Rereleased and revised slightly. -WD.

                        The Kzhrga Incident part 1
                        --------------------------

        Dachande flared his mandibles and roared his challenge to the pyode
amedha encircling him, their knives weaving in amateurish patterns. 
        Yes!  Come, and dance the Thgra'har with me!  We shall see who comes
out alive!!

        A rush of motion behind him and Dachande twisted aside with the
fluid grace of a Hunter.  One of the aliens had lunged at him and it was now
off balance, stumbling and trying to regain its battle posture.  A downward
stroke of his skryla severed its head and the thwei gushed forth. The corpse
fell to the floor with a dull thud and Dachande hissed, a frightening sound.

        Without even looking over his shoulder, he suddenly crouched low and
spun his skryla in a circular motion.  He felt the sharp spear point slash
through pyode amedha meat, the puny bones actually being *sliced* in half by
the vibroblade, and he heard the gurgling death cries of those who had tried
to attack him from behind.  Hah!  You go to meet the Black Warrior, fools!
Now there were only six left.  Six against one.  Dachande felt the stirrings
of battle rage coursing through his veins and his grip tightened.  With a
muscular contraction of his right forearm, his wristblades popped out and
gleamed dully in the half-light of the corridor.

        One of the aliens threw its knife at him and Dachande contemptuously
knocked it out of the air with his wristblades.  Was that a throw?  Try
this!  He reared up and heaved the skryla into the alien.

        It blasted through its soft flesh and embedded itself in the wall.
Pauk!  He wasn't expecting for penetration on that scale!  Now he was
deprived of his favorite weapon.  Not that it really mattered, but it was
just personal preference....

        He heard a movement at his side and he blocked the thrust of a knife
blade with his left forearm gauntlet.  A quick stab of his wristblades
dispatched the pyode amedha, the two sharp blades tearing through the
ribcage and nearly cutting the pyode amedha in half.  

        Yes.  Just personal preference.

        Then, the battle rage overcoming him, Dachande threw himself at his
four remaining opponents.

        To their credit, the sight of a charging yautja warrior, weighing
well in excess of 100 ghis of pure muscle, didn't unnerve them in the
slightest.  They will die an honorable warrior's death! thought Dachande in
the midst of his battle rage.  He roared his song of death, the Nan'de
Than'Ghan, Kiss of Midnight.

        He swung his wristblades at one of them and it moved to block with
its forearm.  Its form was perfect, and its technique superb.  Its strength,
however, was lacking.  Dachande's massive forearm tore through its defenses
and took its head off.  Without pausing, he immediately spun into a
roundhouse kick with his left leg and it connected with the upper torso of
the alien next to him.  It cried out in pain as the force of Dachande's kick
blasted it, with broken ribs, onto the floor. 

        His sixth sense warned him of an incoming attack and he trapped the
blade with his wristblades, and twisted the puny weapon out of the alien's
hand.  He gutted the fifth remaining alien with a roar of satisfaction, his
blades stabbing into the alien and lifting it up off its feet.  It dangled
in the air, held aloft by Dachande with little effort, twitching and
convulsing.  

        Hah!  These weaklings!  He retracted his wristblades and the corpse
fell to the floor.  Then he popped the blades out and he whirled on the last
remaining alien.

        It faced him with teeth bared, clutching a knife in each hand.  It
began to weave them in a well-trained fashion, its battle stance defensive.
This must be the Leader of the pack, Dachande thought, and he roared his
challenge to the pyode amedha.  It snarled back through clenched teeth, and
suddenly lunged.

        The tip of a knife sliced through his left thigh and his thwei began
to ooze from the wound.  It was fast....perhaps nearly as fast as he was.
Dachande fell into a defensive battle stance.  First blood in this duel went
to the warrior, but Dachande intended to draw the last.

        He flicked his wristblades out at the warrior in a feint.  If it
blocked the blades with its own, all Dachande had to do would be to trap the
blade and launch himself into a leaping roundhouse kick.  But it didn't take
the bait and it bared its teeth anew.

