Chapter 9

The Interior of the Crashed Khundian Destroyer was a mess. Square Hallways partially filled with rubble and sand were sometimes lit by natural light emanating from holes in the hull and, every once in a while, by the glow of advanced emergency chemical lights whose decades-long lifespans had yet to fully run down. It lent the whole thing an eerie vibe that spoke more of a horror movie than anything sci-fi.

Oddly, aside from debris, the place was rather clean. There were none of the corpses I would have expected from a wreck like this, which made me think that the crew that had managed to survive the crash had done some gathering up of those that hadn't for burial before leaving. This sense of abandonment was only enhanced by the fact that I didn't find much that was worth salvaging in any of the rooms I checked.

That was saying something on a ship like this. After all, Khundian Military Vessels were known to have multiple, well-stocked armories alongside a number of drone storage bays for things like Biobots and Cybercloaks. That none of the rooms I entered had anything worth taking was either a testament to the hardiness of the Khundian Military, in that enough of the crew survived the crash with enough discipline to salvage it all before abandoning the wreck, or it was a testament to the scavenging operations endemic to Talkorr.

Either way, it meant that I was unlikely to find much that would give me the edge against Arkillo as I tried to track him down. The Vorn Serial Killer was adept enough at hiding his power that any attempt I made to find him using my scouter was failing, and I wasn't able to sense him with my Ki Sense either, though I did manage to pick up a weak, flickering Ki signature further into the ship, on what should be the Engineering Deck, if my knowledge of Khundian Warships was at all correct.

That was probably Shayera. It was clear she was hurt and needed help, but could I afford to beeline straight to her? Arkillo was clearly able to strike from ambush since he could suppress his power, even if he didn't know anything about Ki. When combined with his background, it made him the perfect ambush predator. Could I afford to take the obvious bait presented by the wounded Shayera? Would he just finish Shayera off if I didn't? I had no answers to these questions, and that, I found, was troubling.

It was as I was pondering this that I came upon a truly grisly sight. I'd wandered through the corridors, checking rooms for anything I might be able to use to get the edge on Arkillo, when I came upon a horrific totem in the corridor outside what should be the Officer's Mess Hall. It was dozens of thigh bones, some still wet with blood, lashed together by bits of wire to a backing made from bulkhead panels forcibly bent into shape by main strength. It was some sort of trophy or totem, clearly fashioned by Arkillo. A way to keep score, maybe? Or to prove his superiority over his victims?

"Thinking about the motives of a madman isn't going to do much good." I muttered, shaking my head.

Besides, it wasn't like my own people didn't do even worse things. Even now, guys like Prince Vegeta were out there, razing worlds in acts of global genocide, all in the name of the PTO's profits. While I couldn't excuse that, I could understand how living under Frieza's boot wouldn't incentivize living any other way. Turles had no excuse, though. He was out there committing planetary-scale massacres just so he could harvest the fruit of the Tree of Might to gain more strength for himself.

Then there were the more insidious evils, like the Citadel's attempts at genetic experiments on unwary planets or the slow, subversive, encroachment that the Reach liked to expand using. Arguably, even the Guardians of Oa could be considered to be a lesser evil, considering all the skeletons in their collective closet, some of which would even come home to roost in the future, like Atrocitus.

"This universe is full of assholes. It's no wonder that Bounty Hunting is a booming business." I mused.

Shaking my head, I focused up. It didn't help that while my mind was that of an adult, the brain it was crammed into was still reeling from the hormonal after-effects of its first growth spurt. Going off on a mental tangent would likely only serve to get me and Shayera killed right now. The grisly bone totem in front of me was all the evidence I needed of that.

"Head in the game, Rugulo. Think about the implications of the universe after dealing with Arkillo." I reminded myself.

Brushing past the Bone Trophy, I entered into the Officer's Mess. It was dark in here, lit only by the flickering chemical lights and a small bank of static-filled monitors that still had power for some reason. That reason seemed to be the partially destroyed Military Android that was propped up against a flipped-over table. These sorts of Androids were an extension of the Khundian Drone Technology that the Khunds had begun to adopt to help bulk out their numbers as the War with the Reach continued. As I looked at it, I spotted a number of cables leading to the bank of monitors that had been attached to the miniaturized reactor that had powered the android, feeding power to the monitors.

I frowned at that. There was no way that Arkillo didn't notice this setup, and I had a difficult time believing that he would have let something like this run if he did know. It smelled like a trap, but at the same time, if it wasn't a trap, this could be the key toward turning the tables on Arkillo. If I could use the monitors to access any of the Ship's Systems, I might be able to get some of the security measures back online and direct them at the Vorn Serial Killer.

"This is a bad idea." I murmured to myself as I made my way over to the monitors.

