And here we go, payback time.

Mark had a nasty surprise in hand for the hard meats.

That nasty surprised comprised of a full set of kiande amedha armor. With all the skulls he had collected, he had plenty of bodies to harvest.

And although could take little amounts of it because of his abysmal skill, he had more than enough hard meat skin.

The true advantage to this was the fact that he was impervious to the acidic blood.

He charged through the cave with the fury of a platoon, yelling a battle cry.

The hard meats didn't expect his sudden arrival, and he caught them completely off guard.

He ran at entire group of warriors, pinter his gun to them and squeezed the trigger.

The copper bullet exploded out of the chamber, traveling with immense velocity, quickly approaching its target.

When the blue tip of the projectile touched the forehead of one of the beasts, it detonated.

The ball of blue flame expanded outwards, pieces of the dead hard meat flew outwards in a flash, tearing through the flesh of the other kiande amedha.

One shot, five dead.

'Ten.'

He didn't stop to admire his work: he pressed onward with his assault on the hive.

He made it past a few more turns and twists before facing his next foe.

A precise hit of the shuriken ended its life.

He used his throwing knifes to pierce through the carapace of the aliens, mostly getting fatal wounds.

Some, whoever, were more lucky than others and they required more effort to put down.

Mark kept his speed up, desperately searching for any clue that would lead him to another yautja corpse.

He used all the skills he had acquired, brutally dispatching his enemies.

Yes, he was using mainly long ranged weapons, not a completely fair and honorable fight; but his goal was to survive, and the situation demanded it.

Was this tactic stupid? Yes.

Was he mad? Quite possibly yes.

But the madness came from the desire to fight, to survive; the primal instinct was controlling him, but it would advantageous to his goal of it meant fighting better because of it.

The hive was alive with hissing and shrieking, but it also contained the noises of blades sinking into flesh and ferocious yells.

"Come on you motherfuckers! Ultimate predators my ass!" Mark continued to curse and battle, stabbing the hard meat in front of him, then he twirled around to slice the throat of a leaping drone.

He felt on fire, invincible to their attacks, he felt as if he were a beast, not a human.

The rush was exhilarating, adrenaline pumping in and out of heart, being fed to every cell of his existence.

Mark cried out in rage as he buried a dagger into the dome of yet another warrior, but then gasped and backed away as set of claws raked his cheek.

Pain flared from the marks, but he dove forward and pushed his knife through the skull of another beast.

He recovered his weapons, breathing hard to regain his stamina. The skin tight armor had become stuffy and smelly with his sweat, a scent that would have attracted them to him.

He marched forward through the pathway, at one point collapsing a tunnel with a couple rounds, killing off a good chunk the bugs.

Pausing for a moment, he slid the clip out of the pistol: "Three, six, seven. Seven remaining rounds. Where the fuck is that computer?" he growled, stomping ahead.

Now that he was seemingly alone, he could properly examine the damage report of his awu'asa.

Numerous scratches and cuts littered the black skin, in some parts it had even been ripped open, but for the time being he was still untouched, safe for the "Face... the bastard really had to catch me there..." Mark whispered, wincing at the sting on the left side of his head.

Hopefully it wasn't too bad.

It was easy to pick them off now, the tunnel they were in had no other exits. They either came from the back or front.

He had never been more glad of taking those two shurikens with him. They had truly proven themselves vital in many occasions.

His movements were more sluggish now, less quick.

Exhaustion and tiredness were quickly spreading to all of his body.

Finally, after many more battles, he came upon a corpse, or what was left of it.

He quickly got to his knees and picked up the computer wrist, before sliding it on his own arm.

It was a much larger fit, but it would serve its purpose.

He smiled at the sight of the wrist blades. The skilled blacksmiths of the Fire Skull clan were truly talented, and their work was displayed in the acid proof blades.

A glimmer caught his eye.

Mark turned and laughed out loud at his luck.

Picking up the stacks of explosives, he placed one on the wall of an archway. Brimming with excitement, pressed a few buttons and set a timer of five minutes to detonation.

He started to jog out, the first half of his mission was over, now he had to get get back to base and try to contact the clan ship.

Thunderous footsteps echoed in the tunnel, Mark stopped and took out his desert eagle: "This one sounds like a big fellow."

A praetorian appeared at the end of the tunnel, Mark shot once, twice before the bug fell dead. He jumped over the burning acid, running past a few corridors.

He threw both his combisticks, killing two enemies. Same story happened with the shurikens as well.

By the end of the slaughter, the remaining hard meats hissed at him before retreating. Mark chucked an explosive behind them just for good measure, turning around afterwards and proceeding towards the exit.

A few minutes later, a quake traveled through the ground. The navy seal just smiled in response.

