I am glad it changed
6/5/2334 Whileaway UEA frigate Hue, 3 months after contact.
The medical control officer readied the decontamination chamber for a full xeno scrub "Alright time to kill anything that isn't you marines" she said typing in the command to flood the room with tetrachloride and septazine.
David hated the decontamination part of operating on formerly plague-ridden world. The fact it killed every man and boy in less than 20 years was enough to get the alliance council worried. High Command on Earth was scared enough to make a stage 8 alert status for all travelers to and hopefully from this world "Great why the fuck do we always the cough up a lung batch of this stupid gas?" he said coughing as the chamber began to purge out the chemicals.
Zack pound his chest with his fist "Yeah I know but at least we aren't getting shot at on Buford anymore." He commented knowing that fringe world had food riots and the nearest farming world was fifty light-years from the nearest wormhole gate. "This planet is needed we were lucky a recon ship touched down, once the farmers and farming equipment get here this one planet can supply the entire region with more than enough food.
"Hey assholes I'd know about you but I love men, so if coughing up a lung keeps every possible man alive then I'll do it ten times if you don't stop bitching. This gas bath will kill anything from viral to nano-weapons. You guys had it easy, that politician of theirs went through five scrubs." The medical officer said as the door opened into the main ship.
Zack and David took off their helmets and stopped into the mess hall, over hearing the 131st MEU's engineering detachment speak over a merger rations. "The scans indicate that this planet has mid 21st century tech on steam engines hell I heard from a staff sergeant in Renegade platoon the roads are strips of pot holes filled with dirt or stone. It's like everything of technology that was critical to survival was rigged together with duct tape and spit."
"Damn that is an odd way to run things what is the most common form of power?" asked David sitting down and looking over his soup.
Engineer Tomas Adams pinched the brow of his nose, he had been setting up fusion coils all across the Northern Continent and left many of his subordinates with the local women to instruct them on maintaining a simple power core, "I just fucking said it steam, this planet is a fucking steam punk shit hole!" he replied.
Zack sat down and drank some coffee, "Chill out man we aren't trapped here, so how long do you think these women could keep their society going?"
"Keep it going they think that they can enter an industrial age at their own damn pace, with failing everything. Arrogant bitches the scouts were probably unharmed because these bitches think men are a superfluous subspecies, if you ask me. I mean they have Beta VI fusion cores being used to make beer, and we are the redundant ones that is a fucking joke! I can't believe this shit our tour is going to end here!" the engineer said disappointed he was not heading back to earth for an over paid position in Hawaii.
"Calm down this won't be too long the UES Hue is due back at Control 3 in a week." David said dipping the roast beef in his mashed potatoes and eating with his hands. No sooner had he swallowed his food then the ships red alert went off.
"Oh man look at that." David said leaning back in his seat. "That is our best food and I bet that it's all going Phyllis Spet and her diplomatic party!"
"While we work triple shifts and hand out free stuff!" the engineer said "you know you're a grunt when the best meals you were promised are sent to diplomats."
The Deck 12 Briefing room was acting as a makeshift diplomatic chamber the best food and drink the frigate had was sent here as were the best chairs and table the frigate had. Captain Alex Carter had even sent gifts of technology to regions across the north and south continents. As well as promising a full tour of the ship later on.
Alex had switched five men into their dress blues while he made sure he had his best uniform on for the meeting. "Ladies welcome aboard the UES Hue, our rations are meager we've just come from an emergency relief mission. Ms. Spet you have already agreed to peaceful trade and joining the UEA is their anything else we can help you with?" Anderson said shaking the woman's hand.
"Yes I did and from what I've heard there is planet with starving people on it. There are several issues as I am sure you soldiers … men will report, but I promise 4 tons of wheat is yours. And I hope you can end the hunger on Buford." Phyllis said sitting down, "I can't begin to say how lucky we are you showed up with just men. We have been continuing our population with the use of machines that allow us to combine our eggs. It is failing our so called intelligence from this breeding is inefficient and with our infrastructure crumbling we keep putting more and more but are getting much less out." Phyllis was calm trying to maintain her composure despite the fact her government and people were facing possible doom.
The First mate James Harper interjected "Do your people know about this… death sentence?"
