The Hunting Apex
Story: The Hunting Apex
Storylink: █████ nope
Category: Starbound
Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi
Author: ███ nah
Authorlink: ██████ no way
Last updated: 07/24/2019
Words: 4080
Status: Discontinued
Source: FanFiction.net
Summary: Vivofruit, like any other Floran, likes excitement. And so it isn't much of a surprise that, given a ship and the knowledge to work it, she often gets into a lot of trouble with a lot of different people. And upon rescuing an Apex from a Minikong town, she adds a particularly dangerous enemy to this list... (Status: Unlikely to continue, see last chapter for details)
*Chapter 1*: -1-
A/N: Ahhahahaa... Hey... I'm back? So uh, stuff happened, and the stories I was working on are not possible to continue. Just reasons I don't care to explain, they don't really matter. HOWEVER, I'm back with a new story! That's completely different! Yaaaay!
I'm actually working with Betareader █████ ██████ on this, and I have a few chapters backed up. Hopefully this won't go the way of my other fics!
Vivofruit reaches the top of another sand dune. And another. She looks around.
There's nothing except more sand. No trees, no grass, not even a rock to hide behind..., Vivofruit thinks.
For what must be the zillionth time, Vivofruit checks the sun. To her disappointment, the sun is still high in sky, and it's still long time until the refreshing cool of night.
Vivofruit sighs, and the red petals on her head droop a little in the heat.
Hopefully not much longer to go. Vivofruit really wants to go somewhere else.
Vivofruit has to stay, though; this is the only planet with the tungsten Vivofruit needs in the entire star system! ,Vivofruit reminds herself.
Vivofruit needs Erchius from the moon to refill her ship. And since the only way to get Erchius is with an EPP, for which she needs tungsten, Vivofruit has to stay on this stupid sand planet until she finds enough.
Vivofruit rubs her dry eyes as she climbs yet another dune. When she reaches the top of the dune she looks around, expecting to see more sand. Vivofruit sees more sand, yes, but also something else; she sees barriers.
Big stone towers with jagged wire and tall metal fences all around, all encircling a small settlement. A dark grey blot on pale yellow sand. There are guards at the gate, and some stalking around outside the fence. The guards are all armed to the teeth; Vivofruit can't even tell what species they are.
It would probably be a bad idea to approach. But something being a bad idea has never stopped her before.
Vivofruit runs down sand dune and to the gate of the fenced village. As she approaches, two guards come up to stop her. Vivofruit slows and puts one hand on hilt of her dagger. Just in case.
"State your purpose," one guard asks. The guard's voice is muffled around the heavy white helmet they wear, but still sounds deep and clipped. Vivofruit thinks by the voice the guards might be Apex, or maybe angry humans.
"Vivofruit iss here to explore," Vivofruit informs the guards. The guards both reach up to a button on side of their helmets, then talk in what Vivofruit guesses is their native language. They must have turned their translators off so Vivofruit can't listen in on them. By the guards' language, though, Vivofruit can tell the guards are Apex.
When the guards finish, they turn their translators back on.
"Alright, we can let you in on the condition that you leave all weapons with us," the Apex guard says, as if it's a reasonable request.
"Vivofruit will not causse trouble. Will be a good Floran, and will not eat citizenss," Vivofruit protests. She knew she could probably keep that promise , whatever the Apex thought.
The guards were silent for a little bit, then the other one spoke,
"This is a no weapon zone. We will have to confiscate your blades, however they will be returned when you leave the facility,"
Vivofruit flares out the petals on her head,
"Vivofruit will not give sstabbers to flessh people!"
"Then we will have to ask you to leave,"
Vivofruit hesitates for another moment, grumbling.
Hmm.. but Vivofruit could scout out the area now, then come back for weapons. Then if Vivofruit finds anything Vivofruit wants, Vivofruit can come back and take it at night!
With her plan figured out, Vivofruit pretends to give in,
"Fine. Guards better give them back when Vivofruit leavess , though!" She warns.
Vivofruit begrudgingly gives her daggers to the Apex and goes into the village.
Long, boring walk over now, though. Now excitement begins!
*Chapter 2*: -2-
The town is indeed full of Apex. Vivofruit gets many suspicious looks from the Apex civilians, all the more intimidating because of the height difference.
