The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  Humans were not happy about their situation and the unemployment rate around the galaxy was at average 70%, Nobody could work proper jobs anymore, Every sector was invaded by robots and the only jobs that existed were miners and administrative people, Stores were closing their doors every day since nobody could afford to buy anything. They had to imp lent a basic universal income to please everyone, and it was just basically food coupons for nutritional drinks that S-4XN-001 had been slurping his entire life since chewing would damage his jawbone in his fragile mortal life. And it surprised nobody that the first vote was about humanity's right to access mineral and planetary objects inside a warriors' territory.

  There was a vote and it was 51% to NO, within a day, Even the central warriors felt it was a bad idea to let humans move about and be in the way of their drones and ships, not to mention the nightmare of keeping the drones from not crashing into greedy miners racing in front of their drones to steal a fat deposit of ore."HUMANITY HAS TO HAVE A PATH FORWARD, THE ECONOMY IS IN TATTERS AND WILL FOREVER REMAIN SO, THE FUTURE CAME TOO FAST AND NEEDS A SOLUTION, I IMPLORE TO VOTE FOR HUMANS RIGHTS TO TRAVEL, MINE AND SETTLE ANY WARRIOR SYSTEM" replied a shell from the "east" sector.

  A shell from the northern sector stood up "HUMANITY HAS TO HAVE A PATH FORWARD AND WE CAN ALL AGREE WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AND PROSPERITY, I SUGGEST A SOLUTION THAT WILL PLEASE EVERYONE. TAXES AND TARIFFS ON ANY GOODS MINED OR TRADED WITHIN THEIR SYSTEM, AND A CONSTANT TAX ON EVERY PERSON LIVING WITHIN THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE, IN RETURN THE WARRIOR WILL PROVIDE A MARKET OF FOOD AND MINERALS FOR TRADE WHICH WILL BE OCCUPIED BY HUMANS, TO EMPLOY THEM OUT OF POVERTY AND KEEP THE PEOPLE HAPPY."

  He monitored the situation for several days for a proper argument and it fell flat, Everyone knows why they became warriors was to give humanity a future, some did it because they hated their lives like S-4XN-001 but you needed the big picture or you would probably go insane just "existing", you can't properly enjoy yourself like when you were a human, he had seen several of his favorite movies which he copied from his data when he first turned into a machine, and he did not feel any joy or emotion, it was just humans remembering lines and doing physical activity. It would probably sadden his parents if he ever told them about it, but he had not talked to them since the day he became a machine.

  "YOU ARE SPEAKING TRUTH AND REASON BUT YOU ARE NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH, WE NEED TO SUPPLY FOOD, WATER, SHELTER AND WORK FOR EVERY HUMAN WILLING. WE KNOW THAT AT THIS MOMENT IT WILL NOT BE Achievable AND THIS IS A GOOD FIRST STEP, I SUGGEST ADDING A CLAUSE THAT EVERY WARRIOR NEED TO HIRE Least 100.000 HUMANS PER OWNED SYSTEM.IT WOULD BE SYMBOLIC AND IMPROVE MORALE AMONG THE Masses THEY TOO WILL FIGHT WITH US TO DEFEND AGAINST THE FUTILITY" said N-158-328. He was the de facto leader of the Northern Territory working closely together with humans, S-4XN-001 assumed he was either a help worker or just some hippie with a cause before he became a warrior, it did not matter much to him.

  Hiring 12.000.000 would be a negligible cost in minerals for his 120 systems, considering the wealth in credits he was pulling up every second. He would probably have to spend his time improving his botany, medicine and habitats. It was a category he had never touched since he did not have a single human in his territory and would probably never will, he thought he would build a trading station in Sol and have the 12 million people working in shifts there sorting, selling and buying constantly. Turning the useless into useful. He would operate under a loss of course since he could do all those things himself, but having humans working might be better, so they would not bother him in his territory. The proposal with the hiring addendum was added and it was 51% YES and passed, it would go into effect within 3 years, He spent a few moments negotiating with Lunar Colony about in future building a trading station around its orbit. A price was settled for 14 Billion Lunar Credits, and he would pay it in minerals within 10 years, He accepted and said he would start payment when he started to construct which were soon as he designed something that could feed, house and employ at least 12 million people.

