Author's Note: I never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response to the last chapter. As requested Hunter will have his own POV
There was just the slightest scrape as the boot scraped across the floor, the friction just enough to make a squeak. Alec woke and lashed out, his arms had been outside his sleeping bag and it was on pure reflex he grabbed Pvt. Hunter's ankle, pulling and bringing the young man to the floor.
Alec, still half-asleep, lashed out again, catching him in the chin, he ceased his attack though when Hunter put his handgun under his chin. Calm as a limpid pond Alec spoke, "I thought I asked you to wait. Considering your patience seems a tad thin I guess we'll do this now rather than in daylight." This failed to get the desired response. "Remove your gun from beneath my chin." Still nothing. "How blunt do I need to say this? If you go into that lab with a peashooter with all the stopping power of a spitball then you will die."
"Why? What'cha got in there?" The soldier sneered. "Got yourself a xeno have you? You're own pet killer? I knew you were Yutani as soon as you warned me off."
"I'll show you, but first let me grab a tranq gun, unless being gutted is your idea of a fun day?" Alec snapped, patience wearing thin.
Hunter grudgingly allowed it.
Once they were outside the lab door once more, Alec signalled for the private to stop.
"Ok, a few ground rules when you go in. And before you protest," Hunter shut his mouth, not even managing to get a word out. "As I was saying," Alec continued. "Avoid loud noises and fast movements, try not to show fear, in fact better you try not to feel it, she's sensitive with emotions this close and if you're afraid she'll think you're prey. Are we good so far?"
"Why not just tranq the bloody bug?"
"Because we'll be dead before she even gets drowsy, next stupid question?"
"Then why did you demand to fetch a tranq gun?" Hunter asked dully.
"It makes me feel safer." Alec stated bluntly. "Now are you ready?"
"Yeah." Hunter said, not seeming to realise he'd rather lost control of the situation.
"In that case," Alec said while slowly opening the door, gauging where the xenomorph was likely to be. "I'd like you to meet Chrome."
Piusnex woke when the human approached the door. She heard her human do the same, the two humans were talking quietly. She sniffed the air, trying to get a sense of what was going on. One of the humans stunk of anger and aggression, the other was calm but this close to her room she could catch the faint whiff of fear. She could guess which human was which.
The humans walked away from the door only to return a few minutes later, she could smell the knockout liquid, just the tiniest drop on the end of the dart, but enough for her to pick up on.
Normally her human would open the door slightly, sight the weapon, shoot then close the door, not giving her a chance to kill him. Which was good, she wasn't sure if she could still kill her human and didn't like the idea of finding out, both of the possible results were... unpalatable.
She heard the door open, sending out a series of high-pitched notes, hearing her surroundings. Her human was approaching her slowly with it's palms open talking to her quietly, she didn't understand most of his words but he didn't matter, her human wasn't going to kill her, he'd proven that already.
The new human however was edgy, he stank of terror and he was pointing one of the small human weapons at her, they weren't powerful enough to kill a praetorian, usually, but they stung.
She stood to her full height, drawing her tail back to impale the human, a stab up through the gut would allow her to bypass the ribcage and pierce the heart, the strike had proven most effective in the past.
The human noticed Piusnex's movement. It's trigger finger began to pull back as her tail darted forwards, then the unthinkable happened.
Her human stepped in the way, pushing the human's gun arm down, there was a loud retort as the bullet hit the floor, Piusnex stopped her attack, the tip of her tail just millimetres from her human's gut.
'Does he want me to kill him?' She pondered, meanwhile her human was shouting at the newcomer. She understood enough to know he was telling them not to shoot. Perhaps it was her he was protecting? The thought was absurd, she was a praetorian, a killing machine, he was just a human, if anything she should be protecting him. It didn't occur to her that under normal circumstances he'd need protecting from her.
He was still prey though, peeling her lips back into a snarl, she wrapped her tail around his throat. To her human's credit he didn't try and pry her off, he knew she was the stronger.
"Prleasse don't killl."
Piusnex stopped, as did the other human.
