"This battle revolves around two things," sighs Probe, sounding profoundly
human. Fred shivers at the sight. "One is survival. The other is interwined
with the first. That is natural resources.
"The Lizards, as you call them, are not nice people as a group," the
cyborg explained. "This you already know. However, you probably don't know
is that they consider themselves, and ONLY themselves as people. The rest
are animals to be used and abused as wanted."
Fred nods grimly. That sounded like his father at the core of matters.
"They see what humanity has, and wish to make it their own," the AI
explains. "We humans objected, and had need to form the Earth Alliance.
More on that latter.....
"What happens is that we need those resources to keep our happy little
worlds working....or we'd soon collapse to darker....more brutal means
of getting the job done. It would be ugly, just take my word for it. Without
the resource, we can't fight effectively against these scaley bastards.
They'd use us like cattle. This conflict has spread to your world....which
is rich in a critical resource we call Tiberian. It makes space travel
and diminsional hopping possible. It's a green crystal found almost everywhere
on your planet....and it's as common as dirt. The Alliance and the Enemy
both want this stuff, but while we'd compensate ya for getting it.....you
saw what the Lizards did. Now, we can't use it because the Phage is super
nasty! So nasty that the idea of mining this place is just plain nutso.
Only way for the humans of the Alliance to be safe is to not touch ground.
Biological samples of the Phage proved to be immune to all means we know
of to neutralize.....even the vacuum of space. Get the picture?"
Fred almost asked what the Golem meant by the "vacuum of space" but
decided to skip it. He just nodded affirmative. This was interesting, in
a way.
"Now the Alliance," the AI says. "It's a bunch of parallel worlds joined
together in a common defense. However, the government is a system you've
probably never heard of before. It's a corpracy."
With a quick scan to see that nobody is listening in, the AI says in
a low voice to the listening manfox.
"The original democracy collapsed under the strain caused by attacks
from Enemy attacks," the cyborg whispered. "The corporate businesses --something
like your Trading Houses--banded together to take up the slack.....and
they basically now run things. Not many are thrilled with that, but.....what
can a person who owes his existence....and continued existence do? If the
war ends.....perhaps something is to be done. Now is not the time to topple
the only effective organization that runs things....along with the Military....'course."
Fred's muzzle wrinkled in a slight sneer at the whole thing. It reminded
him too much of a nearby nation to Allaria that had been run by a slick
character by the name of Bill. However.....Fred and the folks of Terra
were NOT in any position to help the Alliance. They first needed to help
themselves....and that would prove difficult enough!
"As for why I am doing this," smiles Probe. "Just call me an
overgrown Boyscout."
Probe then spent the next fifteen minutes explaining what a "Boyscout"
was, and what was meant by that phrase.
-
 Latter, with a possibly
better understanding of his new "friends," Fred joins Synizn and the other
Manimals and adventurers (sans Willian) to discuss.....what had been revealed
today.
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