u/passingbyer

(Art by Ryuujin. Nothing really to add here, just hope you enjoy.)

…The planet Equas is currently in eye sight. It looks like how it was described, a big white ball with a small ring around it. Oh right shit, forgot. This is log three of Mission Halaku. I’m not going to redo this log, screw it. As I said, the place looks like a giant snow ball, and it's where a highly fortified Avali stronghold is located. I'm not going to comb the entire planet to find it. I'm going to turn on my long distance radar and see what it picks up. Problem with that is the second I spot something, they'll also spot me. I'm hoping the Avali signaler will trick them to not instantly shoot me out of the air, but I don't think I'll have to worry about that. I managed to install the cloaker in my ship the best I could. I'm no mechanic but I was trained to do some maintenance with these types of ships. I'm…99% sure this thing will work. Now for the obvious problem, what the hell am I gonna do once I land there. Sure I can probably fly invisible past the Avali air defenses, and maybe slip past any sentries visually looking for anything their radars can't. But I don't think they'll just let me walk through once I step out of my ship.

I don't know…maybe I'll try to talk my way through, show them I'm unarmed and not part of the Earth Core anymore. Maybe they'll detain me, thinking I might be a spy, then I'll explain what I'm actually here to do. Then what? Will they let me go? Will they clutch their little chests in adoration for my selfless act for giving the final words of one of their own to them. Will they laugh, then shoot me in my stupid head-GODDAMN IT! Aghhh…No going back now…You know, the strangest thing I noticed while I use this time as an excuse to delay the inevitable, is the lack of space traffic I'm seeing. It's the only reason why I've just stopped here. Something doesn't feel right. I didn't even get a ship signature when I arrived here, and this planet is supposedly a heavily armed and occupied fortress. My gut is telling me something is up, but I can't waste anymore time. I'm going to scan around the orbit and see if I can spot something, then I'll go dark and make my way to the location. Wish me luck-

-I'm standing over the body of an Avali covered in snow, he's staring at the ceiling near the entrance, with frozen eyes and mouth agape in shock. He sure as hell didn't freeze to death, someone struck this place before I arrived. I'm right at the doorsteps of the Avali facility. The complex is large and imposing, yet it's just as dead as this guard here. The doors are pried open and all I see in the bowels of the place is nothing but darkness. I'm glad I'm packing a flashlight. I think whoever did this is still in there. And I'd rather not find out the hard way if they're friendly or not. I don't have any weapons on me, besides an entrenching tool and an unloaded pistol that I found on the ship. I'd use the Avali weapons but we all know that wouldn't work, the DNA recognition sensors in them won't allow me to fire it. I guess I'm heading in, I just hope I come back out-

-I see bullet holes in the walls. Avali don't use bullets, not for their main infantry weapons at least. Blue blood is splattered across the halls, but there's no bodies around. I think it's clear to me what happened. But the question is how? I know I go on about how Avali under-estimate our prowess and all, but even I have to admit there is no way for us to assault one of their planets without suffering an insane amount of casualties. This must've been some sort of strategic play. The planet is rather secluded being so close to our territory. Maybe some spec ops group infiltrated the place and took everyone out from the inside. I'll keep checking around-

-I got shot at. I bumped into someone. A human. I'm bleeding from my shoulder. Argh…Bastard had a good look at me too. Not a good shot though. Guess I gave him a scare when he spotted me from afar. He chased me into the same room I escaped too. He fell for the whole Hiding beside the door frame act. I pushed the barrel of my gun against his skull, racked it to let him know what it was. Mind you the thing wasn't loaded, but he didn't know that. I asked him everything, the who and why. He's told me he's part of a mercenary group, that he was hired to clean up after his buddies’ mess. He didn't tell me who hired him, but there are only so many groups of people who want to see Avali dead. I asked him why come back for the bodies, he said he knows my gun isn't loaded. He broke my nose, I caved in his skull. Guess I did find a use for this shovel after all. I got a gun now, one that works and I can assure you hurts like hell. 

