Chapter 1

The awakening

Xanathar is sleeping at his desk when a female yautja enters the room. "Xan...Xan, wake up". Xanathar barely moved at the sound. He was in too deep of a sleep to be awakened by so soft of a voice. A second yautja walks into the room, this time a male. "No, No, No Alinch" said the male yautja loudly, breaking the silence. "You have too wake him up like this". The male yautja quickly gives Xan a hard right uppercut to the ribs. Xan quickly grabbed his right side, lifted his head off his desk too see who punched him. Alinch was shocked, she expected him too leap out of his seat, and gore the other yautja into the wall. Xan just looked at the male yautja until his sleepy eyes focused. The yautja was just laughing.

When Xan's eyes could see who he was looking at clearly, he just lend back in his chair holding his side. "Zyn you asshole" Xan replied with a short laugh in his voice. Zyn is short for Zyn'galitch. Zyn is Xan's best friend, and co-researcher of prey. Alinch is a trainee of Xan and Zyn, and will be the only female researcher in the Crescent clan. The crescent clan being the one their in. Xanathar is the head researcher of the clan, and an ex-hunter. Xan was able to master the spear very quickly and easily. It took him only 40 years too achieve this. As far as yautja go that's still in their early teens. He killed his first ooman at age 105, his first xeno at age 167 and his first juvenile queen at age 213. Of course Xan was no ordinary yautja. For starters he was smaller than most hunters; he stood only 7' 2". It wasn't much of a handicap though, being smaller made him much faster and more agile. It was Xan's body proportions that made him outstanding with a spear. Xan's torso was noticeably smaller then it should be, and unlike Xan, Zyn is not in good physical shape for a yautja. His skin is very pale from not seeing much sun, and has a faint green tint to it. Xanathar's skin was different than most Yautja also. It was dark gray in color and had light gray on his chest, abs, and arms. This combined with his white dreads made him very noticeable among his kind. "Crescent Blood Scar wants an audience with you" says Alinch. "I don't suppose he said what he wanted" he asks. "No he just said to send for you and that it was urgent" she replies. "Sound like good old predictable Crescent, don't fall asleep when he's talking too ya" says Zyn. "Yeah yeah, I'll see you two later" says Xan as he gets up from his chair and walks out of the lab".

As Xanathar walked to the bridge of the ship, he saw many of the yautja hunters, and brawlers suiting up. Brawlers are yautja that use only a set of left and right wrist blades, and each blade is over 3 feet in length. This is a little odd, usually Crescent doesn't have this many warriors go on a simple hunt. "Maybe it s a little more serious than I thought. It would have to be, to have 12 brawlers go on an outing" Xan said too himself under his breath. Brawlers are seldom hunters; they are used for war or heavy combat. Xan continued to walk to the bridge. The door to the bridge opened upon his arrival. Xan walked into the large room, took a quick glance around, and walked over too were Crescent was sitting. Crescent s chair was made from xenomorph chiltin, their exoskeleton, and was very large. The back of the chair was 8" tall, and made from the head plate of a queen he killed while exterminating a hive. The arms of the chair were two face huggers, the legs were 4 drone heads, sprawled out like insect legs, and the seat was made from egg leather. Crescent Blood Scar is the leader of this clan of bad bloods, and a strong one at that. Under his rule Crescent Blood Scar had organized the largest and most powerful bad blood clan to ever plague space. With over 1000 members on board his massive star vessel, and over a million spread through out space. Crescent is no ordinary yautja ether. He stands over 10 feet tall, which is very tall for yautja. His body proportions are fairly normal except for his massive amount of muscle. His mandibles where another part of this beast like Yautja that made him so imposing. The tusks were longer and thicker than any other yautja, and when he flailed them out he could fit another yautja's head between them. Crescent's skin was very tan like he had never seen a cloudy day in his life. His dreads are a dark faded blue color and reached down to his shoulders. His armor is made out of a strange black metal that Xan found on his very last hunting trip with Crescent to an uncharted planet. The metal had literally no weight, but is stronger than any material known too the yautja. Crescent has a large red crescent shaped scar on the right side of his face from the swipe of the queen that was now apart of his chair. In order to get it red Crescent poured the blood of oomans he killed for fun into the gapping wound as it healed. As a result the scar tissue was died red and this was how his name came about. Which he takes very seriously, no one shortens his name in his presence for fear of what he might do. Except Xan, being his childhood friend and all.

