The human female skirted death.

This day's bounty was for all the remaining member of the Corverian resistance. This planet, classified as CI90, a small world in the ninth quadrant of the Secca galaxy and it was home to the Corverian base station Akur was contracted to take out. Minutes ago, he had watched her tiny ship break through the clouds and land a few kilometers to the east, just minutes from his own ship. For the past few months, wherever he would go he could count on the fact that she was trailing not too far behind. That could only mean the human had a way of tracking him—and that should not have been possible.

Though he had never seen her face, Akur was positive it was a human female that persisted in following him to each bounty. He knew she was female by her diminutive statue, rounded features, and the pitch of her voice. He also knew she was human by the shape of her body and her personality. She was annoying. With each encounter he considered the various options in which he would kill her, but each one left him dissatisfied. Akur had to find her a perfect death, one suitable for her unrelenting bothersome personality.

Crouching in the thorny purple trees he watched as her lithe figure slink carefully through the darkness. In her arms, she carried a carbine rifle. Enhancing his screen in his mask, he zoomed in on the long rifle and noted its suppression nozzle, which would make every shot nearly inaudible to standard hearing.

Good. She would need the gun today.

#

Taking cover behind the wall, Ember grimaced at the loud reports of gunfire hitting the rhodium plated steel wall next to her. Goddamn that big red bastard! Though she wasn't sure yet, she had a gut feeling she was trapped in this corridor by a group of hostile and very much alive Corverian assholes due to the big surly yautja setting her up.

She did everything just as she always did when she tailed the big beautiful red hunter; she found his location, waited for him to land, gave him thirty minutes to clean house and then swooped in behind him. That was there system, regardless if he agreed to it or not. It was why she renamed her ship the Plover. A bird of terrestrial planet origins that forms a symbiotic relationship with crocodiles. The crocodile kills and devours its prey and then proceeds to kindly open its mouth and allow the plover bird to clean its teeth, thus feeding the bird. A perfect description of her and Red's relationship!

Reloading her rifle, Ember bent her knees and slid her back lower against the wall until she was a few feet lower from where the Corverian were firing.

"Red you are being one lousy crocodile right now," she mumbled aloud before quickly swinging out of cover and taking five precise shots.

One Corverian down and one wounded in the arm.

Angry roars from the alien beasts echoed off the walls. By her scans there were eight more of the things still alive. On entering the base, she took out one that surprised her and quickly took out three more that came running at the first one's gunfire. A moving red dot on the base's map alerted her to movement to the connecting hallway connected to the one she was hiding in.

"Shit!" grabbing a frag-grenade out of her pack on her back she tossed it down the hall where the mouth of the hallway she was in opened up to the mouth of the other hall just as the red dot hit the corner. Not waiting a second longer, she jumped out of cover and laid down some cover fire to the four Corverian assholes hiding behind the barricade to the control room up ahead. Switching the mode on her gun, she launched an incendiary grenade at the bastards. The ricocheting explosion from the hall, that she just vacated, told her the frag-grenade just went off, hopefully the eight-inch metal spikes that shot out did their job. The red dot wasn't moving, meaning it was still alive but down for now.

Vaulting over the barricade she shot at the large beast in her sights. The Corverian were all lot like shaved bipedal bears with humongous red eyes. Vibrations under her feet, were her only warning before Ember felt herself being knocked hard to the ground by another Corverian rushing her from her right. Scrambling to fight past the dizzying trauma of being hit by a giant four-hundred-pound alien bear she lifted her gun, which was still blessedly in her hand to aim. Red eyes blazed bright as the bear landed on top of her, crushing the barrel of her gun to her breasts with both of its claws, trapping her hands beneath the weapon. Ember screamed in anger inside her helmet as she watched the creature snap its teeth at the dome of her helmet, leaving long wet saliva streaks along the surface. The pressure against her chest was becoming unbearable and the warning sensors from her suit were flashing like mad across her screen in her helmet. The armor was rapidly giving way to the pressure. She designed the armor of her suit to withstand only so much damage in order to keep it light and functional, not to deal with a giant bear attempting to maul her to death. Pain shot through her chest as the armor reached twenty percent integrity. Kicking, did nothing to the creature. Heavy footsteps vibrated from behind her head and she knew any second its pals were about to join in the fun. It was a known fact if given a choice the Corverian would rather maul their enemies rather than shoot them.

Blood sprayed across her helmet blinding momentarily her. The feeling of the bear's weight being lifted off her gave her a chance to finally move. With the integrity of her suit no longer compromised, her suit sent out a pulse of static energy, burning off the blood on her helmet until it fell away to dust. Rolling forward to her feet and away from the other Corverian, she knew that were approaching, she turned on her heel in a crouch and fired at the two bears before they could reach for their own guns again.

