by Aer-ki Jyr
In order to do so he also had to order some drastic changes to Kiritas society, which saw mixed reactions. Those Kiritas who were close enough to the Star Force sites or the Humans themselves threw their trust to the aliens…but those in more distant locals were more hesitant, at least until the odd foodstuffs started flowing in, city by city. It was the vast majority of the planet that had no connection to Star Force that all but rebelled over the orders Tom was sending down the chain, prompting him to record a speech in the Kiritas native language, explaining who the Humans were and why the changes were necessary.
After that point most of the chaos was paused, with the starving natives waiting and hoping, desperately, for change…and deliver it he did. His first order was the isolation of separate sectors, for the urbanization on the planet had grown to such a level that one city flowed into another, essentially making the planet a less attractive version of Coruscant in which the world was covered in one giant city.
Tom didn’t trust the Kiritas so far as to decree imaginary lines not to be crossed, so he ordered a flurry of new construction projects, physically blocking off access points and securing separate zones in which he had a specified amount of foodstuffs delivered and distributed to each of the registered recipients to insure that not a single mouthful was wasted. How well it worked depended on the honesty of the Kiritas at the local level, but with each new sector added the local death rate dropped to near zero, so he assumed the Kiritas in charge of the distribution networks were doing their job.
Trouble was, they couldn’t add sectors fast enough and the foodstuffs going out to non-secured areas were woefully insufficient. Tom boosted the shipments as much as he could to keep those outside the zones from assaulting the barricades to try and get inside the contained areas. It tore him up inside to see so many dying and him having to decide who got the food and who didn’t, so he tried to cycle the shipments to hit all areas at least periodically, giving everyone at least a chance of survival.
The reports he was getting from the unsecured areas were sporadic and mostly unreliable, for those filing them were themselves starving, but the murders being committed were off the charts and the local security was so physically malnourished that there was little they could do but sit and guard certain sites, unable to go out and patrol or respond to incidents. So much of the planet was in a malnourished trance that they rarely left their dwellings, save for those who were at their wits end and turned violent, trying to secure what food they could, even if it meant killing and eating their neighbors.
Tom was relieved to no end when the Nebuchadnezzar returned with a full shipment of foodstuffs and two other Freighter-class jumpships with it. Those two had a mixture of foodstuffs and equipment that Randy and Tom had requested, along with bringing Erin-016, Logan-036, Emily-023 and a host of other Archons that they put to work immediately managing the planetary networks at a regional level with Tom still overseeing the entire non-Star Force areas of the planet.
The Humans ate the foodstuffs being produced on the Forge, with their caloric intake unrestricted. Tom and Randy had decided to keep the two supply chains deliberately separate so they wouldn’t be tempted to redistribute what they had to save more of the Kiritas. They needed to keep their own strength up, not to mention maintain their workout intensity and the high amount of foodstuffs that kept them going.
Humans ate more than the smaller Kiritas did anyway, so it was essential not to mix the two, which was hard seeing so many of the planet’s people in need, especially for those Archons managing the unstructured areas of the planet.
One of the more unpopular orders the Archons gave was for the segregating of the males and females. The females laid eggs regularly, which the males then fertilized in a jealous rage. Despite numerous attempts at population control in previous years the Kiritas could not check their extremely large and unstable growth rate. Tom was dismayed at the numbers he was getting on their reproductive capability, with even malnourished females laying 3 eggs every 5 weeks. If given enough foodstuffs, he learned from some of the clan leaders, a female could produce more than 100 offspring in a single year, and every three out of four eggs laid was female.
The starvation rate was the only thing that had kept their immense population in check, and even as the Kiritas reluctantly segregated and left their eggs unfertilized Tom assigned Logan to tackle the challenge of creating a stable societal structure that wouldn’t gobble up all of their available resources once Star Force’s production caught up to the planet’s needs.
To that end Logan, with the assistance of the other trailblazers insystem, began designing a Star Force occupation of the planet in which they’d essentially adopt the Kiritas and train them one by one, starting with the hatchlings, to speak and read English, operate Human technology, and learn from recorded Archon lectures similar to the structure of a Canderian maturia, only one customized to fit the uniqueness of the Kiritas.
With the help of many techs Logan began mixing what they learned of Kiritas technology and architecture with improvements from Star Force, resulting in a mesh that was identifiable as both. Training programs were instituted, which the Kiritas had never before seen the like of, for their lifespans usually ranged from 25-40 years in which replacement by successive generations was used in lieu of the advancement of the individual.
Logan changed all that, teaching the Kiritas as soon as they hatched from their softball-sized eggs that training was vital to their development and longevity. They matured within 3 years and as soon as they finished their basic training he began deploying some of them to work with Randy in his growing infrastructure to free up Humans to redeploy to other areas. These Star Force-bred Kiritas were given the clan moniker Kiritak, despite the fact that their eggs came from all across the planet.
