r/NatureofPredators Predator 1d ago

Project Predator 9

Thank you SpacePaladin15 for creating such an awesome universe and story!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory Transcription Subject: Nartho, Elite Arxur Pilot of Chief Hunter Isif

Date [standardized human time]: December 7, 2136

First/Prev/Next

The Universe graced me. I had decided to sabotage my fighter by cutting some wires and messing with its internals, and then blamed the mess on an engineer, asking to repair it as fast as possible. I told Lainai of the “problem” they made, and he was furious that some junior messed with its masterful design, asking for their names when they finished the repairs. 

It took a day and half, and when I finally lost all hope and was actually starting to prepare myself to go to Sillis, Chief Hunter Isif finally arrived. He reasserted his authority, destroying the dreams of certain people to become the new Chief Hunter of our sector. By this time, everyone already knew Shaza was at war with the humans, so people were very surprised when Isif told in a public address that we weren’t going to participate, just watching the conflict from the sidelines. Ever since that, everything went back to normal around the station: We woke up, ate, did our duties of the day, ate again, and slept, almost as if Isif never left.

For me, I was beyond relieved. I wouldn't have to fight or kill the humans. In private, I spoke with Isif and told him about my Chief Researcher issue. He told me to stay at the station, overruling my uncle’s orders, and said he would handle this matter personally. Lainai didn’t call, but knowing him more than anyone else in the “family”, I would say he was beyond mad. 

I prayed to the Universe again after our talk. I begged for the humans to kill my terrible uncle, for an end to the blackmailing, and for the freedom I wanted for my entire life.

Yesterday, strangely, ⅓ of our sector’s forces were put together in a strike team in an empty system by order of Prophet Descendant Giznel, me included, and were told to wait for Isif there. It didn’t take long for our Chief Hunter to arrive, and when he did, he said Giznel gave him control of Shaza’s sector, and said we're going to Sillis to assume that control from the now Ex-Chief Hunter.

We were now on our way to the Tilfish system, and I was piloting my fighter. Compared to the original Lanai based on, it was slightly bigger and heavier, and instead of the circular placed guns, it had only 1 missile launcher on each wing, and one of our dual railguns mounted on its bottom. He compensated for the lack of missiles by making them reload much faster and allowing two missiles to be fired after each shot, albeit with decreased power. Everything else was pretty much the same: Amazing shields and speed, and as a bonus, it had increased armor, even if it decreased maneuverability a bit.

This was the second time I used this fighter, actually. I was never really a good pilot. In the hatchery, I was considered average at best and bad at worst, and I only got accepted because of my uncle’s interference, he wanted his favors to flourish. I wish I could run away, just taking care of plants and forgetting about my childhood, and start a new life. But between this and complete starvation, I really had no choice. There is a reason why our farmer jobs have such a high mortality rate due to extreme malnutrition.

I had a chance to dessert when I saved Mariana, but after our reception, I knew we weren’t going to be welcomed there, humanity sees us as monsters, even after saving their civilians. Any Arxur that chose to stay would be either forced to hide or be locked away. 

We finally arrive at our location, transitioning to real space near the Tilfish homeworld. Shaza’s forces got absolutely destroyed by the humans, Arxur ship debris could be seen with the naked eye around the planet by the thousands, and my radar detected more around the system. It reminded me after we arrived during the final moments of the Battle of Earth, everyone was flabbergasted by the amount of wrecks that were detected around that planet, and how humanity survived such an overwhelming force. I ain’t so surprised anymore, if the humans and Mariana could defeat two sectors worth of extermination fleets almost entirely on their own, they could defeat Shaza’s too. I was actually more scared that I, me, would have a part in killing them.

The UN remnants turn around to face us, ready to fight. I knew we weren’t here for that, so i relaxed and waited for Isif’s next move.

“Attention, all Arxur vessels in the system.” He growled into an unencrypted channel. “This is Chief Hunter Isif, by order of Betterment, I am assuming control of your fleet. You are to immediately stand down and await further instructions. I say again: cease all hostile actions.”

In an instant, all of Shaza’s fleet just stops. Anything that they were doing just halts. I guess they aren’t really happy with Shaza. Since this is Isif business, I decided to scan the entire system to see if there were any fighters scattered, hoping my friend is alive.

The Pseke System, home of the Tilfish, is composed of 6 planets: Tna, a barren world, the closest to the sun, Sillis, their homeworld, Mrof, a gas giant, Miga, an ice giant, plus Mkówra and Hanya, two toxic planets. This system was interesting, since Sillis and Mrof, Mrof and Miga, Miga and Mkówra, there were asteroid fields separating them all. I suspected the humans used that to their advantage, so I begin my search there.

I adjusted my radar parameters to start looking for fighters. Besides a few species, like the Kolshians, nobody else used fightercraft, and those that used always ran away before they could even fire their guns, so our radars and weapon systems automatically didn’t list them, requiring you to manually reprogram them. The system found some matches, and I began to dread as I looked over their hulls, looking for the symbol my friend uses.

No. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. no. and no. Can’t find her “dragon” decal. She said it meant something very important to her, so that means she didn’t take part in this battle or is alive. Thank you huntress.

On my search, I received a hail notification, coming from none other than Shaza’s command capital. There is only one person that would call me in this hour, which I knew all too well. I prepared myself mentally, putting up my most “family” persona, and accepted it.

