Predator Gothic
Part 11
Room. Mother Ship.
"You want me to do what?!" I yelled.
It wasn't wise to yell at a veteran Yautja warrior, but I believed that my reaction was more than justified. After all it wasn't every day that a mere human, such as myself, got invited to visit the Predator home world. Well I imagined that many of my kind were on that planet, they just happened to be nothing more than skulls in a trophy case at this point.
"Gothic, I want you to come with us to the summit," my mentor repeated "Which will take place on the home world".
While my level of surprise didn't change much I was able to stop myself from yelling.
"You want me" I said, speaking slowly "to come to a summit of aliens, who could all break me like a toothpick if I so much as looked at them wrong. What the hell for?!".
Frankly I'd rather go back into a xenomorph hive while naked and covered in honey. At least those aliens were just doing what came naturally, even if it didn't make them any less scary or possibly evil for doing so. The Predators on the other hand might just torture and eat me for fun. I knew that different clans treated humans, and other 'soft meat' races in different ways, and there were bound to be rules I could accidentally break which could cause someone to challenge me to a fight to the death.
"You exposed the reason why the bad bloods were taking humans" my teacher was now saying "And you discovered that they were working with human bad blood. The Elders need to know about all this, don't you agree?"
Indeed they did need to know, but that was what written reports were for. I didn't need to travel across whole galaxies, as cool as that part would be, just to deliver an oral report to the Elders.
What if I offended them?, it would like me offending the Royal Family back home, only it would actually matter this time because the Elders could rip me apart with their bar hands.
"Yeah but I'm not suicidal" I protested.
"The Clan Leader says we are going. His ship, his rules. You are coming with us" my mentor insisted.
Sure I had my own ship, so in theory I could go where I chose, but I was still a member of this clan. Which meant I certain duties to perform. Still I'd much rather be out there scouting worlds than have to deal with the Ancient Yautja.
"Fine, I suppose I don't have much of a choice" I said.
Via our masks our words were translated to each, but they were toneless. I had to guess at the emotional reaction of Yautja to what I had to say, and this worked in vice versa, so I could only hope that my teacher hadn't picked up on how whiny I sounded.
"You don't" my teacher confirmed "And don't feel too bad. You are an important part of the delegation".
Hopefully not as part of lunch.
"Really?" I asked, rather unenthusiastically.
Surely they had other sources of information about what was going on at the frontier of human controlled space here in the Aliens Verses Predator verse.
"Of course, when they're killing you, it will give me time to escape" my teacher.
Yautja had as much of a sense of humour as most humans, but right now I just didn't feel like laughing.
(Line Break)
Yautja Prime. AVP Verse.
"So this is Yautja Prime"
Using my mask's many types of vision I was able to scan the city before me in a few different ways before I saw it as a human would. The city was made of a different metal than the clan ship, a jagged metal almost like dark stone.
They were found of their pyramids that was for sure, they'd built many on different worlds for their special hunts, but the ones here were much larger, more like artificial mountains and hills, rather than anything else. There had to be hundreds of them stretched out over the desert horizon stopping just before they reached what seemed to a vast and thick jungle. Plus there were were bound to me more than out of sight given my limited range of vision.
"Each is home to a different Clan" my teacher told me "The larger the pyramid the greater the clan".
He then pointed at a pyramid that was smaller than the rest, and it had flat top. Seemed more Aztec style than the others, I wondered if that meant they'd ever been used it for ritual sacrifices.
"There the Elders of the greatest clans shall met" I was informed.
The planets rings, highly visible even in daylight, and two suns dominated the sky and bathed the whole landscape in a reddish tint. As for the rings, I couldn't do them justice, they were massive and majestic. Earth's sky, as pretty as it could be on a clear day, or at sunset and sunrise, simply didn't compare to planetary rings.
Plus in the distance I could just about make out the rivers of flowing lava, which disappeared into oddly shaped buildings, only to appear elsewhere. Some sort of geothermal power, and perhaps they were able to extract the metals they needed from these rivers of molten hot magma.
"Beyond those rivers are the radioactive infernal deserts" my teacher told me "You would die within hours if you went there".
