I don't make any money from Aliens/Predator - I don't own anything except my Ooman's. Elder Thwei'dok'de with action and the last team member, number seven, Young Blood Gwan'Thwei gathering up clues and on his own wild adventure. Thank you so much to my reviewers! xx

"So like, who were you on the phone with?" Hannah asked curiously as they strolled hand in hand again through the third security door. The first one they finally ran up against was tricky and took her longer than she thought to figure out. Meg had given her the run down on manual override procedures and it seemed easy enough to remember at the time but like all things, doing it was always harder.

Of course if she was honest with herself she simply hadn't wanted to look stupid in front of Thai. That wasn't his name, she knew that, but pronouncing what it really was seemed impossible no matter how she worked her mouth and twisted her tongue. So to Hannah, the large older male beside her was 'Thai' whether he liked it or not.

The second and third doors were easier to crack and in less time, so Hannah felt fairly confident that by the time they reached the fifth and final door she could have it open in seconds. Even though she kept darting quick glances at Thai it was hard to tell whether or not he was impressed with her skill. She really hoped so but he didn't give any clues aside from purring at her whenever she got frustrated and flustered. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it, she did, but Hannah couldn't help hoping and wishing for more.

Thai seemed distracted though, making noises that sounded cool but not like any language she was familiar with in her studies. A couple times when her curiosity had gotten the better of her she'd voiced questions yet instead of answering her directly, she got more purrs or noises like rumbles, grumbles, and such. Maybe it wasn't polite to ask a Yautja if he was married or single or if he liked music, had brothers and sisters or any kids. The questions seemed okay enough to Hannah but then again, she couldn't imagine any of her part time teachers appreciating the third degree either.

Just thinking about questioning her betters on personal matters made her feel uneasy and squeamish. A Yautja definitely classified as a 'better' in her scientifically minded hierarchy. He hadn't answered her latest question yet which only fueled her nervousness and excitement as she unknowingly picked up the pace in their stroll to the fourth door. Thai matched her without missing a beat but he wouldn't look at her, so Hannah tugged on his hand until he looked down.

"Were you on the phone before?"

Thwei'dok'de trilled curiously while watching the pup, wondering at her words. 'Phone' didn't produce a vocabulary definition in his database, instead showing that the entry had been deleted because of obscurity some cycles before. Why did the pup use a word that was clearly out of date for her species?

Hannah slowed to a stop, finally realizing that he hadn't understood and the Elder stopped with her with his large head tilted to the side. For a moment she simply watched him as he hadn't reengaged his cloaking device and struggled to find a way to communicate.

"Um, phone… you know like, talking?" Hannah hedged, making a talking mouth like motion with her free hand.

The Elder glanced at her gesture and trilled again.

Sighing, Hannah tried to think fast and tugged away from him so she had both hands free. Holding up her left one, she kept making the chatty motion and said, "You", then holding up the right one and mimicking the motion said, "Someone else, not me."

Finally, Thwei'dok'de understood and rumbled, nodding his head slowly to confirm the pups meaning was correct. He'd been trying to reach his fellow team members, mostly successful yet half were still out of reach for various reasons. He didn't feel nervous about the lack of contact, merely all the more curious given their surroundings.

Ker'ak'de was still off line after his initial emergency call, but Med'ka and Bak'ub seemed to be holding their own. If luck held, the Elder would be in reach of Ker'ak'de before long thanks to his little Ooman tag a long.

While Thwei'dok'de didn't have a problem using his shoulder cannon on the security doors, it would undoubtedly put any pups who were housed in between them in jeopardy. The little Ooman however had a knack for opening them and allowing them to close and lock behind them as they passed, which was a much safer and logical option.

Hannah kept making the talking motions with both hands, watching Thai expectantly even after his nod. Finally he understood yet he wouldn't spill the beans. Feeling a pang of disappointment, she just sighed and gave a faint smile before giving up. If he didn't want to talk about it then so be it but at least she had been able to figure out that he hadn't come to their complex alone, there were others with him.

She'd just taken a step towards the fourth door when Thwei'dok'de reached out and gripped her small shoulder. Hannah paused and half turned, looking up at him curiously.

"Sei-i, ye-es," he rumbled. "Uh-thers, he-er."

Hannah brightened immediately, grinning wide as she watched the large male. He'd answered her! Giggling in spite of herself, wanting to seem grown and mature, she couldn't help it as she bounced up and down on her feet and took a couple steps closer.

"That's awesome Thai! How many are with you?"

"Ss-ex," the Elder rumbled, amused by the pups antics.

Right before his eyes, the pups own widened impossibly as her face slackened as she looked immediately uncomfortable, gnawing her fleshy lower lip between her teeth and shaking her head. "No, um… I think you mean, 'six'. Ss-ii-hx. Not ss-ex."

