Raven Tide

Raven Tide’s roar rattled the entire cargo hold... and his eyes! They were like something out of a nightmare.

Gar’mol shot up and went to punch him unconscious but Raven Tide popped some of the chain links and bent open the clamps around his wrist and ankles.

“Quiet!” That horrible old yautja spun and pounced.

Raven Tide sank his fangs into Gar’mol’s fist and chomped off the front of his hand, bones and all!

I knew Raven Tide was fast but this was inhuman, in-yautja, maybe even in-razkur too!

He was bloody with deep wounds seeping rivers of green but he shredded through the chains and manacles as though they’d been molded in shoddy second-generation plastic and nibbled by rats.

“Tear him apart!” That blue asshole let go of my hair and charged at Raven Tide.

Raven Tide spat out Gar’mol’s fingers and flung him across the room then tackled the blue one to the floor and ripped out his throat with his teeth.

But he wasn’t done. In a fraction of a heartbeat, Raven Tide leaped over me, slashed my restraints with his claws, and whirled to yank off the gold and copper yautja’s right arm that had touched me.

I hopped up and rolled away from the remaining yautja.

I had no idea what their deal was as they only spoke in Raven Tide’s native language but it was obvious they weren’t the honorable intelligent comrades Raven Tide expected to encounter.

“Get her!” Gar’mol reared up and shouted from the far end of the room.

Hobra, the lanky green one, slashed his massive hand at Raven Tide, distracting him from finishing off the one-armed yautja while I ran for Raven Tide’s weapons.

I found his staff first but it was retracted and too heavy for me to wield one-handed. The gauntlet wouldn’t fit and there wasn’t any point in attempting to strap on the shoulder cannon.

“Don’t let her escape!” Gar’mol stomped my way, wrapping his bloody hand with a swatch of leather.

SHIT!

I snatched up my little vibro-blade and darted for cover since the rest of the weapons were too volatile for me to learn how to use them effectively on the fly.

“Nowhere to run!” The one-armed gold and copper yautja stumbled out at me.

“Ahh!” I yelped and nearly dropped my weapon.

Gar’mol and the others were focused on Raven Tide while I was left staring up at a seven-foot pissed-off monster.

I took off back the way I came, weaving sharp turns between the creates and shelving. From the way the maimed yautja maneuvered, it was evident he wasn’t accustomed to running with his weight off balance.

My heart was pounding and I wanted to vomit but I refused to let these shitheads have their way!

Something! Something!

I scoured the cargo hold for anything useful.

Oh!

A metal cord tethered to the floor caught my eye.

The gold and copper yautja slipped and fell while failing to make the fourth turn.

I grabbed the metal tension cord and looped back to hop on his back. He growled and tried to toss me off but I managed to wrap it three times around his neck as fast as my left hand would allow.

He roared and pushed his chest up but I twisted the braided metal around my forearm and yanked back with all my weight.

The yautja flailed for the cord around his throat while wheezing out these unnerving little gurgling sounds.

I kept tugging, bending his back backward and up until I was able to pull the cord around a nearby vertical metal pole for leverage.

My arm was bruised but I didn’t stop even after he quit moving.

Eventually, I built up the nerve to glance over my shoulder. He was limp with the bottom half of his quills severed from where the metal cord cut in and constricted.

I dropped the cord and his hulking body flopped into a pool of green blood. Then I crept in and kicked his leg.

Nothing.

A shiver ran up my spine.

Is he really dead?

He would’ve grabbed me if he wasn’t.

A wet smacking sound brought my eyes up behind me. Raven Tide was smashing the face of a brown and teal yautja into a wall.

I was happy he was winning but the glimmer in his silver eyes was missing.

Hobra, the green one, broke from the group surrounding Raven Tide and snuck off toward me. I ran the second I saw his green mandibles flexing and in a flash Raven Tide was on his heels.

Gar’mol shot that wretched net again but Raven Tide’s reflexes were astounding. He caught the mesh before it expanded and hurled back at its sender.

“You will die, mongrel!” Gar’mol let loose a series of small bursts from his mini plasma cannon. “Paya foresees it!

Raven Tide dodged and paid him no mind while brawling with Hobra and the two other snarling yautja. The four fought naked and bare-clawed with Gar’mol taking cheap shots from a distance.

Hobra scratched Raven Tide’s face but the injury barely registered. Instead, Raven Tide vaulted up a metal column and banked from the ceiling then hooked his hind claws into Hobra’s shoulders, tearing eight long gashes down the green yautja’s backside.

Hobra yowled and the orange and tan Bad Blood came at Raven Tide from behind with a crowbar.

CLUNK

Raven Tide caught the black iron bar like something supernatural. Then he took control and sank it into the orange and tan yautja’s eye socket, ramming it all the way through and cranking it to twist his attacker’s head off.

The brown one with the mangled lower mandible tried to sneak in a quick dig at Raven Tide’s kidney only to have his face beaten into a bloody concave mess by a crowbar and a severed yautja head.

Once satisfied with his kill, Raven Tide roared then he bounded off after Hobra on all fours. He moved like a rabid jaguar and took him down in the middle of the cargo hold.

During the carnage, Gar’mol gave up shooting and started coming my way. I knew what he was up to and relocated to position Raven Tide and Hobra between us.

Gar’mol flared his arms and mandibles with a low seething roar, furious that no matter which way he moved I mirrored him and preserved our distance.

“Your time is waning, soft meat,” Gar’mol frothed at me in words I could understand.

