A/N – As promised, this chapter contains some more alien head-bashing!
Chapter 14 – Bug Hunting
Mount Taniquetil
Zion circled the Dropship over the city, looking for a suitable place to land. Every inch of the land within the high walls surrounding an enormous castle seemed to be occupied by a tent. Thousands of them. People poured out of the tents and were gathering together, pointing up at the vessel in amazement.
Sanchez shook her head from the seat behind Zion. "Shit, we're never gonna hear the end of it if they find out back home that we've totally railroaded over the directive."
"Hey, half a dozen people or ten thousand, what difference does it make now?" replied Zion.
"Don't land on top of anybody. Wouldn't be good for relations, you know."
Zion grinned and brought the Dropship lower toward the center of a large plaza, which seemed to be the only place unoccupied by a tent. People quickly scattered to get out of the way.
When the Dropship finally settled and the engines died down, the people began to gather again, excitedly pointing and discussing the strange hissing and steam-belching vessel that had appeared in the night sky.
As the ramp lowered, the people moved back once again, unsure of what to expect. Zion and Sanchez stepped out, followed by Thranduil and Arwen. The crowd went from low, uncertain whispers to all out cheering at the sight of the Elven king. He was most recognized by his attire and the crown of reeds on his head. Even those originally from Lothlorien or Imladris knew well the king of Mirkwood.
Zion nudged Sanchez with his elbow as they watched many of the people bowing before Thranduil. "Hail to the king, huh?"
There was further commotion in the crowd as someone pushed through.
When the crowd parted, Gandalf stepped forward, holding an illuminated white staff. He stopped in his tracks as he saw the Dropship and then again when he saw Thranduil. The Istar clasped arms with the Elven king. "Thranduil, I had not expected you…" Gandalf's eyes narrowed as they turned back to the Dropship. "…to be in such a vessel."
Thranduil grinned. "Neither did I, my friend."
The crowd parted once again and Elrond appeared. But his eyes were not on the Dropship or Thranduil. He looked upon his only daughter. "Arwen," he whispered.
Arwen rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck.
Elrond embraced her tightly, unable to contain the tears that flooded his eyes. "You should not have come," said Elrond, when he finally released her and held her at arm's length. "Tis not safe here. Your brothers…" he trailed off, not able to continue.
Gandalf watched the reunion briefly before turning back to Thranduil. "Have any others accompanied you?"
"Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and Ariedel. They are pursuing more of the creatures. Many have already been slain using this vessel, of which there happen to be two."
"Aye, I witnessed the destruction from afar. But I must inform you that there are more than two thousand of the creatures, for that is the number of Elves that were not accounted for. You must be aware that the creatures were birthed from the bodies of those here in Valinor."
"I am aware." Thranduil nodded with certainty. "Has everyone come here to the mountain?"
"There are others who found sanctity in Valmar," replied Gandalf. "The mountain was too far for them to trek and, as you can see, not everyone would have found a place for their tents."
Thranduil looked around, noting the number of tents in the immediate vicinity. Then he noticed Gandalf glancing toward the ship and he turned, following the Istar's gaze. "Tis my pleasure to introduce Master Zion and Lady Sanchez. They are…"
Gandalf interrupted with a smile. "From the stars. Aye, this I know."
The Alien Nest
Legolas was the first to arrive into the mammoth cavern that housed the alien queen. She had disengaged herself from her egg sack and was swinging her tail at Takashi. The others were shooting their weapons at the aliens that seemed to be pouring out from holes in the walls. Flares had been ignited and were lying on the ground. But they hardly gave off enough light to illuminate the entire interior.
Freak came up behind Legolas and didn't miss a beat. He immediately charged forward, a blaster in each hand, firing at the dark shapes as they attacked.
Screeching filled the air as the aliens were killed.
Legolas had his sights on the queen and he blasted the aliens coming at him as he ran around the piles of carcasses, avoiding the pooling acid blood. One came up to him from the right and he had just enough time to raise his pulse rifle as the creature parted its jaws. Legolas rammed the muzzle of the pulse rifle into its mouth and squeezed the trigger. The alien's head erupted acid blood from multiple bullet holes and Legolas scrambled backward to avoid the spray.
