New Races & Revelations

Ambassador Tnuctipin Branch Snapper had always known that space travel was going to be dangerous. No matter how sophisticated the Anaareel claimed Alliance technology was, no matter how much the representatives from the vast interstellar government continued to profess and display the near infallibility of the CSA’s wondrous craft that could traverse air, sea, and space with equal ease, the official representative of the One World Herd of the Jeobizi race was not about to fool herself into thinking that a voyage across the enormous distances between the stars was going to be anything except dangerous. The woman had joined the twenty one member delegation that was to speak for their species at the Alliance’s local administrative capital knowing the risks.

When the Alliance ship had been seized upon by the enormous Kroxaa warship, the Anaareel and Nylanai seemed more annoyed than scared. “We have insurance.” the snooty, obsequious, aid to the delegations chief Anaareel explained to the pachyderm. “The Kroxaa religion mandates that they take us captive and **** us to acknowledge the superiority of their god. Then they will find the nearest Alliance outpost or Shi’Raka caravan and sell us for the insurance money.” The Joebizi ambassador was incredulous at the way the Alliance bureaucrats talked about the potential for getting captured by pirates. “It will take us longer, but we will get to the same destination, we might even meet some interesting people and get to take in a few sights along the way.” The Nylanai laughed. “You are still thinking like a short-lifer. It is understandable. After the first few centuries, you stop being in such a hurry. One of the things you shall learn as a member of Core society.”

The holding cells aboard the Kroxaa ship were far less comfortable than the VIP suites aboard the Alliance ambassadorial corvette. But Tnuctipin Branch Snapper could still conjure nearly anything she wanted out of the wall by asking for it. The leaves and branches conjured like magic from the replicators tasted a little rubbery and bland, despite the obvious artificial nature of the synthetic flora, the replicated vegetable matter was quite serviceable for food and bedding. At their own request, the Joebizi and their pets were crammed in together. In addition to the three ton pachyderms, the delegation from the Joebizi World Herd included a number of domesticated animals that the Joebizi had incorporated into their society in a subordinate role. The Alliance seemed greatly interested in the song monkeys that had become a popular addition to the subsidiary herd. One of the reasons Ambassador Tnuctipin Branch Snapper had accepted the job of representing her world was because she was allowed, even encouraged, to bring along her prized collection of red manes.

The delegate from the Branch Snappers was dismayed to learn that some of the other delegates had not gelded their pets, Tnuctipin had had to pull a rambunctious male that still had his balls off of her girl on more than one occasion, her boy almost had it worse, the other males grew violent and aggressive around her sweet red top, they seemed to mock him for his lack of testicles and used their larger size to bully her sweet singer into hiding between Tnuctipun’s legs. The spotted red song monkey followed his mistress everywhere, even when she went to use the mud pit.

Tnuctipun was bathing with her pets when the alarms sounded. The Joebizi delegates all blasted high pitched cries from their trunks as the garbled language of the Kroxaa was translated by the brain implants given to them by The Alliance. “Battle stations! Kruxmaw has gifted us with fresh enemies!” The captain’s voice said over the intercom.

“Goodness! Some other poor ship has been seized upon.” Stzanban Root Digger said as he sucked water up three of his trunks to spray Tnuctipun’s back, soaking the ginger primates picking parasites out of their owner’s hooves and eating the relishing the taste of the oversized mites that the Joebizi pets relied upon for their protein.

“Hopefully it will not delay us any more than we already are.” Tnuctipun said moments before the ship began to shake. Everyone, Joebizis, Fruit Lemurs, Root Otters, and Song Monkeys all began to panic as a loud crunching noise filled the air as did the smell of voided bowels.

“We have been boarded! Prepare to rip and tear! We will taste the blood of our enemies tonight. Glory to Kruxmaw!” The captain said on the intercom sounding more excited than nervous.

“I do not understand.” Tnuctipun said. “What is…” The delegate of the Branch Snappers was cut off when the ventilation grates were torn open and dark shapes descended upon them.

