Kjon's Audio Diary Log

April 22, 2621

KJ147 Colonial Marine Corps Honored Arms Cemetery

"Sacrificium est actus dandi bonum ad aliquid melius. Memento nostri sacrificium pro te."

I'm doing something a little different this time. I'm not at the facility or in the jungle hunting shadows like I normally am. I'm stopping by to visit some very special people I know. Very very special. People.

He clicks his mandibles in a forlorn sigh, before growling at something.

Colonists! Those worthless, btches! Coming to cry over their loved ones who they willingly disowned up until a couple months ago. Disgraceful, shameful. I feel disgusted every time I see them, especially when they're here! I mean no disrespect to those they've lost. I honor and respect every man woman and child buried here. Everyone except those colonists! They just bought into the bullsht Weyland feed them and shamed us marines like he told them! We! the ones who died to protect them while they sat idly and believed all of Weyland's lies about us! Hell they even killed some of us when we tried coming home! Some of them killed marines who used to be their closest friends, and family! Yes! I've seen it! I've seen mothers and fathers disown their children who fought to protect them, all while they beat them to death! And here they are now! Come to pay their respects! It disgusts me just how pitiful and shameful their sorrowing is. How much they took us for granted! I hate it!

There is noise of excavating machinery in the distance.

At least it's finally being done. After everything these guys have went through for so long, from the time they joined up, to what they had to go through during service, to their deaths, and even after, it's good to see that these guys are being treated with some respect, and that they are being given proper graves. Not those bullsht graves they were in before. Just put off to the side in some crappy unkept garden area. No honorable marking, no respectful remarks of woe, just names. It's dishonorable. But at least now the truth is out and work is finally being done to fix it. Thank the Almighty Heavenly Father, and Merciful Master Jesus for it.

"William 'Wacko' L. Paxton"

"Taylor Banks"

"Richard Green"

"Michelle Roberts"

Hey guys. It's me Kjon.

He makes some nervous laughter.

It's good to see you guys again. I haven't forgotten about you guys. I-I-I'm-I'm making sure you won't be... forgotten.

I miss you guys so much.

After some time he begins.

Well heh... Sht to be perfectly honest I don't know where I begin. This is a hard one to talk about. I know I've been through some hard sht before, believe me I have, but...

He sighs.

It's even harder for you to look back on some of the most emotionally traumatic moments of your life. I'd say that this ties in with Mom's death in terms of "worst moments of my fcked life ever." I really wish I could give you a fully detailed explanation for how this happened just so that you know what horror guys like I face every day when they're reminded of it, but... (shivers) I-it-it's just to painful. Besides, no matter how you tell it, it can only really come out as a watered-down reenactment at most. Detailed yes, but nothing close to what the experience actually felt like. Nothing.

He lights himself a cigarette, which he keeps in his mouth for most of the diary's running time.

Sht. How do I begin this proper? I guess I can start out by stating how much I hate social functions. It's not for reasons you think. I am a loner most of the time, but I'm not a introvert by choice. I actually do enjoy friendly company whenever I can receive it. I was no different when I was a teenager. I'd attended my first yearly Colonial Marine Corps functional when I was fourteen. I didn't mind the idea of going, in fact I was looking forward to it, seeing my fellow marines gathering together where we could eat, drink, smoke, shoot the sht together, and meet and interact with other marines stationed at other facilities. And the dances, oh man, was I looking forward to that. We wouldn't be partying mind you, things would be calm and collected, but we would be having a good time.

Outside of wearing a military styled tuxedo that was two sizes to small, I was excited for the event. Hadrick was a little less than enthusiastic as I was, but he'd been to these functions plenty of times before so I could understand his nonchalant reaction. He didn't dislike them mind you, it's just they sort of reminded him about the first time he met his wife, and whenever he's reminded of her he always thinks back to his last moments with her before... you know. It's hard to forget that sht, you know. Once a person becomes a part of your life they become a part of you, even after they're gone they are still a part of you. Believe me, I found this out well before I even met theses guys here.

It had been a couple months since I'd killed the Predalien, and I was feeling pretty good. I wasn't prideful of my accomplishments, I'd learned that lesson a couple months before, but I was just happy to see all of my fellow marines getting together and having a good time, and I was happy to be a part of that. Besides, it was September 13 which is my birthday. Is there any reason why a guy, especially a Yatja like myself, shouldn't have any fun on his birthday?

Of course when you're surrounded by people who had experiences with my people before, and not in the fun way, it's kind of hard to have fun. It wasn't all bad really things were lively, festive in a calm manner, and everyone was enjoying themselves. Everyone except for myself. I honestly didn't know what I should have expected, a lot of the guys there who didn't know about me were very uncomfortable around me, plenty of marines knew who I was which helped, but even some of them still thought negatively about me. Thankfully though there were plenty of buds around me who knew me personally, and getting to hang out with them was fun but a lot of these guys were from my facility who I saw almost every day. I wanted to interact with new guys you know, break my introverted nature and hang out with other guys. Some people were cool, others not as much, they still hated my kind, and were judging me for what I was rather than who I was. Can't say I blame them. They weren't openly disrespectful, or antagonistic with me or anything, but their looks said what their thoughts reflected. Even with Hadrick's help introducing me to a bunch of his other old war buddies it was awkward.

The dance went well. Of course I was one of the unlucky guys who none of the other gals wanted to dance with. I went to try and dance with a few of the grunts who were a little more my age, you know, the ones that are in their teens that I talked about before. There were a lot of guys like that at this party too. Now, while I didn't get out much back then I still had social graces, so I wasn't being a creep or anything. I was at my most polite, respectful, and friendly attitude, but whenever I asked the girls during a slow dance song, they would always be so nervous. They'd be respectful, but after I'd ask and be rejected, another person without mandibles which there were an excess of, would step in and ask and they'd accept without hesitation. Eh... I can understand though. It still hurt, but I'd been through much worse. It'd be stupid of me to cry over something so minor as failing to socialize with a pretty girl, when I've come face to face with death so many times, and not given a damn about it. It's not like I was begging for attention, but it would have been nice just to have some.

