[right][sub]Ellara[/sub][/right]
One by one, the ships emerged from the Gateway. The smaller Cruisers and Destroyers first, making space for the following Battleships. Sonne, Eclipse. Thorsten was the last to leave the Zetan system. If the Gateway passage made any sound, it didn’t travel through the vacuum of space. Everything was silent as the arriving fleet passed by their sister ships standing guard and headed towards the planet.

The surface was also quiet. The crowds watching the spaceships fly over the cities towards the docks were honoring the fallen brothers and sisters by holding three minutes of silence. Even though it was officially declared as a victory, nobody was in the mood for celebration.

Oscar was in the captain’s quarters, watching the news. His speech was being transmitted to every station on the ground, and the cameras watched the crowds reacting to it.

“... our friends, the Earth Cultural Union, whose innocent citizen was abducted by the Zetans to gain access…” His voice from the recording resonated with confidence, and he could see people nodding, still looking grim. “... because every single life matters! Because we DO NOT leave our people behind!” Most people in the crowd stood taller, raising their fists, angry and determined expressions appearing on their faces.

“Yet we left a ton of them behind on Zeta-5.” That was the current Oscar.

“... recovered his body, which bore the signs on unimaginable torture … “

“Yea, sure.” The real Bodi was probably enjoying his stay on Zeta-5, soaking his new mechanical body parts in an oil bath and fucking some androids while watching his own people get slaughtered, or whatever the Zetans did for fun.

Oscar turned the transmission off, he couldn’t bear to watch that hypocritical asshole in a fancy uniform any longer. The truth was, he felt responsible for every life lost on or above Zeta-5. Even though he was the one who dragged his country into war, nobody protested against it. No, they cheered excitedly. And even a sworn and loyal soldier like Oscar could see that was not a good thing. People shouldn’t be excited about war. Some things needed to change, but where to start? If only he knew a person who could give him some advice.

Claire entered the room warily, squinting at him. “Why hast thou summoned me, magnificent one?” she mockingly bowed to him. How did she come up with new insults every time they met?

“I have a job for you.”

“I thought I already had a job. I’m actually really busy creating more things you warmongers will use as tools of destruction.”

“Well, you are about to become even busier. I’m going to appoint you my advisor.”

“You don’t want to hear my advice.” The disdain was clearly visible on her face.

“I certainly don’t want to hear it, but…” A long sigh escaped his lips. “I think I need to. This can’t keep going on any longer, something needs to change.”

Claire squinted so hard her eyes turned into tiny narrow lines. “Are you asking me how to transform the Undefeated into a normal democratic society?”

“Well, I definitely wouldn’t go [i]that[/i] far,” Oscar grinned.

“Oh my god, you are actually serious. Well then.” Claire took a second to gather her thoughts and take a deep breath. “You are a dictator. And don’t interrupt me,” she raised her hand to stop his complaints. “You are. Have you been elected by a democratic process? No. Are people free to speak up against you publicly? Hell no. Are people free to do whatever the fuck they want?” She just snorted. “That makes you a dictator. And don’t get me wrong, as far as dictators go, you are actually a pretty good one. The problem is, you do not rule all the people. You take almost a quarter of the population and declare them trash, toss them aside as less-than-humans. Do you realize those people don’t really have any more rights than the captured Screechers that slave away in the labor camps?” Claire spoke passionately and desperately, from her own experience.

She was right and the rational part of his mind knew it. Even though he could not understand it, apparently some people did not [i]want[/i] to be soldiers. Oscar had no idea why, being a soldier was the best part of his life, the only part of his life. But the cases where people deliberately failed the tests to get kicked out and become Rejected were multiplying. Back in the times soon after the landing when this system was introduced by desperate colonists facing extinction, the Rejected were the ones who physically could not be a part of active military units, usually due to high age or some disability. They were assigned other duties necessary in the struggling colony and were not shunned in any way. In time, however, as the military culture became a key part of the society, the non-military citizen became more and more undesirable and scorned. Gradual changes over the decades have slowly pushed them into being considered inferior to ‘normal’ humans.

Still, some people were motivated enough to endure this on purpose. The Rejected these days weren’t just the physically disabled. A lot of people failed the tests on purpose, just to avoid being a part of the Undefeated army. Or maybe they were terrified of being sent to the front? Oscar didn’t know. He did know, however, that Claire was one of these people - her academy records clearly stated that she was an excellent recruit, just had serious problems with authorities. She questioned every order, often speaking against the war. When the officers pushed against her, she pushed back, resulting in failing the final exams. Only her brilliant brain saved her from slaving in some dry-cleaning for the rest of her life.

Oscar sighed. Whatever changes he was going to make were always going to anger someone. “So what are you suggesting? Do we just let everyone do what they want? Disband the army and become farmers?”

