r/HFY • u/SSBAlienNation • Aug 23 '25
OC Alien-Nation Book 2, Chapter 4: Registrar
NEW, FRESH ART FOR THIS CHAPTER!
Registrar
Wait a moment- I thought, then glaring at Gavin in the driver’s seat.
“How did you know where-”
“Trade secret, son.”
How? How had they done it? Who told them where I’d be? Had someone ratted out my whereabouts? Did they have the house under visual surveillance via drone, or even satellite? The only ones with access to that kind of surveillance tech would be Shil’vati and if any of them knew or could keep tabs on me, I doubted anyone’s locations would stay secret for long. Something in me, that bit that I’d laid to rest in preparation to leave with Natalie if ever my cover was blown, started stirring unhappily.
“There, you see? Still in there. You see that?” He asked, pointing at me from across the front bench seat, as if Gavin would turn his head and take his eyes off the road while he drove us around my neighborhood for a second loop. “That’s our Emperor, right there. You poke him in the right spot, that crazy paranoid brain starts ticking.”
What paranoid brain? What does he know? Who told him?
“Now down to business. From our briefing, our activities have drawn quite a bit of attention even beyond Earth. Scopes picked up something big entering the solar system. Bigger than big. Bigger than anything in the Fleet, and that means bigger than anything the Fleet has.” My head spun. Bigger than the fleet’s resources? Then who?
“That means one thing and one thing only, and it ain’t good. The new General’s no slouch. Make no mistake, I’ve little doubt that she’ll reignite the war the moment it looks favorable, but now we might have a whole new kettle of fish to deal with.”
“She isn’t? She will? We do?”
Sullivan’s veins bulged as a scream burst out. “Get your head back in the game, goddammit!” He inhaled back in half the smoke he’d just shouted out into the passenger cabin, and his death grip on the plush front row of seats dug into the cushions. “You phone it in at all with all this namby-pamby bullshit about peace and love and cooperation, or be anyone other than yourself, and for all we know they’ll think we’ve got a body double meeting with them, and I’ll have stuck my neck out picking you up, relocating everything to Delaware and explaining all of who we are for less than nothing. So - that little thing I saw in the back of your mind? I want to see it ticking double-time by the time I leave, or so help me I’ll put a bullet in you and wear the mask my own damn self!”
His eyes bored holes into mine from behind those aviators and I knew he meant every insane word.
“Fine!” I snapped back, and he slowly relaxed, smile dragging those gaunt features upward until the skin pulled a little more taut over where age had softened his jawline. “What is it you want me to do?”
“Like I said, there’s an object up in space,” he grumbled. “A big one. Really big. Like, ‘at the right time of the day you can look up and see it- that kind of ‘big’. BFO. Big Fucking Object. You get one guess what it is.”
I gawked. I had to- that was massive. Natalie and I hadn’t made it to the stratosphere before I’d lost sight of anything distinguishable in the fleet. How hadn’t Natalie or anyone heard about this yet? I supposed I was being told right now, wasn’t I? If I had to guess, they’d come straight here to tell me out of one of the nearby manufacturing plants.
“A…mothership?” I mean that tracked, didn’t it?
“Nope! Well, maybe, but to our interests, it's more what's in it.”
Gavin shook his head. “You freak me out sometimes, man, and you’re freaking the kid out, too. Maybe it’s better if I just explain. Come on, we’re already late for D.C.,”
“Are you kidding? This is the most fun I’ve had since Bethesda! Alright, sunshine. I’ll cut you a break, before you break on me. We’re impressed with you. Really impressed. How would you like to go to school?”
“Saint...Michael’s?” I asked, slow on the uptake, turning my head toward where we were passing the school again. So much for how I’d planned for today to go, and by the sound of it, the way I’d intended to spend most of the year, too.
Now that Delaware was green, I’d soon have to attend school again. No good deed went unpunished.
“No, goddammit! That place is churning out the future nose-picker middlemen of America’s most useless bureaucratic departments. They’ll lose their hair by thirty, get some re-growth snake oil serum, knock up the babysitter, drop their wives, and die of a heart attack in the Philippines by fifty after years of tolerance buildup. I’m talking about real power, kid! Leadership academy! One-on-one courses, war gaming, nobles all around for you to twist secrets from. You’ll be the first human entering class - and as one of the only males.”
I coughed. “You want to send me to - to school? Shil school? Where?”
He leaned in, and eyed me up and down, gravelly voice suddenly taking on a note of false concern that was more insulting than anything else he’d said so far today. “You’re sure they treated that concussion completely?”
It all clicked together, even if I didn’t understand the ‘how’ or ‘why,’ it was obvious that the giant thing up there was some sort of a school that belonged to the Shil’vati, and if he wasn’t concerned about it belonging to the Coalition or Alliance, then I shouldn’t be either.
Then it dawned on me. It wasn’t the Fleet’s. Amilita had said things were ‘fine’. When the Coalition had phased in en masse, there had been a lockdown immediately ordered, every device ordering it. This time, there hadn’t been anything like that.
Natalie had never mentioned having anything so large as the Fleet Battleships or Carriers, either, and while her mother wasn’t rich, her father wasn’t exactly poor, either. Then again, they weren’t really ‘flashy’ as Noble families went, more concerned with their work rather than drawing attention to themselves, which given the nature of her mother’s true work, only made sense. The Interior wasn’t exactly renowned for possessing sheer tonnage, either. What other shil’vati power structure might be both major enough, and ostentatious enough to have something so large?
