Kjon's Audio Diary Log

March 10, 2621

I was terrible in boot camp, but then again everyone is when they first join the military. I just sucked at everything. I was kind of physically ready for some of the obstacles, but not all of them all at once. And I certainly wasn't mentally prepared for them either. I knew that this would be difficult, but I never understood just how difficult it would be until I was running 7 miles a day non-stop. Hadrick had become something of a father figure to me in that time, although he taught me to respect him as my instructor above everything. I could understand that, and I obediently complied. I wasn't bitter when he punished me, I understood it's purpose. Whenever I messed up I had to learn the price I was expected to pay for a mistake. Sure Hadrick was rough, but he was a sweet heart when it came to what the xenos would do, and he was much better than some of the grunts I trained with.

Hadrick had began punishing some of the other grunts whenever I began making a mistake. It was basically to teach them to motivate me to do better or else they'd all cause me pain. I never tried to be bad but that's just how it was. That is until I received another little motivational kick in the ass, from another asshole marine named Jones, and his two buddies Mike and Jamie. These guys were the worst when it came to my beatings in boot camp. This time they decided to teach me a lesson I'd never forget and in that regard they succeeded. They beat me, cut my genitals, and decided to make a remark about my mother's ass. Needless to say it didn't go very well for them. But I will say that they did give me the motivation that I needed to finally grow back what they'd cut off, and be a marine. It taught me I wasn't a kid anymore. I had to do better, I had to become better. So I manned the fck up.

I should also mention that, I'm grateful Hadrick stopped me from killing Jones when he did because of the promise I made.

Sorry if I get a little preachy. We preds are superstitious people. We're taught when we're young by are mothers about the existence of gods. I'm no exception. After I became Hadrick's adopted son, I became interested in his religion. He taught me everything he could about Christianity, and I grew to worship the one and only Jehovah there is. Upon my baptismal conversion I made the promise never to kill a single Ooman being unless it was for another's defense, a promise I later extended to my own people. I also promised I would do everything in my power to protect the Oomans from the shadows.

After I graduated my training when I was ten years old I decided to prove whether or not if I was capable of fulfilling that promise and, I made a special request to Hadrick. He obliged and managed to get me a shadow warrior.

I was going to fight it. It was the only way to prove myself. It's the only way any young-blood is able to prove himself, by killing a shadow and marking himself with the blood of his kill. That's how it's always been, and I was determined to be no different. Besides how could I know if I was ready when I had to do this for real. You may think that's stupid and I will agree it kind of is, but what else could I do?

So Hadrick got the shadow, and had this big circular chain-link fencing cage set up in the training yard out by the running circle in front of the stadium seats. Hadrick knew I wanted to prove myself, I'd also have to do it in front of everyone else. He was expecting a show, and he knew that everyone else would like a piece of the action too.

My day eventually came around. As predicted, every marine, derelict and fully trained fire-pisser, at this facility came out to behold the battle. The tension was pretty high when my day came. It was a hot summer day however, which did help fill my body with warmth. From what Mom and Hadrick told me about my species we Yatja mostly only like to hunt during hot summers when conditions are at there warmest, and most hospitable for us. It's like a sign that it's hunting season on the planet. This summer was especially hot. I took it as a sign from God, that it was hunting season, and that I was ready for the fight. That filled me with eagerness and confidence.

Some of the marines cheered me on, others didn't cheer at all, some booed me. Yeah there were still guys like Levinson and Jones who hated my guts for one reason or another, mostly just because I was a Predator, but at least they didn't beat me, and make vulgar remarks about my mom. Still those guys didn't recognize a fellow marine if one was standing right in front of them. I didn't care about them though and just ignored them. I didn't care for the encouragement or the heckling, all I cared about was that I won this fight.

Before everything began, Hadrick gave a prayer, requesting that I have the strength I would need to put this shadow down. I said my own silent prayer as he said his wishing for the same thing, only that he take the glory, give mom in heaven the honor, and just give me the strength to do what I needed to do. After we both said Amen, a couple guys brought the xenomorph in its cage over to the chain-link arena.

It'd been a long time, since I saw a shadow in real life, and when I had it'd caused Mom to honor kill herself. You can understand I held some hard resentment for these creatures. At first they'd scared the sht out of me when I first saw them, but things were different now. I was changed. Because of Hadrick I'd become a hardened warrior. I was ready now. Ready to destroy the evil monster that had made Mom take her own life. The resentful and evil creature that cared for nothing, not even itself. These things only cared about the was survival of their hive. It was a foul beast that didn't belong in this world. I was about to remedy that.

