The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  "VERY WELL, I WILL ACCEPT TO TRADE A1-METAL FOR ALL TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES FROM EVERYONE THAT WANTS TO BUY IT, THIS WILL BE THE MINIMUM TO ACCEPT THE PURCHASE, AND THEN PAY A MINERAL COST THAT WILL BE ACCEPTABLE TO OFFSET COSTS OF MINING AND TAXES." said S-4XN-001.

  He got sent several hundred of thousands of data packets containing research that he could only describe as pathetic, he knew several warriors especially in the north had arranged so the "weaker" ones would buy and then give to the rich. He did not take that as an acceptable trade and demanded that the representatives of north, east and west trade all their technology. They agreed and it was still pathetic compared to him, without the A1-Metal they were completely behind. Their improvements were as basic as when he first started, and he could trace it back to his original shells he sent to Sol to be occupied. They were trash.

  "YOU ALL HAVE BEEN SLACKING IN TECHNOLOGY APARTMENT I SEE CLEARLY, YOU ARE GETTING SOMETHING BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND I WILL WARN YOU THIS, DO NOT BUILD A RESEARCH LABORATORY ON A PLANET OR NEARBY HUMANS, YOU WILL FAIL AND DETONATE THE MATERIAL AND WIPE OUT PLANETS, JUST LIKE I DID TO PLUTO WITH A CONTROLLED EXPLOSION. BE WARNED. I HAVE ALSO AS A TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP TO PEOPLE OF HUMANITY AND FELLOW WARRIORS UPLOADED A IMPROVED ANTI MISSILE DEFENSE AND THE TRACKING TECHNOLOGY TO SPOT ANY STEALTHOBJECT INCOMING TO ANY PLANET OR CELESTIAL OBJECT, YOUR MISSILES ARE NOW WORTHLESS. GOOD LUCK." Said S-4XN-001.

  People cheered at that they now had a missile defense and tracking and every station or planet that had humans inhabiting started to build the defenses, the radar also helped detected several spies satellites which soured some peoples' reputation but that's okay. Things would be a lot calmer these years while people were rebuilding Luna and mars.

  S-4XN-001 had used his scrap from the war to push his production into overdrive, almost 150 billion worth of ships and scrap was salvaged, and the portal to Sol was extended another 6 months just for his now hundreds of millions drones that salvaged it.

  He had raked in the profits, and he realized war was profitable, he almost wanted to declare war just to push his battleship and titan production into overdrive.

  He kept his eye on researching the C-type element, which would advance him beyond comparison. Giving the others the A1 element while they were to incompetent enough to even use it within a thousand years he did not know, but he was too far ahead to care.The C-element was not hot or cold like the others, but a pure gas that had to be subjected to intense pressure to form.

  He had overlooked it as hydrogen and helium when he first started to mine the many stars in his territory, but he knew it was special when it finally damaged his machinery. He did rigorous testing and the power of the C-element was instantly recognized, it could stabilize his nova engines and bringing his power generator to unprecedented levels, the C-element was the anti explosion element in sorts, it kept the bad things from going wrong which had plagued him. He figured while suns exploded constantly and solar flares would form quite regularly he now know why, the gas ate explosions and when the pressure got too much, the gas would just try to slide away, but in a perfectly sealed chamber it would fight back the pressure, and therefor stabilizing the reactor. It was perfect, he no longer needed a burst of power now he had constant power, he kept the nova engines on the titan, but he increased their size and improved them so the beam was now ten times stronger. His titan was now a titan killer and planetary killer.

  He would laugh at the other warriors trying to catch up with their garbage titans and battleships, they might look strong when they first arrived, but they would be a paper tiger to his fleets. His research were going strong and with the birth of the c-element he felt confident in making his engines better than ever, he could improve his hyper drive to jump across systems, or make the sub light even faster, but he knew the future lied in the portal drives that could warp across the galaxy instantaneously, and that was a terrifying thing for anyone brave enough to strike him, he would have to improve the other engines in case someone managed to jam his portal drives since he now put a little effort in finding a way to jam them, he did not want to be on the receiving end of a fleet of portal ships like what he currently had.

