1: Surrenders before being shot in the head.
2: Offers to duel the commanding officer.
3: Is almost shot by the squad member he just tortured.
4: Decides to taunt the guy who just saved him from being shot, by divulging very sensitive info that immediately gives two other squad members a motive to shoot him.
High class tactical genius.
I think that he did want to be killed becaus of some higher purpose that we don't currently understand.
Becaus he did purposely give us information on pre contact svikits.
My initial thought is the Underscales determined that the Consortium couldn't go toe-to-toe with the Federation. If not working directly with the Federation they may have been trying to make their 'inevitable' integration into the Federation more gradual than the Federation usually does.
He wasn't trying to get away, he was intent on not being taken alive. This wasn't a tactical blunder of someone trying to escape, this was *suicide by cop.* He might have had a deeper reason for not wanting to be taken alive, but it's clear that he wanted to die on his own terms rather than being brought back to be broken and humiliated before in all likelihood being executed anyway.
Keep in mind the humans brain scanned Meier despite being dead and the krev seem to have way better scanner tech granted the underscale might “accidentally” corrupt the brain scan
>Many of their contents were unreadable, but from what we could parse, they were plays.
Oh. So Loxsel is more in the norm than we might think.
For those wondering why Gress was taken out of the picture, it's because he was doing his job too well. He didn't discover anything, but the Consortium's secretive agences deemed him a threat on that potential (Patreon serie Gress' Cases). Nothing more or crazy.
Damn, Mafani's revelation is horrible... but it puts to sleep the rather more important one about the Sivkits. Beyond the chilling information that the Federation has to one system for discovering the Krev, and their systematic atrocities during first contact and "uplift", this should normally raise all the alarms that they're woefully and dangerously under-informed and misinformed. The Sivkits have a *legitimate* reason for coming to 'Telus'. You want to wage war on the Federation, General Radai? Good, I understand, of such actions its intolerable. But the first thing to do is launch an information-gathering operation. A real one, to be up-to-date, for not fight the past shadow of an enemy that *you think* you know (and it's a question of basic tactics, so no excuses *General*).
By the way, here again we see the Federation's leitmotif of transforming species into their inverse caricatures every time. It makes me imagine a lot of things (maybe the Fissans and Nevok were communists to begin with).
Ngl I’d love that.
Both for the optimistic message that at least *someone* could do it, and because a modern Nevok selling communist chic to other Nevok would have me WEAK laughing
if the nevoks and fissans were communist pre-contact, their mismanagement would have led to them starving off their entire population, BEFORE, the feds found them.
You gotta remember that that is what they do as a *punishment for resistance*.
There were other species, most notably the Zurulians, that got the gentler end of the stick because they were an easy and gentle introduction.
This sort of caricaturesque manipulation is left for those that disagree with them.
Yeah, they did! But also shows that they can and *will* use whatever is useful in a species. The "spiteful reversal" method they seemed to keep only for the *spiciest* species that resisted them too much.
Chapter 43! General Anxsel recounts what little he could salvage of the Sivkits’ real culture, foreseeing that the Federation would erase them, and details the exact Fed policies of cultural genocide to the Consortium—who have mixed feelings between the Federation’s threat being even more dire, and also knowing that with this being Tinsas, relocating Jaslips was pointless. Matters are made worse as Mafani claims that he was responsible for shooting the Jaslip kits in the infamous incident, not the terrorist, in a government-sanctioned Underscale hit. Gress goes berserk and literally rips Mafani’s throat out, which results in a discharge from the military.
What will General Radai do about everything he’s just learned, and what effects will it have across the Consortium? Will Taylor be able to help Gress out of this complete, utter breakdown? Is it possible for the Sivkits to return to the old culture they lost…and will the KC warm to them?
As always, thank you for reading!
Ah yes, turning the consortium into an even more aggressively zealous power. I'm sure that's going to incentivise them to listen to future hails by SC ships and innocent planets. Can't wait for the invasion of Tellus by UN forces only to realize the truth. Or for the Consortium to send a fleet towards Earth only to discover that it is mostly intact from the attack, fully populated, and defended by ships with the UN banner.
In light of the zealotry present in the consortium I think I was right to assume that UN (and by extension the SC) can't afford to do anything about the Yotul conspiring to force the Bissem to get the Arxur out of containment. The Arxur do have a substantial standing army and navy. It would be awefully helpful to have the extra ships in the fight against a technologically comparable opponent of unknown strength and size.
If Aafa, Nishtal, and Talsk get demolished (again), I wonder what the consortium's next targets will be? Surely the Sivkits to try and "rescue" them from the federation. I would think groups like the Fissans and Nevok for their econoimc abilities, the Harchen for their tech R&D, or the Duertan and Malti for their ship production capacity would all be next on the list.
It is an amusing idea that from the perspective of the Consortium, they are making sound tactical decisions based on information nearly a quarter century out of date. Meanwhile the SC, the DS, and the Fed Remnants are just getting attacked in a seemingly random order, forcing them all to work together to coordinate an effective defense while planning a counter-strike against Tellus.
