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by Twiga
Rated: 13+ · Campfire Creative · Fiction · Animal · #2305146
Anthro Animals of the Future try to find out what happened to Humanity
[Introduction]
Many years ago our world was ruled by creatures called humans, we know they were here because
we live in the remains of their civilazation, what became of them we still do not know because we still have not been able to find any bones of the once mighty human race, we do know that whatever happened is coonected to our sudden...Transformation into forms similar to humans, though the early days of the transformation are vague and fuzzy at best, and while our children have been fattened on the land's rich bounty still the mystery of the humans is a thing that haunts the wisest of us to this day, because whatever happened to them could happen to us
Fang Barkerville Dog Historian


This is my latest attempt at 'Critter Land' Which in this story is what America has become after the vanishing of humanity, this is a much more in line with my current story telling, in this story, there will be no mythical animals, and the only animals that are anthro are tetrapods (Air breathing vertebrates mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians) fish and insects are not anthro so carnivores have more options for food, also dairy cows donate excess milk chickens donate unfertilized eggs, the idea of Critter Land came from 'Critters Sitters' https://sprinklepuffball.blogspot.com/2010/10/critter-sitters.html so this world is kind of 1980s aestetic but the land is much more rural with much more farming and other 'living off the land' and for once no cartoon characters, this story is meant to be like Don Bluth movie like Secret of NIMH or American Tail mixed with Call of Chtulu

Name: Henrietta Piggerson
Age: 10 years old
Sex: Female
Species: Pig (Breed American Yorkshire)
Hometown: Spokeane Washington
Likes: Dolls, Apples, Milk Chocolate (A rare treat these days, not easy to get cocoa beans since the Critters of South America aren't the most friendly to those of North America) Ballet Dancing, Mud Baths.
Dislikes: Pea Soup, Boys Having Burping Contests, Overly Hot Days (She sunburns easily) Critters who think she's wearing a wig (Her blonde hair is real!)
Bio: Henrietta is the daughter of Professor Peter Piggerson, a dedicated archeologist who's dedicated his study to the humans and by study he gathers a lot of the human's media, a lot of VHS tapes that he and his daughter watch, Henrietta mostly just thinks it's fun to watch the humans, but Professor Piggerson also seeks to learn the human language

(In this story the Animals don't speak English, they speak a tonal language similar the Chinese)
Name: George Skunken
Age: 14 years old
Species: Stripped Skunk
Hometown: Jamestown, New York
Likes: Fishing, walking,
Dislikes: People saying that he skinks, especially when he hasn't done anything.
Bio: Son of Thomas and Henrietta Skunken, who like to figure out the mysteries of the past, like the person known as Luc Bal, among others.
Henrietta was spending another lazy Saturday afternoon, watching her favorite of the tapes, it was a tape featuring a Beauty Pagent called the 'Miss Universe' Pagent, Henrietta dreamed about being a beauty queen but the older she got the more she realized she wasn't likely to win being a pig, it seemed the only Animal Women who ever won those contests were cats and foxes, however she still loved looking at the human beauty queens, humans were such charming creatures they were 'Cub Cute' with super short faces and large eyes.

She found herself even enjoying the commercial breaks, they often had such fun jingles apparently the humans were very interested in laundrey detergent seeing how many commercials for that 'Tide' stuff was.

"I hope you're also brusing up on your human language skills..." Peter said as he came in carrying bags of groceries

"Yeah, Dad..." Henrietta said "I've been doing my best to memorize the lyrics to that Best Foods Mayonaise commercial."

Peter smiled as he began to put the groceries away, he had been a single father since Henrietta was very little because her mother caught a fever and died shortly after Henrietta was born
George was busy fishing along the lake as his parents looked at two statues of the one called Luc Bal.

"She must of been some sort of Goddess to these people, like Rog Tor Pete and Rob H. Jack," said Thomas. "Her likeness is all over."

"Must be," said Henrietta. "I wonder why there are two statues of her here though. Most other locations only have one."
"So..." Peter said as he finished putting the groeceries away "...How have things been going at school?"

