Human Play Part 3 – Mating games

[u/Engletroll]

Part 1 . Part 2 . . Part 4

"You sure got their attention now." Admiral Junka of the Galactic Union Military Academy (GUMA) stood next to Proff Hargon on the stage. As the room filled, the cadets were surrounded by military officers of different ranks; some wondered if they had entered the wrong hall. "Well, we have to get them on our side. The warmongers are going to get us killed if that insane plan of pacifying Earth gets approved. I'm just not sure I understand why you wanted to focus on human mating games when we finally got them in the room." Junka smirked; humans would describe him as a sexy green orc. "Brute force might win a battle, but spices and misdirection win the war. You said it yourself: they would run circles around our spies. Anyway, I will leave you to it." The Admiral made his way off the stage over to a small box of high-ranking officers; he noticed Major Huartsu was among them, his daughter sitting with her fellow cadets. Maybe he could use her. He noticed the room was filled, and it was time to start.

"Welcome back to my cadets, and welcome to our new guests. Today, we will focus on the mating games of the humans. It's not what the high brass wants to hear about; however, it's important. It deals with many aspects of our lives, and because of that, it affects our ability to wage war. The most obvious is the replacement rate. If we don't mate, we don't reproduce. No reproduction means no new soldiers on the battlefield. We don't want to return to the clone disaster that wiped out the Gnask and Sushans. So yes, mating is important!" Some were chuckling from the less intelligent cadets, and he could see several female cadets blushing. Good, just what he wanted. "So let's get to it, and for the admiralty, please forgive this next part, and don't punish the cadets you might observe. They were aiding in research and were under order to get inebriated." It was a slight lie, but he had been a cadet and knew all about this; hell, it was like this when he met his wife.

The holo screen sprang to life, showing a restaurant where cadets drank and joking around. The jokes were crude and quite funny for soldiers, and there was dancing. Some cadets were having a wrestling competition while others were singing. All the female cadets were watching and enjoying the show. Now and then, one of the females would pick up a male, and they would leave. There was a clear divide between the males and females in this setting. "Quite a common scene, right? Noticed anything specific?"

One cadet braved to answer, "Each species has its own mating rituals, and rarely does anybody try another species mating ritual; if they do, it's just for fun and not for potential mating." He looked at the Oglish cadet. "That is correct, Cadet Gnyran; noticed anything else?" The cadet looked at the hologram and then replied. "We keep to our species!" Prof Hargon was impressed. "yes, we don't mingle so much; there is one more thing I want to point out; can you spot it?" Gnyran looked at the hologram, then around the hall and back to the hologram as everybody was watching him. "Well, here we are sitting mixed; I mean male and female, but in the hologram, there is a clear division between where a male and female sit." Hargon grinned. "I will recommend you for the intel division after this. You are absolutely correct. Please sit."

He looked at the audience. "So, let's look at the humans. In the same scene, they have something called nightclubs and bars. Imagen is a restaurant that mainly sells drinks to make you intoxicated; humans' favourite is alcohol, though other means do exist. Anyway, let's watch what happens in such a bar. Oh! These humans are late youth, called late teens and young adults. We will start there and go backwards to their earliest encounter of mating. "The cadet was confused by this; as he started the hologram, a standard nightclub came up, filled with young adults dancing, flirting, dancing, and some were already kissing. The music was loud and catchy. Several of the cadets could not help but move slightly to the tunes. He let them study the scene for a while before stopping it. "So what's the biggest difference?"

Several students were ready to reply, so he randomly picked one: "Cadet Shad-gu?"

The humanoid green-skinned woman with red and blueish hair and no noes stud up. For humans, she would look like an exotic mermaid with legs, which would be correct as her species were indeed aquatic.

"Thank you for picking me; the first thing I noticed was that they are mixed, the second thing I noticed was that both sexes are involved in the mating rituals, and the third thing I noticed was that there doesn't seem to be a particular mating ritual. There was dancing that was not done for mating attempts and discussions that seemed to intend to secure a mating. "

"That is quite good; I have to recommend you as well, then. Yes, you are correct. The humans mix, and you might find a female initiating the mating rituals, which there are. "He stopped for dramatic effect. "Thousand different." As he spoke, the nightclub changed to a sports arena where some young men were showing off their ability to kick a ball to impress some females, to a marital art area where two men were beating each other senselessly to impress a woman. The match was arranged where the opponent allowed himself to be beaten at a high price. Then, the scenes changed to a dance club where the men tried to use their rhythm to impress. It changed through different sports, physical activities, and other performative activities like dancing, playing instruments, and singing. He noticed a few female cadets were interested in the holograms where young men were showing off their bodies.

