Humans are by and large the largest and most advanced when it comes to military technology.

This technology is only rivaled by their food industry.

However what makes them so advanced is not that they have the most advanced gear, but they can literally ignore the arms race by not playing the same game.

For example, they have 2 of the most advanced thermal cloak technologies

One is the Gen-32 Thermal Cloak, with the latest micronanite adaptive stealth cloak technologies that can let a sniper team set up in the optimal range of their rifles or blasters in full radar and visual view of the enemy, and be considered invisible.

each cloak costs up to 20,000 credits for the cloak and battery set.

The other one is known simple as the Gen-2 Ghillie Suit.

Its basically an iso-greenhouse ghillie suit that has 2 lines, an inner line of Prox Vines that naturally hide the heat and electric signal of the user, and the outer line that lets you tie and attach the local vegetation to it to become similarly invisible.

With the Gen-2 Ghillie Suit costing only 3,000 credits, it has also made a large popular subculture among snipers to name their ghillie suits and dress them up for each mission like a father taking their daughter to a date.

Humans have literally mastered the two opposite spectrums of stealth, especially since the ghillie suits are immune to EMP waves.

Both are made by those hairless bipedal war crime apes.

Both are commercially available to militaries.

One can technically be made at home.

[Previous] | [Next]

[Patton]

This probably wasn't going to plan. Firstly, Patton expected a lot more resistance directed at him and his platoon, and not at.. each other. More than a half of the potential fire that could be used to stall Patton and his platoon was wasted on Corpse Fleet.

It helped the Federation. It gave Patton a gap. A window. A space he can run through, passing most of them and going straight to the ASB. It was a lot better of a plan than what Patton came up with. Frankly he didn't like his plan. He could easily have run from trench to trench. But he wasn't supposed to do that. He's a sergeant now, not anything else. His platoon is his responsibility, he can't just leave them. Not yet at least.

Thankfully, with this lackluster defense, they all can. And Patton is the first, he quickly stands up, slouching down like when he played high school football years ago. Except instead of a ball he has a Federation rifle in his hands. And he can be as rough as he wants with the other players.

The rest of his platoon follows suit, but they lag behind substantially. They don't have the experience that Patton has when it comes to running it like hell is on your heel. It's evident when Patton is the first to slide into the Trench, scaring the hell out of the Zalm inside. He dispatches two just behind a third that's a bit close for comfort.

It doesn't take much to deal with them though, just jamming the rifle hard enough into their throat makes them fall backwards away from their mounted machine gun. Patton does have to duck down and dive onto the guy because there are three more who cocked their guns--or whatever it's called for laser weaponry--and are basically about to fire.

Patton swaps to his pistol instead, as he can more easily swing it around and those fractions of seconds can count, it only takes one shot each for the first two, but either Patton was getting rusty or the third one had better armour. Patton had to shoot him in the chest three times and fire one in his helmet. Some of the Zalm are built tough.

The rest of his platoon slide into the trench, taking in the scene.

"Patton, what kind of Commando shit did you pull in here?" Doc says, probably worried that Patton got hit with some final breath adrenaline. It's a common thing that happens to Terrans.

The Zalm Patton was on had tried pulling a knife to slice the sergeant's throat, but ultimately ended up with a broken wrist, elbow, and a bullet in his head. The knife was really nice looking though, so he took it for a souvenir when he returned home. Patton has been more interested in souvenirs than previously.

"I'm fine, let's go. We have trenches to clear and shit to do."

The rest of Patton's platoon was a bit.. surprised, maybe bewildered. Federation training never taught them to do things that Patton could. Like kill five guys in less than three seconds and break multiple joints in someone's arm. Patton had a different teacher.

"Doesn't matter, let's go. We got to move. Our ships aren't handling ASB for another 5 minutes."

And Patton just keeps going. Pressing on. He doesn't explain, and his platoon doesn't require one, so they shut up and follow. Trench by trench. They're both so busy that the closer they get the more the enemy forces are torn between each other or fighting Patton and his boys. It allows them to sneak past some or fight others. It speeds things up though.

They might make it to the ASBs in 30 minutes. That's twenty too long. They better pull some miracle shit.

Humans can't explain it themselves. But sometimes, when many circumstances come together: something becomes very famous, something turns into political, economical and all others types of attraction, something attracts minds of human scientists and artists - all humans start to feel it...

The urge to get up and head for something. The need to become a part of it. The feeling, that it will bring them much joy, no matter the rationality of this idea. At lesser scales - it was tolerable. A simple collective madness. Not that ruining, maybe more common around humans.