But despite how many Apex Vivofruit sees moving about the town, the town doesn't seem alive.
Nothing like Vivofruit's old tribe. Florans hurried from place to place or played with other Florans or ate preys with friends. None of that here, Vivofruit thinks.
Here, Apex stiff and hurried. Don't talk to other Apex, don't snack on way to house. Is strange. Apex should try hunting more, have more fun!
Vivofruit wonders what would happen if she started a hunting party of Apex. After entertaining the thought for a moment, she decides maybe hunting isn't a good idea for Apex. They would make far too much noise to sneak up on anything.
While she was thinking about hunting, Vivofruit bumps into an Apex by accident,
"Ssorry,"
The Apex turns around and smiles at Vivofruit, though he continues to hurriedly back away.
"Oh! It's alright, Floran!" The Apex looks at Vivofruit a little differently for a second, but then the look is gone. He stops backing up to say,
"I have never seen a Floran in person before now, how fascinating!"
Vivofruit squints at the Apex, "Vivofruit is not 'Fasssinating',"
"Of course, how insensitive of me. Allow me to make it up to you by showing you my shop," the Apex offers anxiously. He clearly has somewhere to go. This piques Vivofruit's interest.
"What iss at shop?"
"Come and see for yourself," the Apex says. He then starts to lead her somewhere, impatiently waving for the Floran to follow. Someone shouts behind them, but the Apex pulls Vivofruit around the corner before she has a chance to see.
Vivofruit follows the Apex past a number of houses, though she doesn't bother to count as each one is identical. Eventually, the Apex stops at a building which differs only slightly from the rest. The main difference is the big sign on top, showing everyone that this is the SHOP.
The Apex opens the shop door for Vivofruit, ushers her inside, then closes to door quietly behind them. There's no one else here.
"Why did Ape-"
The Apex puts a hand over Vivofruit's mouth and shushes her.
If Vivofruit bit Apex then Apex wouldn't shush Vivofruit! Vivofruit thought, hissing at the Apex under her breath. She probably wouldn't really bite him, of course. She was working really hard not to bite things that weren't food, and besides, the Apex was being very interesting right now. But it was still nice to know that she could bite him.
The Apex moves cautiously towards a door in the back of the shop, behind the counter. He watches the window closely and steppes as though he had memorized every creaky floorboard in the building. Vivofruit watches him curiously for a moment before matching his steps.
Vivofruit hears yelling in the distance again. The Apex's expression doesn't change, but Vivofruit notices that he speeds up, and his blueish fur stands on end.
Why Apex so nervous? What does yelling have to do with it? Vivofruit wonders as the Apex silently opens the door, looking at the window again.
Is Vivofruit and Apex being followed? Did Vivofruit get roped into random Apex's mission? Vivofruit studies the Apex as she goes into the room behind the door.
That would be fun.
The room is a thin, simple storage room with many duplicates of a few items. "Foods" with lies like "Nutrient Paste! All your vital vitamins and minerals in a delicious and convenient spread!" printed on the packaging lined metal racks that rose up from a stone floor along the walls. Why had the Apex brought Vivofruit here?
"Floran, you cannot imagine how good your timing was for me," He whispers, as if anyone could hear them behind two doors, "Do you have a ship? Surely you must, to have gotten here,"
"Of course Vivofruit has sship! But why does Apex need?" Vivofruit tried to squash the excitement out of her next sentence, but wasn't sure if she succeeded, "Iss Apex need to run away!?"
"Yes. I need to go, badly. I know something that I shouldn't know, and they will do anything to keep me silent."
"Apex iss already very good at ssneaking, they don't need to help Apex be silent!"
By the way the Apex seemed to be trying to squash something along the lines of amusement, Vivofruit knew she had misunderstood.
"Um… Vivofruit thinking Apex meant ssomething else?" She asks, hoping for clarification. But the Apex recovers faster from Vivofruit's mistake than she had. Instead of clarifying, he continues with his swift cautiousness,
"I need you to get me out of here, Floran- Vivofruit, right? Vivofruit, I need help."
"Vivofruit iss not sure if Vivofruit can help? Why do they not like Apex?... Who'ss they?"
