AVP Retribution
Peter Stevens
AVP Retribution
Peter Stevens
Copyright 2007 Peter Stevens
Smashwords edition
All characters in this book are fiction and any resemblance to any person, either living, or deceased is purely coincidence.
Owned and distributed as an eBook by http://www.nicholashalls.co.uk written by Peter Stevens.
No part of this book shall be used in whole or in part without the writer’s express written consent.
This book is FREE do not pay for this book.
As the holder of this book you may lend or give it away freely on condition that no content has been changed or altered in any way.
[More Aliens, more predators, more humans than ever before in one massive AVP war. Following on from AVP Requiem and joining the Weyland/Yutani corporation that leads us to the alien series. This story connects all of the Predator, AVP and Alien series together in one mighty war]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks go to my family first for believing in me and encouraging me to finish the story. Thanks to Sian for the cover design and ideas. Thanks also to my son Nicholas for lending me money in times of need. Also thanks to my youngest daughter for helping me with ideas and situations used in the book. Your help and support is greatly appreciated.
Prologue
Twin stars shine brightly in the blackness of space, the first similar to our sun in size but a much brighter bluish/white and considerably older. The second, smaller, duller in colour than its brother, dark blue, but still as hot as it drifts along on its journey around the galaxy. An orange and red planet orbits the twin stars in the not too hot, not too cold, zone where its able to support life. This planet used to have a moon but not anymore, now it has a ring of asteroids where at some time in the planets past some unknown disaster tore the moon apart. The spinning planet below spread the moons debris around it to form the ring. Electricity flashes and sparks silently in space as an arrow shaped ship becomes visible. The huge ship heads towards the alien planet enters the atmosphere of this strange world. There is no heat discharge or friction as the strange ship slides gently into the unknown gasses that support life here.
The huge alien craft races over an emerald ocean underneath an orange and yellow sky towards a shining alien city. The ships shape changes as huge rams drive the two outer arms of the craft open out to form a trident. It slows as it crosses over the city then turns left, lowers the final thousand feet, and settles gently onto a landing gantry that opens and expands to fit the ship’s new three pronged configuration. The engine noise dies as it settles to the ground and a huge door slides up. Bright light shines through from behind the door.
Shapes begin emerging from the light as a dozen tall alien figures appear one by one in a storm of lightning and electricity. As they leave the ship, dreadlocks swinging behind them, carrying their trophies but without their weapons, or masks. They are each greeted by smaller versions of themselves, their sons, eager to hear of the hunts and see the trophies. The reunited families chatter and laugh on the gantry for a minute then they disappear into separate elevators and are gone. A lone predator child is left standing on the gantry, eager for news of his father who followed this ship to earth. He starts toward the ship but an elder, the clan clan-leader, appears as a flash of electrical sparks and lightning in front of the boy as he turns off the invisibility shield that hides them in battle. His blue grey dreadlocks and cloak the sign that he is the leader, bravest and eldest, of this clan. The boy bows his head and makes quiet clicking growling sounds that are the language spoken by these beings.
In his guttural, clicking and growling the elder tells the boy that his father was killed dishonourably during a battle on the distant planet called Earth. The elder predator pulls out a small, bronze coloured, hexagonal device and activates it. Four small arms extend out from the central body of the device and light up as a holographic image of the boy’s father appears, made from red lasers, without his bio mask and facing an alien/predator hybrid in battle. The image changes to show a wider angle of the scene as a small ship appears. The small ship speeds towards the two warriors at speed but from fifteen thousand feet above them. Another small point of light leaves the small ship and falls towards the fighters below as the ship that released it turned and headed back. The smaller point of light falls towards the town centre below until it hits and bursts into a storm of light and chaos. A mushroom cloud forms and extends upward and outward as the elder predator turns off the holographic projector. Putting the device away the elder looks at the youngling while clicking his sorrow.
The boy was silent for a moment then bowed again. He muttered his thanks to the clan leader for bringing him this news about his father then quietly turns around and leaves for an elevator. Satisfied that the boy had gone back home, the elder predator turns and heads back into his ship. The ships huge door closing behind him as he activates his invisibility cloak and disappeared.
The boy rode the elevator down a level then he stopped it. He left the elevator and went towards a smaller, single person ship that was waiting on a smaller gantry in front of him. He entered the ship, went to the pilot seat and strapped himself in. Without a pause he pressed a series of buttons, he was angry the coward humans had used a bomb as his father was killing bugs.
Outside to the rear of the smaller ship the engines stir to life. A series of gears and hydraulics engage to lift the gantry up above the floor. Four smaller claws on either side of the craft released and the ship lifted effortlessly in the sky and headed out over the city towards his home.
He would take this ship if he could but this ship is small and won’t get him to Earth for five more years. As he nears his home he spots the ship he will use, similar to his fathers ship this one belonged to his fathers father, his grandfather.
It had the old kind of engine that created a wormhole big enough for one ship; he could be there in just over two days. If he owned one of the new quantum ships like the clan ship he’d been at he would be there in a day. Seeing the ship and his home on the ocean side of the alien city the young hunter turns this small slow personal transport to land near the craft he wants. Now he needs to get some of the face grabbing, spider like impregnator aliens to spread panic on this his first full blown hunt alone. One of his friends could, and probably would, provide some of them he thought. Leaving the small ship the young hunter entered his home where he put on his mask, belt, spear, net gun and plasma caster. Taking them out to his grand father’s ship and stowing the items in allocated holders he went back for his disc, shuriken, spear gun, spare spear, sword and some laser mines. He went back in a third time for a medical kit and energy cells before calling a friend on his home communicator for a favour.
