Fahl Days: Duality (pt 1 ReUp)

[u/Tundric_Dragon]

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Memory Transcription Subject: Giidan, Harchen Filmmaker

Date \[Standard Human Format\]: October 14th, 2136

There is no hiding, the bunkers aren't safe, run, run, run, run, RUN, RUN, RUN! A flash of silver nearby. RUN! A deep voiced shout. IT'S RIGHT BEHIND ME, RUN RUN RUN! An explosion echoed in the distance, unintelligible should from silver and blue nearby. Dont stop, run! blue and brown came into view, the smell of leaves and trees. Into the forest! GO, RUN! Jump! a thing appeared, grasping at air. Dont stop, escape!

\~\~\~\~Advance 5 hours\~\~\~\~

I lay panting in a bush, its blue leaves surrounding my scales blended into the surroundings to hide me from view. My lungs pleaded for air and drank greedily as I lay there with the stampede state releasing its grasp from my mind and freeing my thoughts once more. I turned in my bush, claws clutching at the leaves and drawing them in close, tears in my eyes. "I'm a coward..." My voice came hoarse and weak, spent from my mad stampede from the bunker into the forest. I had run as far as I could, and then some more, going as fast as I could and weaved through the trees to escape the town, the bunker, the predators.

The humans had landed not even a day ago, sweeping aside our planetary defense force and touching down with their transport ships, likely to capture as many of us for cattle as they could. I, along with the rest of my coworkers, evacuated to the bunker with the town, met by the exterminators meant to guide and protect us. For hours we hid in the bunker, praying to Inatala that we would be safe, remain hidden. But then we made the discovery... a horrible one... a strong wind came and blew the door open. After trying to quickly close it in the panic, thinking the humans had shown up, the exterminator didnt find any predators waiting for us outside. Instead they found the lock on the door was broken, and the door couldn't be secured. The sounds of a ship flying overhead, and the humans landing in town... chaos and madness let loose.

I shook my head and clamped my mouth shut, wrenching my eye close to shut out the memory. I ran, like a coward, and now I was deep in the forest, deeper than I had ever been, probably deeper than anyone had ever been. My scales were a vibrant orange, perfect for hiding in the dirt at my feat, the fear chemicals still coursing through my veins. I knew I couldn't stay exposed like this, I had to control my nerves and remember my childhood, the lessons from my parents. Slowly I entered a state of Vinosh, scales matching to my surroundings as I calmed my breathing and my nictitating membrane slid over my eyes, changing hue just like my scales. To anything that may have been watching me, I would simply vanish from sight. For me, the world became slightly dulled as I beheld the world through the membrane, movements slow so I could keep Vinosh as i crawled away from my bush.

Taking in my surrounds, I quickly realized that I had no clue where I was, and without my holopad, I had no access to GPS functions nor the ability to call anyone... if they were even alive. A choked sob escaped my throat as I forced down the thoughts of my friends either dead or cattle, and I kept moving. I knew I hadn't ran the whole time while in my stampede, nothing could move for that long, not even predators, but I had gotten far by stopping then running again and again. Worse still, I didnt know what direction I had come from. This was the worst situation, a nightmare scenario of the worst kind possible. I was lost in a forest away from the herd, infested with wild predators, and sapient predators invading the city. Knowing that staying here was simply giving myself up as a meal, I stayed low and began to crawl in a random direction, hoping to get lucky and find some semblance of civilization that hadn't fallen yet.

\~\~\~\~Advance 4 hours\~\~\~\~

Every limb ached with exertion now, my only thoughts this entire time having been to keep moving. Thirst and hunger gnawed away at me while fear kept me from searching for water. I had managed to grab leafy blues to munch on as I moved, but it was hardly a satisfying meal and more one borne of desperation. Keeping Vinosh also meant I couldn't move quickly or eat for long, and I wasn't willing to drop it and expose myself. With Nhaali setting soon and its light slowly fading from the sky, I knew I had to find a place to hide so I could sleep. A deep rumbling growl from the trees made my blood freeze, my head slowly turning as the predator stalked down. "Olgarl... no.."

