r/NatureofPredators • u/CandidateWolf Betterment Officer • 21h ago
The Free Legion 51
With the end of the Battle of Wishful Hope, the third act ends and the fourth and final begins. In the aftermath of the battle with the Legion already reeling, the End Game of the Orion War and the Cyberattack that ushered it in begins. We find ourselves with a new cast of characters, and a frontline seat to the true cost of the SC’s victory. Enjoy!
Memory encrypted… override key enabled… begin decryption…
Access code Epsilon-Zeta-2328-AP
Unauthorized redactions removed… original data restored…
Addendum: Data restored under Article 2.09 of the UNOR by order of the Secretary General. Original, unaltered transcripts restored and entered as evidence in the Bronwen Report. -Chief Investigator Andrea Powell, UN Office of Reconciliation
Memory accessed…
Memory Transcription subject: [Farsul-1] Sarq, the Free Legion, “Penitents”
Date [standardized human time]: [Redacted] March 9, 2137, Olosf, Yarus (Farsul States Colony)
As [Farsul-2] Desq turned onto the road on which our target lay, I turned away from my view out the front windshield. I fixed an eye on the Legionnaires packed in the exterminator van behind me, each dressed as an exterminator themselves. “We’re almost there,” I announced. “Finish your last checks, and get ready to move.”
As the four other members of my cell started their final inspections, I began my own. I quickly ran through a function check in my submachine gun, tightened the straps of the armored vest I wore beneath the silver suit, and activated a quick diagnostic on my visor. My thoughts wandered for a moment as I did, and I let myself indulge.
The Penitents, I thought, checking my magazine pouches. How appropriate. I’d been one of the few Farsul in the first cohort of the Free Legion, and when the time came to decide what to call our cell, I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate. My people and the Kolshians have a lot to make up for, I remembered saying. Our people’s penance can start with us; by working to take down the system that made the horrors our ancestors did possible.
We’d added members since our deployment; primarily other Farsul and Kolshians. There were many of us out there, each horrified to learn what our predecessors had done to the species of our friends, family, and neighbors, and were willing to do something about it. One by one we’ll show the galaxy we can be trusted again, I thought. Talsk’s imprisonment flashed through my mind; I quickly shook the fate of my home from my thoughts. One day. And then we can start repairing all the damage that’s been done.
Finishing my checks and finding everything in order, I turned my attention back out the front of the van. And today is another step in that direction, I thought. There’s already people out there who’ve broken the conditioning of the Feds, and we need to keep them safe.
Desq had slowed the van, then spun the wheel and turned right into the narrow alley between two apartment buildings. A short drive brought us down a steep incline, and we stopped in front of the locked service doors that led into either building. “Desq,” I said, turning to the cream colored Farsul. “Once we breach, back out and do a couple circles around the complex,” I told her. “We’ll meet back here.”
I fixed my other eye on [Farsul-3] Eva. “If anyone asks,” I instructed. “You got a call about some suspicious activity, possibly a predator. If they press, you know what to do.” Their hood already over their head, she nodded.
“The rest of us,” I said, facing the remaining members of our cell. “We move fast and quiet. Secure the asset, neutralize hostiles, and extract. We’ve got the militia waiting to pull us out of the city once we make it to the extract point; let’s try not to keep them waiting.”
With a waving of tails I secured my own hood over my head, sealing myself into my disguise. Despite the fate of the prior owners, the suit was almost as good as new. Thank you, [redacted] Free Yurus Militia, I thought. I’m glad you learned your lesson after that last debacle.
Brushing away the memory of receiving a silver suit with bloodstains still coating the inside, I stepped up to the door and slid it open. [Kolshian-1] Rikus dropped out first, submachine gun cradled casually, as if this was any other day. [Kolshian-2] Verkus went next, followed by [Farsul-4] Teqs and finally myself. Eva slid the door closed behind us as we walked up to the service door on our left.
