Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.
Date [standardised human time]: December 24, 2136
I stood next to the computer back at my apartment, giving a full body stretch as I sat on my perch. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Joseph had said, the claim of so many predator attacks actually being done by those with predator disease. It couldn’t be true, Joseph obviously had to be mistaken. Being a predator from a more violent upbringing would presumably have had a mental effect, causing humans to see aggression and danger from others where it didn’t exist.
30%. That number couldn’t be correct, even if you assumed a high number of people with predator disease managed to slip past the Federation’s well oiled systems, it wouldn’t account for that many murders. Predators killed people, Prey didn’t. That was the difference. Even if you assumed that people like myself had the capability to be predatorial and evil, the Venlil most clearly were not, and they made up the vast majority of the residents of Venlil prime.
But Joseph had given me enough information to trigger my curiosity, that this was something I had to check. For the cases given his logic had been sound and it wasn’t outside the scope of rationality that the Exterminators had missed a few cases of predator disease, cases that the new perspective of humanity could have found. If we were missing cases, then it was literally my job to work out why.
I logged into my exterminator account, which obviously still worked. I’d never actually been fired or quit, after the revelations regarding the Krakotl’s true nature I just stopped coming into work. Could I even be fired? As an external advisor my boss was technically the Federation Exterminators Guild of Nishtal, who right now were not returning calls. A court would probably find my contract to be moved under the Venlil exterminator’s guild due to extenuating circumstances, but everyone had more important things to think about right now.
Step one: Change my password. I decided to go even further than my normal method, to something no predator or prey could guess. I replaced the first two letters of Intalala with random numbers, and then added two additional numbers onto the end of that. 16talala93. Ten whole characters of protection, I’d like to see a human try to guess that!
After that it was time to get to work, swallowing a mouthful of mango I turned on the human communication device I had stolen so long ago and browsed to the website I’d been given by Joseph. To think, my original failed attempt to discover the evil plan of humans would now be useful again. All that was left was to match up the anonymized records this website contained with the actual Exterminator records, and see if I can gather any useful insights from the humans.
FederationColdCases. It was like everything else human, aggressive and chaotic. I was no stranger to social media applications: Every federation species had them considering our natural social proclivities, but most were more heavily moderated in order to prevent predator disease from spreading. This was…
Detailed essays stood side by side with immature humour and random inane discussion. A sourced and highly researched five thousand word analysis of a single blood splatter would be followed by a fart joke. The general vibe was immature yet serious. There was a huge anti-federation slant to most information, yet a clear empathy for the federation citizens who had been killed.
I made a note to look up what “KFC” referred to, as many posts decrying the exterminator's efforts used those letters.
I couldn’t help but be impressed by what I saw. The vast majority of recent communications were around the “Heartbreak Killer” as the humans had dubbed the possible predator disease afflicted individual. Timelines, theories, pages upon pages of analysis. These people must be the human experts in this field of catching those with predator disease. It made sense, considering that being a predatory species they must have far more experience with such things.
Why have you never done any of this? How many others have flown past your wings?
One piece of text in particular caught my attention, in a conversation about potential suspects for the “Heartbreak Killer”. Some of them were people I vaguely knew: exterminators, politicians, well known members of the community, but this one in particular… angered me.
-------------------------
> ⇢ Jesterra54 posted: Estala. An external consultant to the Exterminators guild, disliked but mostly competent at their job, or at least as competent as a federation member can be. Fits the criteria of being rabidly anti-human, not a native part of the community, and would have access to the fire required in disposing of the heart in each of the killings. Has seemingly gone AWOL around the time of the second and third murders, which match up with when they get ‘Sloppy’. Would have the knowledge and ability to commit the first murder through bypassing cameras, although the timing doesn’t quite match up. 7/10
>
> ↳ Acceptable_Egg5560 replied: Honestly gotta disagree with the idea that this is likely to be done by an external party. Removing and burning the heart seems personal. My money is on one of the ex-employees of the Dawncreek facility, when it got shut down for being too horrific even for Federation standards (I’ll let your imagination fill in those details). Almost as if they’re trying to say “This is what happens when you don’t let us do messed up things to people with ‘predator disease'’”
---------------------------
I could feel a fury enter my heart at the accusation. How dare they! To suggest I would do such a thing! While I may not be native to Venlil prime I still care about the Venlil. Still, maybe I shouldn’t take it so personally, clearly not all of these theories were serious. One human repeatedly suggested that Governor Tarva was a prime suspect, even through multiple people explaining the impossibility of such a theory.
