Jennifer's Diary
May 30, 2621.
Jon and I managed to make it to make it to Cardona Valley by the end of our third week. Our trek had finally come to it's end, I thought. Little did I know we were very far from even seeing the light at the end to this tunnel. The xenos had managed to make it here days before we'd arrived, and chances were high that they'd have had their new hive set up with hundreds of new drones and warriors waiting for us to enter their turf. Luckily the steep ranges kept them from making any attempts to come after us while we prepared for them. At least not for very often I mean.
Jon had found a abandoned marine storage structure. The place had been hastily left behind after the marines exploded the mountain, and it was eventually forgotten along with a bunch of other stuff that laid about the mossy ivy grown patch. The unit had clearly seen better days; it had been grown over with foliage of many different types, and part of it had been covered in earth that had been brought about by the debris from the explosion, which was also growing over with grass. Had I not noticed the windows, most of which were still intact surprisingly, and the rusted over metal walls I never would've noticed it.
Inside was not much better. Their were three dusty old APCs that hadn't seen any action at all in decades and flakes of rust littered the floor around them. Their were ammo caches everywhere, and leftover firearms types for each of them littering the room. The room itself was also caved in at the far end at the garage door which served as it's main point of entry, where the ACPs were driven in through.
It made me think about how the marines were faiding into obscurity. Weyland Yutani was destroying the Corps, and replacing it with the company's Task Force, leaving behind what little was good about the planet's military might to rot away into nothing. That's something that also bothered me once I found out about the truth. It had been bugging Jon to. I could see it as he trudged into the structure with meekness. He wasn't all spiritually reverent about it, but I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was, only on a more personal scale. Jon saw something hanging off the side of the wall to the one side of the building that hadn't caved in. It was an American flag, dusty, stained with mildew, and torn in several areas. Jon lifted it off the ground and respectfully sat it on a metal table.
"We'll set up camp here. We can use what's left of this place and prepare to breach their hive with this stuff."
I made no argument, and obediently did as he told me to. Although the place was disgusting and a little dark, it was shelter, and it had plenty of potentially useful items inside for us to use when we did storm the hive, so we took it. We swept all the rust up, removed some of the foliage around the sides of the building to make it just a little more noticeable, and Jon disposed of all hazardous materials inside.
That night we sat outside by another night time fire we'd made to help us warm up for the cold night ahead of us. Jon had not yet prepared to help me with our evening meal, but was focused on more important matters than our empty stomachs. Jon took the flag from inside and had set to burning the sacred sewn relic. A faint song began to play from the iPhone on his bio-mask, it was a single horn playing a soft, patriotic tune, that sounded something like what you'd hear at the funeral of a person who'd served in the military. Jon looked down as it burned and gave a sighed growl, along with a final salute to the object, all while his iPhone continued to play the soft, emotional note. I think I remember hearing him click his mandibles in an effort to mimic the song itself. By the time the song did end the poor fabric was nothing more than indescribable ash.
Jon then opened up his backpack and pulled out his Bible, which he'd read to himself with often. This time he read out loud. His Bible was a big book, much bigger than I'd thought it'd be, but what I didn't know was that it not only had the Old and New Testement, but also had the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
Jon began reading from the Book of Mormon section and started off on Alma at chapter 53 and read all the way to chapter 60. Because I wasn't a believer and given how these books were written I had trouble understanding some of the passages, but I listened to the service as best I could.
