Front Page of Reddit: February 9th, 2021
(1001k) Queen - We Are The Champions [youtube]
Posted to /r/videos one hour ago - 29199 comments
(2999k) THE WAR IS OVER - US AND OTHER SOURCES CONFIRM SURRENDER [bbc]
Posted to /r/worldnews two hours ago - 4928491 comments
(867k) Reports of Race troops standing down across the planet have been confirmed by government sources. [cnn]
Posted to /r/invasionnews two hours ago - 842941 comments
(888k) This is Beijing right now, only half an hour after the surrender came through. [ .it]
Posted to /r/pics one hour ago - 29441 comments
(779k) Welp, time to whip these out. [ .it]
Posted to /r/dankmemes one hour ago - 49194 comments
(889k) Fireworks over DC, Paris, and London. This is history. .
Posted to /r/pics one hour ago - 39128 comments
(694k) WORLD WAR CHAMPIONS THREE TIMES RUNNING! USA! USA! USA! [ ]
Posted to /r/MURICA one hour ago - 1776 comments
(1734k) US confirms launch of two nuclear pulse battleships. [cnn]
Posted to /r/worldnews nine hours ago - 45591 comments
(444k) Hey guys, I found this huge concrete hole in the ground while doing a supply run in Kazakhstan. What is it? [ .it]
Posted to /r/pics six hours ago - 2294 comments
(814k) Tehran, Islamabad, and Mecca confirmed liberated. [bbc]
Posted to /r/invasion three hours ago - 92494 comments
(724k) This is the only appropriate reaction to the news. [youtube]
Posted to /r/invasionmemes one hour ago - 41073 comments
(665k) US victory in big battle at Chattanooga. More in comments. [nytimes]
Posted to /r/invasionUSA four hours ago - 8017 comments
(764k) Israeli and Arab soldiers celebrating the war's end in Mecca. There's always hope for the future. [ .it]
Posted to /r/pics two hours ago - 93429 comments
(662k) Seeing the news about Operation Earth like [ .it]
Posted to /r/adviceanimals one hour ago - 29346 comments
(888k) Video of the Chongqing and Mumbai launch. [youtube]
Posted to /r/videos six hours ago - 83689 comments
(771k) When aliens invade your country, but you have more guns than people. [ .it]
Posted to /r/dankmemes three hours ago - 34514 comments
(684k) Even if we pull apart after this, I hope we don't forget how we all came together this day. It may not last, but today we are one. No countries. Just us. [imgur]
Posted to /r/invasion one hour ago - 49284 comments
(559k) ONE UPVOTE = YEARS WE STAY FREE [self]
Posted to /r/EWBBWD one hour ago - 89429 comments
(772k) Breathtaking footage of the USS Constitution in action. o7 [youtube]
Posted to /r/videos four hours ago - 49258 comments
(437k) Humanity: 2. Aliens: 0. Better luck next time. [self]
Posted to /r/invasion one hour ago - 45793 comments
(642k) Archangel Michael. Upvote this so people see this when they look up Archangel Michael. [ .it]
Posted to /r/archangel one hour ago - 4855 comments
(553k) Sake reserves have been depleted in Tokyo, officials say. [bbc]
Posted to /r/worldnews one hour ago - 4944 comments
(837k) News anchor freaks the fuck out when he hears that the war is over. [youtube]
Posted to /r/invasion two hours ago - 29281 comments
(555k) THEY BROKE [ .it]
Posted to /r/EWBBWD one hour ago - 4914 comments
(550k) BEFORE WE DID [ .it]
Posted to /r/EWBBWD one hour ago - 3298 comments
-/-\-
Igoshin IV
The game of weiqi ends in Igoshin's favor. As we pack up the board, I continue with my questioning.
Q: Where were you when the surrender was announced?
A: Marseilles. We'd just taken back the city from the Lizards when we got the radio reports about the victory. There I was, standing in a bombed out street in the pouring rain, and all of the sudden everyone was just screaming. None of that shocked silence shit like in other places. All that adrenaline, all of that rush... we started making a huge ruckus in a short time. It's not easy to explain how we all felt in that moment. Relief, for sure, like I never experienced, but also a whole bunch of other emotions.
Q: What kind of celebrations were there?
Igoshin grins.
We gathered in the streets and in the squares, and we partied. We had liberated French citizens pulling out whatever wine and champagne they had, breaking out the radios and the snacks and some of the harder shit. There were anthems blaring, people dancing as their friends sang horribly, and places that were practically mosh pits. It was a lot like Chengdu, but bigger.
There was this sense of unity, in a way. All of us, Russians and French and Poles and Germans and all these other peoples, together as they celebrated the biggest victory in history. It was one of those moments where my brain took a step back and really thought about everyone as a whole, like, in the grand scheme of the species and all that shit. We did stupid things like German vs Russian wrestling matches, and making it a thing to try and embrace a person from each nation.
We also did a lot more than embracing. Suffice to say, for once I was very glad that we all made co-ed armies for the war. There's probably a few Mikhailovitches unaware, sprinkled across the continent. Once again, the end of a world war ensured that the next generation of Germans and Poles were half-Russian, but way more fun.
Q: I take it Iosef did what he did in other places?
Igoshin wipes his eyes.
A: Iosef, that beautiful, beautiful man. He might've been the first to get the notches in his belt. I saw him ducking out with old ladies throughout the night, somehow charming them like fucking Rasputin. Seriously. He would walk up to one, say a few words, smile, and that was that.
We came across him slumped against the wall towards the end, absentmindedly patting his chest. I guess his heart had lasted him through Mongolia and China, but his journey had come to an end. He wasn't worried, though. Between the exhilaration of the victory and everything else, he said, he was content. He even told us not to bother getting a doctor, since he felt it'd be all downhill from there. He had us take some letters from him, and told us is to give them to their recipients.
When he finally went, and took his mystic arts with him, he had the biggest smile on his face. I'm sure his sugar-mommy in Mongolia felt a disturbance in the Force. At least she got a letter.
He sighs.
The end of the party was a lot like a hangover, in addition to an actual hangover. We had our fun, celebrating the victory, but we were gonna wake up to the long aftermath of the war. And there were plenty of other letters to give, all around the world.
-/-\-
Papadiamontopoulos I
It is a calm day along the Aegean Sea as I visit the small home nestled into the hills of Santorini. My interviewee greets me at the entrance of his home, and we hold our talk on his porch. A short, hairy man, Constantinos Papadiamantopoulos may not quite be what people envision when they think of a defense attorney.
Q: Kaló apógevma, Kyrie Papadiamantopoulos.
A: And kaló apógevma to you as well. I already imagine why you wanted to interview me, considering my most famous legal work.
Q: Yes. How did you become involved with the New York Trials?
A: The very first inklings of the concept came about back when I was still part of the ICC. There were many think tanks, national and international, which were formed during the six years leading up to the war. All sorts of scenarios were discussed, and even the most flimsy ones were given due consideration and planning, in case it was needed. One of those concepts was the idea of post-war trials, should humanity win the war and maintain the social structure to have trials.
I was part of that think tank. There were experts from all around the world, conferring with each other and the governments of their nations on what courses of action would be taken. With some reluctance on the part of the Americans and Chinese, it was agreed that the trials, if they were ever actually to occur, would be held by an international tribunal, one that would be formed by all surviving nations.
When the surrender in lunar orbit occurred, I'm sure there was shock all along the world as they realized they were to honor those agreements, and hold a tribunal. Not necessarily because they didn't want the tribunals, though I am sure many did not want to bother with paperwork and simply shoot the ones they didn't like, but because it highlighted what was to come after the war.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: What I mean is that we were facing a similar situation to the aftermath of the previous world war. To put it simply, the old world was no more. The war had irrevocably changed every single aspect of global civilization. There were the more obvious parts- the nations that had been conquered, the cities that had been destroyed, but there was more than that. There was the disruption of global trade, and what was essentially the annihilation of neocolonialism. There was the ramifications on the world of crime as well to consider, and the shifting of power, both domestic and foreign.
This was not simply a series of trials for the invaders, but also a convention that would determine the foundation that the new world would be built upon.
Q: Like the Nuremberg Trials?
A: I would disagree. The Nuremberg Trials were decided solely by the most powerful nations that had won the war. Even if the crimes committed by Germany were horrific, which you cannot deny, the trials stunk of victor's justice. After all, the Soviet Union was not punished, despite being guilty of aggression against Poland, and neither were the French punished for doing some of the same brutalities to prisoners as the Nazis did. The laws and the punishments were solely determined by the victors, and solely focused on the losers.
In addition, while the Nuremberg trials contended with a conquered enemy, the Race was not conquered. The military forces had surrendered, yes, but we were not imposing anything on the worlds of the Race, as it would have been impossible. There were no representatives of the Race's government present, and no way to effectively communicate with the Empire, due to the fact that it would take twenty years to get a reply back.
He chuckles.
This made for many legal headaches, even before I arrived in New York.
Q: Why New York?
A: Nairobi was still tentatively under the control of the Race, as there was no one to really take the reins, so to say. The other cities had either been damaged during the fighting, or transportation to and from them would have been quite difficult. New York was the best choice. It had been untouched during the war, had working airports, and was home to one of the UN headquarters.
Q: What was the atmosphere during that time?
A: Paradoxically subdued and chaotic at the same time. There were massive protests in the streets, so thick that my cab took hours to get from the airport to the building, and the global situation was essentially in limbo. At the same time, however, the higher powers were treading carefully, unsure of what was to happen next. There were few 'demands' made during that time as the trials were set up, but requests. No nations tried to make a fuss of things as we gathered to decide what was to happen next.