But like I said though it wasn't all bad. They had free cigarettes there which were good, and that's around the time I started smoking. In even better news, I met a familiar face, who just so happened to be returning to my facility. Michelle Roberts. Hehehe. Boy you couldn't imagine how excited I was when I saw her face at the functional. She was pretty excited to see me too.

"Kjon Schaefer!" She greeted me with a happy smile, "Como esta usted amigo?!" She asked me.

"Michelle is that you?" I asked in pleasant surprise as I saw the beautiful Spanish girl greet me. I was surprised when I actually saw her though, not that she was there mind you, but how she looked. She had gone from looking like a petite teenage girl to looking like a muscular model from a marines weapons magazine. She didn't look like Stacy did, but she'd definitely grown to become quite the looker, and was rocking that dress of hers. She wasn't a girl anymore, but now a fully grown beautiful young woman.

"Si." She answered me affirmatively.

"How the hell have you been girl?!" I exclaimed in as calm a manner as I could as I wrapped her in a hug.

"I've been good. How about you?" She asked.

"Muy bien, muy bien." I replied. I had a couple buddies in my division who also spoke Spanish, which I also learned to speak. "So what's going on with you Mich?"

"Nothing much just killing bugs, and having fun when and where I can, you know?"

"Yep. So how's the party going for you?"

"Bien. Not as festive as I thought, but it's good. I see you've grown some since I last saw you." She told me holding up her hand bellow her chin for reference. She was correct, I had grown. I was at the time only five and a half feet, just about the same size as she was, and still growing, which I told her. "So how is the fiesta ,amigo?"

"Not the best." I replied throwing my cigarette away as we continued to talk.

"Why? What's the matter? And why are you just at the bar smoking?" I answered by turning over to the dance floor where all the other girls danced with the handsome guys. She saw what I saw and replied with a audible, "Ah."

"Who knew having mandibles could make you look so handsome?" I asked in a sarcastic and joking manner.

"What about the guys can't you talk to them?"

"I tried, but most of the guys I have talked to I already know, and those I have just met don't want to have much to do with me." I explained as I light another cigarette.

"Ah. I see. Listen ,Kj, I'm sorry about that my friend I really am." She apologized to me in a sincere manner.

"It's not your fault ,Mich. I'm just not that great with people."

"That is bullsht and you know it is. You're a very good person. People just need to understand you."

"Thank you Michelle." I replied. "Hey would you mind, uh?" I asked turning my gaze briefly over to the dance floor.

She understood the gesture and replied. "Lo siento mi amigo. I would love to really, but I am already taken." She replied.

"Hey Michelle we going to dance o-?" Richard Green asked Michelle as he, Taylor Banks, and Willie "Wacko" Paxton materialized beside us. Rich had cut his question short when he saw me. Taylor and William also went a little white as they saw me.

"Uh, guys I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Kjon Schaefer. You remember the guy I told you about. The one that saved me and a bunch of other hombres at Talco." She introduced them to me. "Kj these are my friends, Taylor Banks, William Paxton, and my boyfriend Richard Green."

"Nice to met you guys." I said taking the cigarette out of my mandibles and held out my hand to shake theirs. Taylor's fearful expression quickly shifted into one of pleasance, as he greeted me with unfamiliar recognition.

"Nice to meet you too. Michelle has told us a lot about you." Taylor wasn't a pretty bad guy. I could understand why he was a little shaken at first, but his friendliness toward me was remarkable.

Rich and Willie on the other hand were much different. As I went to shake Rich's hand respectfully, he simply starred at it with disgust. Michelle saw this and elbowed him in the side. He still didn't take my kind gesture. When I went to give it to William instead, he backed away fearfully. "Hey don't take my arm off man!" That caused us to gain a bit of attention, which made me fell quite embarrassed.

"Guys!" Michelle exclaimed quietly.

"What, he's one of them?! He's a Predator!" William ejected as he continued to call attention to us. William actually had no experience with my kind before. He simply took an immediate disliking to me because I was a Predator. Once again I could understand, but it still made me feel uncomfortable just how much attention was being drawn to us. As his nickname "Wacko" implied, he was obviously the overtly hyper, enthusiastic, and easily excited joker, who did a lot of stupid sht.

"Come on guys." Michelle beckoned.

"He's right Michelle," Richard said, "I wouldn't trust it either."

"Richard!" Michelle bellowed at her boyfriend.

"William's right! What exactly is this THING doing here anyway?!" William said in a stern condemning voice.

"He's one of us!" She told him.

"What?!" Rich replied with confusion.

"He's Major Hadrick Schaefer's son! He's also the hombre who saved my life along with a whole platoon of other marines on Talco!" Michelle answered loudly drawing even more attention to us. Richard turned his gaze back to me. I looked at him and everyone else who was starring at us, nervously clicking my mandibles in timid mortification.

After a few moments of hurtful glaring from Richard, Hadrick appeared beside me. "Hey, hey, hey, what's going on over here?"

"Nothing Schaefer ,sir. I was just introducing some friends of mine to Kjon here." Michelle answered.

"Michelle, good to see you." Hadrick greeted her pleasantly with a soft voice, and a firm handshake. Thankfully Hadrick's intervention was taking away the attention we received earlier making me feel more at ease.

