Few more modifications to the Preds here - making the name endings fit in with traditional lore.

winces I knew that I'd get something wrong with the Predators. Thanks for pointing out the size difference, Thug-4-Less – for some reason I had it pegged down as females being smaller than males. Told you I hadn't read as much Predator lore as Alien.

Anyway, I've sorted out that little slip-up. Oh, and that goo from the alien predator was meant to be some sort of paralysing venom. I'll probably make more of that in future.

Blackness.

That was his first impression. Complete blackness. It was a sensation he hadn't experience since his transformation. His sense had always been alive with the sensing of heat, electrical signals, his sonar, plus all the usual senses (although 'normal' vision was a little weird, due to having the light-sensitive cells buried beneath the exoskeleton).

As a sensation, it was terrifying.

>Hello? Is anyone else here?>

Shadow tried to move, and pain flooded through him. The Alien nervous system located the sources of pain, and relayed the information to him in great detail. His tail, right leg, and left foot were all crushed by something.

There was a soft groan from nearby. Human.

"What happened?" the groaner asked. That quiet one, Jake, by the sound of it.

>Two possibilities,> said Shadow, relieved at not being alone. >We're either dead, and in some variety of afterlife, or we're alive and survived the crash.>

'Sight', in its various forms, was slowly returning to him. They were clearly on the bridge of the Charon, and he could tell that consciousness was slowly returning to several others on the bridge. His heat sense could tell that the outer hull of the ship was at an incredible temperature. He could also tell, due to the lack of electrical signals, that several people had died.

He crawled slowly out from under the collapsed control panel, feeling the damage to his body repairing already.

His sense slowly strengthened, and once more he could 'see' through the walls of the bridge. The details were fuzzy, but he could see a lot of cooling bodies. About thirty dead bodies were scattered within his vision.

Thirty. There only had been fifty humans on board.

As he moved towards the door to see if they were trapped by the wreckage, he stumbled over the dead body of Captain Caraeus Hector.

Kal'Arak'e checked the shiftsuit was fully functional, and then moved into one of the gaping holes in the side of the vessel.

Curiosity had got the better of the Predator, and he was investigating a hunch. According to his numerous scanners, there were not just the oomans on board the hulk, but also kiande amedha. It was difficult to tell, but it seemed that both species were conscious, yet were not attacking each other. To defy his Elder by hunting either was out of the question, but…

He looked over at his twin sister, Othara. Many joked that the two had some of the wrong genes, for Kal'Arac was larger and stronger than most males, while the opposite was true of Othar'a. The huge size usually attributed to Yautja females traditionally ruled them out from Hunts, but Othar'a's smaller size had convinced the Elder to allow her to join them.

"This is a bad idea," she snarled. "Shiftsuits are not proof against the Hard Meat, even if they are against oomans. This is an unnecessary risk."

"This is an unmissable opportunity! This is something we have never seen before. We are here to learn, most of all. If you do not learn about your prey, you do not honour it."

Othar'a activated the shiftsuit, with a final click of indignation. "That may be your philosophy –"

"Yours too," interrupted her sibling, as he activated his shiftsuit.

"– but the Elder may not see it that way. This is our first Hunt, and here we are making decisions that may cost all of us a great deal."

"Oh, be quiet. If we're clever, they'll never know we're there."

The two Yautja, invisible, moved into the ship. The huge cargo bay expanded before them, with no passageways out except the breach that they had entered by.

"What now?" asked Othar'a, activating the Silent Voice. Silent Voices were a recent development that allowed the Yautja to communicate with little or no audible sound while cloaked; a useful tool for a hunter.

"Those look like doors over there, but if we open them…"

The two moved over to the indicated openings, but they were shut.

"Well, this was a waste of time," said Othar'a irritatedly. "We should go."

At that moment, the machinery whined and the door opened.

"I don't care what the status of the hive is!" yelled Jake. "Hector and thirty-odd others are dead, including Mara and my own son! You said it yourself, Shadow," he continued in an abruptly quiet voice. "We're 'less than friends'. Your species ensures that. You might have good intentions, but frankly I wouldn't trust Spiketail as far as I could throw her, and the rest of the hive is even worse."

Shadow hissed softly. >I'm sorry for your losses, truly I am. How do you think I felt when my family was ripped apart by Alien claws? The same claws that I now have? But we need to be realistic. We haven't been out into that forest yet, but I can guarantee that there will be something dangerous out there. When that something comes for you, you'll need us.>

His senses twitched, as though something had moved fast out of his vision.

"You see?" hissed Kal'Arak'e. "I told you this was something unmissable. Kiande amedha and pyode amedha side by side without any animosity?"

"What do you call that, then?" asked Othar'a grudgingly. "That looks like an argument."

"How can you tell? The ooman is speaking loudly, but how do we know what the Hard Meat is doing?"