  Seyla and Yui finally got their call that their station was ready, and they had prepped themselves and their ships to enter that beacon of a portal that was off-limits to everyone, they approached nervously when the portal activated once again and after a few seconds of waiting they got the go-ahead, they set course to enter the unknown space which they could not see. The orders they got were simple, keeping moving forward and don't stop, they entered the portal before everyone else and their cargo ships and few old ships were following, they had not gotten the ships they were promised just yet or their station but it was just on the other side. Their ship smoothly traveled across the portal and saw the vastness of space in front of them, the computer scanned the system, and they saw two stations, one was the housing one and the other was the trading station. One was orbiting the moon and the habitat was orbiting the connecting planet, she set course for the habitat at a brisk space, she would reach it within the hour, rest of her ships joined her soon after they entered the system.

  Seyla was the first to dock in the station, and she saw a shell waiting on the platform that extended out to connect to her loading bay, She stepped out being flanked by her sister and her crew, they walked up to the shell which they assumed was S-4XN-001, "I WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO OPERATE THE SYSTEMS, YOU WISHED IT TO BE A FULLY HUMAN OPERATED AND THERE WILL BE A PERIOD I WILL HAVE TO MAINTAIN THE STATION REMOTELY WHILE YOU LEARN." he said.

  Seyla and Yui nodded, and they were led into an elevator that took them to the top office in the only office building in the city, They walked out into the room which were covered only in glass windows, and they froze when they looked out the window, Seyla saw a massive green landscape with millions of houses with perfect lawns and shrubbery across the massive station, They just looked out the window for several moments when S-4XN-001 waited for them to speak, he stood there and watched them, and he could guess what they felt, but he was not sure, he assumed it was joy and amazement, he waited for a few minutes before interrupting them.

  "THIS IS THE MAIN OFFICE, WHICH HAS ONE OF THE TWO COMMAND CONSOLE ABLE TO CONTROL THE STATION, THE OTHER IS IN THE COMMAND MODULE WHICH IS LOCATED IN ANOTHER PART OF THE STATION. I WILL NOW SHOW YOU THE REST OF STATION, AND WHEN YOU MASTER THIS STATIONS CONTROLS YOU WILL ALSO MASTER THE TRADING STATIONS CONTROLS, NOW LETS's CONTINUE. I DO NOT WISH TO LINGER ANY LONGER." S-4XN-001 said, and they woke up from their staring, Seyla turned around and nodded with tears in her eyes. He continued the tour and taught them a few things on the way.

  Chapter 6

  Year 2399

  All sectors announced their first completed Titans and people cheered at the now parity with the scary southern warrior, The warriors knew it was barely functional and all the territories and warriors had collaborated to make this possible, which is why all of them were made at the same time. They would have felt shame if they had feelings why it took them so long, but the warrior was right, the element was an unstable mess to use in power generation, It was a few lucky breaks that they managed to fuse it correctly and then repeated thousands of times until they got it down, They were now on some sort of parity with him, and they did not have to keep an eye opened toward the south forever.

  S-4XN-001 Glanced at the news and chuckled, He set a few improved portal ships on course for the center of the galaxy for the black hole. It was now time to handle dark matter and gravity research, to expand to impossible limits, But he knew it would take at least 100 years to reach it considering the power requirements.

  Seyla was now a manager of an empire of her own, she had now expanded to fifty stations, although they were "cheap" copies of the two massive ones she had in the south, she now had at least some semblance of being a tycoon. Her profits were massive, and her trade quotas were higher than most nations. She was known as the basic trader across the galaxy for h
er focus of food and medicine which she sent from the south to the rich and resources starved center. She made hundreds of billions of credits, and she was one of the wealthiest persons in the galaxy, Warriors did not count as people, but she knew she could not hold a candle to the person she bought most of the goods from.

  Seyla wondered about the depths of his wallets, but he only bought minerals from everyone else, the prices had not changed in a hundred years,always the same low, She made a profit every time she traded no matter what. She almost felt bad about him "losing" money with each sale, but she knew he did not care. Building this massive station and expanding the size was not possible no matter how many resources and money she had offered. She wanted to almost bring his parents into it, but they had been missing same as all their friends and families, they entered the deepest parts of his territory and stayed there, a few people related from the inside said it was a paradise they could not speak about, but there were room for trillions and food as far as your eyes could see. They did not believe the travelers, but they assume it was a massive space station like Seyla had.

  S-4XN-001 parents were quite happy and so was his relatives living on a massive earth class planet that was four times the size of earth, they had access to the outside if they ever got bored with his super fast portal ships they could go for a weekend in sol then return by the end of the same month they were the luckiest people in the galaxy they thought, they even started to build their own housing and ships for fun mostly.

