Federation Interlude #3

I used to have a spud farm and a family of five. Lived on a green, breathable world. Cheap land, low taxes, under a Market Party district. Kids had good schools, the wife was happy, and the work was meaningful. For a little while there, I was living the Federation dream. Then the aliens invaded. None of them managed to make planetfall on our colony but they sure dropped their bombs. All three of my boys died when their school went up in smoke, along with half the town.

Things were never the same. I spent more time on the spuds than anything else. My wife drank herself to an early grave in the next couple of years. I blamed myself and maybe I was right to. I switched to the Federalist Party. Some time later, the Federation won! The vermin scum were pushed back. That was the last happy day I had for a while. I drank the bottle of scotch I’d been saving, played catch with my neighbor’s family. It was good.

About a month later, we got news that the Tyrants had invaded us. Everyone got quiet, like when the aliens started their war. I went back to the spuds. The soil was getting worse but I didn’t have the money to rotate crops. Didn’t want to take out a loan to, either. I was a pessimist, pretty sure that pretty soon the land wouldn’t be mine anymore. Told everyone so. They didn’t listen to me, but deep down, they must’ve known I was right. The invasion went on about five years when we got the word.

Uvarth had fallen.

That was the third worst day of my life. I thought about ending it there. I decided not to. That would’ve been too easy for them. I stopped caring about the spuds and let weeds take over. To hell with it. I sat in my little prefab home and drank. It wasn’t too much longer before the Tyrants came for us in the outer reaches.

The planetary government sent them terms of surrender. The Tyrants rejected them and sent them new ones. Demanded we end our “nauseating” democracy. The cowards in parliament, the same ones I voted for, bent over for their bitch admiral. Just like that, the Federation of Uvarth was over. Hundreds of years of history, gone.

Nothing else I could’ve done. I stopped drinking, stopped caring about any of it. I didn’t bother much with politics but the politics bothered with me. Our little rock was annexed by a “noble house.” Fairytale bullshit. I didn’t care. I parked my ass in my easychair, the only thing left that mattered, and stayed there. A few months later, I heard some banging on the door. I got up and walked over.

Flung it open to see some bozo in white slacks with purple buttons. He had a gun over his shoulder and there were five more with him. Looked right through me, like I wasn’t even there. Started ranting like he’d done it a hundred times before. Probably had.

“As this farm is unproductive and you are an unmarried man, you are deadweight! Every human being must contribute the whole of themselves to the Eternal Empire! By order of House Junger, you have been conscripted into trench detail! Do not attempt to resist. You will comply or you will suffer the consequences!”

“...”

I reached for the knife in my pocket.