spacepaladin15
patreon
The Nature of Predators 2-92
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 12:00:16 +0000 UTCMemory Transcription Subject: Taylor Trench, Human Colonist
Date [standardized human time]: March 18, 2161
Gress and I had transcripts in the Krev Consortium’s database. Were there versions of ourselves among the robot army, living in a glossy, falsified reality or trapped as puppets on a string? My life had been miserable enough without reckoning with the idea that somewhere out there, a Taylor existed who never even got my slight glimmers of happiness and growth. There would be a me who was reset from knowing that Earth had survived and that he’d found someone who loved him, warts and all. There was an instance—perhaps more than one—of myself who truly existed only to suffer.
I saw how that knowledge had driven Gress mad, especially once he considered that everyone he loved or cared about in any capacity could be in the same predicament. Could I handle someone who was him down to every memory and mannerism being placed through simulated pain, and leave them to such a fate? The only way to stay sane was to affirm that it wasn’t the real Gress or Taylor, just an imitation to mess with us. If they could procure infinite robots to toy with us, then we had to be prepared. Nothing could distract us from saving the real Lecca, and destroying the impostors pressed to the KC’s eternal service.
What gives me assurance is that the actual Taylor, Gress, and Lecca won’t exist anymore; we’ll be overrun if we don’t end this all. Who has the right to create a person based on my private thoughts, my fucking brain?!
“It’ll be ok. You couldn’t reach her because they took down the comms—and they’d be surveilling her anyway. Any Krev device isn’t worth shit.” I sucked in a deep breath, as our rescue shuttle continued to lurch toward the upper atmosphere of Avor. I still remembered the first time I’d seen the vista of this planet. “Of course, we’re going to Nevi’s home first. How do we find Lecca, if she’s not there? We should have a plan.”
Gress grabbed my shirt collar, pulling me toward him with an intense look in his eyes. “The plan is we stay until we find her, dammit! We check school, the supermarket, run through the streets: I’m not leaving without my daughter.”
“The UN are going to rescue as many people as we can,” Cala jumped in, trying to soothe the Krev. “How would you know if she got on a different rescue shuttle though? Lecca should have a father, since she had a good one; Taylor can tell you what it meant to have two loving parents back in his life. Lecca would want you to stay safe.”
“What if I left without her? What if we’re not quick enough? I can’t live with that.”
I carefully lifted his claws out of my fabric, biting my lip. “None of this is your fault. You’ve seen what blaming yourself can do through your lure and my own. Living with the guilt of my failures made me miserable. You told me I deserved better, and your words mean enough to me that I believed you. I’m telling you the same thing now.”
“Fault isn’t the point, Taylor. It’s about the outcome—and I saw this one coming, months ago. I saw it and couldn’t convince anyone; couldn’t convince you! That’s my real failure, when I could’ve stopped this from ever happening. The Consortium signed a treaty with the UN on my watch.”
“What the Consortium did is crazy, so it sounds crazy when you say it. Nobody could’ve sold the truth to the SC without proof. It’s telling how discerning you are to be able to read them. I knew you were under a lot of stress, and goodness gracious, I know how that clouds my judgment. You’re stronger and more tenacious. I should’ve trusted you to be better than me.”
Cala raised her beak with indignance. “Enough already! What matters is that we’re better than them; I don’t care who’s better than who, when we’ve all mucked it up in one way or another. We’re getting the civvies out before we drop any bombs. Plenty of time, you hear?”
“Heard and disagreed with,” Gress muttered, sounding like a madman. “The humans—the kind, gentle, adorable primates—oh, they’ll wait alright. The Consortium won’t waste any time. When you shut down their little army with an EMP and hacktivism, the drones are proofed. The ‘defenses’ all around Avor, that crazy Cage that insulates our home, it can be turned around. They’ll do your work for you. Rescue us at your own peril.”
As much as I wanted to argue with Gress, experience had taught me to believe there was some validity to his forecast. The Cage sealed around Avor, but cyberweapons demolished their defenses and made it easy for humanity’s guns to punch a spaceship-sized hole in the shellworld barricade. I stared at the fires within the atmosphere of an orbital ring, and watched as UN shuttles diverted to lift civilians off of there; those would be the easiest rescues. I could see green bodies flocking to our ships before they’d even touched down.
