In another strange move delta pulled out of his K-bar knife and firmly placed it under vevlaa's chin,
"drop your weapon sir!,or ill cut you a new windpipe."
Delta briskly vevlaa to the side and faced at bulkhead and shouted "IF ANYONE ATTACKS ME OR KIDD THE CAPTAIN GETS IT!".He nodded to kidd to continue,knowing delta had slight chances to get out of this alive he always trusted kidd and even though he shouldnt as a freelance mercenary delta had still served under kidd for a while before his retirement.

"Well" She turned to those that are still there. "If they didn't rush in blind, they could of taken a look at hte screen. The finger of her other hand, caressed the screen as she turned it off. She grinned, slowly her lips pulled apart, her eyes moving as the breath left and filled around her. She shifted her hip to the side as she strapped on the weapon of her choice. The strap on her shoulder as she jumped down from that small platform to the turrets before her. She cocked her head to the side as she heard the yells, her lips in that icy smile her father used to have. The eyes dancing in their sockets. "Peterson" She pulled the walkie off her belt and towards her natural red lips. The eyes moved as she watched for the enemy of any kind. "Are you there" She spoke again urgently as she heard that his request over the walkie to everyone left alive that she is to be leader of this group. her hands shook as the eyes grew wide, why in the hell would anyone want her to be in charge. She grew faint for a moment as her eyes closed and a gulp of fake air and her spit went down her throat rather harshly making herself cough. Her eyes flicked to the side, her lips parted again to that sighed mind. Her fingers moving to the gun as she waited for the rest of the unit to return to the command center, the ship that was there. She smiled softly, her lips in a light smirk on her lips. not that she was sorry to see her leader die, but the fact remained, that they didn't leave properly and with no order of how they leave. THey just told who was in what squad, that she remembered. And when they leave, but she didn't see them looking around first seeing if the monitors picked up something which they did. She counted 5 things wrong with the picture, but she could of been off by a few numbers of the enemy signatures. The blocks didn't look right.

She watched as they bustled about, her eyes watching them as a mother hen would her chicks, the lips in a grin. SHe made sure all was well before she moved from the group looking at her own thing, doing her own thing. THen all of a sudden shit hit the fan. She growled, taking her hands and with fists she stomped over towards kidd and the rest. "KIDD" She growled her face inches from his, as the attention was on one as Delta went behind V, forcing him to submit for a moment. Her hand on his chest, gripping his shirt as to use him as a pole so she can stand on her tip toes.

Growled words as it came from the convicts lips, 'FIRST" She growled as her blue hues narrowed to slits. "KILL THE PREDATORS" She growled at him her body shaking in so much anger that welled up in her body. "THAN, do what is needed" She looked at V as his gun was pointed at his head. "HE is only doing what the higher ups are telling him to do" She pointed out that fact, she even had the same order's, but her's was a touch different. TO keep malus and Kidd alive as long as she can before, she is to do her own order. She looked at delta and shook her head, "Delta put that away" She stood in front of the gun now, as the eyes looked at him with a cocky smile on her lips. "If this is a unit of marines that's supposed to act like a unit, than why is everyone bitching and pissing in everyone's Wheaties?" She asked with a tight voice, straining to settle down to that light whisper of words. The hand moved to V's neck, sliding her digits between the knife and the skin itself. She felt the blade press in to the skin as she held her lips in a pursed tight way. "NOW, EVERYONE PUT THE WEAPONS AWAY. I DO NOT CARE WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE" she practically yelled at them as the only hand held kidd's shirt grew tighter as the knuckles gone white. She was who she was, a daughter of 2 convicts. Her muscles danced as she held herself there. "Can't we all get along" She turned her head slightly as to see kidd more. "Order's have changed" She grinned slightly with a nod of her head and a knowing look held her face.

Vent after vent, Xeuss was starting to get sick of the Queen yelling at him to join her and whatnot. Damn queens... They just never shut up! Or maybe it was just him, maybe it was just his human side that was irritated by it, he couldn't imagine how the aliens could sleep with all that yelling. Of course the Queen wanted him to take the hive to some planet where it could grow larger, where they could find new hosts for their little ones, this ship looked seriously overpopulated already. And he would have loved to help the hive, but not the Queen! The Queen just wouldn't let him be! He had to get rid of her before anything else was possible... They could make a new queen on their wonderful new planet if they REALLY wanted to, but first, this one had to go.


The plan had to change. Why did there have to be a damn Queen...? He had to... somehow... keep the aliens away from the humans long enaugh for them to help him kill the Queen... somehow... and then... improvise. He was thinking this as he sat down in one of the vents, eating a chocolate bar that he'd brought with him from the Melanie. He had completely forgotten about that. Was the ship still there? He lacked the means to communicate with the ship, but he was still wearing the uniform from 12 years ago, along with all the accessories - a flashlight and a radio. Of course, not the same ones he had 12 years ago, these ones had been... commandeered only 8 months ago. He never did use a flashlight but the radio had proven useful in such situations a few times before.


He knew from intelligence gathered throughout his numerous "visits" to the corporation's colonies that no other attempt at a XEUSS had succeded after the destruction of the facility he'd made in, so the marines would probably not even know what the hell they were talking to, or maybe know it in theory. This was gonna be wierd, he had used the radio to lure military forces to a certain spot in the past, but never before for an attempt at an alliance. But a Queen was pretty hard to kill with only the two guns and knife he had, especially with a whole clanship of predaliens defending her. "Here goes..." he thought as he took the radio in his left hand.

