272 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
272 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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###INCOMING TRANSMISSION###
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source: r/hfy
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author: u/h2j1977/
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subject: Four hours, Seventeen minutes
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note: The following message appears to be a record taken from a
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history class conducted by teacher of unknown race. The record
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indicate possibly reptilian humanoid species.
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---BEGIN MESSAGE---
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Four Hours, Seventeen Minutes
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The invasion of Earth lasted only four hours and seventeen
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minutes. It was the shortest campaign in the Kavoxian Hegemony’s
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history, which is saying something, as we had conquered 31 other
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civilized planets before them. We first detected the human
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civilization twenty-five years ago through our deep space antenna
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network that picked up their various broadcasts and entertainment
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feeds. We focused our long-range sensors in that direction and
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waited for more information.
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Good afternoon class, my name is Telex Hoon, and I was the Minister
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of Military Intelligence fifteen years ago when we sent the
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invasion force to Earth. My team poured through thousands of
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terabytes of data, trying to determine culture, mindset, military
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capability, and anything that might be useful in the invasion
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strategy. The first problem we encountered was filtering out the
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facts from the fiction. Humans, as it turns out, are a particularly
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imaginative and prolific species. We Kavox have our own
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“entertainment” sector, that is responsible for creating
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educational and instructional long and short form holovids, as well
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as written manuals. However, we have been told that we are not a
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particularly creative species. Perhaps it stems from our ancestors
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being reptilian, or perhaps it simply stems from the fact that for
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most of our existence, we have had to fight and claw our way
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through life, and things like art and fiction are not particularly
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vital to survival.
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Anyway, I digress. We quickly found that much of the information
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our antennas picked up was either fictional, trivial, or just plain
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wrong. What we did manage to verify is that Earth was not a unified
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world, instead ruled by many nations with vastly different agendas.
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We also detected no signs of FTL travel. Lastly, despite what their
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movies and sci-fi entertainment suggested, they did not have
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advanced shielding technology or energy weapons. Armed with these
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key indicators, we reported to the military tribunal that this
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should be a simple invasion, as we were dealing with a pre-FTL
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civilization.
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Earth was ten years (Earth years, about 8.17 Kavox years) away via
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FTL travel, so we began building up the invasion force. After ten
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years, we had built one hundred and thirty ships specifically for
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the Earth invasion. We placed twenty-three million Kavoxian
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soldiers, pilots, and engineers into stasis, and transferred them
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into 30 long range Quylar-class ships (named after a Kavoxian super
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predator that carried her young in an armored belly pouch before we
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hunted them to extinction). The armada had 30 Quylar class ships,
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30 Bylun class hunter ships (the human equivalent is a battleship
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if I recall), 40 Swygian class ships (destroyers and frigates in
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human terms), 10 Podas class hospital ships, and 20 Aghon-Ka class
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control ships. The Aghon-Ka ships, as most of you know, is how our
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fleets can travel vast distances through space by creating an FTL
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field large enough to pull multiple ships with it, all while
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providing command and control functions to keep the whole fleet
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data-linked as well as synchronizing combat maneuvers.
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The day came for the fleet to depart Novamus, our homeworld. We
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don’t celebrate the way humans do, with grand events, big flowery
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speeches, or other meaningless displays. So, on the 33 day of Reol,
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in the year 2357, after a thirteen-minute speech by our Supreme
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Apex in which our invasion force was reminded of their duty to be
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fearless, loyal, and victorious, the fleet quietly slipped out of
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the solar system and jumped to FTL with no complications.
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The next ten years were also mostly uneventful. Our ships are
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incredibly reliable, with several redundancies built into all vital
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systems, and are crewed by function-specific AI robots with
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Kavoxian engineer overseers. Those engineers must always be
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remembered for their sacrifice. They spent the prime third of their
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life in deep space surrounded by the cold void, lifeless robots,
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and the knowledge that they would never see Novamus and their
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clutch mates again. You must understand that the engineers knew
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that they would die on Earth as part of the occupation force,
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because they wouldn’t live through a second ten-year trip exposed
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to cosmic radiation. The average 30-year life span of a Kavoxian is
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reduced by approximately a year for every two spent in FTL,
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according to the Ministry of Health.
