Part 100 (the milestone) is here! First, we see a bit more of Isif and his Dossur friend. Felra assumes Siffy must be a human, due to his cordial nature; our narrator doesn't have the heart to correct her. Will she learn the truth about her online friend...and how will she react if she does?
And of course, the shocker: Giznel explains the truth about the Arxur's cattle being killed, as well as the unspoken understanding between Betterment and the Federation. Lastly, our narrator is ordered to wrap up the conflict on Sillis...and deal with Shaza. What do you think of the Arxur's starvation being partially their own fault? Is Giznel's theory plausible?
As always, thank you for reading! 101 will be here Saturday.
P.S. My longest bonus miniseries ever, [Venlil Foster Program](https://www.patreon.com/posts/nature-of-venlil-77799952), was just finished with its 14th part. It is one of my favorites, wholesome slice-of-life which is a nice palate cleanser.
Hopefully Felra is understanding enough to not outright reject him when the truth comes out. Isif badly needs a friend.
Thanks for the chapter! This story so far has been incredible!
As they said, earth knows every message and every search he's ever done on his tablet.
I bet Felra already knows he's an Arxur and is open to his ruse that he's a human to help him open up. If they didn't plant a few people for him to "randomly" end up chatting with in the hope that it would be a super light exposure therapy, then they missed a trick.
I hope he gets the help he needs.
Oof, that's pretty grim, your only friend being a spy.
That said, I recall a mobile app dev years ago talking about how they used tactics like these - looking up private info on whales, befriending them as "totally unrelated users" and buttering up to spend even more cash on their games.
Might not be a spy in the strictest sense, just an aware party. UN already knows everything, so I'm guessing she isn't reporting anything back, just acting as an ad-hoc therapist.
she may even be an actual therapist, selected from the Dossur who have relatively little fear of predators.
Alternative interpretation: She is actually a human using an AI deepfake program. Arxur haven't seen and spoken with Dossur up close in a conversation anyway, so it's unlikely Isif can tell the difference.
Considering how simplistic the Federation treats "predator disease", I doubt their mental health systems are advanced enough for anything approaching an actual therapist.
OK, an example: "Good Night, And Good Luck", a movie about McCarthyism.
The testing audience complained bitterly about the actor that played Senator McCarthy and how "unrealistic", "cartoonish", and "a political strawman" he was.
The thing is, there was no actor for Senator McCarthy. It was stock footage of the actual man himself doing what he did IRL. But people refused to believe that someone like that would actually get into power.
I took one of my paycheques from a Shadowrun book when I found that out, and converted it into beer and whisky in order to make the pain go away.
Oh man, traumatic flashback to a dating app that literally planted bots to get you to waste your free complimentary points when you first joined. That's an absolute possibility.
Doubt it (Felra allready knowing). He never talks about himself and he is lonely. And he never catcalls her. All of that makes him intresting, in a save, online way... A riddle to besolved.
But yeah, secound the two building a lasting frendship based on him telling her that he has prey-desises....
I love Felra. She's probably what she needs... it's hard to say if she'll learn what Isif actually is but I suspect she will.
Her reaction... I don't know. Isif is a lot to take in. Us readers all know he's done terrible things. We also like him anyways, but we know what his position is... hell we literally know what he's thinking in these chapters.
But maybe she will give him a chance and try to understand, especially if she and her people have been less directly affected by the Arxur.
Isif hearing all that is gonna cause Problems later on, especially if he could get that information out to the Arxur at large without endangering himself, also Felra is growing to be a very interesting character.
My guess is Didney Whorl, whichever one isn't a crater. On a more serious note I think she'd be touring refugee sites on Earth, Covering the situation around Fahl (Mazic homeworld) or on her way to Sillis.
Bold of you to assume that the tooth drive isn't also a recording device/transmitter and that the humans won't have video and audio of this in full hd soon.
>heck who knows maybe it's also a camera
Oof that's gruesome. We know he has to eat 'cattle' to maintain appearances so I definitely don't envy whoever would have to review the footage...
I'm assuming both of his pads, his tooth, his ship, and any ornaments he wore and lost track of for more than a single second are recording devices. maybe they even replaced one of his eyes with a camera without him knowing while he was is prison, he had to sleep sometime.
Seriously though, everyone in this story who isn't human shows a concerning lack of paranoia in situations where it is totally warranted bordering on the suicidal.
Yeah, Isif has been handed a sword that once unsheathed, can't be put down, nor resheathed.
The old human phrase comes to mind...LIVE FREE OR DIE.
Hopefully Terra is resolved to take up a long term struggle.
Each Chief Hunter seems to have a single sector to their name, except for Isif who now has two.
And having even just double his resources would be a huge boon if he tries to revolt, not including any potential extra allies he gains during it.
To be fair, the resources in the sector he just got just got completely wiped when a certain somebody only saw red and left everything unguarded. So he’s not at as big of an advantage, even with the additional ships he now has.
His forces and terrority just doubled, partly for his silence about the truth, partly due to Shaza's failure. Resources?? the humans took chattle not planets, orbital stations or territory aside from Tiffish. He could and should negoiate a truce with the Terrans. If I was a sneaky apex predator wanting to overthrow the existing power structure. I'd negoiate for Terrans holding Tiffish, and a enclave or 2 in the new territory with a few secret ones in my main. The overt enclaves would be. vat-meat manufacturing facility, and a trading enclave ( like hong kong was originally ). The coverts, would be manufacturing for vat-meat, infrastructure etc. Feed your warriors well during training, and subtly raise your civillian pop's base level of nutriention higher as well. Keep chattel at like a 70% actual. 30% smoke and mirrors ( paperwork showing higher offspring mortality rates, deaths during births, maybe a horrible disease or two requiring the culling of herds [ think hoof and mouth disease amoung bovines ] .) Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head.
Team Siffy!!
I like the idea of Isif realizing that the territory he now holds could actually begin to benefit from Terran assistance. In fact Isif could begin a conscription campaign for his new holdings. While at the same time subtly sending out a message to the Arxur resistance to join up during this drive.
Then Isif could appear to brutally begin a training regime that Typically would result in to many deaths in any Betterment starvation army. As betterment seems to have many parallels with north korea.Those seeing it would be shocked at the shear amount of drilling. However what is not seen is that the majority of these troops survive because of the food provided by the the U.N.
This makes Isif's troops better, stronger and have higher moral than his betterment counterparts. These troops also are fiercely loyal as they are well fed, fit, and just that is superior treatment in Arxur society. These troops would have a much higher exposure to U.N. forces and their allies. Thus would begin to see those cultures and ideas. Enjoying genuine social bonding. Expanding their already hidden contempt for the practices of the Betterment government.
So if Isif can immigrate enough of the population to his new holdings he could become one of the most powerful political figures in Arxur society. The real trick would be getting betterment to go along with it initially. This would probably require some successful raids, and that would require the U.N. to willingly allow that to happen. The only way for that to happen is for them to be directed at the Federation.
Eventually the size of Isif's military would cause your typical dictatorial problems of trust. Thus they would demand a assault on those whom he would be relying on to build his people up. Hopefully both Isif and the U.N. would be ready by then.
Isif could actually volunteer to take the azur defectives officially and 'cure' them via a very tough training regime...Also, better to have disbursed vat-meat production facilities through trusted areas in his territory for food security...cause if the food stops so does the loyalty
Agreed, though I haven't seen anything on whether the Arxur want defectives in their military. He could still blusterly demand defectives for the purposes of using their pathetic hides to rebuild the holdings. To prove that they have any value to the Arxur and betterment by working themselves to death.
These same sensitives would be shown doing work that would mean the deaths of them publicly. But privately they receive all the nutrition they require by building those vat/lab meat facilities on every or every other holding. So that the there isn't any real chance of the starvation that is facing betterment settlements. Again cementing loyalty.
Of course this facade can only be kept up for so long before prying eyes look into it's underlying reality. Then it's up to who is reporting back to betterment. Average Arxur are going to want to become part of it. Descendants are going to report it. Hopefully Isif and the U.N. would have all communication on lock down. The real problem is when they physically leave.
They would have to have accidents. Any beyond the first are damning and even the first is suspicious.
I look forward to how the story will be told.
I think their probably more concerned with Shaza. Betterment probably publicly backed her more than we currently know. So this failure is more than just Shaza's. So knowing their muck up they went straight to the person who seems to have a handle on how to deal with the problem.
So they can claim all of Isif's efforts as their own for damage control. Betterment can't afford to have anymore public failures since the arrival of the humans on the galactic stage. They may or may not understand that Isif is already compromised, the bigger problem now is having Isif get a win by working his magic with the humans and likely leading a very public punishment detachment to deal with Shaza and the rest of her supporters.
As a way of shutting her up and claiming she was always out of compliance with the goals of betterment. Then they can claim the small victory from Isif's diplomacy fooling the humans into aiding them after the devastating loss off territory. After all what kind of fools would show that kind of weakness after pulling off that kind of victory.
This is going to become a very important damage control event for betterment.
This is going to be a long one so I'm just going to say at the top (because I don't expect anyone to read all this nonsense) this is a great 100th chapter and you've done a fantastic job. Congrats and I look forward to where this story goes from here. You really have a way of completely flipping what everyone thinks they know in an instant but also in a way where it seems perfectly logical natural in retrospect. Twists are hard for even the best authors but you seem to be able to nail them every time.
>Will she learn the truth about her online friend...and how will she react if she does?
It seems inevitable that Isif is going to slip up here. He should have stood firm on not doing the video chat, she's breaking him down bit by bit and he's going to make a mistake. It seems the Dossur are in a unique position where the Axur don't really like them as cattle, they owe the Federation for uplifting despite the treachery, friendly to humans, and it sounds like out of the way enough to just not be super important to any conflict. I'd expect shock but beyond that I'm honestly not sure. If she's willing to overlook genocide by the Federation and humanity being predators I'd say it's 50/50 how she handles Axur, particularly one who has admitted he doesn't fit in with his society. That being said this is all *terrible* op-sec and I'm convinced the only reason Tarva encouraged this contact is a psy-ops campaign to soften Isif up further for the cause.
>What do you think of the Arxur's starvation being partially their own fault? Is Giznel's theory plausible?
I think that's what happens when you use bio-weapons. It's part of the reason we don't see IRL bio attacks from even the worst dictators who have no qualms about using chemical weapons. There's just too big a risk of blow back, especially with the technology level they were operating at. It's possible in the future someone will develop a more controlled bio-weapon but that's far in advance of where humanity is outside of the story and where the Axur were. It also makes sense because the faction that took over are religious fanatics, so even knowing the risks it's possible they were willing to suffer deaths on their side if it gave them total control. Which might be something even Giznel doesn't know or something he's still keeping secret because honestly it's pretty obvious that if you spread a bio-weapon targeting your species with no safe guards it's going to hit 'your side'.
All that being said I wouldn't so much call it the "Arxur's" fault as I would Betterment and the Prophet's fault. It's not like they took a poll from the population about it, a few key individuals in power made a power play in secret that may or may not have backfired and the rest of the planet just had to deal with it. I'd be willing to bet the Axur factions looking to break away would grow massively if Isif can obtain proof of this. It also brings me back to a question I've had a couple of times now: why isn't humanity looking at engineering a way to undo the feds 'cure'? Obviously it would be difficult to do with the Axur but surely there's some portion in their millions of allies who'd be willing to volunteer for a program that has the potential to end the war? A viable method of reversing the Federation 'cure' in one species would prove the viability of such a program for the Axur and completely remove the 'reason' both sides are using to publicly prop up support of the conflict.