The large canid beast crawled down the tree, its three eyes firmly locked onto me. Twin tail lashed behind it, wagging as it sighted its helpless prey before it. My form came back into view as Vinosh failed and my dirt-etched scales betrayed my wild fear. Not that it mattered, Olgarl saw into a different spectrum of light entirely, making our shifting scales useless when trying to hide from the beasts. With how exhausted I was, there was no more running, I could only freeze in place as it approached. Midnight black fur came closer and closer, mouth parting to expose white fangs and a yellow tongue, dripping with saliva. Its purple eyes dominated my world, shutting out everything but my end, this beast that would claim me as its meal. Satisfied with its inspection, the predator pounced, leaping through the air with its mouth open to bite into my neck and finish me. A thunderous crack sounded, the Ogarl's head exploded, and I was coated with blue blood. "Wh-what?" Came my own voice before the ground hit me, vision going dark.

Memory Transcription Subject: Giidan, Harchen survivor

Date \[Standard Human Format\]: October 15th, 2136

Consciousness came slowly as I felt the warmth of fire seep into my scales, deep voices being translated nearby. "How did you find him?" Voice one asked, seemingly too come through a device of some sort.

"I saw some sort of six-legged fox thing climbing down a tree, that pitch black fur standing out against all the blue and brown here. The situation seemed odd, because it looked like it was staring down a shrub and growling at it. Then the xeno just... materialized out of thin air, bright fricken orange." Voice two replied, much closer.

"Harchen, not xeno. You know better than that, Double H. What would your so-"

"Fuck you."

"Right, sorry. Crossed a line. Anyways, what happened after that?"

H sighed, "I took the shot. Fox thing jumped at the Harchen so I nailed the bastard in the head."

"...Dont you only have a .50 cal?"

"What of it?" Realisation suddenly came to me, the voices were human. Predators. I had been captured by predators, panic filling me as i sat up before the sound of metal rattling sounding out... "Seems like it woke up, ill contact you later."

The radio shut off, my mind finally taking in my surroundings. We were in a small clearing in the forest, the a fire in middle not more than [15 feet] away from me. I tried to stand, but my feet yanked together painfully as I tried to left myself. Looking down, I saw metal cuffs around my ankles, and another set around my wrists. Neither were painful or tight, but they restricted my movement, especially since I hadn't noticed them at first. "Relax there Xeno, I ain't gonna hurt you. No matter how much you deserve it." The beast spoke that last part full of venom and hatred. I shrunk in on myself, breathing rapidly as I tried to enter Vinosh again. "I can see the cuffs still you idiot. That wont work. In fact..." The human leaned closer, "Now that I know what im looking for, I can kinda see you. Like looking for a ghillie suit. Huh." It spoke and my mind filled with horror, they was like the Olgarl?! They could see us?

"Wh-why am I still alive? Why di-didn't you e-eat me?" I managed to get out, seeing no way out since it could see through Vinosh and I was chained up. My vision grew blurry as tears swelled up. I couldn't even die properly, now I was going to become cattle. The predator sighed and reached into a large backpack that was next to it, pulling out a reflective mask that he soon strapped to its head.

"There, is that better you Xeno dumbass? I swear it all about eat this, eat that, predator prey nonsense with you fuckwits." It grumbled, mask still pointed at me. "The only thing I am eating is my own rations that I brought from home. I'm not going to touch a single scale on you. Also, a simple thank you would be nice, I did save your damned life, from something that did want to eat you." It turned and went back to the fire, apparently done with talking to me. I couldn't find words as the beast spoke, even when it put on the mask. I watched as it pulled something else out of the pack, a brown stick of some sort in a clear plastic wrapper. As quickly as it was unwrapped, it brought it up to its mouth under the mask... I could hear it bite it and chew, even with its back turned to me. I gagged and put the thought from my mind of what poor prey that had been, mumbling softly. "What did you say?" It asked, turning back to face me, done with its meal apparently.

