In the cargo hold sat four men. Three were armed to the teeth with various knives and small guns, and each clutched an M16. The fourth was a beast of man. He sat calmly against the cold metal interior wall of the chopper. Unlike the rest of his group he carried no weapons and he wore no body armor. Hairy muscled arms lay crossed across his broad chest.
The three other men all sat opposite him, wary of his reputation as a psychotic murderer. Not a one of them was glad to be working with Victor Creed, also known as Sabretooth. The fact that he wore a special collar device that would shock him into unconsciousness and pump his body full of sedative drugs if he tried anything devious was of no consolation to them.
Sabretooth was a former member of the Weapon X program, a government funded venture that turned him and several other mutants into formidable killing machines to do their dirty work. It was in this program that he met Wolverine, his mortal enemy.
They were very similar, Sabretooth and Wolverine. Both possessed a mutant healing ability and hyper senses. Both had the indestructible metal adamantium grafted to every bone in their bodies by the Weapon X scientists. While on the exterior they were similar, they couldn't be more dissimilar. Sabretooth was a killer, a vicious, relentless slaughterer. He'd embraced the beast within himself. Sabretooth had been involved in many ventures in his life, all extremely violent in nature. And now he was back in the armed forces, working against his will in a black ops team for the United States government.
According to Sabretooth's briefing his current mission was extremely classified. Apparently a ship of extraterrestrial origin had crash-landed in the middle of a huge forest and this team was to secure the crash site and wait for further instructions. Sabretooth was sure the government knew more than they told the team. His briefing had included extra instructions not included in the three other men's briefings. "Should any member of your team be infected with a foreign contagion, they must be terminated. If possible, retrieve an alien specimen." Sabretooth knew his collar device monitored his life-signs, and he was sure that if he was infected with whatever this contagion was the men monitoring him in some room in Washington would push a button and pump him full of deadly poison so quickly that his healing factor wouldn't be able to keep up. The reason his orders contained these extra instructions was also obvious: If something were to go wrong, Sabretooth would almost certainly not be the first to die, if at all. He'd come out of fights that no regular person would have survived under any circumstances. Sabretooth was also the only member of the team who would have no problem killing the other members.
As the helicopter drew near to Landscape, Sabretooth suddenly leaned forward and stared out of the chopper. He leaned back and grinned. Sharply pointed teeth punctuated the malicious grin.
"What're you so happy about?" Jenkins, one of the soldiers across from Sabretooth, inquired cautiously. Jenkins was the leader of the operation, or so he thought. Sabretooth gazed back down at the forest. They were right on top of the down ship now. It was half-buried in the ground, jutting up past the tallest trees. Black smoke pumped out of the craft and several surrounding trees were burning. He could smell dead people, dead aliens, and things he couldn't wait to clash with. And yet, there was that old familiar scent. Wolverine.
Sabretooth turned his hairy head to Jenkins. "Just excited, sir." His voice was animalistic, a growl just barely tamed. He locked eyes with Jenkins and grinned widely. He must have looked might fierce to his commanding officer. "I been killin' humans so long I'm wonderin' what it'll be like to tear up some extra terrestrials."
Jenkins nodded slowly. "Don't you want a weapon, Creed?"
Sabretooth could tell that Jenkins thought he was crazy. Hell, Jenkins was probably right. "My weapons are right here, sir." He held up his clawed hands and bared his wolf-like teeth. "You play with your toys." He motioned toward the M16 that Jenkins clutched. "I'll play with mine."
Jenkins snorted. "Mutants." He glanced at the other two soldiers to his left and right. They smiled weakly and avoided Sabretooth's gaze.
Barnett, who sat to Jenkins' left, was a thickly built black man. A gristly beard covered his face. Bored eyes glanced lazily to and fro. Barnett didn't talk much. When Sabretooth first met Barnett, he thought he was mute or something. Then, when Jenkins was nowhere to be seen, Barnett had turned to Sabretooth and said, "Fuckin' bastard." He had Sabretooth's respect.
Lyle sat to Jenkins' right. He was a full head shorter than Jenkins, who wasn't very tall in the first place. Sabretooth had nicknamed him Runt. Apparently Runt was good for something. He was in a Special Forces team, after all. Sabretooth suspected he was some kind of genius. The night before the current mission, when Sabretooth, Runt, Jenkins, and Barnett were eating dinner, Runt had attempted to start a conversation. "Did you guys know that the billionth digit of Pi is nine?" He had blurted to break the silence.
The pilot's voice came over the earpiece in Sabretooth's ear. "I'm bringing her down fifty meters from the crash site. Radio for extraction when the mission is complete." The helicopter began its descent very suddenly, causing the three soldiers to grab what they could to support themselves. Sabretooth laughed gruffly and howled like a wolf about to give chase to his prey. The killing would soon begin.