Author's Note: If this chapter seems vaguely familiar, you're imagining it… … No, you're not. We apologize that you have to read this event again, as it was a one shot over in The Minivan Escapades. Please read this anyway, as it WILL be different. This is version 2.14159! More filling! With less trans fats!

Disclaimer: *drooling* If only…

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Chapter Three: The Plan Goes Horribly Awry

Bouncing along, Evie kept a hand close to the radio transmitter. The two were both anxiously waiting for a response of some kind to their flare. Theta team had been in charge of setting off a responding flare, but it had been half an hour and there had been nothing. Marie was gripping the wheel tightly, getting more and more afraid as the sun finished setting.

Evie didn't bother trying to reassure her friend. Nothing would be able to. Not while the Xenomorphs were still out there.

Marie's left eye was twitching wildly, hands clenching and unclenching, teeth grinding. "Evie… There's been no response. Let's just leave. We have plenty to last the winter. We don't need whatever the caravans were going to give us."

Evie shook her head. "We need to find out about Bossman and Chatter. Put them down if we need to."

"But it's nighttime! Those spiders could be anywhere and we would never know it! PLEASE Evie! I can't stand this!"

Evie felt bad seeing the pure terror on her partner's face. Marie had been afraid of the dark BEFORE there had actually been anything out to get them. It was sad how much Marie had changed. Evie shook herself out of that train of thought. It wasn't Marie's fault.

"Evie?"

Those green eyes looked at her, worried. Evie smiled. "Look, I know you hate driving at night, or doing ANYTHING at night, but we need to stick with the plan. Maybe Theta team got taken out, but Alpha and Beta could still be alive and need our help. We need to get in radio range and see what's what, okay?"

Marie nodded, returning her gaze to the front as the red lit headlights glowed in the dark. Evie kept a careful watch as well. Several more minutes passed in silence. The two jumped and screamed as the radio crackled to life, Marie accidentally making the car swerve wildly in her fright. Evie caught her breath, reaching down to pick up the hand set.

A voice came through the radio. "Alpha to Herrings. This is Alpha Chatter, roger roger! Over!"

Evie sighed. "Herring Two, here, Chatter. What's your status? Over."

"Single! And looking for a lovely woman to share my life with. Over."

Marie shook her head as Evie giggled. "I think you're going to have that status for a good long time, Chatter. Now, in all seriousness, WHAT IS GOING ON? Over."

There was a pause over the radio waves before Chatter returned. "Well, Herring Two, we seem to have hit a small SNAFU. Over."

"You WOULD make a rhyme. What's your SNAFU? Over."

"You see, we've lost contact with Theta. They are MIA, assumed D-E-D. And that, my lovely ladies, is because you missed at LEAST half the horde. Over!"

Marie glared at the radio set, flipping the bird in its general direction. Evie smiled. "Herring One does NOT appreciate the implications of that statement. Over."

A different voice came through the hand set. "All right, enough flirting, you morons. Herrings, we need your assistance. Over."

Evie sat up, alarmed. Bossman NEVER did communications. "What's up, Bossman? Over."

"We need you to be part of a pincer strike against the Xenos. They've got us pinned up against Bobbie's Cliff. Since Theta is gone, we need you two to take its place and help Beta get us out of here. Over."

"We're still a ways away. How much longer can you all last? Over."

Bossman sounded grim. "About an hour, give or take. We've already lost three men. And Chatter is tied up at the com. Over."

Before the radio signal broke, a scream came through, making Marie and Evie jump once more. Evie immediately radioed back. "What the HELL was that? Over!"

"Just loss number four. I TOLD them to look up. Why don't they EVER look up? Especially when we're up against a cliff! Of COURSE the Xenos are going to climb down it. They're sneaky bastards. Over."

Evie sighed. "Look, give us twenty minutes, give or take, depending on Marie's driving and if we run into anything on the way there. Make sure Beta waits for us. Over."

