Lizard Demon AU Thing
What if the betterment never existed?
What if the federation threw the entire galaxy into ecological decline?
What if the Arxur truly just had to eat others to survive?
It happened hundreds of years ago.
The federation came, colonized us, poisoned our cattle, even our bug farms.
They used us for cheap labor, free labor. They segregated everything. Killed those that resisted. As we started to starve, we often resorted to eating the colonizers.
When that happened, they demonized us, called us monsters. Used that to justify killing us. They slaughtered us in mass, cattle to the slaughter. They aired live executions. Demonized us every day. but that just made us fight back harder.
They sent more ships. More bombs. One day we got word - a new bomb has be created - planet leveler. Our tactics moved from resisting, protecting our land. To a mad scramble to steal everything - every ship, every weapon.
We took to space, as our planet was flattened. With nothing left, and a planet's worth of refugees, we did the only thing we could imagine.
We stormed their home world - a entire planets worth of people. Overnight we had turned into the largest fleet the galaxy has ever seen. Herbavores don't fight each other, they just use their military as an occupational force.
They weren't ready for what happened. We took their technology, their manufacturing tech, their resources... We took THEM.
At this point, not everyone was on board with killing those who could talk with you. Especially random people that had never seen our homeland.
.
Those people starved.
We razed that planet to the ground. A billion people, taken. Eaten.
We didn't farm anyone at first. Farming something that can talk to you always felt a little off.
And then we got hungry again. And the next time, things were different.
Not everyone liked that idea though - to the point where some refuse to eat farmed meat entirely - they became the raiders. Living a life of nonstop raids and piracy.
However, the success rate of a farm of those who can speak with us was very low, so we always needed a incoming supply of new cattle.
It was hard to find raiders willing to capture for cattle. But the ones that were, were the best fed folks on this side of the milkyway.
Herbavores are food - we carnivores must eat them.
Of course...
I could never keep things this simple...
"Whatcha doing?" I heard a playful voice from behind me.
I whipped around.
A young cattle boy of my age was dangling himself over my monitor with a bored playful expression.
"You better not be writing that depressing shit again. Your a big fearless Arxur, act like it for once~" he said with a playful expression.
He took my claw the size of his hand in his, and looked up into my face - my heart skipped a beat.
We had grown up on my family's farm together.
They were going to have me kill him to show me the nature of this world ~ but instead I pretended to kill him early, and hid him.
Eventually when we were old enough, we ran off together.
I had to learn to become a raider - kill folks screaming and crying and fighting. It wasn't like killing cattle. It was sad, it was hard.
I targeted the elderly, the government, even the military - much to my partner's worry. However I always came back.
Sparing children, mothers when I could smell it on them (growing up on a farm).
I was good...
Really good...
Never hungry...
Which... Was important.
I never wanted to be drooling over my partner.
He was my one reprive from this life i lead.
He never wanted me to blame myself for what I had to do.
But how could I not?
I loved one after all...
I couldn't take the easy route in my mind, like my parents...
Seeing them as lesser...
What a life we lead I thought, as I gently grasped his little hands.
Feeling his warmth in my hands, the pained thoughts slipped away into a comforting silence...
He was always the more sociql of the two of us. In deep space, i was the provider he was the support. However here at the outpost, things were a little diffrent.
I watched him navagate the winding path, waving at folks he knew.
A friendly non-arxur face was something to be savored. Amongst the little outposts that we regulared, he was beloved. The soft presence of an ally non-arxur was highly sought after. His soft voice was always appreciated at the local firesings and story circles, children always ran up to him, a couple young arxur females have even expressed interest in him.
Though he has eyes for only one predator... I purred.
Even if a little awkward, eating a stew made from the same species you were talking too, helping you retrofit solar rechargers to your raid craft, or improving the efficiency of your inertial damper - We were well loved and trusted members of the community in our little corner of the universe.
Even on the rare visit to cattle colonies, he was safe, if not respected. Even if we did get many odd glances. The raider colors that he wore proudly painted through his fur answered most questions.
