V M In what furnace was thy brain?

Klarion

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Liv is grateful that she has her harness to propel her across the desert, the metal arms allowing her to navigate over a mixture of rocky terrain and burning sand without causing damage to herself. To say that she has a good idea of where she’s headed would be a bold-faced lie, but she’s pretty unwilling to admit that to herself right now, pressing onward through a wall of searing heat with Hakkasan’s map clenched tightly between her fingers.

“The being you’re looking for is a yautja,” the Argonian accountant had said to her before she’d left Karim, indicating the drawing sketched loosely beside the map: a fearsome creature with flared mandibles and a scaly visage. “You might have heard of them— a people of hunters, the yautja live off-planet, but frequently visit Mesa Roja to hunt a particular quarry for sport... creatures brought in from Inverxe, bred and released underground for... training purposes.”

“Training purposes?” Liv asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.

Hakkasan nodded. “Yes. The youngest of them practice their craft within ruins deep beneath the sand, where their prey wander in the dark. Now, at least one yautja has been spotted near the site of their underground training area. If you can find this base, you will undoubtedly encounter the yautja, and whatever technology they have brought with them—“

“Claim whatever you like,” Grandmother Cottonmouth hissed suddenly, the length of her body sinking back into the water with a soundless splash. “Return to this place afterward, and fulfill our agreement... Hakkasan will direct you out.”

And that, as they say, was that.

Sighing in frustration after looking fruitlessly at the map once more, Liv slows to a stop as a mountainous outcropping of boulders comes into view up ahead, the very same she’d made camp beside so long ago. The four arms holding her aloft relax and retreat beneath her outermost layer of clothing, the mechanical appendages gently lowering their creator to the ground. Maybe she’s due for a rest.

Just as she begins to walk forward, however, a harsh, jarring screech—distinctly inhuman in its rage—meets her ears, echoing eerily over the empty sands. Hair prickling up on the back of her neck, Liv creeps nearer to the boulder-sized hunks of rock, crouching down to hide from view.

With the utmost delicacy, she peers around the edge.

An impressively large winged beast crouches on the other side, scaly face twisted into a snarl and showcasing a set of jaws lined with wickedly-sharp teeth. A long, barbed tail arches out from the dragonoid creature’s spine like a cord of thick rope, the muscles of their body appearing simultaneously toned and jagged, almost skeletal. Eyes the color of burning torches glare at a point somewhere on the rock a few feet to the right of Liv’s head, absolutely focused in their hatred.

Curious to see the target of this winged reptile’s ire, Liv follows their line of sight, gaining an eyeful of the pulverized, bloody remains of some poor desert creature splattered against the mountainside, nothing more than a Rorschach blot of red and cracked bone. Cringing in disgust, she looks back toward the beast— only to find two blazing orange-yellow eyes staring right back at her, heated and murderously intent.

Ducking down behind the large hunk of red sandstone, Liv allows her mechanical limbs to flourish outward from under her lab coat, the inflated arms encircling her body in a protective cage. Just as she readies herself for a fight, powerful gusts of air whoosh around her, sand and dust whipping up in a reddish, choking cloud.

Although the lenses of her goggles are obscured by a curtain of gritty dirt, Liv can just barely see as two massive, spiky shadows fan out across the sands— the jagged silhouette of wings.

There is a loud thunk as the dragonoid creature lands atop the rock she has taken shelter against, powerful vibrations rocking through the ground under her feet and sending pebbles skittering down over her shoulders and head. The chilling sound of talons scraping over stone has her hunching down further, her crouched form still hidden in the rock’s shade. The lights of the harness strapped to her frame blink reassuringly in the dark, the green and black metal glinting dimly despite her best wishes to blend into her surroundings.

A long, thin skull—much like a pterodactyl‘s, come to think of it— leans out, tilting this way and that as the dragon’s amber eyes scour the terrain and sky for any sign of her. The creature’s shadow hangs dangerously over Liv’s head with all the dangerousness of a guillotine, a set of fearsome jaws glinting in the harsh sun. Specks of gore and shining viscera dribble down, the coppery smell of blood stinking up the air and making Liv want to retch.

For a long, frightening moment, the creature holds still, hovering overhead like some kind of demented gargoyle and sniffing intermittently at the air. From her position underneath, Liv can see every bump and ridge that lines the creature’s purplish-grey hide, the spiky horns attached to their scalp and facial plates.

The dragon’s head angles slowly downward, eyes bright and feral as their pupils contract to tiny, slitted points. Something like a smirk curves the beast’s elongated maw, twisted and strange around a jaw chock-full of teeth.

Liv bares her teeth in kind, her weaponized appendages flexing outward to make herself appear bigger. This is obviously a much stronger opponent than the Le-matya, and she doesn’t expect she’ll come out of this battle quite so unscathed— or perhaps at all— but that doesn’t mean she’s about to back down without a fight.

There’s something else, though. Past all the animalistic fervor, there seems to be... genuine intelligence behind the creature’s gaze. Something beyond the bare bones sentience one might find in other beasts.

This is encouraging. Liv decides to be encouraged, damn it.

“Hey there,” she says, grinning crookedly and stupidly aware of how tiny she is in comparison to this massive... thing. “My goodness, you are positively tremendous. Very fearsome! Er, I don’t suppose we can forget all about this, go our separate ways?”
 

Ridley

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This little hominid was an entertaining find. Ridley found himself looking at a human, another human, the same parasites that infested so very much of this deserted place.

A human that saw his embarrassing display of rage, to boot. It didn’t bother Ridley very much, in all honesty, but then, it didn’t really require much motivation for him to find and fillet one of the wretched little pink-skinned apes that roamed the universe. The fact that such frail, useless, stupid and emotional creatures had become so formative in the universe’s history was one of the great mistakes of Darwinism the reptilian apex predator badly wished to correct.

This one was definitely distinctive, though. Both it’s head-fur and face were of different colours, different stylings than he’d normally seen from that wretched race. Most humans were so similar he’d find them difficult to pick out of a crowd. This one clearly wished to stand out, since Ridley saw just enough differences in terms of look and bearing he’d only have a little trouble telling her apart from another ape, even without the distinct metallic arms sitting behind her back.

They would not save her, and as drool flew in droplets from his mouth, spattering the rock and falling to the ground beneath his prey, he looked forward to dissecting this little specimen piece by bloody-

“Hey there. My goodness, you are positively tremendous. Very fearsome! Er, I don’t suppose we can forget all about this, go our separate ways?”

The dragon paused. His chest started beating just a little faster as his rage grew in his stomach. This little bitch…

A-are you Mr. R-Ridley? I-I’m Samus. Th-three years old…

Those words from that bitch, that traitorous little parasite who had pulled the tyrant down from his comfortable perch at the top time and time again, and of course this little morsel brings back old memories of her and the denial of a kill that was rightfully his!
Slaughtered.
Eaten.
It was supposed to be that simple, that was what he had earned, and instead he was standing in this infernal desert hunting a simple human by himself, with no minions, no food…

It was enough to send Ridley past the feeling of murderous rage, of sadistic pleasure, to the point where his appetite was utterly ruined.

The drake’s desire for destruction… deflated like a leaky balloon. Once again, The Hunter stood to deny him!

But The Hunter wasn’t even here to vent his frustrations upon this time.


Instead, the pterodactyl glared down towards the little woman, with a look of disdain on his face.

Smoke flew from his nostrils, and the air grew hot as Ridley’s rage caused his body to burn, just as it had those weeks ago on Zebes. Steam emanated from his fiery countenance as he gave the woman a grin with narrowed eyes. His tail began whipping from side to side as his wings loosened and relaxed.

“Go our separate ways?” The monster asked his new annoyance. “But we’ve only just met~”

“Right! And well met, uhhh…”

The Dragon glared back, searching her body with his eyes.

“Well!” The woman decided to offer, giving a very nervous smile that belied the fact she was studying her counterpart as well - in her case, likely looking for a chance to escape.

“I am Olivia Octavius. It’s, well, it’s quite a pleasure to meet someone so well spoken and but I really do need to get going on my-”

The Dragon Snapped forward, face held in curiosity, and the woman was quick to react, jumping backwards. To anyone else, the acrobatic display of reflex would have been enough to escape scot-free - and in different circumstances Ridley would have found it quite difficult to catch his nimble opponent

But he clever drake had positioned himself for just such an occurrence, slowly shifting closer with every word, and the effort it took to snuff out Olivia’s acrobatic display was as simple as leaning forward and going for a wide grab with his beastly arm.

Some may prefer to rely on tricks of wit, or skill, but Ridley had always preferred relying on good honest brute force and size wherever he could, and his experience with knowing how to use it certainly came with it’s advantages…

Such as the currently squirming doctor sitting in his clutches. Ridley felt rather than saw the… metallic? - tentacles as he held her closer. The woman tried to struggle free as she saw the dragon bring her closer, and he turned his head to the side to get a good look at her machinery.

“So it is a harness, and soft metal.” the Drake rumbled. “But the smell… a steel alloy. It must have traces of gold by the feel… you made this from Terran metals?” The dragon asked.

With that question, the doctor’s eyes lit up, perhaps seeing a chance at escape, as the tentacles deflated. Likely to allow her to refill them and burst his grip later - he’d keep that possibility in mind.

“Well, once I figured out how to miniaturize my metallurgy properly and with some helpful guidance from little nano-machines I like to work with-”

“-you made it out of several small pieces of the metal built from a larger, pre-constructed alloy!”

“-Well, yes, although I had to-”

“-Do it all at once to make sure the Metals all had a weak bond-”

“While still being distinct scales on a near atomic level-”

“Which requires manual labor with specialized plastics since-”

“It requires a high electromagnetic force to even work under those conditions, yes!”

“-At least without some strong physics-altering stone like Tellozite-”

“Oh, What’s Tellozite?”

Ridley blinked, one long, slow orange eye opening and closing, as he slowly set the scientist onto her feet, the researcher’s question breaking the chain of finishing each other’s sentences. “...It’s a metal popularly known for its effect on atomic bonds when heated to 6000 degrees Fahrenheit… though it seems the alloys in my part of the galaxy are as unknown to you as they are in the rest of this backwater junkyard of a solar system….”

Olivia slowly nodded, looking up at the massive beast with curiosity “So is it unavailable here, then?”

“It’s available in… small quantities. It’s not known to this planet’s inhabitants, so they treat it as junk stone. Fools…”

And Olivia’s expression brightened. “That’s… Very interesting, mister…. Err…”

“I am known as Lord Ridley, space pirate general, butcher of billions of human lives, the nightmare of the galactic federation, and the Apex predator of the universe.” the Dragon responded, glare returning as the conversation shifted.

“I’m, uhhh, Liv.”

“What?”

“I mean, my friends, well, call me Liv.”

The Dragon stared down at her with an angered look, tail swishing back and forth again, before replying. “...Ridley, to you. Less time wasted in conversation.” The creature managed, trying to hide his glee.

