Raymond Lech

Raymond Lech was born a free man, but lived under Kamian rule for forty years during the Succession Wars.

Occupation

The City

"The Kamians were not, in there own way, particularly cruel. Do not misunderstand; life under Kamian rule was very unpleasant, but very little of that displeasure came at the direct action of the Kamian hand. If one of my citizens committed a serious crime, stole something valuable or damaged something important - in particular acts of sabotage or terrorism - they would be executed. Smaller crimes, in particular stealing food (which was common) were basically ignored. Someone caught red-handed might be verbally chastised, but beatings or direct acts of cruelty were rare. In fact, even in the cases of executions, the Kamians were surprisingly diligent. They didn't simply round up random individuals and put them to death. Granted, they needed a reasonable suspicion; it was not the kind of evidence you might need at a civilized murder trial, but they were ultimately unconcerned with killing us. I saw just as many resistance fighters go free as face death. The executions themselves were never public, always quiet, and, as I understand, always generally humane."

"I think that the Kamians saw resistance fighters as worthy adversaries. That facing them in battle it was all right to fight back, but hunting them down was not a reasonable challenge, not worth the effort. More than once, I knew of captured resistance members who, though guilty, when brought to be executed broke down in tears and were simply... released."

"So, no, it wasn't the Kamians who deliberately made the occupation hell. They simply didn't have the time to met out individual cruelties; they were far more insidious than that. They created an environment where we enacted the cruelty on ourselves."

"Take my earlier account of crime and punishment, how they completely ignored petty crimes? That itself was a big part of the problem. We had no law enforcement to speak of in our communities, save what we could organize ourselves. We weren't allowed to arm police officers, to build prisons. When one human stole from another, the Kamians did not care. And while serious crimes against them were punished, that lack of caring extended to serious crimes among ourselves. So the monsters of society were free to do as they pleased, facing only what justice we could mete out ourselves. And most of us... Didn't care."

"I'll say this: they never worked us to death. My city was in a mining region, the Kamians were very interested in copper that came from our region. They ordered us to extract a certain amount, to have it brought to collection points. Every so many intervals... the details aren't important. They didn't ask for more copper than the region could produce, but they didn't pay for it. My city was held hostage; a warship stationed in orbit would fire a volley into a different section of the city, chosen at random, every time the quota was not met. If one specific town failed to meet its quota, they'd fire on the town. Every shot would kill thousands, destroy buildings, damage infrastructure. The Kamians didn't care. We would work or die."

"In a way, this was even worse than if they'd marched in and forced us to mine at gun point. Instead, we had to force each other, had to organize our own labor camps, had to build our own tools, and still produce enough food to feed ourselves - all while the Kamians demanded our copper, and gave us nothing in return. They accepted no excuses, either. Once month, the entire region failed to meet its quota, and the volley hit the industrial section of my city. It crippled the mines; we had no spare parts, no new equipment. Needless to say, the next month the quota was not met either, and this time the volley fell in a housing district. Instead of killing a few thousand, it killed tens of thousands, and left many homeless. The quota was missed a third time, and they destroyed our refinery. Each failure made it harder and harder for us to meet the quotas, but they didn't care."

"Winter saw four more volleys into the city. I lost my brother and one of my daughters. It was a brutal, excruciating winter. Many died of exposure, more starved or died from injuries. They'd destroyed the hospitals, most of the residential areas. I left with my family that spring, and the attacks continued for the rest of the year until the entire city had been abandoned."

The Country

"When it became clear the quota would be met soon, I left with my family to one of the outlying mining settlements. Without access to heavy manufacturing, the townspeople had built a makeshift workshop; we were reduced to mining copper the same as we had before industrialization, with simple hand tools and carts. But we made our quota; and when we realized that made us safe, things calmed."

"I was lucky. The town I settled in was mostly full of good-natured people, with a general spirit that we had to work together to stay alive. We became something of a commune; nearly all the men worked in the mine, while the women worked in the fields. The Kamians didn't care where we got our food, that wasn't their concern. So the women grew crops and the men mined copper. My own son had to come into the mines with me when he was just ten years old. I hated it; it was miserable work, but we knew with every shovel of ore that we were helping to keep my wife and daughters safe."

"Mine safety was, of course, left entirely up to us. The Kamians did not so much as inspect the place. So far as I know, no Kamian ever even visited the town. If there wasn't enough ore at the collection site, they'd fire on us from orbit. That was all we needed to keep the quotas."

"I think, the ore was really what saved us. You see, before the city was destroyed, the Kamians demanded refined copper. We had extensive refining and smelting facilities in the city, which the Kamians destroyed from orbit. That was the one, single concession they made: once the copper works were gone, we were allowed to deliver copper ore instead. And that saved us, even though we had to bring a lot more... we could bring a lot less. Figure: one ton of copper is one ton of copper, regardless. But twenty tons of copper ore may contain much more or much less copper, depending on how pure the ore was. The Kamians didn't care about purity, just quantity. So, as the mine played out, we didn't have to fear annihilation."