Aliens vs. Predator
Justice by the Blade Prologue
USCM Mission Data Base Entry No: 012-32-DAS Registering Officer: Maj.Khan, Jacob of Ravager Squad Current Date:8/9/2098 Details of Entry: Regarding Incident on the 2/9/2098 Location: Sector 4/12A Lv-396
Report of (sole) survivor(s): Classified Nature of Incident: Classified Level 13 or Higher Clearance Required
Survivors: 3/7
Now here was an interesting number... 3...just 3... from those seven. Four of those men and women were my only family for almost how long was it...? 12 years? 13 maybe? The other 3...you'll know soon enough The past has a way of extending without you really knowing it. One minute you're six, riding your bike, stabilizers and all, the next you riding a bigger version to the local High... Ironic that just 48 hours of my past has more an effect on me then my 38 years as a living being...and that it's almost too painful to even recall it...but I have seen many men, good men, waste away by keeping their worst experiences to them selves... The local computer hacks finally deciphered the 'Text' we found. This is what they came up with...Sort of shed alotta light on the whole thing...
Shan' Ri Clan Hunting ground. Here a member of my clan lost all dignity. He was lowered to the detestable level of poaching and the murder of a fellow
clan member to cover up his crime.But the Council of Ancients saw him for
what he was and set me loose to
Punish the degenerate for the shame brought by him upon our clan.
Their words, not mine.
I have known him for a long time, since my youth days in the harsh
training fields... He is not one with such a weak mantle as to descend to poaching, let alone
murder.
Something does not seem right with this order.
I'll have to remain vigilant in order to obtain the answers.
My honed Instincts tell me that they will reveal themselves of their own
accord
It seemed I was not the only one about to have a really shitty day in front of me, small universe really.
Chapter 1: Entering the Gator's Mouth
It was the same dream again, in it I reach for her, she reaches for me, my heart beating loud as a parade drum but to the pace of an Irish dance tune...but once again an irksome little noise shatters the whole image before the old gray matter can get to the real good stuff. BLING BLING BLING! 'Damn, sometimes I really hate my job...ON!' One word and the Comm. Set was on...wonders of modern conveniences.
'Sorry to bother you this early Major but we have a situation and you better get to the Bridge ASAP. The boys of AARC are involved in this one...''Oh shit...Great, our friendly rivals.' I had been a Commander once in Asia's Armed Response Corp. Back then it was still young and I hadn't thought much of it and decided to quit, albeit too early. Youth pride I suppose...
AARC had some of the best minds in its labs, and weapons to rival, and best even those of the USCM. They were setup a short time after the first encounters with 'them'. They were the flavor of the past 15 years or so. Apparently more efficient than us as they had the lowest numbers of casualties after the missions were completed, and their civi rescue number kicked the crap out of ours any day. But one thing they still lacked that the USCM had, and that was far more experience in the field of the xenomorph. Probably the one and only reason I left them in the first place.
Ordinary sleep, what a privilege...poor grunts were luck to catch any at all between on site exercises, hyper sleep can be a drag... On the way I passed the cafeteria, most of my squad was there, guzzling down the crappy excuse for coffee that was somehow always freely available, the coffee usually reminded me of the AARC, theirs was grade-A shit as I recall. They treated me to a couple off half assed salutes, except from Ms.Briggs which was more of a wave and a smile than anything else.
My first surprise of the day was a stranger in the elevator he was dressed in standard USCM garb, but something about him wasn't right. His body language told me he was agitated, like he was about to say something he really shouldn't...which turned out to be the truth. 'Major Khan, I have a message for you, regarding your next Op.' 'Really? From who?' "I'm afraid that my employer wishes to remain anonymous...' There was the first sniff of a conspiracy...employer? Whoever this guy was I sincerely doubted that he was in any way connected to us, or they AARC. 'Well let's hear it Mr....? 'My name is unimportant, and don't bother running my face through a data base check, its false aswell as this voice.' 'Well you've certainly gone through a lot of trouble for just a message soldier; you are a soldier aren't you? He continued on ignoring my question and this so-called message turned out to be more of a morbid warning. Apparently, 'all is not as it seems', his words in a nutshell, and that to regard details given by the Company as...incorrect. When the elevator came to a stopped and I got out I realized that I was now unprepared for the mission, and according to him, if he was a him, that the briefing from the Brass wouldn't prepare me either, and no way was I gonna take me squad out on a possible Dead zone just because the Intel was a load of crap... or a possible lie. I'd have to play it my way if we have to, to get some real answers. Drawing my hand taser, I circled with the air of merely needing to say something... he was gone.
