Baaul: A Change of Heart

Chapter 8: Pauking Oomans

He just didn’t understand.

Baaul was standing in an abandoned ooman living facility. Apartment complex, he thought they were called. Before him was a makeshift lab with various biological specimen strewn about. Plants, animals and even mineral stones. Several of the items were dissected and pinned down to wooden boards.

There were various ooman stationary left about with various notes in the Yautja language. The notes were sparse, incomplete, or just entirely crossed out, but he was able to understand that the subject was about medicinal experimentation. It made no sense when comparing this to the abominations he had found earlier.

Baaul flipped through the pages, documenting everything and making sure they got added to Xai’an’s report that he had asked for by the end of the day. He was not entirely sure about ooman medicinal implications, so he was hoping that this report to Xai’an would get to someone who could make sense of it. All he knew was that the notes implied a benefit of some sort. What kind of benefit, he did not know.

It frustrated him that he had yet to find the male. It seemed that he was always a few steps ahead of him, though he knew that it wasn’t because the male was aware of him. He was confident in that. In all the time that he had been tracking the male, he was able to determine that the Yautja was not relying on much tech, if any at all. Everything shown signs of bare feet, manual labor, and primitive recording. Without advance tech, it would be nearly impossible for the male to detect his trail.

Something crashed behind him and he whirled, growling. There was a panicked sound that came from an ooman. He stumbled back from the broken doorframe in his attempt to flee after spying on him. Baaul reached for his hip and with the flick of his wrist, the curled, serrated throwing star engaged. He tossed it and returned to continue looking through the notes. Only a few seconds later, he heard the pained screams of the ooman as his weapon found its target.

One thing that caught his eye was the root of an herb called ‘Maca’. He didn’t understand what it was but clearly it was playing a pivotal role in this direction of studies for the Yautja. It frustrated him to no end that he was struggling this much with trying to figure out the motives for this damn Bad Blood.

What did this and the mutilations have to do with each other? Did they even have anything to do with each other? Or was this male simply interested in various forms of biological scientific study? Baaul chittered to himself, shaking his head, annoyed. His willful ignorance on ooman life here was limiting him on this hunt and that would not do. Despite his intense dislike for them, he was going to have to do his research once he got back to Yautja Prime.

There was a loud ‘thump’ above his head. Baaul looked up, his mask switching to X-Ray and a rush went through him to see the outline of the Yautja male. Just as he had presumed, the male was void of any armor. The leather loincloth that wrapped around his wide waist was a combination of animal and ooman. He had dyed it to provide better camouflage, but Baaul knew his leather. He did have a spear gripped in his hand that happened to be missing a finger. The male looked to be of a deep brown coloring, not unlike mud.

Baaul growled and rushed to confront the male. He passed the ooman male that was pinned to the wall, blood leaking in streaks out of his gaped mouth and snatched the weapon back. He was already mounting the dusty stairs when the body fell with a dull thud. He rounded the corner and barely had enough time to pull back out of the line of ooman fire.

Pauk! How had he been so careless to miss these damn oomans? It wasn’t like him to make mistakes like this! He roared his frustration because the noise alerted the male and he watched him flee like a coward!

The oomans shouted to each other, urging one another to confront him and he was going to make them regret interrupting his intended prey. He threw out his arm, engaging his shield just as he saw the tip of a rifle peek around the corner. The ooman’s heart was beating so loud with fear that it echoed in the halls. He shoved his fist through the wall, the debris exploding in a cloud of dust. The shield sliced the ooman’s head right off of his shoulders. Hot blood coated his hand as the arterial vein spewed out like a geyser.

The body flopped in front of him as the panicked oomans began to wildly shoot in the direction they thought he was in. He kneeled down and yanked the ooman body over to get a better grip of its arm. He waited for a slight pause in their gunfire before he tossed the body down the hall.

There were more screams of terror as the body fell on the team of oomen. Baaul ran toward them, tossing his star and releasing his wrist blades. The star took out a male desperately trying to reload his weapon. It hit him so hard that it lifted him several feet off the floor and pinned him to the wall a few yards behind them.

That left two other oomans. Their wide eyes looking hideous to him because fear in their last moments was the most disgusting and honorless thing any creature could do. This was why he hated oomans. They all had no honor in them. They killed each other as well as their own resources without remorse but the moment their own lifes were at risk, they ran, begged and even wept. Pathetic.

He roared his anger and drove his blade across both males. The blades cut through ones abdomen, spilling his internal organs out while the other had his head sliced off in a diagonal angle. The brain matter splashed on the wall in thick globs. With the oomans dead, he searched around for more to make sure that he wouldn’t run into them ignorantly again. He knew that the Yautja had already fled. Whether the male knew he was being tracked by him own kind or if he simply assumed that oomans found his nest, he couldn’t be sure. He would have to start his hunt for the male anew.