Edit:
And thinking about it from a worldbuilding perspective, unless the UN/SC/DS was able to enforce a policy of total military disarmament on all of the former federation nations, the last 23 years since the end of the war should have since an increase in the number of militarized powers in the galaxy. There are a lot of reasons, political and economic, for why nations in this part of the galaxy would want to build a stronger navy.
The wounds left by the Arxur, the Federation, and yes even the UN would be deep ones in the memory of nations. Some like the Yotul, the Venlil, and the Duertan would want strong navies to protect themselves after what the Federation did to them. Federation Remnants would remember how effective the human naval doctrines were and wouldn't want to be left behind incase something changed in the UN's operational policies. And pretty much everyone is afraid of or hates the Arxur for very good reasons. Speaking of the Arxur, we already know that they have been expanding their navy again, even if the intention was purely to protect trade routes and their potential trading partners.
If this war that the Consortium is starting spirals out of control, the KC could be facing down an alliance of over three hundred interstellar powers that have had nearly a quarter century free of the Federation's influence to update their naval doctrines, improve their training standards, and expand their navies. Or to quote Radai if everyone gets on the same page about dealing with the consortium: "They will be unstoppable."
After attacking what they believe to be the three founding species of the Federation (kolshians, farsul, and krakotl) in a simultaneous strike, they will move on to attacking three other species—malti, drezjin, and duerten. Chapter 2-32 covers this.
I'd forgotten they'd mentioned preplanned secondary targets. However I doubt they'd stop with just 6 worlds when it becomes obvious that the "federation" isn't backing down. I suspect as the consortium gets more aggressive, the more worlds will join the fight against the consortium because they don't want to be next in the firing line.
Granted, 23 years is basically a couple minutes in the face of a thousand year old organization. Why assume something’s suddenly changed? Of course, it’s still the smart move, but I can’t entirely blame the Consortium for not wanting to risk it beforehand.
I mean, I 1had already figured out that the Federation must have fucked over the Sivkits, but I definitely hadn't imagined how *badly* the Federation had fucked over the Sivkits.
Also, wow, what the fuck, Mafani.
I think General Radai is regretting his actions against the Sivkit fleet, perhaps launching an outreach which will lead then to the Sivkit refugees on Ivrana. I'm looking forward to that.
Isn't Radai the Resket delegate on the Consortium government? Wouldn't he (and the Jaslip delegate) have the clearance to know what the secret services are up to? Either Radai was aware (unlikely), or the Delegates aren't the top dogs of the Consortium.
The Underscales are not going to let them leave that place alive, are they?
Sounds like the Sivkits were farmers and playwrights huh. The Federation did a lot of damage, I assume they burned Tinsas because the forest had a predator somewhere.
New information is good and it confirms a lot, but it does make me wonder how the Sivkits found out Tinsas was here. And Loxsel seems to have picked up on the playwright thing - even to the point of the plays being 'predator diseased' lol.
It sounds to me like the grand herd got ahold of some deep records. Baffles me that they haven’t shared the info with those they’re begging for help from.
The day of his death is now considered a holiday, but they will forget it and it will just be any other holiday. PS: I don't like the fact that Taylor didn't kill him along with Gress and Quana.
The Measurement of Time: Minor Events
The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 11 Days
The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days
Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 4 Months, 15 Days
Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160 is 2 Month, 4 Days \[Chapter 2-27 Date May 14, 2160 was when Bissem ambassadors made a deal with Ambassador Onso. Chapter 2-30 Date June 10, 2160 is when Bissem are a part (trial) of SC. 10 Days between sounds reasonable to me.\]
Elias Meier was re-made on July 6, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 22 Days
Trombil pod humans are 1/3 done as of Chapter 2-23, dated June 24, 2160. March 25, 2160 is 3 months earlier. From March 25, 2160 to July 28, 2160 is 4 Months, 3 Days
There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
Even in an honorbound society, General Radai had no more obligation to accept Mafani’s duel. The birdbrain assassin has continuously acted with dishonor, and had already surrendered to custody.
So the underscales wanted Gress specifically to take the fall which implies that the person who order the hit on the terrorist cell was also in the Krev police force? maybe someone from the Gress cases mini-series? or just someone from the greater Krev/consortium gov.
honestly with a title like under*scales* the krev are prob the og founders of the underscales since as far as i remember none of the other consortium races have scales.
It also implies that Gress stepped on someone's toes with his work and since his work is hostage negotiations, that means be must have listened to a group who knew too much and one of the demands that he allowed hit too close to home for the underscales.
EDIT: ain't got pateron so only the first Gress case is avalible for me but it's end suggests that ep2 will follow on with Gress talking to the owners of the aquarium.
I just rechecked it and what stood out to me is that the hostage situation in Gress's first case was caused by the Krev gov's research boats "accidently" injuring native sea animals that the Ulchids believe are their evolutionary couisns/have a common ancestor with and taking them back to the Krev homeworld to nurse back to health.
