"Do not forget Halid, we may not have soldiers, but we control the food, raw materials and supply chains for those industries." Vida chimed in. Vida's heart was pounding with excitement. She never thought that this day would come. She had grown so disillusioned with society as a whole, that is why she hardly participated and had a small friends group and family. She thought it was unnecessary to have multiple spouses in a bind. She was a Halid, so only had the required three. She loved her sons, but she preferred the exhilaration of traditional Dron ridership, ranching and farming to sitting around indoors like other women making decisions and watching dancers.
"How dare they try to stop this?" Vida said. "Now we do not need to live like this anymore." Vida said with relief. Vida had let her sons explore, because she could not. It was nice that Cerez had given her heirs. She had not needed to have children for years and was finally enjoying life. It was getting better now with this change. Her granddaughters would not need to suffer and dread the same fate.
"Vida, I have never seen you so passionate," Amrita said with a smile.
"I cannot recall the ships, they have not been updated to the new software seemingly purposefully. I have ordered others to come, but it will take some time. I am sorry," Amrita said. "They might not make it in time. I will fill in wherever I can. I do not believe it will require much. But if it comes to it, we can shut down infrastructure components and other technology remotely. I am sure they would not want to risk not having clean water. I just do not want to victimize the general population's well being over a woman's reaction to gradually losing their power. " Amrita continued.
"It is just a building. How is the public reaction?" Nora asked. Talan's face got ugly.
"There have been reports of slaughter at Clan Thelan's rack farm on Feather social. They emptied twenty thousand uncured male racks and are burning the tissue." Talan said. His face dropped. "Other sites have followed suit to clear out room for cured children." Talan finished. Nora's legs weakened and a wave of nausea overtook her. She was not a pro-lifer on earth by any means. This was a genocide.
"They could have all been inoculated. Please someone make a statement that we will need these males, and they will receive priority inoculations." Nora said. She then vomited from the stress.
"Mother." Astra cried. Kadir pulled his own shirt off to wipe her face clean, and he picked her up. Nora was trembling.
"Forty thousand males just died because I did not mention that they would be needed. I did not value the boys. I am sorry, babies." Nora said as she shook.
"Take some deep breaths Nora, it is not your fault." Kadir held her. Her lips started to chatter from the shock.
"Can someone get Mother a blanket?" Astra shouted, looking at her mother with concern. Something was wrong with her. Sirona ran out of the room at top speed to the playroom where Granny had included nap-time blankets like their room at home.
"Nora, it is not your fault." Allurai went into motherly mode. "You are not the reflection of others' cruelty. You are anything but that. You are now the benefactor of our society. A hero. If your people were alive, they would be very proud of you, they would rejoin us." Allurai said in a soothing tone. Allurai swallowed nervously, recalling her past deeds. She tried her best, but that best was littered in a legacy where she used punishment tools. She had taught her daughter how to intimidate and coerce men into doing their jobs with subtle threats. Luckily for her, the lessons did not seem to stick. Leilanna might not be remembered as a monstrous person. Nora obviously did not take her education seriously or was abhorred by it. She was a Matriarch Prime, she would be both a target for what she had done and legislated during her career. The poor woman was trembling in front of her, as vulnerable as a male.
'I tried to be fair among the leaders. I realize now that none of us really had the qualifications to lead. Was it that we were women that gave us the self entitlement to lead society? The place I hoped for in history, will I be looked on in a positive light?' Allurai thought. She watched alarmed as Sirona covered her up with a blanket. Janel pulled a cylinder out and injected Nora.
'The big swing in society happened after the Hudai Interface failed. Not only did the tools fail. It highlighted the toxicity, cruelty and pettiness of us Matriarchs afterward. We could not rely on tools anymore, and we learned our employees would leave us if we did not treat them right. That was the start of the change. Quill has been behind the scenes acting passively against society.' Allurai continued to ponder. Her hands quivered, she was feeling very anxious. Kai and Cerez seemed to have kept their mothers informed. Kadir and Liem did not.
'It seems like their goals changed once she bound Setton. The Droids are a great replacement workforce. But after I denied that gate request, Liem changed and became resentful. No, Angry. Nora did not know the key individuals to start this movement. She let him choose. This was orchestrated by him,' Allurai thought. Her gaze drifted to Liem, who had been carefully gazing at him. Her spine felt a shiver as she caught his eyes. They used to look hurt, they were replaced with indifference.
'I forced him into this. I cannot take credit for this, and if Allari does not assist to the fullest abilities, we will be condemned. I am unsure of how much I can escape from myself on my own merit otherwise. The rules of governance favored matriarchs and natural-born males for hundreds of years. I maintained those laws. My only hope is to work on reconciling with him. Whatever it takes.' Allurai panicked, chewing on her lip.
**
Outside, not too far down the coastline, the Quill Industries building was being shot with distance weaponry and by heavy mining equipment. They had learned from the past penetration into the Allari building to stay a far distance away from the Matriarch themselves and not to allow the transports to interface with the Quill building. If a peacekeeper got too close to the building, they would fall unconscious. Making apprehending them impossible. Destruction was the goal. The massive ships hovered over the island. These space-faring transports had independent software on them built by the Sedai clan. They required authentication from a cipher from the owning clan to operate and did not connect to any-world software for the fear of on-off-world tampering from the 'laquita people, a species in which they were currently in conflict with off world. Bases on the terraformed planets dealt with theft of both mined resources and the ships themselves. The repetitive explosions of the energy beams used for mining and weaponry went off mere seconds after each other. A loud ping sounded against the hull of the ship.
"Report." Jin Thelan said, looking up from the talent competition program that, ironically, was filmed in the studio below.
"There seems to be a small group of Gimmel-ranked males firing on us with an improvised weapon." Creg 9078563400 answered. A loud ping was heard again. "Hull damage, near the fuel containment," Creg answered. A loud ping was heard repeatedly. The shift seemed to vibrate. "Asking for permission to break formation." Creg yelled nervously.
"It has been denied." Jin Thelan said, irate.
"Firing on the group," Creg said as he moved the beam, rocks and landscape-tearing up and floating into midair. "Fifty, seventy-five percent eliminated. More are rushing into the field to use the weapon." Creg said. A loud ping was heard, followed by hissing. Jin Thelan knew that the fuel containment had been hit.
"The fuel will light if you d-". Jin Thelan tried to finish his sentence, but he was cut off by a loud explosion as the craft erupted. The ship crashed and disintegrated into a nearby housing unit.
"Extinguish any flames before the fire suppressants engage automatically. Can any Sedai programmers hack the building interface before it deploys?" a Daleth man yelled, carrying two children slung over his arms.
"I am trying." a young male programmer was working. His leg was trapped and pinned by debris. If he gave up or lost consciousness, ten thousand people would die before even getting down the stairs. Screams erupted from the housing buildings as families desperately tried to flee the burning building. Men from surrounding buildings flooded the streets looking on in horror and in rage as the housing burned and the building which housed society's saviors was being sieged upon.
"No way. I guess they have given up on living or feel very confident. Move the machine and target the others in the same way," Kirin shouted. He had improvised these weapons with his colleagues. They had removed them from the manufacturing line from the plant that builds the ships and had wired them to any transport they could find. Seven more were being hastily improvised at the moment. He pointed at the specifications. "Target both the fuel containment and the weaponry. The mining equipment creates a massive charge every fourth burst." Kirin shouted. "Count them as you penetrate the fuel containment line, we can take them down quicker. They are getting closer. Those walls were plated with Pironium thankfully, but they will not last long." Kirin ordered. The deafening pings started again as they started rapidly firing.