Thwei'dok'de trilled and tilted his head in the other direction, unable to make sense of the pups pronunciation. That was what he'd said, yes? Or so he thought. There was a difference?

Hannah started to blush before she could stop herself, the heat, and color spreading up her neck and into her face as she cut her gaze down to the floor where her feet scraped against the grating. "Sex is… it's… it's not a number. It's an action. It means to mate."

The Elder snorted loudly and jerked back as if struck, puffing, and tensing his body to physically try and dispute his mispronunciation.

"Six," Hannah mumbled. "You meant six. Including you, seven. Right?"

Nodding strongly, his rank rings chimed together as he growled. He knew his grasp on the human language was severely limited in being able to actually speak it without the enhancements of his mask but he never dreamed that he could butcher a word so badly that it would come across in terms of mating. It wasn't a secret that the Yautja held relaxed views on the mating act or that they taught their own pups about such things when they were much younger than Ooman standards permitted, but his awkwardness had unsettled his pup.

"That's… that's good. We need all the help we can get, honestly."

Thwei'dok'de rumbled again and held up both large hands, waving his thick fingers as he spoke. "Kainde Amedha?"

Hannah creased her brow and thought for a moment, taking in his actions and the alien tongue he spoke.

"How many… aliens?"

"Sei-i," the Elder nodded.

"Gosh, um. Meg wasn't too specific on the details so I don't really know? I can tell you what I do know, though."

The Elder nodded again, watching as the pup nervously tucked more of her fur behind her shell like ears and cast wary glances at the set of doors just ahead. So she was aware of the dangers, after all. Thwei'dok'de had wondered at her bold behavior. Ooman's were classed as reckless creatures, unpredictable, clever, and tricky yet often stupid. This pup was aware and the topic made her uncomfortable, and allowed her veneer of bravado and enthusiasm to slip.

Gripping hold of the pups shoulder again, he slowly drew her small form forward as he sank down onto one knee before her.

"Huh-oo es M-eg?"

"Meg is our leader," Hannah said softly before turning her head and pointing up at a camera in the shallow corner of the corridor they were in.

The Elder followed her direction, noticing the camera as he cycled through a few filters in his mask to clearly see. It appeared to be a round dome covering a mechanical device, a slow blinking light at the bottom indicating that it was active.

"I haven't met her," Hannah wavered. "Only the graduates actually get to see her face to face, I think. At least, we assume that. But she directs a lot of our classes. The first half of each class, our teacher directs us. Another human. Then they leave and Meg comes over the speaker and takes up where the human teacher left off."

Thwei'dok'de nodded slowly, processing the pup's words as he squeezed her shoulder supportively. They didn't have anything similar in his culture so he was at a loss, which was highly unusual for an Elder of his years. On Clanships and on Prime, all classes were overseen and directed by another Yautja face to face and long before that, a pup's Bearer had begun paving the way. To think that classes for these Ooman pups were split between reality and a loud speaker or other technology didn't seem fully comprehensive.

"Thai?" Hannah said softly, watching him.

The Elder rumbled but otherwise was still lost in thought as he continued to study the pup of contradictions before him. Was that why she was torn inside? Why she was smart, resourceful, brave and cunning yet also insecure? The more he mulled it over, the more it made sense, and the less he liked this mysterious 'Meg'.

"There's a lot of aliens," Hannah whispered. "But they're different."

Immediately, Thwei'dok'de was on alert with a low growl and another tilt of his head. His fingers tightened on Hannah and he drew her in even closer, bracketing her small body between his legs.

Hannah took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling her skin prickle with another coming sheen of sweat. The temperature in the complex was rising and before long she'd have to roll up her blouse sleeves and fan the front of her collar. That was as good a starting point as any, she figured.

"They like heat," she began uncertainly. "Like, a lot of it. And they… they take a long time to… to germinate. We study them in class and know a lot about them. They split us up."

Thwei'dok'de simply nodded but Hannah frowned and shook her head, trying to order her thoughts better. "No, not the aliens. But like, our teachers and stuff? They split us up. Some of us study the aliens while others study… you."

Him? They study Yautja? Tilting his head to the other side, it made a bit of sense. The lack of fear from the pups when around one of them, or at least those he'd spoken to thus far, including himself. But how? Who could be educating them to such a degree, and more importantly… why?

"Anyway, these aliens aren't like the ones we've studied. They're smarter somehow. Instead of directly attacking they hang back and kinda like, I dunno, form their own plan or something but really quickly. So if we shut them down they go to plan B without breaking a sweat."

The Elder cut his gaze away from the pup and suddenly around the empty corridor. His scans touched on every single vent, every single access point doorway and even the semi-secure ceiling tiles overhead before dropping down to look through the grated floor.

