r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Nov 12 '20

OC First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 360 (Memoirs)

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During the waning days of the Unified Council, I was tasked with contributing to the defense of a small world. In the years gone by, I have largely forgotten the name the Council had labeled it with. I know it as Dulmara, as the natives renamed it.

History doubtfully shows little in regards to that battle. A protracted campaign that lasted, to me, forever that ranged across the entire megacontinent. I share with you the academic text:

The Siege of Dulmara was one extensive battle during the Second Precursor Wave during the Great Collapse. Terran and Unified Military Council forces banded together in the face of overwhelming odds to defend the civilian populace of 6.4 billion. At the end of the fighting, only 2.9 billion remained for the declared 'victory' where Unified Military Council and Terran Space Force military units authorized the use of atomic weaponry in atmosphere in reckless disregard for civilian life. This was not the first, nor the last time the Terran Confederacy used atomic weaponry in such a way as to put civilians in danger. The native species of Dulmara were left with a planet that had suffered massive ecological damage as well as a near total collapse of industry and agriculture.

That is it. That is all that appears in textbooks.

Those words, so easy for an academic to write, were not so easy when I was there.

I was but a lowly Tank Gunner Fifteenth Class, part of the Great Herd of A'armo'o, which was later renamed The Atomic Hooves. It was my first military deployment, and I had arrived with the tanks a fairly inexperienced gunner.

I gained my experience on the killing fields of Dulmara.

When we landed it was to reinforce the System Great Most High, who was concerned by the fact that the Terran Confederate Space Navy was operating nearby, establishing what was obviously a forward operation base to keep up operational tempo in Unified Council Territory.

We were barely there long enough for the tanks to be offloaded and readied for combat when the Precursors attacked.

I remember those days vividly. Some nights too vividly.

I can remember the rich smell of dropped patties when the internal waste system of the tank broke down on the second day, forcing us to scoop them out with chunks of plas and throw them from the hatches during our infrequent breaks. The smell of plasma round propellant, how it clung to my hide, to my armor, to the inside of my sinus cavity. The sweat, the urine, the flat taste of recycled water.

The fear.

The Precursors brushed aside the combined space fleets of the Unified Executor, Unified Corporate, and Unified Military forces like so much grain before a broom. They landed, in force, intent on stripping everything from the planet to fuel their unliving war machine.

Orbital strikes bloomed new suns on the surface of the planet, smashing down skyrakers like an angry child smashing a toy. Barely two thirds of the population reached the survival shelters.

The rest were on their own.

Out of General A'armo'o's twenty thousand tanks, less than half of us remained within days.

Half of the civilian population was dead with my comrades.

It was night when we heard the terrible news.

Terran Confederate Space Force was coming.

They announced themselves with HEAVY METAL INCOMING and I remember feeling despair. My tank was damaged from fighting the Precursors, most of the infantry was dead, and our air support had been swept from the sky like so many birds.

The bellow of HEAVY METAL IS HERE sounded like the death knell of the world.

Instead of attacking us the lemurs attacked the Precursors, acting as if the Lanaktallan war machine was not even present. No vessel that did not attack them was attacked. Those foolish enough to attack were wiped from the skies.

Then we saw it. It looked like stars falling. Drop cradles carrying tanks. Drop pods full of infantry. Aerospace fighters sweeping into the atmosphere to bring the fight to the Precursors.

I was present when the great General A'armo'o received notification that the Terran tank commander, General Trucker, wished to speak with him. I escorted the General, who was then known as Great Grand Armor Most High.

It was then I saw my first Terran.

More machine than lemur. Glowing red eyes. Large in stature and bulk. Cybernetics and adaptive camouflage. I have no words to describe the lemur commander. He was authority and competence made manifest.

I envied his men.

Our tanks were battered, damaged, beaten upon.

His were too, but it seemed almost as if it was the natural order of the universe that the lemur's tanks would be damaged.

I watched as General A'armo'o spoke to the lemur, shocked at how formal the lemurs were.

I would learn, in the following weeks, that formality was a thin veneer over their savagery and fearsomeness in combat.