My binocular eyes peered closer at the scene around me, trying to turn the dial up on my logical deduction. I wanted to see what the Consortium’s plan was to exterminate their own people in a hurry; I was searching for proof to validate Gress’ beliefs, because I knew his ability to see through the noise and confusion exceeded my own. I trusted his judgment. As a hostage negotiator, he’d honed his senses of other beings’ true intentions to save lives. If anyone could make the right calls for Lecca’s security, it was him.
The orbital protections would be present on every world, and could be remote controlled; it’d be a solid plan. The Cage is shut, and that’s their last line of defense. How could we see the Krev attempting to weaponize it against their own people?
It was by looking at sensors—just as I’d been taught in Radai’s military bridge training—that I saw what shutting The Cage was meant to do to the surface. While it could provide artificial sunlight and temperature regulation when sealed, to preserve the populace, the Krev weren’t worried about the flesh-and-blood beings they wanted to preserve. The temperature on Avor had plummeted to the point where it was meant to freeze out the people, forcing any survivors to hole up underground. I had to assume, for Gress’ sake, that Lecca was down there.
If they went deep enough to escape the unsurvivable frigidness, that meant the robot army holed up below—which the UN intended to bury—might be insulated from any digital attacks. The populace was being pushed into the synthetic legion’s authoritarian grasp.
“Spacesuit armor on! Temperatures are continuing to plummet below, and it’s getting to spacewalk levels of freezing way the fuck too fast!” our squad leader announced, shortly after my realization struck. His words sounded so human that it was difficult to believe I was following a Venlil into battle. “Power grids got cut by them. I don’t feel optimistic about finding too many survivors up top.”
Gress wept at that news, coming worryingly close to shoving the sharp points of his claws into his eyes. “Lecca…”
“They had a small stretch of time to get to safety,” I soothed the Krev. “We’ll look for her. There could be some people who found ways to make it, gathering around a heat source that they got online, er…there could be some civilians alive on the surface.”
As if to refute my argument, the Krev drones wheeled away from the UN fleet sauntering in; just like Gress predicted, the military craft began deploying antimatter bombs against their own populace in gratuitous quantities. Nothing was left up to chance in ensuring that Avor’s surface was a fatal wasteland. Any orbital rings still standing were obliterated, hurling shrapnel all around the globe and cutting rescue efforts short. The Krev didn’t want any people to get off-world, which was just spiteful. They could still have their fucking robot slave empire if they just let the real people go and dipped, no fighting required.
“No!” Gress screamed, as I tried and failed to console him with a touch.
I could feel horror enveloping me, watching how heartless these bastards truly were. All we got was a few ships off the rings. My God.
Cala’s eyes glowed with sympathy. “Every time I’ve seen a glassing, I hope it’s my last one. The fact that I’ve seen and been a party to so many haunts me. I’m sorry that Avor is the latest addition.”
The Venlil squad leader’s nose twitched. “Well, shit. Now there definitely is no point looking for survivors surface-side. Avor’s one cold, lifeless rock, and what a damn waste it is. We need to insert our asses underground and hurry, before we get buried like we meant to do to them! All that might stop more bombs pelting down is that they’d be burying their fucking robots, if they bring the roof down on our heads!”
“They’ll have to fight us the old-fashioned way,” I murmured, reaching for my rifle instinctively. “Lecca could be underground, Gress. We’ll look for her. Saving everyone we can is the best, the only chance we have that she might live, okay? Don’t give up!”
Gress hugged me, until I pried him off to force us to don our spacesuits. “It’s hopeless, Taylor. We’re too late, and there’s no telling what waits down there. I have to go, but you don’t. Just let me save you like I couldn’t save her! You should turn back, and go live the life you want with your human family, who are still very much alive. I do wish for you to have what you want, away from me.”
“All I want is to keep you safe, so that’s not called abandoning you or putting distance between us. The life I long for is with us all together. I can’t bear to see you hurting and losing yourself, because you’re the man, the hero, the companion, the father I adore. I want this galaxy not to be so fucking unfair to people like us; I want to make this right for you. It’s time we got some mercy from on high for a change.”
“I agree, but I know better than to expect anything to go well. In or out of the Consortium, it’s all just infinite darkness.”
I steadied myself, knowing that the predators of Terra were going to face this menace head on. I was one of them. “Then we’ll be the light. Someone has to be.”
The Sapient Coalition, spearheaded by humanity and our eldest allies, pressed with hunger toward the hostile drones who’d assaulted Avor. However, the enemy had already dispensed thousands of warheads from orbital range without any delays, with devastating effect. The Consortium could contest our forces now with their full attention, and the damage would be done. There was no stopping what’d been unleashed before we had a chance. My fists clenched with fury, blinded by a burning rage at the thought that they’d tried to wipe Gress’ family away. It boiled my blood that they’d hurt the alien I loved.
