Author's Note: Due to how poor my last set of uploads was in terms of quantity – again sorry everyone, life just got in the way – I'm starting early in the hopes are getting out a total of seven whole chapters across all my active fics. Thankyou once again for the stunningly positive response.

Terror had finally overcome Alec's willpower, he broke into a sprint, the repulsors struggling to keep up. Worse still he was unpursued. It should have seemed like a divine intervention but it wasn't, it was truly terrifying. To know that somewhere out there was something so dangerous that the hive would ignore him completely. Take Chrome for example, the praetorian had been actively hunting him for over a month and yet she'd been within striking distance, and just ran straight past him.

Then there had been the praetorian on the ceiling, Faceless, so named for the claw marks on the smooth part of it's head, and all the drones had also treated him like so much background noise, which was usually the literal case.

Something was going on and he was getting out while he still could.

Finally approaching the exit he almost didn't notice the three red dots that were rather devotedly following his ribcage. Almost.

Diving to the side the bolt of plasma missed him by inches, the impact with the resinous floor seriously knocked the breath out of him though. There was a click from above him. Alex turned upwards to see blades descending towards his throat.

They never arrived. Soundlessly a tail had descended from the ceiling, wrapped around the alien's throat and hoisted it into the air.

The gun had always been a worst case scenario thing, Alec was pretty sure this qualified. He went for the gun only to have it fall from his fingers.

Looking down he saw the blackened stumps which had once been the third and fourth fingers of his left hand. The plasma blast hadn't missed entirely.

Yeythwei cursed as he flailed in the air. It appeared one of the khainde amedha had been smarter than he'd thought. Still; not too smart, the wise thing would have been to stab it's tail through his brain while he'd been distracted by the ooman. It had been an error to focus on the ooman, after all it hardly constituted a threat.

Angling the plasma caster upwards it was just the work of a moment to launch a seething ball of ionised plasma into the praetorian's chest. The two fell back to the floor, Yeythwei narrowly avoiding being crushed by the still twitching corpse although he did get showered in droplets of acidic blood, he roared in pain as the acid neutralised itself on dissolved flesh.

Grimacing beneath his mask the yautja returned it's attention to the ooman. Which was the point the second praetorian barrelled into him.

The Queen waited patiently, the entrance to her chamber heavily guarded by the xenomorphs birthed from some of the planets most deadly predators. Something was wrong though, the predator should have been neutralised hours ago yet not a single one of her praetorians had returned. Hissing angrily she knew there was nothing she could do but wait, stuck to the ceiling like she'd been since birth.

Still with so many eggs on the verge of hatching she wouldn't give the predator a chance even if it did get this far into the hive.

Piusnex arrived just in time to see Haudvesica pull the predator into the air. If it had been any other praetorian the creature would be dead already but he'd lost the spike on his tail trying to throw back a human's grenade in the early days of the hive. It was tragic in a way that such a heroic action would one day lead to his death.

As the predator regained it's feet, small sections of it's skin bubbling slightly, a last memento from the late Haudvesica, she barrelled into it scything off the plasma caster with a single swipe of her claws.

The predator retaliated slashing the blades deep into the chitin protecting her torso and kicking her away. It never got the chance to take advantage of the opening though as her tail had wrapped around it's ankle, pulling the hunter to the floor. Now poised above him she struck down with her tail only for it glance off the floor as he rolled aside.

Now back on his feet he drove his fists repeatedly into the praetorian's head, dazing her. She could only be thankful that the acid had ruined his blades or the blow would have been fatal. Nevertheless as the predator drove it's knee into her chest, the chitin, weakened by the cut at the start of the fight gave way, she knew she was losing this fight.

Still she gained some satisfaction from the roar of fury it gave as the acid ate into it's knee. Still dazed she barely saw the fist move as it impacted her chin, knocking her over backwards.

Piusnex had never been knocked unconscious before yet she knew something was wrong as her sense of smell and hearing began to fade. Her echolocation fading she barely noticed the predator draw it's combi-spear, about to drive it deep into her chest. She did know she had lost but it didn't matter, she'd injured it and destroyed it's wristblades and it's gun. Almost weaponless it would now be easy prey now for the rest of the hive

Author's Note: Finally above the over a thousand words per chapter I usually aim for, hopefully a ultra long chapter will at some point pull it up to an excess of a thousand words per chapter as the average. Personally I think it's my best chapter, fight scenes have always been my speciality I guess though I've never had to write them from more than one point of view. What do you all think?

Also if anyone else has a deep seated loathing of the upcoming Spyro game then you may like my latest fic, Skylanders: Spyro's Adven- OH MY GOD WHAT IS IT? If you are annoyed by what they've done to a once magnificent game series then please boycott the new game.