Chapter Text
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Armored men shouted into the night. Gunfire peppered behind their calls. Then, silence.
A shrill scream cut like a blade through the momentary pause in action ending with a gurgle of blood. The body fell into two pieces on the steel deck.
However, the assassin made no sound. The creature, larger than a man by feet, moved not only silently but with alien efficiency. His long, muscled legs glided below him. His rippling arms pumped his sprint faster. He wore a steel mask with a slanted visor for sight and a tunnel for a mouth. His armor covered the minimum of what could be considered vital, his torso. He could almost be human, but his skin was a dark mottled green. In places, he had scales that were sharp ridges instead of overlapping smoothness. His forehead was too broad as well and from it sprung long dark tendrils of flesh. He was not human at all, but yautja. A predator to some, a hunter to others, but deadly to all who attempted to stop his escape.
Radr’Avin sprinted along the metal catwalks of the military installation’s rooftop, slicing at the guards that attempted to stand in his way with twin blades extending from his gauntlets.
The majority of the base was open land. A barrier not built with walls but a good mile of flat space. In the center, small buildings were interconnected with roof access for more effective line-of-sight and patrols. The majority of the complex was underground, so the surface needed very little physical overhead other than bays for deliveries, a few barracks for staff, and any other small addition to make this installation look like a normal military base.
Radr had made it to the roof after gutting anyone he found in the lab below. There he had acquired his partial equipment, a mask, and with it, the location of his remaining equipment. But more importantly, the location of the data he had stolen. This information alone would prove to the yautja council that bad bloods were attempting to blot out the natural yautja race with their own altered, chimera one.
These giant yautja were incredibly dangerous. They were altered on a genetic level using DNA from any species they found worthy. The results were… abominations, but… effectively impossible to defend against.
Radr’Avin would have been one of them if he hadn’t escaped.
The fugitive, on the run from these cultural traitors and now these dull primitives, sprung a gap between two buildings, leaving the trailing human guards behind on a rooftop several meters away. He landed skillfully on his toned legs. The soldiers would find another way around. Their determination to capture him was commendable but ultimately laughable. Their weapons barely affected him other than some small puncture wounds on his scaly hide, highlighted in neon green blood. They would quickly heal without medical attention or scarring.
If he had his throwing disks, the pursuers would all be beheaded before they knew what hit them, but instead, they spent a second in shock before firing again. Radr dashed away.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Another set of footsteps vibrated nearby. He barely acknowledged the woman after him, but he knew. From his periphery, he could see the glint in her fiery eyes. Her dark hair whipped in the wind. She was still several meters away, but she was determined. As if a tranquilizer dart would do anything to him even if the small needle managed to penetrate his tough skin. He chortled to himself. A human hunting him? How intriguing.
At the edge of the roof, he paused to access the distance he’d need to cross before the forest line. It would take him several minutes to cross the open field even at top speed. Thankfully within moments, a bus’s wheels squealed below him. It was a simple gray block of a vehicle, pitted with rust. The windows were shuttered with steel bars, but Radr wasn’t sure if that was to keep people out or people trapped within.
The fugitive dropped down from the roof onto the vehicle as it passed. The ceiling punched in with his weight but held. Immediately, the lone bus swerved. His descent onto the vehicle was far from stealth. He leaped away to roll on the ground as the bus U-turned toward him. He was on his feet again in seconds, a tranquilizer dart lodged itself in the ground.
Despite her frail form, Casey threw herself onto the bus. On shaky legs, she managed to keep her balance. The bus drove abreast of him now, keeping pace with his running speed. Radr casually glanced into the windows of his new pursuer and caught eyes with a fresh heated gaze. This was obviously a small planet! The glare belonged to the soldier from back in the woods when Radr first arrived. He recognized his ugly blue eyes and blond scruff of hair. That fool was the one that took his equipment! Radr growled to himself, a deep chest rumble.
Something above him broke the sound barrier, and even with the protection of his mask, his ear holes rung miserably. Radr glanced up to see a yautja ship busting through the stratosphere towards the base. He clicked in staccato. This was very bad. The chimera was here. Now!