He then instructed me to look and use my mask to room in so I could get a better look at the planetary rings. I wasn't sure of what I was now seeing, however I felt almost certain that there were dry docks and shipyards up there as well as much in the way of industry.
"What do you think?" my mentor asked me.
I found that I was speechless.
"Come we shall visit my home" my teacher soon said.
We passed by many Yautja on the way and each one of them stared at me if just for a moment. I figured that I was something they saw every day. A human dressed in Yautja armour, carrying weapons, and even trophies, must be like a human seeing an animal dressed in a business suit. My Clan might accept humans as more than trophies or mere pets, but that didn't mean I was welcome on this planet.
After less than half an hour of walking we reached our destination: which was a large pyramid towering over the surrounding buildings, I asked about the smaller structures.
Normally my teacher wasn't the chatty type, but this he explained that the smaller builders were run by the females who ran the automated systems that supplied clean water and dealt with the waste. Lower ranking females maintained these systems, while higher ranking females cared for the young within the pyramids and maintained them.
"We need to get you inside out of the heat" my mentor was now saying.
I didn't feel that hot, but I didn't want to faint due to heat stroke during such an important event so I quickly followed my teacher to somewhere cooler.
(Line Break)
Pyramid. Yautja Prime.
Compared to humans the Predators were not very materialistic, they didn't feel the need to clutter their homes with personal effects. While they did place great value on their weapons and armour, as well as trophies, they Predators went to lengths to keep them out of sight most of the times. Possibly out of some sense of modesty, or perhaps it was more practical than that and they just didn't want their stuff needlessly exposed to the elements.
In the end it didn't really matter as my mentor was more than happy to show off his collection, he even went as far as to cool the temperature of his dwelling for me.
I'd been hoping for a tour of this Pyramid, which had to be the home base of my clan, as it would have been interesting to see how those who didn't hunt lived their lives, but the Yautja weren't that sociable and I didn't think they'd want me poking my nose into their affairs anyway.
My teacher had many fine trophies on display, which he had no doubt collected over several human life times. I was also sure that many female Predators had been highly impressed by this collection. But I tried not to take that trail of thought any further down the path.
One of the first trophies to catch my eye was that of a Praetorian. Those creatures were perhaps one of the most interesting strains of Xenomorph as well as the most deadly. Its primary role within the Hive was to guard key locations of importance or interest, and if nothing else, to protect the Queen herself. It was also one of the largest and strongest of the xenomorph strains.
Praetorians can evolve into a queen. Due to this, Praetorians can be considered Xenomorph "princesses," due to them being a young, not yet fully developed, Queen.
Thankfully I'd never had to face such a creature as they didn't tend to appear until a Hive reached a large size and was well settled into an area. The gods willing I would never be anywhere near one of them.
There were other xenomorph skulls here as well, no two were quite alike, suggesting that the drones or possibly warrior types had come from different host species.
My mentor had no skulls from xenomorph queens on display, I didn't know why. Perhaps he'd just never taken a queen on solo, or maybe he had it was one of the skulls I'd seen on the ship in the clan's trophy cases.
I also saw the helmet of a Mala'kak (a.k.a. Engineers or Space Jockeys) which I was sure was rare trophy since I'd never seen one on display like this.
After that I focused on the bones of what I was sure were animals, and a few I recognised, such as the hell-hound, which were sometimes used as hunting dogs by some tribes of Predators.
And of course there were the human skulls, the sight of which didn't bother me as much as they once would have. I just spent a few moments wondering who they might have been.
Oddly I spotted skulls that were similar to humans, but not quite right, deformed or alien I didn't know which. Given that the Yautja could access other universes and seemed to be doing so more recently it wouldn't surprise me if they were skulls taken from humanoid races I had some knowledge of because on my world they were fictional.
Near the cases that contained several sets of armour, as well as many kinds of weapons, was the head of an android, most likely taken during the recent attacks on WY company bases who part of that vast company which dealt with bio-weapons or whatever else those Weyland-Yuntani cunts thought xenomorphs could be good for. At least whoever ran the parts of that company which made regular weapons knew how to help people kill the hard meat and made weapons well suited to the task.
