The Hunt Begins

A few days later, Xothax's ship was approaching LV-943. A large Yautja vessel of the V'xtentin Clan was present and hovering over the north pole of the planet. Not wanting to be detected by the clan vessel, Xothax pushed a button on his ship's control panel. Moments later his ship cloaked. For further precaution, he then made a simple change in his flight path so as to avoid the clan vessel's sensors. Once he had passed vessel safely and approached the upper atmosphere of the planet, a warning display came up on the visor of his mask. The warning flashed the message that the V'xtentin Clan had exclusive hunting rights to this planet and that Xothax needed to leave the area. Xothax chuckled.

"The automated warning message to would-be poachers," he said. "Predictable."

Xothax pushed another button on his ship's control panel and a view of the clan vessel came up on his display. His mandibles clicked and he let out a low guttural curse under his breath that was directed at the rival clan. He then pushed a couple more buttons on his control panel. Instantly, another display came up on his visor that showed him where the main gathering of rival Yautja on the planet were.

"This will be all too easy," he said as he programmed his ship to fly over the gathering area so that he could get a better look. As his ship descended, the engines grew deathly silent and Xothax was able to spot the rival clan's Hunting Shrine. "I will have to deal with that first."

With that, he pushed a few more buttons on the control panel and landed his vessel, still cloaked, in a grove of trees a few miles away from where the rival clan had set up their Hunting Shrine. Realizing that he was about to reach the point of no return, Xothax closed his eyes and thought hard about whether or not he would go actually through with his great Hunt. For several minutes, he remained in his seat as the pros and cons came quickly to his mind. In the end, he decided that the pros outweighed the cons and he set into motion. As before, he picked up his weapons one-by-one and considered them before reattaching them to their various set places. Once he was ready, he pushed the button on his gauntlet that activated his cloaking device, walked to the exit of his ship, and pushed the button that opened the door to his ship. Closing his eyes and letting out one last deep breath to calm his nerves, he counted silently to himself as he waited for the door to fully open. When at last the door was open to him, he moved noiselessly down the ramp and onto the ground. As soon as his weight was off of the walk ramp, the door began to shut on its own. After moving away from his ship, Xothax crouched down and surveyed the terrain. As he looked around, the display on his visor cycled through multiple spectrums so that his gaze missed nothing of what was surrounding him. The terrain was a combination of both forest and rolling grasslands. Interesting, he thought to himself. Both open and concealed terrain. This should make for a good Hunt. Now, about that Shrine. Something must be done about that. As if on cue, a directional arrow lit up on his helmet's display to inform him of which direction he needed to go and how far he needed to travel before getting there. His mandibles clicked pleasantly and he stood up.

