Yuatja (Predator) space assets

[Ripmax]

I'm asking what is known of the space assets of this Sci-Fi species. This thread is intended as a pooling of knowledge.. I've heard odds and ends here and there, but I certainly don't have a complete picture, and suspect many others don't either. I certainly have not read all relevant materials or played all relevant computer games myself.

What do we know about them?

Their homeworld(s)?

Their society?

Their spacefaring technology?

Their military tech. and tactics other than what the hunters carry, both in space and on the ground?

How they compare to other species such as Aliens-era humans, TOS-era Star Trek humans, B5 humans etc. Not a vs debate, more a question of where they'd rank on the force chart.

[volrath77]

Homeworld - AFAIK, no information about it except what writers put as a passing remark in novels.

Society - from the few AvP novels I've had the opportunity to come across & read through, Predator society is matriachal, IIRC. Females don't go out hunting, but they are much larger and can easily smack impudent males around.

Spacefaring technology - not much info but as it appears, quite advanced. IIRC, not much info on their FTL tech anyway. However, they must have some sort of FTL (advanced or not is another issue). Notwithstanding that Predators have long lifespans, travelling for thousands of years during hunts is simply not...productive.

Military tech - insofar as the movies are concerned, IMHO those are only hunting gears. As for military gears, it's a matter of agreement whether those shown in games are acceptable or not.

[Hapsburg]

From what I read in a book about the Preds, thier homeworld is a hostile desert-world, with volcanoes. It's atmosphere is, IIRC, Sulfur mostly, which is why the Yautja can't breathe oxygen for a very-ass long time, and why they wear those masks with the tubes and etc.

And, also, from what I hear, the females do hunt--just not for sport...they hunt the food, which is a lot bigger than anything the pred males hunt for sport.

[Teal_Thanatos]

Originally Posted by volrath77

Society - from the few AvP novels I've had the opportunity to come across & read through, Predator society is matriachal, IIRC. Females don't go out hunting, but they are much larger and can easily smack impudent males around.

So that explains the hunting, they want to get away from the wives..

[Damar]

Originally Posted by Teal_Thanatos

So that explains the hunting, they want to get away from the wives..

Aaah!

Imagine the Predator of predator 2 escaping after Harigan cuts of his arm.

"Hiy honey, look what nice skulls i brought you!"

"What happend to your arm?"

"Well a soft-meat chopped it off and.."

"A soft-meat? You have been to the pub, haven't you?!"

"Honey, i swear that.."

"No excuses! You been hanging around with the other guys, got drunk and played that silly "The Bigger the cut, the bigger the money" game!"

[Saggitarius]

Canon wise nothing is known of their homeworld and space vessels.


From novels though we that preds inhabit four planets one a desert one a tropical jungle and two earth like but warmer.

Most of their society though lives in gigantic space stations - mother ships.

Theres hundreds of motherships scattered around the galaxy they act as living space and such.

The predators travel in clan ships - those babies are pretty resilent, posess some sort of hyperspace drive.

Preds are hunters not soldiers so their ships are not wartime dreadnoughts and rely on stealth rather than heavy punch.

Thats about all the relevant info their is.

[404]

Someone on these boards calculated that the beam weapon the mothership had that melted the tunnel to the Temple in AVP had a KT level range. It may not have been on full power (just enough to melt the ice), but that's probably something to show their warship strength.

[Saggitarius]

That wasnt a mother ship.
Novel-wise mother ships do not fly around, once built they stick to the location, they are more of space stations.

What we ve seen was a clan ship, preds are a clan society where biggest clans are up to several thousands and usuall clans are 300-500 creatures, they fly around,live and die onboard huge clanships.

Thats what we ve seen, motherships are several miles in diameter and what landed in AvP 2 was perhaps half a mile long.

[white_rabbit]

Of their technology, various things have been seen, bigger and badder versions of whats in the films, teleportation technology, kickarse cloaking systems for their ships, etc etc.

[Jetmech Jr.]

This all depends: Do you want real canon, or novel "canon."

Real Canon:

Space Tech-The Laser the Clan ship used to drill through Ice was about 15 kilotons. It's concievable that they didn't go all out, however, so this should be considered fairly low-end.

