Space Orcs And The Myth Of Harmless Prey Animals

Space Orcs and the Myth of Harmless Prey Animals

Human, talking to Alien about a bully: So, what you're never going to fight back?

Alien: I am of a prey species, we are not capable of fighting back.

Human: So, what? You'd just stand there and let something eat you??

Alien, flapping its flipticles in helpless anxiety: What else can we do? We are not born with the ability to do harm. We are plant-eaters.

Human: What's that got to with it? The most dangerous animal on Earth is a herbivore and it's a bulletproof tank of pure bloodlust.

2nd Human, who was listening in: Also most herbivores can and will eat meat if they get the chance to scavange on smaller corpses.

Humans are tricky beings, finding any loophole possible to win a fight, no matter how dirty and underhanded it would be. There were laws that were set in place during the first interspecies war that, among other things, implemented the banning of the use of planetary bombardment, to limit the casualties of civilian population.

Then the humans came into the scene and got into a fight with a species far out of their league. They were, of course, instructed in the laws of warfare, and the ambassador claimed that the humans had something similar on their own world, something about a “jean-evil” convention.

The ambassador left with several data chips, claiming that humanity needed to “look over” the laws before any action was taken.

…

Less than a week later the council had to reconvene, and vote on whether or not to add a new law banning the use of a planets moon as a makeshift weapon, as the law stated that only artificial weapons were banned in orbital bombardment.

Beware Human Elders

Getting older doesn’t necessarily slow a human down. It seems like every few weeks a news story pops up about a senior citizen beating up a mugger or home invader. Any human brave enough to travel the stars would be able to take care of themselves, no matter how old they are.

.  .  .

In the grand scheme of the universe humans had not been traveling the stars for a long time. Thus, humans were still a rare sight for most. Outside of their own colonies it was virtually unheard of to see a human young or a human elder. Humans in their prime were rare enough.

So when a group of borderline pirates saw two human elders, one male and one female, in a secluded area of a remote star base they decided to take advantage. It was seven against two, so the pirates felt confident with their odds. The female needed a device to assist her walking! This would be enjoyable.

“Humaaaaan,” the leader said in a taunting voice. Unexpectedly, he was ignored. “Human!” the leader growled. Again, he was ignored. “Oi!” He stepped up to them, slightly blocking their path.

“Hello,” the female said, bearing her teeth. The male did not react.

“We don’t like humans here,” the leader said.

“Oh, dear. Well, we’ll just be on our way then,” the female replied. The two started to move around the pirates.

“We’re not done with you yet.” The leader cut them off again.

“We are done with you,” the male said. He took ahold of the female’s free hand to guide her away.

One of the pirates growled and hit the male in the face. The male staggered, found his footing, and lunged at the one who hit him, punching him several times. Two more pirates joined the fray.

“Leave my husband alone!” the female yelled. She swung her mobility aid at the leader, hitting him in his sensitive visual organs. He went down, clutched the impacted area. The female jabbed him twice more, with the second blow landed directed on his poison filtering organ. The excruciating pain ensured he stayed down.

The female went after another pirate who was going after her husband. She kicked out the limb of one of them, then used her mobility aid to whack him on the head, drawing blood. She pushed a button on her mobility aid, making a three-inch blade pop out from the bottom. She stabbed the third pirate, aiming for center body mass. The pirate reared back, not expected such an attack from a creature smaller than itself. One more jab and the pirate dropped. Instead of assisting the male the female watched the end of the fight. The fight was over soon, all seven pirates groaning on the floor.

The female smiled, and went over to the male. “Still so hansom and strong,” she said fondly. She took a wipe out of her purse and removed blood from the male’s face. Then she kissed him.

The male grunted and looked her over for injures. “Efficient as always, darling.”

There was a commotion in the adjacent hallway. They looked over to see several aliens and one human run in.

.  .

Human Steve ran into the bay area and stopped so suddenly he tripped over himself and almost face planted. He took in the fallen pirates with wide eyes. Then he saw the two human elders.

“Grandma! Grandpa! Are you okay?”

The male scowled. “No. We had to travel far too long into this forsaken vector to come see our great grandbaby. Ridiculous.”

The female smiled placidly, patting the male on the arm. “We’re fine, dear. Our accommodations traveling here were fairly comfortable.”

The guard wasn’t sure how to respond. The male was bleeding from several cuts, and the female was leaning heavily on her mobility aid. “I’m fairly certain Human Steve meant your physical health… because of the fight.”

The male grunted.

