Minerva wished she could swipe the sweat from her brow. It had been a rough fight between her squadron and the enemy UFO. But now it appeared the fight was finally over.

It had started a few hours ago, when the UFO had brazenly blasted its way through the ADD blockade around Shokushu. Minerva's squadron had persued the UFO but it was if a difficult fight. The UFO pilot was exceptionally skilled and had managed to force the squadron into a series of one-on-one fights.

Throughout the hours long fight, the UFO had managed to disable or destroy most of Minerva's squadron. The weird thing was the squadron was still able to drive the UFO away from Shokushu. It was as if the UFO was more thrilled with the fight, then going afte any particular objective.

However, it came down the squadron commander, Minerva, and the UFO. Minerva had stuck to the squadron commander like any good wingman and the two were rewarded when there combined firepower and maneuvering scored a solid hit on the UFO. The stricken alien spacecraft seemed to lose control and fall towards a nearby planet. The squadron commander had ordered Minerva to confirm the alien spacecraft had crashed while the squadron commander went back to help her disabled squadron.

So Minerva now began her descent into the atmosphere. The area the enemy spacecraft had come down in was a heavily wooded and hilly area. There was no way her Lancer would land anywhere close, so she would have to go in on foot to search the remains of the spacecraft. Surely there was no way the spacecraft or occupants could have survived...

Yautja clicked his mandibles in pleasure as he dropped through the atmosphere. Reaching up he flicked the switches that activated the autopilot of the Shadow Stalker and pulled himself out of the seat. As the ship automatically landed, simply ignoring the large trees that were scattered around, he went over the 'fight' he had just been in.

He had acquired hacked reports that indicated a large number of so called ADD ships around a mostly uninhabited world who were kept on near constant high alert. He had been curious of what the world contained of course, but the temptation to draw some ADD into a hunt had been too strong to resist.

Disengaging his ships cloaking field he had engaged the ADD ships and the moment a squadron of ADD ships had responded he had retreated, holding his speed back to allow them to keep up of course. Eventually he had led them to a series of space hulks that had been left drifting, and the moment the squadrons formation broke up he swooped in.

His ship could turn far quicker, could accelerate/decelerate quicker, had much stronger armour and its weapons were significantly more powerful. Despite its small one-man size the Shadow Stalker had enough fire-power to take on cruiser class ships, and had done so in the past. He could have easily taken on a single squadron of ships his class, but that wouldn't be fair. Instead he had set himself the goal of disabling the ships without being hit once. The moment he was hit he had to appear to 'crash'.

He had also refused to engage anything greater than one on one odds. Again not that because he couldn't take it, but because having to split them up made the fight much harder for him. He had even turned the limiters on, restricting just what he could do with his ship.

And despite all of these advantages he offered freely, he still picked the ships off one by one. In fact he even had to plasma a piece of wreck so that one of his pursuers would not destroy themselves ploughing into it. These were human after all, and since they were ADD as well and therefore probably female he saw no reason to waste them.

Eventually it was just him and two ships left, and no matter what he did he could not split them apart. Dodging and weaving he knew that eventually he would be unable to dodge, and when the missile salvo slammed into his rear flank armour he knew he had lost the hunt in space. Sending his completely unscathed ship into a dive towards the planet he had dropped almost straight through the atmosphere, a horrible descent angle that few ships could survive.

As the Shadow Stalker settled down on the ground he clicked his mandibles together one last time in a semi smile as he patted the ships hull. It was one of those few ships. Locking his mask in place he felt his scent of smell dropping off in effectiveness. With one last check of his weapons (he was going in full kit even though he didn't think he would use many, if any of them) he tapped a button inside his mask and the door to his ship opened.

Walking out he turned to regard the still burning hull. A quick check revealed no marks from the hunt in space or the rough landing, and concluded just as Yautja's mask indicated something entering the atmosphere.

Overlaying a map onto his vision he saw the projected landing point close in to a single spot, and with that Information in mind he set off through the forest. As he moved through the trees his form vanished as the cloaking system engaged. He wanted to get as much chance to observe whatever had followed him down before he moved in.

Minerva climbed down with her aid package from her fighter and took a look at the wooded terrain. Unfortunately in all this green, her red flight suit was going to stick out like a sore thumb. Well I suppose there not much I can do about it.

She took a moment to ensure everything was there. Her assault rifle and pistol were there just in case she came across anything hostile. She also had her knife but it more for utilitarian work than anything else. Her tent and survival gear were also in good condition just in case she it took her a while to reach the wreckage. And she also had a first aid kit, just in case she had to render aid to a survivor.

Content for now, Minerva knew her work was starting. It would be a long trip through the woods to get to crashed ship and if she started now, she might make there and back just before nightfall...

