The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

"I do not care anymore, please take me to Paradise. Please tell me it exists, please" she whispered. Oleg stood up and put his hand on her shoulder and guided her into his room. She trembled "Only way someone able to enter the paradise system is either, be married to someone that lives there or work their way there. Now go take a shower and think real hard which you want to do. I'll be waiting on the bed." he said with a smile, and she entered the shower.

  She threw of her sweaty and grime filled jumpsuit, she had not had a proper cleaning in months, she felt shameful when the beams hit her head and rust flakes and other gunk flowed off her body and hair, after a while she felt clean and stepped out of the shower. She saw a rack of clothes one side had a jumpsuit the other had a pair of panties that were loosely connected to a string and a plasma gun, she looked at both of them and took the panties and shook her head. She knew what she wanted Paradise but not this way, She pulled the pistol and rushed into the room and took aim at Oleg and pulled the trigger, the gun clicked and she pulled the trigger again. Oleg let out a laugh and spoke "This is why i like you."

  Two weeks later.

  Christine stepped out of the elevator and was greeted with a endless ocean and sky, she gawked for a minute until she notices people were staring, she blushed and walked off the platform onto the beach she pulled of her shoes and socks and felt the sand between her toes, and she stepped into the water. She stared to cry uncontrollably, and she tried to wipe the tears of her face but after a minute she gave up and just sat down on the beach. People were walking past laughing and taking walks with their pet dogs and other exotic animals, she even spotted a young girl brushing a baby deer in middle of the street. She shook her head and stood up, she walked back to where she came and got into a empty car on the parking area, there were numerous self-piloting cars taking their place whenever one left.

  She got inside and said she wanted to go "Home". She was sent quickly on her way across the green acres and numerous houses, She assumed they were made with metal, but she was not sure most of them looked like they were made from wood or brick, she assumed it was a wonderful paint job and such fragile constructs was actively used in this high-tech society. The car slowly pulled to a stop above a plain white colored house and the door unlocked when she put her hand on the handle, she walked inside and saw it with a little furniture and nothing too exciting. But she had room to walk around the furniture, and she could even spot a sofa, she was incredibly excited in the room size, and she was still in the hallway/living room. She did a quick glance and sat down on the sofa to rest her mind, she was mentally exhausted and almost afraid that she was trapped in a simulation or still in a dream. She looked at the table in front of the sofa, and she slid the computer out from the glass and put her finger on the on-switch, she saw a welcome message and several options for the house including furniture and paint, she was penniless and there were several job openings that had perks that involved free painting and gardening. She shook her head and just laughed at the absurdity of the situation, She put in a job application for a planetary job, and she would be contacted when one was available, she got twenty free credits just for signing up with no strings attached, and she immediately canceled it.She now had at least 20 southern credits to her name but this was a one time deal. She would have to get a job in time, but she would first explore her new home to her limits.

  Seyla would tear out her hair if it helped the situation but it was becoming more unstable every second the galaxy was now officially in a era of human warfare that was unsustainable, she was the only thing keeping the enemy at bay and that enemy was mostly refugees that wanted a better life, she knew most of them just wanted a better life, but they were a constant drain in her resources, and she was now officially losing instead of winning, it was untenable, the amount of food and fuel she had to give away was uncontrollable, but she could not let people starve or strand them in middle of nowhere. She was now trapped in a endless game of chicken with innocent lives in the middle.There were no solution that could be found stations were going rogue across the central sector and it seemed to be a coordinated effort from the central and north, as soon as the vanguard started to kill the cargo ships containing soldiers the central stations took in the refugees and soon flipped to enemy status and then promptly abandoned into her charge. Humans were the bullets and the warriors were guns, they kept emptying the north and the west of every living object they could find and then send them to the central to drain their resources which in turn made the central simply abandon the stations, Several hundreds of stations had gone dark and billions of people have died in the silence of space.

  She could not help everyone and the central sector never reported that their stations been taken the soldiers just kept holding it for some pointless goal that did not make sense to her, if they wanted a better life why not just simply ask for shelter instead of taking stations and making war? She had signed the deaths of a at least a billion people personally destroying countless stations that had been taken, surrender was not an option for the north, so she had to destroy the stations to ease their suffering. A culling in the galaxy was happening and the "peaceful" north was the orchestrates. She would keep playing the game defensively, but she would not budge, she would be a two-faced devil to anyone that did not know her, she would peek out from above the clouds and decide life and death and that was no something she would have wanted, but she had to.