Now the ship was ready he took some food, water, air, and other necessary items and loaded them onto the larger ship. He made sure he had all of the items and supplies he’d need and walked over to the pilot’s chair. This time to prove his courage and honour and most of all to get revenge on the humans that had killed his father from a distance. Cowards he said softly, he would make them pay all right he thought as he lifted off.
The ship lifted off effortlessly and he headed towards the distant mountains. After flying over the peaks he turned the ship sharply around to land in a clearing in the canyon behind the mountains. Another ship similar to his appeared in a shower of electricity and lightning as another young hunter strode down the ramp of his ship. His friend was pushing a cart with four small flasks carrying one of the alien face huggers in each. Stowing the flasks inside the escape pod the young hunter closed up his doors, started the engines and took off heading straight up. As his ship climbed up and out of the atmosphere it shimmered and vanished before starting the long voyage to earth.
Two miles from the mountain landing site the clan ship appeared in a flash of lightning and electricity. The ship hovered two thousand feet above a strange yellow and purple forest before turning towards the canyon. It ship closed its distance to the canyon and hovered for a minute then turned the headed up following the smaller ships path.
Chapter 1
Maddison Heights, 110 miles South East of Olympia, Washington State
Population 823
The TV on the wall in Wills’ bar was playing a news report from the west coast, “Weyland industries share price dropped dramatically after the death of it founder, CEO Charles Weyland, threatening thousands of job losses. Japanese company the Yutani Corporation have made an offer of one hundred and thirty million dollars and a merger to help the ailing company.” A man sitting at the bar asked the barman to change the channel as he sipped his beer. The only other people in this small bar were a young couple in the corner booth who laughed and prodded each other playfully. A middle aged couple sat at a table talking quietly, and two locals playing pool.
The couple sitting at the table opposite the TV were talking about the news. “It’s all a rip off; I told you someone would get rich during this so called credit crunch and Andrews is the one doing it,” the short fifty’s balding man says.
“Stop moaning Roy,” replied the plump forty nine year old brunette woman sitting with him, “It doesn’t affect us anymore and your job is secure now that Weyland has been bought out. I don’t really know why you are moaning or what you’re worried about?”
“Come on Dawn, house prices are falling but the cost of living is going up, it doesn’t add up. Look at the Yutani Corporation they are giving away millions to own a now worthless company. If Charles Weyland were still alive Yutani wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near to our research on what is left of Razorback point. Our new boss Andrews Lets them in with a sixty five million dollar deal and I bet they’re going to try to throw us all out. There is something there not telling us about this so called merger, it’s not right.”
“Like I said, now the Yutani corporation is merging your job is safe at Weyland.” Roy was about to speak again but his wife held her hand up “no more, drink up and let us enjoy what is left of this holiday without you moaning about some Japanese woman becoming your boss.”
“We wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t been ordered to take the time off but okay I won’t mention it again,” said Roy as he finished his drink. He winked at his wife and said “Consider the matter closed, do you want another drink or shall we have an early night under the stars instead?”
“You want to sleep on the porch tonight?” Dawn smiled punching him playfully on the arm then said “An early night sounds fun, come on then I’ll race you to the cabin.”
Dawn finished her drink and they both get up to leave, turning back towards the bar Roy said “goodnight Will” and waved to the barman, “See you tomorrow evening.”
“Yeah have fun you two, sweet dreams” replied the barman as he continued his conversation with the man at the bar.
The couple leave the bar arm in arm and walk past the last few houses of the small town then down a country lane towards a woodland area to the left and a cabin and lake to the right. The night air still and crisp as frost begins to form on the cabin roof and in patches on the grass. The sounds of night animals and insects are the only sounds as the couple walk towards the cabin near the shore of the lake. Stars shine brightly in the night sky and as Dawn looks up she sees a flash of fire and says “Shooting star, make a wish.”
Looking up Roy sees the final flash of the shooting star as it crashes and burns through the atmosphere. Heading east to west he shrugs as they enter their cabin for the night. The couple don’t hear the object as it crashes into a hillside a few miles down the road from their cabin.
20:40pm four miles from Maddison Heights
A gentle breeze blew in the peaceful night air as a newly formed crater sent tendrils of smoke into the night sky. A small cylindrical metallic object battered, burned and scarred lay in the ruined hillside. The quiet of the wilderness broken as sounds of movement came from within the object. At first scratching clicking and then hissing sounds as the metal casing melted from within. The acrid smoke poured into the night sky to disperse in the breeze.
An opening formed in the top of the burned and dented container. First one then two, three, four, then all eight long bony alien fingers crawl out of a smoking hole in the side of the object. A spiderlike alien creature emerges from the broken capsule and drops to the ground with its long whip like tail slithering behind it. A second then third, and fourth, alien climb slowly out of the crashed remains. One by one they drop to the floor and race silently away into the night.
21:30pm
“Mm that was wonderful” gasped Dawn after a twenty minute bout of lovemaking, “lets come here again in the summer, I’d love to see it when it’s hot, full of flowers and life, during the summer.”
