The time I was a member of an elite Fireteam squad in Predator: Hunting Grounds

I’m with three other soldiers getting our mission briefing. One’s a support class, one is assault, and the other is a scout. A river has been contaminated deep in the South American mountains. As it’s a vital source of water for a village, it’s up to us to find out who poisoned the water source and stop it, so it doesn’t happen again.

We head out by chopper and decide where the dropzone will be. We all vote, and the most popular choice ends up being a spot near a waterfall. Once we’re in position, we head to our first location, the riverbed. In our travels, we come across some guerrillas, and it’s not long before we’re spotted, and a firefight ensues.

The squad works together to take out the enemy, but it’s not long before an alarm sounds and reinforcements are called in. My assault rifle runs out of ammunition, and I switch to my pistol to finish off the last of the guerrillas. I pick ammo from the weapons of my enemies and regroup with the rest of Fireteam.

We make our way to the riverbed and collect samples. Over the radio, we’re told we’re injected with a remedy that would stop us from being contaminated. As we collect the sample, I hear a noise I’m not familiar with. It sounds like a rattlesnake rattle but deeper. I shrug it off and head to the guerrilla camp, which we’ve been told is the source of the materials contaminating the water.

The camp is overrun with guerrillas—no need for the silent approach. We start blasting and take cover in a bunker. I hear a thump on the roof of the shelter. Surely the guerrillas haven’t taken the roof. We shoot our way out, and I hear the noise again. It also sounds like someone is thumping on the branches of the trees above me. Suddenly a plasma blast hits one of my teammates, and it comes from what can only be described as one ugly motherfucker. Naturally, I squeeze the trigger and take my shot.

Neon green blood starts shooting out of it as the monster runs towards me at full pace taking every single bullet I put into it. It shoots a rope net on me, which stops me from doing anything and allowing it to start stabbing me with sharp knives from its wrists. I fall to my knees in pain and beg for one of my teammates to heal me. The monster runs away.

My teammate helps me back to my feet. I thank them, and they say any time. As I look to the muddy ground, I decide to smother myself in mud for camouflage. In all the commotion, we lost track of the mission. We regroup and take out the rest of the guerrilla camp and ensure they can’t contaminate the water source again. We restock our weapons and get our orders to get to the chopper for extraction.

We start making our way to the extraction point, and I hear the noise again. I look at the trees and see a hazy figure. Three lasers are aiming at my chest. I move out of the way and dodge the plasma shot. I alert the rest of my team, and we all point our weapons at the monster and start firing.

The monster is in the middle, and all four of us are firing. It falls to its knees. We continue firing, but as we all start reloading, we hear a noise that sounds like a timer counting down. We realise the monster has activated a self-destruct measure, and we’re in its blast radius. We run to get out of it, and it’s not long before there’s a loud explosion and a crater the size of a village remains. The monster is gone.

The next thing I remember is that we’re in the chopper. Some of my teammates didn’t make it out of the blast radius. Some did—either way, the mission is over. We survived. Barely.

Predator: Hunting Grounds is due for release on April 24 on PlayStation 4 and PC.