[OT] - Story thread: Xenology Resurrected

[dogscoff]

Amazing how quickly threads can drop to the second or third page...

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First let me thank you for your gracious response to our trade proposal. While it is disappointing that you choose not to enter into trade with us, my Royal Parents are reassured by your evident desire for peaceful co-existence. The rumours to which you refer are nothing more than the idle but imaginative prattlings of the lower classes, who are prone to invention on those frequent occasions when their ignorance of a particular subject outweighs their knowledge. However the stories they circulate are harmless, and easily enough changed or forgotten when real facts come to light. My Royal Parents, the masters and true representatives of KanesS society, recognise your gentle nature and assure you that we too want nothing more than to enjoy a benevolent and compassionate interstellar relationship with our neighbours. As our relationship deepens, and understanding grows, the wild rumours of the workers will doubtless be dispelled.

As to your final point, the unfortunate incidents with the buccaneers are, sadly, the acts of rogue elements within our society. The KanesS have always treasured freedom, and this kind of behaviour is one of the prices we must pay for such freedom. It is not our way to seek conflict, except where to do so would be an act of mercy, as with the Xiati. You may rest assured that the aggressive actions on our northern frontiers do not represent the will or nature of the KanesS as a whole. It is unfortunate that you choose not to conduct trade with us, since I am unable to offer legal protection to your ships unless they have the diplomatic value that trade would bestow. However the privateer fleets will be warned against attacking you as you suggest, and we sincerely hope that no more incidents of the type you describe should occur.

Finally, we read with interest your troubles with the XiChung. We have no personal experience of this species, but we are always eager to learn about new life-forms, and to aid our allies. In our culture, nothing seals a friendship more securely than to feast together upon the flesh of a mutual enemy, and my Royal Parents have therefore authorised me to offer to you the services of our newly-formed Royal Fleet in your valiant struggle against the Xichung.

[dogscoff]

Something was wrapped around her neck. She pulled desperately at it in the darkness, but it didn't give. Just then the grip was released and she felt her armband being tugged away, and with her newly-returned breath she screamed. To be simply murdered- stabbed or strangled or bludgeoned- was one thing, but to lose the armband, to be abandoned to the fate that would mean... that was far worse. It was night, and in the sheer blackness her panic was rising. The KanesS had built domes and tunnels for their own use, but parts of the city remained undomed and despite the harsh winter the occupiers didn't see much point supplying power to these Xiati-occupied provinces. She struggled on blindly, fighting for her life.

Once upon a time she wouldn't have even noticed the dark- infravision and even radar were common enough enhancements among the Xiati- but her modified senses had been disabled along with most of her other cybernetics as part of her enslavement. Every night she hurried through the haunted streets after each day's work, desperately hoping to get home without incident. The armband was her life. It was a signal to all KanesS that this Xiati was worth more alive than eaten, and that her death would be punishable in kind to anyone who thought otherwise. However, it protected only her life. Her meagre possessions might still be seized by any of the KanesS bullies who roamed the Xiati district and stole from the residents, and they could never be entirely trusted to control their appetites anyway, armband or not.

So far- until tonight- she had been lucky. She had never been attacked, and her home raided only a few times. Her mate stayed mostly at home now to protect what little they had. The KanesS were cowardly creatures, and his mere presence was enough to deter them. When she got home he would then be free to go out and try to bring them some food and fuel - Where he found these necessities Xel neither guessed nor asked, but once she had come to find him skinning and gutting a pair of KanesS. "We won't get in trouble" he had said, "they weren't anyone important." He ate his fill that night, but Xel had been sickened and chose to remain hungry. It had been especially hard in those early months, and they had spent days arguing over the choices that had brought them here.

The choice to move to the colonies had been a difficult one to start with. Xel had wanted nothing more than to stay on the homeworld and raise a family, but when it became apparent that they were unable to conceive, he had finally persuaded her to start a new life of the frontier. However that choice had been relatively easy compared to the one that followed it less than a year later.

