The Pact of Polaris [18] The Battle for Skalga Part 4
Tarchiv [Arxur] [24]
Affiliation: Arxur Dominion
- Land Raider of the Dominion
- Runt
PACT Date Standard: July 14th 2136
One Day since last log
Location: Unknown Forest, Venlil Prime
“MOVE FASTER WEAKLINGS WE NEED TO GET INTO POSITION!!”
The shouting voice of one of the Hunting Pack chief’s boomed through the woods, Tarchiv gasping for breath as he moved onwards. The stumbling and walking of those around him filled the air with the noise of crunching foliage. He was exhausted, everyone around him was exhausted. It had been a whole two days since everything went wrong. And one day since they were retreat- Repositioning to a more defensible location! Despite there being no hope of rescue they fought on. They had barely managed to enter the forest a few hours ago. The foliage stopped the armored behemoths that obliterated anything that stood in their way from following, and the thick tree canopy prevented them from being spotted from above.
Tarchiv leaned back against the tree he was using for cover, drinking the last of his water from his canteen, he was one of the lucky ones who kept it on him at all times rather than dump all their gear when in camp. His habit of staying armored and armed no matter what had given him ridicule before for being ‘scared’ of the prey even considering attacking. Finally his paranoia bore fruit, and unlike some of his packmates, he had all his equipment, rations, and water while many others barely managed to get their armor and weapons. Forgoing food and water. Luckily for them, there was a small stream to drink out of, though many had to use their claws without their canteens to fill like him. He could hear the slurping all the way from here as thirsty raiders drank creekwater. They would have boiled it if they could but they had neither the time nor luxury to do so.
“Tarchiv, you have some dried meat? Care to spot me some food?” One of his hunting partners, Izzik asked. He looked up at the larger Arxur, he had been one of the more amiable ones of his group. He didn't usually call him a weakling or runt, he wanted to share but…
“Sure...” He felt his own hunger gnawing at him but he had enough for the both of them, at least for now. They were, after all, still comrades in arms fighting to get food home. A home they might not see again. Besides, better to have a well fed raider at his back than a half starved one.
“Thanks Tarchiv...” Izzik said appreciatively, taking a seat next to him to rest his own legs.
After a moment of resting he unslung his pack and pulled out the food. It wasn't much, they didn't give the runts much to work with, expecting them to ‘earn their keep’ and eat what they kill to ‘incentivize them’ to do better. After all there was barely enough food to feed them all in the army, let alone back home. So any chance they could save a few pounds of cattle flesh was worth it if they could send the extra home. It did mean he and runts like him had to secure kills in combat, that is if they could kill anything at all with bodies intact enough to eat. Artillery and explosives didn't make for good food. Even still they managed to supplement their meagre rations during the assault, until these new prey arrived.
During the retreat, he managed to swipe a good amount of food from the Butcher before their initial Hunting camps were overrun. Though the only portions left were the dried long term rations. The fresh ones he ate yesterday to keep him going. He pulled one out of the wrapper, handed the second one to Izzik and crunched onto the hard tasteless meat. It was bone dry and tasted like leather. Yet even after gnawing on it for what felt like hours, the overwhelming amount of salt made him wish he saved his canteen’s water for this. He kept gnawing on it, getting his saliva to soak into it to get it soft enough for him to tear off a sizable chunk and chew. Then swallow. It filled the void in his belly, and but not much else.
“Bleh… Tastes like scabbard leather…” Izzik complained as he gnawed on his own.
“How would you know what scabbard leather tastes like? Besides, it's better than starving… Wish we had some of Isif’s sector’s rations. At least those taste fresh in the cans instead of like leather.”
“Ugh dont get me started on Chief Hunter Isif…”
This piqued Tarchiv’s curiosity. “What's wrong with Isif? Doesn't he send the most food back to the core worlds?”
“Yeah but he could be sending more. You hear the rumors? That Isif hoards half the cattle he raids from the venlil to feed his troops to buy their loyalty?”
This was news to him, then again as a runt he didn't really have the social capital to access the various non-official networks connecting various sectors and planets. He had to stick with official methods which were quite restrictive.
