Game Reserve: Earth (Shaitan Wars Book 5)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  Chapter 8

  Unfulfilled Destiny

  Observation log of Shoal Stalker - Master of Scientific investigations.

  2201

  This is part of my ongoing reporting to the scientific committee of Bodoni, as is required of my duties. This is a summary of the observations of my team, and their assessment on the history, sociology and psychology of the extant game species on this planet called Earth. The species call themselves humans. The detailed observations and raw data is attached with this report. Since this is a normal priority regular report, this is being dispatched entirely over light speed communication. There will be no intimation or synopsis of this report sent through ether communication. The Lord of the Hunt has let it be known to all Masters of various functions on board the Ravenous, that Ether communications need to be used sparingly. A lot of the Ether transmission capacity has already been used up in this voyage due to such momentous discoveries, hence further use is limited to emergencies.

  I would like to begin the report by stating that I and my team have been immensely lucky on this voyage to have encountered not one but two space faring intelligent prey species. Most scientific investigators do not have the luck to discover even a single species in their lifetimes! We have learnt a lot more about the history of the human species since my report filed on the previous rotation. Most of it is details which fill in the gaps in our understanding. The humans are assiduous record keepers and that has made our task of understanding their history a lot simpler. In fact, thanks to human record keeping, we have been able to fill in gaps in our understanding of the previous alien species we encountered in the neighboring star system.

  The humans call that alien species Shaitans. The Shaitans themselves never gave a specific name to themselves, referring to their own species simply as ‘the beings’. Ironically, the Shaitans gave the humans a name – the Ka Baal. These two species encountered each other just a few hundred rotations ago. In the struggle that followed between these two primitive species, the humans had lately been gaining the upper hand. If the Ravenous hadn’t arrived into the equation, things would have proceeded in a predictable manner, wherein following the natural order of things, the humans would have wiped out the Shaitans from all the worlds they inhabited. The records of the Humans confirm what we had learnt in our previous stop – that the Shaitans have a total of 12 inhabited worlds spread around in the space between these two star systems.

  When we arrived at the previous star system - Star System 8829, which the humans call Proxima Centauri and encountered the Shaitans on one of the planets there, we wrongly assumed that their other main world would be here in this Star System 8390. This mistake was due to the contraption that the humans call the ‘Lighthouse’. The origin of this word Lighthouse has a very romantic marine history, which would warm the cockles of any marine species like ours. The humans may not be an aquatic species, but they have developed many beautiful marine stories in their short history, which might be of interest to many Bodars. Anyway, the origin of the word is a digression because this Lighthouse is a space installation.

  When our deep space observation post was alerted to the laser light shining anomaly in this region of space, it had correctly surmised that the cause of this anomaly was artificial that indicated an intelligent species living in this region. This report is what had been sent to the Ravenous, which had been patrolling this sector. When we reached the neighboring Star System 8829 where we encountered the first Lighthouse and then consequently found the planet inhabited by the Shaitans, we initially assumed that the Lighthouse was an installation normally built by the Shaitan civilization. We now know that the Shaitans normally avoid building anything that sends out electromagnetic signals out into space, unless it is specifically directed at destination. It is not part of their doctrine to build such devices and wantonly spray EM radiation in space. I would say that this is a very sensible policy.

  It is an irony that the Shaitans in that star system were done in by the Lighthouse, since it attracted us the hunters to prey on them. The irony is that the Shaitans copied the Lighthouse system from their mortal enemies – the humans. The Lighthouse, despite all its dangers of attracting unwanted attention does have a very useful function. It can provide advance warning against invading fleet or kinetic attacks. Having seen the effectiveness of the Lighthouse used by the humans, the Shaitans copied it despite its inherent dangers. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t the human Lighthouse, but theirs that attracted us to this sector.

  Once we finished with the Shaitan planet on Star System 8829 or Proxima Centauri as known by the locals here, we proceeded here to Star System 8390 which the humans call Sun or Sol and the system is called the Solar system. Since we were receiving a strong signal from the Lighthouses installed here in the solar system, we wrongly assumed that the other main settled planet of the Shaitans would be here in the solar system. To our utter surprise, as you may recollect from my first report, we found that this system was home to a completely different and new species called the humans, who had been at war with the Shaitans.

  We now know that the Shaitans are a dark world dwelling species. The Shaitans evolved in one of the dark worlds between these two star systems. The Shaitans are typical of dark world evolved species. Like most dark world species, they are slow evolving. The Shaitans are in fact a very old species compared to humans and even compared to us. From the records, I have gleaned that the Shaitans as a species are estimated to have evolved between 66 and 70 million human years ago, which is about 210 and 220 million rotations ago in our units of time. In contrast, the humans as a species evolved less than two million of their years ago, and have been a technic civilization for less than ten thousand of their years.

