Since there was only one scanner between me and Gina, it was taking much longer than I had thought it would take to return to the ships. We were being overly cautious in our movements and taking the time to ensure that the area ahead of us was clear. Even though I was taking thorough scans of the area ahead the other two encounters with the alien suggested that it that my scanner really made no difference. More importantly, Gina was still staggering from her encounter with the creature; most of her body ached from the assault, slowing us down considerably. However slowly we moved, we were making our way through the seemingly endless jungle.

It wasn't for an hour or so before my com-link suddenly sounded and a trembling, terrified voice struggled out o the speaker. "Tasha....Tasha?" It was Sarah's voice, on the verge of tears. "...they're gone....everyone's gone. ...Please tell me you're still there...Please.."

We stopped instantly as I reached for the small communicator. "Sarah? Sarah, what happened? Who's gone?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"It appeared...tore through us...took everyone...it left me here...I didn't even shoot...I-I couldn't move..." She stammered, almost too frightened to speak.

"Oh god..." I heard Gina exhale in disbelief.

My fingers squeezed the small metallic device like I was going to crush it in anger. I was going to kill this thing when I found it. Just hearing the shame and fear from Sarah was enough to bring my blood to a boil, but I knew what it was going to do to my team just form what Gina and Jess had been through. It was going to die.

"Sarah." I spoke softly into the communicator, but I was cold, obviously trying to hold back my anger. "...Wait there. Find a place to hide as Gina and I are going to come and get you. Don't worry...we're going to get to you."

"O-Okay...please hurry..." She pleaded.

With the channel closed, both Gina and I quickly rose to our feet and ran off in the direction of Sarah's life signs. There was no caution in our movements now, I was even hoping that it would pop up in front of us, I wanted to tear it apart for what it had done to us. It also appeared that my anger was contagious as Gina no longer seemed bothered by her aching muscles, she kept up with me as we sped through the jungle to our lone terrified team member. Not a word being shared between us.

By the time Yautja had finished with the six soldiers all six were completely out of it. Their bodies had used and abused and their minds had sunk into unconsciousness to escape. Of course just because they held no interest for Yautja as prey that didn't mean he couldn't use them. Each one had been placed in a net, one that would be unbreakable to any human, and most alien for that matter, technology.

Once he had that all ready Yautja had moved through the jungle, being careful to remain unseen. He had noticed the scanner wielded by his main prey, and the nets would mask the life sign readings. Ensuring that when they appeared it would be a total surprise.

With them all carefully placed Yautja settled down to watch the lone terrified soldier. He knew that his prey would come to her, he had heard their brief radio chat earlier. And he had a welcoming surprise of his own ready.

Eventually his expectation became a reality. Just as the agent stepped out of the foliage, followed by one of his earlier victims he noted, and the lone soldier rushed towards her a sound drew their attention up. The two glanced up in time to see a net fall through the trees and come to a stop a few feet off the ground. Inside it was one of the soldiers, covered in cum and completely unconscious. Although the scanner did not show any life signs a quick physical check would reveal that she was alive.

The true hunt would begin soon, Yautja just had one irritation to remove, and one last target standing between him and the proper hunt.

It had taken us a few hours to travel the length of the dense jungle to reach Sarah's position; only then did we resume our cautious movement forwards through the last kilometer. Taking careful aim at every moving leaf or shrub of grass until finally Sarah came into sight. She was huddled at the base of a massive tree and a nervous wreak. I could see her clutching her rifle like a security blanket, refusing to even lift her head. My anger all but disappeared when I saw her, feeling a wave of relief pass over me seeing that she wasn't taken.

"Sarah!" Gina sharply called as she frantically charged out of the tall grass. I followed but slowly; my eyes still searching the canopy for that thing, assuming it was watching us.

Sarah instantly lifted her head when Gina called out to her name, tears still glistening on her cheeks. Gina fell to her knees at Sarah's side, dropping her weapon to hold the terrified soldier. Sarah's sobs returned as she was held, surrounding the older agent in her own arms and clinging to her. It was then that we heard a branch break above us. Quickly lifting my rifle to point at the sound, believing it to be the alien, I instead had to dive out of the path of a falling net. When I rolled onto my side to see what it was and felt the colour drain from my face when I saw another defiled member of my team inside.

"No..." Gina whispered as she clutched Sarah closer, her eyes welling up again.

When the three of us recovered from the impact of seeing Lucy; Gina and I began to work on trying to free her. We used every cutting device that any of us had left, even resorting to firing on the 'cable' to try and break it. Whatever the cable was made from, it couldn't be cut.

