THE EMPIRE STRIKES

Commander Orlov played with the crystal chips as if he was playing Mahjong. These were the first field reports concerning the harvesting and destruction of the planet Earth. First results would be a good indication of the strategy to be followed next. The Handbook forbade alien hardware, at least in this phase. The events had to look tragic, but natural and should not be alarming enough for mankind, to stop their vision and alter their ideologies. It would get worse before the inhabitants of this planet would notice that resistance was useless. The first report contained some newspaper articles about the disaster that struck Japan. He saw the hands of his social engineers and technicians in the subtle development of the disaster. And worse was to come. The whole “Rim of fire” would explode and volcanic activity was increasing already. All attention was directed towards the disaster at the neclear plant, while fugitives and evacuees died in ice-cold shelters. It was Hirosjima in reverse. Another planetary no-go area. Orlov smiled when he read, that the Japanese government had been forced to change dangerlevels for radiation. Up by 250%. Poor workers, doing their job, while high officials had failed. Even the future Emperor-to be of the whole world was seen on television.

The second report described the turbulence in the Arabic and islamitic world. Orlov smiled again. The whole situation reminded him of a saying by Jian. “If you have to tell your people the truth, you better make them laugh. Otherwise they may kill you.” This male, autocratic, conservative, religiously biased top-down culture was desintegrating. The future seemed clouded in dust.

An ecological memo drew his attention. Due to overfishing and global warming the oceans will be ruled in future by jelly-fish. The nets of Japanese and Korean fishing ships were filled with it. This would disturb the local diet, because the remaining fish gained radio-activity and slowly died of the plastic particles they drank.

All went according to plan. He activated the colossal powerpoint presentation on the main screen. Work in progress.

The last memo was short and contained little information. It said, that Jian had started an Academy in a small state in Europe. Quite succesfully Orlov read. He shook his head. The crazy monk had chosen the long path. But he had one big problem, Time. He would not be able to educate and train enough students to stop the momentum this planet was in. A last report appeared on the screen. The North-Eastern coastline of Japan was slowly sinking into the sea. About 70 centimeters so far, at the moment.