The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

Chapter 10

  One month later.

  Ricardo ordered the fleet to take down the opposing enemy battleship fleet, He had sent a final warning that they should evacuate the system or be fired upon, and they had refused, The titan fired a plasma burst that smashed into the enemy ships' frag half of the 5000 opposing battleships, Redmond quickly swooped in and destroyed the rest easily with his overwhelming 5 billion ships. Ricardo knew they counted on that he would not attack and this was the warning shot, no human lives were lost and the warriors of the north had been forewarned. He knew a massive fleet from the southern "Emperor" as he now as called was ready to engage if the enemy brought their full fleets, He had justifications with the testimony of a few "kidnapped" rebels admitting they were planted by the north.

  Ricardo had access to the "enforcer" program, and he was disgusted at their barbarism, they were effective that's for sure, several stations was in dire straits and a surrender was soon to follow, the human casualties in the terror attacks and ambushes would have been impossible to believe if he had not seen it first hand in the recordings, he was disgusted, and he had already sent several reports about possible court-martial or execution protocols for these pirates after the mission was over, he assumed it would not happen if they operated by the same protocol he did. He would do it with justice and numbers, instead of fewer and chaotic.

  Ricardo had been given a new device called the rebirth, you simply put on a helmet and a backup of you were uploaded and stored in a database and if you perish you get a fresh new body, most people that volunteered for the boarding mission of the station had accepted it. Many did not since they believed in the soul or whatnot, He assumed there was a soul since he seen S-4XN-001 occupy a human body, and he seemed normal in function but a bit odd in his speech, like he still was calculating and processing every action before he did it. Redmond had the same problem whenever he was in his "warrior" mode, he would slow down his speech he claimed that if he spoke normally it was a speedy unintelligible mess and that was embarrassing. Ricardo saluted the men, and they got onto the special person ell ship, they would dock in one of the hidden entrances and then quickly take the command center, and from there they would release a sedative across the entire station.

  There was a only way to introduce something to the oxygen supply, and that was from the command center, the machinery was hidden deep within the guts and was impossible to tamper with and closed off from access, there were several automated drones repairing it to avoid such a tampering. Nobody wanted to live in a station where a single individual could just simply turn a valve off and kill a billion people in less than 12 hours. He overlooked the operation that was just about to start from his command center and the war was officially on against the north.

  News broke out almost instantly the galaxy was once again in full out war, the central and eastern sectors were outside for now, but this was the warrior between the juggernauts of the galaxy and nobody could tell what would happened. People in the north clamored a righteous crusade to reclaim their honor and stolen technology, while the humans in the south was lukewarm at best, Most of the humans in south were in the Paradise system, and they did not care about the galaxy at large, they were busy working and being fulfilled, they would never venture outside the system and the massive fleets surrounding the systems would keep anyone at bay, If any force made it into the paradise system it would be the futility.

  Humans and warriors was not able to bypass all that defense to strike, and even if did they bypass the fleets and sneak in a ship. There were massive shield generators constantly covering the cities and residential areas that was online 24/7, There were no problems hidden or overt that could harm them, the danger was in the area outside the "public" trading station, but most people settled to travel to the private on just before. It was the advanced version and it served most peoples wanderlust. They had everything they could have wanted in the Paradise system, and space travel was mostly for the working people or the stupid youth with their dreams of grandeur. Most of the youths that left Paradise was born there, their parents thought they were too rebellious to take their parents advice that the space is just a area where you swing your saber and planets was where culture and peace was born. The vanguard had swelled their ranks from the fresh recruits looking for some adventure and extra paycheck for just training once a week and then having a good time until called, Vanguard had just their official war activated and it was the biggest one to hit the galaxy.

  "S-4XN-001 WILL NOT ATTACK OUR SECTOR NO MATTER WHAT, WAR MUST CONTINUE, THE PLAN MUST CONTINUE, IGNORE THE LOSSES OF HUMAN LIFE AND MATERIALS, WE MUST KEEP COURSE OR WE HAVE ALREADY LOST. DO NOT ENGAGE ANY SHIPS OR TROOPS, LET THE "REBELS" HANDLE IT, TELL THEM TO HOLD THE STAR BASES AND DO NOT SURRENDER, THEY ARE SERVING THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF HUMANKIND. THEY MUST STALL THE ENEMY SO WE CAN RECLAIM OUR DESTINY FROM THE PRETENDER."

  Said Leon the newly crowned emperor of the northern sector, his fellow warriors that now were both human and machine agreed, they could no longer supply, and they were moving toward ultimate collapse in their sector, They were importing food in the hundreds of billions of tons every week, it was no longer sustainable.

  Their space stations was completely inferior to the southern emperor, they also knew his food production could sustain the galaxy with his at least known, 16 earth class planned in the Paradise system, the warriors knew that the system existed and there were such a place. But they would never admit it in front of anyone in their territory or humanity as a whole, their entire empire was based on the symbiosis of warrior and human working together for the common goal. The moment they people accepted the truth of the Paradise system, they would lose all hope of cohesion. They had studied several planetary technologies and tried performing since day one, they were not even close to completing it. They had by luck discovered an earth class planet and a few calm systems to build colonies, but the earth class planet was a premium reserved for their family, friends and business partners.