Breathing heavily, Ember tried to work through the spike of adrenaline that was rushing through her system. Looking up, all her best efforts in calming herself were stamped out when she saw the familiar eight-foot figure standing over the decapitated Corverian. With two long, slightly curved blades, one in each hand Red stood tall and imposing staring down at her with his glowing blue eyes from his helmet.

Popping up to a full standing position she let her gun rest back on her shoulder as she pointed accusingly at him. "Red, if you think I am going to thank you for screwing me you have another thing coming. This was so sneaky and rude! I thought we had an unspoken arrange…Shit!" The red dot appeared on her screen just as the firing started.

Leaping over a dead Corverian, she used an overturned table for cover. Shit, shit, shit, there were more of those bastards left and she totally forgot. Taking a steadying breath, she dropped to her stomach and aimed the gun past the table.

The shots had stopped. Still staring down her sights she watched Red walk back down from the hallway where the gunshots were previously coming from carrying two Corverian heads in one hand. Well—ok then. Getting up, she refrained from continuing her tirade at Red as she scanned the base's map for any more life signatures.

"Hey Red," she whispered, still focused on the oddly empty map. Hearing his low clicking growl, she resisted the urge to smile like an idiot and looked in his direction. "Did you by chance kill the last the three already?

Dreads swung gently as he gave her a negative shake of his head.

Flexing her hand against her rifle's handle, Ember changed the maps to the outside perimeter of the base. Three red dots directly overhead!

"Red, above!" she only had time to yell before the skylights above shattered and the floor shook as one of the large beasts dropped down in front of her. There were only seconds to make the decision. She could stand and fight them with Red, who was far more skilled and proficient at close quarter fighting and hope another one didn't land behind her and tackle her or she could cloak herself. If she cloaked herself she would have a whole helluva a lot of issues to deal with after the fact. The options were: most likely sustain serious injuries and try to fight with Red or cloak herself and hope she could out run one an angry yautja.

Glass crunching above her signaled time had run out and the decision needed to be made.

Activating her cloaking device, she disappeared from sight. The resulting loud shrieking roar from the yautja told her Red saw what she did. She had to move fast. Running past the unsuspecting Corverian, she shot it in the head as she ran back down the main corridor towards the front entrance. The singing slash of Red's blade cried out against the suddenly still air and she could hear the gurgling groan from the alien bear before the loud thump of his body hit the ground. The loud pounding footsteps down the corridor behind her told her the other bear must have been killed as well because she was now the yautja's prime focus.

Barely slowing down, she slapped the entry button on the wall and raced out the crack of the opening door, not wasting one second for it to open any further. The thought of turning to lock the pursuing eight-foot predator inside crossed her mind but she didn't dare take that chance. Yautja's were crazy fast and the longer they ran the faster they got, she needed to hustle. Panting she let go of her gun, letting it magnetize to her back and used her arms to pump herself even faster towards the tree line where her ship was stashed. Looking at the giant red marker on her map she wanted to scream as she watched it getting rapidly closer behind her. Though she was sure he couldn't see her not even with his biometric tech and other various scans in his helmet, Ember was positive it was the simple fact that her footprints along the planet's sandy surface that was giving her exact escape route away.

A high pitch whine hit the air before a blue pulse of energy shot over her shoulder and past her.

"Are you shooting at me!?" she yelled back. Ember was shocked, she really didn't think this warranted him actually trying to kill her.

Another blue pulsing shot whizzed past her over her head. Thank the gods he was a terrible aim, she thought.

Red flashing warnings on her helmet screen blared in her ears as she skidded to a halt just as two giant purple trees came crashing down in front of her. Falling backward she hit the ground. Fuck!

She didn't even have time to turn over before the looming shadow blocked out the sun and a heavy hand grabbed her by the throat. Immediately the cloaking was interrupted and blinked away revealing her fully to the hulking masked predator.

"Red!" she cried out, as she grasped at his clawed hand around her neck.

The grip wasn't tight but it was solid like steel, covering her whole neck and wrapping easily around until his claws touched at the back. If he wanted, he could pop her head off without so much as a sneeze.

"Where did you obtain our technology?" The feral words rolled over her.

All her movements stopped and her hands fell away from his around her neck. Stiff and perfectly still her body laid there under his hand, his blue glowing eyes staring at his own reflection through the gleam of her black helmet.

"Oh. My. God." She began evenly. "You can speak!? Oh my God I can't believe it. How long have you been able to speak? Why haven't you ever said anything to me all the times before? Is this a recording of another's voice I know that some of you guys simply record some of your victim's speech and play it back…"

The grip around her throat tightened painfully cutting off her air supply.

Clutching again at his hand, she beat against his arm uselessly. "Red, please," she choked out.

His grip loosened but he retained his hold around her neck. Bending further over her, he lowered his mask even closer to hers. "Answers," he growled in warning.