How did they know my anti-human views?
I hadn’t actually told anyone, at least before the revelations. Unless… if they had access to my Exterminator account that’s where I’d stored my plans for when the humans inevitably would turn on the Venlil, back before I knew the Krakotl’s true nature. Back before all of that had become meaningless. If they had access to that…
I could feel the rage turn to an icey cold horror. Did Joseph also know? If he didn’t, would he still want anything to do with me? Would he understand? I didn’t mean him, I obviously didn’t mean him, I meant the humans that would attack the Venlil. When they would attack? If? When? If?
I honestly don’t know anymore.
I pushed that potential storm to the back of my mind: I couldn’t do anything about it and I had another job to do. I continued reading, trying to find information not associated with the main topic being discussed. Two cases caught my eye due to the sheer amount of discussion around them.
---------------------
> Case Subject X66
>
> ⇢ MalachitePyrrhuloxia posted: I’m right in saying that this isn’t a murder or a predator attack right? This Venlil just fell over and brained himself on the stairs…
>
> ↳ cartoon_Dinosaur replied: No, the Kentucky Fried moron squad got this entirely right, clearly an evil predator made the stairs slippery in order to take out this prey!
>
> ↳↳ Inkanyamba replied: Don’t you see, a human went back in time, iced up those stairs so they could devour them whole three years later! By mutilating the body in fire they stopped humanity's dastardly plan!
>
> ↳↳↳ ThePurpleZoroark replied: It was the perfect crime! That’s why the bargain bucket fascists get paid the big bucks!
-----------------------
> Case Subject AY994
>
> ⇢ Cooldude101013 posted: Verdict: Accidental death. The guy just fell off a balcony.
>
> ↳ ImaginationSea3679 replied: Or maybe a predator teleported their prey 50ft into the air! Gotta watch out for those sneaky sneaky predators!
---------------------
I frowned. I didn’t remember either of those cases, making them at least two years old. Even on initial glance I had no idea who or why these clearly accidental deaths had been filed as predator attacks. I quickly cross referenced those to the actual Exterminator files and felt my blood pressure spike when I saw who had been the one behind the mistakes.
Of course it was Spehing Treven. For some reason in her wisdom when Intalala had made that Venlil, she had replaced his blood with incompetence. I’d only had the misfortune to work with the Exterminator for around 90 paws [three months], 90 stressful paws. With the introduction of the humans every suspended and part time Exterminator had been placed back into full time duty, an action I had strongly advised against. I’d rather have 10 competent people than 100 incompetent ones.
The Venlil Exterminator’s Guild was not known for high quality applicants at the best of times, so the ones bad enough to get suspended were really scraping the bottom of the nest. And Treven… Treven was the Spehing worst.
In the mere 90 paws he alone had caused 7 unnecessary stampedes through claiming predator attacks and had filed 49 separate potential predator incidences. Your average exterminator would do maybe 10 at most. Each of those required a fully armed three man squad in response as procedure demanded.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I have no idea why someone that skittish became an exterminator… Thinking about it, in my desk back at the office a half finished report was still waiting to be tallied where I’d started putting together the case that the Venlil was more harmful in the Exterminators guild then outside of it simply due to man hour requirements his constant fear provided.
Still, I guess the idiot had technically saved my life. The entire reason I was here on Venlil prime was because of him and the Marklen-Jauntes Syndrome case. A medical condition had been falsely attributed to predator disease through serious amounts of incompetence and not following procedure. The Exterminators guild had lost big time in court, so I had been brought in as a model example of the Nishtal Exterminators guild in order to help fix these issues.
Without that I would have been in Kalsim’s fleet, which would have more than likely seen me dead or captured in the hands of vengeful predators. Maybe I should get Treven a gift.
And you would have been the one to make Joseph cry.
I took another bite of mango, feeling rather good about myself. So far I’d only seen one case of missed predator disease, this “heartbreak killer”, and confirmation that Treven is still an idiot. If this was the best humanity could find so far, then it looked rather good for the federation. Still I had a bag of mangos, plenty of water and enough time to go through the rest.
Because this was my job and I was good at it.
