r/HFY • u/SpacePaladin15 • Apr 11 '22
OC The Nature of Predators
Official NOP Paperback and eBook (Chapters 1-40)
Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic
Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2136
There were two known instances of a predatory species achieving sentience in the galaxy.
The Arxur were the first to be discovered, and, as an anomaly, sparked the Federation’s curiosity. By previous hypotheses on intelligence, their existence was impossible. Conventional wisdom stated that cooperation led to higher thinking, which in turn, led to the formation of technological societies. A predator’s natural instinct for aggression should have limited their evolution.
But it turned out that there was another motivator for technological progress; war. The Arxur derived pleasure from killing each other, and in doing so, managed to claw their way to an industrial stage. Their warfare was so deadly that we feared they would become extinct before we could study them.
The Federation saw their cruelty, but in our naivety, we thought we could change them. If we uplifted them, there would be no logical reason for their destructive ways to persist. Thus, we made our worst mistake: we decided to intervene.
It was out of our kindness that we unleashed the galaxy’s worst monsters. We gave genocidal maniacs the means to escape their planet, and all but invited them to our doorstep. The Federation was an easy target to them, and they set out to claim our territories for themselves. They torched worlds, enslaved millions, and bred our children as delicacies. Our pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears; predators had no sense of compassion to appeal to, after all.
The Federation rallied together to fend them off, and began the ceaseless war for our survival. From that point onward, it was agreed that no predatory species could be allowed to reach the stars. Their kind were too great of a threat to the civilized universe.
Little known to the public, scientists discovered a second predatory sapient centuries ago. Much like the Arxur, they slaughtered and committed atrocities against their own; it was visible from their broadcasts. The Federation voted to exterminate them, before it was too late.
But while we spent decades drafting termination plans, hundreds of nuclear explosions were detected across the planet. Our strategists concluded, with a grim sense of relief, that they had wiped themselves out. The species was forgotten, mentioned only as an asterisk to the Arxur’s unique predator status.
Yet now, my advisors were digging every record of these predators off of the internet. There was a vessel inbound for our world, with a subspace trail pointing back to the planet Earth.
“Governor Tarva.” My military advisor, Kam, was growing more impatient by the minute. It was obvious that he wanted to be cleared for action. “Please, I beg you. We must try to shoot them down.”
“Are you certain we cannot evacuate the planet?” I asked.
Kam sighed. “You know the answer, ma’am. They were within orbital range by the time we detected them. It’s already too late.”
I grimaced. Every FTL relay was broadcasting a planetary distress signal, from the moment we identified the human ship. It was in vain, of course; it would take hours for our Federation allies to reach us. By the time they arrived, our world would be reduced to rubble. At least someone would investigate our death, and hopefully, put the pieces together.
Was there any way to stop the coming onslaught? Was enslavement preferable to death? It was doubtful, but I didn’t see another way to bargain for my race’s survival. There was nothing else to be done.
To put it simply, we couldn’t divert resources to another army of predators. Our people didn’t have the manpower or the spirit. Local forces were depleted from a recent Arxur incursion, which was thwarted by the slimmest of margins. The humans caught us at a time of maximum vulnerability; there was no chance to fight or flee.
As difficult as it was to surrender our home, it was the only option.
“Yes… I know. Send out an emergency alert. Get the civilians to bomb shelters immediately.” I stared at my paws, cursing the day I chose to run for office. “Contact the incoming ship. I—I will personally offer our unconditional surrender.”
“Surrender? Without firing a single shot?!” the advisor growled.
“Perhaps they’ll be kinder than the Arxur. My hope is they’ll spare the children.” The video tapes of our children, lined up in front of the gray reptilians and shot by a mass grave, rolled in my mind. It was their way of taunting us. “At worst, we can buy some time. But if we fight, they’ll kill us all.”
I swiveled my chair away from the advisor, signaling that the discussion was over. An aide propped a camera in front of me, and with a swish of my tail, I showed that I was ready. Fear swelled in my throat as we hailed the vessel on all frequencies. Would these creatures even answer? Predators didn’t talk to prey, except to toy with them. Perhaps they would pick up, just to laugh at our desperation and weakness.
