170: Project Firefly (2)

(This story takes place in a parallel universe and carries no other implications.)

(Please do not post paragraph comments with political metaphors that do not align with the text.)

...

The origins of this event can be traced back to the year the Pioneer Military Government was renamed the Human Federation—

That was the 1002nd year since the establishment of the military government.

That year, a Human Federation research vessel unexpectedly received a communication sent in English—the Human Federation, having wandered abroad for many years, had found its home planet!

Back then, most of those who supported the pioneer project were folks from the eastern part of the continent.

As everyone knows, people born in such a cultural circle have the four words "falling leaves return to their roots" engraved in their blood from birth.

At that time, the first Grand Marshal of the military government was so moved that he wept with old tears. He immediately mobilized every war machine of the military government, initiating the final grand expedition of his life—

He wanted to open a path between the military government and Earth; he wanted to go back!

That war was another chaotic mess; over a dozen alien civilizations were simply run over like speed bumps.

The impatient United fleet didn't even bother to exercise their fine tradition of maximizing resource utilization, opting directly for the fastest and most efficient method:

Mining and smelting on the spot, building ships on the spot, and then participating in the battlefield right there.

As for where the ore came from, did that even need to be asked?

In less than a month, they returned to the Earth they had been separated from for so long.

But the scene before their eyes was difficult for them to accept—

In the past, that portion of the high-level leadership from the Earth Alliance who had parted ways with them had pursued a "fusion" policy for thousands of years, and Earth was already unrecognizable.

On the Himalayas, known as the roof of the world, they had built a statue out of pure gold depicting a human dressing an alien in traditional human clothing, with the specific inscription "Welcome, alien friends, to Earth."

What made the military government personnel feel even more disgusted was that the alien on that statue was clearly one of the few alien species they had casually crushed on their way there!

And the race on Earth that called themselves human—especially those "humans" in the core zones—hardly looked like humans at all!

There were red-skinned ones with four arms, blue-skinned ones covered in feathers, green-skinned ones covered in warts...

Only in those harsh environments and high-intensity jobs could one still see a portion of pure-blooded humans.

They lived at the very bottom of the ecological chain, doing the most work for the least pay. Anyone who came by would stomp on them, anyone who came by would curse them... No, it was that no one was willing to interact with them at all.

But precisely because of this, the human bloodline was dramatically preserved on Earth to some extent.

When they saw the Human Federation descend, those guys were arrogant at first—

Some even brazenly spouted nonsense at the landing military government soldiers,

the gist of which was, "I am a noble alien human; if you lowly pure-blooded humans offend me, the Earth Alliance will undoubtedly stand up for me," or something similar.

So, what was the reaction of the military government soldiers?

Those damn aliens dared to call themselves human?

That is fucking blasphemy!!!

I'm going to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill them all!!!!!

Facing this situation, the command level of the military government fleet quickly made a painful decision:

He would use neutron sterilization and orbital bombardment to give their beloved Earth a major cleaning.

Then, the first Grand Marshal of the military government stood on the spotlessly cleaned Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and after publicly executing all the high-level officials of the Earth Alliance, solemnly declared to all humanity—

"History has proven! Compromise cannot buy survival!"

"Then let us use war to protect the continuation of our species! Let us use steel to guard our living space!"

"All humanity! Unite!"

"From this day on, the Earth Alliance ceases to exist! The Human Federation is hereby established!"

"Bring fear and death to the aliens!"

There was a small interlude: the high-level officials of the Earth Alliance were actually pure-blooded humans as well—it seems they weren't stupid either.

And without a doubt, when a not-so-stupid person does something that looks stupid, it's usually not because they have become stupid, but because such stupid things allow them to rake in a lot of money.

But in any case, after dealing with those Earth Alliance high-level officials, the Human Federation turned a new page—but this page had a most obvious flaw:

The Human Federation did not carry out a comprehensive and thorough purge of the entire Earth Alliance.

A small portion of Earth Alliance remnants survived and formed an organization: the Star Sea Affinity Society.

However, unlike the bad guys in the Earth Alliance high command who racked their brains, these guys belonged to the type of fools who acted on a whim—

The Earth Alliance's policy of being pro-alien was something the high-level officials themselves didn't believe in, yet they forced the public to believe it.

But when this group first started, they actually believed that nonsense themselves.

This organization once hid, disguised itself, and lay dormant for tens of thousands of years; both their ideology and policies changed tens of thousands of times,

but the only thing that remained unchanged was their close attitude toward aliens.

Until that time—the largest battle between the Human Federation and the aliens.

From a god's-eye view, that war was the aliens wanting to cooperate to attack the Human Federation, and the Human Federation then passively counterattacked.

But in the eyes of the ordinary public, this was the Human Federation directly issuing a declaration of war against the entire universe.

This Star Sea Affinity Society also found its opportunity at this moment.

They handed over something crucial—the complete human gene editing spectrum (full version), including improved versions—to the aliens who were being kicked in the head by the Human Federation on the front lines.

Packed together with it were all of the Human Federation's military deployment maps and key mission distribution maps.

This was the most serious backstabbing the Human Federation had ever suffered.

Gene viruses and gene bombs targeting humans were quickly researched and used for battlefield deployment and planetary clearing.

The front lines were also thoroughly compromised because the intelligence was leaked, leading to the battle lines being thoroughly breached.

The Human Federation, which was already fighting with its belt tightened, was hit even harder.

Under this crisis, a combat plan named the "Firefly Project" was urgently launched:

In this crazy plan, the Human Federation's fleet would be broken up and, relying on experimental void warp engines to avoid void interception, would launch assaults on various core areas of the aliens—

"We will go deep into the enemy's rear! We will completely lose contact with our superiors! Our engines are experimental!"

"We are embarking on an expedition destined for death! But for humanity! I am willing to die heroically!"

"Who is willing to attack with me!"

After Li Yunlong, the then Grand Marshal of the Human Federation, delivered this speech, the plan officially began—

And among the thousands of megastructures responsible for cover, one of them was deployed to Cetus V66.79.