The Nature of Predators

Memory transcription subject: Onso, Yotul Technical Specialist

Date [standardized human time]: March 24, 2137

Our fleet crested toward our waiting enemies, with the greatest tools and allies mankind had been able to assemble. As impressive as Earth’s wartime innovations had been, it was their relentless pursuit of friends that we’d reaped the most rewards from so far; having others to back us up made it possible to challenge a multitude of foes. The road to reach Aafa’s orbit hadn’t been pretty, but war never was so beautiful or clean. The Terrans hadn’t escaped entirely free from compromising their beliefs, or sacrificing lives they wished they didn’t have to. Assuming we gained orbital control, I wasn’t sure what we’d do about the Duerten’s determination to glass this world.

My grim realization was that humanity might have to bend their values again, with the Kolshians sending up civilian ships amid the battle. The evacuation shuttles hadn’t lowered their thrusters, despite the oncoming onslaught. The United Nations hadn’t fired on the transports, though we were in range to take the first ones out; I could see weapons growing antsy the nearer they got. The Terran allied fleet ceded a slight opening, altering our path enough to drift out of their way. With thousands of weaponless refugee vehicles coasting ahead, it was difficult to steer clear of all of them. I eyed the sensor readout, and noticed them sending power to directional thrusters.

The evac shuttles might be trying to sidestep us…but if they’re afraid enough of Terrans to leave, why would they trust them not to fire?

My head snapped toward Tyler. “Get weapons to fire on those shuttles! They’re hostiles!”

“Hang on. What evidence do you have for that, Onso?” the human asked, in a wary voice. “I know you think they deserve to be wiped out, but—”

“The evidence is they’re not acting afraid of you. None of them are flinching! My gut instinct says they’re up to no good.”

“The Kolshians have a better understanding of what’s the truth about us. They might know our code of ethics against shooting civilians.”

“The shadow caste knows, but the average citizen doesn’t. That means the secret fleet must be piloting those shuttles! It’s the only thing that explains their behavior.”

“Sensors would know if they’re hiding weapons, so that…no. My God.”

Captain Monahan frowned, having overheard our exchange. “That’s a bold assumption, but it has the ring of truth to it. Weapons, patch us in with our allies. Advise them to hold their fire, but shoot any transports that draw too close.”

As comms fired off a hasty communique and I passed along the nearest shuttle for weapons to target, the speediest Kolshian transport swerved at a UN drone. The automated vessel was programmed not to shoot at civilian targets without authorization or clear hostile activity. When the evac ship rammed into our unpiloted vehicle full speed, it smoked through its hull; both spacecraft were shattered in the collision. Hundreds of life signatures from within the shuttle vanished in an instant, strewn to cosmic dust. On the thousands of ships carrying refugees, similar passenger counts showed on my readout. Given the lack of panicked movement within the interiors, I assumed they had no idea what their fate was going to be.

The civilian vessels turned on the first Terran ships they could encounter, with several hundred crashing before we’d reacted to the unthinkable. I could feel a knot of horror in my stomach, as I realized how little the Commonwealth thought of the lives of their own people. While humanity chose to care about all life in the galaxy, the Kolshians cared for none. Those civilians had been loaded onto the shuttles without a clue to their fate, with the promise of escaping the system. The shadow fleet knew we wouldn’t shoot a genuine transport down, and conned hundreds of thousands of their citizens into climbing aboard to make it believable.

They waited to start evacuations until the last minute, because they intended to use innocent lives as a weapon. How will they ever explain this to their people? How do military commanders, at least the ones from the public fleet, have no gripe with this strategy?

Captain Monahan’s teeth were bared with contempt. “Shoot down every one of those transports. And sensors, from now on, don’t mark any Kolshian ships as noncombatants.”

“Understood, ma’am.” I applied filters to label anything with a Kolshian warp signature as hostile; if there were any innocents, their government’s deranged actions had revoked their right to protection. “The transports are shown as hostiles now. I’ve left a new class indicator to reflect their unarmed status, so weapons can fully assess our priorities.”

