Chapter 17: Friends With Benefits.
Tank grumbled because he had to remove the barricade that he'd just spent ages putting in place, but this time he had help and in only moments they were through and moving downwards.
T"Sall was with them and once again had his hunting mask on and like the others had his weapons to bare when they spread out into the lobby taking up firing positions aiming towards the doors.
Instantly they all heard the sounds of someone trying to over come their counter measures, im they heard curses being thrown about in a very familiar language and the doors being shook and eventually opened before the two figures spilled in and immediately set about resealing the doors, one figure was large about 8ft tall and the other smaller but no less tall for their kind standing about 6'5.
"Hurry up! I am not a fucking door stop ooman!" The large figure snarled in a frustrated voice, thr other figure sighed loudly sounding no less frustrated than his big companion.
"How many times do I have to say it T'Kell I"m not a sodding ooman as you say!" he grumbled as he made short work of sealing the door handles in the bungees they'd removed before adding what appeared to be a length of chain they'd brought themselves.
Once he'd wrapped it he secured it with what appeared to be a padlock and then stood back and nodded, "Ok good, now I suggest we go see if we can find who secured the doors in the first place" the smaller figure said as they both turned and found themselves staring down the barrels of multiple weapons.
"Too late laddie, now if ye be so kind, hands up and away from yer guns and you big girl i see those casters twitch even slightly...well less just say my gun spins up a lot faster and does a lot more damage" Tank growled darkly.
"Pauk" the big obviously Yaujta female said, she was dressed in full battle armor, it was jet black and layered like scale plate, it was side at the chest and flared at the hips, all reinforced to take the maximum amount of damage possible before falling and fitted with shielding generators for both protection against energy and plasma weapons, or her cloaking systems as it took power to hide a set up like this.
By contrast her companion was dressed in a jet black and very tight fitting body suit, made for stealth and flexibility not to mention speed and ease of movement, it didn't offer much in the way of protection but the occupant wearing it didn't need as much in the way of armour as most did, all the Spirits knew that particular set up as they had seen it before.
Both raised their hands slowly and they could hear some under the breath cursing going on, "I am Huntress first class T'Kell Balkelan of the Halkrath, we did not come here to hunt, we are merely trying to seek shelter from the death outside these walls" the large Yautja female said he voice surprisingly even for a Yautja being held at gun point.
"And you? Who might you be laddie?" Tank asked glancing at the masked male who's face was covered by a mask that was part of his body suit but his weapon never left T'Kell for a moment.
"My name is Paul Twenty of the free synthetics self defence force section 5" the man said in a very calm voice.
"Section 5? Hmmmm the synthetic special forces, I've heard many good and also scary things about you guys" Picasso said swinging his smartgun back and forth between the two.
"As have I about you Spirit" Paul said turning his attention to him and catching all of their attentions at once, which prompted him to continue, "Your armour, your heavily customized weapons, your very dramatic and effective entrance, all hall marks of the legendary Spirit teams, well all except for him and I would say by the look if his he is one of the Guardian core of the legendary clan Mason, we have friendly relations with them, infact it was they that originally helped my people to achieve freedom and independence all those years ago, your people are held in very high regard among my people sir" he said.
"As yours are among mine" T'Sall replied and he glanced at the Spirits, "They are not lying I sense no deception from them" he said, Tank glanced among the others and there were nods among them, both the Halkrath and Section 5 were both respected and allied with the Spirits, so with a single gesture they all as one lowered their weapons.
"Sorry for the precautions hope you won't take it personal, just in this enviroment you can't be too careful" Picasso said and both lowered their hands and the tension visibly eased from both of them
"That remains to be seen" T'Kell growled from behind her mask, the Yautja never were ones for being very forgiving, fortunately while they might be rather aggressive and driven they were also incredibly smart, they knew a stupid and pointless fight when they saw one, you didn't get to be a Halkrath without being the very best of what the clans had to offer to even be considered for their number you had to endure something the Yautja simply referred to as the long hunt, it was incredibly secretive and only those that had endured it knew what it entailed, none of them ever spoke about it, ever.
