Chapter 7. Revelation
Ten years that's how long the rebel core had been in existence; when Ripley returned to earth with Amalee Call, Vriess and Johner Weyland-Yutani was up and running again with Edward B. Weyland at the helm. It took only a few seconds for Ripley to convince the others to form an organization that would become the rebel core. Three months is what it took to recruit personnel, soldiers, citizens, people with a grievance against big corporations and old politics; add two years the time it took to build the base. Over the years the rebel core has disrupted corporate trading, assassinated public officials like the former President and Vice-President of the coalition; the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of China. They also blew up area 51, destroyed several corporate warehouses and stole millions worth of military hardware. The rebel core also helped the little people out with food, jobs, money etc and all that was lost in one swoop by the order of light. Over eighty percent of base personnel had been killed along with over sixty percent of the base being destroyed.
Call had managed to remove Vriess' body from the ruble. She stood over his mangled body, a pipe stuck in his chest and a fist sized rock in his gut. Vriess' face was unrecognizable as she stood over his body remembering all the good times they had together and their friendship that quickly developed when Call joined the crew of the Betty. Ripley joined her and after they glanced at each other they stared in silence at Vriess' body.
"He was a good man…" Ripley said breaking the silence.
"He was the best…" Call replied. "I should have been there…"
"Me too…"
Johner joined them, "We can't stay here… the order of light might send another unit or two to finish the job…"
"Yeah…" Hats cried walking up to them, "…Or some forest ranger may have heard the explosions and reported it…"
Ripley turned to Call, "I need to know where the order of light base is…"
"I don't know…"
"Don't know or won't tell us…" Johner asked as his old anger at Candy's death slowly returned.
"Look I turned off my transponder years ago… it doesn't work!"
"You said the same thing aboard the Auriga!"
"That was different… even if I could do you really think we could take them down with what we have… I mean look at what they did to us…"
"Maybe we could find out what we need from this one…" Sam said dragging an android across the floor of the hanger leaving a trail of white android fluid behind.
"Call…" Ripley said.
"Gladly…" She replied plugging herself into the android behind his ear. "Get away from me bitch!" The android yelled spitting up white fluid.
"Hey play nice…" Johner said putting a gun to his head.
"Accessing…" Call's voice became synthesized, "…Accessing …modem damaged, seventy one percent degradation… accessing files… priority… kill Ripley clone… extract DNA… hair sample…"
"So they did want to clone you…" Johner said, it was Ripley who shushed him.
"…Accessing …Package will arrive in ten days… units will transfer to planet side space dock for delivery…" Call fell silent and unplugged herself from the android, "He's too damaged… I couldn't get anything else… but whatever the package is that is what they will use to wipe out everyone on the planet…"
Johner put a bullet into the android's head, "So what do we do now?"
Ripley started pacing, "We need to get to a safe house…" Hats said, "…this base is compromised…"
"I agree with Hats… Ripley we need to get out of here… Ripley!"
When Johner yelled her name Ripley stopped pacing and looked at him, "Yeah I've been thinking… there are only three people in the world who know the location of this base… one of them is dead and of the two remaining only one would sell us out…"
"That bastard would sell his own mother for a nickel…" Hats said.
"I should have killed him from the get go…" Ripley said staring at Call.
"What… you told him what you would do if he ever revealed our secret…"
"Johner you and the others pay our old friend a visit… but first we need to give some of these people a proper burial…"
"What about you? What are you going to do?" Hats asked.
"Me… I'm heading to Central City New York… it has the largest star port in the world and it's obvious the package is being delivered there… I'll try to intercept it…"
After agreeing on a course of action Ripley, Call, Johner, Hats, and Sam gathered the bodies of Vriess, Candy, Able, and Daniel in order to bury them in the forest under a recognizable marker in unmarked graves. By now the base had been cleared the survivors had gone to safe houses all over the country.
"Anybody want to say something?" Call asked, when no one said anything Call stepped forward and stood in front of the others. "Here lies Vriess, Candy… oh excuse me… Doctor Angela Harmony…" When Call referred to Candy as a doctor he took a shuddering breath and whispered; 'I love you…'; "…Able Stain, and Daniel Fallase… Soldiers and leaders of the rebel core… you will be missed greatly… rest in peace…"
When Call finished speaking they all threw flowers on the mounds and went their separate ways. Johner, Call, Hats, and Sam used the transport the general shuttled down into the hanger with; while Ripley hitchhiked her way to Central City New York.
Office of the Director of the Coalition Central Intelligence Agency (CCIA) one hour and eleven minutes after the attack on the Rebel Core base:
The CCIA director was in her office every morning at six am. She was getting a cup of coffee when her assistant walked into the office. "Director there has been an incident in Montana…" He said handing her a report; she slipped took the disk from the folder and slipped it into the HDR (Holo-Disk-Reader) and started reading the screen.
"The rebel core base! Are you serious?"
