Aliens vs Predator Omnibus

by Steve Perry

  We gotta get him out of Max, ASAP. For as shitty as I feel, I didn’t lobotomize myself. And if he could do that for us, I can at least get my sorry ass through a couple klicks of jungle.

  They walked in silence, or as much as they could manage with a ton-plus of metal stomping behind them. The going wasn’t too bad, although there was a lot of climbing over rotting logs and skirting trees, slowing them up. It would have been easier to let Max go first, clear them a path, but Lara had pointed out that he’d be more effective, better able to sense movement to either side, if he stayed in back. Ellis seemed to understand, although he’d said nothing when they’d explained it to them. Jess was afraid for him—the fear mixed with guilt, that they hadn’t pulled him out of Max immediately.

  He’s right, though, we need him… The Hunters had been something to see, and Jess didn’t know that defeating an alien queen was even possible without the kind of firepower Max possessed.

  They’d just reached a clearing, a grassy area that Noguchi started to edge around, when Ellis stopped, the rumbling crunch of his steps cut off. They all froze, Jess feeling new fear for the kid, wondering if this was it, not even halfway to the alien transport. Ellis’s weak, stuttering voice let Jess breathe again, but inspired a different kind of fear.

  “Sssomeone coming,” Ellis said, and raised both arms, aiming one o’clock.

  Noguchi had already dropped into a crouch, weapon ready, and Jess and Lara followed suit, new adrenaline humming through his body as thoughts raced through his mind.

  Hunter or drone, how many burner shots can Max take? The suit’s solid but it wasn’t built for those and what if this is a distraction, a trap—

  Jess clamped down, had to keep his shit wired. He held the burner and waited. Noguchi held one of her hands up in a fist and twisted it back and forth; Jess didn’t know the signal, but she seemed to realize that, whispering back at them a second later.

  “Get ready.”

  A crashing, rustling sound, whatever it was getting closer, coming through the trees from across the small clearing. It was big, could be anything—

  The shadowy figure stepped out into the starlight a second later and Jess almost fired, there was something wrong with it, the shape of its head strange, its torso deformed—

  “Oh, God,” Lara whispered, and Jess saw what it was, and felt a kind of vindication rise up inside, feelings of gratification that he recognized as petty and mean. And deeply satisfying.

  It was Nirasawa, his face mutilated, the now obvious synthetic skin hanging in melted shreds from an exposed carbon-fiber cheekbone. And he was carrying Lucas Briggs, the exec’s limp body in his arms, a face-hugger wrapped tightly around the bastard’s head.

  26

  “Don’t shoot,” Nirasawa said, a thick, wet quality to his voice, as if he were speaking through a mouthful of soup. He stepped toward them, holding out Briggs’s body as if it were some token of surrender. What was left of the synthetic’s face was held in an expression of unhappiness, almost sorrow.

  An android. Thank God Keene wasn’t, we never would have made it off that shuttle…

  Lara shook her head. Considering where they were now, what Ellis had done to himself, maybe she shouldn’t be so thankful.

  Nirasawa came closer and Lara stood up, Jess and Noguchi following suit, though neither of them lowered their weapons. Lara tucked hers into her belt, stepping toward the damaged android. Ellis was the robotics expert, but she knew enough about synth programming to know that it was unlikely this was some trick. Synthetics didn’t generally work that way, they had to be directed to be misleading, and it was obvious that Briggs wasn’t capable of redesigning a program, not at the moment.

  Nirasawa looked terrible, the right side of his face clawed to ribbons. The right eye had drooled out of its socket, lying across the ruptured mass of his cheek in a seeping, oozing bath of creamy lubricant. The white liquid had almost completely covered the front of his suit, and part of Briggs’s. He looked at Lara with his good eye and she saw that his unhappiness was real, or as real as his synthesized emotional makeup would allow.

  “Please, you must help Mr. Briggs,” he gurgled.

  Lara sighed, a little surprised at her feeling of pity for the bodyguard, although she supposed she knew where it came from. It wasn’t his fault that he’d been created to protect assholes like Briggs; it was probably his primary function, and with Briggs as good as dead, Nirasawa was now obsolete.

