‘Twas the Night before GEBfest, and all through the Heights,
An announcement rang out, promising festive delight.
Valkyrie was celebrating, they had a party to throw –
All in honour of one man’s ego.
Apparently, today was a very special individuals’ birthday. No, not that guy. Another, much more controversial guy. General Brian ‘Ironjaw’ Jackson.
Now, the War of Unification ended eighteen years ago, so I’ll forgive you for not knowing the name. His service record is certainly interesting reading. Did you know he received the Valkyrie Meritorious Achievement award for capturing the Union stronghold planet Teneb in just six days? The award praised his use of ‘unorthodox tactics’.
More digging revealed a darker picture, such as the ‘deliberate targeting of medical facilities’, ‘use of information obtained by torture’ and something called the ‘Axis City Incident’. ‘Unorthodox tactics’ indeed, but what happened at Axis City?
During those six days invading Teneb, Ironjaw fired an untested chemical weapon into the planet’s main population centre, Axis City. The compound devastated the region. Those who survived were scarred for life, and a huge zone around the city was rendered too toxic for vegetation to this day. Valkyrie pulled the weapon from deployment and said further tests were necessary. The land has still yet to recover two decades on. Teneb, once a leading exporter of food, is now a leading importer. It requires constant support to survive, as do many of the survivors of the ‘Axis City Incident’.
Happy birthday, General!
This is a seriously difficult subject. The War of Unification was a conflict of indescribable brutality. The Galactic Union accepted responsibility for the destruction of Earth, my own family’s homeworld; the starting gun for the decade long conflict. My parents didn’t like to talk about home. I remember a twinkle in my mum’s eyes when she talked about her family garden, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But then she’d go quiet.
A weight settled in my stomach as I considered my next move. The scars left by the War of Unification are deep, and despite the time that has passed, still highly sensitive. There is a case to be made that digging through such a controversial and violent time in our history will only make it harder for those scars to heal.
Either way, there was no way I was missing the parade. FL0UND3R, our entertainment unit, and I rushed to meet our deadline at work before the event got too crowded. We got lucky – the crowds were just starting to gather as we picked our spots.
The military hardware on display was impressive, as always. Genetically enhanced soldiers twice my size stomped next to tanks. They wouldn’t let FL0UND3R climb on top, but they seemed happy enough to let us take pictures. Epsilon, one of the soldiers, seemed a little baffled when I asked him how he felt about being bred for war.
“Look at me,” he said, gesturing towards himself. “What the hell else would I do?”
What else indeed? As gunships roared overhead, the question of who would be buying these weapons and who they would target buzzed in the back of my mind. What conflict do the Union and Valkyrie foresee that requires such a military buildup? The groan of the engines provided no answers.
After much pomp and circumstance, the moment was here. Three dropships hovered in formation.The central ship’s door opened to reveal a dark suited figure. Above us, flanked by soldiers, stood General Ironjaw.
“It is a pleasure to be here on this joyous day!”. He thanked his “fellow Valkyries” for the parade and for celebrating his service. I couldn’t see or hear the platitudes anymore. All that was running through my mind was images of the victims of Axis City. I stepped forward, craning my neck to look up at the shadow of the General, and asked my question.
“When are you going to pay compensation to the families?”
The moment I said it, my mouth ran dry. Suddenly, I realized just how many armed soldiers were staring at me. The self-congratulatory atmosphere left the room. The general’s eyes were fixed on me. We both knew exactly what I was talking about.
“No comment”, said Ironjaw, locking his famous jaw and cutting off his speech. He turned and gave an order I couldn’t hear. The dropships turned and flew away.
Whether they continue their planned tour of Hellion remains to be seen. But I hope that Brian Jackson will remember his reception here in the Heights.
Moving on past the War of Unification can’t mean forgetting what happened. It can’t mean holding a parade on top of the corpses, and over the voices of the victims. If we want to make this peace last, we need to listen and to learn from the mistakes of history. We need to acknowledge and make restitution for our failures.
This week, the donation link will be to a group organised by those affected by the Axis City Incident.
