History Literature / TheNatureOfPredators

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler:The plan by the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Northern Bloc]] as the Federation was uplifting the Arxur was originally to reverse-engineer the viral agent used for the aforementioned gene modification into a bioweapon that would kill all livestock on the planet but theirs. Instead, it killed all the livestock on the planet, period]].

* InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler:Noah become Tarva's]] lover in the aftermah of the [[spoiler:terrorist plot arc]].

* {{Foil}}: Captain Sovlin and Captain Kalsim are both antagonists who seek to KillAllHumans, however their similarities end there. Indeed, Sovlin is shown to act irrationally, being fully blinded by his hatred of predators to the point he becomes incapable of recognizing feelings in Marcel; he ends up [[VillainousBSOD breaking down entirely when he realizes that humans aren't unfeeling monsters]]. Kalsim, meanwhile, is a rational actor: his justification for genocide isn't hate, but rather cold-blooded pragmatism; [[KnightTemplar he is also utterly convinced that he is doing the right thing]].

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: [[spoiler:At first glance,]] the Galactic Federation is the good guys against the much worse Arxur Dominion, [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope however]] the Federation committed countless atrocities in the past, continnues to commit many more, and are openly genocidal towards humans. Worse, the Arxur Dominion was actually the victim in an attempt by the Federation to forcibly erase their culture, igniting the Arxur-Federation war.]]

* TheSoCalledCoward: Venlils are often dismissed as cowardly by the rest of the Federation, however many of them prove a lot braver than other races would think. As such, they are willing to see past their prejudice towards predators despite being initially terrified of humans, defy the rest of the Federation to protect them, or even join strength with the Humans against the extermination armada, despite knowing that the fight is virtually hopeless.

* TranslatorMicrobes: The Federation has developed a mean of instant translation, which seems to be capable to bridge any language barriers between sapients; however its nature is never elaborated upon within the story.
** WordOfGod [[https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/the_nature_of_predators/ is]] that the translators are implant based and opt for semantic rather than literal translation, thereby minimizing the risk of a point not being understood. it is also noted that the translators have a language database that is compiled using machine learning algorithms to decipher languages, hence why the aliens can speak English.

* GenericFederationNamedEmpire: the Federation isn't ever given a name, while the Arxur group is referred to by their own members as "the Arxur Dominion"

** the Arxur certainly have a flair for the dramatic, as whenever they show up in force they bring enough ships that the Federation is always forced to retreat. Perhaps the first time that they ''actually'' show up with a significant force for them, the observers are [[StunnedSilence shocked into silence]] by the sheer numbers.
** the Federation ships, as noted by Kalsim, have a distinct uniformity and are all similar in appearance, as opposed to the fleet that humanity throws together, mainly composed of whatever ships they could retrofit or otherwise press into service.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The Gojid casualties when the Arxur invade their homeworld, being ripped apart and eaten. really, any victims of the Arxur are likely to suffer this. Kalsim also has a close brush with one, when Arjun's father manages to get a noose around his neck. luckily, Arjun convinces his dad to let Kalsim live.

** Chapter 100: [[spoiler:The Federation-Arxur war is revealed to be kept a ForeverWar in purpose by both parties [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans so that they may continue to rule]]]].

* AttackDrone: A project developed by the human General Jones, a fleet of drone fighters is rolled out in time [[spoiler:for the defense of earth]]. The drones are noted as having reaction speeds far superior to humans, and are able to pull of maneuvers that no human would be able to withstand the G-forces of.

* EvilVsEvil: [[spoiler:The Federation-Arxur war fits this trope to a T. On our left, we have the Dominion, ANazyByAnyOtherName regime where the only food is sapient. On our right, we have the Galactic Federation, a violent PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny built upon countless cultural genocides as well as a few genetic rewritings for good measure. Oh, and both parties could end the war, [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans but doesn't so that their power doesn't wane]]]].

''[[https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_predators/ The Nature of Predators]]'' is science fiction WebSerialNovel by [=SpacePaladin15=], and hosted on the /r/HFY [[{{Website/Reddit}} subreddit]]. The first episode was posted in 2022.

Per TheWikiRule, as the story also has a wiki on /r/HFY that details lore, frequently asked questions, and is a table of contents, the story wiki can be found [[https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/the_nature_of_predators here]].

* AbusivePrecursors: [[spoiler:The Kolshians and Farsul, the two most advanced species in the galaxy, have been cruelly remodeling all alien species they find to fit their worldview. None have been more altered more severely than the Venlil, who were punished for resisting by a forced genetic alteration that caused them to lose their sense of smell and made them unable to run fast, to remodel them into the perfect prey, on top of a brutal indoctrination campaign.]]

