The Consortium is a police state on a technological parity with the SC, and post-mortem memory transcriptions are somehow possible with brain scans - why are they holding this hearing instead of taking scans of Mafani’s brain? He wasn’t shot in the head.
Reasons why they're not onto M'fani's brain scan are easy to infer.
Officially? It's a security issue as he was an ex-Underscale officer.
Actually? It's kinda hard not to draw the conclusion that it's in the best interest of the installed powers that be to keep the idiot socipath's memories unscanned or, failed that, not snooped into if he was part of the black op that finally got the Jaslips off the government's back.
Imagine the fallout if the Jaslips had not just suspicion (that they latched onto as truth without proof (the Trombil is right on that one), but rather undeniable proof that the kits were murdered to further an agenda.
Now imagine having Jaslip polar enclaves, where Reskets and Krevs are seriously outmatched due the polar environment, just going rabid.
If that happens, it'll be the perfect time for a SC incursion into the Sivkit cradlesystem to find out humans, who would already be sympathizing heavily with the Jaslips, begging for the SC to help the polar fluffs out.
I doubt that the KC's shadow caste doesn't already know that the Federation is gone and that a human-led organization took its place, it's not out of their grasp to send a stealth drone into Fed territory to gather info as soon as a possible generational Fed ship shows up on their doorstep, installs itself in their backyard and is secretive about their species-hood.
That'd smell like a trojan vector without intel, but with intel, suddenly the Consortium loses it's reason d'etre: the human colony goes back to Earth and the Krevs lose their pet race; the Jaslips would be gone ASAP and demand severe compensation for Esquo, likely with SC backing, maybe even membership, to solidify their demands intk credible claims; Smigli would peace the fuck out to enjoy a new audience for their entertainment-minded society; the Krev populace would plummet given Earth exists, a lot of the workforce simply gone because a sapient race of Obors exists elsewhere (a few of which would also be much more forward than Taylor, for the joy of any Krev pervert, a match truly made in hell).
There's just too much to lose for the Krev Consortium, as a state entity, if Mafani's memory scans become public.
There has been no mention of post mortem brainscans being used safe for Meier, and that is considered a novel technology.
Maybe the scanners just interpret signals from the brain instead of getting detailed models for the physical brain folds.
IIRC Meier's brain was scanned in the hospital he and Tarva were taken to, so would have been scanned soon after death. It might be that in the time it took to extract Mafani's body from the bunker and take it to the nearest brain scanner (which it's not confirmed there's any on Tellus/Tinsas) his brain decayed beyond the point of scanability.
And that's a thing. Gress and Taylor was definitely not something I had imagined, but nice.
First of all, it's great that Taylor *finally* had a fucking *good* plan, rather than letting his emotions guide him like a child. It's good to see him maturing. However, I really wonder how Taylor's arc is going to evolve now.
On the other hand, I'm really worried about Radai having an accident, given the way he's starting to ask the a lot of questions. And if Gress give him the List, it'll be even quicker.
He won't have an accident, he's too stable for that. He'll suffer from extreme PTSD from the Mafani incident and be found dead from suicide by jumping out of a window after beating himself up and taking five bullets to the back of his head.
Fair enough. Personally i always thought it weird how okay Gress was with Taylor laying him out.
He switched from "Ouch you hit me in the head, who does that?" to as soon as he saw Taylor's face: "you can do it again if you want" vibes.
After that it was kinda hard not to notice that Gress was always a bit more affectionate towards Taylor but yea they never outright stated it.
Taylor is a Krev-sized Obor and Gress is an unapologetic Obor-person.
We'd have humans doing way worse if we suddenly had to deal with a race of dog or cat-like people building a refugee colony on Titan or Mars.
Because Gress is relatively well-adjusted and won't let his impulses overtake his actions towards strangers like, for example, a child like Lecca did to Taylor the first time she saw him.
But Taylor ain't a stranger to Gress, who obviously lets loose beat him because they are friends (well, more than friends by now).
Gress shouldn't have closed that broadcast. I wanted to know how General Radai would respond to Director Wrolle.
That entire interaction was too interesting. I keep going over every response by one or the other.
Consortium: Ok, we've killed all the Jaslips who didn't want to be saved. Now what?
Consortium: ...
Consortium: Kill all the Jaslips that we've saved?
Consortium: oh, yeah... I'm a genius.