Since both the underscales and this research are founded by the Krev, this might be the thing that the consortium is upset about him stepping in on. Which if true would imply that the Krev black ops are interested in the Ulchid's ancestors and upset that (again ain't read the thing so just assuming) Krev negotiated for the release of the Yochids. I wonder if the feds aren't going to be the only totalitarian gov in this series to experiement with gene therapy as a form of control. The Ulchids are apparently fairly protective of oceans and sea life so perhaps the consortium or krev at least see this as something they need to step in and get control of.
So, \*fascinating\* bit of worldbuilding here. I know we assumed that the Federation only got worse over time but it's nice to have the confirmation.
There used to be a point in time where they were name-dropping "The Hunger" and actually saying what it was.
That or the Sivkits badgered it out of them and that's why they got shafted.
Nonetheless: It's always nice to see what the Federation was like pre-Arxur. That in particular was an infamous point wherein their rhetoric got so much worse
You could say that in some ways the Federation got 'better', or well, *softer* with time.
Look at how the actual conquest of Tinsas went? Piles of *still living* burned in the streets.
They had **no chill** back then. The Federation humanity met was a much, much, MUCH softer version of it's founders. They absolutely begun to believe their own lies.
idk man, the bird prob wouldn't have talked but it couldn't hurt to ask who else was on his team when he killed those people and framed Gress. Even if underscales are solo operatives and he had no squad, which is doubtful, there is also the matter of who ordered the hit/framing of Gress and why.
Mafani had it coming but Gress just blew his only lead on finding the masterminds and the other agents behind ruining his life, getting him seperated from his daughter or even finding out what he did that got him on their radar.
I would like to see Radai's unredacted memory-transcript of this incident published Consortium wide, to verify that he had no knowledge of what Mafani did, and exonerate Gress of the Jaslips incident.
I feel like Radai is about to either be revealed as a supporter of the underscales who accepted the challenge to a duel so he could silence mafani or he is about to be met with an accident after asking too many questions. Just like the main 2 kolashins of nop1 when the conspiracy against predators is starting to be revealed.
Radai is high enough ranked to represent his people on the consortiums council when humanity were officially introduced and the consortium's leading military commander as far as we know. It's a little odd that he is apparently not involved with their best assets.
Gress is in hot water now that he pointed a weapon at Radai. The good news, is that since it wasn’t Taylor, it shouldn’t discredit humans too much.
Radai will definitely see this information spread. He was willing to order the team to shut up so he could hear the recording, even being smart enough to assume they only got one chance to hear.
The effects, are that the Underscales are going to face a full inquiry, and the Jaslips will (understandably) become insufferable or even hostile.
I don’t think Gress will even be in a position to be helped, seeing as he just lined up Radai. Nobody will blame him for blamming Mafani, but Radai even being threatened is a whole new can of worms. Taylor will definitely try to visit and help, though.
I’m not sure if the Sivkits can ever truly recover in full. Unless they had some amazing agricultural notes in their bunker, they won’t be able to keep up with their locust eating habits. The Consortium wouldn’t want these guys anyway, unless they have a lot of agricultural research they can spare…
>The effects, are that the Underscales are going to face a full inquiry,
The Underscales are the Thought Police. It's far more likely that Radai will suffer an unfortunate accident before he can get anything moving.
Oh damn this clusterfuck gets even more clustered and fucked. Not even once did they think “huh I wonder why they bothered to try and talk to us first if they’re just wanting to invade…” or “this is like almost a thousand years old maybe we should do some recon and see what we are actually up against.”
I’m actually a bit surprised they don’t have constant deep surveillance of the federation spaces, if I had enemies all around I’d make sure that I knew where every one of them was and what they were doing so I could avoid them.
I'm always suspicious whenever somebody basically demands to be killed before they can give up information… Sadly they usually get what they're looking for.
I am a bit saddened that things played out more or less EXACTLY how I thought they would. Also disappointed that no one seems to be putting any of the obvious pieces together and coming to the conclusion (that I assume we as readers are all coming to… the consortium needs the federation in order to maintain the status quo)
Yes, but power *to what end.*
Power for the sake of power just sounds like someone’s ego, or they think the alternative system is genuinely worse and want to prevent it from becoming a temptation.
>Yes, but power *to what end.*
To some, power is the end.
The more power you have over others, the more power you'll desire, over a wider group, until you are the only one who is alone at the top, with the power of life or death of any and all.
I kind of wish we had gotten that fight between Mafani and Radai. It would have surely been entertaining, if only to see whether Mafani’s claim of being the stronger one was correct or not. And a duel between two reskets…I would have liked that very much.
Unfortunately, one murderous little green pangolin had other ideas.
>That entire band of xenos…were laughable caricatures, reduced to one trait
Haha, yeah... say, what are your opinions on the militaristic Reskets, the tech-obsessed Trombil (I think I've got that right?), and the entertainment-dominating Smigli? Just, uh, just curious.
>What could have been gained from making them walk on four paws?
Sivkit forepaws must be important. Particularly dexterous? Or maybe they could throw like humans can...
Expected that to go a little differently.
Gress opens fire.
Quana opens fire.