As Yautja made his way through the difficult terrain he paused to assess the trees around him. As his mask scanned the wood his mandibles clicked in satisfaction. They were strong enough to support his weight. The moment his mask returned that information he leapt up to the branch.

Now moving through the various tree branches he found the going easier (not that his speed really increased) and when he finally started his hunt he would be that much harder to spot. Few beings who evolved to inhabit the ground looked up, and it was a psychological blind spot he used often, usually to deadly effect. Although he hoped this hunt would end in blood he already knew he would not be doing anything that caused bleeding against whatever had followed him. Blood would simply mean something his prey had done had injured him, which in turn meant the hunt was good.

Even leaping from branch to branch as he was Yautja noticed the incline changes beneath him. Anyone walking along the ground would have a much harder time than he was, which in turn would give him more time to assess his prey and determine the appropriate handicaps for when he moved in.

Could this ship landed in a more difficult area to reach. Just an hour into her trip she found that the incline was much steeper than she expected. Her red flight suit which served as her body armor, was beginning to be a hindrance as she moved from up the steep hill.

Minerva had slung her rifle as the climb had required her to use both her hands at time as she would grab onto a rock or a tree trunk for leverage. It was against her training, but she was positive that nothing could have survived that crash. And her pistol was ready to go, if she needed it.

Minerva took another step closer as she grabbed a tree for support. The top of the hill was slowly getting closer. Once she made it up there she would have a better idea of how much further she would have to go to get to the crashed ship.

When Yautja finally got his first look at his prey he felt his body sag with disappointment. A single human wearing a bright red suit in a forest. No sense of concealment, he wouldn't even need his mask's enhancements for this. Reaching up to take it off he froze, remembering.

Female human following me and I considered taking my mask off before the hunt is complete? I'll never earn a place as the mate of a Ruiel if I even consider stupid suggestions like that.

Shaking his head at his own annoyance he moved closer, and soon he was perched in the trees above her. His mask did a quick cycle through all of its vision modes, and within seconds it had located and labelled each piece of equipment she carried. Not with a name of course, but rather the capabilities and contents.

Still invisible he studied the readouts for half an hour while he considered. Keeping up with her proved easy, and while she once looked up to the trees his cloaking field hid him from sight at this distance. Finally he decided on a proper handicap. His cloaking field would be the only piece of technology he would use, and if a bullet or knife hit his armour he would retreat.

With his handicap decided Yautja tensed his muscles as he waited. It would be unsporting to attack her in this terrain, he would wait until the ground levelled out and was more in her favour. Looking out he saw that they were nearly halfway to his ship, and without having to climb a hill soon her pace would pick up.

As Minerva moved her way up the hill, she notice the wildlife had gotten quiet, very quiet. The wildlife must know something I don't. Minerva looked around to see if she see anything. But all around her there was nothing. She took a brief scan of the trees, even the tress is appeared to empty. Maybe that just the way things work on this planet.

Minerva continued to climb her way up the hill until she finally got to the top. The woods still hid the crashed spaceship from Minerva's view. Minerva sighed, Things are never easy. At least the slope was very gentle on this side, it would take her very long at all to make it to the bottom and on to the alien spaceship. Unslinging her rifle, Minerva began to make her descent.

As the ground started to slope gently downwards and the agent unslung her rifle Yautja disengaged his cloaking and let out a hunting cry, one that had been buried into the subconscious mind of thousands of races to send a shiver of fear through their body. He saw her jump at the sound and spin around, and his vision magnifiers allowed him to pick up the shock in her eyes as she saw him. But before she could raise her rifle to engage him he cloaked again and leapt to a different tree.

It would be no challenge if his hunt was over before she even realised he was hunting her. If there was a group he would have taken one before they even knew something was hunting them, but this wasn't a group. This was a single individual, and as such he should give her a warning.

As he moved from branch to branch, slowly making his way down to the forest floor without landing heavily and giving her a position he felt his blood racing. The hunt was on.

Minerva jumped as she heard a loud cry in the woods. She spun around to look where the inhuman scream came from. She spun her rifle towards a tree and looked down the sights. Nothing. She quickly scanned the trees nearby to see if she could see any movement. Nothing.

Somebody was toying with her. She spun around again looking carefully for an enemy. Whoever it was they were very good. She couldn't anything moving through the woods.

She needed to find a clearing in the woods to proved her some space between who and whoever was stalking her...

Landing softly on the ground Yautja froze for a moment, he could still see his prey clearly via his mask's various view modes and when she did not react to his landing he moved to follow her as she seemed to be searching for something.

Yautja held off attacking, instead he waited for an honourable moment, and soon that patience was rewarded when she reached a clearing in the forest. It was only a few meters in radius, but it was open ground. The advantages lay with her and her ranged weapon.

