Hello to those reading this!

Keen, thank you for your nice review : ) hopefully Joanne will start kicking ass soon, as you're not the first to wonder at her lack of, erm, ass kickingness (Dazzler 420, hope you're still reading too :D ). If she doesn't then she'll die and then I'll have to find a new lead person thing, which is never good.

To the others reading along, enjoy the new chapter : )

Rea'gul was furious. He had no choice but to go with whatever had rammed into him, and he rolled forwards while at the same time curling his legs underneath his attacker. At the moment when it would have the most effect, he kicking the thing forward off of him. His feet had connected with soft tissue, so the creature was not a xenomorph. Rea'gul roared as he ended the roll in a crouched fighting stance, glaring at the sprawling figure, which was whipping to its feet. It faced him and gave a bizarre cackling noise, which was echoed a little distance away.

>Great. Skliths.

Rea'gul instantly activated his shoulder cannon, and it whirred to life, targeting the creature quickly but not quiet fast enough…
BAM!
The thing hit his chest, knocking him to the ground. He immediately covered his face with his arms, a good thing as they blocked the sklith's snapping jaws that where aiming for his face and neck. These creatures relied on speed and their jaws to kill, always biting rather than clawing. Sheer instinct had directed the bites to Rea'guls unprotected face and neck, rather than the knowledge they where vulnerable. Once again Rea'gul cursed his carelessness for allowing his mask to be damaged.
The sklith was champing on his armoured arms now, trying to get either around or through them so it could kill. Rea'gul felt it concentrate on one arm for a second longer than it should have and grabbed its neck with the free arm, crushing the breath and life from it easily.
He quickly got up and faced the entrance to the side tunnel, humans forgotten for the moment. The first one had called to its pack, and they had answered, so soon more would be here…

A black haze flashed across the tunnel entrance, then several more, their crowing calls reverberating round the small space. Any second now they'd pour into it, trying to overwhelm their target by speed and ferocity. It was a strategy that almost always worked, if one was not adequately protected against their strong, sharp bites. Rea'gul unsheathed his wrist blades and projected his combat spear to its full length, standing ready for their assault. Then the black clouds were flowing towards him, calling to one another as their stubby claws clicked on the grid floor as they ran. Rea'gul let a barrage of blue projectiles light up the tunnel briefly, killing one and hopefully slowing some of them down.
Then they were on him, leaping to try and knock him over or get enough height to make the deadly strike they knew so well.
Rea'gul knew the technique for fighting them, the trick being to get them to hold still long enough to harm or kill them. He let one clamp onto his left leg and while two fastened to his left arm, the arm his wrist blades where on.
In a fluid motion Rea'gul brought his combat spear thrusting round into the bodies of those on his arm. The force of the strike sent the tip through the first one and into the second, killing both.
His left arm was now free to strike at the one on his leg, and he discarded his spear with the two impaled corpses on it for now. Then one of the jumping skliths snagged some of his dreadlocks in its jaws, and it landed heavily, pulling in rapid tugs to try and bring the tall Predator down to the packs level. Pulled backwards off balance, Rea'guls situation was not looking good when BAM! Inches away from his head the attacking sklith exploded into bloody fragments as a blue projectile blasted through it and into the floor.
This gave Rea'gul just enough time to look up, see the leaping sklith bearing down on him and react in the way Predators do best.

Joanne tried to keep her eyes on the darting black shadows but they where too fast! Kelly was crouched behind her, spear held loosely across her chest, eyes also trying to keep up with the aliens, while she had the Predator 'gun', trying to be ready for when the black things would notice them. Several where attached to the front of the Predator, but Joanne was reluctant to shoot through him as then all the creatures would concentrate on Kelly and herself, and she doubted she could take on the whole pack…
Then one caught hold of the Predator's weird hair and dragged him down, others leaping to finish the kill.
A clear shot at last. She didn't even hesitate.
Before the noise from the weapon had faded away two of the alien creatures were looking at them. Joanne used their hesitation to fire a spray of glowing 'bullets' across the narrow tunnel that separated them and without even looking to see the result she dived back to Kelly, grabbing the spear from her in exchange for the gun and pushing the frightened young woman away from her.

