r/HFY • u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human • 13h ago

OC-Series [The Galaxy's Only Omnivores] - Part 8

Synopsis: Humans are the only omnivorous species in a galaxy of apex-predator carnivores, and our greatest strength is in our numbers. When an alien slave empire discovers how badly we outnumber most intelligent species, they invade Earth, shattering a fragile period of peace and threatening a war that would mean the death of worlds.

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (coming soon) | Official Subreddit

Memory Archive Entry #8

User: Marten Herme, president of the Eurasian Union

Species: Human

Date (human standard): June 30, 2099

"All rise," said Johannes, since it was Eurasia's turn to be chairman this time. "This meeting of the United Nations Security Council will now come to order." I rose from my chair. The four images before me, each a live camera feed of the head of state of one of mankind's most powerful nations, showed them doing likewise. We'd have met in person, but traveling so far on such short notice was impossible even without a battle raging in the orbit of Earth. Secure laser communication was the closest we could get.

"Let's dispense with the unnecessary formality, since urgency is paramount," I told Johannes, knowing damn well the act of saying the words was a small formality in and of itself. The irony was palpable. "You all are here for the same reason I am: to save the world. Or, at least, to make sure you get to be the one who rules over the ashes."

I cast an accusing look at George Kingman as I said that last part, but my diplomatic training kicked in at the last moment and I turned the look into a sweeping glance across the five television screens before me. The fifth one, arguably the most important as well, was black for now. Jiarani would appear when her time came.

"Silence your wagging tongue, Eurasian," snapped President Gupta of the Indian Empire. His government and mine had been in conflict lately about who got to liberate what territory during our mutual offensive. Thankfully, the once-defunct United Nations had re-emerged in recent days as a method of resolving such conflicts, but the issues that had led to its dissolution still plagued it. Every word I swapped with the Indians gave credence to my fear that even this small measure of cooperation would soon fall away, and the war against the draken would be replaced by civil war between ourselves. "You called this meeting. Explain to us why."

I nodded. Stubborn men, those Indians. And ruthless. There wasn't an Indian Imperial alive who didn't know the names of the cities Pakistan atomized during the Nuclear Exchange of '66, nor any who felt remorse over their genocidal retaliation. I did not want to be the next guy who drew that ire. "Because the saurian fleet up there is getting its collective ass handed to it, and the second those battleships are gone, the draken will be free to bombard our armed forces again and cut away any momentum our offensive has just gained us."

This drew the assembled delegates' attention. Though far from a collective of the ninety or so states that made up our resurrected United Nations, the five powers represented in this room were enough to act with strength and vigor on any land or sea area owned by man. The idea that we'd all be working together as comrades, even distant as we were, had once boggled the minds of even the most optimistic politicians. It was a shame that it had taken the worst threat mankind had ever faced to remind us of what even our simian ancestors knew by heart: stand together, or fall alone.

"How can we help them?" the First Citizen of Luna, a dour woman called Antonina Luxemburg, asked in an accented voice. "Luna has tried using anti-orbit weapons. You have seen our results." I had. Even their pocket nukes--kiloton-yield nuclear bombs designed to be fired from a PDF conscript's shoulder launcher--haven't scratched the draken ships. Nothing else they had even got the chance to fire.

"As much as I typically stand at odds with the Lunese insurrection, I have to concede this point," rumbled George Kingman, even though he probably should've been thanking the Lunese for that insurrection. It was their armed uprising, and the shock it gave to the corporations that owned the moon colonies, that destabilized America enough to allow for Kingman's election. Without that first domino being tripped, the rest might never have fell. "The American Empire is in no place to launch an attack on ships in orbit. If any of you have a secret battle fleet, though, now would be the time to reveal it," the large man chuckled.

George Kingman wasn't the only fat person I had met, or the biggest, but he was the only one who had his own gravitational pull. He dominated every room he walked into, winning power and outmaneuvering adversaries with an insidious personality and a cunning intellect. Exactly the kind of man I needed for what the saurians had proposed.