The story was about the 2,000 stripling warriors, who fought along side armies of Antipus, and the Nephites. The story, as Jon told it was set in the middle of a great long war between the Nephites, who are the good and righteous people, and their "brethren" the wicked Lamanites. The conflict between the two people goes back to the start of the Book of Mormon, and has continued for roughly three and a half centuries up to this point. The story goes that during the Nephites conflict against the invading Lamanites, some of the Lamanites themselves had been taught by a Nephite named Ammon, and accepted the teachings to be true and believed in God. Eventually these Lamanites made peace with the Nephites, promising them and their new found Heavenly Father that they would never take up arms to do battle against any of their brethren, Lamanite or Nephite, ever again. They were forgiven and accepted by the people of Nephi and given a home in the city of Zerahemla, where they received protection from the Nephites, and took to calling themselves the people of Ammon, or Ammonites. The war continued and many of the cities belonging to the Nephites fell to the Lamanites. The Ammonites took offense to this and nearly broke the oath they'd made, in order to help the Nephites, who protected them. Helamen, the main character of the story, talked them down since he did not want them to lose their souls by breaking the oath they'd made with their Heavenly Father. The children of the Ammonites (only their sons) ,however, did not take the pledge their fathers had and exactly two-thousand of them took up arms to assist the Nephite armies, and promised to defend the liberty and freedom of the Nephites and their Ammonite fathers, even at the cost of their lives. They were described as being young, courageous, and trustworthy men. Helamen, who became their leader, accepted their assistance and they became know as the "2,000 Strippling Warriors." After some "dysfunctional" negotiating between Helamen's brother Moroni and the Lamanite king concerning prisoners they both possessed, the war continued. The armies of Antipus, who were allies with the Nephites, had become weakened by the Lamanites and needed the Nephites aid. Although the stripling warriors were not combat trained, they continued to follow Helamen courageously into battle against the Lamanites to assist the armies of Antipus. After a long and brutal fight the remainder of the Lamanites in that particular fight surrendered and were taken captive. Helamen went to assess how many casualties he'd endured, and happily found than none of the two-thousand warriors at his command had died. Helamen even described them as fighting with "miraculous and mighty power" and that because they didn't doubt their belief in God, He was with them and allowed them all to endure to the end with many injuries, but without a single one of them dying. The story continued with many more fights focused on the stripling warriors all of which were victorious. As the story continued though, Moroni tries to strengthen and resupply his brother's army of two-thousand, but the government of the Nephites is negligent to these requests, and thus the armies of the Nephites suffer heavy casualties. At the end of chapter 60, Moroni threatens the Nephite government if they do not meet his requests to strengthen Helamen's armies, that he will rise against them.
As Jon read it, he spoke with such charasmatic emotion that I could only describe as spiritual. His voice did not crack once, he didn't become concerned with anything else, only with what he read. In a way it sounded like he was one of the two-thousand stripling warriors in the story who'd fought along side Helamen against the invading Lamanites. Even though such was not the case, I thought about Jon in his current situation and the story, and found many uncanny similarities. The Nephites were the colonists, including myself, the Lamanites were the Xenomorphs and to my understanding the Yautja also, the armies of Antipus and the Nephites were the colonial marines, and the Nephites' government was Weyland Yutani. Once I put those pieces together it all made so much sense to me. In this symbolical sense Jon was a strippling warrior. He was the offspring of a captive Lamanite Yautja female who befriended his adoptive father Hadrick, and who taught him until he was seven how to fight. Later on as he continued to grow, train, and interact with us humans more openly under Hadrick, he accepted us as allies and fought to help us. Despite what we as the Nephites did to him and continued to do to him, he held it in himself not to break his oath, both to God and to us humans. It was a "spiritual revelation."
All of the sudden, I didn't feel very hungry anymore. I actually started wondering whether there was a God.
We slept outside the storage building that night. I made no move to complain about this decision and slept in Jon's tent, which had practically become mine since we'd left the facility. Jon slept on the ground that evening, there were no boulders big enough for him to rest his body on.
Each and every single day I spent with him I became more interested in him. He was kind, wise, mercifully compassionate, caring, and I must admit I did think he was pretty hot. Yes I was becoming interested in him that way also. I didn't care that he had a face that looked like that of a mutated human-crab, he was built.
I tried not to think about thoughts like that though, and focused only on helping him. Not just with the mission, but with himself. His conviction to God and his service to Him, coupled with the oath he'd made to not only avoid killing humans, but to also protect us from the "Shadows," was the only thing that kept him from killing himself. He had nobody to care for, and if he did, he was never able to see them again. For all he knew they could also be dead to. His whole life had been nothing but tragedy after tragedy. Even if you thought about his own species, forget it. They would not take him. Weyland Yutani had genetically inhased him to be their kill and capture machine. Even though it wasn't his fault for his inhansment, he would still be seen as a no good Abomination, a blight, a disrespectful stain upon their society's honor. Even though he was the most honorable and loyal being they could ever have.
