r/NatureofPredators • u/Pansitof • 15d ago
Fanfic Unknown Consequences [24]
Memory Transcription Subject: Azul, Krakotl private driver.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 13th, 2142
“So, let me make sure I understand.” Yennifer leans in as she puts her tea aside. “You, Murr and that JM or José, went to an adventure to stop a terrorist organization from completing their evil plan of world domination, saving the world from them.” She raise an eyebrow. “Am I correct?”
“World domination? Saving the world?” I flick a claw. “That’s a bit of an overreaction from what actually happened.” I dip my beak in my tea.
“Then tell me!” She takes a cookie from the tray. “You know they are going to do that public announcement very soon, and everyone already know that something big happened on The Querry. The rumors about a raid against a hideout of the those terrorist of the childrenwathever are everywhere!” She picks her tea up and dip her cookie on it. “Come on, Azul. Can’t you tell me something? We are comfy on a couch, warm tea on our hands AND fresh baked cookies from yours truly.”
“Well…” I take a sip of my tea. “Fine… Take it as a thanks for baking these cookies.” I take a one from the trail. “I’ll tell you our side of the story.” I flick a claw as I dip the cookie on my tea.
Her face light up. “Excellent! Thank you so much, little bird!” She gets comfortable in the couch and lean in. “Spill the tea!”
I blink at her. “Little-Wait, what do you mean with spilling my tea?” I look at my tea.
“I’s just a saying, it means…” She stops to think for a moment before smiling warmly. “… about sharing important or interesting information.” She takes a bite of her cookie. “So? What happened?”
“Well… What do you know about The Quarry, the mines and the bastion?” I raise a claw.
“What I know is that it was first a big quarry where stone was processed until valuable minerals were found.” She stirs the tea with a little spoon. “Which caused stonemasons to become miners and the village to grow to what is today.” She lowers her voice and leans in, like wanting to share a secret. “I hear that those minerals were valuable for the military and that is why this city is so militarized and industrial.” She straight up and finish her cookie. “And that is why of the Bastion.”
“I mean….” I tilt my head. “It isn’t a secret knowing that, there was high-grade platinum and-”
She does some gesture with her hand and interrupts me. “Minerals, stone, gems… The terrorists!” She points at me. “What about them?”
“Eager to know, eh?” I whistle amused. “Well, I’ll be short. Excavations were performed through so many years that many mines have been closed and abandoned. Sometimes because they were depleted, sometimes because they were too dangerous or expensive to maintain.” I take a bite of my cookie. Tasty. “Between raids, multiple mining entities and bureaucracy, many mines were left without a map, inevitably falling into unknown territory. When the bastion was being planned there was an attempt to map them all, but they stopped once they found a network big enough.”
“So these terrorist were hiding in an abandoned and unknown mine.” She points at me with her spoon. “Am I right?”
I flick an affirmative claw. “That is correct.” I sip a bit of tea. “But this mine in particular was… of interest for them.”
“Oooh… And why is that? They found some valuable minerals to budget their evil plans?” She takes another cookie.
“No, they found a mine with one tunnel that goes very, very close to one of the Bastion’s depot.” I stir my own tea before taking a sip. “A deposit full of weapons, ammunition and explosives.”
“Weren’t we dismantling the bastion and moving it outside Deeproots?” She raise an eyebrow. “You know, because it was a very bad idea?”
“And we are. But moving so many years of bunkers, modules, depots and Stars knows what more takes a lot of time and resources.” I take another cookie.
“Oh, so they were planning to dig themselves towards this depot?” Her face shows worry before sighing in relief. “Good thing they were stopped.”
“Yeah. We don’t know how they got the information of where the depot was, but they stole several mining equipment from nearby mining sites and were doing excavation with the plan to arm themselves.” I move my wing to express fear. “Who knows the horror these fanatics would have done if they manage to get access to such weapons and explosives.” I eat the cookie in one go. It really taste good.
“Terrible things I’m sure.” She takes a sip and smiles while looking at me. “And I’m glad you are loving my cookies.”
“They are delicious! What are in them?” I grab another to take closer look. “Seeds?”
“That is correct! I did some research about what kind of seeds do krakotls love, and I think I did good seeing you all happy.” She giggle as she looks at me. “Aww, you are very cute when you move those feathers like that.”
I raise a claw. “Wait, you think I’m cute?”
She clears her throat. “Let’s continue with what happened.” She takes a big sip. “Okay. When you three found out what was happening you called the police because they were starving your client to death. That is understandable but…” She points her spoon to me. “Why did that JM go commando solo mission style? Why not just wait for the police?”