"I got that dance recital coming up..." Henrietta said shyly

"Why the long face?" Peter asked

"It's just...I'm a Pig!" Henrietta exclaimed "I got short little legs, I'm not as tall as the other girls...And some of the other girls like Vivian Foxen have long elegant tails that flow like ribbons behind them when they dance while all I've got it this little corkscrew..."
Soon enough, George's parent's called it a day. As he left, the skunk looked at an inscription that had what looked to be a list of names, those who had been involved in one war or another.

"I wonder what they did to end up here," he said.

"A mystery for another day," his mother said.
"Don't be so hard on yourself!" Peter said to his daughter "You're a fine dancer! Nobody is going to care you're a Pig, just do your best and you'll be fine!"

As much as Henrietta wanted to believe her Dad, her own self doubts were too great...

Later that night, as Henrietta lay in her bed, thinking about the coming dance recital, she looked out the window, and saw what looked like a shooting star, go behind the nearby hill, and then there was a crashing sound...As whatever that shootstar was actually crashed into the hill!
George had finished cleaning the fish he'd caught when he noticed something odd landing in a nearby hill.

"Odd," he said.

"Agreed," said his father.

"Let's take a look," said his mother.

They put the fish in a place where it would keep, and be safe.
Um...Just a reminder Henrietta lives in Spokane Washington and you said George lives in Jamestown, are you implying two shooting stars, or is George in Henrietta's area? Critter Land is the entirety of the Continental United States

Meanwhile in Spokeane, on that hill where the thing landed, and old hermit, an Old Bloodhound, hearing the sound of the crash, came out of his cabin and followed the scent of smoke to investigate,

There seemed to be an oval metal obeject, the size of a pick up truck, half burried in the dirt, as the Dog approached what seemed to be a periscope like object came out.

"Are you a human?" A robotic sounding voice asked

"What?!" The Dog exclaimed "I"m a Dog! A Purebred Bloodhound!"

"Scanning..." The Voice said as the Dog felt his whole body tingle as something went through him "...Subject is not a homo sapian, proceed to feed to trash beast..."

And a metal tentacle wrapped around the dogs waist as he was picked up and then a door in the flying saucer opened up and the Dog screamed, what was inside looked like a giant green octopus! With it's circular mouth lined with sharp teeth instead of a beak...
(Separate shooting stars. I might end up causing some changes to your plans.)

George followed his parents, who found the crashed object, which was the size of a large house.

"Well, rather odd indeed," said Thomas. He touch something that looked like a palmprint.

"Thomas, be careful," said Henrietta.

"Relax," said Thomas. "What's the worst that could happen?"

A door opened on the object.

"Okay, to be fair, I was expecting a tentacle monster and spinning blades," said Thomas.

George noticed that his father's tail had been twitching, just in case.

Thomas entered, followed by Henrietta, and George.

That was when George saw another door. "Mother, father."

The two adult skunks opened it, and inside was a room, with a dozen or so large tubes. Inside each of them, or the parts that could be looked into, was a human, of an assorted range of ages - adult and child.
Well there could now be two competing fractions of aliens with different motives in regard to humans and Earthlings

The Bloodhoud tried to fight back as he was lowered closer and closer to the Octopus thing, when all of a sudden his hound was bitten off! He howled in pain, but fortunatly his army training kicked in, he kicked at the edge of the creature's mouth and his claws seemed to would the creatutre's delicate skin enough to make it recoil...

Hurting the creature seemed to cause the mechanical tentacles to lose it's grip, the Bloodhound, hurried back into his cabin to do what he could to stop the bleeding...
(I think you mean the hound's hand - unless hound means something else in this time)

George then noticed something on one of the tubes. A set of symbols. "Father, what's this?"

Thomas took a look. The symbols kept changing. "Looks like a countdown, and it looks like it will be over very soon."

"How soon?" Henrietta asked.

"Well-"

That was when there was a hissing sound, and the human in the tube, an adult male, opened their eyes.

They said something in an incomprehensible language.

An image of the sun appeared upon an empty wall.

"That's the sun," said George.

There was an image of a tree.

"A tree."

There was an oak tree and a pine tree next to each other.

"Oak," George said, point in to the one. He pointed to the other. "Pine." he then circled both. "Trees."

This went for a while, images and words. He noticed things happening in the tube.