Raiders were an odd bunch, highly respected on cattle worlds - almost like you are a veteran - though this affinity was not mutual. Any raiders willing to even occasionally associate with farmers were pampered by the locals. They took whatever they could get.
The factions are similarly complex. The federation is a liberal capitalist hellscape with white paint on it.
Arxur are a complex decentralized society made of trust networks. Habs, hubs, reclaimed (decimated) worlds. Old stations. Old ships. Manufacturing facilities. Even ones hidden in asteroid belts of active federation systems.
These are both galaxy-arm-spanning societies. One existing underground from the other.
And remember, tech is really grounded. Theres no way to easily tell if a ship is entering your solar system.
No battleships really besides those ment for orbital combat.
Trying to meet or block eachother in open space is like a minnow in the ocean.
Planet flattening bombs are stopped by extremely expensive antiair domes and forcefield sheilds - thus only reserved for the richest and/or government planets. not starwars battles.
There's still a rich universe out there. Beautiful in its spector.
However every planet you go to - post apocalyptic.
Strip mined. Most organic life stripped. They dont just kill predators. They exterminate all local fauna with harsh planet-scale poisoning. There is no sentient life aside from a few extremeaphiles. Only plants survive.
This is because biomass is inefficent to resource extraction. And if it cant be enslaved like the arxur, then its useless, and a liability.
Q. Why can't they just find an uninhabated planet and farm there?
A. What if habitable planets are just extremely rare, and life even moreso. Despite that, the universe used to be bustling with life, before the federation came like locusts. Extracted resources until the planet collapsed, then moved on. At this point most of the galaxy has been purged in one way or another - either domesticated or destroyed. Many carnivororous species have came before them. They are the only ones to have survived.
Essentially ecological decline and collapse on a galaxy-wide scale.
They are far less unified.
There's no united front on either side.
There's no "war" - space battles are relatively impractical in this universe unless you count air defense or dogfights.
For instance, no easy ways to detect every ship entering an atmosphere without a sensor dome.
No war, just survival.
.
The federation dreams of jumping galaxies as a solution to the ecological decline - rather than having to accept that it's foundation is rotten at its core - destroying everything. Always feeding, always conquering, always colonizing.
.
However the technology does not exist for that.
.
Overall its a lot more grounded than NOP. A lot closer to deathworlders on the scifi hardness scale.
In raid society - everything is give and take. Trust and purpose. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Bring resources, get resources. Bring meat, get soup. Feed an outpost and get allies. Protect allies and get kin. Kin look after kin. Kin dont leave eachother behind. Webs of trust run deep, hot Soup runs round the clock, and children run in the steets.
Nothing wasted. "We eat our dead, that we may never forget." Names recorded. Scratched and rescratched into murals of the tree of life and death.
Theres only so much energy that can be stored on a non-supermassive craft. Thus galaxy transversal is largely jumps from star to star. Taking days or weeks. Then bathing your solar rechargers.
The aesthetic of this story is this sort of level of detail. But more worn down, covered in graffiti.
Like a combo of these two images:

WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS HIGHLY NSFW
untitled sex story
His claws slipped over my soft little body. Despite my toned form, I might as well be marshmallow to his rugged scaled exterior.
Despite holding a soft little heart during raids, he was a brutal savage deserving of his species name in bed.
As he wrapped his claws around my hips, digging into me with heavy undulations, grinding the little bean in my belly into oblivion.
B-bleat b-bleat slap,
B-bleat b-bleat slap,
When we were younger, just off of the farm. Full of adrenaline and years of pent-up desire for eachother, we learned that we could go this hard. What predator and prey really mean to us.
As I was being pounded, I desperately tried to crawl away, only to be pinned, roughly bitten, blood leaking everywhere, coating his fangs and my fur.
fuckkkkk yesssss
These were the instincts he kept in check during his raids, I was sure of it. After each raid he would breed me for days before we went to any outposts. It was incredible.
Though... No matter how hard I scrubbed, Tilka always tells me I smell quote "well-fucked" sometimes even asking when the eggs were due.
fuckin arxur noses
I yelped as his claws dug into my hips - adjusting himself to swab my belly.
Though... if I was a girl... I would have had his pups long ago, species be damned.