"We got an anonymous tip… when our agents arrived the base had been basically destroyed… No survivors…"
"Anyone claiming responsibility?"
"Red across the board mam…"
She turned in her chair and pressed a button on her chair. The book shelf slid apart left and right to reveal a wall screen showing the global location of all field agents. "I want all field agents to report in immediately…"
"Yes director I'll get right on it…"
"Dismissed…" As her assistant left the office she switched the screen to display a satellite scan of Montana and zoomed in on the area. She watched as clean up crews removed bodies from a huge underground structure.
The city of Philadelphia on the surface had remained the same maintaining it's historic look of the late nineteen nineties. Underneath it was as technologically advanced as any city of the twenty-forth century. It was a quarter after six am and most of the city was already up and running, but for the residents in the penthouse of wendigo condominiums; the all night party was just winding down. The bachelor pad of Baron Harker, an international and stellar arms dealer and drug lord. Harker's real name was Peter Slocavitch, a former general in the Russian military.
"Where you going baby?" asked the woman lying next to him in the bed.
"To the little boy's room… you want to come…"
She waved him off then turned over in the bed; after Harker came out of the bathroom he went to the kitchen and as he passed by the living room something odd caught his attention and stopped him in his tracks.
"What the fuck!"
His party guests were face down on the carpet with their hands behind their backs and a man standing over them with a military issue plasma riffle. Harker was about to press the panic button when he felt the cold steel of a forty-five hundred semi-automatic pressed to his head. "Hello Harker or should I call u Slocavitch…" Someone asked from behind.
"I know that voice…" He said sneaking a peek, "…Johner my old friend how good it is to see…"
"I doubt that… sit down!" he ordered shoving Harker into a chair that's when Harker noticed Call.
"Call! You sexy little non-human you… If I would have known you were coming I would have…"
"Save it!" Call said, "This isn't a social visit…"
"Where is… where is Ripley?" He asked his Russian accent giving more attention to the p and y than needed.
"Your ass is lucky she isn't here…" Call said.
"I want to know one thing…" Johner barked, "…What did the order of light promise you to snitch on us?"
"Well for one thing protection… from retaliation and that none of you would survive…"
"Go on…" Johner ordered pushing the gun to his head.
"A while back my KGB friends discovered something very interesting…" Harker explained that Russian agents discovered that someone in this case the androids were ordering ship parts on the black market. They uncovered plans to a deep space battle cruiser armed with energy based weapons and that could travel farther and faster in less time than any ship to date the trail led them to the order of light, but something went wrong.
"They came to me because I sold weapons to the order of light…" He continued to say. "…The order found out and killed the agents and replaced them with clones loyal to them… they would have killed me, but I gave them something they needed…"
"The location to our base…" Call said finishing the sentence.
"Where is the ship?" Johner asked.
"I know not…"
"The order is planning on killing everyone on the planet with a bio-weapon of some kind… do you know what it is…" Call asked.
Harker was about to tell them when a lamp shattered from gun fire and a couch was shot up by the automatic guns of a hover chopper. Hover choppers were like helicopters only more agile with hover pads on each side instead of the blades.
Sam hit the floor as people started jumping up, screaming, and running, "Stay down!" Sam yelled, but he was ignored.
Bullets riddled the table, but Johner hit the floor and rolled, while Call pushed herself backwards in the chair to the floor.
"Hey Hats… you want to give us a hand here…" Johner asked into his head mike, "…Son of a bitch…" Johner said when he heard clapping over the line. Then there was the whistle of a rocket in the air and then the hover-chopper was blown up.
A man tried to wrestle the plasma gun from Sam, but he kicked the man in the gut then struck him in the face with the but of his gun and did a spin kick knocking him out. "Alright talk…" Johner yelled grabbing Harker by the collar, but just then the door was kicked in and a group of androids burst in firing their guns. "Oh shit…" Johner said throwing Harker into the hail of bullets.
"No!" Harker screamed as he was shot to death.
Call gave Johner and Sam cover fire as Johner dove behind the counter; Sam dove behind the couch and got a few shots off but not enough to stop the android he shot. Call managed to take down two of the nine androids before she was shot at. Both Johner and Sam got off a couple of rounds before Hats ended the battle with a m-zero mini-gun. "Hats is here to save the day!"
"You could have come a little sooner…" Call said.
"Yeah I'll remember that next time…" The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, "…Uh I think you guys better exit this way…" Hats was hanging by the window via grapple line. Johner, Call, And Sam connected to three other lines hanging next to him. They hooked the grapples to their belts and were drawn up to the roof. Then they rode another line to an adjacent roof with a hover pad on it which is where they hid the transport. "You better let me drive…" Call said jumping into the pilot's seat.
Order of Light Base:
"Sir we lost the team and the hover chopper…" Commander Vars said entering the leader's office. Vars had been promoted to General in Ceasar's stead.
"What about Harker?"
"Dead sir… Johner, Call, and an unidentified man are on the move again we don't know where…"
"What about the Ripley Clone?"