Instead, he channeled it into a smug smile, as he decided he’d been a little too strict in deciding how to roast this one.

Instead, he’d give her the option.


“So… What are you willing to do for me, Doctor Octavius?”
 

Klarion

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Phew. The mechanized arms at Liv’s back deflate, the translucent tubes and their visible vein-like wiring retreating into her harness with a soft hiss. Okay, okay— so she’s bargaining with the beast. This, Liv can handle. Though this Ridley seems to be an awfully smart creature, she’s always been good at figuring people out. She just needs to pinpoint what, exactly, this immensely terrifying pterodactyl wants.

The creature towers over her, watching the human scientist like a hawk as she fidgets and frets. Even emaciated, this Ridley stands at a fearsome fourteen feet tall, all sharp joints and lithe musculature. It’s actually very disconcerting, Liv thinks, racking her brain for something worthwhile to barter with.

Liv tweaks her octagonal glasses in thought. Oh, it’s right on the tip of her tongue! There has to be something out there, some tidbit of knowledge that would appeal to the sensibilities of what appears to be an equally scientifically-minded being, but what could possibly… oh!

Her hands quit their nervous fidgeting, the shadow of a grin stealing across her face. Oh, that might just work.

“There might be something,” Liv demurs, glancing up at Ridley with a look that some might deem coy. “Have you any knowledge of a people called the Yautja?”

The space pirate snorts, wispy smoke curling in the air. “A race I know little of must be one beneath my notice.”

Liv nods, tucking that comment away for later examination. “Ah, but see, that’s where we’d both be wrong. I felt much the same way when I first heard about them, trust me. But, here’s the thing. These Yautja? They’re a pretty impressive species, all things considered, and big on hunting and killing what they consider worthy game—“

“And?” grates Ridley, claws hard as diamonds clacking against the stone he’s still perched upon in annoyance. Clickity-click click CLACK.

Skin going a shade paler, Liv flounders a little. She’s lost his attention now. Does he hunt and kill for a living? Maybe; she saw what he did to that… weird little desert critter. God, she can actually SMELL the blood beginning to bake in the harsh sun, distinctly coppery and stomach-churning. Alrighty then, time to regroup:

“And,” says Liv. “And, they visit Mesa Roja every once in a while to hone their craft. I think they’ve imported some creatures from another planet to, er, train against. But the point is, these Yautja apparently have some incredible resources at their disposal. I’m talking ships, weaponry, armor—“ okay, she’s bullshitting a little, “tech. And I’ll bet they’ll bring some with them.”

A crocodilian smile appears on Ridley’s face. Liv’s heart beats a little faster, because whoa, that’s a lot of teeth.

“And where is this… training site located?”

And Liv almost tells him like an idiot, encouraged as she is by the sudden interest lighting up his gaze. She stops herself before the words can truly take shape, however, coughing a little as they get stuck uncomfortably in her throat.

What on earth was she thinking? There’s no way this creature wouldn’t slaughter her given the chance. Ridley’s very existence as a talking, flight-capable dinosaur with an interest in engineering might be fulfilling every pathetic childhood dream she’s ever had, but that doesn’t mean he can be trusted. Quite the opposite, in fact, judging by his blood-spattered visage. She has to keep her cards close to her chest, for now.

“Well, I have its location memorized, of course,” the scientist lies breezily, ignoring the poorly-sketched map burning a hole in her lab coat’s pocket. Instead, she busies herself with picking said garment up off the ground, frowning at the streaks of reddish sand that will probably permanently stain the white fabric.

Well, whatever. That’s the price one pays for wearing white in the desert. She shrugs it back on anyway, mustering up as much of a professional air as she can before returning her attention to Ridley.

This obviously wasn’t the news he was hoping for, Liv thinks, watching as the pterodactyl’s burning yellow eyes narrow. It’s strange to see so many familiar emotions manifest themselves across such decidedly alien features, but comforting nonetheless. Some might even say fascinating.

An irritated chuff finally answers her, the space pirate— general, yes? — seeming to mellow out a bit, although that sharp, barb-tipped tail continues to frisk about in the air like a particularly spastic cat’s. Liv eyes it warily, even as its master begins to speak.

“That is… very intriguing, Dr. Octavius,” Ridley rumbles, turning a calculating glare in her direction. “You are intending to confront these ‘Yautja’ alone? Even aware of the risk?”

Liv sniffs. “Well, yes. It’s not like I have much of an alternative; in case you haven’t noticed, the people on this dustball aren’t exactly generous with their time.”

The drake hums thoughtfully, though it sounds more like an automobile engine revving to life. The wicked wings at his back seem to ripple in the sunlight as his body turns, taking in the rugged desert landscape extending for miles around them. When his head cranes back around to face her, a maw full of knife-like teeth bared in a fearsome grin and nostrils smoking from some infernal fire within, Liv has to physically steel herself to keep from stumbling backward.

“You are very lucky indeed, then. I’m in a generous mood,” Ridley tells her, far too smug. “I will accompany you.”

“QED, I guess,” Liv mutters wearily, wiping a sheen of sweat from her brow.
 

Ridley

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Ridley stepped back and took a delicate sniff of the air. The smell of charred flesh mixed with the delicate aroma of marrow evaporating ever so slightly was a welcome smell to the great dragon, as he observed the scene of his newest destruction. The corpse of a recently deceased Paraceratherium (He recalled his companion’s surprise when he correctly identified it with a smile showing off his jagged teeth). The meat had been stripped off the bone and rendered completely unrecognizable as it’s parent in large, meaty slabs, placed crudely in front of the large pterosaur.

Ridley let out a small breath, and a blaze lit from the loose wooden slabs. His eyes narrowed at the remains with a feral glee.

“Soon, it will be complete.”

“Okay, good, but you made sure to use the seasonings, right?” A friendly voice called from behind him, as Olivia poked her head towards Ridley’s makeshift stove.

“I saw no need to inhale your meat-dilutants every time I stoked the fire. If you wish to apply your dried leaves, you will wait until I no longer need to breathe on it.”

“...Point taken. I don’t think I want to know what happens when you sneeze-”

“An explosion.”

“Oh, is your breath explosive? How does that work? Is it due to a chemical reaction between the contents of your lungs and whatever pouch breathes fire, or… I’m rambling, aren’t I?!” The scientist added with a look of concern, stepping a few paces away from the

The Great Drake would have snorted, were it not for all the effort he’d already put into cooking this meal just right.

“Plasma is volatile.” He’d explain. It was more or less the end of the story, though he didn’t feel the need to tell Olivia that sneezing, for him, was a completely controlled process… though he was still not sure how doable it was at the moment. Much of his body was still raw, beaten by his own plasma burning him from within. It would be embarrassing if his throat had not fully recovered, and he was forced to build up from the ashes of his body a second time.

Though at least he’d brought emergency nutrition, in that case.

Speaking of which, the scientist frowned, before asking another one of her questions.

“...So, uhhh, why do you…?” The woman probed.

Ridley looked at her, not willing to add anything to the conversation verbally, but giving a look that very clearly read “get on with it.”

“It’s just, you seem to consume your own meals raw and…” The woman looked at him with an unhidden look of distaste. It took no lack of bravery to stare the Pirate king in the face with such a bold bit of body language, and the space dragon saluted her for it… even if he wasn’t entirely sure if she was aware of her choice of body language.

“...Well, Still alive.”

Ridley exhaled lightly, the rock that Ridley had made into a more-or-less sterilized surface heating up again, before continuing.

“The race I commanded were Zebesians-”

“Gesundheit.”

“Entirely incorrect. They were Pirates. Pirates kidnap for ransom.” Ridley explained, thinking back to their first time picking up a living creature. He remembered the excitement, the risk, the feeling of doing something new and challenging. He’d stolen princesses, diplomats, CEO’s, CEO’s children… at first, he’d hated doing it, but it had it’s own rush, different from murder, different from slaughter, different even from disciplining the men. Ridley had enjoyed almost every job he had done with the space pirates, which is exactly why he’d stuck around long enough to become Pirate Commander.

“...right.” Liz would say.

“Prisoners need food, but Zebesians are insects. Their cutlery is their pincers. They eat with beaks. They have a wonderful lack of anything resembling a ‘civilized palette’” Ridley would state, snorting as he did.”


“...So you had to cook for your prisoners?”

“My third kidnapping, someone force-fed the prisoner raw meat.” Ridley would add, conveniently leaving the part out where it was him, practically choking the little monkey with the flesh of a brontusian groose. “It died screaming and clutching it’s stomach, before vomiting the entire organ out.”

“...Metaphorically?”

“No.” Ridley would answer, an instinctive wicked grin rendering any attempt at pretending this ignoble death was anything other than a subject of hilarity utterly useless.

Liz frowned, looking nervously at the sizzling meat in response. The Kodo’s color-changing hide had no secrets to tell, however.

“We lost the bounty, and so I demanded my minions learn to cook suitable food for prisoners.”

“And did they?”

“No. I’ve never seen them fail so abysmally at anything before or since… and the zebesians set the bar high.

Ridley gnashed his teeth at the memory of the smells, the disgusting ‘dishes’, the constant wastes of perfectly good food that had to be left for the lowest of insects to enjoy.

“So you had to learn, then?”

Ridley’s response was simply to gesture towards the fire. “It took me days. The biological research was simple.”

“So… do you ever cook for yourself?”

Ridley’s eyes narrowed, as though Liz had asked the stupidest question he’d ever heard of. Why would he ever waste raw nutrients on something so stupid as cooking!. It was simply a waste of his… hmm.

That did bring a thought.

“I have never.” The space dragon would state. “But I will make one exception.” The dragon would add with a long grin across his snout.

Liz would just raise an eyebrow in response.

“I do have a cousin. Greed, as he’s renamed himself.” Ridley would add. “...The next time I see him, I plan to tear out his throat. But… perhaps I’ll save some of it, to cook, to spice. If anyone should know how space dragon tastes cooked, it should be me without question!” The Dragon stated, before going into a laugh. A maniacal, shrivelling laugh that went across the sands.

Liz, meanwhile, was quiet at the cannibalistic enthusiasm, at least for a few minutes. There was no conversation for a little while. Then…

“Your food is prepared. Eat.”
 

Klarion

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Liv isn’t much of a cook herself. In fact, it’s pretty rare that she eats anything that isn’t ready-made and perfectly microwavable. Feeding herself isn’t exactly a top priority even on a bad day, during those boring, long hours with no data to analyze or experiments to be carried out. Her mind is the only facet of herself worth maintaining, her mechanical enhancements serving as an extension of her intellect. Her body is transport foremost. As a result, it’s pretty rare that she devotes time toward cooking when other, much simpler options are available.

Like granola. She’s eaten a lot of granola.

She is understandably baffled, then, when the space pirate, Ridley, takes it upon himself to prepare a meal for her. And not just any meal, but one palatable to someone incapable of consuming most raw meats. All this learned through a desire to keep some prisoners alive and to be a head above his crew.

