Rites of Ascension



                 A side story to Deadly Consequences

              written entirely this time by Andy Searls



This story runs in parallel to the last part of Deadly Consequences.  While this fiction is entirely my creation, the characters and species used in the story are creations of 20th Century Fox and Dark Horse Comics.  All copyrights apply, etc., etc.



Anyone who has suggestions for better Predator names should feel free to mention them to me.  A better title wouldn't hurt, either.





Sharp Tooth jumped out of his chair, growling at Short Spear to repeat himself.  Short Spear stood up, and walked directly up to Sharp Tooth.  Sharp Tooth fingered the knife in his belt.  He didn't expect Short Spear to challenge him, but he was not going to be caught off-guard either.  Short Spear stopped far enough away to throw a strong salute to Sharp Tooth, repeating himself loudly, "There is a large structure orbiting Ryushi, sir."  They had only arrived at the second planet moments ago.  Broken Tusk had been at this planet for a couple of local days.  If there was someone else on the planet, why hadn't it been detected and reported before now?



Sharp Tooth acknowledged his subordinate and sat back down to think.  The arrival of intelligent aliens on Ryushi was unexpected.  It could complicate things for Broken Tusk.  Sharp Tooth gave no regard for the safety of these aliens during the rite of passage ceremony.  Anyone stupid enough to put themselves in a crossfire got what they deserved.  He wondered if his old friend was aware of the possible enemy nearby.  There was no dishonor in sharing tactical information with an ally, he told himself as he barked to his communications officer to open a link to Broken Tusk at the surface.  Besides, he might get a chance to get a report on his son's progress.  The ritual party hadn't had the time to accomplish much, but Broken Tusk was an powerful warrior.  Sharp Tooth was anxious to hear what his old friend's impression of his son's first battle was.



"No answer from the ship on the surface."



Sharp Tooth leaped over to the communications console.  "Idiot!  What have you done wrong?!"



The com officer landed a punch square in Sharp Tooth's chest, "I've done nothing wrong!  There is no answer from the other ship!"



Sharp Tooth had anticipated the puch, and stood fast to accept it.  He was surprised to have to take a step back to keep his balance.  His com officer had not pulled his punch.  With that display of indignance, Sharp Tooth knew his com officer had carefully checked the information before telling him.  For the first time, he began to get the feeling that something was wrong on the planet below.  He looked at the display of the alien orbiting craft.  It was large, but there was no sign of any kind of weaponry.  This wasn't a ship of battle.  It appeared to be a container vessel of some sort.  Had he underestimated the new arrival's potential for trouble?  He had too many questions, and he needed some answers.  "Take us down to the landing site!"



                   *             *            *



The wreckage of Broken Tusk's ship was strange.  There was too much ship remaining and no crater.  They hadn't used the self destruct.  There was no sign that Xenomorph had been in the area.  Broken Tusk had wisely landed far enough away from the seed-pod site to insure that.  There was too little equipment around.  They must have had time to carry some of the equipment away.  Either that, or possibly the new aliens had stolen the equipment.  The more Sharp Tooth thought about it, the more he considered the new aliens to be a threat.  The absence of bodies also pointed to an attack.  



One of the other Predators had found markings in the ground on the other side of the wreckage.  A small alien craft had landed there.  There were small footprints leading to the wreckage.  There was also the markings that something large was dragged back to the alien craft.  Something large enough to be a Predator.  There were bone fragments along the drag marks, but the fragments were too small to make much of them.  Whomever they belonged to was  no longer any consequence anyway.



Sharp Tooth tried to assess the new aliens strength.  There appeared to be only two sets of foot prints, and they were very small and light.  They definately didn't have the physical strength to overcome even the weakest of Broken Tusk's landing party.  They must have significant technology to have been so successful in their attack.  Sharp Tooth conceeded to himself that a frontal attack would be foolish against this adversary.  He would need to learn more about them before he could be confident of revenge.



He noticed a change in his crew around him.  Something was happening.  He looked around at them to see what they had noticed.  They were all looking at the same spot in the sky.  Sharp Tooth looked up.  A large meteor was approaching.  It was going to hit near here.  Sharp Tooth roared the boarding call, and was proud to see his crew quickly and efficiently get back into his ship.  The engines were warming up as he climbed on board and sat in his seat.  The navigator looked back to him for orders.  The ship was ready.



