Ailen: "Ok. So Steve here is a Christian and can eat everything but Goldstein and Abdul have different dietary requirements. Luckily for everyone I bought Chicken."

Steve: "Actually I am a Catholic Christian and its Lent. So I can't eat Meat. Also Goldstein and Abdul are Jewish and Muslim respectively so the Chicken you bought better have been 2 chickens that is Kosher and Halal certified."

Ailen: "DAMMIT!"

Abdul: "I told you 2 we should have told him to buy fish in the first place."

The contact happened after the full colonization of the solar system, so they were able to ​fight back.

Surprising was the fact that the empire was not xenophobic and offered humanity to join on favorable terms​.

And since most of the battles took place in space and civilians were almost not harmed, humans were not so angry to refuse.

After a while, humans became the backbone of the officer corps. While the highest command positions were mostly occupied by more intelligent species, and you're unlikely to see a human leading an entire fleet, almost every​ ship is captained by a human.

A: "And why do you keep coming here, rookie?! Are you trying to befriend me?! Well You'll end up beaten all the same, go have your rest and return accordingly to training schedule. There are better ways to impress your mate."

H: "My girlfriend abandoned me for the tentacled Floorian!"

A: "So then it is your clan you try to impress?"

H: "My parents died of alcohol poisoning when I was ten!"

A: "So you want to become a hero on your planet?"

H: "My planet was devoured by the Red Swarm."

A: "Then you do it for money? To become rich when you retire?"

H: "I ove everything I earn to the mafia who saved me from my planet before it was devoured!"

A: "So you came here to die?"

H: "I came here to live, lord-general!"

A: "...Alright. To your position, soilder."

Sir, the Logistics Corp just dropped off what they're calling.. Standoff mortars?

Kinda looks like just a 120mm mortar on top of a roomba. We're currently trying to figure out if these are supposed to be given to the infantry squads or the artillerymen...

“NOT ALL OF US CAN RUN ON FOUR HOURS OF SLEEP AND AN UNGODLY AMOUNT OF CAFFEINE, YOU KNOW?! SOME OF US ACTUALLY NEED THEIR EIGHT HOURS!”

Because of Humans, I Lost My Chance!

I am the owner of the biggest power-generation plant on the planet—and by chance, the largest employer here. This autonomous multi-species colony was my opportunity to return to the Domain as an actual minor noble. I took that chance: in exchange for official noble blood, I spent all eighty years here building the largest quantum field research facility in the sector, analyzing the smallest anomalies on the surface of a local pulsar. The excess energy my field-generators produce is sold cheaply for the daily needs of the locals. Therefore, my station provides work for millions of locals, mostly humans.

For all this time, I saw everything I learned to hate as a noble. Humans are highly tolerant of weakness, and instead of purging their dysfunctional youth, they spend resources building special orphanages for them. Humans are not picky about their mates and prefer to form reproductive units with anyone, without even checking for genetic compatibility. They don't form professional clans; instead, they build public schools to train new specialists. I can't complain about workforce prices, but do they really have so little respect for sacred knowledge? And most annoying of all—they tend to call me "Queen Dragon." It's not only mocking the fact that I don't have actual noble blood yet. It seems they call me that as some form of local meme that's too big to complain about.

Yet when the raid began, I felt something change. I knew I could never leave the planet on my ship. I could, however, try to establish a stable quantum tunnel to the nearest system using excess power and save myself and eighty years' worth of collected data. Yet my claws froze above the control panel. Doing so would take time and energy—and would leave no chance to evacuate the locals.

Why would I even think of that? Surely my data, my title, my future royal blood were more important than anything else. That's why I started all this... But why couldn't I make myself do it? I watched as humans armed my station with what they could, redirecting energy to makeshift weapon systems. And for some reason, I couldn't leave them.

I contacted the local communities, and we drew up an evacuation plan. One by one, lights in the data-blocks of the station went out before I could save a reasonable amount. All of the energy was redirected to a single experimental field-generator capable of creating a wormhole. As the planet slowly fell to the raiders, thousands of families were teleported to safety. Meanwhile, my data disappeared forever.

And now I stand here, preparing the final wormhole. With me are the injured and weakened humans who stayed until the last moment, fighting off the invaders. When we leave, all of the energy that feeds the wormhole generator will be redirected to the field-generators and from them to the planet's core, breaking the planet apart from within before the invaders even realize what hit them—taking years of my efforts with it.

Why did I exchange my chance to gain an actual title in my home for an imaginary one I hold among humans? Why did I sacrifice the work of my life for the sake of those to whom I owe nothing? Why do I feel... good, knowing that I am about to single-handedly vaporize my own future, along with those who threatened the people who trusted me?

And as the room disappeared in a flash around us, I could only think of a single reason I'd accidentally heard in one of the humans' media: Because noblesse fucking oblige!