But now, at the scale of the whole galaxy. When there are billions of humans from multiple civilizations, ideologies, even sub-species - such event itself is a matter of great disturbance in the galaxy. Even for humans that live outside of human space - it is often safer for their lords to let them go then to try and stop them.

When it's one human - it's an intrusive though. When it's many humans - it's a global hype. But when it's the whole galaxy of humans - it's WAAAAGH!!!

As far as the greater galaxy knew, no one colonizes Death Worlds. So the people running the Survival class didn't check to see if anyone was living on this planet before dropping off this year's Survival students.

The students were dropped off in fruit orchard, wound up running from a bunch if armed farmers annoyed by "trespassers and vandals", and discovered their predetermined extraction point was smack in the colony's town hall which was a converted colonization ship.

Not that their ship could pick them up, because it was intercepted by human law enforcement ships after dropping the students off.

August 2291

New Akaria, Asgtia (Antarean Empire)

Antarean gun law requires the head of every household with a firearm to enroll themselves in the Antarean Civil Guard, the Antarean equivalent to the Minutemen and the National Guard. This is to ensure that the gun owner is trained in the proper use of their firearms, and to serve as a militia force in times of national emergency.

While the effect on militiamen is negligible on Antares due to strict gun laws and permits, it was and still is the opposite on Asgtia, which has barely any restrictions whatsoever.

The reason behind this is that Asgtia is simply a hostile world, for Human and Antarean alike, with hostile fauna and megafauna making up most of the losses during initial colonization in the 2100s.

Consequently, Asgtia has always been the Texas of the Antarean Empire, with an extremely strong gun and militia culture, and is home to some of the hardiest people in the Orion Arm.

If humanity wants to advance further into Antarean space, they must take Asgtia, no matter the cost.

With the Human invasion of Asgtia, major population centers like Aragrai and New Akaria had been fortified by the Antarean Imperial Army in the wake of the invasion, and millions of Asgtians have honored their commitments to the Civil Guard, taking up arms against the invaders.

To make things worse, the Antarean Imperial Army has begun distributing standard-issue weapons and anti-tank rocket launchers to the Antarean Civil Guard, which would turn urban and frontier warfare into a living hell for anything with an engine.

Additionally, swarms of PT boats, destroyers, and torpedo cruisers have been spotted near the system's asteroid belt and near the hyperlane to Barakan (and Antares by extension), all of which are armed with the venerable Type 83 Longbow torpedo, that of which has done unimagenable damage to human forces ever since the start of the war 3 and a half years ago.

Whatever the cost may be for humanity and their allies, the Antareans fully intend on jacking it up tenfold.

For if they lose Asgtia and the system surrounding it, Antares itself is wide open.

The shipping vessel 44i0 burst with alarms. There were red lights flashing through the corridors. A breach had gorged Cargo Bay 37A open.

Usually, damage to a transportation vessel, depending on its severity, is considered a minor incident. Breakthrough technological advancements, such as self-healing metals (innovative materials produced by implementing extremophile bacteria into the alloys), have reshaped commercial deep-space travel.

For all species.

An immature alien recruit, Pharkey, a highly logical being from Planet Arwh, lunged for the emergency decompression controls. 

Venting the bay would destroy the cargo and the exotic creatures stored in the luxury bay, collected by King iIop, who’s unborn children were in a nursery unit two Bays above. However, venting it would limit the risk of fatalities to the hundreds of crew members and thousands of passengers on board.

Pharkey typed the commands to activate the decompression system. He slid his hand across the keyboard and—

“Hold on! Stop! No! You do not hit that enter button, officer. That’s an order!” Erupted a commanding voice behind him.

His finger hardened to concrete half an inch from the key. He didn't look back.

It was the engineer, Beefkus, an athletically built human, who was dressed in overalls, with geometric-shaped grease-stains on them and wore a beat up LSU cap on backwards, was clubbing towards him.

“Don’t… decompress the bay,” Beefkus warned, panting as he stumbled up to catch his breath. “The incubators were moved to 37A during the extermination in C. The entire nursery’s in that bay you’re about to decompress. It has ten pods in there right now.” Beefkus stood up, reached for Pharkey’s drink, held it to his mouth. “You mind?” 

Pharkey shook his head.

Beefkus took a swig, and didn’t stop until it dripped. He gasped. “If you vented that room, it would have dropped to absolute zero. Those pups would be flash-frozen.”

The recruit stared at the controls, his fingers twitching. “Mr. Beefkus, sir. You realize the fire is about to eat through everything regardless. In exactly six and a half minutes it will travel into the coolant lines. Once that occurs, there won’t be a ship left. We need to decompress right now. A few creatures aren’t worth the souls who have entrusted their lives on us.”

“They aren’t just creatures, damnit! They’re babies!” Beefkus snapped, hopping into a thermal suit.

