Even the short walk from the chamber back to the Ravager's corpse seemed to be too much for her. There was a throbbing sensation at her temples- an after effect of the health shard. Her efforts to walk were causing the wounds on Nina's side to reopen and bleed through the heavy bandages, despite her attempts at staunching it as best as she could. Occasionally, insects that had found their way inside the temple pestered her, drawn by the scent of fresh, warm blood. She cursed them, she cursed the dead Ravager, and she cursed the entire temple itself.
As she had removed a claw from her third Serpent kill, she had thought about what to take as her trophy from the Ravager. Any hunter would be out of their minds to kill something like that and then not take a well fought for prize. The skull was out, obviously; as if there would be room enough anywhere to put it, both on the ship and her and Sain'ja's home in the settlement. She highly doubted her ability to even drag it on the ship in the first place. The inner mouth didn't appeal to her; neither did the various fins or spikes on its body. After another examination of the corpse though, she knew exactly what she wanted.
The hull blades; nothing could've been more tempting. Rumor said they were strong and sharp enough to slice through starship hulls. Nina could craft a fine pair of blades from these if such was possible. She would have to ask the blacksmith in the clan for help if it was. Pulling out her machete, she began sawing them off of the connecting limbs, leaving some flesh and exoskeleton to cling on to the blades so she could have a way to hold them without getting cut. Using the left over wire, she crisscrossed the blades on her back and strapped them to the Xenomorph skull. Each one was about as large as she was.
Pouring some dissolving liquid on the remains, she watched as the Ravager quickly turned into a watery mess on the floor. She turned away and began heading along the hall she believed the others had gone down.
She hadn't gotten far when she heard a faint whimpering. Hiding behind the next corner, Nina prepared to pounce. Activating her wristblades, she swerved around the corner to face whatever beast awaited her next.
There was none. Not really. Just a Su'vi pup, so young that its eyes were still kept closed, nuzzling and sniffing around an adult Su'vi's torn apart corpse. A female; judging by the scan her bio helmet made. Probably the mother. Another scan told Nina that the young Su'vi hadn't been impregnated by a Facehugger. The pup was lucky to be alive at all.
Catching her scent, the pup's overly large head turned her way. A full grown Su'vi could match a female Yautja in size, but this pup was small enough to be mistaken for a medium sized dog. It approached her, nostrils flaring with each new sniff. Short, soft claws scraped against the armor on her calves before it jumped back, its tail in the air and ears perked up. Like a snake's, its long tongue darted at her, wiggled in the air for a minute, than whipped back in its mouth. Its wolf-like snout poked toward her feet.
Feeling foolish, Nina quickly retracted her wristblades, the shink noise it created causing the pup's curiosity to increase. Tilting her head to the side- a habit she had picked up from the Yautja- Nina stared right back at the pup. Killing it wasn't an option- as if she would ever harm a baby anyway; the Honor Code stated that a creature must be of age before even being considered worthy game. Nina had heard that some High Elders had even executed members of their own clan for such acts. However, leaving the pup on his own would still be subjecting him to death- and more than likely a far more excruciating one compared to a plasma bolt to the chest or a dagger to the throat.
They would be watching her, seeing what she would decide. Some Yautja considered Humans to be dishonorable beings- this would provide a test to prove her own honor.
Nina felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. To kill the pup would mean disgracing herself as a huntress and lead to claims of her being a Bad-Blood. No one, not many anyway, would blame her if she left it alone to fend for itself, but she doubted her personal morals would allow that. To bring it with her could be seen as human sentimentality- frowned upon by most.
The Su'vi pup began circling her, his overly fluffy and tail thrashing air. With a sigh, she bent down, reaching a hand, palm upward, out to it. After backing away for a moment, the pup sniffed her hand. She allowed it to do so for a moment before gently scratching it behind the ears.
It flinched. But finally, the pup's head leaned into her palm. With soft physical and verbal reassurances, Nina picked the pup up in her arms. She would watch after it… for now, and then see what the Council believed she should do. There were cages onboard the ship for living trophies and for capturing creatures to bring either to hunt on the game preserve planet. Finding milk- the pup was still too young for real food- might be a problem though. Who knows, Nina thought as she began her walk through the halls, if I keep you, you might make a decent tracker.
