Nunuyawk City, Planet Damocles:
Kivu and Arek passed the bowl of popcorn to Maya, Ambassador Nile's Aenorsian assistant.
"This is Terran corn?" she asked, studying the kernel from all sides and wondering at its transformation. She could hardly believe that all it took was thermal shock to transform an indigestible form of grain into something that could be masticated.
"Yup" the Gulan Arek chittered, his mandibles clicking with genuine gusto. "It's an ancient Earth tradition to honor the gods of grain when watching theater."
"Glory to Yui, mother of bounty." Maya made a prayer and took a handful.
Kivu threw a few popcorn kernels to the floor. "Blessed be the righteous and brave, Father of Night, guide your worthy sons through your cloak of shadow." he said in benediction.
Arek raised his claws, each grasping handfuls of popcorn. "Thank you All-Broodmother for your blessings, may I emerge from this blessed shell a better man." the Arthropod clicked his mandibles solemnly and scarfed down the kernels.
The gorilla-like Kavor man Kivu, the shrimp-like Arek, and the blue-skinned Maya watched the various holographs of the ongoing Ritual of Steel. All three belonged to cultures that had no problem watching scenes of violence while eating and like the Human ambassador, they were rooting for the Earth-borne warriors to win the claim to the planet Damocles. A planet that they had terraformed and enriched with their own blood and sweat.
***
Red River National Park, RoS Sanctioned Zone, Planet Damocles:
"How about using only one hand, sensei?" Takeshi, Earth's number one Karate master called, as Jing Chou effortlessly swept a Selceid Knight off his feet. Jing spun around and accelerated the knight's descent by pressing his palm against his chest and kneeling down quickly. As a result, Jing's opponent slammed the ground with such force that he lay unmoving, prompting his comrades to drag him away.
"Takeshi, Eagle Claw is for hunting rats. Earth's rats have killed millions. Selceids are not their equal." He paused, noticing a small nick on his arm. The MMA expert Jake Addams chuckled and made his way to his next set of opponents.
"Heh, you look even stupider than your little friend!" One knight said, remarking on Jake's shirtless form. That man soon found himself being slammed to the ground head-first. The next time he woke up, he was back in Seceid-10 and two months had passed.
The knights then realized that just like tea-drinking man in the dark doublet and the warrior in simple white clothes, his ser Jake of House Addams utilized a fighting style that rendered armor worthless. For a big man he moved fast and thus closed the distance quickly, his long arms and legs put them in grabbing distance before they could react and it didn't matter where he grabbed them somehow he always had maximum leverage so they hit the ground or each other with full force.
Their swords and spears ended up being useless extensions or being used against them, and armor did not protect their joints from being twisted out of position.
***
"I will gut you myself if I see you touch that bow again." General M'urok admonished his errant archer. "You disgrace Selceid."
But the Arrow only was caught in Jake's hands which he then stabbed into his opponent's visor. With a twist, the man lay dead.
One knight, still dazed, was still getting up. Jake, in an act of showboating, walked over to him. The Selceid gathered either held their breath or roared in indignation. Was he going to execute this man? Jake stomped his foot, but not on the man's head. He made furious waves of his arms and gestures to his comrades.
Some of the Selceid continued to shout louder, to distract the showboating human as he did not notice that two knights on either side were starting to get up. But then he quickly ran to each side and knocked them out with a swing of his fist, jumping over the fallen knight as he did so. When both dazed knights were on their backs again, Jake then ran back to his fallen opponent and leapt, flipping in the air and delivering an elbow strike that dented his armor.
The three humans watching were roaring with amusement and approval and somehow had the time to raised some kind of grim banner.
***
Selceid Orbital Fleet, just outside of Planet Damocles:
"What is that?" The Selceid Ambassador said, watching the holographs. The universal translator adjusted the text so it read "Jake 4:20"
His aide frowned, "I believe it's shorthand for a passage in their scriptures, my lord."
"Savages! They offer the souls of OUR honored dead, to their Dark Gods!?"
***
Nunuyawk City:
"How is he doing that?" Maya breathed in amazement. This small group of unarmed earthlings were having an easy time throwing around and defeating Selceid knights as they were lighter than air training dummies.
"It's called War God Arts." Arek replied. "Apocryphal information suggests they learned these from Mars, the God of War."
"Mars? The breadbasket of Earth, where we got this popcorn?" Maya shook a kernel between her fingers. "Is this supposed to make me stronger like that Earth Holo you showed me?" She gulped a few more down but she didn't see her hair change color, maybe she needed to wait a few more episodes, she giggled to herself.
Humoring her, Arek gulped some popcorn down, then he flexed all four of his arms and half-yelled "AAAAAARGH!" while his exoskeleton briefly shifted colors "I am a mega Gulan!"
"Hmph, I only need a fraction of my true Kavor power to beat you." Kivu said in mock gruffness, pointing a few streaks of white fur.
The trio each made their sounds of laughter at the absurdity.