Inferno had endured it when she joined the Halkrath but she never spoke about it, not even to Reaper that they knew of, so they were incredibly respected warriors in a class of their own save for those who chose to try for the Spirits if they got approached, even then on a few managed to make it into their ranks which gave the Spirits a place of great respect among the Halkrath.
"I'm Picasso, these are my comrades, Tank, Ice and Moodstone and this is our newest friend T'Sall Jack of the Guardian Seeker Core" Picasso said pointing to them individually, T'Kell focused on T'Sall and gave him the Yautja salute which he returned bowing his head in respect as he did.
"Dream Warrior, it pleases me greatly to be fighting along side you, I have the greatest respect for your clan, I had the great honor of meeting your Gran Patriach a good while back and watching him fight was an indescribable experience, like watching the pure grace and harmony of combat contained within a single being, I have never seen so many sign up for the ooman hunt in my life as I did that day" she said with deep respect in her voice.
T'Sall chuckled softly to himself, "Yes he has that effect on people, though I do remember the last Yautja girl silly enough to try to catch his eye while our Grand Matriach was around, I thought she was going to punch her through a wall, poor girl spent three years cleaning toilets, bet she never cursed Yautja longevity so hard in her life" he said and he heard T"Kell chuckle herself.
"She sounds lenient, if any female were to look at the male I will eventually catch then I will skin her alive and use her hide to make a skirt to do a mating display for him in" she snarled and T'Sall full on laughed at this.
"Our Grand Patriach is the only one who can calm her when the rage takes hold, she embodies the pure truth of the berserkers, bu I have seen with my own eyes the power of his love for her, with a simple touch he had taken her from a full on battle rage to a calm and gentle love in his arms, such is the power of love as all my clan believe" he said.
She cocked her head slightly and nodded, "Well come on lets not stand around in the lobby talking, our home is your home, we are all brothers and sister soldiers here and our enemy is the same one, so come on follow us you guys could probably use some rest and comfort" Picasso said gesturing to the stairs and both nodded.
"Thank you it is most appreciated" Paul said and the pair fell in step with the Spirits as they made their way back up the stairs, Tank started grumbling when he realized that he had to seal off the stairway again, but this time he was helped by T'Kell who never said a word and just started lifting furniture to hand to him as he piled it into the gap to seal it shut against invaders.
When they arrived in the suite they were using as a meeting place and temporary HQ they found Whisper sat with Zachee, T'Kell, Paul these are Whisper and Doctor Zachee Twist Horn who we rescued from the hospita, guys these are T'Kell Balkelan and Paul twenty, from the Halkrath and the synthetic self defence force Section 5" Picasso said gesturing to the pair.
"Greetings Whisper, greetings doctor it is good to meet you" Paul said gesturing amicably to them both, T'Kell did the same taking her mask off to reveal incredibly feminine looking Yaujta female who by the red glow of one of her eyes and the nasty scar that ran through it had lost it in combat, on most species a scar like that would have seriously messed up her looks, but somehow on the Yautja it seemed to worked and there were some people who were even unnerved by Yautja who didn't bear the scars of combat and they had seen a great many Halkrath who were minus eyes or mandibles, though most didn't seem to choose to get them replaced despite the technology having been around for a great many decades or even hundreds of years.
"Well don't be shy guys find yourselves a seat and take a load off, we have food and water if anybody is hungry or thirsty" Picasso said gesturing to the couches and to their packs which had rations and water though not enough to feed them all for long term survival they weren't planning on being here that long, but standard procedure meant they each carried a weeks worth into most deployments, but given that they were in part on a rescue mission some members of the group were carrying extra, Picasso was one of them carrying two weeks worth.
"Thank you for your generosity it is most welcome" T'Kell said and went to look at the rations that were laid out.
