The Ancient Hunter

"Fire!" The high caliber shots of the rifle went forth and tore the door apart, leaving nothing but a frame behind. Bruno was the first to step through the door, brushing some sparks of his vest, next was Grimmer, then Jack and finally Mina. They all made their way down the corridor, the only lighting being a strange reddish glow that seemed like it was coming from everywhere.

"So why are we here again?" Jack said as he strapped his rifle to his back.

"To do what we always do, what ever the fuck our contractor wants." Grimmer replied lighting up his cigarette and putting the match pack back in his vest pocket.

"Which is what exactly?"

"Jack, if you don't start reading the briefings we are gonna use you in place of the dummy bots next training session." Bruno yelled.

"Yes captain." Jack shrunk back a bit.

"We are here because we have been ordered to retrieve a cryo tube from the center of this…thing they call a temple." Mina told him as she looked over her PDR "Pick up the pace guys we don't have all day!"

"Yes ma'am." They all replied in unison. They walked for a few hours through the maze of twist and turns and felt as if they would never find the center, but after some time they did and what a sight it was. It was gigantic! The ceiling could hardly be seen and the walls were all hundreds of meters apart. The entire room was lit by the same creepy glow as the rest of the temple but that is not what Mina and the group were thinking about, it was the tube in the center that held their attention.

"Looks like we found it guys," Grimmer said putting his tenth cigarette in his mouth and lighting it.

"I would say so baldy." Jack teased then ran forward to look at the tube, the control panel confused the hell out of him.

"You touch, I shoot, move aside." Mina crouched down after Jack backed off and examined it for a few minutes "This could take awhile so why don't you look around?"

"Alright." Everyone fanned out looking at the wonders the room had to offer, there were runes all over the place, jewels and skulls on every inch of the wall and even a few things that looked like cases but of course they hadn't the foggiest idea how to open them.

"Somthin just doesn't feel right about this place." Grimmer muttered as he walked around "It seems like there is somthin else here," He took a deep drag on the cig "Maybe it's a ghost." He chuckled as he threw the cig in front of him and saw it bounce of thin air "What the fu…" he was cut off by the small metal object that sprung forth from in front of him, he moved to the side and drew his pistol lightning fast firing it at eye level. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw a burst of fluorescent blood spray out from the bullets trajectory. Light itself seemed to bend and revealed a dark armored yautja with a gaping hole in his neck; he fell quickly to the floor.

"What the fuck was that?" Jack yelled from a few meters away. Similar exclamations came from the rest of the group.

"It's a Pred, watch your backs!" Grimmer called to them "These bastards don't often go alone." Everyone closed into a circle around the tube; rifles at the ready, while Mina kept working. They were all nervous, only Grimmer had ever seen one of the things before today and they had all heard the stories of strung up skinned bodies and mutilated solders.

"Set your guns on burst people, we can't afford to waste ammo." Bruno said as he flicked a switch on his weapon.

"The moment you see something you take a shot, no hesitating." Grimmer said sternly "Trust me you will not get a second chance." Grimmer waited, sweeping the room with his eyes, looking for the slightest little distortion. He caught a glimpse that didn't look right and fired four shots, he was rewarded by another spray of florescent blood "How do you like that you son of a bitch?" he fired a few more shots at the body to make sure it stayed down.

"How do you know where they are?" Jack asked scared half to death.

"They bend light to hide themselves, you have to look for the slightest little difference in the landscape and fire at it." Grimmer smirked as he spoke "They are fast but they can't dodge bullets."

"It's a good thing we have you on our side then," Bruno said.

"Yeah we are lucky to have yo…" Jack was cut off by the three blue blasts that struck his chest, it split him open and sent him to the floor. He was gone before he hit the ground.

"Fuck!" Grimmer said firing off shots in random directions "I couldn't see the laser sight in this lighting!" He continued firing "Why didn't you take a piece of me mother fuckers!"

"Jack…" Mina uttered under her breath as she looked into Jack's lifeless eyes "Why? Why did it have to be you?"

"Focus Mina!" Bruno yelled "We need to get this bastard out of here!"

"I can't get it off the platform, I can only open it!"

"We can't do that because we don't know what is in it!" Bruno replied raising his voice "For all we know the thing in there could be more dangerous than the pr.." A spray of blood hit Mina's face, when she looked she saw the origin was Bruno's chest; two jagged blades were protruding from just below his stomach. Mina screamed and caused Grimmer to turn around and see what happened, he raised his rifle and flicked a switch before opening fire on the spot behind Bruno. When he was done the floor was a lake of fluorescent green blood with a body that only held a small resemblance to what it once was.

"We have already lost enough Mina lets get out of here." Grimmer said grapping Mina's arm and pulling her up.

"If we leave the pod then this will all be for nothing!"

"If we live then they will have died for something!" Grimmer pulled her towards the exit but half way there he bumped into an invisible object and fell back taking Mina with him to the floor. He raised his gun to fire at the spot but only a series of clicks took place, he was out of ammo. "For fu…" He was grabbed by the collar and thrown against the wall before he could finish; the Pred turned of his cloak and looked at him with a tilted head.

"Dead man." It uttered in a raspy voice while pulling out its spear.

"Your fucked buddy," Grimmer picked himself up and drew his army knife then jumped at the Pred, he swung his knife multiple times but the Pred always dodged or parried. Grimmer lost his footing a bit during on of his gabs and the Pred took advantage of this opening by thrusting its spear though Grimmer's right forearm, earning a roar of pain. Grimmer grabbed the spear with his free hand and pulled the predator forward, punched it in the throat and then buried his knife to the hilt in the things neck. "How do you like that you spotted piece of shit?" He kicked the predator down and stomped on its throat a few times until he was satisfied with its condition then helped Mina up. "Can we leave now?"

"Not quite yet," Mina brushed herself off then ran over to the pod "There is something I have to do."

"What the hell is going through your head?"

"This temple is supposed to be deserted and yet here we have a whole squad of these Pred things!"

"So? They came here just like us."

"Probably because they want the same thing as us, there is nothing else valuable in this temple."

"Yeah," Grimmer said as he thought, "They seemed surprised we were here too."

"So why would they show up; armed to the teeth, if they didn't know we were here?"

"Because they were scared of what was in the pod!"

"Exactly!" Mina pressed a few buttons on the control panel "I figure an enemy of them will be a good friend of ours or at least a good distraction."

"Then hurry the fuck up and open it!" Mina pressed the last button and the pod started to hiss, billows of mist came out as it opened. Inside they saw something they did not expect, a tall humanoid silhouette with dreadlocks coming down from its head. The mist cleared completely and revealed a proud yautja dawning silver armor with blue crystals placed decoratively all around it. Mina and Grimmer turned around to run but found themselves being surrounded by de-cloaking Predators all walking closer and closer to them. "We are royally fucked now."