Gina returned to Sarah afterwords, resuming her reassuring hug to try and calm the shaken girl. I just stared into the net, looking at the unconscious cum-stained face of my soldier and coming to a realization. I had to face this thing alone. Anyone who was not inside the ship, or at least with commander Shelby, would end up like Lucy. I couldn't bear the idea of seeing Sarah; so timid despite her experiences at Shokushu, being inside one of those nets. I started to think of some reason to send the others back and prevent Shelby from sending anyone to retrieve me, when I was interrupted by her voice.

"Tasha? Are you there?"

"I'm here Shelby." I responded.

"Thank god." She sighed in relief, but I could tell in her voice she was still annoyed with my decision. "Look...I wanted to tell you that Jessica made it here a while ago. She's a mess, but she insisted on joining my team in defending the transports."

I laughed to myself for a moment from Jess' stubbornness. "I'm glad to hear that."

"That's not really why I'm signaling you though. The Aries just arrived and is standing by in a high orbit above the planet. They're going to try and find some way to blast that platform from orbit so we can get out of here. You should make your way back now; since Captain Saunders doesn't like to wait long."

This was what I needed. Taking a few seconds to think of the right reply, I once again opened the channel. "Okay, I'll send Gina and Sarah back to you. They're the last of my team. ...I'm going to stay behind here as I found Lucy trapped in some sort of unbreakable net, and I'm not going to leave her like this."

It didn't take a moment before Gina and Sarah, demanded I come with them.

"Alright. ...I'll tell the Apollo what happened. She'll send a rescue team when we get back." Shelby responded, her voice showing none of the surprise like before.

After a few minutes of arguing from a furious Gina, the two girls made their way back to the ships, taking my scanner along with them. I knew there was no need for it as it obviously couldn't detect this thing. More importantly, I was alone now, and could finally make it pay for what it did to my team.

I moved to the base of the same tree Sarah had huddled by, crouching at it's base. I remained motionless as my eyes darted across the canopy above me. I simply waited for this thing to show itself, relying on the massive tree behind me to force it to appear in front of me...and in front of my rifle.

Yautja had remained motionless as the agent and her two soldiers had met, and his mask had also carried to him their radio chatter. The news about the Apollo being in high orbit was something he already knew, the scanners aboard the Shadow Stalker had informed him the moment it had entered high orbit. However it couldn't interfere, anything it launched would have to get past the ships missile systems to simply finish re-entry. And if it tried to attack the Shadow Stalker itself it would have to get past the point defence systems, and then penetrate its armour plating. Something that Yautja knew would be impossible based on the scans it had made of the Apollo's weapon systems.

Yautja watched as the two soldiers staggered off, leaving the agent crouching alone with her back to the tree the younger soldier that Yautja had terrified, Sarah, had been cowering next to. He settled down to wait, to let her settle down and relax. As the minutes passed by the normal sounds of this jungle started returning. However that suddenly changed when the net snapped open, dumping the soldier contained inside it on the ground. As 'Tasha' moved forward from her crouch a splintering sound made her turn, and she saw Yautja's spear had pierced straight through the trunk, and if she hadn't moved forward would have speared into her as well.

For his part Yautja had slammed the spear through the wood before retreating in a circle to avoid any possible detection. The spear had been left their as if he had missed, as if he hadn't expected her to move forward. After all, the hunt would be no fun if she remained in one place.

"Lucy!" I called out as the net finally opened and poured her violated body onto the jungle floor.

I quickly moved to her side only to be stopped by a loud noise from behind, turning to see a spear plunged into the trunk of the tree right where I had been kneeling. I was startled when I saw it, realizing the power and deadliness of what it was I was fighting. Yet I started to wonder if it really was a strike. The net was impossible to open and it didn't seem like the material would simply shred under Lucy's weight. Maybe the spear was a message. Maybe it wanted me to know it was still here.

Whatever the spear's meaning was, it didn't matter, Lucy was freed and she needed my help. I knelt by her side and called her name to try and wake her up. When she remained unconscious, I started to shake her lightly while repeating her name. When still nothing happened, I felt fear creeping along me, knowing it was still out there and how vulnerable I was in this position. I had to find somewhere where I could fight this thing and defend Lucy until she wakes up.

Lifting her onto my back; looping my arms under her knees and hanging my rifle on my shoulder, I began to run. I didn't look back to see if it was following, I looked ahead and tried to find somewhere to hide: a cave, a hollowed out tree, somewhere I could bottleneck this thing.

