Kra'tak growled softly, feeling like a true hunter once again. He was now in full armour. Netting covered the exposed areas of skin that the armour didn't. The wrist blades were attached to his right arm.
His armour was heavily damaged, covered in his green blood with chunks of it missing or heavily dented. Kra'tak did not know what had happened to him. He had been on a ship when it had malfunctioned and crash landed on this planet. After that he did not remember anything until he awoke in this lab.
"You're lucky you didn't lose too much blood. We couldn't have done anything if you had" Tom said seeing Kra'tak looking over his bloody armour.
Kra'tak looked at him showing that he understood.
Amy just watched with interest. Another scientist stood speechless. He had been like that since Kra'tak had walked in without him being notified. Amy gave him a comforting look hoping it would relax him.
The spear gun was slung over his shoulder, much like a human would hold a rifle when not in use, Tom had noticed.
The disc was attached to his armour at the waist and he held his closed spear in his hand.
Kra'tak had gone over his equipment thoroughly. His spear, disc, wrist blades, net launcher were all fine.
His other equipment however was damaged.
He placed the helmet onto his face. The helmet hissed as steam was released from the sides of the helmet as it locked into place. Kra'taks naturally red vision turned to heat vision. The scientists glowed a bright warm mixture of red and orange while the rest of the room was colder shade of green and blue.
The helmet itself was heavily damaged with holes and dents as well as more of his dry green blood stained on it. Kra'tak tapped keys on his wrist computer to change vision mode with no result, it too was in need of repairs.
His shoulder mounted cannon was beyond repair. It was useless so Kra'tak left it on the equipment table in the lab.
Kra'tak turned to Tom and simply said "Ship"
Tom and Amy exchanged glances.
"Your ship is a few miles from here. We had investigated it after we'd seen a fireball crash into the jungle and found you badly damaged there" Tom replied.
"Take me there" Kra'tak replied, still mimicking Toms voice.
"It's too risky. The Aliens have been building up recently. The last time anyone left the base was when we found you" Tom continued.
Kra'tak knew he was in no shape to go alone. He would need help. First he would need to do what repairs he could.
He picked up a small metallic box from the equipment table. It opened up into a small medikit to Tom and Amys surprise. It consisted of various equipment similar to a surgeons. There were also a few viles of glowing blue liquid.
Kra'tak picked up various instruments and began using them on the wrist computer.
After a few minutes he tried activating his cloak again. Electricity surged through his body causing the frightened scientist to jump back. Again it stopped without activating the cloak.
Tom decided to ask this time "What was that?"
Kra'tak did not know the words to describe his cloaking device. He stayed silent.
"He's only familiar with a little of our language" Amy said providing what she thought was the reason for Kra'taks silence, "We should teach him."
"I agree", Tom replied "Important stuff first, time is a virtue we don't have" he reminded Amy.
Just then a thought hit Tom like a bucket of ice dropped on his head.
"Are you hungry? We haven't fed you anything since you've been here. You've taken water just as we thought you would but we haven't actually fed you anything?" Tom asked suddenly.
Amy looked surprised too realising she hadn't thought about that either. When they had brought the injured Kra'tak here they had not known what to feed nor had risked feeding him. Ever since Kra'tak was awake they had been too interested in what he was and had completely forgotten about what should have been obvious.
"Food" Kra'tak stated questiningly while looking at Tom through his heat vision.
"You must be hungry. We'll take you to the mess hall. You can meet some civilians there too" Amy said eagerly with Toms nodding approval.
As they walked towards the main laborotary entrance Amy and Tom discussed the fact that Kra'tak had survived so long without food and the loss of blood. The third scientist relaxed and tried to go back to his duty of examining the items Kra'tak had not taken with him.
-------------------------------------------------
"Status updates Sir. All systems at 100 percent. No problems reported. The crew are ready. We are currently five days from Endora Prime" Lieutenant Williams reported.
Colonel Gordon Rayner rubbed his eyes and took a sip of coffee that was on his desk.
"Five?" he asked in surprise.
"One Endora Prime day is 12 Earth hours Sir" Williams informed the Colonel.
"Alright. Carry on Williams" Colonel Rayner replied dismissing Williams.
