The Nature of Predators - The Sacrifice (4/6) (Patreon)

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Memory transcription subject: Cedric Flynn, Human Civilian

Date [standardized human time]: March 5, 2137

The charged energy reached my veins with an exhilarating rush, as my senses were dialed in with the world around me. I felt alive. It was empowering to have a stranglehold on my environment, watching the Yulpa bumble right into my traps. I’d been at times a stone’s throw away, stalking them and waiting for a prime opportunity. There were numerous other lethal devices for them to activate, and I could be invisible when it suited me. Any “clues” they’d find to track me would be left by design.

The most satisfactory part of my morning was seeing Kippe glimpse me for a second, and startle at how close I’d been all along. There was an unmistakable glint of fear in her eyes; one of her underlings had despaired at how they were being picked off, little by little. That predator catcher had needed to restore her companions’ faith, and I was taking her threat to gun me down with gratuitous bullets seriously. I monitored their progress in pursuing me, and tried to trample just the right branches to steer them toward traps. Before my watching eyes, a careless Yulpa triggered a spring spear trap, despite the prior warnings—from the amount of oily blood seeping out, that was the fourth kill I’d scored.

Kippe can’t blindly chase after me, unless she wants to watch more people fall into traps. There’s plenty more of those set up all over; an errant step spells their death.

As successful as my improvised contraptions had been, I knew I needed a plan to escape this planet. The woods were encircled by an excessive amount of armed personnel, from the peek I’d stolen. If I did eliminate Kippe’s crew, the Yulpa would likely elect to destroy the entire forest, to ensure I didn’t persist on their world. My time to brainstorm a way out was dwindling, but I’d yet to hatch an idea that didn’t involve outside help. There was a shortage of Yulpa sympathetic to my situation, given what I’d heard from the bloodthirsty crowd. I also doubted that human-allied Coalition members stayed in contact with predator sacrificing lunatics. It was odd to think of the Venlil chumming up to these monsters.

Most of our allies had cut off relations with Federation members in general, except for peacemakers like the Suleans and Iftalis. I found it suspect how nobody had warned humanity about a brutal race like the Yulpa, whose mission was oriented toward capturing us for a grisly fate. Beyond my own plight, I needed to get home to warn any other Terrans about these cultists; their intentions for humanity were cut and dry. We couldn’t afford to answer distress calls that weren’t from verified Sapient Coalition races…and even then, we needed to keep an eye out. I wouldn’t put it past someone like Kippe to take a human-allied crew hostage, using them to bait us in. Hopefully, I could come up with a plan to get home while stalking this band now.

“I’ve been thinking…” a scatterbrained individual named Mallin piped up.

Kippe groaned. “That’s never a good thing.”

“How are you sure we’re chasing the right predator? You said it was covered in leaves and dirt. Humans don’t have leaf-like fur, and it couldn’t have gotten that dirty that quickly.”

“I saw its form, watching us. The predator purposefully stuck leaves to its skin, so it would blend in. It is possible to change your appearance on purpose, Mallin.”

“Huh. We should try that!” The male Yulpa scooped up a pawful of leaves, and slapped them on Kippe’s scruff. He looked crestfallen when they cascaded to the ground. “Nope. Doesn’t work.”

“That’s what the dirt is for, you imbecile! Mud is sticky.”

“But the ground here isn’t wet. Am I supposed to spit on the dirt? Oh, don’t tell me, that must be what it did. How much saliva does that predator have?!”

I shoved my fist against my mouth, and bit hard into the inside of my cheek; any laughter had to be muffled. It was amusing to watch Mallin be mystified and amazed by basic things, but I had to settle for containing the snickers while smirking to myself. Was his idea that I was standing over the ground, drooling several feet of water? That Yulpa was worth his weight in gold for entertainment—and he didn’t seem to be helpful in tracking me down. I wouldn’t be stopping him from wandering into traps, but I target him last for any sneak attacks. Seeing Kippe seethe was an additional incentive to keep him alive.