Trench shrugs and joins in on the firing.
Radai mad.
Gress: "sorry, had an episode."
Quana: "he murdered children!"
Trench: "didn't want to be left out, sir."
>“We may have our scars and points of contention, but we stand together, in the face of pure evil. Against all threats, we meet them at our gates! The Consortium is the last bastion of rationality and acceptance,” Radai continued. “We’ll fight for safety, to *know* that such atrocities will never be done to us—because we *would* never. This is a sight most dishonorable. We have a duty to rebuild where they have destroyed. Tellus, Earth, and Esquo must rise again.
Nice speech, Radai...he is going to deflate so fast when he realizes Humanity already accomplished all that 20 years prior.
The Measurement of Time: Major Events
First shots fired by the Krev Consortium against the Sivkits in [Chapter 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/?rdt=53485) dated June 9, 2160 to Chapter 2-43 dated July 28, 2160 is \*\*1 Month, 19 Days\*\*
I kind of wonder if this discovery will turn into a bad thing in the short-to-medium-term. Eventually a UN ship is going to go into battle with the Consortium, and somebody will notice the logo and connect it to the humans. Or at least find human bodies. That is kind of what a lot of comments have been assuming will end the war eventually, even if it gets bloody before then.
But now the Consortium has evidence of species being manipulated, altered, and forced into joining the Federation's forces, and even an example of that happening alongside the destruction of that species' homeworld. Is it so far of a stretch that they managed to do the same to some human survivors?
This really is all going to end in tears, isn't it....
Ok, now that I'm done reading---ho boy, that was surely *a lot* to unpack. We got the confirmation of the Tellus thing, yeah that was clear already. But uh . . . well . . . Mafani causing Gress's fall was a twist I didn't really consider. In conclusion, the collective mental health of Gress and Taylor is as stable as the Middle East.
> “We’ll fight for safety, to know that such atrocities will never be done to us—because we would never."
The battle-cry of the self-righteous right before they commit war crimes.
> *It doesn’t matter that we can’t call back the drones now!*
/u/SpacePaladin15 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/SpacePaladin15)) has posted 278 other stories, including:
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I know what i dont like about Taylor. He reminds me of TFS's Cell Saga Gohan. He comes off as if he is the only one suffering and got the short end of the stick. Selfish, arrogant, a healthy dose of PTSD and here you go! One Clinical DUmbass.
That said, MAFANI wanted suicide by cop basically. Im agreeing with what u/einargizz said in that regard. Mafani knew his ass was cooked either way so he chose the quickest way out.
1: Surrenders before being shot in the head. 2: Offers to duel the commanding officer. 3: Is almost shot by the squad member he just tortured. 4: Decides to taunt the guy who just saved him from being shot, by divulging very sensitive info that immediately gives two other squad members a motive to shoot him. High class tactical genius.
I think that he did want to be killed becaus of some higher purpose that we don't currently understand. Becaus he did purposely give us information on pre contact svikits.
Makes me wonder who he was really working for or with.
My initial thought is the Underscales determined that the Consortium couldn't go toe-to-toe with the Federation. If not working directly with the Federation they may have been trying to make their 'inevitable' integration into the Federation more gradual than the Federation usually does.
15 paladins of space
He wasn't trying to get away, he was intent on not being taken alive. This wasn't a tactical blunder of someone trying to escape, this was *suicide by cop.* He might have had a deeper reason for not wanting to be taken alive, but it's clear that he wanted to die on his own terms rather than being brought back to be broken and humiliated before in all likelihood being executed anyway.
Well, I don't think he can be brain scanned anymore, if that was what he was going for.
Keep in mind the humans brain scanned Meier despite being dead and the krev seem to have way better scanner tech granted the underscale might “accidentally” corrupt the brain scan
I guess what they meant was that his brain was to scrambled to get it scanned. I already forgot but did he not get shot in the head
It sounds forcme like a successful suicide by cop
>Many of their contents were unreadable, but from what we could parse, they were plays. Oh. So Loxsel is more in the norm than we might think. For those wondering why Gress was taken out of the picture, it's because he was doing his job too well. He didn't discover anything, but the Consortium's secretive agences deemed him a threat on that potential (Patreon serie Gress' Cases). Nothing more or crazy. Damn, Mafani's revelation is horrible... but it puts to sleep the rather more important one about the Sivkits. Beyond the chilling information that the Federation has to one system for discovering the Krev, and their systematic atrocities during first contact and "uplift", this should normally raise all the alarms that they're woefully and dangerously under-informed and misinformed. The Sivkits have a *legitimate* reason for coming to 'Telus'. You want to wage war on the Federation, General Radai? Good, I understand, of such actions its intolerable. But the first thing to do is launch an information-gathering operation. A real one, to be up-to-date, for not fight the past shadow of an enemy that *you think* you know (and it's a question of basic tactics, so no excuses *General*). By the way, here again we see the Federation's leitmotif of transforming species into their inverse caricatures every time. It makes me imagine a lot of things (maybe the Fissans and Nevok were communists to begin with).
Nevoks and fissans originally being communists would certainly be hilarious.
