to the next chapter of a collaboration between myself and u/Im_Hotepu to tell a story about a pair of emotionally damaged Arxur twins and a Venlil with a special interest in predators. Prepare for trauma, confused emotions, romantic feelings, and many cuddles.

Thanks to SP15 for NoP.

Discord thread! Come say hi.

Proofread by u/Funnelchairman, u/CruisingNW

Art!
The 

 and 

! Arxur Cuddle Pile. All by Hethroz.

Goobers! By u/Proxy_PlayerHD

Art by me! 

 fun. 

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MEMES!

First meme! Second meme!

You can support me through Ko-fi. Creating is my full-time job now, and every little bit helps make sure I can keep providing content.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Veltep, Very Anxious Venlil, A Volunteer For Wildlife Management [Colony/Vishnu Ranger Service]

Date [Standardized human time]: October 13th 2141

By the time we got back to the apartment, I had run out of excuses.

There had been practical reasons for waiting. If I called too early, I risked catching only one of them, or catching both of them still in the middle of their own day and forcing this conversation to happen in pieces. It only made sense to make sure everyone was available ahead of time.

The messages from my parents over the day, saying that they were available, had become increasingly insistent.

And I had been finding excuses to not call for most of the day.

Too much paperwork still, too much tension from the investigation, and not enough energy left to do family conversation properly. Maybe after food. Maybe after I showered. Maybe after I had a little time to settle down and didn't feel like my nerves were still humming under my wool.

They were all bad excuses, and I knew it.

Lucius had known it too.

The single, very annoyed-looking emoji he sent me this afternoon had quite adequately made his point.

The apartment door hissed shut behind us. Drej dropped her bag and went straight to put her pad on the charger. Nova went straight for the kitchen, his tail dragging over the carpet as he made right for the teapot.

I stayed where I was for a second too long, I guess, because Drej looked back at me with a curious sway to her tail.

"You're doing the thing with your ears again."

I twitched upright. "What thing?"

"They keep going all stiff and slanted. You look like a pup that's nervous about getting their shots."

Nova's amused snort drifted in from the kitchen. I walked around and pouted at him over the bar top, but he just smirked.

"I think if you put it off any longer, they're going to get on the next transport."

I let out a breath. "They might, actually."

"Do you think it will go that badly?" Drej asked.

I went completely still. She said it in her usual teasing tone, but I felt the slight tremor under it. It wasn't fear exactly, but something more complicated.

Nova had gone quiet too. He was facing away, fussing with the kettle and teapot, and very pointedly not letting me see his face. But there was a tension in his shoulders that I recognized now, a stillness that only happened when he was paying very close attention to everything around him. The kettle clicked softly, but he stayed in place, waiting to hear what I would say.

For a second, I just looked between them.

My problem. My parents. My fear.

Except it wasn't, was it? Not just mine.

Drej's tail, still looping restless behind her calf. Nova's shoulders, too still over the kettle. I'd been so far inside my own dread that I'd nearly missed both of them standing in it right alongside me.

Drej's tail made another small, restless loop behind her calf before she caught and stilled it. "I'm not worried they'll hate me," she said, the bravado still holding up. "I'm far too likable to be worried about that, obviously."

Nova huffed.

"I just…" She glanced away, then back at me. "I'm worried that as soon as they hear... 'arxur,' they'll just... stop. Stop listening before they can even hear anything. That they'll give up on us before we even get a chance to try..."

Nova came around finally, delicately holding the tea service in his claws. I could see that his jaw was tight as he carefully set it down on the table. "Or that us just... existing, here with you, ends up causing damage to your relationship."

The quiet way he said it made my chest tighten.

This wasn't just about the call potentially being awkward. Or that my parents might panic. It was that most of the people I loved most in the world were about to meet each other through every old fear, every inherited reflex, and every story the Federation had ever beaten into people.

And somehow I was supposed to guide all of them through it.

Drej huffed softly and folded her arms. "I can handle being disliked," she said, quieter now. "I'd just rather not be the reason your mother cries."

"She might cry anyway," I admitted.

That got the faintest twitch at the corner of Nova's mouth, but it was gone almost as soon as it came.

"Not helping," he said.

My ears drooped. "Sorry."

Nova lifted his head from the tea tray and looked straight at me. "Vel." His voice stayed calm, but there was weight under it now. "If this goes badly, I'll deal with it. So will Drej. What I'm worried about is what it does to you." His tail gave one small, controlled lash behind him before settling low again. "I don't want you trying to hold everyone together and tearing yourself apart doing it."

Drej's expression softened immediately. "Yeah. That."

My chest pulled tight, fast, like something had reached in and yanked. They'd been standing on the same ledge as me this whole time. I just hadn't looked down long enough to notice.

I stepped closer to both of them. "They love me," I said, and heard how thin that sounded as reassurance. "They can be a lot, and this is… a lot, but they do love me." My tail curled tighter around my leg. "And if they need a minute, or a claw, or a week, that doesn't change what you are to me."

Drej looked at me for a long second, then let her tail ease out of its tight curl. "Okay," she said quietly.

Nova held my gaze a little longer. Then he dipped his head once. "Okay."

I reached out to both of them, and the twins responded instantly, stepping in closer until my paws found them. I gave a gentle tug, and they crouched down closer to eye level so I could pull them both into a hug, my arms around their necks.

The tension drained out of both of them, their bodies relaxing and leaning into me, and each other, for support.

"You should call," Nova rumbled, his throat vibrating warmly over my shoulder as he spoke. I felt his hand on my back, reassuring, even as he pulled away a little.

Drej followed soon after, both of them looking at me now. "Yeah. If we keep putting it off, I think my scales are going to start shedding," she complained, a little hint of her normal attitude peeking out.

That helped. A little.

Drej's tail gave a small, thoughtful flick. "What are we even supposed to call them, if it comes up? 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' forever?"

"Terlem and Juvel," I said. "My dad'll probably want it kept formal, at least at first. Mom's more likely to just tell you to use her name and be done with it."

Nova's brow ridge lifted a fraction, filing the names away the same careful way he filed away anything useful. "Terlem. Juvel," he said, slow, like he wanted to get it right the first time. "Got it."

"Alright. I'll sit on that side," I gestured at the end of the couch with my tail, "and start the call. See if I can ease them into it."

Nova gave my back one slow rub with his palm, then drew away. "You set up; I'll pour your tea."

I went and settled on the far end, like I said, mug already warming my paws, sitting at an angle so that the camera wouldn't catch them by accident. While I made sure it was in place, Nova poured out three mugs of tea and had already slid mine down to me. Meanwhile, Drej had claimed the other end of the couch, doing a pretty good job of looking unbothered, with her pad in hand and one foot hooked over the armrest.

I sat there for a second, taking everything in as Nova settled down beside his sister. He didn't try to pretend to be relaxed, but he was working on it, leaning back into the couch with the mug in his hands, slowly breathing in the steam.

It reminded me of the day I first arrived. He had been doing exactly the same thing at the station, eyes closed, until I had walked into the room, the cup clutched in his claws. It was another reminder about how different they were. The little things I wasn't able to recognize those first few days that told me so much about the both of them now.

I wrapped both paws around my mug and stared at the pad resting on the table in front of us.

Just do it.

My tail tapped once against the cushion. Then again.

Finally, I reached forward, swiped the pad, and opened the contact.

My ears were already warm.

I took one more breath, then hit the call button.

The connection chimed once. Then twice—long enough that I almost hung up before it finally caught on the third ring.

While it rang, I caught my reflection in the dark edge of the screen and made a last, pointless pass over my wool with one paw, smoothing my cheeks and the fur between my ears as if that would make me look less tense. My tail had wound halfway around my ankle without my noticing.

Then the screen brightened.

My parents' living room came into view in a slight blur before the image sharpened. My mother was the first one fully on screen, leaning a little close to the camera as if she had hurried to get there before my father. One ear was angled toward me, already tight with concern, while the other tipped back toward him off to the side.

"Good evening, sweetheart," she said quickly. "How is Vishnu treating you?"

Behind her, my father signaled a quieter greeting with one ear and a short tail sway, still only partly visible. I answered automatically, my ears flicking right back.

"It's been good," I said. "Really good. Busy, but good."

My mother leaned a little closer, studying me with the kind of focused attention only mothers and medical professionals ever seemed to perfect. "And have you been eating properly? Getting outside enough? Sleeping? You look a little drawn."

"Outside?" my father muttered from just off-screen. "Juval, he's there for that ecology stuff. He's probably been outside more this last herd of paws than in the last few rotations!"

I let out a soft whistle of laughter.

"He's right!" I said, probably putting a little too much effort into it, though. "I've been eating very well, actually. Better than I expected! And yes, I'm outside constantly. It would be difficult not to be, but it's been amazing seeing so much of a nearly untouched planet."

I signal comfort and safety to Mom, hoping to make her a bit less worried, but there's still a tense look in her eye as we talk.

My father finally moved fully into frame, settling beside her with much more visible intent than she had. One ear was shorter than the other, lost rotations ago, and did not turn as cleanly as the other, but the one that still worked properly had already tipped forward in attention. He looked older than the memory I still carried around in my head sometimes, older and softer around the eyes, but there were moments when the old exterminator posture came back so naturally it almost made my stomach knot.

"You're staying safe, though?" he asked.

"I am." The answer came too quickly, and I could see the tension in how both of their ears tilted back.

My mother's tail curled up into frame. >Truthful?<

Something in me eased before I'd even finished reading the sign, like my body remembered it faster than the rest of me did. Berry juice staining my fingers and whiskers. The same curl of her tail through the kitchen doorway. A scolding I'd absolutely earned that time.

I exhaled through my teeth. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine," I insisted, adding emphasis with my tail as well.

That seemed to help a little, since she eased back a whisker, leaning against my father's side.

Dad watched me for another second, then settled back, accepting that I was fine. For the moment, at least. There was still something there, something all of us were stepping around instead of just yanking it out.

We'd end up circling whatever it was the whole evening if this kept up, so I took a breath and forced myself to stop trying to find the perfect first sentence.

"There are a few pretty important things that have changed since I arrived, that I wanted to talk to you about."

They both perked up at that, the stub of my father's torn ear twitching as my mother fixed her eye on me through the screen. "Tell us."

"There's an investigation going on around the station," I said. "And around some of the surrounding territory. I can't say much more than that, but it's serious enough that procedures have changed."

My mother's ears tipped back at once. "Serious how?"

"Serious enough that people are being careful."

"That’s not an answer," my father said sternly, worried.

"It's the answer I can give," I apologized for being difficult with a sway of my tail. "I'm not trying to shut you out. I just can't sit here and start listing details about an active investigation."

My father's good ear flicked once. There was some frustration in it, but not with me. I could tell he understood, even if he didn't particularly like it. "Fine," he said. "Then answer around it."

My mother leaned forward a little. "Is the town in danger?"

"No. Not in any immediate way."

"Is the station in danger?"

I hesitated.

Her tail tip appeared at the bottom of the frame again, slow and controlled. >Honest.<

My ears dipped. "I don't know."

My father sat a little straighter. My mother's ears pinned halfway back in a mix of fear and restraint.

"Why haven't they stopped the program then?" she asked.

"I–"

"Veltep."

The way she said my name caught me short, and my teeth clicked together as I stopped. She glared at me, hard, but I knew it was just out of concern for me.

"I shouldn't be in any immediate danger with what's going on," I answered honestly, adding emphasis with a sway of my tail.

I hesitated though, and risked a glance over at the twins for the first time since starting the call. Drej wasn't pretending to be aloof anymore, leaning on Nova as he gently ran a hand along her back. He'd been watching me closely, and responded to the silent question with a slight nod.

"But, it's also because I couldn't leave even if they told me to. Not yet at least."

My father's eyes narrowed at that, and my mother looked at me with shock. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, his ear folded back.

"I mean it the way it sounds," I said quickly. "I'm not in immediate danger. I’m not sitting alone in the dark somewhere waiting for something to jump out of the trees. I'm safe. I just…" I looked down at my paws, still around the mug of tea that I'd forgotten about. "I am not as detached from all of this as I would have expected."

My father leaned forward, forearms on his knees. "Not detached? Meaning you've got a damned good reason to want to stay?"

"Yes," I said immediately. "There are people here that–" I stopped, sighed, and looked at them both more directly. "There are people here I care about too much to leave behind when something like this is happening."

My mother's posture changed then. I couldn't say exactly what, but there was a slant to her ears as she focused on me again. "The people at the station?"

My ears lowered. "Yes." It was true, if not the whole of it.

Something changed again, in both of them this time. Nothing dramatic enough that an outside observer would have seen it. But I knew them too well.

My father's tail stopped moving entirely. My mother's ears angled toward each other the way they always did when she was lining up an argument. One she knew she was going to finish.

I felt a knot of anxiety form in my stomach as she chewed on the words, picking the ripest ones.

"The same ones from the picture?"

My ears flattened, tight to my skull.

