They stood, staring at the video monitor, wide-eyed in their disbelief.
Makalo and Jade were standing in their boss's office, along with a few others. They all stood still, sharing the stunned silence, necks craned up towards the monitor as it relayed a horrific truth.
"The bodies were discovered last night by a dock worker. They were heavily mutilated, with multiple parallel long and deep gashes. Security footage, taken close to the scene of the crimes, appeared today showing an unidentifiable black animal moving between buildings. Experts say that whatever it was, it was extremely fast with black skin and like nothing they know of. The video footage has been thoroughly examined by video experts and has only led to confirmation that what you are seeing is all too real. Speculation is rife."
The boss, Powell, hit the mute button and turned towards his workers, "We believe the footage was leaked by one our dock workers."
"Who?" one of the others asked, as Jade and Makalo turned towards Powell.
"Doesn't matter," he replied, "what does, is that they're out there now. That means we failed. Now we must go on the hunt, find it and kill it."
Jade looked at Makalo. He returned her stern expression with a slight nod. She turned back towards Powell, "Where was this footage taken?"
"One of our outer buildings, section F. We're scanning all footage in that area for previous sightings."
"Boss," Jade looked expressionless, "we want to help find this thing."
He looked past Jade, in thought, and made his decision. "I've read both your records and I agree. You and Makalo work well together. You can both join the rest of the assembled team. They meet for briefing in thirty minutes in B3. Get to it."
With that, Jade and Makalo left the others in the room to the task of re-arranging dock operations. Powell began issuing orders immediately. A few minutes later, after his workers had left the room, he made a phone call. A phone call to his superiors at the Company.
Jade and Makalo worked their way through the docks. B3 was one of the smaller warehouses on the dock, used as a smaller machine shop to repair damaged single-seat ships. Usually the metallic clanging and robotic whirring of automated machines drowned out normal conversation. Now, however, an ominous silence, that was almost as loud, took its place.
There were six others gathered there. All in full assault gear. Jade wore full armour too, her faceplate currently open, revealing her terse, square jawed face. She had a classic beauty about her, hidden behind a difficult to read expression. Makalo, on the other hand, was wearing his normal grimy and dirt covered coveralls.
As they approached the group they were met with the steely expressions of experienced men. Jade being the only women there. The group were huddled over a map of section F. The appointed leader of the group, whose face was hidden behind a helmet, spoke up as he looked each member of the group in the eyes, silently assessing each of them.
"Briefing begins now."
Amy watched Kra'tak in complete fascination. Not a hint of worry in her emotions. Tom seemed the same. Some of the others, however, didn't look quite so calm.
Kra'tak was looking towards the sky. They watched as he took in a huge breath, his chest visibly expanding greatly, and let out a blood-curdling roar. A roar that took quite a few soldiers by surprise. The sheer intensity of it threatened to burst ear drums.
Then quiet.
Kra'tak looked around, and so did the others in the group. Nothing. No reply of any sort. Kra'tak waited a few seconds and let out another call, just as intense as the first one. No reply again.
Hale spoke up when Kra'tak had quieted, "Maybe he's ri-"
The roar this time came from behind the direction most of the group were facing. It was so close that most of them jumped in fright, including Amy and Tom. The group turned collectively towards the direction of the new sound. Adams spotted Knight, standing to Amy's right, reaching for his weapon, a state of panic in his body language.
"KNIGHT! DON'T PICK THAT-" he begun to shout.
He was cut off by the sight of Private Hale, who had been standing to Amy's left, being launched three feet into the air. The fact that he wasn't wearing a helmet flashed briefly through Adams mind, quickly replaced by the fact that they were all defenceless right now.
Back in turret 3A Smith was pointing his rifle towards the group being attacked. "Should I take the shot?" he asked hurriedly.
"No, they're too close," Finley replied instantly. "You can't even see it."
Knight was still bringing his weapon up, only for him too to be launched high into the air. The audible crack of his jaw bone caused Amy to wince as she instinctively put her arms up to cover her face in a feeble attempt to protect herself. The blurred arm of a camouflaged Predator was coming towards her at an incredible speed. Tom moved as fast as he could to try to take the impact. He closed his eyes as the blur came towards his head, bracing himself as best he could. A few seconds later, still standing, Tom opened his eyes in surprise.
A completely visible hand was holding the invisible one a mere few centimetres away from Tom's head. Amy moved her arms down cautiously and saw Kra'tak now standing next to her, his arm muscles tensed.
A series of loud clicks, growls and grunts followed as Amy and the others watched with a mixture of shock and fascination, frozen in place. The 'conversation' between the unmasked Kra'tak and the invisible other continued for a good thirty seconds, all the while both Predators arms locked in a tense stand-off, the sheer power of them radiating through the air.
Hale had survived his flight through the air and was watching the scene from where he'd landed. Knight was motionless on the floor a few feet away, likely unconscious, with a definite broken jaw.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Smith whispered, with Finley and the others staring at the scene from afar in stunned silence. Hurst had finally awoken to the Predators mighty roars.
Eventually the tension in their arms was released as the invisible Predator backed down and de-cloaked. It stood there silently, arms at its sides, mask hiding it's face with no hint of readying another attack on the humans.
"He understands that you helped me. You are not his enemy now." Kra'tak informed them.
"Good," Tom broke the silence between them all. "That's good."
"You may pick up your weapons." Kra'tak said.
The group collectively sighed, tension slowly releasing as they began picking up their weapons.