“No, I never heard those rumors.” he flicked his tongue out, the taste of salt lingering as he dug out his canteen to drain the last dregs of lukewarm water.
“Well thats what I heard, its why he always gets the best recruits volunteering for his sector, why rarely anyone transfers out of his sector, and why the prophet descendant sent Bizal to take over the Venlil sector. So that the spoils can be spread more equally instead of fattening up Isif’s little clique.”
“Hmm… So that's why he was sent to raid the federation. Always thought it was weird why they sent him to fight so close to the core of the federation. It's a punishment for hoarding cattle and food.”
“Thats what I think as well. Tch, who knows how many families had to go hungry because he wanted to keep his soldiers from leaving to other sectors…”
“Seems like he might be our only hope though, since we're losing here, he’s the only Chief Hunter who might be coming this way in time to turn this around. Though we might already have lost by the time he arrives, if he does…”
“Hey we haven't lost yet.” Izzik said with a tone that implied he wasn't convinced himself. “We can still win, Isif might return from his raid to reinforce us and then we can conquer the sector and fresh cattle will flow back into the core worlds to fill our families bellies.”
The optimism of his packmate helped keep his morale up, even if deep down he felt it was a hopeless fight. He gave Izzik a smile.
“The prey might have the upper hand now but we’ll find a way. We are superior Predators, even outnumbered, we’ll find a way..” Tarchiv trailed off as he bit into his last few bites of dried meat.
He ate the rest as quickly as he could. Not wasting a single bite out of respect for those back home who might not be on the day's ration list. Who knew when his next–
“Prey approaching! Everybody get up and get ready!” He heard from his Pack chief on his radio. He swallowed the half chewed prey meat and coughed as it scraped down his throat.
Izzik and the rest of their Hunting Pack scrambled to get into positions, taking firing positions behind trees, dugout positions, laying in ditches and putting camouflage foliage covers over themselves for an ambush. He himself hid behind the thick tree and a bush using the bush for extra foliage cover. He waited, trying to keep his breathing controlled, he shouldn't be afraid of prey, he's a predator, superior to them, above them! His heart shouldn't be thumping in its chest like it is! It should be thumping in excitement not fear. Damn his defectiveness…
A flash of movement catches his eye- his superior predator eyes, darting his vision towards it he sees another burst of movement. The grey armor the prey infantry wore seemed to have been swapped out for camouflage patterned variant, though the greens yellows and browns did not seem to fully fit the local foliage and they stood out because of it. They moved forward in herds like the prey they are. A group moving forward into cover then pausing. Then the previous group moved up, repeat and repeat as they got closer and closer into the trap. He had to give it to these prey, they looked more coordinated than he expected when attacking. It was impossible to tell how terrified they must be with the full covered helmets. Perhaps it was to hide how scared they look.
One of the taller prey moved forward, they were fully visible now, a dozen tail lengths away. They turned their heads looking around in a strange manner, were they trying to imitate how predators looked? They took cover behind a tree and scanned the area, their weapon braced on a low branch. Their head turned slowly before it rapidly snapped facing him.
He did not panic, panic was for weak prey. He was not supposed to be weak, he may be a runt but he's not defective! He shot his coilrifle at them, the slug hit them square in the chest yet no blood came out. The figure fell onto the ground where he could not see. Dammit he did not secure the kill.
All hell broke loose then, the red beams immediately began to spray into their positions with loud ‘hisses’, but the loud CRACK of coilguns overwhelmed them all. His Packmates surged out and unloaded into them at point blank range, and unlike his ‘Runt’ sized coilgun, theirs packed a harder punch. Red and orange blood painted the treeline as their ambush was sprung.
“KILL THEM! CLEAN KILLS WE NEED THEM FOR FOOD” His Pack chief shouted out into the radio, luckily auto-adjusting their volume so it wouldn't blast their eardrums out.
Firing at any movement he saw, he finally secured a kill on one of the venlil, shattering their helmet with a slug straight through their visor. He quickly ducked into cover, and his instincts were correct, as multiple red beams punched through the bush he was using for concealment, scorching the leaves and branches. Tarchiv looked over to his packmates and saw a round object land at their feet. Did one of the prey throw a rock–
“GRENAD–” Someone shouted before an explosion covered the area in shrapnel and red Arxur blood.
