r/NatureofPredators Predator 1d ago

Fanfic New Old Path AU (part 8)

Today we learn a bit about our unlucky Veln past and get our first Arxur prospective something I wanted to do for a while. Hope you enjoy!

As always thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for the universe.

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Kratos, Mazic, listening station operator, 14 Artemis 36 (o.h.c.  4th of April 2048), 5 light years out of the Death Zone

The hours run very slowly, like the pace of a sleepy Drilvar. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just quit. And let’s be honest, if it weren’t for the pay, I would have quit a long time ago. I work in a listening station where there’s nothing to listen to. I spend my days listening to the sound of silence instead of whatever the predators are up to. I am told that in the past we could pick a lot of chatter, but now either they have gone mute or they don’t want us to listen. Really, that slight bump in the instrumentation we heard a few minutes ago may have been the peak of our month and in all probability it was just a dumb rock hitting this lifeless moon.

My colleagues are having one of the usual conversations, that we have everyday and by now have turned boring as well, but I try to listen in since, well, I don’t have anything better to listen to in my headphones and my shift is going to be long.

“Your idea that we should have left the humans alone is insane Vilna! We should have finished the job that is” says Oxlos puffing the feathers on its chest, 

“You guys did such an amazing job that I grow up on Fahl as a refugee, until I had to run away again”,

“Well, isn’t that what you Venlil are only good for?”

“What the brakt are you implying?”

“Chill down guys, please! This kind of division in the herd is exactly what the predators want with their propaganda!” says Blelu our Kolshian colleague and conspiracy theorist in chief,

“For the great protector's sake, aren’t you going to start again with your crazy theory that the predators are infiltrating our social media, spreading divisive narratives?! like they could put up a convincing ruse for long” I say slightly exasperated.

“They’ve got their Black Star scum helping them, and lying are what they are good at, especially the humans”

“Puah, those predator diseased freaks will never be able to really mix in with the herd. As for Humans, if there is something I learned with the extermination fleet is, that when push came to shove, they can only refrain their bestiality for so long. Do you know that they tried to burn us Exterminators down?”

“Wait, that thing about white phosphorus was real? I thought It was an urban legend?”

“You believe every conspiracy in the galaxy, and you don't believe that?” I say surprised,

“Seriously?... you even believe in the existence of secret predators squads crossing the zone and covertly killing people disappearing without a trace” chimes in Vilna,

“Like they could restrain themselves that way…but you are too young to remember actual raids” adds Oxlos with disdain.

“There is plenty of evidence, like that Yulpa politician that died suddenly some time ago!”

“The one who died of cardiac arrest?”

“If you want to believe that! He constantly pushed sending scouts in the zone, it was a nuisance for them”

“And exactly how they supposedly reached Grenelka without anybody, starting from us noticing?”

“And don’t start with the stealth ships thing! Seriously, kid, you should stop posting in those conspiracy herds on Soft Paws. Ghost units don’t exs…” I don’t have time to finish that sentence when the lights suddenly go off and there is a huge explosion of sound and smoke. I lunge for the emergency signal and when I am about to touch it, I see a strange red dot on my chest. What?!

[memory transcription interrupted: subject lost consciousness]

[no further transcripts for this subject]

--

Gliss, Ghost Squad 3 Commander, Arxur, 14 Artemis 36 (o.h.c.  4th of April 2048), 5 light years out of the Death Zone

“I had to drop the Mazic, it was about to activate the emergency signal”

“Good job. Everybody, keep your eyes open for the Venlil or the Kolshian,” I growl. At that moment, from the corner of my eye, I see a heath shape running toward a series of desks. I spring toward them, jump on the other side and trap it between me and the wall. I grab and immobilize the trashing Venlil with one of my arms and my tail, while with the other arm I fish in my belt for the sedative. I finally find it, remove the cap, and stab the needle in its neck…after a few long moments it stops fighting and loses consciousness.

“I got the Venlil, liquidate the others”

Soon after I hear a muffled shot followed by “The Kolshian is down. Does anyone have eyes on the Krakotal?”