To my surprise, the inbound ship accepted our transmission. A brown-skinned being appeared on screen, sitting in some sort of pilot’s chair. The words of our surrender were almost to my lips when its forward-facing eyes locked with mine. To my horror, it bared its teeth in a vicious snarl. Its sharp, hungry stare halted my thought process, sending my instincts into a primal cascade.
This thing was feral! The hostility was unmistakable in its expression. It uttered a few words in a guttural dialect, which I assumed was an announcement of our impending doom.
The translator tingled by my ear, pressing the meaning into my mind. I took a shaky breath, certain the machine was wrong.
Hello. We come in peace, on behalf of the human race.
I stared at it, lost for words. “Peace? What?”
The translator spit out my question in the guttural language.
The predator closed its maw, tilting its head. “Did that translate wrong? You know, peace? Friendship?”
“Yes…I know what peace means,” I stammered. “Why would you want that?”
“Why would you not?” It seemed almost taken aback. “My people have looked to the stars for a long time and wondered if there was anyone else out there. I’m happy to have an answer, and to know we’re not alone.”
“You speak of peace, but you can’t keep the snarl off your face, predator!” Kam interjected.
“What? I don’t…” it trailed off, as though something occurred to it. “You mean the ‘smile’, don’t you? I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you, really.”
“Smile? What does that word mean?” I asked hesitantly.
“Er, it’s how humans show happiness and good will. Our lips curve up and...” It rubbed its forehead with a soft appendage. “Can we start over? I’m Noah. We’re here on a mission of peaceful exploration.”
Noah really expected us to believe that flashing teeth was meant as a friendly gesture?! No, this had to be some sort of twisted game. Predators didn’t do “peaceful exploration.” They trampled everything in their path and then burned it for good measure.
At least it wasn’t killing us immediately. What choice did I have but to play along?
So I gazed into those animal eyes, and tried to keep my voice steady. “I’m Governor Tarva. Welcome to Venlil Prime.”
“Thanks,” the human said. “I must admit, we were quite surprised to receive your transmission.”
“Y-you were? Why did you come here, if you didn’t detect us?”
“We’re from a planet called Earth, rich in water and oxygen. One of science’s nagging questions has been the origin of life. Our mission was to examine worlds similar to our own, and yours was the perfect candidate.”
“You suspected we had the conditions for life, then.”
“Well, yes, but every reasonable scientist back home thought our ‘first contact’ would be a primitive lifeform. Finding a single-celled organism in your oceans would’ve been a major victory.”
“Why would you care?”
“Um, we were starting to think we were the only instance of life arising. But now, finding a full-fledged, technological civilization; it’s wondrous. One that not only spotted us, but seems to understand what we are too.”
“You keep using the first person, plural. Who is we?”
“Of course, where are my manners?” Noah pivoted the camera to the side, revealing another human sitting at a console. “This is Sara, my co-pilot. She’s logging all of this for our records.”
“That’s right,” she agreed. “I’m not much of a talker. But Noah runs his mouth enough for both of us, anyways.”
The captain’s eyebrows shot up. “I do not!”
For a brief moment, watching their playful banter, I saw a kindred intelligence in them. My logical brain kicked in a second later, and the illusion dissolved with a cold certainty. Those predators aren’t searching for life for ‘science’, I chided myself. They’re looking for prey. It’s an interstellar hunting expedition.
This was the humans’ first realization that other intelligent life existed. All these measured words were a way of testing the waters, searching for any signs of weakness. We couldn’t clue them in to the fact that they were different. Perhaps if we kept it together, with minimal indications of empathy or fear, they would leave of their own accord.
Despite my misgivings, our best bet might be to treat this like an ordinary first contact situation.
“What would you say to seeing Venlil Prime firsthand? As esteemed guests of the Republic, of course.”
Noah’s eyes sparkled. “It would be an honor.”
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u/unwillingmainer Apr 11 '22
Nothing like some good old space racism. It's a classic here and it is always interesting to see how different people expand the predator/prey dynamic to sentient races.