Yautja watched her reaction to the spear, and as she quickly recovered and tried to rouse the soldier he remained motionless. Attacking in this position would ruin the fun of the hunt. Instead he waited until she gave up on rousing the soldier and instead picked her up and started to run. She must be trying to find somewhere where she could fight him, somewhere she could predict his movements.

Yautja's mandibles tapped a couple of buttons in his mask, and in response a holographic map of the surrounding area appeared in his view. However this was jungle, his preferred hunting ground. Low visibility, and very little limitations on direction of movement. The ultimate test that required both hunter and prey to be constantly aware of everything around them, one that had very little in the way of choke-points or easily defendable locations.

But with the terrain as it was, and with her helpless against him because she was carrying the soldier she would not slow down, and he would not strike. An impasse, and by the time they broke out of it she would be to exhausted. Which meant he would need to plan a place to lure her, somewhere he could have a proper duel and, if he won, claim his trophy.

Moving around he continued on his heading for a few minutes before reaching his target. The two soldiers the agent had sent back towards the camp. He disengaged his cloaking as he struck, and with one still exhausted from his earlier attack and the other terrified it was easy to disarm and net them both. The younger one screamed and grabbed her radio before starting to babble in terror into it. Yautja simply ignored her as he pulled the two nets up and left them hanging from a tree, swaying slightly in the breeze.

With the bait set he re-engaged his cloak and moved a few metres into the jungle before settling down to wait. Very soon this hunt would come to a conclusion, and at that thought, and the knowledge of what would happen if he won, a thrill travelled down Yautja's spine.

Today had been a good day, and was promising to get better every second.

I continued to flee through the dense humid jungle. I was moving in no real direction, instead I was hoping to stumble across a form of natural cover to hide behind and draw out the beast that was hunting me. My speed was slowly falling as the constant running back and forth though the thick heavy air was taking it's toll, not to mention the added weight of Lucy still hanging on my back. I was aware that the alien was probably following me, waiting for me to run out of strength. It seemed my body didn't care , making each step a little more difficult than the last. In an instant, however, that didn't matter anymore.

"Nghnahhh!! TASHA!!" I heard screaming out of my communicator, knowing in an instant Sarah's voice. "It's..NGHNAAHHH!" Followed by a series of thumps and silence.

Quickly setting Lucy down, I grabbed my communicator and yelled back. "SARAH?!...GINA?!...COME IN!" Yet as much as I yelled it wouldn't matter, during their capture, Sarah had dropped the communicator and couldn't respond.

I dropped to my knees still clutching the small device. "I sent them away so you would fight ME!!" I threw up my head to yell at the creature, knowing it couldn't hear me.

I knew both Gina and Sarah needed my help and every moment I waited would be another moment there were being violated, but I needed to think. It would take me twice as long, if at all, to reach them carrying Lucy. I should just leave her here, I'll be faster and more agile, and have a much better chance of killing it. Yet I knew it wasn't a decision I could make. I can't abandon her like this, she's: unconscious, naked, and vulnerable. Anything could come by and take her without a fight, not to mention how she would feel waking up alone and defenseless. So, as much as my body pleaded with me to forget her, I groaned heavily as I laid her on my back. I struggled to take my communicator and set it to beacon detect, using Sarah's communicator to find her, tearing off in it's direction.

When the agent had tried to respond she had forgotten to turn her radio off, and her yell came through on both the radio and Yautja's mask. His mandibles clicked in pleasure, when she got here she would provide the best fight she could. But their wouldn't be any harm in trying to further incite her rage. Doubly so when he realised he would have to turn the rage he was creating in her into arousal and pleasure if he won, and that would be an excellent test for his control.

"And you were being boring, so I went after the only soldier who could actually fight."

The voice that talks through the radio is a mix of all the voices he has heard so far. Each word is replicated from a different soldiers voice. It was fairly simple to replicate and resynthesise his audio output when he had a sample to match it from, and he suspected the fact that he was communicating to her mostly through the voices of the soldiers he raped would make her all the more enjoyable to hunt.

In the distance his mask saw her approaching, its powerful enhancements rending the various trees and plants that blocked her view meaningless. She was only a minute away, at the most. Soon the true joy of the hunt would begin, the battle between him and his prey, and the satisfaction that came with him claiming his trophy if he won.

