Predator Gothic
Part 10
Frontier World. AVP Universe
"So where are we going?" Jenkins asked.
After spending a lot of time together (it was pointless trying to keep track of how long since we'd moved from planet to planet and all worlds had their own day and night cycles) you'd think the colonial marine and I would be on a first name basis. But she hated anyone using her first name and since there was normally only ever the two of us around it seemed silly to use names at all. Not that this meant we weren't close. My student, for lack of a better term, spent a lot of time fucking, when we weren't training, hunting or exploring. It was an odd sort of relationship, not really romantic, but neither was it purely physical.
"The Clan Leader sent me a message" I informed the former solider "He thinks there's something odd going on around here. A Yautja clan has been spotted in the area, but he doesn't know why they are in this part of the galaxy, they might be allowed by the Elders, but this world is close to several worlds claimed by our clan. It could be the Tusks again, the clan we encountered when we first met, or another group of rivals. Anyway there are humans here, its a frontier world and we're best suited to get some information from them".
On the account of not being scary looking mother-fuckers.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'm heading to the colony for a drink" I told Jenkins "Its a frontier colony so they're bound to have some use for the kind of junk I collect".
I very much doubted that what passed for credit cards in this universe and time were of much use out here on the very edges of human civilization. And I'd some chances to acquire good of value, mostly junk and some human weapons. Out here they were worth a lot.
"Aren't we looking for information" the marine wondered "And don't we have drinks on the ship".
Yeah but they were watered down Yautja drinks.
"But they always have me on my ass by the second mouthful" I replied "For one I'd like to finish a bottle before passing out".
We both laughed as we remembered the first time we'd tried to make Yautja booze more drinkable via watering it down. I'd woken up wondering where my ship was to only to find that I'd flown us to a totally different planet and that was why the scenery had changed. As it turned out ice moons with breathable atmospheres are actually a real thing.
I had another reason for taking Jenkins to human outpost. I was worried that she'd never grieved for the men she'd lost back on that training planet. I'd attempt to discuss the matter, only she wouldn't talk about it. In fact she avoided talking about feelings at all.
Which while actually rather pleasant for me, as I didn't want to talk about emotions, it also seemed unhealthy.
Sure I wasn't totally human any more, and I'd never been a solider, but I was pretty sure that keeping all those feels inside for too long was a bad thing. Perhaps being around other humans would remind her that she too was a human being.
It didn't take us long to reach the human colony, and as we entered the compound, many people stared at us as we passed by, but mostly at me. Jenkins mostly wore her colonial marines outfit with some bits of Yautja armour, were as I looked far more alien. Of course we'd taken our masks off so people could see that we were humans.
When we reached the bar, having already stopped at some other places, I looked down at my other hunting partner. She, he or it (I didn't know which nor did I care to check closely enough to find out) was a local wolf like creature, that might be descended from an Earth canine when this world was first settled if enough time had passed for the species to change. As that wasn't the case I suspected that the horned wolf creature was just a case of parallel evolution caused by the Engineers having seeded life on so many worlds. Much like how the Ancients seeding life in the Stargate galaxy led to their being humans sodding everywhere.
"Dog, stay" I commanded.
The dog, I'd never seen the need to name the creature, circled a small area for a moment before lying down next to the door. That done, we made our way inside. Looking around, I saw that other than the bartender we were the only ones there.
Upon noticing us, which took a moment as we both tended to move rather quietly, the bartender moved over towards us.
"What can I get you?" the man behind the bar wondered.
"C'nlip," I replied.
At this point I mentally kicked myself as I realized that had been an attempt by me to use a Yautja word when clearly English and Japanese were the dominant tongues here, at least judging by the signs. Not surprising really given the influence Weyland-Yutani (which had started off as two separate British and Japanese companies before combining resources) had over humanity and its colonies.
"Sorry, I meant to say I wanted a drink for myself and my lady friend, anything strong will do" I said.
I'd already traded in a some of the junk I'd salvaged during my trips for coins some of sort. The man picked them up off the counter before grabbing a bottle and a couple of glass. I had no idea what the coins were worth, or what they were made form, and it hardly mattered. I tended to barter when possible and rarely touched actual money.
"Leave the bottle" I said while placing more coins on the counter.
After downing the first glass, and sitting down at a booth in the corner. My plan was to simply listen to local chatter, and then maybe buy some drinks from some who felt chatty. Then later I could relay the gathered information to the superiors within my clan.
Within a few minutes of sitting down a group of humans came through the door. Instantly I was able to tell that while they were soldiers, they were not colonial marines. There were four males and one female in the group. I also noted that they were dragging one of them towards the counter. The one they were dragging spoke up.
