The marine dodged & swerved backwards down the corridor, pumping bullets into the severely wounded hunter like clockwork. Stalker was too physically injured to run after him, barely being able to walk. The mighty hunter once again used one of the nearby rooms as a temporary haven as he prepared himself once again to attack his prey. A snarl of pain rumbled from his throat as he gazed upon the wounds decorating his body. His mask had become near-useless now, merely providing protection to the hunter's face. It was time to reveal to the marine his true self. Stalker's clawed fingers wrapped around the tubes connecting the mask to his face, atmospheric gas jetted from the tubes as they were pulled free. A clicking growl emanated from Stalker's throat as his hands locked around the sides of the mask, slowly removing it from his face.

Malus stood at the far end of the hall, he knew that the hunter would have another surprise waiting for him, & so had learned to never venture towards its position throughout the course of this savage battle. If the creature wanted his skull, it would have to come out & face him. Malus held his breath as he readied his handgun, taking aim down the corridor. There were no signs of movement, not even a sound. Suddenly, Stalker lunged from the doorway. Malus was confident that he now had the upper hand, he was a considerable distance from his foe, & Stalker was too wounded to chase after him on foot with any real effectiveness. Stalker's exposed face stared a hole through the marine from the other end of the hallway. The hunter was a menacing sight to behold, scars decorating his terrifying features. The two remaining mandibles left on the creature's face flared open as Stalker let out a deafening & intimidating roar. His clawed hand reached for something behind his back...

Malus realized he needed to act fast & take down the hunter before it was too late. The marine's finger touched against the trigger of his pistol as Stalker's hand rapidly whipped out from behind his back. Scaly fingers clutched tightly around the handgrip of a speargun as it extended outwards to its full length. The hunter levelled his arm, aiming the weapon down the corridor, directly at his prey. 9mm bullets began ejecting from Malus' handgun as Stalker fired one of his spears straight at his opponent. Metal pierced flesh as the speargun round slammed into Malus' kneecap, tearing through his leg guards & splintering the bone underneath. Malus screamed out in agony as he collapsed to the ground, severely wounded. Stalker let out sadistic snarl as he slowly advanced on his helpless victim.....

Malus looked numbly at the stump that had been his left hand and noticed the amazing amount of blood spurting from it. He managed to collect his thoughts long enough to realize that he was going to have to do something, or everything he'd ever done would be nothing. His LIFE, would be nothing. He looked up at the monster in front of him, and realized just what it was. 'The demon whom makes trophies of man' He'd heard of them before, invisible hunters that travelled from world to world, taking on what they saw as the strongest enemies and taking thier skulls as trophies. In a small way, Malus smiled at the thought of this thing thinking of him as a worthy foe.

Another, more animal, part of his mind gritted it's mental teeth and swore that this bastard was not going anywhere near HIS skull. He realized that he was outgunned, outmuscled and quite simply outmatched. He was a mere recruit in the military, and this guy seemed to be a veteran. That wasn't going to stop Malus from doing everything he could do to win, though.
He decided to take action before his foe did, and dived to one side, barely dodging a swipe from the wristblades. In a single movement he drew his flamethrower with his remaining hand, easily strong enough to wield it one-handed.

He aimed the weapon and fired it, a jet of indasescant fire streaming from the weapon and striking it's target. The target was not stalker, as most would have suspected, but the stump of his own left hand. Malus gritted his teeth as the fire burned at the wound, and then let go of the trigger, the jet of fire abruptly ceasing. Malus gritted his teeth from the pain and looked at the stump. It was perfectly cauterized, no more blood was flowing from it. Perhaps the flamethrower had been a bit excessive, but it was that or bleed out. He then turned the flamethrower on his foe. He knew fully well that these guys were fire-resistant, but the incinerator unit was no ordinary flamethrower.

Malus grinned as the weapon engulfed stalker, there was no way to dodge a weapon that fired in the way the incinerator did. That is: It fired everywhere. He grinned again as he heard a few pops of circuts overheating and melting, although the wristblades and armour seemed unaffected. Malus kept up the stream of fire until the flamethrower ran out of fuel, and then drew his combat pistol. It had been given to him by his father when he was 10, on the day before the mission which had cost him his death started. Malus measured the extent of the damage and smiled. It looked like every bit of technology stalker had had overheated and malfunctioned. This meant that his vision modes were screwed, his wristblades were locked open, his self-destruct was not going to work, and his smartdisks were likewise stuffed. Malus held the pistol with his remaining hand and swore. He was left-handed, and now he had a weapon that required him to AIM. It annyoed hims somewhat, but he'd trained to the point where he was almost ambidexterous, and took aim at Stalker's head with the powerful handgun and opened fire with a snarl, constantly moving to evate his foe. Malus was really into it now, never staying still for more than a second. Highly Explosive Armour Peircing rounds struck stalker with massive force, blasting large craters into the foe. The pistol had been with him for eight years, and he'd upgraded the already deadly weapon. It was by far his most powerful, and his most revered posession.


