Aliens vs Predator Omnibus

by Steve Perry

  …and it doesn’t matter, I have to protect them, get them out of harm’s way…

  Noguchi backed away from the line of trees, back toward the ship, Jess and Lara flanking her, covering either side. The Hunters wouldn’t attack from a distance—although she couldn’t be positive, not knowing what rules they followed for Hunting ooman—

  —no, human. Human beings. Kate Lara and Martin Jess.

  After so long with the Hunters, she was astounded at how quickly she’d warmed to these two, and how easily they’d accepted her. These weren’t the simpering colonists or corporate flunkies she’d expected; she would have fought for them either way, but the fact that they hunted bugs, that they were warriors of a sort, more than made up for the fact that she was risking her life to save only two people. These were her people.

  Noguchi knew that she was as swift and sure as any one of the Hunters, not as strong but undoubtedly smarter—because she wasn’t so arrogant as to believe she would always prevail.

  And I might lose… but I’ll be damned if I die without taking some of them with me.

  She’d get these people to safety, and then finish her business with the Hunters. As soon as they made it into the deep shadow of the broken ship, Noguchi turned and ran, Lara and Ellis close behind as they plunged into the night jungle.

  23

  Noguchi ran through the dark scrub as though she were dancing, dodging branches and leaping over fallen trees with the grace and stamina of an expert gymnast—and she did it almost silently, making Lara wonder if the woman were a synthetic. She and Jess could barely keep up, and between them, they made enough noise to alert the dead.

  What did she hear, where are we going, how the hell are we going to hold our own against a race of bug hunters?

  The questions whipped through her mind, unanswerable, everything happening too fast. There was a growing ache in her right knee that got a little worse with each running step, making her wonder just how bad she’d screwed it up when the platform had gone down—and though they were veering away from the burning rubble of the station, smoke-thick, ambient light still layered through the trees, enough for her to see that Jess wasn’t doing so great, either. She clutched the heavy weapon against her chest and struggled on, darting looks back at Jess to make sure he was still with them.

  Just as Lara thought she might have to fall back, Noguchi slowed, holding up one gloved hand. The smaller woman raised her burner, cocking her head as if listening for something. Lara couldn’t hear anything over the rapid thumps of her own heart, and Jess was trying not to gasp without much success.

  This is crazy and we left Ellis behind, we have to—

  Lara froze, hearing the hiss, the sweat on her skin turning cold. She raised her own weapon, darting a look back to see that Jess had also heard. The rising, breathing hiss of a drone or drones, close, nearly impossible to pinpoint—

  —and Noguchi fired, the burner making a brrrp sound, a strobe of brilliant blue-white exploding through the hanging branches and vines, BOOM! Plant matter flew, and Lara heard the shriek of a second bug even as the first was finally visible, making itself seen in bloody death. Noguchi’s shot had blown through the drone’s midsection, cutting it in two, both pieces crashing through the shadowed green on a spray of acid.

  Before Lara or Jess could find the second screamer, Noguchi fired again, just to the right of the first. Again, they saw the drone as it died, the bug’s scream shattering out the back of its black skull. Leaves smoked and sizzled, a fresh smell of burning in the already soured air.

  Didn’t even see them—

  Lara heard another alien trumpet, and another, ahead of them and at two o’clock. The bugs weren’t close enough to attack, not yet, but the jungle was suddenly alive with crashing movement, with the approach of many.

  “Nest,” Jess spat, and Lara knew it was true, knew that there wouldn’t be such a deliberate attack unless they were near a breeding area.

  Noguchi knew it, too. “Turn around,” she said, her voice hollow from beneath her alien mask. She swept the trees with her burner, backing away from the hissing, the popping snaps of branches, from the distant shrieks growing by the second.

  Lara turned, stepping in front of Jess and moving quickly back the way they’d come. She could hear Jess’s ragged breathing behind her as she jumped a huddle of stocky plants, and from farther back, the ripping sound of Noguchi’s burner as it fired again.