  “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Jess muttered, stepping forward to join them. Noguchi stood watch, scanning the trees, Max as still as a statue. Lara hoped he was resting, or at least not in any pain.

  “When I tried to pull it off of him, he started to choke,” Nirasawa said. “I’m afraid that part of my contingency awareness has been damaged. I don’t know what to do.”

  Jess leaned down, reaching out to tap at the shell of the embryo carrier. It wobbled, and Lara saw its tail slide from around Briggs’s neck, loosening. Jess put his burner down and grabbed two of its multijointed legs with each hand, the face-hugger coming away easily. A thin fluid dribbled out of Briggs’s slack mouth; still unconscious, he moaned, turning his head as Jess dropped the dead carrier into the grass.

  “Too late,” Lara said, unable to muster any sympathy for the executive. Jess was right—if anyone deserved such a death, it was Lucas Briggs.

  Nirasawa blinked, his unsocketed eye twitching on his face with a tiny wet smacking noise. “It is my job to protect him.”

  Even Jess seemed to feel bad for the synthetic. “Look, your boss is beyond help,” he said. “He’s been implanted with a parasitic embryo that will kill him. There’s nothing that anyone can do, and probably nothing you could have done to stop it. You’ll have to—”

  “Quiet,” Noguchi whispered, and Lara tensed, pulling her nine-millimeter, glancing back to see that Ellis had both of Max’s arms raised again. Jess scooped up his burner and stepped closer to Lara.

  Silence for a moment—and then there was the faintest sound of movement in the trees ahead of them, a sound like some stealthy creature might make, sliding through the dark. Lara saw a branch move, then another, meters away, but couldn’t see what was making them rustle.

  Noguchi took off her mask and dropped it, speaking softly, her shoulders set, her gaze unwavering.

  “We’re splitting up,” she said, and Lara knew from the sound of her voice that this time, there wasn’t going to be any discussion.

  * * *

  Five Hunters stepped out from the cover of the jungle, cloaked, armed only with blades. When Noguchi saw who was with them, she understood, not for the first time, that there were some fates that couldn’t be avoided. Shouldn’t be.

  “We’re splitting up,” Noguchi said, dropping her burner next to her mask. If they’d been armed with heavier weapons, she probably would have passed—but as it was, the situation felt too much like an opportunity, the circumstances too perfect for coincidence.

  There was a Blooded she didn’t know, three novices—and Shorty. When they saw her throw her weapon down, Shorty clattered to his Leader, Noguchi too far away to hear the exchange, but knowing what it was about all the same.

  Challenge. Honor.

  Ellis would see Jess and Lara to the ship, they’d be fine… except there was the problem of the rest of the Hunters. Noguchi felt a twinge of doubt, evaluating the group. They’d let her fight Shorty, but would kill her when it was over, assuming she survived. Hunters loved an honor match, but they wouldn’t let her walk away afterward.

  Unless…

  “Nirasawa,” she said, still watching the Hunters, watching as another novice took Shorty’s blade from him, “it’s too late for you to help your master… but if there’s any part of your programming that understands revenge, now’s the time to access it. These are the beings responsible for his condition.”

  The Hunters uncloaked, stepping farther away from the backdrop of jungle. Shorty took off his mask, throwing it aside,
and the Hunters began to trill to one another, clicking and clattering excitedly.

  “I understand,” Nirasawa said, and Noguchi glanced back to see that he’d put his master down, laying him gently in the grass.

  “The rest of you, get to the ship,” Noguchi said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Machiko…” Lara started, but Noguchi shook her head. There wasn’t anything that she or Jess could say that would change her mind.

  “I have unfinished business here,” she said grimly, and started across the clearing, Nirasawa falling in behind her. Perhaps it was lunacy, perhaps she would only get herself killed, fighting for an integrity that wasn’t even in question—but perhaps, after all this time, she’d finally grasped the Hunter’s way.

  It’s about doing what you have to do, regardless of the outcome. And it’s about killing your enemy, because he doesn’t understand how only the strong have a right to honor.