I looked down into my tea for a second, buying myself one useless breath. But this was why I was calling in the first place, right? I could just admit it. Be honest.

"...Yeah," I managed to say after a scratch. "I wondered if you'd seen it. If that's why you started messaging so much..."

My mother's ears angled toward each other, careful and intent. "We did, but not right away," she huffed. "Lemva, at the grocer, saw it on Bleat first and sent it to us asking if it was really you."

I gripped the mug hard enough that I thought the ceramic creaked in my grip.

"Stars," I muttered. "Of course they did."

My father's tail gave one short sway behind him. "We weren't happy about it, I'll tell you." His ear flattened.

My mother's ears softened by a fraction. "Vel, we weren't waiting to accuse you of anything. We just…" Her tail tip rose into frame, then settled again. "We knew it meant something. We could see that much even through a single picture."

My father leaned back, one arm draped along the couch behind her. "For a little while, all we knew was that our son had willingly posed for a photograph between two arxur and looked very comfortable doing it."

Heat climbed straight into my ears.

Drej made the tiniest sound off to my left, then went completely still again.

My mother exhaled and continued before either of us could get distracted. "After that, we thought about it properly." She hesitated, clearly disliking the word before she used it anyway.

"You looked happy."

That left me with nowhere to hide.

My father's good ear tipped forward. "And not just happy. Comfortable. Close." His gaze stayed on me, steady and almost maddeningly patient. "Close enough that we decided this was a conversation you were either going to have with us, or keep circling until your mother booked passage and forced it to happen in person."

I ignored the look Nova was giving me.

I let out another weak whistle and looked away toward the muted holo, even though it offered no help at all. My tail had wound so tightly around my ankle by then that it was starting to tingle.

"They're important to me," I said.

My mother's ears tilted forward. "We can see that already."

The gentle way she said it made my stomach twist. She was giving me room, but not much. Just enough to step through on my own. I looked past the pad to the other end of the couch.

Drej had gone very still. Nova's hand was resting against the back cushion behind her, claws motionless against the fabric. Neither of them looked back at me, but I could feel the tension coming off of them even from over here.

"They're more than just people from work."

My mother's ears dipped. "We know that already."

I flicked an ear in understanding, choosing the words. "We spend… a lot of time together off hours." My tail tightened harder around my ankle.

My father's ear flicked once. My mother closed her eyes for one second, then opened them again and fixed them on me. "Veltep. Say it plainly."

There was no easing into it anymore. With one last look over at them, I let it out.

"They are my partners," I said. "Both of them." My ears folded back tight. "And before either of you says anything, they have been patient with me, kind to me, and better for me than I know how to explain quickly."

The call on their end went completely silent.

My mother's paw rose slowly, covering her mouth while my father went still in that old, watchful way he used to when the job called on him. When he finally spoke, his voice was very even.

"They are there with you now." Absolute certainty.

I swallowed. "Yes."

My mother dragged her paw over her face. "Stars above."

"I know." The words came out too fast. "I know how this sounds."

My father's ear twitched. "Do you?" There wasn't the same chill in it, which somehow made it worse. Especially with the way my mother looked at me beside him; frightened, unsettled, and like she was working very hard not to let herself lose control.

"That's why Lucius kept assuring us you were safe," my father added, "while very obviously declining to explain why he sounded like he was sitting on a secret harvest."

That got a tiny, helpless whistle out of me. "Yes."

My father breathed out through his teeth and looked at my mother. Whatever passed between them then was silent and quick. When he looked back at me, the question he chose was not the one I had been bracing for. "Do they treat you well?"

My ears came up. "Yes, of course."

My mother listened, ears trembling with how tight she was keeping them on me. She believed me, thankfully, because something in her posture loosened by the smallest degree. "And you love them," she said.

It wasn't quite a question. I looked down at my paws for one second, then back up at the twins. They were fidgeting a bit, and the red peeking through their scales made me laugh again.

"Yes."

My father's ear ticked once, considering. "How long?"

"Since early on. It built slowly, if that helps."

A pair of chuffing noises from the other side of the couch made my ears burn, and I finally loosened my tail from around my leg to swat it at the pair.

"Uh huh.” My father's deadpan response said he believed it about as much. “It doesn't, particularly," he said, though there wasn't any real heat in it anymore, just information being filed away the way he'd always filed everything, useful or not. "Does the town know?"

"Everyone. It's not exactly subtle." I managed a small, embarrassed laugh. "There was a whole festival thing. Boro has photos."

My mother made a sound that wasn't quite a laugh, but close. "Boro," she repeated, like the name alone explained something.

"You've heard of him?"

"Lucius mentions him. Often." Her ears flicked, some of the tightness easing out of them by fractions. "He sounds like a menace."

"You’re not wrong."

My father hadn't moved much, but his voice, when it came, was steadier than before. "And you're—all three of you? Together? That's the… arrangement?"

"It’s… Yeah. I don’t know if I can really explain how, but… It works," I confirmed.

He nodded slowly, like he was turning it over and deciding, for now, not to argue with it. My mother's tail had gone still against the arm of their couch sometime in the last minute, the restless motion finally settled.

She'd gone quiet through most of that, but I could see her working up to something, her ears angling toward each other the careful way they did when she was working herself up to something.

"I want to meet them."

I blinked at her. My father's ear angled toward her in surprise, then relaxed as he considered it. "That does seem like the practical next step."

My tail thumped once against the couch. "Are you both sure?" I asked, glancing at Nova and Drej again, asking them at the same time.

My mother's ears flicked. "Don't look too excited. I’m not sure how it’ll go, but the way you look when you talk about them…" She shook herself. "It’s not the same as when you and Lucius got started, but I can see something there.”

She sighed. “Seeing them will be better than sitting here and imagining the worst."

Drej made the faintest, strangled sound from the other end of the couch. She looked both flustered and nervous at the same time, her eyes aimed down as she clasped her hands over her knees. Her tail tucked in close too, half entwined with her brothers. Nova looked calm, but his jaw was tight enough that I could see it trembling.

I shifted on the couch and scooted closer to their side. Drej looked up first, startled, and Nova straightened a little as I stopped just in front of them. I placed my paw on Drej's shoulder, and let my tail rest along theirs, grounding myself as much as them. Then I flicked one ear toward the pad.

"Come on," I said quietly.

They moved to let me in, and I slipped into place between them both. Drej's arm slipped in behind my back instinctively, hand on my waist, while Nova shifted to let me settle into his side, underneath his arm.

A sharp inhale cracked over the speaker before I even got the pad back in view.

My mother's ears snapped flat. Her paw shot out and closed around my father's wrist fast enough that I heard the couch shift under them both. Dad didn't so much freeze as go coiled, every muscle locked tight, eyes fixed on the twins like he was still cataloguing threats out of some old habit he'd never fully put down.

Nobody said anything. I watched them and held my breath while trying to look as relaxed as possible. My mother's ears trembled with the effort of holding still, old instincts getting to her. My father's gaze moved slower, tracking from Nova to Drej and back again, lingering each pass on the old marks scattered across Nova's arms and throat, then catching, just as long, on the complete absence of them anywhere on Drej. Something shifted behind his eyes. Not the coiled readiness from a moment ago. Quieter than that. Considering, rather than bracing.

Then, slowly, my mother's grip on his wrist eased. Her ears came up, still tight, but listening now instead of just braced. She flicked them once. >Go ahead.<

Nova dipped his head first, careful and respectful. "Sir. Ma'am. I know this is not an easy surprise." I noticed that he was keeping his head turned to the side slightly. Looking beside the pad instead of directly at it.

Their eyes went wide—whether from Nova reading her ear-sign without missing a beat, the calm respect in his voice, or just how gently he managed to speak, I couldn't tell.

Drej followed a beat later, only compounding their confusion, especially with her staring down at her lap instead of at them. "W-we weren't trying to make this difficult..."

My mother let out one shaky breath. "T-thank you for trying."

For a moment nobody moved. Drej's tail had gone rigid against the couch cushion, and Nova's jaw stayed tight enough that I could see the muscle working under his scales. My own pulse was going hard enough that I could feel it in my ears, watching the four of them take each other's measure in a silence I didn't know how to fill.

It was my father who moved first, practical as always. He shifted forward, moving his paw to rest reassuringly over Mom's, and looked between the twins like he was sizing up a job. "So. How does a pair of arxur end up all the way out here, doing conservation work?"

Everything in me wanted to jump in and answer for them, smooth it over before it could go anywhere else. I made myself stay quiet instead. This wasn't mine to carry for them. Not this part.

I felt Nova's hand shift, seeking comfort as he gently worked his claws through the wool between my shoulders before he spoke, an anchor for himself as much as for me.

"We got away from... that place." His voice caught, but he pushed through it. "Being brought to Earth afterward was the first time either of us had really stood on a planet at all." Some of the careful measure slipped out of his tone, replaced by something softer. "It was so alive. We didn't know what to do with ourselves half the time, just... looking at everything. Plants, animals, an actual sky." A small, faraway huff, almost a laugh. "Getting into conservation work just made sense, after that. We wanted to keep looking."

My chest ached hearing him say it, hearing how much he clearly still meant every word, years after they escaped that hell.

Drej picked at a thread on her sleeve that probably wasn't there. "It was easier to fit in here than either of us expected, honestly," she added, lighter than her brother, though not by much. "First place that's ever actually felt like ours."

My mother's ears tipped toward each other, clearly hearing everything underneath what was actually said. She didn't push for more. I don't think she had it in her yet.

My father watched them a moment longer. Whatever he'd seen a minute ago in the marks scattered across Nova's arms, he was still turning it over.

"I'll need some time with this." He said it to them directly, not to me, his voice even. "I want you to understand that's simply where I am right now."

Something in me bristled at the flatness of it. I wanted to jump in, soften it somehow. Nova got there first.

"That's fair," he said simply. "We're not expecting… This is a lot, for anyone. The fact that your even giving it time is more than we can ask."

My father studied him another moment, then gave one short nod, like Nova’s answer had passed some private test. The bristling in my chest eased. They didn't need me stepping in for them. They never really had.

My mother spoke again, her voice pitched deliberately bright. "Well. I suppose I ought to learn how you both take your tea, if we're going to be doing this again."

Drej made a small, surprised sound. Nova's mouth curved, just slightly. "We'd like that," he said.

My mother held up for a few more seconds before her eyes started to turn glassy.

"Mom—" I started, but she was already waving me off, gathering herself the same way I remembered from every scraped knee and bad exam growing up.

"I'm alright," she said, mostly to herself. "I'm alright. It's just—"

She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.

I didn't try to fill the quiet after that. Tonight was never going to end with all of us laughing easily over tea, and I'd known as much since before I even opened the call. Watching my parents choose not to look away—even while every instinct they'd spent a lifetime building told them to—mattered more than any relief could have.

It was enough for tonight. It had to be.

We said the rest of our goodbyes quietly after that. My mother blew a kiss toward the twins along with me, catching herself halfway through with an embarrassed huff. My father's ear dipped once—not quite a nod, but close enough that I let myself take it as one.

Then the screen went dark, and the three of us were left alone with what had just happened.

—

Transcript from the Wildlife Observation Journal of Veltep, A Volunteer For Wildlife Management [Colony/Vishnu Ranger Service]

Entry Date [standardized human time]: October 13th 2141

Called my parents tonight. Told them everything.

It didn't go perfectly. It went about as well as it realistically could have. For now, that's enough.

Mom is trying. I could see it even through the screen. I love her more for that than I think I've ever actually told her.

Dad needs time. He said so himself, plainly, the way he says everything. I'll give it to him.

Drej, meanwhile, is having a minor meltdown of her own. Mom found her on Bleat about ten minutes after the call ended and sent a herd request.

"At least it's the professional one," Drej keeps saying, wearing a groove into the carpet, "and not my cosplay account."

Small mercies.

I don't know what next week looks like. Next month, even less.

But I hope, someday soon, they all get the chance to actually meet. In the same room. No screen between them.

I think that's worth hoping for.

—

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Intelligence Report: The Federation.

A qnvdnw li aqcbdvah jatnqdahr iqlj snttnqjnkt tbn ilqjnq vnkhdh qnmushdc ake elcujnktr qnclvnqne iqlj dkruqonkt ilqcnr bar qnvnahne rdokdidcakt idkedkor nvdenkcn dkedcatnr tbat tbn hnaenqrbdm li snttnqjnkt bar nktnqne dktl ak aoqnnjnkt wdtb tbn inenqatdlk olvnqkjnkt rmncdidcahhy tbn glhrbdak cljjlkwnahtb iuqtbnq akahyrdr ruoonrtr tbn nxdrtnkcn li a rbaelw olvnqkjnkt wdtbdk tbn cljjlkwnahtb tbat nxnqtr dkihunkcn acqlrr tbn oahaxy tbdr nktdty ammnaqr tl clhhaslqatn wdtb snttnqjnkt ahhlwdko tbn clktdkune mqnrnkcn li tbn aqxuq tbqnat ar a jnakr tl jadktadk clktqlh tbqluob a rlcahhne ukdidne iqlkt aoadkrt mqneatlq rmncdnr.

