[Planet Governor Destra Sind]

We had always managed to avoid conflict on the galactic stage by being undesirable targets. We purposefully left our weapons underdeveloped and frontiers unconquered. Nobody wanted to travel all the way out here and start up an unsupported resource extraction operation, especially considering that the celestial bodies in our solar system had lower-than-average metal contents. It seemed that by becoming undesirable to the known galaxy and its inhabitants, we had become the perfect target for an unknown, colossal threat.

After witnessing the power hidden in the folds of the sky, I stopped putting up resistance. If this human wanted to feed me lies and lead me astray, I wouldn’t have the option to act against it even if I caught on. If all it took was uninhabited land and priority trade to keep him from pointing that finger at us, he could have the whole system as far as I’m concerned.

At this point a contract had already been signed and Dominique had been escorted to a guest room that’d been remodeled for his size. I stayed behind in the room where I had witnessed the vaporization of hope, thinking to myself about the future to come.

It was guaranteed that the Grahtonians would launch a full investigation on the loss of their emergency force. Once they found out what happened, they’d most likely declare full out war with the human race, putting them up to second place on the leaderboards for the most amount of wars being fought at once. The full extent of Dominique’s firepower is still unknown, but it didn’t really matter considering he told me that the incoming colony ship was equipped with enough “protective capabilities” to make his own look lame in comparison. Some of my advisors considered sending warnings to the Grahtonians so we could avoid being caught up in the upcoming crossfire, but those plans were shot down when we realized that all outgoing signals were at risk of being monitored by Dominique.

I was in a maze with no exit and the walls were slowly getting closer together. If I just sat on my hands and let the humans take over, I was putting my entire race at risk by being enablers of the war. If I tried to side with the Grahtonians and resist human occupation, I’m sure my planet would get turned into a barren rock, prime for human colonization.

Though when I put it that way, it makes me wonder why that hasn’t happened already. If Dominique has access to so much power and is leading an expansion effort for his people, why isn’t he gunning for the luxury planet that is the Meldren homeworld? Is there some novelty reason to spare us and settle for harsher land?

Shivers snaked through my body as I realized what the only option left was. I’d be hated for all of history as the incompetent schmuck that let the Meldren be at the mercy of humanity, but it seemed more and more like the most likely option for our survival.

________________

[Pioneer Dominique Reynolds]

I have this weird sinking feeling.

So many things happened in the past few hours. I found intelligent life, learned that there is a much larger number of sapient species than we had predicted, obliterated a small fleet of warships and got an incredible deal signed with basically no resistance. Those last two didn’t fully sit right with me.

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I expected the process of attaining land to be smooth sailing after I had made an example of my intent to protect, but the governor had instead become complacent and completely non-confrontational. She didn’t question any of my remarks or barely responded to my attempts at lightening the mood, maybe she was scared of the power I held instead of being elated that said power was now on her side? Was it an issue with the way I demonstrated that power?

“Hostile forces have entered the vicinity. What are your orders?”

My AI’s initial notification replayed in my mind as I reviewed the recording of the attack. There were a couple things I couldn’t understand; If this had been an attack on the planet, why had the ship-to-ship weapons been spooled up while bombarding stations were cold? This planet didn’t have any measures against space threats, how did they know that I had a ship in orbit? Another thing that didn’t make sense was how the Meldren were aware of the attack before it arrived if ships that are in warp-space aren’t sensible by things in common-space? These didn’t look like pirates but instead official military-grade crafts, did the Meldren have spies in enemy lines or something? Normally my AI gives more comprehensive evaluations of these situations, but this time it was short and curt.

“You have been awake for weeks now. Please rest.”

My AI sent a message, snapping me out of my contemplations. It had access to the surface-level thoughts in my mind so it probably noticed that I was keeping myself up despite the opportunity to take a much needed rest. In my experience with this AI, it always seemed to know best for me so I decided to take its advice.

“I have discovered the location of a survivor from the hostile fleet.”

“...Keep track of them for me but don’t attack. They might be useful for interrogation.”

And maybe that could help me understand what the hell is actually happening here.

I had an implant in my head solely for keeping me awake and knocking me out whenever I wanted. All it took was the mental flick of a switch and blinking a couple times before-

________________

[Captain Indrix Jaen]

I woke up surrounded by my most trusted aids. Not that I could tell them apart, since they’d all been carbonized or gruesomely ruptured by that blue light.

I would normally take the time to mourn the losses of the crew that I placed above all else in my life, but I wasn’t faring much better myself. Broken ribs, bleeding from my open stomach, one of my feet had been squashed by some debris… was that a medbay table? How ironic.

While these wounds would kill a good chunk of known species, not only were us Grahts naturally tough, but I’d also been pumped full with top-of-the-line gene editing and regeneration technology. Our natural bodies could heal cuts and cracks in hours, but only people like me could regenerate entire organs and nervous systems as long as our brains were intact. Problem was, this process took up an immense amount of calories and I was stranded in a barren field on the Meldren homeworld, where all fauna had been separated from the rest of Meldren society.

There was nothing edible around. Nothing, except for…

I would have expelled my stomach at that thought if it wasn’t already completely empty from the calorie drain my body was undergoing. It’s not like I have a choice, do I? They are already dead, beyond saving, and I had a real shot at surviving this if I could secure the energy to do so…

I cried. It was shameful, as a full grown Grahtonian man, but I cried as I ate the people I had lived my life with. Getting into fights, getting injured together, covering for each other when we were berated by our superiors, trying not to burst with laughter at their involuntarily cleanly-shaven face. These memories flashed as I desecrated the corpses of those I would have gladly laid my life down for.

It tasted terrible. I had to stop myself from throwing up every single scrap of friend. It was raw, or burnt, or dirty, or terrible to think about. Oh, is that you, Merna? Hah, can you imagine that? I can only think about myself when I’m eating my fucking wife.

...

I’ll find who did this.

I won’t let them die, I’ll slowly feed them to themselves. They deserve it.