Sergeant Phoenix walked across the deck looking at the group of soldiers before him.
"You all know what to do. I expect nothing but perfection. You all know the importance of the mission before us"
A chorus of "Yes Sir" followed.
"I want everything checked, double checked and checked again. We are five days from Endora Prime. Make sure you are rested and ready. You know what to do, get to it" he ordered.
The soldiers filed out of the deck and went to their various tasks. Five days to make sure everything was ready and all equipment and more importantly soldiers were ready for the mission.
Sergeant Phoenix moved off to oversee preparations on this deck. He was a veteran of the Alien wars. He'd been fighting Aliens before most of the soldiers on this ship were born. He had been explicitly chosen to lead the men on this mission by Colonel Gordon Rayner. The two of them had fought together many times over the years.
They were good friends and Colonel Rayner had known that Sergeant Phoenix would be the right man for the job as soon as he was briefed on the mission. Phoenix was a determined and motivated individual who would do anything he could to destroy the alien menace.
On one particular mission Rayner and Phoenix were part of a group who had been sent in to destroy an Alien Queen in her hive. The mission had gone badly, as most missions against the Aliens did, and the remnants of the group had decided to pull out.
Gordon had been retreating with the rest of the group when he noticed Phoenix run past him, going the other way, holding a surface to surface missile launcher.
"Get out of here" Gordon had ordered as leader of the group but Phoenix had only one thing set on his mind.
The Queen had chased the group personally after they had found her. Phoenix just calmly placed himself on one knee in the middle of an Alien tunnel, missile launcher at the ready. Drones swarmed around the corner ahead of him, but Phoenix didn't move a muscle, just concentrated on one particular area.
The familiar screech of the Alien Queen was followed by the whine of the missile launcher preparing to fire. A deafening blast signified the missile leaving its launcher leaving a trail of smoke. The Queen turned the corner only to be met by a missile hitting her dead in the head.
Phoenix didn't wait to see the missile hit he had dropped the launcher and turned, running towards the rest of the group who were now almost at the exit to the hive.
The drones behind Phoenix had halted unsure of what to do allowing him to escape.
Since that day Colonel Gordon Rayner had never forgotten the courage and dedication of that one man. Now he would rely upon that same man to lead his men on the most important mission the human race had ever had. A mission which only a few would ever know about.
-------------------------------------------------
Hurst and Smith continued their watch in the tower. Smith was thinking about what Hurst had said earlier. Running it over and over in his head. Hurst was just waiting until he could tell the others.
Tension was still high in the base. Especially now that a killing had occurred as Raul had informed them over the radio. Adams had thought it better not to inform others and cause panic amongst the civilians but then had decided that it was too important not to keep vital information from anyone.
The soldiers around the base were a lot more alert now. More had been placed at evacuation points Gus 1 and Gus 2 to protect the civilians from this new danger. Some soldiers slept in as it was their allotted rest time and a base full of tired soldiers would not be good for anyone.
"It's downtime for me" Smith said yawning "but I really don't feel like resting right now"
"Don't worry I'll keep watch. You rest" Hurst replied confidently.
Smith saw the confidence in Hursts eyes and decided he did need his rest. He lay down on the one bunk in the turret. This bunk was shared between the four occupants of each turret with each soldier having a scheduled time for sleep.
"Wake me if anything happens"
Hurst nodded his head while watching the clearing. Not much Alien activity had taken place today. They must be saving themselves for later Hurst thought. He scanned the area again through his scoped rifle.
Adams held his rifle firmly watching the security monitors. He had been following Finleys team for a while now. They were in an area where the cameras and trackers hadn't been taken out. Adams had earlier watched astonished as a trail of green blood had formed and a shimmer had passed through a corridor. The shimmer had gone into a room where cameras were offline, most likely destroyed.
Adams was informing and instructing Finley on what he was seeing over the monitors.
Halden was slumped in a chair in the corner of the room sobbing quietly. He was covered in the blood of his friend. The other occupants in the communications room were busying themselves as best they could. Duantes body had been covered and placed in an adjacent room.
"Okay guys stay close. Adams said he followed the trail into this storage room. We have no visual in there so we're going in blind." Finley said to his team.
