Rereleased and revised slightly.

By WebDragon

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                           The Kzhrga Incident part 2
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        The thwei dripped from Dachande's leg as he applied a heated
wristblade to the wound.  A sizzling sound cut through the air as the
blade's side cauterized the wound.  Dachande made no sound.

        The trophy had done well.  It was probably Leading a group of
Unblooded pyode amedha on their first Hunt.  More's the pity for them, since
Dachande was not only Blooded but he was the only one of his pack who had
escaped the Kzhrga incident.

        Dachande allowed himself some time to remember.  And wonder on how
pauking lucky he had been to escape.

                                * * *

        The Kzhrga was a giant cargo carrying ship which had been
inadvertantly infested with the kaidne amedha when the pilots let the first
stage kaidne amedha run loose among the ryth.  How and why, Dachande never
knew.  Maybe it was incompetence, the sort seen among the Unblooded - for
only the best become Blooded.  These ryth, four legged mindless beasts, were
kept as livestock.  In an enclosed space.  The facehuggers had a field day.  

        All the yautja on board were killed - they had died fighting,
Dachande had heard.  It was far better than being Crt'syu, infected with the
alien embryo.

        Decisions were made by an Elder and HIS pack was sent in - ten fully
Blooded Hunters - to trigger the self-destruct device and blow the Kzhrga to
pieces.

        One slight problem, however.  The numbers of these kaidne amedha
were greatly underestimated.  Much so.

        They had been lured into the depths of the ship before they realized
that fact.  Kaidne amedha, with snapping double-jaws, spearlike tails and
acidic blood, had attacked them while they were holding out in a storage room.  

        Deadly creatures, these.  Walking on their hindlegs like yautja,
clawed 'hands' that can operate door buttons and therefore better access
their victims, terrifyingly long heads that never failed to invoke revulsion
in even the stoutest yautja.  Exoskeletons with two rows of spines on their
backs.  They were the stuff of nightmares, these kaidne amedha.

        Invariably one of these black-shelled things would get in, and the
pack knew it.  Then the flood of black bodies would pour in and either
Crt'syu or immediate death would occur.  But they were yautja.  They were
Blooded Hunters and they knew the Black Warrior came for all.  This was just
their time and they intended to meet the jaws of death with honor - and
without Crt'syu.  Fight to the death, a pack mate had told him.  

        Even suicide was not an invalid option.

        The yautja huddled in the room were expecting the barrier to break
and the first kaidne amedha to rush into the room.  The barrier did fly to
pieces. They just never anticipated a Queen, herself, attacking them, that's
all.  And, strangely, there were no other kaidne amedha accompanying the Queen.

        It was most unprecedented.  What did this signify?, Dachande had
asked his pack mates.  A Queen NEVER initiates combat on her own.  She would
let the drones, the kaidne amedha, do the dirty work.  We don't know, they
had answered.

        But all knew one thing.  No one had ever taken a Queen down with
just wristblades and skryla.  And their plasma cannons had long run out of
charges.  Grips tightened on skryla and wristblades popped out in anticipation.

        It would have been a true Thgra'har, worthy of true yautja, if the
horror of the situation wasn't so obvious at the outset of the fight.

        Tih'jka died first, the Queen's talons taking his head off in one
swipe, her arms moving so fast as to be unbelievable.  Ghr'yto got his
wristblades deep into the Queen's side but the acid thwei was FAR more
potent than ordinary kaidne amedha thwei.  He died.....horribly, the thwei
burning through his thwei's natural acid-neutralizing defenses.

        Then all eight remaining Hunters had rushed her from all directions,
stabbing and slicing, being careful to avoid the critical spots where the
thwei flowed strongest.  And they died, one by one, by tail, claw or teeth,
until he was left facing the Queen with only his wristblades.

        The Queen was in shreds, all her arms hacked off and part of her
tail half-sliced through, not to mention deep slashes here and there.  But
the testimony of her prowess lay around the room in nine heaps of unmoving
yautja.  Blooded yautja.  Experienced Hunters.  All dead, except for him.

        The fight that had followed was nothing short of terrifying.  Even
crippled as she was, the Queen was still more than able to kill a yautja.
She hissed and weaved like some ssythra; but unlike a ssythra, which was
long, sinuous and poisonous, she was tall, angular and infinitely deadly. 

        Somehow he had managed to get on her head and stab deep into her
brain.  But she didn't die and she only flung him off her, into the wall.  
        Dazed, with a broken mandible to show for his efforts, Dachande
retreated, against all his principles of honor.  This was a mark against his
life's record, to run away as he did, and he intended to absolve himself of
it.  As soon as he remained alive to do so.  Yes.  He'll charge up his
plasma cannon and come back and blast the Queen to bits.  

        Beyond the open door, where the Queen had forced her way into the
chamber, swarms of kaidne amedha entered and Dachande cursed.  Damn the
Black Warrior to take him before his mark of dishonor had been absolved.  He
prepared to die.  No Crt'syu for him.

        But they clustered about the Queen and began to tear her to pieces.
Drones!!  Tearing a QUEEN to pieces!!  Yet another unprecedented thing.
Dachande wondered if there wasn't another Queen in the entirety of the
Kzhrga...... 

        The question still remained.  WHY had the Queen thrown herself into
a fight *just* like that?  Dachande had no answer.  Nor would he have had
any at the moment, with the Black Warrior right behind him and running his
ice cold fingers down his spine.

        He didn't know how he managed to cut a swath through the hordes of
kaidne amedha to the escape pod but he did, and he had escaped.  Since then,
he had thought nothing of the Kzhrga, consigning it to the oblivion of
blissful memory.
                                * * *
        Until today.  While on the way to a Hunt, he had come across a pyode
amedha ship .... and it was circling the Kzhrga.  And the Kzhrga's engines
were ON.  They were off the last time Dachande saw the ship.....
And somehow the Kzhrga had piloted itself past planets, asteroids, meteors,
suns, nebulas, to arrive at a pyode amedha world.  It was closing rapidly;
only five million whra before taking orbit in the world.  This was most strange.

        Seeing an opportunity to resolve his dishonor once and for all - by
destroying the Kzhrga, Dachande first needed to see if the pyode amedha had
already ventured aboard the ship.  So he entered their ship, to see if they
had any specimens or any part of the Kzhrga there.

        Secretly docking on its underside, bypassing all their primitive
space scanners with the invisibility unit on his ship, he had entered the
vessel and proceeded to scout around.  And encountered the pyode amedha led
by the trophy.  And got this pauking wound to show for his efforts.

        Yet, since having designated that pyode amedha warrior as his trophy
in the heat of the battle, Dachande MUST have its head.  Such was the way of
the Hunt.  However, other pressing matters concern him.  

        Like the fact that the pyode amedha were preparing to venture into
the Kzhrga.  He himself had seen them, along with the trophy, suiting up and
getting ready.  

        A good Hunter always find places to hide from the searching prey,
and this ventilation shaft near the airlock was perfect.  Invisibility
helped too.

        Dachande put his mask on and prepared to sneak along with the pyode
amedha - into the bowels of the Kzrgha.

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By WebDragon, will be continued....