  Chapter 4

  S-4XN-001 got down to start working on his botany, medicine and station research, With this technological advantage he could cut a lot of corners and build the space station thinner and bigger with less cost, He decided the space station would house 30 million people, farms for them and homes.

  He began designing the housing compartments and settle the majority of the people would get three rooms. Bathroom, bedroom and everything else. It was bigger than his old hospital room, and he also designed bigger apartments for family units, he figured it would be needed since humans lived in packs and not by themselves.

  He decided to split the sections around the station all connected to a central hub that housed all the stores, docks and entertainment. His botany skills became unprecedented and his tinkering had a genetic crop that was bigger, and fully grown in a week, reducing the need for massive fields, he calculated that needed several different fields and also some "recreation" foods that would be helpful for entertainment, He made a few empty fields and farms to be able to rented or used in a pinch, He designed an entire grassland and forest that had a super-advanced artificial system that made you think you were on earth inside one of the few parks still left.

  It felt like a real nature retreat he hoped, to him it was just a waste of energy and time. He was happy with his design, and he built several remote energy shield emitters that would rotate and support the station if any attacks came, his contract stated it could not be armed with any anti-spaceship battlements, but he added a few secretly highly advanced weaponry to engage in space warfare, he also stored some armors and weapons for the internal security force he had to hire. They had plasma weapons and high power lasers if anything happened, or stun weapons if it was local. The plasma and laser weapons would be kept locked away unless a emergency and were strictly locked down and set to pulse a signal if they ever left the station.

  He was happy with his design until he researched a few medical procedures and tech, he actually managed to solve the problem of his old condition of the "elixir" not repairing his organs and bones, He made a super improved version that if you injected yourself it would stay in your system for at least 50 years or more, He had no proper human test to see the length it would last in your system, but he was incredible certain it was safe. Basically he inadvertently cured every incurable disease, He uploaded his finding to the gathering and human databases, Nobody should suffer like he did, no matter what, Cheers broke out around the galaxy and S-4XN-001 the warrior from the south was a folk hero among the impoverished and the downtrodden.

  He just collapsed the entire medical industry and put several high paid doctors out of work when they knew this "elixir" fixed the diseases that were currently unbeatable. Hospitals around the world started to make their own batches at a fraction of a cost and several Corporations tried to stop the recipe from spreading further, It would take decades to settle if it was illegal or a copyright infringement, since the improved elixir was basically different than the original and more potent.

  Earth Leaders demanded the Sol Federation stop spreading of their intellectual property and it was shut down, the Federation knew riots would break out and it was political suicide to say Hey, Please be sick instead. The politicians went out on net and the media and applauded the warrior that brought hope to humanity in helping the downtrodden, A few months later several labs was being shutdown and insurance industry just tanked, Earth was hurting economically from the blow but everyone else was happy.

  3 Years Later

  Massive cargo ships escorted by a million drones and 50.000 battleships entered sol and turned their sights toward Luna. The Cargo ships started to unload several modules and the drones went to work stitching it together with their welding lasers and brackets. It was going to be the biggest celestial structure ever created. There was a short news story about the construction but seeing a building go up in space is not really exciting enough when it had happened for everyday
since the alien arrived.

  It started to take form rapidly and the cargo ships would be fully unloaded in two days, and then return to his territory under the guard of half the battleships, He was fabricating the minor stuff and it was soon ready to be shipped, His improvements in the hyper drive using the "Nova" Generator allowed him to jump further along the line instead of stopping it each system, He now saved years off his traveling for a price in B-Element, It was acceptable loss this time since he wanted this done quickly, so he could focus on other things like expanding and research, He booked a meeting with several people to be the Security Chief and several managers for his future divisions on the space station.

