The Poppy War

Warfare was about absolutes. Us or them. Victory or defeat. There was no middle way. There was no mercy. No surrender.

The Federation had massacred Golyn Niis for the simple reason that they did not think of the Nikara as human. And if your opponent was not human, if your opponent was a cockroach, what did it matter how many of them you killed?

They surrendered, she wanted to scream at her disappeared enemy. They dropped their weapons. They posed no threat to you. Why did you have to do this?

A rational explanation eluded her.

Because the answer could not be rational. It was not founded in military strategy. It was not because of a shortage of food rations, or because of the risk of insurgency or backlash. It was, simply, what happened when one race decided that the other was insignificant.

Chaghan did not look convinced.

“Pathetic,” he spat, and Rin agreed with him.

This was not Altan’s first genocide.

Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.”

Amateurs obsess over strategy, Irjah had once told their class. Professionals obsess over logistics.

to empty my mind? To be devoid of all thought? All sense of self? What good does that serve?”

“It serves to sever you from the material world,”

But if the Keju had taught her anything, it was that pain was the price of success.

He was a brutal teacher who seemed to delight in their discomfort.