This next part is going to be a two parter as I don't want these chapter going on for too long
Enjoy everyone
Chapter 10: The Enemy of my Enemy pt1
The hunting party of Yautja had finally arrived at the Asclepheus; their ship had the necessary cloaking tech to keep the Black Yautja warships from detecting them and blowing them to smithereens. The Hunting party hadn't boarded the ship yet as they still had to find somewhere to park the ship without drawing too much attention to themselves.
Sha'ra, Yeyinde and their uncle where sat in the back of the ship with the other hunters whom were gathered for the mission, there where at least 3 hunters of the dark blade clan who were considered the elite clan among the Yautja and could be told apart by the darker colour of their armour, two of the dark blades were males while the other was a female. The difference in height between Sha'ra and this other female was apparent as Sha'ra was about 6 foot 5 while this female was around 8 foot at the very least and rivalled in height only by Zen'tau and one of the other Dark blades.
There were another 4 hunters from Sha'ra's clan present all of whom were males and were reasonably well equipped, they were obviously elite hunters due to their intricately patterned armour and advanced weaponry.
Yeyinde was dressed in his Elite armour which was varied from the other Yautja as he had a red shoulder cape and a gold pauldron on his right shoulder, his mask also bore many intricate Yautja runes due to his high status. Yeyinde may have been the nephew of an elder but that had nothing to do with his high rank, he had achieved the rank of elite through hard work and determination to become like his father.
Sha'ra was wearing her Elite armour also, hers was a bit less extravagant and was made to be more practical for fighting and hunting while other hunters customized their armours for intimidation or display.
At the moment Sha'ra was looking out of one of the ship's screen windows at the Asclepheus and needless to say it was a sight that she wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. The ship was way bigger than the clanship she grew up on and it dwarfed the black yautja ships which was a hell of a sight to say the least.
"I never thought the Oomans would be capable of something like this" Sha'ra said to the others
"Don't let it fool you Sha'ra….those Oomans are not to be trusted not matter how far they may have come" Zen'tau said adjusting his cybernetic arm in case of battle
"Elder Zen'tau is correct, the Oomans used to be prey but now they are naught but enemies" the Dark Blade female said
"But you must admit…..they have progressed very well in order to make something like that" Sha'ra said with her eyes fixed on the ship they were circling.
"if you would prepare yourselves, we are about to port with the vessel" the pilot said through the intercom.
'Here we go' Sha'ra thought to herself as she put on her mask and readied her glaive
The Myrmidons were making their way through the dark innards of the ship with the red laser sights of their guns shining through the misty parts. The Myrmidons had been scouting the ship for a good hour and a half before they stopped as Erik held up a fist in a stopping motion.
"Alright people, spread out and see what you can find, that means anything from survivors to evidence of what the hell happened" Erik ordered the others lowering his pulse rifle
The Myrmidons spread out across the room except for Vlad who sat down and took a breather, it was understandable as Vlad had been carrying most of the ammo and supplies with him due to his larger size and considerably greater strength.
"Hey Major….I think I found something you may want to see" Hanzo called making everyone else come towards him
Hanzo was squatted down next to something and the other couldn't see what it was until they got closer and when they did they saw the corpse of a human marine. The wounds inflicting looked gruesome and his armour was covered in blood not to mention his intestine were hanging out.
"Good god, what the hell happened to him?" Ramirez asked
"Tell us what happened Han" Erik asked
"Death unfortunately wasn't instantaneous and by the look of the wounds it took him about 30 minutes to finally bleed to death" the Japanese Myrmidon explained
"What the hell did this? I know for a fact that Xeno's don't simply gut someone and leave them to die" Erik asked
"Whatever did this didn't think it was worth the time or effort to finish him off as he defiantly bled to death. The cut that spilled his entrails was performed by an edged weapon and a lot of power was put behind it" Hanzo explained further
"It's a miracle he lasted as long as he did, whoever did this knew what they were doing because the cut is clean as hell" Baako commented
"Uh Major" Michael chipped in
"What is it rookie?" Erik asked turning to see what Michael was looking at and with that his eyes widened slightly. The entire hallway was littered with the corpses of marines, all killed by different means, Erik walked over to one of the closest ones and inspected the wounds on the body as did Vlad. The body had a massive hole in its chest that looked like it was blown out.