It's true, he did have nothing left to loose except the devotional coviction to Jehovah, and the oaths he'd made with Him and us humans. Once that oath was complete and this planet no longer had to worry about the threat of xenomorphs, his job was done, and no one would need him anymore. It's not like anybody else wanted him, so why should he stick around to live with constant reminders of all the horrible things that have happened to him. I didn't want that. I didn't want to see a friend I cared about have to struggle helplessly like this. Even though he did not want me to be his friend, he was still mine, and I'd do whatever I could to help him. To show him that I cared about him.
The next morning and the months that followed presented me an opportunity to do so. It was Sunday, and therefore Jon's off day. He and I both had a short, mixed discussion about it, given how the xenomorphs weren't stopping yet we were, he did say that warriors needed rest on occasion. We'd been hiking through the jungle for nearly a month, and had just reached our final destination. Even though the mission was far from over, and I knew it was, well... kind of, I could do for a day of rest and meditation myself. Jon had been reading his Bible and hadn't woken me up early, like he did any other day of the week, just to let me recharge. He also listened to music as he read. I recognized the song "Alone" by Marshmello that played on his iPhone. I like that song. I can see why he spray painted his mask with the Marshmello smiley face.
Since there was nothing for me to do as Jon wasn't doing anything, I decided to find some entertainment if I could, and chill. Of course the only entertainment there was, was being read by Jon. Like I've mentioned many times already I was an atheist, but like Jon says, I'm entitled to believe what I want, besides I was only reading it, that didn't mean anything.
"May I have your Bible?" I asked politely.
"Sure. Please just give it back once you're done, and don't damage it."
He was perfectly fine rocking back and forth while listening to his music. I turned over to the part he'd read last night, and continued from where he'd left off in Alma. It is a very good Biblical story that is one of my favorites in the Bible. I also glanced at a few books in the New Testament, alot of the earlier ones focused on Jesus' life and ministry. Although I found some of the passages confusing, I did find peaceful, even enlightening enjoyment out of it.
I continued to read peacefully, and Jon continued to listen to his music, up until a flare triggered our attention. Jon had set up some flare mortars, as a little security feature for us whenever we were indisposed to notice any danger.
Jon turned his music off, broke out his machete and his big fricking pulse rifle and advanced. I followed closely behind. We'd expected the trap to have been triggered by Xenomorphs, but it wasn't, although what did trigger the mortars was still very dangerous itself. It was a Boa Viper. Boa Vipers are as their name implies, Boa constrictors and vipers. They use venom and constrion as means of killing their prey, or defending themselves against predators. The creatures themselves were discovered many many years ago on the planet Cumarshi, and were eventually brought to the planet to act as population control for the more dangerous and invasive species that were integrated into the planet's ecosystem, with the exception of the Xenomorphs. The creature was a massive forty foot long monster with a width of at most two feet. The creature slithered quickly and quietly through the brush with it's scale patterns blending in to it's environment, rendering it almost visually impossible to see if it wasn't moving. Normally these creatures are opportunistic carnivores, as their metabolism allows them to digest food at increasingly high rates compared to other serpentine creatures, as well as move with suprising speed for it's size. This individual was no exception.
The serpent was at a relatively far pace from where we were and was moving away at a relaxed speed. Jon at first thought nothing of it, and neither did I we'd simply wait until the creature passed before we reloaded the mortars with another flare.
That was before we were ambushed by a real threat. The queen had sent seven xenos our way, I don't believe she meant for them to attack us, only to keep an eye on us, but since our gaurd was down, they decided to go for it anyway. The first one we'd noticed shrieked at us. Jon cursed himself for not sensing the danger before hand, as he pulled out his pulse rifle. A second one jumped out in front and knocked the rifle out of his grasp before tackling him to the ground, two more xenos soon arrived and ganged up on Jon. I watched horrified as Jon fought the creatures back with his bear hands, thinking they might kill him. I had more worrying matters myself as a xenomorph jumped out to tackle me. Instinctively I dodged the creatures attack with suprising agility I never knew I possessed. The creature went to make another swipe at me, but in a moment of instinctive desperation I did something unexpected. I used my tail to impale my attacker. I never knew I was capable of making such a response, nor had I realized that the exoskeleton around my tail was resistant to the acid blood. I ripped my appendage from the creature's torso and looked at it in amazment. My moment of wonder was cut short however by another xenomorph. Jon had dropped his SW 4506 when the xenomorphs had began dog piling him. I went for the weapon. I'd seen Jon use it before and had taken note of what he did as he used it. I put the safety off, racked the slide back, fastened my arms, aimed, and hoped like hell that Jon had it loaded. The recoil was softer than I had anticipated and my aim was on point. The creature flew back as the round hit it's torso. I sat there for a short second, unsure if I'd killed it. The creature rithed a little, but quickly recovered. I toke another shot at it's cranium, and it fell back again this time it was down. I took no chances and fired another two rounds in it's head. My attention returned to Jon. I was about to shoot his attackers, but I heard him unsheath his machete and drive it into one of the creature's necks. He dodged another attack and managed to reach his pulse rifle. He brought the gun up as one of the creatures leapt at him, and began releasing a barrage of 9mm rounds into the alien. The other one went down a short second latter. We locked eyes on each other for a short moment. Jon saw the side arm in my hands, and the two bodies lying next to me. He cocked his head to one side curiously as he clicked his mandibles in a growl.