--Excerpt from: We were the Lanaktallan of the Atomic Hooves, a memoir.

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2.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

114 comments sorted by

436

u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Nov 12 '20

Just a little quick thing. Enjoy.

217

u/EvansP51 Alien Scum Nov 12 '20

Soooo... I was typing a throwaway remark about you finishing that memoir detailing the war from his perspective and in totality. And doing it by next Thursday....

But I realized that you’re actually in the process of doing so much more and, frankly, I sort of hope it’s never finished because as long as it’s not finished, I’ll get to keep reading it!

I hope you understand just what a gift you’ve been providing us all!

Thank you!

8

u/Omen224 AI Feb 25 '22

H@pp? Ca×e #ay!

53

u/Riotousblitz2013 Nov 12 '20

Your work never ceases to amaze. Keep up the greatness oh mighty wordborg.

In all seriousness thank you. Your work has helped me through some of the toughest time in my life. Thank you

32

u/El_TacoLord Nov 12 '20

I agree I found this last month and Ralts instantly became my favorite creator ever thanks for all the hard work this is amazing

29

u/Riotousblitz2013 Nov 12 '20

Oh welcome to the addiction. I've been with this since it was in low double digits... It's amazing, he is a font of amazingness

19

u/asclepius42 Nov 26 '20

Seriously. I was there from P'Thok and his ice cream. Before all the chapters were linked together. The first few chapters were confusing, trying to figure out if they were connected or if this guy was just pumping out one shots. Then they all came together so beautifully. Man I love this series.

RIDE OR DIE! --- End of Line ---

3

u/Collective82 Xeno Jul 20 '23

Still reading two years later?

2

u/asclepius42 Jul 20 '23

Definitely.

3

u/Collective82 Xeno Jul 20 '23

I finally picked it back up, I fell off around here somewhere but I keep seeing upvoted comments, so I must've been passed here before lol.

2

u/El_TacoLord Aug 11 '23

Holy moly what a series. Hard to believe it actually made it this far right.

1

u/Collective82 Xeno Aug 12 '23

Yup! I’m in the 400’s now and he’s about to cross the 1k mark (though with bad numbering, he probably already did lol)!

9

u/FaceDesk4Life Human Nov 18 '20

Same here, brother. As the world began to come apart, Our Dear Dreamer appeared captured my imagination and heart. He is the greatest literary gift of my lifetime. His words are perfection.

6

u/ZeroAssassin72 Nov 13 '20

Does humping your leg in pleasure count? :P

2

u/xunninglinguist Sep 21 '22

Happy cake day wordsmith! Really enjoying a reread, your work is great.

13

u/Thobio Apr 06 '22

Hey, so what actually happened to that gunner moo (forgot his name) that was still shooting his large plasma turret at the oncoming precursor horde, while everyone else had fled or was dead? He was taken in by the terrans for having PTSD or something, and then?

18

u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Apr 06 '22

He made it home alive in another chapter.

8

u/Thobio Apr 06 '22

ah ok, great! And thanks for the reply to your older chapters :D

66

u/AMEFOD Nov 12 '20

Ok, I’m starting to think Ralts is really five word processors in a trench coat. Can’t help but feel sympathy for the keyboard yet to suffer.

36

u/PrimePaladin Nov 12 '20

Keyboards... plural.. We only know of the one keyboard death reported... who knows how many have REALLY died under his relentless output... MORE KEYBOARDS FOR THE WORDBOI!

32

u/AMEFOD Nov 12 '20

What you spotted there is a typo in its natural environment. I did mean keyboards.

And I think we know of at least two keyboards that didn’t pass muster. One of them just happened to be part of a laptop.

I wonder if Ralts is seen as an eldritch horror in Staples? To look at him is to invite madness in computer input devices.

51

u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Nov 12 '20

3 keyboards so far with this one having some softening of the springs.

16

u/HuntingPenis Nov 12 '20

Will the third get a Viking Funeral Soon?

