Predator and Prey
Guan'De roared a challenge, the sound reverberating in his helmet. His prey stared at him, pure malice shooting from its reptilian eyes; malice that he knew also reflected from his own. Its tail snaked back and forth behind it, its 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, and dropped to a combat stance. The creature leaped.
With one bound, the Kainde Ahmedha covered the fifteen meters between them. Screeching its piercing 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 barely dodged its tail; regrettably, the Yautjian words "no fear" did not halt the Xenomorph's dreadful attack.
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. But Guan was familiar with his Prey's ways; he tucked his legs under then kicked out as hard as he could and quickly leapt to his feet as he watched his foe fly back a good distance.
He extended his customized wrists blades to their full three-quarters of a meter with a flourish, the polished metal reflecting the light full moon. After the standard half meter blade he had used on his first hunt failed him, he had made longer and stronger 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, wildly lashing out with its tail, it nearly speared him, but he was ready for it. He twisted to the side and slashed with his dangerously sharp wrist blades, severing a whole meter of its tail from its body.
The beast shrieked in pain as it collapsed on all-fours and hastily scrambled back into the benighted jungle, the acidic blood streaming from its tail, burning into the rainforest's floor.
Guan chuckled to himself while eyeing the beast as he detached a shuriken from his belt.
'So, it ends.' He hurled the shuriken.
Warmth seeped throughout his body as his mind suddenly awakened. His nerves tingled all over his body, but he could hardly move. His eyes opened and darted back and forth, trying to identify his surroundings. He was in a large room with gray, metallic walls and bulkheads along the sides. In front of his face, past his helmet visor, was a glass covering that confined him in the small space; then, as instant as a flash of lightning, he remembered.
His cryo-tube hissed open, as a cryo-bay technician quickly approached him. The exhaust from the tube billowed around him. The newly awakened soldier slowly looked up at the wall into the control room overlooking the cryo-bay. Above, there was another technician manning the console in the control room.
The first technician turned away and addressed the one manning the console.
"You'd better get to your evac-group, Sam." he said urgently. Sam nodded in agreement as he worked the controls at his console.
"Right," he responded "I just have to re-set the computer and I'm out of here." There was a loud bang at the control room door; everyone instantly looked to it.
"Oh no!" Sam yelled "They're trying to get through the door! Security, intruders in cryo-" Sam was interrupted by an abrupt explosion. The door was blasted to pieces and two large figures walked through the opening, bearing handheld plasma weapons. Sam took several steps backward as the invaders walk toward him; his expression was enveloped in fear as they raised their weapons. Sam froze, staring frightfully into their cold eyes.
"No, please don't!" he screamed as the assailants fired; his lifeless and plasma-burnt body thudded as it struck the metal floor of the control room.
"Sam, Sam!" yelled the tech. He turned back and glanced at the Marine.
"Come on, we've got to get the heck out of here!" the Technician exclaimed, as the large, armored soldier climbed out of the tube, "This way!"
The tech sprinted through the door, the Marine half a step behind him. As the Tech paced down the corridor and opened the hall door, an explosion ripped through the wall; he screamed as shrapnel shredded his body. He dropped dead; the Soldier didn't bother to check for a pulse. He was now alone.
He surveyed the door. It obviously was damaged beyond repair; the servos that opened and closed it were now slag. He quickly studied the corridor; he found only one possible exit. He wasn't sure where to go from there, for his mind was still recovering from his long sleep; but he knew that it was dangerous to stay there.
He traversed through several recognizable passages, until he could hear distant gun fire echoing throughout the corridors. He cautiously continued on towards the commotion, not knowing what lay ahead; he soon found himself in the middle of a tense fire fight between several marines and many different types of familiar aliens. An Aussie marine approached him, sweat pouring off of his face.
"Sir, the Captain needs you on the bridge A.S.A.P. You'd better follow me." he shouted above the weapons fire. A plasma bolt shot between the two marines, and they both leapt between the barricades placed in the corridor. "It's now or never." said the Aussie."
He turned to his fellow marines. "I'm escorting the Chief to the bridge. Keep up the good work, mates!"
They set off from the battle and made their way through a nearby weapons locker. It had been exhausted of all ammunition and weapons, and had been piling up with wounded and dead marines for some time. The ship was obviously being boarded by the enemy; the Covenant were giving the marines a run for their money.
It wasn't too long before they reached the entrance to the bridge, but the intruders were close by, and the marine's numbers were dwindling rapidly. It was for that reason that the Aussie turned back to hold off the enemy at the entry way of the deck.
The Chief entered the bridge, passing through a small platoon of soldiers guarding the entrance, and made his way to the forward section. He approached the main view screen at the center of the command deck, and there, before the screen stood an aged man with very military bearing, wearing a grey uniform with hair equally as grey. He was blowing puffs of smoke out of his mouth, while holding the end of a pipe between his teeth.
The Chief slowly walked up behind the man, towering over him by a third of a meter. "Captain Keyes." the Chief addressed him in his faintly raspy voice. The Captain turned and firmly shook the Marine's hand.
"Good to see you, Master Chief. Things aren't going well."