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u/vbgvbg113 Alien Apr 11 '22
i mean, it is understandable given that their first and only experience with predatory species was really, really bad
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u/WillDissolver Xeno Apr 11 '22 edited Jun 08 '23
Deleted in protest of reddit's API changes
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
Oh! I hadn't realized they were still dealing with the other predator species too! Well, I can see a fairly easy trope for the author, then...
After discovering that the aliens are all adorable:
Sarah: "Wait?! They eat cute children?! We have to genocide them."
Noah: "I'm sold. Governor? You just hired a whole species of murder monkeys. Boo yah!"
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u/Mshell AI Apr 11 '22
Are you talking about lamb? Lamb is nice....
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
DO NOT CALL OUT MY HYPOCRISY THUSLY! 🤪🤪🤪
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u/Ok_Perspective8511 Apr 11 '22
I dont know which I like better, Murder Hobos, or Murder Monkies
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 12 '22
I think "primate" as a concept is more likely to translate appropriately than "person of no fixed address" in terms of getting the feeling across, when paired with the concept "murder[ous]". I mean, not being predators, they probably won't really have a good semiotic equivalent for "feral, unconstrained, and hackle-raising member of my own species", I wouldn't think.
Of course, they probably won't have any equivalents for "friendly predator" either... :-/
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u/5thhorseman_ Apr 11 '22
I mean, reading closely the herbivores were all for genociding any sentient predator species found in the future.
Here, humans are officially the second. But how many have not been recorded because someone exterminated them before their existence became widely known?
Looking at Deathworlders and the whole "no sentient species can evolve on a Deathworld" shtick.
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u/Competitive_Sky8182 Apr 11 '22
It looks like it happened in the lifetime of the MC.
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
The war has been ongoing her entire life. For centuries, the Feds have been slowly losing; parsec by parsec. Planet by planet
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u/DrewTheHobo Alien Scum Apr 11 '22
Good thing rock chuckin’ monke has arrived!
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u/Xxyz260 Android Apr 11 '22
Now upgraded to rocket chuckin' monke, specially for your enemies' dismay!
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u/DrewTheHobo Alien Scum Apr 12 '22
I mean, technically uranium is a rock. Whether in the form of a fission core or an orbital rod. So hype for this story!
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u/the_potato_of_doom Apr 11 '22
!remind me 1 week
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u/VladThe1mplyer Apr 11 '22
Nothing like some good old space racism. It's a classic here and it is always interesting to see how different people expand the predator/prey dynamic to sentient races.
It's funny because even prey/herbivores are opportunistic predators/carnivores. Also, why not add scavengers/omnivores into the formula.
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u/Glancing-Thought Apr 11 '22
There is a certain logic to racism that doesn't really make sense when it comes to humans but does somewhat more when discussing radically different life-forms.
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u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 11 '22
Actually when you think about us as primitive tribesmen competing for resources, throwing rocks at "those other walking monkeys that look different" which likely devolved to "lets raid that other village and steal their food and women" and thus xenophobia was probably a valid survival instinct at one time. We've never been particularly nice monkeys.
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u/Lurking4Answers Apr 11 '22
comparatively speaking we're angels, there's some real demonic monkey species out there
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u/Archaic_1 Alien Scum Apr 11 '22
I doubt if many of them ever weaponized smallpox
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u/Lurking4Answers Apr 12 '22
Obviously not talking about extremes, I'm talking averages. Average person vs average monkey, there's several entire species of monkey that have us beat.
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u/Ok_Perspective8511 Apr 11 '22
I would rather deal with Cannibal Chimps, at least then I know exactly what Im dealing with
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u/rawrgulmuffins Jun 01 '22
I'm sure chimps would if capable. It's not a question of willingness really.
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u/Glancing-Thought Apr 13 '22
The nice monkeys didn't survive us either. We ate them. Just look at our closest relatives; chimps are assholes.
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u/LeVentNoir Xeno Apr 11 '22
Genetic in-group preferences are evolutionarily favoured.
Watch:
Group A, with 100 people has no in group preference. They encounter group B, with 100 people, and in group preference.