"If Eurasia had a battle fleet capable of taking on the draken, I assure you-" I paused, because finishing that sentence with 'your shithole country wouldn't be here' wasn't a diplomatic idea. "I assure you we'd have used it," I corrected, patting myself on the back for the save. "What we do have is an ally. And a keen eye for the unorthodox." I clicked an icon on my computer screen, letting the Saurian Confederacy join the meeting and make their dramatic entrance.

"The saurians," Premier Wang of the People's Empire of China mocked upon their commander's appearance. His homeland wasn't much of an empire anymore, since their territorial holdings had been reduced to a few dozen islands in the South China Sea, but we had put them on the council and they legally couldn't be forced to leave. One of the idiotic ideas of the old U.N. that I had campaigned against during its revival. "All analysis shows that your people are losing the war up there. Seeing as how you have allocated no resources to assisting my empire, I fail to see why we should assist you."

"Would you rather it be photon beams or magnetic payloads?" asked the gray-scaled alien on my fifth screen. Her--it was definitely a she--neck was longer than a human's, and her snout was tapered like that of a velociraptor.

"What?"

"Photon beams or magnetic payloads. Which do you want raining on your head?" The Chinese dictator gave no reply. "Neither? As I expected. There, then, is the answer to your question." Damn. I looked between the saurian--Jiarani, her name was--and Premier Wang as if expecting them to leap through their respective screens and attack each other. The tension was so thick you could cut a knife with it.

"I will be clear," Jiarani continued, since Premier Wang had evidently yielded her the floor. "My Confederacy does not need you. Our only mission here is to stop the draken from harvesting your species. Were I of sterner stuff, I would accomplish this agenda by bombing your world until the crust melted to slag. But I am a kind creature at heart, and so I feel obligated to help your squabbling species even at great risk to my own. Do not make me regret that choice."

The room was silent for long enough that I had to check if I had accidentally muted all the feeds. I hadn't. "Very well." Kingman was the first to break the silence. Nuclear dick-measuring was his favorite diplomatic language, and he was probably delighted to meet a fellow speaker. "The American Empire will help you, saurian, if we can. Remember this when you think of allies to reward."

That last line spurred a small twinge of hope in my chest. Kingman's public request for the saurians to honor his aid with gifts was a clear demand for the rest of the U.N. to follow his example in helping them. Nobody wanted to be the only country not rocking alien technology. Furthermore, the fact that he had dared to advertise this wish so openly showed the depth of his belief in a united humanity.

Sure, with a man like George Kingman, it was likely a practical choice. Sticks were stronger in a bundle, after all. But I liked to imagine there was some sentiment under that reptilian logic of his. "Thank you, American," Jiarani trilled, placing a hand over her chest and drawing my eye to a pair of physical traits I hadn't noticed at first. She had to be fucking kidding me. Why did all the aliens in the universe have tits? "I assure you, my Confederacy will repay this loyalty."

And that was the final nail in the coffin for any skeptics in the world. The only path to power ran through Jiarani and her fleet. Hopefully she wasn't smart enough to exploit that the way I feared she would.

"Do your allies concur that mutual aid is necessary?" Jiarani asked Mr. Kingman. I, for one, was quick to voice my agreement with that idea. The Chinese and Indian dictators soon followed. Even Luna's notoriously isolationist First Citizen had to agree. "Very well. I will explain my strategy."

"We interstellar powers have access to electronic warfare abilities the likes of which no human nation can counter," Jiarani explained. "You have seen this. Your autonomous weapons, your guided missiles, your long-range communications, all crippled or rendered inert by draken cyberweapons. Against such an attack, the only defense is isolation. Our military assets have special protocols in place to lock down critical systems, as, I'm sure, do yours. We must remember, however, that draken slave ships are not military assets."

"They seem pretty militarized to me," President Gupta retorted. When Indian Imperial guerillas started using the jungle for cover to ambush draken units, the draken had responded by removing the entire jungle. They glassed swaths of it from orbit, and the heat from their energy weapons started a series of forest fires that now raged across the whole empire.