The predictor first began hinting at the possibility of an invasion months before it happened, and the Imperial command ignored the warnings. Perhaps their own predictors gave different indications- it happened sometimes- or perhaps they had some other reason to hand millions of lives over to the butcher-worms. Whatever it had been, the Empire refused to evacuate the system, and prepared only a token defence. The people of Nihal were left to their own devices, as the predictor gave stronger and stronger indications of an overwhelming invasion. Amid the riots, the bombings and the desperate charges on the blockaded spaceport, discussions arose concerning the best course of action should the system fall. It came down to the two basic options: To fight and die, or simply to give in an die voluntarily. It had become the only real subject for debate or discourse in the system during that time. In light of this gruesome decision, Xel considered her lack of offspring a blessing rather than a curse.

Fierce arguments had raged throughout the system as militant, terrorist and counter-terrorist Groups had formed, fought, splintered and fused, and for a great many Xiati the choice of how to die was taken away from them. Some argued that to fight and die was the nobler alternative, and that suicide was nothing more than cowardice. However, those in favour of suicide pointed out that a combatant had less chance of ensuring that his body would not be eaten. It was well-known that the KanesS invaded for meat, so perhaps suicide was the braver option after all: A well-executed self-destruction could deny the KanesS the flesh they wanted and - hopefully- discourage further aggression against other targets. After painful deliberation, Xel and her mate had opted for suicide, but when the moment came, they looked at one another found they just couldn't do it. When the KanesS offered a third option- slavery- they decided to take it.

She told herself that she was staying alive so that there would be someone for the relief force to rescue- that she would be able to give them valuable information about the enemy, having lived among them, but really she knew she was simply afraid to die. She wasn't ashamed of that- she considered survival to be a valuable instinct- but she was ashamed that she would have to work the predictor for them. The predictor gave an enormous advantage in combat, and since the KanesS mind seemed utterly unable to grasp the temporal technology that the cast apparatus relied upon, they had offered life to those Xiati able to maintain and operate it. She knew the other martyrs would have been disgusted at this collaboration, but then she reminded herself that they were all dead, and with that she gave herself over to slavery.

That was one thing she could give the KanesS credit for. Xiati slavemongers throughout their own turbulent history had talked about "moral servitude" or "uncompensated co-operation", but the KanesS saw no reason not to call it what it was. She worked long hours at the predictor without payment and - apart from the odd scrap thrown her way when the KanesS engineers were feeding - was expected to take care of her own food, shelter and necessities. All she received in exchange for her efforts were the two precious armbands, which the aliens did at least seem to honour. There had been one or two exceptions resulting in Xiati deaths, but those had been as much due to Xiati carelessness as anything else, and the death penalty had been enforced on the perpetrators. She had been surprised at the severity of the punishment at first- she could hardly believe that they thought a Xiati life was worth a KanesS one- but it seemed it was the only deterrent strong enough to counter their appetites. She still received hungry looks on a daily basis, but in time they began to intimidate her less and less. It remained a daily terror going to work with those monsters, but there were times that she almost forgot about their nature and began to regard them as people. Certainly, the educated ones treated her with more respect than they did their own servants- although admittedly that still wasn't much. They listened when she spoke, and- apart from the more aristocratic ones- they seemed quite ready to accept that she was at least as good an engineer as any of them. They still made worrying jokes and comments about her flavour, but as her grasp of their language improved she realised that they sometimes made similar jokes about one-another, and when she tentatively suggested one day that she might bite the tail off of one of the less productive junior engineers to stop him coiling on it all day long, they all laughed with approval. That moment of acceptance shocked her, and she tormented herself for days with memories of the atrocities committed by these people- no, these monsters, wishing she had given herself to martyrdom after all. Once again she began thinking of ways she might sabotage the predictor or give false information that would ruin their fleet, but the predictor was clear: Any fleet that entered Nihal would be destroyed. The KanesS fleet was growing steadily with re-inforcements and capured craft, and although the Xiati Imperial command sent fleet after fleet into Marak, they all withdraw again before engaging the enemy. Either their own predictors simply couldn't give them a favourable result, or the Imperial command was a bunch of dithering krsssthrll*.

