Chapter 13: Bug Hunt.
Waking up slowly Jack quickly became aware of heavy pressure on his chest and founding himself struggling to breathe a bit as well, also he found that none of his limbs seemed to want to move either, as a panic started to build in him he realized that it felt like his limbs were being pinned down by something heavy, through the fog of his sleep addled mind a realization hit him and he snapped his eyes open. There laid squarely on top of him was Tik, she was sleeping soundly with her head on his shoulder now, obviously at some point in the night they'd swapped positions, if he'd been able to draw a full breath of air he'd have laughed.
Slowly wiggling both his arms he managed to free them from under the sleeping huntress and once he'd got feeling back in them he placed them on her back, gently he stroked the strong muscles of the woman he loved and she reacted by purring softly in her sleep, he loved the feel of her rough skin under his fingers so much, he couldn't resist running his hands down her back and feeling her feminine shapely rear, her glorious buttocks actually felt like they were carved out of solid steel, it was like the saying 'buns of steel' was literally made for her, as he stoked her perfect bum Tik's purr intensified and he actually felt her shift her hips to press her rear into his hands. A funny thought occurred to him, only seconds ago his mind had been about to go into full panic mode but now it was calm despite the fact he was no less pinned, but he didn't care as long as she was comfortable and given the fact he'd slept on her multiple times it was kinda nice to serve as her pillow for once.
Tik eleth woke up wondering why her pillow seemed to have a heartbeat, she looked up with a confused look on her face to find Ack smiling back at her,
"Morning beautiful sleep well?" he asked,
she nodded slowly reaching up to clear the sleep from her eyes before they focused on him properly,
"I sleep like a cub" she said still sounding sleepy, it was at that point she realized that the pillow with a heartbeat was indeed Ack's chest and somehow she was on top of him.
Jack couldn't help finding sleepy confused Tik as the most adorable thing ever, granted there weren't exactly many who would ever refer to a Yaujta as adorable, in fact they'd probably get shown their own entrails for saying it out loud, but to Jack who was now watching the massive blooded huntress trying to figure out how she seemed to be on top of him with a look of complete confusion plastered on her beautiful face, she was utterly adorable, he reached up with one of his now freed hands and placed it on the side of her face only for her to close her eyes and lean into it, then she brought up one of her large hands and held his in place giving him a close up view of her hand, as he saw it he realised that despite the large size of her hands that her fingers themselves were actually quite slim and dextrous, granted her fingers were much bigger than his own well all except for her pinkie finger which was roughly the same width as a human middle finger, a sudden idea hit him and he brought his other hand off her rear and under her body to his own chest, he took hold of the necklace he wore and pulled it free snapping the cord.
Jack held up the gold ring that been wearing around his neck since he'd lost Sandy, it looked like it would fit perfectly on Tik's little finger, at this point she was completely clueless to what he was doing as she still had her eyes closed leaning into his touch of the side of her face purring slightly, a sudden ripple of to his left side drew his attention as he looked through the ring and he turned to look, in the shadows he could have sworn that he saw Sandy standing there smiling giving him a thumbs up, he shook his head and looked again but she was gone, but it warmed his heart to know that she was still watching over him, one of the promises that they'd made to each other is that no matter where they were they would always have each other's back and it looked like death hadn't stopped her from keeping her word, Typical Sandy not even God could tell her what to do.
Jack reversed his hand on Tik's face and took hold of her big hand, then bringing it up to his own face he slipped the ring onto her little finger and to his absolute surprise and sheer joy it was an absolute perfect fit, it was as if it had been made for her.
Tik eleth opened her eyes to look at what Ack had done to her hand, she felt him place something on her little finger, as her eyes focused she saw the most beautiful ring made in gold with sapphires, rubies and diamonds had been placed on her finger, the stones on the top of it were arranged into a strange but oddly pleasant pattern of red white and blue.
She looked at Ack questioningly, "It's a symbol of eternal love between oomans, we give the one we have pledged ourselves to a ring to show that our love will last forever, it's given between husband and wife or as your kind would say, life mates, it shows that wherever we are we carry our love with us" he said, she looked back at the shining ring now on her little finger and her heart nearly burst with joy as she saw the little ring glinting in the dim light, she couldn't help but adore these ooman rituals they were so amazingly intimate and loving, she reached up and pulled Ack into a tight hug pulling his face to hers, "Thank you Ack it's beautiful" she said,
"As are you my love" he replied nuzzling her, suddenly an idea struck her and she quickly detached herself and sat herself up on her knees straddling his hips but keeping the majority of her weight on her knees as not to hurt him.
