Tom arrived at the West entrance with an escort of soldiers. The medic, Harlan, and his team were waiting for him. The escort team left to go back to their own posts as Tom and his new team shared friendly greetings.
The Sun was shining brightly as midday came about and the Sun was at its peaking point. The weather in this planet was good all year around. There was never any snow and winter did not exist, nor did autumn. The day night cycle was almost the same all year around due to the planets position in relation to the sun.
The length of the year itself had been decided by the Company before the base had been populated. Some found it strange that the Company had already decided on such a detail without knowing much about Endora Prime.
It had been a while since Tom had seen the soldiers in this group because he spent most of his waking hours in the lab with Kra'tak. They shared friendly greetings although it was obvious that they were nervous and all of them did not have real combat experience. This did not stop them from showing their energy and eagerness to get on with their orders.
The two guards at the entrance were much more wary of things now since the incident at East entrance. Soldiers were posted there, replacing the deceased Duante and the distraught Halden, who was still suffering from shock in the communications room.
Adams was keeping himself busy constantly checking the security monitors for any sign of the second intruder, whilst also listening in on radio chatter too. Raul stretched and let out a loud yawn trying to wake himself up.
"I need some coffee" he said to no one in particular.
Matsu, another of the communications personnel, reached over, picked up the coffee jug and shook it lightly.
"Empty. Gonna have to go down to three" he replied.
Three meant store room three on the floor they were currently on.
"Damn!" Raul replied feeling defeated.
Matsu, Japanese from Earth just like Keitaro laughed lightly, having had his rest just a few hours earlier. Raul saw this and picked up an empty paper cup and threw it at him. It missed Matsu who just laughed again. Humour was a good way of dealing with most situations.
Adams looked on at this and then glanced over to check on Halden, who wasn't in the chair he had been sitting in previously.
"Where's Halden?" Adams asked everyone in the room.
Matsus smile quickly disappeared. No one had noticed him leave the room.
"Ah, Shit!" Baseer, a member of Adams team proclaimed for not having noticed Halden leaving.
The last thing they needed was more problems.
Adams sighed angrily, at the same time banging his fist into the metal of a security console.
"Alright Baseer, Hartwell you two go get someone from one of the other teams and find Halden. Check the room with Duantes body first, he's probably in there" Adams instructed with anger in his voice.
"Affirmative" the two replied.
Adams rubbed his sweating forehead and sighed again. He went over to the console he had just hit and held down a glowing blue button.
"Adams here, anyone seen Halden?" he asked into the radio.
Each team replied with a negative, no one else had seen him. Baseer and Hartwell were leaving the room to carry out their orders.
"We'll stop by three on our way back" Baseer said out loud just as he left the room.
"Thanks" Raul shouted in reply to the two figures that had now left the room. He now had hope of staying awake for a while instead of falling asleep at the wrong time.
Adams took another look around the room. It was a little more open and a lot less stuffy now, causing him to calm and cool down. Knight was sitting down checking his weapons thoroughly to keep himself busy. Knight carried the standard military AM-232 assault rifle with the grenade launching attachment.
The AM stood for Alien Masher. Most people thought it was a corny name but it described the weapon perfectly. It was designed, planned and built from the ground up to combat the Alien threat. Years of research and countless statistics from battles won and lost against the Aliens was put into this weapon. It was more than an assault rifle. It was hope, of which there was not much left in the battles being waged across many planets and moons.
The 232 stood for the number of Aliens killed by the first soldier to use the weapon in the field. That was a formidable number. Never had one soldier in a team killed so many Aliens before. The rifle was quickly put into mass production and was now standard issue, for good reason.
Adams watched Knight finish checking his rifle. Knight also carried two powerful handguns, and a standard close quarter's combat knife. Something that was rarely used in battle, as you would already be dead if an Alien was that close to you.
