"Fucking assholes. They come to our planet. They profane our soil with thier filthy footsteps and desecrate our churches, murder our women and children, and think they can do so without being punished? Oh no, they'll get what's coming to them. Yes sir. And when The Reaper is back online they'll wish their lizard mothers had never gotten drunk and used a crab to pass the time!" He snarled to himself as he lay under the second dropship. His own flagship, the Grim Reaper Had been shot down by plasma fire on approach. It'd been carrying the civvie survivors they'd rescued from Berlin, too.

It'd landed just outside thier perimeter, to the east. Malus was lying under it now, a spanner in hand, working on the damage. Two Plasma shots to the underside of the dropship. One fried a few circuts that were needed to navigate, and the other had hit..well, it looked like it had penetrated through to the cargo bay and hit some grenades. He'd taken a look at the inside of the dropship. The survivors had been shredded by shrapnel. He'd already spent too long pulling out each bloody bit of shrapnel and doing the best he could to seal up the hole. Now he had to get the wires fixed.

He may not be a Comm-Tech, but he WAS a mechanic and he practically lived in The Reaper. He knew he should have piloted it himself, but that Marine Pilot had been insistent...

He put the thoughts from his mind and tried crossing another pair of wires and taping it into place. It was a long shot, and right now he was just fiddling to test what had gone wrong. He knew that the main problem was that the pilot had died, not that the ship had broke. The pilot's chair hadn't saved him from the shrapnel. So really, there wasn't that much to do. There hadn't been free time to inspect the damage on his droppy yet. Now there was. He taped the wires into place, and grinned as he heard a beep coming from the cockpit.

Putting the access panel that he'd nicked from the Colonial Marines back into place, he headed for the Cockpit. Yep, navigation systems online. Engines online. Weapons online. The Reaper was back. "I knew you'd pull through for me darlin." He said softly, patting the dashboard with a gloved hand. He reached for the commlink system, and found it had also been hit by shrapnel. He shrugged and grabbed his radio. "This is Malus. Guess what kids, I got the Reaper back online. No survivors, I'm afraid. If that fucking Melanie doesn't try anything stupid, we now have Air Supremacy." He announced as he fired the engines.

The Grim Reaper, it's jet-black paintwork seriously banged up from the crash-landing, rose lazily into the air and gained altitude. Malus chuckled to himself as he ran through the subsystems, seeing what else was damaged. The landing gear was fucked and they'd lost the rear-left missile pod. The Command suite was fucked, too. The exo-suit that he always kept stored in there was no more. Nav was still a bit glitchy, but he knew he could compensate for it. It was a tad sluggish on right turns, too. Still, he managed to get it to the base. He couldn't land, though. Good thing it had plenty of fuel.

"This thing won't bounce if I put her down, so I'll be up in the air for a while. If anyone needs air support, let me know. Scanners are out so don't bother giving me co-ordinates, shout and I'll find you." He instructed over his personal radio, before lazily circling the base.

Carmine hung about two meters above the bottom floor now, but the cord was at its limit. He sighed, and hit the button to release the hook. He dropped instantly, and hit the ground with a not-so-silent thud. He rolled as he landed to absorb the impact, so that he would minimize any possible injuries. Granted, it still hurt like a bitch.

He gave a loud grunt as he hit his head against the far wall, but the external audio hadn't been on, so it wasn't a problem. He climbed to his feet slowly, hand on the back of his head. It didn't hurt that bad, but he was sure there'd be a big bump there later. The marines were down the stairs shortly afterwards, giving a hand signal to ask if he was alright or not. He nodded, pointing at his helmet to indicate that it had helped him a lot.

"Let's get these bombs planted," Carmine said quietly. He set up one of the remote-detonated packs right in the doorway from the stairs. They would need to cripple the whole floor, which would mean they'd need about five bombs, one being in each corner as well as the stairway, and a lot of grenades on the floor.

He suddenly found himself in the main lobby of the building. A large hallway with a desk in front of it... A secretary, he assumed, would have sat there to send people up. On the opposite end there were large glass doors, with parts of the walls having been crumbled away already from the Waffle's earlier bombardment. He set an explosive on each wall on either side of the door, and then in the corners of the building.

Then he turned to the marines, who were littering grenades all around the floor, making unsure mutters as they did so. The second they were done, he pulled out one of the detonators, and hit a yellow button, making all the manually detonated bombs go active. If he hit the red one, it'd blow the whole building to kingdom come. He took a deep breath, and was careful to make sure he had his hand far from the button. He opened up the radio again.

"Okay, Commander. Entire first floor is a trap, and the building can be collapsed. We're moving the fuck out of this back up to the fifteenth floor," he said, carefully walking back to the stairwell. He began walking up the stairs, the marines following behind him. The whole building was now a death trap, and he could activate said trap at any point, making the building turn into a crater on the planet.

