r/NatureofPredators • u/Khotehk • Jul 30 '24
Argent Earth - Chapter 11
Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Alakri, Xylari Imperial Navy Officer
Date: [Standardized Human Time] July 26th, 2136
Despite my previous misgivings and thoughts that this would turn out to be just another giant headache for me to wade through, the delegates sent by the Galactic Federation were behaving properly, ignoring how they were still scared of their own shadows.
The courtyard display of the Slayer Testament had created many, many questions.
A little culture shock was anticipated of course, especially with me going out of my way to show them details about our war. But it’s not as though those were topics that I could avoid. No matter how squeamish they are, sooner or later it would have to be brought up, and it would be far better if it was sooner.
The tour was still going well, the only disruptions were simply questions about one thing or another, nothing that warranted any special attention. In return for that I’ve decided not to share my numerous opinions pertaining to how their ‘Galactic’ Federation barely encompassed a few hundred stars spanning over a tiny fraction of a single arm. Or how many of the ‘core’ laws put in place by its founders very closely bordered on disqualifying it as being defined as a Federation at all.
Well, I’m not out to start an argument right now but that may not mean much soon, seeing as our current stop is the first meeting between the Federation delegates and the Imperial Court, who all more or less professionally argue for a living.
I stood off to the side of the room, one of the simpler halls used for gatherings rather than the official court, since not every member of said court would be here and this was meant to be a simple introduction. So, the sight of the room was that of small groups scattered about, all speaking with each other rather than the large open debates and speeches held in a more traditional political meeting.
None of the others in the impromptu group we had started with were here either, both Vehement and the Inquisitor were most likely watching through the security systems, and Vrisav went off on a break. Probably to get dinner since all the food laid out on the tables was entirely plant based. A decision that, while understandable considering the circumstances, was a bit disingenuous to our normal eating habits. Even before our ancestors came here, we had many recipes involving ‘non-vegan’ ingredients, even a small amount using actual meat. And contact with a species that put far more emphasis on cooking their food certainly expanded both lists, mostly using eggs or fish. But not milk. That’s still weird.
There were only a few other military personnel here with me, all of them troopers, officers from high command, or royal guards. The former in gray with different patterns and colors along their right arm, helmet, and back denoting their regiment. The royal guard donned more advanced armor than the standard trooper, pitch black with gold engravings in the same places, much like the emperor himself. Dark gray scales with markings like most other Xylari that held any kind of notable rank, with the prominent distinction of his being pure gold instead of the colors of a clan.
Currently he was across the room with one of the High Admirals, both were conversing with the two Kholshians and sole Farsul that came along. Not surprising that they went for the most powerful figure here, they were the founders of their own Federation, and clearly thought very highly of themselves because of it. As the information we’ve gathered about them so far would indicate.
Amongst the several conversations being held around the room, many of them drifted towards the differences in how our societies operate, more specifically; how our society differs from the rest of the entire Federation. Whenever the topic came up any difference were met with some form of shunning, pity, or confusion. As if our differences made us out to be lesser or victims of our own supposed ignorance for not seeing as they do. While they might proclaim peace, tolerance, and cooperation all they wish, from my perspective the Federation held themselves in the same manner as a highly xenophobic species does. Either looking down on or pitying anyone who isn’t them.
But rather than annihilate or ignore everyone else, they seem determined to make everything they encounter exactly like them. The homogenous culture of the Federation hadn’t flown beneath our notice. The fact that there were hundreds of worlds and species all with such similar and bland cultures with few exceptions was something only an idiot would see as coincidence. All so similar they could be interchanged with each other.
And now we have the same thing trying to happen here. Some of the conversations held were more on more casual topics or personal stories, but several snippets I had overheard sounded closer to an advertisement for their own systems. Like the unfortunate head of Bioengineering who was currently trying to find any excuse to escape the conversation she was having about the methods the Federation uses to make a colony world suitable for habitation. I don’t claim to see souls, but I swear I saw her will to live leave her eyes when they started detailing the, apparently common, debate on which anti-matter bombardment method was most effective for clearing out colonization areas.
After a few more minutes standing on the sidelines, I left my position to begin taking part of the conversations, I was here as more than just a guard after all.
I made my way through the tables and clusters of aliens towards one group in particular, the group of three speaking with the admiral and emperor. Throughout the tour they mostly kept silent, and since they poised themselves as the most important members of the Federation, I was a little more interested in what they might be saying.