"No it's something we have kept secret and would hope to keep until we can make some public announcement that we don't need it." Jessica said, "I'm from the southern region and basically keep it in line with a firm hand."
"I'm sure the men of the 131st MUE can aid you, they are some of the most experienced fighters in the outer sectors. From killing Insurgency to winning hearts and minds this ship has the best and most experienced." Carter said "But I am really trying to avoid more destruction than what my teams can handle on limited rations."
"We could just feed them ourselves. Our harvests are not large but we have enough to spare so long as you can deliver those farming machines and more technology we can increase that tenfold." Phyllis said out right.
Captain Carter was pleased the negotiations were going over better than he had hoped "Excellent as soon as we confirm whatever the plague was we can begin working without the bio-warfare gear. Eva will have papers drawn up, and get the UECA to send some actual diplomats, people to finalize this deal and fix any details. I am sure you are exhausted and would like some refreshments so I had the ship staff ready the best we could give. Now if you will excuse me I need to make contact with my commanders."
James followed him out as to men offered the women food and drink "This went well probably because 350meter frigate is holding station over a city. I hope to god that the diplomats from the Colonial Administration office have vaginas. I feel this could go badly if more men started showing up and taking over."
"Agreed this will go bad if we just leave a bunch of marines, how about we leave those orphans here?" James said noting that most were boys under 8 years old.
"Good thinking Eva, I need you to add in providing refugee, for those 70 boys as part of the deal of course we are leaving the engineering teams here. As well as every working truck and MULE we've got." Captain Cater said as another officer approached.
"Sir these are the reports so far, there are what appear to be six cities by the local's standards. Small trade centers, gravel roads, sidewalks, and oil processing plant, for diesel production." Ensign Elisa Sterling said reading information from the recon flights.
"The status of each one is what exactly?" Carter said looking over it. "Hell how do we prioritize our efforts and assets?"
"Well sir I did some work with Knight and after a few simulations runs we can make their food production tripe by sending, 50 men to these northern farms, Eden or while away has a very long summer and spring a short 2 and half month winter. The place was called Eden for a reason; this gave these women the ability to feed a controlled population, when the last man died in 2050." Elisa said.
"What killed all the men exactly from what I know it couldn't be stopped, and these women's solution wasn't adequate?" James said smugly emphasizing the last part of his sentence, as he walked into the Bridge.
Eva appeared on her holo-deck, "Nano weapons, the males that died were human and upper ape species. Oddly, the Nanomachines are not anything like ours and probably date back to the Yusalin war. This planet was in their borders after we sent the colony ship here via the wormhole."
"Makes sense the Yusalins would test something like that here, now what of containing these nanites, I don't want to leave men here just to die a slow death." Carter said taking his seat as Elisa and James returned to their posts.
"The nanites were not self replicating like most Yusalin designs, the reason I found a trace of them because our recon team found a mass grave, with plenty of fragments to piece together. The fact your negotiations took two hours was plenty of time for me to solve the issue. "
"Eva, just tell us how to fix this and so it won't happen when somebody digs a ditch?" Carter said leaning forward watching the Hue's dropships return and depart.
"We use the nano-catalyst for planet immunization and neutralization, estimated time for full saturation will be four hours." Eva said disappearing from the holo-deck "Captain you have a Priority 1 message from Control three."
"This is Captain Alex Carter f UES Hue, go ahead command." Alex said sitting up and removing his ship support baseball cap.
"I'm not with command Captain this Psy-Corps we have been evaluations for what men you should leave here." John said, "I've noticed that exactly 250 men are prime candidates to be left behind, they came from homes that were …liberal." John said trying to find the perfect word "their homes had either two mothers or were raised solely by women on low tech worlds."
"So you want me to deploy these men for more relief missions? You do know that every single man in the 131st MUE is long past its tour of duty. That means I can't keep anyone here for more than a month..." Carter paused knowing the state of emergency protocols.
"Well I just so happen to have spoken with the Jaw breakers at the UECA. They drew up an interesting choice for these men, to continue an extended tour elsewhere, or retire here and consider themselves retired with full GMSF benefits." John said sending the paper work.
Carter looked over his new orders, "Excellent, Ensign Sterling draw up a new roster and have these men ready within the hour, only 30 are off ship at the moment."