***
Miayat Waha, RoS Sanctioned Zone:
General Vorak was barely holding himself upright as his army of once a hundred-thousand strong, now decimated to barely half remaining, continued to march in pursuit of the Human Army they could see but not touch.
The treacherous sands and the overwhelming heat have taken much of his men yet the White Phantoms before him seemed untouched. They marched away in a leisurely pace and no amount of full galloping from the Selceids worked. The striders coughed and wheezed, collapsing like the men who succumbed to this damned inhospitable environment. Some losing their patience and kicking off their riders to wander off into the desolate wasteland.
What is going on with these humans? General Vorak thought, he had long discarded his helmet and most of his armor, even his General's Cloak that signified rank, yet the humans continued to wear their flowing cloaks of many hues, billowing in the wind like countless banners. His army continued to march in a straight line but time and time again, they were met with mountains of sand that collapsed or had inclines too steep for cavalry to ride down.
When night came, so did the haunting voices. In fear many of the Selceid soldiers huddled together, praying to the Nine Gods, the Three Mothers, and all faiths his men observed. But it was pointless. The voices of wraiths, the voices of grim judgement were speaking out, making themselves heard. Superstition gripped his men.
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Many would wake from their sleep with nightmares of wind-blown sand, coalescing into the figure of a Human, sword drawn, they would swing their own swords, but hit nothing but air.
Then, on that day, Vorak had been keeping his eye on the huge wall of dust and clouds. A sandstorm. The Humans had completely vanished. They too were taking shelter, but where?
His exhausted men sat down. There was no point in setting up camp, it would just get blown away.
The wall of sand and wind bore down. Many tried to cover their faces as the wind and sand howled around them.
As men shouted to each other to stay close or to steady themselves there was another sound.
The voices of men, saying the same words they've been hearing for the last few nights.
It was much louder, and much closer.
One of the observer drones pulled up to avoid the sandstorm, as it did, it made an overlay of the path that Vorak and his men had taken, and the various oases hidden from view due to tall dunes. Oases that Commander Khalid and his men had been stopping by to keep well-watered.
***
Nunuyawk City:
"Daddy!" Kivu's daughter whined with annoyance as she burst into the living room "I don't want to go Earth!"
"Amalla..." Kivu stood up and patted her back. "It's going to be a little dangerous here in Damocles.... besides, aren't you a big girl now?"
Amalla sniffed "But I want to be brave like you, daddy!"
"Yes you are, but if you don't go... who's going to protect Uncle Arek's hatchlings?"
That caused Amalla to straighten up. "I will! I'll protect them!" and with that rushed off to rejoin the rest of the family packing.
Arek waved a claw. "Don't worry, I got to say goodbye to the missus and hatchlings too."
"Do you really think Selceid is going to break protocol and invade this planet if things go bad?" Maya asked.
"Better to assume the worst. Honestly, they could try but Humans will push back. It's not an invasion I'm worried about you see, it's going to be the tons of collateral damage when humans fight back. And when it comes to defending what's theirs, they have a lot of Geneva Violations stockpiled."
"A Je-nee...what?"
Kivu snorted "...Humans on paper have had an ancient pact to never use certain.. barbaric measures. But it never stopped their hundreds of tribes from producing and stockpiling them anyway. The Galactic Council has no ruling on this but some say if provoked, Humans could poison an entire Elamian Swarm."
Maya looked like her brain had ceased functioning. "Poisoning an Elamian Swarm" made as much sense as "setting fire to water". Elamians were one of many rapidly reproducing swarm creatures that seemed to exist solely on increasing it's numbers and feeding on all kinds of biomatter.
"What? Humans have stockpiled tons and tons of Ulixian Void Spores while they were still riding horses?"
Arek slowly turned his head to her, "They know it there as Anthrax."
***
Stone Bear Preserve, RoS Sanctioned Territory:
That night:
"Where's Ganesh?"
"I think he's still with the rest of the pack watering."
"Find him, alright? He skipped out on treatment again. That Bull's getting quite an attitude."
But Ganesh was busy elsewhere. After his mahout died, his human handlers and taken off his armor to get him treated and prepped for extraction.
But an Elephant remembers.
He could smell the Selceids running away, in this jungle and in his speed. He wouldn't be able to catch up to them.
But he could also smell and hear the human forces camping by. When he got there, he could also smell and hear the thousands of Selceid's camped. A few humans approached him, trying to share their food. Ganesh ate, and when he was satisfied, he started ambling silently towards the Selceid camp.
It could sense but did not bother with the humans who started to become excited, it reminded him of predators on the hunt. How the normally noisy wolves and lions suddenly became deathly quiet. Nobody would know if he saw the irony of an Elephant leading a hunt, but the drones showed it all, an entire army sneaking behind a vengeful pachyderm.
It was the drones who later would find Ganesh heading towards another group of Selceids. Upon sighting him they ignored it, thinking it was a random wildlife that wandered in. It walked by, deftly avoiding the Zulu hiding in the grass. Stopping and waiting until the Selceids wandered into them, pretending to be a curious animal.
