Seasons

Warning: Graphic violence and disturbing scenes..
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"You ugly son-of-a-bitch," the chief ground out as he leaned close to Tzukra's face. There was no mistaking the older man's animosity toward him, even though the young hunter had done little to warrant it. "We're gonna get your little friends," he warned, tone decisive. "We're gonna catch all of you ugly bastards and show you a little somethin’. You don't stand a chance, ya hear me?" Tzukra blinked slowly with fatigue. He heard the stout human loud and clear. Too loud, actually. If he hadn't been in so much pain, he'd have told him to shut the fuck up and then punched him square in his round, flushed face.

Gary was no mind-reader, but even if the aging chief had been privy to this information, he would not have cared. "We're gonna lock your ass up, ya know? You and your murderous comrades...That big one I heard of? That one that got help from a little girl from around here before blowin' up government property, that one that killed quite a few good people, really good people.... We're gonna get his ass too..." he nodded with a smug look.

Tzukra blinked twice. Did he mean K'tch? He sighed in annoyance, mentally thanking him in sarcasm. Every time he turned around, it seemed he was taking the heat for something the arrogant daredevil had done. Good grief....
The warrior had a terrible habit of setting standards. He supposed he should have been grateful that they had encountered K'tch and not Arug'rak. Had that been the case, things would probably have gone a lot of differently. He knew Arug'rak well. The hunter reveled in a good hunt an didn’t care who got in his way. Arug'rak didn't have the patience for communication in the least. If he had gone to take care of the lab's bug problem they would be long gone by now. Its likely that he would have never even run into the small female named Sharon. Even if he had somehow managed to cross paths with her, he wouldn't have even bothered giving her the time of day. If anything, she'd have ended up as bait.

Tzukra's eyes became heavily lidded. Enough about what could have been. K'tch had been the one dispatched to take care of the experimental xenomorphs that the humans had been tampering with and he had. Only, he'd gotten caught up with that woman and her kind in the process. Damn his decisions. He could only hope that the determined warrior was on his way...

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He came in from the side after scanning the perimeter. There were people littered around the entire base, men with large guns and even larger egos taking round the clock shifts. After comparing the numbers, he'd concluded that his entry would be more effective from the side. There had been only two men stationed in the woods close to the side entrance.

This was going to be a cake-walk...

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The first man had been drawn away from his partner by something as simple as nature's call, wandering a little way from his post as he found some decent foliage and quickly answered it. Night had fallen, but it was still uncomfortably warm. The man dabbed beads of sweat from his brow before tucking himself back behind the rough material, the sharp hiss of a zipper the only sound in the dark woods. He had little time to enjoy the feeling of a bladder newly emptied when the invisible creature crept up behind him. K'tch struggled to quiet his pleasure as he aimed his blades down over at a spot in the back of the man's neck. The man had merely lifted his gaze at the unsettling feeling of being watched when his body suddenly went limp, K'tch driving the blades through him at a vital angle. He sighed as he the let the body collapse beneath him, pulling his bloodied blades back. That had been too quick. He selected his kills carefully, and whenever possible, he thoroughly enjoyed them.

He took his precious time with the second man, indulging utterly in the human’s demise. The second man's death had been quick, but not terribly so, he noted as he finally dug his wrist blades into the man's torso. The man’s eyes had gone wide as he uncloaked himself before the gun’s faint blue search-light. He could hear the soft meaty parting of flesh, feel the scrape of bone being sliced by his blades, even smell the acrid scent of stomach juices as they splattered onto the trunk of the tree in arches, dripping down to mix with fresh blood. He felt rejuvenated by the feeling of pride that accompanied a successful kill.
This pleasure that he was so addicted to he had to remind himself was reserved only for those deemed honorable prey. For a creature as great as himself, it was only logical to avoid wasting such power on the weak. Only those worthy enough of his strength and skill would be allowed to die by it.

He paused as a message flashed across the screen before his eyes. According to the update, Arug'rak had shown his female an emergency procedure, which meant he was almost certain that he'd be needing his help. So, his little female had grasped a complicated procedure already? He shuddered in pure delight as he looked down upon the tall grey building at the exit of the woods, unsure if the wave of arousal that washed over him had more to do with Sharon or the thought of more bloodshed.

