.”
The Warfang was stunned, not a sound came out of his mouth even as he tried to say something.
”I’m afraid that our peaceful stance has been dearly bought”, the old man continued. ”Our perpetual wars finally came to the point where our stark choice was cooperation or death. We chose cooperation, but the knowledge of how easy it is to kill never really left us.”
”But how?…” the words finally coming out of the Warfangs mouth sounded weak and shaky. He cursed himself under his breath.
”Not that hard actually. Just the power of the stars themselves, enhanced to the point where nothing really can stand against it.”
The old man shook his head, he no longer looked decrepit.
”We don’t expect the Concordate to yield, not when the foundation of their existense and identity as conquerors are threatened.” he said. ”So our own ships are already moving.”
The peculiar human eyes were no longer just sad, but also hard as stone.
”As we sit here, they are already on their way to all military centers within onehundred and fifty light years from our home system.
”I am afraid that those systems will become as close to uninhabitable as to not make much difference for at least a generation or two.”
”Our civilians”, the Warfang said with a keen.
”Yes, your civilians”, the diplomat answered. ”You had less than no appreciation for our civilians as recently as a few minutes ago. It was never our wish to have this war on our hands. But there is an old human saying that fits the situation all to well.”
The Warfangs look asked the question he couldn’t make himself utter in words.
”Never start a fight, but always finish it.”
The old man stood up and pushed the chair under the table.
”You are no longer welcome here. You, as a diplomat are of course free to go wherever you wish. We will not try to stop you, hurt you or in any way delay you”, he said. ”I suspect we might meet again in the galactic council. Or maybe we won’t, I’m not certain if you or I will be the chosen delegates. Until then all I can say is that this is not a cause for celebration as far as we are concerned.”
He wished to call the man back as he left the room. He wished to shout, scream, claw something. He wished to rend and tear flesh. Onehundred and fifty light years, that covered nine tenths of the Concordates primary systems, including the Capital. If those weapons were numerous enough and as efficient on the ground, the Concordate would all but cease to exist. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The landscape is cold- barren. We work in silence, Henry and I. I can sense the Universe recoiling away from us, the cosmos pulling its lips away, teeth gnashing and foaming, spitting vitriol on humanity. We knew this was wrong. But someone had to tip the cosmic scales back. We had come too far- walked the path of retaliation too far to turn back and make it home in time. And where was home? Earth? There were barely two billion of us left there. You'd think having lived for more than three hundred years, almost a third of those inside cruisers and battleships, and another third on barren desolate planets building outposts and bases, I would be used to this- this detachment- this sense of belonging to no one place.
I am not.
Sometimes, I close my eyes, and pretend I am back on Earth. The rebellion never occured. Humanity didn't unite. We never broke the biological code to prolonged life. We never set out to Titan. We never found the underground base that had instructions on how to contact the Nelvadians.
But no matter how tightly I clench my eyes shut, even past the point of blinding pain, when they open it is never to the skies of Earth- never to constellations our ancestors spent years naming- and centuries creating religions out of.
When our resources had began running out, we gave up our Gods, for it seemed they had forsaken us- not like we deserved better. So much for undying faith. I still remember it- there was this land... Australia, I think it was called. Australia was the first to feel the wrath of our collective abuse against the Earth. I don't even remember the year... something like two thousand...Eh, Henry knows our history better than I do.
And from then on, it was like watching dominoes tumble. A viral disease broke out- decimating half of our population in the span of an year- and then we realised we were doomed. Our leaders did nothing. Our prayers did nothing. Our Gods did nothing.
And then it spread like a contagion. Worse. The helplessness. Faith evaporating on the embers of sanity. Anarchy. None of our reports can confidently pinpoint where it began, but I reckon it was everywhere at once. Rebellion. War. Untamed.
But...we came together. We overcame together.
We survived. We evolved. We grew.
We shed off our old skin. Erased borders as best as we could. Healed and helped each other as well at as we could.
Within the next fifty years, we had a base on the Moon- a base that could support a thousand people. And by the end of the century, we reached Titan. Turns out, they were waiting for us- well, figuratively at least. The Nelvadians. A race far more superior to us when it came to technology. They had conquered interstellar travel centuries ago. And had known of Earth since the Spanish Inquisition.
The bastards wanted to test us. At least that's how Henry puts it.
But they came when we called. And boy, did they bring gifts. They had figured out everything (well nearly everything). We had figured out how to live for five hundred years- they were undying. Our ships could travel at ninety percent the speed of light- theirs didn't bother. They just tore through space. We knew how to build Moon-bases. They taught us how to terraform the damn things.
But despite all of their advancement, despite all of their technology, their weapons were tame. Oh sure, they were dangerous, and the Nelvadians weren't the species you wanted to go to war with, maybe the Askivarians, or even those three legged freaks that live on Partorus Minor. But not the Nelvadians. They had more ships in their fleets than we had guns in America back home- and that's a lot. If you're not from Earth, talk to Henry. He will tell you. Yankee bastard still keeps one around. Hooligan.
They believed in numbers apparently- the Nelvadians. But we had seen what a drawn out war did to the warring parties. We had seen three world wars. And after the last one- the one that brought us together- we weren't in the mood for another one- ever.
And so we prospered under the guidance of the Nelvadians. It was like having an elder brother- a nice one for once. When we learnt of the peace laws of interstellar communities, we chucked our history under the carpet. Most species didn't think much of us- we wouldn't have either. Well, we were rather small compared to them. Even the Nelvadians were over thirteen feet in height. One out of every two species we met could have called us Lilliputians if they knew what Lilliput was. But that's neither here nor there.
We told them about the first war. And the third. The second one- eh...we told them about it. Mostly. Well if you met the Japanese now you wouldn't believe they bombed Pearl Harbor. Or got bombed back for that matter.
It was two hundred years after our meeting with the Nelvadians when it happened. The Fuckening. If you're not from Earth, ask Henry. He'll tell you what that means. Son of a bitch taught it to me.
The Nelvadians were rather generous when it came to sharing their knowledge and tech, but there was one secret they never divulged. Their immortality. Seven times we asked for it. Seven times they refused. And the eighth time they didn't bother to give us a reply. They hit us with a question instead. One we had no answer for. How many genders are there? The fuck do we know! The fuck do they want to know for! Henry thinks it was rather clever of them. I think Henry wants to get laid- Nelvadian style.
They made us immune to a plethora of diseases- they cured cancer for us, they cured Alzheimer's. But they wouldn't tell us how to stop aging. We lived full lives...five hundred years of it, give or take. But we died. The sun set on us at the end.
Over the years we stopped asking. We figured how tough could it be. Turns out, immortality was as tough as anything could be. It took us a hundred and fifty years- but we did it. We wouldn't be immortal, but the generations that came after would have the gift of life eternal.
That was an year ago.
Six lunar cycles later, the Nelvadians gave us an ultimatum. If we went ahead with our plan to become immortal, they would....well, they didn't exactly want to party. The sad thing was, we didn't either. Maybe a couple of centuries of peace and unimagined prosperity had been too much for us. Or maybe we had learnt our lessons- maybe we had seen enough hypocrites on Earth to let another one lord over us in space.
So we did what we do best. We armed ourselves to the teeth again. The Nelvadians didn't have much to teach about weapons, but we didn't really need it. When the first immortal child was born, the Nelvadians destroyed the Emerald City of Titan- our base on the moon, our half built Dyson sphere around Alpha 3308, and declared us official enemies of Nelvadia. All in the span of two days. They declared we had become a plague. And we were to be eradicated.
That was two weeks ago.
One week later, we retaliated.
One week. That's all it takes to bring down the greatest Civilization this part of the Universe has ever known. Seven earth-days is all it takes to wipe out half of the largest fleet ever assembled in known history.
The Interstellar Community saw for the first time, the raw, untamed power of a nuclear detonation. I was there- when the first bomb exploded on Varis 88- Nelvadia's war base near Uranus. For a moment, the Solar System had two stars...it has a terrible beauty to it.
The enormous sphere of wild fire and rage. The cosmos stood in sheer silence as the base was erased from existence.
The Nelvadians would have scattered- if they hadn't been stunned into oblivion. They didn't know what to make of us now. Before they could retaliate, we blew up half of their ships, and thirty three Nelvadian outposts and bases. Took us maybe an hour.
They put up a fight after that- realising they were going to wiped off the face of existence. But there wasn't much they could do. They hadn't shared their immortality with any other civilization. And we weren't picky with who we shared ours. We tore them apart. Decimated them till all that remained was Nelvadia. One planet.
They would have to start again. From square one. We won our first Interstellar War in less than three hours.
War. It was foolish of us to think that we had become something more, that humans had risen above the kingdom of Ares. The God of War still lived amongst us. His reign was as eternal as human life now. Of all the Gods to follow us as we wandered the cosmic canvas- it had to be Him.
And even as I sit here, on the barren horizon of a foreign moon, arming the final nuclear device, code named 'Karma', preparing to destroy the last Nelvadian base outside of the Nelvadian system, I wonder how long it would take before some other civilization comes up with our magic trick.
If Ares got his way, maybe next week. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | It's useful, in a general sort of way, to be seen by the galaxy at large as cute, harmless doofuses. Soft, fleshy, tiny little bipeds, always wanting to communicate. To most of them, we're about as threatening as a Labrador puppy.
Understand; our stellar neighborhood is a very scary place. Like Mos Eisly Cantina scary. You've got your hive mind "insectoid" races, your noncorporeal energy beings, and all manner of biologically acrobatic variations in between. And don't even get me started on the only other humanoids, the fucking Greys. Yikes. Those guys suck.
Anyway, when I say "in a general sort of way," it's because there are a few specific and distinct disadvantages to this perception, as well. One of them would be situations where the ambassador from Earth must appeal to the Council of Argherrech. Which is the situation that I, as said ambassador, had to face during what was later called "The VingVa Crisis."
The VingVa, known colloquially just the Ving or even simply V, were a particular obnoxious insectoid neighbor to earth. One day, without any prior notice, a Ving spacehive appeared only a few miles outside lunar orbit and began construction on an hyperspace corridor repeater site. And I don't have to tell you, the radiation those things throw off, when they're active, that close to Earth? Well. This kills the Labrador puppies.
Of course all attempts by the human authorities at communication were ignored. The Ving had communicated to the council that they consider humans a non-sentient lower life-form, and thus unworthy of inclusion in the council or in fact any form of recognition or communication. This was a common perception among hivemind species, who generally only recognized sentience of other hives. Politics, amiright?
As I approached the round which seated the members of the council, I was struck again bye how large of stature and claw and tooth most of them are. Quite intimidating. As I approached and climbed the tiny elevated platform where petitioners stood, I felt their alien perceptions tracking me. I spoke slowly and clearly into the translation assembly.
"Good day and high praises upon all of your excellencies, members of the prestigious and all-knowing Counsel of Argherrech..."
And then I went on like this for some time praising each member of the council individually and debasing myself before them. These guys LOVE flattery. Rather dreary and boring and if you don't mind I'll skip ahead to the important bits.
"...and so, I come before you today to seek the permission of the council to defend the human homeworld against this unlawful incursion into our space."
There was a silence as the counselors each finished receiving the translation. Though by policy the Ving never acknowledged any human communication, the first reaction was, in fact, from the Ving avatar. There was a series of twitching movements in the top third of it's upper facial appendages, which I had come to understand as a *very* rough analog to human laughter. Wonderful. What followed was a near 10 minute conversation among themselves that, of course, was not translated for my benefit. When they had finished their conference, Basthora, the "chair," spoke into his own translation assembly. What came out my end was a harsh, metallic, very robotic sounding voice.
"If VingVa make war, Human cannot survive. Council will order VingVa allow one earthcycle for evacuation of Humans."
Much as I'd expected.
"Ah, yes, and this is much appreciated, oh most noble and generous rulers, may your reign last an epoch. But, if I may, and with all respect due, I was sent here today by the leaders of Earth to seek the permission of this glorious council to do exactly that. To declare war on the VingVa, and to, erm, to defend ourselves."
Now the "laughter" was more pronounced - not just in the Ving avatar but in the forms of the others as well. A very brief untranslated conversation followed, but from what I had learned of their body language, the response was clear. Assent.
"If Humans wish extinction, they may fight the VingVa to the death. Council grants permission."
Of course, everyone knows what came next. We waited patiently for the V hive to finish constructing the terminal, and turn it on. Fifty H-bombs, casually dumped into the newly opened portal - a straight shot back to their homeworld. One more for the hive that built the damn thing. Funny thing, they didn't even bother trying to stop the tiny ship that did it. Never fired a single shot at it. They literally never knew what hit them. They saw us as so far beneath them, so insignificant, so weak, that even in total annihilation they did not comprehend the threat we posed to them. And they never will.
Because now, there are no more VingVa.
Yes, in a general sort of way, it is quite useful to be seen as cute, harmless doofuses. Though I'd wager that, in the future, maintaining that image may prove slightly more challenging. But, hey...what else are diplomats for?
Edit: a word | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | I had heard of the human super weapons, but I had heard such claims before.
When the Ruthkin emissaries boarded my flagship to receive my declaration of battle, they shreeked at me with hatred in thier eyes. Through furious chittering they told me of the doom-wrought cannons which would tear my fleet asunder. They perished as easy as the rest.
When the Ulvanites came to receive the declaration, They rejoiced for the chance to crush me under thier Stormtoothed cavalry. Thier ambassadors all but invited me to invade thier lands. Thier promises were as empty as thier future.
Strangest of all was the Kosal. When I declared my writ of extermination, thier people raved like the mad and weak minded. I eventually found thier display was that of a desperate being trying to convince a predator he is not worth the trouble.
When the humans came to receive my terms, thier words were different. My first commander saw the fear and licked his maw, but I saw something more.
The humans who spoke of thier weapons did so in hushed tones and reverant whispers. I saw in them a fear deeper than I have ever known...a fear not for my warhost.
As we departed thier lonely system for the last time, I recalled the wisdom of my broodfather. He told me the wise Hunter never seeks that which his prey fears more than a hunters teeth, lest he be the Hunter no longer.
To this cycle I still do not know what the humans fear most, but I hope to never know. I pray to the Bright one my people never learn the human's secret, so they will never know such terror. It will be the human's Burden to carry, for I saw in them enough fear to consume the Galaxy. | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "We're in position sir, 1 gate out from Earth." Sgt. Crull brimmed with enthusiasm. "They won't know what hits them."
Captain Gree looked pleased. "Excellent, sergeant. Make sure the fleet is ready to go on my command."
The Mazoth had been waiting for this for a long time. Their fleet of sleek black and green ships sat on the ground, waiting for the massive orbital planetary gate floating above Alpha Centauri 4 to be in the right position.
It wasn't difficult to lure the humans into a false sense of security. The diplomats had gone ahead of them, using that pathetic word, 'peace'. The mention of it made Gree's gills quiver. He wondered how these pathetic humans could have ever garnered such a high position in galactic affairs using nothing but their flapping air holes. They practically ran the United Planets, and yet no one had tested their true strength -- until today.
The last ship was in position, and Gree was nearly ready to give the order, when Sgt Crull came running over to him. "Sir, there is a transmission. The fur heads want to talk."
"Hah, fine, let them talk. I want to hear their screams when we breech their planet's atmosphere with our mezopods. They have five rels to entertain me before the gate is in position anyway."
Gree heard a crackling sound filling the air as the transmission was put through the ship's speakers. A weak and timid sounding voice on the other end began to speak, while the image of the weak fur-headed creature filled the screen.
"Greetings Powerful Mazoth. Your fleet has been detected preparing to intrude on Earth space. If you do not cease your activities, we will be prepared to act. Violence against other species is an abhorrence to us, and we implore you to appeal to the better angels of your nature." The human bowed gracefully, sickening Gree.
A thunderous, nearly deafening laughter filled the ship, and Gree made sure the sound was transmitted back through the link so those talkative idiots could hear.
"You pathetic fur-heads. We will rain destruction down upon your cities. Your mating partners will be made to breed Mazoth slaves. Your pathetic 'peace' will be a meaningless and forgotten word. You are powerless. We are power!" Gree finished with the traditional Mazoth war chant.
"Rahhhh!" The words elicited an immediate response from his crew, and Gree couldn't have been more proud. This would be the finest moment of his life. His children and their children would talk of it for thousands of years.
The com link crackled again. "Uhm, I am afraid there has been a slight misunderstanding. We are not weak -- just kind. We reiterate, we do not wish to harm your people. We believe in the power of diversity in our galaxy and the universe. Please, cease your aggression. If you do not comply, we will be forced to take action."
"Hah! What action will you take? Will you ask us 'pretty please'?" Laughter filled the bridge of the ship. "Maybe you will give us a, what do you call it, a 'hug'? Listen, weakling. You cannot harm Mazoth. You are there for our entertainment."
"Well, if asking you 'pretty please' would help, I would consider it."
Gree's smile widened to encompass half of his head, showing his freshly sharpened teeth. The gate was in position. He chuckled at the image of the human, and spoke the words he knew his crew wanted to hear. "Fleet, begin launch sequence."
The bubbling of the organic drives could be felt through the floor of the ship, and Gree sat back in the captain's chair on the bridge. He continued to grin evilly at the viewscreen. He wanted to watch this human die.
"Sir! There is an object on the detector. It just emerged through the gate." Sgt. Crull's voice had a hint of concern, annoying Gree. He wasn't going to let weakness spoil his day.
"How many?" Gree asked.
"Just the one."
"Then what are you so afraid of? It is probably one of their weakly peace talkers come to meet us in person."
"It's coming through the atmosphere toward us."
"Ignore it, ships, launch!"
The ship lurched upward and began to ascend, slowly picking up speed. They needed to have enough velocity to reach orbit and catch up to the gate.
"Sir, the object just broke up after it came through the atmosphere."
"Hah! They're so weak, their ships can't even survive atmospheric entry." He looked at the screen. "Human! You are so pathetic."
On the screen, a black haired young man had the look of sorrow. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive us."
Gree knew it was because he must have recognized his fate. There was a twinge of disappointment, as he had hoped to see fear rather than the weakling accepting its death so meekly.
"Uhm, sir, there are now several objects coming toward us. They must have split off from the first object. They have spread out, and there is one heading toward each squadron of ships."
"Nobody cares, Crull. Don't be so human. It is too late for them to talk."
Gree wasn't at all concerned. Instead, he was keeping on eye on the fleet's progress. Anticipation had increased his saliva production to the point it was running down the sides of his mouth. His grin broadened further than it had ever been. "This is a great day," he thought.
On the alternate viewer Gree was watching, third squadron was visible, having gone ahead of the fleet as planned. They were better equipped for breaching, just in case they had any planetary defenses, although Gree thought that was unlikely. He watched the ships accelerating upward toward the edge of the atmosphere. But suddenly a blinding light flashed, making him cover his eyes.
The human spoke again. He could only hear him, due to the light. "Again, I'm so sorry, Mazoth. This was not the way we wanted to do things. Perhaps it's still not too late to avert total war."
Gree could feel panic around him on the bridge. As the light died down, he could see the ships of third squadron plummeting back toward the ground. They looked mangled, as pieces of them flew off into the air. More flashes of light all around him erupted.
"What is going on!" he yelled. "Crull, report!"
Sgt. Crull was visibly trembling, much to Gree's disgust. However another bright flash left him unconcerned.
----
"President Freemon, sir, Admiral Mills here with your report." Admiral Mills looked upset. His face wore a deep scowl, and his body's movements were stiff and formal.
"Go ahead, Admiral." Freemon said.
"Sir, the Mazoth refused all attempts at discussion. Their location in the Alpha Centauri system was far too close for our negotiating team to intervene. I'm afraid there was nothing we could do. I'm sorry, sir."
"I know you tried your best. I saw the video. They were quite bloodthirsty. At least we will have that to show to the United Planets next month, should they make a fuss." Freemon sighed.
"I hope it doesn't hurt our standing, sir."
"Somehow I doubt it will. The Mazoth had made more than their share of enemies. To be honest, I have already received a few messages of gratitude."
"That's terrible! How could they be so happy at the killing of so many sentient beings!"
"I know, Admiral. I know. But it's the universe we live in. We will continue to guide them into the light." | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "Activate Zip Drive," I said to my computer, a generation III A.I. as space-time split before me, "Prime weapon for immediate release when we hit norm." I knew their fleet would not want me sneaking by in FTL so I was planning ahead for my attack.
The colored lights of Otherspace slipped past my small bomber, jumping toward the atoms in my hull hungrily but were held at bay by the magnetic shielding.
"Disturbance in norm space detected. Prepare for pullout in 3... 2... 1..." my A.I. informed me and then the colors of Otherspace were replaced with the blackness of the void. Ahead of me there was the fleet. An enemy interceptor had detected me and pulled me out of FTL as I had expected. A massive fleet of carriers and battleships and support ships and everything in between lay ahead of me.
"Human ship," a voice said across the ether, "Do you bring word of your species surrender?" The voice, of course, was translated from the light pulses that passed as speech by the Golloids, floating in their saltwater tanks. Their leadership had demanded our surrender this morning.
"Negative," I said, "I have come to demand yours." There was what passed for laughter in their pulsing tongue and then swarms of fighters launched toward me. I swallowed involuntarily as the stars behind the massive fleet were blotted out. "Launch the payload," I said, targeting as close to the center of the sphere of ships as I could.
The missile's fusion engine kicked in and as a fighter headed to intercept it the missile disappeared from norm-space and into Otherspace. A split second later it reappeared at it's destination in norm. My visor went dark as the darkness of space became as bright as a sun. Ship after enemy ship evaporated into their component atoms, vaporized by the intense heat and radiation pulsing outward from the temporary star I had just created obliterated them. As the shock-wave spread toward me and the interceptor evaporated, my A.I. slipped my ship into the other and I took comfort in the colors around me. I could swear I felt Otherspace shudder, but I knew that was impossible.
The Golloid were advanced. Very advanced. Humanity, however, had an advantage in that they had stumbled upon a way to use a basic technology as a weapon to end one of our wars centuries ago. See, we had two inventions that were unique to our species. One was the zipper. It was amazing that no other species had discovered it and had taken the clothes wearing species of the galaxy by storm and the patent had made Earth rich.
The other was nuclear weapons. Now that I had destroyed their fleet, hundreds of Earth bombers were given free reign to bomb Goll, their homeworld, and its colonies into oblivion. As I turned my ship around to retain to base I felt a pang of sympathy.
"Poor bastards," I said to the void, "Poor, poor bastards." | Drifting endlessly and peacefully through this void, I gazed upon the great blue sphere. Its skies swirling with white ink. The low rumbling of our ship had my brethren in a deep sleep.
A great white plain, frozen and still, is where we made our temporary home. A small elderly woman made her way out of that dark and sullen forest, inviting us to follow her.
The six of us were crammed into the tight dwelling in which she lived. The warmth of the stove shielded us from that blistering cold winter wind. This meal was just enough to keep us all from starving, that caring old woman...
News of our presence was spreading. A large military force was to be expected at any moment, but this frozen plain was empty. As I wait on the outskirts of our encampment, waiting, a sun had risen out of the ground.
These humans were peaceful due to their fear not of us, but because of their own power. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "What does all of this even mean?" Garrok asked aloud. She and Farrun scanned the transmission for a fifth time, attempting to glean the intent behind the nonsense they had been given. They understood what radiation was but most of the words seemed straight out of fantasy. What was a 'fallout?' Or 'scrubbing?' What reaction did they mean by 'runaway reaction?'
"It's a threat from humanity, clearly, but a threat of what?" Farrun asked. They both knew what he was referring to. The war against humanity started barely a galactic day-cycle ago. It was an honorless ambush on humanity's home system but even she, simple researcher that she was, felt that such a thing was necessary.
Humanity was, without a doubt, the greatest nuisance the Larr'ell race had ever faced. Eons of galactic economic supremacy undermined by weak, furless monkeys who happened to know how to butter people up. They were a pathetic race barely fit for combat and they somehow leveraged the sympathy their many weaknesses brought them into a political and economic hegemony that threatened both the current galactic economy and the Larr'ell way of life.
A decapitating strike was necessary and an ambush the only feasible option. They had left humanity unimpeded and now they had too many allies for them to face and so the government, with the people's blessing, decided to strike the valgrax at its heart or die trying.
Humanity's single-minded focus on industrial and logistical technologies created a vulnerability that they needed to exploit before it was closed. The Larr'ell and their few remaining allies could not afford a drawn out battle. Human ships may have been mobile like no other but they lacked the power or durability they needed to overpower the Larr'ell capital fleet in a single decisive battle. If they could force them to the table before they could shift to a wartime economy, they could win unconditionally. And so that was what they did. They forced them into a single, decisive battle last she heard. Humanity's swift defeat should have been a foregone conclusion. Was a foregone conclusion.
So why was she feeling incalculable dread as she skimmed the contents of the transmission for a fifth time. The transmission arrived unencrypted and unobstructed straight into the capital of their homeworld. She could imagine how badly the Data Defense Department were being chewed out for that oversight. Strangely, civilian targets had been the recipients of the transmission instead of the governmental or military ones: hospitals, research labs, and even weather centers. The government itself was in a frenzy over the attack. They believed it was an ultimatum. She couldn't help but worry that they were right but she wisely kept that opinion to herself. The air around the war declaration was of jubilation after all. They had made their bed and anything less than full commitment would not only ruin their legacy but that of their entire race.
She felt the impact before she heard it. The ground beneath her seemed to give before catching itself and she felt the pressure drop for a moment. And then the boom: a mind-shattering bang followed by a rolling rumble that seemed to drag on forever. She'd first thought one of their kinetic cannons had misfired and launched a rod somewhere nearby but no weapon she knew of in their arsenal made that sort of terrifying sound.
She gathered her senses around the time she began hearing the screams. Farrun, who had somehow gotten on his feet before she did, stood by the window, face black and bloodless. Reluctantly, she looked out the window to see. What she didn't see though would haunt her for the rest of her days.
The crown jewel of their empire, the seat and cradle of the Larr'ell civilization, her beloved Beiran, was gone. An ashen hand holding a war hammer rose up from where it once stood, as if only now judging its bloodcurdling handiwork done. She and Farrun stood motionless as a second transmission from the humans was received.
"Any survivors within 532 breadths of the blasts should be considered to have suffered permanent genetic damage. They cannot be saved. Any survivors within 532 and 727 breadths of the blasts must evacuate immediately or risk permanent genetic damage. Any survivors within 727 and..." | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. The four horsemen of the apocalypse. Supreme beings of havoc, and an idea that humans (once achieving a galactic level) quickly found spread across the worlds. Famine, The Rektinkin. Pestilience, The Kratar. Death, The An'ihum. And War, The Humans.
When Humans entered the galactic scene, they ruptured a delicate balance that was in place. They destroyed the stalemate that stopped the 3 major powers from war. As every race set their sights on the prey, intent of claiming them as their own, gaining the advantage, the humans seemed blissfully unaware that their attempts at peaceful communication showed the universe one thing: they embody peace, and have suffered nothing. A far contrast to the three powers.
The Rektinkin, born on an unforgiving planet that punished every mistake with death. Resources scarce, the reptile-like species embraced the Famine, and learned the power of oneself. They birthed great warriors that took all the resources, instead of splitting them amongst many people. As such, the species was able of rivaling entire army's of other species alone. However the birth rate of these creatures were abysmal, and as such couldn't triumph in all out war against the other two. When they saw the Humans and their home Planet of earth, rich in resources, they saw their chance. How many more warriors could they birth with Earths help? And so they waged war on the seemingly helpless species. The humans had no idea of scarcity, so they had nothing to embrace! How could such species pose a threat?
Similarly, The Kratar lived in a world of nature, where they could never triumph over the destruction of the Great Green. They suffered from being nothing but weak prey. Intelligence? Mattered not, that was for those at the bottom of the food chain. So the Kratar embraced the plague of ever-present green. They were the ambassadors of the Great Green, and as such, were gifted the ability to fully control the power source of life, the Kratar's very own star. With this power, they spread the Great Greens power and influence. They controlled the most planets, able to terraform them for the Great Green, but never once thought to enslave nature, as they had not the power over the Green to be able to claim authority. So when they saw the Humans, they saw a weak species (much like them in the past) however one who had used Intelligence to triumph over their sacred grounds. Blasphamy. How dare a species as useless as humans have the audacity to attempt to control the Great Green? The Katar saw both the potential of triumph over their greatest weapon, and a weak species who had yet to fully understand it. Should they learn their potential, the Great Green would be destroyed by such a weak species, one who had no hardships, who had embraced nothing! The Kratar could not have it, and as such, declared war on the humans.
At the same time, The An'ihum suffered from the inevitable. Death. Their species had an incredibly short life span. Nothing could ever be done, and nothing was ever being done. The An'ihum each had their own needs, and had once sought a fulfilling life doing what they wanted. The neighboring species on the same planet all pushed the An'ihum away easily. The An'ihum where all so singularly focuses on themselves, and their short life spans that the species never evolved. They cursed their life spans as the An'ihum population got smaller and smaller. It was in a moment of true desperation that the An'ihum changed. Every new birth was done to perform one duty, then embrace death. With their incredible reproduction ability, the An'ihum held deaths hand as they brute forced their way to being the apex species on their planet. So when Humans, a relatively long-living species entered their sights, they saw knowledge. They saw what they wanted, the ability to extend their lives, as the humans had multiplied their expected life span. They also saw the threat this knowledged posed to them and the other speicies. They needed life! Only then could they truly embrace death. So they held no regards about declaring war on a species so intent on running away from death. They knew not the embrace of death, but they shall learn.
And the humans? They were different. Everybody assumed that they just had it easy, as that was why they so nice, so unwilling to spark conflict. But in reality they didn't embrace what they were best at, because they saw what embracing war truly meant. After building the ultimate weapon that made the very universe suffer, they learned that embracing war didn't mean strength. It meant complete and utter annihilation. They didn't embrace war, they surpassed it. And as the hostile species watched the very universe reject their existence, they realised that simple truth.
First time posting here.
Also on mobile, sorry for bad formating. | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The landscape is cold- barren. We work in silence, Henry and I. I can sense the Universe recoiling away from us, the cosmos pulling its lips away, teeth gnashing and foaming, spitting vitriol on humanity. We knew this was wrong. But someone had to tip the cosmic scales back. We had come too far- walked the path of retaliation too far to turn back and make it home in time. And where was home? Earth? There were barely two billion of us left there. You'd think having lived for more than three hundred years, almost a third of those inside cruisers and battleships, and another third on barren desolate planets building outposts and bases, I would be used to this- this detachment- this sense of belonging to no one place.
I am not.
Sometimes, I close my eyes, and pretend I am back on Earth. The rebellion never occured. Humanity didn't unite. We never broke the biological code to prolonged life. We never set out to Titan. We never found the underground base that had instructions on how to contact the Nelvadians.
But no matter how tightly I clench my eyes shut, even past the point of blinding pain, when they open it is never to the skies of Earth- never to constellations our ancestors spent years naming- and centuries creating religions out of.
When our resources had began running out, we gave up our Gods, for it seemed they had forsaken us- not like we deserved better. So much for undying faith. I still remember it- there was this land... Australia, I think it was called. Australia was the first to feel the wrath of our collective abuse against the Earth. I don't even remember the year... something like two thousand...Eh, Henry knows our history better than I do.
And from then on, it was like watching dominoes tumble. A viral disease broke out- decimating half of our population in the span of an year- and then we realised we were doomed. Our leaders did nothing. Our prayers did nothing. Our Gods did nothing.
And then it spread like a contagion. Worse. The helplessness. Faith evaporating on the embers of sanity. Anarchy. None of our reports can confidently pinpoint where it began, but I reckon it was everywhere at once. Rebellion. War. Untamed.
But...we came together. We overcame together.
We survived. We evolved. We grew.
We shed off our old skin. Erased borders as best as we could. Healed and helped each other as well at as we could.
Within the next fifty years, we had a base on the Moon- a base that could support a thousand people. And by the end of the century, we reached Titan. Turns out, they were waiting for us- well, figuratively at least. The Nelvadians. A race far more superior to us when it came to technology. They had conquered interstellar travel centuries ago. And had known of Earth since the Spanish Inquisition.
The bastards wanted to test us. At least that's how Henry puts it.
But they came when we called. And boy, did they bring gifts. They had figured out everything (well nearly everything). We had figured out how to live for five hundred years- they were undying. Our ships could travel at ninety percent the speed of light- theirs didn't bother. They just tore through space. We knew how to build Moon-bases. They taught us how to terraform the damn things.
But despite all of their advancement, despite all of their technology, their weapons were tame. Oh sure, they were dangerous, and the Nelvadians weren't the species you wanted to go to war with, maybe the Askivarians, or even those three legged freaks that live on Partorus Minor. But not the Nelvadians. They had more ships in their fleets than we had guns in America back home- and that's a lot. If you're not from Earth, talk to Henry. He will tell you. Yankee bastard still keeps one around. Hooligan.
They believed in numbers apparently- the Nelvadians. But we had seen what a drawn out war did to the warring parties. We had seen three world wars. And after the last one- the one that brought us together- we weren't in the mood for another one- ever.
And so we prospered under the guidance of the Nelvadians. It was like having an elder brother- a nice one for once. When we learnt of the peace laws of interstellar communities, we chucked our history under the carpet. Most species didn't think much of us- we wouldn't have either. Well, we were rather small compared to them. Even the Nelvadians were over thirteen feet in height. One out of every two species we met could have called us Lilliputians if they knew what Lilliput was. But that's neither here nor there.
We told them about the first war. And the third. The second one- eh...we told them about it. Mostly. Well if you met the Japanese now you wouldn't believe they bombed Pearl Harbor. Or got bombed back for that matter.
It was two hundred years after our meeting with the Nelvadians when it happened. The Fuckening. If you're not from Earth, ask Henry. He'll tell you what that means. Son of a bitch taught it to me.
The Nelvadians were rather generous when it came to sharing their knowledge and tech, but there was one secret they never divulged. Their immortality. Seven times we asked for it. Seven times they refused. And the eighth time they didn't bother to give us a reply. They hit us with a question instead. One we had no answer for. How many genders are there? The fuck do we know! The fuck do they want to know for! Henry thinks it was rather clever of them. I think Henry wants to get laid- Nelvadian style.