He really hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Gaunt didn't like the insult he was given, But he didn't like grenades and as soon as that grenade exploded he ran for his life.
He was also annoyed that Saysell decided to take a shot at him, And take out his tail.
He screamed and slid to a holt, He was angry now, With acid pouring from the remains of his tail he turned to face Saysell.
He leaped at him, Getting closer, Closer and then he sprung his trap.
He wipped his bleeding tail forwards and sent acid all over Saysell, Gaunt then wen't flying into Saysells stomach winding him, He got up and quickly jumped away from Saysell, Waiting for his next move.

"Ok Melanie, can you find the Queen from up here?" Xeuss shouted from the drop pod he was standing in.

"No, but judging by the way you were traveling, i could get you on the right path..."

"Great... Oh well, i guess that will have to do, now shoot and move away, these engines weren't built for hovering. Get into orbit and wait there. Keep stealthed and avoid getting in any other spaceship's range, ok?"

The pod got shot at maximum power out of the immense ship as it began to move away from the city. Overshot, because the ship got moving a bit too early. Xeuss' spine got some undisurved punishment for this, as the concrete where the pod dropped was thicker than where it should have dropped. Luckily though it dropped just in front of Kidd. As Xeuss got out coughing dust and spitting everywhere around, he noticed a bunch of weapons pointed at him with flashlights in his face and a doctor curled up in a corner.

"Oh great, more marines..." Xeuss said looking at their faces. Noone said anything at first. "No queen around here i take it? I got overshot...? Ooooh, oooh, oh oh oh oh, you don't know who i am, right? Right, i am Xeuss of the DBO, ok, now your turn. Is there ANYTHING coming to kill you, or is this the stupid part of the hive?"

â€ÂAll done, Sir†a Marine said to Vevlaa. He and some other marines had just reloaded the ‘Waffle’ with new missiles, and fueled her up. It had taken its time, but it was well worth it.
Vevlaa smiled to himself, as he gave the ‘Waffle enough thrust to lift off. Hovering in the air, he noticed a familiar shadow approaching “The ‘Grim Reaper’!! THE ’Grim Reaper’!!†he said to himself and laughed.

Without hesitation, he gave enough thrust to get in formation behind Malus. Sir After you He said in the radio.
The two ships now flew in formation over the base, and turned around in a circular pattern around it…

(sorry for shortness, I don’t have much time now)

Seeing something fly at her, she smiled harshly "Finally" She said with a light growl in her mind. The hybrid flung herself at the xeno at the same time. The tail flicked back and forth behind the dark beast, as it hurled itself towards her.

She moved her hands quickly, throwing knife after knife at the dark beast. She howled as it collided in to her, sending her on the back. The knives stuck in various places as the jaw of the xeno charged forth, her head rocked back and forth letting the second jaw hit the ground behind her. She tucked her legs in and with surprising strength sent the best back in the air and kicked behind her. She spun around, her mask going through the various scans for anything about it, even how to kill it. Not that she knows, but for a faster kill. Of course kill it by chopping the beast in half or bleed it to death, even cut off the head.

Shadow, leap forth, her hand busy as the knives flicked forth, sending 4 more in the air. 4 before and 4 now.

The legs tucked in to her body as the other hand flicked the wrist sending the blades out of the sheath it was inside of and ready to be used in the most deadliest of ways.

(one)

CRASH!

Slayer felt the entire building shake around him. Something had hit it, hard. But as long as the structure wasn't collapsing he was safe. He was on the second floor and the collision felt like it was far above him.

Suddenly he heard voices nearby. He made sure he stayed well hidden and followed the sound. It was the group of marines from the dropship. Slayer watched them through a large hole in the floor that had been made by a piece of falling rubble. They were down on the first floor, setting up some equipment that slayer could only guess were bombs.

He had to act quick, the marines wouldn't be waiting around on the floor with the armed bombs for very long.

They appeared to have finished what they were doing so they made their way to a nearby stairwell. One of the marines had a remote detonator in his hand.

'That will have to be taken care of' thought slayer. 'but not yet'

He ran across the floor to the second story stairwell. With swift motions he opened the door to the stairs and climbed them as fast as he could, at the same time ensuring that his movements would be quiet enough so as to not alert the marines.

Once he was high enough, he looked over the side and watched the marines climbing the stairs below. He had a head start, this was good.

Slayer opened his equipment pack and got out a reel of extremely strong wire. He tied it in a noose and slid it over the edge of the stairs. The wire was virtually invisible, it was hair thin and black so no light would reflect off of it.

He lowered it down to the second floor where the men were walking unknowingly up the stairs. The silent trap hung there, suspended in the air. Sure enough, one of the soldiers was walking directly towards it. With some slight maneuvering, slayer brought the loop to his neck and pulled it taught. Before the man knew what was happening, he was being lifted into the air. By the time the other marines noticed, it was already too late.

Slayer pulled the man up to where he was and reached down, grabbing his neck. He lifted him with one hand up until he was eye level, and then he gutted him like a fish. The screaming man's blood rained down to where the other marines were.

Slayer dropped the body over the side and disappeared again into the dark corners of the building.