** The Arxur are known for their violent campaigns against the galaxy, and have show little qualm at the thought of [[ToServeMan eating sapients]]. [[spoiler:However, they weren't always like this, and have been forced into the current state of affair by an artificial disease that killed all their livestock. Furthermore, there are Arxur who are interested by Humanity's proposal for alternate, non-sapient food sources.]]

* BefriendingTheEnemy: This starts to happen with Sovlin while he is reluctantly working alongside humans in the effort to retake his homeworld, but he quickly backslides into a distrust of humans after they interrogate an Arxur prisoner and its answers don't line up with the Federation view of the Arxur.
* BuriedAlive: Some of the bunkers survived the krakotl armada bombing earth, others were destroyed, and still others, particularly [[spoiler:the bunker where Marcel's wife and Nulia are]], suffered the upper areas collapsing and sealing the occupants inside.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Federation in a nutshell becomes this if you examine it from up close. In theory, it's a place where all prey species can go on free, in practice it's rife with corruption, stronger members bullying the weaker ones, the exterminators are overzealous to the point [[KarmaHoudini murder can go unpunished if reframed as a predator attack]], and that's before we consider that [[spoiler:it was built upon several total cultural genocides, not to mention [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans the whole war with the Arxur is just another ploy by the Kolshians and Farsul to maintain their iron grip]]]].
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Humanity wasn't interested in fighting the Federation species, until said species tried to attack us first. If the Gojid and the Extermination Fleet species didn't attack us, we wouldn't have attacked them.
** According to the Arxur, [[spoiler: the Federation killed all of the Arxur's livestock in an effort to get them to stop eating meat. Being obligate carnivores, this didn't work, and the Arxur searched the Federation planets for replacement livestock. However, the Federation killed all of the "predators" on their planets, which includes any animal that was seen eating meat, including primarily herbivorous species. Any large non-sapient herbivorous species got wiped out as well because they were seen as both being dangerous when provoked and as competition for the food sources that the ubiquitously-herbivorous Federation members used. This means that all of the non-sapient animals the Arxur found were too small to serve as livestock. The only options for replacement livestock were the sapient Federation species.]]
* CrowdPanic: Very common among Federation species, [[spoiler: as the Federation purposefully demultiplicated their fear response. If that wasn't bad enough, the architecture of Federation cities is purposefully built to make these stampedes as devastating as possible]].
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The gojid casualties when the Arxur invade their homeworld, being ripped apart and eaten. really, any victims of the Arxur are likely to suffer this. Kalsim also has a close brush with one, when Arjun's father manages to get a noose around his neck. luckily, Arjun convinces his dad to let Kalsim live.

*** A contributing factor is that the Federation species have only ever fought themselves for resources (likely during famines and after local ecological collapses), whereas humans will fight over [[HumansAreBastards land, ideology, and anything else at the drop of a hat...]]

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In chapter 1 of the main story, Tavra remembers the Arxur shooting young Venil so that they fall into a mass grave, and stating that the Arxur mailed back pieces of Tavra's father. Later installments show that the Arxur's primary motivation is to avoid total starvation, to the point that a lower-ranking soldier was executed for wasting food by throwing it out an airlock. Shooting people to throw into a mass grave would just be wasteful to the Arxur, since they would then have to go back ''into'' the pit to eat it, as well as spit out the bullet, while mailing prey pieces of their relative would be akin to mailing sushi to a goldfish- not only is it a waste of food, it's a waste of time.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler: Chief Nikonus' speech, though the scale of the audience is unclear as of chapter 67.]]

* TheFamine: The Arxur are seen stopping in the middle of a battlefield to eat, which can be taken either as them succumbing to predatory instincts, or as them being very low on food. [[spoiler:According to the Arxur, first contact with the Federation resulted in the Federation releasing viruses that killed all of their livestock, and giving Arxur treatments which made them incapable of eating meat. Being obligate carnivores, this resulted in widespread famine.]]

** The Arxur, in turn, are fully willing to enslave (and eat) any species they come accross, dismissing them as not really being sapients for not eating meat.
** Among the Federation, the Yotul get little respect for being a recently uplifted species.

* GodzillaThreshold: Faced with an unstoppable armada planning to wipe out Earth, Humanity has no other choice than to engage negociations with the Arxur, even knowing that it will make all of their few allies furious.
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: [[spoiler:At first glance,]] the Galactic Federation is the good guys against the much worse Arxur Dominion, [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope however]] the Federation committed countless atrocities in the past, and are openly genocidal towards humans. Worse, the Arxur Dominion was actually the victim in an attempt by the Federation to forcibly erase their culture, igniting the Arxur-Federation war.]]

* PredatorsAreMean: The Federation believes all predators to be so and, to be fair, the Arxur can't be exactly called angels with their ToServeMan tendencies and all. However, not only [[XenophobicHerbivore is the Federation hardly nicer]], but the Arxur's behavior may be the Federation's fault.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Marcel gives an excellent one to Sovlin folloing the latter's surrender to humanity.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: This was [[spoiler:Chief Nikonus' original plan to deal with Humanity: first make them fight the Arxur to weaken them, then either they get wiped out or they are weakened by the ordeal, making them much easier to [[DeadlyEuphemism clean up]].]]