Hannah eventually looked down with him, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Under the grate, between it and the ceiling of the level below us is an access tunnel for workmen and stuff. That's how they seem to get around. Cause like," breaking off, Hannah pulled away from him to step to his right, behind him as he twisted to follow her.

"This vent here," Hannah said, rubbing a palm over the filter like screen. "Is accessed right beneath it, under the grating. And then if you follow it along the corridor behind us, it runs into a panel that leads into the elevator shafts. I strung up a series of trip wires and sensors in each of them with some help but so have other levels and so far nothing has gone off, well a few of them. I can hear them trip sometimes below or above us but nothing on this level. I think… I think they're learning and picking their way around them."

Impossible. The Elder snorted incredulously as he finally stood and stalked to the large three foot by three foot vent that the Ooman was pointing out. Hard meats were smart, but they weren't that smart. Not unless the Queen was. Stiffening, he growled and cycled through a few filters in his mask to map the tunnel system in the walls and below the grating. His sensor filters for scent registered high. Hard meats had definitely been tracking through but it would be a tight fit for them. Nothing they couldn't manage but doing so quietly was another matter. They weighed a considerable amount. They were boney from their exoskeleton, stealth, and silence wasn't always their forte.

"There's something else you need to see," Hannah said as she walked away from the vent to approach the fourth set of security doors. Each of the five check points had small rectangular windows set into each door that met in the middle with a triple lock. "Behind here are a series of classrooms for biology, anatomy, and dissection. Usually we get sent dead aliens but sometimes live ones too to watch and observe but since we got over run, before it became too much, we managed to snag one of the… the new ones."

Hannah popped the access panel below the control grid and set about rewiring and reprogramming. Her hands were shaking but she ignored that. She had Thai with her now. Thai would never let anything happen to her. In a mantra, she told herself that over and over again until her heart rate slowed and she breathed a little easier. She had classmates hidden in this section between doors four and five in the various classrooms just in case. It was another one of their science halls with extra security features.

"I should have this open really soon," she said. "I'm getting faster at it the more I do it. Okay Thai?" When Hannah didn't hear an answer, she looked back over her shoulder and froze like a deer in headlights.

At the opposite end of the corridor, at security door three stood two fully grown adult aliens. They were at least a football field or more away but their shadowy, oil slick like bodies were unmistakable as they hissed and lifted their banana shaped heads in the air to smell and survey. Hannah started to tremble and her breath came faster as she jerked her eyes around to try and figure out where they came from. The ceiling panels were laying haphazard on the grating. They'd come from above, so quietly that she never would've known. As if to make matters worse, two more crawled cautiously out of the dark holes in the ceiling, staying above ground and upside down as they posed above their upright friends.

"T-Thai?" Hannah called shakily, unable to tear her gaze away from the fearsome foursome at the other end of the hall who had yet to really move, to charge or advance. To Hannah's mind they were planning, talking, trying to device a way to victory.

Thwei'dok'de currently stood between Hannah and the aliens, right in the middle of the hall with a solid yet relaxed posture. Legs planted, knees slightly bent and his arms held out a bit from his sides as he breathed evenly and stared down their enemies. Hannah watched his plated back, envying his sense of calm when her own composure kept threatening to unravel into a panic. There was no where to go.

"Ooh god," Hannah whimpered, turning quickly back to the access panel but in doing so her gaze whipped over the viewing windows in the doors and she froze for a second time, unable to believe what she'd seen. Her heart was in her throat, she swallowed tightly and jerkily turned back, staring right at four more alien faces through five inches of compression glass as their fogging breath condensed and obscured their shiny teeth and twitchy inner mouths.

"Oh-pen duh-oor." Thwei'dok'de said. Hannah slicked her dry lips and blinked a couple times, dropping her gaze from the windows.

"I c-can't, Thai."

"Sei-i, can."

"N-no, I c-can't. There's four more on the other side."

Growling loud, Thwei'dok'de swung his massive head around to scan the windows. Catching sight of the four additional aliens awaiting them on the other side, he rumbled and snorted as he faced forwards again. He no sooner did than the four behind the glass erupted in shrieks, striking out at the thick glass with their inner mouths repeatedly. Hannah screamed and stumbled back into the corner near the access panel, her head swiveling so fast it was painful between them and those down the hall.

The four at the end finally started to stalk forward, two on the ground, the other two on the ceiling and to add insult to injury it made way for two more aliens to emerge. It reminded Hannah of a bee hive that had been stirred up despite only having one real opening to escape.

"T-Thai…" Hannah whispered, darting her gaze down to the floor despite the repeated shrieks and bangs coming from the assault on the windows. Shadows slinked below her feet, through the grating. Lumbering yet slithering. She didn't dare move as her lungs burned and her skin tingled with adrenaline. God they were coming. They were flooding this corridor but why? Why now?

