They read the briefings. Conquering that planet was going to be SO simple, their technology was so.. primitive! Then they went to land on the Earth, and realized that the gravity there was a lot stronger than they had been told. -- Anon Guest
What a ridiculous solar system! Only one habitable planet with macroscopic life, and that was mostly mammalian. Some were marginally intelligent, but they honestly hadn't progressed much past bashing the rocks together. They had spread further than the first survey indicated, but that was nothing to be concerned about.
It was going to be an easy world to conquer. Those balding apes would become the subjugated servants of the Y'wagi Empire, which would then claim the resources of the rest of this stellar mess.
So many heavy metal asteroids. So many exploitable gas giants.
But first, they needed an outpost.
It was a simple plan. Shock and awe a suitably large collection of native apes, capture and corral them, and then start training them as the automated habitats deployed.
Stage one, inspire terror in the local apes, went very well. The fleet herded a tribe or two into an area with only one exit. The biggest and most intimidating vessel maneuvered to land, cutting them off and blocking them in.
The rest of the fleet selected the best real estate in which to set up.
It was then that the Y'wagi fleet encountered a critical, vital fragment of information that the probes and scanners did not deliver.
The local gravity was three times that of the Y'wagi homeworld.
Only one in ten survived the initial crushing of gravity, those who remained struggled to survive long enough to make it into their armour.
Their heavy, tin armour. It might help support their bodies and give them an ease of breathing, but it rendered them nearly immobile. Only a few could summon the strength to lumber towards the ships' controls.
The apes outside were much faster.
They began by throwing rocks. When there was a lack of retaliation, they grew bold enough to attack the hulls up close. It didn't take them long to smash their way inside.
After that, it was a massacre. Or so the Y'wagi empire assumed. The last message from the fleet showed a survivor, struggling to breathe, urgently describing how few of them were left alive. Then a balding ape hit them with a rock and cut off the feed.
The Y'wagi did send probes to find out what happened.
There was no trace of the fleet. Not even a glimmer of copper or tin. Not even the shape of the hulls or the habitats on the ground. And as for the apes?
They were working bronze now.
[Photo by Jon Butterworth on Unsplash]
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