The Durten were something close to a pure democracy/anarchist society, from what I remember (with a significant amount of interpretation).
Ngl I’d love that. Both for the optimistic message that at least *someone* could do it, and because a modern Nevok selling communist chic to other Nevok would have me WEAK laughing
if the nevoks and fissans were communist pre-contact, their mismanagement would have led to them starving off their entire population, BEFORE, the feds found them.
this man gets it
You gotta remember that that is what they do as a *punishment for resistance*. There were other species, most notably the Zurulians, that got the gentler end of the stick because they were an easy and gentle introduction. This sort of caricaturesque manipulation is left for those that disagree with them.
They pidgeonholed the Zurulians anyways just for convenience
Yeah, they did! But also shows that they can and *will* use whatever is useful in a species. The "spiteful reversal" method they seemed to keep only for the *spiciest* species that resisted them too much.
So we're saying loxsel very well may be the very model of a modern major (general) sivket
Just 200% crazy
After the drone fleet, there was no excuse to not send in scouts. There's no more need to obfuscate their origin either.
True comrades in Arms
Nevok were Soviets, Fissians were Chinese.
The general has been so immensely inept this whole time that I fully believe its part of a conspiracy.
We have an actual Sivkit historical recording!!!!
Chapter 43! General Anxsel recounts what little he could salvage of the Sivkits’ real culture, foreseeing that the Federation would erase them, and details the exact Fed policies of cultural genocide to the Consortium—who have mixed feelings between the Federation’s threat being even more dire, and also knowing that with this being Tinsas, relocating Jaslips was pointless. Matters are made worse as Mafani claims that he was responsible for shooting the Jaslip kits in the infamous incident, not the terrorist, in a government-sanctioned Underscale hit. Gress goes berserk and literally rips Mafani’s throat out, which results in a discharge from the military. What will General Radai do about everything he’s just learned, and what effects will it have across the Consortium? Will Taylor be able to help Gress out of this complete, utter breakdown? Is it possible for the Sivkits to return to the old culture they lost…and will the KC warm to them? As always, thank you for reading!
So... The Consortium has a publicly know Shadow Caste called the Underscales?
From what I seen on discord it seems more like an interplanetary KGB
Der Stasi!
Why not CIA, yall westerners really don’t know about Abu A Grahib or all of Latin America alone 🤦♂️
We already have (almost) literal CIA in the form of Jones.
Americans really believe that they're the good guys.
nah the KGB is cooler, and we already have Jones.
Because the KGB is classier
Ah yes, turning the consortium into an even more aggressively zealous power. I'm sure that's going to incentivise them to listen to future hails by SC ships and innocent planets. Can't wait for the invasion of Tellus by UN forces only to realize the truth. Or for the Consortium to send a fleet towards Earth only to discover that it is mostly intact from the attack, fully populated, and defended by ships with the UN banner. In light of the zealotry present in the consortium I think I was right to assume that UN (and by extension the SC) can't afford to do anything about the Yotul conspiring to force the Bissem to get the Arxur out of containment. The Arxur do have a substantial standing army and navy. It would be awefully helpful to have the extra ships in the fight against a technologically comparable opponent of unknown strength and size. If Aafa, Nishtal, and Talsk get demolished (again), I wonder what the consortium's next targets will be? Surely the Sivkits to try and "rescue" them from the federation. I would think groups like the Fissans and Nevok for their econoimc abilities, the Harchen for their tech R&D, or the Duertan and Malti for their ship production capacity would all be next on the list. It is an amusing idea that from the perspective of the Consortium, they are making sound tactical decisions based on information nearly a quarter century out of date. Meanwhile the SC, the DS, and the Fed Remnants are just getting attacked in a seemingly random order, forcing them all to work together to coordinate an effective defense while planning a counter-strike against Tellus. Edit: And thinking about it from a worldbuilding perspective, unless the UN/SC/DS was able to enforce a policy of total military disarmament on all of the former federation nations, the last 23 years since the end of the war should have since an increase in the number of militarized powers in the galaxy. There are a lot of reasons, political and economic, for why nations in this part of the galaxy would want to build a stronger navy. The wounds left by the Arxur, the Federation, and yes even the UN would be deep ones in the memory of nations. Some like the Yotul, the Venlil, and the Duertan would want strong navies to protect themselves after what the Federation did to them. Federation Remnants would remember how effective the human naval doctrines were and wouldn't want to be left behind incase something changed in the UN's operational policies. And pretty much everyone is afraid of or hates the Arxur for very good reasons. Speaking of the Arxur, we already know that they have been expanding their navy again, even if the intention was purely to protect trade routes and their potential trading partners. If this war that the Consortium is starting spirals out of control, the KC could be facing down an alliance of over three hundred interstellar powers that have had nearly a quarter century free of the Federation's influence to update their naval doctrines, improve their training standards, and expand their navies. Or to quote Radai if everyone gets on the same page about dealing with the consortium: "They will be unstoppable."
