Best HFY Sci-Fi Stories: They Are Barely Better Than Cavemen

the breathing of the coloran High Council had been succinct a new inhabited world had been discovered in a previously unexplored arm of the Galaxy a long forgotten scalp probe had followed an unexplained em signal and found a nickel iron world in the habitation zone of a moderately sized yellow white star the newly scanned World showed a planet with atmosphere conductive to carbon based life with easily accessible resources and a mass that would be a perfect Outpost and Colony world for the calan people a follow-up man probe had found that the IM signal was due to

the activity of the world's indigenous people humans they call themselves as surreptitious observation had revealed the human population of the world was in excess of 8 billion an absolutely astonishingly High population when considering the physical size of the world it was clear that the humans were reproducing at an alarmingly high and unsustainable rate far in excess of what any intelligent planet-bound Society could tolerate this was the primary argument that the colonization committee had used to get the humans declared a class for species though the calan hegemony was composed of many different species from many different

worlds position in calan society was completely determined and controlled by your species class curan species class ranged from 1 to six a classic species was lower life with little to no sapiens what many humans might consider animals a classic species was considered to be of no interest and little more than a nuisance or a source of protein a class five species was any Sapient species that had not yet reached industrialization class five species were generally used for general labor and meal t tasks workers servants medical experiments Etc a class 4 species was any life form

that had progressed to General use of machines and labor saving devices class 4 species generally had not conquered space travel and more Advanced Technologies class 4 species were also used for labor but were generally placed in more advanced positions of responsibility but were absolutely considered to be Unworthy of inclusion in general calan Society species of classes 1 through three were the only species considered worthy of inclusion in coloran society class one was the ruling class you must be a class one species to ever have any possibility of being included in any coloran policymaking or political

decisions classes two and three were members of General coloran Society everything from laborers technical medical and scientific positions were reserved for classes 2 and three species of classes 4 through six had no rights under coloran law and were seen only as property several coloran council members had argued that the newly discovered humans were clearly at least a class free species and thus they must be protected as future members of the colan hegemony but they have been overall by other council members who argue that any reasonably intelligent species would never behave in such a self-destructive fashion

the proponents of class 4 classification have pointed out that rudimentary space travel and even higher level technology did not automatically classify a species as class three it was clear that the humans propensity for war and self-destruction clearly demonstrated that Humanity was not ready for inclusion in coloran society at the end of the high council meeting it was decided that humans are a class four species and as such were clearly the property of the newly expanded coloran hegemony seeing that inhabitable worlds were few and far between it was soon determined that the planet known as Earth

would be officially claimed as a colony world for the coloran people an annexation mission was quickly planned a fleet of curan processing ships were dispatched to the human Planet the mission was simple the human population would be reduced to a more sustainable and controllable level an initial curan Outpost would be established and the remaining Human animals will be retrained to Ser the coloran people when they arrived the projected population reduction was based on several factors primarily planet and resource size as well as making the number of humans more reasonable by management of the coloran overseers

all of this was determined completely unemotionally and scientifically using formulas determined eons Ago by the first coloran hegemony the final numbers determined by the cian computers were just over a 100 million this would necessitate the extermination of just under 8 billion humans General juk was selected as the leader of the processing Fleet General jurk was a member of the duul people a class one Society integrated into the clu in hegemony nearly free Millennia earlier this was his third annexation Mission General juk sat in his quarters reviewing the mission briefing the humans have been classified as

class 4 the mission required him to exterminate the majority of the humans grossly overpopulating the planet known as Earth then he was instructed to establish a coloran Outpost and processing facility to prepare the planet for colonization the remaining humans would be retrained in the processing facility to prepare them as labors for the soon Tobe arriving curan colonists as he reviewed his orders he noted that the numbers of the humans populating the planet was unbeliev un believably High never in his life he had witnessed a planet so incredibly overpopulated on his last annexation Mission the target

Planet hosted a population of just over 800 million that population had been reduced to just under 80 million a completely reasonable number for the incoming coloran colonist to manage but this planet Earth hosted a population of over 8 billion at first he thought the number was a misprint surely no Planet the size of this one could support so many life forms the most populous planet in the coloran hegemony was cestus free and it hosted just over a billion colian citizens and it was nearly 20% larger than this Earth as he sat reading the reports he

realized why this mission was so large when he had been picked to lead this Mission he had been caught off guard by the size of the fleet he had been chosen to lead 15 Capital ships each more than 10 km is in size hosting nearly a th000 crew and more than a million extermination professionals never in his life had he seen such a large annexation expedition in fact he didn't even realize that the curan hegemony had 15 million extermination professionals perhaps many have been quickly trained for just this Mission even with 15 million extermination professionals