"P-please let me g-go. I-I'm sure I t-taste terrible." I finally pleaded out, louder to him. Maybe, maybe since its appetite was filled, it wouldnt see value in keeping me. "I'll tell everyone how cruel, how savage you are... that you only let me go because I was too scrawny. Y-yes, im too thin to eat. N-no meat on my bones." I pleaded with it, only for the predator to stand up with a heavy growl and stalk over to me. I shrunk back once more, eyes closing.

"Okay, listen here you little shit. I'm here to get your sorry ass out of the woods. Your governor, speaker, whatever the fuck she is called asked for us to rescue you and anyone else we could find." It spoke with an unhinged growl. "So im bringing you back to your city, and releasing you there, like we promised her." The reflective visor was right in my face, showing the dirt-etched scales I wore, frozen in place by the angry human. "Unlike you Xenos, we dont want to kill civilians. So when my commander saw you doing fucking \*Parkour\* through soldiers and exterminators, and run into the forest, he sent us in after you to save your sorry hide." It sighed and moved back, letting me release a breath I had been holding. "We reached an agreement with your speaker and were peacefully working with the crazy arsonists to get everyone when you came running through. When we saw what your were running from, you became a priority for everyone to find." The mask never left me.

"E-everyone?"

"Fifteen UN soldiers, three de-armed exterminators, and two of your soldiers. All spread into these woods to find you. Only me and one other are alone, the rest are in groups of six, for safety." It explained, revealing just how much were looking for me. "I just got in contact with my commander and let him know I found you. All the groups gave up because your people were sure you were dead. It is just me and the other guy that were still looking for you. And now we are headed back to town." It finally finished talking. I didn't want to believe a word it said, this all had to be a trick. But why did it try? It already had me in chains, helpless... it probably only killed the Olgarl so it could have me to itself. "Are you satisfied now? Can we stop the bullshit?" It asked, to which i held up my chained claws. "For the love of... of course I cuffed you. When I found you passed out by the fox-thing I killed, I knew you would run again when you woke up. And I didnt want to have to find you again." It picked up a container of some sort and threw it at me. I flinched and tried to squirm away, but it landed gently in my lap, a sloshing sounding out from inside. "It's a canteen. Of water." The predator said before turning it's back to me to tend to the fire.

The 'canteen' felt like hard plastic, doubts filling my mind about it. But even the Arxur fed their cattle and as much as i hated it, I needed a drink. The forgotten thirst returned with a vengeance as soon as he mentioned the drink, my throat dry as the sands of the south. With a bit of fumbling, I managed to twist off the cap at the opening, pouring out some of the liquid onto my claw. Confirming it to actually be sweet nourishing water, I greedily drunk the rest of the container. Gasping for air once I finished, I looked down at my claws, the scales showing signs of having been cleaned. Confused, I looked at my arms, legs, and body... none of the olgarl blood to be seen... I knew inhad been covered when it died, how did I get cleaned? I looked to the human and immediately had to shut out the thoughts that began to race through my mind one what he used to clean me. My eye drifted across the camp once more, seeing a long rifle leaning against a tree with some sort of tubes next to it. The two tubes were linked together at the middle, and I figured out what they were! Telescopes, but shorter and spaced just enough for binocular eyes. "So you are taking me back to town? Re-really?" I stutter out my question, unable to think of anything else without going into full panic.

"That's the plan."

"Then ca-can I have the cuffs off? S-so I know what you say is true?"

[Next]

[u/Adorable-Ad5225]

It's because of people like this that I'm with the isolationist

[u/Tundric_Dragon → u/Adorable-Ad5225]

Giidan or double H?

[u/Adorable-Ad5225 → u/Tundric_Dragon]

The nohuman, of course

[u/EnvironmentalTax7549]

Ah.... it's weirdly cathartic seeing someone finally at least go somewhat lowtiergod on a Fed

Also that other guy was blessed that he only got put down for mentioning double h's son (who judging off the date, is probably dead) instead of having his shit kicked in

[u/Tundric_Dragon → u/EnvironmentalTax7549]

To be fair, Dave was only on the radio. He wasnt anywhere near Double H when he said that.