"Guys, we don't have time for this. We really need to get back to base" he was saying
This was an older man, but under thirty I'd say. Still in the prime of his life, maybe even still young, as humans must live longer these days, but with a great amount of experience I guessed.
"Come on Sarge, don't be like that," spoke up one of the other men, this one had dirty blonde hair, and arms that were rippling with muscles "We need some way to thank you".
He looked over at the dark-haired female of Asian descent, who was the only woman in the five person squad.
"Unless…"
"I'm not sleeping with any of you creeps" she said while punching the blonde in the arm "None of you would respect me in the morning".
There was a lot of laughter and background noise as drinks were poured, but despite that, I was soon hearing more of the talk.
"With respect, sir, take that stick out your ass for the next hour and enjoy yourself. You deserve it for killing bugs all day" someone said "Out of all those squads, we were the only ones to make it out with no loses. That's something to celebrate. We're celebrating our survival. So take a seat and down a few shots".
Bugs? Had they been hunting the Hard Meat or just something else big and mean? I'd not seen any signs of xenomorphs, but they could be on the other side of the planet and be recent arrivals. I'd not scanned the planet since I'd arrived, and that had been quite a few locals days ago.
"Fine," the leader conceded. "Give me the damn drink"
They all grabbed a glass a raised it to the air. Toasting their success when it came to not dying.
"Hoorah!"
I could see Jenkins smiling.
"Come on let's go talk to them" she decided.
Well that would be one way to get information.
(Line Break)
Bar. Frontier Planet.
Before long I had learned much about the soldiers. They weren't colonial marines, I'd known that, they didn't work for the company either, they worked for the Extrasolar Colonization Administration and existed to kill Xenomorphs and other threats, and had every intention of wiping them out where ever they could find them. A goal I fully supported.
As it turned out the United States Colonial Marines were owned by Weyland-Yutani, who also had a lot of influence over the Extrasolar Colonization Administration, but their control wasn't total hence the marines, who were a part of the American military were being left out of this.
The Extrasolar Colonization Administration was more multi-national than the American Colonial marines as well so ECA had a much wider recruitment base
It all sounded very political to me, and that was before someone mentioned the The Interstellar Commerce Commission (ICC), and how they wisely wanted the xenomorphs removed from the universe.
"Where did you two get that mark?" a solider asked me.
I ran my figure over the scar unwillingly drawing more attention to it.
"It's a clan mark" I answered.
"Clan? What clan?" the squad sergeant, Kent his name was, asked me.
"The Shadow Blades Clan" I answered,
Before anyone could inquire further, and I was sure they would, the sound of frantic barking could be heard from outside. Knowing that my dog would only bark like that if there was danger I slipped my mask on and headed outside.
Within moments half of the complex seemed to be on fire, humans were running around screaming as they were caught in nets and dragged away by figures unseen. However I could see them just fine. They were Predators and they were acting very dishonourably.
"Bad Bloods!" I heard myself yell.
I could see the other alien life forms that was causing so much trouble. They weren't Yautja, they were much worse in on so many ways. They were xenomorphs, but not like the ones I'd seen before. They had black carapaces of that race, and the heads were more or less the same shape, but these aliens ran around on four legs, and had spikes on their back, much like my dog. These must have been bred from animals like my dog and had some how been domesticated.
As I moved away from the door I saw the marines pull pistols from their belts and immediately began opening fire on the hostile creatures, but they couldn't see the Bad Bloods, they had to be bad bloods, even the less honourable clans wouldn't capture humans, nor would they be attacking civilians. This wasn't any sort of hunt, this was something else.
Sure the Yautja, who were fiercely protective of their advanced technology and considered the slaughter of any who would attempt to steal it a necessity, might attack in ways normally considered dishonourable in order to recover what was theirs, but capturing humans using tamed xenomorphs to heard them into nets. This was insanity.
"Bill!" the leader of the soldiers shouted "Radio the base! We need reinforcements here NOW!"
The private nodded before ducking into cover pulling out a communicator.
"No good, were being jammed!" he reported.
"Not all of us" I said.
I didn't think anyone had heard me, so I just reached for my wrist device and activating its distress signal before taking out my combi-stick. A hunter didn't call for help like this very often. Not if they were on a hunt or off training, but this attack was something I simply wasn't able to deal with.
As I began looking for a target with my shoulder mounted plasma cannon, I'd finally gotten my issues with use it the weapon this way, a loud growl told me that my dog stood at my left, it was time to fight.
The first Bad Blood I saw swung at me with an axe while invisible to everyone else. It was too close for me to fire at with my plasma caster so I had to take it on hand to hand.