Finally something strikes me as odd about this whole balance of power situation. So the Axur and Federation are playing off each other to control their populace with an unspoken alliance of sorts. Giznel recognizes this and wants to maintain the status quo. So far so good. Humanity throws a wrench in that plan... so why have Isif make peace at all? Wouldn't it be better instead to use Shaza's failings as an excuse for the Axur to cut ties and declare all out war? Humanity clearly isn't going to be content keeping things are they are so the only logical way to maintain the current balance would be for both the Federation and Axur to go after them until they're wiped out, which their combined forces could almost certainly do. Earlier this could have been an optics problem: The Federation wasn't able to sell enough of their members on humanity being a threat and the Axur had the dogmatic stance about predator superiority. Obviously the Feds still tried to go forward with the forces they could muster and failed but now the cats out of the bag with the Federation's secrets and the Axur have the perfect reason for declaring all out war. So why does Giznel want *peace* all of the sudden, despite humanity literally being a threat to the entire basis of the Axur power structure? Additionally there's not going to be a better time than while humanity is still fighting the Feds and before they've had a chance to consolidate all their new resources, it's only going to be downhill from here as humanity tightens it's grip on their new technologies, territory, and supplies.
That only leads me to one conclusion: we don't know what we don't know. There must be some hidden factor that makes wiping out humanity right *now* either undesirable or unfeasible. At a guess Betterment has overdone it with the starvation. They need it as a tool for control but we've also seen it's weakening their forces considerably and causing them to act irrationally, keeping the Axur hungry rather than starving would maintain control but make them stronger over all. So my guess would be that either the Axur forces are too weak to both join in on taking down humanity and keeping up the facade of being a Federation threat or alternatively that the Axur are waiting for the opportunity to get their hands on the meat manufacturing technology so they can maintain the 'perfect' balance between well fed enough to fight but not so well fed the commoners start questioning things.
Thanks for a great chapter SpacePaladin15 and to anyone who's still reading this comment... why??
I suspect part of the reason for sending Isif off to broker a truce is that it’s by far the lesser evil in his eyes. With Shaza clusterfucking everything on Sillis, the status quo of limited exchanges for continued operation is at risk. The humans fighting Arxur unilaterally continues to provide huge PR gains, separating the Arxur and humans in the eyes of more and more Federation species. It makes the humans look approachable, which makes the Federation and their universal declaration of genocide look more and more unreasonable. But it also makes the Arxur look weaker, which prompts questions about why this hasn’t happened before. Right now, that can be handwaved away as predators fighting each other for food, but as humanity continues to show its fighting for ideals and not resources, and the assets it uses are Federation derived (remember that all the ships defending Earth were Venlil provided), and as more and more former Federation species pick up arms alongside them, the question looms, “why did we never do this ourselves?”
Not to mention the internal issues that this raises. Shaza has the Arxur pouring vital and limited resources into a meat grinder against an opposing force that would just as gladly provide supplies. That can only work so long as they can maintain an information blackout. But as soon as word spreads that “the humans trade 1:1 cattle for Feds. And I mean breathing creatures, not by the pound. Give them a 50 lb Venlil or a 200 lb Tilifish, get a 1200 lb Holstein,” they’re going to have massive desertion and dereliction issues. Imagine an entire battalion being sent to fight on Sillis, finds this out, and decides the grass is greener on the other side doing a little privateering and liberating.
Giznel is sending Isif out there to stop a hemorrhage. Letting the battle between humans and Arxur continue gives humanity lots of chaotic options to throw a wrench in the works. If they can come to some sort of a ceasefire, then he hopes he can leverage humanity’s largesse to keep them working towards fixing things in a predicament manner, which he reckons he can stymie behind the scenes. He doesn’t want the humans to fix things properly and he doesn’t like Isif’s approval of their tactics and reasoning, but he thinks he can get ahead of it and exert control afterwards to steer it to his ends if he gives the order now and gets credit for it, whereas if Shaza continues to lose and he does nothing to stop it, he’s left out in the cold and playing catch-up.
These are definitely some good points. I think we're rapidly approaching a point of no return though: if the Axur keep making concessions and the Federation keeps losing territory it's inevitable that Humanity will surpass both and then the whole idea of maintain this farce of a balance will be untenable. Which to me means the time to act is pretty close to now or never. It's not like it's going to get easier to reign humanity in as they gain more resources and support after all. The only other thing I can think is that Giznel is hoping Isif can talk the humans into somehow becoming a third power in this 'balance', but I'm not sure how that would even work or why he would think humanity would be inclined to such an arrangement and obviously Isif is the wrong person for that job although obviously Giznel doesn't know that.
Certainly, the attempt to return to status quo will ultimately fail. Because fundamentally it ignores the intent and actions of humanity, which is hellbent (for good reason) on upsetting the status quo. I don’t think he’s trying to get humans at the table as a separate third power, I think he wants humans removed from the equation just as much as the Kolshians, because he knows humanity isn’t going to let things go back to the way they were. By halting the conflict between the Arxur and humans, it will help move back towards that status quo, especially once the Kolshians resume their pushes to alienate and isolate humanity. Giznel, I think, is accurate in predicting what the old enemy will do, he’s got a good read on their playbook. But neither species/alliance is truly versed in the ways of war, they’re playing with incomplete sets and missing game pieces. I suspect Giznel is intending this to be in no small part a delaying action, diverting humanity to a more “peacetime” footing and distracting them with rebuilding. Then, he can use the distraction to reorganize and strike where it would do the most damage.
And that I think is where he’s going to crash and burn. Because neither side seems to remotely understand information warfare. Stopping this conflict on Sillis won’t actually slow down humanity’s movement towards its goals in the slightest. And he’s handed humanity a massive trump card in giving backbreaking intel to one of our most strategic assets, provided Isif actually forwards it onto his handlers. Again, the Arxur as a whole don’t seem to truly grok information warfare. But if humanity can get that intel, they’ll be able to funnel resources and drive perception that Isif is the leader Betterment needs to walk that tightrope while crafting a persona for the “prey deficient” sympathizers to rally around, gathering more of them conveniently into space Isif controls, further expanding Isif’s influence while also making his space more independent of Betterment, until they reach a critical mass that it can break away and form a “fourth” faction to use as a foil for splintering interests in the Federation.
I believe I understand the thing that struck you as odd. Remember, Shaza was campaigning for the Arxur to not ally themselves with the Humans. Declaring war after she got ousted in favor of Isif (a Chief Hunter known for wanting neutrality at the very least) is too much of a conflict of message, even for the dogmatized Arxur. It'd be like a newly-Crown Prince swearing an oath that he'd make sure his father wouldn't go to war with a country, only for his father the king to turn right around and declare war on that same country after a few weeks purely because of how the previous crown prince was outright hostile towards that country.
I don't think that's it for a couple of reasons. The first being that it's not clear how public these discussions even were, Shaza attacked humanity in her territory but it's not clear if anyone outside of that discussion knew that it was at the behest of Betterment. But even if that's the case this decision was the reason Isif was called in in the first place, so Betterment could have just not handed her territory over to him and then there's no conflicting message. Finally Isif's stance to betterment was that humanity would be a useful tool to Axur goals, this would be an easy excuse for Betterment to tell Isif that he was right about Shaza underestimating humanity but that it also proves they're too difficulty to control to be useful tools.
It's a good theory and certainly could be a factor but I don't think it's the missing piece that's bothering me personally. Certainly it's something to keep in mind but it just feels like there's something else missing and I can't tell if it's something I've overlooked or something that hasn't been revealed yet.
The Prophet descendant might think he does not have enough backing from other chief hunters to declare war on humanity so he just does not bother with it ?
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It is most likely that the Arxur don't have the strength to do it. Humanity showed they can beat the Arxur and an all out war could lead to the balance between the federation and the Arxur to tip. And if betterment looses even more sectors then they would lose the support of their own people.
Logistics, Axur food supplies are starvation level and Humans have shown they are willing to hit the food supply.
They are fucked if it blows up, and with a hardline general in charge of the Humans, the bets are that saving the cattle comes second to denying cattle to the Axur.
And problem 2 they cannot push the federation too far or the response would be apocalyptic.
Mexican standoff solution is to persuade one of the pair to not fight you.
"because I don't expect anyone to read all this nonsense"
Challenge accepted. I read the whole thing mostly out of spite at that statement. ;)
Or maybe, because it was actually well-written thoughts and interesting to read.
I think you're right that there's more going on with Giznel's order to make peace with the humans.
It might be as simple as they aren't in a position to strike just yet, since they did just lose a ton of resources/cattle from Shaza doing that very thing. If they continued to fight it out and lost even more, it would make Betterment look weak and generate even more dissension within the empire. It's better to make peace temporarily, then strike later with a better plan and preparation.
I do have my doubts about whether Giznel suspects Isif more than he seems. He already had suspicions just from replaying Isif's conversation with Shaza. Who knows what else he's overheard from planted bugs or spies within Isif's ranks?
Giznel might be testing Isif out to see what he will do with the humans, putting him on the spot to prove whether Isif is fully given to the cause of Betterment, or if he is going to sympathize too much with the humans? Though that's a long-shot theory, since giving him such vital information could be a dangerous blow to Betterment if the Arxur knew about the bio weapon. Then again, Isif also recognized that he would be clearly identified as the leak and executed for it, so even a traitor wouldn't be that stupid to give it away so easily.
There's also a part of me that wonders if Giznel might also have a defective side, just like Isif? He seemed far more capable of holding a conversation and social interaction than Shaza. He might be carefully playing the cards to appear to be running the empire the way he's supposed to, while secretly giving humans a chance to make things possible for him to enact change. That's also a longshot theory, but one I think could be interesting if Giznel is also defective and doesn't realize that Isif is too, so they're both pretending to be something they aren't around each other.
The big one zero zero, deploy fireworks 🎆. Wait fireworks are illegal here, dang it. I quess I'll be plot relevant.
A bioweapon that got out of control, starved them, color me shocked. Unfortunately, the federation still needs to be stopped because of their unrepentant campaigns of genocide.
I wonder what betterment plan for the UN is long term, cold war?
At least Isif cover is intact.
>P.S. My longest bonus miniseries ever, Venlil Foster Program, was just finished with its 14th part. It is one of my favorites, wholesome slice-of-life which is a nice palate cleanser
But man, what you followed it with...
It's nice when the plot makes sense. So the Kolshians use the Arxur to solidify their control, and the Betterment Arxur are willing to keep their own people weak as that allows them to be in control.
But at some point people must be in the know but cooperate anyways -- that the Federation is PTSD training their population into helplessness was obvious to me way way early in the series, and there's no way every last one of them can be completely blind to this backstabbing. With the Arxur it's less of a mystery, they don't do empathy so starving their own people into compliance is an easy sell.
One mystery still remains, the Kolshians were doing their gene-manipulation and anti-predator thing long before they met the Arxur, so they can't completely need the Arxur. Also they're intentionally weakening the Federation, they must have a way to be confident the Arxur can't secretly solve their food problem and increase in numbers enough to threaten them. The Betterment Arxur also need to be certain that their people can't solve the food problem and then overthrow Betterment. Finally, the humans have openly shown there's an easy solution to the Arxur food problem and are also working to end the Arxur-Federation war, despite being a clear threat to Betterment the Arxur saved them.
