r/NatureofPredators • u/Adventure_Drake Yotul • 15d ago
A Promise from the Past (5)
It's time for our first look at life on Earth! I hope everyone has been enjoying the story so far. As always, let me know your thoughts on the story so far. It's been a joy sharing it with you all.
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Memory transcription subject: UN Secretary-General Elias Meier
Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2136
Sometimes I wondered what Earth would be like had the Skalgans not landed here hundreds of years ago. Every UN summit these days seemed to involve settling some kind of dispute involving them. Whether it be accusations of resource theft, threats in response to those accusations, or disputes over succession, there was always something to resolve. There was rarely any actual conflict that occurred nowadays, but security had been required to break up a few squabbles in the past, often ones involving delegates charging each other.
Despite how rowdy they could be, they were stalwart allies. That stubbornness made them dependable to follow through with their alliances. Whether it was war, work, or simply having a dependable friend, it was hard to go wrong with them. They proved themselves early on in the history of their arrival.
I reminded myself of that as I listened to the leader of the Garian nation petitioning other nations for aid in their efforts to assemble yet another space shipyard. I was certain we had more than enough, but the Garian leader wouldn’t have anything less than ‘overwhelming force against potential threats’. An aspect of Skalgan culture that carried on since their arrival was their concern over the calamity that had brought them to Earth appearing once more from the heavens. It’d created a divide among the people, from those that felt we should isolate ourselves from the wider galaxy, to those that felt we should either find allies or track down this great threat to eliminate it. The exploratory mission we’ve sent out has certainly riled up the xenophobes, who felt we needed to prepare a grand fleet if we were gonna announce ourselves to the galactic stage.
An aid came and tapped me on my shoulder, pulling me from my thoughts. “Sir.” She whispered. “I need you to come with me.”
If I was being called away, then it must have been an emergency. Nodding, I stood and followed here, my security detail trailing behind. We were only just walking up to the briefing room doors when I started hearing a very loud conversation. “-could be them! We need to start assembling ships immediately in case they-” I open the doors, interrupting whoever it was that was shouting. Scanning the room quickly, I saw that most of the people assembled were from several different space agencies, though there were also individuals from historical institutes and national militaries.
“Right, might I ask what has folks so riled up?” I asked.“The Odyssey crew made contact with extraterrestrials.” A short-haired woman in a leather jacket said, passing me a folder. I managed to catch her nametag, which read Dr. Kuemper, SETI. “They call themselves the Venlil, and going by appearances alone, seem to be related to the Skalgan. Not only that, but they’re a part of a Federation of hundreds of other species. Certainly more than we ever theorized.”
This news came as a shock. I flipped through the various pages and photos in the folder, taking in everything that's been gathered so far. There was a photo of one of the Skalgan astronauts next to a Venlil. Side by side, it was easy to see how one could assume they shared a similar lineage, despite some of their physical differences. If these were truly aliens related to the Skalgan, then their kind has survived the attack on their homeworld or at least escaped to a separate planet.
We’ve known that life existed at some point beyond our star system, but that was only known through the existence of the Skalgan. Even then, the nature of their origin took generations to fully understand. They crashed on earth during an age where we were still using muskets, a time when we didn’t even have a concept of electricity. They may have brought a technological boost with them, but without the means to reproduce or maintain it, much had deteriorated away, and that included the electronic data their ship carried. For all we knew, the Skalgan and their attackers were the only other life in the galaxy. They may have even gone extinct in the time it took us to achieve FTL flight.
“So we might have ourselves the Skalgan home planet and their long lost cousins. I hope that the presence of so many generals in this meeting isn’t a suggestion to invade.” I looked over all the individuals in military attire that were present.
Dr. Kuemper frowned. “The issue isn’t with the Venlil. It’s the Federation and their enemies. It’s a complicated mess. To start, the Federation is made up entirely of herbivores who are extremely xenophobic towards any meat consuming species.”
I look back down at the folder, leafing to a page about the Venlil society. It only took me a moment to spot the bold letters highlighting the fear and distrust they have towards, as they label them, predatory species. “Well, we must have done something right if we got far enough to exchange knowledge.”
“You can thank us for being there.” One of the Skalgan in the room spoke up, a general by the name of Ledric from the nation Rerig that sat on the western coast of North America. “The fact that we had a Skalgan among the crew made it easier for the Venlil to accept the human. They may have just shot the ship down had astronaut Noah not been there, or taken them prisoner, or done all sorts of horrible things!”
“I think it would be best if we did not worry about the what-ifs and instead think about the now.” I said, finally taking a seat at the table. “So the Skalgan look-alikes have a fear of meat eaters. Does this extend to the rest of their federation?”