***

A5KKR had loaded itself into a breaching can on Arisaka Secundus and went into suspended animation. When the Mekani infiltrator woke up, her internal chronometer informed the battle bot that several months had passed since she had been offline. As consciousness returned to the living machine, the data packed containing her target profile and mission objectives floated like a christmas present in the noosphere waiting for her to ingest the trinaric data. A5KKR shuddered with delight as her memory was updated with new engrams from the ship’s voyage so far. The Mekani savored the scans taken by the Knavar pack fleet and was getting a rush from the Scrydar returns from the Seraphim carrying her breaching can.

When the pod was sealed to the Kroxaa’s hull and the fusion torches had burned their way inside of the enemy ship, thousands of Vyraxis poured forth and began to spread out. The hunters skittered down the halls and up the walls while the stalkers crawled through the service ducts and small crevices where they will be able to move around the ship with impunity to penetrate the ship’s vital areas and major population nodes. The weavers will create traps, **** points, and ambushes using their ultra strong silk fibers infused with the Vyraxis’s NOXET toxin.

The Vyraxis boarding party did not need weapons. The black carapaced insectoids were weapons. Their claws, fangs, spikes, tails, and cocks were all saturated with enough of the mind altering substance that a single stab, scratch, spit, or bite from the bioforged predators was more than enough to rapidly transform any creature not evolved from the primordial oceans of mankind’s lost motherworld from a dangerous to domesticated.

The Kroxaa were a warrior race who had built their ships, social institutions, even their very bodies for the purpose of combat. The saurians relished the challenge of facing an enemy up close on their home terrain. No glory was greater than the glory written in an enemy’s blood. The fact that the invaders insisted on engaging the Kroxaa in close combat simply made the cybernetic crocodilians appreciate their enemy and savor the honor they would achieve for themselves. Ironically, the more the saurian aliens had replaced their flesh with machines, the less time it took for NOXET to saturate the Kroxaa’s remaining biological tissues.

It took the Kroxaa awhile to figure out what their enemy was doing. By the time the Kroxaa understood the Federation attack ****’s plan, it was too late. The Kroxaa had charged into the enemy assuming they would lack shields and blasters. A5KKR and her fellow Mekani battle bots not only had shields and blasters, but more than enough malware and data-wyrms to overwhelm and co-opt the ship’s archaic computer systems. Once they had access to life support controls, it was easy enough to begin pumping NOXET gas into the cabins and corridors of the ship. Node by node, the ship’s A.Is. turned against the Kroxaa almost as fast as they turned on one another.

While the Mekani were busy taking over the ship’s systems, the Vyraxis were hard at work taking over the ship’s crew. The Vyraxis swarmed through the ship doing their best to bypass the Kroxaa’s defensive positions. The insects used their size and speed to attack the Kroxaa where they are weakest as they encircled the warriors in an ever tightening series of webs. Kroxaa would chase the black armored attackers down a corridor only to find their way blocked by the webs that they had learned not to touch after several warriors fell ill from the sticky toxins. Upon turning to retreat, the Kroxaa would find their way closed off by more of the webs that the rumors said ensnared your soul as much as your body. As the warriors became trapped, their women and hatchlings were helpless. Before long entire pockets of the ship were saturated with NOXET. Vyraxis and Mekani infiltrators would pass Xenos in the hallways staring off into infinity as they were remade for the service of The Master Race. It can take several hours for a sentient mind to regain its sense of self after NOXET exposure. Once they recover from the initial shock, the newly domesticated Xenos would wander about in a confused daze until directed by the Mekani to aid their new owner.

It was simple enough. The battle bot would show the xenos a holographic projection and inform them that “This is Lord James Fujiwara. He is your Master. You belong to Him. I am His agent and you will obey me for his sake.” The Kroxaa and their former captives were eager and willing to help in claiming the ship for the glory of Mankind.

