Derelict
By THE Xenomorph
I own only the character of Vile.
Star Trek Voyager is © Paramount
Aliens vs Predator is © Fox
R'ka chiva
Janeway and Flores were already awake when the yautja and their elder came for us. The two had been preparing and were surprised when two yautja gave them heavy blasters of obvious klingon make as well as some light armor. I had to push the yautja out of the room so they could change, but the elder understood when I began growling. At least I hope he did.
When the two came out, they looked very different. Janeway's armor was built just slightly heavier and was older looking, as if another human had worn it. The same went for Flores' armor, only hers was more form fiitting and more cloth than metal or bone. I cast a glance to the elder, something was off here, he shouldn't have had two sets of armor like this just lying around, not for anything the size of a human anyway. He caught my glare and merely trilled with a sort of confident contentment I hadn't heard in a very long time.
Then I was lead away by the warriors. I was brought down to the ring in the center of their ship but I was the only one there. Then slowly the warriors began to file in and take their seats. The had food and were shouting and snarling at me, "u'darahje", abomination. I tried to shut them out, but something in me wanted to give in to my rising anger and I let it. I turned and roared in their direction, shouting back at them and calling them names they had no words for. They stayed quiet after that.
Then the elder came in and took his seat, Janeway and Flores sitting next to him. He sat for a bit before standing and walking to the center of the ring. I noticed the warrior from yesterday was not on the other side and my curiosity was piqued.
When he hit the center of the ring he did something odd. He started to speak on my nature; he called me an abomination to be sure, but he also called me a warrior and proclaimed that my mark was proof of that. He said that my test was not to question my worth, but my will to remain apart from the kainde. Then he took the place of my opponent. Another warrior then announced the rules of the challenge. The elder would attempt to kill me and I could do the same without fear of reprisal, but I was also allowed to show mercy if I deemed it necessary. I saw the warrior I had initially thought I was meant to fight sit by their elder and simply glare at me.
The warrior announced the start of the fight and the elder was on me faster than I could react, due in no small part to my extreme confusion. Not from the change up, but from the fact that he had chosen to fight me in literal hand to hand combat. His hands were soon strangling and throttling me left and right while I fought to get my bearings. Then he threw me across the ring and I was on my feet once again.
He charged and we clashed, my large claws grasping and crushing his own smaller hands. I heard him roar in pain but not anger. His control was incredible and even as I fought to put his arms down to his side he managed to wrench them back and punch me in the face and break my nose. I took the wound and used the acidic blood to spit in his face. It didn't blind him but it hurt and as he grabbed his face in pain I lunged in. Somehow though I found a foot in my chest and he was standing over me laughing.
"Tttt-his is your nrak'ytara?" He must have been speaking to Janeway. "Perrhaps itttt is beeessst we juuuust kkkkkill yourrrr sssshiii..."
He never got to finish his threat as I wrapped my tail around his neck and pulled him to the ground and began to claw at his chest. I pulled him to my face where I saw him smile.
"Ssssucccch... loyyyyaltttty..." He laughed. "Eeeend... iiittttt..." I looked at his chest to see the damage I had done. My claws had ripped plenty of flesh off, but he could still live. I threw him to the ground and walked towards Janeway. A few steps in and I saw Flores' eyes light up in fear and I dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way just in time to see the elder's claw gauntlets slam into the ground where I was. Well he never did explicitly say he was doing this completely unarmed. Quadruple fuck.
I rose back to my feet while lashing my tail out to keep him at bay. It worked and I kept lashing out in order to buy myself some time. Something about this whole trial was off and I could smell something rotten. He was playing me for a fool, even in that moment he could have evaded my tail lashes and simply gutted me before I could react. He was pushing me and I couldn't tell to what end.
Then he did exactly what I knew he could. He dipped under one of my lashed and put his blades straight into my left shoulder. I howled in pain and speared my tail into his leg. We rolled around for a few second before we pushed ourselves away from the other. I stood and grabbed my shoulder, he did the same, but put little weight on his leg and yet he still had perfect balance.
"Motherfucker... do they make you guys out of iron or something?" I gasped. He merely trilled.
