Winters beginning ch8
PCS Wolf en-rout to next chiva location.
in Ships medical bay.
Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to meet with you ag- wait. Heart, check, feeling in extremities, check, hearing check, movement check. How in the living Hades am I still alive!
Like a bolt from Zeus, Winter sat up and opened his eyes only to regret it as the light and colossal headache made themselves known.
" Easy there Winter you've been unconscious for the last fourteen cycles, the wounds you sustained were severe and I had to induce you into a coma just so we could work on you." Spirit said reassuringly gently pushing Winter back on his back.
"Spirit, what happened? The last thing I remember is blasting Hard meats and then nothing. Also where are the others?" Pleaded Winter worried about his comrades.
"Sigh... Ghost and Hawk are dead, Kal is still in critical condition, and Scythe is doing the best, while his wounds are still healing, he will be completely healed by tomorrow. You on the other hand Winter are lucky or maybe Paya is watching out for you. As you sustained acid burns across most of your body, tendons, ripped to shreds, puncture wounds across most of your torso, and yet Nothing vital was hit, much. The recordings from your groups masks see you more as a monster then anything else". Spirit mentioned with the rundown of Winters wounds.
"Great, so I past my Chiva, barely and we suffered two KIA. Do I even want to know what you did to fix me up Spirit?"
"In case your worried about side affects, don't worry there isn't any and before asking it Winter, you'll be free to go in maybe three more cycles. I'll have to run tests to ensure the new reoccurring carbon fibers embedded into your bones is doing what it should, along with the other healing boosters we gave you to speed up recovery."
"Carbon fibers, wait that is the same stuff the Na'vi bones do, you infused me with prey DNA!?" Yelled Winter only to drop his head back down from the splitting headache.
"Don't insult me Winter this is better then the carbon used on Na'vi. No this was designed for Elites as this stuff improves bone density, healing and creates an immunity to Hard meat blood. your group became test subjects for this new technology and I'm happy to say it works just fine and will be useful in creating gene augmented Predators but that is still a long ways off and not my area of expertise.
Anyway I've already replaced Kal's missing left arm with a prosthetic, however, should he request it a new arm will be cloned for him. In the mean time its time to sleep for a little while as I'm sure the Elders will be happy your awake and alive." Said Spirit, happy her long time friend was still alive.
Winter having learned to never argue with a healer went back to sleep.
Conference room aboard the PCS Wolf
Elders currently reviewing video footage from both ship sensors and the former unbloods masks.
"Well that was interesting." Stated Elder Spike
"Indeed aside from Hawk they all performed well, especially considering we used Viperwolfs as hosts for the Hard meats." Observed Elder Mace.
"Even so only three came back and one is still in critical while Winter just barely woke up. Death, Striker, these are your pupils, tell us how you see the footage of their actions." Elder Lance requested.
"Scythe operated well as a leader and while Ghost and Hawk perished, Winter did exactly as ordered to such a degree. That upon debriefing, Scythe saw Winter as blue death coming to claim the souls of his enemies. As we have seen from the footage Winter with his plasma pistol was obliterating hardmeats at point blank range, creating an ominous blue glow around him.
To top it off, unlike Scythe, Winter doesn't remember much except the killing part. According to Scythe, Winter managed to walk to uncontaminated ground before collapsing from blood loss." Death Reported
"Indeed, yet its even more impressive that Kal survived the onslaught with an arm missing, however with multiple puncture wounds to various organs. He will be fine in thirty cycles as I've just received word he is no longer in critical but still needs to be sedated for the time being.
"As for my son Winter, Kima will be relieved he still lives, as well as seeing the unique survival instinct he has developed in action." Striker reported.
"Okay what unique mind set and how does it work?", asked Elder Spike
"Mentally its a defense mechanism, since in combat simulations, Winter exhibited similar behavior after being punished or failing an objective and a different mind set takes over" Stated Death nonchalantly.
"Hehe, its one where Winter enters what I call soldier mode, his focus increases exponentially, talking to him becomes useless as he only listens for threats, then will proceed to kill them by any means he can until all are eliminated. Forgetting about trophy's in the process, in short he becomes a killing machine determined to complete his objective at any cost and once completed, he returns to his usual self which is not much different. He still needs work in social area's but beyond that, he is well on his way to becoming an Elite." Informed Striker.
Aside from Death and Elder lance the others looked at Striker as though he had lost his mind, while it wouldn't be the first time, it was still odd that Striker and Kima would do this to their son. However given the large freedoms in Yautja culture, there was nothing that said parents had to raise their children a certain way so long as the code was not violated.
"Very well, this briefing is concluded with the final note that the hard meat resistant bone graphs into the genetic structure of the now blooded adults is a success and will be implemented to a all Elites and Enforcers at an undetermined date and time. Dismissed" Elder Spike ordered.
One year later, location Yeager one.
Winters log, I need to do this more but I've been so busy that only now do I have the time.
Therapy was miserable but needed, Kal eventually fully recovered but decided to stick with a prosthetic and simply turned it into a multi tool and weapon. Scythe well he's with his clan doing various hunts and the like, though Spirit informed me the two of them have begun courting and may become life mates in the future. Though I do feel sorry for Scythe when that does happen, having half jaw as a father in law will be entertaining to hear about to say the least.
As for my self well my social life has improved and while I've tried to court females. They either want to make pups on the spot or I make a mistake and get laughed at. Since I made a promise to my parents to only seek out a life mate I intend to keep it that way. At least Kal and I are back on good terms and Scythe sends me questions regarding Spirits wants and the like as I know her better then him.
Now then, thank Paya I studied engineering as its now paying off. Following the exploits of a human named John Moses Browning this man single handily revolutionized his species small arms and one weapon in particular caught my attention. Designated as M2 .50cal Browning machine gun this weapon is currently being used in massive numbers across the planet during what the humans call WWII.