Eventually, the tube opened. The human stepped out, grabbing a set of wires, and pulling them out of their wrist. "Thank you for the basic linguistic lesson, probably going to need to learn more," they said. They went to a door, and spoke. It opened, and there was a number of garments. The human put a pair on. "I'm Captain Richard Jameson. I'm in charge of this vessel, and this group of people."

"Wait, are you saying that Jamestown is your town?" Thomas asked.

"What?" Captain Jameson asked.

"This area is called Jamestown," said Henrietta.

"Someone else gave the place the name, most likely," said Captain Jameson. He went over to a series of buttons. "Okay, how many ships made it?"

"Ships?" George asked.

"Well, this will be news to you and your neighbors, but Old Terra is about to become re-colonized by humanity, once more," said Captain Jameson.

"How many?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, just a million, with the possibility of more in the future," said Captain Jameson, as he read the screens. "Depends on if-" They then said something in their own language. It didn't sound good.

"What's going on?" Thomas asked.

"Let's just say that humanity has a very dangerous enemy, that wants nothing more than to kill every last human, and anything related to them," said Captain Jameson, as he pressed some buttons. "That might include your sort."

"What do you mean?" George asked.

"One of the things we did in an attempt to preserve the legacy of humanity was to uplift a large number of non-sapient animals on this planet before we left," said Captain Jameson. "You are all, to some degree, infused with human genetics. It's complicated, and more than a bit beyond my understanding how it was done, but you're all part human."

"So, what's going to happen to us?" George asked.

"A question to which I don't know the answer," said Captain Jameson. "I just hope that people are smart enough to not repeat the more serious mistakes of the past - don't need any more enemies."
Oops! Yeah I meant hand!

As soon as he got his arm stump bandaged, the Bloodhound called for an ambulence...

In the middle of the night, Peter came in and woke up Henrietta "Wake up! Wake up!" He said "Quickly! Fill a suitcase with only the essentuals, we have to get out of here!"

"What?" Henrietta rubbed the sleep from her eyes "Why?"

"It's a long story..." Peter said as he began pulling out clothes from her drawers to put in a suitcase "But long ago my fellow archeologists and I discovered some hidden catacombs...And what we discovered there we never told anyone..."
"So, what do we need to do?" Thomas asked.

"Hopefully, your military has weapons that can fly," said Captain Jameson. "Most of what we brought is for more civilian-based purposes. Granted, we got guns, among other things, but they might not be enough."
Henrietta got dressed in her regular lavender T-shirt and blue shorts and once her Dad had packed as much as he could he handed her, her suitcase and they got in their car.

"Where are we going?!" Henrietta asked

"To some old friends of mine..." Peter said "...They weren't among us the team that discovered those hidden catacombs, but they are good friends in the human studies community..."
"So, what are we talking about?" Thomas asked.

"Well, I don't know what they call themselves," said Captain Jameson. "But here is what they look like, and let me tell you, tentacles and razor blades are but the least of your worries."
On the long drive through the forest Henrietta and Peter sat in silence...Finally Henrietta felt she had to ask

"What did you discover that you couldn't tell anyone?"

Peter sighed "We were searching in one of the most dangerous but most rich for artifacts sites..." He said "The place they called 'New York City' anyway we fell into this deep, dark underground, and we found pictures on the walls...Telling the true story of what happened to the humans...The humans...Left...Because of Invaders from Outer Space, before they all left, where the ALiens would chase after them, they knew they had to have someone take care of the Earth while they were gone...The pitcures showed a great tower rising out of the earth...Then a great light shone from the tower like a lighthouse...That light teansformed our ancestors, having them stand on their hind legs and give them hands..."
"So, what do these things want to do?" Thomas asked, as he looked at the images.

"Simply put, turn every other creature into livestock, and thus, a source of food," said Captain Jameson. "It might be one thing to do that to a creature that isn't sapient, but when it's clearly sapient - it's something else."
As the first rays of dawn began to break and Henrietta began to fall back asleep again, Peter turned on the car radio.

"This is Brenda Springer Spanial with breaking news! Local Animal Jebediah O'Hound has been hospitalized with an amputated right hand, claimed it was bitten off by an 'octopus creature'
The human looked at the screen. "Good news is, a lot of the human ships seem to have made it. "
On the radio Peter heard the old Hermit say "I tell you it was like a giant green octopus with a bunch of sharp teeth! Bit my hand off!"
"So, what does your enemy do to those they capture?" Thomas asked.

