u/sombrefob0053

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]
[Special thanks to u/AdalwinAmillion for proofreading this chapter!]

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀CCCP
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Academy of Sciences Report.

1. Current Research and Development.
The recent acquisition of Arxur and Federation technology has enabled significant breakthroughs in engineering, physics, and biology, including the development of advanced laser technology. Breakthroughs in the field of physics have allowed us to develop vessel shielding by manipulating magnetic fields around vessels to deflect plasma gases. Further testing has shown that by supplying adequate power to this system and modifying hull plating metals to increase conductivity, the shields and hull can be polarized. This polarization enables the creation of a localized Lorentz force field, which serves as an additional protective measure to slow high-velocity kinetic projectiles. Due to the Federation's strange lack of this discovery and lack of countermeasures for shielded vessels, this will no doubt give us an edge in naval warfare.

To advance the deployment of these advanced shields across the fleet, a coordinated decision is now required from the Ministry of Defense and the State Scientific Directorate regarding allocation of materials and power infrastructure. Official approval is needed to prioritize shield integration in new construction and retrofitting programs. Furthermore, dedicated funding and expedited resource distribution must be authorized to enable mass production and rapid deployment. Input from both engineering and military officials is requested to finalize technical standards and operational protocols for initial field trials.

Alien laser technology significantly surpasses current human capabilities. Although laser technology has existed for some time, its energy requirements have historically been prohibitive. Constructing defensive guns at the scale requested by the state would previously have required the combined power grids of several republics for a single installation. However, advancements in power efficiency and management derived from alien technology now allow a single gun to operate on as little as 60 megawatts. Blueprints for these emplacements have been submitted to the Ministry of Defense, and construction is underway.

Further breakthroughs in energy management have allowed the development of large coil gun designs to be built alongside current laser defences. Current projections show these weapons can fire a tungsten shell up to 2% the speed of light. Even with the breakthrough in efficiency, it must still be noted that the massive amount of power still required to fire these weapons, blackouts, and damage to the power grid are to be expected with their use.

Efforts are being expended in the field of plasma-based small arms; while these weapons would give our ground forces an edge, with plasma being able to burn through most known ground-based armor. Research into this field has proven remarkably difficult. To get a plasma weapon to fire successfully, the superheated plasma gas, or ‘bolt’, must be surrounded by a magnetic field well after it has left the ‘barrel’ of the weapon to contain the gas, lest it dissipate or harm the user. The only examples of this technology being used by the Federation or the Arxur are ship-based weaponry, making scaling down difficult.

Federation- and Arxur-based translators have finally been successfully reverse-engineered and modified to suit human needs. Although supply remains limited for the time being, only individuals who pass strict background checks and hold positions critical to diplomatic, scientific, or security operations are eligible candidates. All applications are reviewed by a multi-agency oversight committee to ensure alignment with national interests, and recipients undergo ongoing monitoring to prevent unauthorized use or data leakage. Selected citizens and personnel that the state deems fit may receive a one-time painless injection to rewire their neural language centers to allow for xeno language to be understood.

2. Current Terraforming and Mega Projects.
Ever since the founding of the permanent moon base Мирный in the early 2010’s and the first Martian colony in the late 2020s, terraforming efforts have been underway on the red planet. Logistics in the time before FTL and even our space elevator proved a challenge. This was solved with the invention of the space hook, a large tether placed in low orbit of planetary bodies or moons that would impart momentum on our ships by flinging them into another hook. When another hook would catch a ship, it would impart its momentum onto it, making the loss of energy net zero. These hooks proved so efficient that they could cut down the trip to Mars by up to six months, depending on the position of the planet. Our union currently employs dozens of these hooks across the system, several on Earth, one on Luna, two on Mars anchored to its moon Phobos, and several others in the outer colonies such as Europa.

The first domed city was quickly set up on the red planet, we called it Победа. The invention of the space elevator and its construction on both Earth and Mars marked a new age for our efforts. Heavy industry was quickly set up along the red planet, spewing its toxic and extremely potent artificial greenhouse gases into the martian atmosphere. A large band of massive superconducting cable was laid around the equator of the planet over the next decade to provide the planet with a magnetosphere, along with automated atmospheric collection operations on Titan, bottling mass amounts of nitrogen and shooting it to Mars with the use of mass drivers, the red planet saw a rapid increase of its atmosphere.

And now, almost a century since we first set foot on the planet, I'm happy to report that the atmosphere on Mars has finally reached one bar of pressure. Our citizens may now walk the red surface without the full atmospheric suit and only require a helmet with an oxygen supply. Our next step is to seed the shallow oceans that have formed across the planet with Phytoplankton and set up atmospheric cleansers to make the air breathable over the coming decades. Federation technology shall prove invaluable during this step, speeding up the process by hundreds of years.

Terraforming operations on Venus have also made a crucial step, with the construction of several large angular mirrors placed at the planet's L-1 point in the early 2040s. The planet has finally cooled enough for the dense C02 atmosphere to begin raining down to the surface; this will continue for another half a century before it will eventually freeze over into solid C02. When that time arrives, plans are already in place to begin mining the frozen gas and shoot it off-world.

Future projects include the possible construction of massive engines across the equator of Venus to speed its rotation to that of a normal Earth day. Consideration for such engines on our new republic on Venlil Prime is possible, but ill-advised, as such forces would likely destroy all life on the world. Even further future plans include the research and construction of a Dyson swarm. Such a project will have to be managed with intense scrutiny, for even a small mistake could change how the sun's heat is distributed throughout the system and potentially render the Earth uninhabitable.

3. Star Charting and Exploration.
Under the orders of the state and to find new horizons, teams have been sent out towards other systems to map them. Several potential colony locations in nearby systems have been logged for further review on their viability. Our furthest scouting team has reported a rather interesting find. Roughly 324 light-years from Earth is an uncontacted pre-FTL civilization, our team has noted they appear to be a race of bipedal marsupials currently in the steam age. Plans on how or if first contact is to be made are left to the General Secretary, but more pressing matters are currently on the agenda. Defending Sol is currently the top priority.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Vlen U.S.S.R Citizen

Date [standardised human time]: December 10th 2111

I slid out from under the large metal beast I had been assigned to work on by the humans. Dirt, grease and oil matted my wool and covered my ‘mechanics jumpsuit’ as the humans had called it. Our new government had written into law that all Union citizen were required to wear their artificial pelts for the sake of ‘decency’. The logic still perplexed me; were they so perverse that they couldn’t tear their predatory eyes off of one another if not covered? I had to begin trimming my wool shorter than I would’ve liked to mitigate the discomfort of the clothing, but if raised in it, I could see how it could become a second skin.

I looked over the manual once more, trying to figure out how the transmission on the damned thing worked. Human war machines were insanely complex, if I hadn’t been gifted at my work, I surely would’ve broken something in the machine by now. Brahk Vlen, why did you have to drop out of law school? Now I'm stuck working on these damned tanks! I sighed. I had to pull out the transmission of the tank and put in a new one, I would’ve never been able to lift the heavy component out if not for the small-looking but rather powerful suit I was given.

“Hey Milos, come help me take this damned thing out!”

I yelled to the other mechanic in the shop, he was a human from an Earth region called ‘Yougoslavia.’ I still found it strange that the humans had a different culture for each region of their planet. The man grumbled and walked over. He grabbed a couple of tools, then slid under the tank with me. “Here, hold it up while I unbolt it.” Milos held up the transmission while I grabbed a socket wrench and got to work. The front end came off with some effort, Milos quickly placed a jack underneath it for safety as I got to work on the rear bolts.

I pulled hard on the rear bolts, the exoskeleton providing me with the strength needed to loosen them. With the last few bolts removed, Milos and I lowered the large piece onto the ground, our exoskeletons groaning under the massive weight, then slowly dragged it out from under the tank together. I panted from the effort, and Milos whipped the sweat from his brow, leaving a streak of grease in its wake.

“Јебеш га, even with these suits that's still a massive pain in the ass, at least we don't need specialized lifting gear to take it out now”

I swatted him with my tail and chuckled. “You brahking idiot, we are the heavy-lift gear!” I flexed my arm at the human who was nearly doubled over laughing at my display. I guess I had changed, after a week stuck working with them, I had actually started to see these humans as people.

“S-stop, Vlen, you’re killing me! Haha,” Milos wheezed out and wiped a tear from his eye.

Once he had recovered, he looked over the massive transmission lying on the ground and groaned. “Man, I am not looking forward to taking this thing apart…”

I sighed and agreed. I moved over to the toolbox and grabbed what I needed, then we began to take the thing apart. It took several hours to get it halfway disassembled, just as we were preparing to fully tear into the guts of the transmission, our shift ended.

“Hey Bellic, toss me a rag”

“I told ya to stop calling me by my last name, you’re not my mother.” He said and tossed me a shop rag. I quickly wiped the grease, grime, and stray transmission fluid from my paws. Parts of my wool would be stained a dull pink for days from this damned transmission. We both stepped out of our exoskeletons and started to walk out of the shop. My eyes were greeted by the light peach-colored sky from the red star in the distance. The ever-present twilight of Venlil Prime hung over the sky. Milos knocked an elbow into my arm, making me look at him.

“Getting star stuck from something you’ve seen a thousand times, Vlen? If anything, it should be looking up like that!”

I elbowed him back, and he chuckled. “Well, Vlen, you wanna grab a drink? I’ve been meaning to drink you under the table!”

“Oh, you’re so on, Bellic. I'm gonna kick your ass!”

He let me lead the way to a bar I used to frequent, it was one of the few privately owned businesses still allowed under our new government. As I made my way down the street and towards the bar, I saw a group of soldiers standing outside of the bar, they appeared to be unarmed, probably on leave. One of them was inhaling a lit stick that I’d seen some humans favor as some sort of hobby or addiction. Milos strode ahead and walked up to the small bunch of soldiers.

“Hey comrade, mind if I borrow a smoke? I ran out, and they haven't been shipped over yet.”

The soldier pulled out a red box and opened it, seeming to grimace at the number left in the pack. He shrugged his shoulders, pulled one out, and handed it to Milos.

“Prima, huh? I guess you like them harsh.” Milos chuckled as the soldier lit the stick for him. Milos took off the stick as I caught up and stood with the group.

“So what's your name, comrade? Are ya on leave?”

“Not quite, just a small break after a combat deployment… I'm Ivan, this is Roman, and This is Artyom.” He said, pointing to the various men in the group; he then pointed to an empty patch of air.

“And this is Sash-” He stopped at the sight of himself pointing at nothing.

“… Never mind…” Ivan took a particularly long drag off of his burning stick, nearly inhaling the entire thing in one breath. The man pointed out to be Roman patted Ivan on the shoulder. “It's okay, comrade, we all miss her…” Ivan held a pained expression for a moment as he exhaled a large puff of smoke. “Why do I get to live and she doesn’t?” Ivan muttered under his breath, the other humans didn’t seem to catch the words. Stands of sympathy tugged at me, everyone had lost someone recently.

I lightly nudged Milos with my tail, and he looked over. “Hey, let me try that thing, it seems to help with…feelings.” He gave me a questioning look, then glanced at his burning stick. He shrugged and handed it to me, saying something along the lines of ‘knock yourself out’. The metaphor failed to land on me as I placed the non-burning end into my mouth and inhaled deeply as I had seen the humans do.

I immediately regretted my actions, I felt harsh fire travel down my throat and into my lungs. My body immediately tried to reject the smoke, before I knew it, I was hacking so hard that I had dropped the burning stick to the ground and was half doubled over in a hacking fit that never seemed to end. No matter how hard I coughed, the feeling in my chest failed to end. The humans around me had started laughing at me while I tried not to empty my stomach all over the pavement. I sat down to regain my breath, it took several minutes of gasping before the feeling in my chest started to ease.

Then I felt lightheaded and jittery, my senses sharpened, and a strange relaxation settled within my body as the effects of the lit stick settled over me. I stood up on shaking legs a punch Milos in the arm. “You Brahking ass! Warn me next time!” Milos just chuckled and lightly rubbed his arm where I had struck him.

“Totally worth it to see your face! Now come on, let's head inside.” He waved the group of soldiers goodbye, then walked into the bar. After taking a moment to collect myself, I followed in after him. Milos stood at the bar and asked for ‘two high proof drinks.’ The bartender poured out two shots for us as I joined him. We both picked up our glasses. Milos moved his glass to mine and clicked them together for some odd reason.

“Živeli!” He said, then I downed my shot; I felt the warmth spread down my esophagus. I recognized the brand, a fruit-flavored [vodka], a bit weak, only 75% ABV. I thought he ordered high proof? I glanced over as he downed his shot, regret was immediately apparent on his face. He set his glass down and started coughing.

“Ack! This is straight poison! Are you trying to kill me!? I thought it would be some normal vodka!”

I chuckled at him, watching his reaction. “What? Can't you handle a drink this weak? C’mon milos, I thought you were ‘gonna drink me under a table.’”

I called the bartender and asked for something actually strong for us. The bartender nodded and poured out two more shots, now this was a real drink! 96% ABV. I quickly slammed the shot down, the light burning, tickling my insides on the way down. Milos looked at his shot with concern evident on his face.

“What a matter? Can the big bad predator not handle his drink?” I teased him while ordering another shot for myself. Milos took a deep breath, then slammed back the drink, the sounds of gagging and coughing followed immediately after.

This was going to be a fun night.

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]
[Special thanks to u/AdalwinAmillion for proofreading this chapter!]

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Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Internal report.

1. Current Economic and State Affairs.
Production targets are being met as the civilian economy transitions to support military needs. This shift will soon be implemented across the newly integrated V.D.W.S.S.P.R. To improve productivity, Venlil workers, whose physical limitations affect performance in heavy-duty roles, will be provided with advanced mechanical exoskeletons. Shortages of consumer goods have been reported in several S.S.R.s due to the ongoing production shift; these shortages are anticipated and should be managed in the interest of both human and Venlil populations.

