Memory transcription subject: Sudo, Frozen Mountain Exterminator
Date [standardized human time]: November 19th, 2136
My gut feels like it is trying to tie itself into a knot. It's been a long time since Rezka has been on an assignment solo. Well, he isn't actually solo. He has four human soldiers keeping watch of the collapse with him, just like I do. It's just… he isn't good with people. It's not his fault. His brain is just different.
The idea that those people are taking advantage of him right now or being cruel… he doesn't deserve that. He never should have been in that clinic. I know I should have, but Rezka is just prone to flights of fancy. He isn't-
A soldier tapped me on the shoulder, dragging me back to reality, “Hey man? You alright? You've been staring into the void as if it's calling to you. You're all spiked up.”
One of the other soldiers whacked him on the shoulder and sneered, “What do you think, dipshit? He's in a refrigerator filled with predators.” He didn’t wait for a response to his question before picking his binoculars up and staring into the darkness.
He wasn’t wrong. The heater in our small shack was top of the line, but there is only so much you can do to temperatures this cold. -120°C (-184°F) isn't a temperature most heaters can beat in a straight fight.
My body shivered as I started moving it again, my muscles cried out in pain from being forced to move in this cold, “I got run over by the first human I ever met. A one-man stampede. If you had told me that he ate small humans like you for breakfast, I would have believed it…”
The more friendly soldier pressed his glove-covered hands to his face, “What happened?”
“I don’t really know. One moment I am walking into our firing range, and the next I feel like a herd of Mazics ran over me. By the time I saw him again, he had half of my quills lodged in his front. Bastard handed me one back like he was returning some lost item.”
The friendly soldier looked out towards the cold, “So you are not scared of us?”
I shook my tail, no, “Well… Technically no. But this is the first time I haven’t been within earshot of Rezka. I don’t know how well he is doing over there. He isn’t… like us.”
The somewhat cruel soldier sneered and scoffed, “What, he tainted and we ain’t?”
I shook my tail no again, “No, we are definitely tainted if that is even a real thing anymore… John said he was ‘autistic as fuck’ and a conspiracy theorist to boot. He then convinced Rezka that Earth is both flat and a hollow sphere at the same time.”
The three soldiers in the room stopped what they were doing to look at me with jaws hanging loose. The rude soldier sneered again, “You got to be kidding me here. No fucking way. He’s the Spider-thing, right? The one running around waving its legs everywhere?!”
I wanted to say no, “Yes. I’m responsible for his safety. So don’t mess with him. He has enough problems without some asshole humans bullying him for being a bit gullible. I will tell you this. Out of all the aliens in this wretched galaxy, he’s one of the good ones. If it even means anything to you, when humanity was revealed to still exist, he dove into every bit of information we had and you guys presented. The old chief wanted to put him back in a facility for saying your species appears to have self-corrected to being good.”
I took a deep breath of air as I relaxed my face. At some point, I went from looking worried to baring a full snarl with offensively spiked quills. I didn’t realise how much I had worked myself up.
The sneering human looked down in both manners of the phrase, “I- alright. Won’t fuck with ‘em then. Still going to mess with them, just won’t do anything bad. Promise.”
I looked into the black night towards the west. I couldn’t see the lights of the next shelter, but it was there and Rezka was in it.
___—___
Memory transcription subject: Rezka, Frozen Mountain Exterminator
Date [standardized human time]: November 19th, 2136
(The song in the link really sets the mood for this bit)
My feelers were bobbing in tune to the wonderful music playing in the shelter. García handed me another veggie taco drenched in insecticides that burnt too good to not scarf down.
Martínez shook her head, “NO! There is no such thing as the Chupacabra!”
Garcia gestured to me, “I’ve seen one with my own eyes!”
“Don’t bullshit me!”
I barely got the taco down. “He isn’t! There have been way too many people who have sighted one! It has to be the government covering it up!”
She slapped her face, “Why would they do that?!”
Garcia had my back, “Because the government made it and lost containment!”