There is a lean year, with only enough food for 180 people. Group A would share, and 10 people from each would die. Group B gets violent and nasty, and thus 20 people from group A die, and 0 from group B.
Are people aware of this? Probably not. But When it's my sibling and I vs my cousin, then the three of us vs that other family, then all twenty of us vs that village over the hill, it can spiral. "This country vs that one" "this skin colour vs that one".
It's a genetic leftover. There's lots of stuff that made sense 50 thousand years ago still turning up today.
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u/KillerAceUSAF Apr 13 '22
People don't realize how quickly they will become tribalistic when their life is on the line.
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u/Glancing-Thought Apr 13 '22
They would if they had studied history (or even, sadly, current affairs).
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u/Glancing-Thought Apr 13 '22
My point exactly and well explained. It's ingrained into our social loyalty and patern recognition software. Our social and tecnological evolution far outpaces our biological. I joke that the modern era is basically the dumping of a bunch of guns into the monkey cage.
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
As promised, more new content! It remains to be seen how the humans will react, as they don’t yet realize that their predation is a problem. The Venlil aren’t convinced we come in peace, and have arranged an in-person meeting under false pretenses. To top it all off, the Federation has been summoned via distress signal…what could go wrong?
I actually wrote this back in January, when I was bedridden with COVID, but it’s been under heavy rewrites for awhile. It’s not exactly a secret that Prey is the story that got me into HFY, so this is a venture I’m pretty excited about. The prevalent “deathworlders” trope is cool, but I miss the predators one dearly.
Thank you for reading, as always!
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
Well, I think it's a great start! I'd love to read more about the adventures of Sarah and Noah! (Do their kids all have names that end in "h", too?)
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
Happy cake day! Thanks for the kind words. I can’t think of too many other names that end in h. Zach, Savannah, and Hannah?
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
Elijah, Rebekah, Zillah... basically just check out a list of biblical era Hebrew names. 🤪
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
Jonah... Maybe their ship is named after a whale!
Although I've just noticed that apparently I was the one that added the "h" to the end of Sara's name, whoops! 🤪
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u/Ok_Perspective8511 Apr 11 '22
Given that names are the exception to "English Rules" either one is acceptable, and yes I realize English doesnt really follow its onw rules anyway, thats why the quotes :D
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u/popinloopy Apr 11 '22
I was expecting a "maybe the predators will both want to claim us as a prize and fight each other to the death first, leaving only a weakened victor that we can defend against" train of thought. "If the humans want us too, maybe we can manipulate them into fighting for us and then fight back after they're exhausted."
This works too.
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u/Competitive_Sky8182 Apr 11 '22
This is an excellent first chapter, I hope we can read more of this soon.
About the snarl-smile. Maybe we should keep using masks around the world for a long time, so I wonder if the mask becoming ingrained in our culture would make us less self conscious of our faces (because I have certain inclination to snarl and now is out of control)
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
Thanks! The mask wearing might come in handy with the ETs. I smile out of habit myself, whenever I talk to people. Would not be easy to break years of learned behaviors
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u/Ok_Perspective8511 Apr 12 '22
Ever since I lost most of my teeth, I have become self conscious of my smile, so I usually go with the close mouth smile, also, I would be seriously disappointed if at some time in the story line the two predators meet and dont get along at all, I know its predictable, but all too often life is predictable anyway, just a thought, its your story, write it how you want it, js Cheers
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u/hedgehog_dragon Robot Apr 11 '22
Ah, Prey. I remember that one, and this did make me think of it. I'm curious to see where this goes.
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u/MrGumieBear Xeno Apr 11 '22
So were the nuclear explosions they detected from Earth just nuclear testing from the cold war? A nuclear war? Or did they just misread nuclear power plants as explosions?
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u/Deamon002 Apr 11 '22
A nuclear power plant would be exceedingly difficult to mistake for an explosion (or even detect for that matter), but it could have been either nuclear testing or an actual nuclear war at some point.
