Nathan Archer.

Aliens vs Predator.

Hunters Planet.

PROLOGUE.

Dai'k-dte sa-de nav'gkon dtainaun bpide.

"The fight begun would not end until the end."

Tarei'hasan, s.h.i.+t.

Nat'ka'pu ill.u.s.trated how silly the old yautja saying was by feinting to the left, then slipping around the sparring spear thrust out by his opponent.

With astonis.h.i.+ng speed the Leader followed through with a lightning lunge, grasping the edge of the student's mask and ripping it off his face, shearing off a couple of tightly bound ringlets of hair in the process. Yellow eyes blazed with surprise. Mandibles clicked with shame.

The student yawked with displeasure, attempting to slap Nat'ka'pu back with the blunt side of the spear. But with a creaking heave of his armor the Master took advantage of the c.o.c.ky student's bad positioning, hacking down on the elbow with the blunt edge of his leather gauntlet, forcing the weapon to slap down onto the floor. Then, before the snot-nosed fool could even begin another sorry howl, the expert reached in and boxed the warrior's right tusk so hard that it looked to the others as though the young one's head would be ripped from his muscle-grieved neck. The student could only give to the force so adroitly positioned. With a gasp he toppled to his knees.

"Nain-desintje-da. "

The pure win, of course. Nat'ka'pu expected nothing less of himself.

However, he spat upon his victim with open contempt. The fool should have lasted longer in battle. For all his young pride and strength, he was one of the more thoughtless sparring partners that the Leader had ever faced.

"You have much work before you if you wish to feel the sting of the Hard Meat's thwei upon your brow-if you survive that long."

The student---a snarly, oily fellow named Ki'vik'non just glared back silently and woodenly.

"Get away from my sight," snapped the Leader. "Go and wash disgrace and defeat from your eyes. And cleanse your ears as well. You smell of childbearer's musk. Hurry, Ki'vik'non ---- or your betters will wish to mate with you."

The cruel joke set the others on the deck of the s.h.i.+p into a braying, clicking laughter-derision. With as much dignity as he could muster under the circ.u.mstances, the fallen would-be warrior rose to his feet with a clatter and creak of his awuasa. Sunken deep in their orbs, his yellow eyes shone hatred and disrespect before he clanked back into the ranks. Something was wrong with this one, Nat'ka'pu thought. This Ki'vik'non lacked the sense of honor that drove a good warrior. He bore watching. Nor would it be a good idea to turn his back on Ki'vik'non when they--- Suddenly the enunciator in the wall of the kehrite blared.

"Kainde amedha!"

The Leader's mandibles rippled with satisfaction, even antic.i.p.ation. He turned to the younglings, his eyes blazing with challenge.

"Prepare your souls for some true action!"

The s.h.i.+p of the yautja descended from the clouds and skated across the tops of trees. This was a fertile planet, which suited yautja purposes just fine.

Besides its variety of terrain, it had plenty of species of life, many quite vicious and dangerous, making it prime Hunting material.

The yautja were Hunters who traveled from world to world, proving themselves with the skill of their kills. Nor was Hunting just sport for them; it was a way of life. It was the Path. The philosophy that bound their bones more surely than did their sinews. They were Predators, and they often ate what they could, but more often they collected and preserved only trophies to testify to their prowess. They were Predators of meat physical, meat spiritual, and below their s.h.i.+p now was one of their favorite tastes in predatory effort.

Kainde amedha. Hard Meat.

And Hard in more ways than one.

Upon this Hard Meat, sown in chosen areas, the youth of this race cut their tusks. Upon this Hard Meat, the inexperienced learned the Truth of the Path, turned experience into value, came of age, became a true yautja and could father younglings with pride and pa.s.s on the courage and honor that separated Beings of Will from the dross of mere instinctual life.

The Hard Meat was valuable prey for the Hunter, because it could turn the tables with a flick of a claw.

There was no more valuable target for Predators than other predators, for in difficulty is there courage and honor. And honor and courage were of paramount value in these creatures' lives.

Their s.h.i.+p looked like a combination between a fish and a huge engine tube.

With a strange flash of greenish hue, it landed in a clearing. A broad ramp extended from it, and down the ramp the Hunting party strutted. Seven of them there were: four students, the Leader, and two adjutants. The students and Nat'kapu carried only spears; the adjutants carried burners.