The hive seemed to not want to engage him anymore, having learned their lesson.

After some time, he made it to the exit. But before leaving, he walked up to one of the stone pillars, placing a charge on it. All other structural supports received the same treatment.

"There you go, one last fuck you." he muttered, finishing his job.

He strode away a good fifty yards, then he squared his feet and took aim. One eye trained the explosive with the iron sights, breath relaxing and slowing down.

'And here we go.'

Mark exhaled and shot, a earth shattering explosion followed, the cave broke into many different pieces, and gave away.

It was a good day to take a walk, and he had no need to rush; after all it would do him good to not waste anymore energies.

He sighed, listening to the wildlife.

'The chirps are relax- wait! Wha- Mark jumped and climbed up a tree, just in time of avoiding getting squashed.

The raging praetorian sank its claws into the bark, before tearing down the tree.

Mark landed with roll, he took out both his shurikens and launched them at hard meat, watching with satisfaction as they sliced into its flesh.

His blue eyes widened with horror as the kiande amedha charged forward.

The soldier ran, twisting through the labyrinth of the jungle as the alien behind him hissed and mowed down everything in its path.

It was fast, good god if it was, and it was durable as well; shrugging off hits and cuts like if they were nothing.

Mark's heart pounded in his ears as he ran, trying to shake off the massive beast.

He turned around shot at it, blasting off most of its foot, but was swatted away in response.

He landed and felt ribs break, screaming in pain as a result. He ignored the trauma and rolled away, the spiked tail. He roared and slashed at it, the wrist blades cutting it off.

The hard meat shrieked some more and pounced away, hissing as it did. Mark got back up fired the remaining shots "" he yelled, erasing chunks of its armored torso.

When it still staggered back, he threw away the gun with a snarl, an instead used his spears as javelins, piercing it through the neck and chest.

He roared and threw knifes at it, adding wounds. The human closed the distance took out ceremonial daggers, taking advantage of its loss of mobility to further hurt it.

The praetorian had been long since dead once his bloodlust dissipated, but that hadn't kept him from mutilating it beyond recognition.

Mark groaned in fury as he worked on decapitating the rotting corpse, spitting on a it a few times as well "Insult to injury you fucker!" he growled out, gritting his teeth with rage.

He heaved and started to drag the heavy cranium away, his ears filled with the constant hissing of acid.

He finished skinning the outer layer of the skull, and started to slice off the muscle underneath it.

In a matter of minutes he got to the pearly white bone.

Mark panted, it had taken quite a bit of the day to drag the head back to the camp, but his work was done; he had won. He had proven himself to be a true hunter.

Now though, his conscience was focused on the other quest, the more important one of the two.

He shivered in anticipation, slowly inching closer to the dwelling inside the rock, moving the wooden plank out of the way, he crawled inside.

He took measured steps towards one of the tables, his fingertips brushing against the cool and smoothed surface of the wall, dipping into the depressions that were the etched markings.

He sat down on a stool, bringing it closer to the furniture. Grabbing the wrist guard, he slid it off his forearm easily, before delicately setting it down on the table.

He switched off the lock and opened to the protective casing.

The computer was still active, and he thanked Lilka and Cetanu for the technological superiority the Fire Skull clan possessed.

He cleaned his hands in one of the bowls of water, wiping off the black grime and waiting for them to dry.

Once that was done, Mark pressed his thumb to open the holographic functions. He adjust a few of settings, tweaking them here and there, all in an effort to maximize its performance.

He then opened the wireless interface and linked it to the other three computers, the encrypted security code accepted the combination.

Mark then took his own, smaller computer, reached out to the clan ship, he opened a message channel.

He typed in his text, making sure to spell the words correctly.

"I am contacting your clan ship, do you read me? Roger."

He waited with bated breath for what seemed like an eternity... but no reply came.

Mark's heart fell, he backed away from the chair, gripping his head in desperation: "Why... how did they not read me..." a ping emanated from the computer.

He jumped back to the table in an instant and read the reply.

"We have received your transmission, why do you talk in that manner?" he ignored the question and typed back: "It does not matter. I am stranded on the planet utilized for the Chiva. Please, I am in dire need of assistance, I have no way to return to my clan."

"Very well. A ship carrying arbitrators shall be dispatched the next cycle."

The other line went offline.

Mark sat back up, realizing that the plan had worked.

He started to laugh, tears freely streaming down his, unshackling himself from all the stress, guilt and worry that had accumulated into his brain.

He screamed, letting it all out.

He screamed until his voice went out, but he still kept forcing his throat.

The marine tucked his knees in and wrapped his arms around his wounded chest as he broke down.

And that's chapter 19, hope you liked it. Next chap will be up as soon as its done, and we'll see what awaits our favorite human.