The Nature of Predators 2-93

Memory Transcription Subject: Taylor Trench, Human Colonist

Date [standardized human time]: March 18, 2161

It was eerie to swoop past the ruined crater that was once Tonvos, the capital city of Avor. I remembered the first trip here with Gress, marveling at a pyramid that was taller than many skyscrapers stacked atop each other; the megastructure was a work of art in its own right, having many lives and fixtures set inside like it was a snow globe. The last time I’d visited, I believed I could convince the Krev Consortium to aid the “last of humanity” on Tellus; I’d been awestruck by their splendor and accomplishments, and thought we might’ve finally found aliens that were different. 

All I’d wanted back then was to be accepted and loved, and it was Gress who had given me that. Searching for that validation from the Consortium had clearly been the wrong move, in hindsight. If there were any access points to an underground network that would safeguard the government from the fallout, it would be beneath the crushed Delegates Tower. SAR had scanned for entry points and life signs to plan out rescues; I hoped the armor-piercing rounds we’d loaded up would be enough to incapacitate a robot. Our plan to kill them was to either a) blow them up or b) shoot their limbs off so they couldn’t move.

I never imagined that I’d be part of a massive human-led invasion force on this world, taking on a robot army with my alien love, when I was plagued by resentment and despondency seeing my species toil to no end. I see why those minerals we mined were useful to have in reserve: the materials to create an infinite metal legion had to be in excess.

The entrances to the underground network were built to withstand a lot, especially within Delegates Tower. I wondered how much Mayor Hathaway had been aware of, with the KC’s knowledge of Earth surviving and his insistence on staying put. General Radai certainly hadn’t known, since he’d brought the Resket forces to side with the Jaslip Independence Brigade in this mission. Frenelda had insurrectionist sympathies as well, so the Jaslip would have at least known that Esquo was for nothing sooner. The Underscales and the Listeners were the ones undeniably in the know, but it was unclear who in leadership was fully culpable.

The Sapient Coalition had wasted no time rummaging through the debris, and blasting through to reveal an opening to the ominous depths. The gaping hole we punched out in the ground, adding to the one that Krev had already installed, made it easier for our transport shuttle to glide beneath the crust. I had lived my entire life hidden underground, longing for a taste of sunlight; I hated burrowing into the heart of a planet, to a cavern meant to hide people away, again. At least I wasn’t dancing to appease an overlord this time…and I wasn’t facing the darkness alone. 

This was about extracting a high price from the Krev for everything they’d done, as well as helping Gress make it out from this hell. I didn’t know what horrors we’d face, but I’d been willing to die to save the innocent lives of the babies we’d been transporting; the next generation of any species was worth protecting. I swallowed a lump in my throat, thinking of Lecca climbing all over me that first day in Tonvos. If it came to it, I was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so Gress could have the future he wanted. Fear wouldn’t hold me back from protecting him at all costs.

“Off we go,” Cala spoke gently. “This ends here. It takes a predator to hunt a group this evil down; we can’t let them hide. I trust humanity to lead the pack—to take down the beast. We’ve got this.”

I steadied my gun, checking to ensure Gress was following and keeping his cool. “This is no different from the hunt for Mafani. Not our first rodeo with a secret bunker. Let’s find these sons of bitches and fuck ‘em up.”

I dismounted from the transport ship in a large, open lobby at the bottom of the shaft; this seemed designed for ships to be able to exit and enter from. Dozens of vessels circled and took turns landing, representing various SC powers and members of the Jaslip, Resket, and Arxur resistance. This was my first time seeing the infamous man-eating reptiles in person, though I was willing to give them a chance on account of the fact that they’d saved Earth. There’d be no Sapient Coalition or living human homeworld without them; Las Vegas would look like Tonvos did up there.

“Taylor!” a familiar voice shouted, moments before I was enveloped in a hug. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again, when you got captured. Did you really go to Earth?”

“Yes. It was…incredible.” I returned the gesture, glad to get a much warmer greeting from Cherise than when she was passing out pamphlets. It seems my suspicions about her being friends with the Jaslip extremists was correct, since she sure as shit isn’t here on behalf of Tellus. That’s why she was acting furtive around me. “An entire planet that truly belonged to us and what we wanted. It’s an adjustment, but you have to see it with your own eyes.”

An Arxur loomed over Cherise’s shoulder, and I could feel her staring into my soul. “She has the option to see it through someone else’s? Where is the nearest eye rental shop?”

“Down the hall, to the left,” Gress answered in a monotone voice. “Just plug yourself up to the Consortium’s machine and you can see through many eyes, as an outside observer to your own existence.”