To think that he would go to such lengths simply to excel at his work is admirable. It kindles an iota of respect in Liv, to be in league with such a scientifically-minded and ambitious individual. She’s almost charmed, really, right up until Ridley begins waxing poetic about cannibalizing his kin.

And then, well. There’s hardly much one can say to that, especially if you aren’t quite as taken with the idea of kinslaying as your companion. Liv settles for mentally twiddling her thumbs, sitting in a wary and attentive silence as the meat crackles and sizzles from Ridley’s fiery plasma breath.

Privately, and she would never voice such things aloud, she wonders what Ridley might have done if she’d informed him that she was a vegetarian. She’s not, not anymore, but the thought alone has her vowing not to express any dissatisfaction whatsoever at the meal’s preparation, even if what is edible for some unknown alien species turns out to be not quite as appetizing for the average human. She much prefers her organs inside her body, after all.

Before she knows it, Ridley decides that the meat is done roasting, and she watches with interest as he examines it with a weather eye, nostrils flaring as he seems to sniff for any remnants of blood secreted away within the strands of tendon and muscle. With a precision that truly belies the dangerousness of the space pirate general’s natural weaponry, he begins to slice off a portion of the Kodo meat with one frighteningly sharp claw, steam and savory juices dripping from the punctured flesh to spill over the warm stone beneath it.

At a pointed look from her companion, Liv gathers up a plate and fork, a meager set of tin dinnerware extracted from the depths of her pack. Ridley watches her puttering about with no small amount of impatience— or at least that’s what she thinks the emotion showing on his face means. She’s still learning his various moods; it’s surprisingly hard, especially when her monkey brain screams at the sight of those ferocious teeth regardless of if they’re bared in delight or a snarl.

The food, as it turns out, is quite good. The skin is crisp and the meat is tender, with the seasoning lending just the right amount of spice to make it altogether a pleasant meal. She’s just about to express her compliments to the cook, lips parted to speak, when she looks up at him and stops short.

He has the lion’s share of the Kodo meat, of course, seeing that he’s much bigger than her as it is. Instead of tearing into the meat with tooth and claw as she might have expected, Ridley picks at the steaming meat with his claws, seeming critical of every shred of it he (hesitantly) eats.

“This is pretty good, you know,” Liv says conversationally after she’s swallowed a mouthful, gesturing broadly with her fork. “I’ve never been one for fine dining, but this could rival the fare of any street vendor.”

Ridley chuffs in distaste. “It no longer tastes like the flesh of a living creature, though the aroma is much stronger.”

“Most people would call that ideal.”

“Perhaps you and your mammalian relatives would.”

“Well, how would you describe it?” Liv asks, genuinely curious.

The space dragon hums. “Now that it is cooked, the meat is dry, salty. It tastes like the desert. Like sweat.”

“Oh. Ew.”

The rest of their meal passes in relative silence. The sun rests low on the distant horizon by the time they are finished, the arid desert heat hanging heavy in the air around them. Liv is just beginning to pack her things up when she notices something odd in the distance. Black smoke, large plumes of it gusting straight up into the sky like oil spilling across a pale blue canvas, trailing behind the speeding shape of what looks to be a vehicle.

“Are you seeing—” Liv begins to say, but stops when she sees Ridley has already noticed the approaching object, yellow eyes focused on it with a hawk-like intensity. She watches as his head cants to the side, the space pirate’s impressive height rendering his expression inscrutable to her at that angle.

She is reminded, once again, of her current weakness in comparison to this creature. It rankles, but she shoves the sour feeling aside for the moment, squinting with no small amount of trepidation at the rapidly advancing vehicle. The fierce glint of the windshield nearly blinds her as it draws nearer, waves of reddish sand kicked up by the car’s massive wheels and the creaking of its rusty armored chassis audible even from afar.

Liv squares her shoulders, the mechanized arms of her harness slithering out with a hiss as they expand to their full length. At her side, Ridley seems to similarly steel himself for battle, hunched into a predatory crouch with his barbed tail making a deadly curve in the air, poised to strike.

The car is about forty yards out when, suddenly, it whips to the side, kicking a sheet of sand in their direction as its metal parts let out a piercing screech. Liv deflates slightly, confused, as the armored car begins to veer crazily around, seemingly avoiding them altogether.

Strangest of all is the indistinct shouting coming from the car, several pink-skinned arms waving in their direction from the car’s open windows.

“What are they saying?” Liv asks, wondering if perhaps Ridley has an enhanced sense of hearing alongside his other gifts. That would certainly be helpful right about now. Unfortunately, the space dragon seems just as nonplussed, eyes roving over the landscape beyond the armored car in an attempt to understand.

Their gestures seem frantic, not aggressive. The shouting, too, is high-pitched, panicked, almost as if they’re being… warned?

The car speeds past in the general direction of Karim, black smoke spurting out behind it. It’s not until the wind carries a single, desperate shout back to them that the two travelers finally understand: “Run!

“Run? Run from wha— oh!” Liv yelps as she’s unexpectedly snatched up by Ridley, a mighty beat of the dragon’s wings launching them into the sky. Teeth clenched and clinging to his arm (some of her mechanized appendages keeping her secure), Liv glances down at the sands below, scarcely believing her eyes at what she finds there.

From under the boiling hot sands emerges an enormous maw filled with rows of needle-like teeth, several sets of mandibles flexing and twitching around it, grasping at the air as if attempting to draw something in for that terrible mouth to devour. The body of what appears to be a massive subterranean beast follows, long, wriggling, and completely covered by a dark red carapace. A sickly green fluid spills from its mouth, droplets sizzling loudly wherever they hit the sand.

Its body—roughly the size of a 72 passenger bus—twists around, attempting to track their movements in the air. A shrieking squeal leaves its throat, like the sound of a crying newborn amplified to even more horrific levels than usual.

“A giant worm!” exclaims Liv, the beast’s screeching ringing in her ears. “That’s new!”
 

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Whatever the flaws Ridley found with Olivia Octavius - as well as the annoying similarities - he had one trait shared with the hunter that he did not find annoying. A complete curiosity for the unknown and an utter lack of fear when presented with a large, intimidating animal.

At least, those that weren’t truly intimidating.

This was a blessing, for if it wasn’t for that appreciation, Ridley would likely not have tolerated the biology babble that bubbled from the shrew like so much saliva.

“-And look at that, that acid it’s making is probably coming directly from it’s stomach! I’d bet my degree on it shooting that stuff utilizing different muscle groups in it’s Abdomen to create explosive muscular force, blasting it out at high speeds-”

It honestly was a conversation Ridley wanted to engage in, as fun as Olivia seemed to already be having with continuing it on her own. Really, he loved discussing the different morphologies of various creatures in a calmer context.

It’s just that the maneuvers he was forced to make mid-flight were hard enough to make with his weakened wings already, and the squirming chimp was throwing off his balance enough in the first place with her weight.

The Dragon tucked his wings as he forced himself to dive, allowing for a Car-sized ball of green spittle to fly past them through the sands. Ridley didn’t know what it’d do-

Wait. It just hit the cliff face.

Ahh. Complete corrosion and decay in seconds. He knows what it does now.

A roar echoed through the hills, and the Dragon narrowed his eyes as he came with his passenger skidding closer to the ground, the worm picking up speed on his heels.

“...It’s about to rush us.”

“Well then, Leap back into the air, maybe?” Olivia would ask. “Unless you think it could possibly use that internal heat to Lift itself…”

Ridley would give a primal growl, a sound that seemed a mix between a raptor’s shriek and a Lion’s growl, and Miss Octavius’s proximity brought her to silence.”

And then, after a couple seconds of scanning her face, Ridley gnashed his teeth with fervor. “Of course. Mammalian. Insensitive to basic calls.”

“Calls-You’ve lost me.”

“It just roared Challenge..” Ridley stated with a growl. “It encouraged us torun!”

“...So we’re not going to run into it’s plan! Okay, I get that!”

“That has Nothing to do with it!” The Dragon scowled, a red around the eyes becoming more and more pronounced as his body seemed to flex all at once.

“...Then-”

He has challenged me for supremacy of the food chain! I will suck out every strand of life from his body and rip him to so many bloody shreds nothing will be left but a miserable slurry of rotten flesh!

The Dragon’s tail swayed in the middle of it’s altitude as a certain insane tone fell into it’s voice, before throwing Liv… gently. Onto a nearby set of boulders. Preternaturally softly.

“..You’re capable of defending yourself, doctor!” Ridley spat, Skidding through the sand as he came in for a rough landing on all fours, kicking up a cloud of dust as he turned to face his new foe. “Find your opportunity, or find a good place to hide!”

The Dragon looked back to face his newest opponent, even as it barreled through the sand toward him.

“...I care not which!”

Ridley’s attention immediately swung from the doctor to the Wyrm, the creature letting out another ear-piercing screech.

Ridley’s response was one of his own, Opening his Jaw wide and letting out a shriek that filled the area for miles, an apex predator’s roar. With a furious snarl, he planted his tail into the Sand even as the worm tumbled towards him with all the force of a gigantic freight train.

The Creature barreling towards ridley was large enough to crush even the giant lizard flat. He was prideful, but not to the point of entirely ignoring reality. Even so, he felt no fear as the creature drew closer, standing his ground, until the creature was no more than the car length of a prius away.

With a single motion, and a flick of his tail from underneath him, Ridley spun backwards, balanced only by his coiled tail, before the appendage sprang straight up, launching the dragon into the air, soaring a few feet above the Worm’s waiting maw. The creature let out a loud cry of frustration, even as a savage grin Fell on ridley’s face. As it had gotten closer, it had allowed more of it’s length to leave the dirt it had burrowed itself in.

It was exposed. Vulnerable. And all too soft.

With a great wing beat, Ridley lifted himself into the air, and with the stylized crack of a whip, he let his tail loose, the motion creating a quick sonic boom. The sizable spade at the end crushed into the Worm’s flesh, leaving a gash large enough to split a horse in two. Blood squirted everywhere - red blood - and the blow hit hard enough to reveal much of the pink flesh beneath. For an ordinary creature, this wound would be mortal, but Ridley doubted he would have it so easy with this one.

But that was alright, as the Dragon beat it’s wings again, gaining just enough lift to do the same strike again. Like he was using some sort of deadly pogo stick, Ridley appeared to ‘hop’’ across the worm’s backside, leaving blow after blow. With each strike, his bestial opponent screamed, and with each scream, Ridley’s smile widened.

When Ridley had counted to a baker’s dozen, the great beast had found it’s way back into the dirt and darkness, hoping to hide itself from Ridley’s vision. Sniffing the air, the draconic tyrant waited to see where his prey would resurface, though...

Come to think of it, where was Olivia in this chaos, anyways?
 

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Typical. Of course her companion would want to fight the big worm. Of course. The worm had practically given them permission to flee with their lives, but sure, let's fight it. That'll turn out just great!

