Why Bugs 2: Pt 2
Okay part 2 got long, this may need a part 3 for what I had planned. At least pt 3 will have more time with Ashirl
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Memory Transcription Subject: Marianne Louise, Sillis Emergency Relief Liaison
Date [Standardized Human Time] March 13, 2137
Time [Adjusted Sillis Time] 2945/3600
My job continued past nightfall, the line itself staying unending until I ran out of food to give out. The grain was my lifeline, being able to fill barrels of it and thus sacks to put into the bags given away. No one will like the taste but soups can last longer and be more filling, especially since water was no issue. No, reiteration, *Clean* water was no issue. The moss that makes up the pedestrian paths and covered buildings hold plenty of water that stays clean. So, boiled starchy fruits and grain are getting a lot more common. Anyway, that grain was easy to give to a lot of people relative to the fruit and vegetables that I ran out of a while ago.
Perhaps there were fifty Tilfish left in line, I think more, that I had to make leave. It sounds good that there were only fifty left out of the original growing massive line, but I know enough to understand that these were the desperate and smart. Plenty others still don’t dare to approach me or accept human controlled food, even out of desperation. Fear in both themselves and carnivorous ‘overseers’.
That’s actually a new nickname I’ve heard when they think I’m not listening when they talk about the UN. I don’t care, but I suppose it’s a neat sounding name.
Fifty Tilfish. I wonder what they were thinking when they had to go empty handed. Footed? When they left without the food they expected. I hope they came just to fill a gap they already planned to cover with their own reserves. Those preserves finally have a true purpose aside from gifting since the raid. But if they were here because they had, truly, nothing else, only waiting to fight their urges from my sight… It is only a sad thought.
ERL, Emergency Relief Liaison, it felt like a joke.
I have no power as an Ambassador here, no other route to aid in food allocation besides what my predecessor has already done. Technically, I was supposed to have a UN transport vehicle, but I was never afforded one. Doubt anyone would take my offer to bring them to the Embassy for ration cards anyway, they’d rather walk for days on end for that. Fuck you, Marlirnt.
I made way for the pantry and fridge for a look at the damages. It’s an empty pantry and fridge. Maybe there was a little grain left at the bottom of the barrels, just morsels. None of this would be filled until my claim form gets processed and the Embassy sends me new food. That, or the harvest season, which those flooded farms will now have to be substituted.
I sat down, been on my legs too long, and it was warm since I was out there in the growing wind for most of my day.
I thought about it earlier when the task of giving food grew monotonous. There was still unaccounted for resources in the flooded area. It’d just be a short trip.
Memory Transcription Subject: Comstilirnt, Free Antennae Recruit
Date [Standardized Human Time] March 13, 2137
Time [Adjusted Sillis Time] 3545/3600
The days fire left us in the shadow of its extinguished form. The night sky lays ahead bringing the cold and the wind, shuffling the branches above me with god's rhythm. The feeling of dread never left my antennae since meeting the human once again. The tall thing looked right over my head, slowly peering down behind that visor, accusing me after it gave me extra food to help the hermit. It was so strange.
The odd human food pack is unique, using plastic and sand to heat up this strange ‘porridge’, bags within bags. I had spent an [hour] of my time to find any taint about it, searching the forums to see if this was a ploy to keep infecting us, to- to return us as we once were. The thought makes me shudder. But… at least the forums tell me that this plastic bags of food were without *meat* by design when stamped in green color. I felt fuller than ever.
My holopad flashed, the alarm going off. I took all that was left of the human food pack and stuffed it in my satchel, and returned to our work. Following the dirt path down the greater hill to camp, even from here, I can see that the flood raised by another three [22.4 cm]. I and my compatriots are doing everything we can to divert the waters to keep it from flooding the entirety of our homes.
