The rain was relentless. It poured off the Hunter's face and armor in streams, washing away the blood and sewer water.

The Hydropower Plant, the type that exploited flowing rivers, looked exactly like a building would after being hit by a bomb. The power house, the part of the complex that had been specifically targeted, was nothing but metal and rubble. The other buildings, including the two-floor square building used for maintenance, storage, and security which sat right alongside the wide waterfall, had also been damaged. The area was a bloodbath, strewn with staff members that had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. The rain had washed most of it away, but the body parts remained. The Hunter had considered skinning the armed guards, just to maintain some form of tradition, but the infant queen was already beginning to molt. She needed to be taken to the scoutship, and placed in stasis, and it needed to be done quickly.

When the Hunter planted the bomb, it had also planted several sensors to warn of any intruders that got too close to the specimen tank. The holographic display projected from its wrist computer confirmed that no-one had approached the building since the explosion. It switched the projection off and descended to the basement.

The specimen tank wasn't particularly heavy, but cumbersome enough to be left behind in the underground garage where the power loaders and other vehicles were kept. The Hunter pressed a series of symbols. The black metal hatch slid open with a hiss. The queen hissed and spat as it was forced inside, and instantly restrained by built-in clamps. The hatch slid closed, muffling the creature's shrieks. In moments, the queen would be sedated. The tank would keep her in stasis for two suns. The Hunter would be aboard the scoutship long before then.

A hole had been blasted through the wall of the basement, giving a view that Hunter paused to look at. The colony below was dark, a black world under a weeping sky. The river beneath the waterfall froth and hissed. It was only a matter of time before the survivors came for the plant, to search for survivors and study the extent of the damage. The Hunter wouldn't be here when they did.

It wouldn't be gone long, the Hunter thought, as pulled out the two tubes in the side of its helmet, and removed the helmet entirely to admire the view through un-altered eyes. It held the helmet out face up, allowing the rain to clean the little streaks of crimson that remained.

The queen was secure, but a much more serious problem remained. Dhi'haka.

The Hunter had received a hail from the scoutship mid-way through its journey to the plant. Four fellow hunters, all blooded, fierce and intelligent in their own right, hovered 2000 km over the planet's surface, surveying the Company's excavation site from a discreet distance. They'd wanted to descend immediately, to punish the interlopers for trespassing in such a significant place. They'd had their cannons armed and ready to obliterate the Marines' Mothership for good measure.

The Hunter had warned them off. The possibility of the doors already being breach was high, and destroying the Mothership would alert the mammals that there was more than one Hunter. Once the queen was onboard, they would discuss the next course of action. The Hunter already had a plan- they would split into two parties. One would return to the colony, to eliminate any and all traces of the serpents. This would need to be done quickly, while the colonists were still weakened and vulnerable. They would be vengeful, too. The Hunters must be prepared for that. The other party would deal with Dhi'haka.

The basement was silent. The queen had succumbed to the stasis. The Hunter put the helmet back on and turned away from the damaged wall to retrieve the tank. Leaving now would ensure it was back to its ship by daybreak.


The rain was relentless. It danced across the surface of the Serpent's carapace and poured off its body in rivulets.

It raced through the foliage as easily as it ran through heavy rain, following the queen's silent call. It had followed her call since her emergence.

The rest of the brood were dead and slaughtered, all but one. When the Serpent called for their aid, only the Blinded One had answered. The children gestating in the hosts beneath the colony had been burned in their cribs. Even the impregnator it had set upon the spotted feline had been killed before it could plant the seed. Rage at the accumulated losses fueled its sprint through the jungle. It pounced at the edge of a river without losing momentum, splashed in the mud on the other side, and continued on. It ignored the cold. The cold was nothing to it. All that mattered now was her.

The metal and concrete structure situated at the waterfall was in sight. The queen was there. So was her captor. The Serpent would not fail.

It stopped at the edge of the foliage and glared through the leaves. The Serpent spied the Hunter standing within a hole in the lower side of the building overlooking the base of the waterfall. It had its false face in its hands. The Serpent listened for the queen's call. It couldn't hear her anymore.

Something approached the Serpent from behind. The Serpent didn't even turn to look as the Blinded One crept up through the leaves and mud and paused by its side. Its wounded brain was regenerating well, as were the dual puncture wounds in its torso. It had regained enough of its 'sight' to glare at the unaware Hunter.

The Hunter put the false face back on and disappeared into the building. The Serpent hissed hatefully and crept out of the bushes, followed closely by the Blinded One. The river here was too wide and wild to reach the hole. The Serpent spied the massive dam. If they couldn't go down, they would go up.

If the queen wasn't alive when the Serpent found her, there would be nothing left of the Hunter for the scavengers to feed on.