One down.

kirby was exploreing the tunnels but saying close to War as was his command.

kirby say what may have been one of the storm drains
and on the other side was humans talking unaware of the danger just a few feet from them.

kirby most-likely would have gone on a short killing spree if War hadn't come and tapped his tail...telling him not even think about it.but then something caught kirbys eye.it was a human but they looked diferrent then the ones around them.kirby told War to look and see what he could make of it...


(going on vacation gonna be gone for 2 weeks)

Shit, here we go! Carmine had just watched one of the marines be slaughtered by what seemed like nothing, and he was not expecting that. He stared at the corpse for a second, and then pulled the dog tags off his neck. Then he started running up the stairs, on the radio instantly. "Commander, this is Carmine! I got Predator contact in the building, location unconfirmed! Somewhere in the lower levels!" he said, really hauling ass up the stairs. He didn't like invisible bastards killing people around him.

He wasn't panicking, no, because he knew that it was there, but he didn't know where. He charged up the Rotary and began firing into the stairway above him, not sure if he was hitting anything. He hoped that he was, because he wasn't looking forward to fighting something that had the full advantage over him. He gave a loud shout as he did so. "Come on out, you gas-sucking fucker!" He was pissed. He hated Yautja, every last one of them.

Before he finished reaching the second story stairs, he turned to the wall and fired the grappling hook as high up as he could reach, then swung into the wall. He then proceeded to remove a small object from his combat webbing, He turned around and continued firing once the marines were through the area. He began reeling himself up at a high speed because he wanted out of there fast.

Once he hit about level ten, he kicked over onto the stairs again, releasing the hook, and letting the cord snap back into the box. He began running up the stairs again, now sure he had the lead over this... Thing. He hoped he did, at least, because the marines were catching up to him now. That was good, but it also meant the thing could be anywhere. "Vevlaa! Malus! Whoever the fuck can do it, we're getting up to the roof, we'll need a pick-up when we get there!"

(I am ignoring Voltage’s little tantrum and just getting on with it)

"Pathetic." Saysell announced while he watched the Yautja lay in the dirt shaking from the shock and damage to his body.
"I have things to be doing, so if you don’t mind..." Saysell pointed his rifle towards the creature. Until he felt a strange sympathy for it, it had tried so valiantly to kill him twice now. Both times he had been left in a pool of his own blood.
"I will leave you alive this time, but I warn you come for me again and I will tear your head off your shoulders."

Turning to face the direction of his second opponent Saysell was greeted with a flash of acid, which did little more than hit him in the face and splash onto his coat.
"I am half xenomorph you stupid little worm, your blood dons bother me in the least." Saysell was now becoming impatient.
Quickly pulling his coat off before the acidic blood could seep into his armour. He was then hit with the chesbursters full weight to the abdomen. Naturally a chestburster doesn’t weight a great deal, so it simply bounced off his battle-scarred armour.
"For fuck sakes, how many times?" kicking the creature towards the downed Yautja Saysell shouted, "You two should play nicely. It seems about an even fight now.
So if you don’t mind, I have things to do."

So at that Saysell wearing nothing other than his magnificently scarred AD armour, it was still filled with his medals from his days as the second in command in AD.

He took up running towards the building in which he believed Carmines grenade had come from. The marine had helped him and Saysell intended to return the favour.

(I don’t intend to change anything so don’t even ask)

Slayer watched from the darkness as the marines made their way up the stairs. One of them, a smaller man, seemed to have taken the loss of his fellow soldier rather hard. He had taken off, running and firing bullets everywhere. He then proceeded to shoot a grappling hook to one of the higher banisters and haul himself up on a zipline. Slayer was amazed at how calm he remained through it all.

The other marines in the group stuck to the stairs. Slayer waited until they had passed him, and crept out of the shadowed area he had been hiding in. Swiftly he ran up the stairs after the marines. There was one soldier who was having a hard time keeping up with the rest of them, he was a few steps behind. Slayer grabbed him and swung the two of them over the side, landing two levels below.

He dragged him out of the stairwell and into a hallway lined with doors. There was a window at the far end. Slayer pulled the struggling marine towards it. He pulled out a smart disc and smashed the window open.

Slayer bent down and got out the same wire he had used on the other marine. He twisted the man's arm to his back and extended one of his wristblades. He cut a single hole through the base of his wrist and tied the wire through it.

He looked up at the window.

'Just enough room' He thought.

He took a few steps back and, holding the other end of the wire, ran at the window. He caught the top and swung upwards onto the wall. He climbed up on the outside of the building with astounding speed. He made sure to climb higher than the level he estimated that the marines were on.

When he reached a convenient window, he smashed it open with his free hand and climbed in, still holding the end of the wire. He could hear the screams of the marine several levels below.

There was a flagpole jutting out from the side of the building, just above the window. Slayer reached up and threw the wire around it, catching it again when it came back down.

He breathed in deeply and pulled on the wire with all his might.

The marine was pulled violently out of the lower window and up the side of the building. His ever persistent screaming was enough to chill anyone to the bone.

Once the man was level with the window, Slayer extended his wrist blades once more and sliced his head clean off. It fell downwards, probably a treat for some unsuspecting xenomorph.