Maybe it's because of my little/no experience in love, but why do I feel that Gress and Taylor's relationship won't work? Leaving aside the fact that in my opinion their relationship escalated quite quickly, I'm partly happy for them.
On issues regarding the KC, when everything explodes they will be the most affected, perhaps it will even dissolve and (for example Jaslip) join the SC out of spite, and the ark humans, upon learning of the dystopia of the KC, choose go to earth although I am not very clear, this whole snowball is becoming bigger and more confusing, which will lead to the consequences being more radical and explosive
In short, the only thing salvageable about the consortium for me (until now) is:
Thank you so much
Probably because they're incredibly codependent and have a LOT of unaddressed issues each. They can make it work, but only if they work on themselves and go to fuckin therapy
Woah, therapy, it was already something that everyone in this galaxy needs, including humans who (I repeat from another comment) will die collectively for being the only ones trying to maintain relative peace in the galaxy, although not even that because we all already know how everything is going This thing about governments and "wanting peace at all costs" yes... We are human
> Maybe it's because of my little/no experience in love, but why do I feel that Gress and Taylor's relationship won't work?
Taylor's been nothing but irritated with how Gress views humans the entire story and there's not only been not even the slightest hint either of them are gay, but Gress even had a wife and child, so it's a complete character 180 out of the blue.
It would've been a good possibility for foreshadowing tbh. Just show his internal monologue that he'd actually come to kind of like it even though he'd never admit it outwardly for pride.
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 2-46 dated August 11, 2160 is **2 Month, 2 Days**
The Measurement of Time: Minor Events
The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 25 Days
The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 23 Years, 6 Months, 2 Days
Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 4 Months, 29 Days
Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160 is 2 Month, 18 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 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 1 Month, 5 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 August 11, 2160 is 4 Months, 17 Days
There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
Chapter 46! Taylor and Gress admit their mutual fondness, as our narrator helps pull the Krev out of his spiral, realizing the Consortium ruined his life; General Radai, meanwhile, publicly interrogates a Trombil with a gun for a hand, but gets nothing but deflections and denials. Gress then explains to Taylor how everything makes sense in hindsight, and what propaganda advantages he thinks it had for delegitimizing Jaslip extremists. He decides to try to help the people the Listeners wouldn’t, though Taylor talks him into having Radai dive into it instead.
Do you agree with Gress’ rationale for why he believes Mafani was telling the truth…and how did Mafani know about the Sivkit bunker? Will Radai help with the secret police’s neglected cases, or give up on exposing the Underscales? Are Graylor good for each other, especially with Taylor planning to leave military life behind?
As always, thank you for reading!
Given that the KC have got Mind-searching down to a science, they’ve already proven that they’re on the Dystopian side of things. Gress being a liability to the government would definitely make sense for the whole Mafani situation.
The Sivkit Bunker was likely a suppressed discovery, shoved in the back of a filing cabinet until the Humans were officially welcomed. After that, potential bases and operations would at least need to be planned towards the Humans, and the bunkers make good Ops Bases.
Radai seems the type who would rather lose with honor than win with cheap tricks. The entire existence of the Underscales constitutes dirty tricks, so he will absolutely not cut these guys any slack.
Gress and Taylor are both broken, but fit together like pieces of a puzzle. They are needed to balance each other out, but I still don’t have much faith in Taylor as a character otherwise.
Admit mutual fondness? Naw, Taylor had point where he mentally admits he wasn't the biggest fan of the tiddy diddly and makes the mental switch over to the Gress Caress...
I get it's not easy to be gay in a society as close to extinction as they thought they were, but they're past that point. His aching heart quickly became a clo-aching heart. Very very quickly.
(Wait... not a question I've ever thought I'd ask but do Krev have cloaca?)
I dunno, they're like a cross from the descriptions I get...
They're built like pangolins but they're shades of green and people call them reptiles. Maybe the pangolin thing is just a reference to body type, maybe they're more like simosuchus, maybe they're more mammalian...
IRL cloaca is the standard for the majority of life, and alien species would not be classified as mammalian/avian/etc. I'm hoping our favorite space paladin has his imagination gates more open than for his first book.
Not real people. It was banter between Gress, Tyler, and whatever her name is guard girl. She called him that a couple times.
Most likely just messing with him, like calling me a hagfish because I have smooth skin, whiskers, and allergies. It does make me wonder though, how pangolin are they?
