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amollion · 1 month

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Newcomers Final

By normal pre Celestrial Human standards the city of Potellan was over a weeks march but their new bodies made the march faster and Jenkins ordered a forced march where the entire armer jogged. Their strides were massive by ordinary standards and they traversed the distance to Potellan at such a speed that even Hopoln was shocked. He had known they were coming, moving such a massive force was impossible to keep secret and within a hour the defenders of Potellan were manning their posts.

It took the Humans 3 days to reach Potellan, their Benemar allies could not keep pace so they rode in the transports. They approached like the armies of their ancestors before gunpowder had been invented, in rank and file and as a massive horde ready to storm the citadel. The Humans way of fighting had changed along with their bodies and minds, they now preferred to fight at close quarters, maybe it was the Gal part of them that yearned to face their enemy face to face. Or maybe because the Benemar always out gunned them and the Humans only major advantage was their superior strength and speed. Whatever the reason the Humans war gear now reflected that mindset, although still armed with a rifle they were primarily armed for close combat. They halted just outside the range of the cities massive defensive guns and stood there immobile as if an army of statues. They were within the Link, no Human was really thinking for themselves at this point, it was a powerful mindset that made them act as a single entity rather than a million individuals. The Gal's major advantage was now theirs.

Hopoln looked at the massive force arrayed against them and smiled, he had been planning for their arrival for months and now everything was in place. He had no fear of the Humans and their new weapons and bodies. Geedol his old rival may have failed but he will succeed in defeating these creatures. Looking out with his binoculars were watched as the Humans simply stood there looking over the vast distance to the City's walls. Behind them he saw Benemar, not prisoners but traitors working with the Human and preparing the Humans artillery. Benemar were expert artillerymen, in the entire Alliance even among the Humans no other race could aim and fore a artillery with greater speed or accuracy than a Benamarian.

But something among all that black armour stood out, just ahead of the army was two Humans, one holding a white flag the other standing alone not far from him.

He knew what this was, it was the Humans way of calling a truce, they wanted to talk. Smiling he called for a transport.

Within a few minutes the gate was open and Hopoln was riding on top of the transport to meet the enemy commander, the wind was rough but he did adorn a helmet to protect himself as it would be a sign of weakness. The Human had begun walking towards him and he for the first time got a good look at these physical changes to the Humans.

They did not look Human at all, were these really the same ones who had landed all those months ago? Were these just hybrids?

The Human removed his helmet and revealed his face and Hopoln got down from the truck and walked to face him, neither had any guards with them.

Jenkins and Hopoln stood opposite each other and each regarded the other.

“I am Commander Jenkins”

“I am Hopoln protector of the city of Potellan and clan leader of the guard”

“You are not the Chieftain?”

“The High Chieftain dwell within this city, no other Chieftains are needed”

Jenkins nodded at this and Hopoln then noticed he had simply told this Humans that their leaders were within the city and cursed his lapse in judgement.

“I have over a million soldiers standing ready to take your city with Benemar allies who man our guns, we have air superiority and your city is and can be surrounded indefinitely. I urge you to surrender the city and these High Chieftains”

Hopoln said nothing and only stared at Jenkins for a long time, then smiled.

“You have less than half that, only 300.000 warriors at most are in your army, you had air superiority over Geeda but not here our anti air guns stand primed and our fighter craft ready. Surrounding this city would be pointless as this is a self sustaining city and we can stay within it's wall indefinitely. The city and their walls have never been breeched and they are manned by well over 2 million trained warriors who will die to defend it”

Jenkins looked at him, he was impressed that Hopoln had known much about his army and much of what he said was true, but he was still bound to give him the option.

“You have until midday tomorrow, when the sun it at it's highest to make your decision, he shall fire a blank shot to signal the deadline is close and at the sound of the second it is up. Hang a white flag from the highest point of the wall and we shall accept your surrender. None of the people or your warriors will be harmed, you will receive the same treatment that has happened in Geeda” Jenkins donned his helemt and turned to leave but stopped gave said one final thing “Remember, when the sun is at it's highest tomorrow”

Hopoln said nothing and returned to his truck and they both left.

Night fell, Golpan the clan leader of the Benemar forces of Geeda that were allied to the Humans walked among the Humans that were asleep, or so he thought they were. They all sat with their legs crossed and their hands on their knees, every single one of them. They were infact resting their bodies like one would sleep but they were speaking within the Link to one another. Discussing the day to come, talking of old times and contemplating how the battle may go. Some sent messages home less they fall in battle of which was a real possibility. Golpan walked among them almost awed that they could sleep in a such a manner, these were truly not the Humans he had fought against when defending Geeda. He in fact had come to respect them, not just their capabilities in war but their general mood towards it. They did not seek it but nor did they run from it, they simply saw it as a fact of life and a job to do to defend their home world. Many of those left on Bento had not known of the invasion of their home world and likely would not have until the victory was certain. One Human he did like was one called Hesky, he had an odd childish nature to him but could switch to a snarling mountain femton in a second. He had found it it was his mate or wife as they called them that he had fought on the roof of the barracks and who had bested him. He owed his life to her as he had lost the grip on his blade and it fell to the streets below. Humans loathed to slay an unarmed opponent she instead subdued him as a prisoner of war. He smiled, he liked these Humans but almost hated them for the damage they had wrought along the way across his world. Whole towns had been burned down and some populations simply vanished, maybe they ran or stood to fight to the last the Humans did not say. But he did have hope, hope in his new Chieftain of Geeda that these Humans could help bring a new and greater Bento to rise from the ashes of the old.

The dawn broke and as a single entity the Humans all awoke and stood up to begin eating their morning meals, none spoke with their flesh voices as they come to regard it as slow and almost inaccurate way of conveying meaning. The only clue they were even aware of each other was the facial expressions they pulled when they saw each other. They smiled, nodded and pulled expressions of surprise or shook their heads. All this but no vocal noises what so ever and their Benemar allies found it creepy as hell.

