Wars are VERY expensive - in terms of treasure and life! Wars without end are, potentially, disastrous - both socially and economically! So, why do evolving, even advanced, societies continue to engage in them?
When primitive societies engage in conflict, they tend to be motivated by short term needs or goals, like limited food or water supplies, or the biological imperative to obtain mates outside the group, thereby expanding the gene pool. One might classify it as 'survival of the fittest'. As societies grow, in sophistication, wealth and power, they tend to use imperialist wars as a means of sustaining that wealth by taking unto themselves the land, resources and manpower of others less powerful than themselves. The costs involved are defrayed by pillaging the wealth of the defeated people. Captives provide slave labor, lifting their 'owners' above the daily grind. Military losses are readily accepted as the price to be paid.
For almost two decades, the Tribulzi Empire has been at war with the people of Cora. It is, on the surface, a war of ideas - the Tribulzi Empire favors a monotheistic religious structure, while the people of Cora adhere to a polytheistic one. They also inhabit a world rich in borinium - an ore which can be refined to produce shielding for fusion reactors. An ore which exists in much smaller quantities on the worlds controlled by the Tribulzi Empire! It would not be unreasonable to suggest that this conflict is less about religion and more about resources, but of course, no citizen of the Tribulzi Empire would entertain this thought - to do so might cause them to question their own sense of morality. And that would be too troubling!
For more than a millenium, the Tribulzi military has sought and acquired overwhelming superiority, both in weapons and battlefield surveillance. For every Tribulzi soldier killed in the conflict, a thousand or more Cora have died, together with at least two thousand civilians - collateral damage as they say. From Tribulzi's perspective, it's been a very successful undertaking! And, yet, there have been murmurings from its citizens. The war is too 'open-ended'. The costs are too high and the returns are too small, since only limited quatities of borinium have been shipped home. Civil rights have been eroded by a government intent on its own survival, while obviously living in the pockets of the military contractors and mining companies who bankroll its members. But now a new weapon has been unveiled. A weapon that will redefine the art of conflict in this corner of the universe - and many others, once it is listed on the 'Available For Sale To Friendly Governments' list. Hot from the Petri dishes of the Advanced Genetics Laboratory, housed in the University of Dateen, on Ganymea, comes a humanoid soldier that runs on sunlight!
Of course, this is a top secret program, therefore information on this new weapon would normally be impossible to obtain. We can, however, confirm the following: Chloro-Sapiens is a humanoid life form. It is a mottled green color, which facilitates its ability to function, covertly, in dense foliage - like on Cora, for instance. While it receives its nutrients through the soles of its feet, it uses sunlight to power its metabolic processes - a possible weakness since it cannot fight (or even move) at night. Food is stored in the form of a rich mulch, carried in a back pack container, which the creature opens, places on the ground and stands on - enabling the roots in its feet to draw up the nutrients it needs. The loss of a limb is mitigated by the life form's ability to produce another, grown from one of several buds which ring the point at which each limb joins the body. Reproduction is achieved either by cloning, or by taking a cutting - the information we obtained was unclear on this.
It seems there is at least one individual in the Tribulzi Empire who's of the opinion that the government's weapon development program has crossed the line and moved into the Creator's back yard. It is to this courageous person that we offer our thanks for the brief excerpt from a recording, taken during a training exercise at the Military Testing facility on the moon, Capsicoor. It shows, clearly, we think you'll agree, the effectiveness of Chloro-Sapien's genetically engineered camouflage.