The female smiled. “We’re fine sir. A little excitement is good for the heart.”

The male huffed and crossed his arms.

Human Steve looked at the fallen aliens, all of the blood, and the blood spots left by his grandma’s cane. “Well, I’m glad you both are okay. Let’s go see Jane and Anna and get you patched up, okay?” He started to usher his grandparents to the ship.

“Wait, they need to-” the security officer started to say.

“I’ve got it, thank you so much for your help,” Human Steve said over his shoulder. “I’ll make sure they get where they need to go!”

The security stared after them, stumped. He turned to the beaten pirates. At least dealing with this was familiar. Humans were crazy. Give him pirates any day.

.  .

Steve waited until they were further down the hall with no chance of being overheard. “Grandma, did you really bring your stiletto cane with you?”

Grandma patted his arm. “Of course, dear. We heard all sorts of stories about space. I’m not as spray as I used to be, and I didn’t want to bring a gun. It wouldn’t be very mannerly to put a hole in a ship’s haul, now would it?”

Steve abruptly remembered that neither of his grandparents had been to space. With how grumpy his grandpa could be he was surprised they hadn’t run into trouble before now. Unless… “So, um, were there any other problems getting here?”

Grandpa gave an annoyed grunt, which defiantly meant ‘yes’.

“Oh, it was nothing dear. Some creation tried to snatch my purse last change over. Your grandpa showed him the error of his ways.”

Steve laughed. He loved his grandparents.

.  .

Later, the officer asked crew member Human Steve about his sires, and how they were able to take out seven pirates.

“Oh, Grandma and Grandpa?” Human Steve laughed. “They both fought in the Last Great War. I know they both have a few metals. They’re the reason I joined the Special Forces.” He grinned at the security officer, obviously proud of his lineage.

That certainly answered the officer’s question. Regular humans were scary enough. The warriors though… no wonder the human elders delt with the pirates on their own.

Humans are Space Orcs “Facial Expressions”

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing.\

“Why are we even here?”

At the front of the room, The Grizzled Tesraki Bridge officer took his seat. One of his ears was partially mangled, and his dark Ochre fur stuck up in strange places only adding to his grizzled appearance.

In the front row, the young Tesraki that had spoken tapped a foot impatiently against the floor.

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Humans Are Feral

Alright, this my first post, and possibly a part one in a series of humans are feral story arcs. As well as being something that I constantly think about and wonder why no one talks about it. Maybe I just haven’t found the specific post.

Have we ever talked about how vicious humans can be? Especially in scenarios where something we care about it threatened? And I mean “bared teeth and snarling” type vicious. Beast mode activated. I’m talking about how we basically turn into animals in certain situations and rely solely on primal instinct.

