Chapter II

Disclaimer:

This story has been written purely for entertainment purposes, and in no way, shape, form, or fashion means to impede, or infringe upon any copyrighted material whatsoever. I do however retain credit and claim responsibility for the creation of names and character statistics of any and all characters within this publication. These characters are based on copyrighted ideas and or characters of the respective owners of said material within the entertainment industry. No money will be attributed to the author of the following publication in any form. Definitions and wording used to describe devices, and other such items are derived from other literary works involving these types of characters. This publication was created for the sole purpose of entertainment and the expansion of a concept formerly copyrighted by an individual or individuals as a group.

It wasn't but a few short seconds after I hung up with Jack Weyland, that I noticed the odd stench from earlier getting stronger. Pausing for a short few seconds, I again pondered the idea of leaving the carcass alone and venturing off further into the woods to investigate the strange visual anomaly.

Birds usually chirped their simple songs throughout the thick of the overgrowth, but for some reason or another they were absent from the area, adding to the atypical scene. What would make them disappear like this, all of them, at one time, and not even a trace of them was anywhere near here. The last time that happened, was when we introduced a new species into the area. Ok, so maybe there was a new predator in town we hadn't expected, but usually there was some kind of proof, and this time there wasn't. There was the odd air movement, that happened last time the Xeno's were out, and come to think of it the birds had vacated the area then too. There were the plasma burns on the carcass, yeah, that coincided with the Xeno's being loose as well. It was all becoming clear.

While, Weyland had guaranteed me that his company had no record of any Xeno's on the loose, there was still the fact that the government paid Jack for the mutual use of his facilities and they oftentimes shared in experimental duties. It was no secret though, that they had also reserved a certain portion of the buildings specifically for their own use and no one else.

I was lucky Jack was a friend and despite his difficult position between the military contracts on one side of things, and the contracts he had with me on the other, and the lying he had to do between the two in order to protect himself, I knew that in the long run he was loyal, and never truly let me down when I really needed the help. If there was info the government was hiding, especially within Jack's own company files, he was going to find it. I would have my answers soon enough. I hoped.

One thing didn't quite make sense to me though, the Xeno's didn't carry burners nor did I think they would know how to use them, much less have anywhere to hide them. Additionally, all the burned bodies were left with the meat generally intact. Carnivores wouldn't willingly leave their meat source unprotected unless they were trying to attract a bigger meal. There was something else too. The last time the Xeno's were out, Jack and I had a lengthy discussion as to their abilities and their species as a whole and there was nothing to indicate that they were capable of such feats like making air move in strange ways. They certainly weren't capable of teleportation, so that couldn't have explained anything about the air either.

There it was again, those waves in the air. They were closer this time, and moving rapidly, circling around my position along the edge of the clearing where the trees started. My eyes tracked it and I immediately went into defense mode. It was that switch in my head I mentioned earlier. The one that suddenly brings back all the things I learned about hunting and survival. Yeah, there was something out here all right. I now got the feeling it was no Xeno, but something else entirely. It must be that there was some other creature out here that we don't know about, some creature with the uncanny ability to…be…invisible. I couldn't believe I even entertained that thought. No creature has a natural means of cloaking.

I kept my eyes peeled on the movement without giving away the fact that I knew it was there. Something I learned in Spec Ops. If your opponent thinks for a second that you know he's there, you're more likely to be fired upon before you can gather enough information to defend yourself. Without making it obvious that I was visually tracking…whatever it was, I casually, yet cautiously took a few steps back towards the carcass of the dead Ostrocaurus. Whatever was out there had obviously killed this thing, and knew how to use a burner. Which meant that it was most likely a sentient being. Maybe the military had something to mask themselves with in this way. It wouldn't surprise me; those of us in Spec Ops were experimenting with those kinds of things years ago. Maybe they finally got it right this time.

Still, it doesn't explain why they would be killing any species of animal, or even tracking me at the moment. Could it be that they finally achieved a fully integrated cloaking device, and that one of the guys went nuts, and is out here killing whatever he can…'…get a grip Denton.' I said out loud to myself.

I narrowed my eyes a bit thinking that if they had any kind of visual enhancement equipment it would be harder for them to see that I was watching them as well. I now had the carcass between myself and my stalker, my head was bowed down to give the impression that I was further examining the dead body, all the while never taking my eyes from the shimmering pattern of light some hundred feet away or so.