"Nice to see you too, Major Schaefer ,sir." She replied smiling shortly taking his hand, before reverting her unpleasant look back to her boyfriend. "This is my boyfriend ,Richard Green, and my friends Taylor Banks, and William Paxton." She introduced them to Dad, who they greeted with respectful handshakes.

"It's an honor to met you both ,sir," Taylor said as he shook his paw, "And I'm going to enjoy getting to know your son better too." Taylor said awkwardly.

"What?" Hadrick and I asked.

"Sorry. I didn't mean for it to sound that way. We're actually being transferred to your facility next week ,sir. All four of us that is." Taylor explained.

"You're coming back ,Michelle?" I asked in pleasant surprise. She replied with a affirmative nod.

"Regretfully so." I heard Rich whisper, prompting Michelle to bang her elbow into him again.

"Good. I see you've already met my son ,Kjon." Hadrick said.

"Yes, we have." Richard replied, continuing to stare at me judgmentally. After a couple more seconds, Rich began pushing Michelle towards the dance floor. I heard them make some quiet argument before they disappeared into the crowd of dancing strangers. William also disappeared on us to go for a drink. Taylor fortunately stayed behind.

After Hadrick left us, Taylor and I had a pleasant conversation. Taylor was a pretty cool guy, he was a bit geeky, and talkative at times, but he had no problem with me and I enjoyed his company. He explained some things about himself, what his interests were, like reading, drawing, and firearms training, the latter I especially got into an enjoyable discussion with him about. I noticed he had a crucifix around his neck, which I brought up. He held the cross dangling on his throat up and confessed he was a Christian, to which I pleasantly revealed that I was Christian too. You can guess that we became pretty good friends right then. We continued to talk watching Michelle and Richard have a semi-romantic moment, dancing peacefully with each other, and also watching Willie "Wacko" get absolutely wasted with the Tequila.

It was nice to see that Michelle had made some new friends, and that she'd found a man she could love. Although I could sense some tension between the two over me. I didn't bother asking Taylor why Richard disliked me. Such treatment wasn't new to me.

Overall while the functional didn't go as poorly as it could have, although I've honestly had much better birthdays training out on the field over at the barracks than I had smoking at the bar at that stupid functional.

A week later, Michelle, Rich, Taylor, and William were part of the division. Taylor and I continued to get along fine with. The guy was very helpful, and while not much on the physical side if you looked at him, he was pretty strong, and physically fit. He was also pretty well "learned" on his weapons, his favorite of which was his Remington 870 shotgun. Guy knew his guns. Taylor was like the little brother I never had, and by little I meant physically smaller, since he was actually 5 years older than me.

Rich, and Willie "Wacko" ,on the other hand, didn't change. Seriously I don't know what else I could do. I was respectful, friendly, and while I wasn't kind or courteous to them I did have integrity for those guys. They still didn't like me. I would occasionally lose my cool whenever they got on my wrong side which they did fairly often, but I still tried.

Michelle and Taylor even tried to get them to loosen up one time. I over heard the argument in the shower area when it happened. I was just washing up when I heard them. The four of them were furious. Michelle was arguing with Rich, while William and Taylor were going at each other. I'd bet good money that Taylor would've won that argument.

Michelle was trying to be as friendly ,yet persuasive as possible to Richard, telling him all about the Talco mission, and that I'd saved her at least three times in that fight, and of how supportive I was to her, when she found out about her brothers death. Richard wouldn't hear any of it though. He told Michelle that I was like all the rest of my kind. A bloodthirsty savage monster. Michelle was still adamant though. Rich then went off like a grenade, expositing the story of his sister's death.

Rich and his sister ,Laurie, went on a mission together with a group of marines to save a colony called Tenerac. Tenerac was a small colony over in the south-western hemisphere of the planet that had been besieged by shadows. The area around there was full of nothing but dense, wet, swampy jungle. I've been on missions around that area myself over the years. While there is land over there, there's a whole crap ton of water there too, which leaves any land area inside it muddy and mostly unstable to build on. Any other terrain is just murky shallow water, tall vine trees, and grass that grows about as tall as a person, completely hindering your visibility of the area around you. Because of this there are very few colonies in that area, and the ones that are there are quite small. There's also a lot of radio interference in that area, so comms are limited in those areas, as such people need to walk from colony to colony in order to keep up with communication, and often times people get lost. We go there a bunch of times because of this and this is more of the reason why we go there, rather than to hunt shadows, which is surprising to say since that area is perfect for a shadow nest. We get word that some people who went out to check on the other colonies were sent out and haven't come back, and it's mostly just because they're lost, or had an accident, and we help them out and call it a day.

There are a lot of oils, and fossil fuels in the south west hemisphere. The work those guys do to siphon it out of the ground and make it usable for our vehicles, tools, and other things we use them for is nothing short of grueling. I've seen those guys work before. Hell I've even been in some of their fossil pits, where they dig that stuff up, and it's disgusting. They use drills to burrow into the ground, and whenever they hit a fuel deposit it just explodes, and when you have to get cleaned up it takes an oceanic amount of soap to get the grease off of you. I've got to hand it to the colonists over there though, they are very hard working people unlike some of the wealthy bums over in New Hadley's, and a bunch of the other eastern colonies. That and they are very respectful and polite people. I may not be big on most colonies, but if I were to ever retire someplace, it'd be over in the southwest.

