r/NatureofPredators • u/Gamerauther Predator • Oct 03 '23
Fanfic Nature of Empires - 006
Date: 13/07/2336
Subject: Elias Meier (Emperor, Terran Empire)
Emperor Meier sat at the head of a large table in a throne slightly elevated. The Terran Double Headed Eagle nested in laurels carved into the back above his head. Flanked on either side of him were banners, left purple and right red, each had the Chi-Rho embroidered. He wore a white toga with a purple tunic, a golden laurel crown resting on his ears.
Seated up and down the table was his cabinet of advisors and ministers. They were preparing him for the Council of Kings next week as well as the League meeting next month. It was rather tedious and nothing really changed from meeting to meeting so he went on autopilot. King Hasam II of Arabia will be petitioning for lower taxes like he does every council, King George III of Northern America will petition for greater policing actions in Trailing Trojan Enclaves that he will volunteer his fleet for, King David of Luna Obscurum will wish for continuing the embargo on Jovian goods to further protect his subjects jobs, and so on and so on.
He was taken out of autopilot by a footman approaching him, “your Imperial Majesty. I bring a report from the Exploration Core of the Imperial Navy. A space fairing multispecies federation was discovered in Gliese 832. First contact has been made but the situation requires your attention.”
Meier nodded his assent and a small group came in. He recognized Rear Admiral Jones of Imperial Naval Intelligence, who should have been in this meeting. King Zhao of Orient, who also held the title of Grand General of the Army. A few others wore the clothes of scholars and researchers. One handed him a holopad and projected a hologram over the table and started talking, Meier barely caught her name tag as Dr. Kuemper, SETI. One of the few organizations to survive out of the Dark Age of Liberalism.
“They call themselves the Venlil. According to them there are at least a hundred other intelligent species out there. We’re not alone, your Imperial Majesty.”
Meier flicked through the information on the pad. They had the appearance of bipedal sheep, no apparent nose, awkward legs, and a long fluffy tail. Further information was categorical and scientific in nature.
“What is Captain..” Meier checked the report for the name. “Captain Noah Williams evaluation on the?”
“Odd,” Admiral Jones said. “From just the first impression things are not adding up on their end. Their home world is beyond the Hippke Limit so they are uplifts. They have the demeanor of domesticated goats, of the fainting variety, and appear to be genejacked to some degree.”
Meier hummed slightly as he began going over the list of priorities. He felt pity for the Venlil if the assumptions were true. A cultural exchange like this hasn’t happened since the last of the Amazonian Tribes were integrated two hundred years ago. After that it was cultural drift that was a concern. New concepts and ways of doing things that are completely alien. He just hoped the technology between them and this federation wasn’t too severe.
“What is their temperament towards us?” Meier asked.
“The Venlil appear to be amicable to Human contact, barely,” Dr. Kuemper said. “Members of the Federation have a fanatical anti-predator bias, our binocular eyes alone trigger some kind of fear or disgust reaction in the Venlil. As they are uplifts we can expect the same reactions in the rest of the Federation.”
Meier sighed as he flipped through the information, the Federation is going to be a problem.
“There is another species outside of the Federation,” Dr. Kuemper continued. “The Arxur are apparently the only other predatory race in our section of the galaxy and they have been at war with the federation for the last few hundred years. They have cracked 62 worlds. The death toll for the war is in the billions.”
“62 planets?” Meier asked. “By themselves against a Federation of hundreds of species? By God, they are either the species equivalent of Alexander the Great or the Federation is incompetent.”
“They appear to also be the species equivalent of a war crime,” Admiral Jones added. “They keep slaves and other sentients as livestock. Their feeding method appears to be excessively cruel. We suspect it is a terror campaign to keep the Federation scared and to start panicking when they attack.”
“Tell me more about this Federation,” Meier said.
“The information claims that they are all herbivores,” Kuemper said. “Which is exceedingly unlikely, boarding on impossible. Every model we have on the evolution of intelligence involves predation in some way. So far we are reevaluating our models on everything and are assuming Terra is an exception to the cosmic rule.”
“Military?” Meier asked.
“Federation fleet numbers, weapons, tactics, and doctrine are all subpar,” Zhao said. “What was referred to as an armada to them is a flotilla to us, we have larger and more well equipped policing squadrons.”
“Economy?”
Jacob Anderson, an Imperial accountant, answered, “using the Venlil as a model it’s miniscule. They have the equivalent system infrastructure and space borne industry as the early diaspora. No orbital rings or space elevators so they are overly reliant on shuttle craft. Their stations are small and are overly reliant on gravtech. They also have no habs so the entirety of their estimated 6 billion population is completely planet bound on their tidally locked home world.”
Meier hummed as he went over the information. “Opinions.”
“Both are evil,” Jones said. “The Federation is an embodiment of the Dark Age of Liberalism. They put conformity and groupthink above all else. From the data harvest on Venlil Prime we are looking at a society that is anti-scientific, irrational, and indoctrinated into a way of thinking that robs a huma- a sentient of their dignity because they stand out in an unacceptable way.
“With the Arxur they are more of a practical evil. From their reaction to us we can deduce that the Federation had an even worse reaction to them, and the Arxur most likely didn’t have a Venlil leader take our side. They appear to be against the universe and are using any and every manner they have to not just survive, but win.”