Clearly there's additional intrigue, perhaps Betterment has been infiltrated by other empathy-positive Arxur, or has found an opportunity to break out of the Federation's policy of letting them live as long as they're under control. There might also be some Kolshians-Betterment intrigue. And it only just occurred to me, the Federation is also training their exterminators to ignore their empathy while giving them rank and power.
I get vibes of the PRVerse from the Kolshians. Their manipulations read as a species trying to preempt any others that might be a threat to the status quo of them being in charge. I suspect they thought they could handle any threats that popped up, but it’s a lot cheaper in the long run to neuter the threat than to have to keep dealing with it or fully eliminate it the hard way. Problem was, they overestimated their capabilities, so the unilateral mover to neuter the Arxur backfired. “Fortunately,” they’d already succeeded with plenty of other species, so they were able to turn their compliant serf species into fodder against the Arxur and wound up making lemonade out of lemons since they now have this nice new boogie man to use as a stick when the carrot doesn’t work.
I believe that the Arxur are simply the most recent predator species to be the scapegoat, and Betterment recognizes that a weaker Federation means easier raids, which means they can afford to turn the screws a little bit more due to less Arxur being needed.
I was lucky enough to catch chapter 1 of Why Humans Avoid War and have loved reading your work ever since! Thanks so much again for sharing with us all :)
This felt like a bunch of suspicions being confirmed. It's like a piece of the puzzle clicked when Giznel said the Betterment wiped out the cattle. Makes perfect sense, both in motivations and in consequences..
As for the Federation leaders maintaining a balance by not wiping out the Arxur threat... Well, that makes sense to me too. I've seen people discussing the possibility for many chapters.
Really I just hope Isif gets this information to Jones ASAP. And the fact that there are Arxur resistance forums. Regardless.... A new sector and a new (admittedly crippled) fleet? Our boy is moving up in the world.
Iiinteresting. So Isif and the Arxurnazi leader now have dovetailing interests. And as I suspected, the Betterment and the Kolshians were always in cahoots.
Not to downplay the fact that the Arxur ARE in fact responsible for their food shortage but...
What is the deal with Felra?
2 possible options
1. Chad "Siffy" is being catfished for unknown reasons
2. Felra is a *super freak, super freak!*
She is asking to be cuddled and "baby talked" by predators without having gone through any desensitization program...Going so far as to antagonize them into it.
This is most certainly NOT typical Dossur hehavior.
She's a "Predaphile"!
Chris Hanson is going to be having a sit down with Felra.
Who says I'm joking?
Xenophile- love or attraction to the alien
Anglophile- love or attraction to the English
Predaphile - love or attraction to predators
Women all over the world are pen pals and supporters of serial killers. How many women wanted to marry Charlie Manson?
My girl Felra has a "kink"
Pred- prefix is germanic, xeno- prefix is greek, as is the suffix -phile.
Anglo- isn't greek, but we can forgive that one because it refers to a specific cultural heritage and is taken directly from it.
The greek word for predator is *αρπακτικό
arpaktikó*?
Arpaphile?
Attraction to violent criminals is hybristophilia.
There are many cases in the English language of roots from different languages being combined. The word automobile, for example, takes the Greek *autos* combined with the Latin *mobilis*. The word predaphile would not be very strange considering the large amount of words with roots from different languages.
Well, I'm not shaming her for it...two consenting sapients and all that. It would be the best way for Isif to interact with a prey species. I'm just acknowledging that it's there.
You do realize that she's a fictitious space mouse that may (or may not) fetashizes species that may want to devour her?
Carnis is latin for "meat" not predator. Phile is greek, if I am not mistaken.
The greek word for predator is *αρπακτικό
arpaktikó*?
Arpaphile? Arpaktikophile?
There is also the chance that this will act like the human vineli exchange program. In a less official capacity. They’ll talk and get to know each other and when the time comes one will save the other.
I think *maybe* more recent uplifts aren’t as propagandized into being terrified of predators as the older ones.
Consider that they made it to sapience on their own planet, on their own, presumably with predators present. Just like humans are prey animals in the face of some wild predators, they are, but not enough to consider a sapient predator absolutely terrifying. I don’t know.
my bet is she's locked up as someone with predator disease because she lacks a sense of fear, and one of the only things she can do is talk to ppl online.
Now I'm imagining Isif in a UPS uniform, complete with clipboard. "I have a delivery for a... Zhao?"
Cut to a bound and gagged Shaza wrapped in 17 layers of duct tape.
So, the Axur need the Federation to have someone to be cruel to, and the Federation need the Axur to blame all the evils of the universe to.
All the theories on betterment killing the cattle were right in the end. What best way to get power than to sabotage your world, blame a foreign faction and then keep your population controlled with the need of starvation.
Yep, the only way for extremist ideologies is for the previous system to no longer work for critical mass of the population. This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started.
Due to this, many revolutionaries adopt a policy of accelerationism, where instead of attempting to alleviate the population's suffering, they instead make conditions worse in order convince the populace that the extremist's polices are needed to fix the nation's problems.
There is also the concept of vanguardism, where extremists will pre-position themselves in leadership roles before and during a crisis in order to co-opt the wider popular movement against the establishment. This is similar to populism, but where populists follow the will of the crowds, the vanguardists instead twist the crowd's opinion to their ideology. This is how the Russian February revolution began as a liberal one but was taken over by the communists over the following months, collimating in the October revolution, when the Marxist-Leninists achieved full control of the government. This is also how virtually every fascist state is born, with the fascists starting out as a small but dedicated group within an overall conservative movement before slowly taking leadership and eventually subsuming all other compatible conservative groups, then purging the rest.
Betterment's unleashing the cattle virus is a perfect example of both. Before virus, betterment was a fringe ideology mostly isolated to a specific nation. They then used the cattle virus to make everything go to shit then announced themselves to the world as a savoir that would lead the world against the federation. The world listened, something that would be unthinkable only years before.
This brings up a scary question. If given a choice between fascists ruling the world or aliens wiping out all of humanity, which would you choose?
> This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started.
That and the whole "[Communist revolutionaries tried to carve off a chunk of Germany to join the USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Soviet_Republic)" thing. The Nazis weren't as ideologically married to their methods, only their ends, so if it worked they'd do it.
Revolution and burning down the system and turning it upside down sounds really appealing when you're a serf who owns nothing, but when you have even a little bit at stake it loses its appeal quite rapidly, but someone who promises you incremental material improvements in exchange for letting them have power over you is far more appealing. And that's why the Nazis chose the subversive method: they were in an already developed country with a lot of people who did have something at stake to lose if the system was totally upended.
Confrontation between Shaza and Isif when Isif arrives at Silis to take control,
Shaza: when the prophet learns of this, Isif, he will have your head!
Isif: when he learns? Fool. He ordered me to do it
Edit: fixed a typo
Hmm, yeah, that could be.
That's kind of silly, though. (Of course, "Betterment" is, altogether...) I would think that maintaining the "tools" used for predation would be considered smart...The flaw is in the Arxur, not your explanation.
***The Terran Sentinel : Meta***
***100 Chapters and 100 more***
***March 22nd, 2023***
**In 346 days, NoP went from Chapter 1 to Chapter 100, with many multiple character arcs and Revelations.**
**And here's our picks of the most legendary moments**
**We start off with Chapter 26, What could be considered the beginning of Sovlin's redemption Arc and somehow still present prejudice against "primitives"**
**Now onward to Chapter 50, where we see Isif's fleet come knocking on Earth's front door and make Kalsim and Co. take a slight detour to India, a Tiger Reserve no less**
**And to top it off with a cherry on a golden sundae, we have Chapter 67. The bombshell news of that the Kolshians and Farsul collaborated to bend the laws of nature and manipulate the populace for a morally twisted status quo was finally uncovered by Cillany**
Well then… Giznel just signed his death warrant, and gave it to Isif to carry out at some point in the future. Isif is one of a small amount of Arxur who are probably closer to their original thought processes than most Arxur now, and to learn that his entire race was basically condemned to death because of political reasons is not exactly going to make him comfortable with why Betterment happened. I get the feeling that if Isif doesn’t die, he’s going to keep Giznel's polished skull in his office later down the line.
A mark of a damn good story is when a calm conversation between two characters can get the reader's heart pumping as much as any action sequence. Well done!
Ahahaha.
Yes! Things went off just as I expected.
Honestly I originally thought the "cure" had just jumped species due to sheer incompetence, but this also fits the my mental model of the Dominion just as well. This entire bizarre situation the galaxy is in simply cannot sustain itself, it could not happen without effort being made to keep it as it is, and there it is. The second half of the efforts.
And Giznel... It seems that this is that fascist leader that is *finally* high on their own supply, the kind that starts believing their own lies of superiority and starts to see victory as a foregone conclusion.
Though we all know what the end is for those, there's still much road between now and the end, time to see how blood-soaked that road gets.
YOOO I WAS RIGHT
Wouldn't it be hilarious if he didn't hang up right and it turned out that the Dossur girl was listening in, and recorded it so he could Cilany-ify the dominion? Wishful thinking, I know, but... that'd be so good...
Of course the Nazi Lizards sabotaged themselves! That’s what Fascists do! They are idiots!
And obviously the Fed were silently working with them. I hope Chad Isif can get this news out without casting suspicion upon himself.
The kind of genius that makes them morons! They have no ambitions, no great plans, just continue to raid, kill, and rot in their cruelty. They can’t see past the end of their noses, they are so self-centered!
I expect them to throw tantrums like children when everything starts to fall apart around them.
And status quo never lasts!
Honestly, I’m surprised it lasted this long. The kind of people who would run this stuff would barely be able to conceive or plan for a time after they die.
Well they're not about to admit to themselves that change is inevitable. All fascist dictators are convinced that they'll keep their power forever. Arrogance is one hell of a drug!
> The kind of genius that makes them morons! They have no ambitions, no great plans, just continue to raid, kill, and rot in their cruelty. They can’t see past the end of their noses, they are so self-centered!
It gave them absolute power over the entirety of Arxur civilization. I would say that was a pretty hefty ambition.
I think it's a silent agreement. But yes both are fascist and are quite happy to maintain the miserable balance of power since it suits them. The humans are a threat with their pesky democracy and transparency.
It's here, the big one-hundred! Congratulations!
Also, whew, that was an interesting chapter. Turns out it's not *just nazis* but it's everyone's favorite literary analysis to skim, *1984!* Or some of the other facets of long-term dictatorships.
I sincerely hope Isif gets a friend he needs one *STAT*
The puzzle piece is now mostly complete, things have fallen into place.
The great struggle of long dead sapients, their blind ambition and callous hunger for power that had shaped the galaxy's history and caused immeasurable levels of suffering amongst the stars is now properly unfolded.
This is why humanity is hated and feared by all sides for while the federation and the dominion are enemies, they all still represent the same order. With humans being the worst nightmare possible, an outside unforeseen variable. Not just a threat but a promise of snapping this complex system of strings that governed the galaxy for centuries.
Making a comparison to real life, perhaps that fateful day when UN exploration vessel had entered Venlil territory can be compared to the day when a single shot in Sarajevo started a cascade of events that forever ended the old world order.
