King of All I Survey
Chapter 65: Reflecting on The Fragile Nature of Humanity

Chapter 65: Reflecting on The Fragile Nature of Humanity

I didn’t see any of the action, having purposefully removed myself from the viewscreens at Dad’s suggestion, but I knew what was happening. Our laser equipped drones swung in behind the enemy forces as they crossed the border. Once they were all across, we targeted those in the rear, lasers neatly severing the brainstem through the base of the skull. They dropped without a sound. Since those in front of them were focused on their advance, they mostly didn’t notice anything was wrong until it was their turn. Some few looked back and saw their fellows dropping, but it was late in the effort and there was nothing they could do anyway. The area would be littered with bodies. No blood, except those few who smashed their faces when they fell, even then there wasn’t much because their hearts had already stopped beating before they hit the ground.

From the clear walls of the lookout tower rising from my invisible treefort, I looked out over nearby Cheshire, Massachusetts, and imagined a swarm of invisible drones sweeping through the streets, lasers efficiently targeting everything that moved. There would be nothing the people could do to stop them. They wouldn’t even know what was killing them, the drone’s had shielding that not only protected them but also rendered them invisible. Not just invisible to the eye, they were undetectable by radar, sonar, x-rays, thermal scans, and virtually every detection method used on Earth. I’m told they could be detected if a fine mist or dust surrounded them. There would not appear to be a blank spot, the shielding would account for that, but there would be eddies and swirls that could be seen and the position of the drones deduced from that. The very most sensitive gravity scanners could also find them, but no one on Earth had any such device.

Even if they were detected, shooting them down would be impossible. They could evade projectiles at up to 10 percent of the speed of light. The shielding would prevent any laser damage. To Earth, these little drones were unstoppable killing machines. If a galactic enemy set them loose on Earth’s population They could wipe us out. The way we were wiping out the invading gangs in Guatemala...

My head was spinning, and I wanted to throw up. I knew I was doing the right thing, but... it just felt wrong. A sudden thought occurred to me. Surely, the Galactic Union and other advanced alien empires had weapons that could defend against and destroy these little drones. They hadn’t offered anything like that to me as Supreme Ruler of Earth. Even the larger, more powerful drones patrolling the system used the same type of laser weapons and the same shielding technology.

Earth would be completely vulnerable to alien attack. The only thing protecting us was our temporary contract with the Galactic Union. As Joe had already informed me, the cost of their protection would rise over time until Earth had nothing left of value to offer for it, then we’d be abandoned to alien raiders who would swoop in for whatever scraps were left. Not every new world met this fate, of course. Some found a way to offer enough permanent, ongoing value to the Galactic Union that they were eventually made equal members. That was more common in the past, though, according to Joe.

Even if I managed to find a way to do that, did I really want to be part of the problem? Another member of the galaxy-wide union of worlds that preyed upon each new civilization they encountered. Was there any choice? There had to be. I would have to make Earth so powerful that even the Galactic Union wouldn’t dare attack. Maybe I could find and reach out to other new worlds before the Galactic Union found them, adding them to a new coalition, pooling our valuable resources and wealth to gain more and more leverage.

I summed that desire up in a mental note and sent it off to Joe, telling him to remind me about it once every seven days. I didn’t want to lose sight of it, but I had other more immediate goals at the moment. First, I had to gain control of the Earth. My planetary leadership could be legally challenged until that happened. I imagined the alien tech in the hands of some crazy despot who used it for his own personal aggrandizement, and didn’t care about the future fate of Earth or it’s people.

All these thoughts rolled around in my head for a few hours until Joe interrupted them. The fighting is over, the Guatemalan forces are picking up the bodies and laying them out individually in long trenches. Each is getting a grave marker with their names provided by me as you directed. That’s going to take several days.

The prisoners that you requested be taken are being brought to Sacapulas where our paramilitaries will take charge of them, using the Food First warehouse as a holding cell. This will likely make it a prominent target for the enemy team that remains at large and undiscovered within Guatemala.

I replied mentally, Thanks Joe. Keep the bodies off the viewscreens unless something happens requiring attention there. Even my thoughts sounded tired and depressed to me.

Acknowledged, Joe responded.

I went back down to the status room. Dad was sitting in one of the adaptive chairs, his face sullen and tired. He seemed lost in contemplation and didn’t notice when the elevator deposited me in the room.

"I asked Joe to keep the bodies off the screens for a while." I said, as much to let him know I was there as anything.

He turned to look at me. "That’s probably a good idea."

"When it’s all done though, I want to visit the graves. I think it’s important to acknowledge the result of my decisions..." I wanted to see his reaction. I thought he might object, telling me I was too young for that kind of thing, but he didn’t. He paused for a couple seconds, then nodded slowly and shallowly.

"Yes, I’ll go with you. Killing is..." He trailed off, then started again, "War shouldn’t be..." He couldn’t seem to put words to his thoughts.

"I know, Dad, I know.," I said relieving him of the pressure of trying to say out loud what we were both feeling. I walked over and hugged him for a long time.

We hadn’t released any footage of the slaughter publicly. We wanted to keep our tech hidden from the eyes of the world. There were some still images of the attackers lying dead in the streets or countryside where they had fallen. There was video of some of them discussing the plan to raid the border and take control in Guatemala, footage of them blowing the border gate at La Mesilla and more of them streaming across the border with weapons in hand at various locations around the country. We were careful to show identifiable landmarks and buildings that made it clear they came from the Chiapas side of the border and entered into Guatemala. Then we included some stills of the dead bodies scattered through the streets and fields where they had fallen. Joe was easily able to erase the burn marks at the back of their heads from all the photos we released. We put it together with a detailed timeline of events and sent a copy to President Arroyo, suggesting he make some official statement regretting the actions made necessary by the attack. Promising that Guatemala could and would continue to defend its territory against criminals or any outside attackers. We told him that Rafael would make a similar statement and would say that working together with President Arroyo and the Guatemalan military forces was for the good of the country and its people. He would say that this defensive action had to be taken, yada, yada, yada... that the two of them agreed on this course of action and in the coming weeks, when things were more stable, the families of the fallen would be allowed to visit their graves and hold whatever services they deemed appropriate.

We suggested that Arroyo adopt a reserved and respectful tone but make it clear that Guatemala remained resolved to keep drug-trafficking and organized crime from operating within the country. He agreed with the sentiment and sent a taped statement to the media concurrent with the statement from Rafael and Mirabel, and the sending of the footage and photos to the media within the country.

A huge part of the Chiapas gangs had been suddenly eliminated. There would be rampant infighting as smaller groups or new players tried to take control of the lucrative smuggling and drug processing operations from the weakened gangs. Tomorrow, we planned to have a discussion with Mexican authorities about taking advantage of the situation to wrest control of the country back from criminals. We expected significant opposition from within the government, police and military.