Emily took over the training program as the Kiritak numbers grew and began to intensify their training, creating multiple societal paths for them to take, some of which were 10+ years worth of training in the making. Star Force medics, during this time, also figured out how to chemically suppress the females’ continuous egg production, allowing them to choose when and where to reproduce, which also allowed them to work in traditionally male-dominated sectors.
Within the Kiritak, like Star Force, each individual earned their position, not because of bloodline or privilege, but by their personal effort and achievement. The rest of Kiritas society was changing at a slower rate under Tom and Logan’s direction, knowing that the Kiritak would one day grow to replace all the other clans. They didn’t clue the clan leaders in on that caveat right away, but with the widespread starvation still an ongoing problem securing food was their primary concern and they pretty much let Star Force do what they wanted so long as the food cubes kept coming.
While Tom and the other Archons tried to secure and manage the unmanageable situation across the planet, Randy and his non-Archon staff grew their infrastructure at an amazing rate. As he’d expected, the more he fed his Kiritas workers the more raw materials they produced and once proper supply lines had been established he had more raw materials stacking up than he knew what to do with.
He had them stored in containers and stacked in crude ‘parking lots’ where he’d ordered the demolition of more and more Kiritas buildings. As they had before the locals obliged his every request, making more room for the Humans to build and use their planet’s resources to save itself. With the Forge’s well designed interior factories Randy was able to get 189 hydroponic facilities constructed and operational within the first year…with an exponential growth rate from there on out.
When other races’ traders came the Kiritas let Star Force renegotiate the terms of their agreements, using the surplus of raw materials to barter larger trade deals from the Critel and a few other races that Star Force hadn’t encountered before. The extra foodstuffs they brought in went straight to Tom for him to distribute, saving several million more lives, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers that were still dying.<
br />
It took Star Force 7 years before they finally got Kirit to the point of meager self-sufficiency while still relying on regular shipments from the Humans. A year later those became unnecessary but Tom and Randy kept them coming to help rejuvenate the malnourished population. Though they were surviving, they were still barely hanging on and even the smallest glitch in production would see hundreds of thousands starve to death…but the Archons were too skilled to let that happen. They kept a tight rein on the food supply while continuing to take control of Kiritas society and remake it into something that could sustain itself into the future.
Therein they encountered problems. While the vast majority of the Kiritas were extremely grateful to the Humans, if not downright obedient of their saviors, a small but growing minority was resenting the changes Star Force was making to their planet, and now that they had at least enough foodstuffs to survive they had, for the first time in decades, free time to occupy. As much work as Tom had the Kiritas doing to restructure their planet, 97% of their population was still unemployed.
Most were still recovering and doing small things to improve their planet on their own, but the spare time also lead to clan politics growing in intensity along with independent political groups sprouting up that crossed clan lines…none of which were anti-Star Force, for that was a quick invitation to a smackdown by the others, but they were issue-driven and fundamentalist, resisting the Star Force philosophy being imposed on them and their offspring.
The reproduction bans were also a major issue, which Tom hadn’t relinquished even after the starvation period had ended. There had always been a small amount of unregulated breeding, even with the sector barriers in place, but with their energy levels rising and hormonal urges escalating as a result, more and more pressure was being exerted on the clan leaders to allow the reintegration of the males into the female population, despite the threat that posed to the fragile food supply.
Tom was adamant that that wouldn’t happen, and had the Kiritas continually building new infrastructure to further isolate one sector from another, as well as the zonal restrictions within that kept males apart from the larger female population. He coupled this with a merit-based breeding system that supplied the eggs for the Kiritak training programs. That kept most of the mating urges focused into a productive agenda, but only for the 3% that were in the workforce. For the rest of the population they had to suffer through the reproduction bans, with their meager food supply a continual reminder of why the Archons had kept it in place.
Those who did not see the bigger picture obeyed because it was expected of them, but a small organization was forming that staged raids across sector and zonal lines. At first it was just for sexual reasons, if you could call egg fertilization ‘sexual,’ but these ‘code breakers’ eventually crossed into other activities in defiance of Star Force, forming an active criminal element that grew bolder as time passed on. More than once Archons had to go in and track down thieves that were syphoning off foodstuffs to use for themselves or barter for resources, some of which were weapons.
Fortunately the Kiritas didn’t have guns, but what they did have were blades and explosives. The blades weren’t a threat to the armored Archons, but the explosives were, especially the thrown ones. A la Goldeneye, the Kiritas used a form of remote mine that they would toss through the air at their enemy then trigger manually using a detonator when it came into range.
All weapon production facilities had been decommissioned on Tom’s orders and reworked into tool factories. Existing stores of weapons were rounded up and turned over to Star Force who recycled the raw materials, but not all had been secured. In addition the Kiritas were making more and trading them on the black market to be used against the security forces that were enforcing the sector borders.