My training had drilled into me not to go head to head with a creature, larger, stronger, tougher and more blood thirsty than myself. I couldn't match even weak Predator with sheer force.
With this in my I moved so that the axe went over my head, an act which made the dishonourable alien to try to twist itself around in an effort to face me before I could attack it expose back.
He wasn't fast enough, the Yautja were stronger, they were tougher, and they more stamina as well, but they weren't built for avoiding attacks. Humans and other things they hunted could outmanoeuvre them. Which was why they all wore some armour no matter how experienced they became or how talented they were.
I knew all this, and had been trained to strike at weak points, which was why I was now forcing my spear into the Yautja's armpit. They like us kept many important organs in their chest and as such getting those stabbed with a spear was a very bad thing.
Since that wasn't enough my dog jumped onto him and began tearing at his throat bringing the Bad Blood to the ground. Despite having the point of a spear in his chest the Hunter was able to force my dog off him, but this only brought the lawbreaker a few moments more of life.
I lifted his spear again and drove it into the Yautja's masked face, right into the eye socket and into the brain. Another weak spot our two species shared.
Then I was under attack. I did my best to block the oncoming blows but I was quickly overwhelmed by the superior foe who didn't give me the chance to strike at any vulnerable parts.
My plasma caster was ripped from its socket. Then I was grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air just as it began to rain. The Bad Blood's cloak soon failed, as they weren't water proof for some reason, and I found myself staring into the eyes of a mask. It was a chilling effort that led to me stopping my struggles to escape the alien's grip.
My dog leaped into save me, I heard it try, and then yelp. I was able to turn enough to see the evil Predator wrap his other hand around my dog's neck before snapping it.
"Bastard!" I swore.
I wasn't totally sure what I did next. I just began kicking and punching as hard as I could, and by luck or the will of Paya (the Predator's war god) I managed to struggle free.
Then the sound of something filled the air, a horn of some kind, as soon as it was heard anyone who wasn't human turned around and quickly left. The raid was over it seemed.
(Line Break)
Frontier World. AVP Universe
"Tell me exactly what were those aliens and why there were here?" a voice demanded.
All of the human soldiers now had their weapons pointed at me. I was not having a good day.
"They were taking people" the oriental woman said. "Why?"
"They didn't kill any of them," Sergeant Kent continued by saying "The bastards were dragging them away".
Bill, the radio operator, spoke next.
"Sir we'll need to report this" he said.
"I know, radio the base, have them send someone over" the sergeant said "Medics and marines".
He then turned back to me.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you executed right now!" he ordered.
I could give him many.
"Because I was trying to help you" I said "And I'm the only person who can help you figure any of this out, or help you to get any of those people back".
The soldiers soon lowered their weapons.
"Those were Yautja criminals" I explained "Known as bad bloods, and by the looks of things they've figured out how to domesticate xenomorphs".
No one asked who the Yautja were so it seemed safe to assume that they'd at least heard about. Jenkins hadn't as I recalled. Perhaps their existence was kept need to know for humans, or perhaps the Colonial Marines and their corporate masters practised mushroom management. That or these guys had simply read their training manuals.
"Now you can keep pointing guns at me" I said next "Or we can do something about these abductions. Yautja can cloak, but they can't hide from my ship so we should be able to track them down. I can even get us reinforcements if you'd like".
The Sergeant started at me for a while before turning to the soldiers under his command.
"Go get your gear from the ship and report back here" Kent ordered his squad.
Before long the five soldiers, Jenkins and I were ready to go.
"On my ship, my word is law. You do what I say understand" I told them "And keep your hands to yourself, the Yautja of my clan are not known for being nice to people who mess with their tech".
All the humans nodded in understanding.
"Where are we heading?" one of them asked.
This I could explain.
"The bad bloods must have a base nearby" I told the troops "Something cloaked so you can't see or detect it, but if we can track them and get close enough my ship should be able to find them. But we'll need help so we need to contact my clan, who should already be on the way".
Yautja motherships could cross galaxies so if it my clan ship was anywhere nearby, and it seemed likely it was given that my clan leader must be concerned about was going on in this area judging by his message, then I should be able to speak with him soon.
"Once we've got some back up. Then we land at the base, find the people who were taken, and kill anything between us and them. Oh and we'll blow up the bad guy's base too".
Kent liked this idea.
(Line Break)
Base. Frontier World.
It opened up into a room vaguely reminiscent of a hospital nursery, only it was a nightmare version, which had then been combined with the lair of a mad scientist. To put it simply: it was gruesome.
Rows up rows of small jar-like containers were filled with chest buster Xenomorphs of all animals, which were somewhat similar to Earth species, as well as people, had been used as hosts. Xeno-tigers, xeno-wolves, xeno-humans all produced by scientific experimentation.