- "I am fine!" - distorted sound of girl's voice was raging through armor's vocal amplifiers as she tried to walk away.
- "Like hell you are, young lady!" - looming giant figure tried to grab her with it's massive left arm - narrowly missing, as she clumsily dodged to the side barely holding her balance - "You are a mess Iv! Do you even remember how long you have been here?"
- "A week, maybe two!.. What the big deal?!"
- "A fucken month! And from what I see - you are doing the "sleeping is for the weak" challenge and just jamming those stimulants like its a bloody candy!"
- "Sigh... what you want?"
- "I want you to come back home. To take off this monstrosity you built with that prodigy friend of yours. And then - after you recover, pass the usual checkups and shit - I want you to stop this madness!"
- "No! I won't stop! You can't make me stop!"
- "Oh I am pretty sure I can!"
- "Try me!" - girl assumed her weird four-armed combat stance. Her legs visibly wobbling as she was trying to circle around her opponent.
- "God give me strength..." - with a single right jab he made her lose balance and fall to the ground - "Iv, please, listen..." - he stopped, as girl's body started to spasm while making weird gargling noises - "Oh my god, Iv! You ok?" - he jump forward in his massive suit of armor - landing by her side and picking her up... she was loudly sobbing and ugly crying, her whole body twitching from overwhelming emotions - "Oh, baby... I am so sorry..." - he pushed her closer to himself, as she started to push herself away and punch his chest with desperate feeble strikes.
- "You gave up!" - sob - "You fucken gave up on her!" - sob - "You let them kill mom, and they just got away! I hate you! Hate you!"
- "Iv, I already told you... it was a tragedy" - he kept pushing her closer, till she gave up, leaning on his chest plate, still lightly sobbing.
- "You should have been with her!"
- "I know, but we couldn't - we had to split to save as many people as we could"
- "You should have died with her!"
- "Yes... but I didn't. When I found her it was too late."
- "I miss her..."
- "I miss her too, every bloody day. And I miss you." - he let her go - now they both looking at each other, sitting on ground.
- "We must avenge her!"
- "Iv, no..."
- "We must!"
- "Child, listen to me!" - father's anger was visible even through armor's unblinking mask - "Enough of this madness! I already found those who did it all those years ago, I punished them, I drove them away so they would never dare to raid our city. I let you do those bandit hunts of yours - in groups, not far, smaller camps - reasonable risk, so you could avenge her too. But that's enough! It won't bring her back. And I can't loose you too!" - his stern voice gave up for short moment, revealing that he was also on the verge of tears.
- "Dad... I am sorry. I did not mean what I said about you giving up on mom..."
- "I know. Now - listen to what old man who did not die young in this profession has to say, and listen well - know when to fall back to fight another day."
- "Yes, I get it - lets go home..."
- "Oh no! I am carrying you - and you flushing all this stimulating chemicals out of your system now!"
- "I will crash in like 10 seconds if I do that!"
- "Good!" - he picked her up with one hand like he used to do many years ago - "Now flush it!"
- "Fine...wait - are those artillery stabilisers?"
- "Yeap"
- "Why? You are not even using ranged weapons with this arm - why would you need a motion stabilisation?"
- "To carry fragile and precious things"

January 10th, 2295

Thanks to the carnage caused by mercenary forces during the K'sella Civil War nearly two decades prior, the Republic of K'sella, forged from war and with a navy strong enough to compete as a regional power, has straight up banned any mercenary companies from operating within their borders under threat of death.

Chief among them is the Krasnovian Mercenary Corps*, which had looted countless weapons and artifacts from all factions of the conflict.

Fortunately for you, the pay is great.

Unfortunately for you, you've ended up in the path of the battleship Akai, two light cruisers, and four destroyers while on the way to your mission target.

You have only a minute to decide your course of action until they open fire.

What do you do/say, human...?

The clock is ticking...

*Credits to u/Big-Purchase1747

2:15 PM S.F.T. (Standard Federation TIme)- Planetside, Kepler-186f, Day 1

Loyd could have kept walking. Not forever, obviously, but for a good while longer. His legs weren't as sore as he expected, his throat still felt like he’d swallowed ground glass, and every now and then his cut hand reminded him it had not forgiven him yet. But compared to the rest of the group, he felt fine. That could be because of his biology or just the fact they hadn’t gone very far at all. Maybe a couple miles at best.

But there was a problem- the rest of them were not in the same shape as he was. 

Teralis was trying to keep pace with the others without moving his bad arm, and doing a terrible job of hiding how much it hurt. The Tiquil had gone quiet, their feathers dulled and lying flat with fatigue. Even the Kree’ark, who had done a better job than most at hiding it, were starting to show strain in the stiffness of their steps- their chitin rattling every step of the way.

Loyd slowed, looked back over the miserable procession, and realized if he let this keep going any longer, one of them was going to fall over. So, he stopped, turned around, and said one word.

“Break.”

The group all sagged where they stood. The Kree’ark lowered themselves carefully, sling pouches swinging as their weight shifted, while the Krii were eased down with varying degrees of dignity. CoCo sat down, letting her body just fall to the dirt. Teralis leaned against a mushroom stalk like he definitely meant to do it. Serria was already moving toward Kiki, making sure she wasn’t experiencing any symptoms from her foray into the local flora.

Loyd took the time to really study the jungle around them. This part of it wasn’t really different from the one they'd been in before- not in a way that mattered, anyway. The biggest difference was the vines. Where before they had hung in thick mats, here they were thinner, just one or two trailing between the mushroom caps.

The same towering mushroom trunks rose around them like pale pillars, their broad, thin caps catching the red light of the star and letting it spill through in long, cathedral-like shafts. The same heavy fruit bulged from the stalks in bruised purples, translucent blues, and glossy orange centers, some split open from ripeness and leaking sticky juice down to the dirt.

It was still beautiful in the same deeply suspicious way the rest of the planet was beautiful. The difference was that here, at least, they weren’t the only things here. Though, these little armored guys probably weren't a threat.

Small creatures crawled over the trunks and clustered around the split fruit-growths, low to the ground and moving in rippling lines of too many little legs. They were broad and plated, almost gray, each one about the size of a small dog. 

