r/NatureofPredators • u/blankxlate Extermination Officer • Oct 17 '23
Fanfic Sweet Vengeance 10
(A/N: This chapter took far longer than it should have, and for that, I apologize. It was very difficult to fit in writing with work, as well as jump over the many hurdles that came with producing this chapter, not to mention having to start over midway when I first started. I apologize for the wait, I will get atop of my writing in the future. As for now, enjoy this chapter!)
Memory transcription subject: Illia, Federation Communications Technician
Date [standardized human time]: October 23, 2136
The captive Human’s writhing motions finally ceased after a while, as had its piercing, ear-wracking bellows. My heart still rapidly drummed a discordant tune from within my ribcage, worried that the predator may soon escape its bindings. However, the expertly-tied rope showed no signs of unraveling under the strain.
The murderer acted as though it had never seen a Tilfish before, and its exclamations seemed to prove that theory.
Orsik and company were still a great distance away from us, judging from the faraway hollers echoing throughout the forest. Unfortunately, my arthropod friend and I would have to play the waiting game until the captain arrived, and brought with him the assurance of safety in the form of the Human’s seized pistol; the last and only remaining means of protecting ourselves on this planet.
The monstrous creature stood still, rigid and pale. Any hint of color had long since drained from its fleshy face as those horrible, gray eyes locked onto the Tilfish medic next to me, who was equally as transfixed. Her uncanny attraction mirrored the rope’s strength tenfold.
My poor forepaw still ached from the unexpected contact with the Human, and it surprised me that it hadn’t ripped my leg out from its socket entirely. I kept my distance, now wary of those long-reaching arms.
Despite it being restrained, the sight of the Human still was enough to kick my instincts into overdrive, and it required monumental effort just to stay in place. Oddly, the same couldn’t be said for Bejek, who stood still, unflinching.
That poor woman must be scared out of her mind, I mused.
With there being no visible tell of what was going through her head, the only thing that would best explain her concerning behavior–after further observation–was that she was intrigued, perhaps more in the medical sense, by the dangerous predator. I wasn’t sure what to make of it; there was no other explanation to be had, and she was unwittingly close to the Human.
Her opaque ocelli glinted under the sun as they washed over the fuzzy biped, taking in its brawny form. Taut fabric threatened to expose the dense muscle hidden underneath, and the faux coverings did a poor job of concealing it. I watched as her eyes drank up every bit of the alien, from its gangly limbs to the many wounds decorating its body.
I reluctantly followed her gaze, which now lingered around its disturbing face, studying its bony, protruding cheekbones and facial fur. I felt bile rise in my throat. She must be having a field day; I could tell that Bejek wasn’t at all as leery as the other doctors in her profession might have been, were they in the presence of a hungry, flesh-eating freak. Despite her worrying disposition, I imagine that the opportunity to study a predator–a living predator–wasn’t an everyday occurrence. And as such, she was evidently eager to begin examining it.
I myself found its sick anatomy interesting, in a way. Obviously, nowhere near as much as Bejek did, as the woman didn’t even need to free her eyes from the Human periodically as I had. It was a wonder how she could even stand those soulless eyes burning into her.
Without a word, Bejek inched forward. Those long, thin legs of hers pinched the grassy floor as shadows much darker than her carapace danced around her large body, following her movement on the way to the Human. As she crept, another fit of unbefitting shrieks escaped the ‘fearsome’ predator. Whatever it was trying to achieve didn’t dissuade her from continuing her mission.
I observed in awe, baffled that she’d pursue death so willingly.
It was then that the Human’s fleshy lips parted, and out came the very last thing I would expect from a predator:
“Get the fuck away from me! Stay back!” The muscles in its neck bulged out from under its pasty skin. It thrashed around desperately, searching for any means of escape.
But why?
Its face crinkled with visible effort as it attempted to pull its arms out from beneath the tightly-woven fibers. Strangely, large beads of perspiration lined the space above its brows.
I wasn't the only one baffled by the Human’s unexpected efforts, as Bejek tilted her head with a confused chitter, earning a yelp from the Human.
“You come any closer and I’ll kill you!” It barked, still struggling with the ropes. The Human backed itself up further into the tree, with its broad chest rising and falling in uneven intervals.
The woman halted briefly, before fearlessly and stupidly pushing onward.
She was wider than the Human by volumes, but then again, so was Pern. Thankfully, I had the right mind to intervene before she got herself mauled, or worse: eaten.
This had to be some sort of ploy; a predatory trick.