The thought of me carrying his apex predator puppies in my belly sent me over the edge
I clamped down on his cock, thrashing wildly under his impossible weight, as I came - coating our bellies in my seed.
"Good boyyyyy~" he growled as he leaned back, probing my belly with quiet squelching noises.
I could feel his will break, pulsing in my belly, claws digging into my sides.
He released into me, filling my belly with his pups.
He grabbed both of my arms, gripping me tightly to his groin, holding me on his cock like a doll.
His nostrils twitched, taking in a deep and delicious scent.
Ungulating his hips with a growling moan, he licked my blood of his lips, before leaning down - sucking and lapping my fur of it's delicious blood and prey cum.
This was our passion. Our temple to ourselves and our desires. We enjoyed each other in all aspects, and accepted eachother in all aspects.
My only longing was that I could feed him with my willing blood, gifted freely. That he may never have to hunt again.
I reached out and grabbed his face.
Opening his eyes, he looked up at me, still pulsing in my belly.
My best friend, my partner, my mate.
He leaned forward, I moaned as I was pushed into a deeply passionate kiss, tasting my flesh on his lips.
We stayed like that, until he stopped pumping.
I felt him slowly pull back, before tugging me off of his tip with lewd pop, seed running down my tail.
With a breath, he slowly rolled off of me, before grabbing and pulling me into his arms.
"That was wonderful." a deep growing purr that resonated through my whole body as he nuzzled into me.
"I agree" I said as reached up I kissed his muzzle - his claws slowly kneading into my soft fur.
I thought of teasing him about him saving up his instincts for me, but I knew bringing up a raid would sour the mood.
So instead I spoke with my body - pulling him into me.
"I'm so lucky to have this strong apex arxur stud all to myself. The girls at the outpost are so jealous that I get this treatment monthly~" I purred, as I cuddled into his chest.
He gave a deep throaty chuckle as he pulled into me.
Growling "Why don't you invite em sometimes~ Ill let you have a go at em first~" with a purr into my ears.
Blood rushed away from my brain as my whole body started heating up - hips bucking instinctually.
"Keep talking like that and you'll have a creamed slit pretty soon, big boy." I said, playfully bucking my hips into his side.
A large paw smushed my face, claws wrapping around my head in a display of dominance, softly running through the fur on my throat "In your dreams pipsqueak".
Using my head, he pulled it into his wet lap, holding my nose against his wet mound with a growl.
"If you like it so much, clean me up"
My instincts were going into overdrive with the overwhelming smell of male.
Strong... Powerful... Male... MALE...
My tail raised instinctually as I lapped his mound, taking in the feeling of being dominated by a large male.
I started taking cheeky laps at his slit.
He grow-moaned, as he leaned back, letting me pleasure his slit.
I ran my tongue in circles around the inside, sucking his mound, getting as much of the delicious apex killer juice down my throat as possible, flicking my tongue against the deeply hidden tip of his cock.
I pulled back with a lewd pop, snaking my tounge from his depths.
We met in a kiss again.
...
He reached over to the bedside table and grabbed the medical kit. Carefully setting me into his lap, he delicately cleaned and dressed my wounds with unrivaled care and reverence.
Now he's back to being my little gourdfruit again. hehe I thought sweetly. I was filled with pulsing happiness raidiating through my entire body. Even tears were coming to my eyes as the fertile-happy-mated chemicals flowed through my body. Only to be lapped up by my love.
The opportunity to feed such a beautiful beast made my heart flutter. My mate. MY MATE.
I almost wished he was inside me so I could clamp down on him to show him how much I appreciated him.
But I knew he knew. I knew my body was producing odd happy sounds at his touch - smells, trembles, blushes, shivering, sheeming fur, reactions that are reserved for very very few.
Not even hookups, not on the farms.
Only when we are truely happy, only with our lifemates, only in private, when we are filled with this enormous joy.
Few arxur even knew we could make these noises - yet my mate knew them well.
Purring, he worked over my wounds, carefully patching each one with stim healing gel, appreciating my little noises each time he touched my body. By the time we were finished, I could see a content smile on his face as his tail slowly wagged.