"Marines, if you copy, this is a XEUSS talking, i am basing this transmission on a series of assumptions, requesting your cooperation in a matter that i assume you are interested in. I assume the corporation wants you to salvage this Yautja ship, in which case i assume you are the best the corporation has. I assume you already know that this ship's reason for being deserted is that a severe xenomorph infestation has occoured. I assume you've seen that the hive is well established and i assume you know by now that it is not a queenless hive. I assume you want the queen dead. And this is one of the few things we have in common. I don't know how many of you are still alive, but i assume most of you have no idea what a XEUSS is. I expect you to respond to this ASAP, in the mean time, i am on my way to where you were last seen. If you do not answer within the next 10 minutes i will consider all of you either dead or not willing to cooperate and turn to other means of achieving my goal. Xeuss out."


He hated to have to ask for help from humans, but he hated to be controlled by a Queen even more. And so he got on his way in the direction of the explosion that supposedly destroyed a number of eggs. From what he knew of the corporation's soldiers, they were probably using a dropship. A dropship needed a hangar. And a hangar had to be somewhere at the edge of the ship, probably close to where the explosion had been.

Just as he had predicted.

Everyone would have known that Peterson was jumping the gun with his declaration on Dunn, and the marines had not reacted to it at all, except for Alouran, who'd simply asked for her MP3 player back. With a shrug of his armoured shoulders, he fished it out of his pocket, and tossed it to her.

"Don't bet on keeping it. I won't be a civvie for long, and I hadn't finished copying your songs yet." He said, although there was no hint of humour in his voice. In fact, his tones had gone deathly serious. And extremely quiet. It wasn't the voice of Sam Dunn at all.

Reaching out with a gloved hand, he grabbed a stained rag from the dashboard of the co-pilot's area and wiped it against his face, slowly, as if wiping his face clean. After he did that, he did the same with his hair. Where he wiped, the brown in his hair disappeared. Replaced with a pale, white colour.

"Wow, Kidd. You sure jumped at the chance to put a gun at my head. You were there about the moment the message came through. Quick, eh?" He said, his voice low and harsh. It wasn't the voice of Sam Dunn at all.

It was the voice of Malus Jay Darkblade, the veteran marine whom had been through more missions combined than any other marine in existence. He'd fought in the sewers against wave after wave of bugs in the Heatar siege. He'd boarded a derelict trading vessel full of bugs in Operation Derelict. He'd even killed a queen in the Acid Reign incident. And that was before he'd even enlisted in the Corps.

As he rose, slowly and with enough menace to make even a Xenomorph Queen think twice about it's actions, Malus Jay Darkblade wiped off of the fake tan that had made him look so much different, revealing his pale visage to all in the cockpit. His other hand was already gripping his Python .357 Magnum, kept hidden until now.

He held it loosely by his side as he let the rag drop to the ground. The ship had gone so silent, that the sound of the rag hitting the floor seemed deafening. Even if most of the marines loyal to him knew he'd been Malus all along, the change was startling.

He looked far older, more tired. More careworn. His blue synthetic eyes looked dull, as if war held no more surprises for him. Either that, or he was just too tired to care about them. His face was it's heavily scarred self again, and as he fished his signature visor from his pocket and placed it on his head, above his eyes to keep his hair out of the way, the picture was complete.

"No, Kidd. I will not surrender to the likes of you. Everyone here knows that Peterson's statement of discharge carries the weight of a feather. Besides, he's not even in charge anymore. You're just looking for an excuse to get me out of the way, so you can take over for yourself.

You think I didn't know you were up to something from the start? That you had another agenda that didn't mesh with ours?"

Malus looked over at Delta. He didn't need to say anthing, the stare he threw would have been enough to cow a Yautja Elder, let alone him. It was a glare of disgust, that he would so quickly throw aside his allegiance and throw in his lot with Kidd. When eventually he spoke to Delta, his voice was sad and soft, and it was clear he was addressing Kidd, too.

"I'm not the traitor to Alpha Draconis, am I? Delta, you don't have to do this. Kidd isn't the hero you remember. Not anymore."

He then turned to Kidd, and spat on the soldier's polished boots. "How is it that a man who's greatest strength is his integrity sink so low? You've changed, Kidd, and not for the better. You're willing to shoot an old friend who's just done his best to save Alpha Draconis from a tyrant in the back? What happened to the man I used to admire?

If either of you dare to use your weapons, you become a traitor to Alpha Draconis. I know one of you has turned traitor. I am unsure about the other. Don't make a mistake that will get you both killed.

After all, Kidd. I've changed too. Grown up. And if you think you can still defeat me, you are sadly mistaken. Now lower your weapon before I rip it off - and your arm with it."

Malus spoke quietly, his hand still resting on his magnum, which a cursory look would betray it's loaded, cocked and unsafed state. Although Malus stood casually, he was ready for action if need-be. He looked over to Vevlaa, now leader of Alpha Draconis, and nodded. A slight signal indicating readiness for whatever would come.

He'd come this far on skill alone. He'd get a whole lot further than this, too.

He turned to face Nikkie and nodded. "You'd best answer this Xeuss guy. I recommend at least meeting him. If he tries anything, we can always kill him. Don't worry about me, everything here is under control." He said, perfectly calm, perfectly controlled. Just like Malus always had been.