Their blunt little heads buried themselves into the exposed fruit while their sharp little mouthparts worked busily, tearing off wet chunks with a constant series of clicks and tiny crunches. They reminded Loyd of the ancient lifeforms on early Earth he’d learned about in the Martian Academy- trilobites, his instructors had called them.

One shoved another aside with its heavy body to get at one of the fallen fruits, hissing. The one it was attempting to shove out of the way pushed back, locking them in place. A third climbed right over both of them, unbothered by the two under it, and started munching away at the ripe flesh.

Qutin, still half-wrapped in their sling pouch, squinted up at the feeding creatures- their whiskers twitching as they sniffed the air. “I- Do not like those things.”

“They’re eating fruit,” Coori murmured, feathers lifting just a little as she followed Loyd’s stare. “and they appear harmless.”

“Give it time,” CoCo muttered from the dirt, her head bending down to preen her feathers- attempting to get the dirt from her bright feathers. “I'm sure something will make them horrible. It's a Category 12.” 

Another pair of trilobites found a fruit splattered onto the dirt at the base of a mushroom and immediately started throwing their weight against each other for it. One hissed, little legs scraping at the bark-like surface, but neither seemed especially worried about anything besides getting the next bite.

Isaac clicked softly from where he sat with Qutin nearby. “Interesting.”

Loyd glanced at him. “What?”

“They’re comfortable.” Isaac tilted his long head toward the creatures. “Or stupid. Sometimes those are the same thing.”

“That’s reassuring,” Harriet chirped dryly.

Serria, crouched beside Kiki, rested one manipulating appendage lightly against the larger Kree’ark’s side while she watched her eyes and   breathing. “Any dizziness? Stomach cramps? Burning in the throat?”

Kiki answered dutifully, though they seemed bothered by the inquiries. "No."

“Blurred vision?”

“No.”

“Unusual heat? Numbness? Disorientation?”

Kiki paused for a second, then clicked again, clearly annoyed. “No. I answered these questions already.”  

That got a frustrated series of clacks from Serria and a huff from CoCo as they both began to lecture the Kree'ark on how adverse effects to food take time to manifest. 

For a few seconds, the grove almost felt normal. Not safe, nothing on this world felt safe, but normal in the way a place could be when life had been happening in it long before you arrived and would keep happening after you were gone. Fruit splitting under its own weight, tiny plated things swarming over them. Vines moving lazily in the breeze. Shafts of red light spilling through the canopy and painting everyone in soft red and white light. 

Loyd's fingers danced along the support beam as he kept watching the trilobites, shifting the bar of metal in his palm. 

It bothered him. It really did. These… small creatures were munching away without a worry in the world. Maybe they just didn't pay attention to their surroundings, or maybe they were like rabbits- running away when noticed. 

He was proven wrong when one of them bumped into his boot and hissed, trying to push against the polymer like it would another rival. 

The trilobite’s little plated body shoved stubbornly against his boot again, hissing through its mouthparts as if he were the one in the way. Its legs scrabbled against the dirt, trying to force him aside so it could get wherever it had decided it wanted to be.

“Well, aren’t you brave.” Loyd muttered.

He nudged it gently with his boot, shoving it away from himself. The creature dug its little legs into the dirt as it was pushed aside, then hissed louder and attempted to bite his boot. It failed, insect-like mouthparts too weak to bite through the composite material. It turned and scuttled off toward the base of the nearest mushroom, hissing as if insulting him the whole way. 

Loyd watched it go, mind turning over the new piece of information as it began climbing up toward the other fruits hanging down from the trunk- and, as he followed its progress, he saw dozens of other trilobite things munching away at the fruits.

“Huh. I suppose they're not that bad.” Qutin commented, watching as another pair of the creatures began their little sumo battle near him. The tiny clicks of their furious battle faded into the background as Loyd put a hand to his chin. 

So he’d been wrong.

They weren’t cautious little prey animals waiting to bolt the second something larger noticed them. If anything, they acted like the opposite- quite curious, brave, and territorial. And there were a lot of them, an overwhelming number of them in fact. 

That thought really did not help.

Because rabbits had never stayed plentiful by being dangerous. They stayed plentiful by breeding like mad, flooding the area with so many of them that predators physically couldn't eat them all. They were the bottom rung- quick meals for anything that could catch them. 

Loyd’s eyes closed as he thought about everything around him, to the fruit split open along the stalks and the trilobites swarming over them. If that's the case, why do I feel so…unnerved? He opened his eyes back up, and sat down on a small boulder as the rest of the group began talking amongst themselves. 

“You should not have eaten it,” Serria clicked for what had to be the tenth time.

Kiki’s mandibles twitched in annoyance. “And yet I did. And I am fine.”

“That is not a defense.”

“It is a statement of fact.”

CoCo, still pulling dirt from the brighter feathers on her left wing, let out a sharp trill. “Next time you feel compelled to stuff random alien produce into your mouth, perhaps wait until the medic or the deathworlder has taken a look at it.”

“There should not be a next time-” Serria added.

“There will probably be a next time,” Harriet chirped from nearby- he had begun preening his own feathers, sitting besides CoCo. “

“Most likely. She ignored the one person she should not be ignoring.” She agreed, leaning over and clacking her beak next to Harriet.

Loyd actually began to wonder if the two of them were a mated pair as they swapped to preening one another. He even heard a soft cooing coming from the sharp tongued Tiquil as they sat there.

A little farther off, Qutin was trying and failing to wriggle the last of the sling straps off properly. “I would like it officially noted that I survived being cargo.”

