Homestar Saga

Chapter 115: Infowars

"This is unacceptable," Scarrend grumbled. "Even for prey." The Vrrl sat on the bridge of the Encounter. A fifth control console had been installed, and the creature was seated next to Yvian.

"Welcome to the Confederation," said Mims. "Where the rich get taken care of, and the poor are left to die."

"It's worse than that," the Vrrl growled. "The populace was not even informed."

"They are now," Lissa pointed out.

"Are they?" Scarrend typed into his console. A holodisplay of a gray skinned Brilend appeared, denouncing the "Pixen Conspiracy" as an attempt to cause panic. Lissa and several Peacekeepers had worked together to send information about the impending Vore attack to every pixen in Brilend Prime Sector, along with every news agency in the Confed. Results had been... mixed. "Even now, their government denies the truth. Worse." He shook his head. "They are believed by many."

"Any idiot with a scanner can see the Vore coming at this point," said the Captain. "But most of these people don't have ships. They only know what the media tells them."

"It's idiocy," grumbled the Vrrl. "What gain can be had from hiding the truth? When the Vore attacked Histel, most of my people chose to fight, but we evacuated our young and enough people to care for them. Even the humans removed their noncombatants before the Vore struck. These fools aren't just leaving their people to die. They're fighting against those that would save them."

"There's no profit in evacuating," the human told him. "Relocating billions of people would cost money. Telling them the truth and letting them fend for themselves would cause panic, which would cost money and make the ruling class look like assholes. Cheaper and easier to keep them ignorant and hope the Military can take care of the problem."

"Profit?" Yvian could hear Scarrend's face scrunch in confusion. "They think money is more important than the survival of their species?"

"Basically." Mims shrugged. "The rich and the powerful know what's going on. They've gotten out, and taken as much wealth as they could bring. As long as they're taken care of, they don't give a crap what happens to regular folk."

The Vrrl shook his head. "And I thought humans were evil..."

"You know," Yvian remarked. "I'm surprised you're so offended. I didn't expect you to care so much about so-called prey animals."

"Of course I care," Scarrend snorted. "It's a waste of food."

Brilend Prime Sector was a madhouse. There were over two million stations in the sector, each with thousands or tens of thousands of citizens. Not to mention twelve billion Brilends on the planet itself. Everyone who could afford passage on a ship was trying to leave. Shuttles were taking passengers from Brilend Prime up to the stations as fast as they could go, but several ships had already tried to circumvent the planets defenses to land. They'd been shot down. The comms were jampacked with panicked voices and desperate pleas. Help us. Please. Get us out.

The Brilend Militia had half a million ships in the system, trying to keep order. They were handling themselves more professionally than the Enforcers Yvian was used to dealing with, but they were badly undermanned for an event of this scale. The Confed Military was there as well, three fleets with two million ships between them, but they weren't interested in crowd control. The Military was setting up weapons platforms and defenses, preparing for the arrival of the Vore.

The Pixen Technocracy was adding to the mess. Two hundred thousand krog built Haulgood Superfreighters were in the sector, each escorted by a handful of Shootgood fighters with Peacekeeper pilots. The Haulgoods were the Technocracy's primary method of getting pixens to New Pixa, and had been since Lissa had declared war on the Trelg Pleasure Guild. Technocracy ships were tagged as pirates by the Militia, and attacked on sight, but the Haulgoods were all registered to Confed shell corporations. Yvian was sure at least some of the Militia suspected their true affiliation, but so far the freighters had been left unmolested.