Whoa it's been a while... and for that I appologise : ) But two hard drive wipes and a new hard drive later I'm back with a nice new chapter! Yay! Enjoy : )

Blades slashed downwards, and the xenomorph drone gave a final shuddering scream before collapsing, its corrosive blood already eating away at the thick grid floor.D'ran started to move towards it, but then paused, listening for anything that could be near. This creature had originally been with another when he'd ambushed them, and he wasn't about to die because he'd let his guard down at the wrong time. Technological scans coming up with nothing and D'ran continued towards the fallen alien, now more at ease.

>The other must have fled once it lost its arm. Coward.

He looked up the corridor, eyes following the pitted trail left by the bleeding stump the drone now had. Easily followed, and injured hard meat went back to their hive, to safety, to their Queen…
D'ran's eyes narrowed slightly, thinking of the greatest foe a Yautja could defeat, of the honour such a victory would confirm upon him…
The thought continued, he was standing on the Queen's great crest, shattered and broken from battle, his sentence over turned, Bel'nari…
Bel'nari, and the disgust on her face as she looked at him…

He shook his head, trying to focus on the here and now, where all hunters should dwell.
Remembering past pain would not help him.

He checked his surroundings again before approaching his trophy, the second he had claimed so far. Quickly he dressed the carcass, taking the head off and dousing it with a liquid to neutralise the acid blood. A tap on his wrist pad brought a spike up out of his back unit, where he impaled the head next to his first hard meat kill. Leaving the rest of the body D'ran set off, following the grooves the wounded hard meat had made with its fallen body fluids. Two trophies so far was not bad, the other skulls of alien creatures from Rihion, Tellogos, Earth and where ever else they'd collected not worth as much but still valuable, still proof of his skills. Besides, soon there would be three heads against his back, when he caught up with the one has was pursuing.
Unless, of course, one of those cowardly recruits had found it first.
D'ran snarled slightly, those damm youngsters. He'd past two of their corpses on his wanderings in the ship, one not even killed by a hard meat. He'd left the strange gorging creature alone; it had the right to eat its prey. His snarl deepened into a look of contempt, a true Yautja was never prey! If any mangy, spineless child took his kill, taking advantage of the injury he'd made…
D'ran increased his pace. That would not happen, and if it did, then the situation was easily rectified…

Despite its injuries, the young drone had managed to put some distance between itself and the one who'd hurt it. Quiet chittering noises bubbled from its throat near constantly, and its uneven gait wobbled back and forth as it tried to compensate for the lost limb. Once again it reached out to the Queen, for her comforting presence, and for a mental pin point of where she, and safety, lay.

Yet the ship's layout was confusing, and while the lone xenomorph was near to the Queen's chamber, there was no way into it close by. With no other hive members near, and its own blood masking any guiding scent trails left by scouts, there was no way for the drone to know that the mental reading of the Queens's presence it was relying on would not help it find her.

Suddenly it pulled up sharply, or tried to. Without one of its arms to brace a sudden stop against the drone tumbled awkwardly over its head before stopping, gurgling in protest, in a slightly tangled heap. Straightening out, it reared onto its back legs, and stretched its head out, swaying slightly back and forth. It could sense something, something like the Queen but, at the same time, not.
Settling back down onto all of its remaining limbs the drone continued forward, but this time moving with more caution than it previously had.

"AGHH." Joanne cried, suddenly clutching her head, eyes closed, wincing in pain.

"What's wrong?" Kelly instantly asked eyes large, grabbing at Joanne's arm for her to speak.

"Something's happening… Cth'ctchi, he's doing something, but I don't know what. Ugh. Whatever he's doing, I fell sorry for whoever's on the receiving end. And there's something else, the something that I felt in the room before we where attacked, it's responding… it hurts…" Joanne grasped her head with both hands, pressing the palms into her closed eyes. Imaginary colours danced in her mind, yet couldn't distract her from what was happening in the mental backdrop of the ship.

Kelly bit her lip, eyes darting around the side tunnel they were hiding in. Having heard Joanne's story, she didn't know what to believe anymore, all this stuff about aliens and mind reading and, and Mark… She quickly shut that train of thought off, like Joanne had told her too, though tears where already streaming down her cheeks. There will be time later to cry, she had said, but now we have to stay alert and ready to move.
She hugged Joanne to her, rocking slightly back and forth, trying to keep thoughts of Mark out of her head and trying to comfort Joanne, still curled up against the mental barrage not even directed at her.

Then she heard a strange crackling sound, like water on a live wire,
And a clicking noise.

Kelly started to shake, arms tightning around Joanne, gaze boring into the opposite wall. She couldn't look round, couldn't face what had found them. The weapons Joanne had briefly shown her how to use seemed miles away, though really they were only just out of reach. If she dived for them…

>Don't. Joanne said into her head. >It's a Predator. He'll kill us before we even reach them.

>You're ok?

>Cth'ctchi and the other thing are being more focused on each other, and something else now but as long as it's not me I'll be ok.

>Can you do something?

>I'll try.

Rea'gul stood at the entrance to the small tunnel leading off the main shaft. He could hear the humans. He turned off his cloak, this would be easy enough as it was, and, lacking a hunting mask to do the job for him looked over the two, huddled not too far into the passage.
He clicked in annoyance. Both female by the smell of it and what weapons they did have where not within their reach.
Therefore not, technically, eligible for hunting.
He turned, giving them the opportunity to shoot at his back as he left, which would allow him to battle them. He snorted at the thought, battle was not really the word, slaughter would be closer to it.

But instead of the mad scramble for their weapons he'd been expecting his mind went blank, numbness covering him.
Then it started to hurt.

>Is it working Joanne?

>PLEASE Kelly this is hard enough as it is.

Rea'gul roared and turned back to face the girls, was this their doing somehow? He'd never even heard of humans with such capabilities but that didn't mean there weren't any… Luckily for him who ever was doing it wasn't very skilled, with only occasional flashes of pain burning across his head. Not Cth'ctchi then.
He started to step towards them.

>JOANNE!

>I'M TRYING KELLY!

>NO, IT'S NOT THAT! WHATS BEHIND IT?

Suddenly the presence was gone, and Rea'gul's senses returned to him. He shook his head and snarled at them, mandibles flaring.
And was knocked violently off his feet.

Got another chapter almost done... so the next update should be sooner than six months away : )