Liv perches precariously on the pile of boulders Ridley’d tossed her at like an empty candy wrapper, the four inflatable arms attached to her harness clinging tightly to the rock with their bracket-like fingers. The steel and delicate machinery encircling her torso blinks and flashes without her outer coat to conceal it, the green and black armor feeling much too warm in the midday sun.

Sighing, Liv snaps her protective goggles onto her face. Her eyes narrow, turning dark and calculating behind the bulky green lenses, her gaze roving over the sands. “Alright, let's play. Now, if I was a gigantic death worm, where would I be hiding at this exact moment…?”

Tremors shiver through the ground like ocean waves at high tide, the incredible malleability of the warm desert sand working well to conceal the giant invertebrate’s exact location. Even suspended above the earth as she is, Liv feels the vibrations traveling through the hard stone surface at her back, echoes of the worm’s great bulk tunneling through the earth. Looking up, she observes as Ridley circles in the air like a vulture scenting out carrion, the mighty span of his wings casting jagged shadows across the ground below.

Mind whirring, the scientist wracks her brain for some way to assist. Already, she’s determined that the worm seems only able to detect their precise location through seismic movement, its beady eyes seeming worthless unless up close. But she also knows that this creature is a bit beyond her— likely beyond Ridley, as well. Far too strong. However, if they were to work together...

Well, the injuries dealt by Ridley’s barbed tail had obviously hurt the worm, and she's committed to memory his tactic of stabbing downward, thinking the idea to deal many smaller wounds to the creature’s massive undulating frame wise. Unfortunately, it seems they need to... somehow... go deeper...

Liv uses her mechanized appendages to spider-crawl up the tallest boulder in the pile to gain a better vantage point, scaling it in a matter of seconds. In comparison to Ridley’s larger weight and threat level, Liv feels almost certain that she has gone mostly unnoticed or at least unheeded by this worm, but better safe than sorry. What’s more, it’s clearly waiting for some form of movement on the surface, some sign of where Ridley is.

I can work that to my advantage, Liv thinks, nodding to herself. Ridley, for his part, holds his position above the sand, wings beating to keep him stationary in the air. While searching for the worm, he glances briefly over to her last location and, upon seeing her not there, visibly chuffs to himself.

(Liv doesn’t blame him, truly, for thinking the worst of her. He appears to have... an incredible bias against her species, evidenced by his comments about mammalian creatures. Still, Liv wants to prove herself, somehow, and build a modicum of trust between them. Aiding him in battle would surely go a long way; she’s worked with his type before, though never one she thought capable of, well, devouring her. She needs this to work.)

Whatever. She just needs this damned worm to come closer.

As high up as she is, it isn’t overly difficult to find the right tool she needs to enact her plan: a nearby boulder, reasonably sized but almost Ridley-like in weight by her (admittedly rather hasty) estimate. Perfect.

Scaling down the rock quickly, Liv can almost feel the clock ticking down before the creature surfaces again. Her feet scarcely touch the sand before her arms begin attempting to heft the boulder, the inflatable appendages straining from the effort.

Easily solved. Liv simply pumps more air into them, feeling the increase in pressure between her shoulder blades as the arms work overtime to lift the massive weight before her. It takes three of the arms to do so, so in the end she’s forced to re-scale the pile of boulders with her bare hands, only one mechanized arm there to ensure she doesn’t plummet to her death. This lone arm scrapes up the hard surface as she climbs, the heat of the day making the rock sear into the palms of her hands.

Once she judges herself to be about 15 feet above the ground, Liv allows her arms to rapidly depressurize, the machinery running beneath their inflatable exterior relaxing enough to drop the boulder. The hefty rock strikes the ground with a mighty thump, sinking partway into the ground, and an explosive ripple of golden sand sprays into the air from the impact.

Now that… that, Ridley notices. Luckily, the worm creature seems to have noticed it, too, as it tears out of the ground with a vengeance not even a second later.

The worm’s reddish shell-like carapace breaches the sand, another ear-splitting shriek sending vibrations through the rock Liv’s clinging to. Using the boulder as a springboard, Liv leaps off and lands deftly on the worm’s back, though her footing soon grows unsteady as the worm’s body rocks from side to side, twisting to search for its draconic opponent.

Now, Liv assumes from a rudimentary biological standpoint (and from her meager study of desert creatures) that this worm likely has several stomachs to produce its acidic bile. With a critical eye, Liv studies the puncture wounds already left by Ridley, the meaty, pink flesh underneath pulsing sickeningly as the worm moves, blood spilling generously from its many injuries.

With two of her lower arms effectively pinning her in place on the worm’s back, Liv directs her remaining two arms to bracket on either side of one of the bleeding gashes, closer to the head. The carapace seems to be thicker around the head area, sturdy like bone, no doubt sheltering its brain. The section of its natural armor she’s selected is thick, too, of course, but weak enough for her to break— it splinters as easily as a lobster’s back under her delicate ministrations.

With a sickening crack, Liv’s arms set about prying the wound even further open. Gore drools and spurts from the widening gash, layers of muscle and oily fat exposed to the light of day. It smells abysmal— Liv feels as if she’ll be positively sick from the stench. But the worm’s movements grow wilder and more frantic as it searches for her, screeching as it tries to figure out what’s going on at the back of its skull, so Liv figures things are going almost exactly to plan, horrible odor aside.

Her mechanical arms plunge ever deeper, tearing the wound wider. She does it none too gently either (if such a thing could be done gently), the metal fingers digging jagged marks into the beast’s wet insides. At this, the creature’s wailing reaches fever pitch, and suddenly Liv finds herself tumbling backward as the lengthy invertebrate attempts to burrow beneath the hot sand again, her arms and feet slipping in the slimy mess of blood and ruined flesh.

But before she can slide much further—and probably crash to the ground only to be crushed by the worm’s tremendous undulating girth—she feels her back collide with something solid, warm, and pointy in all the wrong places. Tipping her head back, Liv’s eyes go wide at the sight of Ridley towering over her, perched like some kind of unholy gargoyle on the worm’s back.

Liv’s eyes widen further as the dragon’s jaws split open, exposing several rows of razor-sharp teeth. She nearly shrieks when Ridley lunges forward, fangs digging into the worm’s open wound with a meaty squelch.

His grip secured, Liv watches in horrified fascination as Ridley’s tail whips forward to lance blindly at the worm’s flesh surrounding the wound, shards of its cracked carapace flying everywhere. Still, this doesn’t stop Liv from doing what she can to help— her gore-stained tentacles slip forward to batter at the creature’s protective shell, as well, making it easier for Ridley to tear the wound wider with savage jerks of his head.

By this point the worm seems to have almost given up fighting, too delirious with pain to escape to somewhere under the ground. It’s only when a small pop sound comes from the creature’s insides, green acid spilling out into the rest of the wound, that it really seems to stop struggling, the worm’s pathetic screeches growing more and more garbled with fluid.

Finally, the overgrown maggot writhes once, the front of its body curling backward in an almost pathetic attempt to throw them off, before slumping forward onto the ground with a loud thunk, letting out a long, drawn-out whistling sound not unlike a balloon being deflated.

“Oh, goodie. It’s dead,” says Liv, slumping. She looks up at her companion, about to say… something, she’s not sure, everything’s a little muddled right now and she’s got worm guts all over her, but stops short, because Ridley’s stare is still fixated on the dead or dying worm and glowing, the sclera of his eyes a horrible fiery orange and his pupils so severely constricted they might as well be nonexistent.

Oh god he’s about to do something weird and food chain-related, isn’t he, thinks Liv, going absolutely still. Best not to draw any attention to herself until he’s done, because she did not just go through all that to get eaten by a talking space dinosaur. No way.
 

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It took a few hours before Ridley interacted with Liz once more. He was rather busy covering his face and body with green fluid as he dug deeply into the flesh of the worm. the taste was heavenly - Ridley lacked the ability to taste 'sweet', but he could still enjoy how delectably moist and sour and savoury the meal was. It felt like he had found a giant meal-worm, like a grub he would have eaten as a child on his home planet.

A shame that Liz refused to consume any, even as he'd bothered her later, but it seemed like the insects had no tastes for insects....

The thought brought a sinister grin to Ridley's face, as the two kept walking, and he noticed with no small surprise that Liz was staring more attentively the moment her eyes caught the gleam of his hooked teeth.

"....Is something funny?"

Ridley looked to her, eyes narrowed.

"what?"

Liz immediately put her hands up. "Wha-I-uhh-I-guess-I-Answered-wrong-sorry-"

RIdley leaned forward.

"Repeat. What you said."

"...Is... something... funny?"

Ridley's glare held, before his eyes finally widened to an almost doe-like state, wings shrinking in as the space pirates slacked and he shifted, holding his gaze to the side of Liz.

"...I didn't know Mammals were capable of reading my face."

"...seriously?!"

Ridley's smile re-asserted itself, as he continued moving. "Other than my dear cousin, none could. Perhaps they were simply too afraid."

"You do inspire a certain sort of terror, yes." Olivia responded, sounding exhausted.

"Come."

"What?"

"come here!" Ridley repeated,

"Okay!" Olivia finally yelled, though in a much lower whisper Ridley wondered if she actually knew he could hear, she added "the yelling just isn't going to stop, is it?"

And with that, Ridley, for the first time in front of another mammal, willingly bowed his head, stretching his leg and showing his back.

"...Uhm-"

"We are taking too long to reach the desert, and we've technology to acquire."

And at that, Olivia looked to the Dragon's back, than back to herself, then back.

"...I am okay with this!" The Doctor said with excitement.

"Hurry and get o-" Ridley began to say, before noticing the doctor already on his back.

"well, let's go get that tech then!" the doctor added chipperly.

The avian let out a rumble that could have been irritation, amusement, or gas as he wasted no time jumping into the air.

_

Elsewhere, a lone blur shimmered through the wastes. An invisible motion only given away by the tearing of the visible spectrum and the Softest of sounds - a heavy creature moving through the sands, leaving the faintest indent upon the desert.

The prey was unexpected. The hunter had come for something far different. But even so, different was not bad. these two had proven worthy of the hunt, as evidenced by the drying worm corpse in the sun. they would be excellent trophies. and besides...

Considering where they were headed, the Predator would find no issues hunting all of his prey in one fell swoop.

____

It was a quiet flight at first, and for among the first times, Ridley was the one to open conversation.

"...How does it feel?"

"...huh? You mean, flying?" Olivia asked, smile on her face as they soared through the clouds.

"Real flying. not the flitting about in coffins." Ridley would state.

"I-uhhh, well... it feels great, honestly. wind through my hair, Clouds all around me. Would be nice if it wasn't so chilly, but you make a pretty good heating pad."

"I see. So you do not hate it."

Olivia quirked an eyebrow. "...Should I?"

"Terrans do not fly."

"but our kind came from the trees. Besides, we weren't supposed to swim either. didn't stop us." Olivia added, an interested tone in her voice.

