At four years old Mom began drilling me in traditional Yatja martial arts. This part of Mom's teaching was absolutely grueling, as it required me to be physically ready, and focused every moment we did it. I should say it wasn't all that bad at first. She'd walked me through the steps on how to preform the moves and motions necessary to execute them successfully, before moving on to the physical demonstrations, which were OMFG painful. She tried her best not to make it to painful, but I could also tell she was trying not to hold to far back, because if I was going to survive I'd have to know what to expect. Especially if I fought the Shadows.
I eventually got good at it, and Mom would always congratulate me on preforming a successful take down on her. Normally when sucklings begin their training as hunters, they practice on dummies before moving on to actual opponents. I'd say Mom was a better teacher, since she was my teacher and she could fight back.
A few months after I began learning martial arts, the marines had a new training area installed, which just so happened to be right outside our enclosure, that I could clearly observe from the large overhead side window from my perch on the trees. Even though the marines had just been through a seven year long war, their numbers were still in the green area, although there were more marines existing on other colonized planets, not just the ones that belonged to Weyland Yutani, but other big tycoons like the Chigusa corporation, and Biotech International. Also I should mention that while Weyland had began his Corporate Security Task Force program it wasn't as big at the time, and were mostly relegated to some ex-marines, and combat androids who were tasked with guarding his precious pet monsters.
The training area was an open sandy field with workout equipment everywhere, a jogging circle in the middle with a stadium at the side, and a bunch of small sheet metal structures that served as combat training areas, or the marines barracks. The marines did practice their martial arts training outside these structures though which allowed me to enjoy watching them from my little perch atop the trees.
It was amusing in a motivational sense. These guy's looked like the ultimate badasses, and having been trained under Major Hadrick Schaefer's direction, they practically were. I'd watch them do hand-to-hand combat, knife training, and target practice every single day. As I watched them, I'd memorize their movements and try to preform the exact same movements as they did. I even used some of those moves on Mom during martial arts, or bladed weapon training. Mom didn't approve of it at first, although after watching the marines herself, she saw that it would be a good idea for me to know their tactics and encouraged me to continue watching them.
She was pretty proud of me. But not nearly as surprised as Major Hadrick Shaefer was when he first saw me. Hadrick had often came in and out of our containment area, mostly just to check on the marine guards, or to get to the mess hall as our containment area was pretty close to the cafeteria.
Occasionally he would glance at us, and me and Mom would always stare back when he did. There was always this hard look on his face that always creeped me out, then again that's just how he looked all the time. On this occasion however, it was filled with surprise. His look was still hard but you could see it in his face. I never really knew about him myself, there was more to this Ooman than I thought. Mom knew about him, and whenever she saw him she would always scowl contemptuously.
Hadrick, as you could already tell by his last name, was a Schaefer. Now my species had had several run ins with members of his family, which go all the way back to 1987 when an elite hunter of the Jungle Hunter clan fought Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer in Central America. The hunter had managed to kill Dutch's whole team, but the Major himself managed to best the hunter, causing the Yatja to honor kill himself. The major mysteriously went missing shortly afterward; however his older brother ,John Schaefer, who was a New York cop, was able to continue the legacy of the Schaefers, and had several encounters with our kind. Each time John came out as the victor. Subsequent members of the family that followed after would also have encounters with our kind. Most times we would fight each other, while other times we would fight together. The latter being the case during the Earth War when a shadow hive formed in San Drad, California. The Schaefer Ooman, who was also a Marine Major named Dutch, fought alongside two Yatja warriors, along with another marine named Linn Kurosawa, against the shadows, and successfully destroyed all of them. The Schaefer lineage continued on with them, and many other hunters would fight the Schaefers. All of them were unsuccessful. I learned about this from stories Mom had told me about his family, and some files I read up on years later. Now because of all of this our species held the Schaefers in high regard. These were the only Oomans our kind had encountered that we could not defeat, and we honored and respected them because of it.
However, judging by the dirty looks Mom always gave him it seemed like there was something between Hadrick and her. I didn't know why she had so much contempt for him at the time, until he finally came and talked to us.
It was late in the evening, and we were enjoying our evening feeding that the scientists had given us. We were by the glass barrier that separated the containment cell from the hall ways in front of it, when Hadrick had materialized behind us. We'd kept our backs to the glass door when he gave a light tap on the glass that startled us. Once mom saw who it was she grabbed me protectively, and backed away, growling angrily as she did.
Schaefer was in his casual wear with a red t-shirt and light brown jeans, with a pistol holster around his waist on his right side. He wasn't exactly old but looking at his trimmed grey hair, scarred face with three parallel lines running down the side of his head down to his square lower jaw, and sour face you'd think he was. He was pretty big for a Ooman, as all Schaefer males were.
"Hey... How you doing?" Schaefer greeted us as he spoke awkwardly through the speaker system on the glass door. Mom only responded by growling at him. She'd moved me behind on of the trees in out containment cell. There was a hole she'd dug where I could fit my body into, in case I needed a place to hide. There were a few bushes over it that helped keep the hole hidden from view. I went into it as she moved me towards it allowing Mom and Schaefer to have their confrontation.
"Look I know you're pissed at me, and I don't blame you. I promise you I'm not gonna hurt you or your kid." Hadrick assured her.
