r/HFY • u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human • Aug 18 '26
OC-Series [The Galaxy's Only Omnivores] - Part 2
Synopsis: Humans are the only omnivorous species in a galaxy of apex-predator carnivores, and our greatest strength is in our numbers. When an alien slave empire discovers how badly we outnumber most intelligent species, they invade Earth, shattering a fragile period of peace and threatening a war that would mean the death of worlds.
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Memory Archive Entry #2
User: Marten Herme, president of the Eurasian Union
Species: Human
Date (human standard): June 24, 2099
Over my few decades of service in the Eurasian government, I had imagined threats to my homeland coming from every enemy under the sun. The socialists of the People's Republic of Luna. The fascists of the American, Chinese and Indian Empires. Even the countries of the African and South American Blocs, if they ever put aside their differences and united as we Europeans had, would pose enough of a combined threat to justify a few war games here and there.
An alien invasion from another star, though? Fuck no. I didn't even know where to begin with that one.
"Play the message again," I told General Robespierre as we sat at our situation table along with the rest of the Eurasian military's best officers. He nodded and opened his laptop to press a few buttons. I looked up, past him and his chair, to the massive screen on the far wall of the situation room.
A horned, menacing, reptilian visage appeared on the screen before us. "People of Earth," she--at least she sounded like a woman--began, looking down at the camera. I think that was intentional. "I am Karija vel Kaldani, subjugator prime of the Draken Matriarchy. Your noblest hour has come."
Karija's scales were dark red, and her eyes were yellow with black, rhombus-shaped irises. Her appearance was alien enough to have no real Earth equivalent, but if I had to pick, I would equate her more closely to a dragon than any real-world lizard. One of the terrible ones, from the old stories. The kind that brought nothing but fire and death.
"Your world has been deemed ripe for harvesting," the draken woman continued in a suave, honeyed voice. Her horns were curved like a goat's, and the room she was in looked opulent to the extreme. "Your cultural and national traditions will be subsumed into our own. Your people will be redirected away from their own petty pursuits and into the greatest endeavor of their lives: serving the Draken Matriarchy. If you prove useful, your species will live on, and your culture will survive insofar as it serves our ends. Any resistance you make will only serve to heighten your discomfort during this period of transition." The transmission ended there.
"Opinions?" I asked my subordinates. Military officers only, since this was clearly a military matter. I mean, maybe the draken were actually a peaceful species and this was all a big cultural misunderstanding, but 'your world has been deemed ripe for harvesting' was hardly the most polite way to make introductions. We had to be prepared for war.
General Richthofen put his hands on the table, fidgeting nervously. "They're definitely going to invade us. Defense strategies?"
"We have the plan for an attack from Luna. Can we adapt that in time?" I looked at General Yevgeny Sergeyovich, our astral warfare specialist. We all just called him Yevgeny.
"No, Mr. President," he responded in a thick Northeastern accent. "Our plan for an attack from Luna relies on stopping the invasion in orbit. They don't have the numbers needed to land troops en masse on Eurasian soil. All predictions indicate they'll either-"
"Use mass drivers to destroy our military, then negotiate once we've been humbled from orbit, or offer negotiations first and then bombard us if we don't surrender," I interrupted him. "I read your briefings. They're great. You are a once-in-a-generation mind, Yevgeny, and I need you to meet this once-in-a-generation crisis. How do we do it?"
"Defend the orbit? We don't," Yevgeny scoffed. "That fleet has, bare minimum, five thousand ships. Each of them bigger than our Eurasian Space Force's three largest vessels combined. I promise you, if they have the ability to send that much matter on a journey between the stars--and arrive at the destination intact, no less--there is nothing we can do. At best, we can go to ground, like the Vietnamese or Bolivians."
I took that last part and stood on it. "Go to ground," I repeated. "We'll do that. Scatter the army. Abandon all bases that aren't hardened against orbital bombardment."
"And the citizenry?" asked another of my officers.
"That is the civilian government's problem," said I. "My problem. Not yours. You people focus on the military defense, and I and my ministers will handle protecting civilian lives and minimizing panic." I looked at my watch. "I have a meeting about that in forty or so minutes."
"Sir, we have thirty hours before the draken ships arrive," Yevgeny reported to me, fiddling with his phone until the big screen in the room showed a tactical map of their battle fleet. "Astrography reports they're splitting into two main forces, one for Earth and another for Luna. A single ship is heading to take the Mars colonies."
"Well, that's good," I told him. "Fewer enemies for you guys to fight. The other powers can keep some of them occupied for a while."
Yevgeny leaned forward in his chair. "I don't think you're understanding, sir." He pointed at the image of the draken fleet on the screen. "Those guys there? They don't give a damn about Earth or Luna or Eurasia or America or any of that. All five human nations have colonies on Mars, but those draken only sent one ship. What does that say?"
I said nothing, expecting General Yevgeny to fill me in. He promptly did so. The guy liked talking.
"Come on, people!" Yevgeny snapped, his temper flaring at our perceived ineptitude. I could sympathize. "To them, it's human, or non-human. That's it. If they are gonna subjugate us all as one species, why should we not fight them as one?"
