After the crushing defeat marking the end to the 2. Human-Illirian War the United Illirian Planets disbanded Humanity’s military forces leaving only intra-system police and customs crafts as well as, after long protests by the Solarian temporary government, one warship to guard Voyager 1, continuing a 500-year-long tradition.
The following decades saw Humanity’s integration into the Council of Species, helped along by massive economic aids, in a large part from the UIP turning these old enemies into close economic allies.
150 years later the Council of Species faces a threat unlike any before.
“And now to the last item on today’s agenda, proposal 54748, the reactivation of Humanity’s military forces, brought forward by the United Illirian Planets. First, let’s hear First Speaker Ullioid of the United Illirian Planets.”
“Thank you, president. With the enemy closing in from the galactic center we need any military forces possible to fight back. Leaving an economic power as huge as the Solarian Republic untapped is simply bad strategy. Our Human friends have shown their trustworthiness and honor over the last century. We believe it is time to remove the last traces of a conflict long over and let them fight on our side in this new conflict.”
“Thank you, First Speaker. Now let us discuss… Yes, King Kaskart the 110th.”
“Thank you, president. I don’t see how granting the Humans the right to create their own military will bring us any benefit so late into the war, the…”
“It is hardly late yet! The war may as well continue…”
“The Humans can’t be trusted. 150 years aren’t nearly enough time to…”
“Please return to order. Let King…”
For the next hours the Council of Species descended into controlled chaos. At any given point, multiple voices could be heard trying to be louder than the next, yet never too many for a careful listener to gather all the major points.
After the discussion quieted down, the president took the word again. “Now that everyone could voice their thoughts, let us hear the ones this affects most. If you would, President Josef Schmidt of the Solarian Republic.”
“Thank you, president. First let me thank the United Illirian Planets for the trust placed in us in the name of all Solarian Citizens and all other Humans scattered across council space. It is hard to explain how proud and happy we are to be seen as friends and allies after all the atrocities in our shared past. For the future, all we wish for is to prosper together with all other members of the Council of Species. Letting us help in the war will surely be remembered as a historic point marking a new era of cooperation by all our descendants.”
“Thank you, President. Some of our council members have expressed concerns about your loyalty towards the council once the war is over.”
“The Solarian Republic is not the same as the United Nations of Earth in our history books. The Solarian Republic was part of the Council of Species since its foundation and will stay till its end!”
“Thank you. There are concerns about the strategic gains in the current war by creating additional drain on our resources by creating a whole new military.”
“Supplying existing forces takes, of course, priority over creating new forces, however, we have large ship building and refitting capabilities, which, while unable to build true warships, will be able to produce a fleet of armed transports to make sure our supplies will reach your forces at the front line. And let’s not forget our sole warship Mountain guarding Voyager 1, which ended up quite large since we only have one.”
“Thank you, President. The council will now commence the first vote.”
One almost (the Tertretan people are undisputed masters of holding grudges) unanimous vote later near Argos IV.
The rail gun ship Moon Lancer, Royal Kaskart Navy, shook rhythmically every ten seconds, firing its twenty rails one after the other into the nearly empty void. Moon Lancer was far behind the actual battlefield along the orbit of Argos V, a gas giant not unlike Jupiter, coordinating the frantic efforts to keep the enemy at bay until the evacuation of the inner planets would be finished.
Officer Kertrek, Long range Sensor Station 2.
“Another 8 Drops, 5 light hours, in plane, 65°. 2 battleship size, 6 cruiser. Designate Zeta 5. Heading towards Argos VI.”
“Hah, lucky guy!”, came from behind him.
“What?”
“You got number 1000!”, his colleague Officer Brekun, Long range sensor station 1, shouted over the thump signaling another titanium round leaving the ship.
“Didn’t Senkrat get the thousandth?”
“Nah, identification, just one battleship, not 5 Transports. Hey, think we reach 2000?”
“I bet they have enough ships for that. Just hope… Wait.”
Kertrek reached over to the microphone activator, “Another drop, 4 light hours, in plane, 350°. Moon size, wait, what?! Oh. Oh Fuck. Correction, one planet size. Designate Zeta 6. Heading towards Argus IV.” Click.
“The fuck is planet size?”
“Too big for moon!”
“There’s no upper limit for moon!”
“Radius of over 6000km?”
“Fuck! That large? Guess that works.”
“Great, now let… Oh no.”
Click, “Counting dozens of new objects around Zeta 6. Battleship size. Same trajectory.” Click.
“Bridge to LRS 2, confirm planet size object heading towards Argus IV.”, sounds from Kertreks terminal.
Click, “Confirming planet size object heading towards Argus IV. Object is accelerating. Over 100 Battleship size on same trajectory.” Click.
“Hah, bridge doesn’t believe it either. You sure… Ah, wait.”, Click, “Five drops…”
The flag bridge had descended into utter madness, a planet-sized object accelerating under its own power with any meaningful speed wasn’t just unheard of; it was generally considered physically impossible.
During the chaos, Communications Officer Perham was busy organizing the patrols screening the evacuation transports when the computer forwarded a message to her terminal:
“This is Captain Arthur of the warship Mountain, Solarian Navy. You’ve probably spotted us already, it’s the moving planet. Chuckles We have one warship with more firepower than most moon defense bases and 200 battleship sized fighters. How can we be of assistance?”
A surprisingly short battle later on a secure channel between admiral Krigsten of the RKN and captain Arthur of the SN.
“So tell me, where you got that thing and a whole fleet to accompany it? Until two weeks ago you had no navy at all.”
“Ah, but we don’t have a fleet; this is just our single warship guarding Voyager 1. For the time being, we simply entrusted local law enforcement with keeping it safe.”
“Pretty sure that’s way past a warship.”
“But it is one, we have followed galactic law by the letter: ‘Humanity may guard their historic probe Voyager 1 with a single warship, which may deploy a maximum of 200 fighters.’ Mountain is a warship as defined by the council. ‘A warship is a starship primarily built for military actions’ and a starship being ‘any fully artificial structure capable of independent maneuvering at sublightspeed as well as in hyperspace.’”
“You want to tell me that is not a planet you covered under a kilometer of steel but an actual steel planet?”
“Yeah, makes the initial construction a bit harder, but the payoff is so worth it. Want to know the size of our primary reactor?”
“No, I’m good.”
“It’s larger than your flagship. And we have over ten.”
“Ugh. Thanks.”
“Haven’t told you about our fighters yet.”
“No need to, I’m getting the picture.”
“Turns out, by council definition, you can turn everything into a fighter by removing the hyperspace drive and placing the hangar on a military installation.”
“Are you done?”
“You want to hear more?”
“No.”
“Then yes.”
“Great.”
“We had built a second one in case we needed a replacement. It’ll be here in a week.”
One of my favorites I posted over on r/hfy before.
Never leave humans a loophole!
RulesAsWritten,not as intended