Suddenly, the automated guidance on his shoulder cannon activated and pointed towards movement off to Xothax's left. Spinning about and ready to attack, he quickly discovered that it was simply a small woodland animal that had attracted the attention of his cannon. Letting out a low chuckle, Xothax disengaged his cannon and jumped into a tree. Light as a feather and silent as death he made his way through the branches towards his objective, making sure to leave no trail as he went. Once he was about halfway there, he pushed a button on his gauntlet that caused him to de-cloak and then instantly re-cloak. They won't know what hit them, he thought to himself again. Slowing his progress, he crept ever closer until he was within about a hundred yards of his target. Silently, his helmet switched to a magnified vision mode and he could see everything he desired. In a small clearing surrounded by three deployed sentry guns was a Hunting Shrine. His mandibles clicked slowly as he observed in quiet contemplation. His helmet switched to another vision mode and the image of three cloaked Military Stalkers came into view. Typical, he thought. Typical defensive pattern for a Hunting Shrine. Panning his gaze around to check for other, not so typically placed defenses, he was quietly surprised to find nothing else in the area. How arrogant. I will show them the folly of that arrogance, he thought. He looked intently at one of the Stalkers and his helmet brought up a targeting display. With his eyes, he centered the display on the face of the Stalker. Keeping both his body and his eyes perfectly still, he sent an invisible beam from his helmet to the Stalker's so as to scan the Stalker. After about a minute, the targeting display signaled that the beam had concluded its scan. With a grateful internal sigh, Xothax closed his eyes and turned off the beam. Then he pushed a third button on his gauntlet. For an instant, his cloaking device shimmered. I can proceed, he thought. Returning his vision to normal, he began to slowly move forward again. When he had cut his distance to only about fifty yards, he stopped again and crouched on a branch. Once more, his vision mode changed and the Stalkers again came into view. Slowly and quietly, he pulled his discs from his belt and activated them. After pushing a few buttons on the discs and occasionally giving the Stalkers a glance, he threw all three discs out together as one disc. He smiled as he heard them faintly cut through the air on their way to their targets. The Stalkers seemed to hear the sound too, as they were all now looking about intently. Once they were almost there, the discs broke away from one another, activated their laser edges, and sped towards a different Stalker. Then, in unison, the discs beheaded each of the three Stalkers in a single pass. After hitting their targets, the discs once more came back together and returned to their owner. Needless to say, Xothax was extremely pleased. Once he had the discs back in his possession he deactivated them and strapped them back onto his belt. He then jumped down from his perch and strolled confidently up to the Hunting Shrine. For an instant, the Shrine and the sentry guns came to life, but then quickly returned to their standby posture in their original positions. Xothax disengaged his cloaking device and his mandibles clicked his joy. Still clicking, he opened up his gauntlet, produced an interface cable, opened a side panel in the Shrine, and plugged in the cable. A few seconds later, his gauntlet beeped to signal that a connection to the Shrine had been established. After pushing a couple of buttons on his gauntlet, he began to download some of the Shrine's data. Once the download was complete, his gauntlet beeped again. All too easy, he thought to himself. This is an inferior clan. Quickly, he ended his connection with the Shrine and unplugged the cable. After replacing the cable back into his gauntlet, he closed it up and peered into the panel on the Shrine. With a chuckle, he pushed a few of the buttons inside the panel before closing it back up as well. Then he grabbed the heads of the Stalkers, again engaged his cloaking device, and headed out of the clearing, this time making sure that his trail was at least subtly obvious.

Ten miles away, the V'xtentin Clan's Guardian of the Hunt's gauntlet beeped. Looking down at the display of his gauntlet, he de-cloaked and put a closed fist into the air. Instantly, every other V'xtentin Yautja near him stopped where they were and de-cloaked. They could all hear the Guardian's mandibles clicking unhappily. "Something is wrong," he said.

"How do you mean?" asked the Keeper of the Hunt as he moved over to the Guardian.

"The life signs of the three Stalkers who were left behind to guard the Shrine have extinguished," said the Guardian as he continued to look at the display on his gauntlet.

"Are you certain?" asked the Keeper.

"I am," said the Guardian. Then his eyes went wide.

"What is the problem?" asked the Keeper.

"Someone has accessed the Shrine's systems."

"Then we go back."

"NO! Continue your Hunt. I will take some of my men back to the Shrine and we will discover what is happening."

"As you wish."

"In addition, lend me one of your Hunters. I will need his skills to track down whoever has done this."

"Agreed."

The Guardian turned to the very heavily armored Military Vanguard a few feet away from him. "I leave you in charge of the Military members until my return," he said.

"It is my honor, sir," said the Vanguard with a bow of his head.

"Fail me not," he ordered. The Vanguard bowed his head again. Then the Guardian turned to the rest of his men. "Is there a Blazer, a Hydra, and a Vanguard here who wishes to volunteer to return to the Shrine with me?"

Without any words spoken, a Blazer, a Hydra, and a Vanguard stepped forward to volunteer. "Excellent," said the Guardian.

"And here is my Hunter," said the Keeper with a gesture to a Hunter that was now standing next to him.

"My thanks," said the Guardian with a bow of his head.

The Keeper bowed his head in return then considered his Hunter. "Heed the instructions of the Guardian," he said as he pointed a clawed finger to the Hunter. "You are under his command until you are once again in my presence."

"I obey," said the Hunter with a bow of his head. Without any further word, the Hunter joined the others in the investigation party. Silently he gave the Guardian a respectful bow of his head to acknowledge the Guardian's authority over him. The Guardian nodded his head in return to acknowledge the Hunter's sign of respect for his authority. Then the five of them moved away from the main group and re-cloaked.

The Keeper stood like a statue as he watched the Guardian leave. "Fortune favor you," he said quietly. Once he could no longer see the Guardian, he turned his full attention to the remaining Yautja in the hunting party. "We return to the Hunt!"