  Back to that ship, maybe the damage isn’t so bad and we can—

  To Lara’s left, a bug lunged out from behind a stand of trees, grinning and hissing, its clawed hands snatching. Lara stumbled as she brought the awkward rifle around, fumbling for the trigger—

  —and brrrp-BOOM, a bolt of lightning tore through the air from behind her, from Jess’s weapon, melting through the alien’s spindly body, its left side disappearing in a liquid splash.

  They didn’t have time to stop, to regroup; if they didn’t get out of the designated no-man’s-land, the drones would keep coming. Lara glanced back, saw that Jess was on his feet, and sprinted ahead. She had no doubt that Noguchi was still bringing up the rear, not with how fast she’d wasted those first two—

  “Stop!” Noguchi hissed, and Lara stumbled to a halt, every muscle in her body telling her to run, her soldier’s mind obeying the voice of command—and a strange smell washed over her, like some rotting, oily fruit.

  “Toward the station, go!” Noguchi said.

  Lara turned right and saw Jess already a step ahead. Together they ran toward the glow of the fire, and it occurred to Lara that in a matter of minutes, they had accepted the unusual woman as their leader—and maybe as their only real chance to get off of Bunda alive.

  * * *

  The shuttle had landed on its side at an angle, the few things that had been aboard spilling out of the open hatch—including Keene’s body, his dark suit smeared with the contents of a few food packets, a spongy chunk of soypro actually stuck to one of his glazed, bulging eyes. Only his upper half was outside, his chest crushed between the doorframe and the ground, gluts of drying blood coming from every visible orifice. Ellis barely noticed, interested only in Max’s condition as he crawled over the corpse’s legs, searching the shadows beneath the webbed cots that hung down from what was now the ceiling. He stood up in the stifling dark, everything that had happened in the past hours jumbling together, focusing his energy on the joining to come.

  They need us now, they need what we can do.

  There had been a terrible crash, an alien ship twice as big as the Nemesis plowing through the trees, almost hitting Lara and Jess. Ellis had just reached the shuttle, their crashed transport close enough to the fire that one side was smoking, when he’d seen the ship come down. He’d had to run back, to make sure they hadn’t been killed. A glimpse through the trees, the two of them standing in front of the ship, and the relief that had flowed through him had been incredible—not just because they were still alive, but because he still had a real reason to interface again with Max. As long as they were alive on this dangerous planet, they needed what he and Max had to offer.

  It’s who I am now. I thought I was sick, I thought the numbers and nonfeelings were a sickness, but they weren’t. They aren’t.

  “They’re us,” Ellis breathed, talking to the thickening of shadow in the back of the transport. His glasses had been lost, he couldn’t remember when, but it was okay. Max would see for them both.

  He felt his way through the dark, falling to his knees and crawling when he tripped over something, reaching out to touch Max. The heated air made the metal warm, as though Max had been waiting, warming its empty guts for Ellis to slip inside.

  Max was on its left side, its rifle arm pinned beneath its giant torso. Ellis crawled over the metal body, feeling for the circuit hatch set at the lower back. He found it and found the controls that would ready Max, his hands knowing what to do even without the years of training in hydraulic chem or the Company course; this was Max, a
s much a part of him now as he was of it. He stroked the chords that would sing it to life, grinning with excitement as he turned on the vocal transmit option, no headsets here, and they’ll hear my voice, mine, speaking for us as we lead them to safety…

  Next, the release on its back panel. With a silent plea, Ellis twisted the lock for the cavity.

  Yes! It hadn’t been jammed. Metal slid against metal, the hatch rising, stopping short of its full length when it hit the back wall. There was just enough room for him to slip inside.

  Ellis wormed his way into the suit, wishing absently that he’d thought to look over Max’s condition when they’d still been drifting in the void. Before they’d joined on the station, he’d only had a moment to make adjustments—resetting the interface arm at the back of the head, switching off the IV pumps and monitors, doing all he could so that they could work together without a compsynth implant. Toward the end of their time together, when his body had started to—

  —die—

  —rebel against Max, he’d had to randomly shut down some of the systems. It had been a blind and desperate act, but it had worked, giving him enough control over Max for them to make it off the station. He knew now, though, that it had been such a struggle, his body failing as it had because he’d worked to dominate the machine.