One of the search parties from one of the neighboring colonies had reported that the Tenerac colony hadn't been heard from in a while, and that some people who were sent to investigate went missing. The place had been torn to pieces. Rich didn't give all the details, but I did look into the story myself after he finished explaining, and I got some pretty decent footage, and photos of what happened. Obviously fighting shadows in a marshy area like that is suicide, since it's one of the easiest environments for them to adapt to, and they're excellent swimmers. But those guys set out to save what survivors they could, and God bless their brave souls for it. Obviously though the mission went about as well as you could have expected it to. Now while there weren't very many colonists in Tenerac, only about a hundred or so people, their was a lot of wildlife in that area. The place swarms with all sorts of oversized insects and animals. More than plenty of hosts for the shadows. Richard, Laurie, and the rest of their team fought through Hell itself sustaining heavy casualties as they went just to get to Tenerac. By the time they got there they were low on ammo, down to only Rich, Laurie, and a few other guys, most of whom were badly wounded. To make matters even worse the colony was the center of the xenos hive. You'd think that after enduring that kind of hell, anybody left alive would do the smart thing and bug out, but that's the thing about us marines, we're persistent, mean, stubborn sons-of-bches. That and we do what we can to win. Even if we know we can't, we go down charging. Laurie, and Rich had that same mentality when they went in, and they had gone to far to go back.

Not to say they just gave their lives for a pointless cause, they did find a couple kids that'd managed to evade the bugs somehow. Rich and Laurie fought like animals against the shadows to protect those kids. So did the remainder of their team. The recordings I managed to find via, some sneaky methods, since that stuff was held in Weyland's personal, secret, shady, for-nobody-else-to-see room, were great. It was spectacular, and also very sorrowful to see. As they fought their way out against the hoard of shadows, a pack of Predators came out of no where and intercepted them. They slaughtered some of the shadow's and allowed Richard to make his escape with the surviving kids. Richard's sister and the rest of their team on the other hand... You can already guess how the outcome went, and which of the two took Laurie's head as a trophy.

And as for the colony itself. We got payback. Air strike. Lit that marsh up like it was Nagasaki on August 9.

I honestly couldn't blame Rich for being so spiteful as he was. I felt the same way towards the shadow's and how they took Mom from me.

Later on I snuck into one of the areas of the facility that was off limits to most of the other staff except for Weyland and a select few. I headed to an area that kept all the planet's documented shadow infestations and outbreaks. I managed to sneak in completely undetected, and find what I was after. I saw plenty of photos and footage from Richard's body camera to substantiate it. As I was looking through the evidence however, I got caught. That little stunt earned me a meeting with Charles Bishop Weyland. I must admit, for a scumbag of his reputation, he is awful polite and friendly most of the time, even when he's about to kill you.

That was the first time I met the man in person. He was middle-aged, not old but definitely coming up in his years. His hair grey was combed back, he wore a fashionable dark business suit, like one you'd see on an executive when he's at a meeting. His office was very civilized too, looked a lot like a library room in an old European mansion from the 1600s to 1800s, with the bookshelves, the carpeting, the curtains, furnishing, just everything about it said wealthy and powerful.

"Congratulations ,Mr. Schaefer. That was an impressive display of stealth you made. Sneaking past my security systems, and peaking into my documents. Very impressive." He said, while clapping his hands in applaud as his combat androids forced me into a seat situated at the front of his desk. They didn't restrain me, although they did keep their M14A Pulse rifles pointed at me just in case I did something unfavorable. "It's a shame we never met in person up to this point, but I'm a very busy man. I'm Charles Bishop Weyland." He said introducing himself to me. He stretched out his hand, which a cautiously took in a shake. I still hated this slime bag for what he did to me and Mom, but at least I could be respectful to my enemy. "You're a very interesting individual ,Mr. Schaefer. Very interesting. I see that Hadrick has taught you well." He said in a friendly tone.

"Just get to the point Weyland." I told him.

"You just want to get straight to business, I see. I like that I really do." He said with a short laugh.

"I'm here because I snuck into you're kinky sex drawer that no one else was suppose to see, and you want me to keep my trap shut on the pantyhose I found inside." I replied jokingly in a nonchalant tone.

Weyland laughed at my joke. "I also admire a person who has a sense of humor ,Mr. Schaefer. But yes, I do want to talk about the document you broke into, and I do want you to keep it secret! But there's no need for us to be hostile about it now, is there?" He said as he poured both of us a glass of champagne. "Let him go." He ordered his androids to lower their pulse rifles, before offering me a glass of his wine.

"Not to be rude, but no thank-you. I don't drink." I declined in a polite manner. Now Christians follow the word of wisdom, which is a set of lesser rules that are more of recommendations than actual laws meant to be obeyed, although most Christians follow these rules anyway. The word of wisdom, mostly recommends that we don't indulge in certain substances, like alcohol, drugs, or even smoking. You can already tell I am not one of those people who follows the word of wisdom, although that's really just in the case of smoking. Everything else I don't indulge in, which I explained to Weyland

"I understand. Anyway let's get down to business. I know Hadrick has told you a great deal of things about me, and as you already know ,from personal experience, that a lot of it is true. I've been keeping my eye on you ever since I gave you to him, and I must admit, you both are a... how can I say... bothersome pair, given how many of my valuable specimens you've destroyed. I will say though that I do find you both to be quite intriguing." He explained before taking a drink of his fancy alcohol. "Now even though I despise you marines, I must admit you have been a necessary part of my work for some time now. You already know the details as to why, don't you?"

"If it weren't for us protecting the colonists, you wouldn't have any credits to run these little experiments." I answered.

"Little is not the word I would use to describe, but yes, you are correct. Now you already know so much about my operations and these cover-ups, but I'm just wondering why now ,of all times, do you decide to break into my secret documents, and why ,in particular, you were so interested in the Tenerac colony infestation?"

I responded by telling him about Richard Green and his overall hatred for my species, and the story I overheard him say in the showers. I told Weyland that after I overheard it, I grew curious and wanted to see what happened for myself. I could tell he was trying to figure me out. It seemed like a blatant lie, but given the fact that he'd been watching me, he knew I was telling the truth. I just sat there straight faced waiting for a reply. He eventually turned around to look at me, but he had nothing to say.

