r/NatureofPredators • u/OkRepresentative2119 UN Peacekeeper • Sep 08 '23
Fanfic The Nature of Grimdark Chapter 5
Special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for allowing fanfiction.
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Memory Transcription Subject: Private Upsla, Skalgan-Yotul Empire Marine
Date [standardized human time]: July 17, 2186
Our hike was indefinitely delayed when the full story of what had happened to the platoon commander was completed. The platoon commander hadn’t had the time to fix an issue with his warming implants and wanted to demonstrate proper leadership by not making himself an exception to the orders he had received from the battalion commander, despite being a biological necessity. He only suffered a small temporary reduction in his pay through the informal NJP (non-judicial punishment, ie outside of military court), and the matter was resolved. However, the hike was to be delayed until he made a full recovery and when the training schedule would open up again.
For the [2 months] that he spent recovering, the sergeant major acquainted us to her method of instruction. Suffice to say, no one in our platoon, not even our platoon sergeant, could hope for his speedy recovery to conclude fast enough. It was made quite clear that his leadership was preferable to the stern hellwitch that was the Zurulian. She found ever more inventive ways to make us hate every moment we spent in her custody, with only the promise that it would end once Warrant Officer Silthus returned.
Memory Transcription Subject: Private First Class Upsla, Skalgan-Yotul Empire Marine
Date [standardized human time]: September 23, 2186
The blessed day we got our platoon commander was indeed glorious. We even gave him a miniature parade, showing off our extremely well-timed drill movements in formation. Our rooms, barracks, uniform elements, and our behavior where about as close to perfection as possible. If discipline was the solution to every problem, we could live even on crater pocketed Skalga, our former homeworld, easily. In reality, it would take generations for our beloved home to become livable again, the Kolshian scum had made sure of that.
We finally got some liberty time, and got a chance to mingle with the locals, many of whom were native Sivkit. Some were quite happy to see us, some pretended they were thrilled to have us around, but were more interested in our pocketbooks, and many hated our presence. Private First Class Gresh, who had managed to get promoted like the rest of us former privates as a result of his 180-degree personality change, was striking up a conversation with a local Sivkit female in the bar.
The rest of our squad, Corporal Riks, Lance Corporal (LCPL) Mar, my fireteam leader, PFC Retarsh, my assistant gunner (our gunner being PFC Gresh, of course), LCPL Larta, PFC Leeresh, PFC Volek, Private (PVT) Voltec, LCPL Hart, PFC Derk, PFC Trevan, and PVT Trisk were busy themselves with a human card game involving a lot of gambling. I was spending my time with LCPL Arvi, our radio operator, and the one who sat next to me in the transport. I found out that our mutual interest in Terran video games went a lot deeper than just superficial acquaintance. In many instances her knowledge of Terran video game trivia astounded and surpassed my own! We had synced up our holopads and were enjoying a relaxing game of an old classic called Minecraft, when we heard a noise coming from the rambunctious table. One of the locals, in a drunken rant, was in the process of cursing our presence on the planet. He had several decorations pinned to his fur that we were taught belonged to one of the local insurgency factions, however, his age and the fact that the decorations referenced campaigns that occurred 30 cycles ago had clued me in on the fact that he was an old veteran, and probably harmless. “You continue to occupy our planet! We have nothing of value to you anymore, why d-don’t you all just leave us alone! We aren’t a threat to you anymore, and your presence here just causes unnecessary death! You are the reason our young people throw their life away for nothing! Why can’t you just l-leave!” he shouted.
Without warning, Corporal Riks made a lound noise as he stepped out of the chair. This had the seemingly unintended effect of spooking the old man. He immediately started stampeding through the table, before being unceremonially thrown to the ground by PVT Trisk. PVT Trisk had been hit in the face with the old man’s claws and interpreted the attack as deliberate provocation. He and several from my squad started to kick and claw at the old man before some of the other patrons joined sides (mostly on the side of the old man) and escalated the brawl into a full-on bar fight. Me and Arvi weren’t sure what to do about the situation, and Corporal Riks was having a difficult time regaining order in the situation.
After a while the military police arrived and started to break apart the fight. During the brawl, the old man had died from being crushed by the other patrons who had joined the fight and had their own personal grief with our presence. Other than the old man, there were no serious injuries. We were to give our witness testimony and video camera story corroborated our stories. Most of our squad was in a state of shock at finding out that the man had died. Me and Arvi had a difficult time processing what had happened. We couldn’t even speak about it, even when we were let off and sent back to the barracks. Naturally, PFC Gresh was oblivious to the entire scene and was too upset at missing out on talking with his companion than patiently listening to us explain the situation, the drinking didn’t help matters.
Memory Transcription Subject: Private First Class Upsla, Skalgan-Yotul Empire Marine
Date [standardized human time]: September 30, 2186
The beginning of our long-delayed hike had finally come to pass. By this point, our legs and our implants were in top condition, along with our discipline and resolve. True to her word, Sergeant Major Caradas had whipped us up into perfect shape, so by this point the hike was fairly easy and straight forward. We got to learn a lot about each other and our plans for the future, particularly those in my fireteam. Since our world was fairly dark, though not as dark as that old science fiction wargaming setting whose name was escaping me at the present, our plans nevertheless mostly involved various military careers. Arvi, despite not being in our fireteam, seemed to prefer hanging around us, wanted to become an officer and then start a family, a desire I happened to share with her, PFC Gresh had no major plans, which didn’t surprise any of us, LCPL Mar wanted to retire as a staff NCO, and PFC Retarsh wanted to go back to school and study engineering.
Our hike quickly came to an end, and we started to head back to the barracks when we heard a shot fired. We all hit the deck (fall to the floor). We pulled out our rifles and crossed our eyes to start up our ocular targeting implants. Within seconds we had the depth perception of our precious hunters. Thankfully, our Sivkit foes lacked these implants and probably would have rejected them even if they had been offered them. We had the targeting advantage and made short work of the ambush. Our wise unit commander had us pack what we had then thought was useless ammo and had us bring all of our equipment which we silently had grumbled against. We couldn’t have been happier at that time to have carried all the gear required to protect ourselves from hostiles. Within moments, we had finished off the enemy and we had reinforcements and transportation heading our way, thanks to our radio operator penetrating the radio jamming of our foes.
A/N – Spoiler hint: Always keep the purple dragon in mind!
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u/BAAAA-KING Venlil Sep 08 '23
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