"The Miniknog," the Apex says the word quickly and quietly as if annunciating it too well would get him caught right that instant, "it's not important why they don't like me. I just need someone with a ship to get me away,"
"But Vivioruit's ship is out of fuel! Vivofruit needs Tungsten to get eep! And then-"
"Whatever you need, I can get. Just get me out of here, I don't care where you take me. Take me hunting for all I care, I-"
"Hunting!? Apex can hunt?"
"It was just an example-" the Apex tried, but Vivofruit was already too excited to listen.
"We can hunt! Vivofruit will teach Apex! Teach to hunt Gleap and maybe Poptop-"
"Vivofruit, please, be quiet!"
"-But not big ones. Those sscary. OOo but maybe hunt annoying flying monssters!"
"Please! Quiet !"
"But thiss will be-"
CRASH
Vivofruit hears something break and fall in the front room, and Apex freezes. Vivofruit narrows her eyes and creeps toward the door, thorn-like claws readied in lieu of a weapon. What could be behind the door that makes Apex afraid? Whatever it is, Vivofruit will be brave. Like in hunt!
Vivofruit can hear the loose floorboards that she and the Apex had so carefully avoided creaking. The noise came slowly closer. Were there multiple now? Monster with lots of legs? Hmm, probably not. Vivofruit did not see monster with lots of legs outside shop.
-?-
Vivofruit positions herself just outside the door so that when the thing outside came in, she could attack before it even knew she was there.
The creaking stops, replaced for a moment by muffled voices, then silence. The doornob turns and Vivofruit leaps on the person outside. Her claws scrabble against tough white armor, but the person who opened the door falls backwards into another armoured form.
While they both are stunned, Vivofruit turns back to the Apex, watching a third attacker out of the corrner of her eye.
"Apex! Iss time to go, no plans for now!"
Apex comes running out, but the two armoured Apex are back on their feet by now. Vivofruit pushes one over the counter and to her surprise, Apex punches the other in the side of their helmet and kicks them back to the ground.
Suddenly something hits Vivofruit in the shoulder, hard. She yelps and lashes out with her other hand, but the third Apex dodges. Before they can land another punch, though, Vivofruit's Apex shoves them over the counter, on top of the other one.
"Thankss,"
"No time to talk. There will be more,"
"Letss go then," Vivofruit dashes over to the door and opens it a crack to look out. She waves Apex over when she sees that the coast is clear. Almost too clear; even the civilian Apex have fled the area, leaving clear, sandy streets just as lifeless as when they were filled.
Apex comes over to look as well, but Vivofruit knows already that its safe and starts towards the entrance. Apex comes a moment later,
"They called reinforcements. We have to hurry,"
ViVofruit nods and speeds up, trying to remember landmarks back but mostly just heading in the general direction of the entrance. Was it left here? Then right? That would get her to the same place as right then left, wouldn't it?
Apex seems to notice her confusion and silently takes the lead. He weaves his way to the entrance smoothly, leaving Vivofruit feeling very silly.
Of course Apex knows way back better than Vivofruit. Apex probably planned escape since long time ago.
They come out of an alleyway onto a street wider than most of the others. On one end, almost sprinting distance away, is the gate to the rest of the desert. On the other, too many Miniknog soldiers to count, much less fight.
"GO GO GO!" Apex yells, pulling Vivofruit in the direction of the exit. The Miniknog open fire, but nothing hits either of them.
Ha! Sprouting Florans with bows better aim than you! Vivofruit thinks smugly at them. She speeds up and tries to ram into the gate, but only receives a hurt shoulder. She tries climbing instead, easily scaling the fence and using a "Danger!" sign as a foothold.
Apex is still on the ground.
"Apex! What doing? Climb!" Vivofruit yells. He looks up from a panel on one of the pillars the gate sits between.
"I've got this, don't worry!" As he says this, the gate squeaks grandly and swings open. Vivofruit jumps down and starts running with Apex, aiming to put as much distance as possible between them and the town before beaming up.
Finally, something hits. The Miniknog must have gotten close enough to hit while Apex was opening the gate, or maybe it was just a lucky shot, but whatever the case, Vivofruit falls to the ground shrieking with a searing pain in her leg.
Apex skids around in the sand to stop and help her, but Vivofruit already has the device to beam them to her ship out, running solely on adrenalin now. She puts one hand on Apex's head and presses the button.