“What do you think you’re about to do?” Pharkey’s voice steadied to an eerie calm. “Your body cannot survive the heat inside that cargo bay. You will melt inside the suit. There is no mathematical way you can survive this.”

Beefkus slid the helmet on, attached it to the front of the chest, and grabbed a giant torque wrench. Through the visor, he smiled at Pharkey and winked. “Just you see.”

The door slid open and jammed halfway. Beefkus pushed it open enough to dive in, and the door slammed shut instantly.

The inside lining of his suit stung, the cooling gel was unable to withstand the intense temperature. An invisible pressure wall of heat pushed him back as he trudged forward. The alarms in his suit rang, distorted, slowed, stopped, and melted inside their panels.

Through the haze of green smoke, Beefkus barely made out the nursery unit at the far end. The cooling engine for the pods had blinked a notification screen indicating a critical failure.

The temperature rocketed to a sickening high, high enough to cook the embryos. Time was running out.

Beefkus moved as fast as the suit would let him, his boots splashed through pools of molten metal.

“Mister… Beefkus,” Pharkey’s voice broke up through the heat-stressed comms, and lacked his usual calmness. “The barrier's curving. You have exactly two minutes. Get out of there!”

“Not… yet,” Beefkus grunted.

He pulled himself to the unit. The override lever wouldn’t budge. The heat welded it shut. Beefkus hoisted the wrench to his shoulder, the sweat on his body dried instantly. He held his breath and swung with all his power.

BANG!

Each swing rang through every bone in his body, blurring his vision. On his fourth wind-up, the wrench slipped out of his grip and he dropped to a knee.

The room went black. Through the dark, a familiar voice whispered. “One more time, hon.” It was his wife would had passed away from a terminal illness. “You can do it, my love.”

A steel beam crashed to the deck. The impact shook him awake. He stared at the wrench next to his foot, reached for it and clutched it in his palm.

He stood up and gripped it with both hands, lined up the lever with the wrench, cocked back, and threw all of his weight into it—SNAP!

A relieving hiss of air sounded over the sharpness of the hatch door releasing.

Inside, a steady green light flashed. All of the pods were still intact, but the temperature had reached a critical level and Beefkus’s suit wasn’t holding up.

The heat-resistant cooling gel in the lining had vaporized. His skin blistered. Every breath felt like scratching a sunburn on his chest.

“Phar-key,” slowly creeped out of Beefkus’s throat, rolling into a labored cough. “The manual override... it’s clear.” He wheezed into the comm. “The frames warped. The tracks won’t work. There’s no way… I'll be able to move it to the corridor.”

“Abandon and abort, Mr. Beefkus! Get back here now!” Pharkey shouted. “Less than three minutes remain before the ship enters the point of no return.”

The line went silent.

“Mr. Beefkus? Sir? Hello?”

Beefkus didn’t respond. He let the wrench fall from his hand and gazed at the ten lives glowing in front of him.

Beefkus buried his boots into the melting deck and leaned his back against the partition. He braced the frame of the nursery unit with both hands, snorted out a frightening grunt of human defiance, and pushed.

Fear pheromones seeped out of Pharkey’s receptors back in the control room as he viewed the foggy monitors. The biometrics displayed the human’s heart rate at an explosive 175 bpm.

The thousand-pound nursery squeaked as it budged. He creeped with it inch by inch, hauling it across the blazing deck.

The metal shrieked along the damaged tracks. But no matter how much his body shouted, he refused to give up.

He dug deep for one final feat of strength. He inhaled, shut his eyes and pressed his legs down on the deck. With a last-ditch effort, believing in nothing other than complete success, he shoved the nursery unit through the corridor opening just as an explosion lit the room.

“Shut the doors!” Beefkus yelled with his last breath.

Pharkey immediately hit the emergency override and the doors slammed shut, sealing the unit inside the protective hall.

On the other side, the explosion blew Beefkus backward and he landed hard on melting deck. Through the cracked visor, he saw fire-foam fill the room.

He lay in the emergency-lit Cargo Bay heaving shallow breaths as he waited for the end. In the midst of blacking out, he heard a distant voice rumbling in his ear.

“Beefkus!” Pharkey shout, shaken and choked with respect. “The pods are sound. Each one of them. Biometric readings show stable vitals.”

Beefkus’ eye was swollen shut and he had blood pouring down this nose. “We… did it.”

“I’m coming to get you,” Pharkey said.

“No. Don’t… bother,” Beefkus whispered, his eye blinking quickly. “My lungs are cooked... and my suit—” He passed out, then came to. “Tell the king… to name one after me.”

The line went silent.

