Predator: Flesh and Blood: Novel Plot & Lore
Predator: Flesh and Blood is a 2007 novel by Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger, published by Dark Horse Books in September 2007. After patriarch Karl Ciejek died, his grandson Andar left a dying Earth and came back to the mining world Felicity for the reading of the will. Cousin Derek jammed the planet's warning grid and replayed a fake scout signal so a Hish hunt ship would wipe Andar out of the inheritance. Hunt leader Bet-Karh lost the merged clans to a feud on the ground, killed Derek, and left Andar alive.
Plot Summary
The Ciejeks had grown rich off a wrecked Earth, smuggling, mining, and crushing anyone who got in the way. Andar left that compound on his twenty-first birthday, took ozone-restoration work in a domed city, and stayed for the packet pilot Katarina Santodonato. His father Gregor had died three years earlier. Karl then died as well, and lawyer Owen Broadhurst booked Andar through Polyphemus for a will reading Karl had fixed on Felicity.
The Will And Felicity
Felicity was a hot jungle world the family had cut for precious metals, with geodesic colony domes, a small black landing pad, and one forest Karl had ordered left standing. Andar came to keep Gregor's old employees from being left without cover, then leave again. Gregor's former operations chief Celina Laban arrived on the passenger ship Skidbladnir with Mara, Sildar, bodyguard Andre LeFleur, and Emphalelo, who could read a person without meeting him. Derek was on the field, leaner than Andar remembered and smiling, with operations manager Marlene Noyes and his men.
Karl had ordered a feast, a jungle tour, and a will reading at 4:00 p.m. The document was never opened. Lesser names on the guest list included Karl's half-brother William and the twin sons of cousin Dora. They do not appear again after dinner.
Derek's Lure
Technician Malcolm Denholm had hacked UNISC banks, copied hunter frequencies, and turned old scout-style messages into a narrow-beam broadcast. He aimed that beam with reports from a survey of colony remains on Harmony, so a larger hunt ship would come in while Andar walked the forest. Derek then had Peter Jurgens garrote Denholm and dumped the body. In the morning Derek spoofed Felicity's early-warning grid as eight hours of solar-flare static, took his people up to a cruiser in geosynchronous orbit, and watched the ground on about a dozen buzzing video drones.
Two remnant Hish clans had already merged because neither was large enough to stand alone. Dre-Nath wanted a measured hunt and took only what the hunt needed. Kirs-Giras, also printed as Kirs-Garas, wanted numbers, developed tech, and a head-on kill count. A scout-claim light blinked on their mother ship. Close scans showed no war and only one knot of humans near the false signal, so they sent four hunters down to capture some of those people and learn why they had been pulled in.
The Forest
Bet-Karh led that first drop as hunt leader, two hunters from each clan, in a landing vehicle set down in the trees. Guide Pablo Ortega took a party of twenty-one into Karl's forest. Plasma tore Pavel Trynda in two, snapped another man's neck against a trunk, and a cloaked hunter pinned Ortega with a telescoping staff before finishing him with wristblades. Petras Zedolik died the same way. Bet-Karh smashed one of Derek's drones instead of stopping for a trophy.
Seven humans died in that first sweep, too fragile to take alive. Heith-Rek hung a finger on a bandolier, Kaj-Nal took a skull, and Mor-Jut took a pair of pelvic bones. Ten people reached a mine tunnel across a field: Andar, Laban, Mara, Emphalelo, Sildar, Broadhurst, Feng Kuan Minh, Mariano, Abelkis, and LeFleur.
The Mines
Broadhurst named the hunters Predators and told the others that EarthGov had kept them secret so colonies would keep taking migrants. He treated the species as sport hunters, not hired killers, though Mariano blamed Derek. The cell net had failed, so they went deeper.
A hunter took Mariano's head. Another crushed Minh, strangled him, and skinned him with Minh's own knife. Abelkis drove a pickaxe into Kaj-Nal's thigh before plasma burned him. A hunter speared LeFleur through the back and twisted the shaft out. Andar found a mine vehicle, pulled the rest aboard, and dropped the ceiling behind them. Dre-Nath gave the four hunters one day-night cycle to catch the ten and learn the lure. Bet-Karh backed that limit against Kirs-Giras, who wanted more hunters and the whole settlement.
The Digging Machine
The mine car died on a far-side plateau. The six left alive found a bucket-wheel digging machine and charged it from a thick cable. Mara identified a downed drone as the same Australian Earth make seen at the compound the morning Gregor died, which is how Andar put Derek on both the murder and the lure. Two Hish decloaked. Plasma turned Sildar into a fireball and set Laban's left arm alight. Andar started the machine, and the long drill went through Kaj-Nal's chest.