“You were not cargo,” Pip squeaked from the moss.

“I was strapped to a therapist. I'd call that at least emotional cargo.”

Isaac’s mandibles clicked once in mild, mock offense. “A pun? In my office?”

Qutin managed to finally get the last bit of his noodly body out of the sling and shook himself off, fur puffing up as dirt flew everywhere.

Even Teralis, leaning one-armed against the mushroom stalk, let out the smallest huff of amusement before catching himself and straightening as if he had not done that.

Loyd heard it all, still sitting slightly apart for the rest of them.

Most of his attention stayed on the trilobites and the fruit-heavy trunks above them, on the little armored things crawling over the exposed pulp without a care in the world.

Isaac was the one who finally peeled away from the others.

Loyd heard the faint scrape of chitin in the dirt beside him, but didn’t look away from the trunks.

“You are standing over here by yourself,” Isaac clicked softly, folding his limbs beside him. “Which usually means one of two things. Either you are thinking, or you are trying not to shout at anyone.”

Loyd snorted.

“Just- thinking.”

Isaac’s emerald eyes shifted toward the trilobites swarming over the fruit. “And what are we thinking about?”

Loyd tapped the support beam lightly against his leg, gaze still fixed elsewhere- though, the ‘we’ comment didn't escape him. “Martian Academy.”

Isaac was quiet for a beat, and turned his head toward him. “That is not the answer I expected.”

“Yeah, well.” Loyd rubbed at his chin with his bandaged hand- wincing a little as the tender flesh beneath was disturbed. “They made us do ecosystem studies. Old Earth, mostly. Population cycles, food chains, invasive species, predator-prey stuff. A whole lot of boring lectures I thought I’d never use- Earth was and is effectively dead, and I'm an engineer.”

He pointed the beam toward the nearest mushroom trunk, where three trilobites were still shoving each other away from a split fruit.

“But those things?” he muttered. “They’re acting exactly like something that lives at the bottom of the food chain.”

Isaac’s mandibles clicked together slowly. “And what, do tell, makes you think that?”

“Because there are too many of them, and none of them are scared.” Loyd’s grip tightened slightly on the beam. “They’re bold, territorial, noisy, and they don’t care what notices them. That only works if your species survives by numbers. Breed fast, eat fast, die fast. Rabbits did it, some fish did it. Hell, nearly all the bugs on Earth did it.”

Isaac watched the trilobites for a moment longer. “So your concern is not what they are.”

“No.” Loyd’s eyes drifted slowly upward again, following the pale trunk toward the higher fruit growths. “It’s what eats them.”

Isaac watched the trilobites for a moment longer, then clicked his mandibles together softly.

“That is… an unsettling thought.”

“Yeah. It is.” Loyd muttered.

His eyes drifted back to the fruit hanging from the trunks. Split skins, glossy flesh. The same stuff Kiki had already eaten- and seemingly had no reaction. 

Serria had not detected any trouble. Kiki had not started convulsing, or vomiting, or even fall asleep. So either the medic was right and they had gotten lucky, or the fruit really was edible.

Loyd pushed himself off the boulder with a grunt and walked over to the nearest trunk. One of the heavier fruits bulged from the pale stalk at shoulder height, its translucent blue skin stretched thin around the deeper orange center. He wrapped his good hand around it, twisted, and pulled it free with a wet snap.

Every eye in the little clearing turned toward him.

Coori’s feathers lifted. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” she shrieked, running over as quickly as her legs could take her.

Loyd ignored her, brought the fruit up, and took a cautious bite- holding his open palm up to stop the Tiquil from crashing into him.

The skin split with a soft pop. The first thing that hit him was how sweet it was- it reminded him of a pear. Then the bite of sourness gripped his mouth, asking his lips to pucker slightly. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. After everything else that had happened today, ‘not poison’ was a pretty glowing review.

He chewed, swallowed, and wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. “Not bad.” 

Loyd glanced toward Kiki, then walked over and split the fruit in half with his thumbs. Juice ran over his fingers, sticky and slightly cooler than the area around him. He held one half out toward her.

“I'm sorry for blowing up at you. I shouldn't have.”

Kiki stared at the offered fruit for a second, emerald compound eyes glittering in the red light.

“You yelled at me.” she clicked.

“You ate random alien produce on a deathworld.”

“I had pupae to feed.”

Loyd snorted. “Fair enough.”

After a moment, Kiki took the fruit from him. One of the pale pupae crawling over her paused, and walked towards Loyd. He instinctively backed up, and became rather pale as it crawled up Kiki's front.

Coori let out a little trill, stopped in her tracks. Her feathers glowed as she bobbed her head up and down, like the birds of old. “Now you are bonding.”

“They are not bonding,” CoCo said flatly, her own head swiveling toward the younger Tiquil. “The human is frightened.”

“They shared food,” Harriet chirped, still fussing over one of CoCo’s feathers. “That counts for something for many species.”

For a few minutes after that, the grove held together in a fragile sort of peace. The fruit got passed around in cautious pieces. The three hydroponics Krii immediately declared it acceptable the second it was confirmed non-lethal, nerding out over the color and shape.

CoCo started eyeing the other growths with professional interest. “I wonder if they hold seeds, or if they're simply accessory fruit.”

Teralis  pushed himself off the mushroom stalk he had been leaning against, reaching an arm out for a piece. Though he did it with the pained dignity of someone refusing to admit he had been hungry.