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We arrived at the edge of the human controlled solar system and
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staged at what they call the Oort cloud to mask our ships while our
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troops were brought out of stasis and final battle plans were
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written up. We detected a small colony on the 4th planet (Mars, so
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named for some god in their ancient history), a nasty looking
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series of weapon installations on their moon, and several dozen
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defensive satellites surrounding the planet. The decision was made
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to attack the faction with the largest and most advanced military
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when their moon installation was on the far side of the planet. The
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North American continent was to be our beachhead.
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We did a synchronized micro-jump to within the orbit of their moon
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(approximately 350,000 of their kilometers) and began attacking
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their defensive satellites.
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Hour one: We attacked and disabled the twelve satellites that
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covered our initial attack vector with only minimal losses. Within
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the first twenty minutes, we saw resistance build in the way of
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small ships, barely large enough to carry two or three crewmembers.
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They were firing ballistic weapons that were ineffective against
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the armor of our larger ships but proved quite formidable against
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our Swygian class destroyers and frigates. Their lack of unified
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tactics, and the fact that there was such a massive amount of
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variation in the ships made planning a counter to them quite
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challenging. After a few minutes we were able to listen in to their
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communications. To our shock, these were not their military force
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that were attacking us, but civilians in their own personal
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shuttles. This first failure in our intel gathering was
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disappointing, but nothing we couldn’t overcome.
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At about the thirty-minute mark, the first military vessels engaged
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our fleet. These ships were far more formidable, but still no match
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for our Quylar and Bylun class warships. These human vessels were
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equivalent to our Swygian cruisers, and armed with ballistic
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weapons, missiles, and even a couple high powered rail guns. We
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focused our attacks on the rail gun equipped ships after one of
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them ripped Thelp’s Respite (our lead Podas class hospital ship) in
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half with a well-timed barrage.
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At the end of the first hour, we had lost ten Swygian class
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destroyers and the Thelp’s Respite. Another dozen Swygian cruisers
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were damaged, but still in the fight. Two Quylar and 5 Bylun ships
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had taken damage, losing some weapon placements and hull plating,
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but were otherwise fully functional. The humans had lost over 300
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of the shuttle class ships, 130 fighters and 30 destroyers. We were
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taking a few more losses than anticipated, but within acceptable
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parameters. The invasion was on schedule.
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Hour two: At about two hours and twenty-eight minutes into the
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invasion, our sensors detected a massive fleet of human battleship
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class vessels that just materialized out of nowhere. The commanders
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later reported watching in horror and shock as one after another
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ship materialized into the dark void of space. At first, they
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thought it was some sort of extremely advanced stealth technology.
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But the truth was so much worse.
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It turns out that humans are paradoxically both impatient and
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extremely cautious. They had determined long ago that space travel
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was too time consuming and dangerous, so they abandoned FTL
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research. Instead they developed wormhole drives. This species of
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hairless apes had done what no other species in the galaxy had even
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dared to try: Bend the very fabric of space because they didn’t
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have the patience to travel at FTL speeds. They developed wormhole
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drives because long distance space travel is dangerous and comes
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with serious health risks. Let me restate that. These humans
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decided that getting into a ship and flying at FTL was too time
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consuming and dangerous, so they instead developed technologies
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that allow them to RIP A HOLE IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE so they can
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travel anywhere nearly instantaneously.
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It took twenty-two minutes from the arrival of the human fleet to
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break our assault. Admiral Rejka sorrowfully ordered full retreat,
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and gave the command to prepare to jump to FTL and regroup a weeks
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travel away from the solar system. It took another ten minutes to
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calculate the FTL jump and disseminate it through the Aghon-Ka
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ships to the rest of the fleet. That became known as the longest
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ten minutes of Kavoxian history. After receiving confirmation that
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all ships had received and plotted the FTL course, Admiral Rejka
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issued the command to retreat.
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Hour three: Upon issuing the retreat command, everyone braced for
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FTL, which nearly all of the invasion force (except for the voyage
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engineers) had never experienced, because they were in stasis for
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the initial journey. However, instead of the stretching lurch and
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blinding light and sudden total darkness of FTL travel, every
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monitor on every ship displayed the image of a human wearing an odd
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white hat with a wide up swooped brim that dipped slightly in the
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front and back. Then every speaker on every ship opened up:
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“Welcome to Earth. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Admiral
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Coleman of the United States Space Navy. It appears we’ve had a bit
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of a rough first contact. It seems you’re in a rush to leave, but I
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must insist that you stick around a while. Allow me to show you how
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we Texans feel about trespassers.” With that the screens went
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blank, the speakers were silent, and a rare feeling began to creep
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into the minds of all but the most stalwart warriors: fear. These
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humans had just broken through our security protocols, disabled our
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FTL capability, and broadcast audio and visual to every device
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capable of receiving the transmission across the entire fleet.
