Hello, readers!

This is a compilation of one-shots centering around Nichole and the other characters of The Noctivagant Series - yes, you read that right! Nichole's misadventures now have a series name. Phantasm, Nightmare, and Vespertine are all part of it, and any future installations will be, to. :) Just a few things to mention and clarify before we get into it, so please forgive the nitty-gritty details real quick!

These one-shots are from VARIOUS points of view. Some will be in the first person, some will be in the third person. They can be about any character or event within the series, but I'll always label them. The stories are subject to be reordered as I come up with new ones so that there's some sort of chronological order, so bear with me. They're also going to be pretty rough and unfinished, as I plan on writing these quick and dirty with minimal editing so I can focus on other projects. However, feel free to point out any huge issues. I am always open to going back and cleaning up my work!

If you have ideas for a one-shot you'd like to see, feel free to post it in a review or PM me!

Anyway, enjoy!

This chapter has been edited as of 6/3/2018! Thank you, Malevolent Reverie, for bringing it to my attention! I'm sorry you felt the need to block me, but I'm nothing if not reasonable. Hopefully, the chapter is more readable now! If not, feel free to be more specific next time on what needs to be fixed. :)

~ Crayola

Saboteur

Takes place before the ship crashes in the woods of Nichole's hometown. Rated T, mild violence.

The mountainous, charred surface of the planet was still. A ship sat nestled on the ground, sequestered behind a pillar of stone. All was quiet. The dark horizon was beginning to lighten, but the rising star was hours away yet from daybreak.

High above the ship, a precarious cliff shook and rained small pebbles down upon the hull. Something rumbled just below the rocks and crags in an intricate network of tunnels forged by the native species. An infestation had broken out, their population devastated. One lone yautja traversed the underground, closing in on parasitic hive's queen; the absolute darkness was of little consequence for predator and prey alike.

She was the last of the kiande amedha, the strongest and largest. Her head would bring him the ranking of elite.

If there were any of her children left, they would come to her aid. Her screeches of anger echoed through the burrows, calling forth any who could hear her distress. She knew her death was coming, but she was loathe to detach from her egg sack.

For each of her children that had been cut down, it was like she had taken the blows herself. She felt their deaths; she mourned their loss. After she had taken up the distress call, what was left of the drones had met it with their own keening replies—only to be snuffed out as the yautja hunter found them.

It was important he made sure the entire swarm was wiped out—not just because it was part of his quest: were he to leave the kiande amedha unchecked, leave even one survivor, they would breed and breed forever. Their population would wreak havoc on any planet they found, destroying entire ecosystems. They would eradicate all life. That was not the goal of the yautja race. They only needed a single nest to complete the trial. One colony of the local life forms wouldn't be an issue. Eventually, their numbers would return even if it took a few generations.

When the lone hunter finally reached the threshold of the queen's hideaway, her calls stopped.

Her chamber was the largest cave in the warren. Like the rest of the tunnels, the nesting process had turned everything humid and dank. The queen turned her crested, sightless head toward him as she drew her lips over her dirty, chrome-colored fangs and she hissed at the intruder. Her ovipositor pulsated behind her, weighing her down and keeping her stationary. The yautja had to find a way to pull her off it. He had to show that he was a big enough threat to warrant her abandoning her duty.

His opportunity arrived seconds later—what remained of the queen's children. They thundered from the tunnel and into the chamber: three large beasts. Their elongated, eyeless crowns swung back and forth in an attempt to find the one causing their queen to suffer. Their kind didn't show up on in infrared, but the hunter had more than one way of spotting kiande amedha.

The lone yautja drew his spear and sighted his plasma caster. His enemies sent out pulses of sound, listening and watching.

Kiande amedha were the perfect killing machines. From reproduction to birth to death. They stole what they wanted and took without care, wiping out species and races with wanton abandon. Parasitic at heart, they needed hosts to breed. The implanter struck without notice, forcing an embryo upon their victim orally. Birth, of course, killed the host. In adulthood, drones collected other bodies to further the hive.