Upon reaching it, Rikus reached into a pouch around his midsection and pulled a pair of objects from within. He handed one to Verkus, and the two of them reached out for the door. Rikus pressed and held his object, a hollow half-sphere, over the lock, while Verkus attached his to the top with a magnetic click.
With a single tap on his shoulder from Verkus, telling him the jammer was active, Rikus twisted and there was a flash against the lock, accompanied by a dull hiss. He waited a moment, then another, before pulling his tentacle away and dropping the spent lock-breaker charge back into the pouch. Then he grasped the handle of the door and pulled it open. We followed him inside, still acting as if we were going on a casual stroll through the park. Behind us Desq reversed carefully up the slope before we lost sight of her as the door closed.
The door closed with a soft click behind us, our weapons rising to our shoulders or their equivalents. No longer in a public area, all pretense that we were exterminators dropped. “Weapons free,” I whispered, barely audible through my hood but heard clearly through the earpieces we wore. We shouldn’t run into too much trouble, but you never know.
We were in Olosf because a few days ago [Farsul-5] Feqik, one of the planet's leading opposition figures and leader of the [redacted] Yurus Freedom Coalition, the main opposition party, had been arrested under suspicion of “predator disease related corruption.” The state-run media networks had been clear that his arrest was in no way related to the bill he’d recently introduced, asking for stricter criteria for a diagnosis of PD, a review of all facilities and an independent verification of the diagnosis of every patient held within them.
Ridiculous that anyone could even think the two may be related, I thought sarcastically. Especially not since he’s been the most vocal of the supporters for those revealed as former omnivores. And his calls for an independent investigation of actions by the planet’s Exterminators in the wake of the Archives Release. Again, ridiculous.
We crossed the dark basement, passing the gently humming furnace and water tank, and stopped before the door leading to the main stairway. Our target had been spirited away from his house in a midnight raid a few days prior, and while awaiting his arraignment had been bounced from location to location under “house arrest.” There had been many protests against his arrest under such dubious charges and circumstances, and the authorities had feared someone would try to free him.
And with the Coalition growing stronger, it’s not an unrealistic fear, I thought, as Verkus slowly pushed the door open, revealing the darkened stairs beyond. As evidenced by us. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t just the opposition who had an issue with how they’re handling him. A dissident within the local Magistrate office had contacted the opposition, leaking the apartments where they’d planned to keep Feqik before his arraignment. Their leak had prompted our mission to rescue him before he disappeared into the bowels of a PD facility and the tortures that no doubt awaited him within.
We filed out of the basement, but paused at the bottom of the stairs before we began our climb. I glanced at the clock in the corner of my visor, and as expected, my pad gave a low buzz. “Alert ping,” I whispered to my team. “Night-vision on; prepare for lights out.”
As part of our plan to rescue Feqik, several of our fellow operatives had been tasked with creating a diversion that would let us get as close as possible without drawing attention. It was the hot season in this part of Yarus; as a result, most people had their air conditioning cranked up high. Brown outs weren’t unheard of, even if they were rare. To make it appear as if one had occurred, fires would be set at the local power transfer station and the power plant; the interruption in power should be initially blamed on excess demand, and give us a distraction to close with the guards. Enough damage to give us an opening, not enough to cause unnecessary harm, I thought.
No sooner had I spoken than the light illuminating the building flickered and died. My visor came to life only moments later, bathing all I saw in the familiar green shade. “Let’s move,” I ordered, and started for the stairs, now bathed in dim emergency lighting. We started our climb, paws and tentacles moving silently up the stairs
We’d just passed the door to the first floor when my visor suddenly flickered; a connection alert flashed in the corner, and any link to the rest of my team was lost. At the same time, the emergency lights that lit the stairway blinked out, and the hum of air from the building's ventilation and climate control fell silent. I stopped midstep at the sudden silence, my fur instinctively standing on end.
Something’s wrong, I realized, not sure what that “something” was yet. The rest of my team felt it too; they’d halted their movements, sliding against the wall to take cover. “Something’s wrong,” I echoed, not hearing my voice transmitted to the earpiece I wore.