"Vile." I heard Janeway. "Do what you have to."
"Not looking for approval Janeway." I growled with a snap of my head. Well there's quintuple fuck.
He came charging in and was just slow enough for me to dodge away. He spun back to face me and I saw it. The wound he showed us earlier. It was an old scar that he kept armored. A weak spot. I balled my claw into a fist and charged him this time, his claws went straight into my left shoulder again, and I lost count of how fucked I was, because I had just planted my fist into the scar and it felt like punching solid steel.
"Seriously? Are you a cyborg or something?" I gasped, he still smiled and laughed.
Then I headbutted him. Well I jumped up and crashed my falling skull into his. It was all I could think of at the moment, but it worked. Oh did it work. We both fell to the ground and I noticed he was breathing but not moving. I had knocked him out, or so I hoped. I pushed myself to my feet and walked towards Janeway and Flores. This time it was Janeway's eyes that lit up, along with the other yautja and they did not look happy. I simply spun around and caught the gauntlet of the warrior I was supposed to face in my claws.
The elder stirred in the silent minutes that passed. No yautja would take their leader's right to punish the lawbreaker and even the lawbreaker would not fight back. Even when they were breaking their own rules the damn yautja's personal honor bound them to their rigid code.
The elder stood and forced the warrior to his knees. He ordered me to decide his fate and I knew not killing the young warrior would make that particular warrior angry as all hell. I also knew he'd likely be expelled and left on a desolate planet to survive or some other form of banishment. Add in the fact that I knew killing him would make Janeway and Flores upset and I just did not have the strength and the choice was obvious. Time to piss of the yautja even more.
"Oh..." I groaned. "Fuck it, he's stupid enough to get himself killed later in life." I walked away and grabbed some food from another warrior, he didn't object much. Well he shouted until I glared at him; beating an elder gives one a little clout after all. Then I sat down next to Flores.
"You're, uh..." Janeway looked over. "Bleeding everywhere." She pointed to my bubbling blood.
"Shit happens." I grumbled. She merely laughed.
The elder announced his punishment. He would spare the life of the warrior and not even banish him, if the warrior agreed to serve as our guide for our remaining time on board. The mandibles on the warrior flared and he must have noticed I didn't seem to give a crap because he merely nodded and was allowed to rise. Then we were lead back to the room where a small feast awaited us. I dove on it instantly.
"No, please don't wait for us..." Janeway said laughingly.
"Need to eat." I manged to eek it out between mouthfuls. "Heal faster..."
"What happened to him?" Flores asked, it took me a moment to realize she meant the warrior.
"Something odd." I said, gulping down half of what seemed to be an eel or snake. "Mercy usually means banishment unless it's part of a fight, but my little playmate was given the chance to regain his honor."
"How so?" Janeway piped in as she looked at a glass filled with a dark red liquid.
"Ohh..." I eyed the glass. "Try it." I nodded with excitement. "My playmate is now our 'guide'."
"Meaning he's keeping an eye on us." Flores said with a sigh. "I take it this is really all for you?"
"Probably." I said as I continued to shovel more food into my mouth. "Kinda odd that they even bothered..."
"Why?" Janeway looked at an alien crab before shaking her head.
"Very few kainde actually eat. The drones tend to gather food for the freshly born, soldiers and royal guards eat very little unless injured and the queen has a special diet." I explained.
"Well you are still part human." Janeway said with her own smug smile.
I stopped chewing long enough to give her a glare.
"How's your shoulder?" She asked with a nod.
"Probably okay." I rubbed it and it of course still hurt like hell. "Gonna need to rest it though, don't want any permanent damage."
"Well then you're officially relived of duty." She smiled her victory smile.
"Don't be so confident. Something's not right here..." I warned.
"You mean like the fact that they had two perfectly sized armors for us?" Flores laughed, "Or the fact that the elder set you up?"
"All of the above and more." I went on. "We haven't heard the leader's name and his broken mandible is a marking I was warned about as a child. Something to be wary of."
"Do you think he's just toying with us?" Janeway asked.