working it could take months to reduce the Earth's population to manageable levels reviewing the Intelligence on the new world he formulated a plan of action the planet earth has several large land masses separated by water General jurk decided that he would place his Fleet in high orbit and then send down fre Scout ships followed by three more Capital ships to begin the eradication of the humans once these ships and their Crews had completed their initial operations and secured a foothold the remaining Capital ships would land to continue the process intelligence had determined that the humans

did have rudimentary space flights and aerial capability but the humans relied on reaction engines for power rockets General juk snickered under his breath Rockets will be as effective against our technology as Frank pebbles at a charging Beast soon General juk moved his Fleet into orbit of the blue green planet known as Earth there was no doubt that his Fleet of 15 10 km ships was clearly visible from the Planet surface as he prepped for the initial incursion on the planet he wondered what the humans were thinking it was common for lesser Advanced societies to view

the calans as Gods often times lower species would attempt to pray to and offer sacrifices to the curan colonists believing them to be Gods who had somehow been angered by their actions or inactions it didn't matter he had a job to do this planet would be pacified and it's remaining people processed to serve the curan hegemony however instead of prayers and offerings General juk was surprised when he was notified that an incredibly powerful em signal was being transmitted directly to the choran fleet the ship's computer had determined that the signal was the equivalent of a

hello welcome to Earth message not really the first Contact he had expected but perhaps fortuitous perhaps this Mission will go smoothly he thought to himself they seem to be more intelligent than we expected I will inform them of their great blessing of being annexed into the coloran hegemony and once I explain to them the necessity of reducing their population to sustainable and manageable levels I'm sure they will understand General juk could not have been more wrong his initial conference had been with the Secretary General of something called the United Nations this Secretary General having been

flanked on both sides by several people of which general juk came to understand were the leaders of the most powerful nation states on the planet instead of the reasonable response General juk expected he was surprised by their reactions when he had explained the situation to them the whole meeting had devolved into a shouting match with the humans declaring war on General juk and his Fleet no matter how much he tried to reason with the humans he was rebuffed with vitrio and hatred he patiently tried to explain how advanced the technology of the coloran was he

tried his best to make it clear that the humans had absolutely no ability to stand against the coloran hegemony one of the humans juk thought he said he was American had T him to go do something physically impossible to himself finally out of exasperation juk had ended the big conference and began to move forward with his orders returning to his original plan General juk dispatched the initial free Scout ships towards the plant surface as expected they were met with the Primitive aerial vehicles of the humans also as expected the descending Scout ships made short work

of the attacking human craft using their directed energy weapons and gravity manipulation equipment the Scout ships definitely wipe the attacking craft from the sky as easy as one may smack a bug from the air by the time the Scout ships have completed their part of the mission more than 100 human craft being swatted from the air with no more effort than it would take to move an annoying hair from in front of your eyes the initial scoutship campaign had proceeded without incident and general juk gave the order for the three capital ships to begin their

part of the mission as before the capital ships were attacked by human ships but this time the human ships were ignored with little more effort than one would expend walking for a cloud of gnats hundreds of human ships fell from the sky as the Colossal capital ship ships descended to the planet's surface once there the ships began discoring their extermination professionals on the ground they were met with what appeared to be human armies unbelievably in the short time since her arrival the humans have seem to amass armies numbering in the millions no matter thought General

juk as he watched the events unfolding on his view screens just says as the time of hunting them down as he watched thousands of human troops vanished in puffs of vapor as the coloran incinerated them to gas the human slug frying weapons on the other hand were as uses as Charles toys against the choran armor oh from time to time a human would get lucky and a choran would fall mortally wounded but for every coloran that fell more than a thousand humans fell well casualties are to be expected on a mission like this jot thought

to himself as he watched the fracus unfolding on his screen suddenly the humans seemed to stop fighting it was as though a single command had been heard by every human at the same moment in a single motion the humans stopped fighting turned and moved quickly away from The coloran Landing site The Retreat of the humans was so sudden so fast and so well coordinated that it left many of the choran exterminators standing scratching their heads in a matter of minutes not a single living human could be seen in any direction in moments General JK's view

screen went from the cacophony of battle to dead silence as the Clin exterminators tried to ascertain where all the humans had gone turning to his first lieutenant juk requested a scan of the area General jurk replied his Lieutenant it appears that there are now virtually no humans anywhere near any of the capital ships what exclaimed juk where did they go well replied the lieutenant on reviewing the scans it appears that the majority of the humans were moving away from The Landing sites the whole time the ones resisting have now began to board highspeed transports and

