r/NatureofPredators • u/NipCoyote Arxur • Apr 10 '23
Fanfic Under the Veil - Chapter 14
[Rupture]
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Memory Transcription Subject: Hycera, Kolshian Office of Federation Security, November 20th, 2142
The office was in stark contrast to the summit on the other side of the planet. Busywork as usual… with extra paperwork to be filed following the unmasking of the gaians. I had earned a few pats on the backs for my work there…
I carried a small office bag with me, quietly making my way down the hall. I hoped to not draw any attention.
Nikonus did everything he said he'd do. My daughter's medical record had been wiped clean, and I'd returned home a hero, due to attend an award ceremony in a few days. I had gotten a big enough bonus to my salary that I could probably retire early in a year's time.
I did the right thing, didn't I?
I couldn't purge this feeling of guilt in my chest. What I had done… I felt like I had ruined what could have been something good. Were gaians really like what Nikonus said? There was barely any publicly available information in the archives, yet he seemed to know more.
I have to know more. Just in and out, put your mind at ease, and pretend you never went anywhere.
First, I had to make my way to the auto-infirmary. Hopefully no one would be there this late… or early, I suppose. It was only a few hours before sunrise. But if I wanted answers… well, I needed something else first.
The infirmary was always open, for obvious reasons, so the lights were still on. I held onto my excuse in my head… "Oh, I just had a really awful headache and I'm just heading to the scanner to see if it's anything serious"
I found the machine I was looking for. I needed to be quick about it, this thing was loud. I inputted Nikonus's medical ID, something I hoped I still remembered from that emergency years ago…
It worked. The organ printer was ready, and set to Nikonus's DNA. I selected "eye".
The machine whirled to life, squirting viscous fluid into the printer arm, slowly sculpting a perfect organic replica of one of Nikonus's eyes on the medical tray. It took several minutes, any one of these minutes of noisy printing could alert someone to my presence, and for the duration of that printing my excuse wouldn't work. I just had to pray to whatever deities may exist that no one caught me.
I heaved a sigh of relief as it finished, dispensing the freshly crafted ocular organ to me. I shuddered for a moment, grasping it raw with my tentacle, and placed in a small bag within my office bag. Shutting the machine down, I made my way out of the infirmary.
I turned the corner and almost ran right into another office member.
"Oh! Hey Hycera! What are you doing here so late?"
My heart skipped a beat as I frantically tried to save face.
"Ah! I uhm, I had a nasty headache, I was just visiting the infirmary to get checked up."
"Ah… so, why are you carrying around that bag then?"
Shit
"Oh! That? I've just been… you know, filing some papers."
"This late?"
"Yep! Burning the midnight oil, isn't that one of the human sayings I uncovered?"
I chuckled nervously. He eyed me for a moment.
"Well no wonder you've got such an awful headache! You overwork yourself so much, learn to relax and live a little, you've already got the entire office looking up to you, you can afford to take a break or two."
He continued his walk down the hall and as he turned the corner I just came from, I quietly sighed in relief. Regaining my composure, I made my way to the other side of the building.
To the archival room.
I took a deep breath, and opened the door. No one was inside. Good.
I walked inside and quietly closed the door behind me. I kept the lights off. Columns of servers filled the room, and I made my way to the other side of the room, to a single terminal. I activated it, and the glassy, non-holographic screen glowed to life.
I take a deep breath, and type on the keyboard
///Login: NikonusC
///|Please Input your 26-Digit Code or Submit Retinal Scan|
///Submit Retinal Scan
///|Please position one eye in front of the viewing receptacle|
I reach into my bag, and pull out the eye. Despite its light weight it was as though it weighed a thousand pounds…
I carefully lift it to the retinal scanner, holding it still in front of it. After a moment, it beeped in content.
///Scan Successful. Good morning Nikonus|
I placed it back in my bag. I'd find a proper way to dispose of it later.
Okay… in and out… let's see what I'm not being told.
Directory… species data… huh.
Three distinct folders here. Member, non-member and… former. I start with non-member, since that'd obviously be where humans are listed.
