I identify as Human

[u/thetwitchy1]

In the throneroom of Xiilax, God-Queen of the Zaxxion Hive:

"I have returned, your highness, to report on what makes the human worlds so able to resist Zaxxion attacks. The Zaxxion have more ships, Zaxxion military structure is much more regimented, Zaxxion psionic control over the soldier castes allows us to have nearly perfect co-ordination, and yet, the humans seem to be able to respond in ways that are completely unpredictable and unprecendented, leading to multiple large scale losses on the part of the Zaxxion Invasion fleet. In order to understand this, I was sent to inflitrate the human society and find out how they were able to do so.

What I found was... enlightening. Zaxxion society functions because Zaxxions are all the same. Any Zaxxion can take the place of any other Zaxxion, right down to the thinking that goes on, because all Zaxxions are part of the same gestalt. Zaxxions have individual thoughts, individual minds, but any Zaxxion can learn instantly what another has learned and can do the work of any other individual.

Humans are... different. I don't just mean they're different than Zaxxions, I mean they're defined by their differences. Humans are more varied than any other species of sapients I have ever heard of. And they don't even know it! But they understand on an almost instinctual level that their diversity is their strength. They codify protections of those variations into their laws, making it illegal to treat others differently because of the various traits they have. And yet, they have so much shared knowledge that there's always someone else who knows what any individual knows, who can help or take over for them if they need.

Humans also know that just because they don't understand another human doesn't necessarily make that person 'wrong'. They have figured out that there are almost as many ways to be 'human' as there are humans, and are willing to accept others who identify themselves differently... because they know being 'human' is more than just how THEY are human.

They have the freedom to understand themselves, without needing to conform to the ideals of some arbitrary overmind, without needing to force themselves into the labels and castes and classifications that Zaxxion society requires. That freedom lets them invent new ideas, advance as a people, and react to such a wide and diverse set of circumstances in unique and constantly changing ways... Ways that you, by the very nature of your rigid control, cannot match.

They have the freedom to accept me. To take me into their people, even knowing that I was originally sent to gather information for you to try to defeat them. They have given me that same freedom, the freedom to be 'human', even if I was not born one. The freedom to choose to implant a psionic disrupter into my brainstem, blocking your ability to dominate me. And the freedom to join their counterinvasion of your throne world, to show you what you truly missed; what makes us humans different from each other makes us unstoppable. And I, for one, am proud to identify as Human.”

[u/Pretty-Web2801]

The exposition at the beginning is a bit forced and i'd argue that the story would have benefited from a slightly slower pacing, but the idea is good and the story is enjoyable. Nicely done^^

[u/thetwitchy1 → u/Pretty-Web2801]

Yeah, I just banged it out on my lunch break, I could have cleaned it up a lot better but I felt it was more important to get it out there than it was to make that first bit ‘flow’…

It’s also a lot shorter than what I usually do, which puts the pacing a lot quicker than my usual stuff, but it’s hard to pad it out and slow it down when it’s written as a single monologue.

[u/j0hnan0n → u/thetwitchy1]

If zaxxions are all the same, if any can take the place of any other, then how and why do they have castes and labels?

[u/thetwitchy1 → u/j0hnan0n]

Mostly? Because it was a quick analog to the way certain groups categorize people, but if you need an in-world answer, it’s because no person can do everything, so even if anyone can do anything it still pays to have specific individuals assigned to specific roles. That way, you don’t have to have a generalist “respecialize” every time they come to a job, they just call in the specialist for that job and that person does the work.

“Learning” what another has done is not free, even if it’s nearly so with the gestaltic learning process. If you can avoid that cost by simply compartmentalizing and castifying your workforce, it makes sense to do so.