Save Me from Extinction

Chapter 1

Somewhere just inside the Epsa Galaxy

A large black Yaujta ship remained docked just within the borders of the Epsa galaxy. The sleek, efficient design made for greater speeds and easy maneuvering, but the ship's length was able to provide enough space for all the Yaujta temporarily living there. Inside the ship, the conference room in particular, all the warriors and Elders were gathered, talking about a recently arisen issue, to be dealt with immediately.

"There has been an infestation of Kainde amedha (Aliens) on the planet Xanidia (Za-ni-d-uh). We require a strong warrior to travel to this planet and exterminate them, lest their vile breed be allowed to take over this quadrant. Are there any who will volunteer for this mission?"asked the Yajuta Elder, causing the room to fall dead silent.

Yaujtas were always looking for a fight and a way to prove their power superior to the others of their race, but the ramifications of taking on an entire planet of amedhas…Such an infestation would be nearly impossible! Already, Scar, Guan-Thwei (Nightblood), and Paya (God, conquering warrior) had been lost to their war with the Aliens on Earth alone, and they, some of the greatest warriors of their kind, had only been dealing with small areas, like rural towns and relatively abandoned areas!

This meant that, naturally, the Elder was against the loss of any more Yajuta elite.

After several more desperately quiet moments, a single indivdual clicked their mandibles together, signaling their intent to accept the perilous challenge. As the Yaujta warriors turned, it was no surprise to any of them that the elite who had chosen to accept was none other than Centanu (God of Death, pronounced sent-a-noo), rightfully named because of his impressive track record. He had killed nearly as many Kainde amedha as the Elder, and the numbers of casualties by his capable hands kept on rising with no signs or stopping or slowing in the least.

The Elder nodded acceptingly, dismissing all at the meeting, all ,that is, except for Centanu, wishing to speak privately with the prodigy of a young male. Turning to Centanu, the Elder spoke. "Centanu as I am sure you are aware, this is a dangerous mission; should something go awry, we will have lost one of our strongest. However, I have faith in you and your abilities. We will nonetheless be monitoring Planet Xanidia and the Kainde amedha count. If the Xanidian's fall and the Kainde amedha infestation becomes too large to be contained, we will inform you and you must leave the planet. Once you are a safe distance awaywe would expect you to detonate the planet immediately. I want you to understand that it is not out of pity, nor lack of confidence in you,but merely the fact that I am unwilling to loose the he who may very well be the greatest Yaujta warrior of our time to the filthy Kaind eamedha. Is this understood?" Centanu clicked his mandibles together, indicating that he understood and remained ready for his challenge. The Elder clicked his mandibles together as well, approving of the young male's courage and confidence, despite what seemed insurmountable odds, and Centanu then walked briskly out of the room to prepare for his departure.

Planet Xanidia

A lone figure trudged across the long expanse of desert, surrounded on all sides by sand and nowhere near a water source.

It was clear by the creature's shape that this creature was a Xanidian, and a woman no less. Her skin was pale and had a light purplish tinge. It was like the skin of a newt, although not wet and slimy; it was as if a newt had been plucked from a swamp and thoroughly towel-dried until no trace of dampness remained . Her claws were abnormally long for her race, and her tail was also unusually strong and tipped with a natural spike (Like the Alien's tail). The end of her tail was also equipped with some natural metal plating. Her claws and tail had always gotten her picked on as a child, and she had often been called 'weird' and 'ugly', but that had swiftly ended when she had been pushed too far one day and assaulted a classmate. R'zan never had walked without a limp afterwards, but that was the consequence of a 180 degree twist to the ankle that had only healed about 50 of those degrees, she supposed. Her black hair was pulled up, some rebellious pieces hanging over her grey eyes like bangs. Her shirt was navy blue with straps on one shoulder and a slit on the side. It was short and showed off her well toned stomach and somewhat muscled arms. On her legs hung loose, baggy, black pants, and her feet were adorned with thin black sandals. She wore a navy belt and a silver chain that held several different sharp animal teeth, and her ears were adorned with small purple drop earrings. Her race was not violent or particularly special in any way shape or form. However, this Xanidian woman's abnormal claws, tail and general strength were able to empower her to be quite an adversary should the situation call for it.

She was currently nearing the Arcova mountain range, meaning, for her, some well-earned rest. As she approached, she spotted a cave at the base of one section of mountains to rest in, sighing contentedly as she settled down into a light slumber.

Waking up a good several hours later, the Xanidian woman climbed into the mountains to find whatever nourishment she could.

Returning to the small cave after a successful hunt, she heard a strange noise, causing her heart to jump in her chest and her muscles to tense in anticipation. Cautiously turning to find the source of the sound, she came face to face with none other than...

Escape Pod, outside Xanidia's Atmosphere

Centanu had chosen an inconspicuous location at which to land, a vast desert near the famously colossal Arcova mountain range, the only landmark on the entire planet that wasn't desert. He had brought all the standard weaponry and armor, and of course he had made sure to bring some blue dissolving enzyme, just in case of emergencies.

Setting the exact location, Centanu began to descend into the Xanidian desert. After landing, he stepped out of the pod, quickly equipping himself with the tools of his trade. Placing his mask on his face and locking it tightly, he began his fairly short trek to the Arcova Mountains; as far as he figured he could start his search there. Looking forward, he saw the mountain range in view and through his skeletal structure view, he immediately spotted two life forms in exceedingly close range to each other, not even a full foot of space between them. Deciding instantly that this was worth his time to investigate, he took a closer look. The first figure he immediately recognized as Kainde amedha, and he forced down the instinctive growl at the sight; the other figure, however, was not as easily recognized. It was a female by the bone structure, but she seemed to be of a stockier build than the average Xanidian woman. From the close proximity of the two and the stance in which they both were, it was clear to Centanu that the female creature was being attacked by the Kainde amedha.