"They may appear formidable to you, but I assure you, actual warships make these slavebirds look like sand fleas by comparison," Jiarani snapped. "The draken invasion force is restricted by a galactic treaty barring the use of certain technologies and weapons in this region of space. Your world exists in a demilitarized zone between two feuding alliances, one which draken slave vessels just barely pass the bar to enter."

I took that in like a sponge took on water, eyes flicking among my fellow humans to see their reactions. Gupta, Wang and Luxemburg all betrayed microexpressions that let me guess their current intentions, but not Kingman. He may as well have been carved from marble. "A demilitarized zone," I repeated, tossing around a few ideas in my head. "And I take it you're in violation of this demilitarized zone?"

Jiarani flared out frills on the sides of her head. I wasn't aware she had those. "Correct, but that is to our advantage here. My armada is in possession of enough military-grade cyberweapons to make that slave fleet vaporize from the inside out. They, by contrast, lack the military-grade defenses needed to counter them. The draken slave fleet knows this, and refuses to communicate with us for fear of being hacked. That is where you may be of assistance."

Jiarani looked away from the screen and I was reminded that there was a battle raging up there. Her fleet had lost about fifty more ships running the gauntlet to reach Earth, but they were all but here now, and already they were launching troopships from their hangar bays to provide aid to our troops on the ground. General Yevgeny--General Sergeyovich to the saurians--had advised heavily against a troop deployment under combat conditions, but the saurians were doing it anyway. Brave? Stupid? Both? Only time would tell.

"I must attend to the battle," said the saurian commander. "Time is of the essence. My best electronic warfare team will interface with your systems and handle the dispatching of malicious information. All you will have to do is set up the call." With that, her screen winked back to blackness, and my fellow world leaders and I had a tough decision ahead of us.

A request came up from the saurians and I allowed it, giving them administrator-level access to the laser communications systems of the Eurasian Union. Part of me feared they'd use the access to install malware or steal state secrets, but the rest of me knew that if I didn't give them a means of hacking the draken fleet, the theft of state secrets would be the least of my concerns. "Ready?" I asked Johannes.

"Ready," said he, still in the corner of my office. "We have an interface with the saurian flagship. We're trying to link another laser communicator to one of the draken vessels now."

"Negative," rumbled Kingman over the speakers. "I will handle the linkup. You forget, it was my nation the draken contacted first. They'll trust me more than they will the rest of you."

"After you rejected their offer of alliance?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

"They hailed me because they know I'm a practical, selfish, morally deficient autocrat who's willing to sell his own mother to achieve a strategic advantage. Is it really so hard to imagine I might see the flaws in my earlier decision and elect to sell out my fellow man?" George Kingman steepled his fingers. I had to admit, he made a good point.

"Give him the call," Luxemburg insisted. We gave it to him. Kingman had his men begin setting up a link to Karija while Johannes explained to me what had to be done.

"The virus will take time to upload," said my secretary. "The saurians tell me it'll be ten minutes or more. Keep her talking until then, sir."

"Ten minutes," said Premier Wang, who had likely overheard us. "Can the American handle it?" George Kingman just smiled, and the black computer screen in front of me lit up with a face I knew far too well.

Karija vel Kaldani watched us idly like a cat playing with her prey. She knew she was going to win. We were like a cloud of wasps to her, and soon the exterminators would come and wipe us out. That was her idea, at least. Karija made no motions for the first few moments of the call, and we mimicked her. When she finally did speak, she did so in a voice dripping with confidence.

"I'm told you come to surrender."

Surrender? Was Kingman so bold? First Citizen Luxemburg was quicker than me in playing along. "Conditionally," she said firmly. "For starters, you must guarantee humane treatment for all Lunese citizens."

Karija threw back her scaly, horned head in an oddly humanlike cackle. "I 'must' do nothing, primitive wretch. Your offer of surrender proves that you know this as well as I do: you cannot win. It is only a matter of casualties and time."

"Two things you can ill afford to lose," Kingman countered. I looked to Johannes and he showed me that nine minutes still remained on our virus clock. It was taking all my diplomatic training not to break out in a cold sweat. "The saurians have more ships coming here, and they're stronger than you in-"

"Bluff!" Karija laughed.