Finally he asked, "Why would you go through the trouble of finding out something you know is true, especially when you know how dangerous it would be? It seems so pointless?" He questioned me with a confused look.

I answered him saying, "You know Weyland, I may be an ugly mother fcker that came from a barbarous people, but I was born among you Oomans, and raised by your marines to become one of them. They taught me not just how to kill, but they also taught me your Ooman virtues; the meaning of honor, duty, respect, courage, hard work, integrity, loyalty, everything. And I took all of it seriously. The marines have been the closest thing to a clan I've ever had, even if they don't see me as one of their own, I'll always see them as my people. Others I'll even regard as family. That also goes for Corporal Green."

I could see the look in his hazel eyes, he knew I was telling the truth. He knew the marines creed, and I'd just demonstrated my loyalty to them by expressing my concern for one of their lessers. That I cared for Richard even though he didn't care about me. It seemed to spark a hint of interest in Weyland.

"Your loyalty and care for the marines is admirable. I can understand that, and I respect it. It's not to often I see a person of your character. But just because such is the case, that does not mean I'm going to simply let you walk away from this." He said right as his combat androids raised their pulse rifles up to me again. "What exactly am I going to do with you?" He asked himself thoughtfully.

"Okay ,Weyland. I'll be straight with you. I know you don't like me or my species, after how many times we've ruined your families operations over the years. And with that being said I still hate your guts too ,after what you did to me and Mom, so I guess that makes us even. I also must say that you are correct. We don't need to be hostile about this. I simply came to see what Corporal Green went through for myself, and why he hates my kind so much as he does. Personally I don't blame the guy, in fact I would be the same way if I was him. Now he's the boyfriend of a very dear friend of mine, and it's because of my love and respect for her ,and the marines in general, that I did what I did. Now I will admit that I do plan to talk to Corporal Green about it, but outside of him and maybe a few other marines, I promise you this. I promise you I will not tell anyone outside of those marines. They already know, and I already know, so stating it won't be that big of a problem. But outside of them, I promise I will not tell another living soul. Not until one of us is dead, in which case it won't even matter anymore." Of course he didn't believe my promise. There were a lot of reasons why I would want to ruin him. Hell I wanted to strangle the mother fcker with my bare hands, but I decided that being rational about it was the best course of action. His time would come. I knew it would, but now was not that time.

"How can I be so sure that I can trust you?" He asked.

"Even though the both of us are enemies ,not just you and I, but your company and the marines, I honor my enemies. More importantly than that I honor my promises. Whenever I make a promise I keep that promise, or else I don't make it at all. And I just made one, so I'm going to keep it." Yes, you may be wondering why I would have done that for Weyland. I could see the same question mark floating above his head. We looked each other square in the eyes as I told him this. He studied my angry blue and red eyes as I looked back at him, knowing full well he was planning something sly. That's how he was. But in this instance he decided not to stab me in the back.

"Let the marine go." He ordered his androids, before I stood up to shake his hand again. I kept my eyes locked on him. He did the same. "Very well then ,Mr. Schaefer. I'll take that promise of yours. But if you go against it-" He was about to continue but I cut him short.

"I've already made it, and I told you I will keep it." I told him sternly.

"It's been an honor ,Kjon. Good hunting." He bid me farewell

"Peace be with you while you still have it ,Charles." I replied to him. Before I left though, I had one more surprise for him. "Oh, one last thing Weyland, before I leave," I said before lighting a cigarette to smoke it, "Tell Jennifer I said Hi." While I ran through the documents I'd found a photographed picture of Charles and his daughter ,Jennifer. Her name had been written in cursive along with his. That immediately brought the fear of God into his eyes.

"How do yo-?!" He exclaimed in a panic as his androids readied their pulse rifles. I cut him off before he could continue.

"It doesn't matter how I know, nor does it even matter that I know. Now I already made a promise that I'd never kill a single Ooman, and that I'd do my best to protect them, so you don't need to worry about your daughter. I'd never even think of harming a child. But I will tell you this, I advise you to stay out of my way, and let us do our jobs. Just because you own the Corps does not mean you own the marines, and you certainly don't own me! The next time you try something on me, I'll either come for you or her."

He was shocked. I could see the fear in his eyes. I wanted to see it. Of course I should say I was only bluffing when I said it. I just wanted to scare him. Make a threat that would get him out of my way. And it worked. At least for a while anyway.

"Peace be upon her as well." I said taking the cigarette out of my mouth before stabbing it into a fancy ash tray. I was met with no opposition as I walked out of his underground lab area.

I was honestly surprised that Weyland had someone who he legitimately loved like family. I never knew he had someone he cared about so deeply. I never even knew that he cared about anyone at all besides himself and his xenomorphs. Then again she was part shadow so I could kind of understand. I'm honestly glad that I was wrong, because for how wealthy and powerful he was, Lord only knows what he would have been capable of had he not had her. That's another reason why I didn't think about going after her, that and she was only a little girl. One that was part shadow yes, but she was still just an innocent child.

After I got back from the underground lab, I was met by Hadrick, who of course had been notified by Weyland about my actions, and was none to pleased. I didn't mention his daughter to anyone. They'd all find out about her sooner or later. What the marines and the colonists did when they found out would be none of my concern. My concern at the moment wasn't even with Hadrick or the punishment he was about to give me. I just wanted to talk to Richard and smoke another cigarette. And yes, I was chastised for what I did. I gave Hadrick a full explanation, minus Weyland's daughter, and I took my punishment of a twenty-five mile run none-stop. I'll be honest I hate running, but since I was able to scare Weyland, the exhausting run was worth it.

