Ryan S. Bock strolled the halls of the remote scientific research base smack dab in the middle of nowhere. He felt lucky do be assigned a guarding post instead of a 'real' mission light-years away from good ol' Earth. The base was setup for some highly classified scientific research, it also just happened to be in the coldest part of Alaska. Bock wasn't told much more than that. It wasn't your usual "Area 51". The halls were all dank and claustrophobic, wires and random mechanisms hanging out of the clastic walls. It seemed more of an under-funded military base than for scientific research. At least it was adequately heated. Bock was surprised; scientists usually liked top-notch accommodations. He was lucky enough to be assigned a route through the entire east wing of the complex. From what he has seen of the base, this was a most disgusting, dirty, and under-maintenaced part of the base. It seemed he guarded a cargo area of sorts, numerous crates and boxes of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. He discovered a great activity to wasting time was sleeping. He had found a few hidden places where he could get some sleep without worry about anyone waking him up. The base was large enough that it wasn't likely for someone to run into him on his route. Bock had noticed some security cameras here and there, but when he had spied the cameras not even plugged into the wall more than once. He basically did whatever he wanted to. It sure didn't seem he was guarding anything big. He still couldn't get the suspicion out of his mind that something big was going down. He could have sworn he saw some marines around here.
Meanwhile, while Bock was taking a snooze at one of his favorite lounging areas, General Soiusdan kept an eye on the few security cameras, which were in working order.
"It seems everything is going fine, you, stay alert and do not let anything by your sight." Soiusdan ordered Jobs, the security officer. "Yes sir!" Jobs replied without pause.
The general turn and slowly started to walk out of the room when he heard Jobs start to speak.
"What is it?" Soiusdan asked without bothering to turn around. Soiusdan didn't need a reply from Jobs when he heard the muffled pulse rounds from the snowy monitor at the other side of the room.
The general turned and was at the security monitor in one swift movement, staring in horror at the picture at the screen. Two of the marines who were specially called in for this base were firing their meaningless pules rifles out of reach of the camera. The fired in all directions, radios only loud buzzes.
"Shit, not yet." Soiusdan said under his breath. "Ask them what they see, now!"
Jobs spoke clearly into the microphone asking the two raging marines what they saw. Their voices came back both at once and in complete static, neither helping the situation at all.
"Damnit, tell them to seal off the front gate" The general ordered Jobs.
Jobs slid his chair over to right, and yelled to an unknown source to close the gates. The general stood in horror watching the two empty their ammo into nothing. Jobs looked at Soiusdan as asking what the hell is going on, and what they should do. Just then Soiusdan's eyes went larger than the moon. Jobs swiveled back to the monitor but was to late, which was probably for the better. One of the two marines was sliced in half, his torso falling limp to the ground. Blood painted the glowing, fresh snow. The other, quickly glancing at his partner, inching his way backwards, then heard the click no marine ever wants to hear. He looked quickly to the side of his weapon. 0. Soiusdan looked away as he heard the blood churning scream of the marine, while his stomach was impaled by two thick, sharp blades.
Bock awoke to a scattered few security lights and wailing sirens. He had no idea what was happening. He jumped out of his dwelling to the cold cargo bay floor. He could hear radio chatter via his headset he left on the ground before dozing off to sleep. He picked it up and fitted it to his head. His ears where filled with screams, yelling and the like. He knew something heavy was going down. Cautiously, Bock walked out of the large cargo door and into the dark hallways. Repeating red lights blinked on and off pointing him in the best direction he could think of. He broke into a ran when he heard a loud clang behind, not bothering to look back.
Jobs sat at his perch, monitoring all of the working cameras in the base, while trying to decipher the radio buzz which sounded like it was coming from all directions. Soiusdan was close by, commanding the few marines he had, to various checkpoints around the base. The marines strutted off without question, they knew better than that.
Getting up from his knees, Bock looked at what had just come out of him. 'I ate that?' He thought. He had just come across four dead bodies, all either cut in half or decapitated, their head no where in sight. That was more than his stomach could handle, regardless of the circumstances. After he was finished, he looked at the bodies, noticing the markings on them. He was right! He must've seen marines in the base! Although he had no training, he decided it would be best if he took one of the marines weapons, a standard issue pulse rifle. Bock, more scared than ever, continued into the darkness.
"Gable, Jones, Smith, move." The commander, Gaven Slopstien, commanded the troops to follow him and watch his back. They were heading down to the south wing, the area they knew the Predator had broken in for. They all ran down the hall as quietly as they could, yet as fast as possible. The area they were heading for was the real reason for this base. The base was researching a Predator who was caught way too easily. The south wing was completely devoted to study of the captured Predator and his weaponry, which would prove to be an invaluable tool for the humans. Slopstien headed the pack as they approached the security door hiding the research areas. One of the doors was completely blown off, the other looked as if nothing had happened. There was a green blood trail from outside the door into the blinking lights of the research labs, but stopped abruptly. A strobe was picked up on Jone's motion tracker, but was gone as soon as it started. This put everyone on maximum alert. There was no way anything was getting by these marines.
