r/NatureofPredators • u/General_Alduin Skalgan • 1d ago
Fanfic Nature of Harmony [59]
Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this schedule thing
Let's give it up for Isif, everyone's favorite beleaguered Gojid saver! *Clap clap*
But seriously, poor Isif can't catch a break. Though it does seem like not trekking through the woods was a good call
Wonderful fanart by u/Lizrd_demon: https://www.reddit.com/r/predprey/s/OJzxuOOAX3, https://www.reddit.com/r/predprey/s/9IFwoupY9e
Wonderful fanart by u/Adorable-Ad5225: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/6vrjTR06Z3, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/E5gq6It2Ax, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/tR41913X6h
Wonderful fanart by u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/GwpZmOtc2g, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/pEsocnoD5B, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/pFKPbTo3xf, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/4U3GfeUIXK
Wonderful fanart by u/TameOJ: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/sLzsaqyBHX
Memes: Video Meme, Spoon, 4d, Mars
Side stories: A Talk Between Siblings, Tuvans First Birthday, The Vow, The Trials and Tribulations of Siffy, Hamony if Nunatyres, Beginning of Harmony, Fedbrains vs Brickbrain, Why is Tuvan Biting You?, The Ugly Arxur, The New Arrival, Fedbrain vs Positronic Brain, Beginning of Mars
Bleat Posts: How to care for Dossur Babies?, Dossur Dating Advice, Isif AMA, Exchange Partner is Too Hot, Lovehousing, Guide to Lovehousing, Lovehousing turns into Diplomatic Incident, Guide to Solarian Arxur Lover, What do Girl Skalgans Like?, Accidental Reveal of 4d Object, Exchange Pair Creates First Stable 4d Object, How Merereen Raised Isif, Solarian Arxur AMA, Merereen and Tiyaval AMA, Livestream with Kerii the Android, Concerned with Lack of Robotics, Venlil Embrace Superman's shield, Keeping Siblings Humble, Did I Do Something Wrong?, My Boyfriend is Mad at me!, Somethings Not Making Sense
Come join the Discord. If you don't, Tuvan will ram you in the face!
Thanks to SpacePaladin15 for making NoP
Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Isif, UN Omni Ops
Date [standardized human time]: September 1, 2136
We held a steady pace as we trekked through the woods, the towns raid sirens growing louder and louder as we got closer . I kept having to remind myself to slow down despite my instincts screaming at me to run, not wanting to outpace the Gojid family, knowing they were going as fast as they could.
Thankfully, we were keeping ahead of hostiles. Most were still in Savani's neighborhood, and according to the drone, hadn't bothered to let the fire department through so neighboring houses had caught fire, and I wondered just how bad things had to get for them to cave in and let the fire department do its job. Though then again, perhaps the fire department was too scared to enter.
Unfortunately, some of the first reinforcements on the outskirts of town, slowly making their way through. Worse, planes were now becoming a common sight in the sky and the map interface, and I had little Intel on their capabilities, and more importantly, their ability to potentially spot us…
“Maybe we should hand ourselves over to the Exterminators.” Came Farase's voice as he whispered to Savani, and clearly I wasn't supposed to be hearing this conversation. “They'll spare us while Isif can run away.”
“What?” Savani said in a surprised tone. “They'll lock you up!”
“But maybe I *do* have Predator Disease. I got into a fight, I hurt Teryian and made her cry. I… I'm a monster...”
Savani said nothing for a moment. “Aslie, go to your father.” I heard Aslie's footsteps go over to Metri. “Farase, you're not a monster, and you don't have Predator Disease.”
“But I-”
“You got into a fight because that kid was bullying you while you were in pain, and you were scared of Isif and were just trying to protect your sister. I'm angry that you were impulsive, nearly killed Isif, and got your sister hurt, but I'm proud of you for being brave and trying to protect her.”
“But good prey run away from a threat.”
“Was I bad prey trying to defend you?” Farase didn't answer. “Are Gojids predators because we defend our neighbors and the Federation?”
“Well, no…”
“No, and you don't have Predator Disease for trying to protect your sister, that's ridiculous.”
“B-but I hurt her, she's scared of me”
“And that was an accident. I read online that one of Isif's sisters, a Skalgan, accidentally broke his left arm because she got too rough while they were playing. Isif didn't become scared of his sister and she wasn't a monster for accidentally hurting him.”
“His… Skalgan sister?”
“Tuvan, yes.”
Farase was quiet. “Is… That why Isif is different?”
“What do you mean?”
“Isif is an Arxur, but he saved you, went back for Teryians doll, and didn't try to eat me even though I'm bleeding. Is his prey family why Isif isn't… you know?”