"You'd be lucky if they kill you," said Captain Jameson. "They like to dissect those not worth turning into livestock."
Realizing it was getting difficult to keep his eyes open...Peter quickly checked into a Roadside Motel...
"So, how long until the rest of your group wakes up?" George asked.

"Two hours, at the very least, depending upon scouting reports," said Captain Jameson. "But, I am reporting that you guys are, at the very least, friendly enough to communicate with."
With Henrietta tucked into the motel bed, Peter yawned as he knew he was going to crash himself soon but before he did so, even though he knew it was early in the morning he figured, he'd call the guy he was heading toward Thomas Skunken

"I hope he won't mind me calling this early..." Peter said as he dialed the number
The information he was listening to caused Thomas to worry, as he remembered an expedition in what was once called New York City. It caused him to shudder as he remembered what he had found out, despite wanting to forget.

That was when his cellphone rang.

"Excuse me," he said. "I need to take this." He walked away. "Hello, Peter. Experiencing any interesting events?"
"Yes..." Peter said "...Something crashed into the hill near our town, news report says that one Jebidiah O'Hound already had his hand bitten off!"
"Well, I just found out that humans are still alive," said Thomas.
Peter let out a Pig squeal...But then quickly got it under control,

"You mean they came back..." He said "...I forgot you were there with us, but you wanted to forget what you saw you even went to a hypnotist to try to suspress your memories..."
"You tried to forget too," said Thomas. "Between that and your wife's death, I know very well that you ran up quite the bar tab."
"OK, OK." Peter said pinching the space between his eyes "Point well taken, I've been up all night I need to sleep, is there a possibility you and these humans could meet us halfway? Since I'm on the other side of the country."
"Sure, if I can rent a bus," said Thomas, as he looked at a countdown. He then looked at a screen. "As it is, keep an eye out. If I'm reading something right, more should be landing near you. That being said, they do something to help them learn our language."
With that Peter sighed and finally flopped down in the bed next to Henrietta's
"I wonder whom I can rent a bus from on short notice," Thomas muttered. "Or, is it possible to fly this thing to other locations?"
As Henrietta slept she dreamed...She dreamed of the sun rising red and bitter over the meadows and many lakes of Critter Land (Because of several dams breaking after the humans left there are quite a few more lakes than there were before, and considerably less desert than there was before)

And then...Some patch of dirt began moving, and from it burst a skeleton...A human skeleton!
George was looking at the human. He'd heard the stories, seen images, and more. Seeing one in person, especially a live one, was incredible.
Henrietta tossed and turned in her sleep until finally she woke up...
Thomas came into the room again. "Captain Jameson, can this thing still fly?"

"Yes," the human said. "Why do you ask?"

"I got a friend who'd like to meet you," said the skunk.
When Henrietta looked around, she saw she was now in a motel, she heard snoring and saw her Dad in the bed next to her's

She didn't feel like she could fall asleep again, she wanted to turn on the TV but she didn't want to wake her Dad, so she just flopped back onto her pillow and stared at the celing...
It didn't take the captain long to set things up. Soon, the vessel was, well, flying.
Meanwhile after Clement O'Hound had been interviewed by the press, the Alien still in it's ship (The creature had soft slimy skin, was weakened by sunlight, like an earworm if it got in the sun too long it would dry up into jerky and die) decided to work on contacted its 'contact' long ago, certain humans contacted the aliens telling them there was lots of tasty food here...Yes...Certain Humans sold Humanity out, in exchange for the Aliens giving them the means to never die.

Well the kind of got what they wanted, while their bones were buried deep underground, they could still think, or perhaps, their souls now couldn't move on to the afterlife
"So, these creatures plan to turn all of us into food?" Thomas asked.