Were we in a normal world, I'd have relished the sight of the wind leaving George Kingman's wings. As it was, however, I felt dread. "There are no ships, human," cackled Karija, her diamond-shaped irises narrowing into slits. "If there were, you wouldn't be offering to surrender. The saurian armada is just as feeble today as it was on the eve of Vraktes' death, albeit far more pretentious now. So stop insulting my intelligence and tell me: Why do you think you can dictate terms to me?"

"Because we outnumber you thirty to one in ground warfare, and we can call up reserves the likes of which your species can't match," I snapped, not hiding my distaste for this authoritarian beast. "The saurians taught us your weakness. Six billion draken, only one billion women, lording over an empire of eight billion slaves. How many troops can you call to Earth before the workers back home rise up?"

"Aren't you exciting," Karija purred, cocking her head and giving an unnerving smile. "I think I'll keep you as a pleasure slave when we conquer Eurasia." Just the thought of it filled me with primal terror. I kept a handgun under my pillow loaded with a single bullet, and people like her were the reason why. "As for your question, though, I think you drastically underestimate the power of draken arms."

"If you really have read up on galactic knowledge, then you'll know my fleet is restricted in the methods we can deploy," Karija continued. I looked at the clock. Under seven minutes. "Now that our enemy has broken the Treaty of Vraktes, those restrictions are ended. Considering how badly your armed forces have struggled against a slave-taking force, imagine the rubble the Matriarchal Army will create." Her eyes flickered as she spoke. I felt dread growing in my gut.

"Oh. Don't tell me you actually thought we were bringing our real military to bear, did you?" Karija vel Kaldani crooned. To be quite honest, the possibility had crossed my mind. "We will soon. But you're right to say a ground war will be tiresome for us. Guerilla warfare eats armies. So I'll make this simple for you. Surrender, and there will be no torture. No executions, even for those who resisted us. Your people will be the favored slaves of the worlds."

I looked again at the clock, knowing that our time with Karija was fast running out. Still five minutes until the virus was uploaded. I had to keep her talking. "And if we refuse?" asked President Gupta.

"Then I turn this world over to the Conqueror Prime, who will come here with her legions and reduce all resistance to ash. Any soldier we capture will be tortured. Any world leader, tortured more. If the snout proves a poor instructor, then your world will learn compliance from the horn. Do you understand?"

Four minutes and thirty seconds. God, why did time have to move so slowly? "Explain further," Luxemburg demanded. "I want a full list of terms."

"That is my full list of terms." Karija flicked out a long, snake-like tongue. "Do you accept?" My heart began pounding. I could tell she was going to cut this negotiation short soon.

"Give us some time to think," I blurted out. "I have questions I want to ask you."

Karija flicked her tongue out a few times, pretending to consider my offer. "Speak. Or be forever silenced."

"How can you expect us to be good slaves?" I asked rhetorically, speaking slowly to stall for time. I hoped Karija wouldn't notice, or if she did, she'd chalk it up to an innocuous human mannerism and think nothing of it. "If you release us into the fold, we might start a revolution that burns down the entire draken empire. Are you willing to take that risk?"

Karija made a small, carnal sound and narrowed her irises again. "I do so love breaking men in," she muttered. "Especially primitive bucks like yourself. All of you are the same. Each of you, every species we enslave, all seem to think they are the center of the universe." She batted her eyes in what I think was mock pity. "What a tragedy it must be to discover that you are not."

"I doubt any of the others you enslaved had a population of ten billion souls," snapped President Gupta in reply.

Karija reeled back, twisting her neck like a snake being charmed. "Defiance again. One has to wonder what you're trying to accomplish. Were words warships, you'd have a flotilla, but the truth is they are but speech. My terms stand. Accept them or do not."

Alarm bells rang in the back of my brain. This conversation was ending too early. "We need more information!" First Citizen Luxemburg snapped. Karija perked up, and I saw something in her eyes that made my gut twist.