My heart swelled, and my skalgan legs propelled me into his chest. My small form "pinning" him to the bed.
His tail was going wild as I kissed him over and over saying I loved him over and over.
His arms wrapped around me, as he kissed back, grinding against my leg.
"Keep talking like that, and I might actually let you have my slit pipsqueak~"
The blood left my brain again.
We had a couple more days bathing the solar rechargers before we could jump to the outpost. And danm if we weren't going to use every second of it rutting our brains out.
Their safeword is "Raid" - as it's a bucket of cold water for the big boy.
Hundreds of years ago, the Federation came like locusts. They poisoned entire ecosystems, stripped worlds bare, enslaved those too weak to fight, exterminated those that could. The Arxur were no exception. Their livestock, their bug farms, their entire food web collapsed. Faced with starvation, they turned to the only option left: eating the colonizers.
From that point on, that act defined them. Overnight the Arxur were painted as monsters who must be exterminated - But instead of dying quietly, they resisted. They scavenged ships and stormed their colonizer's homeworld - devoured billions because there was nothing left to eat but them. They built society of raiders - a hidden galaxy-spanning society living in the shadows of broken worlds. Hiding in asteroid belts, abandoned space stations, inside gas giants, on dead planets. In every system, near every world, they are hiding - hunting - surviving.
In the face of galaxy-wide ecological collapse, scrappy raiders sit warmly around soup pots on abandoned moons in graffitied solarpunk/cyberpunk stations, staring up at the stars telling stories and dreaming of a better world.
Hell, if you stay there long enough, you might even see a prey living among them - for, to raiders, trust and kinship matters more than species. The prey that call raiding stations are scrappy little things living in hell along side their scaly friends. Used to seeing death, often raiders themselves in some form or another. These soft fuzzies bring warmpth to any ol' raiders heart. Because they are a reminder that a better world is possible...
As the galexy rots, the federation dreams of fleeing to another galaxy. However ships in this world are very limited - they can only jump the small gaps inbetween stars before needing to recharge with their solar capture panels. No one wants to be detected, and everyone wants to detect others. Submarene warfare, where coming out of warp wrong announces your location like a beacon in the night... or a dinner bell.
Cargo Freighters run by scrappy prey exploited by big corperations scamper around space like fearful rabbits, as raiders stalk through the shadows. Small raids on planets are common, yes but the danger is 10 fold near the galactic wateringholes that are star systems.
In this chaos, 2 orphaned venlil teens run their families freighter dodging through star systems in a scrapheap for pennies on the dollar. They had been running it since they were children, and would have died long, long ago - if it wasn't for him... Vek.
One of the most infamous raiders on this side of the galactic arm. With an impeccable kill record and a 0% survival rate.
They would have died by his claws... if not for his softspot for children.
He let them go once. Then again. Then again. By the 5th time he caught them, he was so exasperated that he taught them exactly how to hide - a lesson in survial from one of the most successful predators out there.
As they took his lessons to heart they became untouchable - a shadows in the night to all raiders but him. As he continued to catch them, their kinship grew. Each time he would teach them how he caught them, and each time they ensured they never made that mistake again. It turned into a sort of game, and their relationship turned from predator, to aquantance, to sibling - their terrifying older brother "Vek" who hunted them through the stars just to give them a hug.
When he realized his attachment to these scruffy little shits, he gave them a stealth pinger as backup protection - so that if the worst comes to past, all nodes in his kin-network would reconize his claim.
Now in their teenage years, running a new ship brought from their success, they enter Vek's hunting grounds with happiness in their hearts.
However, little do they know, the pinger - the one device above all that keeps them safe, that distinguishes them from meat in the eyes of raiders - of vek - is dead. That this hunt is not a game.
They realize this, when an unknown ship catches them sunbathing, and spikes dig into their hull - to cripple and immobilize them...
Will they survive?
How does their view of him change if they have to stay on his ship for a bit? See a raider colony in person? How do they process this terrifying monster, in a terrifying ship, who's their brother, who loves them very much. Chaos, morality, love, and violence are in store for these little survivors.