Chain Reaction - (Deathclaws x NOP) Chapter 3

A little later than I would have liked, but this chapter went through a lot of rewrites, but I like where I ended up.

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Memory transcription subject: Captain Cyrus of the Terran Reclamation Committee

Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2136

My eyes bored into the cages for what felt like an eternity, the blood from my freshest kill slowly dripping onto the floor being the only sound in the deathly quiet room.  I returned to rational thought as far in the distance I heard more gunfire.  One problem at a time.  I thought as I turned on my heel and ran out of the pens, gutting any of the lizards I still found moving.  The lizard guns were too small for my armored hands to use.  

Finding the rest of my crew wasn’t particularly difficult, they were only a corridor or two away from me, and the continual sound of gunfire was hard to miss.  Also, we left quite a lot of bodies in our wake.   As I was returning from one direction, Engineer Syk came from the rear guard.  “Captain!  Airlock secured.  No one’s going anywhere.”  

“Excellent!” I said as I took up position near the front, around the corner where one of the privates was currently exchanging fire with the lizards and began to reload.  There were some markings on the wall leading towards a set of heavy blast doors that were scored with heavy fire.  Beyond them, there was another holdout of lizards firing back our way, with another set of closed blast doors behind them.  “Tactical?” I asked Deeja over comms.  “Solid holdout.  Minimum six lizards confirmed.  Possible officer present.” she relayed while I pulled out the exhausted fusion core, replacing it with a fresh one.  

Deeja continued their briefing as Syk and I rotated with the other deathclaws and began trading fire with the lizards to allow our comrades an opportunity to reload.  “Kira, Mouse and Visc have the flank.  Reporting minimal contact.  Holding position, possibility of ambush high.  Everyone else is rear guard with the Atom.”  

“I’ll advance to that alcove, see if I can’t get a better firing line.  Cover me.” I swung out from behind cover, laying down suppressing fire as I moved into an alcove closer to the blast doors.  This was going to be tricky; up until now the hallways had been rather short, with minimal sight lines. This one was unusually long, and the maintenance alcove I was in was barely large enough to hold me, so it couldn't be used as a staging area for advancing on the blast doors. That's likely why the lizards fell back to this position. That also lead credence to there being an ambush on the flank - the lizards were falling back to the plans they had in place in case they were boarded, rather than the reverse. 

No matter how I sliced it we were going to hit a wall that I couldn't solve with our limited numbers. Well time to try something unconventional. “Ceasefire!  Ceasefire!” I roared over the din. My crew halted their fire immediately and hugged to cover.  The lizards fired a few shots before I heard a voice from their end “Ceasefire!” and then their guns fell silent as well.  After a pregnant pause in the near silence that followed, I yelled from my alcove “Why did you fire upon our ship?”  Another pause before the answer.

“We thought you to be one of the Venlil prey.”  

“What are your intentions now that you know different?”  

“I- I don’t know.” came a surprisingly blunt answer.  Odd.

“You were fools to attack an unknown vessel and to ignore its hails.  That folly has been paid for in blood.” I socketed the gatling laser into the powerpack on my back and slowly exited the alcove, standing fully in the open, the lights in the hallway throwing my scored and bloody exosuit into sharp relief.  “I am willing to cease hostilities.”

At the far end of the hall, more than a few heads from the lizards popped out in brief flashes to sneak a glance.  Finally, one of the heads lingered for a moment, their yellow eye slits scanning me from head to tail.  Searching, weighing… hoping?  Then slowly, they too stepped out from behind cover.  This lizard was nearly a full head taller than most of the other lizards I had seen up until this point, and they definitely had far more muscle on their frame than many of the others.  Their clothing was just as ragged as any of the others, but they did wear a mantle of quills and a skull on one of their shoulders.  I had a good idea what type of creature that skull belonged too.  

“I am Captain Isriss of the Arxur Dominion.” the lizard began.

I nodded and removed my helmet.  “Captain Cyruss of the Terran Reclamation Committee.  We are deathclaws.”  

“You really are predators…” said Isriss, more to himself than anyone else.  

“Do we have a truce?” I asked.  

“Truce?” said Isriss as if recalling an old memory.  “Yes.  Truce.”  

“Tend to your dead and wounded.  Then you will join us at the airlock for discussions.”  

We separated and made our way back to our vessel, while the arxur tended to their casualties.  We had some minor injuries of our own that were also being tended to.  Deeja joined me at the airlock; the remaining bridge crew went back to their stations.  Deeja gave me status updates as we waited for the meeting.  “Engineering is back online.  Hull damage is nearly repaired.  We have backdoor access to their systems.  Engineer Syk was able to get some access when he secured the airlock.  The data is hard to parse, so we don’t have access to system functions themselves, but we have a significantly better idea of the layout of their ship should this truce be temporary.”  

“The Arxur have hostages.” I said as it was my turn to fill them in.  “I found a room full of cages here.  Inside were three species of alien.  Including Venlil.”  

That raised her hackles.  “Explains why the Venlil were such wrecks.  They’ve got these Arxur right on their border.”

“One of the Arxur called me a predator before I killed them.”  

Deeja exchanged a look with me “I believe that makes us outliers in this region of the galaxy.  Too much of a coincidence that predator and prey gets brought up with both of these.  What did the other aliens look like?”