It didn’t matter. After handling the annoying matter at hand and retrieving his captive clan member, he would be anxious to mate with her once again. He purred. She had provided an immense amount of pleasure. He had to consciously divert his thoughts as he turned toward his destination. First things first. He had a job to do. His vision zoomed in on the entrance to the building, lingering over the two guards posted. He bet almost anything that he would be sporting at least two wonderful trophies by the time he got to Tzukra..

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The interrogation hadn't stopped for at least another hour, although there was a peculiar block of time that remained a mystery. There were several minutes before he regained consciousness that he simply could not account for. After nearly two hours, the agonizing pain that had hit him on what felt like a cellular level had ceased. The voices questioning him had already stopped. It had been quiet long before he realized it, the ringing in his ears drowning out the quiet. He had never felt so terrible in his entire life. His whole body ached, muscles fatigued and head pounding like he'd never believed possible. He reached up to hold his head in concern, vision swimming before his tired eyes. An unfamiliar weight tugged at his arms.

He groaned softly in pain as he looked around, noting that he was alone in this dark room, chained most primitively to a table. As he slowly dragged his vision from left to right, he realized that the lines that made up the right corner of the room shifted. To the untrained human eye it was an effect equivalent to the distortion caused by excessive heat.

Was he imagining things?

Under normal circumstances that was highly unlikely, but seeing as how the slightest movement made him feel as though someone had taken a hammer to his skull, he concluded that there was a first time for everything. His senses unexpectedly caught the scent of someone very familiar just as his vision began to adjust to the figure. Wow, he was really in bad shape if he was smelling things too. There was a soft grunt that he didn't remember making before a figure suddenly uncloaked before his very eyes, confirming his suspicion just as his eyesight returned fully. He jolted visibly at how close he had been, his older sibling raising the muscle where his brow would be. K'tch shook his head at the very un-warrior like behavior. Without a word, he slashed through his brother's binds, the young warrior quickly rising to his feet before collapsing against him.

K'tch's eyes rolled behind his mask, thanking the powers that allowed him to hunt that no one from a rival clan was there to see his kin looking beat, dazed, startled and less-than glorious.

He slung the warrior's right arm around his neck before grasping his left, Tzukra trying his best to hold himself up as K'tch pulled a small syringe from the folds of his armor , pressing a button on the side of it to extend the needle. Without warning, he jabbed it into his brother’s upper arm, the young warrior making a noise of surprise. Quickly, he injected the experimental formula the ship’s computer had devised. Based on the data that Tzukra had managed to transmit prior to his capture, both he and Arug’rak had been able to finish his work and prepare several injections to counter the man-made tranquilizers. They couldn’t both afford to be subdued and captured and again…

After injecting him, he discarded the syringe in a corner and opened the small panel on the device attached to Tzukra’s left arm. There was always a way, he mused as he keyed in passwords, overriding certain programs before manually activating the smaller hunter’s camouflage. Tzukra's head merely hung there as he let him help. K’tch knew what he was doing and that’s all that mattered.

Regardless of the fact that the device was attached to his arm, K'tch was still in charge of it and knew both the passwords and the system well enough to get around certain procedures. After closing it, he paused to take a moment to do the same with his own. Seconds later he was cloaked once more. A little signal went off in the bottom left hand corner of the vision of his mask. As expected, several heavily armed individuals were headed his way, finally catching up with him. It was likely they had found the bodies by now, their first objective to secure Tzukra’s cell.

It was definitely time to get going.


______

“You moron!” Agent Jane shouted as she finished strapping the holster in place. “Don’t let him leave this facility! We’ve just barely begun our objective!”

Quick shouting was heard through the walkie-talkie as she continued. “Bring everything you’ve got, do you hear me?! Bring the guns, the tranquilizers, the smart missiles, the grenades, the lasers and back-up, Chief! We’re not letting them escape! We can’t afford to let them escape this time! Tell your men to stand guard and use infrared to track him. I’m sure the bastard is cloaked! Seek him out and bring him down for real this time!”

She cut the signal quickly just as another agent entered the room in full gear.

“What’s the problem!” she barked bitterly.

