Aliens vs Predator 2 - War

by Steve Perry

  Please, let them be here, let them be unhurt-

  Noguchi stepped away from the ship, searching, and there they were, standing in a small semi-clearing right in front of the Shell. A man and a woman, both disheveled and dirty, both staring at her as if she were an alien; the thought made her smile, just a little. The woman, who held a handgun, lowered it slightly. They glanced at each other uncertainly, then back at her.

  A sudden crunch of nerves hit her, seeing two human faces, human expressions for the first time in--three years, it's been three years. What must I look like, what are they thinking? What am I going to say?

  Noguchi forced herself to relax. She'd tell them the truth, that was all.

  The woman was slender, long, reddish hair framing an intelligent and wary face. The man was dark-skinned, of African descent perhaps, and had been hurt recently; bruises covered his face and one of his eyes was badly swollen. Only the woman was armed, though the male held himself carefully, obviously prepared to fight if she were an attacker.

  Noguchi swallowed dryly, stepping closer to the couple. "Sorry," she said, still smiling just a little, her heart pounding as if she faced an army of drones. "I've never had much luck with landings. My name is Machiko Noguchi, and I'm here to help."

  * * *

  Chapter 22

  Of all the weird shit Jess had seen and experienced in the last couple of weeks, this had to be, hands down, the absolute mother of 'em all. The crash landing of a giant alien ship that had very nearly run them down, followed by the appearance of a small, deadly-looking Japanese woman, maybe early 30s TS, with beaded hair and a scar shaped like a lightning bolt between her eyes. Wearing alien armor that looked a hell of a lot like the armor on that cloaked creature ...

  ...and the hair, and that mask she's holding ...

  "You're human," he said finally, a stupid statement but all he could think of; he wanted reassurance.

  The woman, Noguchi, nodded almost shyly. "Yeah. Um, thanks. I-you'll have to excuse me, I haven't, you don't know how good it is to speak to people again."

  They stood for a moment not speaking at all, just staring at one another, the crackling light of the ebbing station fire making it all seem even stranger, jagged shadows dancing across the peculiar scene. Jess knew that they had to find Ellis, that they needed weapons and supplies, that they had to get off of Bunda-but all he could do was stare at this woman, wondering when he was going to wake up.

  And just when I thought things couldn't get any more fantastic. Christ, what a freak show.

  Lara finally broke their odd silence, taking a step toward Noguchi. "You said you were here to help, Ms. Noguchi---do you mind telling us exactly what's going on?"

  Her smile gone, Noguchi looked down at the mask in her hands before answering, her stilted voice gaining strength as she spoke. "It's kind of a long story. I heard that people on this planet-on Bunda-were in trouble, and I knew that I had to choose which side I was going to be on, the Hunters' or yours."

  Jess frowned, making the connection between the woman's clothes and hair and the thing that had jumped him near the shuttle; apparently, there was more than one. "The Hunters? The invisible, uh, people who attacked the survey station? You're with them?"

  "I've been with them for-over a year," Noguchi said. "And they're not human. I thought-I learned the hard way that it was a mistake to think a human being could adapt to their culture. Their Clan."

  She grinned, the look of it sending a chill down Jess's spine. He'd had a hard life, and didn't know that he'd ever seen anything as dangerous as that smile. "Now they're learning just how big a mistake it was."

  Jesus, who is this woman?

  Noguchi shook her head, as if clearing it. "Look, I made quite an entrance, so it won't be long before we have. company. Are there any other survivors? We've got to round them up and get to cover."

  Lara glanced over at him, and he shrugged, grimacing at the dozens of aches the action inspired. If there were any people left, the chances of finding them didn't seem so hot.

  "You aren't the only ones, are you?" Noguchi asked.

  "There are three of us, actually," Lara said. "There may be others, but ... I guess we have a long story of our own."

  Noguchi nodded, scanning the trees behind them with the practiced ease of someone used to battle while Lara spoke. "And I'm interested in hearing it, but we're going to need more weapons," she said. "Stay here."

  Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked quickly back around the mammoth nose of the alien ship, disappearing through the dancing, smoking shadows that twined through the broken trees.

  " 'Hunters?' " Lara said quietly. "What are they hunting?"

  Jess shook his head. "Us. I don't know. Maybe she can help us find Ellis, at least ...

  He trailed off, wondering if Lara had considered the possibility that the kid wasn't lying in the dirt somewhere, knocked out. The way he'd acted just before the platform crashed, guilt-ridden and near hysteria, maybe he'd run off, his fragile emotional state finally hitting overload.

  Or could be he got killed by one of these alien friends of Ms. Noguchi's ... The sudden appearance of the woman didn't seem real, even though the proof was right in front of them, twenty-plus meters high. Jess tried to think of something to say to Lara about the newest addition to their little party, feeling like they should have some exchange before she returned.

  What's to say? She's here, and we're not in a position to turn away help, no matter how strange the helper.

  "You think she's okay? Trustworthy?" Jess asked finally.