Their ships also have a cloaking technology FAR in advance of the personal cloaking used in hunts, as IIRC the Ship becomes fully invisible. The ships can obviously withstand re-entry burn, and can accelerate fast enough to leave atmosphere.

Homeworld-No info, apart from the fact that it must be QUITE hot, considering the Predators prefer high heat when hunting.

Society-Apparently honor based, focused around Hunting and trophy-taking. They have certain manhood rituals they go through, a la AVP.

Military Tech and other tactics-Unknown.

[Hapsburg]

Originally Posted by Jetmech Jr.

Military Tech and other tactics-Unknown.

Play AVP: Extinction.
Game physics aren't canon, but game events, characters, etc. are.

Military preds are badass, simply put. They wear very heavy armour, IIRC, and use powerful weapons. Blazer Cannons, Electroshock Missiles, and beam scythes.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Apparently, you fail to realize the distinction I was making between "novel "canon,"" I.E Novels and games, and "Real Canon," I.E. the Movies.

[Hapsburg]

It's all canon to me, so, eh...

[Saggitarius]

The only way to get more answers is to go novel-wise.

In the novels the military preds are even more badass but humanity is equally tooled up.

[Kodiak1]

Originally Posted by Jetmech Jr.

Apparently, you fail to realize the distinction I was making between "novel "canon,"" I.E Novels and games, and "Real Canon," I.E. the Movies.

Except that there is no Aliens, Predator, or Aliens versus Predator canon tree like there is with Star Wars.