To my surprise something flashed from what appeared to be the head of this image before me. It truly looked as if the eyes had momentarily lit up. That confirmed it, this thing had to be a soldier from some Spec Ops team I wasn't aware of, and he was surely using some kind of visual enhancement device. I know this because when I trained with that same kind of equipment we could occasionally see when someone was changing from one spectrum to the other if the lighting conditions were right. I thought for a second about hailing him to reveal himself. Then I thought about the dead Ostrocaurus in front of me.

Why in God's name would any military commander or government organization be out here blasting away newly created species of animals? Surely not for the sheer fun of it, not when they had plenty of other places to test their equipment, not to mention anyone in Spec Ops will tell you that the ultimate prey is another human. And believe me there were plenty of other humans causing problems for the military that they would be more than willing to test their equipment on.

Then it hit me, maybe this is some Spec Ops guy gone whacko, and out here blastin' whatever he can. Well, it didn't matter what it was, I wasn't gonna be it's next victim. I thought about how long the Ostrocaurus had been dead now and that most of its body heat had diminished. If this guy was capable of using his infrared like I was when I was in Spec Ops, then this carcass was going to be the perfect cover. At least until this guy changed spectrum modes again. I'm sure that if he was looking for the carcass all this time, and he was using infrared, it would have disappeared from his view by now based on the loss of heat. I didn't truly know what spectrum he might have been using but it wouldn't matter anyway. The grass was tall where I stood, nearly up to my waist in certain areas. One way or another, I felt that the carcass would be a good enough distraction to somehow get back to my vehicle, not far from here. I would have a better chance of discovering the identity of my stalker once getting there, considering the firepower I kept in the storage compartment.

I would have at least a few seconds of surprise over my adversary, which in my mind was enough to possibly formulate an escape route.

My antagonist continued moving through the trees, although slower now, he was still making progress. After reaching an area adjacent to the nearby creek, it appeared as if his movement had stopped laterally and began moving more towards me than anything.

I waited calmly but watchfully for just the right moment to put my plan into action. I locked my eyes on the glimmer of his vague silhouette as I slowly bent down below the cover of the grass, and closer to the smelly carcass in front of me. I was ready to begin picking up the carcass when I heard a familiar sound.

It was truly a distinctive sound. Repetitively, the audible chopping of thin airfoils resonated through the atmosphere, and it was getting closer. Without taking my eyes off my foe I began to add things up in my head, still waiting for the moment I would have to use the carcass in front of me as cover to strategically crawl closer to my vehicle under the added cover of the tall grass. The chopper I requested for the extraction of the Ostrocaurus remains was still supposed to be a few minutes out. 'Must be the military unit Jack was talking about.'

I thought about using their presence here to my advantage, but if I alerted them to my being here then I would be giving away my position, as well as putting them at risk if they were to land. I decided to wait it out and see what happened next.

Bending down just behind the carcass I could feel the wetness begin to seep into the knees of my jeans, as the remaining bodily fluids that failed to cauterize spread slowly across the immediate area of soil. I was as low as I could get without losing my perspective on my enemy, when I was suddenly shocked at the next turn of events.

The heavily armed helicopter came over the canopy of trees and began firing plasma bursts, and high-powered ballistic weaponry into the very area where my foe was located. One of the shots from the plasma rifle struck a branch just above what I perceived to be the head of my antagonist. A loud roaring scream bellowed from the creature as I watched it dodge to and fro, before leaping out of sight further into the trees and heading for the creek. Apparently the plasma burst was enough to electrically disturb the cloaking field around the creature. Sparks and small trails of miniature blue-white lightning dissipated around the once invisible silhouette as I managed to see its backside for just long enough to know that this thing wasn't human after all.

I gave up the idea of covering my self with the dead remains of the Ostrocaurus, and instead bolt for my vehicle at the right edge of the clearing. Thankfully I was still in good shape for my age and strong as well, and it didn't take long for me to reach it.

My vehicle, a trusted crawler type was well built, the body though, was old and had been repaired many times, and there was probably more weld than body left, but I like the antique look. Of course Jack and some of the others I was associated with who had seen this thing would say it had that ancient look. While it was true that the body was over two hundred years old, it still served its purpose. The insides, and the propulsion system were an entirely different story though. The most up to date electronics, comfortable yet durable seating, and the engine, well let's just say Hydrodyne shall we. It had a custom competition grade suspension system. This thing, for a land vehicle was the ultimate. While others used expensive anti gravity cars, mine was cheaper and ran longer on its fuel source.

