Chapter V
Thomas examine the hieroglyphics written for a moment before translating them. "They gave their lives… So that the hunt may begin."
"What happened here?" Adele asked, as she examined the ribcage of a skeleton and saw that a hole had been punched through the bones.
"It was common in ritual sacrifice to take the heart of the victim." Thomas said.
"That's not where your heart is, besides it looks like the bones were bent straight out. Something broke out of this body." Adele said and saw that everyone reacted to what she had said, all except Lex who moved to her side and saw that her friend had been right.
"Incredible. The entire skull column removed in one piece." Miller said as he holds up his find for everyone to see. "The cleanness of the cut… remarkable. Straight through the bone, no abrasions." He continued.
"Did you hear that?" Lex asked as she turned around checking every door way that lead to the chamber.
The entire team looks around and then turn to Lex, Sebastian and Thomas are a part from the rest of the team a noise startles them, it's nearly imperceptible but it's there.
"Air… moving through the tunnels." Miller said.
"I don't know, maybe." Sebastian replied as he moves forward, cautiously edging his way toward the source of the noise, the team shines their flashlights, the beams of light cut through the gloom like lasers as they illuminate the chamber. Sebastian casts multiple shadows on the walls around him, if anything the lights are making it even creepier. Miller starts to handle the spinal columns that are hanging from the wall.
"Be careful with that." Sebastian said to Miller; Sebastian has to crouch in order to reach the back of the chamber as the ceiling slopes down dramatically, everything around him was claustrophobic and dark, something then falls from the ceiling and lands on Sebastian, who freaks out and throws it away from his face.
Lex spotted it on the floor not that far away from where Sebastian was, she approached and knelt down next to it and saw that it was a creature that had multiple legs and a long tail.
"Whatever it is, it's been dead a while the bones have calcified." Miller said as he examined the Alien facehugger.
"You must have dislodged it from a crack in the ceiling." Lex said, as she looked up.
"No idea how long it's been here but the temperature has kept it preserved, looks like some kind of scorpion." Sebastian said as he looked at the creature.
"No." Lex said as she shook her head. "Climate's too hostile for a scorpion." She explained when the others looked at her.
"Ever seen anything like it?" Sebastian asked Lex as she turns the facehugger over in her hands whilst she studies it, she knew what was going to happen but if she told them the truth then they wouldn't believe her, so she shook her head.
"Maybe it's a species that's never been discovered." Sebastian continued, as Lex looked at the facehugger again.
"Maybe." Lex said as she set the frozen Alien reproducer down and stood up, she shone her flashlight down another passageway, now that they were inside the temperature was much warmer, so she took of her jacket. "The ambient temperature in here is a lot warmer than ground level, so you can take off your jackets." She said.
The others all remove their jackets grateful to be able to get out of the confining and restrictive garment.
Weyland turned to Max and said. "Time to move on. Let's move to that lower room Max."
"Time to move out everybody. Ms. Woods?" Max asked as he gestured for her to take the lead; Sebastian, Miller, Weyland and Connors follow Lex down a tunnel, Max stayed behind momentarily.
"You stay here." Max said to Thomas. "Rousseau, stay with him, and keep a team with you." He then turned back to Thomas and said "Catalog everything."
"Let's go." He said to everyone.
Max then leaves the room and joins the others, Thomas takes out his digital video camera.
UUUU
Back on the surface Klaus was keeping watch, the storm hadn't lost any of its potency which meant that he was huddled by one of the walls of the mess hall trying to stay out of the worst of it.
In the distance he spotted a figure emerging from the storm, he raised his Desert Eagle and points it at the figure.
"Hold it right there, identify yourself!" Klaus yelled above the raging storm.
"It's…" The figure stops when he saw that he was staring down the barrel of the biggest handgun in the world. "Quinn!" the figure continued and then takes of his hood and mask so that Klaus could see his face, Klaus lowered the Desert Eagle. "What the hell are you doing?" Quinn asked.