“It’s not as if there could possibly be water sources nearby where mud already existed. That would make too much sense,” Kippe sneered.

Mallin tilted his head. “That makes no sense. The human wouldn’t know where to find water—it’s never been here.”

“It looked for water, like you should be looking for traps. I don’t want to hear another peep from you unless you see the beast.”

The Yulpa team meandered forward in silence, as I crept toward the rear of their formation; I was tailing right behind them, ready to slit the throat of anyone who straggled or turned back. My intention hadn’t been for them to venture close to my camp so swiftly, but Kippe was leading them in the correct direction. I’d proven myself a capable adversary who could lead her astray, so I suspected she was following her intuition rather than my breadcrumbs. My eyes checked for the occasional notches I’d left low on tree trunks, steering clear of my own traps. It was almost too easy to follow the predator catchers, like chasing after a toddler on a tricycle. They weren’t subtle or good at pushing the pace.

I’m basically a walking Emergency Order 56 violation. What I’ve been doing in these woods would probably strip me of personhood, even in our alleged friends’ eyes.

In fairness, the Yulpa started it; they could’ve left me alone, to ferry my shipment to Liberty’s Bastion, and none of this would’ve happened. This posse waltzing toward my actual camp meant they were heading straight toward the spike pits. The gaping holes had taken quite the effort to dig into the path, but I pushed through the lactic acid and exhaustion to complete the job. With Kippe heading the pack, I was hopeful that she’d end up on the wrong side of a pointed stick. These trenches had the potential to maim the victims, and make the remainder of the party sitting ducks as they rushed to rescue their comrade. Banking on that assumption, I’d included a second element to my trap that enhanced its deviousness—a testament to the upper bounds of human cruelty.

“Something doesn’t feel right. The predator is watching us…I sense its gaze!” The wail belonged to a Yulpa named Anla, who seemed particularly fearful since my first trap struck. I might feel bad for her, if she wasn’t part of the group that intended to stab me in thirteen places and burn my fingers off. What I was doing was for survival, while these predator catchers wanted to torture humans for sport. “There has to be one of its traps nearby, with how open this path is. I don’t want to walk into it. I don’t!”

Kippe skidded to a halt, just short of the spike pit. “We’re not turning back, Anla. I don’t see any of its tripwires or ropes, but if it makes you feel better…who has a spear? Hulth? Go sweep the path ahead with your spear, show that there’s nothing there.”

Hulth gripped his spear with a bluish tongue that looked much too long, maneuvering it back and forth in front of him like a metal detector being waved over beach sands. The assessment that there were no tripwires, like the triggers for the other traps, was correct; by design, everything looked innocuous enough. The entire purpose was that the ground looked normal, right up until the point it gave way under their feet. This scrawny Yulpa sent forth by Kippe padded forward a few paces, after ensuring that the path was clear. There was a crunch as his feet trampled the concealing layer of leaves and twigs, and pushed through to the brittle sticks supporting them.

The shabby wooden cover above the pit snapped beneath the weight of a five-foot-tall, eight-foot-long quadruped. Surprise flickered across the Yulpa’s features, as he plummeted a short drop onto the spikes I’d placed together. The sharp ends pierced Hulth’s belly and legs, though it was difficult to see the specifics from my vantage point. The predator catcher howled in pain, while finding himself skewered deep onto the poles; he was a living kebab, gushing black blood that pushed him toward the Great Beyond. The rest of his posse looked stunned, before a medically-inclined individual rushed forward.

These herbivores accused us “predators” of weaponizing so-called prey empathy. If that’s what they want, they’re about to see what saving their comrades buys them, when a human is truly out to get them.

