This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #1105 - Military Might
Enjoy !
Image Created by AI in Nightcafe Studio
It was just a Class 3 world. Industrialised, divided into competing nation states but just starting the climb into space. A few moonshots, a bunch of probes to the far ends of their star system. Two missions to the next nearest planet with real living people on board simple space craft to plant flags and strut around for a couple of hours as if that meant they owned the place.
Those few first faltering steps were accompanied by an advancing wavefront of transmissions from public entertainment and news services, and tell-tale signatures of the introduction of atomic power.
Yes, it was a civilisation at the dawn of introducing itself to it's galactic neighbours. More to the point, it was getting noticed. Most species didn't broadcast so openly. Not because they were paranoid; it was just that their technology had advanced to the point of not being so inefficient.
But yes, they were getting noticed. The Empire sent a few covert missions to observe them, check out if they might be a threat, or might in due course be candidates for inclusion in the Empire. In the worst case, they might have been infiltrated by the enemy and would need to be cleared of hostile influence.
Then there was a problem. An old PATMOB-V shuttle which should have long ago been retired suffered a failure in it's cloaking system. The natives air defences immediately spotted it, identified it as an Unexplained Foreign Flying Object (UFFO) and promptly shot it down. Typical paranoid military.
The PATMOB wasn't destroyed by the primitive missile fired at it. But it crash landed hard, near a major military closed area. The natives, paranoid and stupid, did the worst thing possible. When the civilian scientific team staggered out of the wreckage, the local authorities didn't see people, they saw monstrous aliens. Three of the crew, humanoids, were tortured, mutilated and crucified. The fourth was different-looking. A small furry specimen. That one was hauled off to a laboratory and vivisected.
The real mistake the natives made was when a tape of the vivisection was leaked onto their social media. No-one thought it was real. A cute furry creature like a teddy bear was thought to be funny, it's high-pitched dying screams were assumed to be a product of their nascent AI software.
But of course, that imagery was seen by the crews of the cruisers orbiting invisible overhead, cloaked and in stealth orbits.
Three days later, Allied Imperial Battle Group 1367, "Imperial Vengeance" arrived in system.
Lady Kandra Gynzdor paced her command deck on the Starfort Son of Aerov. Then gave a command. "Open a channel to all ships."
The Comtech nodded, waved hands over a control panel, and the main viewscreen indicated that every ship in the fleet was watching, all thirty thousand of them.
"This is your Commander," Lady Kandra began. "You have all seen what the barbarians below did to Doctor Niddiah. She was one of the Empire's most respected xeno-anthropologists. She was also my friend. We will avenge her."
It took a moment to compose herself, to bring her voice under control and blink back the tears. Kandra wasn't just speaking words for their own sake; Doctor Niddiah had truly been her friend. What had been done to her made Kandra's heart ache, and her soul burn with righteous wrath. It was time to convey that wrath to her troops.
"Now we will show the savages below the might of the Allied Imperiae. You are the warriors of Planetary Assault Command. The best of the best, drawn from a billion or more worlds of our Alliance. From the Alonian Empire, from Navicomia, Kurava, Filamnia, Tarnyu and so many more. Our technology is millenia ahead of theirs. We will make an example of their world to shake the multiverse !"
She slammed her right fist against her left shoulder, the Imperial salute.
"Soldiers of Planetary Assault Command, by dawn these animals below us will wake to thirty million of our warriors descending on their world as the orbital bombardment of our battleships burns their cities to molten lava. Let them pay the price for their barbarity; their civilisation has no right to exist !"
Lady Kandra signalled off-screen to her aide, waving to him to bring her battle-armour.
"No mercy, no quarter, and no prisoners ! Commanders, you have full Microtic release - let the TC bombs rain down on them. I will lead the first assault wave in person. Long Live the Emperor !"
