The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  Seyla and Yui were not bothered by it, breaking the pact was impossible. If it were possible the alien would have broken it a long time ago or any of the genius level humans that was now warriors. They thanked him for his information and went on their merry way toward the trading post, they made several connections to the local "outlaws" and traders alike securing a few trade goods that were on their way.

  Yui argued that transferring "Drugs" across the galaxy to a abandoned space station was not the best judgement, but the payday was incredible.

  "Relax, sis. We will just drop it off quickly since we already got paid, all we have to do is drop the cargo on the loading platform and skip out, and be done in a half a hour. Quick and Easy money!" Seyla commented. Yui checked the legal documents, and she knew this part of the galaxy was free-space. Anything goes in this part from slavery to murder.

  She was terrified at the prospect of getting ambushed and becoming a slave or worse!. Seyla comforted her, and she already transferred the goods to a battleship and loaded it up with all man-to-man weaponry and armor. She would just unload the cargo and tip her hat and walk away.

  She jumped into the system where she would drop off the drugs, and she knew it was not going to be as easy as she hoped, She saw thousands of battleships and cargo ships drift destroyed in the system around a space station that was barely operating. It would seem pirates hit this location hard, and they guessed whoever was inside was not the talking and helpful kind, She decided to comm the station, She obviously got no response until she mentioned she had several crates of "Sleeper" which was the most powerful drug created."Oh! shit, finally! We have been waiting for months, #!#& space rednecks keep delaying the shit every #!#& year, ye' clear to dock ill turn of the guns" a loud snort was heard and a deep exhale was heard before the com clicked off. "See, Easy" replied Seyla.

  She set her fleet of ships out of range from any potential shenanigans and sent one battleship forward to dock in one of the few working docks, She was quite excited to see a real pirate station. They docked, and they noticed the oxygen levels was at minimum, they put on some oxygen tanks and helmets just in case and stepped of the ship and started to roll the eight crates of drugs onto the dock.

  The main door opened slowly with a scratching noise, seemed it was not oiled properly. A few armed thugs walked out and the crew drew their weapons and pointed it at them. The thus stopped and a leader walked forward and popped open a crate not caring about the guns. He took out a packet the size of a stamp put it in his mouth and chewed. Seyla was disgusted, but she signaled to continue offloading the last two crates. "Good! Good shit! Hah! I know those #!#&' finally got their ass in order and delivered. I'm such a happy mood i won't kill you all and steal your ship" he laughed. The crew was obviously nervous and unhappy to be here, but they completed the order and started to close up while backing away slowly "Yo' Haha! You new here girl? 50 Battleships and a cargo ship huh, How about you do one more trip for me, pro bono" the leader chuckled off a obvious high.

  "I never work for free, And i never take a contract face to face, I only accept written contracts that's my motto." said Seyla. "Bitch' I'm not asking!" he pulled out a gun and fired it wildly hitting the roof mostly, Seyla leapt behind a corner and her crew started to return fire. The thugs rushed into cower and gun fight broke out. Seyla was trapped in between the gunfire, and she held her kinetic pistol in her hand. She saw a thugs head melt when a crew member hit it with a accurate shot, and she felt sick, but she still poked her gun out the corner and fired a shot hoping to hit something.

  "Yui, I'm pinned down they went hostile on us! We need backup!" Seyla screamed into the radio. "Bzzt. Seyla the broken ships are filled with auto-cannons that will shred any ship that entered the dock, you can't leave we will shoot them down from the outside but it's gonna take at least two hours!" Yui replied.

  Seyla was trying to hold out against the battle hardened thugs, she saw her crew was not experienced in firefights and kept taking shots on their armor and then refusing to poke out of the corner. Seyla screamed for cover fire and a few crewmen launched a volley of shots near the enemy, she rushed into cargo hold of the battleship and rejoined the crew. "Bad news, The broken ships are filled with auto-cannons, so we can't leave, or we will get shredded, but the good news is Yui is attacking them right now, and they can't fire at us because that will kill them also if we blow up." said Seyla.

  The thugs were braving fire, and they seemed limitless, Seyla assumed they were on a complete high and felt no fear and pain, They kept getting more and more ammunition and returning fire constantly. They were locked in a deadly skirmish.Seyla knew she had to do something and ran deep into the ship and jumped into the captains chair, she lowered the intensity of the weapons to the lowest setting and closed down all the hatches, Their hull were being assault with personal weapon, so she pulled up the shield. She fired her battleships weapons and a tear appeared and the vacuum of space started to suck everything slowly toward the tear.

  "Shit! The drugs, The drugs!" the leader cried. And the thugs started to push the crates toward the door, Seyla fired again and the tear got bigger, and she saw the crates and thugs start to flush out into the void of space, The survivors kept holding onto railings and other objects not to float into space. She saw the gravity of the section collapse and so did the resistance of the thugs, they were either gonna die in the vacuum of space or die of oxygen deprivation. The struggled to reach the door and could not, she saw every last of the pirates getting spaced, She felt terrible about the loss of life caused, but they came after her, not the other way around. She stayed in the ship until her sister told her they could undock, They did a quick scan of the station and saw it was pretty much now a piece of scrap metal after her shots, seemed her shot pierced into the core of the station and it was venting atmosphere constantly, she docked with her main ship and got onboard. The sisters hugged each other and set course for the Warriors trade station, they had enough of adventure for this year.

