March 10, 2621Kj is home from deployment earlier than usual. The infestation wasn't as large as the marines had anticipated. Each day the number of xenomorphs on this planet decreases exponentially, while the colonies support to the marines total extermination of the infestation rises. The colonies have shown tremendous support since Weyland's death and his true intentions were revealed by his daughter. Jennifer has also thrown huge support donating millions of from Weyland's account to the stability and reconstitution of the Colonial Marine Corps. It is finally back on its feet after centuries of misleading by Weyland Yutani. But it is all truely thanks to Kj that this development has taken place. With his sacrifice and leadership in the re-extermination, helping out an unfathomable amount. Recruitment hasn't been as high as it has been, since 2439, and already a bulk of marines have been formed and are beginning to retake other planets. All persons in the facility come to embrace their hero as he makes another glorious and triumphant return home, with new trophies and scars to prove. After giving his family a moment of his embrace, he walks me out to the training yard, where he overlooks the progress of his new grunts. Despite his new position and powerful statistics he remains the same mentality of discipline and respect he had as a minor grunt himself. Despite this and his shirtless attire he is still respected, treated, and looked upon as their leader. He, like his father Schaefer, is a smoker, and lights a cigarette as we begin the interview.
So where did dad leave you off on last weekend.
"The part where he took you in and trained you to become what you are now, and the part where a grunt by the name of Jones reenacted what Levinson did to you. Schaefer was very gauge about it though."That's because he wasn't there to see what happened.
"So what did happen?"He scowls at the thought.Jones' dumbass decided it was a good idea to make a remark about Mom's ass and how much of a disappointment I was and how that killed her. Mother fker should have known that was a bad idea. I broke out of his buddies' grasp clocked their heads together, then I was on Jones like white on rice clawing him up knocking him into everything. His buddies thought it was a good idea to help em. I ended up breaking them pretty good to. I probably wasn't supposed to go that far with it, but I do not let insults against Mom go like that. She died trying to keep me safe and restore her clans honor. Who the hell did they think they were to throw her name in the mud like that
He clicks his mandibles, as he exhales a hissed growl
"Did you know what the point of it was, Jones and his friends torturing you I mean."Torture, ohh boy that was an understatement you don't want to know what those guys did to me in the barracks bathroom. Hadrick only told you what he knew, but that knife Jones had with him, he didn't just cut my abdomen with it.
He looks down painfully and holds his genetals.I don't let that go unpunished either. But yeah in do know why they did it. They had two reasons why they did it. They hated preds just as much as Levinson and his friends, they told me, and they were getting tired of paying for my mistakes. I wasn't the most focused derelict in boot camp. I just wasn't there yet, I wasn't wasn't marine, I wasn't accepting the idea that I was becoming a marine. But after that insult against Mom, and my balls Ohohoho that tripped it good. You remember when I retaliated against Levinson. That guy set off a spark that grew into a fire that touched my soul, and from it birthed a demon, of rage and merciless aggression, one skilled in combat and relentless in the hunt. That's how my kind put it when they described my violent nature. My kind is spiritually poetic like that. I'd be hypocritical to say I didn't believe what they said wasn't true about me, I am Christian after all, but I'm not poetic. At any rate to make the story short Levinson made something click on, I just needed it to stay on. Jones helped with that. I would thank the mother fker, but no one, NO ONE! makes a comment about my mom's backside like that. Or cuts my balls.
After that little motivational kick in the ass, I was there I learned this was my life, for what I thought would be the rest of my life. There was no sense in delaying the inevitable, time to grow back what Jones just cut off and keep rolling.
"How did Hadrick never notice."Paralyzing Jones and his buds from the neck down was enough for em. Plus Hadrick went through the trouble of saving em from me. Plus now that I think back on it, I'm grateful Hadrick stopped me when he did given the promise I made to him and God.
"What promise?"I promised never to kill a single Ooman. Had he given me a few seconds longer, that promise would've ended up broken before it was even made, literally. It's one of the promises I made when I became converted.
Sorry of I get a little preachy, We preds are superstitious I'm no exception I just don't worship things with heads shaped like dks. I worship the one and only Jehovah their is.
