I’ve seen a lot of posts on humans when angered getting really quiet, focused, and detached turning into silent death machines. What if however they got used to this and assumed it to be the most extreme form of rage that humans we’re capable of? Now what if however, they saw what happens when you break a human?
[Transmission from hostile race Designation: Qit'arl]
The fleet commander stared at the prompt on screen along with trillions of others that this was being broadcast to. The alliance of Unified Planets had discovered a race of conquers from several galaxies over warped into our galaxy some 2 decades ago and initially had extended the hand of friendship to them as they had to every race currently flying the alliance’s banner.
This race the Qit'arl had responded instead with explosive rounds demanding that all submit to them and serve under them. We responded in kind. The captain ran his three clawed hand over his chitinous head closing his large eyes and letting out a hissing sigh, something he had picked up from humans he noticed.
Humans, he remarked to himself, humans had played the biggest part in there campaign to stop them. They fought the hardest and sacrificed the most in this war. Their numbers dwindled somewhat but due to the extreme resilience they often followed the motto “ It doesn’t matter how you die, only that you take as many with you as you can.”
And that’s exactly what they did, to the point that the Qit'arl began to focus only on crippling humanity. They destroyed or attempted to, a number of humanities world’s in an effort to reduce their losses and send humans back out of this war licking their wounds allowing them victory. But humanity was stubborn and persisted. 2 decades of blood shed had shown the other races the steely rage humanity had and at first it terrified them, but like all human habits it was eventually accepted as their nature.
“Answer there call, let’s see what they want.” A communications officer nodded bringing the face of their enemy on screen.
“You and all those that are being broadcast this message across your entire, PITIFUL, STAR SYSTEM will stand down,” the creature chirped much like he did but far more brutal and savage. The admiral sighed again, knowing well he was being transmitted to the rest of the galaxy, yet unable to hold in his fatigue.
“I am Admiral Ta'kan of the 23rd fleet, you have not right to make demands of us,” he spoke somewhat dryly knowing well that diplomatic peace was never an option with them.
“Then we will show you what he have learned,” the creature stepped aside showing a grey room with a human strapped to an metal throne looking rather bored and apathetic despite being behind enemy lines. The admiral straightened a bit gaining a great deal more focus as the Qit'arl approached the tied down human. The human himself despite looking rather bored and somewhat “roughed up” seemed to be fine. Admittedly the human even for his species was somewhat large and well built, A soldier he mused from the dirty ripped military fatigues he wore.
The creature rasped, “ This race the Huuumon is the only of your army that presents us trouble, however, the trait you pride them on their "Pack bonding” as you call is a horrible weakness to us and we shall now show it to you.“
The frame shifted slightly to show the entire room and the single metal door that served at the entrance and exit. The door opened and a Qit'arl holding a member of the admiral very own species was escorted in causing him and the tied up human, to tense up . Through the door more came each escorted by one Qit'arl soldier.
"We captured the ship containing this humans allies with whom he has "bonded” too for some time.“ "Now watch what we have learned” he nodded to the last guard who promptly shut the door. The admiral watched as the Qit'arl produced from a corner of the room a tray that he wheeled in front of the human. The tray contained all manner of things to inflict pain and suffering, even sending a shiver down his spine.
The Qit'arl lined the some hundred and twenty of the humans bonded friends and picked one from the line, throwing him to the ground in from of him causing him to strain with hate in his eyes against the restrains holding him in place desperate to help his friend. The leader walked to the now coughing xilankt whom he grabbed with one curved pincer reaching for the tray and randomly plucking a vial of unknown clear substance off of it. He then tried to force it down the appendage that served as it’s throat before dropping it and standing to the side watching it as it retched and sputtered to get the liquid out before large boils appeared on it’s flesh and engulfed it and a sickening pop was heard by the trillions watching in horror.
The human man strained harder against the bindings as the admiral watched each of the prisoners be tortured and killed in front of him . The people of the alliance knew what humans would do for those they were bonded to, what ends they would go to to save those rather than preserve their own life they risked it gladly for others. That same concept was being used against them now, a lone man unable to save those he held dear. He fought as hard as he could until he was scratched and bleeding the hatred being replaced with despair as he could do nothing.