  In fact, when the Shaitans and the humans discovered each other, the Shaitans were ahead of the humans in terms of technology. However, the Shaitans weren’t technologically that much further ahead of the humans to be able to overwhelm them in one fell swoop. The humans displayed typical characteristics we have observed in most intelligent species born in bright worlds orbiting near stars. They adapted fast, and improved their technology.

  This has been hypothesized in the scientific community on Bodoni, and the humans provide one more example – species that evolve in bright worlds orbiting near stars tend to show the propensity, or at least the ability, to evolve and adapt faster to change and crisis compared to a dark world evolved species like the Shaitans. I support the opinion of many of my colleagues, who believe that this is due to the fact that a bright world has a lot more energy flux. The amount of usable energy available to the ecosystem is a lot greater, consequently the species that evolve in such an environment are adapted to evolve and adapt faster compared to a dark world evolved species.

  In any case, the humans were lucky to have the Shaitans as their first encountered alien species. The Shaitan technology remained stagnant through the entire duration of their struggle, while the human technology improved and surpassed the Shaitans during the hundred and sixty years that these two species have been fighting each other. In the last phase of their war, just before we arrived on the scene, the humans had started using the greater mobility and speed of their warships to isolate and overpower the Shaitan worlds one by one. The Shaitans may have had twelve worlds, but like most dark worlds, they were resource poor compared to the single human home world of Earth. Like most star lit planets, Earth is bountiful.

  We now know that there are many dark worlds between this star system Sol and Proxima Centauri, where there are both Shaitans residing as well as some human colonizers and soldiers. The human warships are basically stragglers, who were out there fighting the Shaitans, when we arrived here. However, the Lord of the Hunt has deemed that it is not worth going out there to sweep and eliminate those straggler human war ships. This is because the human and Shaitan technology is pathetically primitive. Those so-called war ships of the humans and the Shaitans can be blown to pieces by even the smallest of our personal
space crafts. The humans and Shaitans do not have the capacity to flee. They will be stuck wherever they are, because none of the two species has true interstellar flight capacity. The humans are slightly ahead in the space technology, but even their spacecraft takes a significant amount of time to reach even the closest star system.

  We have been told by the Lord of the Hunt that those stragglers war ships would be swept and dealt with by a follow-on force, while we hold fort here above Earth and develop this planet as a hunting lodge. This suits me and most of the crew of the Ravenous very well. While most of the crew is interested in the hunting options available down at the planet, me and my team are presented with unbound opportunities to study this interesting planet and the human species.

  During our six rotations of stay on the Shaitan planet on Proxima Centauri, we had studied the Shaitans in detail. As I had mentioned then, the Shaitans were interesting but not remarkable as a species. Their biology, physiology, psychology, sociology and genetics all fall within previously observed parameters for a dark world evolved species. To that extent, the humans while far more interesting than the Shaitans, are not as remarkable a species either. It would however not be an overstatement to say that the humans are at the very edge of those characteristics which makes a species an outlier and remarkable for a bright world evolved species.

  If I were to rate the humans on their biology, physiology, and genetics, I would rate them as average for a bright world evolved species. There seems to be nothing which is either a fatal weakness or an advantage for their long-term survival in the interstellar universe. An individual human might be physically weaker than a Bodar, but we all know that strength of an individual of a species is no determinant in a struggle between species.

  The one characteristics that stands out for the human species is the speed of their evolution and then the speed at which they have developed their technology. I am no expert on comparative evolution, but from my records available on the Ravenous, I can say that humans have been one of the fastest if not the fastest species to have evolved into a space faring technic species that we know of.

  The speed of their evolution would normally imply that the humans are somehow smarter than the average intelligent species, but this is not the case. We have performed detailed neurological studies on human specimens and dissected and analyzed cells of every portion of their bodies. Their neural connections and their intelligence is average for a technic species. If anything, we found that the human neural connections work at a far slower speed than average, which makes their natural reactions slower than that of a Bodar or even a Shaitan. The humans overcome this shortcoming by implanting prosthetic electronics into their brain, which supplements and complements their natural neurological functions and helps them interface with their computers, in a fashion like what we Bodars do.

  This mystery of their abnormal speed of development has been the subject of my study and interest for the last few rotations. I have realized that the speed has a lot to do with their psychology and sociology. I have noted that when individual humans or a group of humans are put under stress or threat, they can up their game far beyond what would have been thought possible from their previous performances. This is what makes the humans such an interesting prey to hunt. This is what the Bodars on the Ravenous love about hunting humans – the element of the unexpected.

  While the majority on the Ravenous appreciate the unexpected from the humans from a hunting stand point, we the scientists have been studying it from an evolutionary and societal development perspective. The history of the humans is replete with examples of a quantum jump in human technology during times of war. It seems that humans as a species thrives in times of war despite apparent destruction. This was also true in their most recent war with the Shaitans. This phenomenon seems paradoxical, but is absolutely true about the human species.