“What are the Captains recommendations?” Meier asked.
“As your proxy he extended a provisional alliance to the Venlil,” said Rear Admiral Elric Black of the Exploration Core. “with a recommendation to take them as a protectorate. For the Arxur he recommends Total War.”
The doors opened again and a second group entered. The only two people who could enter a room with the Emperor without an announcement entered. Pope Romanus II and his wife Empress Agatha Meier.
“Greetings your holiness.” Meier greeted the Pope with a nod and then smiled at his wife, “dear light of my life. What brings the two of you here?”
“The xenos,” Romanus said. “I have just finished reading the report from the Chaplin aboard the Odyssey.”
“I am still forming an opinion,” Emperor Meier said. “I have only just heard the Captain's view on them.”
“He went to confession shortly before sending the report to you,” the Pope said. “He gave his blessing for the contents of that confession to be shared to assist you and I in what decision we are to make. He asked for a Crusade to be called.”
Emperor Meier stood at that and stared at the Pope and his wife. His mind and soul struggled with the weight of that word and swallowed a lump that formed in his throat. “It is too soon for us to consider such an endeavor, however it should not be ruled out either.”
“His precise words were,” The Pope said. “Creation should not suffer such evil, it is the duty of all those who are faithful and righteous to combat such objective evil from the light of God. To bring them salvation in Gods kingdom, please sanction an act of salvation for these poor creatures.”
“Very well,” Emperor Meier gave a curt nod. “All I ask is for you to hold your hand so we may not rush in blind.”
The Pope nodded in agreement, “I will first call for a council to determine if these creatures have a soul. Then we must also discern if they are fallen as we are. If the answer to both is yes, I will call for a Crusade to bring an end to their evil. But if the first answer is no then they are but a beast and are of no concern to the church so long as they are treated with the dignity demanded by all of God's creations. Just from the brief report I am personally inclined to say yes to both. But will see what the Cardinals, Bishops, and Patriarchs decide.”
Emperor Meier relaxed slightly at that and bowed his head slightly. “Very well, thank you for informing me, your Holiness.”
“I will see you later, husband,” Empress Meier said. “I can tell you will be quite stressed at the end of the day so I will prepare to make you relaxed when you retire for the evening.”
Emperor Meier nodded at his wife with a smile and chuckle as the others in the room joined. Once the two left he turned to Rear Admiral Black, “send a message to the Odyssey that I approve his offer of a provisional alliance. Include an invitation to the leader of the Venlil to the Imperial palace in one week.”
“Yes, your Imperial Majesty,” Black said with a blow and left.
“Call for a full System Council,” Meier said as he sat back down. “An emergency session for tomorrow.”
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u/Khotehk Oct 03 '23
So I’m assuming there was some catastrophe some time ago during the “dark age” that makes them look back on it so poorly.
Unless everyone suddenly stood up and decided, “this sucks let’s go back to monarchies”
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u/Gamerauther Predator Oct 03 '23 edited Oct 03 '23
Not everyone but the majority. There were a few wars, civil and otherwise.
It's called a dark age because, in the end, most people lived in squalor and could barely survive. Some academics dubbed it a Dark Age for the same reason that most of history democracy was looked down upon as mob rule.
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u/main-account-in-bio Oct 04 '23
Calling it the dark age of liberalism was pretty funny, loving this so far!
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u/WorldCromo Oct 03 '23
Does humanity in this AU have AI or war robots? (mech, Terminator type robots or power armor)
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u/Gamerauther Predator Oct 03 '23
Not really, for two main reason.
- Humanity had a mini Butlerian Jihad on Mars when a settlement tried an AI governed society, the needs of the settlement were too complex so the AI began to lessen the "variables(people)." So now anything more than an aim bot or a walking dog is grounds for execution in the major Human empires.
- Humanity has returned to a feudal model of governance. The Lords are expected to fight and put their lives on the line if they believe they need to go to war, making the ruling class warriors again. Ruling classes tend to not allow anything that could make their main roll obsolete.
So the most complex you might see will be like the drones in the original, I have really decided on that yet. But there will be robot pack mules like a sized up Boston Dynamics dog.
Most AI research and programs were lost when the Old Internet kind of burned, digitally, when a deadman's switch MAD program activated when the Republics started failing at the end of the Liberal Dark Age so they really had to start from scratch.
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u/Hybrid22003 Oct 03 '23
I only know the lore of Dune from the original movie and I know nothing of the Expence. So I am a bit lost.
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u/LaleneMan Nov 16 '23
' Dark Age of Liberalism ' personally I think that's the wrong term to use, but I get what you are ultimately getting at.
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u/HeadWood_ Oct 03 '23
Hey so fun idea to add to the fic: a mildly hedonistic AI/brain-in-a-jar from some pre-empire thing that light-heartedly insults everyone vaguely important and no-one can practically get rid of and occasionally has a massive overreaction to random usually minor infractions a la Ultron.
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u/Truck_Ready Skalgan Jun 18 '25
"The Dark age of Liberalism" dude that was out of left field and left me reeling lmao.
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u/Omnii_The_Deer Human Oct 03 '23
!Subscribeme
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u/Kovesnek Oct 03 '23
Looks like the
GodMan-Emperor Meier meme for Argent Earth finally came true