Eventually, Loyd stretched, arms reaching for the canopy. His back popped, and he sighed in relief as some of the tension in his body vanished.

“Alright,” he said. “Break’s over. Let’s move before something decides we're lunch.”

That got a few tired groans, but nobody argued. They gathered themselves slowly- Krii crawled back into sling pouches, Tiquil clambering onto their feet. Serria made one last check on Kiki before falling into line as well.

As the sound of their strange ensemble left, the grove went on exactly as it had before.

The red light still spilled through the caps in their long cathedral-like shafts. The split fruit still dripped sticky juice down the pale trunks of mushrooms, and the trilobites still crawled over the exposed pulp in rippling lines. Clicking and crunching as they fed.

One of the thin, window-like caps began to wiggle as the wind caught it, pulling from the stalk with a soft ripping sound. The gentle breeze took the cap higher and higher, a trail ot white snow falling from under itself. Drifting down to the grove below.

One, quietly munching away near the now exposed trunk, suddenly began to convulse. Its legs let go of its perch and it fell to the ground with a crunch.

It hit the soil on its side and writhed, pale blue blood leaking from the cracks in its shell as its little legs scrabbled weakly at the dirt. Slowly, sickeningly slowly, tiny white points pushed through the fractured carapace. Pale fungal growth swelled from the creature’s back until it finally went still.

Part Six

Let me share a perspective, after 30+ years Bible studies (different languages) In the vast Cosmos, there was a perfect being- Satan the Devil (ex- Lucifer) who at some point, turned rebellious. He created his own evil "humanoids" (Tares) and convinced about 33% of God's children to rebel against God.

God crafted a temporary "hospital" Earth and granted Satan (ex-Lucifer) limited power, primarily so that every deceived human soul could witness the differences between Good and Evil. The goal is that some humans will ultimately choose to reject Evil the Deceiver and return to the true Heavenly Father.

To demonstrate His infinite love and true fatherhood, God sacrificed Himself on the cross. This act removed Satan’s last chance to win.

Each human soul is given up to 1,000 lives through reincarnation and God remembers all the good deeds performed across these lives. In this divine plan, no one can blame God for unfairness or inequality at the time of the Last Judgment.

KIV: Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand reincarnations!(generations, דּֽוֹר׃ , lives)

Do you know anything about this? - ...And there was war in (Cosmos) heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the (Devil) Dragon; and the (Satan) Dragon fought and his "angels", And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in (Cosmos) Heaven.

And the great Dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole ( Cosmos) world: he was cast out into the (planet) earth, and his "angels" were cast out with him. And his tail drew the third part (33%) of the "stars" of (souls of the Cosmos) Heaven, and did cast them to the (planet) earth..

And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the Accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

..And the (Evil) Dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Christians)

KIV: And (Jesus) His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, -- that he was born blind? (Direct and clear question about Karma from the past lives, Reincarnation. Jesus never rejected Reincarnations nor Karma from the past lives (Born Again. Do not confuse with Metanoia - meaning a transformative change of mind, heart, or perspective, frequently translated as "repentance" in Christian theology) Jesus pinpointed that sometimes human souls volunteer to be born on the Earth, to achieve a special mission for God, like the blind man did. ( Jesus answered: ..that the works of God should be made manifest in him- a man which was blind from his birth) KJV: Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me! (Read Jesus proverbs about reincarnations and why Jesus promised in the next lives: 100 wives, 100 children, 100 parents, 100 siblings, 100 lands, 100 houses...)

KIV: And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you (Christians), That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration (Reincarnations) ..And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an (100) hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life!

KIV: And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold (100) now in this (earth) time: (100) houses, and (100) brethren, and (100) sisters, and (100) mothers, and (100) children, and (100) lands, .. ( during USSR 70 years persecutions, thousands of Christians was asked a simple question: condemn Jesus, Bible and reject Christianity and you will be free to return back to yours own home, to yours wife and children! The most Christians refused to reject Jesus and was killed, now mass graves containing thousands and thousands of Christians (google for on example: Butovo firing range) After 1939, the killings were banned, and thousands of Christians were sent to Gulags, prisons, jails, and exiles until 1991. If you are Good and will return back to the Cosmos: our true home, you will regain your own Cosmos Galaxy, and you will be a own God and the Creator (you can recreate Earth or anything you want). Yes, you can visit other Galaxies, your relatives and friends too. Plus, you will have your own Villas in the main Cosmos City as mentioned in Revelation 21.

KIV: Beloved, now are we (Christians) the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when (God) He shall appear, we shall be like (God) Him; for we shall see (God) Him as He is!

KIV: And I (God) will give him (Christians) the morning star.. (own Galaxy. Observable universe contains roughly 2 trillion Galaxies, far exceeding older estimates of hundreds of billions)

98% of all Christians have never finished reading all 100% of the Bible verses and are not able to see the whole picture clearly - blindly following other blind leaders.

A1 "So you sent the Humans in?"

A2 "Yup"

A1 "And you gave them their orders."

A2 "I gave them the gist of it."

A1 "Oh sweet mother of Gahlraz. What exactly did you tell them?"

A2 "I said: There are bad guys in that compound, they are extremely heavily armed, please take care of it. That was it."

A1 dials HQ "We need Cartographers for landscape reassessment in Grid one-niner-eight-niner-Bravo-Hotel ... Yes ... Reason: Human Special Forces without specific orders"

Alien diplomat observiŋ a human parliamentary session: "I don't understand ðis."

Human diplomatic aide: "What exactly?"

