My take on the sleeping giants... enjoy.

Quorum of War

The Shant Director of War watched as the last of the enemy ships burned in the vacuum of space. He whistled a dirge to himself as he watched an entire species fall, a people too dangerous to be allowed to live amongst the fearful creatures he guarded. His aides and crew stood silently as they awaited their orders. He nodded to his Armsman, “We obey. Burn their world and may the Goddess keep them safe in their next moulting.”

In silence, his ships let loose the worst his people had to offer, offences against the goddess and a horror to all. The crew watched in silence as the missiles approached the blue and white marble hanging in space. His crest widened when the counter-fire from the planet managed to destroy so many of his assets but it was stilled by the knowledge that no planet can defend against an army that holds space. Within moments his fire began to strike, cruel nightmares that ignited the atmosphere and shattered the world itself. In less than an hour, the fiery inferno and dust storms had wiped the planet clean of five-billion years of history and rendered it to bedrock.

Out of the flame, a hiss against the rage of a burning world came a transmission. He was ready to ignore it as just another pointless plea for mercy until it called his name.

“Director of War.

Murderer.

We are dead and we will not see our revenge. We have sins that you never saw, evils we hid from you and buried in our darkest history. Today we will let them loose upon you and the cowards that sent you like a knife in the dark. You have killed us so at least we will not be here to answer for our sins. You were afraid? We will show you fear.”

Something loomed into the transmission, a grey creature, a thing of metal. Its eyes were just dark holes and its face was hidden or warped by the armour it wore. “We will see you soon, Director.”

He swore to himself. Of course, these lunatics had a weapon, they lived by inflicting death every day. He froze his voice and issued orders that his people had never given before.

“It is not sufficient. I want the planet broken, we will continue to fire. Nothing of these people can be allowed to stand. We remain on full alert until I am certain that nothing remains.”

His thousand-strong fleet, every ally and co-conspirator, paused briefly before resuming fire on the burning planet. It seemed perverse to many of them, beating a ruined corpse but they continued the rain of destruction until the planet itself surrendered as his missiles breached the core itself and returned the planet to a molten ball glaring at him with hate. He had watched silently as his people added crime to crime, piling evil on evil. One more last and final sin to be done. “I want that moon sent into the remains of the planet, who knows what they have hidden there?”

As his first weapons struck they were met with silence. Then the moon seemed to glow, an ominous orange that quickly became a dark red. Then the moon shattered into millions of parts, a glittering rain of particles swiftly turning dark in the cold of space. He looked at his Armsman, “Was that us?”

The Armsman looked at the numbers, “Director, I have no idea...we didn’t...I’ve never used these weapons before. Probably?”

The Director watched as the hours passed, as the debris from the moon fell inwards towards the expanding ball of molten rock that had been a planet filled with life. He had seen enough. He turned to his crew, “Stand down and take us home. We have done our duty and we will probably be cursed for it but I never want to see this system again. Get us out of here.”

------

The Director stayed in his cabin and continued writing his reports. So far eleven of his ships had self-destructed for a mix of reasons, mostly guilt and some fearing the response of the dead. He knew his own people were not the type but his allies were...well, gutless. They had destroyed the humans out of fear and now they had discovered that fear is a deep well with no bottom. Now they were afraid of ghosts, as the human’s last transmission had filtered quietly out to the fleet. A simple transmission and they were terrified. Fools. Dead is dead and no one has ever been as dead as the humans.

--------

Within the Oort cloud surrounding the burning world, the shattered remains of the moon waited for the enemy to leave. It made no attempt to rescue the broken remains of the mining ships that had tried to defend the fallen world. It had other priorities.

Slowly they began building a connection with home, a summons and a report that would bring retribution for a crime. It had sent the warning and now it would let humanity fall upon its unexpected enemies. Space is dark and always ready to kill you and soon they would be the face of that darkness.

Far across space, deep in the unexplored edges of a spiral arm, a light dimmed and briefly died, then revived with an ominous red colour. The AI responsible for monitoring the systems immediately began reporting the loss of a distant colony and old weapons stirred in their uneasy sleep.

Sol Guardian, AI Alert Signal:

“Quantum locked beacon on colony 30,900 A has reported an Extinction Level Event. Reports of hostile Xeno action and all inhabitants lost. Planet and moon base destroyed.

Nanite constructors are currently en route to the local Oort cloud to prepare a response.

Monitoring is ongoing. I recommend a support fleet be deployed.”

The creature studying the report was vaguely human-shaped but wreathed in restless metal, a skin that never stopped moving, breaking into obscure patterns as he absorbed the details. His humanity was still sufficient to allow him to mourn the loss of so many children, so many brave souls that had risked everything to continue the great adventure of the human race. He summoned his peers.

“This is Commander Silver Wisp, I regret to report that one of our children’s planets has been destroyed. It was clearly an attempt at genocide. They must be considered lost.”

The faces around him were equally strange, human now only in name and the ability to interbreed. The only rule that held the disparate mutations and alterations together as a people. One allowed tears to roll down her oaken face, startling white eyes peering out from beneath a dusting of green lashes, “Who would do such a thing? Did we engage in some hostile act?”

Silver Wisp shook his head, the patterns swirling quickly across his face, “They were a First-Days colony, seeking out our beginnings on a new world. They took little technology with them and only the bare minimum of medical adaptation. Even our beacon was exiled to their moon. No threat to any space-faring race.” He softened his voice, the People of the Forests were very sentimental and easily upset. Especially if you threatened their arboreal planets.

“Ambassador Rowan, we will seek out justice. I called you to ask permission to send a response.”

One of the other members stirred at that, this one whose humanity had been adjusted for the ice-moons, one of the few types that had almost entirely given up on breathing save for occasional speech. Commander Wisp waited patiently while the man constructed a painful sentence, “Response permitted. Memorial will be built, ice will sing for the lost.” Then he fell silent, apparently exhausted by the effort.

Ambassador Rowan’s green eyebrows rose and fell at that. She had never heard one of the ice dwellers make such a long speech before. Although their strange culture was famed for its ice music, it was entirely instrumental in form.

Another voice spoke, one closer in form to the Commander, save that its body was plated in what looked like fine mail rather than liquid metal. It was obviously in a gravity-free environment, “Permission granted. We must mourn the dead and seek justice. I take it you didn’t call me without an actual plan?”

Commander Wisp nodded. “Of course. I intend to take my fleet and see what happened. If I may flatter myself, I am certain that I can obtain justice for our loss and the murder of a world.”

That created a moment’s surprise from the others. The Old-Fleets tended to avoid the far points of human space, reluctant to engage with unprepared Xenos. They were...fearsome. Humanity preferred to let the scientists, rovers, explorers and traders find their way out there. They said they weren’t diplomats, they were the reason for diplomats.

Commander Wisp smiled briefly as he looked around, “So we are agreed? I will find justice.”

Each of the council nodded and signed their people’s support. A quorum of war was established and the mission approved. Ambassador Rowan added a final comment, “Recover their names if you can, I will grow them a forest, a silent place for their spirits to rest if they come home. Fair sailing Commander.”

==============================================================

My Patreon, if anyone wants to support my writing... You can drop into my channel at Discord or buy me a coffee. This series is at part seven on Patreon. Just saying.