The sand falls out from below her, replaced by the ship floor that rushes up to greet her.
*Chapter 3*: -3-
The Apex wakes up, and takes a moment to figure out where he was before remembering why he was there.
How long had he been asleep? He had no idea, but his Floran friend seemed fine. Or at least, she wasn't dead. Vivofruit was out cold on the couch, just as he'd left her, and though the burns that the lasers had made on her side and leg were still in need of care, they didn't look like they had gotten any worse.
He had no idea where anything was here, though. There was this room, with the teleporter, some weapon racks, and the couch. To the left was a thick-looking door that probably led to the control area, and to the right was another doorway that led to a ladder. That didn't tell him anything about where the bandages were, though.
A reddish snake slithers up from the ladder archway and comes toward him. The Apex backs away, but the snake doesn't pay him any mind. Instead, it flicks its forked tongue at Vivofruit, then slithers over to a control panel on the wall by the thick door. It gives the Apex a meaningful look, then looks back at the control panel.
What does it want? The Apex thought, getting up and walking over to investigate. The control panel consisted of a blank screen and a few buttons along the bottom. He tries pressing one.
"PREFORMING ENTITY COUNT, PLEASE STAND STILL..."
Though reasonable sounding, the robotic voice that hums through the ship makes the Apex jump. The screen turns on and shows an hourglass animation on an otherwise featureless green face.
"ENTITY COUNT: In the millions. 4 of these are of interest"
The snake looks at the Apex curiously, as if watching to see how he will react to the information,
"Hello? AI, do you take voice commands?"
"Yes,"
"Alright, where are the medical supplies?"
"SCANNING... Medical Supplies are in the storage unit next to the teleporter,"
The Apex gets up and goes over to the aforementioned chest, watching the green face go through its idle animation. He opens the lid and pulls out a roll of gauze and some disinfectant. He can't find any burn cream, but this will do. He closes the chest and gets to work treating the exhausted Floran's wounds while the snake monitors him.
As the Apex applies the disinfectant, however, Vivofruit wakes,
"Ssss... Vivofruit not need help!"
She doesn't move to stop him though. The Apex didn't doubt that while the burns weren't too bad, they must really hurt.
"Don't move too much, it could make it worse,"
The Apex starts to wrap the gauze around Vivofruit's leg in silence.
After a while, Vivofruit says something,
"... What Apex's name?"
That was not usually a question Apex got asked, at least not those under Miniknog rule. Usually, names were just a keep-up-the-facade way of addressing other civilians. Miniknog used numbers, maybe because it was easier to send a 467-19 to their doom than it was to send a James. But the Apex had never liked his name either.
"...Apex?"
He had waited too long,
"Sorry, my name is.. Alix,"
"Alix... Good name,"
*Chapter 4*: -4-
"..Done. how do you feel?"
"..Sssticky,"
"Well, that's to be expected. Can you sit up? Stand?"
Alix had finally finished wrapping up Vivofruit's wounds, hopefully well enough that the Floran could perform basic activities.
Vivofruit sits upright carefully, and then, encouraged by this success, lifts herself up off the couch,
"Ssss.."
She holds her hurt leg off the ground a bit, but seems to be able to put weight on it,
"Can you walk?"
Vivofruit tests her leg by half-limping around the room, her red snake watching,
"Iss ok,"
"Alright. Do you perhaps feel well enough to show me around?"
"Hmm.." she taps her foot on the floor a few times, "Yess,"
Vivofruit limps toward the thick door on one end of the room and presses a button on the latch. The door parts in the middle and slides open,
"Iss moving room. Vivofruit only, unless with permisssion,"
Vivofruit lets Alix look in. Vivofruit's snake slithers into the room from between their legs. The room is covered in vines and moss, though it seems, so far, to be the only one with much greenery. There are several mossy chests, though the window, control console, and fuel compartment are all clear of vines. The snake has coiled itself up on the control panel, and Alix guesses that the snake has picked the warmest spot in the room.
"I can see you have personalized it well,"
Alix says,
"Next sspot,"
Vivofruit pulls Alix away and the door closes behind them. She leads him the short distance across the main room to the ladder leading to the lower level, but hesitates there,
"Should I go first?"
Alix asks, noticing her hesitation,
"No. Vivofruit go firsst,"
She carefully climbs onto the ladder, then begins climbing down, all while making a low hissing sound.