"T-Thai…"

"Hole-d duh-oor."

"O...okay but watch your feet," Hannah whispered shakily, tracking the inky shadows as they moved in various directions. "They're under the floor too. They're coming, Thai. They're coming."

Thwei'dok'de shook out his dreads and continued to watch the aliens down the hall. His feet never moved yet he wasn't blind to the shifting heat signatures underfoot either. His Ooman pup was right, they were coming. It was a mystery why they'd waited this long but they had.

"Th-three more… behind the door." Hannah choked, catching sight of a slight power play through the glass as three more aliens rose up through the grating to charge the doors, shoving their counterparts aside to make room as the barrage on the windows continued in between snarled screams and snaps at each others necks.

The Elder rumbled low in his throat, hearing the Ooman's words as if reported updates rather than incoherent panicked nonsense. He didn't doubt that Hannah was close but thus far she'd maintained some control of herself. Praying briefly to Paya that she could hold out, he violently flexed his forearm to fully extend his blades. No sooner had they locked in position, than he'd taken his first charging steps forward.

Hannah watched him go with a sense of mounting panic. The swarm under foot slowly followed him yet they didn't try to pull the grating out from under him or to cut him off. They stayed a couple feet behind him and something in Hannah's gut warned her that she'd soon be cut off. If they finally did break through the floor she would be completely alone, between the doors and a wall of them. Trapped.

Twisting suddenly, she jumped up to smash an emergency covered button just above the panel to set off the red lights and sirens. Glass cut into her palm but she barely spared a wince before tucking herself back into the corner, eyes tracking everywhere.

The shadows under the floor finally made noise, shrieking as they jerked upright, banging their backs and heads against the welded grate panels. Deep metallic thrums chased through the corridor, vibrating her back as she watched in horror.

"Thai!" Hannah screamed, high pitched as the grating finally gave way and a small mountain range of aliens stood up, and scuttled free.

The Elder was more than ready. His blood pounded with the finally arrived Hunt. His senses were alert and adrenaline high as he roared a battle cry and suddenly spun to confront the wall of aliens behind him. His blades slashed so fast that the metal whistled loudly as it cut through the air, slamming into the hard meat drones, throwing them, shredding them as he kept in constant motion while they surrounded him.

Hannah had never seen anything like it. Thai cut through the aliens like a knife through butter, every strike on point, every movement sharp, blindingly fast, and completely lethal. Acidic blood sprayed through the air, igniting on everything it touched as the corridor started to sizzle, smoke filled the air with a corrosive metal tang.

A couple arcs of acid flew her way, causing Hannah to scream again and dodge as best she could, floundering against the doors as the assault on the windows grew into a frenzy until one of the casements finally broke free, making her drop to the ground to avoid heads with inner mouths and desperately reaching fore arms.

A hard, bone jarring thud from in front of her barely registered as she dared to peek through her elbows, both arms covering her head as an alien carcass scraped, skidded and rocked to a stop just feet from her. The moment it was motionless, its acidic blood draining freely started to eat into the floor panels with more sizzling and melting metal, the body slowly sinking through it until it dropped, catching on the ragged sharp edges before finally disappearing from sight.

The bodies continued to fly in all directions as Thwei'dok'de stayed in motion, never daring to pause as more and more aliens crawled up from the floor and down through the ceiling. This was clearly a well planned ambush as all of them were drones. These were the fodder for him to slaughter, and had been sent by an intelligent Queen. He roared again, catching one of them by a hind leg to spin them around and turn loose, knocking down its friends and freeing up more room for the Elder to move.

Hannah stayed cowering down in a crouched position under the windows until an ominous shadow whipped about over her head. Sucking in a shaky breath she hesitantly looked up. An alien tail had been forced through the broken casement as it thrashed around, hoping to hit something and kill it. Every bladed swipe against the door caused an orange spark like a strike plate, making her jump and scuttle away.

The window appeared to be too narrow for a full body to fit through but they were trying their best, obviously knowing that she was there. She was sweating like crazy, her armpits soaked along with the spaces between her shoulder blades, inner thighs, and her dripping face as she tried to force herself to think. Her back pack. Sucking in a breath, she knelt down and quickly ripped the pack off her back and set it down onto the ground as she tore through it.

Bombs, she had bombs in there. Attention constantly shifting, she struggled to pull out two plastic tubes of powder along with two metal plumbing pipes, chunks of quick drying clay, two ripped pieces of fabric and two Pyrex stoppered beakers full of clear chemicals.