My squad leader hissed a warning somewhere, followed by an explosion behind me. The wind, strengthened by Sillis’s anger, pulled the dust aside to show how we still had much more work to do. Parallel to the hills crest was a waterway that the Chteltik farms drained into, and if we blast the stone away, the rogue waters will stop rising and flow to that waterway. A dozen of us is not enough to get the stone away in time, I will be ahead at where the flooding flows into town to try and block it.
Camp is now desolate, the rising water making it into a shore where three of our boxes have disappeared in the murk. The rest of our explosives are back with leader, as is the food I had brought back. My plasma rifle is still here, and I retrieved it to make way to where this flood was flowing into town.
Leader showed me this trick, to pull away the power cartridge from the rifle to use as a lantern. While unseen inside the rifle, the power cartridge glows rather brightly after the first bursts for a time. It still glows now, a purple hue on black chitin. It is enough to help me traverse the flooded edge without problem, and it is a relaxing shade of color over the grey bark of trees. So I march with the rifle over my shoulder, purple light in my opposite claw.
The view of this natural dam could’ve been beautiful if the high fire was out, but the only light now was of the twin moon and myself. The twins gave white light to see that the water was murky and full of branches, leaves, and mud. No matter, seeing the ships breach atmosphere have ruined the view forever.
I keep thinking about that hermit.
There was another explosion and I paused to see the black dust rise into dark skies. There were no cheers, and our job continues.
So I continue. I took one of those bags from my satchel, and under my purple light, it read gibberish in human language. Once open, it was two thin squares the length of my mandible with many indents. It reminded me of the stone tiles they use for the aqueducts. It was dense yet broke easily, flaking off small bits with each bite. The taste was bland, like ground Chteltick seeds, that left a hushed taste of the same plant leaves. It was not bad, but it doesn’t compare to the red seed fruit at the market.
Did I anger the human?
I grasped my antennae to cease the shivers. My mind should be here, in the now. This is no place for fear and memories.
I made it to where the hills narrow and met, where the collected water rose and pushed the dirt forward to town. Now it’s a gap between the natural barriers, and we need to fill it to keep the flooding at bay. There are already a number of tree’s felled and put into the gap, stuck, which was the hard part since we had no heavy equipment.
The cartridge is back into the rifle, and using the shape of the shadows, I lined the tip up against the base of a small manageable tree.
*Tsznk*
The bright light flashed and the plasma scorched into the tree leaving a hollow cavity inside lined with hot embers. It wasn’t enough to fall, so I repeated the action.
*Tsznk*
*Tzxcht*
The sound was as a crack, and the cavities left the tall tree little support.
*Tzxssst CRACK*
Finally, the tree bore no more strength to hang on and fell, luckily, forward and partially into the water. I brought out the Cartridge for light, and tried to push against the bottom of the tree to get it fully in. My claws dug into the burnt wood, the heat searing.
I couldn’t move it.
I tried again and again, with only a sudden but short lurch to show for my effort. I placed the light between my mandibles, pressed my head against the wood away from my eyes, and pushed with everything. It didn’t work, so I pushed more. Then more. And more and more. My home was on the line, so I kept pushing, and it hurt with passion.
I was so tense, I thought for a moment that the cartridge between my mandibles would be crushed, but relief came when the tree finally gave in. It LAUNCHED forward and floated in the waters. I raised the cartridge above my head, trying to see it flow to the blockade we had started. Slow and steady, until it finally pressed up on the barrier and joined the structure. The backup plan worked perfectly, and I couldn’t help but laugh with joy. Now, I just need to do it a couple more times.
“Huh, I wondered what that was.” A low barking voice whispered behind me.
I felt all of my limbs push me forward into the mud away from it, I screamed in panic. Behind me was the predator, the HUMAN, far from home and prowling in the dark. With purple light shaking the shadows, his shape changed and I steadied my rifle at him to kill him once and for all.
Silence, I didn’t dare say a word as it stood there dumbly, head tilted as it looked to the side slowly. The purple light of the cartridge bounced off that decrepit visor, the shadows hanging high on the human. It smiled, SMILED, regaling in its surprise attacks success that it quickly hid under its lips.