Eight hours later, the Deck 8 briefing hall could sit 150 people for a movie as recreation time, or more often cram in 300 people for a mission briefing before coming out of Beam space. All the men on the UECA's list were here for their next mission, already worn out from shifts trying to set up an infrastructure under gazes of awe, distain, or fear. The coffee ran out long ago but the Marines pushed through it.
"Alright gentle men due to the failing state of this lost colony you have been given an early chance at retirement here." Carter said as the room stayed eerily calm "The other option is serving another combat tour. The choice to retire here on Eden is leaving for the mobile command center, in one hour, if anyone wishes to continue combat duty in the fringes can leave now."
"Shit there goes Hawaii I fucking new it." Scott said his sarcasm was the casualty of five shifts in a row. He sat back and resigned himself to his fate.
"Damn that guy can call things." Zack said uncertain of what to do he looked at David "yo, buddy you gonna stay?"
David looked turned to his friend "nope I'd rather take my chances elsewhere, plus it's a chance to sleep. Good luck to you if you stay." He said leaving the room with 20 other men.
Carter watched the other leave and continued, "Very well collect your things any personal items you have elsewhere will be returned to you immediately upon the next ships return so long as you leave the requests at the ship's PX." Carter said continuing the mission briefing, "Shuttles will be taking 20 men to 14 different areas groups 1 through 6 are heading to the cities in the north continent. Groups 6-12 will head to cities on the southern continent. 13 through 20 are heading to farms in the south, you were all given an envelope per your row, and that will tell you what group you are in. Your shuttles leave in one hour be there on time as each shuttle will loaded with grain and food as you leave."
Tomas opened his envelope he was with group 16, "Well I can get shot at or hopefully find a couple of closet case heterosexuals willing to share in that farm commune Silgan." Tomas Adams said of engineering said taking the seat David left "Polygamy is legal within the UEA."
Zack cocked his head looking at Tomas, "You are surprisingly calm and chipper about this what happened to Hawaii and an over paid job at Stone Dynamics?" he was oddly surprised by the change in mood, and his reason for staying.
"My comment is not me saying what I would like to happen, as an engineer I like certainty be it with bombs, demo charges, and that includes sex." Tomas smiled as the room cleared out "there were two women at that farming commune that let me use their shower, and I'm certain you can guess the rest."
"Hold on you said they looked at you with contempt?" Zack said noticing that his card was also part of group 16, "Well maybe you won't need to share after this, how is that for your certainty?" he said smiling showing Tomas the card.
"Well the old women mostly the younger ones not so much, a few women seemed thrilled just to see us. The two I met had their daughter come hunt me down, when I was rigging up their water treatment system to a portable fusion core." Tomas said stepping into the elevator heading down to crew deck.
Captain Carter and his first mate walked with the local leader and observed the hanger bay, "Ms Spet I know we promised 300 men but, we have some internal problems at the moment but I'd like to give you in the place of 20 men 30 boys." Elisa interrupted hoping she could plead the case woman to woman.
Phyllis was disappointed and it showed, "Boys are fine as long as can they work." She said knowing that she would need to take a hit eventually.
"Ms. Spet these boys are no older than 8 they have no one and nothing, our plan for them is to leave them at nearest Control world and let the government raise them. It is not a good life for them and if you can raise them your way it may just help in the long run."
Phyllis smiled "very well I certainly didn't of that, we'll find them all homes on the North Continent and raise them as our own. I will even take some my wife and I am sterile, but would love children."
Carter nodded then looked at his aid, "Certainly ma'am, Sterling rally your troops." He said as the group of boys generally clung to Sterling.
Elisa nodded and opened the door "Alright guys fall in, you got accepted." Elisa said as the boys rushed to her "Alright guys these ladies will take you to your new homes, I must thank you Ms. Spet I've been acting as their care taker but this is military ship and if you didn't rescue them they would have been sent to serve here on a ship like this one. You are giving them a better future then the navy." She said rubbing one kid on the head as another clinged to her leg.
Phyllis walked up to the crowd of children all seemed to be vying for the Lieutenants attention. She walked over to the five boys that were furthest away, and ignored the Lieutenant "Hey there you guys would you like me to adopt you?" she said in a low voice the boys nodded yes "Alright then come on lets go home." She picked up the smallest one and the others followed her in toe to her shuttle.