Primary memory transcription subject: Zeleveya of Tarn, base security chief in the Venlil Trade Commission.
Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2136
Location: Venlil Prime, capitol landing field.
“ … of course though, I wouldn’t expect anything less from an individual such as yourself.”
The insult was just the next bag loaded up on the shoulders of the stubborn venlil who was blocking the door at this point, so it didn’t sting as much as it normally would have. Really, that claw should have just been a normal day of work for Zeleveya Tarn, a young security chief in the shipyards of Venlil Prime. Of course, a normal day wouldn’t involve demons from the footnotes of history books showing up in low orbit, nor would she be having to fend off yet another accusation of predator disease.
“I mean, you’ve gone and abandoned any act of civilization that must have convinced the doctors that you can be trusted Zeleveya,” the accuser in question – a member of the Exterminator corps all dressed up in the usual flame-retardant suit – bellowed as he tried to muscle his way past the younger venlil. “We should be ready for when those beasts land!”
“You’re right,” Zeleveya admitted momentarily in an exasperated tone. “But maybe you should think for a moment and get the idea through your tiny little brain that right now they have the advantage. We have the same duty, Jalnak: maintain safety for the people!”
“And we Exterminators do that by purging every last scrap of predator filth before someone gets hurt, so let us go do our job,” Jalnak screamed, before abruptly stepping back and resting a hand threateningly upon the handle of the high dosage tranquilizer gun that he carried.
The two venlil stood still for a moment, before Zeleveya bared her teeth in an exasperated hiss. “And now we see the hypocrisy,” she yipped with a vindictive snarl. Yet another small victory in their long rivalry. “Claiming to be protectors but oh so willing to jump to force in order to make everyone comply to what you want.”
Jalnak scowled as well, recognizing that Zeleveya had earned a small victory over him, before he threw his hands up in frustration and turned away. “Screw you Zels,” the Exterminator said with a hiss. “You just always have to get in the way of duty, constantly eluding every test for Predator Disease that we throw at you… but this time we have the advantage, predator incursion and all. Get out of the way.”
“Fine, you do you,” the security chief grumbled as she conceded the point that this time the law was on Jalnak’s side. “I’m going to go get to a bunker. Maybe that way I can survive the aftermath of your idiocy.”
She was halfway through the door when a hand abruptly clapped down upon her shoulder and she turned to see a senior member of the Exterminators - the captain of Jalnak's pod, an aging venlil who she knew to be named Rejio - standing behind her and directing a glare towards Jalnak. “She’s got a point,” the older venlil interjected calmly. “The predators have a ship with unknown capabilities, while we lack naval forces that are close enough to intercept them.”
“So we just blow them out of the sky,” Jalnak retorted.
Zeleveya and Rejio both sighed simultaneously at Jalnak’s words. “Do you think we haven’t tried,” the senior Exterminator whisper-screamed at the younger male. “The predator vessel is wildly different from the designs used by the Arxur. It honestly looks closer to the handiwork of the Hive’s shipwrights, and our computers can’t recognize it as a valid target. A manual override would take far too long, and in that time they’d escape and be back in larger numbers by the end of the cycle. Sol is only an eight hour trip with the primitive subspace tech that they have!”
“Fine then,” Jalnak muttered at last. “What do you suggest that we do?”
Zeleveya glanced momentarily at the older venlil that had taken her side, before looking at the three other Exterminators that had assembled. “We trust the governor,” she said at last. “She’s inviting those predators down to the planet, so we stand ready to respond should she give an order. If we get them in the right place, then we can take them down without any fuss.”
As she spoke, the Exterminators slowly began to nod their agreement, so Zeleveya finally stepped fully away from the doorway up onto the main landing area to allow the Exterminators to file out ahead of her. After everyone was assembled and could see the steadily growing nimbus of flaming plasma created by the predator vessel’s entry into Venlil Prime’s atmosphere, standing out like a second sun just above the terminator line.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Rejio announced as the group stopped near one of the small bunker-like structures that could protect observers from the energies released by launches. “The governor is likely to arrive soon with her retinue of advisors, including general Kam. We’re going to quietly contact him, and then once there’s an opportunity he can send us a signal and we can move in for the kill.”
There were nods of acknowledgement, and then the older venlil’s communicator suddenly beeped, followed shortly by the ones worn by the rest of the group. With a puzzled expression, Zeleveya quickly activated hers as an incoming transmission played out. “This is Noah aboard the UNS Odyssey broadcasting on an open channel,” the person on the other end of the line uttered in a growling snarl of a voice. “Anyone near our designated landing point, please be advised that we’ve never actually run simulations for landing this thing on a tidally locked world, so our landing may be a touch… chaotic, it is recommended that everyone make sure that they are safely sheltered. Tarva, can you tell me if this is properly transmitting?”
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Zeleveya looked at Rejio, before she gave a shrug and pocketed her comm. “Well, that’s for the Governor to deal with,” she said eventually. “Let’s just sit back and watch the landing. Unless you’d rather we do something else boss?”
“Just call me by my name,” Rejio replied as he pocketed his own communicator. “And I think that you have the right idea. I’ve got a number from Kam anyways.”
“A number?”
“Of acceptable losses should the worst come. Governor Tarva and the General are willing to lay down their lives if necessary. But we make sure that the aides are away to safety should that happen.”