FireHunter looked at the other warriors with distaste, he despised the other aliens, he wanted his friend again, they had a lot in common, they were both strong, they were both large, they both liked to roar, and they both were killing machines. He notified waralien, and climbed off out to find his friend, after leaving, he heard two familiar voices, one of which belonged to the queen, the other belonging to the creature he had recently lunged at, he ran around the bend to see Xeuss just finishing speaking into his radio. FireHunter growled and Xeuss spun around, remembering seeing the same creature falling 600ft into a different room. FireHunter charged and swiped the radio, sending it soaring into a puddle of resin, FireHunter, compelled by the queen to keep Xeuss alive, roared and shattered the radio, then continued searching for his befriended creature.
He searched for ages, looking around the ship, his friend had obviously been moving, FireHunter appeared in one of the docking bays, it was empty, he growled in distaste before he saw the faint blur of the yautja ships, he noticed then the yautja, including shadow and others speaking, he growled, thirsting for blood, but there were too many predators, he couldn't go in there without being slaughtered. He decided to roar, give them a little warning about the horrors they faced, his roar alerted the predators, but by the time they looked at where he was, they just saw a little flicker of a tail disappearing into a pipe.

Hearing Vevlaa speaking to him from behind, the young man could do nothing but remain where he stands. Not heeding the warnings of the young marine, Kidd asks the soldier while keeping his sidearm on Malus,"V, I truely wonder who is the traitor here. The one who is disloyal to his own leader, or the one who is, and is willing to rid him of such treachery?"

Not moving an inch, Kidd heard another marine enter the room only to threaten Vevlaa's very life, if he dares risk shooting the old Devil-Dog. The situation that the four marines are in is that, Malus and possibly Kidd will be shot, but V might have a good chance at getting Delta, if his is careful enough. No matter what, a possible of three out of four marines will die on "The Waffle."

Unable to do anything to Malus due to V reaction and unable to doing anything to V because of Malus, Kidd is in a very complicated situation. Although Delta has sided with him, he still may get kill by one or both marines. Suddenly, out of the darkness, Junior was snatched by a person shorter than he is and was met with a face of with a femine look. Narrowing his brown eyes into the woman's own eyes, the young man grabs her wrist only to jerk her hand away from his shirt, thus freeing him of her clutch.

Holding his firearm in his right hand still, the soldier looks at the crowd inside the ship and by the order of Nikkie, he lowers his weapon. Unsure of the next order, the young man reluctantly asks,"So, where the heck do you want me to be at? You want us to kill monsters, so point them out, and also, whatever you do, don't you dare pair me up with these two loonies." Kidd gestures over to V and Malus, knowing that they will be gunning for him when they get the chance.

She let Kidd take her hand off of his shirt as she was that much respectful to him to do such a thing. The eyes narrowed at his making him back off and growl his own question to her, would she oblige to his request or laugh at him in a mocking manner pushing him to do such a thing making him, do his punishment for even touching her. She sighed softly, her lips parted as she looked at delta.

Her hand tightened slightly pressing the tips of her fingers in the warm metal, pressing it harder in to the heel of the hand the flat of the blade wont cut there as she moved her now free hand to Delta's wrist, pushing the nail in to his wrist slowly letting the nerve render dead for that moment and soft yet sharp pain cross the flesh and his mind. Once that was gone and taken control of his hand she would of whispered her sorries, but she didn't.

Not a word but a light growl crossed her lips making her purse her lips together tighter making a black line on the once kissable lips. She watched him, watched delta for a moment wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her or was it true.

She shook her head and looked at V, a light smile on her lips. "Sir" She said with a soft voice once again as that mask remained on her face, that mask that hid all that she was and her feelings. Going cold as she used to, the eyes looked at kidd once more. "Sir, I am going to suggest Edward and Alouran to be with kidd" she said with a soft sigh in her lips the head looking at kidd as she wanted to growl. "Malus should take V and Delta and myself." She stopped for a moment before continuing "and when I go answer the com. He would follow me to talk to this person" She said already not liking the idea to get to some kind of voice, thinking it was already a trap some how from the predators and the aliens, as they now knew was there. Set the trap again, she didn't think any animal was dumb as each of them have their own weaknesses and strengths.

"Remember this ok. I can hear what you're thinking,All your doubts and fears,And if you look in my eyes, in time you'll find,the reason I'm here.
And in time all things shall pass away, In time, you may come back someday. To live once more, or die once more, But in time, your time will be no more. You know your days are numbered, Count them one by one, Like notches in the handle of an outlaw's gun. You can outrun the devil, if you try, But you'll never outrun the hands of time.In time there surely, come a day In time all things shall pass away." she paused her words left hung in the air as they didn't understand as usual what she is saying, but one day she hopped that they did.

She took the walkie-talkie and spoke in it. "I am sure you know where we are" She said a touch of snippy in it, her mind already going hard as a migraine crossed her mind, the hand pressed against it. "We will meet you at the door" She said with the gruffness of a sailor that has been yelling for weeks on end. The hand let go of the walkie and let it clatter where it fell, right now she didn't care.


This was getting on her nerves, she had her own to deal with, on top of that helping Kidd, Malus, Edward and everyone left and making sure that V does not get killed in the process. This was going to be what they called a long night. The hands pulled at her strands pushing them back in to the bandanna that held on top of her head, underneath he helmet. The light eyes moved as she moved as well, towards the door and grabbing her weapons.

"LETS MOVE" She ordered wanting them to hustle and to move. Turning towards the door for a final time she looked at kidd with more lack of respect that she once had. She wondered how he was going to obtain that respect back, only time would tell.