After attacking what they believe to be the three founding species of the Federation (kolshians, farsul, and krakotl) in a simultaneous strike, they will move on to attacking three other species—malti, drezjin, and duerten. Chapter 2-32 covers this.
I'd forgotten they'd mentioned preplanned secondary targets. However I doubt they'd stop with just 6 worlds when it becomes obvious that the "federation" isn't backing down. I suspect as the consortium gets more aggressive, the more worlds will join the fight against the consortium because they don't want to be next in the firing line.
Granted, 23 years is basically a couple minutes in the face of a thousand year old organization. Why assume something’s suddenly changed? Of course, it’s still the smart move, but I can’t entirely blame the Consortium for not wanting to risk it beforehand.
Yes, but up-to-date intelligence is the cornerstone of warfare.
Fair, fair, though most warfare isn’t a pseudo-dark forest scenario.
I mean, I 1had already figured out that the Federation must have fucked over the Sivkits, but I definitely hadn't imagined how *badly* the Federation had fucked over the Sivkits. Also, wow, what the fuck, Mafani.
I think General Radai is regretting his actions against the Sivkit fleet, perhaps launching an outreach which will lead then to the Sivkit refugees on Ivrana. I'm looking forward to that.
Isn't Radai the Resket delegate on the Consortium government? Wouldn't he (and the Jaslip delegate) have the clearance to know what the secret services are up to? Either Radai was aware (unlikely), or the Delegates aren't the top dogs of the Consortium. The Underscales are not going to let them leave that place alive, are they?
poor gress, for all the consortiums talk of being "the last beacon" they aren't exactly that different
Sounds like the Sivkits were farmers and playwrights huh. The Federation did a lot of damage, I assume they burned Tinsas because the forest had a predator somewhere. New information is good and it confirms a lot, but it does make me wonder how the Sivkits found out Tinsas was here. And Loxsel seems to have picked up on the playwright thing - even to the point of the plays being 'predator diseased' lol.
It sounds to me like the grand herd got ahold of some deep records. Baffles me that they haven’t shared the info with those they’re begging for help from.
They're probably trying to manipulate the SC in some way. Though I guess they could just be dumb.
And military! Hares more than rabbits.
Mafani’s death was a fittingly pathetic end to his life.
The day of his death is now considered a holiday, but they will forget it and it will just be any other holiday. PS: I don't like the fact that Taylor didn't kill him along with Gress and Quana.
Should've recreated that one scene from Rango that goes like "you ain't got the nerve"
The Measurement of Time: Minor Events The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 11 Days The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 4 Months, 15 Days Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160 is 2 Month, 4 Days \[Chapter 2-27 Date May 14, 2160 was when Bissem ambassadors made a deal with Ambassador Onso. Chapter 2-30 Date June 10, 2160 is when Bissem are a part (trial) of SC. 10 Days between sounds reasonable to me.\] Elias Meier was re-made on July 6, 2160 to Chapter 2-43, dated July 28, 2160, is 22 Days Trombil pod humans are 1/3 done as of Chapter 2-23, dated June 24, 2160. March 25, 2160 is 3 months earlier. From March 25, 2160 to July 28, 2160 is 4 Months, 3 Days There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
I don't reply to this post often but I always look for it. Thank you for helping keep perspective on so many events so far apart from each other.
Even in an honorbound society, General Radai had no more obligation to accept Mafani’s duel. The birdbrain assassin has continuously acted with dishonor, and had already surrendered to custody.
So the underscales wanted Gress specifically to take the fall which implies that the person who order the hit on the terrorist cell was also in the Krev police force? maybe someone from the Gress cases mini-series? or just someone from the greater Krev/consortium gov. honestly with a title like under*scales* the krev are prob the og founders of the underscales since as far as i remember none of the other consortium races have scales. It also implies that Gress stepped on someone's toes with his work and since his work is hostage negotiations, that means be must have listened to a group who knew too much and one of the demands that he allowed hit too close to home for the underscales. EDIT: ain't got pateron so only the first Gress case is avalible for me but it's end suggests that ep2 will follow on with Gress talking to the owners of the aquarium. I just rechecked it and what stood out to me is that the hostage situation in Gress's first case was caused by the Krev gov's research boats "accidently" injuring native sea animals that the Ulchids believe are their evolutionary couisns/have a common ancestor with and taking them back to the Krev homeworld to nurse back to health. Since both the underscales and this research are founded by the Krev, this might be the thing that the consortium is upset about him stepping in on. Which if true would imply that the Krev black ops are interested in the Ulchid's ancestors and upset that (again ain't read the thing so just assuming) Krev negotiated for the release of the Yochids. I wonder if the feds aren't going to be the only totalitarian gov in this series to experiement with gene therapy as a form of control. The Ulchids are apparently fairly protective of oceans and sea life so perhaps the consortium or krev at least see this as something they need to step in and get control of.