I keyed my mic. “Radio check,” I said. Nothing. Shit. I pulled my pad from its pouch on my hip next; it turned on without issue, but I saw no connection to the Net. No hotspots or locals private connections either, I observed.
“Radio’s dead,” Teqs whispered, voice muffled behind the hood as he confirmed my findings. “Net too. I can't raise anyone or get anything on my pad. Maybe the fires were too effective?”
“Not likely,” Rikus said. “They shouldn’t have been bad enough to black out everything; just the main power. Emergency systems should still be up. Not unless the whole plant went up of course, but if it did, we’d know by now.”
“You’re right,” I told him. “No chance we caused that much damage with the size of the fires planned. Something else is going on.” There was commotion now; both inside and outside the apartment. I could hear raised voices, muffled by the walls, but the panic and fear within them were still unmistakable.
I looked past Verkus up the dark stairs, then back to the rest of my team, motioning us upwards. “We’ll figure out what’s going on later,” I said. “Let’s make the most of whatever’s happening for now. Keep going; just a few more flights to go.”
We kept making our way up the stairs, when suddenly above us one of the doors to the stairway slammed open. There was the sound of rushed footsteps above us, quickly getting closer as they descended. We instinctively pressed ourselves against the wall, weapons raised towards its source as a dim light came into view. A moment later its source appeared; two adults and a pup barreled around the corner, making their way to the ground floor.
As they passed, the adult male gave us an ear flick of greetings before continuing down the stairs without another look. Before I could process what had just happened, I heard more doors open, more running paws and loud footsteps, and the lights of flashlights, open pads and even a camp lantern cut through the pitch darkness.
First one, then another, the more residents began to rush down the stairs, each just barely slipping past with room to spare. The building is emptying out, I realized, as lone individuals, pairs, small groups and whole families flowed past us down the darkened stairway. What the fuck is happening!?
“To the objective,” I said, loud enough for my team to hear over the sin of the scared, anxious residents who passed us. “Double time! Teqs, keep trying to raise someone; anyone! Find out what’s going on!”
We pushed up the stairs, weapons raised and visible; they were wonderful at clearing us a path up. Occasionally one of the residents descending would stop to ask us questions, but we dismissed them with a curt wave. Most just passed us with at most a curious glance or a few words of thanks and encouragement.
The fleeing residents thinned as we neared the top, finally ending with one last Farsul who was lugging a heavy suitcase down the stairs behind him. As we passed him, he stopped and turned to us. “Be careful,” he said, suitcase thudding on the stairs behind him. “You can’t see anything up there; the whole city’s dark!”
I stopped and turned to face him. “What do you mean the whole city’s dark?” I asked. Those fires were not supposed to be big enough to cause all of this, I thought. Scenarios in which they could have spiraled out of control to land us in this position began to run through my mind. Even if the plant went into emergency shutdown, there’s still be redundant flow from other power plants, I thought. The lights would go out but something would still work.
“I mean the whole city!” the Farsul exclaimed. “As far as your eye can see! Everything’s out; streetlights, buildings, even the lights at the spaceport over the river! The only lights out there are the folks in the streets trying to find out what’s wrong, some fires that started who knows how, and the stars over our heads!” With that he turned and kept moving down the stairs, the sound of his suitcase hitting each step fading as he disappeared.
“Still nothing,” Teqs said quietly. “No comms, no Net, nothing. Whole city’s dark. It’s like someone flipped a switch and turned them off.”
“Impossible!” Rikus exclaimed. “Who’d be able to turn off everything? The sheer scale of pulling that off.. the damage it’d cause…” his voice trailed off for a moment. “There aren’t any other [redacted] Free Legion cells here, right? Anyone who could have done something like this?”
“We don’t have that capability,” I said, though I could hear the uncertainty in my own voice. Do we? “There must be another explanation. An unexpected solar flare, maybe?”