Mom wouldn't hear it though. "Fck off!" She told him in our language, giving him the middle finger as she did so. We'd learned a few thing about Ooman gestures and interactions from the scientists and marine guards who were especially vulgar in their speech.
"Look all I want to do is talk." Hadrick spoke. This time he surprised us as he spoke our language.
"Leave us alone! You Oomans have cause us enough trouble!" Mom spat back at him in English. She may have been surprised by his ability to speak our language, although she was to spiteful to care for to long.
"Look, I understand that you're angry, and I don't blame you. I'd be pissed off too if I was on the other side of the glass."
"Why do you pity us ,Schaefer Ooman?! As it was you who put us in this cage, and your scholars who killed my children, and dishonored my only child!" She still considered herself as the dishonorable one, although after everything the scientists had done to us, she learned to hate Oomans. Although Schaefer was the only one she put partial blame on for our circumstance, since he was the one who had found her and allowed her to be captured in the first place.
"Listen, I'm sorry for what happened to you and your kid, but I just want to talk." Hadrick continued.
"Why should I speak to you Schaefer Ooman? And how do you know our language?" She asked in partial curiosity. Schaefer then moved his hands over to something that hung behind his pistol holster. He brought it out and displayed it to her. It was a smart disc. That got Mom's full attention. Her interest increased as she inspected the weapon closer. She continued to look at the weapon with surprise, and strange familiarity. She saw something on it that confirmed her suspicions.
"Where did you get that?" Mom asked. She looked at the circular weapon in recognition, like she'd seen this weapon before.
"Friend of yours gave it to me." The disc bore the symbol of our clan. The symbol had to intersecting lines on it with a dot in the top one. Mom fingered the glass in front of the weapon like it was the most precious and sacred object she'd ever seen. Hadrick moved over to the small, sliding, compartment door where the scientists gave us our food. He slipped the disc through to our side with little difficulty. Mom took it and held it gently in her hands. Her mandibles shook with a sad frown as she fingered the weapon in recognition.
"Remember it?" He asked.
Mom gave a firm nod. "Where did you get this?" Mom asked. Hadrick couldn't have just gotten this from any other Predator, this was from our clan, and judging from Mom's reaction to it, someone she knew.
Hadrick proceeded to explain his encounter with the Yatja that had given it to him. Way back when he was a Corporal, Hadrick Schaefer was on a rescue mission to save survivors from a colony that had been over run by the shadows. He and the rest of his team succeeded, but Hadrick ended up getting left behind. He spent days fighting to survive against the Shadows. Eventually he was caught and pinned down by several of the bastards, and was about to turn his pistol on himself, but at the last moment a Predator named A'rgr-lo had arrived and saved him.
A'rgr-lo had been leading a pack of young bloods in their right of passage in the same area, when Hadrick's rescue mission had been going on. Some of the marines ended up killing all of the young bloods. This angered A'rgr-lo and he continued the hunt so he could to find the marines who'd killed his hunting party. After saving Hadrick, the two fought each other. The Yatja came very close to killing Hadrick, but a shadow ambushed the hunter, and Schaefer ended up returning the favor and saving A'rgr-lo. The two stopped fighting and teamed up. After fighting through swarms of Shadows together the two became good allies. At the end of the hunt however, A'rgr-lo ended up mortally wounded after fighting a Predalien. Hadrick managed to kill the Predalien, and they both escaped in a dropship. A'rgr-lo's wounds were to severe and the honorable hunter gave Schaefer his final respects by marking him on his arm, and gifting him with the smart disc Our clan picked his body up shortly thereafter. Hadrick even displayed the mark A'rgr-lo had given him to prove it.
Mom explained afterward that A'rgr-lo had been her brother, and she had given him this smart disc. Mom closed her eyes and silently wept over the circular weapon. After a short moment to weep, Mom apologized to Schaefer. He apologized to her as well, stating that he didn't mean for this to happen, and only wanted to help. He wasn't as bad as she'd made him out to be. She returned the smart disc to him and the two had a short conversation. It was mostly about me having learned how to master combat. Hadrick called a prodigy as he called me, but I believe that it was just Mom's early teaching.
He visited us many more times after that, mostly at night when almost nobody was around to see, and would have lots of friendly talks. Weyland's scientists did find out about this, although they didn't do anything to stop him, as they believed it would make us understand that Oomans weren't all bad, which they aren't but I don't know what they were expecting us to make of them when all they did was just do tests on us and sht. Time passed and Hadrick's and Mom's friendship grew to the point where they sort of saw each other as siblings. Mom even called Schaefer her "Hunter Brother". It's a term we use in regard to persons we respect and love highly enough to call our brother. Mom had regarded this Ooman as her own brother, such behavior was unheard of in our culture. Not to say that it wasn't allowed, or it couldn't be done it's just it never happened. While it's true we do allow humans to enter our clans, we do not hold them with the same regard or status as we do other Yatja. Or at least my species doesn't. But then again this was no ordinary Ooman. His ancestry was full of warriors who'd had many fights with our species. Not only that, but this honorable and gifted individual had fought with a member of our family against the Shadows. He deserved the honor.
At the time, I personally never really cared for him. But that all changed when Mom died.