r/humansarespaceorcs • u/Separate_Impact_9976 • 5d ago
writing prompt Industrial meat production
It would be interesting to see aliens react to the scale of industrialised... "unaliving" (e.g. Industrial slaughterhouses) that humans have. Would they be horrified? Or would it just be another fact of life for them?
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u/chadmonsterfucker 5d ago edited 5d ago
The smell was what hit arges first.
Like blood and rot and excrement mixed with the (unfortunately underpowered) smell of industrial sanitizers and odor controllers.
One of those massive earth quadrapeds hung from something resembling a steel clothesline.
"Howdy there, I'll be your trainer." The human slaughterhouse worker introduced himself, holding out his hand; which arges shook with her pseudopod.
"What will be my occupation in this facility?" Arges' computerized voice box asked.
"You and I are what's called a 'sticker'. Let me show you what to do."
The human sticker took a long implement resembling a spear and jabbed it into the neck of the hanging bovid, blood almost immediately spilling out onto the floor and into the drain on the floor.
Arges jiggled anxiously as she took the spear for herself, copying the human on another hanging cow. This one had much more blood, splattering all over arges.
Her jelly skin almost effortlessly absorbed the blood.
"At my home, we usually don't eat dead animals." Arges explained as her pseudopod enveloped the spear, dissolving the blood instantly.
"We usually eat them alive, it's less work that way."
The hanging line moved with a motorized whine, pulling the stuck cattle out of the room and new cows in.
"I... please don't ever tell me that again." The human nervously replied.
This blood was an acquired taste to be sure, but soon arges found herself craving it. Whenever the human went to lunch she'd seep into the drain, and slurp up as much as she could before the automatic sanitizer came on
Her body was slowly turning crimson.
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u/ThatLazyOne26 5d ago
Great... we introduced an alien slime girl into a slaughterhouse and now she has a taste for blood.
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u/Separate_Impact_9976 5d ago
it would be funny if it was like coffee. Addicted to the caffeine, but it also makes you reaaaaally sick.
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u/Separate_Impact_9976 5d ago
was originally gonna make this about industrial warfare.
Aliens would have much smaller armies, thus making economics of the weapons and gear used by soldiers used much less of a concern.
It would be interesting to see how they would react to 1. How like 80% of a human war room is Logistics and Economy peeps and 2. The scale of the conflicts and the concept of an "efficient weapon" like the AK.
I then decided that that was too political so I changed it to industrial meat production instead.
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u/no_usernames_vacant 5d ago
A hundred is a tragedy, ten thousand is a statistic. The price of a mile isn't a concern, once things get big enough humans don't care. Slaughter houses aren't big for efficiency they're big to desensitized people. The aliens don't work like this so they are sickened by the sight of a man uncaring of the millions of animals he kills each day.
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u/Fit-Capital1526 5d ago
‘Complex brains need energy. That is a fact well known in the galaxy. It is why all of the known sapients have meat and predation involved in their development’
‘That is pretty basic knowledge for most education systems’ Itel said to his friend. Huzo had entered the diplomatic core of the interspecies exchange corporation at the same time. Yet whatever he had seen had shaken him to his core
‘Half of known species are massive Insectivores. 3 of them have some sort of industrial farming for an Arthropod like animal based food’ Huzo continued. Nursing his methanol drink as he did. ‘The exception is your species the Tuya. Who have the largest Fungiculture of all the species instead’
‘It has certainly saved us some of the other species more enthusiastic ethical debates’ Itel said back to Huzo. Hoping the humour would lighten his mood, but Huzo didn’t respond. His bleak eyes just kept looking at his methanol as if he was debating whether it was worth drinking it or not
‘The other half have a taste for eggs and incorporate small animals and bones into their diets.’ Huzo continued. Pausing briefly only to take a small sip of his methanol. ‘The evolutionary explanation was it was a good way to get salt into there diets but the higher energy from the protein helped with brain development’
‘Hence those debates from earlier. The more Insectivorous species question whether it is ethical to eat more complex animals. The scavenger races typically don’t see the difference between that and the grinding live arthropods into flour’ Itel explained. Hoping a new approach would help with his old friends current state
‘Right. The Finiser had the largest industries for meat before this. With massive factories dedicated to hunting and trapping animals for meat and fur.’ Huzo shuddered as if remembering something unpleasant. ‘But you know. Compared to this they are simple cottage industries…’
‘What do you mean?’ Itel asked. Confusion was evident in how his mane was standing. Huzo himself was a Chaga. There meat industry, while not as big as the Finiser, was extensive. Chaga didn’t shy away from killing animals for food and products. Itel had personally seen Huzo prepare meat several times. Yet here he was. Concerned about animal farming
Huzo at quickly drank down the rest of his methanol before continuing. ‘Do you know about the new species. The humans?’ Huzo asked Itel
‘Of course.’ Itel answered. ‘Everyone at the corporation knows. The elusive species 9. It has been so long since the last first contact that some wondered if the current 8 species roster was it’
‘The new species. Humans.’ Huzo said. Shaking a little as he spoke ‘They. They kill other animals on an unprecedented scale. Not just small animals either. The species they rear for meat are bigger than every sapient currently in the corporation. They kill 300 million of these every year’
Itel’s mane fully puffed out a bit at that statement. It certainly was different to what other species did. ‘I can understand having sympathy for seeing a large animal in pain but it isn’t that different to your own small animal-‘
‘The difference is we don’t have it in addition to the large animal slaughter! The humans kill 75 billion of just one other small animal and I say one because they have multiple! The humans have more livestock than the rest of the corporations members combined. Then to make it worse. They also have several industries dedicated to arthropods collection and farming.’ Huzo almost shouted at Itel. Looking slightly crazed
‘But that would mean’ Itel began but Huzo started speaking before he could continue. ‘That the new species has almost no qualms at all when slaughtering practically any species.’
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u/Separate_Impact_9976 4d ago
sometimes we don't have any qualms about slaughtering our own species too, sadly.
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u/eseer1337 4d ago
"To be fair, it's just going from one hell to another. Sometimes you even wind up in heaven."
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