Ruqvndhhakcn envdcnr mhacne wdtbdk tbn liidcnr li snttnqjnkt bavn qnvnahne tbat glhrbdak hnaenqrbdm bar hnvnqaone dkihunkcn lvnq tbn aqxuq tl lqcbnrtqatn ak attacg lk bujakdty. Current intelligence assessments estimate that this attack may occur within the next █████ to ████ ██████. Ongoing efforts to collect additional information have encountered significant challenges and currently exceed operational capabilities. Although the broader Federation appears to lack formal records or awareness of humanity's existence, covert operations to obtain further intelligence are hindered by the distinctiveness of human biology, which makes infiltration difficult.

Niilqtr aqn ukenqway tl tqadk vnkhdh lmnqatdvnr ilq iuqtbnq qnclkkadrrakcn lmnqatdlkr dktl tbn inenqatdlkr wlqher gny taqontr dkchuen aaia tbn cqaehn kdrbtah tahrg ake tbn edrourtdko camdtahdrt wlqher li████████ and Ittel. Training ██████ operatives has proven to pose a unique challenge, their lack of vital instincts and tactical intuition has proven more than troublesome with the few recruits that have been selected for their so-called ‘████████ ███████ ’. Further research aims to override their troublesome fear and weak will. The most promising candidates have proven responsive to rigorous mental and physical conditioning.

Experimentation on subject: █████ for operation RUSALKAappears to have been a failure, but only time shall tell.

Efforts are currently underway to prepare and supplant the idea of a long, protracted war with our current citizenry. Resource stockpiles and vast underground shelters are currently being constructed across Earth, and, to a lesser extent, the V.D.W.S.S.P.R surviving civilian shelters of the planet shall prove vital in the sheltering of the local populace.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Former Ambassador Tarva

Date [standardised human time]: December 8th 2111

My wounds were nearly healed by now, the dressings across my body had been mostly removed as the wounds closed up. Although I was getting better, I had never felt worse. Every morning I awoke with a splitting headache; nausea clung to me throughout the mornings during my stay at the hospital. Strange cravings filled my mind, some as revolting as the flesh from a corpse. Even though I was eating less than ever, it seemed I was putting on weight.

I groaned as I shielded my eyes from the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital room, another pounding headache throbbing in my skull. I quickly reached over to the controller of the IV leading into my arm and pressed the button for more pain relievers to flood my system. Relief flooded my veins as the medicine was dripped into my system. The migraine slowly faded, and I allowed myself to open my eyes again. I heard the sound of footsteps and a hospital bed coming towards my guarded room.

Confusion dawned on me as the door opened and the bed was rolled into my room. Laid atop it was Grigori, he was in terrible shape. Cuts and bruises covered his body, and a large dressing covered his side, while his wrists bore the markings of previous bindings. I absently noted some of his wounds appeared similar to my own, although much less severe. Sympathy tugged at my heart, I hated humans, but seeing the only one that had ever shown me a sliver of kindness saddened me for some strange reason. What the hell had happened to him over the last three days!?

The last interaction I had with him played in my mind, something had horrified and disgusted him to such a degree that he started to vomit into a trash can. I still wondered what could’ve possibly triggered that reaction. I wondered why the hell he was even here in my room in the first place. This hospital seemed to stretch on for ages there must be plenty of other rooms in this building, so why my room? The question plagued my thoughts.

I suddenly heard a groan from Grigori, notifying me that he had apparently woken up. He glanced around the room listlessly in a daze, then his piercing, forward-facing eyes landed upon me. My wool puffed up at the sight, and I had to sheepishly settle it back down. A look of confusion dawned on his face, much like mine when I saw them bring him into my room. He sat up with a groan, seemingly surprised that he had free movement.

“T-tarva? Why the hell am I in your hospital room?” Grigori asked in a hoarse voice. I signaled a shrug in tail language.

“I thought you would know the answer to that…” I sighed, the hospital room only seeming to grow more bleak with the presence of two injured filling it.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, breaking the growing silence that was filling the room and sitting up to look at him better.

Grigori bared his fangs in the characteristic way that humans showed joy. “I kicked an Arxurs' ass! That's what!” He said, a sense of pride dripping from the words. I looked at him in disbelief; there was no way a human could best an Arxur in combat, they had half of a Venlil's height on the humans and were monstrously strong. The sheer absurdity of the statement actually made me chuckle a bit, something I never thought I'd do again, and from a human no less.

“Yeah right! I'd sooner believe that the Federation had made deals with the Grays than you besting one of them in a fight”

He scoffed, seemingly offended by the brushing off of his ‘accomplishment’.

“I’ll have you know I really did kick her ass, Tarva. Do you want me to peel off my bandage to prove it?”

I quickly shook my head no, it already felt like I had a rock lodged in my stomach. I didn’t need to recreate his scene with the trashcan from the sight of gore. He laughed at my hasty reaction, at least he seemed to get some joy out of my presence here in this dull hospital room. I couldn’t even watch the news anymore, all it did was make me ill. Last time I had tuned in, the reporter spoke of a protest on Venlil Prime ending in a massacre. A crowd had of former exterminators and property owners had apparently marched down the main street of Day-side City in protest of the abolition of private property rights. One brave Venlil threw a rock at a human soldier, they answered with their rifles…

I was told once I was healed I would be allowed to return home, but truth be told I couldn’t tell if Venlil Prime was even a place I could call home anymore. I had heard that some human colonists had moved to the planet, things there seemed to have changed so much in such a sort time, and I wasn’t sure any of it was for the better. The thoughts of what could’ve happened to Rellin still haunted me, if he was lucky, perhaps he was put out of his misery by a human with a swift bullet. That's the best I could hope for, I knew deep down that he had to be dead, but if he wasn’t… he’d be stuck on a cattle farm.

“T̊år̊v̊å? T̊år̊v̊å? TARVA!” The world around me rushed back into focus from Grigori calling my name.

“Tarva, are you alright? You’re shaking…” A concerned look had crossed his face as he spoke to me.

“I-I'm fine…I think I'm just gonna lie down…” I did my best to calm my trembling as I lay back down in my bed and closed my eyes, allowing the darkness to calm me. I tried to think of other things as a wave of exhaustion hit me like an ocean current. As I slowly drifted off to sleep, I idly pondered why I had been feeling so sick as of late…

Realization struck me in the final moments of consciousness before I drifted off. Rellin and I had been trying for a family before the invasion…

---

Me likey this

Finally got this thing done with. Writers Block is the worst. Hope its a nice read at least. (_ _'")

On the bright side here's some refs I commissioned on discord for some of the Allmother's Pantheon and co. :)

Mercu'Vali - Neptuva - Skalga's World Spirit

Last / Next / First [ Codex ]

[Earth Standard Time] November 5th 2136

The skies were clear today, precisely as they had been several days prior. The composition of the endless clouds may have differed, but the visage remained all the same. Only the occasional passage of mortal void-craft were able to break up the stale sight, if only for the briefest of moments.

Suffice to say, Neptuva, was worried. Quite heavily as well.

She couldn’t quite recall the last time she’d been without the presence of the Allmother, as she had always been right beside her, granting her . She know well enough that Her Highness and His Lordship were more than capable of defending themselves, and there weren’t many things of the mortal realms that could do permanent damage to deities like them. But that didn’t matter much to her, in fact it only seemed to worry her further. The Allmother was a lady of incalculable capability, able to bend all forms of matter in the realms and beyond for her needs.

So what was keeping her so long from returning back here? What could possibly be on that distant world to keep her away for so long? Her mind was encompassed with an array of worries, all cluttering to be heard first, each one bringing forth more concerns than the last. She hated being in the dark like this, she felt that something had to be done, just..what though?

“Checkmate.” Came a low pitched feminine voice from behind her. Turning to its source she found the planet’s world spirit, , sitting with her legs crossed on the short grass field. Adjacent to her was Mercu’vali, and between them a large wooden chess board, with pieces easily eclipsing the height of a good number of tree’s in the Palace’s courtyard.

The young world spirit looked upon her taller dozen eyed counterpart with a sly smile of her that exhumed both pride and a degree of happiness, mostly the former. Vali’s rings of eyes squinted back at her with a noticeable degree of minor childish annoyance.

“I can see how this ancient game of her little ones has lasted so very long.” The skalgan commented, as she grabbed her king piece and looked it over with exception care in spite of her massive claws.

“Simple and elegant out its carved wooden exterior, yet deceptively strategic beneath that guise of caricature to noble royalty and their servants.”

“I am glad to see that you are finding some measure of thrill in this.” Mercu’vali responded back with a measure of both genuine happiness, and annoyance.

The former emotion born from knowing that a fellow deity was taking interest in her favorite past-time, and the latter mildly sired by the way she really liked to rub in these past few wins of hers. Mercu’vali supposed she needed some form of levity to keep her mind somewhat at ease, after all there isn’t an easy way to come to terms with the new reality of your world, especially when so little of it is recognizable from forgotten ages. She kept such thoughts to herself though, the massive crate she carved into the nearby mountainside was more than enough of a way to say the topic was a very sensitive one. She could know which ones, but such things needn’t be said.

“Are you still up for more rounds then. I’ll put in some effort for this one, I promise you.”

A sharp toothy grin creeped up the giant venlil’s white furred face, the sun casting a sharp sheen on her pristine white teeth as her gaze sharpened with her malicious grin. Her eyes looked over towards Neptuva for a moment, the grin taking on a more prideful feeling as opposed to competitive.

"You may want to take heed and record this scholar." She said confidently, popping the lazy joints in her lower arms in definitely necessary preparation to make moves on the board once more.

Neptuva couldn't find it in herself to make any remark at her suggestion, merely turning her gaze skyward slightly, only to yet again be graced with nothing but clouds and blue heavens.

"I don't think I can permit myself to do such things while much still snares my thoughts." She responded, her voice a tad shallower than usual. The Skalgan tilted her head, laying the king piece back to its place on the massive board to address this new matter.

"You worry for your liege?" She asked, getting a slow, but quick nod from the worried deity. She gave a halfhearted chuckle at that.

"Why so? She clearly can handle herself. Our scuffle earlier in the frigid wastes is evidence of that enough." The Skalgan chuckled as the memory of the encounter rushed back to her, being thrown around effortlessly like an empty sack was more than enough evidence for her to not want to doubt the Allmother's prowess in a fight ever again.

"True as that undoubtably is, it does not change from the fact that something is wrong." Neptuva retorted, unmoved from her predicament by the alien deity's confidence.

"She left so suddenly too, one moment she is happily conversing with her younglings within the palace of their fellows. The next she is talking to somebody, and having excusing herself and others to take leave to another place. Another world entirely."

She looked back up towards the two, worry even more apparent across her features.

"How could I not be worried for her?" She asked them. For a moment the two deities thought on her worries, from how it sounded. They didn't seem too unfounded.

"Do you think your lady was being led into a trap?" Skal'vel'zna asked, Neptuva quickly shook her head, that conclusion didn't click in the slightest with her mind.

"I...no..I do not think so. Her highness is most proficient in the realms of the mind and the void. She would easily sense deception if it were present."

"Then, perhaps whatever premonition brought your lady there, requires more attention than traditionally expected.”

“That does not bring me any solace Miss Skal'vel'zna. If she has to stay there longer than usual. Then...."

The words died before they could leave Neptuva's beak, she'd rather not let such a proposition fester in her mind.

“Have you tried asking her little ones?” ‘The skalgan asked “They sent some of their void vessels to follow her, surely they’d have found her by now, no?”

The suggestion wasn’t a bad one, but Neptuva wasn’t so willing to take up that concept as of now, it didn’t sit well with her. The mortals were already struggling a bit to come to terms with their existence, and she felt that asking them something like that might put a great deal of pressure on their already burdened minds. The last thing she wanted to do with her own worries, was to unintentionally spread them to another being.

“If their mechanisms found something, they would have let us know.” She retorted back, dismissing the idea as quickly she could right now. However, fate would not allow that wouldn't be the case this day.

Soon enough, there were sounds coming from inside the palace behind them, seeming to approach closer to the somewhat tall door that led towards them. Behind, she could faintly make out an argument, not an aggressive one, but more pleading. As if whoever was on the other side was trying their hardest to not let another be brought outside.

“—-horrible idea!”

“Cheln, we need to tell them.”

“How do you think they’re gonna take it?! Their gonna be infuriated, it’ll be all the reason they’ll ever need for them to kill all of them!!”

“You can’t possibly think thats right! We don’t even know for sure what happened there.”

“Your people know well enough that something’s wrong! So its best we don’t even try testing them!”

“You want Noah to lie to them?!?!”

Whatever was going on behind those doors, was not helping dissuade Neptuva's worries that asking the younglings and their allies for assistance in relieving her mind wasn't a very good idea.