  With a scream of undisguised glee, Shorty stepped out to meet her.

  * * *

  Ellis understood enough of what was happening to know that Max shouldn’t kill the creatures—

  —badguys five object—

  —so they watched without acting, as the small woman and the inorganic moved away, each step adding to the numbers that ran across Ellis’s eyes, distance and speed. Ellis thought that he might be bleeding; Max didn’t register a change in fluids, but there was enough wrong with Max that Ellis decided to abstain from deciding.

  we have to go now, ellis, can you hear

  ellis, can you

  help me pick him up

  Max looked down at their friends, not sure who had spoken, Ellis pleased by the sounds of their voices.

  what are you doing, you said yourself that briggs is beyond help

  i’ll explain later ellis, help me

  Jess. Jess wanted their help. He had crouched next to the unmoving human, touching him, trying to move him. Ellis explained to Max what Jess wanted and Max took a step forward, knees bending, the glowing plain of the ground line rising in front of their eyes. Ellis felt his body moving within, leaning over, and felt warmth against skin, wet motion across his lips.

  Bleeding, I am bleeding.

  Jess pushed the human into the crook of Max’s right arm and they stood up, 82.72 kilos heavier than before. Max made adjustments for the difference, taking up enough calculation space that Ellis couldn’t make out any more words.

  Both humans, Lara, Jess, made sounds, speaking, and Ellis understood the meaning if not what they said; it was time to go.

  Max and Ellis stepped forward, avoiding the distraction that was taking place nine meters away, between the small woman and the nonhuman bad guys. From the sharp sounds and quick movements, they decided it was highly probable that the interaction was violent.

  Ellis was glad to be leaving; he was getting tired, and thought that he might like to sleep soon.

  27

  Nirasawa’s capacity for retaliatory action was well mapped and undamaged, a self-contained 3 LCerabyte module that had been integrated into his reasoning after his assignment to Mr. Briggs. The humans that he’d recognized, Katherine Lara and Martin Jess, had been telling the truth, as had the woman Lara had called “Machiko.” No pupil dilation, no change in respiration; Mr. Briggs would not survive.

  Protecting Mr. Briggs was no longer his primary function, which meant that he had to report back to his Weyland/Yutani A1 Assignment Officer as soon as he could find a transmitter—and he now had the option to physically incapacitate the perpetrators of Mr. Briggs’s inevitable death. The woman Machiko started for the group of five alien/organics and Nirasawa followed, the stimuli from the tapped module flooding his driver.

  “Nirasawa, the small one and I will engage,” Machiko said as she walked, and flexed her right arm. A pair of sharpened knives projected from the back of her wrist with a click, snapping into place. “The others may wish to involve themselves in our fight. If you choose to keep them from interfering, you will cause them psychological damage.”

  Nirasawa didn’t respond, but decided that inflicting more than just physical injury was appealing. His module had been designed so that associates of a damaged or dead consumer could feel that some justice had been served; it did not recommend any one method of reciprocity over any other, but did suggest that a combination of methods was highly effective.

  The members of the alien group were agitated, calling out in a language Nirasawa did not know, making threatening gestures as he and Machiko neared. From his previous interaction on the Bunda station platform, Nirasawa knew that they were physically much stronger than humans, but didn’t think it necessary to tell the woman; he deduced it likely that she already knew. Machiko moved ahead of him, stopping two meters from the smallest of the screaming alien beings and striking a fighting pose.

  The short alien screamed again, leaping forward. When the woman dodged to avoid his attack, one of the watching creatures swiped at her with the same kind of apparatus that she wore, two pointed blades at the back of his clawed fist.

  Nirasawa moved. As Machiko darted away from the second assailant, he reached forward and grabbed its shoulder, jerking it off-balance. A third alien lunged for Nirasawa with a bladed staff, damaging the silicone colloid that served as his tricep. Nirasawa still had a grip on the second attacker’s shoulder. He broke it, then turned his attention to the blade carrier, aware that all four beings had now surrounded him. The woman would have her engagement with the small one.