"No powder burns or shrapnel sir, whatever did this had some major firepower" Vlad commented
"The ribcage was split open instantly, not to mention the wound is cauterized yet there isn't any blistering of flesh or burns to speak of…..looks Yautja but its…..off, almost like it's a bit out of character" Erik said
"Out of character sir?" Vlad asked
"Yautja hunt for sport Vlad, they kill their prey and take trophies…..if that's true then what are these?" Erik asked pointing to the multiple stab wounds in the corpse's head
"What the hell?" Vlad asked
"Whatever killed this marine didn't do it for sport…it did it for fun" Erik said with disgust as he reached forwards and took the Marine's dog tags.
"Retrieve the dog tags everyone, it's the very least we can do" Erik stood up and the Myrmidons retrieved the dog tags before proceeding further into the ship.
Meanwhile on another level of the ship, the Black Yautja hunting party led by Tra'kan was making its way through the ship in search of the survivors.
Tra'kan stopped and knelt down to see the remains of what looked like a fire and picked up a handful of the ash and took his mask off revealing his snouted mandibles and sniffed it, making sure to feel its temperature in between his scaled fingers. Tra'kan's skin colour was a very dark green and his helmet was that of an elite of his people and his armour was adorned with skulls and trophies he had taken in his long life.
"Only a few hours old…they can't be far off" Tra'kan said in Yautja with a grin before standing back up and turning to the other hunters.
"I want those Kamads dead! Is that understood?! I want to deliver their heads and their swords to lord Ma'zax myself with minimum fuss! And if you fail in this task I promise that even the Black warrior's wrath would seem miniscule compared to what will do to you!" Tra'kan bellowed in Yautja before putting his mask back on with an audible hiss.
Another group of Yautja had entered the ship and were making their way through the hallways being sure to stay cloaked in order to avoid drawing attention.
"Uncle, I never asked, how exactly are we going to exterminate the Black Yautja?" Sha'ra asked the taller Elder
"We are to attach detonators to the ship's energy and drive core's, that in turn will cause an explosion that will kill everything within a certain range, that includes the Black Yautja ships" Zen'tau said as the hunters kept walking through the hallways being sure to keep their thermal vision on its maximum setting.
Over the years the Yautja had managed to upgrade their vision modes in both their masks and their eyes. When before Yautja could only see the heat given off by their Prey which was proved after many hunts to be insufficient when the prey would figure out their vision was heat based and a simple coat of mud could prove to be more valuable than any weapon thus leading to the hunters demise.
Now their masks could use hundreds of different vision enhancements as opposed to a few, bio engineering among the species was now common and elite hunters and huntresses could have their eyes enhanced to see in not just heat but light as well. Sha'ra had this process done to her and needless to say the way the visual spectrum of light worked took her breath away and filled out a lot of the blanks that came with thermal vision.
"Picking anything up?" Zen'tau asked the hunters
"Negative Elder Zen'tau, all we are reading is each other" One Hunter replied
"I'm picking something up on my motion vision my lord" The Female Dark blade responded
"Everyone halt!" Zen'tau whispered sharply causing everyone to stop and almost on cue he sound of grunting and snorting came from in front of them
"Everyone switch to the light spectrum" Zen'tau whispered as the hunters obeyed
The sight caused the hunters to immediately stiffen and silence themselves. The entire corridor was full of these unfamiliar alien creatures; these creatures were at least 8 foot tall and had the look and posture of a silverback gorilla with stubby but muscular legs with very large forearms. The creatures had a strange sort of armour plating that looked like that of an armadillo that was at least a few inches thick which must have been the reason why their thermal vision couldn't pick them up. The creatures had tuffs of brown fur poking out between the armour plates which gave them a very mammalian appearance along with their very Boar-like faces which sported two large tusks from their lower jaw, and there were at least 14 of these creatures and they just seemed to be sniffing and snorting around the place in search of something.
Zen'tau thought it strange that these creatures didn't hear them up until now and noticed these creatures didn't seem to react to sound that well especially as they were making a lot of noise themselves and didn't seem to get startled with any metallic clanking. Zen'tau thought it best to try an alternate route at these creatures looked like they could cause some serious damage if given the chance.
Zen'tau raised his hand and made a few gestures telling the others to fall back slowly. The Hunters all began to back away as slowly and steadily as they could until one of the larger creatures stood up on its hind legs and began sniffing loudly through its large boar-like nose, the hunters stopped dead in their tracks on reflex as the creature while up on its hind legs stood tall over the hunters giving it a very threatening appearance.
'wait a minute…it has bad hearing and I bet its eyesight isn't anything special…..but what about its smell?" Sha'ra thought as the creature let out a low pitched Boar-like squeal alerting the other creatures which all began sniffing and looking toward the hunters.