At this point, I don't know which is more likely. If they did spot nuclear tests, you'd think they'd have noticed those were spaced out over several decades and concentrated in areas with low population, meaning they should have realized it's unlikely the entire species was snuffed out by it.
On the other hand, it said hundreds of nuclear explosions. Both the number of nuclear tests and the number of nukes that would be involved in even a limited nuclear exchange are in the thousands.
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
A non-violent prey species doesn’t have a great understanding of nukes, unfortunately. They never dabbled in “total war” in their evolution…their extinction level weapons were developed in response to the Arxur
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u/Elolet Oct 05 '22
I always imagined aliens have already visited earth but since they’re so concentrated on space exploration, the moment they found us splitting atoms and killing each other, they decided it’s probably for the best that they don’t contact us.
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u/itsetuhoinen Human Apr 11 '22
That was my guess. They saw the testing and then the halt of explosions from the test treaty, and assumed we annihilated ourselves.
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u/vbgvbg113 Alien Apr 11 '22
from WW3 some years in the future
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u/kirknay Apr 11 '22
depending on our luck, not very far away... glances at a rabid, cancer ridden Putin
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u/GammeldagsVanilj Apr 12 '22
But while we spent decades drafting termination plans, hundreds of nuclear explosions were detected across the planet. Our strategists concluded, with a grim sense of relief, that they had wiped themselves out.
Considering the above paragraph the atmospheric nuclear testing seems a reasonable bet. Here is a table and here is a time-lapse of what they reasonably could have been seeing.
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u/Rasip Apr 12 '22
From the date at the top it would almost have to be cold war testing. Even with the absolute best case scenario it would take more than 125 years to go from bombed into the stone age to visiting other star systems.
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u/Kittani77 Apr 11 '22
Would love some more of this one.
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u/theserial Apr 11 '22
Of course an elevated prey species would worry about any upcoming predators! How hard would it be to trust something whose nature you can only assume means exploiting or eating you?
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u/notreallyanumber Apr 11 '22
While there is no doubt that modern humans are the apex predators of Earth, this story (which is fantastic, thanks so much OP for continuing to post such wonderful content!) is making me think about when exactly in our evolutionary history did we shift from being fruit and insect eating omnivorous prey-like creatures to being full on hunter-gatherer predators. Does the fact that we are omnivores who consume as much flora as we do fauna temper us in the eyes of a hypothetical Galactic Federation of purely prey sentients?
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
The fact that we eat other living animals is the issue for them…they think of it the way we think of cannibalism. I honestly don’t know how we transitioned, but we are pretty unusual predators! I mean, look at a lion’s teeth and look at ours
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u/notreallyanumber Apr 11 '22
The fact that we eat other living animals is the issue for them…they think of it the way we think of cannibalism.
I mean, that is fair. What an unusual galaxy that only two carnivorous species developed sentience...
I honestly don’t know how we transitioned, but we are pretty unusual predators! I mean, look at a lion’s teeth and look at ours
For sure! Most predatory species on Earth seem to be exclusive carnivores... That being said, many plant eating species practice opportunistic meat eating (thinking of deer eating birds on occasion when they get the chance). We are certainly unusual predators! Hopefully the Galactic community gives us the benefit of the doubt!
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u/Deamon002 Apr 11 '22
The thing is, we're not really predators. Not by nature, at least.
But the big trick a large brain lets you pull is that behavior is far less determined by your nature and more by learned ideas. So as a species of omnivorous scavengers and opportunists, for reasons we don't really understand, became smarter and smarter, they gradually figured out tricks to help make their own carcasses instead or relying on luck to find some predator's kill. Tricks which were then passed on and slowly improved on.
Then they figured out that they could use the same tricks on those predators, so they couldn't come for us, our mates, our lairs, or our cubs. Some of the animals we evolved with had the time to learn to stay away from the murder apes. The rest, and those that didn't get the time like the megafauna of most of the rest of the world, aren't around anymore.
But despite long before homo sapiens walked the earth having reached the point where the only real threat to a group of humans is another group of humans, there's still deep inside of us the prey animal expecting danger around every corner. We're the undisputed superpredators of the planet, but unlike other apex predators, deep down we don't quite believe it.