A quick check confirmed my thoughts; he'd gone through the vents. I knew tighter security shoud've been placed on them. But another thing bugged me, this guy was obviously a Pro, escape route all planned out. We'll probably have some electronic interference any minute now, some alloy chaff to disrupt the security... I didn't worry; if he was here to inflict harm on us he would've done it by now.
On the bridge Capt.Masako greeted me. Next to him stood the 2 of the '6'. The founders and Generals of the AARC. Kenji Misumia, Ali Mustapha and Tokichiro Kasama. 'General Gates is in the briefing room now sir. Once you enter we can proceed. When I entered I gave my best, stiffest salute to Gates. For an old guy, he was still as tough as nails and could still wipe the floor with some of the young guns down at the Gym or evening the Training Simulations, he told me once that becoming a general was one of the worse things to happen to him,' The one thing worse than getting your jewels either bitten or melted off, is having to see them lie between yaw' legs on a chair for 24 hours straight seven days a week...gets fucking boring son.' But there was nothing like that care free nature that I saw when he spoke that remark, but a face that looked as if it had been carved right out of granite, 'At ease soldier... I'll be doing most of the sitting for this one; Mr.Ali here will give you the briefing.' 'Thank you General Gates. Well here's how it is Maj. Khan. We had recently sent a recon squad to Lv.396 about 1 month ago and regular reports were coming in. But on one sorte, pardon me fly by, over one of their surveyed sites, communications with them was lost abruptly. However out of the squad of 6, the life signs of all 5 human troops are still coming in fine. All we need from you and your boys is a simple retrieval. The specs are in the file that will be dispatched to you shortly. That is all.'
With that they all got up and left, with the exception of Ali who was still in the room when I left, it all seemed to blunt. None of the usual hyperbole that was expected from the AARC's leaders... I got the file later; near lights out. It seemed simple enough, the co- ordinates of the last communication with the squad was there along with the names and profiles, but it was always the simple mission that was the dangerous one...it could get complicated far too easily. The boys and I would be leaving tomorrow.
Chapter 1: Part 2: From bad to worse
'Nick you tosspot!! How many times does a guy have to tell you one simple
thing LEAVE MA GUN ALONE DAM IT!! ?'
'Vell? Vhat did I do wrong to harm your precious little toy this time
Brooklyn? Did I hurt her?' CorperalNicolai Alexander, A.K.A Nick knew very well what he did wrong, we had all learnt by now not to touch Private Brooklyn's ancient Mini-Gun. It was his most precious possession, his talisman, and he would tell us repeatedly at times like this how many times it had saved his life back during the 'Hive Wipe' days
That was almost 13 years ago. He was literally just a kid when I found him, clutching that gun close to him while cowering in a corner. The poor kid lost all that mattered to a 12 year old that day, just because some suits wanted to spend less time actually surveying the area for possible hives and more to getting those Atmos up it was a helluva mess for the grunts to clean up...
'O.K kids, can we grow up a bit now? It won't look good if the USCM's finest argue like a bunch of pre-pubescent punks now would it?' Funnily enough this shut both of them up, not the words per say but rather from whom they came. Lieutenant Briggs was 12 years my junior, but she was quite young for her rank, in this line of work anyway. She was described by most Marines as a 'Hot Ride' and very few disagreed with that statement, except her of coarse who found it rather degrading.
I kept my opinions to myself in such matters but at 26,5ft 5 with pitch black and almond eyes along with her Japanese blood, you first thought when meeting her would be something like this' What the hell is a girl like that doing here, where xenomorphic related deaths are what we are 'famous' for?' Regardless of such things, the male members of Ravager Squad respected her as a women and a highly capable soldier specializing with the Sledgehammer sniper-rifle.
'Major, we're nearing the site of the reported disturbance.' I thanked Sergeant Collins for the update. Collins, now here was a guy who I could give naught but a combat knife and still get the results expected even in the most strenuous missions. He'd been piloting the drop ship 'Death Wish' since I could remember. From his appearance the only thing that would tell you that Rodrigo Collins had ever gone head to head with the big ass bugs would be a rather unsightly scar running across his neck that was usually hidden by his Teflon armor. Apparently he'd had ignored USCM protocol at one point and gotten too close to an Alien in its death rolls. The damn thing clawed him through his jugular and only a synthetic implant had saved him and even that just narrowly.