The sun continued to climb the sky and still no sign of the white flag above the city's walls was seen, Jenkins stood at the head of the army now arrayed and ready to attack waiting patiently. His watch beeped at the sound of it striking midday, the first blank shot was fired. Still no sign of the white flag. He did not truly expect Hopoln to surrender but he hoped that he would, beyond all rational hope he hoped. He delayed the firing of the second shot by one hour, then after that had come and gone he ordered it fired. Everyone heard the shot, those outside and within and they now knew that as of that moment.

The captial city of Bento Prime, Potellan was now under siege.

The Humans, now once more surrendered their motions and direction to that of Jenkins, sitting in his meditative state as they had during the night he could see through the eyes of all of them. His voice was now the only voice, their thoughts were his thoughts and should one see something he would become aware of it. They had trained in this form of fighting the entire time they were station in Geeda and it took a considerable amount of concentration on Jenkins part to achieve. The Humans armed themselves and placed their shields before them all in perfect unison. Now with a throaty cry they shouted at the city they were about to attack. The city responded with a war horn and the defenders shouted their own insults and cries at them and goaded them to attack them.

Hopoln alone stood silent as the Humans stood there watching, waiting for something. Then he saw it, flashes of light behind them and he knew.

“Incoming!” he screamed as the first artillery shells struck the wall followed by missiles, like any army before them the Humans munitions failed to breach or even damage the wall. But they were aiming for the top, trying to kill the defenders.

Then shouting together with their flesh voices, the Humans charged.

“Return fire, primary cannons!” Hopoln shouted and the order went down along the wall and the primary cannons moved forward to fire.

The cannons were massive constructs, usually such weapons were found on star ships but here they were on walls of cities, and almost useless. The Humans branched out expanding the space between them and these cannons were designed to fire on large targets not fire on infantry. The Humans Bastions were the only thing they could logically target. Still Hopoln ordered they fire, they made massive craters almost 20 feet in diameter killing all caught in the blast and even those standing what would be considered a safe distance. But the Humans charge did not stop.

“Secondary cannons!” Hopoln ordered and these more suited to infantry fired.

Hopoln had to admit he was impressed at how fast the Humans were approaching the wall, whatever change had be wrought upon them they seemed to almost leap across the ground rather than run.

“Rifles!”

The Humans were close now and he smiled, soon they would fall right into his trap. Mines, and a lot of them had been placed in front of the wall for more than a thousand yards. He watched and waited, but nothing, the Humans did not slow and they were now well within the minefield yet no mines were detonating.

What Hopoln did not know or even consider was that for months camo troops although had been unable to enter the city had watched it and knew exactly where every mine was. They during the night hours would disable the mines that had been placed that very day. Indeed their was a mine field, but it was a dead one.

“Fire!” he shouted in anger and the warriors on the walls unleashed their volley and the Humans raised their shields and banded closer together, the sheer volume of fire being directed at them meant it was difficult not to a few of them.

Hopoln looked down, he had seen images of Human climbing walls and his own reports told him this was possible but seeing it was something else.

Like a wave the Humans reached the wall and climbed it.

Still with their shield held above them they climbed and they climbed fast, Benemar warriors were raining fire down upon them but this only seemed to slow them. By luck some marks were hit or a Human would loose their grip and fall.

But Hopoln was not beaten yet, in the time of his preparations he had made a few old fashioned adjustments to the wall. Deep within it and lower down from the top hatches opened and Benemar warriors would lean out and fire upon the Humans scaling the wall. Old fashion techniques like boiling oil was also used. This was a shock to the Humans but as they were one mind it was quickly reacted to, the Benemar leaning out would be pulled from their place and thrown to the ground or a Human would jump inside and finish them off in close combat. There were thousands of these hatches and this slowed their climb along with the fire coming from above and the cannons still firing at those Humans within range or waiting to get their turn to climb. Hopoln smiled, their ascent was slowing and if he had calculated it right they would not be able to each the top. He could then sit back and pick them off at will.

Jenkins face strained at all the information he was getting, his soldiers were all suggesting their own idea and he looked through the eyes of them all, even those as they died. He needed to climb faster, a ladder?

Hopoln watched as the Humans behaviour shifted, using their own bodies they made themselves into Human ladders and meant their kin could climb faster with greater defence as those who made up the ladder drew their rifles and returned fire.

This was the state of the battle for what seemed like hours, an almost continuous exchange of fire was flying through the air and even in the sky. It had startled many when their anti air guns had opened up as they were so focused on the enemy climbing the walls they did not even think about what might come from above. The Human bombers loosed their bombs upon the city trying to keep them close to the wall so as not to inflict too many civilian casualties. Sadly this was not always possible and bombs missed and struck the population.

The the words came over the radio, the words that Hopoln had hoped he would never hear.

“Breach! The wall is breached!”

Leaning over the side he saw that to his right maybe a thousands yards one of the Human ladders had indeed reached the top. For the first time since the wall was erected over a thousand years ago, the enemy stood upon her.

“With me!” he cried and all those who were not firing their rifles over the edge followed him. “All available warriors to section 6 of the wall!” he called into his radio and slowly the forces moved.

Hopoln emerged through a watchtower right in front of a group of Humans running towards him clearly hoping to capture the tower, he did not slow his pace and neither did they and the two forces clashed.

Using his momentum he struck the lighter Human over the wall but was met with a sudden stop as the next Human kicked him shattering his shield. These new Humans seemed to have lost strength in their arms but gained it in the legs.

He quickly got back to his feet and regained his composure “Push them off the wall!” he shouted, he knew he and his warriors could not outfight them but they could lift them and throw them.

His warriors fought hard, he knew that if it was not for the strength enhancing drugs they had all been fed this would have probably ended the moment the Humans reached the top of the wall.

Anger surged through him like fire and landed a punch square in the face of a Human, he hated these creatures these monsters from the void who stood against everything it meant to be Benemar. All along the wall it became a desperate fight for survival, the Benemar being the defenders meant that the battle favoured them but the Humans were giving as good as they got. The walls cannons continued to fire and a continuous stream of Benemar bullets were exchanged with those of the Humans.

Then without any prompting or signals the Humans as one turned and retreated from the wall, leaping onto their comrades who made up the ladders as they were given covering fire. A cheer erupted from the wall as the Human's fled.

“To your posts, volley fire into them!” Hopoln shouted at his warriors and they hurried to obey, some in their madness had jumped down the wall to try and chase the Humans but had been killed.