An alert, a series of symbols crossing the Hunter's vision, warned of a triggered sensor coming from above ground. The other side of the dam. It was one lifeform. The Hunter unsheathed its wrist blades, activated its cloak and ascended to deal with the threat.

Up the stairs past the laser traps. Up a ladder on the side of the dam. Across the narrow walkway above the raging water and beneath the pouring rain. The cloak faltered, but that would wear off once it was out of the water. The lifeform was near the smaller garage that lay on the other end.

The moment it entered the garage, something big flew past it, brushing its dreadlocks and smashing into the wall. The hunter crouched to make itself a smaller target as the power loader fell to the ground in a warped, twisted heap of scrap metal. This was no marine. The Hunter changed vision mode. In the dark, the creature glowed like a hot coal.

It was the abomination responsible for this calamity.

It wanted the infant queen.


The Hunter that brought down the first hive.

The Serpent hissed and flexed its claws as it recognized the interloper. The cloak, almost invisible to a mammal's eye, didn't fool the Serpent for an instant.

Red lines of light shot from its false face. The Serpent had slain enough of their kind to know what that meant. Blue fire erupted from the machine on its shoulder. The Serpent evaded the blast. Its long bladed tail lashed out, lacerating the Hunter's arm. Green blood illuminated the wet floor.

The Hunter retreated through the door it had come through.

The Serpent hesitated. No hunter it had killed had retreated before.

The queen. It was going for the queen.

The Serpent ran after the Hunter, tearing the door off its hinges as it burst through, entering a world of falling water. The Hunter, already more than half-way across the dam, fired another blue blast. Raindrops turned to steam in its wake. It was too far away to guarantee a direct hit. The Serpent dropped low, missing the blast again. It roared and continued its pursuit. It had to make sure the Blinded One reached the queen first.

The Hunter disappeared into the bigger structure on the other side. The Serpent followed.

In its blind rage the Serpent missed the Hunter waiting just behind the door as it entered a wide room similar to the first, but damaged by the explosion. A wide metal net fired from the gauntlet, enveloping the Serpent from behind. The Hunter tackled it with its full bulk, slamming it to the ground. The floor cracked like glass. The net was strong and sharp, cutting into the carapace as the Serpent struggled. The Hunter reared its arm black, wrist blades gleaming like teeth. The Serpent broke free before acid blood could be shed. It lashed out with a powerful arm, interrupting the Hunter attack.

The Serpent cast the net aside and pounced. Its tail thrust down faster than an eye could blink. The Hunter dodged with its head. The tail smashed into the damaged floor. The Serpent held the Hunter down by the shoulders and lowered its jaw. The tongue shot out. The Hunter avoided it. It avoided the tongue again. And again. It landed a punch that barely fazed the superior creature.

Then the floor collapsed.

Down they went in a rain of dust and rubble, hitting the next floor down. The room had suffered extensive damage here, the floor so brittle all one had to do was step on it. The aliens plunged through that floor, too.

They landed in a dark corridor of flickering lights. The Serpent felt dual blades sink into its side. It shrieked in pain and anger and smacked the Hunter away, the blades sliding out and splashing acid blood everywhere. Thin smoke filled the corridor as its walls burned.

The Hunter rolled backward to its feet, its broad form quivering like a faulty hologram beneath the broken lights. The Serpent could smell its emotion. Not quite fear, but an anxiety born of anger. The Hunter knew this was a battle it may not win.

It pulled out a bladed rod and entered a stance. As it raised the rod above its head, it extended into a spear. They roared as one and came at each other.

They were as fast as each other, countering and dodging their opponent's attacks while lashing out attacks of their own whenever they could. The Hunter fought with a finesse earned through centuries of fighting, parrying and thrusting its spear in a technique that left very few openings. The Serpent relied on its natural advantages, which were more than enough. Its claws opened up more than a dozen minor wounds before the Hunter found its own opening and thrust the speak into the Serpent's thigh. It roared and backhanded the Hunter. The false face was ripped off. It staggered further down the corridor, recovered quickly and threw the spear. The Serpent avoided it. The spear sank one meter into the end of the corridor, skewering the fire extinguisher hanging there.

The next move happened in one second. The Hunter's eyes narrowed. It pulled out a bladed disk and threw it at the Serpent's throat. The Serpent's tail shot out exactly at the same time. The Hunter twisted its body to avoid the fatal blow. When the bladed tail struck, its torso was at an angle where the sharp tip was deflected by the armor. The force of the blow, armor piercing had the angle been better, sent the Hunter flying back through the door into the large garage beyond.