  “Not again,” he said, working his legs into Max’s, his feet finding the stirrups set just above the suit’s knees. He reached back and closed the hatch, the interior’s temp jumping several degrees, from hot to suffocating. Once Max was awake, the cooling system would kick on…

  Ellis pressed his arms to his sides, finding the touch-sensitive controls with his fingers, breathing deeply. Old sweat, chemicals, burnt wiring—smells that instantly took him back, the disjointed memories rising close to the surface. There was another scent, uglier, and he remembered that he’d vomited near the end—

  —blood, you threw up blood—

  —but he knew his olfactory senses would pretty much shut down once Max took over. All that was left was to lean back. The interface probe would complete the process when it touched him.

  Ellis closed his eyes, preparing himself for the initial pain as best he could; he took a deep breath and pushed his head back, a slight smile on his face as he felt the metal tip of the longer spike, as he heard the probe hum into action—

  —and the pain was so sudden, so complete that for a half second, he was Brian Ellis again, a person, his thoughts all his own—and he knew that he’d made a horrible mistake, and that it was too late as his limbs started to convulse, as the prongs worked their way into him, boring the old holes wider, his blood spurting into the hot black of the robotic suit.

  * * *

  Nirasawa had been damaged, parts of his program inaccessible, parts of his body in need of repair, but he put these matters aside; Mr. Briggs had been taken away. Mr. Briggs could very well be in danger, and Nirasawa would deal with his own problems once he’d found and secured the safety of Mr. Briggs.

  It had been nearly twenty-four minutes since he’d last seen Mr. Briggs, on the second northwest deck of the Bunda survey station. The being that Nirasawa had been working to restrain had not been killed when the station had fallen, and Nirasawa had been detained from his primary function by the being once on the ground. The being, alien/organic in nature, had been injured, making it easier for Nirasawa to render it harmless; he’d broken all four limbs and thrown its weapon away. The being had died within seven minutes, although Nirasawa could not be any more specific as to the exact time; he’d already begun a perimeter search for Mr. Briggs, and had passed the dead alien being seven minutes after he’d initially left it. The being could have ceased living at any period during those minutes.

  Mr. Briggs had chosen not to be implanted with a signal 07901 patch, compatible to all Cyberdyne 07901 Guard series. Mr. Briggs’s position would be known to Nirasawa at all times if Mr. Briggs had been implanted. It was a simple procedure, a painless injection that fulfilled all terms of Nirasawa’s warranty and would ensure a higher level of satisfaction on the part of Mr. Briggs; Nirasawa found it unfortunate that Mr. Briggs had declined the patch. Since he had no signal input, Nirasawa would have to search as programmed, an expanding perimeter search with possible directional changes based on suggestive evidence found.

  Nirasawa’s search had been unsuccessful. The station’s malfunction and subsequent crash had created the problem of too much suggestive evidence, so Nirasawa had found it necessary to reduce his dependence on his heuristic logic driver, relying primarily on his intuitive functions. This, unfortunately, was one of the areas that had suffered damage, between 300 and 330 of the self-mapping connective loops no longer functioning. Nirasawa could not narrow the number down any further. He continued his expansion, temporarily reducing power to damaged areas as he walked, searching for Mr. Briggs. He did not call for him, the existence of hostile beings making vocal contact a risk in the possible instance that Mr. Briggs was being held.

  Nirasawa found Mr. Briggs fifty-two meters from the outer edge of the defunct station, thirty-three minutes since last contact, Mr. Briggs restrained by an organic substance that bound him to the trunk of a large tree. Nirasawa sensed that there were several hidden beings in the vicinity but there were no threatening movements, so he did not increase their priority status. There was an alien ovoid in front of Mr. Briggs, and an alien body attached to Mr. Briggs’s face.