Roy came here because of the quiet and the end of season hunting; tomorrow he was meeting with Abe Garner who’d agreed to take him out hunting. “Yeah why not, after all it’s quiet, no worries or hassles and aren’t you glad we left our phones at home?”
Dawn nodded “Oh yes” she smiled and reached for her dressing gown, “Cigarette before bed?” she asked and Roy nodded as she got up “Outside though, we don’t want a fire in here now do we?” reaching for her clothes she got up and headed to the bathroom “two minutes, I just need to use the bathroom.”
The air outside was cold and still, a slight frost had covered the ground in the cold cloudless night. The only sounds coming from night insects as Roy and Dawn leave the cabin and walk arm in arm towards a picnic table next to the woods to smoke their cigarette. A slight breeze moves only the smallest bushes, nothing else but the crickets made a sound.
“You know they ordered me to take this holiday because of the takeover bid by Yutani” said Roy as they sat down at one of the tables near the lake. “They want a lot of us out of the way during the initial audit,” taking two cigarettes out of the packet he passed one to Dawn and lit his one before handing her the lighter “they don’t want me talking.”
“We agreed that you wasn’t going to mention it again while we are on holiday, anyway what are they hoping to find?” asked Dawn now intrigued by her husband’s revelation “Is it anything to do with that incident in Antarctica?”
“Of course it is, Lex was the only survivor of that and she is in hiding” Roy took a long drag of his cigarette. “She has some sort of alien technology and then there is that scar on her face. She won’t say how she got either the tech or the mark but she babbled something about aliens,” he trailed off thinking that maybe he’d said too much already.
“Alien technology, what does that mean?” Dawn asked.
Ignoring his wife’s comments Roy frowned at the sudden silence and said, “Listen. Not even the insects are making a noise.” leaves and twigs crunched in the woods and Roy looked left towards the darkness of the trees “what was that?”
“Probably an animal looking for its supper lets go back it’s turned creepy all of a sudden.” Dawn looked frightened and kept looking at the trees “come on Roy let’s go back now.”
“Just listen” he said, the night noises of the woods were gone and it was now completely silent. Roy got up and walked towards the woods, another sound this time scurrying moving quickly to his right “there is something out there.” He took a final puff from the cigarette then flicked the butt into a puddle near the trees. Looking at his wife he motioned her to stay there and entered the tree line trying to peek into the darkness of the trees. A dog began barking in the distance making the only sound coming from the town they’d not long ago left. His eyes now adjusted to the gloom as another twig snapped in front of him. He started to turn back to his wife as a blur caught his attention in front again. He didn’t have time to react as he saw a hand shape flying towards him. It grabbed him with long bony fingers that reached around the sides of his head. A foul smell filled his nostrils as the creature settled over his face. He felt it wrapping a long snakelike tail around his neck which tightened almost cutting off his air. He could feel something like a soft finger pushing into his mouth and down his throat as he passed into unconsciousness.
Dawn heard the commotion and stood up trying to see where Roy had gone. She walked around the table and heard a noise behind her like a scraping on the leaves. Looking back she spotted too late as another of the spiderlike creatures leapt at her. She tried to scream as it attached itself to her head as she fell over on to the grass unconscious. A third alien ran past the now comatose couple to head toward the small town beyond the picturesque scene of the lake and its holiday home. The dog continued to bark in the distance, getting closer, and the alien creature stopped for a moment to listen to the approaching animal. Creeping towards the cabin where Roy and Dawn were half an hour ago the alien coiled its tail up underneath its body. An Alsatian came running down the same lane the couple used barking at the unseen but sensed threat.
Using its tail to power it the creature launched itself out towards the approaching animal. With no time to react the dog was caught before he saw the beast and collapsed to the ground with the creature settling onto its face. As the creature wrapped its tail around the dog’s neck the sounds of the night returned slowly to the night.
At the same time a fourth alien had entered one of four caves on the eastern side of the town. It scuttled up the wall of the cave as it sensed an animal deeper inside. It crawled across the roof upside down heading toward the heat of its body and the scent of its prey. Passing a larger cavern and entering another smaller tunnel the alien headed deeper into the cave until it spotted a huge grizzly bear that was hibernating here. The alien approached quietly and leapt onto the face of the bear as it was asleep in the corner. Settling into position with its tail around the bears neck the spider like alien delivered its deadly egg. Insects began chirping and singing as the normal sounds returned to the night.
Weyland Industries, 21:30pm Columbus Ohio
The lift door opened and a Japanese business woman carrying an aluminium briefcase entered the hall leading to Mr Andrews’s office. She was fifty seven years old but her make up made her look at least ten years younger. Her pale face framed her bright red lips and striking green eyes as she looked around the corridor. Standing at five foot seven in her three inch heels she looked around then saw the secretary she needed to speak to.
She walked straight over to the desk by the double doors and said “I am Sakura Yutani here to see Mr Marcus Andrews.”
The secretary nodded to the woman and picked up her telephone, her name badge said Samantha Hastings. “I have Miss Yutani here to see you sir” she said to Mr Andrews on the other end. Andrews was now the chief C.E.O since the death of the companies founder Charles Weyland, she listened for a minute then replied “Yes sir” and set the phone back into its cradle, “Mr Andrews will see you now” she said to the waiting woman.
