Bachaann: Profile Of The Proving Ground Elite Predator
Bachaann was a male elite Yautja in Linda D. Addison's story "Proving Ground," published in the 2022 anthology Predator: Eyes of the Demon. After the death of Elder Zan'tih, he claimed leadership of the clan against the trainer A'kael, and the council sent both rivals to Earth with three unblooded each. A saboteur wrecked his shuttle over Brazil, and it crashed through a church roof in the Calabar favela of Salvador. Bachaann lost one first-hunter in the wreck, blooded the other two, killed the saboteur with his own disc, and returned home to see A'kael named clan leader.
Biography
Claiming The Clan Leadership
When Elder Zan'tih died of a torn heart wall on Yautja Prime, elders, elites and ancient Yautja gathered to choose the next leader of the clan. Bachaann claimed the post as a top elite. A'kael based her own claim on talks she had held with Zan'tih about succeeding him, and Bachaann treated that blood tie as a weakness. She stepped toward him with a hand on her knife. Elder Mi'thielth drove a smart disc into the floor between them and stopped the fight before it began.
The council then set a test. Each claimant would take three unblooded to Earth, two of their own choosing and one assigned by the elders. The judgment would rest on how they led and whether the young lived or died with honor. Bachaann chose Do'tah and Zuhra, and Mi'thielth assigned him Gan'touh-De. The two parties boarded the same mothership, which came out of a wormhole at the third planet and prepared to drop both shuttles toward a military weapons-test site.
Crashing Into A Calabar Church
As the shuttles entered the atmosphere, an explosion started inside the hull of Bachaann's ship. The failing craft went a continent off course and smashed through the roof of a church in the Calabar favela of Salvador, Brazil, settling in the basement. A'kael cut her automated navigator and followed the falling shuttle rather than accept a win from a crash. Her long-range scan later showed that Bachaann's party had survived, except for the one first-hunter still on board.
Leaving Gan'touh-De Behind
In the wreck, Gan'touh-De was pinned under ceiling metal with green blood pouring from his chest. No mothership gear could save him, and the shuttle's implode charge started by itself. Bachaann touched foreheads with the dying first-hunter and took Do'tah and Zuhra out cloaked. The implode collapsed the building behind them. Frania and her grandson Gino watched the church roof go from the street, and the council later ruled that Gan'touh-De was to be spoken of with honor for staying with the doomed ship.
Blooding Do'tah And Zuhra
Four armed men came to the rubble of the church, and Bachaann turned them into the first hunt for his surviving pair. Do'tah and Zuhra took first blood with a razor rope and a disc, then drove a spear through the last two men. The kills made both young hunters Blooded on a world they had never meant to reach. Bachaann then led them out of the favela toward the woods where A'kael had stopped her own party.
Killing Thwutha
By the time Bachaann arrived, A'kael had exposed her own first-hunter Thwutha as the saboteur who had wrecked his shuttle. Thwutha had attacked her with both wristblades, and she had taken off one of his arms and left him alive for Bachaann, whose first-hunter had died in the crash. Bachaann took Thwutha's own disc, stepped aside from the charge and pulled the blade through his throat. Do'tah then dissolved the body with fluid, and A'kael treated the kill as his.
Fighting On The Salvador Beach
Helicopters were coming from the city, and armed humans had gathered on the beach of Salvador. Bachaann's party and A'kael's ran cloaked into the fight. Helicopter fire killed some of the human shooters in the trees, unseen hunters tore others apart, and many of the rest ran. At dawn A'kael called her cloaked shuttle down onto the sand with her gauntlet remote, and both parties left Earth together without ever reaching the weapons-test site.
Losing The Clan Vote
On the mothership, Elder Mi'thielth sat with both candidates after the council reviewed every helmet record, including Thwutha's. The four living first-hunters had performed well enough that their next hunt would be hard prey. The decision was close, and the council named A'kael clan leader. Bachaann lowered his head to the new rank. As her first assignment, A'kael gave him the missed hunt at the military base they had been sent to raid.
Personality
Bachaann was proud and openly ambitious, and he saw no shame in calling his rival's family tie a weakness in front of the council. He was also a practical leader under pressure. When the implode charge started, he wasted no time on a first-hunter he could not save, gave him a farewell touch and got the others out. He blooded Do'tah and Zuhra on the first prey that came to the rubble, and he accepted the council's verdict with a bow rather than a challenge.
Similar Predators
Bachaann belongs with Yautja who led young hunters on Earth. Donatiki led four unblooded on an Earth survey and gave birth during a fight at a Hastings reenactment. Bokui spared the young woman Joseli Sousa during his adulthood hunt on Hunting Ground 73569. Yuahro was a youngblood on his first solo hunt in Pisgah National Forest when Dutch wounded him. Bachaann's own hunt ended in survival, two blooded first-hunters and a lost leadership vote.
Conclusion
Bachaann was the elite rival in A'kael's test for clan leadership. A saboteur's explosion sent his shuttle into a church in Calabar, where he lost Gan'touh-De, blooded Do'tah and Zuhra on four armed men, and later killed Thwutha with the traitor's own disc. He fought beside A'kael on the Salvador beach and left Earth alive. The council chose her by a close margin, and Bachaann accepted the verdict and the military-base hunt she gave him.
Appearances
- Predator: Eyes of the Demon, "Proving Ground" by Linda D. Addison (2022)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Predators Who Survived | Predator Lore