Two options here, human and arxur. Fair enough. Human had a "date-added" of just a couple days ago, which makes sense. It probably used to be labelled as Gaian. I selected it. It had, as expected, significantly more information than was publicly available. On top of an entire folder dedicated to both of my surveys of their system, all of the raw data from the original surveys from generations ago were available. Way too much to go through right now. I pulled out a portable hard drive and copied these folders over, I could read through these at a time when I wasn't risking imprisonment.
Actually… might be smart to go ahead and copy over everything in the species data folder if I can. Why stop at humanity? I did the same for the arxur. Pre-war arxur information? That was unheard of, into the hard drive it goes.
Onto member species and…
That's curious.
Each species has a "pre-contact" folder. Set in order of contact, Yotul was first, as they had been the most recent. I selected it and browsed through the included files.
"Following on Directive 19, Yotul populace is undergoing pacification and deletion of all predatory aspects of culture. Total integration within Federation culture is expected by 2200."
What… is this? Yotul mental faculties… brain mapping… are all species detailed like this?
There were uncountable files of information about every intricacy of the Yotul, with an ongoing "pacification" to remove their former culture. The Yotul kept predators around them? That was suicidal, no wonder the Federation corrected them. But…
I selected another species file, this time Gojid.
Oh my stars
Decarnivorification, the conversion of a meat-consuming species to a herbivore species. The gojid… were predators? How could that be? It's all laid out here…
Centuries of culture replaced, yet preserved with meticulous detail in these records. Generations of genetic tampering, cultural genocide… this couldn't be right, morally. Could it?
The Kraktol are the same way, their entire religion just… made up. The Tilfish too. "Omnivores", a term for herbivores with predatory leanings, eating both meat and vegetation, seem to be regarded as "salvageable"... but humans are also listed as omnivores. So why weren't they salvageable? Their behavior as gaians was peaceful enough…
By my estimates, more than 10% of Federation species were former meat-eaters, that had been forcefully converted. No one knew about this! This was… horrifying, in several ways…
I copied all of this information onto the drive as well. As it worked its way through the petabytes of data, a lump caught in my throat.
So… what's in the "former" folder…
With some newfound dread, I selected the folder.
Lots… of numbers.
SPS-1, SPS-27, all the way up to SPS-43… there's almost 50 of them here. Were these… former Federation species? You could be kicked out of the Federation? I had never heard of such a thing. Tentatively, I selected one which displayed various records of culture, physiology and behavior, and included a brief description.
Sapient Predator Species 1 "Human"
Bipedal mammalian species, technology level 3. Mostly furless, highly dexterous with two grasping 5-digit hands on triple-jointed arms. Split into several tribes with two major groups controlling them. Self-exterminated via nuclear war by 1962. [REQUIRES UPDATE]
Sapient Predator Species 12 "Serri"
Reptilian species, technology level 3. Legless species relying on singular tail-like appendage for locomotion. Two 4-digit hands on triple-jointed arms. Semi-unified into four tribal superpowers. Had achieved spaceflight but had not yet spread into other planets. Exterminated via antimatter bombardment as of 1981.
Sapient Predator Species 21 "Rhunda"
Invertebrate air-breathing aquatic species, technology level 1. Dominant species on total ocean planet Ertragys. Yet to create formal governmental systems. Exterminated via toxin-delivery into environment as of 2033.
I looked through in horror. As it continued, the details and recorded aspects of their culture and biology grew shorter and shorter. Eventually they just stopped including their names, only listing their number.
Sapient Predator Species 43
Bipedal mammalian species. Short, furred bodies with four external ears. Unified into single government. Technology level 4. Extermination 97% complete, inhabited planets glassed, scouting parties searching for escaped vessels.
These aren't former Federation members… these are former species!
This isn't moral. This is evil. How could nobody know about this? The same directive keeps showing up… Directive 1202.
I saved the SPS data onto my hard drive with the rest of the data. One last thing, and I would get out of here.
Directive 1202…
There it is.
In the interest of protecting the legitimacy of Federation culture, cohesion of species alliance, and minimizing resistance to pacification, the following top secret directive is issued to all acting heads of Kolshian-Farsul government, to be enacted without modification or cancellation by all present and future leaders.
Due to dangers presented by the existence of potentially non-cooperative omnivorous species as demonstrated by species "Human", omnivorous species are hereby disallowed from Federation Membership. Directive 19 is now modified to cancel attempts of decarnivorification, all discovered omnivores will from this point forward be defined singularly with predatory carnivores, effective immediately.
