“Humanity doesn’t make a good argument for being human”

Unmarked spoilers, utttered by Halimede, the one from the game

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There’s a single overriding thought in my mind as we drive into the city proper and it is simply ‘please please please don’t start killing everyone please I don’t want to do this’ as Typh-Ea alerts me to all of the little things that I simply would have never cared to know. 

We pass by a series of densely forested hills and just as I start to think about walking across it, my feet planed on the firm but yielding soil as the gentle leaf cover above cuts off the harsh sunlight on my brow, my whole body suddenly spasms in place as Typh-Ea interjects with, “There’s a missile battery hidden underneath that one,” and my vision shifts to that of our giant form kicking through a hill, the sound of countless missiles detonating in our wake as we leap to and fro, reducing human lives into shrapnel.

The moment passes and I’m left breathing in and out, in and out as the driver shoots me a weird look from the rearview mirror. And she’s still side-eyeing me later when I end up jostling against her seat a little while trying to snag a picture of a mountain we’re driving through. Only for the beauty of its untouched nature to be ruined again by Typh-Ea cutting in to say “There’s a couple more dotted throughout that mountain, some of them aren’t even hidden properly and the whole thing is rigged to collapse the bridge at a moment’s notice,” causing me to twitch and fumble the amazing telescopic camera phone (chipped, tracking me at all times, yet another reason to conquer her) Salome gave me onto our driver’s lap.

And of course, the extremely helpful, “Oh you have railguns by now, that’s… cute,” as my attention is suddenly yanked away from the very real and very expensive and new seeming anti ship defense system we were driving in the general viscinity of (barrels pointed down, show of submission? Funny!) to the thought of myself/Typh-Ea yanking one out from its housing and using it as a spear to lance through another’s ammo bay which doesn’t explode because railguns are dishonorable stupid coward weapons that barely hurt even when they’re good anyway.

I can’t help but wonder who this is all for though, I mean we know we’re not alone in the universe now but construction at this scale doesn’t just happen overn-a thought comes to mind, a clip from an international news show cutting me off, ”’A controversial partnership between the Dilmun Concern, its former subsidiary of Magan Agricultural, and fellow council member Allbetter Group to stockpile food, train their populace and fortify their cities against the threat of a potential hostile landing by TAU-’ What’s the TAU?”

She wracks my brain trying to explain it before I can even say anything and she traces the vague recollections of modern history classes and half imagined podcasts and somewhat understood essays into its root and-

A room? I’m in a… oh God yeah this was uhhh, first year of classes at college and I’m a little drunk because… I don’t actually remember why but we’re laying in the little couch we had and its after one of the history classes right? I’m asking my roommate Aliyah about why she’s so good at them, when she’s not even majoring in it because I’m you know, trying to get my scores up and convince her to help me out, and she tells me it’s because her family are actually refugees right? I didn’t know it then but she’s like… Third Wave USC? And she did a lot of growing up on the ship that carried her over, a lot of growing up, food and water was limited, everyone was tense and angry and grieving and it just did not get better, years and years waiting for damage they can’t repair to finally turn fatal, or for people to riot and struggle to turn back and all that time her mother was-that’s in the past now okay? Aliyah sees the expression on my face and tells me that’s all in her past and she’s trying to move on, she’s doing her best to move on now that she’s here, but what can they move on to you know? Her people she means, and us as well but you know what she means, like, what sort of future can we make here if all the stories we have to tell each other are about the homes we’ve lost? The hardships we’ve suffered? The horrors we’ve endured at the hands of the fascist fucking pig rapist TAU soldiers who would gas or tear apart entire homes(=orbital colony) just for not submitting to thei-oh no.

Typh-Ea pulls away but I can feel something of her still, a hint of excitement, it feels like a belly full of fire and sounds like a heart pounding away loud enough that I worry everyone else could hear and I just know that she’s scraping the net for reports of TAU atrocity after atrocity after… she bumps into a single recurring word in particular, ‘soldier’, and lets out something angry sounding in a language I do not recognize before she leaves me alone again with my thoughts.

I am left shuddering, staring out at the grand glass and vine covered facade of the branch office finally materializing in the distance, giving me barely a moment to breathe before something snaps into mind as soon as I spot an armed guard waving gently at us near the front entrance.

‘All soldiers are cucks.’