It hissed at me as it sensed my pheromone pattern inside the cage. Shadows don't have eyes, but they have special organs in their skulls where their eyes should be that allows them to sense pheromones, that's how they know the difference between friend and food, and where the food is. This thing showed no indication of fear, I was just another prey item in need of killing, another meat bag to impregnate and add to it's hive's numbers.

I was going to teach it fear. But, being the honorable warrior I am I was determined not to have this be a short one sided fight. Hadrick had also managed to procure some Yatja weapons that remained unharmed in the fire that Mom had caused during her escape. I was lucky that it hadn't all been destroyed because they were quite useful in my missions. I was decked out with two wrist blade gauntlets, one for each arm, a plasma caster, a wrist bracer, spear, and even Mom's bio-mask. Hadrick had found it when he went out to assess the crashed dropship Mom had stolen. During his sweep of the area, he'd found Mom's bio-mask. Surprisingly the thing had remained relatively unscathed, despite the fact that the blast Mom set off with her wrist bracer had been powerful enough to vaporize almost everything around the area, including the crashed dropship. Eh, when life gives you lemons.

I customized the mask for my own use. It was a little big at the time, and I had to attach a adjustable strap to it so I could even wear it, I eventually grew into it though. I fixed up what little damages had been caused by the explosion, and spray painted it silver. It was a traditional smooth bio-mask design normally used by most hunters, nothing really special other than the fact it was Mom's. I had listened to a lot of music from the other marines music boards, yes some of the guys had those, and I was enamored with a lot of the music they had on their playlists. I don't have a number one singer or band, and I just listen to whatever music I like, which consists mostly of 80s and 90s rock n roll and EDM. If I did have a particular favorite though it would have to be Marshmello. I love that DJ's song Alone and he's the one that got me into EDM in the first place. I even spray painted his black xed out eyes, and smile face onto Mom's mask. She may have not have approved, but I did it with honorable intentions. None of the marines really took it seriously. Schaefer wasn't into the aesthetic much himself, but I didn't care what they thought. I did it because I liked it. What could I say it looked cool, and I am a fan of Marshmello.

But like I said that's not what I was going to do. I removed all of my weapons, my armor, everything, except my bio-mask. Yatja bio-masks don't just allow us to see things in different vision modes, they also record the hunts we engage in. So this was just to sort of prove that I fought with honor. My first kill would not be dishonorable. Granted their was really no dishonor with me having more weapons with which to kill my enemy with, but it was my honor. I'd kill this thing with honor.

Everybody cheering for me gasped in amazement and disbelief as they saw me strip off my gear. The others who booed me, scoffed with an awkward smile. They looked at me stupidly as if I didn't know what I was doing, even Hadrick did, but he understood why I was doing what I was doing. I nodded to him to close the cage, He nodded back affirmatively before having some guys remove my discarded weapons and armor, and closed the cage. After that Hadrick had the marines release the shadow from it's cage. Then the fight was on.

It charged at me from it's cage. It knew it was trapped, and that I was the only thing inside the cage. So it made up its mind, and went to kill me before it escaped. I remained still as it advanced. The marines looked down with nervousness, either hoping for me to win gloriously or to die horribly. I expected that this creature would show me no mercy. I was going to do the same. As the shadow launched itself at me to tackle me, I swiftly ducked underneath it. I grasped on to the bug's tail with my hands, and in a swift and powerful motion I threw the creature to the wall of the arena. It screeched as it hit the chain-link fencing.

Some of the marines cheered, but most of them stayed silent. They still thought my idea of taking this thing on with my bare hands was suicide. Here's what I have to say to them, What's the point of hand to hand training if you're not going to utilize those skills. I understand Oomans are not willing to take them on without weapons. They're too squishy. But I was no Ooman, I was a Yatja warrior who'd come from a people who fought these thing hand-to-hand every Tuesday. Granted not many of them do it unarmed either, but still they at least don't use ranged methods to kill them as often as the marines do. I have nothing against marines using ranged tactics to kill xenos. Their marines, not hunters with honor codes like my people are. I technically am not either, but I wasn't doing this just to prove I had the skills and focus needed to kill shadows. I was doing this for Mom.