Each member of Finleys team took up position by the entrance to the storage room.
His armour was heavily damaged, covered in his green blood with chunks of it missing or heavily dented. Kra'tak did not know what had happened to him. He had been on a ship when it had malfunctioned and crash landed on this planet. After that he did not remember anything until he awoke in this lab.
"You're lucky you didn't lose too much blood. We couldn't have done anything if you had" Tom said seeing Kra'tak looking over his bloody armour.
Kra'tak looked at him showing that he understood.
Amy just watched with interest. Another scientist stood speechless. He had been like that since Kra'tak had walked in without him being notified. Amy gave him a comforting look hoping it would relax him.
The spear gun was slung over his shoulder, much like a human would hold a rifle when not in use, Tom had noticed.
The disc was attached to his armour at the waist and he held his closed spear in his hand.
Kra'tak had gone over his equipment thoroughly. His spear, disc, wrist blades, net launcher were all fine.
His other equipment however was damaged.
He placed the helmet onto his face. The helmet hissed as steam was released from the sides of the helmet as it locked into place. Kra'taks naturally red vision turned to heat vision. The scientists glowed a bright warm mixture of red and orange while the rest of the room was colder shade of green and blue.
The helmet itself was heavily damaged with holes and dents as well as more of his dry green blood stained on it. Kra'tak tapped keys on his wrist computer to change vision mode with no result, it too was in need of repairs.
His shoulder mounted cannon was beyond repair. It was useless so Kra'tak left it on the equipment table in the lab.
Kra'tak turned to Tom and simply said "Ship"
Tom and Amy exchanged glances.
"Your ship is a few miles from here. We had investigated it after we'd seen a fireball crash into the jungle and found you badly damaged there" Tom replied.
"Take me there" Kra'tak replied, still mimicking Toms voice.
"It's too risky. The Aliens have been building up recently. The last time anyone left the base was when we found you" Tom continued.
Kra'tak knew he was in no shape to go alone. He would need help. First he would need to do what repairs he could.
He picked up a small metallic box from the equipment table. It opened up into a small medikit to Tom and Amys surprise. It consisted of various equipment similar to a surgeons. There were also a few viles of glowing blue liquid.
Kra'tak picked up various instruments and began using them on the wrist computer.
After a few minutes he tried activating his cloak again. Electricity surged through his body causing the frightened scientist to jump back. Again it stopped without activating the cloak.
Tom decided to ask this time "What was that?"
Kra'tak did not know the words to describe his cloaking device. He stayed silent.
"He's only familiar with a little of our language" Amy said providing what she thought was the reason for Kra'taks silence, "We should teach him."
"I agree", Tom replied "Important stuff first, time is a virtue we don't have" he reminded Amy.
Just then a thought hit Tom like a bucket of ice dropped on his head.
"Are you hungry? We haven't fed you anything since you've been here. You've taken water just as we thought you would but we haven't actually fed you anything?" Tom asked suddenly.
Amy looked surprised too realising she hadn't thought about that either. When they had brought the injured Kra'tak here they had not known what to feed nor had risked feeding him. Ever since Kra'tak was awake they had been too interested in what he was and had completely forgotten about what should have been obvious.
"Food" Kra'tak stated questiningly while looking at Tom through his heat vision.
"You must be hungry. We'll take you to the mess hall. You can meet some civilians there too" Amy said eagerly with Toms nodding approval.
As they walked towards the main laborotary entrance Amy and Tom discussed the fact that Kra'tak had survived so long without food and the loss of blood. The third scientist relaxed and tried to go back to his duty of examining the items Kra'tak had not taken with him.
-------------------------------------------------
"Status updates Sir. All systems at 100 percent. No problems reported. The crew are ready. We are currently five days from Endora Prime" Lieutenant Williams reported.
Colonel Gordon Rayner rubbed his eyes and took a sip of coffee that was on his desk.
"Five?" he asked in surprise.
"One Endora Prime day is 12 Earth hours Sir" Williams informed the Colonel.
"Alright. Carry on Williams" Colonel Rayner replied dismissing Williams.
Sergeant Phoenix walked across the deck looking at the group of soldiers before him.