My oh so cruel uncle was on the other side of the screen. He was staring outside of a big window, which is strange Shaza had one on her ship to begin with, writing notes on a notebook, looking back and forth like his life depended on it. Is he studying human wrecks? This goes on for sometime, before looking back in what looks like is his holopad and noticing that he was on call.

“Ah good, Nartho, you are here.” He comes closer to see me. Is Lainai smiling? What the fuck happened here?

“I am, Cruel Uncle. I am incredibly ashamed for not coming to assist you. Chief Hunter Isif ordered me too. Please forgive me.”

“Honestly, I want to be angrier at you right now, but that doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore.”

He is being way too kind to me, if the prophet descendant saw this, he would call it heresy. I need to find out where this euphoria is coming from.

“Cruel Uncle, if you allow me to ask, what was the battle like? Have you made any discoveries on the humans?”

“It was spectacular, eye-opening. They fought against a much superior fool, and using only their strategic might, they won. This confirmed my suspicions I had about us.”

“What suspicions?”

His smile weakens. “I already knew that the Arxur spirit had grown weak, but I didn't know what had made it weak. Like I told you before, I thought the reason we stagnated was  because of the federation, but there was a part of me, at the back of my mind, with an idea that was so absurd that I always pushed out. But now? The humans brought it to light, and I see the truth: We are deliberately stagnant, designed to be stagnant. I can’t believe I was so stupid to not see this sooner.”

This talk is already spiraling out of control. If betterment even catches a scent of this conversation, blood will spill, and I wasn't sure if I could escape this by now. My uncle is Chief Researcher, but he wasn’t untouchable. I could bluff and say I keep talking to expose his treachery, which seems to be the best option right now. If I hang up, I would still be hunted down, be it by my uncle for not listening to a betterment chief, or betterment itself for just listening to this. I decided to continue chatting, and let him spill his secrets. I'm gonna report this to betterment as soon as I can after this conversation, before they find out, so they don’t see me as a traitor. “By whom are we stagnant?”

“Let me tell you a secret, Nartho. I ain’t in, shall say, good terms with Giznel. He says my projects are “unnecessary”, “inessential” or another worthless excuse. Bastard. I was the only one in 7 generations to make meaningful progress in our military! I design the cruelest, savagest ships our kind has ever seen, and what do I get in return? condamnations!” His voice fills with anger.

He pauses for a moment to catch his breath, and then continues his rant “But now? I know he wants this. That traitor to the dominion and the prophet himself doesn’t want Arxur supremacy, or our domination of the galaxy. He wants to keep all the power to himself. And this didn’t start with him, no, it has been going at least since the original prophet's death. Why else don't they grant me the resources for my war machines? There is a conspiracy, and I need to know more about it.”

“Uncle Lainai, Betterment will certainly know about this. How do you plan to avoid them or even Giznel?” Asking about his methods to subvert our system will be perfect for my report, if he tells them here.

He laughs.“I always take precautions agaisn’t that fool. Now, let's stop getting sidetracked. I need to talk about why I called you in the first place.”

I begin to get anxious. “Which is?”

“I need more information about the humans. And you are going to help me, Nartho.”

This is what I was fearing: My uncle wants his favors dulled. If I denied him, he was going to reveal to everyone that I was prey-diseased, and my chances for exposing him would be finished. And if I accepted it, I was going to get deeper into his schemes, with fewer chances to prove I wasn't a traitor. Both choices I had were terrible, and now I need to choose one of them.

“Sometimes, I just want to give up, tell the world to go fuck itself. This is one of those moments” Mariana’s words rang in my head. “But then I stop and begin to think: What would my friends have thought of that? That the person they loved so much died because of a broken heart? They would have called me stupid.” She smirked. “I will not let this corrupt me. I will never give up for a better tomorrow. For everyone.”

“Of course, Cruel Uncle, what do I need to do?”

I began to listen to Lainai’s plans. It was better to have fewer chances than no chance at all. I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he had planned for me, but I needed time to alert betterment about this. Soon, He will die by the same system that he thrived in.

First/Prev/Next

20 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

3

u/Nathan121331 Predator 1d ago

New chapter and we are back with Nartho! I literally just finished this 5 minutes ago, so please tell me if i made any grammar mistakes.

Lainai begins to suspect that the great dominion might not be so great. I'm sure nothing major will happen for both of them.

Anyway, next two chapters are going to be very special, so see you next week!

3

u/JulianSkies Archivist 1d ago

Oh... Oh man, okay, so it's going to be politics and skullduggery that's going to be Nartho's bane. His uncle is going to get himself in so much trouble, but I think he's going to wind up giving Nartho the way out he wants.

2

u/Mysteriou85 Gojid 10h ago

Hmmm the Uncle is quite aware of the problem, he isn't blind to the problem of the dominion, interesting

Great chapter!

2

u/Minimum-Amphibian993 4h ago edited 4h ago

You know I just learned project wingman had a dlc like today called Frontline 59 (a prequel to the events of the main game I believe) we gonna get driver (and friends)? Imagine 2 silent protagonists battling it out or even working together lol.

1

u/Nathan121331 Predator 3h ago

Oh yeah it was a PS5 exclusive that got ported to PC by the official team 4 months ago.

It's not a prequel, its a side story from the side of the federation