In response, the State Planning Committee has instructed local unions to implement rationing measures to ensure equitable distribution of essential goods, with priority given to workers supporting military production and families with dependents. Additional surveillance of supply chains is underway to identify hoarding, black market activity, and disruptions. Public information campaigns will be launched to maintain confidence in the transition and discourage panic buying, emphasizing collective responsibility during this critical period.

The transition of the V.D.W.S.S.P.R. to a socialist-based economy has encountered challenges. The recent shooting of protesters must not recur. Efforts are underway to identify and prosecute the responsible unit under Article 58 for counterrevolutionary actions. Additional incidents, including the ongoing insurgency, continue to threaten rural economic development. Targeted propaganda is being distributed across Venlil Prime to emphasize the importance of herd unity against counterrevolutionary threat. Former 'predator disease' facilities are being converted into party buildings, including labor union headquarters, Young Mans Communist Association offices, and K.G.B. outposts.

The drafting of the new V.D.W.S.S.P.R’s constitution is underway, along with the design of a new flag of the republic. New infrastructure is being built on Earth to link it to the preexisting FTL communications network on Venlil Prime. New laws are being written to mandate clothing for all bipedal citizens. The State Planning Committee is currently setting up the necessary infrastructure and computing networks for a new Gosplan across the new republic. Officials from the State Planning Committee are currently negotiating production targets and incentives with local labor unions. Collectivization of local farms is currently underway, with the largest of food producers, total collectivization has been deemed unnecessary due to the Venlil’s unique ‘collective herd’ farming structure already mirroring much of our own policies. Although the new republic is off to a rough start, current projections far exceed expectations.

2. Counterrevolutionaries.
A stark rise in human xenophobia and human-predator-based supremacy has been noted across all corners of our glorious union. Largely stemming from the false narrative fed to the people by the fascist scum of the Arxur Dominion, these ideals serve to undermine our current government and newly integrated republic. This new ideology is linked to current acts of racism against Venlil party members and workers, as well as several incidents such as the shooting of Venlil protesters, resulting in over 100 casualties and several others injured. Links to such beliefs have even been reported within the Committee for State Security itself, with unconfirmed reports of targeted use of enhanced interrogation techniques against 'lesser species' and their sympathizers.

To ensure the continued loyalty and effectiveness of our organization, all K.G.B. ranks are currently subject to intensified internal vetting procedures. This includes routine polygraph examinations, anonymous peer-reporting channels, and continuous ideological assessment, all supervised directly by the Political Directorate. Internal surveillance measures are being expanded, with all suspected personnel placed under active monitoring. Advanced data analysis is being employed to detect irregular communication patterns or unauthorized associations with subversive elements. Through these ongoing efforts, leadership can be assured that internal threats are being systematically identified and that the K.G.B. remains vigilant in upholding the Party's ideals.

While a purge is currently ill-advised due to the war effort, resources are being expended by agents loyal to the ideals of the Party to find these traitors. One possible agent for such operations is Cosmonaut Grigori Reshko, whose unwavering ideals, proven by the act of his going AWOL for the sole purpose of seeking revenge on the fascist scum that fed him a Venlil, could prove valuable given the proper training. While Grigori’s revenge expedition was known and deemed necessary to test Arxur's strength and hand-to-hand combat capabilities, further oversights are ill-advised. Our party must stay unified; if we are to falter, we and all of Mankind shall fall to the depravity of our current galaxy.

3. Venlil Biological Findings and Ecological Reports.
Further study of xenobiology is being conducted with the help of several Venlil medical experts. Their biology provides a unique challenge to the union, requiring a slightly less oxygen saturated atmosphere due to their evolution. Venlil Prime’s atmosphere contains less oxygen overall than Earth, reaching the upper limits of what is considered safe for humans. While human habitation on the planet is possible, it can take up to a month for adaptation to the environment. Persistent reports of altitude sickness have been filed from new human settlers throughout the planet. Military conditioning such as that employed in the Red Army has seemed to decrease the sickness and allow for faster adaptation; further study is required.

Venlil biology is strange they have a Hemerythrin-based blood. While usually such blood is clear or pinkish on Earth, the alien biology has folded the protein in a way never before seen. Combined with a naturally orange-colored blood plasma and a large amount of carotenoids present in their system from their herbivore diet leads to the orange-colored blood they are known for. Such biology has proven non-toxic to humans, although our only current example is Grigori Reshko, further testing is ill-advised.

Our scientists have probed into the Venlil genome; the findings are strange. Evidence supports likely tampering by outside entities. The Venlil Genome has fully intact instructions for an olfactory system that has been harshly repressed to the point of it being absent. Further edits are shown to be evident in leg formation and bone density; it appears the entirety of the current Venlil population suffers from a similar condition of Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Research is underway to determine if this is reversible.

Further efforts are being expended at stabilizing the ecosystem of Venlil Prime by introducing suitable Earth species. Reverse-engineered Federation technology is currently being used across Earth to cleanse the scars of our unification. Projections predict the full colonization of the North American continent will be possible in the coming years.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Ryka

Date [standardised human time]: December 8th 2111

I awoke in the medical bay of my ship with my head spinning. I sat up, groaning from my injuries. I glanced down at my body, patches of my scales were discolored where the human had landed his strikes. I could immediately tell I was missing several teeth and there was a splint placed around my nose. How could I have lost? The human seemed to have boundless energy, perhaps if I hadn’t been starving for most of my existence, I would have managed better.

Still, this proved that they weren't pushovers, and I had made the right call to ally with the humans. I quickly stood from the bed, intent on not showing my weakness. I was sure rumors were already spreading about how the mighty chief hunter was bested by a lowly leaf licker. My body protested as I walked to the bridge; I hadn’t been this badly wounded in nearly a decade. I entered the bridge and demanded a report from my underlings.

They quickly handed me a data pad with a report already written on it. It showed the fleet's repairs were progressing swiftly, with a few reinforcements, we would soon be ready for another campaign. My eyes squinted as I read further, several pieces of technology had gone missing in the time I was out, likely stolen by the humans so they could replicate it. It seemed they were starting to grasp Arxur tech, I growled that was one of the few leverages I had over them.

My tail lashed the ground with a thud, sounding from the impact. “You are to find whoever has been taking our ships' components. So I may deal with them personally, understood?” I barked at my underlings, my annoyance at this inconvenience explicit. I shoved the data pad back into my underling's claws and walked off. After being out for a few days, I was starving. I made my way to the mess hall and picked up a nice cut of Venlil, left over from the raid.

I was drooling before I even bit in, dull pain ached across my maw as I chewed the delicacy. The missing teeth I had incurred during my fight made it troublesome to chew the meat. But it was more than worth the effort, the savory juices flowed over my tongue with each bite. I savored the flavor, so entranced that I hadn’t realized that I had finished when I went to bite again, my maw meeting nothing but empty air. I grumbled and got up, deciding to go to my quarters and grab my own data pad to check on any reports that were only meant for my eyes.

I walked down the hallway and opened the door. Once inside my quarters, I grabbed my data pad and looked over anything that was sent to me. I saw a file mailed to me by the office of Betterment itself, I scrambled to open it. Already late from being out for a few days, I quickly scanned the document. Confusion fell upon me as I read. Betterment had declared that Humans were, in fact, not true sapients and was mobilizing for an attack on Earth. My eyes widened, and I nearly dropped the data pad. Had they lost their minds?!  

The Dominion couldn’t afford a two-front war, and they knew it. What the hell had gotten into them? The fact that they ate meat should be proof enough that they were true predators regardless of their strange desire to eat leaves. The lone fact that one had bested me in combat was proof enough that they could hold their own. The plans detailed my role in the attack as a forward position meant to surprise the humans by suddenly turning on them.

I sat on my bed, stunned. What the hell was I gonna do now?

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

WARNING: CYBER SECURITY BREACH DETECTED ENCRYPTING FILES…

>!Ascension...!<

For the General Secretary's eyes only.
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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Intelligence Report: The Federation.

>! A qnvdnw li aqcbdvah jatnqdahr iqlj snttnqjnkt tbn ilqjnq vnkhdh qnmushdc ake elcujnktr qnclvnqne iqlj dkruqonkt ilqcnr bar qnvnahne rdokdidcakt idkedkor nvdenkcn dkedcatnr tbat tbn hnaenqrbdm li snttnqjnkt bar nktnqne dktl ak aoqnnjnkt wdtb tbn inenqatdlk olvnqkjnkt rmncdidcahhy tbn glhrbdak cljjlkwnahtb iuqtbnq akahyrdr ruoonrtr tbn nxdrtnkcn li a rbaelw olvnqkjnkt wdtbdk tbn cljjlkwnahtb tbat nxnqtr dkihunkcn acqlrr tbn oahaxy tbdr nktdty ammnaqr tl clhhaslqatn wdtb snttnqjnkt ahhlwdko tbn clktdkune mqnrnkcn li tbn aqxuq tbqnat ar a jnakr tl jadktadk clktqlh tbqluob a rlcahhne ukdidne iqlkt aoadkrt mqneatlq rmncdnr.!<

>!Ruqvndhhakcn envdcnr mhacne wdtbdk tbn liidcnr li snttnqjnkt bavn qnvnahne tbat glhrbdak hnaenqrbdm bar hnvnqaone dkihunkcn lvnq tbn aqxuq tl lqcbnrtqatn ak attacg lk bujakdty.!< Current intelligence assessments estimate that this attack may occur within the next █████ to ████ ██████. Ongoing efforts to collect additional information have encountered significant challenges and currently exceed operational capabilities. Although the broader Federation appears to lack formal records or awareness of humanity's existence, covert operations to obtain further intelligence are hindered by the distinctiveness of human biology, which makes infiltration difficult.

>!Niilqtr aqn ukenqway tl tqadk vnkhdh lmnqatdvnr ilq iuqtbnq qnclkkadrrakcn lmnqatdlkr dktl tbn inenqatdlkr wlqher gny taqontr dkchuen aaia tbn cqaehn kdrbtah tahrg ake tbn edrourtdko camdtahdrt wlqher li!<████████ and Ittel. Training ██████ operatives has proven to pose a unique challenge, their lack of vital instincts and tactical intuition has proven more than troublesome with the few recruits that have been selected for their so-called ‘████████ ███████ ’. Further research aims to override their troublesome fear and weak will. The most promising candidates have proven responsive to rigorous mental and physical conditioning.

Experimentation on subject: █████ for operation >!RUSALKA!<appears to have been a failure, but only time shall tell.

Efforts are currently underway to prepare and supplant the idea of a long, protracted war with our current citizenry. Resource stockpiles and vast underground shelters are currently being constructed across Earth, and, to a lesser extent, the V.D.W.S.S.P.R surviving civilian shelters of the planet shall prove vital in the sheltering of the local populace.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Former Ambassador Tarva

Date [standardised human time]: December 8th 2111

My wounds were nearly healed by now, the dressings across my body had been mostly removed as the wounds closed up. Although I was getting better, I had never felt worse. Every morning I awoke with a splitting headache; nausea clung to me throughout the mornings during my stay at the hospital. Strange cravings filled my mind, some as revolting as the flesh from a corpse. Even though I was eating less than ever, it seemed I was putting on weight.

I groaned as I shielded my eyes from the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital room, another pounding headache throbbing in my skull. I quickly reached over to the controller of the IV leading into my arm and pressed the button for more pain relievers to flood my system. Relief flooded my veins as the medicine was dripped into my system. The migraine slowly faded, and I allowed myself to open my eyes again. I heard the sound of footsteps and a hospital bed coming towards my guarded room.

Confusion dawned on me as the door opened and the bed was rolled into my room. Laid atop it was Grigori, he was in terrible shape. Cuts and bruises covered his body, and a large dressing covered his side, while his wrists bore the markings of previous bindings. I absently noted some of his wounds appeared similar to my own, although much less severe. Sympathy tugged at my heart, I hated humans, but seeing the only one that had ever shown me a sliver of kindness saddened me for some strange reason. What the hell had happened to him over the last three days!?

The last interaction I had with him played in my mind, something had horrified and disgusted him to such a degree that he started to vomit into a trash can. I still wondered what could’ve possibly triggered that reaction. I wondered why the hell he was even here in my room in the first place. This hospital seemed to stretch on for ages there must be plenty of other rooms in this building, so why my room? The question plagued my thoughts.

I suddenly heard a groan from Grigori, notifying me that he had apparently woken up. He glanced around the room listlessly in a daze, then his piercing, forward-facing eyes landed upon me. My wool puffed up at the sight, and I had to sheepishly settle it back down. A look of confusion dawned on his face, much like mine when I saw them bring him into my room. He sat up with a groan, seemingly surprised that he had free movement.

“T-tarva? Why the hell am I in your hospital room?” Grigori asked in a hoarse voice. I signaled a shrug in tail language.

“I thought you would know the answer to that…” I sighed, the hospital room only seeming to grow more bleak with the presence of two injured filling it.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, breaking the growing silence that was filling the room and sitting up to look at him better.

Grigori bared his fangs in the characteristic way that humans showed joy. “I kicked an Arxurs' ass! That's what!” He said, a sense of pride dripping from the words. I looked at him in disbelief; there was no way a human could best an Arxur in combat, they had half of a Venlil's height on the humans and were monstrously strong. The sheer absurdity of the statement actually made me chuckle a bit, something I never thought I'd do again, and from a human no less.

“Yeah right! I'd sooner believe that the Federation had made deals with the Grays than you besting one of them in a fight”

He scoffed, seemingly offended by the brushing off of his ‘accomplishment’.

“I’ll have you know I really did kick her ass, Tarva. Do you want me to peel off my bandage to prove it?”

