Retribution (Shaitan Wars)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  From Beta Shaitan the next hop was to World 12 or Alpha Shaitan. When the residents of Alpha Shaitan discovered the humans, they had reached the other end of realm of the dark gas giants. They had reached the Sun. The most interesting thing as far as the military planners and the politicians were concerned was the position at which Alpha Shaitan was at this very moment, when it had discovered the humans.

  The reason Alpha Shaitan had been settled two and a half million years ago, was because it was at the furthest point from the sun in its eccentric orbit (aphelion), in the direction of the Alpha Centauri system, but was close to World 11 or Beta Shaitan.

  During the ensuing two and a half million years, Alpha Shaitan has come close to the sun, very near its perihelion, but that also meant that it was on the opposite side of the sun away from the Alpha Centauri system. All the other Shaitan worlds were on the other side. There was no Shaitan world either close or on this end of Alpha Shaitan.

  Alpha Shaitan was on its own! No one was coming to the aid of this Shaitan world. If the other Shaitan worlds wanted to help, it would be faster for them to attack Earth itself. For now the campaign of Alpha Shaitan was safe from a counter attack. Humans could take their time to carve up the resources of this system!

  Chapter 22

  First human settlers

  Alpha Shaitan System

  2111

  It is generally acknowledged that the stalemate in the Alpha Shaitan campaign, which had ensued for almost a decade was broken with the arrival of the ‘Settler Marines’. Till that point of time, the human domination of the Alpha Shaitan system was dubious and fragile. The humans themselves clung on to life precariously, and the morale was slowly grinding down.

  The humans had absolute domination of space in the Alpha Shaitan system. There had been no Shaitan presence in space. Every moon of Alpha Shaitan was under human control, except Jehannum. That one moon made all the difference.

  The Shaitans may be contained on Jehannum, but it was their home and it had all the resources they needed. They could hold out on that moon forever. So what if every attempt of the Shaitans to launch anything into space had been shot down? Within Jehannum itself, their production bases were intact and they probably were growing stronger by the day, rebuilding whatever had been destroyed in the ‘shock and awe’ campaign and the following blitzkrieg.

  If Shaitans had to be defeated on Alpha Shaitan, then Jehannum had to be taken. It was easier said than done. Even if the humans wanted to destroy Jehannum from space, it would not be possible to do so. The entire moon was inhabited sometimes 2 Km below the surface. There were minimal installations on the surface and none that was critical to the Shaitans. All of them lived in the extensive tunnels and underground chambers that on an average was almost a Km below the surface.

  Nukes would just not be an effective weapon, and even if they build huge nukes, it would take tens of thousands of nukes to make any dent on the Shaitan infrastructure on Jehannum. Needless to say, it would render the world uninhabitable for thousands of years. It would be a pyrrhic victory.

  Kinetic kill weapons would be only slightly more effective. Rail guns barely scratch the surface. To destroy cities build 1 to 2 Km below the surface required KK traveling at a few percent the speed of light as in the ‘shock and awe’ campaign. These had to be accelerated by ships coming from Earth, using their massive momentum.

  However the ‘shock and awe’ campaign had targeted installation on the surface or just below the surface. So it could get away with crowbars that were a few hundred kg. To destroy a city 2 Km below the surface would require a KK missile to mass a few hundred tons, more likely a few thousand tons.

  To destroy the entire infrastructure of Jehannum would require hundreds, if not over a thousand trips by attack ships from Earth. This was clearly not feasible. All this was on the assumption that humans were intending to commit genocide, which they clearly were not, despite all that the Shaitans had done to Earth. All that the humans wanted was to conquer Jehannum and limit the infrastructure of the Shaitans so that they could not launch another ship to attack Earth.

  The more pertinent reason why Jehannum had not been seriously bombed was because of what the moon represented. A body with breathable oxygen, liquid water and a livable temperature. This was the holy grail of planet hunters looking for habitable planets. So what if was very different from the early conception of what an Earth like habitable planet would look like? It was habitable and that was all that mattered. No human could think of destroying such a precious and rare resource.

  The only way the humans were going to take Jehannum was by putting boots on the ground. It was easier said than done. All the humans had been able to achieve in the last few years, had been to establish a small beachhead on the poles of the moon, owing to the unique geology of the poles. The marines and the navy had paid a heavy price in lives to conquer a small swathe of the moon and continue to pay in order to hold on to them.

  Over the years many attempts have been made to expand further. Every time the humans have paid a heavy price without being able to hold on to territories. They have been forced to retreat back to their safe havens, bringing the sacrifice of marine lives to a naught. The Generals could not help but come to the eventual conclusion that the humans was losing the war, by slow attrition.

  The humans were resupplying as fast as they could make ships of the Avenger Class, but it was not enough. Not all human ships constructed were of the Avenger class, which took far more resources than was required to build ships for pure defensive capabilities around the solar system. For every Avenger class ship built, three updated versions of the Nautilus class ships could be built.