“The cameras are sensing the movements of two cloaked figures,” he spoke quickly.
The woman’s eyes widened.

One had blown up Weyland’s base facility after eluding top security. A shiver ran down her spine. Imagine what two could accomplish….
That was reason enough for her to panic.

She shook her head, ripping the walkie-talkie from its case and activating the signal once again.
“Agent Corriano, position the C2 Prototype at the back entrance….”
The man’s words seemed to be caught before she added harshly, “ Just do it!”

In only a moments time, there was the sound of heavy gunfire echoing through the intercoms scattered through out the labs.


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His best warrior had been on the mission for only about two very drawn out hours when the message came. Sharon had been sitting at the controls nervously, feeling like a seven year old in daddy’s favorite chair as she sat on the edge of the large L-shaped seat, Arug’rak towering over her.

She had just begun to think that everything would be just fine when a strange sort of hollow beeping sounded. Arug’rak quickly pressed a button on the left side of the screen and K’tch’s rough voice was heard. Sharon cleared her throat as she listened to the language that was so frustratingly strange, it almost made her want to cover her ears. After listening to them on and off for a time, she’d concluded on her own that many of the words in their tongue were composed of repeat syllables. The best way she could describe it would be like a monstrous voice on a broken record. Their words seemed to skip or click at least three times in a row for some words. It could become really annoying to listen to.. really fast..

Arug’rak laughed quietly at one point before continuing, Sharon watching his mandibles work as he spoke, wondering what the words meant. Arug’rak’s voice was impossibly low as he carried on.

“Guruku, guruku,” click click click, “Zikla Ah gakekeke….” click click…

She frowned in disappointment as he suddenly cut the connection. That was one language she’d never remember how to say hello in...
She watched curiously as his slow movements finally picked up some energy as he walked quickly out of the control room.

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That was the last straw, Arug’rak decided. He'd sat back and watched his clan members bumbling mistakes for entirely too long. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

His much more capable hands...

He realized with a certain amount of longing that he genuinely missed the rush of the kill, the exertion of the hunt.

His small crew had fucked everything up enough for his tastes. It was about time that a challenge worthy enough presented itself... a challenge that he simply could not ignore. He would gracefully storm a human facility swarming with guards and formidable technology. His two crew members were trapped within, one in worse shape than the other but both still not out of harm’s way.

Those were his kind of odds.

Finally, the fighting he’d been waiting for.

He laughed quietly as he finished strapping the last piece of equipment he desired to his belt. He had found a place beneath the skull on his hip to house a second disc, spear retracted and strapped to his back, whip on his right hip, plasma caster awaiting any action and various other devices just waiting to cause some serious damage...

Let the blood bath begin...

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It was safe to say that his caution was well-warranted when it came to the possibility of involving Arug'rak in a mission of any kind. It was plausible to be concerned not about the prey's life, but your own as well. K'tch swallowed as he remembered the fight on a green planet nearly a century ago where the oldest warrior had been so caught up in the battle that without missing a beat, he'd be-headed a promising acquaintance. By no means had it been intentional, but it still bothered him to think about it. By the older warrior suggesting that he provide a distraction on the opposite wing while clearing out as much of this building as he possibly could, he was less-likely to find himself in a similar more careless sort of danger from such a distance.

Humans occasionally wounded his kind with their technology and their adrenaline induced confidence, but they were mere wounds that were easily taken care of. Arug'rak on the other hand didn't wound. He killed. He killed with an effortless sort of abandon that could make any warrior think twice about even throwing a glance in his direction, much less approaching him... Perhaps that was why he hadn’t been found at fault for that accidental death. Many a hunter were just too fearful of him to bother questioning it…

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He had programmed the ship’s computer to link with his helmet so that Sharon could see the battle. If he’d only been concerned about her weak stomach, he’d have remembered to put the multi-purpose bucket closer to the chair to catch the contents of her stomach....

Sharon watched in shock as a head, still helmeted, rolled across the floor with surprising momentum, the sound of it crashing into the wall adjacent creating a disturbingly dull knock….

He had gone through several men like a hot knife through butter before activating his camouflage once more and leaping behind the largest of the group. Taking his head had been several times more exciting than he could have ever imagined. He had been out of the field for entirely too long.