After training for another two and a half years, trying to refine myself to become the best marine Hadrick ever trained. Hadrick and I succeeded in both out goals, I became a marine, and I became the best marine he ever trained. I don't like to toot my horn when I talk about training, but I could run faster than everybody else, I could lift more, I could move quicker, I could do just about everything a marine could and better, that was my goal.
I graduated my training when I was ten, and on behalf of my own request I wanted to prove what I was truely worth. Not justnto Hadrick or the other marines, but to myself to. Sure surviving boot camp was nice, but what was it worth if I couldn't do what I was made to do when I needed to do it for real. With some rather calm negotiation with Weyland, Hadrick managed to get me a full grown warrior shadow. Sure drones were pretty hostile on their own, but they function more as workers, rather than fighters, Warriors are made to fight, just the same as I am, only I had to prove which one of us was the better warrior. Every marine present in the facility mobilized outside on the training field here. Hadrick had everyone set up this big chain link barrier around us so the thing couldn't easily escape, while I was fighting it.
"You were going to fight it?"Well of course I was its the only way to prove myself. It's the only way any young-blood is able to prove himself, by killing a xeno and marking himself with his kill. That's how it's always been, and how it always will be.
Every derelict, and full fledged grunt that had been in this facility knew about me, and knew about my skills. But what's the bark without the bite, and that is why I wanted to do this. I wanted to prove I was all bite, and no bark. The tension was pretty high when my day came. Every marine at the facility at the time was there, some were cheering me on, others didn't cheer at all, some booed me, apparently those guys didn't recognize a fellow marine if they stood right in front of them, but I didn't care. I didn't care for encouragement, all I cared about was that I won this fight.
Before I began Hadrick gave a prayer, requesting that I have the strength I would need to put this shadow down. I said my own silent prayer as he said his wishing for the same thing, only that he take the glory, give mom in heaven the honor, and just give me the strength to do what I needed to do.
After we both said Amen, a couple guys brought the xenomorph in its cage over to the chain-link cage, It'd been along time, since I saw a shadow in real life before, and when I had It'd lead to mom's failed retreat, causing her to kill herself rather than bear the shame of getting caught by Oomans again. So you can understand I held some hard resentment for these creatures. Screw my kind, these monsters were real killers. But then again that's why my kind hunts them. They disdain the thought of mercy, they are afraid of nothing, they have no understanding to the concept of reason, and they lack any feelings of remorse. No wonder my kind saw these as the perfect prey.
As for me all I saw was the monster that had made Mom take her own life. A resentful and evil creature that cared for nothing, not even itself. The only thing it cared for was it's hives survival. It was a foul beast that didn't belong in this world. I was about to remedy that.
It hissed after sensing me. Shadows don't have eyes, but they have special organs in their skulls where their eyes should be that allows them to sense pheromones, that's how they know the difference between friend and food, and where the food is. This thing showed no indication of fear, I was just another prey item in need of killing, another meat bag to impregnate and add to it's hive's numbers. I was going to teach it fear. But, being the honorable warrior I am I was determined not to have this be a short one sided fight. Hadrick had also managed to procure some Yatja weapons that remained unharmed in the fire Mom had caused during her escape. I was lucky that it hadn't all been destroyed because they were quite useful in my missions. I was decked out with two wrist blade gauntlets, one for each wrist. A plasma caster, a wrist bracer, spear, and even Mom's bio-mask. Hadrick had found it when he went out to assess the crashed dropship mom had stolen. During his sweep of the area, he'd found Mom's bio-mask. Surprisingly the thing had remained relatively unscathed, despite the fact that the blast Mom set off with her wrist bracer had been powerful enough to vaporize almost everything around the area, including the crashed dropship. Eh, when life gives you lemons. I customized the mask for my own use. It was alittle big at the time, and I had to attach a ajustable strap to it so I could even wear it, I eventually grew into it though. I fixed up what little damages had been caused by the explosion, and spray painted it silver. It was a traditional smooth bio-mask design normally used by most hunters. Nothing really special other than the fact it was Mom's. I had listened to alot of music from the other marines music boards, yes some of the guys had those, and I was enamered with alot of the music they had on their playlists. I don't have a number one singer or band, and I just listen to whatever music I like, but if I did have a particular favorite it would have to be Marshmello. I love that DJ. I even spray painted his black xed out eyes, and smile face onto Mom's mask. She may have not have approved, but I did it with honorable intentions. None of the marines really took it seriously, Schaefer wasn't into the aesthetic much himself, but I was all for it. What could I say it looked cool, and I am a fan of Marshmello.
