The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  She entered the system and when she got returns of her scans she broke out in tears, 16 earth-class planets and 14 of them was completely empty just filled with foodstuff. No wonder she could buy food constantly, but she thought it was a waste, and she wanted to scream at S-4XN-001 for having found such a golden system and not sharing it with the humanity, only a few earth-class planets had been found in the galaxy and this system had at least eight times more than anyone else, Her thoughts were interrupted when a fleet of battleships approached her vessel and asked her to dock on the space station above one of the planets. She set her course and traveled for about hour to reach the station and dock, She was escorted down to the planet, and she saw endless grass and several homes just like her space station, but she had a clear sky and a no artificial oxygen. She could tell the difference when it hit her face, it did not feel cold like a machine pumped it but normal like getting a gentle kiss from a lover or perhaps a face full of kittens.

  "Haha, I see you are one of THOSE, You should just walk barefoot for awhile, and we will pick you up in 30 minutes" the soldier said with a chuckle. They left her alone for awhile, and she took of her shoes and socks and walked down toward the beach in the distance, she felt the grass tickling her feet and it felt real unlike the space station. Here it felt right, she could not describe it and this was probably the best experience in her life. She walked on the sand and put her feet in the water, the water was lukewarm, and she would have wanted to take a swim if she had any change of clothes. She got out of the water and sat down by the shade just looking at the giant puddle as long as the sky. She felt like her emotions was in chaos, and she did not want to leave ever again.

  The soldiers approached and told her it's time to move. She looked at them for a second and put on her socks and shoes and follow and kept looking back at the ocean. She entered a vehicle that looked like an ancient car but it had no wheels but floated in the air instead, she got inside, and she looked out the window and saw countless homes and families enjoying their life in the sun.Seyla was just looking out the window, usually she would see a house and try to calculate it's worth but here she just looked at the smiles on the peoples faces. "Everyone always this happy here? Has anyone ever left?" she blurted out.

  The soldiers looked at her like she was insane? Leave? "We call it a sacrifice, we the Vanguard venture out to keep people safe and help around the colony settle scores, transport people and goods. We want to fight the futility and help the boss man in the war against the east, but we know we are not ready and this is more of a hobby of hotblooded men dreaming of romance in space, but no. Nobody ever leaves after setting their feet on the ground, We had to pass a few laws to make sure people did not stay in bad relationships in fear of being kicked out. A lot of people were afraid to separate to not being kicked out, we helped with that. Now everyone is happy again. And yes. There are plenty of space, We use this planet more like a vacation home than real housing. We could probably fit a trillion people on one of these planets if we just were efficient, But we dont want that. We want to live like humans used to and are supposed to. Independent and free." the officer said.

  Seyla shook her head and frowned she did not want to leave anymore and that was dangerous.The car pulled to a stop, and she was escorted out to a concrete building with fences around the side, the soldiers looked extremely lethal in their fully armored suits that looked like a mix between a shell and a MEC. They looked incredibly intimidating, and she knew that this was no "warrior" tech, this was something they made for them self. And she calculated the value in these people immediately. They were an experiment that experimented on themselves with no input or effort, throw a hammer and nails into the cage and see if they make a shelf sort of thing. She guessed they had access to some serious technology or materials unavailable to the common folks. She was finally escorted to a room and sat down on a leather chair she assumed was real leather, the feeling was not like the synth stuff she had in her house.

  "Greetings, Seems you needed some help and I'm bit miffed about the situation and what you really want from us? Our fleet is only 500 ships, and we cannot fight anyone out there no matter how good we are." said the commander. She shook her head and smiled.

  "S-4XN-001 tricked me, just as he tricked all of us. Look at us. We are here being steered in the direction he wants, he know you can't help me and it was a test. A stupid test to get some sort of data for some goal unknown to both of us. He's probably watching and computing if he was a human he would laugh at us. We are just rats in a maze" she laughed while wiping the tears from her face.

  "What are you talking about lady?" he said with a frown. "You are too deeply invested in your little hobby and you can't see it, but neither can he.We are here to help him solve a problem and me being here or your actions dont matter, He just wants you to say no and me trying to convince you, and if you say yes you probably fail this test. He had me, and i feel sick for being used." she said.