"That's two." Slayer said to himself.

In the distance, a single shape roared through the sky, small red lights blinking in the night sky. The sound of it's engine grew louder, at a steady rate, but still not enough to turn any heads. Inside the cockpit, radio chatter was bursting periodically through, "....We've lost... One men to... something. Another has run off". The controls reflected on the pilot's visor, hiding his faint smile that seemed to say "As long as it ain't me". Looking back briefly, he saw the only occupant of the small drop ship, a slim athletic man, sitting with his helmet at his side, fiddling with his camera.
"So, buddy, you know what ya gotta do?"
The passenger looked up, "Yeah, get in, find whatever's screwin' around in there and get it made dead"
"Then put the damned camera away, you ain't gonna need that thing"
"Am I telling you how to do your job?"
The pilot threw his head back and laughed. The ship continued it voyage to it's destination unhindered.

The passenger slung his camera over his shoulder, zipped up his bullet proof vest and inspected his dog-tags.
Private Hope.

Oh that damned name. It made everyone smirk in bootcamp, which then later resulted in them being punished for "goofing around", which didn't make him very popular.

He slipped his dog-tags back into his shirt and made sure his laces were tied. This was his first combat situation, and his nerves were electrified. His palms were sweaty as his hand brushed against the cool metal of the knife tucked into his boot.

"We're about a minute away from the L-Z, I'm not gonna plop you right outside that building, for my own sake"

Hope grabbed his rifle, considered it, and then put it back on it's rack on the wall. He felt the craft start to decent, and he closed his eyes.

THUNK

He snatched his helmet off the seat next to him put it on hastily.

"Mate, I'll see you back at the base" were the last words the pilot said to him before the door hissed open.

Hope leaped out of the craft, drawing his pistol and looked around. He was on his own now. A part of him wanted to look at his ride lifting off and flying away, but he thought better of it. He started walking fast towards the building he had been sent to. It was large, although he had seen bigger. His eyes darted around, trying to see what wasn't there, his heart pounded in his chest and his breathing was hard. He heard the most terrific scream he had heard in his short lifetime, and the air felt alive with the energy only a hive could instill.

He stood outside the main entrance to the building and steadied himself. His eyes closed as he muttered a brief prayer, and he heard a loud crack. His eyes open to their widest extend and he looked around, feeling sick. He saw a dark shape on the ground and he moved towards it. It was an indistinct splodge with a few plastic looking chunks, although he thought he saw a helmet cam. This fried his already frazzled nerves, and he heard a faint squaking sound from nearby. He ran to the main door and entered, crouching low and moving fast, eyes scanning the floor and all the doors, corners, nooks and crannies for signs of booby-traps, hostels or even friendlies.

He leaned against the wall and caught his breath, fighting back tears. He pulled himself together and scanned the room again. Content with the lack of anything, he started made towards the stairs, attempting to link up with the distressed unit via radio.

"Man down, we have two men down!"

Hope ran up the stairs at breakneck speed, finally meeting up with the unit. He approached their sergeant and quickly asked what was going on while they continued up the stairwell. The answer made him break out into a cold sweat.

The group listens to the loud roar through the complex of the hive. Frowning as he glares towards the direction from which the roar had came, Kidd looks on with his brown colored eyes only to growl his humanly growl,"Seems like we pissed several of those little devils off." "Sir, what are you saying?" asked Young as he looks back at the rear of the group to keep check on the resin covered corridor behind him. Kidd looks back at the soldier and simply answers the marine's question,"We have a challenge." Dr. Manning shook his head reluctantly and stammers his protest,"N-no! I am not fighting those hideous beasts! I am not qualified to do any fighting what so ever." "License to cut them open but not to fight them. I pity you smart people. If you don't want to fight, then the next thing you can do is defend. If you can't defend, retreat. If you can't retreat, surrender. If you can't do that, then die. I am not gonna waste my time with someone who won't fight for their survival." Kidd responded in anger as he looks away from the scientist and towards the general direction from which the roar had came. "Fellas." Kidd started, "Judging by the sound of that roar, it must be the queen, so lets head for that direction." Kidd gets up from his crouched position and starts to make his way towards the supposedly Queen's chamber.