We were cut off once again when the remaining two xenomorphs pounced at us. One charged after me as another lept on Jon's back. I ran away for a short moment trying to gain some distance on the creature before I decided to shoot. I'd forgotten about the other danger we'd seen before, and ran right into it. The Boa Viper had heard the commotion and fearfully remained still. The xenomorphs had scared it, but it wasn't in the least worried about me. I felt a sharp pain sting my shoulder, followed by a pain that shot electrically up my body that paralyzed me. The Boa had bitten me and was delivering a payload of toxic venom into my bloodstream. My increased heart rate from all the running and fighting made the deadly substance flow through me faster. The Boa and the xenomorph were momentarily intimidated by each others presence. It looked as though they were about to fight each other, but the xeno gave haste, and went to help it's friend against Jon. The snake and I were left alone. I couldn't move my body, I struggled to breath, I couldn't feel anything but the venom as it worked through me. The limbless creature began throwing coils of itself around me and began to constrict me. Even though I was paralyzed I could feel the crushing pressure of the Boa Viper's strength causing my body to strain. I didn't hold out for very long, but I kept my hope up that Jon would save me. He did.
Right as the serpentine reptile was about to swallow me in it's gapping maw, Jon came soaring through the trees and dived on the creatures head. The Boa Viper let go of me and the two predators went head to head. Jon roared trying to intimidate the serpent, which hissed profoundly as a response. Jon was not scared, and waited for the creature to throw it's first strike before he did. The snake shot it's head forward attempting to bite Jon and intoxicate him with it's poison also. Jon recoiled to the side and brought his machete down on the creatures head hitting it in the Jacobson organ. The Boa Viper was still alive and it ripped Jon's machete from him. The creature rose up and bore it's fangs, trying and intimidate the Yautja a second time. It failed and Jon ran towards the enormous constrictor. They caught each other in mid air, Jon had his claws on the snake's throat, while it wrapped it's coils around his legs and lower torso. The two began having a grappling contest to see who could construct who. The snake tried snapping it's fangs on Jon's arms, but he held the viper closely by the base of it's head rendering the fangs useless except for intimidating Jon, which had failed. Jon began to lose his breath, and looked to be turning a different color. The snake's jaws began snapping with lesser and lesser strength. The two held out for as long as they could. Finally, I heard a snap that sounded like bones being broken by a tremendously powerful force. I began to lose hope that Jon would win the fight. Jon was not finished though and he managed to not only choke the snake into releasing him, but also broke the creatures vertebrae. It was still alive ,however, and began to weakly twitch and writh it's body in a slithering motion. Jon crawled out of the serpents coils and retrieved his machete from the creature's snout. He proceeded to hack the monsters head off in an exhausted rage, before stomping down on it frustrated, before roaring loudly into the air. After it was all over I blacked out.
Jon wasted no time preparing an anti-venom from the dead snake's venom, and some medicine from his medicomp. I came to an hour later, still weakened by the effects, but Jon reassured me that I'd be alright. He even gave me a stim to boost my systems recovery.
"Thank-you for saving me again." I said weakly yet appreciatively.
"Don't mention it. Thank the merciful Heavenly Father that the venom didn't kill you before I could help you."
I giggled a little.
"It's not funny," Jon told me, "You could've died."
"So could you." I postulated.
"Fair point Jennifer." He always called me Jennifer to be respectful. "Still you came pretty close." He spoke with genuine concern for my well being.
