The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  The economy must flow and the citizen must work. Seyla had started the pension system where anyone could take a break from working for one year for each two years they worked, several people had jumped on it immediately and that had cleared several work spots for new people, She would plan for their obvious return to work in the future but now she needed the spots to keep them occupied and working. She knew the inner workings of the empire, and she understood her people more, they wanted to work and the vacation was more for recreation and breeding. They wanted to spend time with their children, and they wanted to make more and more. If your family did not have at least five children you were not in a happy marriage was the saying in paradise, she thought it was silly but it gave her a constant supply of a workforce. The mining program was unlimited occupancy but not really a well desired workplace, the simulation lowered the complaining since they could do it from home or at an office.

  Older people that lived in the south enjoyed the mining, while the more vocal and lively center liked to work in jobs that engaged people face to face. She was now incontrol, and she never told her sister she had the warrior upgrade, She was now half warrior and half human in a sense, she needed to be beyond what she was and this was it. She could see all the flaws, and she had "updated" herself, so she had none of the flaws, she could easily disconnect from the network since she had a private server located somewhere in the galaxy, and she had a constant backup, She was not afraid of death and that had pushed her even further in her pursuits of perfection in control of the empire, she now know she was making a legacy that would last forever, she had instantaneous connection between trading posts and communications bridges, she could have five conversations going on at the same time in real time, she had become the true controller of the southern humanity.

  She wanted to tell Yui about her transformation, but they had been busy working constantly and hardly seen face to face for two months, She did not know if she told Yui she would demand the procedure herself, or curse her out for being stupid. Seyla did not know but the truth would reveal itself when they met anyway. She was different now until she disconnected from her warrior self, and that rarely happened since she was always working, doing what she liked inspiring dreams in others.

  She was rudely interrupted by a lower manager barging into her office "We got a situation, a uprising on the trade station we got several people dead, and they declare themselves independent!" the manager said while struggling for air.

  Seyla frowned and checked the cameras and double-checked the ID's of the people in the uprising, she connected to her warrior senses and scanned the hidden databases collected over hundreds of years by his spy satellites tapping into every public satellite in the universe, most warriors had secured that loophole long ago but there were so many communication satellites in the universe that it was impossible to check all of them, the galaxy was completely shut out from "spying" unless they went through his network which they rarely did, the warriors knew that communication was the most important thing in their drone network. She stared at the people in the uprising and it was obvious, the first batch of refugees were a trap. They were northern sector registered citizens more than half of them, and she could track payments from several northern corporations. Nothing would travel back to the warriors in the north, but she already uploaded a hit list on several corporations to be raided and destroyed, she would never tolerate anything that ruined the productivity of her little empire. She would never accept anyone take anything from her without payment, she smiled "Send in them, they need the exercise." the manager nodded and sent the orders to the Enforcers.

  Neon woke up from her drunken stupor when she heard the alarm, she quickly drank down the brew that would cure that massive hangover from the party just a few hours earlier, she went into the shower and quickly got undressed. She enjoyed the cool water for a few minutes then stepped outside and dressed herself in her tactical clothing, She walked down to the armory and put her hand on the lock, The door slowly openend, and she stepped into her custom armor and grabbed a few plasma pistols and hooked them to her back, she took her favorite laser rifle from the rack and walked out the door. She went down to the assembly area, and she was met with the rest of the enforcers waiting for action.

  "Neon, you are late as always." Jessica said with a tint of jealousy in her voice. "Seems' you are always first to get ready, but also the first to get her ass kicked when the shit goes down!" Neon said with a mocking tone. Jessica lounged her fist toward Neon, and she easily side stepped the punch and connected with a counter straight into her face, The armor gave a cracking noise but it was perfectly fine. Jessica double-checked her armor integrity, and she was about to pull out her pistol in revenge when she felt a hand on her.

  "Enough, We got a purge mission, our misses station in Sol has been completely occupied by northern spies and rebels, They have all been earmarked as to be destroyed. Quite clever of them to sneak an entire refugee ship full of marines and pretend to be "rebels". This is gonna be a shoot first and ask questions later. There are no children or non-combatants onboard the station. Which should have had set off alarms, The few crewmen and left on the station are locked up in their apartments everyone else took the escape pods. The security cameras in every sector is down and there is a massive risk of breaching the space, so i want everyone to do this quickly and quietly. We will leave in 5 minutes." Oleg said with a tone of authority in his voice, the others quickly got ready, and he walked toward the ship docked in the station.

  It was his personal vessel crafted for two things, speed and stealth. Undetectable on radar but also extremely comfortable compared to his old ship, He had a lounge, private bedroom and several entertainment options to choose from. He loved to keep a few "Enemy" girls around in his private chamber while he got to the task of killing and raping to his hearts content. He was obviously not a good person just like his team of murders, rapists and other criminals. But they served a purpose and that purpose was to kill as many enemies they could and the rest was forgiven.

