391Hey all.
This is the first chapter of my first multi chapter story of epic proportions. As such, any reviews and constructive criticisms will be of great value to me.
Special thanks to Khalthar who has so kindly volunteered to be a beta Reader.
But enough of me taking up your attention, READ AWAY!
It's the end of the 23rd century and mankind has reached the stars, establishing many out lying colonies on other worlds similar to Earth under the leadership of the Terrestrial Federation. During that time they had come in contact with the Yautja race where before they only met some individuals over the centuries and both races shared comparatively good, though separate, relations. However, there are some xeno extremists who think otherwise.
This story revolves around the exploits of Ja'anya (Jaina), a Yautja huntress of the Lai'kairis clanship, and of Alaric, a marine turned vengeful slayer seeking to avenge the brutal murders of his family. Both come together during their exploits and Alaric comes to learn that there are some things that are worth living for. However, a long forgotten history will surface that will threaten to tear them apart.
Note: those of you who never played, or even heard of warhammer fantasy battles won't know what a "Slayer" is. A "Slayer" is a dwarf (original race that has Slayers) that has been dishonored in some irredeemable way and has forsaken everything to find death in combat and in doing so regain their honor. Dwarfs are psychologically incapable of suicide, or fighting deliberately to lose, so they always enter the fight to win. I tweaked the concept a bit so it'll fit a human, the Slayer concept is the IP of Games Workshop.
Chapter one, The Slayer.
The forest was strangely quiet during this hunt; something had made the local fauna speechless. The jungle world of Floria VII was known through out the sector as being a place of adventure and battle since it was colonized in 2154. Even after that time, the planet wasn't fully colonized because of the native plant life's uncanny ability to grow at an alarming rate. Another reason was that it was where hunters from all over colonized space gathered to hunt its dangerous and cunning beasts. And it was here that one hunter, or in this case one huntress, found her life turned upside down by a grim relic of the ancient past.
Ja'anya, a young newly Blooded huntress, crouched in a massive moss covered tree as she counted her recent kills. Her mask was sitting in her lap while she counted the skulls she had claimed. Her weapon of choice had been a long glaive polearm that was resting on the tree trunk. This weapon had earned her a respectable status by allowing her to cleave the heads off three Kainde amedha in one slash, and it had been her preferred weapon ever since. That was not saying she didn't use her other weapons, only that she preferred her glaive over the various other weapons that she had available.
She had been raised to be a huntress like her mother but she was also into medical arts very much like her late father had been. She remembered her father, an adaptable hunter, and a brilliant doctor who had often risked his life getting much needed medicine components from hostile worlds. If there was anything anyone on her clanship needed, he would get it. One such trip ensured his death when he was fatally ambushed by xenomorphs, yet he still fought on, and through sheer will alone, held off his final breath until his mission was complete. She was only a pup when it happened and studying the healing arts was a way of paying homage to him.
The Yautja of her clanship considered her to be an attractive female. Possibly one of the best of her generation with fine pearl white tusks, the talons on her hands and feet were jet black, her eyes were a shade of bright violet like her mothers, fine dark tanned skin which had fine dark stripes on her back like a tiger and she had her father's selfless personality. In many ways, she was regarded as a perfect female, as if she was a living incarnation of a goddess but there was one thing that set her apart from other Yautja females. She was short by Yautja standards, a rare thing for her race and more so for the females, just closing in at six feet. This would be considered the Yautja's version of dwarfism. This didn't seem to bother her at all because it only made her more agile then most of the other hunters on her clanship where she was able to use her smaller frame to take advantage of minute gaps in an opponents defense.
She had claimed four skulls from the xeno extremists on this world. She despised these people who sought to spread the deadly xenos to every world. The humans didn't seem to mind hunters killing them because the extremists were a common enemy ever since the xenomorphs were first encountered. Throughout history there had been fanatical groups, whether its ideologies were about religion, race, color, creed, or sex, but when it came right down to it, they were always pretty much the same thing; murderers. It was those extremists who had nearly cost humanity their home world to the xenomorphs. It was the extremists that doomed many worlds in favor of their 'divine creatures'. They were carriers of a relentless plague.
She readied her glaive, checked her armor, donned her mask, and proceeded through the canopy of the forest, leaping from tree to tree, looking for her next kill. This jungle world held many surprises for a hunter, the humans had colonized many worlds by the end of the twenty-third century and it was opportunistic for the Yautja that humans had colonized this one with game hunting in mind. The best of both worlds in a sense. She had hunted here a few times before and each visit held another surprise for her, be it new prey or a lovely view from the trees.
There was a reason for her visit this time, some curiosity needed to be sated. There was a very strange occurrence that had been happening for the past Earth year. There had been numerous reports, from both humans and Yautja, of a humanoid figure wandering the forests, killing off anything that got in the way of the blood-crazed and completely psychopathic rage. Strangely enough, it never attacked humans, but if it happened to encounter a Yautja, it would begin a relentless and merciless attack. What was even stranger, was that the mysterious figure would then leave, just as suddenly as it had appeared. One identifying fact for this phenomenon was that it seemed to mistake the hunter for something else, or it might be possible that those hunters weren't the right ones. Ja'anya wanted to see the origin of the ethereal stories with her own eyes.