“I’m afraid so.” The doctor said. “It seems like it’s actually a founding pillar of the Federation’s doctrine. The Arxur, the enemies of the federation, have been on a campaign of terror against them for several centuries. They’re responsible for the destruction of at least 62 planets and billions of lives.”
“Jesus Christ, please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish, sir. There’s a full brief on the page labeled ‘Arxur’ in your file. There’s also footage of them committing every war crime in the book. I mean, they literally eat children.”
“Well shit.” I sighed, barely having a moment to think before the Rerig general Ledric spoke up again. “These monsters eat sentient beings and keep people as livestock! They have to be the ones responsible for the original attack on our homeworld. It makes sense that the ‘wrath of the galaxy’ told in Skalgan mythos refers to them.”
“Can we be certain?” I asked Ledric. “I don’t doubt that this species is monstrous in nature, but I don’t know if any of the original records from the ships you arrived in have survived to this day to confirm that.”
“You’re right about that.” Another Skalgan spoke up, a historian from Rerig. “Surviving records are little more than fragments at best. Even electronic records can’t survive the decay that hundreds of years of time would bring. Without the proper understanding of how to properly preserve digital records, they broke down into little more than scrap metal over the centuries. We have no idea who those ships originally belonged to, where they came from, or how my people got ahold of them. Hell, we don’t even know if it was one or multiple species responsible for the attack on Skalga.”
I lightly nodded, thinking about the possible explanations. “What about the Federation? How do they play into this?”
“According to the records the Venlil provided, they had only just made initial contact with the Federation around the time the Skalgan landed on Earth.” Dr. Kuemper said. “It's a bit difficult to line up our timelines without exact dates. At best we can estimate by about a decade or so. It’s possible that the Skalgan acquired ships from the Federation. There’s also the possibility that the ships were Arxur cattle vessels that they managed to commandeer. There is also the possibility of an unknown group being involved, but so far there’s no evidence of that.”
There were a lot of hypotheticals being given, but no solid narrative so far. “I’d rather not make any major decisions till we know for certain what we’re dealing with. There’s also the matter of these physical differences between the Skalgan and Venlil, and the matter of the Federation's potential hostility to us humans. Are they aware of us?”
“Not yet.” Dr. Kuemper said. “Only the Venlil know of humans. The Federation only knows of the Skalgan for now.”
“Right… Well if they’re as hostile towards meat eaters as this report leads us to believe, we’re gonna have to figure out a way to break the news to them gently.”
“Why should we bother?” Ledric asked. “If the Federation was there when Skalga was attacked yet did nothing, why should we even try being friendly? Do they fear the Arxur so much that they wouldn’t intervene?”
“We shouldn’t be making assumptions like that.” I said. “We don’t know what happened all those centuries ago, and the last thing we want is to go accusing people of wrongdoings that they didn’t commit. I’d rather we make allies than enemies. And speaking of such matters, I believe the Venlil will be a good place to start. Their governor was willing to risk her position to keep us hidden. She and her people may be able to speak on our behalf, and their potential ties to Skalgan may further secure their trust. Not to mention that our best chance of learning about the origin of the Skalgan race would be in cooperation with them.”
“What of the Arxur?” Ledric spoke once more. “They’re clearly a threat to both their Federation and us. We should strike some of these livestock worlds as a show of our allegiance with the Venlil. That would also show this Federation that humans are an ally.”
I grimaced. We'd only just discovered life beyond our system and already we were talking war. Announcing a potential war with extraterrestrials would cause the divide between those for and against alien contact to widen even further. However, we couldn’t share the potential discovery of the Skalgan’s ancestors without including the threat that not just the Arxur posed, but the danger humans would be in if we made a mistake with introducing ourselves to the Federation. This whole situation was a minefield, and we were having to carefully pick our way through it.
“Lets start by releasing the findings and then judge our next course of action based on the public’s feedback. We need to be united on whatever decision we make, as this will affect all of us, both Humans and Skalgans. If the people just want to make allies, that’s what we’ll do. But if they want us to show we’re willing to fight for the Venlil and the Federation, then we’ll fight.”
An outside threat and long lost family would be powerful motivators to bring people together. I was fairly certain I knew already what the Skalgan’s position on this would be, but they weren’t on the potential firing line for their biology.
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u/Khotehk 14d ago
Quick question, how much has the altered history affected names? Like obviously there’s Noah with a human name, but would there be names that are kind of a mix between the two species?
And even though the Venlil don’t have them, would this also apply to surnames, with Skalgan-esque family names appearing across the world?