Coughing she ignored the burning of her throat and lifted her arm slowly at her side accidently bumping it against his thigh. His left hand shot out and grabbed her wrist with the similar looking personal computer attached to it, bringing it up to his view.

"I got it off a planet in Andromeda 7, a planet your kind used in one of your old hunting trials." She coughed again, her throat really hurt. "Though you guys bombed it, to clear out the evidence and to eradicate yourself of all the remaining xenomorphs, you still left a few goodies behind." Not seeing any reaction from him she nervously continued. "I have been collecting stuff that your kind leaves here and there across the galaxy for a few years now."

"Your cloaking is different." His words were so deep and each one was followed by a faint clicking sound from his chest.

It was glorious.

"Well, yeah," she tried to smile and remembered he couldn't see her face. "I made some minor adjustments." She didn't dare say improvements.

"Tracking my ship," he added. Ember never heard anyone make a question sound like a command like the way he did.

"That was all me there," she answered with a note of pride. "I spend a lot of time in space—alone. I mean a lot Red, too much really. So, I had plenty of time to create that little bit of awesome sauce."

He didn't say anything, he just stared down at her before turning to look at the computer on her wrist. Sliding his hand down over her the device he wrapped his thick clawed fingers around it and began to pull.

"Please don't!" she cried trying to tug at her wrist trapped in his grasp. "You have no idea how long it took me to find that and modify it. Please! That cloaking has gotten me out of a ton of near death situations."

She hated to beg, but she really needed that unit. There was no way she could afford to go galaxy jumping and take her chances finding another one and most likely find an upgraded one that would be a bitch to hack.

The tugging at her unit thankfully stopped but he didn't let go, he turned back to stare at her. The evil glowing eye shields of his mask glowed with impatience.

"Look Red, I'm not a threat to you and I certainly wouldn't make a good trophy to put on your wall," not getting an answer she tried another tactic. "Red you're obviously a top of the line badass so you probably don't have to worry about these things but a woman traveling alone through space needs all the help she can get. I cannot even begin to tell you how many things want to fuck you against your will out there, its crazy really."

She wasn't lying, the cloaking device had gotten her out of three situations with some of the Blute crew alone.

He didn't say anything. With every second that ticked by her heart felt as if it was going to explode in her chest from the mounting anxiety. Fine! She didn't want to do it the hard way but the big bastard gave her no choice.

"Red?" she started gently.

His head cocked a fraction to the side, telling her he was listening.

"You know I like you right, I think you're the best truly I do," preparing herself, she took a calming breath as she activated her suit. "And that's why I really hate to put you on your ass like this."

His grip didn't get a chance to tighten before she lifted her legs underneath his arm and to his flank and forced all the remaining power in her suit to her thrusters in her boots. As expected the yautja's body flew up and to the side. Ember didn't wait to hear the thud of his big body in the dirt, springing up she began running with everything she had using the last remaining percentage of power in her suit to cloak herself again. Not making the same mistake twice, Ember glided over the fallen tree limbs of the thorny purple forest as she tapped into and activated the Corverian's outdoor base speakers from her computer.

Red's high pitch roar was deafening, she could hear the planet's nearby avian population take flight from the trees and flutter to the sky.

Still running at top speed, she spoke into the base's speakers knowing the yautja could hear her. "Don't be mad Red." Ember could hear her voice echo through the air from the base in the distance. "I really didn't want to make you any angrier, though I must admit I really should be the one angry at you for screwing me today with those damn bears. I thought we had an unspoken agreement."

Ember only prayed her voice ringing from the base's speakers muffled her footfalls enough to throw off the hunter. Seeing her ship up ahead she knew not to run straight for it, instead she made a b-line to the yautja ship instead as she hurriedly typed in a command in her arm unit. A crash in the trees to her far right told her she was right, the damn hunter had every intention to cut her off at her ship.

The whoosh of air from her ship's thrusters activating sounded in the distance. Rising up from the ground her ship flew ahead of her. The heavy footfalls of the yautja were coming up fast behind her.

With one mighty lunge, she planted her foot on the yautja ship, another big step forward propelled her upwards and another lunging step hiked her up the side of the steep bodied ship. On top she ran along the back before taking a thrusted jump off the side and grabbing on to the cable hanging from her ship above. Activating the cable, she pulled herself in while signaling to the ship to fly away.

Risking a look down she watched the yautja as he looked at her from atop of his ship. Her heart nearly burst in fear and excitement knowing that the hunter had only been steps behind her at the end. Clamoring onto her ship's dock she stared back at the hunter and noticed his shoulder canon was not aiming at her.

A sigh of relief deflated her chest. He was allowing her to escape.

-A/N-

By the way i love reviews and use them as fuel to write more. 3

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