The Beginning

"Order in court! The honorable Preceptor John Mackam is presiding."

Everyone took his or her seat. Only the ones in the prisoner docket remained standing. Paul panned his eyes around the room. It was dark. The judge sat in front of the Hegemony's court of arms. Saltire-shaped in the main, it had two arms of equal length placed obliquely to each other. A long arm run vertically across the two at their intersection and topped by a crescent. Placed against a canvas of midnight black, the court of arms was red and stood against a background pitted with stars.

Couldn't even decide on what to name themselves, could they? Paul thought to himself.

He stared balefully at the symbol that represented all he hated about his world. The Church of the Hegemony; a pseudo-religious political force that co-opted and replaced all the major religions of the world. Following decades of war, social and civil unrest, economic slumps, political dissolution and jihads, the major governments of the world finally decided to band together. It dropped nukes on Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Tehran, Abuja, Lhasa, Varanasi and Medina. Jerusalem escaped the same treatment to avoid antagonizing three quarters of the world. The Vatican was the first to bow down to the new regime and as a reward, allowed to have a say in the new path world religion took. Many others were unhappy. They remained silent however.

"You have all been accused of multiple counts of Apostasy the punishment for which is death. You have been further accused of multiple counts of malicious subversion against the Hegemony the punishment for which is death. You face the additional…"

You cannot be guilty of Apostasy if you never subscribed to that particular brand of religion dear honorable judge! You also cannot be guilty of subversion if you never signed a contract with said government. As for the additional charges please stick 'em where the Sun don't shine. Paul's expressionless face belied the fury he felt internally. He would have been happy to face his accusers and defend himself. He never got the chance. The Hegemony frowned upon due process. The accused were expected to be innocent unless deemed guilty. It was okay. The Hegemony frowned upon many things. Every once in a while, another item that displeased the Hegemony found itself on the List of the Proscribed. Most of those earned you a slap on the wrist or a term in prison. Some, like Apostasy, earned you death.

"You all remember the centuries of war humanity faced. The difficulties the entire world faced when one nation warred another. That you spit in the face of Holy Mother Church's gift is almost worse than your…"

Paul tuned the Preceptor out. The hearing was a sham and in his opinion unnecessary. The government would do as it willed. If anything, it was wasting valuable money. Still, if they were bent on carrying on the parody of justice the least they could do was offer them the services of the media to broadcast the sentencing to the rest of the world.

But wait, there is NO media! Paul turned his head towards where the media, in the old world, used to seat. The pews were mostly empty. One or two 'reporters' sat recording the so-called trial. The rapt attention on their faces could be mistaken for excitement but probably resulted from their being new to the spectacle. Paul ignored them because they were irrelevant. With the media gone and all broadcasting left to the government, the Hegemony spun and controlled everything the public received. Nobody, well, almost nobody, heard anything the world government did not want heard.

The characters dressed in pristine white were more interesting. Iron pressed pants and suits in pure white dazzled the eye. Instead of buttons running down the middle, the suit had buttons on the side. More chic that way. And of course, the buttons were gold. Like the white dress, they were supposed to represent the purity of the institution.

Paul saw that next to the High Precept's companions sat men in dichromatic white and red. Their faces revealed studious focus for the ongoing preceding. Unlike the so-called media representatives, these were actually anxious that the trial go 'by the book'. It was necessary that the accused individuals on the docket receive their due. Then they would be out of the hands of the courts and placed in the loving arms of the military.

Turning his gaze towards the men dressed in light blue and a pukish green, Paul knew them for who they were. The Hegemony Military. Formed out of the unified militaries of the world, they were the only people allowed to carry arms on the planet. Not even Union soldiers were allowed while on leave on the planet. Anyone else found with arms was summarily executed. They were powerful. With unlimited funding provided by the Hegemony, no single nation in the world was able to resist its power.

Paul was tired. The prisoners had received little sleep since they were bundled into vans headed for court. Ten hours rubbing shoulders with fifteen others in a space intended for eight was not easy. Added to the fact the prisoners were forced to squat with their heads between their knees the whole way meant they were not only tired, they also presented pictures of abject misery.

I suppose that was their intention. Paul checked over his erstwhile companions. It was not enough that the accused be sentenced: they had to look like the guilty men and women they were. Of course, it was not for our benefit, is it? It's for the rest of the world and to show the damned Shadies we deserve what we got coming.

