Master of Violence
by AJ Marks
Part 24
Mark looked over seeing Victoria approach him and he learned that she usually had a certain walk for when she had important information, like right now.
“What’s the news?” he asked as she stopped and looked at him.
“How do you know I have anything to say?” she asked. “I could be coming to see if you need anything.”
“Ah, well, you have a certain type of walk when you have information,” Mark finally replied wondering how she might feel to know he was watching her so closely.
“I see, well, you’re right,” she finally said after a few seconds. “The Fletcher is beginning trials now.”
“Great news, and the others?” Mark asked.
“The next ship will be done within the next week,” she replied to him.
Remarkable, Mark thought to himself. They had built a new warship so quickly. Of course the idea of being destroyed had focused attention on it. News reports seemed to be giving almost constant updates about it. He had a feeling that the ship being completed was a major cause for celebration for everyone, except he knew they would need more.
“Good, how long will those take?” he asked.
“They are underway as we speak,” she said.
“Good,” Mark said knowing the ship actually replaced a damaged ship in the fleet, but it was a start and a ship they could use for future advances. He knew a lot of the construction docks had changed to building warships. Once it was converted the output would actually be quite tremendous. For now they had to buy time to get that ability working. He turned back to Victoria. “Anything else?”
“No, just normal reports from all the groups, one interesting thing which is happening is the aliens with Toncor are asking for permission to settle down on Mars,” she said to him.
“Yeah, and what is the government saying?” Mark asked knowing how dangerous the Earth was to many other races.
“They think it’s a good idea, a place where they can set up, and help us out as well,” Victoria said. “They are leaving to set up today.”
“Hopefully the O’krad don’t attack there, it would take us a while to get there,” Mark said.
“So far all of their attacks have come to Earth, there is no intelligence to say they will attack Mars,” Victoria said. “And with some help from the rebellion we’re gaining some new information about their movements.”
“What have they found out?” Mark asked a bit interested in this part.
“Only that they have picked up some intercepts,” Victoria said, she would have said more when her phone dinked indicating some new information. “Oh, this is interesting,” she stated leaving Mark wondering what was going on. “We’re sending a ship and some diplomats to the rebellion to talk to them.”
“Oh, whose going?” Mark asked, knowing that he probably wouldn’t’ be, he was needed here to help defend Earth.”
“Senator Jeff, a few other military people and intelligence people along with Senator Greg Nabrov,” Victoria said.
“That will be interesting,” Mark said hoping it all went well.
*****
Jeff walked onto the transport Jupiter along with Tzittif and Iccol, a Simian who was helping Toncor with the relocation of their people to Mars. Jeff learned from Toncor that Iccol was a young politician before the invasion and this meeting would be good for him to learn to grow. Jeff hoped Toncor was right about that.
They had decided to take a human transport as the Pak had smaller ceilings than human ships and any human would be crouched in most areas due to the smaller size of the Leceaubia race. Belru was staying down on the planet as he was working with intelligence learning even more about the O’krad. For some reason the alien had taken to the intelligence department and was becoming a vital asset to helping learn about the O’krad.
“Senator, how long will the jump take to reach HQ?” Tzittif asked.
“According to the captain it will take about a day jump for us,” Jeff replied. The rebellion HQ was quite a distance away, and this would be the largest jump for a human ship ever undertaken. The biggest difference was the fact they had the path to take. There would be no guessing on the jump. Because of that the jump was much shorter than without knowing the path.
“I see, a bit longer than our jump engines,” Tzittif replied. “It’s strange how you can match the Dark Race and still be behind us in technology.”
“Not really,” Jeff replied causing Tzittif to look back at him. “You are concerned with developing certain areas of technology where we used some of that tech to develop improved weapons systems and such.”
“Is that really important?” Tzittif asked.
“Yes, if you don’t develop new weapons then you stagnate in your weapon development,” Jeff said. “It might have occurred with the O’krad as well. They’ve had no reason to develop new weapons, until now.”
He watched as Tzittif seemed to think about that. It made Jeff wonder what type of reaction he would get from the rebellion.
*****
Jeff made his way down the corridor on board the ‘rebellion’ station. A large station which had a dozen ships around it, all of which were warships of different types. He assumed it was survivors from different races which had been attacked by the O’krad over the years. The ceiling was a bit low for him, but he managed as they passed a doorway and entered a large meeting room.
He was motioned towards a chair and sat down. It was a bit small but would do for now. He looked around seeing several other aliens enter the room including a few others who seemed more important than the others. All appeared humanoid in appearance leaving Jeff to wonder if there was evolutionally superiority to the design. Of course they all appeared smaller than a normal human as well.