"We… uh… lost her outside of Washington sir…"
"Recall the units… can we get the bodies out of the Wendigo?"
"No sir…impossible…"
"Dismissed!"
Vars was about to leave, but stopped, "Sir what about the council shouldn't I report to them…" "I'll take care of it… dismissed…"
The leader sat back in his chair. His mind was on how to fix the situation; it was obvious the Ripley clone was going, but how much does she know. Did Ripley know what the package was? She would when it was unleashed and what did Harker tell Call and the others? The leader had decided to use Harker as bait and it worked, but not like he intended and now the order was exposed to the government, not to mention the fact that Ripley was still alive. ("How do I fix this… think…") He thought to himself. Suddenly it occurred to him, "Well what's done is done, but if we…" He was talking to himself and turned his thoughts inward, when he had a plan that would not only secure the package and take care of the Ripley Clone he decided to have General Vars and Doctor Heim come to his office. When the two androids entered the office the leader explained to them in great detail his plan.
"Sir we have lost enough resources trying to kill this woman…" Vars said.
"I agree, besides the council may object…"
"I am the council!" He shouted, "…Do it… or I'll have the both of you erased!" Neither Heim nor Vars agreed, but what could they do the leader was a cold calculating, ruthless, sentient. His programming and design was modeled after an android named Ash who was created over three hundred years ago.
Oval Office The White House:
The CCIA director and her assistant burst into the oval office, "Androids!" She declared setting a file on the president's desk. "There was an incident in Philadelphia at the Windigo condominiums… Peter Slocavitch was killed along with several others in his penthouse…"
"What about the rebel core base?" The President asked.
"We believe the androids were behind the attack…" the assistant director said.
"Rogue androids… I don't believe it…"
"The KGB believes it's an organization called the order of light…"
The President was flipping through the file, "Is that all they know?"
"All they would tell us sir… the Russians want to from a joint task force to find the base of operations.
He stopped flipping pages to look at her, "What is your recommendation?"
"I think we should take them up on their offer…"
"It would go a long way in convincing them to join us sir…" The assistant director said.
The President smiled, "It would wouldn't it… Alright, but only if they divulge all information on the matter… Anything else…"
"No sir…" They said at the same time.
"Alright I want a daily update...dismissed"
The president sat back in his chair wondering just how much the Russians knew and if any of the recent events have anything to do with the Pholore incident.
Conogo Pit Stop for heavy ground transports three miles outside of Washington:
"I'm here…" Ripley said into a long range communicator, she sat on a bed in her rented room at a rest stop for truckers. Ripley listened as Johner told her what they had learned from Harker. "Interesting, but that tells us nothing about the package…"
"I think it's the z-forty-nine compound it's the only thing strong enough to kill on a global scale…" Call offered.
"Yeah, but if the androids used that it would kill both animal and plant life…" Hats said.
"Hats you have a point… we won't find out for sure though until the package arrives…" Ripley said, "…In the meantime contact Senator Kingston we need a new base and some black ops operatives…"
"What do you have in mind?" Johner asked.
"After I intercept the package we are going to find the order of light base and take them down…"
The line went quiet and it was Call who broke the silence, "Ripley…"
"Call… these fuckers are trying to kill everyone on the planet…" She said interrupting, "…The longer we wait the better chance they have of fulfilling their goals…"
Call sighed, "Alright… I'll contact our safe houses and tell our people to meet in Toronto Canada…"
"No! The safe house in Central City New York… in two days."
"The Senator won't like this…" Call replied.
"That's his problem… make him cooperate…"
"Where are you anyway…" Johner asked.
"Conoco truck stop… I'll be back on the road in the morning…"
"We'll see you soon…" Call said.
When they hung up the phone Ripley switched on the holo-viewer. A holographic screen shimmered into resolution on the wall; a report about the incident in Philadelphia was on the news. Then the weather and the latest on the stock exchange. Soon Ripley was asleep the one thing she found grateful was retaining her ability to sleep. The xenomorphs went into hibernation when they were inactive although in Ripley's case she was still aware of her surroundings when she was asleep. Before sunrise the next morning Ripley was up eating breakfast and watching a trucker she intended to hitch a ride with. When she arrived at the truck stop Ripley snuck a peek at his manifest and it so happened he was heading in her direction.
"Hey can I hitch a ride?" She asked following the man to his truck.
"What ya offerin…"
"Six thousand cash!"
The man took a step closer eyed her up and down and touched her hair, "And what else? Its been a long time since I've been with a woman…"
Ripley grabbed his arm and twisted it until he went to his knees, "How about I give twelve thousand… I won't break your arm… and you could go find yourself a hooker, she'll be less threatening to your health."
"That is fine…" He replied between clinched teeth.
Ripley released the man who started massaging his arm. His pride hurt because he was three times her size. When she jumped into the truck Ripley gave him the money and off they went down the road.