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Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, failure, monster.
Date [standardised human time]: December ????, ??????
[WARNING: Memory transcription may be invalid or missing pieces due to the following error codes
X0GG1: Extreme emotional distress.
X0GW3: Sleep deprivation.
For more information on error codes and fixing them, visit:
fctp://fwn.memory-tek.fs.fed/Memory-Tek-5000-error-codes#howToFix]
IMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorse
I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to stop people feeling the pain that I felt, I just wanted to help. That’s all I wanted, that’s why I did my job.
Yet I had made it worse.
------------------------------
Case Subject G97X:
> ⇢ A_Tank_With_Internet posted: Verdict: Murder. Potential suspect: Business partner [Moderator: Removed identifying information]
>
> If you go check the unredacted images, the single wound to the back is most likely done using a serrated blade, probably a strayu knife. Based on CCTV evidence the business partner can both be seen buying such a weapon and was caught in the area at the time. [Moderator: Removed CCTV video link, please stop linking identifying information]
>
> They also had motive, as the death of G97X allowed the partner to take full control of the business.
>
> ↳ Temporary-Coyote8553 - [Moderator] Replied: Reminder: We require people to only post redacted information here. Half for the victims' sanctity and half to stop a witch hunt.
>
> ↳ oniris1 Replied: Good work! Is there anything we can do for this considering we’ve got presumably video evidence.
>
> ↳↳ **Clown_Torres Replied:**Unfortunately thanks to the Finger Lickin Fucks proving it will be difficult. If we had the body or even a proper autopsy we could maybe prove this past circumstantial evidence.
>
> ↳↳↳ furexfurex Replied: Remove all Evidence of a crime. Give my moronic self a pat on the back for stopping the evil predators from *Checks notes* bringing a murderer to justice. Leaves.
—------------------------
I had been that “Moronic Exterminator”. I remembered burning away the body, that’s what you did, that was what procedure called for to remove the predatorial taint. Then right after that I went to his grieving mother and told her I’d do everything I could to find the predator that did this. Which had been a lie, if I wasn’t lying I would have caught the obvious signs, I wouldn’t have destroyed the evidence required.
StupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupid
------------------------
> Case Subject G97X:
>
> ⇢ West-Armadillo286 posted: Verdict: Murder. Possible suspect: Already apprehended.
>
> So this one gets a special mention because the murderer in this case would go on to kill 3 other people (See P03S, FF91 and FF33), and while did eventually get caught in the act, any rational person (So already we’re discounting most federation members) would have caught the killer during his first kill.
>
> While the injuries are indicative of someone using tooth and claw, the murderer in this case was literally found at the crime scene, covered in blood, and offering a vague excuse of a predator attack.
>
> ↳ TheLastKerbal replied: Wait, what the fuck, you’re fucking joking right? They find a guy covered in the blood of his victim and the reaction of the bird shaped blackholes is to go “This seems fine”
>
> ↳↳ Lunamkardas replied: Yes but clearly the blood soaked maniac is safe because they have side facing eyes.
>
> ↳↳ YakiTapioca replied: They’re all too busy committing genocide and being Space Nazi fucks to actually catch murderers.
>
> ↳↳↳ NWOIT_93 replied: [Removed by Moderator: We’re all angry, but please don’t call for actual genocide and Humanity First shit]
----------------------------
Three people. Three people were dead because I was too dense to realise what humans spotted easily. I could have made a difference, I could have stopped three families from feeling my pain. But I didn’t. I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people.
But I didn’t
Case after case that I’d touched had these hidden details, as obvious as a tree branch to the beak yet I had missed all of them. Simple logical ideals that I’d just ignored. Why?
---------------------------
> ⇢ potatos-in-space posted: Of course the black hole of stupid missed the murder weapon. God reading half of these are just infuriating, same dumb mistakes over and over
>
> ↳ Away-Location-4756 replied: Well when you’re a fascist fuck, being a moron kinda comes with the territory.
>
> ↳ Zoulles replied: I’m just here because seeing incompetence is sexy.
—------------------------
More mistakes. More opportunities to make a difference are missed. More and more cases where I failed to protect people. I dug through my cupboard, scattering items and documents over the floor, uncaring about the mess and only looking for one file in particular. One file that I had read over more times than any other, the one file that I brought with me from Nishtal.
The death of my father.
