Challenge #02810-G253: Remember Rule One
A new combat instructor was assigned to my battalion. If I remember the instructor is that of the human race. They were formerly introduced to us and to be honest I was not impressed. The human was only two-thirds my size and look squishy as a havenworlder, hard to believe that they’re from a deathworld. I was given the chance to spar with the human, I couldn’t even touch them. – Anon Guest
Many hear a word like “Deathworlder” and instantly conjure the mental picture of an armour-plated being many times their own size. Nobody could have pictured the Human combat master who came to Velidus V. They were small, slight, and seemingly fragile. Their hair was cropped close to their scalp like many a Spacer did. Their clothing was simple and without embellishment.
“This is our fearsome Deathworld instructor?” I scoffed. “They look like a child in their pyjamas.” I laughed, and so did the rest of my battalion. We had little to fear from this small figure. We were in our combat-rated livesuits, though our helmets were open. We had nothing to fear from an un-armoured and squishy-looking balding ape.
The combat instructor smiled in a way that should have been a warning. They waited until the laughter died down and said, “There’s always one.” Then they singled me out. Of course they did. This was Drill Sergeant 101. Make an example of the first wise-ass to give some lip. “Well come on, mountain-tall. You think you can take me in a fair fight?”
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Challenge #02809-G252: Don’t Be Fooled
Lots of stories with humans and delicate avian Havenworlders. How about one where the ‘bird’ descended from something like a cassowary. – Knitnan
[AN: Compared with Humans, Cassowaries still have their weak points. The trick, of course, is getting close enough to exploit them. Cassowaries count as aviasaurs, and may not be Havenworlders by technicality.]
People tend to assume. If a cogniscent species looks like a bird, it’s probably a Havenworlder. Many people coming across the aviasaurs make that assumption. Too many meeting Casuarid also make that assumption. It’s an easy mistake to make. They’re used to it.
So when the Vorax attacked the cruise vessel Summer Holiday, there was a series of misunderstandings in regards to Casuarid Ou'ap. Starting with her fellow travellers, and winding up with the Ships’ Humans.
“But you’re a Havenworlder,” everyone objected. “You’re fragile!” Of course they would. Aviasaurs look too much like avians to casual observers. Ou'ap was used to it. “I’m not as fragile as I look,” she argued.
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Challenge #02804-G247: How Can I Help?
We’re out there, you know. The people who slip through the cracks. The ones that hurt too much to really succeed but don’t hurt obviously enough to get help. It’s a terrible feeling, to be jealous of someone who’s in more pain than you are, just because they have legally mandated support. – Anon Guest
[AN: Speaking as someone who’s lived in the cracks, I get it. It’s one of the reasons my pet universe has systems that patch the cracks.]
You can say a lot with small words. “It’s going to be okay,” is one fine example. So is, “I love you.” Can you imagine for a handful of seconds how powerful it is to say, “I need help,” when society around us is determined to have us make it on our own? When, faced with being labelled a failure, you are brave enough to say those three small words?
Imagine, in turn, being the poor sod whose job it is to say ‘no’. It can break a heart. It can erode a soul. It is not a job for someone who possesses even an iota of sympathy for their fellow beings. Or, if they do, it is a job for the people who find the chinks in the defences woven by red tape.
There’s a common lament amongst those who are swept into the cracks of administrivia. “If I were more broken, I would get the help I need.” It is the cry of those with work-arounds. Coping strategies. It is the common chorus amongst those who use all their energy keeping up the facade of normalcy for the day, only to crumble into pieces at night.
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Challenge #02803-G246: TFW Memed in Combat
here, have a rick roll – Anon Guest
[AN: Link does not lead to a Rickroll but rather a six-second anime clip featuring someone’s mondo BFG power attack]
Human Memetic attacks are something to watch. Preferably from a safe distance. Everyone knows the one about the attacking fleet that was brought to a standstill by the power of a Rickroll virus[1]. Thusly, they have learned to feat the threat of bringing Humans into any war.
Those gung-ho balding apes will try anything to win and then laugh. Memetic attacks are -at least to the Humans- only used when a no-kill situation arises. There’s so many Memetic attacks, at varying levels of annoyance. Only Humans could invent the Rickroll. Only Humans could then create the anti-Rickroll. The memetic attack that promises one and then delivers another.
It’s bad enough to be exposed to pre-shattering pop from the decade even the Humans labelled as the one without taste. It’s worse to brace for the pop and then get whatever else the Humans responsible thought was funny at the time.
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Challenge #02802-G245: The Difficult Choice
Sometimes the deadliest part of a viral infection is not the virus itself, but the immune reaction to the virus. So what happens if an apocalyptic mad-scientist type unleashes a viral pandemic that will cause every deathworlder species he could get his hands on to die because their own immune systems will basically liquefy their lungs, gills, or other oxygen-extracting apparatus, but forgets to take into account that a virus that uses strong immune systems to attack will completely bypass higher-level havenworlders?
For the closest thing to a non-mad-scientist real-world example: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/jan/18/birdflu.medicineandhealth – Anon Guest
[AN: There are so many parallels between the 1918 flu pandemic and the current viral apocalypse going on. Up to and including people believing it wasn’t that bad, snake oil salespeople, and other people refusing to wear their face masks]
When Humans say their immune systems have a “kill or cure” approach, they aren’t kidding. There is something about the most deadly of their diseases that causes the Human body to act against itself. Deadly fevers killing the brain are only one. Swelling in the cerebral cells, destruction of important organ cells, and a little something called a cytokine storm, filling the lungs with defensive fluid.
Disease leaves scars, even when its seemingly harmless. Some lead to permanent disabilities[1]. Many such are invisible to the untrained eye. Such can lay waste to isolated communities.
Welcome to Greater Deregulation Lower South East, where profit is more important than anyone’s life. Here, a plague has been raging for decades. They’re only now asking for help because they’re running out of children to put in the factories. Children who were only in the factories because there were not enough adults to go around.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]