I remember watching the representatives and indicted come in. There were representatives from each free nation on Earth, though many governments in exile had been denied a seat, due to their own extensive human rights abuses. Hypocritical, I say. There was also Fleetlord Atvar, who was technically in charge of the Race forces again, but there was definitely a sharp division that we later legally recognized. There were also the fithp, who, for the sake of simplifying legal matters, were represented by their new herdmistress.
That was definitely a point of contention, even before the trials. Mamta Joshi had refused to surrender the fithp to any one nation, even her own, though she had ordered the fithp to stand down against the Americans. Her argument was that it was to prevent an abuse of the fithp, and to prevent one nation from having a vast advantage over the others. I suppose the fact that the Americans, Russians, and Chinese were all vying for that power was what allowed her to stay herdmistress, ironically enough. They all wanted the technology, but they weren't willing to let the others have it, so they let her be for the time being.
Imagine that. I'm sure you've seen the pictures. The American president was at the special assembly, as were the presidents and prime ministers of many other nations. There was a Fleetlord who had led a global invasion before his deposal, and his monstrous successor who had killed millions, so heavily bound at all times that it was like something from a movie. And amongst all of these powerful men and women, there was this scrawny and haggard Indian girl, not even old enough to drink in her own nation, who was worthy of a seat at the table as the new order was decided.
-/-\-
Traoré III
Digging under his desk for a few moments, Traoré pulls out a massive stack of handwritten notes, written in shorthand and Shavian script. He flips through them, eyes darting, then sets it down on his desk.
Q: Are those the transcripts during the New York Trials?
A: Yes. I had received training in stenography while studying to be a linguist, and I decided to put it to good use during the trials. Many of the other stenographers simply recorded the translations of what the various Race males said, but I also jotted down the original saying, to look for anything that may have been immediately overlooked. Language is a beautiful, nuanced thing, and the language of the Race is no exception. Its polysynthetic grammar only made it more nuanced.
Q: Why did you agree to translate for Fleetlord Atvar during the trials?
A: Why? It is a difficult thing to put to words. He may have invaded my nation, but he was respectful during my time aboard the Hetto as a translator. His convictions, while with a strong imperialist and colonialist undertone, were also of a humanitarian bent, and the strength of those convictions inspired in me a kind of respect. It only grew stronger when I saw how his successor acted.
And so, I volunteered to translate for him. I worked with a woman from Australia during this time. Maggie, I believe. Between us and our assistants, we had the roles of translator, stenographer, cultural attaché, and attorney. I often corroborated with the chief psychologist, Ttomalss, as well as the Fleetlord himself as he and the loyalists under his command established themselves in the court. Many of the high-ranking officers also had their own defense attorneys, while the troopmales were often represented en masse.
The prosecution during that time was a Malaysian attorney who worked in the ICC, a short man with broad cheeks. It is funny that a man who had chosen an altruistic career could manage to be so rude. I suppose I cannot blame him. Lawyers are supposed to be professional, but I'm sure that no such group had been tested in such a manner as the lawyers involved in these trials. Nearly everyone knew someone, or knew someone that knew someone, that had been affected by the war. Death, injuries, psychological scarring. Such things can push one's professionalism to the extreme.
Q: Did it push yours?
A: I wouldn't say so. I did not have to confront or defend; I merely translated and transcribed. But I do remember being frustrated with the comments coming from both sides. I imagine everyone was frustrated as well. The Fleetlord was facing war crime charges, and the prosecution certainly felt he deserved them.
Q: What kind of charges?
Traoré slips on his glasses, and looks through the transcriptions.
A: Outrages upon personal dignity, which was the weakest one, along with the passing of sentences without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, deportations of occupied peoples, and destruction of non-military targets. They used the Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the groundwork of the accusations, even though the Race had not signed the treaties.
The outrages were the weakest one, and came from the testimony of some rich individuals who had been forced to bunk with the poor. It was so audacious that it was thrown out immediately, if I recall. The passing of sentences was more concrete. The Fleetlord had deemed the Gurkhas too dangerous to take prisoner during his time in charge of the Fleet, after all.
The Fleetlord responded by showing photos his soldiers had taken, of what the Gurkhas had done to his troops. The argument was put on hold after that, and instead the other accusations were examined. The claims of deportations came from what had been done in certain areas, where the civilians had been moved behind Race lines as they took the city. The prosecutor argued that the Race was attempting to use human shields. The Fleetlord retorted that it was to reduce civilian casualties, and to hinder partisan operations.
This was when things became interesting, as I was given the privilege to read the rules of war as dictated by the Race. According to the Imperial decrees, the deportation of future subjects was standard doctrine. Of course, standard doctrine also assumed that the 'future subjects' would be using spears and other muscle powered weapons, not missiles and nuclear weaponry.
In fact, I'd say the nuclear weaponry was the biggest point leveled at the Fleetlord. After all, he'd ordered the destruction of both Pyongyang and part of Multan with explosive metal bombs. The prosecution played the scant footage they had of the incidents as well.
Q: What did the defense say?
A: Their reply was that the destruction were directed at targets of military importance. Multan was a major industrial city with two bases, and Pyongyang was the military center of North Korea. It was argued that the destruction of these targets actually reduced overall casualties, by forcing a swifter and less bloody surrender. I believe the Americans still used something similar to justify what was done in Japan.
It was a curious sight, to see the initial leader of Earth's invasion have to argue with a dumpy lawyer. My hand ached from how quickly I had to write the quick dialogue between them, with the lawyer accusing Atvar of senseless slaughter, while the Fleetlord insisted it was a sensible military action in the face of, to him, near-insurmountable odds. His own people's rules of war were read aloud by me, particularly regarding the usage of explosive metal bombs, which turned out to be largely at the discretion of the Fleetlord.
The defense also pulled up evidence of the Race actually adhering to many of the conventions, such as how it treated prisoners and civilians in occupied nations. In addition, Atvar also argued that the use of nuclear weaponry was a retaliatory measure against North Korea, and was to discourage the use of more bombs. If he had not responded, the Fleetlord claimed, more bombs would have been used, and the environment would have been damaged even further.
Q: These arguments seem rather heated. How was Atvar ultimately not convicted?
A: The adherence to the Geneva Conventions in many ways, with the fact that he had aided us considerably in the war, outweighed his actions against us. There were legal restrictions imposed, such as being unable to command military forces in the signatory nations, but he didn't see a cell.
He folds his glasses, and puts them away.
I am not a keen political mind. My passion is language, and the cultures they come from. However, I feel that you do not need to be a politically-inclined person to know that it was important that Atvar stay out of prison or the noose. The surviving Race on Earth were loyal to him, and whether or not the world cared to admit, they needed the Race to help rebuild the world. The Fleetlord had already proven reasonable and cooperative, and it was better to deal with him than any replacement.
I am sure, however, that if the circumstances of the surrender were different, then we would speak of him in the past tense.
-/-\-
Odaka I
By Japanese standards, Odaka Akane is rather short and plump, with grey shoulder-length hair she keeps curled. I meet her in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, where she often takes photos, and we sit down on a nearby bench as we talk.
Q: Good afternoon, Odaka-san.
A: Odaka will do. I'm not one of those old farts who still bothers with honorifics. She chuckles and sways her shoulders. I'm hip, I'm cool.
Q: Very well. Is it true that you were a war-time photographer?
A: Yes. I was attached to the JSSDF in Kankoku, I mean, Korea. I only snapped a few photos. Explosions over the hills. Soldiers charging across the DMZ. Hugging in the streets when the surrender came through. Those sort of things. I wasn't the best, but I was good enough to be approached for the job of looking through the wartime photos and archiving them.
Q: Were you the only one?
A: No, no! Laughs. Could you imagine? I could have worked until I decided to do the old salaryman train stunt, and I would have not made any major headway. Do you know how many photographs were taken during the war?
Q: Er, a few hundred thousand?
A: A few hundred billion is more like it. Back in pre-war internet culture, people took pictures for the stupidest shit, and that resulted in nearly two billion a day at its height. The number dipped due to some places losing internet or power, but there were still a crapload. Now, only a fraction of those were important to us, and only a fraction of that fraction was available to us, but that was still more photos than taken of all previous wars combined.
And this time, it wasn't just human photographers, either. The Race and Fithp took millions of their own photos during the war, and they were lent to us by the Fleetlord and new Herdmistress. I worked with thousands of other photographers and archivists, some of whom were not human, and we were aided by some computers that were able to help determine if the pictures were just of rocks instead of Lizards or guns. That cut down the work considerably, but I still had a lot of photos to go through.
Q: What was the purpose of the project?
A: What do you mean, what was the purpose? There was plenty of purpose. It wasn't just for the sake of evidence for the Trials. Those photos helped shape a picture of the world during the war, of the atrocities and the battles and everything between. Photos can move the world, and they only grow more powerful in times like those, when everything we know seems to be in freefall.
And above all, it was important that we ensure that the events of this war didn't go into the dustbin of history, that crimes didn't get covered up, and mistakes were not forgotten. Because if we forget our mistakes, we'll be repeating them soon enough.
Q: What kind of photos did you see during this project?
A: All sorts. I saw photos of epic battles, and of soldiers posing in front of a hill or burning trash can. I saw images of rubble-strewn streets, bodies, civilian life during the war...
I must say that the photos taken by the Race were the most memorable, however.