"Following orders, Weyland wants this area secure." Klaus responded.
"From who?" Quinn asked incredulously.
"Claim jumpers, the Russians, the Chinese… another corporation. Anybody out there." Klaus responded.
"Trust me, there's nobody out there." Quinn said before he continued struggling through the storm to check on the equipment and ensuring that everything was tied down correctly.
The mess hall was the closest structure to the mouth of the mouth of the tunnel, the walls were groaning under the strain of the storm, Sven and Boris were huddled around a camping stove, boiling water for tea, at the back Mikkel was working on a space heater.
"When are you going to get that heater started?" Sven asked as he watched Mikkel work.
"It's coming… its coming." Mikkel muttered as he was finishing up.
Outside Klaus saw something in the depths of the storm, as it got closer he could see that it was a flickering humanoid shape given away by the flurries of snow.
"Quinn?" Klaus called out, but the shape kept moving, a moment later it was joined by another shimmering figure, they were heading for the mouth of the tunnel, and Klaus saw that that put them right in the path of the advancing figures.
"Quinn?" Klaus called again as he raised his Desert Eagle and takes aim, seconds later he has one of the figures in his sights.
The sound of a gunshot startles everyone inside the mess hall, they hear another, at that they all shot up and grabbed the weapon that was closest to them.
"Mikkel!" Sven called. "Get on the radio! Now!"
The door was blown open suddenly but they see nothing entering but a flurry of snow, every man takes aim.
Taro entered the building and looked around at the Ooman's that were inside, he hits one of the Ooman sending him crashing to the ground, the force of the impact breaks his neck, a moment later he was in front of another and lifting him up off of the ground, the Ooman then starts to make gurgling noises.
After he had impaled him with his wrist blades, once the Ooman died Taro retracted his blades, he then notices the green light that is trained on him; he turns to last Ooman in the room and threw his combi-stick at the Ooman impaling him, the force of the throw slammed the Ooman against the wall and pinned him there, his feet hanging six inches of the ground. Taro watched as the Ooman stared at his weapon, which was protruding from the man's chest, in his last living moments.
Quinn runs towards the mess hall when he heard the sound of a gun being fired, he arrives at the entrance to the mess hall in minutes.
"What's all the…" Quinn began to say but cut himself off when he saw that the room was devastated, then he spots the bodies that were hanging from the rafters of the building, he tries to speak but he can't, then he saw a shimmering figure moving towards him, it was humanoid but not human.
The sound of metal on metal brought Quinn's attention downwards slightly until he sees twin blades, their razor sharp edges were covered in the steaming blood of dead men. Suddenly a spear appears from nowhere, said spear was heading straight at him, Quinn ducks out of the mess hall slamming the door in the process, the spear cuts through the door and his arm, he knew that he had only bought himself a few seconds and he uses them to run.
Quin stumbles through the storm before he suddenly ran into something, he looked up in shock to see a dead body, that body was what was left of Klaus once he got over the sight he noticed three more bodies all pf them were strung up by their ankles swaying in the wind, his entire team is dead.
Quinn sees Kalus' gun half berried in the sand, he quickly reached for it as he brought it up to aim the humanoid that had killed his team appeared out of thin air; the humanoid knocked the gun out of his hand.
Taro followed the Ooman that had run after he had thrown his ki'cti-pa at him, as he followed the Ooman he saw him pick up one of their primitive weapons making him huff before he knocked said weapon out of his hand, he prepares to fight this Ooman.
Quinn looks around frantically before he spotted a pipe buried in the snow, he dives to pick it up, after he had the pipe in his hand he charged at the humanoid but it swats it away as if it were a feather then proceeded to backhand him making him fall to the ground hard, stunning him, but he won't surrender so he begins to pick himself back up but as he was the humanoid stepped on his leg.