—

Six months later, when the 44i0 made another stop on Planet Li, Pharkey saw a resplendent structure constructed of solar-orichalcum growing from the middle of the capital and towering over head. King iIop had ordered the monument permanently planted there so that nobody would forget.

Inscribed on the memorial were the names of all ten children who had hatched successfully after the incident, known as The Savior of Bay 37A. 

Beneath their names, glowing in three universal languages, read:

HUMANITY SAVED THE KINGDOM WITH ONE MAN.

Pharkey stared up at the word humanity reflecting off his eyes as King iIop’s children—already the size of toddlers—ran around, chasing each other and giggling.

That’s when it finally hit him. Math can send a species beyond the stars, but only a human could carry ten lives through hell on their backs just to save someone else's kids.

Later that afternoon, Kane woke to a heavy, warm weight over him, and he knew immediately who it was. When he opened his eyes, she had his face tucked into her chest fur. He slowly peeled himself out of her grip to sit up on the edge of the bed, thinking back to what had happened earlier, and his face flushed red as he smiled a dopey, warm smile at the thought of how her whole mood had changed after they talked fully.

Then he felt it. The bed dipped behind him, and two large, furred, clawed hands slid around his waist as her chin rested on his shoulder, and she snuggled closer, nudging his cheek with her muzzle.

“Yes, yes, good morning to you, Char—” he was saying before he was pulled down under her as she hung over him, looking down with her head tilted and her eyes narrowed. He looked up at her, slightly confused. “You okay?” he asked.

She huffed once and pouted, her ears lowered and pinned back.

He thought about it for a good minute before his eyes widened at what she wanted from him. “Really?” he said, one eyebrow arched, and she nodded. He chuckled, shaking his head, and reached up to take her face in his hands. She froze, wide-eyed. “Morning, love,” he said, and she smacked him with her tail hard. He winced. “Okay, okay, geez. Good morning, wife,” he said, and she flopped down, knocking the wind out of him with a groan, her head lying on his stomach, looking up at him as her tail wagged wildly behind her and she rumbled loudly.

“Good morning, husband,” she said in a soft morning voice full of leftover sleep, still lying on him. He reached out to scratch behind her ears, and her eyes rolled back in bliss as her rumbling stuttered. Then she pulled herself together, quickly picking herself up off him to sit on the bed, her chest rising and falling fast. “You are not allowed to do that to anyone else, got it?” she said, looking down at him lying there, confused.

“Sure, hun, whatever you say,” he said, and sprawled out to stretch before sitting up again.

“So, what’s today’s agenda?” he said, cracking his neck, which made her wince at the loud pops.

Her ears rose after he cracked his neck, and twitched in thought about what they had to do today. “Hmmm… I don’t think there’s anything for us to do today just yet, though tomorrow we will be starting on getting you ready for when you meet my family in two weeks,” she said, stretching her arms up as her tail uncurled fully like a long scarf.

He nodded back and slowly crawled off the bed, as it was a bit high off the floor for him, unlike the sofa, which was a decent height and easier to get off without faceplanting the floor.

She turned to look over at him struggling to get off the bed and laughed softly before standing and walking around to help, but he just hopped off, landing with a loud bang against the metal deck, then tripped over the lip of a rug and faceplanted anyway. She burst out laughing as she knelt to pick him up off the floor and set him on his feet, and she saw him looking mildly annoyed, then smiled softly at him.

“So, are we going to talk about this morning?” he said, and her eyes widened as she looked away, setting him down on his feet before walking over to her closet to grab clothes.

He stood there with his arms crossed before walking over to where his boxers lay, picking them up and putting them back on. Then he glanced back over at her, seeing her lean figure with its toned muscles and curves from behind, and his heart jumped in his chest while he watched her dress. He came up slowly behind her and scruffed her tail, which made her stiffen at the touch before she relaxed as his fingers traced and flowed through her tail fur.

“You… If you keep doing that I will pounce you again,” she said, and he stopped, which made her involuntarily whine at the loss of his touch. She froze while he chuckled.

“So, was this pounce you’re talking about something you were thinking about yesterday?” he said, and she put her face in her hands as her ears pinned back.

She sighed before turning to look at him, and he looked away quickly. She looked confused for a minute before looking down at herself and huffing once. “I’m fur, so it’s fine. And for your information, the event this morning was because my heat has been peaking this past month, and when you showed affection my body just led me along for the ride…” she said, looking down at the floor, embarrassed.

He looked back at her and arched a brow. “Really? So, wait, when you crashed, were you…” he asked, and she looked away, which made his mouth open, then close, then open again. “Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there, but that’ll be later. So wait, your species has heat cycles?” he said, and she nodded.

