Memory transcription subject: Estala, Extermination Officer, ‘Voyak’ Colony Cleanup Division
Date [standardized human time]: June 2nd, 2130
Fear.
Absolute fear.
I could taste it in my beak, the overwhelming sense of near paralysing terror pounding through my chest with every heartbeat, every breath shallow as I looked down at the console. I could see the little markings on the screen showing where the ships had landed, each little blob of red placed on the map of the surrounding colony representing destruction and evil.
I’m going to die. Oh Inatala, I’m going to die here.
Why are they here of all places? How did they even know there were people here? What could I even do? None of those questions mattered in reality, as all that mattered was one terrifying fact:
The Arxur were here.
Mindless beasts that lacked any true sapience, whose only desires were to destroy and consume. An unstoppable force of predatorial evil right here on our remote doorstep. I could hardly breathe as alarm sounds rattled in the background, signalling the near ten thousand colony members to rush to any nearby bunkers.
My instincts wanted to join them. I'd never been part of an Arxur raid before, that kind of thing didn't happen on the militarily strong Nishtal, but I had gone through countless drills before. Get to a bunker, get to safety, and wait for the Exterminators or the Federation army to save you.
Except I was an Exterminator now.
I'm not ready for this, I'm not ready for this.
“Where is Commanding Officer Kolron!?”
The voice of my follow Exterminator cried out, the Venlil’s words echoing around a sea of frightened faces, each of us as terrified as the other, none of us ready for what was about to happen, the flashing of the red warning lights reflecting off each of our faces in turn. This was both our centre of command and armoury, the walls lined with various weapons and console screens.
“He… he was patrolling the Northern outpost when they landed.”
The next set of words remained unsaid, but each of us knew what that meant. He was dead, and anyone who was with him was dead as well. The predators had landed there first, the greys looking to attack the relatively isolated northern outpost, before moving onto their main cruel meal. Nobody spoke as we all glanced at each other, only occasionally looking down at the screen as those heartless blobs of red drew closer and closer.
“Who’s in charge?”
Another question, more silence. All of the Exterminators in this room were team leaders, with at least one colony creation under their belt. But this was something else. Instead of the sound of Kolron’s instructions, the room filled with terror. Nobody knew what to do.
A few started making half-hearted moves to prepare, out of instinct. Davlin fumbled in the corner, the Goijd fighting with his flame resistant suit to start gearing up for the upcoming battle, his claws trembling as he tried to get his spines to flatten. Two Tilfish were pulling out anti-air weaponry from storage, not that it would do any good now that the Arxur had already landed. A Venlil sat rummaging through his supplies, pouring out a pawful of anti-fear drugs. Too many. Running on automatic movements, I grabbed his paw, causing some of the bitter white capsules to tumble to the ground.
“You’re going to overdose if you take that many. One every hour, but more than that and you risk a heart attack.” My voice sounded out, explaining the rules as it had done so many times before over my 4 years as an Exterminator, I pointed at the two Tilfish. “That isn’t going to help. They’re already on the ground, we can’t stop them from landing. And Davlin, you shouldn’t be on flamer duty. You’re one of the best shots here, stay agile, stay in the distance.”
Silence. It took a few moments after the flurry of words from my beak to notice it, too caught up in my own absolute terror to realize that the room had stopped moving. Suddenly, all eyes were pointed at me with a desperate pleading. As if I could provide the answers.
The answers to what, “How to beat the Arxur”? That’s not in the rules! That’s not my job! I’m barely an adult, I was only made a full officer just over a year ago!
I looked back at them all with my own worried gaze and expression. What did they expect me to do? I wasn’t a tactical genius like Kalsim, I didn’t have the aggressive bravery of Sovlin. I was just… Estala. I just wanted to help people, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do!
If not you, then who? Nobody else is stepping up.
I took a moment to glance back down at the console, the map showing the layout of the little town of 10 thousand people we had to protect, wracking my brain for anything I might know to help.For a moment, the sounds of the room seemed to muffle themselves.
