Chapter 1: The Hunt

The Yautja ship was in orbit around the planet they were to hunt on. There were six Yautja onboard; the five teenagers and their clan leader. They included Doun'ch an ancient predator, the leader, and eldest one of all; and Merc'rk a heavy predator, the second eldest, and the toughest but slowest one of all; and Reco'de a standard predator, third eldest, and the most skilled one of all; and Netak another standard predator, same age as Reco'de, just as skilled as Reco'de, but a loner; and Essra a female standard predator, fourth eldest, the smartest of them all; and lastly there's Shou'nk a standard predator, the youngest and the one that has never gone hunting.

They were all resting in their rooms while they waited for the ship to land on the newest hunting plant called LV-462 the planet with what they heard had prey that was more than worthy. As the ship began to enter its atmosphere the alarm went off and they all woke up. They got all their weapons and gear and were ready in seconds. Then proceeded to the bridge and Merc'rk landed it manually.

When they got out they saw a vast jungle and human civilization ruins a few miles to their west. After ward they cloaked the ship and began to inspect the area around which they were. Reco'de was excited to hunt and was most thrilled of all. "Well, let's get this party started!" he said. Doun'ch then spoke "All of you are free to hunt and if you find any Oomans don't hunt them, but meet back here. Merc'rk and I will set up shelter."

Reco'de wanted some action and Oomans(Humans) and hardmeat(Aliens) were the only things worth a challenge. "What!? No hunting oomans!? Why not hunt them? After all they'd be dead before they could yell for help." Reco'de said with a grin.

"We don't want them to know were here yet." Essra said. Essra being a female was a couple inches shorter and more slender than all the male predators and had longer dread locks. "What do we do if we find hardmeat?" asked Shou'nk.

"Laugh like circus clowns while they beg for mercy." Netak replied. Netak was the one who mostly wanted honor and was the one who was always antisocial, but loved to fight more than any of the six. He considered friends a weakness so he didn't have any.

All of their faces were different, but based on the same principles and their masks were somewhat shaped to their features. Reco'de had normal features, Essra had female-like features, Merc'rk had bough features, and Netak had the sharpest features of them all. "What if they find us?" asked Shou'nk.

"Then still meet back here." answered Doun'ch. Then they all left for hunting. Reco'de was jumping from tree to tree and was switching through vision modes once so often. He found something in electromagnetic vision. It was some hardmeat and it was eating a dead animal of some sort. He pulled out his favorite weapon, which was the plasma caster. He fired a shot at the alien and it blowed it in half. The was trying to crawl away as the young Yautja was hovering over him with his wrist blades out. Reco'de loved to watch his prey squirm and attempt to helplessly run away before he killed it. Then he shoved the blades in its neck and ripped off its head. He had not been on this planet ten minutes and had already got a trophy. He went on and not twenty minutes later found a large group of hardmeat and oomans in a battle. The oomans had machineguns and assault rifles while the hardmeat were using their claws and pouncing on them. He immediately went back to the ship to warn Doun'ch.

Meanwhile Shou'nk had been the first to find an ooman, but he didn't know what it was and just sat there cloaked while staring at him on a nearby branch. The man was a sniper in a tree with green eyes and short black hair. The man, apparently, was also a nooby because he was too damn nervous to be experienced or "salty" as the marines call it. Shou'nk made the clicking sound with his mouth out of interest.

The man heard the clicking and slowly turned around and there he saw what looked like a distortion in space that formed a shape. He gave a yelp of fright and fell out of the tree. Shou'nk grabbed him by the leg before he hit the ground and pulled him up. The man was screaming and frantically flinging his arms in the air while Shou'nk was holding him upside-down by the leg.

After ten minutes of screaming the man stopped and was curious as to why he wasn't dead (not that he's complaining). Shou'nk decloaked and was staring at him interestingly. "Uh, could you put me down?" the man asked nervously. Shou'nk dropped him and he fell out of the tree and landed with a thud. When he looked up and the hunter was gone. Then the young predator appeared right in front of him. He was now staring at something that was on his chest.

