25 The Sparrow's Fangs

"Nuclear capabilities?!"

While everyone else fell silent, Claire immediately questioned Melanie's 'basic' method of dealing with the orkks.

"Nevermind the implication of you asking for our nuclear capabilities. Isn't such a thing unnecessary for dealing with the orkk threat?"

To Claire's and the other ministers' surprise, Melanie only chuckled in a cynical yet somewhat annoyed manner in response to Claire's question. But she soon returned to her usual expression of indifference before she spoke.

"I know that planetary ministers are inherently busy people but why does every single one that I meet, especially Americans, has to be ignorant of the orkks? Is it too hard to ask for just one planetary minister who is actually knowledgeable about the orkks?"

She sounded as if she was a disappointed teacher reacting to the horrible grades of her students.

"Watch your tone! And show some respect! Remember what kind of people you are talking to! We have no time to waste on researching those greenskinned barbarians that are an entire star system away! We have other important matters to attend to!"

If Claire wasn't mistaken then the voice of the shout should belong to Jonathan Klints; the planetary minister for commerce.

Evidently, he was previously only listening to the transmission before he could no longer tolerate Melanie's lack of manners.

But Melanie herself didn't even seem phased by Jonathan's outburst. In fact, Claire felt as if Melanie was growing tired of dealing with them. Her mouth which before only showed a superficial level of respect now held poison in her words as she spoke.

"Hmph. I'll only show you the respect that you deserve. Now I remember why I seldom dealt with government officials, especially planetary ministers... You're all prideful yet ignorant fools that delude yourselves with delusions of grandeur just because you administer some planet."

"How dare you say that!"

"You're acting as if administering an entire fucking planet is easy!"

"You take that back you impertinent bitch!"

A huge uproar overwhelmed the transmission when the planetary ministers heard Melanie's rude remarks. Pretty much all of the ministers that were part of the transmission openly responded with hostility towards the confederate psionic.

The only ones who didn't were Belspoke, Wilson and Claire herself. As a person who had previously participated in military expeditions, including ones outside of the New Florida System, she was thus aware of how insignificant her home world of Viridi really was.

As for Vando Belspoke and George Wilson, well the former was a retired psionic veteran who rarely interacted with those outside of his department and spoke little in general while the latter was a good-natured philanthropist at heart.

However, that still didn't change the fact that the relationship between Melanie and the planetary ministers were now all but existent at this point. But soon, her voice would quieten everyone down.

"Enough! I tire of you self-righteous bigots! There are uncountable billions of planetary ministers within the United Planets of America alone! You're not as significant as you think!"

For the first time, Claire actually felt anger in Melanie's voice, as if she finally snapped.

"I could kill all of you right now and no one within the entirety of the American government would bat an eye. In my years in P.A.I.N. I met an insufferable amount of self-satisfied egomaniacs and most of you lot are no different.

The fact that they were planetary ministers didn't save them from orkk incursions or rouge dymons. The universe doesn't give a flying fuck about you or whatever so-called 'legislative power' you hold.

I've seen entire planets consumed by the orkks. So-called 'impregnable' and 'invincible' fortress worlds overrun by the green menace. Your world isn't even half as defensible as most other planets, let alone fortress worlds."

Melanie's chest was heaving by the time that she was finished her expressive rant, as if her body was recovering from an explosion.

"Now get your heads out of your asses and answer my goddamn question! What. Are. Your. Nuclear. Capabilities?"

This time, none of the planetary ministers dared to oppose the angered Silver Sparrow. While feeling both grateful for and fearful of Melanie, Claire made her response.

"Erm... Before I answer, may you please answer a question of my own?"

"Meh... Go ahead."

What scared Claire the most was not Melanie's explosive outburst, but how she was able return to her usual uncaring disposition in a snap. Seeing this, Claire couldn't help but think [what the hell has Melanie gone through in order for her to become like this?] and she also couldn't help but internally shudder at that very thought.

Nevertheless, Claire still posed her own question towards Melanie.

"Why must you know our nuclear capabilities?"

The other party only sighed in a tired manner before she replied.

"You really do know nothing about the orkks do you? I'll put it simply for you, if your nuclear capabilities are not of a satisfactory level, then Viridi is already doomed."

"What is that supposed to mean?.."

George after having remained silent for a long time, questioned the implications of her words.

"It means that if you want to save Viridi, then you have to completely eradicate the orkks within a short timespan. Damn it, I might as well explain it so that I don't have to deal with answering more of your questions.

Orkks landing on a planet, could be likened to that of a terminal illness. And the only way to save the planet would be through the same way a patient can be saved from a terminal illness. To eliminate the problem before it became too severe. Hence, nuclear bombardment."

George nodded his head in acknowledgement of what she said but he still didn't appear to be convinced. It didn't take long until he once again posed another question.