His men cheered as the Humans fled, all of them but Hopoln himself who watched as they retreated out of range and he ordered the cease fire.

“Re-arm!” he shouted and workers went about reloading rifles and taking away the dead and preparing for another attack.

He went to the surgeons office, he was already swamped with wounded warriors, the attack had been a devastating one but they had held but Hopoln knew that this was not the main attack. Jenkins was testing him, probing the wall for a weakness and testing their resolve and fighting strength. The surgeon saw him and went to the cupboard and readied the needle which contained the strength enhancers.

“Double the dose” he ordered.

The surgeon looked at him startled “You are already at the maximum dosage, any more and it could be fatal”

“The Humans killing us will be more fatal, now do as I say!”

The surgeon looked at him horrified for a moment before doing as he said and injecting him.

Hopoln's arm erupted in pain as if it were on fire, every nerve screamed as the serum made it's way through his body and into his muscles forcing unnatural growth. The surgeon looked at him apprehensively fearing the effect, but after some time Hopoln stood up and stretched and left without even thanking the surgeon.

The serum was a strength enhancer, it was still in the development stages but the initial testing was proving encouraging. With this serum the gap between the physical strength of the two species closed and meant the Benemar would some fighting chance at fighting a Human in close combat.

Hopoln's body ached as the serum surged through his body and intensified his muscles. The side effects were unknown but right now that did not matter. All that mattered was holding the Humans at bay, they must be allowed to enter the city, for if even a single one breached the walls. He shivered to even think of such a thing. The Humans, they defied every natural law the Benemar believed in, every rational thought of how the universe functioned and the natural order of reality itself seemed to come undone at the Humans sheer will. Just what where these things? What kind of twisted God created such monsters that the galaxy screamed in fear at them. Were they the cancer? If one thought deeply enough the galaxy was a living organism with potentially millions of planets holding millions of different species. Why were these Humans so unlike every other race? Bio weapons seemed to have no effect, they could out-run a Sprinor with ease and out fight a Benemar without so much as breaking a sweat. Their eyesight was on par with the Engolians and their thinking speed would make the super computers of the Alliance bow their heads in shame.

But Holpoln vowed to end their rampage across his world here, Karakorum was about to awaken.

“These Benemar are being stubborn” Hesky complained as he threw one off the wall onto the heads of his comrades “Here catch” he laughed as the Bememar fell.

Just as he laughed he was struck over the head, it hurt, the serum that they had found out the Benemar were taking were making them into mindless brutes more than warriors. The Benemar helping the Humans had become disgusted with the sight of their own kind now.

“They just wont break” Cho hissed annoyed as he grappled with one for his weapon.

The average Human did not carry a rifle as a main weapon any more, since their change they had come to prefer lighter weapons and such they all carried smaller versions that were attached their wrists and could fire from one hand. They all carried blades and Sharn had even attached one to her tail and was laughing as she swirled around while fighting.

“Can you try not to enjoy this so much?” Jenkins said over the Link.

“Never! In Karens memory I will enjoy every minute of this as I can” she laughed so much even her flesh voice sounded the laugh.

This was the sixth day of their attack, they never attacked the same part of the wall and often would attack multiple sections to try and stretch the enemies force. Much of this was to stress and weaken the Benemar. This was not like the previous battles with them where the Humans had outmatched them. They were fighting on the Benamars terms and on ground they chose. So much of the wall was laced with traps and hidden turrets and crazed Benemar that had taken too much of the serum. Poor buggers, they knew nothing but fighting now, frothing at the mouth and gargling nonsense.

“It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic” Hesky said “Oh what the hell, I'll laugh anyway!”

Again the signal to retreat came and as if they were one organism the Humans retreated. Benemar fighters were spotted and were going to reek havoc on the undefended infantry on the wall and were engaged by Human fighters to give some cover but being so close to the wall the Benemar air defences were giving them an edge.

“This is nothing but a war of attrition” Hesky complained as he slowed down to catch his breathe.

“One we can win, they cannot” Sharn replied “We have superior forms and technology and are well supplied”

“And they are trapped within their walls” Cho added joining them.

A Benemar made his way over to them and the Humans switched to their flesh voices.

“Golpan” Hesky greeted the commander of their Benemar allies.

It felt odd to him now to use his flesh voice, is sounded so rough and did not project the desired meaning half the time as he was use to. The Link could send emotion as well as images and thought faster than any kind of audible communication.

“Hesky, how goes the battle?” he asked.

How could he not know? Oh yeah, he does not have access to the Link.

“Well, soon we will breach these walls and run rampant through the streets” Hesky laughed.

“I want to see what kind of food they have?” Sharn said.

“Ooh, think they have any steak? I'm starving for steak” Cho said.

They continued talking and it took a few moments before they realised that after Hesky's initial reply to Golpan they had switched to the Link not their flesh voices so from the Benmar's point of view they had simply stopped talking to him and started staring at each other.

“Well...um, that's good” Golpan said leaving feeling uncomfortable.

Golpan made his way back to his comrades, some had fought on the wall but mainly they were there to man the siege guns they had brought. It still felt odd to many of them to being laying siege to a city they had considered holy and the seat of power for their kind for over a thousand generations.

“These humans, is it just me or are they seeming a bit...different than before?” asked one of his warriors.

“Yeah, they don't talk to us much any more and they spend all their time in silence and looking at each other with the occasional laugh”

Golpan sat down at the fire where they were cooking their food.

“You are not wrong” Cassion said suddenly appearing next to them.

“Dammit we told you to stop doing that!” one of the Benemar shouted at him.

Cassion was the only one who had not morphed into the new kind of Human, he had no symbiote and thus was not part of their Link.

“I will never stop popping up where I am needed” Cassion said proudly.

“You mean to say where you have to turn up?”

“Shh” Cassion said rubbing his hand down the Benemars face “That's not important”

“So what is up with your lot?” Golpan asked.

“It's simple really, they are evolving, changing or maybe becoming what Humanity was supposed to be, maybe”

“Maybe?”

“Yes, maybe?”

“How can you not know?”

“I only know as much as I am told or allowed to know”

“And who tells you?”