  Vishaan shook at the reports of rebels that had been killed in his Luna station, He was thinking of resigning and relocating to the paradise system, but he knew that was not an option right now his transfer would have been rejected and his family would be just demoted to a normal apartment. He had increased the security staff to the limit and had now slowed down every transfer of people to check for weaponry and other objects that could harm the station itself, he had arrested over 6000 people and then promptly sent them to a secret location for interrogation and never be return he assumed.The alarm blared again another knife attack in the reception area, he shook his head and was about to call it quits the station was uncontrollable, the north had made the perfect soldier loyal without any qualms about life and death willing to do anything to win. Max stepped into the office while he was staring at the widescreen.

  "Boss, You know what's happening, and we cannot predict it anymore. This time it was a ten-year-old girl that went on a stabbing rampage, We lost control completely. We lost two people in the attack and one of them was the girl." Max said while shaking his head.

  Vishaan just stared at the monitor re watching the attack he closed his eyes, "I'm going to make a announcement". He stood up and put the camera on and sat back on his desk, he called some news station to hook up to his feed for his announcement and several central news station agreed for a live conference in a hour. He needed to make a few calls before the speech.

  One hour later.

  He fixed his tie in place and the countdown was about to reach zero. "People of the galaxy, We with heavy heart now have come to a consensus with my fellow station owners, We are now officially closed. We will no longer accept any trade unless you are a trusted client, We will no longer accept any passengers or persons no matter how dire their situation. Every station owned by the southern warriors or it's people are now closed for the foreseeable future. Thank you."

  He pushed a button and the camera shut down, the galaxy was in a frenzy especially the real refugees of the west, they would now be turned down at the gates of pretty much every station in the galaxy. They had nowhere to go but to the north and that's where they were heading.

  "WE MUST REJECT ANY PEOPLE TRYING TO SETTLE IN THE NORTH, DO IT GENTLY AND LEAD THEM DOWN TO THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN SECTORS, WE CANNOT BE OUTPLAYED AT OUR OWN GAME." said Leon.

  The war was in a critical juncture in the west and his people could barely feed themselves they still needed to send out several more billions of people to take stations and being general terrorists disrupting any productive from the south. This was their end-game a
nd it was the most important struggle for their prosperity, They had to constantly drain the south with people no matter the costs. The northern council would have culled every human in the sector if it made them win the war, and they settle for the second option, displace them but by their own accord. The north was a paradise considering the east, west and central sector their stations were massive and numerous but the food situation had never really kept up.

  He was disgusted at the humans and their constant breeding just taking and taking, he was jealous at the south with their lesser human population, and he knew he had made a mistake by incorporating humans into his power structures early. But there would be massive riots among his warriors and human population if he just said it bluntly or did anything to endanger them, The plan was to funnel them into the central and south and now that was being thwarted he had to find a way to still send them out there and not accept anymore incoming travelers.

  "WE CANNOT WIN THIS WAR IF THIS CONTINUES, WE SHOULD HAVE WAITED AND SENT THEM DOWN AS SLEEPER AGENTS LIKE I ADVISED. NOW WE ARE TRAPPED IN OUR OWN MAKING, I SUGGEST THE ONE AND ONLY SOLUTION ENGAGE THE TRAVELERS BEFORE THEY REACH THE NORTH USING WARRIORS FROM THE CENTRAL SECTOR. WE CAN STILL SAVE FACE AND SOLVE THIS PROBLEM" said a shell.

  "I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I AM HEARING, YOU ARE ASKING US TO KILL HUMANS THAT WE SWORE TO PROTECT. WE STARTED THIS ALLIANCE IN THE NORTH FOR THE BETTERMENT OF MANKIND, WE HAVE ALREADY STRAYED FROM OUR PATH WITH SENDING PEOPLE TO SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES SO WE CAN LIVE A LITTLE EASIER HERE. I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY ACTION THAT ENGAGES HUMANS NO MATTER WHAT COST." said another shell.