AvP is especially tricky in this regard because it was STARTED in comics and videogames, both of which give very nasty yields and designs for weapons due to the nature of the medium, not to mention very buffed Predators.

~~~

Their homeworld(s)?

Unknown in nature, name, and location. Presumed to be very hot given their desire for hunting in temperatures we can barely tolerate.

Their society?

Clan and honor based, females in superior position to males as far as male-female relations are concerned. Unclear if that would actually make females clan leaders, or if the hunting clan structure is actually totally seperate.

General mindset of death before dishonor, rites of passage, if someone dies they were either finally unlucky or just bested by a great warrior (senior Preds) or screwed up and deserved it (newbie Preds) etc.

Their spacefaring technology?

FTL with pretty damn short system-to-system transit times. A human was a member of a Pred hunting party for a while, and there was nothing like cryosleep on the Pred ship, and she was able to go to multiple different worlds inside of a year.

The ships clearly require artificial gravity due to horizontal layout.

Highest level firepower we've seen was the beam weapon used against Antarctica. No idea of the damage mechanism - it doesn't fit any known science. Also impossible to say what else they have on that ship. Take the calc'd 15 KT or so as a low-end for their space guns.

*Excellent* stealth and silent run on the ship in AvP, btw. Absolutely could not be detected at ranges measured in yards.

Their sub-light movement velocities appear to be rather damn good, which means they've got inertia dampening as well as the artificial gravity.

Ships are also transatmospheric. They can fly in atmosphere, in space, from space to atmosphere and from atmosphere to space without any trouble at all.

Their military tech. and tactics other than what the hunters carry, both in space and on the ground?

Closest thing to a military assault we've seen is a Hive attack in the Machiko series. The Pred's used heavier armor and streamfire plasmacasters to just scythe through a mature, thousands strong Alien hive. Only casualties were to or because of the Queen herself.

Other than that, we've seen bits and pieces of military gear in the comics, such as an anti-dropship capable bazooka caster. AvP Extinction is the first source on any level to really show Pred military gear.

How they compare to other species such as Aliens-era humans, TOS-era Star Trek humans, B5 humans etc. Not a vs debate, more a question of where they'd rank on the force chart.

They beat the crap out of Aliens-verse humans in almost all regards. They have much more advanced space travel and we're not a match at all for them on the ground in anything approaching equal numbers/weaponry. We may have differenet sorts of tech, and put out more sustained firepower, but they have much better on-the-spot lethality.

Plus, they somewhat redefine the whole "knives in gunfight" thing and flip it on its head.

That's generally true for their tech across the board in comparison to other factions in different races. Strong healing tech, reasonable space tech, generally highly lethal stuff that doesn't put out big numbers but they know how to use it very well.

[white_rabbit]

Mind you, in one of the novels, War I think, a human built android, not one of the uber Xenodeath types, could beat the shit out of predators in hand to hand easily.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Originally Posted by Kodiak1

Except that there is no Aliens, Predator, or Aliens versus Predator canon tree like there is with Star Wars.

This depends. You have a quote from one of the Movie Directors, Movies being the medium both Alien and Predator began in, as well as HUGE amounts of inconsistencies between Comics and novels, novels and movies, movies and Comics, etc.

AvP is especially tricky in this regard because it was STARTED in comics and videogames, both of which give very nasty yields and designs for weapons due to the nature of the medium, not to mention very buffed Predators.

I like to think of it this way: While AVP Started in the comics, the 2 franchises it spawned from began in the MOVIES.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Originally Posted by white_rabbit

Mind you, in one of the novels, War I think, a human built android, not one of the uber Xenodeath types, could beat the shit out of predators in hand to hand easily.

The Uber Xenodeath types are fucking HARD, so saying this one wasn't the same quality is hardly bad.

The one you're talking about was nicked "Nirasawa," and he was a bodyguard model. Designed to protect people from hostile beings. Basically, what he did was royally fuck 3 Armed unblooded warriors and 1 armed Blooded, while unarmed. At the cost of his own well-being.

Novelized-Human androids are really fucking powerful, compared to the movie/game versions (another inconsistency )

[Kodiak1]

Originally Posted by Jetmech Jr.

The Uber Xenodeath types are fucking HARD, so saying this one wasn't the same quality is hardly bad.

The one you're talking about was nicked "Nirasawa," and he was a bodyguard model. Designed to protect people from hostile beings. Basically, what he did was royally fuck 3 Armed unblooded warriors and 1 armed Blooded, while unarmed. At the cost of his own well-being.

Novelized-Human androids are really fucking powerful, compared to the movie/game versions (another inconsistency )