The small human, attack team makes their way through the maze of the alien caverns. Starting to hear sounds of several roars and screeches, the team grows ever more reluctant to keep following their leader who seems to be unafraid of the challenge ahead of them. It was no sooner when they entered a small chamber with multiple egg shaped capsules standing upright. Knowing full well what these are, Kidd looks back at his squad and nods his head. "This is the part where hell takes over. Destroy these eggs before they start to open." Kidd ordered as he swaps from his pulse rifle to his incinerator unit. Squeezing the trigger and letting the flow of flame shoot out from the nozzle and on to the eggs, Kidd and his team starts to burn everything in sight. Unknown to them, as soon as they start to destroy the eggs, a group of xenomorphs were following them.
The moment that Kidd squeezes the trigger, they all screeched in anger and in agony from the sight of their young brethren being burned alive from these horrible creature's weapons. Jumping out from their hiding places and starting to attack in force, they did not expect to be stopped by a human creature with a flame unit.
Sixteen stood infront of the group, aiming the incinerator unit, he squeezes the trigger only to have the bolt of flame shoot out to engulf them. The sound of screeching death filled the room as more xenomorphs began to pour in to rescue their unborn brothers. The marines, skilled in what they do, attacked the oncoming enemy with bravery as they shoot blazing death from the holes from which they poured out of.
The room's tempature began to rise quite quickly from the marines' attack on the eggs and towards the incoming xenomorph horde. Room illuminating red from the burning blazes, the marines rushes around the room, burning both unscathed eggs and charging bugs.
The xenomorph horde tries to take the marines out, but as soon as they set their sight on one, another marine stops them by the burning fireball that the soldier shot at them. Resin melting onto the floor and boots sticking to the slime, the marines still manage to manevuer around the room without slipping and getting caught on fire from their own.

Each covering the other's back, the marines start to worry about one thing, fuel canisters for the incinerators. Each stocking on on two spare canisters each, the team have to come up with a plan to cover one as he reloads. The synth was no big prioty due to it's accuaracy and intelligence of the weapon. Soon, Valk's incinerator stopped blowing fire as it suppose to. Crouching down low and starting the process of reloading, Young rushes over to the marine to cover him as he reloads. Kidd, now covering the scientist as he cowers behind Sixteen, the squad leader keeps his eye on the two marines as he keeps the other on to the oncoming horde, only to shoot them up with his flame unit to kill or keep them at bay. And the battle continues.

Malus Jay Darkblade, Commander of all Weyland-Yutani forces on Earth, and since TDN and Kidd were MIA, commander of all remaining human forces, was sitting in the slashed-up pilot's seat of his personal dropship, the Grim Reaper. He couldn't land the dropship properly, the landing gear was damaged, but he was able to make it hover a meter off the ground. Malus was intimately aquainted with every single nuance of the dropship, he'd spent years trapped inside it's metal hide. He could pilot it better than anyone else. And as he lowered the cargo ramp to let people in, he gave the order. "OY XAVIER! GET THE FUCK IN AND BRING YOUR RAILGUN! DELTA, GET YOUR SQUAD ABOARD TOO! EVERYONE IN!" He shouted to the corporates.

After everyone had hopped in the dropship, Malus closed up the cargo bay and lifted off. He quickly rose to 20,000 feet and switched on the internal comms, which thankfully were still working. "Okay guys and gals, this is it. Carmine's rescue unit has gotten in trouble, and that means we're going to bail them out. And paste a pred while we are at it. Lock and load, because the next time that ramp goes down, there'll be - in the words of carmine - Someone with a bad case of head crabs. My bet is it's an elder. We're gunna make it bleed, ain't we?" He briefed the soldiers, making it plain what they were going to do, why they were going to do it and what kind of opposition that they could expect to face.

"Vevlaa, the moment this fucker gets to the roof, you're to use the chaingun to shred him. No heavy ordinance until our boys are clear of the building. And don't stop firing until it's dead." He then signalled to his fellow pilot.

As the dropship gained altitude and neared the city, Malus armed the missiles and chaingun, and made sure that Xavier had the turrets on the cargo bay doors set up. He wanted the pred to melt under the firepower that was coming from that cargo bay door. He flicked a few switches and grabbed his radio again. "Okay Carmine, we're bringing the cavalry. You can expect two dropships, one of which is full of bloodthirsty mercs to help you out."

This was going to be...interesting.

Carmine almost smiled when he got the call. There had been a marine who had ran right up to him and asked him what was happening, so he explained it very briefly. So the rest of them would make it out after all. He stopped for a second and let the other marines pass him, and shoved the Rotary into the hands of one of them. "Keep running with this until I catch up!" he shouted at him, then ripped out the Grenade Launcher. If there was going to be a fight going on, he was going to do something right.

He fired into the staircase below with three EMP grenades. He's made sure he'd loaded up a few in case this happened... And then the fucker began to materialize right there in front of him. He didn't like it one bit, either, but at least they'd be able to see where he was now. He was big... Way bigger than Carmine. He'd probably be able to wipe him out in a few hits.

He began running back up the stairs, and removed a Flashbang from his webbing, tossing it down at him in a flash of bright light and loud noise. The Yautja would be completely blinded for a while, and none of his tech-related weapons would work for a while. He had no intention of engaging him, but that'd give him some chance of victory if he needed to.

He snatched the Rotary out of the marine's arms again, and noted that the one who had talked to him as he had ran up the stairs hadn't been there before. He didn't care, all help was welcome. And they were almost to the top. He stopped and fired the rappel line again, and placed his feet firmly against the wall, then began to climb up the rope in an odd manner that made him appear as if he was running up the wall. He was barely managing to keep a hold on the Rotary.

He then hauled himself over the edge, on the top floor, the marines close behind him. He ran out the door immediately, and set the Rotary up on top of what was probably an air conditioning system to cover the door. If it came through, he'd start firing immediately. "I want everybody covering that door until those dropships get up here!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He then checked to make sure the detonator was ready... Just in case he needed it.