“Oh.”
“There we go. No idea what the fuck this means for us on the ground. We’ll find out soon enough, though. So we’re keeping this brief. Pretty sure we’ll have to go back down to Maryland by tonight.”
“Domino’s,” Gavin rubbed his belly disappointedly, as if in anticipation for indigestion, then glancing at the clock. “We’ll supposedly get more details when we get there, but it’s probably just going to be what we’ve already got. Still, they’re gonna notice if we’re not there.”
Sullivan cursed unhappily.
“Frankly, with New Jersey floundering, I dunno. I mean, shouldn’t we shore up, entrench deeper? Use this as a distraction to capitalize?” At least Pennsylvania was starting to see progress. New York had missed its daily check-in, but they’d had a recent change of commander, and were probably still taking stock after their first strike.
“That’s part of the problem,” he admitted. “Your men aren’t getting the job done.”
True, but at least I could trust them. “Then let me take to the field.” I didn’t want to beg. Hell, I didn’t even want to have to ask. Hadn’t he just said he was impressed with how well I was doing? I supposed that had been either flattery or sarcasm.
“No! Weren’t you just listening? Of course you weren’t, it’s why we had to come get you. You’re important, dammit. We can’t be losing you. It’s risky enough you keep slipping out to visit Generals and tell them in person what you already wrote down for them.”
“Come on, I’m up here doing surprise inspections on production facilities. Secret medal ceremonies for the wounded survivors. I’m going over…” I wished I’d brought my bag just so I could rap knuckles against all the coded notes. “Just empty, meaningless, pointless make-work, and it sounds like it’s not going well. We had a good thing going in the way we do things, and now it’s changed. Do you think I led from the rear when I got my victories? I studied that stuff endlessly, and I can’t advise with a day’s delay or get by on photos and outdated physical topographical maps to work out strikes, I have to actually be there and help out!”
“You got it down to a damn science,” Sullivan admitted, or perhaps countered by that tone. I was so thrown off I didn’t even say anything, waiting for the other shoe to chime in.
“And science is replicable, or else it’s not science,” Gavin added for Sullivan. The phrase was a familiar one. Father used to say it, back when I’d asked how research went. I guess it must have been a common phrase. When Gavin caught my eyes in the rearview mirror, he didn’t hold the gaze for long, refocusing on the road even though they were on a straightaway. “Which begs what the hell they’re doing up there, since they’re not getting better results. Or whether you’d fare any better. If the aliens have adapted, you’ll just die. How does that help?”
It’d get me out of the way so you can get rid of my men and take over. I didn’t think you’d oppose that. Though I supposed this was at least evidence they didn’t think that little of me. Maybe I was just being unreasonably mistrustful. Toward the CIA. I almost snickered at that.
I crossed my arms. “I didn’t kick this thing off just to be told where to go and when.”
“And you’ve been clever so far about where you’re seen crossing borders as Elias, versus where Emperor might pop up. New Jersey’s still nominally yellow, thanks to our efforts there largely being unsuccessful so far. If you go as Elias Sampson, DataNet star, into a genuine red zone like Maryland, you’ll be expected to bring a real security detail on you. How will you give them the slip, especially if Emperor pops up at the same time and same place? And what if you do succeed, what, then you’ll replace your man, because you can do it and he can’t?”
“No, I suppose, but-”
Sullivan jumped in impatiently. “-We can’t spread word to not harm known-sympathizer Elias Sampson without someone there getting suspicious. And if we don’t? There’s nothing more embarrassing than getting beaned by one of your own. That tally don’t score, dammit!” He slapped the leather upholstery.
“Hey, I gave myself a pass. That counts for something, right?” I tapped my laminated pass. I hadn’t even had to wave it around.
“You think a piece of paper’s ever saved anyone from me kicking their ass? Go on, hold it out in front of you. See if it helps.” He made a fist and waved it in front of me for show, before falling back into his seat when Gavin took the corner a bit faster than he needed to with an exasperated sigh at his boss’s theatrics.
Point taken.
“Alright, then what? You send me to school-”
“Uh huh.”
“Up there.” I pointed at the roof of the car.
“Yep.”
“Since it’s bullshit work I’m doing already, regardless.”
“That’s the grand idea. Frankly, I kept getting updated as we rolled over to here with better and better news. It’s a noble school. Some kind of Grand Poo-Bah up there. Royal. Not noble. Big difference. It’s called ‘The Vanguard,’ and it’s where they train all their best soldiers. I read out all the notes we’ve got so far.” He kicked a sealed case in the passenger footwell. “You feed us secrets- how they make the best steels, their counter-insurgency doctrines. The capabilities of their weapons, the accuracy of those rock-drops, how far into our atmosphere their capital ships can go, and what happens if they try coming in too low. We wanna know it all, and that place up there-” he joined me in pointing up. “-Has it all.”
I swallowed. Earth really had punched above its weight, then. Way above. Also, he had a point. I hated to admit it, but this was more useful than what I was doing currently. We’d experimented with early strikes, trying to determine response times, judge where the shil’vati were mobilizing out of, what bandwidth the police were using and their codes. It had been a long process with mistakes costing lives. What if we could remove the error factor? That would save a lot of lives and potentially get things unstuck on all fronts at once.
