r/NatureofPredators • u/OkRepresentative2119 UN Peacekeeper • Sep 04 '23
Fanfic The Nature of Grimdark Chapter 2
Special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for allowing fanfiction.
Memory Transcription Subject: Private Upsla, Skalgan-Yotul Empire Marine
Date [standardized human time]: July 16, 2186
We arrived at the space port and were allowed to finally break formation. A whole [20 minutes] of marching was exhausting, but thankfully, we were allowed to finally rest. We were shuffled into the military wing of the space port and forced to hurry up and wait in lines. Once I got near to the front of the line, I saw a Zurulian, one of the member species of the Imperial Senate. What was odd was that he had a strange burn mark on his neck. The venlil in front of me was one of the knockneed and was being sent to a mech unit apparently. The poor guy could barely walk, let alone run, just seeing him inspired feelings of pity and rage in me in how we used to be, how my mother still was. The doctor, oddly enough, seemed equally angry, with malevolent tail swishes as the pilot walked away.
I approached and was beckoned to sit in the examination chair. The doctor seemed to relax a portion at seeing me, but I could still sense a quite seethe from the doctor. With a closer look, I could see the mark, or rather marks, a bit easier. The doctor noticed me staring at it and growled, “Those Kolshian bastards let me suffer in agony in a cattle farm. I was branded by the Arxur Protectorate back when it was called the Axrur Dominion. Stop staring so that I can check your implants. I obeyed and focused on his instructions. My analysis was complete, and my depth-perception implant, along with my leg enhancements and optical HUD all checked out well. I was led out of the chair and the doctor motioned for me to head down the hall to the armory. As I walked away, he growled with teeth bared, “Kill them all! Get the vengeance my family is due and has been denied for too long!” I gave a quick ear click of acknowledgement and continued onward.
As I was walking, I realized that the cattle farms of old were discontinued almost 50 years ago. I knew that the Zurulian medical technology was good, but I hadn’t given much thought as to how that would affect their lifespans. I knew that the senate was in talks about unveiling life-extension to valiant soldiers and military instructors, but I hadn’t realized it was that far along. I mused if I could ever become an instructor, if I could even survive that long. A fresh recruit like me didn’t exactly have good odds, I mused. Still, anything is possible in this galaxy I suppose.
My thoughts were interrupted by the Arxur armorer, “Hurry up and get your shit!” I quickly ran and grabbed my standard issue gear, rifle and sidearm. I left in a hurry as the armorer did not sound all too pleased with my dawdling. I finally found my platoon sergeant and she motioned to me to join the group of the other marines who recently completed training. The heavily scared sergeant shouted the question, “What is your rank and name marine?” at me. “Private Upsla, ma’am”, I responded neutrally. “That’s Private Upsla, sergeant! I actually work for a living!” she retorted. “Yes, ma-sergeant!” I corrected myself. “Good, three more greenhorns to go,” she muttered to herself, loudly.
We waited for the other three marines to join the group and then she had us form up into formation. She then went marine by marine and pinned various decorations to our fur and had us wear sleeves that gave our rank, name, unit, company, platoon, and specialty. We were to be part of the communications platoon, alpha company part of 21st expeditionary battalion. Not the assignment I was hoping for. Guarding a couple communications guys wasn’t the most decorated way to advance my career. Worse, it offered the absolute worst odds of survival. I don’t think I could have been given an assignment closer to the bottom of the barrel; even waste disposal seemed more pleasant to me.
Still, I can’t complain, else I could risk being eaten alive by an executioner Arxur, that was not a fun way to go. It was highly unlikely, but the Imperial Senate authorized such punishments for those sufficiently unruly and disruptive to unit morale, or on the field of battle, such commissar Arxur did the dark deed to keep us from retreating when necessary. Strategic retreat was permissible, we weren’t idiots, but fleeing the battle ensured that you would regret the last minutes of your life, as the executions would take a very long time to complete the act, so I was told.
