l3monsoda:

writing-prompt-s:

Compared to the rest of the galaxy humanity is by far the friendliest. To many star systems they are considered “the good neighbor,” and are known for their helpfulness. One day an oblivious system declares war on humanity, only to find half of the galaxy responding to humanity’s plea for aid.

The thing about humanity was, they were better from a distance. It was well known throughout the galaxy that humans were a warring violent and largely self destructive race. Anyone with any kind of sense at all stayed far away from their home solar system if you wanted safe travels.

 So it might come as something of a surprise for those who encountered the odd human scrapping vessel out on the outskirts of civilized space after getting turned around, that the gruff looking humans aboard not only had no qualms about giving directions but also insisted you travel together for a good part of the trip because “We were thinking on heading up that way soon anyway and that asteroid field can be a bit tricky if you haven’t been through it before.” They also were likely to force some extra supplies on the hapless traveler in an effort to ensure they were eating enough.

When a colony was ravaged by natural disasters, it was human builders who showed up with the tools supplies and know how to rebuild again. When a traveler got waylaid or trapped at an intergalactic space station chances were pretty good it was a human who stepped in to help get them were they were going. Forget your wallet while at the market? A passing by human might just pick up your bill wanting nothing in return just throwing a friendly smile into the bargain for good measure. Having trouble with the star engine, hollow projector or neuron ejector? You can sure as heck bet some random human was going to appear with ten different theories of what’s wrong and offering to come back with some of his tools and four of his buddies to help you figure it out.  

Disaster was once narrowly avoided when a fresh colony vessel had encountered a critical malfunction causing both ship’s engines to blow beyond repair. Their home planet had just delivered the devastating news that the nearest rescue ship would not reach them until days after they ran out of auxiliary power and died. Just as everyone was gearing up to mourn one of the greatest tragedies in recent history, suddenly scores of ships of all types and sizes began showing up from every possible direction and every last one of them human. There was a moment of panic until a human sent word that they were here to help and there were more on the way. They explained they didn’t have anything big enough for a whole colony but if they were willing to split up for a little while they were pretty sure they could get everyone off and to the nearest planet. It shocked those involved to learn that this was an entirely civilian effort. No official government of any kind was involved. “We heard you guys were in trouble so we came running.”

Not to say that humans were good kind and helpful by virtue, indeed some were haughty nasty and cruel. They were very much a warlike race and tales of the horror destruction humans had brought down on their own kind were known all throughout the galaxy. It seemed every day there was a fresh tale of their greed driven senseless violence. Sometimes you’d find yourself being helped by somber faced human who seemed to look through you rather than at you but it’s hard not to be moved as they give you the shirt off their backs without any word or fanfare. Some people would question these humans on their kindness and many would reply with answers along the lines of, “When you know what it’s like to hurt, you do what you can to ease it in others.”

Perhaps it was because humans had no substantial power base outside their own system but humans never extended their fighting and violence outside their boarders. Indeed it’s hard to extend your reach when things are always chaotic on the home front. So most other species experiences with humans was not that of war and death and killing but of that friendly traveler who shared her lunch, or the man who gave his spare compositor to that single mother with twelve hatchlings and no heat. Or the people who turned up in droves when the lightening storm took out the entire hemisphere on that out of the way colony everyone else wanted to forget about. Now other species were always plenty willing to help if asked but the thing about humans was you didn’t have to ask. They just saw that help was needed and they were there ready to do what they could.

Humanity was a small and out of the way species so it was quite some time before word of them reached the galaxies Peace Keepers. The Peace Keepers were an ancient and powerful race that tasked themselves with over seeing the affairs of the galaxy eons ago. When they learned of humans they did the cursory investigation into the potential new citizens of the galactic community that was standard.They not like what they saw. Humans were judged too violent, selfish and dangerous to be allowed to live. So the Peace Keepers moved swiftly to eliminate the rising threat.

When news of the advance hit, humanity scrambled to the fight. All the weaponry and forces previously pointed at one another were banned together against a common foe. There were many a rallying speech about the human spirit and hope and fighting tooth and nail until last, but anyone paying attention could tell you that things were looking pretty grim. The Peace Keepers were the most powerful battalion in the galaxy and mankind had only just successfully mastered the nuclear bomb a few short centuries ago. Humans might at well be throwing spears at them. They took too long to get themselves organized. No one had realized just how fast Peace Keeper ships could travel and by time the people in charge had gathered a clear enough picture to realize that the forces and weaponry at their disposal would not be enough the Peace Keepers were a mere two days away. 

Emissaries were sent out immediately to humanities closest neighbors in every direction but it would be weeks before any of them could get back with reinforcements. If any came at all. The Human Empire was small and fledgling and comparatively poor in resources to it’s more established neighbors. There was very little to be gained by allying with the now marked for death humans. None of that mattered much anyway since it seemed highly unlikely that their forces could hold out for a few days let a lone weeks. 

Never let it be said that humans are quitters though, impossible odds are just the kind of thing they live for. So rather than turn tail and run away the humans hunkered down and made ready for the fight of the ages. People were evacuated to nearby colonies, troops were shuttled off the the front lines, weapons were distributed, shields were brought up and kept running, every possible avenue of preparation was carefully traversed in hopes that it would mean the difference between life and death.The whole of humanity held it’s collective breath as the time came when the Peace Keepers approached Human Space. To everyone’s horror and dismay their foe appeared to be even more formidable than scout accounts had lead them to believe.

In that instant all hope seemed to be lost. There was little chance in ever hoping to bring down such a giant bent on their destruction. Still mankind will never go down with out a fight so the armies of humans stood their ground just waiting for the order to engage. In the control room there was a silence of aghast horror as no one dared move to give the order that would surely be the death warrants of every single person on the battle field. But what other choice did they have? They knew the Peace Keepers had come to destroy them them and they were ignoring any and all attempts by the humans to hail them even now. If man kind was to have any hope at all of surviving they must fight now,

Just as those in charge in the control room sucked in the air required to give the fateful order everyone was waiting for suddenly a small ship zipped in between to the two armies and  stopped smack dab in front of the Peace Keepers Fleet. Soon after another ship flew in flowed by another and another and suddenly there were hundreds of thousands of ships flying in and forming a barrier around the human army. 

No one had any idea what was going on, surely this wasn’t the aid they had sent away for, those ships were still weeks out and there was not a single battle cruiser to be found amongst this unexpected fleet. It was mostly scrappers and cargo vessels it was an odd army to behold but their numbers were many. Suddenly a plethora of messages came through on the hailing frequency being patched in from some of their ships on the front line from vagarious different captains of all species and creeds. It was the same message over and over in a thousand different words and dialects,

“We are here to help our neighbors.”