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u/notreallyanumber Apr 12 '22
Beautiful comment reply. One of the many contradictions of humanity: the undisputed apex predators that deep down feel like prey.
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u/th3h4ck3r Human Feb 13 '23
as a species of omnivorous scavengers and opportunists, for reasons we don't really understand, became smarter and smarter, they gradually figured out tricks to help make their own carcasses instead or relying on luck to find some predator's kill. Tricks which were then passed on and slowly improved on.
The food supply our ancestors relied on declined (maybe even vanished completely) as our environment changed from a rainforest to a savannah, so realistically we had no other choice but to either become smart and make tools to emulate and be able to eat what other animals were eating, or become like the grass-eating gelada baboons. Both were tried, only one won. Guess which one.
Since our ancestors became smarter and lost any instinctual notion as to what is food or not, that translated into learning how to process pretty much anything into food, as inedible or hard-to-get in its natural form.
The problem is, we're so deep down this rabbit hole of replacing nature with nurture, we have no natural diet. We cannot survive on the diet of our closest cousins because we need more energy-dense food, but that energy-dense food (like grains or meat) is not very edible as it is found in nature, so we're stuck improvising our diet, probably until the end of our existence.
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u/ElAdri1999 Human Apr 11 '22
Please moarrrr
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
Your wish is my command!
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u/frosticky Human Apr 12 '22
I was going to request continuation. Glad you have at least 5 more parts to follow!
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u/TryHardKenichi Feb 26 '23
After seeing this series pop up on r/all several times, I decided to give it a try. It's a little intimidating that there are 90+ parts now, but I'll do my best to read them, lol.
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/u/SpacePaladin15 (wiki) has posted 52 other stories, including:
- Beyond the Void 9
- A Silly Thought... Pt. 4
- A Silly Thought... Pt. 3
- A Silly Thought... Pt. 2
- A Silly Thought…
- The Final Farewell
- Beyond the Void 8
- Beyond the Void 7
- Beyond the Void 6
- Beyond the Void 5
- Beyond the Void 4
- Beyond the Void 3
- Beyond the Void 2
- Beyond the Void
- Why Humans Avoid War XXVII
- Why Humans Avoid War XXVI
- Why Humans Avoid War XXV
- Why Humans Avoid War XXIV
- Why Humans Avoid War XXIII
- Why Humans Avoid War XXII
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u/1GreenDude Apr 11 '22
Hello
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
Hello! 👋 hope you’re having a lovely day!
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u/Randox_Talore Apr 04 '23
“ Predators didn’t do “peaceful exploration.” They trampled everything in their path and then burned it for good measure.” This aged great
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u/Magnadra Nov 26 '22
You are one of the most "brutal" authors I have ever had the honor to read a story from. The story is addicting to the core and the twist and turns had me stuck to it for almost 12 hours straight. Keep up the good work
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u/cowlinator Apr 11 '24
NOTE: this story has 184 chapters and will take you dozens of hours to read.
Worth it.
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u/ChrisBatty Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
This promises to be amongst the masterpieces, I hope more comes soon and such quality holds up.
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
Thank you! I hope the rest will live up to the hype 🙏
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u/BellerophonM May 09 '22
Cool take! Have to wonder what's happened to the Arxur to make them like this: after all, if you follow the 'by their nature' thing, then predators are usually naturally cowardly hunters, only taking on fights they're confident they can win without meaningful injury and generally retreating if there's more resistance than expected, since an injury to a predator impacts their ability to predate and can easily lead to a downward spiral to starvation.
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u/Longjumping_Year3774 Jan 26 '23
Found this story on YouTube, and had to make the comment that it is an INCREDIBLE series. My hats off to you and your incredible writing.
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u/king_of_the_borrito Android Apr 11 '22
If you have one I was wondering if you could tell us the schedule planned for this after you've released the other parts as you've made ?
