Challenge #01704-D243: Collateral Self-sacrifice

Humans as the S&R species/Space!Rescue Dogs (I know you've seen the first part dozens of times, but this is a different chain of posts, that goes a different way) -- RecklessPrudence

Everyone knows that humans are indomitable. Against level five or above Deathworlders[1], they are dogged and determined. Against disaster, they have a thousand ways to triumph. Even the most mundane of their species has exhibited what they call hysterical strength in times of ultimate stress.

But over the years, Galactic Society has learned that there is one thing that humans cannot withstand. Disapointment. They arrive too late. They arrive on time, but the disaster has already claimed too many - which is a relative term. Too many deaths in a row, too many losses, and the humans lose morale. And yet they will continue to dig through the rubble and sift through the wreckage until every body has been found.

The humans, endurance predators to the end, will slow. And leak. And make ugly noises. They mourn peoples they never knew. Break down over infants they never saw alive. Rage and curse against forces of nature and war that they couldn't help. And Galactic Society noticed. As much as the United Fellowship of Terran Planets was the Galactic Emergency Response Team[2], other Galactics recognised that they also needed a share of wins.

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