They made us immune to a plethora of diseases- they cured cancer for us, they cured Alzheimer's. But they wouldn't tell us how to stop aging. We lived full lives...five hundred years of it, give or take. But we died. The sun set on us at the end.
Over the years we stopped asking. We figured how tough could it be. Turns out, immortality was as tough as anything could be. It took us a hundred and fifty years- but we did it. We wouldn't be immortal, but the generations that came after would have the gift of life eternal.
That was an year ago.
Six lunar cycles later, the Nelvadians gave us an ultimatum. If we went ahead with our plan to become immortal, they would....well, they didn't exactly want to party. The sad thing was, we didn't either. Maybe a couple of centuries of peace and unimagined prosperity had been too much for us. Or maybe we had learnt our lessons- maybe we had seen enough hypocrites on Earth to let another one lord over us in space.
So we did what we do best. We armed ourselves to the teeth again. The Nelvadians didn't have much to teach about weapons, but we didn't really need it. When the first immortal child was born, the Nelvadians destroyed the Emerald City of Titan- our base on the moon, our half built Dyson sphere around Alpha 3308, and declared us official enemies of Nelvadia. All in the span of two days. They declared we had become a plague. And we were to be eradicated.
That was two weeks ago.
One week later, we retaliated.
One week. That's all it takes to bring down the greatest Civilization this part of the Universe has ever known. Seven earth-days is all it takes to wipe out half of the largest fleet ever assembled in known history.
The Interstellar Community saw for the first time, the raw, untamed power of a nuclear detonation. I was there- when the first bomb exploded on Varis 88- Nelvadia's war base near Uranus. For a moment, the Solar System had two stars...it has a terrible beauty to it.
The enormous sphere of wild fire and rage. The cosmos stood in sheer silence as the base was erased from existence.
The Nelvadians would have scattered- if they hadn't been stunned into oblivion. They didn't know what to make of us now. Before they could retaliate, we blew up half of their ships, and thirty three Nelvadian outposts and bases. Took us maybe an hour.
They put up a fight after that- realising they were going to wiped off the face of existence. But there wasn't much they could do. They hadn't shared their immortality with any other civilization. And we weren't picky with who we shared ours. We tore them apart. Decimated them till all that remained was Nelvadia. One planet.
They would have to start again. From square one. We won our first Interstellar War in less than three hours.
War. It was foolish of us to think that we had become something more, that humans had risen above the kingdom of Ares. The God of War still lived amongst us. His reign was as eternal as human life now. Of all the Gods to follow us as we wandered the cosmic canvas- it had to be Him.
And even as I sit here, on the barren horizon of a foreign moon, arming the final nuclear device, code named 'Karma', preparing to destroy the last Nelvadian base outside of the Nelvadian system, I wonder how long it would take before some other civilization comes up with our magic trick.
If Ares got his way, maybe next week. | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | It's useful, in a general sort of way, to be seen by the galaxy at large as cute, harmless doofuses. Soft, fleshy, tiny little bipeds, always wanting to communicate. To most of them, we're about as threatening as a Labrador puppy.
Understand; our stellar neighborhood is a very scary place. Like Mos Eisly Cantina scary. You've got your hive mind "insectoid" races, your noncorporeal energy beings, and all manner of biologically acrobatic variations in between. And don't even get me started on the only other humanoids, the fucking Greys. Yikes. Those guys suck.
Anyway, when I say "in a general sort of way," it's because there are a few specific and distinct disadvantages to this perception, as well. One of them would be situations where the ambassador from Earth must appeal to the Council of Argherrech. Which is the situation that I, as said ambassador, had to face during what was later called "The VingVa Crisis."
The VingVa, known colloquially just the Ving or even simply V, were a particular obnoxious insectoid neighbor to earth. One day, without any prior notice, a Ving spacehive appeared only a few miles outside lunar orbit and began construction on an hyperspace corridor repeater site. And I don't have to tell you, the radiation those things throw off, when they're active, that close to Earth? Well. This kills the Labrador puppies.
Of course all attempts by the human authorities at communication were ignored. The Ving had communicated to the council that they consider humans a non-sentient lower life-form, and thus unworthy of inclusion in the council or in fact any form of recognition or communication. This was a common perception among hivemind species, who generally only recognized sentience of other hives. Politics, amiright?
As I approached the round which seated the members of the council, I was struck again bye how large of stature and claw and tooth most of them are. Quite intimidating. As I approached and climbed the tiny elevated platform where petitioners stood, I felt their alien perceptions tracking me. I spoke slowly and clearly into the translation assembly.
"Good day and high praises upon all of your excellencies, members of the prestigious and all-knowing Counsel of Argherrech..."
And then I went on like this for some time praising each member of the council individually and debasing myself before them. These guys LOVE flattery. Rather dreary and boring and if you don't mind I'll skip ahead to the important bits.
"...and so, I come before you today to seek the permission of the council to defend the human homeworld against this unlawful incursion into our space."
There was a silence as the counselors each finished receiving the translation. Though by policy the Ving never acknowledged any human communication, the first reaction was, in fact, from the Ving avatar. There was a series of twitching movements in the top third of it's upper facial appendages, which I had come to understand as a *very* rough analog to human laughter. Wonderful. What followed was a near 10 minute conversation among themselves that, of course, was not translated for my benefit. When they had finished their conference, Basthora, the "chair," spoke into his own translation assembly. What came out my end was a harsh, metallic, very robotic sounding voice.
"If VingVa make war, Human cannot survive. Council will order VingVa allow one earthcycle for evacuation of Humans."
Much as I'd expected.
"Ah, yes, and this is much appreciated, oh most noble and generous rulers, may your reign last an epoch. But, if I may, and with all respect due, I was sent here today by the leaders of Earth to seek the permission of this glorious council to do exactly that. To declare war on the VingVa, and to, erm, to defend ourselves."
Now the "laughter" was more pronounced - not just in the Ving avatar but in the forms of the others as well. A very brief untranslated conversation followed, but from what I had learned of their body language, the response was clear. Assent.
"If Humans wish extinction, they may fight the VingVa to the death. Council grants permission."
Of course, everyone knows what came next. We waited patiently for the V hive to finish constructing the terminal, and turn it on. Fifty H-bombs, casually dumped into the newly opened portal - a straight shot back to their homeworld. One more for the hive that built the damn thing. Funny thing, they didn't even bother trying to stop the tiny ship that did it. Never fired a single shot at it. They literally never knew what hit them. They saw us as so far beneath them, so insignificant, so weak, that even in total annihilation they did not comprehend the threat we posed to them. And they never will.
Because now, there are no more VingVa.
Yes, in a general sort of way, it is quite useful to be seen as cute, harmless doofuses. Though I'd wager that, in the future, maintaining that image may prove slightly more challenging. But, hey...what else are diplomats for?
Edit: a word | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | Vyxis Varix, Emperor of the Ruson Goar and Lord Commander of the Royal fleet closed his eyes and enjoyed a long drag from the cigarette between his fingers, the end glowing bright orange. One of the finer gifts the Humans had introduced to the galaxy. It is a shame that this might be the last time he would indulge in such simple pleasures. Through the gray smoke that billowed from his mouth, he saw the gleaming black throne room doors spiral open and his son, Jos, step through.
“Father,” his son said as he strutted his way down the long, onyx hall towards him. His footsteps echoed confidently in the otherwise silent chamber. When he reached the base of the throne, he kneeled and averted his eyes in respect. “It is good to be home and at your side once again.”
“Indeed,” Vyxis said with another puff of smoke. “I am pleased that you have returned to me, whole of body. Rise.” His son did so, beaming with pride. With cigarette in hand, Vyxis stood, reached out, pressed the burning end into his sons forehead.
Jos screamed in shock and recoiled, falling backwards onto his rear end. “What did you do that for!” He shrieked.
Vyxis took another drag, squatted beside his son and blew the smoke out in his sons face, who turned his head to avoid it. He did not recoil further, however. He knew better than that.
“I received grave communications today from General Brax,” Vyxis said as he stood and slowly removed the jacket of his empirical regalia. “Communications about you that have filled me with great disappointment and sorrow.” He folded his uniform neatly and placed it on the seat of his throne. He signaled for his guards to seize and hoist his son up off the ground. “You fucked up.”
He drove his fist hard into his sons stomach and the boy crumpled, the only thing keeping him on his feet being the guards.
“What did I do? Was is the Atrin? It was just some backwater planet.”
“Not that,” Vyxis said, punctuating it with another blow to the stomach.
“What?” Jos said, sputtering. “The cruiser? So what? We do it all the time.”
Vyxis shook his head. “It’s not what you did, son that angers me so. It’s who you did it to.”
Jos’ eyes searched for the answer. “Who? Those fucking weaklings?”
“Those fucking weaklings... are humans. We had a skirmish with them, long ago. They call them Babu Frin.”
Jos wrinkled his brow. “Babu Frin? The demon you used to scare me with as a child?
Vyxis nodded. “Well, the humans weren’t exactly Babu Frin. They are the ones who you call to kill fucking Babu Frin.”
Jos staggered. “Oh.”
Vyxis continued. “The humans are a species of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will... something you know very little about. I once saw them obliterate, three fucking fleets with a one ship, one fucking ship armed with one fucking weapon. Then suddenly one day they asked for peace. At the time I thought we had the upper hand, so I made a deal with them. I gave them an impossible task. A task no one could have pulled off. The species they buried for us those years laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after their beloved leader died, you invade and take their fucking dogs. And for what? For an exotic meal?
Jos steeled himself. “Father, I can make this right.”
Vyxis smiled a sympathetic smile. “Oh? How do you plan that?”
“By finishing what I started.”
Vyxis grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck and pulled him close to whisper harshly in his ear. “Did you not hear a fuckin' word I said?”
Vyxis’s eyes welled up. “Jos. Jos,” he said, trying his best to avoid choking up. “Listen! Huh? The humans will come for you, and you will do nothing because you can do nothing.” He steeled himself for what was to come. This was his son. But the war he just started would be the end of him. Vyxis himself could probably make a deal but the humans would not stop until they had Jos’ head on a spike. He hung his head and let his tears fall to the cold, black floor. “Get the fuck out of my sight.” | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | The landscape is cold- barren. We work in silence, Henry and I. I can sense the Universe recoiling away from us, the cosmos pulling its lips away, teeth gnashing and foaming, spitting vitriol on humanity. We knew this was wrong. But someone had to tip the cosmic scales back. We had come too far- walked the path of retaliation too far to turn back and make it home in time. And where was home? Earth? There were barely two billion of us left there. You'd think having lived for more than three hundred years, almost a third of those inside cruisers and battleships, and another third on barren desolate planets building outposts and bases, I would be used to this- this detachment- this sense of belonging to no one place.
I am not.
Sometimes, I close my eyes, and pretend I am back on Earth. The rebellion never occured. Humanity didn't unite. We never broke the biological code to prolonged life. We never set out to Titan. We never found the underground base that had instructions on how to contact the Nelvadians.
But no matter how tightly I clench my eyes shut, even past the point of blinding pain, when they open it is never to the skies of Earth- never to constellations our ancestors spent years naming- and centuries creating religions out of.
When our resources had began running out, we gave up our Gods, for it seemed they had forsaken us- not like we deserved better. So much for undying faith. I still remember it- there was this land... Australia, I think it was called. Australia was the first to feel the wrath of our collective abuse against the Earth. I don't even remember the year... something like two thousand...Eh, Henry knows our history better than I do.
And from then on, it was like watching dominoes tumble. A viral disease broke out- decimating half of our population in the span of an year- and then we realised we were doomed. Our leaders did nothing. Our prayers did nothing. Our Gods did nothing.
And then it spread like a contagion. Worse. The helplessness. Faith evaporating on the embers of sanity. Anarchy. None of our reports can confidently pinpoint where it began, but I reckon it was everywhere at once. Rebellion. War. Untamed.
But...we came together. We overcame together.
We survived. We evolved. We grew.
We shed off our old skin. Erased borders as best as we could. Healed and helped each other as well at as we could.
Within the next fifty years, we had a base on the Moon- a base that could support a thousand people. And by the end of the century, we reached Titan. Turns out, they were waiting for us- well, figuratively at least. The Nelvadians. A race far more superior to us when it came to technology. They had conquered interstellar travel centuries ago. And had known of Earth since the Spanish Inquisition.
The bastards wanted to test us. At least that's how Henry puts it.
But they came when we called. And boy, did they bring gifts. They had figured out everything (well nearly everything). We had figured out how to live for five hundred years- they were undying. Our ships could travel at ninety percent the speed of light- theirs didn't bother. They just tore through space. We knew how to build Moon-bases. They taught us how to terraform the damn things.
But despite all of their advancement, despite all of their technology, their weapons were tame. Oh sure, they were dangerous, and the Nelvadians weren't the species you wanted to go to war with, maybe the Askivarians, or even those three legged freaks that live on Partorus Minor. But not the Nelvadians. They had more ships in their fleets than we had guns in America back home- and that's a lot. If you're not from Earth, talk to Henry. He will tell you. Yankee bastard still keeps one around. Hooligan.
They believed in numbers apparently- the Nelvadians. But we had seen what a drawn out war did to the warring parties. We had seen three world wars. And after the last one- the one that brought us together- we weren't in the mood for another one- ever.
And so we prospered under the guidance of the Nelvadians. It was like having an elder brother- a nice one for once. When we learnt of the peace laws of interstellar communities, we chucked our history under the carpet. Most species didn't think much of us- we wouldn't have either. Well, we were rather small compared to them. Even the Nelvadians were over thirteen feet in height. One out of every two species we met could have called us Lilliputians if they knew what Lilliput was. But that's neither here nor there.
We told them about the first war. And the third. The second one- eh...we told them about it. Mostly. Well if you met the Japanese now you wouldn't believe they bombed Pearl Harbor. Or got bombed back for that matter.
It was two hundred years after our meeting with the Nelvadians when it happened. The Fuckening. If you're not from Earth, ask Henry. He'll tell you what that means. Son of a bitch taught it to me.
The Nelvadians were rather generous when it came to sharing their knowledge and tech, but there was one secret they never divulged. Their immortality. Seven times we asked for it. Seven times they refused. And the eighth time they didn't bother to give us a reply. They hit us with a question instead. One we had no answer for. How many genders are there? The fuck do we know! The fuck do they want to know for! Henry thinks it was rather clever of them. I think Henry wants to get laid- Nelvadian style.
They made us immune to a plethora of diseases- they cured cancer for us, they cured Alzheimer's. But they wouldn't tell us how to stop aging. We lived full lives...five hundred years of it, give or take. But we died. The sun set on us at the end.
Over the years we stopped asking. We figured how tough could it be. Turns out, immortality was as tough as anything could be. It took us a hundred and fifty years- but we did it. We wouldn't be immortal, but the generations that came after would have the gift of life eternal.
That was an year ago.
Six lunar cycles later, the Nelvadians gave us an ultimatum. If we went ahead with our plan to become immortal, they would....well, they didn't exactly want to party. The sad thing was, we didn't either. Maybe a couple of centuries of peace and unimagined prosperity had been too much for us. Or maybe we had learnt our lessons- maybe we had seen enough hypocrites on Earth to let another one lord over us in space.
So we did what we do best. We armed ourselves to the teeth again. The Nelvadians didn't have much to teach about weapons, but we didn't really need it. When the first immortal child was born, the Nelvadians destroyed the Emerald City of Titan- our base on the moon, our half built Dyson sphere around Alpha 3308, and declared us official enemies of Nelvadia. All in the span of two days. They declared we had become a plague. And we were to be eradicated.
That was two weeks ago.
One week later, we retaliated.
One week. That's all it takes to bring down the greatest Civilization this part of the Universe has ever known. Seven earth-days is all it takes to wipe out half of the largest fleet ever assembled in known history.
The Interstellar Community saw for the first time, the raw, untamed power of a nuclear detonation. I was there- when the first bomb exploded on Varis 88- Nelvadia's war base near Uranus. For a moment, the Solar System had two stars...it has a terrible beauty to it.
The enormous sphere of wild fire and rage. The cosmos stood in sheer silence as the base was erased from existence.
The Nelvadians would have scattered- if they hadn't been stunned into oblivion. They didn't know what to make of us now. Before they could retaliate, we blew up half of their ships, and thirty three Nelvadian outposts and bases. Took us maybe an hour.
They put up a fight after that- realising they were going to wiped off the face of existence. But there wasn't much they could do. They hadn't shared their immortality with any other civilization. And we weren't picky with who we shared ours. We tore them apart. Decimated them till all that remained was Nelvadia. One planet.
They would have to start again. From square one. We won our first Interstellar War in less than three hours.
War. It was foolish of us to think that we had become something more, that humans had risen above the kingdom of Ares. The God of War still lived amongst us. His reign was as eternal as human life now. Of all the Gods to follow us as we wandered the cosmic canvas- it had to be Him.
And even as I sit here, on the barren horizon of a foreign moon, arming the final nuclear device, code named 'Karma', preparing to destroy the last Nelvadian base outside of the Nelvadian system, I wonder how long it would take before some other civilization comes up with our magic trick.
If Ares got his way, maybe next week. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | The landscape is cold- barren. We work in silence, Henry and I. I can sense the Universe recoiling away from us, the cosmos pulling its lips away, teeth gnashing and foaming, spitting vitriol on humanity. We knew this was wrong. But someone had to tip the cosmic scales back. We had come too far- walked the path of retaliation too far to turn back and make it home in time. And where was home? Earth? There were barely two billion of us left there. You'd think having lived for more than three hundred years, almost a third of those inside cruisers and battleships, and another third on barren desolate planets building outposts and bases, I would be used to this- this detachment- this sense of belonging to no one place.
I am not.
Sometimes, I close my eyes, and pretend I am back on Earth. The rebellion never occured. Humanity didn't unite. We never broke the biological code to prolonged life. We never set out to Titan. We never found the underground base that had instructions on how to contact the Nelvadians.
But no matter how tightly I clench my eyes shut, even past the point of blinding pain, when they open it is never to the skies of Earth- never to constellations our ancestors spent years naming- and centuries creating religions out of.
When our resources had began running out, we gave up our Gods, for it seemed they had forsaken us- not like we deserved better. So much for undying faith. I still remember it- there was this land... Australia, I think it was called. Australia was the first to feel the wrath of our collective abuse against the Earth. I don't even remember the year... something like two thousand...Eh, Henry knows our history better than I do.
And from then on, it was like watching dominoes tumble. A viral disease broke out- decimating half of our population in the span of an year- and then we realised we were doomed. Our leaders did nothing. Our prayers did nothing. Our Gods did nothing.
And then it spread like a contagion. Worse. The helplessness. Faith evaporating on the embers of sanity. Anarchy. None of our reports can confidently pinpoint where it began, but I reckon it was everywhere at once. Rebellion. War. Untamed.
But...we came together. We overcame together.
We survived. We evolved. We grew.
We shed off our old skin. Erased borders as best as we could. Healed and helped each other as well at as we could.
Within the next fifty years, we had a base on the Moon- a base that could support a thousand people. And by the end of the century, we reached Titan. Turns out, they were waiting for us- well, figuratively at least. The Nelvadians. A race far more superior to us when it came to technology. They had conquered interstellar travel centuries ago. And had known of Earth since the Spanish Inquisition.
The bastards wanted to test us. At least that's how Henry puts it.
But they came when we called. And boy, did they bring gifts. They had figured out everything (well nearly everything). We had figured out how to live for five hundred years- they were undying. Our ships could travel at ninety percent the speed of light- theirs didn't bother. They just tore through space. We knew how to build Moon-bases. They taught us how to terraform the damn things.
But despite all of their advancement, despite all of their technology, their weapons were tame. Oh sure, they were dangerous, and the Nelvadians weren't the species you wanted to go to war with, maybe the Askivarians, or even those three legged freaks that live on Partorus Minor. But not the Nelvadians. They had more ships in their fleets than we had guns in America back home- and that's a lot. If you're not from Earth, talk to Henry. He will tell you. Yankee bastard still keeps one around. Hooligan.
They believed in numbers apparently- the Nelvadians. But we had seen what a drawn out war did to the warring parties. We had seen three world wars. And after the last one- the one that brought us together- we weren't in the mood for another one- ever.
And so we prospered under the guidance of the Nelvadians. It was like having an elder brother- a nice one for once. When we learnt of the peace laws of interstellar communities, we chucked our history under the carpet. Most species didn't think much of us- we wouldn't have either. Well, we were rather small compared to them. Even the Nelvadians were over thirteen feet in height. One out of every two species we met could have called us Lilliputians if they knew what Lilliput was. But that's neither here nor there.
We told them about the first war. And the third. The second one- eh...we told them about it. Mostly. Well if you met the Japanese now you wouldn't believe they bombed Pearl Harbor. Or got bombed back for that matter.
It was two hundred years after our meeting with the Nelvadians when it happened. The Fuckening. If you're not from Earth, ask Henry. He'll tell you what that means. Son of a bitch taught it to me.
The Nelvadians were rather generous when it came to sharing their knowledge and tech, but there was one secret they never divulged. Their immortality. Seven times we asked for it. Seven times they refused. And the eighth time they didn't bother to give us a reply. They hit us with a question instead. One we had no answer for. How many genders are there? The fuck do we know! The fuck do they want to know for! Henry thinks it was rather clever of them. I think Henry wants to get laid- Nelvadian style.
They made us immune to a plethora of diseases- they cured cancer for us, they cured Alzheimer's. But they wouldn't tell us how to stop aging. We lived full lives...five hundred years of it, give or take. But we died. The sun set on us at the end.
Over the years we stopped asking. We figured how tough could it be. Turns out, immortality was as tough as anything could be. It took us a hundred and fifty years- but we did it. We wouldn't be immortal, but the generations that came after would have the gift of life eternal.
That was an year ago.
Six lunar cycles later, the Nelvadians gave us an ultimatum. If we went ahead with our plan to become immortal, they would....well, they didn't exactly want to party. The sad thing was, we didn't either. Maybe a couple of centuries of peace and unimagined prosperity had been too much for us. Or maybe we had learnt our lessons- maybe we had seen enough hypocrites on Earth to let another one lord over us in space.
So we did what we do best. We armed ourselves to the teeth again. The Nelvadians didn't have much to teach about weapons, but we didn't really need it. When the first immortal child was born, the Nelvadians destroyed the Emerald City of Titan- our base on the moon, our half built Dyson sphere around Alpha 3308, and declared us official enemies of Nelvadia. All in the span of two days. They declared we had become a plague. And we were to be eradicated.
That was two weeks ago.
One week later, we retaliated.
One week. That's all it takes to bring down the greatest Civilization this part of the Universe has ever known. Seven earth-days is all it takes to wipe out half of the largest fleet ever assembled in known history.
The Interstellar Community saw for the first time, the raw, untamed power of a nuclear detonation. I was there- when the first bomb exploded on Varis 88- Nelvadia's war base near Uranus. For a moment, the Solar System had two stars...it has a terrible beauty to it.
The enormous sphere of wild fire and rage. The cosmos stood in sheer silence as the base was erased from existence.
The Nelvadians would have scattered- if they hadn't been stunned into oblivion. They didn't know what to make of us now. Before they could retaliate, we blew up half of their ships, and thirty three Nelvadian outposts and bases. Took us maybe an hour.
They put up a fight after that- realising they were going to wiped off the face of existence. But there wasn't much they could do. They hadn't shared their immortality with any other civilization. And we weren't picky with who we shared ours. We tore them apart. Decimated them till all that remained was Nelvadia. One planet.
They would have to start again. From square one. We won our first Interstellar War in less than three hours.
War. It was foolish of us to think that we had become something more, that humans had risen above the kingdom of Ares. The God of War still lived amongst us. His reign was as eternal as human life now. Of all the Gods to follow us as we wandered the cosmic canvas- it had to be Him.
And even as I sit here, on the barren horizon of a foreign moon, arming the final nuclear device, code named 'Karma', preparing to destroy the last Nelvadian base outside of the Nelvadian system, I wonder how long it would take before some other civilization comes up with our magic trick.
If Ares got his way, maybe next week. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | The landscape is cold- barren. We work in silence, Henry and I. I can sense the Universe recoiling away from us, the cosmos pulling its lips away, teeth gnashing and foaming, spitting vitriol on humanity. We knew this was wrong. But someone had to tip the cosmic scales back. We had come too far- walked the path of retaliation too far to turn back and make it home in time. And where was home? Earth? There were barely two billion of us left there. You'd think having lived for more than three hundred years, almost a third of those inside cruisers and battleships, and another third on barren desolate planets building outposts and bases, I would be used to this- this detachment- this sense of belonging to no one place.
I am not.
Sometimes, I close my eyes, and pretend I am back on Earth. The rebellion never occured. Humanity didn't unite. We never broke the biological code to prolonged life. We never set out to Titan. We never found the underground base that had instructions on how to contact the Nelvadians.
But no matter how tightly I clench my eyes shut, even past the point of blinding pain, when they open it is never to the skies of Earth- never to constellations our ancestors spent years naming- and centuries creating religions out of.
When our resources had began running out, we gave up our Gods, for it seemed they had forsaken us- not like we deserved better. So much for undying faith. I still remember it- there was this land... Australia, I think it was called. Australia was the first to feel the wrath of our collective abuse against the Earth. I don't even remember the year... something like two thousand...Eh, Henry knows our history better than I do.
And from then on, it was like watching dominoes tumble. A viral disease broke out- decimating half of our population in the span of an year- and then we realised we were doomed. Our leaders did nothing. Our prayers did nothing. Our Gods did nothing.
And then it spread like a contagion. Worse. The helplessness. Faith evaporating on the embers of sanity. Anarchy. None of our reports can confidently pinpoint where it began, but I reckon it was everywhere at once. Rebellion. War. Untamed.
But...we came together. We overcame together.
We survived. We evolved. We grew.
We shed off our old skin. Erased borders as best as we could. Healed and helped each other as well at as we could.
Within the next fifty years, we had a base on the Moon- a base that could support a thousand people. And by the end of the century, we reached Titan. Turns out, they were waiting for us- well, figuratively at least. The Nelvadians. A race far more superior to us when it came to technology. They had conquered interstellar travel centuries ago. And had known of Earth since the Spanish Inquisition.
The bastards wanted to test us. At least that's how Henry puts it.
But they came when we called. And boy, did they bring gifts. They had figured out everything (well nearly everything). We had figured out how to live for five hundred years- they were undying. Our ships could travel at ninety percent the speed of light- theirs didn't bother. They just tore through space. We knew how to build Moon-bases. They taught us how to terraform the damn things.
But despite all of their advancement, despite all of their technology, their weapons were tame. Oh sure, they were dangerous, and the Nelvadians weren't the species you wanted to go to war with, maybe the Askivarians, or even those three legged freaks that live on Partorus Minor. But not the Nelvadians. They had more ships in their fleets than we had guns in America back home- and that's a lot. If you're not from Earth, talk to Henry. He will tell you. Yankee bastard still keeps one around. Hooligan.
They believed in numbers apparently- the Nelvadians. But we had seen what a drawn out war did to the warring parties. We had seen three world wars. And after the last one- the one that brought us together- we weren't in the mood for another one- ever.
And so we prospered under the guidance of the Nelvadians. It was like having an elder brother- a nice one for once. When we learnt of the peace laws of interstellar communities, we chucked our history under the carpet. Most species didn't think much of us- we wouldn't have either. Well, we were rather small compared to them. Even the Nelvadians were over thirteen feet in height. One out of every two species we met could have called us Lilliputians if they knew what Lilliput was. But that's neither here nor there.
We told them about the first war. And the third. The second one- eh...we told them about it. Mostly. Well if you met the Japanese now you wouldn't believe they bombed Pearl Harbor. Or got bombed back for that matter.
It was two hundred years after our meeting with the Nelvadians when it happened. The Fuckening. If you're not from Earth, ask Henry. He'll tell you what that means. Son of a bitch taught it to me.
The Nelvadians were rather generous when it came to sharing their knowledge and tech, but there was one secret they never divulged. Their immortality. Seven times we asked for it. Seven times they refused. And the eighth time they didn't bother to give us a reply. They hit us with a question instead. One we had no answer for. How many genders are there? The fuck do we know! The fuck do they want to know for! Henry thinks it was rather clever of them. I think Henry wants to get laid- Nelvadian style.
They made us immune to a plethora of diseases- they cured cancer for us, they cured Alzheimer's. But they wouldn't tell us how to stop aging. We lived full lives...five hundred years of it, give or take. But we died. The sun set on us at the end.
Over the years we stopped asking. We figured how tough could it be. Turns out, immortality was as tough as anything could be. It took us a hundred and fifty years- but we did it. We wouldn't be immortal, but the generations that came after would have the gift of life eternal.
That was an year ago.
Six lunar cycles later, the Nelvadians gave us an ultimatum. If we went ahead with our plan to become immortal, they would....well, they didn't exactly want to party. The sad thing was, we didn't either. Maybe a couple of centuries of peace and unimagined prosperity had been too much for us. Or maybe we had learnt our lessons- maybe we had seen enough hypocrites on Earth to let another one lord over us in space.
So we did what we do best. We armed ourselves to the teeth again. The Nelvadians didn't have much to teach about weapons, but we didn't really need it. When the first immortal child was born, the Nelvadians destroyed the Emerald City of Titan- our base on the moon, our half built Dyson sphere around Alpha 3308, and declared us official enemies of Nelvadia. All in the span of two days. They declared we had become a plague. And we were to be eradicated.
That was two weeks ago.
One week later, we retaliated.
One week. That's all it takes to bring down the greatest Civilization this part of the Universe has ever known. Seven earth-days is all it takes to wipe out half of the largest fleet ever assembled in known history.
The Interstellar Community saw for the first time, the raw, untamed power of a nuclear detonation. I was there- when the first bomb exploded on Varis 88- Nelvadia's war base near Uranus. For a moment, the Solar System had two stars...it has a terrible beauty to it.
The enormous sphere of wild fire and rage. The cosmos stood in sheer silence as the base was erased from existence.
The Nelvadians would have scattered- if they hadn't been stunned into oblivion. They didn't know what to make of us now. Before they could retaliate, we blew up half of their ships, and thirty three Nelvadian outposts and bases. Took us maybe an hour.
They put up a fight after that- realising they were going to wiped off the face of existence. But there wasn't much they could do. They hadn't shared their immortality with any other civilization. And we weren't picky with who we shared ours. We tore them apart. Decimated them till all that remained was Nelvadia. One planet.
They would have to start again. From square one. We won our first Interstellar War in less than three hours.
War. It was foolish of us to think that we had become something more, that humans had risen above the kingdom of Ares. The God of War still lived amongst us. His reign was as eternal as human life now. Of all the Gods to follow us as we wandered the cosmic canvas- it had to be Him.
And even as I sit here, on the barren horizon of a foreign moon, arming the final nuclear device, code named 'Karma', preparing to destroy the last Nelvadian base outside of the Nelvadian system, I wonder how long it would take before some other civilization comes up with our magic trick.
If Ares got his way, maybe next week. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | The humans sat down for diplomatic relations, as they always had and always will. The envoy for the Coalition of Civilizations sat down at the far end of the long table. The envoy came with seven bodyguards and seven times seven support staff. The humans brought a puppy.
Envoy G'rig burbled out nonsense in its native Fythian concerning the unsuitability of the human's mother for reproduction. Head ambassador Steve of the Terran Federation simply nodded and responded that the universal translators funcitoned quite well. G'rig was mortified, but Steve only thanked him for testing the translators so well.
"What sort of bloodthirsty monsters are you," demanded G'rig, slamming what passed in his culture for a fist on the table, "to produce such horrific weapons?"
"Are you familiar with Terran culture and history?" asked Steve nonchalantly. G'rig snarled. "Obviously not."
"There was an author named Robert E. Howard. He wrote fiction about barbarians, notably about one named Conan. The particular stories don't matter for this conversation, but a quote of his comes to mind. 'Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.' When you've developed weapons such as these, you become very polite or very dead." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | The balnadian warships exited the hyperlane in flocks of fifty, ignoring all rules about safe travelling of space and risking going Dutchman. One flock after another, all the way from fast-attack corvettes to impressive battleships, whose curb weight were measurable fraction of Ceres. Their design, although very different of an earthen ship, was beautiful in its own way. All the sips popped out well beyond the orbit of Pluto, but just in time to be near our largest transfer station, the Holden-5. Their armada stayed uncomfortably close to each other, almost at docking distance. There was no mistake in it, they wanted to show off. As they slowly burned sunward, and towards the station, their flagship popped in last, and it took the rearmost position of the flock, protected by it entirely. In space, you keep your command ship at the back and submit all your fleet to protect it. This was their only sensible move, however.
"Puny Humans! Let this be a message, and let you be an example to all the species in the conclave! You gathered everyone around your fragile idea of peacekeeping, and all you do is speak. No one is willing to follow your mushy dreams and nice words! What they need is..."
"Greetings, our Balnad *friends!* We have notices unusually high traffic entering to the system without previous appointment. Please state your business, and do not approach Holden-5 unless traffic control's explicit order."
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME??? I am unable to decide what is more insulting, you and your miserable joke of evolution species calling me a friend, ugh, or being interrupted by someone of your rank. As I said, this day will be displayed as a warning to whomever dreams of following a weak species. Why are you gathering allies? To protect yourself? Where are you allies now??"
"Thank you for your response, our dearest Balnad *friends*. My name Captain Maria Agatova of the dreadnought Mayflower. From your previous response, I gather two things. One, you are attempting to murder our species, and two, your cameras are rolling. Am I correct? If your answer is *yes* to the former question, that this message serves as a final warning."
"Well of course. What else would I be doing here, other than shaming your peace loving species? All you do is surround yourself with minions and hope they won't turn on you. What could you possibly do against the greatest armada this galaxy has ever seen? Nothing!"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you again, but I have to make two corrections: One, they were the ones who sought help and we offer them. And for the second answer you seek, well, the answer is already seeking you."
