[ WP ] An alien race encounters the most terrifying predator imaginable . A lone , unarmed human .

We shouldn ’ t have attacked. 
 
 The humans had established one of their “ Research Stations ”, a facility designed for science. Within its walls, they had tested many different species of the flora and fauna present on distant Xel ’ ji-5, a planet that was still ours, still under the dominion of the Korlan Empire despite it not being actively colonized yet. We sent a full company, nearly a hundred fifty Korlani soldiers, to purge the infestation of twenty humans. 
 
 We should have sent a full armored corps. 
 
 After we burned the laboratory to ash, ensuring that no human escaped alive, we left. What we didn ’ t know was that a pair of the invaders, one a scientist and one a security professional, had been away gathering samples. The scientist immediately fled to their ship to request assistance. The guard had other plans. 
 
 We did not know how important to the humans this laboratory was. We did not know that the security professional was better trained than most of our entire military. Our records indicate only his name, which has become a wraith to our people and the source of nightmares to our children. His name was “ Spetsnaz. ” 
 
 He came the first night after. Mere hours after we watched all the humans die, one merely appeared in the middle of a squad ’ s overnight position. We did not know of the extreme gravity of Sol-3, nor of the extremely thick atmosphere which provided extreme resistance to movement. His blows came so fast the survivor swore that he was an eight-armed demon. 
 
 Survivor. 
 
 Only one soldier, out of the dozen that had been present, survived. The human had literally punched *though* the first Korlan he attacked. From there, he used a combination of punches, kicks, and at one point a Korlani soldier ’ s rifle sling to devastate the entire squad. 
 
 And with their deaths, he knew more about his enemy that we did ours. 
 
 And now he was armed. A dozen plasma rifles, machetes, concussion grenades, light spheres, he became a one man army. 
 
 The rest of the company immediately began running. We fled directly to our ship, which was nearly [ fifty miles ] away. He followed. 
 
 Humans, apparently, evolved from pursuit predators. They literally chased down their food across tundras, through forests, across rivers. They would run and run and run until their prey was so exhausted they would collapse, ready for the killing blow. 
 
 We became the prey. 
 
 Without food or water, the human followed us. Every time we needed to stop to rest, more would die. He would engage from our flanks, herding us towards the grenades he had place in our paths for us to trip and die from. He was actually able to outpace my whole company enough that there were booby traps *ahead* of us. And we tired. 
 
 For a Korlani, a [ fifty mile ] foot trek should take about [ 3 days ]. This human pushed us at a pace that was nearly half that timeframe. He did not sleep, did not slow, did not relent. He drove us into sleep deprivation, as our homeworld ’ s day/night cycle completes in about [ 13 hours ]. 
 
 Every pause made us lose another squad. Every turn brought another fireteam down. Every time we took contact, another soldier was wounded. Never killed, but wounded. 
 
 He knew us. He knew we would slow to keep our wounded with us. He shot to maim, to impede, not to kill. He made us choose between leaving our comrades and living or slowing, and dying ourselves. 
 
 Then the contact stopped. For [ seven hours ], we heard nothing. We continued to push, despite nearly falling asleep on our feet. When we could see our ship, we knew why he had broken contact. 
 
 The communications gear was destroyed. The engines had been entirely removed with the selective placement of concussion grenades, and the controls had taken a full plasma magazine charge, rendering them beyond useless. We were stranded, and both we and he knew it. 
 
 The human approached. He came out of the wood line, weapon pointed directly as Sergeant Gapin ’ s skull. 
 
 “ You are dead. You vill surrender to face human justice, or you vill die here without a marker for your grave. Choose now. ” 
 
 We surrendered. We marched back to the burning remnants of the human research facility, where a full company of humans stood, waiting. After the Counsel of Species heard the human ’ s story, and their testimony, and our confessions, the humans declared war on the Korlani Empire. 
 
 Now, my species is considered endangered. There is barely enough of us to inhabit a single moon, when barely a [ decade ] ago we controlled over a hundred worlds. 
 
 I write this as a warning. Do not attack the humans. The will out run you. They will outlast you. 
 
 They will be at your funerals and they will forget you ever existed.
