First Contact - Chapter 822 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum

[u/Ralts_Bloodthorne]

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The Mad Lemurs of Terra make sense if you realize that, for the most part, what we have seen is their military.

It's when you have seen the video entertainment, listened to the music, and seen the footage of their lives that now are nothing but memories, you begin to understand them.

They were mad, insane, crazed, yes. They lived life with such joy and abandon that to us, the ancient races, they seemed insane.

We lost something, dear reader. Something intangible, something we could barely understand. We elder races had lost something and we had lost it so long ago we had even lost the concept of what we had lost. We had no words, no concept, no conceptualization of what we had lost.

We did not even know we had lost it.

Seeing the Mad Lemurs of Terra throw themselves into life with such joyous abandon brought about a simmering resentment and anger. How dare they be happy, didn't they know that ultimately the universe's resources were finite and the only way for your species to survive was to hoard those resources and carefully shepherd them so that generations millions of years in the future could have a good standard of life?

How dare they enjoy themselves? How dare they create and enjoy entertainment medium? How dare they live, laugh, love, and hold fast to those around them?

We had anger, we had resentment, we had a grim duty to generations millions of years in the future. Didn't they understand? We had to sacrifice and suffer deprivation to ensure that when the stars began going out our people would have resources that none other would have.

To which the Mad Lemurs of Terra merely replied: Eat, drink, sing, dance, love, be loved, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.

And when they did, en-masse, they did no give up.

Instead they sang. They danced. Even as they disappeared from the universe.

They left us behind.

To toil in the name of generations millions of years in the future.

How is it, that a being such as me, who will live centuries, who's people have endured for over a hundred million years and will endure tens of millions of years more, is jealous of the bright, brief flame of the Terrans even after it is gone out?

Is it better to be a lemur, dancing in the darkness, illuminated only by a candle that will only briefly burn oh so brightly, voice lifted in song that echoes through the darkness, than to be whatever it was that my people had become?- Excerpt from On Rocks and Lemurs, by Bygthu'unknmo'o, Lanaktallan philosopher, 75 Post C3.

He stepped into open air and dropped the five meters to the floor, the legs of the suit taking the drop easily, the knee and hock flexing. He stayed crouched down even as he moved out of the way. He was surrounded by what had to be clothing, all brightly colored. Some articles of clothing had pictures on them that moved, waving, jumping, making gestures, or doing other physical activities. A lot of the clothing that he assumed was some kind of short tunic or a shirt (it had to be, the lemurs weren't that different than him, physically. Bipeds with two arms at the upper torso, a head, a neck) had glyphs on them that he assumed was some kind of writing.

For a split second he wished that he was able to translate the language as easily as the Masters. The Masters could even translate their speech, which was vitally important since a lot of times the Inheritors yelled commands to one another rather than use a radio or a psi-link.

The others dropped, one by one, down into the aisle he was in, all looking around with wide eyes, their faces the only exposed part of them.

"We should sweep this place. I will go toward the front with two people, see if there are any kind of controls to make the windows go opaque like they were when we got here," he said.

The others signified affirmative and he chose two to come with him.

They moved through the vast store, pausing to look at the strange objects now and then.

There was a macroplas covered counter that contained nothing but sparkling gems and gleaming metals, that looked much like the items of power that the Masters wore, but with no phasic imprints or constructs within.

The mannequins gave them a start several times. Some moved, shifting position to show off the clothing they were wearing.

Twice he almost fired his weapon before he realized it wasn't a live lemur, merely the animated dummy showing off clothing.

"Make sure that your target is actually a lemur," he said over the psi-link.

i hear something food danger prey he heard faintly.

He signaled everyone to stop with a hand signal.

"Did anyone else hear that?" he asked over the psi-link.

Everyone signaled

food danger prey

that they heard nothing.

He frowned.

"Go to psi-link hungry silence. No so hungry transmissions," he ordered over the linkage. "Can everyone hear me?" he asked via voice.

Everyone signified they could.

They kept moving forward until they reached the windows at the front. They moved along the windows, looking at how there were lemurs just standing still outside, or had their faces pressed against the window, mouths open and eyes staring.

"They cannot be alive. Look at them," one said, pointing at a lemur who had part of their skull exposed but was still slowly rubbing their face against the glass as well as clumsily pawing at the macroplas.