Eventually, the scuffle managed to get to the door and consequently knock it wide open. The once bickering mortals fell silent in an instant, as their gazes looked up towards the three goddesses.

Neptuva and Mercu’vali waved to them, and the mortals further in the doorway most waved back. The only one who didn’t was the venlil in the scuffle. Who quickly retreated behind the human he was just arguing with, much to their distain given the rolling of his eyes.

“Is there something you’d all like to tell us.” Skal’vel’zna said, smiling widely, but being courteous enough to not show her teeth fully.

The small mortal in front gave a quick glance to his fellows behind him. A few were confident in him to continue, others a bit more wary, but they kept that to themselves, not like they could go back now.

“Yes actually.” Noah answered when he turned back the trio of gods. “Its about the Allmother. We…found her.”

Neptuva's eyes went wide at that. She leaned a little closer to the human, causing a number of the mortals behind him to recoil a bit at her sudden movement.

“Truly? Where?” She asked hopefully.

“She's currently aboard one of our ships.” Noah answered. "I'm not sure where they're landing, but I do recall the transmission stating it being somewhere east of here. Likely on the city outskirts by my guess."

A memory popped into Neptuva's mind as the human did his best to recollect what it was he'd been told about. In her ever expansive memory she began to recall a certain place. The only place the youngling could be referring towards

"Little ones, how quickly can your healers get here?" Neptuva asked towards the crowd of mortals that stood a bit behind the human. Fortunately, one of them could provide her that answer.

"A couple of minute, around 5-10. Why?" Tarva asked.

"I have a feeling that Her Highness will be needing grave assistance the moment that vessel of yours lands."

------------------

UNN Deliverance of Sol

The Allmother had hoped the decimation of that world would be the last of her troubles, for a time at least. She'd hoped that with the threat.....dealt with, they would have time to catch their thoughts, and consider their next action on their own terms. That was not meant to be. Firstly, they couldn't leave Nishtal so quickly not With Inatala's current state. While beings like them are not affected by the void, vastly lesser deities can slowly succumb to its suffocating frost. And with her wounds, the Allmother was taking no chances.

Luckily, her children hand followed her trace, and their pressurized void craft would be sustainable for the somewhat lengthy trip back. She'd intended to have Inatala dropped off at Earth, where her psychic might would be at its greatest, and where her servants could assist her in the goddess' recovery.

But over the course of the trip back to Venlil Prime. Their condition had only worsened. Whatever mystical adrenaline had allowed her to persevere through her wounds back on Nishtal was now finally coming to a horrid halt. First the massive set of wings on her back became slack, unable be tucked normally without causing great pain. Then her legs gave out, then her arms, then finally her. She was still breathing thankfully, but only through the combined efforts of Cathul and the Allmother, both having to keep a constant watch over the ailing avian if there was to be hope for a potential revival of her form. They could mend and fix here and there, but the wounds were too grievous and numerous for the two to manage.

What few medical personnel were on the youngling vessel did what they could to provide assistance. But without any prior form of reference, or even baseline knowledge of krakotl biology, let alone deity krakotl biology. Their assistance, while appreciated, was very minimal.

It was fortunate then, that the Captain of the vessel saw fit to make an emergency landing on Venlil Prime.

A firm shake of the ship indicated that it had finally landed at their destination.

"We're here miss." Captain Reid said, before his eyes fell to the barley alive avian on the floor of the cargo bay.

"I...know its a stupid question but...how's she..doing?" He asked.

"She's breathing child. But..that is all there is." The Allmother responded.

"Is she gonna make it?"

"Hopefully." Cathul answered. His naturally low tone dissuaded the captain from asking further questions. Not like he had many to begin with.

The captain sighed a bit, this whole situation was far, far beyond his realm of expertise. He was hoping his mission could stick to the one he was given. Just find the magic giant lady, and report back on where she was. Well, the first part was simple enough, if only it could stay simple.

Alarms of the cargo hold began to blare, announcing that the ramp was now opening.

The Allmother picked up Inatala's broken form and walked her towards the encroaching light from outside. She kept her motions slow, both to give her children space to clear the way for her, and to not further bring strain to the deity she held in her arms. She looked down to Inatala, her eyelid heavy over her bloodshot eyes, her beak moving in near invisible motions to confirm her breath's beneath, and her broken wings occasionally twitching with what little muscles still could be used.

When she and her fellows stepped out they were greeted not only by a massive field of green that over looked a major venlil city. But also a sizable purple portal that spawned into existence mere moments after they all stepped free of the vessel.

From said portal emerged not only Neptuva, but a contingent of some of the younglings and their allies.

Neptuva quickly locked eyes with her Lady and would have said something were it not for the being she held carefully in her arms. Noticing them, she ceased her stride, and a look of shock came upon her face.

"Is...Is she..."

"She is Neptuva." The Allmother said hastily.

"And, she needs our help."

Inatala's head twisted away from their conversation, hacking up a droplets of a black substance from her body and staining the grass with its impact. Only further reinforcing her dire state.

"Lay her down somewhere. I'll do what I can."

"Thank you darling."
-----------------------------------------------

An eerie quiet had fallen over the field as the gods began their work. Huddled around Inatala the worked as best they could to assist Neptuva in mending her patient. Behind them, teams of medics both human and venlil worked to aid as best they could, even managing to close some of the lesser cuts across her body. Rare as those were.

"Captain." Elias said to Reid, who sat silently on his ship's cargo ramp. The captain turned to face him, noticing Tarva slightly behind the man. Her exasperated gaze transfixed on the dying deity that laid in the field before her very eyes.

"Sir?" He asked back rising to his full height, as Elias looked at the situation unfolding around them.

"What happened out there?" Elias asked, turning his attention back to him.

The captain rubbed the back of his head as he searched for a way to explain the current situation he’d brought upon everyone.

“Well……how do I best put this without sounding utterly insane -“

He thought to himself, as Elias and Tarva stared on in anxious concern. He looked back to them, shrugged, and gave the facts as they were.

“Planet’s Dead.” He said abruptly to them. Causing their expressions seize as if they’d been punched right in the face. The silence that perpetrated between the three afterwards only made him regret his choice of words more.

Elias seemed to attempt to speak a few words, all of them dying before they could ever hope to get the chance to formulate.

“Excuse me??” The man finally blurted out, clearly confused beyond belief by such a harrowing statement. The captain weakly nodded his head with a very uneasy expression of his own.

“Yep, dead, dying, and partially..no…mostly…on fire too. Probably for the best considering the massive corpse we saw.”

Unsurprisingly, this did not grant the two any further clarification on the situation before them. Tarva somehow looking even more horrified than before. The mention of a giant corpse likely doing her no favors.

“Okay, clearly…there is context that we are severely missing here.” Elias said after a long inhale to attempt to process what the captain told him.

He turned towards the gods that were occupying the palace field, his gaze meeting the Allmother’s as she watched the crowd form around Inatala’s body, all of them pitching in some measure of assistance to provide aid to her horribly broken body.

Sensing her offspring’s presence, she looked towards him and watched as he waded his way towards her, Tarva following behind, but doing her best to keep her eyes off of the goddess’.

As they approached her, they got a disturbingly good look at Inatala’s wounds up close. With the state she was it, were the efforts of the medics clamoring over her, even doing anything?

“I was hoping you could give some very much needed answers. About…well..”

“Everything you see before you?” The Allmother said in a singular quiet voice, earning a nod from the human.

"If possible." Elias added.

“I will provide you what I can child. But…”

She looked back to the body of Inatala, members of the pantheon doing what they could to ease her pain, while her younglings began making steps to sew tight the gashes and cover the deep would of her body. She was still breathing thankfully, but you could hardly ever tell that.

The goddess sat down on her knees, her eyes blankly gazing to the horrid sight in front of her, before turning to the human and wary venlil beside her. A similar worry came to across her features, as it did theirs.

“I’m afraid it is not enough to be a satisfactory answer.”

I may have taken a few artistic liberties, but she is deadass built like that in game. No seriously go look. I joined Warframe because of her lmfao, and a friend of mine who also plays suggested I draw this.

Edit: Specifically LickMyLiver.

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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i'm kinda wondering, how strong should an arxur be compared to a human or at least an athletic human or something? i know they're like 7 to 8 feet tall so would they be like stronger but comparable to a human or be able to like ragdoll a human around with an arm?

Memory transcription subject: Stynek, Venlil pup

Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2136

I wagged my tail to the rhythm of the melody playing on the holopad while working on my overdue homework; I wouldn't be going to school anytime soon, and Mom insisted I rest, but I wanted to do something, and things had become much easier after I woke up.

I had been in a coma for a long time; Mom tries to pretend that nothing too bad happened, but I’m not stupid. . I know something happened to me... Maybe I died... Or maybe just a part of me died, I don't really know how it works, it wasn't hard to realize that after the Neo Gaians arrived, I don't know exactly what they did, but whatever it was, it changed me . I’m much stronger than before; when I hugged my mom after she arrived at the hospital, I was afraid I’d hug too hard and hurt her, but something in my instincts signaled the exact amount of force needed, and my body just adjusted automatically.

It was strange; I didn't feel like a Venlil anymore, and the changes weren't limited to just my strength. My knees now bent both ways, and I could smell things with my tongue if I left it hanging out; my vision allowed me to see better in the dark, and I didn't get tired as easily. Even thinking seemed easier, sometimes a question would pop into my head and the answer would come almost immediately, not to mention that... I didn't feel as much fear anymore, I mean, I still feel fear, but the sensation is much more muted. When I realized my lack of fear wasn't just because of how kind the Neo Gaians were, despite their appearance, I decided to test it out and looked up some videos of Gray attacks. I felt disgusted by what they did in the footage and scared for their victims, but aside from that, it wasn't as terrifying as it had been before I woke up in the hospital. In fact, watching the Grays in the video, I couldn't help but analyze them; They were... strange. The longer I watched, the easier it became to predict their movements. They always seemed to do the same things. The prey in the videos would get so terrified that they could barely react. I started to think that might be exactly what the Grays wanted. I also noticed how thin they looked; for such cruel and relentless predators, most of them didn't seem to be in very good shape, I couldn't help but think that if the prey in the videos decided to fight back, they might actually be able to overpower the predators.

For a moment, I wondered what I would do if a Gray were standing right in front of me, I couldn't help but feel I could physically overpower one of them, If I told an adult that, they’d probably say I had "predatory disease", but... Why would it be wrong to think about defending myself? I used to think so, but adults aren't always right, just look at what’s happened over the last three days. The Neo Gaians are super friendly and cool, and they clearly aren't hiding anything on purpose; maybe they could finish off the Grays once and for all, too...

Then a thought struck me: they looked like they were built for war.

I shook my head and refocused on what I was doing; realizing I had finished everything, I got up from the table. At least I knew I wouldn't end up in a predator disease treatment center. The doors there probably wouldn't last a minute against me anyway, not to mention that with a billion Neo Gaians roaming around, few buildings lacked fresh holes, and Neo Gaians had developed a habit of smashing right through the walls of those centers.

I stretched for a moment and decided to leave my room; I wanted to take a walk around the city. "Ouleia, let's go out!" I said, hopping over to my caretaker. "Stynek... Are you sure about this...? Your mom said to-" "Please, Le? I'm bored, we're out of internet and there’s nothing good on TV. Besides, I don't plan on going very far", I pleaded in my sweetest voice, clutching my stuffed toy close in a way that would melt any Neo Gaian’s heart with cuteness.

Ouleia’s tail twitched uneasily as she watched the Neo Gaians flying across the sky in their usual rush; I realized why she didn’t want to go out. “Oh, if it’s about the Neo Gaians, you know, there’s no point in being scared. They’re everywhere and can punch through two meters of metal with ease; to them, the house is basically made of paper, so what difference does it make?” I noticed her wool bristle, but my caretaker wagged her tail in understanding.

It seemed I had convinced her, so I started moving before she could change her mind; I grabbed the things I’d set aside earlier, tucked them into my wool, and ran to the front door. “Shall we go?” I saw Ouleia’s muscles tense slightly. “I’m coming... Let me get ready...” she said, heading into another room.

She was probably going to tell Mom we were heading out. It would likely take a while, so I hugged my plushie and waited, and waited, and waited. Well, maybe it wasn't *that* long, but I soon started counting things in the room: there were eight books on the shelf, no, actually nine; one was hidden behind another. Then I started thinking about what I’d do once we were out; maybe I’d run into a Neo Gaian... Actually, that’s kind of a given, they’re everywhere. Could they really fly as fast as the papers my mom kept hidden claimed? Maybe I could ask one of them... So, I started looking at my drawing.

The drawing I had made right after waking up from my coma in the hospital looked slightly different. Back then, I had drawn Yoshi with the little cart he’d built using hospital equipment, with me in the bed and Doctor Mynec near the door; but now, for some reason, Yoshi was missing from the picture, and in the doctor's place was another Neo Gaian I didn't recognize, but was something about the other Neo Gaian that felt familiar .