The Yulpa rushing to lend medical aid, and perhaps find a way to finesse Hulth off the poles, ran up the path beside his pit. Little to her knowledge, a second pit had been dug directly beside this one—on the edges of the path, the spot someone would stand when running to aid their brethren. The ground dropped out from beneath the new arrival’s feet too. Her legs tipped far enough forward that she landed throat-first on the poles, which was an instant fatality. I could hear outright horrified screams from the predator catchers, as my second punch landed. It was as if they couldn’t avoid walking into my traps.

“It’s d-dug out the ground?” Anla screeched, backing away from the pits. “That’s it. I’m going back this way, the way we came, where at least we know it’s clear of traps.”

Kippe offered a flustered hiss. “You’re not going anywhere! This is my mission, and I’m not leaving without this predator.”

“I don’t think you’re leaving at all. None of us will be! This mission has gotten out of control, Kippe. I’m getting out of here, and telling them to start bombing this place. We just need to guarantee this thing is dead—look what it fucking did!”

“If we can’t catch or kill this human, then we’ve failed the Spirit of Life. Six Yulpa, friends of ours, would’ve died for nothing!”

“More friends will die if we don’t. It’s time to swallow your pride, and admit the predator won. But I will not be one of its victims—there are much easier sacrifices to get. Other humans.”

That comment from Anla made my features twist into a scowl; it confirmed my suspicions that my capture was only the start of their kidnapping attempts. If they had abducted someone without my skillset, those humans would be powerless to stop such a ghastly fate. After my escapade, I was certain the Yulpa would make the confinement airtight regardless. It was obvious from Kippe’s behavior that my escape was a great embarrassment to the predator catchers, and that whoever was the first to spill Terran blood in an arena would be revered. How could any sapient race dare to threaten my species in such a barbaric way?

My resolve hardened, as I vowed to do everything in my power to stop this from happening to someone else. I had to survive, and find a way off this world. Anla was bolting directly toward me, from my camouflaged spot within a bush, and I couldn’t let this Yulpa coward run off. If she convinced local authorities to go ahead with bombing the forest, that would be the end of me. No ideas were popping into my head for how to escape, but I had to come up with something. Getting out of here was the definite first step; the second part finding my way back to a city, and crafting a plan to access a spaceship. I would need some form of outside assistance to breach the forest perimeter, which meant one of these Yulpa had to be kept alive.

“Kippe,” I mouthed to myself, not producing any sounds from my vocal cords. “I’ll take her captive—to a foreign world, to Earth—and see how she likes it. She can testify about their exact plans. And right now, she can clear out the thousands of guards surrounding these woods for me.”

My pupils fixated on Anla running toward me, flint knife ready in my hand, as my legs bunched up in a crouched position. This Yulpa was going to be one of my victims; if this forest was bombed to oblivion, it wouldn’t be because I let her get away. In a swift, silent motion, I ensnared her neck in a suffocating grip; my forearm pressed against tough sinew, restraining her. The other predator catchers had spotted me, so I worked without an instant of hesitation. Acting in a single second, I slit her throat with the flint knife.

As black blood spilled from Anla’s neck in volumes that would render her dead in heartbeats, I set about to take her tools for myself. That was the point of getting up-close-and-personal: a gun was more valuable than any spear. Using the Yulpa’s body as a shield from incoming rounds, I unstrapped a sidearm from her foreleg. The outline of the dart gun she’d put away, when Kippe ordered them to fill me with bullets next time I was sighted, was visible within her back satchel. I popped the flap open and took the nonlethal weapon as well. I didn’t know if I’d use the tranquilizer, but it had the advantage of being silent and giving me additional ammo.

“Shoot that demon!” Kippe roared, eyes manic with rage. “I want its skull as a trophy! I want to pin it on my wall with my other sacrifices! You’re dead, human, dead!”

Still using Anla’s weighty body as a shield, I fired off a series of shots around her form. The predator catchers had been whittled down to thirteen remaining souls, from an original headcount of twenty, but I intended to bring them down to just Kippe. Cool under pressure, I popped off three headshots in close succession, then sent a fourth bullet into a Yulpa’s center of mass. It didn’t escape my notice that Mallin had brought out those pans he mentioned; Kippe’s dense sidekick was holding one in front of his head as a shield. I ignored that clown, but decided my next shot was intended to cripple an enemy. I hadn’t checked how many shots I had left in the magazine, but hobbling one would slow multiple bodies down.