  Nirasawa acted quickly to fulfill his primary function. He began to pull the foreign body from Mr. Briggs’s face—and immediately, Mr. Briggs began to choke, the being’s multiple legs tightening in a possibly damaging way around Mr. Briggs’s head. Nirasawa ceased his efforts. There was a possibility that he knew what to do, that he understood what the alien body was, but that he’d lost access to that part of his program. As it was, he did not know how to protect Mr. Briggs from this threat.

  Nirasawa saw that there were several animals similarly restrained in the immediate area, small mammals, many of them dead. All of them also had alien ovoids in front of them. Eggs. The probability that Mr. Briggs would die increased sharply with this information, and Nirasawa decided that it would be best to remove him from the situation.

  Nirasawa carefully broke the stiff substance away from Mr. Briggs and lifted him, walking away from the egg area. He’d heard sounds of deliberate, high-functioning movement just after the alien craft had set down, eleven minutes earlier. If there were humans still on Bunda, perhaps he could seek out repair, for himself and for Mr. Briggs. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

  24

  The decision was instantaneous, Noguchi calling out to Lara and Jess with the same breath that had inhaled the yautja musk. The Hunters probably knew it was she, and it occurred to her in that same instant that the recognition might inspire a different kind of Hunt. She had to separate from Lara and Jess; being marked as Noguchi’s friends certainly wouldn’t buy them any favor. Besides which, she’d led the trusting pair from the arms of the Hunters into the dangers of a bug zone and back again; she couldn’t have known about the bugs, but she was responsible for what happened next, having taken it upon herself to step into a leadership role.

  As soon as she shouted them toward the dying light of the station fire, she veered left, running in the opposite direction. If the Hunters went after Lara and Jess, the fire should confuse their infra sensors—the reason they even had infra finally clear—but chances were good that they’d be coming after her first.

  There’s no enemy like an old enemy, after all…

  An ordinary human trophy would be nothing next to her skull on one of their walls; any Blooded worth his mark would have made the connection between the crashed ship and her running with humans, the magnitude of the betrayal such that they might very well leave off the Hunt, calling for her extermination over all else. She’d known that they would want her dead, but it hadn’t figured that prominently in her plans—she hadn’t known that she would be working to save only two people, th
at there would be so few targets for the Hunters’ hatred. It probably couldn’t be helped, but she had to at least try and redirect their attention.

  Lead them toward the bugs, circle back for Lara and Jess and see if we can’t find Topknot’s ship. If she’d read the signal right back on the Shell, his transport was only about a klick and a half west from her current—

  Brrrp—

  —BOOM, Noguchi was already diving, rolling through a tangle of bushes as a rain of fiery leaves fell all around her. She was on her feet and running again before they finished dropping, zagging right. The alien grounds were close, she should be drawing attack any second. Drones sometimes gathered unhatched eggs on seeded planets, protecting them fiercely; it was a bad place to lead novice Hunters, dangerous, and if those chasing her now didn’t break off their pursuit, they were going to have more to deal with than a single renegade ooman—

  —and there, coiling out of the dark like a bone ghost, a leering, lashing drone, hopping into her path from any one of a hundred places. Noguchi dodged left, pivoting, throwing herself back against a willowy tree as she brought up her burner. She fired, the blast catching the bug’s shoulder, spinning it away—

  —and she heard the clattering, trilling cry of a Hunter, a Leader, a howl joined by five, seven, ten others, more. If they hadn’t recognized her before, any question was now gone—and she’d given them their target, killing without instruction in front of a Leader and his group. The rising cries grew in ferocity, a harmony of bloodlust that she’d once participated in, the one experience she’d shared with the predatory Clan, that she’d understood. The fevered, soul-consuming joy of Hunt—and this time, she was their prey.

  But not an easy kill, her thoughts reaffirmed. They want a fight, they’ve got it.

  Noguchi slipped around the tree and was away, the howl of the Hunters met by the screams of approaching drones, the two blending into a hellish music that spun up into the darkness, a melody of war.