Zeleveya frowned, before silently looking away and leaning forward to watch as the predator ship, apparently named the Odyssey, descended. It looked somewhat like the designers of it had mashed an atmospheric vessel onto a primitive ballistic rocket; two wings and an assembly of long cylinders that terminated in a collection of rocket nozzles, with a large blue spider web covered in blotches of paint adorned the side. As she watched, covers along the body of the ship slid aside to reveal more thrusters, which began rapidly igniting as the ship turned around in the air and set flames and smoke spilling across the landing platform before the vessel pulled its nose up to a vertical orientation. The main engines fired once and created an even larger plume of smoke than the ones that had preceded it, before four landing legs rapidly extended from about halfway up the fuselage to thud into the ground. Then everything was silent.
The first movement came from automated systems around the platform, as a set of fans blew away the hazy smoke from the Odyssey, and the shelters that had been obscured by it. Then the belly of the ship began to open up to reveal a pair of bipedal predators and the governor led her entourage out from one of the shelters that were closer to the vessel, bickering with one of the other venlil as she did.
“They’re arguing,” Rejio hissed in Zeleveya’s ear. “We need to know what’s going on, and what the predators are saying.”
Zeleveya sighed. She had an idea, but it might not work. “Okay,” she said softly as she grabbed the Exterminator’s comm. “I’ve got one idea. Paging general Kam now.”
There was a beep of the device connecting, and the Zeleveya sprung into action. They only had a few seconds to explain things before the predators got within earshot, after all. “General Kam,” Zeleveya whispered into the comms unit. “Do not respond. This is security officer Zeleveya of Tarn. I’ve got a team of Exterminators here on the platform with me, the ones that called you earlier. We’re largely unarmed but standing ready. Hook your communicator up to the translator fob that you’re using to speak with the predators so that we can hear what they say.”
There was a bit of motion from the general, and then a guttural voice that Zeleveya knew spilled out of the comm unit. It was the same voice that had given the warning earlier while the Odyssey was approaching. “Governor Tarva,” the bipedal predator growled. “It’s lovely to see you in person.”
Suddenly, one of the governor’s aides collapsed, evidently fainting. Jalnak tried to rise to his feet, but Zeleveya pulled him back down and jabbed a hand towards the comm unit. “We remain silent until Kam gives an order,” she hissed. “Right now the predators have an easy target. The general has a sidearm and an easy shot if things go bad. We are nothing but insurance right now.”
Rejio nodded. “We follow our orders and trust the people that we elected to their offices,” the older venlil said softly. “Now sit back and listen.”
The group turned their attention back to the translator, just in time to catch the tail end of what the first predator was saying. “–without your translator,” the predator said. “Please, forgive us. We’re new to this whole first contact business.”
Lies and truths all jumbled together, Zeleveya thought as confusion filled her head. She couldn’t figure out what to think of their apparently earnest demeanor, so at odds with everything that she had been taught to believe about predators.
The General had knelt by the unconscious aide’s side, but the predator had quickly begun to step towards them and fear tore through Zeleveya’s heart as she let out a gasp of fear. Sweet Protector what is it going to – “How can I help,” the voice on the other side of the comm asked.
“What?” The exclamation was shared by most of the team around Zeleveya, as the fur on her tail bushed up in complete shock. The entire crew leaned towards the comm to try and hear more. There was the understandable defensiveness from Kam, the governor trying to downplay the situation, and the predators were apologizing for any problems that they had caused? Zeleveya leaned back and shook her head in bewilderment. What has happened to my life , she asked herself silently.
Then she heard the governor speak. “Can you help us carry Cheln inside? We’ll give you a tour after that.”
Well, now the predators actually had a hostage in the form of the aide, held firmly in their clawless fingers. They began to carry the sleeping venlil after the governor as she led the way off of the platform, and Zeleveya quickly turned to look at Rejio. “What do we do,” she asked immediately.
The older venlil leaned back. “We do nothing,” he replied. “As before, we trust the governor and the general. It’s out of our hands now. Let’s just head for a bunker like everybody else has been doing.”
“We can head for one of the air defense complexes,” one of the two exterminators who Zeleveya didn’t know the name of said quickly. “They should be within easy walking distance and we can figure out their progress on managing manual targeting.”
Rejio nodded. “That sounds like a good idea Tamak,” he said quickly, before beckoning for everyone to form up. “Zeleveya, you lead the way.”
Zeleveya nodded, and led the way towards one of the tube lines that crossed the city, heading in the general direction of one of the orbital missile batteries along the edge of the capitol. As they walked, the venlil couldn’t help but glance back at the Exterminators, the four of them marching in formation with their flame-retardant uniforms gleaming in the sun like the anti-bite armor worn by the settlement guardians of old. Their small formation was one of the few spots of calm among the panicking venlil that were still on the streets.
Tamak and the unnamed soldier were in the back, heavy flamethrowers held across their chests in parade position, while Rejio carried a plasma rifle slung over his shoulder and Jalnak’s left hand tapped restlessly against the tranquilizer pistol that he carried. That last choice for a weapon always made Zeleveya shudder, and the moment they stepped into one of the tube cars she moved to put Rejio in between Jalnak and herself. Of course, it didn’t go unnoticed by either of them, as Jalnak craned his head forward to leer at her and Rejio placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“I wouldn’t fault him for his actions,” Rejio said softly to Zeleveya. “His brother had predator disease, wound up with half of his family dead when they tried to bring him in.”
Jalnak nodded grimly from his seat as the tube compartment began to move. “As an Exterminator pod assigned to the capitol the real danger has never been rabid beasts,” he said loudly. “You and me, we’re the same Zeleveya. We both understand that the true threat to safety is people, people who start out acting like you. So keep it in mind, that I always succeed in bringing in diseased individuals, one way or another.”
Zeleveya frowned and looked away from Jalnak, and the rest of the ride proceeded in silence.