Xan approached Crescent then stopped and waited for him to finish talking to the two brawler guards, they where his most loyal warriors. They were trained personally by Crescent himself. Although his first student had left, he trained more. Have you two gotten all that says Crescent? "Yes Crescent Blood Scar!" the two yautja replied with perfect timing. "Good now inform our brothers". The two yautja walked out the door Xan just came through. Xan walked too the front of Crescent s chair. "So what's going on" Xan says interrupting Crescents thoughts. "Oh, Xan that's right, well you see, something rather argent has come up. I need you to take charge of the ship while I'm gone" says Crescent. "Sure I will, but what's the story? It can't be any small task" replied Xan. "The ashcan clan has lost most of their hunters" says Crescent. Xan pauses for a moment dumb founded then replies "how did this happen?"

Crescent leans back in his chair "I was told they found a small ooman base on a small planet, and decided to go investigate. They didn't come back. Then they sent a second party too search for them, but they never came back ether". Xan looked at the domed viewing glass around the bridge, then turned back to Crescent "Are we meeting up with them" asked Xan. "Yes, in a days time" says Crescent. "I knew humans could be very resourceful when their lives are in danger, but to lose that many Yautja to oomans is just unfathomable" says Xan puzzled.

After Xan left the presence of Crescent, he returned to his resting quarters. As Xan lay in his bed, he tried to think himself to sleep, which he did most of the time. Xanathar's intelligence surpassed other yautja, except for the fabled high elders. Xan just couldn't stand not being able to figure something out, and this strived him to try harder and harder too get the answer. Then as any other night, Xan was too stressed from thinking and dozed off.

When Xanathar awoke he could hear that the ship was in a frenzy of movement. The sounds of metal clanking, footsteps, and conversions filled the hallways. Sleep didn't come easy for him, so he was pretty pissed about all the noise. Xan staggered out of bed and to his door. The door vacuumed into the floor, reveling yautja running up and down the hallways. "Hey! What the hell could be so important that you have to make so much fucking noise in my damn hallway?!" Xan roared into the now silent hallway. The yautja all stopped and looked at Xan, not because of his out burst but because of the strange words he used. Most yautja couldn't fully understand ooman languages, let alone translate it into yautja language. One yautja spoke up "We've docked with the Ashcon ship, so just calm down". Xan paused for a moment then replied "oh that s right, I nearly forgot". Xan sealed his door, and started to dress himself.

Xanathar's average attire, and that of other researchers was a red sleeveless shirt made from a thick cotton like cloth, a pair of black loose fit pants make from a durable but light weight synthetic material, a pair of boot like ware that let the talons and toes stick out, and a thick heavy reddish brown over coat that hung down past the knees. Once Xan was dressed, he walked on to the docking bay of the ship. When Xan arrived there were only a few yautja standing around. Xan looked around for an ashcan clan member, but didn't see any around. Xan opened the air lock and walked onto the ashcan ship.

Xan walked around the ship, not seeing too many familiar Ashcon members, but did hear Crescent and an older yautja speaking in a room he walked by. Xan walked back to the door, listened for a moment, and then opened the door. Crescent and the old yautja quickly turned their heads towards Xan. "Hey elder, I see your age has not dulled your reflexes" says Xan. "Xanathar is that you? I could hardly recognize you, you've really bulked down" says the old yautja. "Well I don't need to use my body as much" Xan replies. "So how is your research going?" says the old yautja in a sarcastic tone? Xan picking up the sarcasm, and starts to get irritated. The old yautja hated the fact that Xan gave up hunting, since he was the one that trained him form childhood. Well it takes more talent to use the mind, than the body" says Xan bitterly. Crescent interrupts the two "Enough! We don t have time for this, we have our brethren down on that planet that need are help, so lets focus!" "Your right son, we should focus on the task at hand" replies the old yautja. "Ok, we do know that the number of yautja down there is 10" says Crescent. "Hold on a minute, 10 young bloods" replied Xan. "Yes" says Crescent with a sigh. "And not a single suicide bomb went off. I now more about oomans than anyone, and what there capable of, they are not capable of killing that many yautja with so few numbers" says Xan. "So what's your point" says the old one.

Xan replies "My point is old one, that the base is too small to be a military facility. And even if it was 10 young bloods could easily escape them. Something else is going on down there". "I'll tell you what's going on down there; the oomans are doing what their good at. Hiding and setting traps so they can steal what we have" says the old one. "Now that s an idiotic theory, the mass majority of oomans don t even know of our existence. They don t know enough about us to set a massive trap like that" replies Xan. "Your view of oomans Xanathar has always disgusted me, you've always had too much compassion for them" says the old one in an irritated tone. Xan just stared at the yautja and started clicking his mandibles, and expression of extreme anger. He turned around slowly and walked out the door.