One, a blue skinned looking alien, which had two small tentacle like things above each eye sat down and seemed to take charge of the meeting.
“Greetings,” he said to Jeff. “I am President Lumin.”
“Jeff Cerial, senator of Earth,” Jeff replied.
“I must admit, we are, well, surprised by everything we’ve learned recently,” Lumin said to him.
“As are we,” Jeff stated being diplomatic to them at the moment. He would hear what they had to say before making any decisions, and he would have to speak with his leaders before agreeing to anything.
“You Earthers are quite, surprising in your resistance to the Dark Race,” Lumin stated.
“We don’t take kindly to people who want to invade our home,” Jeff replied. He watched as a few others looked on before Lumin spoke again introducing several of the others.
The military leader was an alien of the same race as Lumin, called Vislo, along with another orlian, the same as Belru, who was an aide to Lumin called Orlisa and was a female.
There were also several other aliens who he was introduced to who were senators in the rebellion’s government. They appeared very organized and yet, seemed already defeated by the O’krad. Of course what Jeff knew of the group meant they really were not fighting but delaying the advance of the O’krad.
“I am curious, how large is your military that you can defend yourself against the Dark Race,” Vislo asked.
“Our military is actually smaller than your military, and the O’krad, but I won’t say how many ships are in it,” Jeff said.
“Then how did you manage to stop the Dark Race?” another senator asked.
“We did what you do in war,” Jeff said knowing he was going to shock the group. “We fought as they would. It is kill or be killed.”
He looked on watching as the group in front of him went silent for several seconds. The same reaction that Belru and Tzittif had given them when they were told. Of course the rebellion had managed without killing. To humanity it seemed a way to lose a war easily.
“I’m sorry, but such tactics seem, well, barbaric to us,” Lumin stated, even as other agreed with him. Several seemed almost outraged by such actions and Jeff waited a few seconds before saying anything else.
“I never said we enjoyed it,” he said to them. “However, in war you cannot give your enemy even a slight advantage, or you put yourself at a disadvantage.”
“Then how do you maintain your moral high ground?’ Lumin asked.
“What does that high ground get you if you lose the war?” Jeff asked knowing the question Lumin asked was almost exactly what they were asked by Tzittif not long ago.
“The satisfaction of not giving into your enemy,” Lumin replied.
“Yes, but who knows that?” Jeff asked. “All that’s left is the enemy, and there is a saying on my planet, the victor writes the history.”
“I’m afraid I do not understand,” one of the others said.
“It means the person who is victorious writes the history books, and they will write history in such a way to make themselves appear better,” Jeff said knowing it happened over and over again throughout Earth’s history.
“Does that not taint history?’ Lumin asked.
“In a way, yes, but its how some groups act,” Jeff said. “Not everyone acts like you do, not everyone has the same customs. You say you’re open minded, then close your mind at the thought of something different than you. You try to force your way on a group which probably considers your group cowards and deserving to be killed.”
“That is a difficult thing to accept, and you insult us by saying we’re not open minded,” Lumin said.
Jeff looked at them all before finally speaking again. “Look, there is a group called the O’krad who are trying to conquer the universe, and it appears you don’t seem to want to stop them from taking over the universe. You will reach a point where you have to stop running, not because you don’t want to, but you have no place to go.”
He watched the group for several seconds as they seemed to think about that. Vislo spoke up much to his surprise.
“You say all of that, but yet, actually doing it is very different, hard for a race to do,” Vislo said. “We have made it this far because of our values. To toss them aside is something we are unwilling to do.”
“As are we,” Jeff said shocking several of them. “My race is not one to allow someone else to attack us without fighting back.”
Jeff noticed they all seemed unsure of it all and he recalled something Toncor said to him.
“I was told by another friend of mine, a Simian named Toncor, that the human race was raised by the universe differently than many other races,” Jeff said.
“I don’t understand,” Lumin said.
“Our planet, it’s a very dangerous place,” Jeff said. “We’ve grown up facing dangers all the time. On our planet you learn how to defend yourself, or you become someone else’s dinner, literally. The predators and the prey, a constant evolution of change to adapt to each other.”
He looked on as they appeared to consider that bit.
“Our nature is to fight, and if it means to kill, we will. Many of us will fight when cornered, its when we are most dangerous,” Jeff said to them. “It won’t matter what you say, we will fight the way we know how.”
Now all he had to do was wait to see how they might react to this all. Humanity’s way of fighting was vastly different than the rebellions.
End part 24