The Nature of Predators 2-31 (Patreon)

Memory Transcription Subject: Tassi, Bissem Alien Liaison

Date [standardized human time]: June 20, 2160

The Sapient Coalition’s scouting party outside their space hadn’t paid dividends so far; it’d been combing potentially habitable worlds for any clues, while also searching for an opportune place to set up a listening post. If there was one thing that this incident proved, it was the value of having eyes and ears even beyond their area of official control. General Naltor had suddenly begun turning up to the SC meetings, ever since Loxsel’s appearance; the Selmer military man was bored witless, as the first few candidate worlds showed no signs of intelligent life. He’d wanted to glean info about any species that would threaten another, not talk about worker safety standards.

It was about seven days of travel time from the Paltan-human outpost they’d launched from, and several vessels were sweeping outward in a gradual search pattern; more ships were being ferried from our locale to replace their presence at the border. I supposed the Terrans wanted to be playing with a full deck, knowing the full geopolitical scene before tearing off toward the site of the Sivkit incursion. For all we were aware, it could be a sacred system they were sworn to protect, or a hotly-contested outpost for an external war. I still thought it cowardice to fire on civilian ships, just as Naltor had frowned upon Zalk for mishandling a captured Dustin. However, I wanted all the facts before rendering judgment.

The last thing our allies need is to go in guns blazing, and tear through another party’s territory, causing this to balloon even further. An advanced race like the one that mopped up the Sivkit ships with petrifying precision could have military resources further out to stop us, and they might be on high alert, too. We should proceed with caution.

When the Coalition assemblage convened at an off-hour, we all hoped that a planet they’d landed on had offered up answers. By the time I’d hustled into the Bissem section of the hall, lagging behind the longer-legged Naltor and Zalk, Secretary-General Kuemper had already cast a live feed from a research vessel onto the screen. It was taking readings from an icy globe below, with temperatures that, once converted into Ivranan units, would make even a hearty Selmer like Naltor shiver. The planet was near-totally white in coloration, with only the slightest specks of blue or brown. Hirs, I’d freeze my feathers off down there! This world had dismal prospects of hosting life, but some biomarkers detected by the SC team must have added this celestial body to their sweep.

“Hello, Dr. Rosario. I believe most of the Coalition representatives are present, so shall we brief them on the mission?” Kuemper asked.

“Gladly. I’m Dr. Sara Rosario, and if you haven’t been living under a rock for the past two decades, my qualifications speak for themselves. I have a track record of pushing the boundaries of science on new frontiers.” A human with a curly white mane and glasses cleared her throat, sitting in a lab on a spaceship. Her image was a small box in the corner of the screen, between the alternating viewport angles. “At any rate, we’re in an orbital holding pattern above this body. We’ve been in touch with UN command, and we’re conducting planetary surveys from scientific research vessels. This world is quite interesting; there’s derelict space infrastructure, as you can see on Feed B.”

Sara swiped some button on her holographic display, ensuring that the rotation skipped to dormant stations…with a suspicious lack of satellites. Any society that was spacefaring would have some sort of comm buoys or satellites, unless they discovered some higher tier of technology. If they had been destroyed, that would leave debris; however, this left the impression that such tech had either been scooped up by someone else, or vaporized without a trace. Perhaps I was way off in my assumptions, but those thoughts sent a chill down my feathers. I could see Naltor’s eyes hardening and his beak setting as well.

“It’s apparent that this world was inhabited, and was either occupied by, or native to a spacefaring race. I use the past tense because we’ve been unable to detect any life signatures, active signals, or industrial byproducts of any kind,” Dr. Rosario continued, worry lines creasing her temples. “I fear that someone eliminated the resident species from above, though I cannot confirm this. There are several context clues that lead me to believe this was no inside job. For starters, it’s too neat.”

Angren ambassador Panni stood, clearing her throat. “How do we know that, since they’re spacefaring, they didn’t choose to leave of their own volition? Look how inhospitable their world is!”

“With all due respect to the Angren Matriarchy, your world, Wesk, is on the fringes of the habitable zone on the opposite end of the spectrum, and you haven’t packed up shop. It’s harsh by most species’ standards, but it’s part of who you are. As the Sivkits show, very few species forsake their homeworld by choice, whatever the official story might be.”

“But isn’t it possible?” Tierkel Rockchief Tirinmo rose his staff into the air to call for attention; his thickset body was covered in gray fur, and his cublike ears twitching with importance. “Humanity should know that there’s always a few exceptions. For a spacefaring species, it’s strange that there wouldn’t be any signs of an overhead battle, if this was a forced exodus. That, or it’s possible that the planet snuffed out all plant growth with its icy maelstrom.”

Sara chuckled. “We’re not ruling out any possibilities; I’m just leading with my best hypothesis based on the available data. It doesn’t surprise me that a species that lives in the desert, and needs to bask in the sun for your wellbeing, would also imagine that you’d want to leave this planet at the first opportunity. I’m sure they’d think the same of your climate, so let’s try not to inject our own biases.”