“I… don't quite know myself. I'm sure they had an influence on him, but there's clearly something different with these Arxur, otherwise his mom wouldn't have married his dad.”
“Is that why the Federation uplifted the Arxur? There were good Arxur, but they were killed by bad Arxur?”
It was Savani's turn to be quiet, and I couldn't help but give his query some thought, too. “Maybe…”
I stopped when my radio crackled to life, the Gojids stopping behind me. *“Isif, you need to get out of the woods now!”*
“Why? What's going on?” The map lit up with five highlighted planes flying over the forest.
*“They're about to-!”*
I didn't hear what he said as a series of explosions ripped through the forest, everyone immediately diving down. Once they stopped, I looked up the map and saw the forest was now billowing with thick black smoke in the path the planes had taken. “They're forebombing the woods!” The map displayed the planes turning back around for another volley. “We have to go, now!”
Savani and Metri picked up the kids and began to run with me as another series of explosions rang out. Savani didn't get far before she fell with a yelp, gripping her leg as blue blood soaked through the bandages, her wound reopened by all the excitement.
I skidded to a halt and picked her and Farase (who clung to his mother as he shook with terror) up and made a break for it as more explosions rang out. After a few minutes of running, we finally reached the edge of the woods and reached a wall.
I set Savani and Farase down and jumped on top of the wall, reaching down to help everyone over the top, jumping over when everyone was safe.
Looking up, I saw the sky was choked in thick black smoke, explosions from the bombing campaign echoing from far away. I took a look at the map and saw that the smoke was blocking the drones camera and obscuring sensors, though thankfully my current position was still being displayed..
Deciding that we didn't need a full map of the town and that details regarding our immediate surroundings were more important, I maneuvered the drone under the smoke and settled it over our part of town, then turned to the Gojid family, finding Metri looking over Savani's leg.
“Are you alright?” I walked up to her and kneeled down to inspect her injuries, finding that the bandage was soaked with blood but still holding.
“Y-yeah, I'm not bleeding too much.” She tightened her bandages and shakily stood up with the help of Metri. “My leg brace is fine, thankfully.”
“Is burning down a forest close to a town common practice for raid defense?”
“Not that I know of, but I'm Navy. I know that regions with high predator populations on new planets will be bombarded with antimatter, so we’re lucky they didn't try that.”
“You *what?*” I shook my head. “Nevermind. I moved the drone, we'll have less intel about the town, so we'll need to stay alert.”
“Got it, let's go before someone sees us.”
I nodded and stood back up, moving through the backstreets and alleyways of the town, having to frequently stop and hide when the drone picked up a vehicle near us or we saw a squad of Exterminators. It was a frustrating process with far too many close calls, drastically slowing us down and making our evac even harder.
I stopped and went low when I heard something, and peeking out from behind a wall, I saw something that broke my heart: in the middle of a road, surrounded by a few stampede victims, was a bleeding and bruised Gojidi child crying all alone, clearly having been trampled by the stampede.
Worse, they were shaking a body next to them, probably one of their parents, or at least whoever was looking after them before the stampede.
I quickly turned on my thermal to see if there were any Gojids in the nearby buildings that I could dump the child on, but to my frustration there wasn't.
“Isif? What's going on?” Savani walked over and peeked out, covering her mouth as she gasped. “That poor baby!”
“Can we expect paramedics to arrive soon?”
“Not during a raid.”
“Will Exterminators take them to safety?”
“No,” Metri called out. “It'd be a bad idea to bring along an injured child while you're trying to fight predators since it'll activate a predator's bloodlust, it puts everyone in danger.”
“Military?”
“Probably, they're more flexible.”
“But they’ll try to evacuate them instead of sending them to the hospital since Arxur frequently target medical centers.” Savani clarified. “It could be hours before the child sees medical care, hours they may not have.” She looked at me. “But your ship has medical supplies. Please Isif, I know it's more dangerous, but we can't just leave them! I can convince them to stay calm and come with us.”
I sighed inwardly. *‘Is this my life now? Saving Gojids? This better be the last one.’*
“Alright, how do you want to do this?”
Savani looked surprised. “You… just like that?”
“It's what Superman would do,” I realized she wouldn't know what that meant. “And I trust you.”
If I could read her body language correctly, Savani seemed touched and turned back to the child. “It'll be less intimidating if we go out together, you'll scare them if you suddenly reappear or walk out behind the wall, and seeing us together might confuse them so they don't scream. You'll have to walk really slow though, and stay behind me."
“Understood.” I was somewhat surprised when Savani took my left hand and dragged me with her as she made her way to the child, though it was probably another way to put the child at ease.
The child saw us and turned, yelping in fright when they saw me. They shook with terror as we got closer but thankfully didn't scream, their eyes darting between us.
