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Chapter 666 666 A Giant's Woes
Chapter 666 666 A Giant's Woes
Max smirked as he saw the next so-called solution on his list. It was Nico's personal contribution to the matter, and it was so simple that it only took one single page to go through all the details.
[Once a Klem wave is detected on a planetary surface, an Orbital Lance-equipped Heavy Cruiser would be deployed to neutralize the infestation before it could hatch and expand. Should population issues become an issue, the Terraforming device can be deployed to create a new population with stored memories based on the most recent neural backup stored in the Alliance Online Virtual Reality Servers]
That was the whole summary, and below it was a list of estimated death benefits for the millions of people who would likely be vaporized in the resulting blast and the ranges of payments based on the location where the pods landed.
The Envoys all stared at it in shock for a moment before the Dryad began to laugh and snapped a photo of it to send to her ship. She frowned when she realized that she had no data connection in here, as the room was secured to prevent anyone from spying on them, but her laughter continued even with the annoyed look on her face.
"Just, NO. I am like 99 percent sure that is a sentient species rights violation, even before you use the limited stored data in the network to attempt to clone their memories. That's just not right. You can't just orbitally bombard cities." The Giant insisted.
"Shouldn't. Because clearly, we can. Your point is taken, but it is one of the solutions that we came up with, and in a very sparsely populated area, it is fiscally the most efficient option, as the loss is even lower than using a containment barrier to stop them." Max agreed, as the Envoys slowly realized that it wasn't a serious suggestion, except for Nico, who really didn't see the problem.
They had millions upon millions of planets in the Alliance. What loss was one city on one planet? Negligible. Even human forces had often sacrificed the population of a city to save the rest of the planet in the past.
The part she had failed to comprehend was that for the Alliance, brutal necessity was such a distant and vague concept that they would never consider it.
That was the largest part of their issue. They were so caught up in the ways to deal with the Klem that didn't involve killing them or allowing anything else to be killed that they hadn't considered that there might not be an effective way to do it.
That line of thought brought them to Max's next suggestion. Individual barriers to have the Klem captured and relocated to a fully infested planet, which could be designated as a sanctuary until such time as they devoured the plant life that remained and started to spread again.
That only put the problem a few years in the future, but once the immediate threat to the civilian population was solved, the Klem could be quietly dealt with, or an orbital shield array deployed around the sanctuary planet, preventing them from sending out pods.
Max could see in their thoughts that many high-value planets had such an array, but the power usage during a heavy attack made them highly impractical, and the cost to deploy one was astronomical. Only the most valuable of sites would be granted such a request, and a wildlife preserve certainly wasn't going to get approval for that kind of spending.
"For now, that's what the Humans have come up with for non-military options. If you have other ideas, we have an advanced database with their capabilities, and I can run an analysis for you to present to your bosses." Max finished.
"We could orbital strike the animal rights activists instead." The Valkia muttered, not pleased with any of the options they were presented.
"I have data for that. The ones here to protest come from three hundred and seven different worlds, and while the bombardment of that many planets would be costly, it is plausible." The Dryad joked.
"Not funny. Tempting, but not funny." The Envoy sighed, shaking out his wings in a show of annoyance with the whole situation.
"So, what do we tell everyone that we came up with in this meeting?" The Innu Envoy asked while she signalled for another coffee.
"We still need to come up with fully fledged proposals for all of the solutions that might be acceptable, including the hug a killer bug solution, and present them to the Foreign Relations Council. Then we need to come up with a detailed analysis of the capabilities of the Klem to support our position that they are not actually sentient. Once we have those done, we can start on all of the corporate requests.
I swear, they should just post us here permanently to deal with the mess that having humans around creates. I don't know what went wrong with your species' development, but that level of nihilism can't be natural." The Giant informed the room.
The Huntress chuckled, making her presence known for the first time this meeting, and the Giant's thoughts turned to annoyance.
[The Curiosity of the Innu, the logical mind of the Giants and the violence of the Hunters. Once we are back, I am definitely starting a commission to look into whether the Human species was genetically engineered just to make my life difficult.] He thought, making Max laugh.
"Nothing personal, just a bit frustrated with the whole process." The Giant apologized when he realized that Max had heard that thought.
"It's far from the worst thing I've heard said about us. In fact, it's a bit flattering, in a way. We really have taken on the best aspects of many species and combined them into one cultural package." Max replied.
There was definite doubt in the Giant's mind at the word "Best," but he let it slide. Max's hint was enough for the others to realize what they were talking about, and they all knew the Giant Envoy's personality well enough to realize that dealing with humans would be highly stressful for his species.
They were always coming up with legal loopholes and new creations that pushed boundaries, and as the logic-minded ones in the group, it was his team's job to analyze it all.