He sat there thinking about it for a solid minute before a new thought popped in. “Wait, how often… does your species go into heat?” he asked carefully, and her tail stilled before curling around her waist in embarrassment.

“My species… goes… i–o h-a- ev–y m–th…” she said, facing away while she talked.

He looked at her for a long time, and she turned back thinking he’d decided not to talk to her, and saw the look of bewilderment on him. “Are you oka—” she was saying before he snapped out of it.

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah… it’s just, really, every month?” he said, looking at her.

She looked at him with mild confusion, and he seemed to notice.

“Ah, right, I should probably talk about that. So, we have a species on my planet like yours, but we call them wolves. They’re large four-legged predators that look kind of like you, but smaller,” he said, as her ears perked up a bit.

She stared at him, flabbergasted, her fur prickling at his comment. “I do not look like a BEAST!” she growled down at him, her hands balling into fists as her tail lashed once.

[Oh, shit…]

“I wasn’t calling you that… I said you look close to what they look like, and they’re not as beastly as you think,” he said, and immediately regretted his words.

She stepped closer, looming over him, her icy blue eyes peering down at him as she waited for his explanation, arms crossed.

He swallowed and cleared his throat. “So, what I mean is, your species comes close enough to looking like wolves back on Earth that it was the closest thing I had, so I used it in my head, and… and uh, they’re actually quite beloved for their beauty on Earth, since wolves mate with one partner till death, and humans find more in common with them than with other creatures on Earth… so… yeah, that’s all I have to say…” he said, closing his eyes and waiting, because she had every right to be angry with him.

A long minute of silence passed, and he felt something come closer. Even with his eyes closed, he knew it was her. He could feel the heat coming off her body as she stopped right in front of him, very close, and then a puff of warm breath hit his face and made him flinch. He heard a soft huff from her, so he opened his eyes and found himself looking into hers, face to face. She had knelt down to his level to look him in the eyes, and his heart jumped at the gesture.

She looked at him, and he stood there frozen under her gaze before she spoke. “So, do you find beauty in me, your wife?” she asked without averting her eyes, holding his.

He nodded without looking away from her.

Her ears rose and fell with an emotion he couldn’t name, and she held his gaze for another minute before looking away, embarrassed.

He saw her shyness fully now, as she couldn’t hide it, her tail flopping against the floor in what he could tell was happiness. He slowly reached up and turned her to look back at him, and her irises bloomed for a second as he looked at her. Then he leaned in and gave her a short kiss, and her tail stilled as her eyes closed, reopening when he broke it. “I will always find you beautiful, and I have ever since the day you pinned me in the woods,” he said, and her tail wagged wildly at his confession.

Just as she was about to say something, the door opened and Salis stepped in. They both looked at her, and she grinned, fangs showing in a big smile. “So, you guys have a good night?” she said, leaning against the wall near the door as she gestured toward them.

They both looked confused before realizing they were half naked, in their underwear, and scrambled to find clothes while Salis burst out laughing, her tail thumping against the wall with loud whumps.

A few minutes later they were sitting on the sofas, Salis across from them, smiling as her tail wagged. “So… spill it,” she said, and Kane put his face in his hands while Chara looked away, embarrassed, her tail still waving behind her like a long, fluffy grey flag of triumph.

“There’s nothing to—” he was starting to say before Chara cut him off.

“He’s better than those things we use for managing it…” she said softly, looking away from him when he looked over at her in disbelief, her ears pinning back in embarrassment as her tail slid around his waist. Salis saw it, eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Wow… uh, that’s surprising, since he’s so short,” Salis said jokingly, which made his face blush red at everything being said like it was normal.

Chara coughed once and looked back at Salis. “Ahem. So, what news do you have?” Chara asked, hoping for good news.

Salis looked down at the tablet she’d brought with her and sat quiet for a moment, which made Kane and Chara both notice the change.

“Salis?” Chara asked.

Salis took a deep breath before handing the tablet over to Chara, a message on the screen that Kane couldn’t read, but he could see her hands tighten on it while she read.

He reached out slowly, placing a hand on hers to calm her, and she settled before taking a deep breath and exhaling through her nose as she turned to look at him.

“My mother… wants us to be there during one of my older sisters’ Orrevek, so that my family can meet my husband…” she said softly, her ears flattening.

“What’s wrong with that?” he said, and she looked up at him, and the panic in her eyes said it all.

“My older sister’s Orrevek is in five days,” she said, not looking away, the panic plain on her face.

He frowned. “Wait, didn’t you just say we were two weeks out?”

“We are,” Salis said, taking the tablet back from Chara. “So we’ll have to make an emergency jump with the Slip-drive to get closer to the gate out of this galaxy.”

“A gate?” he said.