Later on, I met Richard in the barracks when no one else was around. He jumped when he saw me.

"It's just me ,Rich." I told him as he went for his Colt 1911. I don't think that the reassurance that it was me helped calm him down, since he still kept the gun pointed at me. "I'm sorry for sneaking up on you like that. I promise I'll try not to do it again." I said holding up my hands in surrender. I have a knack for sneaking up on people, even when I'm not trying to sneak up on them.

"What do you want?!" He asked.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about your sister." I answered keeping my hands in the air.

"How do you know about that?!" He asked me with an furious glare on his face.

"I overheard you, Michelle, Taylor, and 'Wacko' in the showers." I replied truthfully. Rich kept his angry gaze and his M1911 focused on me with his finger on the trigger, which made me a little nervous. "Hey, could you please put down the pistol?"

"No!" He answered.

"Okay, could you at least take your finger off the trigger?" I requested. He quickly looked down at the gun in his hands to see his index finger on the trigger of the firearm, and slowly eased it off. "Thank-you." I exhaled with relief.

We continued to stare at each other in silence for a moment before Rich continued our neutral discussion. "Why are you apologizing to me?!"

"Because I feel sorry for you." I replied. He scoffed at my answer. "Look I know you don't trust me, and I understand that. Hell, I believe you have every right to be upset. I'm just trying to show some empathy for a fellow marine."

"Look here ,Predator! Everyone else may look at you and think your one of us, but your not! I know exactly what you are!"

"No you don't."

"Yes I do!"

"No, you don't." I replied a little louder this time. "Look, I've lost family I love too. Now you might be right that I don't understand what grief you went through, and the grief you're still going through. But I know how badly it hurts to lose someone you love more than life itself. So does Michelle."

"No, you don't, and if you have, whoever you lost deserved it! They deserved it more than my sister before you ugly fcks took her from me! So as far as I'm concerned I don't care who you lost, and I hope they suffered like I did! Like Laurie did!" His remarks about my mother caused me to lose my temper, but I held my self-control and took a couple deep breaths.

"I lost my mother ,Rich." I told him.

"Good riddance!" He exclaimed. That remark stung. I curled my hands into fists as I continued to breath in deeply.

"Richard. I'm not try to make an argument with you. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for your loss."

"Tell that to my sister's skull and spinal cord!" He said. For as much as I could understand his anger, my patience for him wasn't holding out.

"Richard. I don't want to fight you."

"Yeah right! I know you don't! And don't you dare talk about Michelle like that again! I don't even want you to look at her again, you hear me?! She's the only thing that helped me get over Laurie's death, and I'm not going to lose her to another one of you like I lost my sister! YOU HEAR ME YOU UGLY SON OF A BTCH!" That time I'd had it. How dare he call my mother a btch like that. I was about to jump at him and beat the ever loving hell out of him, but thankfully for the both of us, Michelle, Taylor, and Richard came in just in time. Michelle immediately saw me and Richard and reacted instantly. Taylor and William responded a couple moments after. Michelle and Taylor came between me and Richard, with Michelle trying to hold her boyfriend who was almost ready to shoot me, while Taylor tried to force me back. William in his infinite wisdom decided to provoke the situation even further by pulling his pistol on me.

"Richard stop!" Michelle ordered.

"Get out of the way ,Michelle!" Rich told her, keeping his focus directed at me instead of on his girlfriend, who fought him for control of the gun.

"Step away from my friends ,freak!" William said in his jock voice.

"Stay out of this ,Willie!" Taylor screamed at him as he fought to help Michelle separate us. Our fighting continued like this, which caught the attention of another marine who promptly told Hadrick, and a couple other marines who rushed in.

"What the hell is going on!" Hadrick exploded.

"This guy's trying to attack Rich." William explained.

"SHUT UP ,WILLIE!" Taylor and Michelle screamed at him.

"KJON! RICHARD! BOTH OF YOU STOP IT NOW! WILLIAM PUT THAT FCKING GUN DOWN!" Hadrick ordered tearing the gun out of William's hand, before helping Michelle and Taylor. Their efforts managed to separate us, but not without some difficulty.

"I DIDN'T KILL YOUR SISTER ,RICH! TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT MY MOTHER!" I roared at Rich.

"NO! AND YOU'D BETTER STAY THE FCK AWAY FROM MICHELLE IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU! YOU UGLY MOTHER FCKER!"

Before the fight could continue to get any uglier, Hadrick and Taylor managed to force me outside the barracks. Hadrick punished both of us for fighting. We didn't bother giving any excuses for our fighting and simply took our punishments like men. Richard got it harder, because after Michelle found out what happened, the Spanish came out. Richard still held his resentment for me, despite what Michelle told him. She even broke up with him because of it, but that still didn't make Richard any less angry. If anything it just made him hate me even worse.

For the next four months things stayed this way. Michelle and I would occasionally talk in secret when Rich wasn't around. I didn't stay angry with him, although whenever he and William gave me sht, which they did often, I would get frustrated with them. Thankfully I held my patience. Michelle and Taylor would always try to make us come to some resolution, but Rich and William wouldn't budge. They still hated me and I just did the best I could not to antagonize them, despite their continuous efforts to antagonize me.

Eventually though their tones changed. It began when me and the crew were exterminating a hive in the jungle. Another outbreak had went down and containment failed to do it's job, so now we had to go on another bug hunt. We weren't being led by Hadrick at the time as he was occupied with another infestation in one of the colonies. Instead we were under the direction of General Gordon Dale. Dale was one of Hadrick's many friends who he knew all the way back during their boot camp days. Dale wasn't a bad leader, he was capable, competent, and was the biggest asshole you could have ever known, but in a good way. I'd worked on many missions with the man before, and we knew and respected each other well enough to call each other friends. We got along just as well as he and Dad did. The son-of-a-btch was great.