But like I said that's not what I was going to do. I removed all of my weapons, and armor, everything, except my bio-mask. Yatja bio-masks don't just allow us to see things in different vision modes, they also record the hunts we engage in. So this was just to sort of prove that I fought with honor. My first kill would not be dishonorable. Granted their was really no dishonor in the situation of me having more weapons ith which to kill my enemy with, but it was my honor. I'd kill this thing with honor.
Everybody cheering for me gasped in amazement and disbelief. The others who booed me, scoffed with an awkward smile. They looked at me stupidly as if I didn't know what I was doing, even Hadrick did, but he understood why I was doing what I was doing, I nodded to him to close the cage, He nodded back had some guys remove my discarded weapons and armor, and closed the cage. After that Hadrick had the marines release the xeno from it's cage. Then the fight was on.
It charged at me from it's cage. It knew it was trapped, and that I was the only thing inside the cage. So it made up its mind, and went to kill me before it escaped. I remained still as it advanced. The marines looked down with nervousness, either hoping for me to win or to die horribly. I expected as much.Their would be no mercy from either of us. As the shadow launched itself at me, to tackle me, I swiftly, and skillfully ducked underneath it. I grasped on to the bug's tail with my hands, and in a swift and powerful motion throwing the creature to the wall of the arena. It screeched as it hit the chain-link fencing.
Some of the marines cheered, but most of them stayed silent. They still thought my idea of taking this thing on with my bare hands was suicide. Here's what I have to say to them, What's the point of hand to hand training if you're not going to utilize those skills. I understand Oomans are not willing to take them on without weapons. Their too squishy. But I was no Ooman, I was a Yatja warrior who'd come from a people who fought these thing hand-to-hand every Tuesday. Granted not many of them do it unarmed either, but still they at least don't use ranged methods to kill them as often as the marines do. I have nothing against marines using ranged tactics to kill xenos. Their marines, no hunters with honor codes like my people are. I technically am not either, but I wasn't doing this just to prove I had the skills and focus needed to kill xenos, I was doing this for Mom.
The Shadow got back up, and wasted no time making another charged attack. I dodged over to the side as it made a swipe with one of it's claws, I countered with a swift blow to it's elongated head with my elbow. I gave the shadow no time to recover, picking it up by the top of its head, an by one of it's dorsal tubes, I lifted the 400 pound beast with all my rage filled strength, and threw it away. The shadow was getting tired of being thrown around like a floppy rag doll. It hissed angrily in a challenging manner. I roared back as a response. It began to understand I wasn't a simple weak prey item it could just kill. I wasn't just prey, I was a challenging threat. Generally warriors aren't know for their intell, as most of their thinking is done by the queens, they are made to protect, but they still have brains which they can still utilize in battle. It began to circle me trying to size me up, find a weak point it could access. I wasn't wearing any armor besides my mask, which I was using for other purposesbesides protection, nor was I using any weapons, so if it could get me pinned down in some way it could kill me easily, but I was fast, I was smart, I was strong. I always let it make the first move before I retaliated without mercy. I use that tactic quite a lot in fights, although whenever I do I usually had a weapon with which I can kill the SOBS with, which is what made it such a successful tactic. But I'd discarded all my weapons, and was using my hands. For me this was a battle of attrition, I'd weaken it by cutting off its weapons it would kill me with, then exhaust it until it could do nothing, but let me kill it. For the xeno though it would need to end this fight as quickly as possible. Find a weak point and take the opportunity to cripple me with it. Show no mercy. I could tell it was thinking about it's attack before it would make it. I would have to do something unexpected in order to throw it off. When it did charge I charged to, as I prepared for it to dodge, or block, it instead recoiled then pounced over me. As I spun around to catch it, the mother fker slashed me in the side with it's spear tipped tail. I didn't acknowledge the pain, but used it to fuel my anger. I wasn't calm in the slightest. I hated this thing, and it's kind for killing Mom. I was going to kill it with every last bit of built up aggression I had. It hurting me just helped build up that hate, and endurance. The xeno tackled me. I'd been to slow to turn around as it slashed me. It swiped at my chest after it pinned me to the ground. The lacerations stung, and burned, like an electric fire, that just made me even angrier.
