Jacy: So, not much to say except that I'm not going solo with this story!
Kain: You never are.
Wolf: Yeah, what are we, chopped liver?
Jacy: You know what I mean, anyways, I'd like to introduce the first of my two Co-Authors…Ryan!
Ryan: Hey, where's Co-Author number two?
Jacy: He's busy…and he hasn't told me what he wants to be called. Anyways, most of you have probable skipped this so, cue the disclaimer!
Disclaimer: This story contains copyrighted material from Alien Vs. Predator, Underworld, H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Series, Dead Space, and Marvel Universe, as well as a mix of our own ideas, but the copyrighted ones we do not own, only our own ideas.
Wolf and Kain: On with the chapter!
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The Merge
Chapter 1: Captured
I awoke in my chamber. The cryo-sleep must've worn of fairly recently because I was still groggy and partially numb. My equipment was in the storage pod next to me. I looked out the window and saw the clan vessel already cloaking and flying away back through the stars.
It's been 7 years since I left the Sprawl, and I'm still not used to the near-invisible shape of it. I remember the first run in I had with the Hunters. The necromorph outbreak had been going for a week and I was only 15 at the time. I had managed to get my hands on one of the R.I.G.s and a plasma cutter and slowly made my way to the ship bay. I saw horrors no one should've seen, let alone a teenager. I had just escaped in an armored ship when the Hunters came and took my ship into theirs. They had been watching me the whole time, and decided that I was worthy to train among their ranks.
This would be my first hunt on Earth. When I regained feeling in my body I rose up from the stasis pod and retrieved my R.I.G. It was integrated the technology of the Hunters, it had a stealth device and wrist blades as well as enhancements that allowed me to breathe much longer in space than most of the other R.I.G.s allowed. The optics had also been improved so that I could switch between heat and sonar visions. I suited up, armed myself with my plasma cutter, a weapon that sent a wave of energy that was concentrated enough to cut off the limbs of my prey, the same one from my time on the Sprawl. I entered my drop pod and activated it. I hit the launch button and one phrase kept echoing in my head as the pod dropped out of the holding area and began my hurtling descent to the planet's surface, "Welcome Home."
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Michael Grayson was a fairly troubled man. He had close cropped dark grey hair with some streaks of black in it and grey eyes and was more often than not found wearing a grey business suit and tie, despite the fact that most of the other workers dressed rather casually. He was chairman of Environmental Surveillance and Technology, or E.S.T, at Weyland-Yutani. It was an important yet thankless job, and incredibly dull. That is until his office phone rang. He picked it up and answered with a professional, yet lazy, "Hello?"
"Sir you're going to want to come to see this." A stern, serious female voice from the receiver said.
"Who is this?" questioned Grayson, leaning forward in his chair.
"Fiona Mitchell. We've picked up something interesting in the Allegheny National Forest area. It appears to be a Hunter pod, and if the reports are describing it correctly, it landed not too long ago." She replied.
Grayson smiled to himself, his grey eyes twinkling in excitement, and said, "Interesting indeed. Send in Team Alpha to retrieve it and its passenger."
"Right away, sir," Responded Fiona before she hung up the phone.
Grayson let out a laugh as he leaned back in his chair. He placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, grinning widely. He was certain by the end of the week he would be sitting right next to Mr. Weyland himself at the next committee meeting. Vice President Grayson certainly had a nice ring to it.
He then got out of his chair and left his office. He didn't want to see this thing on a screen; he wanted to see it with his own eyes. He went to the ship bay where the drop ship that would pick up Team Alpha when they signaled that they were ready for pick-up was waiting. He got on it, much to the surprise of the pilots, and sat down in one of the seats. They wouldn't tell him to get off, he was their superior officer, but that didn't mean they wanted him there.
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The door to Creade's pod opened and his training took over. The first thing he did was activate his stealth. He had to make sure he wasn't seen. If he was discovered, the Clan leader would send a team to kill him and those that found him, which was something he didn't want. After a few seconds of systems check on his suit, he set off on finding his prey.
He knew he had to hunt humans, but it didn't faze him at all. He no longer viewed himself as a human; seven years among the Hunters had changed him, in more ways than one. He was stronger than any normal human, the increased gravity on the Hunter father world saw to that, and he had seen and hunted things that would drive almost anyone insane if they knew such creatures existed.