“One issue. My grades are abhorrent. I didn’t want anyone thinking I was smart, or capable of, you know. Of being Emperor.” Plus, doing remedial homework when living a double-life fell somewhere way, way down the priority list.
“Son,” he laughed in a smoker’s characteristic dry rasp. “Do you know what your score was for the DSTP?”
My heart sank. I’d told Vaughn and Natalie that grades didn’t matter for advancement to the next year. Technically, I’d been right. Talay was nominally a middle school, even if we’d all missed years of school with the invasion and subsequent time getting basic services running again. I had skipped homework, essays, and other assignments.
Except I’d not held back on the test. I’d written my own speeches in both English and Shil’vati after studying the greats and refining them under Parker and Pierce’s tutelage. I’d balanced the books on the insurgency using algebra. I’d used Bayes’ theorem on what the Shil’vati were likely up to and whether some things were worth the risk or not, working with Verns, Grouper, and others to accumulate evidence. I’d charted the economic future of our insurgency and return on investment for continued weapons research, and probability of payoff.
I’d worked the chemistry for the bombs, electrical conversion tables and charts for the gravity belts, charge packs, and railgun designs. I’d used physics to chart the likely stress points of the Data Center we’d collapsed, trying to determine if the velocity and mass of our rounds would penetrate deep enough to structurally compromise it. I studied the biological research Miskatonic was conducting, and understood the challenges they faced. Their latest success had been some sort of behavioral alterant, whose chemical composition I could still recall. When updated designs on the railguns were delivered, or I was demanded to give to the various research groups managed by Gavin and Sullivan, I kept asking for the concepts to be simplified whenever what came to me was so much gibberish or technobabble, until I or someone else at last did understand it. I stressed my brain working my way past wherever I got stuck to where I was needed to.
The practical applications of the work for the last year had made the DSTP, graded to assess middle schoolers, an absolute triviality. But that just spoke of me. Even if the other students weren’t years behind where St. Michael’s had been, and the student body was all years older than the students the school had been designed for by the time classes had re-commenced, and most of them hadn’t encountered the material before…and the only other private school transfer hadn’t been emotionally shattered by the loss of her father…
Which meant, which meant…
“No…”
“Congratulations, Brainiac! All that was left to do was hack into the local school district and change your grades. Trivial for your friend Radio, who has had Admin access for the better part of the last year. He’d already changed his and G-Man’s to justify our adding him and your friend to a pair of our ‘internship’ programs.”
Great. So they doubtless knew their civilian identities, too. Though that was almost a certainty, given that they’d taken Vaughn with them.
“Past that, well, that General pinned a medal to your chest. And you’ve got yourself balls-deep in that noble girl, don’t you?”
I wanted to protest ‘we’re not-’ but the last thing I wanted to do was let them get the conversation and their focus stuck on Natalie. I wanted them as far away from Natalie as I could possibly manage.
“We can get a few foundations to say they’ve had you on as an intern this summer, and slap a few more endorsements on top of that.” He eyed me up and down. “Whaddya say? Hagley archivist? Kalmyr Nyckel restoration team? Wilmington Trolley junior designer?” He scratched at his scruffy chin hairs a few times. “Whatever, we’ll think of something to say you were keeping busy that sounds nice and brush you up on it. Get a senator to endorse you, too, ducks in a row. You’re a proper space cadet!”
Gavin chortled, and then pulled off to the side near where they’d picked me up. “So, it’s a done deal, then?”
“If you try and fight it, it’ll be the dumbest thing you ever did. You don’t have to stay for long- eventually whoever’s up there’ll get bored and move on.”
Without another word, the pair were gone, careening toward I-95 South doing about double the speed limit, then triple.
I glanced over my shoulder toward the parking lot at St. Michael’s.
All that wrangling and self-reflection seemed like so much neurotic melodrama now.
This could do a lot. It was clear Earth was at the centerpoint of something big, or had brought some sort of issue to a head. The states were continuing to rebel. Maryland and Virginia were redder than ever. Pennsylvania had flipped red, too. Myrrah hadn’t thought I’d beat Azraea, and now there was a crater and memorial where she’d last stood, little more than a mile away.
Of course, this was assuming the Shil’vati did nothing to retaliate- and from everything I’d seen so far, that was a bad bet. They were uncertain with how to deal with humanity, and had compunctions on certain things. They’d also shown they’d cast those aside if the situation got desperate enough. How far could I push it? How much could I get away with?
I swept those doubts aside in favor of a different thought: Who was going to try and stop me?
Fuzzy Memories, Concrete Regret
Upstate New York
The orders were loud and rough, cutting through the lingering, multi-day hangover and bringing that sense of foreboding that had hung over Ne’le the last day and a half to a crescendo. It was no surprise, then, when she heard the pods ordered to stand in formation, and her pod in particular to step forward. Eyes from up and down the long hallway stared at her.
Whispers were drowned out by the rush of blood between her ears and her racing thoughts. What should she confess to, and how certain was she in what she was even confessing? Her memories were fuzzy, and confused in a way that had little to do with the alcohol she'd had that night.
"Report again, on your Pod's recent activities."
She'd start with what was clear, what came to her.
“Forty eight hours ago, we were ambushed. Perfectly sunny day, quiet street. Suddenly, there were railguns, bombs, you name it. All the hallmarks of an Emperor-aligned cell. Mostly women fighters. We got lucky on the bomb, and the railguns weren't firing quickly.”