"What is this chicken marsala?" she asked lifting a pack up curiously,
"You might actually like that one, I'll be blunt most ration packs taste like shite but they're pure calories and thats what counts, but our tame Yautja huntress Inferno says that one is not half bad but she does like spicy things" he said, she looked at him curiously and then shrugged before cracking the self heating strip in the bottom of the pack and moving over to sit down on the couch that was free.
Paul shook his head, being a synthetic had its benefits like not eating or drinking, well not the food that organics used anyway, he moved to sit next to T'Kall as she investigated her pack of chicken marsala sniffing it curiously before tasting it slowly with the included spoon, the look on her face was most curious, they couldn't tell if it was pain, surprise or horror, but which ever it was Yautja pride won out and not wanting to look weak infront of her new comrades when she realized they were watching her with interest, she ate the whole thing.
Picasso looked around the seats and noticing that the only one left was next to Zachee he moved and sat next to the young Scalathor doctor and the others watched in barely veiled amusement as the young reptilian tried in vein to keep her tail from winding up on his lap as she was sat with the back to the arm of the two seater love seat on which they sat, at fist she lifted it and held it to her chest, but after she let go of it after trapping it between her knees it slowly slowly slowly began to slide its way back out, much to Moodstone's amusement, she would give the girl this, at least she was trying.
The only other free seat was next to Whisper and given that T'Sall was left standing after taking some water from the canteens he planted himself down gingerly next to Whisper and they all saw the glances the Felenis sniper was giving him, he was obviously pretending not to notice.
"So what happened to your teams?" Picasso asked gesturing to them both and they glanced at one another.
"Mine were destroyed, torn completely apart limb from limb, when the creatures realized they couldn't eat or turn my people they destroyed them utterly, it seemed to incense them so completely and utterly, we thought that they would ignore us as they seem to with any other technology, we were wrong, so very very wrong, I was the only one to escape and only because I was the last one on the formation and was quick enough to realise that I couldn't save them, so I ran, it saved my life but not my pride, I've been running ever since" Paul said.
T'Kall nodded in agreement, "I only wish my people had been as lucky in their deaths, one by one by one my team was turned into those things, one bite here or there and before I knew it I was the only one left, we fought as long and as hard as we could but in the end it was for naught, we couldn't even get the people we saved off the planet because of those pauking anti air defences that the oomans set up, they tore apart everything we tried to launch off, but in hindsight at least those that were aboard were granted a quick death, compared to those of us left behind, I had to hunt my friends, my comrades, my family down and send them on to the great and eternal hunt and I can only prey to the great Paya herself that she let them join her and didn't send them away because of what happened to them" she said with such pain and anger that it made her voice shake.
T'Sall looked at her, "Our lady would not turn away faithful and loyal hunters because of how they dies like that, they did what all honorable Yautja would do, they stood and fought for the innocent and gave their lives willingly to hunt their enemies, granted it was one of their own that sent them on to the great hunt but be not sad sister because you did them and our great lady a great service, one that she will not forget, you did not let them linger in purgatory, you stood for what it means to be Yautja and you gave them peace and mercy" he said proudly causing her to look at him with hope in her eyes.
"You believe so Dream Warrior? If you say it then I will believe, for it is said that your kind do not lie and can see lies in others as if they were written on their faces" she said with such true hope in her voice that it was painful to hear.
"It is true T'Kell we can, we see into the hearts of others and know their secrets when we need to, but we also see the spirits of the lingering dead, though it is only our grand Patriach who communes with the gods and goddesses themselves, though he has been known to chat with Paya a great deal, she treats him like a favored son though he is not Yautja, it is even said though he woun't confirm it that he and our grand Matriach will stand at her side as protectors and wardens of the great hunt when their time comes to rest, so that their great love will stand as a testament to all Yautja and oomans everywhere as to what our races can achieve together" he said with great pride in his voice.
T'Kell looked curious, "Is it true that our great lady gave him the life span of a Yautja?" she asked and he nodded.