"Oh Pauk!" Yeyinde swore as the creatures saw through the Hunter's cloaking devices and began slowly advancing toward them
"Dam it to hell! We must stand and fight!" one of the Dark Blade males shouted readying his Wristblades
The creatures charged at the Yautja who engaged the creatures as best they could, Zen'tau extended his combi stick and began to grapple with the large male who alerted the others which was obviously the Alpha male of the group, Yeyinde used his Wristblades to try and stab one of the creatures in the head, Only his blades failed to pierce the creatures hide and simply bounced off of it forcing him to leap out of the way as it brought its fist down to try and crush him.
Sha'ra was using whatever skills she could to try and avoid the creature's attacks as it flailed its large armoured arms at her, her small size made it a lot easier to avoid its attack but she felt her back press against a wall as the creature snarled and leapt at her.
Zen'tau saw this and punched the creature he was fighting in the nose with his cybernetic arm causing it to start choking, he used this time to extend a suriken and throw it at the creature attacking his niece. The suriken imbedded itself in the creature's eye causing it to scream in pain as green blood leaked from the wound.
Zen'tau was then hit full force by the Alpha male as it began its attack again and was sent crashing into a wall leaving a dent, the Alpha male leapt at Zen'tau and tried to bite his face off only he defended himself with his combi-stick which its mouth got lodged on.
Sha'ra took the chance she had and drove the blade of her glaive through the creature's eye socket, putting as much force as she could the blade went straight through its head, killing it. she then looked back to her uncle who was struggling against the Alpha male and leapt onto its back and stabbed it in-between one of the gaps in its armour causing it to reel back and spin out of control while trying to get her off its back.
"Sha'ra what the hell are you doing!?" Zen'tau bellowed as the creature span around and began to ram its back against a wall, Sha'ra managed to barely dodge the wall as the creature began to fracture it.
"Dam it it's going to bring the wall down!" Yeyinde called as he rushed to save his sister, Zen'tau quickly grabbed him and pulled him back.
"Stop! If you get in the way you'll just get yourself killed!" Zen'tau shouted at his Nephew
The Alpha male let out one last roar before ramming into the fractured wall causing it to cave in and break through, unfortunately the wall they broke through was right next to an elevator shaft which caused both Sha'ra and the Alpha male to plummet down into the darkness
"SISTER!" Yeyinde screamed as he saw his sister fall into shadow, he broke free of his uncles grip and rushed towards the opening in the wall and tried to see if she was hanging on the side or if the shaft wasn't that deep. But all he saw as he looked was a chasm that descended into complete darkness, Yeyinde felt tears fall down his face and he tore his mask off with a hiss.
Zen'tau quickly ran over to his nephew and put a hand on his shoulder and as Yeyinde turned around Zen'tau saw the look of sadness and despair on his face. Zen'tau brought his nephew closer and felt him weep on his shoulder. Zen'tau didn't want to show it but he felt exactly what his nephew was feeling, he had promised his brother all those years ago that he would watch over these two as if they were his own….he had failed…..again.
Meanwhile on another level of the ship the Myrmidons were continuing their trek along the ship and needless to say that so far they hadn't seen much action. The motion trackers built into their helmets weren't picking up anything so far and to be completely honest that was a good thing.
"Well…this sucks" Michael moaned
"Shut it Rookie, we are doing this mission regardless of whether it is exiting or not" Erik said keeping his focus on the mission at hand.
"You have to admit things aren't as bad as they sounded Major, I was expecting an attack or an ambush by now" Vlad stated
Erik sighed and knew that Vlad was correct in his statement, for a ship full of different alien species and Xenomorphs he was expecting something to have attacked them or at least approach them. Things were way to quiet and that was just plain unsettling to say the least.
Suddenly the silence was broken with the sound of their motion trackers going off, and this wasn't the usual blip, this was the sound of thousands of signals flooding the sensors until they sounded as if they would explode.
"What the fuck?" Michael gasped as the audio of his motion tracker nearly burst his ear drums
"Major I'm getting massive readings from in front of us!" Hanzo called cocking his pulse rifle
"Same here Major, the readings are off the fucking charts!" Baako said as they had never encountered readings on this level before
"Lock and load people, be ready for anything!" Erik ordered as the Myrmidons obeyed by cocking their guns and standing their ground waiting for the inevitable.
Hundreds of Xenomorphs then began to pour out from the darkness, screeching and snarling as they charged the Myrmidons without hesitation.
"LIGHT EM UP!" Erik shouted as the Myrmidons unloaded on the Xenomorphs, shredding them to pieces and dismembering them, causing their acidic blood to splatter upon the walls and framing of the hallway.