Dissent was unusual for Kiritas society, but not entirely unheard of. Clan issues were expected, but rebellion was not. There were always deranged individuals that had to be dealt with and required security, but after the inter-clan rivalries had been abandoned over 200 years ago in favor of mutual cooperation to combat the planet’s many growing problems there had been no true security threats on Kirit. When starvation became widespread revolts broke out, but those individuals were banished into forgotten zones where the horrors that ensued were contained and out of the public’s knowledge. Other than keeping those zones locked down, the rest of the Kiritas virtually forgot they existed, maintaining a semi-functional society during their starvation-induced decline.
Such harmony, real or illusionary, was fading…and the Archons knew a larger confrontation was brewing.
As such, they began to make plans on how to fight their new opposition as the loyal Kiritak slowly grew in size, strength, and skill. They were the future, and Tom and Randy knew they could win this coming fight by playing for time. As much as they wanted to teach the old school Kiritas how to train and reach self-sufficiency they knew that most would not make it, and that most would not even try…which meant as time moved on the older Kiritas would die out and within 50 years or so only the Kiritak would remain if they could keep a lid on the unsanctioned reproduction.
8
December 1, 2360
Iona System
Kirit
Zoe-3482 stood perched on the edge of a rooftop overlooking a region of shorter Kiritas buildings, bracing her feet against the curve of the dome-topped roof so that she didn’t slide off and fall down seven stories to the street below…not yet anyway, for the time wasn’t right. She was stationed as backup as two other Archons and a Kiritak security team were about to raid a rebel stronghold that intelligence reports indicated was located in this building cluster and responsible for the production of the explosives that had taken down a convoy of ore trucks last week. No Kiritas had been killed in the attack, but the disruption to their supply routes was one of many in recent months as a matter of protest against the breeding restrictions.
Trouble was, they were destroying equipment that the planet needed to survive…and it was only a matter of time before one of the attacks left someone injured or dead. Good as the Kiritas were at using explosives, the overcrowded nature of the planet practically begged for collateral casualties. Zoe was impressed that they’d gotten by with it as long as they had, but with Tom’s refusal to rescind or even diminish the reproductive ban the sabotage attacks were growing in number, not to the point to jeopardize their planet-wide efforts, but they were starting to affect local production facilities when they couldn’t get the raw materials they required.
No foodstuff shipments had been hit, for that too would have drawn an immediate negative response from the population, but they were taking out related areas, hitting parts convoys, ore shipments, tool factories, vehicle factors, and anything else they could do to disrupt the Archon-led Kiritas production. The rebels hadn’t been stupid enough to hit any Star Force facilities, but with such a large planet to manage there were an inordinate amount of soft Kiritas targets to hit, most of which didn’t even have the Kiritak there as overseers, let alone as workers.
It was these remote facilities that the rebels preyed upon, trying to show that Star Force didn’t control everything and they weren’t helpless to stop their growing power, promising in sporadic propaganda showing up around the planet that they intended to prove that they could return the Kirit to its former glory on their own merits and were asking the public to allow them their own autonomous regions to prove the point.
Tom had laughed that off, but not the sabotage attacks. As much as the rebels were ‘requesting’ the chance to prove themselves they were also strategically hitting convoys around specific areas that the Archons predicted would become rebel controlled areas if they could isolate the local media and keep Star Force in the dark about it. To that end Tom had assigned surveillance teams to monitor the functionality of all non-Star Force and non-Kiritak infrastructure on the planet, looking for disruptions that might signal a quiet takeover of a specific region.
The rebels
were being smart about it too, hitting one area while quietly moving to assume control over another. The key to it all was maintaining the foodstuff supply lines, and so long as those weren’t disrupted the local populations were more or less ambivalent about what else happened around them, trying not to stir up trouble as they eeked out a meager existence…surviving, for the first time in ages, but still only barely while Star Force and the Kiritak transformed the planet sector by sector, but with so much territory to cover most Kiritas would never see the changes come to their homes in their lifetime and they knew it.
So they made do with what little they had, tolerating the rebels so long as they didn’t go too far. The rebels realized this and learned just how far they could press and began to set up little anonymous empires around the planet, recruiting workers and followers with the promise of extra foodstuffs that they had begun producing on their own, the materials from which were apparently stolen from other sites but in such small number as not to make waves outside the local factories that noted the thefts.
Just last month Zoe had been part of a seizure team that took one of the illicit foodstuff factories down, finding the basement of three adjacent buildings having been turned into indoor fields where a type of grain known as zaka was being grown under small lamps scavenged from buildings all around. The makeshift setup was evident in the design, but the facility was functional and providing a pittance of food to the rebels…which they could then use as bribes to outsiders to bring more resources into the fold.
That facility had been confiscated and its materials removed for use in a proper factory…along with foodstuff bonuses for the Kiritas that had tipped the Kiritak off to the location. After several more similar incidents word got around about the rewards and numerous tips started flowing in, some of which had led them to this facility.
This was one of 18 simultaneous operations around the planet to ferret out rebel strongholds, and that was barely a scratch against the list of probably targets they’d been collecting. Kirit was notable as having the highest concentration of Archons after Sol and Epsilon Eridani, and that number was rising as the trailblazers dedicated more and more of Star Force’s resources to running the planet.