Adams then wondered briefly why there were no windows in this room, even though one of the walls was the outside of the building. Instead of windows it was just a blank wall with a few information screens on it. The grey concrete of the wall itself was in excellent condition, having been designed to last for many years.
Suddenly one of the room lights began flickering off and on. Adams thought amusingly that maybe this was some sort of an ominous sign from higher powers.
"Great! There goes another light" Raul exclaimed, "You know, soon, we'll have to wear night vision goggles in here."
Matsu and the other communications operator were occupied with keeping the teams in radio checks.
-------------------------------------------
Harlan, the medic, entered the store room of the communications building with the rest of his team and Tom following closely behind. The team took up defensive positions inside and outside the room. Harlan went straight to each member of Finleys team giving them a quick visual check up, while Tom went straight to the downed Predator.
As soon as Tom entered the room he knew the answer already. The smell of the burnt flesh was instantly familiar. Kra'tak had smelt much the same when he had been brought in.
Each and every soldier on base was in teams now since it was vital that no one be left alone. That went for the civilians and scientists too. The base was made up mostly of soldiers so there were enough to handle the entire populace of this close-knit group of people from all over the colonised galaxy.
Dena was still talking to Keitaro, keeping him as calm and still as possible. Harlan took a quick look at Keitaro and knew immediately that he was in the worst shape. His face was bruised and bloody and he was obviously finding it difficult to keep his eyes open.
"How is he?" Harlan asked as he knelt down beside Dena to take a closer look at Keitaro.
"I think his back's broken and it looks like he's got two large cuts across his chest but I can't tell for sure" Dena replied.
"Alright. Keitaro, where do you hurt?" Harlan asked, going through standard procedure.
"My head, my chest, my back, and my legs" he replied with a low, slow voice "Did I miss anything?" he added humorously. Humour was a good way of handling the pain he was feeling.
"No I think you pretty much covered it all" Harlan replied with a quick smile whilst doing a check of Keitaros pulse. It was fast but that was to be expected.
Tom knelt beside the creature with, showing no sign of fear at the immense creature before him.
"You were right. This is definitely one of them" he informed the others, as he reached out towards it.
"You know what your doing?" Finley asked watchfully.
"I've studied one like it for a while now. It has a pulse like we do" Tom replied as he put knowingly placed his hand onto the creatures' neck to check its pulse.
Tom shook his head, "Dead, nothing we can do about it now. Their strong and astonishing survivors, but even they can only take so much" he said glumly.
"What's wrong?" Finley asked in reply to Toms tone of voice.
"Well, Kra'tak seems to be friendly so far. They look like a formidable species and would be great allies. This isn't going to help" he said sadly.
"It attacked us. This one sure as hell wasn't friendly" Finley replied loudly in defence of his teams actions.
"I'm not saying there was any other choice" Tom replied, now in a calm and controlled voice.
Shen looked at Finley questioningly, who nodded in understanding. Shen lowered his rifle and moved away from the dead Predator. The smell was becoming stronger and more unbearable, almost suffocating to Shen. The others seemed to be coping fine with the smell.
Finleys radio crackled in, interrupting his and Toms slightly heated conversation. It was Matsu on the other end, asking Finleys team to report in.
"This is Finley. We're okay. Harlans here, so is Tom. Any sign of Halden?" Finley asked over the radio.
Tom resumed his check of the dead Predator. He noticed that this one was carrying the same weapons as Kra'tak but they seemed to be undamaged. He wondered how he would tell Kra'tak about this situation.
"No sign, we've sent a search team. Over and out" Matsu replied.
"There's another one of these things out there and it's invisible. It damn well isn't gonna be friendly. How are we supposed to fight something so powerful that we can't even see? Finley asked Tom grimly, not really expecting an answer.
"Maybe Kra'tak can help" Tom replied, still unsure of how to handle the situation with Kra'tak.
Finley knew they had been lucky with this one. A confined space combined with the power of explosive shotgun shells gave it little chance of escaping. It had, nonetheless, done much damage to a team of four, coming close to killing them all. He didn't want to think about what one in an open space would be capable of.