"That's why I am laughing about it. Because I am still alive to talk about it." I said with a smile. He gave a clicked sigh to my sarcasm, and shook his head. "Seriously though ,Jon, thank-you very much." I gratefully said to him as I wrapped my tail around his thigh.
He stood their for a moment. I was unsure of what he thought. I guess he was a little confused by my responses to a near death experience or by my affection. He turned to look at me a little, his bio-mask covering his expressions. I'd never seen his face with the Bio-mask off. I'd seen him remove it from time to time, but I never made a move to look at his face. I had wondered what he looked like with it off. I knew what Yautja looked like, even before I met Jon, but he was so different from them. I was curious.
"Get some rest Jennifer. You still need time to recover before your on your feet again." He kept me in the storage house for the rest of the day.
The next morning I was feeling much better. Jon had inquired about my health, but I told him I was fine. I was still a little fatigued, but not nearly as weak as yesterday. He checked me over and determined I was good to go. "You heal quick ,Pyode khabj-te." He said complimentary. I helped him that morning with reinforcing the traps around the perimeter. Afterwards we had Boa for breakfast. Jon had decided to put the body to good use. For as much as I disdained eating meat, I actually enjoyed the meal. As we ate Jon expressed his thoughts about my accomplishment the day before.
"You did pretty good yesterday," He complimented.
"For what?" I inquired. "I didn't do anything yesterday."
"Seven shadows attacked us yesterday. I only killed five. Remember. I know you killed those two. One you shoot to death, and the other one looked like it'd been impaled. Is that correct?" He exposited.
I hide my tail embarrassed. "Yes sir," I replied truthfully. "I was just lucky."
"True, but still it's not everyday a combat lacky, no offense, can squash a shadow."
His response got me thinking. "What are you getting at? There has to be a reason why you are bringing it up."
"I'm just telling you I was impressed. You took down two shadows without my help. That's impressive. I also went to the effort of cleaning them up for you." He said handing the elongated skulls to me. I was a little stunned by them, and wondering why exactly Jon was giving them to me. He could see my confusion and explained, "You killed them, they are your trophies."
"I-I can't, you keep them."
"I can't take a trophy I didn't work to kill for. That is dishonorable. You killed them honorably, they are your's to keep." I understood his gesture, and humbly accepted them. We did compromise that he'd keep them safe for me until we returned to the facility.
As the morning turned to afternoon I thought about my accomplishment. Like Jon had said, I'd killed the xenomorphs without his help, and I did it with honor. As I thought about it more, I became more proud of myself. I played the memory of how I stabbed the one xeno with my tail over and over again. I never knew what I could really do with it. I had only really used it as a third arm, and thought nothing more of it. But now that I recognized it for it's true worth... It made me think about what I was really capable of. I was mostly human, but that had blinded me from the idea that I was also partially xenomorph. I had to have great physical potential. I could scale any surface like an insect with ease, I had a tail I could use as a third arm and as a stabbing weapon, which was also acid proof. I thought about all of this and what else I could do as I assisted Jon with assessing the storage houses inventory.
That was when an idea hit me. I wanted to help Jon, so I could help him overcome his mission and his ailments. Maybe these abilities would allow me to do that. I thought about my usefulness to him as a hunter. I wouldn't just help him track, or do minor helpful things, but also help aid him in battle. He would train me to become a skilled hunter warrior. It would give him something to do, someone who he could be with, to train, and care for. This could work I thought. He'd already expressed how impressed he was for my ability to kill a xenomorph. Why not ask him to teach me to be an professional at it.
This would not only give me the chance to become his friend, but would also teach me how to defend myself, without having to rely on him.
When evening came around I brought the topic up to him.
"Hey Jon," I began in nervous confidence.
"Yes Jennifer." He replied.
A silence fell over me. I considered what I was asking before I continued. "I was wondering if you could... train me?" I asked him softly.
"What?" He asked unsure of what I'd asked..
"I said I was wondering if you could be able to train me to become a hunter like you are." I replied.
I could tell by the clicking of his mandibles that I'd just asked him something unexpected, and almost unbelievable to hear especially from someone such as myself. I was technically knowledged, and had little physical applications to offer. Not to mention I was still kind of a bratty rich kid who did little physical labor. "Why would you ask me a request like that?" Jon snorted.
