A'kael: Homeworld Trainer Who Became Clan Leader

Name: A'kael
Species: Yautja
Sex: Female
Role: Trainer of first-hunters; later clan leader
Known for: Proving Ground test; exposing Thwutha; succeeding Zan'tih
Family: Zan'tih (great-grandfather)
Setting: Yautja Prime; Earth, Calabar, Salvador, Brazil
First appearance: Predator: Eyes of the Demon, "Proving Ground" (2022)
Status: Alive; named clan leader
Weapons: Knife, smart disc, plasmacaster, cloak, shuttle remote

A'kael was a female Yautja trainer on Yautja Prime in Linda D. Addison's Proving Ground, collected in Predator: Eyes of the Demon. After her great-grandfather Zan'tih died, the council tested her against elite Bachaann by sending each of them to Earth with three unblooded first-hunters. She exposed Thwutha's shuttle sabotage over Brazil, handed him to Bachaann, and returned as clan leader.

Biography

Training First-Hunters On Yautja Prime

A'kael spent months on the homeworld training first-hunters instead of hunting off-world. She wanted another trip and more trophies for a large collection. On the training field she threw a knife from a high boulder, stuck the blade in a wood target, and nicked a finger of the young hunter holding it. The young hunter did not flinch. She pulled the knife, bowed, and handed it back. A'kael marked her for the next first-hunt group.

That trainee was Pa'jaadh. The two first-hunters A'kael later chose herself were Thwutha and Va'kal'jaad, the best she had trained on Yautja Prime. She wore chosen trophies on her chest and shoulder plates, including a human skull on the left shoulder from an earlier Earth hunt with Zan'tih.

A'kael Finds Zan'tih Dead

After the training field, A'kael went back along a gravel path to the clan's stone building to see Elder Zan'tih, the clan leader. She wanted to ask him about an off-world hunt. She walked the carved stone hallways to his work room. The room looked empty at first, then she saw him on the floor behind the carved desk.

A'kael checked for a pulse and found none. She gave a death cry that carried through the building, and three elders helped her carry him to the examiner. The examiner found no outer wound, and a scan of his blood and organs showed a tear in the wall of his heart.

The Council Tests Two Claimants For Clan Leader

After the death rite, elders, elites, and ancient Yautja met to pick the next leader of the clan. Bachaann claimed the post as a top elite. A'kael based her claim on talks she had held with Zan'tih about succeeding him. When Bachaann treated that blood tie as a weakness, she stepped in with a hand on her knife. Elder Mi'thielth put a smart disc in the floor between them and stopped the fight.

The council set a test in which each candidate would take three unblooded to Earth, two of their own choosing and one assigned. The judgment would rest on how they led and whether those young lived or died with honor. Mi'thielth assigned Pa'jaadh to A'kael and Gan'touh-De to Bachaann. A'kael treated the off-world trip as work in Zan'tih's honor, not as a gift bought by his death.

Bachaann's Shuttle Crashes In Calabar

The mothership came out of a wormhole at the third planet from that sun, a world Zan'tih had hunted and that A'kael knew from her own earlier take. Both shuttles dropped toward a military weapons-test site. An explosion started inside Bachaann's hull as they entered atmosphere. A'kael cut the automated navigator and followed the failing shuttle rather than take a win from a crash. His ship went a continent off course, through a church roof in the Calabar shantytown of Salvador, Brazil, and settled in the basement.

Gan'touh-De was pinned by ceiling metal, green blood pouring from his chest. There was no mothership gear that could save him, and an implode charge started by itself. Bachaann left him with a forehead touch, took Do'tah and Zuhra out cloaked, and the shuttle collapsed the building. Frania and her grandson Gino saw the roof go from the street. A'kael's long-range scan showed Bachaann's party alive except for the one left on board.

A'kael Crosses The Roofs Of Calabar

A'kael landed intact, put a holographic map up, and watched Bachaann and two first-hunters leave the wreck before the implode. She treated the test as continuing from that ground, not as cancelled. Cloaked military police with firearms she recognized held the lit street into Calabar. The team crossed into the shantytown and ran the roofs. When a roof started to crack under Pa'jaadh, she swung to the next truss and kept up.

A'kael Exposes Thwutha And Cuts Off His Arm

In the woods A'kael uncloaked and made the others do the same. Thwutha had shoved Pa'jaadh on the roofs and spoken as if he led the party. A'kael put three plasmacaster dots on his forehead and pressed him on the rule against sabotaging another hunter's shuttle. He tried to blame Va'kal'jaad or Pa'jaadh. Both of those first-hunters stepped to A'kael's side.

Thwutha popped both wristblades and jumped her. She took one arm with the smart disc and kicked him down. She left him alive for Bachaann, who had lost a first-hunter to that sabotage. Pa'jaadh cauterized the stump, and Va'kal'jaad picked up the severed arm, the helmet, and the combistick.

Bachaann Kills Thwutha With The Disc

Bachaann arrived with Do'tah and Zuhra, who had taken first blood on four armed men at the rubble, a razor rope and a disc, then a spear through the last pair. He took Thwutha's own disc, stepped aside from the charge, and pulled that disc through the throat. Do'tah reduced the body with dissolving fluid. A'kael treated that kill as Bachaann's, not hers.

Cloaked Hunters Fight On The Salvador Beach

Helicopters were coming from the city, and armed humans were gathering on the beach. A'kael's party and Bachaann's ran cloaked into that fight. Helicopter fire killed some of the human shooters in the trees. Unseen hunters tore others apart, and many of the remaining humans ran. A'kael used the remote in her wrist gauntlet to bring her cloaked shuttle off a building roof and down onto the sand at dawn, then they left.

The Council Names A'kael Clan Leader

On the mothership, Elder Mi'thielth sat with both candidates after the council on Yautja Prime reviewed every helmet record, including Thwutha's. Gan'touh-De was to be remembered with honor for staying with the doomed shuttle. The four living first-hunters, Va'kal'jaad, Pa'jaadh, Do'tah, and Zuhra, had performed well enough that their next hunt would be hard prey. The leadership decision was close, and the council named A'kael clan leader. Bachaann lowered his head to the new rank.

They never reached the military weapons-test site they had been sent to hunt. As clan leader A'kael could assign that hunt, and she gave it to Bachaann.

Similar Predators

A'kael belonged with named huntresses who led other Yautja, not only with lone Earth hunters. Ca'toll ran the LV-363 blooding after both other captains died and left with three young bloods. Yeh'kull took a young Queen on Ataegina after clan elders tried to keep her off hunts. Hashori of the Widow Clan survived the Rage War and left Macbeth with human companions. Vagouti hunted on Earth with her mate and died in an Oregon rematch.

Conclusion

A'kael was a homeworld trainer who took Zan'tih's clan after a close Earth test against Bachaann. She followed a sabotaged shuttle into Brazil, cut Thwutha down without finishing him, and came back as clan leader with four living first-hunters.