The elevator came to a stop. The doors opened and unveiled an alien free surface. The clan stepped out still gripping their weapons. They all looked at their new leader Merc'rk. "We need to find the oomans." he said. They went to the front entrance and saw a swarm of hardmeat marching in. The predators left the entrance and went searching in the city it self.
The city looked like it was bombed. Only a few structures were standing and there was rubble almost everywhere. The clan had found nothing. They kept walking until they came to the other side of the city. They came to an intersection for cars when a blinding white light came from their right. They shielded their eyes and a voice came. "Predators, is that you?" "Yes." answered Merc'rk. The lights went down and they saw a few marines. There were less than half as many than before. Sean walked up to Merc'rk. "Hey, how's it going?" greeted Sean. "Weren't there six of you?" The clan said nothing and Sean got the point. "Our commander was killed too." There was a long pause. "We're heading to base 881W tomorrow. So you'd better get relaxed while you can. It's quite a hike."
The next day they were walking to the next base. It was all quiet until a ship flew over them. A rumbling sound filled the air and a tank rolled up to their left and two APCs to their right. Soldiers came up in front of them. All had the insignia of the Corporate forces. Netak felt his blood boil. A voice was heard coming from a microphone. "Identify your self." Sean stood up as if he was the leader. "We are the United States Marines 58th of 75th. I am Lieutenant Commander Sean Cooper . We come from a base taken over by Xenomorphs and heading to base 881W." They looked at Sean amazed at how well he did that. Apparently the Corporates saw the Predators, because some had a look of fear on their faces. "You are not allowed to pass through here. Our orders are to eliminate any trespassers. However we'll make you a deal. Give us the Predators and we will let you pass." "Over my dead corpse." said Netak grabbing his disc. "Our orders are to capture the Predators and if we must we'll use force." The Predators (except for Netak) couldn't believe this. They were all angry they had lost their ship, they lost their leader, and they were out numbered ten to one against the aliens, but now the Corporates expected them to just hand themselves over. "Time to let out some frustration." said Essra.
The tank aimed its cannon at the marines. The clan cloaked and gripped their favorite weapons. Everyone was waiting for the first move. Since no one was moving Netak threw his disc at a nearby corporate. It ripped off his head and flew back to him. The shooting started. Jason shot some rounds and ran for cover. The tank fired and destroyed an APC. The man in the tank was saying something on a speaker. "Men, use your EMP gernades!" Half the Corporates pulled out small blue spheres and began throwing them in random directions while the other half continued too shoot at the marines.
The clan didn't know what the gernades did, but avoided them just to be safe. Netak was too angry thinking about how his other clan was slaughtered by their leader to care about the gernades. Essra saw Netak stab another with the spear and a grenade land next to him. "Netak, look out!" she yelled, but it was too late. The grenade detonated and sparks flew out and diffused his cloaking. The Corporates saw him and pulled out some wire that was glowing blue. Another had a tranquilizer dart gun. He fired and hit Netak's armor. Netak looked in his direction. The man fired again, but Netak blocked it with his spear. The Yautja hunter pulled out his disc and threw it at him. It cut off his arm and he fell to the ground bleeding to death. Then a dart hit Netak's left arm. His arm went limp and looked over to the man coming out of the tank. It was Rykov. Suddenly blue wire wrapped itself around Netak's arm and some more Corporates came with blue wire that was tied in lassos. They began grabbing the hunter as he struggled against them. The hunter's wrist blades came out and he tried to cut the wire, but it wasn't able to cut. Then more darts came and Netak fainted.
Essra tried to come to Netak's aid, but was shot in the stomach before she took the first step. Merc'rk, being the one with the most armor, was able to take bullets. He ran and grabbed Essra and ran to a safe place.
Some one began yelling commands. "Retreat! Retreat!" It was Sean. Some marines were retreating while the others were still fighting. A marine an up to Sean and punched him. "Who nominated you leader?" "Look around you. They're all dead." answered Sean. The marines knew they were no match for the Corporate threat and started to retreat. The clan retreat with them (except for Netak whom they had captured).
They retreated to a distant part of the city. The clan was losing hope. They had lost their leader and one of their most skilled hunters. Essra was in a structure using the medicomp on her wounds. Reco'de went to Merc'rk. "So what are we gonna do now?" "I'm not sure. Netak's still alive. If I know him as well as I think, as soon as he wakes up he'll activate his self-destruct in his shame of being captured." Shou'nk approached the group and handed each of them a piece of food. "I think we should keep going. Think of how much honor well get when we get back home." he said trying to cheer them up. It actually worked.
Essra walked up to her clan, now healed. "We need to find Netak." She sounded determined. The huntress looked at Merc'rk hoping for an answer. Her new leader did not answer and she became angry. "Why can't we search for him?" "You know as well as I do that he'll activate his self-destruct as soon as he gets the chance." Essra was silent.
Jason joined the clan. "We're moving out soon. We're gonna move around them." "What about our clan mate?!" asked a furious Reco'de. "They won't do anything about him. They think he'll self-destruct. I'm sorry." They could tell that Jason meant it. "He won't self-destruct." said Reco'de. "How do you know that?" asked Shou'nk. "Because, Rykov is still alive. Netak told me about his worst hunt and showed me an image of Rykov from the camera in his mask and I recognize the man in the tank from our battle as him." answered Reco'de. Merc'rk had a look of stress on his face. Then a thought came to him. "Wait a minute! The commander's dead! Who's in charge?!" "Sean."
Merc'rk went straight over to Sean. "Our clan mate won't self-destruct." Sean turned around and looked at his Yautja friend. "We still can't go for him." "How come?" "I'm not going to risk this entire platoon on trying to save one of your clan." "We'll need you and with us you won't lose anyone." "It didn't seem that way back there." answered the new commander referring to Netak's capture. "If we don't get him we won't continue aiding you." "Fine, we can make it ourselves."
Merc'rk gathered his clan and left the Marines in search of his lost clan mate.
Mac-11 CQB: This chapter might be short, but the next one will be longer. Please review.