They were giants, these warriors. Their average height was two and a half meters, and even the shortest, at a mere two meters, had broad shoulders and biceps that strained against their leather jerkins. They wore armor and masks, and their tough, wirelike hair hung in dreadlocks from the back of their necks. The first step toward becoming a warrior was the agony of the pleating of these locks, a process that took months of ritual and scalp pain, performed in public sessions. If there was any sign of tears or even the tiniest voicing of pain, then the intricate weavings would be undone, and the candidate had to start from the beginning.

Nat'ka'pu was in the forefront of the party, as befitted his rank. The two adjutants held sight amplification equipment. They quickly scanned the terrain. The short one grunted, then pointed.

The prey was spotted.

Nat'ka'pu called for the binoculars. He trained them on the bushes, saw the squatting, partly hidden form of the Hard Meat.

How odd. It was not a Queen, and yet it was discernibly larger than theaverage drone. The Leader tapped his mandibles thoughtfully against his mask, then turned to face his charges.

"Who demands the honor of facing this fresh Meat first, alone?"

They all brandished their weapons as one, fiercely and yet quietly. This was all part of the ceremony.

Nat'ka'pu laughed mockingly. "You are fools, all of you, and yet at the first part of the Path lies the door of the fool."

"Perhaps you should show us the door, Leader," suggested Ki'vik'non.

"Perhaps I should show your intestines the point of my spear!" barked the commander.

"It is true," said the short adjutant, whose name was Lar'nix'va. "These are rank beginners and have never sucked Hard Meat before. It is not fitting that a few feints be made by the Blooded-especially when the Blooded is said to have fought the Hard Meat bare-fisted."

"And torn off its head!" spat Nat'ka'pu proudly. "Very well. But mark my methods, for I will leave the final killing to you, my students."

That said, the Leader turned and walked jauntily. He'd weaken the thing so that his charges could dispatch it easily. It had been a long day, and he was looking forward to going back and selecting a bulb of c'ntlip to drink with his b.l.o.o.d.y meal, to the relaxation it would bring and the pleasant dreams of his wives, waiting for his valiant seed back home.

The yautja called this world Var. It was used only off and on for Hunting, despite its merits. The Brave People were vagabonds of a sort and had a wide field in which to range, touching on a variety of worlds. Too long in one place created stale kv'var --- exercises. It blunted the warrior's soul, and made the Path rocky and illusory.

When a flotilla of s.h.i.+ps had returned to Var, however, there was a distinct change. There were oomans here now, that new growth of intelligent Soft Meat who were colonizing worlds. Nat'ka'pu knew that yautja lore spoke of many expeditions to the homeworld of the oomans with delicious results. Adventures to make a warrior smack his lips. The notion of performing kv'var on a world where humans had settled-albeit only in one small area, and with odd purposes and circ.u.mstances-stirred his blood. At the very least, hiding their activities from the Soft Meat would give him a sense of superiority. And if Nat'ka'pu actually encountered them and was forced to hunt oomans? Well, then, all the better. Nat'ka'pu could use some ooman skulls to dangle from his trophy cages. Perhaps that would even gain him some new conquest with females.

The thought stirred his seed within his loins and churned up his blood. He could feel the aggression knotting in his muscles, and his great heart beat a song of battle.

He advanced, his spear held out in front of him, part of the ritual of Readiness.

The Hard Meat did not stir behind the covering of the bush, which was not unusual. It was daylight, and though the Hard Meat was not nocturnal, it preferred to slink through areas of darkness. That it was out in the open at all was a wonder, but then, Nat'ka'pu had seen them in such circ.u.mstances before. Nor did they usually travel alone, though the detectors showed no other Hard Meat in the area. Just as well, however. The situation suited himperfectly. It was as though it were tailor-made for such a training exercise, and Nat'ka'pu was never one to push away a challenge of fate, even when it was presented upon a tray of precious metal.

Had he merely wanted to kill the beast, he would have approached it in his s.h.i.+ftsuit and turned a burner on it. There was no valor in that, though, and certainly no lesson for the snot-noses.

No, he had to face the thing full on.

However, for the beast to be fought properly, it had to be aware of his presence. This one seemed to be in an odd and awkward kind of repose. If it had been dead, their sensors would not have picked up its signs.

So what was wrong with it?

Carefully, his warrior's instinctual antennae out and questing for information, Nat'ka'pu advanced, his spear firmly placed before him, ready for any sudden charges.