On his chest there was a necklace with a picture of two other humans. One was a female about one or two years younger than he was with blonde hair and blue eyes. The other looked a little like the man himself and he was a young boy.

The marine had noticed this and began to speak. "This is my family. That's my wife, Cindy, and that's my son, Jake." the soldier said proudly. The Predator in front him began to make a clicking sound out of interest. He wasn't sure if the creature could speak his language, but decided to talk to it anyway (and if necessary try to convince it not to kill him)."Do you have a family?" To his surprise the creature answered in English. "Yes."

At first he was shocked to see this creature and now he was astonished it could speak his language. He asked it another question to make sure he was not losing his sanity. "How big a family?" The creature, again, answered his question. "I have a mate, Sher'nk, and my offspring Shov'nk." He heard this clearly and was amazed at this.

"Uh, do you have a name?" The marine asked. "Shou'nk." Answered the young hunter. "So, Why are you here?" "To hunt." "What do you hunt?" "Anything that is armed with a defensive or offensive weapon and is considered a worthy opponent." The Marine quickly tossed away his sniper rifle, his pistol, and a knife. "Err, my name's Jason." He said while sticking out his hand. The creature looked at his hand, clueless of what a handshake was.

Then another strange sound came. It was a gurgling sound, but it sounded familiar to him. It was Shou'nk's stomach. He realized the creature was hungry and offered it some food (hoping it didn't eat human flesh). He pulled out his C rations. "Want some?" The creature sat down and took off his mask (He may be an extra terrestrial but knows food when he smells it). As they were eating Jason decided to talk. "So how's your hunt?" "Actually, this is my first hunt. I'm the youngest and most inexperienced of my clan." "I know how you feel. This is my first day being here. Everyone in my unit calls me "nooby" and noobies are new comers." Shou'nk was pleased to find out that he was not the only one teased for being inexperienced.

As that was going on Netak's hunt was going pretty well. He was jumping from tree to tree and spotted three drone aliens that looked like they were fighting over some large scrap of meat. They were actually arguing over which of them would give it to the queen. He pulled out his favorite weapon, which was a razor sharp disc with an onboard computer and propulsion system. He aimed it at the one in the middle and threw it at him. It cut its head off and immediately flew back to him. The other two could now see him and one pounced at him, but as it reached him he ducked and jammed his disc in its ribs and let its dead body fall to the ground. The other was roaring in a call for reinforcements, but got its head cut off before the others could hear it. Unfortunately one other did hear it and then a praetorian came walking his way. He put away his disc and pulled out his spear as the praetorian came into view. It ran at him and slashed, but he blocked it with the spear and slashed back at it. There was a cut across its head and acid blood began to drip from the wound. It then made several attempts to slash at him in a fit of rage, but all were blocked or dodged. Netak then shoved the end of his spear into the praetorian's stomach and ripped it open instantly killing it. "Child's play." he quoted as he ripped off the large alien's head and spinal column.

He was carrying his trophies to the ship and when he got there he saw Merc'rk and Doun'ch eating some kind of cooked meat not of this planet. He brought all his trophies to the ship, skinned them, cleaned them, polished them, and then put them on his trophy rack.

He came back outside and saw Essra with her own trophies and her favorite weapon the spear gun, and Reco'de with one trophy, but he heard him say "There's a battle between softmeat (another name for humans) and hardmeat two clicks west!" Doun'ch got up and put his mask on. "All right we're going west. Tonight we hunt. Where is Shou'nk? We can't fight the oomans without him." Netak was angry because of all the prey he had hunted; humans were the most pleasurable. "Let the freshmeat (a name for inexperienced predators) get lost, he'll only hold us back." Netak said.

Merc'rk got up and put his mask on. "Netak, shut up and do as he says." said the bough predator. "On your first hunt we would've said the same thing about you." Merc'rk was a guy who was always social and was the one everyone liked. The exact same kind of people Netak hated and Merc'rk hate conceited, antisocial people like Netak. So they don't get along well.

"I'll go find him. Want to come Merc'rk?" asked Essra trying to steer this conversation in a different direction. "Sure." They both cloaked and went looking for Shou'nk.