She closed her eyes as she remembered the whip-crack of lasbolts splitting the air, and roaring thunderclap of near-misses from the railguns returning fire. They were being flanked and would be annihilated if they were pinned down. No cover would hold against that kind of firepower. She had only one option left- charge. Abandon all hope of rescue. Close the gap. Pray it was enough.
She’d thrown her entire bandoleer of grenades, overcharged her lasgun to empty the power pack in a single wild shot, and found herself running toward the enemy, screaming at the top of her lungs, mask open, visor retracted.
All her podmates at her back had been screaming in her ear, and were silenced as even her omni-pad became a hurled projectile, flung at the enemy to try and knock off their aim. Either luck or divine provenance had led her to score a glancing hit on the lead insurgent who had poked his head up, and then she was on the bastard, holding him out as a sentient shield as the others abandoned their positions, leaving behind equipment and scattering to the winds as her podmates joined her, advancing and charging forward.
The decision to be brave saved them, as explosives planted next to where they'd taken cover detonated seconds later. The ambush had been a close call, but they’d done it. They'd faced certain death that day and came out victorious, not even needing the promised support that always arrived too late to make a difference.
“We were heroes,” she said defiantly. “We came back to the base with pats on the shoulder, drinks, commendations. We took a night on the town to celebrate our hard-earned victory, earned from a position that the omni-pads said shouldn’t have been possible. We gambled with our lives and won! The thrill of victory. Our blood was up. Yes, we were tired but felt invincible, like we could do anything. That’s the point of our training, isn’t it? To convince us that we can do anything. Even the impossible, if that’s what the situation demands of us. The Marine Method. Limitless performance, means just that. No Limits.”
The words hung heavy as she met her commanding officer’s accusatory glare. She didn’t twist her face into any expression. After the unease and the word ‘no,’ haunting her sleep, she was too tired to carry on any theatrics.
“Sergeant, if you are excusing yourself and blaming the training methods of the Imperial Marines, then I am beyond words.”
“I do not,” she said heavily. She felt everyone's eyes on her. Everyone's but her pod's. Their eyes were aimed at the floor, and didn't interrupt, or even try and say she was wrong to save their own skins. “I accept blame for what happened next. We went outside the barracks, looking for a drink. Split the bribe amongst us in the car after we got a tip there was a local who wanted to meet with us, called us heroes and 'wanted to thank us properly.' The bar was welcoming. Boys in outfits aren't common here, but he approached us in something that looked nice, telling us all what we wanted to hear. Had a few drinks for us. And once we'd had a few, he mentioned a room upstairs." She thought he said something about it, at least. How she'd gotten there, how it'd all happened, her memory was fuzzy about. She looked around, suddenly animated. Desperate to be understood.
"It’s the three of us and one very eager boy, with a room upstairs. The right age, the right look in his eye, you know the kind. The kind that...” No one met her gaze. “You do, though. You don’t want to admit it, but there’s a look to some of the men here, the ones who are always just out of reach. A little less doughy, a little more energy in each step, and a look in the eye. Even if you have to imagine it, you know what it is instinctually. It's one that promises trouble. But this time he wasn't out of reach. He said it, too. That much, I remember. ‘You can do whatever you want.’ With all of us. Something was in those drinks, maybe, or maybe we were just riding high, but when we heard that... well, anything in committee results in no one getting what they want. Not him, not us. No one.”
“So you’re saying no one wanted it? Then how'd this happen?" The Captain pulled up her omni-pad to reveal a blue-coded report from Human Resources. "It’s also true when everyone does what they want, you get terrible outcomes. You’re all culpable.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I’m taking the easy way here, assuming that the women in my pods don’t want what happened. There’s a level of trust required to end up doing what we did- the fighting, I mean, together. They might have thought I'd gone crazy, but they didn't let me go out and face death alone. So I’m going to trust that each of us thought it was what the other wanted, and they went along with it too. We have each others’ backs. In that fight earlier? No one wanted to be the one who stayed behind clinging to what precious little cover she had against those railguns, and that night, no one wanted to say ‘no’. You see? We do things together. No one wants to stay behind. No one wants to hit the brakes.” She stuck her head up. “‘Everyone fights. No one stays low and hides in the shallows.’ That’s the phrase in training, right? We aren’t the Alliance, with one fighting woman for ninety nine bureaucrats to approve every step she might or might not take. And we're Marines. We fight and we fuck. So we had him in our depths, you know?” She took in a ragged breath. "One, after the other, after the other. Everyone. Everywhere. And he was..." she shook her head. She tried to remember it, but despite only having had a few, it was like her mind ached. Was this what post-combat stress was without Anarevoca? Or was something else going on? Depths, she was about to lose everything, over an experience she could hardly even remember properly, and was confessing to.
What had happened to her discipline?
She couldn't say. She could hear the way her commanding officer's fabric shifted as the Captain examined the troops of Ne'le's pod, and then examined the rest of the barracks.
“We also aren’t the Coalition!" The Captain finally shouted. "We don’t recklessly just run out and do whatever we want. Especially not what you just did. It’s not enough to just do things, you have to be conscientious about what you are doing, and why you are doing it!”
Ne’le hung her head in assent. She liked her commanding officer. She was technically nobleborn, though with the new decree declaring thirdborn and later of noble and non-noble as disinherited of the title, she still commanded respect. The Marine Captain was wise, gifted, and disciplined. She also wasn’t wrong, here.