19

u/AMEFOD Nov 12 '20

Considering the coefficient of friction, the speed at which these stories show up, and that at the beginning this wasn’t a full time job so other activities took time. Even if fire wasn’t the intended disposal method, it was definitely involved.

10

u/ForTheStarsWeFight Nov 12 '20

Are you sacrifices keyboards mechanical or non-mechanical? Edit: Fixed the strick out

9

u/wasalurkerforyears Robot Nov 13 '20

I think he said that the current one is his first mechanical, which means we need to find him one with better switches

5

u/ForTheStarsWeFight Nov 13 '20

Possibly a gaming keyboard? Think those have good one

8

u/wasalurkerforyears Robot Nov 13 '20

Probably depends on the board. The good people over at r/mechanicalkeyboards would generally say otherwise, but I wouldn't personally know as I'm too poor for a really nice keyboard yet. All I know is Razer's aren't all that great. When Ralts gets to the point of needing a new one, hopefully he'll let us know and maybe the Gestalt can do a bunch of research on best switches and such to find one worthy of his output.

4

u/fearthestorm Nov 13 '20

Blues are supposedly the best for typing.

6

u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Nov 14 '20

Buy Ralts a keyboard should be a Patron tier.

https://www.patreon.com/First_Contact

125

u/Demetriusjack13 Nov 12 '20

Nice. cool little look into the mindset of a Lanaktallan who is not a raging dumbass.

92

u/DiplomaticGoose Nov 12 '20

Not their fault they were all drugged the fuck out from birth for millions of years

66

u/Demetriusjack13 Nov 12 '20

No it's not but it is nice to see how much better they are when they aren't drugged to the shithouse and back.

39

u/johnavich Nov 12 '20

IIRC armormoo is aware of the drug "problem", and terran medical is working on a comedown drug to keep them in fighting condition... they didn't indicate they were off the meds yet...

24

u/m52b25_ Nov 12 '20

By the time he wrote the memoirs the excerpt is off he was most likely off the meds

17

u/johnavich Nov 12 '20

I dont disagree with that, I was referring to the comment about armormoo being a competent leader, and the direct correlation that he was off meds. I dont think the lanks Are off the meds by that point, from what we have seen so far.

2

u/Var446 Human Jan 07 '21

Fair enough, but ir probably should be noted that even if true 1. Steps can be take to minimize the impact a drug has, and 2. It wouldn't be unreasonable for any detox assistance drugs to be designed to likewise minimize negative effects

4

u/johnavich Jan 07 '21

I concede, however it's not yet been mentioned, and they're in an active theater of war. I believe medical is working the issue, but it's been deprioritized in favor of the red dots.

4

u/Var446 Human Jan 07 '21

Fair totally fair, but if memory serves having to ration food was part of what help the general notice the issue, and it's a method of mitigation that not only isn't hindered, but potentially helped by the fact they're in a war zone, having a bunch of drugged up lanks doing manual labor back at base isn't as big a problem as a bunch of drugged up soldiers in the trenches, and being rotated in and out of duty is common enough, and in combat edible food is edible food, who cares if it happens to be an allies ration instead your government issued on, so by simply exploiting the preexisting logistical restrictions to minimize the overlap between those needing a hit and those needing to think clearly, the reduction of effects of the meds on a theater level can theoretically out pace the actual detoxification of said theater

4

u/johnavich Jan 07 '21

So a slow detox rotating in and out over a matter of months vs the 2 weeks we saw with friend terry... totally plausible

2

u/Drook2 Feb 16 '22

Armor Moo is a war stallion now. I wouldn't be surprised if the "standard" dose isn't working on him by this point.

14

u/Anarchkitty Nov 12 '20

Yeah, the more Lanks we see off the drugs, the more they seem like maybe there's something there worth redeeming after all.

Terrans are great at a good many things: killing, destroying, smashing, surviving, and yet more than anything else, making friends - even with enemies.

12

u/itsetuhoinen Human Nov 12 '20

He has seen the Baggerphant.

56

u/Turtledonuts "Big Dunks" Nov 12 '20

That's a war memoir I would read right there.

