by Aer-ki Jyr
“Clean capture is possible if handled carefully, but we won’t be in full control. Some idiot with a rocket launcher shooting at us could miss and hit civilians. That part we can never control.”
“Try to lock down as much stupidity like that as you can, but it’s our weaponsfire that I’m concerned about.”
“We won’t kill anyone that’s not shooting at us,” Kent promised.
“Can you capture the ones that are?”
“To a point, yes.”
“This has to be completely clean.”
“Then a direct assault isn’t the solution.”
“I sense a suggestion forming,” Davis noted sarcastically.
“‘Take them out’ can mean a lot of things. Define it more specifically.”
“Take possession of their countries.”
“To do that we have to acquire and hold select infrastructure, not battle their military. While that will happen if they choose to resist, if we can get to ground first and secure targets, it’ll be them attacking us, not the other way around.”
“Better, but that’s not a full solution if we’re having to shoot them down.”
“We won’t have to,” Kent said with a smirk.
“Explain to the kindergartener please.”
“We can take their personnel down with stingers easy enough, it’s their aircraft that are the problem. We disable them and they crash. But if we deploy shield generators and ward off their attacks long enough they’ll run out of ordinance and fuel. If we quietly take out their refueling capabilities we can neutralize them without having to destroy them.”
Davis smiled broadly. “That’s why I’m not an Archon. That never even occurred to me.”
“We’re both problem solvers. Your economic prowess surpasses ours.”
“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t count you guys out in any contest.”
“Wise.”
“Can you do this?”
“You mean without us becoming the bad guys? Yes, I can. But it will take a while to set up.”
“Tell me what you need.”
“I need a distraction…and an eyeball.”
Davis frowned, not sure what he was saying.
“Guess you haven’t seen that movie.”
“Apparently not. Which one?”
“The first Avengers.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America?”
“All in the same movie?”
“Yeah. Looks like you’ve got some homework to do.”
“Indeed,” Davis said, mentally adding the movie to his to-do list. The more Archon references he was aware of the better. “In the meantime, translation please?”
“None needed. It was a joke. I’ll have to assemble equipment and personnel to hit all sites simultaneously, even if we don’t end up handling it that way. That means a lot of recalls from outside Earth or using a handful of veterans along with a mass of rookies.”
“Can you get by with the personnel in this system?”
“More than enough, but getting them all here isn’t going to happen overnight, and I’m going to need target lists for each country, including up to date intelligence on their military units and locations.”
“A lot of prep work then?”
“When were you planning on letting them know?”
“The Word has been captured without public knowledge, so there’s no timetable to work off of. I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
“And what about the rest of the planet?”
“You had to pass a series of tests to become an Archon, and just about every other Star Force member has had to do the same. It’s time the nations of Earth had theirs.”
“And the independent colonies?”
“I’ll write up a protocol outlining the basic requirements of sovereignty that will apply to everyone. If a nation, colony, or faction doesn’t measure up they’ll forfeit back to Star Force. We’ll reorganize and fix the problem through some sort of arrangement or fully annex them. It’ll also provide a framework for splinter nations to gain legitimacy. You probably aren’t aware of the number of requests we get to recognize independence?”
“Not all of them, but I do know that a lot of loose colonies are out there.”
“We even get requests to declare a ship a sovereign nation. So many people are eager to create their own little empires without a clue to the responsibilities that entails. It’s time I laid it out for them.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”
“I guess I have been piecemeal, but I’ve been making one very large mistake that you’ve just opened my eyes to. I’ve been respecting the original group of nations as peers without treating them as such. Not one of them would be doing what it needed to without Star Force leverage, which a true peer would. That means we have no peers, just children to babysit. Children that I’ve been giving adult privileges to. They’ve had more than enough time to learn and grow, so now we test them. Those that pass will gain a level of freedom equal to their skills, with total anonymity reserved only for peers.”
“So we are taking over the planet,” Kent said with a satisfied smile.
“They won’t like it. And I’m pretty sure our allies aren’t going to be too keen on it either, but give them a route to full anonymity and a few of them might chase it. As for everyone else, they’re going to rant and rave about me having too much power…”
“Tough,” Kent summed up pithily.
“It’s amazing how simplistic you guys make everything.”
“These governments and people you’re worrying about are all kids that we’re protecting from the lizards and all other manner of threats. They get no say until they show some skill.”
“Would you like to give the speech?”
“My speeches often involve physical stimuli, so talking into a camera is somewhat limiting my communications capability.”
Davis shook his head slowly. “I sooo miss having you guys around.”
“Nothing like planning a global takeover to get the band back together,” Kent quipped. “This will also diminish the likelihood that another Word will rise up, won’t it?”
“That thought crossed my mind about two minutes ago. Yes, it will. They won’t have any more political holes to hide in. Until a nation reaches full sovereignty, if that ever happens, Star Force security will have a presence in all territories. That won’t guarantee an end to covert criminal organizations, but it will make it a lot harder for them to hide in the shadows.”
“We got lucky, didn’t we?”
“Sander?”
Kent nodded.
“Yeah we did,” Davis admitted. “The Word gambled everything on maintaining the security of a handful of leaders. Had Sander not turned and given us a thread to follow, it would have been virtually impossible for us to find them short of their making a mistake. Now, their gamble has allowed us to sweep them up rather easily without making us work for it, but given their position they made a strategically effective choice. Someone else could do so again.”
“Most of their facilities were on Earth, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Make them play on our turf and security will own their asses.”
“It’s not quite that simple, but you’re mostly accurate.”
Kent crossed his arms over his chest as he watched a dropship landing on a pad nearby, but out of sight behind several lower buildings. “Face it…if I wanted to bypass security and create a covert organization under your nose I could do it. It’s just a matter of finding the cracks.”
“But?”
“But the size of the crack matters. Eliminate all the big ones and there won’t be room to build an organization large enough to do what The Word did. And security can handle the little ones…in most cases. And you’ve got Archon teams for the others. Uniting Humanity will come with the added benefit of making a lot of lingering problems go away.”
“While ticking off a l
ot of people in the short term.”
“Just outlive the protestors,” the 430 year old Archon said dismissively.
“A common solution we seem to employ.”
“That or a stinger.”
“We also seem to use a lot of those. Tell me, how long is it going to be until we can abandon the paint?”
“When the techs get a superior weapon built. Right now stingers are more reliable…and familiar.”
“Still a far cry from what the V’kit’no’sat have at their disposal.”
“We don’t know what they’ve got now,” the Archon pointed out.
“That’s an even cheerier thought.”
“If we’re going to die, they’re going to have to do the killing, because we’re not falling on our sword. Focus on cleaning house and increasing our strength, then we’ll see what the future brings.”
“We should have done this a long time ago.”
“We’ve been busy,” Kent reminded him, “but yeah, we should have.”
Both men stood watching the flight traffic coming and going from Atlantis for a few seconds, with Davis content that they were making the right decision.
“Don’t call me Palpatine,” he warned.
“Wasn’t even thinking about it, Loki.”
“Who?”
“Watch the movie,” Kent said with a lingering smirk.
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