I quickly shook my head no, it already felt like I had a rock lodged in my stomach. I didn’t need to recreate his scene with the trashcan from the sight of gore. He laughed at my hasty reaction, at least he seemed to get some joy out of my presence here in this dull hospital room. I couldn’t even watch the news anymore, all it did was make me ill. Last time I had tuned in, the reporter spoke of a protest on Venlil Prime ending in a massacre. A crowd had of former exterminators and property owners had apparently marched down the main street of Day-side City in protest of the abolition of private property rights. One brave Venlil threw a rock at a human soldier, they answered with their rifles…

I was told once I was healed I would be allowed to return home, but truth be told I couldn’t tell if Venlil Prime was even a place I could call home anymore. I had heard that some human colonists had moved to the planet, things there seemed to have changed so much in such a sort time, and I wasn’t sure any of it was for the better. The thoughts of what could’ve happened to Rellin still haunted me, if he was lucky, perhaps he was put out of his misery by a human with a swift bullet. That's the best I could hope for, I knew deep down that he had to be dead, but if he wasn’t… he’d be stuck on a cattle farm.

“T̊år̊v̊å? T̊år̊v̊å? TARVA!” The world around me rushed back into focus from Grigori calling my name.

“Tarva, are you alright? You’re shaking…” A concerned look had crossed his face as he spoke to me.

“I-I'm fine…I think I'm just gonna lie down…” I did my best to calm my trembling as I lay back down in my bed and closed my eyes, allowing the darkness to calm me. I tried to think of other things as a wave of exhaustion hit me like an ocean current. As I slowly drifted off to sleep, I idly pondered why I had been feeling so sick as of late…

Realization struck me in the final moments of consciousness before I drifted off. Rellin and I had been trying for a family before the invasion…

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Warning: further data corrupted…

Attempting recovery…

…

…

Recovery failed… Downloading local files into Kolshian Commonwealth database…

…

…

Download complete… Assessing strategic options…

…

…

Viable option detected… Constructing plan…

…

…

First strike option… conclusion unviable…

…

…

Acknowledgment of the humans' existence would cause panic and loosen our control. If a swift strike doesn’t entirely wipe them out. Probability of success with human-aligned dominion break-off reinforcements… 45%

Purging all human evidence from federation databases…

…

…

Reconstructing plan under new pretenses…

Using our influence over betterment, we shall start a proxy war between the disease-ridden predators. Pinning their conflicting ideologies to a focal point. Once Earth is distracted, we shall strike… Probability of success…95%

Commencing Operation…

Memory Transcription Subject: Cosmonaut Grigori Reshko

Date [standardised human time]: December 6th 2111

I sat motionless on my bed, my data pad resting beside me, awaiting clearance to travel to the Salyut station where Ryka had docked her fleet for repairs. My hands trembled with rage and hatred. How could she have forced me to consume another person? That monster will pay dearly for this. The most disturbing aspect is that I enjoyed it, the forbidden knowledge of that sweet taste will forever haunt my nightmares.

The realization in that hospital room of what I had eaten stuck me like a hot iron. How could I have not realized it sooner? Perhaps part of me had wanted to stay in ignorant bliss and pushed the news from my mind. But I could not do that forever, not when faced with the abject truth of reality. I sighed and buried my face in my hands; my chest hurt, and anguish plagued my soul.

My tablet pinged with a notification, I reached over to check it. My clearance had been approved, I knew what I must do. I stood from my bed and exited my room. I walked out of my apartment and down the staircase, exiting the building. With quick steps, I made my way down the street and towards the train station. I walked up the station steps as the maglev train pulled into the station. I boarded along with the rest of the passengers heading to the Baikonur Cosmodrome space elevator.

The train doors closed, and the automated system announced our destination as we accelerated. The train picked up to its blistering speed, the outside world blurred as it shot by. I used the time to think about exactly how I would go about fighting the large reptile. truth is this would probably end in my death, I lacked the natural weapons of claws or the crushing bite force that they surely possessed. It mattered little to me as long as I could bloody her nose. The desire for revenge burned within me like a blazing fire, threatening to consume the world.

I’d make her feel the consequences of what she had done to me, the burning pain of the translator serum spreading throughout my body still hung freshly in my mind, fueling my rage further. The depravity of their regime was horrific, it had to fall. That much was apparent. I had seen combat footage that my brother had privately shared with me, the horrific monsters tearing innocent civilians limb from limb and eating them. It made me sick. Ryka had wanted us to be just like them, we would show the galaxy that we were different! I hoped our leaders could see it, and wouldn’t allow history to repeat itself by permanently aligning themselves with the despotic regime that hadn’t worked out well the first time.

The train began to slow, and the automated voice announced that we were arriving. I must have been so caught up in my own thoughts that I had lost track of time. I got up from my seat as the train came to a stop and the doors opened. I exited the train and made my way down from the raised platform. The elevator was a short distance away. I walked down the sidewalk and towards the checkpoint before the elevator proper. Two guards holding rifles stopped me at the checkpoint.

“Present your ID.” I pulled my ID out and handed it to the guard, who scanned it. The other guard stared at me with starry eyes and motioned to the other guard.

“It's Grigori Reshko! The famous cosmonaut! Hurry up and let him through already, he must have something important to do if he’s here.”

The other guard sighed, handed my ID back, and motioned me through. I thanked him and walked past them, then stepped on the elevator. Determination filled me as I tightly gripped the handrail and pressed the button to go up. The door to the elevator sealed, and a moment later started ascending. Slowly at first, then rapidly, the elevator ascended into the sky. I could feel the increased G-forces press into my body as the ascent quickened. Nothing my cosmonaut training hadn’t well prepared me for, the flight on THE GARARN had been far worse.

The elevator slowed as it reached its summit, then came to a halt as it clicked into place. The doors opened with a slight hiss and groan of the mechanical components, and I stepped off into the station. My eyes scanned their surroundings for the lizard as I made my way down the cramped halls of Salyut Station. I walked further down to the newly built shipyard portion of the station. It was a large open area, I could see the beginnings of assembly of one ship on the other side of the bay.

Looking around further, I spotted her. Ryka was standing with her back facing away from me, talking to an engineer. I clenched my fists as red filled my vision, disregarding subtlety, I ran at her. The distance between us narrowed quickly as I sprinted, hearing my heavy footsteps on the station's metal floor. Rushing towards her, she turned, surprise apparent in her wide eyes. Ryka tried to turn and brace her body as I slammed my shoulder into her large form.

Her claws skittered along the floor, failing to find a grip as she was knocked down. She scrambled to get up and regain her footing. I couldn’t allow her to get up, pressing my advantage, I rushed forward and swung my leg out, landing a harsh kick into the reptile's maw. Ryka recoiled and roared as I followed up with another kick to her abdomen.

“You Выблядок! This is for what you did to me! For what you made me eat!”

I went to kick her again, but Ryka quickly lashed her tail towards my other leg as I sent out the kick. My kick landed with reduced force as my leg was swept from under me. I fell hard, knocking the air out of my lungs. I wheezed as pain spread across my chest, I forced myself to get up, as did she. We stood still for a moment, both of us panting. I shifted my legs and raised my arms, readying myself to continue the fight.

“Well, if it’s a fight you want, Grigori, then you’ve got it.”

Ryka leapt forward and swiped her razor-sharp claws towards me at lightning speed. I barely managed to twist my body out of the majority of the strike, I winced as her claws grazed my flesh, opening light lacerations. I swung hard, landing a harsh gut punch that made her growl. She tried to swipe at me again, and I jumped back to avoid it. Ryka harshly sucked in air, her vigor waning, I could outlast her.

She charged forward again in another burst of speed, forcing me on the defensive. I leapt to the side but was too late. I screamed her claws tore into the flesh of my abdomen, leaving large gaping wounds. I stumbled for a moment before catching myself, blood dripped from my wounds and splashed on the floor. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I gritted my teeth. Ryka panted as I pressed forward, she turned and used her arms to guard her abdomen. I feigned a punch toward the guarded spot, then arched my fist upwards, straining to reach and land a blow on her jaw.

She stumbled from the blow to an unexpected area, I could see red blood drip from her maw as one of her teeth was knocked out. I continued my assault, quickly kicking her leg joint inward, forcing her to fall from her own weight. She fell to the ground hard, stunning her for a brief moment. I was quick to deliver a swift kick to her temple. I jumped on top of the lizard, straddling her. Her claws tore into me as I rained blows down onto her head, a particularly harsh shot to the temple finally knocked her out.

I kept slamming my fists into her, blood pooled beneath her from her crumpled nose and several more knocked-out teeth. I raised my hand and screamed, ready to send it down when a hard hit from the butt of a rifle landed at the back of my head.

Then everything went black.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Ivan Reshko

Date [standardised human time]: December 5th 2111

I dropped my rifle, letting it fall limply around the sling. I rushed over to Sasha and dragged her back from the incoming fire with my good arm. I laid her on her back behind the burning wreck of our BTR. I pressed my hand onto her neck, leaning my entire body onto her in a fruitless attempt to stop the massive flow of blood leaking out of her. It didn’t look good, even I could tell her Jugular was severed. “Sasha, no... no! MEDIC! I NEED A-”

I desperately called out, with tears starting to pool in my eyes, blurring my vision. Sasha cut me off by grabbing my arm with fading strength. I looked down at her, she had a knowing expression on her face. Deep down, we both knew there was nothing that could be done.  “H-hey Reshko…Just tell my mother I didn’t die in vain…” Her voice was garbled from her airway filling with blood, choking her.

“Y-you can tell her yourself, Sasha…”

Her grip released from my arm and fell limply on the ground, she was gone. I shook her in vain, trying to arouse some life from her corpse. “C'mon Sasha, you can't die on me! FIGHT DAMMIT!” I screamed in grief and slammed my fist into her now still chest. My sergeant came up to me and slapped me harshly across the face. “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, RESHKO, AND MAN THAT MG-” I cut him off by slamming my blood-soaked fist into his nose, a sickening crack sounded from the cartilage in the man's face.

“You shut the fuck up, or I swear to god I’ll blow your brains out!”

I knew there would be consequences for this if I lived through the day, but I didn’t care. I was stuck in the middle of hell with my friend dead, and some asshole that no one in my unit liked barking orders. The Sargent fell, his injured leg buckling after the hit, and Isif stepped between us. “Come on, Ivan, don't do anything else stupid, that not what she would want.” I glanced down at Sasha’s body and took a deep breath.

“Fine.”

Rounds still cracked around us, but had lessened significantly. I somberly walked over to the still smoking machine gun and got down on my stomach. I braced the butt of the gun on my shoulder and lined up the sights. I could see the enemy starting to fall back into the cave as friendly forces closed in. I took a steadying breath and held down the trigger. The gun harshly kicked into my shoulder as my rounds streaked across the battlefield, cutting down fleeing foes before they could reach the safety of the cave proper.

The remaining outer defences of the insurgent hideout were quickly overwhelmed by our forces. I stood up and looked at the piece of metal still lodged in my arm. I pulled out my Ipac and got some gauze ready. I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, but the medics were busy with the more critically wounded. I drew in a few quick breaths and gritted my teeth, then yanked the piece out. “Gahh FUCK!” I writhed as the pain washed over me; I had to take a second to breathe before rolling up my sleeve and packing the wound and tying a dressing over it. I flexed my hand, feeling was returning to my fingers, and I was able to move them again, the metal fragment must have been compressing a nerve.

I had to hope yanking that out wouldn’t cause any long-term damage. I grabbed a couple of painkillers from my Ipac and swallowed them dryly, then closed the bag and reattached it to my gear. I pulled out my pack of smokes and grabbed one, quickly lighting it and taking a long drag. I sheepishly walked over to my sergeant, who was still on the ground, a medic was attending to his leg. “Sir…I’d like to apologize for breaking your nose. I’ll accept any-”

He cut me off. “You’re fine, Reshko, it was out of line for me to smack you. I'm not gonna have your ass thrown in the brig. But I'm certainly going to kick your ass once I'm healed.” I stared at him wide-eyed; perhaps I had hit him too hard, and he was still concussed? But I wasn’t going to question the man's decision. I shook my pack of smokes at him, offering one, he gladly took one from the pack and lit it.

Artyom took a very long drag, burning through half of the damn thing in a single puff. He exhaled and coughed harshly. “God Reshko, filterless? ugh..” He complained between coughs. “Alright, Reshko, you, Belikov, and Isif are to join up with the other men in preparation to breach the cave. As the next highest-ranking person in the squad, you’re in charge. Don't fuck it up, Reshko.” He took another drag, grimacing at the harsh smoke. I nodded and grabbed a fresh mag from my vest. I popped it in, then pulled the charging handle to finish loading it.

I started to walk towards the cave's entrance, where the rest of the convoy was preparing to breach the cave. Isif and Roman followed behind me. Artyom called out as we walked away. “Hey Reshko! Go avenge Ivanova!” I simply nodded, I had already decided when she died that I would make these bastards pay for her death. On the walk over, I discarded my cigarette, then once I arrived, lined up with the other men at the entrance. I placed my hand on the shoulder in front of me, and Roman placed his hand on mine. Isif stood at the back as we prepared our breaching line.

The man at the front tossed in a grenade, and we waited for the explosion. Boom. We all quickly filed into the entrance, the grenade had killed a Venlil manning an MG. Another tried to rush towards the emplacement to man it. The men opened fire, quickly cutting the assailant down. The tunnel was lit by shoddy lighting, clearly set up by inexperienced hands.

Further down, I could hear defenders rushing to their positions. The cave branched left, the first man peeked around the corner and was met by a hail of gunfire coming down the narrow passage. The man ducked back, narrowly avoiding the bullets. “Belikov, go clear that position,” I ordered, and he nodded. Roman broke formation and got to the corner, he angled his grenade launcher and fired several grenades down the kill zone.

I heard a surprised bleat from one of the defenders, followed by the deafening sound of explosions echoing off the cave walls. The shoddy lighting swayed, and dust fell from the cave's ceiling. Roman returned to his position, and we pressed forward. The grenades had torn another MG nest to shreds, orange ichor coated the cave walls. More defenders rushed out as we pressed forward, exterminators clad in their suits rushed forward to spray our advancing line with fire.

I leveled my rifle and fired, cutting down a few suited assailants. Orange flame poured over the front of our line, immolating the men in front. Screams filled the cavern as men were burned alive, I saw them flail and writhe as their flesh melted off their bodies. Gunfire poured over the remaining suited monsters, silencing their flamethrowers.

