The human resistance on Baldwin's Fall received a burst transmission on their emergency spectrum. Within minutes of being received it was presented directly to leadership. They had never seen anything like it before.
The decoded video file was recorded in the cockpit of a Jerboa. The Jerboa is a relatively compact light scouting walker, and the image of an enormously fat panda man in pink medical scrubs uncomfortably hunched over the control panels was undeniably comical. Due to the biological diversity of the Nakunan Empire, their craft had much more modular cockpits to accommodate their array of species. This giant panda was pushing even their limits.
"My name is Buster Harkness. I'm a Telomerics Field Engineer for the Military College of Biologics under the Nakunan Colonial Authority. I looked up on the pseudonet how you're supposed to formally announce a surrender, but I lost my script in all the hubbub so bear with me here."
His voice was neither a low ursine growl nor a deep boom. An anxious scratchy tone bounced up and down his nasal cavity. In the poor lighting of the cockpit recording, only his dark eye spots were visible on his face. He had no expression to read. But his round, black, furry ears lay flat against his head and his broad shoulders sloped low with despair.
"I am formally announcing my complete and unconditional surrender to the Human resistance of Baldwin's Fall."
He faltered. The careful, deliberate tone of his opening speech was already gone.
"I know that I am directly responsible for the deaths of many of your friends and comrades. And that there is no way I can ever make up for that. But I am very sorry. Sorry enough that I wanted to try and make it up to you, to show that I am truly sincere in my rejection of Nakuna and everything it stands for."
At this point his beady little black eyes were visible within his eye spots. He was trying not to cry, and the lights from the instrument cluster reflected off the pooling liquid.
"I am, was, deployed at Martenwol Base. If you don't know were that is, I encoded a data cache into this message that has the coordinates. As well as the security codes, radio frequencies, as much useful stuff as I could fit in. Enough for you to go out there and confirm for yourself that every single one of the 452 employees stationed there is dead. Except for one."
"Me. I killed them."
He smiled. Not a sadistic smile, but a bemused one. He actually pulled it off.
"I'm not a soldier. I killed the only way I know how to: with biologics. I made the contagion that killed them all. It's safe there now, it doesn't effect humans and it can't survive outside of a living host for more than a few minutes. But you have no reason to trust me, so make sure the air filters on your masks are rated at least 2 microns and have kumatrephonol ready to administer immediately if you start to have difficulty breathing."
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His ears unflattened as he rattled the instructions off then once again lowered, ashamed.
"I'm a monster. I know that now. I understand if you want nothing to do with me. Especially now that the entire Nakunan Empire is going to be hunting me down. If you just want me dead, it would be way easier to let them take care of that for you. But I do have a present for you all, and you'll have to rescue me if you want to get it."
For the first time in the video, the panda moved. Buster exhaled and leaned as far to the side as he was physically able to, showing a glimpse of a large mesh bag hanging from a hook behind him. It was stuffed full of data drives, and the strap it hung from was pulled taut by their weight.
"After I killed everyone, on my way out I grabbed every data drive I could get my paws on. I can't speak for what's on everyone else's, but I can assure you that if nothing else the data from the Biologics division is enough for you to reverse-engineer just about every humanogen we've ever developed. Especially if you've got me there to help!"
He smiled that time, a genuine one. The idea of helping made him happy.
"And I grabbed stuff from every department. I could have military compression algorithms in here, black site locations, contract files for every Squaddie and Freelancer who ever worked with the Empire, who knows! This is a treasure trove. I really wish I could transmit all of this for you right now, but even with the base's powered satellite connection it would takes days on an established connection. This emergency frequency is the only way I was able to find of getting in contact. I don't even know if anyone is receiving this."
Rather than being saddened by this last thought, he seemed almost relieved. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if this message vanished into the aether, a confession heard by only an uncaring universe.
"But I had to run. Because as soon as they figure out what happened, everyone's going to come gunning for me. I'm not a soldier so I can't fight them off, but at least I can hop away. I never had any walker training but I was able to pirate a Jerboa simulator and learn the basics while I was putting this plan together. I don't want to say where I'm going in case this is compromised, but I've included a token in the data so you can get in touch."
For the first time since the video started, he seemed to struggle to find something to say.
"I'm sorry for everything. If I never hear from you, it's OK. I'm not afraid of dying, if anything I think I deserve it. If this is where my story ends, so be it. Death to Nakuna. Long live Humanity."
At that last utterance his claw tapped a button on the console, ending the video.
When the humans piloted a spy drone over Martenwol Base hours later, every single Nakunan there was dead. Many were still in their bunks, their lives taken when they were asleep. Some were collapsed at their desks as they worked the graveyard shift. Outside, the drone spotted a few scattered bodies fallen from the watchtowers. A guard at the front gate had fallen forward and was draped over the front of his booth.
Every single one of them was dead. Across dozens of species, the physical symptoms were different but shared one commonality.
Coagulated blood pooled around orifices. Necrotized soft tissue. Internal hemorrhaging with eyes swollen shut from bruising.
Every single victim ended up with dark circles around their eyes.
Just like a panda.
Just like Buster.