It was a beautiful sight to see this thing sitting there unharmed, and waiting for me. The feeling arose more than likely from the fact that I knew my weapons in there were fairly powerful and would have no quarrels about having to be fired in my defense. In fact, some of the weapons I stored in there were just plain mean looking, and probably yearned to be fired. Maybe they would get the chance.

I was just about to reach my vehicle when I heard another burst of plasma fire. Normally this wouldn't have caught my attention, but there was something different about the sound this time. A variation in the volume is what really stood out, but overall, the sound itself didn't have as much of a sizzle to it.

No sooner than I turned around to see what was happening, my body was pounded backwards by the force of the explosion as pieces of the helicopter flew in a thousand different directions. I slammed into the crawler violently from about ten feet away of my original position. Fortunately my reflexes are still up to par and I was able to half shield my head with my hands and tuck my body into a more ball-like shape in order to more absorb the impact. I felt myself hit the side of the vehicle and immediately drop down to the ground. As I said before my reflexes are sharp and my body automatically maneuvered into a landing position.

As I hit the ground I instantly realized that I was a bit angrier than before. If you think my internal instinct and survival switch was on before, 'Heh, heh!' The dial just got cranked up to pissed off! 'Just you wait pal, I'm gonna mount your head on my wall' I said out loud to myself.

I stood slowly and cautiously from my crouched position and sternly walked to the back of my crawler to get some…'things' per se.

It wasn't often that a small low powered weapon could take out a helicopter with as much firepower, and defenses as it had, unless of course they got in a lucky shot. In fact, I happen to know that design of chopper well. There was nothing short of a small ballistic device that could've taken it down. I'm betting it was a lucky shot. It only makes sense now, not only did this creature utilize vision enhancement gear but he had a targeting system as well. It's the only explanation as to how he could've destroyed that chopper. Especially from the distance he happened to be from it.

'You're gonna be sorry you didn't kill me sooner you asshole!' I thought as I looked through the scope on the side of my plasma burner. It wasn't very often I used this weapon, but this situation may very well call for it, and I just wanted to make sure that it was ready to use in case I needed it. I really do enjoy weapons of all kinds, but being the kind of person that believes in efficiency, I would never use more than I need to get the job done. Never hurts to be prepared though.

The red lettering appeared in his facemask clearly, indicating that his audio sensors were working properly. Ro'kuld'se compared the audio segment he had just recorded to various other audible tracks he and his kind had sampled over the years. It was a match; there was no mistaking the translation, or the voiceprint. The human had said the words.

"…not onl…cut all the fu…ng I give you, but I'll hunt you down, and the…ll be no place in th…erse you can hide…do you hear me?" The translator paused intermittently during the recording due to the distance away from the human that he was. Although there were some missing segments, the words that were clearly audible were enough to confirm that this man was the one they were looking for. Or more importantly the one he was looking for. His honor would depend on it.

The Yautja Warrior was careful not to alert his prey as to his presence, and slowly attempted to make his way around the clearing of trees behind the human. It was during all of this that the human was acting strangely as if he knew something wasn't right. It was almost like he knew Ro'kuld'se was there, and not letting on that he knew it.

'These humans can be sneaky creatures.' He stated bluntly into his mask.

Everything happening was beginning to become confusing for him. His actions were definitively a sign of that. He had either paused or changed directions, and even retreated a few steps, at several different points during the encounter with the human. Every time he moved the human countered with some kind of unpredictable action. This was unlike any other hunt he had ever been on. It was as if the human knew the game. It was like he knew the sport of hunting just as well as the Yautja did. There were moments when the human would act as if he knew Ro'kuld'se was there and moments when he would act completely oblivious to his presence.

There came a point when the Yautja was readying himself to silently remove the dead creatures body from the grassy field without the human knowing. Unfortunately the human began to turn as if protecting it. Ro'kuld'se had stopped in his tracks. Slowly he had managed to make his way a few degrees around the edge of the clearing through the trees and thought that he now had visually thrown the human off of his trail. The rest of the trek through the trees proved difficult considering the human was so unpredictable.

Ro'kuld'se was about to consider the use of his burner and simply kill the human, except that the Elder onboard was in constant communication with him, and had advised him of the position of using this opportunity to further study the human. More importantly their sensors had just now picked up two human aircraft in the area, and any firing of a plasma blaster would have alerted them to Ro'kuld'se's position instantaneously. This was something the Elder wanted to avoid. It was bad enough that they stayed this close to the action. There wasn't much of a choice though, considering that Ro'kuld'se was given this opportunity to redeem himself and finally see the potential for achieving Warrior status, and all hunts on Earth nowadays were considered dangerous enough to the point of being supervised by an Elder from a nearby ship.

