When In Doubt, Take One for the Team

Naithei made his way down the dark and humid tunnel. To his right he found another pathway, he searched through his gear until he found a mine. He threw it into the pathway and waited for it to activate and saw the laser bounce off some of the walls. A red laser that, to an unsuspecting soul, seemed almost harmless but in truth it can slice them up before they could blink. The path he was in was relatively small, small for a Yautja that is. For a Serpent it was the perfect size, they could come through it in droves which is why he was placing all his mines in other tunnels. This was their network and he was the intruder, but if he was to fight an entire nest by himself he wanted to make sure he couldn't be surrounded.

He placed his last mine in another path to his left. As soon as it activated he felt something on his back and, slowly, looked above him. There was another tunnel and he had missed it, and in it was a serpent hissing at him. What he had felt before was its secretions falling on his back.

The serpent lunged at Naithei but he managed to grab it by its neck as it came down and he slammed it hard on the ground. It then started flailing its tail around and just barely missed Naithei. He pulled back and so did the serpent. Naithei pulled out the wrist blades from both his gauntlets and challenged the serpent. In response, the serpent lunged at him again, but the limited space didn't allow him to dodge and instead he was pinned down by the beast. As he recovered from the blow, Naithei had just enough time to dodge the incoming attack that came from the serpent's inner mouth. A small, seemingly insignificant mouth that he had seen go straight through Yautja biomasks and skulls. Again and again it tried to use it, but Naithei dodged every time. On its last attack he caught its tail right in front of his face. It attacked knowing he was going to dodge it and led him straight to its tail. Clever, and he almost fell for it. He reached for its neck and gripped it tight and used the wristblade on his right arm to stab it. The serpent lost its strength and Naithei was able to push its body off him just before the acidic blood started to drip. The creature cried in pain until Naithei used his wristblade to cut its head clean off its body. Naithei then sliced the air to remove the blood that remained on his blade. He activated the targeting on his biomask and made sure his plasmacaster was still functional. He did a quick check on all the weapons he had, even going as far as preparing the bomb on his wrist gauntlet. If he was destined to die here, at least he'd still have the chance of taking the nest with him. He stood perfectly still and felt the earth shaking – he had awoken the whole nest.

---

– SEVERAL HOURS AFTER DROP –

Yeira contemplated the setting suns of the planet. The weather also started to cool down a little, when they had arrived the heat was unbearable. Even though it was cooler it was still about as hot as the worst days back in L.A..

She continued down her path, slowly stepping on the ground so as not to bring any more attention to her. Earlier they had been attacked by one of those things that had killed Josiah and Collins, but it didn't go for the kill. After that, Dutch told them to spread out but to make sure they were still in each other's line of sight. Two men; Aizawa and Corben were to her left, each one separated by about 10 meters. To her right it was Dutch and Evans seperated by the same distance.

Back at the dropship they had given one of the 'coats, Kovacs if she wasn't mistaken, and Evelyn a crash course on how to control the drone. They weren't the best at giving callouts, but at least they had eyes in the sky. When they were "attacked" neither of them had been able to track where it came from. They would've stayed and investigated because it seemed like it was only one attacker, but Corben had been stupid enough to shoot in a panic. The fact that it hadn't gone for the kill reassured them a little, it let them know that they were still being studied.

"How's things?" Yeira used comms so everyone could hear.

"Oh you know, just trying to survive murderous aliens." replied someone else, but she didn't know who.

"Just another Tuesday for me." Now that was Dutch.

"What I would do for cold one right now." Corben, such a simple man with simple needs.

"Well, laugh all you want, but I could use an ice cream. Strawberry." Evelyn joined their conversation.

"We're being hunted by aliens and all you can think about is ice cream?" asked Yeira.

She heard someone laughing over the comms, but Yeira stopped listening after hearing something snap behind her. She kept on moving but now she was even more on edge. Yeira, carefully and slowly, reached for her combat knife that was currently attached to her left thigh.

"What about you, Yeira?" someone asked.

"Me?" she flinched a little and nearly stopped herself. "Guns at my side.". No one replied.

She unsheathed her knife and brought it up just in front of her and used it as a mirror. There it was, a distortion behind her.

"And I want them REAL close." she said, louder this time.

Yeira immediately turned and unleashed a barrage of bullets behind her until her clip was empty. As fast as she could, she removed the clip from her rifle and replaced it with a fresh one.

"No confirmed hits." she informed the team. "Backing up." she said as she walked away slowly.

"Keeping an eye on the treeline." said Corben.

"Watch out!" Evelyn yelled at her through her comms.