Moments later, a second Sun ignited in the middle of the rightmost part of the flock, devouring eighth of their fleet while the expanding debris field disabled almost half of the other vessels, tearing apart the closest ones and puncturing the battleships. The silent roar of first high-yield warhead wasn't even over, when two more lit up, engulfing the rest of fleet, leaving only the capital ship on the checkerboard, albeit badly wounded, loosing atmosphere and energy. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Erryn relished the moment. There was something cathartic in holding between his tendrils the terms of surrender, in knowing that you hold the only hope for a dying race. In that moment, he held the power of life and death for the fifteen billion humans on the planet below, as well as the one who sat across the table from him now.
The two of them sat alone on a station that had been prepared exclusively for the purpose; only the two negotiators and the cameras that would broadcast the surrender to the Universe. Beside them, the wall was filled with a viewport that showed the surface of Earth spinning away from them, as well as the tremendous fleet that floated menacingly above.
The human negotiator took the treaty from Erryn and began to read. The terms were simple: humanity would submit to Tallnian authority in perpetuity, yielding all valuables within a solar cycle. It was a method that had worked for them many times before; all throughout the arm of the galaxy, Tallnian planets could be found, constructing the great fleets that would go on to expand the Empire.
The negotiator carefully placed the treaty on the table and sat back, his eyes closed. From his training, Eryn recognized this as defeat. The man who had been so pure in the House of Diplomacy, who had insisted that every conflict could be solved there even as the Tallnians slaughtered his people on the Plutonian Outpost, was silent.
Erryn placed a pen on the table. He took special pleasure in making the defeat feel as familiar as possible.
The negotiator sighed, then spoke. “I remember you from the House, Erryn. You always told me that war was beyond law. That the strong would rule, and the weak would deserve it.”
Erryn laughed. “And I was correct, so it would seem.”
The human leaned forward. “You said that peace was a weak race’s game, and that only a coward would waste his time with its rules.”
“I did.” Erryn was getting impatient now. “And I do not see how this exchange will benefit us.”
“I just wanted you to understand something, before this is all over.”
“Oh?”
“Rules are not for good races to make themselves feel better. Good races, ones that are truly altruistic, don’t need rules.” He took a deep breath. “Today, you’ll understand why humanity has so many.”
At that moment, a blinding light stabbed through the viewport. Erryn shielded his optic spots, surprised by the sudden brightness. He thought that their star would rise on the other side of the planet…
The light faded, and Erryn looked back outside. The Tallnian fleet was gone, replaced by a rapidly-expanding sphere of rubble. He fell back into his seat in shock.
The human was already on his feet, halfway to the hatch to his ship. He looked back at Erryn, the pain evident on his alien features. “I am so sorry that it came to this.” Then, a moment later, he was descending back to his planet.
Erryn sat there in shock. He hadn’t moved when, an hour later, a piece of the Tallnian flagship’s great cannon tore through the station, incinerating the treaty and the Tallnian who had brought it | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | I had heard of the human super weapons, but I had heard such claims before.
When the Ruthkin emissaries boarded my flagship to receive my declaration of battle, they shreeked at me with hatred in thier eyes. Through furious chittering they told me of the doom-wrought cannons which would tear my fleet asunder. They perished as easy as the rest.
When the Ulvanites came to receive the declaration, They rejoiced for the chance to crush me under thier Stormtoothed cavalry. Thier ambassadors all but invited me to invade thier lands. Thier promises were as empty as thier future.
Strangest of all was the Kosal. When I declared my writ of extermination, thier people raved like the mad and weak minded. I eventually found thier display was that of a desperate being trying to convince a predator he is not worth the trouble.
When the humans came to receive my terms, thier words were different. My first commander saw the fear and licked his maw, but I saw something more.
The humans who spoke of thier weapons did so in hushed tones and reverant whispers. I saw in them a fear deeper than I have ever known...a fear not for my warhost.
As we departed thier lonely system for the last time, I recalled the wisdom of my broodfather. He told me the wise Hunter never seeks that which his prey fears more than a hunters teeth, lest he be the Hunter no longer.
To this cycle I still do not know what the humans fear most, but I hope to never know. I pray to the Bright one my people never learn the human's secret, so they will never know such terror. It will be the human's Burden to carry, for I saw in them enough fear to consume the Galaxy. | At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then several more in succession, numbering twenty-four. "Ah, they have do have some form of defense." I mused to myself, the Supreme Leaders did expect a futile excuse for planetary defense on such a young race on the galactic scene. It would be as they have predicted, and just as easily dispatched.
"Ballistic missiles incoming admiral." the sensor array operator was looking at his display with a smirk to his reptilian face.
"We might have to launch countermeasures, the gnats on the planet think to ward us off with primitive technology." I commented smugly. "Deploy electronic countermeasures. The probes should easily keep these weapons away from our fleet. Prepare landing craft."
Minutes passed as the ballistic missiles approached, slowly like a crawler coming out of a sand pit. Glaciers seemed fast compared to the speed these ancient missiles were coming toward the fleet.
The fleet, Dracadia's most fearsome war machine. Four hundred ships bristling with photon weaponry the likes that few have survived. Many planets have fallen to the might of the fleet, none have escaped it's wrath.
"Sir, we've noticed that the missiles aren't even targeting ships. Trajectories seem to indicate a simple navigation system. We could merely open a hole in our formation and let them pass right through."
"Hm, good idea. Why waste resources when we don't need to. Pass the order around, maneuver the ships." I said, disappointed in the simplicity of this assault.
Time passed further as the fleet maneuvered created a hole, giving the missiles room to pass through their mass. Which they began to enter, unerringly as if mindlessly wandering the vastness of space.
At first there was a flash, a moment's pause and then many more in succession. As if a small sun was summoned, each missile detonated. Building on to each other's payload, the force of the blast grew exponentially with each explosion. A fireball was born, not seen since the days of the great nova which forced Dracadia's host from it's home system.
The great command ship shuddered, then began to tilt out of control as the guidance systems ceased controlling the ship.
"What is going on? Status report!" I yelled, then braced as unknown debris shattered the superstructure of the ship. Precious atmosphere began to vent out into the blackness of space.
I looked up into the void and the face of death looked back. Hundreds of ships shattered into shrapnel, the rest careening out of control as the destructive force of Twenty-four synchronized weapons took hold of the fleet. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "You may have thought us pathetic and frail for our friendship and pacifism," related the calm voice that came over the monitor.
The Glorthon admiral, Tee'et Lorcor, stared with horror as two more dreadnought class battle cruisers under his commanders were obliterated by a single missile strike each. The fleet was on the defensive, all fire was directed at stopping the hundreds of rockets from the human fleet and planet surface below. It seemed like they had just reached enemy's home star system, and the advance had come to a screeching halt.
"But our friendship was extended because we know the true horrors of war," the calm voice continued almost sadly.
The Glorthons had never experienced such resistance even from the mighty Cluthons of Criok 4. The early human resistance consisted of small frigates and transports using lasers meant only to clear rogue asteroids. Tee'et Lorcor's fleet had cut through the human forces like a predator's claw through soft flesh. Why would they hold back their most powerful weapons until they had broken through all the way to Mars?
"You see we once fought among ourselves for things we now view as petty," the voice sighed as two more ships were incinerated, "Greed, bigotry, and national pride drove us to war with each other in the most brutal and savage ways."
"It was a race to see who could kill each other faster and more efficiently, until one fateful day, twenty millennia ago, we invented a weapon that could vaporize cities," the voice explained.
Surely he lies, thought Tee'et Lorcor. The only weapons capable of that are lasers and they stagnated at city sized destruction five thousand years ago. Yet, another ship exploded in radiant energy to prove his foe's point.
"Eventually, the weapons were powerful enough to level small continents, that's when the Fateful Hour occurred. 70% of humanity was gone in what seemed like an instant, the rest left to pick through the scraps as they died slow painful deaths," the voice broke.
Tee'et Lorcor's fleet was dwindling. He would have to get creative if he were to win this battle and put an end to the humans. He scrambled fighters to get in close to the orbital stations that seemed to be the primary source of the missile salvo
"Faced with extinction, we promised to never again use such weapons and found a new purpose. We would rebuild as we took to the stars. It's funny what the specter of extinction will do," the voice mused.
Lorcror was getting worried now. They had destroyed a couple of the stations, but the human squadrons were holding off his fighters just enough. For every station destroyed another four Glorthon battle cruisers exploded with bright light.
"We met other peoples and vowed to help them build, create, and be happy. We learned from our mistakes and hoped to teach others," the voice seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Fate was beginning to dawn on Tee'et Lorcor. They could not win this fight. The shear amount of laser fire required to slowly drain the opposing fleets shields could not hope to keep up with the destructive power the missiles. He had to sound the retreat for the mere dozen ships remaining under his control.
"And now we face extinction again," the voice stated gravely, "And we came to a terrible but inescapable decision. We must build the weapons again. We must fight with the efficiency we did back on Earth."
Suddenly, Tee'et heard warning alarms. The warp drives failed to power up! Engineering reports all ships seemed to have been crippled. The humans must had been silently slicing into their warp core control systems since the battle started. Had they planned this from the start?
"Did you really think Mars was always our home?" | They say ‘History is written by the victor’, yet in our case, that is categorically false. I am a prophesy, a warning. I sit alone, the last of my kind, with one final duty. I too will become another footnote in history. Ours inevitably similar to countless others who, just like us, believed in our species’ supremacy. Our ascendant right to the universe. To conquer and exploit everything and anyone, as our gospel required. Like all warnings before us, I fear my words will again fade into the infinite, eventually just another fairy tale. Just the made up words of those who seek to keep you from reaching your true potential.
It began with a simple warning: ‘Cease your expansionary violence, failure will result in jump gate privileges removed.’
The nerve of those humans. For as long as anyone remembered, they were the administrators of the jump gates. An incredibly rare and advanced species known for staying neutral in all other’s affairs. To most other races, this made them perfect mediators and trading partners. Not a lot was known about their main system since no traffic was allowed through the jump gate leading to it. Humans always traded outside their system and had no need to use the jump gates. Their unarmed ships appeared where needed. Their neutrality and lack of desire for expansion was pathetic.
The stories say the once mighty Xhavi wanted control of their jump gate. The believed, like we all do, human’s control of the gates should cease. While the humans always followed every jump request, control of the gates meant control of information. And so they attacked the controller. In a blinding flash, the gate just… disappeared. The remaining Xhavi, maybe a few million across the Universe, forever refugees, struggle to survive. A once mighty species, forever locked behind the realities of physics. But these are just stories.
We were different. We understood the theory behind jump gates. We currently lacked the technology to replicate it but that was to soon to change. Our methodical conquest of the Iuger revealed they had created technology to jump small objects. Our best scientists explained it, but as I now badly recall, it meant controlling massive energy outputs at precise moments when matter is split. With our numbers and this new technology, our scientists predicted we would soon be the dominant species. Certainly within my lifespan. We would start our ascendancy with a first strike at our gate controller while laying final waste to the Iuger.
And then it happened.
A request from a human envoy to appear at the central gate. As the head of The Executioner Fleet, our greatest pride, I was the natural choice. Waiting for us was a small group: a human, a Xhavi, another humanoid who I recognized as an Ulanian, and a few others I did not. ‘Impossible’… the Ulanians had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. A huge power vacuum left which allowed the Xhavi and us to become dominant. There was not a single representative from any of the major alliances. There would be no audience, no grandstanding today.
The human stepped forward and had one question: ’Who is the chosen one?’
I didn’t understand. At first we thought the translator malfunctioned. My anger was visible and I uttered my disgust, ‘How dare you interfere in our affairs?’
The human, pensive for a moment repeated ‘Who will be the chosen one?’
I yelled at the Xhavi ‘What is this affront to our sovereignty?!’
The Xhavi never raised his gaze. ‘We too were this naive. We too shared this... delusion. The masters of our own fate. Like you it began with a warning and like you we thought we were supreme. The truth is your fate has already been sealed. They see it all. Your armada secretly surrounding this meeting, your ships at battle station, your worlds preparing to finish up the Iuger. Right at this moment you are about to order your ships to fire. The human doesn’t care about your next move, only about who will tell your story.”
I smiled. A brief moment of hubris. ‘FIRE!’
The choice was made. As every single one of our ships surrounding the meeting blinked out of existence in a spherical bloom of death and plasma... I finally understood the question.
The human looked out to the stars. ‘We cannot allow any one of our creations to extinguish another. We cannot allow you to repeat our mistakes. Your species will have to wait behind your gate. You have been chosen.’
I am the harbinger of our destruction. I am the witness. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The species known as Humans came from a distant star, deep within the swirling vortex all other races had avoided. They brought with them many wondrous advancements including advanced healing never before seen within the known galaxy. Though they were diverse, they had no want for war and would help any in need without hesitation as they spread across the stars.
Exploration was the forefront of their minds and had never declared war on anyone. They even created safe havens throughout the galaxy. Freeports, they called them, where anyone was allowed to rest for a spell regardless of their background, profession or allegiance. A no fire zone so to speak. Many species across the galaxy enjoyed their friendly demeanor but also viewed them as mostly harmless. Mostly harmless that is, until the incident of Tau-423.
The Vikonican's were an empire devoted to warring among the stars. They mostly kept their battles between themselves as they fight for glory and power. Every so often though, a particularly good general will win and unit the Vikonicans to focus on other species. One fateful day, Emperor Bragisson united his people and led an attack that completely destroyed one of the freeports.
The Vikonican's then declared war against the humans and began raiding, and destroying, several more freeports over the course of a few months. Every species offered the humans help but they politely declined saying, as quoted, "We got this"
The Tau-423 incident was news that shook the entire galaxy. The humans sent a fleet to the satellite that General Bragisson was commanding from and, in a single day, ended the war.
The humans distracted the Vikonican's with their fleet while sending over a hundred cloaked bombers into the atmosphere. The cloaking alone took us all by surprise as that was technology many had struggled to create. Even so, the cloaking was mostly glossed over in the aftermath of the bombs.
The human's didn't just retaliate, they destroyed the very planet. The atmosphere was blasted away and anything on the plant that wasn't incinerated on impact withered away. For years after, any probe sent to the remains of the planet would malfunction within minutes. Only in recent years have probes exploring the barren surface could send back data. The very planet itself was radiated and dead to the core. Nothing of this magnitude had ever been seen across the galaxy.
The Humans, it seemed, were more powerful, and more terrifying, than anyone could have ever guessed. We can only hope that they continue to keep their friendly demeanor. | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "War? These rats declared war against the humans? The neutral viewpoints of the Galactic Counsil?"
"Yes, Sir."
The humans seem rather weak and pathetic, regarding how friendly and peaceful they are. If you ever looked into their history, you know why. They not only almost killed themselves as a species, multiple times, they also have fought wars, spanning the whole planet, four times.
Humans are not to underrate, they seem to be born by war, makes jumps of unproportional technological advance, with war. War is their means of survival.
The Raxxla are a society of war and battle, build upon the very word of a match. This is a clash of titans. Spending uncountable amounts of money on their military.
Both sides regularly rival for the status of the biggest, bestest fleets and technology.
The humans even denied, with a thank you, any allied help.
-
In System 23b4, 25.3 Ly from Sol, the home system of the humans the first and last battle were fought. The humans brought an ancient technology with them, known as the Spear of Sol.
It creates massive balls of plasma, evaporating everything in a radius of 120 km of the blast, the following heat flash and EMP cripples even Titan weight ships, even if not directly hit by the Spear.
The Raxxla surrendered immediately, after their prime fleet just vanished, and the humans just let them go, and helped them rebuild the fleets. They learned from their history what happens if take resources from a crippled enemy, WW2 was one of the prime examples.
But if you help the enemy, they maybe even become your allie.
This is how the humans were able to build and shape the Galactic Counsil, by helping the ones, who they won over.
- | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | I had heard of the human super weapons, but I had heard such claims before.
When the Ruthkin emissaries boarded my flagship to receive my declaration of battle, they shreeked at me with hatred in thier eyes. Through furious chittering they told me of the doom-wrought cannons which would tear my fleet asunder. They perished as easy as the rest.
When the Ulvanites came to receive the declaration, They rejoiced for the chance to crush me under thier Stormtoothed cavalry. Thier ambassadors all but invited me to invade thier lands. Thier promises were as empty as thier future.
Strangest of all was the Kosal. When I declared my writ of extermination, thier people raved like the mad and weak minded. I eventually found thier display was that of a desperate being trying to convince a predator he is not worth the trouble.
When the humans came to receive my terms, thier words were different. My first commander saw the fear and licked his maw, but I saw something more.
The humans who spoke of thier weapons did so in hushed tones and reverant whispers. I saw in them a fear deeper than I have ever known...a fear not for my warhost.
As we departed thier lonely system for the last time, I recalled the wisdom of my broodfather. He told me the wise Hunter never seeks that which his prey fears more than a hunters teeth, lest he be the Hunter no longer.
To this cycle I still do not know what the humans fear most, but I hope to never know. I pray to the Bright one my people never learn the human's secret, so they will never know such terror. It will be the human's Burden to carry, for I saw in them enough fear to consume the Galaxy. | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "We're in position sir, 1 gate out from Earth." Sgt. Crull brimmed with enthusiasm. "They won't know what hits them."
Captain Gree looked pleased. "Excellent, sergeant. Make sure the fleet is ready to go on my command."
The Mazoth had been waiting for this for a long time. Their fleet of sleek black and green ships sat on the ground, waiting for the massive orbital planetary gate floating above Alpha Centauri 4 to be in the right position.
It wasn't difficult to lure the humans into a false sense of security. The diplomats had gone ahead of them, using that pathetic word, 'peace'. The mention of it made Gree's gills quiver. He wondered how these pathetic humans could have ever garnered such a high position in galactic affairs using nothing but their flapping air holes. They practically ran the United Planets, and yet no one had tested their true strength -- until today.
The last ship was in position, and Gree was nearly ready to give the order, when Sgt Crull came running over to him. "Sir, there is a transmission. The fur heads want to talk."
"Hah, fine, let them talk. I want to hear their screams when we breech their planet's atmosphere with our mezopods. They have five rels to entertain me before the gate is in position anyway."
Gree heard a crackling sound filling the air as the transmission was put through the ship's speakers. A weak and timid sounding voice on the other end began to speak, while the image of the weak fur-headed creature filled the screen.
"Greetings Powerful Mazoth. Your fleet has been detected preparing to intrude on Earth space. If you do not cease your activities, we will be prepared to act. Violence against other species is an abhorrence to us, and we implore you to appeal to the better angels of your nature." The human bowed gracefully, sickening Gree.
A thunderous, nearly deafening laughter filled the ship, and Gree made sure the sound was transmitted back through the link so those talkative idiots could hear.
"You pathetic fur-heads. We will rain destruction down upon your cities. Your mating partners will be made to breed Mazoth slaves. Your pathetic 'peace' will be a meaningless and forgotten word. You are powerless. We are power!" Gree finished with the traditional Mazoth war chant.
"Rahhhh!" The words elicited an immediate response from his crew, and Gree couldn't have been more proud. This would be the finest moment of his life. His children and their children would talk of it for thousands of years.
The com link crackled again. "Uhm, I am afraid there has been a slight misunderstanding. We are not weak -- just kind. We reiterate, we do not wish to harm your people. We believe in the power of diversity in our galaxy and the universe. Please, cease your aggression. If you do not comply, we will be forced to take action."
"Hah! What action will you take? Will you ask us 'pretty please'?" Laughter filled the bridge of the ship. "Maybe you will give us a, what do you call it, a 'hug'? Listen, weakling. You cannot harm Mazoth. You are there for our entertainment."
"Well, if asking you 'pretty please' would help, I would consider it."
Gree's smile widened to encompass half of his head, showing his freshly sharpened teeth. The gate was in position. He chuckled at the image of the human, and spoke the words he knew his crew wanted to hear. "Fleet, begin launch sequence."
The bubbling of the organic drives could be felt through the floor of the ship, and Gree sat back in the captain's chair on the bridge. He continued to grin evilly at the viewscreen. He wanted to watch this human die.
"Sir! There is an object on the detector. It just emerged through the gate." Sgt. Crull's voice had a hint of concern, annoying Gree. He wasn't going to let weakness spoil his day.
"How many?" Gree asked.
"Just the one."
"Then what are you so afraid of? It is probably one of their weakly peace talkers come to meet us in person."
"It's coming through the atmosphere toward us."
"Ignore it, ships, launch!"
The ship lurched upward and began to ascend, slowly picking up speed. They needed to have enough velocity to reach orbit and catch up to the gate.
"Sir, the object just broke up after it came through the atmosphere."
"Hah! They're so weak, their ships can't even survive atmospheric entry." He looked at the screen. "Human! You are so pathetic."
On the screen, a black haired young man had the look of sorrow. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive us."
Gree knew it was because he must have recognized his fate. There was a twinge of disappointment, as he had hoped to see fear rather than the weakling accepting its death so meekly.
"Uhm, sir, there are now several objects coming toward us. They must have split off from the first object. They have spread out, and there is one heading toward each squadron of ships."
"Nobody cares, Crull. Don't be so human. It is too late for them to talk."
Gree wasn't at all concerned. Instead, he was keeping on eye on the fleet's progress. Anticipation had increased his saliva production to the point it was running down the sides of his mouth. His grin broadened further than it had ever been. "This is a great day," he thought.
On the alternate viewer Gree was watching, third squadron was visible, having gone ahead of the fleet as planned. They were better equipped for breaching, just in case they had any planetary defenses, although Gree thought that was unlikely. He watched the ships accelerating upward toward the edge of the atmosphere. But suddenly a blinding light flashed, making him cover his eyes.
The human spoke again. He could only hear him, due to the light. "Again, I'm so sorry, Mazoth. This was not the way we wanted to do things. Perhaps it's still not too late to avert total war."
Gree could feel panic around him on the bridge. As the light died down, he could see the ships of third squadron plummeting back toward the ground. They looked mangled, as pieces of them flew off into the air. More flashes of light all around him erupted.
"What is going on!" he yelled. "Crull, report!"
Sgt. Crull was visibly trembling, much to Gree's disgust. However another bright flash left him unconcerned.
----
"President Freemon, sir, Admiral Mills here with your report." Admiral Mills looked upset. His face wore a deep scowl, and his body's movements were stiff and formal.
"Go ahead, Admiral." Freemon said.
"Sir, the Mazoth refused all attempts at discussion. Their location in the Alpha Centauri system was far too close for our negotiating team to intervene. I'm afraid there was nothing we could do. I'm sorry, sir."
"I know you tried your best. I saw the video. They were quite bloodthirsty. At least we will have that to show to the United Planets next month, should they make a fuss." Freemon sighed.
"I hope it doesn't hurt our standing, sir."
"Somehow I doubt it will. The Mazoth had made more than their share of enemies. To be honest, I have already received a few messages of gratitude."
"That's terrible! How could they be so happy at the killing of so many sentient beings!"
"I know, Admiral. I know. But it's the universe we live in. We will continue to guide them into the light." | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The old man sighed heavily as the alarm went off. Sirens blared, and red lights flashed. The young man he had been training to eventually succeed him leapt out of his simple cot, eyes wide with terror and hands trembling as they clutched the nanofiber blanket covering him. The old man shook his head sadly, rose from his hovering bed, and gestured for the boy to follow him.
As the boy hurriedly leapt from his resting place, he looked up at the old man. "I thought you said we'd never have to use it?" He said, shouting to be heard over the blaring klaxons.
The old man shook his head once more, and replied "I said I hope we won't, not that we wouldn't! A peaceful planet will always be viewed as an easy conquest for the warmongers, that's how it's always been, that's how it'll always be." He slipped on his skintight environment suit and activated the hyperfiltration field, while his young ward followed suit. Then, one after the other, they clambered down the small ladder to the main computer room, prepared to accomplish their duty.
The old man pressed the alarm release, and stared solemnly at the ancient, dust-covered room in the sudden silence. The boy fidgeted with his necklace, one that the old man had once worn. The old man eyed it, looking at the key, a relic from a bygone era, where wars raged and people died, where boys dreamed of being soldiers to protect their country. Even after the Great Conjunction, the union of the planet into a single, peaceful nation in the face of first contact, boys had dreamed of defending their homeland.
The old man lifted his own key, then looked down at his wrist computer as it made a small beep. A message. He scrolled through the details somberly, as the boy waited anxiously to be told what to do. Finally, the old man walked across the room, leaving footprints in a century's worth of dust. The boy nervously followed suit, feeling as if he was trespassing on some sacred ground. The two sat in the ancient chairs, and the old man wiped the dust off of the console. He stopped and stared for a moment, before beginning to type in a set of coordinates.
He removed his key. The boy followed suit.
In practiced motions, they inserted the keys into the keyholes, the old man almost missed because his hand was trembling so badly. They turned the keys in unison.
With an ominous click, a plastic box flipped up, revealing a glowing red button.
The old man pressed it.
The missile flew.
As the old man watched the missile hurtle towards the enemy, towards the terrible, vast fleet he knew was out there, towards the aggressor who decided it was time to conquer the puny, peaceful little humans, ancient words he didn't know he knew slipped from his lips:
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds..." | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "Activate Zip Drive," I said to my computer, a generation III A.I. as space-time split before me, "Prime weapon for immediate release when we hit norm." I knew their fleet would not want me sneaking by in FTL so I was planning ahead for my attack.
The colored lights of Otherspace slipped past my small bomber, jumping toward the atoms in my hull hungrily but were held at bay by the magnetic shielding.
"Disturbance in norm space detected. Prepare for pullout in 3... 2... 1..." my A.I. informed me and then the colors of Otherspace were replaced with the blackness of the void. Ahead of me there was the fleet. An enemy interceptor had detected me and pulled me out of FTL as I had expected. A massive fleet of carriers and battleships and support ships and everything in between lay ahead of me.
"Human ship," a voice said across the ether, "Do you bring word of your species surrender?" The voice, of course, was translated from the light pulses that passed as speech by the Golloids, floating in their saltwater tanks. Their leadership had demanded our surrender this morning.
"Negative," I said, "I have come to demand yours." There was what passed for laughter in their pulsing tongue and then swarms of fighters launched toward me. I swallowed involuntarily as the stars behind the massive fleet were blotted out. "Launch the payload," I said, targeting as close to the center of the sphere of ships as I could.
The missile's fusion engine kicked in and as a fighter headed to intercept it the missile disappeared from norm-space and into Otherspace. A split second later it reappeared at it's destination in norm. My visor went dark as the darkness of space became as bright as a sun. Ship after enemy ship evaporated into their component atoms, vaporized by the intense heat and radiation pulsing outward from the temporary star I had just created obliterated them. As the shock-wave spread toward me and the interceptor evaporated, my A.I. slipped my ship into the other and I took comfort in the colors around me. I could swear I felt Otherspace shudder, but I knew that was impossible.
The Golloid were advanced. Very advanced. Humanity, however, had an advantage in that they had stumbled upon a way to use a basic technology as a weapon to end one of our wars centuries ago. See, we had two inventions that were unique to our species. One was the zipper. It was amazing that no other species had discovered it and had taken the clothes wearing species of the galaxy by storm and the patent had made Earth rich.
The other was nuclear weapons. Now that I had destroyed their fleet, hundreds of Earth bombers were given free reign to bomb Goll, their homeworld, and its colonies into oblivion. As I turned my ship around to retain to base I felt a pang of sympathy.
"Poor bastards," I said to the void, "Poor, poor bastards." | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Some think to question the Grand One; humans are foremost among them. Before them, it was the gli'artagn. They thought themselves strong, and attacked our pure empire. In doing so, they brought themselves to their own end. The Grand One teaches the truest truth in all the galaxy: only real strength rules, and only real strength wins.
The gli'artagn bashed themselves to death upon the body of our greatness, and those who remained became part of the Grand Truth. Humanity has not done this. Instead, they have spoken words of war against us, and seduced away our youth and the weakest of our minds. They speak such wickedness as, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and "Mind over matter." Though we all struggled to believe it, they do not kill their crippled young, but care for them and even give them positions of power -- their leader, even now, has no function in its lower appendages, and must use a device to move!
The Grand One has had enough of this. We march now upon one of their more populous planets, overflowing with bodies infirm and old, on both the ground and the rings that incessantly swing about the planet. The strong shall help us conquer, and the weak shall die, as the Grand One wills it.
- - -
Johnny Cortez, ensign, is the bringer of coffees. He's training, sure, but in between times he brings Rear Admiral Barber her coffee. Last time Fleet Admiral Pulk visited, he had imported Martian field-grown coffee hand-roasted daily. RA Barber drinks the same coffee as everyone else: the sludge from the commissary. He brings it to her fresh, and he's the one who brings the fancy creamer she adulterates it with. She's a good boss to have.
Right now, she is terrifying. There's an entire fleet of Rellenians bearing down on Second Eden. Rather than yelling orders, or panicking, or grinding down on a large cigar like in the old movies, she's sipping her coffee and smiling.
"Ensign?" she says when the ships are just outside New Eden's lunar orbit. "I'm going to need more coffee." And Admiral Barber opens a screen he cannot see. Only her touch in the air lets him know she's doing anything. An instant later, he feels the ring shake, and sees missiles soaring -- one for each enemy ship. They don't even attempt to dodge. Arrogance, maybe, because the Rellenians brag like playground bullies. She doesn't fire again, just watches.
When he sees the flash, and the way the nearest installations on the rings flicker, he knows why.
- - -
It has been three sleeps since we attacked the humans. Few of our number remain now. The human's attack disabled too many of our systems, and left us unable to fix them when their weapon poisoned us.
My skin does not want to stay on my body. My legs do not want to work, and my eyes fail. When I could hear, I heard the humans were advancing on the Grand One's palace. I think...
I think
I am afraid. | After action report: Stardate M22, 783.
SSgt. Wilson Duke reporting.
Upon contact with the enemy, star ship *Primo Victoria* fired one thermonuclear weapon. The missile detonated on target, causing heavy damage to the enemy ship. The enemy ship became crippled, and boarding action was approved. At hour 4 of the conflict, while the boarding teams were still making progress toward the enemy bridge, an enemy vessel appeared from hyperspace at an extreme distance. We only knew of the ship appearing moments before it's weapon detonated amongst the fleet. The best way I can describe it as is a sun was born in the center of our fleet, and it grew with intensity to the point that the circumference of the explosion engulfed every vessel of the fleet, including the boarded enemy ship.
My ship was on a mission to plot an exit for the fleet so we were a bit further way from the fleet. The explosion, by our instruments data read outs, was no different than the nuclear weapon we had used against the first contact.
It was identical. Except it made the ancient Tzar Bomb from Russian design look like a fire cracker.
Recommend diplomacy or major research and development into new weapons as we thought we were the only species to have nuclear weapons but we were sadly mistaken. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | I had heard of the human super weapons, but I had heard such claims before.
When the Ruthkin emissaries boarded my flagship to receive my declaration of battle, they shreeked at me with hatred in thier eyes. Through furious chittering they told me of the doom-wrought cannons which would tear my fleet asunder. They perished as easy as the rest.
When the Ulvanites came to receive the declaration, They rejoiced for the chance to crush me under thier Stormtoothed cavalry. Thier ambassadors all but invited me to invade thier lands. Thier promises were as empty as thier future.
Strangest of all was the Kosal. When I declared my writ of extermination, thier people raved like the mad and weak minded. I eventually found thier display was that of a desperate being trying to convince a predator he is not worth the trouble.
When the humans came to receive my terms, thier words were different. My first commander saw the fear and licked his maw, but I saw something more.
The humans who spoke of thier weapons did so in hushed tones and reverant whispers. I saw in them a fear deeper than I have ever known...a fear not for my warhost.
As we departed thier lonely system for the last time, I recalled the wisdom of my broodfather. He told me the wise Hunter never seeks that which his prey fears more than a hunters teeth, lest he be the Hunter no longer.
To this cycle I still do not know what the humans fear most, but I hope to never know. I pray to the Bright one my people never learn the human's secret, so they will never know such terror. It will be the human's Burden to carry, for I saw in them enough fear to consume the Galaxy. | "War? These rats declared war against the humans? The neutral viewpoints of the Galactic Counsil?"
"Yes, Sir."
The humans seem rather weak and pathetic, regarding how friendly and peaceful they are. If you ever looked into their history, you know why. They not only almost killed themselves as a species, multiple times, they also have fought wars, spanning the whole planet, four times.
Humans are not to underrate, they seem to be born by war, makes jumps of unproportional technological advance, with war. War is their means of survival.
The Raxxla are a society of war and battle, build upon the very word of a match. This is a clash of titans. Spending uncountable amounts of money on their military.
Both sides regularly rival for the status of the biggest, bestest fleets and technology.
The humans even denied, with a thank you, any allied help.
-
In System 23b4, 25.3 Ly from Sol, the home system of the humans the first and last battle were fought. The humans brought an ancient technology with them, known as the Spear of Sol.
It creates massive balls of plasma, evaporating everything in a radius of 120 km of the blast, the following heat flash and EMP cripples even Titan weight ships, even if not directly hit by the Spear.
The Raxxla surrendered immediately, after their prime fleet just vanished, and the humans just let them go, and helped them rebuild the fleets. They learned from their history what happens if take resources from a crippled enemy, WW2 was one of the prime examples.
But if you help the enemy, they maybe even become your allie.
This is how the humans were able to build and shape the Galactic Counsil, by helping the ones, who they won over.
- | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "We're in position sir, 1 gate out from Earth." Sgt. Crull brimmed with enthusiasm. "They won't know what hits them."
Captain Gree looked pleased. "Excellent, sergeant. Make sure the fleet is ready to go on my command."
The Mazoth had been waiting for this for a long time. Their fleet of sleek black and green ships sat on the ground, waiting for the massive orbital planetary gate floating above Alpha Centauri 4 to be in the right position.
It wasn't difficult to lure the humans into a false sense of security. The diplomats had gone ahead of them, using that pathetic word, 'peace'. The mention of it made Gree's gills quiver. He wondered how these pathetic humans could have ever garnered such a high position in galactic affairs using nothing but their flapping air holes. They practically ran the United Planets, and yet no one had tested their true strength -- until today.
The last ship was in position, and Gree was nearly ready to give the order, when Sgt Crull came running over to him. "Sir, there is a transmission. The fur heads want to talk."
"Hah, fine, let them talk. I want to hear their screams when we breech their planet's atmosphere with our mezopods. They have five rels to entertain me before the gate is in position anyway."
