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Forward by the Translator

This is an early first draft of my introduction - almost the entire story is in the epistolary form so feedback on how well I wrote in the form would be appreciated.

This is the only surviving first-hand account of the events of the first Predatory excursion, as told from the perspective of Tril D'Krucx, ambassador of the Urik to the 23rd UoCS council. It is presented here without annotation for the purpose of historical preservation. It is important to note the context of this account; as it begins, the Groka military was swiftly advancing through Union systems, their tactics never previously seen in the galactic community. The induction of humanity into the UoCS was an unexpected boon that turned a war that had previously seemed unwinnable around at an unprecedented rate. The ambassador's account shows just how vital this induction was, as well as how easily history could have taken a drastically different path, had just a few events changed. It is an invaluable resource in the study of this time period, as well as an excellent case study in the politics of an early UoCS, and the basis for predator-prey sentient relations as they exist in modern times.

- Professor Vorta Venii, Head of Inter-Planetary Politics at Xrall'dinu University, Writing in the Standard Galactic Cycle 4468. (2542 AD)

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Some brainstorming pages

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Hello!

Unfortunately, due to the original story idea growing into a monster impossible for me to finish by any reasonable deadline, a new story has taken over this blog. It draws on my weird love for the epistolary form and is heavily inspired by the Humans are Space Orcs trope/community, especially the classic HSO story 'Prey'

(https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/3yi82b/comment/cydnx3d)

I hope people will enjoy my updates as they come :)

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Introduction ~ 1st Draft

This is the introduction to a story I am writing for my IBDP CAS Big Project. Constructive Criticism would be appreciated, but please be nice, this is the first piece of writing I will be putting online. This project will be ongoing for at least a few months.

Introduction

The golden light trailed fingers over the tips of amber spires, glancing off of glass and curved metal and delicate, filigree structures. A glow spread over the silent city, warmth coating the ground and hanging buildings, turning the long-settled dust silver in the dawn.

The dust was swept up in eddies and swirls of excitement in the force of a starship's thrusters, sending glittering sparks flying across planes turned beaten silver and struts gilded with liquid beauty under the sunslight. The starship dropped to the ground with a gentle thud and came to a standstill. A hatch slowly lowered itself from the belly of the semi-spherical capsule and two figures appeared at the end, the first visitors to this alien world in living memory.

BAM! “Hissssgh!” an angry hiss escaped the pores of the arthropod’s abdomen as his body hit the floor of the abandoned spaceport, legs nearly buckling from the effort of keeping upright. His companion roughly shoved his body aside with one foreleg as he stalked down the ramp, past where he had pushed his friend, striding further into the hanger with a disgruntled whistle.

“Stop here, Hiinto!” he mocked, irritation coating every hissing syllable as he pulled a satchel off over his thorax, gesturing wildly with his second pair of hind legs as he did so. “I’m sure there’ll be some people worth trading with here, sssee, ttthhey even hhhave a ssspaceport!” he continued, losing control of his consonants in his frustration.

His companion merely eyed him sullenly with his lamp-like gaze and said nothing. There was nothing to say when Hiinto got like this, and the planet really did look developed from above. Now that they were at surface-level though, it was obvious that something was very wrong. There were no noises. None. Not even the sounds of wildlife reclaiming an abandoned city broke a silence so dense it couldn’t even be called eerie, just oppressive and deafening enough that even Hiinto’s ranting was forced to end quickly, the weight of the noiselessness pressing down on him and locking the words back into his throat so as not to disturb the endless peace

The two traders gravitated towards each other as they wove through the sweeping tunnels of the abandoned spaceport, pearlescent and gleaming, throwing up the silver dust that lay, ankle-deep, on every surface. There were still no signs of life, or even death – no children running through the hallways and waiting rooms with weary parents having given up chasing them dozing in the chairs, no skeletons lounging on the benches or leaning up against the walls. There was no outward sign of what could have happened here, just the silence, the dust and the shell of a society that just seemed to have vanished.

