LF Friends, Will Travel

The Bastard Squad

Date: 76 PST (Post Stasis Time)

"This must be a war crime."

Major Sumaya Franklin looked down at the document she had been handed, the proposal lying on her desk, causing a confused grimace to form on her lips. Such proposals weren't anything new in Sumaya's job: much of her time was spent sitting in this office, day after day, looking over and approving some of the many thousands of requests a military might make. New initiatives, upgrades, weapons: everything a modern galactic army needed.

This suggestion that had been placed on her desk was different. It was the kind of thing that potential future people might make damming documentaries about, an idea that seemed crazy and somehow... Heretical

"We checked with the lawyers, Ma'am. They stated the complete opposite, that since they are all legal Terran citizens, that denying such a request might fall foul of several equality laws."

Niall O'connor spoke up as he stood opposite to the Major, a simple professional tone to his voice as he watched her thumb through the document he'd written, proofread, and then provided her. He'd created many such documents during his career, as the military had many problems, and his job was to create problem solvers. To put the right pieces together and create a tool that dealt with the niggling issues the rest of the military couldn't.

If he was being honest, this was one of the weirder ones he'd put together. It wasn't even his idea: the people referenced in the document had been the ones to suggest this new covert operations squad, Niall had just put together the feasibility study and done some of the legwork to get the paperwork. He could feel a little sympathy for Sumaya, as everyone he'd shown the proposal to had fallen squarely into one of two camps: 'This is awesome', or 'This won't end well'.

The Major had nothing against uplifts. As soon as they were technologically able, humanity had uplifted their animal companions into sapience, bringing their lifelong friends to the stars and beyond, granting them increased dexterity and intelligence through extensive genetic modification. The vast majority of these now Terran citizens were once dogs or cats, with a lesser smattering of parrots, hamsters, rabbits or other common pets. Sumaya didn't mind those, they were good people. Even the exotic uplifts were mostly fine, the result of a few crazy people who had decided to uplift their pet racoon or alligator. She could still understand those to some extent. These uplifts however...

"I know it's not the politically correct thing to say, but why were these uplifts even created? Out of every animal on God's green Earth, someone chose these species."

"Most people would get offended by that, although having spoken with the members of the group myself, they'd be inclined to agree."

The individuals Niall had spoken to were just as strange as their creation, each one fully aware of the reputation they held, almost taking it with pride, the bad boys of the Terran people, a sign that sometimes the Terran chaos went a little too far.

"Look at this one: Legion. Never mind why they were uplifted, I want to know how. Doesn't the uplift process require a minimum amount of... brainpower to work with?"

"The how is complicated. Something about a biological communal mind, taking advantage of their lack of individuality to form a consciousness in large groups. Makes them functionally immortal as long as their egg batches are never destroyed. As for the 'why'..."

Niall paused for a moment, reading from his own notes on the group.

"Legion's creator was a Dr. Fyodor Dmitrev. After he uplifted the first one, his given reason during the press conference was, and I quote: 'Because I'm the smartest person alive you bitches, I can do what I want'. He then went on a three-hour-long drunken profanity filled rant for the rest of the press event. Ended up creating five of the uplifts in total, until one of his creations killed him."