We pressed on, away from the smell of charred flesh. The defenders we’re starting to get desperate as we closed in on their finial strong hold. Another kill zone lay up ahead, I sent Roman to clear it once more. He fired the last of his grenades down the narrow passage. We rushed in after hearing the grenades pop, a dual MG nest protecting a fortified door lay in front of us. I knocked on the thick steel door, then stepped back.

“Belikov, blow it”

He nodded and started to set charges on the door as the rest of us backed up a safe distance. Roman jogged up after us, placing a large brick of plastic explosives on the door. “Everyone, get ready. Fire in the hole!” Roman said, then pressed the detonator. A massive boom shook the entire cave, and dust filled the air as we rushed inside. The door was blown clear off and into the room.

As we entered, we could see a lone exterminator clad in a fireproof suit that had been knocked down by the blast. The room reeked of fuel; I saw a tipped-over Jerry can and soaked documents. My eyes widened as it tried to get up and fumbled with a lighter. I lined up my rifle and pulled the trigger, shooting the exterminator dead before it could achieve a spark.

The room was clear, peering over half-fuel-soaked and ruined documents, I could see the insurgency had been in communication with a world known as Aafa. I wasn’t sure of the implication, but I knew it couldn’t be good.

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Former Ambassador Tarva

Date [standardised human time]: December 5th 2111

It had been just over a week since I ended up stuck in the human hospital. My wounds were healing well, at least according to the human doctors. I was honestly surprised that these so-called primitive predators even had a concept of medicine, let alone understood it. The humans had imported drugs from Venlil Prime to treat me, not wanting to risk the difference of biochemistry of their medicine.

The human assigned to me—Grigori, I think his name was—had left for the night. I flipped through the news on TV, the human remote feeling odd in my hands. The news showed humans setting up a new government in the capital. They called it the ‘Venlil Democratic Workers Soviet Socialist People's Republic.’

What an obscenely unnecessary mouthful; if any Venlil in their right mind made their way into the new government there, I hoped they’d instate a name change. I flicked towards another channel and was caught off guard by the piercing eyes of a human reporter. I had to remind myself that these things ate more than just corpses to get my wool to settle down. They talked about new space defences being set up around the system using lasers they had acquired from the Arxur.

That made me pause. The Arxur, from what I know about them, have never bothered to use defensive laser weapon stations. Where the brahk had they gotten that technology? Had they stolen it from conquered worlds? Then why I never heard of them using it? The Arxur much preferred the use of kinetics and plasma weaponry for their proven effectiveness.

The new knowledge tugged at my mind, like a piece of information you knew but couldn’t remember when you needed it most. No single answer I could think of at that moment made total sense. It was becoming clear that I was missing a crucial piece of information, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what. I shut the television off and pulled the hospital blanket further over my form. I closed my eyes and repressed the thoughts of what had happened to me from my mind. I couldn’t afford to break down here, not on a planet of predators, they’d likely kill me for showing any weakness…

My thoughts broke as I drifted to sleep. A plague of nightmares hunted my dreams, the scene replayed in my mind over and over, the shocks, the pulling of my teeth and claws, the restriction of my very breathing through the use of water and a piece of fabric…

I awoke in a panic, shooting upright in my hospital bed. I hurriedly glanced around the barren room for any sign of threats. The room was empty. I had to forcefully squash my urge to flee and calm my rapid breathing. I flopped back down on the bed, the sudden movements had caused new pain to blossom across my body. Morning light shone through the window, in the silence of the room, I could hear birds chirping.

Groaning, I sat up much more slowly and grabbed a glass of water off the bedside table. I took a sip, easing my parched throat. A knock sounded at the door, then a moment later the stationed guards opened the door to let Grigori into the room. He smiled at me, my translator told me this meant happiness, my mind told me to flee from the predator bearing its fangs at me.

I locked up for a few tense moments as the human sat across from me, he stretched out and covered his mouth to stifle a yawn.

“Hey, are ya feeling any better today?”

It took me a second for my brain to unfreeze and recognize the words were meant for me.

“A-a little better”

“That's great! Uh, do you feel ready to talk to me yet?”

“Fine. What do you want?”

“Uh, getting to know your name would be a good start”

The human scratched the back of its neck, my translator told me he was nervous. Must this thing be malfunctioning at a time like this? A predator nervous about prey? That was ridiculous.

“My name is Tarva”, I stated bluntly, not especially wanting to talk to him. How could they ever expect me to trust them after what they did to me…

“Well, you already know my name…Uh, what did you do for work, Tarva?”

“I was the new ambassador of Venlilkind, until you took that away from me.”

The human gave me an incredulous look, then I saw the gears in his head turning as a profound look of horror slowly spread across the human's face. I glanced around the room in concern. What could make a predator look so horrified? It surely couldn’t have been something I said, and it certainly wasn’t my injured form.

“No... that can't… are you a Venlil?” Grigori asked in a shaking voice, I could see his predator eyes beginning to water. What could be causing this?

“Y-yes, I am. W-what did you think I was?” I shrunk back into the bed fearfully, the human’s display was starting to get to me. Grigori muttered something about how he was going to be sick, then sprang up from his seat, making me jump. I cowered as the human sprinted towards the trash can in the corner of the room. He threw off the lid and hunched over, then began to vomit into it violently.

I sat there in stunned silence as the sounds of the human's impromptu regurgitation assaulted my ears. The smell of stomach bile filled the room. After he finished, he stood back up, bearing a strange look of determination and rage.

“I have to go…”

He said, then went and pounded on the door, screaming at the guards to let him out; they did so with haste. I could hear him pound down the hallway, and I was left sitting there wondering what the hell had just happened.

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Official report: Former Venlil Republic.

Our agents have spread around the capital world after the initial invasion. Initial findings indicate that their form of government was a representative democracy—one where the elite held power over the workers. Old government documents claimed their species suffered an incurable plague and that the planet had to be briefly abandoned, with the next generation being raised off-world by the Federation. Suspected historical tampering during this time is likely. While no evidence to this claim has yet been made apparent, the likelihood is high, the Federation has tampered with narratives before; however, current examples solely include the Arxur.

The current name for the Republic's home world, Venlil Prime, appears to be fictitious, with no historical or cultural reasons backing the name, current speculation points towards the Federation as the likely culprit. Further research into this subject proves difficult, it appears all documents predating and during the plague are nonexistent.

Current efforts are being expended towards locating colonial documents for further military operations. As well as technological schematics for the purposes of reverse engineering. Rumors of dissent have begun to spread; several weapons caches have been raided by operatives. The core of the resistance cells appears to stem from previous members of the exterminators guild, as well as from what the locals have called ‘predator diseased’ individuals. Further research is required on the physiological markers associated with the disease.

Current evidence supports that these exterminators were highly respected members of the Venlil society. Their jobs were to go around and burn any large land animals as well as any carnivores or omnivores alive to ‘cleanse their world of predators’; as a result, the planet's ecosystem is hanging on by a thread, only escaping total collapse through the implementation of Federation technology.

This technology has proven itself highly efficient and useful; current efforts to study it and implement the tech on Earth are ongoing. The Venlil are a weak species, sporting no natural defences, even lacking a sense of smell. Their ‘herd-like mentality’ proves especially compatible with our government ethos, once resistance has fallen to acceptable levels, integration should prove easy.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: General Secretary of the USSR Nikita Sokolov

Date [standardised human time]: December 4th 2111

I sat in my office reading the latest report. Federation technology proved itself impressive, if we had access to it, we could fully restore the Earth to its pristine state. The current efforts of slowly stripping off the glass and then re-enriching the soil to support a proper ecosystem were effective but incredibly difficult and time-consuming.

I sighed and put down the report. Then I looked over at our production numbers, we had managed to forge a hundred and fifty new ships in the last week, bringing the total naval assets to two hundred and fifty. I knew the numbers would only go up as our economy shifted, but that took time, time we didn't have. New updated models of military vehicles were entering the production line, as well as more modern and updated small arms.

Salyut station was currently being converted into our largest shipyard, as well as the only station of its kind that hung above the Martian sky. There had to be a way of producing these ships faster that wasn’t cutting every corner possible. Quality was imperative for naval assets; this wasn't a Kalashnikov that could be half-stripped and covered in mud but still mostly function.

A knock on my office door broke my thoughts. I motioned to the guards to let them in, as I didn't already know who it was. My Secretary strode into my office and walked to my desk. “Sir. I'm here to remind you that the Supreme Soviet is gathering in half an hour, you should get going.” She said, and I stood up and grabbed my coat, the chilly weather outside looked glum, and the sky lay overcast. “Yes, yes, I know. Why didn't you just use the intercom to remind me?”

“Well, Sir, I know you prefer your news in person.” I sighed in defeat, knowing she was right, and walked out of my office, putting on my coat as I walked down the large hallway and into the elevator. I pressed the ground floor option as I finished buttoning up my coat, the elevator hummed as it descended and played the terrible waiting music. The elevator dinged, and the door opened when I reached the ground floor. Quickly stepping out into another hallway, I saw one of my guards open the main entrance door for me.

I walked down the corridor and stepped out the exit. The first snowflakes had begun to fall for the day, I knew in a few hours the old city would be blanketed in a thick white carpet of snow. I saw the state's car pull up at the entrance. I quickly walked up to it and got in, eager to escape the bitter cold. I closed the door behind me, and the chauffeur started down the road. I glanced out the window, watching the ever-increasing white-coated city pass me by.

KGB escorts followed on all sides of my vehicle to ensure my safety. As we turned down another road, I could clearly see the large statue placed on top of the Palace of Soviets that served as my office and administrative hub of the union. The drive was short, having arrived quickly, I stepped out of the car as soon as it stopped. The cold bit into me as I stepped out, the wind tore at my coat as I made my way into the building.

I could see some representatives of their respective SSR’s had already arrived. I quickly made my way down the red carpet and took my place at the head podium. Other members slowly shuffled in over the course of half an hour, until every member's seat was filled and the proceedings were ready to start. “We are here today to discuss the budget, the building of space defenses, and current production targets, among other things,” I started.

I cleared my throat and looked at the projection numbers that sat on my podium. “Now I believe the increase in the military budget is non-negotiable, due to our state of war and our many enemies.” The Australian SSR representative Oliver Williams spoke into his mic. “While yes, I agree that we must prioritize military spending in these trying times, how are some of the smaller republics expected to handle the strain on their economy?” Several smaller SSR representatives murmured agreement throughout the room.

“You will need to properly mobilize your labor. Moscow shall provide aid when it's required, as well as new resources and technology being shipped in from the still-being-established Venlil Democratic Workers Soviet Socialist People's Republic, which are going to be allocated where most needed.” Several representatives nodded, and I waited a moment for any other questions, with none seeming to come, I moved on to the next topic.

“Now, as for space defences, they are of paramount importance. We know the Federation isn’t going to just sit idly by and watch us expand, an attack on Earth is inevitable, and we must be prepared. We need defensive platforms around every colony and moon, as well as advanced subterranean bunker systems on Earth, as well as the larger colonies of the solar system.”

The representative for the Peoples' Soviet Socialist Republic of China, Xiu Chen, leaned forward to speak. “Even with our vast economies, how are we supposed to construct so many emplacements before the Federation attacks us?” She asked; I could see the concern in her eyes. “To put it simply, we’re not. We don't know when the Federation will attack, it could be tomorrow, it could be in a week, a month, or a year. We just need to work on putting something in their way before they can get here.”

Worried murmurs filled the hall as the idea of being bombed from orbit filled their minds. “This is why we need to keep making our production targets, if we fall behind, it could mean one last thing standing between us and destruction”

The meeting of the SSR’s carried on for several long hours as the snow piled on the city.

---

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Memory Transcription Subject: Vlen Former Venlil Republic Citizen

Date [standardised human time]: October 3rd 2111

I did as the humans told me and stayed inside. Armed patrols walked the streets, spreading their messages and keeping things under control. They said it was to stop mass panic or another stampede. When they invaded, I almost got caught in one myself. I had to hide in an alley to avoid being trampled by the terrified crowd.

Now I sat in my home, still thinking about how close I came to dying in that crowd. The memory made me shiver. I knew I was lucky. The humans had invaded my part of the city, but I couldn’t imagine what it was like where the Arxur attacked. From what I heard, it was a massacre. Both civilians and soldiers were killed.

At least the humans hadn’t directly targeted civilians, regardless, the destruction was severe across the planet. Entire cities had been left in ruins, rubble coating the streets, making it difficult for any vehicle to pass; trade had been ground to a halt. An earlier broadcast on the now state-run media had shown the humans breaching the governor's bunker. At the sight of the humans, the poor man blew his brains out on national television, perhaps a better fate than being captured. I still couldn’t scrub the image of the gore-painted wall after he had pulled the trigger from my mind.

I glanced out the window, trying to push the thought from my mind. I could see human patrols prowling the streets, their predator eyes scanning for any signs of descent. One of the soldiers looked at me and bared its fangs. I hurriedly scurried away from the window and took cover behind my furniture, terrified by the sight of it. My breath quickened, and my heart pounded. I was sure they would break down my door any minute now and eat me alive.

I waited and waited, but the thundering crash of my door being knocked down never came. My wool stood on edge as I slowly got up and crept towards the window for a peek. The patrol was gone, I let out a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t be eaten today. I could see, just almost out of view, humans in reflective vests slowly clearing the streets of the rubble.

It was clear that change was coming to Venlil Prime, but I couldn’t fathom how it could be good. Even if the humans hadn’t actively torn into any civilians with their maws that I knew of. They still stood there and watched, complicit, as the Arxur did so. They had allowed thousands, if not millions, of people to be carted and dragged away screaming into Arxur cattle ships. And they just brahking watched as people were dragged away, some of them even children.

One thing was certain: the humans were here to stay. I wondered if I would ever taste true freedom ever again. Now I and the rest of us left on Venlil Prime were stuck under the watchful predator eyes of mankind. My idle thoughts drifted towards that museum exhibit at the Venlil Museum of History. I wondered how true it had been, had they really nuked themselves? Another patrol was coming down the street, I quickly ducked my head to avoid their gaze.