Gree heard a crackling sound filling the air as the transmission was put through the ship's speakers. A weak and timid sounding voice on the other end began to speak, while the image of the weak fur-headed creature filled the screen.
"Greetings Powerful Mazoth. Your fleet has been detected preparing to intrude on Earth space. If you do not cease your activities, we will be prepared to act. Violence against other species is an abhorrence to us, and we implore you to appeal to the better angels of your nature." The human bowed gracefully, sickening Gree.
A thunderous, nearly deafening laughter filled the ship, and Gree made sure the sound was transmitted back through the link so those talkative idiots could hear.
"You pathetic fur-heads. We will rain destruction down upon your cities. Your mating partners will be made to breed Mazoth slaves. Your pathetic 'peace' will be a meaningless and forgotten word. You are powerless. We are power!" Gree finished with the traditional Mazoth war chant.
"Rahhhh!" The words elicited an immediate response from his crew, and Gree couldn't have been more proud. This would be the finest moment of his life. His children and their children would talk of it for thousands of years.
The com link crackled again. "Uhm, I am afraid there has been a slight misunderstanding. We are not weak -- just kind. We reiterate, we do not wish to harm your people. We believe in the power of diversity in our galaxy and the universe. Please, cease your aggression. If you do not comply, we will be forced to take action."
"Hah! What action will you take? Will you ask us 'pretty please'?" Laughter filled the bridge of the ship. "Maybe you will give us a, what do you call it, a 'hug'? Listen, weakling. You cannot harm Mazoth. You are there for our entertainment."
"Well, if asking you 'pretty please' would help, I would consider it."
Gree's smile widened to encompass half of his head, showing his freshly sharpened teeth. The gate was in position. He chuckled at the image of the human, and spoke the words he knew his crew wanted to hear. "Fleet, begin launch sequence."
The bubbling of the organic drives could be felt through the floor of the ship, and Gree sat back in the captain's chair on the bridge. He continued to grin evilly at the viewscreen. He wanted to watch this human die.
"Sir! There is an object on the detector. It just emerged through the gate." Sgt. Crull's voice had a hint of concern, annoying Gree. He wasn't going to let weakness spoil his day.
"How many?" Gree asked.
"Just the one."
"Then what are you so afraid of? It is probably one of their weakly peace talkers come to meet us in person."
"It's coming through the atmosphere toward us."
"Ignore it, ships, launch!"
The ship lurched upward and began to ascend, slowly picking up speed. They needed to have enough velocity to reach orbit and catch up to the gate.
"Sir, the object just broke up after it came through the atmosphere."
"Hah! They're so weak, their ships can't even survive atmospheric entry." He looked at the screen. "Human! You are so pathetic."
On the screen, a black haired young man had the look of sorrow. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive us."
Gree knew it was because he must have recognized his fate. There was a twinge of disappointment, as he had hoped to see fear rather than the weakling accepting its death so meekly.
"Uhm, sir, there are now several objects coming toward us. They must have split off from the first object. They have spread out, and there is one heading toward each squadron of ships."
"Nobody cares, Crull. Don't be so human. It is too late for them to talk."
Gree wasn't at all concerned. Instead, he was keeping on eye on the fleet's progress. Anticipation had increased his saliva production to the point it was running down the sides of his mouth. His grin broadened further than it had ever been. "This is a great day," he thought.
On the alternate viewer Gree was watching, third squadron was visible, having gone ahead of the fleet as planned. They were better equipped for breaching, just in case they had any planetary defenses, although Gree thought that was unlikely. He watched the ships accelerating upward toward the edge of the atmosphere. But suddenly a blinding light flashed, making him cover his eyes.
The human spoke again. He could only hear him, due to the light. "Again, I'm so sorry, Mazoth. This was not the way we wanted to do things. Perhaps it's still not too late to avert total war."
Gree could feel panic around him on the bridge. As the light died down, he could see the ships of third squadron plummeting back toward the ground. They looked mangled, as pieces of them flew off into the air. More flashes of light all around him erupted.
"What is going on!" he yelled. "Crull, report!"
Sgt. Crull was visibly trembling, much to Gree's disgust. However another bright flash left him unconcerned.
----
"President Freemon, sir, Admiral Mills here with your report." Admiral Mills looked upset. His face wore a deep scowl, and his body's movements were stiff and formal.
"Go ahead, Admiral." Freemon said.
"Sir, the Mazoth refused all attempts at discussion. Their location in the Alpha Centauri system was far too close for our negotiating team to intervene. I'm afraid there was nothing we could do. I'm sorry, sir."
"I know you tried your best. I saw the video. They were quite bloodthirsty. At least we will have that to show to the United Planets next month, should they make a fuss." Freemon sighed.
"I hope it doesn't hurt our standing, sir."
"Somehow I doubt it will. The Mazoth had made more than their share of enemies. To be honest, I have already received a few messages of gratitude."
"That's terrible! How could they be so happy at the killing of so many sentient beings!"
"I know, Admiral. I know. But it's the universe we live in. We will continue to guide them into the light." | "War? These rats declared war against the humans? The neutral viewpoints of the Galactic Counsil?"
"Yes, Sir."
The humans seem rather weak and pathetic, regarding how friendly and peaceful they are. If you ever looked into their history, you know why. They not only almost killed themselves as a species, multiple times, they also have fought wars, spanning the whole planet, four times.
Humans are not to underrate, they seem to be born by war, makes jumps of unproportional technological advance, with war. War is their means of survival.
The Raxxla are a society of war and battle, build upon the very word of a match. This is a clash of titans. Spending uncountable amounts of money on their military.
Both sides regularly rival for the status of the biggest, bestest fleets and technology.
The humans even denied, with a thank you, any allied help.
-
In System 23b4, 25.3 Ly from Sol, the home system of the humans the first and last battle were fought. The humans brought an ancient technology with them, known as the Spear of Sol.
It creates massive balls of plasma, evaporating everything in a radius of 120 km of the blast, the following heat flash and EMP cripples even Titan weight ships, even if not directly hit by the Spear.
The Raxxla surrendered immediately, after their prime fleet just vanished, and the humans just let them go, and helped them rebuild the fleets. They learned from their history what happens if take resources from a crippled enemy, WW2 was one of the prime examples.
But if you help the enemy, they maybe even become your allie.
This is how the humans were able to build and shape the Galactic Counsil, by helping the ones, who they won over.
- | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "Activate Zip Drive," I said to my computer, a generation III A.I. as space-time split before me, "Prime weapon for immediate release when we hit norm." I knew their fleet would not want me sneaking by in FTL so I was planning ahead for my attack.
The colored lights of Otherspace slipped past my small bomber, jumping toward the atoms in my hull hungrily but were held at bay by the magnetic shielding.
"Disturbance in norm space detected. Prepare for pullout in 3... 2... 1..." my A.I. informed me and then the colors of Otherspace were replaced with the blackness of the void. Ahead of me there was the fleet. An enemy interceptor had detected me and pulled me out of FTL as I had expected. A massive fleet of carriers and battleships and support ships and everything in between lay ahead of me.
"Human ship," a voice said across the ether, "Do you bring word of your species surrender?" The voice, of course, was translated from the light pulses that passed as speech by the Golloids, floating in their saltwater tanks. Their leadership had demanded our surrender this morning.
"Negative," I said, "I have come to demand yours." There was what passed for laughter in their pulsing tongue and then swarms of fighters launched toward me. I swallowed involuntarily as the stars behind the massive fleet were blotted out. "Launch the payload," I said, targeting as close to the center of the sphere of ships as I could.
The missile's fusion engine kicked in and as a fighter headed to intercept it the missile disappeared from norm-space and into Otherspace. A split second later it reappeared at it's destination in norm. My visor went dark as the darkness of space became as bright as a sun. Ship after enemy ship evaporated into their component atoms, vaporized by the intense heat and radiation pulsing outward from the temporary star I had just created obliterated them. As the shock-wave spread toward me and the interceptor evaporated, my A.I. slipped my ship into the other and I took comfort in the colors around me. I could swear I felt Otherspace shudder, but I knew that was impossible.
The Golloid were advanced. Very advanced. Humanity, however, had an advantage in that they had stumbled upon a way to use a basic technology as a weapon to end one of our wars centuries ago. See, we had two inventions that were unique to our species. One was the zipper. It was amazing that no other species had discovered it and had taken the clothes wearing species of the galaxy by storm and the patent had made Earth rich.
The other was nuclear weapons. Now that I had destroyed their fleet, hundreds of Earth bombers were given free reign to bomb Goll, their homeworld, and its colonies into oblivion. As I turned my ship around to retain to base I felt a pang of sympathy.
"Poor bastards," I said to the void, "Poor, poor bastards." | "War? These rats declared war against the humans? The neutral viewpoints of the Galactic Counsil?"
"Yes, Sir."
The humans seem rather weak and pathetic, regarding how friendly and peaceful they are. If you ever looked into their history, you know why. They not only almost killed themselves as a species, multiple times, they also have fought wars, spanning the whole planet, four times.
Humans are not to underrate, they seem to be born by war, makes jumps of unproportional technological advance, with war. War is their means of survival.
The Raxxla are a society of war and battle, build upon the very word of a match. This is a clash of titans. Spending uncountable amounts of money on their military.
Both sides regularly rival for the status of the biggest, bestest fleets and technology.
The humans even denied, with a thank you, any allied help.
-
In System 23b4, 25.3 Ly from Sol, the home system of the humans the first and last battle were fought. The humans brought an ancient technology with them, known as the Spear of Sol.
It creates massive balls of plasma, evaporating everything in a radius of 120 km of the blast, the following heat flash and EMP cripples even Titan weight ships, even if not directly hit by the Spear.
The Raxxla surrendered immediately, after their prime fleet just vanished, and the humans just let them go, and helped them rebuild the fleets. They learned from their history what happens if take resources from a crippled enemy, WW2 was one of the prime examples.
But if you help the enemy, they maybe even become your allie.
This is how the humans were able to build and shape the Galactic Counsil, by helping the ones, who they won over.
- | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The old man sighed heavily as the alarm went off. Sirens blared, and red lights flashed. The young man he had been training to eventually succeed him leapt out of his simple cot, eyes wide with terror and hands trembling as they clutched the nanofiber blanket covering him. The old man shook his head sadly, rose from his hovering bed, and gestured for the boy to follow him.
As the boy hurriedly leapt from his resting place, he looked up at the old man. "I thought you said we'd never have to use it?" He said, shouting to be heard over the blaring klaxons.
The old man shook his head once more, and replied "I said I hope we won't, not that we wouldn't! A peaceful planet will always be viewed as an easy conquest for the warmongers, that's how it's always been, that's how it'll always be." He slipped on his skintight environment suit and activated the hyperfiltration field, while his young ward followed suit. Then, one after the other, they clambered down the small ladder to the main computer room, prepared to accomplish their duty.
The old man pressed the alarm release, and stared solemnly at the ancient, dust-covered room in the sudden silence. The boy fidgeted with his necklace, one that the old man had once worn. The old man eyed it, looking at the key, a relic from a bygone era, where wars raged and people died, where boys dreamed of being soldiers to protect their country. Even after the Great Conjunction, the union of the planet into a single, peaceful nation in the face of first contact, boys had dreamed of defending their homeland.
The old man lifted his own key, then looked down at his wrist computer as it made a small beep. A message. He scrolled through the details somberly, as the boy waited anxiously to be told what to do. Finally, the old man walked across the room, leaving footprints in a century's worth of dust. The boy nervously followed suit, feeling as if he was trespassing on some sacred ground. The two sat in the ancient chairs, and the old man wiped the dust off of the console. He stopped and stared for a moment, before beginning to type in a set of coordinates.
He removed his key. The boy followed suit.
In practiced motions, they inserted the keys into the keyholes, the old man almost missed because his hand was trembling so badly. They turned the keys in unison.
With an ominous click, a plastic box flipped up, revealing a glowing red button.
The old man pressed it.
The missile flew.
As the old man watched the missile hurtle towards the enemy, towards the terrible, vast fleet he knew was out there, towards the aggressor who decided it was time to conquer the puny, peaceful little humans, ancient words he didn't know he knew slipped from his lips:
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds..." | We’re not proud of our early history, we spent thousands of years fighting ourselves, and came to the brink of extinction more than one time. We had a wide array of doomsday weapons. Compared to the rest of the intelligent universe we are very unique in that regard.
In fact the envoy we sent to make contact with the first “aliens” was almost considered a act of war; in our minds it was a couple of lightly armed transports, but by common standards that little group of ships rivaled the biggests navies.
Since then we’ve established ourselves as the bringers of peace, and often times humans are called as indepent negotiaters for confrontations throughout the universe. Since 2387 we haven’t spent a single credit on our military.
But now with a massive fleet of Soleari Titan-Class Destroyers approaching, things have changed. And after confirming with our Allies that they are actually out for blood, there was a quiet panic arising among our leaders. That was until someone remembered the retired defensive System on our Moon. For some reason noone but us figured out the weapon potential in nuclear fission, so we kept it to ourselve for the sake of peace.
There was some hectic searching of archieves for operation manuals and secruity codes, but soon the whole moon was shaking under the horribly inefficient 300 year old rocket engines.
They didn’t even know what hit them, all the warheads exploded within milliseconds of each other, I guess we built them to last, and by all accounts 100.000 Solearians and 100 Million tons of ships were vaporized in an instant. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "Activate Zip Drive," I said to my computer, a generation III A.I. as space-time split before me, "Prime weapon for immediate release when we hit norm." I knew their fleet would not want me sneaking by in FTL so I was planning ahead for my attack.
The colored lights of Otherspace slipped past my small bomber, jumping toward the atoms in my hull hungrily but were held at bay by the magnetic shielding.
"Disturbance in norm space detected. Prepare for pullout in 3... 2... 1..." my A.I. informed me and then the colors of Otherspace were replaced with the blackness of the void. Ahead of me there was the fleet. An enemy interceptor had detected me and pulled me out of FTL as I had expected. A massive fleet of carriers and battleships and support ships and everything in between lay ahead of me.
"Human ship," a voice said across the ether, "Do you bring word of your species surrender?" The voice, of course, was translated from the light pulses that passed as speech by the Golloids, floating in their saltwater tanks. Their leadership had demanded our surrender this morning.
"Negative," I said, "I have come to demand yours." There was what passed for laughter in their pulsing tongue and then swarms of fighters launched toward me. I swallowed involuntarily as the stars behind the massive fleet were blotted out. "Launch the payload," I said, targeting as close to the center of the sphere of ships as I could.
The missile's fusion engine kicked in and as a fighter headed to intercept it the missile disappeared from norm-space and into Otherspace. A split second later it reappeared at it's destination in norm. My visor went dark as the darkness of space became as bright as a sun. Ship after enemy ship evaporated into their component atoms, vaporized by the intense heat and radiation pulsing outward from the temporary star I had just created obliterated them. As the shock-wave spread toward me and the interceptor evaporated, my A.I. slipped my ship into the other and I took comfort in the colors around me. I could swear I felt Otherspace shudder, but I knew that was impossible.
The Golloid were advanced. Very advanced. Humanity, however, had an advantage in that they had stumbled upon a way to use a basic technology as a weapon to end one of our wars centuries ago. See, we had two inventions that were unique to our species. One was the zipper. It was amazing that no other species had discovered it and had taken the clothes wearing species of the galaxy by storm and the patent had made Earth rich.
The other was nuclear weapons. Now that I had destroyed their fleet, hundreds of Earth bombers were given free reign to bomb Goll, their homeworld, and its colonies into oblivion. As I turned my ship around to retain to base I felt a pang of sympathy.
"Poor bastards," I said to the void, "Poor, poor bastards." | We’re not proud of our early history, we spent thousands of years fighting ourselves, and came to the brink of extinction more than one time. We had a wide array of doomsday weapons. Compared to the rest of the intelligent universe we are very unique in that regard.
In fact the envoy we sent to make contact with the first “aliens” was almost considered a act of war; in our minds it was a couple of lightly armed transports, but by common standards that little group of ships rivaled the biggests navies.
Since then we’ve established ourselves as the bringers of peace, and often times humans are called as indepent negotiaters for confrontations throughout the universe. Since 2387 we haven’t spent a single credit on our military.
But now with a massive fleet of Soleari Titan-Class Destroyers approaching, things have changed. And after confirming with our Allies that they are actually out for blood, there was a quiet panic arising among our leaders. That was until someone remembered the retired defensive System on our Moon. For some reason noone but us figured out the weapon potential in nuclear fission, so we kept it to ourselve for the sake of peace.
There was some hectic searching of archieves for operation manuals and secruity codes, but soon the whole moon was shaking under the horribly inefficient 300 year old rocket engines.
They didn’t even know what hit them, all the warheads exploded within milliseconds of each other, I guess we built them to last, and by all accounts 100.000 Solearians and 100 Million tons of ships were vaporized in an instant. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Some think to question the Grand One; humans are foremost among them. Before them, it was the gli'artagn. They thought themselves strong, and attacked our pure empire. In doing so, they brought themselves to their own end. The Grand One teaches the truest truth in all the galaxy: only real strength rules, and only real strength wins.
The gli'artagn bashed themselves to death upon the body of our greatness, and those who remained became part of the Grand Truth. Humanity has not done this. Instead, they have spoken words of war against us, and seduced away our youth and the weakest of our minds. They speak such wickedness as, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and "Mind over matter." Though we all struggled to believe it, they do not kill their crippled young, but care for them and even give them positions of power -- their leader, even now, has no function in its lower appendages, and must use a device to move!
The Grand One has had enough of this. We march now upon one of their more populous planets, overflowing with bodies infirm and old, on both the ground and the rings that incessantly swing about the planet. The strong shall help us conquer, and the weak shall die, as the Grand One wills it.
- - -
Johnny Cortez, ensign, is the bringer of coffees. He's training, sure, but in between times he brings Rear Admiral Barber her coffee. Last time Fleet Admiral Pulk visited, he had imported Martian field-grown coffee hand-roasted daily. RA Barber drinks the same coffee as everyone else: the sludge from the commissary. He brings it to her fresh, and he's the one who brings the fancy creamer she adulterates it with. She's a good boss to have.
Right now, she is terrifying. There's an entire fleet of Rellenians bearing down on Second Eden. Rather than yelling orders, or panicking, or grinding down on a large cigar like in the old movies, she's sipping her coffee and smiling.
"Ensign?" she says when the ships are just outside New Eden's lunar orbit. "I'm going to need more coffee." And Admiral Barber opens a screen he cannot see. Only her touch in the air lets him know she's doing anything. An instant later, he feels the ring shake, and sees missiles soaring -- one for each enemy ship. They don't even attempt to dodge. Arrogance, maybe, because the Rellenians brag like playground bullies. She doesn't fire again, just watches.
When he sees the flash, and the way the nearest installations on the rings flicker, he knows why.
- - -
It has been three sleeps since we attacked the humans. Few of our number remain now. The human's attack disabled too many of our systems, and left us unable to fix them when their weapon poisoned us.
My skin does not want to stay on my body. My legs do not want to work, and my eyes fail. When I could hear, I heard the humans were advancing on the Grand One's palace. I think...
I think
I am afraid. | We’re not proud of our early history, we spent thousands of years fighting ourselves, and came to the brink of extinction more than one time. We had a wide array of doomsday weapons. Compared to the rest of the intelligent universe we are very unique in that regard.
In fact the envoy we sent to make contact with the first “aliens” was almost considered a act of war; in our minds it was a couple of lightly armed transports, but by common standards that little group of ships rivaled the biggests navies.
Since then we’ve established ourselves as the bringers of peace, and often times humans are called as indepent negotiaters for confrontations throughout the universe. Since 2387 we haven’t spent a single credit on our military.
But now with a massive fleet of Soleari Titan-Class Destroyers approaching, things have changed. And after confirming with our Allies that they are actually out for blood, there was a quiet panic arising among our leaders. That was until someone remembered the retired defensive System on our Moon. For some reason noone but us figured out the weapon potential in nuclear fission, so we kept it to ourselve for the sake of peace.
There was some hectic searching of archieves for operation manuals and secruity codes, but soon the whole moon was shaking under the horribly inefficient 300 year old rocket engines.
They didn’t even know what hit them, all the warheads exploded within milliseconds of each other, I guess we built them to last, and by all accounts 100.000 Solearians and 100 Million tons of ships were vaporized in an instant. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | The humans were always an interesting lot, they were not so taken by war like many others before them, nor did they seek to propagate it. But a brief glimpse back into their wild history showed that they used to be troublemakers in their own right, constantly warring among themselves.
After the first contact long ago, they put their differences aside and strived to create a better future for their people. Well, that is what their history books say, at least. I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to selectively quash some rather... terrible aspects of their history. Each and every one of us had our own sins, I highly doubted they were the exception.
Nonetheless, they were seen as peacemakers upon the galactic stage, a neutral entity in all schemes of conflict, and a helping hand to all those who required their assistance.
Which is exactly why when I heard the news, I was shocked by it, but afraid all the same.
I remember that day like no other. I was relaxing in my office on the ninth day of the week, my ships had recently left to a neighboring system to trade goods, and the aches and pains of my old age did not seem as prevalent as they used to be.
Even though I no longer held office, I still kept up with all the political happenings, mainly because it helped me decide what business avenues to take.
The door to my office swung open and in walked my assistant, a rather nervous look cast upon his pale face. His white fur seemed to stand on its end as he walked in, and his two tails swung about wildly, as if they were fighting each other for dominance. I had not seen him so shaken in quite some time that I couldn't help but be nervous for the news to come, I feared that my ships had been taken by raiders, but what came next was far worse.
"Sir," he said, his voice breaking apart, "another war has broken out."
“Against us?”
“No, not against us,” he said.
"I see," I said, wondering why such a thing was a cause for concern. Our race had not been to war for longer than I had been born, and we worked alongside the humans to ensure that no other wars would break out, if if they did, we would assist the beaten and downtrodden. While it was inevitable that war would eventually surface from time to time, for it was an unmistakeable fact of life, I could not fret over every little instance – or I would have been consumed by stress long ago.
The lesser races would always war against each other, and eventually die out in a few generations. While I used to take more of a compassionate stance towards wars and the like during my time in office, I had become jaded from that experience. And now, if my ships were not directly in the line of fire, that kind of news was no more important to me than the weather.
"And who is it this time?" I asked, not caring to hide the boredom evident in my voice.
"The Akaten."
I felt my hearts pause for but a moment. For I knew that whoever they set their eyes upon would no doubt be rubble by the new year. They were a warlike empire, but one far more sophisticated than the bottom rung junk that cluttered the universe. They were ruthless and efficient, and controlled many aspects of trade in many systems. I had my fair share of dealings with them so I was well aware of their kind.
“And who did they declare war on?”
He paused for a moment. “The Humans.”
I jumped up from the desk, causing my assistant to recoil in shock. “What? When?”
“Just as of twenty minutes ago,” he said, as he shuffled back from me.
“And you didn't tell me sooner?” I asked, “I could have sent a ship down to at least, to rescue some of them. You let this sit for twenty minutes?”
Even though I did not want to come under the watchful eye of the Akaten, I still couldn't sit idly by as the humans were obliterated. I could not deny I had a fondness for them, and they were rather efficient workers in my business.
“Sir, the thing is,” he said, “the humans didn't need help.”
“Against the Akaten? You cannot be serious.”
"The humans. They had ancient technology, sir," he said, “the Akaten have already surrendered.”
I felt a cold chill run down the hairs upon my back and ring out through my two tails. I had heard of ancient technology many times in my youth, powerful tools of destruction whose secrets had long since been lost to time. But the very idea of the humans of all people having access to those was something I could not comprehend.
“All in the span of twenty minutes?” I said, my breathing ragged, “just what did they do? What did they have?”
“They obliterated the entire Akaten fleet mere minutes after war was declared,” he said, “they have what I believe was called, the Sun's Dawn."”
“You've got to be kidding.” I slumped back down in my chair, my head spinning from the news.
“And the Council? What is their response to this?”
Even though I was no longer directly privy to the intimate meetings of the Council, I still managed to follow them very closely – through a circle of old connections.
“There is a meeting in a few hours,” he said, “I imagine it will concern the humans.”
I let out a feeble laugh.
“Of all the people to end up in war against, why was it them?”
“We're not at war with them just yet,” he said with a weak smile, speaking words that he knew were lies.
“Give it time.”
I reached under my desk for a leatherbound flask and poured myself a drink, and as that shimmering black liquid poured out of its confines its familiar aroma filled my nostrils. I felt a sense of calm overwhelm me for but a single moment, but that soon came to be replaced with dread, for I believed there and then that there would be a lot more drinking in the days to come. Not the relaxed kind of drinking where one would kick back in their office after a long day, but the relentless turmoil of psychotic drinking fueled by grief.
As my kind were considered the closest allies to humans, we would be involved in the conflict to come in some way or another, and the thought of betraying them did not sit too well with me.
There was a part of me which naively hoped that things would not escalate, that the conflict would be resolved without further bloodshed, but ancient technology was something the Council could not overlook – no matter who wielded it.
“Should I send an order to recall your ships?” he asked, nervously jittering about on the spot.
“No need,” I said, “they should be well out of the danger zone, should things escalate. The only question now is what to do next.”
“No, on second thought,” I said, as my sluggish mind finally caught up with me, “recall the fourth ship, the Whisk. If relations with the humans break down, it will be too dangerous for them in particular to be out in open space.”
I let out a weary sigh. It had already been a long day, and I knew for sure that rest would not come for me too easily. I knew that drinking too much of that aromatic brew would inevitably cause me to drift off to sleep, but I knew it would be a restless one, plagued by the worries at hand.
I downed that drink in one fell swoop and put the bottle away, knowing that if I left it out I would lose myself in it.
“Unless things have changed, am I right in assuming that Eko still has a spot at the upcoming Council meeting?”
“Yes,” he said, “but she won't be necessary. Considering the nature of the event, they are choosing to publicly broadcast it.”
“Is that wise? The humans might not take too kindly to it.”
“The humans are invited,” he said, “I don't believe they'd be there in person, but they will be there nonetheless.”
I couldn't help but let out a feeble laugh as I kicked back in my chair. The meeting to come would no doubt be a terrible one, which only served to fill me with immense dread.
My assistant stared at me with wide eyes. “What are you going to do, sir?”
“There's nothing I can do but sit back and wait for the worst to come.”
* * *
[PART ONE](https://www.reddit.com/r/khaarus/comments/f0itk6/2000_wp_the_suns_dawn_part_1/) / [PART TWO (GO HERE)](https://www.reddit.com/r/khaarus/comments/f0itul/2000_wp_the_suns_dawn_part_2/)
* * *
More of my writing at /r/khaarus | We’re not proud of our early history, we spent thousands of years fighting ourselves, and came to the brink of extinction more than one time. We had a wide array of doomsday weapons. Compared to the rest of the intelligent universe we are very unique in that regard.
In fact the envoy we sent to make contact with the first “aliens” was almost considered a act of war; in our minds it was a couple of lightly armed transports, but by common standards that little group of ships rivaled the biggests navies.
Since then we’ve established ourselves as the bringers of peace, and often times humans are called as indepent negotiaters for confrontations throughout the universe. Since 2387 we haven’t spent a single credit on our military.
But now with a massive fleet of Soleari Titan-Class Destroyers approaching, things have changed. And after confirming with our Allies that they are actually out for blood, there was a quiet panic arising among our leaders. That was until someone remembered the retired defensive System on our Moon. For some reason noone but us figured out the weapon potential in nuclear fission, so we kept it to ourselve for the sake of peace.
There was some hectic searching of archieves for operation manuals and secruity codes, but soon the whole moon was shaking under the horribly inefficient 300 year old rocket engines.
They didn’t even know what hit them, all the warheads exploded within milliseconds of each other, I guess we built them to last, and by all accounts 100.000 Solearians and 100 Million tons of ships were vaporized in an instant. | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | "Activate Zip Drive," I said to my computer, a generation III A.I. as space-time split before me, "Prime weapon for immediate release when we hit norm." I knew their fleet would not want me sneaking by in FTL so I was planning ahead for my attack.
The colored lights of Otherspace slipped past my small bomber, jumping toward the atoms in my hull hungrily but were held at bay by the magnetic shielding.
"Disturbance in norm space detected. Prepare for pullout in 3... 2... 1..." my A.I. informed me and then the colors of Otherspace were replaced with the blackness of the void. Ahead of me there was the fleet. An enemy interceptor had detected me and pulled me out of FTL as I had expected. A massive fleet of carriers and battleships and support ships and everything in between lay ahead of me.
"Human ship," a voice said across the ether, "Do you bring word of your species surrender?" The voice, of course, was translated from the light pulses that passed as speech by the Golloids, floating in their saltwater tanks. Their leadership had demanded our surrender this morning.
"Negative," I said, "I have come to demand yours." There was what passed for laughter in their pulsing tongue and then swarms of fighters launched toward me. I swallowed involuntarily as the stars behind the massive fleet were blotted out. "Launch the payload," I said, targeting as close to the center of the sphere of ships as I could.
The missile's fusion engine kicked in and as a fighter headed to intercept it the missile disappeared from norm-space and into Otherspace. A split second later it reappeared at it's destination in norm. My visor went dark as the darkness of space became as bright as a sun. Ship after enemy ship evaporated into their component atoms, vaporized by the intense heat and radiation pulsing outward from the temporary star I had just created obliterated them. As the shock-wave spread toward me and the interceptor evaporated, my A.I. slipped my ship into the other and I took comfort in the colors around me. I could swear I felt Otherspace shudder, but I knew that was impossible.
The Golloid were advanced. Very advanced. Humanity, however, had an advantage in that they had stumbled upon a way to use a basic technology as a weapon to end one of our wars centuries ago. See, we had two inventions that were unique to our species. One was the zipper. It was amazing that no other species had discovered it and had taken the clothes wearing species of the galaxy by storm and the patent had made Earth rich.
The other was nuclear weapons. Now that I had destroyed their fleet, hundreds of Earth bombers were given free reign to bomb Goll, their homeworld, and its colonies into oblivion. As I turned my ship around to retain to base I felt a pang of sympathy.
"Poor bastards," I said to the void, "Poor, poor bastards." | The old man sighed heavily as the alarm went off. Sirens blared, and red lights flashed. The young man he had been training to eventually succeed him leapt out of his simple cot, eyes wide with terror and hands trembling as they clutched the nanofiber blanket covering him. The old man shook his head sadly, rose from his hovering bed, and gestured for the boy to follow him.
As the boy hurriedly leapt from his resting place, he looked up at the old man. "I thought you said we'd never have to use it?" He said, shouting to be heard over the blaring klaxons.
The old man shook his head once more, and replied "I said I hope we won't, not that we wouldn't! A peaceful planet will always be viewed as an easy conquest for the warmongers, that's how it's always been, that's how it'll always be." He slipped on his skintight environment suit and activated the hyperfiltration field, while his young ward followed suit. Then, one after the other, they clambered down the small ladder to the main computer room, prepared to accomplish their duty.
The old man pressed the alarm release, and stared solemnly at the ancient, dust-covered room in the sudden silence. The boy fidgeted with his necklace, one that the old man had once worn. The old man eyed it, looking at the key, a relic from a bygone era, where wars raged and people died, where boys dreamed of being soldiers to protect their country. Even after the Great Conjunction, the union of the planet into a single, peaceful nation in the face of first contact, boys had dreamed of defending their homeland.
The old man lifted his own key, then looked down at his wrist computer as it made a small beep. A message. He scrolled through the details somberly, as the boy waited anxiously to be told what to do. Finally, the old man walked across the room, leaving footprints in a century's worth of dust. The boy nervously followed suit, feeling as if he was trespassing on some sacred ground. The two sat in the ancient chairs, and the old man wiped the dust off of the console. He stopped and stared for a moment, before beginning to type in a set of coordinates.
He removed his key. The boy followed suit.
In practiced motions, they inserted the keys into the keyholes, the old man almost missed because his hand was trembling so badly. They turned the keys in unison.
With an ominous click, a plastic box flipped up, revealing a glowing red button.
The old man pressed it.
The missile flew.
As the old man watched the missile hurtle towards the enemy, towards the terrible, vast fleet he knew was out there, towards the aggressor who decided it was time to conquer the puny, peaceful little humans, ancient words he didn't know he knew slipped from his lips:
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds..." | |
[WP] Humans have always been the friendliest and the most peaceful species in the galaxy. When one of the most ruthless empires decides to wipe out the pathetic humans and their diplomacy, they discover that humans have something that no one in the galaxy has ever seen. Nuclear weapons. | Some think to question the Grand One; humans are foremost among them. Before them, it was the gli'artagn. They thought themselves strong, and attacked our pure empire. In doing so, they brought themselves to their own end. The Grand One teaches the truest truth in all the galaxy: only real strength rules, and only real strength wins.
The gli'artagn bashed themselves to death upon the body of our greatness, and those who remained became part of the Grand Truth. Humanity has not done this. Instead, they have spoken words of war against us, and seduced away our youth and the weakest of our minds. They speak such wickedness as, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and "Mind over matter." Though we all struggled to believe it, they do not kill their crippled young, but care for them and even give them positions of power -- their leader, even now, has no function in its lower appendages, and must use a device to move!
The Grand One has had enough of this. We march now upon one of their more populous planets, overflowing with bodies infirm and old, on both the ground and the rings that incessantly swing about the planet. The strong shall help us conquer, and the weak shall die, as the Grand One wills it.
- - -
Johnny Cortez, ensign, is the bringer of coffees. He's training, sure, but in between times he brings Rear Admiral Barber her coffee. Last time Fleet Admiral Pulk visited, he had imported Martian field-grown coffee hand-roasted daily. RA Barber drinks the same coffee as everyone else: the sludge from the commissary. He brings it to her fresh, and he's the one who brings the fancy creamer she adulterates it with. She's a good boss to have.
Right now, she is terrifying. There's an entire fleet of Rellenians bearing down on Second Eden. Rather than yelling orders, or panicking, or grinding down on a large cigar like in the old movies, she's sipping her coffee and smiling.
"Ensign?" she says when the ships are just outside New Eden's lunar orbit. "I'm going to need more coffee." And Admiral Barber opens a screen he cannot see. Only her touch in the air lets him know she's doing anything. An instant later, he feels the ring shake, and sees missiles soaring -- one for each enemy ship. They don't even attempt to dodge. Arrogance, maybe, because the Rellenians brag like playground bullies. She doesn't fire again, just watches.