I still need answers, for all I know, Naala is dead. I overheard the dead man's radio asking for his whereabouts. Then it became a chatter of noise of multiple people asking about the status of that Avali signature that disappeared not too long ago. Then something about the survivors possibly calling in help. Another panicked voice saying that the outside perimeter of the facility is being shot at before cutting off abruptly. Finally a voice commanding someone to send backup down the same corridor I'm at. I'm going to have some company-

(Something I whipped up just for the hell of it. This is set between Mission Halaku Log 1 and 2. Avali art made by Sky from Furaffinity, and meme template taken from here https://www.reddit.com/r/LobotomyCorp/s/uN1hHn9ymO and then bastardized by me! I feel like it sums up the main point of this story quite nicely...)

“-let's see here, this ship got to have something useful…”

(rummaging through a floor locker can be heard)

“OKAY, here's something good, some environmental fatigues, better than this hospital gown…size fits all, let's hope so. Alright now what else…damn whoever owns this thing has a clutter in here…

(Sounds of metal being lifted off the bottom of the locker)

“...An e-tool? I'm sure I'll find a use for that. What else, what else, wha-AH HA! A pistol!”

(Sound of slide being racked)

“With no ammo…or a magazine for that matter. Who the hell did I just rob? Bizarro? Sure let's keep a shovel around but make sure the gun isn't loaded in war torn space. By God…”

(Continues rummaging of garage)

“Jesus Christ dude, clean out your goddamn stuff…alright a bunch of tools, some candy wrappers…with some half eaten candy still insi-Gross! Ugh…hmm? Oh! What's this I see?”

(Sounds of paper being held apart)

“Oh-ho, you sly dog you! What have you been hiding from the galaxy…

(Pages being turned)

“Daaaamn. Didn't think they made ‘em that big! That's one nice rack on her! Oooh baby hehehe…man. I'd like a rack like that to store my guns in. Alright let's see what’s on this pag-huh? Why are the goddamn pages stuck togeth-”

(Art by Javenchi_Art, I feel this is a good representation of how humanity feels about Avali in this story...as always criticism is always encouraged!)

This is log two of Mission Halaku. I decided to give it a name, might as well. Anyways, I'm currently huddled up in a rundown hotel room in the dingiest part of a space station named Aurelius. I always heard rumors back in the armed forces about this station, of how it should be classified as a man-made tumor at the fringes of Human space. The rumors were partially true, especially as I'm sure there's some sort of deal going on in the room neighboring mine. But I digress, what is my main reason for being here? Well, as it turns out, an Avali expert lives in this station. Well not exactly an expert, more like an obsessed degenerate. The guy had Avali paraphernalia of the dark sorts, it ranges from some scavenged tech to assorted meats. I know I joked about us eating Avali last recording but…yeah I would never. The ammonia smell is enough to make me gag. Anyways, the guy's name is Chucky Horowitz, and I told him my story. Not the part where I'm a fugitive but how I met with a dying Avali, and I needed to know where I could locate her family. He found my request interesting, he didn't ask me any further of how I even got here but he did begin questioning me about Halaku. He asked me her name, the color of her feathers, how she sounded, etcetera. Of course, he also asked me for the transcript of her last words.

I gave him a copy, he examined it for a while and eventually came back to me with more info than I originally got. He actually could read the Avali language, it's called Scratch, he got annoyed when I referred to it as itch. He offered me not only a better translated transcript, but also a lead onto where I can find a pack member of Halaku. The only thing he wanted was the audio of Halaku's last words. I didn't feel right giving this to him, but I also had no other lead to go off. I gave him a copy. The smile he gave me, it was enough to make me regret giving her voice to this creep. I can justify that transaction later, right now I got what I needed. I know where Halaku's pack mates are, or at least a direction to where they are. I'll have to go to a marked planet, an ice world named Equan. It's an exoplanet located outside the edges of the Solar system, and it's categorized as inhospitable to human life, perfect for Avali. My very brief rundown of Avali biology was that they are very fond of places that could freeze the blood inside a human body. That'll explain why all their ship's interiors were ass-freezing cold. My military fatigues are designed to adapt to temperatures specifically for occasions like that, but I don't believe it'll be enough to withstand the negative hundreds degree weather Equan gets. I'm going to do some shopping soon, after I get a good night's rest. I might as well just hit pause on this-

