Aliens vs. Predator

                Retribution

[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]

         Twin stars shine brightly in the blackness of space, the first similar to our sun in size but a much brighter orange/white and considerably older. The second, smaller, duller in color than its brother, dark red, but still as hot as it drifts along on its journey around the galaxy. A huge orange and red planet orbits the twin stars at about the same distance the Earth is from our sun. This planet used to have twin moons but not anymore, now it has a ring of asteroids where at some time in the planets past some unknown disaster tore both of the moons apart. The rotation of the planet below spreads the moons debris around it to form the ring of smaller rocks and dust. Lightning and electricity flashes and sparks silently in space as an arrow shaped ship becomes visible in the black of the void. The huge twin pronged ship heads towards the alien planet and silently enters the atmosphere of this strange world. There is no heat discharge or friction as the alien ship slides gently into the unknown gasses that support life here.

         The huge ship races silently over an emerald ocean underneath an orange and yellow sky towards a shining alien city. As the ship approaches the city its shape changes as huge rams drive the two outer arms of the craft open out to form a trident shape. 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. As the ships engines shut down a huge door in the side slides slowly up with bright lights shining behind the now open door.

          Shapes begin emerging from the light as a dozen nine foot tall aliens appear one by one in a storm of lightning and electricity. Tall, muscular, and dressed in light armour and black netting these alien figures with masks of gold, silver, and bronze look around at the world they’ve landed on. All of the aliens had long black dreadlock style hair falling from the back of their heads and some of the creatures took off their masks to reveal their faces. They had mottled green and brown skin on their ridged bony heads over their small orange eyes. Twin finger like feelers either side of their mouths twitched in their natural air as more of the hunters took off their masks and breathed deep of their air. They walk away from their ship with their dreadlocks swinging behind them and carrying their polished skull trophies they’d all gathered from the last hunt. They are each greeted by smaller versions of themselves, their sons, eager to hear of the hunts and see the new trophies. The reunited families chatter and laugh on the gantry for a minute before they disappear into separate elevators and are gone.

           A lone predator child, almost six feet tall, is left standing on the gantry. He looks around wishing for news of his father who followed this ship to earth. Nervously 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 dreadlocks and blue flowing cloak the sign that he is the leader, the strongest, 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 dishonorably during a battle on the distant planet called Earth. The elder predator pulls out a small 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. The image, made from red lasers, shows the boy his father without his bio mask and facing an alien/predator hybrid in battle. The image follows the battle until the elder presses more buttons and changes the image to show a wider angle of the scene. A small ship appears, approaching 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 left and disappeared out of the view. The smaller point of light falls towards the town centre below until it hits the ground then it 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 before explaining in their clicking, growling language how his father was killed by the cowardly humans. The boy was silent for a moment then bowed again before he muttered his thanks to the clan leader for bringing him this news about his father then quietly turned around and leaves for an elevator. Satisfied that the boy had gone back home, the elder hunter turns and heads back into his ship, the huge door beginning to close as he activates his invisibility cloak and disappears.

           The boy rode the elevator down a level towards the smaller, personal transports below. As the elevator stops he leaves and walks towards a smaller, single person ship that he’d arrived in and was now 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 on the main console bringing the ship to life. As the engines warmed up he slammed his fist against the arm rest of the chair angry at the coward humans that had used a bomb as his father was about to kill the fearsome hybrid queen.

           Outside to the rear of the smaller ship a series of gears and hydraulics engage to lift the gantry up above the floor. Four smaller claws on either side of the craft release and the ship lift’s effortlessly into the sky and heads 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, long sleek and similar to his father’s ship, this one belonged to his father’s father, his grandfather. The ship he wanted had the old kind of engine that created a wormhole big enough for one ship which would get him to earth in just over two weeks. If he owned one of the new quantum ships like the clan ship he’d been at he could be there in a few days. 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 would provide some of them, he thought as he landed by his home. Leaving the small ship the young hunter entered his home where he put on his plain gold coloured mask and grabbed his belt, spear, net gun and plasma caster. Taking them out to his grandfather’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, breather mask and spare energy cells before calling a friend on his home communicator for a favour.