It was obvious he wanted to open fire on Raven Tide and carve a path straight to me but he didn’t dare with his last remaining cohort wrestling for dominance and obstructing his target.

"Hult’ah U’sl" Gar’mol shouted something familiar in yautja

I knew this! Something.. Stop!

Raven Tide heard it too.

Hobra obeyed and paused, giving Gar’mol the opportunity to fire but Raven Tide crouched just in time. However, the cargo hold took the full brunt of the blast.

Bins flew everywhere, spewing out a wave of metal equipment across the floor.

In the chaos, Hobra kept low and took the opportunity to crawl toward my legs.

I backed away but tripped on a pile of tubing.

“Raven Ti-!”

Raven Tide has his teeth and tusks in Hobra’s back before I could finish screaming.

I scurried to take cover behind a nearby mound of toppled metal shelving and prevent Gar’mol from snagging potshots but I could still witness everything.

Hobra rolled onto his back and then grabbed his bloody wrist to stop the sting of Raven Tide’s claws. All the while, Raven Tide was laughing and snapping his white fangs like a maniac.

Now or never!

I leaped in with my vibro-blade and jabbed it into the side of Hobra’s neck.

The dirtbag didn’t die but he released Raven Tide and abruptly got his lower half eviscerated.

Gar’mol howled and fired a massive pulse of plasma at Raven Tide’s head.

“Ahh-” I squeaked when Raven Tide scooped me up and blocked the blast with his body.

Gar’mol didn’t hang around for the dust to settle. Instead, he vanished from the cargo hold leaving us with the echoes of his malicious chittering.

Raven Tide turned to roar but I pulled his face back to mine with him nipping and growling.

“Shhh, shh, shhh...” I caressed his cheeks.

He nuzzled into my hand and breathed me in with his ears curled forward then his eyes blinked back into lucidity.

“It’s ok,” I cooed with my forehead against his. “I’m ok. You’re ok. We’re going to be ok.”

Raven Tide rubbed his head into my chest and took a long inhale as though he were finally coming up for air.

“Chyani,” Raven Tide’s voice was ragged from straining vocal cords too hard. “I swore to always keep you safe. I would sooner die than let them hurt you.”

He held my hand tracing his fingers over the red marks left over from the tension cord.

“That was me,” I nodded to the gold and copper body lying on the floor behind me.

“But this was me,” Raven Tide touched the green splatters speckling my face.

“We can dissect the details later,” I pushed him to his feet. “You should get your things. We need to leave.”

Raven Tide glanced toward the exit that Gar’mol slipped away through then back to me. He bowed his head and led me by the hand to his mound of gear.

He cut down a few strips of leather to tie around my chest and waist. I felt like Rachel Welch from that ancient sexist caveman movie but with half the fabric and no underwear. That fishnet thermo-veil of his was starting to look really practical.

Raven Tide was mostly dressed when all of a sudden the station’s gravity shut off.

This way,” Raven Tide’s voice cracked as he extended his hand.

I swam for him but got trapped behind a wall of blood droplets and drifting gore tumbling through the air in a tangle of ship parts and tools.

Raven Tide stretched out his combistick to close the gap. I reached but balked when the remnants of my underwear hovered by.

He narrowed his eyes and then snagged the fabric with the tip of the staff and flung it away.

“Again!” He rasped.

I caught the staff and he pulled me in.

“Paya’s wrath is coming!” Gar’mol laughed over the intercom in yautja

“Do I even want to know what that asshole is saying?” I yelled to Raven Tide.

He shook his head, “It’s stupid.”

“I thought so.”

We floundered into the hallways leading to the docking ports but got cut off by Gar’mol sporting grav-boots and a multi-beam burner Gatling gun.

Raven Tide’s long limbs let him cling to the walls and ceiling and tow our bodies beyond the old yautja’s line of sight.

“Venom Heart is three junctions away,” Raven Tide continued spider climbing through narrow corridors with me clinging to his back.

“Paya sees all!” The graying yautja prattled on behind us.

Hot pulses of light scorched the station’s intricate metal plating on the wall behind us

“Are we there yet?” I squeezed Raven Tide’s neck tighter.

“Soon,” he kicked off another wall to propel us forward. “Be ready to strap in.”

I held on and nodded vigorously.

“Fuck!” Raven Tide whipped his hand away from the wall.

“What?!”

“It’s hot!” Raven Tide reversed our trajectory.

“No!” I panicked as we drifted backward. “We can’t go that way. Remember, the psycho shooting lasers?”

“It’s too hot!” Raven Tide could no longer touch the walls ahead of us.

A light emerged from up the corridor. The walls were melting!

“What’s happening?!” Perspiration beaded up on my forehead.

“I don’t know,” Raven Tide spun and moved us away to escape down another corridor. “But we can’t go that way.”

“Why is it soo hot?” I glanced back at the sweltering heat.

“I don’t-”

“She is here!” Gar’mol howled in the distance.

“Shit!” Raven Tide’s spine lurched to attention. “No! Don’t tell me that lunatic summoned a Graven!”

“What?” I twirled my head frantically back and forth. “But how?”

Flames burst into the hallways behind us paired with a long yawning groan. The fire swirled and condensed into the form of a giant clawed hand reaching out to grab us.

“Go! Go!” Raven Tide sped up and scrambled in any direction that was open.

“The fight is begun!” Gar’mol sang out in rapture. “Paya purifies all! She will deliver us to the end!”

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TRANSLATIONS:

Hult’ah-= rear guard or lookout, sentry, observer

U’sl= Halt