The Shadow got back up, and wasted no time making another charged attack. I dodged over to the side as it made a swipe with one of it's claws, I countered with a swift blow to it's elongated head with my elbow. I gave the shadow no time to recover, picking it up by the top of its head and by one of it's dorsal tubes, and lifted the 400 pound beast with all my rage filled strength, before throwing it away. The shadow was getting tired of being thrown around. It hissed angrily in a challenging manner. I roared back as a response.

It began to understand I wasn't a simple weak prey item it could just kill. I was a challenging threat. Generally warriors aren't know for their intelligence as most of their thinking is done by the queens, which they are made to protect, but they still have brains which they can utilize in battle. It began to circle me trying to size me up, trying to find a weak point it could access. I wasn't wearing any armor besides my mask, which I was using for other purposes besides protection, nor was I using any weapons, so if it could get me pinned down in some way, it could kill me easily. But I was fast, I was strong, and most importantly I was smart. I always let it make the first move before I retaliated. I used that tactic quite a lot of my hunts, although whenever I do I usually had a weapon with which I can kill the SOBS, which is what made it such a successful tactic. But I'd discarded all my weapons, and was using my bare hands. For me this was a battle of attrition. I'd weaken it by cutting off its weapons it would use to kill me with, then exhaust it until it could do nothing else but let me kill it. For the xeno, it would need to end this fight as quickly as possible. Find a weak point and take the opportunity to cripple me with it.

I could tell it was thinking about it's attack before it made it's move. I would have to do something unexpected in order to throw it off. When it did charge I charged to. As I prepared for it to dodge or block, it instead recoiled before pouncing over me. As I spun around to catch it, the mother fcker slashed me in the side with it's tail. I didn't acknowledge the pain, but used it to fuel my anger. I hated this thing, and it's kind for killing Mom. I was going to kill it with every last bit of built up aggression I had. It hurting me just helped build up that hate and endurance. The shadow tackled me and began swiping at my chest with its claws after it pinned me to the ground. The lacerations burned like an electric fire. That just made me even angrier.

It went to impale my face with its tail as it distracted me with its claws. I saw this and reacted before it's tail could bury itself in my head. It's tail got stuck and I used this opportunity to slam my fist into the side of it's head, stunning it momentarily. I took that opportunity to move my feet underneath it's abdomen, and shove it off of me. It's tail was still embedded in the ground, so I got back to my feet and stomped my foot down on it in an attempt to break it. All I did was piss it off. It retaliated by wrenching it's tail out of the ground, and tripping me over with it. The shadow then tried slamming it's tail down on me again, but it's range was to short to hit anything vital. It might have been able to seriously injury one of my legs, cutting off most of my mobility, but I reacted just in time where it only scraped my thigh. Before it could retract it's tail I grabbed onto it. That was a stupid idea as it began flinging me around like a rag doll. I understood shadows' tails were prehensile. They were like third arms, only their asses. I also knew they were strong, but how strong was what I didn't know. I was a solid 152 pounds Yatja yet this thing was flinging my weight around like I was nothing. It repeatedly slammed and drug me over the sandy ground giving me a terrible road rash that stung like hell. I let go of it, and was thrown into the chain-link fence. As I went to get back up it pinned me back down. The creature wrenched my mask off, before digging it's claws into my arms holding them in place, as it prepared to head bite me with it's inner jaw.

The audience of marines gasped in horror as they saw the development. But I wasn't done with it yet, no no no. It'd scratched my chest up awful, clipped my thigh, and my side, given me a good road rash, and was now digging it's claws into my arms. I'd just punched it and thrown it a couple times. It was my turn to leave some marks.

Hadrick had some guys at the ready in case something like this happened. They were about to fire on it, but I was not about to let them deprive me of restoring Mom's honor. Before they could crack a shot, I dodged my head out of the way as it's inner jaw shot out of it's mouth. I painfully managed to move my arm out of the shadow's claws, in time to grab it. The shadow recognized what was happening, and it desperately clawed at my wrist, with both if it's hands. In doing so it released my other hand allowing me to grab ahold of it's head. I used all of my strength I had and tore the shadow's inner jaw out, and punched it off of me. Hadrick saw it, and told the marines who were ready to shoot to hold their fire. I quickly picked Mom's mask back up, and put it on my face. I deliberately gave the xenomorph time to recover, so that when it attacked I could dodge and retaliate when it wasn't expecting. Only it didn't do that. It coughed up some of it's acidic blood, and starred at me with a pissed, but nervously restrained scowl on its face, like it couldn't believe I'd just done that to it.