Xan returned to his room too cool his temper down. He had a calm personality, but that could change fast if you hit the wrong nerve. He started to punch a wall in this room, and continued too do so for 2 hours strait. Hearing the loud pounding, Zyn went to Xan s room. Zyn opened the door, the room was relatively dark. Now the door let light in like a spot light on Xan. He stopped punching the wall, and turned too Zyn. Xan was breathing heavily clenching his fist. They were glowing green from his blood, and his knuckles were cut badly. The wall he was punching and was covered in the glowing blood, and concaved severely. "Let me guess, disagreement with the old one" says Zyn. Xan laughed under his breath. "You can tell that from this" says Xan as he points to the wall. "Yeah, Come on, lets get your hands fixed up" replies Zyn.

Chapter 2

New specimen

It had been two weeks since Crescent Blood Scar, his group, and the remaining hunters of the Ashcon clan landed on the small planet. Xan had spent most of that time on the bridge of ship. Communication had stopped on the third day, and there hadn't been a sign of them since. He walks into the bridge, and approaches a small yautja at a computer station. "Any word yet" says Xan with a yawn. "No not yet" says the yautja. He clicks his mandibles together rapidly and growls. "Damn it how long is this going to last" replies Xan angrily. "Wait! I don t believe it" says the yautja. "Did you find them!" says Xan. "Well it's ours, but there's only one" says the yautja. "Only one, they left with five. Something serious most of happened" replied Xan. "Should I start docking sequence" says the yautja. "Yes, but don't tell anyone else, they shouldn't know just yet" says Xan. He calmly walked out the door and to the dock.

He waited at the dock for a few minutes, until he heard the air lock close, then he proceeded in. He looked at the docked ship noticing that there was no damage marks on it at all. The ships side hatch opened, and out stepped Crescent. He looked over at Xan, then motioned for him to come too him. He jogged over to Crescent, when he reached him he gave a quick glance at the ship then back at Crescent. "Where are all the others?" asked Xan. Crescent removed his large black mask, and snapped it into place on his shoulder. "Dead or close to it" replies Crescent. "What! How could that happen?" says Xan in astonishment. "I don t have time, detonate all the suicide devices now" says Crescent. Xan lifts his wrist up in front of him, and presses a plate on a glowing red wrist band. Xan speaks into it "Detonate". Within seconds the majority of the plants surface is scorched and blown away.

As Xan and Crescent were conversing, the two elite brawler guards walked out of the ship pushing a large metal ooman constructed crate. The two brawlers pushed the crate up to Xan. "What is this?" asks Xan. "There's some kind of creature inside of it. It must be important for how well protected it was" says Crescent. "Well did you open it?" asks Xan. "No, we just found it than left" replies Crescent. "Well let me see" says Xan. He looks in one of the small ventilation holes, but could only see darkness. Xan didn't needs to see it to spark his interest, because he caught a scent of it. He took an even deeper sniff of the scent. Xan s mandibles started clicking together, his eyes rolled back, and he was marking a deep purring noise.

The two brawlers slung out their four five foot blades, and readied themselves. Crescent held his arm out in front of them and shook his head. Xan was still in his trance. The scent made his body warm up and relaxed, his senses had seemed to dull. The scent had triggered his brain to feel an overwhelming scene of pleasure. Crescent hit Xan on the shoulder. Xan's body tensed up, and then blindly lunged at Crescent. Crescent quickly, caught Xan's head, his hand covering the majority of it. Then Crescent pulled his arm back and through it forward, sending him sailing, and then landing 20 some feet away. Xan pushed his body up from the ground, and then got to his feet. He looked ahead at Crescent who was just standing there with blood dripping from his hand. Xan wiped his mouth only to see he had Crescents blood on it. "What just happened?" said Xan in confusion. "That's what happened to all the others. As soon as we where with in three miles of the human base all of them acted just like you did, including my father" replies Crescent. "And you were the one to end him" said Xan. Crescent nodded his head slowly, and the two brawlers lowered theirs. "Well bring this to the lab, I've got to tell Zyn and Alinch to wear masks" says Xan.