The Yulpa were fanning out to get a better angle to shoot me, so I knew I needed to scamper off soon. Not wasting a second, I lined up my sights on an alien’s hindleg kneecap, and depressed the trigger. When the bullet struck its mark, another predator catcher went down; his eight remaining comrades would have to support him, now that he couldn’t walk. Mallin was a non-factor, and two of the competent sadists would be forced to act as breathing crutches. That meant there were five hostiles that posed a true threat to me, but it should be easy to rid Kippe of the last of her team…as long as I could slip away. It was becoming clear that I ruled the darkness here.

I shoved Anla’s body toward the predator catcher, before slithering back into the bushes. Keeping low to the ground to avoid a barrage of bullets, I rolled toward a small hill. Taking shelter in a bush near to a slope granted me a quick escape, which the Yulpa would be slower to navigate. I slid from foothold to foothold, before popping back to my feet near the bottom. The deafening claps of gunfire ceased, because the xenos had lost sight of me. I’d taken off running as soon as I righted myself; I checked the sidearm’s magazine as I hustled. There were three bullets left, which meant I could shoot some, but not all of them. It was a good thing I snagged the dart gun after all. That gave me options, beyond the bloody knife which had returned to my waistband, and what I had lying around the forest.

There’s still a few traps lying around, but the Yulpa have seen my bag of tricks. It’s likely that I’ll be forced to get my hands dirty…and to hurry, before even Kippe votes to bomb this forest with me inside.

As trees blurred together around me, an idea for where to go after escaping this wilderness popped into my head. The Sapient Coalition had likely cut off all relations with the Yulpa, but there might be another set of neutral—sometimes grudging—allies to Earth, that had a presence on this world. The Duerten Shield weren’t fond of humanity, yet they did have a pure military pact with us. Of all the parties on this planet, they were the likeliest to aid me in getting off-world. If there were any open embassies from the 40+ species in the Shield, I just had to find out where they were.

That gave me a full itinerary to carry out. After I took out Kippe’s minions, I’d take my captor as a hostage, and coerce her into clearing out surrounding personnel. While waiting for the armed presence to leave their posts, I’d need to access one of the holopads the Yulpa were carrying. As long as there was a visual translator at hand, I could search up where the Duerten Shield embassies were. From there, it was the matter of finding the stealthiest route to the nearest one, and persuading them to help. I could decide the winningest argument after reading their…reaction to my arrival. Hopefully, said reaction wouldn’t be shooting the trespassing predator on sight.

A proud smile tugged at my lips. This plan was to my liking, much more than running for the hills and improvising. With a feasible plot to get out of here, it was no longer about taking as many Yulpa as I could down with me. This was about finishing off a shell-shocked group of survivors, and forcing Kippe to help me get home—back to my life on Earth. Most importantly, this was a mission I had to see through to completion, for the safety of every spacefaring Terran. I had been the first human sacrifice brought here, and I would do everything in my power to ensure I was also the last.

Kippe was going to watch her monstrous allies fall, before the abduction script was flipped to give her the comeuppance she deserved.

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A/N - Part 4! Cedric continues to stalk Kippe and her crew, as Mallin is busy wondering how our human could possibly find mud. The spike pit is seen in action, with the devious ploy to dig a second one beside it to get whoever ran to lend medical aid. This is enough to make Anla panic, with the intent of running off to have the forest bomb; she runs right into our waiting human, and winds up being how he gets his hands on some firearms.

What do you think of Cedric's plan to use the Shield, as the source of help he needs from somewhere to get off-world? Will Kippe, in fact, watch the rest of her people die, due to her prideful refusal to turn back?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!