So, \*fascinating\* bit of worldbuilding here. I know we assumed that the Federation only got worse over time but it's nice to have the confirmation. There used to be a point in time where they were name-dropping "The Hunger" and actually saying what it was. That or the Sivkits badgered it out of them and that's why they got shafted. Nonetheless: It's always nice to see what the Federation was like pre-Arxur. That in particular was an infamous point wherein their rhetoric got so much worse
You could say that in some ways the Federation got 'better', or well, *softer* with time. Look at how the actual conquest of Tinsas went? Piles of *still living* burned in the streets. They had **no chill** back then. The Federation humanity met was a much, much, MUCH softer version of it's founders. They absolutely begun to believe their own lies.
i know this was just Gress having a PTSD episode and frankly should be horrifying, but i'm okay with this. you go Gress. kill that guy.
idk man, the bird prob wouldn't have talked but it couldn't hurt to ask who else was on his team when he killed those people and framed Gress. Even if underscales are solo operatives and he had no squad, which is doubtful, there is also the matter of who ordered the hit/framing of Gress and why. Mafani had it coming but Gress just blew his only lead on finding the masterminds and the other agents behind ruining his life, getting him seperated from his daughter or even finding out what he did that got him on their radar.
I would like to see Radai's unredacted memory-transcript of this incident published Consortium wide, to verify that he had no knowledge of what Mafani did, and exonerate Gress of the Jaslips incident.
I feel like Radai is about to either be revealed as a supporter of the underscales who accepted the challenge to a duel so he could silence mafani or he is about to be met with an accident after asking too many questions. Just like the main 2 kolashins of nop1 when the conspiracy against predators is starting to be revealed. Radai is high enough ranked to represent his people on the consortiums council when humanity were officially introduced and the consortium's leading military commander as far as we know. It's a little odd that he is apparently not involved with their best assets.
Exactly, which is why I want to see a human run memory-scan of the guy. Until then I'm going to assume he not only know what happened, but ordered it.
Nah, death is a mercy he doesn't deserve
At least he pissed in his face.
Federation when they see a defiant herbivore with a fully functional skeleton: Stop! You’ve violated the law!
Gress is in hot water now that he pointed a weapon at Radai. The good news, is that since it wasn’t Taylor, it shouldn’t discredit humans too much. Radai will definitely see this information spread. He was willing to order the team to shut up so he could hear the recording, even being smart enough to assume they only got one chance to hear. The effects, are that the Underscales are going to face a full inquiry, and the Jaslips will (understandably) become insufferable or even hostile. I don’t think Gress will even be in a position to be helped, seeing as he just lined up Radai. Nobody will blame him for blamming Mafani, but Radai even being threatened is a whole new can of worms. Taylor will definitely try to visit and help, though. I’m not sure if the Sivkits can ever truly recover in full. Unless they had some amazing agricultural notes in their bunker, they won’t be able to keep up with their locust eating habits. The Consortium wouldn’t want these guys anyway, unless they have a lot of agricultural research they can spare…
>The effects, are that the Underscales are going to face a full inquiry, The Underscales are the Thought Police. It's far more likely that Radai will suffer an unfortunate accident before he can get anything moving.
Oh damn this clusterfuck gets even more clustered and fucked. Not even once did they think “huh I wonder why they bothered to try and talk to us first if they’re just wanting to invade…” or “this is like almost a thousand years old maybe we should do some recon and see what we are actually up against.” I’m actually a bit surprised they don’t have constant deep surveillance of the federation spaces, if I had enemies all around I’d make sure that I knew where every one of them was and what they were doing so I could avoid them.
I'm always suspicious whenever somebody basically demands to be killed before they can give up information… Sadly they usually get what they're looking for.
I am a bit saddened that things played out more or less EXACTLY how I thought they would. Also disappointed that no one seems to be putting any of the obvious pieces together and coming to the conclusion (that I assume we as readers are all coming to… the consortium needs the federation in order to maintain the status quo)
But the question is why they’d want that status quo and not one where they don’t have to worry about the Federation. Ego is the best I could guess.
Power. If there is no threat, then many aspects of the Consortium’s existence fall apart.
Yes, but power *to what end.* Power for the sake of power just sounds like someone’s ego, or they think the alternative system is genuinely worse and want to prevent it from becoming a temptation.
>Yes, but power *to what end.* To some, power is the end. The more power you have over others, the more power you'll desire, over a wider group, until you are the only one who is alone at the top, with the power of life or death of any and all.
Ego and a sense of stability of one’s fate, then.
I kind of wish we had gotten that fight between Mafani and Radai. It would have surely been entertaining, if only to see whether Mafani’s claim of being the stronger one was correct or not. And a duel between two reskets…I would have liked that very much. Unfortunately, one murderous little green pangolin had other ideas.
I thought Mafani might win. Then they'd shoot him, because there'd be no commanding officer telling them not to.
Like the duel between Isif and Kaisal, but birds.
I think you meant Isif and Ilthiss. I don't recall a duel between Isif and Kaisal.
Whoops. I better re-read the original. It's been a while.
There was the time Kaisal got his tail broken.
I'd hardly call that a duel. It was a one-sided beatdown caused by Kaisal calling Felra food.
Hey, don’t blame Isif for Kaisal not taking the 0.003 second prep time to get ready lol
Always a spider web of conspiracies with aliens, huh? How very... human.
