章 3: Humans Are Insane

When the Human race was first recognized by the galactic council not much was thought of them. Basic tolerance to both heat and cold and a decent power-to-weight ratio. The only thing mildly impressive about them was that they were one of the few non-apex predator species to rise to sentience much less to the space age, however, in saying that they were considered a species lacking in any amounts of honour. The death of even one of their leaders would spark a war of succession lasting for years, in a sense they are certainly not the worst species in the galaxy but they are a far cry from the best.

The Turaxi were the first galactic race to consider exploiting the weakness of Humans. Thus they waited. Waited for the inevitable spark that would lead to all of Human civilization to blood and war.

27 years after being recognized by the council, that sparked, the Turaxi have waited so long for raged into an all-encompassing inferno that engulfed the entirety of the Human race. The images that came out of the first week of conflict still haunt me, I don't know how a race can practice such death on its own people. There was no compassion, no honour just the cold calculation of slaughter. When the Human conflict was entering its twilight stages, the Turaxi struck.

Millions of Turaxi troops and warships poured into human-controlled territory, one by one their planets fell and in the millions, the Humans died. The rest of the galaxy turned away, the Humans were on the brink of annihilation and no one wanted a part in that, some even helped with the Turaxi invasion with provisions and weaponry in return for conquered Human territory. The Human race was at its end.

However, instead of fading inelegantly into extinction the humans did something incomprehensible, they united, years of animosity and hatred gone in mere weeks. People who not three months ago pledged to the slaughter of one another now greeted each other as brothers, the once unstoppable Turaxi advance ground to a halt, after conquering almost 73% of the Human territory in six weeks they now failed to push another light-year after eight months of conflict. The Turaxi had done something extremely dangerous, they had given Humanity a common enemy.

2 years after the Turaxi-Human conflict began, the unthinkable started to happen, the Turaxi were being pushed back. The Turaxi media claimed it to be a strategic move to cause huge Human casualties. That may have been true, the Humans might have been using enormous amounts of resources to gain back control of their territories, however, once recovered, it was never retaken, as explained to me by a colleague of mine, the Humans would as they say simply "dig in". An insane concept to simply sit on reconquered territory and let the Turaxi come to them, and come they did.

The Turaxi battered the Human lines again and again and again, then just when it looked like the Humans were content with the territory they had retaken they launched massive counter-offensives that forced the Turaxi into yet another scrambling retreat, a truly insane tactic and yet it was working out to be a brutally effective method of war. The Turaxi would not admit that, and probably never will, they were losing.

6 years have now passed since the beginning of what is now the largest war in 500 years of galactic history. The council had assumed that the Humans would cease hostilities once all conquered Human territory was back in their hands, the council of course had assumed wrong. Not only did the Humans not stop hostilities once all of their territory was retaken for all intents and purposes, it appeared that the Humans wanted to erase the threat to their species, no more than that, the Humans wanted blood, they wanted revenge for the Human blood on Turaxi hands, and nothing would get in there way. In one of the most ridiculous twists of fate, the Turaxi were now fighting for their right to exist.

The council in a state of panic called for an emergency peace talk between the Humans and the Turaxi, to everyone's surprize that Humans agreed thus the first cease fire since the outbreak of war was implemented. Turaxi, Human and the 9-member council races sat for peace talks. The discussion brokering for peace went well, the Humans once again surprised them, they held themselves well and spoke with reason and understanding to the council races. However, they steadfastly refused to engage with the Turaxi, looking back it might have been a sign of things to come however at the time I thought it understandable, as I was part of the diplomatic mission I had hopes that an end to the conflict would be close at hand.

That was until the discussion of reimbursement was brought up by the Turaxi as was their right as the conquered party to demand equal monetary compensation for any of their lands still held by Human forces at the signing of the treaty. The entirety of the Human party fell silent as they heard the Turaxi ambassador first speak of it, finally after some time one of their members spoke up: "Please tell me this is some kind of joke to commemorate the start of peace".

