The Empire would have you believe that the war against the Shir is, by definition, endless. The Shir are evil and insentient, so the solution is to have them fight soldiers who are good, and insentient. War is a thing done by the Great Other. Principles of Empire fall apart if you assume not one, but two basic facts:
1. That “crosses,” meaning constructed soldiers, are inherently sentient.
2. That the Shir are also inherently sentient, if alien.
The average citizen, colonized by Jorian legends and half-truths embodied in scripture, cannot accept either. It would mean that every vegetable on their plate, every bolt of cloth, every breath of sweet terraformed air, is paid for over and over again in the blood of a sentient being meant for disposal.
—John Starfire, Toward a New Sentience
God’s hand stretches over the galaxy, and the stars shift, the planets align. The son of stars and the children of giants battle on the paths through the dark. The children shall be the change, and the change shall be the children.
—First Book of Joria