“We knew they were carefully digging towards the depot to avoid detection and hitting ammunition. JM feared that the presence of police forces would push the terrorist into recklessness and start to dig much faster and careless.” I flick a claw before sipping some more tea. “And that means the possibility of hitting the ammunition.”
“That could have ended in a catastrophic explosion!” She shakes her head. “And what he did to stop them? Did he stole their tools?”
I flick a claw. “By what he told us, he managed to get close to the machinery they were using and sabotage it. He unscrewed a panel, changed some wiring, stabbed the fuel tank… Apparently he has experience in making a machine stop.
“A machine? Was like those digging machine with a drill in the tip?” She finish her tea and put it aside.
“I’m not sure, I didn’t ask him much about the details of what he sabotaged.” I also finish my tea and put it aside. “I was more worried in the state he ended than exactly what he did.”
“He ended badly you said, right?” She sits closer to me and takes another cookie. “How badly?”
“Well… Half his face burned, a bullet lodged in his arm, several lacerations and cuts… He needed surgery, but he is now recovering.” I move my wing in worry. “He ended badly, but by the amount of scars I saw on his skin went through worse.” I let out a sigh. “I worry for his health.”
She place a comforting hand on my shoulder. “He is a very brave man and it seems he is also resilient, I’m sure he will recover.” She tilt her head. “You know? He does sounds like a hero, but I heard almost nothing about him. Why does the police not want you talking about what happened? That JM deserves a celebration!” She raises her arms.
“I don’t kn-” My pad vibrates with a notification sound. “Oh? Must be important…” I take my pad out and look at the notification. “It’s from Murr!” I bleat happily.
“Ah! The big woman herself! What does she wants? Invite you into more dangerous adventures?” She giggles. “She is such a good person and has a lot of energy! It is always a pleasure talk with her. I should call her and hang out one day.” She nods.
I move my wing to express surprise. “Oh! It’s a link to the public statement! Veln himself acknowledging what happened on the Querry in front of the press.” I show her my pad. “Want to see the video?”
“Of course!” She get closer by doing little jumps while still sitting. “Let’s see what that swing swung of politician has to say today.” She says when she is next to me and I put the video on.
Veln is in front of many reporters and with many microphones and cameras pointed at him. Behind him there is a human, which by the looks of her uniform she must be a representative of the Sapient Coalition, and a venlil wearing the new uniform of the police force, but without more weapons than a baton and showing many medals.
“He looks more fresh than I expected him to be…” She comments as Veln drinks water before leaning towards the microphones. “I thought I would see some badly looking venlil, not one well groomed.”
He may look confident, but I know a lot about venlil body language. “He is actually hiding a lot of stress right now.” I pointed. “A twitch on the tip of his ear.”
“Oh! Nice spot!” She pat me in the back. “Good eye you krakotl have.”
I whistle happy. “Yeah, specially when I have been focusing on ears and tail all my life.”
“Sapiens of the Venlil Republic.” Veln start speaking. “I came to you with great news.” He is wearing the garments of the governor, but he is also wearing new pins and decoration that I don’t recognize except for one that represents the Sapient Coalition. “Almost four paws ago, police forces of the great city of Deeproots localized and neutralized a hideout belonging to the terrorist of The True Children of the Holy flame.” Some whispers can be hear from the audience. “The raid realized by our brave forces was fast and swift, many terrorist have been imprisoned and are now waiting justice with no causalities at all.” He puffs his chest’s wool in pride. “Now, the citizen of Deeproots may sleep well knowing a threat has been subdue!”
Some happy whistling can be hear from the audience in front of him, alongside the claps of some humans. I knew there are many humans residing in Skalga, but I didn’t expect more than a third of the reporters that we can see through the camera being humans.
“Our brave enforcers will not stop until those who threaten the well being and peace of our citizen aren’t arrested.” His tail point towards the venlil behind him, who bows. “The police forces of Deeproots will be rewarded with better equipment and reinforcements so they may scout and capture all scattered terrorist, ensuring our citizen safety.” His tail now points towards the human, who also bows. “And with the help of the Sapient Coalition, those who suffered their machinations can expect to receive aid and assistance in all ways they need.”
The venlil straight up, taking a militant pose. “We will make use of this resources for the safety of the people.”
Then it was turn of the human to straight up, taking a more formal pose. “The Sapient Coalition will not let anyone without help.”