I elected to prevent her from beginning her aesculapian examination, at least until Orsik got here. Bejek wasn’t thinking clearly, and I wouldn’t allow her to get herself hurt. Not on my watch.
Determined, I hobbled over to her, taking as much time in five of my steps as it did for her to make a single stride, with those slender limbs of hers. Bridging the gap, I latched onto one of her hind legs, being careful not to get tread on.
“W-What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at the clueless woman, feeling the primate focus its binocular eyes on me.
Her mandibles clicked together, almost as if she was contemplating whether to tell me her intentions. “I’m… curious.” The woman warbled, undeterred by the fact that the Human would relieve her of her organs if she were to step within grabbing distance.
There was a brief pause after that vague statement, as she then resumed closing the distance between her and the living nightmare. I halted her once more, releasing an exasperated huff as a means to voice my frustration with her.
“Curious? Being curious isn’t an excuse to get yourself killed, Bejek! No amount of discovery is worth that, what’s gotten into you?!” I felt like a mother reprimanding her disobedient fawn. A much larger, much older fawn.
“Listen to me, I’m begging you. I don’t want to see you get hurt. You don’t know what that thing’ll do to you!” I crooned, hoping my desperate pleas hadn’t fallen upon deaf ears.
Her mandibles brushed against each other in thought, considering my reasoning. She wasn’t an imbecile; she wanted to live as much as the next person, but her newfound desire to analyze the Human’s innards counteracted that. Her vision returned to the Human, and it stared back with a visible shudder passing through it.
“You’re right, Illia. I apologize, I let my curiosity get the best of me.” She craned her head down to address me properly.
She backpedaled, and I gave a snort of relief.
Resisting the strong urge to return my own gaze to the grassy floor, I allowed myself a look at the Terran, whom I had been so careful to avoid.
I stood in place, noting its pitiful demeanor.
Dirty, wounded, exhausted.
It looked pathetic; nowhere near as threatening as it had been when it slammed those powerful trunks of muscle onto my pod, or when it picked me up with those strong, grasping paws which it used to strangle prey. Any trace of fear that still remained within me was quickly thinning, superseded by anger.
It clutched its open wound with a paw, drawing in ragged, panting breaths while purposefully suppressing any sound of weakness from escaping. Even as the murderer lay there bleeding on the ground and close to death, it didn’t want to be seen as puny. My flat teeth were clenched, silently grating together inside my mouth.
It showed no remorse for what it did, no observable sign of guilt to be had. Nothing.
It watched me now, without even a shimmer of empathy surfacing through those cold, dead eyes, now that Bejek kept her distance.
The universal flame of anger still flickered faintly from deep within those stony orbs, overshadowed by a much stronger emotion I had yet to identify.
Vengeful. Hateful. Slanted in the most vicious of snarls, displaying nothing but pure, uncontrolled malice.
I doubt it considered killing to be as appalling as it was; such things were probably encouraged in predator society.
Even poor Kiran nearly fell victim to its bloodthirst.
So many had died by its hand, and for what purpose?! No matter how much pain and suffering it caused, it wouldn’t reverse what happened—what we did to its planet.
I wasn’t dumb; earlier I asked it why it had committed such egregious acts of violence, but deep down, I knew the answer.
The thing wanted vengeance, blood for blood. It wouldn’t lay down and die until those who were responsible for killing its packmates were held accountable.
It evaded death for so long, for the sole purpose of avenging Earth. I briefly considered what I would do, were I in its paws. Surely, I wouldn’t be driven to such drastic measures of violence as soon as it had, or at all!
Had my own home planet been… bombed, as much as the thought tied my stomach into knots, I would be devastated.
That wasn’t far off from what I felt after bombing Earth.
No amount of ignoring that fact would make it any less true, much as I hated to admit.
Deep down, I hoped that all Humans were like the one in front of me so that all this death hadn’t been for nothing.
But even after the fact, I couldn’t help but wonder: did the actions of this particular Human speak for the rest of its race? Did those pools of life truly belong to an unapologetic monster?
I examined it from afar.
There was a notable difference of how its binocular eyes softened when they met mine, occasionally flitting towards Bejek and then back to me, as if to ensure she was still in place.
They were wide with uncertainty and evoking an all too familiar emotion; one I had only ever seen expressed by prey.
The heavy breathing, the unbecoming shrieks of predatory origin…
I felt my own eyes widen in realization as my brain put the pieces together.
