Versus Match SHTF-321 (Colonial Marines, Aliens, Predators, The Thing)

[JasonSanjo]

In honor of the Halloween season, I figured I'd post a versus match/what-if scenario.

The scenario takes place on the colony planet SHTF-321.

Background
The planet is home to a single human colony of about 250 people, divided into something like 50-60 families and about two dozen or so Weyland-Yutani synthetics. Scattered across the planet are a number of Weyland-Yutani Atmosphere Processing Plants, maintained by teams of roving technicians living in and using the colony as their base. The initial colony consisted only of these technicians and their families, but has since slowly expanded over time as more colonists arrived from Earth.

The colony was established several decades ago and at this point the planet has a breathable, if thin, atmosphere, similar to what you find high in the Himalayas. There is no plant or animal life outside of the colony and its hydroponics and self-contained livestock farms, the latter housing a few hundred cattle of varying types such as sheep, pigs and cows.

Now let's introduce the players, shall we?

The Players

Colonial Marines
Background: Having received a distress call from the planet, a team of marines are dispatched to SHTF-321.
Numbers: A single Rifle Platoon, consisting of 25 marines, operating out of a marine spaceship carrying two UD-4 dropships and led by a lieutenant and his two synthetic advisors.
Armaments: Standard Colonial Marine Rifle Platoon gear, as listed in the linked article. In addition, a single, portable 10kt nuclear device.
Knowledge: They are aware of the official colony description outlined in the scenario background and that there is a Xenomorph infestation of unknown size and make-up.
Mission: To eradicate the Xenomorphs and prevent any from getting off-world while also saving as many colonists as possible. In the worst-case scenario, they have been supplied with a single, portable 10kt nuclear device intended to be planted and detonated inside the colony following emergency evacuation.
Activation/Arrival: Day 7, night.

Aliens/Xenomorphs
Background: Thousands of years ago a single Xenomorph Queen was imprisoned in a purpose-built, underground "temple" on the planet to serve as part of the Yautja rite of passage. However, after a destructive meteorite shower blew away the planet's atmosphere and damaged the temple the planet was abandoned. Unbeknownst to the departing Yautja, the Xenomorph Queen survived in a dormant state inside the sealed temple. And through a strange twist of fate (or Weyland-Yutani shenanigans), the human colony is located right on top of the temple and recent underground expansion has inadvertently broken through the outer walls...
Numbers: A single Queen imprisoned in the underground temple, half a dozen eggs.
Armaments: N/A
Knowledge: The Queen is initially only aware of the existence of the human colony above, but does not know its size or make-up.
Mission: Grow the hive, conquer the planet, spread to other planets, repeat.
Activation/Arrival: Day 2.

Predators/Yautja
Background: A single Yautja ship picked up the distress call from the human colony on SHTF-321 and, realizing that the Queen inside their old temple must have survived somehow, they descend on the planet to both eradicate the threat and take the opportunity to let their Young Blood do some initiatory Hunting.
Numbers: A single Leader, two Blooded, and six Young Blood.
Armaments: Standard Yautja gear (including self-destruct) as seen in Alien vs Predator, in addition to their ship.
Knowledge: Initially the Yautja are aware of the human colony, the location of the underground temple, the Xenomorph infestation of unknown size, and a Colonial Marines force of unknown size being en-route. In addition, the Leader has previously fought an organism of the same type as The Thing, but is initially unaware of its presence on the planet.
Activation/Arrival: Day 7, evening

The Thing(s)
Background: The meteorite shower that wrecked the planet's atmosphere also brought with it a single ship with The Thing onboard, using the shower to hide from its pursuers at the time. The ship was damaged beyond repair in the subsequent crash on the planet and the lack of an atmosphere put The Thing into a dormant state. Recently, however, the atmosphere has been getting slowly restored, and wouldn't you know it, these "humans" just so happen to have built one of their Atmosphere Processing Plants within crawling distance...
Numbers: A single Thing.
Armaments: N/A
Knowledge: The Thing is initially only aware of the Atmosphere Processing Plant and the technicians working to maintain it. However, it will then quickly learn of the colony and do everything in its power to get there to find the parts needed to build a new ship, or simply steal one.
Mission: Survive. Infect. Assimilate. Obtain a ship and go off-planet.
Activation/Arrival: Day 1.
NOTE: The acidic blood of the Xenomorphs prevents them from being fully assimilated by The Thing. However, the The Thing is still able to partially infect and assimilate their outer carapace and other "solid" parts of their anatomy to create terrifying hybrid creatures only partially under The Thing's control.
EDIT: To be precise, the acidic blood prevents The Thing from spreading via the Xenomorphs' bloodstream, which serves to slow down assimilation by tens if not hundreds of times (Where a human might be fully assimilated in less than 30 minutes judging by the movie, a Xenomorph would likely take tens of hours). Hence, for much of the extended assimilation process The Thing will have only partial control of the organism as a whole.