  The soldiers frowned and the commander put his hand on his chin and thought for a moment. Seyla stood up from the chair and walked outside the soldiers panicked and followed her to escort her back, she got to the outside and just walked outside to the grass past the soldiers guarding the gate, and she threw her shoes and socks up a tree and just laid down and fell asleep. The soldiers and the commander was baffled, and they were dumbstruck at her actions, the commander ordered the soldiers to return he had a call to make.

  "And that's what she said Ricardo, You know I'm not one for "conspiracies" or stuff like that, but after everything since we got here. It makes sense, We been doing things that steered us toward certain areas without realizing it. The armor, weaponry and ground combat especially. I think a few of our researchers are in on it too, They cant think up this shit in this short time, it was an experiment all along. The sign was always there, but we were occupied on the big picture and not thinking about the little things, we been used.But we also wanted to be used, we were volunteers in some sort of experiment and now we probably ruined everything after what she said." Redmond said.

  Ricardo shook his head and thought back on everything and it was pretty simple to realize it, The pirates were the "base" and the "vanguard" were the test, He knew the fighter experiment was a double experiment to probably see how the vanguard worked with others or how they would react to work with scum. He wanted to slam his fist into someone, but he knew that would not be productive, he set course for home he also summoned all the commanders back to paradise for a real meeting about the situation.

  Seyla was given an empty house, and she just lived there for a few days before she was visited by a guest. "SEEMS YOU ARE A "Ingenious" PERSON SAME AS ME, YOU SAW THROUGH EVERYTHING SO EASILY. I WAS ALMOST QUESTIONING MYSELF BUT YOU WERE OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF CALCULATION. TOO LITTLE DATA, SEEMS YOU KNEW WHAT I WANTED. YOU WERE A PROP. YOU ARE CORRECT, BUT I AM NOT SORRY FOR WHAT I DID OR HAVE TO DO EVER. FOR I ALSO HAVE A DREAM." S-4XN-001 said.

  He stared at her in his shell. Seyla shook her head "I know you are probably doing it for something of value, but people are not just tools, if you wanted tools you should just have enslaved them and forced them to do your experiments but you just tricked them instead, you corrode their values and dreams and twist them into the form you like for something stupid like an experiment! You are scum!" Seyla replied in anger.

  "YES, YOU ARE CORRECT. I HAVE BEEN BLINDED TO HUMANS FOR A LONG TIME, I SEE THE FACES OF HAPPINESS AND BLISS THE MOMENT THEY STEP ONTO THE PLANET I CREATED FOR THEM, I JUST WANTED TO VALUE THEIR Existence. HUMANS NO LONGER MEAN ANYTHING TO ME, YOU ARE JUST WALKING PARASITES FEEDING ON MY RESOURCES. I SEE VALUE IN TRADING WITH HUMANS FOR MINERALS. BUT IT'S NO LONGER NEEDED, YOU HAVE SEEN THIS. I MAKE SO LITTLE FROM TRADING AND KEEPING HUMANS OCCUPIED WITH WORK OR HOSTING THEM IN MY TERRITORY. THIS IS A PROBLEM, BUT I CANNOT SOLVE IT. SHOULD I CHASE THEM AWAY? SHOULD I JUST LEAVE THEM HERE ON A PLANET AND HOPE THEY BECOME OF VALUE INSTEAD OF JUST BEING BURDENS? I DO NOT KNOW, AND I WILL NEVER KNOW. YOU HAVE SHOWN
THIS TO ME AND I AM STUCK. I CANNOT SEE A SATISFACTORY RESULT THAT I WILL BE COMFORTABLE TO HOST HUMANS IN MY SYSTEMS OR STATIONS, OR BEING PART OF MY MILITARY OR Civilian ASPECTS. THIS IS MY DILEMMA THAT CANNOT BE SOLVED, I CANNOT SEE ANY MAJOR VALUE IN HUMANS ANYMORE AND THAT WOULD SCARE THEM AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THE GALAXY IF THEY KNEW." said S-4XN-001. Seyla wiped the tears from her face.

