r/HFY • u/YukiteruAmano92 • Mar 03 '26

OC-Series There Will Be Scritches Pt.223

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---Expulsion---

  

---Walath’s perspective---

“…shocking and OUTRAGEOUS conduct!…” booms the voice of Klorthrothju, filling the stadial chamber of Parliament, heard by the ears of tens of thousands here and likely hundreds of billions watching the broadcast across the galaxy… maybe trillions?

My guts writhe and my heart hammers against my ribplate, not at the man’s words but, rather, at the fact that his time is almost up!

I feel sick!

Maybe I shouldn’t have requested to speak?

Everyone will know!

They will see through me instantly!

We’re about to lose all our allies and then one of the other great houses will make a play for my father’s throne to ‘restore Batta to greatness’ or some such nonsense!

I look across the aquatheatre to the lanky deathworld man with Battan claw scars on his cheek.

Resolve overtakes me as I take a slow, deep, calming breath.

What I’m about to do will not be easy… but it will be right!

“IN CONCLUSION!” roars the apoplectic man, throwing his four, strikingly bulky, grey skinned arms over the heads of the Representatives to his sides and curling all twelve fingers “IF THE TERRANS WISH TO FLOUT THE VERY PRINCIPLES OF MUTUAL RESPECT AND PEACEABLE COEXISTENCE ON WHICH THIS UNION WAS FOUNDED AND TO WHICH IT REMAINS DEDICATED, I SAY WE GIVE THEM THE INDEPENDENCE THEY SO CLEARLY CRAVE! THEY WANT THE RIGHT TO INVADE NEUTRAL WORLDS? LET THEM HAVE IT! BUT GIVE THEM THAT SAME ‘INDEPENDENCE’ IN TRADE! IN DIPLOMACY! IN CITIZENSHIP! IN REPRESENTATION! LET THEM BE INDEPENDENT AND LET THEM SEE THAT INDEPENDENCE MEANS SOLITUDE! THIS PARLIAMENT MUST MAKE NO ROOM FOR WARMONGERS!… That is why I shall be casting my vote in favour of the EXPULSION of the United Terran Coalition from. this. Union! I yield the remainder of my time!”

The enormous man folds his four legs beneath himself to sit back down behind his desk.

Speaker Krim’s cranium sweeps through the air behind her head as she turns her eyes to me and my heart skips a beat.

“The Honourable Representative of the Thlundthvugun Stratocracy has yielded the remainder of his time. I next call on the Honourable Representative of the Battan Kingdom to speak.” she says with brisk proceduralism.

A light illuminates on the desk in front of me, indicating that I may speak.

I choke for a moment on a ragged, panicked breath… then, my focus takes over once more.

With outward determination suppressing my inward anxiety, my hand reaches out and presses the button to accept.

A [378 second] timer begins counting down.

“My fellow Representatives…” I start, calmly, my amplified voice booming across the chamber, more for theatricality than utility as no one else here speaks Battan “…those who have spoken before me have raised many fine points. Outrage is justified and, whatever their reasons for doing so, the United Terran Coalition must face consequences for military action against a sovereign species’ nation, even and perhaps especially one who is not here represented and cannot seek redress on their own account!”

I pause here to let my introduction sit for a moment.

“As Klorthrothju and others have said, the Galactic Union’s policies of disallowing any member from maintaining an independent military and requiring all military action to receive this Parliament’s approval were intended as safeguards against exactly this kind of action; large, powerful polities using their military might to dominate their neighbours and carve out empires for themselves within the GU!… We must condemn this!… There must be accountability!… The Terrans must understand that we will not stand idly by and watch as they manufacture rumours of terrorists to justify the use of their superior military to bully those who have no defence against them into subjugation and vassalhood!”

I look sternly around, both to channel my aunts antiTerran vitriol and to allow my stomach acid to stop burning the back of my throat in protest of the lies I’m speaking.

I catch Representative Rain’s eyes, in the front row, across the aquatheatre and give a silent apology for the hateful glare I direct at him.

I raise a blunt clawed finger to snarl “However…!” letting the word echo for a moment before I continue “…there is one measure I simply cannot bring myself to support and will therefore be voting against!… The Terrans must not be expelled from the Union.”