Cassion looked at him shocked for a few seconds before looking off into the distance and turning back.

“That's not important right now”

The Benemar scoffed and turned back to their meal, they used to eat their meals with the Humans but they barley seemed to eat any more, they just sat in circles in silence. They were surrounded by thousands of Humans, fellow warriors in this war but they felt completely alone, not just because these Humans were now different but because they did not speak to each other in the usual way. This Link, made them...not Human?

“So what about you? How come you're not like them” a Benemar asked.

“I won't, or can't, it's complicated all I can say is that's it's not my role to have one and be like them”

“Why are you here then?”

“To see the final act”

Jenkins sat alone in his tent, not truly alone for he could hear all the voices of those in the Link, even those back home on Earth. He had had conversations with friends and family he had not seen in a long time, reconciled with a brother he had fallen out with years ago and now they were closer than ever.

Also Learned he was an uncle again as his sister had given birth to a baby girl and heard all the congratulations from the numberless people in the Link.

He saw through the eyes of those caring for puppies soon to be adopted, a man at his fathers deathbed mourning his recent passing, a child playing in the street of his home town and many more images came to his mind. He and everyone in the Link saw this and heard this, they were one and many, both connected and separate.

Jenkins was the commander and he had noticed that he was changing, not just the normal change that all Humans were going through but another one. Much like how the Conduit of the Gal was the voice of its kind he was becoming the Hive Mind or at least a part of it. He could at will override the will of another and make them act as he wished. Making them a mute observer of their own body. He had used this more than once to save the life of his soldiers, making them duck into cover or moving another to support. He saw the whole battle like one does a chess board. He saw through all their eyes and felt all their struggles. He was everywhere.

His body too changed, his head was morphing into a dome figure that bent backwards with leathery spines growing from it to replace his hair. These were in a sense signal boosters, allowing him to amplify his own mental capabilities and process the immense amount of information he had access to. In a sense, he was growing extra brains. Other commanders who used the Link to command others were undergoing this same change such as Hopkins and the Admirals in the fleet.

“Jenkins?” Hopkins called through the Link from Geeda

“Yes?”

“I see the battle goes well, do you have a plan to bring it to an end? The new Chieftain on Geeda has enquired to the battles current situation”

“Tell him I have a plan so cunning, you can put a nose on it and call it a weasel”

“Ooh, that is cunning”

Chapter 18

The Benemar auxiliaries that had joined them fired their artillery and along with the Humans charged the city, they had demanded to be a bigger part of the attack today. The Humans had agreed with a worryingly amount of indifference, the one called Jenkins who looked nothing like he did when he left Geeda all those weeks ago simply nodded when asked. They ran with the Humans but could not keep pace, the Humans moved as one, keeping time with their steps and pace but the Benemar were erratic and clumsy in comparison. Still when the Humans reached the walls and began to make their Human ladders they extended their hands and helped the Benemar climb up.

Golpan was practically thrown onto the wall, the Humans strength meant he scaled the walls that was over a thousand feet high in moments. He wore a different uniform to the Benemar defending the city, not that it seemed to be of much interest to the Humans who simply ignored him as they went about fighting the defenders.

He was saved by one though, a defender levelled his rifle at him and before he could react a Human had jumped in front of him and what he witnessed made him fear for his own people again.

The Humans arm morphed and changed shape as if it was clay, taking the shape of a shield he blocked the shot before firing a needle shaped spine from his forearm into the neck of the defender. The defending Benemar collapsed grasping his neck and Human left him to die.

Golpan ran to the defender and held him, in that moment he was not an enemy but a fellow Benemar that was dying at the hands of something horrible. The spine was sticking out of his neck and a black liquid was pumping into the body, poisoning him. He puked black liquid and bled from his eyes and ears, the spine grew tentacles and buried its way into his body and Golpan jumped back as the spine grew as it feasted on the flesh of the it's victim. It erupted from the chest of the Benemar, finally killing him and ending the suffering that seemed to have dragged on for hours let alone seconds.

The spine, or maybe it was a new symbiote had a circler mouth and screeched as it came to life using it's legs it pulled itself from the now dead Benemar and jumped onto a passing Human who simply held out its arm to catch it as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

This section of the wall was overrun with Humans now and they were pushing along it towards other sections. Golpan looked at his fellow Benemar rebels from Geeda who had all witnessed similar things as he on the wall.

“Dema?” he asked his second in command.

Dema was huddled against the railing, crying.

The youngest among them, Lomk had shot himself at the sheer sight of what he had seen.

“They lied to us” Dema said over and over again “They lied! they lied!”

Golpan got to his feet and pulled Dema up with him “Fall back, rally our warriors and fall back to camp, let the monsters do their work”

“Monsters....they are worse” Dema whispered.

“The new Chieftain must see what they are, what they have become”

The Humans once again fell back from their attack, they barley noticed their Benemar allies had left them and were heading back to Geeda and in fact they didn't care. They had their own mission, this nest...city needed to be taken but the natives were putting up a much harder fight that before. This was the main city of the planet, if this fell the whole world fell and they knew it. So they fought tooth, tusk and claw for every inch of ground.

Quality versus quantity slammed into each other.

But it was only a matter of time, the Benemar were inferior life forms in many ways, even Sharn who had most of her face destroyed by a shotgun like weapon at point blank range was now recovering. Their own hyper metabolism and increased knowledge of their cellular make up meant healing her was easy, her mind was safe in the Link so that was not lost. The body was simply a shell.

“That shot hurt like a bitch!” she complained over the Link.

“Well you would know, you're a bigger bitch than anyone” Hesky joked.

“Hey!” she protested and Cho who was sitting next to him hit Hesky over the head at Sharn's request.

“Once I can move again I'm coming for you” she laughed.

“As his wife you have my full permission to kick my husbands arse” Cathy laughed joining the conversation from Geeda through the Link.

“Help I'm being ganged up on!” Hesky laughed.

“Jenkins come drink with us!” Cho invited and almost like magic Jenkins was there.

They all looked at him shocked at his transformation, Jenkins had been so secluded they had not seen him in days and now he looked so different.

“Did you do something with your hair?” Hesky asked and they all laughed.

“Yeah, now I can't cut it how I originally liked it” Jenkins joked twirling one of the leathery spines.

