Chapter 2: Best Foot Forwards.
As Jack and Tik exited their house they found Sela eleth stood chatting to a tall, slender, black skinned human woman dressed in the overalls of the Saviours, when they approached she turned to them and saluted while smiling brightly at them, "Good morning, Grand Patriarch and Grand Matriarch, how are you both this morning?" she asked, the warm and genuine smile never leaving her face for even a micro second.
Jack didn't even hesitate, rather than salute back he simply greeted her with a hug, "I'm good, Amy, you know as well as I that there is no better way to begin your day than waking up in the arms of the one who loves you more than life and whom you would give your life up willingly for," he said, feeling Tik embrace them both in her huge arms.
To everybody in the Clan Tik eleth was the Grand Matriarch, a larger than life figure to aspire to, a battle tested veteran and exceptional warrior of supreme strength and power, but to those in her family circle she was just Tik, overly protective and loving woman who would die before she let her family and loved ones down.
"Speaking of which, how is your beloved one? I hope he has recovered from yesterday's training session because I fully intend to put him through even more," Tik said with a sly grin, tugging her mandibles up and Amy laughed.
"V'Lek was kinda sore when he stumbled in last night, said something along the lines of why he could see why you were the Grand Matriarch as you ran all the new recruits into the ground and you barely looked like you were warmed up, said he'd never seen endurance and skill like it in all his days in the Night Stalker Clan, also said that other than marrying me, serving under you was the greatest honor of his life, because here he not only feels free for the first time in his life but also feels like he actually matters, like here under you he can actually do something worthy," Amy said, and Tik clicked her mandibles proudly.
"His words do both himself and his Clan honor, you chose wisely with him, young one, he is a good male and a fine example of Yautja pride," Tik said proudly, and Amy laughed softly, making her raise an eyebrow curiously.
Amy waved a hand apologetically, "Sorry, but it always makes me laugh when you call me young one when I'm over a hundred years old," she said, and Jack laughed and nodded at that when Tik looked confused.
"You forget our normal life span, my love, if it wasn't for Paya's intervention or the tireless work of Yoshi and Citrus's hive none of the humans on this world would be as old as they are, in fact, none of those from the originals that escaped the Bad Blood hunting world would be with us today," he said.
"A fact that I'm willing to bet Y'Len is more grateful for than most, if it wasn't for the combination of Yautja medical tech and the hive making that breakthrough when they did we would have certainly lost Monty, but now look at him," Jack said, turning and pointing, the small group all turned just in time to see a group made up of humans and Yautja all in PT gear, both males and females together jogging and they all looked absolutely knackered, sweat was pouring off them all and their gear was soaked.
"Come on, you bunch of bloody saps! Keep up, you call yourselves Guardians!? My wee granny could run bloody circles round the lot of you and she's dead!" Monty yelled, running ahead of all of them, his trademark mustache bouncing as he ran, though, thanks to the gene therapy it was a deep red ginger color and now both his hair and his mustache were both showing touches of his wife's Yautja heritage, in the form of little hand carved charms made from both metal and bone.
Monty looked right at home drilling new recruits, even though he'd been an officer in the British army once upon a time, Jack had always suspected he was one of those who had worked his way up and had earned his commission the hard way rather than just go through Sandhurst, there was just something about a Sergeant Major that any soldier anywhere always picked up on, the way they talked, the way they carried themselves, but it was also deeper than just their ability to shout louder than god himself, it was the deep care they had for all the soldiers under their charge, a normal sergeant turned boys into men, sergeant majors turned men into warriors, women as well, given that the group seemed to be evenly split.
Monty noticed them watching, "Group, attenshun!" he bellowed loud enough to make Paya fall out of bed, the entire group froze solid like someone hit the pause button on the universe, "Group, salute!" Monty bellowed, and he and they all snapped to attention in a crisp Yautja salute of a balled fist to the chest, Jack, Tik, and Sela eleth all saluted back.
"At ease, Sergeant Major," Jack called, and Monty smiled up at him.
"Yes, sir, come on, you lot! By the left, show your Grand Patriarch and Matriarch what you got! Make them proud of you!" he yelled, and off the group went with their stamina somehow renewed.