Sharp Tooth looked at the tactical display of the meteor.  It would hit a safe distance from here, but it would be better for them to remain in the shelter of the small valley while the shock wave passed.  He hissed a stand by.  The navigator grunted acknowledgement.



As the tactical display changed, it occured to Sharp Tooth that this could be the cargo vessel they had detected up in orbit.  He contained his excitement.  They had not completely missed the battle.  Some of Broken Tusk's party must still be alive.  Not only that, but Sharp Tooth caressed the handle of his knife in anticipation of seeing some battle action himself.



The object impacted, and the navigator began to impatiently reach for the controls.  Sharp Tooth repeated his stand by order.  The young navigator quickly obeyed.  The shock wave was strong enough to knock everyone out of their seats, even from behind the protection of the canyon walls.



"In the air!" Sharp Tooth barked as he sat back down.  "Surveilance!"



Whatever was still going on, Sharp Tooth was determined not to go jumping in the middle of a battle he knew little about.  The ship lifted up and engaged the cloaking device.



As the ship neared the impact crater, the tactical display indicated large amounts of metal remnants.  More than the cargo vessel that had been in orbit.  Since there were no other ships detected, there must have been something on the ground that was hit by the meteor.  Sharp Tooth admonished himself for not scouting the area beforehand.  He also noticed with disappointment that none of his crew seemed to challenge him for this oversight.



As the ship passed over the crater, a very small metallic object was detected.  It was so small, it looked like a piece of debris from the impact, but it was almost floating.  Sharp Tooth ordered a scan of the object.  It was a metallic, alien container that was dropping under the controll of a couple of parachutes.  A Predator life form was inside, as well as signs of an alien life form.



"Investigate!"  Sharp Tooth barked.  The object had landed before his ship reached it.  As he landed, he noticed that the tactical display registered that both life forms on board were moving.  As his ship landed, the Predator and the alien had already gotten out of the container.  The alien was approximately the right size to have made the footprints at the ship wreckage.  Sharp Tooth grabbed his single-ended spear, but hissed a standby to his crew as he stepped onto the loading ramp.  They remained at their posts in the ship.  He would not be taken as easily as Broken Tusk had.



Sharp Tooth stepped down from the landing ramp.  He carefully looked at the two figures a short distance away.  The alien figure was merely sitting beside the Predator.  The Predator was laying down, badly injured.  A large Xenomorph hand was embedded in the Predator's shoulder.  From the size of it, it must have been a queen.  Sharp Tooth realized with pride that the Predator was Broken Tusk.  Broken Tusk had battled a Xenomorph queen in close combat.  Sharp Tooth would have to praise this honorable death well to the elders.  Sharp Tooth called his crew out, so that they could witness this great warrior's death.



Broken Tusk had said something in a strange language and voice.  Sharp Tooth figured the language must be something the alien figure understood.  The alien was sitting very close to Broken Tusk, and it was difficult to see what they were doing.  The alien was speaking softly to Broken Tusk.  Broken Tusk said something that Sharp Tooth recognized "Remember you".  This was a language used by a species that had been known to the Predator for a long time.  This species was known to cause trouble, despite their weak bodies and inferior technology.  Sharp Tooth contained his anger in respect for Broken Tusk, who was very close to release.  Sharp Tooth beamed in admiration as he witnessed Broken Tusk die as a great warrior.



The alien figure slowly stood up.  It was an incredibly thin, fragile creature.  Sharp Tooth marveled at how this creature could possibly have survived battle.  The creature turned around.  It was an ugly face.  The lower sides were covered with dirt and water.  There was a reddish substance oozing from a wound in the middle of it's forehead.  Sharp Tooth hissed as he realized that Broken Tusk must have burned the wound on the alien.  The shape of the wound was rough, but it resembled the emblem that Broken Tusk would have placed on Sharp Tooth's son after completion of the rite of passage.  He heard the reaction of his crew as they saw the mark of victory against the Xenomorph on the head of the alien.