"A zoomer that crawls along the ground is distressed when it's earth is ripped away. A Reo flying through the air is disgusted by the feeling of being bound to the land. A Skulltula simply flops around in fear and confusion when it's removed from the water." Ridley listed with clipped tones.

"...I don't know what those are, but I think I get it?"

"Humans are unhappy with their station. they try to upset the balance. Be more than they were meant to be. Fight obviously stronger species."

"...Oh, so we did more than we were supposed to?" Olivia asked, seeming a little upset.

"Creatures so low on the food chain should not strive to be masters of all they survey."

"Well, I'm sorry I have more ambition than wandering around eating worms, I guess."

Ridley snorted, flames erupting in miniature from his snout, causing Olivia to shrink back.

The Dragon's head tilts backwards, before turning in a very unnatural fashion, the spindly neck moving to allow Ridley to look directly behind him into Olivia's eyes with a fierce smile.

"Doctor Olivia Octavius, do not insult me."

The Dragon's lips tilted back into a smile.

"I've had those who follow me for simple fear or short-sighted greed. Those are normal humans. But you..."

The Dragon's head came closer, glaring into Olivia's eyes as they did.

"...You are not one of them. I Saw your precision against that worm."

And with that, Ridley's wings slowed to a glide, as he continued, staring directly into Olivia's eyes with one of his own.

"You take what you wish. You focus on nothing but your goal. Your heart goes from that of a normal mammal to a heartless butcher in seconds..."

Ridley's glare softened slightly, as he added. "Your mind is that of a pirate's. That's why you're worth working with."

For a few moments, silence whistled through the air.

then, Ridley slowly turned around.

"Hold on."

"Hold on?"

"You've never flown before. Occasions in your short, decades-long life are short-lived."

"I'm not followEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

Olivia's scream followed a deep dive through the clouds as Ridley accelerated, letting his bulk do the work as they soared through the clouds, the Terrified Scientist's Screams followed with a sudden laugh as she got used to the intensity.

For an investment in a business partner, the joy of flight was a small price to give. And it had been a long time since Ridley had ever gotten to share it.
 

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Liv squints against the sun at the expanse of desert flying by, the long shadows of Ridley’s wings coasting across the ground below. The further they venture into the wilds of Mesa Roja, the more the sight of massive windswept rock formations and brush-dotted savannahs becomes fewer and farther in between. Endlessly rolling dunes and gaping chasms replace these breaks in the monotonous landscape, the heat wavering in the air above them in hypnotic, half-visible spirals.

Various estimations and calculations flow through Liv’s mind, her eyes scanning the topographical features of the land, the thousands upon thousands of subtle grooves weaving their way across the blazing sands. Her deep focus only seems to be matched by Ridley’s own vigilance, the two united in the task of searching for some indentation or otherwise unremarkable blip in the landscape, a dot of shadow in a canvas of interminable gold.

Even more than that, Liv’s enjoying herself; the wind whipping through her hair, the heady rush of wind roaring in her ears. She’s always considered adding something to her machinery that could grant her flight, but it had seemed frivolous at the time, an unimportant addition to equipment that she already considered quite adequate for her purposes. Still, the experience itself is… simply amazing, not to mention the benefits of traversing great distances through the air instead of by land. Maybe flight is an idea worth revisiting...

Now, if only she had the tools for it! For the moment, though, she amuses herself with thoughts of how to make such a thing work, schematics arranging in her brain like the thin sheet of clouds rising before them, traces of vaporous atmosphere stretching across the sky.

But even as immersed in these thoughts of innovation as she is, Liv never once stops searching the ground below, so when she spots something odd peaking out from the sand, she’s sure to inform Ridley promptly.

“What is it?” Ridley doesn’t veer toward the ground just yet, but he does slow mid-flight, angling his wings just so to create some drag against the air. “Another worm?”

Bless him, he sounds almost eager.

“Nope,” Liv says, shifting a bit on Ridley’s back to crane her neck around and look down. “It looks like a rock sticking out of the sand, but the edges are too angular to be natural. I think we’ve found what we’re looking for.” For a brief second a memory of a film she’d seen a long time ago manifests in her brain, an adventure picture about a plucky archaeologist delving beneath the sands of a desert to discover untold riches below... only to unleash a horde of undead abominations and biblical plagues and whatever else. She has to bite her lip to hide her giddy smile, eyes shining with interest behind her goggles– this little venture might not disturb any ancient spirits, but it would certainly unveil ancient alien technology, and that was just as good (if not better).

Ridley doesn’t respond for a while, circling in the air over the black shape jutting out from the sand. His orange eyes scan the horizon, searching for any signs of life. Then, head tipping downward, the space dragon plummets toward the ground in a dive. Liv clings onto him for dear life the whole while, gritting her teeth as her stomach drops with their rapid descent.

Ridley lands with a solid whump!, having pulled up short just before reaching the ground to land. Reddish dust skips up into the air as his wings fold against his back, Liv coughing a bit as the cloud drifts through the air, the disturbed sand searching for someplace to settle.

Hopping down from Ridley’s back, she warily approaches the angular object sticking up from the ground, mechanized arms twitching at her side as if prepared to deflect a blow.

From above, the oddly-shaped… rock(?) had appeared much smaller, but now, standing before it at her full height, Liv notes that the thing is about as tall as she is. The object is composed of a smooth black stone, its four sloping sides meeting in a point at the top and forming a pyramid-like shape. The scientist studies it with interest, circling around it to get a better idea of what she’s dealing with.

“Humph,” she says, leaning forward to inspect it closer and brushing some sand away with her hand. “There are some symbols here, looks like a bunch of dashes.... Maybe it’s writing?”

A shadow drapes over her as Ridley takes a look, as well, head tilting to the side in curiosity. Liv looks at him, expectant.

“Well? You’re the space pirate, not me. Can you read it?”

Teeth flashing in what she would have earlier termed a snarl were it not for the slight lowering of Ridley’s head, the space pirate general huffs in frustration. “No. This... is not a dialect I am familiar with.”

“Oh,” Liv deflates a bit. “That’s unfortunate. I’m no linguist.”

“But…” Ridley’s head tilts, impossibly, even further to the side. It would be almost comical to look at if it wasn’t already really disturbing. “There is a pattern here.”

Liv blinks owlishly. “Is there?”

Ridley doesn’t answer. Instead, he reaches out with an arm, a single clawed digit tracing the series of strangely oriented dashes and lines that could potentially be conceived of as a kind of written language. And then, before their very eyes, the odd little symbols begin to glow.

“Ooh,” whispers Liv, not really sure why she’s whispering but too awed to care. “So it’s some form of… touch-activated unlock system.”

“Yes,” Ridley confirms, scrutinizing the glowing red symbols once more, eyes flitting from one symbol to the next. They all look startlingly the same, like a mess of chicken scratch in dry dirt. The light slowly fades without physical contact to activate the characters.

Liv takes a step back, fist under her chin. “It’s probably meant to spell out a word, or— or perhaps form a sequence of numbers.”

“Yes,” Ridley agrees once more, contributing massively to the conversation. His claws are poised above the stone, considering.

“There’s no way to determine just how many of these symbols are included in the code,” Liv sighs, squinting at the obsidian-colored stone. “So we could start by counting the symbols, identifying any duplicates, and then make a rough estimate of just how many possibilities we’re looking at, probably in a tabular format...”

“Hmm,” says Ridley, a deep, purring vocalization that Liv just barely detects. Liv looks up, intending to inquire about what he’s thinking, and pauses when she sees that Ridley is very deliberately drawing one digit across the markings, the faint scrape of his claws leaving glowing symbols in its wake. It’s almost as if he…

Liv steps closer, intrigued. “You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?”

Ridley’s teeth bare in a grin, far too smug. He continues to trace the pattern in calculated strokes, gaze focused on his task. “I have.”

“How did you do it? You said you didn’t know the language, so how—?”

Then, she sees it. The string of glowing LED characters, rather than forming some abstract pattern to potentially spell out a word or number, has taken on the form of a strange, blunt shape, almost like the outline of a particularly odd helmet. As Ridley finishes the pattern, the entire thing flashes in searing crimson, almost like a blinking neon sign; two slanted lines appear in the center of the outlined shape, slightly spaced apart. Eyes?

A rumble comes from below, startling Liv into taking a few steps backward, and even Ridley staggers back a pace. What sounds like ancient gears grinding painfully together grates out from underneath the sands, the desert surface shifting like water beneath their feet from the powerful vibrations. With a sharp whine, the tip of the pyramid-like object begins to come apart, the four sides unfolding like a flower’s petals until they are laying flat against the sand.

The square-shaped hole now in place of the pyramidal object gapes like a mouth leading down into the core of the planet, darkness concealing the hidden depths below. Moving forward and ignoring the sand spilling down into the subterranean pit, Liv and Ridley are just barely able to make out the sight of a wide floor space below— sitting at the bottom of about an eighty five foot drop.

“Wow,” says Liv, eyes straining to see anything beyond just the dusty, cracked floor at the bottom. “That… that’s pretty deep. What do you suppose the Yautja hunt, that needs such a large space?”

A rippling noise draws her attention to the space dragon beside her, who appears to be stretching his wings as he sizes up the steep drop before them. “We shall soon find out.”

“I’m… curious to see just what we’re dealing with here,” mutters Liv, stepping forward. “If what I’ve been told is true, then the creatures they hunt are brought in from Inverxe. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that particular planet, but it’s a complete deathtrap. We may, essentially, be walking into one right now.”

Ridley turns to her, amber eyes gleaming. “Getting cold feet already, doctor?”

Liv scoffs. “No. I’m just, you know. Letting you know.”
 

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Ridley grimaced as his weight was slowly, inexorably dragged down the musty hole. Whilst Olivia was keeping track of what might be below, what monsters could be waiting for them, the dragon kept an eye to the skies, considering what might be waiting above. The pyramid opening was not quiet, and while the sands did much to conceal things, if this place was as technologically advanced as Olivia had promised - and… Ridley had to admit that this might indeed be the case as they continued onwards… Then this could mean others may come to take their prize from them. He refused to be caught unawares.


As a result, even as Liv lay in his giant, concerningly sharp talons, looking into the darkness below, Ridley had one eye turned above to the sky, paranoid of passing ships. He wasn’t afraid of fighting for this prize, but he’d eaten enough laser blasts from ship-based weaponry to know he didn’t want a surprise engagement. Mercifully, he noticed neither a sniff of fuel in the atmosphere nor a speck of movement within the sky.

The beaked creature’s look then moved to the darkness below as the two landed, Ridley placing one foot on the ground, then releasing Liv with the other so gently that the foot-falls of the good doctor made little more than a small clacking on the floor itself. Quick, stealthy. Dark.

Ridley looked around, and noticed the darkness around them.

Liv frowned. “I didn’t bring anything for us to see with, so I think we’re not going to be able to-”

Ridley looked at the Doctor with a scowl that pierced the shroud by the glow of his eyes.

“Doctor… I’m disappointed.” The Lizard asked with what was close to a smile.

