A/N: Hey, I'm still alive! Sorry for the long wait in between updates. It has been a rough time for me the past six weeks. Was diagnosed with breast cancer October 8 and will begin chemo treatments this coming Monday after finishing the scans and tests. I hope to update when I can; depending on how I feel while having chemo treatments. In this chapter, the rebels on Yavin IV are getting a visit from the Predators and they are in for some big trouble! Also, Ayessa and Eleandra are pregnant with Zeb's and Leka's children.
Chapter 16 An Unwelcome Visit
On the farside of Yavin IV, an alien spacecraft landed in an open area near the thickest part of the jungle. The rebels had recently explored this area and deemed it not important for their use, thus leaving it be. A ramp lowered from an opening at the bottom of the ship that was bigger than the GHOST. Six beings, very tall and large, descended, armed with weapons of an alien design but lethal in their intent. They were dressed in armor that didn't cover much of their bodies and had on helmets covering their faces but exposed the backs of their heads which were covered with dreadlock-like hair. The largest one let out a growl to three of the smaller ones and they brought down an anitgrav sled with what looked like two eggs on it. All six of them let out trills of excitement at the sight of what the eggs held.
Inside the leathery eggs were creatures that resembled large crabs but covered with spines.
The hunters, who were the same species as the ones that had captured Zeb several years ago, moved the sled forward and lifted the eggs off to place them in areas near the trees. The obvious leader, gestured to the five younger ones to go back aboard the ship to wait for the eggs to hatch. The leader placed a hand on each of the eggs in an almost gentle way and walked back into the ship...
At the rebel base:
"Ele, are you sure?" Leka Pauen asked as his bondmate came out from the medical bay.
"Yes, Leka...I'm pregnant," Ele said giving her Lasat bondmate a hug around the waist.
"Will you be...all right?" the young Lasat asked feeling a lump form in his throat, "After all, the baby will be part Lasat and part Dathomirian."
"Everything is fine, Leka, don't worry. Do you want to know the sex of the baby? Well, I'll tell you anyway. We're having a little girl and she is beautiful! She will arrive in about ten months."
Zeb and Ayessa had gone to the medical bay with the young couple seeing how worried they appeared. The older Lasat gave his younger friend a punch to the shoulder. He and Ayessa were also waiting on their own "bundle of joy".
"Way to go, kid!" he said a grin on his face. Zeb looked over at Ayessa and saw her place a hand over her swollen brood pouch that was covered by her long dress. The Barrelian female would be removing the fetus from the pouch in a few hours so the infant could continue gestating in an incubator like a Barrelian infant would do. Even though the male infant was half Lasat, he would undergo the same birth as a full Barrelian child.
"Sycha," Ayessa said as she moved closer to Zeb so she could lay her head on his shoulder, "Our child will be born in six more months. Today, the doctors will remove him from my brood pouch and place him in the incubator. Oh, don't worry so, he is strong like his father."
"And stubborn like his mother," Zeb answered as he kissed her on the cheek.
Later that day, Zeb sat in the waiting area of the medical bay while Ayessa was having the nearly formed hybrid moved to an incubator. The Lasat was clearly nervous and the others saw.
"Captain Orrelios," Leka said as he walked over to give his older friend an affectionate pat on the shoulder, "Ayessa will be fine."
"I hope so," Zeb said trying to calm his nerves.
"Hey, I'm surviving Ele's pregnancy and that's been bad enough!" the young Lasat said looking over at his very pregnant bondmate.
"Hey!" Ele called out in mock anger, "I'm not that bad!"
Leka went to embrace her and ran his hand over her swollen belly. He could feel the movements of the hybrid baby against his furry hand.
"Wow! Kid has a kick harder than a Lasat kit."
"Well..." Ele said a big smile on her face, "She has her mother's genes. My mother told me I kicked her alot while she was pregnant with me."
Dr. D'Negel came out from the nursery area with a smile on his face.
"Captain Orrelios," he said seeing the nervous Lasat, "Ayessa is doing fine and so is the baby. Would you like to see him? The cocoon he's in, is transparent and you will be able to see his body."
"Is the baby in an incubator?" Zeb asked a bit confused.