He came into full view of the creature.

The Hard Meat was indeed a large one.

It looked like the obscene skeleton of some larger monster, and Nat'ka'pu could feel the familiar worm of fear threatening to wriggle in his gut. His said his kantra, though, which kept the fear at bay, and used the spurt of adrenaline to sharpen his senses.

Yes, the monster was obscene in every sense.

Part reptilian, part insect, part arachnid, and all evil, with no glow of n.o.bility or honor whatsoever. Just sheer vicious need to kill and procreate.

Its head was like a banana with teeth. No eyes. It had a reptilian tail, and long mantis-like limbs. Pipes rose from its back like periscopes out of h.e.l.l.

Something different about this one, thought Nat'ka'pu. Something odd, besides its large size.

His boot stepped on a dry twig.

Snap.

The response was immediate.

The Hard Meat rose up like a vehicle on hydraulic crane legs, and a soul-chilling hiss escaped from its mouth. Thick saliva dripped from its jaws, and it reared up for what looked like the beginning of a charge.

Nat'ka'pu went immediately into the Warrior's Stance, the position from which all martial-arts moves in such Hunt battles derived. His mind spun ahead, calculating the maneuvers that would be necessary when this creature attacked.

The Hard Meat always attacked. These were not shy creatures. They were vicious fighters, albeit with limited intelligence. They were tenacious and cunning, with a terrible focus, and deadly weapons at their disposal. Even in Death they could be deadly; their blood was acid that could eat through some yautja armor, all yautja flesh. The review flashed in his mind.

When facing Hard Meat with only a spear, the best course of action was a penetration into the thing's inner defenses and then a quick upthrust through the bottom of the head, into a portion of the brain that would paralyze it. At that point, one could carve the thing up at leisure. The challenge in this situation was to duel with it only awhile, perhaps slightly incapacitating it, so that the students would have an easier road to the final victory. A wound to the thorax perhaps, or a lopped-off limb.

Hiss.

The thing rose up and down, almost challenging.

Nat'ka'pu's mandibles bristled He could taste the blood of victory in his mouth, even against the harsh, fearful smell the thing was exuding.

He raised his spear and chanted that most Holy of Holies, the Warrior's Song, that blast of wind and rain that terrified greater prey than this.

Then, pride and joy br.i.m.m.i.n.g in his veins, he advanced upon the next leg of the Path.

The kainde amedha suddenly stooped.

When it came back up, it was holding something in its limbs.

That was one of the things that was different about the thing, Nat'kapu realized. The limbs were different. At their ends were structures very like hands.

And in those hands now was a weapon.

No! Was this a dream? Hard Meat couldn't hold weapons.

But before he could think anymore, the weapon gave off a blast of fire that cut through Nat'ka'pu like a giant saber, and the Great Path suddenly dropped away like a trapdoor into pitiless darkness.

Lar'nix'va watched as the explosive bullets rammed through his commander's armor, watched as they blew his head and chest apart like ripe naxa fruit.

He did not watch for long, however, for action in the life of the warrior was the stuff of survival. This was no longer an exercise, this was the real thing, and something incredibly unexpected had just happened.

Raising his burner, he ran forward, calling out a terse command for the other adjutant to do likewise. The moment he was within striking distance, he pressed the trigger. A stream of power and flame streaked out, attaching itself to the Hard Meat before the creature had the chance to swing its weapon around.

The thing screamed and fought against the power, but it was blown back, blazing, pieces of its chitinous body tearing off.

The blast of his fellow adjutant pushed it over, finis.h.i.+ng the destruction.

The Hard Meat was soon a pyre of death.

When the flames died down, the group walked through the gory ground, littered with the blood of their commander.

"I am Leader now," stated Lar'nix'va matter-of-factly. "Is there anychallenge?"

There was none. Astonishment hung heavy amid the stink of Death.

When the dead creature had cooled, one of the students stirred the remains with the end of his spear.

Lar'nix'va looked down, deeper astonishment filling him at the remains of the creature.

A guttural snarl tore from his lips.

"What is happening upon this planet?" he said.

None of the others had an answer.

Lar'nix'va swung back and walked to his s.h.i.+p through the splattered body of Nat'ka'pu.

The flotilla would need to be contacted.

This business bore evil portent, and from his life experience, the short yautja suspected who lay at the root of it all.

For whenever there were oomans on a planet, there was always trouble.