Right after dinner, Nina went straight to the barracks and slammed the door shut behind her. No one else would hear it; nobody else was in the room, all of the other girls were off talking to one another in their groups in different areas of the building or were still eating. She hated the whole situation she was in, of being picked out just for being a girl or because she needed to match up to what her teachers would've expected from Dutch or her father. More than anything, she despised Jarred. He did everything he could to try to make her fall behind the others, even if it made him fall behind as well, and half of her effort that she should spend to impress her trainers, she was forced to spend making sure he didn't mess things up for her.

Nina climbed up into her bunk that sat above one of a cadet's name she didn't know. She mainly kept off to herself more than anything, or was one of the guys, whose barracks were in a separate part of the building. Once up, she reached into the pouch of a solid dark green backpack hanging from one of the bedposts. She pulled out an old, slightly rusted and scratched up dog tag and read the inscription as she had done thousands of times before. Although the words and numbers were already deeply encoded into her memory.

2097520938

LUIETENENT

BILLY SOLE

"The night before he died, he gave this to me. Said he had a bad feeling of how all of that mess would end, and thought all of us were going to die anyway," Dutch had told her when she had just turned eight, "but he said he had faith that if anyone was going to make it, it would be me. I wish I could've proven him wrong on that."

He curled the dog tag, still on its chain, into her still small hands. Nina stared at it blankly, not knowing what effect to have, but feeling a sort of warmth coming from the necklace.

"I was going to wait to give you it until you were older, but I didn't know what would've been the right time and I think you're at an age now that you're ready to know a bit more about the whole story. You're getting to be a big girl and should know more details on the way things happened. He would want you to have it. And he would want you to wear it with pride. Whenever you feel alone, look at this, and know he's watching you."

Nina put on the necklace and gripped tightly to the tag, as if she could hold his hand one more time. She wondered why her father would have given it to Dutch in the first place. She had always admired his "sixth sense," his ability to sense things without seeing them, tell what happened or what would happen without really trying, but did he truly believe he was going to die? More so, was he perfectly ok with that? It all seemed too unreal, yet then again, so had his death in the first place. In fact, for the first couple months of having Dutch for a parent, she would wake up in the morning, look out the window, expecting to see her father driving their scrapheap Jeep up to the house to pick her up and have his first cup of black coffee, and find nothing.

She lay back in bed and closed her eyes. Two more years, just two more years. Then she would be free to do whatever she wanted, in this case sign up for the US rescue teams as soon as possible. Look on the bright side, she told herself, you get about two months of peace in less than a week. Yes, then Jarred and most of the other cadets would head back home for summer break. However, Nina and the others that had nowhere to go would stay right here or go on the annual camping trip, where they would further sharpen their survival skills and learn a few more Boy Scout tricks. There was a huge cookout at the end as a reward for everyone roughing it, one of the few celebrations they had here other than the military ball, which she never went to.

She only came out of the barracks once more that day, and only then to go to the lowering of the flag. She and the rest of the girls filed back in to the barracks to get ready for bed and then hit the hay.

The sun was beginning to set as the Stalker looked down from a tree and through the window of the girl's barracks, staring at Nina. He wondered how he would be able to get her alone so he could capture her without suspicion. It would be obvious if he just, went in, grabbed her, and drug her across the dirt to his ship, where everyone would see a mysterious force pull Nina away like a rag doll. He needed to get back to the planet soon though. Suddenly he heard shouts coming from a distance. He turned in that direction to spot the silhouettes of a group of humans dragging another, unwilling one with them by his arms and legs.

"Come on, guys, put me down! What did I ever do to any of you?" yelled Jarred, trying to break free from the four other boy's grasps, who were each holding either an arm or a leg.

"Simple: You cost us first place in the obstacle course, and now it's payback time," Mike said with a devilish grin.

"What? That was Nina! She's the one who fell at the rock wall!"

"After you sabotaged her equipment. Please! Do you seriously think we're that gullible? Johnson recounts and double-checks that stuff as if he were headed into a real battle; there's no way it could've just fallen out on its own," Corin joined in.

"I didn't do anything!" Jarred still protested.

"Forget it, Jarred."

"Ok, ok, I did it! Happy? But like you said, it's not like it's a real war and I've already been punished. Cut some lack."

"Nope."

The four stopped walking when they reached the fountain in the courtyard. The four started swinging Jarred back and forth and spoke in unison, each one grinning from ear to ear.

"One…"

"No!"

"Two…"

"No no no!"

"Three!"

"Nononononononononono!"

The guys tossed him in, much to his dismay, and he landed face first into the water.