…
Liwanu and Ehawee moved stealthily through the labyrinth that was the temple, trying to find a way out. Ehawee had a hologram of the temple projecting from her gauntlet and was trying to find the quickest way back with the least likely chances that the area would shift. The two wouldn't go after the Queen Serpent; that hunt was a right typically given to the highest ranking members of a hunt. The honor of recapturing her would go to the Jungle Hunter Clan Elders, Arbitrators, and few others. Meanwhile, those of lesser status would fight the remaining Kiande Amedha and destroy the eggs. They would only engage the Queen if the right was given to them or if they ran into her first before the rest of the clan arrived.
Liwanu watched both of their backs, his wristblades out and the sight of his plasma caster beaming around.
"Some of the smaller passageways would be prime choices. They'd be less likely to shift each time, but there might be more Serpents as well," stated Ehawee, "The main halls would be quicker, however, they shift often."
Not a minute after she explained this, the two hear a screeching hiss sound through the halls. Very soon more follow, sounding from both ways. Switching the vision modes on their masks, the pair of newly blooded Yautja found themselves ambushed by a large swarm of Kiande Amedha- warriors, by the sign of their ridged, domed heads.
Hissing, two flung themselves upon Ehawee. Grapping one by the tail to fling it back, she used her free hand to stab the other in the skull with her wristblades, moving her arm in an awkward position to avoid the acid blood from dripping on her. Another quickly took full charge at Liwanu, shoving him against the wall as it clawed mercilessly against whatever flesh it could grasp. The rest began to circle around the fight. Liwanu, gripping the Serpent by the arms, shoved back- slamming it against the opposing side. The Serpent hissed with grim menace.
That's when Liwanu noticed that the Serpent lacked an inner mouth.
He growled low as he once again slammed the Serpent against the wall. This kill would be his; he would not allow it to escape him a second time. With all his might, he ripped an arm free from the Xenomorphs body, spattering tiny droplets of acid blood on his armor and skin, which he ignored in his bloodthirsty state. Another one jumped upon his back, claws raking at whatever flesh it could grasp and sending small sparks flying whenever they scratched against metal.
Liwanu slung an elbow back twice, butting the creature in the head in attempts to knock it off, all the while gripping the other by the throat. Blood ran down his arm as it tore away in effort to break free from his hold. Noticing two more preparing to lung and tackle him, he fired two plasma bolts, each one striking their targets with deadly accuracy. With a roar of fury, he activated his wristblades and dug them upward into the first Serpent's skull. You're mine! Acid ran down onto his gauntlet and thickly gloved hands as it slowly stopped moving.
Dropping the corpse, he quickly gripped the one still on its back by the tail and threw it halfway across the hall. Before it could get back up, he bound for it with incredible speed and pounced, causing both of them to roll for a moment before he landed on top of it, gouging it with his blades like someone gone mad.
A low rumble erupted around them and pebbles shook long the floor as the temple began to make yet another shift. Looking up from his slaughter, he could see Ehawee facing the rest of the Serpents head on. He pushed himself up from the ground and began to race over to assist her. However, before he could make it, the ground dropped out from under him. He spun around and instinctively gripped to the side of the pit before he could fall. Above, the walls continued to change. Liwanu lifted himself up in time to see stone cut in between himself and his companion.
"C'jit!" he shouted as he pounded a fist against the wall. He could only trust the Ehawee could take care of herself. Still, facing against so many of the Serpents at once, the chances seemed low. Well, he reminded himself, if an ooman female could bring down a Ravager, than certainly a Yautja female could take on a few drones.
When he heard the sound of footsteps racing toward him from behind, he swiftly turned, holding out his blades at his attacker.
"Calm down, you lout, it's just me," Nina huffed as she approached. It was apparent that there had been no love gained during their previous conversation.
With a snarl, he replied, "You're lucky I didn't run you through. I would've thought you wiser than to sneak up from behind a hunter. How did you find us?"
"It was simple, given that your roaring could be heard throughout the entire temple," she looked around, "Where's Ehawee?"
"We've been separated," he answered, "Everything remains the same though. We are to join the other hunters upon the ship's landing to purge the rest of the Serpents."