I could hear one of them shouting into a voice amplifier, although it took a moment for my brain to process the words. “Comrades and new citizens of the union! Please report to your designated stations for your mandatory new citizenship papers and rations!” The leader of the patrol said as a few soldiers broke off from the patrol and started sliding pieces of paper under the doors of residents.

One was slid under my door. I hesitated for a moment before grabbing it and looking it over, it was a local map marked with a building on it. Participation is mandatory. Please make your way towards your sector's designated location. Small text at the top of the map read, it seems I didn't have a choice, unless I really did want the humans barging down my door.

I slowly stood on shaking legs, fear coursed throughout my body as I walked towards the door. I wished I could just stay inside, I wasn’t sure how long I could bear having all those predator eyes staring at me. I slowly opened the door and peeked outside. I could see the patrol moving down the street, repeating their instructions and sliding maps under doors. I took a deep breath and walked out, then shut the door behind me.

I saw others opening their doors to make the brave trek, the neighborhood slowly shuffled out and walked down the street. Instinctively, we bunched up to form a herd. We walked past rubble and damaged buildings as we made our way to the locations. I saw a human construction team putting together prefabricated concrete slabs to form a drab-looking mass housing complex.

My herd rounded a corner, and down the street I could see the building we were supposed to head towards. It looked like a reperposed store front, covered in red banners and propaganda posters. Barriers had been set up to force a queue, with armed guards stationed around. I could see as we approached that there was a table set up in front of the building with what looked like a higher-ranking human wearing one of their bulky translators sitting at it.

I walked in between the barriers set up which led to the table, the herd followed behind me in a forced line. I nervously walked up to the table, and the man looked up, eyeing me down before he spoke. “State your full name.” He spoke in an even tone and grabbed a red booklet to fill out. “U-uh, my name is Vlen”

“I said your full name.”

“V-vlen is my full name.” I stated sheepishly, to which the human cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged.

“Species?”

“V-venlil.” He jotted down the information in the booklet.

“Age and occupation?”

“I-I'm twenty-two, a-and I'm a mechanic.”

“Place of birth?”

“D-day-Side City”

The human nodded and wrote down the information in the booklet. “Please walk towards the camera station for a photo.” I nodded and followed the barriers to a small marked-out area. I stood in the small square, and a human positioned a camera and took my photo. The camera printed out a rather small photo; the photographer walked over to the higher-ranking man and handed the photograph to him.

The higher-ranking human pasted the photo into the booklet, and I was motioned to walk back to the table. I stood in front of the table, and the human handed me the booklet. I looked it over; on top of it, in gold-printed human script was CCCP. The middle held the symbol often seen on their banners: two tools overlapped over a globe with plants surrounding the globe, tied together at the bottom with a banner, and at the bottom in more gold-plated script read Internal Passport.

“Head to the next station for your rations; you will receive a labor assignment tomorrow. Welcome to the USSR”

I nodded and continued down the path of barriers.

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Hacking attempt failed...

Rerouting....

Rerouting....

Probing cyber defences...

Gap detected breaching firewall...Accessing human database.

Constructing timeline...

...

...

Purging irrelevant data...

[November 9TH 1979. Location: Moscow Voyska PVO headquarters 11:06 AM]

Alarms blared around the facility as early warning satellites and radar detected thousands of incoming American nuclear missiles; they had been detected late. Impact, T-minus ten minutes. Protocol dictated that the information be transferred up the chain of command; the lieutenant on station made the call.

11:07 AM: T-minus nine minutes until impact. The phone rings at the Kremlin. T-minus eight minutes until impact. Soviet automated Perimeter system activates, and launches missiles to broadcast launch codes to all ICBM stations and silo's.

T-minus seven minutes until impact. Soivet nutron based intercepters on the moon lock onto missiles streaking through the atmosphere. They don't have the munitions to intercept them all; priority is given to core Soviet republics.

T-minus five minutes until impact. Preimeter finishes broadcasting the codes; all stationed personnel know the protocol: if codes are received, they carry the same authority as high command. T-minus three minutes until impact. Moon-based interceptors fire their payloads; explosions light up the upper atmosphere as the missiles are intercepted.

T-minus two minutes until impact. General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev gives the confirmation order to fire. The world holds its breath as Soviet missiles launch from their silo's.

T-Minus one minute until impact. Civilians scramble for shelter, unaware their fate is already sealed.

IMPACT

London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Kyiv, Baku, Minsk, Vladivostok, Beijing, Pyongyang, and thousands of other cities are vaporised in an instant as the world is bathed in Nuclear fire. The West had been hit much harder; their interceptors had only caught a few Soviet missiles, compared to the thousands the Soviets had intercepted.

[July 1st 1981] The USSR enters a prolonged period to recover and rearm. Nuclear winter ravages the northern hemisphere; millions starve in resultant crop failures and radiation sickness.

[September 8th 1990] The nuclear winter that blanked the planet fades; the USSR exits its isolation and addresses the world. The General Secretary steps to the podium to speak. "A tragedy of this nature must never befall humanity again; this planet must be unified. As the sole remaining superpower, this is an ultimatum: you will either join the union peacefully, or be destroyed"

Warning: further data corrupted.

Memory Transcription Subject: Minor Hunter Isif

Date [standardised human time]: October 1st 2111

I stared at the ruined city of the once pristine Venlil capital city. All this destruction just to be fed, a true tragedy. While I knew prey would never accept us, my defective mind still dreamed of it. The humans were strange, diving around shouting propaganda from vocal amplifiers about how the people and workers of this planet were being liberated. Even as our forces started to get offworld and leave the planet in their hands, we had still rounded up and taken a substantial portion of the population back with us as cattle, quite the 'liberation'.

My tail twitched as I remembered the human slamming the but of their rifle into my stomach; the area was still tender. While true, I hadn't exactly wanted to do it, I still had to set an example for my men, and Betterment's eyes were always watching for any slip-up. I shuddered at the thought of what they'd do to me if they found out I was defective.

I started walking towards one of the last Arxur transports heading offworld; my steps slowed as a thought crossed my mind. Our governments had recently announced an exchange program between our species; perhaps I could stay here or even go to Earth if I joined it? The idea embedded itself in my mind, and I had to forcefully stop my tail from wagging. Anything to escape the cruelty of betterment what was this feeling in my chest?

My emotions continued to allude me as I thought about how this would play out. I would be hunted down and executed if I didn't report in; desertion is a death sentence. I would have to get clearance from Chief Hunter Ryka if I was to partake in this exchange mission; the only problem was I doubted she would be happy to let a man such as myself run off with the humans. I had made the mistake of making a name for myself as I rose through the ranks; I was on a prime track to become a Chief Hunter myself if I continued.

But that facade I had trained so well since I was a hatchling was starting to eat away at my insides like a putrid rot. It tore away at my being with each passing day; it was only a matter of time before the mask slipped. My thoughts were broken as a human had managed to sneak up behind me and smack me on the back, causing me to jump.

"What's wrong, Lizard boy? Your transport is right there; they're all waiting for you"

I growled at the human and knocked his side with my tail. "I told you not to call me that, Leaf Licker!" The audacity of this human, showing no respect even after I helped him out of that burning transport. I doubted I would ever understand their mindset: who sees an apex predator and sneaks up on it?

"Alright, alright, whatever you say, Siffy" The human chuckled, clearly enjoying screwing with me. I wanted to rip his throat out. "That is NOT my name and you DAMN well know it!" I roared at him while pointing a sharpened talon at his face. The human only smiled back, not showing a once of fear. Had I gone soft?

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" I couldn't take this anymore; I couldn't risk snapping and killing him with a whole planet full of humans that would hunt me down. I huffed and swiped my tail at the human's legs, knocking him off of his feet and onto his ass. I chuckled at the slight revenge for tarnishing my honour and started to head to the transport.

The human hurled obscenities at me as I boarded the transport, which only further heightened my amusement. I smiled as the doors to the transport shut, and we started to take off, knowing I would never have to interact with that nuisance ever again. I sat in my seat looking over the remnants of my squad; it was a shame that we had lost some, but they could always be replaced.

I wasn't like I had a personal attachment to my men; I could barely remember the names of those who died, not that they would remember mine, especially if they found out I was defective. The transport ascended quickly through the atmosphere, causing the shuttle to vibrate from the power of the engines. Before long, we had crossed the threshold, and the ship flew through the void toward one of the few carrier ships the Dominion had bothered to make for this operation.

Why on Prohets green rock we hadn't utilised it to transport more than a few ships was beyond me. Our transport quickly closed the gap and flew into one of the hangar bays; the large doors closed behind us and pumped the hangar with atmosphere. The transport doors opened, and we all funnelled out. I quickly made my way towards my assigned personal quarters, a rare luxury afforded to higher-ranking members of the Dominion.

I opened the door, stepped in and shut it behind me. I sighed, taking respite in the silence of solitude. I walked slightly forward into the room and grabbed my data pad off of a nearby shelf. Sitting down on my bed, I started to type up my report of the battle. It was long and tedious; boredom clawed at my mind as I finished and hit send.

I sighed once more and steeled myself for what I had to do next. I had to choose my wording carefully and not let the facade fail me. I drew in a long breath and hit the button to call Chief Hunter Ryka. The call buzzed for a few moments before she answered, a look of annoyance on her face from being bothered.

"What do you want, Isif? I'm very busy." Ryka said in an irritated tone.

"Chief Hunter, I require your approval to join the exchange program." I said in a neutral tone despite my pounding heart and frayed nerves.

"Now why in all the mighty Prophet would you want to do that?"

"It would be wise to learn more of the humans, yes?"

Ryka's eyes narrowed, and she thought for a moment. "Fine. You can go, but you'll report anything of note directly to me, understand?"

"Understood, Chief Hunter." She cut the call, and I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding. The application process took several days, as the humans looked for a suitable candidate to pair me with. The only bright side of being stuck on this cramped ship for so long was the fresh Venlil for our meals.

Days later, I was returning to my quarters after eating dinner. I stepped into my room and turned on my data pad. Seeing the notification made my heart skip a beat. I quickly opened it and read its contents.

Congratulations, Isif, for being accepted into the exchange program! Your exchange partner has been selected to be Ivan Reshko. Would you like to message him now?

Prophet, help me.

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Cosmonaut Grigori Reshko

Date [standardised human time]: November 29th 2111

I was assigned to be the 'guardian' of a new political prisoner. With the new translators being in short supply and only working properly around half the time, the state saw fit to shuffle my role towards alien matters. I suppose the only blessing of that damned translator serum I was injected with is that I could properly communicate with the galaxy; subtext, vocal, and body language were all preprogrammed into my brain's language centers.

If given the choice, I wouldn't have taken it, not for all the vodka on earth; I couldn't wish that white-hot fire on anybody. I shuddered as I walked down the halls of the hospital, trying to shake the memories from my head. I arrived at the room I was told to go to; two KGB officers stood outside the door guarding it. I saluted them and presented my identification; they checked it over, then unlocked the door and allowed me inside.

I walked in, and the door was shut behind me. I could hear the television playing in the corner of the room. It appeared to be a broadcast from the planet that had been liberated a few days prior. "Stay in your homes; martial law is in effect with a strict curfew time! Workers, do not fear; your liberation is at hand!" I could hear someone yell through a megaphone.

I grabbed the remote and switched off the broadcast, then my eyes drifted over to the hospital bed, where a gut-wrenching sight awaited me. Curled up on the bed was a sheep-like creature that shook with fear. Its body was covered in bandages, especially its paw. Orange blood had soaked through some of the dressing; that color...it gnawed at something in my brain, but as to what eluded me at the time. What the hell had happened to this poor thing? Was it in some sort of car accident?

I cleared my throat as it trembled, seemingly just from me looking at it. "H-hey, um, I've been assigned to you..." I started meekly, unsure of what to say to the poor creature; I had trained to be a cosmonaut, not a diplomat. I kept my hands raised to show I wasn't a threat to the poor thing; whatever had happened to it was clearly incredibly traumatic. "My name is Grigori, Grigori Reshko. Do you wanna tell me yours?"

"..."

I sighed and sat down in a chair opposite the bed; I wasn't qualified for this; the poor creature clearly needed a psychologist; the only qualification I had was being injected by that damned Arxur. What was I supposed to do? I wanted to pet and comfort the thing, but touching it in its fragile state seemed like a bad idea. "Well, when you want to talk, I'll be here waiting..."

I waited for hours in silence in that room; luckily, the thing seemed to calm down, if even a little bit at the lack of my threatening actions. "W-what do you want from me, monster?" She asked, her voice registering as distinctly feminine. My brows scrunched up slightly at being called a monster. What had I done to her?

"Well, like I said, I was assigned to you... I'm the only Human in the union that was injected with a translator, so I'm the only one that can understand you with absolute clarity. As for why anyone was assigned to you at all? You might be a self-harm risk... that's the best sense I can make out of it." I spoke softly, doing my best to make my voice as nonthreatening as I could.

"Look, I don't know what happened to you, but you're safe here. I'll make sure no one hurts you. I promise." She clearly didn't buy a word I said and kept staring at me with fear in her eyes. I let out a sigh and stood, causing her to flinch. "Look, uh, how about I get us something to eat? You look gaunt, and I could use something myself."

"I-I'm not eating your disgusting p-predator food." She spat with a surprising amount of vigor. "I'm sure I can find something you like," I said as I headed towards the door. I knocked on it, and the guards let me out. I walked down the hall to the hospital's cafeteria and grabbed a tray, then headed towards the fresh fruits at the salad bar.

I had heard that these things don't eat meat, and that predator food comment all but confirmed it. I grabbed a few apples, oranges, and a bunch of grapes along with a small bunch of mixed salad and set them on the tray. I walked over and grabbed a couple of bottles of water from a nearby glass-fronted fridge, then started to head back.

The guards saw me walking back down the hallway and opened the door for me. I nodded at them and walked into the room. Setting the tray down by her bed, I grabbed an apple from the tray and took a large bite out of it. A nice thing about being on Earth and not some tube in the void is the fresh fruit. As I chewed and swallowed the chunk of apple I had bitten off, I noticed that she was staring at me with a profound look of confusion on her face.