  He found an unemployed security chief that was a former corporate spy, he stole a lot of secret plans from Earth and traded them to the United Colonies on Mars, He was still being hunted by Earth, and he was basically trapped and unemployed on Mars without any support or any real life for himself and his family. He had contacted him with the promise of bringing his family and a new employment, and if he decided to quit he would ferry him to a system of his choice.

  Matthias agreed and introduced himself as "Christian", S-4XN-001 sent a unmarked cargo ship and him and his family got onboard and was transferred to the completed section of the space station, he and his family were one of the few ones there, a few other managers had been assigned and several of his new co-workers that would protect the station.

  "Morning' Chief" said a smiling youngster. He was a former police officer on a illegal space station that served as a drug den, He was forcefully employed there for 2 years before rescue came and freed him and release him back into the Sol system. He had no possessions, and he lived in an apartment the size of a closet, He jumped at the chance for a apartment anywhere instead of that cramped nightmare. He walked around the cafeteria and poured himself a cup of coffee from the machine. "Ah, i almost forgot how real coffee tasted instead of that flash-freeze mambo jumbo from Mars." he said with a smile.

  Christian just shook his head and walked into the lift to his personnel office, he swiped his card and was sent extremely fast toward his location but the gravity was the same, He was traveling at several hundred kilometers but felt nothing when the lift switched from up to left, He was just looking out the fake window and knew it was a camera feed of the park. He stepped out of the lift and sat down on his desk and put his feet up on the desk and grabbed his leftover muffin from yesterday off his desk and started to munch.

  Vishaan double-checked the approved transfers to see if anyone was suspicious or just here to steal or ruin things for the rest of the people coming. He was confident that these people fit his "boss" work criteria and safety criteria. These people would work for 6 hours a day and it would be split into 4 shifts, They kept the earth standard of time and it was okay,

  The space station would be as lively at all times. He had inspected the massive amount of docks able to accommodate over 1000 cargo ships at once, and the warehouse was massive and filled with minerals, food and medicine ready to be traded at the set prices. His mission was to sell, sell and sell. He would then trade for minerals needed by the boss and then repeat the process, He did not feel it was economical viable or any point to it, but he guessed it was like a charity more than an actual workplace.

  His daughter were screaming crying everyday about going to the petting zoo everyday and take home another kitten, He thought he could bend the rules and take one home but no, He had to apply for a license and go to mandatory cat training to have a pet. He did not have enough time so his wife went for the course, it would take 7 days and if you failed you had to wait one month. The animal trainer was a pain in the ass and if the kitten so much as sneezed she would fail you instantly.

  He pushed a button and the applications would now be contacted and transferred here in batches or faster if themselves could arrive sooner, He would make it profitable to keep this paradise running forever.Several battleships were hovering around the space station and giving support, the rules for Sol was a maximum of a 100 battleships per celestial object, S-4XN-001 Had assigned 500 for the 4 shield emitters and the space station itself, He was not happy about its lack of protection but with the shield emitters it would buy him several months if the ship weaponry did not advance too much, He already checked data packets from the council about any upgrades and every warrior was as secretive as him, no new technology coming forward.

  He liked the veil of uncertainty in his allies, Maybe they would surprise him and complete a B-Element power generator faster than him. He kept his eye on the B-Element and tried to make it stable enough for constant power rather than burst, He decides to buckle down his 200 system and fill it with miners and drones and then expand again, He would grab 400 systems when he were happy with his production of battleships, He currently had 120 million battleships and 0 titans, He was happy with the design of the titan, but he did not want to build it just yet, He had built the super-shipyard able to construct that beast and all the needed components, but he felt he could make it a lot better and stronger. He He put his territory on auto-cruise complete drones and extract all the minerals while he pondered other questions that bothered him, like improving the Hyper drive, He managed to make it better slightly, but he really souped it up with the "nova" burst, He improved the in-system travel speed by as much as 50% with his sub light engines.

