Chapter 13
"How long has Human history lasted? A half million years? Some say a full 2 million, since our very earliest ancestors roamed around Asia and Africa. And in all that time, not one culture created by any of these people has managed to survive without warfare. What does that say about warfare?
What does that say about Humanity?"
~ Harryld Rittenhauer, "A Treatise on War and Development of the Human Mind"
"There are more than a few who say we were shaped by hunger. Others say we were shaped by greed and gathering. Look at us. Look at these wonderful long legs and forward facing eyes. We were shaped by open ranges, waiting to be explored. We've got a body designed to eat distances that other members of our lineage would die trying to cover. Sure, we get hungry and greedy, too. But those are add-ons to the design.."
~ Gloria Neumann-Gainer 'Dawn of the Killer Apes'
"If you are a good man, a truly great and Godly man, your name might live a few centuries. But if you are truly creative, and wicked, to boot, you become immortal, somehow. No one remembers the poor fools fighting the fires while Rome burnt.."
- Alec Guiness, 'Afterwords with Alec Guiness'
Buran IV was entering its long, dimly lit Winter. The planet, already far colder than Earth, edged ever deeper into a cold that was almost legendary for its ability to kill. Few people came to the planet, and fewer still stayed, once Winter truly settled in.
Winter was also a relatively long season, on Buran IV; the planet orbited fairly close to its star, but because Buran was a Red Dwarf, the habitable zone was an area well inside the orbit of Venus. And to make matters worse, Buran was moving through a rather thick nebula; so dense was it that the solar wind created by Buran IV's primary was not near enough to keep the gas from masking the already feeble light. In other words, life had been something of a struggle; now it was, more or less, a funeral. Luckily it was not Humanity's funeral. Instead, the frozen little backwater had worked its way into the lexicon as an excellent place to kill the various enemies of Humanity, guilt free and with all expenses paid.
And though she'd never once in her short life suffered from guilt, she had, on occasion, suffered from expenses. So while a typical volunteer stayed on long enough to get that college education, she had stayed on long enough to buy a planet, collecting more credits
for her semi-legendary kills than whole governments paid entire armies back home.
She smirked. She didn't have the heart to tell them she would have done all this for free. That she loved the hunt, even on the frozen hellhole, more than she loved any imaginable soft life behind the lines. Killing was her skill-set; and while the Winter weather might push her harder, she saw it as another kind of opportunity: the weather would weaken the Enemy as well. So she would be bold.
She glanced at the ground beneath her feet, tinted vaguely blue-white where the atmosphere was beginning to freeze out. Carbon-dioxide mounds dotted the small valley she was passing through, mixed with regular snow and water ice, forming an eerie, sculpted
group of icy stalagmites along the periphery of the valley.
Overhead, dull orange Aurora danced and shivered, brilliant and visible even in full daylight. She paused, long enough to get her bearings, adjust her rifle, the started off again, her long legs moving as if with a mind of their own towards the North, where the Enemy prepared uneasily for Winters arrival.
They needn't worry, she thought, grimly. I will come for them first.
What does that say about Humanity?"
~ Harryld Rittenhauer, "A Treatise on War and Development of the Human Mind"
"There are more than a few who say we were shaped by hunger. Others say we were shaped by greed and gathering. Look at us. Look at these wonderful long legs and forward facing eyes. We were shaped by open ranges, waiting to be explored. We've got a body designed to eat distances that other members of our lineage would die trying to cover. Sure, we get hungry and greedy, too. But those are add-ons to the design.."
~ Gloria Neumann-Gainer 'Dawn of the Killer Apes'
"If you are a good man, a truly great and Godly man, your name might live a few centuries. But if you are truly creative, and wicked, to boot, you become immortal, somehow. No one remembers the poor fools fighting the fires while Rome burnt.."
- Alec Guiness, 'Afterwords with Alec Guiness'
Buran IV was entering its long, dimly lit Winter. The planet, already far colder than Earth, edged ever deeper into a cold that was almost legendary for its ability to kill. Few people came to the planet, and fewer still stayed, once Winter truly settled in.
Winter was also a relatively long season, on Buran IV; the planet orbited fairly close to its star, but because Buran was a Red Dwarf, the habitable zone was an area well inside the orbit of Venus. And to make matters worse, Buran was moving through a rather thick nebula; so dense was it that the solar wind created by Buran IV's primary was not near enough to keep the gas from masking the already feeble light. In other words, life had been something of a struggle; now it was, more or less, a funeral. Luckily it was not Humanity's funeral. Instead, the frozen little backwater had worked its way into the lexicon as an excellent place to kill the various enemies of Humanity, guilt free and with all expenses paid.
And though she'd never once in her short life suffered from guilt, she had, on occasion, suffered from expenses. So while a typical volunteer stayed on long enough to get that college education, she had stayed on long enough to buy a planet, collecting more credits
for her semi-legendary kills than whole governments paid entire armies back home.
She smirked. She didn't have the heart to tell them she would have done all this for free. That she loved the hunt, even on the frozen hellhole, more than she loved any imaginable soft life behind the lines. Killing was her skill-set; and while the Winter weather might push her harder, she saw it as another kind of opportunity: the weather would weaken the Enemy as well. So she would be bold.
She glanced at the ground beneath her feet, tinted vaguely blue-white where the atmosphere was beginning to freeze out. Carbon-dioxide mounds dotted the small valley she was passing through, mixed with regular snow and water ice, forming an eerie, sculpted
group of icy stalagmites along the periphery of the valley.
Overhead, dull orange Aurora danced and shivered, brilliant and visible even in full daylight. She paused, long enough to get her bearings, adjust her rifle, the started off again, her long legs moving as if with a mind of their own towards the North, where the Enemy prepared uneasily for Winters arrival.
They needn't worry, she thought, grimly. I will come for them first.
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