The four knives flew at a rapid pace, one nicked his upper left mandible, chopping it off, the other three lodged themselves in his armor. He roared and charged, grabbing the leg of Shadowatching and flipping her over, he placed one clawed foot on her chest and started pushing down, she kicked him in the back of the knee, causing the beast to collapse just next to her. FireHunter bellowed and lifted her up, tossing her into a tree with a sickening crunch as bark snapped under the force of the throw and Shadowatching's own weight, FireHunter then kicked her, tearing the fabric upon her breast, and sending her back up in the air. She landed with a thud, and flipped him over by rolling into his legs, causing him to land on his head, and he roared in annoyance at this challenge, and he sent his tail whistling towards her. it sliced her shoulder open, cutting muscle and skin alike, not deep enough to cause any bad damage, just deep enough to partially paralyze her arm.
He waited for her next attack.

Slayer reeled in brief shock from the blinding light of the EMP grenade. The flash was only momentary though, and he regained stability quickly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the marine who had thrown it start up the stairs. Slayer thought it best to wait until his equipment was back online before he engaged.

The humans were on the top floor now, not quite to the roof yet. He still had a chance. With a loud crackling noise, his gear started up again. The cloaking system took over and he was made one with the morning air once more.

Slayer had to think quick, one they were one the roof he had no chance. There were five of them left. They were probably guarding the door with their lives so a frontal assault would be insane.

Instead he turned to the hunter's best friend. The walls. He ran back to the hallway that had seen the decapitation of one of the soldiers and looked up out the window.

"What was I thinking making myself seen like that!" Slayer muttered angrily to himself.

He grabbed the ledge above him and hauled himself up once again. The top floor was close, so it only took slayer a minute to reach it.

The window was already shattered so he swung himself inside with ease. The room was empty, perfect. The marines weren't in this area of the floor. He opened a nearby door and walked through.

Switching through his vision modes he selected his heat sensor. There were no major fluctuations as there normally were around humans. Their damn armor seemed to be protecting them from his heat vision. No matter, he knew roughly where they were. Point A to point B and make the kill.

He got closer. Only a wall appeared to be separating him and his target. The marine who he had heard use the name "carmine" to identify himself. He was on the other side. Slayer could hear him.

He made his move. He smashed his arm through the drywall that was between them and grabbed the marine by the arm. With a jerk he ripped him through the wall and held him a foot off the ground.

Slayer's outlook had always been act fast, before they realize whats happened.

So thats just what he did. Slayer swung Carmine to the left and ran full speed at the outside wall of the building. They smashed through, and all at once they were falling through nothingness.

For an instant they hung there, there was no sound. Only yautja and prey falling towards the end.

Slayer knew where they'd land. He had been careful to spot another building nearby where he could finish off his kill.

He used the man to break his fall. There was a sickening CRUNCH that informed slayer that a bone in the soldier's body had broken.

Slayer stood up. The WY scumbag wasn't moving, but he was still alive. He pulled his combistick off his back, and stuck it through Carmine's leg and into the concrete below. He turned, but not before tearing the radio unit off of the fallen soldier.

"No calling for help this time"

Then slayer ran to a nearby access door that led into this smaller building.

"If you is truly a warrior of honor, you will find the strength to finish this." slayer yelled back in rough english.

(Well, there were about six marines... Then me... So now there would be about five total, since Hope stepped in? Also, we were on the roof, and I thought EMPs lasted longer than that. Also, W-Y suits are actually not visible to IR, but I'll roll with it. Easily corrected stuff.)

It all happened in an instant. One second he was guarding the door, and the next he found himself plummetting to the ground. With a sickening crack, Carmine felt something break, and it felt like shit. It was his leg, along with what was probably a few ribs. Luckily, his gear had heavy padding, so it was probably only fractured. He coughed violently for a second, and tasted blood. Yeah, his ribs were busted. He was about to radio Command, only to have the fucker rip the radio right off his helmet and have a staff put through the same leg, barely missing the bone. He grunted, but didn't scream.

He actually started laughing as he heard the dreadlocked freak speak to him. He stopped as he coughed loudly, the idea hilarious to him. "Honor? *Cough* Split-chin, you're talking to the wrong marine about that," he said slowly. He extended the hidden dagger in his right knuckle plate, and took a good hold on the spear, jamming the dagger through it, busting it close to his leg. He then pulled his leg up hard, grunting again loudly. It hurt like a bitch, but pain was something he was used to.

He gave a loud shout as he stood up, because his leg didn't want to hold his weight, instead buckling on him for a moment. But he would force it to work for him... It had before, it would again, until it was literally torn off. He had been injured. He wouldn't let it go unchallenged. He was supposed to take out any extraterrestrial life forms, even if it meant leveling a building. He would, too, if that was what it came down to.