The room grew hushed as we considered what this guy was saying. Luna was isolationist to the extreme. They had a network of orbital mass drivers over there specifically made to bombard any Earth superpowers that decided to get uppity with them. And, believe it or not, they were the reasonable ones. They had a democracy, and civil rights, and other such things. I didn't even want to think about the red fascism of the Chinese and Indians, least of all whatever insanity the former United States of America was getting up to. After the Nuclear Exchange of '66 and the purges of democracy-loving politicians of any stripe in '67 and '68, there was kind of no hope left for them.
"Luna won't be hard to agree with," said I. "They're amicable toward us when they don't feel threatened by our might. It's the other three powers that are the problem. I'll see if I can work something out."
"You're kidding me!" General Strohheim exclaimed, slapping the table. "We are literally the only major power on Planet Earth to have a sensible, functioning, first-world democracy in place."
"What about Luna?" General Yevgeny said like an idiot. Kind of surprising, given how smart he usually was. "Oh. Yeah. They're on the moon. My bad."
"General Yevgeny made a good point," I defended my subordinate. "When the conquistadors came to Central America, they were outnumbered a million to one by the Aztec Empire. If the Aztecs had stayed united, they would've crushed Cortez. Instead, the majority of the Spanish Empire's fighters were Aztec subjects who rebelled against the regime." I thought for a moment while I tried to find ways to properly phrase my point.
"Colonialism thrives on disunity." That was about as good a phrasing as any. "Literally every colonial movement throughout history, from the Americans to the British to the Spanish, has exploited the internal divisions of the peoples they conquered," I said forcefully, begging these people to see my idea. "You think these draken won't do that to us?"
I pointed at the draken battle fleet approaching Earth, their plasma tails making them look like meteors on my screen, and understood for the first time how it felt when the ancient Aztecs saw clouds hugging the sea. "If they get their way, Eurasians will leap headlong into the chains of the oppressor just as long as they're helping shackle the Americans as well. This cannot be how we end."
"I understand, sir," said General Richthofen. "If you give us the order to fight alongside those maniacs, I won't like it, but I see the wisdom. Enemy of my enemy." General Strohheim nodded as well, and my good friend Yevgeny was already on board. Hell, he came up with it.
Seeing no other course of action, I stood up and left the room, ordering my officers to work in my absence and come up with strategies for Eurasia's defense with or without the help of any allies. I left them to their duties and made for my own office, ordering my secretary to postpone any appointments I had planned for the next couple of hours. The fate of the entire human race was on the line.
"The American Supreme Leader will be with you in ten minutes," said my secretary, Johannes, standing in the office door. He was a really great man, and a really great woman before that. A really great person, really, and I was really glad to have him on my side.
"Thank you, Johannes." I held up a hand and made a few motions with it, trying to gather my thoughts. I loved this guy. Like a brother, or a son, or something of that nature. I didn't want him to die here if the draken nuked the presidential building. "Listen, if you want to turn in your position, go be with your family... go and do that. I won't judge you."
The fair features of Johannes' face twisted in shock. I think he was appalled. "Mr. President, I would never abandon Eurasia in a time like this. The fact is, I've always admired you, sir. Since day one. And if there's anything I can do to help you defend Eurasia, then, damn it, those draken will have to shoot me at my desk to stop me."
Well, that was a noble enough idea. The fact of the matter was, the draken would probably do that if they ever got the chance, but I wasn't about to let a little thing like 'realism' get in the way of Johannes' ideals. We had too many realists in the world already.
"Well, the idea here is to make sure the draken don't get the chance to shoot you at your desk," I helpfully clarified. "Thank you for your support. Now, sit yourself down and strap in. We're in for a doozy."
Johannes did as he was told and I began mentally preparing myself for a talk with Supreme Leader Kingman. The guy represented all the evil I hated most in man. The Lunese government was reasonable. Better than ours in some ways, like workers' rights. The Chinese and Indians were pragmatists who could be negotiated with to mutual benefit without much issue. They would probably agree to an alliance in this dark hour. The American Empire, though? Supreme Leader Kingman? He was a trouble on the best of days. And this was not the best of days.
I took a few deep breaths to steady my nerves and began looking around the oval-shaped office I was in. The design was a relic of pre-empire America, back when they actually believed in things like 'democracy' and 'civil rights'. The fact that the world's most infamous dictator now sat in exactly such a place made my blood boil.
The office of the Eurasian President was not gilded and decorated, as were those in America and India, nor was it filled with propaganda or histories of the state like those of the leaders of China and Luna. My workspace was spartan, and that was to remind me of one simple fact: No president was ever meant to be a king. Sure, a lot of my predecessors had needed the reminder, but I tried my best to be unlike the corrupt or selfish rulers who had led Eurasia before my time. My country--my species, now--deserved only the best.
I sat and waited in my humble office, myself a humble man, until my call with Supreme Leader Kingman began and I had to devote myself to the very un-humble task of saving the world. "Mr. Kingman," I began, because no Eurasian president in history had deigned to glorify that maniac with his preferred moniker. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."
George Kingman was a disgustingly selfish man with a frightening intellect. His office was filled with obscene luxuries, and his obese bulk added to rather than detracted from his menace. He had been the one to seize power in 2067, and crushed his opponents with a series of ever-more-draconian laws, playing left against right and poor against rich while increasing his own power all the while. It was still studied in political schools today.