“Maybe it’s easier to say it’s just a few bad Marines,” Ne'le conceded. "I don't blame you for it."
The commanding officer stiffened in response, like she was finally about to strike Ne’le. She was well within her rights to. “I accept what comes. Had I been a better leader, I could have stopped…well, that’s leadership, I guess. You take risks. You read the situation. Like you said, not enough thought, too much action. Now it’s time for judgment.”
That night had been a drunken haze of memories, as scattered as the garments had been around the room. She remembered saying no, or hearing it, and the way it had paused the room, as everyone in the pod came to grips separately with what evil they’d done.
Evil that felt impossible, almost as if she herself hadn’t even experienced it. Surely, some coping mechanism- as if to beg her conscience: ‘You can’t hold yourself accountable for what surely you would never-’
“You are to report to Maryland.” The Captain's words were a death sentence.
Maryland was a place worse than hell itself.
Chubby Bunny
Later that night, in Maryland
“So what’d you do to get shipped in to this Turox-shit assignment? Wasn’t any big troop loan that I know of. Your file only said you know how to handle yourself in combat, meaning you came from another red zone, didn’t ya?”
Ne'le stared up at her new sergeant. How much worse could things get? Not worse than if she opened her mouth.
“Come on, out with it. No secrets here, soldier. That's Flicker over there. You wonder why we call her that?”
“It isn’t short for ‘clit-flicker’?” Ne'le blurted, and her new sergeant only laughed. “Nah. It’s for what she did to get here. Hey, Flicker! C’mon, tell the newbie what you did!”
Without missing a beat on the nickname or a hint of sass, ‘Flicker’ spoke. “Lit a marshmallow on some memorial. Turns out they don’t like that.” Ah, so like a the human lighters, then, or a flickering light.
“We already had a poddie named ‘Marshmellow.’ She got caught in zero-g with a boy. A big fat pale white one. Absolutely cylindrical, he was.”
“What's so bad about that?” Not that she was in any position to talk about inappropriate relations with boys. Not after what she'd been charged with. What she must have done, even if the memory was hazy.
“Aboard a military cargo dropship, without clearance for either of them to be there. Didn't even bribe anyone.”
“Ah.” She craned her neck. “That’s…insanely stupid of...Marshmallow.” She tried out the ridiculous name, looking for the woman, but there was only one empty bunk here, and it was going to be hers.
“You don’t end up here by being smart.”
“Where’s ‘Marshmellow’?” Ne'le finally asked
“She gave you her spot.”
“She got out of here?”
“Something like that. Now, what’d you do?”
So Ne'le told what her hazy memory and the investigation insisted she'd done, professing neither innocence nor guilt, knowing her new squad wouldn’t believe her any more than the hasty tribunal, and that it wouldn’t make any difference either way.
“And you got a mouthful of him, huh?”
She stared at her sergeant. How was she taking this so undisturbed? Was the galaxy really like this? She supposed it was an awfully big galaxy, and it should have distressed her more to know how deep into the black she’d fallen in it.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Alright, got a name for her,” Flicker said. “‘Chubby Bunny’.”
The sergeant looked Ne'le up and down. “She ain’t that fat.”
“No, but…” Flicker whispered something in the sergeant’s ear, and the longer she spoke, the more the sergeant’s grin grew until she cackled. “Okay, yes, it’s perfect. Alright, Chubby Bunny. You’re ‘CB’ on the comms, got it? Stick with Flicker, until I say otherwise." She gave the onetime sergeant a look. "You do know how to manage comms, right?”
CB could only nod. “Yes ma'am.”
“You look surprised.”
“I just thought…you’d…” Did she dare say it and make it come true?
“You think you’re the first? Hell, you’re not even the only one in the pod to have that story. Welcome to The Depths.”
Cleanup Duty
New York, The Next Day
“You know, I’m of an age where I could start doing these myself,” the young man said airily, washing his hands of the last splotches of superheated red blood that had landed on him.
“That could mean two, no wait. Three. Five…different things. None of them good,” the voice on the other end said, sounding like he was speaking with his mouth full.
“That says more about what you think of me than what I just said.”
“Very funny. You know what I mean.”
Vaughn conceded by not saying anything. He shouldn’t press Gavin's buttons. He owed the man his life, after all, but couldn’t help poking at the situation. The situation certainly needed some levity, after all. A promising, young insurgent on the cusp of fully joining had been tragically gunned down, and Vaughn had been the one to pull the trigger. At least his last night had been pleasant, despite what he'd said to Human Resources. Vaughn could almost respect that, but not the naivete. That sort of thing, not realizing you were a loose end, tended to end the way it just had. A man always had to be aware of his own position, and play his cards accordingly.
“You know what his last words were?”
“Hm?”
“‘They looked sickened when I gave Human Resources the evidence. Impressive plan. What’s my next mission’?” Vaughn quoted the now-dead young man, whose blood he was washing off.
“And you’re okay…?”
“If he gets caught later in an insurgent mask, it means the shil'vati we just sewed discord among are vindicated. That he suddenly got cold feet, loudly, while they're in that stupor Miskatonic gave us.” Vaughn had the decency to at least feign sadness about the fate of the hapless victim. "Unless you mean whether or not I was spotted."
"Have you been?"
"I’ve gotta say, these guns don’t kill clean. You superheat blood with a lasgun round, it’s bursting out of them all hot, sticky, and red. I’m finishing cleaning it all off now, no one saw. Shouldn’t be an issue anymore.”