“I apologize if I was. I just don’t want to be like the Federation, and leap to the worst assumptions. There isn’t any concrete evidence that this was a forced exit.”

“Quite right, Rockchief. We’ll go wherever the science leads, and hearing other theories doesn’t hurt; the last thing we want is to get tunnel vision. We’re sending drones for a closer look, to gather images of the planet’s surface, and also to see if there’s any data or other clues we can extract aboard the stations.”

“Dr. Rosario, why aren’t you imaging the planet from your current location? It’s much safer and efficient, and it’s how these things have always been done,” Mazic President Quipa trumpeted.

The human scientist sighed. “We used the vessel’s onboard Synthetic Aperture Radar to map the ground features, but we’re mostly just detecting snow and ice. The atmosphere is too thick and the snowstorms too ferocious to gather other kinds of images. There clearly was a civilization that utilized this world; there’s the occasional disturbance that suggests sapient activity at some point. However, I’d wager they made their dwellings underground, where only a drone can get a clearer picture.”

“What does this have to do with the attack on the Sivkits?” Verin ambassador Hrone queried; a distant memory popped up in my mind, that they’d created the old telescopes and lenses the Federation used to seek out new life. This SAR was likely replacing their additions to the Coalition, which might’ve accounted for the hint of disdain. “I don’t see why we’re investigating this.”

“We don’t know if this world is related at all, but we’re poking around in the neighboring bubble for context,” Kuemper provided the response, rather than Sara Rosario. “If this is a force with a habit of killing other spacefaring species, we have a mandate to nip it in the bud, before they crash our borders. We should’ve cataloged any potential threats skirting our borders long ago, but we’ve had too many problems inside of them.”

Naltor bobbed his beak in agreement, and I brooded within my own thoughts in quiet contemplation. I’d be much happier to side with Panni and Tirinmo’s theories, about abandoning the planet or dying of natural causes; however, my gut instinct when I first saw the absence of satellites told a different story. This was yet another species that had lost its homeworld, just like Haliska’s species, and had been the victim of interstellar despots. Was there zero kindness in the stars, aside from the outstretched hands of the humans? As for the connection, it had to be someone who could best a spacefaring civilization, and mop up the scene without a trace.

There’s no guarantee that it’s related; for all we know, the Sivkits were fired upon because their attackers thought they were with whoever destroyed this ice world. It might be more complex…or it could just be that their aggressors are genocidal maniacs. Perhaps Sara will find more clues.

A new feed shifted onto the screen, taking front and center. A research drone had reached a site of a presumed settlement, poking around with ground-penetrating radar for signs of civilization. Gasps reverberated throughout the vaulting hall, as we realized the image that had been cobbled together. Beneath years of snow, there was crater impact after crater impact—as though to make sure that nobody had survived an orbital bombardment. Debris was visible of what seemed to be collapsed shelters, entombing the souls within. A few skeletal remains were visible, bodies preserved in ice that had dodged immediate vaporization.

There was no question that this was an outside job, with some outside party blanketing the surface with bombs. Sara’s eyebrows had knitted together, horrified by what she was seeing. The stream silently switched over to the automaton sifting through a station. It seemed like someone had staged the scene to look like this species were fighting each other, arranging their bodies in each other’s directions with claws specifically curled around guns. Had they expected us not to question this, when there were zero signs of dried blood? The drone zoomed in on their craniums…zooming in on binocular eyes.

“I think we all just saw with our own eyes that alien visitors wiped them off the map. Who would go to all this trouble to hide their own involvement; to paint a picture that they’d killed each other?” Sara demanded. “Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like. Another extraterrestrial race hellbent on exterminating a predator species, just for their eye placement?

Zalk rose from his seat, an agitated look in his eyes. “Are these the ghost exterminators who attacked Alsh? They have the blood of these beings, and millions of innocent Tseia, on their flippers! If we’re chasing those monsters, we have to make them pay!”

“Unlikely,” Kuemper interjected. “That is a lot of antimatter to have at their disposal, and…if exterminators had the power to ambush an entire planet, since this spacefaring species seems to have been caught oddly unaware, then they’d have come for us already. The fleet that did this must be powerful, massive, and capable of an impressive cleanup operation.”

Naltor hesitated, before standing up alongside the Tseia. “Apologies for the interruption, but I must ask. If these aggressors target predators, would we be a prime target?”

“And why target the Sivkits? How do we know it has anything to do with Federation ideology?” I chimed in, supporting my comrades.

“Bissem delegation, you ask valid questions, but I’m afraid we have no answers at this time. What we know is what you’re seeing live,” the Secretary-General responded. “Rest assured, we’ll protect all allies and independent powers within the Coalition’s sphere of influence. This does change things though, if it traces back to who attacked the Sivkits. It shows they’re capable of genociding an entire species.”

Dr. Rosario pursed her lips, a weary look on her face. “I’m…I’m going to collect samples of the DNA from the skulls, in the hopes of resurrecting this species. They’ll be lumped in with the 62 extinct races we were already working on bringing back.”