At about this time- when her morale was at its lowest- she had more or less decided upon suicide. She was only halted in this by another shocking discovery: Despite the fact that she and her mate had been almost too exhausted for anything more than survival, she was pregnant. It was at once her dream come true and her worst nightmare. She had been exceedingly lucky to negotiate one additional armband for her mate, who was not directly useful to the occupiers. What would her chances be of securing another? If she asked for one and they refused, they would surely guess why she wanted it and take the baby from her. She knew she couldn't possibly bear that. What if she promised to raise and educate the child to do her job and replace her? It seemed the KanesS were inherently incapable of understanding the technology, and they would have to appreciate the long-term necessity of a live Xiati presence. Wouldn't they? It was a source of enormous worry to her, until the night she was attacked.

Another sharp tug and the armband tore free, taking a layer of skin with it. As soon as it was clear of her body it let out a high-pitched whine, and she heard the attacker hiss in surprise. It made sense that the armband should have some kind of built in tamper-protection, and she knew that the KanesS guard would be on their way. They would help her, but only if she had the armband. She lunged forward and found her assailant in the darkness, her fingers connecting with bone. It was a jaw, and from there she was able to locate a throat. Fuelled by fear, she grasped it and squeezed, and held on tight as the other party thrashed and squirmed, finally landing a powerful blow to Xel's stomach. She felt something fragile within her break, and it was with a rage she had never even imagined that she crushed the life out of the creature in her hands.

When the guard arrived, their vehicle's floodlights illuminated an inert, vacant Xel with blood seeping from under her armband. She was kneeling before the corpse of a tattered and scrawny escaped Xiati meat-prisoner. The guards made a few jokes and took the body away. They said they were taking it back to the slave's owner, but they threatened and bribed her until she promised not to mention this episode, then laughed again as they sped off again, leaving her once more in darkness. Eventually she picked herself up and started walking back home without neither fear nor hope, untroubled by thoughts of either suicide or survival, without feelings of remorse, forgiveness, hate, love or anything else at all.


Footnote:
*"krsssthrll" is a KanesS word, with a literal meaning of "sack" or "store", but which is usually used to describe someone who is inefficient, ineffectual, indecisive and whose only real worth is as a source of protein. Not surprisingly, the Xiati language that Xel was brought up in lacks a concise translation, which is probably why she uses a KanesS term here.

[Unknown_Enemy]

The war against the Xi’Chung was approaching its conclusion. For months, Eden’s children had been hunting insectoid spaceships, and now, twenty seven VoidTigers had established a permanent base of operation in the alien homesystem. The next phase would be the cleansing of the beast’s nest. However, in orbit of Xi’s homeworld, the enemy had built around 30 ships massive beyond belief. The Xi’Chung called them “cruisers”, and their mere existence made the Overmind uneasy, but as the insects never managed to defeat Eden’s Children in battle, he instructed his fleet to set up a resupply depot and resume operations as planned.

However the Xi’Chung fleet attacked first. That day, the Overmind learned that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy : Xi’Chung cruisers wiped out Eden’s fleet and glassed the outpost. In a swift move the bugs had destroyed the threat to their Hive and paved their way to a murderous counterattack. Eden’s Mind thought about recalling VoidTigers on guard duty near the KanesS frontier, but they were very far away from the front line. Xi’Chung warships would have all the time they needed to rampage Eden’s newborn worlds before their arrival on the battlefield. So he settled for another course of action, he decided that two previously conquered systems could be sacrificed. These were used as bait for the beasts by setting up minefields and some satellite defense on warp point. While it did not destroy any enemy warships, it did manage to damage some, slowing considerably the enemy. Meanwhile, the Overmind began to analyze the reasons for this disaster.

Technology.
The Alien ships were more advanced than my VoidTigers.