“I’d give you shit about being fun at parties, but I saw what happened to your world. I’m sorry; sick fucks have less of a moral compass than Betterment! I’m Hysran.”

I felt a little weird about this bizarre Arxur intruding on our conversation. “Okay?”

“We’re best friends,” Cherise added. “I’m looking forward to getting out of here and planning an open mic night on Tellus, just so she can toss out some god-awful puns and give us all a laugh. It’s time we remembered what it means to live a little and to have a soul.”

“I’m one hundred percent in agreement, but, um, what happened to Quana? Is she alright?”

A tall shadow appeared in my periphery, along with a strict, authoritative voice. “Much like you before you were steered to a better path, she is poisoned by anger. Quana’s barbs are often directed at those who are not her enemy. It is a stain on her reputation.”

“General Radai.” I was struck by how much the Resket had aged, with his pink feathers looking thinner and more grizzled. His helmet visor was translucent, though it surprised me that he wanted his forces to witness how beat down he looked. “It’s good to see you, sir.”

“You as well, Trench. I thought you were leaving the military, and that it was not the best use of your skills?”

“I left the Consortium military, after I saw their true colors from the Mafani incident. Circumstances are different here; I’ll always fight for what’s most important to me. But fuck, I wish I’d have known you served an evil empire sooner.”

“I wish I had known. The harm I’ve caused is irreconcilable with my conscience. The files Gress gave me showed how deep the surveillance state’s wing spanned; your Krev friend had been holding on to quite the cache.”

“I really believed they were looking out for us. It wasn’t until I saw them neglect the people’s interest, and cover up their own dirty deeds that I questioned it,” Gress lamented. “I once thought the right words could talk almost anyone down. Little did I know we were all hostages, or I would’ve bartered for our release.”

Hysran narrowed her eyes. “As someone from a species that’s been locked in an isolation bubble for two decades, it’s not so simple as saying, ‘Let me out.’ Sometimes, you just have to break away. Kaisal is right. Ooh, I got a new one. What do you call a Jaslip using their three fronds to pry open a prison cell?”

“A backdoor?” Cherise guessed.

“A tailbreak!”

Cala chortled, though none of the rest of us were amused. “That is a human dad joke, through and through. Reminds me of being a teenager and Andy would embarrass me for shits and giggles. I’m afraid that silly pun will only translate to the English speakers.”

“I suppose I am glad not to have learned English when Raza was studying human diplomacy. The less meanings I grasp of Hysran’s jokes, the better,” another Arxur grunted, as Quana slouched up alongside him. “I am telling you, she will make a thousand clones of herself just to create more puns and torment my ears. We should get a move on those scanners before she has a chance.”

Cherise shrugged. “Zefriss, you really don’t want your own personal Hysran?”

“She’s your personal Hysran,” Quana growled. “Hello, Taylor. Gress.”

“Glad to see the Jaslips finally slipped away from the Consortium.” Gress turned toward her with a defeated pose. “Esquo wasn’t the only planet they’d raze to get their way, clearly. Since the enclaves were freed beforehand…assuming the other worlds got glassed, Jaslips are the most populous of the KC species left. You wanted to leave anyway. We’ll be…dirty SC refugees at best, like the Kolshians and the Farsul.”

I gasped. “That’s not going to happen! Anyone can see the Krev and all of the other Consortium species are victims to this whole thing, just like the Jaslips were thirty years ago.”

“We did nothing to help ourselves. Do not make excuses for our pitiful judgment,” Radai remarked. “We followed orders without asking questions.”

“So did I, sir. I marched to the beat of Hathaway’s drum just for my own—”

“Then we are both fools, just with different magnitudes of the orders we heeded. I was used to further an agenda far more insidious.”

“None of you set out to do evil, for Christ’s sake,” Cala sputtered, the British accent thickening. “I was told I was doing a good fucking thing back at the extermination fleet as a bloody chicklet. People used me as an instrument of mass murder too, but blimey, you’ve got to try to atone now that you know better. What else can you do?”

A growl rumbled in Quana’s throat. “All of our oppressors should pay with their lives. Quit wasting time yapping and get a move on it; or don’t. I don’t care.” 

“People who don’t care don’t need to announce to everyone that they don’t care. That’s how I know that Zefriss secretly does!” Hysran decreed.

Cherise pressed a hand to her forehead mockingly. “Don’t out him like that!” 

Zefriss roared in both of their faces, as they giggled. Cherise is very comfortable around Arxur to not even flinch, damn. “I am not amused by your social contrivances. I am an operative who appreciates serious, solitary pursuits.”