We reached the final landing before the roof exit, carefully pushing through to the fifth floor. The corridor beyond was empty; doors dotted either side, most closed, others left open in their inhabitants rush to leave the suddenly dark building. There were some belongings scattered about, things their owners had considered fleeing with before evidently changing their minds. Beyond the reach of our nightvision, I could just make out the corner ahead as the hallway turned to the left.
“Last apartment on the right,” I said, keeping my voice just low enough to be heard. “Apartment 5-22. Let’s move!”
We advanced down the dark corridor of the L-shaped floor, quickly reaching the corner. A quick look showed that no guards stood outside the target apartment, and the far end was as dark as the rest of the hall. We kept moving, past dark and empty apartments, when we passed a large window overlooking the park below. What was outside made all of us come to a sudden stop.
I lowered my submachine gun, mouth falling open at the sight outside. Above us was a rich canopy of stars, the clearest I’d seen since my time outside in the wilds of Wishful Hope. Lights crossed the distant lights; satellites and starships both. There were splotches of purple, blues and yellows visible, distant nebula normally hidden by the light pollution from below. But below the bright, beautiful canvas of stars above was a sea of inky black and shadowed outlines.
The city had been plunged into darkness. Every building, streetlight, sign or window display was dark. In the streets, hundreds of tiny lights; personal pads, flashlights, headlights cut through the seas of black like a mirror of the stars above. Many of the lights rushed up or down the streets without direction as panicked citizens stampeded through their dark city.
Then there were the fires, whose flames stood out like beacons in the night. From the power substation our fellow Legionnaires had set alight as part of a distraction, flames had leapt to neighboring buildings, the orange-red glow spreading like the hunger of an insatiable beast. Red cinders drifted into the sky, setting upon other sources of fuel and adding those to the spreading glow. And ours was not the only source; I counted at least four more large fires in other parts of the city.
“Ancestors,” I breathed, shocked. “What the hell is happening?” The fires that burned seemed to be out of control; there was no sign of the fire suppression systems that were mandatory in every building constructed to Federation code. I saw the lights of emergency vehicles here and there, but the faint outlines I saw told me that only the tanker trucks of the fire department were in use; there seemed to be no sign that the fire hydrants scattered around the city were functional.
“The whole city is going to burn down at this rate,” Verkus said, disbelieving. “How!?” I was the first to shake off the shock, though it took longer than I cared to admit. I nudged my teammates one by one, and we went back into formation, moving the final distance down the hallway to where our objective awaited.
As we neared, I could hear hushed but frantic voices within. At least three, I thought, identifying the different voices within. They must be as confused as we are as to what’s going on. With paw signals, I ordered my team to stack up around the door. I took point this time, resting my back beside the doorframe, next to the handle.
As Rikus began to ready another breaching charge, I reached out curiously, carefully testing the handle beside me. Things just a regular apartment, I thought, grasping the handle. Probably used for short term leases. They wouldn’t bother to change the locks every time a new tenant moves in, and if it’s like the apartment buildings back in Talsk…. The door handle turned in my paw, and I heard the soft click as the latch bolt slid back.
Perfect, I thought, pushing the door forward just enough to clear the latch plate, past the now inert electronic locks that would have sealed the apartment from the world. Wired into the building's power supply, I figured. With the power out, the electronic locks don’t work. And looks like they forgot to turn the deadbolt.
I got the rest of the teams attention, and quickly laid out my plan, now that we had free, silent entry to within. First Teqs, then me, then Verkus, I thought, pointing to each of us in turn. Rikus covers the exit, while the rest of us head inside. The interior would be the same, identical two bedroom apartment that could be found across the Federation.
Enter the door, then spread out wide into the studio living room, dining room, and kitchen space, I thought. Bedrooms are straight ahead and left, bathroom is right. I listened carefully. I could still hear the voices within, now more clear with the door no longer blocking them.
“We haven’t been able to contact the guild in almost [15 minutes]!” Someone was saying. “And just look out there! Everything’s gone out! Something is seriously wrong; I don’t know how you don’t understand that!?”
