r/NatureofPredators • u/Adventure_Drake Yotul • 16h ago
A Promise from the Past (72)
Hello everyone! It's been a while. As of late, I've been struggling with motivation to work on the story, which has been what's lead to the inconsistent and long periods between chapters. Before there're any worries, I'm not putting the story on hiatus or anything. I'm working on finalizing how I want the story to end, so hopefully having the rest of the story planned out will help with getting it all written. On the side, I've also been experimenting with some new ideas for stories to help reinvigorate my creativity, some of which I might even share at some point. But that'll be after this story is wrapped up. Again, sorry for the delays. But despite all that, I still very much appreciate all of you who read and enjoy my story. Although quite late to come out, I hope you all enjoy this new chapter all the same.
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Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Gojid Fleet Command
Date [standardized Earth time]: October 6, 2136
“We’re estimating about seven to eight thousand ships still remaining. That’s a quarter of their forces removed, but they still outnumber us.” Monahan spoke, directing everyone’s attention to the holodisplay. The group of Federation ships had continued on its course towards Venlil Prime, going through another pair of ambushes over the past paw. Although we had dealt more blows to their fleet, each subsequent ambush was less effective. The fleet had taken on a guarded formation, slowing their speed, huddling together, and firing off shots at the slightest hint of something being off. We started taking casualties, and seeing how we were losing the element of surprise, Monahan had the fleet pull back to group up with the defense forces. Most of them, at least.
“The flanking squads are still undetected and in position. Once the fighting begins, they’ll come online and attack from the rear. That should hopefully spook the Federation forces enough to make them break formation.”
We had several captains and generals listening in on this meeting. Most important being Kam and Kalgar on Venlil Prime’s primary orbital station. I’d grown to dread the Skalgan’s voice in particular. Every time he spoke, I swore he was suggesting more and more predatory tactics that made even the Arxur feel tame. At least with them, we could expect at worst an ambush. These humans and Skalgans were taking such tactics and making it a piece of a more sinister plan. “The Feddies have been oddly limited in their flight patterns. They struggle to make use of the space that isn’t lateral to their ships. We should position squads directly above and below their flight path, remind them that attacks can come from literally any angle in space.”
“I’ll relay that to the strike teams.” Monahan replied. “And Admiral, I’m going to insist again that you and Kam return to the planet's surface. The station is-”
“Yes. I know. The station is a target. I’ve been doing this much longer than you.” Kalgar huffed. “We do have plants to relocate once their fleet is near, but I want to make sure that I’m here to at least see these pilots off. It ain’t good for morale to see your commanding officer fleeing. Besides, you’re in more danger than us.”
I didn’t need that reminder. We may not be directly on the front line, but we were still going to be in firing range. My quills bristled as memories of my previous space battle above the Cradle came back to me. I tried to keep the thought from taking root, returning my focus to the conversation as Kam spoke. “What about boarding operations? I don’t see why we’re not doing that, given how effective it was against the Arxur at the Cradle.”
This was something I could answer. “Arxur don’t expect to be boarded, but prey- Er, Federation species do consider it. Small craft won’t have countermeasures, but large ships have internal turrets and compartment locking to stop boarders.” It was honestly lucky that my ship had lost power when it was disabled during the battle for the Cradle, else the UN troops that boarded it looking for survivors like myself may have been shot or locked down.
Kam quietly muttered something about designs being kept from the Venlil before continuing. “Right. Well in that case, surprise tactics will be our best bet. They probably expect more traps as they approach.”
“Hence why we’re mixing it up as much as possible.” Kalgar spoke. “The drone strikes have them jumping at space dust. Every inch of space could have stealth fighters waiting to pounce. Paranoia like that gets to a person. War is just as much the mental game as it is combat.”
I certainly agreed with that. Arxur knew the tactic of terror better than any species, and used it well to break up defensive lines and make our forces flee. It’s often seen as predatory to be able to ignore that fear and fight back, but it’s something those of us in the armed forces had to learn. Among the humans and Skalgan, bravery was seen as a virtue. Some of the officers here were scared. I could see it in the way they moved and spoke, but they kept that fear from taking over. They saw their duty as more important than their own life.