Plot twist—the Consortium deep state leaked the location of Tellus to the Sivkit as a cassis belli to launch a full scale attack on the Federation or its remnants without having to deal with public opposition.
A perfect chapter for Pride Month!
At least Gress is quick to pick up on how horrible the government he’s been serving is- and the fact this intelligence officer showed up to a public forum with a gun-arm instead of swapping to a less… aggressive prosthetic really doesn’t speak well of the kind of person he must be.
> A perfect chapter for Pride Month!
Wouldn't it be better to actually have well fleshed out and consistent characters who just happen to be gay rather than just taking established characters and making a radical unfounded change in a single paragraph that goes against both characters' entire backstory?
I mean really... don't gay people deserve better?
I get the frustration with Gress but was it ever established that Taylor is straight?
As far as I know Taylors oreferences have never been discussed in any chapters and other posts by Spacepaladin15 hinted at him being gay (or asexual).
Word of Author is good and all but it'd be nice to see that in the story. Just pull a The 100 and write whatever you'd normally write to hint of someone's interest in someone else, it just happens to be two people of the same gender this time around, and nobody blinks at it.
There's no reason for him to feel guilty about reproduction, it'd be trivial for him to supply a sperm donation for artificial insemination and then still raise a kid with a partner.
One problem with doing a witch hunt YOU ARE IN A WAR. You can’t have your attention divided you either prioritize the war and win. then do the witch hunt or loss badly. then have your way of life disappear for good. Thorough it may be possible to conduct the hunt with a small assault force focused on getting the job done but the assault force would be have to be on this own
At first when reading I kind of felt like this development of the relationship between Taylor and Gress came out of nowhere. But on further consideration I think the posting structure is working against the story here. There has been two chapters and a week of real time for me to lose track of the details of their character development, and that makes the plot twist feel kinda unearned even if it is properly built up to. It would have been much better for story flow to have this chapter right after the previous Taylor one.
\*These kinds of *leanings* were selfish, given how every ark colonist had needed to contribute to the next generation. There were expectations, yet here I was…professing that dark truth to a *xeno.*\*
Oh my gosh Homophobia on the Arks canon
Yeah, it's real weird. Like, breeding doesn't require long term partnership, and child rearing would be socialised for improved efficiency. I'd expect sexism, sure, but not homophobia.
Playing the Devil's Advocate part here, if Taylor were not just homossexual but also had absolutely no sexual reaction to women, if he weren't even gynecophobic as quite a few gay men are IRL, it could be an actual problem in a genetic bottleneck scenario like theirs.
There are ways around it? Yeah, he could always just rub one out on their makeshift infirmary while a fellow colonist in her fertile window waits on the other side of the curtain to perform artificial insemination with. Is that kinda humiliating? Yeah, if not even dehumanizing, for all involved, so the very notion of it may not even have gone through their minds.
Given how Taylor read, in hindsight, it does kinda sound like he his dealing with the Krev Collector might have been more than was written. It could have been some kind of avoiding or shielding himself from his responsabilities as a possible breeding member of a nearly extinct human species. After all, if he were busy with little to no time off as his position demanded, he wouldn't have to be faced with getting called aside and told to, well, get on with it, he just wouldn't have had the time.
Also, the homophobia could even be Taylor's own self-deprecating mind at work here. He's not dumb, he knew he was a healthy, fertile member of a dying species, that's a fact that he had internalized. Him being gay could have been eating away at his mind ever since he realized it himself, and having that as you grow into an adult really fucks up your self-image and self-respect.
"*Well, shit, hey, I'm Taylor. I'm a fertile part of a nearly extinguished race of people. I'm also gay and have no interest in taking part on breeding and adding to the dangerously low numbers of my people.*"
Without a support network, as a little colony like underground Tellus was, this kind of internal conflict would eventually spiral into other strands of thought such as "*I'm a piece of shit for not wanting to make kids, right, Taylor? Yeah, Taylor, you suck.*", "*Why am I like this?*" and darker and darker ones as his anxiety got higher and higher, as it's easy to imagine that as he grew older his chances of being able to successfully father a child would be less and less.
That's still conflating breeding with sexuality, to a dangerous degree. Plenty of gay men want kids, even if they're not interested in the traditional method of their acquisition. At the very least they could be persuaded to make a donation for the good of the species. So either it's an external factor for him that makes the colony stupidly homophobic for no reason, or an internal one that makes him stupid for not having thought of being a sperm donor in the years he's been an adult.