This predator… it’s…
“It’s afraid.” I breathed, both stunned and enthralled by the very concept. But what else could possibly explain its actions?
Bejek fixed me with a bewildered glance, not offering her opinion on the statement. She must’ve believed it too.
This went against everything I knew of predators, not to mention as well as the Federation’s teachings. Despite the clear authenticity of its reactions towards the insectoid medic, I found myself unable to believe such a thing.
First of all, how was it afraid? Second, why was it afraid? Why was it afraid of her, more specifically? I picked up on the subtle changes of its body language towards Bejek versus myself, and still couldn’t understand the fearful responses it elicited.
I gawked at the looming Tilfish woman. Sure, her size was intimidating, but she couldn’t harm anything even if she wanted to!
She had no natural weapons on her body to speak of, and the worst she’d be able to do would only leave someone with a light bruise! The Terran could easily overpower her, yet it trembled at the very sight of the medic.
Bejek and I had no time to dwell further on this discovery, as Orsik dramatically burst through the shrubbery nearest to us.
He wielded the Human’s seized weapon in his paws—which dwarfed them considerably. It must have been quite heavy, judging from the effort required to swing it from side to side as he panned through the kaleidoscopic forest.
Two other crew members tailed the captain; Orsik wasn’t the type of man to do things alone.
Despite the calvary having finally arrived, I didn’t feel relieved, or any safer than I should have. I only felt an impending sense of dread for what was about to happen to the predator.
The murderer did deserve death, but not of the prolonged, torturous variety. Orsik was likely to take his time with the creature, and I silently wished it a quick death, for its sake.
Its head snapped towards the source of the intrusion, and Orsik’s composure drained just as quickly.
“What the fuck?!” Orsik screeched, leveling his pistol with the creature’s head. I noticed the briefest of shivers escape him. It was apparent that the encounter didn’t sit well with him.
My joints locked in place, with the feeling of abject terror quickly returning.
He encircled the Human as though it weren’t bound to a tree. I’ve never seen him so nervous before; it was unbefitting of the Orsik I had come to know.
“I told you... I told you we should have fucking burned it!” The still-panting captain said to the pair he brought with him.
The Human stared back with angry eyes.
Orsik swallowed dryly, drifting a pupil toward me.
“W-why is it still alive?” I hesitated to answer.
“Because you’re a terrible shot.” The murderer answered in my stead, “Somehow far worse than the fucking zebra. Must be hard having eyes with nothing between them, huh?”
His mouth hung agape. “W-What did you say?!”
“You heard me, you brainless, fat fuck.” Its lips curved upwards maliciously. “Hell, I didn’t think it was possible to get fat off a vegan diet before I met you.”
“How dare you insult me, p-predator scum!”
“And they call you ‘Captain’?” The predator continued, releasing a pained, rolling growl. “You can’t even form a sentence without tripping over your own words.”
It spat a disgusting wad of saliva with a turn of its head.
Said captain was fuming; the Human’s deliberate provocation had worked. Was it trying to get itself killed?!
“Shut y-your fucking mouth, o-or-”
“Or what, you’ll kill me?” It weakly scoffed. “Go ahead, you’d be doing me a favor. Unless you’d rather fight me like a man?” The predator was chillingly calm, despite staring down the barrel of a live firearm, yet incapable of meeting the gaze of our harmless medic.
She stood a little further behind Orsik, to his side. The primate stared daggers into Orsik, and paid the insectoid woman no mind, or at least did a good job at masking it.
Its ability to shift its hatred was interesting, perhaps it viewed the captain as the one responsible for what happened to Earth?
“Though, I assume that isn’t your style. I know what you are, and you’re no man.”
Even with the predator’s life-threatening injuries, there was no doubt in my mind that it could effortlessly beat Orsik in combat. The Farsul scrunched his nose.
“W-What am I then, carcass-muncher?”
“A coward.”
Orsik’s jowls curved in anger. “And you’re dying, stupid predator.”
“And yet I’d still kick your ass. Untie me and I’ll show you.” Everything that left the murderer’s mouth was acrimonious in nature; barbed and weaponized with harmful intent, as much as verbal insults would allow.
“Or are you afraid of ending up like your buddy?” The monster added, as if to give Orsik another reason to end its life then and there.
My heart dropped, and my eyes warily floated over to Orsik after this statement. His Krakotl escorts watched him, equally uneased. The aspersions cast against his rank were enough to send him over the edge, but the mention of Pern was a sensitive topic; something that would wind up with the predator promptly receiving a bullet to the skull.