"Will do. Good luck, Herrings. Over."

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The woods whipped by as Marie put the pedal to the metal. Evie clung to whatever she could, trying to get the weapons and packs ready at the same time. A fight was bound to happen. Best to be prepared.

Evie looked over, having heard a particularly vicious bout of teeth grinding. "Marie, seriously, you need to relax. We're going to be fine."

"I TOLD you not to take this job! I TOLD you! I don't like this AT ALL."

Evie was about to try reassuring her comrade, when she caught the barest flicker of motion from in front of them. Her eyes widened as she saw a group of Xenomorphs loitering in the middle of the road ahead of them. "MARIE! VELOCIRAPTOR ATTACK!"

Marie promptly whipped the car into reverse, narrowly avoiding the two other groups of Xenos that came charging at the sides of the van. As the car zoomed backwards, Evie popped open the sun roof window and began firing into the group of thirty odd monsters. She ducked back down into the vehicle to reload. "We don't have time for this! I'm going to use the grenades. Be ready to break the line when they go off."

Marie glanced over. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Anything within hearing range will come running. I don't want to risk drawing any more of these things to us."

Evie finished attaching the under mounted grenade launcher to her gun. "We don't have any other choice. We HAVE to get through here to get to Alpha. Besides, maybe we can draw some of the heat off of them."

Marie nodded, hand on the gear shift. Evie shot back through the roof, throwing two grenades to either side of the black pack charging them, urging them closer together. She then took aim with her grenade launcher and shot into the center of the mass.

The ensuing explosion was enough to make a small hole in the horde and Marie took her chance, switching to drive and forcing the car forward, dodging past the reeling beasts. One was still coherent enough to lunge, latching onto the side of the vehicle, sending Marie into fits.

"AAGH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GOOONEERSS!"

Evie would have rolled her eyes, but she was too busy leaning out the window and hitting the Xenomorph on the head with the butt of her gun, trying to dislodge the tenacious creature. "You heard the lady! GET OFF THE CAR!"

When her head bashing tactic failed, Evie scrambled away from her window and into the back, where the beast had its claws dug through the side. Evie began attempting to pry the talons loose, with little luck. She snarled in frustration. "These stupid things and their stupid acidy blood and our inability to shoot them while they're on the car!"

The monster had almost reached the open front window. It unlatched one of its front arms, reaching into the passenger side, when it was introduced, rather painfully, to a cement pylon at the start of a bridge. It was torn loose, taking a chunk of the passenger side door with it as it fell down the cliff face to its death.

Evie got back into the front, reloading her weapons, looking over at Marie. Marie was quiet. Too quiet. It was at this point that Evie got terribly worried. "Marie? Sweetie, Marv will be able to fix Goners. Goners has gone through a lot worse and come out fine."

This did not reassure Marie. She slowly turned her head towards Evie, in a manner reminiscent of The Exorcism. The blank, green stare did less to reassure the lanky woman of her safety. Marie smiled, the same smile that serial killers made before they killed their next victim. "Evie… Isn't it YOUR job to make sure no spiders get on the car? I think it is. Now, why ever did you let one TEAR A CHUNK OUT OF GONERS?"

Evie tried to defend herself. "HEY! Next time I'll drive and YOU can try and get the damn things off without damaging the car! See how easy it is!"

Marie sniffed haughtily. "YOU don't have a driver's license."

Evie wanted to slap Marie, but she threw her arms up instead. "What does that even have to DO with anything? There's no one around anymore who cares about that shit!"

"I care! And so does Goners. Don't you, Goners? You don't LIKE being driven by AMATEURS. No you don't!"

"Stop talking to the car!"

The two continued bickering for a bit before lapsing into sullen silence, each believing they were right and the other wrong. Evie gazed out the window, watching for any further side attacks, when she looked down the hill. Gasping, she swept up her weapons. "MARIE! Stop the car!"