On the subject of weapons my mentor had plenty of those. Not just the standard stuff like the plasma weapons, all of which were larger and more powerful versions of what I used, but he also had a good collection, made up from, combi-sticks, shirken, swords, throwing disks, and more exotic weapons I couldn't even imagine using in a fight. I was pretty certain that he even had a pair of nunchucks made of the bones of some creature.
"We'll leave for the summit soon" my mentor told me "Stay here until then, do not go wandering off".
As soon as he was gone I took out one of the hand held computers I'd take from a human ship and started to amuse myself. Apparently solitaire had endured for centuries as a computer game and it was just the kind of thing needed when you had time to kill.
(Line Break)
Meeting Place. Yautja Prime.
The flat top of one of the pyramids was where the summit took place. Yet while it wasn't one of the larger buildings it dwarfed most of the ships that floated above the city.
Since there was an entire fleet here it wasn't hard to understand just how important this meeting was. However in my view it could be more secure, there were many important Yautja here judging by how many wore the cloaks that only Clan Leaders and the Elders were allowed to wear. And there didn't seem to be any proper security for them. Not they needed more protection, they might be slowed somewhat by age, but each of these Predators had the finest weapons and armour, as well as centuries of experience.
The sound of growls and what passed for chattering among the Predators soon reached my ears, and while it took me some time to get a proper view of what was going on I soon saw who was getting most of the attention. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere close for not for the Yautja who made way for my Clan Leader and mentor.
Even without ever seeing him before, I knew exactly who it was. This had to be the grand elder, the ruler of Yautja prime, their king for lack of a better term, somehow I didn't think he'd been elected into a position of power. This was a warrior who'd earned his rank through survival more than anything else.
Then I noted that they did have bodyguards, but I figured their presence was ceremonial more than anything else.
My mask was already translating some of the whispers around me. Some were saying that this grand elder had lived far more than most Yautja. Yet he wasn't the flour white of my Clan's advisor and story teller, he was a light grey, and he seemed more robust.
"They are simple raids, nothing more" an elder was saying.
The elders, sometimes called the Ancients, not to be confused with those ascended pricks, were already debating the reasons behind this conclave. Hopefully they'd come up with some plan of action because clearly something messed up was going on in the Milky Way.
"Oh then care to tell me why two most honoured clans have not shown to the summit?" another asked "And why four lesser clans refused to come. Simple raids do not cause that many clans to forsake a summons such as this".
"The bad bloods and lesser clans have attacked us" called out a elite hunter of some clan I didn't know "and our leaders do nothing about it".
A guard next to the elder growled in response.
"Hold your tongue whelp!" an ancient one yelled.
The chief ignored him and looked to the other Yautja.
"The Twin Moon clan, the Serrated Dagger clan, even the mighty Mountain Hunter clan are all missing! And what do the elders do? Nothing!"
This was when the leader of my Clan stepped forward.
"I am the leader of the Shadow Blade clan for those of you who do not already know" he said while dragging me forward "And I have one who has seen what the bad bloods and lesser clans who rebel against the elders are really up to".
There was a lot of noise
"What the pauk is this?!" one of the clan leaders yelled. "You would allow a human to speak here?!"
Okay my mask didn't even try to translate pauk, and I got the feeling that I really didn't want to know what it meant. I wasn't the only non-Yautja here of that I was sure, since a few figures around were to short to be Predators, but I was being singled out. Which I didn't like.
"Believe me it was not a choice I wanted to make," my clan leader said to the many gathered aliens "He is only here because of his knowledge of Bad Bloods. One of which he slew as the bad bloods raided a human colony with their tamed hard meat".
The guard looked at me.
"Just remember Ooman. You the c'jit on the bottom of my boot" he said.
An elder raised a hand and ordered me to speak, and I very quickly reported on what happened. I spoke about the attack on the frontier base and the lab I saw. He at least kept his comments on the matter at hand and didn't feel the need to insult me.
While that information was being absorbed my Clan Leader raised his wrist device, and began pressing a few keys before a large hologram appeared above him.
"This is footage that was sent to me by a member of the Mountain Hunter Clan, who my Clan have long been allied to, just before we lost contact with them" my group's leader was now saying.
I'd not seen this so I was interested. What I saw didn't last long. There was a door that burst open and from the other side came what seemed to be an endless amount of Kainde Amedha.