Miss Yutani walked over to the double doors leading into the inner meeting room as the doors open from inside and Marcus Andrews Steps out.
“Miss Yutani, it’s a pleasure to meet you” said Mr Andrews as he extended his hand. About five nine tall dressed in a white shirt, dark blue pinstripe trousers and a blue and silver tie. At fifty nine years old he wore his grey hair swept across as if to hide a receding hair line.
Shaking his hand Miss Yutani replied sarcastically “Yes I’m sure it is, I’ve been eager to meet the person who has delayed this merger for the last three years” she smiled thinly.
“Would you like a coffee, tea, or a cold drink before we start?” Andrews asks as is polite to do so.
“Yes please I’d like a green tea if you have it, no sugar thank you.”
Andrews turned to ask his secretary to get the drinks “Sam a black coffee and a pot of green tea please.”
“Yes sir it’s on its way,” Sam replied as Andrews motioned the Japanese woman into his office and closed the door behind them.
Andrews returned to his chair behind the huge oak desk and looked back at the Japanese woman as he sat down. “Well now you have control of Weyland industries how do you propose to dismantle it?” Andrews said sarcastically as he indicated she sit down. He was clearly not happy about this merger so soon after his boss’s death. He didn’t want the Yutani Corporation getting hold of the alien technology they already had. Mostly though he didn’t want someone else telling him what to do, especially a woman, he was now the boss of Weyland Industries. He didn’t want this meeting because he didn’t want to loose the company he loved.
Miss Yutani laughed, “Dismantle it, whatever gave you that idea?” she smiled again “Yutani industries doesn’t want to dismantle this company, now that we have joined forces we will call the new company Weyland/Yutani, like I said it is a merger.” She held up her hand as Andrews started to say something else, “Hold on Mr Andrews we each have information or technology that we need to combine to enhance the human race. We will make a nice tidy profit and it would make us the biggest space and robotics company in the world, we need to share information we each have” she paused for a second then added “I’ll get right to the point, I’d like to meet one of your former employees,” she reached into her briefcase and pulled out a folder. “I need to speak to Miss Alexandra Woods; she was at the Razorback incident of 2004.”
“Razorback incident, I don’t recall that or a Miss Woods, I’m sure we…..”
“Razorback Ridge Whaling station on Bouvetoya Island, Antarctica” she said sharply.
“Ah yes, I’m sorry I should have known you’d have something on file about that.” Mr Andrews looked embarrassed as he’d heard about Yutani’s spies, “As to Lex Woods she disappeared a few months after the incident, we tried to debrief her but she kept talking about dinosaurs, no, it wasn’t dinosaurs, she said they were,” Andrews looked at his computer screen and opened a file, “serpents, that’s what she called them.” He laughed, “She was also babbling about some kind of alien but…” Andrews tailed off after seeing the stern look his counterpart gave him.
A soft knock on the door to the office and it opened, Sam walked in with a tray of coffee for the new owners of this company. She placed the tray on the desk between the two and left closing the door quietly behind her.
“She disappeared because you didn’t believer her,” Yutani said “in fact you tried to have her charged with the murder of her boss, that’s why she disappeared, she was telling the truth as you will soon find out Mr Andrews.”
Andrews looked shocked but answered quickly “oh we believed her, but we had to make it look like we didn’t because she was holding back information. She told us half of the story Miss Yutani; we wanted to know the full story.”
“Okay that aside we still would like to brief her if that is possible.” Yutani looked over at Andrews as she poured her tea from the small pot.
Mr Andrews stirred two sugars into his coffee and took a sip before answering the woman “we would as well but like I said she disappeared shortly after the events of 2004. She emptied her bank account, moved and changed her name, I wish I could help you there but we simply do not know where she is”
Sakura Yutani placed her cup on the desk then opened her briefcase to take out an A4 sized folder “Alexa Woods changed her name to Alice Wilson then she moved to France. We believe she must have changed her name again, we don’t know what to, but our spotters say she might be in London now.”
The Japanese woman looks up as the phone on the desk began to ring. Andrews looks at the Japanese woman who indicates that he really should answer the ringing telephone. “Excuse me a minute would you,” picking up the receiver and pressing a button he said “yes Sam”
The secretary said “sorry to interrupt your meeting but its Silverleaf sir, they say it’s urgent.”
“Put them through,” he turned to Miss Yutani who smiled, “You might want to hear this as well.” Andrews pressed the speakerphone so Miss Yutani could hear the conversation.
“Bob, its Markus what is so urgent that you need to interrupt this meeting?”
“I’m sorry sir but you did say to tell you if we got anything weird on any of the telescopes or radar, and, well we got something.”
“Go on” said Andrews looking at Miss Yutani trying to read her “we’re listening.”
“We’d been watching the last death throes of a supernova near the Helix nebula and we got a contact at eight forty pm, tonight. We didn’t pay it much attention at first as it was a small object about two meters long. It entered the atmosphere and burned up, we thought it was just space debris so we ignored it. Then we focussed on another distant star and we picked up and, well, all I can describe it as is a shift in the light coming from the star we were studying.”
“What like some kind of atmospheric disturbance?” asked Miss Yutani.
“Who is that I don’t recognise your voice?” asked Bob.