"Pretty much," said Captain Jameson. "Some vegan/anti-gun conspiracists claimed that it was karma for those who liked to eat meat and hunt animals. Funny, those holier-than-thou vegans and anti-gun folks were among the first to get ate, while those that had guns tried to fight back, and, lets face it, most of us humans are indeed descended from those that had guns or other weapons."
When the Alien contacted the leader of the human conspirtors whose bones were burried deep within the Earth, they communiated telepathically

<You...Tricked...Us...> The Ringleader croaked out

<No we didn't.> The Alien responded bluntly <We gave you exactly what you asked for, we Ancient Races new the 'Never Die' Formula is a terrible curse which is why we never used it...The ones who developed it...The First Race in all the Universe paid a terrible price for their hubris, they all got turned into Black Holes>
"So, do these things have a weakness?" Thomas asked.

"They can be killed, but they like hiding inside their vessels," said Captain Jameson. "Those things are harder to crack than a fundamentalist, and they don't break too easily."

"A fundamentalist is some sort of vessel?" Thomas asked.

"More like a very strong state of mind," said Captain Jameson. "Point out a flaw in their beliefs, and they will argue that it isn't a flaw, and that you are wrong, no matter what. Still, I pity anyone coming across my mother-in-law, even these guys. Well, almost."
At some point in the afternoon Peter woke up and Henrietta chilled out watching some cartoons on the Motel's TV.

"I just realized..." Peter said "...We should get your Aunt Pentunia on the way..."

Petunia was Peter's sister and she was the one who took care of Henrietta when Peter couldn't be there particurally shortly after her Mother died when Peter had to deal with his depression first.
Thomas made a phone call. "Hey, Peter, what vehicle are you using?"
"I only got one car." Peter said "Look for the blue mini van."
"Got them triangulated," said Captain Jameson.
Peter then hung and called his sister.

"Petunia it's time..." Peter said "...The stuff I warned you about it's happening, pack your things."
"I wonder what else is being said about you guys showing up," said Thomas.

Captain Jameson looked at the screen. "I'm more worried about any more enemies my people might encounter." He then pressed a button. "At the moment, my group is learning your language, so that we don't sound like we're speaking gibberish to you."
After checking out of the motel, Peter and Henrietta drove to Aunt Petunia's Old Country House...The Sow was waiting for them at the front gate with a big suitcase.

"Get in..." Pter said opening the door to the back seat.
However, that was when the ship showed up, and landed near them. The door opened, and Thomas came to the opening.

"Hey, Peter," the skunk said.
The Three Pigs stopped and stared at the humans, as Peter had been studying humans' old media for decades they knew what they looked like, but it was still another thing to see them in the flesh.

And Henrietta while she loved watching human media, she also knew something very important from watching the shows and commercials

"So..." Henrietta said "...Do you guys still want to eat...Pigs?"
"Non-sapient ones," said Captain Jameson. "Big difference."
"Explain that..." Said Peter "...Because here all Tetrapods are intelligent."
"Because we were smart enough to bring plenty of other animals that were not modified," said Captain Jameson. "The whole Noah's Ark, as it were, only it wasn't just two of each animal, and we brought along a lot of genetic material from every animal at the time. As it is, each ship is a Noah's Ark. Granted, it would create more of a zoo than actually repopulating the place with actual wild animals, but there's programs in the system to try to replicate that."
Peter and Petunia looked at each other they weren't sure they liked the idea of non-intelligent relatives being eaten
"Aren't pigs omnivores?" Captain Jameson asked, in a manner that said that he already knew the answer. "What about carnivores? I doubt that grass is going to work for them."
"You left the fish and insects unenhanced remember?" Peter said "The carnivores and omnivores eat those, also dairy cows donate excess milk and hens unfertalized eggs."

"You seem not to remember a lot of what you did before you left." Henrietta added
"Some of the older records might be incomplete, or corrupted," said Captain Jameson. "Nothing against eating fish, but you're telling me that something like a lion, which eats about ten pounds of meat a day, if not more, is satisfied eating just fish?"
"Most carnivores have become more omnivorous to suppliment their diets." Peter said "They still need meat of course, but the average carnivorous meal is a fish for the entree with vegetables on the side, milk to drink and if they have dessert the dessert is often something with milk and or eggs which they get etra protien from."
"Something to think on," said Captain Jameson. "Still, to be honest, I was under the impression that there would be both an uplifted, or whatever it's called, version and a normal unaltered version, of the various animals."
Did you really not read to synopsis above where I state all Tetrapod are intelligent that why they only eat fish and insects?

