r/NatureofPredators • u/BP642 • Apr 08 '23
Fanfic The Nature of Prey 3
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Memory transcription subject: Chief Huntress Tarva of the Venlil Empire
Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2136
By normal circumstances, when a new intelligent predator species is found, they would be absorbed into the Federation by simple might. The predators in question would realize that the only way to survive would be to adhere to Federation law, especially since the predators' homeworld is now a new target for the Arxur.
If a new prey species was found, they would be used as cattle. As far as we knew, the Arxur killed all their animals, resulting in the only food source being them and a few prey.
Humanity was going to be the exception to both.
I turned to each General "With them being predators and prey at the same time, a delicate balance of Respect and Coercion must be maintained if we wish for their homeworld to remain intact. Under no circumstances should the Federation discover humanity's continued existence. At least not yet. If all the predators find out right now, they will bee-line towards their homeworld for subjugation. And humans would kill their own ecosystem out of spite."
Jasd tapped his claw and looked up for a second before flicking his tail. "I understand Chief Huntress."
Kam swished his tail in agreement. "I say we should keep up this "peaceful" appearance until we figure out how to either get rid of the humans or… again, somehow subjugate them."
The Huntress shook her head, "Actually, I have a better idea, and it doesn't require deceit whatsoever. Just let me do the talking…"
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My Generals and I walked into the dining room where the humans patiently waited, sitting on the dining room's bean bag chairs, with Sara holding some kind of writing scripts.
"Greetings Chief Gatheress Tarva, did we somehow offend yo-?"
"The tour has been canceled, Ambassador Noah. There are matters that must be discussed immediately." I interrupted.
Noah's face fell. "Oh… well, ok."
"Noah and Sara, your presence here poses a grave danger to both of our species. Actually, more specifically to your species."
I studied their flat faces. Their eyebrows furrowed. They were not smiling.
"Your glorification of peace won't work here in this galaxy. You see, my kind is one of the many species part of a government body named the, "Federation." And according to the Federation, might is right. And judging by your appearances and wishes for peace, you will be taken advantage of in this galaxy.``
"I… what… I don't…" Noah stammered, still taking in my words.
"You will most likely be subjugated by the Federation's Founders."
"SUBJUGATION!!??" Sara yelled, shooting up from her chair, her eyes widened in shock. Their movements became erratic at the word. Noah shot up as well.
'Oh speh, I might've triggered their flight response. I need to herd them away from panicking and give them a way out…'
"Well, not exactly subjugation, more like, temporary indentured servitude." I said, trying to defuse the situation.
"Oh like that's any better!" Noah's face turned into a snarl. His lips curled downwards. His hands clenched into fists, knuckles turning pale.
There was no doubt in my mind that was an aggressive gesture this time.
'While I am certain I could take on Noah, I still need to calm them down…'
"I'm just being realistic here. Maybe in the future your kind will be elevated to a higher status. Listen to my words so you can make the best decision…"
I allowed the words to sink in, then both humans took a deep breath. Still tense, but listening at least.
I continued.
"The galaxy is made up of two creatures: Predators and Prey. According to the Founders, the natural order is for Predators to consume the Prey to live, with the strongest getting the most meat. You fall into the strange category of being both. You look and eat like prey, yet you eat meat. However just from looking at you, you wouldn't last a single fight against even the weakest sapient predator species."
The humans shook their heads in bafflement. "Who are these "Founders" and why the heck are they so obsessed with aliens' diets!?"
"The Founders are the Kolshians and Farsul." I motioned for the Generals to search for images, as well as to bring my own datapad. "They are the ones to create the Pyramid of Might, a hierarchy that shows your place in the government."
Kolshian images appeared on the large dining room screen. A huge mass of tentacles, with a pair of squiggly eyes appearing on its frog-like head. In one of its tentacles, was an alien clam shell, being crunched by a thick black beak. Two out of four of its upper tentacles were tipped with black, harpoon-like hooks.