“You don’t have to disband the army. Even if you give people a choice, lots of them will still choose the military. That way you will have those who really want to fight to do your fighting, and those who don’t want to fight can do something more useful, like grow food or invent things.”

A short growl escaped Oscar’s lips. Why the fuck did it sound so reasonable? “What about the northern front? We can’t take that continent with diminished numbers.”

“Why the hell do you need to take that continent?”

“What?” That was such an absurd question Oscar had no idea how to answer it. “Because it’s swarming with the Screechers?”

“Of course it’s swarming with the Screechers. It’s [i]their[/i] planet. But we don’t even use all the space on this continent. Why do we need to waste lives trying to capture a second one? Why don’t we take this opportunity to do something good, to… to advance society?”

Oscar snorted. “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know!” Claire shouted at him. Why did all their conversations eventually result in yelling at each other? “I don’t know,” she continued in a calmer voice. “Nobody knows. Because nobody ever bothered to try and find out. You rip babies out of their mothers’ wombs and stuff rifles right into their hands. If you give people some space, they might come up with some good ideas.”

They debated for hours, long after the Thorsten landed in a dock, the crew disembarked and the engineers and mechanics started to repair the damage the ship had sustained. Claire had a ton of idealistic ideas that were absolutely inapplicable, but also a few good ones that had some merit.

[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

The memorial was beautiful. Two meters tall pedestal provided enough space for each name and rank to be engraved. Every life lost immortalized in stone, an endless list of brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. Comrades. Friends. A statue was placed atop the pedestal. An unarmed man, cowering in fear, protected by a soldier in an exoskeleton who was aiming a rifle at a terrifying robot. The warform depiction was a bit exaggerated to make it look more dramatic. As if one soldier standing versus that mechanical monstrosity wasn’t dramatic enough.

Oscar ran his fingers over the grooves on the stone that made letters and words. Private Andrew Higgins, 17. How did such a young kid get into the invasion fleet? Into a first wave of the ground invasion even? The Grand General shook his head.

The crowd was silently waiting for his words, a couple of floating cameras ready to transmit the message to every person on Ellara and in space around it. Oscar took a deep breath. He was not scared - of course, he was not scared, he was the Grand General, a veteran of countless battles, for sure he would not be afraid to say a few words in public. But you could say he was nervous. After all, what he was about to say would change the lives of everyone on the planet.

“We are here today to remember our brothers and sisters in arms, who died during the Zetan conflict. Brave men and women who did not hesitate to lay down their lives to help a friend in need, to fight an unthinkable threat. But why were they forced to do that?

With the Gateway reopening, we have entered a new era. Yet, we seem to be carrying the bad habits over from the old one. We have been at war for centuries, too long for anyone to even remember what peace feels like. And that is not a good thing.” Oscar paused for a few seconds, observing the crowd’s reactions. They mostly looked confused. No surprise, this was certainly not the speech they were expecting. “War,” he pressed a bit harder, “is not a good thing.” Now that caused some jaws to drop. “Sometimes it is a necessary thing, but starting a new one should not be celebrated.”

“For too long,” he raised his hands to shush quiet murmurs and whispers spreading through the crowd, “we have been at war. It has become our way of life, the centerpiece of our society. But that has to change. Even now, there are people who did not wish to be a part of this circle of death and destruction. We may have tried to forget they exist, but they walk among us. Invisible, shunned. Rejected. For too long we have taken from them, giving nothing in return.”

He could feel the people staring at him, the whole planet stunned by his words, trying to guess what would come next. “I am not saying that we will abandon our way of life. I am not saying we will all bury our guns and become farmers. All I am saying is that from now on, people will have what they didn’t have before. A CHOICE. 300 years ago, when our forefathers landed on Ellara, they didn’t have a choice, they had to fight to survive. Today, 300 years later, fighting is no longer a matter of life and death. Yes, we will continue to fight, to grow our borders, to eliminate threats to our people. But we will also build. Grow. Create.”

Alright, now to the main business. Oscar nodded at the security to be on high alert. A lot of people carried guns on them and he wanted to at least finish the speech first before someone starts shooting at him. “From now on, after attending the mandatory 5 years of the military academy, the graduates will be allowed to choose whether they want to continue being a part of the military or want to pursue a career in a different area. Similarly, all current military personnel will be allowed to retire from active service. They will not face any repercussions. Starting this day, NOBODY will be discriminated against for not being a part of the military. That includes EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN of this nation. We are all humans and we will all have equal rights.

Let’s take this chance and help to better our society, each at their own discretion.” He finished the long-prepared speech and looked straight into the camera. People gathered around the memorial were whispering, giving him side glances. The truth was, he had no idea how the people were going to react. As Claire pointed out, he was not democratically elected, so there was no way to democratically un-elect him, or whatever the right word was for that. On the other hand, a bullet through the brain worked just as well, probably even better. He would have to be way more careful during the days and weeks to follow.