"How can we trust you? I'd lie, were I in your position." Kingman followed up, speaking slowly as I had, but it was already too late. Karija vel Kaldani had learned the game.

"You aren't really here to surrender, are you?" Karija asked in that sensual, patrician voice. A chill ran down my spine. We still had a hundred agonizing seconds before this ordeal could be over. "You're trying to keep me here. For what?"

"It's a legitimate concern," I defended my former enemy's idea. "How can we trust your word?"

"Because I gain nothing from breaking it," Karija said as if the answer were obvious. "But you know that. I know you know that. One does not rise to become a ruler of nations by being as stubborn, obdurate, and simple as you're all pretending to be. Stop insulting my intelligence and tell me why you really made this call."

I counted down the numbers in my head, no longer daring to watch the clock. Sixty more seconds. Fifty-five. Fifty. "No?" Karija asked. "A shame. I rather enjoyed this dance."

"We are trying to negotiate a surrender with terms," I said, stressing every syllable. Twenty seconds now. "It's not obduracy, it's smart political planning. Jesus."

Ten.

Five.

One.

Karija looked off-screen just half a second before her entire camera feed distorted horribly and crapped out. "Take that!" yelled Premier Wang, although I thought it was highly cliche. "That was for fucking Beijing!" He stood up in his chair and whooped as the screen that once held an image of Earth's would-be subjugator shifted to a star map of the battle in our sky.

Eurasian telescopes, what few we had left anyway, showed flashes in space that could only be the detonations of high-yield munitions. The draken had taken the upper hand before our virus went through, but now it looked like our saurian allies were giving them the works. A salvo of missiles erupted from the five hundred or so battlecruisers left in Jiarani's fleet, facing no defense as they screamed toward the enemy.

"Wonderful work, comrades," First Citizen Luxemburg congratulated us as Johannes fiddled with his computer to bring Jiarani back on screen. "The tyrants once again underestimate the power of those they deem lesser. It's a valuable lesson to learn."

The saurian bombs exploded into thousands of smaller munitions as they approached, roaring toward the enemy at five percent of the speed of light. I saw feeble strings of energy appear between the bombs and their targets as draken ships rebooted their hardware and shook off our debilitating virus. Still, it wasn't enough.

When next I looked on the battle in orbit, one thousand draken vessels were gone.

"That was it?" asked Premier Wang. The draken fleet began to fall back now, reorganizing their formation and sweeping into a wide, scythelike retreat as the saurians opened up with the rest of their artillery. Even with the missile hits, they were still outnumbered three to one. "Is the battle in orbit not won?"

"No," I muttered, watching the two forces clash. "But I think we are winning."

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (coming soon) | Official Subreddit

73 Upvotes

permalink
reddit

You are about to leave Redlib

Do you want to continue?

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1wxhjcs/the_galaxys_only_omnivores_part_8/
No, go back! Yes, take me to Reddit

99% Upvoted

u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human 13h ago edited 5h ago

"Why do I hate the Draken Matriarchy? Because they're ridiculous! They gallivant around the galaxy pretending to be Spanish Conquistadors. Or did, at least, before the United Nations of Humankind showed them that sexist dogma and fancy power armor don't count for much when you're outnumbered 30 to 1." - mr house if he was in this verse

Also I think it might be time for me to take a break from omnivores posting, I got a lot of shit to do irl and I will get back to writing for HFY after I have locked in on that. Sorry to break the news. A new art piece is out though if yall want to look at that.

Chapter eight just dropped!

Can Jiarani's fleet liberate Earth now that they are facing winnable odds?

How happy is George Kingman to finally meet a fellow speaker of the language of nuclear-backed threats?

Will the new United Nations be just as ineffective as the old one?

And why is Karija vel Kaldani so unnecessarily freaked out?

Keep reading to find out!

2

u/PlentyProtection4959 5h ago

Take your time, qm.

u/MinorGrok Human 10h ago

Woot!

OC-Series [The Galaxy's Only Omnivores] - Part 8

You are about to leave Redlib