So at any rate the mission was going pretty well until the point where Rich and Willie started some crap with me again. There was always something about me that made it impossible for those two to want to work with me, and although I was trying not to be antagonistic with him as much as physically possible, I'd had had enough of them. I didn't start the fight, but I wasn't going to take any of their sht, especially when we were surrounded by shadows.

General Dale broke us up before we got physical, and suggested we split up. I was strongly against the idea, but Rich and Willie had had enough of me and were more than fine with splitting up. Most of the team agreed with them, and it was decided we'd separate. Dale led me, Taylor, and half of our group, while Rich led the other half which included Willie and Michelle. Michelle had also been uncomfortable with the decision and voted with me against the idea, but Dale was the leader on this excursion and his word was final. I'm pretty sure she gave Rich and Willie sht the whole way. Damn, I hate democracy.

We continued to work our way through the hive. Dale's plan of splitting up actually wasn't all that bad of an idea, it allowed us to cover more ground, and we had enough guys, and equipment for the job. I still had a bad feeling inside me about the circumstances of the situation, and normally whenever I have a bad feeling about something, I'm usually right about it.

I said a few prayers to the Lord while I was patrolling with Taylor and everyone else, asking that Michelle, Rich, Willie, and the rest of their company would stay safe. My prayers were met with partial success.

They managed to live through the hunt, but I had to save their butts. They'd found queen's nest and radioed their discovery to us. Dale instructed them to wait there until we showed up. All of us would need to be there when taking on the queen, since it gave us more of a chance of success, not just against the queen herself, but also the remaining bulk of her hive that would undoubtedly be there to protect her. Rich listened, but "Wacko" didn't and went in to attack the queen. Not wanting to be held accountable, Rich and the others went in after him. They walked right into an ambush. Michelle radioed their situation to us, and we tried to make it over to help them, but due to some difficulty in the terrain, we were slowed down. I however was unabated by such obstacles. Dale knew this and he gave me the go-ahead.

I'd found an M577 Armored Personnel Carrier on my way, and drove it through the hive. That was my very first time driving a vehicle of any type, and you can believe that I enjoyed the experience of driving that beast. After busting my way through the hive, and "accidentally" ran over a few xenos as I went, I drove the APC through a wall that stood adjacent to the queen's chamber. Richard's company had been pinned down, and they'd ran out of most of their ammunition, so my timing was impeccable. As I drove into the queen's chamber I ran over several shadows that had been ready to tear apart the helpless marines. After running over most of them and thoroughly gaining the remaining xeno's attention, including the queen's, I broke out a M56 Smart gun I'd found inside the APC and began laying waste to the remaining swarm. My distraction provided Richard and his team the time they needed to get inside the APC.

The queen was pissed by my intrusion, and would not allow any of us to escape. After tearing herself off of her egg laying thing, she began stomping towards the APC. Rich ran out and began firing what rounds he had left in his pulse rifle to distract her. His plan worked, but not for long as he quickly ran out of ammunition. The queen continued chasing him, until she had him pinned. He threw his pulse rifle at the queen and screamed at her in defiance. The queen curiously looked down at the weapon he'd thrown at her with pitiful effect, before looking back at him and hissed in anger. Richard braced himself up against the wall and closed his eyes as he awaited the queen's fatal blow.

As the queen went to finish him with her massive claws, I threw my combi-stick at the behemoth. The double edged spear nailed her in the head, causing her to scream in agony before falling over. Richard opened his eyes and saw what had happened.

"Hey!" I called out to the queen as she rose back to her feet. "Get away from him, you Btch!"

The queen angrily pulled the combi-stick from her head and broke it in half. I was getting tired of that happening. I was going to need to find new weapon to replace my combi-stick.

Richard was perplexed. He couldn't understand why I'd come to save him. Even after everything he believed about me, and after everything he did to me I was saving him. I nodded to him and waved him away, telling him to get out. He nodded back before booking it towards the APC. At that point it was just me and the queen. I tussled with the enormous shadow for a while, before I was hopelessly outmatched.

With nothing else left to do I knelt down for one quick final prayer, which was cut short by the sound of the APC's engine echoing through the chamber's hallway. Michelle, Rich, and "Wacko" had come back for me after they'd evacuated the marines. The queen also heard the vehicle, but was to slow to react as the Armored Personnel Carrier rammed into her knocking her away.

"Get in!" Richard called for me through the open door of the APC. He didn't need to tell me twice. "Get us out of her babe!" Richard told Michelle after I dove inside.

"Vamos!" Michelle bellowed before stomping down on the gas pedal, causing us to shoot forward. I wasn't strapped in so I ended up flying back hitting my head on the back wall. Richard quickly unbuckled himself and helped me to my feet.

"You okay ,man?!" I heard him ask in genuine concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you guys?" I asked, holding my aching head.

"Still breathing..." He replied. "Hey, uh. Thank-you... for saving my ass back there. And I'm... sorry." Rich thanked me looking down at the ground with a submissive look on his face.

"Your Welcome ,Rich." I replied with a friendly smile wrapped around my mandibles and a pat on the back. He saw my gesture, and looked a little confused by it. He quickly understood that I was not what he'd thought I was. William also glanced at me with a sorry look on his face. "Yeah, I forgive you too ,Wacko. Now don't do that sht again, or I'll kill you myself." I told him, while also glancing at Richard, to let him know he was also forgiven.

