The way of the Predator
Awakening
A silend humm roars like a really far away earthquake as the massive spaceship burns for orbit. The lights start to slowly shine. he hasnt felt light in centuries. It was warm and it stung in his eyes. The capsule he had been lain dormant in pressurised with a light hissing sound. The glass in front of him became transparent once more. A poorly lit room filled with cryosleep caskets. Thousands and thousands of them as he looked down the giant pilar made of capsules. A red light shined from the outside. Slowly he gained consiousness and started to feel his body again. His memory was still blank, but he could think. A large mechanical arm appeared and grabbed on to his cryosleep casket. Loud bangs and whistling were heard as the casket door was pulled open. above him hung a breather-mask. He quickly pulled the straps over his head and pushed the pressurisation button. He could breathe. As the arm dissapeared with his casket door, he floated slowly forwards in zero-gravity. As far as he could see were large pillars with countless cryo-capsules stacked upon eachother. Green light shone upon him. He looked up and saw it was coming from an airlock. He moved towards it, making swimming-like motions to propell himself. The room was filled with gasses he better didnt inhale. It would be too energy expensive to oxigen-filter the entire room. When he reached the airlock, ten minutes had passed. He slowly started to remember what he was doing, and why he was in cryosleep.
He pulled the lever on the arilock. It opened and the vacuum sucked him in. The doors automatically closed hhind him and the room depressurised again. The other door of the airlock opened as he felt a light downforce. It got more intense the closer he moved to the door. His feet touched the ground as his eyes accustomed to the bright light coming from the other side of teh door. Two tall figures stood before him in white lab-coats. One looked like a lizard and the other had a strange elongated head and two sets of dark-blue eyes. The lizard held a a set of clean white clothes and gave it to him wit the words: "Put this on, you silly. you dont want the commander to see your jhonson, do you?" He remenbered. They were his freinds from the science division. The lizard was called Ro'ak. Always braggin about his nano-technology gadgets. The other guy was called 'Minno' because his real name was absolutely unpronouncable. he was always working on strange synthetic fluids. His purpuse on the ship was to synthesise and experiment on alien liquids. He put on his clean set clothes. It was like an officers uniform, but completely in white and without the medails or breast pocket. Even his pants didnt have pockets. He took a glance at the room. A long, wide hallway stretching far beyond his eyes reach. It was filled with machine parts and controll stations. The General hall, he remembered. A machines that controlled the energy flow thoughout the ship were seated here. Pilars of monitors with a thousand and one different statistics and numbers were dotted around the place. Enormous contraptions of metal struts joints and cable covered the left wall. Mechanical combat suits laid on teh floor and hung on these cables, half disassembled. At his left there was a big gate that lad to the engineering bay. He found it strange to see all these machines and contraptions filling up this usually empty hall. "did something happen to the engineering bay while i was out?" he asked. Ro'ak answered "well, not really. The engineers were just modifying the Laccs tanks, so they neede all the space they could get. They moves most easy-to-move things in here. Its a bit of a mess at the moment, but at least the Laccs are operational now. "Laccs... if i remember correctly, they were those huge quadrepedal guns, right?" he asked. Ro'ak nodded. "But, we havent used them in ages, why would they need to be operational?" he asked. Ro'ak replied: "well, you see.. thats eactly the point. They are never being used, so we're leaving them behind. We're gonna give them to Antar when we drop you off. We cant give them half finished tanks. They wouldnt be happy with that." "So we're going to unload the tanks on Antar? Ok." Minno has hopping around seeking attention for a while during their conversation. "Zane, you should really be going now." Minno said. Ro'ak appologised for taking his time. Zane nodded and stepped forward. He lokked back at the two and waved them goodbye. "I'll see you in a year, i guess?" "Good luck on Antar buddy!" Ro'ak yelled through the hallway as the distance between the grew. Now accomodated to the artificial gravity, he walked at a steady speed through the hallway while greeting a handful of working engineers on the way. They all wished him good luck. They were awful kind to him. More then usual. Dis they know something he didnt?
Zane arrived at the end of the hallway and took a right. He walked into a small rounded room. The door closed behind him and hissing sounds were heard. On the other side of the room there was another door. A red light started to bling above him. A womans voice coming from the sealing said: "Warning, room depressirising in 5..4..3..2.." he felt slight panic, but then remembered he was still wearing a breather mask. He felt the air being sucked out of the room. A second later the doors on the other side opened slowly ans the air of the other room entered this one. The womnas voice said: "Species analysis: Human. Environment Breathable. You may take off your breather mask and store it in the locker to your right. He did as was instructed. He put the mask into the locker and closed it. The womans voice said: "Please proceed to the net room, Captain Zane Troyard. You are being expected."
he stepped out of the little airlock into the nt room, which seemed to be an office. Ther was a desk in front of him but the room seemed empty at first glance. He looked to his left. There was a big old lizardman sitting into a leather sofa while smoking a cigar. The man blew smoke into the air and said: " goodmorning, captain. Did you have a good night sleep?" "sure slept like a rock, sir." Zane replied in an ironic way. The man chuckled and said "Haven't heard that one before." "Commander," Zane spoke. "i heard you had something to say to me." the lizard sat up straight an looked Zane in the eyes. "Indeed, i have. Its time for the welp to become a wolf." he said. "You were chosen to become a member of the top elite hunter force The Antari Wolves. Thats why we are going to Antar now. We've trained you well, and Leiff Orland has taken note of your accomplishments." Zane's joy was clearly readable from his face. He was seachless. "and if Marshall Orland asks me to give him my best soldier, i can't possibly refuse." the lizardman said. "You will meet him on Antar, where he will put you through the test that will determin whether you are worhty of being the fifteenth member of the best hunter team of the galaxy." the sofa made cracking sounds as the old lizardman stood up and left that spot he seemed to be sitting in for the past few hours. He put his hand on Zane's shoulder and said: "It pains me to see you go, Captain. But this is a great honor for all of us. I really hope you will become that fifteenth Wolf. You deserve this, after all you've been through." Zane's mood was somewhat dropped by these painful words. "Congratulations" the commander said in a somewhat casual way. Zane knew his pain. Its like losing a Soldier in battle, only that this in not battle, but politics. "Don't worry, commander. I will make you proud. I will become the fifteenth wolf and they shall know your name as the one who got me that far." The commander chuckled asd smiled. "Its a relief to hear you say that, Zane. Now go wash yourself, you havent showerd in centuries." "Sir, yes sir!" Zane replied with a smile on his face and left the room.