It was years ago since the last visit to Earth, and Ro'kuld'se had recently managed to convince an Elder to return despite the danger. Only the bravest of Warriors ever hunted here any more. It was hard enough to hunt, not to mention navigate past all the Earth ships that came and went around the planet and throughout the rest of their solar system. Of course that was what made a human trophy so much more valuable now than years before. Getting there was half the battle. Naturally it wouldn't be difficult to find an older Yautja to pilot the ship. Some of the older of his kind having too difficult a time hunting were finding a new respect within their clans simply by volunteering to fly a ship through the difficult region of space.

His real reason for returning though, was a matter of vengeance, pride, and the ability to move up in rank amongst his kind by reacquiring the trophy he felt was rightfully his. Ro'kuld'se was stuck in limbo according to his people's rights of passage. After passing the Kainde Amedha Chiva he was assigned to a hunt on Earth that would allow him to eradicate the mistakes of the humans in regards to the experimenting with the Kainde Amedha, or Hard Meat. Otherwise known as Xenomorphs to humans. It was during this hunt that Ro'kuld'se was attempting to stalk and kill one of the Hard Meat, when a human, from below where the Hard Meat hung upside down in the tree, had fired a small thin projectile, we believe the humans label it as an 'arrow,' from a very primitive weapon making a kill shot right through the mouth.

Ro'kuld'se also fired a weapon from above and simultaneously struck the Hard Meat directly through the back of the neck and into the head with his spear gun. It was odd that the spear didn't just go right through the head of the Hard Meat and kill the human too. It should have. He could only assume that the metals they use now are strong enough to deflect their weapons. Where the spear tip was now he had no idea, and truthfully it didn't really matter. As far as he was concerned it was his kill. He had been hunting it longer, and the human only came across it by chance. He would have instantly killed the human too, except that the Hard Meat had lashed with its spiny tail in a reflex to being shot through the head. It had knocked Ro'kuld'se out of the tree with such force that he was unconscious for some time, and had landed several human meters away behind some thick underbrush.

That would only be the first trophy that Ro'kuld'se would be denied. Other trophies would be denied to this Yautja later by this same human who, with hunting skills nearly that of the best of any Yautja, seemed a far more capable hunter than Ro'kuld'se. In our society, and according to our codes one cannot return from a hunt without a trophy and earn the privilege of gaining rank or even take a mate for that matter. It is this that drove Ro'kuld'se to his present need to return to Earth and reclaim his prize, of course he has added the taking of this particular human's skull to his agenda this time. Ro'kuld'se was almost possessed by the idea of taking this humans head, and for good reason, it was often times over the years that Ro'kuld'se was known to repeatedly listen to the recordings he'd made of this humans voice during his first visit here.

The human was spotted removing the listening device from his ear and had hidden it somewhere within his clothing. It was then that Ro'kuld'se had made it almost halfway around the clearing when the sudden appearance of a human aircraft came over the trees firing rapid bursts of plasma at the Yautja.

He swiftly outmaneuvered the blasts and managed to elude the aircraft for a few seconds. After making his way down towards what the humans call a creek, he found himself in the perfect position to be able to return fire. Using his targeting system, Ro'kuld'se then fired his plasma blaster not thinking that a single shot would destroy it. His targeting system defined all the characteristics of the object in fine detail and switched through the different spectrums available until it found something to lock onto. It was when the targeting indicator had finally changed back to infrared that it was able to lock on to what was obviously the propulsion system. His plasma weapon fired instantly, and to the Yautja's surprise the entire vehicle exploded. It was unfortunate that the humans had left their defenses on the helicopter in an open position, allowing him to fire right through one of the open panels on the side, as it approached closer. He would have rather had the opportunity to hunt these creatures individually and in more of an honorable way, but unfortunately the weakness of the design of the human aircraft, coupled with the luck of his shot had resulted in its complete destruction.

He had lost track of the human during his attempt to stay alive, and it may have been that he killed the human inadvertently while defending himself. That would be quite a disappointment. He would now have to make sure that whatever trophy he returned with from this trip was going to make up for the less than honorable way in which those particular humans had died.

Of course, if everything were to go as planned he would not only return with the trophy he was robbed of years ago, but also have a new one to add to his collection. And based on the details of this hunt so far, he was sure to have gained a great honor among his kind in the near future if he can truly achieve his goals while here.