Q: How do you mean?
A: Apparently, the higher-ups in the Conquest Fleet ordered their photographers to take as many photos of humans subpar conditions as possible. Fodder to bombard the world leaders with when the first negotiations began, to try and give themselves a platform to posture from.
I ended up seeing terrible, terrible, things. They were the kind of scenes that many photographers could only dream of capturing, whether because they were too dangerous or too difficult to find. But the Lizards had none of those restrictions, since they were already at war with everyone. It was like someone pulling back a tarp and exposing all the cockroaches to the light.
I was given a look in the genocide in Darfur that was unrivaled in depth, and unbridled by government protests, as there was no government left to try and cover it up. The same went for the look inside the North Korean concentration camps, when we learned that the escapees were not exaggerating in their brutal accounts. Abuse of women in parts of the Middle East, starvation in India, the rampant crime in many African nations...
She shudders.
And many of these images were not two-dimensional. I didn't just see mutilated children or liberated sex slaves on glossy paper. I saw them as holograms, offering a three-dimensional look into the suffering we inflicted on each other. I knew the world needed to see that. Everyone else agreed, too. That's why we finagled the paperwork so that the complete photos would be released to the public on the same day as they were released to the court.
Q: Wouldn't releasing those photos weaken some accusations during the trial?
A: Like their minds weren't already set with the big fish. I am a photographer, it is my job to use my camera to tell the truth. It's what I do. To let those images be discarded just because they would make hanging some aliens harder to justify? That was unimportant.
My own nation did terrible things, you know. Back in the Second World War, with what we did to other Pacific nations. The Rape of Nanjing. Unit 731. The slaughter of civilians in the Philippines. Photos and documents were also made of those things, but were they brought to the forefront against my own nation, like with the Germans? No, because it would have been too inconvenient. It would have upset my people and made the Occupation harder, and so the other nations just hanged some war criminals and swept it under the rug, only discussing it in their own schools. I learned almost nothing of Nanjing when I grew up.
And what did that accomplish? It allowed nationalism to infest my nation like a cancer, a cancer that was fed by ignorance, a cancer that endured for decades and almost plunged us into obscurity during the post-war world.
Truth is anathema to tyranny, to oppression, and to hatred. And if we wanted the new world after the war to be a better one, we needed to leave such things behind. So yes, I have no regrets in presenting the truth, free of any agenda, to the world.
She spreads her arms wide.
If you want my reasoning, look around you.
-/-\-
Harpanet VI
As our short snack break comes to an end, I decide to change the topic of my interview with Harpanet.
Q: Why did you go to New York during the Trials?
A: As I was a part of the American herd, I was ordered to the city in order to act as an advisor to my new Herdmaster during the trials, as well as the treaties and agreements that came after. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the city. I had never seen a large city before, and I was in awe of the towering buildings my new herd had built. I required guards at all times, but I was still able to visit many places when I was not working. The Metropolitan Museum, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building...
I digress. You do not wish to know of my sight-seeing, but of my duties during that time.
Q: Well, yes. Were you present for the trial of Atvar and the loyalist officers?
A: No. I stayed in the pool room of a hotel, which had been made into a comfortable mud pit. I was only brought in after the various herds had agreed to recognize Atvar and his herd as separate from that of Straha and his rogue herd. After that decree was made, the time had come for the trials of members from my old herd. My Herdmaster felt that my insight would be valuable in that regard.
Q: Who was put on trial?
A: Advisor Pastempeh-keph, as well as the Attackmaster. It was clear that we were a source of many legal issues during that time. Firstly, there was the nature of the Traveler Herd, as it was. As the Herdmistress was from India, would they be considered part of India, and tried according to the laws and treaties recognized by India? Or were they part of my herd, as they had surrendered to the American ships?
I could see the tension in the expressions of my old herd. It seemed that they, too, were pondering that same thought. The Herdmistress argued against either statements. Though she was a citizen of India, she was also now the legally-recognized Herdmistress of the Traveler Fithp.
The debate was put on hold. I am unaware of the exact legal measures made during that time, only that I am sure it required the most skilled on the planet to make it happen.
Q: What was the trial like?
A: Pastempeh-keph and the Attackmaster were accused of deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure that was not vital to the military effort. That was most strong an accusation with the Chinese herd. Of all herds, they had suffered the most. Three of their largest cities had been invaded. One had been destroyed in nuclear flame, and millions of people perished in the deluge brought by the destruction of the dam.
During this time, I was asked many questions, both in private and while at the stand. I was asked about how the Traveler Fithp waged war, and of the history of our species. Fistarteh-thuktun, too, was there. He answered the most questions, as he knew the most of our history.
You must understand. At the time, the Race was already well-known. Their intentions were known, as was much of its history. Millions of people could speak its language, if not fluently. But the Traveler Fithp had come silently, and had made no attempts at negotiation. To the world at large, they were a frightening enigma. Truly alien. And so, as I spoke, and as the Loremaster spoke, the world was offered its first real look into the Traveler Fithp.
Again, a debate was flared around us?
Q: What sort of debate?
A: The Race fithp is much like that of Winterhome fithp when compared to the Traveler Herd. They developed their own technology. Slower, but on their own nevertheless. They interact amongst each other much the same, even towards the larger scale of things, with only mating and the raising of calves being different. But the Traveler Herd did not develop its own technology, and interacted differently. The sense of community is stronger, even if they are still independent thinkers.
A political cartoonist during that time likened the debate to whether or not a child murderer should be sent to a prison for adults. Some, such as the Herdmistress, argued that the Traveler Herd was too undeveloped to have an understanding of war crimes like that of the other herds. We were, as some said, like a child who had found his father's gun, and tried to settle schoolyard debates with it.
That did not trouble the Chinese as much. It was argued that even undeveloped herds should be held accountable for slaughter. They continued to push, and a compromise was made. The Attackmaster was put to death, and the Advisor was sentenced to twenty years servitude for the Chinese herd, along with his family. They were made Chinese citizens, and given work with repair operations in Nanjing.
But the rest of the Traveler Fithp were given blanket immunity. Their fate was not to be decided by criminal courts, but by a diplomatic conference after the Trials.
He stuffs a whole watermelon in his mouth.
The Advisor didn't reach the tenth year. I am still convinced it was not simply age and stress that ended his life, but I doubt I will ever truly know. I am only glad his mate and son are soon to be returned. I like to take it as a sign, that the seeds of atonement and peace are blossoming at last.
But such a garden to grow them in, no?
-/-\-
Aliens In Manhattan, Chapter Four: The Serpent. Published August 9th, 2021
A caged animal. That is my impression of the Fleetlord, as he is brought into the courtroom. For safety's sake, he has been bound in a tailor-made straightjacket, one designed to hold the oddly flexible hands of the Race. It is, I am told, due to the fact that handcuffs and zip ties are not as useful when the subject has claws to pick or cut at the bindings. Yet, I am also told it is to ensure the casts stay in place. Mamta Joshi, the woman who ended the war, had shattered half of his lattice-like ribs, and had nearly fractured his vertebrae with her grip.
It is strange, seeing him like this. For a short but terrifying moment, the human race lived in terror of this creature's shadow. More than any one individual, he is the single greatest enemy to all mankind. More than Hitler, or all human tyrants before and after, for even they never had the power to destroy all of humanity. And yet, this monster is no taller than a child, so injured that he cannot stand on his own.
The vitriol in the room is oppressive with its intensity. I can see it in the eyes of the gathered representatives, the attorneys, the judges, and even the other Race males in the room. It can even be felt from the cameras, broadcasting this trial to what must be hundreds of millions of waiting eyes. This is the most hatred focused upon a single individual, in a single moment, in all of history.
The prosecution starts. The list of crimes is long, and full of terms that snag at your memory. Mass murder. Dehumanization. Use of weapons of mass destruction. Genocide. The Fleetlord does not speak during this time. His eye turrets roam across the room, lingering on a few select individuals. Atvar. Joshi. The American President.
"Fleetlord Straha, how do you plead?"
When the wretch finally speaks, it is in a hoarse wheeze, almost like the squeaking of a broken toy. Even across barriers of culture and even species, the contempt in his shaking voice is clear. It is the same contempt that drove him to refuse counsel.
"Kpisholak." Not guilty, the translator provides.
The trial proceeds. I watch witnesses from all over the world and beyond come forward, one at a time, and say their piece. Americans who had been forced into the mountains give halting accounts of the terror of Footfall. A woman from Algiers speaks of how her entire family had drowned in the waves. The Fleetlord remains passive, eye turrets focused elsewhere.
It is when a Rabotev male who had witnessed the mutiny steps to the stand that the Fleetlord emotes. In a total reversal of mood, the creature hisses and snaps at his former subordinate, spitting out invectives that the translator strains to make clear. 'Traitor'. 'Forsaken'. 'Tsiongi pellets'. The Fleetlord calls the Rabotev a human sympathizer who will be the death of the Race.
At this, Atvar spits his own invectives at the Fleetlord, many of which sound the same, and the judges demand order in the court. The Rabotev is allowed to finish his testimony, and is escorted out.
This continues for several days. Witness after witness after witness is brought forward, the Race archives combed for evidence, and the extent of the Fleetlord's crimes weigh upon the room. Detailed accounts of his plans for Earth and humanity are made public. Casualty lists are produced. Photos of destroyed monuments are passed around. The Fleetlord seems uncaring to all of it.
