Author's Note: Goodness! We're alive! Amazing, we know. We're sorry for the lack of updates recently, but it's been tough times around here for the two of us, which makes writing difficult. We're trying, we swear. At any rate, here are our favorite grumpy old man Preds to brighten the day up!

Smoke and Mirrors
Glaw sighed, tapping a finger on the console board. It had been a few days without any new leads on worthy opponents for the hunter planet. Torkel was doing his usual research, but was coming up empty handed so far.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Glaw leaned back in his seat, propping his feet up, and resigned himself to spending the rest of the day doing nothing of any particular interest. Settling in for a long nap, Glaw started and fell off his chair with a small grunt when Torkel burst in, yammering incoherently about something or another.
Grumbling, Glaw placed his hands on Torkel's shoulders, stopping the taller Yautja in his tracks. "WHAT. Are you going on about, Torkel?"
"I've found them! Worthy opponents! Highly skilled!"
Glaw had his suspicions about this, but checking out a false lead was better than sitting in the ship, so he nodded at Torkel to continue, crossing his arms.
Torkel began gesturing wildly. "They are spoken of all around this planet! They hide in the shadows, never seen by those they are sent to kill. They always finish the job they are given! The most highly trained of all spies and assassins! They are practically worshipped!"
Going to his chair, Glaw prepared to head out. "Well, where do we go to find these… What were they called?"
"N'ee'nga! They are called N'ee'ngas!"

The clan leader stared calmly at the woman sitting in front of him. This businesswoman was very dangerous, and very ambitious. He had no desire to cross her, if he could avoid it. She laced her fingers together, propping her chin up on them.
"I have heard that you are the best."
He made no move. Give nothing to the enemy, or your allies. He wasn't sure yet what she was. Besides, the reputation of his clan, and their work, spoke for him. She leaned back, eyeing him. "Silence. I like that. For this work, I must have an oath of secrecy. Only a few of the biggest companies, and most powerful governments, even know anything about what I will tell you. Do I have your word?"
He inclined his head. The work of his clan was ALWAYS confidential. Silence was an inherent part of their work, both physically and politically. Keeping quiet made more friends than enemies.
This seemed enough of an answer to appease the woman and she stood, picking up a file, and walking towards him. Stopping in front of him, she looked up at him calmly. "This file contains all of the details you will need for your work. Read through it now. Once you're done, I'm going to destroy that. I hope you have good memory."
He opened the manila folder and began to read. Though his face showed nothing, covered as it was by his mask, he was legitimately surprised by what he found within. He had expected the usual thing. Assassination, stealing a prototype of something, kidnapping. The usual. This… He wasn't sure what to make of it. Aliens were not what
he usually dealt with.
He read through everything quickly, committing it all to memory, before handing it back. She went to the fireplace and threw the folder in, watching it until nothing was left. She turned and faced him once more. "Your job is to find and kill these creatures. I would say that you should try and bring one back alive, but that has proven VERY
difficult. A dead one will be good enough. But, especially, we want their weapons and technology. As you read, they are far more advanced than we could even dream of. Get us a corpse and get us the hardware. That is all."
He nodded. This job would be interesting. Before he left, she spoke once more. "My company is very desirous of what you can procure. But, be careful. Many attempts have been made to capture or kill these things. Few have succeeded, and they've been coming to this planet for millennia. Do not underestimate them, like so many others."
He did not deign to give her even a head nod. He had read the file. He knew that, most likely, whoever was sent on this mission wouldn't come back alive. But, at least it was a challenge. And that is, truly, what he and his clan lived for.

Torkel frowned behind his helmet, deeply confused. He couldn't fathom how these N'ee'ngas had become so feared. The ones he and Glaw had found so far were less than impressive. They screamed a lot and were not nearly so stealthy as he had been led to believe.
Glaw flung another one of the very weak N'ee'ngas across the room with careless ease. The stocky warrior began stomping his way across the floor towards his friend, coming to a halt right in front of Torkel. "WHAT is the meaning of this? If these are warriors, then I'm a Kainde Amedha queen! And what is with all of these contraptions? Fake land, fake buildings, all manner of mechanical devices. Hardly a fitting field of battle."
Torkel looked at their surroundings. It really hadn't been what he'd thought. All of these warriors, tucked away in plain sight, in the middle of a very large Ooman city, in some strange metal building with all of the fake things. Even the weapons of the warriors had been weak and fake. Most had turned and fled when he and Glaw had revealed themselves. Hardly good sport. He and Glaw hadn't even bothered to kill any of them. It just wouldn't have been very fair. Though, their screaming WAS beginning to give him a headache.
With a shrug, Torkel waved off Glaw's glare. "Well, perhaps these are not the warriors we're looking for. We can continue our hunt elsewhere, yes?"
Glaw grumbled something in reply, and it didn't quite sound like a "no", and so Torkel recloaked and started walking towards the exit. "Then let's move on. Plenty more places to look!"