Nirasawa was, IIRC, a purpose-built combat synthetic and somewhat illegal in that regard as well. The Preds didn't know what they were dealing with because even if they understood he was an andriod (don't remember if they did), combat synths are MUCH more powerful than things like Bishop, Ash, or Call and the Preds could not have had any experience with something like this.

The combat synths in the AvP2 game, btw, are along these lines. Big walking brick walls that take a ton of damage to bring down and usually swing around vehicle-grade weaponry.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Originally Posted by Kodiak1

The combat synths in the AvP2 game, btw, are along these lines. Big walking brick walls that take a ton of damage to bring down and usually swing around vehicle-grade weaponry.

Thats a lie, IIRC. Granted, it's been a while since I played AVP2 last, but still, I KNOW the Combat Synths weren't spectacular. Weapons weren't all that, and they gibbed as easily as any human character . The only thing that made them any better than Humans was that you couldn't Headbite them, and Predvision/Pheremone vision wouldn't detect them easily.

[Kodiak1]

Originally Posted by Jetmech Jr.

Thats a lie, IIRC. Granted, it's been a while since I played AVP2 last, but still, I KNOW the Combat Synths weren't spectacular. Weapons weren't all that, and they gibbed as easily as any human character . The only thing that made them any better than Humans was that you couldn't Headbite them, and Predvision/Pheremone vision wouldn't detect them easily.

You thinking of PvP? Because everything there for the humans is basically just a skin.

Having played as Predator a great deal in the single player, combat synths were most certainly bad news. They could take quite a bit more damage than the humans could.

They were also bad news for aliens for the same reason - it took considerably more damage to drop them than it did to insta-gib humans as you ran through a room.

[Jetmech Jr.]

Of course I'm not thinking PvP. Thats balanced for competetive play.

In single player, the only notable weapon Synths really had that scared me were multi-function Grenade Launchers, because of the Stun abilities of hte EMP Grenades.

Whatever difference there was between the human characters and the Synths, it was not major. All it meant was the difference between 1 Wristblade swipe to kill them or 2, and considering you could put out about 2 swipes ever half a second... Generally, they were armed the same. You MIGHT encounter the occasional synth armed with a Smartgun, but IIRC it was quite rare. Against Aliens, Synths were nothing. I chewed through them faster than the humans :/.

[Predator755]

Oh finally. Someone else who cares about pred ships.

Simply put not much is known. We know that at least the big ones can cloak but the smaller ones are a maybe. It is known that they are very fast and no 2 ships are exactly alike. Not like assembly line ships. Each one is custom designed and refined.

Its presumed that they have some kind of space drive that lets them go from place to place much faster.

I wanna know what kind of weapons they have. Unfortuneatly we dont know much about those either. What I do know is that they can fire some freaking huge plasma beam at extreme ranges with pinpoint accuracy and some kind of giant spear launcher. Sadly thats all Ive heard of.

[Herald]

Posting the unit list for Extinction here again if its useful to people:

Brawler
If a Predator has great strength, speed, and endurance, it trains to become a Brawler. The Brawler is both a tireless scout and vicious front-line fighter. It is revered for its bravery and its ability to successfully attack any kind of foe at close range, no matter how dangerous it might be.

Wrist Blades - As a matter of pride and honor, the Brawler relies upon one weapon only - its wrist blades. To many Predators, this is a jumble weapon but in truth, it is quite formidable possessing a sharpness and strength achieved by no species save the Predators. Through its wrist blades, a skilled Brawler is a whirlwind of destruction, slicing, dismembering and gutting enemies with alarming rapidity.

Channeled Fury - Once a Brawler starts attacking anopponent, its uses its training to channel its battle rage into an unrelenting stream of ruthless, cleaving blows. Only the largest, most skilled or most heavily armored opponents can withstand this attack and actually fight back. Lesser enemies can only try to survive the assault or run from it, but not counterattack.

Lightning Reflexes - The Brawler is quick enough to strike leaping Facehuggers midflight. This kocks the Facehugger away and often kills it in the process. While a Brawler's reflexes are quick enough to protect it from any number of uncoordinated Facehugger atatcks, they cannot rotect the Brawler from being overwhelmed by multiple Facehuggers attacking simultanesouly.

Glory Strike - The veteran Brawler develops an uncanny ability to deliver the perfect blow amid its furious onslaught. Such a strke does extreme damage and is frequently accompanied by the Brawler's hallmark battle cry. When a Brawler delivers a killing blow in this way, it is often spectacular - Brawlers are known to decapitate their enmies in a single strike as a method of demoralizing subsequent victims.