  But what he wanted was more than that, his titan if he built it would be extremely slow, And that was unacceptable. He would put all his processing power into this, and he would solve what troubles him. He double-checked his food, water,medicine and fuel warehouse and did one last calculation. He had enough extra supplies to supply his space station in Sol if anything happened. He double-checked his trading station down here at the border surrounded by battleships, the traffic was sparse, but he was making solid profit with food, medicine,fuel and water for minerals. He even had a few humans working on the station selling entertainment and various goods.He sent orders to his drones left a few messages to his human managers, He was now confident in disconnecting from the distractions and devote himself to some wholesome science.

  "Two million credits and that's it for this JUNKER!" Seyla bellowed in the face of the trader. "This is a brand new Astra Corporation Colonization ship! It was all you need for 5000 people to survive forever out there in the vastness of space!, Four a million Credits, and that's final" said the salesman with a frown. The two sisters looked at each other and spoke softly.

  "This is an old model! Don't try to trick us, a brand new 2345 model costs four million, not a 2340 model, We know the artificial gravity on this model is not up to spec like the new models and it's missing the improved com link!" complained Yui.

  They were not going to get ripped off while settling the galaxy, they needed the cash to pay the taxes and tariffs if they settled in a warrior's territory, They already had a location set, and they would try to find their little corner of the galaxy and become honest traders. Shipping mineral cheap from the frontier to the rich core, They knew the southern section was the "poor" and unsafe one, so they would rake in credits on the premium distance and security as traveling merchants.

  Several of their friends called them insane for going down south, There been constant pirate attacks since forever, But they had a trick up their sleeves and that was a battleship escort they already purchased before this deal, They managed to buy a few of the outdated Earth Navy ships when they realized they were becoming fast obsolete, They still packed a punch and with a few shields and weapon upgrades they were quite strong but not as durable as the new "alien" battleships, That's why they bought 50 of them to ensure their safety.

  The trader shook his head "Listen girls, I know you two have more money than sense if you are buying this ship, And í agree that four million credits are bit steep, But i have spent several hundreds of thousands fixing it up and making it up to the latest years standard, i would have kept it myself and settled in the east if the wife had not gotten that
job on that space station" he lamented. "Look, four million credits are a lot, so I'm gonna cut you girls a deal, I'm going to work for a Warrior called S-4XN-001, He's in the south section where you girls are planning to go, I'll leave a transfer request for three million credits from your IDs, All you have to do is drop it off at the trading station down there, All you girls have to sign this, and we can all be happy." said the trader.

  The girls looked at each other and agreed instantly, they were quite happy to keep their cash supply steady in return of small payments and penalties if he did not get paid in time, The warrior in the south was probably a good start to make connections at that trading station. They could probably get several millions worth of contracts for the miners down there scraping by.

  Seyla and Yui got their crew onboard, and they headed for their first stop the Mars Trading Station, They were gonna resupply and pickup all their families, crew and goods. They were traders, so they had to make money on the way down as well, Seyla had plotted a course thanks to the trader supplying the system location of the warrior's trading post, She even managed to convince him to give her a communications code to the satellite network that stretched from Sol to there, She was one of the few peoples on the network down there already but the time lag was horrible from Earth, She already accepted a few trade orders for certain name brand alcohol and fashion, She would accept any trade order that was profitable and after loading the goods she set course for the "southern" border, She and her sister was gonna be successful, and she knew it and the crew knew it as well.

  Two years later.

  Seyla was wiping the sweat of her brow when she was approached by a warrior patrol fleet with over 2 million battleships wondering what she was doing in his system unannounced. She knew the warriors would never attack humans, but she was still afraid of the sheer firepower, her 50 battleships looked pathetic more than intimidating. She greeted the warrior with respect and told her the destination she wanted to go to the warriors trading post, "THE WARRIOR S-4XN-001 ARE Extremely DANGEROUS AND UNPREDICTABLE, I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO NOT ANNOY HIM OR YOU WILL PUT YOURSELF AND YOUR CREW IN DANGER, THERE ARE UNCONFIRMED REPORTS HE HAS KILLED HUMANS AND BROKEN THE PACT, NOBODY WOULD TAKE THE WORD OF OUTLAWS AND THIEVES SERIOUSLY BUT IN EVERY LIE THERE IS A GRAIN OF TRUTH." Broadcast the warrior AI.