Disclaimer: Dino-Riders is not mine; it belongs to TYCO, Dark Angel is not mine, that belongs to James Cameron, Coelacanth, however is mine. To all of us: this is done just for fun.

The Capture of Adam Thompson:

Time 1.5 years after Regicide in Coelacanth's Diary.

By James Carmody.

Background; about a year after the resistance governments were annihilated by the Rulon forces, the new government became public knowledge… Somewhere in the west, near Seattle, the ranching community received news of the conquest, but administrating the conquest of the Earth would be far harder, this was well known to the Aliens, especially the head of Fiefdom Imperium: Hammerhead.

In a brave, provocative, and futile act of defiance, Buddy Thompson refused to fly the Rulon colors over his ranch, instead flying the Stars and Stripes, to the Rulon Psyche, this act of defiance would have to be put down.

Location: the Thompson Ranch.

At dawn, Buddy was running up the Star Spangled Banner, and Adam Thompson, currently standing at attention, was starting to recall what had happened to him, his real first name was Zack… he had been a Manticore military trainee when he had escaped, so much had happened since then, and according to reports; things weren't looking so good, these aliens had conquered virtually all of the earth, he had been out of it because of an electric shock that had wiped the data disk clean; the disk that replaced his temporal lobe, but he had begun to heal… and remember things.

His tactical gifts informed him that these aliens wouldn't stand for this act of defiance; they'd come, they'd come quick, and they'd come hard. Although the Rulon colors were aesthetically pleasing, to the people on the small farming community they represented an abomination, they represented a regime that happily used terror, murder, genocide, and slavery… all things that the old United States had fought so hard against for so long.

At eleven o'clock a.m. the air-raid bell sounded and just a few minuets later the whole thing went dead wrong… it started with an explosion in the sky at about one mile up. As soon as the cloud of heavy smoke reached ground level, most of the regular humans started coughing and collapsing. But Adam was an X-series and he had a greater tolerance for toxic gasses, so he took cover in a basement… to wait.

He didn't have to wait long, for within 15 minuets Rulon transports had landed and a wall of Ant-men had emerged from the gas cloud, their shield generators; strapped to the back of their left fore-arms protected them from any attack, their crossbows leveled at the humans, struck Zack as being similar to riot-police pushing a riot back in the old days.

But these were not benevolent law-minding and law-enforcing personnel, these were "Terror Troops" of the Rulon Empire.

This was in the east that the infantry was coming from, then he looked west… and saw steel-grey-feathered oviraptors, and on a giant of such a creature- about thirty feet long, he saw, mounted on a Rulon saddle, with laser-cannons mounted on either side, and armor protecting the seat: a squid-headed silvery-grayish coated Rulon. Then he noticed the Brain-Boxes on the oviraptors, they were mini-brain-boxes. These beasts had red-tipped feathers on their arms that were longer and more developed feathers- probably used for display. Their eyes were quite yellow.

Command Base:

Fiefdom Imperium.

Two hours later:

Hammerhead was at his desk, doing managerial work, and thinking how tedious it is getting when the speaker sounded: "Toothis to Hammerhead; we're back." 'Ah, Toothis, come on in, thank you very much, I trust they were no trouble?' Hammerhead said standing up as Toothis came in, he strode in followed by two others who were at either side of a human who seemed demoralized, he was slumping.

Toothis's statement was that he had left the others (not killed by the dinosaurs) brain-boxed with instructions to provide food for the garrisons, and that he had brought Hammerhead this one because he was different. Hammerhead told him to put the new prisoner in the labor quarters. There Zack got a very warm welcome from Max and learned of the freighters rounding-up humans for settling other planets and the space-station Krulos was building in orbit with human slave-labor.

Sting's Protectorate:

Capital Airfield.

Around: 8:00 am local time:

In the remains of central Manchuria, one of the X5's was standing crouched behind some debris, about twenty-five yards away, near to the center of the airfield, two of the aliens were standing in armored flight-suits. There were some at least three-hundred-story spires, like the towers of termite mounds, and in the same concentration. Alec was in a black outfit, watching, it was about eight or nine in the morning, the two guards were also in black, military outfits of some sort, with helmets, If I can only make-off with some of their equipment, it'll disrupt their operations, Alec thought. All of a sudden a Warfighter landed vertically, about five feet away from the guards, a staircase came down from the cockpit, and another of the creatures, "Rulons" was it that that they were called? descended, this one also in a similar outfit. He walked up to the others, grabbed his helmet with his hands, turned it about five degrees to the left until there was a distinctive click, and removed it, at that Alec practically jumped out of his skin! This guy has a bug's head! he thought. I heard stories about them, I may not think of Max very well, but she is NOT safe!… if I'm going to help them, I must go NOW.

The alien meanwhile had placed his helmet between his right elbow and his ribcage, then he had proceeded to remove first his right glove, then his left and with his right hand holding the gloves, the others had removed their helmets, revealing a Viper, and a Shark-Man, and as Alec ran toward the Warfighter, Sting (the Ant-Man (the bug-headed guy)) stated "Ahh, Breath it in Gentlemen, Smell it, the Air of Conquest… Think of it, just a few years ago, this planet belonged to them, now it's ours!" And with that, he noticed Alec running toward the warfighter, drew his crossbow pistol, and shot Alec just about an inch below where the kneecap ends. Alec stumbled from the shot in his right leg, it didn't dislocate but he was out of action, he rolled twice, came to a stop: half lying, half resting on his right side, and clearly in a look of pain. And as Alec lay on the ground, holding his leg, Sting and the guards approached crossbows leveled at him. One of the guards asked "Shall we kill him now, sir?" 'No." Sting responded, "Contact Hammerhead, and tell him… tell him I have a gift for him."

Labor Quarters:

Fiefdom Imperium:

Five hours later:

There was some commotion, the guards were bringing in a new prisoner, through the screen-like fence, Max could see that the prisoner was apparently in good physical condition, he was walking alright, most are virtually dragged in, he was also a tall man, these guards; the top of their heads came only to his eye level. Then, fifteen meters behind the guards, (both of them were shark-men) was Hammerhead himself, looking oddly amused about the whole thing, thought Max. Then Max squinted at the prisoner, searching her memory franticly, when the guards opened the gate and removed the cuffs, the connection in Max's brain was made: "Father Destri?" 'It's been a while,' was his answer, 'now I know why I haven't seen you in a while,' then in a more disgusted tone 'they've destroyed most of Seattle,' then he continued, much calmer 'about forty percent of the populous were taken away, there were raids almost daily' 'We know' said Max, then she continued 'this is my… brother, Zack, he was captured on a raid on a farm not much of a distance from here, and only a few hours ago."

Then Fr. Destri yelled "You! Guard!, I want to talk to your superior!" the guard's hand was immediately at his dagger, but suddenly, from behind the fence, another, taller shark-man gently pushed him back, the two warrior's eyes met, but the shorter one decided not to risk it. "I am in charge of this facility" said the taller shark-man in a cultured voice. "To whom am I speaking?" asked Fr. Destri, as he held his opponent's gaze evenly, "the name's Hammerhead." said the alien. Then Hammerhead continued: "you've got courage, a tactical mind, and discipline, I respect those things, you also know how to hold a position, …you'd make a formidable fighter for us, given the chance." 'forget it! I know what your government's all about!, It's no secret the 'predation' your people use as a garrison tool.' 'Oh, but you will,' he then gestured with his right pointer-finger casually, then continued, 'you see, we took measurements of your head and brain-waves while you were being processed, and now we have everything we need to build a brain-box for the ultimate state of control over you!'