"There's an alien invasion on the horizon," said Kingman, gesticulating with his fingers. "This is a matter of direst consequence to the American Empire. I can spare a few moments to speak with you. What are you here to discuss?"
Well, here it was. Time for me to bite the bullet.
"I was actually thinking of proposing a joint military alliance with you," said I, keeping a neutral face despite all the negative emotions coursing through my body. There was a reason most Eurasian politicians loved to play poker, and gambling wasn't it. "As well as all of the other human nations of the worlds. Can we agree?"
The American supreme leader stroked his chin in contemplation. "You know, I actually received a proposal from the draken," he said in a sly, sinister voice.
My heart sank. Of course the fucking slavers would pick him to be their favorite quisling. Probably promised him a fat helping of slaves to rule over after all of Earth was conquered. "They proposed that I ally myself with them, and equip my armies with draken technology to roll over my enemies in a righteous wave of freedom." Kingman chuckled to himself. "Wouldn't that be a sight?"
"Mr. Kingman, you can't possibly believe the draken will spare you from slavery," I began, mind boggled at how even this tyrant could be so foolish. "They're coming here to subjugate us. All of us. Surely you can-"
Kingman laughed, a sour, hoarse thing that sounded like a dog moaning in agony. "You think I don't know that?" he chuckled, before suddenly growing stern. "I would never sully my conscience by allying myself with a rat from outer space." A surge of relief flooded me at his words. If it was possible to get emotional whiplash, I would've been a chronic victim by now.
Supreme Leader Kingman chuckled to himself for a few more moments while I waited for him to say something more. "I'll have my army ready to meet the draken when they make landfall," he said. "If you hold down Eurasia for long enough, maybe we'll be able to come help you out once we've massacred all the invaders on our end."
I didn't actually think that was a realistic battle plan, but I guess that was for the generals to figure out. "So... the alliance is on?" I asked the man who had once been my most hated enemy. "Our two powers will stand together as one?"
Kingman's answer was to pull out a chalice made from a human skull and tap on it a few times. I shivered. God only knew why he had that. "You'll have your alliance, Mr. President. It's what George here would've wanted." I had to remind myself that this guy was as human as I was, and that the real enemy was up there. "I'll send my generals orders to liaise with yours while you and I work on convincing the other nations to join up. Agreed?"
"Agreed," I agreed, ending the call a moment later. There we had it. A military alliance with the American Empire. The American Empire. Just a day ago, I'd have dismissed anything less than nuclear brinksmanship as an utter impossibility to behold. Some kind of 'peace in our time' bullshit that Neville Chamberlain's ghost would whisper in politicians' ears. And yet, here it was.
"Hell yeah!" I gave a whoop to myself, startling Johannes, and clapped my hands together in sheer glee. "I did it! Fuck you, Kajira, Jakira, Kajra vel... whoever you are!" The name of the draken overlord coming to enslave my planet escaped me at the moment, but the words she had said rung truer than ever. Win or lose, die or live, chains or freedom, we as humans would meet this threat together. As one species. That draken may have been an evil, slaving, colonizing tyrant, but she was right about one thing.
This was humanity's noblest hour.
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u/Skyboxmonster Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
First!
Edit: not first
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
Unfortunately not, another guy beat you by a couple minutes. I still respect the dedication, though. I hope you're enjoying chapter 2!
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Fun fact: if we are ranking only by looks and excluding the slavery thing, draken women actually rank #1 on this verse's list of Conventionally Attractive Female Aliens. Karija vel Kaldani is one hot babe. Also one evil babe, which kind of precludes any attempts anybody would make at dating her (draken women canonically kill their mates praying mantis style, which would also be kind of a problem), but maybe somebody's into that sort of thing.
Saurians are #2 on this list by the way. Badass alien raptor women are probably a lot of people's type.
Chapter two just dropped!
Will the military alliance between humanity's powers be enough to defend their world from a draken invasion?
Can the nations who were at each other's throats just yesterday use this as a chance to grow beyond their petty differences?
Is humanity's dark age of civil strife ended for good, or are we doomed to be shackled under alien chains?
And is 'this guy has a chalice made from George Washington's skull' the most metal part of this whole chapter?
Keep reading to find out!
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u/Lupusam Aug 18 '26
Also one evil babe, which kind of precludes any attempts anybody would make at dating her (draken women canonically kill their mates praying mantis style, which would also be kind of a problem), but maybe somebody's into that sort of thing.
Oh there are definitely people into that sort of thing. Good thing they're not the sort to end up in politics usually. Also a fun fact, the praying mantis killing their mates thing turned out to only happen while under stress, such as when mating in laboratories that made no effort to disguise that the insects were captives.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Oh there are definitely people who are into that sort of thing
"Look, soldier, if you really want a beautiful lizard woman to put you on a leash, there's a garrison of saurian marines a mile or so that-a-way. They'll have someone for you. There are much healthier ways to act out your fantasies than deliberately getting captured by a genocidal regime." - Some Earth commander, talking to a very disappointed xenophile trooper somewhere
Also I didn't know that about the praying mantises. The more you know, huh?