At this thought, Paul looked over to the one inclusion in the court that was entirely out of place. It was not just that the strange participant looked nothing like the rest. It had six limbs, a horse-like face and a simmering sheen of static electricity over his body caused by the energy field protecting it. A huge space separated the being from the rest of the court's inhabitants. It was clear that the Nan`Shardar representative was definitely uninterested in the proceedings. It was a D`harsidon, the member of the Nan`Shardar Union responsible for Earth.

Paul almost took pity on the poor creature. Despite the protective barrier, horse-face sat behind the creature looked besieged. Sweat-like secretions dripped from its face without stop and the creature constantly rubbed its hoof-like paws over its crest. He could see the thing constantly looking about the courtroom and bet horsey wished the proceedings ended in a hurry.

Paul's eyes narrowed. Every time the Union Representative looked over at the High Preceptor, it visibly flinched. It was strange. Every time the High Preceptor caught the creature looking at him, he offered a toothy smile. Paul smirked. The High Preceptor wanted things to go smoothly as well. He also wanted the Union Representative comfortable. Evidently, the High Preceptor 'earned' his position due to his familial connections rather than his brains. Had he spent more time going over his files than putting the shine to his boots he would have realized that the D`harsidon were terrified of humans. With their mane of hair, testosterone scented sweat and toothy smiles; humans strongly resembled the dreaded Rhizon. According to the files Paul managed to hack during his days as a civil 'anarchist', the Rhizon used to be the mortal enemies of the D`harsid. In fact, to call them enemies was to overly represent the situation. When the carnivorous Rhizon appeared on a D`harsidon planet, the D`harsid swiftly found other places to be.

A shift in the judge's tone brought Paul's mind back to the proceedings.

"However, it is in the infinite wisdom and mercy of the Holy Mother Church that we should offer malefactors the chance to rehabilitate yourselves. You all know Holy Mother Church desires the salvation of all her children, wayward and obedient alike. You…"

Oh, here it comes people! Paul knew that mercy was far from the Hegemony's intention. Rehabilitation yes, but not rehabilitation. Like every other planet faced with the threat of Vord invasion, Earth had to contribute to the war effort. Unlike most planets, Earth could barely feed its billions. She could not sell farmed produce like the D`harsid. Her great dependence of minerals on the planet itself meant she was unable to sell her wares to the Union. Without an established space mining program, the great asteroids circling the solar system went un-exploited. Had the D`harsid been made of sterner material they would have moved in her mining fleets and taken Earth's asteroids. As it was, they were too terrified of the omnivorous race to antagonize them.

All this meant that Earth was left with the one resource it had in plenty: meat for the grinder. To fuel the ever-increasing needs of the Union Navy's space force and military, the Union demanded soldiers. Millions of men and women joined the armies of the Union and fought alongside battalions of Ungalit, the three-ton armored quadrupeds with a penchant for violence. There, they joined the Reecevark, an avian race favored by the Union army because of their recon abilities, G`terchens, a burrowing race that resembled aardvarks but for their half-ton body mass, and Davii`ds, a race of small, mold-like fungal creatures whose brain processing abilities landed them spots in logistics and planning. Other creatures were included in various capacities: D`harsids, the chameleon-like 'Jekons, fluttery Fionins with their dread of open spaces, the leviathan-sized, shark-shaped Din-sauri oddly incapable of consuming flesh, and many others. It was easy. With a history steeped in violence, Earth easily found its place in the armies of the Nan`Shardar Union.

Well, almost easy. Thing is, while ground-based battles against the Vord Empire were relatively easy, space battles were far from the same. Somehow, the Vord had a technology that interfered with the brainwaves of fighter pilots and caused them to go into convulsions. This was the Vord's greatest strength. Whenever the naval fleets of the Union met with the Vord, only those hidden deep within the massive dreadnoughts and battleships of the Union Navy escaped the Vord Terror. The Union could match the Vord fleet for fleet. It could not match the endless swarms of single-seat fighters that the sauroids used to overwhelm Union fleets. In all major conflicts, as well as a number of smaller ones, whenever the Union appeared close to winning a battle, the Vord unleashed her fighter screens and used them to bludgeon the Union's naval forces.