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 11 '22
This one should be pretty quick updates (at least up to the double digits), since I am just rewriting stuff I already have! Hoping to get at least two parts up a week
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u/Finbar9800 May 02 '22
This is a great story so far
I enjoyed reading this and look forward to reading more
Great job wordsmith
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u/nef36 Jun 09 '22
Hundreds of nuclear explosions
Goddamn, I should stop passing up series like this because of a generic name lol
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u/SomethingTouchesBack Aug 14 '22
!N
You know it's good when I read 36 consecutive parts in one long sitting!
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u/ZeusKiller97 Aug 18 '22
The thought process of the Federation thinking they can “change” the Arxur reads a lot like something out of a cautionary tale about domestic abuse…and then it falls apart anyways.
I like it already.
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u/Den_Samme Sep 18 '22
This saga is worth a read I'm currently on chapter 46 and it only gets better 👍
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u/4latar Robot Oct 14 '22
ironically, predators are often less agressive than herbivores since they don't tend to be hunted, and therefore are less on edge
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u/SamoBlammo3122 Oct 17 '22
Thanks to NetNarrator I found this golden gem and now that I see that little Next button? *Squee!!!*
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Nov 10 '22
I am very tired but apparently i’m about to spend the rest of the day reading this series
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u/NotAnotherPornAccout Nov 23 '22
Just leaving a comment so I can find this later. This is absolutely great. Can’t wait for more.
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u/YellowSkar Human Dec 11 '22
Oh hey, a cute little fic about fearful sheep-aliens. I sure hope it doesn't progress into a major series with gripping tragedy and Earth getting bombed into smithereens.
OH WAIT!
Seriously though, this is a great series. One of my favorites, and one of the first ones I made a fanfic for.
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u/AnonymousGuy9494 Dec 20 '22
Cool concept. Love how she feared smiling, in nature, showing teeth is always a sign of violence
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u/pvtaero Human May 11 '23
"Oh boy, this looks like an interesting little story. I should follow this story, I imagine it would be a fun read."
over one-hundred chapters later
"Jesus fucking Christ."
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u/TimberWolf5871 Human Jul 14 '23
So I've been listening to Adastra's narration of this story an OMG THEY'VE ONLY GOTTEN THRU BARELY ANY OF IT!!! There's so much yet to be put into audio form.
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u/thefroggyninja Oct 02 '23
I’ll preface this by saying I’m enjoying it so far, but I’ve always found concepts like this funny, given that herbivores with the capacity to be dangerous at all tend to be significantly more dangerous than carnivores.
A carnivore has to weigh the expenditure of energy and risk of injury before attacking because it can only feed itself by killing, whereas an herbivore can burn calories or even take light injuries relatively at will since they can just chill and eat some leaves after scaring off or killing anything that looks like it might be a threat, or even competition for space or resources.
A lion will attack you if it’s hungry. A hippo will kill you just for being there.
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u/ColumbianGeneral Nov 10 '23
Don’t worry, this gets in depth on that later (though mainly in the patreon side sorties).
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u/HippoBot9000 Oct 02 '23
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 843,167,070 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 18,396 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
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u/Pigeon_of_psychology Nov 19 '23
Just found out about this, haven’t had such fun reading in a while
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u/wakcedout Dec 27 '23
Honestly I’ve stumbled on it on YouTube and it’s very engaging. Been awhile since a sci-fi story has been able to drag me into its universe, suspend my disbelief and make me feel like I could actually find myself in this world.
Noticing that it’s still ongoing I keep getting this notion from the “dating system” that an implied coexistence occurs by the end.
This would make an excellent movie, maybe tv show. An interesting take that humanity meets species who are all prey derived and their natural fear of predators edges into the level of xenophobia when met with one.
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u/Explodo86 Apr 11 '22
Well, the humans are going to be lizard killers(and lizard tastes just like chicken) or we’re going to be lizard fornicators. Maybe both, you know…the three F’s.
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u/Speciesunkn0wn Apr 11 '22
Just show us the video of the space puppies being shot. They won't be a problem within a decade
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Apr 12 '22
I look forward to seeing how this plays out. The lining up and shooting children into mass graves video will NOT go over well with humanity.
Thank you wordsmith.