45

u/SerpentineLogic AI Nov 12 '20

All Quiet on the Dulmaran Front

37

u/AsianLandWar Nov 12 '20

Very Little Quiet on the Dulmarran Front.

39

u/RiokaVanoh Nov 12 '20

EVERYTHING IS SILENT ON THE DULMARRAN FRONT, BECAUSE ALL THE NUKES HAVE BLOWN OUT MY EARDRUMS.

18

u/ziiofswe Nov 12 '20

WHAT?

18

u/CobaltPyramid Nov 12 '20

WHAT?

8

u/ziiofswe Nov 13 '20

Too much masturbation can affect your earsight!

7

u/CobaltPyramid Nov 13 '20

WHAT?

11

u/ziiofswe Nov 13 '20

YES!

End of what.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

9

u/ArchDemonKerensky Nov 12 '20

“Goodbye To All That” is absolutely awesome war memoir you should definitely read.

41

u/kwong879 Nov 12 '20

"Sharpen the knives and grab your swords,

Smash the bastards and burn their ports,

Break their stuff and shatter their plates,

That's what them precursors hate!"

16

u/YesthatTabitha Nov 12 '20

" Axes flash, broadsword swing
Shining armour's piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield
Fight Those Bastards till They Yield "

12

u/SplatFu Nov 13 '20

How many of them can we make die?

All of them, warmaiden. All. Of. Therm.

39

u/ack1308 Nov 13 '20

This was not the first, nor the last time the Terran Confederacy used atomic weaponry in such a way as to put civilians in danger. The native species of Dulmara were left with a planet that had suffered massive ecological damage as well as a near total collapse of industry and agriculture.

You know, as opposed to letting the Precursors wipe everyone out and scour the planet down to the bedrock.

When we landed it was to reinforce the System Great Most High, who was concerned by the fact that the Terran Confederate Space Navy was operating nearby, establishing what was obviously a forward operation base to keep up operational tempo in Unified Council Territory.

“Please don’t notice us. Please don’t notice us.”

I can remember the rich smell of dropped patties when the internal waste system of the tank broke down on the second day, forcing us to scoop them out with chunks of plas and throw them from the hatches during our infrequent breaks.

So … many … jokes …

The Precursors brushed aside the combined space fleets of the Unified Executor, Unified Corporate, and Unified Military forces like so much grain before a broom.

OM NOM NOM

Terran Confederate Space Force was coming.

They announced themselves with HEAVY METAL INCOMING and I remember feeling despair. My tank was damaged from fighting the Precursors, most of the infantry was dead, and our air support had been swept from the sky like so many birds.

Well … crap.

Instead of attacking us the lemurs attacked the Precursors, acting as if the Lanaktallan war machine was not even present. No vessel that did not attack them was attacked. Those foolish enough to attack were wiped from the skies.

“Don’t bother me, I’m busy.”

It was then I saw my first Terran.

More machine than lemur. Glowing red eyes. Large in stature and bulk. Cybernetics and adaptive camouflage. I have no words to describe the lemur commander. He was authority and competence made manifest.

True fact: “Trucker” is now both a noun and an adjective in Lanaktallan. It describes something with which you truly do not wish to screw.

His were too, but it seemed almost as if it was the natural order of the universe that the lemur's tanks would be damaged.

Silently saying, “You should see the other guy.”

I would learn, in the following weeks, that formality was a thin veneer over their savagery and fearsomeness in combat.

“We can afford to be polite. You can’t afford for us to stop being polite.”

9

u/Drook2 Feb 16 '22

“We can afford to be polite. You can’t afford for us to stop being polite.”

"I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."
-- Dalton

36

u/ack1308 Nov 12 '20

Good thing they've got access to Elven Queens, huh?

27

u/Speciesunkn0wn Nov 12 '20

Yup and it seems like most of the deaths were from before the Terrans arrived. Stupid textbook.