“I don't know, you can merge them together and make a mohawk” Cathy suggested.

“Maybe it will make a good picture for our final battle tomorrow” Jenkins smiled.

“Oh? Are we finally done playing around?” Cho asked and they all looked at him eagerly.

Jenkins smiled.

Holpoln beat the female before him, his frustration at being unable to break the siege had weighed heavy on him. The High Chieftains had commanded him to repel the enemy but they never seemed to die, he had countless reports of these Humans taking what should be fatal injuries only to be either taken back by their kin to be healed or would simply get back up and fight. By day they attacked, climbing up the sheer drop of the walls and by night they bombarded the city with their artillery which was seen to be commanded by rebel Benemar.

No doubt from the city of Geeda and this Chieftain Ceran who had sold out his own people to help the aliens.

The female slave he had called for was now nothing more than a bloody lump of flesh before him. He couldn't even remember what species she was he had barely looked at her when she entered his room. He knelt down and feasted on her remains, food was becoming a problem in the city. Rationing was strict as they were cut off from the farms where their livestock were raised. They had a number within the city but not enough to sustain the population so they had resorted to eating the weaker slaves that were not too valuable. Some were even eating the dead and rumours of the poorer families eating their newborns.

“Karakorum must awaken soon before there is no one left to save” he said to himself.

The horn of the dawn sounded and once again the Humans began to amass for the another attack.

“What is this?” he asked his second in command.

“I don't know, they are just gone”

“Gone? After weeks of constant attacks they simply leave? I don't buy it for a second, send out scouts” he growled moving along the wall.

“I have, we lost contact with them”

“They're out there, where are they?” he almost shouted but only silence answered him.

Then the ground shook, lightly at first and many didn't think anything of it as one of the reasons Benemar were so find of sturdy walls was because earthquakes were common. But Holpoln could feel this was different, having lived his whole life on a world that shook he could tell the difference between an earthquake and something else.

This was no earthquake.

His eyes followed his instincts and he didn't look out towards the plains where the Humans should be, he looked at the city behind him.

The ground erupted, shooting skyward before falling back down even faster leaving behind a massive crater that swallowed buildings whole. Dozens of buildings and hundreds of people were consumed.

Then the screaming, not the from surrounding Bememar in the city, they were too frozen in shock, but from the hole. The sound of the Humans war cry as they climbed out of the hole and like a flood, began to rampage through the city.

Potellan, the great city of the Benemar had never had an enemy breach it's walls, and that statement was true, the Humans couldn't breach the walls, so they simply went under them and begun their bloody work of sacking the city.

It was over.

But the Benemar would not go down without a fight.

“The time has come!” cried the High Chieftains

“The enemy is within our walls”

“Let us awaken that which we feared we would never need”

“Awaken the god of War”

“Awaken, Karakorum!”

The high pyramid of the High Chieftain's was the oldest building on Benemar, it was dated to even preceded their own recorded history as any city that existed in the area was built around the pyramid. Few knew of it's origin and even they had only fragments and most was an educated guess.

The pyramid, was Karakorum, or at least the tip.

Karakorum was the name of the God of war of the Benemar, a fitting name as this machine was a war machine. Built aeons ago by a race that no longer has anyone to remember them and no monument left behind to tell their story. That is, except Karakorum.

It came alive, through means the Benemar had discovered over generations they brought the machine to life, last time this had happened it had laid waste to a third of the planet and is why the world was in the baron state that is was. Now it was awake again, built to resemble ironically the Benemar themselves, or at least what they looked like millions of years ago before they gained sentience and asked themselves that question that all sentient creatures will one day ask.

“What am I?”

Four colossal legs erupted from the ground and pulled its gigantic body up, its head had tusks and even eyes that looked more like demons eyes from the Humans point of view who along with the Benemar of the city had frozen to watch this titan appear.

The ships in orbit both Human and Benemar watched and streamed the footage everywhere although the Humans did not need such devices for everyone of them watched through the eyes of the soldiers there.

Everyone was shocked, the embodiment of war had appeared before them.

Ceran and Talena watched in the city centre in shock that such a thing was on Bento Prime all this time.

But Jenkins looked upon it with awe, it was a beautiful creation and no doubt one Humanity could match or surpass one day.

Hesky laughed, his flesh voice echoing over the link and the air in unison and soon the rest of the Humans joined him.

Hesky had said a simple saying.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall”

Jenkins smiled and gave one order to the entire army.

“Swarm!”

The High Chieftain's rode up Karakorum laughing as they saw they would now finally destroy the Humans, these arrogant creatures that had the audacity to call themselves sentient and their equals. But their laughter soon subsided.

The Humans were running, but not away, they were running at them and climbing over bulidings and over the bodies of Benemar to get to Karakorum and forcing their way inside.

“Activate the weapons! Fire!”

Nothing happened.

“What are you waiting for? Fire!”

“We can't” the engineer said “We cannot control Karakorum only aim it and we have told it the Humans are the enemy but...”

“But what?!”

“The Humans are too close, it wont risk destroying itself”

Karakorum was a walking artillery weapon, designed to level cities and even ships in orbit should it be told to. It had no anti infantry weapons and given there were no enemy vehicles for it to fire at within range and only infantry which were too close it fell into its pre programmed response.

Wait for support to clear the enemy infantry.

This machine did not know that it's creators were long dead and that there was no support, it was a machine, pre programmed responses and actions, one's and zeros, no free will and the Benemar could not control it enough to make it follow their orders.

So the embodiment of the god of war stood idle as the Humans bore into its many legs and ran thorugh it corridors destorying from the inside out like a virus infecting a body.

It was literally torn apart from the inside out.

Holpoln knelt within the ruins of his city, Karakorum was destroyed, their last hope of turning the tide and forcing the Humans off Benemar now lay collapsed like a slain animal. The Humans were taking apart the rest of the city and wiping out any remaining resistance from local law enforcers or commanders that had rallied their men for one last stand.

Futile.

Holpoln himself knelt in the middle of the street, ash covered survivors passed him going this way and that, none looking at him.

A Human appeared and directed them down the street with the promise of food and water.

He raised his head to look at the Human who must have recognised him, he shot him without second thought.