Her hands were shaking so badly that a couple of the items wanted to roll away, making her dart out to grab them with white knuckles. She needed to get a grip before she blew herself up, but it was so hard. Pulling in air through flared nostrils, she darted her gaze over the alien body to Thai. He was still shredding and massacring his way through the fold. For every three he took out, four more seemed to appear. It was impossible not to worry about him, no matter how ethereal and godlike capable he seemed.

Hell, he didn't even seem to be breathing hard, not that he'd ever paused long enough for Hannah to see. She had to focus. Tearing her gaze away and crouching as low as possible to avoid the whipping tail overhead, she fought with stoppers, with accurate shaking measurements, with sealants and cloth and spills.

She'd just finished screwing the cap on the second chemical bomb when a hellish blast sounded from the other side of the door. The force was enough to dent the metal outwards a bit, towards her, as she dropped down onto her forearms to cover her head and shield her own vulnerable explosives. The aliens screamed bloody murder as more hissing was heard, acidic blood burning in between the deafening wails of the emergency sirens.

The classmates she'd holed up in that corridor were still alive and fighting, after having enough time to build up and defend themselves. A weight felt lifted from her shoulders as she struggled to breathe, burning debris having blown through the one casement to float down around her as the other simply exploded outwards in a shower of chunked glass.

Two more rapid explosions followed, rocking the hall beyond the doors and blowing the seams as corrosive, acidic smoke billowed out towards her, stinging her eyes and irritating her skin.

Her classmates had things handled on the other side, thank god, so she turned her fast breathing attention to the hall to her right where Thai was still fighting. He didn't even seem tired as they kept coming, yet their masses were building up and before long she wouldn't be able to see him anymore. Her bombs would be used here.

Grabbing up her things in both arms, she knee walked them in front of and against the dead alien like a barrier and none too soon as more bodies flew through the air, some screaming, some lifeless and dead as they thumped down and jostled her on the grate.

The bombs were made, secure and lethal, yet she still took care with horribly shaking hands as she fished in her pack for a lighter. Pulling it out, she flipped the top and rolled the flint a few times until it caught, then set it against the fabric strip poked out of each cap. Once it was on fire, she counted to fifteen in her head before throwing the first one in the air then rolling the second like a bowling ball under the grated floor through a pried up panel.

Hannah ducked down, leaning her side against the under carriage of the alien as she kept counting in her head. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three – the first bomb exploded, the concussion blast so forceful that she had to lean her weight against the carcass before the other one blew, grating panels launched to the ceiling, knocking out lights and sending aliens scurrying.

Acid started to rain down, catching on her left arm, the outside of her left leg and even on the left side of her face as she screamed and writhed. The pain was out of this world, burning so deep it felt like her entire body was on fire. Frantic, she scrambled inside her pack to pull out another powdery tube and crack it open. Baby power like consistency floated out into her palms as she immediately slapped and smoothed the chemical over her. It did neutralize the acid but she knew the damage was already done.

The burning slowly faded, leaving behind only a deep tissue throbbing of traumatized nerves as she struggled to breathe and hug herself. The air was cloudy with chemicals and debris, some parts on fire, others just smoldering as they hovered in the air before slowly floating down.

"T-Thai?" she called out, coughing soon after. "Thai!"

A deep rumble came from the thick of things, where most of the fog of her bomb still hung in the air. The grayish shadows shifted, swirling and slowly materialized into Thai's hulking form as he strode towards her. Hannah breathed a sigh of relief.

"He-er," he grated, flexing his forearm to react his twin blades with a snick and slide of rough metal. "Ooman, bauhm."

"Bombs," Hannah rasped, sitting up on her trembling knees. "Two." She said, holding up a pair of fingers.

"Bauhms. Guhd." Thai sounded pleased, and it sent a shiver of accomplishment through Hannah as she slowly got to her feet after stuffing things back in her pack and throwing it on.

"Are you alright?"

"Sei-i," Thwei'dok'de said, shaking out his dreads as he stalked around the dead alien that had acted as a shield for the small Ooman. "pee-se auf kaykuh."

"Piece of cake?"

"Sei-i."

Hannah wavered slightly on her feet. She had injuries, throbbing pain, and was feeling overheated, but she still managed to crack a smile and shake her head at the Yaut. "This way."

"Kainde Amedha?"

"Dead, beyond the door. My classmates took care of them."

"Guhd!" Thwei'dok'de said to her.

Thwei'dok'de looked down at the Ooman pup standing in front of him. He could see that she would be considered young even by other Ooman's. That youth was strangely countered by the knowledge of how to bypass the Ooman locking mechanisms, and even how to make some very effective explosives. Why would a pup have been taught such things? Why would all the pups encountered so far, have been extensively taught about the Yautja?

There were quite a few questions that needed to be answered, and this pup, Huh-awn-uh, was willing to answer as many as she could. Those answers would help, but he needed to know a lot more about what was going on here than this pup was likely to know. Information was something he desperately needed right now, but that would have to wait until the pups were safe.