And the subterranean species on the planet were the perfect bearers.

Large and powerful. Blind, just like the kiande amedha. They made their way around via echolocation and vibrations felt through the ground. Though the inhabitants of the planet were not innately aggressive or violent, they had natural defenses in their strong pincers and massive claws, made for digging the very tunnels they lived in.

Together, it made for more perfect kiande amedha. Each drone was nearly the size of their queen. Their biomechanical physiology was thick and imposing, making them take up much of the tunnel space. They were armed with large front legs, small back legs, and a sweeping tail tipped with a wicked barb.

Alone, they were formidable. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with. Thus far, the structure of the burrows had granted him the luck of fighting one at a time.

In the queen's chamber, they could come at him in tandem.

They turned on him and roared, their large claws crushing stones beneath their weight. As one unit, they rushed him, each step shaking the ground. The yautja didn't falter and fired a single blast. The lead kiande amedha ducked its head and the cannon fire hit its broad, armored carapace, taking a chunk with it. Another trait from their unwitting hosts, meant to protect from falling boulders and debris while tunneling.

The yautja's fingers flexed and he chittered to himself, excited at the prospect of another great fight. Of the coming glory.

*:･ﾟ✧

Black had always been its life. Black would always be its life. But from the darkness was intermitted bursts of sensation—sound, scents, things that had no words. Despite never knowing what a thing looked like, it knew it was there. Everything had a signature, an aura, a scent or a sound that was its own.

Everything had a mass that took up space, and the sound waves the creature emitted bounced off, creating a picture with which it could "see".

But for all the different senses, none could make it reach its queen any faster.

Being buried in a collapsed tunnel hadn't seemed like a possibility. So many ways to dig and burrow, and yet a single injury to its powerful forearms had left it unable to free itself until it was too late.

Being unable to answer its queen's pleas broke something inside the creature and it limped its way through the halls, trying to navigate through cave-ins and mazes. She had fallen silent, but it was more than the lack of sound. It was an emptiness in the drone's mind, as if something essential had been removed. A constant chatter from the rest of the hive—no orders from the queen, no feedback from its brethren.

They did not know fear or uncertainty, but without the buzz of the queen in its head, it knew not what to do except find the one responsible.

Sound ricocheted off the walls, leading it through the tunnels without issue to the queen's chamber. So many brethren lost, and now the hunter that had stalked them stole away its queen, the one that gave life and orders. The thing that the kiande amedha listened to without hesitation and protected.

Inside the queen's cave was nothing but bodies. There were no sounds, only the distinct weight of death and muted scent of burning stone.

Her massive corpse was limp in the center of the cave. The injured drone approached, tentative and slow. It sent out a single pulse of sound to make sure that it wasn't mistaken, but there was no mistaking it—her head was gone.

Its talons forged rivets into the ground. It swung its head around to the tunnel the hunter had gone down and followed after him, using small bursts of sound only to navigate, trying not to alert the hunter to the fact that he was now being stalked. It was behind him, limping fast to keep up and not lose the trail, but the hunter left behind a smoking trail of acid blood from the queen's severed neck.

Breadcrumbs.

The kiande amedha drone dug its claws into the loamy earth beneath it, fangs bared behind a set of pincers as it stalked the hunter. The urge to tear after the one responsible was strong, and ignoring it was like ignoring a basic function—eating, breathing—but such rash behavior would only lead to its death. It was wounded from another fight, left and assumed dead.

If it died now, the destruction of the hive and the murder of its queen would never be rectified. The kiande amedha would never see justice for their extermination.

He was headed to the surface, toward a tunnel his ship had created. The native creatures of the planet rarely moved above ground, content to live their lives out in darkness and caves. Daytime meant certain death, and night brought about a freeze. The only safe time to move topside was just before the sun rose and after it set, when the air was warm and safe.

Even then, there was nothing topside worth seeing.