"Think he drills his wife like that?" Amy said, and both Jack and Sela eleth burst out laughing and Amy flushed and looked mortified as she realized what she'd just said out loud, Tik looked confused, Sela gestured to her mother to come closer and when she leaned over whispered in her ear, Tik's eyes widened and then she roared with laughter too.
"Somehow I doubt it by the charms he wears proudly, though, Y'Len is always smiling when I see her, you may be right, Amy," Tik said, and Amy flushed even deeper, making her skin go almost matte black.
Suddenly there was a clicking noise and a slightly mechanical meow noise and before any of them had a chance to turn, Sela eleth was dancing around, trying to pull something small and shiny out of her dreadlocks, Jack reached in and plucked the small object from her hair, "Good morning to you too, Boo, I see you made the mistake of sneaking into Citrus's hive again, didn't you, I see her girls been hard at work, though at least they took the fucking laser cannons off, nearly burned the damn house when you went after a mouse," Jack said, looking at the little cybernetic cat.
It turned out that the Xeno gene therapy didn't really work on felines, so the scientists and engineers of Yoshi and Citrus's hive had come up with a rather interesting solution, they'd built the little hero cat a fully cybernetic body, the body had a full set of artificial organs based on the designs that both humans and Yautja had been using for years, the science mad Xenos had taken these designs and had enhanced them exponetionaly, plus they had designed some of their own and pretty soon they'd designed and built a fully artificial body, then on the day that it looked like Boo might die of old age they performed a full brain and spinal cord transplant along with a full blood transfusion into the cybernetic body, the result, the universe's first robo-cyborg cat.
Amy had been the most grateful human in the universe that day, those crazy Xenos had given her her best friend in the universe back, but ever since, every time the little cat went near the hive he came out with something new bolted to him, like claws that could slice off limbs, or eyes that could see in god only knows different spectrum's that made Yautja hunting masks look like a bloody snapchat filter, or a tail mounted laser cannon.
"Come on, we'd better get over to the hive, for all we know they put a transponder in the cat and they know the damn thing always makes a bee line for me whenever it sees me," Sela eleth said, running her hand over the purring mechanical cat's head as it folded its ears in.
Both Jack and Tik nodded and bidding farewell the trio began walking towards the large conical hive in the distance, Jack always found it amazing that Citrus had built the whole thing herself simply using a polymer resin that her body secreted, some would find it gross living in a home secreted by your wife, but Yoshi seemed to absolutely revel in it, said it was like being utterly surrounded by his wife's care and love every day.
Both Jack and Tik utterly loved walking through the city, both of them remembered when it was simply a collection of tents and then a collection of little wooden cabins in the beautiful woods, now it was a fledgeling and growing city, filled with life, Yautja, humans and Xenos everywhere, going about their daily business all in perfect harmony with one another, both of them utterly loved the fact that in a way they'd accidently created a utopia, never before had either of them come across a place that had zero crime, the most Sela's Saviours had to deal with was to break up drunken honor fights, or fights between Yautja females over human males, or the occasional fights between human females over a Yautja male, kinda ironic in a way that it somehow wound up being the mirror opposite to Earth in that respect, where females fought over males, though that had been meaning to come up with a system that dealt with both human and Yautja ideals when it came to mating rights, but life here was always on the go and it always kept them busy.
They walked along the paved streets which were made from a mixture of stone and Xeno polymer resin, oddly enough they'd found out that that when you ground up stone and mixed it with the polymer in its liquid form that when it dried it created an incredibly strong, flexible and incredibly grippy substance that was also highly resistant to wear, which made it perfect for use in creating both roads and walkways, though Jack was very glad they mixed in a special factory they'd set up for it, not that he wouldn't have laughed at a load of Xenos running around licking the roads, it just might not have been that convenient.
"Are you sure you guys wouldn't just rather take the shuttle?" Sela asked as she walked alongside her parents as they walked hand in hand.
"I like to walk, it's good to get out and really see what it is we have and are building here, Sela, to really see the people that we are fighting for every single day, don't let this peace fool you, there's going to be a war going on out there very soon and not only do we have to be ready for it but we have to remember what it is that we're going to be fighting for and these people right here as well as others everywhere who are silently praying to have the chance to have a life like this one right here, free and happy," he said as they watched a huge Yautja mother decked out in her armor proudly playing with her cubs in a park in the centre of the city, watching happily as the young hybrids happily played both with her and a couple of pure blood human children as well as a couple of pure blood Yautja cubs that were running around.