There are a few more outbursts. The two most notable ones come at separate times, when Atvar and Joshi each take their turn. It is a most interesting relationship, between Atvar and Straha. Each one seems convinced that the other is wrong, that the other is an utter lunatic. These are the more coherent statements made by Straha during this time, as he and Atvar adamantly paint each other as war criminals, and traitors to the Race.
Joshi, however, simply drives the Fleetlord in a frothing rage. For her part, she is calm as she recollects the mutiny, her witnessing of Footfall, and of the tense moment aboard the bridge of the Message Bearer.
The other outbursts are not directed against anyone in particularly. The Fleetlord gives nonsensical speeches on the destiny of the Race, and on the destructive nature of the species before him. He rants and sneers at our history, and our cultures. His closing statements, however, are the most intelligible. His speech is a long one, running for nearly an hour as he speaks of humanity's seeming insanity, of its own cruelty, and how we must be all destroyed before we can taint the stars.
The sentencing may be the quickest in all of history. The tribunes seem to return as quickly as they have gone, and they offer no surprise. The verdict is guilt, and the punishment is death. No reaction seems to come from the Fleetlord, as he is escorted out.
There is no cheering in the courtroom, even now. I am sure many feel this is simply one body to add to a pile of millions. But I can almost hear the cheering, the weeping, the sighs of relief, as what may be the most trying chapter in human history is brought to a close.
-/-\-
New York Times Article - February 21st, 2021
STRAHA DEAD
Race War Criminal Executed Yesterday
NEW YORK - With the pull of a lever, it seems, the end of the war has finally come.
Yesterday, at 11pm Eastern Time and two days after his sentencing, former Fleetlord Straha was executed at an international military facility via hanging. The Race male, who had entered the public consciousness by ordering the Footfall attack, as well as the globally-broadcasted ultimatum where he threatened to 'destroy every last free nation on Earth', had been found guilty on multiple counts of crimes against humanity, and promptly sentenced to death by the international tribunal.
"The evidence was abundantly, overwhelmingly, clear," said Judge Robert Evans, who represented the United States on the tribunal. "There are numerous records, audio and textual, which clearly show that the widespread death of civilians was intentional."
Indeed, the records, which were made public by the tribunal a day into the trials, have been the source of some alarm. From Straha's discussion with former Advisor Pastempeh-keph on whether or not another orbital weapon could be used to wipe away the Eastern Seaboard, to disturbingly thorough plans for monuments and other cultural sites around the planet, it is clear that the former Fleetlord's cruelty was deliberate and genocidal in nature.
"He would have burned the f**king Constitution," exclaimed Christopher Daniels. Daniels, who had been present for the Feb. 9th surrender, is clearly infuriated at the thought as he speaks with us. "He would've knocked down the Taj Mahal and banned Star Wars. He, he would have made it illegal to basically be human. He was like a Saturday morning cartoon villain."
While hatred felt by virtually the entire world towards Straha needs no explanation, his standing amongst the Race and Fithp on Earth is little better, despite many having been under his command. Pastempeh-keph described the male as "a dangerous rogue", and spoke at length at the former Herdmaster's sudden mood swings that would leave underlings fearing for their lives. Terms like 'traitor' and 'forsaken' are popular amongst the Race males that sided with Atvar during the short-lived rebellions, especially those that had known those killed by Straha when they attempted to surrender in Egypt.
"Straha is a fool," stated Fleetlord Atvar, after the sentencing. "Straha is antithetical to the values of the Race. He slaughtered those under his command, and his barbarous actions accomplished nothing but more misery for all species on this planet. The Emperor would turn his back to Straha, if he knew now of what has occurred, and I am sure he will turn his back when the news finally reaches him. Had that ginger-taster not been stopped so early, he would have doomed Home with his vicious stupidity."
Atvar, who himself had been accused but ultimately acquitted of war crimes a week earlier, refused to give any comment on whether or not he would watch the execution.
The mechanics of the execution itself posed a problem for the tribunal. According to Lieutenant Bauby, the officer assigned to the task, "his [Straha's] biology isn't like humans. He, uh, he doesn't get affected by the same chemicals as us, in the same way. There was no way of knowing if lethal injection would kill him, or kill him quickly. And the chair wouldn't have fit him right. That's why we decided on hanging."
However, even that proved troublesome. According to witnesses of the execution, the former Fleetlord was still alive and visibly thrashing even half an hour after the hanging, before finally being declared dead at 11:46. "It was horrible," said Ethan Carter, who had been part of the prosecution. "It was almost like watching a fish get pulled out of the water."
The unconventional nature of the execution has already been a source of controversy, for a number of reasons. Some, such as Carter, are calling for an investigation, claiming that the execution was deliberately drawn out. Autopsy reports indicating that the rigid bone structure of the Race male's neck may have contributed to the issue have only muddled the matter. "I still think it was the best way to go," claims Bauby. "A bungled electrocution would've been even worse, and the same goes for lethal injection."
However, there are those who say there shouldn't have been an execution in the first place.
"He should have been brought back to Home in a cage, so the Emperor could see his evil and decide his fate accordingly," says Atvar. "Alive, he is an example, unchanging in message. Dead, he becomes abstract, and abstractions can be contorted."
"Killing him solved nothing," claims Anne-Sophie du Jonchère, a French ambassador to the UN. "What does it do? Does it bring the dead back? Does it restore Barcelona to the last brick? He is just another body to a pile I think we can agree is already too big."
Others, like Alexander Baxter of the Humanity First movement, hold a different opinion.
"That thing was a murderous little creature," says Baxter. "It was a mad dog that needed putting down. I'm just sad it didn't last longer. I wanted to see that thing's eyes pop."
Regardless of opinion, the execution of Straha marks the end of the trials, and already negotiations regarding the state of the post-war world are underway.
What awaits the world in the future, however, is uncertain.
-/-\-
Atvar VII
Putting the radio equipment back underneath his desk, Atvar flicks another switch on the holoprojector. The lines created by the Schism disappear, with the loyalist color becoming the sole mark of Race-occupied territory. Europe is completely devoid of the color, while large parts of Africa and the Middle East are still covered.
A: This was what territory remained under our control when the surrender was declared. Operation Earth had reclaimed more than a million square kilometers, and killed nearly fifteen million males, all in a single day.
Q: What do you mean, 'under your control', exactly? The surrender was total, wasn't it?
A: Yes, the surrender was total, but there were several elements at play. Firstly, there was the act of actually surrendering the territory to a proper occupying force. That was accomplished quickly enough in the United States, as the stragglers in Louisiana and Florida returned the land to American control, but it was not so simple in areas like Africa and the Middle East. There was no power structure we could truly surrender the territory to. In those areas, we had dismantled the governments, or they had fled to other nations. Who were we to return Rwanda to, if the nation of Rwanda no longer existed?
There was more than simply not having a power structure to take our place, however. There was also the issue of conflicting groups that claimed to be the real government, or governments that the people did not want back.
Q: Could you elaborate?
A: It shall be done.
Atvar pulls out some documents written in Race-tongue, and flips through them.
For conflicting groups, there was the civil war that had been occurring in the not-empire of South Sudan before our arrival, as well as the conflict between western oil companies and ethnic groups in Nijeriya, along the delta of some river. Who were we to cede the power to? It was especially confusing in Nijeriya, as many of the companies had pulled away or collapsed in the face of our conquest; we were to let them return?
And there were not-empires that the people did not want to see return. In Al-Mamlakah Al-ʿĀrabīyah As-Saʿūdīyah, we had instituted major changes in administration, particularly in regard to the treatment of females and other groups who had been abused, whether due to their religion or preference in mates. The idea of the King and his Wahabbist rule returning was enough to spark insurgency in some areas.
There was also the issue of the Korean peninsula. As the previous government had been completely demolished, was it to go to Zhōngguó, or Daehan Minguk, er, South Korea? The same went for various Central Asian nations that Russiya had tentatively liberated.
Q: Was that the reason for the Manhattan Conference?
A: Yes. Once the trials had been completed, the time had come to decide what should be done with the liberated and still-occupied territories, as well as the surviving males under my command and the Chpatisk Fithp. It would be an understatement to say that all parties were rather vested in what decisions the international community made. The intrigue I had experienced during the ceasefire was but a faint whiff of the foul odor of Tosevite politics.
It was especially true during that time, for it was perhaps the most pivotal moment for our five species, and the four worlds we inhabited. What was to be decided then would forever decide the future... the fate, of entire civilizations, including my own.
He places the papers down.
Navigating such negotiations was almost as difficult as the actual war.
-/-\-
Chandrasekhar II
Daubing his brow again, Chandra leans forward in his seat. He rubs his rounded chin, eyes focused elsewhere as he thinks.
Q: The Manhattan Conferences are regarded as one of the most important diplomatic moments in human history. What was your goal during that time, to have India achieve in the talks?
A: My goal? That is a rather interesting way to phrase it. I don't suppose I had any clear results I wanted the talks to accomplish, aside from maintaining my nation's sovereignty, and trying to ensure it healed the wounds of war. Whatever agreements required were secondary.
I would say that one of the most important issues, at least for me, was Pakistan. We had pushed the Race out of almost all of the nation's territory, but that left us with another issue, in the fact that we were now sitting on the nation that had been arguably our bitterest enemy. There were a few, whom I shall not name, that pushed for me to not pull back the forces, to actually stay in Pakistan.
Q: Why?
A: An annexation was out of the question. Many wouldn't even want Pakistan back, but wanted to take measures that would ensure it would no longer be a threat to us. Proposed measures included a cap on military size, confiscation of all nuclear weapons, and so on. Essentially, they wished to defang the Pakistani asp, and to control it.