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Admiral Rejka ordered all of the Bylun and Swygian class ships and
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half of the Aghon-Ka ships to form a picket line to protect the
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Quylar ships, the Podas hospital ships, and the other half of the
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Aghon-Ka ships as they retreated at full impulse away from this
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death trap of a solar system. As the Quylar ship group began to
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make a break for it, the humans surprised us again. Wormhole
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missiles. Missiles with warheads capable of creating wormholes that
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would suck the affected ship into wormhole space and shunt them out
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at a predetermined location. That location was inside the
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chromosphere of the sun. It took 30 seconds for the entire picket
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line to re-materialize and be vaporized by their sun.
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At ten minutes into the third hour, Under Admiral Olgk surrendered
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the remaining fleet. Admiral Coleman reappeared on all screens and
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speakers. “I graciously accept your apology and surrender. I do
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feel a might sad about what was done to the other half of your
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fleet. As you’ll notice we didn’t destroy your troop carriers or
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the other fleeing ships, these, uh, Ag-hon Kay class vessels? We
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have rules of war here that don’t allow for killing those in
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retreat. I wish I could say the same for y’all, but after reviewing
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the first two hours of combat footage, that just isn’t so, now is
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it?” Admiral Coleman looked away for a second, his face showing
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several emotions – sadness, anger, and then back to this
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affectation of polite charm. “I tell y’all what. We’ve just
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finished decrypting the data those command ships were relaying. I
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think we’ll pay a visit to your home world of Novamus. I’m sure
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we’ll be able to clear up this whole mess in no time. Y’all just
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sit tight and follow the instructions of the boarding parties that
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will be coming by in the next few minutes, and we won’t need to
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have any more of this unfortunate business today. Okay, ya’ll take
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care and sit tight.”
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With that, the monitors and speakers went quiet again. Under
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Admiral Olgk could only watch in horror as seventy-five battleship
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class ships dematerialized, knowing they would be at the home world
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in moments.
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Hour four: The human fleet materialized inside the atmosphere of
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Novamus and immediately opened fire with rail guns and missiles.
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Seven minutes later, every orbital defense platform, gun battery,
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missile silo, and military installation on and protecting Thrux,
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our main continent, was destroyed or disabled.
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Seventeen minutes later the Supreme Apex issued an unconditional
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surrender over every broadcast platform, flanked on either side by
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humans in combat exosuits. The population was in shock. Kavoxians
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don’t panic, as we don’t have the emotions wired into us that would
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cause it. But I tell you this with all sincerity, our society
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nearly fell apart in that very instant. Everything that we had ever
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known was questioned. We had never lost a war or failed to conquer
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a system. No invading force had ever made it into our solar system,
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much less actually broken our atmosphere. But in only four hours
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and seventeen minutes we had gone from being the conquerors to the
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conquered.
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Then, Admiral Coleman spoke to everyone on Novamus: “Greetings from
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planet Earth. I wish I could say that under better circumstances,
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but we play the cards we’re dealt. I apologize for the damage to
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your infrastructure. We did our level best to avoid civilian
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casualties, but unfortunately war is like painting a portrait with
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a mop. We’re not here to conquer you, or to enslave your people to
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serve our needs. We’ve long since moved past that phase of our
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history, which, if I read this intel right, your kind have not yet.
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But, no matter. We’ll help you get that sorted out in no time.
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Personally, I’m excited to meet our other new neighbors and make
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friends. Whether or not we can become friends is up to you. But I
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do hope you make the right choice in that matter.”
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Admiral Coleman then concluded: “I’ll be on my way, but we’ll be
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back to check in soon. In the meantime, I think you may have
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misplaced these. You can have them back on the condition that you
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keep your toys in your yard from now on.” With that, the remaining
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Kavoxian fleet materialized in atmosphere, above the capital
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building, their shadows darkening the city. Just as quickly, the
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human fleet vanished.
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And that, students, is the story of the invasion of Earth. Today
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marks the fifteenth anniversary of the conquest of Novamus. Your
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homework is to write a 500-word essay on the impact of the humans
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on the Hegemony. You may include cultural examples, political
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examples, and the liberation of the 31 subjugated planets. Please
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have it on my desk in one week. Dismissed.
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---END MESSAGE---
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