“What do you-”

Ridley unwrapped his tail, and a piece of cacti from earlier was ceremoniously thrown to the floor.

“When did you grab that?”

“The way down.” Ridley snorted, refusing to elaborate further, as he held it to dry.

“I don’t see how-”

“What did you last eat?” Ridley asked with a look of exasperation, and Liv’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I think I get you now!”

Ridley didn’t respond, as flames built up in his mouth, and it wasn’t more than a second before the Cactus was impaled at the end of Ridley’s tail and Held up for all to see. It only took a few seconds of consistent breath to get a proper fire going, and like that, the chamber was lit up for all of them to see.

Inside was something far more… organic than they were expecting.

Ridley’s eyes narrowed at the area, scoping out the value of it. More organic matter than he’d expected, but a structure that could utilize an artificial ecology - whether from Old age or something else, he did not know. The material on the floor was dripping pus and decidedly organic muck, and it didn’t take too long for the torch to settle on why.

Olivia was the first one to say anything, the doctor looking excited. “Eggs! They look completely different to anything I’ve seen. This must be the Hatching room for these creatures.”

Ridley looked at the little pods she was talking about. They looked closer to a slimy flower than a normal avian egg, and he turned one eye to them as the gears of his mind began turning. These eggs were relatively unguarded, near an open chamber. What could that mean?

“Liv. Step back. Near the fire.” Ridley stated, as he sniffed and smelled… a myriad of scents. Enough that his nose was nearly getting overwhelmed. These eggs were certainly only the beginning.

“They’re just eggs…” Olivia stated, though it only took half a second for the scientist’s eyes to light up. Ridley scowled at his mammalian counterpart as she seemed halfway into glee. Was it something he had said?

“...I was in an egg once, Doctor, and yet I was born with the ability to consume a human whole before my first layer of down had molted..”

“You were a baby? You had down?! You molt?!” The Doctor asked, scientific fascination overcoming her concern for the situation.


Ridley gave her a glare, one eye moving directly to her, and gave her no answer as his demeanor turned fierce.

“...Sorry, was that too much? I didn’t mean to-GOD!”

A flurry of motion fell as the yellowish creature leapt forward and Doc Ock was forced to throw herself backwards as a living projectile threw itself forward…

But it’s flight path was interrupted without fanfare, legs trying and failing to escape the hold of a misshapen purple hand.

“...Technology is useless to the dead, doctor.” Ridley mocked with a smug grin. The Doctor swallowed, and the dragon smiled as he felt the creature scramble in his iron-clad grasp. Each leg seemed to have several dozen pounds of pressure in it, and he doubted a human could fight it off, but it seemed to be too stupid to understand how little movement was left to it in the grasp of a true predator. Ridley squeezed the creature and with one push, ejected most of it’s organs-

Agony.
Agony.
Unceasing, blistering agony ripped through the Cunning God of Death’s cortex like a runaway train as his palm turned to flame. The green acid of the Facehugger’s ichor Drove a knife into Ridley’s brain like a plasma beam through zoomers, and The pirate was quick to throw the creature into a nearby wall.

“Are you okay?” Olivia asked.

“Grrrahhh!” ridley spat, a guttural noise as the Draconic Xeno stumbled backwards on his feet. Holding his hand with his other grip, he held the dripping hand forward. The acid had already broken the skin, and was proceeding to cook it’s way through into the flesh beneath. If it made contact with the bloodstream, it could kill.

Taking a chance, the Dragon’s Mouth leaped in flame. A scream of pain flew out with the fire as the space pirate general coated his mouth in incinerating flame, forcing the acid to break down before things got dire at the cost of incinerating much of the flesh on his hand.

Olivia’s face was that of terror as she saw the damage, but only for a moment, as her air-filled limbs turned on and she turned into functional mode. A soft glow echoed through the chamber as the Dragon used his still-burning hand to light the chamber, and a horde of the creatures leaped for her.

Olivia just grinned. “But they’re easy when you know their trick.” The Scientist said with glee, as the little parasites were slapped away, one by one, by a collection of hollow tentacles, smashing them into the surroundings with deadly force.

“Burn!” Ridley Spat, as the fire god opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of plasma into the area. The eggs lit up, and the screams of half and unborn facehuggers changed the quiet area into something far more horrifying, and the pair both looked up to safety.

“Whatever entrance we’ve picked is the wrong one!” Ridley screamed over the din.

“Then let’s go back up?”

A second whirring and clanking of gears began rumbling through the pyramid as the top slowly, but surely closed above them, what little light had once been visible from the surface being suffused in darkness.

“...So we’re not going back up, then.” Liv stated with a hopeless tone in her voice.

“Lament your decisions on your own time, doctor!” Ridley snapped, looking to a side entrance that was lit up by the firelight of murdered parasites. “That way!”
 

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“We were expected,” Liv muses, voice soft over the sound of crackling embers.

This revelation is a bit too little, too late in her opinion, but a much-needed one. She doesn’t believe her companion has ever been in the unfortunate biological caste of prey, but it’s a feeling she has gradually grown more accustomed to while in Ridley’s presence. Thus, it is with fresh eyes that she examines their charred, flame-lit surroundings, mouth flattening into a grim line.

The stench of acidic secretions and organs burning fills the air, sour and thick enough to choke on. She’s suddenly very glad that she has her protective goggles on, for she’s certain that her eyes would likely be painfully irritated if she wasn’t wearing them. As it is, the guttering inferno composed of burning alien creatures reflects in the lenses covering her face, ribbons of flickering orange dancing across translucent green.

Liv studies one of the corpses, its limbs twitching through mild death spasms. Like the other leathery bodies strewn in the ashes, the creature’s strange musculature and elongated tail are dripping with glutinous fluids, its body appearing almost like a misshapen scorpion. Long, spindly legs fold inward as it dies, curling up similar to a spider, and the pale yellow of its skin seems disconcertingly human in texture.

She prods the charred remains with one of her robotic arms, noting the extended proboscis jutting out from an orifice at the creature’s center mass. Mild distaste spreads across her face, manifesting in a slight curl of her lip. How… utterly foul.

The lights adorning her tactical harness flash in the darkness, system monitors and movement sensors shining dully. Shifting her weight around, mechanical arms bracketing the air around her in defensive posture, Liv studies the subterranean room around them more intently. Through the smoking haze created by the burning… flesh-eggs distributed about the space, she can fully appreciate the vaulting ceiling of the ruin, the coffin shaped slabs placed in a circular formation at the room’s center, and the dusty, shadowy walls decorated with rows upon rows of evenly-segmented hieroglyphs.

Though it definitely rankles to leave the only known exit from this wretched place behind, she tears her eyes away from the flaming carnage to focus on the corridor ahead of them. The air turns colder the further they travel into the depths, the scent of ancient molds lining the passageway making the quiet environment seem especially stale. It’s only somewhat of a narrow fit for Ridley, strangely enough, and that realization alone sends a bolt of adrenaline shooting down Liv’s spine.

Yes, it’s as she suspected. This… temple-like structure is meant for creatures that could, in all likelihood, rival Ridley in sheer size. Twin emotions war within her— excitement at the prospect of studying this new species, and apprehension pertaining to her own continued survival.

“Ridley,” whispers Liv with some urgency, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice. She doesn’t quite manage it, she thinks, because her reptilian companion’s yellow gaze snaps to her own in an instant, a faint glimmer of serrated teeth flashing in the dark.

He doesn’t say anything, though, so Liv takes that as permission to go on, clearing her throat a tad and attempting to adopt a... more clinical, and distinctly less delighted tone. “Those creatures were in the early stages of their biological life cycle. Now, I don’t know about your infancy, but mammalian creatures are practically helpless at birth, as you probably know, and most Terran bird species are very reliant upon their parents…”

“Doctor,” Ridley growls, gritting out the words in a tone of voice that sets her to quaking in her boots. “Your point.”

Liv coughs lightly. “Er-ehrm, of course. My point is... why would a creature, freshly hatched from its egg, immediately attack any living organisms that happen to be standing nearby?”

They pause in the middle of the shadowy, sand-littered corridor. Ridley’s wings scrape the ceiling as he turns to face her, his entire bulk looming over her with such menacing intent that Liv’s monkey brain violently urges her to take a slight step backward, mechanical arms twitching in anticipation of an attack.

She wonders, in an especially hysterical part of her mind that she almost always partitions from the rest, if he’s decided to eat her. At last, I’ve exhausted his patience, she thinks, the scientist in her all too eager to toe the line between Ridley’s good graces and animal hostility.

Instead of attacking, however, the space pirate merely regards her in silence for a moment, the weight of his gaze searing into her. Then, rather simply, he utters a single word: “Food.”

“Yes!” Liv whisper-shouts, head bobbing up and down in a nod. “Yes, good hypothesis. Excellent hypothesis. But… I do wonder. I was targeted initially and would have been much easier to overpower, so the attack was, quite frankly, expected. And yet, they persisted even as you interfered!”

“They are eyeless. Lacking anything beyond basic instinct,” scoffs Ridley, returning his attention to the path ahead of them, though she detects a hint of... uncertainty in the way his eyes flick behind them briefly, searching the empty corridor. She winces as the talons of his burned limb dig into the stone floor with a sharp crack, even as her frustration builds at being so clearly dismissed.

He clearly knows a fair bit more than he's letting on.

Mechanized arms raising her up from the floor, Liv settles at approximately Ridley’s eye level with her arms firmly crossed over her chest, not willing to let the subject drop. “Basic instinct, yes. But of what kind? It’s just, isn’t it a little convenient to you that those eggs were all placed by the entrance? I mean, what reason could the parent, or someone, have for placing them there, where they might be potentially vulnerable to all sorts of predation. Food is one reason, but an easy meal would hardly be guaranteed, Ridley…”

“We have no time to waste on baseless speculation, doctor,” Ridley snaps, suddenly very much agitated. Liv backs off a tad, hovering nervously in his periphery, and the space dragon chuffs at her cowardice, continuing to press on down the dark corridor, the flaming cactus pierced on the tip of his tail casting strange shadows over the stone walls. “The miserable creatures are dealt with, but their parents will no doubt come in search of their young. Let us move.

With that, Liv falls silent, padding quietly behind Ridley’s bulk. She’s painfully aware that, if some opponent were to approach from behind, she will likely be trapped in between a fire-spitting dragon and more of those things with the acidic blood. Not an ideal situation to find oneself in, for sure.

There’s also the matter of Ridley’s injury. While Liv has always lacked anything approaching maternal instinct, that charred limb does seem rather painful to walk on. She dearly hopes she won’t end up like that, or worse… she won’t be able to just shrug off a burn of that caliber, and she has a feeling she can’t exactly rely on Ridley to tolerate any weakness.

Abruptly, the long passageway ends, the light attached to Ridley’s tail rushing to fill the new wide, dark chamber they’ve wandered into. Her eyes straining to catch a glimpse of any more flesh-pods in the more shadowy corners of the high-ceilinged room, it isn’t until Liv fully focuses on the wall directly opposite from the entryway that she sees—

“Oh,” says Liv, blinking in mild concern. “Would you look at that.”