Honour is a fools prize, glory is of no use to the dead."

A deafening roar echoed throughout the building as Stalker bellowed in furious agony. Malus continued to open fire as the wounded hunter slumped his body inside one of the nearby classrooms for some momentary cover. A cackling growl poured from his throat as he stared down at his lower leg. The shin guard which had formerly protected it had been completely decimated, the blown apart remains scattered amongst the debris littering the corridor. Strips of charred flesh & torn muscle dangled from the protruding shin bone, it was a grisly sight to behold. Stalker was familiar with pain, the sight of his own body torn open before his eyes was not an uncommon one for a veteran warrior such as himself, but the fact remained that his injury had disabled the use of his leg, severely crippling him in this conflict. "Come on out you walking glow stick" Malus shouted from the hall. "Not so tough now are ya?". Stalker laughed under his breath from his covered position...this marine had no idea what he was truly dealing with.

Malus readied his pulse rifle as he slowly moved towards the doorway in anticipation of an attack. With a fearsome snarl, Stalker pulled his body through the doorway & into the line of fire. Malus' finger touched against the trigger of his weapon as he once again prepared to spill the creature's blood. Stalker's arm extended in a flash, a weapon firmly brandished in his clawed hand. In one swift moment, Malus opened fire as he was swept from the ground & launched across the width of the hallway with tremendous force. He felt warm blood dripping down his body as he was tightly compressed against the wall, a sharp wire-like net entrapping his entire body. The marine's struggles were futile as the net only began to constrict tighter around him with every movement. His weapon buckled under the crushing & cutting force as he attempted to shield himself with it from the web of death. The razor sharp wires sliced through the pulse rifle's frame as though it were made of butter, rendering the formerly formidable weapon completely useless. The wounded hunter staggered over to his suffering victim as the marine struggled for his life. A sadistic laugh bellowed from Stalker's throat as his wristblades extended. Malus closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable.....

The sound of tearing metal sharply echoed through Malus' ears as he suddenly felt himself plummeting to the ground. Through his bloodied vision, he stared upwards. Stalker's menacing form dominantly stood over him, his wristblades extended in an outwards position. The creature had cut away the nets which bound the marine, his life had seemingly been spared. Thoughts rushed through the Malus' dazed & confused mind....then it suddenly hit him...his ordeal was not over yet. In a flash, an ear piercing scream echoed throughout the hallway as crimson blood splattered across the floor. As Darkblade struggled to coherently think in his incredibly traumatized state, his gaze fixed upon a red object infront of his face. His face turned pale & his eyes widened from the shock of what he saw...the bloody stump that was once his left hand. The creature's injuries had been payed back in full, & it was not about to stop at a severed joint alone....

Sparks decorated the hallway in blinding flashes as bullets ricoched from the mighty hunter's armour. Malus gritted his teeth as he opened fire on his deadly opponent. Several bullets pierced the creature's exposed skin, sending more fluorescent blood spurting from its body. Stalker grunted in pain as he pulled himself back inside one of the adjacent rooms for some cover against the marine's weapon. Blood dripped from his body as he drew his combistick, the weapon's ends extending out to reveal its true length as a pair of large wishbone shaped blades sprang from its tip. Shards of shrapnel had embedded themselves into much of his lower body, almost unrecognizable now, covered in a virtual sea of green liquid. The hunter was bleeding profusely, but these were mere scratches in comparison with some of his more horrific hunting injuries in the ages past.

Malus could feel his breathing intensify as his eyes locked to the doorway of the adjacent room. The hunter had no other exit, this was its only way out. The marine's hand tightly clasped around a grenade on his combat belt & wrenched from it's small holster. "Chew on this you ugly bastard" he remarked as he pulled out the pin & tossed the grenade towards the doorway. Bouncing off the door frame & ricocheting into the room, the grenade seemed to have hit its mark. Malus hunched behind his own doorway for cover as the entire upper floor was immediately engulfed by the deafening blast of the explosion. Debris flew in all directions as the wall of the adjacent room seemingly disintegrated, sending shards of metal scattering everywhere.