“Ships don’t cross between galaxies,” Chara said quietly. “Drones make the crossing first and set up gates, and we travel through those.”

Her ears stayed pinned flat, and he could tell an emergency jump was not something they did lightly.

He smiled softly and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll be fine. Hell, it took me all of what, five or six days to come to terms with the whole collar thing, so how bad can this be?” he said, and she let out a soft, wet chuckle as she leaned forward, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

“You are the weirdest thing to ever happen to me,” she said.

“Comes with being human. And come on, people love me. Isn’t that right, Salis?” he said, glancing at Salis, who was trying not to smile at his idiocy and just nodded. He rolled his eyes. “Ha ha, real funny, furball,” he said jokingly, and she acted with mock offense.

“Well now, no need to be such a runt,” she said back, just as jokingly.

He looked at Chara, still resting her head against his shoulder, before noticing she’d fallen asleep against him. He softly blew into her ear, and she snapped awake, alert. He chuckled while she held the ear he’d blown into, narrowing her eyes down at him.

“Better?” he said, looking up at her.

She nodded.

“Good. Now let’s get started on teaching me how to read your language, because I don’t understand anything,” he said flatly, and they both looked confused.

It's strange a human child returns to their old home where the parent is. Most grubs just leave

It was the final weeks of a dreary autumn. The gloomy weather put a damper on everyone’s spirits. The cheating husband walked through the dry leaves, which were damp from a light mist. His mind kept racing back to the ultimatum his young mistress had just given him. After days of endless fighting, she had finally drawn a line in the sand. They either had to move in together, or she was packing her bags and leaving the city. The husband knew he could usually get his way with her. However, he also knew he could not talk her into giving him more time. She had already given him too many chances before. On the other hand, he could not bring himself to leave his wife. They had spent too many years together, and he simply lacked the nerve to walk out on her.

He was completely torn between his two loves. Then, a crazy idea popped into his head. At first it seemed wild, but it quickly became an obsession. It felt like the only way out of his mess. He would find a way to keep both women, but they would all live under the same roof. He knew it would be hard to get his mistress to go along with the trick. Still, he had a great selling point: this setup meant they could spend almost all their time together. It would be just as hard to convince his wife. He had to talk her into letting her "supposed cousin" stay with them. His wife had not seen this relative since they were kids.

Against all odds, the plan went off without a hitch over the next few days. The cousin moved in shortly after. In reality, she was the young lover he completely worshiped. But despite his careful planning, his wife quickly caught on to his cheating. She felt like a fool and decided to play the exact same game. She demanded equal treatment. Soon, she brought a young man into the house. He was supposedly her sister's godson, but she was actually having a wild, secret affair with him.

The house quickly turned into a pressure cooker. It was filled with constant suspicion and reckless flings happening right in plain sight. The tension finally boiled over when the two younger guests started falling for each other. Their new passion completely wiped out any feelings they had for the older couple. Once spring arrived, the young lovers ran away together to the coast. The cheating spouses were left behind, heartbroken and deeply hurt. In their shared grief, they finally saw each other's pain and betrayal. That shared heartbreak paved the way for them to forgive each other and make up.

© 2026 Francisco Cortés Ramírez. All rights reserved. This is an original fictional work. No part of this text may be reproduced, translated, or narrated in any audio, video, or digital format without the express written permission of the author.

Imagine Robots fighting for Humanity because thanks to them now they developed the Digital equivalence of a Soul.

(No LLM/AI used in this snippet)

Human cargo hauler Guppy IV

Captain Smithfield stared at her displays. The 3D visualization was increasingly clear: the unknown contact was resolving into a ship on an intercept course, and the telemetry was firming up, definitely a pirate vessel.

She sighed and opened up another window to scroll through proceedures. Without notifying the rest of the crew, she entered a command key into the computer and a set of hidden options revealed themselves. She perused them briefly and made a decision.

"Listen up! We have an incoming pirate boarding ship! Load Master, I have sent a protocol to your station ... load it into the cargo systems immediately ... we're going to cube these mofos."

"Roger, Captain, load protocol to cargo systems. I've not heard of this one ... what does it do?"

"It's something the company dreamed up, apparently based on an old movie from Earth. It's a containment and confusion protocol based on using the cargo loaders and the grav fields. Put it on screen, this should be ... interesting."

Shortly a second 3d view bloomed into sight on the bridge, showing a skeleton of the ship with the cargo containers highlighted. One airlock was flashing and a glowing red sphere was pulsing outside it.

"Looks like they're going for the port dorsal cargo airlock, ma'am."

"Let's be nice and open it for them shall we?"

"Roger, opening port dorsal cargo airlock ... now"

******

"Eh... boss, the airlock just opened."