“Good work, Onso,” Tyler grumbled, though his gaze was far-off, struggling to process such a senseless gambit of civilian lives. “You were right. After what they’ve done to entire planets, I guess this shouldn’t surprise me.”

“This time, it’s not just them letting it happen, like they did with the Thafki, or the attacks on Nishtal and the cradle. This is intentionally and knowingly sending civilians to their deaths. How did they sell this to the people outside of the conspiracy?”

“If I know one thing about the Federation, it’s that they love to blame predators for anything they have to do. Better dead than cattle…what’s the sacrifice of a few thousand people, if it saves the herd? Yet our empathy is what’s under a microscope. That’s a bad fucking punchline, huh?”

“It’s not a punchline if it’s not the least bit funny.”

“It ain’t funny, but it sure is a joke. We coulda had hundreds of friends if the Federation didn’t exist. I’d sure like to have seen what kinda shake we woulda gotten. Like It’s A Wonderful Life, except that it’s a good thing they weren’t around.”

“Once again, I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”

“That’s how I feel with you and your science words. Forget my movie references, and put that big brain of yours to work. We gotta get Baldy and company within range of the moon.”

“I’m working on it. We’re needing to pass through the shadow fleet wall ahead…slated to make contact in a few minutes. After we clear out the civilian transports.”

The human nodded. “Eyes on the Dominion’s main activities?”

“They’re on the offensive. Gunning for the Shield and the SC when they can, since they get off on hunting prey, but I don’t think that’s our primary concern.”

“It’s not. Keep at it, buddy.”

The Terran warships sliced through the remaining transports like putty. The shuttles’ lack of shields or armor allowed them to be downed with relative ease. The Kolshians’ ghastly trick had taken out a few hundred ships before the first shots rang out, but I knew our true casualties would surface once we engaged the enormous armada. I angled the viewport toward the moon where the planetary defenses sat, which was doling out carnage with any lasers that landed. It was difficult to imagine Sovlin in a vac suit, traipsing around; the rovers dropping to the ground were the only way he’d keep up with the persistence predators’ trek. Their mission could entail heavy resistance, so the more we could simplify the landing process, the better.

While our manned ships were pigeonholed into closing on the moon, in order to unload infantry, other contests were being waged across the planet’s breadth. Flashes of orange and white, signifying explosions and plasma respectively, detonated above the world’s entire circumference. Speedy UN drones on this side of Aafa were targeted by the planetary defenses from afar. Meanwhile, from the globe’s opposite half, missiles blazed into space from the depths of the ocean. It lent credence to the theory that the Kolshians had constructions within abyssal waters. These warheads appeared to be nuclear-armed, and their ability to escape the atmosphere and find targeting was an impressive feat of engineering.

I’m sure they didn’t stuff those missiles onto one side of the planet’s oceans and not the other. I’ll stay vigilant for anything at the atmospheric fringes on our side; we don’t want to get blindsided by nukes.

The Terrans had a better capacity to thwart the ballistic missiles lobbed at singular ships, although such mighty munitions packed a forceful punch even if they were stopped short of the target. The Yotul Technocracy also possessed particle beams that could slice through a warhead’s arming mechanisms. However, Chief Hunter Ilthiss’ craft got walloped by the influx of nuclear weapons; it was clear the Dominion ships had been ordered to pay no mind to defense. What was fortunate was that the Sapient Coalition and Duerten Shield were kept on our side of the globe, or else they might’ve fallen victim just like Ilthiss had. Our Dominion allies were reduced to a small remaining force, cutting off one source of manpower.

“Sir, I know I said it’s not our primary concern, but I don’t think we want our herbivorous allies to take a shellacking like Ilthiss,” I remarked. “Can they handle Arxur fighting them one-on-one…or two-on-one?”

Tyler bobbed his shoulders. “I doubt it, but we can’t worry about that until the planetary defenses are offline. Hopefully the grays aren’t ready for prey to actually fight back. The Duerten are out for blood, so hopefully that compensates for their lack of tactics.”

“I suppose they’re lucky they’re fighting Arxur, not shadow fleet ships. We’re the ones who are pitted up against the biggest threat…and the sole path to the moon is through them.”