A multitude of skulls decorate the wall, nestled into numerous alcoves set into the stone. Some of them even have the spinal cord still attached, the ancient vertebrae visibly crumbling to dust. She believes she spots a few human skulls in the collection, among other species, even some that appear to belong to creatures as large as Ridley. The sight is… unsettling, to say the least.

And there, slumping on the ground at the foot of the massive wall of severed heads, is a body, legs sprawled awkwardly across the ground and neck bowed from the weight of the… thing clinging to their face, its tail wrapped tightly around their neck and finger-like limbs digging into their scalp.

Oh,” says Liv again, and she can’t quite stop the grin that threatens to pull at her lips despite the obvious danger, the fascination sparkling in her eyes. “Is that what they do?”
 

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Ridley’s gait was slow, even-keeled in order to allow the doctor rushing behind him to keep up. It was a convenient excuse, at least, for the Drake could not sustain high speeds for long on his damaged limb.

Ridley’s attention wavered from that as Liv pointed out the live specimen in front of them. A mammal, holding one of the long-fingered savages on it’s face. The breathing of both was muted yet distinct…

Which bothered the dragon. Something was going on here… It hit at one of his ancestral memories but decades ago, which was never a good sign. Skerritt had many unique biological species, but few were ever weak or without dangers of their own. None of them ever truly held a candle to the space dragon species, of course, but…

Ridley looked at Liv, happily inspecting the creature and it’s host.

“Ridley! Look at this! It’s undergoing some symbiosis with the creature. Their breathing and heart rates seem to be synchronized! That means they might actually have their nervous systems linked and-

Ridley was immediately happy with the knowledge, and strode forward with a swinging tail and trailing gaze from one eye on the doctor, but her hypothesis was already complete enough and he needed her to be quiet, so a soft hand grasped her gently - but firmly, around the arms and moved the doctor away with only a nervous gasp.

And then, Ridley sniffed.

The smell brought back his past two-fold, and for a moment he was but a chick again, covered in down, as the scents came back. This certainly smelled different than the Ruedi spiders that often came to lay their eggs in space dragon chicks on his homeworld, but he still remembered the basics of survival from his boyhood months…

And like he’d heard back then, he smelled more than two signatures of dead bodies on the corpse.

Ridley quickly moved Olivia to the right as the White creature came screeching out of the body, and Ridley held up a talon to quickly grab the squealing little creature and bring it to the ground.

Parasites! Parasites!” Ridley roared as the creature wriggled under his grip. “Feeble creatures slaved to the weakness of others for their own success! What gutless creatures the mighty Yautja face!” Ridley roared, before flicking his talon back in one motion and throwing the white freak in all of it’s squealing, blood-colored glory into a nearby wall.

The impact was as a wet splatter, and the Pirate gave a menacing grin as the acid burned itself into the wall, letting the scientist go now the danger had passed.

Olivia’s breathing came in and out in ragged gasps.

“What a miserable cave this is.” Ridley finally stated after a moment, yellow eyes glowing through the light as he looked at the emerald and white traces of the creature on the wall.

Liv gave a shudder. “So this species eats humans?”

Ridley didn’t give a response, for his mouth was far too busy gripping and tearing off a significant portion of the offering of meat that had been presented to him, and Olivia backed off a few steps.

Ridley pulled with hands and talons both, and a full third of the human was Shredded in a blood-filled mess and flowed down his gullet, the Pirate commander struggling to swallow.

Not due to the ease, of course. The spaghetti the human had been left into was simple enough to digest. No, it was the immediate rank taste, the ineffective but disgusting burn of the stomach acids, the thin excuse for sauce that was human blood and the limp texture of fragile human bone.

“...Disgusting!” The Dragon spat, blood flowing from his jaws. “How can a sapient species be so unpalatable!

Ridley threw his face from side to side in a show of revulsion, blood trailing across the area. “Once again, I am resorting to vile, vile human flesh!

“R-ridley, we should…”

Ridley’s eyes snapped over to the doctor, a glare coming through his body. “This is a nesting chamber. We will have to fight our way out.” The archosaur snapped. “They know we are here. They lack eyes. They would have heard our rampant running, or felt the heat of our burning candle!” The dragon pointed out, even as he set several parts of the nest to the torch. “We do not leave this encounter quietly, doctor!

Jade’s face was not fully readable through the goggles, but she is quick to move past the dragon, leaving the dragon tilting his head to see what she thought she was doing-

Oh.

Jade’s hands quickly fumble into the now soiled pants of the deceased, reach into a torn pocket, and pull out a set of keys. Made of silver, from the smell of it. Ridley wondered idly how much market value they’d have, but quickly dismissed the thought when he realized how insignificant it ultimately was. Besides, they had a much bigger purpose.

“So if this guy was dragged down here--”

Ridley’s eyes widened. “Then he had a ship of some sort. Or A vehicle of some description.”

“-precisely! And we can use that to get the hell out of here!” Liv cheerfully informed the dragon.

Ridley’s wings shrank in as he regarded the option, eyes turned to a glare as he looked around. “Then it’s a simple matter of finding it. I should be able to smell the expended fuel - so it’s some distance from here.”

Olivia looked surprised for a second, and then grinned. “Your smell is that good.”

Ridley turned to say something prideful in his defense, but the markings on the wall caught his eye as he turned, and Legs were suddenly stretched to their height as Ridley’s hearts suddenly skipped a beat.

“What.” The Space pirate snapped, eyes widening.

What he’d thought was a fixture was a beak.

The old bird was quick not to waste time, and rushed forward, claws digging frantically as the sound of Liv yelling something were lost on him. This was more important information. This would b e wasted time otherwise.

Trapped, mummified, amongst the web, was a familiar muscle structure over thin bone. Spiked tail, wing bones now scattered along the floor with the broken and damaged claws and more than a few teeth as Ridley unceremoniously dug up the hideous parody of a grave with all the subtlety of a ferengi selling used cars.

The sheer revelation of the find caused Liv to cause, as they hit a torso. Thin, but large. Many different, skeletal ribs, all belonging to...

A crocodilian face, still contorted from it’s last moments - likely ended by the giant hole in the middle of it’s chest.


Ridley looked to Olivia with a glare, and the beast within threatened to take control, as he grabbed the deceased human next to her and consumed it with a single gulp. He had no time to complain of taste right now.

“Let’s keep moving, Octavius.” Ridley shifted, taking a calmer, quieter tone. “ this is about to become dangerous.” The drake added, looking to the facehugger. “And I’m not about to let something else take my property, least of all parasites.”
 
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Liv spares one last glance for the dusty, decayed corpse of what she can only assume is another space dragon. Its reptilian face appears no more peaceful in death than it likely was in its final moments, alien features twisted into an ugly, painful-seeming rictus. What was clearly once flesh and bone has largely crumbled to dust under Ridley’s clawing talons, and the smell...

Well, it smells like several grandmother’s attics all combined into one. A cottony, almost powdery scent, like old fruit and decay. Distinctly unsettling, yet familiar, to say the very least on the matter.

Stomach churning a little, Liv tucks the dead man’s ship keys into a compartment built into the structural belt at her waist, the neoprene straps tied over her shoulders chafing a bit as she moves. She rubs at them absently, eyes moving in a calculating sweep across the incubation chamber’s walls. A design change might be in order, if she ever gets out of this godforsaken tomb.

The scientist squares her shoulders, blowing a strand of frizzed hair from her face. Her air-filled appendages twist up into the air, curling outward like the grasping arms of a tentacled sea beast, their movements rhythmic yet undeniably affected by her emotions. Of course she’s getting out of here. Of course.

Following Ridley’s lead, Liv trails behind her significantly more fearsome-seeming companion as he opts to enter the only passage big enough for him to fit inside. Disconcertingly, the rest of the passageways branching off from the trophy gallery appear to be much too narrow for his large frame, and when Liv twists around to peer down them, they continue onward into a perpetual darkness, dozens of noiseless tunnels winding through the depths of the pyramidal structure like a maze. Some of them aren't even big enough for an upright human to enter...

She walks silently in Ridley’s shadow, studying the surprisingly ornate carvings scrawled across the walls around them. It isn’t until she turns back to look at Ridley that Liv notes the sudden change in her companion’s demeanor— the slow, predatory lope his previously defensive stance has shifted into, the scrape of his talons across the floor seeming almost muted, hushed, as he stalks forward with panther-like grace. She eyes his tail with nervous eyes, the massive pointed barb frisking about in the air like a guillotine’s blade, fluid and razor-sharp all at once, only to be distracted by a sliver of gore dripping from his jaws to splatter against the floor: all that remains of her fellow Homo sapiens...

Liv shivers, gaze sliding to the ceiling— and abruptly goes stock-still, mouth falling open in a silent gasp.

A dusting of sand falls into Ridley’s path, gusting in the dead air of the passageway like a phantom. The space pirate general pauses, instantly turning an amber-colored glare toward the ceiling, serrated teeth flashing in a sneer and every muscle braced for a fight.

Ferocity swiftly turns to confusion. Slowly, Ridley’s burning gaze traces over the multitude of square tiles lining the ceiling, coming to rest on a single, disjointed tile located several paces behind him. The square-shaped slab of thin limestone has been knocked aside, revealing a gaping hole wide enough for a human’s shoulders to fit through… and naught but darkness beyond.

Something very close to panic sparks in Ridley’s mind, albeit with an unmistakably, erm, possessive aftertaste. Head turning, he regards the empty passageway behind him, the space lacking the presence of one Dr. Olivia Octavius.

Sssssshhhk. More sand chafes off from the ceiling, a grainy cloud of the stuff plummeting to the ground with a sinister hiss… followed shortly by an ear-splitting shriek from above.

***​

She’d seen the barbed tail hurling toward her face a second too late. Unable to dodge, Liv’s inflatable arms had instead surged up to catch it just as the wickedly pointed tip was poised to skewer her straight through the chest. The bracket-like fingers had held the tail fast, the scorpion-like appendage stopping just short of certain impalement to graze lightly against her sternum. Unfortunately, this had resulted in the owner of said tail opting to yoink her straight up and through the ceiling with incredible strength, and now, well...

Liv stares, struck mute, at the deadly creature poised above her, its slender frame hemmed in by the narrow ventilation shaft. By the faint greenish glow cast by the various sensors and system monitors lining her harness, she can only vaguely glimpse the shiny black exoskeleton covering the alien’s hideously emaciated body, the creature seeming like a horrible twist between an insect and a dragon in appearance.

Its elongated, ridge-lined skull tilts downward to regard her, a strangely lilting growl emanating from deep within its bony chest, jagged limbs straining against the mechanized appendages wrapped around them— Liv’s equipment just barely terminating a deadly lunge. In truth, she has never been more grateful for her invention.

A long string of drool drips from its oddly translucent fangs, dripping onto her cheek.

