FIRST THOUGHTS
NO Space Marines, for a start. Marines are used in like half of the extended universe, and that's an uniquely bad idea - even in the Cameron where they were slaughtered relatively quickly, their training and efficient weapons were diminishing the pressure. They should have stayed in AlienS.
I'd re-use the classical 90s comic book and screenplay ideas that the Predator want to harvest eggs and plant them on various planets for good sports, but I'd twist it: rather than a current practice, it would be an IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT for them. The main idea of the Alien series is that the Alien threat cannot be contained; therefore Predators would be unable to contain it. The menace should be rare, too...
Working with this idea, I'd split Predators into three factions:
1 -
The Keepers of tradition. The tradition being to eliminate any
possible Alien organism and to nuke every work
possibly containing an Alien organism. The Predator species met the Alien before, it is the stuff of legend, and now the tradition is to play "better safe than sorry". By the time the story happens, they haven't met an Alien in millenia, but they still take precautionary measures.
2 -
The Young and Reckless. An illegal faction in Predator culture, they want to harvest the Alien and to put it on various worlds for good sport. They hide their opinion and work in secret.
3 -
The Recursive Rebellion. An even more secret faction inside the Y&R, they realize how dangerous the Alien is and want to sabotage the Y&R.
I'd also add Engineers as a dead species and Perols [random name for random extraterrestrial culture) as another dead species.
And finally I'd decide
the Predators are not a culture focused on hunting. This is to me an uniquely stupid idea of the extended universe and late sequels to make them a species of hunters. Just because the guys we met in Predator 2 loved to hunt doesn't mean every Predator does. This is some
Planet of Hats nonsense. If the Predator have to be a culture developed around a particular thing (I do not define it in the following notes), let it be at least
another thing, so it enriches the setting instead of impoverishing it.
I'd also make the Predators a very arrogant species - to them they're the only "Real People", other species are just animals, sometimes "sentient animals", but animals. They see humans, Perols and even Engineers the way we see ravens, dolphins or monkeys: funny, possibly interesting, but
not people.
With that in mind, let's start.
ALIEN VS PREDATOR: THE QUEST
When the story starts, the Predator learn humanity has made contact with Aliens (at a point in time still to be determined - we'd have to choose which Alien movies are considered canon in the proposed continuity first). Therefore, following the Keeper philosophy,
they decide to exterminate the human species and to nuke human worlds.
While the Predator military prepares a plan of action (including a simultaneous surprise bombing of Earth and all of the main human colonies), the Predator politicians fight over the decision ; the Hunting Guild, particularly, is defending the humans on the grounds of human beings being very stimulating game.
- It's hard to find sentient species which developed space travel, argues Big Tusk, leader of the Hunting Guilds. The only other ones we met were the Perols, and it finished exactly like this, they stumbled over Aliens and you chose to exterminate the whole species. It was like 15 000 years ago. And the Engineers disappeared millions of years ago, before we the Real People even came to exist. Pity, though. They'd have been good game.
- What's your point, Big Tusk?
- If we get rid of the humans, how long before we find another game of this caliber? Not to mention there may be no other one, ever.
- Oh, come on.
- I know non-hunters will be indifferent to this, but I'll tell you how it was some millenias ago. Before we met the human game. Amongst we hunters, not a day was passing without some people missing the long-gone Perols. Everyone sang songs of Perol hunts! Sometimes hunters cried at night, knowing they'll never get the chance to go for such a kill.
- Now you're just writing me a holocomedy.
- When we discovered humans, our life changed. Finally hunt was making sense once again! It was a honour to hunt them of course, we had to carefully select the chosen ones to go to their homeworld, and we had unique experiences. Some of the game even survived the hunt, do you realize? And you want to deprive us of this, of this unique, magnificent challenge? Over my dead body!
- Okay, Big Tusk, your arguments have been heard. This lodge will now deliberate.
But before the next debates, Big Tusk already knew he had lost. He would never manage to convince enough people; the traditional Keeper philosophy was too strongly implemented. He would have to contact the Y&R.
(to be continued)