Marie hit the brakes, whipping her head back and forth. "Where are they? How many? Don't let them get Goners!"

Evie opened her door and began down the hillside, into the tree line. "I think I saw a kid being chased by a Xeno. I'm going after it. There may still be time to save it."

Marie yelled after her. "EVIE! We don't have time! Don't be a hero! You told me that rule!"

Waving over her shoulder dismissively, Evie kept advancing into the darkness. Marie clambered out of the van, clutching her gun, inching closer to the edge of the road. "EVIE! Don't go down there! Please! Don't leave me! I don't want to be alone! EVIE!"

The short haired woman sighed, feeling guilty at causing Marie so much more stress. She didn't know how much Marie could take anymore. "Look, I'll be fine. Just stay at the car and I'll be right back. Alpha team can hold out for a couple of minutes more. They're tough."

Marie whimpered as Evie vanished into the dark. The bespectacled woman paced back and forth, still anxiously calling out after her friend. Looking from the van to the forest and back again, Marie got the car off the road and hidden, grabbed her own weapons, and charged after her comrade.

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Evie kept running, following the terrified screams of the child and the shrieks of the beast following it. She hoped she could make it in time. If only she could save the child…

A particularly awful yell filled the night air, followed by silence. Evie hoped it wasn't what she thought it was and she shot off, following the residual echo. She broke into the clearing and tried to keep the bile rising in her throat down.

The Xenomorph was busy tearing chunks out of the small body. It swallowed those pieces whole, going back and digging out more with its teeth and claws. The face of the little boy was towards her, staring at her with unseeing blue eyes. She wanted to cry. The boy looked too much like her own brother.

Evie readied her weapon, pushing the awful thoughts from her head, pushing them down and locking them away, just like always. It was the only thing keeping her sane. The Xenomorph looked up, hissing and snarling and she was ready to give it her best, when 300 odd pounds of pure killing power thudded into her back from the tree tops.

Claws tore at her pack, trying to reach the soft flesh of her body. She tried to get away, but the new Xenomorph just kept lifting her and slamming her to the ground. Evie felt lucky that she'd avoided breaking any bones so far. She wished she hadn't been so quick to leave Marie behind. This never would have happened with that paranoid lunatic guarding her back.

She scrambled for the knife in her boot, desperate to cut herself loose from her pack, when the weight was knocked away from her and she was sent flying. She struggled to sit up, feeling sick and dizzy, hating herself for getting such awful motion sickness so easily.

She found herself gazing upon the severed arm of the child, missing a few fingers and sizzling quietly as the acidic blood from the boy's killer ate through the corpse. Once again she kept herself from hurling, grabbing her gun, giving no thought as to how the first Alien had been killed. Dead was dead, she would worry about the rest later.

She stood, bringing the gun up. Evie looked around, spotting two black things fighting. One was clearly a Xenomorph, but the other just looked like a man in black armor. Evie quirked her head, watching the deadly fight. "Maybe I should invest in some armor… it could be helpful. I'll work on that later."

She caught sight of movement behind her and she turned, dodging backwards as a tail lashed down, attempting to spear her. A third Alien had appeared, looking right at her. She adjusted her grip, baring her own teeth and hissing a warning.

Evie and her opponent watched each other, but the Xeno was clearly young and impatient. It threw itself forward, calling its challenge, ready to slaughter.

Evie grinned. This was EXACTLY the type of Xenomorph she liked killing best. Good to get them when they're young and stupid, before they got any smarter. As the beast bound towards her, she readied her shot. She was low on her armor piercing rounds and had to make sure all of her shots counted.

Breathing deeply, she calmed herself and stilled, waiting for the perfect opportunity. The Xeno reared up, ready to bring its claws down and rend her to bits. She pulled the trigger, sending it into the torso of the monster and she darted away.

It howled, writhing from the burning mass of expanding metal in its chest. Evie smiled a wicked grin. "I MUST remember to thank Marie for the hollow point suggestion. They really do so much more damage."