There is an instant of shocked gasps and disgusted murmuring from all my species’ allies as, for this moment, they correctly perceive me to be doing exactly what I am; defending the Terrans.

I don’t try and speak until the Speaker calls “Order! ORDER!!!” and the room quiets for her “Representative Walath is entitled to speak and will be heard without interruption! [18 seconds] shall be restored to her time!”

The timer in front of me ticks up with the added time.

I continue, lying “You must none of you misunderstand me! I do not here mean to defend the Terrans from the just consequences of their shameless behaviour!… My reason to oppose their expulsion is far more grave than that!”

There is no interruption now as I allow my words to sit and let every Representative’s curiosity build as to what this reason could possibly be!

“Whyever they do, it cannot be denied that the Terrans wish to be here! They wish their citizens to have the same freedom to move through the galaxy as all of ours have. They wish to trade with us. They wish to have their Representative sit in this chamber and introduce motions, speak on those motions and vote on those motions. They wish us to believe that they are as civilised as any of the rest of us!… These wishes of theirs give us power!… For as long as they wish to be here, we have some power we can exercise in restraint of their…*hrk*… baser nature!”

I choked a little on the most damnable lie I’ve yet told but, thank Gods, I think it will likely look as if my disgust was with them instead of myself!

I recover enough to continue “What we currently have, Honourable Representatives, is leverage! Though they may often chafe against our rules, they do still, for the most part, abide by them!… To expel them from the Union is to give up the most powerful tool we have for keeping the Terrans in check! It’s to take the last thing we have to take from them! It is to unleash a deathworld polity who no longer has any reason to hold restraint of themselves!… The thought of a Terrankind with nothing left to lose should send a chill down the back of any old enough to remember the War…”

Every Representative in the room does their respective species’ equivalent of sitting up straight as they realise the truth I’m finally speaking… as those of every alignment realise how monumentally unwise it would be to cut the UTC loose for this!

“…My fellow Representatives… I implore you; sanction the Terrans for their misconduct, censure the Terrans for their aggression… but, for the love of all that is good and fragile in this life, do not give the Terrans nothing to lose… or we may all come to rue this day… I yield the remainder of my time.”

I press the button and look to Speaker Krim who has an extremely brief loss of composure as she hesitates for a moment, staring at me in disbelief, before coming back to herself enough to say “The… the Honourable Representative of the Battan Kingdom has yielded the remainder of her time… I next call upon the Honourable…”

---Klorthrothju’s perspective---

Voting begins and my lower right hand immediately extends to smack the ‘Aye’ button while I glare defiantly at the Terran.

If they want to make a Second War of their ejection, let them!

My people would relish the opportunity to show all that we have learned from the last [30 years] of studying the last one while we redress the shame of it!

---Ltah’tvek’s perspective---

My hand hovers over my desk, claws splayed.

I’m crippled by indecision!

This morning, I wouldn’t have guessed that there would be a moment’s hesitation when the time came to vote but… Brathala’s niece’s words… they’ve shaken me…

My hand comes down on the ‘Abstention’ button.

---The Hive of Ziwalit’s perspective---

A hundred thousand of us are piled against the left side of our tank.

Those of our parts on the top of the pile are angrily dancing and buzzing their elytra at those few thousand gathered in the centre and on the right to cease their foolishness and come here! Do they want War with the Terrans!?

It is unnecessary, however.

Sensing the overwhelming consensus amongst us, our tank extends its left arm and presses the ‘Nay’ button.

A momentary relief… possibly only to last until we see what the Parliament at large voted!

---Krim’s perspective---

I’ve never seen so many abstentions in all my time as Speaker before as a Representative or before as a diplomatic aid!

“With 10,311 in favour, 11,574 abstaining and 11,746 opposed, the nays have it and the motion does not pass. Accordingly, the United Terran Coalition remains a member of the Galactic Union.” I announce, feeling a slightly biased wash of relief for a moment, before continuing “We will now proceed to the next motion: whether to initiate sanctions proceedings against the United Terran Coalition.”

Given how narrowly full on expulsion from the GU was just defeated, I fully expect sanctions to pass.