Note on Wristblades from AvP2 Predator Campaign: The scientists upon capturing the player Predator were unable to remove the wristblade as upon doing so its vital readings were going critical suggesting that a Predator would rather die then be deprived of its wrist blades.

Hunter
As its name implies, the Hunter excels at attacking its prey from range. It is dangerous whether playing the lone assassin or providing massed fire suport for front line combatants. Predator visiion mode enhancements are particularly useful for the Hunter, snce they allow it to take maximum advantage of its long range pasma caster and strike targets from beyond their field of view.

Plasma Caster - The plasma caster is a long range energy projector capable of guiding armor-penetrating plasma bolts at distant targets. Morever, the weapon's bolts explode in a burst of plasma shranel that damages other enemies near the point of impact. By default, the weapon's attack range is greater than the Hunter's visual range. Predator vision modes changes this relationship, however, enabling the Hunter to act as a sniper.

Omni Caster - A bio-scanner and a multi-barreled fring mechanism enable this wapon to analyze targets and attack them with various types of plasma munitions. There are three kinds; burst plasma, fire plasma and dark plasma. Burst plasma is identical to that fired by the plasma caster. Fir plasma ignites targets. And dark plasma causes a controlled energy reaction that correlates its damage to the mass of the target, enabling the weapon to kill any enemy with a limited number of hits.

Spear Master
Among the Predators, the Spear Master is recognized for its superior combat agility, mental focus and dedication to craft. A Spear Master is one with its weapon weilding it with a sublime grace seemingly impossible in the imperfect world of practical reality. It can keep a single enemy at bay indefinitely, send a horde of attackers hurling backwards with a single blow, or assassinate prey by surprise wih a single, perfectly placed impalement attack.

Spear (Combistick) - The Spear Master wields a single weapon - its spear. It is exceedingly sharpand resilient, though it does not have the armor-cleaving abilities of a wrist blade. The spear's advantage is that it can parry melee attacks, smacking aside claw and tooth as if they were hardly relevant. This only works on less skilled or smaller oponents, however - a sweeping Ravager hull blade simply cannot be stopped by a creature as small as a Predator, no matter how skilled it might be.

Whirlwind Battle Method - When a Spear Master is surrounded by attackers, it executes its whirlwind battle method. This sweeping spinning attack lands a blow on each enemy around the Spear Master - a blow of sufficient strength to parry most attacks and send smaller targets flying. However, it requires a fair amount of room to execute without causing collateral damage, so the Spear Master refrains from performing it when too close to more than a handful of allies.

Impalement Battle Method - If the Spear Master attacks an enemy while undetected through cloaking, it is able to deliver a critical strike of unmatched strength. The Spear Master relies on its extensive training to deliver a deep impaling blow in a way that sidesteps its opponent's armor entirely. Whether through an eye slit or a soft juncture between chitinous plates, this blow often kills its opponent outright.

Phoenix Armor - As a rite of passage, every aspiring Spear Master must kill a Vy'drach (Phoenix) with only a spear. This winged beast livesin the infernal deserts of the Predator homeworld, surviving heat and radiation strong enough to bake most life forms. It the Predator kills the Vy'drach, its hide is fashioned into armor its nemesis wears for life. Like the Vydrach itself, this armor is uniquely resilient to fire, energy, and radiation.

Conductive Recharge - A special armor-working process applied to the conductive vessels in Vy'drach scales enables the Spear Master to recharge its energy supply when struck by fire or energy-based attacks.

Lightning Reflexes - Same as the Brawler.

Plasma Glaive - Veteran Spear Masters acquire the deadly plasma glaive as a symbol of their status. this double-bladed weapon eethes with white hot plasma that burns through enemy armor, giving it greater penetration power than a standard spear. The plasma glaive automatically increases as power output in proportion to the number of enemies it is striking. During the execution of a whilrwind battle method, this power output calibration can add significantly to the overall damage inflicted.

Stalker
The Stalker is the predator equivalent of the Marine Sniper, it has the longest range of any Predator and it is the stealthiest in that it can maintain cloaked status for far longer periods than the others. Like the Hunter, the Stalker strongly benefits from enhanced vision mode upgrades, since its weapon significantly outranges its default field of view.

Spear Gun - The Stalker's spear gun is an unusually potent weapon, first, it enables the Stalker to fire at opponents from extreme ange. Second, its strike is hard to trace its firing point - the weapon's impact reveals firing direction, but little else. Third, it produces no detectable phenomena at its firing point, enabling the Stalker to fire at enemies from close range without fear of being detected.

Deep Infiltration - The Stalker wears a unique low-energy suit with microwave optcal channeling that enables it to stay cloaked for far longer than if it used the conventional Predator cloaking mechanism. This benefit comes at a price, however, as the suit is fragile, provides no armor and prevents the Stalker from moving quickly.