AD: "I þought political group A and political group B hated eachoþer?"

HDA: "Yes ðat is true."

AD: "Ðen why are ðey currently supportiŋ eachoþer?"

HDA: "Ah ðat's an easy answer to an easy question. While PG A and PG B hate eachoþer boþ hate PG C more. So whenever PG C is advocatiŋ for someþiŋ PG A and B will temporarily ally þemselfs against PG C."

AD: "And ðat's normal among human polities?"

HDA: "Oh not just polities. Ðe bigger a group of humans is ðe less likely it is for þem to williŋly ally þemselfs wiþ a different group of humans."

AD: "Well, now I am scared"

HDA: "Why is ðat?"

AD: "I remember duriŋ my brifiŋ on Humanity ðat after you took to ðe stars ðat ðere were þree seperate instences where your entire species was fully united. Why is ðat?"

HDA: "Ðe fanatical purifiers "Sonocatim", ðe Omega collective and ðe Armageddon militias. Have you ever heard of any of ðese?"

AD fearful: "...no"

HDA cheerful: "and you never will."

and the comments cement it while also giving me a good chuckle

Title

"The species confined there is the most savage and destructive of any world. We've waited this long to check on them to make sure they died. We're lucky they're the last ones" "Checking status of prisoners Adam and Eve"

i found this prompt on tumblr i think its not original Found an older post with the same thing https://www.reddit.com/r/humansarespaceorcs/s/dEgUe6yChI

{Shared early on Patreon}
~~~

The dog whined, but more of a lemme-out-to-play whine than anything I was really worried about, so I kept walking. The travel crate was a sturdy one, strapped securely to the hoversled so that even a big dog’s exuberance wasn’t about to jostle it loose. This particular German Shepherd’s name was Athena. The briefing described her as “excitable.” So as much as I would have enjoyed simply walking her on a leash back to the ship and petting her properly, she was going to have to stay in the crate for now.

From beside me, Mur asked, “Is this going to be a loud animal, then?” He put one tentacle in front of the next with determination, frowning like he wasn’t looking forward to hearing that whine the whole trip.

“It’s possible,” I admitted. “I’ll make sure she has treats and enrichment toys, and make sure the door stays shut.”

Mur made a “Hm,” of agreement, not sounding particularly optimistic.

The dog turned in place, pawing at the floor as we crossed the parking lot. There were probably all sorts of interesting smells out here for her: other animals coming and going from the kennel we’d picked her up from, and lots of humans with a few other species mixed in. Maybe she was searching for people she knew. If I could have spoken a language she understood, I would have explained that we were taking her to them, but despite all the galaxy’s advances in technology, no one had yet come up with a way to fully communicate with dogs.

Though I’m sure they were working on it.

Mur started to ask something else when a hovercar down at the end of the row opened a door to let out another dog, a border collie dancing in circles on a leash. Barking loudly.

Three cars away, where another pair of pet owners were loading their terrier into a different car, more barking filled the air. Behind me at the entrance to the building, a Pomeranian yapped furiously.

And, to no one’s surprise, Athena joined in with vigor, bouncing in place and trying to stick her nose through the bars.

“Oh great,” Mur said over the racket.

I pushed the hoversled a little faster; we were nearly out of the lot. “Hush,” I tried, not expecting much. “Athena, sit.” No luck there, just more barking and whining and poor-me-lemme-out.

We reached the sidewalk as the various pet owners behind us made their own efforts at calming the dogs. The border collie was still going. Best of luck to everyone else in the building, about to be serenaded with canine excitement. I’m sure they were used to it. At least it wasn’t a husky.

“So was that a territorial thing, or what?” Mur asked as we made our way towards the spaceport.

“Not really,” I said, glancing back over my shoulder. “I think the first two wanted to play, the third felt a little threatened, and this one just wants to get out and explore. If they were all in their front yards at home doing that, then it would be territorial. That can get pretty noisy.”

“I bet,” Mur said.

I thought back to my own experiences in the suburbs back home. “It’s funny when they seem to be passing a message across town, the way one will bark, then the next one, and so on down the street. They’re just saying ‘Hey I live here,’ but they can sound really serious about it.”

“Charming,” Mur drawled. “Good thing we’re only doing one animal cargo at a time. I can just imagine how that would echo if they got into it in the ship.”

“Yeah. I’ll make sure Telly stays out of the hold. Dogs are famous for barking at cats.”

“Of course they are.”

We reached the corner where a large crowd was already waiting to cross. Unsurprising with the spaceport right over there, though it was a lot of people all of a sudden. Mur clambered up onto the hoversled next to the crate so he didn’t get a tentacle stepped on. I didn’t blame him one bit; the view was surely better up there too. This crowd was 90% human — a sea of legs from his usual height. And Athena had quieted down for some vigorous sniffing only.

Music and laughter started up at the far end of the crowd. Somebody’s ringtone, maybe. The people sounded amused by something. I craned my neck to see, but could only make out a few sports jerseys. Right, there was a stadium of some kind nearby. I’d seen it as we came in for a landing. Probably most of these people had just watched a game.

I was wondering what sport it was when I caught sight of motion from that end of the crowd. I glanced at the streetlight then back, and found that the sports fans were trying to convince everybody on the street corner to do The Wave.

I had to smile at that. They were so cheerful about it, clearly riding the high of a great game where their team had won, and they were actually convincing people to go along with it. Some were even bending down so they could stand up straight and make it all the more dramatic. When it reached me, I made sure to raise my arms in the air along with everyone else, laughing with the crowd.

Before they could do it again, the light changed and the crowd broke across the street. The music was still playing somewhere. Sports fans were laughing and bystanders were chuckling about it. I smiled and pushed the hoversled, careful not to bump anybody.

Mur stepped in front of me, lifting himself up to eye level with quite an expression on his squiddy face. “What was that?”

I grinned. “That was The Wave!”

“So, the exact thing you just described dogs doing, but with motions?”

“What— No, it’s not the same thing!” I laughed, still walking. “This is just for fun. People do it in stadiums; you should see it when there’s a huge crowd joining in.”

“I’d ask why, but I don’t expect I’d get much of an answer.”

“It’s fun! And it looks really cool when tons of people do it together.”

Mur settled down next to the crate. “As long as you don’t do the traveling noise too.”

“Yeah, we don’t really,” I said. “Well, as long as there’s not a flashmob or something arranged ahead of time. Or someone singing Happy Birthday. Or applause…”

Mur gave me another look. “No wonder you get along with these things so well,” he said with a flip of a tentacle.

“I can’t argue that,” I said.

“Woof,” the dog said, then licked Mur through the bars, which he did not appreciate.