Thwei'dok'de watched in silent approval as the pup resumed the process of opening the door. With the filters in his mask, he was easily able to smell the injuries she'd sustained, but this pup wasn't letting pain stop her from what she needed to do. A deep, rumbling, and powerful purr resounded in his chest as his respect for this pup grew rapidly. Intelligent, resourceful, confident in the things she was familiar with, but cautious, hesitant, and sometimes even fearful when she was confronted with something she didn't understand. That was something to be expected from a pup though, and he understood that. What he didn't understand, was what exactly was going on here.

"Yes!"

It was a declaration of victory that the Elder fully understood as the damaged door slid most of the way open. The little pup quickly snatched up her strange carry sack, and grabbed his hand before pulling him through the now open door. As soon as he was past the door, the pup turned and began the process of closing it. That went much faster than getting it open, and he suspected that the damage had something to do with that.

He looked around the corridor while cycling through the various visual modes of his mask. He wasn't exactly certain how many hard meats had been near the door, but it was at least five, and possibly as many as nine, if he were to judge from the scattered remains. Whatever explosive devices these pups were using, he had to admit that they were definitely effective.

Thwei'dok'de froze in complete and utter confusion when three shapes stepped out in front of him. He knew that there just had to be Ooman pups buried under all that stuff, but what that stuff was, he had no idea!

Gwan'Thwei stood for what felt like hours to him on the ground floor, staring indecisively at two different elevator doors long after the rest of the team had made their selections and lifted off.

They never seemed to have issues making snap judgments, unlike him, as each one had chosen a narrow door. Gwan'Thwei had watched them all turn sideways and duck to fit inside, the compartment cramped in comparison to a Yaut's normal bulk.

Witnessing that alone, was enough to give him second thoughts and send his eyes darting to the larger door to his left along the wall instead. It wasn't that he was claustrophobic, not usually, but the elevators for Ooman's were a lot smaller than anything he was used to on the Clanship. Those were big, because Yautja were big. These elevators were small, because Ooman's were small.

Currently lost in thought, Gwan'Thwei let his body follow where his eyes were leading until he stood in front of the larger door, tracing its perimeter with a curious hand and noting the control panel along side it. With only two buttons present, he trilled and pressed the 'up' button marked by a black arrow pointing to the ceiling and waited.

With nothing else to do until the car arrived, he decided to take in more of his surroundings. It wouldn't hurt to be more alert, either. The hard meats could be anywhere and he didn't want to be caught unaware. The last time he'd faced them had been during his Chiva and while it was really exciting and ego boosting, he'd found himself more intrigued by the Ooman hosts they were spawned from.

He didn't get a chance to really see them or interact with them as most of those who hadn't been impregnated, were too busy shooting at him with weapons or running away, but they fascinated him. They could be oozing liquid fear through their pores and down their legs yet they kept screaming battle cries and kept fighting.

No Ooman stood a chance against a fully trained Yautja, but they went down fighting and died with their own honor. Gwan'Thwei appreciated that. During his Chiva, he'd held an Ooman male suspended from his blades for a good few minutes until it died and never once did the Ooman show weakness. Despite the blood and other bodily fluids pattering on the stone block floor the Ooman kept up his attack with his weapon. When it ran empty, the small metal projectiles having bounced off his armor; it started using the handle of the instrument to beat at him about the head.

At the time, he didn't understand Ooman language so he couldn't translate the bubbly, spittle frothing words the male slung at him as his limbs grew too weak and he dropped his weapon to clatter on the ground. Its hands had reached for him, trembling, but he kept it far enough away just in case.

A fellow UnBlood on Chiva with him had snarled at him to throw the animal away already but Gwan'Thwei couldn't seem to do that. In his studies, he'd been taught that Ooman's had no honor. They lied, cheated, connived and tricked to get their own way but the male currently dying on his blades had put up a good fight for his kind.

He hadn't once run away and he hadn't lost control of his organs until Gwan'Thwei had run him through and lifted him up to dangle in the air. The male was defensive and aggressive, defiant until his last choked out breath when he finally went limp and drooled blood with his head hanging down. The Ooman had died with honor, and Gwan'Thwei helped ensure that by not throwing its body away prematurely. No, instead he'd kept it until the end.

Gwan'Thwei had even gone a step further, impressed by the Ooman as he was when a group of drones had suddenly sprung from a nearby pit in the stone floor. The Ooman had a short row of small, round balls clipped to its belt connected by a strong string that looped through each ball's pin. Figuring they were bombs, Gwan'Thwei pulled the string sharply, all pins falling away before he finally threw the body from his blades and down into the pit.

