Kel-Ven

“We are Kel-Ven, we wish to enter your system, and enter into talks with your kind”

Goddamn it! They are negotiating? “What if we say no?”

“Then we shall wait, you have been misled, consult us, we await your reply”

 

4 months prior, UEA headquarters

Kit, Seamus and Bob sat at one end of what felt like an endless sea of faces, named but nameless, much like the void in which he inhabited, and the Premier and her xo, sat at the other end, waiting, she began, 

 “ To the Fletcher Clan, thank you and good tidings from the United Earth Alliance, another prize for us, and an even greater prize! Not just contact but several, one of which is bearing down on our system as we speak, with the intention of destroying us, so, what do You propose to do about this mess you created, Mr. Fletcher?” “After the earlier “troubles” your Clan has created,

You come to us now, hat in hand, expecting the Alliance to help you,  Belter scum, all you have done is wreck our economy defending ourselves against the trouble you create.”

Kit speaks

 Thank you Madam premier for your eloquent speech, and I admire your candor, but the facts speak for themselves, if not for the Conchos, miners, Mercs and Fletchers, you would be under the heel of slavers, I know you were busy with your CCP/Amazon suck fest, so maybe you were too busy to notice, but the Kel-Ven are coming, we Belters can do a lot, but if we don’t have your assistance, You will be the people who suffer, the Belters will be long gone by then. We are here to help you, we don’t Need Earth anymore, you are no more than a relic of the old days.

I let that sink in.

 

Premier

 

“Kit, thank you for seeing me, and for saving Earth’s ass for the last 2 years. We understood what you were doing and tried our best to keep your competition out of the way we thought best. You know the speech was all bluster for public consumption, but here, in private, What the Hell Do We do!!!”

Azkah Supanusapay never blew up, this was odd, normally cool and calculating, I have never seen her bow to pressure until now. “It’s true Kit, our local economy is in shambles and we don’t have the resources to rebuild in time.” Fine I told her, we will send the rocks you need your way, but the guns you build will be under Mercenary Guild control. “NO! Not acceptable! My military would never have it”

I let her know that we will just bring in our own ships to defend Earth, and to hell with the Military. “You wouldn’t” Oh yes, I would. “Madam premier, we have given you an opportunity, I suggest you take it, Humanity will be fine, But Earth is doomed otherwise, now it’s your call”

 

Seamus

 

I didn’t get it, we bring in dozens of planetary grade Railships to the Earth L points, purely for defense, and the Locals are actually shooting Nuke filled chemical rockets at us? Do they not get it? They refused the offer and now just want us gone, maybe a Deathwish.

 “Kit, I say we high tail it out of here, they don’t want savin’ so let’s save ourselves” I ordered my fleet back to the Cloud, where big guns can operate, shall we say, freely. We spent a lot of time prepping our main Asteroids for the journey to Proxima 6.1, a known habitable planet, with our current tech it may take 50 years, but we planned as best we could, then I got an unusual call from Kit, a Stat! Meeting with all the General staff, you off I go, Mimas bound

 

Mimas 

 

What Earthers call interference, we call the sound of Space, that pleasant hum of hard radiation crackling against the hull, it makes long distance comms hard, but it makes private talks very private, so we meet there. By now, had gunships at all Anomalies, Mars, Ceres and the others are both ready to fight and ready to leave, or a fighting retreat, we had know idea what to expect until the transmission came in, misled? Talks? So I got the  command group together.

 “We are Kel-Ven, we wish to enter your system, and enter into talks with your kind”

Goddamn it! They are negotiating? “What if we say no?”

“Then we shall wait, you have been misled, consult us, we await your reply”

And there I was, a 30 year old kid, negotiating for my entire species, thank God for friends.

 

“Fight now!” “I’ll take the fleet out within 6 hours” Full stop! I want to see what they have to say,

I may have to give out some quick orders so be ready, I know you boys can handle this, “Who you callin’ a boy, Boy?” I looked away from Seamus, embarrassed, he was right, I was a boy in this whole game. “Don’t look down on yourself lad, you are going to save Humanity, now get out there and Lead Us By God!

 

Us and Them

 

Since they had transporters, they beamed over to my stateroom, (which I remodeled in beige and Mauve, with granite countertops) and my men and I were floored, they were as human looking as us! What seemed to be the leader spoke first, in perfect unbroken English. “Hello!

fellow Humans! I see you are a bit shocked that we aren’t some tentacled monsters, but the truth is, most of the Galaxy is Human, we destroyed all the octo’s millennia ago.

I am Stev Smit, Commander of this op, and I’m glad you want to join us!” We  joined our guest at the Ops table and he continued, “We are called the Ancient Ones, for Humanity has been around longer than any sentient species, and we have conquered or exterminated anyone who crosses us, you happen to be a later experiment like the other planets on the edge, and it seems you have fared well, better than most, for you are the first to drive off the Tuyani, we applaud you” there has to be a catch…

 So what do you propose Stiv? “ Very simple Kit, help us chase down the Tuyani and eliminate them, you are the only humans that have done it, we want to know why, they are planet wreckers and leeches, and must be stopped”. 

 Hold the fuck on Stiv, they said you would rape our system of resources, that You are the bad guy, Who do I believe? What if I just space you now? I want answers NOW!

 

Truth

Truth? Fine, We built the Tuyani, we used them for long distance recon at first, but they became, capable, and then used the hive mind they had to create more, they are energy suckers, and that’s all they want to do now, they are why we stay away from AI. Your tactics are the only ones that actually work, we want to learn, and ask for your assistance. We won’t wait forever Kit, when they return, they Will do to you, the things they said We would do to you, and they are not nice,

To be continued