The room was awkwardly quiet. Juno sat rigidly amongst the officers who’d joined along. She couldn’t shake the tension in her body.
The group had commandeered the same plain steel colored room as before, huddling around a Special Aeronautics table. Beside Juno was Miller, and Hernandez. On the ends were Sgt. Major Alloy, and Captain Marlon. They were all looking at her.
Across from Juno sat the assistant Commandant, Xiang Lin. The thought made her spine tingle in sudden paranoia. He was handsome for an older man, stern with a look of sheer authority about him. Along with a uniform clean, sharp, and highly decorated, the graying in his hair only added weight to that authority. Xiang LIn was inspecting her, currently, without saying a word, and she was trying not to move an inch, her breath caught in her throat.
“Gunnery Sergeant Juno,” he said, finally, “You have quite the record. Highly decorated, very highly decorated, and you're a fan favorite of the troops in your platoon. Despite problems following the authority of your commanding officers, I keep seeing your name pass by my desk. That never happens.” He leaned back, and interlaced his fingers.
“Your shining achievement to the press was your survival back on GB-1. That’s all they care about. To them, you’re a legend, a hero standing up from a pile of bodies, the lone survivor. But I don’t care about that. I’ve seen plenty of heroes in my time. Your service during Alloy’s Shiza campaign, the rebellion in the Belt, service time near Jupiter, Pluto, hell, you’ve been all over the systems, and all the reports come back the same. Low mortality rates among your platoon. Higher mission success. You’re a damn good marine.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I bet you’re hoping for a promotion. Master Sergeant. Probably, First Sergeant. Hell, I’d give you your pick, but that’s not what I came here for.” He leaned forward to accentuate his next line, “I came here to find an exceptional soldier. I came here to find someone who will go above and beyond their duty as a marine, and serve the greater human interest. I ask you this, Gunny. Are you willing to go above and beyond?”
“Always, sir. Whatever my orders–”
“No more following orders, marine. No more chain of command. What I want to know is that when it comes down to it, are you willing to do what it takes to progress humanity forward?” Juno looked at Hernandez, who also had a serious look of puzzlement about the question. Looking over at Miller, she saw a proud captain, but a worried one.
“What are you asking?” she said, turning back to Xiang.
“Well, I’m asking you to step away from being a marine, and step forward into being a soldier for the whole of humanity.” He reached for a clicker on the table. Clicking a button resulted in an LED light emitting from the ceiling. It showed a crisp image on the wall. He clicked through a set of orders, pictures of a massive Armageddon class ship, half built, space stations, marines, army specialists, navy, even some people who looked like mercenaries.
“An initiative has been started, an interspecies collective of the best of the best of all the galactic civilizations capable of providing agents. The galaxy is in a state of chaos. You know how it is. It’s the wild west out there. Without a general governing body, or strict alliances, hell, without even a nod and a hello, every species in the galaxy is trying to make the best of it in their own way.” Pictures of various alien species were cycled through. Juno was fascinated. She’d never seen an alien before. Pictures maybe, vids, but never a real one. She knew they were out there, but her Marine assignments had been strictly human based.
There was a semi-military branch called the Expeditionary Force, created by astronauts, scientists, and diplomats, who set out to explore the galaxy in the name of human interest. They mainly established beachheads on earth-like planets without a sapien-like species already present, or spent most of their time exploring seemingly uninhabited systems. Sometimes there were encounters with intelligent aliens, but most encounters were strictly between humans and non-intelligent lifeforms.
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“An interspecies coalition? What kind of work would I be doing?”
“Similar work to the Expeditionary Forces. Exploration. Scouting. Probing. But, you’d be a complete entity capable of performing more specialized missions, and even military operations if need be. Diplomacy. Seek and Destroy. Humanitarian aid. Whatever is needed, you’d be capable of it. This is a new office, Juno. It has full operational capabilities, the same as any branch of our military. And, you’ll be working with a whole host of other humans… and aliens.”
“Aliens, sir?” He knew that would tantalize her. Humans loved the idea of aliens. Her eyes brightened with curiosity.
“Yes. Closely in fact. You’ll be visiting some of their home worlds even, if you’re lucky. You’ll fight side by side with them, eat, sleep, and operate in the same outfit. This is as much about diplomacy as it is military strategy. The initiative is about bringing species together, and stabilizing the galaxy. Of course, make no mistake. We don’t underestimate our neighbors. They haven’t shown us what they have, and so we won’t show what we have. We can’t rule out war in the future, but the initiative could open up humanity into a new era of expansion.”
“So, you want me to be a diplomat? Shake hands with foreign races? Peacemake, sir?” He stopped clicking through the various images.
“I want you to look out for humanity. There are a million soldiers like you, Judo. They are all decorated, war heroes, lone survivors in their own fight, but you have something these other soldiers don’t have. You have that human instinct that drives us forward, that instinct to do what’s necessary even in the face of destruction. You’re good at what you do, and you know how to follow orders. But, it’s who you are that makes you perfect for this mission.”
“I don’t understand, sir.”
“Humans were asked to join the coalition, sure, but High Command, the Commandant, even the Board of Human Affairs agrees, we aren’t their first choice. Humanity scores pretty high on the Galactic Standard Scale and that scares some of the other powerful players in the galaxy. They think we’ll become too strong to stop, eventually, and they want to put a stop to that. That’s why they’re appeasing us now, but later they’ll try to limit our expansion. Species like us are a reason the initiative started in the first place. It’s about control. The most powerful species in the galaxy right now want to keep it that way. Everybody knows how quickly things change in the Milky Way.
“This coalition can stop this kind of change, stabilize the galaxy enough that those on top, stay on top, permanently. And, if it’s successful, lone species like us won’t have any say in the matter. That’s why we want in on the ground floor. You can’t kick us out, if we’re ingrained in the system.”
“You think they want to go to war? Why? What would helping a few weaker species do for their cause, anyway?”
“Think about it. Everyone wants to expand. Sure, on the galactic scale, we’re all tiny, but what happens if the coalition works, and the galaxy stabilizes? That’ll allow those with the capabilities unlimited expansion. Anyone in the way of that expansion will have to succumb or be removed. Eventually, “anyone” will be everyone in the galaxy who disagrees with how they do things. If there’s going to be war between species, then every Prime civilization is going to want as much help as they can get. So, help a few weaker species here and there, get them under your thumb, and you can keep control. That’s what this is really about.”
“You really think they’d go to war like that?”
“I don’t want to take the chance to find out. Prime Nine civilizations are their real targets, but none of them are interested in the coalition. They’ve seen too many of these projects fail disastrously. Instead, the Prime Eights responsible for the coalition are gathering up other Prime Eight Civilizations in hopes that if they get enough Prime Eights to join, then the Prime nines might pay attention to them. From there, it’s much easier to negotiate for an official alliance. Then, they’ll have exactly what they want. Unfortunately for them, most Prime Eights don’t seem interested either, so a few Prime Sevens, like us, are coming along for the journey to make do.
“Be assured, they don’t want us along. They’re just playing nice because they’re in a tight spot. That, and they’re afraid of what we’d do if they didn’t include us.” Xiang flipped through the pictures again, idly. “This whole thing is a power play. The most powerful Civs in the galaxy are joining forces, shaking hands, and I guarantee you it’s for a purpose. And we’re gonna be one of them. Marines, Army, Navy, the sharpest Astronauts in the service… we’re sending them our absolute best. We want to assure them that we are some of the finest soldiers, and scientists in the galaxy. And that’s why we need you, Juno.”