"IF YOU GET A CLEAR SHOUT TAKE IT!" Joanne shouted as she felt rather than saw one of the aliens speeding towards her. She had time to turn before SMACK, huge paws hit her chest, knocking her off her feet and flat on her back to the ground. Instinct took over and she raised her arms, and the spear they carried, to protect her face. Just in time, the sklith's jaws clanged down on the metal, shattering several of its fangs. The splinters fell into Joanne's face as she tried to kick the beast off her, feet seeking purchase on its sleek black hide… THERE! Felling the end of the rib cage she kicked as hard as she could at the soft stomach area, shoving the surprised creature a back, enough for her to quickly swivel an end of the spear round.
She saw, almost in slow motion, it begin its second pounce at her, jaws wide in a hideous grin, and she closed her eyes, praying she'd got the right end of the spear pointed at it…

He was close, that much he could tell. D'ran kept going. The hard meat had lead him on a merry little chase, surprising considering its injuries. Never mind, the only thing up on this level was the control room, which was locked, so soon he'd corner it and he could concentrate on a new target. Preferably one that did more fighting than running.He could hear it now, or one of its kind, screeching and thrashing up ahead. That wasn't right, while they might not be too intelligent hard meat still knew to keep quiet and still when being hunted. D'ran paused, listening to its struggles and hisses. Perhaps it was fighting with something, not a Yautja as he couldn't hear any of the roars his own species made when in combat, one of the other alien creatures perhaps?
Activating his cloaking device D'ran carefully moved forwards, not wanting to disturb whatever was going on, yet still wanting to know what was happening to the quarry he'd chased for so long.
Hot blood splattered over Joanne as the sklith's leap impaled it on the spear. It screeched in pain, writhing and snapping at her and she screamed for Kelly to finish it.

"KELLY! GOD DAMMIT SHOOT THE THING!"

But she was frozen, and those jaws where getting closer to Joanne's head…
Joanne plunged into Kelly's mind and made her shoot the creauture, synapses lighting up like gunpowder trails as the impulses for her to lift the gun, aim correctly and fire blazed through her body to the muscles they would act upon.
More blood and body parts showered Joanne.
Wiping the worst of it from her eyes Joanne got up quickly, shoving what was left of the alien off her and raising her spear, ready for the next one.
But she needn't have worried. The Predator was holding the last, a pile of it's pack mates at his feet, pulling his left fist back, blades bloody and exposed…
Kelly turned away from the inevitable. She'd seen scenes like this before.

BAM

Florescent blood fountained from where the Predators left arm was, the last, now dead sklith dropping to the ground while the Predator roared in pain and fury. Joanne spun to see Kelly, still pointing the gun in the direction she'd last fired, determination written on her face. Joanne inwardly bemoaned her intervention on Kelly's inability to shoot, Predators took more than a couple of badly aimed shots to kill!
The Predator turned and bellowed at them, slowly advancing, arm dripping vivid green gore onto the dead skliths and floor. Joanne gritted her teeth, there was nothing for it now. She pulled her blood covered top up, exposing her stomach and the mark it bore for the hunter to see, shouting at Kelly to finish what she'd started. He paused only slightly, roared again and continued to advance, walking past Joanne towards Kelly, who fired a shot that the hunter easily dodged.
Joanne ran forward bringing the spear around in a low arc, aiming at the back of the massive alien's legs. He dropped into an awkward block, fending off the blow before grabbing the spear, pulling Joanne into him. Mandibles full flare he bellowed in Joanne's face before shoving her and the spear to the opposite side of the tunnel and continuing his advance on Kelly. Another shot fired, another shot avoided.
Winded from smacking into the tunnel, and trying to overcome her own fear of Predators that that close encounter had brought back, Joanne reached for the only weapon she had left as the hunter batted the gun from Kelly's hands, grasped her by the neck and, continuing his stride, slammed her into the tunnel's dead end.

>Focus Joanne, for once in your life focus…

The pain hit Rea'gul like a blunt object, crushing all other thoughts from his mind. He dropped the cowardly, pathetic human who'd lost him his arm and grasped the side of his head with his remaining hand, howling against the unseen, untouchable foe. Then, for the second time, Rea'gul was again knocked back by something that had been hidden, and now had pounced, aiming for his head.
But this time it wasn't black.

D'ram stopped as he turned the last corner. A strange scene greeted his eyes.

There was the hard meat drone, trying to tie itself in knots by the look of it, using all of its limbs to scratch at its domed head, the shiny round shell now punctured and scarred with rivulets of acid blood running down it. Just beyond the range of the blood the xenomorph was flinging from its movements was a Predator, watching, and beyond that, the door to the control room, still locked.
At its base where two humans, crouching in fear or unconsciousness, he couldn't tell.

>Is this one yours D'ran?

D'ran's hand automatically went to his forehead, or his helmets forehead.
Damm Cth'ctchi...

The huge Predator had stopped struggling now, although his remaining limbs occasionally twitched.
Kelly was crouched against the back of the tunnel, Joanne against the wall nearest to her, both staring at the thing clamped over the hunter's face.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Kelly, Shut the fuck up."

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