Nat'ka'pu: Clan Leader Of Hunter's Planet
Nat'ka'pu was a male Yautja Leader in David Bischoff's Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet, the 1994 Bantam Spectra sequel to Prey. Aboard a hunting ship he trained four unblooded with two adjutants, beat the honor-poor student Ki'vik'non in the kehrite, and led a drop on the training world Var when sensors found a lone Hard Meat. He advanced with a spear to wound the prey for the students and claimed he had once killed Hard Meat bare-fisted and torn off its head. The creature rose with hand-like limbs and a firearm, and explosive rounds destroyed his head and chest. His short adjutant Lar'nix'va, the hunter Machiko Noguchi called Shorty, declared himself Leader over the body.
Biography
Kehrite Lesson
On the deck of the hunting ship, Nat'ka'pu sparred in the kehrite against the student Ki'vik'non while the rest of the training party watched. He feinted left, slipped past the sparring spear, ripped the mask from the student's face, and cut off ringlets of hair with it. When Ki'vik'non tried a slap with the spear, the Leader struck the elbow with his leather gauntlet, forced the weapon down, and hit a tusk until the young hunter fell to his knees. Nat'ka'pu spat on him and told him he still had much work before he would earn Hard Meat blood on his brow, if he survived that long.
He ordered Ki'vik'non out of sight to wash and mocked him until the others laughed. The fallen student rose with hatred in his yellow eyes and returned to the ranks. Nat'ka'pu marked him as honor-poor and unsafe to leave alone with his back turned. Then the enunciator reported that Hard Meat had been found, and the Leader told the students to prepare for the hunt.
Drop On Var
The ship descended through cloud and skimmed the treetops of Var, a fertile world the clan used only at intervals for hunting. Seven warriors came down the ramp: four students, Nat'ka'pu, and two adjutants. The students and the Leader carried spears. The adjutants carried burners. They averaged about two and a half meters in height, with armor, masks, and dreadlocked hair.
Nat'ka'pu walked at the front as his rank required. The adjutants scanned with sight amplification, the short one pointed, and Nat'ka'pu took the binoculars. He saw a Hard Meat larger than an average drone squatting in the bushes, alone in daylight and not a Queen. He asked who wanted the honor of facing it first, then laughed when they all raised weapons and called them fools. When Ki'vik'non pressed him, Nat'ka'pu threatened to put the point of his spear through the student's intestines.
Facing The Hard Meat
The short adjutant Lar'nix'va said the students had never faced Hard Meat and that a Blooded who had fought one bare-fisted should make the first feints. Nat'ka'pu spat that he had torn its head off, agreed to weaken the prey, and left the final killing to the students. He wanted the exercise finished so he could drink c'ntlip afterward. Humans had begun to settle one small part of Var, and Soft Meat skulls for his trophy cages were on his mind as he advanced with the spear.
The Hard Meat did not move behind the bush. Sensors showed no other Hard Meat nearby, which suited a training exercise. Nat'ka'pu refused a cloaked approach with a burner because that held no valor and no lesson for the students. He came into full view of a large creature with a long domed head, no eyes, a reptilian tail, mantis limbs, and dorsal pipes. Something about the limbs looked wrong besides the size. A dry twig snapped under his boot, the Hard Meat rose with a hiss, and he took a fighting stance while planning a thorax wound or a lopped limb so the students could finish the kill.
Death
Nat'ka'pu advanced with his spear. The Hard Meat rose holding a firearm in hand-like limbs and killed him with explosive rounds that destroyed his head and chest. From the watching line, Lar'nix'va raised his burner, ordered the other adjutant forward, and the two streams of flame burned the Hard Meat before it could swing the weapon around.
When the flames died, the group walked ground littered with their commander's blood. Lar'nix'va stated that he was Leader and asked if anyone would challenge. No one did. A student stirred the cooled remains with a spear, and Lar'nix'va blamed Soft Meat for the trouble on the world. He walked back to the ship through the body of Nat'ka'pu and meant to contact the flotilla. Leadership of that party passed to him for the rest of the novel's hunt, including the later raid on human hunters he blamed for the Leader's death.
Appearance And Weapons
The novel gives Nat'ka'pu no private height apart from the party average of about two and a half meters and the note that even the shortest warrior stood about two meters with broad shoulders and armored build. He wore armor and a mask, carried a spear in the Var drop, and used a leather gauntlet in the kehrite bout. He spoke of drinking c'ntlip after a kill and kept Soft Meat skulls in mind as trophies for his cages.
On Var he refused the shiftsuit and burner approach that would have been the easy kill. The adjutants held the burners. His claimed earlier Hard Meat kill bare-fisted, with the head torn off, was his own boast in front of the students, not a fight shown in the novel. The firearm that killed him was held in Hard Meat limbs shaped like hands, a detail the pack later tied to Soft Meat meddling on the world.
Similar Predators
Nat'ka'pu ranks with novel Leaders who take unblooded into Hard Meat work and die before the larger hunt closes. Lar'nix'va, the short adjutant Machiko called Shorty, took Leadership over Nat'ka'pu's body, later proved himself in a Hard Meat trial, and died on Blior when Machiko finished him. Dachande of the Prey novel is the earlier Broken Tusk Leader whose bare-handed Hard Meat legend Nat'ka'pu's boast echoes, and whose mark Machiko wore in Hunter's Planet. Bakuub, also called Straight Spear, pressed Lar'nix'va after the Var death and later announced himself Leader once Lar'nix'va fell.
Ny'ytap commanded a blooding party of young hunters in Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War and died when a Xenowing took him during the farewell. A'kael trained first-hunters on the homeworld and lived to be named clan leader after a council test on Earth. Nat'ka'pu died on the first drop of Hunter's Planet and never reached the Evanstonville raid that closed the book.
Behind The Scenes
David Bischoff wrote Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet for Bantam Spectra, which published the paperback in December 1994. It was an original sequel to Steve Perry and Stephani Perry's Prey rather than a comic novelization, and Nat'ka'pu's kehrite bout and Var death come before Machiko's Alistair Three chapters begin. The Leader does not return after that prologue drop. Later pack politics in the same novel treat his death as the spark for Lar'nix'va's claim and for the Soft Meat raid that follows.
Conclusion
Nat'ka'pu was the Hunter's Planet clan Leader who trained four unblooded, beat Ki'vik'non in the kehrite, and took spear point on Var to wound a lone Hard Meat for his students. He claimed a prior bare-fisted Hard Meat kill, refused an easy burner approach, and died when that prey rose with a firearm in hand-like limbs and destroyed his head and chest with explosive rounds. Lar'nix'va burned the creature, claimed Leadership over the body, and carried the hunt forward without him.
Appearances
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Yautja Leaders | Predator Lore
