Master of Violence
by AJ Marks
Part 22
Jeff looked on as the shuttle landed allowing several aliens out. Toncor stood next to him, and surprisingly Yissffer, who was still here despite their protests and shouting they were going to leave.
“Welcome to Earth,” Jeff said to them knowing the translators had been set up for everyone’s language. They had worked on it before the meeting. Since the systems were similar the exchange went very quickly.
“Thank you,” one of the taller aliens said, he had grey hair making him look older to Jeff, but he waited to make a judgement as grey could be a natural color and it could turn another color though aging. A second alien had red skin and red hair along with the most unusual orange eyes.
“I’m Jeff.”
“I am Belru,” the alien said again, the motioning to the other red-skinned alien, “and this is Tzittif.”
Jeff heard the name but knew he’d have trouble pronouncing it.
“Shall we get comfortable?” Jeff asked, motioning for them to head inside.
They agreed and headed inside the building. Jeff watched as the aliens seemed to look around, one was almost cautious in his approach to everything. It caught Jeff off guard and he wondered about the actions and what they might mean.
Toncor appeared relaxed as did Yissffer. Jeff listened in as Toncor and Belru started a conversation.
“How is the rebellion doing?” Toncor asked.
“Honestly, not good,” Belru replied. “We’ve suffered too many losses lately.”
“Not many races actually try to stand up to the O’krad,” Toncor said.
“The who?” Belru asked.
“O’krad, is the name of the Dark Race,” Toncor said. “We’ve discovered their name.”
Jeff thought Belru seemed surprised by the information.
“You didn’t know?” Toncor asked.
“I’ve never seen it, or was able to understand it,” Belrus said.
“The humans are quite adapt at such things,” Toncor said.
“I see, what else are the capable of? Their warships are very different than anything we’ve encountered before,” Belrus said.
“They are full of surprises,” Toncor said. “One moment they are quite violent, the next the most caring and peaceful race I’ve ever known.”
The reply seemed to cause Belru to remain quiet as they continued on down. The other alien remained as they walked into the set up meeting room. Several chairs were brought in allowing them all to sit down at the table.
Jeff considered Tzittif to look like a child at the table due to his size, but no one said anything as they all sat down along with the President.
“I am President Natile Carter of the Earth Government,” Natile said to them all as Jeff sat down as well.
“I am Tzittif of the rebellion council,” the red skinned alien said. “And this is Belru, our senior intelligence officer and expert of the Dark Race.”
“Really?” Jeff heard Natile say. “We’d love to know everything you have about the O’krad.”
“O’krad?” Tzittif asked.
“It’s what they have discovered their name to be,” Belru said. “Though, I am curious as to how you gained such information.”
“They attacked our colony first, from there we have gained information from spies on the planet. We’ve learned a bit about them from that information, including the slaves they have,” Jeff said speaking up.
“Spies?” Belru stated.
“Yes, they are observing what is going on at our colony for when we move to retake it once more,” Jeff said.
The statement was met by silence as Tzittif and Belru looked at each other for several seconds.
“You would recapture a conquered world?” Tzittif asked.
“They have declared war on us, what else would we do?” Natile replied.
“War, we are unfamiliar with that term,” Belru said.
“They attacked us,” Natile said.
“War is when two nations, or groups, or in this case two races, fight each other,” Jeff replied.
“And what are the rules of war?” Tzittif asked. The question caught Jeff off guard as it wasn’t something he was used to answering. To his surprise it was Toncor who answered.
“War has no rules according to the humans, or at least that’s what I’ve learned,” Toncor said. “There is one goal, win.”
“No rules?” Tzittif said. “How do you maintain your morals, your values?”
“Those are the thing you are fighting for,” Jeff said. “It doesn’t quite mean you ignore everything, but if you limit yourself in war, then you are putting yourself at a handicap. If you say you will not attack certain groups, you give your enemy an advantage, especially if they use those groups to attack you. Not calling the enemy for what he is can give him a psychological edge, or not using a weapon simply because you consider it too powerful. There are some problems with powerful weapons, and if both sides understand using them assures mutual destruction then they are not used. It is an undesirable and can be a reason for not starting a war.”
“You obviously operate according to some rules, what are they?” Natile asked.
“We do not kill,” Tzittif said shocking Jeff.
“Then you’ve already lost the war,” Natile said.
“What do you mean?” Tzittif asked. “If we keep to our rules we maintain a high moral victory.”
“No, you have given the enemy power over you. They know they will always defeat you,” Jeff replied to them. “They don’t fear you at all.”
He gave it some thought about what he had heard about this rebellion before continuing.
“Its probably why you still exist, they don’t care what you do,” Jeff said. “You go, warn a planet, they evacuate leaving behind intact buildings and cities, all they have to do is move in and take over. You’ve done nothing but enable them in their path of destruction and conquest.”
“You insult our efforts?” Tzittif said.