The human tapped a marked radius of space. “I input the region we need to get to for troop deployment, per the mission parameters. Worry about finding us the best route, and keeping us apprised of any threats. Might be a bumpy ride, y’know?”

“Understood. I also know we want to be as close as possible, so I’ll look for anything that helps us gain ground.”

Our warships were joined by some UN drone support, since our manned vessels were at a disadvantage against Kolshian automatons. The lasers on the moon amped up their firing speed, putting an exclusive focus on our newest and strongest craft; outdated crewed vehicles were neglected all together. The amount of power that could be funneled through the lunar installment was astounding. Similar to how humans moved their nuclear arsenal to Luna, the Commonwealth had stationed some of their high-yield explosives on the natural satellite; that kept them closer to the action in the event of a raid, rather than buried in the ocean. Our flight path wasn’t dissimilar to Kalsim’s en route to Earth. I wondered if the Kolshians had taken notes from that clash.

It didn’t seem the shadow fleet had grasped our intentions, since they were regarding the UN drones as the greatest threat. Our highest concentrations of automatons found shield-breakers deposited in their midst, and were tag-teamed by ship weapons and planetary defenses. Manned Terran vessels were able to cruise forward with minimal fire trained on us; thousands of soldier-toting friendlies sailed toward the arbitrary boundary where our troops could deploy. It was only as we neared the skirmish line that our foes rounded on us, and plasma began zipping our way. I could see debris littering the edges of the viewport, a telltale sign of why thousands of our drones had vanished from sensors.

If our finest vessels are getting mowed down by these planetary defenses, I see why we need to capture or eliminate the infrastructure. Imagine how the Duerten Shield would fare against weapons of this kind! This must be why the Kolshians thought Aafa was impenetrable.

Navigations yanked our ship to one side, turning our casual glide into a spiral to avoid plasma. Shields blinked out on my readout, with the shadow fleet having ample shield-busters in reserve to handle us. I pinpointed a Kolshian automaton for weapon targeting, but its algorithms were one step ahead of our hastily-deployed shot; the beam fell wide by a large margin. Charging ahead against superior craft wasn’t ideal, yet the threshold we needed to reach sat behind these vessels. Our own drones had to break free from their predicament and give us an assist, or we were going to end up in multiple pieces. I could see several manned craft flanking us reduced to tattered husks.

I traced a vector toward a marginal opening in their ranks. “This is the best opening I can find, but it takes us within their direct line of fire. My suggested strategy would be to set up barriers and hunker down, except that time is of the essence.”

“The Kolshians will close the gap as soon as we make a run for it, won’t they?” Tyler sighed.

“Obviously. They don’t know our true plans, but they don’t want anyone getting in range of the planetary defenses. Hell, even if we get past them, we’ll have lasers and nukes from that moon thrown in our face. Need to launch the troops and get out fast.”

“Why haven’t they used those nukes?”

“Probably going to wait to launch them, in the event we get past their line. They don’t want the shadow fleet caught up in the blast radius. Layers of defense.”

“So we need a distraction. We’ve got a few spacecraft carriers; time for ‘em to open their bellies and pester the squids with some fighters. Back where it all began.”

I twitched my ears. “It’s a start, but we need more. If we have any antimatter bombs left after the gas giant fight…I think it’s time to use them against singular ships. It’ll punch an opening and give us a moment to breakthrough.”

“We do got some leftover warheads. Don’t got any intention of dropping those on Aafa, ‘specially after Monahan’s little chat, so throwing ‘em in the Kolshians’ face sounds fantabulous to me. I’ll bring the captain in the loop.”

I locked in the optimal vector for our navigations, before offering a second set of targets that needed to be displaced. On the viewport, munitions whizzed past us; standard combat missiles were locked on Terran ships by the thousands. Weapons was working overtime to strike the explosives down before they reached us, though one rammed straight into our nose. Without shields, it blew off a large chunk of our underbelly, though thankfully, it was shy of the hangar where our troopers were congregated. We were fortunate the hull integrity held together, and that the fissures in our armor plating were not spreading throughout the vessel.