Jack couldn't help but admire the naked body of his beautiful huntress as she was straddling him now, she seemed to be looking at her dreadlocks for some reason, she was quickly flicking through them one at a time while he watched her, then she found the one she wanted and she removed a silver and gold twisted ring from it, then she took his left hand from her thigh where both of them had been gently stroking her, she held up the ring against his hand before sliding it onto his ring finger, it was a perfect fit and inadvertently she managed to place it on exactly the right finger as well, then she looked at him with a massive smile on her face, "A symbol of my love you my life mate, now you take me and my love with you wherever you are, as I carry you and your love with me" she said holding up her ringed hand next to his, then gently she took his hand in hers and took it up to her chest placing it against her skin so that he could feel her beating heart, he looked at her smiling, "This beats for you now Ack and it always will and I place my life in your hands and you have placed yours in mine" she said, then she leaned down opening her mandibles as she did and kissed her beloved male.
After their kiss broke Jack became aware of that delightfully spicy smell that signalled that Tik was becoming aroused, he smiled as he realised that it wasn't just the heat of battle that got her going and that somewhere deep down in that tough battle hardened shell beat the heart of a true romantic, seeing the position they were in a devilish idea struck him, "Tik will you do something for me?" he asked, she tilted her head curiously,
"Of course my love name it" she said,
"Turn around so that you are still in that position but facing the other way" he said, she looked confused at this request but did as her love asked, she stood up and turned around before kneeling back down, now she was faced towards his feet with her back to him,
"Like this?" she asked,
"That's right now shuffle backwards till I tell you to stop" he said, this obviously confused Tik even more but again she did as her male asked and she began to shuffle backwards being careful to keep her weight mostly on her knees as she moved over his chest. From his point of view was rather spectacular as Tik leaned forwards placing her hands on his body to counter some of her weight while keeping her balance, he got a rather nice view of her spectacular rear end getting closer to his face, then just as she moved again her legs hooked under his arms and he found himself looking straight up into her beautiful feminine flower which was glistening signalling her arousal, "That's perfect stop there" he said.
Tik eleth was confused by her love's request but she'd done it for him anyway, now she found herself kneeling over his face looking down towards his feet, suddenly she realised exactly wat Ack was up to as she felt his hands trail up her inner thighs and stop when they reached her womanhood, she felt herself being opened up and felt her male's wonderful hot breath on her most intimate area and suddenly she knew what was coming next, a delightful shiver passed down her spine in anticipation of what he was about to do to her, then she felt it the wonderful sensation of her male's tongue tasting her burning flesh and swirling around between her lower lips, she growled softly as she felt him move his mouth to gently suck on the top of her womanhood taking that little hard thing between his warriors teeth and rolling it, this sent bursts of pleasure through her and caused white flashes in her vision, then she felt his tongue worm its way upwards and inside her tasting its way around her inner walls till it found that little spot towards her belly and she instantly felt her knees begin to tremble, this caused her to have to lean forwards and place more of her weight onto her hands, that's when her eyes locked onto Ack's malehood standing proudly up towards her from under the covers, she growled hungrily as she saw it and then she had a devilish idea of her own.
Jack was busy swirling his tongue over Tik's G-spot so he didn't immediately notice that his beautiful huntress was up to something, he put her shifting her weight around and adjusting her angle much lower to her trying to get comfortable, he was busy gorging himself on the sublime taste of his woman and listening to her growls and wails of pleasure to even notice what she was doing well that was until his manhood was suddenly seized and plunged into a world of liquid heat, he broke his deep tongue kiss for only a few seconds as a loud moan escaped him and glancing downwards he saw Tik with her mandibles caressing the sides of his manhood and her long tongue coiled around him, he smiled broadly as she glanced under herself and caught his eyes with a very seductive look in her eye, then he instantly returned his tongue into her and the battle commenced each battling to give their lover as much pleasure as they could, each of their bodies stopped responding to commands and began to work on a will of their own a deep primal will that neither of them had any control over as they both worked feverishly on their lover's most sensitive organs with their mouths. Jack adored the feeling of Tik's tongue coiling and squirming all over his manhood milking him from hilt to tip not to mention the suction the tip of her throat created as she pushed the tip in and out slowly, on Tik eleth's side she was lost in the sensations of Ack's tongue caressing every fold of her inner walls and using that strong muscle to massage her inner most areas as well as him sucking on and rubbing his dextrous fingers all over her lower lips as well as her little pleasure button, pretty soon the battle turned up the pace and resulted in a perfect draw as both of them reached a mutual and highly intense climax as both of their essences flooded into each other's hungry waiting mouths at exactly the same second drawing gurgling growls and roars from them both as they struggled to experience and vent their own pleasure while revelling in that of their lover.