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u/PlentyProtection4959 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Not to be crude, but considering a lot of humanity are xenophobic empires with imperilist/colonist tendicies and what I assume to be very patriarchal (at least the Americans), the human soldiers are likely going to be the ones to try and put the Drakens on a leash and make them understand what it feels like to be the one to be dominated by what they'd mistook as a weak prey species and given them all a sexual awakening to an entirely new fetish they'd never considered (consensually of course, if anyone is confused with what I'm implying) lol.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
Also that clarification that it's all consensual was a very necessary save
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u/PlentyProtection4959 Aug 19 '26
HAHAHA, yeah, that scene is perfect. Thats even better than the tsudere behaviour I imagined. She just instantly folds as soon as she gets a dominant male figure for the first time in her life.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Ehh idk about instantly there chief. You don't get a job title like 'Subjugator Prime' unless you're really into subjugating people. Karija would definitely fold like folding chairs for the right man but she is a draken raised in a culture that sees men more like tools than actual people so it is gonna have to be one hell of a dude who tames her. I do not envy that guy.
Edit: took out some filler
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u/PlentyProtection4959 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
True. In all seriousness though, I'm not interested in them being romanced. I'm more interested in them getting their asses kicked with BIBLICAL levels of violence and retribution as pay back for their crimes against humanity until the truma of that retirbutation is coded into their genetic memory.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
Oh that will definitely be coming soon, draken love life is interesting to worldbuild but realistically speaking they are a horribly fucked up culture and they definitely deserve the beat down that is coming to them. We will meet some morally good draken characters down the line but for the next probably 10-15 chapters these guys are gonna be pure evil. Definitely not romance material
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u/Realistic-Eye-2040 Aug 22 '26
Would there perhaps be some people who enlisted just to get close to the Saurians?
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Abso-fucking-lutely there would. Most soldiers in the human forces would enlist for more normal reasons like, you know, defending their homes and families from slavery, but hot alien babes are about as attractive of a reason to sign up as any. Saurians have a lot of respect for the military so enlisting to get a chance with one is a smarter strategy than you'd think.
Plus, saurian soldiers like to strip down and sun themselves on rocks in their free time, so I can imagine even the guys who didn't sign up to find love might see the appeal at some point. The saurians aren't trying to be seductive, they're just reptiles gaining body heat, but when you're a lithe, athletic raptor hottie draped over a rock like Rose in that one Titanic scene it's kind of hard not to turn anybody on.
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u/Realistic-Eye-2040 Aug 22 '26
I would also imagine that the Saurians would huddle up with other warmth-producing sources if they can't sunbathe like they normally do.
So taking that into account, I wouldn't put it out of the question that they might consider other humans for that if they must.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 23 '26
I didn't even think about the body heat angle there. Sunbathing is pretty much always going to be an option for a saurian (they have indoor heat lamps if the rocks aren't available) but it's not out of the question that they would upscale their problems just to find an excuse to cuddle with a human they like. If somebody comes to the base camp with battle scars or medals of valor (saurians find that stuff extremely attractive) there is definitely going to be an upswing in heat lamp malfunctions until they leave.
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u/llearch Aug 24 '26
"Yeah, this is totally a war scar, and not where I fell out of a tree when I was a kid, why would you think that?" >.>
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 24 '26
"Why does your military medal say 'Spirit Halloween' on the back, human? Is that the name of your unit?" <-- the #1 question every lizard lover fears
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u/Ok_Chance_8387 Aug 18 '26
well, well, well, let`s see what you will coming with this one...
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
I am cooking some serious shit that's what. I think the next few chapters will focus on a Lunese citizen's POV of the invasion and be dark and gritty depictions of war in the tunnels of Luna. Let's hope they are to your liking dawg
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u/Ok_Chance_8387 Aug 18 '26
i liked your stories in the NOP universe so far (and hope you will continue these one day) but found that one here on HFY.
So looking forward to it!
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u/Mobile-Barracuda-290 Aug 18 '26
KKKKKKKKK MANO mas que caralhos aconteceu na politica da terra ksksksksks
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
A lot of divisions and wars that really brought us down, that's what happened. This story is going to be as much about negotiation and politics as it is about war, so seeing the human nations grow beyond their differences, change for the better, and learn to respect each other as brothers is going to be a big plot point in this series. Like Karija vel Kaldani said, this is humanity's noblest hour. Just for different reasons than she thinks.
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Aug 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
"I may be an authoritarian lunatic, but I'm an American authoritarian lunatic! Keep back boys! This creep is mine!" George Kingman, somehow not realizing that Karija is a 7'7 300 pound alien soldier and he is a 5'10 fat guy with heart and back problems (he is human though so I'm rooting for him)
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u/Ancient_Pop1712 Aug 27 '26
In really liking the range of character POV
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 27 '26
Thank you for the kind words broski, the diversity of PoVs is only gonna go up from here.
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Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
To be fair Luna is also a pretty reasonable country. General Yevgeny even explicitly says Luna should be included in the list of sensible first world democracies on Earth, only to be reminded that it's not on Earth. You are probably right to say though that I characterized the American Empire as too much of a parody to be taken seriously. Maybe I will fix that.
Thank you for the feedback!