Tarchiv hissed in pain feeling something in his arm, he looked down and saw a piece of shrapnel sticking into his shoulder. Luckily for him the armor saved him from a more severe wound, merely cutting into the hide and letting it bleed heavily. He yanked it out and tossed it aside. Checking his bag for bandages.
“I got you!” Izzik said, grabbing the medical kit from the bag and helping him with his wound.
“Its not bad, just a minor pierce."
“Good, we need every claw we can.” He finished the rapid dressing of his wound, leaving him to slap his armor back on.
“Prey reinforcements coming from the left! They're trying to save their kind! Hah lets show them how futile it is!” Someone else, not his pack chief, probably the second in command.
He heard more bangs coming from the units on the flanks, both flanks, it was certain there was a full assault going on by the prey. Thankfully he didn't hear the deafening blasts or triple thumps of the prey’s vehicles. Those couldn't traverse the woods like infantry. So their crutch couldn't save them here. Tarchiv checked his rifle, still half a magazine full of slugs in it and the battery was almost at half charge. He took a deep breath, trying to still his thumping heart, and aimed back out, then fired.
—------
The assault was repelled. It had been a grueling three hours, and Tarchiv was exhausted by the end of it. The prey had finally popped smoke grenades and retreated like the cowardly prey they were. Despite the victory only the most ‘betterment minded’ Arxur were celebrating, the rest were too exhausted to care about how this ‘is just proof of arxur supremacy’. Ignoring the fact that they were on the retreat and losing since their fleet got destroyed.
Some decided to start scavenging the corpses for food, he was one of them. The bodies were scattered about, with more than enough to go around with their depleted numbers. Most of the scavengers went towards the venlil-like prey species. The taste of venlil being always a good choice, however he wanted to know how the mysterious taller prey tasted. He found one of them laying in a ditch and pulled it out to butcher properly.
“Enjoy your meal Tarchiv.” Izzik said walking up to him, a bandage on their left arm covering a burn mark from where a red beam struck.
“We earned this, shame we can’t send any home.”
“True, but enjoy your meal. Trying one of the new prey?”
“I'm used to venlil, I want to see if this one tastes better.”
“Suit yourself, venlil is a staple for a reason.” Izzik moved over to a nearby venlil corpse and began to bring out a small dagger to cut off the armor.
Without his own dagger to help, removing the armor was a pain, figuring out which straps went where and how to remove them took him longer than he would have liked. The others had managed to crack open their venlil and were complaining about having to bite through wool when he finally undid one of the legs of the tall species. It had some hair on it, but was mostly skin. Thank the prophet, he did not want to deal with biting through wool. He hungrily bit into the thigh, tearing out a chunk as red blood ran down his snout. It was a little strange seeing red blood, the only other species he knew that had red blood was Arxur. But these were still prey fighting with prey.
He bit into his meal a few more times, filling his belly with the first fresh kill he's ever had. The taste was… underwhelming. Everybody always said fresh kills were the best and far superior to canned or preserved meat. But it just tasted… like meat, different texture and flavor but still… meat. But it was his meat, he earned it! He killed for it! He was a true predator and not just a runt!
There was more than enough to fill everyone's bellies. He felt full for the first time in…. Forever. It felt good, this was the true feeling of victory. Maybe one day every arxur can feel a full belly every day, it was a pipe dream of course, but maybe one day the war against the federation will be won and the natural order of things will lead to a better future.
Curiosity took him however, he wanted to know what the species he had eaten looked like. He grabbed the helmet of the creature and pulled, once again it refused to come off and required him to find certain latches to release the seals. It was clear these armors were sealed, perhaps they were useful in space?
Finally he got the helmet loose to slide off. He took another bite of its leg and chewed as his free hand grabbed the helmet and lifted it off. Tarchiv froze, his maw agape letting the meat fall to the ground. He felt bile rise up in his throat and immediately fell over to spew his recent meal. His meal… of a fellow predator. Forward facing eyes, skin in hues of brown, tuft of hair on the top of its head, visible ears on the side. There was only one species that matched that description, one species who shared the Arxur’s superiority in consuming flesh, one species with eyes that faced forward like predators.
