The Guardian Dæmons. Strains, #3

Strain 3: To strain is to sift, to filter.  Natural·selection creates some·thing new by straining a small group from a large one. Likewise unnatural·selection. Survival in inter·planetary void is hard enough already without th'added burden of a persistent amorphous undeclared back·ground war of slow attrition. This is the center·piece of the 5·part Strains saga, an experimental hybrid·format hard science fiction series set mostly in interplanetary void oe millennium in the future - no FTL, no time travel, no dragons, no fantasy, nothing but the known laws of nature and the unbridled nature of humanity.
Considering all that mankind has adapted to in the past, surely we can also manage such a trivial little challenge as inter·planetary war on top of every·thing else, especially since we already survived the first one, barely. The war may well prove to be th'easy part. REQUIRES COLOR.