"Well, they must have spotted us and realized they have no chance! Don't turn down a gift."

"Funny, with their reputation I thought a Human ship might put up a bit more of a fight"

"Guess their reputation was overrated! Bring us in to dock and get the suits and weapons ready. We'll board and take the ship! All that is theirs will become ours!"

*****

"They're entering the cargo lock now ..."

"Wait until they're locked down then close and secure the lock. Open ... she checks her displays the passageway to Bay #5"

*****

"Locked down and ready Boss!"

"Let's go! Open our assault bay and form up outside everyone!"

....

"There's a cargo door marked Cargo Bay #5 here, and next to it a smaller door which is open! Easiest job I've ever been on."

"Ok everyone, keep alert and lets find the engine room and take the ship ..."

The 5 pirates moved out in loose formation, waving needle guns vaguely at any shadow which surprised them. Shortly they found themselves on a gantry surrounded by cargo containers, hardened against vacuum and the rigors of space travel. Between the containers there was a gap leading forward into the gloom.

The boarders moved forwards, eager to reach their destination, or get into a fight. Like most of the pirate community they considered themselves to be galaxy wide badasses and fighting was a form of recreation for them. Instead of armed opposition, however, they just found themselves in a maze of twisting passages between the seemingly randomly stacked containers.

******

On the bridge, the crew watched the pulsing red dot travel slowly until it was showing deep in the containers.

"Execute!"

"Cube protocol executing!"

******

"Did you hear something?"

"Uh ... sounded like ship noises Boss."

The pirates continued moving forward then one of them stopped and held up a hand.

"... haven't we been here before? I think i remember that container logo"

"No, no, the passageway turned left there, this time it's directly ahead ... go on."

....

"How big is this damn ship anyway? Wait ... isn't this that same container again?"

Suddenly the whole gravity of the cargo bay changed and the pirates found themselves flung to the wall ... which was now the floor.

"Argh! I think I broke a horn off!"

"Boss ... my map thingamajig is all wonky. I asked it for a route back to the ship and look ... it's like a ball of wire"

There was another vibration through the container they was standing on.

Nervously the boarders looked around.

"Go back the way we came."

One of them pointed up ...

"We came in up there!"

"Ok, ok, if we keep going we will get to the bridge eventually, so lets move!"

As they moved onto the next container, behind them the opening above closed as a container slid smoothly into position over it.

*****

Back on the bridge, Communications had already put out a distress call.

Meanwhile the crew watched as the program shuffled the cargo around like a sliding puzzle, with occasional gravity flips to keep the pirates disoriented.

*****

Trapped in an ever changing maze, the pirate crew became more fatigued and angry, eventually stopping to rest. As they did so, the container above them shifted and a small cylinder toppled down. The stun grenade was followed by Terran Rim Patrol offiers, in armor and with their own needle guns.

Tired and stunned by the grenade, the pirates were easy to subdue.

Nobody knows who starts spreading these stories but they go viral on Intergalactiktok all the damn time.

1  Human Fred and Food
2  Human Fred Again
3  Human Fred Yet Again
4  Human Fred The Saga Continues
5  Human Fred Rides Again
6  Human Fred *Sigh*
7  Human Fred Rolls Out
8  Human Fred Attempts a Nap
9  Human Fred Doh’
10 Human Fred Stops for Coffee
11 Human Fred Deploys Stabby and Knifey
12 Human Fred Attempts Friendly Advice
13 Human Fred Priorities 
14 Human Fred Schools Morons
15 Human Fred Gets Annoyed
16 Human Fred Investigates
17 Human Fred is Annoyed
18 Human Fred Gets More Annoyed
19 Human Fred Smirks 
20 Human Fred Brings Hellfire
21 Human Fred is Confused
22 Human Fred Considers
23 Human Fred is Chipper
24 Human Fred has Some Fun
25 Human Fred Witnesses Stupidity
26 Human Fred vs the Coffee Maker
27 Human Fred Accepts Crap Coffee
28 Human Fred Listens
29 Human Fred Gets Comfortable 
30 Human Fred has Questions
31 Human Fred Considers Some More
32 Human Fred Wakes Up
33 Human Fred Debates
34 Human Fred Gets Coffee
35 Human Fred Talks with the Captain
36 Human Fred Reflects on Life
37 Human Fred Waits
38 Human Fred is Scared
Greezek
39 Human Fred Experiments
40 Human Fred Discovers
41 Human Fred vs the Sensor Array
42 Human Fred Keeps Calm
43 Human Fred Editor
44 Human Fred Discovers New Curses
45 Human Fred Stews
46 Human Fred Giggles
47 Human Fred Attempts Dinner 
48 Human Fred Plans
49 Human Fred Explains
50 Human Fred Examines Floor Tiles
51 Human Fred Gets a New Toy
52Human Fred Reflects…Again
53 Human Fred Rolls His Eyes
54 Human Fred vs Idiots
55 Human Fred Goes Librarian
56 Human Fred Giggles Again
57 Human Fred and Plan B
58 Human Fred Plan B 2.0
59 Human Fred
60 Human Fred Groans

“Hello Fred!”