“Oh, my god,” Liv gasps, features twisting in disgust, just as the creature screeches in her face, jaw unhinging and—

A second set of jaws shoots out of the creature’s gullet with piston-like force, snapping shut mere inches from her nose. The mucus-covered proboscis waggles about as the creature snarls, acidic spittle flying everywhere. A high-pitched scree booms in her ears, deafening her to all other sounds but those originating from the beast.

Okay, so it’s angry. Very angry! She’s got this, though. It’s far enough away that not even its second jaw can reach her, not to mention its barbed tail, the flexible appendage firmly secured to its side by one inflatable limb. So long as it doesn’t break free or anything, she’ll be juuuust fine.

Fffsssssssssshhhhh.

An audible hiss fills the claustrophobic space. Liv’s eyes widen in shock, gaze snapping to where the rubbery material of one of her auxiliary appendages has been severed by the creature’s struggling. The limb rapidly depressurizes as it loses air… loosening enough to partially release one of the alien’s talon-tipped arms, and it's only a second later when a frighteningly human-like hand lashes out to claw viciously at her face.

“Ack, no! Get back get back get back—” Liv twists backward as best she can in close quarters like this, using her remaining tentacles to force the xenomorph away from her, effectively slamming its cylindrical head against the walls of the enclosed space. The impact sends a powerful shockwave through the walls, thick plumes of dust cascading around them as the ancient stone shudders from the abuse.

Although stunned, the xenomorph’s clawed hand still manages to strike out and rake across her chest in an agonizingly slow drag, slicing several deep gouges into the front of her vest. Beads of stinging blood well up underneath, fresh wounds opening as the tips of the creature’s claws graze her skin.

Sucking in a pained hiss through her teeth, Liv goes to slam the alien against the wall again in retaliation— and promptly screams as the floor gives way beneath her, an explosion of stone and dust splintering around her abruptly plummeting body.

She needn’t have worried, though, for a large hand plucks her right out of the air mid-fall, one massive wing shielding her from much of the falling debris. Liv sags in Ridley’s grasp, gasping, glad to be out of there.

Of course, there are no ‘oh my god are you alright’s from Ridley, and certainly no empty expressions of concern. Which, alright, she could maybe use a little bit of gentle handling right now. Her body has not stopped shaking yet, trembling with aftershocks of adrenaline, and oh dear god she was almost killed! What is up with that!

“Ah, Ridley!” she says anyway, feigning cheer as she blinks blearily up at him. Her lips part in a crooked grin. “Great timing—”

Her voice breaks off with a cough. Gritting her teeth so hard that her molars grind together, Liv forces herself to focus a bit more beyond just the white-hot pain radiating from the scratches on her chest. Namely, on the matter of the thing that attacked her.

She squints around at their surroundings, suddenly frantic. Her goggles are covered with a fine film of dust, the collapsed ceiling still settling around them, making visibility low. But that’s not her main concern right now, because in the fall, it seems her tentacled arms just completely gave up on holding onto the xenomorph. In particular, her one damaged arm sags conspicuously against her back, its translucent rubber exterior shredded and sluggish in comparison to the others. And while she’s definitely glad she didn’t drag the creature down right on top of Ridley, that does leave the question of just where it is.

Yeah. Not good, not good at all.

It’s just as she’s thinking several approximations of ah, this totally sucks that a rippling black shape shoots out from the cloud of dust fluctuating in the air around them, lunging straight for Ridley’s back. And, well, that’s just not fair, now is it?

The xenomorph jerks midair as two tentacled arms latch onto each of its extended forelimbs. Shrieking angrily, it writhes violently around, hind legs curving up in an attempt to dislodge the bracket-like fingers digging into its wrists with crushing force.

Scowling, Liv hurls the wretched thing into the wall with extreme prejudice. Only, rather than just letting it go flying, her arms keep a hold on it for a second too long, promptly tearing its front limbs off in a volcanic spray of green arterial blood.

“...Ahahaha, oops,” says Liv, dropping the torn limbs to the floor with a pair of wet thunks. The resultant acidic stains of gore immediately begin to eat away at the stone flooring with a sharp sizzle, punctuating the xenomorph's scratchy, pained wailing as it attempts to struggle onto its hind legs.
 

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The Avian Archosaur’s eyes swung into focus at the sheer carnage Olivia Octavius had inflicted on this creature. A hunter, it’s body now struggled to even retain a standing position, missing two of it’s limbs. So, this was the End-stage of these creatures the Yautja hunted so eagerly.

The thought hit him as he looked at the mewling creature sitting on the ground, screeching like a banshee in pain, and the only thing that could come to Ridley’s maw was complete, utter, uncontrolled laughter, the drake hugging his talons tightly into the ground (and the stone below it), as he took in the site of the ridiculous freak.

“Ahahahahahaha… The mighty hunted has fallen even lower. Were the Yautja so weak as to treat this as target practice?!”

The warlord laughed, wings fluttering as he took in the sight and Liv looked up in something between satisfaction, worry, and confusion as Ridley slammed the ground. “Just a ridiculous snake without the wit to crawl on it’s belly! What a darwinistic end to you, freak.” Ridley taunted.

“W-we should really keep-look out!” Octavius yelled, as she leaped back.

Four of the creatures fell from the ceiling above, one landing straight on the stone where the scientist had stood a moment ago. Two more dove from above, straight towards Ridley’s more Delicate wings, while another went for his back.

Clearly, these ones were not amongst those who captured his fallen brother. Else, they would be far wiser.

“One of my race-” Ridley roared, as he sprung into motion. With a quick clap of his wings, both of the aliens were slapped to the side by the dagger like hooks left on them. The Alien behind Ridley was smashed with a tail as thick as it’s body, and sent flying into the nearby wall with a thud and a sizzle - the blow hard enough to leave some damage to it’s carapace.

The creature did not get up again.

“fell to one of these!” Ridley roared, as he readied for the attack. Octavius appeard to have hers in a grapple as it nipped past her claws and straight for her face.

Ridley’s eyes moved away as he noticed her give a smile before sending the Alien sprawling into the air with a quick twist of her robotic arms. She talked a lot, and seemed to have bouts of squeamishness, but he’d had to do little baby-sitting to keep his new scientist alive. It was good.

Ridley’s eyes switched focus to watch both of these genetic aberrations as they circled him. Ridley roared as he shrank back a couple steps, protectively puffing out his wings as the two readied themselves.


One xenomorph moved to one side while the other deliberately slowed it’s pace. It was stalling for when the alien to his side moved out of his Vision, of course, ready to strike from both areas, and if Ridley was a brute animal or a simple human warrior, it might have been a problem.

RIdley was neither, however, and as the dual strike quickly happened, the Pirate commander’s neck slapped outwards with a brute speed, catching the alien in front of him in his jaws. At the same time, his tail lashed out in a wide arc that caught the xenomorph behind him in the legs, breaking them, and leaving the creature twitching uselessly on the floor, screeching.

Ridley did not bite down, for he remembered the lessons he had gained from squeezing the facehugger. These later-stage aliens likely had the same form of acidic blood. Instead, he threw the struggling monster into a nearby wall, and advanced as fast as the body flew, moving to an animalistic gallop. The alien smacked off the wall with an audible thud, and it wasn’t allowed to hit the ground as Ridley grasped it firmly in one talon.

The parasite screamed in resolute anger, fearless even now. In a calmer place and time, he might have admired it’s bravado, but right now, in the heat of combat and looming over his enemy, he just found it irritating.

The Alien beneath his talons flailed, trying to get in a position to use it’s prehensile tail to slash the larger monster’s beak, but every movement was rewarded with a visceral slam as Ridley repeatedly bashed the creature into the floor beneath. Like a kid playing with blocks, he simply repeated the same bashing motion every time he saw movement.

Eventually, it slowed down, unmoving, and Ridley waited to see if it would still.

“Ridley, I got mine, what are… Oh.” Liv managed to breathe, As the Dragon lowered his leg on the alien creature. It squealed, clawing uselessly against his skin without any grounding to put real force into it.

“You’re waiting, aren’t you?” Ridley asked. “For me to lower my head, like this…”

As he spoke, Ridley’s beak came closer, and the creature gave out distressed noises, like it was mewling or crying. It should have satisfied Ridley, but he knew it was feigned, and instead it fuelled the violence of his Lunge, as the spiked tail flew for his eye. Instead, it was caught firmly in Ridley’s waiting jaws, and he was slow to move his other front talon atop it as the creature squealed in more distress now.

He was slow, very slow, enough to watch the creature’s waiting realization, finding it’s intelligence quite interesting as it started to struggle, uselessly, harder. It knew what was coming as Ridley’s fingers came closed around it’s tails, and it beat with a strength only those with a soul can offer as he slowly tore from both ends, as the tail was ripped from it’s socket. Holding it to the ground, Ridley quickly flipped the loathsome beast as he spat the creature’s tail from his mouth and flames erupted in it.

“So you can feel pain and fear.” Ridley Growled, as a sadistic smile emerged.

And then he wreathed the struggling body in flame, walking away as he heard it’s high-pitched screams from behind him.

“Let’s go, Olivia. It seems my mood has been lifted.” The Dragon called, as the two kept moving, The brilliant scientist seeming very perturbed by the action.

Ridley appreciated this. It meant that the proper fear of Ridley still existed within his new comrade.

They’d only managed a few steps, though, before an even louder roar filled the caverns. It was unmistakeable: An alien’s screech filled with a more bestial, avian roar. It’s pitch was high but it’s force was enough to shake the caverns.

“Well, if it isn’t my fellow Space Dragon’s mess. Let’s move.”

“Wait, is your species actually called-No, wait, why are we fighting this creature?!” Olivia grimaced. “This is not an okay thing! It’s something made out of one of you, right? What if it’s-”

Twinkling, dangerous eyes glared at Olivia with a look he had previously reserved for Prey, and Olivia turned sheet-white as her words died in her throat.

“-I mean, uhhh…” The Pasty scientist stammered, before Ridley simply spoke over her mutterings.

“If it was a dragon killed by one of these, it will not be a problem for me. I believe I proved that. And I cannot allow any other species to have our DNA in any way, shape or form. It’s an insult to our race’s honor.” Ridley added. “What’s more, if it’s based on myself, it needs space. Air. A place to stretch and shift.”

“...So an… so a starship hanger, then!”

Ridley grinned and gave a stern nod, and took his steps towards the source of the noise, not fully caring if Octavia objected. It wasn’t as though she was going to leave his side regardless, after all.

She trailed along as before, and for a moment, silence stretched.

“So… Space Dragon.”

“We have a true name. But it is not revealed to those outside ourselves.”

“So your kind is… very secretive.”

“It is the only law my kind have given that I have followed.”

Octavia looked surprised, then quirked an eyebrow. “...Do you think I could ever see the people you come from?”

“...It is several galaxies away from the one I hailed from. Even farther from here.”

“...You fly across galaxies?!

“Not often.”
 
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