Timeline
Day 1: The Thing, recently awakened, comes across a roving trio of technicians doing maintenance on the Atmosphere Processing Plant that just so happens to be within easy crawling distance of its wrecked, partially-buried ship. The technicians' pet husky is infected, assimilated and mimicked, and The Thing will bide its time pretending to be an ordinary dog until it sees an opportunity...

Day 2: The colonists, seeking to expand the underground portion of the colony, inadvertedly break into the underground Yautja Temple. A worker awakens a Facehugger from an egg and is taken to the colony's medical ward after getting "hugged", while the other workers temporarily seal off the hole into the temple with a makeshift barricade until the colony leadership decides what to do about the "alien ruin" and the "hostile vermin" within. Meanwhile, the ruckus and return of a breathable atmosphere awakens the Queen, who immediately begins laying more eggs...

Day 3: The Facehugger, having become a Chestburster, bursts forth from within the unfortunate worker's chest, killing him. It immediately goes off to hide and grow, then stalk, hunt and bring organisms back to the hive within the Yautja Temple for its Queen and fellow brood. Later that same day The Thing, still a dog, arrives at the colony and is utterly elated at the ready presence of not only infectable organisms, but also the parts it needs to begin building a new ship for itself.

Day 5: The colony sends out a distress call describing the situation with the underground ruin, the "alien vermin" within, and the strange disappearances and apparent acts of sabotage and parts theft around the colony. The Colonial Marines and the Yautja who pick up the call both recognize the telltale signs of a Xenomorph infestation and react accordingly.

Day 7, evening: The Yautja ship arrives in orbit and begins sending down its Young Blood to hunt Xenomorphs and other worthy prey.

Day 7, night: The Colonial Marines ship arrives in orbit and sends down its two dropships and their marines to deal with the infestation.

And this is where you come in, readers. What happens next?

 

[ATP]

Thing marry Xenomorph Queen,and they lived happily after that.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

My money is on the thing ending up winning. The ability to perfectly imitate, shapeshifting, and higher-than-human intellect is pretty difficult to beat.

 

[Husky_Khan]

In honor of the Halloween season, I figured I'd post a versus match/what-if scenario.

The scenario takes place on the colony planet SHTF-321.

Background
The planet is home to a single human colony of about 250 people, divided into something like 50-60 families and about two dozen or so Weyland-Yutani synthetics. Scattered across the planet are a number of Weyland-Yutani Atmosphere Processing Plants, maintained by teams of roving technicians living in and using the colony as their base. The initial colony consisted only of these technicians and their families, but has since slowly expanded over time as more colonists arrived from Earth.

The colony was established several decades ago and at this point the planet has a breathable, if thin, atmosphere, similar to what you find high in the Himalayas. There is no plant or animal life outside of the colony and its hydroponics and self-contained livestock farms, the latter housing a few hundred cattle of varying types such as sheep, pigs and cows.

Now let's introduce the players, shall we?

The Players

Colonial Marines
Background: Having received a distress call from the planet, a team of marines are dispatched to SHTF-321.
Numbers: A single Rifle Platoon, consisting of 25 marines, operating out of a marine spaceship carrying two UD-4 dropships and led by a lieutenant and his two synthetic advisors.
Armaments: Standard Colonial Marine Rifle Platoon gear, as listed in the linked article. In addition, a single, portable 10kt nuclear device.
Knowledge: They are aware of the official colony description outlined in the scenario background and that there is a Xenomorph infestation of unknown size and make-up.
Mission: To eradicate the Xenomorphs and prevent any from getting off-world while also saving as many colonists as possible. In the worst-case scenario, they have been supplied with a single, portable 10kt nuclear device intended to be planted and detonated inside the colony following emergency evacuation.
Activation/Arrival: Day 7, night.