Elder, God of Death, and Blooded hunter walked, undetected through many corridors in the ship.
Twisting and winding maze of halls burrowed deeper into the ships core. Soon the walls changed to steaming metal grates, and pipes circling the walls. The room provided small amounts of light, and a dull gray color covered the vicinity.

Black Warrior's visior flashed before his eyes, displaying a pale blue color, abit like night vision, but detected life signs within a hundred feet.
Nothing stirred, nothing with a pulse atleast. The visors other capability also applied thickness in walls to be shown.

The three cloaked hunters had seemingly gone deeper than they had planned, but from the wristmaps, there was a secret passageway here. This room was where waste was stored for disposal through the pipes, and various materials housed for energy production. Resources in the generators were running low, but backup generators were still stationary, and a large stock of materials were hooked through to filters, allowing a possibly unlimited supply of energy.

Scanning through the area Black Warrior's eyes passed to a lighter part of the wall, alerting PREDATORv2 of his finding, PRED walked towards it, and slid is thumb along the wall. A sparkling blue thumbprint appeared on the wall, and the door seemingly cloaked itself....a hologram in disguise. The 3 hunters walked through the door, passing through the underpart of the ecosystem for the ships animal life. Moss and mold mixed with water dripped to the grates below, and resin mucked through the floor, making walking slightly difficult. The mist created by the waters evaporation made cloaking abit more noticeable, and created a fog of sorts which made vision abit sketchy. Predator428 looked up, and saw a xeno scamper above, running an errand for its beloved queen, taking no notice of the death dealers below.

Slowly, Black Warrior drew out his combistick, awaiting what may be to come.

A noise was heard ahead, a low but menacing growl.....a claw reached forth from the shadows...and gripped the shoulder of PREDATORv2.

Lone hunter cocked his at the sound "Hunters moon" he looked at the one who had spoken..the other from Delta 3093.he gave her a pilot bow...he knew better to judge a book by it's cover, even a half breed female can be as deadly and skilled as any blooded yautja.

as the balatu elder issued his orders and split up SS gave anod to all the HM members, a nod eaisly understood, pair up and spread out SS and Voltage seemed to head for the bridge aswell,allbeit the more direct one, LH walked alon as the rest of the young bloods and unbloods paired up and went to the hunt.."more careful, but not 100% safe, than what the Balatu members where doing" he thought...as he wondered the halls of the ship alone his cloned limbs seemed to ache...he couldnt help bu think it meant something...

tired of being alone with his thoughts he sought out the hybrid Shadowatching simply hoping to see the skill tht she possessed, no blooded warrior of Balatu (or Hunter's moon) was a push over even if she was a hybrid, besides she had more exprince with the hardmeat than he did after all, but he propablly excelled in hunting rouges than her...propablly...and it would do him good to learn from someone better than he was in the hunt.

as he turned the next corner he had caught up with Shadow...

just as the hive was getting bigger and stronger their was a thunderous boom from outside and as alien-drone went to look a plasma bolt streamed past his head and into another alien.alien-drone knew that it was the predators coming back to avenge there brothers death, protecting the queen was his only thought so he ran back through a maze of tunnels to the royal chamber were the queen was screaming in anger.Just then a violent tremor shook the hive as a wall next to them fell down revealing a stream of predators ready to wipe them out but luckily the queen had laid eggs which were triggered by movement and when the predators got close enough the eggs snapped open,facehuggers flying towards them.

(I'm ignoring FH's post as I do this, cuz of its bull)

Malus brushed past Kidd and walked out of the cockpit of the dropship without another word, nodding to Vevlaa as he headed outside. He didn't turn his head back to face any of them after he left, but called out. "I'll meet you all in five." He said softly. Malus was not in the habit of being loud.

His boots made no noise on the metal floor of the dropship as he crossed into the cargo hold, walking past racks of weaponry and crates of ammo, until he found the metal box that he'd been looking for. It was painted jet-black and hidden inside an ammo crate, under a few dozen spare M41A ammunition magazines. Right where he had left it.

He picked it up with a gloved hand and sauntered over to a maintenance hatch set in the floor, and opened it up, ducking into the small crawlspace underneath. He liked his privacy when he was getting changed, and he wanted to put his old Malus uniform on.

Eventually he slipped out of the crawlspace, his signature white and grey M3 Personal Armour and jet-black uniform on. He clipped the holster for his Python .357 Magnum onto his belt, and slid his signature weapon into it. His machete was already strapped to his right forearm in it's scabbard, and after grabbing a M56 Smartgun and harness from the rack and strapping himself in, he was ready to go.

His smartgun resting against an armoured shoulder, supported by a single gloved hand, Malus surveyed the dropship with those cold blue eyes of his, and made sure that everything was OK with the perimeter. And everything was as it should be. Perfect. Now all he had to do was keep Kidd from killing off his marines -and make no mistake, he thought of the Alpha Draconis marines as his soldiers- and thing'd be dandy.

After firing up the systems on his smartgun, and murmuring a wise old chinese proverb he'd picked up a few years ago, he stood by the blast door that seperated the hangar and the rest of the ship -currently locked- and waited.

Alouran grinned at Sam when she got her MP3 player back from him though his comment about copying her music let her laugh a little even if his voice wasn't joking. Making a mental note not to get it taken away by him she slipped it into her pants pocket. The soft click of a gun being leveled brought her green eyes onto Kidd who was asking Sam how he wanted to die. Pressing herself against a wall she didn't want to draw the wrong attention at this particular moment, she might get shot. A few moments passed and V then Delta joined them in the ring of threats. 'Woo power struggles.' she thought to herself silently.