Non-critical hit. Might lessen the power we can route to the railgun, but it could be much worse. We don’t want to get hit by anything else lobbed our way.

Tyler gave me a nod as he returned from the captain’s station, signaling her approval of my plan; comms sent out the call for fighter support. It was rare to utilize such massive munitions in fleet confrontations, since their design was tailored to targeting sprawling regions from orbit. We prepared to divert all power to thrusters; there would be a single chance to make a break for it, assuming our plan worked. I watched as we bore down on the Kolshians, with some level of concern for our safety. Inertial dampeners were suffering the occasional lapse, pushed to the hardware’s limits by our erratic maneuvers. The disadvantage of having biological life onboard was that we couldn’t take severe evasion actions like drones without killing the occupants.

I could see the bubble of space nearing on sensors, but despite the strategic advantage, I wasn’t going to suggest we push deeper to give our friends a better launch point. It would already be perilous to get their jetpacks in range at all. Fighters slingshotted out into space from our behemoth carriers, who lurked at the back of the pack. That was step one of the distraction, as nimble UN frames weaved up close and nipped at the Kolshians’ heels. Our bombing classes were preparing the deployment of antimatter weapons, ready to forcefully vacate the enemy from this patch of space. Humanity was too stubborn to turn back; we were pushing through to the target destination, here and now.

Plasma clipped the already damaged part of our ship, as our jerky movements failed to skirt a close-range beam entirely. I moved closer to Tyler on instinct, drawing strength from having my buddy at my side. We’d always known that deploying to Aafa was a risk, but standing by him was worth sacrificing the idyllic future that beckoned to me on Leirn. If those antimatter bombs didn’t get out of allied bays soon, we were going to be lit up like a sacrifice to Ralchi. Kinetics raked across the front of our ship, mauling us even further. Navigations was overloaded with new threats, desperately dipping down and throwing out interceptors. There was no time to get our bearings and counter the inbound munitions, as we felt the ship rattle from impact after impact.

“Hey, Tyler?” I hissed. “If this is the last thing I say, I’ve got three words picked out. Fuck the Federation.”

The blond human ruffled my forehead fur, earning a hiss from me. “Damn straight, but I don’t plan on dying none. We gotta rescue Slanek; promised Marcel. Onward and upward!”

My quizzical look intensified, as I questioned whether that exclamation was in reference to hot-air balloons. There were worse things to die thinking about than Terran flight devices, and the technical chain of events that led them to the natural development of starships. A lot of people would’ve sought something more meaningful to dwell on, but I want to go out fantasizing about what I loved. The red dots on the screen, indicating threats, faded into the background. I waited for the inevitable, even as the primates fought tooth and nail to press ahead.

Instead of getting bulldozed by two plasma beams, our warship managed to turn on its axis; we glided between two searing arcs that were meant to ensnare us. My optimism for our prospects lifted ever so slightly, as the antimatter bombs began to unload from across our fleet. Hostile drones balked with city-leveling munitions incoming, and tried to maneuver out of the way. Their plan was to let each missile sail past, where it would be locked onto nothing and could be disabled at their leisure. However, another wave of human warheads chased them along their evacuation route, forcing them to widen the gap further. A third volley kept them back so we could pass unassailed, like wild beasts being fended off by a waving torch.

The antimatter did connect with a handful of enemy targets, mainly those who’d lost mobility earlier in the battle. Massive levels of energy were thrown out from the epicenter, and I had to hurriedly account for a plane of shrapnel which was generated in our path. The edge of the launch point was a few seconds out, so Sovlin, Carlos, and Sam could leap to the moon if we got a little further. UN fighters and drones mobilized in a circle around us, standing between the manned vessels and the shadow fleet. They were taking the brunt of the barrage, buying precious seconds, which must’ve tipped off the Kolshians to our importance.

However, it was too late for the shadow fleet to stop us from executing our plans. The region where we were cleared to spacedrop troops flashed green, as the sensor dot for our warship poked its nose across the boundary. Without an instant’s hesitation, the hangar bay was flung open, and human soldiers leapt from the safety of our vessel to get boots on the lunar ground.