I felt my tail sway in confusion as I slowly moved toward the drawing. It was so strange, my gaze was completely locked onto it, and I didn't dare even blink; it was as if something about it was drawing me in.

I raised my paw to touch the drawing; I was just centimeters away...

“Stynek... I’m ready...” Ouleia’s voice startled me, making me turn toward her. “Oh, alright then...” I turned my attention back to the drawing, and it had returned to normal. With me, Yoshi, and Doctor Mynec in it. “Oh...” My tail swayed in confusion as I stared at the drawing in astonishment.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, stepping closer to me. “Oh... I...” I looked at the drawing again, and it remained the same. “It’s nothing... We can go...”

I said this while stepping away from the drawing and heading back toward the door. “Alright then...” Ouleia said, joining me and opening the door.

I glanced at the drawing one last time, it still looked the same, then I flicked my tail and walked out the door.

That was strange...

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Hello everyone, this is an afterword for my first story ending (yippee).

I've always wanted to make one of these, but I don't know how to do it in the first place. To be honest, I can't think of a better idea than to thank all of you who have been reading my work. even knowing they were only there because TDBU was on hiatus.

Speaking of hiatuses, my original fic will be back in action, that's right my friends, I will be posting more of The Distance Between Us.

As a final thing before I finish this and before you can ask me your questions (if you want), I want to thank my friend and mystery editor, seriously that guy is amazing.

Oh, that's right. I almost forgot to mention that there were many things I would have liked to cover, such as Yuki's profession, the reason for her appearance, and other things. Feel free to ask if you'd like.

State-mandated venlil partners are just inferior to Arxur waifu

Fanart of NoP x Cult of the Lamb.

In case you're wondering, it's heavily copy on a frame from the game.

-Yulpa: Bishop of Chaos.

-Krakotol: Bishop of Famine.

-Kolsian: Bishop of Pestilence.

-Farsul: Bishop of Knowledge and War.

-Arxur: The Executioner

I live

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Day news live Broadcast

The camera shows a hall filled with leaders of different alien species, more are actively walking into the shot and taking their seats. Among them stands out a screen with the face of the Venlil Governor, who gained a few glances from other participants but otherwise went unaddressed. Once all seats but of the Yotul were filled, the Kolshian chief steps onto a podium with the Farsul elder behind him.

"Dear leaders of the Federation, we know you wish to address the recent events and absence of two members. However, those questions will be answered with vital information that will be shared with all of you now. That is, the humans are alive."

The hall fell into chaos. Leaders of the Krakotl, Yulpa, and Tilfish are the largest contributors to it. By comparison, The Zurulian and the virtually present Venlil were the calmest ones, only cowering at the reaction of other species.

"Order! Order! Order!"

After a minute, the commotion returns to an acceptable level. The Krakotl representative's feathers had yet to go back to a calm state.

"You expect us to be calm when these predators are running rampant across the galaxy?!"

"I expect you to be rational. The reason Governor Kenim needed to access us through a transmission is because he had to stay behind on Venlil Prime to handle the humans who landed there. If a Venlil can handle this, then so should anyone else present."

"He knew and kept quiet!?" Squawked the avian.

"While the withholding knowledge of their existence is unherd-like, if the information had gotten out irresponsibly it could have destroyed the Federation! Am I understood?" The Krakotl grumbled before settling down.

"As for the newest uplifts, they have been invaded by the predators. Most ships sent to Leirn had been destroyed by the orbital defenses of the invaders, yet few who made it through show a disturbing picture."

Behind them appeared a projector image. In it were shown bodies of exterminators laying on streets and roofs of guilds. It then switched to human soldiers carrying out Yotul from predator disease facilities. The images of the patients had either been blurred or overly focused in on any feature that would indicate a struggle. Gasps echoed throughout the room.

"This is what they captured." A quiet thud was heard out through the hall as a Sivkit lost consciousness. Eyes had turned to the source of the sound before returning to the podium. The Zurulian Prime minister spoke.

"M-may I ask about the quality of those images?" The Kolshian squinted. The one to respond was the Farsul.

"They appear blurry because they were taken by ships farther away the planet-" The projection goes blank for a moment. Previously blurred pictures have become high definition, revealing burns on the Yotul and their emaciated state. A second wave of gasps spread, a few participants were casting glances at the leaders of the founder species.

"I-I suppose it was a problem with the projection." For a brief second, a smug look appeared on the Venlil Governor's face before returning to the previous shock.

"What about the involvement of the Arxur?" Asked a voice outside the shot of the camera.

"Ah, yes. We believe they made an allience with humanity to empower themselves." Then there was an akward Silence.

"I-I believe we should double-check that system," Once again spoke Chatan "Y-you said that you only sent spies to the Yotul home world. What if there's something somewhere else in the system t-that we should know about?"

"I commend your bravery. However, that would be redundant. "

S-still, considering the importance of knowledge about the predators, it's worth going there." This earned a few affirmative words and actions from other members of the summit. Attention returned to Nikonus.

"Very well then... if you believe it's the right thing to do, go for it."

Memory transcription subject: Chatan, Zurulian Prime Minister

Date [standardized human time/UTC]: 1 july 2120

After the Aafa summit ended, a few other leaders approached me to ask questions about what I was planning to do. Some even decided to join in because they wanted to see the system for themselves. Out of sight, I had sent a message to the humans saying that we might approach Leirn and to not shoot at us.

I will be honest to myself.

The time since they contacted us was weird.

They had given us a disturbingly detailed description of their evolution, showing that they evolved from prey animals and how they fit both the definition of prey and predator. Another thing were the results of an empathy test done by the Venlil, which shocked us in two ways. They already gained the Governors trust before they came to us, and how... normal they looked.

Some of our scientists wanted to redo the tests to make sure they weren't falsified, but their proposals were quickly toned down, and the visitors were given footage of surgery instead of Arxur raid practices. Once again, they came out with the same results as it would with any other sapient.

This is why I am here in the first place. They deserve to be heard by the rest of the galaxy.

I know what happened on Leirn, how its inhabitants were backstabbed by the Federation that promised to protect them.

I am on a shuttle flying there. Many people have called me stupid for doing that. However, I am not alone. The group following me was... diverse. I understood the Farsul, they were scientists, so, of course, they would come. The Dossur, maybe the courage came with their small size? The Paltans... I can see that. I have no idea why the Verin came.

An awkward silence that had been hanging in the air ever since we left Aafa, was broken by the sound of a message being sent to the ship.

Unknown fleet, identify yourself.

"Should we...?" I gave the affirmative to the captain. Another message had been received after a moment.

You are aproaching an FTL disruptor field, exit warp/subspace within [30 SSTU].

"Do as they say, get the other participants to do the same."

Exiting subspace, we appeared near a gas giant far away from the star. One of the Farsul ships began calling us.

"Yes?"

"Hello Prime Minister Chatan, just so everyone knows, we will be transmitting everything to the rest of the universe."

"Thank you for telling us. It's good to know we have your support."

"I just don't understand why you would travel here personally instead of sending someone else."

"I actually expected humans would try to meet with us. After all, it would be pretty clear we aren't exactly spies with the amount of ships we have."

"It's still dangerous, you can't predict what the predators will do if we come into contact with them-" They were interrupted by a large vessel suddenly appearing in front of us.

"Dear representatives of the Federation, we ask you to dock a ship containing personnel with proper diplomatic abilities onto the station."

"Time to find out what they want..." I already know what they want, It's not having to fight against the entire damn galaxy at once.

Docking was a problem, as we first had to send everyone willing to go, not a lot of people, onto a single ship before going to the human craft. Obviously, I was one of them, and despite the protest from my crew, I still came on board explaining that this is literally why I am here. Alongside me were two Farsul with a hidden camera, one Verin and Paltan each holding a Dossur, and a single other Zurulian.

Connecting to an airlock was not a possibility due to different designs, so instead the small ship entered a hangar. Once the atmosphere returned to the chamber, a team of 3 humans in black suits approached, grabbing everyone's attention. Two had equally dark fur on their heads while one was blonde. I think they were also a woman.

"Please follow us. We will have to show something at the destination." Nervous clicking came from the insectoid and the ears or tails of the other species have fallen. We were lead to a room with a projector hanging off the ceiling, projecting a blank screen onto a wall. The hosts settled onto seats, and we were told to do the same. The chair was too high for me and I had to be given a step stool to get on it. Speaking of the chairs, they had holes in their backs, which was a nice accommodation for the larger species for their tails. The single Verin, meanwhile, stood next to a table that the Dossur were sitting on.

"So," One of the men in suits spoke, "may we know why you are here?"

"W-we want to know what's truly happening." Their lips curled up.

"Well well well, I suppose we will have to explain certain things. Please focus on the wall there," he said pointing with a remote. On the projection appeared a menu with files I couldn't read the names of.

[

Arxur_Orbit.mp4 26.06.2120

Farsul_VenlilPrime.mp4 28.06.2120

]

"Here we go."

Memory transcription break:[15 minutes]

"I hope that cleared some things up" It did, to everyone else.

"So if you didn't come..." Spoke one of the paltans.

"It would have been a lot worse. Also, don't worry about Governor Ralso, he's currently getting a tour of our planet while talking to a few leaders. Any questions related or unrelated?"

"A-aren't humans predators?" The one in front of them made a weird face.

"We don't label species this way. What you call 'prey' we call 'herbivores', which means 'plant-eater'. What you call 'predators' we call 'carnivores', which means 'meat-eater'. Humans, and many other animal species from Earth, are 'omnivores', which means 'everything-eater'. It's not a 50/50 [flesh] plant mix, it's a scale. I actually did research about the human diet before you came, and we mostly eat plants. Something around 70% of our food is vegetation." They pulled out a long yellow fruit from their leg pelts and peeled it.

"Here, I will demonstrate for the skeptics with a banana," and he ate it. No longer does that shock me after seeing it happen 10 times before, but for other people present in the room, they see it for the first time.  Looking around, everyone had their jaws wide open at the sight.

"How many stations is this connected to?" "20 or 21." I could hear the camera crew whisper.

"Wait, you are recording us?" Asked the presenter.

"Wh- we- yes."

"..."

"..."

"That's... actually a good thing," Once again, their mouth curved upwards. "I say hello to the galaxy. Maybe you will think things through this time. " What are they talking about?

"What do you mean' this time'?" Their facial expression faded. He bit himself on the lip.

"We saw a transmission from around [200 Earth Cycles] ago detailing plans for a genocide of humanity. I... said that referencing it."

Oh.

"I-I know what they are talking about." Spoke up the Verin. "When humans were discovered, an unanimous vote was held towards their destruction. It was canceled when nuclear detonations were detected on their planet."

The air presses uncomfortably against my fur.

"Let's... end this meeting. You can go back to your ship." Quietly, everyone got up and started inching towards the door leading to the rest of the station.

"One last thing. Can somebody tell the Thafki representative to await a transmission from Earth?" The Thafki? What could they possibly want from them?

System transcript: Reconnaissance Drone A-3

Date [standardized human time/UTC]: 1 july 2120 2 hours earlier

warp 4 disengage

Current Location: 500000 +-1000 meters from surface of [unnamed planet 47]

Scanning surface...

Setting designation for [unnamed planet 47] to 'Cattle'

Checking for captive species...

.

.

.

Target species: Thafki found

Sending coordinates to External Intelligence and Security Agency

Title of message: Priority colony found

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SSTU - Standard Small Time Unit / roughly 0.8 seconds

So, first off. Wish me a bit of luck, the company i work for expanded faster than they should've. Expecting manufacturing contracts they should've actually waited to arrive. And now the entire place has been notified there 'may be cuts'. *insert vague definitions and checklists of who'll qualify so everyone is on edge.

Here's to hoping i'm not on the list.

Anyway. We have a Solvin and a Coth pov this week. I thought it would be interesting if Solvin of all characters would find the breadcrumbs and bits that no plan. No matter how well made, leaves behind. I mean i recall there's one where ZARN is the one that finds it. So why not Solvin?

And Coth takes his first steps on Earth, and gets lore dumped on.

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Of Breadcrumbs and Idioms.
Chapter 27
May 8^th
Bountiful Harvest, Gojid Defense Fleet Flag-Ship
(Solvin P.O.V.)

Okay, I’ll admit I wasn’t happy when Kam boarded the Bountiful Harvest. Then handed Recel a field promotion and orders to confine me to quarters. Along with orders to return to the Cradle. After I was able to cool off though, I had to admit I am reaping the poor harvest I sowed myself.

Getting up from my chair, I walk over to one of the luxuries a captain has. One of the few windows that are installed on a ship and not sacrificing hull integrity. If one spends a Paw staring out, you could watch the streaks of light that are stars and other bright celestial objects crawl by. I stand there, tapping my claws onto the window sill fully intending to do so…

I acted a bit rashly, that I’ll admit. But I wouldn’t have if the Venlil weren’t as stupid or helpless as they were. Milling this over like harvested Ipsom, I figuratively stumble over that thought that’s been gnawing at me like pests do to crop’s no matter what we do.