***

Tnuctipun Branch Snapper had never seen anything so beautiful in her whole life. At first it had all been so terrifying. Those horrible creatures had come screaming out of nowhere. There was pain. The creatures came tearing, slashing, and biting at the pachyderms before skittering off. Tnuctipun was relieved to see that no one was seriously hurt and her song monkeys were scared but surprisingly untouched. Tnuctipun wrapped her trunks around the girl and the gelding and tried to soothe them as the siblings serenaded each other in the peculiar way that Tnuctipun wondered was some kind of language. Tnuctipun felt like her pets were growing cold when she realized that she was getting a fever. The Joebizi ambassador felt herself begin to sink as her vision became filled with strange colors that only grew more vivid when she closed her eyes. Gently but firmly, Tnuctipun held onto her red maned pets. Their soft hides felt electric. The more and more Tnuctipun Branch Snapper felt herself slip away, the brighter and shinier her lovely song monkeys, her amazing pets from beyond the stars, appeared to glow.

***

A5KKR absorbed the data the Vyraxis transmitted using ultrasonic vibrations and infrared signalling. The Mekani was redirecting a crew of newly domesticated Kroxaa to isolate an area of the ship occupied by some of the saurian aliens that had gotten into vac suits and were better cordoned off and saved for the shock marines and sentai rangers. The Kroxaa had done themselves no favors by charging into the jaws of the invaders. By the time the lizard xenos figured out that their enemies were fighting with biochemical warfare, most of the crew had been infected with NOXET. The Kroxaa that had sealed themselves in NOXET resistant armor had fallen back to defensive positions. They had made a few forays from their strong points always to find themselves driven back by their former comrades.

The priority one message came to the front of A5KKR’s noospheric sensorium with an abruptness that would have caused alarm if the Mekani had been programmed to feel such emotions. The synthetic woman was designed to feel surprise, which is what she experienced as she digested the ramifications of this short but important message. “Human prisoners encountered. No Federation geno-idents detected. General Order One is in effect. Directives required.” The transmission was annotated with audio-visual recollections from the Vyraxis as well as gene-samples. It left little room for doubt.

As the closest Mekani to the zone of interest, A5KKR moved as fast as her artificial muscles could carry her to confirm news that would not only change their voyage’s mission, but the future of The Federation.

A5KKR ran where she could and crawled on all fours across the walls and ceiling where she had to in order to arrive in what the ship map had designated as holding cells for VIPs and insurance claimants. The Vyraxis had accounted for quite a few Alliance xenos in their sweep of the area as well as a few species that were not in the Mekani’s copy of The Log of Aliens. When she got to the door and opened it, the synthetic woman felt the warm, humid air forming droplets against her chassis. A group of twenty one creatures that looked like a hippopotamus and a cow had babies and those babies had a squid for a head. The hooved pachyderms were wallowing in mud amidst the hallucinogenic phase of NOXET exposure with their trunks staring at the fifteen scared, crying, malnourished, naked, confused, human beings.

“It is alright. You are safe now. I am from a Federation starcruiser, help is on the way.” A5KKR said. The humans that did not look at her with abject terror stared at her with blank or uncomprehending expressions as the small mud covered humans twittered at one another in a tonal speech that seemed to defy the Mekani’s attempts at translation, as if the language was designed to be impossible for outsiders to learn. The synthetic woman was at a loss when her random idea generator and common sense filter worked together to come up with the idea of offering one of the human’s chocolate. It was simple enough for the Mekani to co-opt the replicator and load the recipe into the matter compiler. After making a few bars of the stuff and taking a bite herself to show that it was not dangerous. One of the males, a eunuch to A5KKR’s horror, was adventurous and took the offered chocolate. After his trill of delight, the other humans came and grabbed their own bars of the dark sweet treat. While the humans were distracted, A5KKR grabbed hair and skin samples to confirm what she already knew.

Within a few decades of settling The Trinity, every single citizen of The Federation was injected with a benign engineered code which acts as genealogical record and government ID. With the correct equipment and database access, any Federation citizen can trace their ancestry back to the first generation of colonists to call Eden, Paradise, and Elysium their home. A5KKR had the equipment and the database access, and she could not find anything. These humans not only lacked the mandatory genetic modifications, they lacked any genetic modifications at all. “It is confirmed.” A5KKR transmitted to her fellow Mekani. “We have found members of The Lost Tribes.”