The situation was untenable. So far, only one race was able to resist the Vord Terror. The Rhizon. Gifted with a bio-chemical imbalance in their cerebral cortex, applying small electrical stimulations to the amygdala drove the Rhizon to such furies they could ignored the Vord Terror. All Rhizon had the neurotransmitter imbalance to one extent or the other. No other race had the same abilities. In fact, most other races lacked the amygdala, let alone the chemicals secreted. The Ungalit had it as well, but were physically incapable of the hand-eye coordination and skill required to fly fighters. The first time the Union attempted to incorporate Ungalit fighter pilots was the last. Their fighters massacred. This meant the Rhizon enjoyed a special place in the hearts – for the races that had hearts – of the Union and for years, manipulated the Nan`Shardar into accepting their demands for greater recognition. That was until Earth was 'rediscovered' and it was found out that given a little 'tweaking' Earthlings could manage the same.

"Your rehabilitation would have commenced as of this date and proceeded under the guidance of the Directorate of Social Welfare. Had that been the case, the court would have submitted your names for chemical screening and assessment. It would then have determined how and when you would have been fit to rejoin society and influenced your conditioning.

However, that was not the case."

The judge was getting worked up. "Since you refuse to recognize the supreme powers of the Hegemony government you are deemed unfit to live under its code of protection. Your further refusal to recognize the God-given rights of Holy Mother Church's ascendance over Man means you are incapable of living with other men in peace. Your continued subversive activities mean you can never be trusted. As such, you will not be rehabilitated."

By now, each one of Paul's companions in the accused's docket was breaking down in tears. They knew what was coming. The incorrigibly optimistic among them cast their tear-filled eyes around the courtroom looking for salvation from any quarter. There was none to be hard from the hegemony officials flanking the High Precept. None bothered glance at the High Preceptor himself. The diehards even tried to throw appealing glances towards the D`harsid in the hope it would intervene in some way. The D`harsid quietly went into convulsions as the room was flooded with the fear pheromones. The increased tension proved too much and the D`harsid got up to leave the room.

Yes, you may now leave. We the accused graciously accept your offer of rehabilitation and promise to serve the Union with due diligence. Paul thought darkly to himself. Though he was prepared for what was coming next, he still flinched at the Preceptor's next words.

"As it is the opinion of this court that you cannot be rehabilitated, chemical conditioning is unnecessary. Instead, other means of conditioning will be applied."

Looking at the docket with a baleful eye, the Preceptor rose from his seat. He seemed to gather himself and almost shouted the next part out. "I declare you all Soulless. I hereby remit your bodies to the Directorate of War for modification. Court adjourned."

It was done. Nothing would save him. No one, not even if they were so inclined, would interfere with the court's decision. They were damned.

* * *

The fifteen were unceremoniously bundled into the back of the same van that brought them. Over the next several hours as the group was transported to the spaceport then to Ceres, a moon prison facility repurposed by the Union government for use by Earth, not a whimper was heard from the group. They were not convicts. They were not even prisoners. They were the Soulless.

Though like the Rhizon, Earthlings had the requisite brain bits that offered protection from the Vord Terror, in humans it was not natural. Instead, the gene expression had to be brought out. A barrage of chemical boosting, electrical stimulation and bio-modification performed on subjects brought out the animal, so-to speak. Unfortunately, the mortality rate was close to a hundred percent. Twenty five million, seven hundred and eighty four thousand, three hundred and two men and women joined Paul over a period of two years on Ceres' prison husk. Misfits. Atheists, homosexuals, rapists, sexual deviants, political rebels, cross-dressers. Children were excepted and instead chemically conditioned to accept Hegemony authority. Nothing there. Early tests indicated a hundred percent mortality among children. They simply could not handle the chemical and physical stresses worked upon their little minds. Adults on the other hand could survive. The figures said near-hundred percent.

Paul was among seven thousand, four hundred and sixty three individuals that survived the operations. No one knew why some survived while close to a hundred percent died horrible deaths. Even those that survived suffered terribly. The Hegemony was not simply satisfied with creating fighter pilots for the Union. They had to be assured of their loyalty when fighting for the Union. They were Soulless. No oaths of loyalty sufficed. On top of the chemical stresses the survivors experienced they faced electrical and biochemical conditioning targeted at their brains. One way or the other, they would obey Union officials placed over them.