           Now the ship was ready he took some food water and other necessary items and loaded them onto the larger ship. Shortly after the young predator was loaded and preparing to leave his home planet to prove his courage and honour to his clan and most of all to get revenge on the humans that had killed his father from a distance, ‘cowards’ he mumbled in his clicking language, he would make them pay all right he thought as he lifted off. Flying low over the city the young hunter heads towards the distant snow topped mountains. After flying over the peaks he turns the ship sharply around to land in a clearing in the canyon behind the mountains. Another ship similar to his appears in a shower of electricity and lightning as another young hunter walks towards him pushing a cart with two metallic flasks. Each flask is about three feet tall and two feet across carrying two of the spiderlike alien face huggers in each. After placing the flasks inside the landing pod the young hunter closed up his doors, starts the engines and takes off heading straight up. His ship climbs up to twenty thousand feet where it shimmered and vanished before leaving the atmosphere of the planet and starting the long voyage to earth.

           Two miles from the mountain landing site the clan ship appears in a flash of lightning and electricity, hovering two thousand feet above a strange yellow and purple forest. The huge ship closed its distance to the canyon and landed in the same clearing where the elder talked to the other young hunter. Knowing what the young hunter had left the planet with the clan ship hovered for a minute then turned the headed up following the smaller ships path.

           The bar was almost always empty at this time of year except for a vacationing couple here for Christmas and a local that watched the television. The door opened and another young couple entered, got a drink, and sat in a booth in the corner. The barman and the vacationing couple watched the news on the television at the end of the bar as the local man lit a cigarette and looked around at the young couple.

           The TV’s news report played the day’s latest headlines “Weyland industries share price dropped dramatically during the credit crunch of 2009, threatening thousands of job losses, however the Yutani Corporation have made an offer of $65 million dollars and a merger to help the ailing robotics company.”

             The man sitting at the bar looked at the barman “change the channel Will,” he said as Will nodded and reached for the remote.

           The couple sitting at the table opposite the TV were talking about the news and the short fifty’s balding man says to his wife “It’s all a rip off I told you someone would get rich during this so called credit crunch and Bishop is the one doing it”

           “Stop moaning Roy” replied the plump forty nine year old brunette woman sitting with him, “It doesn’t affect us and your job is secure now that Weyland has been bought out so I don’t 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 millions to own a now worthless company. If Charles Weyland were still alive Yutani wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near to our robotics research or what is left of Razorback point but Bishop lets them in with a sixty five million dollar deal and I bet they’re going to try to throw us all out so they can take everything.”

           “Like I said, now the Yutani corporation is merging your job is safe at Weyland. So drink up and let us enjoy what is left of this vacation 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 they both got 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, don’t let the bed bugs bite” replied the barman before 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 head down the country lane towards a woodland area to the left, and a cabin and lake to the right. The still night air crisp and cold as frost begins to form on the cabin roof and in patches on the grass. The sounds of night animals are the only sounds of the night as the couple walk towards the cabin near the shore of the lake. Stars shine brightly in the night sky and the woman looks up just in time to see a flash of light across the sky “Shooting star, make a wish” she pointed.

           Looking up Roy sees the final flash of the shooting star as it crashes and burns through the atmosphere from right to left as they approach the cabin and lake. The couple oblivious as the object crashes into a hillside a few miles down the road from their cabin.

           The hillside is silent and still with only the sound of insects and the wind blowing from east to west. A sudden roar silences all other sound as a fireball streaks through the sky and slams into the hill side leaving a ten foot wide and five foot deep cater in the otherwise untouched countryside. The burning, crackling sound slowly dies as the crater and object inside it cool in the cold January air.

           After a few minutes the eerie silence returns to the normal night time country sounds. The wind continues to blow through the trees as the newly formed crater sends its last tendrils of smoke into the night sky. A six foot long cylindrical metallic object, battered, burned and scarred sits in the centre of the crater in the ruined hillside. The sounds of movement begin to come from within the object as at first scratching, clicking, and then hissing as the metallic casing burns once more sending acrid smoke pouring into the night sky. An opening forms in the side of the container before first one long thin bony finger, then two, four, until at last all eight long bony alien fingers crawl out of the smoking hole in the side of the object. A huge spider like creature emerges from the broken capsule and drops to the ground its long tail slithering behind it. A second, third, and fourth alien creature crawl to the opening in the crashed remains before dropping to the floor and racing silently away into the night.

