Savages

His calm was not born of insouciance, but of clarity; he already knew what would happen and how it would play out. He waited outside the Lord High General’s office, letting the harried couriers and lesser generals bustle about. A subtle feeling led him to move to the other side of the entryway as the door swung violently open where he had just been.

“The Lord High General calls for the Royal Seer, Terkannan!” The guard that opened the door and barked it out hadn’t even noticed Terkannan until he was halfway through the door.

He approached the broad desk and bowed. “Lord High General, I am at your service.”

The general’s voice was hoarse from non-stop meetings since the first light of dawn. “The primitives in this system, here,” he said, pointing at a star chart. “You’ve seen the reports, what is your assessment?”

Terkannan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Not that he needed to, but it helped maintain the mystery of his line; long bred for intuition to the point of being nearly precognizant. “They are savage, brutish creatures, capable of only violence. This has led them to fight each other, making the strongest among them their leader. Strong they are, too…far superior to our raw abilities, but that’s what weapons are for.”

The general nodded in assent and motioned for the seer to continue.

“Due to their violent nature, they will advance only slowly if at all…assuming they do not do us the favor of wiping themselves out first. Worst case, they may advance rudimentary armor in a few hundred qot. We can use this to our advantage, as we have the technology and weapons to make us…that is…you, Lord High General, the leader of them all.”

“Strategy?” the general asked.

“Overwhelming show of force. As they gather in groups, find the largest gathering first and kill the leader and fighting capable males outright and capture the rest. This demonstration, using their own methods, will make you their undisputed leader.

“From there, it is a simple matter to assimilate bordering groups and grow an army of the creatures organically. They will be fanatically dedicated to you and do your will. They will also make good slaves for mineral extraction.”

“Thank you, Terkannan. The other generals are concerned by the strength of the beasts, while the scientists want to study them, and at least one princess wants to protect them. Bah! That entire system is wealth for the empire, and a million of those beasts on chains in front of our armies will secure our place in the galaxy forever.”

“Exactly as you say, Lord High General.” Terkannan bowed and left the general’s office to return to his own study.

As he walked through the city toward the library, activity around the fort increased. Shuttles were already transporting troops to the waiting ships in orbit. A quarter of a qot to board and prepare the fleet, then three quarters there. The system would be under the empire’s control in just over one qot. Which leaves another nine-hundred-ninety-nine to plan for. This would be the empire’s greatest turning.

Terkannan entered the library and climbed the steps to his study. It was quiet here, and he could shut out the world around him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; not for show, but to clear his mind, let his intuition wander. Suspicion niggled at the back of his mind. Something was missing, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

He was trying to let intuition guide him to the missing piece, when he felt he should stand and face his comms. He stood for only a moment when it chimed, and the Lord High General’s assistant showed up on the screen.

“How may I help?” Terkannan asked.

“The Lord High General requests your attendance on this campaign.” The assistant didn’t wait for a reply but disconnected immediately. As with all things the general did, this was an order, not a request.

Terkannan took the bag he had packed the previous day, knowing he would need it but not why. He made his way to the fort and turned left at the sign that pointed to the right for shuttles. A short way down the road he met the general’s staff, boarding a private shuttle, and let himself in.

He was shuttled to the command ship and settled into his cryopod. The general wouldn’t board until just before they left and wouldn’t have time to consult him anyway.

He woke to a cacophony of alarms and shouting. Something had gone wrong, in the worst possible way. Terkannan made his way to the bridge, and the sight that filled the screens was unbelievable.

This was the same planet, but it was ringed with artificial satellites, cities that lit up the night skies, vast amounts of pollutants in the atmosphere. It shouldn’t be possible. He knew they would never advance.

“Did someone get here before us?” the general barked out.

“Scans show the same creatures,” one of the deck officers responded.

“Hundreds of qots to get to crude armor!” The general’s face was distorted with rage as he rose and towered over the seer. “You said they would never advance!”

“Perhaps, Lord High General, I let logic try to explain the reason for my intuition, but I stand by it. An overwhelming show of force and they will follow you blindly.”

The general grunted and sat back down. He pulled up a holographic globe and picked the brightest spot on the night side. “We’re setting down there,” he said. “Set a course and lock it in. The fighters can flatten a landing area for us.”

“Lord High General,” the comms officer said, “we’re getting even more radio wave transmissions from the planet, all across the spectrum. Should we analyze before we—”

“No. Take us in.”

The fighters flew in ahead of the formation and began blasting the strange towers to flatten the land for the fleet. The response from the creatures was immediate.

Flying machines harried the fighters, tearing holes through them with projectile weapons, and finally destroying them with flying bombs. The fleet came over the horizon, flying machines at their backs, and we met head-on with missiles firing from the area of the destruction.

Terkannan felt the unsurety that had bothered him fall away. The general’s ship, and the fleet along with it, would die here. His fate was to sink with the ship in the deep water off the coast they were approaching.

#

“In this evening’s news: We are not alone, but we may not be safe. An alien invasion in Europe destroyed much of the Benelux before NATO troops were able to bring them down. Thousands dead and many more missing. An underwater salvage is underway in the North Sea to recover as many of the alien ships as possible. Here’s Dr. Silva from the European Space Administration to tell us what they hope to learn from the wreckage.”