“Will they even be the same species with your customs?” Onso leaned forward against his desk, reddish ears pinned back against his head. “I respect your intentions, but the Yotul lost our identity when the Federation turned our world to their customs. And unlike the extinct races here, there is zero record of their culture—of what they once were—to even attempt to pass down.”

“The cultural losses are regrettable, but the alternative is that this species continues not to exist in any capacity,” Kuemper countered. “There are some things that make us innately human, or in your case, innately Yotul, that are worth preserving. We’ll search for any information that we can pass down when they’re brought back.”

“With all due respect, you don’t even know the species’ name! The most basic piece of their heritage!”

“Perhaps we can learn, when we find out who did this. Or perhaps there’s something that wasn’t so thoroughly scrubbed, as the electronics here seem to have been. Dr. Rosario, do what’s necessary to create a genetic profile, and bring your samples back to Paltan space at once.”

“Yes, ma’am. Research vessels are hardly the ones that should be going toe-to-toe with whoever did this,” Sara hissed, a deep sorrow glistening in her pupils. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I’ll terminate the broadcast on that paltry note. Take care, diplomats of the Coalition.”

The Secretary-General studied her polished shoes, as the screen went dark. “You must all discuss what you’ve seen, but I believe what we must do is a bygone conclusion. This is most likely the work of the Sivkit attackers, so we must make haste toward that locale. Every second we tarry is time that another species could fall to these monsters. It’s time to mobilize for an all-out war.”

“Here we go,” Naltor whispered to Zalk, as the meeting disbanded; the Huddledom and Confederation representatives walked off together, a glum Dustin skulked off behind us, and I lingered to eavesdrop. “We need to study the footage that was found of these carnivores, and work together to safeguard Ivrana from something similar. Mass-producing your tech is all that could help.”

The Tseia shifted in his seat. “I fear the consequences of arming the Selmer and the Vritala, but we could try working with Lassmin. No matter what’s going on at home, we’ll stand together if they come for us. Now might be a good time to bring the Arxur into the fold. My people know how to build upon alien tech.”

“Perhaps we could ask for an advance on their ships. We’d have to go through Onso, but a little down payment for our troubles wouldn’t hurt. What do you think, Tassi?”

The thought of witnessing firsthand an interstellar bloodbath, similar to the ones which stained this region’s history, sent a chill through my veins. With our helplessness if a powerful foe descended into our vicinity, hunting for carnivores to massacre, Kaisal’s offer of starships and weapon sharing suddenly sounded much more like a lifeline. Between ghost exterminators lost in the wind and this new threat that’d wiped out other “predators” with startling efficacy, Ivrana had a lot of threats to contend with. We needed to convince the Bissem nations to stop fighting each other, and turn our resources to leveling the playing field; our survival could depend on it in the near future.

“I think if the SC is off fighting someone else, then we really don’t need the Arxur turning forceful. We should get the gears in motion, before their patience expires,” I sighed. “If we have an opportunity to bring the Collective in, as a military ally, we have no choice. I’ll leave it to you two to figure out how, and when, to make your moves, and bring the Selmer and the Vritala onboard.”

Naltor chuckled deviously. “With a new…possibly carnivore race discovered, it gives the Arxur a reason to step in and offer aid. I’m sure Kaisal will have thoughts about a new force persecuting predators.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind. Whoever told him about this, it wasn’t us, right Naltor?”

“Of course not. We’d have to go through Onso, so the trail would lead back to him anyway—though we should establish back channels for communication. I like the way you think sometimes, you cutthroat wanderbird. You’re predictable in being only out for your own self-interest, with a few scruples thrown in here and there.”

“As are you. I can’t stand you, but I can work with you in a time like this.”

I stood, a numb feeling enshrouding me. “I’ll leave you to it.”

I wouldn’t have believed a few months ago that I’d involve myself with generals scheming for a political foothold among aliens, but I was beginning to accept the reality that friendship and safety up here wasn’t so simple. Whatever the consequences of the Coalition war might be, I had to watch out for Bissemkind; I didn’t want us suffering the fate of the Sivkit expedition or these mysterious carnivores. We didn’t yet know why these aggressors targeted other aliens in their purview, but I’d seen enough on screen to know it wasn’t benevolence. 

A/N - Chapter 31! The Sapient Coalition stumbles upon Esquo during their investigation, and come to the conclusion that aliens bombed and staged the world—possibly because the natives were a predator species; they also draw a potential correlation to the species that attacked the Sivkits. Dr. Rosario acquired a DNA sample for the Jaslips, and set out to bring them back: a goal more possible for this species than the 62 extinct races from before humanity’s introduction. The Bissems, meanwhile, set out to inform the Arxur of the new extinct carnivores.

How will Kaisal react to this news; and did the Bissems make the right decision to seize the opportunity of an alliance? What do you think of the SC’s interpretation of Esquo, and how it might impact the war?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!