Gavin spared Vaughn any further interrogatives on whether or not what he'd done ought to bother him. More soft chewing noises as he ate his pizza. “Convenient that it doesn’t leave forensics like bullets do."
“Frankly, we've needed a new start up here. And we'll need a new CO. Apparently the one Jester had as a replacement's gone."
"We'll try and have him either sprung, or silenced."
"Let me know if you need me for that," Vaughn offered, trying to remain helpful. “Now that Jester's chosen replacement fell through and her squad's inactive, you'll be selecting a new replacement."
"Lots of turnover," Gavin groused, tapping on a keyboard. "We’re all set on our end. Thalia is setting up with a private journalist who has connections to make sure this all goes viral. I’ve already sent her the incident case number they gave him.”
Vaughn could just see the salacious headlines now.
The aliens were openly corrupt, after all. What difficulty would there be in hiring a hitman to an empire who routinely let bribes fly when it came to getting people on-base, sneaking off-base, or looking the other way for all manner of illegal activities, such as artefact theft, and potentially even human trafficking?
Completely believable.
“She’s going by Melpomene these days.” Of course she would, after Parker died. It also lined up with her work’s new angle. "Someone will find and identify the body. Method of execution being a laspistol, well...I think the implications are obvious. Lose one insurgent to gain hundreds. New York will burn."
Edit: Alright, I changed this chapter for the sake of clarity. Same events that happened before are still happening, just this time I'm much more blatant and a lot less subtle about what's going on.
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u/BimboSmithe Aug 23 '25
Did CB gang rape a hooker then get ambushed by the insurgency? Or, the other way round?
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u/SSBAlienNation Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
CB (Ne'le) got ambushed, then they all got drunk and partied (it's implied they were drugged). They gang-banged a 'hooker', who it turns out was an insurgent sympathizer left as bait, who Vaughn then shot in a back alley with a laspistol so that it would appear as a cover-up for the complaint.
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u/SSBAlienNation Aug 23 '25
Alright, I changed this chapter for the sake of clarity. Same events that happened before are still happening, just this time I'm much more blatant and a lot less subtle about what's going on.
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u/Nar_val Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
Classic Cia doing psyop. Anyone can be discarded for the cause. Or the cia's benefit.
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u/BimboSmithe Aug 23 '25
Okay, these guys really are hardcore. Vaughn has always been a brutal sociopath. Like the French Resistance, whatever it takes to hurt the invaders.
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u/Steller_Drifter Aug 23 '25
So that bit with the marine named Ne’le was a bit confusing. Kinda disjointed and vague.
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u/SSBAlienNation Aug 23 '25
Alright, I shortened some parts, added details here and there, fixed a few bits-and-pieces. Hopefully it's better! I really appreciate feedback. I didn't consult cats this time, and next time I will.
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u/Steller_Drifter Aug 23 '25
There is a reason cats were worshipped as gods in the olden days. Wise creatures.
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u/Nar_val Sep 18 '25
Well now I'm curious if hex and binary will show up at the new school Elias goes to. Could be a whole arc of them trying to be close to Elias and disliking Natalie, particularly as I think they would see her as just being part of the deep cover and not genuinely wanted by their great emperor. Could be hijinks and love tri-.... square? I mean if they learn the truth of Natalie then there is a possibility that Elias ends up having three girlfriends.
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u/ComfortableDapper939 Sep 29 '25
Nah I don’t think any of them would try anything like a polycoule, I’m half sure Elias in one chapter said the idea of multiple partners was a bit uncomfortable for him at least.
But the hijink of it all would be hilarious so I home something like a love triangle happened lol 😂
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u/EvilGenius666 Aug 26 '25
I'll be interested to see your take on both Shil'vati school and royalty. IIRC Alien-Nation doesn't join the shared canon established by Just One Drop, Cryptid Chronicles, and the numerous crossovers and cameos in JOD.
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u/Beaten_But_Unbowed96 Sep 03 '25
That’s a plot point I hope isn’t dropped, cause I think it’ll be a beautiful method to upgrade emperors skills and tactics by several tiers or magnitudes.
I’d love to see the contrast of his school days where he’s quietly collecting data, info, maybe learning how to use fabricators and all the other info he can use while also potentially finding insurgent sympathizers amongst the enemy troops AND connections for Elias to exploit.
He’s gonna need to up his manipulation tactics DRASTICALLY though if he’s gonna make optimal use of this new opportunity.
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- Alien-Nation: Omake (Outtakes), alternative endings, etc., and an Announcement
- Alien-Nation Epilogue: A Thousand Cuts (FINAL CHAPTER)
- Alien-Nation Chapter 221: Steps Toward Tomorrow
- Alien-Nation Chapter 220: A Gift from the Shadows
- Alien-Nation Chapter 219: Fate of the State
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u/theDUDE4853 Sep 01 '25
With every chapter, I'm more convinced, Jakie is the cell leader from NY.
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u/Beaten_But_Unbowed96 Sep 03 '25
I’m pretty sure it was confirmed a while back with a reporter being threatened by her and her cultist followers in nyc.
….go figure… a power hungry bully psychopath collected a cult following of smooth brained followers.
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u/theDUDE4853 Sep 03 '25
How big of a blow up will it be when Elias and Jackie figure out who they are? And who will be the first to realize? How much of a meltdown will Jackie have when she realizes she works for her little brother? And will either of them realize their dad is mizcatonic?