“Ya know you can’t shoot without ammo, yeah? I had the same issue a while ago. Not fun when you get in a little trouble.”
Trouble? Oh god, I was right, it is angry at me. Of course it is, and now it’s here to kill me.
“I thought you looked familiar. Not just back at my place- well, actually, yeah back at my place. Not today, just a while ago.”
Oh no.
“You were there at the attack, right?” It sounded so happy at the revelation. “Gunner on top of the vehicle. One HELL of a crack shot for an alien. Dunno why I recognized you, even under the cloth you looked like a black pearl with green eyes. But I do, it just took me a second.”
I tried to keep the urge to run down, my legs writhing, I can’t console my antennae. I needed to run, but I couldn't. If I run, he’ll only catch up, all the reports say that they will ALWAYS catch up. Maybe if I get close enough, I can get the Cartridge, It’s only two paces away.
The thing exhaled slowly into a growl. “Calm down, kid, I’m not killing you for something you were ordered to do.”
“Y-You arrre… Not?” My words slid across my mandibles, grinding out my words to a slur.
The predator flinched, pressing a paw to his ear. “No! No! Quit your, *augh*, whining and get up.”
The predator stepped closer, and I couldn’t do as it ordered, merely a stumble as I crawled forward. The light started shifting, the human had the cartridge in his paws and kept the precious ammo away from me, securing it’s safety and… and… This- this was the plan all along. Without ammo, I can’t cut the trees, everything will flood and we will all die!
He tossed the cartridge right in front of me. Within a legs distance.
…
“Wanna be a hero, Kid?” It said quietly, going back to how it usually acts at the emergency ration building. “That makeshift dam still needs to be filled, and I don’t need to wake up in water. Again, not here to kill you.”
I still couldn’t move. Nothing was making sense. The translation was slow, and the information was… something. A person known for courage and achievement. Is it making a deal with me?
“Still in there?” It asked, kneeling down. “I swear, if you just fainted-”
I shook my head as much as I could, a predator could never resist easy food.
“Oh! Good. Well, come on, we have a job to do. Use that gun of yours to get the trees down and I’ll push them in the water.”
Was I not the one to get the log in? The predator was the one to do so. And I… felt useless again.
I finally got off of the dirt and looked up at the Human. I was a bit shaky, but I still got a good look at them with the cartridge in hand. Thick muscle trying to hide under the grey cloth, black tufts of hair.
“I will… be a hero?” I chittered.
“Well sure, kid, I’d rather you take all the credit anyway. I don't need Free Antenna knowing I was here. And… it’s not like I can just cut the trees down without a tool myself. You are doing something here to save the good folks at home.”
I looked at the rifle in my hands, feeling a new weight on the weapon. Same one I used that day.
After a moment, I let my antennae sooth over time before I went to the next smaller tree and repeated the process.
*Tzst*
*Tszrnt*
*Tzxcht*
The wood creaked but didn’t fall. It was a bit thicker than the last, but before I placed another shot, the human asked me to step aside. He stepped back five paces, looked the tree up and down, and bolted toward it. I fell on my abdomen, the sight of a human running as fast as they could was as terrifying as an Arxur sculking the road.
*CRACK*
The human collided with the wood and both fell. The tree was half submerged in the water, and the human is now in the mud. Without light, I could hardly see him there, but he got up and patted his legs, moving his arm out in these strange motions. I never thought they would be as hard as metal, and they also groaned like metal.
“What’re you looking at?” The human ignored my murmur of a response, he seemed strained. “Get to shooting trees and I’ll handle the rest! Come on, we got a town to save!”
“Y-Yes!” I said aloud and turned away to get to the next tree quickly. I shouldn’t anger the human again, or worse, shoot at them again… I will angle myself away from them just in case.
And we will save the town.