However, it was not as cut and dried as it appeared to be, and Centanu was confused. The Kainde amedha wasn't attacking, but merely remained squirming and thrashing around violently in place, and the female was barely even so much as moving.

Suddenly, though, the Kainde amedha stopped it's movements, and it's head made a sharp crack before falling limp at an impossible angle.

The female creature had just killed a Kainde amedha, and quicker than any creatures Centanu had ever heard. Most of his kind could only dream of killing a Kainde amedha that quickly!

Shifting his vision to the body temperature scope, he scanned the female again, and it quickly became clear as to why the Alien hadn't been moving towards the female.

She was in possession of a very large tail, thick and all muscle, sporting a dangerous looking spike at the end that was reminiscent of the spike on the Alien's tail. In addition to that, she appeared to be quite fit and had abnormally long claws. He was able to tell by her physical appearance that she was a Xanidian female, but she seemed to be stronger than the average for her species.

The female chose that moment to glance up from the Alien's lifeless corpse, noticing his presence.

The two stared awkwardly at each other for several long moments.

Interrupting the blank silence, however, the shriek of an Alien tore through the air like it was tissue paper, and without warning, at least ten of the demons ran out from a nearby mountain cave towards them.

Immediately and instinctively, Centanu drew his blades, turning to see whether the female would take this in stride, or just be dead weight in battle. To his utter surprise, her tail was poised for battle, the deadly, pointed tip had flared to show several different sharp points. She was crouched in an offensive stance, claws ready to attack at any moment. It looked like she was going to take this in stride, after all. Turning back to the oncoming Aliens, he prepared to fight.

Earlier

She came face to face with none other than what her various studies indicated was a member of the Kainde amedha species, one of the more nasty races if memory served. Forcing down her natural terror at seeing such a beast so close, she desperately tried to remember anything and everything of use to her about the before even attempting a confrontation. She seemed to remember that it's blood was acidic, meaning puncture wounds were not the way to go, and that it's brain case was near-impenetrable thanks to the diamond-like outer-shell, so trying to crack it, or even to induce a mild concussion would be stupid as well. A brief text-book image of how these things bred flashed in her mind, and she flinched slightly, realizing she did not want to lose. It's tail, too, was a deadly weapon, and to ignore it would be suicidal. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea, she then realized, to fight fire with fire…

Releasing the spikes on her own tail, she whipped the muscular appendage through the air, forming a tight coil around the Alien's neck, making sure that she had snagged it's tail in a smaller loop of hers; didn't want to get thrashed by a stray flick of that thing.

After taking a deep breath, she exerted just the right amount of force and…snap! Its neck cracked under the pressure, slumping against the helix of muscle lifelessly.

Carelessly allowing the dead creature to flop to the ground, she gave it a once over. Whew, he was no looker, was he? Ugh…thank the spirits that she didn't have one of those nasty things ripping out of her stomach!

Abruptly, a small noise shattered the silence, and her head immediately shot up, looking towards the direction of the sound. It was another creature, obviously not a native Xanidian, but once again not completely foreign to her. She realized that this was a fabled Yaujta warrior, given away by the trademark armor, weapons, dreads and towering height.

For a long moment, they stared awkwardly at each other. During the impromptu staring contest, the female allowed her thoughts to drift into all of the myths she had heard of the Yaujta. They were supposedly called Predators on some planets and were known as Gods to the Ancient humans called Aztecs. They were powerful fighters and their purpose in life, it seemed, was combat and hostility, especially towards the Kainde amedha. Offhandedly she recalled a random fact from her research, relating to the beads they wore in their dreads. Supposedly, they stood to represent how many of the Aliens they had killed; the more beads you had, the higher your status.

The one standing before her now must have had at least 20 or so that she could see, and there was sure to be many more in the dreads on the back of his skull. He must have been one of the more powerful warriors.

She was suddenly torn from her reverie as she heard a shrill shrieking noise. Turning towards the mountains, she saw what could have been a dozen of Aliens racing towards them. Her slate eyes widened for a brief moment before narrowing, determined.

She crouched low, poising her tail and claws for attack, extending her spikes. She felt the Predator's gaze on her, but paid it no mind; there were more important matters than an alien being's apathetic eyes on her, such as the other alien beings' blood-hungry eyes on her.

The Aliens quickly reached them, and the battle began. The first to attack was the Yaujta, tossing a circular blade at the beast closest to him with practiced precision.

Narrator's POV

Another alien lunged at the female Xanidian, who retaliated by using what seemed to be her now-patented move, grabbing it's neck with her tail and squeezing until the tell-tale, sickening snap of death reached her pointed ears.

A third alien took her slight distraction to jump at her, forcing her to the ground, to which she answered with coiling her tail and snapping it back at the beast, smacking it with such force that it went sailing through the air and back into it's comrades, knocking them over like bowling pins.

The Yaujta's eyes glanced towards her briefly before returning to the matter at hand, engaging another alien's eyes in anticipation of another battle.

An alien dashed towards the female at full speed and was greeted by her tail connecting full-force with it's head. The power in the hit was so great that it's head snapped backwards at an impossible angle, certainly indicating death, and it fell limply to the ground.

The battle continued for a good while until, at last, all the aliens who had been present were dead. Retracting her spikes, the female turned to look at the Yaujta warrior.

He, like her, seemed relatively unscathed and merely stood completely still, head tilted at the universal angle of listening to something or other.

The female was unaware that what he was listening to was a message from his ship, and blissfully ignorant of how her life would be changed forever by that one little communication.