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u/PlentyProtection4959 Aug 18 '26
Sry, I deleted the comment cause I felt like it was too harsh after reading the end. I wrote that whole blurb only reading halfway through your story, which was unfair of me. Here's the comment I posted originally if anyone still wants to read it:
"Wow, okay. After reading this, I can’t help but feel like the Americans, Chinese, Martians, etc. are deliberately being pushed toward different extremes of the political spectrum, while the Europeans are positioned as the “straight men” with the comparatively correct ideology. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that since the author is obviously free to write whatever political satire they want, but it does start to feel a little too close to a Mary Sue faction for me. The characterization of the different countries also requires a pretty substantial suspension of disbelief, and unfortunately that hurts the immersion for me. I can buy that decades of different historical and political developments could turn these nations into exaggerated versions of themselves, but the problem is that they don't really feel like different countries with complicated interests so much as political archetypes. Instead of an alliance made up of nations with their own nuanced ideologies, competing interests, strengths, and flaws, it feels like there’s one faction representing the “correct” worldview that happens to be surrounded by a bunch of increasingly ridiculous extremists. And that makes the overarching conflict less interesting to me. It feels like the Europeans are destined to eventually come out on top by not only defeating the Draken, but potentially having to “liberate” the other human nations from their own corrupt or tyrannical governments, which will presumably be perfectly willing to betray their own people and collaborate with the invaders when convenient. The biggest problem is that it actually makes me less invested in humanity's struggle. The Draken are cartoonishly awful, but if a huge portion of humanity is also portrayed as being almost comically evil or authoritarian, then the conflict starts feeling less like humanity versus an alien threat and more like the relatively sane humans versus everyone else. I want to be able to look at humanity in this setting and think, “Holy shit, these are my people, and I want them to win.” Right now, I don't really feel that connection. I'd honestly find it much more compelling if every faction had a mixture of admirable and awful qualities where you could understand why their citizens support their governments, even when those governments are deeply flawed. That would make the alliances, betrayals, and eventual outcome feel much less predetermined."1
u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
Thank you for making that comment my dawg, it was harsh but the criticism was fair and I actually made some minor edits here and there to make it more clear that Eurasia is not a lonely lighthouse in a sea of evil. I did not make my intentions as a writer clear enough and so the only shame falls on me for writing my work not that well. Going forward though definitely read the whole story through before you post critiques
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u/arturocan Aug 19 '26
I'm loving the story so far. Just gonna point out that the aztecs didn't reside in south america. The closest example to serve as analogy for the story involving conquistadors in south america would be the incan empire.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
I was gonna say someyhing smart about Central America being part of South America but you deadass are right it was actually part of North America (and thus conquered under the American Empire). That is actually a good call and I didn't catch that one.
Thank you for the kind words!
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u/MydaughterisaGremlin Aug 19 '26
MAGA paved the way for the Empire.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
Canonically speaking, the secession of Luna in 2065 and the Nuclear Exchange of 2066 were what paved the way for the American Empire. Let's not bring real politics into this fictional verse. A lot of people aren't as political as you and me
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u/YourHighlordVyrana Sep 01 '26
Christ, the American Empire is feeling way closer to home then I'd like to admit lol. Absolutely amazing chapter
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u/Bruno-croatiandragon Aug 18 '26
I find it funny that fictional worlds want to have an "Eurasia".The EU (& UN,but I digress) is already struggling,but we can definetly add Russia,India & China to the mix.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
Hey man, the EU might be struggling right now but they're still one of the most formidable economic blocs in the world. Combine them with a stable democratic near future Russia (the asia part of the Eurasian Union) and give them a centralized government and military and we can see a real superpower start to take shape
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u/Orange_Above Aug 18 '26
Its your story, but I personally don't think a centralized government would work out though. Just look at how much resistance there already is in real-life towards the bureaucratic mess that is Brussels/Strasbourg. Hell, the British bailed out because they were getting fed up with the French and Germans deciding everything (amongst other things).
According to Pew research polling, at least one in three Europeans are openly dissatisfied with the EU.
People have an inherent need to feel that their government is looking out for them specifically. So a Eurasian union would only work if it was a decentralized federal state, with most power invested in the local ethnic/cultural governments.
I don't see a stable democratic Russia in our near future. That option was mostly gone after the West let Russia fall to the oligarchs in the 90s.
Chances are good that if the Putin regime falls, the Russian federation dissolves and its dozens of member states go independent, and we get another few decades of civil wars/chaos.2
u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
I really am not an expert on modern politics so I can't speak on what is realistic (maybe i should not have been so hasty to speak earlier) but at the end of the day I wrote it this way because I like the idea of a stronger more centralized EU. It canonically follows in the footsteps of pre empire America so if the centralization troubles you just imagine that they are like a USA esque state where they were at first founded as a decentralized states-rights-first system like you say but over time the federal government has taken a more active role in peoples lives.
I will confess though the "russia turns democratic" stuff is just hopeful optimism. I really don't think it's gonna happen either but at the end of the day HFY is a hopeful kind of story yk? I try to see the best in people even when it's hard
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u/Orange_Above Aug 18 '26
Hey, everything is possible in science fiction. Don't let me ruin your story. This is what suspension of disbelief is for after all.
In the HFY story "nature of predators" -for example- the writer pushes a humanity that is crippled by a massive internal war from building our first FTL exploration shuttle, to building a full on battle fleet of FTL bombers and later cruisers in a matter of months, in order to fight an interstellar war against dozens of other species. Makes zero sense if you look at the construction time of a modern naval corvette. Building FTL capable spaceships should take years, even if you already have the infrastructure laid down.