Seconds after he'd dispatched the hard meats that had emerged; a gigantic blast had fired under ground, sending a cloud of debris into the air along with hard meat parts and acid clots, congealed from the heat of the explosion. Tilting his head, he trilled at the pit opening.

Later, his Elders had commended him for being innovative and smart by using the Ooman bombs but Gwan'Thwei secretly waved away their praise and instead, beseeching Paya, passed it on to the Ooman in the here after. Gwan'Thwei had triggered the event, but the Ooman's own preparatory skill had allowed the opportunity.

The elevator finally dinged its arrival, pulling him from his thoughts as he trilled and looked up as the door slid open. It was empty of hard meats and Ooman's but it did have things waiting inside. What looked to be a giant laundry cart sat along the left wall, full with linens of mostly white but some colors too and to the right sat a small rolling cart of topped thin trays. Food perhaps?

Approaching the doors, Gwan'Thwei looked up at the ceiling to see a paneled escape hatch while the floor was solid but seemed to conceal another hatch that was even with the floors surface. It was big, he wouldn't have to hunch his shoulders to enter or stand inside for the ride and the lights were steady and bright.

A thick flat railing wound around the three walls and an Ooman voice spoke from somewhere. Gwan'Thwei was confused, since he couldn't see any Ooman's despite hearing them. Shuffling closer to the entrance, he looked closer inside with his mask to make sure no Ooman was hiding in the laundry or behind the cart. The car was empty.

So where was the Ooman voice coming from? Lifting his head, he leaned into the space to gaze around a bit more until suddenly the door started to slide closed. Jerking, he slapped a large hand against the jam and the door retreated easily enough. Interesting.

Looking back over his shoulder for a final scout around the ground floor, he stepped into the car and left the marble floored promenade behind as he turned to face forward and let the door slide closed.

Now what? Trilling, he looked around the interior from his new position and noted the control panel to the right and in seconds he was confused, hesitant. Two rows of circular buttons were there. The one on the left was longer; listing each floor including sublevels but the one on the right was shorter, only listing eight buttons.

Instead of checking his computer schematic of the complex as his Elder would've suggested, Gwan'Thwei decided to figure things out on his own. It was how he learned best. Skimming a clawed finger down the left row with the most buttons, he paused and checked his locator tracking system inside his mask.

Med'ka was listed on Level Two, so when his finger reached that button he pushed it in hard, unsure how much pressure to use. The button depressed and when he let go, it lit up seconds before the car started to move. It jostled him a bit, nothing that he couldn't handle at first before the ride evened out smoothly.

A dinging noise from overhead had him looking up as a red LED screen flashed symbols. When it stopped on Level Two, the car jostled again before the doors slid open revealing a straight hallway with nothing really in sight. Trilling, he stepped closer and peered out.

Ahead down the hall on either side were depressions for doorways and at the end was another hall, forming a T junction. Nothing was moving, any hard meat, or Ooman, yet debris lay scattered on the grated floor having spilled from some thin metal lockers in the walls.

Paper decorations adored the ceiling, hanging down. They looked like chains, streamers, and such and hallway music filtered into his elevator with a tinkling, relaxed beat so different from the drums on Prime that Gwan'Thwei tilted his head and struggled to understand what it could mean. Just as the doors were closing, he thought he heard a ruckus of noise of down the hall. Pup laughter.

That couldn't be right. No Yautja pups were on this planet. Confused, Gwan'Thwei reached to stay the door but he was too late as it closed and sealed with a slight hiss. If not Yautja pups, then who? Ooman pups? No. It couldn't be! Snorting behind his mask, he consulted the control panel again, pressing Level 3. The car ride was shorter this time and as the door opened, noise exploded at full volume.

He was looking at a T junction, a hall ahead and one to each side, all crammed tightly with Ooman's. Ooman pups. The mask he wore hid the widening of his eyes as he stepped to the doorway, palming the jam on either side to look out at the chaos.

They were pups, varying in ages as much as heights and some even brandished weapons. Most he couldn't identify but the melted grating and pitting along the walls he knew was due to hard meat blood. Alarmed, he growled and dropped his arms, twin blades shooting from their housing to snick in place as he planted his feet.

A couple growls and roars from further up the hall caught his attention and he quieted himself, tilting his head at the sound of a fellow team member. Checking his locator, Ker'ak'de was here, just up ahead, drowning in the sea of Ooman's before him. He didn't think his team member was hurt or in pain, and his scans quickly showed that the Ooman's were otherwise unarmed in the thick of their pack but that didn't mean anything. Fully prepared to step from the elevator, Gwan'Thwei roared low and postured.

Three avenues of Ooman's spun to confront him, looking determined and fierce despite being surprised to see him. Fully illuminated in the light of the utility car, the pups closest seemed to take in everything at once from his posture to his dark evergreen coloring and tan belly before a chant rose up that carried down each hall in turn.