The Sun was shining brightly as midday came about and the Sun was at its peaking point. The weather in this planet was good all year around. There was never any snow and winter did not exist, nor did autumn. The day night cycle was almost the same all year around due to the planets position in relation to the sun.
The length of the year itself had been decided by the Company before the base had been populated. Some found it strange that the Company had already decided on such a detail without knowing much about Endora Prime.
It had been a while since Tom had seen the soldiers in this group because he spent most of his waking hours in the lab with Kra'tak. They shared friendly greetings although it was obvious that they were nervous and all of them did not have real combat experience. This did not stop them from showing their energy and eagerness to get on with their orders.
The two guards at the entrance were much more wary of things now since the incident at East entrance. Soldiers were posted there, replacing the deceased Duante and the distraught Halden, who was still suffering from shock in the communications room.
Adams was keeping himself busy constantly checking the security monitors for any sign of the second intruder, whilst also listening in on radio chatter too. Raul stretched and let out a loud yawn trying to wake himself up.
"I need some coffee" he said to no one in particular.
Matsu, another of the communications personnel, reached over, picked up the coffee jug and shook it lightly.
"Empty. Gonna have to go down to three" he replied.
Three meant store room three on the floor they were currently on.
"Damn!" Raul replied feeling defeated.
Matsu, Japanese from Earth just like Keitaro laughed lightly, having had his rest just a few hours earlier. Raul saw this and picked up an empty paper cup and threw it at him. It missed Matsu who just laughed again. Humour was a good way of dealing with most situations.
Adams looked on at this and then glanced over to check on Halden, who wasn't in the chair he had been sitting in previously.
"Where's Halden?" Adams asked everyone in the room.
Matsus smile quickly disappeared. No one had noticed him leave the room.
"Ah, Shit!" Baseer, a member of Adams team proclaimed for not having noticed Halden leaving.
The last thing they needed was more problems.
Adams sighed angrily, at the same time banging his fist into the metal of a security console.
"Alright Baseer, Hartwell you two go get someone from one of the other teams and find Halden. Check the room with Duantes body first, he's probably in there" Adams instructed with anger in his voice.
"Affirmative" the two replied.
Adams rubbed his sweating forehead and sighed again. He went over to the console he had just hit and held down a glowing blue button.
"Adams here, anyone seen Halden?" he asked into the radio.
Each team replied with a negative, no one else had seen him. Baseer and Hartwell were leaving the room to carry out their orders.
"We'll stop by three on our way back" Baseer said out loud just as he left the room.
"Thanks" Raul shouted in reply to the two figures that had now left the room. He now had hope of staying awake for a while instead of falling asleep at the wrong time.
Adams took another look around the room. It was a little more open and a lot less stuffy now, causing him to calm and cool down. Knight was sitting down checking his weapons thoroughly to keep himself busy. Knight carried the standard military AM-232 assault rifle with the grenade launching attachment.
The AM stood for Alien Masher. Most people thought it was a corny name but it described the weapon perfectly. It was designed, planned and built from the ground up to combat the Alien threat. Years of research and countless statistics from battles won and lost against the Aliens was put into this weapon. It was more than an assault rifle. It was hope, of which there was not much left in the battles being waged across many planets and moons.
The 232 stood for the number of Aliens killed by the first soldier to use the weapon in the field. That was a formidable number. Never had one soldier in a team killed so many Aliens before. The rifle was quickly put into mass production and was now standard issue, for good reason.
Adams watched Knight finish checking his rifle. Knight also carried two powerful handguns, and a standard close quarter's combat knife. Something that was rarely used in battle, as you would already be dead if an Alien was that close to you.
Adams then wondered briefly why there were no windows in this room, even though one of the walls was the outside of the building. Instead of windows it was just a blank wall with a few information screens on it. The grey concrete of the wall itself was in excellent condition, having been designed to last for many years.