        This one was smarter than the rest, thought Dachande.  He took an
experimental swipe and the alien hopped out of range.  Now that the battle
rage had died down, he could examine the alien at leisure.  Its hair was
done up in dreadlocks, just like Dachande's, and it wore a black suit of
some sort.  It differed from the pyode amedha he was used to fighting in
that it had plates of of bone running from its nose and up to its head.

        Alarms began to ring and the alien began to back towards a door in
the chamber.  Dachande lunged and swiped his wrist blades at it, and it
rolled to one side, just as he expected.  

        "Pyu'saa!!", roared Dachande at the alien.  Coward!!  Dachande fumed
inside at the pyode amedha.  You would try to escape the Black Warrior?  The
Black Warrior takes his toll on the chosen - there is no escaping him.  He
is the dark presence behind you as you go on Hunts, silently reminding you
that even yautja are not immortal.

        "Pyu'saa bhe pyode amedha!!  Hgreth'ka na'bhe yasla!"  Cowardly Soft
Meat!!  Honor is not yours should you run!!

        The alien suddenly lunged at Dachande, and he sidestepped the charge
and brought his wristblades down.  The alien hit the floor and rolled
towards Dachande, then it sprang up and stabbed a knife into his thigh, in
the same spot where it had sliced him before.  Roaring in anger more than
pain, Dachande backhanded the alien and it flew off him, dropping its two
blades as it did so.  It seemed to transcribe a lazy arc in the air, then it
crashed to the floor in a heap.  It got up and bared its teeth at Dachande,
who pulled the knife out of his leg and tossed it away.  Yes.  This one's
head he must have as a trophy.

        He advanced on the alien but stopped short when it stood up and
presented an unarmed combat stance.  Dachande looked down at his
wristblades, then back to the alien.  He unlatched the weapon from his
forearm and let it fall to the floor.  It would not be honorable to take a
trophy on unequal terms.  Well, not *quite* equal terms, though.  

        He advanced, his massive hands bunched up into sledgehammer-like
fists.  A growled command to his wus'lya set the plasma cannon into a locked
position.  It would not do to have the cannon interfering in the hand to
hand fight.

        Dachande stalked the pyode amedha slowly, all his senses wary.
Pyode amedha, even this variation on the species, were notoriously tricky
and usually have a hidden weapon secreted somewhere in the boots or inside
sleeves.  

        It lunged with a punch and he blocked it, responding with a swing of
his right fist.  It ducked the punch, probably knowing that it couldn't
compete with Dachande's superior strength, and rolled away.  Dachande gave
it no quarter as he attacked anew, this time launching a sidekick at it.  It
twisted aside at the last moment and his foot slammed into the wall.  It
backhanded Dachande across the face, but it clutched its hand in pain
immediately after.  Dachande's bony ridges and sharp mandibles had hurt the
alien's fist.  He flared his mandibles anew and lunged at the alien.

        His sixth sense saved his life once more as he instinctively stopped
his forward rush and threw himself backwards.  A red beam of energy struck
the wall at the spot where he was and vaporized a section of it.  Pauk!!
More of these pyode amedha!  They were like a swarm of pests!

        Another blast of energy struck the floor not three zgiths from his
feet and he rolled backwards, shouting commands to his wus'lya.  The plasma
cannon unlatched itself from its locked position and positioned itself
forward.  He turned and fired a charge from it.

        The blue bolt of plasma lanced out and struck the floor in front of
the approaching aliens, and splashed outwards in a destructive burst of
energy.  More beams of energy, three in total, lashed back in response and
Dachande decided to retreat.  He ducked behind a pillar and glanced back at
his opponent, who glared back with wary eyes.  The eyes of a trophy.

        He'll return for that one, but right now he had to get out before he
got killed by others.  The only reasons a Hunter should get killed are
either by the trophy or by unforeseen circumstances.  His invisibility unit
came online and Dachande dashed out, the trophy's eyes tracking his blurred
outline.  Dachande scooped up his wristblades and quickly pulled his skryla
from the wall.  They melted into his invisibility field and he took his
leave, the anti-gravity unit of his armor assisting in his leaps to safety.
He'll be back...and the prey had better be ready.  Such was the way of the Hunt.

--------------


        -WebDragon