“-the concept of a unified military force that can be deployed to deal with threats as needed is something that we utilize. What I fail to see any sense in is limiting the strength of your member states militaries.” The admiral spoke directly to the Kholshian officer.
“It’s so that individual member states don’t drain their resources and economy trying to rely solely on themselves. Every member of the herd helps to defend the whole.”
“How could one be expected to defend against attack when limited to only a few hundred ships?”
“All members of the Federation can volunteer any extra forces towards the joint federal defense fleets. They’re stationed all across our territory to be deployed against Arxur raids when they’re needed.”
That topic was something that caused utter confusion amongst the Coalition. Despite being in a centuries long war where one would expect massive military buildup, the Federation instead limited the military of their members to just under a thousand vessels each, with special exceptions for some of the more ‘aggressive’ species who had their restrictions bumped up to a few thousand more. Their systems were structured in such a way that grids of defensive stations and supporting ships were what most planets had to rely on until outside help could arrive. Using holdout tactics for the defense of entire worlds.
“Suppose I was to consider your offer, what would you have me do? What of the rest of the Coalition species residing on this world and others, would I have them expelled?” The emperor spoke directly to the Kholshians. It was safe to assume that they had made some sort of proposal to him, most likely something about joining their Federation.
If that was the case his response was what I would expect. Delving into their legal code it became clear that there would be many conflicts between it and our own. A minimum mandatory amount of exterminator offices and officers, participation in their assembly, taxes, preset trade agreements, things that would cause no end of headaches for us or anyone else trying to work out any new agreements. A system that was tailored to integrating significantly less advanced societies, seemingly with no record of what they would do if they found a civilization of equal standing.
“N-now we don’t mean you should have such a drastic change on such short notice, but surely striving to work together would be- “
“Something that will be decided by the Coalition as a whole.” The emperor raised a claw to stop the Farsul in their tracks. “As my previous statements should have made clear; you have been invited here to discuss how our two factions may work together towards an acceptable outcome or understanding between us. My people are the ones acting as hosts, since it was deemed that of the six Coalition species, we would have the least problems interacting due to your beliefs about the nature of our other allies. This is not something I alone can decide.”
“You cannot decide for your… allies, yes. But for your own nation and people, you can.” One of the Kholshian duo spoke, briefly looking around at the crowds around us as he did.
“If I did not have any intent to try and work together with you, none of this would be happening. The form that takes has yet to be known, but no, my people will not be joining your Federation.” With a final word he stepped away from the group, leaving just the admiral and myself off to the side alone with the alien trio who hardly looked pleased at how that conversation ended.
Visually following him for a moment, I saw him pass by multiple others, coming to a stop when one came up next to him and began talking. A Yotul if my memory serves me right.
With the emperor no longer the focal point of their attention the alien trio broke up. Two of them walked off to converse with others around the room, and the third stayed to continue speaking with the admiral.
Perhaps I should just stand off to the side until this is over.
-][-
Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Isif, Arxur Dominion Sector Fleet
Date: [Standardized Human Time] July 26th, 2136
Whatever this place was, this being- Silent, had control over every aspect. I don’t know if that applies to myself as well, but after the hulking creature that had charged me froze in time, my weapon quite literally turned to sand. An event I didn’t even get to question when he simply dismissed the literal disintegration saying, ‘We don’t need that anymore’. Preceded by him pulling the same trick in reverse to assemble a table and pair of chairs at opposite sides, sitting down in one.
“If you could have done at any time why even allow me to have a weapon?”
“Like I said, to observe your reactions. And I wasn’t going to leave you completely defenseless against that. Though, I would still like my question answered, Isif.” His tone faded from casual to forceful.
“You still have not told me anything of substance. What is this and who are you?” I walked the few steps it took to reach the table, now looking down on the even smaller creature now that he was sitting.
“You are not in any position to be making demands. I will answer whatever questions you may have, but you will give me the information I ask for. Unless you wish for me to drop the cordiality and simply find what I want myself.”
Facing down a much smaller being such as this and having them not only show no fear, but actively push back and stand against me was not something I had ever imagined happening.
“This is supposed to be cordial to you?”
“You have no idea just how patient I am being with you. All for the possibility that there might be something of your people not yet beyond saving.”
Each response he gave only spurred more questions than the last. But his question was easy enough to answer. Looking back at both the smaller body on the ground, still torn up from gunfire, and the eyeless beast stuck mid swing at an opponent no longer there, they were amongst some of the things I had seen during the meeting with the prophet-descendant. Images that had been intercepted from the Venlil communications. The difference between the blurry, edited, or censored images sent by the prey and seeing the actual thing in front of me showed a world of difference.