When he sees the flash, and the way the nearest installations on the rings flicker, he knows why.
- - -
It has been three sleeps since we attacked the humans. Few of our number remain now. The human's attack disabled too many of our systems, and left us unable to fix them when their weapon poisoned us.
My skin does not want to stay on my body. My legs do not want to work, and my eyes fail. When I could hear, I heard the humans were advancing on the Grand One's palace. I think...
I think
I am afraid. | The old man sighed heavily as the alarm went off. Sirens blared, and red lights flashed. The young man he had been training to eventually succeed him leapt out of his simple cot, eyes wide with terror and hands trembling as they clutched the nanofiber blanket covering him. The old man shook his head sadly, rose from his hovering bed, and gestured for the boy to follow him.
As the boy hurriedly leapt from his resting place, he looked up at the old man. "I thought you said we'd never have to use it?" He said, shouting to be heard over the blaring klaxons.
The old man shook his head once more, and replied "I said I hope we won't, not that we wouldn't! A peaceful planet will always be viewed as an easy conquest for the warmongers, that's how it's always been, that's how it'll always be." He slipped on his skintight environment suit and activated the hyperfiltration field, while his young ward followed suit. Then, one after the other, they clambered down the small ladder to the main computer room, prepared to accomplish their duty.
The old man pressed the alarm release, and stared solemnly at the ancient, dust-covered room in the sudden silence. The boy fidgeted with his necklace, one that the old man had once worn. The old man eyed it, looking at the key, a relic from a bygone era, where wars raged and people died, where boys dreamed of being soldiers to protect their country. Even after the Great Conjunction, the union of the planet into a single, peaceful nation in the face of first contact, boys had dreamed of defending their homeland.
The old man lifted his own key, then looked down at his wrist computer as it made a small beep. A message. He scrolled through the details somberly, as the boy waited anxiously to be told what to do. Finally, the old man walked across the room, leaving footprints in a century's worth of dust. The boy nervously followed suit, feeling as if he was trespassing on some sacred ground. The two sat in the ancient chairs, and the old man wiped the dust off of the console. He stopped and stared for a moment, before beginning to type in a set of coordinates.
He removed his key. The boy followed suit.
In practiced motions, they inserted the keys into the keyholes, the old man almost missed because his hand was trembling so badly. They turned the keys in unison.
With an ominous click, a plastic box flipped up, revealing a glowing red button.
The old man pressed it.
The missile flew.
As the old man watched the missile hurtle towards the enemy, towards the terrible, vast fleet he knew was out there, towards the aggressor who decided it was time to conquer the puny, peaceful little humans, ancient words he didn't know he knew slipped from his lips:
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds..." | |
[WP] Tell us the story of the absolute lunatics who delve deep into monster-filled dungeons for the sole purpose of selling overpriced gear to the destined heroes trying to get to the bottom. | “I’m getting too old for this,” Dengar muttered, rubbing at the sore spot on his lower back. His breath came out in thick white plumes. He straightened, appraising the golden \[Wristband of the Solar Prince\] for damage. Satisfied, he dropped it into his pack.
That’ll go for a mint back down on Level 55 where he kept one of his many shops. Jensen better not be dozing off again. He paid the lad well for minding the shop while he went on his “errands.”
Levels 84 through 90 of the Basphelon Dungeon were an icy Hell. Goreshard Fiends, Icehowls, Darkfangs, and most especially Frostreavers. Dengar shivered at the mere memory of those icy behemoths coming out from their perfect camouflage in the ice-caked walls that reflected light like a funhouse mirror.
While creatures from Levels 60 through 70 were light-sensitive, the creatures in the icy climes fed on it. Many an adventurer back-tracked to his shop in the dark twisting caverns of Level 55 just to buy his light-boosting items.
Items he was now reclaiming.
Basphelon was known for its many contradictory Levels. And to Dengar, the cocky little shits that strolled into his shop and haggled or complained non-stop got what was coming to them.
Nobody had ever seen the bottom of the Basphelon Dungeon. A tiny grin lit Dengar’s weathered features. Nobody except himself, that he knew of. He’d seen it and understood the truth of the dungeon. It was a truth he rejected to keep his sanity. His very soul.
He understood his place in the grand scheme of things and he was okay with that. Once Dengar had been an adventurer. Just as cocksure and egotistical as the next lad or lass out there. Eager to make his mark on the world.
Lost a lot of friends delving ever-deeper.
Dengar kept his \[Darklight Torch\] burning, spreading a magical dimness wherever he went that only he could see through. It kept the icy creatures that fed on bright lights away.
There was nothing more to do here, so he made his way back up to his shop. It was surprising what coin could do that strength of arm could not. He could hire goblins and kobolds, famous miners that would cut and hew anything he threw at them for the right price.
And Dengar always paid well.
It was hard not to. Adventurers that made it down to Level 55 and the Five-Five as his shop was known were flush with gold from kills and selling useless gear to other merchants less willing to delve too deeply.
The little critters cut him a path through the very stone that surrounded the mile-wide dungeon that sunk deep into the earth. It was through his secret stair that Dengar would retrieve his belongings and often find new gear to sell.
All they needed was a little TLC, mostly cleaning up the gore their past owner left on them from an untimely demise.
Bobgob, the goblin foreman did an awkward salute with Dengar slipped into the hidden recess. “Almost finished with the whirligig boss! Have you up and down in ten minutes flat!”
That was good. Nearly a year ago he gave the goblins plans for an elevator that would ferry him up and down his secret tunnels. The thousands of steps were havoc on his aging joints.
Dengar paused, reached into his coin purse – which was always full these days – and passed a handful into the foreman’s green paw. “Keep up the good work Bob, how’re the kids?”
The goblin was more adept than the quickest rogue at making those shiny coins disappear. “Oh, not bad, not bad,” he said falling into step alongside Dengar as they ascended the stairs. “Brisar, Moris, Helar, Rasgul, Meesha, Gorganzola, Bitso, and Bobgob Junior all turn three next week.”
The merchant shook his head with a chuckle. “Send them my best, and how is your lovely wife, Grobpob?”
“Doing well, doing well. Got all the youngun’s to take care of y’know. Can’t complain though! Much better working for Dengar than for some demon lord what’ll throw us at the horde of adventurers clogging the dungeon up. Thanks to you I got Meesha’s cleft palate all fixed up. She’s smiling real pretty now.”
“That’s good,” Dengar said. “I’ll have their gifts dropped off tomorrow on the 60th landing.”
“Dengar’s too good to us,” Bobgob said.
The rest of the trek was uneventful. A few scaly kobolds ran around him, always excitable and happy to see him. They could mine stone almost as good as any dwarf if you gave them half a chance. Most didn’t, to their overall detriment.
Finally, Dengar reached the back entrance to his shop and opened the secret door. He passed through a series of heavily trapped and magically warded tunnels that only he could get past.
The whole trek from the Five-Five shop down to Level 86 where he had found “Brualt the Brave’s” frozen remains took him a couple hours. This last leg took another hour all on its own due to all the protections in place.
“That you old-timer?” Jensen called from the storefront as soon as he entered the workshop in the back. A workshop that his young apprentice was explicitly barred from. The young man only needed one magical zap from the barrier warding to cure his curiosity.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dengar grouched. He dropped his heavy pack and took out the golden \[Wristband of the Solar Prince\].
Just as he came through the swinging door to the shop he saw a group of adventurers waiting impatiently, their eyes filled with lust as they stared at each of the many magical trinkets he had on display and out of reach.
“This guy’s looking-” Jensen started.
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable!” the man bellowed.
The two merchants shared a look. Jensen cleared his throat. “’Rockjaw the Unbreakable’ wishes to know if we have any illuminating objects. They have just been into the Dark Rifts and lost their Cleric to a Smokefiend.”
Dengar looked at the gleaming gold bracer in his hand and pursed his lips. “Might be, friend,” he said to the large seven-foot-tall bearded man. Dengar’s practiced eyes noticed the dozen or more heavily enchanted items on his person. They would fetch a fine price once the man met his inevitable end.
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable demands you furnish him necessary items! Coin is no object!” The big man dropped a sack full of coin onto the heavily reinforced countertop. And still, it groaned for the weight of the sack.
Dengar shook his head. His counter had been broken more times than he could count by overzealous adventurers looking to cow him into submission when a list of their deeds failed to work.
Judging by the creak of the wood, Dengar would estimate the sack at roughly 127,000 gold. A hefty amount to lug around. He would do his merchant’s duty and lighten the man’s burden.
Dengar held up the wristband as if marveling it. “This will illuminate even the darkest magical shadow and deal radiant damage over time to any Smokefiends you come across. Their blinding smoke will be useless and the Lightless pits of Level 64 will be child’s play.”
“You will sell it to me!”
“It is a recent addition,” Dengar said, he had played this game many times. “Hard to come by.”
The towering man was having none of it. “Gold you will have! All of my gold for such items that banish the dark and bathe these foul demons in holy light!”
Music to his ears.
Dengar held out the golden wristband and just as the adventurer’s massive mitts were about to close on the item, he jerked it back noticing the bloodstain. With a brief polish, he cleaned it up and tossed it to the adventurer.
“I’ll just go get the rest.” He turned to his young assistant, who always stared so wide-eyed at the gold people paid the older merchant. This time, he noticed the recognition. Jensen recognized the wristband. “Jensen, please deal with….”
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable!”
“Yes, ‘Rockjaw the Unbreakable’s’ generous payment.”
The young apprentice looked over at Dengar with a dawning realization. The beginning stirrings of fear behind those lavender eyes.
As Dengar made his way to the back he sighed. He lost more good apprentices that way. While he was scrubbing the blood off his reacquisitions, the merchant opened a drawer and pulled out a “Help Wanted” flyer.
​
**You can find more WPs (as I do them, this is my first) on my sub:** /r/beastborne | "You ever wonder if this is all worth it?" Marus asked as he loaded his oversized pack.
"Hm?" Theod replied.
"What we do. Is it worth it? I mean, really worth it?"
"Yeah, of course it is. At least, I think so."
Theod went back to his own pack, making sure all his wares were secure.
"I'm not so sure anymore." Marus said heavily.
"Why not? We've got a great thing going, you know."
"Is it though? Wouldn't we make a lot more money with a lot less risk if we set a shop on the surface?"
Theod stopped working. "Now that's just crazy talk. We're dungeon merchants. We do what no other merchant is willing to."
"Yeah, I know. But still. I mean, come on, we spend more time waiting for a hero or adventurer to come than anything else. How many sales did you make on your last run?"
"Three." Theod said proudly.
"And I made two. Sure, each sale is insanely overpriced--"
"And for good reason."
"Well, yeah, obviously. But still, which is better: Selling two suits of armor for 100,000 each a month, or selling ten suits of armor for 1,000 every day for a month?"
Theod stepped away from his pack and approached his friend.
"You're not going soft, are you? Losing your nerve?"
"No! Of course not. I'm just saying that it makes more fiscal sense--"
Marus' words were interrupted when Theod's fist connected with the side of his head. The merchant staggered back and clutched the impact site.
"Don't ever let me hear you talk like that again!" Theod roared. "Have you forgotten why we do this? Have you forgotten your dream? What we went through to get where we are?"
"I...I..." Marus stuttered.
"Sure, if you just wanted to make money, there are better ways. Hell, we'd make more just being regular adventurers. But that's not why we do this, is it?"
"N-no."
"What was that?"
"No, it isn't!"
"Why do we do this?"
"Because..."
"Because...what?"
"Because we're bat shit crazy!"
"And..."
"And that let's us do things no sane person would ever think of doing!"
"And...!" Theod said with wide eyes.
"And that means we can do all the crazy stuff and make it work, no matter what everyone else says."
"Exactly! So, what are we going to do?"
"We're going to put these packs on, go into that dungeon and sell overpriced gear to stupid, gullible adventurers."
"Well then, let's go!"
Both men hoisted their packs, let out a cry of excitement, determination, and pure madness. Then they made mad dash to the dungeon, and the suckers waiting in its depths. | |
[WP] Tell us the story of the absolute lunatics who delve deep into monster-filled dungeons for the sole purpose of selling overpriced gear to the destined heroes trying to get to the bottom. | “I’m getting too old for this,” Dengar muttered, rubbing at the sore spot on his lower back. His breath came out in thick white plumes. He straightened, appraising the golden \[Wristband of the Solar Prince\] for damage. Satisfied, he dropped it into his pack.
That’ll go for a mint back down on Level 55 where he kept one of his many shops. Jensen better not be dozing off again. He paid the lad well for minding the shop while he went on his “errands.”
Levels 84 through 90 of the Basphelon Dungeon were an icy Hell. Goreshard Fiends, Icehowls, Darkfangs, and most especially Frostreavers. Dengar shivered at the mere memory of those icy behemoths coming out from their perfect camouflage in the ice-caked walls that reflected light like a funhouse mirror.
While creatures from Levels 60 through 70 were light-sensitive, the creatures in the icy climes fed on it. Many an adventurer back-tracked to his shop in the dark twisting caverns of Level 55 just to buy his light-boosting items.
Items he was now reclaiming.
Basphelon was known for its many contradictory Levels. And to Dengar, the cocky little shits that strolled into his shop and haggled or complained non-stop got what was coming to them.
Nobody had ever seen the bottom of the Basphelon Dungeon. A tiny grin lit Dengar’s weathered features. Nobody except himself, that he knew of. He’d seen it and understood the truth of the dungeon. It was a truth he rejected to keep his sanity. His very soul.
He understood his place in the grand scheme of things and he was okay with that. Once Dengar had been an adventurer. Just as cocksure and egotistical as the next lad or lass out there. Eager to make his mark on the world.
Lost a lot of friends delving ever-deeper.
Dengar kept his \[Darklight Torch\] burning, spreading a magical dimness wherever he went that only he could see through. It kept the icy creatures that fed on bright lights away.
There was nothing more to do here, so he made his way back up to his shop. It was surprising what coin could do that strength of arm could not. He could hire goblins and kobolds, famous miners that would cut and hew anything he threw at them for the right price.
And Dengar always paid well.
It was hard not to. Adventurers that made it down to Level 55 and the Five-Five as his shop was known were flush with gold from kills and selling useless gear to other merchants less willing to delve too deeply.
The little critters cut him a path through the very stone that surrounded the mile-wide dungeon that sunk deep into the earth. It was through his secret stair that Dengar would retrieve his belongings and often find new gear to sell.
All they needed was a little TLC, mostly cleaning up the gore their past owner left on them from an untimely demise.
Bobgob, the goblin foreman did an awkward salute with Dengar slipped into the hidden recess. “Almost finished with the whirligig boss! Have you up and down in ten minutes flat!”
That was good. Nearly a year ago he gave the goblins plans for an elevator that would ferry him up and down his secret tunnels. The thousands of steps were havoc on his aging joints.
Dengar paused, reached into his coin purse – which was always full these days – and passed a handful into the foreman’s green paw. “Keep up the good work Bob, how’re the kids?”
The goblin was more adept than the quickest rogue at making those shiny coins disappear. “Oh, not bad, not bad,” he said falling into step alongside Dengar as they ascended the stairs. “Brisar, Moris, Helar, Rasgul, Meesha, Gorganzola, Bitso, and Bobgob Junior all turn three next week.”
The merchant shook his head with a chuckle. “Send them my best, and how is your lovely wife, Grobpob?”
“Doing well, doing well. Got all the youngun’s to take care of y’know. Can’t complain though! Much better working for Dengar than for some demon lord what’ll throw us at the horde of adventurers clogging the dungeon up. Thanks to you I got Meesha’s cleft palate all fixed up. She’s smiling real pretty now.”
“That’s good,” Dengar said. “I’ll have their gifts dropped off tomorrow on the 60th landing.”
“Dengar’s too good to us,” Bobgob said.
The rest of the trek was uneventful. A few scaly kobolds ran around him, always excitable and happy to see him. They could mine stone almost as good as any dwarf if you gave them half a chance. Most didn’t, to their overall detriment.
Finally, Dengar reached the back entrance to his shop and opened the secret door. He passed through a series of heavily trapped and magically warded tunnels that only he could get past.
The whole trek from the Five-Five shop down to Level 86 where he had found “Brualt the Brave’s” frozen remains took him a couple hours. This last leg took another hour all on its own due to all the protections in place.
“That you old-timer?” Jensen called from the storefront as soon as he entered the workshop in the back. A workshop that his young apprentice was explicitly barred from. The young man only needed one magical zap from the barrier warding to cure his curiosity.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dengar grouched. He dropped his heavy pack and took out the golden \[Wristband of the Solar Prince\].
Just as he came through the swinging door to the shop he saw a group of adventurers waiting impatiently, their eyes filled with lust as they stared at each of the many magical trinkets he had on display and out of reach.
“This guy’s looking-” Jensen started.
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable!” the man bellowed.
The two merchants shared a look. Jensen cleared his throat. “’Rockjaw the Unbreakable’ wishes to know if we have any illuminating objects. They have just been into the Dark Rifts and lost their Cleric to a Smokefiend.”
Dengar looked at the gleaming gold bracer in his hand and pursed his lips. “Might be, friend,” he said to the large seven-foot-tall bearded man. Dengar’s practiced eyes noticed the dozen or more heavily enchanted items on his person. They would fetch a fine price once the man met his inevitable end.
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable demands you furnish him necessary items! Coin is no object!” The big man dropped a sack full of coin onto the heavily reinforced countertop. And still, it groaned for the weight of the sack.
Dengar shook his head. His counter had been broken more times than he could count by overzealous adventurers looking to cow him into submission when a list of their deeds failed to work.
Judging by the creak of the wood, Dengar would estimate the sack at roughly 127,000 gold. A hefty amount to lug around. He would do his merchant’s duty and lighten the man’s burden.
Dengar held up the wristband as if marveling it. “This will illuminate even the darkest magical shadow and deal radiant damage over time to any Smokefiends you come across. Their blinding smoke will be useless and the Lightless pits of Level 64 will be child’s play.”
“You will sell it to me!”
“It is a recent addition,” Dengar said, he had played this game many times. “Hard to come by.”
The towering man was having none of it. “Gold you will have! All of my gold for such items that banish the dark and bathe these foul demons in holy light!”
Music to his ears.
Dengar held out the golden wristband and just as the adventurer’s massive mitts were about to close on the item, he jerked it back noticing the bloodstain. With a brief polish, he cleaned it up and tossed it to the adventurer.
“I’ll just go get the rest.” He turned to his young assistant, who always stared so wide-eyed at the gold people paid the older merchant. This time, he noticed the recognition. Jensen recognized the wristband. “Jensen, please deal with….”
“Rockjaw the Unbreakable!”
“Yes, ‘Rockjaw the Unbreakable’s’ generous payment.”
The young apprentice looked over at Dengar with a dawning realization. The beginning stirrings of fear behind those lavender eyes.
As Dengar made his way to the back he sighed. He lost more good apprentices that way. While he was scrubbing the blood off his reacquisitions, the merchant opened a drawer and pulled out a “Help Wanted” flyer.
​
**You can find more WPs (as I do them, this is my first) on my sub:** /r/beastborne | "You going commish or just droppin' it in the bucket straight?" Vark said, a plume of smoke puffing out as he spoke. "'Cause I ain't trust the rusty clinkers for two chits. Mark me, they say they sell it for 20, but I got it good that they're roughin' you for half on a good day."
I shrug, "Maybe you're in with the wrong clinker. Cain always been on the up as far as I seen."
Vark snorted, "Yeah, far as you've seen is right. You'd be takin' the meat up front if you'd seen what I'd seen." He spits on the ground and then takes another long draw on his pipe, "Risk our lives delvin' the musty bits only to get robbed blind of hard earned once we hit topside."
"You could sell it yourself."
Vark guffawed, slapping his hand against his well muscled thigh in delight, "Oh yeah, can you get a gander at that? Me all stuffed up in a trade house hawkin' me wares aside the rest of the clinkers. I'd rather just get gutted on the next go around down the down than live that life."
So we went, around and around. That was just the way of things when it came to Vark. Never had a good word when three bad ones would do. Never saw the upside when he could focus on the down. Always cynical. Always looking for how we was going to get got.
Made him a damn fine spelunker. Best of the best. That was why we partnered. I even gave him first pick of the drop, just to keep 'em happy and diving alongside me. Don't get me wrong, I ain't knew to the game, but I meant to keep playing it and solos end up dead a lot more than duos. Just because life dealt me a hard hand didn't mean I was willing to play it hard mode. Sometimes a bit of discretion smoothed the road, got me?
I yanked my sword out of my scabbard and swung it to and fro, the sharp blade slicing through the air with a few whiffs. Vark was doing his own routine beside me, limbering himself up before we made our run. The great maw of the dungeon loomed over us, intimidating for the uninitiated, sobering for those who knew what lay within.
I glance over at Vark, the sword still moving in my hands, the hilt settling into the familiar grooves between my calluses, "All right, so you're no clinker. Ever think about getting noble with it? Going hero?"
Vark hooted, "Oh look at me! Sir Vark, Golden Knight of Go Fak Yourself." He pranced about a bit, kicking his heels up behind himself and curtseying. "I'm here to save the fine and noble people of this shit hovel from the big scary baddies."
I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, bad idea."
He stops his cavorting and stands still, looking me in the eye, "I hope whatever evil is lurking on the bottom of that well," he jerks a thumb back to the entrance of the dungeon, "lives a long and happy life slaughterin' every sword and shield that comes prancing in. Long as the dark heart beats, we're in business."
I size up the dungeon and then arch a brow at Vark, "Not like they'd take scammin' three fingered donkey son like you."
Vark giggled, "That's fer damn sure."
My eyes drifted back to the dungeon and lingered. They wouldn't take Vark, but they might be a bit less precious about me. I'd seen the tests, and I might be a bit rough on the edges, but I could pass 'em well enough. Might have to shower and shave before I made the attempt, but it was worth the thought. Lunking was a way to coin, but it wasn't a way to anything but a bit of coin to splash around a tankard.
"You ready?" Vark asked, interrupting my reverie.
I nodded, "One more run and then we're done."
Vark cackled, "Yeah, this is the last one fer sure."
**Platypus OUT.**
**Want MOAR Peril?** r/PerilousPlatypus | |
[WP] So many people have become vampires that the government had to step in to protect the remaining humans. Every morning vampires receive a canister filled with a mysterious liquid that will sustain them for one day. While it has been confirmed to not be blood the truth is even more horrid. | **\*\*note: if you wanna add to your reading experience, listen to "Ghost Chase Thriller" by Sir Cubworth as you read.**
*04/28/3058 Day 649 Vile 290.AAZ*
*This is the 26th time I have ran these test tubes through the analysis machine. The results from the first test seemed like a fluke, a joke almost. Then, the results came back positive...again. And again. And again. And again. And so on and so forth. It's almost comical; the irony of the situation.*
*I studied human sciences for years, gaining a master's degree in general chemistry, only to be turned two years into my doctoral program. All I wanted to do was help my fellow man. Now in my immortality, I watch as my fellow man becomes my future menu. The thirst for blood outweighing my desire to stay clean each and everyday that passes. 649 days. That's a long time to go without a hit. A fix. The only barrier standing between me and using someone's neck like a bendy straw is the vile of mysterious substance in my test tube.*
*The tests keep coming back positive, but they just cannot be true. The math checks out. The numbers show the data is correct. Hell, even the same analysis machine that confused gossypol for L-psicose is saying these results are a perfect match. The science says it's right...so why can't I?*
*It was a joke. A fluke. A shot in the dark. It wasn't supposed to match.*
*But it did.*
*They've been feeding us more than just lies.*
​
*I just wish I knew what this, "Mihick dawn old khetch yup" substance was.* | “Dude, I think I figured it out.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, I was browsing the The old old video stuff, like YouTube and that-“
“Nerd.”
“Phillistine. Anyway I came across this video and this dude was taking apart this weird like juice presser thing that was made like turn of the century or some shit-“
“Do you want with or without Sucra?”
“With. So anyway, there was this like machine, right, bout the size of your forearm, and this dude was kinda hard to understand cause they spoke kinda weird back then, but he was actually able to disassemble it, like, with these metal tools and shit-“
“Huh.”
“Yeah! And I just kinda had it on as, like, background noise while I was checking my blood levels online, and I couldn’t figure out how the juice or food or whatever came out cause it’s from like, way back in the 10s-“
“Swagalicious,my duuuuude!”
“K...”
“Brah!”
“Yep”
“On that fleeky!-“
“Yep, shuttup-“
“*thhpt*”
“-and so its before like, nucleaics and C0 capture and make on demand shit, but then he PULLS OUT THIS, like, BAG! And the food thing is INSIDE the BAG!”
“Ugh!”
“I know! But that’s not the weird thing, the crazy thing is after he opens it up, and he shows us what’s in it?”
“Dude I’m eating-“
“-it’s the same shit from the CanMan, man!”
“Whaaaaat-“
“It’s the same, exact shit! He’s all like ‘oh normally I like pomegranate’ “ but I’m looking at the stuff in the thing and the little like bean things that we have to put in the fridgermaker and I swear to Beezus, it comes out looking the exact, EXACT same!”
“...oh.”
“Apparently the company, Juicy or Jucero, or Jucino or something I can’t remember, made a bunch of these, actually sold each pack for use in their like weird, proto-maker-fridger-thing, for the equivalent of like 100k today-“
“Well I mean that’s the cost of like a CuppaCawfee-“
“-but! But! BUT!”
“But!”
“But! A ha! -I-, internaut extraordinaire-“
“Nerrrrrd...”
“-I- did some digging! Turns out, this company didn’t quite go under!”
“Oh no?”
“No no! They were kinda like low-key for a couple of years but then I found this old ass Washington Post article from around the time of the Awakening-“
“Ner-“
“-Shuttup-, and then the dude who was like lead maker or something on THAT project pops up as like a recluse maker/inventor/CEO of!...guess!”
“Hnnng...”
“Guess!”
“I don’t wanna-“
“I’ll give you a hinnntttt! ‘What’s thick and red and oh so fine?’”
“AmeriCan?”
“Liked and subscribed!”
“Dear god... now it is so who is Nerd-“
“- although technically it was something else before it was bought by like PepsiPal-Disney, but apparently he had just, like, miles and miles of the stuff in warehouses vacuum sealed and preserved and like gonna expire-“
“Oh-“
“Uh huh! And then suddenly he gets a grant, and then suddenly we’re all seeing RedMist on the food pyramid, and then suddenly Ami-Zone starts sending it out free for AwakenPrime, and then they bring in the subscription models, and then there’s a merger and galas for a buncha white dudes on Mars, and then-“
“So, fine, tldr- we’re...all eating-“
“Uh huh.”
“Hundred year old...”
“Yeeeepppp...”
“Failed corporate reconstituted RedMist.”
“Failed corporate reconstituted *Pomegranate* RedMist.”
“I mean...I dunno.”
“Think about it.”
“I’d rather not...like, I still gotta eat it.”
“Ah but that’s the thing...”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I mean...do we?” | |
[WP] So many people have become vampires that the government had to step in to protect the remaining humans. Every morning vampires receive a canister filled with a mysterious liquid that will sustain them for one day. While it has been confirmed to not be blood the truth is even more horrid. | Feel free to leave critique, I enjoyed writing this.
The government providing every vampire with a canister was honestly a stretch to begin with. Although, compared to the insanity that was happening out there it wasn’t like it could get worse.
Lo and behold they managed to do it. I mean, almost everyone thought that it was just gonna be a canister of garlicized holy water with red food coloring but no, like a fucking patron saint of vampires that cargo plane dropped thousands of little red boxes, filled with little red vials. And they did the trick. They were good.
There were ethical concerns, how all of this blood could possibly be harvested without turning cities into blood-mills. The government never answered us, and after a few weeks the question became taboo. After all; there is no good answer and nobody, *nobody*, wanted to go back to the way it was before. It wasn’t like we had any moral high ground after-...
...Infrastructure was collapsed during the fighting but after a few months of stability the populace brought electricity and running water back up.
Which led me to here; my lab at the police department. I was asking the taboo question, sampling the blood and comparing DNA. There’s a few reasons I can’t just sit and shut up. We need to take responsibility if we’re still monsters, just playing pretend at society while the Butchering happens somewhere out of sight and mind. The second thing is the taste.
Only a few people know the taste to begin with.
It has the same profile as infant blood.
...I’m not proud of what I am...
...I made a couple of discoveries. And they don’t make any goddamn sense.
1. All of the vials are “human” blood.
2. The blood cells are eight times the size of a regular human’s.
3. They all have the same exact DNA. All of it. | “Dude, I think I figured it out.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, I was browsing the The old old video stuff, like YouTube and that-“
“Nerd.”
“Phillistine. Anyway I came across this video and this dude was taking apart this weird like juice presser thing that was made like turn of the century or some shit-“
“Do you want with or without Sucra?”
“With. So anyway, there was this like machine, right, bout the size of your forearm, and this dude was kinda hard to understand cause they spoke kinda weird back then, but he was actually able to disassemble it, like, with these metal tools and shit-“
“Huh.”
“Yeah! And I just kinda had it on as, like, background noise while I was checking my blood levels online, and I couldn’t figure out how the juice or food or whatever came out cause it’s from like, way back in the 10s-“
“Swagalicious,my duuuuude!”
“K...”
“Brah!”
“Yep”
“On that fleeky!-“
“Yep, shuttup-“
“*thhpt*”
“-and so its before like, nucleaics and C0 capture and make on demand shit, but then he PULLS OUT THIS, like, BAG! And the food thing is INSIDE the BAG!”
“Ugh!”
“I know! But that’s not the weird thing, the crazy thing is after he opens it up, and he shows us what’s in it?”
“Dude I’m eating-“
“-it’s the same shit from the CanMan, man!”
“Whaaaaat-“
“It’s the same, exact shit! He’s all like ‘oh normally I like pomegranate’ “ but I’m looking at the stuff in the thing and the little like bean things that we have to put in the fridgermaker and I swear to Beezus, it comes out looking the exact, EXACT same!”
“...oh.”
“Apparently the company, Juicy or Jucero, or Jucino or something I can’t remember, made a bunch of these, actually sold each pack for use in their like weird, proto-maker-fridger-thing, for the equivalent of like 100k today-“
“Well I mean that’s the cost of like a CuppaCawfee-“
“-but! But! BUT!”
“But!”
“But! A ha! -I-, internaut extraordinaire-“
“Nerrrrrd...”
“-I- did some digging! Turns out, this company didn’t quite go under!”
“Oh no?”
“No no! They were kinda like low-key for a couple of years but then I found this old ass Washington Post article from around the time of the Awakening-“
“Ner-“
“-Shuttup-, and then the dude who was like lead maker or something on THAT project pops up as like a recluse maker/inventor/CEO of!...guess!”
“Hnnng...”
“Guess!”
“I don’t wanna-“
“I’ll give you a hinnntttt! ‘What’s thick and red and oh so fine?’”
“AmeriCan?”
“Liked and subscribed!”
“Dear god... now it is so who is Nerd-“
“- although technically it was something else before it was bought by like PepsiPal-Disney, but apparently he had just, like, miles and miles of the stuff in warehouses vacuum sealed and preserved and like gonna expire-“
“Oh-“
“Uh huh! And then suddenly he gets a grant, and then suddenly we’re all seeing RedMist on the food pyramid, and then suddenly Ami-Zone starts sending it out free for AwakenPrime, and then they bring in the subscription models, and then there’s a merger and galas for a buncha white dudes on Mars, and then-“
“So, fine, tldr- we’re...all eating-“
“Uh huh.”
“Hundred year old...”
“Yeeeepppp...”
“Failed corporate reconstituted RedMist.”
“Failed corporate reconstituted *Pomegranate* RedMist.”
“I mean...I dunno.”
“Think about it.”
“I’d rather not...like, I still gotta eat it.”
“Ah but that’s the thing...”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I mean...do we?” | |
[WP] So many people have become vampires that the government had to step in to protect the remaining humans. Every morning vampires receive a canister filled with a mysterious liquid that will sustain them for one day. While it has been confirmed to not be blood the truth is even more horrid. | Feel free to leave critique, I enjoyed writing this.
The government providing every vampire with a canister was honestly a stretch to begin with. Although, compared to the insanity that was happening out there it wasn’t like it could get worse.
Lo and behold they managed to do it. I mean, almost everyone thought that it was just gonna be a canister of garlicized holy water with red food coloring but no, like a fucking patron saint of vampires that cargo plane dropped thousands of little red boxes, filled with little red vials. And they did the trick. They were good.
There were ethical concerns, how all of this blood could possibly be harvested without turning cities into blood-mills. The government never answered us, and after a few weeks the question became taboo. After all; there is no good answer and nobody, *nobody*, wanted to go back to the way it was before. It wasn’t like we had any moral high ground after-...
...Infrastructure was collapsed during the fighting but after a few months of stability the populace brought electricity and running water back up.
Which led me to here; my lab at the police department. I was asking the taboo question, sampling the blood and comparing DNA. There’s a few reasons I can’t just sit and shut up. We need to take responsibility if we’re still monsters, just playing pretend at society while the Butchering happens somewhere out of sight and mind. The second thing is the taste.
Only a few people know the taste to begin with.
It has the same profile as infant blood.
...I’m not proud of what I am...
...I made a couple of discoveries. And they don’t make any goddamn sense.
1. All of the vials are “human” blood.
2. The blood cells are eight times the size of a regular human’s.
3. They all have the same exact DNA. All of it. | That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
The words resounded in his mind like a noose tightly wrapped around his sanity, squeezing out the final decaying instances, as madness looked on in glee.
As a human, the words of Coleridge had inspired him, made him realize that there was more to life than the daily drudgery and angst laden traps of the mind. Now, it had become a curse, for he saw that the words were prophetic.
The Catholic church has many secrets, some older than our Bibles, Qurans and Tora's. And as with all great secrets, they needed keepers of them. This then was the role of the TGK, or True Gospel Keepers, a shadow organization under the direct orders of the Supreme Holy Leader and his more commonly known second, The Pope.