“Not insult, only state that you have done nothing to change the outcome,” Jeff said trying to be diplomatic in nature. “You have never stopped them from taking someone else’s planet, have you? Stopped them from taking what someone else worked hard for. Their home, where they grew up, where their family came from. Their history, their past, what should be their future.”
Jeff watched as Tzittif started to say something when Belru stopped him placing a hand on his arm.
“They are right,” Belru said. “We are enablers of the Dark Race. We’ve done nothing to actually stop them.”
“There isn’t anything we can do to stop them,” Tzittif said.
“We did,” Jeff replied.
“How?” Belru asked.
“We destroyed one of their ships,” Jeff stated watching as both aliens went silent for several seconds.
“How will they respond?” Natile asked.
“I, I don’t know,” Belru replied. “We’ve never done that.”
Jeff understood one thing now, the O’krad was probably just as shocked over what happened as this rebellion. He had a feeling a new war was about to happen now. They have lost a ship and never understood what was going on. In a strange way, the relationship between the O’krad and rebellion had given humanity a huge psychological edge over the enemy.
“You have something senator?” Natile asked.
“Well, yes,” Jeff said looking around. “Its obvious the O’krad are not used to death, at least not their own. It will give us a psychological advantage for now.”
“What do you mean?” Tzittif asked.
“We are used to death in war, in a way,” Jeff said. “Our military men understand they might die defending the planet, or in an attack. Its considered inevitable in war that someone dies. As a result, such losses are expected in war.”
“Sounds barbaric,” Tzittif said.
“We don’t like it over a long period of time, but we understand it, especially even more considering the way this war started,” Jeff said. “They attacked us with no warning, a major faux pax. They did the one thing which guaranteed to unite humanity against them in this war, a surprise attack with no warning.”
“What can you tell us about them?” Natile asked.
*****
Angie looked up hearing some people approach. She crouched low waiting a few seconds before a familiar face appeared and Jack and Ben entered the clearing.
“Well?” Charlie asked as everyone crawled back out into the open.
“It’s a go,” Jack said. “My friend was willing, and will talk to a few others. They’ve been wanting to do something and this will allow them to help in some way.”
“Good,” Charlie said.
“Also dropped by to send some messages and pick some up,” Jack said.
“And anything?”
“Nothing much, only that they encountered another group, a rebellion,” Jack said to them.
“A rebellion?” Sven asked, even Angie was curious about this. She had not heard of anything about that before.
“Yeah, though your uncle didn’t sound too impressed with them,” Jack said looking over at Angie.
“We shouldn’t expect much then,” Sven stated.
“Not really,” Jack said. “I did say we were going to try and slow them down.”
“You know, that’s bothered me a bit,” Charlie said finally as everyone looked over at him.
“What do you mean?” Sven asked.
“How slow they are at cleaning things up. I mean they should have cleared this away and been building new buildings already,” Charlie replied. “Surely they are more advanced than us, why does it take so long?”
Angie thought about that and went over what she saw and realized he was right. They were slow at cleaning up the rubble.
“No machines, its all done by hands, in this case slave labor,” Jack said after a few seconds. “And with some rebellious people they’ve slowed it down.”
“Possible,” Charlie said. “But it doesn’t explain why they’ve pretty much stopped sending out patrols either.”
“You’re right, we haven’t seen one in several days now,” Sven replied.
“Yeah, well just so we don’t drop our guard,” Charlie replied.
Angie looked over as Jack was working with her phone about something.
“What’s up?” Sven asked.
“He sent a file as well,” Jack said looking things over. “More intel about the O’krad.”
“What type of intel?” Charlie asked.
“Seems like this rebellion doesn’t kill,” Jack said.
That statement was met with some amazement by several, including Angie. She wondered how they rebelled if they didn’t actually fight. What were they doing if they were not fighting? How does one rebel that way? She looked up to see everyone else just as confused by the statement.
“What are they doing, singing kumbaya?” Ben asked.
“Don’t know, they don’t say,” Jack said.
“So, what do we do next?” Angie asked as the conversation returned back to what they were doing.
“So far, we hold on for now, keep in touch for as long as possible,” Jack replied.
“As long as that is,” Sven said. “Any information about when they might be coming to get us?”
“They don’t know that information yet,” Jack replied. “It could be a while, they don’t have the fleet to undergo such an invasion yet.”
“Well, they only have about half a dozen warships,” Sven said. “Not really an invasion force, and probably barely enough to keep Earth defended.”
Angie’s heart sank at that statement.
“The price of neglecting the military,” Charlie said.
“Didn’t need one until now, was a waste of time,” Crystal said. “Who knew there was an alien race bent on conquest out there?”
“But there was,” Sven said.
“Its all hindsight now, the real question is what we do now,” Charlie said.
“Not much we can do except stay out of sight,” Jack said.
“We can keep the phone charged, they might be able to contact us when the invasion happens from the ships even if our contact point is lost,” Sven said
“Right,” Charlie said.
Angie wondered how long they would be out here for, and when, if ever, the rescue force would come and free Sierra from the O’krads. She was more than ready to head back home and a more comfortable bed.
End part 22