  The Nautilus class ships were almost as effective for the purpose of defense of the Solar system as an Avenger class ship, while Avenger class ships really excelled in offensive campaigns. Defense of solar system was much higher in priority than winning the war in Alpha Shaitan, especially with the ominous signs coming out of Beta Shaitan. Hence at best one resupply ship could arrive on Alpha Shaitan every year, sometimes one arrived only after 18 months.

  This was not enough to even maintain a credible human presence on Jehannum, let alone win the war. The problem was not just supplies and consumables, which never got the chance to build up to a reasonable level of inventory for comfort. The bigger problem was human troops. For every new batch of troops arriving into the Alpha Shaitan system, an equal number, if not more would leave to return back to Earth, having spent enough time away from home for the troops to earn them a passage back.

  Very few Marines were committed enough to stay back longer than a few years in what truly was hell for the fighting soldier. They fully agreed with the name ‘Jehannum’, which meant hell.

  The tide for the humans really turned with three developments. The first was the completion of the two space elevators and the base being built on the Moon. That increased the human spaceship production capacity manifolds, increasing their resupply capability for their offensive campaign, even as they could bolster their defenses back on Earth.

  The second was the development of the long distance resupply drone technology. This led to the development of the ‘mule trains’, which would become an integral part of human military and colonization campaigns for many centuries to come. Without this none of the human campaigns, as they radiated out from their Solar system out towards the Galaxy, would have been successful.

  However the most important innovation that really helped humans win the war in Alpha Shaitan and from there on, to this corner of the Galaxy was not really a technological one. It was a social one. It was with the Alpha Shaitan campaign, that the world first came up with the concept of ‘Settler Marines’. It was an iteration on a very old concept used by humans from time to time in their history.

  The world may have advanced technologically in the last few centuries, but there were things that were almost the same as they had been five hundred years ago. Inequality, oppression, persecution and la
ck of opportunities because of the family that a person got born into.

  At the end of the 20th century, there had been a great euphoria, especially amongst the Western democracies, that human societies were changing for the better. The projection was that slowly but surely the world would become more democratic, more equal and would provide equal opportunities to all. Unfortunately that is not how the world panned out after a century.

  Sure the Western World, and especially the US stood out as a shining beacon of democracy and freedom for anyone who was able to see it. The problem was that not every human being on Earth was able to see it. There were people oppressed and suppressed all around the world ruled by dictators, regimes and military junta, who made sure in ways subtle and not so subtle that people stayed ignorant even at the beginning of the 22nd century.

  If the US stood as an example for the world in what could be achieved with an open and free society, then China stood as an example to despots of every kind around the world that one could still aspire to be powerful even with a totalitarian regime in place for 150 years. If India stood out as an example of a country that could emerge out of poverty into a middle-to high income country even with a noisy but vibrant democracy, then again China stood as an example that the same could be achieved by totalitarian means.

  There had been many wins around the world now for stable democracies in the last hundred years, but unfortunately there had been many countries which had slipped back to authoritarian rule as well, like Russia and some South American countries. The net result was that nearly half the population of the world lived in countries that provided very few opportunities for individuals to progress in life. Some were ground down by abject poverty, while others were suppressed for political, ethnic or religious reasons.

  It was in this environment that USC circulated a draft proposal amongst its members for ‘single commission personnel with endowment benefits’. It was a civilized way of drafting desperate souls, who would sign away their lives fighting in a far off planet. They would spend 5 years of their lives in a ‘single commission’ fighting in this faraway place trillions of kilometers from Earth. The 5 years did not include training time on Earth, which would be 6 months, and it did not include travel time, which would be 6 and half years in the case of Alpha Shaitan, although most of that time would be spent in hibernation.

  At the end of their 5 year commission (if they were still alive), they had the option of being granted an Endowment in terms of land or resources on this alien planet (if the war had been won), else they had the option of taking the next ride back home (whenever that was available), or they had the option of extending their commission for another 5 years, after which the same stark choices would be available to them.

  When the draft had been circulated, not much had been hoped could be achieved from the proposal. The chances of a volunteer of ever seeing Earth again would be dim to say the least. If he survived (which was against the odds, given the way the war was going), his chances of getting a land grant was dubious (for it was thought unlikely that the war could be won even in a few decades). Such a volunteer may have to wait years to get a ride back home, and then endure a six and a half year journey back home with nothing to show for having spent the best part of his/her adult life serving USC.

  The members of USC had clearly underestimated the number of desperate souls amongst the teeming billions of Earth’s populace who were willing to take a chance given even this slimmest of hope for a better life, especially when a lot of the young looked at it as adventure. What surprised many was that they even got some applicants from the rich countries. These were the most hardcore of the intrepid adventurers.

  The world started calling these volunteers as ‘Settler Marines’, although there was another name used by the Settler Marines themselves. They called themselves the ‘Condemned’, although it was in good humor because for most of them it was their only ticket to a better life and space adventure. Although they were called ‘Settler Marines’, not all of them were USC-GCF. Many were drafted to the Navy as well. Usually the personnel with college education in science faculties.