* PartingWordsRegret: Sovlin shows extreme regret about the fact that his last conversation with his protégé and second in command Recel prior to the events of The Arxur's arrival on gojid prime, where Recel and Slanek's statements about humanity are proven right, was sour.

* HumansAreSpecial: Humanity is one of the only two carnivorous species known to the Federation, and the only one to be omnivorous. Unfortunately, since the other one is [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Arxur]], this lands Humanity in a lot of troubles.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Arxur are known for their violent campaigns against the galaxy, and have show little qualm at the thought of [[ToServeMan eating sapients]]. [[spoiler:However, they weren't always like this, and have been forced into the current state of affair by an artificial disease that killed all their livestock. Furthermore, there are Arxur who are interested by Humanity's proposal for alternate, non-sapient food sources.]]

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Not in the Federation, anyway. Solvin clearly has undiagnosed PTSD after witnessing the death of his family, and Jala's "Predator Disease" is just a violent form of sociopathy that has gone untreated. In fact, most forms of mental illness, neurodivergence or dissent in the Federation are branded under the umbrella term of "Predator Disease" to be at best neutered using chemical treatment, and at worst... disposed of.

* TheFederation: The Galactic Federation was founded during what's around the 15-16th century on Earth, and is made of 295 species and counting. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope However]], [[PeoplesRepublicOfTerror it fits the trope in name only]]]].

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Federation in a nutshell becomes this if you examine it from up close. In theory, it's a place where all prey species can go on free, in practice it's rife with corruption, stronger members bullying the weaker ones, the exterminators are overzealous to the point [[KarmaHoudini murder can go unpunished if reframed as a predator attack]], and that's before we consider that [[spoiler:it was built upon several total cultural genocides]].

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Prey races of the Federation view humans through a lens of "They are predators and will do anything possible to kill and eat us," ignoring clear evidence that humans tend to be more complex than that. An excellent example is when Solvin, in an early scene, intercepts a transmission between two human pilots expressing doubts about the attack they're about to perform, and dismisses it as "They somehow know that the Gojid are listening in and staged the whole thing," despite Solvin's own people pointing out how unlikely that is.

* FeatheredFiend: The Krakotl, with their high aggressiveness against predators, certainly are this to humans. Of the named three we know off, which would be Jerulim, Jala and Kalsim, the first is an AssInAmbassador, the second is a [[TheSociopath sociopath]], and the third outright gives the order to KillAllHumans.
* TheFederation: The Galactic Federation was founded during what's around the 15-16th century on Earth, and is made of 295 species and counting.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The Federation/Arxur war comes out at these, with both factions being openly genocidal to each other, but the [[spoiler:Arxur come out as morally superior for having been ForcedIntoEvil by the Federation.]]

* StateSec: the federation's exterminator forces tick many of the boxes for this, with [[EliteMooks better equipment than normal soldiers]] in the form of flamethrowers and fireproof gear, as well as some autonomy from the government and official military (though in the latter case most of the high-ranking members of the Federation's military forces appear to be former exterminators, such as with Kalsim).

* TeleportInterdiction: the subspace drives used leave trails behind them that can be detected on sensors and certain machines can create a pulse that forces ships back into realspace.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Not in the Federation, anyway. Solvin clearly has undiagnosed PTSD after witnessing the death of his family, and Jala's "Predator Disease" is just a violent form of sociopathy that has gone untreated.

* ToServeMan: The Arxur preys upon any other sapient species in the galaxy. [[spoiler:This is due to them getting any and all native livestock and even the potential usable non-sapient alien replacement food sources decimated, presumably by the Federation in an ill-advised attempt to turn them into {{Vegetarian Carnivore}}s in the case of the former, and quite clearly out of fear in the case of the latter. Some Arxur, however, such as High Chief Isif, think that this situation cannot last and want to find alternate, non-sapient food sources.]]

** Chapter 67: [[spoiler: Not only did the Federation actually make the Arxur allergic to meat as the Arxur said, it is confirmed they did so to several Federation species before, including the Krakotl and Gojids. Reporter Cilany, along with Sovlin, records Chief Nikonus, whithout him realizing, admitting that his species, the Kolshians, along with the Farsul, actively planned this, starting with the Krakotl, and [[FinalSolution would have wiped them out had they refused to commit to herbivorism, as they would have done with any other species doing the same]], used cultural and and religious propaganda to make sure they fanatically supported anti-predator actions and, along with large scale censorship and historical revisionism, to hide all of these acts, while admitting he would be willing to resort to murder to keep them hidden. [[EngineeredPublicConfession The recording was being broadcast live.]] ]]