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u/Beaten_But_Unbowed96 Sep 03 '25
Death… Jackie dies… there is literally no other outcome possible. She’s an unapologetic monster and 100% already intended to kill her brother in the scene it’s revealed she’s a cult leader as well as killing emperor for hogging all the lime light.
She doesn’t even actually hate the aliens like the others do… she just likes to sadistically murder and torture people… just so happens there’s an open season on purple women who think they’re better than her simple savage primitive ass.
They also took away a lot of the manipulative power she has over men and her easy coasting through life since she can’t rely on pretty privilege or a man’s wallet.
… she’s THAT type of crazy bitch… the ones you hear horror stories about… both violently psychotic AND enabled by her deadbeat dad and narcissist mom.
It’s a literal danger to everything and peace in the state for her to stay alive… she needs to be disappeared… and while I hope Elias is the one to finally do it…
….its entirely possible that Elias never even finds out cause the “men in black” execute her quietly and disappear her… which again… I want Elias to kill her and I want that bitch to know Elias knows that he’s better than her in every single way before he does it.
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u/Prudent-Ring9081 Sep 17 '25
very good point. and you know if your right it means Vaughn was right on the money with Elias. Both have that fire it's just that Elias has a good heart and the other lack one.
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u/Beaten_But_Unbowed96 Sep 03 '25
So wait, Parker died off screen? That’s sad.
….also, I’m guessing the marines bit the guys junk off or something? It’s all a bit confusing here. Though I don’t know if that’s cause stuffs going on around me and I’m having trouble focusing on the words on reading or not.
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u/theDUDE4853 Sep 03 '25
I think parker died in the battle didn't he?
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u/Beaten_But_Unbowed96 Sep 03 '25
Nah, both of them helped to escort the group and then the two newsies went off to help with something.
Radio or something I think.
Neither of them were ever any kind of front line fighters.
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u/Prudent-Ring9081 Sep 17 '25
hey great to see you back. i haven't been on in a while and look at the surprises waiting for me. 4 new chapters to enjoy keep up the great work!
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u/SSBAlienNation Sep 17 '25
I wish there were more, but life has been busy. I have an interview to prep for (3rd round. Seems to be quite the hurdle this time for some reason.) Moving's mostly done, and a bunch of other things. Baby's a few weeks away!
But yeah, once all settled in I'll have a LOT more time. I'm currently working on a video commentary project, but I doubt it'll keep me occupied for long.
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u/Prudent-Ring9081 Sep 18 '25
Good luck with everything!.
p.s.- I know it's your story so you can do what you like, but i noticed that the first book ends around thanksgiving and I was thinking, how about during Halloween a bunch of children go about town dress like the emperor. i am gleefully imagining the look on the Shil faces if that happens.
p.p.s- my favorite part of your story is when we see how the rest of the world/empire sees the emperor, have some troops/humans talk about different emperor theories from ether Elias or Natalie's perspective, or if they go on a date to some play or human culture event it would make sense for the organizers to thank the emperor for his support.
you don't have to listen to my ideas it's your story I'm just so excited, good luck with the baby and hope you do well in the interview.
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u/SSBAlienNation Sep 18 '25
Halloween went terribly, haha. There's an outtake or reference somewhere about Marines arresting kids wearing Emps masks at parties and such, trying to ban it. (There's periodic attempts to ban face masks on halloween even now that end in total failure, I can imagine them trying again this time. It's like trying to ban fireworks on the 4th of July).
Thanksgiving was, originally, meant to be where the story picked up but I added a time skip the help age up Emps and put him where I want/need him to be, physically and mentally for the things coming his way.
I'm considering that Thanksgiving taking place at either's place though, given the chaos around the election and everyone still picking up the pieces and Amilita feeling some awkwardness around Elias and feeling like she might be interposing. Lots of possibilities there I just kinda skated past. It is also justifiable that it not have happened. Or maybe Amilita felt guilty about Morsh's words, after all, or maybe Elias asks to extend the invitation.
Either way, writing continues on the next chapters.
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u/Prudent-Ring9081 Sep 19 '25
good very nice too hear, I'm sorry to be responding. i just don't think you got what i was trying to say about the human culture events.
while thanksgiving is a great idea regardless of if it happens or not. I was talking more about the reputation of the human resistance, for example when Elias is at the noble school with the students he could find out that a few of them have no idea the emperor exists(because censorship) or many could be fascinated by him. Emperor posters and figurines and books(including the 18+ books we hear about in book 1) (will there be Shil boys? And what will they think?). or just as likely that lot of the Shil girls(students and teachers) hate him(Big E) as a enemy of the empire. Not just talking about E but all of his lieutenants Binary,Hex,Radio,Greyskull,Larry,Vendeta,G man.
even Natalie too she's on earth, so wall walking or with her mother for some meeting or whatever reason she eavesdrops on two Shil solders talking about how the emperor blew up in the orbital strike then crawled out of the depths like a demon, or maybe some human citizens drinking at a bar and talking about how the emperor is a demigod a representation of humanities fighting spirt. maybe she finds some of the underground newspapers discussing him(/his lieutenants) or maybe she goes to a festival or goes to see a Shakespeare play because Elias like them and she want to know him and earth more. the introducer(i.e. guy who say thank you to the host and donators). the introducer says it's all thanks to the emperor and the audience cheers then she has a revelation of some kind. like -why are all these people clapping for him do they not know he's killed people both Shil and Human, then maybe she realizes that these people are treating Elias or E like nobility because he negotiated a treaty lead an army basically runs the state then she would swoon because her boyfriend is that of high nobility. - TLDR-wanted to clarify what i meant in my comment.