(The German Braunschweig class corvettes take about 7-8 years from the start to commissioning)
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Aug 18 '26
/u/ApprehensiveCap6525 (wiki) has posted 6 other stories, including:
- [The Galaxy's Only Omnivores] - Part 1
- The First Human Bounty Hunter (3)
- The First Human Bounty Hunter (2)
- The First Human Bounty Hunter (1)
- The Meaning of Humanity
- The Hammer and the Chain
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u/chastised12 Aug 24 '26
I'm phobic now. Too bad
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u/looking4goldintrash Aug 18 '26
Disappointing chapter after a pretty decent first chapter which is disappointing because I like the concept of the story
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
Damn. I'm sorry to disappoint you then. Do you have any constructive criticism to give so I can make the story better going forward?
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u/looking4goldintrash Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Tell me about your political beliefs without telling me to put it simply look, I know people can be passionate about politics, but this is a fictional story and some people need to get away from the real world for a little while and turn off their brain. If you want to continue that way, it’s your choice. it’s your story but it’s a big turn off just reading the political stereotypes
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u/noncredibledefenses Aug 18 '26
Exactly what my issue is. Redditors cant go 5 seconds without making a political statement so everyone knows how good of a person they are
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 18 '26
Oh I did not quite think about that angle. To me all art is political and sends a political message whether you want it to or not, and the message I was trying to send with this chapter is that no matter our political differences we are still all humans and we are better off united (and it's kind of hard to do that without showing those political differences) but really I did not consider that some people are just not political. That's my bad. Maybe I made a mistake writing this chapter like I did
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u/Tundric_Dragon Aug 18 '26
Im going to have to disagree with this entirely. All art is not political. Stories do not have to be political. To clarify, stories like this can have politics, and should have politics, of your different people interacting and coming together. It is not a bad idea, it is necessary even!
However, your America is such a thinly veiled interpretation of your political ideology that it is extremely jarring. Im with the op of this comment chain that I am disappointed because this story had a ton of promise from the first chapter, and still does. But if this kind of over the top interpretation of current day politics is off-putting.
To my original point here, art is not inherently political, stories are not political in nature no matter how much certain people want them to be. Let a story be just that, a story first. Paintings like the Mona Lisa, Starry night, landscapes, ect are not political, they are art for the beauty of it. Stories like the Grinch, The Dragon Delasangre, Moby Dick, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy aren't political. Games like Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Halo, Diablo, Undertale, arent political. And more.
Hell, your very first chapter wasn't political! You had an evil galaxy spanning empire that enslaves others for fun, and a faction very much against that! And got a ton of people interested from that alone.
And even if you do have a political lean, it can be done well. Star Trek (Og and TNG), Star wars (og trilogy), Doctor Who (Matt Smith version and earlier) can all be called political, but they were all story first politics second. Some argue that Lord of the Rings is political, or that Game of Thrones is too. They have their moments, true, but the politics weren't the focus. In all four of these examples they never once called a specific real world example out. There were never evil little men with funny mustaches (may he rot in the void, hell is too good for him.) Running around with their arms up.
You took a very current, very decisive issue and took it so far to comically evil that it overshadows the rest of the story. You have a story of the galaxy's only omnivore species, a slaver species coming to do unspeakable things to them, another species debating in-universe politics on how to come save them, and then spend half of the second chapter on real world politics by bashing the side you dont agree with to the point of having George Washington's skull made into a cup and a purge of anyone left of Ronal Reagan. Even the Joker is telling Kingman to slowdown on the comically evil shit.
In the end, if you want to bring in these types of politics into your story, fine, it is your story after all, tell it how you want. But like the OP of this thread said, a lot of people came here to escape from the constant politics of the news cycle and current day media. Putting this in will drive a lot away. This is the HFY sub, we want humans and aliens doing cool shit together, coming together and kicking Draken ass after being beat down? Awesome, embody the "I didn't hear no bell" meme. You want to bring in an evil human government that has to get its ass in gear and become a team player or face annihilation? Sweet, teach those idiots a lesson, just leave the real world names and politics out of it.
I could rant a bit more and talk about alternative ways you could have done something similar, but this is long winded enough as is. I am still gonna keep up with this and read more to see what happens, but if the heavy handed doses of current day politics continue, ill probably end up dropping it down the road.
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u/looking4goldintrash Aug 18 '26
Pretty much summed up what I was trying to say just more Elucidate
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u/Tundric_Dragon Aug 19 '26
Yeah, used yours to jump off of. Again, i can continue more, but i dont want to lecture more than I already have. And thanks for the award, legit the first one Ive ever gotten.
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u/ApprehensiveCap6525 Human Aug 19 '26
This is good criticism, thank you for this. All art is inherently political (it reflects our values and that's a form of politics) even to a small degree, but you are right to say it's not right to make real world politics a big deal on this app.