  The trip there was uneventful, and she promised a bigger share of the profits from the delivery due to their earlier mishap in the previous year, Risking your life and you dont get a bonus would be a quick way to get a mutiny brewing and Seyla knew the men had to be rewarded, she even broke out the expensive coffee the one that she had saved for herself and her sister.The crew cheered and the mood improved even further when they got greeted by a broadcast stating they were now in the territory of S-4XN-001 and that they should not cause any trouble what-so-ever. Or their lives or property could be confiscated. She did not take the message too seriously since she knew warriors could not attack humans, But she knew there were buildings and gun placements that looked man-made instead of warrior tech.

  Which means people on the station could attack them freely, She hailed the station and got a docking request accepted. She had to pay taxes here which she knew about already, a five percent tax was not too outrageous considering this trading station had pretty much all the contracts in the south and all the connections as well.

  They stepped off the landing pad and was greeted by a human teenager with bright white teeth shining like a beacon in the hangar "Please state the reason for your visit, and if you need to know the rules you can connect to the information channel x9052 on your radio or any device that can access the net." he said with a practiced tone, like he recited it a hundred times.

  "We are here primarily to trade and make connections, but we are also interested in building a small community, so we have a place to restock and rest." Yui replied. "We could also use some R&R while we are here!" Seyla commented.

  The teenager smiled and said "You will find entertainment on floor 6-9, That's where all the bars and stores are. And if you want connections you can visit the bars and restaurants or just go to the fifth floor and checkout the trade and administration section." He replied. Seyla flickered a credit into his hand and the teenager looked at it and threw it back "Central credits are quite useless here,
We deal in special kind of credit, we call it Southern Credits. It's connected to the mineral prices which are always static. I mean, no offense 10 Central Credits it's gonna be a waste of time considering there is a massive tax on other credits if you want to buy something." he said.

  Seyla and Yui frowned and walked toward the fifth floor, She ordered the crew to unload the trade goods and their employers got to work. They looked around the station and saw it was more populated than they realized and saw a lot of families instead of gruff space miners she had expected. She walked into the administration office and it was full of people clamoring for contracts with the system ruler or trade agreements. Seyla sat down next to a man waiting and asked "What's the deal with all the people howling over there?" the man took a look at Seyla and laughed "Heh, you don't know? Must be new i assume, Anyway. Yeah." he chuckled.

  "These sorry sons of bitches are trying to trade technology for cash, or sell their stupid technology for other tech. Heh. They don't know the warrior don't give a flying #!#& about anyone and anything in this station. He made the station and then assigned a few humans to handle it since he doesn't want to." the man said. Seyla looked at him and replied "You are saying he built this place to keep the humans from bothering him? Don't that sound incredible wasteful, why not just shoo people away instead of placating them with a station. I mean people would not gather here if there were no trading station!".

  The man scoffed "Since he made the improved elixir he probably had millions of people trying to contact him to thank him or buy the "license", and if he got the technology to cure every god-damn disease in the world, what else you think he got?" the man said. Seyla and Yui thought it made sense, They remember that a warrior made the improved elixir, and they thought it was a central warrior at least that was according to rumors. Seyla checked the exchange rate of her central credits to the southern credits, and she wanted to burn down the station 1 to 0.001. That means a ton of iron which was normal priced at around 150000 credits would cost her millions! That's insane! Outrageous!

  "What's with this exchange rate, it's robbery!" Seyla lashed out at the administrator. "Madame, Please. This is the southern sector and it's a at least six years of travel to the central sector, people that have central credits import stuff and sell it here for southern credits. I see you already fulfilled several contracts." the administrator smiled.

  Seyla felt like she had been tricked, and she noticed her 3 million credits contract, she double-checked it and it said SOUTHERN CREDITS. "AH!" Yui yelped. Seyla was about to cry, she would never be able to pay that back! She needed the local credits instead of the central ones!. "Please, tell me to earn some money down here! Please a tip please!" Seyla begged the administrator. She smiled and said "Obviously there is a simple way to make money here which all the local do, They trade minerals for southern credits. And if you compare prices and import minerals from other sectors. I'll let you figure out the rest" the administrator said with a smile.

  It struck them instantly, the southern credit was tied down to the price of minerals and never moved, They would just compare prices from both regions buy it cheap in central and ship it down here for profit! Or hire a bunch of miners down here, She tried to hire any miner, and she was shocked at the prices, It was extremely overpriced and impossible to make profitable. She decided to pay a few central credits to use the space station communications grid, it would connect to Sol in 8 days, which she thought was impossible, but why would the station lie about something like this? She put on several orders for minerals after comparing prices, and she managed to snag a few things from the station like fresh coffee beans, fruits and candy which were a premium in the central sector.