  Some of them wanted to share the technology and the planet but were refused, his parents managed to argue they had to least be able to bring their wives and children here, and he agreed.An exodus of young men was constant on search for wives and adventure and when a few years pass they would return with their children and relatives.

  Their new offspring usually never ventured out knowing the harsh living of a space station, when they put their bare feet on the soil and took a huge breath and walked up to a tree and grabbed a fruit fresh from the branch, life was wonderful for the people living in his territory.

  They even established a tiny little military academy and S-4XN-001 had given his approval for them to patrol the space around the planet and keep trouble from brewing, they were more or less policemen with space guns. They did take what "hand-me-downs" they got from him, and he gave them a few battleships that were obsolete and closer to other warrior standards. They would never leave the system or understand it anyway.

  The council was complete full of useless arguments about human and warrior relations, every proposal had been shot down constantly. Humans needed to fight the futility that was true, but not EVERY human, some had to leave or some would just outright refuse and just run from the problem. His territory had swelled to over 2000 systems after the massive scrap deposits from the war. He had gone overboard mostly.But he was ready for more, and more and more until he reached the border of the milky way, which was thousands of years at this pace.

  He set his sights toward the expanding of his trade station in Sol once and for all, the amount of traders and people that flocked the station constantly when the portal was gone was starting to have vagabonds living in ships around the station because there were not enough room, he decided the station should hold 10 billion people, and then leave it is. Vishaan had begun to notify the crew of the station and a few months later construction drones kept pulling in modules and expand it to a massive behemoth, it would take at least a few years to complete this fully, he was basically building 10 new stations onto the station, to increase the now population of 800 million to 10.8billion. He had made numerous adaptations and improved new hardware to shrink the power/shielding/weaponry and other civilian facilities. It was roomy, but efficient.

  Year 2410

  He was interrupted once again by the nagging of the council pestering him and this time it seemed they meant business instead of the pointless motions and arguments they provided before, he connected to his shell in the Sol system.

  "S-4XN-001 YOU ARE HARBORING TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN IMPROVE HUMANITY'S LIVING AND PROSPERITY, YOU SHALL IMMEDIATELY HAND OVER ALL TECHNOLOGY RELATED TO THE A-1 ELEMENT AND ALL TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES CONNECTED TO MILITARY AND CIVILIAN INDUSTRIES. YOU HAVE ALSO BROKEN THE PACT AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO HAVE THIS ADVANTAGE, WE ARE ALL BROTHERS FIGHTING THE FUTILITY. YOU MUST SHARE OR YOU WILL BE FORCED TO SHARE." said E-9322-013.

  He was the self-appointed eastern sector leader, he had banded half of the warriors in the sector to his banner, they were like puppets to the central sector bringing "Humanity" to the top, S-4XN-001 knew that they were just pushing for free tech and after they got to his level they would want more and more until he was left with nothing.

  "I WOULD TAKE MY FLEETS TO TEACH YOU A LESSON IN HUMILITY, BUT I WILL NOT ENGAGE IN ANY WARFARE WITHOUT BEING PROVOKED FIRST, YOU MAY CLAIM THAT I AM HARBORING TECHNOLOGY, BUT THEN WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING? DID ANYONE OF YOU SHARE ANY TECHNOLOGY TO THE COUNCIL? HAVE YOU GIVEN MORE THAN ME? I HAVE TRANSFERRED SEVERAL TECHNOLOGIES TO THE PEOPLE INCLUDING THE IMPROVED ELIXIR THAT IS CURRENTLY BEING USED BY BILLIONS OF PEOPLE. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, SCOURGE?" said S-4XN-001.

  They would have had their faces complete red and sweating profusely, but they were shells, they always looked the same and sounded the same. And the mood was quiet and eerie. "THEN WE WARRIOR'S OF THE EAST SECTOR DECLARE THAT YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO HUMANITY, AND THEREFOR WISH TO VOTE OFF S-4XN-001 THE COUNCIL, PLEASE VOTE NOW."