I remembered the agony and heartbreak I’d felt, when I believed Earth had been glassed. I intended to avenge this atrocity for Gress if I could do nothing else! I was turning to wrath and vengeance one more time, only not for myself this go-round. Humanity’s best hope of victory was that our cyberweapons could access their remote-control backdoors, which they’d used to steer that fleet back in our space away from Radai’s orders to attack the Remnants. That mechanism was believed to be deep underground, with the robotic legion lurking in the depths.
Deploying the United Nations cyberweapon of last resort on foot might let it shut the Consortium’s ships everywhere down, if we could get close enough to their center of operations. This went beyond just praying that Lecca was alive, and that we could ferry her to safety. I didn’t know what was happening to other worlds at this moment, but the enemy had shown they had no regard for life. It was my singular goal to succeed in ensuring that these monsters couldn’t hurt any planet like this ever again.
A/N - 92! Taylor and Gress ride in to try to save Lecca, which has nearly pushed our favorite Krev to a total breakdown, but Gressy is spot on predicting that the SC holding off the bombs will only make the KC do it for them; the Cage has also been used to seal off all sunlight from the planet and make it a freezing wasteland. Any survivors would be deep underground, where the conspiracy and their robots are most likely hiding, and where human soldiers will need to scramble to find an access point to override Krev remote control of their fleet.
Do you think that Lecca was able to get to a bunker, or will Taylor and Gress’ search come up empty-handed? What resistance and quirky stuff do you expect them to encounter below the surface? What does the Krev species’ future look like, with an uninhabitable planet and many dead on the rings and the ground?
As always, thank you for reading and supporting!
Comments
kabhes
It's not out of spite, it's the same tactic the Russians used against the Nazis. Burn everything you abandon so the enemy can't use it.
kabhes
Things are really speeding up. I hope it slows down again I want to see more people interaction and less space battles.
kabhes
Batteries don't like the cold very much, neither does oil and grease if it gets cold enough.
Gumcel
"Synthetics don't need climate control" Lmao. Tell me you live somewhere where it never snows without telling me you live somewhere where it never snows.
DemonVee
Yes! Couldn’t recall what he was called.
Space Paladin
Mafani I assume you mean? 👀
DemonVee
I can't remember the reskets name, but something tells me Taylor is going to have a sort of reunion with a certain Underscale replicant.
DemonVee
The Jaslips on this world were the only ones not liberated yet. I don't think they were blasted out of existence though since their species is adapt at being underground and the Krev couldn't have built robo bases near the poles if they wanted to maintain secrecy. Even if they were hit, there are definitely at least a few rebel cells ready to fight the drones.
DemonVee
Hmm, did they close the cage the second the truth was revealed? That might give it a few days to chill. Gress did mention that everything designed to protect the planet can be reversed on it, since a planet's heat has to be regulated so that it doesn't also cook itself they probably set up that cage so that all the infrared radiation escapes more easily.
Some Lvm
Wow! I did not expect the Consortium to impload so fast and hard... Glass the planet right away? Before the UN even landed? What does that accomplish? Also, how much time has the cage been closed? It takes time for temperature to drop significantly, its not like the part of the planet that is on the night side turns to ice every night. Anyway, this is definitely more of a shitshow than I expected, and one would think by now, after so many chapters, I'd be somewhat used to SP's writing stile. At this point I won't even risk venturing a guess as to what awaits the crew on the ground...
Some Lvm
Yea, kind of same...
EliasArt2Life
The longer this goes on, the less it feels like the reveal of the Shadow Fleet, and the more it feels like Aafa’s last stand. The Consortium is throwing away everything not dedicated to war, weaponizing even civilians, just to fight us better. But we’ve got a LOT deeper and darker that we can go. I’ve noticed a lot of people remarking with surprise that Gress can so accurately predict the Consortium’s next move, but that never really surprised me. Think about it; if a human had to predict what their government would do next, they could probably do it with what other aliens would consider prophetic accuracy. Especially if they had been trained to understand and predict the actions of others. It would simply be a matter of thinking about human nature. Well, Gress is both trained to predict others AND a Krev predicting Krev government actions. Everything we’re seeing? This is just a part of Krev nature. As Gress put it, they’re a species of liars. Their greatest empire united many others under their banner by lying about monsters that existed past their boarders, that only THEY could protect against. The Consortium did the same thing, just with the Federation. I believe that, on a GOVERNMENTAL level, the Krev see lies as a way to control the narrative, and control of the narrative as a way to push people into unity. But the people are clamoring for the truth, an inconvenient thing that causes DISUNITY, and they’ve been pitted against a group dedicated to SPREADING the truth. But a robotic populace only knows what is programmed into their minds. Bits of truth can be overwritten and tweaked to make sure people only ever know the narrative that the Consortium wants them to. Once you’ve got the robots and transcripts, you don’t need the organics who keep causing trouble by seeking the truth. It’s Krev nature. At least the bad side of Krev nature. That’s been allowed to run wild for over a century.