In other words, they wouldn't go looking for her. The lack of sentimentally the Yautja often had occasionally still unsettled Nina at one time or another. After these years with them, it seemed that trait was mostly in the males. That might've been so since female Yautja often lived together and raised their children alone. It was as if they were a separate clan all their own, and they were fiercely protective against anyone that threatened to harm them or their hunt sisters. One such example was that, if a male ever did succeed in angering a Yautja female, then not only would he be forced to fight her alone, but also any other female alongside her. Meanwhile, his fellows would stand on the sidelines and could offer no more than moral support.
Hearing yet another padding of feet, Liwanu looked behind her only for his gaze to drop downward, "Dto-Raija, you do realize that you have a Su'vi pup following you about, right?"
"Yes," she nodded, "I found him sniffing around the corpse of yet another of his kind, and thought it best to bring him along."
"For what purpose, exactly? You have nothing to gain by bringing that creature along except a burden. By Paya, that thing doesn't even have its eyes yet!"
"Consider it an investment," Nina stated, bending down to pet the little furball, "If the clan elders say that I may keep him, he could be trained to hunt just as well as any of our hounds. If not, then I lose nothing."
Liwanu looked at her skeptically, considering her answer. Perhaps she was right about the possibility of keeping the Su'vi as a tracker. But then again, her fawning over it could also be yet another flawed human trait. So he just said, "Maybe," and let the subject rest there.
After Liwanu gathered his trophies, they continued their search for a way out.
…
Having been piled upon by screeching, merciless Serpents, the Yautja female had been fairly injured, but Ehawee, in her aggressive and rage-filled state, pounded and clawed her way at any Serpent that dared to attack her, not bothering to so much as pull out a knife in her destructive passion. Already, a small group bodies lay upon the floor, twitching as their last bits of life dwindled away. She had trained under the hardest of teachers. She was a huntress. She was Yautja. And she would fall upon her own blade before allowing herself to be killed on her Chiva!
A particularly fierce Xenomorph charged her, but was quickly knocked down by the swing of a fist. Not wasting a second, she yanked up the creature by its throat and one leg, lifted it in the air, and snapped it over her knee. A sickening crack sounded as something irreparable broke within and the Serpent fell limp to the floor. Swiftly avoiding another one's assault, Ehawee moved back before wrenching its shoulder and smashing its face into the wall with such force that it crushed the front part of its skull, splattering blood. The wall sizzled as stone was slowly eaten away.
As she launched a net from her gauntlet to ensnare one more, a fourth sent its inner mouth flying toward her, snapping around the lower part of her arm. Another did the same to her other arm soon after, and together the pair wrenched downward to bring the female Yautja to a crouch. Growling with venom, Ehawee gripped tightly to the slimed with mucus organs and pulled, narrowly dodging the collision of the two Serpents.
The inner mouths released her as the Xenomorphs' dazed for a brief moment. Removing her razor whip from her belt, she gave it a quick spin and crack, and then snapped it around one of the Serpents, yanking back to split the struggling beast in half. The final Serpent rammed at her, only to be skewered through the chest as she activated her wristblades on her free hand. With its last ounce of strength it dragged its claws on her already damaged side, opening the wound further.
Ignoring her bleeding side, Ehawee jerked her head around, searching for others to come out of the shadows, urging them to just try to take her down. But there was none. As she calmed down and began seeing to herself, she heard the cry of the Queen Serpent rattle through the halls. Not long after, a familiar voice sounded through her bio mask.
"Ehawee," her trainer called, all the way from the ship, "We have just landed and are entering the temple as we speak. The temple's power grid has been shut off, so there shouldn't be another shift. Our hunt brothers shall seal off the entrance with proximity mines so that none of the Serpents flee from here. I wish for you to block off the northern-most entryway into the hall you are standing in with them as well. Liwanu and Dto-Raija are being given orders to do the same by their trainers. We shall flush the Serpents to us."
The proximity mines would create powerful lasers that would be sure the kill anything that passed through them. "Yes, Mighty Shii'va," she replied, "I shall do as told." Shii'va was the most respected female in the Jungle Hunter Clan. At a young age, it was said, she had been wise upon her years. And when she and her hunt sisters had been attacked by a pack of Pifc-nah', it was she who had taken charge of the situation and led them to victory. Rumors among the Youngblood females of the clan said that she had even hunted alongside powerful Elites from some of the other, more renowned clans. People came to her for advice whether for strategies or for settling a dispute and many males vied for her attention. Ehawee had been one of few fortunate enough to have to chance to train under her, for Shii'va was interested in tutoring very few outside of her own brood. Ehawee only hoped to someday reach her trainer's masterful caliber and skill.