So far, the Overmind had been convinced that it was the most advanced being in the quadrant, but he tried to maintain balance between civil and military technology. Now, he was facing a specie which concentrated all their efforts in hull size and weapon systems. As a result, the Xi’Chung achieved superiority in both of these subjects. These points needed immediate answer.

In orbit of Xalow3, two small frigates were waiting the nine Xi’Chung cruisers that had been heard emerging from the warp point. When the enemy finally arrived, the tiny ships ignited their engines, on intercept course with the huge warships. They were still out of weapon range when the first explosions occurred. The Overmind had made sure that all space around the planet had been carefully mined. Seven out of nine cruisers were destroyed immediately. The remaining two were damaged, but still tried to attack the frigates. The little ships easily avoided enemy beams, and returned fire. Both ships were mounting the latest model of shield depleting weapons. With a few shoots, both enemy ships shields were gone. Only then the wounded warships were approached at point blank distance, and hundred of small pods were fired at them. As soon as the pods reached the Xi’Chung ships, tens of thousands tiny worms started to pierce the hull using an organic acid. Once they arrived inside, they started to hunt every single living thing in the ship. The worms were specifically designed to burrow into a Xi’Chung shell, reach their nervous system and take control of it. In a matter of minutes, the 2 ships were filled with Xi Chung Zombies.

Once created, a Zombie had a maximum lifespan of 24H, but it was more than enough to bring the cruisers in orbit. Then, the crew was disposed of and both cruisers were analyzed. Despite their differences, Xi’Chung and Eden’s technology shared some common ground, so both ships were fully salvageable to create bigger skeletons and better weapons for Eden’s VoidTigers. In a single move, the advantage taken by the aliens had been cleanly wiped out. To remain fair, it has to be said the idea of taking control of an enemy ship to steal the technology developed by your enemy was not of the Overmind’s design, but came from the KanesS buccaneers. The Overmind had not been enthusiastic about the idea when he first examined it, but he developed it and created two frigate class VoidHawk, which were deployed near the frontline. These two ships just saved the day.

Four months later, 23 Xi’Chung cruisers had stormed and glassed Xalow3, leaving nothing alive behind them. In the meantime, the Overmind had finished further researches on weapon systems. He was again ahead of the insectoids. As soon as the prototypes were accepted as conscious, every single world between Eden and the frontline began to grow VoidTigers at maximum overdrive, tapping happily on the massive mineral and organic reserves the Overmind maintained. However, five shipyards grew a different kind of beast : cruiser sized VoidBears. These massive brutes were equipped with best model of both shields depleters and planetary napalm bombs. They were designed as planet busters.

When the Xi’Chung fleet finally arrived near Eden’s newborn worlds, 27 VoidTigers and 5 VoidBears were assembled in orbit of the largest planet. While not fully trained, their mere sight was enough to send the Xi’Chung running. Once they were trained, they would be send to storm the alien nest, but the Overmind feared that more than one fleet would be needed to cleanse the enemy homeworld. However, it was time to end this madness.

[dogscoff]

Klumart had always known that the gods could be cruel, and he had often suspected they had a sense of humour, but his current situation confirmed both of these. Striped faces pressed greedily against the glass, but he ignored them and went back to his construction, and soon they moved on along their tube. The block of stone looked far too heavy for him, even in this gravity, but he lifted it easily onto one of his three knees, and then up onto his shoulder. It was actually made of some kind of foam, painted up to look like rock. Others were formed and made up to look like real norak bricks, doors, beams, tiles, even windows. It was like some huge playset.

As he understood it, the idea was for him to construct some kind of "authentic" looking home for himself. He wasn't entirely sure why they wanted him to- the KanesS didn't seem interested in the prisoners' surroundings so much as the prisoners themsleves. He also wondered why he even bothered- there was no weather to guard against under this glass sky, and any privacy the lightweight walls afforded him would soon be torn away when they demolished his little house, forcing him to start all over again, for the seventh or eighth time since his arrival. After all, a zoo is no fun if the animals stay hidden away in their nests all the time, is it? A fresh set of faces peered in through the glass, using their tail-tips to wipe away the condensation from their breath. The watched him a while, then went on their way.