Leaning against the wall she remained silent threw out the exchange of words though she looked up when she heard her name from Nikkie before looking back down at her boots. Thinking back to why she joined the marines it was because she didn't want to be in the middle of a power struggle that was her family. Now she was in the middle of a bigger one. "Man, i can't win for loosing." she muttered softly as she pushed off the wall and walked out after Malus now that it was 'safe' to move. Oh she had paid attention to the whole conversation but at the moment she didn't care about it. She had her orders and she was gonna follow them.

Stopping to look back at Kidd, Delta, V and Nikkie who where doing things in the cockpit she let her eyes commit their faces and words to memory. Once off the ship she walked over to where her stuff had been piled up near the turret, grabbing her stuff she sat down on a upturned cable roll. Feet scuffing the floor as she let them sway she waited for Kidd and Edward to get done getting ready so they could go where ever they needed to go to.
The girl fished around in her pockets for something to chew on she found a packet of jerky and smiled. Opening the package she tore some of it off and started to gnaw on it as she waited.

Taking a moment to spot the white hair of Malus she jumped off the cable roll and walked over to him. Tapping his shoulder to get his attention her voice soon followed. "Thanks for my MP3 player back.. umm.. Sam." she had heard him be called something else but the girl had no idea why.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Xeuss shouted at the apparently retarded predalien who had just crushed his radio right as he was getting an answer from a female marine. Two 50 caliber shots missed the head of the predalien as it was dissappearing through the pipes. "I guess it's true that intelligence = mass of brain/mass of body, because the bigger that one gets, the more idiotic! It will have to go down, i guess..." he thought while taking a sad look at the pipes where the poor mindless predalien had ran through.


And it was through. The other aliens may understand his plan, but that one had already proven twice to be retarded, so it had to go down before it screwed everything up. The problem was, as stupid as that predalien apparently was, it was still very strong, so he had to get to the humans before it did. Xeuss started running as fast as he could in the direction he assumed the humans were and soon enaugh he got to a large dark room full of eggs, except for a small spot of light coming from a hole in the ceiling where the resin and the eggs had been blown away by what had to had been a grenade. The 3 drones that were in that room turned their heads at him and hissed as he came from the vent. Xeuss walked straight into the light and looked up. There was another corridor up there. But it was too high for him to get to from that room, so it was back to the vents.


The ventilation system was more complicated than the one in a normal Wayland-Yutani facility, but at least through this one he didn't have to crawl at all. He climbed up the hive excrescences and got right on top of the corridor he had been looking at. He lowered his face to one of the small ventilation windows and saw 4 turrets. "So that's why the drones aren't rushing through there!" he thought as he went on. There was no need to fight 4 turrets when he could get to them easier through where he already was. And so he did.


The exit from the vent had been sealed off with a torch. Xeuss leaned closer to look through and got to see a dropship and shout "OH SHIT!" before jumping back as a reflex to the 6 sentry guns shooting right for his head. But if 6 sentries couldn't penetrate the closed vent, he figured he stood no chance on his own, so in stead he shouted again "HEY, IT'S ME! IS ANYONE THERE?". Just as he finished talking a roar was heard through the vents, coming from another sector of the ship. It was not a predalien roar. It was a Predator roar. This was getting better and better.

Waralien began roaming around the area near the hive entrances. The guards posted there were willing to stay but they were growing restless. He was too.

War heard several noises and knew that Firehunter had found prey. It didn't matter to him. It was strange for humans to keep to themselves and the hunters were also inactive. What was going on? He knew the behaviors of both and this worried him that both were being conservative.

War then headed out to the bridge to find a clue to figure out what was the situation.

Peering at the hand holding PREDATORv2's shoulder he instantly knew this poor fool was no threat. Giving the arm a tug the rest of the broken warrior's body fell to the floor in front of PREDATORv2. Bending over the warrior PREDATORv2 saw there was still a small shimmer of life left in this Yautja. Glanceing at black_warrior and Predator428, giving them a slight nod of approval to approach.

The mortally wounded warrior coughed and gagged silently. Pulling together enough strength between gasps of air to utter the word 'Hardmeat'. Large wounds in the warrior's abdomen, those remarkably similar to a hardmeat's tail, lead to this poor fool's slow fate. Crouched motionless over his fellow kinsmen PREDATORv2 reached for his wrist computer, terring the device off the dead warrior's arm. PREDATORv2 stood turning towards black_warrior and Predator428. "This maybe of some use" PREDATORv2 pulling off his own wristcomp replacing it with the dead yautja's.

Scanning through the vision tracking memory system on the wrist computer: this allowed a warrior to in effect to save all of his experiances through the vision recording technology incorporated in every Yautja's mask, this came in handly when investigating situations such as these. "The hardmeats escaped from their containment cells during a scheduled ritual hunt 5 days ago. The drones waited 9 days before striking, they were unable to free the queen from her cryogenic stasis...Hmmh took everyone by surprise as well as allowing this ship to gain some distance from any close Yautja inhabited planets".

Looking at his clan mates PREDATORv2, turned and began to make his way through this lush yet dangerous environment...

Predator428 had began to follow his elder and fellow warrior into the artificial jungle, but lingered near the fallen yautja. The being appeared to still be clinging on to life, no matter how much he wanted release from the pain of his wounds. Predator428 knelt next the mortally injured hunter and examined the jagged tear in his chest. Predator428 knew that the wound had been caused by a xenomorph tail. He knew from experience.

