I came from Auir
by KeanuGrym
copyright disclaimer: See last Chapter...silly goose.
Ch.4 The Stooges
There were white hot burning eyes in the dark boring into a young youth's very soul. Images flood into his mind. Images of blood accompanied by the shrieks of a thousand abominations. A swarm engulfs a world as a golden ship strikes into the heart of evil itself. A glorious battle. An ominous warning. Death was coming for all of them. Death was coming for them and they weren't ready. They would be struck down in the back and in dishonor. Extinction.
"Centanu! Centanu!", the poor youth shrieked. He flailed his arms about trying to fight someone who wasn't there. Okunth'chay scrambled to the young blood and tried to calm him. Apparently he fell into a fever while she was away and became severely delirious.
She took her hand and placed it upon his forehead and took the other to grasp his hand. His grip was like iron as his claws drew blood in her hand as they dug in. She ignored it and spoke to him saying, "Calm down little one there is nothing to worry about, your safe," turning around she yelled out to her assistants, "Fools! I leave for one moment and you let him catch a fever! Get me a vial of the bitter medicine!"
The assistant nervously replied, "But, all of the medicine tastes bitter!"
"And what? Have you been taste testing them all to be sure? Vial number 7 you moron, before I force feed it to you through your ass! See if it tastes bitter then!" She yelled as the assistant scrambled to the medicine cabinet.
The youngling was still squirming and screaming out, "Centanu, Centanu!" Okunth'chay looked back at him worried. Why had this fever set upon him so? It wasn't natural. Unless contact with the alien had something to do with it. The thing didn't carry a virus with it? The yautja have great immunities, but it still wasn't impossible for one damn virus to wipe out half the population. It's happened once on a distant clan world. Could it happen here though?
Okunth'chay's eyes widened when the youngling yelled out again, "Thousands and thousands! Father! They killed him, they killed him!"
The assistant finally arrived with the correct bottle, but by then the child's fever had already passed as they both watched his temperature return to it's previous state. The child wasn't screaming anymore and was resting again, though there were visible jerks in his mandibles and fingers. He was still dreaming.
The assistant asked Okunth'chay, "What was that all about?"
She turned and replied, "I...I really don't know. The fever disappeared though, and that isn't natural. Anaylize his blood. If you find anything unusual then issues the quarantine protocol. I need to contact someone in the mean time."
"Yes Okunth'chay."
---------------------
Out in the desert there was a trio of young bloods, whom if any rational traveler where to happen across wouldn't have the foggiest idea as to what they were doing. At first it appeared that two of them were watching another one perform a strange dance as he hopped around and held his arms out in odd angles. Very unnatural behavior for yautja. On closer inspection however the truth became a bit more evident. They were playing charades.
"Er..two claws?", one of them asked.
"No no I think he means talons," the other replied.
The one doing the charades pointed at the latter and nodded.
"See I thats the third one I called. You're really not good at this game are you?"
Turning to his partner the other remarked, "This isn't a game cjit for brains! Dead-noise saw something with a frilled head, no face, and two talons that was hotter than a grt'akuk. Do you know what that is, cause I don't!"
The other shrugged off his friends serious demeanor. "Patch, there are several creatures out there like that, and it ain't nothing that we can't handle anyways so why worry?"
Patch rolled his eyes at Splint. He really hated him sometimes. It was that exact attitude of his that got Splint his name. Of all the yautja in their tribe, Splint was by far the dumbest and the luckiest of them all. He has had so many fractures, dislocations, and concussions from all of his hair brained adventures and suicide hunts that it became rare to ever see him without a cast or splint on one of his limbs. Thus his name. In fact he was so bad about getting injured all the time Okunth'chay got sick of him and banned him from the healing halls on pain of death, which she considered to be the only "cure" for such a horrendous case of stupid.
Patch first met Splint at the healing halls before he was banned. At the time Patch was under the tutelage of Okunth'chay herself. At first she was elated to find a bright young male yautja that wanted to learn the art of medicine as much as the hunt, but as time went by their teacher pupil relationship became strained. Okunth'chay would claim it was incompetence, but Patch would say he left because she was bitch, which incidentally he called her in public. Big mistake. Banned from the healing hall Okunth'chay had to deal with Splint which led to his expulsion and the two eventually met each on the outside. They formed a tight partnership after that out of mutual benefit since Splint constantly needed a medic of some sort and Patch needed a body to practice and experiment medicine on. A perfect couple Dead-Noise would joke in sign.