  The discussion was locked and the situation was uncontrollable. They would lose their high-ground in being a paradise for human if the situation leaked they purposely sent out soldiers to die, so they had enough food to feed the rest, to kill humans seeking a better life would have been the final straw in the coffin in their mask.

  "ENOUGH, WE HAVE TO FIND A SOLUTION UNTIL WE HAVE ONE WE HAVE TO ACCEPT THEM NO MATTER WHAT. WE SHOULD SIMPLY FOCUS MORE ON FOOD PRODUCTION AND PAUSE THE WAR, WE RUSHED INTO CONFLICT TO FAST INSTEAD OF TAKING CARE OF OUR NUMEROUS POPULATION." said a shell.

  The room was quiet until the Leon spoke "IMPOSSIBLE, THE WAR MUST BE WON AND WE MUST KEEP COURSE, THE MOMENT WE STOP IS THE MOMENT WE LOSE. WE SHALL DOUBLE OUR EFFORTS, BEGIN SENDING SHIPMENTS OF HUMAN TO THE CENTRAL NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY PROTEST IF THEY REFUSE KILL THEM, WE CANNOT STAGNATE ANYMORE, IT'S OFFICIAL NOW, THE PEOPLE KNOW SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE WAR WE CANNOT PULL THE WOOL OVER THEIR HEADS ANYMORE, EITHER THEY LEAVE OR DIE."

  The warriors could not believe the words from him. They would systematically export people to die a certain death against their will? This was the ultimate treason of their entire alliance, they had countless family and friends in the north and now they had to send them all out to die? For what? Some sort of technology that would not help in the short term, they would have to figure out the technology and that would take decades people would still die.

  "TRAITOR, I WILL STOP YOU, YOU WILL NOT KILL-" "ENOUGH! IF WE PULL BACK OUR FLEET WE WILL LOSE, LEON IS CORRECT IN THAT AND HE IS ALSO CORRECT THAT WE CANNOT FEED OUR PEOPLE. I WILL SUGGEST A VOTE, EITHER WE STOP THE WAR OR WE SACRIFICE THE PEOPLE THERE IS NOTHING MORE WE CAN DO, WE ARE INFERIOR TO THE SOUTH AND WE HAVE ALWAYS POSITIONED US AS THE BETTER AND NOW WE ARE PAYING FOR IT FINALLY, WE KNEW THIS DAY WAS COMING SO VOTE."

  The shells started to look at each other and had several communications open trying to gauge the reactions and political fallout of their situation. They had countless humans in their research divisions that had been instrumental in improving their weapon capabilities which in turn helped them slowly win against the west.A few minutes passed and the vote was in... End the war.

  "YOU ARE FOOLS AND WE WILL REGRET THIS ACTION FOR THE REST OF OUR SHORT LIVES, DO YOU THINK S-4XN-001 WILL NOT COME FOR US? DO YOU THINK HE WILL FORGET ABOUT THE HAVOC WE HAVE CAUSED IN HIS TERRITORY AND HUMANITY AS A WHOLE? THERE WILL BE A RECKONING AND IT WILL BE SWIFT AND EVERY WARRIOR IN THE NORTH WILL DIE. MARK MY WORDS. I AM NOW LEAVING TO THE EDGES OF THE GALAXY WITH MY PEOPLE, THE NORTH IS LOST AND I SUGGEST ALL OF YOU DO THE SAME FOR HE WILL NOT CHASE US TO THE EDGES NO MATTER HOW MUCH HE WANTS REVENGE OR PAYBACK." Leon said while his shell slumped down to the floor.

  The news was in the massive north fleet was retreating back to their sector and reports were in there was a massive exodus of warriors from the north heading for the edge of the galaxy with no rhyme or reason, several billions of people were left to their own devices in high tech stations they could not supply or even operate without the warriors' expertise, Millions had died of starvation and the news networks kept reporting the death toll everyday. The northern soldiers did one last push under orders from the warriors left in the system to steal as much food as they could from the other sectors to feed their people, billions of people were in shambles after learning the truth, their loved ones that enlisted was sent out to be pirates or be sacrifices to stall the south from engaging the north.