"What? I'm hungry." I stated, not understanding why she had that look on her face. "Y-you're eating fruit?" She asked, that perplexed expression still written all over her face. I didn't quite understand the question as I quickly took another bite of the apple.

"Well, yeah? Doesn't everybody?"

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!] (Content warning: extreme violence, torture, psychological trauma)

“Hatred of the invading enemy is a most humane feeling. But it is born with such a pain of the heart and torment of the soul that God forbid anyone to experience it for a second time.” -Pavel Batov

Memory Transcription Subject: Ambassador Tarva of the Venlil Republic

Date [standardised human time]: November 27th 2111

I had only had this Job for a few months when the monsters arrived. The federation had noticed strange Arxur ship movements towards a planet sixteen light-years away from Venlil Prime. No one could've predicted what was really going on, not until it was far too late. The Arxur showed up with a full invasion force, far larger than a standard raid; that's when we knew something more horrible than the standard was going to happen.

Alarms blared, and the planet panicked; civilians hurriedly stampeded towards the nearest bunkers. Extermanator squads, militias, and any army personnel scrambled to the defence of the planet. Flak guns were set up and buildings fortified as the space battle raged above the planet. Memories of surviving the raids as a child flooded my mind; I tried to make my way into one of the many shelters, but they were beyond capacity.

In the panic, not a soul cared about me being the ambassador. I decided to hold up in the governor's office, where a large contingent of the army had decided to defend the historic building. I sat in my office terrified, unable to do a damn thing about my situation. I could hear the flak defences of the city starting to fire.

I turned on the news to watch the few reporters brave enough to cover the landing. I saw our flak guns nail some of the bastards descending from the sky, but there were far too many of them. Extremitor flame trucks rushed forward toward the first landing craft to touch down, as one of the smaller transports opened the truck and shot huge streams of fire into the opening; you could hear the screaming even with how far the camera crew was. Two more much larger transports landed slightly further away.

The doors started to open, and the trucks made their way towards them. Out of the transports rolled two gigantic metal beasts. The turret turned, and with a gigantic boom that made the camera crew duck down, one of the exterminator trucks was reduced to a flaming heap of scrap metal. The other trucks in the convoy turned to flee; the turret of the second behemoth turned and fired. It hit the truck leading the convoy of escape, cutting off the route back into the city.

Hull-mounted machine guns opened fire from the large steel fortresses; a few machine gun nests stationed nearby opened fire on them, and one brave soul even turned their flak gun to fire at the things. The munitions bounced off of the sloped armor with ease; the last truck left in an act of extreme bravery turned and drove full speed into the thing. The impact no doubt killed the driver, if not everyone in the truck, but the thing shrugged it off like it was nothing! Were these things invincible!?

More transports started landing around the area; out of a medium transport came a medium vehicle. It opened fire on Venlil positions with an automatic cannon, tearing defenders apart. The reporters dropped their cameras and fled; the last thing on screen before the broadcast cut was a smaller transport opening, Arxur and something else rushing out, another predator species.

Over the coming hours, I could hear the gunfire grow closer; scattered reports came in through the news, small victories in certain sectors where we held a vast numerical superiority. One report even came in that a convoy of the armored beasts had stopped for no reason, but across the board we were losing badly.

I heard a soldier shout something and started to shoot out of the windows. I scrambled to hide under my desk, terrified; gunfire exploded around me in a deafening roar. I thought of my partner who, despite my begging, had insisted on taking up arms in an exterminator militia. Tears pricked my eyes as I realized he was probably dead, torn limb from limb by these monsters.

"This can't be happening! This has to be a nightmare. Wake up! WAKE UP!" But no matter how much I cried and pleaded, my reality wouldn't change. A defender shouted something, then the building shook violently. Explosions tore through the walls, massacring anyone in their way for thirty long seconds; it didn't stop. Then a much larger munition hit the governor's office, blowing anything left alive in there into smithereens.

I couldn't hear anything over the ringing in my ears. I held my breath, praying to any higher power there was that they wouldn't find me. I was suddenly yanked out from under my desk. "NO, DON'T EAT ME PLEASE!" I screamed and begged; tears flowed from my eyes as I kicked and clawed at my assailant. But its grip was like iron; it forced my arms behind my back harshly and slapped metal bands on my wrists that kept them there.

It forced me out of the office. I could see the destruction of the once pristine building; blood and gore covered the walls and floor some bits were even on the ceiling. It was like a nightmare come to life. As I was led down the stairs, I could see greys entering the building. I trembled as I was harshly shoved past them and led towards a vehicle.

I was harshly shoved in and strapped to a seat. The next thing I knew, a bag was placed over my head. I couldn't see a thing; maybe that was a good thing. Time lost all meaning in the dark; I could feel the vehicle moving. How long had it been a few minutes or maybe hours? The fear was too much, and my mind started to shut down; all I could register was the blackness of my vision.

When I came back to my senses, I could feel my limbs being tied to a chair, the bag was yanked off of my head, and a bright light was shining into my eyes. I squinted and turned my head away. I tried to look around the room I was imprisoned in; it was dark and dingy with a drain in the floor. I could see a cart with various tools on it and two predators; their faces were obscured by the light, but I could see a badge on one of them that my embedded translator told me said 'KGB'.

"Who do you work for?" One of the predators asked me.

"I-I'm an ambassador f-for the Venlil Republic," My voice shook with fear as I spoke.

"How many species are in the federation?" The other predator barked.

"T-two hundred and ninety-five"

"Who is the leader of the federation?"

"T-the Kolshians founded the federation"

"Who created the cure?"

The question caught me off guard. I had no idea what he was talking about- cure? What cure?

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," I stuttered out, confused. The predator picked up a pair of pliers and slammed them on the table, making me jump.

"If you don't talk, we have ways of making you"

"P-please, I don't know anything about a cure!" I begged, telling the truth.

"Last chance..."

I could only wimper in response.

>!The predator harshly grabbed my wrist to hold my hand down, and positioned the pliers over my tiny claws. He clamped them down harshly, making me wimper. Then, in one harsh yank, he ripped it out of my paw. I screamed and writhed in agony as orange blood spurted from the wound. "TALK!" He demanded, the searing hot pain still shooting up my arm as he moved to the next claw. "PLEASE, I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING," I begged for my life. He yanked out the next claw. I sobbed as I felt more pain than I ever had in my life course through me. He moved on to the next one. "WHO MADE THE CURE!?" I shouted at me; the pain was making my vision go out, and the world fade away. He yanked again, and I passed out. I was forcefully awakened by an electrical shock. Would this hell ever end?!<
The next several hours have been expunged by the State.

I awoke in a hospital bed curled in on myself; my paw and body were covered in bandages, and I could feel a few teeth missing from my maw...

---

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[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Ryka

Date [standardized human time]: November 26th 2111

I presided over my fleet as we routed the puny prey defenders; not many in the galaxy could stand up to the full might of a Chief Hunter's fleet. I flicked my eyes to my screen's sensor readout; we had finished 'surrounding' the last forces in the system and were picking them off like fish in a barrel. Of course, in space you couldn't truly surround something, at least not without a gigantic force; you could always find gaps, or fly 'above' or 'below' the enemy, not that the void held cardinal directions.

Still, the cowardly prey were either too terrified or too stupid to take advantage of that fact; the main force bunched up into one large target while several others attempted to flee in a disorganized manner, making easy targets of both. The sensors showed the Venlil ships dividing at a staggering rate; I had only lost around a hundred and fifty vessels out of the standard ten thousand allotted to chief hunters to take their homeworld.

The Venlil must truly be the weakest race in the galaxy to defend their homeworld with such a lack of resolve. I chucked my farms, and my crew's bellies would be full this day, as long as the humans didn't get in the way. They had insisted on a full occupation of the planet, and to 'leave at least half of the population to them.' It was a laughable request they had made out of no position of power. But it was one I could respect. I decided to concede to the request, more out of curiosity about what they would do than anything else.

After all, that cosmonaut, as they were so called, seemed rather to enjoy the rare delicacy of Venlil; he would later describe it as 'sweet,' although the word didn't translate, and I had never heard of such a flavor. I had high hopes for this partnership between our races, despite humans' strange need to eat leaves; perhaps they did it for fun? The humans themselves performed admirably in battle, despite their shortcomings in equipment.

I had gotten several reports from my own ground forces about human weapons jamming or failing to fire; their ancient vehicles seemed to break down constantly. I had a report that an entire heavy armor brigade, meant to be the spearhead on the assault on the Venlil capital, had broken down and was left stranded. Something I was sure their government would conveniently leave out of after-action reports. Apparently, their military technology had stagnated after their world had unified, some nonsense about 'never again'.

It wasn't like they lacked ideas on how to improve their forces; their government just simply refused to fund it, until now, that is. In the week since the war had been announced, they flipped their entire economic model around, something called 'war socialism' and a 'five-year plan' they had inputted into a quantum computer network that apparently ran their entire economy. They were insane; what sane species trusts a machine to run their economic model?

Though it seemed to work, in about a week they had managed to produce one hundred military ships, with our help, of course. We had to lend a hand by supplying some outdated technology, such as defectors and plasma cannons; they had even strapped their own invention called a railgun to some of the ships. The humans still insisted on aesthetics, however, insisting on sleek designs and 'crew amenities' that were foolish.

My idle thoughts were broken by my subordinate declaring victory as the last enemy ships fell. Why the hell was I thinking about the humans so much? Perhaps it was their uniqueness; there was nothing else like them after all. My eyes drifted over the sensors; this victory was hollow, too easy, not a proper challenge fit for a chief hunter.

Sensors blared as a large FTL disruption was detected at the edge of the system; sensors picked up a large number of Federation vessels jumping into the system, each ship was of a different make, suggesting a multi-species fleet. The number of ships climbed to twelve thousand enemy vessels. Finally, a real challenge; I had beaten worse odds due to the prey's lackluster tactics.

A thoothy grin spread across my face as my tail twitched in excitement; I was itching for a kill. I quickly ordered my forces to reform and charge at the Federation fleet in a pincer; half would fly 'above the Federation vessels, and half would go 'below' them, an unconventional tactic that was sure to catch them by surprise.

I could see Gojid and Krakotl ships guarding the Federation's flanks to prevent 'envelopment,' leaving the center to the weaker species, which had clumped up in another herd strategy. The center was weak and ripe for the picking. I ordered a few hundred ships to charge in a spearhead towards the center along with myself, while the rest of my forces completed their pincer.

My small spearhead screeched forward towards their lines, dodging and weaving incoming plasma fire. I could see the ships around me take glancing blows as our own plasma cannons returned fire as fast as they would recharge. We crept closer to their lines; my ship shook violently as it took a direct hit. Luckily, our shields absorbed the brunt of the damage, but we couldn't afford another direct hit without catastrophic damage.

Our ship shot 'downwards' hard to avoid another shot, then sharply turned back up. My ship groaned in alarm as the G-forces threatened to cause my crew and me to black out. We closed the gap and fired out a barrage of missiles and kinetics; at this close of a range, the Federation shields didn't stand a chance to stop them. Explosions rocked the hull of the Federation cruiser, knocking it out of the fight. As my ship ducked away to reposition, another Arxur ship flew in and fired its own weapons at the disabled ship; a fiery explosion lit up the void as the ship's oxygen combusted.

I growled at having my kill stolen; my ship had done all the work! As my ship rebounded for another attack run, I glanced at our sensors; both of our forces' numbers were falling quickly, but we were starting to pull ahead. If this kept up, we would reach the threshold for numerical superiority in a matter of minutes. I watched through the viewport as several Arxur ships that had depleted their weapons slammed themselves into larger Federation vessels in kamikaze attacks.

Those fools must've let their bloodlust get a hold of them; it was better to fight another day. I wouldn't discount the effectiveness of the strategy, however, as I saw a Federation battle ship go up in a fireball from a kamikaze attack aimed at its reactor. My ship moved to assist with the flanks, which were holding their own much better than the soft center. My ship arched to hit a krakotl vessel from the side. A plasma lance hit my ship as we passed and dumped the last of our munitions into the avian vessel. Blast doors in my vessel slammed shut, and alarms blared as part of my ship's hull was torn open, resulting in a violent decompression of the rear section.

I grunted as my vessel shook, and I quickly ordered us to fall back out of weapons range. My ship limped away to fight another day. As we exited combat, I could see the Federation's formation starting to break; several vessels had started to flee, initiating emergency FTL jumps out of the system. The battle was won, but the losses were horrific; I had lost nearly eight thousand ships in the battle while the Federation had lost ten and a half thousand.

Victory always came at a great cost when numbers weren't on your side; this is a lesson all commanders must learn eventually. I lashed my tail, irritated at the number of losses that would need to be replaced; at least I could reward my crew with a well-earned meal.

I thought as my eyes drifted towards the viewport and onto Venlil Prime.

---

Pervious|Next
[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

For the General Secretary's eyes only

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Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti Official report, Arxur Domion:

Our spies have successfully infiltrated the Dominion under the guise of an 'exchange program'. Initial reports suggest an intentionally starved population to exert government control.

A lack of appropriate farm animals supports this fact; the current ongoing narrative in the Dominion is that the Federation injected a 'cure' into the people that also conveniently slaughtered their livestock once it spread. Evidence suggests that the cure did not affect the cattle of the Dominion and that it was an alternative virus released by betterment.

Current government ethics are those of fascist scum and supremacy over other races of the galaxy, including mankind, for our supposed 'leaf licking'. Cruelty is a mandate of the state, and any 'defective' Arxur are either executed or heavily shunned if shown to possess empathy. Stolen government documents from the office of betterment show the existence of sentient cattle farms, further evidence of their depravity. Current government structure shows less of a unified command than previously thought; several warlords control vast sectors of space and can act nearly independently.

It may be possible to sway some of these warlords to our side at the promise of meat. Betterment's starvation is not spared to any but the heghist ranking officals. Given the current circumstances, the current recommendation is to acquire their technology through trade and espionage, then sway and supplant the idea of overthrowing their government onto one of the many warlords.