As he was making his way through the forest he spotted a man fishing by a lake. He checked to see if he was armed and found the man had a large hunting knife. It wouldn't bring him much honor in the clan, but some was better than none, and there would be others.
As Creade was about to attack he heard the joyous cry of a small child behind him. He quickly leaped into the branches of a tree, and was luckily unnoticed as the small toddler continued its quick waddling through the spot he had occupied moments earlier and over to the man. The man put his fishing pole down and embraced the child in his arms. Not far behind the little one, a woman followed, she seemed to be about 24- 26 years old, around the same age as the man.
Creade looked away. What had he become? A minute ago he was going to kill that man, without any remorse or hesitation! He felt shame burn inside him. Creade watched as the family talked and laughed together. He wished he had something like that, but in his current position that would be impossible. He turned away from the scene and leaped from tree top to tree top, back to his pod, which had his beacon that would signal his hunting ship to land.
He was about 20 yards out when he heard the sarcastic shouts and laughs of men. He switched to heat vision and got as close as he could without being caught. There were soldiers, about 10 of them. They were armed with strange rifles and combat knives that doubled as bayonets. Creade's heart raced. They found his ship. They knew he was here. Despite his feelings earlier, he knew he had to kill these men if he wanted to at least escape back to his ship.
Before he could think any further he leaped out of the tree, wrist blades unsheathed, and landed on the first soldier, embedding his blades in the soldier's chest. The other soldiers stood there in shock as Creade uncloaked, which gave him time to unholster his plasma cutter and fire it, beheading the next one. One of the soldiers shot at him, but Creade expertly dodged and charged the man who drew his combat knife and swung at him. Creade grabbed his arm and twisted it behind the mans back, breaking the soldier's arm and taking his knife, only to return it into the back of the man's head, the blade sticking out of his mouth. He pulled the knife out and the soldier dropped to the ground, dead.
Creade lunged at the next one but in mid air felt a stinging pain in the back of his neck that quickly spread through his whole body, making him immobile and numb. He landed unceremoniously on the soldier he attacked, and to his surprise, the man didn't even make a sound. Just shoved him off and got back up. The last thing he saw before everything went black was his calm face, and he thought "He has the look of a Hunter."
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"Call for EVAC, I want us out of here ASAP!" Capt. Calvin Miles ordered, but he wasn't listening to the response as he picked up the strange armored being and sat him against a tree. Three of his men died in about five seconds, and he would've been next if one of his men hadn't been able to get a shot off and hit the being in-between the creature's armor on his neck. At this point he didn't care who or what this thing was, he wanted it to die, slowly and painfully. Before Miles could do anything, a drop ship appeared and landed a few feet away from the pod. Grayson exited the drop ship with a grin like a small child on Christmas morning. It made Calvin sick. The company bureaucrats didn't care about the soldiers, only profit and their standing with Mr. Weyland. If he wouldn't have been executed for it, Calvin would've shot Grayson right there. He restrained himself and Grayson walked over to where he stood next to the armored being.
"Good work, Captain," he congratulated, angering Miles even more.
"I lost three men," Calvin said through gritted teeth, "That's not what I'd call a 'good' anything, Grayson."
"But you got the Hunter and its pod," Grayson said, not noticing the anger in Calvin's voice, "and that's what matters."
"My men died to capture whatever that thing is," Calvin shouted, pointing at the unconscious being leaning against the tree next to him, "and you don't even care! I want this thing to die and I want to look into its eyes as it does."
Before Grayson could stop him, Calvin picked up the being and slammed him against the tree, pulling his knife out of its holder as he did. He saw a button on the side of his neck that glowed a faint blue, like some other parts of the armor, and he hit it with the butt of his knife. The helmet clicked and began to disassemble itself into several pieces, storing itself into compartments on his back and chest and revealed something no one there expected. It was the face of a human.
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Jacy: So, chapter one…and stuff.
Ryan: Right, and remember that there's a contest for roles in the story up on the profile if anyone's interested!
Jacy: It's been up for a while and no one's submitted anything…makes me sad…
Ryan: Cheer him up by submitting!