Naturally, the government in exile did not like the idea. They wished to be placed back in control of their nation, despite having very little to stand on in that Americans were also keen on defanging Pakistan, mainly out of a desire to root out any remnants of al-Qaeda or other organizations. However, other nations opposed the idea, saying that it was too similar to the punitive measures against Germany after the First World War, or the actions the Old Soviets took after the Second.
That was just one of the many points that were on the grand table during this time. There was also a need to reestablish trade, now that there was no worry of orbital strikes on shipments, and we needed to determine what would be done with the aliens on Earth, and what role they would play in rebuilding.
And we certainly needed to rebuild. Internet was down across most of the nation, and much of our vital infrastructure in Marasathra had been destroyed. And the loss of Mumbai...
He shakes his head.
This was a struggle virtually every nation on Earth faced. The status quo had been smashed with a hammer, or should I say a foot. Balance of power that had existed for decades had suddenly been rendered undone. Enemies had become allies, and now we faced the possibility that old allies would become enemies in the new world order.
Q: It must have been a troubling time.
A: Yes, it was. And we faced opposition from many angles, both expected and unexpected.
-/-\-
Ibe I
The residence in Yenagoa is surprisingly small, with only a single floor, and a small gate. I am given a brief pat down before I can enter, then I am ushered into the humble abode of one of the most famous, and controversial, figures in post-war history. A short, powerful-looking man, Nwashuku Ibe is sitting on the living room floor, drinking a glass of warm soy milk. He offers me a firm handshake, and requests that I sit on the floor as well as we talk.
Q: Good afternoon, Mr. Ibe.
A: A good afternoon to you as well. There is no need to be so stiff; I am fond of your work. Please, ask ahead.
Q: Very well. As many are already aware, you were part of the Delta Freedom movement, before the war. How did you join that organization?
A: Because I am Ijaw. Laughs. No, no, there is more to that. I feel many still do not know of the conflict before the Lizards came. It was only a generation ago, and yet everything before the war seems shrouded in myth, like a long-forgotten time. I suppose it can be forgiven; what was lost during the war cannot be regained, and what we gained after cannot be taken away.
I was a young man during that time. I was fifteen when I joined the Delta Justice Mandate. It was a nonviolent protest group, doing marches and sit-ins.
Q: Against what, exactly?
A: Oil companies, both foreign and domestic. These capitalists had stayed after the end of British rule, but under other skins. Through bribery and economic coercion, they were allowed by the government to continue sucking oil from our lands. They ravaged the environment here, here, in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. They cut down forests for facilities and excavations, they polluted our rivers with waste products as they took and refined the oil, and they caused us much grief as a result.
And despite the billions of dollars they got, we stayed undeveloped. Good hospitals and schools were scarce. We lived in squalor next to wealthy capitalists that took the resources from our land.
There had been movements agains the companies for decades. It was mainly nonviolent, until the government sent in troops to quell us, and killed Ogoni leaders. They declared our opposition to the exploitation treason. Then, it became militarized.
I was still part of a small, nonviolent group. We continued to march, and hold sit-ins, up until the announcement of the coming invasion. Things changed after that. The grip on the region tightened, as the companies and our own government felt the need to stockpile oil for the coming war. There was no tolerance for protest, and on one fateful march, we were shot at. I lost my older brother, Mujahid.
That was when I joined the Delta Freedom Movement, and became a fighter.
Q: You committed acts of terrorism?
A: Call it what you like. Terrorism, guerrilla fighting, or a struggle for freedom. I applaud those who have fought for their freedom without raising a hand, but these capitalists did not care for peaceful protest. If they had to kill us all to keep the oil, then they were willing to do it.
It was not an easy fight. Turnover was high, due to the increasing intensity of the fight, as we became more steadfast and they less forgiving. I was twenty when the Lizards came, and I was the second-in-command of the entire movement, then. The entire Delta had been engulfed by our uprisings at that point, as for every one they killed, three more rose up to avenge their friends and brothers.
It was funny, that things became more quiet when aliens conquered the nation. It was a relief, when compared to the fighting of before. The Lizards were far less brutal than the companies; they did not use human shields, or raped our sisters and daughters and mothers as tactics of suppression.
Q: Did you continue to fight?
A: Of course. The humanitarian works of the Lizards changed little for us. We were not like dogs, rolling over simply because they brought treats. But we decided to be more subtle. We could maneuver around the Lizards, and let them fight the enemy for us as we cemented our hold in regions.
The Schism made things even easier, as we made allies of defectors. Now, we had proper equipment, and there was no need to hide in the shadows. Within a week of the war ending, the Delta was firmly in our control. The fortunes had shifted in our favor; the companies had been ousted, by us or the Lizards, and the government was in too great of a disarray to consider trying to retake the Delta.
He sips his soy milk.
However, the Manhattan Conference worried us.
Q: How so?
A: When has a shift in the world order benefitted this continent? The Scramble essentially raped all of us, from Ijaw to Xhosa to Makonde. Decolonization divided tribes or forced them to share land with enemies, embroiling them in conflict that the companies took advantage of to continue sucking us dry of resources.
If we wished to truly improve things, we needed to, as Americans say, put the foot in the door.
Q: And that was why you were sent to New York?
A: Yes. If we were to keep the companies from returning like vultures, I had to take a seat at that table.
-/-\-
After another hour of walking through the streets, we sit down on a bench in Delhi's local Hero Park, just one of hundreds scattered across the subcontinent. Joshi stares at the tall marble pillar in the center of the park, where the names of those who perished in the line of duty during the war are inscribed.
Q: What was your time during the Manhattan Conference like?
A: That... is a very hard question to answer. There was so much going on at that time, so many emotions rushing through me during those few weeks. I'd gone from a normal college student in Mumbai'i, to an orphaned prisoner who'd lost everything, to the leader of an entire species. I had no time to come to grips with one situation before I was thrust into another. No time to reflect, because there was work to do.
She shakes her head slightly.
Did you know that I'd never been to America before the Manhattan Conference? I literally went to space before I went to Times Square. I'd always wanted to see America, and now that I was there, I couldn't enjoy the experience. I spent almost my entire time in some lavish hotel suite, hunched over mountains of paperwork, surrounded by some of the most airtight security devised. I had huge warriors, who just a week ago had been willing to kill me, now ready to take a bullet for me as my bodyguards. There was this massive one in particular, Chinpimithap, who sat outside my bedroom while I slept, like Ganesha guarding Parvati.
Of course, Chris never knocked his head off, like Shiva did.
She smiles.
Chris and I were glued together during that time, and not just because he was one of the only things in the world that mattered to me. He helped me out with the paperwork, and his friend Wallafess helped serve as an unofficial channel to the Race during the Conference. Still, I did the lion's share of the work and studying.
Q: What do you mean exactly by 'studying'?
A: Are you kidding? If I wanted to actually be a leader, I had to know all sorts of things. I mean, I was always interested in politics, but I was majoring in Literature before my university became radioactive dust. I was essentially taking a crash course in pre-war politics, and what had been going on in the world while I was in space. Until I was filled in after contacting the Michael, I had no idea about Atvar's defection, or the Schism, or the exact details of Operation Earth.
Not to mention I didn't really have any advisors who didn't have trunks. After all, who could I trust. American advisors would've spied on me, just as Chinese advisors, or Russian advisors. I ended up accepting some UN workers to help me out, but I still held them at arm's length.
Interestingly enough, do you know who proved to be immensely helpful with my research?
Q: Who?
A: Atvar.
As Fleetlord, he had access to almost all of the information his forces had acquired about the world, and as a member of the Race, he was as transparent as a piece of glass. It was no scale off his nose to tell me everything, because he had no vested interest in secrets. And while there was naturally a lot of bias in the field reports, it was a bias that I could easily detect. The Race had no reason to make one nation look good, or one nation look bad, because they were outsiders who'd intended to conquer us all.
Of course, it was all relegated; I never even saw him until Straha's trial. Quite a dour figure. His translator and official human buddy Traoré, however, was very friendly. I spoke with him and Wallafess the most, and occasionally met with Ttomalss.
I had a lot of correspondences during that time, actually.
Q: Correspondences?
A: With the representatives who'd flooded into New York after the trials were concluded. Remnants of the old governments that'd been ousted by the Race, rebel leaders, activists... People like al-Jīn, Costa, Ibe.
There was the whole issue of determining the new world order, after all. Leaders and thinkers from all around the planet, and from a few other planets, trying to answer the most pressing questions at the time.
"How would the regions the Race had conquered be rebuilt? Who would govern them, and how would they be governed? How would the new borders be drawn? What role will the Race play in this?"
And, of great importance to me, "What will be done with the Fithp?"
Q: Is that why you didn't relinquish control of the fithp?
A: Yes... and no. It is far more complicated than that. Even after all the things that I'd suffered, I still knew that the fithp were essentially lost children. They were a hunter-gatherer culture that'd been granted the key to the stars, and they didn't know the consequences of using it. There were millions of innocents aboard. Women, children... people who simply wanted a home.
Her gaze hardens.
Could you imagine what the Chinese would've done to them if they'd gotten the herd? They had committed atrocities on peaceful students; imagine the things they'd've done if they'd managed to get their claws on the herd that'd broken the Three Gorges Dam. Or how about the Americans, the same people who'd installed military dictatorships in democratic nations, just to protect their interests. Imagine if they'd gotten their hands on all the toys the fithp had brought with them?
