Chương 24: Jungle Predator

The hive fleet was making its way towards the Ker'mins planet. swarms of bio-ships attacking and harassing the overwhelmed enemy defence fleet.

I am watching the encroaching planet though my visors display inside of the invasion nest pondering over the stalkers question. "Are you ready?"

The truth is I'm not sure. I have watched a lot of Ker'mins and other species perish to the hive. Heck on my first day of living I saw piles of human remains scattered all over the place so I am no stranger to death now. But to take a life myself? Some people may call me soft for being afraid of doing so, but I feel its only human to feel these things. If I see sentient life as nothing and turn into some sort of murder hobo like those stories from my old life, can I still see myself as a person? On the other hand, I am heading straight into a warzone and these aliens may not have initiated the fight, but they will still kill me in defence of their planet since I am an invader along with my mate, the hive.

'Kill with needed and for necessity, not for entertainment or pleasure' that thought came from deep inside me, inside my Mindspace. My psionic origin, always there to aid me through any turmoil. first with my telepathy to talk with the hive then my Gyrokinesis my Thermokinesis and a few others now manipulating my emotions just enough so I don't hurt myself from spiralling in my own thoughts.

Taking a deep breath I regain who I am. I am Apollo I am the mate to my hive mind. they would conquer galaxies for me I can shoulder a few lives for them.

I grabbed Orchids hand next to me. She looked over confused then smiled when she read my emotions. she said nothing but just continued to hold my hand until we were ready to drop.

Roughly ten minutes later the stalkers monotone voice sounded in my head. "Its time." Now since there was no sirens or alerts as all the bio-forms around me were linked to the hive and I still do not like entering the hive link fully, the stalkers warning was a nice gesture. As soon as she said that, The large invasion nest was shot out of the hive ships by a large quantity of compressed air and large muscles of the ship in torsion.

I could not see what was going on outside but we must of reached through the atmosphere as I started hearing cracks of lightning all around me, as what I assumed was plasma and laser based anti air weapons barraging the skies like a lightshow of death.

Fortunately after 2 minutes we hit the ground unscathed. I'd have been relived, but my science brain kicked in for a second marvelling at the nests suspension and impact absorption. My curiosity was cut short however due to the front of the nest exploding open. As it did so the bio-forms around me who were in torpor the whole way down sprang to life and started pouring out of the breach.

It took only moments for the hundreds of forms to finish pouring out all that was left was me, Orchid and the drones. Taking one shaky breath and clutching Zircon tight I stepped out of the nest. Outside of the nest was not what I was expecting on landing. We were in the middle of a jungle, no surprise there, my warrior guard were forming a slight perimeter around the pod. I could hear loud gunshots and lightning crackles a short ways west from our position and a huge swathe of trees and foliage mowed down towards that direction. "Well this a tad bit anticlimactic." I said aloud with the suit adding a slight amplifying affect to my voice to get through the material.

"You wish to climax here!" Orchid exclaimed in excitement not hearing the other words. "No you dumb bug, I said the drop was anticlimactic. I was expected to be pelted with shots the moment we stepped outside of the pod instead we are in the middle of nowhere and I have all this adrenaline I've been pumping up with nothing to do with it."

Orchid giggled at my comment before responding "Well of course we would not send you straight into the enemies hive structures that would be foolish. Although we agreed to let you come here your safety still takes priority. Now dear can you move so the drones can get past and start feeding on the plant biomass."

Turning around in realisation one of the drones was tapping on my suit leg. "Whoops sorry." After letting the bugs out and leaving them to do what we do Orchid and myself, along with my guard proceed to follow the debris the first wave had paved for us. The stalker hadn't made an appearance since the ship but I assume she is close by, well stalking.

After a few minutes of walking I felt something off. I turned to Orchid to garner any reaction from her but she seemed none the wiser. I decided to still trust in my intuition and paused. I grasped Zircon tight and surveyed my surroundings the debris of the jungle grew thinner here as the hives bio-forms spread out so what was left was predominantly still jungle. Scanning around I noticed nothing. Really nothing I had also noticed Orchid had disappeared when I looked back. Squatting down slightly in a ready stance I decided to wait.

Around 30 second of waiting I feinted lowering my guard thats when a blur exploded towards me from the corner of my eye. Since the thing was coming at me from mid air I braced Zircon with both hands in defence. when the being made contact I dropped backwards and kicked heavily upwards into its midsection sending it flying across the opening.

Hastily making it to my feet I finally got a good look at the creature while it was recovering. It was an ominous looking jungle feline. It had four legs with bulging muscles and large paws with serrated claws to rend flesh. It had two long regal tails currently straight and rigid It had a zebra like pattern on its grey and black fur all along its body making it like a shadow in the canopy. when it looked at me I saw it had green glowing eyes adding to its Exotic danger.

Knowing that its ambush had failed the feline knew this new prey wasn't such. It couldn't retreat now if it showed its back this being In front of it would take the opportunity. It was a battle to the death.

As the beast roared at me and slowly attempted to circle me I followed its movements waiting for an opening. Despite being a beast I could tell this creature was extremely intelligent and equally dangerous. forget the guns of the Ker'mins I have to go up against next, During its pounce even though I defended and countered its hind claws rent a large amount of material off my suits shoulders.

The stare down lasted another 30 seconds before the alien feline noticed something off. It was feeling heavier and slower as the time went on. Not knowing if this was its adversaries doing or not had forced it to act impulsively as if this feeling carried on it would be rendered to fatigued to fight.

I was sweating underneath my suit using Gyrokinesis passively on myself was one thing but applying it onto another being 20 meters away was very taxing. That being said, it looked like my plan had worked. For a Brief second I noticed the felines leg muscles flex before once again shooting towards me like a missile. It closed the gap between us in a blink but I was aware this time.

Despite its intelligence this predator was clearly of the ambush variety as it couldn't quite understand that being off the ground was a bad idea. With a quick sidestep I turned and slashed down with Zircon I was aiming for a decapitation but the feline managed to just barely dodge the killing blow. Instead I cut a large gash into its neck and severed its front left leg clean off.

The feline roared in pain at it stumbled over. looking over to me I gave it a 'come here' taunt. It may be injured but that just made it more dangerous and therefore I would not underestimate it. I applied gravity unto it once more not allowing it recovery as I slowly made my way towards it. I feigned a few sword swings in order to bait another attack and once it worked I made a deep gash along its side.

With deep laboured breathes the feline was laying on its side slowly dying in a pool of its own blood. it was exhausted incapable of moving and resigned itself to its fate. It took a risk against a new being inside of its territory and lost such is the way of the jungle.

Kneeling over my prey my eyes clouded over i decided to remove my helmet so I could see the feline with my own eyes it felt right to do so. I rubbed my hand gently along its neck getting covered in blood in the process. "you fought beautifully, with the courage of a lion, now rest." with that I plunged Zircon deep into where I assumed the beings heart would be. It let out a small whimper and flinched before going lifeless.

I had won.