Katarina gazed out of the window of the ship, the 'Platinum Avenger;' a light cruiser class ship which earned its namesake from it's unique chromatic platinum coloured hull and was the prized personal spacecraft of the esteemed 'Silver Sparrow;' Melanie Menendez as it made its way towards a planet.
Excluding the crew itself, there were also around five hundred others with her, watching the planet grow in size as they drew closer.
She knew some of them as they were also P.A.I.N. operatives stationed at 17 while others belonged to other P.A.I.N. installations scattered across the Earth's Solar System, the systems within the territory of the United Planets of America as well as within the bordering systems of the U.P.A.'s human neighbours.
All of them were here with the same purpose, they were supposed to temporarily supplement the military force of one of the planets within the 'New Florida System.'
From what she was told during the briefing back at 17, the New Flordia System laid not just on the border of the U.P.A. but the border of human space in general. That meant that it not only shared borders with other human systems but with systems which belonged to other intelligent species as well.
Since the planet in question; "Viridi" was what was commonly dubbed as an 'outer border' planet, it was thus less developed than its core world counterparts which as their name would suggest, were situated within the metaphorical 'heart' of human space.
When Katarina viewed Viridi from the Avenger, she saw a planet plagued with huge swathes of desolate land, mostly ill-suited for colonisation. There were occasional splotches of fertile land and seas where human settlements were likely to have been built, but those fertile pieces of land were few and far between.
If she were to make a comparison, she would compare to it to Earth, but instead of most of the surface being bright blue water, there was instead barren brown land. While parts of the planet's surface was still lands covered by verdant greens or aquatic seas, they could only account for 30-40% of the planet.
Apparently, the U.P.A.'s government has not invested much into the terraforming of the planet, with only a light colonisation effort. That didn't surprise anybody, the planet itself was not of high importance and as an outer border planet, it was at risk of xenos invasion.
Without a substantial military fleet on standby within the system and with only one fleet; the 11th United Planets Fleet on stand by within the nearby New Alabama System, the system was all but secured.
With the threat of foreign invasion, lack of overall funding and investments, and the general lack of incentives to settle down within the outer border regions, the human population of the planets within said border systems dwindled as a result.
That was not to say that there wasn't a substantial population within the outer border systems, it was just not as much when compared to the population of the planets within the core regions, where the most commerce and innovation took place.
To the those within the U.P.A. and perhaps even the other human intergalactic nations, the only real use for the outer border regions were as a first line of defence against any xenos invasion.
With the current limitations of warp technology and other equally powerful alien civilisations right on their, the outer border systems which were once the symbolic representation of human expansion and colonisation were now relegated as buffer zones against the foreign threats.
However, even amongst the outer border nations, the New Florida System was still 'unique.'
For it was one of the few systems within any of the nations of the Intergalactic Terran Confederation to share borders with systems belonging not to one other xenos species but two.
One of them was the dymonic civilisation, a cruel and malign but reclusive species that rarely left the borders of their own territory. It was only on a few rare occasions that dymons could be found outside of 'dymonic space.'
Apparently dymons would also host military conquest expeditions known as 'Infernal Crusades' but most information regarding the Crusades were the makings of rumor and superstition. Thus the dymons usually weren't regarded as an 'immediate threat' by their neighbours, including humanity.
So far, the U.P.A. and the other human nations sharing borders with the dymons like the Euronic Republic or the Russo-Chinese Federation held a very tenuous truce with the dymons.
The same could not be said for the other alien species bordering the New Florida System.
A race defined by war and brutality.
The savage greenskins.
The orkks.
A primitive and warlike species, it is commonly accepted by humans and other intelligent species alike that the okkish species are the scourge of the universe. To some, they were even likened to as a plague.
A race beyond reasoning, beyond common sense, even the dymons who bore close resemblance to the biblical demons of hell feared the orkks.
The existence of the orkks only one system away from the New Florida System was the only reason why the past few days of slowly warping towards their destination were of dreadful anticipation for Katarina.
She has only been a P.A.I.N. operative for a few years and before then, she only served ten years within the Standard Confederate Psionic Services after being recruited at the age of fourteen. In her years of service, she has only fought against rebellious insurgents, cunning criminal syndicates, and petty pirates and raiders.
Although they were formidable in their own right, such foes truly could not compare to the nightmare that was orkkind. Since P.A.I.N. operatives were expected to take part within any and all conflict within human space, they were of course forced to study the orkks as part of their training.
As a person who hailed from the Euronic Republic who only shared borders with other human nations and the dymons, Katarina never really concerned herself with learning about what she believed to be a primitive, barbaric and warlike race.
However, what she discovered during her studies truly astonished her.