There was an initial pop of a joint being disconnected as he simply grasped him with inhuman force, right hand around the man's neck. left applying pressure to his shoulder as he literally ripped the head from the torso. He wished to imprint the site of major arteries stretching like weak vines before snapping into his memory. He desperately wanted to remember the initial crunch, a sound that resembled the breaking of the stiff waxy skin of a hard fleshy fruit as the vertebrae cracked apart. Despite the effort, he simply tossed the severed head to the man behind him, almost as if he'd casually tossed him a pack of cigarettes. Reflexes prevailed as the man involuntarily caught it between two trembling gloved hands, screaming in terror and disgust. Arug'rak paid him literally no mind as he turned and sliced another man that was headed for him, vertically, pausing for a moment just to watch the two halves convulse and then collapse to the floor in a crimson heap.

The smell of blood was soon thick in the air.


She'd never even seen the oldest warrior move so fast. Somehow watching it on screen made it less real. It could have almost been a gory movie..

His movements in battle were almost like a dance. A dance of death. He turned fluidly, blades of his right hand outstretched as a torso was sent flying in the opposite direction of its legs. He spun and ducked as another soldier descended upon him. He thrust his blades up as the man leapt over him, impaling him through the stomach before flinging the body into a corner. His gaze shot up at about the exact same time as two more men began to approach, bullets whizzing over his head. The plasma caster attached to his shoulder put a stop to that in a split second as it fired, blazing a trail straight through the man's heart as well as the arm of the man behind him. Only one screamed.

He launched himself into the air, coming to land on one of the fallen soldier's torsos, flattening it like a pancake and sending shards of shattered rib and ripped muscle several yards across the room. He bent his knees once more, leaning down a little before straightening them and leaping back from where he came, the man holding the first soldier's head still staring and screaming, deaf to anything but the weight of the head he still grasped. Arug'rak refused to waste anymore time with him, grabbing his spear and thrusting it through the man's back before flinging his body into the air, jumping and rolling to a stand before reaching up and catching the head the man had been holding. He cocked his head as he admired his much-anticipated trophy, grunting as the other soldier's body landed with a thud near the entrance.

Without a second thought, he impaled it most gruesomely to a crescent-shaped hook at his hip, forcing the sharp end up through the roof of the mouth and out one of the dark eyes. That would keep him from losing it. His glanced over his shoulder and down at the other three he had collected along the way. He would be just about two skulls away from having a full skull belt if he kept this up.

Just as he'd rolled away from the center of the action, a dozen shots rang out as several more soldiers filed into the room. Ohhh he felt himself stiffen beneath the armor cupping his genitals at the thought of more bloodshed…

"Take it down! Take it down, now!" angry voices muffled through walkie-talkies hollered as he approached. Some screamed as they went down, others heads went rolling across the blood-streaked floor with a look of shock frozen on their faces. A few bulging eyes had been hidden behind goggles and face masks, but it was all still frightening just the same.

Arug'rak leapt through them all, those without the sense to move aside simply trampled as he jerked his left shoulder forward and jumped, crashing through plaster and concrete as he knocked down the wall blocking his path. He was on a roll as he paced himself, releasing a laugh so terrible it sent images of being huddled in the corner of your bed room at the tender age of five, deathly afraid of the monster that you always believed was in your closet but were always assured never existed. Grips on guns tightened, muscles stiffening as the creature penetrated their best defenses, laughing a laugh so dark that it chilled the men straight to the bone. They were all five again, some shaking with a deep-rooted fright, sweat dripping into their eyes as they beheld the giant humanoid….

It was like your most feared child-hood monster had not only slowly and silently slipped out of the closet, but it had locked the door. It had spotted you as you sat crying and terrified in the corner. Tears meant nothing to it as it approached. It had a one-track mind and an insatiable lust for violence. No matter what anyone said, you knew that it was intent on doing one thing. Destroying you and you only in the bloodiest manner possible.... Only this time, no matter how many lights you flicked on, it simply didn't disappear....

If Arug'rak had only known what was going on in the half-insane minds of the men trying to destroy him, he would have laughed even harder...