"Yes. The cocoon holding the infant is inside the incubator under ideal conditions for a Barrelian infant and also a Lasat infant. Let's go see your son."
Hera, Kanan and Kallus followed Zeb to the nursery. The others were away on a mission and would be back in several days. Zeb held onto Hera's hand not unlike a child. She didn't mind seeing how nervous he was. The base's doctor lead the rebel family into the area of the medical bay and the sounds of cooing infants sounded making Hera smile. She lead Zeb into the nursery and a big smile crossed the Lasat's face. They were shown to the area for the newborns and two bassinets held a human baby and an Ithorian baby. The three rebels followed the nurse to the area near the birthing part and an incubator hummed with a soothing tone and Zeb saw the first glance of his infant son in his Barrelian cocoon.
The tiny hybrid infant was floating in the cocoon fluids as if on air. Zeb smiled seeing that his son had tiny pointed Lasat ears and the fur coat of a lavender color but with one striking difference. The stripes were a bright golden sheen and to Zeb's amazement, the baby had five fingers and five little toes that were shaped like a Lasat kit's. His face was a mixture of Barrelian and Lasat. His face was shaped like a Lasat's with the nose similar to Ayessa's. His little furry cheeks were striped with gold and his large eyes were open to a slit showing they were green with a ring of gold around the large black pupils. The infant yawned showing his toothless mouth that was shaped like a Lasat kit's. Zeb couldn't hold back the tears and felt Hera come up to give him a much needed hug.
"Garazeb," came Ayessa's voice from the maternity area, "My sycha, did you see our baby?"
Zeb pulled himself away from Hera's embrace and walked in to see his bondmate laying on a bed looking a a little tired, but otherwise well. He went over to sit on the side of the bed where she sat up to throw herself into his arms. The couple held each other for a few minutes until Sarah cleared her throat signaling that Ayessa needed rest.
"Don't worry, kiddo," the nurse said as she layed a hand on the Lasat's arm, "Ayessa is fine, just a bit tired."
That satisfied Zeb and he waited to take his bondmate home...
Several days later, the Predators began a hunt for the strange alien creatures that they had brought to Yavin IV to hunt. The leathery eggs had hatched and the creatures inside had already claimed their first victims. The hatchlings looked like a cross between a kyrkna spider and a sea crab with a long tail. The things latched themselves onto their first victims who were feline-like creatures of the jungles. The hatchlings forced the animal's mouths open and the tail wrapped around their throat as a tube went down their throat and into their lungs.
Less than a week later, the feline animals...died as something burst through their midsections killing them. The blood soaked young ran off into the jungle on four legs trailing blood and internal organs.
Leka and Ezra were exploring a section of the jungle when they sensed the presence of an alien being the likes they had never encountered before. They were tall, covered in fur, and had heads that were elongated with a mouthful of sharp teeth.
"Leka," Ezra whispered as he put a hand on the young Lasat's arm, "Did you just sense through the Force something..."
"Weird?" Leka answered and a frown crossed his face, "Yeah, and it's coming from near those ruins..."
Leka no sooner got his words out when two large creatures leaped out from amongst the bushes.
"KARABAST!" Leka cried out and grabbed the blaster he had attached next to his lightsaber.
"You can say that again!" Ezra cried out just as startled. He also went for his blaster, "Leka, what are those things?!"
The young Lasat just shrugged his shoulders and shot over one of the creatures elongated heads. It let out a hiss that sent shivers up both Jedi's backs. The creatures stood staring at the shorter human and Lasat cocking their heads in curiousity. Leka and Ezra slowly backed up and then holstered their blasters to activate their lightsabers; Ezra's green and Leka's a bright lavender purple. The creatures took that as a threat and charged.
Ezra leaped over their heads and took on a battle stance, while Leka stood snarling his Lasat incisors showing. The young Lasat let out a cry and leaped up and over the creatures where he slashed down with the purple blade severing the head of the nearest one. The surviving one let out a hiss and reached up to grab Leka by the arm and bit down on the purple fur, Leka letting out a cry of pain. Ezra retaliated with a slash of his green blade and quickly killed the second one. Leka fell away, his left arm bleeding badly. Ezra grabbed his com and contacted Kanan and Hera.