"Alix now,"
Vivofruit calls up,
"Alright,"
It's clear that the ladder isn't made for Apex visitors, but Alix makes it down anyway.
He's surprised when he turns around to see that this room is decorated entirely different to Vivofruit's room. There's an assortment of furniture and trinkets from a number of other races: round hanging lanterns and a polished wooden dresser, likely of Hyotl origin. Some colorful banners from Avians. Several different bookcases with a radio sitting on top of one and a lava lamp on another. And finally a set of bongos, maybe given by Vivofruit as a gift.
"Iss Fixer'ss room,"
Vivofruit says, pointing to someone in a hammock hanging high on the ceiling,
"Fixer? Is that really their name?"
Alix asks Vivofruit, still marveling at the room.
Then, from under the blankets on the hammock,
"No, 's not my name," they mumble, then sit up, "I'm Veronica. I'm a mechanic who doesn't want to be up at whatever this hour is. Go awa- who are you?"
Veronica slides out of her hammock, instantly awake, and walks up to Alix,
"Apex? I've never seen an Apex before," she holds out her hand and Alix shakes it, "What's your name?"
"Alix,"
"Nice to meetcha, Alix! Uh, Vivofruit -"
"WARNING: HOSTILE DRONES APPROACHING. ANALYSIS: EXIT SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY "
The robotic voice cut Veronica off with a much more urgent tone than before. The ship lights started flashing red
"Vivofruit! Get us out of here! I'll work out an emergency power source!"
Vivofruit and Veronica both dashed for the ladder, but Alix stayed put. He found a window and looked out at the planet they had just left, but then ducked and hid his face when he saw what was out there: Minikong drones. They were coming for him.
.oOo.
Vivofruit runs into the control room, spinning into the seat at the desk and pulling up the starmap. She hisses when she finds that there are no suitable stars close by. They couldn't risk using whatever emergency power source Veronica came up with only to have it run out in deep space, though. Vivofruit taps the nearest star - a dying frozen one - and pulls up the menu for the engines.
Turn off this, slow down that. Anything not needed should go. Vivofruit even debates slowing down the life support, but the memory of the last time she did that makes her change her mind.
CLUNK
"Fixer go fasster!" Vivofruit yelled, "Vivofruit is going to turn ship on now!"
Vivofruit turns on the FTL drive and feels the ship start to buzz with familiar noises, readying to take off despite the lack of power.
CLUNK
...And the slightly less familiar noises of something hitting the ship. The drones were ramming into the wings, according to the flashing red display in front of Vivofruit.
"Should Vivofruit blasst them?" She had been holding off because of the power cost of shooting the drones, but they wouldn't get anywhere without wings for stability.
"Wait, I'veeee... GOT IT! GO!" Veronica commanded. Vivofruit didn't waste a second in pressing the TRAVEL button that came up on the starmap.
The ship started moving, slowly gaining enough speed to outfly the drones.
Then it lurched, and the lights went out. Vivofruit almost fell out of her chair when they hit lightspeed, disoriented by the dark.
Vivofruit heard the door open and a circle of light came in. She peeked over the back of the chair and squinted to see Veronica, holding a flashlight,
"Well, now we've escaped two different groups who wanted to kill us. You trying to set a record or something?"
*Chapter 5*: AN: Notice of Hiatus
A/N
Guess I really suck at keeping a story going, huh?
I hate to have this go the way of my other fics, I really like this one and I thought I could handle it this time. After putting it up here, though, I realize I might have done that a bit early. THA is still in draft state. While I hope I can work up the motivation to write more, it's slow going. The added stress of having it up here, waiting to be updated, doesn't help.
So I'm putting it on hiatus until further notice.
I'm sorry...
*Chapter 6*: Important Update
So, obviously, I havent updated anything in a while. To anyone still interested, here's why and what to expect.
Honestly? I haven't been in an active writing mood in ages and its hard to force one. I never had a plot for this story worked out and though I still love it and these characters I'm not sure I'll really continue it.
I'm not gone from the internet though, and I'm certianly not done telling stories, I suppose I'm just not someone who writes them.
To anyone interested I'm on ██████ as ████████████. And to everyone thank you for reading this far, have a wonderful day!