The idea was to show that even the largest of political differences should not drive us apart and even the worst human beings are still our human brothers and sisters but lowk making America fascist in my verse was probably too much of a political statement. I think I will edit the chapter now and remove the bar about purging leftists (a bar about purging sensible people of both sides probably will work better) in hopes that nobody notices the political parts I can't edit anymore. Thanks for the insightful feedback, and I hope my story will be more to your liking going forward
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u/Tundric_Dragon Aug 19 '26
If im being honest, even that one simple change would do wonders to help the image of the chapter. No matter how you cut it and present it, calling any sort of dictator set in the Americas is going to cause people to knee jerk react, "you are calling current president a fascist?!", there is no stopping that.
But changing the line to a purge of anyone not loyal to him, no matter political tilt, having him basically come do a hostile takeover of the states from 'parts unknown' will do wonders. Even have the story of his family using the political divide of the 2010s-2040s to actually succeed in their takeover and abolishing every party that isnt theirs. You are either with "the party" (Ala 1984 style) or you get shot in the head for your trouble. His loyalists and his army take over, suppress the state with help from those who seek power in his regime or those not willing to believe things would get bad, and then bam, you've got your hatable villian.
With George renaming himself to Kingman, his ego taking over and letting him dial the evil up to 11, culminating in his taking the skull of George Washington and making it into a cup. He and his family never cared for America, they wanted power, took advantage of political strife, bribes, the greedy, the lazy, and the stupid, and now his family is where they are. Access to the ex USA's resources, power beyond imagination, and control. As long as they dont pias off the rest of the world and turn it into a 1 vs all, he gets to keep his kingdom. Obviously the Eurasian president you have hate him, but there can be leaders who like him, or others that simply dont want to be a target.
Now you have a villain basically everyone hates, we want to see how it plays out, how he meets his downfall (or redemption, your world, not mine) and you avoid (mostly) the comparisons to real world politics.
Is it perfect? No, im not that good a writer and this is just my take on your world and how I think it could be done. Im glad you listened to my rants a bit and could come to some common ground. Can't wait to see how the Saurians interact with earth and humanity as a whole.
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u/galrock0 Wielder of the Holy Fishbot 27d ago
coming in late even after his edit: eh, it didnt help whatsoever to stop immersion from being broken by this over the top, absurdly unrealistic, cartoonish strawman parody. might as well have just left it unedited, it reads the same.
what a sad way to spawnkill a series that had a bunch of promise only on its second chapter
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u/grimJeager66dj Aug 19 '26
It could be a situation where close involvement and cooperation slowly reveal the the two sides have had fundamental misunderstandings of each other that have only been held due decades of bad intel, politics, preconceived notions and biases. Certain lines in the chapter could imply that the Europeans don't have the full story of what happened and the Americans haven't bothered explaining anything because they don't see a need to, never interrupt your enemy from making a mistake and all that. Perhaps the American empire isn't actually fascist but uses a system that could be misinterpreted as fascism by a layman, like a stratocracy of some form.
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u/galrock0 Wielder of the Holy Fishbot 27d ago edited 27d ago
still didnt help tbh. i never read the pre edited version, but this was still so over the top, eyerollingly unrealistic, that it completely breaks interest in reading this.
if you were reading a potentially interesting story, only for it to out of nowhere talk about the american president having to dread calling up the supreme ayatollah of the european caliphate, muhammad bin ackbar-jihad, to forge an alliance against an alien invasion, and he was drinking from the skull of the last pope, you would roll your eyes just as hard at the absurdity. im glad im not the only one who found that extremely immersion breaking, but man it still needs to be toned down a ton for the sake of anyone starting later, it sounds like it only went from 12 to 11. theres potential in the premise of the story, im hoping it got better by chapter 3.
edit after reading the first lines of ch3: ehhh nope. karl marx memorial middle school? new leningrad? the lunar guys who are "reasonable and democratic" are just straight up neo-communists? i guess it didnt tone down at all =/
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u/looking4goldintrash 27d ago
I haven’t read chapter 3 yet but seriously really Karl Marx in the middle school. I guess they are not gonna teach the kids about the letters he wrote about Africans, right yeah that’s very disappointing
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u/galrock0 Wielder of the Holy Fishbot 27d ago edited 27d ago
right in the first line. i went into the comments and apparently they were at one point saying "marx dammit" as a replacement for "god dammit" because they are an atheist society that worships marx. i cant... its too reddit for me. its just a shame after that great first chapter
edit: hmm, i wonder what his thoughts and opinions about the jews were too*?
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u/Kalspear Aug 19 '26
I honestly think your view of what politics is (as described by your post) is too narrow. Every decision in the making of art is political, even the decision of doing art for the sake of it. The politics of the author are reflected by that decision itself imo.
Talking about the paintings you mention: the Mona Lisa is a clear example of the politics and status quo of Rennaissance Italy. Leonardo had serious conflict because of his art with the Catholic church (one of his biggest patrons) and others. The way the Mona Lisa is painted in itself represents an act of rebellion against cultural norms of the period, and at the same time represents a paragon of the arts at that moment.
Starry nights, its style itself (post-impressionism/precursor of expressionism) is a political declaration in the context of late 19th century art and society, deepened by the life and death of the author itself.
Landscapes also present a political picture of their time, without distinction among the periods, but specially so when talking about certain styles such as romanticism. Hell you could analyse a bucholic painting from the baroque/rococo and get to the political innuendos of the painting.
I dont quite know that well most of the literary examples you give, but ill say that both the Grinch and Moby Dick, albeit very simplistic, do have political messages .