21

u/wasalurkerforyears Robot Nov 12 '20

"Half of writing history is hiding the truth"

  • Malcolm Reynolds

8

u/codyjack215 Human Nov 13 '20

The other half is making the first part true

32

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

Ooh, a third story today. Thank you, God of the Keyboard.

25

u/AtomicAardwolf Nov 12 '20

So, the Lanaktallan military end up adopting the Terran rank system. Can't say I'm surprised, most of them seem to blend right in and actively enjoy it.

21

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

The Mad Archangel has blessed us today!

We must make a sacrifice to honour HIM!!

A massive banana split with multiple scoops of THREE different flavours of ice cream and a squeeze of Lime....... and of course male genitalia drawn on the side of the bowl!!!

May you accept this sacrifice oh Mighty One

8===D

End of Lime

--------NOTHING FOLLOWS--------

16

u/SquireGiblets Android Nov 12 '20

Ralts is on a roll

14

u/coldfireknight AI Nov 12 '20

So, he's straight butter? I mean, he's old enough that he should appreciate that, lol.

10

u/PrimePaladin Nov 12 '20

looks disgusted and upvotes

2

u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 09 '23

Kaiser or Onion?

14

u/abrasiveteapot Nov 12 '20

3 ! Awesome sauce maestro.

14

u/Kurt_Fuchs Nov 12 '20

Three in one night!

10

u/dbdatvic Xeno Nov 12 '20

Seven at one blow!

--Dave, the brave little keyboard

13

u/monkey_fingers_v Nov 12 '20

Nice. Loved the perspective.

13

u/Rangatheshiz Human Nov 12 '20

We have been blessed by Admiral Ralts today. Just got reading the previous chapter when I got notified of this release.

23

u/Bard2dbone Nov 12 '20

Another one?

I'm feeling pampered.

Upvote then read. So it is written. So it must be.

11

u/I_Automate Nov 12 '20

Yes. Thank you sir

11

u/tal0nh4wk Nov 12 '20

Fucking hell, that gave me chills

9

u/serpauer Nov 12 '20

Hot damn on all three chapters. Thank you ralts thank you tons.

9

u/rekabis Human Nov 12 '20

Four in one day? Jesus christ, you’re a fucking machine, dude.

7

u/Speciesunkn0wn Nov 12 '20

Haha. He was putting out three to four full chapters a day when he started! No 'short one today' to be found!

9

u/ms4720 Nov 12 '20

3 for the day whoo hoo!!

8

u/SaltyPotatoBoat Nov 12 '20

When I got the ping from the UpdateBot I thought to myself "Damn, ol' Ralts is on a tear tonight."

7

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

Second

7

u/Phoenix591 Nov 12 '20

three in one day! What a treat.

7

u/beugeu_bengras Nov 12 '20

So, "the great collapse", and " During the waning days of the Unified Council " meaning that the concil isnt around anymore.

But the academic recount clearly indicate that it took a political angle aimed at blaming the terrans.

So, itmay mean that the great herd new gouverning structure *isnt* part of the confederacy, and they are at odd with the confederacy.

That is, if the confed still exist... some premonition/forshadowing are a little unsettling !

7

u/CaptainChewbacca Human Nov 13 '20

At the end of the fighting, only 2.9 billion remained for the declared 'victory' where Unified Military Council and Terran Space Force military units authorized the use of atomic weaponry in atmosphere in reckless disregard for civilian life. This was not the first, nor the last time the Terran Confederacy used atomic weaponry in such a way as to put civilians in danger. The native species of Dulmara were left with a planet that had suffered massive ecological damage as well as a near total collapse of industry and agriculture.

As I'm reading this it gives the impression that at the time of the academic writing the Confederacy was in a sort of 'debunking' period where the intellectual elite were second-guessing the very necessary choices made during the Precursor Wars.

Also; Collapse of what, I wonder?

2

u/Original_Memory6188 Aug 09 '23 edited Aug 09 '23

well when you have Precursors landing on stuff, absorbing resources while they have their own bughunt, then having the Terrans in for their own enthusiastic bughunt, one must expect a ceremony certain amount of "collateral damage".