"GET SOME YOU UGLY LITTLE FUCKERS!" Vlad laughed as he poured hundreds of rounds of minigun fire at the horde of Xeno's
All the Myrmidons unloaded their pulse weapons on the Xeno's until they stopped charging and became to retreat back to where they came from.
"HA THAT'S RIGHT YOU BETTER RUN YOU LITTLE SHITS!" lad laughed as the Xeno's ran
"Something's not right" Erik said reloading his pulse rifle
"What do you mean sir?" Sasha asked
"They retreated too fast, it's not right" Erik said as he approached the sizzling carcasses of the Xeno's they had killed
"Its almost like…" Erik began until his motion tracker began beeping again
"They wanted to test our firepower!" Erik realized as they regrouped and readied their weapons for the next wave but what turned the corner made their eyes widen.
"You've got to be fucking kidding!" Ramirez cursed as the myrmidons saw three crusher Xeno's slowly approaching them. The massive head crests were made of pure bone and could stand heavy gunfire, they were also made for the purpose of crushing the bones of whatever they rammed into.
"MAJOR?! ANY IDEAS!?" Hanzo shouted as the three huge Xeno's charged
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Erik shouted as the team each leapt out of the way as the three massive crushers tried to ram them but failed to hit anyone.
"Vlad, Sasha, Baako, you guys take care of the one on the right! Hanzo, Ramirez, Michael you take care of the one on the left while I take the one in the middle!" Erik ordered the others as they nodded and drew their close combat weapons and charged the crushers from behind.
Due to the crusher's main method of attack being their head crests, their tails weren't made for fighting back and attacking from behind was usually the best way of fighting a crusher.
"RAAAAAAAGHGGHGH!" Vlad roared as he charged the Crusher from behind and shoulder bashed it into a wall letting Baako leap onto its back and Sasha pin its tail to the wall to stop it from moving.
Hanzo leapt onto the back of the other Crusher's head and drove his sword into its neck causing it rapidly shake its head while screeching, Ramirez used his sniper rifle to shoot its legs out so Michael could drive his cutlass into its underbelly and begin trying to gut it.
Erik drew his broadsword and held it in both hands as he ran at the last crusher which had managed to turn itself around to counter attack Erik. The crusher swiped at Erik in an attempt to cut him in half or at least knock his head off. Erik quickly crouched down to avoid decapitation and in turn swung his sword, cutting off a few of the Crusher's fingers, he then charged at it and drove his sword into its ribcage causing it to screech in pain.
The crusher then grabbed a hold of Erik and held onto him tightly so he couldn't get free.
"MAJOR!" Vlad called as Bakko had finished cutting off the Crusher's head, Vlad ran as fast as he could to help Erik.
The Crusher the sliced its own throat causing its acidic blood to pour all over Erik and the floor, Erik's myrmidon armour was made withstand the acidic effects but the floor wasn't and began to sizzle and dissolve extremely fast underneath the Myrmidon Major's feet.
Before the others could make it to Erik the ground beneath him and the crusher gave way and both fell down the chasm created by the acidic blood.
Vlad leapt to grab Erik's hand at the last minute but missed his hand by an inch causing the Major to plummet down into the depths of the ship.
"ERIK!" Vlad roared at the top of his lungs as he saw his commanding officer, his friend disappear into the shadows while still in the iron grip of the crusher.
Baako knelt down beside Vlad and put a hand on the big Russian's shoulder, now that Erik had slipped off into the blackness it was Baako's duty to take lead.
"There was nothing you could do Vlad" Baako said
"Bullshit…I could have saved him" Vlad said
"I…..just wasn't strong enough" Vlad said as he gazed down into the blackness, Baako then roughly grabbed Vlad by the collar of his armour and yanked him up
"You listen to me Soldier! The Major wouldn't want you of all people moping around after something like this! You are the squad's biggest gun and our heaviest hitter and if you don't do your duty I'll kill you myself!" the Kenyan Myrmidon shouted at the larger Myrmidon.
Vlad could see the seriousness in Baako's eyes behind his red helmet visor and could tell that Baako was affected too. Vlad had never expected something like this to happen on any mission but Baako was right, the Major wouldn't want them to be moping around after a set-back like this, they had a mission to complete and Erik would want them to complete it.
Vlad hoisted his minigun up and smiled
"I would like to see you try sir" he replied
Well everybody things are really getting interesting aboard to Asclepheus aren't they?
Feel free to tell me what you guys think about the story so far in the form of a comment/review or PM me
See you next time in:
Chapter 11: The Enemy of my Enemy Pt2