The member for Cennai spoke up: "Of course not, it is their right to ask of that and it is your duty to comply to not do so is simply..." The member for Cennai paused for a moment "Incomprehensible".

The Human party fell silent yet again, the leader of the Human party stood and stated calmly "You will have our answer within the hour." Without another word he left the room followed wordlessly by the entire Human party.

The council pleased with the outcome of the talks all sighed with relief it appeared that the Humans were willing to back off. And so we waited for the Humans to respond with an acceptance of peace.

To the second on the hour, the council received the Human message, it was the Human leader. For several seconds, all I could see on the vid screen was the Human as he simply sat staring at us with a peculiar look not talking not moving simply looking.

"Blasted Human emotions" The member for Cennai suddenly stated: "So goddam hard to read, computer identify emotion."

The computer chimed to indicate it had completed its analysis: "Emotion identified: barley contained ra-"

The Human leader abruptly spoke over the top of the computer: "My dear council members," He turned to smile at the Turaxi member. "Member for the Turaxi, I regret to inform you that we cannot accept the terms for peace as they stand." Within an instant there was silence for the first time since the start of peace talks. Still smiling at the Turaxi member: "However we are willing to compromise."

A Turaxi soldier suddenly burst into the room. "Sir the Human ships are on the move."

The video screen cut into two, half on the Human leader and the other showing the Turaxi home world surrounded by the entire Human armada. The Turaxi member spluttered and turned to speak with the Human leader "What? How, when did you do this!?"

The Human leader just continued to smile. Then without warning the Human armada opened fire, within seconds thousands of years' worth of Turaxi culture was incinerated, billions of innocent's dead before they could comprehend the horror befalling them, one of the greatest empires in the galaxy was simply no more. No one moved, no one spoke, even the Turaxi's grief was soundless.

The Human leader spoke up again "As you can see we have decided to compromise. 16 billion of my fellow Humans have died since the outbreak of this conflict." Everyone turned stunned to look at the Human leader trying to take in the immense loss of life. "I feel that trading 10 billion innocent Turaxi for 16 billion innocent Humans is a more than fair compromise." Even I could tell the word compromise was laced with venom and scorn, the Human leader continued. "As a race, we are now open to any negotiation of peace."

"Are you insane!?" Roared the member from Cennai: "You have just declared war on the entire galactic council. Peace? This is as far from peace that any being can achieve, there will be no peace until your vile race is wiped out from even the memories of my grandchildren."

The Human leader turned his still smiling face to the member of cennai. "Good." The Human leader no longer attempted to contain the rage pouring from his eyes "I was hoping you would say that."

14 days have passed since the Turaxi-Human war ended. There was no peace treaty, no surrender, no cease-fire. One side did not have a people anymore. It has been a long 14 days since the galactic council declared war on the Humans. 4 council races have defected from the council. All of them were disgraced at the council's initial inaction and lack of prevention of Human loss of life at the opening stages of the Turaxi-Human war, all 4 of the defecting races voted to stop the Turaxi when they first began to show an interest in the Humans, all bullied into inaction by the Cennai. It's unthinkable that 4 races have defected from the council, but then again this is the first time in 570 years that the council is at war, and not since its formation has it been at war with itself. Humans, in 34 years they have torn down millennia worth of tradition, co-operation and understanding.

"Oi mate." Grinned my new friend sitting next to me waking me from my daydream. He was absently picking his nails with a metallic close combat weapon. "Not having second thoughts on me, are ya?"

I grinned back: "Not on your life my friend. This will be the first time in nearly 600 years that the Onórach have been to war." I looked at my friend sitting next to me and my grin broadened.

"No, no, my friend on the contrary it has been much too long, this shall be fun." His grin burst into an all-out laugh. "Just stay alive long enough and I'll show you how to cook the perfect steak"

I shook my head at him, Humans are insane.

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