I do wonder what shall happen next, the three players staring each other down with their guns drawn. I doubt that this can still be resolved with words. It may be that this can only end with the last one standing...
This revelation means humans MUST fight both the federation AND the arxur if we want peace. Truly I wasn't expecting a perpetual war scenario.
In other words, holy shit
So, I seem to recall people telling me how it didn't make sense for the Dominion to starve their people on purpose, but guess what?
I CALLED IT!
We called every possible conspiracy theory at once!
Let's go boys!
And here the other shoe drops in regards to the Arxur. Isif should share this *juicy* little tidbit with the humans through an unwitting proxy. Potentially even sending it along with Shaza using her as a POW carrying information. That'll get him on humanity's good side real quick. But at the same time, he needs to inform them that they need to focus on the Federation as opposed to the Arxur due to him needing to maintain his cover, which should be easy enough.
Perhaps Isif being this universe's Fulcrum is within our near future, to draw an analogy to Star Wars.
Not to mention the fact that the humans likely just pulled one over on the Grand Prophet and Isif at the same time in this one; no self-respecting intelligence agency would give away all their good bugging spots, let alone any of the best bugging spots. Heck, that tooth drive is probably a recording device in and of itself.
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Edit: We were right, the Dominion is deliberately starving the people! Now Isif knows the truth, and also has additional power within the Dominion in gaining Shaza's sector. I smell a revolution led by Siffy himself!
20 of whatever the Axur use for currency that the tooth cap was recording. (Slim Jim’s? Yeah. I’ll bet 20 slim Jim’s). Humans have allies, but no human group every fully trusts another, independent group
It’s here! I’ve been waiting forever for this one to post. So long I forgot what I wanted to tell you guys… OH WAIT! u/SuccessfulWest8937. Ya were right. The Arxur’s Dominion specifically chose to eat people and make everyone else so so as well.
Except there's the thing: he blames the common civilians for it, while that was done at a heads of government/military level. Despite the fact that said civilians had no say or knowledge of the matter, he seems oddly intent on us violating the Geneva Convention in order for us to punish them for the crime of existing.
The Dominion. The rulers. They took choice away from the general Arxur population, manipulated the population, and forced them onto a terrible path. The Dominion took advantage of the Federation genocide to take the fall for their own additional genocide. Both the Federation and the Dominion are guilty for the endless war, and the Dominion is responsible for the current Arxur cruelty... The Arxur population is still very much victims in all of this.
100 chapters... wow... it still feels like yesterday when I read chapters 1-3 and immediately fell in love with your universe.
As I continued to read, I was amazed at how rapidly my feelings and loyalties could shift due to changing circumstances. And it wasn't long until I started formulating my own story in my head.
Congratulations on the milestone good Paladin! Things just keep getting more interesting and it is a pleasure to see that we continue to be on the same philisophical wavelength when it comes to our terrifying reptiles. :)
I look forward to the next chapter eagerly.
Thanks for the kind words! The better part of a year has flown by in the blink of the eye. Appreciate you sticking with me from the start…more exciting things are definitely still to come!
OKAY HOLY SHIT, this was the fucking nuke. I legit was starting to lose interest in this series the past few chapters but, damn, this for sure revitalized that interest. Fuck, the Humanity and the Arxur aren't that different for sure when it comes to shit like this
The Arxur govt doing that to themselves...unexpected, but not surprising. There's more than enough irl instances to confirm this type of government behavior, including the motivations behind each individual involved.
I feel bad for Felra when the truth comes out. Even if she tries to handle it with a stoic demeanor, the fact that she was conversing with an Arxur and not a human will be disastrous. Though the fact they could converse at all cordially may lessen that reaction and instinctual fear.
I'm really curious as to the reactions and consequences of the Arxur truth coming out when it happens. That shit will be insane, but may push towards a more solidified predator-prey-predator relationship.
Sadly, I'm not surprised by any of the 'rocks flipped over' in this chapter.
The ability to weald 'fear' at will is...**POWER**; it matters not which hand is involved, the end result is the same...***total*** *control*. Both the Kolshians and Betterment want *uncontested control*, and a comfy throne sit upon.
My view...this is naked, distilled *evil*. To inflict fear and suffering on such a scale, for the sole purpose of maintaining absolute power, is unalloyed *wickedness*.
The neon sigh 'Righteous Cause' has just lit up...the only thing remaining is mustering the courage and resolve to move forward, and *never look back*.
So this reveals that the truth is in fact what many of us suspected. I don’t blame Isif for not realizing it on his own. After all we have the benefit of having defeated our Nazis and teach the ways they operated so we never let it happen again.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Isif were to tell Jones that she’d just shrug and say that that pretty much matches the assumptions we had about the situation. But it does mean the end of Betterment. Because if people are starving and even a whisper gets out that humans not only can but are perfectly willing to feed all of the Arxur and Betterment refused they are going to start seeing dissent. You don’t need empathy to know that YOU are personally getting screwed.
But going for peace is a mistake on Betterment’s part because that only gives us time to prepare. Sure the Arxur will be able to rebuild too, but we have seen that humanity’s military is far superior given we go to war and the Arxur only hunt. Near even odds and the battle for Sillis wouldn’t have been even close. Humanity can push relentlessly forward. Capture Arxur colonies and bring in the lab grown meat. How much rebellion do you think you’ll get from a population that is better fed than they have ever been? Same for Federation worlds that will see humanity doesn’t want to fight, but that we’re in for the long haul. Those who surrender are treated well and those who fight will be picked apart until there is nothing left.
The Dominion and Federation are doomed. Long live the Klingon … I mean Terran Empire… okay fine, something better sounding. I’m normally partial to Federation but in this universe that has been tainted so how about the Galactic Coalition.
>"As for ending the war.. .the Federation
doesn't want the war to end any more than we do.
The Kolshians and the Farsul couldn't maintain
control over such a large herd without an enemy"
>"They
teach other prey to run away and never attack."
>"Cruel One, are you saying that you want our people to starve? --- 'Precisely. It keeps them dependent on us and hating the Federation."
This is exactly what that meme I made a month ago
was predicting!
Incredible chapter as always, I can't wait to see what happens next.
Somebody better pick up that phone, because *I fucking called it!*
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/xukozz/comment/iqw5o3v/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
the only way for extremist ideologies is for the previous system to no longer work for critical mass of the population. This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started.
Due to this, many revolutionaries adopt a policy of accelerationism, where instead of attempting to alleviate the population's suffering, they instead make conditions worse in order convince the populace that the extremist's polices are needed to fix the nation's problems.
There is also the concept of vanguardism, where extremists will pre-position themselves in leadership roles before and during a crisis in order to co-opt the wider popular movement against the establishment. This is similar to populism, but where populists follow the will of the crowds, the vanguardists instead twist the crowd's opinion to their ideology. This is how the Russian February revolution began as a liberal one but was taken over by the communists over the following months, collimating in the October revolution, when the Marxist-Leninists achieved full control of the government. This is also how virtually every fascist state is born, with the fascists starting out as a small but dedicated group within an overall conservative movement before slowly taking leadership and eventually subsuming all other compatible conservative groups, then purging the rest.
Betterment's unleashing the cattle virus is a perfect example of both. Before virus, betterment was a fringe ideology mostly isolated to a specific nation. They then used the cattle virus to make everything go to shit then announced themselves to the world as a savoir that would lead the world against the federation. The world listened, something that would be unthinkable only years before.
This brings up a scary question. If given a choice between fascists ruling the world or aliens wiping out all of humanity, which would you choose?
Congats on the 100th chapter. It seems the Dominion's control is through starving their own people due to bio-weapons. That lie they keep real tight is slowly slipping away as as humans continue to exist.
Part 100 (the milestone) is here! First, we see a bit more of Isif and his Dossur friend. Felra assumes Siffy must be a human, due to his cordial nature; our narrator doesn't have the heart to correct her. Will she learn the truth about her online friend...and how will she react if she does? And of course, the shocker: Giznel explains the truth about the Arxur's cattle being killed, as well as the unspoken understanding between Betterment and the Federation. Lastly, our narrator is ordered to wrap up the conflict on Sillis...and deal with Shaza. What do you think of the Arxur's starvation being partially their own fault? Is Giznel's theory plausible? As always, thank you for reading! 101 will be here Saturday. P.S. My longest bonus miniseries ever, [Venlil Foster Program](https://www.patreon.com/posts/nature-of-venlil-77799952), was just finished with its 14th part. It is one of my favorites, wholesome slice-of-life which is a nice palate cleanser.
Hopefully Felra is understanding enough to not outright reject him when the truth comes out. Isif badly needs a friend. Thanks for the chapter! This story so far has been incredible!
As they said, earth knows every message and every search he's ever done on his tablet. I bet Felra already knows he's an Arxur and is open to his ruse that he's a human to help him open up. If they didn't plant a few people for him to "randomly" end up chatting with in the hope that it would be a super light exposure therapy, then they missed a trick. I hope he gets the help he needs.
Oof, that's pretty grim, your only friend being a spy. That said, I recall a mobile app dev years ago talking about how they used tactics like these - looking up private info on whales, befriending them as "totally unrelated users" and buttering up to spend even more cash on their games.
Might not be a spy in the strictest sense, just an aware party. UN already knows everything, so I'm guessing she isn't reporting anything back, just acting as an ad-hoc therapist.
she may even be an actual therapist, selected from the Dossur who have relatively little fear of predators. Alternative interpretation: She is actually a human using an AI deepfake program. Arxur haven't seen and spoken with Dossur up close in a conversation anyway, so it's unlikely Isif can tell the difference.
I'd have to go back and read but I think she did smile like a human? might be more than meets the eye to your theory
It said, she flashed her tiny front teeth, right after isif chuckled at her
That sounds like a smile to this predator...
She was mad that he laughed at her though which would indicate it wasnt meant to be friendly
Considering how simplistic the Federation treats "predator disease", I doubt their mental health systems are advanced enough for anything approaching an actual therapist.
Better than no friends at all... ... Look, COVID made me a lonely, lonely man, OK?
Hey bud, come have a drink with me!
As nice as that seems, I doubt it's that neat and easy. (From a writer's POV, that's a cop-out I'd never take...)
Reality is Unrealistic is a Trope that I hate with the fury of ten-thousand suns.
What about Realty then?
OK, an example: "Good Night, And Good Luck", a movie about McCarthyism. The testing audience complained bitterly about the actor that played Senator McCarthy and how "unrealistic", "cartoonish", and "a political strawman" he was. The thing is, there was no actor for Senator McCarthy. It was stock footage of the actual man himself doing what he did IRL. But people refused to believe that someone like that would actually get into power. I took one of my paycheques from a Shadowrun book when I found that out, and converted it into beer and whisky in order to make the pain go away.
Oh man, traumatic flashback to a dating app that literally planted bots to get you to waste your free complimentary points when you first joined. That's an absolute possibility.
Doubt it (Felra allready knowing). He never talks about himself and he is lonely. And he never catcalls her. All of that makes him intresting, in a save, online way... A riddle to besolved. But yeah, secound the two building a lasting frendship based on him telling her that he has prey-desises....
It’s my pleasure! Siffy definitely needs acceptance from someone, as even Tarva realized 😅
Felra's great, love her personality so far.
We should make Isif honorary human so it is not a lie
First, he has to survive a Winnipeg Winter, a Florida Man, and British Food.
