Ten years later...
"Alright cadets, for most of you this is your final test in my class before the start of summer. We've had a decent year. Do not fail me at this point. Get into your teams. Line up at the starting mark. Am I clear?" shouted Trainer Johnson in a serious tone.
"Sir, yes sir!" the cadets replied in unison. Nina Sole stood among them, wearing a standard uniform and her hair pulled back in a bun. Although in the future she had no intention of joining the regular rank-and-file army, she did plan on following in her father's, Billy Sole's, footsteps as a tracker and part of the rescue teams. However, circumstance more than need for training placed her here, at one of the top military schools in the country.
During the years since her father's death, Dutch had taught her much in the arts of a soldier. He had also taken over as the father figure she had lost because of one thing, a Predator. A killer so skilled and powerful, with such amazing technology, just one could wipe out a squad of elites.
The first years were fine, and the two had tried to get into the routine of a normal life, which neither of them were suited for to begin with. As she grew older, Dutch had told Nina more and more details of what had happened on Val Verde. Whenever the days turned especially warm, sometimes they would see on the news of people disappearing from similar situations, and only their skinned corpses being found. That had been more than enough to convince Dutch to start teaching Nina at an early age.
Despite whatever she succeeded in, her combat lessons, her survival training, the contests she'd won for being a sharpshooter, nothing gave her more pride than whenever Dutch would mention her traits she'd inherited from her father. Maybe this wasn't the life he might've pictured for his daughter to live, but it did make her feel closer to him, as if his spirit were beside her with every shot and blow she made.
Then, when she was thirteen, Dutch vanished without a trace, leaving only a letter of recommendation to this school, where she would spend the rest of her days until adulthood. Everyone from her past had gone, leaving her to stand strong to whatever future lay ahead.
Nina got into her group of three other cadets; Jarred, Mike, and Corin. She only dealt with these three with content, preferring to work alone on most assignments. She didn't hate them…Well, not all of them at any rate.
"Make sure you don't screw this up for us, got it?" Jarred whispered through clenched teeth. He had to be the most sexist male on the entire planet. Not a day went by when he didn't have some smart remark to spit at Nina. She wasn't the only girl at the school, but exceeded far past him in most of her classes, ruining his male ego and causing her to be one of his prime targets since she arrived. She wouldn't forget one of her first days here, during military tactics class.
"Tell me cadets, what could the German forces have done instead in World War I to reach and attack France, rather than trying to force their way through Berlin?" Their trainer had asked.
Nina had raised her hand to give her theory when then someone sneered a few desks behind her. "What do you know? A woman with an opinion. What are the odds?" While other cadets snickered around her, she turned to see Jarred smirking in her direction.
"What do you know? A male sexist pig with his head up his crack. What are the odds?" Nina snapped back before she could stop herself.
The class had roared with laughter, but she and Jarred had been ordered on dish duty for misbehaving. However, it was worth it to put him in his place and see him take some heat.
"Just try to keep up this time. I don't want to have to drag your sorry butt across the finish line." She replied, not bothering to look at him and marching to the starting point. Nina got down low to the ground and concentrated on the first obstacle. It was a basic course for someone like her.
At the sound of a pistol being fired, every cadet began quickly shuffling on their elbows underneath tangles of barb wire, keeping their heads ducked down.
Little did they know the figure that was watching them from above, on the roof of the gymnasium. The Yautja Stalker from the Jungle Hunter Clan watched as the human adolescents raced through the odd course. He had already been here for a good hour, observing some of the other groups of cadets that went through the course, and he was already tired of it. His cloaking device could work for longer periods of time than other members of his species with different titles, but that wasn't the problem.
He was a sniper, not some type of game breeder. Yet of all people, his clan had sent him out to capture prey for the Young Bloods, adolescent Yautja that had just completed their basic training regimen, to kill on some of their first hunts.
After getting through the wire, Nina waited a few more seconds to help pull Mike out. The four then hurriedly moved to a large, wooden wall on which a platform was built on the other side. Cupping her hands, bending her knees, and facing Corin, who was is the same stance, she stood firm as Mike lifted himself up.
"Keep tight," she reminded him as she and Corin simultaneously pushed him up into an extension, sending Mike standing in their hands, above their heads and already pulling himself over the wall's ledge.
Once Mike was over on the other side, Jarred came next. However, once he jumped up, he pushed most of his weight toward Nina. It was obvious what he was trying do to, since he had run this course enough times without messing things up. He intended to make Nina look not only like a weakling, but the cause of it all if they fell behind. Not this time, bub! thought Nina, gritting her teeth as she shoved him upwards and careful not to push him to Corin.