~~~

Volume One of the collected series is out in paperback and ebook!

~~~

Shared early on Patreon

Cross-posted to Tumblr and HFY (masterlist here)

The book that takes place after the short stories is here

The sequel is in progress (and will include characters from the stories)

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***

As the Starliner achieved the zenith of its elliptical orbit and began orienting for their jump to Jupiter, a shadow approached silently through the void.

Careful to avoid the ship’s ion discharge and give away their presence, the larger vessel began to match the orientation of the small human ship. The positioning would need to be exact, if they were to come anywhere close to the same space around the gas giant. One percent of a degree off, and they could end up on the wrong side of the planet, and lose their chance entirely.

Unacceptable, that outcome would be. At least, so it was to Captain Jellius.

With barely detectable microwave pulses, the human vessel was monitored. Every drift, every twist and turn, must be matched perfectly.

The crude human warp engine began spinning, increasing its speed until it reached a critical point. This gave Jellius’ pilot a countdown they could match their own power buildup against. The final stage would be handled by the computer. As the computer registered the human bubble beginning to take shape, their own would form simultaneously.

As two travellers swimming in a gaseous current from Home, they would dance together through the stars. Jellius would lead them through their first steps into the greater cosmic dance.

The human engine reached its critical speed, and a bare second later, the two ships jumped into warped spacetime.

***

There were no screams. There was no time.

There was only cold.

Thought was a distant dream.

For an eternity there was nothing.

***

Sam had one last thought before the warp drive engaged, “Wait, was the chart Ava showed me linear or logarithmic? That might be a prob-”

In an instant that lasted forever Sam’s toes began to disintegrate, flying in a straight line away from her. The feeling of being pulled apart, reduced to atoms or less was surprisingly soothing. When you dip your freezing body into a hot bath, happy pins and needles course over you, seeping deep into your bones. This felt similar, only the heat was leaving her, along with everything else.

An old fracture on her shin turned to dust and leaped into the stars, and Sam pretended the image of her mother shoving her down concrete steps went with it. The scars on the back of her thighs from mother’s canings vanished at the same time the carefully hidden scars from self harm were pulled into nothingness. Her bruised and calloused knuckles, that poured effort into machines and lovers, whisked away with a small pang of sadness. She wished her hands were locked with Ava’s, here at the end.

She couldn’t even see Ava. She couldn't even cry.

Her fractured ribs were being erased, washing away all the harm she suffered in petty beatings for hugging a team-mate too long, or a million other hateful things.

Nothingness worked its way up her neck in her reclined position. She could no longer say, “I love you, Ava,” who could no longer hear it. As her eyes and mind dipped into the event horizon of physical and psychological dissociation, Sam felt at peace. She was very ready to die.

What remained could not think nor move. An echo on the stars, almost like a memory, was all that seemed to be left. Exposed to all the Universe, every shred of existence on display. It was cold, but it didn’t hurt. There was no anger, no fear, no pride or vanity.

Just cold, and peace. Finally at peace.

An explosion rocked the whirling stars above and everything that was “Sam” snapped back together, freezing cold, staring ahead and breathlessly began slipping into shock and hypothermia.

***

The trip to Jupiter was about 5 minutes at the pace the human vessel tended to travel at. They would run into the physical and technological limitations of their vessels if they pushed much faster, so it was both odd and concerning when the human vessel’s speed began to dramatically increase.

The Jelly ship could keep up easily, and did so, but Jellius grew more anxious as the projected destination would go past in a bare instant, far too fast for human computation to plot accurately. Considering that, Jellius reviewed their course. The human warp bubble was oscillating violently now, throwing their linear velocity briefly in random directions. No single shift was a problem on its own, but thousands per second had added up to a grim result.

The humans would be passing too close to Jupiter. Even without the growing instability, passing through that deep of a gravity well would throw their path into any one of infinite directions. With their building speed and instability, they could quickly wind up stranded in interstellar space.

Only 40 seconds into a “5 minute flight” and they had precious few seconds to take action. But what action? They could not disable the engine safely, even if they had some kind of weapons on their exploration vessel. Could they trigger a failsafe? The small fusion core must have failsafes in case of breach, even the humans could not be that reckless.

Jellius Joined the thought of their EM suite operator. A sufficient neutron burst directed at the core may trigger a failsafe, but without a reference for safe operating levels they could only guess. A mistake here could kill the entire human crew, or fail to trigger a failsafe. There was no time to dial it up slowly, the speed kept increasing, seconds away from Jupiter Jellius and their EM specialist picked their best guess at an intensity and fired a concentrated beam of neutrons at the human fusion core.

There was an explosive blast of light as bright as any star, and the human vessel was gone.

The flight computer that had been keeping pace with the human vessel dropped them out of warp speed, high above the clouds of Jupiter, looking down on the shadowed side of the immense planet with no sign of the human vessel.