It was during the chaos I managed to scan in great detail the weapon and its ammo. My father wasn't happy about that but since Elites have access to more specialized weaponry, I'm forced to improvise.
Upon building an exact copy and five hundred rounds of ammo, the results were impressive to say the least. Each 660 grain bullet spit out with the force of thirteen thousand foot pounds of energy. That's enough to turn Yautja organs into paste, even with armor and that's just a standard FMJ, with the heavier and more specialized rounds the damage goes up. Such a beautiful weapon of destruction, I immediately began to design my own, only with a number of improvements.
The first thing was to modernize the ammo, the smokeless powder while good wasn't good enough and so was replaced with a more powerful substance and the casings instead of brass now use a light weight composite, which won't conduct heat very well and reduce weight. Lastly was the bullets them selves for that I stuck with two types for simplicity. Armor piercing and high explosive, the HE rounds unlike their primitive counterparts had an explosive yield comparable to a 75mm HE shells. These would be useful for taking out entire swarms of armed prey or xenos for that matter.
Lastly the weapon itself, weighing in at a light eighty six pounds, the base model needed major upgrades in its design. First the materials used in its redesign were composed of the same alloy's used in the Wolf class planetary assault ship. This made the Browning lighter by fifteen pounds but the more technical aspect required the help of my Father.
He was impressed at what I was doing and in no time created a new marvel of engineering ready for action. The old Yautja even went as far as to mass produce thousands of rounds for the .50 with a new machine made to pump out the ordinance I needed. However as a precaution three more were made and in typical Yautja fashion my father in his brilliance devised a way of turning the guns into plasma cannons at the push of a button.
Upon testing, additional revisions were made. A quick change barrel system was added to make the .50 more compact for transport and could be made ready in short order. In order to maximize its effectiveness a special four hundred round magazine was added to my lower back, with the gun in the middle, ready to be assembled and loaded in a matter of seconds.
At five hundred rounds per minute the amount of ammo was just shy of a minutes worth however the amount of destruction in that minute would be devastating.
As the crown jewel I installed two plasma casters on either side of the shoulders plus two more in thigh holsters. I even asked my father for a new type of full body armor, not just designed to take hits and resist acid blood but also give me the flexibility to carry additional weaponry or other items in the future. End log.
The humans have a saying, like father like son and Winter is no exception to that rule, I knew someday my son would study different races and their weaponry but I never expected him to take a human designed weapon and make it far more lethal. The last test showed the .50 cal rounds were traveling at four thousand feet per second consistently. That alone increased the force generated by a factor of two. As such he made new records when hunting kewi's at far longer range and with impressive accuracy for a weapon.
I can only wonder what a rifle version would look like but the humans haven't invented one yet, so for now it will do. Even so Striker has taken to helping his son with a new vigor and is now developing a new armor system custom made for Winters needs. Having seen the design myself it covers far more skin then even the armor used in Hard meat chiva's yet still retains considerable mobility.
The more experienced Predators generally don't use as much armor, for the sake of the challenge and mobility to stay alive. Winter on the other hand wasn't taught such methods and for this I am proud as mother of a true Predator. Winter won't skin body's as it wastes time, He never takes off his mask when in the field, and he only takes trophy's once the area is clear and even then unlike other Yautja, Winter takes both skulls and weapons.
The most unique part of Winter however is the lack of a clan mark on his body, even after his chiva, he has no clan mark. This goes in line with our teaching that Winter is not to serve any one clan but all of them wherever he is needed.
Striker and I taught this, since we have no clan ourselves at least not anymore, in fact most on Yeager one don't as Clan status means nothing here. None the less, those that pass a chiva and are from Yeager one can ask to join a clan. Winter did not, rather he is spending quality time with us to fix the short comings in basic Yautja kit.
Still I believe someday he will know he was named after not a season but the cold harsh landscape that brings death and suffering to all ill prepared creatures, including us.
"You weren't born into Winter so much as molded into it son. I hope you will find a life mate that sees past that and will act like a Snow covered blanket across your heart."
" Still haven't told Winter that have you Kima ?" Striker says concerned.
"No I haven't because I'm waiting for the day he takes a life mate, shame he doesn't tell us much if anything about his courting life." Kima says with sadness.
"Winter will stare death in the face and not flinch a muscle but females are a very depressing subject for him. Even asking that question causes him to drop his head and on one occasion he completely disarmed himself just to wallow in self pity. After seeing that I made certain to never mention it again." Replied Striker.
"Okay how do you know that?" Kima asked with suspicion.
"Spirit mentioned it when I got curious about his strange behavior whenever I ask him about females.
Being Winters closest Friend it only made sense he would ask her for courting advise." Mentioned Striker.
"Very well either way he's doing fine now, in the mean time I have some new clothes I wish to show you and your little friend" Kima replied in a sultry voice, mandibles moving ever so slowly.
In just one second Striker and his nether regions came to full attention. "lead the way" Striker replies with lust clearly evident in his eyes.
Okay this getting out of hand typing this many words use to be hard now its getting easy. Major time skip ahead next chapter. I'll keep the recap short and I may take this to number eleven since that's my lucky number. Guess not as I just edited this chapter again hahaha.
Also while never mentioned on Fanfiction I will state it now. John Moses Browning has 128 total gun patents to his name. If you own a firearm odds are it was designed or inspired and uses peaces of his designs. Also the .50BMG cartridge is well documented at killing anything with one or two shots, mostly one, unless your hunting whales or armored vehicles.
Lastly leave a review and please tell me what you think, I see numbers looking at this story but none reviewing, so please review. Thank you.