No sooner had they walked into the hive through the huge semi circular opening that served as the front door they heard a dull boom and the trio rushed through the corridors into a large chamber where they saw four Xenos dressed in lab coats all now covered in soot and arguing, pointing at a whiteboard and screeching and hissing at one another, there were a hundred just like them all around the huge chamber all working hard on projects of their own, it was like a giant hybrid all in itself, this hive, like a scientific institution mixed with an engineering facility, look at one corner and there were Xenos dressed in yellow surrounded with weird and wonderful little machines and parts tinkering with everything they could get their hands on, turn your head and there were Xenos dressed in white lab coats arguing over math equations.
Right in the centre of it all was a human man surrounded by Xenos looking like a lecturer at university as he pointed to a large whiteboard, on it appeared to be a diagram of what looked like a spider crossed with a combine harvester, probably farming equipment, though Jack still laughed when he thought of Xenos in dungarees with little straw hats on their domed heads chewing wheat sheaves in their inner mouths hissing ooooh and arrr and playing little banjos, but it turned out they were utterly fantastic farmers, it seemed that despite being all black they all had very green thumbs, or at least that hive did, they just seemed to love making things grow and thrive, it was odd really how they all took to some speciality like that.
But they had turned huge sections of the plains into farmland and given that smack bang in the centre was a huge Xeno hive none of the local fauna was stupid enough to invade it, it was like the Xeno pheremones scared the living shit out of anything capable of smelling them, so not even the four winged birds that looked like a cross between a crow and an eagle that utterly loved to eat seeds stayed the fuck away from them, probably learned their lesson the first time they'd tried and a pack of facehuggers that had been set up as guard dogs with strict instructions from their queen never to attack sentient life but given free reign on any animals that invaded their land had chased, quite amazing what good guard dogs the scary little spider-like creatures made, nothing made people run faster than being chased by one of those fuckers, not even a full sized Yautja female with both a headache and PMS who just stubbed her little toe on a bedframe made people run that fast, though on the bright side they did have a handful of winged flying Xenos now, it was kinda like having real life gargoyles around the place as they loved high places and given the hill that Jack and Tik's place was on and its almost pyramid shape Tik was forever shooing them off the house roof when they came and knocked on the bedroom windows to relay a message from their queen named Aine, named for an Irish goddess of love by her King Murphy.
Yoshi suddenly spotted Jack, Tik, and Sela all waiting patiently and he turned to his children, "Ok, guys, we'll pick this up later, all of you, get back on with your work for now and we'll pick this back up once I speak to the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch," Yoshi said, and instantly the throng of Xenos broke apart, each scampering over to their work station, each hissing their greetings to Jack and his group as they passed.
It was still, even now, an odd feeling being in the centre of a Xeno hive and not having either face hugger launching at you or Xenos popping out of walls trying to grab you, even after a hundred years some form of ingrained predator response lingered in a part of the human brain, it was like walking into a lion's den but this place was filled with friendly lions.
"Jack, Tik, Sela, it's good to see you all, and today is such a big day!" Yoshi said excitedly, Jack could actually feel the positivity flowing off him, it was like a golden wash flowing off him, Dream Warriors can see auras like normal people see skin, it's like a light that surrounds people and every action they take affects it, every positive action you take makes your soul glow and lighten, every negative action you take stains it and darkens it, using this a Dream Warrior can see the real you without even trying.
Yoshi was utterly glowing in shades of blues and gold, which indicated not only a good, pure soul but generous one, "What do you mean, Yoshi? What's special about today?" Tik asked, and Yoshi smiled at her brightly, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"I've cracked it, after a hundred years of working on this I think my guys have finally cracked it!" he said excitedly.
"Cracked what, Yoshi?" Jack asked.
"The key! The key to non-parasitic Xeno reproduction!" Yoshi said excitedly, looking like he might break into a dance on the spot any moment, and in an instant what he was talking about clicked into place in Jack's mind.
"Your talking about giving everyone the ability to reproduce one on one like every species we know, aren't you?" Jack said, and Yoshi nodded excitedly.
