Nk'mecci: The Vietnam War Predator

Name: Nk'mecci
Species: Yautja
Sex: Male
Role: Blooded hunter, first solo hunt
Known for: Quang Tri Province hunt, January 1968
Setting: Vietnam, near the DMZ
First appearance: Predator: If It Bleeds, "Recon" (2017)
Status: Dead, died on his ship after refusing treatment
Weapons: Cloak, bio-mask, shoulder cannon, medi-kit
Confirmed kills: 5 named Marines · Viet Cong leader and several in first contact · most of a 12-man ambush · descending Huey and crew · gunner and co-pilot on the second Huey

Nk'mecci was a Blooded Yautja in Dayton Ward's Recon, published in Predator: If It Bleeds in 2017. In January 1968 he made his first solo hunt in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, after his clan sent him to scout a human war that many hunters wanted to visit again. He killed Sergeant Daniel Roland's Force Recon team, reached his ship dying, and stayed out of the medical bay because he judged the hunt a failure.

First Solo Hunt

Before the Vietnam War hunt, Nk'mecci had been on Earth as an unblooded hunter with his father and older sibling. That earlier trip used different terrain and weather, during a larger human war that used weaker weapons, and they took many trophies. The Vietnam visit was his first hunt alone, the usual test once he was Blooded. His clan asked him to scout that stretch of the planet, and many Yautja wanted another chance at Earth. He treated the assignment as a test he could not turn down.

Quang Tri, January 1968

Sergeant Daniel Roland's five-man Force Recon team went in near dawn in Quang Tri Province, close to the DMZ. The job was forty-eight hours with no radio, to check rumors of a POW camp after an Air Force pilot, a U.S. senator's son, had been shot down nearby. Lance Corporal Scott Pearson carried an M79, John Coffren a Remington shotgun, and Corporal Bill Leisner a rifle he used while he translated. Lieutenant Matthew Byrne wore a brass bracelet made from shell casings by a Montagnard. Nk'mecci watched them from the canopy.

He could have killed the whole patrol at once and did not. He took the leaders of both sides first and watched how the rest reacted. A bullet hit the power cell of his cloak, so he shut the cloak off rather than keep a broken shroud that flickered. He had wounds in his torso and a leg from the ground fight. A yellow-green bolt went through Pearson's chest. Byrne was found later with the skull and spine taken, and his magazine was full. Several Viet Cong died in that first clash as well, including a leader with a hole through the torso like Pearson's.

Corporal Leisner read maps from that leader's satchel. The lines pointed at American bases across South Vietnam, a coded plan larger than the recent rockets on Quang Tri Base. Roland kept the papers, and the three survivors started for the primary landing zone, about a day's march out.

The Extraction

Twelve Viet Cong set an ambush near a grassy extraction glade. A branch broke under Nk'mecci, and without the cloak he had to fight in the open. He killed most of that ambush. Roland's M79 high-explosive round killed two men behind a log. A plasma bolt from the shoulder cannon killed Leisner. Roland then hit Nk'mecci in the chest with M79 buckshot and knocked him out of the tree.

A stimulant from the medi-kit held the pain down, but real treatment waited on the ship. Going back then would have meant giving up the last trophies, so he stayed. Hueys came in on yellow smoke. Coffren died on the run to the descending bird. A bolt grazed Roland's left shoulder and cracked a rib. Three plasma hits, including one into the engine, destroyed that Huey in the trees north of the landing zone.

Nk'mecci then killed the remaining Huey's gunner, wrecked the canopy, and killed the co-pilot. He stood over Roland and studied him, left arm hanging, blood on the mesh and the scarred helmet. The whole recon team was dead.

Death On The Ship

Nk'mecci reached his ship dying. The medical gear showed that the wounds would kill him if they were left untreated. Honor kept him out of the medical bay. The recon report would go home either way, but he judged the hunt a failure and would not twist the rules to save himself.

Roland's skull, cleaned and polished, sat on the console as a proper trophy. From orbit Nk'mecci watched a multi-pronged offensive open across the region he had left, then set the ship on its programmed course home with the report locked for his clan. He judged Earth worth hunting again, and he would not live to see the rest of that war.

Appearance And Weapons

From the ground, Nk'mecci looked far larger than a man, with a mesh harness, claws, and a bio-mask that later took shrapnel from Roland's grenade. The mask showed heat and could magnify a target. He hunted cloaked until the power cell was hit, then moved without it. Yellow-green blood ran from wounds across his chest and arms, and by the landing zone his left arm hung limp.

His main weapon was the shoulder cannon that fired yellow-green plasma. He also carried a medi-kit with a strong stimulant. He took Byrne's skull and spine in the first fight, then cleaned Roland's skull for display with the rest of his collection.

Confirmed Kills

The named human kills on this hunt were all from Roland's team. The Viet Cong numbers are a floor, because the first clash and the ambush never give a full count.

Named Marines: 5. Lieutenant Matthew Byrne, Lance Corporal Scott Pearson, Corporal Bill Leisner, John Coffren, and Sergeant Daniel Roland.
First contact: the Viet Cong leader and several other fighters from the larger group, plus Byrne and Pearson.
Extraction ambush: most of a 12-man force. Roland's high-explosive round killed two behind a log.
Hueys: the descending helicopter and everyone aboard, then the gunner and co-pilot on the second bird.
Prior Earth hunt: uncounted. He took many trophies with his father and older sibling, with no names attached.

He treated Roland as worthy prey and spent time on that skull even while he was dying. The recon job succeeded, and the hunt, in his judgment, did not.

Other Vietnam Hunts

Dutch's squad firing into the jungle in Predator (1987)

Most of Dutch Schaefer's squad from the first Predator movie fought in Vietnam or Cambodia during the war. That earlier service was not a Yautja hunt. Predator 2 later placed an earlier encounter in Cambodia, through Peter Keyes. In Hunters and Hunted, the prequel novel to The Predator, CIA agent Pappy Elliot lost his squad in Vietnam. He later formed the Reapers, a predecessor to the Stargazer task force. Another hunter killed him while escaping the Stargazer facility.

Conclusion

Nk'mecci was the Blooded hunter who made his first solo hunt in Quang Tri Province in January 1968. He killed Roland's recon team, took Roland's skull, and died on his ship after he refused treatment because he judged the hunt a failure. His report went home, and he left Earth as a place his clan should hunt again.