Rule 88.P-05: The predator is a lowly beast, crawling in their own filth and blood, seeking to strike and destroy those who reign from above. A good prey remains high, morally and physically out of reach, never to dive into their sanguine depths of depravity.
Rule 13-A.01: A prey is part of the herd, and the herd always helps. A prey does not look to solve problems on their own, for that is the action of one of predatory taint. A solution is always found together, waiting in the strength of the herd.
That’s why the initial city had been chosen in this location. It sat on a hill, making it defensible against predators.
“There are three entryways into the outer portions of the city. That’s where we’ll meet them initially. We don’t have to beat the Arxur, we just have to delay them for a few hours. The Federation is on their way, the emergency beacon has been triggered.”
I could see the others in the room start to group around me, all staring intently where I was pointing.
Rule 41.E-41: Predators desire the taste of flesh. They have no regard for anything else. A good Exterminator will use this, as distance is the friend of prey: To run and flee as a herd from danger into the safety of Federation protection. An Exterminator is expected to always maintain their skills with all available weaponry, allowing them to take advantage of range from the predators cruel claws and teeth.
“Anyone who scores lower than a 50 in the firearm test should be on flamer duty, setup initially Here, here and here. Anyone 50 and higher needs to remain agile and moving between these points, use the rifles only, keep your range, stay in cover.”
Rule 93.A-4: A predator only knows two states of mind: a desire for destruction, and fear. A predator will single-mindedly attempt to devour and destroy all around it, even at its own terrible destruction. The fear of prey is irresistible to a predator, and it will chase it no matter the cost. The only thing a predator fears is fire. Fire cleanses, fire eradicates the taint, and fire is the only thing that will burn away a flesh eating monster’s taint.
“Davlin, Pratala, and Skeri. I need your teams to set up flamer fuel cleanses here, here, and here. Saturate the entire area as if it’s a large predator den. Once the greys finally arrive for their first attack, flamer teams retreat back to here, and you set the cleanses off as the Arxur chase. That will buy us some time as the fires burn out and isolate their first wave.”
I stopped talking, staring at the sea of faces, several federation species, all as scared and terrified as I was. Each Exterminator listening as if I somehow had an actual solution for this horror, as If I wasn’t just as clueless as them, as if I wasn’t just a random terrified Krakotl who had a tendency to remember rules.
I have to fake it, to pretend that everything is going to be OK, to pretend that I know what I’m doing when I clearly don’t.
Because my job is to protect people.
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“After that, we need to use the Arxur’s bloodlust against them. They’ll chase any prey they see, so we can drive them back here afterwards…”
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Memory transcription subject: Estala, Human Methods Advisor to the Exterminators.
Date [standardized human time]: March 9th, 2137
The building was surprisingly vibrant, the front yard filled with beautiful plants and giant bushes, the once grey and dishevelled walls now painted bright and cheerful colours. I’d only been here once before, after the facility had been shut down, but anyone in the area would have been astounded at the makeover, as the once chipped and cracked walls now almost seemed to hum with life.
The old Dawn Creek Exterminators Guild was famous for many incidents. But none had more of an impact than pushing the claim of Predator disease upon a giant Venlil named Tarlim, going through the entire process without a single proper empathy test. During this investigation, the conditions of this former Predator Disease Facility had come out as a horrific place allegedly ‘worse than the Arxur’. It was once assumed that this facility was an exception, and while it was one of the worst… well, the recent revelations about the role of predator disease as a method of Federation control had demonstrated that this location wasn’t an extreme outlier, as I had naively believed.
I don’t like to think about that. While it wasn’t the focus of my role, I have put people through empathy tests which returned a negative result. I really don’t like to think about what happened to them afterward.