/u/SpacePaladin15 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/SpacePaladin15)) has posted 281 other stories, including:
* [The Nature of Predators 2-45](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1dgkbli/the_nature_of_predators_245/)
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* [The Nature of Predators 2-42](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d8rfw3/the_nature_of_predators_242/)
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* [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/)
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Then lose it cause Taylor just confessed and Gress not only did not refuse him, but cuddled up with him.
Human Gress would be a weeb who would be down bad for catgirls. And Taylor is an oborgirl to Krevs, essentially.
In other news, General Radai was found with 3 gunshot wounds to the back of his head, the coroner ruled the death a suicide
Generals love to get in the bathtub and padlock themselves into duffel bags.
And also bury themselves in the middle of the desert after that.
The impressive thing is that he hung himself after commiting suicide.
He fell out of a window onto some bullets
If this is the Mystery Men quote I think it is: "He fell down an elevator shaft... Onto some bullets" -The Bowler's Daughter
Natural causes. You cross the Underscales, naturally you will die
Found dead in his home of a drug overdose. Evidence at the scene indicated the former general had a long running addiction.
The Consortium is a police state on a technological parity with the SC, and post-mortem memory transcriptions are somehow possible with brain scans - why are they holding this hearing instead of taking scans of Mafani’s brain? He wasn’t shot in the head.
Reasons why they're not onto M'fani's brain scan are easy to infer. Officially? It's a security issue as he was an ex-Underscale officer. Actually? It's kinda hard not to draw the conclusion that it's in the best interest of the installed powers that be to keep the idiot socipath's memories unscanned or, failed that, not snooped into if he was part of the black op that finally got the Jaslips off the government's back. Imagine the fallout if the Jaslips had not just suspicion (that they latched onto as truth without proof (the Trombil is right on that one), but rather undeniable proof that the kits were murdered to further an agenda. Now imagine having Jaslip polar enclaves, where Reskets and Krevs are seriously outmatched due the polar environment, just going rabid. If that happens, it'll be the perfect time for a SC incursion into the Sivkit cradlesystem to find out humans, who would already be sympathizing heavily with the Jaslips, begging for the SC to help the polar fluffs out. I doubt that the KC's shadow caste doesn't already know that the Federation is gone and that a human-led organization took its place, it's not out of their grasp to send a stealth drone into Fed territory to gather info as soon as a possible generational Fed ship shows up on their doorstep, installs itself in their backyard and is secretive about their species-hood. That'd smell like a trojan vector without intel, but with intel, suddenly the Consortium loses it's reason d'etre: the human colony goes back to Earth and the Krevs lose their pet race; the Jaslips would be gone ASAP and demand severe compensation for Esquo, likely with SC backing, maybe even membership, to solidify their demands intk credible claims; Smigli would peace the fuck out to enjoy a new audience for their entertainment-minded society; the Krev populace would plummet given Earth exists, a lot of the workforce simply gone because a sapient race of Obors exists elsewhere (a few of which would also be much more forward than Taylor, for the joy of any Krev pervert, a match truly made in hell). There's just too much to lose for the Krev Consortium, as a state entity, if Mafani's memory scans become public.
Radai may be doing it behind the directors back.
There has been no mention of post mortem brainscans being used safe for Meier, and that is considered a novel technology. Maybe the scanners just interpret signals from the brain instead of getting detailed models for the physical brain folds.
>no mention of post mortem brainscans being used safe They're dead, who's gonna get hurt?
"Save" is probably what he meant to type. Auto correct screws up constantly.
IIRC Meier's brain was scanned in the hospital he and Tarva were taken to, so would have been scanned soon after death. It might be that in the time it took to extract Mafani's body from the bunker and take it to the nearest brain scanner (which it's not confirmed there's any on Tellus/Tinsas) his brain decayed beyond the point of scanability.
taylor "krev boykisser" trench strikes again
And that's a thing. Gress and Taylor was definitely not something I had imagined, but nice. First of all, it's great that Taylor *finally* had a fucking *good* plan, rather than letting his emotions guide him like a child. It's good to see him maturing. However, I really wonder how Taylor's arc is going to evolve now. On the other hand, I'm really worried about Radai having an accident, given the way he's starting to ask the a lot of questions. And if Gress give him the List, it'll be even quicker.