And when the Zulus sprung their trap, Ganesh trumpeted and charged into the Selceid's exposed rear.
What happened to Ganesh afterwards was not known. Some say he succumbed to his wounds and died in Damocles. Others say he was extracted, treated and lives on Earth. Others say his DNA was extracted and altered, to grow a new batch of horrific tusked creatures that hunt men.
After some time, Selceid younglings would tell stories of the forest of Damocles where to this day, a huge, tusked monster with a serpent's head stalks the woods, hungry for blood.
***
Nunuyawk City:
"Okay, tell me how you knew about Earth having Ulixian Void Spores, did you intercept some contraband or something?" Maya asked.
"Anthrax is a native species." Kivu corrected her.
"You know the time I was quarantined in Ag-Shux? I was coming back from Earth, and somehow was exposed to it, by walking in a field. Took a while for Kivu to come over and help me out because the Galactic Patrol in Ag-shux thought I was a kingpin's mule smuggling something to the Ulixian Black Market."
The Kavor rumbled a laugh "more like trying to collapse the Ulixian Black Market, how much were you 'carrying' there? It was worth 5 billion credits... five billion in SGT 5200, that would be how much today?"
"Actually it was worth nine" Arek held up three arms and all three claws each. "Nine Billion credits then. I've never thought that one day I could 'earn' that much money just from milking a few Terran Bovines."
"Ag-Shux? Wait, this was before humans got exposed to the rest of the Community, What were you doing playing farm boy?" Maya asked.
"Well, I had to lay low for a while for a stake-out. I thought that since I didn't look human I could just pass off as a farm creature and decide to make myself useful. At the time I thought that maybe they kept big terrestrial Arthos in the farm. Turns out that wasn't the case, also I learned that there's legal limits over what kinds of Arthropods you can catch so officially speaking, I was immune to arrest."
Kivu clapped his hand over his forehead. "Do you seriously not know, that rule only applies to marine game?"
Arek chittered and his mandibles clicked slowly. "Well I do look like a lobster."
Kivu laughed, "If they saw you, they'd be legally obligated to throw you into the ocean!" He humorously imagined pre-FTL human police escorting Arek to the station "Can you describe who pulled you out of the sea? Do you have a lawyer? If not, we could have one to help you testify."
As the three conversed, the Holograph continued to show the Ritual of Steel going on in the uninhabited portions of Damocles.
***
Pale Foot Mountains: RoS Sanctioned Zone
"Help!" Rishok said, crying in fear in Selceid. "Come on! I can hear you guys!"
"Gods damn them! They got Rishok!" Captain Mujar said.
"Help me dammit!" Rishok yelled. "They got my leg! Agh! It hurts so bad!"
Rishok squirmed and groaned in pain as a barbaric pair of iron jaws latched onto his leg.
"This could be a trap." Captain Mujar said.
"I'll go!" said a brave soldier. He checked his armor then cautiously, approached his groaning comrade. Rishok's eyes were wide in pain through his visor as his broken arms impotently wriggled. The trap had clamped on his leg real good, his bones must be broken he thought, but it was nothing to a determined man. He wrenched the serrated jaws until it clicked, locking it into place.
Working quickly he tore off his cloaks and began wrapping Rishok's leg. That's when he heard his muffled voice.
A muffled voice coming from Rishok himself.
Quickly the soldier lifted his helmet and saw that Rishok was gagged.
He wasn't the one calling out.
He quickly turned around and despite the dim light, the horrifying ancient warrior's brightly colored face and audacious plumage shone in the light, he grinned back at the stunned soldier. The teeth, the sharp canines were the last that he saw before he fainted in terror.
***
"Captain!? What's going on there?" A team of foot soldiers made their annoyed, less than enthused walk across the forest. It was starting to creep them out. Everyone except Sargeant Bal-Oldre who saw himself as too tough and too "cool" to engage in that garbage. If it was him, any Selceid that talked like that deserved to be shot in front of his family.
He wouldn't mind making a few "accidents" against defeatist scum. He told himself. To him, this Ritual of Steel was just what he needed to improve his career.
"Heeelp!!!" came the weak, pathetic voice of the malingerers.
"Captain Mujar? Where are you?" Bal-Oldre yelled.
"I'm heeere..."
From there the voice came, Captain Mujar struggled to move his body but it was futile, Whatever these painted warriors pricked him with, made him delirious and forced him to see nightmares. Of demons looking down at him with glee. All the sounds he could make were weak moans.
He could see Sargeant Bal-Oldre in front of him now, making a tirade against how a Selceid Man of the Uniform should act. His hubris defeaned and blinded him to the group of... what did they call themselves?
"When they ask who sent you packing. Tell them, it was the Sioux Braves." Brightly-painted man had said in flawless Selceid.
"...and by the Raiding Legends of Shadow" Colonel Mujar would relate several times, over the course of several years later. He had come to respect the Sioux Tribe in the years between and later a profound respect for Earth. He would defect and move there. Upon reuniting with now-chief Standing Oak, he said...
"...screw you and that stupid game." and the two broke into laughter.