Checking them out revealed that the monitors were displaying a personal log written by a Commander Lharg Ral, who had apparently been the Weapons Officer under the Captain of the Destroyer, Warlord Galbarg Hakk. Apparently, Commander Ral was the highest-ranking survivor of the Khundian Destroyer Blade of Challenge, a Vessel that had been part of High Warlord Khurtz's Fleet attacking a Reach Outpost on Ibix in Sector Six-Twenty-Three. Apparently, they'd taken the Moon of Ibix just fine, only for a Reach Relief Fleet to jump into the system and counterattack High Warlord Khurtz's Fleet just as the initial landings on Ibix were taking place.

The ensuing battle saw massive casualties on both sides and forced High Warlord Khurtz to order an immediate retreat back to Planet Tritek in Sector Seven-Twelve, where the Tritekans were nominal Khundian Allies. Apparently, as the Blade of Challenge was jumping out of the System, a Reach cruiser fired a Fold-Space Interdiction Torpedo at them that shunted their Fold Space Window to Talkorr, where they were immediately spat out inside the Gravity well of the planet, crashing. Commander Ral, as the senior-most officer who survived the battle and crash, ordered the bodies of the dead cremated and the ship's armories and supplies salvaged.

Apparently, the surviving crew had headed for Barter Town with everything they could carry in a series of shuttles. What they couldn't had either been destroyed or locked down in a store-room with a password only known to Commander Ral. This log was created before they had left so that any Khundian Military Forces looking for them would know what happened and to head to Barter Town to continue their search. That had been during the second year of the war, which meant this ship had been sitting here for around three years already.

I'd just finished reading the logs, however, when my Ki Sense was suddenly assaulted by a sharp spike of power from above me! I looked up just in time to see Arkillo leaping for me from the ceiling. The Vorn had been crawling around in the ventilation ducts! I barely had enough time to spike my own power and cross my arms in front of me before the veritable mountain of leathery skin, claws, teeth, and reptilian muscle slammed into me. The breath was knocked out of me as we plowed through the deckplates to land in a darkened room below. Arkillo lashed out with his claws at me, cutting a gash across my cheek even as I tried to lean out of the way of the claw swipe. He kicked me away, and I flew, smashing through a pile of metal crates and denting the bulkhead behind them.

Arkillo stood, the flickering chemical lights of the room illuminating him and lending him a sinister appearance to match his dark reputation. I had to admit, it sent a twinge of fear through even my own, hardened, Saiyan instincts. That twinge of fear, however, didn't last as it flashed into anger at how I'd allowed myself to be duped by the logs. As I pushed myself to my feet, though, my left hand closed on a handle. Rising, I came up with what appeared to be a Khundian Plasma Disruptor Pistol. Looking around, I saw the crates I had smashed through had been Khundian Military Supply Crates. This must be one of the locked-down storerooms the Logs had mentioned.

"Damn it, I knew that was a trap!" I growled, turning back to Arkillo.

"Yet you ssstill fell for it." Sneered Arkillo.

"Shut up and fight!" I spat, raising the newly acquired Khundian Plasma Disruptor Pistol and firing off a shot. The Pulse of Green plasma lit up the darkened room as it flew toward Arkillo, who flattened himself against the floor with a hiss to avoid the shot. The Green Plasma sailed over his back to burn through a metal supply crate full of what looked to be Khundian Military Uniforms and melt the mass of polymer and alloyed metal into so much red hot slag.

I didn't wait to make my next move, the Khundian Pistol had given me the opening I needed. I blurred forward as Arkillo rose to his feet, slamming a kick into his torso and following that up with an elbow strike to his temple as he bent over from my kick. He staggered sideways before lashing out at me with a claw swipe that shredded the nanoweave of my armor and opened a gash on my side. Another kick smashed into my chest and knocked me back, but I rebounded off the bulkhead, flying toward Arkillo even as the military-grade Bulkhead buckled behind me. I fired two shots from the Plasma Disruptor Pistol that forced Arkillo to jank to the side, before letting off a Ki blast at him point blank as I passed by him.

The blast smashed Arkillo back through one of the other walls of the room, even as I used the Sawtooth Ascension Mandala to arrest my flight before I would smash into the heavy-duty blast door to the storeroom. Setting down, I frowned as I peered through the hole in the storeroom wall to see a splatter of alien blood but no other sign of Arkillo. My Ki senses weren't picking anything up either, and my Scouter was no good, even though it was the new, Officer-Grade one I'd picked up from the Tuffle Ship. Apparently, my ability to fight back had forced Arkillo back into the shadows to try an ambush another time.

Growling in frustration, I looked around for any medical liquid in the storeroom to heal my face, side, and aching ribs, but, unfortunately, it seemed I had blasted most of the stored stuff with my last two shots from the Plasma Disruptor. I found only one single-use container of medical liquid spray that I used on my face and side. My ribs would just have to stay bruised through the rest of this encounter.

"Of course." I grumbled to myself.