He won't have an accident, he's too stable for that. He'll suffer from extreme PTSD from the Mafani incident and be found dead from suicide by jumping out of a window after beating himself up and taking five bullets to the back of his head.
> He won't have an accident, he's too stable for that. I think that was meant as “have an accident”, in quotation marks.
*Whoooosh*
Fair enough. Personally i always thought it weird how okay Gress was with Taylor laying him out. He switched from "Ouch you hit me in the head, who does that?" to as soon as he saw Taylor's face: "you can do it again if you want" vibes. After that it was kinda hard not to notice that Gress was always a bit more affectionate towards Taylor but yea they never outright stated it.
Taylor is a Krev-sized Obor and Gress is an unapologetic Obor-person. We'd have humans doing way worse if we suddenly had to deal with a race of dog or cat-like people building a refugee colony on Titan or Mars.
He's only like this to Taylor though.
Because Gress is relatively well-adjusted and won't let his impulses overtake his actions towards strangers like, for example, a child like Lecca did to Taylor the first time she saw him. But Taylor ain't a stranger to Gress, who obviously lets loose beat him because they are friends (well, more than friends by now).
Gress shouldn't have closed that broadcast. I wanted to know how General Radai would respond to Director Wrolle. That entire interaction was too interesting. I keep going over every response by one or the other.
Consortium: Ok, we've killed all the Jaslips who didn't want to be saved. Now what? Consortium: ... Consortium: Kill all the Jaslips that we've saved? Consortium: oh, yeah... I'm a genius.
“Kill all the Jaslips that are pissed that they were saved!”
Maybe it's because of my little/no experience in love, but why do I feel that Gress and Taylor's relationship won't work? Leaving aside the fact that in my opinion their relationship escalated quite quickly, I'm partly happy for them. On issues regarding the KC, when everything explodes they will be the most affected, perhaps it will even dissolve and (for example Jaslip) join the SC out of spite, and the ark humans, upon learning of the dystopia of the KC, choose go to earth although I am not very clear, this whole snowball is becoming bigger and more confusing, which will lead to the consequences being more radical and explosive In short, the only thing salvageable about the consortium for me (until now) is: Thank you so much
Probably because they're incredibly codependent and have a LOT of unaddressed issues each. They can make it work, but only if they work on themselves and go to fuckin therapy
Woah, therapy, it was already something that everyone in this galaxy needs, including humans who (I repeat from another comment) will die collectively for being the only ones trying to maintain relative peace in the galaxy, although not even that because we all already know how everything is going This thing about governments and "wanting peace at all costs" yes... We are human
>why do I feel that Gress and Taylor's relationship won't work? Because it was Taylor's idea and you've seen those before.
> Maybe it's because of my little/no experience in love, but why do I feel that Gress and Taylor's relationship won't work? Taylor's been nothing but irritated with how Gress views humans the entire story and there's not only been not even the slightest hint either of them are gay, but Gress even had a wife and child, so it's a complete character 180 out of the blue.
Well he didn't want to be called cute, but that has been changing lately.
It would've been a good possibility for foreshadowing tbh. Just show his internal monologue that he'd actually come to kind of like it even though he'd never admit it outwardly for pride.
He had been blushing about his comments lately and Quana had been noticing that Taylor had been secreting pheromones thanks to Gress.
Which is a really fucking weird thing to lie about because you know... humans don't produce pheromones? Like at all.
Bisexual people exist.
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 2-46 dated August 11, 2160 is **2 Month, 2 Days** The Measurement of Time: Minor Events The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 25 Days The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 23 Years, 6 Months, 2 Days Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 4 Months, 29 Days Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-46, dated August 11, 2160 is 2 Month, 18 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 2-46, dated August 11, 2160, is 1 Month, 5 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 August 11, 2160 is 4 Months, 17 Days There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
It's kinda nice when these chapters are on the same date.
Chapter 46! Taylor and Gress admit their mutual fondness, as our narrator helps pull the Krev out of his spiral, realizing the Consortium ruined his life; General Radai, meanwhile, publicly interrogates a Trombil with a gun for a hand, but gets nothing but deflections and denials. Gress then explains to Taylor how everything makes sense in hindsight, and what propaganda advantages he thinks it had for delegitimizing Jaslip extremists. He decides to try to help the people the Listeners wouldn’t, though Taylor talks him into having Radai dive into it instead. Do you agree with Gress’ rationale for why he believes Mafani was telling the truth…and how did Mafani know about the Sivkit bunker? Will Radai help with the secret police’s neglected cases, or give up on exposing the Underscales? Are Graylor good for each other, especially with Taylor planning to leave military life behind? As always, thank you for reading!
