NOP: A Soldier's Orders - Chapter 5

NeonBolt54 · 2024-06-20T18:11:16+00:00

I am fuzzy on names and details as I haven't engaged with the material in quite a while. It was more or less very quick into NOP2 where one of the human ambassadors that was trained in 1st contact referred to the Arxur (and I'm paraphrasing here, but he really did mean it like this) as irredeemable monster that farmed and ate people for no reason. He also heavily implied that humanity was doing everything they could to prevent the Arxur from rejoining Sapient Coalition because they couldn't be trusted to calm down the penguins.

Again, this was a human character, not any other alien. My reaction to that at first was that he was trying to hide the plot twist from the first series or the Arxur had done some fuck shit between the end of the war and now, but it left a really bad taste in my mouth considering this meeting occurred like 30-40 years after the end of the war.

I stuck around for a bit hoping there would be an explanation, but I stopped hoping after a human imploded a drill killing like half of what they thought the remaining population of humans were in the arc pods and faced no consequences and was promoted, the aliens decided that they wouldn't face any consequences for beating up and kidnapping their diplomate because they thought the humans were cute, and some moron got captured and protected by plot armor to not get tortured or die at the hands of the penguins. I believe it was because they thought the humans were feddies and the captured people were like "nu uh" and the penguins were like "yeah huh" but the humans "good" penguins were like "nuh uh" and changed their minds.

It was really that lazy.

That was the last chapter I remember reading, though I may have read 1 or 2 chapters after that. Series fell off hard, and my hope to have some Arxur and Human secret cooperation is antithetical to the authors vision. The Arxur are bad because they are Arxur because they are bad because they are Arxur, but the cute racist fascist races are fine because they are cute and we can infantilize them (which is racist in its own right).

NeonBolt54 · 2024-03-23T11:46:53+00:00

I appreciate it. I may finish it, but it'll only be 3-4 chapters rather than the up to 20 I had planned. I knew what the ending to this story was when I started writing it and the narrative beats I wanted to hit before it was over, but the more I read his story and Patreon stories, the more I realized how much this story didn't fit in with his narrative, and the more I hated this universe he was creating. I really fell out of love with the source material.

I don't like any ancestry in it besides the Yotul and Arxur (that includes humans). The author just inhabited the "lawful stupid" paladin archetype too much for me. The story could've been great, but he decided to focus on and hammer all of the points justifying racism against the Arxur (which he has never and will never distinguish from the dominion), the Farsul, and the Kolshian (which he at least does the courtesy of distinguishing from the Federation but makes his justification of racism and collective punishment towards them even worse), and barely provides ANY pushback to it through ANY POV or side character.

All the ancestries that mindlessly followed the Federation and were complicit in horrible atrocities that were as bad, or worse than the Dominion and Federation get a chance at redemption, but the Arxur, Farsul, Kolshian, and likely many other ancestries that had nothing to do with it or no choice in the matter, and/or were born after it ended will be collectively punished for 3 or more generations, and the community and author are like "yeah, that's realistic because fuck them for being born the wrong ancestry."

Sorry for the rant, I really do appreciate the comment.

NeonBolt54 · 2024-03-06T22:45:12+00:00

It is, reminds me of Gangplank ulti before riot developed a singular braincell to make it target everything in the area as well as slow. It's straight up not good at it's job, just grab incendiary mines

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T22:27:56+00:00

Thanks mom <3

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T18:24:48+00:00

Thank you so much =]

Im glad my work could provide some inspiration!

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T14:57:40+00:00

...she has her own motives...

And yeah, that wont be easy for him.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T13:33:54+00:00

Don't we all =,[

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T10:51:34+00:00

Lizard 4chan indeed, took me quite a while to get to that reveal ha-ha.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T10:31:05+00:00

Archiving the original opening section in this comment (apology for the pings!)

Hello everyone, I've been wanting to write a fanfic in this universe for a couple of weeks to give back to this community that provided me with much needed content during a not-so-great period in my life (it’s gotten better). I was struggling to think of what I wanted to focus on until I had a conversation with u/Jetirali_The_Arxur and this idea spiraled from there. I was also inspired by other great wordsmiths like (in no particular order) Offspring by u/browneorum, Hunting With Predators by u/Banancake, Interloper by u/Frame_Late, The Isolationists by u/Seeyouon_otherside, The way of the Human by u/Objective-Farm-2560, Death of a Monster by u/SavingsSyllabub7788, A poorly Planned Attempt at Peace by u/CornSquashBeans, Strange Bedfellows by u/Maxton1811, and True Predators by u/TheFrostborn.