So here we all were, Rodrigo Collins, Mick Brooklyn, Nicolai Alexander and Masami Briggs, and I. I'm forgetting two are I not? Of coarse, there were our two synths. One was the very same one that 'donated' an artery to Collins in the bygone days, his model name was LU-1AB, but we just called him Lu, he was a first in a new line of combat synthetics. The other was one from the company. Quiet type, his job was weapon maintenance particular attention given to the Exos and their 'Box Guns'.
Then, right then, the fun began....BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!! Something hit our ship, and hit it hard. We were losing altitude fast and at this speed we'd be one great big fireworks show when we hit the ground. 'FUCK FUCK FUCK!!! Come on baby work with me! Sir there's no way around it we gotta bail and bail fast!' A quick look told me my troops were unharmed, small miracle as the blast had ripped apart the hull meters from there seats. No shrapnel either... from the looks of it, it was a Plasma Pulse, hard hitting but obviously not meant to incinerate us in mid-air. 'Right boys and girl looks like were getting of our ride a little earlier then expected so you all know the drill! Take the light ignore the all-too-heavy! MOVE!!' Even now I felt pride as my unit moved, we were plummeting from 60 thousand feet turbulence and all and yet they all did what they were told perfectly, one reason why I loved the Corp...
This all took 9 seconds, but time had a habit of coming to a crawl in front of your eyes, every sound echoed, movements were taking place on a frame-by- frame basis. On second eleven we had all evacuated and were in the air swallowing the artificial yet glorious air, the motion of breathing told you that you were still alive...yet. All this joy left me when I looked across to my team and saw that they're faces were those of the deepest panic, and they were looking down upon where we were about to land right, at the site of a Hive...and by the looks of it, the occupants had come out to see what all the commotion from beyond was all about. 'Great. Fucking Great...any ideas Sir before we plunge to our horrible brutal deaths?!' The Irish in Collins meant that we were gonna be treated to a lot more of his more colorful language for the duration of the mission, which looked like from here, that it wouldn't be too long.
Justice by the Blade Prologue
USCM Mission Data Base Entry No: 012-32-DAS Registering Officer: Maj.Khan, Jacob of Ravager Squad Current Date:8/9/2098 Details of Entry: Regarding Incident on the 2/9/2098 Location: Sector 4/12A Lv-396
Report of (sole) survivor(s): Classified Nature of Incident: Classified Level 13 or Higher Clearance Required
Survivors: 3/7
Now here was an interesting number... 3...just 3... from those seven. Four of those men and women were my only family for almost how long was it...? 12 years? 13 maybe? The other 3...you'll know soon enough The past has a way of extending without you really knowing it. One minute you're six, riding your bike, stabilizers and all, the next you riding a bigger version to the local High... Ironic that just 48 hours of my past has more an effect on me then my 38 years as a living being...and that it's almost too painful to even recall it...but I have seen many men, good men, waste away by keeping their worst experiences to them selves... The local computer hacks finally deciphered the 'Text' we found. This is what they came up with...Sort of shed alotta light on the whole thing...
Shan' Ri Clan Hunting ground. Here a member of my clan lost all dignity. He was lowered to the detestable level of poaching and the murder of a fellow
clan member to cover up his crime.But the Council of Ancients saw him for
what he was and set me loose to
Punish the degenerate for the shame brought by him upon our clan.
Their words, not mine.
I have known him for a long time, since my youth days in the harsh
training fields... He is not one with such a weak mantle as to descend to poaching, let alone
murder.
Something does not seem right with this order.
I'll have to remain vigilant in order to obtain the answers.
My honed Instincts tell me that they will reveal themselves of their own
accord
It seemed I was not the only one about to have a really shitty day in front of me, small universe really.
Chapter 1: Entering the Gator's Mouth
It was the same dream again, in it I reach for her, she reaches for me, my heart beating loud as a parade drum but to the pace of an Irish dance tune...but once again an irksome little noise shatters the whole image before the old gray matter can get to the real good stuff. BLING BLING BLING! 'Damn, sometimes I really hate my job...ON!' One word and the Comm. Set was on...wonders of modern conveniences.