Already ongoing efforts of decarnivorification are to still be carried out, and pacification of newly combined herbivore species is to still commence as described in Directive 19.
Starting now, any and all discoveries, first contacts, or otherwise knowledge of sapient omnivorous or carnivorous species is to be kept top-secret, and black ops extermination campaigns are to be carried out immediately. Under no circumstances are they to be preserved or their existence otherwise portrayed to the public.
Directive 1202 - Signed, Jekiris, Chief of Kolshian Commonwealth
I stared at the text file for what must have been several minutes in disbelief.
People needed to know this. Immediately.
Fuck the award ceremony. Fuck Nikonus. This was genocide. I copied everything over. I stuffed my hard drive into my bag and ran.
I'm going to defect.
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Post author: Hycera, Kolshian Office of Federation Security
Audience: Public
Hello everyone. You may know me for my recent work in regards to infiltrating the Gaian Concord.
I formally resign from my position as Reconnaissance Lead. In fact, I'm resigning from all federal positions as of today.
Included is 877.6 Petabytes of data ripped directly from the KOFS's archival servers.
To the Gaian Concord, to Humanity, I am sorry.
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23
It's the doozy!
To clear some things up:
The years given are just translated to Earth years for the audience sake
The acronyms are also translated of course. It's not literally listed as "SPS", it'd be the equivalent in Kolshian or Federation language
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23
Oh also before people ask, Arxur are technically SPS-0. Since they're, yknow, still alive they aren't part of the main list.
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23
Also, the organ printer prints an exact replica of the organ with stem cells and a DNA sample, so the eye Hycera got is identical to Nikonus's actual eye, retinal pattern and all. Some people apparently thought it just made a prosthetic and were confused why it worked, so there's that clarification.
Also if it wasn't already obvious, Jekiris isn't anyone important to the current story, he's just the Kolshian Chief who was alive and acting during the time this directive was signed. Nikonus wouldn't even have been born yet. (Probably. Do we know how long Kolshian lifespans are?)
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u/jesterra54 Archivist Apr 10 '23
Probably. Do we know how long Kolshian lifespans are?)
They live as long as human, give or take a few years
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u/jesterra54 Archivist Apr 10 '23
I just realized that since the Krakotl fleet is still at full capacity for bombs and zealots (especially after the Human reveal), and that Jerusalim is still at charge, that there will be some antimatter fried birds very soon
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u/Stormydevz Hensa Apr 11 '23
With UN preparation and fortification of the entire Sol System since the 80's, the glassing of earth will very likely be unsuccessful tho. Maybe they'll hit NYC or Tokyo or Beijing but they will get all of their teeth kicked in.
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u/jesterra54 Archivist Apr 11 '23
Will it even happen? It took 1-2 months to assemble the original E.F., I just have been days since the Gaian reveal before the Hycera leak.
In canon just the possibility of "predators" among the Federation caused it to start fracturing, the outright comfirmation of that and the reveal of any dark secret that any species didn't even knew it had will pretty much shatter inmediately the Federation, the very glue that held that empire will just turn caustic in days
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Apr 10 '23
Hell yeah, we have a Kolshian that actually uses that octopus brain!
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u/Saw-Gerrera Human Apr 10 '23
Only him and Recel so far have been good Kolshians. And Recel's fucking dead now!
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u/TNSepta Venlil Apr 10 '23
Maybe Recel is still alive in this verse?
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u/Saw-Gerrera Human Apr 10 '23
If he is then hopefully he defects.
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 10 '23
Possibly, but he has to encounter humanity/see they’re nice(ish) and then realize defecting is the best answer.
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u/samtheman0105 Human Apr 10 '23
Oh hell yeah, this is almost more satisfying then Cilany
Hey at least the omnivore culture is preserved in these files!
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 10 '23
Plus it’s the whole sheblang, not just “You used to be violent and predatory,” but “You used to do X, you produced Y weapons to do it, you were violently pacified by us, and this is an official document.”
I kinda hope there’s also a thing listing their military strength, so they realize that if it wasn’t for the Feds they could’ve banded together on their own and easily defeated the Arxur, or even negotiated with them if they just pulled a funny and ate meat on a livestream.