If I'd given the fithp to any one country, it would've plunged the world into chaos. At that moment, the safest hands were my own, if only because I was not the leader of any other country.
She pauses.
There was something else, too.
Q: Could you elaborate?
A: As a child, I always felt... helpless. Not in the literal sense, but in the sense that I felt like I couldn't do anything to make the world a better place. Every day, it seemed there was some new injustice, some new genocide, and there was nothing I could do about it. Protesting felt like a balm, a way to make you think you were doing something, but even that would only work in your own borders, if it ever worked at all.
What could some well-meaning youth do against that? Corruption was everywhere, and it felt unbeatable. Politics would eat you up and spit you out, or turn you into one of the problems with the world. I felt like a pebble trying to change the course of a river.
And then, all of a sudden, I was of the most important and influential people in four solar systems. I held more clout in the meetings to come than entire nations.
What's the old term? With the right lever, you can move the world. Well, I had the lever, and by the heavens was I going to make the world move.
-/-\-
Ttomalss II
After pausing a few minutes to reply to a student email, Ttomalss signals for me to continue.
Q: After hearing about your involvement in the ceasefire of December '20, I'd imagine you also assisted the Fleetlord considerably during the Manhattan conferences, yes?
A: Certainly. I went from overworked to very overworked. No longer was I attempting to determine the psychology of a future client species; now, I was to assist in the creation of governments, while trying to help the remnants of our Conquest Fleet... I suppose the proper term is 'earn brownie points'.
Q: Creation? Brownie points?
A: Let's be clear, first. We lost. Once all was said and done, there were only fifteen million of us left, including our non-combat personnel, such as myself. We had lost forty million lives. Forty. Million. Two whole generations decimated. To put that into a picture, seventy percent of the Race's males hatched between year 109,270 and year 109,280 had perished on this chilly world. That's including Home, Rabotev II, and Halless I.
The Fleetlord was painfully aware of our sudden vulnerability. Not just that of us, or the Colonization Fleet, but of Home itself. Your world was now the most militarily powerful for a dozen light-years around, and though you lacked the capacity for interstellar travel like we did, we knew it would only be a matter of time before you learned our secrets.
Therefore, it was in our best interests to assist your world as much as possible in the reconstruction process. I'm sure the Fleetlord and others will tell you of that in greater detail. I am only a psychologist, after all.
All I shall say, is that in the aftermath of the war, our help was needed.
Q: What did you work entail, then?
A: Firstly? Research. As much research as I could possibly do in such a timeframe. I had been placed into an unofficial think-tank, consisting of Traoré, Intelligence Officer Drefsab, my fellow researcher Starraf, and the Fleetlord himself. It was essentially an accelerated version of my previous research, but with more emphasis on your history, psychology, and political climate. Now that the internet had been restored in a few nations, we managed to acquire volumes upon volumes of information.
Of course, the real issue at claw was- how could we apply this information to the reconstruction? And what would Earth allow us to apply?
For that, it would be wise to acquire allies at the negotiating table. Drefsab and I were assigned to screen for the various political figures that had emerged in Africa and the Middle East during and after the war, to see which ones would be willing to cooperate with us, or would at least appease the other powers.
There is a sound behind me, and I turn to see Fistarteh-thuktun barge into the office, looking rather disgruntled.
A (Fistarteh): I maintain the opinion that it was your herd's attempt at neo-colonialism.
A (Ttomalss): Not this again.
Q: What makes you say that?
A (Fistarteh): I assisted my Herdmistress during the conference, and participated in the correspondences between her and the Fleetlord. It is my opinion that the Home herd was screening candidates by their own standards. Standards that are not necessarily aligned with the Winterhome herds, or my own herd.
A (Ttomalss): So apparently trying to help make a stable government is Race neo-colonialism?
A (Fistarteh): It is, when they appeal to your concept of stability.
A (Ttomalss): If I was going by the Race model, why would I have bothered with the research? Why were individuals like Ibe and al-Jīn selected for allies?
Fistarteh-thuktun snorts through his trunks, and rests on his tail as he watches the interview. Ttomalss hisses, then turns back to me.
A (Ttomalss): Besides, even assuming that were attempting neo-colonialism, one only needs to read a history book to see how that turned out.
-/-\-
New York Times Article - February 27th, 2021
A Kingless Kingdom
Protests in Riyadh Continue onto 11th Day with no Sign of Stopping
RIYADH - For the Saudi people, the war is over, but the battle has yet to be won.
For more than ten days, the capital of Saudi Arabia has been the host to one of the single largest post-war protests in the entire world. After an initial protest of five thousand, the crowd has grown rapidly, to the point where a half million people have now gathered in the main square of the city.
Of these protestors, more than three hundred thousand are women, in flagrant defiance of their pre-war restrictions. Many have bared their heads and faces, while others have done away with their robes entirely. They hold banners in flourished Arabic calligraphy, with phrases like 'freedom' and 'democracy' most common, and chant tirelessly at themselves and at passerby.
Their message is clear- the King is not to return to Saudi Arabia.
"Before the war, only my hands and eyes could be seen," one such protestor says. She points to her bared face, black hair flowing wild in the breeze. "Now, I can walk the streets like this."
Such a change has been accredited to the Race presence in the nation, especially after Riyadh's capture in late November. Starting on December 2nd, the Race had imposed a total abolition of Sharia law, at the order of Fleetlord Atvar.
"It had been night and day," the anonymous protestor continues. "A complete change. The King forced me to wear it, and then the Fleetlord forced me to take it off. There was still no choice in it, but it was far less stifling."
Now that the war is over, however, the newly-liberated populace faces new obstacles. Violence against women has increased drastically in the week since the surrender, with over a dozen acid attacks reported, and many are worried that their brief freedom will soon be at an end.
"When my husband beat me, the government did nothing," another protestor says. "By Sharia, I was subservient to him. Then, two days after the snakes came to this city, my husband beat me to the point where I could barely see. What did the snakes do? They hanged him, as they hanged hundreds of other men who had beaten their wives. And now, the snakes are no longer in power. Is the King to return, and am I to be forced to marry another man who will beat me?"
She shakes her head. "No. I will die here before I let that happen again."
She would not be the first to die here. Three days ago, a counter-protest came to blows with the northeast corner of the crowd, leading to two deaths and nineteen injuries. Such counter-protests have circled the crowd, attempting to ensure no food or water is sent their way. Thankfully, they are outnumbered three hundred to one, and other passerby have been kind enough to donate food and toiletries.
"What's wrong with it?" local merchant 'Āmūs ibn Khalid ibn Saeed al-Fulan says, gesturing to the crowd. "Why can't my wife drive to work? When did the Prophet say a woman couldn't drive a Honda?"
Still, as measure against future violence, over two thousand Race troopmales and two hundred fithp have been stationed in the city square with express permission from the UN Security Council. Despite the confiscation of most of their equipment, their presence seems enough to maintain peace.
"Look at them," says college student Fáris ibn Tariq ibn 'Ifrāym al-Jīn, pointing at a pair of fithp riot guards. "The bigger one's literally bending his baton in anticipation of one of these idiots trying something. Would you want to take him on?"
Nevertheless, tensions remain high in the city. Just yesterday, a large banner reading 'Traitors', with an illustration of a woman kneeling before a Race male, was strung across a building. It had remained visible for over an hour before being taken down.
Likewise, some of the protestors in the main square are beginning to chafe at the presence of the Race.
"This is not about them," states a teenaged protestor. She points at the line of Race guards. "They make us look like traitors. Like we are willing slaves to them. They did not start this protest; we did. They gain nothing from this, but we do. We do not wish to be ruled by neither the King or the Fleetlord, but by ourselves."
Regardless, the movement shows no sign of losing momentum any time soon. Similar protests have sprung up in nearly every major city in the nation, and there are strong indicators that they will begin coordinating with each other. Already, the protestors have become a viral sensation, with the hashtag #FreeSaudi garnering ten million uses on Twitter. The movement has even made its way to the Manhattan Conference, with supporters ranging from French President Bernard to Herdmistress Mamta Joshi, to Fleetlord Atvar himself.
What impact these protests will have on the negotiations remains to be seen. The future seems uncertain, but for now, the women of Saudi Arabia stand free.
-/-\-
Ibe II
After some convincing, I accept Ibe's offer of soymilk as the interview continues. He is visibly pleased with his success.
A: Though I was a political protestor first, I was always trying to keep myself up to date with environmental issues. Realizing the importance of weaning off pastureland, and implementing that change, is one of the things I'm most proud of.
Q: Did you have that in mind when you went to the Manhattan Conference?
A: I had many things in mind. All the way to New York, I was considering how the goals we had in mind, from thwarting the oil barons to preserving the Delta, to pushing forward a vision of a stronger Africa, to even my clothes.
Q: Clothes?
A: Of course! Presentation is crucial when trying to establish a nation. During my time in the Delta, during the war and during the establishment of an unofficial government, I wore military fatigues we had taken from a depot. I actually liked wearing them. They were useful and didn't wear easily, especially compared to more fancy clothes. Besides...
He gives a directed glance at a portrait hanging in his study, of a youthful Mossi man wearing military fatigues and a distinct red beret.
I suppose I was trying to emulate my idol.
Q: You have openly praised Sankara many times in the past. Would you say you were drawing inspiration from him during the Conference?
A: That would be an understatement. I practiced my oratory skills while watching old videos of his speeches, though I doubt I was ever as funny as he was. Charm cannot be gained through practice; you either are born with it, or you're not.