The beast stood on shaky legs, still snarling. Sighing, Evie brought up her weapon again. They never gave up. It ran for her again and this time she meant to put it out of its misery inducing existence. She crouched low, knowing it would try leaping at her from above. If she could just hit that sweet spot right under the jaws…

It did just as she predicted and she pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. Overkill, but she had to make sure. The bullets went right through and she rolled away, trying to avoid the blood splatter. Unfortunately she didn't move quite fast enough and her left leg was caught in the deadly rain of blood. Crying out in pain, she sliced the fabric away from her, to keep any more of the blood from eating through her skin.

Gazing down at the burning, sizzling meat of her calf, Evie winced, knowing that it would scar, just like all the others did. She stood, trying not to cry. "I feel pretty, so goddamned pretty…"

She turned to face her rescuer. He had easily finished off three of the monsters on his own and was doing something to the bodies.

Some noise she made must have startled him, because the man stood and turned to face her. He had on a strange mask. She rested her gun on her shoulder. "Hey, thanks for the help. And the armor and mask? Great ideas. How well does it stand up to the acid?"

As the man moved closer, Evie squinted in the dim light. It was at this point she realized that, what she had taken for armor, was actually his SKIN. Her blue eyes widened in horror, looking up at a man, a monster?, easily a head taller than her and much stronger. She took a step backwards. "Oh, goddamn it all."

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Marie cursed as she tripped over a rock and tumbled down the rest of the hill. Coming to a stop, she shook her head and stood, turning towards where she assumed the offending clump of mineral was. Stomping her foot, she proceeded to unleash the full magnitude of her foul language upon it.

"AND A POX UPON THE TONGUE OF YOUR FIRST BORN!" She panted, thoroughly annoyed and afraid. She took deep breaths, wanting to calm down. She forced herself to remember that noisy people ended up dead more often than not.

She heard crackling in the trees and pivoted, swinging up her sawed off shot gun and blasting a hole through the torso of a lunging spider. It was thrown backwards and she cackled in delight. "Thought you could get the jump on ME, eh? Well, not today Mr. Spider! NOT. TODAY!"

It hissed at her, still able to move. She prepped her gun, aiming to take it out at the neck. "Don't worry, spider. This shouldn't hurt. Too badly."

Unfortunately, the wounded one was not alone. A second beast shot out from the trees, launching itself over the bleeding body of its comrade, tackling Marie and sending her to the ground. Marie went down, howling in anger, blocking the beast's mouths with the shot gun barrel.

It gnashed at her, claws scrabbling to get hold of her, tail lashing, puncturing the ground scant centimeters from her face. She snarled back, feeling her arms weakening from the strain of holding the powerful head back.

The spider reared away, ready to send its jaws down again, when Marie swung the butt of her shotgun, hitting it squarely in the face. This was enough to knock its head to one side, giving her enough of a chance to do a back somersault, landing in a defensive crouch.

She looked down at her gun and wanted to hurl it at the offending monsters. "You assholes! You bent my shotgun! I have lovingly cared for this gun since this all started! And now it's RUINED! You stupid bastards! I hate you! AND you're ugly!"

The spider she had thrown off ran for her, but unfortunately was run into by its bleeding comrade. The two went crashing down in a pile of flailing limbs and tails and Marie took her chance. Throwing away her ruined shot gun, she pulled out her G36 mid range rifle and put a few bullets into the fray, hearing a pained yowl.

One of the beasties rose and she determined that it was the second one to arrive. The first, the one with the shotgun hole in its chest, lay still, blood oozing, killing everything in its wake.

Ignoring the corpse, Marie and the remaining one circled each other. It was wary of her now and she was pleased to note that she had gotten a bullet through one of its back legs. The slower these things got, the more chance she had of surviving.