Afterwards Tik eleth turned herself back around and laid herself back down on top of Ack, she straight away kissed and she knew that while she could taste her own essence in his mouth he would taste his in hers as their tongues wrestled, but rather than revolting her it invigorated her, she adored pleasuring her male as he seemed to adore pleasuring her, when they finally broke their kiss she placed her head down on his shoulder and stroked his cheek, "Ack is very sneaky" she said and she heard him laugh,
"Sorry I figured you wouldn't be expecting that and I couldn't resist" he said between chuckles, she purred as she felt his hands stroking her skin, then she looked up into his bright sapphire eyes,
"I was not but now I know Ack's tactics I will be prepared for sneaky pleasure attacks in future" she said smiling, this set him off laughing again which pleased her as she loved to see him happy,
"Guess I'll have to up my game to catch you off guard again then won't I?" he said devilishly, she purred at him as his hand came up and stroked her cheek,
"As will I, be prepared for my counter attacks my love" she said,
"I look forwards to it" he said still smiling and with that they both just laid there for a while in silence just enjoying each other's company.
Once they managed to drag themselves away from each other they'd gone and done their separate ablutions, now Tik eleth was preparing the shimmer lizards for their breakfast while Jack was inspecting his wounds which Tik had treated with her medikit.
"That stuff you put on these things when you stitched me up works wonders, these bad boys are pretty much fully healed up, even the burns on my hands are almost totally gone" he said marvelling at the healing properties of the Yaujta medical equipment, Tik eleth looked up from the pot she was currently working over, her eyes roamed over the body of her male and saw what he was talking about,
"Yaujta medicine very powerful, they're designed to keep hunters in the fight as long as possible, but wasn't sure it would work on an ooman" she said admiring his body,
Jack continued to check himself over now aware of Tik staring at him, without turning to face her he simply smiled to himself, it felt nice to be admired by the one you love,
"See anything you like?" he asked without turning to look at her,
for someone her size she moved like a ninja's shadow because he never heard her leave the pot and didn't even know she was behind him till her massive hands suddenly appeared on his chest,
"I see the male that I love" she said in a matter of fact voice pressing her face into the back of his neck, Jack grinned as his own words got used back on him, then he turned in her embrace and held her against him, "As he loves you" he replied softly into her chest.
As they ate their breakfast of shimmer lizard stew Jack decided to address a problem that was troubling him, "I think we're going to have to exterminate our bug problem" he said with a mouthful of stew, Tik looked at him curiously while she chewed her own mouthful,
"Bug problem?" she asked after swallowing, Jack nodded,
"The kiande amedha, we need to deal with those fuckers or they are going to continue to cause us problems and we can't afford to be fighting them when the bad bloods show up as they'll need our total focus" he said gesturing with the fork he was holding,
Tik eleth thought about this for a moment before she nodded,
"Agreed, they need to be killed before we can plan for the bad blood arrival" she said,
"Then we need to head back to that cave and wipe them out, but first I think we'll need a few things" Jack said, Tik looked at him curiously,
"I'll need you to show me where the other dead humans you found are" Jack continued and this really confused Tik but she nodded her agreement and together they finished the remainder of their meal in silence both lost in their thoughts.
The bodies of the other humans that had been dropped into this nightmare filled hell hole had not weathered the jungle climate well, this was the fourth one they'd looked at and Tik kept watch while Jack searched the body, he really didn't like having to do this but getting a resupply of ammo and equipment here was impossible so all he could do was scavenge what he needed from the fallen, so far he'd kind of lucked out on his finds, the first body Tik had showed him was of a young man in his early twenties, he'd been pierced by a branch through his stomach and was effectively nailed to the tree, now to add to this both of his legs were now missing thanks to some sort of predator which had only managed to get that high, but the man had obviously been a sniper due to his Barrett M82A3 which was up in the tree attached to him.