That's a digression, however. While I was certainly trying to emulate the Upright Man, I knew that even he made mistakes. Aside from the obvious one of trusting Campaoré, he made himself too easy a target to the outside powers. My people were coming from a position of little power and going against a meeting of all the nations of the world, as well as two extraterrestrial polities that could hold considerable sway. I had to oppose them, but I could not antagonize them. You have to politely tell them to fuck off, not yell it.
I watched American movies in my youth. I knew that it'd be a bad idea to dress in the style Westerners thought off when the term 'warlord' came to mind. So, I had my girlfriend dress me in traditional Ijaw clothing, made from homegrown fibers. It made me look friendlier, while also eschewing Western ideals of dress.
Q: Were you nervous when you finally arrived in Manhattan?
A: Nervous? Hmm. I wasn't sweating or trembling, and I certainly didn't stutter in my speeches. But I felt like a cornered animal, sometimes. I was surrounded by enemies, even if they weren't at the table. The oil companies were listening to the Conference with vested interest. If I wanted to accomplish anything, I needed to find allies. Thankfully, I found plenty.
A good third of the representatives and wannabe nation-makers at the Conference were... atypical, compared to the remaining world leaders. Many heads of state that'd been in power before the invasion were dead, missing, or were quickly swept out of the Conference. The Kims were atomic dust, no one knew where the fuck the Iranian President had gone, and the Saudi King was given the boot halfway through after the protests in his homeland had reached a boiling point.
That made room for idealists and fanatics, and no one could agree which was which. Joshi was like a magnet, drawing them out of the woodwork, convincing them that they could do something. Almost all of them were young, such as myself; the median age had to be twenty four or twenty five, if I had to hazard a guess. You had a few older leaders, like Costa and Morgan, but they were few and far between.
And that was not even getting into the aliens.
Joshi was the first ally I made. She wasn't keen on the 'c-word' that I embodied, but she agreed with many of my viewpoints on fair labor and women's rights, and in turn I sensed a youth that wanted to push back against the problems plaguing her own nation. I was no stranger to ethnic violence that had been exacerbated by colonialism. I even managed to introduce many of her new herd to the Manifesto.
Q: What about the others?
A: Atvar came later. There was quite a bit of bad blood between him and I, even if I had to thank him for chasing out the oil companies. After all, he had occupied my nation, and I could sense he still clung to many colonialist views at the time. In turn, I had killed many troopmales during my resistance movment, and the idea of a movement that was outright antithetical to monarchs like his Emperor scared him pelletless.
But, we both opposed the oppression and ecological devastation that had wracked much of the continent, and we were both very egalitarian when it came to equal rights and worker privileges. Turns out the colonialist lizards only had ten hour work weeks back Home. So, we eventually agreed to support each other during the Conference.
By the time the negotiations were reaching the crucial point, we had made a unified front composing much of Africa, and two alien species.
He chuckles.
That was when things would get interesting.
-/-\-
Petrikov IV
Petrikov's eyes fall to his cup of tea as he pauses for a few moments, drumming his fingers along the armrest of his chair.
A: A lot of people put too much into the Manhattan Conferences. No, no, that's not quite right. There was a lot in the Conferences; they were the single most important diplomatic event in history. It's more... that people often attribute the wrong things to the Conferences. The war was the cause of everything in the new world, of course, but that is cheating. It was like a monster that ate everything before it, and now we had to pick through the shit to determine cause and effect.
Q: What situations would you say were not entirely the result of the Conferences?
A: My own nation's situation, as well as much of Central Asia. There was a long history behind the issues, even before the war. The old Union, for example, and its downfall. Trade deals, oligarchies, old internal divisions, all mulched between the yascherit's fangs and spat back out. Millennia of history, from the Khan to the Czars to Lenin, all culminating in the wake of this invasion.
He produces some old maps from his briefcase, setting them down for me to see. Old Russia and Central Asia are most prominent, as well as red lines marking troop movements through Western Europe.
In a matter of days, we were in control of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the rest of Central Asia, as well as half of Iran. Combined with the fact that we were still maintaining a presence in Mongolia, and still had six million men in Western Europe that we needed to pull out... we had a lot on our plates.
Q: Some news articles at the time likened it to a return of the USSR.
A: If it was, it was unwanted. This was not the same nation that won the Great Patriotic War, no matter what my President may have thought. A massive portion of our army was essentially at the mercy of Europe; we could only reach France to fight because they allowed us to pass through. If things soured with our wartime allies, those transportation lines could be cut with the snap of a finger.
Besides, the territory we were technically in charge of was nearly half the size of our own nation, and actually had a higher population. Between the costs of policing, or occupying, or setting up the proper government structures, it was clear we did not want that territory.
But we did not want to give it to our enemies, either. Which meant we were just sitting on it, waiting for the Conferences to reach a decision. It was a time of... unease. We had the occasional insurgency to contend with, as well as our own growing troubles.
Q: Growing troubles?
A: It is actually quite ironic, I suppose. In the first two world wars, much fighting had occurred on our soil, with great loss of life and destruction to our cities. And yet, the enemy did not set a single toeclaw in Russia in the third world war. Our cities were untouched, and the only marks from the war on our soil were the destroyed railways and cables from the slony bombardment.
The other costs, however, were far more punishing.
Compared to the Old Union, we were much weaker economically; when the incoming Conquest Fleet was detected, we had less than a tenth of America's purchasing power. Our armed forces had serious issues in terms of maintenance, and yet we still had to make it into something that could be ready to fight in the largest and most crucial war in history. That, that was murder on our economy. Six years of total war spending, where the percentage of GDP funneled into the military went from four percent to forty-four, and entire industries were cut down to make room for vital efforts.
And then, the actual costs of the war. The Americans and Chinese and Indians may have suffered the most deaths, and other major powers may have suffered catastrophic damage, but we had seen perhaps the most combat. In the span of a handful of months, we had launched expeditions into Mongolia and China that would have otherwise been some of the largest in history, only to then engage in the single longest front of the war with six million men in Asia, plus another six million men fighting thousands of miles from home soil. The Americans had one front in the war if you discount their small contributions to Brazil; we had four.
The tens of trillions of rubles spent on logistics alone were arguably worse for us than the two million casualties, even when you consider how our demographics could not afford that many deaths when compared to China or India. We had devoured two years worth of oil in two months. It was as though we were the berserkers of old, fighting so viciously that we dropped dead without a cut.
Q: Would you say then that you knew what awaited Russia in the future?
A: Certainly. And it was a fate that others would share, I knew. Our economy had held together purely from the pressure of the incoming invasion, like a vase being held together by the box it was shipped in. But the war was over, now, and those cracks were only getting wider...
He shakes his head.
I knew even then that entire nations, nations puffing their chests in Manhattan and acting as though they were still world powers, were dead men walking. They survived the war, but they would not survive the peace.
That is what I meant, by people placing too much into the Manhattan Conferences. The breaking apart and coming together across the world that followed would have happened, no matter what. The world had been shattered by the war, hit in old cracks and weakpoints that had been forming for all of human history.
The conference did not decide who would break. But, it did decide how the pieces would be put back together.
-/-\-
Atvar VIII
The Fleetlord rifles through his papers, keeping one eye turret fixed on me as he reads.
A: Did you know that Home has no diplomacy? No ambassadors, no embassies, no treaties? They went extinct with the birth of the Race, and the ascension of the Emperor. The various not-empires that had ruled Home in our prehistory were swept aside and forgotten, their treaties and old methods of negotiation left to fade, with only the Emperor to remember them. After all, we were the only true civilization in the universe, complete unto ourselves. We had no enemies to appease, or equals to ally ourselves with. Only uncivilized tribes across the stars, that must be brought into the fold.
When I had decided to negotiate during the December Ceasefire, I had broken a hundred thousand years of truth. I had to spurn the truth that we were the only people, and treat polities that did not even control one planet as equal to an empire of three worlds. Many Shiplords did not want to face that terrible reality, and I suspect that is why I was so easily deposed after Operation Yi.
And now, with the Manhattan Conferences, I had to go one step further. I was no longer merely the first to break a hundred thousand years of Race totality, but the first to negotiate our surrender. To acknowledge that the Race had been beaten, and to negotiate with so-called uncivilized tribes not as equals, but as the defeated.
Q: But only the military forces of the Race were to stand down. Home did not even know of the war, let alone have the Emperor negotiate.
A: Home was defeated; it just did not know yet. Do you know the costs of a Conquest?
Q: No.
A: Home is a metal-poor system. We maintain a near 100% recycling rate on our world, to ensure the little metal and non-renewable resources we have are spent well. The construction of a Conquest Fleet takes up ninety percent of our industrial output for two generations, with a massive fraction of our male population dedicated to the Soldier's Time, while another large, but smaller, fraction of the populace is dedicated to the training of troopmales and construction of equipment. That does not even get into the Colonization Fleet, which is less resource intensive but more person-intensive.
I was part of the first generation, selected as an officer alongside the trainers, and I was pronounced Fleetlord at the end of the second generation's training.
He hisses in mirth.
The other option would have been architect.
Q: It is honestly shocking that you would invest so much time and effort into such a massive undertaking.
A: The undertaking is massive, yes, but so is the end result. For four generations' worth of construction and personpower, we gain an entire world. Hundreds of millions are suddenly added to our workforce, the amount of solar energy available for our renewable energy grid is roughly doubled, and we suddenly have access to a wealth of minerals, as well as living space for colonists.