"I made a promise to help you, and after I killed those two xenomorphs, you expressed how impressed you were with my performance. It got me thinking about what else I am capable of. I am part xeno after all. Besides I thought it might be a good teaching experience, it would also teach me to defend myself without having to rely on you all the time to save me." I explained. "I was just wondering if I could do this, maybe I'd be more helpful than I am, is all." I heard Jon's clicking become less sputtery, and more focused. He was mulling over the idea in his head and my arguments that made it more sound.
"This will take time. And the Xenomorphs will be more numerous. Although." I could hear his whispers echo from his mask.
"Please," I pleaded. Jon saw the look in my eye. I could see he was uncertain of this idea, but he also saw I had a point.
"Are you sure you are up to this?" He wanted to make sure I knew what I was asking for. "I can do this but you have to be certain you're up to it." I looked at him an then at the ground nervously.
Then without a second thought I replied, "Yes. I am. I know you are going to say it's difficult and it I know it will take time, but I want to learn. I'll do everything you want me to, and I will try to take it as patiently as I can."
He looked at me straightly, and then said, "You have no idea."
"Is that a yes?" I asked.
"Yes," He replied straightly. "We begin tomorrow, you'd better have your stuff moving the minute I wake you up, understand?"
"Yes sir. I will be." I said before I went to bed early that evening.
The phrase "famous last words" could be the only thing that described just how truely unprepared I was. Every morning of every day for the next nine weeks Jon would wake me up early, and without a moment to gather up my strength Jon would begin training me. Jon would've liked to have set me up on the marines training pace, which normally took thirteen weeks, although we didn't have that time, with the xenomorphs continuing to expand their numbers every single day we had to work double time. Not just with my training but on battle readiness. It was nothing short of nightmarish and demanding. I had to be ready for two hours of cardio the minute I woke up, which was always three in the morning on the button. After that I'd do heavy amounts of aerobics for another two hours. Once that was over I'd be given two hours of combat training, which consisted of ranged, melee, and hand to hand combat, which we did in turns, where we'd do one, then the next and the one after that, then repeat. The remaining three hours of morning day light we had left consisted of tracking, and stealth lessons. After twelve in the afternoon we spent the remainder of our day preping for the siege we were about to lay down on the hive.
During the first week things weren't light, but they weren't hard either. Jon only had me go as far as I could with each drill, just to see what I could do, the next eight were to make me better. Once week two came around, Jon held nothing back, and pushed me. Every day I was expected to be awake by three and push myself past exhaustion and fatigue in order to achieve my goal that was with PT of course. I'd be forced to run with him for as long as he could, only stopping after he he was tired, and considering he ran faster than I had and had built up his endurance over years of leg training, I didn't keep up very well at the start. He had to slow down his normal pace just to allow me to even keep up with him. Normally he can run about 20 miles per hour. I couldn't even do three an hour. Jon was understanding of the speed difference, which is why he slowed down, but as for me going faster, Oh! was he merciless. Jon would curse me out with all sorts of vulgar insults. He'd call me pathetic, that I would never be a hunter like he was, because I couldn't outrun my prey. That was the purpose of cardio, to build up my speed and endurance for whenever I was chasing or being chased by something. Normally it was always the latter.
After cardio, I'd be given a few minutes to recover my strength for aerobics training, which was treated the same as cardio, where I was expected to do a certain amount of physical activity he could do. This served the purpose of building up my abdominal and pectoral strength, because I would need to use be strong in order to overcome an enemy that was just as strong, if not even stronger then I was.
Combat training, was not nearly as degrading as PT was, and I did very well in it. It helped that this is where Jon's more understanding mentoring side came into play. We took it calmly and slowly most of the time. I learned each martial arts tactic he'd learn from his Yautja mother and the marines. They required quick timing, and a variable amount of strength in order to pull each technique off. The Yautja martial arts were the only difficult areas of melee and hand to hand combat, but they weren't to hard to pull of after some guidance from Jon.
Ranged combat was the only part of training that was remotely fun. Jon had managed to salvage and refurbish a few firearms from the storage house, and most of the ammunition that went with each of them. A M41A Pulse Rifle, A M56 Smartgun, and a Desert Eagle 50 AE, which he claimed for himself, and latter modified to shoot rounds from a 500 SW Magnum, which proved to be a destructive modification. I practiced with the SW 4506, the refurbished Pulse Rifle, and we both got to have our fun with the M56 Smartgun. Overall, combat training was pretty okay. I earned the 4506, and the Pulse Rifle, because of my preformance with them both.