"Exactly, if we can get this to work not only will every Xeno here be able to carry or father their own child, they'll be compatible with every species, no more facehuggers and no more parasitic implantation, no more having to petition people to drum up willing volunteers to implant the next generation into and this would mean every son and daughter of every Xeno hive would be free to have their own mate, not just the hive's queen or its sons," Yoshi said so happily, he looked like he might actually cry, and with good reason, for the Xenos this was ground breaking, it literally freed them from their dependency on others and from the shadow of forced impregnation and death that surrounded them.
"Congratulations, Yoshi, when do trials begin?" Jack asked, and Yoshi smiled.
"They already have, we had no shortage of volunteers, believe me, we've got a contingent of Battle Angels over here overseeing everything, but so far every sign shows that it's working, no invasive surgery involved and god knows that's a pain in the arse, you wouldn't believe how tricky that is on a Xeno when their blood dissolves everything it touches, no, with this if it works it'll be nothing more than a simple injection that will upgrade and adapt their DNA, this will be the birth of a whole new genus for them, the birth of a whole new era, guys," he said, and his face betrayed the depths of the joy he felt, Jack stepped forward and embraced the Japanese engineer and architect, he had worked on this principle for years, he utterly and completely loved his Queen Citrus with his very soul.
As if by magic, said queen appeared as if out of thin air, it always amazed Jack how a creature so large could move so silently, "Should I be worried that your husband is hugging my King, Grand Matriarch?" Citrus said, making Tik chuckle.
"No more worried than me," Tik said with a smile patting, Citrus on the long arm, Jack chuckled as he put Yoshi down and smiled up at the big Xenomorph queen.
"Your king just told us of what's happening here today, I am so happy for you, all of you, looks like we get to observe the birth of a new era for your people and somehow I get the feeling we're going to need a whole lot more humans around here," he said, and Citrus laughed before scooping her beloved king up into the air and planting a kiss that only a Xeno could on him, pushing her big inner mouth into his.
"You got that right, you woudn't believe how many of my daughters are already picking out their human style wedding dresses, in fact, a surprising amount of them are even gravitating towards Yautja males as well, hard to believe that only one hundred years ago we were prisoners and mortal enemies and now the daughters of my hive are wondering how to get themselves a Yautja boyfriend to take them hunting, you really have started something here, something you should both be infinity proud of, of my hive and my children I'm more proud than you could ever know," Citrus said, smiling.
Suddenly another bout of angry hissing and screeching broke out and all their heads turned towards the source, there were a group of eight Xenos in lab coats, seven females and one male who stood slightly taller than his sisters all jabbing at a whiteboard covered in both diagrams and maths, "What are they so worked up about?" Jack asked, and Citrus grinned broadly and proudly.
"They are designing the first generation of long range battle cruisers to be built here at our space dock, the group of them are utter perfectionists so arguments are common," Citrus said, and Jack laughed softly.
"It never ceases to amaze me just how much tech comes out of this hive, in just one hundred years you two have turned this into a centre of not only scientific and technological innovation but a centre of learning, don't think it escaped my notice how many humans and Yautja are currently in here learning both science and engineering, in fact, it prides me how many schools we already have, Cortez and Zara have not only a hospital and the Battle Angels but they have a medical school which would rival any of the best institutions back on Earth, then you have Murphy and Aine whose hive is single handedly responsible for our population having more than just meat in their diet, in fact, before long your boys and girls are going to have to start building freighters to transport our excess for trading, though first I think we'll have to find some trading partners," Jack said, and Citrus grinned.
"Well, Grand Patriarch, I will leave that particular ball in your court as my adorable human says, diplomacy is your field, not mine, now, if you'll excuse me, I have some sibling rivalry to attend to," she said, and marched over to the still bickering group and silenced them with a single hiss.
Jack turned to Tik and Sela, "Come on, you two, let's go see if Tik's Hunters are living up to all the praise she's been giving them, personally I don't think they're a patch on my Seekers but we'll see," Jack said, grinning as Tik punched him playfully on the arm at the swipe at her Hunter Core.
"My Hunters are trained to absolute perfection, if it were not for your Dream Warrior abilities none of you would even be able to even hold a candle to us," she said proudly, and Jack grinned slyly.
"Oh? Care to make a wager?" he asked, and Tik raised an eyebrow.
