Chapter X
Connors was jolted out of his surprise by what Verheiden had said at the end, making him turn around and start the trek up again.
Sebastian examined the hieroglyphics that were carved onto the floor and the walls.
"I think this is a manhood ritual of some kind, the humanoid ones, they've been sent here to prove that they are worthy to become adults." Sebastian said as he stares at the wall.
"You're saying that they're what... teenagers?" Lex asked, her visions hadn't allowed her to know this piece of information.
"Who knows how long these creatures live, perhaps for thousands of years. However old they are, this is their rite of passage." Sebastian said firmly, sure that he had translated right. "That's why they didn't carry those guns with them to begin with, they had to earn them. Like a knight earning his spurs, the glyph's are a little difficult to make out but the story's all here." He continued.
A Yautja spacecraft approached the blue and green backwater planet, all those inside looked at that planet in anticipation. Finally there were new hunting grounds.
"Thousands of years ago these hunters found a back water planet." Sebastian said, as he moved along the wall.
A bright light illuminated the night, chasing the darkness away and replacing it with the light of day, primitive men and woman exited the caves that they used for shelter from the elements, to stare at the sky in a mixture of fear and amazement.
"They taught humans how to build and we worshiped them as Gods..." He trailed off.
Years later we can see four pyramids under construction rising out of the ground to tower above the inhabitants that worked on them, above each pyramid a Yautja spacecraft hovered, the image is a sight to behold.
A Tribal Chief ascends the stairs to prostrate himself before the Yautja that stood on top of the pyramid, hailing them as humanities Gods.
"Every hundred years the Gods would return. And when they did they would expect a sacrifice..." Sebastian said after he had crouched down to understand the glyph's on the floor better.
A set of Tribal Priests looked over the men and women, choosing the ones that were to be sacrificed to the Gods, once chosen the victims were lead to the Sacrificial chamber where a Kiande Amedha egg awaits at the bottom of each sacrificial slab, the eggs open once the chosen ones have laid down on the slabs.
"Humans were used to breed the ultimate prey."
We watch as one of the victims convulses on the stone slab, the skin on his chest starches as something begins to push its way out.
"The Hunter's would battle these Great Serpents..."
A Yautja stood on top of one of the pyramids as he thrusts the skull of a dead Kiande Amedha above him showing that he had proven his worth. A Yautja spacecraft descends from the storm clouds that cover the sky above.
"To prove themselves worthy to return home to the stars."
Next we watch as three Yautja stand back-to-back in a defensive position, they were surrounded on all sides by thousands of Kiande Amedha, as we back away we see that there are thousands more climbing the pyramid all are ready to take on the ones that had enslaved their kind.
"But if the Hunter's lost..." Sebastian paused. "They made sure that nothing survived. Total genocide." He continued after a while.
Before the Yautja were overwhelmed by the Kiande Amedha one of them activated the self-destruct mechanism that they had embedded in their wrist computers, a powerful shock wave sweeps across the pyramid vaporizing everything in its path, the shock wave scatters the Kiande Amedha, blowing them limb from limb.
A searing white light is all that covers the land that night.
"An entire civilization wiped out overnight." He said lowly, before he looked up at Lex.
"So the humanoids they bought those creatures here to hunt?" Lex asked, she didn't pay that much attention to the past only the future, as the past wouldn't tell her if she was about to be found by the Cyrel Institute.
"And they use us like cattle. We're hosts for them to breed in." Sebastian replied as he looked at the hieroglyphics again.
"So we didn't discover them." Lex finally concluded.
"No, the heat bloom was designed to lure us down here. This whole thing was a trap, without us there could be no hunt." Sebastian said.
Connors, Miller and Verheiden had reached an entrance into the pyramid, they looked around making sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Well this is a relief." Miller muttered.
"What's a relief?" Verheiden asked as he turned to the scientist.
"It's a relief to be out of a dark pyramid that may or may not be hiding some hidden danger." Miller replied, Verheiden and Connors nod in agreement.
"Let's get to the Piper Maru." Connors said as he glanced around nervously. "I want to be as far away from this place as possible." He continued.
The other two agreed with Connors on that so they began moving again, this time towards a perfectly human sized tunnel that was slightly to the left of the entrance that they had exited the pyramid form.
Lex moved back to the spy-hole that was in the wall and looked through to the Chamber of Pillars as she had taken to calling it, she looked around but couldn't see the Yautja that had been following them before the pyramid had shifted not moments ago.
Suddenly the Yautja was in front of the peephole, making her back a way imperceptibly. She watched as he put his mask back on but this time it was adorned with the symbol that signaled he had won a battle with a Kiande Amedha, he wore the inner mouth of his first kill like a necklace. The Yautja then turned and faced the stone slab that separated him from the two Ooman's.
"He's right behind that rock." Lex said as she gestured to the stone slab. "Waiting for the door to open" she continued.