Coming up beside Takashi, who had ducked several times to avoid the swinging tail, the two of them together aimed and fired at the queen's left wing.
The alien queen screeched loudly, then swung her right wing at the assailants, knocking both Legolas and Takashi off their feet. She signaled for help and half a dozen drones came to assist her.
Legolas barely had enough time to stand before he was assaulted by three aliens. Takashi fired the smartgun strapped to his waist and Legolas rolled out of the way as the three aliens burst open, acid blood spraying in every direction. Lucky for him he had armor protecting his chest. He regained his feet and turned to launch a grenade from his pulse rifle toward a row of alien eggs just as they were beginning to open. The eggs exploded, sending a landslide of rocks coming down over them.
Lipinski was also armed with a smartgun and standing together with Takashi, they sprayed bullets at the openings in the walls, getting any of the aliens that were trying to emerge. A smartgun was capable of firing hundreds of armor-piercing rounds in a matter of seconds. Two of them did considerable damage.
Freak was trying to go into his pack to light up several more flares when a sound from above made him look up. He had just enough time to raise his blaster before an alien jumped on him from the ceiling. Its inner jaws shot out, missing his head by a fraction of an inch before something bowled over the alien, sending it rolling away. Freak stared with his mouth open at the white tiger that had saved his life. "Get out of the way!" he yelled at the tiger. Just as the tiger retreated from the furious alien, Freak fired his blaster at it.
Legolas scanned the chamber, looking for the alien queen. She seemed to have vanished in the dark recesses of the resin-covered cave walls. He instinctly reached behind him and unsheathed his long knife, while he held the pulse rifle strapped to his right shoulder.
There was an alcove in the wall, completely immersed in darkness. He edged closer to it, his ears cutting off every sound behind him to focus ahead. He squinted his eyes, trying to penetrate the blackness. Where are you? he asked in his mind.
Somewhere behind Legolas, Freak blasted alien after alien that came out of the holes in the walls. Alien bodies piled higher and higher until it was difficult for any others to emerge. Then Freak grabbed the flamethrower strapped to his shoulder and sent a line of flame across the piles of carcasses, setting them on fire and burning those still trying to come out of the walls. He turned the flame to the center where several more eggs were just starting to open.
Aragorn circled in place, finding no other targets to shoot at. His white tiger, Cail, had stuck close to his master's feet, guarding his back and alerting him of anything approaching. Then a sudden sharp pain seized Aragorn's ankle. When he looked down a pale serpent had sunk its teeth into his boot, all the way through to his flesh. Before he had a chance to do anything about it, Cail grabbed the snake-like chestburster in its jaws and thrashed it from side to side. Aragorn panicked. If Cail broke the chestburster's skin with his teeth, the acid blood would burn into his mouth. "Cail, leithia ha!" (release it)
The tiger immediately released his prey and Gimli came up from behind and swung his axe, cutting the creature in half. The Dwarf had spent many years forging mithril blades for his axes, which seemed impervious to the alien blood.
Even though the incident had only occurred within a matter of seconds, some damage had been done. The tiger suffered a touch of acid that ate into the side of his face. Aragorn tore a piece of his tunic off and wiped at it. It helped just enough to stop the acid from burning the tiger's flesh any further and quickly dissolved the rag. Aragorn inspected the rest of the tiger's face. He seemed to be fine, except for the burn on the left side of his face. Aragorn knew the tiger's fur would never grow there again.
Legolas edged closer to the dark alcove, pulse rifle aimed forward, long knife raised in his left hand. Suddenly he received a strange image in his mind. He was seeing himself moving forward, from another perspective. He realized that the queen was projecting the image, but he was too late to react as she charged out of the alcove toward him. With lowered head, she rammed into his chest with the force of a bulldozer, sending him flying across the chamber to land on several burning eggs.
Luckily Lipinski was there to pull Legolas off before the flames did any serious damage. "Are you all right, man?"