That was one of it's weapons disabled. I had my sights on it's tail next. It new that trying to take me on up close was a bad idea so it didn't dare charge me. It screamed it's stupid pained elephant scream at me. I roared back, as I slowly approached it. It stood there letting me come closer to it, trying to make me think I'd wounded it enough for me to just come over and kill it. But I knew it was all a trick. No matter how much pain you inflict, and no matter how wounded these things are they are never hurt enough to stop attacking, unless they're dead. I let it think I was playing into it's little game, before it shot it's tail out at me once I was close enough. I dodged the attack, and grabbed it's tail. Before it could rag doll me again I tried breaking it over my knee, but that failed, and I was once again being tossed around the arena. This time I held on. It slammed me into the chain-link fence, causing me to loose Mom's bio-mask. Thankfully it landed at the perfect angle where it was able to actually catch what happened next, because seriously, what happened next was just brutal and awesome. With no other option of disabling this things tail, I decided to bite it off. My internal tissue was also resistant to the xenomorphs acid blood, just as my skin was, so I wasn't at all worried about getting killed by my decision.

After I managed to regain my footing in time, I shoved the side of it's tail into my mandibled mouth. My mandibles held the fckers tail securely in my mouth as I held the swinging bladed tip with my hand. My jaws went to work sawing through the tough exoskeleton and the bone. The marines, as well as the shadow looked shocked as I did this. Once I tore my way through the exoskeleton, acid blood began filling my mouth. Yes I did also involuntarily swallow some of it. While my internal and external tissue was resistant to the acid blood, I will say that my taste buds weren't, but they could suck it up. After sawing my teeth through the bone, I let go of the tail with my mandibles, and tore the spear tipped part of the tail off in a spray of acid roaring with triumph as I did so. That was weapon number two down. The marines cheered in awe as they saw it, even some of the guys who booed me.

I threw the sharp edge of the tail away, and let the shadow have what was left of it's tail back. It screeched it's pitiful painful elephant scream. I spat the shadow's foul tasting acid out, and snarled at the wounded monster. In a final effort to repel me, it swung it's tail around spraying me with the acid. The acid just fizzed as it harmlessly soaked me over. Unfortunately for my pants though they were also not resistant to the acid. I looked down in angered disbelief, and gave a snarled growl as my pants fell to the ground as the acid ate through them. None of the marines laughed at my irony, but I could see some of the female marines holding their mouths, and yeah I admit I did feel a little embarrassed with my junk swinging, but I was more pissed than anything.

Seeing it's acid uselessly soak me, the shadow knew that fighting me wasn't an option. It had to escape. It had entered the fight thinking it was the superior predator, but then I'd recalibrated that idea. Sure xenomorphs normally don't run from a fight, especially when they know their odds of survival are slim, but that was in the case of defending the queen or something like that. This warrior was risking it's life against an opponent it couldn't defeat, and for no purpose. Even if it won it wouldn't have survived, the marines would have just gunned it down. I was just one less enemy for the queen, which is why it kept attacking earlier, but now there was no hope of it winning.

The shadow ran to the fence where the stadium was and began to claw a small hole in the barrier. Some of the marines sitting in that area began retreating. I grabbed onto the xenomorphs damaged tail, and swung it off the fence in an arching motion slamming it to the ground. Seeing as it couldn't escape fast enough, it went back into fight mode. It hopped onto me, not in a tackle, but more out of wild desperation. It scraped my mandibles, dug it's claws into my scalp, and even used it's toe claws to tear my abdomen up a little. It's attack wasn't strategic anymore, it was now fighting more hopelessly and recklessly. Yet with each swipe and stinging cut, all the shadow succeeded in doing was make me angrier, allowing me to fight it more violently. I grabbed onto it's head and began digging my claws into it's elongated head. It took some effort, but I managed to break the exoskeleton around it's cranium. It screeched another annoying elephant scream in my face as my claws punctured it's ridged head. I'd had enough of that stupid noise: it was time I silenced it for good. I roared frustrated, before pulling my head back, and slammed my head into it's face. We both let go of each other holding our aching skulls. I'd split some skin, and after looking at my hand I saw I was oozing florescent green blood. The shadow's skull had also been damaged. I'd broken the front of it's exoskeleton protecting the bone directly beneath. Before it could get back up I picked it up by it's arm and broke it over my knee. The shadow let out another annoying elephant squeal, as it's arm fell limp. It began trying to take off on all three's, which they are incredibly good at even with a broken arm. I grabbed it by the tail and yanked it back. It wasn't going to get away so easily. It knew it was it's time to die, yet still it couldn't accept it. I tore off it's other arm and then took it over to a boulder that was in the arena with us. The xeno kicked and screeched in futile agony, as I proceeded to beat it's head in. And before you ask no I didn't used the boulder to beat the shadow, it was the other way around, I beat the boulder with the shadow so no I didn't use any weapons to kill it. I exerted every bit of hate filled energy I had into each blow, roaring angrily as I did so. The marines watched in horrified amazement as I crushed my enemy's skull in.