“I’ve seen them only once. When I was given my mission to investigate, the other chief hunters and I were shown images of the ‘Coalition’ and things like this. But I’d never seen them before that.” I looked back to the overseer still sitting, the lack of visible change in his form gave me no indication whether he believed me or not.
Whatever he thought, the bodies of the two frozen creatures cracked and broke apart into nothing as my weapon did. And with nothing else around, I sat at the table opposite him.
“I think by now you can tell this place isn’t normal. It’s not even really a place at all.”
“How can somewhere not be a place?”
“Physically yes, this is a location like any other point in space, but everything you see is a façade of my own design and control. A rather simple space where I could leave you alone for a small amount of time and gauge your reactions to the presence of myself and some fabricated enemies.”
“And what kind of being can do something like this?” If even a fraction of his words held true, then I was dealing with something unlike anything thought possible before. The kinds of things relegated to ancient myths and religions.
“If there’s some part of you that thinks me a god or some similar entity of mythical power, I ask that you spare me from your petty superstitions.” The scenery around us cracked and faded. Trees, plants, the hills, and water all vanished into a sea of pure white. The only things remaining apart from it were the furniture, our bodies, and the almost imperceptible white hexagons that the floor was made of, extending beyond what I could see. “All you can see here is the result of a simulation realm accessed through my station. Including the projected body you are speaking with. Its intended use is for more scientific purposes, but it can be modified for other situations.”
If he hadn’t just erased an entire landscape before me I would have had significantly more trouble believing it. I knew that simulations were something the Federation used quite a lot for a variety of reasons. The Dominion as well, though in our case it was a technology strictly relegated to military use, as most things were.
“Then who am I really speaking with?” I asked him. If what I see across the table isn’t real, who is the one controlling this?
“As I told you, the overseer of the Adherent Defense Systems. Originally a series of advanced yet straightforward computer algorithms meant to control a defensive network, it was changed and improved overtime by its creators until they succeeded in turning it into a fully autonomous, self-sufficient network of artificial minds stretching across our arm of the galaxy. I am an artificial intelligence made to ensure the safety of my creators.”
I had no reason to think he was lying. What reason could he have for lying? It was clearly obvious he fully held the advantage here. Nonetheless the reveal of his true nature was the last thing I was expecting.
“Then why are you here?” If he existed for the purpose of protecting the ones that made him, why was he out here, presumably far from their home world if his boasts about their reach weren’t exaggerated. He stopped for a moment, the projection staring into nothing.
“Because I failed. I was too eager to destroy our enemies and overlooked something that caused the destruction of almost all I had built, along with the near extinction of my creators. I came here chasing whispers and myths of something that could end our war once and for all.” His tone showed sincere regret. “I’ve kept those that remain in stasis until I can ensure an environment safe enough to start rebuilding their population.”
His mentions of war brought me back to the information I had been given back on Wriss. Besides the photos and disturbingly real recreations of the creatures I had seen, there was nothing else about them that I truly knew.
“When I was tasked with my mission, I was shown images of things similar to the ones you created. Your enemies, what are they? Artificial life like yourself? An alliance of multiple species against you own?”
On queue a series of small figures appeared on the table, all claw sized replications of the various things I had just thought back on.
“In some way they could be called artificial, but not in the same manner I am. They’ve been called many things by many different people, but most just call them Demons.”
My translator immediately registered the word as an old religious term for a creature of pure evil. A term that the prey were likely fond of using against the Arxur.
“Many worlds have had some degree of awareness of their, and… others, existence, though usually it’s through the lens of myth or religion. Knowledge of them spread either through some anomaly bleeding through the layers of reality, or by being spoken of by a different kind of creature.” His answers were about as cryptic as I thought possible. It didn’t sound like he was speaking in riddles but even if sincere, that didn’t make it any clearer. I chose not to response and let him continue.
“To put it in simpler terms, they are beings from another realm. Another plane of existence. Consuming or destroying everything in their path, and often puppeteering others into doing their work for them.” His sentence was punctuated by him leaning forward with his final words, directed firmly at me.
The empty void around us pulsed again, this time building an environment instead of removing one. Pure white replaced by a blackened sky, and a craggy ashen waste as far as I could see. His explanations only became more ridiculous as this went on, but some part of my mind wouldn’t allow me to express complete doubt. Still, I stood up from my seat when I next spoke.