"You didn't seem to make your 'enhancing device' targeted." Peter said "From what we saw in the hidden catacombs, the tower emerged from the ground, shone it's light and all tetrapods became intelligent, we know this is true all over the world."
(I did, but that doesn't mean that every human knows the whole story. After all, those that fled were trying to avoid being killed. It's like Elvis Presley's Fried Chicken - there's an argument over what his secret ingredient was when he made it, and the dude died within living memory. These folks might have been away for a long time, possibly fighting this foe.)

"All over the world?" Captain Jameson asked. "There must of been a number of them all over in that case, maybe even overpowered."

"How do you not know about this stuff?" Thomas asked.

"Sometimes you need to prioritize knowing certain things, like how to fly a ship, over knowing if some experiment from two millennium ago even worked," said Captain Jameson. "Sometimes you're sent on a mission, all but blind, deaf, and mute, just to try to make sure that the enemy doesn't know that you've been sent upon it."
OK sometimes I'm not sure weather it's a case of people not reading the rules, which has happened before, or characters being forgetful 'in character'

Meanwhile the Alien was still in contact with the Ringleader

<I've been stuck in this grave, fully concious but unable to move for two hundred years!> The Skeleton telepathically wailed <Give me the means to move again!>

<You know we've been thinking...>The Octopus Alien said as it picked it's giant teeth with a metal toothpick <...We kind of took your wish to never die for granted, because we were just starving for meat...But now we've had some time to think, and we think that was just the first step, and you like the First Race were attempting to be Gods, over everyone else, which certainly wouldn't benefit us..."
(Happens.)

"So, what do we do?" Thomas asked.

"It would be a very good idea to locate and destroy the enemy, preferably before they contact their superiors," said Captain Jameson. "Otherwise, everyone will end up on the menu."
"Well..." Said Peter "...What we do know fur sure is the first vessel landed on a hill in my neighborhood. Already claimed a first victim, an old Hermit Bloodhound, fortunatly he managed to get away with only his right hand severed."
"Well, the good news is, so far, there's only one enemy ship," said Captain Jameson. "If we destroy it, we should be able to buy us some time to make sure that the planet is ready for a full invasion. Maybe even get folks used to one another."
Henrietta being a Piglet realized there was very little she could contribute to this conversation so she started peeking shyly at some human children walking about getting reajusted after being in suspended animation
Being a young skunk, the conversation was becoming boring for him, especially as he noticed the human children who were now awake.

"Um, hello," he said.
The Children were actually more quickly learning the animal language than even the adults! A ten year old boy said "Hi! You wanna play Robo-Warriors?"

"Huh?" Henrietta cocked her head

"These action figures we developed after going into space." The Boy said holding up two action figures "Heroic Robot Warriors who fight against evil aliens!"
Thomas noticed the toy the boy was talking about. He looked at the Captain. "Are those things real?"

"Yes, but they are for far more than just fighting," said the Captain. "Terraforming, farming, construction, industrial applications - the most basic model allows one human do the work of five. There's also a lot of cross-compatibility between both models and manufacturers. Civilian attachments work with military models, and the opposite holds true. Useful if we ran short on military focused models. On the plus side, they can protect users from bad atmospheres and the like, even with a basic civilian model."
Hennrietta wasn't really into playing with action figures but this boy seemed to be the most into playing with them, the girls, seemed to be really shy for some reason and were hiding behind their parents.

"I'm Timmy by the way." Said the human boy

"I'm Henrietta."
George also noticed the other children. He wondered if one was friendly enough to talk with. The toys looked cool, that was for sure.
While not really interested in action figures Henrietta was willing to go along with it, just to be with this human child
George noticed a girl about his age. "So, how was your trip?"

"Spent most of it asleep," she said. "Although the pods try to make sure that we're in shape to be able to be ready to move and such. Some sort of Virtual Reality interface thing for us to socialize and such."
"Do you like dancing?" Henrietta asked the Girl

Meanwhile Peter and the adults were taken to a place where the adults stored the 'real' versions of the Robo-Warriors
The Mechs came in a number of colors. There was red, blue, green, orange, yellow, white, and a few other solid colored ones - the civilian-use ones for farming, terraforming, building, and industrial purposes. Then there were those that were painted in an assortment of colors that looked like some sort of landscape - the military-use ones.