Raven was merely a boy when he was recruited, a boy caught between two worlds, ours and something more sublime. By the time he had grown to manhood, he was known to be among the top five most elite TGK agents, though he had no equal when it came to ruthlessness.
The true power of the church summoned him to the lab in the catacombs, "this must be important", he thought to himself. Even with his clearance, the catacombs were off limits.
The Supreme leader smiled at him as he entered, Raven didn't reciprocate. Hollow smiles from a hollow man, no point in pretense with that sort. He knew what he was to the church, a tool to be used and discarded. Only fifty out of a thousand children make it through the first three years of training, those numbers are culled further down the line.
"Raven my boy, come in, come in. We've made a very exciting breakthrough. The DNA from The Grail has finally been synthesized. Do you understand what this means?"
"You're ready to start testing on living things."
"You've always been a quick study my boy and fiercely loyal, that's why we've summoned you. You're to be the first to kiss the lips of God"
Those words descended like a meteor, crushing and burning everything around it. Boiling oceans, nullifying life in an instant.
"I'm honored your excellency, but I still have many outstanding missions to complete, perhaps someo..."
"Nonsense my boy, the honor falls to you. Finally we'll be able to see a realm we've merely glimpsed at from the corners of our eyes."
tbc... | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | At first, I was puzzled, but soon I was ecstatic. Surely this meant I had achieved something no one before me had. I was the chosen one! I was limitless! I would be a god amongst mortals…
My exuberance quickly gave way to doubt, though. The Oracle had never once made a mistake, but it was not impossible. I looked up and down the behemoth contraption, looking for signs of defect. Its great metal dome showed some ware but nothing serious. It still let out rushes of steam on fairly regular intervals, and its pistons and gears still clanked and whirred as if it were fully functional. I could not say if anything was wrong with it. After all, the Oracle had been constructed so long ago that no one really knew how it functioned. All we knew was that ever since its conception, it had successfully predicted all deathly matters from the time of one’s demise to the manner in which they died.
After some time, I exited the chamber and informed the acolytes of what happened. At first, they assumed I was lying. But after rushing to examine the Oracle’s transcript they confirmed my account. They asked me to stay until a few more had used the chamber. I agreed, not just for their sake but to satisfy my own curiosity.
My doubt was eventually confirmed. Three more people, all exactly my age, had entered the Oracle’s Chamber only to be greeted with the same message on engraved on its response plate: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
The Temple was quick to search for a solution. At first, there was some (albeit limited) speculation that all people 19 and younger were now immortal. This was quickly refuted, both for being scientifically implausible, and for the tragic fact that one of the 19 year olds who recently received the unusual message was killed in a car accident. The Temple searched for anyone who could repair the machine, but as I said before, hardly anyone knew how it functioned.
And no one even knew how to look inside of it. The Oracle’s Dome lacked rivets and seams. Its moving external parts seemed indestructible, and no one had a clue how to remove or dismantle them. And even if someone could pierce its metal exterior, no one dared for a sense of reverence.
I cannot say how I felt, exactly. A small part of me was relieved. It was quite stressful awaiting the Oracle’s reading. In the weeks before my appointment, I had been having nightmares of dying in young and tragic ways. I kept envisioning a plethora of gruesome ends to my brief existence. And what if I died old but of some dreadful illness? Was that really any better? So in a way I felt a little lighter, but I knew that there were more serious problems. And these problems were far greater than any I could experience alone.
A society where everyone knows when and how you will die is a society that can essentially see the future. With enough people’s deaths, you could see many decades past the current one. The risks of speculation could be averted to times beyond the human lifespan. And although the information could be vague, it gave plenty of foresight about upcoming conditions and events.
Everyone planned their lives around their deaths, for better or worse. My grandparents came together because they discovered they had the same death date. They would both die together from a carbon monoxide leak while they were sleeping. I asked them one time why they didn’t just do something like go somewhere else or sleep outside. My grandmother said they could never escape it, no matter how they tried. One way or another, they would end up sleeping in their house that night, so better to accept it than fight and struggle to the end. I would have argued with her about it, but if anyone had been able to escape fate with their knowledge, someone certainly would have done so.
My cousin, who knew he would die young, spent every day like it was his last. Occasionally the Oracle’s predictions were slightly vague. All he knew was that he would die in a house party, and not exactly what would cause it. He almost took this as a challenge. Every night was a party at his house, and he spent his days recuperating with bungee jumping and fight clubs. As far as my cousin was concerned, until his death day he was invincible. This was, of course, ludicrous. He had broken so many bones and had had so many alcohol overdoses that I almost believed he would be the first person to break the cycle by dying earlier than predicted. But sure enough, on the exact night predicted, my cousin was killed when he choked on pretzel at someone else’s house party.
But now that the Oracle was out of operation, people began to panic. It wasn’t immediate. Those older than me already knew when and how they would die, but over time less and less information was available about the future. As the last death dates approached, markets began to collapse under the weight of speculation. No one had had to speculate for so long. Now that they did, panic was inevitable.
But over the decades, I found a new freedom I hadn’t felt before. Everything around me was imploding on itself, and somehow it was exciting. Before, everything was so fatalistic. Everyone consigned to their lack of free will, and society operated as an organism of sorts that persisted despite the wills of its constituents.
Now that we were stripped of our foresight, were we any less bound to fate? Probably not, as the Oracle never actually created those futures. It only predicted them. But I found liberation in not knowing. As far as my simple mind was concerned, I had gained the power to choose my destiny. I know that speaking about this all as my life is about to end seems ironic, but I have great comfort in the fact that I never knew it would end this way. Not because it is unseemly or untimely, but because it truly belongs to me. And now that my life comes to a close, I think back onto that mysterious contraption. Many years after receiving those words, I returned to the Oracle. Its Temple was abandoned and overgrown, but it still churned away as if it were awaiting its next reading. I placed my hand on the plate like I had done when I was 19, and again the same message appeared: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
As if I believed it could hear me, I responded to it “I know. And for that I am thankful.” | The Oracle sat in her chair. Calm and unmoving. Her chapped lips parted and she told me my fate. Or at least, she was supposed to.
“I have nothing to tell you.”
“Excuse me?” I said, “What do you mean you have nothing to tell me?”
“Exactly as I said. I have nothing for you.” The woman quietly said. Her milky white eyes contained centuries of experience. And yet, she was rendered speechless at the sight of me.
“What does that mean for me then?” My words seemed to catch in my throat as I spoke them.
“I cannot say. You’ll have to figure that out in your own time.” The woman paused. Her eyes flashed with a brief moment of fear. “Something tells me that you’ll have a lot of it on your hands.”
I turned around and left. I left behind the old monastery where the Oracle lived. I was supposed to find out that I would live a short, but happy life. She should have told me that I would grow to be the ripe old age of 76 where I could die peacefully surrounded by my friends and family. Why did she need to say that I had nothing?
As I approached my hometown once again, I decided to test the Oracle’s prophecy. I took a deep breath and I started running. I ran until my lungs hurt and my legs ached. I ran through the streets until I found myself bursting through the doors of the nearest shop.
The shopkeep stood there at the counter with a confused look on his face, but before he could open his mouth to greet me as he had done dozens of times before, I found myself dashing towards him.
...
It didn’t take much to kill him. There was a gaping hole in my chest from the gunshots I had sustained but I could already feel them beginning to stitch themselves together. It was then that I started to laugh.
It was true what they said. The Oracle is always right. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | At first, I was puzzled, but soon I was ecstatic. Surely this meant I had achieved something no one before me had. I was the chosen one! I was limitless! I would be a god amongst mortals…
My exuberance quickly gave way to doubt, though. The Oracle had never once made a mistake, but it was not impossible. I looked up and down the behemoth contraption, looking for signs of defect. Its great metal dome showed some ware but nothing serious. It still let out rushes of steam on fairly regular intervals, and its pistons and gears still clanked and whirred as if it were fully functional. I could not say if anything was wrong with it. After all, the Oracle had been constructed so long ago that no one really knew how it functioned. All we knew was that ever since its conception, it had successfully predicted all deathly matters from the time of one’s demise to the manner in which they died.
After some time, I exited the chamber and informed the acolytes of what happened. At first, they assumed I was lying. But after rushing to examine the Oracle’s transcript they confirmed my account. They asked me to stay until a few more had used the chamber. I agreed, not just for their sake but to satisfy my own curiosity.
My doubt was eventually confirmed. Three more people, all exactly my age, had entered the Oracle’s Chamber only to be greeted with the same message on engraved on its response plate: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
The Temple was quick to search for a solution. At first, there was some (albeit limited) speculation that all people 19 and younger were now immortal. This was quickly refuted, both for being scientifically implausible, and for the tragic fact that one of the 19 year olds who recently received the unusual message was killed in a car accident. The Temple searched for anyone who could repair the machine, but as I said before, hardly anyone knew how it functioned.
And no one even knew how to look inside of it. The Oracle’s Dome lacked rivets and seams. Its moving external parts seemed indestructible, and no one had a clue how to remove or dismantle them. And even if someone could pierce its metal exterior, no one dared for a sense of reverence.
I cannot say how I felt, exactly. A small part of me was relieved. It was quite stressful awaiting the Oracle’s reading. In the weeks before my appointment, I had been having nightmares of dying in young and tragic ways. I kept envisioning a plethora of gruesome ends to my brief existence. And what if I died old but of some dreadful illness? Was that really any better? So in a way I felt a little lighter, but I knew that there were more serious problems. And these problems were far greater than any I could experience alone.
A society where everyone knows when and how you will die is a society that can essentially see the future. With enough people’s deaths, you could see many decades past the current one. The risks of speculation could be averted to times beyond the human lifespan. And although the information could be vague, it gave plenty of foresight about upcoming conditions and events.
Everyone planned their lives around their deaths, for better or worse. My grandparents came together because they discovered they had the same death date. They would both die together from a carbon monoxide leak while they were sleeping. I asked them one time why they didn’t just do something like go somewhere else or sleep outside. My grandmother said they could never escape it, no matter how they tried. One way or another, they would end up sleeping in their house that night, so better to accept it than fight and struggle to the end. I would have argued with her about it, but if anyone had been able to escape fate with their knowledge, someone certainly would have done so.
My cousin, who knew he would die young, spent every day like it was his last. Occasionally the Oracle’s predictions were slightly vague. All he knew was that he would die in a house party, and not exactly what would cause it. He almost took this as a challenge. Every night was a party at his house, and he spent his days recuperating with bungee jumping and fight clubs. As far as my cousin was concerned, until his death day he was invincible. This was, of course, ludicrous. He had broken so many bones and had had so many alcohol overdoses that I almost believed he would be the first person to break the cycle by dying earlier than predicted. But sure enough, on the exact night predicted, my cousin was killed when he choked on pretzel at someone else’s house party.
But now that the Oracle was out of operation, people began to panic. It wasn’t immediate. Those older than me already knew when and how they would die, but over time less and less information was available about the future. As the last death dates approached, markets began to collapse under the weight of speculation. No one had had to speculate for so long. Now that they did, panic was inevitable.
But over the decades, I found a new freedom I hadn’t felt before. Everything around me was imploding on itself, and somehow it was exciting. Before, everything was so fatalistic. Everyone consigned to their lack of free will, and society operated as an organism of sorts that persisted despite the wills of its constituents.
Now that we were stripped of our foresight, were we any less bound to fate? Probably not, as the Oracle never actually created those futures. It only predicted them. But I found liberation in not knowing. As far as my simple mind was concerned, I had gained the power to choose my destiny. I know that speaking about this all as my life is about to end seems ironic, but I have great comfort in the fact that I never knew it would end this way. Not because it is unseemly or untimely, but because it truly belongs to me. And now that my life comes to a close, I think back onto that mysterious contraption. Many years after receiving those words, I returned to the Oracle. Its Temple was abandoned and overgrown, but it still churned away as if it were awaiting its next reading. I placed my hand on the plate like I had done when I was 19, and again the same message appeared: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
As if I believed it could hear me, I responded to it “I know. And for that I am thankful.” | I tilt my head, quietly watching the body of the future. Many ways of death had crossed my mind, several of which I quickly came to terms with.
I was, am, a health, sporty 16 year old. I have eight years left of the school I was tested to attend. I am an average student there, my magick not strong enough to be overpowering and my academics not high enough for me to be considered intelligent.
“Is it that I have no future,” I pause and gulp, “Or do not have a death that is seen on this realm?”
The Oracle stares forward, the fluorescent green of it’s eyes bathed in obvious uncertainty. It is a spirit, one of the Old Gods. Since the millennia where we obtained magick, it has steered us to nothing but truth about or deaths with nothing but absolute certainty.
Slowly, it looks like it reaches a small and upsetting realization, “It seems you have no death on any realm, Hatilo. Tell me, are you another one of my kind?”
I frown at the use of the name I forbid from being used. After my father disowned me and used my name as means to ridicule those of my mother’s kind, I refused it to be spoken. I shake my head nevertheless, “Oracle, surely I have the same mortality as that of my mother and father? Both are dead now. Surely that means that I, too, will depart?”
The omniscient being has never moved since it took this form. Now, as though wishing to reach me in hatred and confusion, it stands, it’s mouth agape, “Are you possessed? Are you one of mine? Are you of another? You have no death, Child. You have no mortality, no fate. I look into your future and I see nothing but changing tides.”
I step back from the flailing... corpse. Fates can never be changed. I was taught that at a very young age to prepare for the fact that I will, inevitably depart from this existence. To be told thrust I have no fate and that it is evanescent, it has left me reeling and grasping for a ay to escape the suddenly suffocating cave where I sit now.
“Forgive me Oracle, I am simply me. I am not special. You must be misled.” I move to the exit and the green eyes block my. I step backward instinctively and rationalize this. I was the last one to be told what I am, surely it is just tired.
With that thought acting as my only barricade from the fact that I have been told something that I shouldn’t have been told, I duck under the outstretched arm of the Oracle and run, tripping over a stone and rolling to continue my momentum.
I cough, suddenly cold. The Master, my teacher, that I had walked here with looks at me with concern as I skid to a halt into his arms like a little child.
“What were you told, Apprentice?” He asks, hesitantly.
I shake my head, “Surely it is mistaken, Master. I was told nothing. My fate isn’t there. I don’t have one. It’s always changing and the one that takes the place of the last fades away.”
“Calm down child. I will figure this out. For now, sleep.” I start to pull my arm up to block the magick that he uses but it is too late.
I fall, my consciousness fading. This must all be a dream, surely. There is no way that one cannot meet their doom. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | Walking through the city I looked up at the remains of the old temple. There were good memories there. Once upon a time it was the vibrant center of our religion. The world has moved on since then.
The gods are worshipped in new ways now. Our relationship with them is a little more even. It turns out even a god has something to fear from a nuclear warhead.
Turning down an alley I passed some kids burning some garbage. I fished in my pocket and brought out a gold drachma. Genuine currency of the gods. They turned from their pitiful offering to look at me in awe.
"The key to a good offering is to buy the whole animal. Get something good. Then you butcher it and burn off the parts you wouldn't eat anyways. As long as it smells good the gods don't care. You take this, you can get an Apollonian chicken down the road. He'll butcher it for you. You burn the feet, head, and organs, and eat the legs, thighs, breasts, and wings. Then" I produced a smaller silver drachma. "you take the bones to Cassie's across town. She'll cast them for you."
The kids stared at me for a few seconds after I finished speaking, then snatched my coins and ran off. They were right to distrust me. After all, I didn't tell them I was married to Cassie. She'd give them an accurate fortune telling. She'd also scold them for sacraficing trash. I'd love to say being the oracle is what told her that. In the old days she had to work much harder. Instead, I whipped out my phone and texted her, attaching a pic of the fleeing children. She could tell by their clothes and the bones if they showed up.
I continued on to Hermes Messengers. Almost three thousand years. And once, every year, I would beseach them. Tell me why. Tell me why I was doomed to outlive my loved ones. I outlived my first wife. All my kids and grand kids and great grand kids. All my siblings. My second wife. Third. Fourth. Eventually I married Cassie not out of love, but loneliness. As an oracle she cannot consummate a marriage. As *the* Oracle doubley so. We made it work though. When you are immortal and surrounded by mortals you are alone. Always alone.
I waited patiently in line. Reaching the counter I looked into the clerks eyes. "Direct message to Olympus."
"From?"
"Aegeus."
"Last name?"
"Just Aegeus."
"We need your full legal-" The clerk cut out. A second later, he looked at me with gleaming eyes. "Your petition has been granted."
I staggered back. "It has? Why?"
"You have shown devotion to the cause of knowledge and Athena decided-"
"No, why am I..." I spared a look around the shop. The dozen or so other customers stared at us in awe. Hermes himself manifesting through one of his clerks was rare. It happened maybe once or twice a year per city. "...with the condition I have that effects my lifespan dramatically." I concluded, awkwardly avoiding mentioning my immortality.
"Come to Olympus and we shall explain." The clerk's eyes started to dim, then reignited. "Bring Cassie."
The trek wasn't too long. At the top we sat and invoked the ancient rites, transporting us from the mundane mountaintop to the divine one. Around us the gods sat in thrones. Zeus spoke first, his voice thundering.
"**YOU DARE ASK OF US WHY WE DO THINGS? YOU WHO EXISTED IN THE WORLD BEFORE, WHEN OUR MIGHT WAS UNQUESTIONED?**
I opened my mouth to respond, but Athena cut me off from the side. "I invited him here. He has quested for this knowledge reasonably, requesting it not every day, but every year. He has asked politely, with offerings of gold and silver. He has burned whole feasts in our honor. He has not forsaken us as some have, nor has he turned against us. He has spoken highly of us. Just today he helped some orphans afford an offering to us."
"Peace Athena. I merely wished to remind the boy his place. He is to be told his destiny today."
My eyes flew back and forth between them, requiring me to turn my whole head each time. "Then tell him."
"It is not my place." Zeus nodded across from me. Spinning around, I found Apollo sitting there.
"Okay then." He said, clearly put on the spot. "Letting me take it. So, let's see let's see. He never lets me take it you know. Oh, uh, do you remember your coming of age?"
I glanced sideways at Cassie, then nodded.
"Right okay. So, Cassie, share your perspective."
I looked over at Cassie. She looked distinctly uncomfortable in a way I had not seen her look in close to two thousand years together.
"Well, ummm, sir, If you insist, I guess I could-"
"Just do it already." Apollo waved his hand in a move -it-along motion. I swallowed a retort and turned back to Cassie.
"Apollo manifests in me and shows me a persons death. I can see it all. I feel there emotions. The emotions of those around me. Its...intense. But that day I beseeched him and got nothing. He didn't even come. I spent years wondering if I did something wrong before it became apparent you wouldn't die." Cassie's voice slowly turned from nervous to angry. "I doubted myself, wondered if I hadn't angered the gods. They told me nothing, just kept on like everything was fine."
"We had to. You see, there is an older prophecy. You know of our parents?" Apollo asked.
"Your father is Zeus and your mother is, ummmm"
"Leto." Cassie jumped in, saving me.
"Its okay, my mother is largely forgotten. I am talking of the gods parents. Humanity is the children of the gods. The gods are the children of..." Apollo trailed off.
"The titans." Cassie and I said as one.
"Exactly. You accuse us of treating you poorly. There was a prophecy that Cronos, head of the titans, would be overthrown by his children, so he ate them. There is another prophecy. Humanity will overthrow the gods, and in turn be overthrown by their children. **You** are the first Olympian Human." Apollo had turned his head and was addressing Cassie. "Like the lesser gods are to us, you are to humanity. And you" he turned to me "shall lead the new humans. All this has been foretold. We..."
"We did not want to be the titans come again. We hope to be more peaceful than them. We are leaving this world. Tonight, we shall bestow our final blessings. Tomorrow, the world is yours. You shall gain powers. You shall be divine. We will be gone. Do not seek us out. This is the only way we can transition without terrible war."
I sat there stunned, but Cassie spoke up immediately.
"There are two of us. Where are the other olympians? Are we to rule alone? Am I to-"
"Relax." Apollo answered, causing us to spin around again. "Some have been born, and wander the Earth in hiding, afraid of being attacked. Some have yet to be born, and some will be born as we leave. You will gain true foresight as we ascend. Vision not of us, but of you."
"What" I started to ask, but my voice caught. Trying again, I managed to speak. "What do we do?"
"We cannot tell you." Athena answered "Among our final blessings, we will each bless you. I will bless you each with divine wisdom beyond what you would naturally acquire. And these words of wisdom I leave you. That I have bestowed wisdom upon a great many over the years. Some of their words have been lost. Some have not. Seek them out. You will be able to read them all *very* quickly. Do so. Let them guide you. Do not let them rule you."
"How do I.." Cassie began, but they were gone. We were sitting atop the mundane manifestation of Mount Olympus at sunrise. | I tilt my head, quietly watching the body of the future. Many ways of death had crossed my mind, several of which I quickly came to terms with.
I was, am, a health, sporty 16 year old. I have eight years left of the school I was tested to attend. I am an average student there, my magick not strong enough to be overpowering and my academics not high enough for me to be considered intelligent.
“Is it that I have no future,” I pause and gulp, “Or do not have a death that is seen on this realm?”
The Oracle stares forward, the fluorescent green of it’s eyes bathed in obvious uncertainty. It is a spirit, one of the Old Gods. Since the millennia where we obtained magick, it has steered us to nothing but truth about or deaths with nothing but absolute certainty.
Slowly, it looks like it reaches a small and upsetting realization, “It seems you have no death on any realm, Hatilo. Tell me, are you another one of my kind?”
I frown at the use of the name I forbid from being used. After my father disowned me and used my name as means to ridicule those of my mother’s kind, I refused it to be spoken. I shake my head nevertheless, “Oracle, surely I have the same mortality as that of my mother and father? Both are dead now. Surely that means that I, too, will depart?”
The omniscient being has never moved since it took this form. Now, as though wishing to reach me in hatred and confusion, it stands, it’s mouth agape, “Are you possessed? Are you one of mine? Are you of another? You have no death, Child. You have no mortality, no fate. I look into your future and I see nothing but changing tides.”
I step back from the flailing... corpse. Fates can never be changed. I was taught that at a very young age to prepare for the fact that I will, inevitably depart from this existence. To be told thrust I have no fate and that it is evanescent, it has left me reeling and grasping for a ay to escape the suddenly suffocating cave where I sit now.
“Forgive me Oracle, I am simply me. I am not special. You must be misled.” I move to the exit and the green eyes block my. I step backward instinctively and rationalize this. I was the last one to be told what I am, surely it is just tired.
With that thought acting as my only barricade from the fact that I have been told something that I shouldn’t have been told, I duck under the outstretched arm of the Oracle and run, tripping over a stone and rolling to continue my momentum.
I cough, suddenly cold. The Master, my teacher, that I had walked here with looks at me with concern as I skid to a halt into his arms like a little child.
“What were you told, Apprentice?” He asks, hesitantly.
I shake my head, “Surely it is mistaken, Master. I was told nothing. My fate isn’t there. I don’t have one. It’s always changing and the one that takes the place of the last fades away.”
“Calm down child. I will figure this out. For now, sleep.” I start to pull my arm up to block the magick that he uses but it is too late.
I fall, my consciousness fading. This must all be a dream, surely. There is no way that one cannot meet their doom. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | At first, I was puzzled, but soon I was ecstatic. Surely this meant I had achieved something no one before me had. I was the chosen one! I was limitless! I would be a god amongst mortals…
My exuberance quickly gave way to doubt, though. The Oracle had never once made a mistake, but it was not impossible. I looked up and down the behemoth contraption, looking for signs of defect. Its great metal dome showed some ware but nothing serious. It still let out rushes of steam on fairly regular intervals, and its pistons and gears still clanked and whirred as if it were fully functional. I could not say if anything was wrong with it. After all, the Oracle had been constructed so long ago that no one really knew how it functioned. All we knew was that ever since its conception, it had successfully predicted all deathly matters from the time of one’s demise to the manner in which they died.
After some time, I exited the chamber and informed the acolytes of what happened. At first, they assumed I was lying. But after rushing to examine the Oracle’s transcript they confirmed my account. They asked me to stay until a few more had used the chamber. I agreed, not just for their sake but to satisfy my own curiosity.
My doubt was eventually confirmed. Three more people, all exactly my age, had entered the Oracle’s Chamber only to be greeted with the same message on engraved on its response plate: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
The Temple was quick to search for a solution. At first, there was some (albeit limited) speculation that all people 19 and younger were now immortal. This was quickly refuted, both for being scientifically implausible, and for the tragic fact that one of the 19 year olds who recently received the unusual message was killed in a car accident. The Temple searched for anyone who could repair the machine, but as I said before, hardly anyone knew how it functioned.
And no one even knew how to look inside of it. The Oracle’s Dome lacked rivets and seams. Its moving external parts seemed indestructible, and no one had a clue how to remove or dismantle them. And even if someone could pierce its metal exterior, no one dared for a sense of reverence.
I cannot say how I felt, exactly. A small part of me was relieved. It was quite stressful awaiting the Oracle’s reading. In the weeks before my appointment, I had been having nightmares of dying in young and tragic ways. I kept envisioning a plethora of gruesome ends to my brief existence. And what if I died old but of some dreadful illness? Was that really any better? So in a way I felt a little lighter, but I knew that there were more serious problems. And these problems were far greater than any I could experience alone.
A society where everyone knows when and how you will die is a society that can essentially see the future. With enough people’s deaths, you could see many decades past the current one. The risks of speculation could be averted to times beyond the human lifespan. And although the information could be vague, it gave plenty of foresight about upcoming conditions and events.
Everyone planned their lives around their deaths, for better or worse. My grandparents came together because they discovered they had the same death date. They would both die together from a carbon monoxide leak while they were sleeping. I asked them one time why they didn’t just do something like go somewhere else or sleep outside. My grandmother said they could never escape it, no matter how they tried. One way or another, they would end up sleeping in their house that night, so better to accept it than fight and struggle to the end. I would have argued with her about it, but if anyone had been able to escape fate with their knowledge, someone certainly would have done so.
My cousin, who knew he would die young, spent every day like it was his last. Occasionally the Oracle’s predictions were slightly vague. All he knew was that he would die in a house party, and not exactly what would cause it. He almost took this as a challenge. Every night was a party at his house, and he spent his days recuperating with bungee jumping and fight clubs. As far as my cousin was concerned, until his death day he was invincible. This was, of course, ludicrous. He had broken so many bones and had had so many alcohol overdoses that I almost believed he would be the first person to break the cycle by dying earlier than predicted. But sure enough, on the exact night predicted, my cousin was killed when he choked on pretzel at someone else’s house party.
But now that the Oracle was out of operation, people began to panic. It wasn’t immediate. Those older than me already knew when and how they would die, but over time less and less information was available about the future. As the last death dates approached, markets began to collapse under the weight of speculation. No one had had to speculate for so long. Now that they did, panic was inevitable.
But over the decades, I found a new freedom I hadn’t felt before. Everything around me was imploding on itself, and somehow it was exciting. Before, everything was so fatalistic. Everyone consigned to their lack of free will, and society operated as an organism of sorts that persisted despite the wills of its constituents.
Now that we were stripped of our foresight, were we any less bound to fate? Probably not, as the Oracle never actually created those futures. It only predicted them. But I found liberation in not knowing. As far as my simple mind was concerned, I had gained the power to choose my destiny. I know that speaking about this all as my life is about to end seems ironic, but I have great comfort in the fact that I never knew it would end this way. Not because it is unseemly or untimely, but because it truly belongs to me. And now that my life comes to a close, I think back onto that mysterious contraption. Many years after receiving those words, I returned to the Oracle. Its Temple was abandoned and overgrown, but it still churned away as if it were awaiting its next reading. I placed my hand on the plate like I had done when I was 19, and again the same message appeared: *I HAVE NOTHING TO TELL YOU*
As if I believed it could hear me, I responded to it “I know. And for that I am thankful.” | The Oracle system was as ancient as galactic civilization itself, so they say. Before the first settlers arrived on this world, before the first of the long ancient ruins of our ancestors were built upon these lands, before the Christening of the Third Immortal Emperor King, there was The Oracle. There was always The Oracle. Resting in a tower of gleaming pearl, whose seamless panels would gleam in even the second moon's feint light, surrounded in the majesty of conduits and cables, the true form of The Oracle was said to be incomprehensible to a man. So it was that we only interacted with a tiny sliver, a centipede of robotic segments extending from the low sloped ceiling in the back of its chamber, wired to a myriad of limbs and probe arms that all gleamed in the same strange, stainless-steel darkness that dominated its entire cavern.
It was at the precise age of twenty three and a half that all denizens of this world and her moons, no matter the circumstance, received an irrefusable summons. It was different every time, deeply personal, but each instance shared the the same superficial characteristics. A great light would appear in the sky, burning fire containing multitudes of wriggling limbs and eyes, all eternally glowing in the light of an unnaturally bright fire, and from the multitudes would produce the face of your eldest remembered ancestor, and from this visage an invitation would be announced in your first spoken tongue. Then, upon the back of you left hand a number would be printed, the exact number of milliseconds before you would meet the oracle. Those without the means to experience these miracles had their needs provided for, so that even the deaf and the blind and those missing limbs could not escape.
For some the wait was inexplicably decades, for you there were mere minutes. Each traveled to The Oracle in their own way. Some procured familiar forms of transit, some made particular haste, some avoided the encounter and demanded the intervention of fate, an express few were unceremoniously teleported. The Oracle had decided, on this day, that you were worthy of this uncommon honor. In a whirlwind of incomprehensible motion you were ripped from your conscious life within the crust of the first of three moons, and when the world stopped spinning you were wrapped in the thick wet fog of The Oracle's Chamber. A source-less light illuminated the space, which bore a striking resemblance to the inside of an animal's carcass, the light making the rhythmic breathing of the rib-like metallic walls all too obvious. It was from this deafening assault of unsettling silence that a voice called out to deliver the unquestioning truth, from the descending mesh of robotic appendages; the manner in which you would die:
# "Cherished Son of Sons, Daughter of Daughters, the so magnificently named, the conqueror of life's challenges, listen and hear the proclamation of your ultimate fate. Know now when the great battle will end and the conqueror will become the conquered. Silence and Behold. For the Oracle declares, from the most high, that we have nothing to tell you. Good day."
The mesh of limbs retracted into the mist, as quickly as it came, body and all. It said nothing else, made no further attempts at contact and, yet nothing more needed to be said. For on that day, there in The Oracle's chamber, you knew that you would be **King**. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | Walking through the city I looked up at the remains of the old temple. There were good memories there. Once upon a time it was the vibrant center of our religion. The world has moved on since then.
The gods are worshipped in new ways now. Our relationship with them is a little more even. It turns out even a god has something to fear from a nuclear warhead.
Turning down an alley I passed some kids burning some garbage. I fished in my pocket and brought out a gold drachma. Genuine currency of the gods. They turned from their pitiful offering to look at me in awe.
"The key to a good offering is to buy the whole animal. Get something good. Then you butcher it and burn off the parts you wouldn't eat anyways. As long as it smells good the gods don't care. You take this, you can get an Apollonian chicken down the road. He'll butcher it for you. You burn the feet, head, and organs, and eat the legs, thighs, breasts, and wings. Then" I produced a smaller silver drachma. "you take the bones to Cassie's across town. She'll cast them for you."
The kids stared at me for a few seconds after I finished speaking, then snatched my coins and ran off. They were right to distrust me. After all, I didn't tell them I was married to Cassie. She'd give them an accurate fortune telling. She'd also scold them for sacraficing trash. I'd love to say being the oracle is what told her that. In the old days she had to work much harder. Instead, I whipped out my phone and texted her, attaching a pic of the fleeing children. She could tell by their clothes and the bones if they showed up.
I continued on to Hermes Messengers. Almost three thousand years. And once, every year, I would beseach them. Tell me why. Tell me why I was doomed to outlive my loved ones. I outlived my first wife. All my kids and grand kids and great grand kids. All my siblings. My second wife. Third. Fourth. Eventually I married Cassie not out of love, but loneliness. As an oracle she cannot consummate a marriage. As *the* Oracle doubley so. We made it work though. When you are immortal and surrounded by mortals you are alone. Always alone.
I waited patiently in line. Reaching the counter I looked into the clerks eyes. "Direct message to Olympus."
"From?"
"Aegeus."
"Last name?"
"Just Aegeus."
"We need your full legal-" The clerk cut out. A second later, he looked at me with gleaming eyes. "Your petition has been granted."
I staggered back. "It has? Why?"
"You have shown devotion to the cause of knowledge and Athena decided-"
"No, why am I..." I spared a look around the shop. The dozen or so other customers stared at us in awe. Hermes himself manifesting through one of his clerks was rare. It happened maybe once or twice a year per city. "...with the condition I have that effects my lifespan dramatically." I concluded, awkwardly avoiding mentioning my immortality.
"Come to Olympus and we shall explain." The clerk's eyes started to dim, then reignited. "Bring Cassie."
The trek wasn't too long. At the top we sat and invoked the ancient rites, transporting us from the mundane mountaintop to the divine one. Around us the gods sat in thrones. Zeus spoke first, his voice thundering.
"**YOU DARE ASK OF US WHY WE DO THINGS? YOU WHO EXISTED IN THE WORLD BEFORE, WHEN OUR MIGHT WAS UNQUESTIONED?**
I opened my mouth to respond, but Athena cut me off from the side. "I invited him here. He has quested for this knowledge reasonably, requesting it not every day, but every year. He has asked politely, with offerings of gold and silver. He has burned whole feasts in our honor. He has not forsaken us as some have, nor has he turned against us. He has spoken highly of us. Just today he helped some orphans afford an offering to us."
"Peace Athena. I merely wished to remind the boy his place. He is to be told his destiny today."
My eyes flew back and forth between them, requiring me to turn my whole head each time. "Then tell him."
"It is not my place." Zeus nodded across from me. Spinning around, I found Apollo sitting there.
"Okay then." He said, clearly put on the spot. "Letting me take it. So, let's see let's see. He never lets me take it you know. Oh, uh, do you remember your coming of age?"
I glanced sideways at Cassie, then nodded.
"Right okay. So, Cassie, share your perspective."
I looked over at Cassie. She looked distinctly uncomfortable in a way I had not seen her look in close to two thousand years together.