Yautja considered sneaking closer, but decided against it. Suddenly his form shimmered into view behind her and he raced forward. If she noticed she was under attack and managed to hit him with even a single bullet, no matter how close he was he would re-cloak and retreat.

Minerva finally found a clearing to make a stand. It would leave her wide open to enemy weapons fire. But if they intended to shoot me, they would have done so. She clicked off the safety as she entered the clearing.

Minerva moved to center of clearing and crouched down she was a slightly smaller target. This gave her the advantage of being able to turn around quickly and enter a kneeling shooting stance to engage her enemy. Slowly she began scanning the woods around her as she looked for her unseen enemy.

As she turned 180 degrees, she found her opponent. Charging at her was this huge masked figure. He had to at least 8 feet tall and was pasty yellow with black spots all over his body. How she missed that eariler, she didn't know. Covering the huge alien was a mixture of mesh and plating covering his important areas. To complete the effect, the alien was wearing a mask from hell that would inspire fear in most opponents.

And indeed Minerva was scared, but she held firm. Less discplined people would have paniced and run. Which is exactly the wrong thing to do as this creature would have just simply run her down. Instead she entered a kneeling firing stance. She would get one shot and one shot only before he was upon her. She had to make it count...

As Yautja charged he covered the ground at a deceptive rate for his size, most species severely underestimated just what his body could do. As the gap between them closed she turned around and seeing him dropped into a firing position on one knee just as he was about to reach her.

As Yautja's hand was reaching to swat her gun away it shot, and a single bullet impact slammed into his chest plate. His momentum was slightly offset by the impact, but it did not stop him re-engaging his cloaking and leaping to the side before she could follow up.

As Yautja retreated he glanced at the readout on his mask for a damage report. No Damage Detected. He hadn't really expected anything else, but it was always safer to check than to assume.

His mandibles clicked in pleasure as he moved off ahead of his prey. A brute rush hadn't worked, and so now he would try an ambush. Although the Kaji preferred to chase down their prey they had forced themselves to develop the mindset of a ambush predator. He could sit almost motionless for hours, and he doubted the human would take that long. She would still have to check on his ship, and had no idea how much damage, if any, her shot had done to him and how long until he came back. Which meant she would force herself to move quickly.

The alien had closed the distance even faster than she expected. He was already in melee range before she could even aim. Still she was committed to her action and she would have to take the shot. At nearly point blank range, she fired directly at his chest.

The sheer force of the bullet, impeded his movement for just a slight second as she stared into the expressionless mask. At the last moment he leaped to the side and disappeared. Minerva cursed as she spun in place trying to find her target. Rats, he has some sort of cloaking device.

She briefly thought about firing her rifle in the general direction, but she decided against it. The odds of hit a target she couldn't see where practically zero. All she would accomplish would waste her ammo.

She stood again and listen for the alien. There was nothing, he was gone for now. There is one place he would go, his ship. It was clear that ship had survived well enough for its occupant to make through okay. It would contain supplies and weapons he could use. She needed to make her way to the alien ship to confirm how damaged it was.

She slung her rifle and pulled out her pistol. Last time the clearing had given her just enough time to aim her rifle and fire. Next time she couldn't expect things to go in her favor. The pistol she could fire in a much tighter environment.

Yautja had settled down to wait amongst the tree branches, his cloaking field active. Slowly the sounds of the forest that had gone quiet at his approach returned as he remained motionless amongst the trees. He could see his prey slowly approaching, and he soon realised that she had swapped to her side-arm.

Yautja watched as she approached his chosen ambush site, a fairly small clearing that was overshadowed by a network of tree branches. He would wait till she was in the clearing before dropping down behind her and striking. This time she would have much less time to react, less time to aim and much less warning. If she was paying close attention to the trees when he dropped she would have a chance of thwarting his ambush.

Yautja desperately hoped that she was, because it would prolong the glorious feeling of a hunt.

Minerva approached another clearing in the woods. It felt like being in the eye of a hurricane, the eire calm in the middle of a storm. However, this clearing was a bit different from the last clearing where she had met her enemy.

The previous clearing was alot lighter and sunny compared to the this one. She looked up and saw that why it was clear, the tree branches reached out and obscured the sun from the forest ground. This clearing had a bit danger in it. She had plenty of room from the edges of the forest. But from above there was potential for ambush. If my opponent is here, he is far more dangerous that I thought.

Slowly she made her way into the clearing checking all angles of the forest both around her and above her in trees. She had already decided that if something fell out of a tree, she would drop to the ground to give herself that extract fraction of a second to get her pistol to fire at her target. Again she was going to only get a single shot to make this work.