Private You Earn Your Prizes

[Aberrant]

Aberrant had been given leave to satiate the driving hunger she felt. An abnormality perhaps to her mutations yet discovered, her metabolism seemed to tread the side of exceeding her stature. The feeling of an empty stomach was an upsetting one given her relatively limited knowledge of her own body so early in her life.

Something she wished dearly to remedy as she tread the depths of a cave system in search of an appropriate meal. What were likely similar to human teeth had been replaced with near indentical enhancements to her jaw and teeth.

Sharp and narrowing to a point, they were readily more adapted to meats than anything else at first glance. Some of the jagged points melded into flatter grinding tools, though only a few comparatively.

She had stalked through the winding tunnels, stumbling across the large winged creatures finally that made their homes in the dark and cold areas. Had secured herself a meal when the tendrils on her head writhed in warning of an alarming amount of chattering and keening cries from down the tunnel.

She arched to glance down the dark passage, her eyes adjusting to a heat sensory as a zing of fear crawled across the plates of her body and pumped adrenaline through her limbs.

She took off from a crouch, having been tucked into her meal only a short time as the thunderous wing-beats fell onto her trail. Her legs pumped hard, the muscles protesting the shift from cautioned comfort to excited effort.

She cleared the tunnel entrance, claws gripping the rocky landscape as she pulled and pushed her way through the jagged landscape. She reached out through that power inherent to her, felt the life energies of the creatures behind her, baying and screeching their disdain as she ducked through and between crags in vain hope of escape.

At the very edges of her perception was another tingle of life. Perhaps something dangerous enough to aid in warding off the bats that kept their chase on her heels.

She banked left, wing extending and solidly planting itself into the rocks there as she pushed herself with alarming speed towards the growing signs of life. She needed to break the bats line of sight and scent trail. Hopefully whatever was coming up would aid in that regard as she lept between a set of large sky piercing rocks that bore themselves as fangs.

Her form was nearly a blur to the common eye, mind racing along with her limbs to keep her from being snagged on anything or ending up in a dead end with no way out. She could sense those life forms drawing ever closer as she heard the shrieks of rage behind her slowly gaining. The things were alarmingly fast, a misstep of confidence on her part.

Thova 'Mdanam or one in his camp would see a pair of wings on the outcropping of rocks at first, protruding from the strange being that ran at breakneck pace in front of a small swarm of the Draeyde hot on its heels.

 

[Thova 'Mdanam]

Thova disliked detached ground duty. He was a Fleetmaster, and while the name might be misleading to other nations of the galaxy, it did not necessarily mean Thova only operated in space. Quite the contrary, a Fleetmaster was expected to be the paragon of all Vaydralen military might, able to command both ground and naval forces with ease. And while Thova certainly could do that, he still had his preference for naval operations. The current mission he was on made him long for the calm void of space even more.

The Bryn'adul had requested, if such a word existed to the Empire, that a Vaydralen officer be dispatched to this planet to give a detailed military report on the planets current defenses, military potential, and flaws. Other species could certainly have done so, but the Bryn'adul recognized the highly logic based and detail oriented Vaydralen mindset would be best suited to give an accurate report. As the nearest officer, and returning from an extended patrol duty near Concord space, Thova had been selected to take on the assignment by the Ish'makra Council. He detested it, but they were his orders.

The Vaydralen had set up a relatively small camp, with three large rectangular buildings set up in a curved semi circle shape, surrounded by ramparts erected using heaps of dirt. It was hardly a fortress the likes of the Super Constructs, but it was meant to be a temporary settlement only long enough for the Centurion teams spread out across the region to gather the data they needed. Thova was emerging from one of these three buildings, his pure crimson armor standing out starkly against the rather neutral colored environment when an alarmed was raised.

Snapping his head around, Thova watched the sudden appearance of Aberrant over the horizon, followed quickly by the swarm of creatures on her heels. He was not sure who, or even what, she was, but he knew what the things chasing her were. Vaydralen teams had suffered rather sporadic attacks by the creatures during their efforts across the planet, though they had yet to suffer any casualties. Around the camp, other Vaydralen warriors were running to the hastily built ramparts, rifles in their hands. Thova was quick to join them, and almost in unison, the Vaydralen warriors opened fire on the Draeyde swarm. They fired to give the creature being chased some breathing room, and Thova gestured for her to get inside the camps perimeter.

 

[Aberrant]

Thova 'Mdanam​

The cadre of sensory organs sprouting from her head writhed in warning once more before the first incoming round of fire passed over her head, making her lean into the run to put her even lower beneath the firing arc of weapons ahead of her.

It was a tacit understanding that the beings ahead of her were providing her with cover, giving her some relief from the worry that caused her to shift her plan a little.

Her wings fanned out further, keeping her balanced as she spied someone beckoning her forward. She didn’t miss the chance, turning her path towards the being inside the walls ahead. Pushing forward, she didn't need to look back to hear the screams and pained screeches of the winged beasts to know the weapons ahead of her were in fact working.

She was alarmingly fast in the last half of her run to cover, form shifting to little more than a blur to those observing her. She was trying to open up the gap to let those covering her get a better firing arc on the bats. Making the embankment, her wings fanned, stabbing ahead of her before lifting her body up while she lept up and over. Her eyes flared like two suns as she controlled her fall.

Wings slowly folded as she cleared the makeshift wall, spinning around mid-air to swipe at any bat that followed her over. There was anger in her presence at being interrupted mid-meal as the bony tips snapped a wing from a bat and slashed another away from trying to claw at her.

Only a handful had been dedicated enough to follow her onto the weapons fire, the most angered of the lot screaming their distaste for the being that had entered the camp.