The two stilled, watching each other. Silence filled the clearing. It charged forward and Marie shot, keeping it at a distance. They returned to waiting, watching for an opening. An explosion of noise broke through the night and Marie turned, realizing too late what a mistake she had made. Turning back around, she pulled the trigger just in time to knock the beast out of its intended trajectory.

Blood flew and she yelped as some landed on her thick over shirt. She could already feel the heat eating its way through her many layers of clothing and she pulled out one of her multiple knives, slashing the burning fabric away before the acid got to anything important. Like internal organs.

She was fast enough to save all the important bits, but her right arm wasn't so lucky. A few drops managed to get on her arm as she hacked away the rest of the dangerous clothing and she whimpered, a few tears escaping as she finished getting rid of most of her upper layers of clothing.

She stood clad in a men's undershirt and watched as her opponent hissed at her, trying to stand, before falling back into a puddle of its own blood. She smiled a cruel smile, her face sharpening into something horrible. "That's right, mother fucker. DIE. Die slowly and painfully, just like my family did. SUFFER."

Finally, it breathed its last and Marie turned to grab the shot gun. Scowling, she knew she was too late. The blood from the last kill had enveloped the metal and wood, burning and destroying perfectly good scraps. "You fuckers. You WOULD do that. Just to piss me the hell off when you couldn't kill me. Well, FINE. BE that way. I didn't need that scrap metal ANYWAY."

Turning on her heel, she stormed into the trees, cursing the spiders, the world, the limited ammunition and weapons supply and Evie, for insisting on running into this god forsaken forest. She heard the screams of Xenos from somewhere in front of her and she charged forward, breaking through the trees and into a clearing.

On the opposite side of the clearing was a man, kneeling on the ground, surrounded by spider bodies. Even kneeling she could tell he was NOT of average size. He was easily two or three times as broad as she was, and she wasn't exactly slim of build. Some sort of dreadlocks hung behind him, pulled into a ponytail. The rest of his ensemble seemed to consist of fishnets and a loincloth. Marie shrugged. To each their own. If he could kill spiders, who was she to judge what he wore?

She counted five full bodies easily, and some bits and pieces of others. Gazing at the massive amount of destruction, she heard a strange squelching noise. Looking up, her jaw dropped as the man tore the head of the spider off and forcibly removed its skull.

She wasn't sure whether to cheer or hurl. She decided that perhaps she should make herself known. She really didn't want to be mistaken for one of the spiders by this guy. "Hey! Hello! Huge guy over there! Hi! How ya doing?"

The man stood, whirling about, dropping the skull and pulling a strangely shaped, but LARGE, hammer from behind his back. She took a step away. "Oh, fuck a mother fucker."

She'd thought he'd just been way too into self tanning and had wound up that odd shade of reddish brown. But no amount of self tanner could turn normal skin into something resembling SCALES. The man looked at her, before roaring and charging towards her. Marie brought up her gun, and fired wildly.

Most of the shots went far afield, hitting trees or the already dead bodies of the spiders. Only one hit the man's head, ricocheting off the mask he wore with a ping. The man stopped and seemed to be startled, touching a hand to his mask, before charging forward again.

Pulling the trigger once more, a click resounded throughout the small forest space. Marie's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Oh, no you didn't, you bitch!"

Before she could fling anymore insults at her gun, the strange man grabbed her injured arm, hauling her off her feet. The grip on her arm sent her into spasm of pain, screaming and flailing and crying. The man ignored the ruckus, carefully observing the gun still clutched in her hand.

Marie gasped, gripping the gun even tighter. Her voice was raspy with pain. "You can take my home, you can take my world, but you CAN'T HAVE MY GUN!"

Her continued yelling seemed to make the man thing curious and he lifted her further, so that she was face to face with the mask. It vaguely reminded her of the knight helmets of Medieval times with its vertical slashes. The two stared curiously at each other for several minutes.

Apparently growing bored of looking at her face, the creature began looking the rest of her over. When its head stopped at a certain angle, Marie recalled that she was wearing a very thin, poorly cut tank top that revealed some of her bra.