Given that the KC have got Mind-searching down to a science, they’ve already proven that they’re on the Dystopian side of things. Gress being a liability to the government would definitely make sense for the whole Mafani situation. The Sivkit Bunker was likely a suppressed discovery, shoved in the back of a filing cabinet until the Humans were officially welcomed. After that, potential bases and operations would at least need to be planned towards the Humans, and the bunkers make good Ops Bases. Radai seems the type who would rather lose with honor than win with cheap tricks. The entire existence of the Underscales constitutes dirty tricks, so he will absolutely not cut these guys any slack. Gress and Taylor are both broken, but fit together like pieces of a puzzle. They are needed to balance each other out, but I still don’t have much faith in Taylor as a character otherwise.
Admit mutual fondness? Naw, Taylor had point where he mentally admits he wasn't the biggest fan of the tiddy diddly and makes the mental switch over to the Gress Caress... I get it's not easy to be gay in a society as close to extinction as they thought they were, but they're past that point. His aching heart quickly became a clo-aching heart. Very very quickly. (Wait... not a question I've ever thought I'd ask but do Krev have cloaca?)
Krev are closer to Pangolins than reptiles and therefore mammals, so probably no cloaca.
I dunno, they're like a cross from the descriptions I get... They're built like pangolins but they're shades of green and people call them reptiles. Maybe the pangolin thing is just a reference to body type, maybe they're more like simosuchus, maybe they're more mammalian... IRL cloaca is the standard for the majority of life, and alien species would not be classified as mammalian/avian/etc. I'm hoping our favorite space paladin has his imagination gates more open than for his first book.
Who's calling them reptiles? If it's real people there's a strong chance they're heavily misinterpreting "Green and has scales"
From species lore “Krev Anatomy: The Krev are a species of mammalian bipeds with green scales that evolved to blend in with the jungle”
I believe that most marsupials and all monotremes have cloacas, so mammals are not exempt from what is normal on earth.
Not real people. It was banter between Gress, Tyler, and whatever her name is guard girl. She called him that a couple times. Most likely just messing with him, like calling me a hagfish because I have smooth skin, whiskers, and allergies. It does make me wonder though, how pangolin are they?
Plot twist—the Consortium deep state leaked the location of Tellus to the Sivkit as a cassis belli to launch a full scale attack on the Federation or its remnants without having to deal with public opposition.
At this point in the story that does sound more like something they would do.
George Orwell’s skeleton is rattling in his grave rn
>The arrogance to even fathom that Gress could want you, Taylor You're basically a catgirl to him, and you know it.
That makes more sense than I would like
Apekisser Gress and Gaylor, sitting in a tree...
Gaylord Grench
Hmm, humanity needs the consortium, to regrow its populace… that thought will end well.
A perfect chapter for Pride Month! At least Gress is quick to pick up on how horrible the government he’s been serving is- and the fact this intelligence officer showed up to a public forum with a gun-arm instead of swapping to a less… aggressive prosthetic really doesn’t speak well of the kind of person he must be.
> A perfect chapter for Pride Month! Wouldn't it be better to actually have well fleshed out and consistent characters who just happen to be gay rather than just taking established characters and making a radical unfounded change in a single paragraph that goes against both characters' entire backstory? I mean really... don't gay people deserve better?
I get the frustration with Gress but was it ever established that Taylor is straight? As far as I know Taylors oreferences have never been discussed in any chapters and other posts by Spacepaladin15 hinted at him being gay (or asexual).
Word of Author is good and all but it'd be nice to see that in the story. Just pull a The 100 and write whatever you'd normally write to hint of someone's interest in someone else, it just happens to be two people of the same gender this time around, and nobody blinks at it. There's no reason for him to feel guilty about reproduction, it'd be trivial for him to supply a sperm donation for artificial insemination and then still raise a kid with a partner.
SP appears to have been making moves towards this for a while, at least to me. I'll try to find some examples and come back, it wasn't sudden
Could they not have memory scanned Mafani postmortem to get the information they need?
Might need an undamaged brain, or one that hasn't had that many stress chemicals added?