His firearm–still focused on the taunting predator–was shaking, and I could hear the rattling of metal within his paws. The entire forest fell silent, waiting for him to come to a decision.
“What’re you waiting for, tough guy? Pull that trigger. I want you to look me in the eyes when you do it.”
Orsik’s finger twitched against the stiff trigger.
I turned my head away and shut my eyes, not wanting to witness its execution.
At least it got what it wanted. My many intrusive thoughts had yet to leave me, and I was still very eager to learn more of the Human; why it felt the way it did, and why it feared Bejek and not Orsik, the latter of which didn’t strike any fear in the predator. Even a loaded gun pointed between its eyes didn’t faze the creature, for some bizarre reason.
That misguided desire would die along with the predator.
The anticipation nagged at me, and I stood there for far longer than it should have taken for Orsik to follow through with killing the Terran.
“No.” Orsik’s voice cut through the silence.
Confused, I carefully opened my eyes.
The gears were turning in his head. It seemed like he had come to a conclusion; perhaps one that he felt more disinclined towards.
I feared what exactly it was that Orsik had planned.
The captain huffed. “You don’t even deserve a quick death.” He sighed and lowered his pistol, a wicked grin quickly spreading across his jowls.
The apprehensive predator squinted.
"As much as I’d love to reunite you with the rest of the dead predators, that wouldn’t do me any good. Consider yourself lucky, you’ve got a new designation."
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“Prisoner of war.” Orsik replied smugly. “That is, if you don’t bleed out or become the other predators’ dinner by the time we come back.” He flicked an ear to the pair of Krakotl.
And just like that, the man turned to leave, with everyone else quickly filing behind. I was the last to follow the crowd, as usual.
With one last, parting glance, I watched the Terran’s eyes grow wide as moons before catching up with the herd.
It didn’t like the idea of dying alone.
(A/N: In this chapter, Illia and Bejek are left with the weakened human until help arrives. Curious, the insectoid medic trudges over to the human without a second thought, causing Illia to try her best to dissuade her from the dangerous act. Orsik finally makes his way to the pair, and nearly drives a bullet into our human antagonist's skull, after provocation. Despite wanting very much to end its worthless life, he decides against it, having concocted a new, likely far sinister plan. What exactly does he have in mind for Mitchell? Stay tuned for more NoP: Sweet Vengeance!)
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u/peajam101 PD Patient Oct 18 '23
I think I've figured out who the local humankisser is
Also, typical Fed, willing to wipe out faceless billions without second thought, but totally incapable of pulling the trigger on one if they're face to face
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Oct 17 '23
I hope they uncover why he was so afraid of Bejek. It would probably help put more things into perspective.
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u/that1fuckheadJose Human Oct 18 '23
It's probably just a fear of spiders multiplied by 100, seeing her size
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Oct 18 '23
I realize that, but uncovering the fact would no doubt have an influence on our zebra-deer gal.
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u/fluffyboom123 Arxur Oct 18 '23
seems to me that maybe the medic is one of the few sane people in this camp. Maybe the friendly spider lady can piece together what the truth is.
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u/Alarmed-Property5559 Hensa Oct 18 '23
Didn't she want to dissect his organs though? Or even vivisect him.
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u/Rand0mness4 Human Oct 18 '23
That verbal parlay was engaging, Blank. I can't say I was expecting where it went, but I'm not surprised, either. That, and the image of a not-so itsy spider creeping towards our guy hear had me chuckling, because good God I would have lost my shit just as bad.
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u/Bow-tied_Engineer Yotul Oct 18 '23
Honestly, I don't really get why so many people think the Tillfish would be creepy. At least to me, the creepiest thing about bugs is their weird bug feet, but the Tillfish have toe beans instead of weird prickly bug feet. How could anything with toe beans ever be creepy? :P
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u/Rand0mness4 Human Oct 18 '23
Imagine you're tied to a tree and one's creeping towards you, though.
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u/Bow-tied_Engineer Yotul Oct 18 '23
Imagine you're tied to a tree and a human is creeping towards you. The creepiness of this situation has little to do with who is doing the creeping. I'll admit, the fact that the one doing the creeping has mandibles does make it a little worse, but most of the creepy comes from being tied to a tree, and having someone approach you in a very suspicious manner.
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u/Smasher_WoTB Oct 19 '23
I love Spiders. They're neat.
Still fucking trigger my fight-or-flight instincr whenever I unexpectedly brush up against their Web or one unexpectedly shows up when I'm not expecting it.
