Challenge #04937-M188: War Adapts

Alliance observers watch the boot camp where future human space Marines are trained. -- BKF

They say war never changes. Some aspects of it do. Such as, how badly the opposing sides can ruin the landscape they're fighting over. Or how nefarious or nasty the tactics can get. Or the tools employed in battle.

What surprised most of the Alliance was how Humans - the most reckless of Deathworlders - agreed that nuclear weapons were not on.

Turning contested territory into an uninhabitable crater that glows in the dark is somewhat counter to the entire point. They want to have it and all the associated perks, not to watch it through special telescopes. Nukes were worse than sowing the ground with salt, because they also made mineral exploitation a deadly exercise.

There were worse weapons than nukes. Antimatter bombs, for instance, rendered the contested territory null and void. Literally. And there was that one polity that claimed it could initiate a black hole. Their last message was to set it off in the most rattle of the biggest sabre ever recorded.

It's not there any more.

Turns out, it's a very bad idea to set off a black hole on your own territorial border. Especially when said border is inside your home solar system. To their credit, they did eliminate their enemies. They also eliminated their worst enemy - themselves.

Thus, in a roundabout way, war turned back to land battles with interesting extras. Even then, it was the absolute last option. When things descended to war, they were beyond further help.

What fascinated the Alliance was that the Human Space Marine training was focussed entirely on precision strikes. Get to the seat of power as quickly as possible and leave as many civilians and infrastructure out of it. As their philosopher Tacitus was purported to say, "Only a true idiot attacks the infrastructure he plans to use after he's won."

How to tell a combattant from a non-combattant? The ancient philosopher Steve Rogers had a simple solution - the bad guys are the ones shooting at us.

Innocent civilians are more likely to run for safety. Or anything that looks like safety. And it is part of a Space Marine's job to ensure that they stay safe no matter how much ammo is zipping around in the air. Which led to the invention of Hot-Body Bags.

Ingenious devices helped by B'Nar's miniaturisation technology, the pellet launched at a civilian makes contact. Once there, it launches nanites programmed to weave a protective life-support shelter around the noncombattant, signalling to its unit that it is protecting someone.

Of course, Space Marine Armour repels such technology. Otherwise war would be no fun at all.

Combat missions are generally "Bag and tag" with an aim to the aforementioned protecting civilian life, as well as any possible pets. Followed by disabling opposing forces, then capturing the leaders responsible for the whole mess.

Usually, once that is done, the hostilities end with a whimper.

There's also assymetrical war tactics. In which one side uses the cheapest possible means of causing trouble for those with superior firepower. When a whole planet does that, it's time to either double down or reassess what you're doing.

It shocks the Alliance that a majority of Space Marine training is not what to shoot and how to kill, but rather: strategy, tactics, diplomacy, negotiation, de-escalation procedure, emergency medical procedures, and psychotherapy. The ideal war, the Humans say, is one in which the least amount of people need to die.

Few dare ask how Humanity came to that conclusion. Those who do get the full history lesson regarding Deathworlder atrocities.

[Photo by Saifee Art on Unsplash]

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