Current understanding of Arxur society shows very little culture or unity among its people, making integration much easier than the myriad states of Earth. Further evidence supports their belief that the superiority of their species is unquestionable. Can be used against them; they do not believe any other race in the galaxy has a chance to stand up to them.

Their downfall shall be turning a blind eye to Mankind because we were late to the party.
End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Ivan Reshko

Date [standardised human time]: November 26th 2111

Our makeshift squad trudged towards the city; as we grew closer, we could hear the fighting grow more intense. We walked along a main road, weary of an ambush. As we rounded a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. Down the street was a massive pile of corpses; orange blood ran in the streets as we approached. It was clear they were civilians. I knelt to inspect one of the bodies; it was like a sheep thing with a large fluffy tail. If it had still been alive id even call it cute.

There was no apparent cause of death other than some bruising, no bullet wounds or evidence of chemical weapons. "What the hell happened here?" I muttered aloud while glancing around. Isif walked up and chuckled. "Looks like they died trying to escape; these foolish prey animals will stampede over their loved ones just to escape"

Isif reached down and grabbed one of the corpses and bit into it with a sickening crunch. Orange blood flowed down the lizard's maw as bile rose in my throat. I harshly jammed the but of my rifle into his side, making him wince. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? THESE WERE PEO-" I was cut off by Isif, who hardly swung his tail into my side, forcing me to stumble and knocking the air out of my lungs. "Know your place, leaf licker! These are the things we must do to survive!" Isif spat with a growl.

I tried to recover and raise my weapon at him but, before I could, a shot rang out; I felt the bullet wiz by my head where I had been standing a moment earlier. My head snapped down the street; I could see a squad of enemy soldiers in strange suits rushing down the street towards us. I quickly bolted towards the corner I had rounded a moment earlier for cover as more rounds wizzed down the road. "Contact down the road! Ivanova, get some suppressive fire!" Our sergeant barked. A moment later, I could see Sasha sprint past with her bulky PKM as she rounded the corner. She dove to the ground, set up her bipod, and held down the trigger.

Seven hundred and twenty rounds per minute shot down the end of the street in controlled bursts. I quickly raised my rifle and peeked around the corner, taking a few opportunistic shots at the enemy scrambling for cover. They had taken cover in an alleyway and were occasionally peeking to pop shots at us with their sidearms. My sergeant signalled Roman and me to move up.

I nodded and rounded the corner with Roman behind me. Sasha let out a few long bursts to keep them pinned while we advanced. Out of the side of my vision, I could see a couple of greys rush out and change the enemy position with reckless abandon. They quickly shot past us and made it to the alley. I saw a large burst of fire shoot out from the alley, hitting one of the greys head-on. The way it screamed, I'll never forget it; sticky, naypalm-like substance clung to its scales as it flailed. The other Arxur jumped back to dodge the flames and fire at the alley entrance.

I picked up my pace and made it to the alley entrance; another burst of flame shot out inches from my face, making me recoil. Roman grabbed the back of my tactical vest and yanked me backwards, and I fell on my ass. I saw Roman sprint forward, grab a grenade from his vest, pull the pin and chuck it into the alley. "Frag out!" He yelled as he ducked back from the blast. I found my ears ringing once more as I stood. I quickly readied my rifle and rounded the corner to the alley. I saw one lone survivor pointing a flamethrower at me. It scrambled with its weapon, but I was faster.

I held down the trigger, pumping half of my magazine's worth of lead into it. It fell quickly, orange blood pooling out of the several new holes in its body. The orange blood made it hard for my brain to register the gore in the alleyway, and before I could think about it, I turned away and flashed a thumbs-up to Sasha.

Our makeshift squad continued down the road, now with one Arxur short. We quickly found ourselves at a crossroads. I turned to my sergeant with the question of what direction to go on my lips when we all heard several vehicles approaching. Roman quickly grabbed one of the disposable recoilless rifles he had strapped to his back as we all ducked into whatever cover we could find.

I peeked my head from around a dumpster I had ducked behind. I saw several BTR 82's speed down the road, their 30mm autocannons lighting up unseen targets down the road. My squad cheered while my Sergeant picked up his radio and requested transport; two of them stopped for us and opened the back hatch. I could hear one of the crew members shout at us. "Come on comrades, we have a war to win!"

We quickly rushed up and climbed into the vehicles. My squad and Isif entered the front one, and the remaining Arxur entered the rear BTR. The door swung shut, and we sped down the road, the vehicle shaking when its cannon fired. Carnage littered the streets as we advanced; we skidded into the lot of a large government building that our forces had surrounded. It was clear this was the main point of resistance for this sector; the door swung open, and we rushed out, taking cover behind the BTRs.

Heavy enemy fire pelted the ground around us; it was quickly silenced when the convoy of BTRs opened fire into the building, their 30mm cannons punching holes in the structure like it was made of paper. Roman grabbed his recoilless rifle, peeked around the vehicle and fired it into the building, sending cunks on debree raining down.

Sasha set up her MG on a nearby piece of rubble while the rest of us moved in. We lined up at the main doorway of the building. I grabbed one of my grenades off of my vest, pulled the pin and tossed it in. "Fire in the hole!" The grenade exploded, and I heard a scream. Then we rushed the building. Most of the remaining combatants were either already dead or far too maimed to continue the fight. The rooms on the ground floor were quickly cleared we moved towards the stairs.

We climbed them slowly, still weary; the second floor was a mess of carnage, being the main target of the 30mm cannons. We swept the rooms, finding them clear, except one in the office of Ambassador Tarva. I found one lone survivor hiding under a desk. I quickly dragged her out and cuffed her; she might know something.

"No, please, I won't make good food!"

The venlil cried as I dragged her outside as a prisoner of war. I could see our soldiers cheering as the red banner was hung at the top of the building. I saw the greys dragging out any survivors left in the building; I felt sick to my stomach for their fate.

The battle had been won, but I worried about the war.

---

Previous|Next (Sorry, this one is a bit shorter because all this typing is killing my hands)
[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Ivan Reshko

Date [standardized human time]: November 19th 2111

I had always wanted to be a soldier, ever since I was a child, watching the parades in Red Square. When my brother had said he was going to be a cosmonaut, it finally gave me the push I needed. I remember standing in the recruitment office like it was yesterday and signing up, ready to take the pledge for our union.

I stood in formation at bootcamp and repeated after the instructor along with the men with me. "I, Ivan Reshko, a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by joining the ranks of the armed forces, take an oath and solemnly swear to be an upright, brave, disciplined, vigilant soldier, to strictly preserve military and government secrets, and to execute without contradiction all military regulations and orders of commanders and superiors. I swear to learn the trade of war conscientiously, to protect with all means the military and people's property, and to be devoted to my people, my Soviet homeland, and the Soviet Government to my last breath. I will always be ready to report, by order of the Soviet Government, as a soldier of the armed forces for the defense of my homeland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I swear to defend it bravely and wisely with all my strength and in honor, without sparing my blood and without regard for my life to achieve a complete victory over the enemy. Should I break my solemn oath, may severe penalties of the Soviet Law, the overall hatred, and the contempt of the working masses strike me."

Then the training began: three months of brutal physical and mental training; drills, marches, and weapons training. Every day would start with a 15-kilometer run followed by obstacle courses; the training wasn't for the weak, several other recruits couldn't cut it and were expelled from the camp. I still wonder what some of them are up to now, sparred from the horrors of war, they must be happy.

All that struggle just to reach the rank of Ryadovoy; meanwhile, my brother was in flight training, a necessary step to be able to properly fly any spacecraft. Grigory graduated top of his class; I remember being so proud when he was selected for the first flight out of the system. My reminiscing thoughts were broken as a broadcast from the state. I glanced up at the television as the national anthem played in the background.

The hammer and sickle faded from the screen to show the General Secretary on a podium. The camera zoomed out a bit, and standing next to him was my brother, and on his other side, a lizard lady. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, making sure I wasn't hallucinating. I wasn't. I quickly sat up right and paid attention as the General Secretary started to speak.

"Comrades, as you all know, last week we conducted the first successful FTL flight, Flown by Grigori Reshko." He paused to let the crowd cheer, then continued. "On his journey out of Sol, he made first contact with the Arxur Dominion." He gestured to the lizard woman, and she waved to the camera. "For his actions, I am personally awarding him the Honored Test Pilot of the USSR, the Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR, and finally Hero of the Soviet Union!"

The crowd cheered once more as the General Secretary walked up to Grigori and pinned the three medals onto his chest. My brother waved to the camera with a smile on his face; the General Secretary walked back to the podium and continued to speak.

"But it's not all good news... I have been informed that there is a genocidal federation that is prowling the stars at this very moment, exterminating people and animals alike for the simple crime of eating meat!" Gasps and murmurs could be heard throughout the crowd. "It is for this reason that I call upon the soviet people for war! We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced stellar nations. We must make good this distance in five years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed"

The General Secretary walked off the stage, and another high-ranking official from the suprime soviet walked to the podium to announce a new five-year plan to kickstart the war industry and ordered all active military personnel to report in. I guess my leave was over.

Shaking off the shock from the broadcast, I quickly grabbed my gear and headed out the door. I jogged down the stairs of my apartment complex and ran to my car. Quickly turning the key and throwing it in gear, I drove to the nearest base. I showed my military ID at the gate and was let through. I put on my uniform in the car and walked in to report along with several others.

We all were sent to our barracks to settle in for the moment. I settled into my bunk and looked around the room as more uniformed men strode in. After around an hour, we were all summoned to a briefing room. As we filed in, I could see General Alexei Zaytsev standing at the front of the room watching us like a hawk; the man had more medals on his chest than I thought were possible.

As we all got situated and stood, Alexei gave us a salute, which we hastily returned. "At ease." The man spoke, his voice booming with authority; then he motioned us to sit. "The General Secretary has called upon the people for war, and we shall answer. Now everyone knows that we aren't ready for war; we lack the ships at the moment and need time to build up. So we will be playing a supporting role for the Dominion. Next week, we are to assist in a ground invasion at what we know as Gliese 832c. The Dominion will transport our soldiers for us. You are to report to your barracks for the moment and await a unit designation"

"SIR YES SIR!" The room said in unison, and everyone started to file back to the barracks they had just left. There didn't seem to be much of a plan; maybe they were still drafting it. I wondered to myself, like it wasn't above my pay grade. I sighed and lay down on my bed; for the next week, I would have to learn about my new squadmates once I was assigned to a unit.

I just had to hope that my new NCO wasn't an asshole.

---

Previous|Next
[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Ryka

Date [standardized human time]: November 18th 2111

After the confusing words of Grigori, he cut the call, and I was left confused. Lashing my tail in irritation, I made my way to the airlock. I waited patiently for the doors to open, then walked across the extension tube towards the station's airlock. I had to duck down to enter as the door opened, clearly designed for smaller individuals rather than the tall Arxur.

As the outer station's door closed behind me and ensured a seal, an automated voice rang out in the airlock. Now entering Salyut station. The inner door opened, and as I ducted through, I was greeted by several armed humans in what looked like some sort of protective gear. Glancing over, I could see Grigori talking to several of them; my tail thumped to the floor as irritation crept into my voice.

"Grigori, what is the meaning of this?" I aggressively prodded the question at the cosmonaut, to which he turned to me. "We are going into quarantine. If you make any attempts to resist, you will be Shot." The man said coldly and turned away, following one of the soldiers towards an unknown destination. I grumbled as the humans raised their weapons at me and motioned for me to follow them. I begrudgingly obliged.

We walked down a corridor, then they motioned to one of the rooms, and I turned to enter, but then one of the guards harshly shoved me inside. I stumbled into the room from the unexpected push. I quickly turned around and bared my teeth as the door slammed shut in front of me. I huffed and looked around, inspecting the cell. There was a window in the wall where I could peer into another cell; I could see the Cosmonaut in the cell opposite mine.

I could see a few men enter in full biohazard gear and talk with him, but the walls were so thick I couldn't make out a word. I saw them perform a myriad of tests on the man; they drew blood, poked him with swabs. I think I even saw a scanner of some sort, but i wasnt certian they finished up after a while and exited the room with samples in hand.

I lay down on the bed provided to me in the room, using my idle time to think about my current situation. The humans were strange; they had clearly gone through some devastating world war, yet they did not act like they had seen the light of betterment. Instead, they had a 'socialist' government; I tried to pronounce the word and failed; it wouldn't roll off my tongue as I tried to comprehend its meaning. The word wouldn't translate; I doubt it even existed in Arxur language at all.

A knock sounded from the door, breaking my thoughts; the hazmat-suited humans were outside my cell, along with several guards. I could hear them chatting among each other as the cell door was opened.

"God, look at it, its hudge!" one of them exclaimed.

"It's like a big, tall, sexy alligator woman." Another commented and was subsequently punched in the shoulder by another human.

"Quit fucking around and watch my back while I collect tissue samples; I don't want her to rip my throat out"

The lead human said as they entered, holding a case. I sat up slowly to not cause them to panic and shoot me. I could understand them from the serum I was injected with as a youngling, but they couldn't understand a word I said, so I just kept my mouth shut. The human stepped towards me, knelt, and opened his case to pull out a syringe. He felt up my arm for a gap in my scales, them slipied the needle in and drew blood.

I winced slightly as the needle was removed, then he pulled out several swabs from the case and started to collect the samples they needed. It was far from comfortable. Once they seemed satisfied, they placed their samples in transparent bags and left, locking the door behind them.

I was in that damned cell for nearly 4 planetary cycles. The humans fed me, but strangely included leaves in their rations; I'm no damned leaf licker. Just as I started growing restless, the door opened, and a guard was standing there and was wearing a strange ear and eye piece.

"You've been cleared; follow me," He said in no uncertain terms as I started to stand. "Fine," I responded, shaking off the soreness of not moving for a prolonged period. After some walking, we reached a rather large elevator that looked like it was more made for freight than people. Several guards were waiting for me on the platform, most of them gawking at me.