Predator428 had seen a few of his fellow yautja fall to the claws and teeth of the hardmeat, most had had the luck to die quickly. The life that still clung to this hunter brought back memories of his blooding trials long ago. One of Predator428's few childhood friends had accompanied him on the comming of age ritual. The poor warrior had been taken by suprise by a hardmeat tail from behind during the first few minutes of the trial. Predator428 had used the distraction to kill the xenomorph, but the damage had already been done. Predator428 knew that his friend wouldn't survive the attack, so he had tried to end his friend's life with some honor. Unfortunatly, a swarm of hardmeat had choosen that time to attack. Predator428 was forced to leave the still living warrior to the filthy claws of the hardmeat. He had never forgotten that.

Another wet gag brought Predator428's attention back to the being at his feet. The dieing warrior had being trying to scream in his agony, but his shredded lungs prevented anything but a low gurgle. Without a hint of hesitation, Predator428 reached around to the back of his shin armor and unholstered his speargun. The weapon had a finite amount of ammunition, but decapitating the yautja with his plasma cannon would not seem like a very good mercy killing.

Before Predator428 could line up the illuminated sights on the fallen hunter's head, the being drew his last ragged breath of recyled air. His strained breathing finally stopped as he succomed to his wounds, the remaining spark in his yellow eyes extinguished.

Predator428 lowered his head, letting out a sigh as he put his speargun back into its holster. He considered chanting the ritual death prayer for him but decided against it. If PREDATORv2's recently aquired information was true, there would be far more prayers to chant. Predator428 climbed back to his feet and began to walk back to his fellow clan hunters.

The smell of rotting flesh had begun to seep into his miniscule nostrils as the three hunter's began their trek through the fabricated jungle. The smell was growing steadily stronger as they near more yautja bodies laying on the ground, all killed in the initial hardmeat breakout. The disgusting smell of decay began to angered Predator428. These were his brothers, fellow clansmen, all killed by these bastardly creatures. The hardmeat would not go unpunished for this horrific slaughter, and the Balatu hunters intended to deliver that punishment.

He should have had to wait for only five minutes. Half a hour later, Malus Jay Darkblade was still standing by the door, and getting rather impatient. He had a sneaking suspicion that the others weren't going to bother showing up at all, which made his grim expression turn even darker. His artificial eyes narrowed as he decided that he was going to have to move out without them. Hmph.

Raising his Smartgun with his left, gloved hand, he reached out with his right and opened the large blast door, careful to close and lick it behind him after he stepped through the threshold. Even out here, he was still safe. Two of the four early warning sentry guns he set up earlier had arcs of fire covered the door from the outside. Fortunately, Peterson had not invalidated his IFF tag, or he'd have been dead by now.

Shaking his head as he switched the motion tracker he'd plugged into his smartgun on, he turned his head, checking out the two corridors brancing out, one directly in front of him, and one to the left. His eyes and head moved with the skill and grace of a warrior, a hardened veteran whom knew war like an old friend, and for whom Death was like a father.

He swung his Smartgun around to cover the corridor to his left after he'd made sure the front one was clear, and after a few moments inclined his pale, helmeted head in satisfaction. All was well. For now. He looked down the side corridor, knowing that was where the signal had come from, and prepared to make his slow, careful way down there.

It was at that point where his Smartgun picked up an unknown signal. Malus almost -almost- pressed the fire button on the forward gri[ with his thumb, but paused for a moment, knowing it could well be Xeuss. Fortunately, his instinct was good, and Xeuss appeared a moment later. He looked human, but there was something...off...about him.

"You must be Xeuss. I'm Malus, formerly 2nd in Command of Alpha Draconis. Now, just a merc. I'm all they bothered to send." He said quietly in way of a greeting, his weapon still aimed at Xeuss, but his finger well clear of the firing stud.

He looked at Xeuss with suspicion, knowing that something was wrong with him. Could he be some form of supersoldier or hybrid? Either way, Malus decided to be wary. For all he knew, it was a trap. He hoped it wasn't, or that it would not be sprung until he at least killed some preds or bugs. Maybe even the Queen, as Xeuss had suggested.

He didn't smile, although he did incline his head slightly in greeting. It was usually the most anyone ever got from Malus in the way of hello. He was like that. One said that when you killed for a living, you could go one of two ways. You could find you enjoy it so much you become a sadist, or your heart cannot take it and shuts down, leaving you all but emotionless.

Cold, almost mechanical. Certainly no longer really human. Malus had quite obviously gone the latter way of the two, and kept one eye on the motion tracker that his smartgun's HUD super-imposed on his vision. It was always -ALWAYS- better to be too cautious and make minor mistakes, than be not cautious enough, and die.

His cold, gunmetal grey armour was painted in a 'tiger stripes' camouflage pattern, with the armour being grey and the stripes being white. His uniform was the same, and even his pale face was painted in this pattern, although the face was white and the charcoal he had used as camouflage was grey, in that case. His white hair was hidden by both his helmet and visor, which was strapped onto the helmet, but some hair poked down over his eyes.

His sleeves were rolled up, revealing wiry muscle and a multitude of scars from previous conflicts, and tattooed on his right upper arm were the words 'My Armour is Contempt.', Malus's own personal motto. His hands were encased in black, fingerless gloves that had kevlar and nomex lining, making them somewhat resistand to attack and almost totally heat-proof.

In fact, his entire uniform had armour-weave and was flame retardant as well. Malus knew it paid to be overcautious. Hence why his weapon remained aimed until Xeuss made his move, either to attack or greet the hardned veteran. Sam found it odd that he was no longer a marine, but perhaps it was for the best.