Taro watched as the Ooman male tried to pick himself up he raised his foot and stepped on the males leg breaking it, the Ooman screamed in pain, he then kicked him in the ribs sending the Ooman into the air and down into the depths of the tunnel, as he slid down the tunnel.
Range and Scar approached where he was standing at the mouth of the tunnel, the three let out their own battle cries, he brought up his wrist computer and saw that the homing signal was still strong before they began descending into the tunnel all the while they prepared themselves mentally for what was to come.
Quinn slid down the tunnel gaining speed by the second, he tries to grab at the icy walls of the tunnel but he could not find any perches, so he tries to grab the cabling of the winching system when that fails he takes out the ice axe that Woods insisted everyone carried, he thanked God that he had listened to her, he strikes the ice making shards of said ice spray everywhere.
UUUU
Back in the pyramid the beams from the flashlights cut through the darkness as they entered the room beneath the sacrificial chamber, Lex checked her digital compass before she looked up and said. "We must be directly beneath the sacrificial chamber."
After she said that she noticed a small glow coming from the other side of the chamber, the glows origin was the flares that Max had dropped, the team looks up and notice the shaft that connects the chamber that they were in to the sacrificial one.
"We're at the heart of the pyramid." Sebastian said as he looked around.
Lex had seen the sarcophagus but she shone her light on it anyway, the others followed her lead, the others all saw the sarcophagus that was in the center of the room, it was 15ft long and 4ft wide, the ornate room was lit up by flares that were in every corner.
Sebastian moved closer to examine the sarcophagus. "Some kind of sarcophagus…" He muttered. "Egyptian in design. These were built to protect the dead in their journey to the afterlife." He finished.
Weyland ran his hand over the ancient coffin. "Max, Verheiden. Open it." He ordered. The indicated men move to opposite sides of the sarcophagus, they push as hard as they could, but nothing.
"Excuse me…" Sebastian began, Max and Verheiden take a step back to let the scientist do their jobs, Sebastian moves closer and bends over the sarcophagus, and uses his flashlight to illuminate three dials that were inlaid into the stone.
"What is it?" Lex asked as she moved to stand at Sebastian's side.
"Some kind of combination lock." He replied in deep concentration, before he knelt by a line of pictograms and hieroglyphs that ran around the edge of the stone slab and studies the design. "This is The Long Count…" He said but explained when he saw the blank look on the faces of some of his companions. "The Mayan calendar. Days, months and years." He then glanced between the hieroglyphs and the combination lock. "This must be the combination lock." He mutters as he stood up again.
He then re-illuminated the three metal dials on top of the sarcophagus again. "Days… Months… Years…" he continued.
"But what date?" Lex asked, even if she already knew the answer.
"The dials are set for…" Sebastian said before he paused to translate date, "1904" he continued then he rechecked the hieroglyphics not believing what he was seeing. "Exactly 100 years ago."
"Someone opened this a hundred years ago?" Lex asked with an eyebrow raised.
Sebastian smiled at her in that knowing way of his. "Only one way to find out." He said before he turns the first dial on top of the sarcophagus, it moves easily he then glanced at Lex. "What's today's date?" he asked.
"October 10th." She replied after checking her watch.
"10… 10… 2004."He muttered as he spun each dial.
Weyland looked at the sarcophagus then at Sebastian. "You sure this is going to work?" he asked doubtfully.
"I don't know." Sebastian responded truthfully. As the tension grows, he spun the last two disks, everyone, except Lex, was stunned when the sarcophagus opened under its own power, all react as the lid finishes opening and slides to a halt, the interior was dark, there was no way that you could see inside without peering dangerously over the edge.
Sebastian cautiously approaches the edge with Lex, both peer inside. "Take a look at this." Sebastian said before the others begin to crowd around the sarcophagus and saw that it held three futuristic looking guns of alien design. "The master culture." Sebastian continued ominously.
SFSFSFSF
Translation:
Ki'cti-pa = combi stick or spear (Yautja language)