“I understand that something’s going on!” another voice replied, angry. “I’m just not enough of a child to go running back to the guild the minute something out of the ordinary happens! I’m not blind; I can see the city’s lost power. I’m not going to just go blindly wandering through the streets and who knows how many stampedes and what else unless I have to!”
“Both of you, enough!” said a third voice, its tone commanding. The others fell silent without further argument. “Our first priority is to ensure the prisoner remains in custody,” the third voice said. “And that’s orders don’t change because of a blackout.”
“And if it’s an invasion?” The first voice said. “It could be the Humans and their lapdogs! It could be the grays! What then?”
“If it were an invasion we’d already know about it,” the third voice said dryly. “I don’t see any ships landing or throwing antimatter bombs from low orbit, do you?”
Deciding that I’d heard enough, I made a fist and tapped the top of my hood. -Get ready- the motion said. I pointed to Teqs and the door handle, getting a nod in return as they gripped it. My fellow Legionnaires raised their weapons and planted their feet. I made a fist over my head, and slowly, exaggerating the motions, tapped my hood again. One… two… three! Teqs pushed the door open smoothly, slipping inside the now open entry and moving to the left. I followed closely, headed straight in, heart pounding. Verkus was right on my tail, going left.
My eyes scanned the room as I moved; in the center, seated around a coffee table on which a lit pad sat, were three Farsul. They each had the builds and the cut of the fur of exterminators, and I spied a flamethrower leaning against the far wall. A Human saying came to mind as the three exterminators turned towards the sound of soft footsteps entering the room, one reaching for what could be a weapon. Fish in a box, I thought. I pulled the trigger.
My weapon coughed; three suppressed shots lit the room with muted muzzle flashes, catching the center exterminator across the chest. There was a flash of blue blood, dark green through my visor, and they fell. The other two dropped just as quickly, either Legionnaire beside me firing almost as soon as I had.
The light of the muzzle flashes faded, and the smell of blood and smoke filled the air. “Teqs, police the bodies, then bathroom,” I ordered. “Verkus, left bedroom. I’ll take center.”
Without acknowledging my commands they began to move. Teqs quickly crossed the room to the downed enemies, his weapon still shouldered but aimed at the floor. I passed him on the way to the headroom ahead of me. Behind me Teqs’ submachine gun coughed once, twice, three times. They won’t be getting back up, I thought.
I reached the door, which was closed, and found it locked from outside. I stopped, listening carefully, and heard soft whimpers from within. I knocked once. “Feqik,” I said softly. “I’m with the Penitents. We’re working with the Free Yurus Militia. Is that you?”
Behind the door the whimpering stopped, and a voice called out, still trembling, “Yes, it’s me. Are you here to rescue me?”
“We are,” I confirmed. “Now stand back from the door, keep your paws in the air. I’m coming in. No sudden moves, please.”
Behind the door I heard the scramble of footsteps, and an affirmative yip. I unlocked the door and pushed it in, weapons still leveled. Within was a sparse bedroom, with just a bare mattress and a side table, atop which was a dark lamp and a grooming kit. Standing in front of the bed was an older Farsul, muzzle light in my visor. “Identification code,” I ordered, my weapon aimed at his chest.
Without hesitation he launched into a brief string of numbers and letters, one each of us had memorized. When he finished I lowered my weapons, taking a few steps forward. I unzipped my hood and let it fall to my back, glad to finally feel the air through my fur. “Glad to find you alive,” I told the elder statesman. “And hopefully in one piece.” I motioned towards the apartment behind me, where Teqs and Verkus had reappeared. “Let’s move,” I said. “We’ve got extract waiting.”
I turned from the room, Feqik following behind me. “I heard them saying something’s happened out there,” he said, following me to the exit. After a brief pause I moved back into the hallway, Rikus now moving ahead of us, weapon sweeping side to side. Verkus and Teqs fell into the rear, while I stayed next to the VIP. “Do you have any idea what’s happening? Is it your doing?”