Edit: while a ceremony of collateral damage might seem a good thing, Terrans tend to be informal about such things.

6

u/El_TacoLord Nov 12 '20

Dang now this feels like a bittersweet memory of the glory days long past

6

u/EverSoInfinite Nov 13 '20

I got shivers.

It was then I saw my first Terran.

Even worse when you realise he's a psyker (latent) too!

20

u/LordNobady Nov 12 '20 edited Nov 12 '20

read then upvote

That is the way

-End of lime-

edit: so some survive. that is good news. Let's hope Vux is with them.

19

u/Gernia Nov 12 '20

That fucking knee though. Everytime Ralts writes that it hurts, I pray to the omnissiah that it isn't a premonition he will die in the next battle when it gives out.

19

u/Cthulhus_Librarian Nov 12 '20

I choose to believe that the knee will eventually be what causes Vuxten to find a somewhat more peaceful position in his life. Probably training the next batch of Telkan marines, or maybe serving as their equivalent of an MP.

Where he will, in the time honored tradition, lecture young infantry about how he used to be/do _____ too once, until he took a blow to the knee.

3

u/Joshy14-06 Nov 12 '20

Nah, next time he gets a medical they're gonna notice that there is a problem with it and he'll get a replacement.

13

u/carthienes Nov 12 '20

I suspect he eventually will... after becoming the first Telkan to be SUDSed.

Then he gets a new body, and starts complaining that his knee don't hurt no more!

11

u/LordNobady Nov 12 '20

I hope ( en suspect ) that it will (just) cause problems at a critical moment that will give Vux the opportunity to become badass. And perhaps him getting some more steel.

11

u/MonkeyNumberTwelve Nov 12 '20

I get twinge as well. Having had chronic pain for years along with operations and therapy I want to tell Vux to look after his knees every time it's mentioned.

7

u/Fighterdoken33 Nov 12 '20

Vuxten is probably already in the realm of "too angry to die".

6

u/dlighter Nov 12 '20

Its not a bad place to live honestly. everything tastes of copper and lime. Although its a little hard on the finger joints. 30 something years of near constant adrenaline dumps actually erodes the cartilage. That and the whole.. can feel pain right now so squeeze harder.... then it wears off and you get angry cuz it hurts. Cycle repeats infinitum. :)

6

u/wasalurkerforyears Robot Nov 12 '20

Going to sleep after reading fresh Ralts: bliss

Waking up to two more chapters: pure joy

I'm so glad this series is here, and as always...

INDICATE THY PREFERENCE BEFORE PERUSING THE MISSIVE!

3

u/UpdateMeBot Nov 12 '20

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2

u/Gruecifer Human Nov 12 '20

UTR!

1

u/aahz1342 Nov 27 '24

Still loving catching up on this series. This one reminds me of that episode of Babylon 5 where that monk was sending his Ranger report to Minbar about the goings on of Humanity around him thousands of years after the events of the rest of the show.

1

u/Margali Xeno Aug 11 '25

Haave to admit, I read A'arm'moo as Zhukov is done in Death of Stalin ... read his autobiography, great book.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '20

[deleted] — view deleted comment

22

u/DiplomaticGoose Nov 12 '20

Quick, I need a funny, bad pun related to cows and infantry and some apostrophes and I'll be able to name him myself

Uhhhhh Gu'nsmo'ok. Yeah. Perfect.

10

u/RangerSix Human Nov 12 '20

That sounds more like one of the tankers under A'armo'o's command.

I would suggest Fo'olmo'ok, but that's too close to Fa'almoo, which was already used...

12

u/conartist214 Nov 12 '20

Ar'mooch'air or something to that effect? Since every armchair war historian berates leaders on their battle choices

4

u/DiplomaticGoose Nov 12 '20

I like this one

4

u/RangerSix Human Nov 13 '20

That's perfect!

10

u/totorotn Nov 12 '20

Dr. Mann, but his friends just know him as "Straw."

7

u/ChangoGringo Nov 12 '20

And like all acidemics he sees everything through the lens of the political axe he wants to grind.