That done, I headed on into the darkened corridors, following after Arkillo. The game of cat and mouse would continue, and I would be attacked twice more before I managed to make my way to the Engineering Deck to find Shayera. The first exchange was brief, a swift exchange of Elbow Strikes and punches as Arkillo burst out from a wall panel, smashing a pair of punches into my face that broke my nose and bruised my cheekbone in exchange for me smashing an elbow into Arkillo's ribs and a punch into his giant maw. He retreated before I could get a good look at him, and I managed to reset my nose forcibly, cracking it back into place with my hands and snorting out blood to clear the nasal passages.

It was during the second attack that I finally got a good look at my opponent. Arkillo had torn up out of the deckplates as I traversed another corridor, smashing a kick into my bruised ribs and cracking at least one of them as I was knocked backward. He wasn't looking so hot, his torso was a patchwork of toughened, gray, leathery hide interspersed with burns that exposed muscle tissue to the open air. One of his prodigious tusks had been cracked from my earlier punch. Of course, I was wounded too, and if this turned into a battle of attrition, I wasn't sure which of us would win.

That being the case, I blasted forward, trying to do as much damage as I could with a combination of strikes while he was in front of me, flying at Arkillo using the Sawtooth Ascension Mandala. My first punch smashed into his face, right into his left eye, and my follow-on knee strike smashed into his chin, knocking him up through the ceiling before I followed him onto the deck above, flying back at him. However, this time, he was wise and grabbed me out of the air and slammed me back down through the deckplates to land back on the deck below. I landed hard on my tailbone, buckling the deckplates as I did so, and spotted Arkillo coming back after me.

Arkillo leaped down after me, claws extended as he dove, and managed to open up a shallow gash across my left shoulder through the nanoweave of my armor, even as his elbow slammed into my face, splitting my lip. I staggered away, throwing my hands up in a blind Circling Hand Block that managed to parry a claw strike aimed at my throat. I came back in with an arrow punch that slammed into Arkillo's sternum, sending him staggering back. With that opening, I bent my hands into a Mudra as I began channeling mystic energy into the Lightning Net Spell. The lattice of mystical electricity took shape, shooting out from my outstretched hands just as Arkillo righted himself. To avoid it, he leaped up through one of the twin holes in the ceiling we'd smashed open in our fight.

The Lightning Net spell missed him by an inch, splashing harmlessly against the far wall and grounding itself in the metal. With a growl of frustration, I flew up after him, using the Sawtooth Ascension Mandala, but he was already gone, Ki suppressed and faded back into the shadows using the walls and ventilation system. I snarled in frustration at that, but could do little about it except press on. I made it to the engineering deck without being attacked after that.

Down here, I spotted Shayera. She had been stripped of her gear, her Wing Harness and Nth Metal Mace lay on a table on the other side of the room, alongside her Wingman Helmet, allowing her red hair to spill out over her shoulders. I felt a strange stirring in my gut at the sight that said not great things about the next part of my first growth spurt that was clearly about to start. Saiyan Puberty was a bitch, after all, and there was no time to deal with it starting right now. Instead, I focused up and moved over to Shayera. She'd been restrained with some kind of wires, and I was forced to use my vibro-power blade to cut her free. As I did so, she woke up from her state of unconsciousness.

"Rugulo?" She questioned.

"I'll have you out soon, Cap. Don't worry." I insisted, sawing at the wires.

"What happened? You look beat up." Queried Shayera.

"The same thing that happened to you, I'm guessing. Arkillo." I answered.

"Did you beat him?" Asked Shayera.

"He's on the run. With the two of us together, we should be able to finish the job." I grunted, finally sawing through the wires.

"The crate in the far wall. That's where Arkillo keeps his supplies. I saw him grab water from there after he tied me up but before he knocked me back out. See if he has any healing liquid." Insisted Shayera.

"Right." I nodded.

I headed over to the indicated crate. Inside, I found bits of undetermined cured meat, which I didn't dare chance, alongside several water packets. It took a bit more searching before I came up with any medical stuff. Not all of it was healing liquid, though there were some dermal patches soaked in it and a few one-use spray containers. I also found a couple of pills that I recognized as Tuffle Regeneration Pills. These contained a limited amount of medical nanites that would repair internal injuries. I used the spray on my shoulder and took one of the Tuffle Pills to heal my cracked ribs, meanwhile, Shayera used the rest on herself before shrugging back into her Wing Harness and Wingman Helmet.

"All right, let's finish this job." Nodded Shayera.

"Ready when you are, Cap." I agreed. Thus, healed up, we headed back into the darkened corridors of the Blade of Challenge to track down Arkillo and finish this fight.

We wouldn't be looking for him for very long before we found him. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. Arkillo is hiding in the walls and vents and playing a game of cat and mouse with Rugulo, ambushing him at various points like a Xenomorph. The thing is, Saiyans are damn tough, so it's turned into a battle of attrition, one that Arkillo has found himself on the losing side of. He's still very dangerous, though. Don't expect Rugulo and Shayera to come out of this unscathed.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the final confrontation with Arkillo. I'll also have some more images out before then.

Stay tuned. . .