"He is hundreds of years old, though in ooman terms he doesn't look a day past him mid thirties, a source of constant joy for our grand Matriach, though a bit of an annoyance for us at times" he said with a soft chuckle in his voice and T'Kell looked even more curious.
'How so?" she asked ans T'Sall looked a little awkward
"Well ummm he always makes a point of training the new recruits himself and training with us every day, often our grand Matriach will come to watch when she is not training herself, he often trains without a shirt on and you can ummmm hear her purring from any part of the great arena as it echoes like crazy, it's kinda distracting" he said which made T'Kell laugh out loud.
"She is obviously a female who is proud of her love for her male and does not care who knows it for none are stupid enough or brave enough to judge her and honestly who has the right to?" she said and he nodded in agreement.
"Their great love forged a clan strong enough to stand for everyone when they could not stand for themselves, a clan that not only shielded everyone but united them, showed them how they weren't alone, that they could stand together and along side us, brought all the great races together and showed them how to fight together against an enemy who would tear us all apart and it all began with one ooman male and one Yautja female who got stranded together on a planet to be hunted like animals, their great love taught us all what we can do together, how the purity of each race was an illusion and that together the races were stronger and that ironically it was the race that everyone considered the weakest that proved to be the glue that bound us, oomans, the only race capable of bonding with every race without any technological help" he said proudly being half human himself.
"I'll second that, don't know where I'd be without my big soft bear of an human, there is no greater joy in my life that knowing that for his incredible strength that could tear my tail off and feed it to me he would die a thousand deaths to prevent a single scratch to my scales from happening, to know that hands that can smash metal into such incredible shapes with such incredible strength touch me with nothing but pure gentleness and the way he looks at me makes my heart flutter every single time" Moodstone said looking up at her rather embaressed Tank before kissing him.
"That's cos I love ye to death ya wee silly beastie, how many other lads can say they've got a girl as pretty as you on their arm? Or that they can wake up in the morning with a tail wrapped around their leg and a beautiful horn wrapped in their beard?" he said very softly and proudly before kissing the tip of her snout.
Both T'Kell and Zachee looked at them curiously, "Is it easy to love a human then? Zachee asked curiously, the group had noticed that he tail was now laid flat across Picasso's lap and he was obviously fighting the urge not to rest his hands on it, Moodstone grinned broadly.
"God yes, they have a saying once you taste scale it's make you flail, I made him flail on our first night, he called me his little dragoness, told me that making love with me was like being seduced by a dragon, never quite knew whether she wants to eat you or love, but either way it will probably be the death of him" she said and Zachee looked at at Tank curiously.
"And you were ok with that?" she asked and the big man smiled kinda embaressed.
"One thing you need to learn about us humans wee lizard girlie is we don't do boring, if she is to be the death of me at least I'll die smiling with a heart full of love, I can only hope its not because she accidently stabs me with that horn of hers" he said.
Zachee cocked her head and blinked, "I never would have imagined you to be a male who would want to be dominated" she said and Moodstone roared with laughter that confused her.