  The only reason they invaded the west was for their treasure trove of live able planets, they had at least 6 ocean planets enough for their needs right now, if they could fit almost 50 billion people on earth, look what they could do to 6 more planets. This was the holy grail and the people wanted to live on a planet, no matter how many corpses they left behind. He signaled his warriors to focus on the west, ignore the south and the invasions of their stations. They would resist and buy him more time for this holy crusade.

  One year later.

  Ricardo was overwhelmed and there were no answer to the question, The war was unmanageable and it was in complete chaos. There seemed to be a infinite supply of humans willing to die and fight for the north, the station situation had now escalated to the central stations and the central sector immediately abandoned them and pushed them into his care, because if he did not care about them they all would die in starvation or worse. The stations in the entire central sector was now in complete freefall, and he had requests for assistance from over 7000 stations, and the number was increasing. He has pulled in every competent manager in the empire to assist him in this undertaking it was not enough, millions were gonna starve and a billion more would just kill each other. Seyla had no solution to the big problem and the paradise system was off-limit no matter what, they could not pollute their work with fresh people not vetted enough.

  Ricardo thought this was an emergency and should bypass the protocol, but he was shot down from the top, Seyla was the end point in any decision in any human en devour in the south sector, and she was the boss. Redmond entered the room clearly exhausted from the constant battling, Their fleet had engaged several human transports and destroyed millions of ships filled with enemy combatants that refused to turn back, It made both of them sick but someone had to. They could not allow the enemy to take their stations and destroy them internally. No real station that belonged to S-4XN-001 had been invaded, two of them had been engaged in with battleships and a promptly dis
patched by the stations massive defenses, and after a few hours a massive fleet of billions ships arrived and hunted down the enemy and the north watched in fear when a fleet that had over 50.000 titans jumped into the nearby systems to get to their enemy, The northern warriors had stayed clear of his path and the gains was massive, they tried to hide a few fleets by transferring them around but when he demanded the return of those given fleets, the north quickly got the picture that no matter how sneaky they were all their resources were gonna get snatched.

  S-4XN-001 had made an example of the north by setting fire to a moon in the northern emperor system, No response was made in return and everyone seemed happy that he was just gone. Andrei was extremely busy, and he could not handle the load of prisoners alone, he had trained over a hundred new people to help handle the "information gathering", It was a costly job mentaly, but he had a new horde of pirates and just general sickos to help, the galaxy was now in the golden age of depravity and mayhem which he liked, but he also liked to step into the transport and then sip some drinks on his nice little beach house, perks of the job of course. His information was the same as always, a warrior assigned him to attack the station etc, It was the same warrior and that did not make sense in his mind, but he guessed they had to plan this and this warrior killed himself before the invasion started, He forwarded the information and kept doing his job the soldiers were quite easy to break and most of them were promoted due to lack of combat trained officers, the north sector was swarmed with civilians that were close to brainwashed zombies.

  They had swallowed every lie from the north and any information that counter it was stonewalled or just counter with cheap logic like present proof and then denying it because a sunbeam was angled incorrectly. Andrei was tired of these easy pickings, he preferred people with a bit more meat on their bones, the conspiracy was solved, and he just had his victims repeat it over and over again, he had delegated every new prisoner to his trainees to train their techniques. A few used violence, but he knew the truth always came easier with lies and honey, he would assume he was a master of his craft since his success rate was now over 99%, but that was because of these recent influxes of people.

  Christine choked down on her water or the little she had today, she was starving for some real portions instead of the watered down soup and half-empty packets of nutrients food, She had been steadfast and not betrayed the station and the plasma grenades were taken to the armory, a few days later the armory was destroyed when it was hit by a missile from the enemy combatants. She was terrified, but she had to keep her morale up, the soldiers hardly cared about living or dying anymore and any attempts to get supplies had been stonewalled, they could not get a signal out, and they had been here for over a year.

  She felt trapped, and she almost regretted turning the grenades in, but she would not trust someone that pretended to be someone else. She had to stay strong " Christine, We got bad news. They struck again and this time it's. It's the last of the supplies. You are being directly summoned to the commander center." the soldier said with dead eyes and a monotone voice, he was a good soldier that followed orders but the chaos were beginning to spread already. When she walked down the corridor she saw soldiers scavenging trashcans and empty apartments for anything including dog food. There were plenty of animals on the station but most of them had already been eaten by eager soldiers and all the hostages were executed while she and several soldiers protested, they could not spare the food, and they rather not starve them to death. She had suggested a prisoner transfer of the station for some supplies and that was a no go, they could not transfer out the hostages for when all the hostages left the station would be destroyed.