           “Mmmmm that was wonderful” gasped Dawn after a twenty minute bout of lovemaking, “lets come here again in June or July, I’d love to see it when it’s hot and full of flowers and life during the summer.”

           Roy loved it here because of the quiet, the end of season hunting, and because he was ordered away from work. Tomorrow lunchtime he was meeting with Abe Garner who’d agreed to take him out hunting for some end of season steak. “Yeah why not, after all it’s quiet, no worries or hassles and aren’t you glad we left our cell phones at home?”

           Dawn nodded “Oh yes we must leave our phones at home more often,” 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 night outside was cold and still, a slight frost had covered the ground in the cold cloudless night. The only sounds coming from the night were the 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 and nothing else but the insects, and a solitary raccoon cry, made a sound in the cold winter night.

           “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. “They want me 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.

           “We agreed that you wasn’t going to mention it again while we are on vacation, 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 a couple of years ago?”

           “Of course it is, there was only one survivor of that incident and she is in hiding, from everyone!” Roy took a long drag of his cigarette. “She was given 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, she babbled something about aliens but” he trailed off thinking that maybe he’d said too much already.

           “Alien technology, what the hell does that mean?” Dawn asked.

           “Did you ever meet Lex Woods?”

            Dawn shook her head “I don’t think so did she work in your office?”

            “Err no, actually she was an outsider brought in just for the expedition, anyway she was the only survivor and she brought back some kind of spear but the metal was made of elements not found here.”

            “Not found here in Washington State?” Dawn said taking a long drag from her cigarette.

            Ignoring his wife’s question Roy frowned at the sudden silence and looking around at the trees said “listen its just turned dead quiet even the insects aren’t making a noise.” leaves and twigs crunched in the woods and Roy looked left towards the darkness of the trees “What was that?”

           “Probably just a coon hunting for its supper so let’s go back now, it’s turned creepy all of a sudden.” Dawn looked worried 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 it was now silent except for the rustle of branches and leaves in the breeze. Roy got up and walked towards the woods, another sound this time scurrying moving quickly to his right “there is something out there,” he whispered. Taking a final puff from the cigarette he 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. Roy jumped as a dog barked in the distance making the only sound coming from the town they’d not long ago left. He walked forward his eyes now fully 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 or scream as he saw a hand shape flying towards him. It grabbed him with its long bony fingers reaching around the sides of his head. It had a dry, cold leathery feel and settled quickly over his face wrapping its long snakelike tail around his neck. He could feel something like a soft finger pushing into his mouth and down his throat, the last sensation he felt before everything went black and he passed into unconsciousness.

           Dawn heard the commotion and got up flicking her cigarette butt away across the grass. She tried to peer into the darkness of the woods where her husband had disappeared. She walked around the table then heard a noise behind her like a scraping on the leaves, afraid now she looked back behind her as a second face hugging creature leapt up at her and attached itself to her head. She screamed a muffled scream as she fell over on to the grass by the picnic table. A third spider like alien creature ran past the now comatose couple to head toward the small town beyond the picturesque scene of the lake, woods, and its holiday home. A dog barked in the distance 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 underneath its body as an Alsatian came running down the same lane the couple used.

           Using its tail to power it the creature launched itself out towards the approaching dog and with no time to react the animal was caught before he saw the beast and collapsed to the ground with the creature settling onto its face. The sounds of the night returning slowly again now that the creatures had found their resting places.

           At the same time Roy and Dawn were smoking their cigarette the fourth face hugging creature had entered one of four caves east of the town, it scuttled up the wall of the cave as it sensed an animal deeper inside. Silently it crawled across the roof upside down heading toward the scent of its prey. Passing a larger cavern and entering another smaller tunnel the face hugger headed deeper into the cave until it spotted a huge grizzly bear that was hibernating here. The spider like alien approached quietly and settled onto the face of the bear as it was asleep in the corner, settling into position with its tail around the bears neck the face hugging creature delivered its deadly egg.

                    Chapter 2

21:30 pm, Weyland Industries Corporate HQ, Columbus, Ohio.

The lift door opened and a Japanese business woman carrying an aluminium briefcase entered the hall leading to Mr Bishop’s office. She was perhaps fifty seven years old but looked at least ten years younger, the make up she wore made her look pale but still beautiful. Standing at five foot seven in three inch heels she looked around at the seemingly empty office.