  The vote was unanimous within the first 5 minutes the vote was yes. "THIS COUNCIL HAS CHANGED FROM FIGHTING THE FUTILITY, TO BENEFIT THE FEW AND FATTEN THE EGOS OF THE WARRIORS PRETENDING THEY ARE IMPORTANT, WE ARE ALL COGS TO A BROKEN ALIEN EMPIRE, FIGHTING A WAR WE CANNOT AVOID, WE HAVE ALLIES IN THE ALIENS BUT WE ARE NOT UNITED, THEY ARE NOT UNITED. DISCORD AND Mistrust WILL ALWAYS BE PRESENT, I CAN FORESEE THAT YOU WILL SEND YOUR ARMIES DOWN TO MY TERRITORY, BUT I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY SURRENDER THIS TIME WHEN YOU STRIKE. BE PREPARED." said S-4XN-001.

  He stood up and a deletion program was started and after a few seconds the shell slumped over on the ground and was destroyed completely, no data or usability left in the shell, just a piece of scrap like the council he left. The chamber was silent while the shells stood motionlessly staring at the now heap of metal on the floor, they all knew where the future would lead, and they just hoped they never had to regret their decisions.

  Chapter 7

  Year 2412

  Hundreds of thousand of cargo ships dropped into Sol and darted toward the trading station, a billion drones follow closely behind guarded by a 2 billion strong battleship fleet with several colonization ships loaded with "tourists" from the Paradise system he had created for his parents. He was going to do one last upgrade of the trading station, but the truth was he was setting up a portal network in the dead space, Sols warriors could not track his path in to the system, so he would stop short with his new portal drive and build a base in the dead space of Sol system, he knew scanners could not penetrate that deeply or why would they aim into the middle of nowhere, He had deconstructed the portal so the warriors and humans knew he did not bring one, He had to keep the deception real, to realize his security and plans.

  He spent a slow year expanding the station and its defences, and they were extremely overt and intimidating, he could now house about 15 billion people in the Sol system, that was his limit, and he now had over the top defense in a permanent fleet of 1 billion with several gun placements.He knew there were plans to strike him, and he had the entire south allied with him unofficially, nobody wanted to anger him, they knew who's the boss in the south.

  His territory expanded and his fleets were deadly and hidden, he was ready to take on the galaxy and attacking his territory was an impossibility no matter how many ships they threw at him, he had been fortifying the edges since he stopped expanding toward Sol. He was the overlord of milky way, and they knew it, Only thing he lacked compared to the others was the humans in the chain of his production and technology, he did not need
them, and he would not seek them out. He did not even need to follow the milky way defense councils decrees about hiring 100.000 people per territory anymore, he still had over hired, since he had now about 600 million people working in his stations. And there had been a few problems but the managers and security officers was strict in their punishment and kept the people in control or else their jobs would be in jeopardy and that meant losing their housing and jobs and being sent off the station.

  Year 2416

  His construction in sol was complete, and he was now pulling his fleets back, They were going to take four days of assembling to the hidden portal above the edge of central section. He was about to leave the system when they struck, missiles launched from several nearby cargo ships which got instantly shot down by his superior missile defense, sol was lighting up constantly in tiny suns, seems they had made several A1-elment missiles and kept throwing them in vain, He calculated each yield was 500 grams, He immediately checked his trading partners connected to the A1-minerals. And he calculated it was either the east warriors or the north ones, they were the only one that could afford this waste they had bought a few tons at insane prices, he was going to take care of this situation and then find the guilty party, He opened fire and blew out their engines using low intensity beams, he saw they were all unmanned ships.

  He kept shooting the cargo ships and there were only about a 100 of them, He was about to direct his cargo fleet when several billions of battleships and several titans jumped into the system, He knew what was coming and sent a warning. Stay away or die. His message was ignored and their titans aimed at his battleships and fired, no matter how badly they were built and garbage they were, a titan beat a battleship. He saw the shields of the battleships fail and had severe hull damage. He opened fire with all his battleships and the cargo ships sailed out toward the border to jump into dead space and wait. He opened fire and was destroying ships constantly while the enemy battleships were darting closer and closer, He could not outrun them with the cargo ships they were designed to carry a lot of weight, not sail quickly around a system. Their portal drives were incredible strong to make up the shortfall, but they can't use it in middle of the system due to interference from all that magnetic energy bouncing between the planets and the sun. He fought an endless amount of battleships that swarmed his position the enemy on grid was now in the tens of billions, and he was outnumbered and starting to take some losses while pounding the enemy back five-fold, but this was a losing battle.