Aliens/Xenomorphs
Background: Thousands of years ago a single Xenomorph Queen was imprisoned in a purpose-built, underground "temple" on the planet to serve as part of the Yautja rite of passage. However, after a destructive meteorite shower blew away the planet's atmosphere and damaged the temple the planet was abandoned. Unbeknownst to the departing Yautja, the Xenomorph Queen survived in a dormant state inside the sealed temple. And through a strange twist of fate (or Weyland-Yutani shenanigans), the human colony is located right on top of the temple and recent underground expansion has inadvertently broken through the outer walls...
Numbers: A single Queen imprisoned in the underground temple, half a dozen eggs.
Armaments: N/A
Knowledge: The Queen is initially only aware of the existence of the human colony above, but does not know its size or make-up.
Mission: Grow the hive, conquer the planet, spread to other planets, repeat.
Activation/Arrival: Day 2.

Predators/Yautja
Background: A single Yautja ship picked up the distress call from the human colony on SHTF-321 and, realizing that the Queen inside their old temple must have survived somehow, they descend on the planet to both eradicate the threat and take the opportunity to let their Young Blood do some initiatory Hunting.
Numbers: A single Leader, two Blooded, and six Young Blood.
Armaments: Standard Yautja gear (including self-destruct) as seen in Alien vs Predator, in addition to their ship.
Knowledge: Initially the Yautja are aware of the human colony, the location of the underground temple, the Xenomorph infestation of unknown size, and a Colonial Marines force of unknown size being en-route. In addition, the Leader has previously fought an organism of the same type as The Thing, but is initially unaware of its presence on the planet.
Activation/Arrival: Day 7, evening

The Thing(s)
Background: The meteorite shower that wrecked the planet's atmosphere also brought with it a single ship with The Thing onboard, using the shower to hide from its pursuers at the time. The ship was damaged beyond repair in the subsequent crash on the planet and the lack of an atmosphere put The Thing into a dormant state. Recently, however, the atmosphere has been getting slowly restored, and wouldn't you know it, these "humans" just so happen to have built one of their Atmosphere Processing Plants within crawling distance...
Numbers: A single Thing.
Armaments: N/A
Knowledge: The Thing is initially only aware of the Atmosphere Processing Plant and the technicians working to maintain it. However, it will then quickly learn of the colony and do everything in its power to get there to find the parts needed to build a new ship, or simply steal one.
Mission: Survive. Infect. Assimilate. Obtain a ship and go off-planet.
Activation/Arrival: Day 1.
NOTE: The acidic blood of the Xenomorphs prevents them from being fully assimilated by The Thing. However, the The Thing is still able to partially infect and assimilate their outer carapace and other "solid" parts of their anatomy to create terrifying hybrid creatures only partially under The Thing's control.

Timeline
Day 1: The Thing, recently awakened, comes across a roving trio of technicians doing maintenance on the Atmosphere Processing Plant that just so happens to be within easy crawling distance of its wrecked, partially-buried ship. The technicians' pet husky is infected, assimilated and mimicked, and The Thing will bide its time pretending to be an ordinary dog until it sees an opportunity...

Day 2: The colonists, seeking to expand the underground portion of the colony, inadvertedly break into the underground Yautja Temple. A worker awakens a Facehugger from an egg and is taken to the colony's medical ward after getting "hugged", while the other workers temporarily seal off the hole into the temple with a makeshift barricade until the colony leadership decides what to do about the "alien ruin" and the "hostile vermin" within. Meanwhile, the ruckus and return of a breathable atmosphere awakens the Queen, who immediately begins laying more eggs...

Day 3: The Facehugger, having become a Chestburster, bursts forth from within the unfortunate worker's chest, killing him. It immediately goes off to hide and grow, then stalk, hunt and bring organisms back to the hive within the Yautja Temple for its Queen and fellow brood. Later that same day The Thing, still a dog, arrives at the colony and is utterly elated at the ready presence of not only infectable organisms, but also the parts it needs to begin building a new ship for itself.

Day 5: The colony sends out a distress call describing the situation with the underground ruin, the "alien vermin" within, and the strange disappearances and apparent acts of sabotage and parts theft around the colony. The Colonial Marines and the Yautja who pick up the call both recognize the telltale signs of a Xenomorph infestation and react accordingly.

Day 7, evening: The Yautja ship arrives in orbit and begins sending down its Young Blood to hunt Xenomorphs and other worthy prey.

Day 7, night: The Colonial Marines ship arrives in orbit and sends down its two dropships and their marines to deal with the infestation.