  Everything they were told was a lie and several human managers and politicians were assassinated or worse, the north was now in a free-for-all and it was station versus station pirating was now the only acceptable way to survive, and they looted each other for any scrap of food or fuel left in the sector.

  Ricardo received over 100 emergency calls from the north every minute and it was looping constantly across the galaxy, Every sector was now in complete free fall due to all the warriors promptly leaving the north with no prior knowledge and those who stayed were clueless of what happened, They lost contact with every other warrior and everything that could move had left within a month. There were countless abandoned mining outposts, stations and various celestial objects, it was a graveyard filled with human corpses after being left alone stranded with no supplies or any help to come whatsoever. The north was now the most lawless area in the galaxy and travel warnings were constant, pirate attacks hitting the central sectors were in the billions and stealing was the number one crime in the galaxy.

  He had deployed his fleet to the north and was in constant warfare defending stations from reprisal or simply cleaning them out of pirates, the galaxy lost their marbles again and the south was cleaning up the mess. Redmond stepped into the command center "Bad news, we lost another thousand stations in the north. Seems they broke the communications satellite, so they could not broadcast out they are all dead, over a 60 billion people lost pointlessly." Redmond said with no emotion.

  Ricardo let out a sigh "The north really pulled the wool over everyone head, I'm glad i went to the south instead of the north, people were always talking about everything good, but we already know they were rationing food and water for over 50 years, They could have just asked for help instead of playing around with human lives." Ricardo said with a heavy heart.

  "We can't be everywhere, and we can't save everyone, we have already sent enough food and fuel to feed a what feels like a trillion people, but we are only putting a band aid on the problem. There is no solution that we can offer no matter how powerful, this is a numbers game, and we have to save as many as we can no matter how heartless it is." Redmond replied.

  Ricardo knew he was right, A numbers game, and they were betting on the wrong number everyday. He sent out his orders he would engage all the pirates no matter how hungry or desperate they were, that was no excuse to steal other peoples food, He guessed he would do the same in their position, but he had orders now, engage the pirates and bring back some stability to the northern sector.

  S-4XN-001 lied down in the capsule inside his little sanctum in middle of nowhere, This was his usually procedure to disconnect from his human distraction of sleep, he could pump his veins full of stimulants to keep him awake for several days if he wanted, but he felt that sleeping two hours a day was acceptable to bring him back to his peak performance, He was pondering lightly about the situation about the humans in the north and how to use their lives to his best ability, and he found no satisf
actory option, they would never work again they would be constant burdens and hundreds of billions of worthless humans was a no deal in his case, he would supply them with food and fuel until the numbers were more manageable.

  He had not deliberately not helped, but he had never extended a hand either, he hoped the other warriors in the other sectors would help, and he was wrong in that regard. They did not lift a finger and even broadcast they would not do so ever either, they had their hands full of their own territories after several flawed management decisions or just from constant warfare. S-4XN-001 knew that the north was doomed and new warriors would have to take up the cup to make it livable again, He would have recalled the vanguard if Seyla had not protested and asked for more time to take good seedlings from the north. He did not really care and made his stance clear, five years of food and fuel then no more, he was wasting too much for no gain and if she wanted more then she would have to dip into her own money or accept donations from across the galaxy. She would never do that so five years was the limit, she wanted to help people but to hurt herself to help others she would not do, no matter how she felt. S-4XN-001 was going to expand his territory, and he promptly said that he will not accept any conversations until he was done with his expansion plans.

  Year 2465, Sol system.

  Earth was now in a dire need of relocating several billions worth of people and riots had broken out across the planet in defiance, their numbers were unsustainable and if they started to build housing in the farming areas they could no longer feed anyone, and they did not want to be like the north, which had finally stabilized somewhat. The people were extremely malnourished and people still died of starvation but the number was not in the millions but in the thousands now, The loss of life was extreme and it was officially now in 25 billion range. The north had played everyone with how few and horrible their farming was, they were never going to feed their people and have extra, they had been buying billions of bushels of food from the south all these years while preaching the south was the evil that stole their technology. The truth stung the eyes of the north and most of them still held on to their believe they could not question themselves or their leaders, or they might lose their minds.