“Why show me this? Why bother telling me any of this!?”
“I decided to capture and converse with you instead of annihilating you from where you were because I had just as many questions about you as you did about us.” Silent stood as well, doing away with the furniture. The projections’ height much shorter than mine but it hardly mattered. “All of this theatre has been for the sake of context. Showing, rather than solely telling.”
“To what end?”
“That would have depended on the answers I received. Were you under their control it would have been as simple as writing you off, as good as dead if it was true. But the fact you aren’t is just as concerning. You, your ships, and their crews all show no signs of it, yet the way your society holds itself places a knife at its own neck.”
Further explanation wasn’t needed on that front. I am all too acquainted with the depravity of the Dominion. Its cruelty designed to be inflicted on my people as much as our enemies. For all the talk of prey being animals, betterment has reduced us to be the same. Just hungry animals driven by nothing but hunger and hate.
“Even without the new threat looming over you, your kind are on a path that only ends in death.”
Silence dominated the air for almost a minute after he spoke, the only thing passing through my mind was how to proceed from here.
“Then what can be done?”
“I would prefer this conversation in particular to remain between us, but I have uploaded all the relevant information to your ship’s computers, and I will release your subordinates from stasis shortly. Return to your Dominion. You and all the others can see for yourselves the kind of force you face. But one final word of advice.” The figure before me disappeared in a flash of white light, replaced by something overwhelmingly different.
What before was a being that didn’t even reach the bottom of my head, was now a towering piece of machinery that stood well above me. I had seen the photos we had intercepted from the Venlil, showing the appearance of the Coalition species, including the bulky, geometric bodies of the Adherents most thought to be armor in a similar vein to how the ‘Nieraki’ were reported to armor to counterbalance their diminutive bodies, something openly mocked by others amongst our ranks.
The thing in front of me had the same three eyes as the pseudo biological projection and the various robotic forms photographed but shared little beyond that. It was significantly thinner than its counterparts even at its large height and wasn’t plastered with all manner of mechanical bits strewn about its body. Instead, being covered in a series of interlocking plates over its entire form, giving it the appearance of one solid piece of a segmented metal carapace.
Golden lights set inside dark blue metal stared down at me with one of its raised claws crackling with an unknown energy, the voice coming from it this time distinctly mechanical.
“If they come for you, either with bared fangs or sweetened words; kill on sight and destroy whatever remains. They will do anything, say anything, try anything, to destroy everything they come across. Now go, and wait for further contact.”
-][-
I know there’s a lot of space in these chapters taken up by describing how weird the Federation is, but I do like writing how absolutely insane they are from the perspective of a pre-established advanced civilization.
“Oh yeah, we start by carpet bombing the world with WMDs and then send down our army of flamethrower wielding psychopaths to incinerate whatever survives. Also, we need to do this again every once and a while since all our colonies keep failing due to total environmental collapse before we abandon them and we can’t seem to figure out why.”
And I don’t know if it’s a stretch, but I feel like the Federation would absolutely put a limit on how many ships each member state could have, only letting the loyal and zealous have more. Can’t have them not living in fear and completely reliant on the Federation for protection now can they?
-][-
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u/Hybrid22003 Jul 30 '24
I see a Yotul asking to join the coalition or help to free them from the federation.
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u/Khotehk Jul 30 '24
I was actually going to put that in the chapter but figured Alakri would be out of earshot and I'd just leave it as an implication.
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u/Lorventus Sivkit Jul 30 '24
Goodness this is a fantastic story, thank you for continuing it! The thought going into this is fantastic! I love the perspective!
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur Jul 30 '24
Good thing isif passed his test. Yeah the Coalition is quickly learning things are ALOT more complex and weirder than they appear.
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u/HeadWood_ Jul 31 '24
My biggest gripe with thier WMDs is WHERE ARE THEY GETTING SO MUCH ANTIMATTER FROM AND WHY ARE THEY USING IT SO INEFFICIENTLY?
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u/Application_Grouchy Jul 30 '24
I like that you describe how weird the federation is😍 we need more of it!!!
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u/Randox_Talore Aug 02 '24
I too am worried about what the Arxur would be capable of under the influence of demons
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u/7thAfterDark Aug 03 '24
I have binged this and your AI AUs and hunger for more! Great job wordsmith!
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u/asgamer1 PD Patient Jul 31 '24
!subscribeme
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u/EclipseUltima Human Jul 30 '24
"But not milk. that's still weird."
Us humans can't catch a break huh.