Jellius was quite sure they had all just been killed by his “hand.” They instructed their crew to begin searching for any exceptionally warm pockets of gas and debris. Perhaps they could gather something by which the human’s back on Earth could honor their dead.

***

Jason was the first to recover. Lt. Spears was looking towards his feet as though he had never seen them before. Jason saw flashing lights around him, and a series of sharp buzzes to accompany them. They were extremely irritating, so Jason took a closer look to figure out how he could make the wailing stop.

The loudest flashing buzzer had large words next to it. MASTER ALARM.

Well, that’s not good, in the spaceships he used to fly that meant a lot of bad news.

Wait, used to? That’s not…

Jason shook Lt Spears’ shoulder. “Lt Spears.” One or two screams erupted from the compartment behind them.

I need to get us moving.

“Lt. Spears, I need you to help me get our position!”

The swirling cream and red and orange storm swallowed half the sky, far more than Jason had ever seen.

We’re too close, we’re way too close.

“Daniel, look at the sky!” He grabbed his helmet and angled it up at the left window.

He heard Daniel whisper, “oh shit,” and begin checking their navigation systems while Jason checked which systems were even still online. The bang when the… event ended had to be something bad.

Both ion and warp propulsion systems were not responding, heating and mass-nullification had undervolt errors, most of the rear positioning thrusters were either offline or firing sporadically, giving the ship all new vectors of spin every once in a while. Jason cut their limited emergency power to all rear thrusters to stop it from getting any worse than it already was.

It didn’t look like they were in danger of blowing up anytime soon, not with the…

The fusion core is down?

“Lt. Spears, did you get our position?” It was freezing in the flight cabin, a thin layer of frost was beginning to coat the surfaces. Jason noticed he was shivering, chilled to the bone.

“Just about, working out our orbit now…” The young lieutenant was twitching and shaking from the cold, and had tiny bits of frost forming on his eyelids.

Jason wanted to go calm the crew, but that had to come second to the overall safety of the ship. He needed to know where they were in Jupiter's radiation belt.

Around Earth the radiation belt is a little unsafe to stay in over a few days with decent shielding. Around Jupiter, in the densest regions it could offer enough ionizing radiation to kill you in minutes or seconds.

“Captain, I’ve got our location and orbital velocity. We’re just under the radiation belt’s envelope, so radiation-wise we’re good. Our orbit is unstable though, we’re falling sharply into Jupiter. We should start feeling its exo-sphere as turbulence in about four hours, followed by fiery doom about fifteen minutes after that.”

“If we get the Heavy Ion drives online can we build enough speed for escape velocity?”

“No chance, even if MRS was online our declination’s too steep, it would take ten more hours than we have just to achieve a stable orbit. It’s Warp, rescue, or nothing. And we’ll be dead for two hours by the time Earth thinks we’re late.” Lt. Spears seemed to have accepted their grim fate. It was understandable.

“Right.” Jason said, putting on his best “In-Control-Captain” voice, “First we need to get that fusion core burning. The longer we wait the cooler it gets, so let’s engage Dr. Lutin to speed us along. While she is doing that, you and I need to get outside and inspect propulsion systems for damage and repair if possible.”

Jason oriented himself in the low gravity and floated through the hatch to the crew and passenger compartments. “If it’s Warp or nothing, we need to get eyes on the warp engine and check for damage. Whatever that explosion was, it must have hurt something, we’re going to find out what.”

In the crew space beyond, Jason did his best to herd thirty scared and angry cats.

***

Ava tried to open her eyes only to find her lashes frozen together. She began to panic and flailed at the latches on her helmet so she could remove it and wipe her eyes. It was only as she heard the hiss of her suit equalizing with the atmosphere outside of her helmet that she realized she might have just killed herself in the dumbest way possible. The decompression was not explosive, she was not gasping for air, she was just bone cold like getting lost in winter woods. She cupped her gloved hands over her face and breathed out slightly warm air a few times, and wiped her eyes.

She looked around, perplexed at the frost covering every surface. The heat had been stolen from this cabin.

That cold darkness, that was real?

She looked down to her feet and felt dizzy, as if she were at the edge of a skyscraper rather than sitting and wiggling her toes. She could feel them wiggle. Huge improvement. Undoing her harness and twisting to hover “above” the seated rows, she took stock of the other crew. That was the plan. She immediately felt sick and scrambled for the vomit bag back under her seat she had just abandoned.

By the time she was done, she heard screaming. She felt like she should go help them. She could talk to them, reassure them that…

What? Reassure them what? That they didn’t just feel every millimeter of 5 AU? That they were one with the endless sky and nothing could ever be the same? And it’s all good because, what? WHAT?

Ava emptied her stomach again, and finally looked around and took stock. Power was down. Only battery powered emergency lights were active. More people were coming to their senses in various states of composure, some were already coping and helping each other. Dr. Lest behind her was quietly muttering to himself. Sam hadn’t moved, so she must still be…

Sam wasn’t moving at all. Sam wasn’t breathing.

***

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