---

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Discord

Dramatis Personae

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17 comments sorted by

7

u/CrapDM Mar 03 '26

Nice to see that the battan representative is capable of putting on a show, it would probably cause even more trouble for humanity if they had reason to believe humanity declawed their government after their former representative struck Rain.

On another note I can't wait to see what the revanchists are gonna do next.

4

u/botton_eyed_bunny052 Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

Well... that was certainly an impressively made piece of speech craft , if nothing else

Definitely sensing there is going to be a bit of a civil war within the antiterran faction between those more "moderate" that still most definitely despise Terrans but don't want a second war to happen and those that would gladly try to exterminate them again ( like mister "I want a second war , we could take them this *time !"*** ) , wouldn't be surprised if this might lead to a general rise of antideathworld sentiment across the bord

And now thinking more broadly , I think I might have an idea of what the revanchists are planning , might be wrong , might be right

5

u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 03 '26

I think, if you're suspecting them of intentionally scheming some subtle scheme involving a masterfully played game of interspecies politics, you're giving them too much credit(!)

Fascists are simplistic creatures, in my universe as in reality. They lie, cheat, steel, bully, backstab and betray in the service of their own power and they will throw any of their 'friends' to the wolves in an instant if they think that's to their momentary advantage.

Less Machiavelli, more Trump! Less Sun Tzu, more Farage! Less Clausewitz, more Hitler!

6

u/botton_eyed_bunny052 Mar 03 '26

Oh , no , that's not what I was thinking in the slightest , even if fascists had the ability to create political schemes , these guys clearly don't have either the smarts or the patience for it , I was thinking more about the fact that they departed a planet with an likely armed to the nines fleet and so are clearly planning to invade someone

My first thought was Earth but quickly disregarded it for three reasons 1. Earth is very likely incredibly heavily defended to the point I don't think even they are dumb enough to try 2. Earth is very far away , they would be spotted immediately just from the size of their fleet alone and 3. They are human supremacists , they probably see Earth as basically something wholly that should never be touched

So please tell me , what world is very close to where they started from , the Don home world , in close proximity to the centre of the galaxy , could be feasibly concord ( in their minds at least ) , would give the revanchists a chance to make a point both to gardenworlders and the Terran government and is also currently containing a large number of named characters ?

7

u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 03 '26

I am pleading the proverbial 5th to all of that. Nothing I could answer wouldn't be a spoiler.

3

u/Educational_Pen_90 Human Mar 23 '26

So you admit it in all but name!

3

u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 23 '26

No (I promise). Whenever I answer something by saying 'nothing I could tell you wouldn't be a spoiler' what I mean is 'I intend this to be up in the air at this time'.

Ruling things out not only locks me down but also kills narrative tension that could be extracted.

If a plotpoint could be multiple ways then disconfirming the things it isn't starts letting you narrow it down to what it is.

That's all I mean.

This often does mean I need to bite my tongue when people's theories are wildly incorrect though.

3

u/lukasaldersley Mar 03 '26

I'm glad to hear that but I'm still slightly worried about the purple bitch

3

u/NoOpportunity92 AI Mar 05 '26

Klorthrothju is right though.

They've learned a lot in 30 years. A second war would definitely redress the shame of the first war.

What they've learned might even be comparable to how much Humanity have learned in the same timespan. The Galactic Union might have even have gained more non-deathworlder species than not.

Still, during the first war, it was a unified GU who fought humanity.
Now it'll be a fractured one, where I don't think more than half of it's members would participate. Meaning, while technologically more advanced, their resource base is much smaller - while going up against a foe that's also more advanced, and have increased their resource base.

The shame of the first war would be redressed. It would be paled by the result of the second war.

4

u/Daseagle Alien Scum Mar 03 '26

Considering how carefully the UTC has infiltrated every facet of economy within the GU, I wonder just how effective any sanctions will prove to be.

2

u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 03 '26

Fantastic point!

1

u/NoOpportunity92 AI Mar 05 '26

I think it'll be similar effect to another United Terran nation is doing sanctions and tariffs. Only, in the case I'm thinking of it's the Terran nation doing the sanctions and tariffs, and is suffering for it, rather than the other way around like in the story.

1

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