“It’s ok Bob; meet Miss Yutani of the corporation that has funded you for the next five years.” Answered Andrews
Silence for a couple of seconds then Bob continued, “Pleased to meet you Miss Yutani, It was and it wasn’t like atmospherics’, it was in a sense that the light shifted but it wasn’t because the disturbance moved through space. We tracked its movement through space for twenty minutes but then lost it to the horizon.”
“So what are you saying Bob? Is it an atmospheric phenomenon, you make it sound like a flying object?” asked Andrews.
Bob laughed “That’s the kicker Marcus, its altitude was thirty five miles high, in space! Its rough size would make it around eighteen meters across, a roughly elongated triangle shape and it seems to be in a stable orbit.”
Miss Yutani leaned towards the desk and asks “this object, did you see it on optical or radio telescopes?”
“At first it was the radio telescope that picked up the shift. It was like a glass bowl full of water was slid in front of the stars thirty miles up, but we’re looking at the bottom of the glass. We tried optical telescopes but saw nothing. We looked again at the radio and it was just going over the horizon but still there. We ran a trajectory and followed the object on its next orbit. We have a clear image from the thermal and infra red cameras.”
“Send us all the data you have Bob, I’ll come out to you with Miss Yutani, we can continue our meeting on the private flight.” Andrews looked at Miss Yutani who nodded her agreement, “its ten minutes to my plane shall we go?”
“Ok, I guess I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” said Bob and was gone.
Andrews and Yutani gather their bags and files then both of them open their cellular telephones to make their calls as they prepare to leave the office.
55 minutes later 48,000ft
Sakura Yutani and Marcus Andrews face each other in deep conversation while sitting in the cabin of the private jet owned by Weyland Industries. Both had a glass of water in front of them and files were open on the seats beside them as they talked.
“The first detailed recorded incident we had was from 1987, here is the file of all of the incidents we’ve recorded so far,” said Andrews as he handed over a thick folder. “A crack commando team was sent into South America to observe rebels in the area and gather Intel. Shortly after we lost contact with the team so we sent in another commando unit. Only one of the second team survived with a civilian he rescued on the way. The survivor a Major Dutch said that an alien was hunting his team. They were killed one by one until Major Dutch found a weakness in its vision. During a fight the creature was mortally wounded and it activated a small nuclear device destroying the equivalent in rainforest of twelve city blocks.” Andrews picked up a glass of water and took a sip. Miss Yutani flicked through the file and listened as Andrews continued.
“The second time we encountered it was in 1997 we sent our best agent, code name, Peter Keys masquerading as an NSA agent. This predator was hunting in Las Angeles during the drug wars of the late ninety’s. We have some technology that was left behind by the predator but a Lieutenant Mike Harrigan of the LAPD claims he followed it after wounding the creature. Harrigan claimed he followed the creature aboard its spaceship and during a fight he says he killed it. He also says that this animal could disappear at will and a dozen others, his ship mates, appeared around him to carry the body away. One of the other aliens then gave Harrigan a flintlock dated 1703 and he realised then that they’ve been here before and would be back.”
“Peter Keys and his team successfully tracked the animal by pheromones; he claimed the creature could bend light and become invisible. However Mr Keys was killed by the predator in the same slaughterhouse that we got its mask from. Shortly after that is when Lt Harrigan claimed he killed the hunter aboard a ship that left Earth immediately after. Harrigan also claimed that the hunter’s ship had a kind of trophy wall full of alien and human skulls.”
“There are other reports, scratchy at best but incidents in the gulf during the gulf war, and Afghanistan have reported finding men hanging upside down and skinned. Some were beheaded and others had their spines ripped out but all of them have one thing in common. Those hunted carried some sort of weapon or were involved in war, Vietnam, Korea, the Falklands, the Gulf, and Afghanistan. All have reported either finding mutilated, decapitated, or skinned victims. It hunts as I’ve said using technology that enables it to become invisible, we also believe it sees our body heat to target us but is also capable of seeing in other spectrums, although we aren’t sure about this.” Handing her some photographs he said “We have found a spear javelin weapon of this hunter, a damaged shoulder wearing plasma type cannon it uses and half of a computer it wears on its arm, which incidentally is also the nuclear weapon it activated in South America and more recently in Razorback ridge.”
Andrews got up and went to a cupboard on the jet, he opened it and pulled out a huge golden mask, “This creature has remarkable technology and we also found this with the damaged shoulder cannon in the slaughterhouse,” said Andrews as he showed Miss Yutani the hunters gold coloured mask. He held it over his face to show her it was much bigger than a human head. “I had it brought here as I called for the flight.” He turned it over to reveal two black rectangles in place of the eyes and below that were four groups of two buttons making a small square where the mouth would be.
Miss Yutani takes the mask and inspects it, pressing a button inside, nothing. She holds it over her own face like she was wearing it, nothing visible through the eyes. She inspects the holes in the side where, she suspected, something plugged in. “It’s remarkable where did you get this from?”
Andrews smiled “Peter Keys and his team tracked the predator for three weeks, every two days it visited a slaughterhouse, this thing seemed to like the taste of beef. It was there that Lt Harrigan attacked the alien and wounded it. We found the mask intact and we found the shoulder weapon which had been hit and damaged by his shotgun. We also found the spear a few blocks away in an alley with half an arm, computer and the hand of the hunter alien.”