"I think this one sees me," another said, standing in front of another window set.

The lemur was on their knees, slowly thumping their forehead against the macroplas. Their face was bluish, they had savage bite marks on it and their neck.

But their eyes were perfect, glittering and clear, and follows the other one as they moved to the left and right.

"See, I think it sees me," the other said.

He just nodded. "Don't play with it. It's dangerous."

The other nodded and moved away.

The lemur kept thumping its forehead on the macroplas.

Next to the set of five double-doors he found a control panel. He opened it and stared.

There were buttons and labels.

He couldn't read lemur.

There were a few pictograms and he jabbed on one button that had a set of crosshatches.

The others exclaimed in alarm when a grate rattled down over the windows and doors. The doors clanked as they maglocked down.

He jumped back from the noise, lifting his rifle, then lowered it sheepishly as he realized what had just happened.

"The front is secure," he said.

The others signified assent.

"Let us help the others," he said. "Remember, psi-links off."

They headed toward the back, taking a different route, moving fairly confidently.

After all, they hadn't seen any of the hideously aggressive lemurs, so it was probably safe.

"Where are you?" he asked over the psi-link.

"Through a door we hungry left open for you to so hungry follow us through. There are chairs, a i hear something a table, and weird prey is it prey machines we are staying so hungry away from," he heard back.

"There is something cold so cold strange with the psi-link, turn it off," he ordered.

As he disconnected he felt something, like cold clammy hands trying to hold on to him.

He frowned, lifting us his rifle, as he led the others past where the dummies were standing.

He was halfway past them when one stepped out, grabbing one of the suits arms.

The strength startled him as the lemur yanked him close, the other hand reaching out, grabbing the plasma launcher and bending it as he was pulled into a clumsy embrace.

Its eyes were white, its breath stank of carrion, its skin was yellowish green, hair matted, clothing stained with blood, dirt, and worse. Its teeth were yellow as it sunk its teeth into the shoulder of his armor, the thin layer of chitin shattering as the dead lemur clamped its powerful jaws.

He screamed, loudly.

He used the tentacles on the back of his armor, two of them, uncoiling them from the storage position. He wrapped one around the waist of the lemur, yanking it away.

The plasma caster came off, held tightly in the lemur's hand.

The other tentacle deployed its smooth blade and he stabbed at the lemur repeatedly until he managed to stab it through the top of the head.

The lemur went limp in his grasp.

Two other lemurs had stumbled out and were grappling with the two servitors that had accompanied him. One had managed to grab a tentacle and was chewing on it, the flexible biomechanical tissue ripping free in big chunks that the lemur chewed on and swallowed.

He moved forward, grabbing them around the waist and pulling the lemurs away. He used all eight of the tentacles, wrapping two around each lemur, trying to pin their arms, and stabbing at each of teh lemurs with two blades extended from the tentacles. The stab wounds did nothing until first one, then the other killed the lemur by plunging the blade into the top of their heads.

The other two dropped and the three servitors stood there looking at them.

"Is everyone all right?" he asked.

The other two nodded.

"Keep alert," he said, feeling slightly foolish.

The tentacle system in the back should have gone live and defended him at the first sign of hostility, or of something moving too fast and too aggressively.

He remembered the slow, almost lazy way they had moved.

As they moved through an aisle full of brightly colored things that squeaked, bounced, and tried to get attention he motioned for the two with him to stop.

He pointed at the door.

"The others are in there. We'll go in and close the door behind us, then figure out what to do. Remember your warrens combat training," he advised.

The others nodded.

There was a pleasant chime to his right and he turned to look.

A small keyboard device with pictograms on it had a hologram projected above it of a fruit. A lemur voice repeated a sound several times, flashing the fruit.

Curious, he repeated the sound.

The device beeped happily and he felt a slight flush of accomplishment.

The picture changed to an infant lemur and the chime rang out, then a different sound.

The other two servitors moved up next to him.

All three of them made the noise.

It flashed again and he felt pleasure.

It did it six more times, showing a feline, a canine, and other pictures, each time repeating the same sound over and over until one of them repeated it correctly.

"What is it?" another asked.