Jack had thought of taking the massive weapon but when he'd climbed up into the tree he could see that the impact with the tree had damaged the barrel of the weapon and a weapon you can't trust is not a weapon but a hindrance. So Jack took all the clips for the weapon as the ammo was compatible with his AS50, he also noticed that the man didn't have a side arm but he figured that had gone when whatever took his legs probably dragged it off with them still in its holster. He also managed to get some rations from him as well as some more medical supplies, the last thing he took was the man's dog tags that showed he was a First Recon Marine sniper from the USMC, Jack had worked side by side with these guys more than once and had a lot of respect for their capabilities, then he closed the man's eyes with his hand,
"Sleep tight soldier your fight is done" he said before looking up into the alien sky,
"Just one more soldier reporting in sir, his time in hell is done" he said quoting a line from a soldier's prayer he'd learned when he was in, he just hoped someone was listening.
Over the next few Jack had managed to get himself a new shirt, more medical supplies, a small but handy backpack, an M203 with a few 40mm grenades and two hundred rounds of ammo for it, he'd also found a variety of other rather useful toys but also he got four more sets of dog tags from various militaries around his home world, he just hoped that one day he'd get chance to send them home so their families may have some measure of closure however small.
But finally he felt ready and he and Tik headed for the cave of the kiande amedha deep in the jungle. They rarely spoke as they moved through the forest, although both of them were itching to converse with the other and to even share a kiss or two, but both of them were avid professionals and now was not the time for them to let the guards down, it was time to keep your head on the swivel looking for the enemy, especially as these fuckers had a really nasty habit of coming out of nowhere and in force.
Word about the two hunters must have spread among the animals of this forest as fuck all showed itself during their entire trip, they reached the cave with no issues, Jack scanned the entrance to the cave through the scope of his AS50 while Tik had climbed up a tree and was sweeping the area with those sensors of hers, finally Jack signalled to her that he had nothing, she climbed down the tree and approached him,
"I also see no movement" she said,
"I don't like it, it too quiet there's no way we got all those fuckers if they were willing to spare some of them on a scouting party" he said,
Tik looked at Jack in admiration, he was a true hunter as he respected his prey's abilities and even admired them, these were traits of a true hunter,
"What do you think their guarding in there? You know more about them than me" he asked looking at Tik,
"It most likely a nest, which means there a good chance of a queen" Tik said,
"Oh great, queen usually means big, pissed off and heavily protected" Jack replied,
Tik nodded her head,
"Queens are the most dangerous of opponents" she said,
"Wish I brought that fucking minigun now" Jack said referring to the large M104 they'd found on one of the bodies of the dead humans.
Tik eleth looked at Ack for a moment before plan started to form in her mind, it was risky but against the odds of multiple kiande amedha and a possibly a queen they needed every advantage they could get, they needed something that played to both their strengths, now she knew that Jack could fight up close if need be as she'd seen him do it, but his major strength was that he could hit targets with that long barrel projectile weapon of his at a serious distance, her strength was in up close combat, she took a deep breath and turned to face him,
"Ack I have a plan and you won't like it" she said.
"I can't fucking believe I let her talk me into this" Jack grumbled to himself,
he was currently laid on a rocky outcrop overlooking the cave four hundred meters away watching the woman he loved making her way to the cave entrance on her own, they'd spent twenty minutes arguing over this, he did not want to let her go in there alone after the last time, but eventually she won him over with sheer logic, her plan was simple, she was going to go in quietly and stealthily, she would get as deep into the nest as she could and cause an absolute shit storm in there, this would rile up the bugs and make them chase her out of the cave, once outside this is where Jack's expertise would kick in, using his rifle he would pick off the bugs as they scurried around out in the open and either soften up or kill the queen when she emerged, but he still didn't have to like watching the woman he loved go into the cave of fucking death on her own without his back up.
Inside the cave was pitch black, if it wasn't for her advanced optics Tik eleth would have been completely blind, as she passed the mountains of bodies near the entrance it hit her just what a gargantuan fight Jack had committed on her behalf, she was almost beginning to regret her decision to leave him outside, in fact a part of her wanted to run out and into his arms, not through fear but just a want to have one last hug with him before they faced their deaths, but she was able to push those feelings into a box in her mind, they were going to be victorious this day, alone they were strong, together they were unstoppable not just because they were both blooded warriors, but because they would fight to their last breath for the other.