“Is that why you asked your lead scientist at Silver leaf to report anything unusual?” Miss Yutani said after a moment.
Andrews smiled and nodded, “It was Alexa Wood’s report from Razorback Whaling station that made me tell Bob to report anything strange, even a small glitch in the system. In the last three years nothing of consequence has occurred. Now we might have a chance to capture one of these predators, if there is a ship up there, our robotics division really wants some of this working alien tech.” Andrews looks at his watch, “Thirty minutes till we land, then it’s a thirty minute drive. Then we’ll see whether we have something or not, another drink” He asked?
“No thank you, all of this is certainly is a lot to take in Mr Andrews, however now it is my turn.” Andrews sat back in his chair and listened as the beautiful Japanese woman continued. “Firstly, when we land I’ve arranged a helicopter to meet us at the airport, it will get us to Silverleaf in ten minutes.” She smiled “Secondly Miss Woods reported a huge ship that appeared next to her and the fallen alien hunter, yes?”
Andrews put down his fresh drink and nodded as Sakura Yutani handed him her A4 sized folder about half an inch thick. Andrews thumbed from the back towards the front as the Japanese woman told him what she knew.
“That ship left the atmosphere and was heading out into space, we tracked it as it headed out to Saturn but something must have happened on board. We don’t know what, but a smaller piece broke off of the larger ship and returned back to earth. We detected an explosion on board and shortly after the smaller ship crashed in the mountains near Gunnison County, Colorado. The town is now gone but there were a handful of survivors, they reported bugs, giant bugs that attacked and fed off people. Some of the people were carried away to a nest they believed the bugs were building in the sewers. All survivors reported that the bugs bled acid when shot or cut.”
“Within a day state troopers and the local sheriff were begging to be evacuated. By day two the town had gone to hell and almost all contact had been lost. There were a few survivors that told of an invisible creature that hunted and killed the huge insect like creatures. It had a plasma firing cannon on each shoulder and wore a mask.” She said tapping the mask on the table between them. She reached into her bag and pulled out another A4 sized folder, as she took out some photographs out of the folder she said.
“One of the survivors reported that when one of the shoulder cannons the alien hunter was using was damaged he discarded it. The other shoulder cannon must have had a problem as well however the hunter took it off of his shoulder and turned it into a hand held gun of sorts. We have this plasma gun in full working order,” she said as she handed him the photographs of the shoulder cannon/pistol.
“Unfortunately the US government ordered the Air Force to drop a nuclear device on the site. The blast destroyed the nest alright and the hunter and his tech except this. The survivor who picked it up showed us how it charges and how to fire it. He said he picked it up when the hunter was fighting what appeared to be the leader of the bugs, he saw the hunter use it so he tried and killed several of the bugs before escaping in a helicopter.”
“We have studied it, x-rayed, MRI, ultrasound, and even put it under a microscope. From what we’ve learned about the materials and power system we are now working on new technologies to help us get into space and to help us detect these hunting trips these aliens seem to like. It will also help you with your robotics as the power used by the devices is generated by friction in the atmosphere, it self energises.”
Andrews whistled as Yutani got a second envelope out of her bag and showed him a report of the elemental properties, the power generator and other schematic drawings. “We think it draws friction and electrical charge from the atmosphere and pumps it into a central chamber where it’s spun to a super high speed and another unknown element is kind of sprayed into the spinning electricity, lasers are fired as the central chamber is heated then opened to explode the charge out as a high intensity, high heat plasma discharge.”
“This is why our companies have merged Mr Andrews; our future is your robots and our space travel. Together we can find and identify these unknown elements in space and recreate this alien technology.”
Andrews put the photographs and reports on the table next to the mask. He smiled and said “our robots could man the first deep space probes within two years. If we can catch this predator and his ship we can reverse engineer the drive system and travel further, faster than we ever dreamed possible.”
“That’s the plan” answered the Japanese woman “This planet is too small now for the amount of people on it, we need to get the human race up and into the stars. Our future is to find new homes and new elements to progress and enhance our lives for the good of all mankind,” to Andrews it sounded like a well rehearsed speech but he liked the woman and her honesty.
Chapter 2
23:00 pm Maddison Heights, Washington State
Roy opened his eyes and felt disoriented and confused. He realised slowly that was lying in the woods. He sat up and looked around at his surroundings; it was night still and cold, his breath steaming out in front as he tried to remember how he got here, “Dawn” he called. He couldn’t see his wife; he couldn’t remember anything except, “Smothering” he frowned, shook his head and got up. Looking out from the trees towards the tables where he talked with his wife, how long ago, he didn’t know? It was dark but he could see there was a little snow on the grass and mist drifted past in patches, there, she was lying apparently asleep on the grass near the edge of the trees, “Dawn” he got up and called again as he approached her.
Damn he was thirsty; he thought as he rubbed his throat and tried to swallow what felt like sand. He noticed marks around his wife’s throat and neck as he bent down to wake her “Dawn” He said more urgently this time and she responded, she moaned, moved her head and opened her eyes to look up at him.
“What?” she asked, “where am I, what happened?”
“Camping, I remember leaving the cabin for a cigarette but that’s it until I woke up a few minutes ago in the trees,” he said looking around at the trees and lake.
Dawn looked at her husband then said “I really need a drink, I remember something about not being able to breath, like I was suffocating…. What are those marks on your neck?”