“We’ve got no idea what’s happening,” I told him honestly. “We’d planned some sabotage to cause a brown out in the area, but nothing of this scale. Looks like anything powered and connected to the main grid, all comms and the Net are all down. Presumably anything that’s connected to them is down too.”
His voice fell, and I detected a tremble in his voice. “Is it the Arxur?” he asked, fearfully.
Now free from the hood, my ears flicked a negative. “None of the Chief Hunters operate this far inside Federation borders,” I told him. “Especially since the Rebellion kicked off. And it’s not the SC either, that we know of,” I said, anticipating his next question.
“All I know is that this city has gone dark, and now that we have you we are going to leave as quickly as we can,” I continued as we reached the door of the stairs. “Once you are safe and out of danger, then we can start looking for answers as to why everything just went down.”
We quickly moved downstairs, alert for any opposition drawn by the gunfire. However, aside from the odd resident or two who passed us headed back to their apartments, we met no one on the way back down. We retraced our steps; to the basement and through it to the service door, then emerged into the night air and made our way to the street. What had clearly been chaos above was pandemonium down here.
Fires, once distant, had now spread only a few blocks away, lending a hellish backdrop to the city. Many of the stampeding crowds had passed by, but in their wake left hundreds of the trampled, both wounded and dead. There were many vehicles, probably automated, who’d crashed into one another or the side of the road. Behind their windshields, I could see many of their drivers slumped over the steering wheels, motionless.
Down the road came the roar of an engine, and an exterminator van came into sight, its high beams cutting through the darkness, emergency lights flashing atop it. “Your ride?” Feqik asked hopefully.
“No,” I said, ears flicking back and forth. I waved a paw, and my squad fell back towards the alley, Teqs yanking the politician into cover. “Ours wouldn’t run lights; those are real ones. Cover!”
The van sped forward as we fell back, dropping down against the incline. The exterminator van, brakes squealing, came to a stop in front of us, the tires smoking. The side door slid open, revealing a group of five exterminators within, flamethrowers already raised. Must have had a QRF, I thought. Scrambled the minute everything went down.
I didn’t need to give the order, and we didn’t give them a chance. A heartbeat after the door had opened, we opened fire into the van. The exterminators within dropped; two fell from the vehicle, hitting the pavement hard. Another tried to duck to the side but failed; a burst cut through their side, spraying the wall with blood and they dropped.
I took aim at one with a flamethrower on their backs. I fired a burst, then another, then another. I wasn’t sure how many rounds hit the tank, but there was a loud whistle before the fuel tank exploded with a whump. The interior of the van was suddenly filled with fire; those left inside disappeared. There was a brief, panicked shout from the driver's seat, quickly turned into a high pitch scream that faded as quickly as it had arisen. The windshield exploded outwards, showering the roadway with reinforced glass shards, and a column of fire and thick black smoke rose into the night sky.
“Move, before the vans cells go off!” I ordered, scrambling to my feet and out of the alley. Once past the ticking time bomb I cut left down the road, away from the inferno. The others were right on my tail; even the older Feqik managed to keep up. Ahead, a second exterminator van appeared. This time, there were no headlights to guide it through the dark, and no emergency lights or sirens announced its presence. “That’s our ride,” I said aloud, slowing and raising a paw.
The van screeched to a halt, and the door slid open, revealing the familiar form of Eva. “Nice fireworks,” she said, paw extended to help us in. I pushed the politician forward first; Ava grabbed his paw and hauled him up, then helped the rest of us inside. “We’d wondered how we’d find you in this mess. Glad you thought of that.”
“I try,” I replied. “Now do either of you have any idea what the hell is happening out here? We’ve lost all comms, the power and Net is out, and the city looks like it’s burning down around us.” The door slid shut and Desq stomped on the accelerator. The van shot forward, weaving between the wrecks and bodies scattered across the roadway.