As she progressed deeper into the dank smelling cave she began to see the tell-tale signs of a large kiande amedha infestation, the walls had been coated with that black organic resin that they used to line their nests, she had to resist the urge to touch the stuff as she knew that it was sticky nasty stuff, instead she stroked one of the cylindrical objects that Jack had made her bring in with her, there were four of them clipped to the belt of her battle skirt and she remembered his instructions, 'Pull out the metal pin and throw at the fuckers before running the fuck away' he'd said, they were obviously some sort of grenade, they were one of the conditions that he'd made on letting her going in on her own, she remembered getting angry at him over this, but now she regretted it as she knew that he didn't doubt her abilities, he just wanted to be there to back her up, what had he said to her now? 'I'd rather die by your side knowing that I gave my life fighting side by side with the woman I love, live for one another die together' were his words, this had touched her heart but she'd know that this was the right course of action.
The tell-tale quiet hisses and scratches told her that the kiande amedha were aware of her presence, she needed to hurry up or they'd intercept her before she reached her goal of the egg chamber, so Tik eleth abandoned stealth and broke into a full on run straight down the long wide circular cavern.
It wasn't long before the kiande amedha figured out what was happening and began to chase Tik eleth down into the depths of their lair, there seemed to be far more of them than she'd anticipated, it seemed that there must be a queen and that she'd been real busy here, now she found various drones crawling out of cracks in the walls ahead of her, the plasma caster on her shoulder fired as she ran, blowing them off the walls and making the remainder take cover, she couldn't allow them to slow her down, she needed to reach the egg chamber but just as she was thinking this she ran full tilt into a rather large pitch black chamber and immediately tripped over an egg sac booting it full force into the air. Tik eleth turned the fall into a roll to avoid the face hugger that jumped from the egg that she'd just full force kicked as she'd tripped on it, she was able to use her sword which she had ready in hand to slice it in half as she fell, the egg sac flew across the chamber and bounced off the back of something big and black, as Tik eleth stood back up she saw a rather large pissed off queen turning slowly to face her, around the chamber were hundreds of the egg sacs all secured to the floor with the slimy resin that she secreted.
The queen had secured her oversized egg producing abdomen to the ceiling of the chamber with large sticky strands of resin, as soon as it spotted what had booted one of her precious eggs at her head the queen let out an almighty shriek, suddenly the chamber was filled with a cascade of shrieks and hisses as the drones responded to their queens call, Tik eleth looked around herself, there was no way to stand and fight in here as it would be suicide, it was time to follow Ack's advice, as she used her plasma caster to fire short bursts into the closest drones that came her way she tore all of the grenades from her belt and pulled the pins on all of them, small leavers flicked off all of them and she pitched all of them at the queen's abdomen and main body before with a couple more rounds from the plasma caster she turned on her heals and full on sprinted through the exit of the chamber back the way she'd come.
As she ran back up the shaft she was forced to duck weave and dance past the kiande amedha drones that dropped down at her from all directions, behind her there were a series of massive explosions and a whoosh of fire that followed her up the circular cave, it lit up the cave around her briefly as she ran and she saw more of them on the walls, it also had the bonus effect of setting some of the accursed creatures on fire, but for some reason they all seemed frozen in place as if confused by what had happened behind them, Tik eleth guessed that at least one of those grenade that Ack had given her was a pyro, because the chamber she was running from seemed to now be on fire and there was a hell of a lot of shrieking coming from it, suddenly the drones stopped chasing her and headed into the chamber to help their queen, but sudden heavy footfalls signalled that the queen had survived the blast and was now in pursuit and Tik eleth guessed she wouldn't be very happy that all of her freshly laid eggs were currently on fire, so putting everything she had into it she turned her run into a full on sprint as she headed for the exit.
Up on his rocky outcrop Jack was starting to get antsy, it felt like Tik had been that cave for what felt like ever, he knew that he had to trust the blooded huntress as she had just as much if not more combat experience than him and had fought these creatures many times, but the male in him still didn't like letting his female go into a cave filled with those nightmares all alone, even if his female could quite easily be described as a nightmare herself.
Suddenly there was a deep rumble that seemed to come from underground and Jack recognized the effect of the super RDX grenades that he'd given Tik, to be fair these things had been amazing find due to their sheer power in such a small package, plus the pyro grenade if she'd used it would have lit those fuckers up quite nicely, then just as a smoke cloud started to pour out of the cave a familiar shape raced out of the smoke at full tilt taking a small trail of it with it and Jack's heart leapt for joy as he saw Tik, but then it froze in horror as he realized what would be following her and he instantly lined up his rifle, just in time to see a whole world of nightmares given form start to emerge out of it right behind her.