The Qit'arl killed all of them in 3 hours with the most excruciating methods available to them.
And the Man watched.
Now he drooped against his bonds face hidden from those that could only watch like the admiral, as his last bonded friend was pulled in front of him. Fighting agains the Qit'arl he looked at his human friend not with pity or sadness but with the same steely glare that humanity had shown everyone during war. He spoke one word the the man many assumed broken long ago during the death of his bond friends.
“Human John” he spoke causing the man in question to raise his head slightly.
“Fight” and with that he succumbed to the torture designated for him. “John” went limp against his restrains blood and sweat flowing from the cuts on his hands from the restraints.
“Humans,” the Qit'arl spoke again after the many hours of killing and torture, “ Humans and their bonding are weak. The beings whom fight the most with are not without their flaws. Now you have seen them,” the Qit'arl spoke producing a weapon from the dreaded tray again held it up to the slumped over head of John, “ And now” rasped the leader. “We will show you more,” and fired the weapon into the chest of the man causing small convulsions as they impacted.
For a moment, the galaxy was silent save for the still smoking weapon and the leader walking to the camera.
“Despite all you think, your humans are not infalable. They will die and-” the leader was interrupted as the guards that had stood silently in the room trained their weapons once again at the humans corpse. The leader turned around and watched with so many others as the limp hand of the once-thought-to-be-dead human slowly ever so slowly clasped into a palm as his breathing returned from an immovable breath to a roaring intake.
Once again John strained against the bonds causing his muscle to ripple through his skin and veins to bulge like tendrals through his body. The throne of suffering and hall of bodies that laid around him began to groan as it echoed through the room. Nobody did anything but stare incredulously at the man bending metal. The Qit'arl awoke from their stupor first and ordered the guards in the room to fire, and as he did.
The bonds broke.
The man chained forced to watch those close to him was free. And maker help whoever got in his way.
He ran into the wall of weapons and roared. He howled as he broke their ranks, one against many. He spashed their bodies and ripped off their limbs. The Admiral watched unable to looks away from the slaughter that one human was creating, mystified then horrified as a thought crept slowly then broke into his mind.
Humanity. Held. Back.
With that though he remembered all he had seen humanity do he remembered the sharp cutting eyes of man as they recovered from an atrocity some stupid fool had wrought on them. He remembered them marching all those races into near extinction like the monsterous predators they are.
He remembered them picking said race up from the brink of extinction and rebuilding their world with them. Humanity then was acting civilized they extended mercy and forgiveness even when an ultimatum had landed and cause d disaster against them, still they forgave.
Ta'kan watched on as a human broken by the only fate worse than death to a human screamed. His voice became raw and ugly, cracked with rage and the immensity of his wrath.
His bare fists pound down on them, over and over, shaking the camera and the chamber with the force of their impact. The galaxy watches as rounds are fired into him shearing of chunks of flesh as he continues. Humanity had now shown the darkness that they were fully capable of as one man fought with tooth, nail, and raw wrath against an army.
And that army fell, and shuddered, and squawked, beneath something that was to animalistic to be called human by any who dared say they knew what humans were capable of.
It took one Qit'arl 3 hours to do what 1 human did, in more brutal fashion, barely 20 earth minutes.
The being stood with holes through it’s body and injuries beyond saving upon a pile of dead, mangled bodies. The eyes once full of controlled rage and endless despair now shone only with brutal fiery wrath. The man opened the door and more death was heard out of view before eventually 30 earth minutes later the view switched to the bridge of the ship the man holding the controls and everything caked in Gore of the bodies fallen around him.
He smiled at the camera as he was now caked and covered in entrails and blood that mixed with his. His raw voice managed one last phrase before shutting the video. One that stuck with any being that watched this vidcall in the millennia that followed after the war. After one man defeated an entire enemy ship and rammed it into the very home world of the enemy that stole the lives of his friends and transmitted the coordinates of the homeworld he had then rammed into.
“Humans aren’t so fragile.”