He'd done mercenary work before he'd gone Colonial Marine. Perhaps it was time he did once again. One thing was now true: Personal survival was all that mattered. Malus had always been a survivalist, and he was extremely good at it. Even if survival meant allying with the enemy, hed do it.

Lost on Malus was the conecpt of honour or glory. All that mattered was that he survived, and to him survival meant eliminating all threats. Since Kidd had tried to kill him once, he'd abandoned the marines. He knew those whom were still loyal to him would seek him out, and he'd welcome them. But he wanted to be well away from those sentry guns and from what he now saw as hostile ground.

Just in case.

His time was done. Finally he had resigned from Alpha Draconis, with the intent of staying away until Peterson had been killed. His eyes scanned the room in which he had walked in to. Nothing was there. The AD emblem on his armor was now scratched off, as were his serial numbers and everything else pertaining to Alpha Draconis.

Edward looked at his motion sensor. No life forms within a few hundred meters. He was safe, and alone again. His thoughts went back to when he had first joined. Things had been so hopeful, so new. But then again Fletcher had only been a Green then. Now he was seasoned, and was damned proud of it.

Guiltily as he kept wandering and looking for someone to link up with he thought of Nikkie. He had promised to protect her. But then came his most bitter thought. "Kidd is there now...he can do it...she never needed me anyways..." He said with such bitterness that even he was disgusted.

Peterson had ruled as a despot and like a pussy had run when confronted. His last confrontation he had just fled, and left AD to fend for itself. Well no more. That shit was over. Kidd had come back, and broken his promises to them not to return to take command. That had disgusted Edward more than anything else. His friend had made him a promise, to break it was like to shoot him.

Now Kidd had been put in as leader again and Peterson was gone. "I swear to Christ if I EVER find that son of a bitch again I will kill him myself." Fletcher held his Smartgun at the ready as he rounded a corner. Nothing again. "This fucking thing has GOT to be empty...." Sighing to himself he walked along the corridors alone.

Once more Fletcher's mind turned into itself. This was eerily similar to his first ever mission. He had gotten lost aboard a derelict vessel, only to be ambushed by Predators. The only thing that saved him was a fluke shot he made, and an air vent he crawled in to. Sighing again to himself Fletcher kept up his pace at a brisk walk.

His pace had taken him almost back to the staging point. This was definitely a good place to find someone. Be they AD or not. He was aiming to gather as many people as he could and go on a nice little bug hunt. Fletcher looked down and checked everything on his Smartgun. His new Ac-4d Variant had a nice little flamethrower under it with it's own fuel supply within the capsule attached tot he back of the mechanism.

This little device could give him fifteen seconds of continuous flame. Or if fired in small bursts this could be extended to maybe a minute of breaking fire. This would spell death for whatever the hell got into the way. Fletcher smirked. "After all...Napalm...sticks." He muttered to himself.

All within his bandoleer he had everything one would want to make things go bang. He had gotten them by outright thievery. Having gone aboard the dropships he raided what equipment and munitions he could. He had everything from frags, to Willie Petes. Hell he could probably take out a good chunk of the ship with this stuff.

Fletcher smirked, knowing he was literally a one man army now. He had enough rounds and explosives to take on whatever could come. Finally though he neared the hangar again. He poked his head within it and sighed to himself. "Not a damned thing..." His eyes scanned the hangar. It was just empty. No, this isn't where they had landed, but it had been his first little spot to investigate.

Just as he had seen hours and hours ago the fucking thing was empty. Stepping more within he now scrounged for useful looking items. Nothing that he could want or need was found. His eyes once more looked over the large hangar. He had a feeling someone was close.

Looking down at his motion sensor he was surprised that it read a life form. One human life form, six hundred meters to his left. Curious now, Fletcher moved towards the signal until a blast door blocked his path. His HUD displayed a name though, since he had come close enough now. Fletcher banged against the door and called out.

"Hey Malus!" Fletcher's voice was loud and resonating within the hangar. "It's me Fletcher! Open the door!" Smirking though he added, "I want to go on a bug hunt!" Now though he waited behind the door. It was that simple now, Malus would open the door and he and Fletcher would go off hunting.

A wicked smile spread across his face. Perhaps they might even find a few Predators as well. Fletcher laughed audibly and looked up. "A glorious hunt indeed!" Malus would hear him on the other side of the door. "This will be a good day to die!" He proclaimed locking and loading his Smartgun.

Even now Edward could see the fire, the gore, the bodies. He would slay the lot of them with the help of Malus. ANd there wasn't a fucking thing anyone could do to stop them. Not Kidd, not Peterson, and not ANY of the others that had decided to come with them. Once more Fletcher laughed, this one filled with lust for the hunt.

Sometimes he wondered if perhaps his family were more animistic than most. Fletcher just laughed again int he same manner and shrugged off this thought.

The commonly held hollywood cliche of the lone wolf, the solitary soldier taking on an entire army by himself was just that. A cliche. And, completely false. Although Malus could -and had- taken a hive on his own before, he knew how difficult it was, and how high the cost usually was. One time. That was all it had taken for him to realize he'd better not try and work alone again. A lone charge was a quick ticket to the pearly gates, and Mal knew if he died, he was going South. Right down to the fire and brimstone.

After all, the military was a team effort. Even mercenary work. Therefore, his alliance with Xeuss. And now, from the loud footsteps and familiar grumbling he heard coming from behind him, Malus guessed Fletcher had come over to join him. And his guess was good, for a moment later he heard Fletcher's voice asking to open the door, in his gruff voice, claiming he wanted to go out and kill some bugs. Malus felt seriously inclined to believe the grizzled, veteran marine whom was on the other side of that door.