Blushing, she squealed in outrage, flailing more while trying to cover her chest. "YOU JERK! Don't you be looking there! My face is up HERE! I'mma slap a ho if you don't stop right now!"

He ignored her and continued his perusal of her rather ample torso. Shrieking, Marie swung her free arm and backhanded the thing's head, the brass knuckles on her hand adding enough force to the slap that the mask was knocked askew.

The thing started and dropped her, reaching up to fix his mask. Wincing at the landing, Marie wished that her butt was more thoroughly padded, like it used to be. Marie got up and ran, vanishing into the trees as a strange blast shook through the area. She took off towards the van, praying that Evie had found her way back to it.

She looked back and caught the barest glimpse of the strange red… THING running a different direction, towards wherever the sound had come from. "Thank goodness for small favors."

She ran on, then slowed, mind finally shifting through what she had seen. Gulping, she took off again, muttering to herself. "I did NOT see a mandible, I did NOT see a mandible, I DID NOT SEE ANYTHING STRANGE!"

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Evie and the strange man stared at each other, scant yards separating them. Evie's mind was running on autopilot and all she really wanted to do was get the hell out of dodge. Slowly inching backwards, she began to ramble. "So, uh, yeah! Like I said, thanks for the save! I'm just going to, you know, go do. Stuff. Yeah. Important stuff. That you don't need to do. So, you just do whatever it is you're doing, like, over there and I'll just go this way and… Okay… Thanks. Good bye!"

She prepared to turn and run, when the thing flicked his wrist and two blades popped out. He ran forwards and Evie screamed, firing into his torso. One shot was deflected by the scanty chest armor that the creature wore but the next two hit solidly into his stomach. Vibrant green blood oozed from the holes, but he just kept coming!

Getting ready to fire again, the man reached her just as she pulled the trigger, hitting the barrel of the gun down and away from his central body mass. As the bullet flew, he roared as the bit of metal tore through his ankle, breaking a few bones before going out the other side. He stumbled back and Evie took her chance to run away as best she could, limping on her bad leg.

Panting from pain and exhaustion, Evie forced herself to keep moving. Marie was most likely waiting for her. She had to make it back. Marie couldn't survive if she didn't. She gasped at a particularly sharp jolt of pain, slowing her pace. "On the bright side, I crippled that thing, too. So, it's a race of the gimps!"

She pressed onwards and she noticed the trees thinning, more shrubs and grass appearing. Smiling, she sped up. "Almost… There! Hang on, Marie!"

Looking to her right, she spotted a trio of red dots following her. Realizing that being followed by red dots was NEVER a good thing, Evie threw herself to the ground just in time to avoid having her head blown off.

Instead, the blue blast hit a tree, shattering through it, sending debris and smoke all around as the once mighty pine fell, hitting the earth. Evie scrambled up, staying low, using the smoke as cover. Another blast went off behind her and she gave up limping, forcing her injured leg into motion as another, deeper, roar welled up behind her. "Whoever that is, I don't think I want to meet them!"

She made it up the hill and spotted Marie careening towards her. The trunk doors were open and Marie was yelling at her. "JUMP IN! I DON'T DARE STOP! YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT'S FOLLOWING YOU!"

Evie hurled herself after the van, landing and skidding inside as the doors began to close automatically. Rolling onto her back and sitting up, she heard a whirring noise and threw up her gun as a flash of light shot through the almost closed doors. The gun was knocked back into her head and the doors shut.

Whimpering, Evie rubbed the growing bump on her head. She looked down at the gun and her jaw dropped for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Stuck through the barrel of her gun was a shuriken like object, only much, much larger. Staring, she began to cry, realizing how close she had come to an ugly death.

