# Horda LATAM
Author: Paynalton
Canonical source:
Language: en
Original publication:
The history of the galaxy is written by the victors, and in the history of the Third Galactic War (GWIII) there are dark passages that the victors refuse to tell, either out of pride, respect, or perhaps strategy. And it is that now, after so much time in retirement studying the history of the human species, I have discovered omissions in their history and I can say, without fear of being wrong, that they knew. I have asked several humans and they seem to be unaware of this part of the history, even ignoring parts of the history of their own world prior to the discovery of FTL flight. I have discovered a pattern in those omissions, for in the history of their conflicts, parts are missing that could have given us a clue about the terrible hidden power we were facing against them during the war. All humans feign ignorance, but I am convinced that they knew.
During the war, I served as a strategic officer on the planet Phinafilis (renamed Moctezuma after the war) for the Magnificent JonNi Empire. My father was an important noble, so when I was called to serve in the militia, he used his influence and managed to send me to that planet, which was far from the main battlefront and which, very likely, would never see a battle regardless of whether we won or lost. Although the planet's strategic importance was notable, conquering our position would have entailed a cost almost as high as attacking our capital, and the benefit would not have been as great. Any intelligent strategist would prefer to focus their resources on assaulting the imperial capital.
But that was exactly what was happening when I arrived on the planet and reported to the command center. At the command center, they were talking about the lack of strategic intelligence from the humans, since a large-scale incursion into the planet had been discovered. The watch posts had detected an invading force, and the spies reported that it was not a decoy, but rather that this invading force was composed mainly of human LATAM troops, with little offensive power and outdated contingency plans. My passion for history and my ability to understand alien cultures were known to my superiors, so my first assignment was to figure out why the humans were behaving this way, sending an ill-equipped horde on an impossible and suicidal mission. I began studying their history and culture along with other officers and found clear evidence of discrimination, exploitation, and slavery that the LATAM had suffered throughout their history along with other human populations. My conclusion (and that of all the other officers) was that there were too many LATAM and the humans simply wanted to get rid of them, taking advantage of the opportunity to send them on a suicidal mission. That was my big mistake, believing that the humans were acting like an empire would with the undesirable and not investigating further into their hidden history, believing that the humans harbored hatred toward a single ethnicity among all the others without any apparent reason.
The strategic decision of my superiors was unanimous and executed perfectly. First, we let the LATAM reach the planet and establish some bases, facing a few drones and automated defenses, pretending to be weak. Then a rapid deployment force attacked their rear, preventing the arrival of reinforcements and supplies, which some considered unnecessary since the rest of the humans didn't seem to have prepared additional reinforcements or supplies to send to the invaders. We expected the humans, seeing themselves abandoned to their fate, to surrender immediately and gain a large number of slaves with minimal effort. Although we were losing the war, there were still many years before the humans would have the capability to assault the capital, and that free labor would be of great help to the empire, it could even give us that push that would lead us to victory. The other humans made no attempt to rescue their own, so we believed we had won.
But the LATAM did not surrender, but rather began to advance.
They ran out of food and they did not surrender, they fed on whatever they found along the way,
They ran out of ammunition and they did not surrender, they built weapons using the scraps they found along the way.
Desperate over their unstoppable advance, we sent a special unit to eliminate their commanders, but they did not surrender. When they lost leadership, they began to act like a swarm, where each individual was both a leader and a subordinate;
We launched all our forces against them, overwhelmed them with weapons of mass destruction, dismembered the prisoners, impaled their bodies on their path to intimidate them, and they did not surrender. They continued advancing until they reached the central command of the planet.
I still remember when they captured me, their smiles and the big celebration they held for their victory. Despite the cruelty of my superiors, they did not treat us badly, and some of them became my friends after the war ended.
We lost the planet. The other humans, upon being notified of the invasion's success, sent reinforcements and a lot of supplies, took control of the planet, and organized from there the invading forces that would eventually overthrow the empire many years before anyone had predicted. The history of the war speaks of the glorious humans and how their forces arrived at the capital with great bravery. But of the LATAM who fought on the planet and achieved that strategic position without which the war would not have ended so soon, there is only a mention and a small monument to the fallen, which no one visits.
But I know that what seems to be a disregard for the effort and achievements of the LATAM by excluding their feats from human history is actually a strategy to ensure that their next enemy, whoever it may be, cannot suspect the true danger posed by a horde of LATAM.
Image created with AI
CC-BY License