Malus knew he could trust Fletcher. Back in the days he'd served on planet Gaia, Fletcher had been his own second in command, and Malus knew well Fletcher's indomitable skill, as well as his iron determination. Fletcher would make an extremely useful ally in this little bug-hunt. Also, by the sound of it, he'd had enough of Alpha Draconis as well. As, he could imagine, quite a lot of the marines had. Malus didn't blame them, he felt exactly the same. The politics, the favouritism, the jockeying for position. It frankly pissed him off.

He didn't take his eyes -or aim- of Xeuss, since he had yet to state his intentions in any way. Taking a single step back, then another, in his typical metholodical way, he walked backwards towards the door. He decided he might as well warn Fletcher about Xeuss. "Okay." He said quietly, knowing Fletcher would hear his quiet voice. "I am going to open the door, and we are going to wipe out the bugs. That bloke Xeuss is on this side of the door with me. Unless he opens fire, please do not shoot."

In his typical, quiet and unsettlingly chilling voice and way he said this, his expression grim and his cold, blue, mechanical eyes scanning the area in front of him in multiple spectrums. He made sure that the life sign on the other side of the door was human with a quick glance, wary of Yautja Vocal Mimicry, and after he did that, his cold gaze turned back to Xeuss. "I have asked my friend not to shoot you, unless you shoot first. Please, don't give him the excuse, he can get a bit carried away somethimes." He said, all cold logic and reason.

Keeping the heavy weapon aimed with his left hand, gripping the foregrip, his thumb still well away of the firing stud, he reached out with his left hand and found the small, alien keypad that they used to lock the door. After hitting the first key, he paused for a moment, just in case anyone tried anything. There was a tense moment where it seemed Xeuss might open fire, of that Malus himself might, the two steely gazes meeting like a pair of laser rangefinders getting a mutual lock. Then, as if it had just been everyone's imagination, the moment passed, and Malus hit the rest of the keys, causing the door to slide open and reveal the veteran soldier Edward Fletcher. The originally dark hallway got lighter as the light from one of the floodlights Delta's squad had set up earlier shone in the doorway, silhouetting both Malus and Fletcher.

He waited for Fletcher to step through the heavy blast doors, the sound of the man's footsteps quite loud, given the heavy gear he was carrying. Grenades, smartgun, and various others besides. The man looked like a walking tank compared to the lithe Malus, who, with his sleeves rolled up and his black-and-white uniform also looked more gaunt, more pale. Like a ghost beside a bear. Malus took a single, athletic sidways step to give Fletcher some room to move, and the moment he was through hit a button that once again caused the door to slowly grind shut, with the gurgling of hydraulics and the grinding of gears. The hallway slowly darkened as the blast doors began to block out the spotlight, before closing fully.

It was also colder now, due to the proximity of the hangar to the cold space beyond. The ray shielding on the hangar exterior wall only kept out so much cold, and the air had taken on a chill. Malus didn't so much as flinch. He preferred the cold of space to the warmth of a planet, the fickle light of the stars compared to the radiance of a sun. He had been born, raised, and trained in space. It was his home. And, he felt a certain affinity with this ship, as well. It was his home, too. The slightly unreliable gravity of a ship, the recycled air, the cold steel corridors -something that some found claustrophobic- made him feel at home.

He reached out with the hand he'd used to open the door and clapped it on his friend's armoured shoulder, and although he did not smile, his grim features did soften slightly. "Well, now we're in the wild, eh? Reminds me of the old days, when we had no orders but our own, no backup but us, and a whole lotta bugs to kill." He said with a nod, and then addressed Xeuss.

"So. Tell me everything you know about this hive, if you would be so kind. I imagine that there are a lot of Predaliens running around, but it seems there are drones, too. Were there humans on this ship?" After all, from memory Peterson had been first attacked by a drone. Before he'd done a runner. Malus's lips curled with distaste, baring his teeth as he thought of that coward. Ditching the marines at the first sign of trouble. No wonder Kidd had taken over. Malus would have done it himself, but Kidd had done it for him.

He almost laughed at the irony of it. At the start of this mission, Kidd had been the merc, and Malus had been the marines. Now, thier roles were reversed. Except for one fact: When Malus left, he brought with him his closest allies. Fletcher, as he had been when Malus had first gone recruiting, was the first to answer the call. Malus knew that more would follow. Although he wasn't a natural leader like Kidd, Malus was still able to inspire loyalty.

Waralien reached the bridge door without problem and made sure that the lock was still fried. Knowing this, plus that the only other way in was blasted shut, there was no way anything was going to get it there. But, War turned his head to the hole made by Firehunter, there were other alternitives.

Waralien jumped into the hole and found a small passaged just large enough to walk through. He then located the area that had a nice hiding spot and, summoning his strength, bashed it open. He crawled up into the abandoned bridge.

He took a quick look around and saw that there was nothing out of place. Reasured he crawled back into the hole and out the main entrance. As he crawled up, a new smell aroused him. It was a Predator scent. Issuing the same ultrasonic screech, War alerted all nearby forces to be on guard. The advanced warrior teams to ready themselves for combat, and drones to stand by for medical purposes. War knew the weapons the hunters had, and he also knew how to mend them enough to continue fighting. He didn't waste those cycles just sleeping.

War then made his way to the environment area and began preping for their approach. War let out another hiss to Firehunter and signaled him to his location.