For the Yautja, hunting on Earth has become extremely dangerous in the last hundred years or so. In fact, in the several thousand years that we've been visiting, it's been getting more difficult each and every time. Humans have developed technologies far and above what we originally thought they were capable of. It's recently been discovered that they now have the capacity to see in different spectrums of light as we ourselves do. It probably won't be long before they discover the ability to cloak themselves in the same manner. It's not to say that they can't already do this, for we have records of some of them using materials as a covering that hides them from our infrared sensors. Unfortunately for them it doesn't hide them from most of the other vision settings that we're capable of.

It has been well documented though, that they are becoming increasingly intelligent, and more cunning by the day. What's more is, now that they have learned how to harness cold fusion, the possibilities for them are nearly endless. They have ventured out into space in less than one Yautja's lifetime. This alone is an amazing feat. Our scientists say that these humans are advancing at an alarming rate. One of them even went as far as saying that the humans may one day run the universe. He is obviously not well liked, and it would serve him well to keep his mandibles narrowed a bit further before someone removes them altogether, for speaking such a blasphemy. While it may be true that most of us admire the humans for their increasing resourcefulness, to think that they would ever overpower us as a race is pure nonsense.

Of course this current hunt is proving the most difficult yet. Human technology has changed significantly just in the last twenty of their years or so. They now have the ability to detect our presence from space, regardless of what cloaking measures we have taken, albeit, their technology hasn't quite been perfected as of yet. We ourselves have learned of a way to counteract their actions about eighty percent of the time or more, but only if we have taken all the right steps to do so, and carefully I might add.

It was at this point that Ro'kuld'se had both mentally and physically retreated from the area for the purpose of gaining a better perspective on the situation. His Elder had been in communication with him and relayed the news of another incoming human aircraft. It would only be a few more Earth minutes before they arrived. Ro'kuld'se must have figured that his haste in wanting to kill the human is what alerted his prey to his presence. It would now be more beneficial for him to take up a camouflaged position within the trees and wait to see what events were to unfold. Seeing as to how his race was unsure as to what advancements the humans had made it would probably be a good idea to find cover near or under the nearest outcropping of boulders. After he was satisfied that things had calmed down he would return to collect the skull of this new species as an added bonus. He might very well carry back to his Homeworld three impressive skulls to prove his worth.

It wasn't long before his sensors located a cave nearby. Once there he could hide from any detection device the humans may have managed to create, for no sensor, no matter how powerful was able to penetrate solid rock. At least, not that he knew of. The cave would also serve to provide a place to lower his guard and concentrate on the repairs to his cloaking device. Perhaps he would even have the time to formulate a new plan of attack in regards to the human.

He was nearly at the cave entrance and the sensors weren't picking up any human life signs. His bio gear had indicated that he began to relax. It was then that he manipulated the keypad on his wrist gauntlet and programmed it to project a heads up display in hologram form out in the front of his field of view. It was translucent enough to see the upcoming obstacles on the ground. He continued to walk steadily towards the cave and studied the entire areas geography including the patch of land where this human's residence happened to be.

He knew this human would go back there at some point if he weren't already dead from the explosion. Yes, he knew where the human lived and it wasn't far from here. It was where this hunt had started, and it was where Ro'kuld'se had intended to finish it in the beginning anyway. After all the Kainde Amedha trophy he was here to reclaim from his first hunt of years ago was in that house. All other Kainde Amedha skulls were destroyed in the process of being hunted by the human, or taken by the scientists that typically arrived on the scene shortly after the human had left.

It was earlier in this very same Earth day that Ro'kuld'se had arrived in the vicinity of the humans home and was preparing to retake his Hard Meat trophy right off the wall if he had to, and was hoping that the human would try to intervene, it would be his skull removed from the house as well if he had.

Things don't always go as planned though, and the human unexpectedly left his home for the deeper woods. Even more exasperated with the way this hunt was preceding he decided to follow the human and hunt him in a more honorable fashion, with the hopes that he may be able to see some hand to hand combat making the humans skull that much more prestigious.

All in all, the hologram depicted everything he would need to know about the geography in order to better track the human. He would first need to re-examine the area where the carcass of his most recent kill hopefully remained. It would be there that he would determine the whereabouts of the human and finalize his plans for returning with hard earned trophies.

The cave entrance was just ahead and Ro'kuld'se paused for a moment to scan the interior for any would-be threats, and upon being satisfied with the results he walked through the entrance towards the shadows slipping away into the darkness.