Telescoptics - The Stalker gains significantly greater benefits from vision mode upgrades than other Predators, enabling it to scout for prey at extreme.

Bleeder Spears - When upgraded, the Stalker's weapon becomes a monstrous thing, designed to entrance the drama of the hunt at the cruel expense of its victims. Standard spears are replaced with 'bleeder spears'; hideously barbed harpoons that drain their victims vital fluid levels to just above the point of death. This makes prey more satisfying to hunt bringing once mighty prey to a pathetic state, bleeding profusely, almost crawling to escape - to many predators, this is the essence of any epic hunt.

Disc Master
Predators gifted with exceptional intelligence and focus become Disc Masters, wariors that mentally command their discs to strike multiple targets simultaneously. When basking n the full glory of battle, a single Disc Master routinely keeps three discs aloft at once, each of which can attack three targets before returning home. While other Predators are attacking a single target, the Disc Master is attacking nine, a feat that does not go unnoticed by its fellow clan members.

Disc - The Predator disc is dangerous because of its capabilities against large numbers of enemies, it has a razor sharp edge, unerring mental guidance system, and the ability to continue flight after its initial impact. Because of these atttributes, a competant Disc Master can be expected to quickly damage many targets, no matter how agile they might be. Moreover, the disc is initially thrown with sufficient force to drive back those opponents without substantial armor or large size.

Nanovibronic Edge - When uphraded, the Disc Master gains a set of nine nanovibronic discs. These discs possess a highspeed molecular chainsaw around their circumference that can tear through even hardened composite armos. Worse, each Disc Master is trained in the art of Ka'Ri, or 'death from within.' This involves ebedding three nanovibronic discs in an armored opponent and activating each disc's 'haywire mode'. Needless to say, few enemies far well with berserk ripping machines embedded in their internals.

Vanguard
A clan's most seasoned close combat veterans become Vanguards. The Vanguard has both the honor and the responsibility of leading the Clan's melee assaults. Unlike other melee Predators, the Vanguard is well armored and carries an advanced weapon of awesome potency: the plasma scythe. The scythe's energy blade cannot be stopped by normal matter - a crucial attribute - given that the Vanguard is honor bound to directly engage the clan's most dangerous enemies.

Plasma Scythe - According to Predator law, this eminently dangerous weapon can only be wielded by those who have earned the right to bear it. When it strikes, its blade leaves wounds filled with seething dark plasma. Dark plasma triggers a controlled energy reaction that causes damage in proportion to the mass of the target, enabling the weapon to kill any enemy, regardless of its power, with no more than four hits.

Killscreen Generator - Given its duty to lead the charge against even technically advanced enemies, the Vanguard requires a defensive system to protect against enemy fire. That system is the killscreen generator. The protection spines on this weapon emit unstable streams of dark plasma particles that vaporize incoming enemy projectiles. The killscreen can only vaporize so much mass per unit time, however, enabling enemies to overwhelm the system with large numbers of projectiles.
I will edit this bit later, and add the rest in, anyway consider this a sneak preview till I get the rest sorted.

Hydra
The Hydra is a military-grade heavy assault Predator, designed to wade into fierce engagements and methodically crush enemy resistance. Because its guided electroshock missiles are particularly damaging to enemies with advanced sensors, the Hydra is an excellent shock trooper, in that it excels at killing enemies that counteract Predator cloaking.

Electroshock Missile Battery - The Hydra's weapon is its back-mounted personal missile battery, which rapidly fires guided electroshock missiles at enemies within a 350 degree arc. These missiles unerringly seek their target before delivering an armor-penetrating electroshock plasma warhead. This warhead jolts the sensory systems of whatever target is has, causing extra damage to non-Predator enemies with particularly advanced detection capabilities.

Hydra Shock Barrage - If a Hydra is engaging more than a handful of enemies, it may determine that it is necessary to unlash a fullscale missile barrage. When this happens, the Hydra fires a missile at every target within its visual range, frequently resulting in a truly overwhelming storm of projectiles. Given the energy requirements it places on he Hydra's systems, this maneuver can only be performed periodically, and even then, only when the Hydra is not cloaked.

Tactical Supremacy Armor - Like all military-grade Predators, the Hydra wears tactical supremacy armor. This widely feared protective suit provides its wear with substantial defenses against kinetic, fire and acid damage. Its exceptional hardness also deflects outright any projectiles not specifically designed to penetrate armor. Consequently, enemies must make a concetrated effort to defeat any Predators possessing this defensive system.