-Okay, well uh…okay, this is still the same audio log, a lot of shit went down. I got shot at and ran out of the station. Turns out a bounty is set on me, and news of it has just reached the station. And of course Chucky ratted me out to every scum in the place. Before this all happened however I was looking for some high quality cold gear for my mission to Equan. I met a girl there, her name is Reena Vel, and she was very helpful in finding what I needed. She runs a supply store in the grimy part of Aurelius, and she has just the things I needed to not die from instant hyperthermia. She did ask me why I was looking for these, didn't seem interrogative, just some small talk. I told her why I was there, about my mission and my plans on going to Equan. She told me that I better rethink my plans, that that planet was an Avali stronghold and if I go flying anywhere near it I'd be blown apart. Chucky never mentioned anything about that, dirty bastard. She actually offered to retrofit my ship with a fake Avali signaler. Since the station is so far off in the fringes of Human space they get assaulted frequently by Avali skirmishes. The people here had to get creative when they travelled outside of the station, they managed to make their ship’s frequency signal match an Avali's. That might be enough to let me slip past their first line of defenses but they’ll definitely know something is up once I get closer. She also offered me something more impressive, a ship cloaker, that’ll render me invisible to all ship monitors for a short window. This was all for a price of course, this time with real cash. I thankfully had a large amount of funds saved up, had them stored in my own personal bank so at least I didn't need to worry about the feds freezing it. I paid her a ludicrous amount of cash up front, she was actually surprised that I didn't try to haggle her further, I said it didn't matter. She was kind enough to actually start working on my ship immediately. I helped the best I could but it was clear to me that she was the expert when it came to this sort of stuff.

That’s when shit hit the fan. I nearly got my head blown off as I was suddenly shot at. A whole mob of opportunistic bounty hunters crawled out of the wood work to get to me. Chucky, of course, was the one pointing me out to the rest of the low lives all the way from the back. I knew immediately what they were after, and I told Reena that she needed to get out now. She was reluctant, but after a shower of bullets peppered my ship, she finally agreed. She did warn me however that the installation of the tech was still unfinished. I told her I'd worry about that later. I got my ass out of there, and of course a bunch of them followed right behind me. As my ship was being shot at I was attempting to finish off the last of the installations, the modules for Avali signaler was poking out of my dashboard, and I had to slam it back in place. I was far enough away from the station now, but the desperate hunters were still on my tail.

I have no qualms in shooting down my fellow man, I'd much rather fire at a Xeno but when push comes to shove and all. The problem was that my ship had no munitions of any kind. Turns out it was strictly a scouting vessel, just for simple monitoring and travel. The lack of guns on it made it faster than most ships, but now I was utterly defenseless from these bastards trying to get my head. Right as I believed I was done for, I heard a massive explosion from behind me. Looking at the rear view monitor I saw the ship on my tail was nothing more than debris and smoldering metal, the rest followed shortly after. I was confused at first, that was until I received a message on my communications dashboard. It was an Avali automatic weapons system letting me know that I am now in Illuminate territory and to be careful about human pirate bands around this area. Seems the signaller worked. I'm currently floating alone in Avali space, working on the cloaking module and making sure I'm mentally prepared to fly myself to Equas. 

I know who to find now. In the better translated transcript, I see mentions of someone named Naala over and over again. And of course, the mentions of the planet Equas and it being the place she's stationed. At least Chucky wasn't bullshiting me about that. This might be my final recording, I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back from this. If this is then…if anyone hears this, know this. I am no traitor to humanity. I'm embracing my humanity. I'm trying to give the soul of a soldier some rest by delivering this message to their family. Earth Core couldn't manage that with my friend, not for a long time, and by then it was too late. Despite this not being from a human, I plan on delivering this so that maybe this could give some closure to someone. I won't stop. No matter what's in front of me. This is Private [redacted] signing out-

(This is a continuation of Scouting Attack Incident Report, also art credit goes to Nexeron!)