Legolas didn't answer. His eyes were focused over Lipinski's shoulder where he watched the queen's tail disappearing through the tunnel they had come in from. "The queen is escaping!" yelled Legolas, pointing to the passage and trying to ignore the intense pain in his chest.
Freak turned to Lipinski. "Loop, set a charge and let's get the fuck out of here!"
§
Ariedel finally managed to pull off enough of the resin to free Galadriel. "My lady, can you hear me?"
Galadriel moaned softly, but she was extremely weak.
Ariedel knew that Elves were a lot lighter than they looked, so she pulled Galadriel out of the wall and slung the Elf maid over her shoulder. Just as Ariedel turned with her load, she heard a familiar sound, followed by Rhovan's warning growl. "Rhovan, u-caro rinc." Ariedel slowly panned the beam of light around over the unopened eggs situated in the center of the chamber. The beam hit one that was just opening. She struggled with the beam and moved it to her other hand, as she tried to keep Galadriel from falling off her shoulder. With her right hand freed, she grabbed her pulse rifle and fired at the emerging facehugger. "Ed, ed!" she called out to Rhovan. (Do not move. Get out, get out)
Dragging Galadriel with her, Ariedel followed Rhovan out of the chamber. Behind her she could hear more of the eggs opening. The squishing, crackling sound was so distinctive that she could have picked it out if a crowd had been standing around cheering. She also knew that alien eggs were sensitive to the stress levels of living things around them so it wouldn't be long before more hatched.
Ariedel knew the entrance to the hive was close, but the clicking sound of pursuit was directly behind her. She had no idea how many facehuggers were chasing her, but she needed to get out in the open so she could get a good shot at them. And then the opening was up ahead. She saw Rhovan slide to a stop, his body facing the passage where the others had gone. He held his head low, teeth bared and was roaring aggressively at something, lashing out with his claws. She had never seen him behave in such a hostile way.
Then Ariedel heard it. A deep hissing, almost labored, like an antique steam train. She drew to a stop behind Rhovan and shined her beam to see what the tiger saw. The light illuminated a set of massive teeth. It was the alien queen. Ariedel backed out of the cave, trying to pull Rhovan with one hand, while holding Galadriel on her shoulder with the other. "Rhovan, tolo," she whispered. (come)
The queen took a cautious step forward and Rhovan obediently backed up with his mistress, intending to protect her with his life if it came down to it. But he continued to roar and lash out with his claws.
Ariedel needed to free her hands so she could get to her pulse rifle, but she didn't trust putting Galadriel down on the ground for a facehugger to get to her.
Once they were several feet out of the underground opening, Ariedel released Rhovan and pulled her pulse rifle free.
The queen emerged from the tight opening, straightening to her full height of fifteen feet and extending her wings. An army of facehuggers emerged from the cave, scrambling forward through her legs.
Ariedel aimed and fired at the facehuggers, picking them off one by one.
The queen screeched in rage and began to stumble forward toward Ariedel. Her left wing was perforated from blaster hits and her right leg was severely damaged. Before she could move forward, Rhovan blocked her path, lashing out in warning. The queen was momentarily distracted by the furious tiger. She snapped at him with her teeth, but the tiger avoided her.
Ariedel continued to kill the facehuggers and fired several shots at the queen's chest to keep her from catching Rhovan.
The queen screeched and forgot about the tiger. Then something blasted her from behind. In the next instant, she took to the air, flying off balance because of her damaged wing. But she still had enough power to stay above the ground.
Legolas charged out of the opening and continued to shoot his pulse rifle at the fleeing queen. When she was too far to hit, he dropped his weapon on the ground and ran toward his wife. "Ariedel!"
Ariedel gently lowered Galadriel to the ground just as Legolas came up, his hands on her face, looking her over from head to toe for injuries. "I'm all right," she finally said.
Legolas was gasping for breath and then he found himself falling to his knees, the pain in his chest almost unbearable. He knew from experience that more than one of his ribs were broken. But he considered himself lucky this time around. The queen could have done him more damage.
Ariedel went down on the ground with him. "Legolas…"
He shook his head. "I…I am fine."
A minute later Freak and the others came running out. "Everybody into the APC, on the double. This place is gonna blow in two minutes."