Andar drove the wreck through the mountain with debris blocking later plasma. Dre-Nath then sent a recorded message that a small human ship had left its mother vessel and would land about ten miles away, with more hunters reporting to Bet-Karh. The four survivors of the first drop left the digging-machine party and went for that pad. Derek, seeing Andar still alive, brought ten men and Marlene down in a shuttle. The cruiser could not fight a Hish ship.
The Landing Pad
Bet-Karh would not shoot the shuttle out of the air, and he would not shoot a man in the back. Ten humans stepped onto the landing field. He blew Sanderson's feet apart and left him for later questions, then took a fleeing man's skull and spine. Rene Turgeon hit Heith-Rek from behind with a portable flamethrower that went through armor. A second blast nearly cut Heith-Rek in two. Bet-Karh gave no warning, because advice mid-hunt was disrespect.
The colony alarm packed people into south-side shelters that locked thirty minutes after the siren. Wristblades opened Grigori Wachman, then a hunter carved the flesh from his face. Plasma later hit Turgeon's fuel tank and tore him apart. Miner Liz Myers left a shelter for a last cigarette and was strangled on the dome walk. Andar's party reached the unlocked shuttle and put burned Laban inside. Bet-Karh, from a roof, destroyed that shuttle with her still in it and melted the landing field. Mara, Emphalelo, Andar, and Broadhurst lived through the blast.
The Clan Feud
Bet-Karh named the joined group the Two Clans That Had Become One and left those four humans alive on purpose. Mor-Jut brought five more Hish, including Heith-Rek's brother Mal-Rek, the novice Pran-Ser on her first hunt, Wrak-Oto, and Blay-Kral. From cloak, Blay-Kral put blades through Ibrahim. Arthur Holden fired at empty air and took a plasma bolt in the gut. Derek, Marlene, Jurgens, and Anton Kaganas fled in a started vehicle.
Helmets came off on the way to the mountains, and kill-gland scent pushed the two hunt codes into a Hish-on-Hish fight. Pran-Ser's plasma ripped Mor-Jut apart and took Blay-Kral's head before Wrak-Oto put blades through her neck and Mal-Rek killed Wrak-Oto. Bet-Karh ruined Mal-Rek's plasma servo, slashed an eye, cut the lower mandibles, and opened the throat. He treated that last kill as murder, not a hunt, and he was the last Hish on the ground. A call to the mother ship returned only static.
The Cavern
Andar, Mara, Broadhurst, and wounded Emphalelo hid in a natural cavern. Kaganas and Jurgens ambushed them. Andar beat Jurgens to death with a rock. Mara stabbed Kaganas in the back and missed the heart. Kaganas opened Mara under the ribs, and both men died. When Andar came back with water and candy from the corpses, Derek had already shot Broadhurst in the forehead.
Derek admitted he had killed Gregor after Gregor started to agree with Andar about changing the business. He treated the hunter lure as a clean way to remove Andar and keep syndicate deals he could not break. Marlene walked in. Derek whirled and shot her in the sternum. Andar won the fistfight that followed, held the gun, and could not fire. Cloaked Bet-Karh had watched that hesitation, then decloaked and took Derek's head with plasma. He studied Andar and walked out.
Survivors
Emphalelo lived. Andar meant to find cousin Derek's ground vehicle, get him to a colony doctor, collect every Ciejek employee's body for the families, and turn the old syndicate machine toward repairing Earth. He was patriarch Karl Ciejek's last descendant, and the will had never been read. Packet pilot Katarina was on Earth, and he was glad he had left her there.
Hunt leader Bet-Karh walked back to his landing shuttle. He never learned, in the novel, that cousin Derek had faked the scout signal, and he never raised the mother ship again. He meant to restore honor to his clan even if he was the last member, and to teach that a hunting ground can be a lie and that clans with opposite codes should stay apart.
The Hish
The hunters call themselves Hish in their own chapters. Humans call them Predators. The word Yautja never appears. Bet-Karh's kit was the usual hunt load: cloak, helmet sensors, plasmacaster, wristblades, throwing knives, and a telescoping staff. They mixed a breathing charge before they left the landing vehicle. Ordinary energy pistols and bullets stopped on the armor. Turgeon's flamethrower did not.
Dre-Nath's side hunted by stealth and would not kill from a ship or shoot a man in the back. Kirs-Giras's side wanted volume and force. The merge was survival, not friendship, and the Felicity drop was supposed to give the new group a shared hunt. Pran-Ser was a novice who was not even allowed to address the hunt leader until someone introduced her. Mal-Rek was better than Bet-Karh at hand-to-hand and came down for Heith-Rek.
