Starship 737

Prologue

The Ratzan came from the sky in a rain of fire, scorching the earth beneath them. They had come from across the stars to claim our world as theirs after destroying their home. Ours had fit their needs to the letter and so they had come.

Humanity's method for handling the invaders was the same as always, throw bodies at the threat until one side runs out of meat targets. The fighting lasted for over twenty years, laying waste to the land beneath and resulting in large swatches of desolation between the habitable land.

The Ratzan victory was at hand until the Juggernauts were born. Humans with Ratzan DNA spliced in to give them the abilities of the Ratzan. Telepathy, clairvoyance, enhanced strength and agility, and a cellular structure so dense it made them nearly invulnerable.

The Juggernauts were able to use their new abilities to wipe the invading forces off the board. Twenty years of fighting brought to a bloody end in a matter of a few weeks by a mere two dozen soldiers. The Ratzan retreated to the stars, taking ninety percent of their population with them. The remaining ten percent was left behind, mostly families uninvolved with the military, women, children, and those too old to be of use in another invasion. The invaders left them behind to be confined to a camp and chemically sterilized to prevent a boom in the alien population. The innocents were allowed to remain in their camp and live out their lives, but no more children could be born among them so when the original one hundred were gone, there would be no more.

Along with the mental and physical abilities given to the Juggernauts came the Ratzan's genetic inclination toward emotional dysregulation and their nearly nonexistent impulse control. Without the extensive behavioral training common among the Ratzan though, the Juggernauts were ill-prepared to deal with the side effects. The continued presence of Ratzan on Earth didn't sit well with the Juggernauts either, it stirred rage deep inside them.

Then they were placed in charge of the camp and that rage began to build. It began with assault; civilians beaten for minor infractions. Those led to the murders; people killed simply for crossing paths with their hybrid jailers. The camp met its bloody end with the massacres.

One night all of the Juggernauts turned on their charges. Every Ratzan civilian, no matter the age and no matter the gender was slaughtered in their beds. Silver blood ran thick across the floors of every home, bodies were stacked in the streets like lumber, sightless purple eyes stared out of very human-looking faces but would never see another sunrise.

When the sun did rise again, not a single Ratzan was left alive in the entire camp. The government removed the Juggernauts from the site and burned it to the ground until not a single shred of evidence remained of what had happened there. The Juggernauts integrated back into society, without the enemy they were designed to fight there was nothing left for them to do. They got jobs, started families, lived mostly normal lives, not even one of their own could have told the difference between one of them and an ordinary man or woman.

Peace reigned on Earth for more than one hundred years after the end of The War and The Massacres.