It went to impale my face with its tail as it distracted me with its claws. I saw this and reacted before it's tail could bury itself in my head. It's tail got stuck and I used this opportunity to slam my fist into the side of it's head hard, stunning it momentarily. I took that opportunity to move my feet underneath it's abdomen, and shove it off of me. It's tail saw still imbeded in the ground, I got back to my feet, and stomped my right foot down on it. The shadow hissed in agony as I stomped on it's tail. It retaliated by wrenching it's tail out of the ground, and tripping me over with it. The shadow then slammed it's tail down on me again, but it's range was to short to hot anything vital. It might have been able to seriously injury one of my legs, cutting off most of my mobility, but I reacted just in time where it only scrapped my thigh. Before it could retract it's tail I grabbed onto it. That was a stupid idea as it began flinging me around like a rag doll. I understood shadows' tails were prehensile. They were like third arms, only it's on their ass. I also knew they were strong, but how strong was what I didn't know. I was a solid 152 pounds yet this thing was flinging my weight around like I was nothing. It repeatedly slammed and drug me over the sandy ground. That stung. Finally I let go of it, but as I went to get back up it pinned me back down. Wrenching my mask off my face with it's claw, and holding my arms in place it prepared to head bite me with it's inner jaw. The audience of marines gasped in horror. But I wasn't done with it yet, no no no. It'd scratched my chest up awful, clipped my thigh, and my side, given me a good road rash, and was now digging it's claws into my arms. I'd just punched it and thrown it a couple times. It was my turn to leave some marks. Hadrick had some guys at the ready in case something like this happened. They were about to fire on it but I was not about to let them deprive me of restoring Mom's honor. I dodged my head out of the was as it's inner jaw shot out of it's mouth. I painfully managed to move my arm out of the shadow's claws, in time to grab it's inner jaw. The shadow recognized what was happening, and it desperately clawed at my wrist, with both if it's hands. In doing so it released my other hand allowing me to grab hold of it's head. It was screwed now. I used all of my strength I had and tore the shadow's inner jaw out, and punched it off of me. Hadrick saw it, and told the marines who were ready to shoot if anything went wrong to hold their fire. I quickly picked Mom's mask back up, put it on my face. I deliberately gave the xenomorph time to recover before, so that when it attacked I could dodge and retaliate when it wasn't expecting. Only it didn't do that. It coughed up some of it's acidic blood, and starred at me with a pissed, but nervously restrained scowl on its face, like it couldn't believe I'd just done that to it.
That was one of it's weapons disabled, I had my sights on it's tail next. It new that trying to take me on up close was a bad idea so it didn't dare charge me. It screamed it's stupid pained elephant scream at me. I roared back, as I slowly approached it. It stood their letting me come closer to it, trying to make me think I'd wounded it enough for me to just come over and kill it. But I knew it was all a trick. No matter how much pain you inflict, and no matter how wounded these things are they are never hurt enough to stop attacking, unless they're dead. I let it think I was playing into it's little game, when I was doing the opposite, allowing it to shove it's tail into my little game, which it quite literally did. It shot it's tail out at me once I was close enough. I dodged the attack, and grabbed it's tail. Before it could rag doll me again I tried breaking it over my knee, but that failed, and I was once again being tossed around the arena. This time I held on. It slammed me into the chain-link fence, causing me to loose Mom's bio-mask. Thankfully it landed in such a convenient area where it was able to actually catch what happened next, because seriously, what happened next was just brutal and awesome. With no other option of disabling this things tail, I decided to take a crazy risk and bite it off. I knew my skin was resistant to the shadows acid blood, but that didn't mean my insides were. I wasnt thinking straightly at the moment I did it. I was getting pissed being it's play thing, and I just went for it. Thankfully the modifications Weyland made to me made my internal tissue resistant to the acid blood, as much as my external tissue was.