“One has their back full of quills; the kind that Isriss is wearing as a trophy.”  

“-Fuck me-”

“Didn’t get a good look at the other.  Small, brown fur.” 

“So the Arxur are the aggressors then.  Why did you ask for a ceasefire?  Did you think that the hostages would be caught in the crossfire?”  

“I don’t think we had the manpower to take down this full vessel, we’d be stretched too thin.  We got lucky because the Arxur didn’t expect us.  Can you imagine their reaction?  They rushed in, assuming we were Venlil, and then we started gutting them in droves.  We threw them off their rhythm, that’s why we got as far as we did.”  

“And now you’ve done it again by asking for a truce.” concluded Deeja.  “Didn’t one of the Venlil mention something about predators being unable to control their bloodlust?  Do you think that was propaganda or truth?”  

“The former.  We know they’re at war, and the best thing to keep wars going is to make sure your enemies are recognizable as people.  Especially when they’re literally food.”

Deeja was about to continue our conversation, when we were signalled that Isriss was on his(?) way to the airlock.  A moment later they rounded the corner with one guard in tow.  They were of similar build to Isriss themselves, tall and muscled, but they were a lighter shade of pewter as compared to Isriss’s charcoal scales.  The two of them looked the two of us over, and I noticed their nostrils flaring - I very deliberately had not yet cleaned the Arxur blood off my armor, and we had collectively left a path of bloody footprints to the airlock.  

“Captain Isriss.” I said with a nod “This is my First Officer Deeja.” 

“Captain Cyrus.  First Officer Deeja.” Isriss repeated, likely trying to commit our names to memory as their eyes darted between the two of us.  

“Are you going to introduce your second?” asked Deeja.  

“No.  Security detail.  Unimportant.” replied Isriss near instantly.  “Your tactics were brutal and effective.  You will need them for the war.”  

“Elaborate.” I replied.  

Isriss pulled out some kind of rectangular computer and began showing us a series of star charts, which were highlighted in primarily one color, with a small smattering of other colors along one fringe.  “The Arxur Dominion controls these areas, and the leaf lickers have banded together in a Federation represented here.  They have the heretical belief that consumption of meat, from any animal taints you, and can infect others with this heresy.  Their solution is to purge every predator with fire.”  Isriss showed us a collection of videos, likely from a preexisting propaganda store of various arxur being shot and burned by a wide variety of aliens.  

Isriss continued “But we know better.  Our hunger is our greatest strength.  It drives us to consume, to change, to improve.  Weakness is culled, strength prevails!  We shall make cattle of those that would deny us our rightful place among the stars.”  

“Cattle?” I asked. “As in the aliens you have caged on your ship?”

“Remnants of our last successful raid.” 

“What is your alternative source of food?” asked Deeja

“We have none.  The Federation saw to that years ago.  They killed our cattle with a plague, as they had no hope of defeating us in a fight.  But in doing so, the truth was revealed to us.  To prosper is to kill.  They became their own unmaking.”  

“Am I correct in assuming that our two species are the only predators to become space faring?” asked Deeja.  

“Yes.  The old ones state that there could have been another, but the humans wiped themselves out before they could set foot in the stars.”  

Deeja and I shared a glance, and then I said the elephant in the room.  “We come from the human homeworld.”  Isriss dropped his computer on the floor. 

“The humans bioengineered us.” explained Deeja.  “They knew war was looming, but intended to continue fighting even after the world was poisoned with radiation.  They needed weapons to outlast them.” 

“By the prophet…” recoiled Isriss.  “This is… destiny!  This is providence!  A predator forged by the hands of a predator to survive fire and armageddon!” Isriss appeared to be on the verge of either a stroke or a rapture as they considered the theological implications.  So I intervened and brought them back down.  “This is clearly beyond just the two of us.  We will need to have our governments interact directly.  Can you facilitate that?”

“Yes, of course!” nodded Isriss emphatically.  “Here.” he said, handing us the computer he had been using.  “Use this icon to contact me directly, or to answer a call from me.  I will notify my chain of command, and you yours.”  Isriss then spent a few moments showing us the other functions of the computer, importantly: technical readouts of their technology, star charts of known systems, positions of known Federation fleets, and historical texts.  

Isriss concluded “And that should be the last of the functions.  For now, we must depart and replenish our numbers.  Welcome to the hunt.” with a slow blink, Isriss turned on his heel and left.  Their guard lingered for a moment.  I thought it was to ensure that we did not attack Isriss as he retreated, but as Isriss rounded a corner out of sight, the guard stepped forward and handed a small little gizmo, no bigger than its palm.  “Make sure your government gets that too.  Don’t let Isriss know you have it.” they said in a bare whisper.  Before we could ask any questions or even their name, they turned on their heel to follow Isriss.  

“The venlil and others?” asked Deeja quietly to me after the arxur left.  

“Winning is off the table.  The Venlil know we exist, so now do the Federation, and now the Dominion does too. We barely left Earth and we’re embroiled in a sector spanning war.” I answered.  

Deeja sighed as the closed the airlock, and the Atom was released from the Arxur’s docking clamps.  “House is going to be unbearably smug about this.”  

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