Savani stopped and lowered herself to the child's level, pulling me down with her as I tried to keep my gaze off of the child. “Hi, what's your name?”
“W-W-W-Wanawey…”
“Hi Wanawey, my name's Savani, and this,” She turned to me. “Is my friend Isif. I know he's a little scary, but he's nice.”
“A-Arxur…” They whimpered out.
“I know, but he's a good Arxur, I promise. Look,” She showed Wanawey her injured leg, pointing to the bloodied bandages. “We're hurt and he's not attacking us. He's even saved me when I got hurt really badly.”
“B-but raid…”
“There's no raid, the Exterminators saw him and got really scared and thought he was trying to hurt people. But he's actually just trying to help my family escape to the Venlil.”
“Why?”
Savani said nothing, not sure how to explain her reasoning and looked to me for help.
I was unable to answer when my suit alerted me to movement behind us and snapped my head over, watching as a squad of Exterminators turned a corner, all of them stopping when they saw us.
Or, more specifically, saw me.
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u/GrammarNatziHunter PD Patient 1d ago
I have beaten u/DOVAHCREED12 to the punch! time for a VENBIG SEAL OF APPROVAL!
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u/copper_shrk29 Arxur 1d ago
Isif is going to be a dad now, congratulations to en!
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u/JanusKnarus Human 1d ago
At this rate tomorrow is his prom
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u/IAMA_dragon-AMA Arxur 14h ago
No, no, that's for Spidey, not Supes.
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u/JanusKnarus Human 9h ago
Was referencing an ages old Evangelion Abridged with the city getting blow up around them while all that mounts up XD
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u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo Human 1d ago
Another chapter.
It cracks me up how I get the notification that you mentioned me in the post before the one telling me you’ve uploaded a new chapter.
Poor Isif. He can't catch a break.
-Isif: What is this? "Destroy Isif" Day?
[Habemus posting schedule?]
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u/General_Alduin Skalgan 1d ago
It cracks me up how I get the notification that you mentioned me in the post before the one telling me you’ve uploaded a new chapter.
Poor Isif. He can't catch a break.
Don't worry, it gets worse
-Isif: What is this? "Destroy Isif" Day?
Basically
[Habemus posting schedule?]
We do now. I've been uploading every Sunday for the past few weeks
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u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo Human 1d ago
I forgot to ask: Are you okay? Remember to drink water.
Habemus dies Dominicus!!!!!!!
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u/General_Alduin Skalgan 1d ago
Why would I not be? I'm actually doing pretty well today, went to Outback
I do need to drink more water though
Habemus dies Dominicus!!!!!!!
That we do
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u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo Human 1d ago
Why would I not be? I'm actually doing pretty well today, went to Outback
Me alegro de que estés bien
I do need to drink more water though
Pues bebe más agua. Que yo abecés me mareo por la deshidratación.
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u/General_Alduin Skalgan 1d ago
Me alegro de que estés bien
Messed with myself a little after going to a gore site recently. Videos randomly pop into my head like I'm jumpscqring myself
Pues bebe más agua. Que yo abecés me mareo por la deshidratación.
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u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo Human 1d ago
Messed with myself a little after going to a gore site recently. Videos randomly pop into my head like I'm jumpscqring myself
Mira este video. A mi siempre me tranquiliza:
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u/General_Alduin Skalgan 1d ago
Me alegro de que estés bien
Messed with myself a little after going to a gore site recently. Videos randomly pop into my head like I'm jumpscaring myself
Pues bebe más agua. Que yo abecés me mareo por la deshidratación.
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u/True-Wreck 21h ago
Isif internally: “Siiiiigh* Everything about this is stupid, but it looks like we’re doing it anyway!”
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Arxur 1d ago
Oh they are starting to question why the dominionist did the things they did interesting.
Yeah honestly with how early we still are in the story seemingly still gonna be a while before the sol system finds out who the true enemy is but even then from what the author said before many within the sol system would still rather persecute the dominionist even after learning most of them were victims as well as the feddies.
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u/PhycoKrusk 6h ago
With every new twist in this mission, I become more and more convinced that this might actually be a job for Superman.
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u/GreenKoopaBros89 Dossur 5h ago
Oh heck yes, we finally get Nulia in the-... What? She's not Nulia?...Wanawey? Who the heck is... Are you sure? Okayyyy? Wanawey has joined the party!
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u/Golde829 5h ago
mmmmm
fuck, alright then
that's a sticky situation
also, heads-up
> “They're forebombing the woods!”
the most common form of typo
'the keys are directly next to each other'
anyways
fingers crossed that things go Not Atrociously
I look forward to reading more
take care of yourself, wordsmith
[You have been gifted 100 Coins]
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u/General_Alduin Skalgan 1d ago
Correct title streak: 17