Marie was driving even more wildly than normal; insistent on getting them the hell away from whatever the things were that had decided to chase them. As Evie got in the front, Marie tried to ignore the sobbing. It was hard to do when Evie tried to shove the gun in her face. Growling, the driver shoved the barrel away. "Damn it, Evie! I am TRYING to DRIVE here! In case you hadn't noticed, we need to get the FUCK AWAY FROM HERE!"

Evie just sobbed louder. "GUN! SHINY! POINTY! ALMOST IN FACE!"

Marie finally looked over and paled at the sight of the bladed weapon lodged halfway through the firearm. Hitting the gas pedal again, they tore away. Marie gripped the wheel, hunched over. "What the fuck? WHAT. THE. FUCK. WERE THEY?"

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Tvrtko and Dho'mago'te slowed their running, realizing they wouldn't keep up with the speeding machine. Tvrtko growled, muttering something distinctly rude about the fathers of the two Oomans. He sat down, pulling out his med pack.

Dho'mago'te stared after the fading dust cloud, only turning away at Tvrtko's roar of pain as the healing gel did its work on his ankle and gut. The large warrior knelt next to his friend. "Tvrtko? Are you well?"

Tvrtko hissed, putting away the healing supplies, then stood, testing the strength of his healing body parts. "I will be fine."

Dho'mago'te returned to staring, then sighed. "Did you meet one of the Oomans? I did! It was fascinating. I can't wait to write up all this new information. The research committee will be so pleased."

Tvrtko grumbled. "The one I met SHOT me. SEVERAL times."

Dho'mago'te just smiled. "I think mine dented my mask. A charming specimen."

"I WOULD have had her head for a trophy if you hadn't interfered, Dho'mago'te!" Tvrtko snarled, exceedingly angry to have been outrun by an injured Ooman. Even if he HAD been injured, it was inexcusable.

Dho'mago'te crossed his bulky arms. "Don't try and pin that on me! You tried to SHOOT me! What was I supposed to do? Thank you?"

"It was a perfectly good shot! You just bumbled your way into it!"

"That's a lie and you know it! She was on the ground at the time! I was in a tree! There is no way it was a good shot!" Dho'mago'te yelled back

Tvrtko growled, giving up. "Can we just go back to our ship now? You've got some new information, I'm sure it will be appreciated. We need to get to our hunting location!"

Dho'mago'te shook his head. "No, I want to do more research. These two are unlike any other Oomans that I have heard of. Even the one female brought in by Dachande. These two are different. They must be studied! For SCIENCE!"

"Damn you and your science! I'll go if you just stop saying that line!"

Grinning, the large Yautja turned towards where the females had run off to. "Then let's be off! We have a lot of catching up to do!"

The two cloaked themselves and ran off into the night, the darkness enveloping them easily.

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The van screamed along as Evie managed the radio. "Team Alpha! Come in! This is the Herrings! Over!"

She waited, hoping for the tell tale crackle of other units, before trying again. "Chatter! Bossman! Can you hear me? This is Herring Two! We've hit a major snag! We're trying to get in position! What's happening? Over!"

Finally, radio contact was reestablished. "Herring Two? Chatter here. Where you been all my life, darling? Over."

"Almost getting stabbed by new alien monsters. How about you? Over."

"Well, Team Beta is charging in as we speak. Over."

Marie began cursing the stupidity of people in general. Evie shushed her, turning back to the radio. "Well, fuck. We TOLD you to keep them back til we got there! They're just more kills now. What should we do? Over."

Another familiar voice came over, sounding far more exhausted and old than ever before. "Herrings, PLEASE come and rescue this situation. The leader of Beta died and the second in command, Dingo, decided he didn't want to listen to me anymore. Over."

Evie winced. "We'll do what we can, Bossman. Just hold on a little longer. We've got big news. Big, BAD news. Over."

"Save it until we're out of here. Over."

"Will do. Just hang on, Boss. We'll make it. You're all going to be fine. Over."

There was silence. "I hope you're right, Herring Two. I hope you're right. Over."