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financial and religious dominance. It wouldn’t have been as bad if we had simply picked on the most powerful of these countries to um… bring into the Empire. The others would have stood by and done little to help, or hinder our occupation, and would later beg to join us.”
    “I see, but that still doesn’t explain the madness.” He said again, hoping to get the Professor to come to the point.
    “The last several factors will clear up the misunderstanding. First, unlike most species we have encountered, humans have no naturally occurring submission mechanism in their genetic makeup. They might submit individually, but in a group, if they have a chance to fight, they will, even against a much stronger opponent.” The Director nodded, understanding the vids of humans attacking Imperial positions in suicidal waves. No matter how many they’d killed, they’d kept on coming until there were none left, or the troops ran out of power packs.”
    “The one item everyone overlooked was the fact that humans are mostly organized around the protection of the family units. Children first, then parents, grandchildren, grandparents, extended family, social groups, city, state and so on up the scale until they only loosely show allegiance at a national level.”
    “And this accounts for their madness?”
    “No, Director.” The Professor took a deep breath. “When the sector Governor put Imperial troops on the ground without due restraint, they started killing the adults and enslaving the children per standard imperial doctrine. It was at that point the humans went mad.”
    “But… but… they could always have more children…” Then it struck him. Until this moment, he’d never understood why Penn was so willing to work for him. It was his threat to kill, not just a city, but all the children in that city. For a brief moment he understood the glimpse of hell he’d seen in Penn’s Golden Eyes. It was the place where Penn would send him one day if he couldn’t find and kill him first.
    “Once we started taking their children for slaves, all other differences between themselves were put aside. We became the common enemy.” The Professor whispered at last. “I doubt there is any way we can ever balance the scales again.”
    “Short of wiping out their whole mad race, you mean.” Markoff added. Hearing that, the Professor looked appalled but nodded.
    “You could be right, Director, but I fear things are worse than you imagine if my research is correct.”
    “How so, Professor?”
    “Once you gave your clearance to search the imperial archives for any information about this planet, I came across…” The Professor took out a large handkerchief and wiped his suddenly wet brow.
    “You seem distraught, Professor.” Markoff eyed the readout under the edge of his desk, seeing spikes that had nothing to do with his fear of his questioner. “What did you find, Professor?”
    “It’s in the old records, Director… the old parchment records, dating back to the first Empire…” The Professor looked at him with haunted eyes. “This isn’t the first time the galaxy at large has had interaction with these humans.”
     

Chapter Three
    Sigma Draconis
    ...♫ there’s forty credits on the drum to those who volunteer to come, to 'list and fight the foe today. O'er the hills and far away, through Friend, Foe, and Markoff’s hand, Emperor Cytec command and we obey, O'er hill and far away♫...
    Captain John Cassidy looked around the landing field with a sour expression, not liking what he saw one bit. Other than one odd looking stone building at the edge of the LZ, there was nothing much to see, just endless hilly jungle stretching away to the horizon in all directions. The moment he stepped off the shuttle, the wet, steamy air hit him like a wet blanket, while the AO class blue-white star beat mercilessly down on his head. Other than the concrete pad the shuttles had landed on, the rest of the landing field was nothing