He pulled his grenade launcher out of its holster, aiming it at the door the creature had run through. He pulled the trigger twice, the 'nades themselves not hitting the creature, tearing up the nerves in its arms and legs, taking off three fingers of its right hand-- Carmine didn't know it yet, though-- blowing the plasmacaster the creature had off its shoulder and busting the connectors, and lastly, forcing the creature to the level below.

"Aahhhh, F-FUCK!" Carmine shouted at the top of his lungs, the helmet's external sound system still on. He gave a loud cough immediately afterwards, the taste of blood now prominent. He'd probably punctured a lung... But, hell, he couldn't turn back now. He had sworn an oath to take out any of these fuckers he could or die trying. One of these fuckers had invaded his home about twelve years ago... And caused the death of everyone on the island, his parents included.

Was it personal?

He had nothing against this one, specifically, other than its race, but yes, it became personal for him when he discovered he could make them disappear as they had made humans. He wouldn't back down now, no. It was far too important... He had to kill this fucker, or he'd tear himself apart.

He limped toward the door, leg screaming in protest, and took a look through. He used the door as something to lean on, because his leg refused to let him stand normally. "Fine, as-asshole. You want to mess with a r-rookie? Think you're so f-fucking tough? Let's do this!" he shouted down the stairwell. He then proceeded to turn back to the roof, and fire a grenade directly at the roof.

The roof collapsed in at that point, and created a huge hole there-- Carmine simply jumped right through in a knee-drop fashion, using his left knee as the knee he dropped on to make sure his right didn't take the impact. He was right behind the behemoth, which spun around to face him. He picked up a chunk of concrete that had fallen in from the roof, and hurled it right at the creature's head... It dodged the block, for the most part, but the heavy block fell fast... And hit the creature in its thigh, snapping the bone in it. Carmine took this opportunity to fire once more, but he had no idea what would happen this time around.

Hope was frozen with horror. The soldier he'd been talking to, who had introduced himself as "Carmine" had been thrown to knocked to one side as though he was a a player in some twisted version of rugby. Upon impact with the concrete, Hope had heard a heart-wrenching crunch and grimaced. He was surprised to have faintly heard that... Thing, speak in English, and briefly felt as if the situation could have been resolved peacefully. That idea was removed from his mind as Carmine had started to laugh. With a blinding speed that filled Hope with a respect for his new college. Instinctively, he holstered his pistol, reached down to the camera hanging at his side and started snapping off pictures from his building top perch. He felt a sharp pain in his back after what must have been the tenth shot, and saw a Marine looking angrily into his face.
"The fuck are you doing?!"
Hope went red and hastily spat out "The company hired me to be a combat photographer. I'm just doing my job man!"
The Marine shot him a disgusted look and walked off.

The outburst of that Marine triggered something inside him. He slung his camera back over his shoulder, grabbed his gun and ran down, down, down the stairs, tripping occasionally as he raced to the battle scene. He burst through the entrance door of the building just in time to see Carmine fire off a few shots at the beast attacking him. Thinking this would make a good shot, he raised his camera again and snapped the shot, however the images he got were less than pleasant. The bullets ricochetted and tore the Marine's leg off.
The triumphant roar of the beast filled Hope's heart with dread, lowered the camera and raised the pistol both at the same time. As he was taking aim, he saw the heavily injured Marine lob a grenade at the monster, and he flung himself behind a car. Waiting for a a loud bang and the pain to shoot through his leg, he lay there for a good five seconds. He only heard the bang. Getting up, he saw the creature stumbling around blindly, and he seized the chance to run up the Carmine's side.
"C'mon man, we've gotta get back to the roof" murmured Hope, offering Carmine some support. Hope raised his gun and fired a volley of bullets, not really aiming, hoping that one of those powerful slugs would hit the towering monstrosity, and emptying his gun's ridiculously small magazine...

Malus had placed Xavier in charge of getting The Reaper to the objective, whilst he repaired the command suite that gave him full camera feeds and lifesign details on all the troops under his command. He was no comm-tech, but any system involving a dropship was something he knew like the back of his hand, and this went double for the Reaper's systems. He started with repairing the screens of those soldiers that he was heading out to rescue, since he didn't know what their current status was. At least, not yet. The first one to go on was from the Propaganda Department boy, Hope. No military training. They'd picked him up in Berlin, but he'd done well surviving.

He'd implanted the IFF tracker himself. And as soon as they got out of here, Hope was getting full military training. Malus was pleased to see that he was alive, and that his vitals were coming through strong. His camera feed was another matter. Malus scowled as he saw the Hunter beating the shit out of Carmine, but grinned as the rookie blew one of the bastard's legs off. It was clear his radio was fucked, and he had some wounds, but he was alive. Malus worked on his screens next. After a few moments, his life-signs and camera feed were coming through. Elevated heart-beat but lower blood pressure. That meant he was bleeding. Probably internally. But he was alive.

The trap he had set had worked. By setting up near a forest, he had created a perfect staging area for the preds. And then, he'd burned the forest down. They'd had nowhere to go but the city, where the bugs were. He knew that the two would cause problems for each other, but eventually one would escape the city and go after the base and the survivors. Malus was not about to let that happen. By ordering the idiotic marines to stay at the base, he'd ensured that they'd naturally rebel against his authority and play the hero. Reverse psychology was simple, but it always worked on the Jarheads. The Marine presence had ensured that the preds and bugs had something to hunt, so they kept in the city.