“But you want to be serious and solitary together,” Hysran countered.

“That sounds more like Radai.” I gestured with a thumb toward the towering pink bird, who glowered at me; I lost my nerve beneath his withering stare. “Um…Radai, sir.”

“Just move along.” The Resket gestured toward the rear of our marching troops, who were following Kaisal in groupings of a few hundred at a time into the labyrinth. “We’re going toward the blueprint location of the bunker. Any civilians hunkering down there, we have to get them to safety. Before the Underscales use this secret tunnel network to bust in and pick them off.” 

I switched off the helmet speaker on my spacesuit, and trundled down the metal walkway without further ado. I was hoping for a miracle, that we’d find Lecca in this central bunker and gallivant out—despite the fact that Gress’ family didn’t even live in Tonvos, and had only made the trip on that first day to catch a glimpse of the “big obors.” Humanity technicians got to work cutting openings in thick, sealed bulkheads at the end of our path, and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand upright. My gun was poised and ready for whatever was on the other side: anything metal between us and the civilians was going down.

We crouched alongside the still intact metal, as bullets flew through holes as soon as they were open. The one thing our flesh-and-blood bodies had over their untiring steel was that humans had the built-in ability to throw with precision. After checking with a tiny camera that there were no civilian hostages inside, the Terrans lobbed an absurd amount of grenades toward enemy clusters. The Consortium had far less range that they could use grenades…or so we thought, until explosives came bouncing out right at our feet. 

“Fuck!” I leapt into action, kicking the grenade back through the opening with little time to spare. It was fortunate that soccer was one of the few sports passed down in the cavern, as something to do for children to kill time. I switched my helmet microphone back on. “They must’ve cloned humans already?! They don’t know who they’re fighting. It’s not even just the Underscales in the legion. We could talk them down!”

Radai lowered his head. “Negative, Trench. They just want the benefits of human biology. Those…things are brainwashed, and will see and hear whatever they want. They’re living in a different reality. The revived Underscales are the only ones truly aware of what’s going on, I’m certain.”

“It could be me, thinking I’m fighting Federation exterminators come to finish the Tellish off! Doesn’t that make you feel some sort of way?”

“It could be all of us, Trench; they don’t care who they use! I was scanned, Gress was scanned, just the same as you were. The Reskets are the strongest military species, and I am their leader, so who do you think they’re the most likely to replicate ad nauseum? It helps no one to dwell on it. There is no honor down here!”

Cherise shouldered a rocket launcher, looking a bit too practiced with it. “Taylor, I always wanted to blow you up.”

I huffed with indignation, as she blasted a rocket through the gash in the bulkhead. Was I going to let her get away with such a remark? Honestly, I had to agree with Hysran’s belief that humor under such gloomy circumstances did lighten the mood. What Radai had suggested was enough to chill my bone marrow. The Jaslips followed Cherise’s lead with the rocket launchers, going overboard in the hopes of cleaning up any robots lurking inside. With a few more human grenades chucked in, we sent combat drones ahead of the foot soldiers to chop away at any survivors.

Gress was one of the first to push inside, after a lull from our automatons that suggested it was all clear; I could see how desperate he was to reach the bunker and search for Lecca. I followed the Krev inside, still feeling that quiet hum of rage over everything that was done to him and to Avor. I walked over to a human robot that had been snapped in two at the waist, but was still buzzing from a creepy metal skull. Imagining that was Taylor Trench fighting the phantoms of the Federation, I decided to put it out of its misery. 

I unloaded my entire clip between its head and its chest cavity, ensuring that the lights were off for this enslaved Tellish soul. Whoever this was, I knew that the colonists of Ark Ship 3 had suffered enough in this one lifetime. General Radai was right; the closest thing we could get to honor would be to eliminate all of these robots indiscriminately. All that mattered was reaching the central bunker to save Lecca and getting the job done.

A/N - 93! The Sapient Coalition, the Reskets, the Jaslips, and the Arxur all rendezvous in the depths below Avor’s capital city, with a reunion for much of the cast here; Radai doesn’t want excuses for his own behavior, while Cherise and Hysran happily greet Taylor with jokes abounding. The SC soldiers push on in massive numbers to rescue the civilians from the bunkers, using explosives on the way in the hopes of taking out the robots. Radai raises the full implications of brainwashed humans fighting, with how it could be any of them, in a false reality.

What do you think of the horrifying idea of a fate for Taylor and the Tellish where their Krev automaton selves believe they’re fighting the Federation? What future do you imagine the Consortium species will have after these worlds have been glassed? What’s your final wager on if Gress will find Lecca…and will there be any other surprise guests?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!