Jenkins stood overlooking the survivors of the city, when Karakorum fell so did with it all resistance on the planet. There was nothing left for which the Benemar could use to fight back with.

This was the moment, Humanity died.

The Gal, they did not lie when they said that Humanity was the only race that is compatible with them as we are genetic cousins. But they did not tell Humanity everything. They were the parasitic part of us, they latched onto hosts and moulded them to suit their needs, that's why no two Gal would look alike, each had it's own host.

The symbiotes, that was the real them, the part of the DNA that Humanity was missing and now they had.

The last Gal host died and the last symbiote was attached to a Human.

They all then looked at themselves, how their bodies had changed without them seemingly noticing, their legs were different, did they always have four arms? Extra eyes now too? Tails? Now they know they did originally have only one, this must be an extra. Is it?

Their hands, was three digits the right amount?

Sharn was contemplating this when a voice she thought lost appeared.

“Karen?” she said aloud, or tried to, they no longer had any voice boxes, no need for speech.

Those within the link could loose their physical bodies but their minds were forever within the Link.

She shed tears of joy, her love was alive, never truly gone.

All of Humanity was connected through this great Link, everyone knew everyone, all were one and one was all. They had reached their peek of evolution, the apex of what their race was meant to be.

Jenkins, or if that's what he could be called now as names were quickly becoming pointless. Looked out at the herd of Benemar huddled together within the ruins of their nest. He saw no sentient creatures, none of the Humans did, these were simply animals, cattle, livestock.

And they did still need food.

The Benemar in Geeda did not understand the sudden change in the Humans demeanour, one moment they were as they had always been, the next they were standing idle staring into space for a few moments before coming back and looking around at them with vacant eyes.

The gates opened as the forces sent to eradicate the infestation at Potellan reutned within two days.

“What did you say?” Ceran asked.

“The Humans are monsters, they are not what they said they were” Golpan said kneeling before his Chieftain.

Ceran sat upon a small throne in the main tower with his pregnant wife next to him, Benemar pregnancies are brief which is why she was already heavily showing her bump.

“Monsters” Dema said.

“They are only different” Ceran said.

“Look child...” Golpan said getting to his feet but Ceran's level stare made him stop “Chieftain, with respect you are mistaken, the Humans will be the end of us”

“The Humans have defeated the tyrannical rule of the High Chieftains, that monstrosity, Karakorum was destroyed by them. Geeda is now a prosperous city because of them. We owe them this new chance for our people to make a bright future and heal this world and make it a lush world where plants and trees will grow again” Ceran said getting to his feet.

“My Chieftain, please I beg of you, do not let them back into the city”

“Enough, you fled from battle and are a deserter, I have no use for warriors such as that” Ceran said and a pair of Benemar guards approached and dragged Golpon away along with Dema.

“NO! You are making a mistake, they will kill us all, they are monsters! Please listen to me!”

Ceran looked over the city from the Chieftains tower, the city was peaceful after a celebration to the end of the war that even though the Humans started it didn't feel like they were a conquered people. They were a liberated people, they now saw a bright future ahead of them, one where their world was lush and sunlight once again shun through the clouds.

But Ceran was brooding, the words of the deserter had troubled him.

“My Chieftain?” Taleena called from the bed.

“We are alone, you don't need to call me that”

She smiled “Sorry, force of habit and I like to do it though”

He smiled back at her.

“So what is bothering my husband?” she asked.

“The Humans have indeed changed, in the nearly two years since they came here they have not only morphed into something else but their minds. The way they look at us its like they don't recognise us. Like a piece of them dies with each passing day”

Taleena, sat there

“They scare me, I mean I always was scared of them but now they truly frighten me”

Ceran joined her in bed.

“I don't know what to do” he said running his hand over her belly, sound asleep inside, so innocent and unaware of the dangers and troubles of this world was his son.

“They don't come back here for a few more days, tell them to wait outside the city under the pretence of organising a parade for them. Once you see them for yourself, then you can decide on what to do”

“And if what Golpan said is true?” he asked “You know what I would be forced to do”

“Yes, and I will be with you the whole time”

Its was a few nights later that the Humans returned, silently moving they neither spoke nor did they make any sound as they sped along the dirt towards Geeda.

The gates, usually under the command of Benemar opened, their operators gone.

While the city slept, the Humans flooded in and began to round up all the Benemar

Ceran was awoken by the sounds of gunfire in the streets and screaming, quickly he ran to the window and saw the city overrun with Humans. Or at leats what he thought were Humans.

They were on every building, running through every street climbing through windows, knocking down doors and dragging the inhabitants of the city in to the streets and dividing them into groups and chaining them together.

They moved like a single organism, a few here and there moved like he remembered, like they were their own persons and directed the others.

The Humans no longer spoke, high pitch cries was the only sign they called to one another or used hand gestures or would simply look at each other as if speaking with their eyes.

Ceran grabbed a pistol just as one resembling Jenkins came through his door and he shot him in the head and continued till the clip was empty. But Jenkins did not fall, he was doubled over but brought himself up again to full height and stared at Ceran with cold eyes.

Taleena screamed and Ceran pulled a blade and charged Jenkins, it took a few moments to have Ceran collared and tagged before being thrown to the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Taleena cried as she too was collared and tagged before being thrown down beside her husband, they locked eyes confused and afraid.

They were dragged outside and made to huddle along with others that had been captured, all of their faces showing fear and confusion.

“Sharn!” Crean cried seeing her walk past him but she only gave him a passing glance. Her eyes, they were not hers.

He was right, Sharn's mind was in the Link with her beloved Karen and her body was being directed by Jenkins who had been evolving into a central Hive Commander.

The Benemar were divided into groups, those that can work, those to be bred, and those to be food. Jenkins looked through the Link and saw a great number of other planets the Benemar occupied, with those properly collected they could feed their race no problem and swell their numbers. They were senile animals and not even sentient but can build primitive structures and operate basic machinery so a good workforce too. How had he not seen this before?

The one called Ceran was calling him but it sounded like the shrill of an animal in distress, he couldn't understand him any more. He would let him and the female he took as a mate be together, they would make good offspring he thought and he was fond of the little one as if he was a pet.