“H-h-Hhu-BLEHHGHLGL” he retched up his cannibalistic meal onto the ground.
“Cant hold in real meat runt?” Someone said a little ways away, a few laughs followed as tarchiv wiped their maw of bile and half digested meat.
“Do they taste that bad?” Izzik looked over, muzzle stained orange as they swallowed their most recent bite.
“Its- Their- Their not–” he retched again, red blood colored bile staining the grass.
“Shhh” Somebody said off in the distance
“Ah shit- hey watch out the tall prey might be pois-”
“Everyone Shut up!” Someone shouted loudly. Tarchiv and everyone else fell silent.
‘Thum thum thum, thum thum, thum thum thum thum’
Distant explosions? No…. wait…
“ARTILLERY!” The Pack chief shouted over the radio. “GET TO COVER”
Tarchiv looked down at the corpse of his fellow predator before rushing back towards the stream; it had a ditch near it he could use for cover.
‘whiiiiissssssssssssstttttttttlllllllllllllleeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBOOOOOOM’
The sound of whistling drawing closer forced Tarchiv to jump into a ditch early before his original destination, taking cover as the explosions rang like drums above them, he felt immediate heat coming from around him, despite the growing thunder of artillery shells raining around him he dared to look up. It was an inferno, White smoke blanketed the forest and bushes, trees and even the camouflage on fellow raiders were bursting into flames. Another explosion in front of him with shrapnel raining a dozen tail lengths before him, white smoke following the shrapnel that caused anything it shredded to begin smoldering and burning.
“INCENDIARIES! PULL BACK! PULL BACK! INTO THE FOREST!” He heard one of the raid sergeants on the radio screech out with a hint of fear.
Smoke both white and black filled the air, it was starting to burn his lungs. The artillery had refused to cease its barrage, the sound of screaming could barely be heard above the roaring of fires and the thunderstrikes of shells. Tarchiv scrambled from his ditch, coughing, feeling his lungs start to fill with ash and smoke. He had to run, he could not wait here, he hoped that he would not be struck by a shell as his legs sprinted forwards towards the retreat ping on his helmet’s hud.
—---------------------
Their escape from the barrage had ended a few hours ago. By now they had some relief from the artillery, perhaps they were out of range. Or the… Prey.. humans? Perhaps they lost sight of them in the protective cover of the foliage. The Damn navy lost the skies to them long ago so they probably are searching for them from above. The leaves being the only thing protecting them. It made every view onto the clear sky a harrowing one. He lost sight of Izzik in the retreat, and his ping over the comms wasnt being responded to… He hoped he was just out of range instead of dead.
One of the raiders in front of him collapsed, the wound they bore seemed to be too much for them now, the screaming and whimpering they had been making along the way finally stopped. The wound visibly burned down to the bone, the munitions the prey… the Humans shot at them with artillery had exploded IN the air, shrapnel trailing white burning smoke, and no matter what the pieces still burned, even after some of the ones hit tried jumping into local streams for some form of relief. Only to find out they still burned. The Pack Chief growled, walking over to the fallen raider and looking down dismissively.
“Weakling! Betterment should have found you earlier.” His voice said with a sneer.
“Hey, show some respect to our comrade!” One of the Sergeants growled back, a few others backing them up with a glare and growl of their own.
The pack chief glared at them and proceeded to back away. The sergeant went up to the fallen raider, checking their vitals and then closing their eyes. Whispering a prayer over them. Tarchiv silently made his own to the fallen and all those burned in the barrage.
“Status report! how many of us are left.” The Pack chief interrupted the silent mourning of those around him. Earning more glares.
There was a silence as everybody looked around. The trees obscured the vision further along but there were significantly less Arxur about than there were a few hours earlier. Tarchiv could see a hundred within his line of sight. Most had injuries, the most common being burns from the red beam weapons and the Incendiaries, it was hard to tell which burn was from which.