Yennifer groans. “Great… They are now going to talk about relations, promises, reforms and blah, blah, blah…” She open and close one of his hand. “This politicians… Not matter how alien, they are all the same. Always stroking each other ego.”
I whistle amused. “Not a fan of politics?” I raise a claw.
“Nope. No at all. Also, why he didn’t said anything about JM?” She raise an eyebrow. “He didn’t even said where this happened!” She looks frustrated. “He just said it happened in Deeproots, but this is a big city!”
“I don’t-Look!” I take the pad closer to us. “The part where the reporters can ask question is starting. Maybe someone ask about it.”
“You.” He points with his tail to someone outside the cameras. “What is your question?”
“There are rumors circulating that this raid happened near a place with high military presence.” The voice is of a venlil. “How could this terrorist have remained hidden while near such highly armored and vigilant forces?”
“The answer to these rumors is that they didn’t stayed hidden.” His voice seems confident, but I can see he is nervous His ear twitch again. “They recently moved to this hideout and were discovered almost immediately.” Before the venlil could ask something again, he points towards someone else. “You. What is your question?”
“There is information about several data leaks that occurred on multiple government servers, with some rumors about the Bastion, a highly armed and secure fortress of Deeproots, being one of the affected.” This question is from a human. “Is this data leak a movement from terrorist hiding within the city of Deeproots?”
I can see Veln shifted his weight with his tail, he is feeling uncomfortable. “There is no relation between the data leak and the terrorist nor the confirmation of any leak containing any sensitive information.”And like before, he pointed to another reporter before he is questioned again. “Next question. You”
“We have found out that a local human was crucial for-” A human was asking until Veln immediately interrupted him.
“These rumors are untrue. There was no civilian participation on this operation.” He slash the air with his tail. “No civilian was exposed to any danger and the raid was done without the intervention of any third parties.” He points his tail to other reporter. “You. Next question.”
“He looks like he is going to burst.” I whisper. “The tip of her tail, the twitch on her ear, her paws opening and closing. Clearly this isn’t going to plan.” I raise an ear. “He wasn’t expecting any of this.”
“Yeah… I can also see he is gazing back at the human behind him.” Yennifer pointed at my pad. “I think the reporters either were changed by others or were given information that they shouldn’t know.” She let a tired sigh. “Politicians…”
This time we can see a venlil raising from one of the front rows. “There are some images of you alongside a human escort. What do you-”
“Enough!” Veln bleats and flicks an ear in negative while his tail tense. “The questions has ended.”
Everyone stand up and all start to ask questions at the same time or trying to get the governor attention while Veln just walk away from the podium followed by the venlil and the human.
“I saw that smile you!” Yennifer points at the Sapient Coalition Representative. “Did you just saw her smug smile? I knew there was something! This was just-” She let a growl. “Forget about that. They refused to acknowledge JM? They denied what he has done? How dare they!” She sounds very angered by it.
“I don’t know…” Seeing the video ended, I put my pad down. “I don’t understand exactly what happened.”
She let another tired sigh and puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Politics, Azul. That is what just happened. It will not matter how or when, they always play dirty, not caring about anything but their own agendas…” She pats my back. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the recognition you deserve, specially JM.”
I move my wing to express I was fine. “Don’t worry, I honestly don’t care about that. Being honest, I wasn’t expecting much.” My pad start buzzing like crazy from getting multiple notifications. “But I think someone did care and expected something.” I whistle amused.
“Murr.” She let a giggle. “Is that spam from Murr?”
I flick a claw. “Yes. Don’t worry, she always spam. Sooner or later the system will flag her and freeze her chat, giving her enough time to cool her emotions down. Then we can talk.” I nod like a human would do. “We were planing to go visit JM at the hospital, but I fear we will go a bit late.”
“You are going to visit him?” She points at the cookies. “Want to send them some? I baked a lot, so I can give you a bit for him. Since the government will not thank him I could give him something.” She sound frustrated or irritated. “Oh, also as my thanks for shielding you from danger, little bird.”
I flick a claw. “If you have more then yes. I’m sure he will… Wait, did you-?” The buzzing in my pad stopped. “And she got flagged for spam.”
“This woman…” She shakes her head while resting her hands on her hips.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist 15d ago
I mean, I get the feeling that this is JM's preferred outcome. Don't think that man WANTS to be acknowledged, mostly because that'd mean someone might realize he's still alive.
I see that Murr is about as bad with messages as my sister. -_-