And this is where you come in, readers. What happens next?

I was thinking 'The Thing' would have an advantage here but you did a good job with the OP setup (it's a great OP btw, good work) that I'm actually pondering several questions. You already explained how The Thing would interact with Xenomorph Acid Blood which I appreciate because I was thinking The Thing could be eliminated by the Xenomorphs if they became savvy to its presence. Your addendum would make that more difficult.

With that said, from the way the scenario is laid out I do think that 'The Thing' will be able to escape the colony come Day Five when the Colonial Marines arrive. As an assimilated Husky it should be able to low key infect Humans (like its hypothesized to have done in the original 1982 film) and even if not, with the Colonists distracted by a Xenomorph menace and the Marines likewise preoccupied, I feel like The Thing could hijack one of the Colonial Marine dropships and high tail it out of there.

But then I realized, even if it got onto a dropship and hijacked it, said dropship would have to make it on board whatever USCM vessel it arrived on. It'd have to convincingly hijack the dropship if it wanted to leave prematurely. It could be denied boarding rights, or the Marines could shoot it down which would assumedly kill the Thing.

The other problem with a Thing victory is that, if it wanted to be low key, it could be low key but in the movie it wanted to assimilate more despite the potential risks. The Thing has intelligence, but it seems to have a desire to assimilate as well. The Thing in both films didn't even wait a day until it started assimilating stuff and tried to be subtle about it but was found out. Thus based on previous behavior I'd imagine it'd be by Day Four it'd try assimilating something... and honestly the colony would already be on guard with security cameras and monitoring and patrols... there would be a very good chance The Thing would be found out and the Colonists are at least as competent and savvy as the teams of scientists in the two films and could likely deduce the crash spaceship wreckage even more readily as well.

The Thing is tough to kill, but once your aware of it, there are "easy" ways of detecting its presence and with the Colony already locked down due to a xenomorph infestation it could be found out more easily. The Thing also isn't a "No Limits Fallacy" type of infestation. You can burn it and it dies rather reliably. And you can apparently blast it apart with dynamite as well. And if the Colonial Marines arrive the next day and are made aware of it, I feel like The Thing is then doomed.

A Thing that plays it low key and subtle could survive this, but while intelligent, The Thing characteristically desires to assimilate, not just survive. If we're going off of canon, The Thing likely loses in this scenario despite having the best advantage in meeting its goals IMHO.

The other nuance with The Thing is if it tries to flee to the Temple or assimilate a Xenomorphy. As you said, it can assimilate a Xenomorph form but its not perfect. Even if it was "perfect" I remember from the original The Thing, when the assimilated Husky was put into the dog pen with the other Huskies, the other Huskies sussed out and reacted aggressively to the new Dog, clearly implying they sensed something was off about the creature.

With how intelligent the Xenomorphs (and hive minded) they are, I imagine they could sense that an assimilated Xenomorph would not be one of them but instead of just barking and growling, they could rip apart the assimilated Xenomorph and sacrifice some of their number in a coordinated manner to drown it in acid blood IMHO. So 'The Thing' is doubly doomed.

I'll still have to ponder how the whole scenario would turn out, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on who I thought would be my initial favorite which is 'The Thing' and then figuring why it wouldn't be quite as likely to win this scenario.

 

[JasonSanjo]

-snip-

Yes, that's exactly the type of discussion I was hoping for! I intentionally gave the factions slightly different missions based not only on their canon behavior but also the scenario as a whole, to ensure that there were multiple possible outcomes - and indeed, possible for more than one faction to "win" by completing their respective mission.

One Thing about the Thing - aside from its physical abilities - is its overall intelligence and tool use. In the scenario, it would probably have the best chance to succeed if it spreads out as much as possible while remaining incognito for as long as possible. If it can assimilate a number of colonists, with one or two perhaps focusing on trying to build a spaceship, and then further spread by assimilating Marines and perhaps Yautja once they arrive to further try to give itself access to powerful weaponry as well. However, the big issue here is that the Thing is not initially aware of either the Xenomorphs, the Yautja or the Marines, and so it will have to adjust its plans as it becomes aware of all the factions, and the question is, of course, will it be able to do so well enough to keep ahead of its various foes?

I intentionally gave the Yautja Leader previous experience fighting a Thing, just to make sure the Thing didn't have too much of an advantage in the scenario as a whole. And of course the whole thing with the Xenomorphs' acidic blood interfering with assimilation.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the rest of the scenario!