Although her beliefs that the orkks were primitive, barbaric and warlike was indeed correct, she also learned that the true nature of the orkks was so much more than that.
She learned that the very existence of the orkks seemed to defy common sense itself.
She learned that the average orkk was typically two to three times as strong as the average human male and were naturally born with fighting skills and instincts that allow them to rival even the most adept human warriors.
She learned that even among the plethora of alien species, orkk physiology was unique. With orkk bodies being extremely resilient and tolerant to pain, even the most grievous wounds like dismembered limbs won't cause much pain on an orkk, allowing them to fight longer and harder even after sustaining fatal injuries.
She learned that orkks could reproduce extraordinary fast, being able to grow from a number that numbered in the double digits to a number that numbered in the triple digits within the span of a single week.
She learned that apparently, all of their weapons and vehicles consisted of literally miss-matched components and scavenged parts that were haphazardly melded together to create machines of war that baffle even the most intelligent and most experienced of humanity's researchers and engineers.
She learned that orkks had little sense for strategic thinking, with their only plans of attack being to completely annihilate the enemy with overwhelming firepower and violence, often losing hundreds if not thousands and even millions of their own in the process.
She learned that pain, fear and even death itself meant little to orkks. As long as they could indulge themselves in ceaseless strife and conflict, an orkk will gladly plunge themselves into battle, only stopping once either of the two opposing sides was absolutely decimated.
And finally, she learned that orkks lived in a society so warlike and so brutal that the word 'peace' was utterly incomprehensible to them.
So much so, that the one and only desire of orkks could be said with just a four worded sentence.
To wage unceasing war.
Katarina could barely even believe the material that she studied. If it weren't for the multiple existing accounts and evidence that proved the unforgiving truth of the orkks, she would have thought of the orkks as the fictional works of a deranged madman.
But the footage of the orkks that she along with other P.A.I.N. recruits was forced to watch as part of their training was the worst experience.
On a large high definition screen, she witnessed the true extent of the orkks' unrelenting savagery.
From the first few footage of conflict involving the orkks, Katarina was quickly able to get a grasp of the orkks' typical battle plan, if she could even call it that.
Within every single battle, hundreds if not thousands of orkks formed a massive unorganised but seemingly unstoppable 'green tide' that charged recklessly in an attempt to overrun and overwhelm their enemies with little care for their own lives or the lives of their colleagues.
Even amidst constant artillery, aerial and orbital bombardment, they charged forth, completely unfazed by the constant explosions that swallowed up their fellow orkks and the bullet storm that cut down their foremost men. It even appeared as if they were having the time of their lives.
It didn't even seem like they considered collateral damage as they fired highly explosive rounds near themselves or their allies, or as they carelessly ran over their colleagues with their vehicles. In fact, the victims of said collateral damage didn't even seem to be fazed by the friendly fire and simply carried on as if nothing happened.
Some footage even displayed orkks killing their kin in cold blood, just so they can deal the killing blow to their enemies.
What was just as bad were the inconceivable weapons and vehicles that the orkkish forces fielded. When Katarina read that orkkish technology was ramshackle and haphazard, she at least expected them to at least adhere to some sort of logic.
But what she witnessed in the footage was completely beyond her expectations.
Orkkish weapons composed of shoddy swords, axes and guns. Their swords and axes were oftentimes a poorly maintained piece of sharp metal melded onto a handle while their guns were similarly crude in their design.
The orkks' vehicles were no different either, whether they were tanks, planes, aircrafts and even spacecrafts, they were all literal rust buckets that by some miracle managed to not immediately fall apart the moment they enter the battlefield.
Despite appearing defective and unreliable, orkks have proven in every battle that their crude weapons were just as effective as the more sophisticated weapons of humankind.
How the orkks managed to not only successfully use their weapons and vehicles in a battle was beyond Katarina's understanding, let alone how they somehow used their spacecrafts to traverse the stars, spreading ultra-violence wherever they go.
As a person born of this era, Katarina like many others saw herself as a 'desensitised' person due to the harsh, uncaring and violent media that she was subjected to, whether it was fictional or non-fictional.
But even then, when she was confronted with the horrifying truth that was the orkkish species, she could not help but feel sick in her stomach.
How cruel could the universe be to allow such a terrifying species to exist?
Because, how was humanity supposed to fight a species that seemed to defy reason and logics itself?
But at the very least, the universe was kind enough to make it so that the orkks fight amongst themselves just as much as they would fight any other race. Even more than that, the orkks were currently preoccupied with their conflicts against the dymons.
As such, after much deliberation, Katarina concluded that there was next to no chance of her encountering the dreadful orkks in battle.
Soon a placid smile formed on her face when she realised that in reality, her worries were for naught.
If only she knew just how wrong she was.