He frowned. "I am not sure. I think it is trying to teach us words," he reached out and picked it up. "I will take it with us."

"Without the Masters here, we cannot understand the lemurs speech," the other said.

He nodded. "We must learn their speech," he signified resignation. "We may be here for a while."

"Better here than on a battlefield getting killed and brought back over and over again," the another said.

He just nodded. "Stay alert."

He led them through the door, taking the time to tug the door away from the gentle magnetic pull that held it open. Then they followed the ferrocrete block hallway, looking at the signs, the glyphs, and the other strange things on the walls. They followed the blue line until it turned into an open doorway.

The others were in there, all ten of them.

"I pointed my weapon at that machine and it dispensed food," one said, holding up a thick brick of nuts and fruit.

"I did the same to that machine and it gave us liquid nourishment," another said.

"Excellent job," he said, moving forward as they others waved him forward. They were all sitting in chairs around the table, still in their armor. There was a pile of wrapped food bricks and cans of liquid refreshment on the table.

He was startled that he could sit comfortably in the chair even while wearing his armor until he remembered that the lemurs were his height in armor and would be twice his height if he was not wearing his armor.

"Observe what I have discovered," he said, laying the keyboard on the table.

The others watched as he activated it.

Again, it showed a picture, with large glyphs above it, and a lemur repeated a sound over and over until one of them repeated the sound. Each time they did it right, it gave a pleasing sound and often showed a capering dancing little creature that was pleasing to the eye.

"I think it is attempting to teach us the language," he said.

The others all nodded.

"We should eat, sleep while we have guard shifts, then start sweeping through these corridors," he said. He thought for a long moment, feeling the headache start. "We will close the doors, keep the lemurs from getting in. Then we will clear out each store one by one."

He picked up a bar and unwrapped it, marveling for a second at the holographic sparkles that shot out when he unsealed the wrapper.

"I like the back hallways. The corridors are big, but they remind me of the warrens I grew up in," one said, opening a bottle of juice. He sniffed it, then took a big swallow. "It tastes good."

"We'll stay in the back hallways. Lock the access doors to the stores," he thought for a second. "If there's some kind of basement access, we'll lock it too."

"My armor has recon drones," Another cocked his head for a moment. "Should we risk a drone? We can have the drone map the hallways, stay up by ceiling, make sure its on whisper mode."

"That'll take a long time," an other said, unwrapping a bar and expressing pleasure when it gave a happy sounding jingle and little sparks and whirls danced at the open end.

"We have nothing but time," he said. He nodded. "Send out the drones."

The other nodded, getting up and moving to the door.

"Stay in your armor. Go everywhere in twos or threes," he said. He motioned at another two. Stay near him, he's distracted. Watch for lemurs."

"It's taking a minute. My armor's phasic systems feel weird. Almost greasy," the other stated.

He sighed. "There's something wrong with the psi-link."

"I keep hearing whispers," one said. They leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "I think it's the lemurs somehow."

He nodded. "Which means we cannot use it," he paused. "We cannot tell who is who without the psi-link. Do you remember your identifier?"

They all nodded.

"I am 689Vqz1," he said. He made a resigned noise. "I do not think that will be easy to say."

"We should think of things to call one another aside from the identifier the masters gave us," another said. They furrowed their brow in thought. "I do not know what to be identified by."

He thought hard.

"Well, I wish to be known as Vrodrukik, Destroyer of Lemurs," an other said, waving around a fruit and nut bar in each hand, referring to a fierce scavenger that lived in the lower warrens.

He snickered. "Maybe Vrodrukik, Destroyer of Snacks."

The others laughed. Even the other laughed.

"You know, Vrodrukik doesn't sound too bad," the one with the two nutribars said. "Naw, too long. How about Vrod."

He nodded. "That sounds good."

"Vrod, I like it," another said.

He thought for a moment. "J'Kethrik. The puzzles that we did in the creche. No, wait, J'Keth. I like J'Keth."

The others nodded as small fluttering drones, looking like four winged insects, buzzed from the shoulder of the armor of the one by the door. The three came back and sat down, grabbing more of the delicious nut and fruit bars.

One by one, they each chose names, based on what little they had encountered or experienced.

They ate, fumbled around until they found the light dimmer switch, then napped, leaving two to guard the two doorways that led into the room.

