Decolonial Marines
The Warden sat in interstellar space, listening. Solar bursts of distant suns, lightning strikes on far-off gas giants, and the constant off-key wail of magnetic fields pinged her antennas and receiving dishes as her crew analyzed the incoming noise.
“Ma’am, we’ve have two nuclear fusion signals from a Garden Planet in the Southern Spire.”
The Warden’s Captain turned in her command chair to look at her science officer. “Any chance it’s indigenous?”
“Negative, ma’am. The last survey census showed only two social species with tool making capabilities, one aquatic, one avian, nothing remotely close to atomic power.”
The Navigation officer spoke up. “It’s only a few light years from the Khalannk home system, ma’am.”
“Fleet disposition?”
“We’re the closest Reclamator-class vessel.”
The Captain ran a hand over her face. “Ah. Okay. Navigation, point us that way. Comms, notify Command we’re on mission.” She pressed the comm button on her chair, “Engineering, full sail for the Southern Spire.”
***
As her ship slid silently back into real space, The Captain asked to see the Garden Planet on the main viewer. It sat like a shiny marble on velvet, blue and green white all held in a fragile beauty. But this beauty was marred by a large grey Khalannk generation ship in orbit and smoke could be seen darkening the white clouds from below.
“Cloak and shields up. That’s a big ship. Tactical, how did we miss that?”
“She’s non-nuclear, ma’am. Scanners say she’s got ion thrusters as main engines.”
Several bridge officers made low sounds – quick math suggested there would have to have been several dozen generations that lived and died during the crossing from Khalannk.
“What a waste,” muttered the Captain. Louder, “Are we able to scan any individuals yet? How far off Khalannk index are they.”
“Yes, ma’am. They appear to be within one standard deviation. They also appear to still be using an electro-neural network implant for communications and efficiency, same as on Khalannk,” the science officer said, giving a small smile.
The Captain relaxed visibly. “That will make this much easier, then. Here’s the operation.”
***
Silent and cloaked, The Warden slid up alongside the massive generation ship.
“Tactical, confirm they haven’t spotted us?”
“Yes, ma’am. No change in disposition.”
“Excellent. Comms, jam their hive network.”
The Comms officer pressed a button. For a moment nothing happened. Then, watching on the viewer, it seemed to the Captain that the Khalannk ship started to list.
“Is that thi-”
“Ma’am, her orbit has started to decay,” Tactical advised.
The Captain looked at her officer. “Get a tractor beam on it! Why is this happening?”
“They may have integrated their network with the artificial systems?” Science offered. “Or they’ve scavenged central computing for the colony and they were maintaining orbit manually? Maybe somebody slumped into the controls when we turned off their brains.”
Tactical: “Our tractor beam is not going to keep this thing up. It’s going to break up in the atmosphere and impact the surface.”
The Captain was silent. Finally “Can we point that wreck at their colony?”
“Ma’am?”
“If we sacrifice a pod, we can use its tractor beam to nudge this thing where we want it?”
Science: “Yes ma’am. And I can extend the pod’s shield to try to minimize debris spread. Clean up may be less messy.”
“Do it.”
***
The sky of the Garden Planet lit up as the Khalannk ship passed overhead, seemingly in a straight line towards the landscape scar that denoted the colony. The few Khalannk who hadn’t been completely lobotomized when their implants burnt out watched The Ancestral Voyage fall nose first into their new home, watched generations of life and labour disappear in a massive fireball.
The Warden had followed the descent from a safe distance, operating the pilot drone by remote.
“Shields and tractor failed about 500 metres from the surface, ma’am, so debris spread is not inconsiderable,” reported Tactical.
“To be expected, under the circumstances,” the Captain said. “Navigation, park us 2 klicks over the site.”
“Ma’am.”
“Launch two resequencers, get that work started.” She pressed another button on her chair. “Lieutenant?”
“Ma’am?” crackled the response.
“I need three squads of your marines on the surface. Two monitoring the resequencers and one on sweep and clear.”
“Ma’am.”
***
Command’s holo circle lit up as the Captain stepped into it. She waited an interminable instant as the quantuum radio re-entangled with particles back home. Presently, the Admiral appeared.
“Report.” The sound was metallic, like in a metal stairway.
“We have rectified the Khalannk incursion on the Southern Spiral Garden Planet. We were able to resequence about 90% of their biomass and structures into indigenous flora species, the remaining 10% of foreign elements are on-board the Warden for transport to Central.”
“Aftermath?”
“Crashing their generation ship meant for a longer cleanup. We found a hidden complex several hundred miles from the main colony site and briefly met resistance from armed colonists before we jammed them. Inside we found evidence the Khalannk had been trying to install their network implant into the indigenous avian tool-making species. We believe they were unsuccessful and we did not find any locals with implants but we’ve left a jamming and reconnaissance satellite in orbit.”
“Anomalies?”
“They have traveled in a non-nuclear propulsion generation ship. This suggests they are aware of some predation on their colony efforts, and for some time. This is a new tactic from them that will make detection more difficult. However, even after thirty five generation in a metal box, they were still using the same network implant technology.”
“Strong culture response. We know this about the Khalannk. It’s part of both their drive to colonize and their refusal to communicate.”
“This is the sixth of their colonies I’ve personally scraped off a Garden World. Do you think they’ll ever figure it out?”
The Admiral paused, then sighed. “Ultimately it doesn’t matter. The diversity of methods of life must be encouraged. The places where life springs forth on its own must be protected from space-faring species. They have their home systems. They can have all the lifeless rocks and gas giants they want. We will protect the rest.”