After Xan had washed his face he told Zyn and Alinch to put their breath masks on. Breath masks are small and only cover the mouth. The crate was brought in as Xan was putting on his mask. "So Xan why are we wearing these masks" says Zyn. "Well from what I've gathered, the creature in this crate can produce some hormone that impairs all rational thoughts and actions" replies Xan. "Ok good enough reason for me, you Alinch" says Zyn. "Same here" replies Alinch. "Well let's get this crate open" says Xan. He scans over the crate looking for the lock releases. He notices a key panel on top, and then with one hand he quickly starts to go through every possible 5 number key combination. He comes a crossed it in just under a minute. "62789" says Xan committing it to memory. He lifted the lid, looked in side than shut it again. Xan thinks to himself, that can't be. Zyn walks over to Xan, and lifts the lid. "That's a xenomorph" says Zyn. "Yes I can see that" replies Xan. "Xenomorph hormones don't affect us" says Zyn. "Well this one's can" replies Xan. He and Zyn pushed the crate into a holding cage. "Well it looks female" Zyn says. "Yea, that s for sure" says Xan. "Well let's pick this up tomorrow" says Xan. "Good idea, Alinch and I have business else were" replied Zyn, standing beside Alinch with his hand on her ass. Xan goes to his sleeping quarters and for once falls right to sleep.

The next day Xan wakes up before any one else for a change. He goes to the lab and approaches a machine against the wall. He presses a large button, then reaches to his left and grabs a metal mug. He holds it under a funnel shaped tube, and then releases the button. A hot, thick brown liquid flows from the tube into the mug. When it was full he starts drinking it. As he was drinking he looks over at the cage for just a second then back to the inside of his mug. When he realizes what he just saw he chokes on his drink. He set the mug down and regains his breath. Then looks back at the cage to see the xenomorph looking back at him. It wasn't the fact that she was awake that surprised him, but that she had eyes.

Xan stood still and looked over the creature, taking in every detail. The xeno stood around seven feet tall, and had a large crest on the back of her head much like that of a juvenile queen. Her face was smooth and looked like a rubbery substance. Her eyes were bright green and they brought out more of the oomans facial fetchers than xeno. She had lips or close to it, instead of bare teeth. Xan paned his gaze down he body. It was her body that made her noticeably female. Although she still had the rib like exoskeleton around her chest, it wasn't as noticeable as other xenos. Just like female yautja and oomans she had breasts, although clearly not like, the yautja, because yautja don't have nipples. Hers did but were the same rubbery skin but thicker and stiffer. The breast themselves where the same smooth skin as her face, and from the looks of them where much firmer than oomans or yautja.

Xan found himself examining that section for to long, so he snapped himself back into focus. Her skin was a dark black chiltin much like a xeno, but wasn't bony looking at all. It was much smoother looking, but still had the dominant skin patterns of a xeno. Since her skin wasn't bony, he could see her perfect muscle tone. Which didn't surprise him to much he knew xenomorphs were genetically gifted and where born in perfect physical condition? Her waist was thin like most xenos but her hips were wide much like ooman females, but not as wide as yautja females. She stood more up right then xenos, but still hand the same structure they were just smoother and more feminine. She had a tail that didn't look like a xenos tail at all. It was more like a lizard's tail, but with thick bony plates along the top. At the tip of her tail was a small serrated blade only 10 inches long.

As Xan started to approach the cage, she started to back up towards the wall. Noticing that she was afraid of him, Xan walked right up to the bars of the cage. She was backed up against the wall but couldn't out go all the way because of the stiff tubes protruding from her back. He figured she was hungry so he grabbed what was left of a kylabon stack. A kylabon is a domesticated herd animal, much like the cows oomans have. He held it in his hand and put his arm through the bars. Then she showed a strange ability to cover her face. She could slide he crest over her face and cover it completely except for the eyes. "No, no, no, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to give you this" says Xan in as soft of a voice as a yautja can have. This would be an easy way to lose an arm if this was a normal xeno, but he could tell she was not aggressive at all. All xenos strike at what ever moves, its one of their survival tactics. She put her crest back to its original position, and looked at Xan. She knew he said something, but couldn't understand it. He waves the steak at her, and she looks at the piece of meat in his hand. She slowly takes two steps towards him, and then gently takes the meat from his hand. She holds it in her hands loosely. Both her index and middle finger where fused together and the same was true with her ring and pinky. Although they where fused they still looked separate. On appearance it looked as if she had ooman like hands, eight fingers two thumbs, each with a sharp black claw attacked to it. She licked the piece of meat, that swallowed it whole.