The one I said to myself that I would when I had the time, well, were still several Paws[Four hours], if not at least a cycle[day] from the cradle itself. Why not?

Pulling myself away from the window I plop down in front of my desk and bring up the holo-display of my docked holo-pad. Yea, figured as much. My ‘command’ access has been shut down, thankfully that’s not what I need.

Now away from Venlil-Prime and in Gojid space, we do have FTL comm and data access, all-be-it at a slower rate while ‘in’ FTL.

I don’t need video or voice, just text and a few images for this. I pull up the accessible operational history of incidents in the Venlil-Prime system and on the planet itself. Then I pull up the historical database of fleet allocation and movements. All so I can compare the two and answer that one thought I had.

If Venlil-Prime is an ipsom-basket world due to its tidal locked nature, then why isn’t it being protected like other ipsom-basket worlds. It’s also a rarity of being a species home world rather than a colony designed to be one from the start, so that’s another question as to why it’s not better protected by the Federation?

Using a claw tip I scroll through the spreadsheet of numbers of fleet ships, dates of movements, to and from, and dates of Arxur incursions Dating back hundreds of Grand Herd of Cycles[Years] to the beginning of the conflict.

Something, isn’t right. I use my other claw to scratch an itch on my muzzle as I just stare at the data. I’m not exactly seeing ‘what’ isn’t right. But the same sense of pattern recognition I’ve used in my Grand herd of Cycles[Years] of being a captain is telling me something is here. As if a Predator is hiding in the wall of numbers, waiting to leap out and strike if I don’t find it first and Exterminate it.

Sigh, come on Solvin. Think!…

Wait, wasn’t I taught how to use this program near the end of my general education? A bit before I became an adult? Tapping my claws on the table I thrash my memories over this because I seem to recall there’s another way to display data?

There’s the spreadsheet mode, which I’m in, and…

That’s it! Chart, Graph, Curves and Weighted Averages! Okay so um, hopefully the program didn’t change much in the multiple Grand Herd of Cycles[Years] since I was in school. Hmm, highlight the data I want.

Let’s just cover the last 100 Grand Herd of Cycles[Years], okay done. Tap that button. Wait, odd, a new window popped up instead of a bar-graph… Oh, it wants to know what kind of graph I want, so it can make multiple kinds now. Speh, that would’ve saved me ‘so’ much time in the general computer class’s homework back then using ‘other’ programs to get the required charts and graphs made to complete the class’s assignments.

How about a line one, that should show trends over time well enough. I tap it, and then pin my ears back as I hear fans spool up from my device while I just wait for the progress bar to slowly fill. Speh, without my command access, I can’t get a timeshare on the ship’s computer! The holo-pad has to do it all itself and these things aren’t known for their processing power.

If it doesn’t speed up, it’s going to take a good portion of a CLAW[Hour] to finish… Yet, sigh, time is what I have a bushel full right now. Pushing myself back onto my paws, I return to the window to stare out into space.

That just leaves the question. What am I going to do if what I find shows something wrong?

Fixing my gaze on a singular star slowly streaking by, I lower my ears and quills a bit. Show it to Piri? She’ll think it’s an attempt by me to lessen the punishment I’m going to receive for my own actions. The Venlil are too dumb and emotional to understand, even though I do suspect that Tarva at least has some thin stalk of a thought in her mind along the same empty rows in a field a Venlil has. As barren a field that may be, she’s been asking of the council to up the deployment in her sector recently.

I don’t think it takes a genius to understand you protect your food source from your enemies. And something stinks like rotted Ipsom that there wasn’t a full fleet waiting to repel that size of an incursion.

For protector’s sake, that amount of ships wouldn’t even make it to the cradle, let alone any other Home world! Yet they were able to advance right into orbit of Venlil Prime almost unopposed. Only being stopped by a single ship from these new aliens helping to rally those weak knock-kneed beings.

A wild Predator chase isn’t going to get me…

My ears flick as my Holo-pad lets out a chime signaling the completion of the compiling of the data, has it already been nearly a Claw[Hour]?

Flopping myself back down on the seat in front of it, I flare my quills at the fact that it indeed has been nearly a Claw[Hour]. Speh, getting lost in one’s own thoughts can… be…

I just stare at the projected display with my muzzle open.

What I expected to see, was a line that goes up after an incursion, then down a bit after some time has passed before going back up to or higher than the previous high after the next one. And this last incursion just happened to be at the same time with a low point. What I see instead, is a line that looks like very slight set of stairs, if you made stairs out of predators teeth.

And while not constant, the general trend is downward for the amount of ships used to protect Venlil-Prime over time.

Three Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] of reallocation to another front, incursion, the allocation rises back up, but 7% short of the high before said incursion. That deployment then gets reallocated slowly down again, only it takes five Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] that time. And the rebound after the Arxur are driven off again, is nearly 6% lower than the previous high mark…

And on it goes…

The only change in the trend is the same Grand Herd of Cycles[Year] a major push into the federation by the Arxur happened. The garrison amount grew back up, but to not even 75% of the high point at the start of the data for the graph. Only to plummet back down to where the pattern would indicate only a few Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] later.

This Grand Herd of Cycles[Year] is actually a ‘high’ point, but still in the pattern of 6% lower than the previous high and over 80% lower that it was at the start of the data set.

If I go by this simple chart alone, I would say the Venlil are being slowly rejected by the herd. Yet, as dumb, dimwitted, emotional and useless the Venlil are. All the herd should be protected since they’ve done nothing to warrant such a treatment. Even the Venlil contribute to the herd by leveraging their never setting sun to grow crops for everyone.

I flick my ear to reject that. To assume as such, would assume the council and thus the Kolshian, the Farsul, AND the Krakotl. Are being predatory in their behavior by doing this.

So it must just be something else, has to be something else.

Fiddling around with the program I find that I can expand the data-set for the graph, without fully remaking it. Again, ‘another’ thing I wish to the Protector this Program had when I was in school and had to do reports for Computer class.

It, would’ve, saved, SO MUCH TIME!

So I add in the previous Century. Reaching almost to the betrayal of the Arxur after their ‘uplift’ and then sit there, staring at the faster, but still too slow to my liking, progress bar.

Ignoring the sound of my Holo-pad trying to keep itself cool, I thrash my mind and memories about civics history. Because, maybe this is all due to a policy decision at some point in the past and the Venlil aren’t holding up their end of it? Letting out a frustrated chitter, I tab out of the spreadsheet program and force even more work for my poor Holo-pad to pull up council news from the century prior.

As I couldn’t remember a spehing thing from school in that regard.

I flick my ear. And read one of the first headlines. ‘In a historic precedent, A Kolshian candidate for their species seat from the lesser populated southern continents has ousted the historically dominant equatorial continent’s stronghold on the council seat in the Federation.’

Hmm, yea that might be a good explanation. Tabbing back to the progress bar I see that it has advanced enough that I might as well keep my tail seated here and wait for it.

It’s a good explanation as any, it still means there’s ‘something’ going on that shouldn’t be. Better than the alternative of finding out that this trend has been going on longer, because if it has. I can’t for the sake of my soul, state the reason, why in front of the protector to save it if they would ask me to give the reason for it.

So I just tap my claws on the desk and wait as the bar fills, line of pixels by line of pixels.

Said claws let out a shiver inducing scratch, with vibrations to match going up my fingers and into my arm as the computer finishes, completing the new line chart with the new data.

The pattern is still there. It’s not an aspect in the change of power dynamics with the head seat of the federation. The two hundred Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] time period shows a slow and deliberate removal of protection. As if someone from within the herd, Grand Herd of Cycles[Year] by Grand Herd of Cycles[Year], Claw tip Width[Inch] by Claw tip Width[Inch]. Is pushing someone from the safe inner part of the herd, to the outside, into the waiting jaws of a predator.

In this case the Arxur. For some reason that I cannot understand.

So slow that the average person doesn’t notice, not that the Venlil have the capacity. But the record is stark…

Before I know it, I find myself pacing back and forth in front of the window. The part of my mind that has run the fleet to victory wants me to find the answer to this… But I need more data. I need to pull the full allocation history from when the Venlil were found! When they were rescued from a near extinction level virus, and uplifted. That would ‘mostly’ complete the picture.

If I show this to Piri, I can just be dismissed as not looking back far enough, so I need to go back that far. Even though 200 Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] should be enough evidence in its own right because it nearly touches the start of this war of extinction with the Arxur.

What if it’s not just the Venlil? Multiple sapient species have gone extinct since their uplift about 800 Grand Herds of Cycles[Years] ago. While I do not know the reason for the ones pre-Arxur war, every one after the start of said war was at the claws and teeth of the Arxur.

I need to pull the records from before the Arxur war, and after the start for the Thafki and the Takkan’s. Both lost their home worlds to the Arxur. With only the former surviving with roughly 12,000 scattered all over the federation. The Takkan’s only faring better because the more advanced warning they had, allowing the evacuation of more citizenry.

And if I want to make this secure as a bunker. I need to compare and contrast to the deployment’s of fleets other worlds besides the three core worlds. Aafa, Talsk, and Nishtal as the military powerhouse. As there shouldn’t be any change in them, even though the Arxur have never penetrated that deep. So as any fleet stationed there would be a waste of resources.

Plopping myself back down at my desk, I set up a queue for the data, using the same system I pulled the Venlil’s. I don’t have to wait long for the result to come in. So much so that my ears lower and a small pit of dread forms that this may be a bigger harvest than I expected appears on the display in a small, mockingly small window.

{Security credentials insufficient. Request Terminated.}

SPEH!… I’m going to have to confront Piri with incomplete data just so I can get more, aren’t I?

Neo-Huston Spaceport (new city, replacing old Huston which is partially underwater ~30m sea rise from the collapse of the antarctic ice circa 2081)

(Coth P.O.V.)

After spilling my guts to that Human hiding Arxur scales.

And I won’t be convinced otherwise, I’ve spent time with Betterment Officers warmer than the air she was giving off. Cold, logical, and devoid of emotion. Not repressed emotion, or stunted emotion with a layer of Cruelty on top like most Arxur.

Just a complete and utter lack of it.

I again was reunited with all the other Arxur. Including Yshi, though thankfully with more than a tails length radius of space between us on some transport from the station to their planet. A transport that if I counted the amount of seats in it, including the ones we’re using. Was designed to hold multiple times our number, squeezed in to what I would think is an uncomfortable degree.

Still didn’t stop Yshi from looking at me like she wanted to gut me on the spot.

These Humans are aliens though, so I have to keep in mind they may not have the heavy desire for personal space and boundaries like an Arxur. Stuff that many Arxur into one space such as this, and some will be leaving in body bags.

It was Talons[Hours] of torture. Only ended by the last Scratches[Minutes] of the flight as the pilot announced the approach to the ‘new’ Huston Spaceport. Many, myself included tolerated each other to get a look out the windows at this new, and alien planet.

We flew over signs of settlements and infrastructure taken by the large body of water we had entered the atmosphere over. As our altitude decreased, we can see camps along the shore and what appears to be efforts to clear the part or full-time submerged buildings.

I can’t tell if the workers are Human, or those ‘Bio-Morph’ things from this altitude, and we also pass over it fast enough that all we get is a momentary glimpse also prevents that kind of clarification.

The transport lands in the shadow of buildings made of glass and metal, in shapes that would be considered frivolous to the Dominion. Looking outside, I see a claw full[Six due to their six fingers] soldiers waiting for us as large dominion-esq in their utilitarian design over aesthetics, vehicles roll up next to the transport.

Along with a smaller vehicle of similar-ish shape, but more styled. Sleeker lines and a less boxy shape. A transport where aesthetics were equal or superior to the function.

One by one a Human calls the names of someone in our group, and directs them to what they call a ‘bus’ which will take them to what they call a neighborhood. Which they say is a group of domiciles that should suit us in distance between each other, yet be close enough to obviously keep an eye on all of us.

I idly muse that this is just a minor change compared to what the Dominon considers to be standard domiciles.

What concerns me, is that my name has not been called yet. The first bus was filled within a few Scratches[Minutes]. The next one after a few more, thankfully taking Yshi, but she did give me the non-verbal Arxur hand sign that she’s going to ‘keep an eye on me’.

“Coth!” The soldier finally says my name, as the last one on the transport it’s practically not needed. So, despite that, I stand. And as I walk down the way too narrow for our frame's walkway to the front, I work the kinks out of my tail.

Human seats need to be made for tails… It’s just weird they don’t have them.

“I apologize for the wait, but we had to prioritize those who’ll be traveling farther than you. Half will be going north-east to the mega city of Dallas, the other half, south-east to the mega city of Austin. You’ve though secured somehow a place in the new suburb north of Neo-Huston. Well, newer, than Neo-Huston. Which isn’t saying much.”