The Covenant's boarding parties crawled through the ship like termites through an old, rotted house. A single lifeboat was all that remained.
The Master Chief vaulted over the barricade that he had been using for cover, spraying the minor ranked Covenant elites in blue armor who were standing guard by the life pod with his assault rifle. Their shielding could not long withstand his onslaught, for by the time they realized that they were under attack; they were drowning in their own blood.
Heavy fire from a dozen Covenant cruisers' plasma cannons had been thundering into the hull of the Pillar of Autumn for a good part of an hour. The life pods' best chance for survival was a large ring that appeared to be orbiting the gas giant nearest to it. The Chief wondered at the ship's location: when the Pillar of Autumn left the battle at Reach, it was forced to make a blind jump into space, so as to not lead the enemy Covenant Armada to Earth.
Though they accomplished their goal of not compromising Earth's safety, they had been followed by an entire fleet of Covenant battle cruisers. As soon as all the lifeboats were launched, Captain 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 door as plasma bolts melted holes into the wall behind him.
He quickly checked the hallway; one marine had not yet reached the safety of the life pod. Stumbling, he fell just as the Chief charged toward the open pod door.
"One last lifeboat!" yelled a female voice. "Quick, get aboard before it launches!"
The sounds of explosions were echoing throughout the entire vessel, and the bulkheads were shaking as the ship was continually beat down by the ruthless Covenant fleet.
"Oh no, oh no!" the fallen marine shrieked.
The Chief picked up the marine by the back of his armor vest and tossed him into the pod. He turned toward the Covenant soldiers who were following them, drew his pistol and fired several rounds into the fray.
"Now would be a very good time to leave!" the voice urged again.
The Master 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." she responded.
The lifeboat's thrusters ignited, blasting it into the void of space. The small craft shot away just in time to escape the weapons fire of a nearby Covenant battle-cruiser.
"We're disengaged; going for minimum safe distance." reported the Pilot. After several seconds, the pod cleared the Pillar of Autumn. The recently rescued marine looked up into the Chief's mask, unable to see his expression.
"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 troubled marine's shoulder, indicating his confidence that they'd survive. Then, out of curiosity, he walked up to the front of the pod to get a better view.
"Look." said the voice.
The Chief spotted their destination. The Ring's inner surface looked very similar to that of Earths - different kinds of land masses, bodies of water, forests and mountain ranges. It appeared to posses all of the traits of a regular minshara class planet. The outer surface however was metallic and mechanical; almost like a giant machine.
"What is that thing, Lieutenant?" a marine asked the pilot.
"Heck if I know," she responded "but we're landing on it."
Another marine looked back to see the Pillar of Autumn sustain several more hits from the relentless enemy vessels. The massive ship plunged towards the ring's surface, passing up the lifeboat as it came.
"The Autumn!" the marine shouted, "She's been hit!"
"I knew it!" the voice exclaimed, "The Autumn is accelerating; Keyes must be flying her in manually!"
"Heads up, everyone; we'll be entering the Ring's atmosphere in five." said the Pilot as the lifeboat began to shake violently. The Chief was nearly shaken to the floor but quickly braced himself on the pod wall.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" the voice asked.
"We'll be fine." he said to her reassuringly. They all assumed the worst as the life-boat began to pass through the upper atmosphere, flames dancing off of the outer hull.
"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed."
Guan felt disgusted as he watched twelve large warships hammering, what looked to him like a colony ship. 'Where is the honor in just murdering thousands upon thousands of helpless Oomans?' he thought. Still, the colonist showed a great deal of intelligence and resilience determining from the fact that they had been able to destroy four of the large warships, and disable several more.
He had been investigating the large ring-like planet in the system to find out if there where any creatures on it that would make good trophies for his collection. Thus far, he had found none.
When this colony ship dropped out of light speed, it tore an enormous hole in subspace. The armada of ships that were attacking the colony vessel had been hiding in the sensor shadow of the desolate planet, obviously waiting. 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.
This in turn, provoked the warships to swarm out of their hiding place like bees out of a bee hive, plasma cannons blazing.
The colony ship's main weapon, a large cannon of sorts, might have been able to disable a few more of its attackers, but the boarding parties that the warships had sent aboard had apparently disabled it. The cannon fell silent after immobilizing the fourth warship.
During the uproar, Guan detected a power spike in the colony ship and had used his bio scanner to get a view of what was happening. Apparently they had unfrozen a warrior from a cryo-tube; a Super-Ooman.
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 it was carrying; things that would be useful for waging war. It was considerably small compared to its oppressors, and wasn't to be considered a heavily armed vessel; but that didn't matter.
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 commanding officer, then fought his way through party after party of enemy soldiers on his way to an escape pod. Guan was truly impressed; this Ooman fought as well as a young-blood class Yautja, or maybe even better.
Guan's insatiable curiosity and thirst for the hunt drew him to the Ooman. 'I must investigate this'. Guan powered up his ship's engines and laid in a landing course that would be near to the Ooman's craft. It would be a good hunt.
The Ooman's head would make a worthy trophy.