"T3, Yautja! T3, Yautja!"

T3? Gwan'Thwei didn't understand but he did hear an echoing roar from down the hall in front of him. Ker'ak'de had heard the commotion and was signaling to him. Puffing himself up, the Young Blood charged out of the car and roared in challenge, sweeping his masked gaze to encompass all three halls with his arms to his sides and blades at the ready. He'd never experienced Ooman pups before but he figured they wouldn't be any different from Yaut pups that were aggressive, had poor impulse control and prone to fits of instant gratification.

He didn't count on the pups being so blood thirsty, though. The elevator doors closing behind him, Gwan'Thwei spun to face them but it was too late. Turning back, at least twenty pups were already advancing on him, boxing him in against the elevator doors as they held their weapons at the ready. What game was this?

"Stay back!" one of the pups yelled, thrusting out a spear looking rod at him with a flowing flag of material at the end.

"Heidi, don't!" yelled another, grabbing the spear and shoving it down until its rounded tip hit the grating.

"Get off, Leslie!" the older pup spat back, struggling to lift her spear again despite the younger pup's weight bearing it down.

Gwan'Thwei was at a loss, having backed up against the closed elevator door, constantly scanning the hall. His Ooman database was turned on but they spoke so quickly and he was so stunned that he couldn't make sense of the language translations in his ears. They had accents. So many different ones, like they came from different parts of a planet.

"He's Yautja, don't hurt him!" the Leslie pup said.

"We already have a Yautja on this floor!" Heidi argued back, jerking at the spear to get it free of Heidi's weight. "We don't need two!"

A roar from down the hall reverberated towards Gwan'Thwei again yet he still couldn't see Ker'ak'de, though a mixed scent of fear, excitement and… mint reached his sensors. Mint? He trilled.

Roaring again to make contact, Ker'ak'de returned the vocalization. He was alright, if uneasy and off guard but not harmed. It calmed Gwan'Thwei's mind to the point where he didn't notice a small Ooman pup rush up and hit the elevator button behind him. When the doors opened again, the pup stepped in front of him and pushed against his hips. Looking down, he trilled but didn't move.

"You have to go!" Leslie cried, putting her full insignificant weight behind the shove. "Please!"

Confused, Gwan'Thwei looked again down the hall towards where Ker'ak'de's roar had originated. All around all he saw were Ooman's so his team mate must be on the ground. He wasn't hurt, so the current predicament made no sense to the Young Blood's mind. If Ker'ak'de wasn't injured, why was he prone to the Ooman's?

"T3 offense! T3 offense!"

The combined chant from all halls snapped his head up, his few rank rings chiming as hard meats charged from the left and the right. The pups took up defensive positions with their improvised weapons as the elevator's doors opened and Leslie with the help of others managed to shove Gwan'Thwei back into the car as the doors closed.

Gwan'Thwei was too stunned to fully understand what had just happened until it was too late. The doors were already closed when he let loose with an enraged roar, punching and striking at the car walls. Metal dented and sparks flew repeatedly as he did damage to the control panel without fully realizing it until the utility car took off like a launched drop pod shooting straight up and gaining speed at an alarming rate. The G forces alone crashed against his head and upper shoulders like the sky was falling, forcing his knees to bend and shake as he fought to stay upright and plant his hands against the elevator door in front of him.

The car shook violently on its track; metal screaming with friction to the point of sparks and smoke outside the walls as the sheer thundering bass of ascent rattled Gwan'Thwei's brain. The lights over head flickered madly as the control panel continued to spark, several of the vertical buttons in the left column left blackened and halfway ripped out from his blades punching through and tearing away.

Elevators on the Clanship were made to withstand Yautja temper but apparently not Ooman ones. His own stupidity was crashing down on him as hard as the forces were, cramping his stomach until he felt oddly nauseous and every muscle in his body was burning in tension.

Just when Gwan'Thwei thought that he couldn't physically take it anymore, that he might be forced to shame and soil himself by throwing up inside his mask and slight panic worried him about asphyxiation the car suddenly screeched to an ear piercing stop and for the briefest moment, he was weightless.

His feet had left the floor, his large body almost hovering in midair before finally crashing back down to jar his joints and jostle the car on its barely functioning track.

Everything was still and silent, save for the odd squeal of track wheels, humming buzz like flickers as the lights equalized and the occasional residual spark from the panel. He was still alive. Barely. Gwan'Thwei breathed through the last of his queasy stomach and prayed silently to Paya, vowing to never be that dumb again.

The ding of the elevator sounded right before the door started to slide open again. His hands were still pressed against it, so Gwan'Thwei quickly stood up and shook out his arms as he cast a glance to the LED display that flashed the number '23' and an Ooman word.