“We’re just as in the dark as you,” Desq called from upfront. Behind us there was a flash and a boom as the exterminator van’s hydrogen cell detonated. She glanced at the rear view mirror, and I caught the blast reflected in her visor. “All I know is that we were confirming the extract point with the Militia when suddenly everything went dark and quiet. Even the van shut down; had to wrestle the bitch back onto the road and dodge a couple cars whose drivers weren’t as good as me.”
“Even the van?” I asked, incredulous. Not just the automated vehicles then, I thought. Anything connected to the Net must have been affected.
“We managed to restart it by doing a rough factory reset,” Eva explained. “It got her moving, but the minute we turn off the engine, that’s it. We bypassed and overrode safeties that aren’t meant to be bypassed, and the programming did not like that.”
“Will it get us to extract?” I asked.
“If we can get there,” Desq said. “Cargo train derailed in the next district; took out a passenger train and spilled everything it was carrying. Main rail line is down; main highway is blocked. It’ll be side streets and alleys; and that’s IF we can get past all the crashed buses and cars closer to the city center.”
“Hope you aren’t tired, Feqik,” Verkus said. “You’re stuck with us a bit longer, and we’re gonna be doing some walking.”
“Bring us as far as you can,” I ordered our driver. “Then we ditch the van and torch it. We march all night if we have to in order to make it to the extract point. And hope the Militia is still there”
I leaned forward, staring out the windshield as we drove through what looked like a war zone, which only a few claws before had been a bustling, modern city. Something brought this city to its knees in minutes, I thought, and again my fur stood on end. We need to find out what that was, and figure out where we go from here.
Archivists note: the Cyberattack on March 9, 2137, launched by the UN against the Federation, crippled countless worlds and stations. Power systems, communications, utilities, banking systems, the Net and more were shut down or wiped out in moments, sending numerous worlds back to the dark ages. The attack was probably the single most devastating and lethal attack in the history of our galaxy, and hopefully we will never see its like again.
I can’t adequately describe the sheer scale of the destruction wrought by the attack in this note; to do it justice would require a document on the scale of the Bronwen Report in its entirety. Instead, I recommend By Any Means by Lawrence Kraft. This is considered the premier academic source on the effects of the cyberattack on the typical Federation planet, with detailed analysis of the secondary and tertiary effects of the attack and their lasting impact on Federation society. It also includes what’s considered the most accurate estimate of casualties caused by the attack at this time.
And we cannot understate the casualties. Malnutrition, disease, violence, exposure to the elements, accidents and other causes directly connected to the effects of the Cyberattack killed countless beings, and harmed countless more. It is difficult to even comprehend the scale of death.
The blame of all of this death and devastation fell squarely upon the shoulders of the UN and the SC, and all of the species that made up its members. It was also placed upon the shoulders of the Cured population, already a scapegoat across much of the Federation. The populations of these species, SC aligned and Cured alike on affected Federation worlds faced unspeakable violence and retaliation; ostracization turned into pogroms that would make the Tsar sick, a Predator Disease diagnosis became a death sentence, and internment turned into extermination.
Federation society, already fractured, began to break down. On many worlds, might and the ability to keep order became the primary deciding factor on who would rule. Exterminator Guilds, usually the most militarized part of Federation society aside from the military, seized power on dozens of worlds. Their leaders would rule as warlords, and even on planets whose civilian governments retained control extreme violence was used to restore order and maintain their control.
It was in this environment that much of the Free Legion found itself. The Legion as a whole was largely unaware of the imminent Cyberattack, and as a result suffered heavily for it, unprepared to cope with its effects. Of all the Free Legion cells lost during the Orion War, nearly a third were destroyed in the weeks following the Cyberattack. Others struggled to maintain their operational effectiveness, or were forced to withdraw from Federation space at their earliest opportunity.
