A new chapter of The Hungry Stars: The Serpent’s Garden is here. The talks between the Hegemony and Red One have just started, but some secrets have already come out, and some other uncomfortable truths are waiting in the wings. Below is an excerpt from the discussion as the Calnians realize how badly their Shameful War could have gone for them… or anyone else who made the same first contact they did.
For the full story, check out the link above and enjoy!
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Iljta’s ears lowered half a centimeter. That single engagement was nearly a quarter of the soul-loss Terrestrial Security Corps had suffered over the entire conflict with the Meer-Ulson. “What,” he began, “were the total casualties of that war?”
The synth did not hesitate in its reply. “Total military losses were fifty-eight million, five hundred seventy-two thousand soldiers. Civilian losses are estimated upwards of forty billion.”
“Forty… billion?” Ovail-Nais interrupted, the crack in his voice reflecting the shock that stirred through the Calnian delegation. Uherta remained the most populous system in the entire Hegemony with a combined On-World and Off-World population of seventeen billion.
“Despite the bulk of the fighting being confined to the relatively newly-colonized region known as the Hikkaran Fields, the conflict between Compact and Anorax forces spilled over into several other sectors. Many inhabited systems fell to Anorax forces. As the Anorax pursue a policy of total annihilation, civilian populations within these conquered territories were extirpated.”
Iljta-Risan made a slow, affirming bob of his head. The sheer scale of the destruction unleashed by the Meer-Ulson had shocked the Hegemony to its core. Just as the ‘Anorax’ had six thousand years ago, their descendants continued the tradition of, as the synth put it, ‘total annihilation’. They didn’t conquer; they exterminated and only rarely took prisoners. When they did, there was not a single confirmed case of a captive Calnian escaping their custody. The SAC came to believe the Meer-Ulson took prisoners not for interrogation, but examination and biological study. It wasn’t uncommon for the Meer-Ulson to precede ground assaults by massed chemical bombardment, and if they were likely to lose a battle for an inhabited world they would unleash biological weapons upon it. The Silence of Demtor had been one such example.
Demtor had been a well-established Frontier system, its principal planet’s population numbering eleven million. A Meer-Ulson strike force had attempted to breach the defences and land, only to be thrown back by the Pride, including Undeterred Assay. As they withdrew, the Meer-Ulson pride vessels launched several missiles at Demtor. Only one of of them made it through the defences, but that was more than enough. It contained a cluster of smaller warheads that dispersed a rapidly-spreading biotoxin across the entire hemisphere, quicly poisoning the entire world. The weapon was tailored not only for Calnian physiology, but one also meant to thrive in Demtor’s native ecology. In less than eight segments, seven-eights of the population was dead and the world was quarantined. Follow-up studies revealed another level of horror: the bio-toxin had become lysogenic, entering the genome of most of Demtor’s native fauna, making them asymptomatic carriers. The cleanup of Demtor and other similarly poisoned worlds was even more difficult than those purged of their inhabitants by bombardment and radiation. It was likely that such planets would be forever lost to the Hegemony.
“We had never before seen such complete disregard for sapient life,” the cardinal overseer added. “Even at our most primitive and bloodthirsty, such atrocities were the exception, not the norm.” Calnian history was not without its own barbarities, but the Hegemony had – or thought they had – left such horrors in the uncivilized past where they belonged. Until we were forced to confront that side of ourselves again and embrace it. “Soul-loss during the Shameful War was over two billion civilians and seven eights millions Pride and TSC personnel.”
“Then you are extremely fortunate,” the alien synth replied.
~
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