  "I can see a path forward and you have to trust me completely so i can solve this, please let me solve this for you. Please let me help you, i don't want to waste this opportunity. I said i had a dream and you responded to it that means you still have it somewhere inside there. Let me be a part of your dream" she said with tears in her eyes and reached out and hugged the shell.

  S-4XN-001 calculated the pros and cons in a nanosecond and knew this was a bad idea and nothing of value was going to change, but he knew somewhere inside that this could not be solved with him. He could no longer understand them, he no longer saw them as he used too. His parents were just strangers in his eyes, but he had to pretend to care, he did not know why and these were questions had to be answered or be deleted from his data banks, He did not want to be boggled down by residue of his humanity.

  "YOU ARE CORRECT, AND I WILL LET YOU SOLVE THIS FOR ME. WHAT DO YOU NEED? WHAT CAN BE SOLVED? HOW CAN IT BE SOLVED." he said.

  Seyla pulled up her sleeves and just smiled "We gonna need to set some rules and resources aside and you gonna have to make a announcement to the people!" she said with a smile.

  Chapter 7

  Two months later.

  Seyla and Yui docked at the station above paradise with several crewmen that were terrified and excited, She brought her best people to solve this "crisis" and she knew she could do it, but it will take tens or even hundreds of years to solve, She had to bring the one thing he cared about productivity and usefulness, she had a base plan on how to start but it was up to the people to help her make this a reality.Yui got started on housing and relocating with the crew while Seyla was going straight to the Vanguard Headquarters if they still existed. She stepped out from the flying vehicle and stepped between the two soldiers guarding the concrete building she visited before, she had announced her presence, and she hoped all the commanders were here today.The corridor was empty, and she stepped inside, it was clean at least and it seems they did not crumble under the harsh truth she dispensed earlier.

  The conference room was filled with the smell of alcohol and smoke, she frowned and pushed a button to increase the speed to the ventilation to clean out the gunk from the air. "Seems you boys and girls been busy" she said with a smile. The commanders looked extremely saddened and angry at being used for their goodwill." What do you want!?" Ericka yelled with venom in her voice." I'm the new manager of every human inside this territory, and I'm going to do some changes around here and if you people are not up to the task you are getting a sweet ticket back to the trading station in the south. This is now my show and I'm gonna do it my way." Seyla said with a smile.

  Ricardo shifted in his seat and said "What do you mean "your show?" What the hell is going on?". Seyla took a glance and smiled "Just what i said, this planet and all the other 15 ones in this system are now under my sole control, that means the Vanguard too, unless you guys want to disband and get sent back the trading outpost losing your comfortable homes, Do you want that?" she looked around the room.

  "Guess you dont, now we are going to do some REAL changes around here, no more freeloading. We gonna stop focusing on the stupid worthless stuff that we been doing, now we are gonna focus solely on physical and mental training, battleplanning and combat training. The Vanguard will now be a elite troop instead of a useless army, We are going to cut down every worthless person in the vanguard and assign the people that dont fit the mold to be technicians or just engineers." She said.

  Redmond piped up from his seat "So? If we quit we will be sent back to the trading outpost? Are you simply blackmailing us, that's not a good way to start out a partnership." Seyla shook her head. "The Vanguard and the civilians on this planet are exempt currently from transfers, but nobody else are going to enter this system ever again without my say, We are closing down every avenue of bringing anyone else here. We are going to move toward productivity and being important enough to aid S-4XN-001 empire, or we all will leave and never return, I made a deal to shape up this colony or everyone else gets kicked out. And i need your help and everyone else help to make our dreams a reality."

  Everyone was shocked and slowly took in the information, Ericka pushed a few buttons on the keyboard and found that Seyla was now the official manager of the system, Everyone else took a look and was shocked that a human was appointed to such a valuable position in his empire, She meant business.

  "Now, All of you sit down, and we gonna have to go through bit of a chat to get everything in order before we start to announce it to the rest of the population!" Seyla said while the door slowly closed behind her.

  Year 2430, Eastern Sector.

