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Songs
of the Bird War
Timeline
- Near future
Energy crisis causes Earth superpowers to delve further into alternative fuel research - ??????????
He-3 fusion perfected, which will solve global energy problems, as long as there is a consistent source of He-3. Moon-mining begins. Earth governments warily prepare for potential conflicts over mining territory on the moon (United States creates Space Military Academy), but for the time being, treaties and the vast, seemingly infinite amounts of easily accessible He-3 on the moon prevent any large-scale conflicts from taking place. With such a large supply of fuel available, energy consumption on Earth immediately skyrockets. - Shortly after
Moon mining is shown to have a detrimental effect on the health and longevity of human miners. Meanwhile, bioengineering technology continues to advance, and companies are granted full rights over even intelligent synthetic creations. - Shortly after
that
Keeler Snack Foods and Bioengineering creates birdpeople, human/canary hybrids who can mine on the moon with no adverse physical side effects. They are put into service and treated essentially as slaves in work camps on moon colonies under martial law. Birdpeople culture begins as they form family units and start reproducing naturally among themselves. - Time passes....
Birdpeople/human tensions escalate, as birdpeople start to realize the level of military control that they are under. Humans on Earth become completely dependent upon He-3 as their sole energy source.
- THE
GREAT BIRD WAR
51 BSC: (Before Space Crackers)
Birdpeople/human tensions erupt in a miner rebellion at Aitken Basin. The resistance spreads across the Moon, conducted effectively via a previously secret birdpeople rebel communication network. Earth nations hastily send soldiers to space to suppress the rebellion, but are suprised and quickly overmatched by the organization of the rebels. - Time passes....
As war continues for years, He-3 production slows to a standstill, and quality of life on Earth takes a dramatic downturn. Regular people are forced to reassess their lives and their energy-consumption habits in relation to their environment. Governments begin to draw up treaties and unify their efforts in an attempt to organize a combined counterstrike against the Bird Rebellion. Public opinion on Earth is a generally radical racist fervor against the birdpeople, and the racial slur "beak" comes into popular use. - Meanwhile...
Doctor O, a recent graduate of Space Military Academy, rises in ranks as he fights in the Great Bird War, assuming command after command and winning battle after battle, yet showing a compassion and understanding of the motivations behind his opponents. O treats the war as a distasteful task, and one to be completed as soon as possible with a minimum loss of life on either side. O's command success and enlightened humanitarian views start to stem racial hatred towards birdpeople among soldiers. On Earth, all nations have essentially united as one, under the onslaught of constant war. - Late 41BSC:
"The Midnight Standstill": O and Birdperson Tukluk battle to a draw when Tukluk ambushes O during an O-led raid intended to free several captured Earth soldiers. Tukluk's decision to stop fighting and free the soldiers builds a bond between the two that further paves the way for eventual peace. - 40 BSC:
After years of conflict (and corresponding starvation and loss of life on Earth due to the He-3 shortage), the Great Bird War comes to an end, with O (now General O) and Tukluk negotiating the critical Shackleton Crater Treaty. The terms are complex, as with most government documents, but the critical points are:- a) The birdpeople are granted sovereignty and provided a large space cruiser to bring them to new areas of the galaxy, should they choose to search for a planet to colonize in their own name (several thousand birdpeople do indeed embark on such a voyage)
- b) Control of the He-3 mining equipment and mines is returned to its original governmental owners on Earth.
- c) Future moon mining is to be performed primarily by advanced computerized mining machines (ACMMs), which were developed on Earth shortly after the Great Bird War indicated that bioengineered workers were not a practical option.
- d) Birdpeople who choose to stay on the Moon as miners are granted full civil rights, and will act as supervisors, programmers, and mechanics alongside the ACMMs (which are installed immediately upon Earth's reclamation of the mining areas).
- General O is hailed as a hero both by humans on Earth and by birdpeople on the Moon, who all recognize that his clear thinking and policy of peaceful coexistence is the only thing that saved the two sides from eventual exhausted annihilation. The mutual respect shared by O and Tukluk causes racial tension between birdpeople and humans to quickly evaporate.
- 39 BSC:
Several post-war treaties on Earth itself finally officially unify all nations into one global state: United Earth. General O spearheads the reformation of Space Military Academy from an institution of warfare into Space School, an organization of peaceful scientific research.
Lyrics
Goodnight, Aitken Basin
Oh the grub's not so good and the gravity's low
If you don't wear your helmet, your head will explode
But we'll fight for what's right, and the rights of all those down below
Oh the beaks have no mercy and neither do we
We'll kill 'em and take back our He-3
We'll rip out their feathers and tie up their feet
We'll fight in the craters and basins and streets
Jones was a good man, a father of five
The beaks cut his tendons and ate him alive
Smith was a fighter, he never asked why
The beaks cut his tendons and ate him alive
But oh, how I miss my little wife
And oh, how I miss my simple life
Free of the drums and the electro-fife
On the planet down below
Here in space they've turned us into killing machines
Visions of dead beaks haunting our dreams
Our friends and our families would never understand
On sleepy planet Earth there's no place for a space-fighting man
Throw Your Shackles Down
My father worked in the mine all of his life
Yesterday my father died in the mine
My mother worked in the mine all of her life
Yesterday my mother died in the mine
We hatched here
We slaved here
We'll fight here
For the rights of those with the wings and the shackles
If you mess with the bird you're gonna get the talons
The groundies live on the fuel we find down in the mines
We drink dirty water, they sip fancy wine
They power their cars while we break our spines down in the grime
They heat their homes with the blood of our family lines
We hatched here
We slaved here
We'll fight here
For the rights of those with the wings and the shackles
If you mess with the bird you're gonna get the talons
The Keelers watch over the mine all of the time
But they'll never see the wrench coming from behind
So for all birdmen, it's time to rise and fight for our lives
It's time to break off our chains and fly
We hatched here
We slaved here
We'll fight here
For the rights of those with the wings and the shackles
If you mess with the bird you're gonna get the talons
For the rights of those with the wings and the shackles
If you mess with the bird you're gonna get the talons
For the rights of those with the wings and the shackles
If you mess with the bird you're gonna get the talons