used this road for a long time. We should have seen traffic, even if nothing more than farm vehicles going to market.”
“It is in pretty bad repair,” she agreed, skirting a pothole big enough to take a bath in. “If the Mawreg were here, or one of their high level client races, what would have happened to the people?”
“From what we’ve seen, as far as any briefings I’ve ever been given, when the Mawreg take over an inhabited world one of three things happens. Least often, they leave the whole place alone. Life goes on like there never was an invasion.”
Jaw dropping, she said, “How can that be? No one ever discusses the possibility of living in peace after the Mawreg arrive.”
“Sectors command doesn’t publicize it. The higher echelons don’t want people to get the idea we’re fighting this war for nothing, to know there’s any possibility you can be safe on a Mawreg-held world.” Johnny gave her a glance. “It’s never been seen on a planet where Terran-descent humans were the dominant species. The Mawreg seem to have identified us as their most dangerous foe. They’re not fond of any of the humanoid species but those Terran genes scare them beyond all reason. ”
“So what does usually happen?”
“The Mawreg clear the entire planet. If they’re directly involved in the invasion themselves, as far as we can tell, the population becomes food.”
Eyes wide, Sara stopped in the middle of the road, feeling faint. “Farmed? Slaughtered?”
“More like hunting. The Mawreg don’t make any attempt to keep anyone alive or breed humans, or whatever the dominant sentients were. The troops find every living being on the planet, including animals, and fish in the ocean, and process them in giant factory ships.”
“You’re making me sick to my stomach,” she said. “What’s the third outcome?”
“Client race status. We can’t fathom the Mawreg mind, why they do anything but on occasion their rulers choose to grant specific sentients a lot of independence, in exchange for serving their purposes. The Shemdylann, the Betangray, the Chimmer, a few others.”
“What would stop the Mawreg from deciding you were a client today and food tomorrow?”
Tapping his nose with his index finger to indicate the accuracy of her question, he said, “Exactly. We’ve found signs of at least once where that happened, a race of beings we call the Lost Ones. In the early decades of the war, we used to run into them and then suddenly no more reports of them. We found a few abandoned ships in the star lanes but the sentients themselves were gone.”
“So what’s your assessment of events on Farduccir?” She wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know, suspecting the truth could be awful, but no one had ever told her these kinds of details before. Hearing Johnny talk, it was apparent to her how hard the Sectors worked to keep the general population at ease and confident about the war.
“I believe we may have a hybrid situation, which would be unprecedented. Part of why I’m taking this calculated risk, heading to the city to check it out, is because the situation would be so unusual. Entire populations being carted off in Chimmer ground trucks suggests option two, food, but this isn’t how the harvesting usually happens. And the animals were left to die. Mawreg take any organism with a protein base. We’d have seen the factory ships in the star system. Another interesting fact is the way the warlord is operating as a space pirate. I’m speculating whether Umarri made a deal somehow with the Mawreg, to be a client for them, while they depopulate the planet of everyone not in his clan. Umarri could be a cover for whatever the Mawreg are doing here, fool the Sectors for a long time into believing things are more or less normal for a fairly primitive planet. He hijacks a few ships, holds small numbers of people for ransom, behaves as a low level irritant to the Sectors, reinforces the idea this is
“It is in pretty bad repair,” she agreed, skirting a pothole big enough to take a bath in. “If the Mawreg were here, or one of their high level client races, what would have happened to the people?”
“From what we’ve seen, as far as any briefings I’ve ever been given, when the Mawreg take over an inhabited world one of three things happens. Least often, they leave the whole place alone. Life goes on like there never was an invasion.”
Jaw dropping, she said, “How can that be? No one ever discusses the possibility of living in peace after the Mawreg arrive.”
“Sectors command doesn’t publicize it. The higher echelons don’t want people to get the idea we’re fighting this war for nothing, to know there’s any possibility you can be safe on a Mawreg-held world.” Johnny gave her a glance. “It’s never been seen on a planet where Terran-descent humans were the dominant species. The Mawreg seem to have identified us as their most dangerous foe. They’re not fond of any of the humanoid species but those Terran genes scare them beyond all reason. ”
“So what does usually happen?”
“The Mawreg clear the entire planet. If they’re directly involved in the invasion themselves, as far as we can tell, the population becomes food.”
Eyes wide, Sara stopped in the middle of the road, feeling faint. “Farmed? Slaughtered?”
“More like hunting. The Mawreg don’t make any attempt to keep anyone alive or breed humans, or whatever the dominant sentients were. The troops find every living being on the planet, including animals, and fish in the ocean, and process them in giant factory ships.”
“You’re making me sick to my stomach,” she said. “What’s the third outcome?”
“Client race status. We can’t fathom the Mawreg mind, why they do anything but on occasion their rulers choose to grant specific sentients a lot of independence, in exchange for serving their purposes. The Shemdylann, the Betangray, the Chimmer, a few others.”
“What would stop the Mawreg from deciding you were a client today and food tomorrow?”
Tapping his nose with his index finger to indicate the accuracy of her question, he said, “Exactly. We’ve found signs of at least once where that happened, a race of beings we call the Lost Ones. In the early decades of the war, we used to run into them and then suddenly no more reports of them. We found a few abandoned ships in the star lanes but the sentients themselves were gone.”
“So what’s your assessment of events on Farduccir?” She wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know, suspecting the truth could be awful, but no one had ever told her these kinds of details before. Hearing Johnny talk, it was apparent to her how hard the Sectors worked to keep the general population at ease and confident about the war.
“I believe we may have a hybrid situation, which would be unprecedented. Part of why I’m taking this calculated risk, heading to the city to check it out, is because the situation would be so unusual. Entire populations being carted off in Chimmer ground trucks suggests option two, food, but this isn’t how the harvesting usually happens. And the animals were left to die. Mawreg take any organism with a protein base. We’d have seen the factory ships in the star system. Another interesting fact is the way the warlord is operating as a space pirate. I’m speculating whether Umarri made a deal somehow with the Mawreg, to be a client for them, while they depopulate the planet of everyone not in his clan. Umarri could be a cover for whatever the Mawreg are doing here, fool the Sectors for a long time into believing things are more or less normal for a fairly primitive planet. He hijacks a few ships, holds small numbers of people for ransom, behaves as a low level irritant to the Sectors, reinforces the idea this is
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