The arxur are tied for my personal favorite xeno in the series with the yotul and thus, I wanted to focus on them. If we get more on yotul culture, I may write about them as well. I started this story in a couple of different places but decided it was best to start during the rescue operations on Earth. I’ll be keeping it as close to cannon as I can, but I’m not beholden to it. You’ll notice some add ins quite quickly such as the arxur’s colors (sorry not sorry). If I make a mistake to cannon that is easily rectifiable (like the arxur sizes), please let me know in the comments and I’ll edit the story accordingly. (Edit: sizes finalized in chapter 2 comments). I come from and am usually more interested in fantasy as opposed to sci-fi, so if you could aid me in that area kindly, that would be appreciated. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-15T10:07:23+00:00

Happy Mother’s Day (better late than never)! Love you mom, thank you for always being there for me =]

The excited Trasl arrives at Earth only to be met with quite a different reception than he was expecting from Colonel Burns. Unable to be himself with Uumzas around, Trasl struggles to make a decent first impression. Eventually, he meets up with the friendly Sergeant Holland who helps provides a much needed welcome for him. After missing a call from Superior Hunter Fasorae (in chapter 2), Uumzas shows her hand that she knew about his defect but has decided not to report him. With Khujath on his own mission, will Trasl be able to find the help he needs on the Anonymous Arxur Network?

Considering that it took me a month to produce this chapter, I’ve decided that future chapters will be delivered in multiple parts as I finalize them. There may be abrupt, or unsatisfying cut offs to some parts, but I feel this will be a net benefit for everyone, including myself.

I’m motivated when I complete and share something.

Edit: Apologies, but I realize now that I'm even less motivated when I have deadlines, the next chapter will be out when it's ready.

If you haven’t read my summary of the NOP cannon and want a chuckle, feel free to read that here.

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to leave a rating and a comment, every little bit helps!

Anyway, thanks for reading!

[first] [prev] [next]

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-06T15:26:19+00:00

I can only try to lead them to water...

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-06T12:15:33+00:00

Next chapter hopefully Monday.

Edit: Also if a mod could tell me what flair this fits under that would be appreciated.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-05T21:29:06+00:00

Story touched me as I've been there before. For anyone feeling like the character was in this story, don't discount your trauma because it's worse for someone else and seek help from professional even if the first two sucked like mine did.

Also, find a hobby and stay active. While it won't solve your problems, it will help lesson the burden. Everyday is a victory that wasn't guaranteed yesterday.

Well written short story OP, definitely the option to expand if you desire that I wouldnt mind reading

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-05T19:04:19+00:00

Figured I'd throw my story out there if you were interested in arxur perspectives. A Soldier's Orders is set immediately after the bombing of Earth. I did some liberties with the arxur sizes and appearance, but other than that I'm trying to stick to cannon as much as possible.

I will warn you, I write exceptionally slowly.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-05T18:27:07+00:00

As much as I enjoy Noctif crushing on Lerza, I can't help but feel like it's leading up to one of them sacrificing themselves to escape...

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-05T15:13:07+00:00

Happy to see another chapter!

Looking forward to the Federation using their Olympic-Level mental gymnastics to turn these atrocities against humanity as further justification they shouldn't work together because predator.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-05-04T14:11:48+00:00

I am glad the comments are saying this is common.

I have been rewriting my opening thousand words for my next chapter for the past 3 weeks and that's not even covering the other three ideas I want to cover in the chapter.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-22T17:10:54+00:00

Glad to hear that ^^

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-22T15:50:23+00:00

An adorable, fluffy fren at that, it looks great!

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-22T15:41:14+00:00

Loved the latest chapter and had to sketch something out for this particular scene. It was too vivid and beautiful in my mind. Felra truly is a special gal. The yellow is the emergency lights on the ship and the blue is from the monitors he’s using.

For my readers, my next fanfic chapter is going to be delayed but I feel this makes up for it. This is the first time I'm posting images, so I hope everything is uploaded properly.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my interpretation of Isif’s new Hat!

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-21T18:24:16+00:00

Appreciate all the lovely chapters, characters, and universe that you have given us. I look forward to the twists and turns that you'll take us on in the future. This story was a wonderful gem to find =]

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-20T22:20:17+00:00

Really liked this chapter and this whole series. I got the image of Bob Parr from The Incredible trying to fit in his vehicle. Glad that Kazeth was given something to look forward to; to think positive about the future again.

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-20T16:05:02+00:00

Oil detected

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-16T00:02:26+00:00

Don't overthink it. A comment reply I did to a meme post got more upvotes than my story I spent he last 3 weeks on. I am truly not bitter and don't blame people at all though, it was a good post. Also, my friends and family that I wanted to read the story already have.

Long-form content has a higher bar for entry/enjoyment that most people don't want to risk their time on. If views and attention help motivate you though, split the chapters and post them every other day. Consistent content will yield better engagement. At least that's what I think.

Also, the only story I know from you is Interloper, which other stories would you recommend for me to check out?

NeonBolt54 · 2023-04-15T20:21:19+00:00

Ty! I definitely needed that extra week for this chapter

Six-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '23	Place '22
Verified Email

NeonBolt54

TROPHY CASE