'Sorry to bother you this early Major but we have a situation and you better get to the Bridge ASAP. The boys of AARC are involved in this one...''Oh shit...Great, our friendly rivals.' I had been a Commander once in Asia's Armed Response Corp. Back then it was still young and I hadn't thought much of it and decided to quit, albeit too early. Youth pride I suppose...
AARC had some of the best minds in its labs, and weapons to rival, and best even those of the USCM. They were setup a short time after the first encounters with 'them'. They were the flavor of the past 15 years or so. Apparently more efficient than us as they had the lowest numbers of casualties after the missions were completed, and their civi rescue number kicked the crap out of ours any day. But one thing they still lacked that the USCM had, and that was far more experience in the field of the xenomorph. Probably the one and only reason I left them in the first place.
Ordinary sleep, what a privilege...poor grunts were luck to catch any at all between on site exercises, hyper sleep can be a drag... On the way I passed the cafeteria, most of my squad was there, guzzling down the crappy excuse for coffee that was somehow always freely available, the coffee usually reminded me of the AARC, theirs was grade-A shit as I recall. They treated me to a couple off half assed salutes, except from Ms.Briggs which was more of a wave and a smile than anything else.
My first surprise of the day was a stranger in the elevator he was dressed in standard USCM garb, but something about him wasn't right. His body language told me he was agitated, like he was about to say something he really shouldn't...which turned out to be the truth. 'Major Khan, I have a message for you, regarding your next Op.' 'Really? From who?' "I'm afraid that my employer wishes to remain anonymous...' There was the first sniff of a conspiracy...employer? Whoever this guy was I sincerely doubted that he was in any way connected to us, or they AARC. 'Well let's hear it Mr....? 'My name is unimportant, and don't bother running my face through a data base check, its false aswell as this voice.' 'Well you've certainly gone through a lot of trouble for just a message soldier; you are a soldier aren't you? He continued on ignoring my question and this so-called message turned out to be more of a morbid warning. Apparently, 'all is not as it seems', his words in a nutshell, and that to regard details given by the Company as...incorrect. When the elevator came to a stopped and I got out I realized that I was now unprepared for the mission, and according to him, if he was a him, that the briefing from the Brass wouldn't prepare me either, and no way was I gonna take me squad out on a possible Dead zone just because the Intel was a load of crap... or a possible lie. I'd have to play it my way if we have to, to get some real answers. Drawing my hand taser, I circled with the air of merely needing to say something... he was gone.
A quick check confirmed my thoughts; he'd gone through the vents. I knew tighter security shoud've been placed on them. But another thing bugged me, this guy was obviously a Pro, escape route all planned out. We'll probably have some electronic interference any minute now, some alloy chaff to disrupt the security... I didn't worry; if he was here to inflict harm on us he would've done it by now.
On the bridge Capt.Masako greeted me. Next to him stood the 2 of the '6'. The founders and Generals of the AARC. Kenji Misumia, Ali Mustapha and Tokichiro Kasama. 'General Gates is in the briefing room now sir. Once you enter we can proceed. When I entered I gave my best, stiffest salute to Gates. For an old guy, he was still as tough as nails and could still wipe the floor with some of the young guns down at the Gym or evening the Training Simulations, he told me once that becoming a general was one of the worse things to happen to him,' The one thing worse than getting your jewels either bitten or melted off, is having to see them lie between yaw' legs on a chair for 24 hours straight seven days a week...gets fucking boring son.' But there was nothing like that care free nature that I saw when he spoke that remark, but a face that looked as if it had been carved right out of granite, 'At ease soldier... I'll be doing most of the sitting for this one; Mr.Ali here will give you the briefing.' 'Thank you General Gates. Well here's how it is Maj. Khan. We had recently sent a recon squad to Lv.396 about 1 month ago and regular reports were coming in. But on one sorte, pardon me fly by, over one of their surveyed sites, communications with them was lost abruptly. However out of the squad of 6, the life signs of all 5 human troops are still coming in fine. All we need from you and your boys is a simple retrieval. The specs are in the file that will be dispatched to you shortly. That is all.'
With that they all got up and left, with the exception of Ali who was still in the room when I left, it all seemed to blunt. None of the usual hyperbole that was expected from the AARC's leaders... I got the file later; near lights out. It seemed simple enough, the co- ordinates of the last communication with the squad was there along with the names and profiles, but it was always the simple mission that was the dangerous one...it could get complicated far too easily. The boys and I would be leaving tomorrow.