To acknowledge their Keeper's command, the remaining Yautja engaged their cloaking devices. The Keeper clicked his mandibles as he saw those around him vanish from view. When no other Yautja remained before his eyes, the Keeper engaged his own cloaking device and the entire assembly moved onward to continue the Hunt.

Elsewhere, Xothax paused on the branch of a tall tree and removed the helmet of his first trophy. Silently pulling out his runed knife, he went to work quickly gutting key pieces of the helmet's circuitry. Once he had finished, he hung one of the pieces of circuitry off the end of the branch, replaced the helmet back onto the Stalker's head, bundled the head back with the other two heads, and moved on. Once he had gotten about a half mile, he stopped, took the bundle apart, and repeated the process with the second head. When he had finished with the second head, he once again bundled the head back up with the others, and moved off. However, this time he changed his general direction and partially circled back towards the Shrine. When he found a spot that he liked, he took the bundle apart yet again and repeated the whole process for a third time with the final head. After he finished the whole process for the third time, he bundled the head back with the other two as before, and made sure that everything on his person was secure. Once he was satisfied that all was right, he leapt from the branch he was currently on to one above him in another tree. Then he proceeded back towards his ship, now making sure that he left no trail behind him.

Meanwhile, the Guardian and those with him were nearing the Shrine. As one, they de-cloaked and approached the clearing. The Blazer took point, with the Vanguard and the Hydra following a few steps behind him, and the Guardian and the Hunter following a few paces behind them. Though the Hunter looked all about as if distracted, he was actually keenly observing everything. Suddenly, something felt wrong. To him it was too quiet.

"We should halt," he said in a very low tone to the Guardian. The Guardian instantly clicked his mandibles in a manner that caused the others in front of him to cease in their tracks immediately.

"Explain," ordered the Guardian in a low, but authoritative tone.

"There is too much quiet," said the Hunter.

"Yautja on a Hunt are always quiet," spoke the Hydra.

"Not like this," warned the Hunter. "There is death in this quiet. I know it."

Everyone looked to the Guardian to make a decision. "Heed the Hunter," he said after careful consideration. "That is why I brought him."

The three Military Yautja nodded their heads silently to acknowledge the Guardian's order. Then they activated their cloaking devices and turned about to resume their walk. The Hunter felt ill at ease, but followed suit and activated his cloaking device. The Guardian could sense the Hunter's apprehension, but said nothing as he activated his own cloaking device and followed closely behind the rest of the group.

The Blazer continued on point and was the first one into the clearing. Almost immediately, the two sentry guns closest to his position came to life and fired at him. The Vanguard and the Hydra instantly moved back and out of range before they could be targeted. The Guardian and the Hunter saw this and paused as well. Meanwhile, the Blazer was dazed by taking two direct shots in the chest and reeled back before taking a staggering step forward. As soon as he did so, the third sentry gun roared to life and fired upon him as well, followed soon after by the first two again. Though their first blasts did not penetrate his heavy military-grade armor, subsequent shots from the first two guns had no trouble doing so. To make matters worse for him, the damage he had suffered from the second shots of the first two sentry guns caused his cloaking device to fail. As soon as he came into view, the Shrine roared to life and focused its searing heat beam directly upon him as the sentry guns continued to assault him. Though the Blazer himself could not think clearly enough to react, the defenses of his suit caused his twin laser mounts to jump to life and start spraying the area in a wild arc in a desperate attempt to save the life of their owner. The Hydra moved forward to aid his counterpart, but he was grabbed by the Vanguard.

"It is too late," he said to the Hydra. "He is done for."

"NO!" said the Hydra as he struggled against the awesomely powerful grip of the Vanguard. Behind them, the Guardian and the Hunter stood equally powerless to lend their clanmate any aid. The Blazer was felled a few seconds later. The whole ambush had lasted less than a minute. Sensing the death of their target, the sentry guns and the Shrine fell silent and returned to standby mode to recharge and repair. The Vanguard relaxed his grip on the Hydra and the Hydra pulled free. After disengaging his cloaking device, he frantically pulled off his helmet and considered the Blazer with his own two eyes as he dropped to his knees. The others could see the grief and anger on the Hydra's face and allowed him his moment of despair. After a few tense seconds, the Hydra threw back his head, arched his back, stretched his arms and hands out to his sides, and shouted a sorrowed and angry cry to the heavens.

The Guardian de-cloaked and put a consoling hand on the Hydra's shoulder. "Your brother will be sorely missed by the clan," he said sympathetically.

