Rivalry (2)
Facility #73
"What the hell happened!" Charles Weyland roared at his secretary as he stormed out of his office. He'd just gotten the news that his recovery team had failed to retrieve the queen. Obviously he wasn't too pleased to hear about that. What made it even more infuriating was that in all this time, no one had been able to tell him what went wrong.
"I'm sorry sir. We failed to get the matriarch back," His secretary ,Miss Stacey, apologized nervously as she looked over the notes on her tablet.
"I know that Miss Stacey!" He snapped. "What I want to know is what happened to it!" He said as he took a tissue out of his vest pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Weyland had sold the queen off to ManTechCore Industries just before it escaped. The weapons designer corporation had paid handsomely for the specimen, and Weyland had promised to deliver. They weren't going to be very happy once they heard that their investment had been lost. The setback wasn't a major problem, Weyland had plenty of drones, warriors, and eggs he could exchange, but they wouldn't make nearly as much as the queen would have. That and the time and money he'd spent trying to get it back had all been wasted. There was also the matter of repairing the damaged facility and making sure that Brackens hadn't noticed the conflict.
"Damn marines! I'll bet it was them that did this!" Weyland growled, "Wouldn't be the first time!" Weyland's contempt for the colonial marines was no small secret, at least as far as his personnel were concerned. The marines weren't very fond of Weyland either. Such was often the topic of much debate among the facility's personnel. Much of his hatred stemmed from the fact that they would disobey orders in favor of doing what they felt was right ,saving human lives. While that did help keep the colonies from knowing what was going on, he still wanted to keep as many assets alive as he could.
"Actually sir, the marines had nothing to do with it. According to the team's report they were ambushed," Miss Stacey told him.
"Ambushed? Ambushed by what?" He inquired.
"The... hunters," She answered.
"Hunters... Shit!" Weyland cursed under his breath. The hunters ,often referred to by the marines as Predators, were also a thorn in Weyland's side. Off and on he'd tried to claim their technology whenever he could, but everytime he tried the aliens always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Not only that but they'd also caused his company a lot of trouble during their experiments with the xenomorphs. Fortunately they weren't a persistent threat, only appearing every now and then during warm cycles to hunt challenging sport. But oftentimes the damage they caused was so great that he often had to cut his losses and abandon the projects entirely.
"Yes. The team says that the hunters "stole" the queen," Stacey informed him.
"Thank you ,Miss Stacey. I'm sorry for losing my temper," Weyland apologized.
"It's nothing sir," she forgave him with a timid voice, "May I please leave now sir? I have to run a few errands."
"Of course ,Miss Stacey. Have a good night."
Once she was gone Weyland grunted in frustration as he took a moment to process the evening's misfortune.
He sighed as he looked out at the rainforest that surrounded the facility. The starry night sky and lush vegetation, coupled with the height he was standing at lended an impressive view of the surrounding landscape. One would say it had a very foreboding tone to it.
The jungle was full of all kinds of wildlife ,both predator and prey, all of which the corporation had brought with it during KJ-147's terraformation. The endeavor had taken five years to complete, a surprising accomplishment considering the unsustainable conditions of the planet. Before it was nothing more than a barren desert wasteland, but after the miracle breakthrough that was recarbonization coupled with nature's photosynthesis and germination, the planet was now a lush paradise. Or half of it was anyway. There were still vast deserts that spanned most of the planet's northern hemispheres, but everything else under that was jungle and forested mountains, not too dissimilar to those of earth's topography.
"Nothing less than a miracle of God," His father had remarked. He thought about that as he looked out the window. It'd all been his father's work, now passed on to him. It was all his now. It reminded him of the story of Abraham from the book of Genesis. How God had given the Earth to Abraham as an inheritance for his children to possess. Although Weyland wasn't a religious man he did find intrigue in the Bible and its many stories and teachings.
Suddenly there was a ring on his desk's intercom messaging system. The notification was coming from the lab area right next to the marine's landing strip.
Weyland cleared his throat before answering. "Who is it?"
"It's me ,sir," The facility's head scientist ,Dr. Martin Bogs, answered.
"What is it ,Marty?" Weyland asked as he poured himself a glass of wine.
"It's the recovery team ,sir, and the marines. They're back! What's left of them anyway," Bogs replied, sounding excited.
"Good," Weyland began before whispering, "I'll need someone to blame for this mess if it gets out." He took a quick drink of his wine before continuing. "What do they have to report?"
"Sir, you're not going to fucking believe this!" Bogs continued sounding more and more excited as he continued. "They brought something back. The hunters! Their technology! They managed to get some of it!"
Weyland nearly choked on his drink when he heard that. "What!" He blurted as he spat it out.
"That's not even the best part ,sir! They've even brought a live specimen back with them!"
Weyland accidentally dropped his glass ,staining the blue carpeted floor red. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard.
"Sir, you need to come down here right away," Bogs beckoned him. "Holy fucking shit!" Weyland could hear him cheering in the background as he moved away from the speaker.
"I'll be down there right away," Weyland said before turning the intercom off.
/
"Give it to me ,Marty. What's going on?" Weyland began as he burst into the lab.
"During the team's scuffle with the hunter's they managed to kill a few of them. After they took the queen, the survivors of the "hunting party" activated the deceased hunters' wrist computer bombs. Most of their tech was destroyed in the process, but the team managed to find some remnants, a couple masks, spears, gauntlets, disc weapons, even some wrist computers, all but one of the masks and wrist computers are fried, but I believe we can be able to reverse engineer them," Bogs explained as he showed him what they managed to recover.