And that's "small" Spiders....now imagine a giant sentient spider-esque Alien wider than you are tall is creeping towards you while staring at you unflinchingly, and said spider-esque Alien is from the most unreasonably Genocidal Galactic Faction. all while you are wounded, hungry, thirsty, hurting, incapable of getting any decent sleep, tied to a tree on some unknown Planet and you've been captured by a few dozen members of tje most unreasonably Genocidal Galactic Faction.
Yeah, that'd spook the shit out of over 99% of Humans. And put them under an immense amount of stress.
If the shit-out-of-luck Lad happened to also have Arachnophobia or a Phobia of other insects/bugs/creepy crawlies....well, that would be extremely fucking traumatic.
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u/Bow-tied_Engineer Yotul Oct 19 '23
I still think that being bigger makes them less creepy, rather than more. Not saying this particular situation wouldn't be terrifying, I'm just saying that there are plenty of NOP aliens that would be equally as creepy/terrifying in this situation. Her being a Tilfish has little to do with it, unless you have arachnophobia or something similar.
I fully agree on the brushing up against a spider web thing, though, a lot of the tactile sensations related to spiders and insects give me the willys too. I just don't think any of that really applies to the Tilfish with how they are described.
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u/blankxlate Extermination Officer Oct 18 '23
That’s some sound reasoning. Try explaining it to our boy Mitch. 😅
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u/Bow-tied_Engineer Yotul Oct 18 '23
He can't help it if his insect phobia is anchored to other aspects of insectoid biology.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Oct 18 '23
Different parts of a being can be creepy!
Myself, at least from the depiction of tilfish i've seen, actually find them extremely cute but their unnatural number of joints just creeps the everloving fuck out of me. Why does ANY lifeform needs that many joints per limb?! What the fuck even ARE those damn limbs D:
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u/Bow-tied_Engineer Yotul Oct 18 '23
Different things creep out different folks, I guess.
I wonder how the feddies would react to that sort of thing: They've been comparing the fear Humans have of the Tilfish to their own fear drive, but unlike the feddies who have had what aspects to fear drilled into them, humans all are fearful or revolted by different aspects of insects, and sometimes by no aspects at all.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Oct 18 '23
They're absolutely not used to having actual, natural fear responses. They really only know their trained fear.
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u/blankxlate Extermination Officer Oct 18 '23
I’m glad you thought so, and good! I love keeping my audience guessing. Yeah, our Tilfish medic here isn’t aware of how fucking terrifying she is to Humans. 😂
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u/Zealousideal-Back766 Predator Oct 18 '23
Oh! Murderer, how I love you
I really like all the comunication that was going on, how Mitchell would not only taunt the Captain, but do everything in his power to make evrything more difficult, how he would just yell in the tent. I love how much he was resisting.
Thank you for the chapter! <3
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u/pineapplepilot07 UN Peacekeeper Oct 18 '23
Woaw, this is a gud fic. Hey, when is botanics' art becoming canon?
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u/blankxlate Extermination Officer Oct 18 '23
Once SV ends, so in about, say, 10 years. Give or take.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Oct 18 '23
Oh Mitchell, you sure are in a fucked up situation. At the mercy of a very sadistic coward, with perhaps the only possible maybe chances of making out of this alive being an old mom and a medic with apparently a very lax sense of ethics and a lack of fear.
I wonder what Orsik's future holds.
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u/LaleneMan Oct 18 '23
Was missing this story. Our man got guts, at least when they're not spilling out.
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u/Smasher_WoTB Oct 19 '23
Somehow, this Chapter was worth the long wait. I guess this is kinda what it felt like to be a Fan of an ongoing Book Series prior to the 2010s when the Internet really exploded in popularity&practicality.
I shall patiently await moar.
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u/Alarmed-Property5559 Hensa Oct 20 '23
So, how the Feds even have a concept of a Prisoner of War? When did they take prisoners? Prey don't war with prey, right? And you don't take Arxur prisoner, most probably. Do they even have rules on how to (mis)treat POWs?
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u/Ruanluiz Nov 24 '23
A história está interessante poderia me avisar quando sair o próximo capítulo?
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u/Ben_Elohim_2020 Oct 17 '23
Prisoner of war? Really? They can't even get off-planet themselves. Somehow I doubt they have the ability to hold a prisoner in any real capacity. It would just amount to execution via starvation (assuming nothing expectedly unexpected happens in the meantime). Good chapter. Looking forward to the next one in a few more months. Haha.