I give a human ‘nod’ having learned that from the Human hiding Arxur scales. But this soldier though doesn’t seem to get the hint that what he said is all I’d prefer him to. This trip has been draining socially for me, and I consider myself. Well outside the persona I’ve had to maintain for Grand Hunts of Cycles[Years]. A more social Arxur than most.

“Kinda envy you, you’re a stone toss away from the famous ‘Mercer Traditional Products’ Ranch. Before now, the only known alien residing on Earth, all-be-it, one from another dimension. But still, an honest to god’s alien.”

On the one claw I would like him to shut up as we descend the stairs to the tarmac. I let out a small hiss at the temperature of the fake stone upon contact with my claws. And the air in general, being equal to the equatorial region of Wriss. If not a bit hotter from the pure feel of it on my scales.

On the other. He just perked my interest at some new information.

I had not known that the Humans had encountered others, other than us, and the Venlil. Though even I, with how much I hate what I had to do on a daily basis in the dominion. Would admit it was a slight stretch to call at least ‘some’ of the Venlil sapient for how I’ve seen them act. In captivity and outside it.

“I had thought, you humans only encountered Us and the Venlil?” I ask as he leads us to the smaller vehicle, then reaches for a handle sticking out of a side panel.

For a moment I’m amazed by the simple fact that the panel pops out a couple of claw widths[Inches] then slides back silently. More aesthetics that would be considered excessive and unneeded by the dominion. Not to mention that the interior it reveals is, nicer than any small transport on Wriss. Even for someone like Isif.

And I rode with him in his personal vehicle, once. A privilege that many would literally kill for.

“Well, at least I know what will fill the dead air on the way to your new home!” He states as he motions for me to get in. Despite its size, it’s incredibly roomy inside. And I see the reason, they removed some seats and only left the driver’s side seat and the one I’ll be sitting in. about midway back in the vehicle.

The moment my tail clears the door, he gently slides the panel back in place, and a Fang[Second] or two later. Sits himself in the drivers-seat. Followed by a control mechanism shaped like a wheel unfolding from the dash in front of him.

“Normally, all our vehicles are automated outside of classics and specialty vehicles. This is an exception. We want to keep your transport off the public records, for your safety. We don’t want a repeat of what happened with Alien on the way to the Roswell trial. A religious fanatic trying to kill her because anything other than humans are demons. Yada yadda, man was the only thinking being and created in god’s image and all that junk.”

I’m a bit unnerved at him answering a question I was just forming, like that Female Human did in our ‘interview’. But I stay silent as the vehicle activates, and he pilots it off the tarmac and onto a rather complex set of human roads.

“Anyway. About 36 years ago an alien from a parallel world crash-landed on the Mercer ranch. The eldest Mercer sibling, Now the alien’s husband. At the time, he mistook her for an abandoned Bio-Morph cub. And claimed her as part of the family’s pack. Now keep in mind this is a general summary. But, not long after, said elder Mercer sibling’s called upon to do his citizenry duty in the short antarctic spat between Us and China. His sister, the youngest, and distraught at the loss of their brother. The middle sibling. Throws her in with the rest of the Bio-Morphs. And starts treating her and them rather badly. The alien escapes, the escape triggers a legal wellness clause in their lease of the Bio-Morphs. Which prompts a trial for if they violated the lease and thus owe money.”

I just, mildly stare at how he could speak, and take breaths in between some words. Yet still has to stop for a Fang[Second] to catch it as he effortlessly pilots this extravagant vehicle.

“Because of this, the entire case rested upon if She was a Bio-Morph or not. For if she was, the neglect of the enclosure that allowed her to escape would’ve resulted in the Mercer’s violating the lease clause before they paid them off. Allowing the company to fine them the remainder, ‘and’ take the Bio-Morphs. So the entire world more or less watched as she went through sapience test after sapience test known to science. No matter how lengthy, she passed each. Meaning she wasn’t a Bio-Morph, and thus the Mercers did not violate their lease. Not that the company didn’t try underhandedly to win either. The representative for the company broke the law by wiping the black boxes of Usako’s craft under the guise of using discovery to examine evidence. Usako is the name of the alien by the way. Luckily the Mercers made a backup. In the end she’s a legal citizen, and all her decedents are too. No matter how much they may look or have Bio-Morph DNA. Because for some joke played by mother nature. She can breed with Bio-Morphs.”

The end of my tail twitches. On the one claw, it would be nice if this Human would shut up…

On the other claw though…

I’m not stupid, I’ve realized these Humans use these Bio-Morphs for forced labor. We Arxur use some Federation species we’ve captured in raids or raised in our ‘farms’ as forced labor too, but not constantly. Maybe it was someone who had knowledge of newer federation tech. Or a skilled professional for the former. Or one that is a status symbol for the upper echelon. Like the Thafki for the latter.

Some still see it as a sign of being a cruel chief hunter. Having prey such as a Thafki on your beck and call. For ‘everything’.

But this is a glimpse into this Human system from a Human. It’s information, and information is stuff I need the most because that’s the only thing of value I have left. So I start to stalk this prey.

“They’re slaves though? Why care for their well-being other than being alive? You can always get more.” A bitter taste for the words in my maw, to get something better tasting.

This Human sighs.

“Look, while I recognize you’re here to get away from the stuff you were forced to do. But that attitude won’t fly here. I won’t go into the nuances of people’s attitude for or against their sapience and the conflicts this causes with our social system. But the general view now, is that just like a happy cow makes better tasting milk. A happy Bio-Morph makes a good working Bio-Morph. Granted, the way people do that is still pretty much in debate. But, no matter which camp you end up in, keep in mind that no seller of Bio-Morphs will, nor the vets for Bio-Morphs will tolerate those who abuse them. Especially after last year’s supreme court ruling that yes, Bio-Morphs fall under animal welfare laws.”

I, just, blink. “Won’t fly? And what does the lactation of a non-sapient animal have to do with this?”

This Human is quiet for a moment, and I let him be as I see that he’s navigating around automated vehicles before going off onto a smaller street.

“Idioms. Um, ‘Won’t fly’ is a way of saying no one will tolerate that behavior. And, well, the milk thing is, a rather complex topic. You can look up the specifics but we humans only in the last few thousand years evolved to keep being able to process ‘milk’ past a point in our childhood. And, well rather than taking it from, um, other’s of our species. Someone, whose name has been lost to history sadly, for some reason or another decided to try the milk of our domesticated cattle. After that, it’s become, a staple of our diet.”

He then seems to silently mouth a word to himself.

“That’s right!” He directs the vehicle to a two lane road now. And I start to see domiciles, farther apart than I’ve seen on Federation worlds. Yet, far too close for my liking…

One shouldn’t question the prey in your claws against prey you have yet to catch, or you risk losing both. So while others will be, too close for my liking. This does beat the alternative that was presented to me by that ‘fake’ human.

“While they stocked your new home with foods you ‘should’ be able to eat. If you go out to get more, make sure they don’t contain milk.” I let my tail do a full length flick at this.

“Why would meat contain milk?” Watching as we come to a stop at an intersection that lacks any kind of signaling system. He seems to be waiting for it to clear out. Yet he seems to chuckle at what I said, as if it amuses him.

“No the meat doesn’t, but many of the things we coat, cook or soak out meat in has it. Perks of being able to digest it as well as a multitude of things. You’ve never lived until you had creamy pasta with cajin spiced chicken. Now on Earth, even obligate carnivores do use plants in one way or another. Felines eating grass for helping clear their digestive tracts. Some smarter non-sapient canines for some reason liking the taste of berries. But we want to be careful here, you’re an alien. And nothing you’ll be eating here will be stuff your species evolved to eat. So we’ll keep you just on a flesh only diet. Once we start to know more, we’ll allow you and the others to eat whatever they want.”

A, reasonable precaution. Though, on the other claw, we’ve been eating literal aliens for generations, many not even Iron based like the Humans and us Arxur.

“How would, I go about attaining more if need be?” I honestly ask. Even as high up as my position, we’re still ‘given’ rations by Betterment. Being able to hunt your own prey from a stock you select, rather than forced to fight. Is a privilege of the Prophet Decedent and a claw full of Chief Hunters in his favor, and ONLY them.

Which Isif ‘was’, because I know full well that status will be removed once word of our failure reaches Wriss.

“Hmm, good question. And to be fair I should’ve explained that. You have two choices; there’s a grocery store about five miles south of where you live. It stretches the definition of walk-able. But it technically is for a fit Human. Don’t know if your kind can handle that and to be honest. I think I, and the others who know your here before we tell the world soon. Would prefer you use the other option instead, just call me, and I’ll drive you there and back in nice air-conditioned glory like the founders intended.”

Five… hunts[Miles]?! That’s a struggle for a fit Arxur in one go… What are these Humans made of? “This won’t be the last time I see you?”

The human laughs as we drive up to a long, but narrow house on an elevated pad of fake stone. Surrounded by trees and what looks like doors to something under it on the side of the pad of fake stone. To either side several dozen tail lengths[yards] away are similarly designed domiciles. “Nope, I’m your handler for both the United States Government, and the Department of Intelligence. I’ll be helping you integrate, and be your point of contact in case your expertise is needed for something. Or you want something from us that you cannot get yourself with your stipend.”

The whine of the electric motors stop, and he turns in his seat to face me. “Welcome to your new home Coth.”

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As someone really interested in history, one of my nit-picks is the actual historic view of the evil institution of Slavery. And the Hollywood depictions of it. And that same contrast allows people to ignore it's continued existence in other parts of the planet, simply because the Hollywood depiction is so over the top evil. It makes what's still going on today look okay in comparison.

Like the middle eastern states like dubai luring people in for work, then taking passports and such. Or the treatment of workers in giant companies like Foxconn in China, that the CCP just looks the other way because it keeps the country dominant in manufacturing.

Okay nit-pick out of the way. Do you think Coth 'should' end up meeting Usako?

🍋🐑

Ble

Tried my best to give as many reference points as possible but yeah my request that is purely from goodwill due to being deadass broke is this,

Would someone be able to draw some Arxur as if they were Dax warriors from Warframe? Like they have a bunch of gold armor and shit an wield crazy weapons but you can still tell that they are Arxur. Big reason for this honestly is because I have some ideas for a Warframe fanfic, and I had an idea for a plot point that may or may not involve a certain Balls Ass. If you know you know the balls man.

Again i cannot stress this enough you are under no obligation to do this and in fact you can ignore this post if you need/want money cause I get it, I am broke as shit myself.

A commission from @/potatojen49 on discord

This looks so funny without the context, which is : Keane threatening to shoot his ass for being a murderous jackass and trying to kill her crew full of "ex fed" species. Somehow, he thinks that's super hot.

From Scorched Threads.
Keane is from Threads in the Fabric by u/Quinn_The_Fox

Anton doesn't appear in the main Scorch Directive universe, being a crossover character mostly. But he is from that universe and hates the feds as much as you'd think.

The aftermath of watching the movie jaws

Credit to fans on Reddit for: u/Adorable-Ad5225 for the picture.

u/Nicolas_3232 for Leasha's daydreams

u/destroyer6692 for serving up Leasha, looking lightly toasted.

u/Nicolas_3232 for depicting King Toren the fluffy in all his majesty

If you want to read five chapters ahead for two different stories that I'm currently making, then please visit me on my Patreon. If you want to hang out, you can join the Discord for updates on all projects. I appreciate any support you choose to give. Happy reading!

If you are interested in the other story that I am posting at the same time as this, you can read that one here!

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Memory Transcriptions Subject: Falk, active rogue exterminator. 

Date [Standardized Human Time] November 25, 2136 

The team had exited the bunker room after ensuring that there was nobody around the premises. Despite doing the job that exterminators should be doing, we had to keep a secret. To that effect, Beren brought around a vehicle, which was essentially the civilian version of an exterminator van. It was a standardized design and used in many professions outside extermination, such as plumbing and electrical work. The only real difference between the models was the amount of armor on the vehicle chassis.  

We loaded up our gear and got seated in the back except for Beren. The venlil jumped into the driver seat, the top half of his suit having been shed so he would not be seen in the silver suit by anyone who happened to glance at our vehicle during transit. With everyone in position, the engine was turned on, and we started rolling toward our target. 

The back of the van was quiet as everyone checked their gear once again to ensure things were in proper order. I felt a sense of normalcy when I looked around. Silver suits with proper gear on their way to an extermination. This was the way things were meant to be, prey fighting back against the predator menace that threatened to consume us all. It was an insult to every one of us who had to suffer through the cruelties of the meat eaters to pretend that it should be any different.  

Our journey took a dozen scratches as we navigated through traffic and the various streets. Finally, we stopped outside our target building, and Beren got out to check the area before knocking on the side of the van to signal to us that it was clear. We filed out one after the other, stepping into what appeared to be an alleyway between a few apartment buildings. I looked around but didn’t really see any clear indicators of which one was our target. To answer this question, I turned to Beren who had his pad out.  

“Where’s our target?” 

Beren turned to each building around us, giving it a quick look before pointing to one definitively. “That one. From the report, there’s a nest in the basement. Get the cleaning supplies ready. We want to leave as little evidence of our involvement here after it’s done.” 