When we conquered Rabotev II and Halless I, we nearly tripled the amount of metals available for industrial processes, quadrupled potential energy output, and doubled our population. It took many, many years, but the costs of our Conquests were more than payed for.
Now then, look at T... Earth. Despite its rugged nature and unpleasant climate, it is unbelievably valuable. Your soil is absurdly fertile, allowing for a population greater than Home's, despite having only half of the available land area, less if you consider how inhospitable Antarctica is. Your violent climate, while harmful, provides many opportunities for wind power, geothermal, and hydroelectric, and your oceans provide bountiful supplies for fusion reactors.
Then there is the wealth buried in your world's crust. Iron, silicon, osmium, all in great abundance. And the system itself was rich. We could not mine our own asteroid belts, not because we didn't think to, but because Homestar's low metallicity made them worthless rocks. Our probes, however, had shown that Tosev's asteroid belt was rich in metal, as was your massive moon. The Emperor had voiced to me that he hoped that in a mere five thousand years, we would be pulling wealth from those as well.
All in all, Earth would have quadrupled our mineral resources, doubled our energy output, and added billions to our workforce. To use a Britainnish term, Earth would have been the Jewel of the Empire.
And we lost it.
He shakes his head.
The single largest expenditure of resources in the Race's history was a lost venture. Tens of millions had been killed, decimating entire generations, and there would be no future returns. The defeat at Earth is the greatest disaster the Race has ever faced, on every level.
That is what I mean when I say that Home has lost. There may be some greater civilizations lurking in a distant part of the galaxy, but as far as I am concerned, we have been supplanted as the rulers of the universe. Earth, not Home, has emerged from the war as the most powerful world in all known space, all without even leaving the orbit of your moon. By the very fact that you have a military left, the Race was... is, at the mercy of humanity.
Truly, these were maddening times, and it fell upon me to navigate them.
And so, I swallowed what little pride I had left, and played the human game of diplomacy. I made alliances, I spied, and I played under the table.
Q: What were your goals during that time?
A: Only one thing: the safety of Home. No matter what concessions and appeasements it took, I would ensure that the human powers, as well as the fithp, would agree to peace with Home. Thankfully, I still had clout in that regard.
Q: Would you care to elaborate?
A: We still had much of Africa and the Middle East under our control, even if it was no longer ours to colonize. We could support certain homegrown groups that wanted control over the conquered not-empires, if they were willing to support us in turn when it came to the hardliner not-empires. Ibe was one such example. I supported his group's claim to the Niger Delta, and in turn he argued for the protection of Race troopmales and a diplomatic mission to Home.
And in another way, many needed the Race. The planet had been devastated by the war, many regions were in dire need of reconstruction. But that same destruction, along with the continued aftereffects of Footfall, made efforts immensely difficult. Zhongguo was still struggling with the destruction of Chongqing, as well as the Three Gorges Dam, for example.
However, we still had sixteen starships, millions of troopmales, and thousands of pieces of equipment. We had always had the best logistics during the war, and now those logistics could be turned to humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. We could land in the middle of an afflicted area, and disgorge tens of thousands of aid workers, along with thousands of tons worth of food, medical supplies, and construction equipment.
Intelligence Officer Drefsab had made the suggestion to me, and so I espoused it during the Conference. I sweetened the offer, at the behest of Joshi, by adding that the UN could decide what supplies were to be put into the ships, with the addition of their own aid workers.
Q: How popular was the offer?
A: The Zhongguoren outright refused. Zhongguo would be rebuilt by Zhongguo, they said, not alien conquerors. The other not-empires, however, were far more amiable to the idea. A joint coalition between the United Nations, as well as the remainders of the Conquest Fleet, was announced as part of the final treaty.
That was but one part, however, and there was much more that needed to be accomplished.
-/-\-
Jonchère IV
du Jonchere and I continue our walk through the Louvre. As we return to the discussion of negotiations, she becomes more animated as we talk.
Q: Some people have compared the creation of new borders in Race-occupied territory to European decolonization. Would you agree with this?
A: You must be joking, yes? The dynamics were completely different from any large-scale forfeiture of territory, from Versailles to our own departure from Africa. This was not some world power deciding that direct rule would be more trouble than it is worth, nor was it divvying up the spoils of war. The Race did not draw the borders, nor did we. We may have approved them via the United Nations, but ultimately a lot of the borders drawn were made by local leaders.
As a result, many of the new borders in these regions were based on ethnic or linguistic lines. Nations with a long history of ethnic strife were divided, though many nations actually expanded their borders due to the influence of Pan-African leaders. There were easy examples, such as Darfur gaining independence from the rest of Sudan, with the architects of the genocide being brought forward to the Hague at the behest of Fleetlord Atvar.
It wasn't a walk in the park, however, you must understand. The Kurdish people were a major point of contention. They wanted a proper homeland for themselves, and the success of their militias against the Race during the war meant that they effectively had the force to back it up. On the other hand, many local leaders in former Iraq and Iran were opposed to the idea, and Turkey was adamant against it.
Not to mention the issues of people who were looking for opportunities to secede from nations that still stood but were weakened, such as China, or nations whose existence was dependent on pre-war political dynamics, like Israel...
This meant compromise. That was the keyword of this negotiation, just like any other. Compromise, compromise, compromise. Kurdistan gained independence, but without most of its territory in Turkey. It was a tale repeated all over the territories the Race had captured. The Race had to compromise with local leaders, who had to compromise with the UN, who had to compromise with its member nations.
I know my own nation certainly had to compromise. We lost a lot of trade deals with the collapse of governments in Africa, as well as access to many resources. And many of the leaders rising in the ashes were not the kind to reopen those trade deals. But, we just couldn't muscle in on it. We didn't have a South anymore, millions were dead, and our scientists told us that we were in for a rough winter. We were just too tired to fight for everything.
In the end, no one was completely happy with the new world. But no one was completely unhappy with it, either. It was... enough. Enough to allow for future change, without embroiling us in conflict a generation later.
She smiles faintly.
That, in my opinion, was a success.
-/-\-
Joshi IX
Joshi stares thoughtfully at the monument at Hero Park, twiddling her thumbs.
A: It felt so strange, now that I can look back at it. So much of it, I was on autopilot, poring over documents and giving speeches and sending emails to diplomats, with almost no time to breath, to relax. I was the leader of an entire people, and their future were in my bruised hands. I couldn't think about my home in lost Mumbai'i, not when I had to ensure that the fithp would be safe, and that the nations of the world wouldn't fight over their secrets. I didn't even try to find out about my extended family in Delhi until the Conference was over.
It felt like something out of a movie. A scared college student from Mumbai'i; a med student from Winsconsin; a burnt out Rabotev troopmale; the leader of an invasion fleet, and a communist guerilla, working together with insurgents and aliens and politicians... I'd spend my morning reading news with Chris and Wallafess, then argued with the UN council at noon, before reviewing proposals with Atvar and Traore in the afternoon, followed by making new plans with Fistarteh-tulk and Ibe in the evening.
It was after a week that I proposed having the fithp also assist in reconstruction efforts, using the remaining digit ships to reallocate supplies and tools. I would offer some fithp technologies to multinational research groups as well, tools that would help with the civilian sector.
We were all running on a clock, though. The Flishithy couldn't hold the Chpatisk fithp inside forever; they needed a home. The Race couldn't just stay in limbo forever with their occupied territory, and they needed to ensure that they wouldn't be executed en masse as soon as they ceded land and officially disarmed. And the world wanted to get started with reconstruction and reopening trade, before the winter came.
Q: Is that why you agreed to splitting territory for the herd?
A: Yes. Though, I still tried my hardest to ensure the fithp got the best land, in places safe for them. Ibe promised them land near the Niger Delta in exchange for a working fusion reactor by 2023. Brazil gave them a patch along the fringes of the Amazon near Belem, in exchange for a spaceport by 2025. Indonesia gave us the biggest chunk of land in Borneo, but merely wanted a large cut of any trade that came through there.
Was it as good as having one larger nation? No. They may have been independent, but I knew that we would be heavily scrutinized, vulnerable. But... it was better than the alternative.
She pauses, then reaches into her coat pocket, pulling out a folded paper, yellowed with age. She unfolds it along worn creases, and lets me see it.
Q: Is that...
A: My copy of the World Armistice? Yes. I like to still read it from time to time, especially when things are going rough. My favorite line is here.
She clears her throat.
"In the wake of this conflict, the most momentous and destructive in the history of not one world, but five, it is the spirit of this Armistice that a war between the human race of Earth; the fithp race of Hearth; and the Race of Home; is undesired, that war in and of itself must no longer be waged by any party on the surface of the Earth, and that a lasting peace between all five peoples of the Solar System must be maintained, if prosperity is to come to all."
She lets me look at the bottom, where a number of signatures rest, in a multitude of scripts. There is the Latin Alphabet, Chinese hanzi, Cyrillic script, and even Race-tongue marking Atvar's signature. The most notable one, however, is the one near the top, written in Devanagari.
Mamta Joshi, Herdmistress of the Earth Fithp.
Peace hasn't been easy. There have been scary moments, infuriating moments, moments that seemed hopeless... but it is peace. Peace with everyone a little unhappy is better than a peace where someone is very unhappy, for that just leads back to war. We've all been a little unhappy for the past twenty years, but there has still been peace. And that...
She offers a wry smile.
That is good.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Seventeen: Armistice
-/-\-
Happy Armistice Day, everyone.