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

I am curious on if The Thing's ability to 'perfectly imitate' would give it the same acid-proofing Xenomorphs have.

 

[JasonSanjo]

I am curious on if The Thing's ability to 'perfectly imitate' would give it the same acid-proofing Xenomorphs have.

It would certainly allow it to reproduce the same types of tissues, at least, like the Xenomorphs' carapace or even bones once it gets that far into the assimilation process. The big issue for The Thing, I think, is that assimilation happens on the cellular level and the acidic blood would likely prevent it from using the bloodstream to send around individual (and likely vulnerable to acid) cells to quickly infect the Xenomorph's body, which means any assimilation process would take dozens if not hundreds of times as long to complete compared to, say, a human (This would be why I mentioned partial control in the scenario description). Once the assimilation is complete, though? Yeahhh... (EDIT: I've updated the scenario post accordingly)

Imagine if The Thing manages to infect a cluster of eggs, then have the resultant Facehuggers quickly scamper away to infect humans around the colony before the Xenomorphs can realize something is wrong. If this happens early, the Marines and Yautja might arrive to witness what appears on the face of it to be a civil war between Xenomorphs, with the colonists caught in the middle. This, in turn, could initially convince them that there are in fact two rival Queens on the planet, which would be very bad news indeed and might even convince the Yautja Leader to send down the two Blooded or even come down himself. Of course if that happens the Leader will quickly realize it's actually The Thing that's responsible... which he would probably view as even worse, given it now has assimilated Xenomorph organisms and might be able to morph into a hybrid Xenomorph Queen/Thing given enough time.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Both the Yautja and the Colonial Marines/Colonists I feel are pretty well prepared for the Xenomorphs as both have had experience in dealing with them. In my original post I forgot that the Marines don't arrive until Day Seven but I feel it's a minorish concern still. The Thing, to achieve its victory conditions, I think would have to leave prior to the arrival of the Marines for any chance of success. I think once the Marines arrive, The Thing is rather doomed. I don't think the Assimilated critters would survive the Xenomorph infestation if it overruns the colony and the Marines have an array of weapons and organization on top of that of the Colonists/Synths to handle The Thing IMHO even when under threat from Xenomorphs and other aliens.

The fact there are a dozen or so Corporate Synths should work in favor against 'The Thing' being successful as well. While I doubt they're security types, they are capable of basically handling weapons even if averse to them like Bishop was and would be pretty valuable in being immune to assimilation which would make them handy since they are artificial beings. There's even an offchance that The Thing could be detected early on since the Colonists have Dogs and other animals who would likely sense 'The Things' alien presence. Like I said before I'm giving 'The Thing' a small chance of surviving if it acts in its typical fashion like I said before and a very good chance if it acts 'hypercompetent' so to speak with an almost hive mind of subtle assimilation and using colonists as drone infiltrators flawlessly to acquire access offworld.

Likewise, unless the Xenomorphs overrun the colony before Day Seven, I feel like they too would be in serious straights. The Xenomorphs are starting with limited numbers of warriors/drones and has little intelligence on the size of the colony since the Queen is just waking up. The Colonists actually might have a bit of an advantage then knowing what they are dealing with. I think they could manage to contain the outbreak in the four or so days until the Colonial Marine reinforcements arrive. There is a chance of the Xenomorphs managing to make a breakthrough with their facehuggers and maybe mass implanting a large number of the animals and to a lesser extent the colonists which could create a critical mass of the colony being overrun but I don't know if it could happen in such a short period of days. LV-426 at least took several days to be overrun, and they didn't know what they were dealing with.

Once the Colonial Marines arrive, a full platoon of them, I think they'll be able to successfully bughunt the Xenomorphs (and handle any"Things" with judicious use of flamers and explosives) into oblivion, at least outside the Temple. The Marines have the knowledge, firepower, organization and the benefit of corporate Synths helping them with purging the Xenomorphs and I think they'd be successful in doing so since they know what they're dealing with for the most part.

The Temple, being erected by the Yautja, if it has any resemblance to the ones in the AvP movie, sounds like it'd be a positive death trap for the Colonial Marines if they confront the Yautja and to the lesser extent the Xenomorphs within.

Ultimately I think the Yautja could eradicate the Xenomorph threat, do as much hunting as they want, and if they wanted to, could probably wipe the Colonial Marines as well, especially within the confines of their own derelict Temple since it'd be kind of their own home ground and something they'd likely be familiar with.