"You'll take the space elevator down and be escorted to meet with the General Secretary"

I nodded and stepped onto the 'space elevator.' The guard that was escorting me saluted his comrades and turned away. The elevator started descending slowly at first then it fell into what felt like a free fall. I looked around, startled. Nobody else was reacting with the fear I was showing; did they not realize how insanely fast we were falling? I could feel my feet slightly lift off the ground as the plunge continued. I wrapped my tail and arm around a nearby handrail, terrified, which earned a few chuckles from the guards around me.

I could see out of the windows on the elevator that the planet's surface was rapidly approaching. Then, around halfway through the atmosphere, the brakes kicked on in a hard jolt that I could feel shake my internals. I grunted and tried to shake off the nausea as we slowed to a reasonable speed. I righted myself and tried to shake off the shock of the ride. I lifted a shaking claw from the handrail and uncoiled my tail from around it as we reached the bottom.

A loud thunk sounded out as locking mechanisms were set in place. The human guards started to make their way out of the elevator. "Come on, don't, lizard girl, you dont want to keep the General Secretary waiting," One of the guards said as I started to follow. Once we got outside, I was greeted by a harsh sun beating down on a desert landscape. I winced from the bright natural light. I was led to a train station platform and brought onto one of the cars. The train looked strange with a particularly long and sleek nose at the front of it.

The train started to move smoothly; it almost felt slow until I glanced outside of the car and could see the landscape wizzing by like we were in a space shuttle. After around half an hour the landscape had changed from a desert to large green flatlands; I could see a large city in the distance that we were rapidly approaching. An automated voice rang out in the car as we got closer: Now entering Moscow.

The train slowed as we approached the city limits, and I could get a good look at the buildings without them wizzing by. It was a strange mix of large concrete blocks that I assumed were housing complexes and large skyscrapers built with sleek architecture; humans had such a strange need to be flashy.

The train soon came to a smooth stop around the city center, and I was led out. I could see a colorful building with several towers coming out of it that rounded at the top. I was led into an armored transport covoy witch started to drive me towards a large government building.

The trip so far had been a blur of speed and culture shock. As we reached the building, I was led into another elevator and then down a long hallway towards two large and thick-looking doors. A nearby station sentry radioed something, and two guards opened the doors for me to step in. I was greeted with the sight of a large office and a man sitting behind a large wooden desk.

The man behind the desk stood and extended his hand in greeting; he was also wearing the strange ear and eye piece that the guard on Salyut station was. "Ah, you must be Ryka. I am General Secretary Nikita Sokolov. Welcome to the USSR; we have much to discuss"

I nodded and engaged in the human greeting by extending my claw and shaking his hand. "Yes, we do. I suggest we start by discussing a pact of nonaggression." I stated calmly, doing my best to put on the face of a diplomat. Prophet being cordial was taxing.

"That sounds like a good idea; our nations have much to gain from one another. I'll have a treaty drafted by tomorrow." Nikita said as he withdrew his hand and sat back down. "Now let us discuss how trade and possible technology sharing could start"

Straight to the point that he wanted something from us, bold but foolish to play his hand so early.
"Trade is possible, but technology sharing is not something that would come without strings attached"

Nikita cocked and eybrow at me and leaned forward. "What did you have in mind?"

"If you want our tech, Nikita, You'll join our war"

---

Previous|Next
[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Breaching firewall...Accessing human database...

A myriad of old historical footage and newspaper clippings flood the screen.

Constructing timeline...

...

...

Purging irrelevant data... A newspaper article displays on the screen: [June 26 1969] Red Moon rising! Following the successful test of the Soviet-made N1 rocket, the soviets landed a man on the moon in a televised event just weeks before the planned Apollo 11 mission. Failure is attributed to allocating too many resources to the Vietnam War. How will the states respond?

The next relevant piece of data is shown: [October 1st 1974] NASA rules the skies! The American-led space agency managed to beat the Reds in building a permanent moon base by a full 10 months. Could this be the turning point in the space race!?

[July 4th 1978] An assault on freedom! It is reported that the soviets are setting up a newly developed anti-ICB missile system on the moon. This could be the greatest threat since the Cuban Missile Crisis! What's stopping them from pulling the trigger now?

[September 10th 1979] Coronal mass ejection hits the states! Despite months of repeated warning from the scientific community, the United States government has failed to protect the power grid; this failure of our government cannot be understated! Everything from the civilian power grid to radar and satellite infrastructure is horrifically damaged; recovery could take years...

[November 9TH 1979. Location: Cheyenne Mountain complex, NORAD headquarters 2:59 am]

Alarms blare around the complex; unknown at the time, a technician had mistakenly loaded a test scenario tape into the active early warning system. Thousands of Soviet ICBs carrying nuclear payloads were mistakenly shown on screen heading directly towards the United States.

Impact T-minus 10 minutes. President Jimmy Carter was roused from bed to assess the situation. DEFCON 1 is now in effect! The speakers blared at the Pentagon: T-minus 6 minutes until impact. Strategic Air Command scrambles fighter jets and interceptors. The presidential briefing lasts only a minute before the barely awake Jimmy Carter is forced to make a decision. With the true detection systems damaged by the Coronal mass ejection, there was no way to determine this was a false threat. T-minus 4 minutes until impact. There wasn't time to call the Kremlin, and with how bold the soviets had been after putting those interceptors on the moon, the threat seemed more real than ever.

The clock ticked down to midnight as the president made his decision. "Full response authorized"

Hacking attempt detected! Purging local files...

Memory Transcription Subject: General Secretary of the USSR Nikita Sokolov

Date [standardized human time]: November 14th 2111

It was going to be a busy day...In the early morning, as I was preparing a speech just in case THE GARARN didn't return, a secretary knocked on the door to my office. I set down my papers and motioned to one of the guards to let her in. She walked in with a concerned look on her face and walked up to my desk with a report.

"General Secretary, THE GARARN has returned-" I smiled as I reached for the report. For a moment, it felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders; that ship was too Important to be lost. Not only was the ship named after the first man in space, but its launch had been carefully planned to be on the exact date of the October Revolution; the propaganda effect alone from its return would prove to be a boon.

"But we have a visitor with him. We made first contact"

She continued as I nearly dropped the report out of shock; my eyes quickly started reading over the report, the weight on my shoulders had just increased 10x fold. I rubbed my eyes and sighed, then did my best to focus. "We have received a message from Cosmonaut Grigori Reshko, sir. What would you have us do?"

"Open a secure Channel with him, then shut the door. This conversation is a state secret for now." I quickly responded as she moved and fetched a data pad and handed it to me before leaving my office; the guards shut the door behind her. Once I heard her footsteps get further away, I tapped at the tablet, quickly opening a video call on a secure military channel.

The Cosmonaut was quick to answer. Grigori quickly saluted me, witch i returned in kind. "Cosmonaut Grugiru Reshko, your services to the union are admirable. Now tell me what happened out there. Was the flight successful?" I started off wanting a full report from the man who had actually been there. "General Secretary, the flight was semi-successful, while faster-than-light was achieved...A malfunction threw me off course, and I ended up stranded in an unknown star system. It was there that I made first contact with The Arxur Dominion."

I blinked as I took in the information, then nodded at him to continue. "When I boarded their ship to meet with their captain as they instructed, I was captured and injected with a translator serum, the pain..." I could see the haunted look in his eyes as he recounted what had happened during his mission. Grigori sighed deeply and took a moment to collect himself before continuing. "It was paramount to torture, without warning. If I had been packed with my TP-82 as I had requested, I would have tried to kill them all"

"But I was outnumbered, unarmed, and stranded without their help; I had to act...cordal I knew we couldn't afford a war..." I nodded and thought about the next actions I would have to take. Grigori was right; we couldn't afford a war, not until we had a proper navy at least. Mayhaps we could use them to close the technological gap? In the meantime, we would have to play nice.

"You are to dock at Salyut station. I will have a hazmat team on stand-by. You and the alien will spend 72 hours in isolation to rule out any diseases that could be transmitted, as well as check what they did to you." I finished up giving my instructions and was about to terminate the call when Grigori stopped me.

"Wait, sir, don't trust them. While I was on their ship, I kept hearing the crew talk about how they were superior and might even win the war now because of us...You know where you've heard that before.." He ended on a dark note; I remember learning about the Great Patriotic War and how we fought such powers before and prevailed.

"Understood." I said simply and terminated the call; it was going to be a busy day indeed.

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Previous|Next [I forgot to say it in my writing fervor, but thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]

Memory Transcription Subject: Chief Hunter Ryka

Date [standardized human time]: November 14th 2111

It had taken a week to fix the primitive Human ship. It was rudimentary and crude by Dominion standards, and for whatever reason, it seemed they prioritized aesthetics for whatever foolish reason. It didn't even have any weapon systems. What kind of predator race was this? I was sure they were in need of betterment's guidance.

When the craft had first entered my outpost system, at first I'd have thought it was a simple asteroid, yet its movements proved otherwise. It was so underpowered that even our advanced sensors struggled to find it at first. Once my ship started to approach the Humans, I decided I wanted this kill all to myself and ordered the ships under my command to stand down.

It tried to hail me on all frequencies, of course, but I ignored it as my ship's weapons achieved a target lock. Then it hailed me with a video call; they must be desperate, I mused, and decided to humor the preyship and answered with a snarling growl, waiting to see the terrified face of a lesser being.

What greeted me was the bulky, suited pilot of the craft; just as my claws hovered over the fire button, it lifted its golden visor to show piercing eyes staring into my soul. My eyes locked with another predator's as it started to speak in a language I couldn't understand. I was paralyzed, staring into those Irises. It took a moment before I could shake myself free of the trance I was in and power down the ship's weapon systems.

I quickly yelled over to my subordinate on the coms station to translate what it just said and upload translation software to the ship. The memories of the first contact poured over me as I tapped my tail in annoyance a week later, preparing myself to update Betterment on what was going on through the FTL coms.

I lashed my tail as I called the Prophet-Decenant of Betterment in charge of me and my sector. The male Arxur answered quickly; scars covered his grey face while I hardened my gaze and prepared to speak. "What is it, Ryka? I hope you didn't call just to waste my time." The Prophet-Decenant Ishtal spat, clear annoyance dripping from the words.

"I am not calling to waste your time, Ishtal. So I'll keep this short. I've made contact with another predator species; I even tested it by watching it eat a piece of Venlil." I kept my voice curt and spoke quickly, not wanting to earn Ishtal's ire. The Prophet-Decenant's eyes opened wider in a rare display of surprise before he spoke.

"Well, that certainly is interesting. It seems you actually can do something right." He said with a slight tone of malice. I made sure to overlook his personal bashing of my career and kept standing at attention. "Well, good work bringing this to my attention, Ryka. Don't screw it up; we have enough of the galaxy to fight. I won't add true sapints to the list." Ishtal huffed and cut the feed. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and relaxed slightly.

After a few moments, my ship was hailed by THE GARARN. I quickly answered, and Grigori appeared on my screen with his helmet visor open, allowing me to stare into those haunting eyes once more. Was this how prey felt? I shook the thought off my mind as the human started to speak.

"All pre-flight checks are green, uploading navagational date for Sol now. You ready, Ryka?"

I nodded and looked at the crew manning the flight controls, inputting the new data for our destination. To my shock, the system was a little over 40 light-years away. How the hell had the human made it here with that ship? Maybe it was fate, I mused as I saw Grigori's ship start to pull ahead through the viewport. His ship quickly pulled ahead as his FTL drive spooled up before vanishing in a trail of light.

I ordered my crew to follow the ship to Sol. Our ship's dampeners kicked on as we gained speed, something that the humans lacked. You had to be a tough son of a bitch to survive those G-forces. Our drive spun up, and we quickly entered FTL. I sat back in my chair as I waited for us to arrive in the system.

The trip took around half an hour until we had entered the outer edge of the system. When we arrived, my ship's sensors immediately lit up with how overcrowded the system was. I was picking up hundreds of mining stations and habitats. Domed colonies were present on nearly every planetary body and moon, the biggest concentration of which was on a slightly smaller-than-average red planet close to the homeworld. Earth, I was told it was called.

As we started to fly into the system, our comms array tuned into a signal being broadcast from THE GARARN. "Comrads, I have retuned! The flight was... semi-successful, General Secretary. I've made First contact." The response message was far too encrypted for us to listen to, so I suppose I'll just have to hope to not get shot out of the sky. Soon after receiving his response, Grigori sent my ship a message ping.

"Flight path cleared to Earth, follow my ship, keep your weapons powered down, and DON'T try that needle shit"

I chuckled as I read the text and followed the humans' orders and followed close behind. I took my time to marvel at the sleek designs of human stations; Prophet, they loved to put that red symbol on everything. As we neared the human home world, my sensors started to pick up high levels of radiation coming off of the planet. I studied the readings, perplexed; there hadn't been any mention of such levels in the week we were stuck together.

As we got closer to where I could properly see that planet, my eyes widened in shock as I gazed upon its surface. Several continents bore immense scars of war, with one of them being all but turned to glass. The reflective surface of the glassed continent caught the rays of the yellow sun shining into the void itself, like part of a world covered in mirrors. The destructive sight was strangely beautiful in the quiet emptiness of space.

I continued to follow the human's ship towards a large structure jutting out of the Earth's surface, so tall that it reached into the void from the ground. I marveled at the design, never having seen anything like it. There was a station attached to the top of the structure, which the human ship flew towards and initiated docking procedures with. Slowly, I watched our ship get closer to dock with the station.

The extension tube reached out toward the station's airlock and latched with what would have been a satisfying click if the void carried sound. I could imagine the hiss from the airlock as the tube was pressurized. I stood from my chair and prepared to meet with the human leaders and establish talks with our governments; there was so much possibility for trade, technology, and military coordination. I steeled myself, ready, but one thing still nagged at my mind. Before I left my ship, I hailed Grigori with a video call.

He answered quickly and gave me a questioning look as I spoke. "What happened to your planet?" I asked, and his expression darkened; he chuckled darkly and said something that confused me.

"It's a MAD world, isn't it?"

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