"I want the head of whoever did this!" shouted the Hydra.

"I expect nothing less," said the Guardian.

"Sir," spoke the Vanguard as he disengaged his cloaking device. The Guardian said nothing, but merely turned his head to signal that his attention was being given to the Vanguard. "We will have to destroy the Shrine and the sentry guns if we are to continue our investigation."

"We do what we must," said the Guardian as he patted the Hydra on the shoulder before moving away.

"I can get close enough to destroy the Shrine," added the Vanguard. "However, someone else will need to deal with the sentry guns while I do this."

"Are you able to do this?" the Guardian asked the Hydra.

The Hydra stood without speaking and put his helmet back on. After fully reconnecting it to the rest of his suit he looked the Guardian in the eyes. "I am able," he said plainly before re-cloaking. The Guardian said nothing but rather stepped back and re-cloaked as well.

"It has been my highest honor, sir," said the Vanguard aloud to the Guardian as he moved forward into the clearing. Instantly, the sentry guns began firing upon him as fast as they could. Though his killscreen generator lessened their intensity, their blasts were still doing tremendous amounts of damage to him. Once the Vanguard was clearly established as their target, the Hydra quickly moved forward. After he got in range, his targeting display lit up before his eyes and his missile pods locked onto the two closest sentry guns. With a hateful sneer, he let loose a furious barrage upon them. Meanwhile, the Vanguard had reached the Shrine which, by now, was assaulting him mercilessly with its heat beam. He forced himself to ignore the pain and raised his scythe. With an intense blow, he cut deeply into the Shrine. The Shrine shook from the force of his attack and continued to burn into him. The Vanguard swung his scythe again and made an equally deep cut. The Shrine was heavily damaged now and for a brief instant, the beam lost power. Around it, two of the three sentry guns exploded. The Hydra smiled at his handiwork and moved forward to assault the final gun. As he did, he could see that the Vanguard was bleeding out profusely and was not going to hold out for much longer. Back at the Shrine, the Vanguard's whole body caught fire as he connected with a third blow. The heat beam became very erratic, but still continued. Behind his mask, the Vanguard spat up a tremendous amount of blood and felt himself falter. Knowing that he was done, he summoned every last reserve of strength he had left and managed to swing his scythe one last time. The Shrine shuddered from this fourth, and final, mighty blow before exploding violently. Almost at the same moment, the Hydra finished off the final sentry gun and the area went quiet. The Vanguard stood unmoving with his back to the rest of the group and leaned on his scythe as if it were a cane. For several seconds no one in the group moved. The first of them to finally move was the Vanguard. He raised his scythe high above his head with one arm and roared out a cry of victory. When his cry was finished he fell face-forward to the ground, dead.

"I have never seen or known such courage and might," said the Hunter as he disengaged his cloaking device.

"Then you have never seen a Vanguard before," said the Guardian as he also de-cloaked. "Tell me what you see."

"As you command," said the Hunter as he began to explore the area.

"Guard the area," ordered the Guardian to the Hydra.

"I obey," said the Hydra as began to walk the perimeter of the clearing.

Elsewhere, Xothax sat uncloaked in a large tree with the heads of his first three targets laid out before him, having just stripped them of their helmets again and gutting most of their remaining circuitry. Closing his eyes, he gave a short thankful prayer for the success of the start of his Hunt. Once his prayer was completed, he opened his eyes and removed his throwing discs from his belt. With careful consideration, he separated the three discs from one another and laid each out in front of the head it had taken with much ceremony. Then he removed his runed knife from its sheath slowly and deliberately. Holding the knife upright in front of him by the handle with one hand and pressing his other hand to the flat of the blade he said another short prayer. When that prayer was concluded, he took his hand away from the flat of the blade and touched its tip to the forehead of the first Stalker. After a short pause he pulled the blade away and moved it down to the corresponding disc. With a single motion, he cut a notch into its center section. After another brief pause, he repeated the action with the second head and the second disc. After pausing again, he repeated the process a final time with the third head and the third disc. When he was finished he put the knife away, gathered up the discs, joined them back together, and reattached them to his belt. He then gathered up the heads, moved to another tree, and secured the heads on a high branch. Once he was satisfied that the heads were safe and would not be found, even by those looking for them, he set off again. "My Hunt continues," he said with a smile.

To be continued…