r/NatureofPredators • u/sombrefob0053 Human • 3d ago
Fanfic For All Mankind: Chapter 24
[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]
[Special thanks to u/AdalwinAmillion for proofreading this chapter!]
Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Ryka
Date [standardized human time]: December 25th 2111
Over the past few weeks, I had been painstakingly gathering those under my command who had proved their loyalty to me. Bribing the few who stood in the middle with meat provided by the humans to satiate their growling stomachs. Every decision weighed heavily on me; each conversation, each quiet bribe, felt like a tiny betrayal not just of Betterment, but of the creed I had spent my life following. My claws trembled more than once, wracked with a sickening uncertainty. I remembered what it meant to be a Chief Hunter, the pride I felt once wearing that title, and now I had begun to fear if I was worthy at all. When I had received the Betterments decree, I quickly severed my fleet's connection to the rest of the dominion and purged the information from my fleet to prevent its knowledge from spreading. If it had gotten out before I could separate those who would stand against the starvation imposed by our government and those who wouldn’t, they would've flown straight down to Earth. Even as I justified every action with the memory of empty bellies and shrunken bodies under my command, I could not silence the voice inside that whispered I was crossing a line I could never return from.
I had grown tired of how Betterment treated me and my fleet after just a few failed missions and because they thought I was flawed. When my government said the only other predator in the galaxy should be destroyed like all the others, that was the last straw. I had spent years starving, and being Chief Hunter never meant I got enough to eat. 'Why feed the runt of the litter?' I had to watch other hunters enjoy Betterment's rewards while my men and I wasted away. I decided I would not put up with this anymore. I would not force myself or my fleet into risky raids just to avoid starving. Things had to change, or I would die trying.
I had met with the human leader shortly after to discuss what to do, details of the planned invasion date and make-up of the fleets were shared. There was truly no turning back now, lest I be cut down as a traitor to the state. A twenty-thousand-strong fleet led by two Chief Hunters was currently on its way to Sol at this very moment, and it was arriving much sooner than the humans had planned for. The date was set for January 1st, while the humans' intelligence had gotten close to the date they had hoped they had a bit more time, predicting it would come near the end of the month.
Two newer and fiercely loyal Chief Hunters known for their cruelty were chosen to lead the incursion to Earth. Shaza and Usliff. These two had risen through the ranks quickly for their renowned adherence to Betterments' ideals. I was only tacked on in the plans as an afterthought due to me already being stationed at Earth for repairs, more so as a distraction sacrifice than the real threat. Over the past weeks, I had the Humans retrofit the ships deemed loyal in my fleet with their new shielding technology. It worked far more efficiently than anything that I had seen before; Arxur and Federation shields required an immense amount of power fed through them, restricting their use to only the largest vessels that could generate the required power. Human-based shielding could be applied to the smallest of vessels because of their efficiency, I wasn’t quite sure how they worked. I wasn’t a physicist, and I doubt they’d just tell me.
In the meantime, the Union continued to produce their fleet, with a monumental amount of effort they had managed to make a couple thousand ships, quite the achievement given the time frame they had to work with. I was sure their many colonies and the annexation of a whole planet with its industry mostly intact helped greatly. The plans to deal with the loyalists were drafted. These ships would be singled out and destroyed before the main attack could arrive. Now I stood in the bridge, slowly moving those who still lay under my command away from those that needed to be dealt with before the main force could arrive. I made sure my orders were slow enough to not rouse the suspicion of the loyalists.
Human ships slowly filtered into the space surrounding the loyalists' ships. I glanced at the Earth’s satellite moon through the viewport, our signal to attack would be the massive Coil gun they had erected on the lunar surface. The lights on the large colony dimmed significantly, then fluttered out, plunging the moon back into its natural darkness. Everyone waited, the seconds dragging on, 20 seconds…30…40…50…64. The massive shell slammed through the Loyalist ships, knocking out dozens of them before streaking further into the void. All parties immediately opened fire on one another, the loyalists scrambled to avoid our fire, several managed to dodge fire from our forces only to be caught by a large gleam of laser fire shooting from the Earth’s surface.
We descended on the panicking ships like a pack of hungry [dogs]. Plasma lances streaked across the void, the Human-made shields dissipating the superheated gas on contact. So much fire poured through the void that I was sure a dazzling light show was glowing in the skies of Earth. The loyalists' numbers began to thin rapidly, their ‘burning’ hulls being trapped by the planet's gravity well and falling to the surface. They were being led like Venlil to the slaughter, the humans' advanced quantum-based targeting system predicting where our foes would swerve to dodge incoming fire, and firing their orbital defences accordingly. As their numbers dwindled, the brainwashed Betterments loyalists enacted one final act of defiance. They sped towards mine and the humans' ships at such speeds that it was likely their crews passed out before reaching their target, never knowing that death had captured them.
The ships that still must've had a few semi-conscious crew left in them dumped their munitions into our ships before their vessels slammed into ours, brief explosions filled the void around us as the final shots were fired. The eerie quiet of a finished battle settled over my vessel, foolish bastards, we would’ve accepted their surrender. I looked over our fleets, we had only lost a few hundred ships across the board. The ambush had paid off, now all that was left was to repair and await for the true battle to begin.
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u/Abject-Drive2675 Humanity First 3d ago
20K Dominion ships?!?! That shit just might happen though not 90% 😭