The rest didn't look much better. The few who seemed unharmed like himself had burn marks on their armor from where the red beams stuck and didn't fully melt through like plasma would. He looked down and spotted at least four spots right around the same place that had scorch marks and melted armor where those beams hit. One spot looked almost deep enough to have burned through, with a claw width of material still there protecting his scales. He was lucky.
“Looks like 234 of us left your cruelty.” Someone responded. It somehow surprised and didn't surprise him how few there were left. It all happened so fast and feels so… anathema to the natural order. Prey should be losing this, not forcing them to run off. But… those weren't prey… They didn't know… None of them knew yet who they were fighting.
The Pack Chief growled loudly in anger and frustration. “Those mewling prey think they've bested us… We will make things a nightmare for them, we will fight on till Wriss comes back for us. We can survive off some prey we capture on small raids, we will need to find a place to–”
“SSHHH” The Sergeant shushed, angling his head upwards to the sky
“How dare you–”
“SSHHHHH” They shushed again pointing upwards.
The Pack Chief seemed to take the hint and silenced themselves. Everybody’s heads looked up as the raiders all went silent. Nothing could be heard for a moment other than rustling trees in the ever blowing wind. For a moment the Pack Chief looked like he was about to start shouting again and tear the interloper’s neck clean from their head. Then the chief stopped, eyes widening. Tarchiv strained his hearing, some remnants of ringing still there from the artillery barrage made it hard to hear but after removing his helmet he finally heard something.
The whirr of a plasma jet thruster of an aircraft.
“T-There” Someone said in a tone that implied fear. Tarchiv followed their pointed claw through an opening in the forest cover, and saw one of the lingering enemy aircraft circling above them.
*Thum, Thum thum, Thum thum thum thum, thum thum*
Tarchiv was running immediately, he didn't care how tired his legs were, didnt care he dropped his coilcarbine and was trailing ammunition from his half open pouch. He knew what that sound meant and he wanted to be ANYWHERE but here.
“ARTILLERY!” The Pack Chief sounded, He shouted some orders but Tarchiv didn't listen, and didn't need to look to hear everybody else joining him in sprinting away from the direction of the artillery.
*wwwwwhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiissssssssssttttttllllllllleEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-BOOOM BOOM BOOOM*
The forest behind him erupted into smoke and flames. Tarchiv felt the immediate heat from behind him, the white smoke of death had engulfed the position they had abandoned. He could hear the sizzling and crackling of fresh fires, the screams of those unlucky enough to have been hit by some of the burning shrapnel, the choking coughs of those breathing in the infernal smoke. He did not wish to be one of them. He saw the treeline thinning up ahead, he could escape the inferno building behind them. The booms behind him echoed even as he sprinted as fast as his exhausted legs could carry.
*WOOOSHHHHHH*
The plasma thrusters of a group of aircraft flew overhead and he heard explosions to his left and right. He saw plums of red hot fire erupt. His heart sank, realising what was going on. Even exhausted he knew a funneling tactic when he saw one. They didn't want them to run anywhere else… Then where they wanted them to go. A predator tactic, one he shouldn't be surprised humans utilize, Which only meant–
Tarchiv busted through the treeline and froze, the grey armored beasts lingered half a mile away in a rough line. There were more than enough to defeat his hunting pack were it at full strength with all their munitions. He scrambled backwards but was tackled forward onto the ground by one of his packmates who ran into him. Red laser dots appearing over their armor and bodies as the silhouettes of figures beside those armored beasts pointed weapons at them.
They hadn't shot them yet, which confused Tarchiv. They had them in the perfect killzone, heck he didn't even have a weapon. He saw a small flying object fly towards them, he flinched thinking this might be the end.
“ATTENTION DOMINION FORCES” The voice spoke in Arxur, though it was obviously coming from a non arxur. The Hisses needed for ‘forces’ weren't pronounced correctly.
“YOU ARE SURROUNDED AND ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED, HOWEVER, IF YOU SURRENDER NOW YOU WILL BE FED, GIVEN TREATMENT TO WOUNDS AND ALLOWED TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY. THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND RAISE YOUR [HANDS–] CLAWS ABOVE YOUR HEADS AND SLOWLY WALK TOWARDS US. ANY ATTEMPT AT VIOLENCE WILL BE MET WITH INSTANT LETHAL FORCE. YOUR INVASION HAS FAILED ALREADY, DO NOT DIE FOR NOTHING.”