  Seyla compared prices, and she knew she could make money trading here but it was gonna be a debt filled journey since she did not want to trade central credits to southern credits, so she had to pawn 20 battleships for 20 million southern Credits, She thought it was an acceptable loss if she could not repay the debt. Seyla bought an extra cargo ship and filled it with coffee beans, and she cringed that she had to flash freeze them, it would lower the price of the coffee but would make her able to buy back her battleships after one trip, She had already spent 18 million credits, but she had two cargo ships filled with coffee and her 25 battleships cargo bay was loaded with several tons of candy and alcohol. Yui wanted to stay behind here with 5 of the battleships to create connections and help settle the people into the territory, she would take the rest of the money and rent apartments for everyone while finding a nearby area to settle.

  They did a farewell hug and Seyla got on the road back immediately she would go quickly back and forth, the crew was seasoned and as long as their family was happy living in the trade station they would not mind, they lived forever after all what's a few years?

  One year later.

  Seyla entered a system with a trading station that was brand new, seemed they had the same idea of transferring cheap minerals from here to big profits in central, Seyla managed to unload her entire cargo full of coffee, candy and alcohol for massive profits, she had made 60 million central credits instantly, and she wanted it paid in minerals. The station manager was incredible happy to get such a big supply of high-end goods and promised as long as she could supply he would buy. Seyla hoped they never found out about the trading station a year away, but she guessed they were afraid of the pirates, she had avoided a few systems when fellow travelers warned her of pirates in those sectors. She set course back home to take a quick break spending time with her sister.

  Yui approached the core of S-4XN-001 territory, she knew she had to deal with the warrior himself instead of those smiling administrators that denied them every request for protection, mining rights or buying property. She wanted to convince the warrior to allow her to settle her people and build up their little operation, The apartments on the space station were beyond what they lived on before, She hoped she could buy a complete space station from the warrior if not she would at least settle for the rights to build her own.

  "TURN AROUND, YOU ARE IN S-4XN-001 TERRITORY AND FURTHER ADVANCEMENT BEYOND THIS SYSTEM WILL BE MET WITH SWIFT DEATH, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. TURN BACK!" a broadcast chimed through her speakers, and she got a data packet showing her hyper lanes that was basically skulls showing she would get shot or captured if she entered it, Yui did not believe in the threat of violence since the pact was active in all warriors. But it would do her no good poking around and earning his hatred.

  "Mr S-4XN-001. My name is Yui and i came here with my people to trade and settle down and create our own little paradise like you have in your trading station, We would like to purchase a space station identical to the trading post, and if that is not acceptable we would like to just buy a system nearby the trade outpost. We have been stonewalled by your staff at the trading station. Please, reply." she waited on a response and got it instantly "ALL HUMAN INTERACTIONS ARE TO BE Handled BY THE Administrative STAFF AT SYSTEM LABELED TRADE, PLEASE ENTER THAT SYSTEM" she felt like she got an automated message she got a data packet that showed the trading station, She frowned and tried again she got the same reply.

  Yui asked the crew for advice and it was unanimously gone back, Yui was stubborn and wanted at least to open a dialogue, She did something incredible stupid she moved her battleships and surrounded one of the mining drones hoping it will get his attention. She would wait a week at most.

  Yui saw the battleships in the system finally react and 1000 of them darted to her position. "HUMAN, YOU HAVE 60 SECONDS TO EXPLAIN YOUR Behavior BEFORE YOU ARE DESTROYED" her broadcast system boomed, she did not even see a connection to her ship.

  "Please mister, listen what we wa-" "YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS ARE Unnecessary TO NEGOTIATE OR DEMAND, YOU HAVE COMMITTED A HOSTILE ACT AND YOU WILL LEAVE THIS SYSTEM OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED, THERE WILL BE NO NEGOTIATION NOR WILL THERE BE A SURRENDER" Yui was shocked at the bluntness of the warrior, sure she had blocked one drone from mining a asteroid for a day, but there were tens of t
housands of drones moving about, what's a single one in the big scheme of things?

  She just wanted a conversation, She was about to argue back and her helmsman just turned the ship around and headed back to the trading station "What are you doing?" Yui pointed and yelled at the crewman. "I lived for 80 years and i do not want to die today, i have a feeling that the threat is real, and we will be killed, we are prey in this system not the predator." said in almost a whisper.

  The crewmen were spooked and agreed that it was better to avoid this conflict and hope to catch the warrior on a better day. Yui could not convince the crew that the warrior was bound by the pact and could not attack them, and that they should stay here and engage in conversation while they had his attention. The crew was dead set on turning back, and she had to agree or else there might have been a mutiny. Yui traveled back the two weeks until she reached the trading station.

  She tried to dock, and she was turned away she contacted the station "Hello, is there a problem with my ship? I'm trying to dock and get rejected constantly." Yui replied.

  "Yes, your ship has been marked as hostile and you are not able to dock or approach the station, You will need to pay a fine of $100.000 Southern Credits, Have a nice day!" replied an Administrator with a smile.

  Yui and crew was shocked beyond believe that they just lost their home and could not even reconnect with their families, Yui tried to argue her point and she bluntly replied SHE'S banned. Yui asked for clemency and was rejected, she reluctantly paid the fee and was warned that she got a record now.