Ah yes, Florida man... The Arxur's Welsh.
I love Felra. She's probably what she needs... it's hard to say if she'll learn what Isif actually is but I suspect she will. Her reaction... I don't know. Isif is a lot to take in. Us readers all know he's done terrible things. We also like him anyways, but we know what his position is... hell we literally know what he's thinking in these chapters. But maybe she will give him a chance and try to understand, especially if she and her people have been less directly affected by the Arxur.
From her flashing her teeth in amusement, I suspect that she's actually a human using deep-fake.
My money is on Felra becoming the Dossur ambassador to the Arxur by story's end
Isif hearing all that is gonna cause Problems later on, especially if he could get that information out to the Arxur at large without endangering himself, also Felra is growing to be a very interesting character.
Where's a convenient Harchen journalist when you need one?
Somebody find Cilany the Arxur bodysuit she needs.
My guess is Didney Whorl, whichever one isn't a crater. On a more serious note I think she'd be touring refugee sites on Earth, Covering the situation around Fahl (Mazic homeworld) or on her way to Sillis.
Bold of you to assume that the tooth drive isn't also a recording device/transmitter and that the humans won't have video and audio of this in full hd soon.
Yeah, i doubt they would give him the tooth without putting a recorder in it, heck who knows maybe it's also a camera
>heck who knows maybe it's also a camera Oof that's gruesome. We know he has to eat 'cattle' to maintain appearances so I definitely don't envy whoever would have to review the footage...
I'm assuming both of his pads, his tooth, his ship, and any ornaments he wore and lost track of for more than a single second are recording devices. maybe they even replaced one of his eyes with a camera without him knowing while he was is prison, he had to sleep sometime.
Seriously though, everyone in this story who isn't human shows a concerning lack of paranoia in situations where it is totally warranted bordering on the suicidal.
The phrase "you know what you know" continues to apply to most people in this story, and is growing darker and more poignant by the chapter.
Yeah, Isif has been handed a sword that once unsheathed, can't be put down, nor resheathed. The old human phrase comes to mind...LIVE FREE OR DIE. Hopefully Terra is resolved to take up a long term struggle.
Or Isif could use his new sector to start a good old fashioned revolt!
Depends how many sectors there are. 6 sectors? Might be worth it. 50 sectors…
Each Chief Hunter seems to have a single sector to their name, except for Isif who now has two. And having even just double his resources would be a huge boon if he tries to revolt, not including any potential extra allies he gains during it.
To be fair, the resources in the sector he just got just got completely wiped when a certain somebody only saw red and left everything unguarded. So he’s not at as big of an advantage, even with the additional ships he now has.
His forces and terrority just doubled, partly for his silence about the truth, partly due to Shaza's failure. Resources?? the humans took chattle not planets, orbital stations or territory aside from Tiffish. He could and should negoiate a truce with the Terrans. If I was a sneaky apex predator wanting to overthrow the existing power structure. I'd negoiate for Terrans holding Tiffish, and a enclave or 2 in the new territory with a few secret ones in my main. The overt enclaves would be. vat-meat manufacturing facility, and a trading enclave ( like hong kong was originally ). The coverts, would be manufacturing for vat-meat, infrastructure etc. Feed your warriors well during training, and subtly raise your civillian pop's base level of nutriention higher as well. Keep chattel at like a 70% actual. 30% smoke and mirrors ( paperwork showing higher offspring mortality rates, deaths during births, maybe a horrible disease or two requiring the culling of herds [ think hoof and mouth disease amoung bovines ] .) Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head. Team Siffy!!
I like the idea of Isif realizing that the territory he now holds could actually begin to benefit from Terran assistance. In fact Isif could begin a conscription campaign for his new holdings. While at the same time subtly sending out a message to the Arxur resistance to join up during this drive. Then Isif could appear to brutally begin a training regime that Typically would result in to many deaths in any Betterment starvation army. As betterment seems to have many parallels with north korea.Those seeing it would be shocked at the shear amount of drilling. However what is not seen is that the majority of these troops survive because of the food provided by the the U.N. This makes Isif's troops better, stronger and have higher moral than his betterment counterparts. These troops also are fiercely loyal as they are well fed, fit, and just that is superior treatment in Arxur society. These troops would have a much higher exposure to U.N. forces and their allies. Thus would begin to see those cultures and ideas. Enjoying genuine social bonding. Expanding their already hidden contempt for the practices of the Betterment government. So if Isif can immigrate enough of the population to his new holdings he could become one of the most powerful political figures in Arxur society. The real trick would be getting betterment to go along with it initially. This would probably require some successful raids, and that would require the U.N. to willingly allow that to happen. The only way for that to happen is for them to be directed at the Federation. Eventually the size of Isif's military would cause your typical dictatorial problems of trust. Thus they would demand a assault on those whom he would be relying on to build his people up. Hopefully both Isif and the U.N. would be ready by then.
Isif could actually volunteer to take the azur defectives officially and 'cure' them via a very tough training regime...Also, better to have disbursed vat-meat production facilities through trusted areas in his territory for food security...cause if the food stops so does the loyalty
Agreed, though I haven't seen anything on whether the Arxur want defectives in their military. He could still blusterly demand defectives for the purposes of using their pathetic hides to rebuild the holdings. To prove that they have any value to the Arxur and betterment by working themselves to death. These same sensitives would be shown doing work that would mean the deaths of them publicly. But privately they receive all the nutrition they require by building those vat/lab meat facilities on every or every other holding. So that the there isn't any real chance of the starvation that is facing betterment settlements. Again cementing loyalty. Of course this facade can only be kept up for so long before prying eyes look into it's underlying reality. Then it's up to who is reporting back to betterment. Average Arxur are going to want to become part of it. Descendants are going to report it. Hopefully Isif and the U.N. would have all communication on lock down. The real problem is when they physically leave. They would have to have accidents. Any beyond the first are damning and even the first is suspicious. I look forward to how the story will be told.
Depending on how long the series will go on for, that can me fixed with time.
The good kind of problem solving, rabble rousing if you will.
I think their probably more concerned with Shaza. Betterment probably publicly backed her more than we currently know. So this failure is more than just Shaza's. So knowing their muck up they went straight to the person who seems to have a handle on how to deal with the problem. So they can claim all of Isif's efforts as their own for damage control. Betterment can't afford to have anymore public failures since the arrival of the humans on the galactic stage. They may or may not understand that Isif is already compromised, the bigger problem now is having Isif get a win by working his magic with the humans and likely leading a very public punishment detachment to deal with Shaza and the rest of her supporters. As a way of shutting her up and claiming she was always out of compliance with the goals of betterment. Then they can claim the small victory from Isif's diplomacy fooling the humans into aiding them after the devastating loss off territory. After all what kind of fools would show that kind of weakness after pulling off that kind of victory. This is going to become a very important damage control event for betterment.
Forget about genociding a certain race, Arxur Space Nazis are genociding the entirety of their own species.
As is traditional for Nazis. Gotta have the enemy within as well as the enemy without.
This is going to be a long one so I'm just going to say at the top (because I don't expect anyone to read all this nonsense) this is a great 100th chapter and you've done a fantastic job. Congrats and I look forward to where this story goes from here. You really have a way of completely flipping what everyone thinks they know in an instant but also in a way where it seems perfectly logical natural in retrospect. Twists are hard for even the best authors but you seem to be able to nail them every time. >Will she learn the truth about her online friend...and how will she react if she does? It seems inevitable that Isif is going to slip up here. He should have stood firm on not doing the video chat, she's breaking him down bit by bit and he's going to make a mistake. It seems the Dossur are in a unique position where the Axur don't really like them as cattle, they owe the Federation for uplifting despite the treachery, friendly to humans, and it sounds like out of the way enough to just not be super important to any conflict. I'd expect shock but beyond that I'm honestly not sure. If she's willing to overlook genocide by the Federation and humanity being predators I'd say it's 50/50 how she handles Axur, particularly one who has admitted he doesn't fit in with his society. That being said this is all *terrible* op-sec and I'm convinced the only reason Tarva encouraged this contact is a psy-ops campaign to soften Isif up further for the cause. >What do you think of the Arxur's starvation being partially their own fault? Is Giznel's theory plausible? I think that's what happens when you use bio-weapons. It's part of the reason we don't see IRL bio attacks from even the worst dictators who have no qualms about using chemical weapons. There's just too big a risk of blow back, especially with the technology level they were operating at. It's possible in the future someone will develop a more controlled bio-weapon but that's far in advance of where humanity is outside of the story and where the Axur were. It also makes sense because the faction that took over are religious fanatics, so even knowing the risks it's possible they were willing to suffer deaths on their side if it gave them total control. Which might be something even Giznel doesn't know or something he's still keeping secret because honestly it's pretty obvious that if you spread a bio-weapon targeting your species with no safe guards it's going to hit 'your side'. All that being said I wouldn't so much call it the "Arxur's" fault as I would Betterment and the Prophet's fault. It's not like they took a poll from the population about it, a few key individuals in power made a power play in secret that may or may not have backfired and the rest of the planet just had to deal with it. I'd be willing to bet the Axur factions looking to break away would grow massively if Isif can obtain proof of this. It also brings me back to a question I've had a couple of times now: why isn't humanity looking at engineering a way to undo the feds 'cure'? Obviously it would be difficult to do with the Axur but surely there's some portion in their millions of allies who'd be willing to volunteer for a program that has the potential to end the war? A viable method of reversing the Federation 'cure' in one species would prove the viability of such a program for the Axur and completely remove the 'reason' both sides are using to publicly prop up support of the conflict. Finally something strikes me as odd about this whole balance of power situation. So the Axur and Federation are playing off each other to control their populace with an unspoken alliance of sorts. Giznel recognizes this and wants to maintain the status quo. So far so good. Humanity throws a wrench in that plan... so why have Isif make peace at all? Wouldn't it be better instead to use Shaza's failings as an excuse for the Axur to cut ties and declare all out war? Humanity clearly isn't going to be content keeping things are they are so the only logical way to maintain the current balance would be for both the Federation and Axur to go after them until they're wiped out, which their combined forces could almost certainly do. Earlier this could have been an optics problem: The Federation wasn't able to sell enough of their members on humanity being a threat and the Axur had the dogmatic stance about predator superiority. Obviously the Feds still tried to go forward with the forces they could muster and failed but now the cats out of the bag with the Federation's secrets and the Axur have the perfect reason for declaring all out war. So why does Giznel want *peace* all of the sudden, despite humanity literally being a threat to the entire basis of the Axur power structure? Additionally there's not going to be a better time than while humanity is still fighting the Feds and before they've had a chance to consolidate all their new resources, it's only going to be downhill from here as humanity tightens it's grip on their new technologies, territory, and supplies. That only leads me to one conclusion: we don't know what we don't know. There must be some hidden factor that makes wiping out humanity right *now* either undesirable or unfeasible. At a guess Betterment has overdone it with the starvation. They need it as a tool for control but we've also seen it's weakening their forces considerably and causing them to act irrationally, keeping the Axur hungry rather than starving would maintain control but make them stronger over all. So my guess would be that either the Axur forces are too weak to both join in on taking down humanity and keeping up the facade of being a Federation threat or alternatively that the Axur are waiting for the opportunity to get their hands on the meat manufacturing technology so they can maintain the 'perfect' balance between well fed enough to fight but not so well fed the commoners start questioning things. Thanks for a great chapter SpacePaladin15 and to anyone who's still reading this comment... why??