The crackling of the speaker indicated the voice was done speaking. He looked to his left, then his right. Everybody who had emerged from the treeline was frozen, some hid behind trees for cover, others in small ditches but all froze. One popped out and aimed their coilrifle–
*CRACK*
The spray of bloody mist that used to be their packmate, and the tree he used as cover were blown away. It proved a rather convincing argument for not doing that. Tarchiv slowly got up from the ground.
“What are you doing?!” The packmate who ran into him hissed as he lay on the ground.
“You don't understand! When I went to feast on the corpse… I removed the helmet of one of the tall ones… Their.. Their humans!” Tarchiv said purposefully into his radio to let what was left of his raiding pack understand what they were up against. Fellow predators.
“Their.. Predators too. So maybe, they might treat us like fellow predators.”
Tarchiv raised his claws above his head, terrified that at any moment whatever killed his comrade would kill him. Or worse, would leave a burning smoking bullet in his chest for him to burn to death with., like the horror stories of the ‘Exterminators’ young arxur were told would get them if they wasted any food.
He took one step, then another, then another. His arms shook with terror as he looked back at his comrades. He saw more throwing down their weapons and emerging like he was. Some looked at them with disdain and attempted to sneak back into the forest. A few cracks and red streaks stopped those in their tracks, their bodies thumping onto the ground dead. That convinced the rest to raise their claws in submission. If these were truly humans, they were not the federation. And whatever execution they had planned was probably going to be better than the white burning smoke or napalm.
He walked closer step by step, he could see dozens of red dots aimed at his body, thankfully none tried to blind him by shining them in his eyes. The closer he got the more nervous he felt. He stepped slowly and carefully, so much so that the others of his pack caught up with him and were keeping in line with him.
“Ok that's close enough, remove your armor, then turn around and put your claws behind your back SLOWLY” one of the venlil ones spoke in arxur.
He and his comrades complied, rapidly unbuckling their armor and letting them fall to the ground. Leaving them with nothing but their under armor cloth and scales. Then, one by one as they finished, they turned around and put their claws behind their back. It disgruntled him to take orders from prey but the Humans were the ones in charge and these venlil were naught but battle slaves. Dangerous to give the prey weapons, but by the looks of it these ones were somehow convinced to fight for the humans.
He stood there waiting for the red bolt that would end him, or to hear flamethrowers spewing their fire at him. But he heard the grass crunching underneath feet, he felt his wrists get grabbed and something thick wrapped around it. A short ‘zip’ noise was heard and whatever it was squeezed his wrists together tightly. More ‘zips’ from around him told him that his comrades were also having their limbs restrained.
“Good, turn around and follow, Not one step out of line or you’ll be wishing you ran back into the white phosphorus artillery” Tarchiv turned around.
It was one of the humans, it looked in charge, it had a pack hunter’s look about them despite the helmet hiding its face.
“Names Captain Charles, You are currently prisoners of the Pact of Polaris, you will be treated with more respect than you deserve. So shut up, form a line and if I hear one comment about prey you're going back into that forest for target practice with our artillery crews.”
Tarchiv wondered if taking the red beam to the head would have been preferable right now.
“U-understood.. Human..”
The figures all immediately tensed up, a few raised their weapons back up to point at him. Tarchiv immediately felt he had made a grave error.
“How’d you know?” The captain said with a no-nonsense tone.
“I-i… W-we ambushed some of your raiders in the forest and… I lifted the helmet off one and…. I recognized what a human looked like, if vaguely by its description…”
Tarchiv was not stupid enough to mention the eating part or he could very much guarantee himself a painful death involving fire or worse.
“Good to know.” The Captain raised their claws to their helmet and removed it, revealing a far lighter scale…. Skin tone than the one he had tried eating. Brown hair and brown eyes that were thinner than the other. Eyes that once again faced forward. His piercing gaze looked over the crowd of his fellows, all of whom looked on in shock and surprise. Most might not have truly believed they were humans until now.