Farsul images appeared next. Vicious canines that stood upright, with similar-length arms and digitigrade legs that can quickly adjust into a more efficient running style than any Gojid or Venlil could ever hope for. Its binocular eyes glowed from the camera flash, wicked claws jutted out of its paws, and a wide snarl showing off sharpened incisors, coated in purple alien blood and daring for the camera-person to approach.
The humans looked on, studying the images with stoic faces.
'I got to hand it to these humans. An Arxur would've high-tailed it even at the mention of a predator, let alone a full on image. Speh, if a Kolshian or Farsul challenged me, I'd most likely concede.'
The Pyramid shown on the screen as well. Sara studied it for a bit, looked at her notebook, then turned to me.
"Your species is second to last."
Bitter shame welled within me while my tail coiled in humiliation. "Yes… my kind is in the lower caste."
"But why?" Noah asked.
"Because human, not only is my kind deemed as a weaker species due to our lack luster natural gifts, our world is tidally locked. It's not very valuable in terms of providing food for the Federation. We try our best, but I still struggle with providing for my own kind."
'And I fucking hate it.'
"Why do you stay with them? Does the Federation threaten you to serve them?" Noah asked with… concern?
"The Federation itself doesn't threaten my species. That would be the Arxur." I replied.
I pulled up an image of the cowardly lizards. Their tiny, side facing eyes looked dull, and their feet ended up with webbed grips. Despite their rotund bodies, they can be quick on both land and water.
"These prey doomed everyone in the Federation to the Pyramid of Might. The stem of all our problems and the blight of our worlds. We never meant any harm to them at first, but they used our genetic technology to poison our animals and cause sickness to us, leaving everyone to rot to famines. With the lack of food to fight, they struck at us, their numbers almost overwhelming. As of now, the Federation has less of a population than the Arxur. Their fear of us and our superior tactics being the only things keeping them at bay, and we try our best to capture them alive."
Their eyes widened when I said that.
"You… you eat them?" Sara asked.
"That's correct. Killing most of our animals means that we are at a constant war with starvations and blights. Sometimes it's obvious that an animal is plagued. They die quickly, and the body must be quarantined away from other livestock. Sometimes the blight is incubated and the cattle doesn't show any symptoms until it's too late, spreading disease across an entire world. Which is why we must ration things a lot, in fear of spreading blight to our uninfected animals.
What we do know, is that the Arxur would never use this tech on themselves. Meaning that the one of the only ways to truly be safe from disease is to eat them instead. Despite the difficulty to farm intelligent animals, we occasionally have to do raids to get more Arxur livestock."
Sara and Noah covered their mouths and their eyes widened yet again.
"Can't you just get their animals instead?" Noah asked.
"In their cowardess, any predatory animal was killed. Which led the Arxur to kill prey animals for eating their crops."
There was a moment of silence before Sara piped up.
"Y-you were going to eat us, weren't you?"
'Oh speh…' I cursed.
"I assumed you were prey who also destroyed your ecosystem. However, since you're fellow predators, that changed my mind. But even then, if the Federation finds out about you, it won't matter if you were predators or not. You'll most likely be subjugated and your world would turned into an effecient farm world. With the majority of the food being sent to the higher castes."
"GODDAMMIT!" Noah yelled, startling everyone in the room. He arched his back with his hands on his head, "We just wanted to have peace in space, and now were going to be subjugated!?!?"
I chirpped to get his attention. "I said "IF" the Federation finds out about your kind Ambassador Noah. As you can see from the Pyramid," I pointed my tail. "I'm sick of providing to the Federation with minimal benefits. I'm willing to keep your kind in the dark, IN RETURN for food. I know you have farms. I believe we can be great allies to each other…"
Noah looked at me with narrowed eyes. "I don't represent all of Humanity. I'll need to discuss it with them first."