"I think when we took the guns we upset the order of how things work down here. We tipped the scales." Sebastian thought out loud.
"He needs his gun back." Lex said understanding that they had to right the wrong that the others had unknowingly committed.
Sebastian snorts before he pointed to the stone wall. "When that door opens, we're dead." He said in a matter of fact manner.
"Not if we set things right." Lex denied.
"What?" Sebastian asked not getting what Lex was trying to say without words.
"This pyramid is like a prison." Lex said after a while. "We took the guard's guns and now the prisoners are running free. To restore order, the guards need their guns." Lex reasoned, with a little help from the future and the past.
Sebastian looked at Lex like she was crazy, he was more afraid than he used to be. "Don't ever use that metaphor again." He said.
"When that door opens, we're going to give that thing his gun back." Lex said, after choosing to ignore what Sebastian had said.
"Are you crazy?" Sebastian asked with wide eyes. "You want a metaphor?" He asked again after Lex had turned to him. "During a big game hunt, the animals being hunted don't arm the hunters!" he yelled.
"They're not hunting us. We're in the middle of a war, it's time to choose a side." Lex replied rolling her eyes, honestly she had been up against worse odds.
"We're on our side." Sebastian rebuked.
Lex sighed before she shook her head. "We have to consider the possibility that we might not make it out of here." She said softly looking at Sebastian, she had already accepted death a long time ago and it didn't bother her that she might die at any moment but she wanted to go down fighting and that was how she was determined to go if she had any say in the matter.
But Sebastian on the other hand he hadn't had to live with the possibility of that second being his last, he hadn't tasted death being so close that he could almost reach out and greet it, heck he had probably only wish for death over the simplest things, whilst her on the other hand had wished that death had come and claimed her since she had been five and had already started the more serious and trying tests that the Cyrel Institute had in store.
"But we have to make sure that those 'Serpents' don't reach the surface, because if they do then everything, everywhere could die." She continued a moment later.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Sebastian said slowly as if he didn't believe a word that he was saying, then the alarm went off, making them spin around and face the stone slab that separated them from the hunter as a the sound of rolling thunder echoed through the whole pyramid.
But when the reconfiguration reaches them, it wasn't the stone slab between them and the hunter that opened it was one that was behind them, it opened to reveal a corridor, to the left there were strobe light lighting the way to the exit whilst to the right the corridor was covered in darkness.
Lex sighed nervously. "Let's go find our friend." She said after Sebastian had taken in the strobe lights, both looked gazes and turned right cautiously making their way down the dark corridor.
UUUU
Scar paced the room since he couldn't leave the room to hunt something to distract him as there were no exits out of said room, he could wonder why the sight of that Ooman male with his arm around his female counterparts waist bothered him so much. He continued pacing trying to figure the answer out but it eluded him, he growled lowly in frustration not liking the fact that he didn't have the answer.
Oh how he wished that he could ask his father about this, but he couldn't because those on a chiva weren't allowed to communicate with those that were on the ship.
#Scar.# Range called, Scar acknowledged absentmindedly. #Are you as frustrated with the Ooman's as I am? Because I don't remember our teachers saying anything about Oomans being this tricky to hunt.# Range asked.
Scar paused as he looked around the room for the thousandth time. #Nor do I chiva mei'hswei, maybe they were hunting the wrong Ooman's or at least ones that didn't have the determination that these two do.# he reasoned.
Range laughed nervously. #I just remembered I didn't send you the video of what happened before I sent you the audio for translation.# Range said, Scar was sure that Range would be rubbing the back of his head as he said that.
#Are you going to send me the footage or are you going to taunt me?# Scar asked with a small growl.
#Give me a moment would you? I'm copying it so that I can have a copy.# Range said as he went about copying and sending the footage.
#You do know that our families are watching the live footage of the Chiva, don't you?# Scar asked, with an eye ridge raised even if his friend couldn't see it.
#Yes I do know that, but I think that we should share recordings before we get back onto ship.# Range reasoned. Scar didn't respond as at that precise moment he had received the recording so he lent against the wall and watched it.
Scar watched as the female Ooman tackled Taro after telling the other two Ooman that were there to leave, he watched as they both fought each other and saw that the female was still holding back, it only took Scar a second to comprehend the Taro had done something to anger the female that much. Maybe she has her own Honor Code? Scar thought with a frown.
Scar was glad that Range had followed the fight but made sure to keep his distance, that was a wise move, he watched as the female Ooman straddled Taro to pin him down, making him feel jealous again that she was that close to another male, and then tortured him a bit by using the dagger that was already embedded in his chest before she killed him.
#I don't think that we should do anything to incite her wrath as Taro obviously did.# Scar said after a moment.
#You know I think that there are many a male Yautja that will want to claim her as their mate.# Range said as he too had re-watched the fight.
Scar growled at that after he had turned the communication line off, lost in possessive thoughts about a certain dark skinned Ooman, until the sound of rolling thunder assaulted his hearing.