Ariedel helped Legolas back up on his feet while Aragorn picked up Galadriel. They all hustled to the APC. Ripley had the door already open.
As soon as everyone was inside and the door closed, Bishop stepped on the accelerator. Sixty seconds later the ground behind them erupted in flames shooting a hundred feet into the air. The earth trembled from the blast and some debris fell all around the APC as it continued back in the direction of the Dropship without pause.
Eldarion and Anwar had managed to walk almost a kilometer before they felt the earth shake and saw the flames erupting from the ground not far away. Both Elflings lost their balance and fell to the ground, unsure of what could have caused such an event. Eldarion tried to be the brave one. Afterall, he was thirteen while Anwar was only eleven. He felt that he needed to be the braver of the two as he scrambled over to Anwar to make sure she was unharmed.
Just then another sound reached their ears. They both poked their head up in time to see a strange vehicle pass them at great speed.
Eldarion quickly determined that it was the vehicle that had made the tracks on the grass, therefore the vehicle in which his father was in. He jumped up. "Wait! Stop!"
As Eldarion gave chase, Anwar jumped to her feet and followed him.
As the APC neared the Dropship, Freak glanced at everyone, visually inspecting them for injuries. Takashi had a bloody nose, which he refused to wipe. Lipinski had a shallow gash on his forehead that ran from his right eyebrow upward to his hairline. The Dwarf's beard was slightly singed and he fussed about it like a woman who had torn her best dress. Aragorn had some blood on his ankle and it dripped from his torn boot and down to the floor of the Dropship. Ariedel had some cuts and scrapes on her face, but nothing serious. Legolas also had a few scratches and was holding his chest as if he were in some kind of pain. His hair was also slightly singed. Besides the woman they had rescued, the only one that seemed to have suffered the worst damage was one of the tigers, the one that had saved his life. The left side of its face was missing fur and the skin beneath was charred and black, but Freak was glad to see that the acid hadn't made it to the tiger's eye.
"The queen got away," said Ripley, breaking the silence as her eyes roamed Freak's face.
Freak broke out of his thoughts and turned to her. "I know."
"She's wounded," added Ripley. "She'll be more dangerous."
"Think we were lucky enough to kill the alpha?" asked Lipinski, absently wiping at the gash on his forehead.
Freak shrugged. "I guess we won't know that until we kill every last one of them."
Ariedel frowned. "Can't your computer tell you if the alpha's still alive?"
Freak smiled without humor. "This isn't Lifesource, Princess. I don't have that kind of equipment. If it was sold in the market, I would have bought myself one of those scanners a long time ago. I'm lucky I've got a system that can pick up an alien signature. When we get back to the Dropship, all I can tell you is how many are still alive."
A few minutes later the ramp of the Dropship lowered upon receiving a signal from Bishop and the APC slid back inside. The ramp closed once again. Everyone exited the APC and took their seats back in the Dropship cabin. Aragorn placed Galadriel, who was still unconscious, beside Ariedel.
Freak took his seat at the controls and patched a signal to Zion. "Zee, are you there?"
"What took you so long, boss?" came Zion's reply over the com device.
"We found one survivor."
"Just one?" Zion sounded seriously disappointed.
Freak sighed heavily. "Yeah…just one."
"I heard the blast. Is everyone else okay?"
"We're alive, let's just leave it at that. You'll need to scrounge up the local doctor for the survivor. She's gonna need some medical attention."
"I'll talk to the man in charge here."
"We'll be there in a flash."
"I'm quivering with anticipation. Over and out."
Freak set the Dropship in motion and it lifted from the ground.
As the Dropship slowly headed in the direction of Mount Taniquetil, no one noticed the two young Elves running toward them, waving their arms, trying to get their attention. Their arms dropped when they realized the vessel was not going to return and the two Elflings slumped down on the ground, exhaustion finally claiming them.
Oh no…
1) Eldarion and Anwar are lost
2) Galadriel is hurt
3) Legolas is hurt
4) Dr Leland has something fishy up his sleeves (that was from the last chapter)
5) The alien queen escaped
Stay tuned til next week...