Personally, I think I was one of the first ones to realize that the humans would not lose the subjugation war. To be clear - I didn’t think they had any hope to win it either, despite their apparent stubborness in the face of overwhelming odds.

Let me elaborate.

I am an Esaporansi soldier. In case you don’t know; it means I was literally born to kill. And that happened right after the humans were discovered for the first time. They were found to be a space-colonizing, but FTL-incapable civilization. Which is not unusual for species developing in the outer spiral arms I heard. The stable and long-lived suns there don’t produce the materials necessary to circumvent the constraints of this universe.

As was usual for such discoveries, immediately afterwards multiple of the well-established civilizations and some smaller multi-species factions contended with each other for the right to subjugate the human civilization for whatever they could offer. You surely know the way these things go.

A hastily thrown together coalition, which the Esaporansi attached themselves to, eventually won the rights for the humans. It was partly because someone in there came up with a pre-established claim on the territory - even if it was somewhat dubious.

No matter.

A war was about to happen. I was born. I was trained. And I was sent thousands of lightyears towards the humans with the utterly incompetently put together first wave of attack.

You see - going to war requires a big investment of resources and a long time for preparation. The Esaporansi were allowed into the coalition because they promised to cut down both with being able to create multiple hundreds of thousands of soldiers such as me on short notice and they also provided a small number of long distance FTL-capable spaceships.

The coalition planned to move quickly, as they didn’t know if their claim on that newly discovered civilization would hold up for long. So this offer appeared to be perfect - they threw some more ships and troops, and then had a fighting force ready.

But there is a third thing going to war requires, and that is knowledge. Also having experienced strategists would be very useful, even though not strictly necessary. The coalition didn’t have much of either. That’s why they banked on their more advanced technology to swiftly steamroll what they estimated to be little resistance from the humans while leaving everything non-military mostly intact. It was to be their property after all.

I was there. That was not how it went. First of all, our anchor ship - which should have provided us with a way to tunnel back for communication and possibly temporary retreat - failed before we even arrived. Back then, that didn’t concern me. I was trained to kill, but I was also trained to throw my life away if needed. Of course there were individuals from other coalition members among the spaceship crews and soldiers that saw this differently, and to say that they weren’t happy about it would be a massive understatement.

The plan was forced along by the local commanding elements regardless. Demands were proclaimed by the coalition forces and refused by the humans. War was declared. Some skirmishes happened. It turned out there was indeed barely any military resistance coming from the humans, at least in open space and around off-world colonies. So we went straight for the killing blow. To their home planet.

Earth.

Dumb name for a planet which has a surface mostly covered in water, I know. Funnily enough, even the few land-masses there have large swaths of land that is uninhabitable. It did mean that their people were densely packed wherever there were population centers. Ideal for bombardement in case of refusal to surrender.

That was not the first step of course. Because, you know, property damage. After having established full orbital superiority, the commanders repeated the coalition’s demands. Which the humans refused still - despite their few ground-to-orbit weapons demonstrably being rendered useless by our defensive systems.

It was then decided to do a show of force. Make them bleed a little. But remember - no property damage. So they sent me down. And a few hundred thousand others.

I hope you are familiar with analogies, because I am about to use one; my sisters and I were swordsmen in full plate armor going after unarmed peasants. We had no problem with taking over a whole city and reducing its population to a fraction we took as prisoners. We slapped down their immediate retaliatory strikes with barely any losses.

Then the commanders repeated the demands. And the humans refused still.

The decision was made to wait for the second wave and the ability to communicate back home which they would bring with them. And we held the city in the meantime. There were some incidents with overlooked resistance elements and one large and well-coordinated military offense we had to repel, but neither was particularly concerning and made only a small dent into our numbers.

When the second wave of coalition forces arrived they didn’t even have an anchor ship among their fleet. They did however bring much needed supplies and more soldiers at least. Also the good news that the third wave would embark sooner.

I want to get back to my analogy. You remember - we were the armored swordsmen and they were the peasants fighting with their fists.

But.

The peasants can nonetheless manage to overwhelm and throw down a swordsman if they try desperately enough. And then they have a sword. You see where this is going, yes?

During a nightly bad weather event, I was incapacitated - nearly killed actually - by a small force of humans using a bastardized version of one of our own anti-personell weapons. Then they took me prisoner. That was the moment I knew we would not win this war.

What then happened I learned after the fact - the third and ultimately final wave sent by the coalition did bring another anchor ship. But it failed exactly the same way as the one from my wave had done. Something about the peculiarity of space or energy there, I’m not too sure. That the coalition should have known about it beforehand is all I care about.

So there were we, over a million Esaporansi soldiers and a mix of other species and military functions that amounted to nearly a hundred thousand more. Practically stranded in the star system of the humans.