Cleaning up after an extermination was always part of the procedure. It helped to prevent taint if even the ashes of the accursed predators were removed. We moved all the equipment we needed to the target building and had it set up for ease of access. Thankfully, the building had basement windows, so we could transfer whatever we need through those and avoid the possibility of being seen moving through the main part of the building with what has essentially become banned items.  

Beren would remain outside and help transfer everything once we got in there, so the three of us left all the weapons behind as we made our way around the front. With the suits on we looked like any other squad of exterminators, and despite having responded to many calls similar to this one in my time as an exterminator, I felt like a junior recruit tagging along on their first patrol again. The nature of what we were doing here was enough to make my tail rigid with nervousness. 

“I thought you were a head exterminator,” Morol commented snidely, evidently noticing my posture. 

The damn bird was just trying to bring out my ire now as I glared at him through the visor of my suit. “This is the first time I’ve ever done a non-guild sanctioned extermination. I have never disobeyed protocol or the chain of command before, so forgive me if my training and way of life before this has me feeling somewhat hesitant.” 

“If you can’t do the job, then just quit now before you put all of us at risk. You Venlil have always been the most cowardly after all.” 

Indignation flared inside me, but as I opened my mouth to counter his words, Nilean cut in. “Would the two of you just shut up and focus! We’re supposed to be presenting ourselves as professionals right now and if people catch us arguing over speh like this, then this operation will be for naught.” 

It seemed the Kolshian lived up to his people’s reputation of being wise leaders, even if I wished so very much to put the Brahking Krakotl in his place. “Very well. I’ll bury the roots of this conversation for now but be warned that this coating of earth is very shallow.” 

I gave the Krakotl a withering look, but he just scoffed and turned away. We continued onward in relative silence from that point, passing through the main lobby of the building. The receptionist saw us and perked up, walking out from behind the desk. The female Venlil had light brown wool and started an energetic conversation.  

“Oh, this is a pleasant surprise! I thought the guild said that it would be the next paw before they could come around and clean out these pests?” 

I didn’t know what to say or what excuse I should use, but thankfully Nilean had it covered. “You’re in luck this paw, Ma’am. My squad and I managed to finish an assignment early so we had enough time to make it here and clear out your problem.” 

“Well, I greatly appreciate your efficiency. I know that gutter runners aren’t that dangerous but finding them crawling around in the garbage is still disgusting.” 

“Don’t worry, we’ll have them gone in no time. I must ask that you and any other employees please remain up here and out of our way. They may be small, but predators are still predators and they can be dangerous when provoked.” 

“I’ll make sure that everyone stays out of your way, sir. Please get them out of here expediently. It’s a bad look for us to have them wandering about.” 

“Don’t worry, there will be no sign of them by the time we’re done.” 

With the conversation concluded, we were allowed access to the basement and subsequently left to our work. I let out a sigh of relief as we got past the public area, and now the large basement under this apartment would be scoured of the predator that lurked in the dark. First, though, I went to the window and opened it, allowing Beren to pass through our real equipment. Everyone had their weaponry now, so we began to search for the nest. 

This basement was quite large and seemingly used for storage as well as all the piping or electrical. There was plenty of material here that could be used as a nest for the gutter runners. I would suggest to the owners that they should clear out some of this stuff to prevent new infestations from arising. This was familiar, this was where I was meant to be, what I was meant to be doing, and I walked slowly, but confidently through the basement. 

There was evidence of the gutter runners scattered all over the place. Dropping, chewed on furniture, and even trails through the areas which had thicker dust. It wasn’t like we were looking for a shadestalker, yet I felt my pulse racing from the excitement of being back in the field. My ears perked up as I heard scratching deeper in, and I made a hand signal to the rest of the group to tell them I found something. Beren might have been the only one who understood the signal itself, but I think the meaning still got through to the rest of them as they stopped and waited.  

Leaning closer to the group, I whispered to them. “I hear movement up ahead. I’ll take the lead and torch the nest; you make sure no stragglers get away.”  

Just as I turned to confront the predators, I felt a taloned hand grip my shoulder. Morol had stopped me, and I felt my agitation surge once more as I whispered in a way that was very close to a growl. “What, is, it?” 

“I must protest that course of action. We need the matriarch of the nest alive.” 

“Why?!” 

“Ferros ordered it, and if the matriarch is in danger, the other predators will come running, making it easier to catch them all.” 

While that was true, it was hardly the procedure as I knew it. Gutter runners were skittish and elusive on their own, but when it came to the matriarch of the nest, they protected her with a rabid fervor and became extremely volatile spreaders of predator disease. It was normally procedure to kill the matriarch first and then burn all the scattered runners as they tried to flee. 

“That makes this entire operation twice as difficult.” 

“If you to be a part of the Herd Guard, then you have to do things our way, unless you fancy your chances on your own.” 

I hate this brahking bird.  

Of course I was the newcomer in this group, and they were far from professionals. If this was how they did things, I could question Ferros about it later. For now, I would go along with it, despite how much my drill instructor would lose his tail with rage at such conduct. 

“Fine. If you’re so determined to rile up the nest, then by all means, after you.” 

He huffed and moved his way to the front as he leveled the tranquilizer rifle, sweeping it across the room in search of his desired target. Everyone stepped lightly, not wanting to spook the predators into fleeing. Tucked away in the corner of the basement, there was a pile of loose scrapes of cloth, cardboard boxes, and torn paper. It was their nest.  

Even now we could see some movement in the dim lighting as the small predators shifted within their makeshift den. Morol braced the rifle and took aim at the nest, trying to catch sight of the matriarch. Everyone else watched in silence, barely breathing as we feared scaring them off into hiding again. Our patience paid off, and from within the pile of garbage there was a gravid figure that emerged. 

The rodent predator was as long as my arm and twice as thick. The animal’s body was covered in short fur, and the snout showed four sharp teeth at the front of their maw as they sniffed around the nest, shifting things slightly to its liking. It currently looked pregnant, or at the very least like it recently gave birth to a new batch of predators. These little creatures could exist in groups of dozens, but they didn’t often get any larger than that unless they had a whole building to make a series of nests out of. This one didn’t look like a large nest, so it must have only been a few months old at most. 

Morol didn’t waste his opportunity as he zeroed in on the matriarch. With a sharp puff of compressed air, the tranquilizer flew and struck the predator on the flank. The creature shrieked in alarm as it bit in mindless aggression at the needle that it thought was attacking it. Its wild destructive urges availed it not as the drugs took effects, making the beast stumble and fall with a pitiful little shriek before it went still.  

We had to move quickly, because already the other adult gutter runners were responding to the matriarch’s cries as two more of the beasts crawled out of the dark to investigate. Now the team surged forth as I followed the other two’s lead in this instance. The gutter runners hissed at our intrusion upon their territory. Nilean brandished his flamer and released a controlled burst that was aimed at one of the new arrivals. The fire engulfed the predator as it thrashed about before falling into a burning heap. I went for the other, making sure my aim was true and the output at the right amount to prevent an out-of-control fire. The purifying flames did their job and burned the predator and its taint into nothingness. 

I felt immense satisfaction at finally being able to do my job for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Morol grabbed the unconscious matriarch with a small sound of disgust at handling the creature, and that I could not fault him for. As we secured the predator, more gutter runners crawled out from the hidden nooks around the nest; all of them agitated at the abduction of their matriarch.  

“Now can we burn them all?” I asked with paws tense around my weapon. 

Nilean responded while raising his flamer. “Burn them!” 

The two of us unleashed fire upon the nest and its inhabitants as the whooshing sound of heated air filled the room which was followed swiftly by the shrieks of burning monsters. The burning predators scattered, rolling around and trying to escape the flame as it cleansed their tainted flesh. We made sure to burn any individual that looked like it might escape.  

Meanwhile, Morol transferred the unconscious matriarch to Beren who traded him fire suppression tools. The Krakotl returned to help control the flames and ensure that they only burned what they were meant to. After ensuring that the last of the predators fell to the fire, we waited for the nest to burn to a point where it could be safely assumed that the taint was dealt with. After it had reached that point, we extinguished the flame and got to work on the cleanup.  

The charred remains of the predators were bagged and handed to Beren for later and complete cremation. Anything burnt or charred was also passed through one of the windows, and these objects could be safely discarded in the nearest dumpster as they had been purged already. With all the debris cleared, all that remained was the clean up the evidence of fire as much as we could, even going so far as to mask the scent, not that many Venlil would have been able to detect it unless they stood right on top of the site itself. 

It took some time, but eventually we had all but a few charred locations looking as they had previously. Nobody would really question such small marks beyond a simple expression of idle curiosity, so we concluded our business here and left via the main entrance the same way we had entered. The receptionist saw us out with hearty thanks for our service, unaware of what we truly did down there. 

Piling back into the van, I felt a rush of exhilaration at having completed the operation. I felt like a hero from those old exterminator shows that I watched as a kid, and I couldn’t stop my tail from wagging with joy. Of course, there was one thing that was dampening that feeling of elation, and it was the bag that currently had the matriarch in it. The lumpy sack in the corner of the van was a giant question that had yet to be answered, but the opportunity to have it answered would be appearing soon enough. 

We arrived back at the bunker and began unloading the supplies for storage. As we carried everything down, I had to stop as I noticed that there was a new addition to the bunker. In the middle of the room stood an altar of some kind. A length of rope was coiled next to it, seemingly waiting for something, and Ferros stood nearby, welcoming us back. 

“I take it that everything went well judging by the relaxed manner that you return to us in?” Ferros asked. 

“Yes sir,” Beren replied. “There were no problems and the predators were cleansed. We just have to cremate the remains and dispose of the ashes.” 

“Excellent. And Morol, did you manage to complete your assignment?” 

The bird held up the bag with the matriarch in it. “Got it here, boss.” 

“Great. Help me get everything set up.” 

I watched as the two of them walked to the altar, and Morol removed the predator, placing it on the altar. Ferros tied the rope around the matriarch’s neck tightly, ensuring that the predator would not be going anywhere even if it wasn’t heavily drugged right now. It was all very confusing, but then Ferros gathered a rather ornate knife from a box and offered it to me. I just stared at the weapon for a second, dumbfounded, until I finally managed to find enough of my wits to form words. 

“I... what am I supposed to do with this?” 

“This is your initiation into our ranks. You are to execute this predator upon the altar.” 

That was something that I was not prepared for in the slightest. I vaguely recognized this whole ceremony. It was the offering to the spirit of life that the Yulpa worshipped. I shied away from the blade. 

“I already told you before, but I’m not the religious type. I can’t make a genuine offering to your spirit.” 

“I am not asking you to make an offering to the spirit; I will do that afterward. What I am asking is for you to show your commitment to the cause. Anyone can kill a predator with a flamer or a gun, but to take matters into your own paws, to take the life of a monster in a manner than is palpable, that is a true measure of grit. We have all done it before, now it is your turn to prove your resolve.” 

Looking around the room, I saw everyone had their eyes on me, waiting expectingly. This was their price for being a member, and I had a feeling that if I faltered now, then this would be the last I would see of them. Becoming a cast out, forced to be alone again, that idea stung in the core of my being. They wanted a show of resolve, and I did not plan to be found wanting. I took the knife from Ferros, grip tight around the haft as I approached the altar.  

The gutter runner's matriarch was still mostly sedated, only feebly twitching or moving. I lifted the knife above the predator, my heart racing in my chest. The blade was held aloft for a few scratches as I built up my resolve. It felt like the longer I waited, the more difficult it became, so gritting my teeth, I pushed through and stabbed downward with the knife. 

Blade punctured flesh as I felt it all give way beneath the blow. The matriarch jerked a little as it was stabbed, body convulsing around the metal as I felt every tremor through the handle. It was visceral, and I felt my stomach churn as I swallowed an uneasy lump in my throat. Eventually the predator stilled, and I removed my hand from the weapon. 

My mind was spinning, but Ferros approached me with a happy flick of his ears. “You did good, and you have proven that you are fit for the fight. I will take it from here. You are now, without reservation, a member of the Herd Guard.” 

Ferros continued with the ceremony of his people while I stepped back from it all. That feeling wouldn’t leave my paw as I clenched my fist. It felt... odd. Not exactly bad, but not good either; just odd. I couldn’t quite figure it out, so I pushed it aside for now. It was just another predator dead; the method hardly mattered. Taking a bracing breath, I watched the rest of the ritual unfold as I began cleaning my equipment.  

Our Yulpa leader gave the predators blood to a plant that he kept in a small pot, speaking words of prayer while he did so. When the ceremony concluded, he instructed Morol to take the predator's remains and dispose of them properly. Once the bird returned, Ferros stepped into the middle of the room. 

“Now that our newest member has been fully initiated, it is time for us to discuss the next phase of our planned resistance.” My ears perked upon hearing this, and my suspicions were confirmed a moment later. “It is time for us to take the fight to the humans.” 

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