"Always," she said, grinning, and Sela started making gagging, choking noises.
An hour later, Jack was dressed in his newly outfitted combat armor, yet another product of Yoshi and Citrus's hive, it combined a mixture of both human and Yautja designs, it had adaptive plating that reminded Jack of dragon scales but was designed to be both utterly bullet and plasma proof, though everyone knew that no armor was utterly flawless, get hit enough times with something strong enough and eventually you're going to compromise it, the trick was not to get hit that many times that that happened.
But this armor was full of a ton of other tricks, like the latest in Yautja adaptive camo which cloaked the user, making them near invisible to the naked eye, it had both grappling hooks and jump jets in the arms and boots respectively to allow for easy access to hard to reach places, plus a whole battery of comms and sensor systems designed to keep the operatives in the know at all times, regardless of situation.
"Ok, everyone ready? Now, I know this is just a training operation but this is Hunter group one we're going up against, that's your Grand Matriarch's personal team, Dream Warriors or not these guys are the best of the best of the Hunters, getting into a straight up firefight with them is going to be a losing situation, there are five times as many of them as there of us, that's five to one odds, four of us, twenty of them, our job is simple, get in and steal the sword that they're guarding and get out again, obviously this is a non-lethal operation, a war game, all our weapons are set to stun and so are theirs, shields are deactivated so if you get hit its gonna knock you on your ass and make you do the happy dance, no blades, stun batons only, but we have a free reign on our abilities and thats our ace in the hole, because as much as they watch us train and even train with us they don't truly understand us or what we can do and that will be their downfall," Jack said to the three figures stood in front of him, dressed in the same matte black armor that he was.
"You bet Matriarch again, didn't you?" Ryan said, testing his dual plasma caster gimbals and checking his plasma rifle, Jack looked at him as both Liam and Analise sniggered, in fact, Ryan was the only Yautja in the back of the shuttle, though the pilot was a pure blood Yautja and Jack could even hear her sniggering from where he stood, Analise was a Tamer from Ryan's team and Liam was a Soul Knight, one of Jack's best students.
"Yeah, well, this won't be like last time, this time it's a fair bet on an even playing field, how was I supposed to know she was going to bring back a fucking ten ton Talanak?" Jack grumbled, making the giggling become full blown laughter.
"because you know Matriarch better than anyone, dad, you know how bloody competitive she is and as someone who goes hunting with her routinely, take it from me, you never ever let her goad you into a bet based on hunting unless you want to be cleaning the damn trophy room or doing dishes for a month, because she will head right for the biggest fucking nastiest thing on the planet and kick it full in the balls before roaring in its face and cutting its bloody throat," Ryan said.
"Yeah, learned that the hard way, so did the bloody Talanak, though it is not every day you see your wife driving a bloody bulldozer dragging something that looks like a T-Rex that got into a crate of steroids before hitting the gym into the middle of the town square, though, in hindsight, that was a hell of a party afterwards, as I remember your Shena had a bit to much vodka that night," Jack said, grinning at his now embarassed son.
"Took me and Sela half an hour to coax her down off that damn table, when that girl wants to dance she really wants to bloody dance, hell of a feast though, we fed the whole city," he said, laughing.
"Your mother fed everyone, I just had to cook it, have you ever tried to cook a ten ton Talanak?" Jack said, and Ryan laughed and shook his head.
"Nope, because I'm smart enough not to bet Matriarch when it comes to hunting," he said.
"Alright, alright, lesson learned, ok? But this is different, we need to train and what better way than to test our skills against the best? Let's show them what the Seekers can do, alright?" Jack said, and the other three nodded.
"Twenty seconds," the pilot called back, and the lights went out in the cabin before red lights came on and the four of them lined up single file, the back doors of the shuttle retracted and as the green light came on the four of them leapt out into space.
The silence of space is a startling thing the first time you experience it, the pure and total nothingness, "Tell me again why we're orbital dropping?" Ryan's voice came over the comms.
"Well, one it's good practice and two your mother won't expect it, she'll expect a ground assault, a parachute jump, hell, she'll expect us to come in through the sewer lines before she'll think of us doing this, the whole point is to catch her off guard, I'm going all out on this one," Jack said as he used the jets to adjust his flight path to put him on the green line displayed on his heads up display, next to him the other three did exactly the same thing the four of them going into a head first steep dive, the pressurized suits were utterly contained environments that were utterly heat resistant and therefore could easily resist the heat and stresses of re-entry into planetary atmosphere.