The Hard Meat drone stopped, and slowly turned, scanning the area.

Othar'a swore. "I knew this was a bad idea. Those things can see through shiftsuits!"

"Not always," said Kal'Arak'e, but he sounded scared. Neither of them was a blooded warrior, and their weaponry was limited to wristblades and combisticks. If it came to a fight against this massive specimen, it would be a hard one.

Shadow finished scanning the room. >I could have sworn… No matter.> He returned to Jake. >This argument is beside the point, anyway. We need to find out more about this planet before anything else happens. The hive's not in much shape to do anything vicious to you now. Relax. We need each other. You need protection, we need a place to recover.>

Jake sighed. "All right. You have a point, I suppose." Another set of doors into the cargo bay opened, and five people entered.

In the lead was Holly Chance, closely followed by Warren Golzan and three other colonists, who Jake didn't know. All were equipped with a variety of weapons. This was the scouting party.

A pair of drones unfolded from the ceiling and dropped next to Shadow. I think we're ready to go, commented the Alien.

The three Aliens, six humans, and two unseen Predators all walked out through the gash in the hull.

"It's so irritating that we don't understand them!" said Kal'Arak'e exasperatedly. "They have clearly worked out how to communicate with the kiande, otherwise how could they be coexisting?"

"Look at the posture," said Othar'a, caught up in her brother's fascination despite herself. "This isn't an equal relationship. Neither trusts the other, and the kiande seem to be in a guarding position, ready to deal with the pyode if there's trouble."

An instinct prompted Othar'a to switch to heat vision. The forest came alive with colour, and one patch in particular attracted her attention. The mask's computer isolated the patch, enhanced it, and revealed the source.

She swore.

Shadow looked around at the forest. There was too much input on his senses; he was lucky to see anything. This was too soon after the crash. All and the other drones could realistically provide was muscle at this point.

Something rustled behind them, and as he spun, he once again caught the edge of something moving fast out of vision. He didn't have a chance to investigate more fully, as something leapt out of the forest.

Time seemed to slow as he turned his gaze towards the attacker. The creature was at least four metres long, without mentioning the tail. The long, six-eyed crocodilian head had four long sabre-teeth jutting from the upper and lower jaws, and resting on top of the head was a strange, clawed pipe. Its two arms were long, and had three sickle-like claws on each, with a long row of backward-pointing spikes lining the arms. The legs were also long, and each split into three smaller limbs that spun like wheels, grabbing the ground beneath it and pulling the creature's huge bulk forward. Armour plates lined the back, and three long tails, each with two claws at the end, whipped through the air.

Time abruptly sped up again, and the creature landed in front of Warren. Instead of springing on its victim, however, it bowed its head slightly.

Shadow crouched, ready to jump onto the creature's back.

A stream of colourless fluid jetted from the tube on the creature's head. Warren screamed, fell backwards, struggled for a moment, and then went still. The creature slashed its claws forwards, and shredded the man in a spray of blood and entrails.

Shadow slammed into the attacker, and sliced his claws downwards at its armour plates, and was shocked to note the resistance to the attack. He had become used to being able to penetrate solid metal with relative ease, and hadn't been expecting a bony carapace to provide a problem.

The claws were still sufficient, though, and ripped into the creature's back. It screamed as green blood sprayed from the wound, but to Shadow's horror, the flow stopped almost instantly.

Two of the thing's tails whipped around and slammed into him, but he held on. The third one went straight at him, claws snapping, but they didn't have the strength to penetrate the thick Xenomorph carapace.

The other two drones leapt at the creature, one landing on a leg, the other grappling onto its chest. Both attacked feverishly, and the monstrosity slowly dropped to its knees, even its terrifying regenerative abilities failing it.

Shadow climbed up to its neck, and reached his claws down around its throat. >Take this, you little…> he snarled, and ripped upwards. With one final cry of distress, the creature collapsed and fell still.

Jake stared at the scene of three Aliens and an otherworldly predator, all covered in greenish blood.

>I think my earlier point is proved,> said Shadow quietly. If there are creatures like this around, we may have to stick together indefinitely…

Othar'a saluted the kiande invisibly. To take down a levascara like that would have been a feat any Yautja would have been proud of, even with plasma casters and discs.

The Silent Voice hissed softly, and the Elder's voice sounded within their helmets.

"Othar'a? Kal'Arak'e? Where are you? We have arrived at the meeting point! You were ordered to remain there!"

Kal'Arak'e sighed. "Elder, I take responsibility for leaving our post. My curiosity of the new wreck became too great, and Othara accompanied me in investigating. We have discovered something of great interest…"

Welcome to Hades. You didn't think this story's original title was just a fancy name, did you? This is Hell, all right… that levascara is just the beginning. Feedback about the Predators would be much appreciated – I'm pretty familiar with Alien lore, but Predators are a bit of a grey area.