A moment later a young twenty something redhead came out of a side office carrying some paperwork and nodded to the Japanese woman “can I help you?”

            The Japanese woman walked over to the desk by the double doors and said “I am Sakura Yutani here to see Mr Arnold Bishop.”

            The secretary nodded to the woman “one moment please,” and picked up her telephone, the name badge on her desk said Samantha Hastings. “I have Miss Yutani here to see you sir” said Samantha to Mr Bishop on the other end. Bishop was now the chief C.E.O since the death of its founder Charles Weyland, she listened for a minute then replied “Yes sir” and set the phone back into its cradle, “Mr Bishop 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 Arnold Bishop Steps out.

            “Miss Yutani, it’s a pleasure to meet you” said Mr Bishop 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 two years” she smiled thinly.

 “Would you like a coffee, tea, or a cold drink before we start?” Bishop asks as is polite to do so.

“Yes please, do you have green tea? I’d like a green tea, thank you.”

Bishop turned to ask his secretary to get the drinks “Sam a pot of green tea and a black coffee please.”

“Yes sir it’s on its way.” Sam replied and stood up as Bishop motioned the beautiful woman into his office and closed the door behind them.

Bishop 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?” Bishop said sarcastically as he indicated she sit down, he was clearly not happy about this merger as he didn’t want the Yutani Corporation getting hold of the alien technology they had. He was the boss now and didn’t want someone else telling him what to do.

            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 I propose that we will call the new company Weyland/Yutani, like I said it is a merger.” She held up her hand as Bishop started to say something else “hold on Mr Bishop we each have information or technology that we need to combine to enhance the human race. We will both 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 employed at the Razorback incident of 2004.”

            “Razorback incident, I don’t recall that or a Miss Woods, I can check the records but I’m sure we…..”

            “Razorback Point Whaling station on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica” she said sharply.

            “Ah yes, I’m sorry I should have known you’d have something on file about that.” Mr Bishop looked embarrassed as he’d heard about Yutani’s spies but never believed one worked for him, “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,” Bishop looked at his computer screen, typed on the keyboard, and opened a file, “Serpents, that’s what she called them.” He laughed, “She was also babbling about some kind of alien but…” Bishop tailed off after seeing the stern look his counterpart gave him.

            A knock on the door to the office and it opened, Sam walked in with a tray of drinks for the new owners of this company. She placed the tray on Bishops desk between the two “will there be anything else sir?”

Bishop shook his head and she left closing the door quietly behind her.

            “The aliens are real Mr Bishop we have proof and miss Woods disappeared because you didn’t believe 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 Bishop.”

            Bishop looked shocked but answered quickly “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 Bishop as she poured tea from the pot.

            Mr Bishop 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, changed her name, and disappeared 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 and 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 from the folder as the phone on Bishops desk rings, Bishop looks back at miss Yutani 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 bother you sir but its Silverleaf, they say it’s urgent.”

            “Put them through,” he turned to Miss Yutani who smiled, “You might want to hear this as well.” Bishop pressed the speakerphone so Miss Yutani could hear their conversation.

            “Bob, it’s Bishop, 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 Bishop 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 as it was a small object about two meters long. It entered the atmosphere and burned up so we thought it was just space debris and we ignored it. Then we focussed on another distant star and we picked up a, well, all I can describe it as is a shift in the light coming from the star we were studying.”

“What like an 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 Bishop

Silence for a couple of seconds then Bob continued, “Pleased to meet you Miss Yutani, It err, 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’re making it sound like a flying object?” asked Bishop.

Bob laughed “that’s the kicker Arnold; all of our data and telemetry said its altitude was thirty 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 leans closer to the desk and asks “this object, did you see it on the optical or radio telescopes?”

“At first it was the radio telescope that picked up the shift, it was like a huge glass bowl full of water that was slid in front of the stars thirty miles up. But from our perspective it was like we’re looking at the bottom of the glass if you get what I mean. We did try the optical telescopes but saw nothing unusual or out of place in the sky. We looked again through the radio telescope and watched the object until it was just going over the horizon.”