"So, what are you going to do?" Thomas asked.

"Standing orders are rather simple," said Captain Jameson. "Destroy the enemy. Thankfully, the enemy's location is being shared with everyone else. Each ship is sending one person in a mech to come help out. We're talking several thousand."
"So..." Henrietta said the the human kids "...I actually know quite a bit about humans, because we watch the old tapes! My favorite is the tape of the Miss Universe Beauty Pagent, I'd watch that one over and over again, to develop my human language skills..."

"You don't seem like you're speaking English..." Said Timmy

"Well, not speak it exactly..." Henrietta said "...Dad said our vocal cords aren't capable of that just learning to understand it, I got one of the Beauty Pagent's Commercial Jingle's memorized..."

"Potatoes have eyes
For Best Foods
Onions cry
For Best Foods
Lobsters claw for
It's celery stalks
And food loves Best Foods!

Best Foods has
The taste you love
Good food gets better
Just put it all together
With the one best mayonnaise!
Yes food loves Best Foods!"

The other three kids kind of stood there with their jaws dropped and Henrietta blushed

"I kind of love how grand almost operatic that jingle is for mayonnaise of all things..." She said "...I also like how the song doesn't mention any foods made from intelligent animals, sure they show a burger and hot dog in the commercial but the fact is isn't in the jingle makes me like the jingle."

"You don't have burgers or hot dogs?!" Gasped Timmy

"We do just not the kind you're used to." Said Herietta, "We have fish sausages that we can eat in buns like hot dogs, and most burgers these days are vegetarian made from either black beans or carrots."
The older girl came over. "Those ain't half bad, actually," she said. "I'm still going to prefer a beef burger though."
"Well, just expect us related to farm animals to avoid your farms as much as possible." Henrietta said "Nothing personal against carnivores, just seeing the things we were two hundred years ago gives us the Heebie-Jeebies."
"Understandable," the human girl said. "Hopefully your people aren't like those vegan fanatics that try to outlaw meat eating and try to force fruits and vegetables down peoples' throats. I like peaches, but if I'm forced to eat them, there goes any chance of liking them."
"I mean..." Henrietta said "...We felt that's why the fish and insects didn't change, that there had to be something for the carnivores, to eat the history books said when we changed, the carnivores no longer felt and urge to hunt the prey animals who had changed, suddenly all animals felt feelings of love and friendship toward each other..."
"Maybe, given your age, there's sections of history books that your teachers haven't taught you yet," the human girl. "There's always those questions that one gets told, 'You'll have to wait until you're older' before one can get an answer."
Henrietta snorted a bit, felt like this was a case of the pot calling the kettle black as these humans didn't seem to have much memory of what they did before they left...

Meanwhile the day had finally passed, it was now dark enough for the Octopus Alien's liking, it was done talking with the foolish human who had contacted them all those years ago, sure they were grateful to find a new source of food...But deep down any creature who is not loyal to his own race is not to be trusted..
By that point, several thousand human fighters in mechs had arrived to that particular location.

"Well men," said Captain Jameson. "Let's see about cracking this nut. We give him one chance to surrender, and if he doesn't, we shoot to kill, unless he's smart enough to surrender after being shot at."
They shot at the Alien's ship at first the bullets barely made dents in the super hard hull
Then the firing was focused on a few spots, and soon, holes were punched through the ship, each easily the size of a softball.

"Time for the explosives," said Captain Jameson, as he, and the rest, switched to their weapons' alternative mode of firing. "Fire in the hole."

Grenades were launched into the holes.

That was also the moment that the mechs made a tactical withdraw, just in case the enemy tried to throw the grenades out.
The gernades blew up inside the ship sending the alien sky high! What rained down was disembdied tetacles and teeth
"Alright," said Captain Jameson. "Burn the remans, along with anything else that belongs to the enemy." The mechs switch from their primary weapons to flamethrowers.
And thus they bought Criter Land some time, so the humans could reitergrate and introduce themselves to the Critters and begin to prepare them for the net time, what happened then? I suppose that's a story for another time

So I decided to end this story because I was getting tired of it and wanted to wrap it up, it was interesting but really went in a different direction than I wanted it to go

The End!

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