The Elder's Mate

Thirty - The Traitor

Dhare blasted an approaching kainde amedha while he drove his wrist-blades into the chest of another, the serpent screeching. He ducked when Khaj threw his combi-stick at serpent coming at his left side. His friend dodged and ducked through the Hunters fending off the hordes of serpents trying to protect their Queen, her shrill screeching ringing through the caverns.

Khaj retrieved his weapon just in time to catch a serpent as it threw itself at him. He kicked it away and impaled it with his combi-stick.

All around them there was a flurry of activity while the main team worked to subdue the Queen. They were throwing the last chain around her lower body, the assigned Yautja working in teams to keep her from swiping her deadly claws at them. Her children died trying to defend her, their numbers in the thousands.

It was an infestation that Dhare hadn't seen in decades.

Upon arriving to the surface, they had found the beasts in the area dead en masse. There were obvious signs of Z'skvy-de in ever body found. There were obvious drag marks that led to a massive system of subterranean caverns where the kainde amedha had made their home. Down below they had built their hive, the rocky walls covered with the sticky mucus that smelled of something rotting.

Thankfully Dhare's bio-mask filtered out the the musty smell. He had always hated that smell. It had a way of seeking into your very essence and making one want to vomit. His scent glands were overwhelmed with just a whiff of it.

Any other Yautja felt the same. Khaj, his assigned partner, had taunted him by trying to spread it on his forearm. He had chittered in amusement when Dhare tackled him and smeared some of the thick viscous mucus on his friend as revenge.

If he was going to be covered in that, then so was Khaj.

The two broke it up when their third, Ha'stba, had alerted them to a sighting of the serpents a few noks ahead. They reluctantly pulled apart and continued on the hunt.

Khaj cast him glances every now and then that he could feel. His friend was no stranger to Dhare's body, that fact being vice versa for him with Khaj's. The two definitely knew what made the other tick from knowing each other for so long...among more carnal reasons. Dhare didn't miss the little shake of his mane Khaj did in his direction.

"Can you two take it outside? We have a hunt to complete." Ha'stba complained a few paces ahead, his irritation apparent in his voice. "You are like horny Young Bloods."

Dhare started to chuckle in amusement but had been cut short when serpents appeared in the tunnel ahead. He nodded towards Khaj and Ha'stba that it was time for business.

A few hours had passed since then. Bodies of serpents were piling up by the dozens as they fell. The number of dead was growing as Dhare and the hunting party cut through them with veritable ease, at least, until the last had been culled. All the screeching had been silenced with only the Queen left to fill the void with her own.

The hunters tasked with fending off the serpents moved to help drag the Queen through a large passage that had been discovered to lead back to the surface. It was slow but they eventually dragged her with the long chains into the light of day, her protesting screeching driving the surviving local beasts away in fear.

Time was slower on this planet so the days were longer, thus the sun still reigned Queen in the sky. The sun shone on the shiny black bio-mechanical exoskeleton of the Queen kiande amedha as she was taken onto the awaiting ship specially outfitted just for her. Slowly but surely the Queen was once again returned to relative darkness. Once she was on board, some went back to claim trophies and the hunters returned to their respective ships to await the others.