The Kzhrga Incident, part 3 - by Webdragon
                        ----------------------------

  The lead pyode amedha, the trophy, ventured onto the Kzhrga's
resin-covered deck.  Dachande followed after the troupe of the aliens, 
his invisibility unit masking his presence and any sound he made.  

  Memories, frightful and dark, threatened to end the focus necessary for
the Hunt he was embarking upon, but he pushed them away and forced himself
to retrace the steps he had taken years ago.  A whispered command to his
wus'lya set the battle computer to the task of transposing a motion sensor
grid onto the HUD inside his facemask.  

  Kaidne amedha were hard to see when they were blended into the resin walls
and even harder to detect.  Thermal sensors were useless for their
exoskeletons prevented any heat signatures from escaping.  One only 
saw them when they moved, and the Unblooded often panic at the sight of the
walls unfolding to engulf them in a black sea of writhing claws and
spear-like tails.  Truly, only the strongest and most fearless become Blooded.  

  He remembered his first Blooding very well....and the lessons it had
taught him.
                                ***

  "Foolish whelp!!  Hold the skryla like this!!  That grip is for
Scientists, idiot!", his Leader growled.  Dachande shifted his grip and
imitated his Leader's hold.  

  His pack mates started to jeer but the Leader snarled and they fell
silent.  He had that effect on everyone it seemed.  The only ones that he
deferred to were Elders and peers.

  It was obvious right from the beginning that his Leader had picked him to
become his successor, as it were.  He never gave Dachande any slack in their
training sessions together.  Neither did he praise him or give any
indication that he was pleased with Dachande's progress.  

  His other pack mates interpreted their Leader's attitude towards him as
discriminatory, and like true predators they capitalized on that.  He was
the butt of all their jokes and the last to hear of anything of interest.
Indeed, he was smaller than the typical yautja male, not much but the
difference was still obvious.  

  Not that he was any weaker for it.  There was a time when he had picked up
a larger male and tossed him the length of a room.  Yes, he was strong, yet
the image he projected to others was that of a pauking weakling.  Many were
the challenges to his person, and he emerged triumphant every time.  He had
never lost a challenge nor backed away from a fight.  

  On his first Blooding Hunt, Dachande saw the kaidne amedha for the first
time.  They frightened him; to claim otherwise was foolish as Tichinde had
found out, the hard way.  Despite shouted warnings from packmates and
Leaders alike, Tichinde challenged a kaidne amedha drone with little more
than a wristblade and his pride as a warrior.  Tichinde was good.  Was.

  The inner jaw of the drone tore through the side of Tichinde's head and
the drone held Tichinde's lifeless body up to the sky, as if offering the
body to its dark gods, and then it tore the corpse in two with a sickening
sound of tearing flesh and snapping bones.  Such power in its skeletal
frame!!  A thrown skryla blasted the life from the drone, but another ten
took its place.  It was now Dachande's turn.

  Lunging thrust, parry - riposte, back slash, flicking attack - these and
more, Dachande knew, and he used them all to kill each and every drone in
his assigned area.  His Leader had taught him well.  Ssythra's Strike was
his favorite technique - step forward, weave to one side, then lunge with
the speed of a striking ssythra with the skryla.  Attack the throat or the
head, for a quick kill.  Then, instead of posing like some stupid ryth,
retract the skryla and leap backwards.  If executed rapidly and with skill,
it was a wonder to behold.  His Leader did it best.

  It didn't look like he was going to strike, but a second later a drone was
dispatched.  Then, as smooth as liquid, his Leader sidestepped the lunge of
another drone and took its head off with a swipe of the skryla blade.  A
Ssythra Strike later and another drone fell.  The technique was done so
flawlessly and fluidly that Dachande could only stop and gape, until the
tail of a kaidne amedha wrapped around his skryla and wrenched it from his
grasp.  

  His plasma blaster was out in a heartbeat and he flamed the drone with
repeated blasts from the gun.  Retrieving his skryla, he holstered the
plasma blaster and he surveyed the site.  All the kaidne amedha were dead.
Only half of his pack had survived, and all but him were injured.  His
Leader came up then and inscribed the symbol of the Blooded on his forehead
with the acid blood of the kaidne amedha.  The searing pain of the acid was
a small price to bear for the honor of being Blooded.  Now, he was a true
yautja - and let all who disregard that fact beware.