Had her human really just?
"Noh kill." It was extremely distorted but her human was definitely talking to her.
"Why shouldn't I kill you?" She hissed, before realising the human wouldn't understand without his speaking machine. Somehow, despite his peril, her human was staying calm and was talking to the other one who was waving the weapon quite frantically now. She wondered why he was so calm. Then again she wondered why she hadn't simply killed the pair of them and escaped.
Her human turned towards the other, the gun went off twice and Piusnex's world went black.
Yeythwei waited inside his ship, one of the warriors had been getting a bit edgy around the cloaked vessel and he could only assume the cloak's electrosignature, while masked, was being picked up faintly by the creature. It was annoying that most khainde amedha had electroreceptors, it seemed to be one of the traits that truly belonged to them rather than one they'd borrowed from a host.
Still, despite the variance in hosts, Hard Meat had what appeared to be set castes in the hive.
Most species became drones, with varying degrees of hearing and smell but seldom sight, and the aforementioned electroreptors. Drones were the core of every hive, the lifeblood so to speak, foragers, hunters and defenders. If Yeythwei were forced to pick an advantage they had over the other castes it would be their versatility. It was also not unknown for a drone, separated from it's hive, to start developing an individuality or personality of sorts.
Rather more rare were the warriors, this appeared more to do with the general aggression of the host species although it was noticeable that the hives only seemed to have them during times of war, such as now. Typically blind but strong with thick armour, savage claws and spined tail but ultimately aimless without the guidance of a praetorian, still they appeared to follow orders quite well. A warrior separated from it's hive would revert to instincts and go on a killing spree.
Runners were... anomalous. Typically quadrupedal and typically from quadrupedal hosts, they were the caste most inclined to have the sense of sight, his species had never figured out why. Still this unexpected sense made them very dangerous to experienced yautja as they were far more used to hunting their sightless counterparts. They were also, as the name suggested, very fast. They were similar to drones when kept away from a hive.
Praetorians were the first caste to have full individuality and some independence from the hive, although they did answer to the queen. A praetorian was either chosen from egghood, the egg, and facehugger were easily distinguished by their greater size, or metamorphosed from one of the previous castes when another praetorian died. Typically they were the most dangerous, being stronger, larger and typically more skilled than the previous castes.
It was still a matter of dispute amongst the yautja whether the royal guards were in fact a separate khainde amedha caste or simply praetorians chosen by the queen of the hive but they were generally larger and bulkier than other praetorians.
The only other caste typical to a hive was the queen although some other forms were known to exist with specific hosts. These rare types were in fact worth more as a trophy than even the queen.
The warrior was getting more and more edgy, had it somehow detected his ship? He was about to kill it when something leapt out of the night. The praetorian disembowelled the warrior in a single slash of it's claws while at the same time driving the tail spike into it's brain.
It wasn't a praetorian he recognised, it appeared the other hive was raising it's game another step.
The Queen hissed in the darkness of the hive, issuing orders with the proficiency of a veteran commander. This may have been her first hive war but she had enough ancestral memory to know how to conduct it.
The other hive was uninterested in the city itself, the prey rarely entered deep within it, instead the fighting was over the dense forests at the southern outskirts.
So far it had still just been smash and grab style stuff, a bunch of drones disappearing, a warrior that failed to report in at sunset.
Minor stuff, easily replaced. This hive was weak, otherwise it would simply have attacked them directly.
Three more of her warriors had died tonight, each in the eastern half of the city. Just as planned.
So far they had been unable to locate the invading hive but each death led them that little bit closer, that they needed to go through the city meant they were north of here, and the pattern of disappearances indicated that the hive was to the east. It was just a matter of time until they found it.
It was a shame about the warriors, ideally she'd have preferred they'd survived to report the location themselves but all data was good data. And the fighting was getting more intense by the day. Something would have to give, and it wouldn't be her.
Author's Note: Sorry but Hunter's POV won't appear till next chapter but it will be backdated to his introduction. As always please review with your opinions and suggestions.