After I managed to regain my footing in time, I shoved the side of it's tail into my mandibled mouth. My mandibled held the fkers tail in my mouth securely as I held the swinging bladed tip with my hand. My jaws went to work sawing through the tough exoskeleton, and through the bone. The marines, as well as the xeno looked shocked as I did this. Once I tore my way through the exoskeleton, acid blood began filling my mouth. Yes I did also unvolonteraly swallow some of it. While this little experiment proved I was resistant to the acid both on the inside, as well as the outside, I will say I didn't like the taste of it one bit. But my suffering taste buds could suck it up. After sawing my teeth through the bone, I let go of the tail with my mandibles, and tore the spear tiped part of the tail off, in a spray of acid. I roared triumphantly as I did so. That was weapon number two. The marines cheered in awe as they saw it. Boy am I glad as hell the mask caught that. I threw the sharp edge of the tail away, and let the xeno have what was left of it's tail back. It screeched it's pitiful painful elephant scream. I spat the shadow's foul tasting acid out, and snarled at the wounded monster. It, in a final effort to repel me swung it's tail around spraying me with acid. The acid just fizzed as it harmlessly soaked me over. Unfortunately for my pants though they were as resistant to the acid as I was. I just looked down in angered disbelief, and gave a snarled roar. None of the marines laughed at my irony. I could see some of the female marines holding their mouths, and yeah I admit I did feel a little embarrassed with my junk swinging, but I was more pissed than anything. Seeing it's acid uselessly soak me, the shadow knew that fighting me wasn't an option. It had to escape. It couldn't fight me. It had entered the fight thinking it was the superior predator, but then I'd recalibrated that idea. Sure xenomorphs normally don't run from a fight, especially when they know their odds of survival are slim, but that was in the case of defending the queen or something like that. This warrior was risking it's life against an opponent it couldn't defeat for no purpose. Even if it won it wouldn't have survived, the marines would have just gunned it down. I was just one less enemy for the queen, which is why it kept attacking earlier, but now there was no hope of it winning. Sucks to be him I guess, cause I was going to kill em, and I was going to do it now. The shadow managed to claw a small hole in the fencing. Some of the marines sitting in that area began retreating. I grabbed onto the xenomorphs damaged tail, and swung it off the fence, in an arching motion slamming it to the ground. Seeing as it couldn't escape fast enough, it went back into fight mode. It hopped onto me, not in a tackle, but more of an-I'm-on-you-now-clawing-the-crap-out-of-you. It scrapped my mandibles, dug it's claws into my scalp, and even used it's toe claws to tear my abdomen up a little more. It's attack wasn't strategic anymore, it was now fighting out of desperation. Yet with each swipe and stining cut, all the shadow succeeded in doing was make me angrier, allowing me to fight it more violently. I grabbed onto it's head and began digging my claws into it's elongated head. It took some effort but I managed to break the exoskeleton around it's cranium. It screeched another annoying elephant scream in my face. I'd had enough of that stupid noise, it was time I silenced it for good. I roared frustrated, before pulling my head back, and slamming my head into it's head. We both let go of each other holding our aching skulls. I'd split some skin, and after looking at my hand I saw I was oozing florescent green slime. The shadow's skull had also been damaged. I'd broken the front of it's exoskeleton protecting the bone directly beneath. Before it could get back up I picked it up by it's arm and successfully broke it over my knee. The shadow let out a pain filled screech,screeched, thankfully not that annoying elephant squeal, as it's arm fell limp. It began trying to take off on all three's, which they are incredibly good at even with an arm broken. I grabbed it by the tail and yanked it back. It wasn't going to get away so easily. It knew it was it's time to die, yet still it couldn't accept it. I tore of it's other arm and then took it over to a boulder that was in the arena with us. The xeno kicked and screeched in futile, as I proceeded to beat it's head in.. And before you ask no I didn't used the boulder to beat the shadow, it was the other way around, I beat the boulder with the shadow. I exerted every bit of hate filled energy I had into each blow. I roared angrily as I did so. The marines watched in horrorified amazment as I crushed my enemy's skull in.