“So here is what's going to happen.” His voice boomed over them. No longer relying on the speakers in their helmet. “You are going to be transported to the spaceport, we're going to take you as prisoners, and you get a choice. Spill everything you know and renounce betterment, or don't. One will lead you to getting fed and staying alive, the other will lead you to become a corpse. You have until then to make your decisions. Move this way, and get in these vehicles for transport. If you give my troops any trouble, you will be shot, if you mention the word human at all until you are in orbit, you will be shot, if you even think to take a bite out of any so called ‘prey’ you will be shot twice. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”
Tarchiv and the others around him all nodded
“Good. Now form a line and prepare for transport!.”
—-----------------------
The ride to wherever they were being taken was a bumpy one, although the seats were cushioned enough to prevent the journey from being agonizing on their rears. There were twenty Arxurs stuffed into the back of this wheeled vehicle, with one human and one battle thrall venlil at the entrance, armed and alert. Everyone was quiet since they arrived, Tarchiv imagined everyone was also busy wondering whether they would be killed or not.
“Where are we going?” He spoke, breaking the silence. Looking towards, but not directly at the human out of respect for his position as their armed guard.
“What did he say?” The human asked the thrall.
“He asked where we were going.” The venlil said in a tone not suitable for treating a superior. But the human seemed indifferent to its disrespect.
“You deal with convo then.”
“It won't go well, that's why you're here.”
“Yeah well I ain't gonna play telephone with you as a biological translator.”
The thrall looked over to him. Face obscured by his fully enclosed helmet but somehow he could tell that the prey did not fear him as it should.
“We are going to the POW camp we set up for your kind, where you will be kept until we can find out what to do with you.”
He was a little insulted that the human left the answering to his thrall. He frowned as he responded.
“Tell your master that we can understand him just fine thanks to our translator implants.”
“Hey corporal, they said they can understand you just fine. Also they requested that they be executed instead of interrogated.”
“HE DID NOT!” One of his packmates growled loudly at the insolent thrall. Standing up, only to realise their mistake at lashing out.
The two immediately raised their weapons at him and the packmate sat back down in his seat. He was honored that his packmate would stand up for him, even if he was a runt. He couldn’t remember that specific one’s name either, he would have to ask them their name out of respect.
“Thats right sit the fuck back down.” The thrall spoke in venlish this time but his translator caught it.
“What was it he actually said?”
“Called you my master.”
“Pfft, hahahaha” The human laughed, lowering their weapon as the tension diffused slightly. “Oh man that's funny especially since-”
“Shush, let's not break Opsec right now. Turn off your external speakers.”
Tarchiv heard nothing after that but from their body language they were clearly still speaking to each other. He looked around to his comrades, some looked about as indignant as he felt about the prey talking to him in such a way, others looked indifferent and stared at the ground. One though, a ‘betterment loyalist’ glared at the thrall with a look that could kill. Luckily he was in the back of the truck, preventing him from doing something rash that might get them all killed.
“Thanks for that.” He whispered to the packmate before him who responded indignantly.
“Egh.. That p..” he could hear the word prey on his muzzle but likely the words from the captain about uttering the word silenced him. “Venlil spoke way above its station. If it didn't have a weapon and our arms weren't tied…”
He didn't need to finish that for him to get the picture.
“Agreed. Makes me wonder why the humans gave them weapons and why they fight together. Think they are battle thralls?”
“Could be… no use speculating, we might get answers when we get to the ‘prison camp’. Or we might be executed.”
“Well… before we do, what's your name?”
“Ikliv, yours?”
“Tarchiv”
They sat in silence with their newfound comradery for a few minutes. Then they began to feel the vehicle slowing down, the sound of other vehicles and activity outside growing as they kept moving but on smooth roads now. Their journey may be at an end soon. After a few more minutes the vehicle slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Two more of them, a Human and a Thrall raider, stood on the ground weapons at the ready. The two inside with them step out first and walk to the side.
“Alright–” The Thrall spoke to them in Arxur “Everyone get out, form a line, no funny business”
The few in front of him stepped out first, he followed landing onto ground. Looking around as his eyes adjusted to the light he saw all around were a series of rows of circular wire. Likely barbed wire to keep them corralled inside. There were a few other trucks unloading other prisoners, and there were already a great many already here. There were tents as shelter, thankfully.
