This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/TheRealOne_One on 2025-12-11 10:37:54+00:00.

Commander Vaelik of the Kharuun Collective stood before the tribunal, his mandibles trembling in a way no warrior of his rank would ever admit to.

“We asked for a full report,” Chairwoman Drezhul hissed. “Begin.”

Vaelik activated the holo-sphere. A rotating blue image appeared; Homo sapiens, the room grew strangely quiet.

“You want to know what makes humans dangerous?” Vaelik began.

“Everything.”

He tapped the sphere. It displayed a recording from his ship’s logs: a small human colony, half-destroyed, fires raging, acidic rain falling from the sky.

“There were survivors,” he said. “That wasn’t the frightening part.”

The tribunal exchanged puzzled glances.

“They were… laughing.”

Gasps echoed across the chamber.

“Yes. Laughing. Their structures were collapsing, their food stores gone, and the world itself was trying to kill them. Yet they joked with each other while dragging the wounded to safety.”

Vaelik zoomed in on a group of humans working together, faces streaked with dirt and blood.

“One of my soldiers asked their leader, Captain Amelia Rhodes, why they weren’t panicking.” Vaelik paused. “Do you know what she said?”

He mimicked the human expression lips pulled back, teeth bared.

She said “If we panic, we die. So we don’t.”

“You misunderstand the human threat,” Vaelik continued.

“It isn’t their strength, they are weak. It isn’t their technology, we surpass them. It isn’t even their intelligence, it is erratic and undisciplined.”

He turned off the holo-sphere. Darkness swallowed the chamber.

“It’s their refusal to surrender. Their absolute, unshakeable belief that they will win, even when logic, probability, and nature itself says they won’t.”

He stepped forward.

“We captured one human. A young one. Barely trained. We interrogated him for information.”

“And?” Drezhul asked.

Vaelik’s claws clicked against the floor.

“He asked us when our rescue was arriving.”

A nervous laugh rippled through the tribunal. Vaelik didn’t join.

“You think this is humorous? No. That was not bravado. Humans genuinely believe the universe bends to their will. They assume survival as their default outcome.”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“They call themselves ‘apex predators.’ Not because they are the strongest, but because they simply decided they are.”

The holo-sphere flickered back on, showing footage of humans fighting a creature three times their size with nothing but makeshift spears.

“They do this for fun,” Vaelik whispered.

“There’s something else,” he added. “Something worse.”

The tribunal leaned in.

“We found evidence that humans… seek the unknown. They intentionally walk toward danger. Run toward the screams. Enter environments that would annihilate most species.”

He took a breath.

“They aren’t afraid of the dark.”

A silence fell so heavy it felt physical.

“No,” Vaelik corrected himself. “They fight the dark.”

Drezhul finally spoke.

“What is your recommendation, Commander? Immediate extermination? Containment? Isolation?”

Vaelik shook his head slowly.

“None of those will work.”

The lights dimmed further, a warning alarm pinged from the corridor outside.

Vaelik turned sharply toward the sound, the door controls flickered.

Chairwoman Drezhul squinted. “What is happening?”

Vaelik’s mandibles quivered.

“They followed me.”

The metal door began to bend inward, as if something was pulling it.

Scraping, banging.

A human voice from behind the steel:

“Open the door, Commander. We need to talk.”