The main wildcard would be if the Yautja hunting interferes with containment on the Colony of both 'The Thing' and the Xenomorphs. But if either happens, again I feel the Yautja, having knowledge of both, would be able to handle and prevent those outbreaks from spreading out of their control.

So uhhhh Yautja first, Colonial Marines second, Xenomorphs third and The Thing fourth... surprisingly enough IMHO.

 

[JasonSanjo]

-snip-

Very nice! Yes, the synths I think would probably be the colonists' best bet of containing The Thing - though they probably wouldn't actually realize it until they've had a good, close-up look at a dead Thing much like the doctor did in the 1982 movie. And unlike at the Antarctic outpost, here at the colony dogs (and cats) are allowed to roam free at least in the living areas, which means they could potentially tip off the colonists that something's wrong once The Thing starts assimilating and spreading. Though there is a risk they think it's originated in the Temple rather than from somewhere else.

As for the colonists, Colonial Marines and the Xenomorphs, my thought is that while the military (and Weyland-Yutani, obviously) knows about Xenomorphs (though the majority of individual Marines have never had to deal with them), most civilians (e.g. colonists) have no idea they exist, it being a tightly kept secret on the part of the military (At the very least, that's the impression I got from the original Alien movies). Doubly so when it comes to mostly isolated off-world colonies like this one. In other words, while the colonists could undertake basic pest control measures (e.g., sealing off the entrance into the Temple), they wouldn't really know how to deal with the Xenomorphs beyond that, much like the colonists on LV-426. The Marines, on the other hand, although they are unlikely to include many or even any soldiers with prior experience dealing with Xenomorphs they are aware of their existence and would have undergone the appropriate training to do so in case of an outbreak.

The sheep, pigs and cows in the colony's livestock farms would be prime fodder for both The Thing and the Xenomorphs, but it's iffy if either of them would actually make it to the livestock early on enough for it to make a difference before the Yautja and Colonial Marines arrive. It's definitely possible, especially if either of them decides to try and scout and/or spread as quickly as possible as opposed to playing it safe, though, so it could go either way (Imagine a gigantic Thing composed of a couple hundred cows, sheep and pigs crawling out of the livestock farms and back into the colony...).

A significant risk is indeed if the Yautja hunters - being Young Blood and inexperienced - inadvertently interfere with the colonists' containment efforts or simply hunt the wrong person at the wrong time for whatever reason. Something as simple, for instance, of a Young Blood intercepting a colonist touting a flame thrower on his way to deal with a Thing and killing him before he can do so, which in turn allows The Thing to spread further with neither the Yautja nor the colonists knowing about it. Or alternately, hunting a group of colonists sporting rifles on their way to deal with a Xenomorph in the midst of kidnapping colonists and dragging them back to the Temple. The simple fact that all the different players are going into things half-blind could make for all sorts of crossed wires and unexpected butterflies.

Of course, even if an outbreak spreads beyond practical control, the Yautja have their self-destruct bombs, and the Marines have their portable, 10-kiloton nuclear device...

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Are the predators allowed to go back to their ship to get further armaments if they need it? While they start off with standard stuff, there are some media that shows them capable of using 'military predator' grade stuff.

 

[JasonSanjo]

Are the predators allowed to go back to their ship to get further armaments if they need it? While they start off with standard stuff, there are some media that shows them capable of using 'military predator' grade stuff.

If you're referring to their plasma casters I was thinking they start with those, though as is typical for Yautja they prefer close combat. If the Leader decides to escalate beyond that, he's likely to just send down one or both of the Blooded, or maybe even come down personally.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

If you're referring to their plasma casters I was thinking they start with those, though as is typical for Yautja they prefer close combat. If the Leader decides to escalate beyond that, he's likely to just send down one or both of the Blooded, or maybe even come down personally.

I mean Hydras and Blazers, the 'military' technology Predator weapons.

 

[JasonSanjo]

I mean Hydras and Blazers, the 'military' technology Predator weapons.

Given what's written about them and their associated castes on the Xenopedia, I would have to say that they do not have access to them at all on the ship. Though hypothetically if an outbreak becomes far too large for them to contain I suppose the Leader could send out a distress signal calling for such Soldier caste and their weapons to be used, though such reinforcements would likely take multiple days if not weeks to arrive, as in this scenario the Yautja ship just happened to be passing nearby when the colonists sent out their distress signal.