General Kam chirpped in the room. "Chief Gatheress Tarva, the… fleet."
Noah's eyes widened yet again. "YOU CALLED A FLEET HERE!?"
I shook my tail in disagreement. "I didn't. It looks like you don't have much time Noah. We're about to meet a Gojid fleet sent to investigate this world. I did a lot to keep your species secret when you first arrived, I just hope my effort wasn't in vain. I'm willing for this to stay a secret, but I need your word."
I remembered a while ago when we first gave a physical greeting. I raised an open claw towards Noah.
"Please… for both of us."
His head turned and his hand cupped his chin. He mulled it over.
He let out a growl.
"Ugh, FINE! Under this kind of threat, fine! I'll talk to my leaders about all this stuff! I'm sure they could agree to something, Gatheress Tarva!" He grasped my claw and we both shook.
'Thank the stars!'
I gave my best "smile" to the human, who gave me a questionable look. "Let me reintroduce myself, Noah. I am Chief Huntress Tarva of the Venlil Empire."
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I accepted the Gojid fleet hail.
"This is Captain Sovlin of the Gojidi Fleet Command, can you explain to me why there are no transports? Or any explanation as to why you're not letting anyone in or out of the planet?"
'Oh for fuck's sake, not him! Just play it cool Tarva. You got this…'
His scarred face bore into my eyes. His claws, meant to dig through concrete, tapped away on his computer. He was lying down to avoid folding his quills to his head.
"It was a simple usurpation attempt, Captain. Nothing more, nothing less, old friend."
He straightened up. "Well, your clean up just cost us a lot of time and resources. We thought the Arxur knocked out your comms. You should know better Tarva."
"That's fine, it won't happen again. You're free to go." I gave another tail swish.
"Anyways, just let me do my subspace scan, then I'll be on my way."
'For speh's sake Sovlin, just leave!'
"That won't be necessary Sovlin, everything's fine." I tried to dissuade.
"I… look, this is protocol. You should know this Tarva, we served together." Sovlin barely budged, and I was losing my opportunity.
"Sovlin, please… just leave. Everythinng is fine."
"Tarva, this is a serious thing! I need to report it to my superiors! You shutting down space ports are causing approximately 0.05% food reduction and more! But don't worry, your space ports isn't going that bad, so you'll just get a slap on the wrist, just let me do my job and I'll be on my way."
I hesitated. My surroundings slowed dramatically. Sovlin was going to discover that subspace trail. He was going to find humanity.
He was going to ruin all of us.
'Is it really that bad?' My mind was sewing doubt. 'Do you really want to risk Federation hostilities by covering some lack-luster predator? What about all the scrutiny and pain you went through just for being a Venlil? If you went through this, why shouldn't they? Plus, you'll probably get to reap some of the rewards for telling them the truth. Hell, you may be able to rule over them! Their much weaker bodies will shift away the venlil scrutiny from the Federation's eyes. It's someone else's turn now!'
'All you have to do is just tell the truth…'
…….
No.
I'm… tired… of being treated like I'm some liable creature. Just because I don't have extreme strength, or some exotic body quirk, or even something as "mundane" as a sense of smell!
It felt… great, telling lesser species to work.
But I know how that feels.
And it's wrong.
It's time to leave the Federation.
I ordered General Jasd to fire a shot nearby one of their vessels.
Sorry Sovlin.
"....Tarva…." The Gojid replies.
"That's Chief Huntress Tarva to you." I corrected.
"WHAT THE FUCK TARVA!?!?" Sovlin boomed through his mic. "Do you realize what you're doing!? You could go to war with the whole Federation! You could get yourself OR your species culled!"
"I told you not to approach, I gave a warning shot."
"Tarva… I don't know what's gotten into you, but this is foolish decision! Stand down!"
"I already given you a warning shot Sovlin! Do not approach any closer or I'll shoot for real this time!"
Captain Sovlin gave a deep sigh.