  He saw the rest of the crew get seated, and he pulled out and set course for the portal to Sol. He was always impressed at the marvel of technology the portals was, He used to be a pirate in the south stealing goods and then taking the extremely long way to sell them back in sol. It would take him years to turn a profit and most of the time the food and goods he transferred got spent before he even finished, he loved to engage people in war or just simply beating down someone that thought they were stronger, but when the crew picked the wrong target and was quickly surrounded by a fleet of warrior ships he knew his days of plundering was over, he spent four years locked in a warrior's prison before Seyla found him and his crews talent needed for some cleaning of the corrupt and stupid, He had appreciated that, and he knew he was expendable, but he would live like a king until he died in combat. He checked the scans and the station was surrounded by battleships from various factions in Sol and several "north" flagged cargo ships docking blatantly to trade for "prisoners".

  He knew they were here to unload weaponry and additional goods while taking the wounded soldiers back that got hurt by the pathetic security team that was on board, they had a few outdated plasma weapons and could not take on a massive army of 500 thousand soldiers. But he could and his team would, they would simply keep killing and hiding until the base was completely empty, he jumped into the portal and double-checked his order, he got a kill-all confirm and several battleships now surrounded the station from his boss and all camera/communication access to the station was shut down. No incoming or no outgoing communications the station was constantly wiping out any recording or data. He activated the stealth system and it was just a simple mirror design that reflected light, he jumped into Sol and headed straight toward the station.

  "Check your weapons and refill every ammo and foodstuff you need, we gonna go hard the first 8 hours. I want them to feel so much despair they are going to start killing themselves to escape this nightmare." Oleg s
aid while taking out a small bag of drugs that he put in his mouth and started to chew, He checked around the command center and saw everyone else get ready, several of the guys started to chug down the last of their alcohol and Neon took a puff from her private inhaler.

  "Boss, what about Trophies?" a scar filled grunt said. Oleg chuckled and replied "Same as always, on site only, When we leave it's no-go." the grunts chuckled and nodded.

  Jessica and Neon just rolled their eyes, They loved to take a few "prisoners" as well, but they would never parade them around like those boys did, They would keep them alive and send them home if they could. But slavery is not allowed in any part of the galaxy and this was not slavery technically when they operated, their targets had been labeled as unknown, a technicality in the huge law book that encompassed everything, Aliens were fair game to kill and rape, and if you just labeled your enemies as unknown or alien it's not slavery but self-defense, But they rather keep this little secret in their hat so the alien races dont get upset or the law actually gets changed. The battleships started to force everyone away from the station, and he just waited for 15 minutes until they were far away, he slowly attached himself to the hidden dock connected to the power generator, A small lift was hidden inside every wall on every floor, so he could quickly enter any floor, and he thought that shit was genius, Such a simple backdoor and as long as you kept the pressure and air pumping there were no problems, he could even enter from space in a suit if he wanted, but he preferred to dock directly to the port, The team tuned their helmets to the stations cameras and checked around and saw that the "hostages" had been herded into several different part of the stations, rescuing the hostages was not his assignment anyway.

  They were already dead in Seylas books, but she would try to negotiate for their release constantly, They would never leave since that would put the station into the dilemma of being destroyed by the battleships surrounding it. There was no end-game here, but death and a massive waste time, And he loved it all the way he could spend a few weeks here cleaning out the 500 thousand "refugees" that were well armed or at least about 80% were, He loved a uneven fight, and he also loved to terrorize and see the fear in peoples faces.

  "How you wanna play this boss?" said Jessica while they stepped into the lift, They did not set a destination yet but waited on the bosses order "Alright, this is how i want it to be done, We gonna hit them hard all together here at the mess hall looking at the feed there are about several thousands of them eating, so we gonna take the lift directly there and start going hard, After that we gonna all go back to the lift, and check the situation. And then it's free-for-all if you wanna team up that's fine, But i dont want any friendly fire this time, Jessica and Neon." Oleg said.

  The team nodded and pulled out their weapons, Neon pushed the button for the mess hall and Neon locked down all other lifts temporary sealing off the floor, it still displayed that the lift went to the mess hall but the doors were sealed, They did not want any surprises while they worked. Oleg stepped into the corridor and the rebels were confused when they saw a team of twelve steps out fully dressed in advanced armor, They did not even scream or raise their weapons when the plasma bolts started to descend upon them, Most of them did not realize that their comrades had died before they finally started to return fire, Oleg stood in middle of the corridor and just taking potshots at anything moving in the corner, Neon and Jessica rushed into the side rooms to clean them out of anyone on the toilets or in the showers, The others just started to rush down the corridor on the opposite side to kill anyone try to leave by the only staircase.