Take mothers/fathers for example. You ever see a parent react to a situation in which their child was dancing with death? They will risk life and limb for that kid. My dad dove into a pool full speed after my two year old sister fell in the deep end. Clothes and all. Have you ever seen a woman after just giving birth and her mind is just straight hormones? And something happens that she perceives a threat? Someone picks up the newborn without consent, she jumps out of bed after a fucking cesarian to snatch the kid and full on snarl at them? Friend’s aunt did that shit. And don’t get me started on the super strength thing humans can do when someone is in danger and adrenaline kicks in. Then there are the people who will protect some random ass kid. A toddler or small kid with no parent around and suddenly something dangerous is about to happen? People will jump in parent or not.

~~~~~~

Imagine:

It was a quiet day in the streets of Kuratz. The market paths usually bustling with people of races only had a small stream of customers bouncing from stall to stall. Tourists or natives of all sorts. Ky’lio, a young Avalanghar, watched from his mia’s stall, long ears swiveling this way and that to pick up on what conversations he could understand.

Then they caught his eye. The strangers you’d never see in such a place. Humans. What looked like a family unit. Ky’lio couldn’t help but lean forward to stare. He recognized the tallest as a male and the slightly shorter one a female, as he had watched some interactions between his mia and her human customers. But those humans were always soldiers or neighboring colonists. These humans were different.

There was a third party. Ky’lio had never seen a human child except for the few pictures shared from other humans. It was notoriously well-known that humans were extremely protective of their younglings, so few were seen away from human colonies. So the small, bouncing creature Ky’lio watched tug on the adult humans’ paws didn’t register as a baby human until he really stared and saw the round features.

It kept trying to dart away from its parents, but the adults held vice-like grips onto the little one’s paws. Until the stopped at a stall, Hadi Midas’s stall selling sweet fruits from the Dolor Jungles. The male let the little human go and the female took hold of the little one’s free paw. But the wild thing tugged and cried out, like a prisoner chained to a wall. It wailed and cried out in its native tongue, no doubt begging for release from its mia’s iron laws. The scene reminded Ky’lio of when he saw Kaloway serpent at a traveling exotic zoo. It too thrashed and screeched in its chains the same way the little human was. Then the female leaned down and whispered something to the child, making it go limp in her paws, hanging like a dead thing. The female only snorted and turned back towards her mate, who was speaking with Hadi Midas.

What happened next would always remain burned into Ky’lio’s memory. The little human twisted strangely and suddenly they yanked themselves from their Mia’s grip. It screeched triumphantly and dashed away. The female yelled and ran after it, but it was no use. The little human was fast and determined. As it ran down the street it neared the alleyway next to the Damik stall. Ky’lio felt the fur along his spine stand up. The alleyway was a known ambush site for younglings separated from their parents. A human child would be a great prize.

As the human youngling ran past the alleyway, a giant Oyiadin stepped out and grabbed the skinny, hairless arm. The little human screamed, a sound that had every fear feeling surging through Ky’lio’s body. Others in the street turned and stared, but none dared do anything. Oyiadins had a reputation for smuggling and trafficking, their muscular stature, claws and jaws full of sharp fangs scared away any possible help. It wasn’t the first time Ky’lio witnessed a kidnapping and helplessly watched as the kidnapped youngling’s parents shrieked in despair and fear, never daring to fight such beasts. So they would lose their child.

But these were humans. And humans were known for strange, impossible feats. That fact still did not prepare the young Avalanghar to witness the female human slam into the giant Oyiadin, tackling the muscular biped to the ground. The male human swooped in and snatched the small human, now crying and clinging to its parent. The female stood atop the giant, snarling like a wild fangher. Her lips were pulled back to reveal small, white teeth that were nowhere near as intimidating as the Oyiadin’s, yet the expression was somehow more fearsome. She growled something in her native tongue, standing menacingly over the Oyiadin that hadn’t tried to stand up. It’s ugly face was strangely empty of menace, it’s six eyes wide and staring at the human it easily dwarfed. Yet the female held no fear, spitting and snarling, her body tensed for a fight. But the Oyiadin offered no challenge. She spat something in her language once more, then turned and walked to her mate and youngling.

“That is why you must not provoke humans.” Ky’lio jumped, turning to see his mia behind him and watching everything. She looked down at him. “They are dangerous and unpredictable. Especially when they’re protective.” She looked up to watch the trio of humans pass by. “Never underestimate their willingness to fight for their own.”

~~~~~~

Kids are one thing. Then there are pets. I have personally felt the willingness to kill if anyone threatened my dog or cat. That pack bonding stuff is no joke. No, I don’t care if you hear me call my cat a fat, no-rent-paying bastard, he’s my fat no-rent-paying bastard. And I won’t just die for him. I will kill you and cut you up in pieces and summon satan to dine with me on them for that fat bastard.

~~~~~~

Imagine:

Galar was a puvarra, and deserved xis comeuppance. But the crew never expected for their human crew mate to be the one to do it.

Oakley was a good crew mate and most of the team had high opinions of him. He did his work, turned in reports on time, socialized and was overall very kind. The crew was grateful that the human was one that presented the better side of his species. However some were not fond of humans. Galar, the Yunagi from the helix system 1-4b, was one of this opinion. Xe was unabashedly cruel to many on the crew, and only got away with it because xe often blackmailed xis victims to not report to the captain. It was irritating how xe knew certain things. But xe’d finally gone too far.

Oakley had a pet aboard the ship. The creature humans called a cat, a furry thing on four legs that was a master at contortion. While the crew had been hesitant about the creature at first, hearing stories about Terran animals, many grew to like it. Oakley’s cat was named Jambo, a black and white pattern on its fur and a long, skinny tail. It would rub against their legs or jump upon counters to watch them at work. Sometimes it would doze off near them. Only Oakley and Jabari, Oakley’s partner in work, had been selected as thrones for the creature to doze upon. Many on the crew came to feel honored when the creature would approach them and rub its cheek against an outstretched appendage, a sign Oakley had explained to be affection and a demand for “pets.” Jambo got many pets.

Then one day, as the crew drew together in the dining area for a meal, Galar chose his hill to die on. Jambo had approached the tables, padding towards Oakley, but stopping as some crew began making chirping and clicking sounds, trying to intice Jambo toward them for pets. Then Galar walked by, the blue finned Yunagi’s eyes landing on Jambo. And before any could do anything, xe pulled back a long leg and kicked the black and white cat. Jambo let out a loud screech.

Then Galar was flying back and Oakley was screaming in his native language. He wailed on Galar, his fist connecting every time. At one point he tried to choke xim. Several crew jumped upon them, pulling the human way from the Yunagi, but the damage was done. Purple bruises were already evident upon the Yunagi’s blue-green hide, scratches and crescent shaped marks on xis neck were leaking dark blue blood. Nothing serious, but enough to rattle everyone.

Oakley didn’t bother staying to explain to the captain. He immediately left to find his cat, as did some of the others. Many could care less if Galar was injured, because the stupid puvarra deserved it. They worried for Jambo. The cat was later found and inspected. Luckily for Jambo, he had some light bruising. Very lucky. Oakley even cried, the clear wetness on his face a strange sight for many.

When asked by the captain why he attacked Galar, Oakley point-blank said it was because he kicked Jambo. And anyone who dared hurt his cat was going to get hurt themselves. He said it so casually the captain blinked several times. While humans were known for their protectiveness of packmates, this aggression was unexpected. They went on to scold Oakley and told him that they would have to write this on his personal report for future jobs. Oakley only nodded, still unswayed. The captain sighed and dismissed him. They knew they probably should have done more for such heinous action. But unbeknownst to others, the captain was also fond of Jambo. They were the only other person Jambo chose to nap on.