Recording is…on! Alright, good. This is Private [redacted], and I'm a fugitive to Earth Core now. Last recording I did for my incident report I mentioned I'd be negotiating my contract about taking an early leave from the military. The brass said no, so I got creative. I'm currently driving a stolen scouting ship out into space, I've only ever been trained to use these ships, and luckily for me this was the only one left unintended at the medical station’s docks. I managed to get out of the area before the nurses even knew I was gone. As I was a good distance away from the place I did receive a transmission from the Space Marshalls, telling me to pull over, so unfortunately I couldn't keep up my element of surprise. One FTL jump later and I was far out of sight! I used up all the bluespace fuel for that, nearly causing my engine to blow but the bastards won't be stupid enough to follow me all the way out here. So now I'm just floating in space waiting for my engines to cool and I decided to take the time and record my thoughts.

Why am I doing this…ever since my last battle in that scouting ship, I was left feeling different. No, I didn't get a change of heart for Avali. I still think they're all scum that deserve nothing more than to be spit roasted over a fire and be marinated with teriyaki sauce. No…most are scum. I still think about her, the Avali that died beside me. Halaku. She…said more to me before she died, things that I didn't hear but my translator sure did. There was so much more she said before I passed out, I still have the transcripts I printed out from my helmet's logs. I'll read a bit of it out…

Oh please, kin…if you hear me…know that I care for you…I wish I was by your bedstand to say my heart's words…please, anyone tell my kin brothers…ape man? Can you tell them? Can you tell them my heart's words?...Are you not asleep?...Awaken for my sake…Someone…tell them…I don't want them to forget…

I'm sure my translator mangled the shit out of her words, and it's very clear she was delirious due to her blood loss. Besides that I feel like I understood what she was saying. That she wanted to tell her family her final goodbyes. I didn't read the whole thing by the way, most of it's nonsense. But the handy thing about our translators is that they actually print out the words in the Avali language as well. I think it's called Itch or something. I'm going to find her family, or whoever she refers to as “kin”. And I'm going to hand them her last words. I'm going to do this because I know no one else will. Not every soldier gets a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, I'm going to make sure she isn't one of them. I…don't want this to happen again, not even to an Avali… This is Private [redacted], signing out.

(Art not mine just looks cool, also criticism highly encouraged!)

​

The year was [redacted]. I was a soldier, aboard a scout ship during the Human/Avali war. I was and still am a private, got chewed out of boot camp and thrown into the conflict, just another body to face against the Xeno menace. The ship I was on was used to sneak around the alien’s backlines, sabotage and quick skirmishes, the general terror tactics that we all know and love. One day however, during a routine scouting mission of an unknown part of Xeno’s space, we were attacked by an Avali strike force. They first launched some kind of EMP at us and our engines got completely fired. We returned the favor, firing every possible weapon at their now clearly visible ship, didn't stop them from launching boarding pods into our ship. I remember when they first boarded,

​

how they shot down most of my buddies and crew, and how we returned their kindness back and painted the walls purple. Avali were tiny Xenos, the tallest I met could barely reach my chest. They were also fuzzy beings, covered entirely in fluffy feathers, some in distractingly bright colors. What they lacked in size and general intimidation, they made up for in fire power. They're tech is beyond even our most advanced tools at the time, their main infantry weapons could rip through the hulls of warships, and their own ships were kitted out in energy shields that could brush off most if not all of our attacks. So imagine their shock when us, a bunch of comparatively primitive beings with low end tech, managed to take down one of their main battle cruisers. I remember the story. It took a lot of our own sure, and ultimately it was because one of us decided to ram our ship into theirs when our nuclear core was going into a meltdown. It blew up inside an Avali battleship, ripping it in half, killing hundreds of them. 

​

​

The bad blood between us was already rough but after that stunt they went all out on humanity. That probably would've been the end of us if we didn't immediately got to work and took as much of their technology and repurposed it. It's still nothing compared to what they have but let me tell ya, having a energy shield over your entire ship and tanking a full gauss cannon blast was what truly let these feather heads know we weren't to be messed with. Our infantry weapons also got an upgrade, like the rifle I was holding that fired plasma tipped bullets. It was enough to puncture through their armor, and during that ship battle we nailed a bunch of them. With all that it still didn't end well for us, they had cloaking operatives sneaking around, slitting the throats of any human they come across. Had one of the bastards try to get the jump on me. Its energy blade sinking into my shoulder right as I was turning around. I grabbed the little shit and slammed it to the floor like a football, curb stomped it for good measure. Things finally came ahead when the ship's power went out, backup power kicked in but we were all stuck inside a heap of metal floating into space.