And finally there was hunting practice, which involved tracking and stealth practice. The word 'hunt' means to pursue, or to look for, normally in this context, it is an animal, to capture or to kill. The Yautja perfected this art, and made it the activity they'd become so well known for. The tracking part of Hunting, required skill, patience, and sharp observation. You could tell where your prey was going by the trail it left behind, whether it was droppings, claw marks, or footprints. You also required a enormous amount of silence in order to stay on the trail of what you hunted without being detected. Which leads into the stealth factor of the practice. During the hunt, the Yautja primarily use stealth and ambush tactics to take down their prey. Stealth is considered their most formidable and deadly weapon. Now although the Yautja used camoflauging technology alot of the time, most young-blood Yautja who earn this technology have to perfect the art of stealthily tracking, pursuing, and killing their prey before they earned it. It taught them how to sneak up on their prey without the prey noticing them, and because they hunted dangerous game they needed to be very careful and smart. Hunters needed to be resourceful, and crafty especially when the prey had heightened senses. This was a lesson Jon taught me as we underwent the process of stealth. That would come in handy if I needed to use such methods. Hunting practice was the most difficult challenge mentally. I would always make mistakes that costed me heavily. I would be to occupied with sneaking up on my prey, in this case Jon was the prey I hunted, and would not check to see what was around me, like a hole, a stick or something that I could step on that would make a sound and alert Jon of my presence. Other times I would not be careful with my pacing or how I paced myself and I'd make a noise which also gave my position away. Other times during tracking and stealth practice he'd deliberately sneak up on me and ambush me. This served to teach me to be observant of my surroundings, to keep my eye out for the prey itself. It's amazing how the hunter can easily become the hunted if he or she isn't careful. These three problems are what plagued me the most with Hunting training.
Jon was merciless whenever I messed up, no matter what it was I had to be on point. The bare minimum wasn't good enough. In a way, it was like he wasn't only training me to be a hunter, but also a marine. The physical requirements were similar to each, and given our time constraints it made sense why he did it the way he did. Jon would always chastise me when I failed something. "Constructive Encouragement" he called it. He'd call me a useless btch, a lazy c-bag, or if he was feeling extra complementary, a hopeless wasted brat. I always hated when he did that. I could see it's purpose though, it was meant to make me feel that way. It was made to make me look and feel pathetic and weak. What I didn't realize though was that it was also meant to teach me patience, and to act calm under stress. I didn't realize this a couple of times and lashed out. One time during aerobics, Jon made a remark about my family, which I misinterpreted as being against my biological parents. I swung at him, and managed to connect the hit. We had a fight about it, but after explaining how I never knew my biological parents, and that I was kind of responsible for my mother's death, since she died giving birth to me, Jon humbly conceeded and agreed to draw a line when it came to how we regarded each other's parents. I guess Jon could relate to my situation, given what happened to his mother and all. If I gave him any backlash when he was just "encouraging " me, that was met with less understanding.
Sometimes Jon would be more understanding and give me guidance, as he knew from experience that force didn't solve everything, and it would take some helpful words of wisdom in order to make me better. It also made me realize whenever I was angry with him that this was what I wanted, and that he was just helping me fulfill my goals. "To learn to become a hunter warrior, you must learn to adapt and overcome all opposition," Jon phrased perfectly. His analogy was on point with what I was going through. I had to learn to adapt. I had to find a way to overcome any problems I faced. That's how he learned, and that's how I was going to learn also.
As Jon cursed me out during training, I would think to myself deep inside and say he was right. I was weak and pathetic. I wanted to be a hunter like he was, yet I wasn't preforming to the standards his kind set themselves at. Yautja young-bloods could do these exercises in half the time I was being given to do them. I was pathetic. I was a failure, a useless waste of time. At the same time though, I also thought about my motivations that were pushing me forward to complete my goals. I wanted to help Jon, and I was letting all of this opposition get to me. "C'mon Jennifer. You can do this, you know you can. Don't let it become personal, those insults are just useless words, and nothing more. Don't prove them right, they're not. Just keep going. You can make it." I would think these kinds of thoughts to myself also. It was a conflicting equilibrium that would distract me in such a way where I would almost completely forget about the pain and fatigue. All I kept thinking about thereafter was "Keep going! Push! Push! Push! You're getting there! Keep going!" I realized then that it wasn't just about Jon pushing me to go forward, but for me to find the motivation to keep going. Find this physical will, and use it to keep you moving. This mostly helped for PT.