Doing my best to keep my balance holding Lucy, my rifle, my exhausted armor clad body, and run through kilometers of dense sweltering jungle, it was no wonder that every breath was a heavy pant. Strands of hair clung to my face from the sweat beading across my toned skin. All that kept me going was the anger from the alien taunting me; raping each of my girls and leaving their abused bodies littered across the jungle like garbage. It seemed almost appropriate that I heard a voice through the communicator I clutched, well, a series of female voices.

I had to stop, staring at the device, to try and understand what I had just heard. The overlapping voices were a jumble but I could hear what was said. I was able to identify a few of the voices being Sarah's, Lucy's and Jessica's but the others were too fast or distorted to tell. I didn't know why it was using my own team's voices or how, but I knew it was the alien taunting me.

...but it had Sarah and Gina.

Neither of them could fight. Sarah must be petrified, and Gina couldn't fight it off, especially since it already raped her. I felt the anger coil in me as I knew I couldn't keep this up. The more I charged around trying to kill this thing, trying to take revenge, the easier it made kidnapping my team. It was my job to protect them and I was failing. I had to do something, now. So, I slowly lowered myself to my knees to lay Lucy on the ground before I responded to it.

"Let them go." I asked in a subdued, almost defeated voice. "Let my team get back to the ships. Let them leave, and I'll stay. I'll fight you...alone. Whatever rules you want."

I didn't know if this was going to work. I felt my skin crawl as I pleaded with it, surrendered to it, but they were always my first priority. I knew I couldn't get to them in time to stop whatever it was going to do to them, so...begging was my only option.

As Yautja read the translation that scrolled across his mask his mandibles clicked in pleasure. One of them reached a button and scattered across the forest the nets that had been holding his various prey released them. As Yautja started moving towards Natasha his mask transmitted along the ADD communication channel again, although this time the voice simply sounded like a computer generated sound. Deal, but leave the prey you are currently carrying where you are and move away. Once you have been moving for five minutes destroy your communicator. Once that time is up if you touch a communicator or communicate with another human I will also stop ignoring the other humans and go back to treating them as prey.

It didn't take long for Yautja to find Natasha, and he watched silently, his body hidden from sight by the cloaking field in his armour. He took in her exhaustion, and that annoyed him. She would not be able to provide a good hunt, a good fight, while she was that exhausted. Plus if he won and claimed his trophy it would be cut short by her running out of energy and falling unconscious. He would have to find a way to reverse that before he actually started the final hunt.

I wasn't happy about this. The idea of trusting this mutant was revolting and I knew the others wouldn't accept it, but at least if the initial reports about the Yuatja were wrong, no one but me would end up in a slave cage. Slowly setting Lucy's body on the ground, I complied with it's terms. I turned my back on my team again, slowly walking away from them.

While walking, I reached for my communicator and opening a channel back to Shelby's team at the drop ships. "Shelby? ...Shelby come in."

"Tasha?" Shelby responded, surprised. "What's going on? Sarah and Gina haven't arrived and Aries and Apollo are working on an escape p-"

"Listen. Everyone's headed back to the ships. Once they get there, take off." I said, not really caring about the battleships' attempts to rescue us.

"Why?" She asked, confused. "Did you shut down the platforms? Did you kill it? What's going on?!"

"...No." I responded heavily. "I'm staying behind, so it'll let you leave. Just make sure you leave a drop sh-"

"No! You're not doing this again." She yelled back through the communicator.

I knew I didn't have time to argue, it was probably watching and it only gave me five minutes to talk. "Please Shelby, do it. I don't have time to argue. ...I'll be fine." I said, unsure of my last statement.

With that I closed the channel and dropped the device. I continued walking back into the jungle in a sort of straight line. Once I was far enough away, I turned, aimed and fired, obliterating my last connection to any of my team. Although I was nervous about what was going to happen now, and how I was going to fight something that seemed to be everywhere, I was relieved that at least my team would be safe. I turned again and continued walking, hoping to hear sometime: the sounds of a drop ship leaving.

Yautja watched as the agent talked briefly on her communicator before cutting off the connection and dropping it on the ground. She walked away, and just as it was about to go out of sight fired a single shot into it, destroying it. Yautja's mandibles clicked in pleasure, although no sound emitted from his mask as he did so.

He silently stalked her as she walked away, a timer in his mask counting down the time he had set her. Of course the time would run out before the drop ships left. She still had squad mates scattered around the jungle. The moment the timer did run out Seraph pointed a gauntlet at her and a small dart shot out. She would feel a slight stinging in the side of her neck before her body fell unconscious from the poisoned dart. Yautja wanted her to rest before the hunt began, and so had taken steps to ensure she did so.

