"Hunters Blade" -From within The Serpent

Skin Deep

The small storage room seemed a lot smaller now as Jonah mulled over this new development. How could he be the last human?

Looking at the form of the hunter, he wondered what the difference really was between them. What made Jonah human? What made the Hunter, whatever he was.

"I've heard about this ship when I was just a young lad," the hunter began a story crouching in the doorway of the storage room. "I never thought I would find the mobile lab of The Aegis." he shook his head in amazement.

Jonah found a box and sat down on it. "You can't be that much older than me hunter." He stated suspiciously.

Turning the man shook his head at the perplexed Jonah. "Respectfully: In the time you have been sleeping, many cultures; including most of the hunter clans; all have been introduced to the longevity vaccine. We don't age, but we definitely can be killed."

Squinting his eyes he looked towards the hunter. "I must have missed that." He thought for a moment as it slowly dawned on Jonah; he had no family. No home and likely no future. As he thought several other thoughts, he noticed something; the hunter seemed cautious. One might even say he was afraid. The Hunter spoke again; "By the way, You can call me Hunter if you like, but you should know, I do have a name if you would like to know it."

From what Jonah knew of bounty hunters; they were ruthless, merciless mercenaries. Knowing his name wouldn't change the way he felt about him.

Stepping beside the man, Jonah slowly crouched beside him next to the door. Whispering, he said, "why are we staying in here?" Pausing, the other man looked towards Jonah. "I told you Co-poo, it's not safe, it appears I'm not the only one that detected the faint energy signature."

The human thought quietly for a few seconds. In the vastness of the vessel, a sound carried towards their ears. Slightly agitated, the hunter peeked out the doorway.

The storage room was connected to a very large cargo bay.  It consisted of walkways and upper catwalks. All designed to access, load, and unload larger storage containers. Tactically, this gave any enemy an infinite amount of spots to hide. It became obvious to Jonah, there was a reason he was hiding.

"How many?" Surprised the hunter chuckled slightly, "The number of the enemy is irrelevant if you can't see them."
Sighing Jonah repeated, "How many?"

Like they had become equals in a way; the hunter replied, "Just one. It's been hunting me for weeks, I can't seem to shake it." His tone in his voice dropped, almost like he was ashamed in a way.

"What's been hunting you?" He asked intrigued.
"A Bounty Hunter."
"But YOU are a bounty hunter, aren't you?"
He gestured with his hands tilting it from side to side, "...welllllll yes. But also no," he tried to answer. "I'm a freelance hunter, this thing that is hunting me is a black hunter. A bounty hunter with no moral hang-ups. I've never actually seen it, but it really doesn't like me." He snickered slightly. "I shot at it once. But it didn't seem to get the message." 

In the darkness, a small object fell to the ground making a slight noise. The hunter in a flash raised his weapon and began to ease back on his trigger. Jonah slapped the weapon out of the mans hand and slapped the control panel to the room, killing the lights. Pulling the hunter to the side as bright beams of light ripped through the air. The weapons fire missed by inches, it was unlikely it would miss again.

The two men huddled in the room as the weapons fire continued. Any objects in the line of fire quickly disintegrated. A series of blasts continued for 10 seconds or more. The weapon being used what a long-range Supercharged Bolt Blaster Rifle. The fact that the Air streaked and hissed also told the two, The enemy fire was designed to rupture the armor they wore.