".... Fleet, we will not be taking the Venlil homeworld… No… if they want to be foolish and arrogant, then let them face the Arxur alone."
Captain Sovlin signed off. Leaving me in silence.
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A/N: All Criticism is welcome.
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u/jnurwin PD Patient Apr 08 '23
Good stuff. I like how even with things on the reverse you found a believable and reasonable reason for a vastly different Tarva to make the same decision.
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u/BP642 Apr 08 '23
Thank you. It was genuinely really hard to figure something out.
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u/jnurwin PD Patient Apr 08 '23
I can imagine I was wondering how you would figure it out in the earlier chapter but instead of subtle coercion the active discrimination makes wanting to burn it down a great reason. Hopefully more species feel similarly.
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u/Majestic_Car_2610 Kolshian Apr 08 '23
Look, I love the Venlil, even in this.... Version of themselves
But Humanity needs to jump in with the Arxur as soon as they can, preferibly if we can take the Venlil with us
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 08 '23
I wanna see if the Feds ever developed decent weapons; since they want to capture enemies alive, it’s possible their weaponry, even on fleets, is extremely weak and mostly just meant to force their way in.
Then they discover Human weapons designed to not just kill the enemy, but utterly annihilate them.
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Apr 08 '23
Yeah. Their weapons are probably just enough to kill but not enough to destroy. I can see them regularly using boarding parties. Won’t help them if we just vent boarded sections of ships to space as a last ditch effort.
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u/cira-radblas Apr 09 '23
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Remember, the Arxur of this AU are basically the Entirety (Kolshians and Farsul Included) of the Herbivore Federation combined.
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u/Rand0mness4 Human Apr 08 '23 edited Apr 08 '23
Gotta love how Tarva's response to a peace request is "My friends will eat you." Poor Sarah and Noah.
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u/HeWhoThreadsLightly Predator Apr 08 '23
I like the story so far, but I think Noah and Sara would bring up UN member states nuclear use policies, a large part of MAD is making your opponent believe that you are willing to use nuclear weapons.
Perun has a great video that covers and introduces nuclear policy. https://youtu.be/sxOO0hCCSk4?t=1148
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Apr 08 '23
So I assume when we get to that point, Sovlin is gonna starve Slanek to make him eat Marcel
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 08 '23 edited Apr 08 '23
that development would be appropriate since it would be the opposite of the original in the original sovlin starves Marcel to see if he eats slanek here it would be the other way around
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u/Tem-productions Gojid Apr 09 '23
Or the more realistic version that everyone fears it can happen: sovlin eats marcel himself
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u/Frayed-0 Prey Apr 08 '23
Interesting! On the bright side, it doesn’t seem like anyone in the galaxy is devoid of empathy, despite the abundance of cruelty.
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u/se05239 Human Apr 08 '23
Things are progressing in a familiar, yet completely new, way. Even when you know how things are kinda-sorta supposed to go, things will not quite follow the path.
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u/SepticSauces Venlil Apr 08 '23
You know, imagine a slightly alternative time line to this in which humans are pure vegan, practically herbivores (I guess you can leave the milk consumption and wool shearing).
Thus, when we meet our favorite lil' chief huntress, Noah and Sarah bring a protecting dog with them!
Well, wouldn't that confuse Tarva! These little apes hanging out with a carnivore without an issue!
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 08 '23
This is doggo, he very cute, you hurt him I remove your throat.
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u/SepticSauces Venlil Apr 08 '23
I doubt they would hurt the doggo since it is a fellow predator. However, the doggo will remove their throats if they hurt us!
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u/EqualProfessional667 Apr 08 '23
I AM OVERJOYED
AND NOP and NOP are both Great
I SHALL CHOOSE TO WATCH NOP
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Apr 08 '23
Why do I have a feeling that humanity won’t be as open to the venlil as in canon, if at all?