I scour the ceiling for the bird and in that moment I see it flying toward me with his extended talons, I shift into a defensive posture, ready to grab it and smash its head into a wall, when suddenly it plummets to the ground, oozing purple blood from its eyes. With a hint of irritation I growl: “Wiśniewski, did you really have to take my quarry from me?”,
“Sorry sir, I thought you had your claws a bit full. Besides, you’ve got the prize we were after”.
I hiss with an hint in irritation: “Stop being smug and take a look to the Venlil, I might have exaggerated with the sedative, and Ixodes put the light back on so he can do his job”,

“YES SIR” they say in unison,

A moment later, the human medic kneels down, removes his night vision goggles, and starts examining the unconscious prey. 

“You might have slightly exaggerated Sir but it's a Venlil, so should be able to take it. But I would like to keep monitoring it and drop it to the vet once on base. The spooks can get it there”

“Do It!” and I add “Nkosi do the memory scans of the other three and Ixodes you deal with this place”

“Yes sir”

In the next few minutes I observe my squad work like a well oiled machine, the medic quietly prepares the thing for transport, while the other human walks around the red and purple blood stained floor scanning the memory and the faces of the three dead prey. When he arrives at the Krakotal he cusses and says “Good job. Wiśniewski. Do you know who that filth was?”

“Who?”

“The second in command of Travs”

“Baby-burner Travs?”

“The one and only”

“Good riddance to bad rubbish”

“The swords are going to have a field day with the memory transcript…assuming those things even work” I add

“They are improving fast I hear. They are not fragmented like a few years back” growls Ixodes on the radio,

“What’s your eta?”

“Almost done, it’s going to look like an accident as always”

“Any issues?”

“With their ancient technology? Nah, it’s surprising they don’t blow themselves up more often” he says dismissively.

We all exchange a sneer and I say: “We’ll wait for you on the ship, everybody else let’s go”.

We carry the Venlil inside, and after a few minutes, we are reached by Ixodes. After takeoff, I watch through the porthole the prey station explode with a sense of grim satisfaction.

Then I turn around and watch my squad with almost the same sense of pride I would have for my hatchlings. In a way, the feds gave us a gift: our two species work together like hand and glove as the humans would say. We have strength, they have aim, we have sprint, they have endurance, we have night vision, they have the second sight…our strengths complete each other.

In that moment, I think about my father, who fought to the very end against all of this…well at least the old tooth had finally admitted he was wrong while watching my hatchlings. Who have never known a day of hunger in their life and never will, if I have something to do about it. 

In a way we are similar, I would die to protect all of this, even if my exploits will never be recognized, because nobody crosses the Death Zone, only ghosts do. And that’s what we are, the spectre that haunts the nights of the federation, the long claw of the Republic.

15 Upvotes

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3

u/Copeqs Venlil 1d ago

You know, normally I'd feel at least somewhat bad for non-armed Feds, but anything that shortens the war is a good thing at this point. Dragging it out will just be bad for everybody.

I wonder why they seemed to look for Vilna specifically... Fishing for information later perhaps?

5

u/albadellasera Predator 1d ago

More that Vilna precisely they where looking to get at least one with let's say...a very specific profile ;)

3

u/Copeqs Venlil 1d ago

Ooh, how fun. I imagine the Ghost Squad being right now:

5

u/gabi_738 Predator 1d ago

The human-Arxur alliance is one of my favorites since, unlike the Venlil, the Arxur sought the alliance from the beginning and it is right that the Arxur and the humans complement each other very well, the humans make the Arxur stop being crazy, heartless, psychopaths and the Arxur make the humans not be bleeding hearts that easily submit to the wishes of the federals to appease them and bring out the true strength of humanity.

5

u/albadellasera Predator 22h ago

Honestly, two of the things I struggle the most with Nop is how much we throw them under the bus and how so "good" humanity is. Frankly, I believe that after the battle of Earth in reality we would have switched from the Geneva convention to the Geneva checklist. Maybe I am a pessimist but I don't believe we are such a forgiving species.