If anything, I almost owed my current life to the entire travesty. After the negative public perception of the Exterminators following the Tarlim trial, I had been brought in from Nishtal as a decorated well known Prestige Exterminator in order to train the idiots who thought ignoring all the rules was a good idea. If I wasn’t on Skalga when the humans arrived… I would have been on the Extermination Fleet.
I also don’t like thinking about that, what could have been, what could have happened.
Evil requires choice. Joseph said that so many months ago. Would he still say that if you were on that fleet?
“So what are we doing here boss? I don’t think the people here are fond of us.”
Jkob walked by my side as we slowly made our way to the building. The Letian was entirely correct, of course. The population here was mostly ex-PD patients, acting as live-in staff, and human refugees. Some almost seemed to clear a path for the two of us, while others froze in place, glaring viciously at us. I also didn’t like that, I didn’t like that the guild had failed people so… thoroughly here that this was the reaction.
Is this how humans feel? Everyone fleeing in terror just from your presence?
The once Predator Disease Facility had been converted to refugee housing for the humans during the Battle for Earth, with a lot of the ex-patients moving back in when the ‘empathyless predators’ provided them a place to stay. Ironic on just about every level. A lot of the humans had returned home since then, now that Earth was no longer under threat of being destroyed. But those who remained were quickly joined, as ex-Predator Disease Facility patients with nowhere to go gravitated towards the centre, towards somewhere they could be themselves.
Once again the humans are having to pick up where we’re failing. At times, it feels like humanity is everything we should have been.
“Someone has been killing ex-Predator Disease patients, and wiping their deaths from Exterminator records,” I explained. “We need information, leads, anything. I know a lot of these people formed a herd after the Dawn Creek Facility was shut down. We need to know if anyone saw anything.”
After sending a… forceful email to the council of Ipsom Grove, Jkob and I had compared notes: All of the cases we’d investigated had the same cause of death, the same missing records from the main database. What worried me was just how many we hadn’t found, since my initial list would not have been comprehensive.
The influence of the humans was obvious, as the sliding glass doors automatically opened as we approached, leading us into the reception: A soft area of cushions and various styles of seating, decorated in calming pastel colours as staff and residents went about their day. All eyes in the room, both human and non-human, snapped to the pair of us as we entered. I provided my best attempt at a warm friendly greeting to the receptionist sitting behind the desk, giving a wave of my wing as the Venlil watched us from their seat, their tail flicking around with distrust.
“Hi. This is Jkob, and I’m Estala, a Prestige Exterminator. If possible we’d like to-”
There was movement, and I was outside, the ever shining sun and the bright well maintained garden around me.
Wait, outside? Why was I outside? I could have sworn I’d walked through those glass doors, doors which were now in process of being boarded up at a pace that was like a whirlwind, two angry looking larger than average humans glaring at us as they blocked our entrance.
Only the vague recollection of powerful human hands grasping onto my shoulders provided any clue to what had happened, the sheer speed of which the humans had tossed us out of the building leaving me shell shocked. Jkob stood next to me, patting their arms across their body while I took stock of all of my ruffled feathers.
“Are my limbs still there? They’re still there,” Jkob panted, “By the Protector, how did- what just happened?”
Annoyance flared up within my chest as I moved back towards the now barred entryway, banging my wing against the glass in frustration to get their attention.
“Hey! I just want to talk! What was that about?!”
“Do you have a warrant!?” The voice of a Venlil bleated. “You can’t come in without a warrant!”
“I just want to ask some questions!” I shouted back indignantly ”And that’s technically an assault on an Extermination Officer!”
“Brahk you! And the answer is no, you can NOT burn us all alive OR blow up the building! You did that enough with your own office!”
Further frustration and indigent rage rose up again as they implied I had anything to do with the idiots who used to be part of the Dawn Creek Exterminators. While I could understand their apprehension towards anyone from the guild, I also had standards unlike those idiots. Professional standards!
“We could get a warrant.” Jkob stated as I turned to face him again. “We have more than enough evidence.”