Chapter 1: Part 2: From bad to worse
'Nick you tosspot!! How many times does a guy have to tell you one simple
thing LEAVE MA GUN ALONE DAM IT!! ?'
'Vell? Vhat did I do wrong to harm your precious little toy this time
Brooklyn? Did I hurt her?' CorperalNicolai Alexander, A.K.A Nick knew very well what he did wrong, we had all learnt by now not to touch Private Brooklyn's ancient Mini-Gun. It was his most precious possession, his talisman, and he would tell us repeatedly at times like this how many times it had saved his life back during the 'Hive Wipe' days
That was almost 13 years ago. He was literally just a kid when I found him, clutching that gun close to him while cowering in a corner. The poor kid lost all that mattered to a 12 year old that day, just because some suits wanted to spend less time actually surveying the area for possible hives and more to getting those Atmos up it was a helluva mess for the grunts to clean up...
'O.K kids, can we grow up a bit now? It won't look good if the USCM's finest argue like a bunch of pre-pubescent punks now would it?' Funnily enough this shut both of them up, not the words per say but rather from whom they came. Lieutenant Briggs was 12 years my junior, but she was quite young for her rank, in this line of work anyway. She was described by most Marines as a 'Hot Ride' and very few disagreed with that statement, except her of coarse who found it rather degrading.
I kept my opinions to myself in such matters but at 26,5ft 5 with pitch black and almond eyes along with her Japanese blood, you first thought when meeting her would be something like this' What the hell is a girl like that doing here, where xenomorphic related deaths are what we are 'famous' for?' Regardless of such things, the male members of Ravager Squad respected her as a women and a highly capable soldier specializing with the Sledgehammer sniper-rifle.
'Major, we're nearing the site of the reported disturbance.' I thanked Sergeant Collins for the update. Collins, now here was a guy who I could give naught but a combat knife and still get the results expected even in the most strenuous missions. He'd been piloting the drop ship 'Death Wish' since I could remember. From his appearance the only thing that would tell you that Rodrigo Collins had ever gone head to head with the big ass bugs would be a rather unsightly scar running across his neck that was usually hidden by his Teflon armor. Apparently he'd had ignored USCM protocol at one point and gotten too close to an Alien in its death rolls. The damn thing clawed him through his jugular and only a synthetic implant had saved him and even that just narrowly.
So here we all were, Rodrigo Collins, Mick Brooklyn, Nicolai Alexander and Masami Briggs, and I. I'm forgetting two are I not? Of coarse, there were our two synths. One was the very same one that 'donated' an artery to Collins in the bygone days, his model name was LU-1AB, but we just called him Lu, he was a first in a new line of combat synthetics. The other was one from the company. Quiet type, his job was weapon maintenance particular attention given to the Exos and their 'Box Guns'.
Then, right then, the fun began....BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!! Something hit our ship, and hit it hard. We were losing altitude fast and at this speed we'd be one great big fireworks show when we hit the ground. 'FUCK FUCK FUCK!!! Come on baby work with me! Sir there's no way around it we gotta bail and bail fast!' A quick look told me my troops were unharmed, small miracle as the blast had ripped apart the hull meters from there seats. No shrapnel either... from the looks of it, it was a Plasma Pulse, hard hitting but obviously not meant to incinerate us in mid-air. 'Right boys and girl looks like were getting of our ride a little earlier then expected so you all know the drill! Take the light ignore the all-too-heavy! MOVE!!' Even now I felt pride as my unit moved, we were plummeting from 60 thousand feet turbulence and all and yet they all did what they were told perfectly, one reason why I loved the Corp...
This all took 9 seconds, but time had a habit of coming to a crawl in front of your eyes, every sound echoed, movements were taking place on a frame-by- frame basis. On second eleven we had all evacuated and were in the air swallowing the artificial yet glorious air, the motion of breathing told you that you were still alive...yet. All this joy left me when I looked across to my team and saw that they're faces were those of the deepest panic, and they were looking down upon where we were about to land right, at the site of a Hive...and by the looks of it, the occupants had come out to see what all the commotion from beyond was all about. 'Great. Fucking Great...any ideas Sir before we plunge to our horrible brutal deaths?!' The Irish in Collins meant that we were gonna be treated to a lot more of his more colorful language for the duration of the mission, which looked like from here, that it wouldn't be too long.