"But I still don't understand how the orkks could be likened to that of a terminal illness. We are aware of their barbaric nature and that they are extremely well-versed in the art of war but that isn't enough to justify why we should just eradicate them with our nuclear armaments."

Melanie only made another tired sigh before she responded.

"I believe that you lot may have misinterpreted what I said when I told you the example of entire planets being consumed by orkks. Am I right to assume that most of you believe that these planets fell to massive orkk armadas?"

Most of the ministers murmured something that vaguely sounded like the word 'yes' while others including Claire only remained silent.

After confirming their answer, Melanie scoffed as she answered back with a single word.

"Incorrect."

Most of the other ministers seemed to be surprised by her response but they didn't voice their opinions as they instead allowed her to explain.

"The orkks invaded some of these planets through the same method that they used to invade Viridi. By crashing a single spacecraft filled to the brim with orkks onto their target planet."

"..."

The entire transmission was claimed by silence when Melanie revealed how some human planets fell to the orkks. Soon, after making a loud gulp, one of the ministers stuttered when she spoke.

"B-but... t-that's impossible."

Claire didn't even register who this female planetary minister was. While her voice was indeed familiar to Claire, she was still reeling from the realisation that her planet was also liable to become one of these planets that would fall to the orkks.

But it still didn't add up. She couldn't help but internally ask 'how were the orkks able to achieve such an incredible feat?'

Sure the orkks were on average more physically powerful than humans while orkk weaponry was on par with humanity's, that shouldn't mean that a warband consisting of thousands of orkks can conquer entire planets usually inhabited by millions to billions of humans.

But her question would soon be answered by Melanie.

"Impossible for a 'normal' intelligent species maybe... but not for an intelligent species that was 'genetically unique' like the orkks."

The two words 'genetically unique' stuck with Claire. Those two words lingered within her mind until a sudden revelation revealed itself in her thoughts. A realisation that she thought was so obvious that she mentally ridiculed and berated her past self for not coming to this realisation sooner.

Soon, the Silver Sparrow confirmed Claire's thoughts.

"Forgetting how it is near impossible for a species like them to naturally exist, the orkk race in their entirety could also be likened to that of a biological war machine. Other than the fact that virtually every single orkk was a powerful warrior at birth, they also reproduced extraordinarily quickly."

Claire noticed a look of realisation also dawn on Wilson's face while murmurs of astonishment were heard in the background of the transmission. But Melanie seemed to ignore them as she continued explaining.

"For those of you who flunked out on your orkk research classes which I guess is pretty much all of you, I'll give you a quick summary of orkk physiology.

In layman's terms, the physical bodies of orkks are a symbiotic animal-fungus hybrid who reproduce asexually from what we call 'orkkoid fungal pods.' What may seem to be an ordinary shroom or fungus may actually be connected to an embryo containing a growing orkk under the Earth.

Orkk 'offspring' are produced en masse thanks to this method with fully grown adult orkks growing out of their embryos in a mere few weeks after their original 'conception'. These fungal pods themselves are the results of 'orkk spores' which every orkk releases upon death."

Melanie paused for a short moment to let what she said sink in before she continued.

"Now how many hundreds if not thousands of orkks do you think died upon impact when they crashed their ship?""

"..."

There was another long period of silence as the ministers realised the true extent of the threat posed by the orkks. This silence was broken by another one of Melanie's sighs, but instead of sounding tired, this sigh actually sounded relieved.

"Seeing that we are now all finally on the same page, can someone now finally tell me what the nuclear capabilities of your planet are?"

"..."

But seemingly to Melanie's dismay, she received no response from any of the ministers. As the planetary minister for defence, Claire was the most suitable one to answer but when she attempted to open her mouth and speak, she found that no words came out.

"Well? Come on. Tell me-"

"None!"

It was only at the most improper moment did Claire finally blurt out her answer.

A look of confusion grew on Melanie's face as she proceeded to question what Claire meant.

"Excuse me but can I ask you to repeat that?"

Claire had to take a deep breath before she was able to respond.

"None... We no longer have any nuclear capabilities."

"You no longer have any... No... Don't tell me..."

Melanie's widened in shock as she appeared to have realised where Viridi's nukes went. With a sad sigh, George confirmed her suspicions.

"Yes... the U.P.A. also redeployed them along with our psionics. I apologise on behalf of everyone else but we were ordered by the U.P.A. government to keep all of this a secret. The other nations were only supposed to know of the movement of psionics but not the nukes..."

"Tch... I can deal with that later. I have more pressing matters to attend to."

Melanie's indifferent expression suddenly became more threatening and imposing when she replied.

"Without nukes, you are all useless. As the deputy director of P.A.I.N. I will now hereby declare Viridi under martial law via the Confederate Constitution article #97-B. As of this moment, all military personnel of Viridi shall answer to me until the time that I declare martial law over."

The planetary ministers were clearly surprised by Melanie's declaration but despite that, she didn't even give them the chance to respond before she threatened them.