  Now he bore the right to wear the dreadlocks.  His hair was painstakingly
braided by an Elder and set with the rings that symbolized yautja ideals.
Courage...Strength...Skill....and Honor.  Honor was the biggest and most
prominant of the rings.
                                  ***

  Dachande watched the pyode amedha jabber amongst themselves, pointing out
the resin covering the corridors of the Kzhrga.  One pulled out a device of
some sort and pointed it at the resin.  It flashed red and hummed.  Then it
held the device up and exclaimed excitedly to the others of its pack.  All,
except the trophy, gathered around the device.  He was a true warrior, that
pyode amedha, ever cautious and ever alert - never letting himself get
distracted while on the Hunt.  The trophy growled and unholstered one of
their strange guns.  The device was shut off and the pack moved on.

  They were noisy, these pyode amedha.  Unblooded yautja were as silent as a
whisper in kaidne amedha corridors, despite all their ridges and
outcroppings.  In fact, Dachande thought ryth were quieter than these pyode
amedha - with the exception of the trophy, of course.  He moved quietly,
like a true warrior.  Perhaps the others were Scientists?  No, out of the
pack of eleven, seven were dressed as the trophy was.  Three were dressed
differently and carried no weapons.  These unarmed ones must be the pyode
amedha equivalent of Scientists.....and most of the armed ones were probably
no better than the Scientists....

  Dachande scented the smell of kaidne amedha coming from the next room.
Enhancing the image, Dachande examined the walls of the next room.  Kaidne
amedha were blended in perfectly with the walls and Dachande could only make
out one or two - doubtlessly there were at least ten times that number.  The
pyode amedha were going to be outnumbered and very dead if they stepped into
the room.  Their only hope is to....wait...the trophy is up to something.
Dachande watched with interest.

  The trophy stopped and peered hard into the room full of death.  Something
must have told him to stop and look, before he went in.  He possessed the
warrior instinct, thought Dachande.  Then the trophy pulled a strange tube
from his waistbelt and threw it into the room.  It exploded with a silent
flash of light upon light

  And the walls came alive.  Kaidne amedha unblended and launched themselves
at the foolish pyode amedha who had dared to disturb their sleep, hissing
their song of death.

  The pyode amedha guns flashed and beams of scarlet death tore through the
ranks of the kaidne amedha, spilling acid thwei onto the floors and walls.
For weaklings, they handled themselves well with the blaster.  Since the
door leading into the next room was big enough for one yautja to step
through, not all the kaidne amedha could attack at once and it was merely a
matter of blasting through the door until the drones were dead.  Kaidne
amedha had never been accused of much intelligence - except the Queens.

  Movement!!  Dachande watched as a kaidne amedha unfurled itself right
behind the pyode amedha pack, and it flexed its claws - getting ready to
pounce upon the aliens and tear them to pieces.  Dachande reacted quickly. 
 His skryla flashed and the kaidne amedha died silently on the tip of the
spear.  Dachande quietly pulled the drone towards him and decapitated it
with a swipe from his wristblades.  Then he dropped the carcass behind him.
No sense in alerting the pyode amedha to his presence...

  Dachande wondered why he acted as he did even as he watched the trophy cut
down two drones with two well-placed shots.  Perhaps...it was because he
wanted to take the trophy's head by himself.  Maybe it was pragmatism - the
pyode amedha could serve as good cannon fodder.  No matter - either way, he
was going to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Kzhrga and take the
trophy while he was at it.  

  This he swore by the Blooded symbol on his forehead.  

  The firing stopped and the pyode amedha waited until the smoke cleared.
No kaidne amedha came tearing through the door and the trophy waved the rest
of his pack through.  Dachande followed them silently, retracting his
wristblades as he did.

  Yes, indeed.  It will be resolved this time, and his Blooded status be
damned if he didn't.

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  -By Webdragon