Suddenly one of the room lights began flickering off and on. Adams thought amusingly that maybe this was some sort of an ominous sign from higher powers.
"Great! There goes another light" Raul exclaimed, "You know, soon, we'll have to wear night vision goggles in here."
Matsu and the other communications operator were occupied with keeping the teams in radio checks.
-------------------------------------------
Harlan, the medic, entered the store room of the communications building with the rest of his team and Tom following closely behind. The team took up defensive positions inside and outside the room. Harlan went straight to each member of Finleys team giving them a quick visual check up, while Tom went straight to the downed Predator.
As soon as Tom entered the room he knew the answer already. The smell of the burnt flesh was instantly familiar. Kra'tak had smelt much the same when he had been brought in.
Each and every soldier on base was in teams now since it was vital that no one be left alone. That went for the civilians and scientists too. The base was made up mostly of soldiers so there were enough to handle the entire populace of this close-knit group of people from all over the colonised galaxy.
Dena was still talking to Keitaro, keeping him as calm and still as possible. Harlan took a quick look at Keitaro and knew immediately that he was in the worst shape. His face was bruised and bloody and he was obviously finding it difficult to keep his eyes open.
"How is he?" Harlan asked as he knelt down beside Dena to take a closer look at Keitaro.
"I think his back's broken and it looks like he's got two large cuts across his chest but I can't tell for sure" Dena replied.
"Alright. Keitaro, where do you hurt?" Harlan asked, going through standard procedure.
"My head, my chest, my back, and my legs" he replied with a low, slow voice "Did I miss anything?" he added humorously. Humour was a good way of handling the pain he was feeling.
"No I think you pretty much covered it all" Harlan replied with a quick smile whilst doing a check of Keitaros pulse. It was fast but that was to be expected.
Tom knelt beside the creature with, showing no sign of fear at the immense creature before him.
"You were right. This is definitely one of them" he informed the others, as he reached out towards it.
"You know what your doing?" Finley asked watchfully.
"I've studied one like it for a while now. It has a pulse like we do" Tom replied as he put knowingly placed his hand onto the creatures' neck to check its pulse.
Tom shook his head, "Dead, nothing we can do about it now. Their strong and astonishing survivors, but even they can only take so much" he said glumly.
"What's wrong?" Finley asked in reply to Toms tone of voice.
"Well, Kra'tak seems to be friendly so far. They look like a formidable species and would be great allies. This isn't going to help" he said sadly.
"It attacked us. This one sure as hell wasn't friendly" Finley replied loudly in defence of his teams actions.
"I'm not saying there was any other choice" Tom replied, now in a calm and controlled voice.
Shen looked at Finley questioningly, who nodded in understanding. Shen lowered his rifle and moved away from the dead Predator. The smell was becoming stronger and more unbearable, almost suffocating to Shen. The others seemed to be coping fine with the smell.
Finleys radio crackled in, interrupting his and Toms slightly heated conversation. It was Matsu on the other end, asking Finleys team to report in.
"This is Finley. We're okay. Harlans here, so is Tom. Any sign of Halden?" Finley asked over the radio.
Tom resumed his check of the dead Predator. He noticed that this one was carrying the same weapons as Kra'tak but they seemed to be undamaged. He wondered how he would tell Kra'tak about this situation.
"No sign, we've sent a search team. Over and out" Matsu replied.
"There's another one of these things out there and it's invisible. It damn well isn't gonna be friendly. How are we supposed to fight something so powerful that we can't even see? Finley asked Tom grimly, not really expecting an answer.
"Maybe Kra'tak can help" Tom replied, still unsure of how to handle the situation with Kra'tak.
Finley knew they had been lucky with this one. A confined space combined with the power of explosive shotgun shells gave it little chance of escaping. It had, nonetheless, done much damage to a team of four, coming close to killing them all. He didn't want to think about what one in an open space would be capable of.