Grace of An Elder

Chapter 37

The pilot watched the viewing screen as the small, red blips representing the three Young Bloods moved throughout the blueprint of the temple. Within the hour, nearly a hundred kiande-amedha hellspawn were scuttling around the maze, as well as seven drones. The trio seemed to have some difficulty at first but quickly found their rhythm and were on their way.

Nearly halfway through the shifting temple, the hunting party stopped for several minutes; likely to take trophies and figure out a plan for dealing with the hive queen. Would they kill it, or allow it to live in preparation for the next chiva group destined to venture to this jungle planet? He only hoped they would not free it.

Eventually they were back on the move, winding through the seemingly endless maze of hallways. They seemed to be running toward the center of the map before all three suddenly stopped. The pilot tilted his head in curiosity at this before the blips suddenly retreated quickly back to the way from which they'd come. "What are you doing, younglings?" His question remained unanswered as there was no one beside him to answer. Suddenly a notification displayed on the viewing screen that one of the gauntlet explosives had been set to detonate in ten minutes. His amber eyes widened as he watched the three blips intently, one of which soon fell behind the other two before disappearing from the screen. "Paya, what is going on down there?!"
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T'ahrou sprinted down the ancient corridor with Dhadtoudi close behind. He could smell the pungent scent of iron in the air as they fled, the bone-chilling screeches of the final surviving drone filling the tunnels before the scream of the queen echoed off the walls. The drone had managed to sneak up on the young hunters before attacking and dragging Han'chi off into the shadows. When the male had fallen to the ground, his spear gun had fired and sliced through Dhadtoudi's side.

The thunderous footsteps of a queen charging through the massive structure reverberated the walls and floor alike, only proving to quicken the pace of the retreating hunters. T'ahrou looked at his gauntlet and realized they would have to move much faster if they hoped to beat the timer and make it out of the temple alive. He also knew that the human was moving as quickly as was physically possible for her kind.

Without slowing pace, the Yautja grabbed one of her arms and slung her body around with little effort whatsoever until she was draped over him in a piggybacking position with her arms locked around his neck. He then fell into an all-out sprint as he made his way to the exit. After a few minutes that fell like an eternity he could see the stone doorway with daylight shining through on the outside. Just as his feet crossed the threshold, he heard the call of the hard meats once more, as well as the beeping of his gauntlet broadcasting the timer had run out and felt the ground shaking as the bomb's energy was released. T'ahrou kept moving, and he could feel the human's grip tightening around him.

They were fifty yards from the temple when the shockwave hit them and sent their bodies flying through the air before they came crashing down to the ground and rolled in separate directions. After a moment Dhadtoudi was able to regain her bearings and pushed herself to her knees as the male remained on his back to catch his breath. "I won't say it," she began, "I won't jinx it..." T'ahrou lifted his gauntlet in the air and tapped a few buttons before reading the sequential results of the scan.

"No lifesigns." He stated flatly before dropping his arms back to his sides and craning his head back to look at the female. "Dhadtoudi..." she clicked in response, and he watched her from behind his mask. "We survived. Now you have to tell me. That was the deal."

She was silent for a long moment before they both looked to the sky at the sound of the cruiser's engines. The ship was landing, and they both gave an involuntary sigh of relief at the thought of leaving this damned planet.