The Yautja warriors, the mountain clan I assumed, were torn apart in seconds. When the carnage finished, the Kainde Amedha stood aside to allow more figures to enter the room.
Now I could see a massive Predator, who had to be one of those super predators from the Predators film, as she or he, entered the room. He, or she, was followed by Bad Bloods, they wore the blood red armour I'd seen before.
The massive Yautja, who wore very little armour at all when compared to the bad bloods, used the plasma caster on his or her shoulder to shoot the source of the recording. Which brought the display to a quick end.
"As you can see, things are much worse than what we imagined" my clan's leader said.
Bit of an understatement really
"So it is true" said an elder "The Bad Bloods are controlling xenomorphs. We recently learned that it was the Bad Bloods who attacked several Oooman colonies and captured the colonists, but we had no idea why. Now we do, they are working with human bad bloods to create abominations".
Which made things even more horrible and scary. I'd only seen one kind of domesticated xenomorph so far, but soon there could be others.
"They are building an army" stated another elder.
The room erupted in protests and growls.
"That's not possible, how could they control the Kainde Amedha?!" a clan leader asked.
"We don't know," replied one of the elders, "but how they are doing it is not important. What is important is that we stop them. The Bad Bloods and the Berserkers have joined forces and they control the Kainde Amedha. This is not a force we can stop on our own, we will need the Oomans warriors, the Colonial Marines, and the help of those our wiser clans have adopted.
Now that caused an uproar.
"Are you insane?!" one clan leader called out. "Why would we need the Oomans?"
"If you think I will degrade myself and my race to accept the help of lowly Oomans, than you are truly a fool!" shouted another clan leader.
Before any of them could continue, a loud boom shook the building.
"What was that? Was that an explosion?" someone asked.
We were under attack. There could be no other explanation. But by who and why?
(Line Break)
Bar. Yautja Station.
"What happened next?" Xander Harris asked "I mean you must have escaped because you're here, but how did you escape?, and who attacked you?".
I was so glad I had a tab going here as I needed the drinks.
"Well I'm not exactly sure how I got back to the Mother Ship" I admitted "I should have gotten trampled, but I do remember hearing that it was an attack by a minor clan who must be allied with the bad bloods and some group called the Berserkers. Clearly this is all very political, and I think our alien overlords are about to have a civil war. Not that surprising given all the social changes the seem to be undergoing. I'd bet that the bad bloods are claiming that outsiders will destroy the Yuatja way of life, while at the same time they are working with humans. Bloody hypocrites".
I could only imagine what the coming war would be like. Would it involve fleets of mother ships all firing at each other in epic space battles? Or would rival clans seek to eliminate each other in smaller scale skirmishes? I really had no idea. I kept telling myself not to keep trying to figure the Yautja out, but I couldn't seem to stop myself from trying.
"Just goes to show that are ass hats everywhere" Harris stated.
I drank to that.
"Sounds like a good time to be out scouting" Harris stated "I'm also thinking that we'll seeing more non-Yautja on the station if the clans are looking for more allies. They might need more tech to, something to give the edge over the bad bloods".
This version of the beloved BTVS character didn't seemed laid back and carefree at all. The Yautja transfusions must have done a number on him. Then again they'd changed me to because I never would have considered hunting for mere pleasure to be an acceptable pass time until after I'd spent time with my mentor. I could understand hunting for food, or to protect your livestock, but anything else just seemed like needless cruelty towards animals, or it had seemed that way. Now I saw things differently.
"My mentor agrees with you. And I was thinking of finding some alternate version of Earth and hunting some criminals for a while" I told Harris "Anything you want me to bring back?".
He reached under the bar and soon passed me a list that was stored on some of data pad. It contained a lot of things. Some of which I was sure I could easily find, paying for them would be another matter. I wouldn't simply take things. I was no thief.
"This is the stuff always in demand" he told me "There's more than a few ladies who pass through this space port who'd be very grateful for even a couple of items off these lists. Not everyone has their own ship, and has the freedom to move about like you do".
Yeah near death experiences aside I had been very lucky. I'd seen some amazing sights and I'd gotten to bang some babes, as well get into a few thrilling fights. No sense stopping now.