Heat wasn't the only thing to contend with on this kind of maneuver, G-Forces were also a major factor to consider, the suit went stiff and squeezed at their bodies, keeping their blood where it was supposed to be and not rushing to their feet and pooling there as the four Dream Warriors cut flaming swaths through the atmosphere, once clear the resistance of the air hit them, adjusting their trajectory, Jack's plan was to literally land right on the roof, not close to or around the facility they were assaulting, right on the roof.
Stabilising fins popped out of their wrists and ankles and a short pair of wings popped out of their backs, "We're on line, eta to target, three minutes at current speed," Analise said, a Tamer like Ryan, Liam the other Seeker was a Soul Knight like Jack "Gold two and three, stage two initiate," Jack said into the comms.
"Roger that, summoning now," Ryan and Liam said in unison, Jack felt the energy around the pair began to swirl and their auras began to pulse in unison, far below them as if they'd been waiting which, knowing Ryan, they probably had been, a huge swarm of of the four winged eagle crows began to swarm all around the facility, the four of them activated their active camo and vanished from sight as they got into formation and dived through the huge flock which were right now playing holy fuck with the Hunters sensors just as they were supposed to, in fact, the four on the roof never heard a thing over the squawking and crowing before they were all unconscious as the four Seekers hot landed on the roof which involved swooping in at high speed and firing your jets like air brakes to kill your velocity, they dove out of the tornado of swirling birds and hit them before they even had a chance to see them, let alone respond.
Jack was hacking the door codes before the bodies had even hit the floor, he was tapping the computer panel on his arm which opened the door locks in no time flat, he'd have to thank Yoshi's lot for this one, as the door opened the four Dream Warriors were moving into the stairwell and instantly Jack sensed an ambush, he activated his aura sight and instantly saw right through the cloaking system of the four Hunters hiding below them, "Four hidden," he said to the others telepathically through their link, the three of them nodded and Jack indicated who was to take which one, Ryan went first, flipping onto the railing and diving head first down the gap in the stairwell, boy that son of his had his mother's flair for style.
They each followed suit, dropping a number of floors before catching a railing each and using the transfer of momentum to launch themselves into high speed attack on the unsuspecting Hunters, using something Jack referred to as Soul Shock to knock them unconscious, it was kind of unfair as attacks go as it was utterly unavoidable, even under armor, it sent a huge energy pulse directly from the Dream Warrior into the aura of the victim and overloaded it like a tazer overloading their central nervous system, except it only effected their mind, sending them into a temporary coma.
"Stairs clear, moving to the centre floor to regroup," Ryan's voice filtered through Jack's mind.
"Roger, we're going straight to the objective, now, everyone be alert, it's bound to be guarded by Tik and she will be ready for us," Jack said as he stacked up beyond his son.
"Any idea what she'll have in store for us?" Analise asked, and Jack smiled below his helmet.
"Knowing my beloved wife, something involving heavy weapons," Jack said, and he wasn't wrong, the four Seekers sprinted down the deserted corridors to the command room where their objective lay, as they reached the set of double doors that separated them from the control room where the target was located, Jack held up a hand, he was sensing six auras inside, one of which he knew was Tik's, he knew his wife's aura as well as he knew his own, he glanced at Ryan who nodded an acknowledgment , he felt it too.
"Liam, I want a dead screen in there, make 'em all look like me," Jack said, and the Soul Knight nodded, taking a stance as he began summoning, his energy began to swirl around him like a glowing hurricane, "Analise, you use Echo, make my voice hit 'em from all sides," he said, and the pretty blonde human Tamer nodded and began to focus her mind, Jack turned lastly to his son.
"You go left, I'll go right, you're mother is mine, you know I'm the only one who can match her in close," Jack said, and Ryan nodded.
Both of them stacked up on the door and Jack counted down from three and as he kicked the doors hard enough to shatter the locks a thousand of him burst into the room from every conceivable direction and instantly he heard him yelling, "I'm over here!" "No, me!" It's me, my love!" and a thousand other phrases all at once, sending the room into a scene of pure chaos as Tik and the other five Hunters opened up with the ace in the hole they'd been carrying, plasma miniguns.