As the heavy smoke began to clear & the flying debris fell to a stop, Darkblade peered around the edge of the door to check that the grenade had taken out its intended target. Pulling his pulse rifle back up to chest level, he manoeuvered the barrel of the weapon around the door frame, ready to defend himself if necessary. His footsteps clunked against the metal floor as he began to make his way out into the corridor to examine the scene of the devastation. The entire wall of the adjacent room had been completely blown out, offering a clear view of what remained inside. Fluorescent green blood had pooled out near the inside of the doorway, but there were no apparent signs of remains or a body. The realization that the creature had survived suddenly became apparent in Malus's mind as he quickly raised his pulse rifle in a defensive position. He could feel the sweat pouring from his forehead & trickling down his face, beginning to run into his eyes.

The urge to break concentration & wipe away the discomforting beads of sweat had reached fever pitch, but Malus knew that letting his guard down could easily cost him his life against this cunning enemy. Suddenly, the sound of a thud caught his attention from down the hallway as he rapidly spun to face it. A massive object hurtled towards him at tremendous speed, its bladed tip sure to finish him off in a single quick strike. Out of sheer desperation, the marine threw himself to the ground as the razor sharp combistick launched over the top of him, missing his head by mere inches & impaling into the wall at the other end of the hallway.

Malus pulled his head from the ground, staring at his re-emerged foe. Stalker's menacing form dominated the end of the corridor, standing like a menacing statue, inspiring fear into all those who would lay eyes on his terrifying visage. In a flash the mighty beast was bolting down the hallway at tremendous speed, charging directly at Malus as he lay on the ground. Pulling himself from the floor, the marine barely had enough time to look up & see a massive armour plated knee driving straight into his stomach. Internal organs jarred as blood spurted from his mouth. A massive clawed hand clamped around the back of Malus' head as he was effortlessly lifted from the ground like a rag doll. The pounded metal of Stalker's mask dominated his blurred view as he struggled to move in the creature's mighty grip. A menacing snarl emanated from Stalker's vocal chords as he violently tossed the marine against the wall. Malus slammed against the metal with a bone jarring thud as he fell back to the floor, coughing up small pools of his own blood. This was a beast unlike anything he had ever seen before, to survive this encounter would be an unlikely prospect.....

Returning back to the fight after he had gone missing in the school. Kidd returns over the comm, telling him about his situation,"Sorry guys. We had a little problem with the radio here, and we have had an attack on one of our soldiers. He has been jumped by a facehugger. We are taking him off the field for the medics to take care of him. Kidd out." Taking his rifle and looking up at the other soldiers who are looking down at the marine who has the handlike creature clutching onto his face, with it's tail wrapped around his neck, Kidd speaks up, letting them hear him. "I want two of you to take him and extract him from the building. He needs medical help, immediatly!" One of the the marines answered the leuitenant with a hoorah as the other replied with a yes sir. Watching as the two marines picked up their comrade, Kidd stood up and look down the dark hallway. Seeing there is nothing there, he looks back at the remaining squad and nods,"We are going to get them people. Follow me."

The squad split up in to two group. One group taking one side of the hall as the other group takes the other. Riflemen in front and rear of their columns, they make their way deeper into the school, their shoulder-lamps illuminating the way. Following the lead guy on the right side of the hall way, a marine carrying the motion tracker was soon getting signals that they were not alone, and that they were nearing the enemy. Looking up and towards the others who are glancing at him and back into the darkness, he calls out,"Leiutenant! We got some bad boys nearby. What is your orders?" Smirking, Kidd responds, we'll continue forward. We have to force them out of existence any way." So the squads continue down the hallway towards the enemy.


In the moment of action remember the value of silence and order.
-Phormio of Athens

Malus gritted his teeth and struggled slowly and unsteadily to his feet. His stomache felt like fire and his throat was raw, making his every breath feel like he was breathing sand. Of course, this was nothing compared to the wounds he had suffered on his first mission, and especially those he'd recieved in combat with the alien queen, but they damned well hurt like all hell. He leaned against the wall as he slowed his breathing, allowing himself to calm down somewhat so he could continue this fight with a clear head. He knew that allowing anger or panic to overcome his mind would be signing his own death warrant, and Malus wanted to LIVE.

He brought his rifle up, amazed that he'd managed to hang onto it for all this time. He tried to take aim at the warrior standing in front of him, but his vision was blurred and he couldn't see straight. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and pumped the underslung grenade launcher on his pulse rifle, putting a grenade into the firing chamber. After his got his vision back he took aim at just under the monster's feet and fired the grenade launcher, diving to one side and opening fire with the rifle as he did so to pin his foe in place. The hunter did a valiant attempt of dodging the grenade, but the highly explosive weapon hit him square on the leg, just under the kneecap and exploded in a dull roar, blasting the predator off of his feet and sending him into the wall with bone-crushing force.