Confirmed Kills
The first forest sweep killed seven humans, including Trynda, Ortega, Zedolik, and an unnamed Ciejek man whose neck broke against a tree. The mines took Mariano, Minh, Abelkis, and LeFleur. The digging machine killed Kaj-Nal and Sildar. The pad and colony night killed Sanderson, Wachman, Turgeon, Liz Myers, Ibrahim, Holden, and Laban in the shuttle.
The clan fight killed Mor-Jut, Blay-Kral, Pran-Ser, Wrak-Oto, and Mal-Rek. In the cavern Andar killed Derek's man Jurgens, Mara and Kaganas killed each other, cousin Derek killed lawyer Broadhurst and Marlene, and hunt leader Bet-Karh killed Derek. Jurgens had already garroted Denholm on the cruiser. Dambrava is named at dinner and never seen again. William and Dora's twins are named for the will and never return.
Key Characters
- Andar Ciejek was Gregor's son. He left the family at twenty-one, came back to protect Gregor's people, could not shoot Derek, and lived after Bet-Karh walked away.
- Derek Ciejek was Bela's son. He murdered Gregor, faked the scout signal, and died when Bet-Karh took his head.
- Bet-Karh was hunt leader for the first drop. He survived the clan fight, could not raise the mother ship, killed Derek, and spared Andar.
- Celina Laban was Gregor's former operations chief. Plasma burned her arm, and she died in Derek's shuttle.
- Owen Broadhurst was Gregor's lawyer. He named the hunters Predators for the survivors and died from Derek's shot in the cavern.
- Emphalelo could read a person without meeting him. He lived, wounded, and Andar meant to get him to a doctor.
- Mara identified Derek's drone and died in the knife fight with Kaganas.
- Katarina Santodonato was an ozone-packet pilot on Earth. She never reached Felicity.
- Dre-Nath and Kirs-Giras led the merged clans from the mother ship. Their fate in orbit is not shown.
- Kaj-Nal took the digging-machine drill through the chest after Abelkis opened his thigh.
- Mal-Rek was Heith-Rek's brother. Bet-Karh killed him in the feud and treated it as murder.
Place In The Dark Horse Line
DH Press opened this mass-market stretch with Predator: Forever Midnight in March 2006. Flesh and Blood followed in September 2007. Predator: Turnabout and Predator: South China Sea came in 2008 and went back to ordinary Yautja hunts. This book keeps the hunters as Hish and spends long stretches in Bet-Karh's point of view, without Shirley's hormone shift, mind-probes, or orbital sterilizer.
Continuity
The novel never prints Yautja or the full name Hish-Qu-Ten. Humans on Felicity just say Predators. EarthGov has hidden those hunts for centuries, maybe longer, because a dying Earth needed colonies to take migrants. UNISC appears only as the databanks Denholm hacked and as the Harmony survey that aimed the fake beam. The novel never prints a calendar year for the hunt.
A kill-gland scent does appear once the helmets come off, and that is what turns the merged clans on each other. The book does not use implanted colonists or a She State. A call from the ground to the mother ship returned only static. Bet-Karh feared the same feud had reached orbit.
Editions
The first Dark Horse Books edition is dated September 2007, with design by Debra Bailey and a cover painting by Stephen Youll. Dark Horse's catalog also listed a 19 September 2007 street date and 250 pages. The Fox copyright line sits on the same opening pages as Forever Midnight. The novel was not reprinted in that mass-market run.
Behind The Scenes
Editor Rob Simpson had already worked with Friedman on Aliens: Original Sin and The Wolf Man: Hunter's Moon when he asked for a Predator novel. Friedman wrote a two-page Fox pitch. Greenberger expanded it to a chapter outline and first-drafted chapters. Friedman polished and expanded them, Greenberger reviewed, and Friedman did a last pass. By delivery, Victoria Blake had taken over the Alien and Predator books at Dark Horse and edited the manuscript, with Fox notes going back to Friedman.
Friedman dedicated the book to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Greenberger dedicated it to Keith DeCandido and David Mack. DeCandido later wrote Titan's Alien: Isolation novel and the story Deep Background in Aliens: Bug Hunt. Youll's cover is a painted hunter that later readers often compared to Scar. The jacket copy promises a family war that enlists Predators. The will on the page is never read, and the hunters are not Derek's employees.
Conclusion
Predator: Flesh and Blood is Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger's 2007 Dark Horse novel about patriarch Karl Ciejek's unread will on Felicity. Cousin Derek Ciejek's fake scout signal brings hunt leader Bet-Karh's merged clans down on grandson Andar Ciejek's party, the hunt collapses into a feud, and the book ends with Derek dead, the will unread, and Bet-Karh walking back to his shuttle after sparing Andar.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Predator Merchandise