Leaping from tree to tree, she wondered idly if she would ever find a mate, but her size made it hard to find one that would accept her. All the males seemed to prefer bigger females than her, and that often made her frustrated because she was just as strong as any of her race. However, she had no intention of finding a mate yet. She just wanted to hunt for a time. That was when she heard the sound of combat accompanied by the typical yells, bestial roars, and the falling of bodies.
'What is that?' She wondered as she stopped to listen.
She focused on trying to recognize the sounds. It sounded suspiciously like a pack of wild animals were trying to pick off a single target. It was probably just nature taking its course, as was the way of all things. Ja'anya was about to move on to look for her next trophy when she heard a long, powerful roar. And it sounded like it had originated from a fellow hunter, and not from what ever was attacking it. Immediately, in an act that her father was known for, she moved rapidly in the direction of the roar. Nimbly jumping from branch to branch as she headed to check on a fellow hunter. She landed on a large branch, outside of a rocky clearing and surveyed the scene in front of her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
In the clearing at the top of a hill, being attacked by several, ten foot tall giant lizards dubbed pseudo-raptors was a strange looking human. He was bare-chested, had a broad yet slim build and he wore armored gloves on his hands. He also was wearing dark green camouflage pants, armored boots, and greaves, reminiscent of the human colonial marines. He was fighting the pseudo-raptors with such a ferocity that she was suddenly very glad that she wasn't anywhere among them. But instead of wielding marine weaponry such as their trademark pulse rifle, which is what would be expected, the human male wielded two ornate broad headed axes in each hand, and had a double handed battle axe in a marine combat harness strapped on his battle scared yet muscular back. What was perhaps the oddest and striking feature about this human was that he had long, fiery orange-red hair that would've gone past his waist if it wasn't stuck out in alarming angles making him resemble some sort of demented spiked animal. Then, there were the faint blue markings on his body and face that looked like war paint that had faded over time.
There were eight dead pseudo-raptors strewn about the place that had been hacked, slashed, and cleaved apart. One had even been impaled onto a jagged spire of rock. Ja'anya scanned the area for anyone else but she couldn't see any signs of another individual.
The human dodged a swipe from a pseudo-raptor's razor sharp claws before lunging back and with one swipe from both axes took half its head off in a massive spray of blood and cranial matter, much of which, landed in the human's face. The reptile's still twitching body went cascading down the side of the hill to smash against the rocks below.
Ja'anya looked on impressed with what she was witnessing. She had heard stories from experienced hunters of the colonial marines, but she had never heard of one who would take on foes with nothing more than simple melee weapons. Though the way this human wielded them in each hand suggested that he had been trained extensively.
The human charged at one pseudo-raptor, roaring loudly. The raptor tried to grab him in its maw but the human slid right under its grasp, slashing his axes into its belly. Its guts rolled out in a fleshy tsunami as it keeled over and died while the human slid out from beneath. The human casually twirled his axes before grinning as he deliberately chose his next target.
'This ooman has skill.' Ja'anya thought in silent admiration.
The human jumped on the back of one pseudo-raptor, driving the axes deep into its back. The beast shook him off and he fell onto the ground hard dropping both of the hand axes in the process. He rolled back up instantly and drew the axe on his back. The pseudo-raptor behind him bit into his left shoulder hard, making him lose control of his arm and the limb fell limp and useless. He casually swung the axe dead center into its skull, crushing the bone and penetrating the brain. It let go of his shoulder and fell limply to the ground. Blood poured out of the wounded shoulder but the human showed no sign of pain. In fact, it only seemed to make him angrier.
The human charged at the last pseudo-raptor and drove the axe into its side. It bucked, roaring and lashed out at the human with its tail hitting him hard and fast in the chest. Bones broke as his ribcage cracked and he was flung several meters in the air before falling into the hard rocks and landing in a heap, Ja'anya looked on shocked as the human struggled to get to his feet. He stood up shaking and coughing, with blood spurting out of his mouth and several puncture wounds on his body with sharp stones lodged in them. One jagged piece of rock was sticking out of his chest and he merely ripped it out, blood gushing from the wound, and threw it back into the rocks. The raptor charged at him with the axe still lodged in its body.
'What is this ooman doing?' She wondered in disbelief. 'Why isn't he getting out of its way?'
It was as if this human had a death wish. The human was moving slowly towards the raging pseudo-raptor. The pseudo-raptor roared and charged to bite him in its jaws. The human, with flawless precision, rolled to the right, leaving bloody smears on the grass and rocks and pulled his large axe out of the animal, trailing blood in the air. He jumped and brought the axe down on its spine. Its legs gave out and it crashed headfirst to the ground. The human then limped up to the paralyzed predator and brought the axe down hard on its head, ending its suffering.