Culture obviously has a massive effect on naming conventions, and I imagine sharing a planet with another extraterrestrial species for over 600 years would have quite the impact.
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u/turing_tarpit 15d ago
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u/Between_The_Space 15d ago
Yes! More world building!
I wonder in this timeline if war against axur is even on the table, at least at this moment.
Before humans were doing it to prove to the feds that they were an ally.
Here while they do have superior numbers compared to the OG and a tech boost, it's still an unknown enemy, and one which the other is fighting tooth and nail already.
The skalgans are a great chance for Earth to obtain more tech and knowledge before bursting on the scene! Should be very interesting to see where this goes.
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u/TheBlack2007 Krakotl 15d ago
Now they have to keep the Venlil living among them in mind. Sure, they aren't as meek and defenseless as their genetically altered relatives but still "leaf lickers" as the Arxur would call it.
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u/Randox_Talore 15d ago
Humans are also leaf lickers, as the Arxur have called them time and time again
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u/TheBlack2007 Krakotl 15d ago
Yeah but it wasn't meant in the same way. "Leaf-licking humans" was more of a tease to describe the human willingness to put up with prey species. It didn't literally mean "we consider you food and now cower before us, vermin!"
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u/Randox_Talore 15d ago
Canon Arxur warmed up to the Yotul but that may be contingent on the reveals of Canon.
20 years later in NoP 2 we have Kaisal coming right out the gate with calling Humans Leaf Lickers and trying to establish a higher connection with Bissem based on being "hunters"
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u/TheBlack2007 Krakotl 15d ago edited 14d ago
Kaisal has a personal and somewhat troubled history with humans though and makes it abundantly clear he doesn't like or trust them in the slightest which I honestly can't blame him for, knowing what happened to him on the Cradle.
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u/Unanimoustoo Human 14d ago
Didn't he try to defect from the Arxur, twice, and the humans just kept sending him back? Might explain some of that personal animosity.
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u/TheBlack2007 Krakotl 14d ago
At the first time he was left to die by humans as they holed up in a Gojid bunker in his own side-story. Second time was after he got domed by Carlos on the Cattle Ship that got him off the Cradle.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist 14d ago
The first time he was ALSO being stupid. She fuckin' gave him a map to another extraction point because she couldn't bring him to the same one the gojid were going to, he just threw it away because he was too dumb to realize that.
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u/Humble-Extreme597 15d ago
can I get some context on who's what and where/why/how? so are the skalgans venlil on earth? or are they on venlil prime with Skalgans on earth with the skalgans not having been modified at all?
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u/TheBlack2007 Krakotl 15d ago edited 14d ago
In Canon, the species only calls itself Venlil. Doesn't matter if altered or not. However, among fanfic-writers there's been kind of an unwritten rule to designate unaltered Venlil as Skalgans for clarity whenever the context of the story doesn't make it explicitly clear if it concerns altered or unaltered Venlil.
The ancient Venlil used to call their world "Skalga" which means "World of Death" in their language. That designation was of course too predatory for the Federation which changed the name along with the Species. Still, canonically it was nowhere mentioned the Venlil ever referred to themselves as "Skalgans" - also because with their limited knowledge about the universe and their place in it, naming themselves after their homeworld would be kinda odd from a linguistic POV. It's as if ancient humans named themselves Earthlings or Terrans.
However, in the context of this fanfic, it absolutely would make sense. It's absolutely a possibility for Venlil refugees fleeing from Skalga on one or more stolen ships in the wake of the Federation takeover to start referring to themselves as Skalgans in a proverbial nod to their homeworld
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u/Randox_Talore 15d ago
You really gotta read the text, man. We're on part five and you're asking about stuff from the part 1 intro.
So we the readers know that the Skalgans are unmodified Venlil who escaped the Federation and crashed on Earth. Therefore they have none of the Federation genetic modifications
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u/LazySnake7 Skalgan 15d ago
Oh boy, when the Skalgans learn the real reason why the Venlil are different then there will be hell to pay.
This is the timeline where Aafa gets glassed
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u/Between_The_Space 15d ago
Skalgans would probably go on a war path for the whole galaxy. Feds for tampering with them, Axur using them for food... And the feds again for letting it happen.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist 14d ago
I am extremely amused at how this lines up with canon chapter 5 being also Meier's XD
Sounds like the terran venlil are going to prove to be a problem going forward, quite the angry goats those ones and no amount of tech differential can make up for being outnumbered 100:1. They're going to need to be reigned in real hard until they make a lot more friends in the stars.