By the time I was finished I stomped on my enemies ribs until I heard them break open with a satisfying crunch. I did that just to make sure it was dead. All the tension in my body eased. I addressed my hand that I'd used to clobber the xeno into the boulder, and saw I'd cut it open when I'd done so. I didn't care though. I'd won the fight, and had done it honorably. All of the marines, especially the ones who'd booed me were now cheering me. I held my hand out for them to stop, but I wasn't forceful.

"There's still one last thing I need to do." I told them.

I needed to say a thankful prayer to God and mark myself. I looked over at Mom's bio-mask, the shadow's inner jaw ,and spear tipped tail. I gathered each of those items up and carried them over to the shadow's corpse. It's acid had eaten through the boulder and was now sizzling with a sour stench.

I began my prayer thanking God for the strength, courage, focus, and skill I needed to put this monster down. I thanked him for allowing me to do it honorably, and that I hoped it brought glory to his name. I requested that he give Mom the honor, and I thanked him for his love, and for the opportunity to serve him in fighting with the marines against the evil shadows. I also thanked him for the opportunity to protect the Oomans, who'd burdened me with their curses, whom I forgave. With the exception of Hadrick of course, I actually thanked God for allowing him to be my dad, and blessed that he'd have a long life. I finished asking God that the hunts ahead of me and my fellow warriors would be paved with many shadows, and honor. After acknowledging him as the Almighty Creator of the universe, and his son ,Jesus as the Savior, I ended with a reverent and respectful Amen.

I then marked what was now my bio-mask, since I'd earned it in the fight. I used the shadows inner jaw to mark it with a traditional shadow marking, and the triangular dotted targeting symbol around it. It turned out rather well, and I didn't end up running the Marshmello smiley face I'd spray painted on it. Since my skin was not able to be burned by the acid I simply asked the marines to put a tattoo of the same symbol on my arm, along with the United States Colonial Marines logo tattooed with it.

After marking the mask, I took hold of the shadow's inner jaw, and tail, my first two trophies, and looked at my audience with a smile. I then roared in the sky victoriously, pronouncing my victory, and God's power as far as I could be heard. All of the marines watching joined me in the roaring match. I threw a few punches into the air, and pounced my chest a couple times.

Hadrick materialized behind me, and gave me a proud smile, along with a replacement pair of camouflage jeans. I laughed a little at the gesture as did some of the marines.

"Open them" He told me with that smile still wrapped around his face. I was a little confused at the request, but I did as he asked. Once I did I found my uncle A'rgr-lo's smart disc folded up inside the jeans. I looked at Hadrick in surprise. He was giving me a weapon, that had been given to him by my own uncle.

"Take it. You've earned it ,Son." That brought a smile to my mandibles.

After pulling my new acid proof jeans over my naked butt, Hadrick continued the screaming fest with a profound Viking holler. I followed his lead as did the rest of the marines. After getting my wounds patched up, and my tattoos marked on my arm, I was approached by the marines who'd seen my display. Those who'd cheered for me gave me a pat on the back and complimented me. Those who'd booed me from the beginning apologized and gave their respects. I just smiled told them I didn't have any hard feelings, and thanked them for their respect.

At that moment I'd found my people with the marines. Those guys were the best. Most of them became my friends, and others I actually regarded as my Hunter Brothers and Sisters. Those guys were really something. It's people like that that you live for you know what I mean.

Afterwards I had a walk with Dad. He told me how proud he was of me, and confessed to him being left without a family and how much he loved and appreciated me as someone who he regarded as his legitimate son, even though I wasn't. I said the same about him, and thanked him for his teachings and for caring for me as his son. After it was all over I asked him when our first hunt would begin. I'll talk to you about that in the next session though.