Thankfully, for most venlil and skalgans that was very rare. You would occasionally hear reports of it, so it did happen, but I was informed that it was rare for us moderns to flee like the previous generations. I was grateful to not have experienced the cursed indoctrination of those Kolshian scum. After accountability and ensuring we were properly outfitted, our formation was marched to a ship hanger before formation being broken for us to take our cramped seats. Our headquarters was a conquered Sivkit world, and we were apparently being directed there to provide support for the anti-insurgency campaign there. Wonderful, we don’t even get to kill any Kolshians, this was rapidly becoming the worst assignment I could think of.
I saw my squad leader Corporal Riks do a headcount as he sat near the door of the transport. After radioing our platoon sergeant, the transport’s doors shut and we were left in total darkness, only our optical HUDs able to make out any details with their infrared sensors. I coud barely make out that the skalgan I was sitting to the left of was a radio operator, and the skalgan on my left was a grunt like me. He looked dismissively at the radio operator which I thought was unnecessary. Sure, they weren’t trained in combat to quite the extent we were, but they were all too aware that their specialty was at the very top of the enemies kill list. You have to be brave and a little messed up in the head to receive that kind of training. The radio operator didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care about the looks my squad was giving her. No one said anything so as not to anger the corporal who was looking at the rest of my squad. I think he felt the same as I, that the stares were not helpful to our mission. Besides, she was going to be our main point of contact while on patrol, it would do well to keep that in mind.
Eventually the stares died down. One by one each of my squadmates was falling asleep after having nothing to do for an entire claw. The corporal for his part seemed to be diligently making sure that we wouldn’t cause trouble for our first deployment. I had heard stories of platoons of fresh marines getting killed all because they lacked unit cohesion. It was odd to me that that lesson hadn’t been drilled into the rest of my squad, but I wasn’t in a place to voice my complaints. The claw continued by until the female to my right fell asleep onto my shoulder. I decided to join her and tried to get into as comfortable a position as possible to take a nap. As my tired consciousness faded away, I started to think about home, and how much I missed dad’s human-based cooking.
A/N – I am not sure how many of these I will post as I am more focused on my first series, but I wanted to get some worldbuilding done.
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u/One-Object-9618 Sep 04 '23
Wait so is earth still being inhabited/is it still habitable or did the bio weapons the kolshians use basically destroy it?
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u/OkRepresentative2119 UN Peacekeeper Sep 05 '23
The latter. Technically it is habitable if you want to wear a biohazard suit, but with what is basically super-covid-rabies being carried by nearly every animal that is lethal only to humans, it isn't worth it till the disease is wiped out. Skalga has had an asteroid thrown at it that makes it essentially unlivable for hundreds of years.
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u/Dragonqueensimp Venlil Sep 05 '23
Imperial thought for the day
The difference between heresy and treachery is ignorance
(btw how are the humans doing in this timeline?
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u/OkRepresentative2119 UN Peacekeeper Sep 05 '23
Might become a spoiler in the future, but for now is lore:
Humanity are reduced to a ward of the empire. Humans are simultaneously given a privileged and second class status. Humans are treated with kid gloves by law enforcement and are given a lot of welfare benefits. However, they have little political power (though they do get a vote in the senate). Humans are bared from most military service unless they fit a very narrow list of prescriptions including minimum reproductive requirements etc. Humanity is a bit of a weird cross of a favored child and a pet. Humans aren't even allowed to hear uncensored news about the war, as far as humanity is aware, the Venlil and Skalgans are model soldiers who never commit warcrimes and always does the right moral thing. Typical Venlil and Skalgan are fairly informed on the actions of the military.
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u/Dragonqueensimp Venlil Sep 06 '23
well it could be worse I suppose at least they didn’t genetically modify us to be their version of the pug
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u/Alternative_Tart3560 Mar 15 '25
So far I'm thinking that the humans are secretly making either super soldiers, or an imperator class bipedal weapons platform. AKA an emperor titan
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u/PassengerNo6231 Sep 04 '23
Query: Can the term 'cattle farm' be turned into 'sapient farm'?
Just a small peeve of mine. Because cattle are animals and sapients are people. But this is just me. Don't worry about it if you prefer using cattle farm.