Post by deatacita on Aug 1, 2014 7:53:38 GMT
Essentially, these are based on the fact that Humanity may not be as weak as we think we are. Sci-Fi seems teemed full of examples of Humanity being the weakling, or at best average in interstellar society. Here's a story. I've got a bunnnnnnch more of these if people like them
We had never been accepted, our species was a nuisance. We fought no great wars, invented no great technologies but we plyed the trade-lanes and traded anything and everything. The art of deal-making was inherent to my people, a process that we had learned and refined over the centuries, over the millenia. “Giving your word” was a concept foreign to us, you could not consume it, it was not holdable, not tangible. It wasn't wearable as a hat and it wasn't worth anything to us. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the galaxy had a different interpretation and we rapidly gained the titles of “Liers” and “Cheats”, we were a plague to the core-worlds and would be removed by force if we ever stepped foot on the precious worlds of other species. Those that did accept us, still looked up us with suspicion and outright malice. Weary of whatever 'trick' we were planning to do to them.
Humanity. Humans were a boon to us. Low technology primitives, they had only recently discovered to split the atom less than three centuries before. We ourselves were not the most advanced, lagging at least a century behind the galactic standard and hardly of interest to any other species. But Humanity marveled at us, willing to give up billions of 'tons' of resources for the smallest sample of our tech. And what we sold them was centuries old star-charts and primitive phase-drives. But to them, this was enough. The little monkeys had a talent. And that was improving anything they touched, from old phase drives they engineered drives matching and even exceeding our own. The rate of their expansion was staggering, matched only by those insect species in the core who had trillions, while the Humans only had a handful of billions. They had already established a colony on their fourth planet and the moons of several gas-giants in their system by the time we had arrived. But within decades, they had colonized a dozen systems and their rate of expansion was only increasing. This was a golden age for both of our worlds, a time of unparalleled cooperation and profit. They were our greatest friends, the only ones who truly accepted us. But they were as deceptive as we were, our greatest allies and our only worthy foes in the art of negotiation and trade.
But the golden age ended rapidly. Back in the core-worlds an alliance of Insectoid species under the Nutari had reached the end of the cluster, colonizing every world in their grasp. And they had stopped, looking around to find themselves surrounded by inhabitated worlds, with nothing left to take. They finally realized that the galaxy was finite and that conflict would come to their worlds eventually. They struck first, with every other insectoid species as allies. They did not require more colonies immediantly, and as such laid waste to every world that they encountered, utterly cleansed of life and given centuries to recover. Whole species vanished under their onslaught and trillions died in the flames of warfare.
Our worlds and Humanity did not become involved, insulated from the violence by dozens of light-years and a hundred empires. The core worlds held little interest for us and our 'pets'. Eventually, the alliance of core-worlds defeated the insepid Insectoid alliance. The Dourmot were absolutely essential to their victory, and thus they were given a massive slice of territory to replace their homeworlds which had burned in the Insectoid assault. Much to our chagrin, the worlds of us and our allies lay directly in the slice of space given to the Dourmot. Legally, we were squatters. With no legal claim to the worlds that our billions inhabited, but as previous said. The core cared little about us or our fate. Simply thinking that we would be easily swept away by a Dourmot fleet. We were given a single year to evactuate dozens of colonies of billions of souls. Not enough time, by far.
Our appeals to the council fell upon deaf ears, we had not assisted in the devastating war and they blamed us, saying that with our assistance they could've won years earlier. Despite the fact that no plea of aid ever fell upon our ears. After a single year passed, the Dourmot struck and obliterated our farthest ourpost, extinguishing the life of billions of our people.
We had no way of matching their martial prowess or advanced weaponry, we were not warriors. Suprisingly, Humanity offered their assistance. And we, with no other options. Accepted. We had no idea what horrors we were unleashing upon the galaxy, no idea what changes our actions would wrought. Human history was something we never payed attention to, we were not historians afterall, but perhaps we should've read it over. They had been waring against eachother for millenia and only recently had they even come close to 'united' in any meaningful use of the word. When we finally looked upon their history-books, what we saw shocked us. Too late, we had realized the plague we had released. Humanity was dedicated to the waging of war and though they may have temporarily forgotten their martial past, it was soon to be reawoken.