After a good, long laugh, Mike finally spoke up. "Look at it this way; you won't need to shower in the morning"

They were just helping Jarred back out when they all heard a clicking sound from nearby.

"Ok… Two questions: Am I not the only one that heard that and does anyone know what could've made that sound?" one of the other boys asked.

"It sounded kind of like a purr, could be a cat," Corin said.

"A cat? That was a little bit too loud to come from a cat."

"Well what do you think it is genius?"

They all heard the sound again, but much closer now. Turning in the direction of the sound, they saw a flicker of yellow lights similar to eyes. Three of the boys started running away, but didn't get far before a bright light flashed. All of them were unconscious as they hit the ground, and soon only the sound of the fountain could be heard.

The Stalker uncloaked, seeing as there were no other humans in the area. He cocked his head, thinking of how he was going to get all of them out of here before they were spotted. He picked one boy up and tossed him across one shoulder, then tied the rest of them together with a long rope, pulling them across the grass.

Well, that's five. Half way done, he thought as he went up the boarding ramp and placed the human males inside a holding cell in case the stun cannon's effects wore off before they arrived. They would be fitted into more suitable clothes and given equipment before being sent out to be in the hunt, since clearly they had no weapons on them now. These humans were hunted enough, along with other species, that ones that had already been killed were stripped of their gear for cases like this. The Yautja rarely ever needed them, but it helped to see how other technology and weaponry from various worlds worked on occasion. Sometimes they were even able to replicate them, if the items were more advanced than their own or they had nothing similar.

Nina cracked her eyes open as she heard a slight rapping on one of the windows. Light from the hall burst from a crevice as the door creaked open. She quietly propped herself on one elbow to see a girl leaving the barracks, dressed and wearing her boots. Nina checked her watch; it was 2:17 in the morning. Rolling her eyes, she got back under the covers. She'd get caught on her own and she didn't care what was going on as long as she got some sleep in before dawn.

A few moments later, there was a sudden, muffled banging sound from outside and a light flashed through the windows. Now concerned and curious, she popped back up, but saw nothing when she looked outside. It hadn't seemed to have woken anyone else up.

She dug through her pack and yanked out a flashlight. After climbing down silently so not to disturb her bunkmate, she dressed in her clothes and put on her combat boots. Thankfully, the cadet that slept under her was a sound sleeper. There could've been a tornado breaking apart the campus and she wouldn't have woken up. Nina moved with a light hunter's tread out of the room and snuck into the hall with ease.

Maneuvering through the school after lights out was easier than one would think. The only places monitored by cameras at that time would be ones with more valuable items needing to be guarded. The watchmen to make sure cadets weren't roaming the halls stopped by the barracks every hour and then went in other hallways to search or changed shifts. Once you got past them, a cadet could go through the dining hall and the kitchen, then out the door in the back where the garbage was picked up. A few more watchmen were outside as well, but were effortless to keep out of sight of if you knew the right places, which almost everyone but the rookies did.

Once Nina was outside, she went around to where she first heard the noise and switched on her flashlight. The watchmen didn't come around here because their lights sometimes were too bright, so it went through the windows and would wake up the cadets, but hers was dim enough not to spread out that far. It was eerily quiet save for the sounds of insects. The "sixth sense" she inherited from her father was going off like crazy, telling her to turn back now. She felt it was just the darkness that made her feel this way, and that she needed to be brave like her father would be in times like this.

There was a rustling of leaves up above and she looked up slowly without lifting her head to see three small red lights in the shape of a triangle pointed at her. Her blood chilled and she automatically froze. These lights were familiar, the exact ones from Dutch's stories she had heard and remembered so well.

Nina breathed slowly, not saying anything. Not screaming, not running, not moving, not even backing away or bothering to call for help. This thing had her in its firing range by only a few yards, and there was nothing to use as cover nearby. She knew whatever she did wouldn't matter now unless she planned on bringing a few more of her kind down with her. She would die. End of story.

But she would stare it down at least. She wouldn't die looking weak and fearful. She lifted her head up so it knew she saw it and glared. Slowly, she moved her empty hand and grasped the dog tag. The last thing she heard was that banging sound before falling to the earth.

He jumped down from the branch and landed with a mild thud, his knees bent. Standing up, he strode other to the human female lying at his feet. He had only aimed his weapon to toy with her, and was shocked she hadn't tried to flee, but instead had the nerve to look him dead in the eye. Kneeling, the Stalker lifted up her head with one hand so she would face him. The female moaned softly as he did so. He picked up her flashlight, switching it off and pocketing it, before lifting her up in his arms. Nina was easy to carry and he took her back to the ship, placing her with the others. He had captured another four before she had snuck out.