About two weeks later, Glaw and Torkel were perched up in some trees, staring intensely at the compound below. Glaw shifted a little, feeling the creaking in his knees and ankles. He hated getting old. Why couldn't he have just died in glorious battle, instead of being relegated to this? Following a half wit across the galaxy. A terrible end to an illustrious battling career.
Torkel waved his arm excitedly. "Glaw! Look there! Ma'oonks! These are great warriors! But, they must be provoked into battle."
Glaw watched the old human men shuffling about and had his doubts about their battle prowess. They looked about as strong as the leaves they were collecting, and just as brittle. The two yautja dropped from their watching positions and began to advance towards the low wooden building, when they both stopped.
Something was wrong. There was something around them. Though they could not see anything, they hadn't battled for centuries for nothing. The two were instantly on their guard, weapons out, crouching down into familiar stances. This may very well be an interesting fight for once.
There was a sharp whirring noise, and Glaw dove forward into a roll, while Torkel darted behind a tree. Small blades lodged into the ground and trees where they had been standing only moments before. They both scanned the area, but their heat vision told them nothing. Whoever was there was hiding, and very well.
More whirring, and the two predators dodged away, narrowly avoiding more blades. They ended up near each other and Torkel whispered to Glaw. "Who is doing this? I can't see anything of them! It's like our own shadows are after us!"
Glaw perked up, something instantly clicking in his mind. "Torkel! The N'ee'ngas! Weren't they never seen? Shadow warriors?"
Torkel nodded slowly. "Yes… But, we found some! And they were weak! Nothing like this sort of skill."
Shrugging, Glaw crouched, readying his wrist blades. "I do not claim to understand what that was all about, THESE are true warriors. We cannot see them, just as they cannot see us. No matter what they are, they must be defeated. But, let's try to take one alive. We have to send SOMETHING to the hunter planet."
Torkel nodded in agreement, and they both listened intently, for any hint of a sound. Then, in a whirling of blades, they attacked. With practiced ease, both warriors hurled their weapons, albeit somewhat blindly. The attacks were to buy them enough time to flip through their different vision fields, trying to find their opponents.
The first few settings showed them nothing as they darted away from more blades. The setting for hunting the Kainde Amedha showed them some flickers of movement, but the opposing warriors were too fast and too well hidden still. Finally, they set their helmets to search out heartbeats.
The battle went quickly from there. Using their enemies' heartbeats to trace their movements, the two ancient battlers darted through the trees, slaughtering any opponents in their path. The hidden warriors put up an excellent fight, but in the end, they simply weren't experienced enough.
Glaw and Torkel stood in the midst of the slaughter, watching the heartbeats slowly fade. With a sigh, Torkel knelt, prodding at a now cold corpse. "What a shame. We got so caught up in our battle, we forgot to spare some to take."
Glaw shrugged, in too good of a mood to bother feeling bad. He flicked some of the blood from his blades, feeling very pleased with the battle. It wasn't often anymore he really got a work out. Suddenly, there was a weight on his head and shoulders.
Swiftly, Glaw thrust upwards, trying to impale the foolish being that had landed on his head. Unfortunately, this N'een'gha was even better than the ones he had just taken down. It flipped off of his head, darting off into the trees.
Letting out a roar, Glaw began charging off after the interloper, but halted when he heard another roar, coming from his partner. Wheeling about, Glaw dove in, slashing at one of the warriors daring to harm Torkel. Again, the warrior avoided his sweeping blow, vanishing into the trees, even the heartbeat leaving his vision field. The second warrior simply jumped up, getting lost in the thick foliage.
Glaw looked at Torkel, worried despite himself. "Hey, you weakling. How could you let them get the jump on you like that? If you got hurt, don't think I'm helping you back!"
Torkel laughed, holding his side. Glaw could clearly see the fluorescent blood beginning to well up between his friend's fingers. Torkel waved off Glaw, knowing how concerned his friend would be. "Don't worry, Glaw. I've gotten much worse. Those Oomans didn't quite know where my heart was, so they missed. Just got a couple other organs on the way. I'll be fine!"
Glaw sniffed, turning on his heel to stomp off. "Well, come on! Let's go get that scratch patched up. And you better not bleed on the seats!"
Torkel smiled to himself, following Glaw back to the hidden ship. "I'll do my best not to. I hope we get a chance to fight those N'een'gha's again! That was fun. I haven't been hurt like this in years!"
Glaw opened the ship up and strode on, tugging out a med kit as he went. "We'll deal with them when that happens. In the mean time, you're bleeding on the floor! I'm not cleaning that up for you!"
"You never do any cleaning anyway!"

The clan leader held the throw away phone to his ear, speaking to the woman that had hired him and his men. He frowned slightly, thinking of the good men he'd lost. Those beasts would pay for that. Finally, she picked up and spoke. "Well?"
"They've been tagged."
"Good. Monitor and report back in one week."
He hung up the phone and threw it into the river nearby, turning to go back to his home. This assignment was turning out to be much more difficult than he had anticipated. Maybe he should send out the call to the other clans. A grim smile slipped over his face, then quickly vanished. He would need another phone.

Author's End Note: Again, our deepest apologies for the radio silence as of late. We're trying, we honestly are. Much love!