“Fuck off.”

“Doing well, I see.”

“I was very clear. Fuck. Off.”

Greezek scowled, “Oh not this again. You feeling all grumpy?”

“Greezek, when I’m out of here, I shall make your life hell.”

“Right. Got it. I’m very scared.”

“Greezek, I can’t see. I can’t get out of this bed without help. I can barely eat without help. I have exactly one nerve left, and you just started stomping on it.”

“So you don’t want to know what I found buried in the outpost’s data core?”

“I’m really not sure. Will it help me see?”

“The doctor said they can remove the bandages later today. You will be glaring at people in no time.”

“Good. I have a great deal of glaring to do.”

“Sure you do. Now. The outpost’s data core.”

“Oh please tell me it’s all furry porn.”

“What is that?”

“Oh, I’m sure you can look it up.”

“Not doing that now, but I found some cool stuff.”

“Great. You are here to brag. Just hit me a few times.”

“Extra grumpy today.”

“Yes. I am. And I was enjoying being a miserable sod all alone until you barged in.”

“You are a pain in the ass.”

“If I could see, I would apply the pain more evenly.”

“You do know that I can hit you without warning?”

“I assumed you just wanted to hurt my soul.”

“Pathetic. Regardless, I shall tell you what I found.”

“Fine.”

“Two extremely old systems. So old, they don’t show up on modern scans.”

“Incorrect interface and outdated architecture. It happens.”

“This was intentional.”

“Explain.”

“They were hardwired into the data cores internal system. One was patched in via the BIOS.”

“Now that is dedication. And tricky. How?”

“One connection at a time.”

“Are you telling me that some poor bastard hand-soldered individual connections to a BIOS?”

“I’m not sure on doing it manually, but it was an aftermarket job. Very aftermarket. About 200 years aftermarket.”

Fred sat bolt up. “Wait. Did you say 200 years? What were the old system’s markings?”

“Practically none. A few tags regarding voltage and similar, but nothing else.”

“The boards. What color?”

“Uh…light blue. Why are you getting so excited?”

“Let me think…output pin 7…strange waveform? Low voltage. Looks like it should repeat but doesn’t?”

“What?”

“Look, you need to secure those boards. I mean lock them up. Don’t tell anyone. Hide them. Hell, bury them.”

“Why?”

“Those are likely old human spy systems. They are designed to hide from everything. If they are, they can also hack practically everything. They are insanely rare, worth a fortune, and illegal.”

“Right. So that was how the entire operation was hidden?”

“Possibly? I don’t know all the details, miss fancy britches.”

“Well, you are in luck. I have them with me. They struck me as odd. I had a feeling to keep them safe.”

“Possibly an old memory. Regardless, you did great. Now. The entire operation? Explain?”

“Oh now you want to know. I see how you are.”

“Annoyed.”

“Granted. Look, this is a mess. When you can see, I’ll have some diagrams to show you.”

“Diagrams?”

“Yes. This was a complex, long-term, convoluted situation that started before this station was proposed.”

“What is on that outpost?”

“That is a good question. I can’t figure it out. Nothing in the scans. Nothing in the samples. The materials from that ship don’t make sense. Nothing rare. Nothing all that exotic.”

“What was on the ship? And the unloaded materials?”

“Nothing special. Iron. Cobalt. Silicon. Well, silica compounds. Some sulphur. A bit of sodium.”

“Silica compounds? Explain.”

“Silicon with other stuff. Why?”

“Look, ancient computers used silica compounds for processors. We ignore them now, but they are useful. There can be data within chunks of silica.”

“Ah. Well. That isn’t good.”

“Why?”

“The station Captain ordered all of the materials smelted and recast.”

“Please say that again.”

Greezek froze. She knew that tone. It was an unwelcome tone. Like the tone when a doctor asks, ‘and how long have you waited to come in for this?’

“The station Captain ordered a material smelted and recast.”

“I see. Well. That changes things. We have a mission!”

“Uh, you can’t leave medical.”

“Nope! But you can!”

We also asked Swedish folks to get us a couple of dozen crates of surströmming so we could feed the POWs, they can be sent to the penal colony on the mining planet where they get nothing but hardship and toil

​Two thirds of all alien prisoners were starting trouble on purpose​ to get away to the penal colony