I grabbed another taco and drenched it in salsa. “Exactly! They likely planned to use it to help keep control over the population with fear! The CIA was definitely working with them!”
Martínez looked flabbergasted. “The CIA? They are involved now?”
I managed to defend myself between bites, “Of course! It's why the Jersey Devil exists! Just look at how closely they resemble each other!”
Wójcik covered their face with their binoculars, “OH MY GOD CAN YOU ALL SHUT THE FUCK UP?”
___—___
Memory transcription subject: Loke Hunter, Chief of the Frozen Mountain Exterminators
Date [standardized human time]: November 19th, 2136
I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes and look back towards my tablet. The frustration I feel isn’t from going through stacks and stacks of information trying to find something relevant to what the fuck just happened. It's from the sheer lack of information and any useful details whatsoever. Small mention of a low flyover of the dark side of Venlil Prime being denied here, another about an probing exploration being denied there.
Captain Barkley looked over the patrol routes weaving around the observation posts we had set up. He gently glanced my way, “Anything useful?”
I shook my head, “No. Just a thousand attempts to survey the area and it being denied over and over again. Your drone footage is about all we have for info on this area. I mean- FUCK! It looks like someone just (photoshopped) terrain from a… completely… different… that's Sal's peak… this is from the Cradle. .. why?”
Barkley walked over and looked at the map I had found. “Where I come from, there is only one reason someone would fake part of a map.”
I covered my face with my paws, “To cover up missing data they aren't legally allowed to get?”
Barkley shook his head, “To hide something… Hey Steven. Pull a drone and get it going north. I want these maps updated.”
I looked at the screen as a new feed came up from the military star port nearby. Barkley tapped his foot, “This is a different kind of drone. Not one of those tiny quads. Basically, it's just a jet with a massive computer tossed in the cockpit. We are going to have a really good map soon.”
I sat my tablet down. “What are you expecting to find out there? Cause if it turns out there's an Arxur base out there, I wouldn’t be surprised anymore.”
Barkely let out a short laugh, “Yeah, while I doubt that, I'm expecting the Federation has something out there. That's why our mystery Kolshian was running into the dark. I also expect to get aerial views of more undiscovered animals and plants. Plus, I want to start looking into the collapse of the wall. I highly doubt it's due to global warming.”
I dug my claws into my face. “How hard is it to make a remote detonator?”
He scratched his chin for a few moments, “Not that hard. A cell phone is about all you really need. Disassemble it, make sure no one can accidentally call it, and then hook up the speaker wires to the detonation mechanism as the trigger. One call and… boom.”
“The IEDs they recovered from Factory 13 were made out of parts from my Observation Posts and Shelters. But the parts they recovered don’t account for everything taken. We also have a metric ton of fertilizer still missing. So we can only suspect they made a LOT more IEDs… I’m starting to think this wall didn’t collapse due to global warming alone…”
Captain Barkley walked over to a satellite phone on the nearby wall, “General Koch? Yes sir. We need to get some teams digging into the collapsed Ice wall. We think the Koloshian may have rigged the wall to collapse. Yes sir. I’ll let him know.”
He hung up and turned towards me, “We are going to get some more specialists to look into this. This wall was… huge, right?”
“Yes. I find it hard that they could have managed to break the wall down, but who knows how long they were here unsupervised. For all I know, the last Chief of our guild may have supplied the diesel! It’s the same blend we use in our flamethrowers! FUCK. I thought that psychotic asshole was a friend…”
“He died when a ship exploded on that spaceport, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think… that this Kolshian and his, very likely, numerous allies… orchestrated that?”
“I doubt he could have done this all alone. I have my more competent people looking into who all knows him. Not many leads. The squid was basically non-existent.”
An operator turned around, “Uuuhhh sir… you need to see this!”
Barkley walked over, “What is it?”
“Sorry, sir, not you, the Gojid!”
The concern in his voice really sank into my head. I walked over to see.. What looked like a wave of orange dots coming over the collapsed pass. “OH SHIT.”