The initial attacks against the Dourmont were staggering, Humanity who before only had a small military now dedicated the entirety of their empire to the waging of war, the manufacture of weaponry and a number of other activities focused solely on sustaining a war-effort. For them, life took a pause as the gears of the war machine grinded once again. Humanity at first, probed the Dourmont. Which cost them dearly, but got them information that would be essential. They were outclassed, technologically. For every Dourmont war-cruiser lost, ten Human ships would perish. But the Humans had a simple solution, send twenty. Attrition became the weapon that Humanity wielded. Every human world, every human nation, every human male, female and child whether soldier or civilian would be dedicated to the war effort. Theirs was a sleeping fury, one the Dourmont would regret awakening.
The first 'real' offensives took a massive scope, even the insectoids could not match it in scale. Thousands of ships, millions of soldiers. And even these attacks shattered like waves upon an alien shore against the Dourmont armada. After a single year of lost battles, destroyed fleet and millions dead. We begged Humanity to cease their war, to allow us to suffer the punishment that we deserved. We could not stand to see them suffer for a species not their own, they refused. Unwilling to let us, those who wriggled the smallest concessions out of them for technology that was woefully out of date, lose what was ours. The rest of the war went much like that first battle, Humankind was defeated time and time again, they never suceeded in halting the Dourmont advance once and never pushed them off a single world.
But then, the Dourmont surrendered. The young upstarts that was Humanity taught the war-like Dourmont the meaning of Pyrrhic victory. This idea shocked us so extremely, our own allies had become more terrifying than the massive enemy they had just defeated.
Many expected for Humankind to visit the horrors that the Dourmont dispensed to them and us in-return to the beaten and battered Dourmont. Yes, the Human revenge was total. From the ruins, they built schools and roads, hospitals and sanitation plants. The Human engineers brought running water free of parasites to the Dourmont for the first time in living memory, dispensed inoculations against diseases the war-council had never bothered to cure. They wrought their revenge with words like democracy, freedom and botherhood, their revenge found it's way in the form of sentient rights and the most powerfully of all, forgiveness.
Their revenge was total, in a decade the children of Humanity and Dourmont hatchlings played in fields together outside of Human-build schools on the Dourmont homeworlds. The one concession they ringed from the Dourmont was their technology, rocketing them far beyond us and most species in the galaxy. And, to our suprise. This was shared openly with us, they submitted a motion for our admission to the council and rammed it down their throats. Who would oppose them? They had defeated the most advanced and effective military in the galaxy, and were still on a war footing. And then, they returned home. 'Beat their swords into plowshares' and with their new technology, became explorers once more. Now, they wander the stars. A silent warning plying the phase-lanes, a warning to all those who would waken the sleeping giant. And fill him with terrible resolve.
We had never been accepted, our species was a nuisance. We fought no great wars, invented no great technologies but we plyed the trade-lanes and traded anything and everything. The art of deal-making was inherent to my people, a process that we had learned and refined over the centuries, over the millenia. “Giving your word” was a concept foreign to us, you could not consume it, it was not holdable, not tangible. It wasn't wearable as a hat and it wasn't worth anything to us. Unfortunately for us, the rest of the galaxy had a different interpretation and we rapidly gained the titles of “Liers” and “Cheats”, we were a plague to the core-worlds and would be removed by force if we ever stepped foot on the precious worlds of other species. Those that did accept us, still looked up us with suspicion and outright malice. Weary of whatever 'trick' we were planning to do to them.
Humanity. Humans were a boon to us. Low technology primitives, they had only recently discovered to split the atom less than three centuries before. We ourselves were not the most advanced, lagging at least a century behind the galactic standard and hardly of interest to any other species. But Humanity marveled at us, willing to give up billions of 'tons' of resources for the smallest sample of our tech. And what we sold them was centuries old star-charts and primitive phase-drives. But to them, this was enough. The little monkeys had a talent. And that was improving anything they touched, from old phase drives they engineered drives matching and even exceeding our own. The rate of their expansion was staggering, matched only by those insect species in the core who had trillions, while the Humans only had a handful of billions. They had already established a colony on their fourth planet and the moons of several gas-giants in their system by the time we had arrived. But within decades, they had colonized a dozen systems and their rate of expansion was only increasing. This was a golden age for both of our worlds, a time of unparalleled cooperation and profit. They were our greatest friends, the only ones who truly accepted us. But they were as deceptive as we were, our greatest allies and our only worthy foes in the art of negotiation and trade.
But the golden age ended rapidly. Back in the core-worlds an alliance of Insectoid species under the Nutari had reached the end of the cluster, colonizing every world in their grasp. And they had stopped, looking around to find themselves surrounded by inhabitated worlds, with nothing left to take. They finally realized that the galaxy was finite and that conflict would come to their worlds eventually. They struck first, with every other insectoid species as allies. They did not require more colonies immediantly, and as such laid waste to every world that they encountered, utterly cleansed of life and given centuries to recover. Whole species vanished under their onslaught and trillions died in the flames of warfare.