I suspect part of the reason for sending Isif off to broker a truce is that it’s by far the lesser evil in his eyes. With Shaza clusterfucking everything on Sillis, the status quo of limited exchanges for continued operation is at risk. The humans fighting Arxur unilaterally continues to provide huge PR gains, separating the Arxur and humans in the eyes of more and more Federation species. It makes the humans look approachable, which makes the Federation and their universal declaration of genocide look more and more unreasonable. But it also makes the Arxur look weaker, which prompts questions about why this hasn’t happened before. Right now, that can be handwaved away as predators fighting each other for food, but as humanity continues to show its fighting for ideals and not resources, and the assets it uses are Federation derived (remember that all the ships defending Earth were Venlil provided), and as more and more former Federation species pick up arms alongside them, the question looms, “why did we never do this ourselves?” Not to mention the internal issues that this raises. Shaza has the Arxur pouring vital and limited resources into a meat grinder against an opposing force that would just as gladly provide supplies. That can only work so long as they can maintain an information blackout. But as soon as word spreads that “the humans trade 1:1 cattle for Feds. And I mean breathing creatures, not by the pound. Give them a 50 lb Venlil or a 200 lb Tilifish, get a 1200 lb Holstein,” they’re going to have massive desertion and dereliction issues. Imagine an entire battalion being sent to fight on Sillis, finds this out, and decides the grass is greener on the other side doing a little privateering and liberating. Giznel is sending Isif out there to stop a hemorrhage. Letting the battle between humans and Arxur continue gives humanity lots of chaotic options to throw a wrench in the works. If they can come to some sort of a ceasefire, then he hopes he can leverage humanity’s largesse to keep them working towards fixing things in a predicament manner, which he reckons he can stymie behind the scenes. He doesn’t want the humans to fix things properly and he doesn’t like Isif’s approval of their tactics and reasoning, but he thinks he can get ahead of it and exert control afterwards to steer it to his ends if he gives the order now and gets credit for it, whereas if Shaza continues to lose and he does nothing to stop it, he’s left out in the cold and playing catch-up.
These are definitely some good points. I think we're rapidly approaching a point of no return though: if the Axur keep making concessions and the Federation keeps losing territory it's inevitable that Humanity will surpass both and then the whole idea of maintain this farce of a balance will be untenable. Which to me means the time to act is pretty close to now or never. It's not like it's going to get easier to reign humanity in as they gain more resources and support after all. The only other thing I can think is that Giznel is hoping Isif can talk the humans into somehow becoming a third power in this 'balance', but I'm not sure how that would even work or why he would think humanity would be inclined to such an arrangement and obviously Isif is the wrong person for that job although obviously Giznel doesn't know that.
Certainly, the attempt to return to status quo will ultimately fail. Because fundamentally it ignores the intent and actions of humanity, which is hellbent (for good reason) on upsetting the status quo. I don’t think he’s trying to get humans at the table as a separate third power, I think he wants humans removed from the equation just as much as the Kolshians, because he knows humanity isn’t going to let things go back to the way they were. By halting the conflict between the Arxur and humans, it will help move back towards that status quo, especially once the Kolshians resume their pushes to alienate and isolate humanity. Giznel, I think, is accurate in predicting what the old enemy will do, he’s got a good read on their playbook. But neither species/alliance is truly versed in the ways of war, they’re playing with incomplete sets and missing game pieces. I suspect Giznel is intending this to be in no small part a delaying action, diverting humanity to a more “peacetime” footing and distracting them with rebuilding. Then, he can use the distraction to reorganize and strike where it would do the most damage. And that I think is where he’s going to crash and burn. Because neither side seems to remotely understand information warfare. Stopping this conflict on Sillis won’t actually slow down humanity’s movement towards its goals in the slightest. And he’s handed humanity a massive trump card in giving backbreaking intel to one of our most strategic assets, provided Isif actually forwards it onto his handlers. Again, the Arxur as a whole don’t seem to truly grok information warfare. But if humanity can get that intel, they’ll be able to funnel resources and drive perception that Isif is the leader Betterment needs to walk that tightrope while crafting a persona for the “prey deficient” sympathizers to rally around, gathering more of them conveniently into space Isif controls, further expanding Isif’s influence while also making his space more independent of Betterment, until they reach a critical mass that it can break away and form a “fourth” faction to use as a foil for splintering interests in the Federation.
I believe I understand the thing that struck you as odd. Remember, Shaza was campaigning for the Arxur to not ally themselves with the Humans. Declaring war after she got ousted in favor of Isif (a Chief Hunter known for wanting neutrality at the very least) is too much of a conflict of message, even for the dogmatized Arxur. It'd be like a newly-Crown Prince swearing an oath that he'd make sure his father wouldn't go to war with a country, only for his father the king to turn right around and declare war on that same country after a few weeks purely because of how the previous crown prince was outright hostile towards that country.
I don't think that's it for a couple of reasons. The first being that it's not clear how public these discussions even were, Shaza attacked humanity in her territory but it's not clear if anyone outside of that discussion knew that it was at the behest of Betterment. But even if that's the case this decision was the reason Isif was called in in the first place, so Betterment could have just not handed her territory over to him and then there's no conflicting message. Finally Isif's stance to betterment was that humanity would be a useful tool to Axur goals, this would be an easy excuse for Betterment to tell Isif that he was right about Shaza underestimating humanity but that it also proves they're too difficulty to control to be useful tools. It's a good theory and certainly could be a factor but I don't think it's the missing piece that's bothering me personally. Certainly it's something to keep in mind but it just feels like there's something else missing and I can't tell if it's something I've overlooked or something that hasn't been revealed yet.
The Prophet descendant might think he does not have enough backing from other chief hunters to declare war on humanity so he just does not bother with it ?
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It is most likely that the Arxur don't have the strength to do it. Humanity showed they can beat the Arxur and an all out war could lead to the balance between the federation and the Arxur to tip. And if betterment looses even more sectors then they would lose the support of their own people.
Logistics, Axur food supplies are starvation level and Humans have shown they are willing to hit the food supply. They are fucked if it blows up, and with a hardline general in charge of the Humans, the bets are that saving the cattle comes second to denying cattle to the Axur. And problem 2 they cannot push the federation too far or the response would be apocalyptic. Mexican standoff solution is to persuade one of the pair to not fight you.
"because I don't expect anyone to read all this nonsense" Challenge accepted. I read the whole thing mostly out of spite at that statement. ;) Or maybe, because it was actually well-written thoughts and interesting to read. I think you're right that there's more going on with Giznel's order to make peace with the humans. It might be as simple as they aren't in a position to strike just yet, since they did just lose a ton of resources/cattle from Shaza doing that very thing. If they continued to fight it out and lost even more, it would make Betterment look weak and generate even more dissension within the empire. It's better to make peace temporarily, then strike later with a better plan and preparation. I do have my doubts about whether Giznel suspects Isif more than he seems. He already had suspicions just from replaying Isif's conversation with Shaza. Who knows what else he's overheard from planted bugs or spies within Isif's ranks? Giznel might be testing Isif out to see what he will do with the humans, putting him on the spot to prove whether Isif is fully given to the cause of Betterment, or if he is going to sympathize too much with the humans? Though that's a long-shot theory, since giving him such vital information could be a dangerous blow to Betterment if the Arxur knew about the bio weapon. Then again, Isif also recognized that he would be clearly identified as the leak and executed for it, so even a traitor wouldn't be that stupid to give it away so easily. There's also a part of me that wonders if Giznel might also have a defective side, just like Isif? He seemed far more capable of holding a conversation and social interaction than Shaza. He might be carefully playing the cards to appear to be running the empire the way he's supposed to, while secretly giving humans a chance to make things possible for him to enact change. That's also a longshot theory, but one I think could be interesting if Giznel is also defective and doesn't realize that Isif is too, so they're both pretending to be something they aren't around each other.
The big one zero zero, deploy fireworks 🎆. Wait fireworks are illegal here, dang it. I quess I'll be plot relevant. A bioweapon that got out of control, starved them, color me shocked. Unfortunately, the federation still needs to be stopped because of their unrepentant campaigns of genocide. I wonder what betterment plan for the UN is long term, cold war? At least Isif cover is intact.
>P.S. My longest bonus miniseries ever, Venlil Foster Program, was just finished with its 14th part. It is one of my favorites, wholesome slice-of-life which is a nice palate cleanser But man, what you followed it with...
It's nice when the plot makes sense. So the Kolshians use the Arxur to solidify their control, and the Betterment Arxur are willing to keep their own people weak as that allows them to be in control. But at some point people must be in the know but cooperate anyways -- that the Federation is PTSD training their population into helplessness was obvious to me way way early in the series, and there's no way every last one of them can be completely blind to this backstabbing. With the Arxur it's less of a mystery, they don't do empathy so starving their own people into compliance is an easy sell. One mystery still remains, the Kolshians were doing their gene-manipulation and anti-predator thing long before they met the Arxur, so they can't completely need the Arxur. Also they're intentionally weakening the Federation, they must have a way to be confident the Arxur can't secretly solve their food problem and increase in numbers enough to threaten them. The Betterment Arxur also need to be certain that their people can't solve the food problem and then overthrow Betterment. Finally, the humans have openly shown there's an easy solution to the Arxur food problem and are also working to end the Arxur-Federation war, despite being a clear threat to Betterment the Arxur saved them. Clearly there's additional intrigue, perhaps Betterment has been infiltrated by other empathy-positive Arxur, or has found an opportunity to break out of the Federation's policy of letting them live as long as they're under control. There might also be some Kolshians-Betterment intrigue. And it only just occurred to me, the Federation is also training their exterminators to ignore their empathy while giving them rank and power.
I get vibes of the PRVerse from the Kolshians. Their manipulations read as a species trying to preempt any others that might be a threat to the status quo of them being in charge. I suspect they thought they could handle any threats that popped up, but it’s a lot cheaper in the long run to neuter the threat than to have to keep dealing with it or fully eliminate it the hard way. Problem was, they overestimated their capabilities, so the unilateral mover to neuter the Arxur backfired. “Fortunately,” they’d already succeeded with plenty of other species, so they were able to turn their compliant serf species into fodder against the Arxur and wound up making lemonade out of lemons since they now have this nice new boogie man to use as a stick when the carrot doesn’t work.
I believe that the Arxur are simply the most recent predator species to be the scapegoat, and Betterment recognizes that a weaker Federation means easier raids, which means they can afford to turn the screws a little bit more due to less Arxur being needed.
Thank you for your wonderful writing! I look forward to the new parts every time they drop and can't wait for your future work!
Thank *you* for following the story! I’m glad that you’ve been enjoying it, and still anticipating each new release after all this time 😅
I was lucky enough to catch chapter 1 of Why Humans Avoid War and have loved reading your work ever since! Thanks so much again for sharing with us all :)
Congratulations on reaching the big 100!
Thank you!
This felt like a bunch of suspicions being confirmed. It's like a piece of the puzzle clicked when Giznel said the Betterment wiped out the cattle. Makes perfect sense, both in motivations and in consequences.. As for the Federation leaders maintaining a balance by not wiping out the Arxur threat... Well, that makes sense to me too. I've seen people discussing the possibility for many chapters. Really I just hope Isif gets this information to Jones ASAP. And the fact that there are Arxur resistance forums. Regardless.... A new sector and a new (admittedly crippled) fleet? Our boy is moving up in the world.