"You all know what to do. I expect nothing but perfection. You all know the importance of the mission before us"
A chorus of "Yes Sir" followed.
"I want everything checked, double checked and checked again. We are five days from Endora Prime. Make sure you are rested and ready. You know what to do, get to it" he ordered.
The soldiers filed out of the deck and went to their various tasks. Five days to make sure everything was ready and all equipment and more importantly soldiers were ready for the mission.
Sergeant Phoenix moved off to oversee preparations on this deck. He was a veteran of the Alien wars. He'd been fighting Aliens before most of the soldiers on this ship were born. He had been explicitly chosen to lead the men on this mission by Colonel Gordon Rayner. The two of them had fought together many times over the years.
They were good friends and Colonel Rayner had known that Sergeant Phoenix would be the right man for the job as soon as he was briefed on the mission. Phoenix was a determined and motivated individual who would do anything he could to destroy the alien menace.
On one particular mission Rayner and Phoenix were part of a group who had been sent in to destroy an Alien Queen in her hive. The mission had gone badly, as most missions against the Aliens did, and the remnants of the group had decided to pull out.
Gordon had been retreating with the rest of the group when he noticed Phoenix run past him, going the other way, holding a surface to surface missile launcher.
"Get out of here" Gordon had ordered as leader of the group but Phoenix had only one thing set on his mind.
The Queen had chased the group personally after they had found her. Phoenix just calmly placed himself on one knee in the middle of an Alien tunnel, missile launcher at the ready. Drones swarmed around the corner ahead of him, but Phoenix didn't move a muscle, just concentrated on one particular area.
The familiar screech of the Alien Queen was followed by the whine of the missile launcher preparing to fire. A deafening blast signified the missile leaving its launcher leaving a trail of smoke. The Queen turned the corner only to be met by a missile hitting her dead in the head.
Phoenix didn't wait to see the missile hit he had dropped the launcher and turned, running towards the rest of the group who were now almost at the exit to the hive.
The drones behind Phoenix had halted unsure of what to do allowing him to escape.
Since that day Colonel Gordon Rayner had never forgotten the courage and dedication of that one man. Now he would rely upon that same man to lead his men on the most important mission the human race had ever had. A mission which only a few would ever know about.
-------------------------------------------------
Hurst and Smith continued their watch in the tower. Smith was thinking about what Hurst had said earlier. Running it over and over in his head. Hurst was just waiting until he could tell the others.
Tension was still high in the base. Especially now that a killing had occurred as Raul had informed them over the radio. Adams had thought it better not to inform others and cause panic amongst the civilians but then had decided that it was too important not to keep vital information from anyone.
The soldiers around the base were a lot more alert now. More had been placed at evacuation points Gus 1 and Gus 2 to protect the civilians from this new danger. Some soldiers slept in as it was their allotted rest time and a base full of tired soldiers would not be good for anyone.
"It's downtime for me" Smith said yawning "but I really don't feel like resting right now"
"Don't worry I'll keep watch. You rest" Hurst replied confidently.
Smith saw the confidence in Hursts eyes and decided he did need his rest. He lay down on the one bunk in the turret. This bunk was shared between the four occupants of each turret with each soldier having a scheduled time for sleep.
"Wake me if anything happens"
Hurst nodded his head while watching the clearing. Not much Alien activity had taken place today. They must be saving themselves for later Hurst thought. He scanned the area again through his scoped rifle.
Adams held his rifle firmly watching the security monitors. He had been following Finleys team for a while now. They were in an area where the cameras and trackers hadn't been taken out. Adams had earlier watched astonished as a trail of green blood had formed and a shimmer had passed through a corridor. The shimmer had gone into a room where cameras were offline, most likely destroyed.
Adams was informing and instructing Finley on what he was seeing over the monitors.
Halden was slumped in a chair in the corner of the room sobbing quietly. He was covered in the blood of his friend. The other occupants in the communications room were busying themselves as best they could. Duantes body had been covered and placed in an adjacent room.
"Okay guys stay close. Adams said he followed the trail into this storage room. We have no visual in there so we're going in blind." Finley said to his team.
Each member of Finleys team took up position by the entrance to the storage room.