Dead-noise was the third wheel of the group. Or at least it appeared that way. In truth he was the de facto leader by vote on account that he was the oldest, came from a higher class family, rescued Patch and Splint more times than they rescued him and he kept all his stuff cleaner than the others did. Despite the fact that he was the leader he didn't play the part so well. One, because he couldn't speak, two because Patch and Splint were idiots (especially Splint), and three because on some days he really didn't give a shit. Dead-Noise was content to just let Splint come up with plans for the next hunt and let Patch fix Splint up when everything went wrong while he stepped in from time to time to save both of their hides. Coincidentally, he too was banned from the healing halls since he has the reputation of being a jinx to everyone around him. Last time he was there he accidentally burned half of the place down. He was pulled to Patch and Splint because they were outcasts like him and strangely enough his bad luck doesn't effect them, though he was sure it was because their combined bad luck canceled out his own. As different as they all were there was one thing they agreed on. Okunth'chay was a bitch.
Watching Dead-Noise, they saw him make gestures toward his armor. Patch guessed that Dead-Noise meant that the creature was scaled, but Dead-Nose shook his head. Splint scratched his chin trying to understand what the other meant.
"You're saying it was something armored?"
Dead-Noise nodded.
"What? That would just be another yautja! We have a short sign for that, why go through all this trouble with charades?" Patch said a little irritated.
Dead-Noise shook his head, however. It wasn't another yautja he saw, he was sure of it.
"Okay so your saying there is an armored creature out there like a yautja, but isn't right?" Splint asked.
Patch and Splint looked at each other when Dead-Noise nodded again as if expecting the the other to know what it could have been. The idea that it could have been alien fluttered briefly through their minds, but it was too fantastic of an idea to even be possible to them. An alien coming to the yautja home world? No one was that dumb.
Patch thought a little bit and then said, "Well it shouldn't be too far away. One of us is going to have too go with Dead-Noise to the place he saw this armored creature of his. I doubt it was anything at all, but if were lucky we'll find out it was just a stray hishkan'trat and the sun was just playing with your eyes, Dead-Noise."
Dead-Noise crossed his arms in contempt. His eyes were just fine.
"One of us will have to stay with the ship," Patch said as he pointed with his thumb to the copper colored vehicle they affectionately dubbed "The Death-Trap." Patch turned to his comrade and said, "I vote for Splint."
"Now wait a minute!" Splint objected, "You always vote for me to do the boring stuff and I for one am tired of this pathetic excuse you call..er...what did you call it again, Patch?"
"Democracy."
"Yeah, Democracy. Why did we decide to settle things that way anyways?" Splint asked.
"Because we voted on it," Patch answered.
Splint nearly struck Patch then, but decided against it. "Look it's ridiculous! Yautja shouldn't decide what to do and what not to do by voting! I think that's what oomans do anyways. It's stupid and unbecoming!"
"Well how exactly do you want to settle this then?"
Splint thought for a moment and then said, "Stone, claw, and net. Stone beats claw, claw beats net, and net beats stone, you know the rules."
"I don't know, maybe we should have a vote first."
"No votes! Next time you say vote I swear I'll rip your head off!", Splint roared, "We play now!"
The three of them held their hands away and chanted the ancient ritual, or at least two of them in any case, and brought their hands together revealing their choice. In the first round Splint had stone, Dead-Noise had net and Patch also had net. In the second round the outcome was much the same except Splint had net and the others had claw. In the next round it happened again with Splint left with claw and the others having stone.
"This is impossible!" Splint roared, "You cheated!"
"Sorry Splint but that's how it goes. What's decided on the ancient game cannot be undone on pain of death, you know that," Patch said, "Me and Dead-Noise won't be gone for too long. Contact us if you see anything strange."
Splint bit down on his anger and accepted his his task, but was still perplexed on how he lost three times in a row. He sure it was the god's conspiring against him.
"Go out and catch your death for all I care! Who in their right mind would want this piece of cjit anyways?"
----
Behind the hill that the ship of the three yautja warriors was parked, a desperate alien thought only of acquiring a vessel of any kind to complete it's mission. It was not an easy feat distracting the warriors but at the very least he had only one and not three to deal with.