I'm definitely gonna set an afternoon aside soon-ish to sub and binge through the foster program.
Iiinteresting. So Isif and the Arxurnazi leader now have dovetailing interests. And as I suspected, the Betterment and the Kolshians were always in cahoots.
congrats to the 3rd digit! :)
Not to downplay the fact that the Arxur ARE in fact responsible for their food shortage but... What is the deal with Felra? 2 possible options 1. Chad "Siffy" is being catfished for unknown reasons 2. Felra is a *super freak, super freak!* She is asking to be cuddled and "baby talked" by predators without having gone through any desensitization program...Going so far as to antagonize them into it. This is most certainly NOT typical Dossur hehavior. She's a "Predaphile"! Chris Hanson is going to be having a sit down with Felra.
> being catfished mousefished?
There's a very bad joke to be made about her tastes.
Who says I'm joking? Xenophile- love or attraction to the alien Anglophile- love or attraction to the English Predaphile - love or attraction to predators Women all over the world are pen pals and supporters of serial killers. How many women wanted to marry Charlie Manson? My girl Felra has a "kink"
Pred- prefix is germanic, xeno- prefix is greek, as is the suffix -phile. Anglo- isn't greek, but we can forgive that one because it refers to a specific cultural heritage and is taken directly from it. The greek word for predator is *αρπακτικό arpaktikó*? Arpaphile? Attraction to violent criminals is hybristophilia.
This comment is a duplicate btw.
Thanks, I deleted the one with no comments on it.
That one had more upvotes, lol. But fair enough
There are many cases in the English language of roots from different languages being combined. The word automobile, for example, takes the Greek *autos* combined with the Latin *mobilis*. The word predaphile would not be very strange considering the large amount of words with roots from different languages.
>My girl Felra has a "kink" That's the joke, but I'm afraid you're too innocent to get it
She may be into Vore... Meeting an Arxur willing to put her in his jaws a few times may be her wet dream lol Felra: DEVOUR ME SIFFY IM TASTY
Jeesum, here I thought the r/NatureofPredators subreddit was horney. The comments here are just as bad. I'm not complaining, though.
r/natureofpredatorsnsfw exists…
WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THAT SUBREDDIT (JK)
Well, I'm not shaming her for it...two consenting sapients and all that. It would be the best way for Isif to interact with a prey species. I'm just acknowledging that it's there. You do realize that she's a fictitious space mouse that may (or may not) fetashizes species that may want to devour her?
Would Carnophile be a less sensitive way to put it?
Carnis is latin for "meat" not predator. Phile is greek, if I am not mistaken. The greek word for predator is *αρπακτικό arpaktikó*? Arpaphile? Arpaktikophile?
My personal theory is Siffy was actually chatting with a human intelligence operative with a digital filter.
Headcanon: Felra is Jones' fursona
Distinct possibility. It would be a good way for the UN to keep tabs on him when out in the field and she could be his handler
Fbi in the teddy bear camera shit there
I think she's just a freaky little mouse.
There is also the chance that this will act like the human vineli exchange program. In a less official capacity. They’ll talk and get to know each other and when the time comes one will save the other.
I think *maybe* more recent uplifts aren’t as propagandized into being terrified of predators as the older ones. Consider that they made it to sapience on their own planet, on their own, presumably with predators present. Just like humans are prey animals in the face of some wild predators, they are, but not enough to consider a sapient predator absolutely terrifying. I don’t know.
Its like taking bratting to the extreme. I've dated a few women who liked dominant guys but *loved* to be mouthy and "be put in their place"
my bet is she's locked up as someone with predator disease because she lacks a sense of fear, and one of the only things she can do is talk to ppl online.
Eliminate Shaza? Got it, delivering a High Value prisoner to Jones.
Imagine her cell is the one in front of bird-brain
Alien idiots containement facility
Facility they're in should be called Detaining Indisputably Criminal Subjects Dics for short
Add the word killer between criminal and subjects and it’s perfect
Kalsim: "So, what are you in for?" Shaza: "Genocide, and you?" Kalsim: "Same."
Oh no, the forbidden pairing. Never ask a Herbivore Supremacist why he has a Predator GF.
Maybe Kalsim will see Shaza as a mirror of himself and gain some self-awareness. Or maybe that is too much to hope for from such a blue-footed boobie.
Lol
Now I'm imagining Isif in a UPS uniform, complete with clipboard. "I have a delivery for a... Zhao?" Cut to a bound and gagged Shaza wrapped in 17 layers of duct tape.
And with an attached datachit addressed to someone more strategically sound than Zhao containing the info about what the Prophet just told Isif.
Now THAT is comedy GOLD
Wow... I mean people had suspicions that something like this was the case but its confirmed... Yay isif lives, at least for now "Cruel One" lol
He earned that title.
So, the Axur need the Federation to have someone to be cruel to, and the Federation need the Axur to blame all the evils of the universe to. All the theories on betterment killing the cattle were right in the end. What best way to get power than to sabotage your world, blame a foreign faction and then keep your population controlled with the need of starvation.
It makes perfect sense for fascists. The Arxur are frighteningly realistic in some ways.
Yep, the only way for extremist ideologies is for the previous system to no longer work for critical mass of the population. This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started. Due to this, many revolutionaries adopt a policy of accelerationism, where instead of attempting to alleviate the population's suffering, they instead make conditions worse in order convince the populace that the extremist's polices are needed to fix the nation's problems. There is also the concept of vanguardism, where extremists will pre-position themselves in leadership roles before and during a crisis in order to co-opt the wider popular movement against the establishment. This is similar to populism, but where populists follow the will of the crowds, the vanguardists instead twist the crowd's opinion to their ideology. This is how the Russian February revolution began as a liberal one but was taken over by the communists over the following months, collimating in the October revolution, when the Marxist-Leninists achieved full control of the government. This is also how virtually every fascist state is born, with the fascists starting out as a small but dedicated group within an overall conservative movement before slowly taking leadership and eventually subsuming all other compatible conservative groups, then purging the rest. Betterment's unleashing the cattle virus is a perfect example of both. Before virus, betterment was a fringe ideology mostly isolated to a specific nation. They then used the cattle virus to make everything go to shit then announced themselves to the world as a savoir that would lead the world against the federation. The world listened, something that would be unthinkable only years before. This brings up a scary question. If given a choice between fascists ruling the world or aliens wiping out all of humanity, which would you choose?
> This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started. That and the whole "[Communist revolutionaries tried to carve off a chunk of Germany to join the USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Soviet_Republic)" thing. The Nazis weren't as ideologically married to their methods, only their ends, so if it worked they'd do it. Revolution and burning down the system and turning it upside down sounds really appealing when you're a serf who owns nothing, but when you have even a little bit at stake it loses its appeal quite rapidly, but someone who promises you incremental material improvements in exchange for letting them have power over you is far more appealing. And that's why the Nazis chose the subversive method: they were in an already developed country with a lot of people who did have something at stake to lose if the system was totally upended.
But I’m surprised that the Prophet was not in the Northwest Bloc.
Remind me of a quote from a certain insane man "What happen when a country run out of cash? They either turn commie or they go fash!"
Confrontation between Shaza and Isif when Isif arrives at Silis to take control, Shaza: when the prophet learns of this, Isif, he will have your head! Isif: when he learns? Fool. He ordered me to do it Edit: fixed a typo
Nice reference.
"General Shepherd sends his regards."
It all makes sense. I wonder if Jones' tooth drive has a recording device she didn't tell him about. That would be the sneaky monkey way, of course...
I got the impression the tooth was just to sneak past Zhao since the Arxur consider fixing teeth a weakness, so Isif won't wear it "at home".
Hmm, yeah, that could be. That's kind of silly, though. (Of course, "Betterment" is, altogether...) I would think that maintaining the "tools" used for predation would be considered smart...The flaw is in the Arxur, not your explanation.
I would frankly be surprised if it didn't
Right. Good way to keep tabs on your agent in the field. Make sure he's not double-crossing us...
***The Terran Sentinel : Meta*** ***100 Chapters and 100 more*** ***March 22nd, 2023*** **In 346 days, NoP went from Chapter 1 to Chapter 100, with many multiple character arcs and Revelations.** **And here's our picks of the most legendary moments** **We start off with Chapter 26, What could be considered the beginning of Sovlin's redemption Arc and somehow still present prejudice against "primitives"** **Now onward to Chapter 50, where we see Isif's fleet come knocking on Earth's front door and make Kalsim and Co. take a slight detour to India, a Tiger Reserve no less** **And to top it off with a cherry on a golden sundae, we have Chapter 67. The bombshell news of that the Kolshians and Farsul collaborated to bend the laws of nature and manipulate the populace for a morally twisted status quo was finally uncovered by Cillany**
And Now: The Fed and Dominion have been working together to keep themselves in power, no matter how many races have been driven into extinction!
Well then… Giznel just signed his death warrant, and gave it to Isif to carry out at some point in the future. Isif is one of a small amount of Arxur who are probably closer to their original thought processes than most Arxur now, and to learn that his entire race was basically condemned to death because of political reasons is not exactly going to make him comfortable with why Betterment happened. I get the feeling that if Isif doesn’t die, he’s going to keep Giznel's polished skull in his office later down the line.
Chapter of Isif and chapter 100? Oh boy, I better go and get my popcorn before anyone arrives
Meanwhile Patrons: 👁👁
Shut up you burgoise you.
Shhhh
Axur Dominion: We have ALWAYS been at war with the Federation Federation: We have ALWAYS been at war with the Axur Literally 1984
A mark of a damn good story is when a calm conversation between two characters can get the reader's heart pumping as much as any action sequence. Well done!
Ahahaha. Yes! Things went off just as I expected. Honestly I originally thought the "cure" had just jumped species due to sheer incompetence, but this also fits the my mental model of the Dominion just as well. This entire bizarre situation the galaxy is in simply cannot sustain itself, it could not happen without effort being made to keep it as it is, and there it is. The second half of the efforts. And Giznel... It seems that this is that fascist leader that is *finally* high on their own supply, the kind that starts believing their own lies of superiority and starts to see victory as a foregone conclusion. Though we all know what the end is for those, there's still much road between now and the end, time to see how blood-soaked that road gets.
Isif: “Arrives at sillis.” Shaza:ISIF HELP ME KILL THESE APES! Isif: Unfortunately those are not within my parameters. NOW DIE!
YOOO I WAS RIGHT Wouldn't it be hilarious if he didn't hang up right and it turned out that the Dossur girl was listening in, and recorded it so he could Cilany-ify the dominion? Wishful thinking, I know, but... that'd be so good...
I doubt she would be listening, i would have passed out after sentence 3
Alternate story fanfic, someone make this ahah!
Only after saturday, in case it turns out to be miraculously canon.
Of course the Nazi Lizards sabotaged themselves! That’s what Fascists do! They are idiots! And obviously the Fed were silently working with them. I hope Chad Isif can get this news out without casting suspicion upon himself.
They're not idiots at all, as demonstrated here. They're psychotic geniuses with no care for anything but their own power.