Roy reached up and felt the welts on and around his neck, “You have them too” he said reaching to help her to her feet, “let’s get back to the cabin.”
They walked back to the cabin in silence as they each tried to remember what had happened earlier in the evening.
They passed a dog that was lying on the ground near their cabin but paying it no attention, “I remember a shooting star” said Dawn as they entered the cabin. They both headed for the kitchen and each grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the fridge. Five minutes later they were both eating bread dry from the packet and slices of cheese cut from a block. Roy stopped eating for a minute while he took a long drink from another bottle of water; he put the bottle down next to him and winked at Dawn and cut another large slice of cheese. He coughed and held his chest as pain exploded from within. Wide eyed he looked at Dawn as a crunching sound came from his chest brining more pain. He lurched forward, dropped the knife and grabbed the table with one hand and his chest again with the other.
Another crunching sound from his chest and he screamed again as the crimson of his blood spread across his chest. He fell against the back of his chair his chest pushing outward with a last crunching sound as a snake like creature emerged from his exploded chest. Dawn screamed as Roy fell sideways off of his chair and the creature burst completely out of his chest, ran across the floor and disappeared into another darker room.
Dawn got up feeling sick with the smell of blood and death and felt the first wave of pain. She heard another crunch, this time from her chest, as she screamed and she fell back onto her chair. She just saw it happen to her husband so she knew what was coming and screamed again as her chest leapt forward and blood sprayed from her. Another crunch and a second alien exploded out of her body and followed the first alien into the darkness as she fell dead on the kitchen floor.
The dog had been up for a few minutes and hearing the commotion it had come up to the back door and sniffed. He whined softly at the smell of blood and then howled in pain as his chest suddenly hurt. Howling and barking in pain the dog fell over on its side as the third alien busted out of the animal and entered this world covered in the dog’s blood. Silence fell again to the cabin as the three small aliens had found a way outside into the night. Two of the snakelike alien creatures headed east to towards the caves and the one headed south east into the woods.
01:00 am High Earth orbit
The window of the young hunter’s ship showed the earth from thirty five miles above it. The beautiful blue ocean and white fluffy clouds that sped above the green and brown continents that passed underneath his view. As the planet turns and the ship speeds round in its orbit the hunter presses buttons and flips switches. A clicking snarling sound from the predator and sounds of electrical beeps as more buttons and controls are pressed on a console. A humming sounded as red light flares into life on the top of a pyramid shaped emitter above a hexagonal control pad on his left. The hologram showed the view of earth drawn in red laser, and then zoomed closer to the land as its image flew over North America. Scanning the land ahead it flashed a bright yellowish white light in the distance and zoomed into the area of the flash. Another series of button presses and the image changed to another spectrum, this view showed the land as shades of blood red and black. Two all too familiar shapes of chest bursting aliens came into view, bright white on the red display, oblivious to the watcher as they fed on an animal below. Moving the image more to the east the hunter spots a third chest bursting alien as it began to grow into the fearsome creature he would be hunting later. Moving the image again he looks for the fourth alien that he knows is down there. Zooming the image out he spots the fourth creature as it leaves a cave to the east of the small town. Closing in to the creature he sees that this one has the distinct head and body of a young, but still growing, queen.
Let the hunt begin he snarls, he turns off the hologram and presses a combination of buttons on his right hand control pad. The centre console lights up flashing through the odd symbols of the alien language. He enters the co-ordinates into the ships computers and watches the image of the earth shifting as small ship leaves earth orbit and enters silently into the atmosphere.
The young predator pilots the ship down as fast as he dare else he will be detected by the humans primitive radar. He lowers to ten thousand feet towards the hillside where he spotted the insect like warriors he has unleashed on this small town. He has their signal displayed to a screen on his right so he slows his ship and drops lower to the ground. He knows he is cloaked and invisible to the humans he intends to hunt as well as the acid bleeding aliens. He flies the ship to a hill near a small town and hovers above a clearing at about three thousand feet. He immediately scans the surrounding area for any people, any signs of life. One signal bleeps to life of a lone man aiming a gun at some unknown animal. Pressing another button the screen shifts to the blues and reds of a thermal image. A flash on the screen and the man silently jerks back with the recoil of a fired rifle.
He scans the hills around the lake and spots an ideal hiding place for his ship, a large cave going down into the ground at the base of the hill. The caves mouth facing up to the sky with a small town a few miles away, making a perfect hiding place for his ship while he prepares for the hunt.
The ship, safe in the cave and invisible to humans, grows silent as its engines are shut off. Inside the young predator gets his bio mask, spear, and plasma cannon ready. He turns to a console presses three buttons and a poker chip sized disc slides up from a hidden compartment, taking the disk towards the pilots chair he inserts it into the console. Pressing some more buttons and sliding his talon finger across touch sensors he programmed the disk. Then he turned to the console above his head and activated another set of controls. A small pop and whoosh could be heard as the disk was fired out of the front of the ship, up and out of the cave to a thousand feet up. Turning invisible as it went, out and up, this eye in the sky would alert him if anybody came within two miles of his ship. Looking again for the aliens he knows are around the young hunter sees that they are intent on making a nest in the caves that he spotted the maturing queen enter.