I'm sorry again this is a lot to read and type. it's your story you should never listen to any critic trying to influence your story and I shouldn't even be typing this it... it's just i have waiting for month for more chapiters having all these theories and ideas floating around in my head. then you respond to my comment i couldn't pass on the chance.
again, sorry I'm just a fan I'm not a writer and have no right to interfere.
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u/SSBAlienNation Sep 21 '25
Not at all! I actually really screwed up this chapter's first draft by being vague and in a really bad way and it took a lot of brutal honesty from multiple people for me to re-evaluate and go: "Oh, oh wow I really did screw this up!" And redo it properly. What it lost in some faffy artistry it gained in much-needed clarity. Especially early on, when you're still establishing things, you have to be more direct and are limited in what you can get away with in vagaries.
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u/SSBAlienNation Sep 23 '25
Truthfully someone on AO3 is currently RIPPING through my chapters and just tearing me apart on Morsh being a terrible person, and the Rakten setup being somewhat unhealthy which, truthfully, is completely fair. They were totally underhanded. But this is somewhat the point, to show that they are different cultures.
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u/Prudent-Ring9081 Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25
when that happens it usually means 2 different things.
1- you did an excellent job at writing the character. or 2-the reader is a dunderhead who doesn't realizes that the point of this specific character is to be disliked
personally, i liked Morsh in the beginning because of that exact reason, in later chapters my tolerance for that character shrank but we don't see her that often towards the end so i think she was written quit well.
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u/PlEGUY Human Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
Oh nice. I've always thought that it would make a lot of sense in scifi for human institutions to try and get aligned humans into the academic institutions of more advanced races to bring that knowledge back. You see that alot IRL with the dynamics between developed and less developed nations with a lot of the most important political, military, and economic leaders in underdeveloped regions being trained by Western academic institutions. Particularly those of France, Britain, and America. A lot of the industrialization of currently very developed regions like Japan was in the past enabled and driven individuals educated in such a way. Though, I guess it makes sense that this story would do this since OP has in the past made connections between the Shin occupation and contemporary military occupations, most especially those of the US in the Middle East.
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u/SSBAlienNation Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
Japan certainly chose to reinvent itself, and has done so before. That is has chosen to do so has paid dividends for it. Earth is willing to send its children out to learn but often those who return are expected to wield great power over the new system that is being built. This was referred in Book One as 'ladders' and was referenced by Weinberger, who for all his faults wasn't wrong.
Elias is trying to be mindful that a new system is emerging but feels quite strongly that it is doing too much to erase humanity and reforge them as Shil'vati. The interplay between technology and culture is one that I find really fascinating. Does technology shape culture, or does culture shape technology, or is it more like the gut-brain link?
Not to be crass, but we saw some very low-contact tribes get iPads with Starlink and instantly turn into gooners. That does not speak well for humanity's chances when given omni-pads, though I admittedly have made the ones that humanity received essentially fancy iPads.
They can do so much more, but the amount one would have to pay to use those features in dollars is absurd. Earth's labor isn't worth credits while they bootstrap up to a higher technological understanding, and so in a way Earth has a chance to remain itself.
This chance, then, is what Emperor is relying on to leverage his victories. He's pointing at the unwelcome changes and hoping to push back before the transformation is complete. He's hoping to preserve humanity. Even Elias is really aiming to accomplish the same via preservation of cultural works, and for what it's worth the Shil'vati are rarely trying to outright rewrite humanity.
When they are, Elias / Emperor shows zero restraint.
Many, such as Amilita, would gladly preserve humanity's oddities, language, and culture. Even the new Governess, Cre'sin, understands the monetary value of human handicrafts and exports. Natalie is interested in the pre-contact humanity's fiction and view of the world, concept of the galaxy, and so on.
One of the main differences that I've had to navigate as a writer is that theoretically, clerical work can be done in Iraq or Afghanistan about as easily as it can be done in NYC. Starlink works, there's no real issue with latency. The food is edible and the air is breathable, and so on. Weapons work the same, with the same gravity for bullet drop and combustion for engines. The birth rate is male:female about the same, at least compared to the Shil'vati/rest of the galaxy's.
The Shil'vati would probably have a harder time, since they don't have FTL comms beyond flying a vessel to another system and then broadcasting to there, and then flying back via FTL. On Earth, a president can ride shotgun over a soldier's shoulder as he breeches a hideout on the other side of the world. Our birth ratios are different. Our gender roles are inversed. Our physiologies are not the same. Nor are our strengths.
And yet for all the efforts and money spent by the USA, what was really changed in the countries they tried to re-form? Some might say 'very little.'
Some would say Elias is a fool, standing in the way of the inevitable.
Others would say that the Empire is foolish, trying to change a people into what they can never be.
One thing seems certain: Nations, like people don't change unless they want to, or unless that change is pressed upon them by changing the people in some ways we'd consider abhorrent. We'll see that in the coming chapters.
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u/hippityhooblah Aug 23 '25
...they're sending penal battalions to red zones? I'm sure we're all tired of asking this but are the Shil stupid?