Klumart sighed and placed the block upon the low wall that he had built, then looked up to survey his surroundings. The low, rolling hills and yellow moss really did look quite homely and pleasant to the norak eye. There was a lot of it, too, it would probably take him most of the day to cross to the far side of the dome, if he was really inclined to try. There was no point though, he knew the other side to be much the same as this: more hills, more moss, the odd stream or pond, all patched here and there with little plots of vegetables by huts made of pretend bricks, all occupied by dejected norak. Visitors would throw the occasional morsel of food into the enclosure, hoping (almost always wihout success) to provoke a squabble between the people within, but mostly the captives were expected to provide for themselves. Mercifully, the farming implements they had been given (taken, by the looks of things, from one of the captured colonies to the west of the Continuum) were real, and not made of foam. They also made pretty good weapons when the visitors came into the compound to attack some particularly frail or sick-looking inmate, or to drag away parts of somebody's corpse. The zookeepers didn't seem to mind if the odd visitor got killed or maimed in these attacks, but they took great offence if anyone made any attempt to bury the dead or block up the interface points. Old Rummult in the next hut over was living proof of that, and despite the leg he had lost to the zookeeper's gun, with a little help he was still able to fight off every opportunistic visitor that thought he might make an easy meal. Klumart just about produced enough food to sustain his neighbour as well as himself, but infection was setting in on the stump and without any real medicine here it was only a matter of time before the gods took the cripple back into their embrace. Even now, a hungry, striped face appeared at the interface point and eyed Rummult, but Klumart barely noticed. There were those who attacked, and those who just thought about it, and by now any inmate in the compound could tell the difference in an instant. Eventually, the face moved on.

Klumart looked again at the interface point nearest his half-built hut. Unlike the majority of the other few thousand Norak in this dome, his hut was quite near one of the interface points. This waas not by choice but because all the other land that met his requirements him had already been taken. However, the interface point did fascinate him, because he felt sure they were the key to escape from this place. The zoo was a prison without bars. The landscape was criss-crossed by narrow visitor tubes and tunnels for the KanesS, into which there were small openings at regular intervals, giving visitors full access to roam about the safari compound. In theory, a particularly daring and supple Norak might squeeze himself into a tube and attempt escape. Rumour had it the planet held not only exhibits of live Norak, but of captured weapons platforms, mines, satellites, ground assault vehicles and fighters. There were even said to be captured warships in orbit, converted into museums, where KanesS could take guided tours. Yes, all that they needed for escape was at the other end of those tubes, but no Norak would get far beyond the interface point. The atmosphere in the compund was high in methane, as required by Norak physiology. The air in the tubes and visitor domes beyond was high in carbon dioxide, the KanesS' preferred medium for breathing. A norak might last a minute or two in the tube before asphyxiating, but no more.

However, once through the selective force-field that kept the atmospheres seperate, the KanesS seemed able to hold their breath for ages, and even to speak and eat- Rummult had once said the KanesS scavenged underwater on their own worlds, so it made sense that they should have this ability. Klumart resolved to dissect the next visitor he caught and look for any special respiratory mechanism that might support the theory. It would be messy, with only farming tools to work with, but it would keep his mind occupied for a while. He was an inquisituve sort, Klumart, which was the main reason he had selected this particular spot on the very edge of the dome. Most of the norak were clustered in the middle, as far from the edges as possible. However, if he were to stand on his little half wall- Klumart did so now- he could peer through the dome's glass and see into the neighbouring dome. There he could just make out the tiny black shapes of his Xiati neighbours. They looked so funny to him, wobbling around on just two spindly legs each, and the fake building materials they had been given looked so very different and silly in comparison to his own. Klumart chuckled, and didn't even notice the striped faces looking curiously in at him from the nearby tube.

[dogscoff]

This one seemed to slip off the front page quite quickly, so I thought I'd *bump* it to make sure it didn't get missed.