  Nirasawa was satisfied that the module was in full working order.

  * * *

  Noguchi saw that another novice was preparing to attack even as Shorty leapt for her. It was a feint, a classic, the second Hunter ready to skewer her as she blocked Shorty’s wild lunge, designed only to intimidate her into dodging.

  Pathetic.

  She went with it, feinting her own dodge right, ducking well beneath the untrained swipe of Shorty’s second and shifting her weight back to the left. She came up with her wrist blades, the tips of them catching the plate armor at Shorty’s groin.

  Shorty wheeled backwards, tusks going wide, although the blades didn’t pierce flesh. Noguchi followed through, not willing to overbalance, pulling herself back up into a defensive crouch.

  The screams of the others told her that Nirasawa was busy, but she didn’t look away from Shorty, fully aware that one of them wouldn’t be walking away from this one. Shorty knew it, too, she could see it in the shine of his hateful gaze, in the way it flickered toward his backup.

  They’re busy, you blustering crab. You’re all mine.

  “Come and get it,” she sneered, grinning tightly. “Pauk-de ’aseigan!”

  She’d either called him a fucking servant or a servant fucker, she wasn’t sure. All that mattered was that it had the desired effect, goading him to reckless action.

  Screaming with raw fury, Shorty jumped, swiping his blades down in an arc, all of his powerful bulk behind the violent move—

  —and Noguchi dropped, one hand behind her, supporting her weight as she delivered a solid kick to his shin. Shorty rocked with the blow, using it, continuing his downward swipe as he fell—

  —and Noguchi rolled to the side, Shorty’s blades missing her head by centimeters. With his weight behind them, the shining knives were buried in the ground, Shorty on his side, facing her as he struggled to pull them free.

  Now!

  Noguchi lashed out with her right hand, so concentrated on the killing strike, already seeing the metal dripping with green from his slashed throat—

  —that she didn’t see his knee coming up until it made contact, slamming into the front of her left thigh hard enough to send shock pulses of agony through her body.

  Noguchi was shoved back, too far for her knives to reach his spotted throat. She stumbled to her feet, favoring her injury as Shorty managed to free his wrist and get up.

  She stood in defense, ready for his next lunge—but he mirrored her ac
tion. Warily, they watched each other, gazes locked, the screams of pain and fury from the other Hunters distant and unimportant.

  Kill them all, android. Let this stay between us.

  The eyes would give it away, she’d see him look before he leapt—but it seemed that Shorty had finally learned not to go running into a fight with his betters. Neither moved, both waiting for the opening that would end it, once and for all.

  * * *

  Lara and Jess stayed close to Max, Ellis seeming to understand that they wanted to head west, keeping to a reasonably straight line. They were able to move faster than before, Max tearing a path through the abundant growth, the smell of sap and cut plants surrounding them as the sound of Noguchi’s battle fell behind.

  Briggs’s body was folded over the elbow joint of Max’s right arm, Ellis keeping the arm stable as he moved so that the impregnated Briggs wouldn’t fall off. The exec’s arms and legs were slapped at by weeds and broken tree limbs, which was fine by Jess; Briggs’s comfort wasn’t high on his list of needs. Besides, he was unconscious. They probably wouldn’t be able to use him at all, but Jess thought that having a still-breathing suit in tow might turn out to be extremely handy.

  He won’t give birth for another couple hours, at least, plenty of time in case—

  “Jess, listen,” Lara said, and stopped, tilting her head, her face pale as milk. Ellis took one more crashing step and did the same, turning statue.

  Jess listened. He heard jungle sounds, night sounds—the rhee-rhee-rhee of some cicada relative, a wind in the treetops high above, the scuttling rasps underfoot of animals too small to move the leaves. They held in place for a full minute, and Jess didn’t hear anything unexpected.

  “I heard something moving,” Lara said, chewing at her lower lip. “I’m sure.”

  If Lara was sure, than there was something to it. Jess moved closer to Ellis, searching the shadow-flecked trees for darker things.

  “Ellis, do you see anything?”