The results of the usual process, if raping someone's face could be ever be called usual, of xenomorph reproduction, floated in their containers. All thankfully very dead and dissected.
They must have been extracted from the hosts after the face huggers had done their work, but before the chest busters matured enough to survive outside of their hosts.
According to the notes I was quickly able to read they were trying out different combinations of facehugger and host to see what host species produced the best adult xenomorph.
It was xeno-humans by far. Something about human DNA when absorbed by a growing chest buster made for the best xenomorph killing machine all around.
They were the most cunning, and intelligent, but also the least controllable. Apprantly the xeno-wolves, were the easiest to control, and they been supplied to the Bad Blood Clan in exchange for tech and for them gathering test subjects. Also there was mention of the Yautja having ways to domesticate these wolf-xenomorps that the humans here were struggling to understand.
All of which made me very glad for my new weapon, a MK221 Tactical Shotgun, a gift from new allies. Constructed of heat resistant alloys, which allowed the weapon to maintain structural integrity even after firing multiple shots in quick succession.
The centrepiece of the weapon other than the automatic firing rate, had to be the under barrel arc launcher, this fire arc rounds which were designed to deliver an electrically charged shotgun slug that paralyzed human enemies, while somehow killing Xenomorphs instantly.
While it did have poor accuracy depending on range, it was good close up and xenomorphs liked to get up close so they could kill you with their razor sharp claws or their small set of jaws.
Given the English labels on the jars of thankfully lifeless creatures I knew that at least some humans had been involved in using other humans as test subjects. In fact I go as far as to say that all the evil shit had been done here by humans.
Of course this was a company base. I'd seen the logo, the bad bloods must be in league with the company, or at least part of it, perhaps to produced new prey to either hunt or to hunt with, and the company just seemed to do evil shit for rather vague goals.
"Shoot it!"
"No keep it alive!"
Sounded like someone was in trouble. They must have a queen that had gotten lose. However as bad as that was, it didn't happen to be our concern. The Yautja hunters of my clan could handle the queen, myself and the human soldiers with me had another task.
"Okay while everyone else is distracted let's lay the explosives" I said "Once we've done that, we can wait for the hunters to finish and for them to leave before blowing this place sky high".
We'd already freed the human captives, and for once a mission I was on happened be going real well.
"We've got something on the motion trackers" a solider reported "Lots of somethings heading right for us and very quickly".
Fuck you Murry, fuck you.
(Line Break)
Frontier Base. Human Colony World.
As I sat in the bar I'd visited at the start of this adventure, I read over the files I'd snagged on the way out of the now exploded base. Which if anyone asked was totally the Yautja's doing. Not that the company was likely to ask because then they'd have to admit to having an illegal research base out here.
The company sure didn't screw around when it came to taking the most horrible things in the universe and finding ways to make them somehow even more horrible. Thankfully the xenomorphs who'd attacked us within the base had been the less dangerous wolf-xenomorphs who were trained to corral humans rather than slaughter them.
Currently I was reading a report about the possibility of short lived cloned dinosaurs, apparently that was somehow a thing in this universe, being used as hosts for xenomorphs. Which in my view was like someone getting the bright idea of dropping a nuke on an active volcano just to see what would happen.
My reading came to end when Jenkins came and sat across from me. She'd been sitting with the soldiers until now, celebrating a job well done. With the company base gone there would no more xenomorphs popping up at random and any bad blood who hadn't made a run for it would soon be hunted down.
"Listen Gothic" she stared by saying.
I could sense the words 'its not you its me' heading my way.
"You're leaving with the soldiers" I said.
It had been a statement not a question.
"Yes" she admitted "They've invited me to join them. In fact they want both of us. They're good people. They defend colonies and don't work for the company, and they don't care what the UNSC have to say about anything. We can make a real difference".
Tempting, but what I wanted was to go somewhere where I'd never have to deal any more xenomorphs or other hunters.
"No thanks. I'm a hunter, not a solider" I said "But if you want to leave the clan I won't make a fuss. You'll have to hand over any of their technology you're carrying and remove your mark. Other wise they might get upset".
For a moment for two I wondered if Jenkins would shout at me, or storm away, as women could be unpredictable at times, however rather than over react she got up, handed over the wrist device and plasma caster, and then kissed me on the cheek before going back over to the table her solider friends had claimed as their own.
"Don't get attached" I whispered "Don't stay in one place too long".
It was time to move on. There were plenty of hunting grounds out there, and I had a feeling that things were going to get messy between the Predator Clans. It best to leave this universe for a while.