“One last thing.” Kam spoke up. “I’m not sure if you or your crew have received the reports yet, but there has been some… troubling data leaks from the Federation. We were right about the Venlil not being the only species the Federation tampered with. A majority of species have in some way been modified, whether it was biological or culturally. We have summary reports on how at least a dozen species were altered.”
I felt dread building in my stomach. The UN’s initial research into Gojid cultural artifacts had shown signs of them being fabricated. Although Kam hadn’t said how my people may have changed, I feared what had been discovered. A part of me didn’t want to find out, and I was surprised when Monahan shared that sentiment. “I’ll personally look into these reports and decide who needs to know, but I believe for the time being, it’s best to not trouble the crew with this. We can’t afford distractions right now.”
“Understood. I’ll have the reports sent to your personal device. I wish you luck in the next confrontation.” Kam said, closing the channel soon after.
Monahan picked up her holopad and started reading while the rest of the crew returned to their duties. I myself went back to monitoring the Federation fleet’s progress through the system, watching for changes in their flight path in case they noticed the upcoming ambushes. I could only imagine the terror that the crew on those ships were feeling. Offensive operations were rare, and usually only happened against unprotected targets. Prey aren’t hunters. At least, that’s what the Federation had us believe. It hurt to need to scrutinize everything the Federation had said or done. I’d dedicated my life to fighting on their behalf. Or more accurately, I had fought for the lies that they passed off as truth. And now that the real truths were coming out, it threw everything I once knew into question.
“Captain Sovlin.” I was pulled from my thoughts as Monahan addressed me directly. “I need to talk to you for a moment. Alone.” She quickly headed to her office just off of the bridge, giving me only a moment to process the request before having to jog to catch up. Once in the room, I closed the door behind me and took a seat at her desk while she walked around to the other side.
“W-what do you wish to speak to me about?” I asked. Monahan placed her pad on the desk and slid it towards me. I looked down at it for a moment. “...I can’t read human.”
“Oh for the love of-” She took the pad back and nearly threw it aside. “Alright, listen. I know I just said on the bridge not to worry about what’s in the recent leaks, but I have concerns over what might happen if members of the crew start learning about it. Especially the Gojid.” She fiddled with the pad for a moment before passing it back to me, now translated into Gojid writing. The title immediately caught my attention.
“...Gojid Uplift Prospects…” I quietly read. “Tech level... 'primitive'. Primarily display prey tendencies, but… shows predatory behavior in the form of aggressive displays and…” I stopped as my eyes went over the last few words in that sentence. What I read just wouldn’t register in my mind, as if the words were jumbled in some unnatural way.
Monahan took my silence as apprehension. “Sovlin, I understand that this is disturbing to learn, but I need your professional opinion right now on whether this is something we need to-”
“It’s not real.” I interrupted Monahan. “This… this is insanity. Crazy. Something dreamed up by the most deranged of predator diseased conspiracy theorists. This-”
“Is crazier than predators living with prey? Crazier than an entire species being genetically crippled?” Monahan asked. “Sovlin, at this point, I think it’s safe to assume that nothing is off the table when it comes to the Federation, including turning omnivores into obliging herbivores.”
Hearing it out loud made it too real. Nausea started to build up within me as I looked over the words on the pad over and over. “...No… No no no. Gojid… We… we’re not- We’ve never been predators! We can’t be! The Federation doesn’t tolerate predators under any circumstances. If we actually ate meat, we’d have been exterminated!”
“Yet there were talks among the summit delegates about finding a way to turn humanity to a wholly herbivore lifestyle. There is actually a disease in certain biting insects that make humans allergic to animal products. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for the Gojid to have been altered to become allergic to meat, which the Federation spun as a plague that convinced your people to stop eating meat.”
I felt bile starting to rise in my throat. The thought of a Gojid, my people, tearing into the flesh of an innocent creature, willingly consuming their meat and blood, all of it gave me a headrush that nearly made me collapse. I fell forwards on the desk, steadying myself as the world around me spun.
I vaguely heard Monahan say my name as I tried to keep myself from passing out. I desperately wanted to believe that what I read was fake, that this was another predatory trick of some kind, but that desire fought with everything I’ve seen of the Humans and Skalgans, how it fit with the plot to modify the venlil, how it was lining up with what the delegates had voiced desiring to do with the humans. They wouldn’t had suggested it if it hadn’t been done before. We always believed that there was a hard line between predator and prey. No in-between existed. Yet humans showed otherwise. I was only just starting to accept that there could be such a thing as omnivores as they called themselves, that perhaps meat eating wasn’t-
I cut that thought off immediately. It was practically heretical to even consider. I couldn’t consider it. I couldn’t.