With hunting practice though it was mostly all intellectual. You needed to stay focused and concentrate on yourself and what was around you. If you had trouble with something you think, THINK! about a solution. Think outside the box. I'd remembered I wasn't just a human, but a hybrid of human and xenomorph. I had abilities most other humans could only dream of having. Once this thought returned to my mind, it gave me a plethora of ideas, for how I could not only track and sneak up on Jon, but also outwit him. I discovered that I could not only walk on all fours, but I could run with perfect stability like this. In fact this posture allowed me to distribute my weight equally on all four appendages, allowing me to make less noise as I treaded, making my movements less noisy and far quicker also. This revelation also helped me with the early morning cardiovascular training, as I was placing my weight on two extra limbs that allowed me to carry my weight easier, giving me more energy for locomotion. My clawed hands allowed me to scale surfaces like an insect, which gave me more diverse options to stealthily approach Jon without being detected. Once I found this out, I would formulate a plan to outsmart Jon.
One such idea I had was almost flawless. If I managed to keep my senses up and didn't get caught once It would have succeed. I would approach stealthily on all fours, then deliberately stalk on both of my feet. I'd even deliberately make a noise in a convincing manner to bait him in. Then I would hide some place that could fit my small body, and wait for Jon to appear. It took some patience just to find him since he would use his camoflauging technology to conceal himself. I also had to be careful on where I hid, and when I moved, because he would use his bio-mask's vision modes to detect me. He mostly used the infra-red setting, because I gave off body heat. I learned how valuable a resource cold mud was after I found this out, but I still needed to be careful if he was watching from another vision mode on the mask. Once I spotted him and waited long enough for him to move, I would then make my move to approach him and ambush him. Although I failed multiple times trying to pull sneak attacks like this off, I was progressing. I was learning to adapt to the situation I was faced with, and was was making progress to overcoming it.
Jon would continue to chastise me, even when I made positive effort, or even when I succeeded in whatever I was tasked with, but latter on Jon would give me his true thoughts. I was beginning to impress him. I even suprised him a couple of times. He was becoming really pleased with me and the work I was putting in.
Training wasn't the only thing I was progressing in, but I was also making progress with Jon too. Sure our relationship was that of a mentor and his student, but it was a start. Like I've said many times in this diary already, I wanted to be his friend. Jon was my friend, but I wasn't his. He didn't want me to be his friend. He lost so many people who he loved, that he didn't want to lose anyone else. Some of the people he lost he felt guilty about lossing, simply because he survived and they didn't. He believed it was God's punishment to him for being to prideful. I'd heard him explain the story about Crimer's Massacre to me once, but that was a long time ago. Even if this was the case, he didn't mean to cause anyone harm. It was at most a foolish mistake, but come on, everybody makes mistakes. Everytime I tried to make him see this he cut me down. But now he was teaching me, and I could understand his thought process better the more I observed his emotional state of being whenever he had an episode, which still happened pretty frequently. This would give me an idea of how I could connect to him. Make him feel that there was something for him to live for. Someone who cared.
I cared about him.
I wouldn't stop trying until I was his friend. Whether he wanted me to be or not, I was going to make him see this, until I was his friend. After all he saved my life three times now. I wanted to return the favor, at least once. What can I say. I wasn't a ignorant brat anymore, but I was still a stubborn btch, who honored deals, and cared about others, especially when they are my friends and family. I still am.
Alright done with another chapter. I'm sorry if this one took so long, I kept getting distracted from working on it, an I had several confusing areas of the chapter I wanted to fix. Also I've read back on some of the previous entries, and I noticed I have been making several mistakes like typography errors, run-ons, contradictions, and restating the same ideas over and over. I will try my best to clear them up. I am also trying to develop the two characters', motivations, personalities, and thoughts more deeply, so the readers can understand and sympathize with them. I hope I'm doing a good job with that. I hope you guys enjoy this entry of the story. I'll start work on the next chapter immediately. Hopefully I can progress the story a little quicker while I'm developing Kj's relationship with Jenny.
[Also thank you NeverNeverGirl for the comments ;) ]