PhycoKrusk
It's even worse than that. There's no tactical advantage to keeping civilians out of the Coalition's control, and when you can simply build as many new soldiers as you want with no need to train them, the strategic advantage is minimal as well. The reason for closing the Cage is to keep the Coalition out. The reason for cutting the power is to reserve all of it for underground military installations. The reason for bombing the surface is to prevent the Coalition from utilizing the infrastructure, as will as to make it as difficult as possible to actually identify entrances to those underground installations. It isn't so much a case of "if we can't have them, no one can" as it is "just make it as difficult for them as possible, there's nothing up there we want anyway."
Michael Halpern
im getting concerned about how accurately Gress is able to anticipate the Synth Krev. my concern is that there's at least one instance of him in their leadership. He is just relaying what he would do.
Michael Halpern
They actually still need the organics, that's why they brought down the temperature to force them underground to shelter, technically they just need genetic samples, but its a lot easier to maintain the people over the baby making machines. You can only copy a file so many times before it starts getting corrupted, and fresh minds are absolutely essential, which is why they wouldn't just let the organic Krev go.
PhycoKrusk
I doubt it, if only because building synthetic children would be a waste of resources. The only way they would have done it would be if Lecca has been synthetic for as long as we've known her, and she was converted specifically to make it easier to monitor and control Gress. I do not believe that even Coalition androids are that convincing, which then opens up a whole new nightmare because, after all, without a detailed examination, it would be almost impossible to distinguish an organic from a Terminator.
PhycoKrusk
11 or 12, I think.
PhycoKrusk
The Jaslip enclave was just turned into a smoldering crater.
PhycoKrusk
It is, actually. That infrastructure was built for the benefit of organics; destroying it means the Allies can't use it either. The only part of their population they care about is the synthetic one, so it's not really a loss for the Krev. Lastly, once the Allies are repelled (destroyed or otherwise), that infrastructure can be rebuilt to better suit artificial life, rather than biological. Synthetics don't need climate control, food, rest, or sleep, so they can work around the clock. For the Krev, this maneuver poses little more than an inconvenience.
Kevo
I guess the Krevs planet doesn’t have as much ocean as ours to freeze so quick . Also to have the power of the sun in your orbital world cage jail sounds crazy!
Dale
Black mirror had a few dark takes too
Gumcel
Destroying your own planet's infrastructure and turning it into a barren rock. Absolutely genius tactical maneuver.
Adam Myers
Fair, sorry to bother you,
Guardian
...So...Avor is in a form of artifical winter, eh? And the Jaslip enclave had not been removed, yes? Hmm, spidey-sense tingling....
Guardian
For Karl! Uh, I mean, Lecca!
Roscuro
How long ago did I call the cages being a giant red flag? That is to say, what chapter were they introduced, way back when?
Shajenko
Copying someone's mind and instantiating a digital version of that mind has all kinds of horribly frightening possibilities. Altered Carbon and Eclipse Phase did a good job of exploring them.
Heroman3003
Oh god.... Are they going to find out that Lecca is gone... But there is a small robotic Lecca still out there, looking for her dad? Is that what are you going to do to us SP? Are you really that horribly cruel? It would play into the whole 'robot people, or are they people?' arc a ton, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to happen with all we know at this point... I am scared. It does seem like the Underscales are absolutely desperate though, at least. Purging the populace with power outage, freezing AND antimatter bombing all at once means they basically expect to be breached and just want to make things worse when it happens. They know they've lost, they just want to hurt as much as possible on the way out. This is just a bleak fuckin situation all around... Somehow, any victory against Avor will now be a lot less triumphant and celebratory now, I feel. Well, this is definitely a harsh turn. Great chapter. Good work. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!!