Weyland picked up one of the charred masks off the slab, examined it with interest for a moment before setting it back down and turned to Bogs. "And what about the hunter? You said they brought one back alive."
"Right this way ,sir," Bogs replied, beckoning him towards the Medical Bay.
"The specimen we captured is a female ,sir. And get this... it's pregnant!" Bogs explained as they moved into the observation room that overlooked the surgical operating room.
The female hunter laid down on a stretcher in the middle of the observation room. The alien wailed in outrage as it fought against six combat androids that attempted to hold it in place. The doctors in the room tried to administer a sedative to it, but the struggling monster wasn't allowing them to help either. Weyland was amazed by the creature's strength. One combat android alone could be able fight up to three human beings at a time and kill each of them with just its bare hands. Despite that though the six of them were struggling to hold the hunter still.
"What's wrong with it?" Weyland asked.
"It's in labor," Bogs replied, "According to the obstetric ultrasonography it's going to give birth to a litter of six! Six!" Bogs exclaimed gleefully.
Weyland whistled in astonishment, "We sure got lucky with this one, didn't we?"
"You sure as shit did Weyland," came a voice from the corner of the observation room. "Considering I let it live despite the fact it tried to take my damn head off." Weyland recognized the voice instantly. He groaned quietly in frustration as he turned to face Hadrick Schaefer.
Of all the marines he hated, Hadrick was the one he loathed the most. He was by far the most insubordinate marine he'd ever had to deal with in terms of asset coverups. Their rivalry had started five years ago when his wife ,Julia, had been killed during an outbreak. Her death had left Hadrick understandably bitter, and although it wasn't directly his fault, Weyland's attitude towards the incident was less than sympathetic.
Standing next to the marine were his friends, Sergeants Cooperland, Gordon, and their commanding officer Major Anderson.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the heroes of the day. Congratulations ,all of you, on a job well done." Weyland said with swagger in his voice.
"Cut the crap, Weyland. We just got back from one helluva fight. We're tired and we haven't had a decent bite to eat all damn day," Anderson snapped.
"You're boys told us to stick around. Said you might like to speak with us," Gordon said.
"I see..." Weyland paused for a short moment to think about what he wanted to say before continuing. "Well... It's been a long day hasn't it. I understand you are all very tired, and you need rest. You may go if you'd like, Lord knows you need it. Except for you Schaefer. I'd like to have a quick word with you first."
"Go on guys. I'll catch up with you latter," Hadrick told his friends before they left the room. "So what do you want from me Weyland?" Hadrick asked as he looked down at the hunter.
"Nothing much Schaefer. Just a little friendly talk," Weyland answered.
The both of them paused for a short moment. Hadrick knew that something was going on, what it was he didn't know, but he could tell it probably wasn't anything good.
"I just wanted to thank you personally. This means a lot to me and the company. We've been after these things for a long time and now we finally have them thanks to you and your team, I'm grateful." Weyland said. Hadrick raised an eyebrow when he said that. He sounded sincere about it.
"What?" Weyland asked, noticing Hadrick's perplexed look.
"I thought you were about to bust my balls on letting the Predators take the queen?" Hadrick said curiously.
"Oh make no mistake, Schaefer, I'm furious about it. It's going to cost me a lot of time and money to repair that facility and make sure none of the colonies knows about what happened tonight. However... There is a lesson to be learned from this. In every disaster there lies an opportunity to build back up again. We can learn a lot from these creatures and their technology. It'll cost me a fortune, but what is money when you have knowledge. And everybody knows knowledge is power," Weyland explained.
Hadrick shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I can't believe I'm actually about to say this right now, but you make a pretty good point," Hadrick complimented.
"Thank you."
"You're still a lying son-of-a-bitch though."
"You may be right Schaefer, but outside of my facilities, who's going to believe you?" Weyland asked.
"Nobody," Hadrick replied.
"Mhm," Weyland grunted with a smile as he nodded his head affirmatively.
The two paused again before Hadrick broke the silence. "So what are you going to do with them?" He asked, referring to the mother and the young she was about to give birth to.
"I haven't had a chance to think about it yet," Weyland replied.
Although that may have been true, Hadrick knew that he'd have something in store for the hunters. He'd probably study them, experiment on them, or just turn them into weapons like he did with the xenomorphs. But he didn't care about any of that. As far as he was concerned Weyland was happy and the hunters were his now. Good riddance.
"Am I dismissed now?" Hadrick asked. He didn't want to speak with him anymore than he had to.
"Of course," Weyland excused him.
Just as he was about to leave, Weyland stopped him. "Oh, Schaefer. I want to apologize for my... insensitivity about what happened to Julia."
Hadrick sneered when he said that. He had no permission to talk about his wife. He wanted to rip Weyland's head off, but he didn't think it was worth the trouble.
"It's too late for apologies Weyland," Hadrick growled. "You have no permission to say her name. If I ever hear you say it again, I'll cut your tongue out so you won't do it again."
"Threats, Schaefer?" Weyland smirked.
"It's no threat. It's a promise," Hadrick said as he left. Weyland scoffed as he watched him leave.
The room became silent to Weyland as he thought about what he'd do with the hunter and her young. For a moment he felt a little unsure about what to do. Finally an idea popped into his head.
"Martin."
"Yes sir."
"Have your men isolate the young from their mother, and mark them up for the Chimera program. They should prove invaluable assets to us," Weyland ordered.
Bogs smiled at the thought. "Right away ,sir."