Heather looked over at Hale, "Hey, you alright?"
Hale gave a thumbs up as he picked himself up off the floor to go gather his gear. "I'm fine. Knights gonna need a medic though."
She went over to Knights unconscious body, crouched down and found a steady pulse.
"I heard his jaw break," Amy said, looking away from the two Predators.
"We'll get him to medical," Heather replied. "Do you still need an escort?"
"Tom, do we still need an escort?" Amy relayed.
He looked over but before he could reply Kra'tak spoke. "We do not. We will not harm our friends."
Tom nodded his head in agreement and turned back towards the two towering Predators, finally ready to speak to them both.
"That settles that. Hale, Callum, Gustav, help me take him to the infirmary." Heather ordered her team.
"This is Tol'din. We are of the same clan." Kra'tak spoke to Tom.
"What happens now?" Tom asked. "Do you leave for your ship?"
In reply, Kra'tak began conversing with Tol'din.
"Our ship cannot be repaired. Do you have a ship here?" Kra'tak asked.
"No, I'm afraid not," Tom replied. "We have a rescue due any day now, you can stay until then."
"Can we have one ship?" Kra'tak asked.
Tom sighed heavily, realisation dawning. "I would be happy to. However, our rescue is coming from the Company. I'm certain they would choose to hold you captive in order to study you. Or kill you."
Tol'din did not respond to Tom's words, having understood none of them.
"We will not allow that," came the response Tom had expected.
Kra'tak again conversed with Tol'din as Amy, Adams and Baseer came up to join them.
"What's the plan, doc?" Adams asked Tom.
"They're discussing it now. Their ship is damaged beyond repair. I did suggest waiting for rescue but realise that the Company won't let them go their own way."
"Too true," Adams replied.
The alien conversation went on for a good few minutes.
Back at the infirmary, Heather and her team were just bringing in Knight.
Keitaro, now wearing his combat gear along with weapons and sword firmly on his back, was sitting on the edge of a bed, hungrily eating a chocolate bar. An unpeeled banana lay on the tray next to him.
He continued eating as he watched Knight being brought in and put onto a table. Harlan rushed into the room along with another doctor.
"May have broken his jaw, hit his head hard on the ground," Heather informed him.
"Help me take him to the x-ray room," Harlan asked. "We'll see how bad it is. What happened exactly?"
"Kra'taks rescuer hit him in the face," Heather replied, as she and Hale helped Harlan.
Together they wheeled Knight into the back. Callum and Gustav stayed behind and walked up to Keitaro.
"Quite a day," Gustav remarked.
Keitaro nodded in agreement and offered some of his chocolate to them. Both happily took a piece each.
"Did you see it?" Keitaro asked.
"Yup," Callum replied. "Scary enough just watching the two of them holding each other off. Can't imagine what it must've been like taking one of them head on."
"There wasn't enough time to be anything. As big as they are, they move pretty damn fast." Keitaro said. "What happened with the other one?"
"Looks like he's not going to attack us again," this time Gustav spoke. "That Kray tak, or whatever his name, if it even is a he, said we're friends now."
"I guess they'll be going on their way soon then," Keitaro said, now peeling open the banana.
"Guess so." Callum agreed as he made himself more comfortable, still feeling the effects of the adrenaline from earlier.
After a long while, Tom and the others watching, Kra'tak finally turned to them to speak.
"Tol' din says we can use a ship that he found when looking for me."
The group collectively perked up, paying full attention to the conversation now.
"Other ship?" Tom asked, confused. "You have another ship here?"
"No, the ship is human. It is not of ours," Kra'tak replied.
"A human ship?" Tom said, still puzzled. "Is he sure?"
"Yes. When looking for me, Tol'din and the other found buildings like yours. This one had no human life and there was a great battle," Kra'tak replied.
Tom, Amy, Adams and Baseer exchanged questioning glances.
"Another base? Does that mean..? Did they know..?" Tom blurted out the questions rapidly to himself.
"That can't be," this time Amy spoke up in a disbelieving tone.
"You did not know this?" questioned Kra'tak.
"No...no, there shouldn't be another base here." Tom managed to answer.
"Son of a..." Adams exclaimed quietly.
Kra'tak quickly spoke to Tol'din. "Tol'din found a human ship outside. When searching for me. He says you can make this ship work. I agree."
"Can you show us where this base is?" Tom asked, finally regaining some composure.
He was beginning to feel anger at being betrayed by the company. He wanted to know more about this place.
"Do you have a world map?" Kra'tak asked, having remembered Amy showing him a world map of Earth in one of the children's books.
"Yes, we can show you a map of a large part of the surrounding area," Tom replied. "We can show you back in the lab."
"We'll come with," Adams stated, rather than asked.
"Yes. We'll need to discuss this together," Tom agreed.
"I guess we'll be getting back to our posts now," Shen and Dena said as they made their exit out of Turret 3A.
"Get some rest," Finley told them as they left.
Finley, Smith and Hurst continued to watch as Tom and the rest moved off together. They could only guess what the conversation had been about, having watched the groups body language from a distance.
"What do you think?" Smith asked, turning to face them both.
"No idea. Guess they'll let us know soon enough," Finley said, as he touched his bandaged nose, feeling a shooting pain but not letting it show in his expression.
"Don't mess with that," Hurst said.
"I know," Finley replied.
"What now?" Hurst asked.
"Game of cards?" Smith asked.
"Sure."