~~~~~~

This was written really fast, so I apologize if the writing is a little scrunched and there are mistakes. It physically hurt to write about a cat getting kicked, I wanted to vomit. Ugh. I wanted to go off on a tangent about humans taking on giant beasts for their kids because wouldn’t we? I personally don’t like kids, but I admit that I’d fight a bear for that one-year old that smiled at me in a Walmart checkout line, then offered me her animal cracker. I mean, wtf. I’ll save that for the next post tho.

Thinking about a ship getting an absolute bully for their first human. The kind of human that knows most aliens are afraid of ‘death worlders’, the kind of human that knows where the line is and how far they can go before they get into trouble, and who they can intimidate to let them cross the line as they want.

Part of the crew is like “I knew humans were just as bad as I thought.” Human doesn’t care. Human represents the worst of humanity, but they’re necessary for the ship - they make themselves necessary, and are not afraid to put the rest of the crew at risk if their authority seems challenged.

And then, they get a new human, who is smaller than the first. The first human tries their usual tactics - and the second human breaks their nose. If they were on the ship itself, there’d be consequences, and the first human knows it. But the second human is not afraid to be labeled a troublemaker, and cause trouble for the first, they do. A fierce competition blooms between them, as the second human clearly attempts to muscle in on the first’s territory, despite everyone warning them not to. And as this goes on, the second human befriends the rest of the crew. They’re different than the first. They are kind, they are smart, they are loyal.

They are a death worlder.

During a shipment of endangered animals from another planet, the first human is mauled by the adults. The second human is injured trying to protect them, but to no avail, the first human is killed. Analysis revealed the first human was sprayed with a kind of pheromone that agitates the species - but there was no reason for the pheromone to have been released by the species. Something else is going on, and the captain know it. The second human, despite the clear trauma, accepts the interview.

After the interview ends, the captain turns off the official recording.

“Off the record,” they ask, “what really happened?”

The human swallows, closes their dark eyes.

“They were trying to steal the eggs,” they said. “I saw them - I heard them on a black line with a darkspace distributer.”

“Why didn’t you report it?”

“Not enough time. And I… I had a feeling they’d done it before.”

The captain waits. The human’s closed eyes water.

“You sprayed the pheromone on them,” the captain says.

The human nodded. “They were so busy with the eggs, they didn’t even notice.”

“But,” the captain says, “You tried to save them after.”

The human’s shoulders shake. “I did.” They sob. “I did. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but I did it. I did it for all of you. I did it for us.”

The human cries.

No charges are filed. The crew would mutiny if their friend were charged with anything, though the captain finds some way to ease the moral strain on both their hands and the second human’s. Another human is brought on board to help with the strain of the first human’s loss. Thy are bright-eyed, clever fingered, sharp-witted, soft-hearted. It takes time to for the wounds caused by the first human - described as a bully by the humans, also ‘a real asshole!’ by the newest recruit - but now that they are gone, they can all recover, and move on.

The moral here? Humans are not always good, but they should never, ever be underestimated - when they claim a pack, they will protect it even from their own kind.