Her mouth was interesting as well besides the fact she had a tongue and not a deadly second set of jaws that can punch through a human skull like tissue paper. She had the same teeth as a xeno but hers were whiter than the bare metal color. The inside of her mouth was a dark purple color as was her tongue. He removed his arm from the cage, and then suddenly it came to him. He had forgotten to put on his mask. He looked franticly for another mask, but didn't see one. He began to panic, and then he realized that he wasn't acting like he was before. Than he began to think, maybe this hormone was only produced when she was sleeping. It seemed logical; he wasn't a mindless raging zombie currently. He resumed his examination of the ooman crate. He was looking trying to hack the computers key panel. He tore the covering off the computer, exposing the circuitry. He pulled a small pin from his wrist band, and inserted it into the crates processing unit. In that instant the pin melted, burning his index finger. "Damn! That hurts" says Xan in English. Seconds later he hears someone else say damn. At first he thought it was an echo, and pays no attention. Then he hears the same voice say "You speak like human?"

Xan looks up from the crate, and turns around slowly. Then he sees the xeno up against the bars looking right at him. "What?" Xan says in English but shocked. "Speak human, can you?" says the xeno. His eyes widen, and skin turns pale. "Uh…Yes ... I can" says Xan recovering himself from total shock. The xeno started to jump around playfully when he said that. This made him take his focus off of being amazed, to focusing on her chest, and for a moment the feeling of shock was replaced by the feeling of tightening pants. "Um…uh how can you speak?" says Xan. She stopped jumping around and looked back at him. "Always able to talk" said the xeno. "But this is just impossible, xenomorph don't have the ability to form ooman words" replies Xan. "What is Xe- no- morph?" asks the creature. "That's what you are well that s the ooman name for your kind anyway" answers Xan.

The xenomorph looked down at Xan s feet, then back up to his face. "But you are unlike any xenomorph I've ever seen" said Xan walking closer to the cage. The creature looked away from Xan s gaze, and looked at his chest, so to not make him feel intimidated. Xan approached close enough to were he could touch her. She quickly glanced at his face, than stared back at the floor. He slowly reached his hand through the bars to touch the crest on her head. She shut her eyes as he placed his hand on her. Then Xan heard foot steps coming down the hall. He quickly removed his hand, and turned around just as the door opened. The xenomorph jumped and clung to the ceiling. Alinch walked in and stopped to look at Xan, who was standing perfectly strait with his hands behind his back.

"Well you're up early" said Alinch in yautja lang. "He…he… Yes well I just couldn't wait to get here" Xan says with a nervous laughter. Alinch quickly picked up Xan's nervousness. Alinch looked behind him, at the cage which looked empty. "What happened did the xeno escape?" asked Alinch. "Oh no no no, everything is fine in here" says Xan with the same nervous laugh. "If every thing is fine than why are you so nervous?" says Alinch. "Who's that?" the xeno asks Xan. "Shhhhh" replies Xan. Alinch, hearing a third voice, is confused. "What was that" she says. "What was what?" replies Xan. "Don't give me that I heard a voice than you said shhhh, so you must of heard it to" says Alinch frustrated. Just then the xeno jumps down. She takes one look at Alinch and hides behind Xan. She puts her hands on his shoulders and whispers in his ear "keep her away".

Alinch is frozen in shock from this. "Why are you afraid of her?" Xan asks to the xeno. But all she could say was scrambled words and alien hisses. "Alinch could you meet me out in the hallway" says Xan. Alinch walked backwards slowly out the door. When Alinch shut the door Xan tried to walk forward, but was held back. He was surprised at the strength of her grasp. "Let go, I'll be right back" said Xan. She cautiously took her hands of his shoulders, and jumped back up to the ceiling. Xan walked out the door to meet Alinch. "How can that thing talk" asked Alinch. "That's a good question, I was trying too ask her that before you walked in" replied Xan. "Well I couldn't under stand it, but it was definitely not xeno. It was speaking like you do some times" said Alinch. "Yes, she can speak ooman, which is physically impossible for a xenomorph" says Xan. "Now I want you to stay out of the lab, and keep every one else out until I say its ok" says Xan. "But what about Zyn" replies Alinch? "Him to" says Xan.

Xan proceeded back to the lab, and locked the door behind him. The xeno took a peek to see who it was. When she saw it was Xan she jumped down from the ceiling. "Thank you" she said. "For what" Xan asks. "For getting her away from me" she says. "Why don t you like her" Xan asks. "She hurt me" she says. "Oh don't worry she wont" Xan says. "Just forget about her ok" Xan says. She nods her head. "Alright first things first, um what s your name" he says. She pauses for a moment than speaks up "I can't say it in way you understand" she says. "Well just say it how ever you normally say it" replies Xan. She then said something that was completely alien. "AALLHHIISSSSS". "Your right I don t understand it, but it sounds like the ooman name Alice, so I'll call you that" says Xan. She pronounces it several times and seemed to be quiet fond of it. He continued to ask her questions about were she came from, did she know any others like her, but her answers were of no use.