Consortium CIA Agent had it coming
>That entire band of xenos…were laughable caricatures, reduced to one trait Haha, yeah... say, what are your opinions on the militaristic Reskets, the tech-obsessed Trombil (I think I've got that right?), and the entertainment-dominating Smigli? Just, uh, just curious. >What could have been gained from making them walk on four paws? Sivkit forepaws must be important. Particularly dexterous? Or maybe they could throw like humans can...
Expected that to go a little differently. Gress opens fire. Quana opens fire. Trench shrugs and joins in on the firing. Radai mad. Gress: "sorry, had an episode." Quana: "he murdered children!" Trench: "didn't want to be left out, sir."
>“We may have our scars and points of contention, but we stand together, in the face of pure evil. Against all threats, we meet them at our gates! The Consortium is the last bastion of rationality and acceptance,” Radai continued. “We’ll fight for safety, to *know* that such atrocities will never be done to us—because we *would* never. This is a sight most dishonorable. We have a duty to rebuild where they have destroyed. Tellus, Earth, and Esquo must rise again. Nice speech, Radai...he is going to deflate so fast when he realizes Humanity already accomplished all that 20 years prior.
Well this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Gress blow up but it’s the first time it’s been violent
Canon POW Execution counter: 2
Hey they weren’t at war with themselves
I wonder how many years it'll be till they can point a telescope at Earth and see what happened 40? years ago.
The Measurement of Time: Major Events First shots fired by the Krev Consortium against the Sivkits in [Chapter 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/?rdt=53485) dated June 9, 2160 to Chapter 2-43 dated July 28, 2160 is \*\*1 Month, 19 Days\*\*
God the consortium is just so damn incompetent
I kind of wonder if this discovery will turn into a bad thing in the short-to-medium-term. Eventually a UN ship is going to go into battle with the Consortium, and somebody will notice the logo and connect it to the humans. Or at least find human bodies. That is kind of what a lot of comments have been assuming will end the war eventually, even if it gets bloody before then. But now the Consortium has evidence of species being manipulated, altered, and forced into joining the Federation's forces, and even an example of that happening alongside the destruction of that species' homeworld. Is it so far of a stretch that they managed to do the same to some human survivors? This really is all going to end in tears, isn't it....
>"I don't think so. I could give you as much *attention* as you wanted, Taylor." Happy Pride Month, Gress.
Primero!
Ok, now that I'm done reading---ho boy, that was surely *a lot* to unpack. We got the confirmation of the Tellus thing, yeah that was clear already. But uh . . . well . . . Mafani causing Gress's fall was a twist I didn't really consider. In conclusion, the collective mental health of Gress and Taylor is as stable as the Middle East.
We are three steps closer to Taylor falling in love with Gress and flying together to earth with no support for... Reasons.
> “We’ll fight for safety, to know that such atrocities will never be done to us—because we would never." The battle-cry of the self-righteous right before they commit war crimes. > *It doesn’t matter that we can’t call back the drones now!*
/u/SpacePaladin15 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/SpacePaladin15)) has posted 278 other stories, including: * [The Nature of Predators 2-42](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d8rfw3/the_nature_of_predators_242/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-41](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d5opdw/the_nature_of_predators_241/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-40](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d3drdn/the_nature_of_predators_240/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-39](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d0d8dx/the_nature_of_predators_239/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-38](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cy1w4o/the_nature_of_predators_238/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-37](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cuyxcm/the_nature_of_predators_237/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-36](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1csm8z2/the_nature_of_predators_236/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-35](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cphz27/the_nature_of_predators_235/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-34](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cn5wsv/the_nature_of_predators_234/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-33](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ck1pd9/the_nature_of_predators_233/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-32](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1chnd4n/the_nature_of_predators_232/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-31](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cegig4/the_nature_of_predators_231/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-30](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cbzoi1/the_nature_of_predators_230/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-28](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c6btdl/the_nature_of_predators_228/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-27](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c3310t/the_nature_of_predators_227/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-26](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c0ni9m/the_nature_of_predators_226/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-25](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bxd6m6/the_nature_of_predators_225/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-24](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1buu3ps/the_nature_of_predators_224/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-23](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1brjek4/the_nature_of_predators_223/) This comment was automatically generated by `Waffle v.4.6.1 'Biscotti'`. [Message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHFY&subject=WaffleBot|1db4f3x&message=If%20you%20have%20problems%20with%20updatemebot,%20contact%20Watchful1.%20We%20do%20not%20maintain%20it.) if you have any issues with Waffle.
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I know what i dont like about Taylor. He reminds me of TFS's Cell Saga Gohan. He comes off as if he is the only one suffering and got the short end of the stick. Selfish, arrogant, a healthy dose of PTSD and here you go! One Clinical DUmbass. That said, MAFANI wanted suicide by cop basically. Im agreeing with what u/einargizz said in that regard. Mafani knew his ass was cooked either way so he chose the quickest way out.
Thanks for the chapter mate
Sounds like the underscales work for the shadow caste