Broken Tusk had marked this alien as a warrior.  Sharp Tooth reminded himself that the alien's size must be deceiving.  If the great warrior Broken Tusk had respect for this creature, the creature must be worthy of great respect.  Such a creature that could battle with the Xenomorph at the side of Broken Tusk would be a great asset.  It would be foolish to ignore this opportunity.  Sharp Tooth took his spear from its sling on his back.  The creature stood still as he approached.  It was not fearfull of his greater size.  Sharp Tooth raised his spear to strike.  The creature closed its eyes, but did not retreat.  This was an impressive alien.  Sharp Tooth completed his request by driving his spear into the ground in front of the creature.



The creature opened its eyes, but still did not move.  Sharp Tooth stepped back, the ritual nearly complete.  The alien creature looked at the spear.  Did it understand the invitation it had just received?  The alien looked around and said something "They're safe now".  Sharp Tooth did not understand what that meant.  It might have been part of a ritual that was common for the alien's kind.  The alien looked back to Sharp Tooth and the spear and spoke again "I'm done here".  Sharp Tooth understood that phrase enough to know the alien was speaking of completion.  It did understand, and had already made its choice.



The creature grabbed the spear, and gave it a yank.  The spear did not move.  Sharp Tooth had purposefully driven the spear deeply into the ground as a test of the creature's strength.  He began to doubt that the creature would be able to pull the spear out.  Failing this test would be a defeat.  The mark of victory over the Xenomorph would mean nothing if the alien wasn't able to pull a simple spear out of the ground.



The creature changed its grip on the handle and yanked again.  This time, the spear came completely out of the ground.  Satisfied, Sharp Tooth and his crew roared a welcome to the new member of the team.  The ceremony complete, his crew began to walk back on board the ship.  Sharp Tooth remained to watch the new crew member walk up to him.  He was curious to learn more about this being, who appeared to be a female of the species.  She offered him his spear back.  How much did she know about the warrior code?  Had she changed her mind?  She sat there calmly, still facing the ship.  Sharp Tooth said in his best English "Keep it."  This was a small risk.  If the she changed her mind, he would have lost a spear to a non-ally.  Sharp Tooth must not show anticipation over this risk, so he turned and walked up the loading ramp.  The new crew member carried the spear as she boarded the ship behind him.



Sharp Tooth ordered a complete scan of the area.  He hoped that there were more answers nearby.  Hopefully, there would be more than what was destoryed in the meteor impact.  Sure enough, there were a large number of aliens and vehicles not too far from the new crater.  As they begin to approach, the new crew member began energetically speaking of stopping.  Sharp Tooth decided that she must be recommending to him to leave the rest of her kind alone.  He barked a denial, he still needed answers.  She continued talking, obviously not understanding his order.  He decided that they would have to work on this language barrier.  She became more insistent.  She even approached him and began yelling directly at him, but he didn't understand much of what she said.  As they got nearer, her face began to change expression.  Sharp Tooth almost guessed it as anger or fear.  Water was coming out of her eyes.  Sharp Tooth had never seen this before, and had no idea what it meant.  Was she going to challenge him?  She landed a punch in his chest.  She obviously wasn't attacking him, not with that little poke.  The show of strength was not impressive, though not bad for her size.  Sharp Tooth decided that she had communicated her insistence that her kind be left alone.  He regarded her calmly for a moment.  She stood her ground.  Was she trying to protect her new crew?  Did she still feel loyalty to her species, and was trying to protect them?  He would definately have to get a report from her, somehow.  In the meantime, there was little information scanned that suggested the group below was anything more than a refugee camp.  Disappointed, he growled an order to the navigator.



Despite the questions that remained, things had gone well.  His son had died with the great Broken Tusk in an honorable battle.  The elders should have no trouble accepting the new crew member with Sharp Tooth's report and the mark of victory over the Xenomorph.  Broken Tusk's name would be engraved at the hall of heros to be repsected forever.  His son would not have that honor, since there was no witness to how he died.  Losing life in the same battle as Broken Tusk was enough to honor the family name, though.  Overall, today was a good day for them to die.