Our worlds and Humanity did not become involved, insulated from the violence by dozens of light-years and a hundred empires. The core worlds held little interest for us and our 'pets'. Eventually, the alliance of core-worlds defeated the insepid Insectoid alliance. The Dourmot were absolutely essential to their victory, and thus they were given a massive slice of territory to replace their homeworlds which had burned in the Insectoid assault. Much to our chagrin, the worlds of us and our allies lay directly in the slice of space given to the Dourmot. Legally, we were squatters. With no legal claim to the worlds that our billions inhabited, but as previous said. The core cared little about us or our fate. Simply thinking that we would be easily swept away by a Dourmot fleet. We were given a single year to evactuate dozens of colonies of billions of souls. Not enough time, by far.
Our appeals to the council fell upon deaf ears, we had not assisted in the devastating war and they blamed us, saying that with our assistance they could've won years earlier. Despite the fact that no plea of aid ever fell upon our ears. After a single year passed, the Dourmot struck and obliterated our farthest ourpost, extinguishing the life of billions of our people.
We had no way of matching their martial prowess or advanced weaponry, we were not warriors. Suprisingly, Humanity offered their assistance. And we, with no other options. Accepted. We had no idea what horrors we were unleashing upon the galaxy, no idea what changes our actions would wrought. Human history was something we never payed attention to, we were not historians afterall, but perhaps we should've read it over. They had been waring against eachother for millenia and only recently had they even come close to 'united' in any meaningful use of the word. When we finally looked upon their history-books, what we saw shocked us. Too late, we had realized the plague we had released. Humanity was dedicated to the waging of war and though they may have temporarily forgotten their martial past, it was soon to be reawoken.
The initial attacks against the Dourmont were staggering, Humanity who before only had a small military now dedicated the entirety of their empire to the waging of war, the manufacture of weaponry and a number of other activities focused solely on sustaining a war-effort. For them, life took a pause as the gears of the war machine grinded once again. Humanity at first, probed the Dourmont. Which cost them dearly, but got them information that would be essential. They were outclassed, technologically. For every Dourmont war-cruiser lost, ten Human ships would perish. But the Humans had a simple solution, send twenty. Attrition became the weapon that Humanity wielded. Every human world, every human nation, every human male, female and child whether soldier or civilian would be dedicated to the war effort. Theirs was a sleeping fury, one the Dourmont would regret awakening.
The first 'real' offensives took a massive scope, even the insectoids could not match it in scale. Thousands of ships, millions of soldiers. And even these attacks shattered like waves upon an alien shore against the Dourmont armada. After a single year of lost battles, destroyed fleet and millions dead. We begged Humanity to cease their war, to allow us to suffer the punishment that we deserved. We could not stand to see them suffer for a species not their own, they refused. Unwilling to let us, those who wriggled the smallest concessions out of them for technology that was woefully out of date, lose what was ours. The rest of the war went much like that first battle, Humankind was defeated time and time again, they never suceeded in halting the Dourmont advance once and never pushed them off a single world.
But then, the Dourmont surrendered. The young upstarts that was Humanity taught the war-like Dourmont the meaning of Pyrrhic victory. This idea shocked us so extremely, our own allies had become more terrifying than the massive enemy they had just defeated.
Many expected for Humankind to visit the horrors that the Dourmont dispensed to them and us in-return to the beaten and battered Dourmont. Yes, the Human revenge was total. From the ruins, they built schools and roads, hospitals and sanitation plants. The Human engineers brought running water free of parasites to the Dourmont for the first time in living memory, dispensed inoculations against diseases the war-council had never bothered to cure. They wrought their revenge with words like democracy, freedom and botherhood, their revenge found it's way in the form of sentient rights and the most powerfully of all, forgiveness.
Their revenge was total, in a decade the children of Humanity and Dourmont hatchlings played in fields together outside of Human-build schools on the Dourmont homeworlds. The one concession they ringed from the Dourmont was their technology, rocketing them far beyond us and most species in the galaxy. And, to our suprise. This was shared openly with us, they submitted a motion for our admission to the council and rammed it down their throats. Who would oppose them? They had defeated the most advanced and effective military in the galaxy, and were still on a war footing. And then, they returned home. 'Beat their swords into plowshares' and with their new technology, became explorers once more. Now, they wander the stars. A silent warning plying the phase-lanes, a warning to all those who would waken the sleeping giant. And fill him with terrible resolve.