___—___
Memory transcription subject: Sudo, Frozen Mountain Exterminator
Date [standardized human time]: November 19th, 2136
“Autism.” The word sounded rather weird on my tongue.
The not really cruel soldier downed his energy drink. He took a deep breath in, “Yeah, your bug friend probably is autistic as fuck. As for the conspiracy shit, they are definitely gullible, too.”
The kind soldier nodded, “Yeah. Gotta watch out for them. Most of those conspiracy theories are scams or other ways to manipulate people for the most part.”
The radio screamed to life, “ALL UNITS SCCCCRRRRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK.”
We stared at the radio for a brief moment before the kind soldier picked it up, “Say again. Command? Say again! The message did not come through! Command?”
All that greeted us was the sound of static. He kept trying to contact command to the radio, as I walked over to the soldier watching the dark a little more intensely now. I pulled up my own scouter and scanned the horizon. “You guys may want to get your guns ready. We may need to move soon.”
The not really cruel soldier picked up his rifle. “What’s going on, Spikey?”
It looked like there was a shimmer in the distance. “Do you see what I am seeing?”
SCCCCRRRRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“COMMAND! Come in! I repeat, we could not get your message!”
SCCRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“Spikey? What’s going on out there?”
RRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKRRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“Are you talking about that weird shimmer?”
RRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKKXKXKXXKXK
“Command! Come in Command!”
RRXZXXXKXRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKXKXKXKXXKXK
“Yes! Does it appear to be getting closer to you?”
RRXZXXXKXXKXKRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“What are you guys seeing?!”
RRXZXXXKXXKXKRRXZKXXKXKXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“Guys, I can’t get in touch with command!”
RRXZXXXKXXRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKKXKXKXXKXK
“Yes. It does look like it's getting closer!”
RRXRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKZXXXRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXK
“What’s getting closer? Did Command send someone out this way?”
RRXRRXZXXXKXXKXKXRRXZXXXKRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKXXKXKXKXXKXKKXXKXK
“No way. This just started happening. Command is 3 klicks out. They aren’t getting here that fast.”
RRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKRRXZXXXKXXKXKXKXXKXKRRX
“OH SPEH” The shimmer slowly started to come into focus.
___—___
Memory transcription subject: Rezka, Frozen Mountain Exterminator
Date [standardized human time]: November 19th, 2136
It’s time to get to work. “Ok everyone! We are going to have our work cut out for us. Stick together! There are a lot of Shadestalkers out there, and they will all attack lone individuals. We have confirmed reports of them attacking humans. Every one we put down here is another that isn’t going to get past us to the city and outlying farms.”
Garcia pulled the charging handle on his M31 XR Marksman rifle, “We can make it to the JLTV if we run now.”
I shook my head, “Negative. The Shadestalkers are too numerous and running in for melee attacks. You won’t kill enough of them to keep you safe, and then you’ll be exposed up top. and worse we get caught in there and can’t move to assist other teams.”
Martínez stuck the radio back on her pack, “Something is jamming the signal. Whatever we do, we can’t stay here. This tent won’t stand up to the waves of those things.”
I adjusted the nozzle on my flamer to have a smaller stream. “Correct. The current plan is to use a spiral approach and get near the JLTV. However, we don’t want to get so close that we encourage the Shadestalker to get on top of it and leap at us. We hold them off with ranged fire as long as possible, and use the flamer and melee combat to clear a way into the JLTV.”
Wójcik checked the grenades on his chest, “I have grenades and a grenade launcher attached to my rifle. This feels… risky.”
I approached the door, “Of course it's risky. If we fuck up, we all get eaten alive. But we are the unit that's going to get hit first. We slow them down as much as possible, hope the sound of gunfire alerts our allies, and then leave and regroup at the last moment. Everyone ready?”
Martínez smiled, “Locked and loaded!”
Garcia slapped him on the back. “I’m ready to go!”
Wójcik took up the rear. “You’re in charge. Let’s DO THIS!”
I couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy. “Alright, stay tightly grouped. Wójcik fire the grenades while they are far enough away that we won't blow ourselves up. Keep one for a … what was the word- HELL MARY! Keep one for that! Garcia, Martínez take shots as you can, keep your melee weapons ready. When we get surrounded, we need to keep our backs to each other and slowly rotate. That will let me use the flamer to give us as much safe space as possible. When you get to one magazine left, sound off and switch to melee. We will use the last mag to clear a path to the JLTV and use that to escape."
With no objections, I pushed into the cold of the eternal twilight. A quick glance revealed nothing coming up from behind us. A quick squeeze of the trigger and my flamer is working correctly. Garcia and Martínez took up positions beside me and dropped to a shooter’s kneel.
Wójcik set a bag at his feet and started to fire rounds downrange. PSHUNK and a small cylinder flew towards the shimmer of Shadestalkers. BAM. And the explosion dropped a dozen at once.
I pulled my sidearm and took my stance as my two Hispanics started to open fire as well. The 400 meters between us was a long distance to shoot, but the grenades were finding their marks.
Garcia shouted, “Hostiles within three hundred meters.”
His gun's built-in range finder was going to be handy. My handgun wasn’t very accurate at this range, but it wasn’t too hard to hit targets down range.
Garcia shouted, “Hostiles within two hundred meters. Rezka! Save your ammo! Your shots aren’t putting them down at this range!”
“Roger that! Switching to my flamer. The operating range is 33.5 meters.”
Garcia kept a steely look. “Hostiles at one hundred and seventy-three meters!”
Wójcik loaded a grenade and dropped to one knee, switching his gun to semi-auto. “Last grenade loaded. Let me know where and when you want it Rezka!”
“Roger that! Hopefully, we won’t need it.”
Martínez was dropping a Shadestalker or two with every single shot. “You already burnt through nineteen grenades?”
Wójcik smiled, “What, you lose count at two?”
Garcia shouted, “Hostiles within one hundred meters! Get ready, Rezka!”
“Roger that! Get prepared to enter circle formation! We will start moving toward the truck then! Read the distances for me, Garcia!”
“Eighty-four meters!”
“Sixty-eight meters!
“Fifty-two meters!”
“Forty meters!”
I squeezed the trigger. “CIRCLE FORMATION NOW!” Red-orange flames erupted forth. The heat made the charging beasts come screeching to a halt right into my kill range. The yelps of pain helped slow and discourage the wall of flesh and silica fur from just running us down. It didn’t take long for them to start circling around us.
“ROTATE NOW!” We started to slowly approach the vehicle as my flamer kept the mass of the horde at a distance and my new friends took out any that felt a little too brave.
Three full revolutions later, we were close enough to our JLTV that I was at risk of setting it on fire. I waited till my back was toward it, “STOP ROTATION! Wójcik in first and into the driver's seat!, Martínez second in! Be ready to help cover! Garcia last, and help haul me in!”
My squad didn’t hesitate as we crossed the last 30 meters at a slow pace. At the Vehicle Wójcik shot a few off the roof, ripped the rear passenger door open and crawled in towards the front. I started to sweep my flamer left and right to discourage the horde as much as possible. Martínez climbed in and prepped herself to help and cover, but didn’t fire as she could hit or deafen us. Garcia shot one that jumped on the roof again as the JLTV roared to life, startling the horde.
I felt a hand grab my pack and pull me in. I shut off the fuel as Martínez yanked the door shut. The vehicle surged forward over quite a few of the Shadestalkers.
I pulled my flamer off and checked the safety and fuel. “I'm at a quarter tank of fuel, and 3.2 magazines for my handgun.”
Wójcik sounded off, “One grenade left, two and a half mags.”
Martínez was next, “Holy shit that was closer than I thought it would be! One and a half mags left!”
Garcia laughed and loaded a mag, “Ha! One mag, one shot in the chamber! Anyone able to keep track of their kills?”
I flicked the numbers in my head, “I had the least, at approximately 37 kills.”