are quickly leaving the area I don't understand replied General juk IR his console the lieutenant continued to speak it appears the lieutenant paused for long moments as he assessed the situation that the humans that were resisting the coloran exterminators were simply a delaying tactic buying so to speak for the other humans to escape the area escape to where and why don't they understand that they can't hide from our senses they're just a lay the inevitable of course General continued the lieutenant but our scans confirm that there are very few humans within 25 km of the

perimeter of any of our Capital Landers and that distance seems to be widening very well order the Exterminator Squad leaders to form back up we will will regroup into standard eradication fanes the general looked down at the timeline on his personal data device I was hoping that their resistance would actually speed things up leaning back and exhaling he continued I guess we will just stick to my original timeline estimate a few moments pass while General juk watched The View screens as his extermination professionals arranged into squads various ground and air vehicles would been unloaded from

the capital ships he watched the work with pride thinking about the coming day when he could walk back into the choran high council chambers and hand another pacified World ready for colonization over to the hegemony I guess they will give me another medal he thought just then his thoughts were interrupted by his third in command General Su I'm seeing something strange in my Global scanners turning toward the station over his left shoulder what is it Lieutenant said the general I just registered several missile launches from a remote area on one of the western continents ah

now they are trying to attack us with their primitive chemical Rockets the general smirked as he watched the readout according to my readings the missiles appear to be ballistic projectiles the first one appears to be headed for the Dominator as you remember you assigned the Dominator to the Eastern region of the Western Hemisphere for eradication that missile should reach its destination in about 8 minutes of their time the other two projectiles seem to be on a polar Arc headed for the other two Capital ships on the primary continent of their Western Hemisphere they will take

a few minutes longer so I did General juk rubbed his chin as he looked at the numbers on the screen well at that speed they might do some minor damage but I don't think there anything to worry too much about notify captain lamata of the Dominator as well as the other captains about the incoming projectiles they might want to hit them with a heat beam to soften them up before impact I doubt that we will see more than a splattering of hot metal on the halls of our ships yes sir replied the lieutenant general jukk

turned back to his view screens to watch the preparations of course he was watching the Dominator it was the pride of the coloran fleet a few minutes passed as the troops continued to mobilize no not troops he quickly corrected himself the korans were so far beyond these humans that referring to the extermination professionals as troops was an insult to the coloran military suddenly a beam of light could be seen emanating from a turret on the top of the Dominator ah the general thought to himself Captain lamata was hitting the incoming projectile with a heat ray

that should soften the falling object up and turn it into liquid thought the general it would be little more than warm rain on the Hall of the massive Dominator suddenly there was the ever so brief flash of white light and all his view screens went dark at the same moment what happened exclaimed the general as he turned back towards the lieutenants at the station behind him a few moments of Silence followed as every officer on the bridge scan their readout in confusion I don't know sir FY answered his second in command all contact with the

Dominator has been lost lost what do you mean lost replied the general I don't know sir one moment everything was completely normal and the next nothing the lieutenant continued operating various controls in a desperate attempt to understand the readouts he was seeing long moments passed while the bridge around him was a chaos of disorientation and confusion give me a minute to acquire an orbital View suddenly the color drained from the face of his third officer it's gone his lips Shook and his fingers trembled as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing gone

growled the general what do you mean gone the Dominator sir added the lieutenant his voice breaking as he tried to form the words the Dominator is gone sir gone exclaimed the general as he jumped to his feet and rushed to the Lieutenant's side the display showed an orbital view of the eastern part of the largest continent in the western hemisphere of the planet called Earth where just shortly before could be seen the hulking mass of the 10 km diameter Dominator was nothing but a flaming Wasteland as far as the eye could see above this hellish

landscape a 30 km mushroom cloud was quickly billowing High into the stratosphere what happened what am I seeing shrieked the general his voice raising an octave with each breath General came a voice from the Science Station according to these readings the general turned toward the enim work in the Science Station the Dominator was destroyed by a nuclear attack the general turned back towards the view screens displaying the other two Capital ships on the surface of the planet nuclear weapons he exclaimed How could a class for society fill nuclear weapons get word to those captains warn

them as the general was speaking there were two bright flashes of light and the remaining two Capital ships disappear from view the general slung down into his chair more than 3 million calans dead in the blink of an eye how is this even possible nuclear weapons had been outlawed across the Galaxy eons ago no race was even allowed to study them nuclear weapon technology was the most carefully protected and secured knowledge in the Galaxy yet somehow these humans bely above cavemen had not only constructed nuclear weapons but somehow had managed to enhance them far beyond