Yeira turned and just barely ducked in time, but even then she wasn't fast enough. Some kind of javelin struck her shoulder and knocked her back a good four feet from where she was previously standing. Yeira couldn't hold back screaming because of the pain.

"Flashbang out!" someone yelled out.

Yeira simply put herself in the fetal position and hoped the flashbang wasn't going to go off next to her.

"Pick Yeira up, now!" Dutch exclaimed.

Before anyone could start moving Yeira was pushed down agressively and the javelin was violently torn out. Yeira cried out in pain once again. It took a few seconds for her sight to readjust. Once it did, standing over her a distortion started to materialize. Three dots moved around until they reached her head at the same time.

A black mask, darker than the night itself was the first thing she saw. The eyes on it were wide and blended well with the mask. Its bottom jaw resembled a skull, not any skull she had ever seen. The top part slicked back, almost resembling a curved blade with two additional prongs.

The creature stood at least seven feet tall over her with barely any armor on it. All it had was the mask, some kind of shoulder pad on its right, some armor on its thighs and metal boots. Its skin looked cream colored with shades of black in it.

The creature knelt down a little and started roaring in Yeira's face. Yeira had no idea what to do, so she screamed back at it at the top of her lungs. It lifted its javelin and prepared to finish her off.

Yeira closed her eyes. She didn't want to see what was coming. Instead of her consciousness fading away, she felt liquid falling on her face and the creature roaring. She slowly opened her eyes to find it staggered and nearly falling on top of her. She saw what the liquid was now, blood that came from it. Its abdomen had a clean cut on the right and it was bleeding profusely. Wasting no time, Yeira kicked it with what little strength she had left. The beast roared again. Yeira tried reaching for her rifle but didn't find it on her person, she must've lost it at some point. Instead she pulled herself away with her injured arm and, with her good arm, she pulled out her pistol and started wasting the clip on it.

As soon as she was a good couple feet from it, she heard gunshots all around her. The team started unloading everything they had onto it, but instead of turning to see if they had taken it down all she saw was the creature turning on its camouflage and disappearing into the jungle once again.

"Take my hand." Yeira turned and it was Aizawa that was offering help. She didn't hesitate to take it.

"Took you assholes long enough." she complained.

"You were too close. If we opened fire we could've killed you."

"Should've taken it either way." she told him.

"Yeira, you broken?" Dutch asked over the comms.

"I'm just barely standing." she replied weakly.

"Anyone hit anything?" Corben asked.

"Which one of you cut its abdomen?" Yeira asked.

"None of us. We have ourselves a third party." Dutch informed her.

"Our side?"

"Well it didn't kill any of us." said Evans. "But I'd be on the lookout either way. Whatever that was, I don't know if you noticed, but it just barely missed you."

"Just back up. Everyone." Dutch ordered.

"Duck!" Aizawa pushed Yeira down and something whizzed right above them.

"Fuck me. Are we not gonna get a chance to rest?!" Yeira complained.

"One can only wish." Aizawa replied.

"Pull back. We have to get to the ship." Dutch ordered again.

"Don't have to tell me twice." said Evans.

"Last one back buys the first round." Yeira joked.

"You said it." Corben replied.

"And no cheap stuff. I can't stand–"

Yeira staggered forward along with Aizawa. They both fell to their knees. Yeira turned to look at Aizawa who now had a gaping wound on his chest. His body stood still for a few seconds until it finally fell over.

"Ai...Ai..." Yeira struggled to speak. "He's down. Aizawa is down." she said with fear in her voice.

Dutch said something over comms but Yeira couldn't make it out.

Yeira was suddenly pushed onto the ground as a blue streak passed right by her. She turned around and saw Dutch picking himself up and pulled Yeira up at the same time.

They didn't even take three steps before something knocked Dutch down. The same creature, still bleeding from its abdomen, revealed itself. Dutch got up and tried to shoot it, but the creature was faster and ripped the weapon from his hands.

Dutch didn't waste any time in trying to recover, he immediately curled up his fists and started punching the creature. It didn't even flinch, it took all the hits instead. Eventually it stopped Dutch, twisted his arm until he cried in pain, and threw him as if he were nothing but a ragdoll.

Yeira finally managed to recover and pulled out her knife. She lunged at the alien and managed to stab it in the back. The creature cried in pain and turned immediately. Yeira had no time to run, not with her injury. The alien grabbed her by the neck and lifted her without a problem. She then spit the pin on his face. It was annoyed and confused. Yeira allowed herself to smile with her mouth completely bloody. She taunted it by waving the grenade she had cooked in his face. She reached for its helmet and pulled it in closer.

"Vaya con Dios...hijo de puta."