"Well, ummm, sir, If you insist, I guess I could-"
"Just do it already." Apollo waved his hand in a move -it-along motion. I swallowed a retort and turned back to Cassie.
"Apollo manifests in me and shows me a persons death. I can see it all. I feel there emotions. The emotions of those around me. Its...intense. But that day I beseeched him and got nothing. He didn't even come. I spent years wondering if I did something wrong before it became apparent you wouldn't die." Cassie's voice slowly turned from nervous to angry. "I doubted myself, wondered if I hadn't angered the gods. They told me nothing, just kept on like everything was fine."
"We had to. You see, there is an older prophecy. You know of our parents?" Apollo asked.
"Your father is Zeus and your mother is, ummmm"
"Leto." Cassie jumped in, saving me.
"Its okay, my mother is largely forgotten. I am talking of the gods parents. Humanity is the children of the gods. The gods are the children of..." Apollo trailed off.
"The titans." Cassie and I said as one.
"Exactly. You accuse us of treating you poorly. There was a prophecy that Cronos, head of the titans, would be overthrown by his children, so he ate them. There is another prophecy. Humanity will overthrow the gods, and in turn be overthrown by their children. **You** are the first Olympian Human." Apollo had turned his head and was addressing Cassie. "Like the lesser gods are to us, you are to humanity. And you" he turned to me "shall lead the new humans. All this has been foretold. We..."
"We did not want to be the titans come again. We hope to be more peaceful than them. We are leaving this world. Tonight, we shall bestow our final blessings. Tomorrow, the world is yours. You shall gain powers. You shall be divine. We will be gone. Do not seek us out. This is the only way we can transition without terrible war."
I sat there stunned, but Cassie spoke up immediately.
"There are two of us. Where are the other olympians? Are we to rule alone? Am I to-"
"Relax." Apollo answered, causing us to spin around again. "Some have been born, and wander the Earth in hiding, afraid of being attacked. Some have yet to be born, and some will be born as we leave. You will gain true foresight as we ascend. Vision not of us, but of you."
"What" I started to ask, but my voice caught. Trying again, I managed to speak. "What do we do?"
"We cannot tell you." Athena answered "Among our final blessings, we will each bless you. I will bless you each with divine wisdom beyond what you would naturally acquire. And these words of wisdom I leave you. That I have bestowed wisdom upon a great many over the years. Some of their words have been lost. Some have not. Seek them out. You will be able to read them all *very* quickly. Do so. Let them guide you. Do not let them rule you."
"How do I.." Cassie began, but they were gone. We were sitting atop the mundane manifestation of Mount Olympus at sunrise. | The Oracle system was as ancient as galactic civilization itself, so they say. Before the first settlers arrived on this world, before the first of the long ancient ruins of our ancestors were built upon these lands, before the Christening of the Third Immortal Emperor King, there was The Oracle. There was always The Oracle. Resting in a tower of gleaming pearl, whose seamless panels would gleam in even the second moon's feint light, surrounded in the majesty of conduits and cables, the true form of The Oracle was said to be incomprehensible to a man. So it was that we only interacted with a tiny sliver, a centipede of robotic segments extending from the low sloped ceiling in the back of its chamber, wired to a myriad of limbs and probe arms that all gleamed in the same strange, stainless-steel darkness that dominated its entire cavern.
It was at the precise age of twenty three and a half that all denizens of this world and her moons, no matter the circumstance, received an irrefusable summons. It was different every time, deeply personal, but each instance shared the the same superficial characteristics. A great light would appear in the sky, burning fire containing multitudes of wriggling limbs and eyes, all eternally glowing in the light of an unnaturally bright fire, and from the multitudes would produce the face of your eldest remembered ancestor, and from this visage an invitation would be announced in your first spoken tongue. Then, upon the back of you left hand a number would be printed, the exact number of milliseconds before you would meet the oracle. Those without the means to experience these miracles had their needs provided for, so that even the deaf and the blind and those missing limbs could not escape.
For some the wait was inexplicably decades, for you there were mere minutes. Each traveled to The Oracle in their own way. Some procured familiar forms of transit, some made particular haste, some avoided the encounter and demanded the intervention of fate, an express few were unceremoniously teleported. The Oracle had decided, on this day, that you were worthy of this uncommon honor. In a whirlwind of incomprehensible motion you were ripped from your conscious life within the crust of the first of three moons, and when the world stopped spinning you were wrapped in the thick wet fog of The Oracle's Chamber. A source-less light illuminated the space, which bore a striking resemblance to the inside of an animal's carcass, the light making the rhythmic breathing of the rib-like metallic walls all too obvious. It was from this deafening assault of unsettling silence that a voice called out to deliver the unquestioning truth, from the descending mesh of robotic appendages; the manner in which you would die:
# "Cherished Son of Sons, Daughter of Daughters, the so magnificently named, the conqueror of life's challenges, listen and hear the proclamation of your ultimate fate. Know now when the great battle will end and the conqueror will become the conquered. Silence and Behold. For the Oracle declares, from the most high, that we have nothing to tell you. Good day."
The mesh of limbs retracted into the mist, as quickly as it came, body and all. It said nothing else, made no further attempts at contact and, yet nothing more needed to be said. For on that day, there in The Oracle's chamber, you knew that you would be **King**. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | Walking through the city I looked up at the remains of the old temple. There were good memories there. Once upon a time it was the vibrant center of our religion. The world has moved on since then.
The gods are worshipped in new ways now. Our relationship with them is a little more even. It turns out even a god has something to fear from a nuclear warhead.
Turning down an alley I passed some kids burning some garbage. I fished in my pocket and brought out a gold drachma. Genuine currency of the gods. They turned from their pitiful offering to look at me in awe.
"The key to a good offering is to buy the whole animal. Get something good. Then you butcher it and burn off the parts you wouldn't eat anyways. As long as it smells good the gods don't care. You take this, you can get an Apollonian chicken down the road. He'll butcher it for you. You burn the feet, head, and organs, and eat the legs, thighs, breasts, and wings. Then" I produced a smaller silver drachma. "you take the bones to Cassie's across town. She'll cast them for you."
The kids stared at me for a few seconds after I finished speaking, then snatched my coins and ran off. They were right to distrust me. After all, I didn't tell them I was married to Cassie. She'd give them an accurate fortune telling. She'd also scold them for sacraficing trash. I'd love to say being the oracle is what told her that. In the old days she had to work much harder. Instead, I whipped out my phone and texted her, attaching a pic of the fleeing children. She could tell by their clothes and the bones if they showed up.
I continued on to Hermes Messengers. Almost three thousand years. And once, every year, I would beseach them. Tell me why. Tell me why I was doomed to outlive my loved ones. I outlived my first wife. All my kids and grand kids and great grand kids. All my siblings. My second wife. Third. Fourth. Eventually I married Cassie not out of love, but loneliness. As an oracle she cannot consummate a marriage. As *the* Oracle doubley so. We made it work though. When you are immortal and surrounded by mortals you are alone. Always alone.
I waited patiently in line. Reaching the counter I looked into the clerks eyes. "Direct message to Olympus."
"From?"
"Aegeus."
"Last name?"
"Just Aegeus."
"We need your full legal-" The clerk cut out. A second later, he looked at me with gleaming eyes. "Your petition has been granted."
I staggered back. "It has? Why?"
"You have shown devotion to the cause of knowledge and Athena decided-"
"No, why am I..." I spared a look around the shop. The dozen or so other customers stared at us in awe. Hermes himself manifesting through one of his clerks was rare. It happened maybe once or twice a year per city. "...with the condition I have that effects my lifespan dramatically." I concluded, awkwardly avoiding mentioning my immortality.
"Come to Olympus and we shall explain." The clerk's eyes started to dim, then reignited. "Bring Cassie."
The trek wasn't too long. At the top we sat and invoked the ancient rites, transporting us from the mundane mountaintop to the divine one. Around us the gods sat in thrones. Zeus spoke first, his voice thundering.
"**YOU DARE ASK OF US WHY WE DO THINGS? YOU WHO EXISTED IN THE WORLD BEFORE, WHEN OUR MIGHT WAS UNQUESTIONED?**
I opened my mouth to respond, but Athena cut me off from the side. "I invited him here. He has quested for this knowledge reasonably, requesting it not every day, but every year. He has asked politely, with offerings of gold and silver. He has burned whole feasts in our honor. He has not forsaken us as some have, nor has he turned against us. He has spoken highly of us. Just today he helped some orphans afford an offering to us."
"Peace Athena. I merely wished to remind the boy his place. He is to be told his destiny today."
My eyes flew back and forth between them, requiring me to turn my whole head each time. "Then tell him."
"It is not my place." Zeus nodded across from me. Spinning around, I found Apollo sitting there.
"Okay then." He said, clearly put on the spot. "Letting me take it. So, let's see let's see. He never lets me take it you know. Oh, uh, do you remember your coming of age?"
I glanced sideways at Cassie, then nodded.
"Right okay. So, Cassie, share your perspective."
I looked over at Cassie. She looked distinctly uncomfortable in a way I had not seen her look in close to two thousand years together.
"Well, ummm, sir, If you insist, I guess I could-"
"Just do it already." Apollo waved his hand in a move -it-along motion. I swallowed a retort and turned back to Cassie.
"Apollo manifests in me and shows me a persons death. I can see it all. I feel there emotions. The emotions of those around me. Its...intense. But that day I beseeched him and got nothing. He didn't even come. I spent years wondering if I did something wrong before it became apparent you wouldn't die." Cassie's voice slowly turned from nervous to angry. "I doubted myself, wondered if I hadn't angered the gods. They told me nothing, just kept on like everything was fine."
"We had to. You see, there is an older prophecy. You know of our parents?" Apollo asked.
"Your father is Zeus and your mother is, ummmm"
"Leto." Cassie jumped in, saving me.
"Its okay, my mother is largely forgotten. I am talking of the gods parents. Humanity is the children of the gods. The gods are the children of..." Apollo trailed off.
"The titans." Cassie and I said as one.
"Exactly. You accuse us of treating you poorly. There was a prophecy that Cronos, head of the titans, would be overthrown by his children, so he ate them. There is another prophecy. Humanity will overthrow the gods, and in turn be overthrown by their children. **You** are the first Olympian Human." Apollo had turned his head and was addressing Cassie. "Like the lesser gods are to us, you are to humanity. And you" he turned to me "shall lead the new humans. All this has been foretold. We..."
"We did not want to be the titans come again. We hope to be more peaceful than them. We are leaving this world. Tonight, we shall bestow our final blessings. Tomorrow, the world is yours. You shall gain powers. You shall be divine. We will be gone. Do not seek us out. This is the only way we can transition without terrible war."
I sat there stunned, but Cassie spoke up immediately.
"There are two of us. Where are the other olympians? Are we to rule alone? Am I to-"
"Relax." Apollo answered, causing us to spin around again. "Some have been born, and wander the Earth in hiding, afraid of being attacked. Some have yet to be born, and some will be born as we leave. You will gain true foresight as we ascend. Vision not of us, but of you."
"What" I started to ask, but my voice caught. Trying again, I managed to speak. "What do we do?"
"We cannot tell you." Athena answered "Among our final blessings, we will each bless you. I will bless you each with divine wisdom beyond what you would naturally acquire. And these words of wisdom I leave you. That I have bestowed wisdom upon a great many over the years. Some of their words have been lost. Some have not. Seek them out. You will be able to read them all *very* quickly. Do so. Let them guide you. Do not let them rule you."
"How do I.." Cassie began, but they were gone. We were sitting atop the mundane manifestation of Mount Olympus at sunrise. | "I have nothing to tell you." The Oracle spoke as she hid her face behind a black veil.
“What does that mean?” A young man who was sitting in front of her asked with a surprised tone.
“Your death. It won’t happen in this world.” She spoke softly without a hint of emotion.
As he heard the oracle's words, the boy’s pupils suddenly shrank to a small dot.
“Is that mean… I will-” The boy’s words grow weaker as he fell silent.
“Yes, you are the one we have been searching for,” Oracle said, still blank as ever.
His mind was already in turmoil when he heard the Oracle’s cold voice.
“But, I don’t want to- I can’t leave my family.”
“A needless worry. You, along with your family will be regarded as saviors of our world, just like the ones before you.” After finishing her words, she made a movement as the guards came inside.
“Take him to the Gate.”
The guards nodded as they lead him away.
The young man, still lost in thoughts followed the guards.
In his heart, he didn’t want to be a hero…
Just like everyone else, he came here to find out how he would die… Even if he had to die young, he would still cherish his final years… But now, he had no chance to cherish it. Because he was the chosen one. He was their chosen one.
He walked faster as he thought everything thoroughly.
Being a hero and entering the Gate to fight a battle he didn’t even understand…
His steps turned hastier as he clenched his teeth.
He knew this was not the first time a hero emerged. Every 10 years, such a person would emerge in the country. Then, they would disappear in the gate, never to be seen again.
He didn’t want to disappear.
He didn’t want to die in a foreign world.
He turned towards to look at the guards for the first time.
Two gray-faced man was looking straight as they lead him. They said nothing as they kept walking on their path.
That was the moment he had decided to break free. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | \[WP\]
“I have nothing to tell you.” The Oracle uttered with no emotion.
I looked upon the Oracle, dumbfounded. I could feel the blood drain rapidly from my face.
“Forgive me for questioning your divine wisdom, Great Oracle, though I am not sure what could be the meaning of this prophecy.” I managed to whimper.
There was a silence in the room that had me questioning my ability to hear. I cleared my throat anxiously to be sure. The echo of it bounced around the chamber.
Still, The Oracle said not a word.
I narrowed my vision in a poor attempt to see beyond the thick shroud covering the Oracle’s face. I could see nothing of course. None had ever seen its face.
I spoke once more, this time with more authority, “Please, I have come a long way. I must know, how is it that my life will end?”
The Oracle spoke no words. I’m ashamed to admit, but I began to feel angry. For generations upon generations, humans had visited the wise Oracle, and all had received prophecy of how this life will end. Why should I be exempt from centuries of tradition?
I looked around the chamber. We were alone.
I looked at the Oracle once more, sitting there still. Unmoving.
I decided I was not going to leave without an answer.
Impulsively, I stepped toward the altar in which the Oracle sat elevated on a grey throne. With every step my heartbeat grew faster and louder until it was echoing off the chamber walls. There was a throbbing in my ears that was nearly deafening.
A few more steps and I would be upon the platform in which the throne of the Oracle was placed.
My legs were shaking violently, making it difficult to walk. I dared not lose my nerve now.
I was then at the platform. Without hesitation, I stepped up onto the stone surface. I first noticed a thick layer of dust in which my foot made a clear impression.
I was an arm’s length away from the ancient Oracle.
I took a deep breath and reached out to touch its cloak, “I beg of you, wise Oracle, please tell me-”
The instant my hand grazed the thick material, the form in front of me collapsed.
The Oracle had vanished.
Its robe lay in a loose bundle at the center of the throne. I was frozen in shock, arm outstretched at... nothing. The Oracle was gone.
A hand touched upon my shoulder, and I spun around sharply. There, stood a figure in a pale white cloak. It glided around me gently.
I backed away from the throne slightly. The figure moved toward the heap of dark material laying before us.
Delicately, it leaned forward and gathered the cloak which moments before had been adorned by the Oracle. Once gathered, the figure pivoted toward me and held out its shrouded arms, which held the Oracle’s cloak.
A peculiar vibration filled the air. I cannot earnestly explain what compelled me to do what happened next.
I took the cloak from the figure. When it was safely in my hands, the figure glided once more around me, down the platform and away into the darkness.
I was surrounded by silence.
I then heard a gentle whisper. ***Put it on.***
I looked around the chamber. I was alone.
***Put it on.***
The voice was in my head, though not my own.
I felt there was no other action other than to listen to the whisper.
I dressed myself in the Oracle’s cloak. It wrapped around me as though it was tailored for my body. At once the fear and tension I was feeling dissipated. I felt centred and calm. At peace.
***Sit.***
The whisper demanded. I did as it requested. The moment I felt the throne at my back, my head was inundated with a flurry of whispers. Some louder than others. Not all spoke the common tongue. I shut my eyes hoping to gain control.
The chatter would not stop. When I thought I could not bear another moment of the noise, it came to a sudden halt.
At once the large stone doors to the chamber groaned to life. Someone was entering through the very same entrance which I had stepped through moments before.
There was a dim light emanating from the opening. Peering through the darkness, I recognized the figure at once. It was the butcher man from my village.
I felt a panic, fearing I would have no way to explain what had transpired here.
As he approached, a humming slowly began filling my head.
***Alone… in his bed chamber. After the next full moon.***
The butcher reached the platform.
“O wise Oracle.” He spoke with confidence, “I have traveled from afar. Please bestow upon me your prophecy of my life’s end.
.END. | "I have nothing to tell you." The Oracle spoke as she hid her face behind a black veil.
“What does that mean?” A young man who was sitting in front of her asked with a surprised tone.
“Your death. It won’t happen in this world.” She spoke softly without a hint of emotion.
As he heard the oracle's words, the boy’s pupils suddenly shrank to a small dot.
“Is that mean… I will-” The boy’s words grow weaker as he fell silent.
“Yes, you are the one we have been searching for,” Oracle said, still blank as ever.
His mind was already in turmoil when he heard the Oracle’s cold voice.
“But, I don’t want to- I can’t leave my family.”
“A needless worry. You, along with your family will be regarded as saviors of our world, just like the ones before you.” After finishing her words, she made a movement as the guards came inside.
“Take him to the Gate.”
The guards nodded as they lead him away.
The young man, still lost in thoughts followed the guards.
In his heart, he didn’t want to be a hero…
Just like everyone else, he came here to find out how he would die… Even if he had to die young, he would still cherish his final years… But now, he had no chance to cherish it. Because he was the chosen one. He was their chosen one.
He walked faster as he thought everything thoroughly.
Being a hero and entering the Gate to fight a battle he didn’t even understand…
His steps turned hastier as he clenched his teeth.
He knew this was not the first time a hero emerged. Every 10 years, such a person would emerge in the country. Then, they would disappear in the gate, never to be seen again.
He didn’t want to disappear.
He didn’t want to die in a foreign world.
He turned towards to look at the guards for the first time.
Two gray-faced man was looking straight as they lead him. They said nothing as they kept walking on their path.
That was the moment he had decided to break free. | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | \[WP\]
“I have nothing to tell you.” The Oracle uttered with no emotion.
I looked upon the Oracle, dumbfounded. I could feel the blood drain rapidly from my face.
“Forgive me for questioning your divine wisdom, Great Oracle, though I am not sure what could be the meaning of this prophecy.” I managed to whimper.
There was a silence in the room that had me questioning my ability to hear. I cleared my throat anxiously to be sure. The echo of it bounced around the chamber.
Still, The Oracle said not a word.
I narrowed my vision in a poor attempt to see beyond the thick shroud covering the Oracle’s face. I could see nothing of course. None had ever seen its face.
I spoke once more, this time with more authority, “Please, I have come a long way. I must know, how is it that my life will end?”
The Oracle spoke no words. I’m ashamed to admit, but I began to feel angry. For generations upon generations, humans had visited the wise Oracle, and all had received prophecy of how this life will end. Why should I be exempt from centuries of tradition?
I looked around the chamber. We were alone.
I looked at the Oracle once more, sitting there still. Unmoving.
I decided I was not going to leave without an answer.
Impulsively, I stepped toward the altar in which the Oracle sat elevated on a grey throne. With every step my heartbeat grew faster and louder until it was echoing off the chamber walls. There was a throbbing in my ears that was nearly deafening.
A few more steps and I would be upon the platform in which the throne of the Oracle was placed.
My legs were shaking violently, making it difficult to walk. I dared not lose my nerve now.
I was then at the platform. Without hesitation, I stepped up onto the stone surface. I first noticed a thick layer of dust in which my foot made a clear impression.
I was an arm’s length away from the ancient Oracle.
I took a deep breath and reached out to touch its cloak, “I beg of you, wise Oracle, please tell me-”
The instant my hand grazed the thick material, the form in front of me collapsed.
The Oracle had vanished.
Its robe lay in a loose bundle at the center of the throne. I was frozen in shock, arm outstretched at... nothing. The Oracle was gone.
A hand touched upon my shoulder, and I spun around sharply. There, stood a figure in a pale white cloak. It glided around me gently.
I backed away from the throne slightly. The figure moved toward the heap of dark material laying before us.
Delicately, it leaned forward and gathered the cloak which moments before had been adorned by the Oracle. Once gathered, the figure pivoted toward me and held out its shrouded arms, which held the Oracle’s cloak.
A peculiar vibration filled the air. I cannot earnestly explain what compelled me to do what happened next.
I took the cloak from the figure. When it was safely in my hands, the figure glided once more around me, down the platform and away into the darkness.
I was surrounded by silence.
I then heard a gentle whisper. ***Put it on.***
I looked around the chamber. I was alone.
***Put it on.***
The voice was in my head, though not my own.
I felt there was no other action other than to listen to the whisper.
I dressed myself in the Oracle’s cloak. It wrapped around me as though it was tailored for my body. At once the fear and tension I was feeling dissipated. I felt centred and calm. At peace.
***Sit.***
The whisper demanded. I did as it requested. The moment I felt the throne at my back, my head was inundated with a flurry of whispers. Some louder than others. Not all spoke the common tongue. I shut my eyes hoping to gain control.
The chatter would not stop. When I thought I could not bear another moment of the noise, it came to a sudden halt.
At once the large stone doors to the chamber groaned to life. Someone was entering through the very same entrance which I had stepped through moments before.
There was a dim light emanating from the opening. Peering through the darkness, I recognized the figure at once. It was the butcher man from my village.
I felt a panic, fearing I would have no way to explain what had transpired here.
As he approached, a humming slowly began filling my head.
***Alone… in his bed chamber. After the next full moon.***
The butcher reached the platform.
“O wise Oracle.” He spoke with confidence, “I have traveled from afar. Please bestow upon me your prophecy of my life’s end.
.END. | The man in front of me looked up hopefully to the desk. the Oracle seemed to ponder something before his eyes landed back on the man before him.
"Freight train, three hours." he announced, met with despair. Weeping, the man stumbled out of sight.
The Oracle turned back to the podium where I stood giddily
"So..." he began. "I have nothing to tell you."
"Come again?" I said, bewildered.
"Dave Pilgrett, 25, you will trip over the stairs on your way out, then you'll take a taxi home and your roommate - Henry - will be asleep on the floor. On your death, I have nothing to tell you. Sorry." he added, as I fumbled through words, mortified.
After glancing at the queue behind (or lack there of) I opened my mouth to ask the Oracle more questions.
"Please, don't," he whined. "I've told you everything of meaning. If you need to ask questions, think on it, and come back tomorrow."
*(I know it's short, but I've got a bit of writer's block right now. Ima come back later.)* | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | Harp music in the background met an abrupt end after the oracle spoke. Every priestess in the temple stared at her, unsure of how to react. Their training had imbued them with a strong sense of discipline, but they weren't prepared to hear that answer.
The oracle waved at a guard to usher me out of the room. My shock hadn't worn off yet. I didn't even want to come here. Knowing how you were going to die was useless if you couldn't change it. That didn't make me any less angry, though. I didn't spend weeks traveling to this temple, offering my family's best sheep as tribute, only to get rejected when I got my audience.
"This is a scam!" I shouted.
The oracle shrugged.
The guard started pulling me away.
I couldn't believe people valued this crap. Everyone in my village pressured me into visiting this temple, like I was some sort of heretic for wanting to live in peace. It didn't make any sense. Prophecies forced people into living like slaves, not because fate was a tangible entity, but because it made everyone think they no longer had a choice.
A man who was told he would die in battle would go to war to meet his destiny. A woman who was told she would die during childbirth would accept the price of her pregnancy. For some reason, these individuals found meaning in an unquestionable end. Uncertainty terrified them. Why didn't anyone oppose this?
I slipped out of the guard's hold and lunged at the oracle.
Another guard tackled me before I could reach her.
The oracle didn't react.
I snarled, demanding an explanation.
To my surprise, the oracle answered:
"Those who oppose fate don't get pity from me."
That was the last thing I heard before getting thrown out of the temple. My embarrassment only grew when word of my outburst reached my village. Nobody wanted to deal with me. Not even my family. Eventually, I was forced to leave my home in order to prevent them more shame.
I didn't mind it. After a lot of reflection, I realized that uncertainty had freed my shackles. I'd been raised from birth to live a humble life as a farmhand. I couldn't do that anymore so my future was open to whatever my heart desired.
Unfortunately, I didn't really know what my heart desired. For those first few months, the only thing I could do was travel from place to place, doing odd jobs anywhere I could to prevent hunger. I never stayed too long in any one place. My circumstances were hard to explain and anyone who learned about them would never see me the same way. They acted like uncertainty was contagious or something. Most were kind, although hesitant to relate to me.
One day, while nearing a wooden bridge across a deep valley, I stumbled upon a man who violently trembled at its threshold. Every time he tried to cross it, he only got a few steps in before turning around and whimpering outside, cursing his cowardice. I couldn't help but ask what bothered him, to which he replied:
"I don't want to die!"
"I'm pretty sure everyone thinks the same."
"You don't get it!" The man sighed. "I'm supposed to deliver a letter but I'm fated to die in a collapsing bridge."
"Ahhh, I see. Have you considered not doing it?"
The man wrinkled his face, appalled. "Of course not!"
"Couldn't they find someone else to deliver it?"
The man hung his head. "I tried, but my master didn't listen. He told me the letter was more important than my life."
"That doesn't sound like someone who deserves your loyalty."
"But it's my destiny. It's not their fault I have to face it."
"Did the prophecy mention this bridge in particular?"
"Not really..."
"Did it specify it'd be today?"
"No..."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Any bridge is a threat to me! I've avoided them for a decade and now..." The man stared down the ravine. "...I have to confront it."
I couldn't help but pity him. The man was torn between duty and self-preservation. Between fate and freedom. He didn't just blindly walk towards his doom. He questioned it as much as he could. In a way, he fought his fate just like I did. The fact that he felt compelled to do this in order to fulfill his purpose aroused the same anger I felt when I got kicked out of the temple. The man was robbed of all choice. Unless... I gave him a way out.
"Could I deliver it for you?"
The man narrowed his eyes. "You'd do that for me?"
"Sure. I don't have a current destination."
"But... why?"
"I understand your struggle. You shouldn't be forced to die here."
"I mean, how can I trust you?"
"If you die on this bridge, the letter won't get delivered anyways, right?"
The man slowly nodded. "Yeah... you're right." He tensed up. "B-but I still have my prophecy. It's not like I can escape it."
"I don't think you believe that."
"What do you mean?"
"Why would you avoid all bridges if you didn't think you could change it?"
"Huh... I guess I never saw it that way."
The man handed me the letter and explained where I had to go. It was a lord's estate, far from these mountains. The man said it would take a while to reach. I wasn't familiar with the region so I'd never heard of the place. The path wasn't complicated, though. Villagers pointed me in the right direction whenever I reached a new town. Along the way, I started to develop a new purpose for myself. If people were trapped by their prophecy, I would make it my mission to give them a choice.
That was easier said than done, though. My new ideal was put to the test when I found a woman drowning in a river. The pouring rain had created a flash flood that swept her away. She clung to a rock, but her grip kept getting looser by the second. All of her friends stared on in terror. No one dared jump in to save her. I asked them what was wrong, and they told me that Jenny, the woman drowning, was fated to die that way. Nobody wanted to intervene despite the fact that she struggled for her life.
I dived into the river without a second thought. These people disgusted me. If they knew they weren't dying today, they had no excuse to leave her like that. Someone had to *try*. I swam towards Jenny until the current threw me against another rock. The pain dazed me for a second. I was bleeding but I recovered in time to get close to her.
Jenny continued pleading for help. She didn't notice me so her flailing made her hard to approach. I tried grabbing her, but that only made her panic more, thinking that some creature had caught her.
At that point, we were both drowning.
I still lifted her as much as I could after noticing me. She wasn't going to die in my arms. Even if it meant I had to sacrifice myself.
The river swelled with another violent current.
We lost our grip and the water carried us away. I saw the onlookers get farther away, all widening their eyes with horror.
A large tree branch fell near to us. I held on to it, but that only pulled it further into the river. It wasn't until an onlooker grabbed the other end of the branch that we were safe. We were drawn into the river bank when others started aiding him.
After that, Jenny's family gave me shelter for a few days. I needed rest for my injuries. The family was more than grateful. For the first time in my life, I encountered people who didn't judge me for fighting a prophecy. It made sense. They didn't want their daughter to die now, even if she would still drown at a later date.
My journey kept getting interrupted by these events. Little by little, I saved as many people as I could. Some resented me for it, but I didn't care. Gratitude wasn't my objective. I grew bolder with my words, challenging anyone's belief in prophecy whenever they brought it up. After half a year of travel, I had a reputation that followed me wherever I went. They called me 'the hero with no fate', a name I didn't enjoy because of how grandiose it sounded.
It gave the impression that I was special, when I wanted to communicate the opposite. Anyone could fight their destiny if they chose to. Putting me on a pedestal only made it feel like I was the only one capable of doing it.
When I made it to the lord's estate, the people there were already familiar with me. Some guards were hesitant to let me inside. The letter I carried was sealed with wax, bearing the insignia of a noble family, so its authority was enough to grant me an audience with Lord Mish, the ruler of this region. They had to let me enter.
The lord's retinue wasn't thrilled with my presence. I was considered a destabilizing presence, since people throughout this land were beginning to act with less regard for their prophecies as they heard more and more about me. Lord Mish entered the meeting room and sat on his chair with a neutral expression. A blasé attitude common to these noble types.
I handed the letter to him, just as requested.
"And you work for the Heartsmith family?" asked Lord Mish.
"No, I'm merely doing a favor for someone."
"I suppose you did it to spare them from their fate, right?"
"Somewhat, yes."
Lord Mish studied me for a bit and nodded. "I don't know what to do with you."
I swallowed. "How so?"
"The peasants are taking more liberties than they should. Some believe that if their destiny is malleable, then other things are malleable as well. Like their class."
I glanced behind me. Guards blocked the exit. I tried my best to hide my fear.
"In fact, my adviser here, a priestess of the oracle, recommends that I execute you."
My shoulders tensed up.
Lord Mish leaned forward, hardening his expression. "Why shouldn't I do it?"
"Because... if fate is so strong, it shouldn't be afraid of being opposed. The same goes for any king or lord."
Lord Mish raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling me weak?"
"Only if you prove me right."
"Heresy!" shouted the priestess. "It's the ultimate hubris to question gifts from the divines."
Lord Mish walked out of the room without looking at me again. The guards circled around me and arrested me. I was locked in the dungeon, waiting for my public execution in a week. | The man in front of me looked up hopefully to the desk. the Oracle seemed to ponder something before his eyes landed back on the man before him.
"Freight train, three hours." he announced, met with despair. Weeping, the man stumbled out of sight.
The Oracle turned back to the podium where I stood giddily
"So..." he began. "I have nothing to tell you."
"Come again?" I said, bewildered.
"Dave Pilgrett, 25, you will trip over the stairs on your way out, then you'll take a taxi home and your roommate - Henry - will be asleep on the floor. On your death, I have nothing to tell you. Sorry." he added, as I fumbled through words, mortified.
After glancing at the queue behind (or lack there of) I opened my mouth to ask the Oracle more questions.
"Please, don't," he whined. "I've told you everything of meaning. If you need to ask questions, think on it, and come back tomorrow."
*(I know it's short, but I've got a bit of writer's block right now. Ima come back later.)* | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | From the first day of a Protector's life, they exist for one purpose: defend the Oracle. They are hardened as warriors, sharpened as scholars, and deployed as guard to the most cherished being in the land. No one knows where she came from, how long she's been alive, or if she will die, and the Protectors ensure that the world will never be without her.
The lifting of the veil to one's own death can be an enraging, if not enlightening, experience. Many refuse to believe and leave back down the mountain cursing her name; others lash out and, occasionally, it is required for a Protector to drag them from her sight. Few assassinations have been attempted, all by those too young to have heard their fate—all killed by Protectors.
As the rising sun kissed the mountain's peak, a new arrival made his way through the Oracle's temple. She was resting in a nest of pillows, her hair flowing out like storm clouds, and her young Protector stood at her side. The man who'd come to find his fate eyed her with curious disdain, his feet shaky beneath him.
Before he'd reached them, the Oracle whispered to her guard, "Would you kill for me, Protector?"
"Yes, Oracle," It was the only answer he ever gave her.
When the newcomer was a few feet away, he kneeled and spoke, "Oracle, I've come to know my fate."
"And I have nothing to tell you," the Oracle responded. Her guest stirred, the Protector mirroring his twitch.
"What do you mean? You *have* nothing to tell me?" he rose to his feet, throwing out his arms. "Or you simply *won't* tell me?"
The Oracle seemed unconcerned, running her hands through endless strands of hair. "I simply have nothing to tell you."
"My father says that the Oracle *must* tell us our fates," he stepped forward a stride. "That you are servant to men!"
"Is your father the Oracle, or am I?"
The man seemed appalled by the question, hurling saliva as he screeched, "It is my birthright to know—"
"Leave, and go in peace."
When the man lunged at her, she hadn't flinched. The knives were brandished, piercing the air towards her chest, but she sat unmoving. Her Protector had to travel double the space of her attempted murderer, and so he did—as quick as the morning light.
They both fell to the ground, attacker and Protector, a knife protruding from each of their bodies.
Rising from her pillows with no more urgency than if she had just returned to the world from a nap, she drifted over to the man who'd tried to take her life. Blood erupted from his mouth as he stared up at her, gargled words fleeing his lips and forming no meaning.
"You die here and now," she said. "This is your fate."
Without another thought spared for the attacker, she turned and knelt beside her Protector, running a hand over his bare head. Blood also spilled from his mouth, filling the creases of his smile, but he did not speak.
"Would you die for me, Protector?" she whispered, putting a finger to her lips.
He nodded his head, it was the only answer he ever gave her.
____
**Thanks for reading. Sub to /r/BeagleTales for daily sacrifices to the Oracle** | The man in front of me looked up hopefully to the desk. the Oracle seemed to ponder something before his eyes landed back on the man before him.
