Preparing the Gambit

"A class 6 planet," came the disappointed voice of Gramu, staring at the information gathered by her subordinates. She held up multiple pages of information so her eyes could scan all of them at the same time, one of the only advantageous aspects of her race; good multitasking in both thought and vision.

"Barely, the planet has the bare minimum amount of cities and population to stop it from being classified as a resource planet," stated Gramu's subordinate. She was far more humanoid than the fly-like female, even if her slightly photo-luminescent green skin and lack of a neck led to some… interesting situations.

"Find me a good species on a planet better than a class 6 residential and I'll listen to your changes to the plan."

"Why are you doing this in the first place? As soon as the human becomes CEO, everyone will realize your game and then things will fall apart."

"You know there is more to my final pitfall for those bitches than that. Is this right? He was under the scholarship of his local university until this year." Gramu, distracted with her inheritor's information, lifted a page from her left side.

"Yes, a Vanid replaced him for the scholarship and he was discharged without recognition for any classes. His papers list the reason as 'severe incompetency'."

Everyone could tell that was false and was obviously the result of a generous donation from the Vanid to get the human expelled and stop wasting their time being educated. What was moronic though, was the human's next action. Unaware of the pettiness of a Vanid, he had advertised the unfortunate fate of his education in his job application. Every single application inevitably failed, to ensure the company wasn't harassed by a particularly petty Vanid.

"To be expected. It was bad luck that he had nearly completed his degree when the Vanid decided to take it away from him."

Gramu stared at the face of the human for a second before flinching away and dropping the page. There was something off about his stare, it reminded her of the predators that had eyed her during her academy days, a focused gaze that could only come from a predator.

Picking up the page, Alluris was also able to understand Gramu's actions. The boy was supposed to look expressionless for a personal picture for ease of inter species recognition. However, this one failed at looking expressionless and appeared to be staring straight at whoever looked at the picture with what she could only describe as a predatory hunger.

"He definitely has the intimidation factor down. Despite the combination of predator and prey characteristics in his species, he can play the part of a predator."

Alluris was an omnivore like this human, however, her species had only grown to eat creatures smaller than her and was far more herbivorous.

"Yes, yes that's all good but looking like a predator won't help in most situations," Gramu seemed to shoot down the only positive thing her second in command had ever given to her chosen successor. Placing all the papers down, she nodded to herself.

"Alluris, don't separate him from the 'superior' races, he shouldn't need training not to be intimidated by them, and knowing what species he will interact with early will aid in his advancement."

The Munki was taken aback a little by this.

"But he's an omnivore. Despite predatory instincts, in front of a true predator his instincts should overwhelm him with fear."

"Not entirely. What relics of human history that could be recovered displayed a concept of overcoming fear. However, they were fiction and so were thrown away."

Gramu was still composed despite the forceful rejection of her subordinate.

"And why would you believe a scrap of what is most likely a pointless legend when the shadow council has thoroughly researched the true dichotomy between predator, prey, and omnivore species?"

"Because I saw a human throw away his survival instincts in order to attempt to kill a Vanid."

This accusation had weight. A major similarity of all space-faring species was their obsession with staying alive. Old age was something no species could escape, but the concept of a premature death filled even the predators with profound fear.

"Are you sure he didn't lose his sanity under the conditions of that woman? She no longer owns strong species because they go rabid and damage her belongings."

"He was sane enough to use a blunt object as a piercing weapon."

The shudder that Alluris gave was immediately translated as rejection, however, the translator for Gramu easily perceived that she wanted to end the conversation at that.

"So have you decided on what advertisements we will give him? This all falls apart if he doesn't choose to apply for our fleet."

"Yes, yes. Despite the history teachings I find it hard to believe that humans are a purely warmongering race, so we need to make a custom ad for patriotism. He will be looking for a way he can use his intelligence, so make it an officer recruitment video. And last but not least get some….. What were they called again?"

Gramu had great intelligence, but she did have trouble memorizing all the new species in her fleet. But considering what the human was like-

"The Khaf?"

"Definitely not. Despite their fair nature he wouldn't appreciate something so…. Androgynous," Gramu shot down in disgust.

"Are you really using females to entice him?"

"Their race was originally patriarchal. You argued the shadow council's research before, he definitely is at the age where his instincts are pushing him towards a mate."

Alluris let out a long sigh, one thing her species had in common with humans.

"So the Shu then."

The target species wasn't as demure as the androgynous and snakelike Khaf. They were a true predator species whose most defining feature was the extra limb coming out of their forearm. The limb was good for piercing through enemies for a killing blow, while their hands tapered off to three hyper-dexterous fingers. Blade-like nails were good for grabbing onto prey and cutting them up after they had been killed. They were persistent hunters whose prey usually acted in swarms, and so were adapted to hunting multiple targets at once before the swarm outran them.

Despite the Shu's bronze scales and additional extremity, it didn't distract from the fact that they were built similarly to humans.

"Yes, the Shu. Have them model some of the facilities for the advertisement."

"Is that all?"

"Being this heavy-handed could get us into trouble if someone found out, just make sure to have the application information ready so that his information can go through a different process. If it gets into the centralised mainframe before we can edit it the other fleets will catch on before my retirement."

"This is the first time I've heard something this covert be called heavy handed," Alluris muttered as she left the room.

It was only a day later when the two would get their answer, as Adam was interacting with a friend. "Seriously? How many times has that been this game?" Came the soft voice of one of the aforementioned Khaf that Adam had become friends with during his university days.

"You are too predictable, you always stay on the defensive and when I pull ahead your desperation opens you up like a book," Adam once again explained to his friend, they had played countless games of planet's bounty. A small simulation of the capitalist system, one had to get rights to planets, mine them for resources, sell them, and interfere with their opponents so they had the most money at the end of the game.

"Fine, it's that evil grin I swear, every time you have a plan up your sleeve you grin in a way that makes me feel like you're going to eat me."

The Khaf didn't really stand up as they swung their body into a standing position, using their near invertebrate status to be hyper-flexible and use momentum more effectively.

"Sorry again Rmnl, I can't give you anything to eat or drink."

"I said stop worrying about it," Rmnl cut him off, "you haven't found a job in a month, your savings have run out and if you don't get something soon you will have to take debts."

The ominous word, for the poor it was basically signing yourself off to slavery, and with Adam's position, he would be.

"I know, I'm still applying, I will get a job," he repeated the words he had been saying since halfway through the month. That damn Vanid had kicked him off onto the street the same day he was notified, he was fined for three days of vagrancy because of that bitch. His funds had now dwindled to the last day's worth of food in his fridge and there was no money in his account.

"Just know that you can get a little money off me if you need it until your job begins," was the Khaf's final reply before he closed the door and left Adam on his own to think….

Well think and surf the internet for applications, but as always on the freemium version of the internet, he had to watch an ad for every website he visited that wasn't a direct link from another ad. Loading up his computer, Adam placed the search for another job website he could look for work, and viewed his first ad.

And it would be the one ad that he needed. The propaganda in the video was obvious, but the proper message wasn't. The girls definitely excited him, but not all just because they looked great (no matter one's discipline they would definitely arouse a man). It made it obvious they were looking for bipedal men like him, and the call for officers also meant that he would likely be able to try for an officer position.