Only plateaus, cliffs, boulders, and mountains. No vegetation. No other life. Everything happened beneath.

The hunter's ship had spent the course of the hunt in orbit, landing just as the sun started to rise in anticipation of the lone yautja's arrival.

At the same time the hunter was preparing to leave, the injured drone was crawling up onto the surface. Once there, it let out a few pulses of sound, looking for anything that didn't belong. For something besides the formations of the mountains.

And there it was.

It pulled itself out of the hole and skirted close to the cliff side, using the natural cover to stalk the ship. When the rumbling started, the warrior was bombarded with vibrations and pictures for miles, the terrain painted into a near-perfect picture. It was able to navigate without problems to the target.

Had the yautja inside not assumed there wasn't anything living outside, he might have noticed the approaching threat. He might have noticed it climb into a nook near the landing gear. Still and all, the ship took flight with one extra passenger.

There was no way inside the ship from the landing gear, but the warrior was wedged in good. The vacuum of space pressed down upon it, a suffocating weight. Unending cold nipped at it, sapped its strength and sent it into a torpid state. Vitals slowed, its bodily functions all but stopped.

Yet, it lived on. Festering in vengeance.

*:･ﾟ✧

The transport ship landed in the docking bay of the mother ship, carrying its passenger. The yautja hunter hauled his trophy to the rest of the clan, to be celebrated as the newest elite. The warrior kiande amedha remained in its position, stuck in the landing gear as it thawed. As it healed and came around.

For the yautja, the hunt never ended. Other clan members were eager to begin their own trials. It was time to visit another hunting ground, one home to a sapient species, not unlike their own. Home to proud fighters and honorable trophies.

Inside, the atmosphere of the ship was warm and welcoming. Humid. Perfect. The air was different from the dry planet it was accustomed to, and it took time to adjust, furthering the time it spent in its comatose state. Around it, the massive clan ship was still, sailing through space toward its backwater destination. Its inhabitants were none the wiser to the danger recovering just under their noses.

Eventually, it came around and stirred a full solar cycle after the ship had left. The injury to its legs had mended, and it was fully acclimated to the new environment. Waking up took a few moments, but it was making its way.

Vibrations were all around it. Various sounds of the ship working, driving. The clan members of the vessel walked outside the loading bay, adding to the din. All of this roused its attention.

With some wiggling and twisting, it was able to dislodge itself from the cranny it had forced into and fell to the hard floor. It thrashed until it was back on its talons. A few loud echoes gave it an idea of where it was, and left over pheromones from his queen led the warrior to a closed door.

There were no ideas about being subtle. No deliberation or higher cognitive thought. Only anger and hate and the need for revenge.

Before it could bust down the door, it started to slide open and the warrior skittered out of line of sight, waiting until the hunter on the other side walked inside and closed himself in, checking on a strange reading it had witnessed.

Kiande amedha were ambush predators innately. It was able to sit still as a statue and wait for the perfect moment. The yautja was not wearing its biomask, thinking himself safe on the flag ship. Even if the drone didn't stay still, he wouldn't have seen it. It took full advantage of the element of surprise and lunged, striking the yautja out cold before it could so much as let out a surprised chitter.

One yautja. One stored embryo. The warrior latched on to the unconscious predator and deposited its precious burden, then hauled him off under the ship, stowing him for later. It would take a while for the embryo to gestate and then grow. The newborn would need to be protected.

It went to work, secreting its viscous saliva and coating everything in the landing bay. It created a suitable site and cocooned the yautja against the wall.

Then, again, all it could do was wait. Wait and work, turning the giant room into the perfect nesting sight. The entirety of the ship was the perfect humidity, but venturing forth was out of the question for now. The kiande amedha drone wasn't comfortable leaving the unborn creature.

But it could wait as long as it needed to.

*:･ﾟ✧

He should have returned within moments, but it wasn't until much later that the others realized one of their own was still gone. The victimized yautja had informed his comrades that he would investigate the strange reading the scanner had picked up. It wasn't uncommon for local fauna to wander aboard sometimes, but the planet had no surface dwellers.