The coming days the planet was thrown into chaos and confusion, the Benemar were rounded up and tagged with identification numbers and a shock collar. They were divided into groups under the direction of a Hive Commander like Jenkins and others who had evolved in such a way.

They would stand on a podium and a Benemar would be brought before them and silently would judge whether the animal would be used as a worker, breeder or food.

Some exceptions were made, Ceran and his mate Taleena were thrown into the breeding pens, the Humans had fond memories of them as one would have for a pet they had growing up.

Cerans father was deemed worthless and slaughtered for food along with his mother although his sister was able to escape that fate by proving she was strong enough to work.

Taleena's family were cut up for food and her brother set to be a worker as well although he was small and many Humans did not believe he would last long.

All of them were grouped and separated, families torn apart with indifference, slaughtered for food without concern for their well-being and worked to near death.

But why just the Benemar? There are dozens of races out there, all of them, food for the Humans, their worlds, ripe for the taking. Not all the planets were right for them to live on but they could terraform them to make it more hospitable to them.

Jenkins and his fellow Hive Commanders stood in a circle and looked towards the stars, their fleet in orbit and countless other fleets across the Human systems all now looking up at the stars.

They were now faster, stronger and more advanced than any of them, the other races were not even sentient, not any more, that word had a new meaning now.

This galaxy was theirs for the taking and they will spread through it like a cancer consuming all in their path.

The Humans were gone, the Gal were gone, what was left is what the other races were come to know by only a single name.

One that described them perfectly.

The Virus.

So yeah, that's how my race died, bit of a bummer really although can't way I didn't see it coming, well I didn't but I just like to say that.

I'm called the Herald now as I go through the galaxy in my crappy little ship and warn every race I find of the danger following me.

Most don't believe me or blame me for bringing them there.

Those that heed my warnings I help best I can to prepare them and their defenses to fight them off or drive them away. But it's never enough, my kind learn fast and can adapt to almost any condition, may take a few years or generations but we always overcome. I think though that another race has set up some kind of blockade around our territory.

I tried to go to them to make contact and tell them of the ones behind me but I was fired upon and forced to turn back. I ran into them again and again and have mapped out that they have at least tried to contain my kind inside their current systems. The galaxy is a big place, it makes sense that there would be another race out there with immense power, maybe an alliance of sort like the one my kind originally joined but stronger. Maybe they can halt my kinds advance through the void. Although right now they seem content to try and contain us, maybe hoping we will consume ourselves.

As much as I am trying to find a way to destory my own race, I don't hate them, I miss them, they were my friends and family but have now become something else. I have even ran into them a few times, them randomly finding me on some planet where I am resting and would call out to me, wanting me to come to them and accept the change. To come home.

It would be nice to not be alone any more.

If you haven't guessed it already, my name is Cassion and I'm leaving this writing on every world I go to, be it inhabited or not. My kind...or really I can't call them that any more, I am the last Human, the proper Human I think. When we merged with the Gal we lost so much of ourselves, or did we gain what we were supposed to have?

Who knows, it doesn't matter any more.

I'm old and I've put the last of my peoples knowledge in this ship and will send it into space, maybe someone will find it and remember us for what we were, not what we are. The only crew member left on the ship will be Sergeant Stabby, may he pilot the ship to grand horizons.

God speed you glorious cleaning machine!

Oops better act quickly one of their pods just landed, they always find me.

Ahh better think of a deep and meaningful way to end this....um , be good, be kind and never eat the last of someone's favourite snack or if you do make sure its someone you can outrun. Haha, time to go home.

Goodbye.

#newcomers #humans are space orcs #humans are weird #humans are space australians

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architectuul · 7 months

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From Care to Cure and Back

Under the umbrella of the LINA platform a program From Care to Cure and Back was initiated by Ana Dana Beroš in collaboration with the Association of Architects of Istria (DAI-SAI). "Treat, cure and give care again", is the idea behind this program, says Ana Dana and stress how important is to deal with experimental publishing practices in architecture.

Ana Dana Beroš at the Publishing Acts: The Publishing School Pedagogies of Care in Rijeka (2020). | Photo © Matija Kralj Štefanić

She is referring how care was and is missing in the formal education of architecture, in the form of a humanistic way of thinking and asking background questions, which primarily concern the users of buildings. With the construction of the state, public projects fell into the background. It became clear that we must learn from our own history, repair, preserve and take care together, and not build unnecessarily.

How will architecture change in the future?

ADB: It will change drastically. I ask myself all the time is it ethical to build anymore? Or should we be focusing on “the great repair” of the broken world? Or is it broken architecture, or mankind, or more than human environment? This question are arising because we were witnessing for more than half of century the capitalist modernity, with its emphasis on innovation, growth, and progress, its economic system based on consumerism and wasteful use, and profligacy, has led to a ruthless exploitation of humans and nature.

Architecture has played a huge small part in this, as the statistics on greenhouse gas emissions and construction and demolition waste prove. As a counter-strategy to capitalism’s creative destruction, we should focus on the repair, in which nurturing and maintenance that should become the key strategies for the action.

This is not just mine thinking, the notions of care in architecture have been part of many international exhibitions starting from the Critical Care at the Architektur Zentrum in Viena curated by Elke Krasny and Angelika Fitz, the term The Great Repair was used by Milica Topalović and her team at ETH, then are here Pedagogies of the Broken Planet. This is how I see the future.

What does your critical spatial practice include?

ADB: My critical spatial practice has components of artistic research, documentary filmmaking, curating, publishing/broadcasting, exhibition design, activism and post-disciplinary de-schooling. This is work that overlaps, diverges, converges, runs in parallel, in circles, and in many cases came before and goes beyond.

A whole multitude of practitioners and theorists have been developing work in an expanded field such as this, quite different perhaps from the one Rosalind Krauss identified in 1979. Critical spatial practice was coined by the theorist Jane Rendell in 2000s as a helpful way of describe projects located between art and architecture, that both critiqued the sites into which they intervened as well as the disciplinary procedures through which they operated.

Taking into account the wide spectrum of intellectual fields close to architecture and space - from urban anthropology to human geography - I consider connecting architecture with feminist theory crucial for the development of critical spatial practices. Gender-based analysis of architecture, its multiple forms of representation, where subjects and spaces are viewed as performatives and constructs, is aimed primarily at questioning the world around us.