"You can only dominate someone who either wants to or lets you dominate them, now it's no secret that females of our race are sexually dominant and aggressive, but it's different with them, yes you could try to dominate one of them and obviously some of them would be fine with it, from what I understand humans are incredibly adaptable in that sense, coming in not only all shapes and sizes but sexual proclivities as well, trying to dominate a male of their kind who does not wish it will end badly for you and I don't mean physically I mean mentally, yes they are physically strong I mean just look at my Tankie here, I've no doubt in my mind that he could tear me in half with ease, but he adores me as I do him and I would never do a thing to undermine him as a male as he would never do a single thing to undermine me as a female, its about love and mutual respect with their kind, take that away from them and you destroy what they are at their core, you take away from them that which matters most to them, that you respect them enough to care for them and not treat them like a thing or a toy, because they are not, they are a living, breathing, feeling sentient being just like you or me and to take that from them and to treat them as just a thing is a horrible thing to do, it actually made me question a lot of our species practices and mentalities, now I'm not saying fo one second that you can be dominant or controlling with your love with regards towards a human, but it has to be a consensual thing an agreed thing, because if they just want it to be an equal thing and you force your control on him he won't forgive you for it, it's nothing short of forcing him or raping him, trust me when I say that afterwards you won't be happy, you maybe content but when you see the hurt and betrayal in his eyes for what you did to him and took from him against his will you will regret it even more so when you realise what it is you most likely threw away for lack of self control and he will never trust you again, every time he looks at you you will always see it in the back of his eyes, that's if you ever see him again, I've known it happen to countless sisters of ours, they've tried to treat a human like they're one of our own, to dominate him control him and beat him and to take him, then afterwards they realise what a truely bitter mistake they have made because they experience a pleasure they can only truly get from one of their kind and then when they wish to have that experience again they can't get it, because the male they chased not only abandoned them but told others about them, Tank told me once upon a time it was considered a great dishonor for a man to admit he was raped by a woman, he would be ridiculed by his peers and would never breathe a word of it to anyone, not so any more, now they will shout it loud and they will speak out and they will tell people what you have done" she said.
Zachee looked horrified, "And so they should! No living being should be forced! It's a horrific thing to endure regardless of your gender or your species!" she exclaimed retracting her tail and hugging it protectively, "I was merely talking about a female being more assertive and dominant, not full on rape! The very fact that our sisters have done such things to them both disgusts and horrifies me" she said in a very sad sounding voice.
Moodstone nodded in agreement, "They didn't bother to check that human laws of consent are very different than ours, that consent cannot be won by sheer will and dominance, it can only be granted willingly with equal want, or it is not consent, it is forced, I saw so many of our sisters loose out on something so incredibly beautiful because they weren't willing to try and understand them, to try and see how they do things, that human love cannot be forced it can only be won or given and by won I don't mean in a contest of will, I mean by displaying who you truely are to the one you wish to court, infact it is the very reason our kind lost so many males to them in the early days, because our males realized that human females would not treat them they way we have done, they went tot them to experience gentle understanding and kind love and they got it in droves, that is what I wanted for myself when I met Tank, not at first you understand, I merely meant to bed him, not force him of course but to lure him to my bed have my way with him and be done with him, but when I got to understand humanity through him oh by the great tree Zachee he opened my eyes so completely and I saw what an utter selfish fool I had been and just wow, now I understand why our brothers coined the phrase when you taste skin prepare to win" she said with a soft and very happy smile.
All of them saw Zachee shoot a look at Picasso who was listening intently to Moodstone, understanding other races and cultures was truely his thing, he adored learning all he could about thee other sentient races, so this seldom garnered insight into the Scalathor mind was like nectar to him.
So he was the only one in the room that missed the glance that the young reptilian doctor who sat hugging her long tail gave him, it was a look of utter wonder, "Their kind is utterly worth it my sister, one taste of the right skin and you will most utterly win" Moodstone said.
"You know it seems my kind have sayings like that for all the races, for instance for the Felenis we say stoke her fur and make her purr, for the Yautja we say if your girl loves to hunt be a real ooman man and lick her..." Picasso said before Whisper leant over and promptly swatted him over the head making him snap forwards and then glare at her.
"Hey! What he fuck did you do that for!?" he exclaimed rubbing his head, Whisper eyed him with an amused look.
"Because I doubt our fine guests and esteemed fellows wish to hear your vulgarity" she said quietly.
T'Kell looked at her, "I do! I wish to know what an ooman man will lick!" she exclaimed a little too quickly and they all looked at her with rather amused looks.
"We have to introduce her to Inferno, they can swap notes" Tank said, then he gestured for the big huntress to lean over to him, she did so and using a giant hand to shield his mouth by cupping it over her ear he whisper to her and her mandibles promptly fell open in shock.
"O-O-O-Oman males do such things!?" she exclaimed in a voice of utter shock that was part disgust and part curiously.