Bock ran as fast as he could down the hall, coming to the main control room smack dab in the middle of the complex. It looked fine, didn't seem like it had been damaged in anyway. He felt he had to find out what had happened if he was to do anything to help. He ran into the security checkpoint, but found nothing. He walked to the large, black and white monitors and saw that the security cameras really did work. He looked around the room, but found no evidence of any firefight. He turned to walk out of the room and was presented with a pistol barrel to the face.
"Come with me" Jobs had the gun pointed at Bock's forehead, he wasn't ready to take chances. "Who?…I…fine" Struggling to keep his questions at bay, Bock said all he could. "Good, follow me, uh, you one of the marines?" Jobs made small talk as they half jogged half ran down then south wing hall. Bock chuckled, "Nope, I'm just one of the security guards, now, what the hell is going on?!" "Guess you deserve an explanation" Jobs stopped at the corner and peered around. "You have any idea what this base is really doing? I mean, what has really been going on." "Hell no, I wasn't told anything, thought it was just a outpost…" Jobs signaled him on as they rounded a corner. "Well, I shouldn't be telling you but it doesn't make much difference any more. They're probably all dead anyway." Bock started to get angry with this guy, and was about to speak up when Jobs started up again. "Ya ever hear of a Predator? It's what we call this, well, this alien that we've encountered a few times… This base was setup to research one that was captured, for it's weapon systems really. I think it's stupid, I keep forgetting why I applied for this job…." "Holy shit, a Predator?! And you're taking me to one?!" Bock stopped following for a second but realized he would stand a better chance with this guy, whoever he was. "We have to, I've been given orders to protect the specimen, no matter the costs, with the marines distracting him, I should be able to get the body out of there." Bock thought o this as sheer stupidity, but wasn't going to risk pissing this guy off. They continued running down the hall.
The marines had scouted every nook and cranny of the research labs, but had come up empty. NOTHING was in there. All signs pointed that something had broken in, but the dead Predator was still there, and nothing but the door was really destroyed.
"Slopstien I think you better take a look at this…" Gable yelled to Slopstien from a closet on the far side of the lab. "What is it?" Slopstien walked over the closet and saw a ventilation duct was torn into three, and continued up into the darkness. "Shit, it could be anywhere by now"
At that exact moment, they both turned to see Smith scream while being hoisted into the air by what seemed to be exactly that, the air. Every one of the marines pulled out their weapon and took cover, firing random bursts into the main door's direction. Smith slumped to the floor as a ghostly figured turned and ran back down the hall. The marines began following.
Both Jobs and Bock had heard the shots, and being only about 1200 meters from the lab's entrance, they could hear the screams as well. Jobs made Bock follow him into an office off the hall, so they could keep watch to anything coming down the hall.
"Here's your first chance to see a real, living, breathing, Predator, get over here, you'll miss him back there" Jobs was at the door only his head outside of the room. Bock had no idea why Jobs thought he would want to see one, well not enough to risk his life for it at least. No sooner had Jobs finish talking than Bock heard a whisping in the air and Jobs head went flying back to the wall, attached to a long, thin, spear. his body fell lifelessly to the floor. Bock clutched the pulse rifle and pointed it to the doorway although he had never even fired the damn thing. He crouched motionless, almost forgetting to breath, not blinking once. He started to hear heavy footsteps down the hall and swallowed hard. The marines ran right up to the office door, weapons drawn, ready for action. Bock was almost relieved to see them, he couldn't help the feeling he was going to throw up again. He knew the Predator must be close by, watching him, how could he have missed him? Just as one of the marines was about to speak up, the ceiling light in the room went out, leaving them in the large office, with only the faint red glows outside the door.
"Switch Vision marines!" Bock heard someone yell, he almost laughed out loud, he had no idea what was going on, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He heard a loud scream, followed by another. Something wet hit him on the side of the face, he didn't care to find out what it was. A flare was suddenly thrown into the middle of the room, and for the first time, Bock saw the Predator. It was gracefully perched on a file cabinet, twitched away from the light as it started up. He tried to embrace the moment while he could, although it was a bloodthirsty animal, Bock thought is was simply magnificent. He watched the Predator lunge at the marines who were most likely seeing a Predator for the first time as well, they didn't have time to get off one burst. The Predator had killed all but one marine who backed into a wall, gun blaring, just as the flare spat a final flame. Bock could hear the marine scream in the darkness. He knew who was next.