He just stood there for a moment, panting heavily and bleeding out before throwing his head back, his fiery hair whip lashing his back and letting out a long frustrated roar. With that the human fell backwards hard onto the ground, his body bouncing on impact as what ever strength that had keeping him up had finally given out.
"How in the black warrior's skill?" She whispered to herself, shocked at what she had seen. "It would take twenty, no fifty, oomans to take on that many in close combat"
She jumped down, invisible in her cloaking field and ran over to the fallen human, her glaive poised just in case while she stood over the human. From the looks of him, he was about the same height as she was. His breathing was shallow, which told her that his lungs were punctured. Deep crimson blood was seeping from his wounds and pooling around him. Then the human looked up at her and he gave a sort of strange smile. Ja'anya then saw a striking feature. This human's irises were a deep red, the same color as the slowly spreading blood that pooled around him.
"Yautja…finally." He said softly but with a distinct tone of hostility in his voice.
As the human struggled to get his axe, Ja'anya stepped on his hand with her foot. He then struggled with what little life was in his body, but Ja'anya held her foot firmly down. He looked at her with deep red eyes, like he was daring her to strike as he continued to struggle.
"Do it, finish what you started." He said in a snarl. "You and your lackeys are fucking murderous cowards anyway."
She stared at him in puzzlement. 'Did he really want to die?'
Then, there was that insult which had definitely struck a nerve.
She raised a fist and with one punch in the center of his forehead, she knocked him out cold. She got off his hand and crouched by him while she examined his wounds. She was surprised that he was able to move with those injuries. Either this human was a madman or just stubborn enough not to let such wounds stop him and she quickly made up her mind.
She decided take him back to her ship and tend to his wounds. Then she'd get the answers she wanted one way or another.
She pulled out her medical kit and she very carefully tried to stem his bleeding. She knew that she would be able to fully help him back at her ship, but she had to make sure he lived long enough to get there first. Pulling out a plasma cauterizing pad, she deftly and quickly sealed those wounds she could reach. His punctured lung would have to hold on in the meantime. Picking him up and slinging him over her shoulders, not something that was hard to do with humans. She walked over and retrieved his axes from the pseudo-raptor's carcass. They were surprisingly light, almost too light for them to be of human make. She noticed that the back of each hand axe's head was an arrow headed spike, mostly likely armor piercing for tougher kills. Holding one to her hand, she lightly pressed her palm on it to check the sharpness of the edge but immediately withdrew her hand in pain. She looked at her hand and saw a deep cut in her palm and her blood was seeping out and running down her wrist pooling around her wrist computer.
'This isn't normal!' She thought. 'How does an ooman know how to make monomolecular blades?'
Now she was more intrigued by this human. She began running through the dense woods back to her ship. She nimbly jumped over logs and ditches, all the while with the unconscious human on her shoulder. Her ship was nearby, about a twenty minute run from her current position, cloaked to keep it from being seen. It was a small scouting ship for traveling hunters, something that suited her perfectly. She activated the entry ramp, which came down quietly and she immediately entered carrying her unconscious guest before retracting the ramp up.
She carried the unconscious human through the hallway to her bedroom and dumped him on the bed where he bounced up on to his side. She laid him on his back before taking off her weapons. She went over to an ornate cabinet made of black wood and pulled out a surgical kit. Firstly, she bandaged her cut hand before setting to work. She walked back to her patient, pulled an injector pistol from her kit and loaded it with a vial of clear fluid. She jabbed it into his neck and injected it before withdrawing. The human didn't react to it as she hoped. Using her mask's multiple vision modes she began the process of healing his fractured body. The fluid she injected helped to pinpoint areas of internal bleeding which showed up bright among the dark view of her mask's interface. She saw that, strangely, his internal organs were not as damaged as she had feared. The most serious internal injury was his right lung that took the impalement. While switching back to normal vision, she suddenly noticed something glitter on his chest, obstructed by the combat harness. She leaned over to see what it was, her long dreadlocks draping over the man's chest.
She picked up a pair of dog tags; the name on it said 'L.T. Alaric...'
The rest was unreadable with a lot of scrapes and dents from however many battles this man had been in. This confirmed her suspicion that he was indeed a marine. She flipped them over to see the other side and she saw an emblem of a winged sword.
She also saw what looked like a locket. It was rectangular in shape, and embossed on the front was what appeared to be a rune of some sort, the same type as the ones on the axes. She tapped on it with her talons, it flipped open, the front of it flipped downwards and revealed a small picture, and she quickly zoomed in on it. It showed this man but he looked a lot different. He was dressed in a camo Marine Corps uniform and with black hair instead of orange that had been tied into a long ponytail resting on his right shoulder. He had a brown haired woman in the same kind of uniform with a child sitting on her lap. The man had a happy smile on his face and was resting that double handed axe on his chest.
His family?
She looked at the man, noting the changes between him and the picture before laying the tags back on him. She would know the answer to that soon enough as she diligently worked on him.