  Lirik rushed to the staircase killing anyone around the door and then pushing a device in front of the staircase, It slowly unfolded, and they now had sealed the doorway with a super strong A1 element infused barrier, It would take them a hour of plasma fire to melt a hole big enough for people to pass through, He kept shooting the rebels in the corridor until it was silent. Oleg and the rest kicked open the swing door to the mess hall and opened fire on the unsuspecting people eating, It was a massacre, and they shot anyone that tried to run or stood up, There were over 50.000 people there eating or waiting on their dinner when they stared the massacre.

  He slowly advanced while firing wildly, Jessica launched several plasma grenades at the edge of the room and the plasma explosion melted anyone close and the sizzling sound of metal among the scream of pain would have been unbearable for most, but she did not care. Oleg grabbed the blond and slowly pulled her back to the lift, several grunts picked a few leftovers and started to evacuate. Jessica and Neon kept firing into the room, and then they launched their entire set of plasma grenades into the room while exiting toward the lift.

  She had been a plaything for a pirate in the western sector until she finally got hold of a weapon and killed her captor and broke free, She freed every other slave aboard that ship and when they came back to sol they were wasted goods in the eyes of their families or people in general. They would either go to sol and live their lives as prostitutes or try their luck being employed, but with the unemployment always rate high and unbearable they decided to be pirates themselves, They had done pretty well until they got unlucky and several pirate crews had ambushed them on the station. Oleg was part of that team, and he had single handled strangled and raped each of their pirate comrades, She hated Oleg to the bone, but she knew this was the pirates' life, kill or be killed. She had never forgiven him, and she would enjoy the day when he made a mistake and bled out on the floor, she would feel more hate against him, but she was untouched by him. Not his type he chuckled when the other pirates left here there surrounded by dead bodies and her ship and good stolen, She got arrested shortly after and spent 15 years on a prison colony mining ore for some unknown reason until the day she died, Lucky enough a bunch of pirates attacked the outpost and freed the captives and Oleg was the mastermind, She called this even, and she joined his crew, but she would sleep bit easier when he died not by her hand but by karma.

  Oleg pulled his woman directly into his room like the rest of the boys, Jessica and Neon took a look at each other "You coming?" Jessica said and Neon smiled and joined her." What the !#!& just happened here!?" Screamed Tony. He was shocked at the carnage in the mess hall, not only was this a hell on earth but the entire room and the connecting floor was now unusable the floor had lost its integrity completely by the plasma explosion that followed and the staircase was blocked off, They tried to use a few power tools on it and it was impossible to dislodge they had just recently started to fire directed plasma shots at the edge of construct to slowly unblock the staircase.

  "Where the #!#& did they come from?" he yelled. The other rebels looked at each other and a small man stepped forward "They came from the lift according to the survivors, We lost about 42.000 people in the attack, They did not take any prisoners we believe most people that survived pretended to be dead and lied underneath the corpses. It was quick, the grenades and bombs they fired killed about 60% of the people instantly while the plasma pistols and rifles killed the rest, they did not even have to aim, sir. The plasma pistols killed on average four people per shot, and the tables and chairs melted at the impact. They did not stand a chance sir, it was a massacre." the man said while wiping his face.

  Tony did a double take and clenched his fists. "How DID they got on the station?" he said. Everyone looked at each other "We...We belive they have always been on the station since we first called for the rebellion, we believe they are real security team, all communications have been blocked from both ways and the camera system has failed totally, We know they wear armor or spacesuits and their plasma weapons are military grade, either south, central or northern made. If i had to guess i would say the South, Plasma explosions such as this are usually a bomb the size of a arm, and none of the witness saw them carrying anything other than rifles and pistols." the man said.

  Tony looked over the room "I want every lift, staircase and dock guarded 24/7. I want you to try to connect to our super
iors on the outside no matter what, try to hack the system or build our own communications satellite anything we need to inform them, we could get the public support as long as we broadcast this situation. Record everything in this room and make several copies and scatter them around the station and give to every officer and random civilians. This could help our bosses, and we could be rewarded handsomely when this is all over." Tony said. The men got to work and started to record the carnage a few female "rebels" cried over the corpses of their "loved ones" for dramatic effect, and they did some faked footage of the attackers wearing Vanguard logos on their chests, A clear fake, but he guessed the warriors in the north could help him do something with the footage.

  Twelve hours later.

  Several garbage bags were thrown into the incinerator on the ship while Oleg went to wash his hands, He went to the fridge and took out his favorite beer. He sat down on the massive couch, and he saw Jessica and Neon lay asleep on the edge, he changed the channel to the camera footage on the ships and looked around. He chuckled at the constantly patrolling and guarding of the docks, lift and staircases. If they only knew, He looked around to see any cute girls since his last one was spent. She was not a fighter, and he did not like that, He wanted them to struggle, so he could enjoy it more. He loved his job and his job loved him, He could do whatever he wanted as long as he followed the rules off the job and that was his thing.