Both Ryan and the real Jack moved so fast that they could both see the glowing tear drop shaped blue stun plasma rounds cutting very slow paths through the air, all heading for the pseudo Jack's dancing and bouncing around the room, the Hunters were in utter disarray as this was something they had never seen before, spirits of the dead were running around pretending to be Jack and the illusion was so good it even fooled Tik, who was the only one not cloaked, standing right in the centre of the room, holding her large plasma minigun while her dual casters fired at the insane amount of targets swirling around her, both Ryan and Jack hit the others, one after another, using a series of Soul Shocks to drop them like rag dolls, 'till only Tik was left standing and just as Jack predicted even as her warriors fell left and right Tik eleth never flinched, she stood tall and firm like an immovable mountain of muscle.
Jack sprinted right for her and she dropped the gun, knowing that she had no chance of hitting him with it, she drew her dual stun baton swords and launched herself at him with a snarl but this time Jack wasn't playing with her, this was training and a wager, her batons hit his own with a sharp crack and Jack boot connected with her midriff, sending her flying backwards, "Liam, use Soul Jack," he said as his wife circled him, and no sooner had he said it than the fallen Hunters began to rise and Jack could feel his wife smiling under her mask, that was until they all turned their guns on her.
They never even fired a single shot at her as the distraction of her own Hunters was more than enough for Jack to simply step forward and tap his wife on the head with the stun baton, causing her to crumple to the floor but not before he caught her and gently laid her unconscious body down, "Sorry, my love, you lose," he said, gesturing to Ryan to grab the sword from the centre console where it sat.
"Overwatch, this is Seeker one, we have the package, prepare for extraction," Jack said into his radio.
"Roger that, Seeker one, beginning descent," the pilot's voice came through the comms, the four of them packed up and headed back to the roof and no sooner had they arrived then they heard the engines of the shuttle approaching, seemingly out of thin air a ramp appeared and a floating doorway appeared as the cloaked shuttle hovered next to the roof and one by one the four Seekers jumped into the back before the shuttle closed up and headed back up towards orbit.
"Yeah! We beat the Hunters!" Analise yelled, high-fiving Liam.
"Matriarch is going to be pissed that we flattened them so easily," Ryan said, looking at his father and Jack opened his helmet, making it retract into the neck of his armor.
"Oh, yeah, and how, she never saw that coming but that means she'll be ready next time, she'll drill her Hunters into the ground to be ready for that kind of attack," Jack said, and Ryan laughed, retracting his own helmet.
"Makes me kinda glad to be a Seeker all of a sudden, Matriarch's wrath for failure is almost as bad as it was for being late for dinner," Ryan said, and Jack roared with laughter and nodded.
"A trait that I hear that you're Shena has acquired," Jack said, and Ryan laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, those two spend way too much time together, hey, how come Sela never used to get yelled at? Always meant to ask you that," Ryan asked, and Jack gave him a sly smile.
"Secret father daughter knowledge passed down through the generations I'm afraid," Jack said playfully, making Ryan flare his mandibles until he realized that his father was joking, "She brought her a little trophy each time she was going to be late, why do you think your mother has so many hand carved bone charms for her dreadlocks? Sela used to make them from the bones from the trophies she took during her hunts, when she knew she was going to be late she brings one with her and gives it to Tik before she could start yelling, kinda makes it hard to shout at someone who just gave you a hand carved present made from a trophy from an honorable hunt," Jack said, grinning, and Ryan now looked stunned.
"That smart, sneaky...oh, me and her are going to have words," he said, and Jack burst out laughing.
"Ummm, Grand Patriarch?" the pilot called back, and Jack turned his head.
"Yeah?" Jack said.
"Call from the intelligence centre, they say they just received a call from the Sun Skipper, they're picking up a distress call from an unknown vessel in an unknown language right at the edge of our space," the pilot said, and Jack switched modes like someone shifted gear in his head.
"Divert to the Intelligence centre and send word to my wife and daughter to meet us there," he said, turning to Ryan who was now frowning sourly, this was not good, both of them could feel something unusual brewing suddenly and it didn't feel good.