Challenge #02180-E351: Looks Peaceful EnoughsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #fiction5 years ago

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"I think we may have pissed off the locals."
Loud explosions
"We definitely pissed off the locals." -- TheDragonsFlame

The Drizit thought the world they invaded was ripe for the picking because the inhabitants had no obvious weapons. They thought that an agrarian culture was passive and harmless. They should have really done their homework, because these apparently passive agrarians were also humans.

They took precautions, because parasitising an entire planet largely depends on remaining undetected until your presence is merely a fact of life. They took steps like burrowing into normally inaccessible areas, only stealing when the local populations were seemingly inactive, utilising the best of their stealth technology and so forth.

They didn't reckon with Humans who invented things like Duck Blinds, Night Vision Goggles, and occupations like Owl Tagging. The residents of a planet called Meggidio knew about the Drizit in less than a week. Following that, it was merely the process of tracking them down that allowed the Drizit to persist for as long as they did.

They noticed. Eventually. Something was amiss with the usual agrarian activities. Something that didn't match the data that the probes had sent them. Something that felt... angry.

Hoq'haq, on duty at their monitoring station, was the first and last to notice. They were the one who put together the data mismatch and turned to their leader on the bridge. "Xir... I believe we may have agitated the local inhabitants..."

This news, unfortunately, happened mere instants before the local inhabitants set off a chain of charges that collapsed the Drizit tunnels stretching out from the initial Explorer/Burrower that was their initial space and colony vessel. Shortly after that, another chain of explosions obliterated the artificial landslide scree they had used to hide their ship.

A message rang out in GalStand Simple. "Us having this planet," said a voice, loud enough to make the entire ship vibrate. "You going away now. You staying for next sunrise? We fighting you."

In context, a rather terrifying message. Leader Xir realised that the tunnels the Humans had collapsed were also the ones that were uninhabited. They were letting the Drizit take their leave peacefully, and with no casualties.

Xir said, "You are correct in your assumption, Hoq'haq. Please sound the All Retreat."

The Humans were willing to allow for this to be a simple misunderstanding.

Once.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Elenathewise]

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