Behind the ship, two jets shot forward in pursuit. The chimera’s ship fizzled back into invisibility as the chasing planes launched twin missiles. One struck the unseen craft. The explosion expanded out mid-air like a bubble underwater. The flames drifted past the horizon, leaving a smoking trail. Despite the successful hit, the jets continued firing. Debris showered the ground further into the compound, while a mile into the surrounding forest became lit with blazing explosions.
Radr stopped dead, and the bus careened past him. Yautja were averse to running away. They were a proud species, so his stomach churned with disgust when, seeing the ship descend on the planet, he spun in the opposite direction. If he didn’t make it off Earth with the stolen records and brought it to assessment in front of the yautja council, his entire race would be at risk. His survival was too important for personal honor.
The fugitive heard the bus groan as it banked into a turn to follow him, but abruptly, the wheels screeched into a break. He whipped his head back in time to witness Casey tumble off the bus and the infuriating soldier that took everything of value from him launched from the folding doors. The human male fired a few rounds. Radr dodged into cover behind a building’s corner.
His way forward was clear, but he was paralyzed in place. Concern bubbled within him for the human woman that had fallen from the bus. He struggled to clamp this odd emotion away, but without control over his own body, he looked back.
From another vehicle, a dark humvee, men were moving in on Casey's unconscious form, and their intentions were hostile. The annoying soldier was gone, running with his crew back towards a hangar. He was a coward!
Radr clicked miserably to himself. She was bonded to him now after drinking his blood in the lab. With a growl, he launched himself into a full sprint toward the encroaching men.
His arm blade slipped out of his gauntlet as he struck the first man. The pointed edge punched through the soldier’s helmet and cranium with only a minor squirt of blood. He sunk to the ground just as the other attacker began to pepper Radr with gunfire. Neon green puncture wounds speckled Radr’s hide but he spun around as fluid as a dancer and beheaded the man. His head spiraled on the ground.
Casey woozily stirred from her prone position but didn’t wake. A tranquilizer dart flagged in her foot.
Radr’Avin crouched over her. She unfortunately would require some training. It was unacceptable for a possible mate to accidentally shoot herself. As he lifted her over his shoulder, a squadron of motorcycles barreled past him, skidding on the baked soil. They came about and circled him for a threatening second before stopping. Dust whipped around them in clouds.
“Hold your fire!” the familiar soldier squawked to his fellow humans, “he has a girl!”
“You don’t think he’s the probing kind of alien do you?” a dark-skinned soldier queried while wearing a disturbed sneer.
“Shit! Fuck! He is, isn’t he!” a graying male twitched aggressively.
“Hold onto your assholes, ladies...” The annoying soldier frowned and hefted the rifle at Radr. “You. Alien. Put the girl down.”
Radr clicked testily at the band of men. Currently, he was surrounded, and the group could easily catch up to him on their cycles even if he was running at his full sprint. However, handing Casey over to them was not an option. As if he would respond to these lesser beings' requests.
“You remember me, don’t you?” the man continued, “I hope so. I remember you. Can’t forget. I owe you for what you did to my men, Dupree and… Ahhh—!”
Radr flashed toward him and sucker-punched him to the gut before he could finish his sentence. The human’s breath wheezed out of him like a punctured balloon. He folded over Radr's fist. This human knew where his equipment was. He knew the terrain or even possible traps that defended it. Radr was sure he would need this man’s knowledge to accomplish his ultimate goal. He was an ideal target to take with him.
A bullet pinged off his helmet. The heated eyes of the darker man burned into Radr’s.
The group collectively tightened their muscles. Radr was sure they were moments from firing in earnest, but they held off, likely due to his two sudden hostages. He hefted the unconscious soldier onto his other shoulder and threw a leg over the bike seat. It was a rudimentary machine, but not dissimilar from other more advanced equipment he’d used before. Radr gunned the bike’s engine. The back wheel spun in the dirt, kicking gravel painfully at the gaping humans, before speeding off.
Immediately, he heard the motorcycles' fire behind him. Radr rolled his eyes. He had so many pesky emotions now, chief among them annoyance. Humans were testing him in a variety of bizarre ways. If it was to be a race to their common destination, that was fine with the fugitive. He would find his missing equipment and the valuable data and find a way off this planet. The humans pursuing him would either learn to keep their distance or suffer at his hands. It didn’t matter which they picked.