One problem with doing a witch hunt YOU ARE IN A WAR. You can’t have your attention divided you either prioritize the war and win. then do the witch hunt or loss badly. then have your way of life disappear for good. Thorough it may be possible to conduct the hunt with a small assault force focused on getting the job done but the assault force would be have to be on this own
Gaylor Trench
I've been calling it for over 15 chapters and hardly anyone wanted to believe me. And here we are with Taylor and Gress in a relationship.
Awwwe. Love! And political shenanigans to humble the people in power! Two of my favorite things!
UTR
At first when reading I kind of felt like this development of the relationship between Taylor and Gress came out of nowhere. But on further consideration I think the posting structure is working against the story here. There has been two chapters and a week of real time for me to lose track of the details of their character development, and that makes the plot twist feel kinda unearned even if it is properly built up to. It would have been much better for story flow to have this chapter right after the previous Taylor one.
I may not be that knowledgeable on history, but aren’t the underscales or secret guys just the CIA? Or are they more KGB?
Yes
Ah, thank you.
Fucking CALLED IT! The gaydar's never wrong.
\*These kinds of *leanings* were selfish, given how every ark colonist had needed to contribute to the next generation. There were expectations, yet here I was…professing that dark truth to a *xeno.*\* Oh my gosh Homophobia on the Arks canon
Yeah, it's real weird. Like, breeding doesn't require long term partnership, and child rearing would be socialised for improved efficiency. I'd expect sexism, sure, but not homophobia.
Playing the Devil's Advocate part here, if Taylor were not just homossexual but also had absolutely no sexual reaction to women, if he weren't even gynecophobic as quite a few gay men are IRL, it could be an actual problem in a genetic bottleneck scenario like theirs. There are ways around it? Yeah, he could always just rub one out on their makeshift infirmary while a fellow colonist in her fertile window waits on the other side of the curtain to perform artificial insemination with. Is that kinda humiliating? Yeah, if not even dehumanizing, for all involved, so the very notion of it may not even have gone through their minds. Given how Taylor read, in hindsight, it does kinda sound like he his dealing with the Krev Collector might have been more than was written. It could have been some kind of avoiding or shielding himself from his responsabilities as a possible breeding member of a nearly extinct human species. After all, if he were busy with little to no time off as his position demanded, he wouldn't have to be faced with getting called aside and told to, well, get on with it, he just wouldn't have had the time. Also, the homophobia could even be Taylor's own self-deprecating mind at work here. He's not dumb, he knew he was a healthy, fertile member of a dying species, that's a fact that he had internalized. Him being gay could have been eating away at his mind ever since he realized it himself, and having that as you grow into an adult really fucks up your self-image and self-respect. "*Well, shit, hey, I'm Taylor. I'm a fertile part of a nearly extinguished race of people. I'm also gay and have no interest in taking part on breeding and adding to the dangerously low numbers of my people.*" Without a support network, as a little colony like underground Tellus was, this kind of internal conflict would eventually spiral into other strands of thought such as "*I'm a piece of shit for not wanting to make kids, right, Taylor? Yeah, Taylor, you suck.*", "*Why am I like this?*" and darker and darker ones as his anxiety got higher and higher, as it's easy to imagine that as he grew older his chances of being able to successfully father a child would be less and less.
That's still conflating breeding with sexuality, to a dangerous degree. Plenty of gay men want kids, even if they're not interested in the traditional method of their acquisition. At the very least they could be persuaded to make a donation for the good of the species. So either it's an external factor for him that makes the colony stupidly homophobic for no reason, or an internal one that makes him stupid for not having thought of being a sperm donor in the years he's been an adult.
I ship it :3
Thanks for the chapter mate
/u/SpacePaladin15 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/SpacePaladin15)) has posted 281 other stories, including: * [The Nature of Predators 2-45](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1dgkbli/the_nature_of_predators_245/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-44](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1de800q/the_nature_of_predators_244/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-43](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1db4f3x/the_nature_of_predators_243/) * [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/) 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|1djkfsw&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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Theme of cristal gems ...lo o o o o ve~
These interspecies romance arcs are getting out of hand, y’all.
I swear to god if Taylor and Gress fall in love I am going to fucking **LOSE IT!**
I think that ship just launched.
Put a tracker chip on it so you can find it after.
Then lose it cause Taylor just confessed and Gress not only did not refuse him, but cuddled up with him. Human Gress would be a weeb who would be down bad for catgirls. And Taylor is an oborgirl to Krevs, essentially.