And yet, the ship diagnostics had picked up a signature.

The clan leader ordered two others to go and see what was keeping him. They joked about him getting lost within the ship until they reached the loading bay. With a few swipes of a finger, the door opened into a dark and sweltering room.

A screech welcomed them and a massive beast charged from within, slamming into the closest yautja and sending him sprawling. His comrade roared and went to draw a weapon, but had hadn't fully armed himself. None would be carrying many weapons while they were on the ship. Not when they thought they were safe.

Before he could find so much as a dagger, the kiande amedha drone struck out with its tail and stabbed it through the yautja's abdomen. With another flick, it threw him down the hall and he landed hard on his back. The one beneath the kiande amedha snarled in the face of death.

All it took was one quick jab from the beast's second set of jaws and the yautja's skull was pierced. He fell still and the warrior lunged for the other, ensuring he, too, was dead.

Not before he was able to issue an alarm.

The wailing sound of klaxons brought life to the kiande amedha's otherwise dark world. The sound vibrated off of every last nook and cranny. The drone lifted its head, trying to sift through the noise and clutter.

Footsteps. Others were coming.

It glanced over to the unmoving body of the yautja against the wall. It had taken hours for them to realize their comrade was missing. The growing newborn was hidden in the carefully crafted nest, growing quickly and feeding from the body of its host as needed.

Soon it would grow strong and help create a new caste.

But, it would not be able to protect the newborn if more and more of the hunters arrived. The drone left, shoving through the doorway and bending it outward until it popped free into the hallway. It would meet the opposition head on.

Most of the halls were too small for its bulk. Its back slammed into the ceiling, its shoulders dented the walls as it careened through the corridors, using echolocation to navigate and seek out other hunters. It ripped panels down with angry claws and burst into rooms, attacking anything alive within.

Wires snapped and sparked in its wake. It destroyed handfuls of machinery and panels. Soon, the ship was hurtling toward its destination, the guidance systems taken out with a few lucky tail strikes from the beast and unlucky cannon shots from the yautja. Try as it might, the ship couldn't correct speed or course.

It entered the atmosphere of its intended destination and shuddered, sending those inside tumbling and rolling. Without stabilizers functional, the gravitational pull of the planet took it down at alarming speeds. The drone was tossed into an open room, buried under machinery.

Such wouldn't be enough to kill it. It was nothing compared to two tons of rock and dirt.

Mere moments after its entry into the atmosphere, the ship jerked and shuddered. Its impact with the ground nearly snapped the ship in half and it skidded across the ground, jumping up a hill where it landed at the crest, only to slide further until friction brought it to a halt.

Outside, the night fell still. Any creature within the area of the crash had been chased away. Shattered and broken pieces of hull littered the ground and nothing moved inside the ship, not even the drone. Not any of the yautja. The growing newborn was the only thing that had been secured and safe.

Finally, it was ready. She was ready.

Thin, membranous mandibles spread open wide and she crawled from her perch. As the future queen, the continuation of the hive was her responsibility.

Fresh air filtered in through a dent in the bay doors. She hissed and crawled toward the opening, squeezing through. The crash had drawn the attention of local authorities, and the first responding park rangers were on their way. She, of course, only had one objective.

Find hosts.

So, she ventured outside into the cold, alien world and listened. She waited for signs of danger, then wandered out into the trees. She explored until the group of park rangers came across her path. The future queen took them one by one until all seven were unconscious and impregnated. One by one she took them back to the ship, and one by one she made them comfortable in their own cocoons.

It was a start, but anything more would have to wait. She needed to rest. She needed to finish growing.

After a while, the drone came to deep within the ship, and by the time the sun began to rise, the newborns were growing up and the queen had metamorphosed into her genetically pure form. Soon enough, her ovipositor was formed and she was producing eggs.

All of seven of the newborns, fully grown by now, lined up before her, and she gave them their orders.

More.

More, more, more.