“We can’t, that would leave a trail, we can’t leave a trail in this investigation.” I flared my feathers in worry as I saw the confusion mount on the Letian’s body language. “Whoever is doing this, they have access to the Exterminator systems. If they see we’re investigating this… they might run. They’ll have a head start, and we might never catch them.”
“Do you think it was an Exterminator doing this then, boss?”
“Possibly. Or someone who has access through other means.”
I turned back to face the human refugee centre, the humans on the other side of the glass door still glaring at us as I approached again. I needed another tactic to gain passage to the information inside. I took a deep breath to cool the anger and frustration I was feeling, trying to make my voice as soft and non-threatening as possible.
“I just need to… Glaras, Pharvil, Tarna. They were patients here.” I shouted the names through the door, hoping that those inside would listen. “Someone murdered them. I know it’s not an ex-patient doing it. I can’t force you to talk, but I need to know if any of your residents saw anything. Anything at all, anything to go off.”
I paused for a moment, hoping that was enough. I really didn’t have any other leads to go on, and the idea of someone who had killed so many people getting away with these murders was not something I could accept.
“Tarna?” I heard someone call. A hint of movement seemed to sway from behind the two humans. “You found out what happened to them? They… they really did get caught?”
I felt a lump in my throat. Informing people of the death of a herd member was not in my plans today, not since the bodies had been found months ago. But that didn’t account for the wiping of records and the circumstances of the people here.
“I’m sorry, [9 months] ago, their body was found and…” I took a moment to gather myself. “Someone killed them. We failed to investigate it and whoever did it is still out there I’m sorry for that.”
“Did- did you find anything about Relshin?” A second voice asked, “Or maybe Telins and Yilana? They were together.”
“You know what happened to them,” someone else stated, “You saw their bodies.”
“I just wanted to know if they found what the thing did to Vanna!”
I only knew one of those names from my list. I had already guessed that my current victim list was incomplete but hearing it confirmed…
The Guild completely failed here. We should have noticed, someone should have noticed something. Even if we thought it was a predator attack, someone should have noticed the increase in deaths. Why did nobody notice?
Deep down I knew why. They were just Predator Diseased Venlil, assumed to have done it to themselves because of their “predatory taint”.
“I can only confirm Relshin. Same cause of death as the others. I can check for the other names, but… we’re flying blind here. We’re not even sure how many people were killed. We… we need any information you have, rumours: suspects, sightings, anything to help us catch them.”
There was silence. Did I get through to them? Did they trust me enough to talk? A thousand worries and questions whirled through my head as I waited for any kind of response. But then, I felt Jkob’s paw on my shoulder. I turned my head, and Jkob gave me a sympathetic look.
“I’m sorry Estala. I don’t think they’re gonna talk to us.”
I felt my shoulders slump, the dejection and gravity of the problem fully taking hold. Just how badly we had failed these people. Even with the Federation’s twisted teachings, we should have done better. I should have done better, I should have seen that this travesty was happening. The Exterminators should be a beacon of safety to all in the Federation, but these members of the herd had been not just abandoned, but deemed monsters themselves. I didn’t know the next step to take in the investigation. I had no more leads, just a knowledge of the sheer amount of carnage this single killer had wrought upon Skalga. I should have known this was happening, I should have paid more attention, I should-
The sound of a bolt being unlocked snapped me out of my thoughts, looking up to see the barricades that had been blocking the door getting moved away by the two still angry looking humans. The receptionist stepped forwards, tail movements twitching in uncertainty as they opened the door.
“You said… Catch,” they said as they cautiously approached us. “Do you mean… stop them? That you’re… you aren’t going to help them?”
“Someone has been hurting the herd, hurting us all, hurting you.” I said the words with a conviction, anger building up once again, not at the Venlil in front of me, but at this evil that had been left to freely wander Skalga.
“I will find whoever did this, no matter who or what they are, and bring them to justice. No matter what it takes. We just need your help to do so.”