15 Chapter 15

(Another bonus! You guys are killing it with the powerstones and the support. Thanks so much for enjoying this!)

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"Ugh," Piere groaned in pain. He was starting to regain consciousness from the blow that was delivered to him.  Piere woke up in a cell with a massive headache.

"Where the fuck am I?" Piere looked around, trying to remember what happened. But before he could realize what was going on, he jumped back in fear. "What the fuck are those!"

Inside of the cell, besides Piere, were two things. One was a large, bulb-like egg that was opened at the top, resembling a flower blooming. Which would look much better if not for what appeared to be an empty sac inside of it that was filled with white and greed fluid. 

The other thing he saw was a small alien, most likely dead from the smoking hole that appeared on the side of it. It had very thin, pale skin that Piere could nearly see through. Many of its veins were visible. It had several digits and some things that resembled sacs on its body. 

"Gotten your bearings?" Piere heard someone talking behind him. 

He turned to see Jial, Boxe, and Zilvarth standing behind a forcefield. All of them were wearing their helmets so Piere couldn't tell what race the two Mandalorians were but he recognized Jial as the one who knocked him out.

"It's you!" Piere pointed his finger at Jial. "What happened to my crew? Where are you keeping them?"

"They're all dead," Jial replied indifferently. "You are the last one left alive. At least for now." Jial had his bio-mask in EM Vision mode, watching what was going on inside of Piere.

"Why did you spare me?" Piere asked before answering his own question. "Wait. I get it. I'll tell you everything we know. I'll give you all of the access codes as long as you let me live."

"I'm not interested in those," Jial shook his head, denying his plea. "Instead, I need your help. I'm trying to learn about that creature that is in there with you."

Piere turned to look at the alien lying dead in the corner. 

"It's already dead. What use how can I help you study it? Besides, I'm no xenobiologist!"

"Not that creature," Jial told him

Piere began to feel uneasy. Something in his gut was rumbling, telling him that something was about to happen. 

'Wait. Something is really wrong with my gut."

Piere wanted to say something but before he could, a small creature burst through his chest, killing him instantly.

"That creature," Jial joked morbidly to the corpse

The creature crawled out of the chest before standing on two feet and staring at Jial and the Mandalorians. The creature hissed at them, thinking they were predators.  Jial and the others observed it with interest and fascination.

It was a bipedal creature, with fully-formed arms and legs, as well as a translucent carapace and tail. 

The group of 3 continued to watch it for the next 10 minutes, watching it rapidly grow. The creature had soon reached a height of nearly 2.6 meters, forcing it to stand on all fours instead of standing on its hind legs. Its skin had turned black and grown much more muscular. 

The creature began ramming the forcefield and walls, trying to break out and kill the three watching it.

"The Praetomorph is more intimidating than I thought," Jial remarked, not expecting it to look so impressive in person. He had already looked it up in the Yautja database but the images in there could not compare to seeing the real thing before him.

"Are they dangerous?" Zilvarth asked

"Very, though these are less so than the originals. Its cousin is more intelligent but not as powerful while this one is stronger but more animalistic," Jial informed him of what he knew

"We killed the thing that infected him. Can it still reproduce?" Boxe asked, already sure of how dangerous of a weapon these things could be. She didn't even have to see it fight yet to be sure of that.

"Yes. It will create a hive and bring living creatures back to it. There, it will trap them in a resin before injecting them with its genetic material. After about a day, those that it has captured will be transformed into eggs like the one before."

"Sweet. How many more eggs do you have?" Boxe couldn't wait to breed some more of these for herself. She wanted to let them loose on a planet and see just how dangerous an army of them was.

"I have 2 more. So no need to worry about this one," Jial only made one to see how dangerous it was. "Let's get rid of it now."

The pair nodded, pulling out their weapons. Boxe extended her combistick while Zilvarth pulled out a pair of blaster pistols. Jial also turned his lightsaber into the combistick form, ready to kill the creature. 

"Careful of the blood. It's acidic," Jial advised while they walked to the end of the hallway. There, Zilvarth pressed a button, opening all of the cells. 

The Praetomorph waited no time, rushing out of the cell and down the hallway. The trio backed up even further into the open room behind them, with the creature trailing close behind them. 

Once they were in the open room, that was when the fight began. Boxe and Jial closed in on the creature and began fighting it in close combat from two different angles. Even with it being two-on-one, they still found it difficult. This creature was incredibly strong and its usage of its tail was remarkable. It would strike wildly, forcing the pair on the defensive. 

Zilvarth watched from a distance with his blaster rifle trained on the creature. If he saw either of them get truly overwhelmed, he was ready to put it down with a well-placed shot. 

After fighting for a few minutes, Boxe saw an opening. She stabbed her combistick down into its leg, forcing the creature to let out a cry of pain. It turned its attention away from Jial and was ready to swipe at her. But this was a mistake. 

When it turned away from Jial, he stabbed at its neck, piercing it with one blow. He then swung his blade, cutting through the back half of its neck and spine, killing the creature instantly. 

Boxe and Jial let out primal roars of victory, having slain the creature. Jial cut off one of the creature's fingers before lifting it up to his helmet and making a lightning bolt on it with the creature's acidic blood. This was a ceremony that Yautja performed to show that they had successfully slain a Xenomorph/Praetomorph. He then took that same finger to his right arm and made the same mark on his bicep, careful not to let it burn too deeply. 

Boxe saw this and thought it was interesting. She cut off one of its fingers herself before burning through her body suit and marking her upper left arm with the same symbol that Jial had done. She also tried to mark her helmet but the Beskar held strong and was not burned. 

"Congratulations, Boxe. With this, we are both blooded. With this, we are true Yautja," Jial congratulated herself and himself. The Yautja helped him begin his journey and he knew that he would not be able to follow all of their traditions. But he was glad he was able to at least complete this one in order to honor those who had helped him.