  It seems that there is potential hidden in individual humans and the entire species as a group that emerges only when they are put under stress of some sort. Individual humans suddenly find the strength to lift a heavy object to save a loved relative trapped under it, which otherwise they could never have done. Similarly, humans as a group or individually could sacrifice their own lives to save others, which otherwise they would have never done in normal circumstances. That same trend continues as a species, where humans at war develop technologies to overcome their enemies, which they never developed in peace even though such a technology would have given them the advantage.

  Despite this, humans do not usually actively seek a war or confrontation. On the other hand, if their history is anything to go by, then humans do not try very hard to avoid war either – most of the times. The human history is replete with intergroup and tribal warfare within the humans. Then again, we must remember that the human species is a very young species. Like most species of its age, humans still fight with each other in groups divided along tribal lines, which consolidate into racial and geographical groups called nation states.

  The human society organization is very typical of two sex species observed elsewhere. Just like two sex reproductive species elsewhere in space, the humans organize their society in genetic lines first and then along geographical proximity lines. Smallest units are families where the offspring is nurtured by the two parents whose direct genetic line is carried by the offspring. Families are grouped into extended families with close genetic ties, which extend to tribes and then into racial groupings.

  There are indications that the human society was growing up from its infancy to a more advanced civilization where the species could act as a whole. Most of that change had been forced upon them by the threat from the Shaitans. The humans as a species held a lot of promise. They had been lucky to encounter a weak species like the Shaitans first, which forced them to grow up quickly and yet not get overwhelmed by them. If the humans had been given some more time, they would have evolved into a formidable space faring species.

  If the humans had been lucky in encountering the Shaitans first, they were equally unlucky in attracting our attention next. Part of the blame lies squarely with the humans and their stupidity in advertising their presence with the Lighthouse. It doesn’t matter now, because whatever the promise of humans as a species may have been, it will never be fulfilled now!

  Chapter 9

  The Beta Brigade

  Kuiper Belt, approaching Pluto’s orbit

  2205

  “This performance is totally and utterly unacceptable! Damn, this performance would not be acceptable even from ordinary green horn Marines, let alone from a battalion of the Beta Brigade! Lt. Col. Jiǎng, your 5th battalion is not living up to the high standards we have all come to expect from the Marines of the Beta Brigade. If they keep performing at this level, then these sorry excuses for e-Marines wouldn’t even qualify as cannon fodder where we are going. Tomorrow I want better timings and that too at ten percent higher gravity! Is that understood Major?” Brigadier Osbourne barked at Chichi Jiǎng.

  “Understood sir, you will not find the 5th battalion lacking in tomorrow’s exercise.” Chichi replied stone faced, not betraying emotions. His face may not have betrayed his inner feelings, but inside he was boiling with anger. Anger at the brigadier for putting his battalion down so devastatingly, anger at this battalion for losing the war game, but most of all, anger at himself for not being able to lead his battalion to a victory. He waited for his commanding officer to move out of the observation deck, back to another part of the ship before he turned to return to the point where his battalion was assembled.

  As Chichi turned, he saw Lt. Col. Ngwambe approach him. The last person Chichi wanted to talk to right now was Desmond Ngwambe. He was in no mood to listen to the gloating of Lt. Col. Ngwambe. Chichi was having a hard time swallowing the defeat as it is, without having to stand some further needling from the commanding officer of the winning battalion. Before Chichi could make any moves to avoid him, the big muscular African was upon him. Desmond was not smiling. In a sp
orting tone, he said. “Well fought Chichi, your battalion did good. Don’t sweat about the timings, it was just a few seconds’ difference any way. These high gravity drills are a bitch. They take everything out of you. I am beat, I sure can do with a drink. Care to join me later at the officer’s mess?”

  There was no hint of mockery in the tone of Desmond, which disarmed Chichi. “I will join you shortly Desmond, but first I must speak to my battalion.” Chichi replied.

  “See you at the bar, and hey… go easy on your guys. They did well, really I mean it.” Desmond said sincerely to Chichi. “They came in just a few seconds behind us, after running nonstop for two hours in 1.4Gs.”

  “I am not going to chew them up, not much anyway.” Chichi said with an impish smile. “I just want to give them the good news that tomorrow’s exercises will be at 10% higher gravity – 1.5Gs.” Chichi winked at Desmond as he turned and went down to where his battalion was assembled. Desmond groaned at hearing that news.

  When the two officers had settled in the bar an hour later and downed a couple of drinks, Desmond asked Chichi. “So why is the mad-dog cranking up the gravity? If I understood those briefings, our objective is expected to be spinning at a speed to generate only 1.2Gs of gravity. What is the point of over training the Marines at 1.5Gs? It only risks injury to the soldiers at such a late stage.”

  Lt. Col. Desmond Ngwambe was referring to Brigadier Osbourne, whose Marine handle was ‘Mad-dog’. He was the commanding officer of both Chichi and Desmond. It had been the object of intense speculation amongst all of Brigadier Osbourne’s staff and subordinates as to what crazy act of his, during his youth had earned him the nick name ‘Mad-dog’.