Malus stopped for a second and coughed up blood. Looked like some minor vein had been busted in him, and now he was bleeding internally. He'd have to fix that when this fight was over. If he was still alive. Sometimes being the unit's combat medic had it's advantages. He didn't have to wait around for some decent first aid, for one thing. He gritted his teeth as another wave of pain hit him and managed to ignore it. He looked as the hunter slowly tried to get to it's feet and grinned. His foe's left leg was a real mess, with blood pouring from it at an astonishing rate, and flayed skin hanging limply with no muscle left to support it. Malus could even see bone protuding from the skin at the shin. There was no way in hell that leg would be able to support the monster now. His left leg was utterly disabled, and with the amount of arteries he'd burst was going to make him bleed out unless the injured foe tied them off.

Malus wasn't going to give him that chance, and opened fire with a snarl, filling the space between him and the enemy with explosive bullets. He then used his free hand to pump the grenade launcher, and fire another grenade at his last useful leg. Malus felt a stab of pain and realized the source. One of the arteries in his kidney had burst. This meant he was bleeding out as well, and the pain was going to come really bad soon. He had to finish this quick.

(Try running around without any muscle [and a open fracture] in your leg mate.)


Honour is a fools prize, glory is of no use to the dead."

((ALERT ALERT Xeno presence detected))

FireAnt quickly waking up and falling of the chair which he has been using to sleep on,quickly getting back on FireAnt quickly checks the surveilance cameras to look for the Xenomorph that he hears so much of.

looking suddenly at the monitor screen labelled *069 he notices a dead marine with a net around him up against a wall, at first FireAnt was speachless, seeing a humanoid looking creature in a pool of green blood, zooming in with the camera he notices that the creature is still alive but by the looks of it its been in quite a fight, zooming in on the dogtags of the soldier he manages to make out Dark the rest was to covered in blood to make it out.

FireAnt sitting back on the chair thinking to him self ''who has Dark'' he mumbles, suddenly hitting him like a cold chill up your spine ''MALUS'' he yelled out, FireAnt gets up off his chair, his muscles start to tence, FireAnt removes his goggles to reveal his pure white eyes, FireAnt wipes of the sweat that pools into his pores and trickles into his eyes, Malus had helped FireAnt fit into the team of the Alpha Draconis he had become something rare to FireAnt, a freind, Turning towards a mirror as if to know its there, He begins to put his hand on the mirror and just leaves it there, tears start to trickle down FireAnts face as he remembers his past.

Quickly wiping the tears from his lifeless eyes and letting out a quick cough to clear his throat, FireAnt returns his sight by strapping on his goggles, Walking out the door into the main room of the communication centre, grabbing a locker and nearly ripping the door of its hinges, grabbing his always faithful pistols and giving them a bit of a spin, just to get the feel of power in his hands again, clipping on his vest, removing all but one of the grenades on his belt and leaving them in the locker, grabbing extra pistol ammo and strapping it to his belt, FireAnt grins as he sais to himself ''this crap only slows me down, i want to be fast and quick on my prey, just like the good days when i killed humans not allie them, but now YES! o now is my turn to stare at an alien, something that has the actual power to come up against the human race and then watch as shit comes bursting out of its skull as my bullet rips through it,sending that alien back to hell from where it should be''.

Walking out the door to the communication centre, FireAnt was now what he has always been, a rogue, now not tied down by his back pack or a toy they call a rifle, now FireAnt armed with his pistols and his Macheties, he was going to bring doom, FireAnt yells out ''Enough! suckelling of the tit of hiding, i am out and ready to help my fellow man''.

FireAnt climbing down from the communication centre, ounce on the ground he quickly sticks to the wall to stay in the dark, checking his com to notice that it is working,FireAnt releived starts to talk into it ''this is Tyrannas FireAnt, is anyone out there'' FireAnt waits patiently while still sticking to the protection of the buildings shadow,''This is Hyro, good to hear your voice soldier, where have you been?''Hyro screeches through the com,FireAnt Releived speaks into the com ''nothing much, i got sent to look for Rickison but i got lost, my equipment was failing and something was stalking me, i managed to find a communication centre, with cameras and monitors, i believe we should meet up and actually get some action going on here, ive been cooped up for to long'' FireAnt squeezes his fists,''FireAnt i have to get back to you on that we have a situation on here at the moment and offering you some assitance may be difficult, our location is A0077 to B1766'' Hyro replied.

FireAnt opening a sack on his belt and getting out a huge map of the facility, putting his finger on Hyros location he begins to run off but sticking in darkness for FireAnt is alone, outnumbered and very vulnerable.