"Freight train, three hours." he announced, met with despair. Weeping, the man stumbled out of sight.
The Oracle turned back to the podium where I stood giddily
"So..." he began. "I have nothing to tell you."
"Come again?" I said, bewildered.
"Dave Pilgrett, 25, you will trip over the stairs on your way out, then you'll take a taxi home and your roommate - Henry - will be asleep on the floor. On your death, I have nothing to tell you. Sorry." he added, as I fumbled through words, mortified.
After glancing at the queue behind (or lack there of) I opened my mouth to ask the Oracle more questions.
"Please, don't," he whined. "I've told you everything of meaning. If you need to ask questions, think on it, and come back tomorrow."
*(I know it's short, but I've got a bit of writer's block right now. Ima come back later.)* | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | You approach the oracle on her dais. "What do you mean?"
She smiles simply saying, "I have nothing to tell you. It is quite plain in it's meaning."
This has never happened before. Every living person who stood before was given a glimpse into their death. It was seen as a rite of passage and maturity. And here you were being denied!
"Why? Are you denying me or are you now blinded?"
"I have nothing to tell you about your future death. Tell me, do you fear Death?"
"All men fear death. They tremble at the unknown as if it were stalking them. They fight for every inch of life they can get, knowing the inevitable will come. Somewhere in the back of their minds, they hope they find the way to cheat it. Alchemy. Exotic medicines. Sorcery. You ask as if you do not know these things."
Again she smiled. "I know these things full and well. I know my death will come some day. I know how people see their deaths. But," with her smile turning into a smirk, "you did not answer my question. Do *you* fear Death?"
You pause. "No." You shake your head sadly. "I've seen what the fear of death does to people. But death is not the enemy. We live because animals die. Animals live because plants die. Plants grow from ground fertilized by the dead. No, I do not *fear* death because it is part of life."
And she smiled again. "And that is why I cannot tell you of your future death. You do not fear it. All men say they fear death, but in truth, they fear life! Living on eternally, endlessly pursuing their struggles. Hearing that they have an end gives them peace. Knowing that one day, the pains they experience in this world will end."
She approaches you, solemnly. "But you have no more pain, do you? That limp from where a bull hit you as a child? The taut scars on your shoulder from the fire? Did you truly not notice they were gone? That you're free from pain?"
You realize her words now. "You can't tell me of my *future* death you said. You mean..."
"Go in peace and let your soul rest. Your journey here took its final toll. Death will come for you and, for once, will be happy someone does not fear him." | The man in front of me looked up hopefully to the desk. the Oracle seemed to ponder something before his eyes landed back on the man before him.
"Freight train, three hours." he announced, met with despair. Weeping, the man stumbled out of sight.
The Oracle turned back to the podium where I stood giddily
"So..." he began. "I have nothing to tell you."
"Come again?" I said, bewildered.
"Dave Pilgrett, 25, you will trip over the stairs on your way out, then you'll take a taxi home and your roommate - Henry - will be asleep on the floor. On your death, I have nothing to tell you. Sorry." he added, as I fumbled through words, mortified.
After glancing at the queue behind (or lack there of) I opened my mouth to ask the Oracle more questions.
"Please, don't," he whined. "I've told you everything of meaning. If you need to ask questions, think on it, and come back tomorrow."
*(I know it's short, but I've got a bit of writer's block right now. Ima come back later.)* | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." |
I walk into the room. There, in front of me, is an tired elderly woman with milky-white eyes and long grey hair reaching down to her hips, sitting cross-legged before a large brazier filled with green fire. I have never actually seen her in person before, but I can tell at once that she is the Oracle. Her acolytes, who are also quite elderely, surround the circular room, looking at me expectantly. “Approach, Damarion, and learn your fate,” she calls out in a horse voice.
I swallow nervously and move forward to kneel next to the fire. For nearly a century now, people from my village have been travelling to the Oracle once they reach the age of eighteen to learn about the nature of their death. Not everyone believes in the Oracle, of course. My brother didn’t. He laughed when the Oracle predicted that a turtle would kill him. And yet I noticed that after that day, he never again visited or travelled over the ocean. Not that it saved him though. One day, a heavy storm came through our country and a turtle came flying right through our roof, bashing in my brother’s head. The Oracle’s predictions always come true, whether you choose to believe them or not.
She stares at me for a few moments, breathing in the fumes, while I shift uncomfortably. Then, she hands out a dagger to me. “Place your blood into the fire, Damarion.”
I take the dagger with trembling hands and with one swift stroke, I cut a gash across the palm of my right hand. Wincing in pain, I watch as the blood drips down into the fire. The green flames suddenly turn a bright white, and I hear several of the acolytes gasp in shock.
I look around awkwardly. “Umm...what does that say about my death?” I ask, breaking the tense silence.
The Oracle stares at me. She’s much more alert than she was before. “I have nothing to tell you.”
I stare back at her, slackjawed. “You’re not saying… I’m immortal?”
She lets out a low laugh, but there’s no joy in it. “No one in this world is truly immortal. But you are special, Damarion. Of all the thousands of people I have seen, I have encountered less than five that share your special gift. The key to longevity exists deep within your blood.” There’s a hungry expression in her eyes that unsettles me. She makes a strange gesture with her hand that I don’t recognize.
I open my mouth to speak. “What do you --”
Before I can say another word, I feel myself being pulled backward and knocked over onto the ground. Stunned, I try to sit up, only to see several acolytes already binding me with rope. “What the hell are you doing?!” I scream out, desperately flailing out with my arms and legs.
I look back at the Oracle. Her eyes are cold now. “Place him downstairs with the others and begin the extraction.” | The man in front of me looked up hopefully to the desk. the Oracle seemed to ponder something before his eyes landed back on the man before him.
"Freight train, three hours." he announced, met with despair. Weeping, the man stumbled out of sight.
The Oracle turned back to the podium where I stood giddily
"So..." he began. "I have nothing to tell you."
"Come again?" I said, bewildered.
"Dave Pilgrett, 25, you will trip over the stairs on your way out, then you'll take a taxi home and your roommate - Henry - will be asleep on the floor. On your death, I have nothing to tell you. Sorry." he added, as I fumbled through words, mortified.
After glancing at the queue behind (or lack there of) I opened my mouth to ask the Oracle more questions.
"Please, don't," he whined. "I've told you everything of meaning. If you need to ask questions, think on it, and come back tomorrow."
*(I know it's short, but I've got a bit of writer's block right now. Ima come back later.)* | |
[WP] Once people reach a certain age, it is tradition to visit the Oracle and be told by it the way they'll die, and all of it's predictions have been 100% correct. As you finally face it yourself, the Oracle proclaims something completely unheard of before: "I have nothing to tell you." | You approach the oracle on her dais. "What do you mean?"
She smiles simply saying, "I have nothing to tell you. It is quite plain in it's meaning."
This has never happened before. Every living person who stood before was given a glimpse into their death. It was seen as a rite of passage and maturity. And here you were being denied!
"Why? Are you denying me or are you now blinded?"
"I have nothing to tell you about your future death. Tell me, do you fear Death?"
"All men fear death. They tremble at the unknown as if it were stalking them. They fight for every inch of life they can get, knowing the inevitable will come. Somewhere in the back of their minds, they hope they find the way to cheat it. Alchemy. Exotic medicines. Sorcery. You ask as if you do not know these things."
Again she smiled. "I know these things full and well. I know my death will come some day. I know how people see their deaths. But," with her smile turning into a smirk, "you did not answer my question. Do *you* fear Death?"
You pause. "No." You shake your head sadly. "I've seen what the fear of death does to people. But death is not the enemy. We live because animals die. Animals live because plants die. Plants grow from ground fertilized by the dead. No, I do not *fear* death because it is part of life."
And she smiled again. "And that is why I cannot tell you of your future death. You do not fear it. All men say they fear death, but in truth, they fear life! Living on eternally, endlessly pursuing their struggles. Hearing that they have an end gives them peace. Knowing that one day, the pains they experience in this world will end."
She approaches you, solemnly. "But you have no more pain, do you? That limp from where a bull hit you as a child? The taut scars on your shoulder from the fire? Did you truly not notice they were gone? That you're free from pain?"
You realize her words now. "You can't tell me of my *future* death you said. You mean..."
"Go in peace and let your soul rest. Your journey here took its final toll. Death will come for you and, for once, will be happy someone does not fear him." | From the first day of a Protector's life, they exist for one purpose: defend the Oracle. They are hardened as warriors, sharpened as scholars, and deployed as guard to the most cherished being in the land. No one knows where she came from, how long she's been alive, or if she will die, and the Protectors ensure that the world will never be without her.
The lifting of the veil to one's own death can be an enraging, if not enlightening, experience. Many refuse to believe and leave back down the mountain cursing her name; others lash out and, occasionally, it is required for a Protector to drag them from her sight. Few assassinations have been attempted, all by those too young to have heard their fate—all killed by Protectors.
As the rising sun kissed the mountain's peak, a new arrival made his way through the Oracle's temple. She was resting in a nest of pillows, her hair flowing out like storm clouds, and her young Protector stood at her side. The man who'd come to find his fate eyed her with curious disdain, his feet shaky beneath him.
Before he'd reached them, the Oracle whispered to her guard, "Would you kill for me, Protector?"
"Yes, Oracle," It was the only answer he ever gave her.
When the newcomer was a few feet away, he kneeled and spoke, "Oracle, I've come to know my fate."
"And I have nothing to tell you," the Oracle responded. Her guest stirred, the Protector mirroring his twitch.
"What do you mean? You *have* nothing to tell me?" he rose to his feet, throwing out his arms. "Or you simply *won't* tell me?"
The Oracle seemed unconcerned, running her hands through endless strands of hair. "I simply have nothing to tell you."
"My father says that the Oracle *must* tell us our fates," he stepped forward a stride. "That you are servant to men!"
"Is your father the Oracle, or am I?"
The man seemed appalled by the question, hurling saliva as he screeched, "It is my birthright to know—"
"Leave, and go in peace."
When the man lunged at her, she hadn't flinched. The knives were brandished, piercing the air towards her chest, but she sat unmoving. Her Protector had to travel double the space of her attempted murderer, and so he did—as quick as the morning light.
They both fell to the ground, attacker and Protector, a knife protruding from each of their bodies.
Rising from her pillows with no more urgency than if she had just returned to the world from a nap, she drifted over to the man who'd tried to take her life. Blood erupted from his mouth as he stared up at her, gargled words fleeing his lips and forming no meaning.
"You die here and now," she said. "This is your fate."
Without another thought spared for the attacker, she turned and knelt beside her Protector, running a hand over his bare head. Blood also spilled from his mouth, filling the creases of his smile, but he did not speak.
"Would you die for me, Protector?" she whispered, putting a finger to her lips.
He nodded his head, it was the only answer he ever gave her.
____
**Thanks for reading. Sub to /r/BeagleTales for daily sacrifices to the Oracle** | |
[WP] You are part of an elite team working for MI6 known as the 00(double Os). The most famous is code name James Bond 007, whose job it is to draw as much attention to himself as possible. Tell us about 001 to 009. |
They were the best of the best.
001 was whiplash smart and could solve even the trickiest of puzzles. A strategic mastermind, she was the leader, always in control. As all truly good leaders do, she put her team before herself.
002 never missed a shot. He could take down the most well protected target in the world, and never be caught. His only commitment was to his team, and he would do whatever it took to keep them safe.
003 was the smooth talker. No one could resist their honeyed words and sugar sweet compliments. It was something about their face that made people want to tell them everything. But they never knew when to stop.
004 was the tech guy. Anything you wanted, he could make in a matter of weeks, maybe even days depending on the request. Code came as easily to him as English, maybe easier. Maybe that was the problem, in the end.
005 was the linguist. She could translate more than 39 languages and spoke fluently in 23. She understood everything. She understood too much.
006 was the chemical engineer. Logic was her strength. Formulas made more sense than people, but she could still manipulate people the same way she manipulated elements. She always took the most logical path. Always.
007 was the one everyone knew about. He was flashy and bright and EVERYWHERE. He became a myth, a legend, so that no one would ever discover the truth behind the numbers.
008 was a master of disguise. She blended in as easily as breathing. Eyes would pass over her face and never register she was there. She was invisible to everyone, except one.
009 was the clean up. He made sure the others were never found out, never caught, never known. Without him, they’d be dead a hundred times over. With him, they’re dead only once, leaving only him alive to clean up their mess once and for all. | Aspect of your service is to arbitrary archive the history of our 00 program.
Please note that 007s history is made public for our protection of our other agents within the program. 007 is known as James Bond. And is passed to father to son and sometimes orphans. They all I’ve been James Bond and that’s enough of that.
The double 0 program was started during World War I as part of the war Office. To test insecurities of other programs.
Is it meant to be known 001 it’s mostly a tester of programs and back door security as it has changed over the years from physical to cyber security once in while 001 will go and actually go at the field and physically test. Q branch loves them for 001 also test locations prior to new q branch set ups. The name knows to the 001 is James or Jasmine Smith.
As you are here the 002 code as you are known as the archive. There is a good reason for this you were changed with doctoring the past and sensitive information usually this would go and get you popped in jail. After today you’re going to be known as Earl gray we know that most of the 00’s are tea names as part of the security the only exemption is number seven to be known across the world.
003. Known as the ghost. This person could go and sneak in anywhere in through anything. There are no known examples and any history of complete Infiltration. Knowledge of the name is expunged. Commonly referenced as butterfly pea Flower tea.
004 explosions expert I’ll be trained in the art of exploding anything and any type of surface. Commonly known as gunpowder.
005 the mechanic. if you are needing anything fixed make sure it is secured first. Arthur Bishop.
006 the transporter. if you ever need something moved in a hurry ask for Frank Martin jr.
008 expunged i have no knowledge of who this is.
me im 009 the master.... | |
[WP] You are part of an elite team working for MI6 known as the 00(double Os). The most famous is code name James Bond 007, whose job it is to draw as much attention to himself as possible. Tell us about 001 to 009. | My bare feet scrape along the coarse concrete as I’m dragged by the arms like a marionette. All I see is the darkness of this putrid black hood. I can hear some kind of heavy machinery clank and grind and crash. I’m trying not to imagine what they’ll do to me. I feel stairs knock against my feet and knees as we go up. They open a door, throw me against a stiff pole, and chain me to it. I hear them walking away from me and towards the door, followed by it squealing shut. After a moment of silence, I try to get my hands free. My watch knocks against the pole as I struggle. I can still hear the machines, although they’re muffled through the walls.
Neglected hinges groan as the door opens. Someone marches toward me. My heart races as I hear that all too familiar metal chachink. He’s racked the slide of his pistol. My breathing is wild, like a near-drowned man taking breaths he never thought he’d have. I wince as the brute’s hand rips the hood off my face. I can barely see anything. But I can’t miss the lanky, mullet headed thug to my left who’s pointing his gun at my head.
There’s a dark haired woman by the door, just barely visible in the dim room. Mullet man looks over at her, likely expecting an order to kill me. She waves him off, then he holsters his gun and leans against the near wall. She steps closer, and I can see her powerful blue eyes. Fierce eyes, yet beautiful beyond compare. She grins like a lioness ready to pounce.
“So. You’re Spyglass.” She spoke with a soothing, British accent. “You are a difficult man to find”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her face turns serious.
“Alright, then let’s use your real name.” She snaps her fingers, and Mullet man hands her a binder. She opens it and paces back and forth.
“Don Brennokovic. Age 27. Born in London. Family moved to Chicago when you were twelve. Married your High School sweetheart Bianca, who is with child. Congratulations by the way.” She turns the page. “You own a lovely house on the corner of Wall avenue and Kirk lane. Your parents live twenty min-“ I grit my teeth and growl.
“Alright fine! I’m Spyglass. Happy?” She smirks as she closes the binder.
“Quite!” She pulls up a metal chair that creaks as she sits in front of me. I hang my head and turn to avoid her gaze. She caresses my cheek, then turns my face toward her. “You are going to help me make my employer very happy.”
“Oh I don’t think s-“ Mullet man drives his fist into the side of my head, then steps back.
“Don, I need you to take this seriously. There are a lot of lives at stake.” She stands up and sets the binder in the chair. “Believe me when I say that the world depends on how you answer my questions.” I can feel a fire growing in my chest, and I felt that rage twist my face.
“You brought me here and had me beaten, all so I could answer a few questions!? I’m an information broker, I answer questions for a living. Why not just ask? Even the Cartels wouldn’t dare do this!” She furrowed her brow, as if my anger was contagious. Then raised her voice.
“Cut the bullshit! We know you’re more than just an information broker. You’ve done wetwork for the British Government, and spied on their enemies and allies alike.” She looks ready to tear out my jugular, but she turns and takes a deep breath. “None of that is why we are here.” She turns to face me, as cool and collected as before. “We’re here because you have detailed information on MI6’s Double-O agents.” A sudden realization hit me like a truck. *James is at it again.* I smirked.
“You want to know about Bond? *The* James Bond.” She shakes her head.
“No. We know about Bond. My employer has dealt with him before.” She sits in the creaky chair. “I want to know about the others.”
“Others?” Mullet man’s fist smashes into my jaw. Then I spit blood on the ground. “Oh. *Those others.*” She snaps her fingers, and Mullet man gives her a different binder.
“I want you to tell me about those who work in the shadows left by the spotlight shone upon 007.” I sighed.
“What do you want to know?” She took a recording device, and held it toward me.
“I want to know their names, how they operate, and how we can contact them.” I looked over at Mullet man. I’ve seen pencils that were thicker than him. I tap my watch, but I worry he’ll hear it before it’s done.
“Then have the angry mullet bring me some water.” She looks at him and nods. He snorts and hands over a bottle of water. She pours some in my mouth, and I let out a relieved sigh. Then she speaks.
“Alright. So let's start with 001.” My throat tightens like it’s in a vice.
“Only name I have is Morgan Fleming, no idea if it’s real. I’ve never dealt directly with them, but let’s just say their license to kill doesn’t go to waste.”
“Them?” The chains rattle as I shrug my shoulders.
“I don’t know the gender. 001 spends most of the time deep undercover or behind a riflescope.” I glance around to make sure there aren’t any windows. I shudder. “Just thinking about him gives me the creeps”
“Focus!” She snaps. “Tell me about the others.”
“Right.” I clear my throat. “002, real name is Ben Finson. He may be the most dangerous one, and rarely uses his gun. He infiltrates criminal organizations, and rises to the highest levels. Then systematically tears them down from within. Usually by sowing distrust among leadership, and crippling them financially.” My face grew grim. ”But if he wants you dead, someone will kill you”
“Well, Mr. Finson is welcome to try. Who’s next?”
“003, Merrill Apost. She functions the most like 007, with one distinction. She has her own network of contacts and resources independent of MI6, and legally isn’t a British subject. Meaning they aren’t responsible for her actions.”
“Apost?” She looks over at Mullet man. “That name does sound familiar.” She turns back toward me. “Keep going.”
“Well, as for 004, 005, and 006. Henry Steele, Charles Gant, and Geoff Richards respectively. They are a three person team. All former S.A.S. with backgrounds in guerrilla warfare. They operate in more volatile parts of the world, and are capable of surviving indefinitely in enemy territory. They have toppled criminal organizations, and overthrown several government administrations.” Her eyes widen.
“Interesting. We’ve had dealings with them. Had no idea they were MI6.” My lip raised in a smirk.
“Well then you can thank Mr. Bond for that. 007 as you know, is the most famous operative by design. Everyone considers him the best covert agent in the world, he very well may be, but his most important role is as a smokescreen for the others.” I nod toward the bottle, and she pours some more water in my mouth. “Finally, there’s 008. Sheila Haverton. She operates as a fixer for several powerful politicians. This puts her in a position to prevent many threats before they ever present themselves.”
“What about 009?”
“009 doesn’t exist. Not officially anyway. The only people who know anything about him are M, and of course 009.” I shrug. “If he’s even real. Some believe he only ‘exists’ so their enemies worry about an operative that will never come. Very handy for seeing them squirm I’d imagine.” She nods.
“Very well then.” She tilts her head back as she drinks the water. “How do we contact them?
“First, I wanna know what you’ll do with me when we’re done here.” Her lip twitches as she smiles.
“You’ll be just fine. Provided what you’ve said is true.”
“Ms. Jenning. I wouldn’t be much of a broker if I sold false information.” She and Mullet man exchange nervous glances. Then she crosses her arms. “How do y-“
“I’ve been keeping tabs on you for some time Valerie.”A wry grin forms on my face. “How’s Liam?” She slams my head against the pole. Her face is the angriest I’ve seen yet.
“How do we contact these agents? I want to find them!” She yells as Mullet man draws his pistol and presses it to my head. 45 Caliber judging by barrel size.
“You’ll need my watch.” I smack it against the pole, shutting it off. She leers at Mullet man, and he pushes my head with his gun.
“He’s lyin’ miss! Les jus kill im an be dun wit it!”
“We’ll see. Take his watch.” She snaps. And he complies. He loosens the chains to get my watch, pulls it off my arm, and hands it to her. She inspects it carefully, looking over every detail of the old, metal watch. “How does it work?” I shift under the chains. Feeling the deep, hot cuts in them.
“Set the date to 32, then turn the time to 12 o’clock.” As she’s setting it. Mullet man notices me shifting, and sees the new cuts in the chains.
“Wait!” He cries out as she finishes setting the watch. I close my eyes as It explodes in a blinding flash of light. I break the chains, punch Mullet in the throat, and take his gun. I put two slugs in his chest, then turn to Ms. Jenning. She’s unconscious from the blast. I grab the recorder and binders then put them in a bag. Two muscle bound guards force the door open, and I put two rounds in each of them. I grab Ms. Jenning and put her over my shoulder, then rush through the door. I rush down the stairs, then duck into a hallway and follow it to a stairway leading up. It leads to the helipad on the roof, where I find a chopper guarded by five men. I lure one who’s smoking by the door, and pistol whip him. I take his lighter and tear off my shirt. Then wrap a couple bullets in it. I put on his shirt, ball cap, and sunglasses, then light the fabric and make my way to the Chopper with Ms. Jenning. The guards come up to me.
“What the hell is going on!?
“Jenning is down, the prisoner is coming through the door!” The bullets I set go off in the corridor where I came from.
“Get her out of here! Now!” The guard takes two of his men and heads for the door. I put Jenning in the passenger seat, then shoot the pilot. The guards fire at me, but I’m already in the air. I turn off the transponder and make for a safe house.
______
End Below | Aspect of your service is to arbitrary archive the history of our 00 program.
Please note that 007s history is made public for our protection of our other agents within the program. 007 is known as James Bond. And is passed to father to son and sometimes orphans. They all I’ve been James Bond and that’s enough of that.
The double 0 program was started during World War I as part of the war Office. To test insecurities of other programs.
Is it meant to be known 001 it’s mostly a tester of programs and back door security as it has changed over the years from physical to cyber security once in while 001 will go and actually go at the field and physically test. Q branch loves them for 001 also test locations prior to new q branch set ups. The name knows to the 001 is James or Jasmine Smith.
As you are here the 002 code as you are known as the archive. There is a good reason for this you were changed with doctoring the past and sensitive information usually this would go and get you popped in jail. After today you’re going to be known as Earl gray we know that most of the 00’s are tea names as part of the security the only exemption is number seven to be known across the world.
003. Known as the ghost. This person could go and sneak in anywhere in through anything. There are no known examples and any history of complete Infiltration. Knowledge of the name is expunged. Commonly referenced as butterfly pea Flower tea.
004 explosions expert I’ll be trained in the art of exploding anything and any type of surface. Commonly known as gunpowder.
005 the mechanic. if you are needing anything fixed make sure it is secured first. Arthur Bishop.
006 the transporter. if you ever need something moved in a hurry ask for Frank Martin jr.
008 expunged i have no knowledge of who this is.
me im 009 the master.... | |
[WP] You are part of an elite team working for MI6 known as the 00(double Os). The most famous is code name James Bond 007, whose job it is to draw as much attention to himself as possible. Tell us about 001 to 009. | It was a gloriously ordinary day. The subtle background of the train clacking along its rails, a muted sun failing to pierce the clouded skies, and a faint roar of an engine somewhere in the distance along a dusty road.
I imagined what James was up to at this point, and barely suppressed a smirk. Now wasn't the time to draw attention to myself.
My tea was still steaming next to my rather mundane briefcase. The dining car was modestly populated with a growing lunch crowd, and the schedule for the journey meant the local canyon would be visible soon.
The distant roar was slowly getting louder. Short staccato pops reverberated in the rocky terrain, like fireworks.
One particular gentleman accompanied by some shady fellows in ill-fitting suits was enjoying an impossibly rare steak. He was sharply dressed, clean cut, and wore a tight smile as he talked business with a nervous looking man across from him. It was hard to hear what was being said, but the frantic shuffling of paper over hushed tones painted a clear enough picture of a difficult conversation.
Recalling the photos on his dossier, that particular nervous man was undoubtedly Jeffery Hammond. Unlike the musician he happened to share the name with, Mr. Hammond was an accomplished accountant for one of the largest investment firms in the world. Officially, he was involved in managed a few modestly performing hedge funds. Unofficially, he was connected to several questionable characters and allegedly helped managed vast fortunes of multiple crime lords and at least one "supervillain". He shuffled papers in and out of his own rather mundane briefcase.
The sound of "fireworks" began to rise. What had been a muddy engine in the distance separated into the sounds of at least 3 dirt bikes...and an Aston Martin's engine at full throttle.
Right on time. I begin to stand up, gather my things, and leave enough to settle my bill.
A few things happened in short succession. The nearest ill-fitting suit put his finger to his earpiece, now visible as he turned around to try and pinpoint the commotion himself. His eyes grow wide, and he quickly leans in to his superior to whisper an interruption to the debate. The sharply dressed gentleman tightens his smile, excuses himself from the table, and curtly suggests to his guest that now would be a good time to return to his room. Passengers, hearing the din of noise outside, notice a cloud of dust from a nearby road running parallel to the tracks.
A crowd begins to form on the right side of the dining car as curious onlookers strain to see what's going on, oblivious to the fact that gunfire is being exchanged.
Discretely, the ill-fitting suits begin to reach for their weapons and head for the nearest observation car with a balcony. The sharply dressed gentleman pulls out his phone and begins to drop the smile as he talks.
Gunshots are clearly ringing out now. The crowd only grows.
Mr. Hammond, probably recognizing what's going on due to experience, frantically crams the documents he was showcasing into his briefcase. His health insurance is great, but it doesn't cover business trips for visits with this particular type of client. In his haste to exit and look out at what's going on at the same time, he rams shoulder-first into me. Our burdens clatter to the floor. I grimace at him; he only stares back, grabs up his belongings, and continues on his way with a small mutter of apologies.
It's at this point that the crowd screams. The Aston Martin, catching up to the train, now careens overhead, its metal undercarriage clearly visible in the skylight of the dining car. Dirt rains down behind it, small rocks leaving their own additions to the noise. Two of the dirt bikes trail behind it, all three forming a rather impressive arc in their jump over the train. The car hits the other side of the tracks hard, landing on the adjacent terrain as it finds a new road and guns the engine. Only one of the dirt bikes sticks the landing, but its enough to give chase.
Gunshots ring out, likely from the ill-fitting suits exiting earlier. Half the passengers around me are shocked into inaction, while the other half continue the screams and run for cover in adjacent parts of the train.
I make haste back to my own room, joining the throng.
Locking the door, I peer into "my" briefcase and look at my quarry. Crumpled ledgers showing where money was being shifted around. Account numbers. Balances well into the millions. Taking out my only real "gadget", a digital camera embedded in a pen, I dutifully snapshot every document I find. Everything MI6 would need to cripple this villain's empire.
There would be no secret cave lair in the middle of a volcano. There wouldn't be any budget for a flying blimp office with a trap door for executions. No henchmen (or women) would be fitted with all-metal teeth anytime soon. If this was all it was supposed to be, there would barely be enough for them to keep their staff at a skeleton crew for the next 3 months.
I opened my phone and setup a secure channel. "This is 003. I'm sending the documents now. We've got it all. Please give me regards to 007 for his help in the matter."
A gloriously ordinary, successful day. | Aspect of your service is to arbitrary archive the history of our 00 program.
Please note that 007s history is made public for our protection of our other agents within the program. 007 is known as James Bond. And is passed to father to son and sometimes orphans. They all I’ve been James Bond and that’s enough of that.
The double 0 program was started during World War I as part of the war Office. To test insecurities of other programs.
Is it meant to be known 001 it’s mostly a tester of programs and back door security as it has changed over the years from physical to cyber security once in while 001 will go and actually go at the field and physically test. Q branch loves them for 001 also test locations prior to new q branch set ups. The name knows to the 001 is James or Jasmine Smith.
As you are here the 002 code as you are known as the archive. There is a good reason for this you were changed with doctoring the past and sensitive information usually this would go and get you popped in jail. After today you’re going to be known as Earl gray we know that most of the 00’s are tea names as part of the security the only exemption is number seven to be known across the world.
003. Known as the ghost. This person could go and sneak in anywhere in through anything. There are no known examples and any history of complete Infiltration. Knowledge of the name is expunged. Commonly referenced as butterfly pea Flower tea.
004 explosions expert I’ll be trained in the art of exploding anything and any type of surface. Commonly known as gunpowder.
005 the mechanic. if you are needing anything fixed make sure it is secured first. Arthur Bishop.
006 the transporter. if you ever need something moved in a hurry ask for Frank Martin jr.
008 expunged i have no knowledge of who this is.
me im 009 the master.... | |
[WP] You are part of an elite team working for MI6 known as the 00(double Os). The most famous is code name James Bond 007, whose job it is to draw as much attention to himself as possible. Tell us about 001 to 009. | Contrary to popular belief, 00 classes of agents do not actually engage in espionage directly. We are more of support services and provide control over structures that make it easier for the United Kingdom to accomplish goals and create environments that are conducive to effective espionage.
007 is the keystone of overt operations. The purpose of the 007 position is not only to engineer foxhunts that occupy, distract, and expose adversary assets to observers; it is more importantly a position that allows real undercover agents to remain unexposed by creating a fake timeline of discovery and engagement when 007 pops up. Most 007 agents die. Most of them die quickly. Many of them do not know their true purpose. One of the key indicators of applicants for the position are traits consistent with personality disorders that are risk taking, reactionary, and chaotic. One of the key roles that 007 agents engage in is escalating conflicts through structured incompetence in order to bring secretive organizations to light to broader society and other stakeholders without revealing deep cover assets. It is quite hard to conceal secrets or accomplish covert missions in an environment where participants are in active percussive conflict.
As 006, I often provide support for 007 missions. I control the fake organizational structures that 007 agents believe are real that they are trained to reveal under torture. I recruit assets in countries and develop information systems that are plausible enough that their exposure will lead adversaries to believe that they have discovered real intelligence. In short, if the 007 is a fox, 006 is the bewilderbeast. I have other counterintelligence objectives, but I'd rather not talk about them. My work is made more difficult by the fact that I am legally insane.
I know very little about 001 through 004 other than that they pursue complicated objectives on long time horizons in largely peaceful arenas. Some of the greatest vulnerabilities that the United Kingdom has are in institutions that control global exchange, communications, social processes and rituals such as the legal system, and navigating the valuation of resources and the influence of the natural world on human systems. My brief interactions with 002 led me to reconsider a great many things on how I understand the world to work, uncovering my staggering ignorance in comparison to her stupefying brilliance. 004 is very likely the engineer behind bitcoin and would appear to have contacts throughout global financial institutions.
005 is somewhat like me, but tends to work more closely with 001-004. 005 provokes social developments and engineers situations that cause established structures to change how they behave. Currently, as I understand it, 005 is working on a project involving the ways that nation state intelligence agencies communicate with mercenaries and private security forces. There is a radicalization of law enforcement and intelligence that causes them to create informal relationships and structures that lead to the deaths of activists and repression of social movements globally. Massive amounts of money (from extractive industries mainly) are spent on propaganda that others and demonizes social movements in order to prevent changes that would hurt profitability. In furtherance of long term survivability and short term public health and global deconfliction goals, 005 is attempting to disrupt some sort of development that would prevent global adaptation to climate change.
Sometimes I work with 005 and 007 to disrupt extralegal networks that undermine legal systems as well as organized crime syndicates.
008 does boring, greasy, black ops shit. 008 smuggles weapons, trains and recruits informants and militias, and generally creates leverage points in areas of interest that provide flexibility in the future. 008 is a team player and has a very us vs them mentality. 008 is what 007 pretends to be.
009 used to have a different job description, but somehow ended up as the head of state in a warm country with ample natural resources and a pro-business outlook. 002 and 009 have a great deal of disagreements on grand strategy, but 009 has very friendly relations with the political classes of the UK and provides us with "regional flexibility" that is unmatched. I have worked with 009. I have nightmares about it sometimes. | Aspect of your service is to arbitrary archive the history of our 00 program.
Please note that 007s history is made public for our protection of our other agents within the program. 007 is known as James Bond. And is passed to father to son and sometimes orphans. They all I’ve been James Bond and that’s enough of that.
The double 0 program was started during World War I as part of the war Office. To test insecurities of other programs.
Is it meant to be known 001 it’s mostly a tester of programs and back door security as it has changed over the years from physical to cyber security once in while 001 will go and actually go at the field and physically test. Q branch loves them for 001 also test locations prior to new q branch set ups. The name knows to the 001 is James or Jasmine Smith.
As you are here the 002 code as you are known as the archive. There is a good reason for this you were changed with doctoring the past and sensitive information usually this would go and get you popped in jail. After today you’re going to be known as Earl gray we know that most of the 00’s are tea names as part of the security the only exemption is number seven to be known across the world.
003. Known as the ghost. This person could go and sneak in anywhere in through anything. There are no known examples and any history of complete Infiltration. Knowledge of the name is expunged. Commonly referenced as butterfly pea Flower tea.
004 explosions expert I’ll be trained in the art of exploding anything and any type of surface. Commonly known as gunpowder.
005 the mechanic. if you are needing anything fixed make sure it is secured first. Arthur Bishop.
006 the transporter. if you ever need something moved in a hurry ask for Frank Martin jr.
008 expunged i have no knowledge of who this is.
me im 009 the master.... |
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