  As the Settler Marines started arriving, fewer and fewer human combatants would return back to Earth, and as a result human forces could accumulate and build up their numbers. Other than the obvious military advantage, it gave a huge morale boost to the human forces. It was with the arrival of the Settler Marines that the tide slowly started turning in the favor of humans in the ground campaign on Jehannum.

  Chapter 23

  Homo Supremis

  Jehannum, Alpha Shaitan System

  July 2112

  The bare, slender and sexy legs of the women wearing nothing but their high heels was making the eyes of newly minted Private Yusuf Bin Talash pop out. He had never imagined such a sight was even possible, let alone the fact that he would ever see such a sight in his young life. His eyes were at the level of these women’s knees as they stood on a long raised platform in the center of the room.

  Yusuf and his comrades were sitting all around the raised platform in sunken sofas. He was going crazy fighting the urge to take his gaze further up those legs. Not just one or two pair of legs, but perhaps twenty of them. His baser instincts and the raging hormones of a 19 year old desperately wanted to follow the gaze up those slender legs. Yet a lifelong conditioning of modesty by his parents, brothers and sisters, extended family of cousins and the entire tribe was somehow forcing him to lower his gaze.

  Yusuf reminded himself that he was now a long way from his family, the oasis of Jubail Island, and his beautiful but cursed homeland. He was free now. Free from poverty, free from oppression and repression. He was free from ignorance and religious zealotry. He was free to pursue a life that he wanted, and he had chosen his path.

  He forced his gaze up and it did not encounter a shred of clothes on their way up as they reached an ample pair of breasts. His breath was taken away by the spectacular sight, as his eyes stayed glued there for a moment. Yet lifelong conditioning could not be wished away so easily. His eyes felt uneasy staring at the magnificent breasts for long, and he continued his gaze up to see the rhythmic wave of the dark brunette hair streaked with electric red and blue, that glowed phosphorescent in the laser lights.

  The open hair was moving in rhythm with the gyrating pelvis and the music, and mesmerized Yusuf. That gyrating pelvis had provided another shock to Yusuf, for he could never have imagined a woman dancing stark naked in front of so many men. Yusuf had never seen a naked woman before. Heck, he could not recall having seen the fully exposed arm of woman before this.

  To give his overworked heart a break, since it was beating so hard that it felt like it would explode, he moved his gaze from the pelvis to the face of the woman. The face entranced him with both its alien and yet attractive fascination. It was an extremely attractive cross between an Indian and a Chinese woman. He now understood why the Sarge had call this region Indo-China.

  As Yusuf swung his head around to sweep the amazing array of legs and gyrating pelvis, he did not know where or which of the women to focus his attention. He was like the lion on the plains of an African savannah watching a herd of zebra. With so many attractions, it was a problem of plenty. His eyes were getting confused and torn apart, just like that of a lion looking at the massed striped patterns of the zebra but failing to concentrate on any single one of them.

  Yusuf sunk back into the sofa and let out a huge breath, almost hyperventilating. Next to Yusuf sat Sam, the only person in their company from a rich country. He was a Canadian. He had two women sitting on his lap, who were wearing only a bra and a panty. He had his hands inside those, doing unmentionable things sitting next to Yusuf.

  Sam turned to Yusuf and gave a broad smile and said with a typical American drawl. “Welcome to Bangkok Private Bin Talash. The night is only beginning man, hang loose. Don’t get so tense. Eat drink and be merry Yusuf, for these are the last few days of heaven you will enjoy on Earth. Then you will perhaps
never see this planet again in your life, and none of these girls.”

  Sam said something in the ear of one of the women, and she got up and sat on Yusuf’s lap. Yusuf went into panic and tightly clutched the bottle of beer he had been nursing for a long time, the second beer bottle that he had ever held in his hands. Yusuf’s biggest worry was that he had now completely lost control of certain parts of his body below his belt. The last thing he wanted was to disgrace himself and his fellow Marines by losing control.

  The woman sitting on Yusuf’s lap seemed completely oblivious to the stiffened body part on which she was sitting now, and went ahead and put her tongue inside his ear. That sent an electric shock across Yusuf’s brain and his body. His vision blurred slightly and the blur of naked legs in front of him went slightly out of focus.

  When he concentrated and tried to bring the legs into focus they just wouldn’t return to their original glorious beautiful skin texture. Instead the skins on those legs looked a bit old and wrinkled. Yusuf blinked his eyes and looked harder, but the harder he tried, the older the legs grew with warts and all. Yusuf found it hard to breathe. He realized that he was sweating, but he could not see or control his arms to wipe the sweat from his brow.

  Yusuf was in full-fledged panic now. He looked all around him now, the lights had dimmed and he could barely hear the music, which only moments below was blaring loudly. He looked to his side, and Sam was gone, so was were the women sitting on their laps. He was alone, and the only thing visible were those legs. Rows and rows of legs. The harder he tried to look at those legs, the fatter uglier and more wrinkled those legs got.