Three-Spot was a Blooded Yautja on Top-Knot's ship, the Shell, in Aliens vs. Predator: War, S. D. Perry's 1999 novel of the Dark Horse comic. Machiko Noguchi, the human Broken Tusk had marked on Ryushi, was the one who called him Three-Spot. On an unnamed hive world he held a rope on the Queen's upper left wrist while Top-Knot cut her free of the egg sac. He lost the line, the Queen crushed his chest, and Machiko caught the rope so the rest of the capture could hold.
Biography
Senior Hunter On The Shell
Three-Spot stood with the senior Blooded on the Shell, beside Top-Knot and a hunter Machiko called Scar. Those three were used to a human on the ship. Each new class of students stared at her, and a bad day from someone else took that attention off her. He was not one of the unblooded watchers. When the party reached the egg chamber, Top-Knot chose eight hunters to rope the Queen, and Three-Spot was on that team. Machiko, Shorty, and two others had the lesser post, watching for drones while the ropers did the work.
The Queen Capture
The Queen came out of the dark over her egg sac and would not leave it. Eight full-grown hunters held her, one rope on each limb and two hooked around the wide comb of her head. Three-Spot braced in front of her with his rope wound several times around her upper left wrist. Machiko stood a few meters away with a burner, on watch, while Top-Knot came in with a long blade, an h'sai-de. The plan was to cut the membrane between the Queen and the sac, tie her arms to her chest, and walk her to the ship with burners on her so the drones would not close. The hosts on the chamber walls had four pink limbs and burst chests. They were not the ranch animals from Ryushi.
The Loose Rope
The capture held until Three-Spot stopped watching the line and day-dreamed on the rope. The Queen jerked him off his feet and hauled him into the air, and acid sprayed off the line as she swung him and slammed him onto the floor of the nest. Top-Knot had cut her free of the egg sac, so the arm Three-Spot was holding was the one she could throw. He hit the floor stunned and lost the wrist he had been bracing.
Death In The Nest
The Queen drove her claws into Three-Spot and brought her foot down on his chest. The breastplate broke under that step, and he died on the nest floor. With the wrist rope gone she leaned for another lunge, and four of the holders were on the ground. Machiko dropped her burner, ran two steps, and caught his rope. She fell back and dug in, lighter than a hunter, and held only for the seconds Top-Knot needed before another hunter took the line. Top-Knot struck her for taking Three-Spot's place, on the grounds that one hunter's miss belonged to the whole team. She took the burner again, and the clan walked the Queen out without him.
Weapons And Equipment
On the capture, Three-Spot carried a coil of braided rope, the heavy line the hunters used because it would take a Queen's pull. That rope was wrapped several times around her upper left wrist while he braced in front of her. He wore brown mesh under plate, a yellow bio-mask, and a weapon across the shoulder, and acid hit the line when she hauled him up. Burners for the drones belonged to the four hunters on watch, Machiko among them. He died with the rope on her arm, and she was the one who caught the loose end.
Behind The Scenes
David Bischoff's Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet (Bantam Spectra, December 1994) is the first book to use the name, and it sets the capture in Machiko's years with the pack. In that account the Queen threw him on a bad stance, drove her claws through his chest, and the rope parted as the claws came out. Randy Stradley's War comic reprints Chris Warner's Dark Horse Insider serial as issue #0, dated May 1, 1995. On those pages he day-dreamed on the line, the Queen hauled him into the air, and she came down on him.
S. D. Perry's December 1999 novel tells that same capture, and the Queen's foot broke his breastplate. None of the three print a Yautja name for him. Three-Spot is Machiko's label, and in Perry's novel Top-Knot used a hunter-sound for that same name when he rebuked her. The clan's next hunt, on Bunda, came after his death, and the fight on Blior followed. He was absent from the ship ramp when the Queen broke loose again and Shorty helped shut Machiko in the hold.
Conclusion
Three-Spot was a Blooded hunter on Top-Knot's Shell in Aliens vs. Predator: War. He died on the unnamed hive world when the rope on the Queen's wrist got away and she crushed his chest. Machiko Noguchi caught that line, Top-Knot struck her for leaving her post, and the clan took the Queen aboard without him.
Appearances
- Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet (Bantam Spectra, 1994)
- Aliens vs. Predator: War #0 (Dark Horse, 1995)
- Aliens vs. Predator: War (Bantam Spectra, 1999)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Comics | Predators From The Novels | Predator Deaths | Predator Lore