----------------------------------
> ⇢ Orange_TG5 posted: If we stuck fake side-facing eyes on our military fleet then they probably wouldn’t fire back and just assume that there were invisible predators shooting at them behind those nice peaceful prey.
>
> ↳ LuxTheAvali replied: All cars are banned because forward facing headlights are predatory.
>
> ↳↳ Bane-of-california replied: No all cars in the federation have side facing headlights. There are a lot of nighttime car crashes but at least everyone is safe from the evil predators!
>
> ↳↳↳ Bushbacon69 replied: How the hell did the Kentucky Fried Morons even get to space?
-----------------------------------
Two clean wounds, no signs of being eaten, we lived in a safe heavily industrialised town.
He was murdered.
This wasn’t just a Venlil prime thing, this was everywhere, thousands, millions of prey murdering each other without being caught because we’re all too spehing stupid to see it.
And if Prey were killing Prey, if Prey by default acted predatory….
There are No Predators or Prey in the Galaxy.
Only people.
And monsters.
I’d known this deep down for a while, ever since humanity had arrived and broken every known rule in the galaxy, but I’d pushed those thoughts away, searching desperately for a predator trick which would make everything make sense.
That would make what I did ok.
The taste of bile filled my mouth as I threw up, every single scream of every single predator cub I’d burned alive ringing in my ear, every thought of killing humans, of taking them down. Every internal cheer I gave in support of the genocidal Kalsim’s attempt to exterminate innocent people. I had only really been right about one thing, but for the wrong reason:
IAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonster.
BZZZZZZZZT
The sound of the alarm snapped me out of my thoughts as I lay on the floor curled up in a ball, confusion entering my sleep deprived mind as I gathered my wits about me. I hadn’t slept in three paws, choosing instead to continue researching the horror unfolding in front of me, only pausing to reset the deadman’s switch I’d setup so long ago.
My apartment was a mess, documents and feathers I’d ripped out of my chest and legs covered the floor.
BZZZZZZZZT
The alarm went off again, demanding I do something about it. That alarm… was the one I set to tell me it was time to meet the predator. To meet Joseph. Joseph! He’d know what to do, he’d know how to fix this. I didn’t know why he would: I didn’t deserve it, but I knew he would regardless. Because that’s just how he was.
In a flurry I turned off the alarm, picked up my fathers file and headed out the door.
Joseph would know what to do.
----------------------------
Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, failure, monster.
Date [standardised human time]: December 27, 2136
“Hey Estala, how are you- Holy Jesus Fuck did someone attack you! Are you ok!? Who did this?!”
Joseph’s face went through a range of emotions as he spotted me, starting from excited, turning to anger, shock, and concern at the end. It took a moment for me to realise why, I looked worse than our first meeting. Large chunks of missing feathers, I hadn’t groomed and the twitches from sleep deprivation were obvious.
But none of that mattered. I just handed over the file, hoping that even though I didn’t deserve it, the human would help me.
“I can’t fix this, I can’t fix any of it, I- I just wanted to help people but everything I’ve done i-is wrong. I don’t deserve it but I need your help and I-”
“Estala, I’ll help you because you’re my friend.” Joseph softly interrupted me. “But you need to calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
Of course he wanted to help, that’s all he ever had wanted to do. How could I have ever thought that the human in front of me was dangerous?
“Why? I’ve burned predator cubs alive, I supported Kalsim, I would have hurt humans if I had the chance, I-”
I was interrupted once again as Joseph wrapped his arms around me, silencing my rambling. Once upon a time I would have freaked out or considered this a predatory attack, but now… now I felt myself calm down, pushing myself deeper into the human’s grasp as my lack of sleep started to take effect.
“Because that’s not the Estala that I met.”
“But it is. I made those choices, I made those choices and did those things and now people are dead and-”
“Shhhhhh, it going to be fine”
I felt myself being lifted off the ground and swaddled as the human whispered calming noise and gently stroked my head. It was then I realised just how tired I felt, the lack of sleep and three paws of panic and guilt catching up with me in one go. I just wanted to sleep, it was going to be fine.
“But I-”
“No buts. It’s OK. It’s not your fault, it’s going to be OK.”
In that moment, as I lay in the grasp of a predator, feeling sleep take over my mind, I believed him.
Everything was going to be OK.
I was safe here. Safe from what I had done