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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/darkPrince010 on 2025-05-12 18:52:55+00:00.
"I don't blame you; Most don't think them capable of much, until they've found the true danger that Humanity poses wherever they spread.
It's well known that humans are prolific breeders. And while they aren't quite as numerous as something like the Boh-Fre and their litters of pups, they have a faster reproductive cycle and an uncanny knack for being able to find or build the most ramshackle and barely space-worthy ships you've ever seen, and pilot them into whatever atmosphere and surface temperature they can withstand.”
“What was that? Oh, yes, you're correct. They can withstand a great deal more in terms of temperature extremes, ionizing radiation, and micropollutants of all shapes and sizes. However, despite their ability to thrive in far more places than most, no one seems to recognize the dangers posed when humans start to inhabit temperate, mild climates in worlds and metropolises settled by other species.
“I'm sure you've been to many such places, with humanity as but one of dozens or even a hundred different species, all coexisting in peace. Of course, heed my warnings and you'll understand why it is a false peace.
“You see, the humans will first join previous colonists as little more than vagabonds, merchants, travelers; a first wave akin to mold spores drifting onto unspoiled fruit. They will live and breed and die much the same as any other species, but it is not this first generation that one must be wary of.
“Instead, the humans are driven like few others toward stability, which for their kind expresses itself as familiarity. One of the most readily available options for this is, of course, that of industry; a development which humans have, by some arguments, perfected.
“Indeed, many of the more naive colony leaders express enthusiasm for humans to come and settle down amongst their populace, for the humans are rightly renowned for being able to identify the most lucrative and promising areas of manufacturing and refinement that a colony could incorporate and leveraging that, enriching both themselves and the colony as a whole many times over.
“It's a trend you've no doubt seen on several worlds before. But answer me this: how many of those worlds would be ones you would seek to live in, to place your own family upon?
“Now you start to see the shape of it, the teeth that lurk behind the enticing bait. The human industries are marvelously profitable, but as a rule, that profit does not come birthed from a vacuum. Instead, it comes because humans cut corners, are reckless with waste, and will even gamble with their own health if it means eking a beneficial percentage out to improve a profit margin.
“The result is one that most civilizations would consider terraforming. But for humans, it is not a matter of making an uninhabitable world habitable for them, but instead gradually being careless enough that any world they inhabit is polluted and toxic enough that, indeed, only humans dare to try to survive on it.
“I know of a dozen worlds that were once metropolitan hubs, meeting places of science and industry and the nexus between multiple empires and civilizations. But now, only humans dwell there, under green-brown skies and drinking from wells that bubble and reek of foul runoffs.
“The actual humans who owned the factories and industries that caused the damage have moved to greener, cleaner worlds, as they always do; the predator leaving behind the carcass it could not be bothered to finish, for the scavengers to pick clean.
“With each generation, with each passing year, the planets humans inhabit become fouler, more blighted, and less capable of supporting even the meanest forms of life. It is a trend that has played out before and again, but few acknowledge it or accept it.
“I urge you to stand firm, and remember that growth without limitation, such as the humans always offer, can never be anything but cancerous.”
Following recommendations by Lore Historian Em-Lett the Thirdborn, the Shau-Red Colony was the first on record to refuse entry visas and settlement permits for human colonists. However, less than three solar cycles later and following the the Human Economic Alliance of Worlds contributing several million credits towards the election campaigns of a number of colony council opponents, a majority of the previous council members where ousted in a snap election shortly thereafter. The following revote on the human colonist permits was passed in a 5-4 vote.
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r/WritingPrompts: Anglerfish have an angler that they use to trick prey into thinking there's something for them to eat. Humans are like those anglers"