The Serpent advanced, following the Hunter into the garage. As it stalked forward, it used this brief lull to check on the Blinded One's whereabouts. It was approaching the garage from another direction, using the thin traces of the infant queen's scent to close in on her exact location. The Serpent had caught the scent as well. She was very, very close.

Once inside the garage, the Serpent saw the container further ahead. It saw her inside. The Blinded One crawled inside through the hole in the wall overlooking the river and got to the container first, clawing at it like a squirrel attacking a walnut.

The Serpent turned its attention back to the Hunter. It was slow to get up, its chest armor warped from the previous blow. Green blood dripped from its wounds. Its fist tightened beneath the dual wrist blades. The Serpent growled and attacked again. The skirmish was brief, ending in the Hunter being flung into the nearest vehicle. Its bulk warped the door of the truck and it fell to its hands and knees. The Serpent stepped forward to end the fight.

The Blinded One's pheromones changed. Something was so seriously wrong that the Serpent halted its advance and turned to look. The Blinded One was crouched before the remains of the container, holding the limp queen in its claws.

For the first time in its short, bloody life, the Serpent came to feel fear.


The Hunter bled. It hadn't felt this much pain in a hundred years. It watched as the Serpent abandoned its assault and raced to the smaller serpent with the cracked skull. They stared down silently at the queen.

The queen was still, but the stasis would be wearing off. It wasn't long before their stiff postures began to relax as her vital signs became noticeable.

The Hunter saw the opportunity and took it. It pulled the speargun from behind its back and aimed. The back of the neck. The weakness all creatures with a spine shared. That would take the Abomination down. The other would be dealt with quickly after.

The gunfire erupted without warning, lighting the room like a flashbang. Several bullets hit the Abomination before it took off. The smaller serpent followed, holding the semi-conscious infant queen to its chest. Together they ran for the ragged hole, toward the river.

They must not get away.

Barely heeding the bullets flying past, the Hunter stood and held the speargun like a pistol, aiming for the small of the Abomination's back-

And was distracted by a guttural roar of rage before it was tackled from the side, the cape buffalo slamming the Hunter back into the truck with all his might.

The leader of Fort Meadowland, engulfed in a haze of grief and bloodlust, left no room for retaliation. He punched the Hunter's unmasked face, splashing green light across the truck's window. It glimpsed the two serpents leaping through the hole, diving headfirst into the raging river.

The Hunter sliced at the bovine with its wristblades after the second punch. Bogo dodged the blades. Grabbed the outstretched arm. Pulled the Hunter to the wet floor and snapped the arm at the elbow. The Hunter had no time to react to the pain before the buffalo pinned it to the floor, straddled it, and began punching it in the face. He poured all of his power into each strike. Each strike was meant to kill. The Hunter was struck again. And again. And again. The Hunter was too stupefied to count the blows. Slowly but surely, the world turned green.

"STOP HIM! I WANT IT ALIVE!"

Bogo was splattered in neon green by the time the two bears from Weyland-Ewetani Security charged forward and grabbed at him. The wrath of a cape buffalo was not so easily contested. A rhino ran forward to assist them in pulling Bogo off the fallen Hunter. The moment he was upright, Bogo threw them off and pulled out his handgun. He aimed at square at the bloody creature's forehead.

The security guards aimed their own rifles and shouted at him to stop. Hunslet and Morris aimed theirs at the security. The standoff fell silent at a sudden cry.

"Commander! Stop this!"

Dawn Bellwether, maiden name Ewetani, CEO of the entire Company shouted from the doorway, flanked by two ram bodyguards. Her spotted dark blue dress stuck out like a sore thumb against their body armor.

"What're you doing here?" Bogo growled, keeping his gun on the Hunter.

"I came as soon as I heard." Bellwether said simply. She adjusted her amber glasses and said, "Put that gun away, Commander."

Bogo glared daggers. "You know what it's done, right?"

Bellwether didn't nod. "We will make him pay. In our own way."

Bogo fell silent, his gaze falling back on the Hunter. It stayed where it was, too stunned and hurt to do anything but stare back. The marines and security eyed him, waiting for him to pull the trigger.

Finally, with a grim look of resignation, he switched on the safety and returned the gun to its holster. He stepped away from his foe, luminous blood dripping from his hooves, looking slightly dazed himself as the fight went out of him. Bellwether and her guards moved out of the doorway, a gesture for him to leave. Bogo obliged, but before he departed, he stopped before the sheep and looked down, his gaze hardened once more.

"Don't ever let me see him again."

He turned to his men.

"Move out."

He left, picking up his discarded rifle on his way out, followed by his mentally exhausted subordinates.

Bellwether sighed.

She shifted her attention to the Hunter as Corporate Security circled its body and held it at gunpoint.

The Hunter stared at the cracked ceiling through the blood in its eyes.

And it was all going so well…