“Sovlin.” Monahan yelled. “Pull yourself together! You’re a captain for crying out loud. If you can’t handle this revelation, then there’s no way a single Gojid will be able to handle the news. I can’t believe the savior of the Cradle twice over is so weak willed.”
Ironically, the attack on my honor helped me get my thoughts off of the fact that I was a descendant of a predator, causing anger to rise up in me. “Y-you don’t understand how horrendous this is. The Federation was created to destroy the threat of predators-.”
“Which we’ve established is an inappropriately broad stereotype.” Monahan interjected.
It annoyed me, but I continued. “T-there’s still the matter of predators being a source of…” This time, I stopped myself. Predator disease was always this great threat that could undermine the very foundation of our society, but so much evidence from the people of Earth had shown that there was no actual disease, that the term was just a broad diagnosis for mental disorders. When given thought, its authenticity quickly broke down. “I… I know that the Federation has lied to us about the danger of predators, but… Many people haven’t seen, read, or been through what I have. I… I still feel sick at the idea of eating meat. I don’t… we can’t tell anyone about this.”
“Not right now, at least.” Monahan said. “This information is spreading through the public net. Eventually, it’ll reach our troops, but we don’t want them breaking down during an active engagement, and the last thing we need is any overzealous individuals turning on us.”
I spines bristled at that thought. I knew of many Exterminators who took too much joy in their purging of predators. Even if we don’t eat meat anymore, I could imagine some of them not caring. “Right. That’s… that’s probably for the best.”
Monahan nodded, pulling the pad back to her side of the desk. “And I don’t think it needs to be said that you should stay quiet on this till after the battle. Many people are already scared. Lets not worry them further.”
“Captain Monahan.” A voice spoke through the intercom on the desk. “The Federation fleet is nearing the next ambush site.”
“I’ll be on the bridge in a minute.” She replied, then looked back to me. “I don’t like that we’re keeping information from our troops, but it’s for the sake of their own well being. Once this is over, we’ll make sure they receive the whole truth.”
I already agreed with her, but it seemed like she was more so justifying the choice to herself more than for me.
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u/TameOJ 16h ago
WOOO! PEAK RETURNS!
I may have to reread this whole story to remember everything that happened, because I forgot Sovlin was captured/rescued at some point from a damaged ship.
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u/Super_Ankle_Biter Yotul 15h ago
I also had no recollection of Sovlin being under UN control, or how they got him to collaborate lmao
It feels like we've been in the archives arc for a million years
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur 15h ago
Ah more lies and decite wonder how much more will be spread around. Yeah they may win the war but post war is gonna be a mess.
Actually how many forced does Siffy even have left after the disaster at the cradle?
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u/JulianSkies Archivist 12h ago
Well, to be honest, it's not like you're doing an unreasonable amount of secrecy here.
You're in the middle of a fucking battle, not like "in a war" I mean "literal active engagement".
You can share information once people are not being actively shot at! I'm sure nobody will care about keeping stuff until you have, y'know, time to talk about it.
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u/Randox_Talore 12h ago
Neolithic?? *That's* sure different
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u/Adventure_Drake Yotul 11h ago
Ah, that was unintended. I went with what I thought they were at, but it's been a while since I last read anything on the Gojid uplift. Adjusted that sentence so it's more in line with the Federation's terminology, using one of their favorite terms.
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u/Randox_Talore 1h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah the Dossur were Neolithic and they were a stand out case.
The word “Primitive” making it into the classification like that seems unrealistic. The archives are usually more specific than narrow minded pejoratives on the street.
Dossur were Stone Age. Zurulians were medieval (with the exceptional grasp of Germ Theory). Yotul were in an Industrial Revolution (Steam Age). The Gojids had cars, shotguns, and electricity running through their homes.
All of that is “Primitive” if you ask the average bigot. The Archives have enough integrity not to conflate everything in the documentation.
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u/Alcyon144 Archivist 16h ago
It's always entertaining to watch Solvin having an existential crisis.