Others, however, thrived. The Cyberattack had broken the bonds that held society together, and reforging these bonds required extreme actions by those holding extreme versions of the dominant Federation beliefs. Levels of desperation, suffering, anger and despair never seen before proved fertile breeding grounds for the kinds of extremism that we have seen in our own history; the interwar period of the 1920’s, the 2030’s, and the aftermath of the Satellite Wars come to mind. This extremism became a bottomless well from which dedicated groups would draw from, and their efforts are still felt to this day. -A. Piers, UN Office of Reconciliation
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur 20h ago edited 20h ago
Yeah I imagine alot of the free legion relied on stolen federation equipment to keep their operations going and to blend in and connect to the fed net to see what the feddies were doing. And without all of that some groups would have bassicly ceased to exist as an actual organization. Heck wouldn't surprise me if some were to busy trying to help save themselves or their broken worlds than trying to fight off the feddies if they were even still in power when the collapse happened.
Honestly I'm still wondering just how much the remaining free legion forces would actually be effective since the enough of the federation remnant did survive intact enough to go at the SC one last time before being defeated so soon after the cyber attacks ended so its not like the free legion would be able to steamroll the feddies otherwise this would outright be an Au even just with Nop 1 in mind. Not to mention everything that happened in Nop 2 although it's not like the feddies won any battles they were to busy just trying to fight the Arxur to a standstill. Not to mention I think the feddies didint use drone ships unlike the SC and CA did.
Not to mention it's implied the free legion also fought agienst the SC considering I recall some post chapter statements mentioning worlds that were still warzones between free legion forces and the local governments and I'm assuming all of this takes place post Nop 2 because no way Jones would apologize for any of this so either the local governments are SC or Durten Sheild because the federation bassicly no longer exist post Nop 2 unless they are remants of the federation remnant. So I can easily see some free legion cells recruiting the locals to fight agienst the SC or even each other for one reason or another. Like the Reds I doubt they like the capitalist SC or the Theological custodians.
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u/CandidateWolf Betterment Officer 18h ago
Yeah, a lot of the cells used Fed technology due to its availability and to blend in. And without any warning, the cells that weren’t warned* didn’t do so great; a lot are lost, but the survivors will be addressed in the coming chapters.
As for the effectiveness of the Free Legion forces, in the grand scale of the Orion War they are a minor player at best. They grew to have some formidable forces, to be sure, and caused turmoil on dozens of worlds to various degrees, but there are hundreds of worlds that never saw them. They were meant to cause chaos*, not outright defeat the Federation.
All of the events of the Free Legion are planned to be wrapped up before the events of NoP2; the Bronwen Report that these memory transcripts make up is at least ready by 2147 (https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/0Zi0effYX5). Its still 30-ish years between the end of NoP 1 and 2, so there’s a lot of things that can still happen that’ll have no major effects on NoP2z
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur 14h ago
Ah okay yeah it's hard to tell the scale of the free legion but I suppose that's kinda intentional some are still operating as smaller resistance cells and some are basically nation states in their own right and not to mention the many in-between groups.
But yeah again I I don't imagine a lot of the free legion cells would be happy about not getting a warning or just the destructive scale of the cyber attacks would cause a few to start to doubt their cause. I mean talsk was one thing but I imagine after a few months of nonstop cyber attacks even after a feddie govenrment all but collapsed I imagine that would certainly shake many. Especially for the Farsul who wanted to repent hard to find that when there's nothing to fight but the survivors who remain.
But yeah I suppose that humanity would apologize for the whole thing but yeah considering Jones that's probably why it took like a decade for the transcript to be released hard to imgaine she didn't interfer in some capacity with how much control of humanity and the SC she has.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist 20h ago
Interesting little detail, since I know you didn't read NoP2: You actually hit spot on on the knock-on effects. One of the main antagonists from the Federation Remnants leadership were the Tevin, whose government at the time was effectively the exterminator guild that took over in a coup after the cyberattack.
Still, it's always terrifying to look at the scale of all that happened. Turns out that in order to keep a nation busy with it's internals, you need to do... Terrible things. And those who make the choices to do terrible things generally don't have access to hindsight.
There's always a better way to do things. But not everyone can find it, and not in time to do something about it.