DDDragoni
Jesus christ... "If I can't have it, no one can" applied to millions if not billions of lives. A temper tantrum can be cute when a toddler throws one over a toy, not when it results in genociding your own people. Horrifying
Space Paladin
I have no time table for when the second paperback would be released
Xilacnog
Lecca is still alive, whoever is at the head of this, has her close by to turn Gress on Taylor as one last twist of the knife.
DreamEnvoy
The chances of Lecca still being alive seem slim. But imagine the KC using a bunch of robo-Leccas just to torment Gress.
Alekss Žukovskis
nice chapter. i like the suspense as usual. take a break if need be
Alekss Žukovskis
holly moly. death cults are not to be joked around with.
Michael Halpern
it had the heat and light, they just left those systems off
John Benjamin Cate
They must have been planning this for ages. Before even the Jaslip were discovered. The shell didn’t even have any of the heating and light it was supposed to! All planned! And wonderfully distressing! So good!
Jonathan Cardoso Mota
Funniest thing, but I actually think this is an actual great plot point. It really plays into the "is it still the same person" part of it! Of course it relies on the choice being deliberate on Gress' part and it not being a surprise reveal.
Byron Ritchie
please sp15! let lecca live!
Swan
I feel like "Conspiracy theorist is correct" is starting to become a theme of NOP, which is kinda funny
Adam Myers
I enjoyed the chapter and hope that Lecca is ok. (I take is Elia is leading the squad?) Do you have an estimate as to when the second paperback will get published? I am very excited about it!
Sci-fi reader
Reminds me of this. https://youtu.be/9fhFSDoCLzY?si=67viUkQ83K-v_OCx
DemonVee
The Krev already have Lecca, they know she can be used as a pawn against Gress since he's involved. An alternative scenario is that they'll use a brain scan of her to torment Gress. Worst case scenario is probably making him choose.
REDemon14
The idea that someone makes a copy of you and just has them have all the suffering and none of the peace, and then have them be just a thing to be used is really unnerving! I honestly couldn’t judge Taylor or Gress for destroying any potential copy out of mercy, don’t know what I would do. Taylor and Cala can try to calm Gress all they want, but *nothing* can calm a worried parent except the safe return of their child. Gress shouldn’t blame himself for not being able to convince anyone about a robot army made from the mind scans of the population. As far as anyone was concerned, Meier was the pinnacle of Mind uploading tech. Also, I doubt he wouldn’t been able to get Lecca off Avor without having to explain to his ex-wife which then could’ve leaked to the gov’t. Wait, so the shell is functioning as intended! We only made the mistake of thinking that the shell was meant to protect the *organic citizens*! The KC have been planning this for who knows how long. Hey, an unmodded Venlil and he's leading! Glad to see them using that ancient strength that comes natural to them. God. All those people, gone. As Taylor said, they could've let the flesh and blood people leave *and* keep their robots, but they destroyed their own people, just put of spite! Reminds me of a Chinese Emperor who's name escapes me at the moment. That's not even mentioning all the animals (like Obors) that are likely gone or close to gone. I know each world has a cage, but the other worlds may not suffer the bombing the Gov't inflicted on Avor. So they may be in a better situation. The KC were the greatest threat to the population. They're may be enough organic people underground to actually merit a rescue mission. Hopefully, Lecca and her mother are too. I wonder if our rescue squad are gonna run into some copies while underground. For everyone's sake, the SC needs to disable the controls for the drones and the legion. There's probably gonna be a lot of traps and man vs machines skirmishes in the upcoming battles. The Krev species are in a very delicate situation when it comes to the survival of their species/culture. Here's hoping they'll get to use the artificial wombs that the Ark humans and Osir Jaslips used. If the UN/SC manage to secure intact copies of the memory transcripts, I could see them letting robo-versions of the KC citizens adopt the organic krev children (or even their own cloned selves). Really looking forward to how this will go down!
Michael Halpern
The synths probably decided they needed to keep enough organics around to prevent genetic bottlenecking, as they will need fresh minds to copy to remain adaptive and prevent copy degradation. unfortunately they don't need a lot to do that, and they will be more useful in the near term as hostages
Swan
Why do I get this feeling that it wouldn't be as easy as "Get to the terminal, deploy the cyberweapon?"
Yonael Blackwood
Please do not Fallout 4 this. I beg you SP. It was such a dumb plot.
Soldier Lsnake
We are going underground boys. Rock and stone
Pineapplepilot
SP I see a possibility that you need to avoid like the plague; do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, *kill* Lecca and then make Gress take home a robo-kid. Please.
Mark Baculna
One