Feeling the lightness in his hand's Corin began to see the problem and helped as well. "Not funny, dude! You're going to bring us all down in you can't get a grip." Corin said, glaring at Jarred.
Before he could respond, Mike grabbed his hands and yanked him up the rest of the way. Mike reached out to take the next persons hand as Jarred unhappily zipped down the ropes and begin making his way through the paths of tires. Nina stepped into Corin's hands and was quickly lifted up and grabbed by Mike. She helped pull herself up and leaned back over to grab one of Corin's arms as he jumped up.
All three were down and through the tires in a flash. Jarred had all of our equipment out and ready. Shoving her pack through one arm, Nina followed the others to a huge rock climbing wall that was around twenty-five feet high. She watched as the other teams begin getting their equipment. Good; they were still in the lead.
As the guys begin to harness themselves, she hastily went through her pack and drug out the equipment. Her harness, pulley, and helmet were all there, but not her carabiner. Looks like I'm free climbing this thing, she grumbled in her head as the others begin their ascent, already a good ways up. Nina put on her helmet and took hold of the ropes, leaving the rest. She climbed well enough, but when she was about half-way up felt a trickle of suspicion run down her neck.
Turning to look behind her and squinting to look in the distance, she saw a patch of air that seemed to be moving on its own, in the figure of something human standing on the gym roof. Losing her concentration, she lost her grip and fell back down to the earth, landing on her back and air whisping from her lungs.
"Nina! Are you alright?" Mike called from above. Nina quickly got up, not wanting to look pathetic or helpless. She grabbed the ropes again and soon was climbing back up, more determined now than ever. As she reached the top, Corin and Mike helped lift her up, to her embarrassment, checking to make sure she didn't hurt herself to bad. "Good thing you had a helmet," Corin joked.
Jarred had already zipped down from the platform and made it across, waiting for us. Unwilling to give him anymore satisfaction, Nina shoved the two toward the cords and handlebars, grabbing her own. She gripped tightly as gravity tried to tear her downwards to the mud pit below. When they got across the finish line, two of the other teams had already made it.
"Great job! Just great, you made us fall back into third place!" Jarred shouted at her.
Before she could say anything back, Trainer Johnson stormed over to her. "Are you trying to prove something? You could've broken you're leg or killed yourself! What were you thinking when you were getting you're equipment?"
Trying hard to keep a neutral expression on her face, Nina replied, "Sir, my carabiner was missing. I had no other means to get over the wall."
"You mean that carabiner?" Jarred pointed accusingly, back to where the tire obstacle ended. Nina looked back to see it lying on the ground a couple yards away from the tires.
Trainer Johnson gave a suspicious glance in Jarred's direction. "Sole, Trotsky, stay here after the others leave. I'd like a word with you both."
The Stalker walked from above; glad to see the female's attention was elsewhere. He didn't know how, but he'd almost been caught. He had his gun out just in case she managed to see him again he could stop her from giving away his position. Still, the female did manage to surprise him with her courage and strength.
He had seen the male yank the item from her back while the others were still getting over the first wall, and once again he wondered to himself why these humans sabotaged and picked one another off so. It couldn't be because of being in different clans, because so many that looked very different would ally with each other at times, while ones in the same habitats fought each other.
Something to think about another day. Right now, he would keep the female in mind. She just might prove to be an interesting challenge.
"For once in your lives, do you think you two could just play nice with each other?" Trainer Johnson asked exasperatingly.
Not on your life, Nina thought, not wishing to outright say no.
Reading the angered looks on the cadets faces, Johnson sighed and said, "Fine. Trotsky, before you hit the showers, I want ten laps around the track from you, and during your free time, you can polish all of the boots in the locker room."
"But-" Jarred began to retort before seeing the seriousness of Johnson's order. He immediately turned and raced to the tracks.
Once he was out of earshot, Johnson turned back to Nina, "Sole, I'm not going to punish you, but I want you to head to the medic and see how badly you were hurt from that fall."
Nina raised an eyebrow, but kept any other sign of emotion from showing, "With all due respect, sir, are you doing this just because I'm a girl and you're going easy on me?"
"No, I'm doing this because it's what I think is fair. Just don't risk getting hurt when you don't have to, alright?" To her surprise, he grinned, "Maybe you'll need to pull a stunt like that on the battlefield, but not here."
Nina nodded, "Understood sir," then she turned at walked off.
Johnson shook his head as he watched her leave, muttering to himself, "Just like you, back in our cadet days. Right, Billy?" He turned and watched Jarred, keeping count on the laps he ran.