The two older rebels came later in a speeder and were shocked to see the strange now dead creatures. Zeb and Sabine had come along and both looked like they were going to faint seeing the dead creatures.
"What are those things?!" Sabine asked as she ran over to see how Ezra and Leka were. Hera had beat her to them and was fussing over them like the maternal person she was.
"Karabast," Zeb said as he bent down to touch one of the dead creatures on the head, "These things are uglier than those hunters that tracked me down two years ago."
"Let's get these kids back to base," was all Kanan said as he seemed to look off into the distance. He could sense a great disturbance in the Force and it wasn't from a Jedi or a Sith.
Back at the rebel base, Ele was crying when she saw Leka injured. Sarah took him into the medical bay and the young Lasat was taken care of.
"Oh, don't worry, child," she said to Ele, "Leka will be fine. He'll have a sore arm for awhile and a new scar, but he'll be fine. The doctor is stitching up his arm now and covering it with a bacta bandage. Let me take you to him..."
"Kanan," Ezra said as he felt Hera apply a bacta bandage to a scrape on the side of his face, "I've never seen anything like those creatures before. They were so...vicious! It was all Leka and I could do to...kill them."
Kanan layed a hand on his Padawan's shoulder and looked to be in deep thought.
"We need to send out a patrol to search for more of these things," he said a frown crossing his face, "I'll lead the first one."
"Count me in too," Zeb said as he stood up taller, his Lasat features in a look of determination, "After all, I'm the chief of security around this base."
"Zeb, we'll help too," Rex said and nodded to Kallus who was standing nearby.
Zeb's face shown with one of this endearing grins that they all loved.
Four hours later, after conversing with Rebel Command, Kanan, Zeb, Rex, Kallus, and several commandos that Rex had trained for ground combat, readied to leave.
"Kanan, be careful," Hera said as she adjusted his belt that held not only his lightsaber, but a large blaster and several extra rounds.
"I will, and don't worry, Hera, I'll take care of them," Kanan said as he kissed his wife on the lips.
Rex and Kallus were arming themselves with some of Sabine's little explosive surprises and blasters with extra ammo. Kallus even shouldered his bo-rifle that he hadn't used for quite some time. They looked over at Zeb seeing the Lasat putting on the hunter armor and adjusting the shoulder cannon. The Lasat looked almost like a member of the Honor Guard plus some. He attached his beloved bo-rifle on his back and took a deep breath.
"Leka!" Ele called out seeing her bondmate readying to go help. The young Lasat Jedi was attaching some shoulder armor on, and with the help of Kallus, was putting a large rocket launcher over his back on a harness attached to his shoulders.
Zeb frowned seeing his younger friend. He shook his head.
"Kid, you're not going! You've got an injured arm, remember?"
"Captain Orrelios," Leka said in a very grown-up tone, "I am twenty dust seasons old and capable of taking care of myself! Karabast! I'm a Jedi too and with Kanan's help, maybe we can get these guys! I want to get them for what they did to my arm!"
Kanan and Hera smiled at the young Lasat and knew he wouldn't back down. He was as stubborn as Zeb!
"All right, Leka," Kanan said in a fatherly tone of voice, "You can come along, but only if you listen to me or Zeb, agree?"
"Agreed," Leka said his ears drooping a bit.
Ele hugged Leka tight and nearly kissed him too death!
"Behave yourself," she said her voice catching in a sob, "You're going to be a father soon, and don't forget that!"
Leka kissed her again feeling his own eyes tear up and a lump in his throat.
"Sycha," Ayessa said as she pulled Zeb to her for a loving embrace, "Be careful. I just got you back and don't want to lose you again."
"I'll be careful," he said and pulled her closer for a tender kiss that lasted for awhile. Kanan clearing his throat broke them apart.
"Let's go," the blind Jedi said and smiled at Hera. Then he turned to Ezra and Sabine who were staying behind to help guard the base, "You two com us at the first sign of trouble."
Both young rebels nodded and gave each of them hugs.
"Goodbye...May the Force be with you," Ezra said as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He and Sabine watched their family leave and hoped...and prayed that they would return to them...