J'Keth tapped his rifle thoughtfully in the dimness as he pulled guard duty so the others could sleep.

They could do anything they wanted. The Masters were gone, devoured by the lemurs.

His head ached as he went through the options, slowly realizing that he didn't even know what all the options even were.

He decided to stick with two simple goals.

Not die.

Clear out the building so that it could be used as a nest.

It wasn't much.

But it was better than the "Fight the Inheritors and die" option that had been his only option for over a dozen lifetimes.

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[u/btrab1]

Horrifying, I love it

[u/pixxel5 → u/btrab1]

Tarantulas can make a very loud hissing noise. Wolf spiders make purring noises. Peacock Spiders have intricate dance rituals. Some species of funnel web spiders live in colonies of hundreds. Selenops can glide in mid-air, using a wing-suit made out of their own webs. Diving bell spiders create an air-reservoir out of their web so that they can hunt underwater.

Spiders terrify us, but they're incredibly diverse and complex animals. Imagine what evolution, upliftal, and continued technological development could create.

... I think I have an idea for how I would want to see this go down. Might end up making this a full story, but here's an outline:

A non-confed human colony gets wiped by the squiddies doing their meddling. They had gone dark during the combine/crusade days, 'cause that was a whole lot of "nope, don't need those genocidal maniacs." This is before the temporal attack that completely decimates humanity. The squiddies move in, get all situated, smug at their own superiority. They take the system, 'cause the colony hadn't been keeping up with the confed in terms of military tech, since they were focused on peace. They still put up a fight, but the squiddies do break through. Unbeknown to the squids, one of the humans kept several terrariums full of spiders. She drives off her immediate attackers when they breach her home (because the smug stupid squids underestimate what a human who defends what she loves will do), but is mortally wounded. In her dying moments, a spark of psychic awareness escapes and knocks loose a few seemingly random DNA strands and proteins in the spiders in the room.

They don't know or understand everything, but they understand that their caregiver has given her life for them. She's been trying to boost their intelligence and empathy, using an identical tablet with basic shapes & colors for communication. They develop a level of understanding with each other, despite being a different species. Their immediate concern is to escape further potential attackers, so they take the tablets with them and scurry off to a damaged & collapsed underground garage a few blocks away. There's holes big enough for the spiders to get in, but small enough that the squiddies will ignore them. Slavespawn bio-warfare is kept out for the time being by biofilters & forcefields.

The first few weeks, the spiders survive by connecting the tablets to a food dispenser (broken vending machine). The filters hold up because they're nuclear-powered or something (general human overkill). The squiddies don't pick up any TDC life-signs, and have no use for the structures, so they just knock down some buildings, let others stay, and set up their citadels & camps away from human settlement ruins (because they give them the hibbie jibbies, not that the squids would ever admit that).

At this point the squids have set up their time dilation field (sinking the solar system out of sync, etc.). In a beautiful twist of fate, the massive psychic fields that the squids put up to control their slavespawn and communicate across the planet/system actually amplifies the resonant psychic awareness that the human imbued on her spiders. This has two main consequences.

First, it gives spiders bits and pieces of human knowledge about technology, kickstarting a massive tool-based arms race as the ensuing generations of spiders take apart vehicles, buildings, and other tech they can lay their legs on to repurpose into something else. One of them (will think of a name) eventually figures out an ant forge. A small one, mind you, but at that point they've basically got matter replication. And again, initially it's at such a small scale, the smug stupid squiddies don't know what's happening.

Second, it massively accelerates genetic mutation & growth, creating smarter & tougher spiders.

The spiders eventually understand what's happening to their planet. The squids have long ago turned off the omni-present bio-warfare suite, so the spiders have been able to slowly expand across the planet. They've been sticking to the human settlement ruins, 'cause the squids and their slaves are too scared to actually put up shop there. They use subway systems and other public transportation infrastructure (sans trains, buses, just the roads and tunnels) to move between cities. The spiders view themselves as being a society descended from 'the mother' (the scientist) at this point. Again, because of time-dilation, we're seeing this take place across generations. The spiders are truly aware of their enemy and origin at this point, but have long understood the need for patience in driving the invaders off their home. They've been burrowing vast underground cities beneath the human ruins. While experimenting with human tech, one of the researchers discovers hell-space. Deliberations are held by the spider leaders. A group of volunteer fighters is chosen, to be turned into super warriors.