DBO had played right into his hands as well. Those guys made an excellent distraction. Trust them jokers to attract all the attention. Malus gave a grim little smile and activated the tracker on the command suite. He didn't need to, he could see the signature stained-glass windows of the chruch in Carmine's camera feed. Right. It was time he did something. He took the dropship controls back from Xavier and brought them down to a lower altitude, until the building came into view. He could see a bunch of marines on the roof. They'd need picking up, too. "Allright people. We're landing on the roof in 25. Get those survivors onto the Waffle and move to the Hospital building! I want it locked up so tight that Micheal Jackson couldn't even slip his cock into it! Don't worry bout Carmine, I'll deal with our guest myself!" NOW GO GO GO! Xavier! Stay with me!"

As he hit the cargo bay doors, everyone except for Xavier -who was on the tripod-mounted minigun by the cargo doors- piled out, and he could see The Waffle going for a landing. "Vevlaa! Get everyone aboard the Waf and get to the Hospital. Once it's secured get patrols out there looking for anything that ain't human. We're going to finish this shit!" He ordered as he motioned for Xavier to take the controls again, and ordered him to lift the dropship off and have it hover about 500m to the north of the church. As the Reaper moved, Malus took his WY-102 Railgun from the weapons rack and switched the scopes on.

"I told you that if the ruse worked I'd bail your ass out. I am not abandoning you now, soldier. But I am not doing all the work for you either. One shot is all I need. One shot will give you all the help you'll want. After that, I have a job of my own." He said softly as he settled into a prone position by the open cargo bay doors, rifle in his hands. He sighted down the barrel, but he couldn't make out anything yet. Xavier was still maneuvering. He knew it would be a few more seconds until the ship came to a halt. But every sniper knew that firing from a hovering aircraft was almost impossible. Almost. Malus Jay Darkblade had been the best shot in the Corps. He still was, from what the records indicated.

As the ship slowed and the fight became visible, thanks to the INFRARED scope on the Railgun, he saw Carmine and Hope standing there, fighting for thier lives against a Predator. Crikey, he couldn't see the bastard clearly, but there was the little fact that Malus had an idea how cloaking devices worked. It was entirely photographic, the netting was covered with thousands of tiny camreas and screens that showed what was on the camera directly opposite of them, hiding the creature from view. Infrared normally did not work on the Yautja, as being reptillian in nature they did not generate all that much heat. But the still-hot shrapnel from the grenade Carmine had fired, as well as the human blood that was on the Predator showed up clearly on his infrared.

He waited until the dropship was at a dead hover, and checked the crosswind. The Yautja was still stunned from the loss of it's leg, from the look of it, so Malus knew that there was no better time to take the shot. The majority of the creature was still invisible, but the warm blood from the marines that it had killed was still on it's left arm, painting it quite clearly on Malus's infrared scope. He would have preferred to take the monster's head off, but he couldn't see it. Sighing, he took aim at what he thought was the creature's wrist, and fired.

The muzzle-flash was deafening, but the sound wouldn't reach Xavier's ears, let alone the target's, before the bullet did. Hypersonic rounds. He recognized his target as the one he'd missed earlier. He did not miss this time. The bullet whizzed along the street at a respectable fraction of lightspeed, and shot right through the wall of the church without even slowing down. The Railgun was able to use an astonishing amount of kinetic energy to punch through it's targets. To a weapon that coulc knock over tanks, stone was nothing.

It blasted through the wall before ripping clean through the creature's left wrist and causing most of it's arm to vanish in a puff of flourescent green blood, the sheer kinetic force of the round causing far more damage than a mere entry and exit wound. A torso wound would have cut the creature in half, but Malus was only assisting, not taking the kill for himself. This was not his fight, so as the creature was spun around 180 degrees and knocked off it's foot, it's arm below the elbow entirely gone and spurting out blood, Malus put his railgun back on the rack and grabbed a rappelling line.

He then reached for his usual weapon, the M41S 'Stealth' variant of the Pulse Rifle. "Don't crash my ship." He informed Xavier as he jumped clear of the ship and rappelled down towards the ground. The moment he hit the ground, he started moving, heading for the nearest Manhole to the sewers. The third monitor he'd managed to fix was connected to Kidd's IFF tag. He'd seen what his old friend was up against. A losing battle. He could not abandon his oldest comrade to death. As he found a nearby manhole he aimed his rifle at it and blew the damn thing open with his Grenade launcher.

Now wasn't the time for subtlety. It was time for speed. He slid down the ladder and ended up knee-deep in god-knew what. He activated his helmet's tracker and set it to kidd's IFF tag. Every marine and corporate had them surgically implanted. It would allow him to follow his friend and join him. "You are not dying on me Kidd. You still have a Corps to save." He muttered as he advanced down the sewer tunnel towards the faintly audible sound of gunfire...