Predator and Prey

Guan'De roared a challenge, the sound reverberating in his helmet. His prey stared at him; pure malice seemed to shoot from its reptilian eyes, malice that he knew also reflected from his own. Its tail snaked back and forth behind it, razor sharp tip glinting in the moonlight. Guan'De measured the distance between them mentally.

'Fifteen meters,' he thought. Detaching his combistaff from his belt, he snapped it to its full length. He twirled it once in his hand. Swung it into position. Dropped to a combat stance. The creature leaped.

With one bound, the Kainde Ahmedha covered the fifteen meters between them. Screeching its war cry as it came; it contorted its body and knocked the combistaff out of Guan's hand. Time shuddered almost to a halt as the two titans connected. Striking with its tail, the xenomorph sought to impale him on its spear like point.

"M-di H'dlak," Guan muttered to himself as he dodged its tail, regrettably, the Yautjian words "No fear" did not halt the xenomorph. Its claws scraped large furrows in his helmet and body armor, trying to force him into a position where it could use its second mouth to punch a hole into his brain. He tucked his legs under then kicked out as hard as he could and leapt to his feet as he watched his foe fly back a good twenty-five or thirty meters.

He extended his customized wrists blades to their full three-quarters of a meter with a flourish. After the standard half meter blade he had used on his first hunt failed him, he had made new, longer ones. Since then he had taken meticulous care of them, even treating them like his body armor so they would be acid resistant.

The rivals restarted their deadly dance, circling one another, waiting for an opening. The xenomorph led, lashing out with its tail it nearly speared him, but he was ready for it. He twisted to the side and sliced, severing a whole meter of its tail from its body. It screeched and retreated into the benighted jungle, the blood streaming from its tail burning into the rainforest's floor.

Guan chuckled to himself as he detached a shuriken from his belt. 'So, it ends.'

He hurled the shuriken.

Eighty years later

Warmth seeped throughout his body as his mind awakened. His cryo-tube hissed open. A cryo-bay technician waited for him.

"Follow me, sir, we've got to get out of here!" he exclaimed, "This way."

The tech sprinted through the door, the Chief half a step behind him. As he opened the hall door, an explosion ripped through the room, the tech screamed as shrapnel shredded his body. He dropped dead, a pool of blood slowly staining the deck.

The Chief glanced at the door. It obviously was damaged beyond repair; the servos that opened and closed it were now slag. He quickly studied the corridor: only one possible exit that would take him to the bridge. He took it.

As he rounded the next corner, he found himself in the middle of a fire fight. An Aussie marine turned to him.

"Sir, the captain wants you on the bridge, A.S.A.P. You'd better follow me," he shouted.

He turned to another marine, "I'm escorting the Chief to the bridge, keep up the good work mate!"

Together they ran for the bridge.

"Captain Keyes," the Chief said in his gravely voice.

The Captain turned around and extended his hand.

"Glad to see you, Chief."

The Covenant's boarding parties crawled through the ship like termites through an old rotted house. A single life pod was all that remained.

The Master Chief vaulted over the barricade he had been using for cover and sprayed the Covenant elites that were standing guard by the life pod with his assault rifle. Their shielding could not long withstand his onslaught, by the time they realized that they were under attack; they were drowning in their own blood.

Fire from a dozen Covenant capital ship's plasma cannons thundered into the ship. The life pods' best chance for survival was a large ring that appeared to be orbiting the desert planet nearest to it. The Chief didn't know exactly where they were: when the Pillar of Autumn left Reach it was forced to make a blind jump, so as to not lead the Covenant armada to Earth. Though they accomplished their goal of not compromising Earth's location, they had been followed by several battle groups of Covenant cruisers. As soon as all the life pods were launched, Keyes planned to land the Pillar on the Ring; hopefully bringing down some of the Covenant with him.

The Chief turned and laid down cover fire on the Covenant soldiers rounding the corner. Two Covenant grunts dropped dead, their phosphorescent blood splattering on the Pillar's deck. An elite returned fire. The Chief ducked back behind cover, then ran to the pod as plasma bolts charred holes into the wall. He quickly checked the hall. One marine had not yet reached the safety of the life pod. Stumbling, he fell just as the Chief lunged for the pod.

"Oh no… Oh no!" the marine shrieked in a distinct Australian accent.

The Chief picked up the marine by the back of his armor and tossed him into the pod. He turned toward the Covenant following them, drew his pistol and fired several rounds into the fray.

"Now would be a very good time to leave!" a female voice exclaimed.

The Chief ducked through the small doorway and entered the pod, sealing the hatch behind him. He turned to the Marine in the pilot's seat.

"Punch it," he ordered.

"Aye, aye sir."

The pod's thrusters ignited blasting the pod into the void of space. The marine that the Chief had rescued looked up into his mask.

"We're going to make it, aren't we sir? I don't want to die out here!"

The Chief put his hand on the marine's shoulder then walked up to the front of the pod to get a better view.

"Look," said the voice.

The Chief could see their destination. The Ring's surface appeared to be very similar to that of Earth's.

"What is that thing Lieutenant?" the rescued marine asked the pilot.

"Heck if I know," she responded, "but we're landing on it."

The Marine looked back to see the Pillar of Autumn taking several more hits from the oppressive Covenant capital ships. The ship plunged towards the ring's surface.

"The Autumn," another marine shouted, "She's been hit!"

"I knew it," the voice stated, "Keyes is accelerating; he must be flying her in manually!"

"Brace yourselves; we'll be entering the Ring's atmosphere in five,"

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" the voice asked.

"We'll be fine," he said reassuringly.

"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed,"

Guan felt disgusted as he watched twelve medium sized warships pounding what looked to him like a colony ship. 'Where is the honor in just murdering thousands upon thousands of Oomans?' he thought. Still, the colonist showed a great deal of intelligence and resilience by the fact that they had been able to disable or destroy four of the warships attacking them.

He had been investigating the large ring-like space station in the system to find out if there where any creatures on it that would make good trophies for his collection when this colony ship came out of subspace, leaving a gash the size of a small planetoid behind it. The ships that were attacking the colony ship had been hiding in the sensor shadow of the desolate planet, obviously waiting for this one. When it arrived, they had sent a small scout vessel, most likely to determine how powerful their enemy's defenses were. The colony ship had promptly vaporized it.

After that, the warships had swarmed out of their hiding place like wasps, plasma cannons blazing.

The colony ship's main weapon, a large cannon of some sort, might have been able to hold off its attackers, but the boarding parties the warships sent had apparently disabled it. It had fallen silent after destroying the fourth warship.

He detected a power spike in the colony ship and used his bio scanner to get a view of what was going on. Apparently they had unfrozen a warrior from a cryo-tube. He wondered briefly if this wasn't actually a colony ship, but a warship in disguise: that would explain the large amounts of soldiers, vehicles and weapons. Things that would be useful for waging war. He filed this thought away and watched as the soldier made his way to the control deck of the colony ship, spoke briefly with the captain of the ship, then fought his way through party after party of enemy soldiers on his way to a life pod. Guan was truly impressed: this Ooman fought as well as a young-blood class Yautja. Guan powered up his ships engines and locked in a landing course. It would be a good hunt.

The Ooman's head would make a worthy trophy.