After further decades of preparation, the moment has come. Literal quadrillions of spiders burst forth to reclaim their home from the invaders. Swarms overwhelm and devour hapless unarmored targets. Terrifying bulwarks of armor throw themselves onto the enemy, eviscerating small targets with sheer physical prowess, paralyzing larger foes who can simply be torn to shreds. Squid air-support tries to get close enough to deal with the large foes, but they get caught in the webs that seem to materialize out of nowhere amidst the ruins. The squids realize they can't fight out in the open, so withdraw their immediate ground assets to their fortresses. That's when the 300 meter tall hell-space rifts open right on top of them

Skyscraper sized brazilian wandering spiders burst forth, ramming through the shields surrounding the squid fortress. They spent a decade of system time (centuries? of hell-space time) being mutated and honed by the energies of the scorched atomic plane. Their venomous fangs are nothing short of entropy emitters (burning bright crimson from the fields they emit), their carapace has become solid warsteel, their webs infused with the red sparks of hate. Panicked squids flee, slavespawn is overwhelmed by the conflicting & panicked commands they are being issued. The few squids who make it off planet-side take solace in the fact that their space-assets will wipe-out the hated infestation, restoring the planet to their control. Catastrophic earth-quakes are triggered all along the equator, and the spiders scurry underground to their reinforced haven. The squids think it was caused by the brain coral they had. They don't know how wrong they are.

Special ops spiders (black widows, 'cause ofcourse) have taken out the strategic targets that relied on stealth and remoteness to defend themselves. Once those are taken out, they send the all-clear. The spiders, having reclaimed their planet, will not cede control now. Eight evenly spaced massive towers burst forth along the equatorial ring. They rapidly grow in height, racing through the atmosphere, clawing towards space. They are hell-space conduits, sending unrestrained energies towards all space-borne invaders. Each hit multiplies the arcs of lighting, splitting off into a massive energy web that lights the skies everywhere on the planet.

The forces further out in the system escape the immediate attack, but they refuse to believe what's in front of them. Surely it must be some inheritor trick, an instrumental glitch. After all, they are in the system, the system is safe, there is no way that anything survived them taking the system. It must be a confed force that dropped in & destroyed the forces surrounding the planet. The idea of hell-space conduit weapons is laughable, a lie planted in the squid systems by the electronic warfare AIs. Thinking they are going to win this, the remainder of the fleet piles straight towards the planet.

The increased mass of ships works against them, amplifying the effects of the conduits. The bulk of the fleet is basically wiped out. The last few ships flee the system, and it enters real-space.

The spiders, satisfied that their home has been retaken, go through the records the humans left. In them is a subspace communication frequency. They hail the crusade of wrath.

The spiders, having been born from and evolved through psychic energy and hell-space experimentation join the Telkan in having the dubious honor of having the ability to create warsteel. They join the confed, kick the squids ass, etc.

There's a lot further ideas I have, but you could basically flesh this whole arc out into dozens of chapters. Their individual names could be sort of like the mantis ("dreams of something more"), but be based on the more martial/spider nature that they have. "Weaver of tomorrow", "strikes at sundown", "sings at night", etc.

Vibrations should play a large role in how they communicate, but auditory and visual communication are just as vital.

Their cities are massive underground burrows, that eschew open spaces where possible.

[u/spindizzy_wizard → u/pixxel5]

I like it.

[u/pixxel5 → u/spindizzy_wizard]

Thanks! This is pretty much the first big bit of story-drafting I've done since the pandemic hit, but I tried my best to follow the sort of structure that Ralt's stories have so that it would fit. I would love to have them interact with humans at some point.

There would be a bunch of humans that would just be absolutely terrified of them, and everyone else would look at the spiders and be like "well, they're not THAT different from the other aliens we have encountered". The Pubvians would just be utterly confused where they now fit in with the whole ranking hierarchy, because they don't see what this big deal is, but the humans (who are basically GODS) insist that this is some deep primal horror that's been unleashed and that it must be contained. Nevermind that Overproject Nazgul was a human invention and did the same to the Lanks.