Garcia patted me on the back, “Don’t feel bad about that! You did have the least range!”
I nodded, “Garcia, you had the next most at 57 kills.”
He clapped his hands, “Oh yeah!”
“Martínez sits at 103 kills”
Martínez snarl-grinned, “FUCKING SUCK IT! That is what we Seals DO! You Peacekeepers ain’t the shit! Nuh-uh!”
Garcia’s jaw dropped. “WHA- HOW?”
“She managed to get multiple kills with only a single bullet on a dozen or so shots. Meanwhile, you took more than one shot to kill more than half of your targets.”
Garcia leaned back, “I think you miscounted.”
Martínez smiled, “It sounds right to me!”
I fastened my seat belt as we started to slowly pull away from the horde. “My scouter has a custom program to track this sort of thing. Oh, and Wójcik sits at 304 kills.”
A lone “HA!” came from the front of the JLTV as Martínez and Garcia set aside their sibling like feud, “You had a grenade launcher you fuck!” “You basically cheated!” “You're just jealous of the death god up here!” “Jealous my ass!”
__/\__
Sudo is worried about his lil bro, while Rezka is actually really good at making friends with humans! Who knew having a genuine interest in something and sharing it could endear you to others! Plus I am happy to show off that he isn’t actually an idiot, and extremely competent. Thank god he likes humans and is Blackballed from ever being in command by the guild. If he had been in charge of that fleet, he would have been able to stop the Arxur raid, and turn around in time to wipe Earth out of existence.
Thank you for your time! Your patience! And your dedication!
SO. My dad is now officially a permanent cyborg. He has a pace maker now. Had a heart valve surgery, and afterwards in recovery his BP hit 0 three times. He’s doing good now. HOPEFULLY this is the end of the numerous surgeries, as we are hoping the pacemaker is going to solve some of his BP problems.
If anyone is curious what I am doing with some of my time… I am streaming on Twitch! I also have a Youtube channel and Discord as well! I just hit 50 followers which means I am actually going to get paid for streaming. So feel free to stop by one day!
ALSO from here on out, I am probably only going to post to r/Nature of Predators. My fic kinda needs Nature or Predators to be read for any of it to make sense anyways lol. So it shall exist here only from now on.
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Directory
~Library of BiasMushroom~ contains every link for everything I have written! Check it out as some stuff related to Nature of Humanity may not appear on r/HFY! As well as my little side stories and Fanfics of other NoP fanfics!
The Nature of Humanity
The First Human Exterminator
__/\__
Memory transcription subject: Talen, Prime News Anchor
Date [standardized human time]: November 18th, 2136
We stepped off the intercontinental shuttle into the cold wind sweeping over the empty spaceport. “Welcome to Frozen Mountain, Wyvia. The perineum of Venlil Prime.”
The Gojid, slowly turning into a popsicle next to me, looked over horrified, “Wha- That is a rather… colorful way of describing this place.”
The grey monoliths covering the skyline stared at us emotionlessly, “Far more colorful than this shithole of a city. By the way, you are probably going to have more than one brothel try to recruit you.”
She shuddered, “I’m not looking for a job in that line of work.”
“I didn’t say hire. I said recruit. Don’t take rides from strangers. Don’t drink or eat anything that you haven’t paid for or made yourself. People disappear here, and it's not predators, humans, or Exterminators making that happen. I’m fairly sure some of them aren’t even because of the brothels…”
Wyvia looked around with a more worried look, “What are you talking about?”
A sigh escaped my body as I patted the sidearm hidden in my cold gear, “Just an old saying. Frozen Mountain has two things in abundance. Forlornness and Flesh.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief, “wh-WHat?!”
I started towards the nearby bus shelter, “This place is forlorn. Miserable. Just a downright terrible place to live. As for the flesh part of that saying… well, if you ever need something done, you can find an endless supply of people with an above room temperature body here.”
“That’s horrible!”
“That’s Frozen Mountain.”
Source: r/NatureofPredators · by /u/BiasMushroom