By the time I was finished I stomped the creature's ribs until I heard them break open with a shattered crunch. I did that just to make sure it was dead. All the tension in my body eased. I addressed my hand that I'd used to clobber the xeno into the boulder with and saw I'd cut it open when I'd done so. I didn't care though. I'd won the fight, and had done it honorably. All of the marines, especially the ones who'd booed me were now cheering for me. I held my hand out for them to stop, but I wasn't forceful.
"There's still one last thing I need to do." I told them.
"You needed to mark yourself."
That and pray. I looked over at Mom's bio-mask, the shadow's inner jaw,and spear tipped tail. I gathered each of those items up and carried them over to the shadow's corpse. It's acid had eaten through the boulder and was now sizzling with a sour stench.
I began my prayer thanking God for the strength, courage, focus, and skill I needed to put this monster down. I thanked him for allowing me to do it honorably, and that I hoped it brought glory to his name. I requested that he give Mom the honor, and I thanked him for his love, and for the opportunity to serve him in fighting the shadows, and protecting the Oomans who'd burdened me with their curses, whom I forgave. With the exception of Hadrick of course, I actually thanked God for allowing him to be my dad, and blessed that he have a long life. I finished asking God that the hunts ahead of me and my fellow warriors be paved with shadows, and honor. After acknowledging him as the creator, and has son ,Jesus as the Savior, I ended with a reverent and respectful Amen. After that I marked what was now my bio-mask, since I'd earned it in the fight, I used the xenos inner jaw to mark it with a traditional shadow marking, and the triangular dotted target symbol around it. It turned out rather well, and I didn't end up running the Marshmello smiley face I'd spray painted on it.
"How did you mark yourself when the acid blood didn't affect you."
The marines just gave me a tattoo on my arm after the fight. It still burned a little so it counted.
He shows me the tattoo on his arm which is still clear and legible now as it was when he got it. It is the same symbol as the one he described putting on his bio-mask, with the Yatja representation of a xenomorph with their triangular targeting system lined up around it.
After marking the mask, I took hold of the shadow's inner jaw, and tail, my first two trophies, and looked at my audience with a smile. I then roared in the sky victoriously, pronouncing my victory, and God's power, as far as I could be heard. All of the marines watching joined me in the roaring match. I threw a few punches into the air, and pounced my chest after times as I continued to roar.
Hadrick materialized behind me, and gave me a proud smile, along with a replacement pair of camouflage jeans.
I laughed a little at the gesture as did some of the marines.
Hadrick then told me to open them. I was a little confused at the request, but I did as he asked. Once I did I found my uncle A'rgr-lo's smart disc folded up inside the jeans. I looked at Hadrick in surprise, he was giving me a weapon, that had been given to him by my own uncle.
"Take it." He told me. "You've earned it ,Son."
That brought a smile to my mandibles.
After pulling my new acid proof jeans over my naked butt, Hadrick continued the screaming fest with a profound Viking holler. I followed his lead as did the rest of the marines. After getting my wounds patched up, and my tattoo marked on my arm, I was approached by the marines who seen my display. those who'd cheered for me gave me a pat on the back and complimented me. Those who'd booed me from the beginning apologized and gave their respects. I just smiled told em I didn't have any hard feelings, and thanked them for their respect.
At that momment I'd found my people. The marines, and I'm talking about guys like them, not the BS version Weyland made em into eight years latter, Those guys were the best. Most of them became my friends, and others I actually regarded as my Hunter Brothers and Sisters. Those guys were really something.
It's people like that that you live for you know what I mean.
After everything I had a walk with dad. He told me how proud he was of me, and confessed to him being left without a family and how much he loved and appreciated me as someone who he regarded as his legitimate son, even though I wasn't. I said the same about him, and thanked him for his teachings. After it was all over I asked him when our first hunt would begin. I'll talk to you about that in the next session though, I promised Jenny some alone time with her, you know what I mean.
"I understand." I say with a smile.
After we end the interview, I thank him, I shake his hand, and plan for our next interview.