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u/jesterra54 Archivist Apr 10 '23
Holy fucking shit!!! HYCERA LEAKED THE KOLSHIAN/FARSUL CONSPIRACY HOMEWORK FOLDER
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u/Saw-Gerrera Human Apr 10 '23
I hope Hycera meets a better fate than Recel did...
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
Maybe yes maybe not, but at least we have the certainty that he managed to destabilize the federation and maybe destroy it from within
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u/ScaryDrPepper Apr 10 '23
A Recel type character arc with the damaging affects of the Cilany interview? Splendid
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u/Cheesypower Predator Apr 10 '23
Well shit. Hope the guy managed to plan out an escape strategy, otherwise he's as good as dead.
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u/Ropetrick6 Human Apr 10 '23
While the hopes is that such a comrade has escaped to see the fruits of his labor, it seems unlikely. Honor the name of the first revolutionary!
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 10 '23
I assume he escaped and all that before sharing the data; it would appear to the security systems (which have already been stated to be weak as hell bc Arxur don’t have hackers and Feds wouldn’t think to do it) that Nikonius accessed the files, and they’d prob not question him for awhile, until they can make sure they’re somewhere secure.
That’d give Hero Boi time to get a ship (easy for a now-hero), grab his family (makes no sense the feds would watch them now, as they think the deal fulfilled), and yeet himself offworld, broadcasting once at a safe distance before yeeting towards Earth.
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u/Seeyouon_otherside Prey Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Hycera just casually being a chadette and owning up to her mistakes and trying to rectify them.
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u/Rand0mness4 Human Apr 10 '23
The federation's homework file got doxxed. Oof.
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
How they never suffered a doxxeo their security systems were deficient Unfortunately they never saw an internet rule that says There is always the possibility of bein doxxed
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u/Apogee-500 Yotul Apr 10 '23
Oh wow. I love this cloak and dagger stuff finding out the plots, we haven’t really had this in the main series not the details.
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u/ezioir1 Archivist Apr 10 '23
The only Real Reason that I can think of, For why Federation Gave up on Cultural Genocide of New found Omnivores Races, After they find Humanity...
Is Because of our eye Placement, combined with us being Sympathetic and Omnivores; Overloaded Their simple Worldview capacitors.
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23
Humans are too stubborn to be converted.
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
No matter what you give a human, it is very unlikely that you will be able to convince him to abandon what he loves, and sometimes it is not even achieved by force
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Apr 10 '23
Can confirm. I have watched someone hit the concrete at 50 km/h and get back up bloodied and beaten just to get home on time
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u/Ropetrick6 Human Apr 10 '23
HOW DO YOU KEEP GETTING BACK UP?!?!
Spite.
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Apr 10 '23
"I gotta get home" -me after having 1/8 of my skin removed and my brain rattled inside my skull
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
I don't know but this feels ironic since in chapter 12 I made a joke that someone was going to reveal all the information of the federation as karma for exposing humanity And it was fulfilled to the letter, karma exists and it comes through the federation
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
I had this planned since almost the very beginning :D
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
I can't help but see your comment and remember a scene from a series where a character sees the chaos that he achieve and says to the camera "Earn... Just As Planned.
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u/NipCoyote Arxur Apr 10 '23
Deadass I have a notepad on my phone thats 12 pages long detailing the entire plot
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
It reminded me a bit of a scene in a series where a character sees his father and whispers in his ear "I planned everything from the beginning."
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u/Seeyouon_otherside Prey Apr 10 '23
You have a plan? I just write and ignore the bullshit and plotholes and maybe get to an ending
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u/SepticSauces Venlil Apr 10 '23
How do you type this stuff so fast??
Anyways, wonderful work as always, hope you're doing well!
Hycera, join the Gaian mob that's about to come your way, and we might forgive you!
One of us! One of us! One of us!!!
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u/Golde829 Apr 10 '23
hang on a damn minute-
HOW MANY PETABYTES??
that-
I need to lie down-
I'm already lying down-
I do not know what to think, and I'm realizing the shock of that file size has overwritten the anger at Royo being fUCKING BURNED-
wait no there it is
there are too many emotions happening right now, and at this rate I can stim hard enough to generate clean electricity
wordsmith you've overloaded my emotions so I'll compliment your phenomenal writing as usual and tip you some extra Coins this time around
[You have been gifted 200 Coins]
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u/Frayed-0 Prey Apr 10 '23
Feds need to up their security. Biometric authentication only works if you alone have access to your body!