“Send us all the data you have Bob, I’ll come out to you in a couple of hours with Miss Yutani. We can continue our meeting on the private flight” Bishop looked at Miss Yutani who nodded her agreement.

“Ok, I’ll send the data now and I guess I’ll see you in a couple of hours” said Bob and was gone.

“Its ten minutes to my plane, shall we go?” Bishop and Yutani gather their bags and files then both Bishop and Miss Yutani open their cellular telephones to make private calls as they prepare to leave the office.

55 minutes later 48,000ft

Sakura Yutani and Arnold Bishop 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.

“The first detailed recorded incident was in 1987, here is the file of all of the incidents we’ve recorded so far,” Said Bishop as he handed her a folder. “A crack commando team was sent into South America to rescue a downed chopper crew in the area and gather Intel on rebels. We lost contact with the team so we sent in another commando unit to investigate. Only one of the second team survived with a civilian he rescued on the way. The survivor’s name was Major Dutch and he said that his team was hunted by an alien with some kind of plasma weaponry and an invisibility suit. He said that when the alien was mortally wounded it activated a small nuclear device destroying the equivalent in rainforest of three hundred city blocks.” Bishop picked up a glass of water and took a sip. Miss Yutani flicked through the file and listened as Bishop continued.

 “The second time we encountered it was in 1997 and this time we sent our best agent, code name Peter Keys, masquerading as a DEA 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 1715 and he realised then that they’d been here before and would be back.”

“Peter Keys and his team successfully tracked the animal by its pheromones. He claimed the creature could bend light and become invisible at will. 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 their fight. Harrigan also claimed that the hunter’s ship had a kind of trophy wall full of both alien and human skulls.”

            “There are other reports, scratchy at best but incidents in the gulf during both gulf wars and Afghanistan have reported finding men hung 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 bend light therefore becoming invisible. We believe it sees our body heat to target us but is also capable of seeing in other spectrums, although we aren’t absolutely sure about this.” Handing her some photographs he said “We also found a kind of 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 Point.”

Bishop got up and went to a cupboard on the jet, he opened it and pulled out a huge mask, “This creature has remarkable technology, this is the bio mask we found with the damaged shoulder cannon in the slaughterhouse” said Bishop as he showed Miss Yutani a gold coloured mask, 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 took the mask and inspected 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 and has almost no weight, where did you get it?”

            Bishop smiled “Peter Keys and his team tracked the predator for three weeks, every two days it visited a slaughterhouse to feed. This thing seemed to like the taste of beef and 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 machine gun, it doesn’t work. We also found the spear about a mile away in an alley with half an arm, half of a computer it wears on its arm, and the hand of the hunter alien.”

            “Is that why you asked your lead scientist at Silverleaf to report anything unusual?” Miss Yutani said after a moment.

            Bishop smiled and nodded, “It was Alexa Wood’s report of the huge spaceship from Razorback Whaling station that made me tell Bob to report anything strange. I showed him the reports from Antarctica and told him to report anything unusual, even a small glitch in the system. In the last two years nothing of consequence has occurred but now we might have a chance to capture one of these predators. If there is a ship up there then our robotics division really wants some of their working alien tech.” Bishop looks at his watch, “Thirty minutes till we land, then a thirty minute drive. Then we’ll see whether we have something or not, another drink” He asked?

 “No thank you, all of this certainly is a lot to take in Mr Bishop, however now it is my turn.” Bishop 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 airstrip, 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?”

Bishop put down his fresh drink and nodded as Sakura Yutani handed him her A4 sized folder about half an inch thick, thumbing 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 thought that was it, it’s finished and was going home. 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 as it approached earth 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 insect like 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 but all survivors reported that the bugs bled acid when shot or cut.”

            “Within a day state troopers were begging to be evacuated, by day two the town had gone to hell. All of the survivors 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 some photographs out of the folder she continued.

“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 his 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, it destroyed the nest alright and the hunter and his tech all 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, or queen, 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.”

            Bishop 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 Bishop; our future is your robotics and our space travel. Together we can find and identify these unknown elements in space and recreate this alien technology.”

            Bishop put the photo’s 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 to find new homes, new elements, and new resources to progress and enhance our lives for the good of all mankind, we’d also like an alien sample for our new bio weapons division.” To Bishop it sounded like a well rehearsed speech but he liked the woman and her honesty.