A couple moments afterward we felt a force blow us all forward. Michelle had accidentally hit something. Rich, Willie, and I were fine, but Michelle had hit her head on the collision, knocking her unconscious. Willie quickly joined us as, Rich and I pulled her out of the seat and went to examine the damage. She'd sustained a bad concussion, which would likely have caused serious hemorrhaging had we not acted as quickly as we did. I went to administer a health shard to Michelle. At first Richard thought it was a blade of some kind but I quickly reassured him that it wasn't.

"I'm not going to hurt her ,Rich! This will help her!" I told him. He looked at me briefly with uncertainty. "Rich, I love Michelle too, but she needs this! If you want to make sure she survives than trust me, even if it's just this once!" I exclaimed to him. He looked down at Michelle with a look of hopelessness before looking at me and giving me a nod of approval. I jabbed the health shard into her torso, which began working immediately. Rich, Willie, and I continued working on fixing Michelle, before we heard an ear-splitting screech. I looked outside and saw the queen, and she was pissed. "Sht! Strap yourselves in now! Make sure she stays still! I'm gonna get us out of here!" I told Rich and Willie before I took my rightful spot at the APC's driver seat.

I managed to drive us out of the hive, with the queen quickly following behind us. I used the APC to ram and trip the queen over a few times before finally breaking one of her legs causing her to crawl helplessly. I continued my ferocious attack by running over her arms, before finally bringing the queen down by ramming the APC into her skull repeatedly until her head was nothing but mush.

We were joined by Dale and the rest our our company moments later. We called an airlift for Michelle and the other wounded marines, before continuing our sweep of the hive, which was fairly uneventful after that. Richard and William said nothing as we continued, but I could see by the regretful looks on their faces, they knew they were wrong about me, and were very sorry. After the hive was completely extinguished, we rode home, where I told Rich how sorry I was for his sister. I also told him about Mom's death, which made him and Willie look even more sorry than before. I also gave Willie a short chewing out telling him not to be so head strong and cocky.

After making it back to the facility, Rich and Will confronted me while I was in the showers. They'd came to make amends for what they did. Willie exposited that he'd had no personal experience with my species, and had only heard stories from people who had encountered them, and naturally assumed I was no different. Rich continued saying that he still hated my species for what they did to his sister, but said that I was nothing like them. He sincerely and gratefully thanked me for saving him, but was even more thankful that I'd saved Michelle. She'd managed to make a quick recovery and was doing much better now.

I was touched by their humbleness and sincerity. Very few people actually thanked me when I saved them, and even fewer actually made sincere apologies to me when they hurt me. I felt it best to befriend these guys by accepting their apologies, and I even went a step further by thanking them for returning the favor in saving my butt back at the hive. They were amazed by my forgiving them, but they quickly understood it. From that point forward we became friends.

Time passed and we engaged in numerous missions together. With each passing moment we grew closer and closer, not just as friends ,or as a team, but as a family. I loved these guys, and they loved me. During one hunt that went exceptionally well, I confessed to them about how much I loved them, telling them they were like mfamily to me. I even gave them marks symbolizing their skilled warrior prowess, and even proclaimed them as my Hunter Siblings. They'd earned it. I explained that it was one of those honorable spiritual thing we Predators do to come closer together with the people we care about. It also helps me feel closer to my species, as I still abide by their code of honor.

Rich, Michelle, Taylor, and Will were the best siblings a guy could ever have. When we weren't on missions, or doing anything important, we'd spend our spare time together. We listened to our favorite music together, did friendly wrestling matches, weaponry quizzes, Hell we even played a game of Strip Monopoly one time. You know the game where you strip off your clothing whenever you lose a game of monopoly, and the game continues until you're butt ass naked. Yeah we did stupid sht like that all the time. We even watched some T.V. These guys actually introduced me to the concept of T.V., and boy, did I have a blast with it. The first movies I ever saw were Clint Eastwood movies like Dirty Harry, Kelly's Heroes, Heartbreak Ridge, and FireFox. I also saw Bruce Willis' Die Hard movies, which were also pretty fun too. All the other action movies outside of those guys though, I'm not into much because of the weapon physics in them, not to mention the absurd amount of stupid one-liners, and the irritating first aid inconsistencies. Although out of all the movies I first watched that I enjoyed most, the Friday the 13th series was my all time favorite. The movies were mostly pretty simple, and to some degree forgettable among the plethora of 80s horror/slasher movies. But what made me love the series from start to finish (excluding movies 8 through 10 because they suck) was the character Jason Voorhees. Thanks to Willie I'm now a fan of the series. It's also because of that series that I was able to find a replacement weapon for my combi-stick. The machete.

Also I should mention it was Willie who gave my pulse rifle the name Sexual Tyrannosaurus.

He begins to laugh humorously.

Hooo boy! Yep, those sure were the good old days. Right fellas?

His laughter quickly subsides.

William "Wacko" L. Paxton

Taylor Banks

Richard Green

Michelle Roberts.

He sputters a mournful growled sigh before continuing.

Richard and Michelle had gotten closer as the years went on also. Their relationship had recovered quickly after our first mission, and they'd continued to hit it off pretty well. I wasn't surprised at all once they gave us the news that they were engaged. Of course Willie "Wacko" stupidly asked if we were all invited.

I slapped him on the head and said, "Duh! Would they tell us if we weren't?!" And yes, we were invited. Like I said I wasn't surprised, but I was very excited and happy that my Hunter Brother and Sister would be mating soon.

He makes a pleasant growling noise with his mandibles.

I just... I was so happy for them. I was a little sad though, knowing that I myself might never have what they'd have, but that didn't mean I could be happy for them. I'll also admit I was also looking forward to seeing them have kids, but Rich and Michelle weren't trying to get ahead of themselves.

His pleasant growling quickly subsides

Sure would've been great. Wouldn't it fellas?