The encounter with the yautja youth back in the caves taught him enough about the yautja mind to know they see in heat. Armed with this knowledge he employed an alteration of an ancient technique the high templar of his caste used. He wasn't sure if it would work at first, but his "heat clone" did the trick as he watched two of the warriors disappear into the barren hills. His only problem now was finding a way to infiltrate the ship.
"Hmm...it's guarded by only one. I can't afford a fight, however. If I wait he may open it himself, but if I wait too long the others my come back," he pondered too himself, "My powers are nearly exhausted...but I may be able to pull off one more ruse."
A few minutes passed by and Splint grew weary of his guard duty. He paced around and mumbled to himself trying to devise a way to turn the tables on his comrades on a later date. He couldn't tolerate being out of the hunt for whatever reason, it just drove him nuts to sit here and do nothing. At the moment he was wishing that someone or something would try to attack or take the ship.
Clang!
Caught by surprise of the loud noise, Splint turned immediately began to scour the area of the disturbance. It sounded at first as if something metallic struck against the ship. However after a few minutes of searching he found nothing. Little did he know however of the presence that stayed far enough away from him to constantly be hidden behind the curvature of the ship.
Clang!
"Where is that coming from?" Splint thought to himself as he once again raced around the ship to discover the source of the disturbance. By the time he got there though he was disappointed not to find anything.
Clang!
There it was again! Splint was starting to become angry and raced once more to the other side of the ship roaring all the way there. When reached the other side he didn't bother to stop, but kept the pace up running circles around the ship hoping to flush out his prey. After about five circles around the ship he finally came to a stop to try to think for a moment. That is however until...
Clang!
"RAGH!" Splint roared at the top of his lungs. Having enough of this game he jumped and climbed up to the top of the ship for a more panoramic view of what was going on. He looked over to the front of the ship and then to the back. He ran towards the left and right side of the ship, but whatever it was that was toying with him remained well out of view no matter what angle he viewed from. Splint began to worry a bit, but then he thought of something.
"Oh I get it. Ha ha, that was very amusing of you. Patch! Dead-Noise! I know it's you! Are you happy now that you have made a fool of me?" He yelled out thinking that his comrades had played a sort of prank on him. He waited for an answer, but nothing came but silence. Curious he strode around to look over all the sides of the ship again.
CLANG!
Splint whipped around as fast as he could. The last disturbance came from directly behind him. Whatever it was that was toying with him was now on the roof of the ship and Splint could see it. It looked somewhat like a yautja, but clearly wasn't. He didn't care at the time what it was though, it was going to be dead meat. The creature, however, was moving far too fast for Splint to react in time and before he could get out of the way a fierce cyberneticly enhanced kick was planted into his solar plexus. He fell not so gracefully upon his back, and had the misfortune of falling upon a jutting stone that found a snug place between his should blade and spine. The pain was not the greatest he faced and as he opened his eyes he saw the alien that attacked him was currently at the peak of a jump and was about to come down upon him something fast.
"For AIUR!" the creature boomed with all it's power. Splint could have moved out of the way, but his attention was held a few seconds too long by the alien's battle cry. He paid the consequences for his hesitance. Over two hundred pounds of alien fury was channeled through the legs of the warrior as it smashed it's feet upon the yautja's skull after falling from about 12 ft from the air. The force trauma to the head was immense and could have killed a human or knock out a lesser yautja. The crafty trickster got up and observed his handiwork.
"I think...it worked," he said to himself. As he observed the thing beneath his feat he was somewhat surprised to find that it was still conscious, but just barely. The yautja groaned and started to raise itself off of the ground. He flipped himself around and with his hands lifted his body up. The alien warrior thought quickly. He already went through all that trouble to incapacitate this being without killing him as he needed it alive and unconscious. Clasping his hands together he channeled what little of his psionic reserves into his hands and slammed his coupled fists into the base of the back of the stubborn yautja's head. Splint was finally out cold.
"This species resilience is impressive. Unfortunate that this one was not so clever," he said to himself as he knelt down beside it. He was exhausted and needed a few minutes to rest. The yautja should be out for a while, but the alien knew he needed to make haste. As soon as he could he would probe the yautja's mind and figure a way to open and operate the ship.
The alien looked skyward and sighed. "I hope my friends that you are safe for the time being. By Tassadar, nothing will deter me from completing my mission," the warrior said withe great determination in his eyes.