  Lara hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Yeah. My gut says yeah."

  Jess nodded, glad they agreed on her basic intentions if nothing else. Noguchi might be certifiable, but she obviously meant well.

  Before they could talk any more, the woman reappeared, striding through the long grasses of the partial clearing. She held two rifle-like weapons in addition to the one strapped to her back. They looked something like old-style machine guns with oversize grips.

  "These are, uh, burners," she said, handing Jess one of the heavy weapons, the other to Lara. She unshouldered her own, holding it up for them to see the long, flat button on the front grip.

  "Trigger. There's no safety, so be careful. No kick, either, but they ride high. They're kind of-they shoot a semiliquid pulse of ... explosive particles, I guess. I've-I'm not much of a scientist, you'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge here ...

  Jess held the ungainly "burner," remembering how big the creature that had attacked him had been; Noguchi handled hers easily, obviously comfortable with the overlong barrel and thick grips. Jess was suddenly extremely glad that she'd decided to show up; she was something else ...

  Noguchi cleared her throat, looking between the two of them, smiling nervously again. "I'm sorry, I haven't even asked your names."

  Amazing. She crashes a ship, shows up talking about traveling with a pack of aliens, and still blushes when she talks.

  Lara gripped the burner tightly, speaking calmly to the anxious woman. "I'm Katherine Lara, this is Martin Jess. The third member of our group is Brian Ellis; when the platform crashed, we lost track of him. As for any others ... a private shuttle and I think a couple of transports got away before the station went down, so maybe they're already safe."

  Jess nodded, realizing that Noguchi would need some background for their little saga to make sense. He picked the story up, trying to keep it short. "There are these creatures-aliens-that have been discovered all over the colonies. They're extremely dangerous, they can adapt to any environment, and they breed like nothing you've ever seen. Lara, Ellis, and I were part of an extermination team that was sent to a space station a little over a week ago, to wipe out a nest of them. What we didn't know was that the station had been deliberately infested ...

  Jess hesitated, feeling the same old rage rising up .

  ...by the company we work for. They wanted to see how long it would take the aliens to kill fo
ur hundred people. Families."

  He suddenly wished desperately that Briggs was still on Bunda, the rush of anger blocking out all other concerns. Lara touched his shoulder gently, taking over. "We lost two members of our ground team, and ended up here. They sent a suit-an executive-to see if we had the information about the nest spread, but we don't, it got blown up along with the station and about a thousand aliens. Bugs, we call them-"

  Noguchi had listened to them without expression, but now she nodded, apparently unsurprised by their story-and what she said next was a shock that reminded Jess of his earlier idiotic assumption, that meeting this woman was the strangest thing that had happened, that could happen.

  "I call them that, too. We have more in common than you know. To the Clan, they are kainde amedha, the Hard Meat. They are what the Hunters usually Hunt-and this world has been seeded with them."

  Lara and Jess wore twin expressions of astonishment. Noguchi found herself marveling at the look of them both, at the intricate, telling lines and planes of their faces. If yautja faces were capable of subtlety, she'd never seen it.

  Finish talking, there can't be much time left.

  "There was even a bug mother on our ship," she said, nodding toward the grounded Shell. "Probably dead now. The Hunters seed entire planets with eggs and Hunt drones for sport. It's-their entire culture is built around the Hunt, it's very much like a religion for them."

  Noguchi sighed, shaking her head. "I thought they had rules against Hunting intelligent life. Against Hunting humans. It seems I was wrong."

  Lara stared at her. "You mean they hunt bugs for fun?"

  Noguchi nodded. "Apparently they started their Hunt in another part of Bunda, but it's still early. They'll be heading this way very soon. You haven't seen any bugs yet?"

  They both shook their heads, and she was glad to note that both immediately started watching the dark walls of jungle, alert to new danger. That they had been part of an extermination crew was good, they wouldn't be entirely helpless against the drones, at least ...

  "What about your friend, Ellis?" Noguchi asked. "You say you lost him?"

  Lara nodded, but Jess shifted uncomfortably, his bruised face set unhappily.

  "He may have lost us," he said softly. Noguchi noticed that Lara didn't seem surprised by the differing opinion, even though it was obvious they hadn't discussed it.

  "Another long story, but let's just say that he was injured on that space station, got kinda fucked up," Jess went on. "I think maybe he took off after the platform went down. He thought it was his fault."

  Noguchi wasn't sure what to make of that. She hoped that they found him before any of the Hunters did--except that it was already too late. The tiniest whiff of yautja musk was in the burnt air, she caught it even as she heard the soft snap of a branch underfoot, some twenty meters away, a slight rustling of leaves not far from it.

  Novices, and they won't be alone.

  "Get behind me, now," she said, putting the mask on, wondering how many had come. It was a Blooding Hunt, only a few should have burners-except it had been a human Hunt, too, no way to know how heavily they'd armed themselves, she hadn't checked the weapon stock ...

  . . , 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.

  * * *

  Chapter 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 h
ave 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.