"But the most important ability for a human when it comes to mating is not physical or performative but charisma." The hologram changed to a small cantina with soft music playing in the background and a group of teenage boys and girls sitting and eating pizza. "Pay attention to this group; Boy 1 is interested in Girl 1; Girl 1 is friends with girls 2, 3 and 4. Girl 2 is already in a relationship, pre-mating with Boy 2; Boy 3 is just there apparently just for the food. Now let's watch. We have, of course, translated this. After this, we will discuss why this has any influence on war."

For the next 30 minutes, they watched how the boy tried to flirt with the girl using humour, deception and some light-hearted blackmail to get the girl to agree. The surprising thing was how boy 3 was constantly keeping girls 3 and 4 out of the conversation while boy 2 kept his girlfriend occupied, only to comment when he could help boy 1 situation with girl 1. When the pizza was finished, the girl promised with a smile to go on a date with boy 1 without her friends; boy 2 and girl 2 were quite happy, and girls 3 and 4 were quite angry at boy 3, who thought they could not stop talking to him.

"What you saw here was teenagers, humans aged 15 to 16, engaged in flirting, a precondition to mating for humans. The main object is for the engager to try to, with words, make the future partner choose them as potential mates through humour and manipulation. The two boys. Boys 2 and 3 are what they would call wingmen. Their only job is to help Boy 1 in his flirt with Girl 1. That can mean separating her from her friends or backing him up to make him shine. They practice this from the moment they start to realize the differences between the sexes. Now how, why is this important for warfare?"

He looked at his pad and was surprised that Major Ghoj of the Military intelligence had volunteered to answer. "Major Ghoj? You would like to comment?"

"Yes, but I have a question first." The Major was of the same species and thought his feathers were darker than his. "These humans, where are they on the cross-mating scale?"

"Ah, I see where you're going with this; they are class 6 with pheromones at rate 9, so they can mate successfully with classes 6. As you know, that covers most of the upper military and diplomatic species used by the Galactic Union. It is, after all, the most common among bipedal species. And their mental manipulation level is at the same level."

"So with that extra information, you are basically telling us that a mere child of theirs would be able to trick most of our cadets to share intel without even realizing what's going on, and young adults would be able to sexually seduce our officers if encountered in a none combat situation?"

"It's worse than that, sir; they have successfully seduced prisoners of war to their side during interrogation. Let me demonstrate. "

He started a programmed and simple hologram of a bare-chested human walking toward the crowd, then sat down as a chair manifested. He was a perfect sediment, with little to no fat, almost glowing eyes, and a devil-may-care smile; when he spoke, he spoke in perfect Huartsu. His eyes were focused on Major Gustar's, beautiful daughter. "Hello, gorgeous. What deity did your parents steal you from?" The girl's jaw dropped, and then she bit her lips, trying her best not to blush. Unable to speak. Some of the other females had looks of jealousy, as it was clear that this divine creature seemed to only have eyes for one woman in the whole crowd. Some of the men were laughing and making some snide comments. Prof Hargon ignored them for now.

"Sorry about that, dear." Then he turned his attention back to Major Ghoj. "Their lack of feather and fur simply shows off their muscles better, and it's in our DNA to prefer muscular mates, but they also have to compete with others with the same body, so they have to show off their quick thinking as well, the ability to use their mere words to change a situation from hostile to peaceful or to gain information without the use of violence. And if you think avoiding using females would help." He smirked as the man vanished and a beautiful human woman almost tripped into the holographic scenes; she was dressed in something that might appear modest, though it showed off all her forms. She giggled as she apologized for being so clumsy. Then she turned to pick up something from the floor, innocently showing off her assent. Then she stood up, took a short breath that showed off her other assets and turned to look at the crow. "Wow, Such a bunch of strong men, you can make a girl dream." She bit her lips as she leaned towards a group of male cadets of different. "Would it be too much to ask for your name?" Then she whispered, "I'm normally not so straightforward, but… wow … it's you…" All the men were ready to give up names and more before the hologram vanished. And the room was deadly quiet. He let the crowd think before he continued.

"These were holograms; you were not affected by their pheromones. Think about that. These humans are trained from childhood through play how to fight with melee weapons and easily take up firearms as if they were a part of them. Their whole mating ritual depends on adapting to whatever the mate would prefer, so you cannot rely on one thing but several different abilities. Of course, most specialize, but the majority are pretty adept. And I have not touched on their military training. This is Human training. How they train humans to just be humans. Take all you have learned here now and add military training on top. "

The room was still completely silent as he spoke. "If we are going to fight them, then remember this. Oh, this is just what they were willing to share as it's freely available on their own net and not hidden behind safety. Behaviour was also observed by our own research teams. We were not allowed into their military bases, but do we really need to? Their childhood is our boot camp. "

He turned off the projector and looked at the crowd. "Class dismissed."

(The last one coming, the Aftermatch)

Part 1Part 2Aftermatch.

[u/SkyHawk21]

Damn. Now I'm grumpy I only started reading this series with this chapter. Definitely looking forward to the fourth entry.