Warhead Swarm - When upgraded, the Hydra fires electroshock missiles with multiple warheads. When a missile nears its target, it checks to see whether other enemies are within range of its warheads. If so, the missile splits into as many as three separate sub-missiles, each capable of independently striking a different target. This upgrade can cause a Hydra shock barrage to release a mind-boggling number of independent warheads.

Blazer
The Blazer Predator is a military-grade heavy support trooper capable of rapidly turning its surroundings into a raging firestorm. Its arcing inferno beam ignites most enemies it touches, cauing severe fire damage. No other known personal-scale weapon system has the ability to achieve the overall damage output of whcih the Blazer is capable.

Blazer - The blazer is a shoulder-mounted energy projector that fires a sweeping inferno beam. Hotter than many stars at its core, an inferno beam works by instantly heating objects it touches to the point of spontaneous combustion. Given this ability, the weapon is designed to hit as many enemies as possible by sweeping in large arcs across its primary target. Since it does not need to be aimed with such precision, the Blazer can continue to fire even while on the move.

Tactical Supremacy Armor - Same as the Hydra.

Dual Blazers - When upgraded, the Blazer Predator mounts a set of two linked blazers, one on each shoulder. The dual blazers coordinate their fire in order to maximize the damage they inflict, by keeping as many enemies on fire as possible. With this upgrade, a single Blazer Predator can set an entire enemy platoon on fire in seconds.

PredGun
The PredGun is an autonomous mobile defensive platform used by the Predators to guard their Shrine. To succeed in its role, the platform mounts a heavy plasma cannon capable of inflicting ubstantial damage on the largest and most armored of enemies.

Heavy Plasma Cannon - The heavy plasma cannon fires oversized, armor-penetrating plasma bolts capable of causing extreme damage to whatever target they strike. Like other burst plasma bolts, the projectiles from the heavy plasma cannon detonate upon impact, showering that surrounding area ith damagng plasma shrapnel. To achieve its remarkable hitting power, this weapon trades away some of the fire rate and range of the standard plasma caster.

Autonomous Deployment - A key advantage of the PredGun over the Marine Sentry Gun is its ability to pace itself up, move to a new area and redeploy there - all without any external intervention. Like the Sentry Gun, however, the PredGun cannot fire while in its packed state.

Integrated Self Healing - The PredGun is made of 'smart' materials that are capable of healing themselves when coordinated by the platform's regeneration management subsystem. This healing cannot occur while the PredGun is sustaining damage, but proceeds with surprising speed when the PredGun remains unmolested for any length of time.

Shrine
The Shrine is an autonomous support platform that Predators rely upon to call in reinforcement. It is mobile, reasonably well armed and very tough.

Fireliner - The Shrine is equipped with a fireliner, a multibeam heat weapon related to the blazer. Unlike the blazer, the firelinger focuses small 'beamlets' on different enemy weak sports, heating them to the point of combustion. Overall, the fireliner spreads its pool of beamlets across as many enemies as possible to maximize the number of opponents suffering from ongoing burns. Like the blazer, the firelinger can fire on the move.

Drop Site Transceiver - The Shrine enables Predators to call in reinforcements and field upgrades so that they might continue the hunt after suffering losses. In addition to transmitting requests to an orbiting Hunt Master shipm the Shrine serves as a drop ite beacon, so that Predator drop pods can land in an area immediately relevant to an ongoing hunt. Since Predators consider requiring rescue more than vaguely dishonorable, clan leaders are keenly aware that losing their last Shrine often means failure and death.

Energy Infuser -The Shrine can rapidly recharge the energy supply of nearby Predators from an internal pool of energy it maintains. It has sufficient output to sustain several cloaked Predators withou loss, but more will cause it to slowly its energy store until it eventually runs dry. The Shrine can refill its own energy supply at a much higher rate if there are no ongoing drains on its charging system, meaning it is far more energy efficient to periodically recharge Predators than to continually sustain them.

Integrated Self Healing - Same as PredGun.

Other points to note that if we take "novel canon" is that we have seen at least four types of Predator ships. The one in AvP movie, the one from the novels which appeared smaller, a shuttle craft and the motherships. Also a note from the game Concrete Jungle is that Predator ships are also equipped with a self destruct mechanism.

On society, game wise its a crime for a Predator to reveal himself to the prey's society and can lead to banishment. Other crimes include not committing suicide for failure and can lead to other Predators coming to hunt and execute the dishonored. Comic wise, there are criminals who are hunted down as well. Game wise again the leadership of the Predator people consists of a Council of Ancients or something like that.

[Plushie]

You know a topic is quite old when you see Hapsburg posts.