The High Elder's voice came through, "You have done well, young ones. Now, claim your place among us, and join in this triumph!" Ehawee's upper tusks lifted in a grin as she chattered in eagerness. She cloaked and began to race through the temple to join her clan.
…
Liwanu and Nina ran as fast as they could to reach the others, slicing through what few Xenomorphs came across their path. More than likely, the remaining Serpents had been called to protect their Queen. It was easy for the human; her chest hurt badly and was only getting worse, and she was carrying some forty pounds of Su'vi pup in her arms. However, she felt certain that if she fell behind, Liwanu would just leave her there, so she didn't slow down, nor did she ask for even a moment's rest.
The felt thing she saw was the light of the night sky glimmering through the large entrance to the temple, then the red beams crisscrossing it so nothing could come in or go not. The sounds of battle filled her ears; the shrieks of angry Serpents, the growls and roars of hunters delighted by their carnage, the crumbling of stone, hissing of acid, and the clanks of metal. The scents of sweat, blood, and death increased tenfold as they drew nearer.
There were their hunt brothers- most of them anyway- crowded together in the midst of dust and dying as they fought with the deadliest of prey. Some would call the scene terrifying, others horrifically beautiful. To Nina, which she would later find herself surprised and perhaps appalled by- at some other time when she could have her thoughts all to herself, it was unbelievably exhilarating.
The unsheathed their own weapons and joined the others side-by-side, any animosity vanishing as they found themselves submerged and drowned by the siren's song that was the hunt. The fight was on.
…
When the battle was finished, as the Yautja gathered their honorably earned trophies and the mightiest of the clan sealed away the Queen for another hundred years, Nina sat on the steps of the temple smiling. She breathed in the breaths she couldn't believe she still had. The pup lay in her lap, curled up into a tiny, slumbering ball. Oh yes; it had been very fun trying to keep an eye on him while fighting the Xenomorphs.
A large figure sat beside her. Already, she knew who it was. "Checking to make sure that I'm still alive and not some ghost?"
Sain'ja clicked in laughter, "I knew you would survive. I was the one that trained you after all."
Giving him a friendly shake on the shoulder, she replied, "Don't get cocky." Nina looked up to the sky, which was growing just barely brighter as what would be described as this world's morning dawned. "It's very beautiful."
"Yes; today had been a great hunt."
"I meant the sky."
"The sky?" Sain'ja looked up, "I see nothing worth viewing. All I can see are the illuminations of the sun through the sister worlds."
Changing topics, she asked, "What vision are you currently using?"
Confusion spread across his face and he tilting his head sideways, "EM, why?"
With a sigh, Nina ordered, "Bend your head down here."
"Excuse me?"
"Just do it, please."
And so Sain'ja did. However, he was shocked when suddenly Dto-Raija quickly slipped a hand through his mask, touching cheek and mandibles, as she fiddled with the controls that would change the vision modes. He held his breath in order to, for the air, while breathable for beings such as humans, was unsuitable for a Yautja. After a certain number of clicks, she slipped her hand out and reattached the mask.
This time, when he looked up at the sky, he saw it the way Pyode Amedha saw- in the brilliant hues and shades of color. The stars and planets, no longer blips of red or yellow light, glistened lazily above. He was speechless for a long while. Who would've thought a visual spectrum, while practically useless for hunting compared to other modes, could grace such an amazing gift.
Nina coughed gruffly snapping him out of it. "You know you could've just asked me and allowed me to have changed modes on my own," he huffed, hiding back a grin.
She laughed, her voice slowly growing smaller, "I know, but… but then I like teasing you. And you might've said 'no'."
"Very well then, you're off the hook," he began taking in the sight of the jungle as well, but then a small hand scraped his leg, "What, Dto-Raija?"
There was no answer.
Looking over, Sain'ja saw his human companion had fallen limp on her side. Believing her to be teasing again, he shook her and called her out on it. But there she stayed.
And, for some strange reason, he began to panic.
"Dto-Raija? Dto-Raija, get up!" When again she didn't respond, he stood and shouted, "Healer!"