anyone's West imagination how is it even possible to build even a nuclear weapon powerful enough to destroy not one but three of the largest vessels in the coloran fleet not only that but why had the heat Rays used by each of the now dead captains seem to have had no effect at all on the approaching devices General juk the voice of his science officer interrupted his thoughts yes I have analyzed the distruction of the other two Capital ships and the weapons used were not normal nuclear devices no single nuclear weapon has the destructive potential we

just witnessed I know that Sneed the despondent General so tell me what it was that the humans used according to my data sir the humans utilized multiple Fusion Warheads Fusion devices the general looked incredulous how in the name of the Gods could a primitive race like the humans even conceive of trigging a single Fusion release much less many such detonations at the exact same moment I was closely monitoring the projectiles as they descended towards the other two eradication ships continue as near as I can produce the fusion devices that destroyed our ships were triggered by

fision devices by the gods you must be mistaken no sir Contin the nin it appears that the humans have designed Fusion devices that are triggered by the detonation of a fishion device but why did the heed RS have no effect on the incoming devices I could clearly see that Captain lamata fired on the incoming projectiles with the dominators heat ray as did the other two captains the enine swallowed the lump in his throat I reviewed the playback of the human attack although only three chemical power missiles were launched each one seemed to carry at least

four and maybe as many as eight thermonuclear devices the N turn a view screen so that the general could see what he was describing here at apy the N pointed at the top of several curved dotted lines each launched vehicle seemed to expel its payload of devices each device seems to have simply descended towards their targets ballistically and completely independently since the devices were suborbital devices traveling at Hypersonic velocities it is reasonable to assume that each device carried a significant amount of ablate of heat shielding considering the speed at which they were traveling they would

have been exposed to the heat race for only moments and with the multiple incoming devices with a blade of shielding the general added there would not have been enough time for the heat ray to have any effect no sir the nen's analysis was concise and detailed especially considering how quickly he had compiled the data the general decided in that moment to recommend him for a commendation as soon as they returned to the choran home world but now what thought the general the fact that these humans possessed Fusion devices with an admittedly primitive but effective delivery

system changed the mission parameter significantly a groundbased extermination process now seemed completely impractical I better contact the council for further instructions General juk as as the general was mulling over his options his second command's voice interrupted his thoughts yes Lieutenant I was reviewing the data from earlier and a short time ago our scanners detected several more launches from various locations all over the planet why wasn't I notified in the confusion of the destruction of our free ships on the planet's surface we simply overlooked them spinning in place the general screamed find them find them now

I want to know where where those Rockers are headed in moments the ense spoke up I have them sir sir there was a long pause the missiles have already dispersed their payloads where where are they headed screamed the general the en's face went white as the blood trained from it he couldn't speak he simply raised his trembling hand and pointed towards the main viewport at the front of the bridge General juk turned toward the often ignored window at the front of the ship his brain did not even have time to register what his eyes were

showing him there just meters away was a cloud of cone-shaped objects traveling straight towards his face at Hypersonic velocities had it not been for the fact that the only thing in normal space that traveled faster than these dozen or so cone-shaped harbingers of death was light itself his retinas would have never even sense the photons that fell on them as it was before the signals could even travel along the short bundle of nerves from his eyes to his brain the fuse is triggered milliseconds later spherical high explosive charges leaked to life compressing the plutonium at

their hearts more than doubling its density in Nan seconds a split nanc later Untold trillions of plutonium atoms began to split as the free neutrons cascaded through the excitable element x-rays intense enough to melt a building sized mass of lead poured forth from the Primal forces being Unleashed by a tennis B siiz mass of metal these Rays more powerful than those released by a star impacted a secretive material known as fog Bank quicker than light could Traverse the width of a human hair this material became plasma hotter than the surface of the Sun sitting at

the core of this configration was another small sphere of plutonium surrounded by a CED material the Raging forces of creation compressed this costic lithium DDE inward towards this golf ball siiz sphere of silvery metal only nanocs have passed since the fuse is triggered as the signals rushed along the nerves from General jok's eyes towards his brain his body evaporated in a hellish Inferno hot than the core of a star his brain never even registered the flash of light from the detonation all these apocalyptic energies Unleashed by the Primitive barely better than cavemen on the planet

that spun slowly below across the surface of the Earth millions of people turned their eyes Skyward for long moments the planet had 12 new Suns hanging in the sky but slowly the Primal forces Unleashed by Humanity waned the fireball slowly disappeared leaving only twinkling Embers in their place as the darkness returned and the Stars once again Shone forth mankind breathed a collective sigh of relief nightmarish weapons that for decades were feared to be the end of humanity have become his salvation