Let me get back to what I said about the first wave; it was incompetently put together. So were the next two. While the coalition had sent firepower in spades, they did not think of also sending the equipment to establish a long-term foothold. No resource mining. No fabrication of spare parts. No food production. No proper medical facilities.

And, as you know, that coalition of idiots then crumbled into pieces in the disputes over sending more ships somewhere they hadn’t heard back from. Naturally, the fight for the rights to overtake the humans broke out again - I heard there was some actual fighting even. But what all of it ultimately meant was that there were no reinforcements or supplies coming for us. Which everyone, our forces and the humans, noticed eventually.

I knew that property damage wouldn’t be a concern for long if this subjugation war suddenly was about raw survival. I told the humans that. And you know what they did? They tried diplomacy. They bartered with the fleet commanders for their captured civilians. They offered me and other prisoners. They offered food. They offered medical supplies. All of it was refused. Instead the commanders decided to level one of our own prisoner camps from orbit along with any of my comrades that had the misfortune of being selected for guard duty - probably in some deranged plan to put more pressure on the humans.

So - soldiers are not supposed to think. And Esaporansi soldiers aren’t supposed to do anything but fight and die, the latter preferably while fighting. So where did the time to do a good long reflection on things leave me and some few hundred that were held captive by the humans? I can tell you that it left us feeling betrayed and very angry.

I knew that my sisters-in-arms were created to become cannon fodder- a sacrificial fighting force to be thrown against whatever command deemed necessary to kill without losing real troops. And in the case of severe injury we weren’t supposed to be retrieved, we were to be replaced.

I knew all that.

That’s why the face of the human that saved my life will be forever etched into my mind. They dragged me from the open street while the walls around us were pelted with gunfire. And there in the dark alley, while the rain came down so hard that my blood washed away as quickly as it poured from my wounds, they hastily ripped open packets of medical supplies to treat me. They were using supplies meant for their own forces to save an enemy's life.

Because their medics are there to treat soldiers. Any soldiers. Even ones that knew that their own lives were worthless.

As they retreated from the city, they carried not only me with them. All that wasn’t a selfless act of course - some humans speaking my language questioned me while I was recovering from the first round of advanced medical treatment. At first I thought I was supposed to resist the interrogation. But since I was also supposed to die and didn’t, I gave them the information they wanted. And eventually, more than that.

Ah, now you worry about why I am here.

Most of you don’t have to. Most of you are not an issue. Though the fleet commanders were one we had to deal with decisively. Let’s just say, they will never again be able to make the decision to sacrifice my sisters or anyone else. They actually won’t be able to make any more decisions, really.

So there were we, over a million Esaporansi soldiers and a now slightly smaller number of others which was still close to a hundred thousand individuals. We were invaders. We killed countless. And we had nothing to give but the plea for supplies so we wouldn’t starve. I won’t say what followed was a straightforward thing, because it wasn’t. The humans had every reason to hate us. They could easily have told us then and there to leave their system to die on the sublight trip to another. I personally hoped that they would show enough mercy to allow us to fend for ourselves on one of the hard-surface moons orbiting the large further out planets.

They debated amongst themselves for a long time before coming back with an offer;

Stay.

And become one of them.

So that was it - the war just fizzled out without fanfare. After some diplomatic and non-diplomatic bumps - like I said, straightforward it wasn’t - the more than a million former coalition troops came down to Earth not as invaders, but citizens. Naturally, it wasn’t a warm welcome and we all tried for forgiveness by helping to rebuild the city we had destroyed. It also meant recovering and properly putting to rest their dead which - I must admit - filled me with more regret than I thought I was capable of feeling.

Despite many factions of the humans remaining bitter about our presence, if not outright hostile, we were given shelter, clothes, food and access to any public facilities. All that wasn’t a selfless act of course. To go back to my analogy for the last time - the peasant with the sword. If you give the peasant some time, they could deduce how the sword can be recreated. Given proper motivation and knowledge about the matter, they could perhaps also learn to improve it.

I can tell you that the humans are nothing but motivated. And we gave them everything. You see, that’s how we were able to make it back. It’s how we not only bypassed all of your defenses, but also came straight into the heart of your government without any resistance. And it’s how I can now stand here to tell you this;

You won’t ever send your forces into human space again. And you better think twice about seeking out other civilizations only to enslave them, because you might well find that the humans have reached them before you.

I hope that the Esaporansi government does not feel left out now - we will spare you a visit shortly for a message we have to deliver personally. After all, your military leadership and what they are doing is an issue.

I will leave you with these parting words; I have a home now. As do my sisters. Do not tempt us, we are very eager to make good on all the hurt we have caused our fellow humans, and we are born to kill.