"Oh boy do they!" Moodstone said,
B-B-But why? Why would they do such a thing? No Yautja male would ever do such a thing for his mate?" she exclaimed, Moodstone looked at her in pity,
"Oh girl the question is not to ask why they do such things but to let them and then during and afterwards you can throw as many prayers and thanks as you can at Paya for the fact that they do, plus I know what you mean, our males would only do it if forced, but to be fair to them would you want to do something like that under duress? It obviously feels bad enough to be forced down and taken without being bloody humiliated as well" she said.
"Exactly! Why would ooman males humiliate themselves like that willingly!?" she asked but before Moodstone answered Picasso did.
"Becasue when it is willingly given it is not an act of either humiliation or dominance but of sharing pleasure with someone you love, well as long as they don't turn it into that anyway some people always have a way of ruining things, take my last girlfriend for example, she leaned that one the hard way" he said with a twang of grief and pain slithering through his voice.
Now the others all looked curious as it was indeed rare for Picasso to talk about his love life like that, he was rather private in that respect, "Oh? Do tell" Moodstone said,
"Well I'll admit its one of my favorite things to do for a girl, especially if I love them, well I did love her but when I did it for her she turned it into something cruel and humiliating for me, grabbed my head forced my face in and wouldn't let me breath while yelling shit at me, so I threw her off me and refused point blank to ever do it again for her, told her straight that I wouldn't be treated like that, that I wasn't her slave or a servant and I wouldn't take it, now don't get me wrong I've got no problem with a bit of dominance play or a girl being in control, none what so ever, but what she said to me I'll never forget and it fucking hurt me, so after that I refused to do it for her no matter how much she begged me for it, plus she refused to apologise to me, saying that it was only a bit of fun and that I shouldn't be such a prude or so pissy, I broke up with her soon afterwards because it showed me who she truly was and that she really didn't care about me at all, if she had she wouldn't have been able to apologise to me quick enough and most likely I would have forgiven her because I loved her, but it was obvious to me then as it is now that she didn't love me, just what I could give her' he said with genuine sadness and hurt in his voice.
Not a single one of them took the piss out of him which was usually customary for them, because they could genuinely see that the experience had hurt and scarred him as love had a nasty tendency of doing and there wan't one of them there among the Spirits except maybe Whisper how could say that they hand't felt the sting, "And that is my point exactly, this man is one of the most elite soldiers in the universe in a hand picked team of soldiers and look what one act of cruelty did, it poisoned his love and I know this man, he is as loyal as it gets a man who if you had two broken legs and you were both surrounded out there by those things would either stand and die at your side or try to carry you out and probably still die, either way he wouldn't leave you not ever, so for him to walk away from love, you know how much she hurt him and in doing so proved without a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't worth his fart let alone his love, it's a hard thing to win human love and it's an even easier thing to poison it, but boy is it worth it to keep" she said.
A strange thoughtful silence descended on them, till Paul broke it, "So is this all of you team are there more of you out there?" he asked.
"A couple more, three more of our team aren't far away, they're held up in a hotel hunkering down for the night, we got separated on landing thanks to the anti air making our pod landings pretty rough, but we will join up with them tomorrow, they're coming here and then we are going to begin accomplishing our fucking missions, so if you guys have specific goals you need to accomplish add them to the list and for the simple price of you helping us with ours we'll help you with yours, call it a kinda special forces co-operation medley" Picasso said trying to get away from the awkward topic of romance for a bit, but Zachee was staring at him intently now and not just because he was speaking.
T'Kell and Paul looked at one another and nodded, "Actually we had an arrangement like that between ourselves, but I doub't we'll get a chance like this again, so yes we will take you up on your kind offer" he said, they all nodded.
"Good well when our boss gets here tomorrow with the others and his Xeno we'll be good to go" Moodstone said and now both Paul and T'Kell looked amazed and shocked.
"Sorry, I beg your pardon, but did you say Xeno?" Paul asked and the team grinned.