  She had cried many sleepless nights, and she almost wanted to run to the armory and get a gun and shoot her superior, but the mission came first. They had to do this so the north could reclaim their lost technology to better help humanity as a whole, instead of the hording and thieving south. She had not had any contact with anyone on the outside for at least two years, she's been on the station and every soldiers' death was more of a relief for the remaining ones, so they could get their portions of food. She was disgusted with whole situation, and she did not even know really why she kept going.She stepped into the commander center and the men looked exhausted and down right depressed. "Good, we all are here. Please sit."

  The newly appointed high-commander sat down, the last five had been killed whenever they stepped into their apartments or wandered near a ventilation shaft, They had blocked most of the ventilation shafts and that had helped the situation. The lifts were incredibly guarded with at least 100 men on each lift on each floor, They had been bored senseless and the enemy attacks had been calm until today. "Good news is, we have gotten contact with our outside fleets and rescue is coming, i repeat rescue is coming! They are gonna break the battle line and supply us, so keep being strong." Everyone cheered and Christine got a huge smile on her face.

  "Now, i want you all to go around and break the news for the crew, rumors will destroy us if we let it fester. We just need to hold out!" the commander said with a smile. Everyone stood up and was about to leave and report to the crew when the commander motioned a few to stay, Christine looked around, and she was asked to stay, so she sat back down, The door closed and only she and two other commanders was in the room. "Alright, I need solutions there is no food, there is no rescue and mutiny and rebellion is upon us." he said with a frank face.

  Everyone was shocked to hear him just straight up lie to all the lesser commanders. Christine spoke up "Sir? Are you saying we won't get supplied, or that we won't be rescued?" the commander nodded slowly "We have fought together for more than a year now and i won't sugarcoat it, the first commander had always known this was a suicide mission. We. Were never supposed to be able to leave at least not back to the north, the mission was to disrupt the Souths armies so the north could take the western sector. When i became high-commander and inside the office was a signed letter with the orders, Every commander has read it before me. I'm sorry, But we must lie to the soldiers to keep control as long as we can.There is no rescue, there is no surrender either. We cut that path when we killed the hostages intentionally. We had already broadcast before the first month that the hostages had been killed because our demands were not met. The first commander only kept them alive this long just in case for bartering more time, I'm sorry again. But we need to do this." The room was first startled depressed then finally angry, and they all roared "WHY!" the commander shook his head.

  "You think the north has ever told any of us the truth, huh? You think the south stole their technology? Get real, people we are here to pressure the south to surrender all technology, so we can defeat them. Everyone knows it." the commander was very loose lipped suddenly, and he stared to cry "I hate this, i hate everything about this missions since i learned the truth. Why lie to us about everything?" the commander pulled his gun and shot himself in the face in front of everyone.

  Christine shouted out in surprises and reached for the emergency button, but she was stopped just before she managed to push it."We can't let the crew know that the commander is dead, we are the three highest ranked officers left, who should be the new commander?" a man said. Christine shook her head and walked out her head was spinning, and she wanted to scream at everyone she saw in the hallway about the truth and how she's been lied to all her life, she walked into her apartment and just lied down on the couch. She just stared at the ceiling not moving or answering her messages, she laid there for what felt like days until she finally got a voice message on her radio "Hey, Jerry here. Wanna talk? Lift number 46, Ten minutes be alone." She rose with a spiking adrenaline rush she rushed out into the corridor and got into elevator 47 she pushed the soldiers out and just pushed a button too anywhere. Her elevator froze suddenly, and she was then transferred somewhere unknown and out of her control she turned around when the door slowly opened, and she saw a man with full armor beckoning her to enter.

  S
he slowly stepped into the corridor, and she entered a room that looked like a massive lounge, she was scanned with a beam and after it turned green the man pulled of his armor. "Now we meet again with my real face, You can call me Oleg." He smiled Christine just shook in fear when she realized what she had done but Oleg pulled off his armor into a wall socket and it disappeared like it was never there she was led into a room, and she was sat down on a comfortable chair, he walked to the wall and pushed a tile and a food printer came out the wall. He pushed a few buttons and then waited thirty seconds then pulled out a plate filled with food. He put it in front of her and then went to take a plate for himself, Christine just dined in immediately she did not care if it was poisoned, and she would die horribly. She was just so hungry.Oleg just smiled and started to slowly cut into his tender steak, and then he poured two glasses of juice, Christine chugged down the smooth orange juice, and she even made a noises like child, She would have liked her lips and fingers if she were alone, but she had some decency she thought.

  He just laughed casually and there was a quiet half hour while she ate, and he just drank a few beers." Truth is, we are about to kill everyone on the station. But i thought about you and checked in on your little command meeting, pretty rough" he chuckled. "I felt that you disappointed me a lot when you did not blow up anyone with those plasma grenades, but the sad part is that i stared to treat you like a pet or maybe a friend perhaps.Heh. So i decided I'll save one person and that's you. So where do you want to go? I can take you anywhere in the galaxy, and for the news update. The north does not want anyone back, and several thousands of stations are in similar situation. We are needed at a few new stations, so we can't play around here anymore, We have already struck the oxygen supply and the station is none the wiser they will fall asleep and die within a day." Oleg said with a fiendish smile-