The promenade they eventually exited onto was wide and impossibly long, stretching as far as the eye could see both left and right, with a balustrade held up by elegant, twisting columns. The whole structure was carved of the pure, white quartz of the mountainside they were emerging from and hung over the most elegant city that either trader had ever even dreamed of. The buildings were formed of smooth, curving planes and twisting helixes that blended seamlessly with the ground and one another, none of the mismatching peaks and flat roofs of most settlements. Every colour complimented and enhanced the building, the street, the city as a whole, a perfectly balanced palate of gold and silver and white and bronze stretching so far as to be beyond the limit of the imagination. An impossibly massive dome arched far above their heads, shielding the city from the elements and casting beams of light onto to scene through its soap-bubble exterior. Hiinto and Kanttho’s minds were filled with awe and respect for the architects of such a place, and terror for what could have brought such a people down.

No flaws marred the perfection of the silent city apart from the piles of dust that coated everything, their irregularity shocking against the uniform perfection of their surroundings. The dust piled heavier in some places, towering above head-height, and fell away sharply to patches of golden floor left completely clear of the glittering substance. It did not look as if it belonged here, in this perfect place, this paradise surely inhabited by a race so noble and brilliant as to be considered angels in the minds of others when considering their achievements. Kanttho found himself irrationally angry at whoever had caused it to be there, and bent to the floor in a flurry of movement, scooping some of the dust into his scanner-pouch in an attempt to track the origin of the culprits. His sharp movement caused flurries of the dust to swirl into the air, making Hiinto cough roughly as he inhaled the sharp larger pieces in his shock.

A tone rang out through the coughing, slicing through the silence before it could completely cover them again. A robotic tone followed.

“Analysis no.4,783. Two main components identified. First substance identified as organic material, most likely animal remains. Second substance is a form of airborne biological compound that appears to react with the structured identified in the first substance, and break them down on a macroscopic level whilst leaving individual cells and DNA intact. Likely classification – organic remains of an animal killed by a biological weapon.”

Kanttho froze, the anger draining out of him in seconds to be replaced by swiftly-growing horror. His primary stomach rolled, nutri-block threatening to make a reappearance as the remains of what could only be the people of this city continued to shift against his ankles. The ghosts of these incredible engineers seemed to be clutching at his feet, holding him rooted in place when all he wanted to do was turn tail and run. Run so far away that the ghosts could not find him and the beauty could not haunt his dreams. But he couldn’t move, could barely even think around the terror, the horror, the grief for the death of a civilisation so bright and wonderful. He turned his head and his stomach churned again, remembering the even thickness of the dust inside the spaceport, the number of people who must have died moving, trying to escape, in order to create that even layer, and his limbs finally started to cooperate.

He turned tail and bolted, ghosts howling at his heels, faces of beautiful creatures forming out of their swirling remains as he turned and ran, Hiinto hot on his heels. He galloped blindly through terminal after terminal, room after room, children and adults and adolescents and the elderly flashing through his mind as the irregularities began to stand out and become families embracing, the deeper piles on the steps of spacecraft becoming a desperate cram for shelter, for survival, the lights in that room becoming...

The what?

Hiinto hissed in shock and fear, crashing into the back of Kanttho’s abdomen at the sudden pause, but he saw it too – the light shining from the tiny space near the back of a room, half coated in a pile of dust that made their stomach turn at the image of people lying over their family or pets in a futile attempt to protect them. They crept forwards, the residual fear making their hearts beat double-time in their thoraxes, and peered into the class capsule, shot through with the ever-present gold of the buildings. Their breaths caught in their throats. A small figure lay, sleeping peacefully, cocooned in layers upon layers of wire and mesh and gel – impossibly, undeniably alive.

The two gaped at one another, at the pod, at the figure within. Their usual gruff common sense and rationally had been ripped out by awe and shot out of existence by fear. This shock had burnt the tattered remains to cinders and blown them off on the winds of hope. They stared around, at the ground, at each other, at the door, as a determination began to brew as a shadow within the shock. They nodded in unison.

The scavenger ship ‘Unstoppable 2’ tore away from the ghost-like planet like a bat out of hell. Or, perhaps, a sinner out of heaven. Its cargo was far from what had been expected upon landing – two scavengers, changed for the rest of their existence, the news of beauty and terror they carried, and one small stasis pod carrying the last member of a species that seemed to have managed to create utopia without their own imperfections destroying it.

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An inked version of my planet sketch from forever ago

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Another planet idea! Illustrations for the final story will not be by me (they will be by my immensely talented irl friend) but these help with visualisation. :)

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Possible setting idea (feat. my terrible drawing skills)

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Initial Brainstorm Complete!