Moreover, critical spatial practices are necessarily self-critical and tend to change society, in contrast to orthodox architectural practices that seek to maintain and strengthen the existing social and spatial order of inequality.

How is the LINA platform important for your development on architecture of care?

ADB: I have started Architecture of Care actually developing through the concept of Pedagogies of Care within the predecessor platform to LINA, the former Future Architecture. The Publishing School: Pedagogies of Care is an exploration on how we learn and produce knowledge collectively through emancipatory practices of care. The program builds upon the three Publishing Acts and their collective efforts in shaping unordinary publications, unlikely publics and unorthodox spatial imaginaries.

Can radio become again a media for architecture (like in the time of Wright) and in which way you work with it?

ADB: Regarding the radio, as a powerful architectural tool, or to the media that architecture uses, I can agree with many who say that architecture has nowadays become transmedial. We don’t create only in the offline dimension, in concrete and brick, but in the online sphere as well. All media are allowed, or rather necessary, to attain goals of architecture. I have been involved in radio forever as been working for Croatian radio HR3, I have been developing the Radio Schools with artists during the Pedagogies of Care. As our colleagues from dpr-barcelona we claim to this cover that radio is louder than bombs that relates to their motto.

Beside radio you work is also dedicated on documentary film?

ADB: My documentary work is dedicated both to architecture and migration topics. Within the Croatian Architects’ Association I have been leading, then co-leading a documentary project Man and Space and working as a scriptwriter on long feature documentaries dedicated to the life achievement laureates.

In pluriannual research on the relational reading of migrant bodies and migrant territories, conducted together with the artistic partner and cinematographer Matija Kralj Štefanić, we have been departing from nonrepresentational theories, the practices of witnessing that produce knowledge without contemplation. The experimental documentary trajectory builds on previous investigations in the Mediterranean: in reception camps (Contrada Imbriacola, Lampedusa), hotspots (Moria, Lesbos), makeshift camps (Idomeni, Greece), urbanized camps (Dheisheh, Palestine), city refugees (Mardin, Turkey), and, recently, in the Balkans, where we live.

Transmigrancy - Life of Art Magazine, 101-2017 edited by Ana Dana Beroš: Geotrauma. Photo © Matija Kralj Štefanić (design bilic mueller studio)

We refined methods of producing critical, nonrepresentational images, and of gathering and documenting evidence found in borderscapes, in order to make a transmedial and migratory archive, a border documentarism, that is in constant articulation. After the pandemic, from mute images of migrants’ residuals that speak for themselves, we have started creating a polyphony of protagonists of migrant origin and those involved in the No Border movement in a documentary series Three-Voiced: Stories on the Move, broadcast in Croatia. As a contemporary response to the rise of fascist phenomena in Europe, In the era of fetishizing borders and territorialization of bodies, it was crucial to start resonating in a new voiced register for topics that are not heard, or rather systematically not listened to in our societies.

It is just one of many attempts at confronting structures of silencing, asking: Can we, through collective vibration, transform silence into a path of newfound hope and solidarity?

How Intermundia opened an important topic of transmigration in Europe?

ADB: Back in 2014, Intermundia research project questioned alternating border-scapes of trans-European and intra-European migration. The focus was put on the Italian island of Lampedusa, metonymy for contemporary Western conditions of confinement. For me, back then it was clear that the dominant discourses on illegal migration obscure the role of international migration as a regulatory labour market tool. It was important to stress that migrants must be conceived primarily as workers, not only as immigrants. It seemed that, in the pre-pandemic times of constant mobility, involuntary territorial shifts of the precarious workers was parallel to the detention of undesired migrants.

Instead of observing Lampedusa as a consolidated institution of the waiting room, as a jailed zone in the middle of conflict, Intermundia attempted a post-human perspective in order to investigate the ambivalent state of in-betweenness. I was aware of the impossibility of cultural translation of such a condition, the understanding of the Other, so the project Intermundia, exhibited and awarded at the Architecture Biennial in Venice 2014, challenged visitors to immerse themselves into a coffin-like light and sound installation. Inducing Verfremdungseffekt, the project asked for solemnity and re-action, and not simply empathy.

I am not sure Intermundia opened the important topic of migration in Europe, but for sure it was a predecessor to the summer of migration in 2015, with the great influx of migrants, refugees and the formation of the so-called Balkan Route.

What does architecture mean to you?

ADB: I dare to say that the fundamental task architecture has is to articulate spatial thinking, thinking capable of asking questions about burning issues of our society in a different way, hence of also creating a different reality. Architecture must offer a space for understanding of the existential condition of an individual and of society, and must also construct a foundation for a life with dignity. We know who we are, and where we belong, precisely through human constructions, both material and intellectual.

Ana Dana Beroš (b. 1979) is an architect based in Zagreb, but often explores contested borderscapes of Europe and beyond. Co-founder of ARCHIsquad - Division for Architecture with Conscience and its educational program UrgentArchitecture in Croatia. Her interest is architectural theory, experimental design and publishing as spatializing practice led her to co-found Think Space (2010-2015) and Future Architecture (2016-2021) international platforms, and currently LINA (2022-2025). The LINA member DAI-SAI ongoing project From care to cure and back, under her curation, explores critical architectural heritage on the case of The Children’s Maritime Health Resort of Military Insured Persons in Krvavica, and encourages transformation of both material and immaterial environments from spaces of a common disease into places of common healing. Her project Intermundia on trans- and intra-European migration was a finalist for the Wheelwright Prize at GSD Harvard, and received a Special Mention at the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Rem Koolhaas (2014). In her pluriannual research and relational reading of migrant bodies and migrant territories, she departs from non-representational theories, the practices of “witnessing” that produce knowledge without contemplation. The fragments of the migratory archive, a border documentarism formed together with the filmmaker and cinematographer Matija Kralj Štefanić, have been made public in different forms and formats, exhibitions and publications (2016-2022) – and lately within a documentary series Three-voiced: Stories on the move (2022-).

Here You can listen to the WELTRAUM interview

#architecture #newcomers #architecture of care

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