“Line up here.” The Thrall spoke as they walked forward to a series of tables with a dozen or so armed raiders of human and thrall variety. Most of them were bearing weapons clearly on guard duty, a few were at the desks with tablets and computers.
The rows of arriving Arxur began forming a line in front of the table. He was up first for his line and marched up to the first open table. One of the humans cut the restraints keeping his claws behind his back, looking at the table, It was a thrall there. This one didn't wear a helmet so he could see its face. Unlike all the other venlil hes ever known, this one had a nose. Strange, but stranger still was its expression. It did not look scared, terrified, or fearful at its mere presence. It looked indifferent.
“Name, Rank, Dominion ID, Do you require medical attention, And lastly place your claws on that scanner right there.”
Before him on the desk was a scanner of sorts, large enough for both his claws to lay flat upon.
“Tarchiv, Raider first class, AX-33234221-ED” He complied and put his claws on the scanner, after a few moments it blinked green.
“Alright your tent is E-83, Row E the 83rd one down, just follow the signs.” A thin strip of paper was printed out and the thrall slid it towards him
Picking it up the paper merely held the number of his tent and a series of numbers labeled as ‘Meal time 1, meal time 2, meal time 3. Do not miss, keep to schedule’ this at least implied that they would be getting fed… which would mean meat hopefully. Did the humans plan to feed them their thrall’s casualties? Or did they have prey of their own and the thralls were merely the loyal prey, if such a thing could exit.
“Next!” The thrall shouted, waving him off.
He kept his feelings to himself, there would be no use in getting angry at them, it would only earn him a bullet– or red beam in the face. He walked forward towards the camp, past the last row of fences and wire that made up the gate entrance when a commotion occurred behind him. He turned to look
“YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY PREY!” He recognized the voice, it was his Hunting pack’s second in command, he bared his claws at the thrall and looked about to jump over the table when multiple red beams hit him, blasting gore over the table and those around him.
The bloody corpse full of burns fell to the ground in a slump, a very poignant example for the rest. Looking around the dozen or so armed raiders all bore their weapons, trained on the crowd. One lowered it only to grab the wrists of the corpse and drag it off to the side.
“Alright next! Keep the line moving and dont make trouble unless you want to end up like them!” One of the humans said, voice projected by their helmets.
He turned back around and went through the large camp, seeing multiple other raiders, many who were injured and received bandages and basic medical attention. That gave him some indication that they weren't merely going to execute them. It all hardly made sense, and he still couldn't wrap his mind around this situation. Humans come back from extinction, but they have slave battle thralls who talk back and don't seem afraid of true predators. His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Tarchiv! You're alive!”
“Izzik!”
Tarchiv turned to see his comrade alive, though worse for wear. There was a great big burn on the side of his body covered in bandages, his left arm was put into a sling, also covered in bandages.
“I thought you died!” Tarchiv shouted in relief as grabbed his functioning right arm in a raider’s grasp.
“I almost did, me and a pack of raiders got separated by some of the fire and we had to go towards the prey lines. When we broke out of the treeline we were right in front of a whole army of them. A few of us died fighting then and there but I was in no condition to fight. I'm surprised the damn prey kept me alive. I was sure they would-”
“They're not prey” He said almost too fast. “Their humans!”
He suddenly realised there was silence around him now. Looking around every other Arxur around looked at him.
“What?”
“Their humans! I removed the helmet off that one to see what they looked like!” He turned to Izzik and pointed. “Remember when I threw up! It was a human, and when I mentioned it when we got captured, their leader said they were as well.”
“No way…”
“Humans? It can't be–”
“Didnt the federation make them extinct?”
“Fellow predators?”
“We probably got stuck in the crossfire of their invasion”
“Why do they have venlil with them”
Tarchiv had no answers for them or for himself. Only more and more questions are building in his head. What were these humans doing here? How did they survive the extermination fleet? Were these strange venlil battle thralls or something else? Why haven't the humans contacted the Dominion to join forces as fellow predators?
And most importantly.
Will he ever see his mother and sister again?