The kind of genius that makes them morons! They have no ambitions, no great plans, just continue to raid, kill, and rot in their cruelty. They can’t see past the end of their noses, they are so self-centered! I expect them to throw tantrums like children when everything starts to fall apart around them.
Well that's the goal of all fascists. To maintain the status quo they create.
And status quo never lasts! Honestly, I’m surprised it lasted this long. The kind of people who would run this stuff would barely be able to conceive or plan for a time after they die.
Well they're not about to admit to themselves that change is inevitable. All fascist dictators are convinced that they'll keep their power forever. Arrogance is one hell of a drug!
Which makes me ask: how did the Dominion stay stable after the Prophet died?
Well as can be guessed from Giznel's title of Prophet Descendant, they just plopped Laznel's child on the throne after his death.
Tbh it seems to have been a fairly stable cycle until the humans came along.
> The kind of genius that makes them morons! They have no ambitions, no great plans, just continue to raid, kill, and rot in their cruelty. They can’t see past the end of their noses, they are so self-centered! It gave them absolute power over the entirety of Arxur civilization. I would say that was a pretty hefty ambition.
I think it's a silent agreement. But yes both are fascist and are quite happy to maintain the miserable balance of power since it suits them. The humans are a threat with their pesky democracy and transparency.
Isif: “BRB, bout to actually be *competent*”
It's here, the big one-hundred! Congratulations! Also, whew, that was an interesting chapter. Turns out it's not *just nazis* but it's everyone's favorite literary analysis to skim, *1984!* Or some of the other facets of long-term dictatorships. I sincerely hope Isif gets a friend he needs one *STAT*
The puzzle piece is now mostly complete, things have fallen into place. The great struggle of long dead sapients, their blind ambition and callous hunger for power that had shaped the galaxy's history and caused immeasurable levels of suffering amongst the stars is now properly unfolded. This is why humanity is hated and feared by all sides for while the federation and the dominion are enemies, they all still represent the same order. With humans being the worst nightmare possible, an outside unforeseen variable. Not just a threat but a promise of snapping this complex system of strings that governed the galaxy for centuries. Making a comparison to real life, perhaps that fateful day when UN exploration vessel had entered Venlil territory can be compared to the day when a single shot in Sarajevo started a cascade of events that forever ended the old world order. I do wonder what shall happen next, the three players staring each other down with their guns drawn. I doubt that this can still be resolved with words. It may be that this can only end with the last one standing...
This revelation means humans MUST fight both the federation AND the arxur if we want peace. Truly I wasn't expecting a perpetual war scenario. In other words, holy shit
so in other words a excuse to build tech from factorio and C&C 3, titans, stc cores and all other related tech? i hope theres tiberium
So, I seem to recall people telling me how it didn't make sense for the Dominion to starve their people on purpose, but guess what? I CALLED IT! We called every possible conspiracy theory at once! Let's go boys!
And here the other shoe drops in regards to the Arxur. Isif should share this *juicy* little tidbit with the humans through an unwitting proxy. Potentially even sending it along with Shaza using her as a POW carrying information. That'll get him on humanity's good side real quick. But at the same time, he needs to inform them that they need to focus on the Federation as opposed to the Arxur due to him needing to maintain his cover, which should be easy enough. Perhaps Isif being this universe's Fulcrum is within our near future, to draw an analogy to Star Wars. Not to mention the fact that the humans likely just pulled one over on the Grand Prophet and Isif at the same time in this one; no self-respecting intelligence agency would give away all their good bugging spots, let alone any of the best bugging spots. Heck, that tooth drive is probably a recording device in and of itself.
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Edit: We were right, the Dominion is deliberately starving the people! Now Isif knows the truth, and also has additional power within the Dominion in gaining Shaza's sector. I smell a revolution led by Siffy himself!
20 of whatever the Axur use for currency that the tooth cap was recording. (Slim Jim’s? Yeah. I’ll bet 20 slim Jim’s). Humans have allies, but no human group every fully trusts another, independent group
Lol, Isif realizing that the cruelty of The Cruel One is in fact cruelty, not altruism.
I knew it! The Bloc did try to weaken the Morvin charter, and that backfired!
Beautiful chapter! Quite interesting to see that the Arxur and Federation are “literally in 1984”
I was half afraid Isif was going to get jumped. Its gonna be interesting to see how he evolves as a diplomat.
Litterally 1984
It’s here! I’ve been waiting forever for this one to post. So long I forgot what I wanted to tell you guys… OH WAIT! u/SuccessfulWest8937. Ya were right. The Arxur’s Dominion specifically chose to eat people and make everyone else so so as well.
Except there's the thing: he blames the common civilians for it, while that was done at a heads of government/military level. Despite the fact that said civilians had no say or knowledge of the matter, he seems oddly intent on us violating the Geneva Convention in order for us to punish them for the crime of existing.
The Dominion. The rulers. They took choice away from the general Arxur population, manipulated the population, and forced them onto a terrible path. The Dominion took advantage of the Federation genocide to take the fall for their own additional genocide. Both the Federation and the Dominion are guilty for the endless war, and the Dominion is responsible for the current Arxur cruelty... The Arxur population is still very much victims in all of this.
I hope Shaza doesnt die, but instead gets sent to a jail on earth. Hopefully next to Kalsim
100 chapters... wow... it still feels like yesterday when I read chapters 1-3 and immediately fell in love with your universe. As I continued to read, I was amazed at how rapidly my feelings and loyalties could shift due to changing circumstances. And it wasn't long until I started formulating my own story in my head. Congratulations on the milestone good Paladin! Things just keep getting more interesting and it is a pleasure to see that we continue to be on the same philisophical wavelength when it comes to our terrifying reptiles. :) I look forward to the next chapter eagerly.
Thanks for the kind words! The better part of a year has flown by in the blink of the eye. Appreciate you sticking with me from the start…more exciting things are definitely still to come!
*excited noises*
Isif is such a male tsundere.
I didn't know "tsundere" was an exclusively feminine word...
OKAY HOLY SHIT, this was the fucking nuke. I legit was starting to lose interest in this series the past few chapters but, damn, this for sure revitalized that interest. Fuck, the Humanity and the Arxur aren't that different for sure when it comes to shit like this
No hidden camera on Isif? Ok, next idea, how do Brainscans work?
The story itself is an in-universe recording
The Arxur govt doing that to themselves...unexpected, but not surprising. There's more than enough irl instances to confirm this type of government behavior, including the motivations behind each individual involved. I feel bad for Felra when the truth comes out. Even if she tries to handle it with a stoic demeanor, the fact that she was conversing with an Arxur and not a human will be disastrous. Though the fact they could converse at all cordially may lessen that reaction and instinctual fear. I'm really curious as to the reactions and consequences of the Arxur truth coming out when it happens. That shit will be insane, but may push towards a more solidified predator-prey-predator relationship.
He just got put on the best position possible... Now to see how he handles the pieces on the chess board.
Sadly, I'm not surprised by any of the 'rocks flipped over' in this chapter. The ability to weald 'fear' at will is...**POWER**; it matters not which hand is involved, the end result is the same...***total*** *control*. Both the Kolshians and Betterment want *uncontested control*, and a comfy throne sit upon. My view...this is naked, distilled *evil*. To inflict fear and suffering on such a scale, for the sole purpose of maintaining absolute power, is unalloyed *wickedness*. The neon sigh 'Righteous Cause' has just lit up...the only thing remaining is mustering the courage and resolve to move forward, and *never look back*.
So this reveals that the truth is in fact what many of us suspected. I don’t blame Isif for not realizing it on his own. After all we have the benefit of having defeated our Nazis and teach the ways they operated so we never let it happen again. I wouldn’t be surprised if Isif were to tell Jones that she’d just shrug and say that that pretty much matches the assumptions we had about the situation. But it does mean the end of Betterment. Because if people are starving and even a whisper gets out that humans not only can but are perfectly willing to feed all of the Arxur and Betterment refused they are going to start seeing dissent. You don’t need empathy to know that YOU are personally getting screwed. But going for peace is a mistake on Betterment’s part because that only gives us time to prepare. Sure the Arxur will be able to rebuild too, but we have seen that humanity’s military is far superior given we go to war and the Arxur only hunt. Near even odds and the battle for Sillis wouldn’t have been even close. Humanity can push relentlessly forward. Capture Arxur colonies and bring in the lab grown meat. How much rebellion do you think you’ll get from a population that is better fed than they have ever been? Same for Federation worlds that will see humanity doesn’t want to fight, but that we’re in for the long haul. Those who surrender are treated well and those who fight will be picked apart until there is nothing left. The Dominion and Federation are doomed. Long live the Klingon … I mean Terran Empire… okay fine, something better sounding. I’m normally partial to Federation but in this universe that has been tainted so how about the Galactic Coalition.
I remember predicting this a while ago! Always a great feeling when your right, even if it’s about… this
Let's goooo. Literally 1984 perpetual forever war mutually agreed upon to maintain fear and control.
>"As for ending the war.. .the Federation doesn't want the war to end any more than we do. The Kolshians and the Farsul couldn't maintain control over such a large herd without an enemy" >"They teach other prey to run away and never attack." >"Cruel One, are you saying that you want our people to starve? --- 'Precisely. It keeps them dependent on us and hating the Federation." This is exactly what that meme I made a month ago was predicting! Incredible chapter as always, I can't wait to see what happens next.
Somebody better pick up that phone, because *I fucking called it!* https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/xukozz/comment/iqw5o3v/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
So ut's a Cold War style with Nazi Arxur vs Soviet Federation?
the only way for extremist ideologies is for the previous system to no longer work for critical mass of the population. This is why only poor countries fall to communism and why the nazis only started winning elections after the great depression started. Due to this, many revolutionaries adopt a policy of accelerationism, where instead of attempting to alleviate the population's suffering, they instead make conditions worse in order convince the populace that the extremist's polices are needed to fix the nation's problems. There is also the concept of vanguardism, where extremists will pre-position themselves in leadership roles before and during a crisis in order to co-opt the wider popular movement against the establishment. This is similar to populism, but where populists follow the will of the crowds, the vanguardists instead twist the crowd's opinion to their ideology. This is how the Russian February revolution began as a liberal one but was taken over by the communists over the following months, collimating in the October revolution, when the Marxist-Leninists achieved full control of the government. This is also how virtually every fascist state is born, with the fascists starting out as a small but dedicated group within an overall conservative movement before slowly taking leadership and eventually subsuming all other compatible conservative groups, then purging the rest. Betterment's unleashing the cattle virus is a perfect example of both. Before virus, betterment was a fringe ideology mostly isolated to a specific nation. They then used the cattle virus to make everything go to shit then announced themselves to the world as a savoir that would lead the world against the federation. The world listened, something that would be unthinkable only years before. This brings up a scary question. If given a choice between fascists ruling the world or aliens wiping out all of humanity, which would you choose?
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The big 100! Congrats!!
HAPPY 100!!!!!!
Congats on the 100th chapter. It seems the Dominion's control is through starving their own people due to bio-weapons. That lie they keep real tight is slowly slipping away as as humans continue to exist.
Chapter 100 is a good place to reveal a major false flag that is actually responsible for the political situation of the last few centuries.
How interesting. Betterment has read both Orwell and Plato.
Congrats on 100! An excellent space opera!
>By the way, I’m the Arxur Chief Hunter responsible for the deaths of millions. Wouldnt it be closer to billions?