​

​

The Avali weren't any better, their ship was also totaled by us. The thing was blasted with pneumatic torpedoes and EMP blasts. We were all in the same literal space boat, and by then all of my buddies were dead. I was cooped up inside the control room, my gun aiming down the only entrance. I was tired, bleeding, and running dry of ammo. Earth Core would eventually send a rescue team for me, it will take them about a month to even sign off on it and by then I'll already be dead. At this point I was convinced I wasn't going to make it out, so I decided to run into death rather than wait for it. I walked out of my control room and into the gore covered halls of what's left of the ship. The place had an awful smell of both iron and piss. Red and purple blood mixed together into an awful smelling maroon color. The air in the ship was running low and my suit's internals are notifying me that my O2 tank is almost depleted. Right as I was thinking about finding these bastards before dying, fast around the corner I spotted it. The last Avali. I expected more to survive, that I’d find myself in front of a firing squad but all I found was one lone Xeno. We both stood there, our guns both aimed at each other.

​

​

My sights were right on it, a shaky red dot on its big head as my trigger finger wanted to itch. I saw it, or rather, I saw her also shaking in place wondering who among us would fire first. In that moment however, clarity struck me. It was like I was hit by a gust of wind. I relaxed my trigger finger and lowered my gun. She did the same as I saw her relax but I felt her eyes never leave me, I could see her clearly now. White armor covered in both red and purple stains, black skin tight suit underneath, a helmet obscuring her face. Her feathers on her arms were black with orange tips, there were some missing. I saw a very clear purple wound on where her stomach would be, I remember who shot her. He got a plasma bolt to the cranium for that as I ducked for cover. We stood there for a long, quiet moment. We were standing by a large window, outside we could see the wreckage of her ship and the infinite void littered with stars. I forgot when we did this but we both slumped ourselves against the wall opposite of that window, and we both stared off into space. She spoke to me, we both had translators, ours were a bit more shit though. They spoke and my helmet’s hud would translate the scratch into legible words for me to read. 

​

​

It wasn't perfect, but I remember her saying something along the lines, ‘What a waste of life’ or ‘What a waste again,’ I don't know, the thing didn't come out right. Either way I understood the message, from the tone of her voice more than anything else. I said something back to her, I told her ‘I wished we never met.’ All the wasted lives and resources, not to mention plans of making new homes for humanity to prosper. It all went down the drain the second our two species met. Then she says the darndest thing, I believe her translator might be better than ours because mine ends up translating, “I wish we both lived as one.” From what I took away from that, she wished for our species to have lived in unity, ain't that a pretty thought. We both slowly faded away as my breathing apparatuses began failing and she was bleeding too much. The dead Avali ship soon covered all we could see from the window as we were left in its shadow. 

​

​

She asked me for my name, I didn't catch her saying that but I saw the text pop up in my visor, her breathing was so shallow I could barely understand if she was speaking or not. I told her my name, [redacted], she then told me hers. Halaku. We sat there, two soldiers waiting for death. I don't remember much, I know eventually I passed out. When I woke up there were people around me, all in medical scrubs rushing me somewhere. I guess the rescue team managed to arrive on time, I thought for a second before drifting back to unconsciousness. I…was later told that the Avali I sat next to died. They found her slumped near me, if I was left there for another minute before they found me I would've shared a grave with her. Not that they actually gave her a grave, the science guys probably have already gathered up the remaining bodies and are dissecting them as I speak. I was told later the only reason I was even found was that Earth Core spotted an Avali message sent to them. They thought they'd accidentally intercepted an attack plan because it mentioned a massive strike being formed at my location. Once they arrived and searched the wrecked ship, they found out the message originated from her.

​

​

I was visited by one of my generals at the hospital, I was to be redeployed in a week's time. No rest for the wicked I suppose. I'm going to be stationed in another ship, a warship this time, guess they figured I'd be better off in the front lines rather than being muscle for a scouting ship. I'd like to renegotiate my contract, I feel a break is needed. I forgot to mention, Halaku did mention something else, something about her planet and her clan. I won't mention it here, but let's just say I'm planning on having an extended leave soon, and I might not come back. I hope the guys will understand, hope my folks do too…how do you turn this thing of-

​

​

​