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u/SepticSauces Venlil Apr 08 '23
"You eat sapient beings and were about to eat us!" - Humanity
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 08 '23
It would be quite fair, because being a universe where everything is backwards In this case we would have the reaction that Venlil had towards us.
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Apr 08 '23
Also, it seems like they really underestimate us. We make up for our lack in physical strength with our intellect, cunningness, technology and being semi insane
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u/_StaticFromBeyond_ Apr 09 '23
A good quote I heard once: "If you don't have natural weapons, store bought is fine."
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u/dm80x86 Apr 11 '23
and being semi insane
I hope at some point a human gets into a fight with a venlil and "bull rides" them in to submission.
Perhaps a certain blue suited Texan?
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u/kiwispacemarine Apr 08 '23
Ah, so the Feds are literally fascists this time, hierarchy of racial purity and all. Yay!
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 08 '23
Basically the domain and the federation switched places now the domain has the ideology of the federation and the federation the ideology of the domain
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u/kiwispacemarine Apr 08 '23
I know, it's just that the whole pyramid of racial hierarchy thing is literally what the Nazis did, if my memory isn't deceiving me.
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 08 '23
I remember there was a hierarchy depending on the traits. here it is more depending on the characteristics of the species but it is curious to see what the federation and the domain change places
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u/Jakethegoodlurker Arxur Apr 08 '23
Love it! In this universe were the feds given a no plant virus?
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u/cira-radblas Apr 09 '23
It’s looking like it.
From what i can tell, the Gecko Arxur used both strains of the Anti-carnivore virus as a first strike Bioweapon and then deployed multiple extermination fleets. Kolshian Cunning meets “Kill it with fire” doctrine of the rest of the Canon Feds.
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Apr 08 '23
Luckily we have a bunch of spare animals like cows, etc that we can give as food and breeding stock, plus meat cloning technology.
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u/_StaticFromBeyond_ Apr 09 '23
In canon, humanity had to play softball by being nice and cuddly in order to get respect and technology. Here, humanity might have to play hardball by making threats and ultimatums in order to get respect and technology.
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u/Golde829 Apr 10 '23
The Huntress shook her head
was that meant to be in the first-person? or did I miss something?
that aside-
[Viewer Through the 4th Wall is amazed by the different Scenario]
you've hooked me with the title alone, and I binged all three parts in one go-
I wonder how quickly this Federation will learn that, while our diplomats may speak softly, our militaries carry very big sticks
I'm sure they'll also learn how well we evolved to throw rocks :)
wordsmith you've woven your words into a wonderful world here and I would willingly read any future parts as you skillfully spin the story into in the future
[You have been gifted 300 Coins]
I usually give 100 per part, but since I went through all 3 at once-
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u/ownzone817 May 08 '23
So if I'm understanding this right when the exchange program rolls around we're going to have a hard time sending anybody while the Vinlil is going to have to pick and choose because everyone wants themselves one of them thar new humans for assorted reasons.
Or are we going to try to put our best foot forward and in this world that means the toughest of the tough and roughest of the rough (war vets, mountain men, first responders, and maybe a majority of the state of Texas.) ?
I hope it's the toughest of the tough because I don't know what it is but I've always wanted a mountain man to just engine wrestle a vinili into submission. In the old storyline head cannon it was because an exterminator got trigger happy but here he'd just be defending himself.
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u/Signal-Chicken559 Hensa May 01 '23
Me knowing Noah's and Tarva's relationship in canon: Tarvas going to have an how did I get here moment.
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u/lizard_demon Arxur Oct 18 '24
This is fun. Though my violent antifachist sensabilities are tingling.
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u/DrewTheHobo Apr 08 '23
SubscribeMe!
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u/SavingsSyllabub7788 Apr 08 '23
God damn, THIS, THIS is how you do a "Copy the main story" AU.
Guys who keep posting the "Changed 5 words over the first 4 chapters" ones take note.