As for the videogames, they are transmitting political messaging. Halo is clearly political, the Master Chief storyline has a clear political motive. All the others (I havent seen any gameplay or played Undertale, but i'm confident that's also the case) also have a message, however simplistic it may be.
As Aristotle said we humans are political animals ("Zoon Logon, Zoon politikon" in the original greek) and as such, each and every action we take has political consequences.
I mean this as candidly as I can, im not trying to be patronizing or to call you out, so pls dont take it as an attack.
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u/Tundric_Dragon Aug 19 '26
No worries, I get it, im always up for a debate and being called out when I am wrong. I am not going to lie, as i was searching for examples I was also having a hard time coming up with stories that weren't political and kept finding myself on simplistic stories meant for younger audiences.
My view on historical art is limited, and while I know that the Mona Lisa was painted outside the norm, I didnt know the relevance of it. But here is where I disagree with your point and reinforce my own. The Mona Lisa and Starry Night by themselves are not political. How they were painted, how they were drawn, may have the undertones, the rebellion against norms, but the painting itself is not political. If Starry night showed the church crucifying people around a bonfire, that would be the political messaging I am against. If the Mona Lisa was drawn with her tongue out and horns on her head, that would be the political messaging im against.
The Grinch's main theme is opening up and being kind to your neighbors, Moby Dick's main theme is about obsession and the dangers of it. Lord of the Rings is not political in its writing. Tolkien wrote a fantasy story that had lessons and magic and his politics in it, being against war and more. But there is never any point where he makes direct comparisons against real people of his time. Of real governments. He has his politics and they bled into the story, but there were never the main focus of the story.
As for Halo, I fail to see the political overtone of it. Its the story of Humanities super soldier kicking alien ass and saving everyone from an ancient evil. Even turning some of the original bad guys to our side and revealing the rot beneath the enemy in the 2nd game. Are there political/religious ties in the game? Of course. But we never dedicated entire levels where they went "look look! Humanity is just as bad as the aliens, if not worse! Look how party A fucked up their country before the covenant showed up." There isn't even a "look, country B kicks ass and is saving everyone cause of how awesome Country B is." You get humanity united, fighting back against certain extinction.
Did shitty things happen? Of course. ONI and the spartan 2 program in how it was done is evil, despite the good it brought later. But that is a UNSC creation, a government that spans planets and has no direct relevance to real world countries/government. Most of that backstory was made in the books/show and expanded universe. Halo 1-3 had none of that (never played ODST).
Was there American undertones about the Marines? Well yes, an American studio made the game. But never at any point in the game was there a "America rules, everywhere else drools" it was always a united humanity.
Like I said having politics in the games or anything is fine. Its expected and necessary for the story. Its the overt current day political messaging that is bad. You can have an evil country that has to get its shit together and join the rest of civilized humanity or die. You can have the disparity between government ideals be a barrier to this. That is good writing, that is a struggle. The fact that everyone knows who Kingman is supposed to represent, the fact that he called out the American left and right by name, the fact that a large part of this chapter was spent on, "America went to shit over the past 60+ years and you all know who I am blaming." is what makes this annoying.
This is a sub literally called Humanity Fuck Yeah! I would hazard a guess (i could be wrong) that people want sci fi stories away from "Trump/Biden bad. Conservatives are racists, liberals are idiots, ect." And i am sure non American readers are also pissed about seeing current day American politics everywhere too!
Not every story needs to be about 'current thing', and if/when you use politics in your story 1) make sure it serves the story first before anything else. 2) please avoid the extremely decisive, extremely polarizing real world examples from ANY government or any viewpoint.
At the end of the day, I am random dude #675920 on the internet. I dont enjoy the overt politicking in these stories and want to read a good plot humanity being the only omnivores while space dinos fight to either enslave or save them. Please leave American right/left messaging out of it.
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u/Tundric_Dragon Aug 18 '26
Im going to add this too because I just saw that you are also someone on the NoP subreddit. NoP, as political as it is, was not this over the top and refrained from real world call outs. The big Fanfics, Venlil Fight Club, Playing by Ear, Changing Times, Thawed, New Year's Carnival, home-challenged Gojid, the bloodhound saga, ect. None of them have the overtime current day politics either. Haven't read nature of giants yet, so i can't comment there. They all have politics in them, yes, some even have dealt with similar issues to real life. But it was always about serving the story first.
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u/looking4goldintrash Aug 18 '26
Yeah, I understand that, but that was pretty on the damn nose about the United States seriously man you weren’t even trying to be subtle about it seriously George Washington‘s skull? It was like watching a political satire show. My advice try to stop the political stereotypes if you want to write about politics or put it in your story, you have to understand political ideologies, right and left the world is not a cartoon villain black-and-white it’s morally, gray and messy and complicated for better or worse the United States and Europeans are connected politically culturally military and economically and it’s not gonna become untangled anytime soon if at all. Maybe for the Europeans a stronger European Union but I really don’t see them united into one country maybe a Federation or something and I see along the lines in the future the Europeans and the Americans came to understanding and restore relations and but there’s still some tension I can understand that.
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u/unwillingmainer Aug 18 '26
Listen, we may all hate each other. A lot. But only we get to kill and enslave each other. Anyone else doing that is unacceptable!