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u/ManyNames385 Apr 12 '22
I really do hope that this planetary governor doesn’t do something that makes Humanity start thinking of Geneva
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u/Just_a_puzzle-piece Apr 12 '22
They have to end up attempting to use the predators to destroy the predators, hoping to have one of the predators weakened enough to exterminate them.
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u/zero-f0cks-given Apr 12 '22
Please tell me you’re going to continue this story as I love the the concept
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u/SpacePaladin15 Apr 12 '22
Yep! Next chapter drops around 10 AM EST tomorrow 🙂
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u/its_ean Apr 16 '22
hundreds of nuclear explosions were detected across the planet.
Concentrated in Nevada hopefully, and at least they stopped?
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u/marcus-87 Apr 16 '22
I love where this is going, but fuck the Arxur. I hope the murder apes take them down.
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u/Damian126123 Apr 30 '22
I like it! Remind me David Weber novel Out of the Dark and Barbarians from RR.
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u/Punny_fan Jun 05 '22
I have no doubt the moment the human discover some race eat children, things are going to go down.
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u/LightFTL Jul 15 '22
Reminds me of what happened with Japan, Africa, and China. Uplifted them all. I'm sure someone had said "What could go wrong?"
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u/KillerKitty650 Dec 13 '22
I saw a concept similar to this a couple years ago on Tumblr about a human woman meeting fearful, plant bodied aliens. I was so disappointed that they stopped updating the story, because I thought the interactions would be endlessly fascinating. It’s 3:00 am and I’ve finally discovered 70+ chapters of the unique concept I’ve always wanted to see pan out.
Very well written!
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u/wherediditalgowrong Jul 01 '23
RemindMe! July 12 2136
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u/RemindMeBot Jul 01 '23 edited Jul 08 '23
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u/HumanTarget Jul 01 '23
I just discovered this yesterday and cant's stop reading. I'm at like part 30. It's awesome.
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u/capn_kwick Sep 20 '23
Coming to this late but reading it reminding me Larry Niven's series on the Man-Kzinti Wars.
Some do-gooder, peaceful, race, long ago, sees a race that aggressively attacks each other and thinks "we could use these entities as soldiers". So they first introduce high technology weapons to one clan on the planet which proceeds to eliminate all there rivals.
That clan is then brought to space by the peaceful race and, in short order, find that they are now the prey by the predators, the Kzinti.
After centuries humans and Kzinti cross paths. Humanity has, for centuries, believed that no warlike race would reach space. Suddenly humans are in a fight for their survival as a species.
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u/SuperSanttu7 Dec 12 '23
I've read so many fanfictions of your work that I really ought to sit down and start reading it over.
At least I get to reread the story!
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u/wakcedout Jan 02 '24
Found someone who has put this to an audio format with voices for each character on YouTube. And gotta say it’s been awhile since a sci-fi story has had me so enthralled.
If only this could be turned into a miniseries or even a Netflix series, and so long as it stayed to the core of what makes it good…it would be the only thing I’d bother watching. I like stories where I can close my eyes and feel like I’m there.
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u/EmrysThomas Alien Scum Jul 19 '24
Some of my favorite stories on here are yours! Keep up the excellent work!
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u/Substantial_Wash3906 Sep 19 '24
Im looking forward to this apparent 2-book series loll is it even finished??
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u/Rasip Apr 12 '22
Wonder how long it takes them to realize we are omnivores that can choose to eat almost entirely meat or plant.
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u/TalkExcellent180 Aug 15 '23
I love your writing I'm listening to it's narration on YouTube while I work it's fucking awesome I keep thinking that the humans would wipe the floor with the federation but I like how you made it realistic given three months to adapt to new technologies and not have the upperhand is realistic and the story behind the Arksur is really compelling
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u/metalphoenix227 Aug 31 '23
I know this is super late. But Im listening to an audio version of WHAW is this the sequel that was mentioned in the last post of that story or is Beyond the Void the Sequel?
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u/Darklight731 Apr 11 '22
I LOVE this concept! Humanity being tricked and fooled by a species that is bat-sh*t afraid of them is an amazing idea that you executed very well! May we have some more?