"No, he's testing us." I nodded, trying to assure myself. "They don't play games like this with their prey. Not to this extent. They also don't feed their prey or let them willingly on their ships. He's testing us, have no doubts about that."
"Well you seemed to have passed yours." Janeway smiled. "So, lets squish some bugs Flores."
"Sure thing Captain." Flores smiled back.
I simply shook my head.
"Hey, we'll make it." Flores smiled at me.
"You've seen what I can do."
"And it's something we'll keep in mind when they send the bugs after us." Flores handed me her own drink. I took it greedily. It had been far to long since I'd had the wonderful drink.
"What is this anyway?" Janeway finally took a sip. I merely smiled. "It's alcohol isn't it?"
The next few days passed easily. Janeway and Flores were given time to practice the use of their disruptors while I let my shoulder slowly mend. Still, my ability to heal had become diminished since my encounter with the Black Warrior and that easily caught the attention of the yautja. The elder had recovered before I did and he seemed to regard my slow recovery with a positive edge.
The fourth day in I had fallen asleep while watching over the two and so when the door opened and our "guide" shouted in for us to wake up for the trial, well I was a little unhappy. I may have also chucked a phaser at him because somehow we ended up in the hall banging each others heads against the walls. We only stopped when the elder separated us and gave us both a chiding at the same time as if we were children. It reminded me of the lessons I was taught as a young man, when one of them raised us.
After that incident were were all led to a scout ship and taken down to a planet. The ride down was mostly quiet as I had to explain that these trials were sacred and silence was one of the most respected ways to observe them. Only the elder or elites administering the trials would speak and then only when necessary. All the others would remain silent. Then we landed and exited the ship into a jungle of metal and glass. It was some sort of abandoned city.
"Your trials will end here, one way or another ooman and bah-joran." The elder crackled from his mask, but he kept his gaze on me. Now I was really on edge. He then ordered two of his warriors to guide Janeway and Flores away, likely to the arena they'd fight the kainde in.
"When they were out of earshot I finally spoke. "What the hell are you playing at?"
"Tests..." He began, "...never end. We are always tested."
"Ki'sei." I said it without thinking. I had had this said to me before and I stumbled as my brain exploded in a new pain. Old memories buried forcing themselves to the surface. As I recovered, the elder looked at me and simply nodded before motioning for me to follow.
He lead us to what looked like a security room above a labyrinth. I saw a door open at a far end and two human sized figures entered. Their test was about to begin. I looked to the elder and he nodded knowingly before sitting in a chair and using his wrist gauntlet to take over the system.
"This world once flourished with a species we took pity on." My blood boiled and so did that of every howling warrior with us. "Hirogen betrayed us and taught us the mistake of showing pity to prey, but they did not learn and now they are saved by oomans lost in space not of theirs." How did this guy know so much about Voyager? "We purged their home-world first, the best way to cleanse tarei'hasan from the galaxy. We dropped only a few kainde on to the world and now we train young hunters here. Your task is simple; make it to the other side of the labyrinth and you may return to your ship with honor and knowledge."
The last word caught my attention. There was no way he'd give Voyager any real knowledge, not even the most progressive of elders could do that, their technology was to sacred to them. I started a low growl as he hit a button and several lights flashed on the windows we were watching through. The lights then grew into holographic camera angles. The last angle showed what was going to stop them a large and royal guardian, one slightly larger than normal.
"What the hell is that?!" I shrieked, my anger rose faster than I could track.
"The hirogen's attempt to control the kainde." He laughed.
"That's not a test for young hunters!" I shouted and moved forward. The hunters with us all brought their spears to my neck. I backed off and the spears went back slightly, but not all the way. "This isn't a test, it's a slaughter! They can't fight that, not with what you gave them! There's no honor in this!"
"And what will be done about that, I wonder?" He turned to me, clacking like and old coot with his head tilted to the side.
"Oh fuck me..." My thoughts and words were the same. I shook my head and noticed my "guide" was trilling happily at my misery. He was really getting on my nerves, bad enough that I wanted to... "Oh... what the hell." My tail lashed out and wrapped around my guide's waist and yanked him to me where I took control and plowed both of us through the glass window; him first of course.