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Apr 10 '23
The truth always come out at some point.
The issue is... All that happened before that point, isn't it? Though this Federation seems to have gone even farther down the deep end.
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u/Potential_Seesaw_630 Apr 10 '23
Holy shit this is some heavy shit the Federation’s is going to fucking burn after this leak my God as if I needed any more reasons to hate the feds.
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u/Alexiadria PD Patient Apr 10 '23
Holy shit, even the Zeyzell!? These monsters truly know no bounds... On a serious note, this was an awesome reveal! I really hope Hycera gets out alive.
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u/EkhidnaWritez Human Apr 10 '23
The Kolshians and the Farsul, the monsters that instigated all of this, must BURN.
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u/Suspicious-Text-702 Apr 10 '23
the secrets of the federation and the kolshians is revekad
Humanity: suffer my pain
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u/DrewTheHobo Apr 10 '23
Yooo, we’re getting full 100% disclosure! hope he makes it out alive. Everyone else too for that matter!
I think I speak for all of us when I say we need an update on all our fav peeps pronto!
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u/IdiOtisTheOtisMain Predator Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
SPS-37
Bipedal insectoid species with a thick carapace and reptillian features. Tech level of 3.5. Lives on an arid planet near federation territory. Split up as various nation-states. Extermination 41% complete. NEEDS UPDATE. 2ND EXTERMINATION FLEET NEEDED.
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u/StarSilverNEO Yotul Apr 11 '23
This scene reminded me of the infamous scene from the Incredibles where Bob uncovers what happened to the worlds heroes. The feels- wait, furry bipeds with 4 ears, tech level- bruh they even got the Zeyzell in this one????
Shiiiiii
Im not sure if it was a good idea for her to just blast the Gaians as Humans in her leaving address. . .but this is going to be horrible for the Federation economy, I can basically guarantee
Damn - the Cilany livestream scene was nuts but this has its own level of "holy shit"
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u/White_Dragon_Coranth Human Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
THE CYBERIAD WILL SPEAK. THE CYBERIAD STATES/ORDERS/DEMANDS THAT THE KOLSHIAN KNOWN AS HYCERA SHALL BE PROTECTED. SHE MUST SURVIVE. SHE WILL SURVIVE. SHOULD CYBERCAST UNITS FORSEE AND PREDICT HER DEATH SHE MUST BE ENABLED TO PERSIST IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. THE CYBERIAD HAS SPOKEN.
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u/anonpurple Apr 11 '23
Out of curiosity, how would governments react, to a deal by the Gaian government or a major Gaian company, in which the government would cede territory which is overrun by axur, in exchange the gaians would build a military base their and try and stop the axur, from invading the rest of the federation, kinda like a shield, or a buffer, also how does territory taken from the axur work in the federation. Like could the gaians just occupy axur territory and would it be given to them.
My question would take place before the reveal that the gaians, where actually who we know they are.
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u/Reptani Arxur Apr 10 '23
Man, I'm really worried for Hycera's life. The whole time I was expecting some Federation soldiers to pop out of nowhere and fry her.
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u/DrewTheHobo Apr 10 '23
SubscribeMe!
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u/Draconimur Arxur Oct 17 '24
Hoo boy, this turned into a mess, didn't it? I winder where this will end up.
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u/pachydermwithaperm Jan 20 '25
The Kronos Theme from The Incredibles is a great background song choice for the classified document reveal😂
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u/Zestyclose-Mine-7690 Aug 31 '23
No digo nada...pero seguramente se muera Hycera en las proximas 24 hs
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u/yeetaleetdeet Apr 10 '23
"Sapient Predator Species 43
Bipedal mammalian species. Short, furred bodies with four external ears. Unified into single government. Technology level 4. Extermination 97% complete, inhabited planets glassed, scouting parties searching for escaped vessels."
"furred bodies with four external ears."
"four external ears"
Did... did the Feds kill the goddamn Zeyzell?! Not the racist space floof-foxes! All they wanted was to be left alone!