With her out and her body resting Yautja moved through the jungle. By the time an hour had passed he had collected each of the soldiers still in the jungle, and had dropped them off near the clearing. He had watched as the soldiers had recovered them and, rather reluctantly and after much checking of scanners, flew off.

With his side of the deal now dealt with Yautja swept through the jungle one last time, collecting the various weapons that he had ripped of the soldiers. He placed them next to Natasha's still sleeping form, along with a holographic display of his recordings of the slaver site. The scene was paused, and when she woke up and looked at it the scene of the soldiers trooping onto the transport and leaving would play. After they left sight of the camera the view shifted to an orbital scan, and the blip representing the transport flew into one of the orbiting battleships.

The drug was something Yautja used when someone wasted to much energy before Yautja had a chance to hunt them. It put someone into a deep sleep almost immediately and once under they were impossible to wake. However one affected would recover energy at a rapid rate, and after a matter of hours one could go from completely exhausted to fully rejuvenated.

When Natasha woke up it was night time. Yautja's armour, and even his mesh bodysuit lay on the ground next to the pile of weapons, ammo clips and grenades. The holographic display was on the other side of the gathered equipment. Yautja wouldn't have his cloaking, and any bullet would injure, and possibly kill him.

It wouldn't be fun if Natasha didn't have some chance of killing him.

I groaned as my body awoke from what felt like the deepest sleep imaginable. I shook my head as my body slowly regained consciousness, discovering my exhaustion had vanished. I felt relaxed and fully refreshed, yet having no reason why I had such a deep sleep; until I started to rise from the jungle floor.

Suddenly I could feel something in my neck: a sharp pinch on the right side. Reaching up to feel a dart, out of sudden panic, I pulled it free and tossed it away. I found my rifle lying next to me and in a single motion I took a defensive posture on one knee. I surveyed the area around me and found it was night and it seemed I was alone. That's when I noticed the piles of ammunition, weapons, grenades, and a 3D video of my team returning to the ships, leaving, and docking with the Aries.

I was surprised that the creature had kept up its end of the bargain and allowed them to leave, but I was relieved anyway. Afterward, I turned my attention to the piles of equipment beside me examining what was left.

I could see not only the ammunition and weapons but strange equipment and what looked like clothing. I moved to look at it more closely, and began to smell a foreign musk emanating from the it. I realized that it belong to the alien, that it abandoned it's advanced technology. I didn't understand what it was doing since it could easily win from what I had seen from it so far. Then again, if it wanted to give me a greater chance of killing it, I wasn't going to reject it.

I started gathering additional power cells for my rifle and restocking my grenade supply. It was then that the video recording changed to what looked like a tactical display of the area.

"Does it wanna die?" I asked in confusion, examining the map in front of me.

I shrugged my shoulders dismissively to my own question, deciding to use every advantage it was willing to give me. It was like it wanted to give me a chance at revenge, so I was more than eager to oblige it.

I started gathering weapons and quickly moving about the camp laying rifles, pistols, heavy weapons, ammunition, all in strategic places across the camp. I was going to be ready for it when it decided to attack, quietly planning a path to move in when it did. After all the equipment had been laid, I moved to one of the camp's few remaining buildings. I used what little cover it gave, seeing as it's roof was mostly destroyed, to hide. Clutching my rifle close, I quietly watched the camp and waited for it to come.

Yautja watched as the agent woke up, watched as she discovered her situation and set up accordingly. He was right, she was easily the most competent human who had been planet-side. Yautja may not have his cloaking, but he still had his mask, and despite his size, weight and bulk a jungle was his natural hunting ground. He slipped silently through the shadows, gently and slowly guiding branches and vines out of the way. His skin was covered in a natural pattern that broke up his dark brown skin in shadows, thus making him harder to see. The human on the other hand, was clearly visible to him, even if he hadn't been using his mask. She was loud, and obvious to the hunters eyes and ears.

Yautja let her move to the camp unhindered, and let her set up the equipment however she wanted. It was only when she was in position and had settled down that Yautja let out a hunting cry. Letting her know that her time to prepare was up, and that he was coming.

He moved through the jungle, flanking around and approaching silently from a direction she had no way of watching. Her first warning was when he landed, rather heavily and loudly on the roof directly above her. In the darkness, he would be very hard to spot, even without his cloaking field. The only time he would be clumsy enough to make a noise was when he wanted her to hear. But if she saw him she could kill him, quite easily too.

This hunt was turning out to be a very good hunt indeed.