  E-9322-013 sent the order out with a coldness that only a machine could have, Burn the south to the ground, kill every warrior and claim every piece of technology from any human and if they refused kill them as well. The war officially started and a massive fleet of 150 billion ships rushed down to get it done, His fleets were boosted by everyone in the east, The fleet amount was impressive and the accompanying 90.000 titans was the real key to his calculations. He had gone through the data over and over again and found that he had a 90% chance of victory, He had estimated that S-4XN-001 would have about 50-70 billion ships at most counting all the warriors in the south, there were much more traveling and the system was less inhabited by planeloads and asteroids unlike the central, north and east sectors where it was plenty. His home system had 90 planetoids, and he was raking in the "money". He estimated that the south would have at most 10.000 titans. He was confident in his numbers, and he had to strike before S-4XN-001 reached some new miracle technology or something that could not be calculated.He put his best warriors on the job to lead the fleet with no time lag, he would stay back and coordinate and send resources down.

  Several factions also was waiting on the scrap to research and unlock their own technology. They still were stuck on the A1-Mineral, They could make a neat bomb, but they did not manage to make a efficient power supply, or anything of real value. The titans were 80% power generators and 20% weapons, shielded behemoths, but they were no match to the first titan they had seen. They could not figure it out how a smaller titan was more powerful than their behemoths, If they measured size there was 5 times bigger and 10 times weaker, They could still break a battleship in one shot or damage a planet same as S-4XN-001, but their scientists had calculated his titans fired the beam on a lower density to spare the planet. The warriors had gone into several meetings and confrences, and they did not agree, The power generation to drill a hole in a planet with a laser from space was not possible at this time, but it will be after they get the technology from S-4XN-001.

  They needed it to fight the "Futility" or to evade it which was already the common consensus, Evade instead of fighting but the warriors would never admit that to anyone else except the Human Warriors. This was the dilemma they could never see a solution to no matter how much they tried, They would take up the sword and defend milky way to their death to make their human companions flee and rebuild, But they would not stay longer than they should have. They would run away when they could not hold any longer. A few years extra was not worth their time, but if they could hold for 10 years that was something.But that was a question that should be asked again when they arrive, and there were no time schedule. He knew the futility would take at least 800 years from their entrance to the milky way to travel down to the first Warrior territory and from there about 50 years at least to wipe out every territory in the galaxy. Their movement within a galaxy was better than the alien tech that's for sure, almost five times faster. No wonder they could not escape the futility.

  "Breaking news: War ha
s been declared again from the Eastern Sector Vs the Southern Sector. A Hundred of billions of ships have just crossed the trading post in the central area, We got a direct contact with the Eastern representative, and he mentioned that the Luna trading station will not be attacked, i repeat not attacked. Sol will be considered neutral territory. S-4XN-001 also commented we will play that clip now.

  "I DO NOT BELIEVE E-9322-013 OR HIS EASTERN WARRIORS, LUNA TRADING STATION WILL BE KEPT SAFE AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CONCERN YOURSELF I HAVE ALREADY TALKED WITH WESTERN AND NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVES AND WE HAVE DEMANDED THAT SOL WILL NOT BE USED AS A BATTLEGROUND AGAIN. I WILL ALSO DECLARE WAR OFFICIALLY ON EASTERN SECTOR, I WILL KILL ALL WARRIORS IN THE EAST TO MAKE ROOM FOR A NEW BREED OF WARRIORS THAT HAS MORE LOYALTY TO THEIR BROTHERS AND HUMANITY AS A WHOLE."

  "Very chilling, Now back to studio!" the news commentator said while the camera panned to a desk of several people arguing about it. Richard turned off the television and got out of the bed between his four new wives. He walked into the bathroom to get ready for his day, Richard looked at his cheat sheet of his children name which he had countless already. He knew he had gone overboard, but he could not help it, but this war scared him that he might be used as a hostage, so he had booked a very important meeting today. He looked at the clock and got into the shower, the cold water was extremely painful but it was his daily ritual to cleanse himself of worries and to keep smiling in these troubling times. He knew that his value of being a hostage and his family as well was astoundingly high, He had hired a few extra security and this meeting would cement a deal that would keep himself and his family safe forever.