Two miles east of Devils Bluff, Maddison Heights, Washington State
Abe Garner was fifty five years old and semi-retired after making his money at the poker tables of Las Vegas. He loved to hunt his dinner and was often at his second home in the small town of Maddison Heights to hunt deer in the winter. He had camped overnight and started early on the hunt at four thirty yesterday morning. The breeze was slight and the morning was quiet and still. He had to get something for his troubles as he had orders from his friends in town for some decent fresh end of season steaks.
Unaware that he was being watched he spotted a fair sized adult deer coming out from some trees directly in front of him. He froze and aimed his rifle at the animal a hundred feet away. The deer looked over at Abe as it smelled him but too late to move. The boom from his gun still echoing around the valley as the deer fell down on its front knees mortally wounded. Abe crossed in front of the animal and closed to twenty feet away, he aimed again this time for the animals’ temple. He loaded a bullet into the guns chamber and fired again killing the deer instantly. He breathed out at last then put the rifle over his shoulder, walked towards his kill, and drew out a huge knife.
After an hour he’d gone back a mile for his bike and finished cutting the steaks for him and his friends. He had packed enough meat for the next three months into the side bags on the bike and his rucksack. It seemed a shame to leave the rest of the meat but by the time he got back the flies would have blown their maggots onto it. Other animals and birds would have been there for a free feast as well so he turned away.
Movement in the trees to his left caught the corner of his eye and he spun around. Nothing, he looked closely at the tree line for any small animals and then noticed how quiet it had become. Nothing there, he said to himself “must be getting jumpy in my old age.” He turned back to the bike having finished with his packing and stepped on to it. Putting on a pair of sunglasses he plucked from a pouch on the petrol tank and kicking the starter the engine roared to life. Reaching into his jacket pocket he took out a mobile phone to call his wife to say he was coming home. He took a last look back to the tree line that had spooked him, dropped the bike into gear and made the back wheel spin up dust as he pulled away.
Riding slowly because of the early hour, the load in the saddlebags and his rucksack, and he had a meeting at ten thirty. He turned a bend in the dirt road just in time to see a jet black roughly man sized beast disappearing over the next ridge. Its long black tail following as quickly as it did, he stopped the bike and listened. “What the hell” he said to himself quietly “I’ve got to stop talking to myself when I get spooked.” He pulled away again heading home, glad that the road went to the left away from where the black thing went. Going over a small hill he saw, too late, another black beast in the road right in front of him, this one bigger with sharp looking claws, wicked teeth and a shorter but ridged bony looking head. He sped up intending to run it over but the creature was lightning fast and leapt over Abe and the bike. As he rode underneath it he saw the beasts’ razor like tail flying towards his chest. He felt the sharp stinging pain as the point of the tail entered his chest and venom of some kind worked its way into his blood. He crashed the bike and rolled just before it hit the ground. Abe felt dizzy and nauseous then he nearly blacked out as he hit the ground sliding. He rolled over once then stopped with a bump against a series of small rocks, pain exploded through his arm as it snapped. He almost passed out, and he wished he had for the last thing he saw was the black insect like creature there next to him, dripping its slimy spit into pools by his face. The strange insect like creature lifted its lips to reveal rows of sharp looking teeth. Opening this nightmare black mouth he saw a second smaller mouth with razor sharp looking teeth. He didn’t have time to scream as this second mouth flew towards him and smashed into his skull above his eyes.
Watching the man set off on his machine the predator checked his computer. A holographic image of the man on the bike appeared from about five hundred feet above. Switching from the blue of thermal imaging to a red view the image followed the man along the track and over a ridge. He turned left with the course of the track and stopped as a full grown drone bug raced over the ridge in front of him. He’d seen one of them, the predator snarled. The man continued on his machine riding away from the warrior straight towards the other waiting beast, the queen. The predator watched as the man was killed and then carried back towards the alien’s new found nest.
He watched the alien as it ran through trees, down slopes, and up over ridges towards its nest. The hunter’s eye followed its journey up into the caves that were once the small towns’ only income, the old abandoned gold mines. He watched the animal as it headed into the second largest of the tunnels in the side of the mountain. He tapped in some commands in to his computer and used the sky spy to scan the area around the gold caves. He spotted another of the aliens carrying another human on its back heading for the same caves before bringing the device back overhead.
The young hunter stood up on the branch of the tree where he was watching from and scanned the area again with his arm computer and mask. Satisfied that the warriors didn’t know he was there he jumped to the ground. Upon landing he turned to his computer and entered some more commands. After a few seconds sparks and lightning as a small, Frisbee sized disk like object appeared in front of him. He took it from the sky and it shrunk into itself to make a smaller poker chip sized disk which he inserted back into his arm computer.
Changing his vision back to thermal he turned and headed back to his ship, happy his plan to get his revenge on the acid bugs, and especially the humans that killed his father, was working. He would make the humans pay with their blood and pain and he would take many trophies on this hunt.
Chapter 3
06:00am Silver Leaf, Nebraska
Sakura Yutani looked at the data from a print out and referenced them with the computer she was sitting in front of “It could either have left or landed; you say that you lost the signal two and a half hours ago so we need to figure out what it wanted, why was it up there?” asked Miss Yutani.
Andrews remembered something and turned to Bob Hollister “Tell me Bob, last night when you first called me you said an object entered the atmosphere and burned up did you not?”
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