Predator - Incursion Read Free Page B

years of analysis, experimentation, trial and error… and the errors had almost ended it all.
    The Company had come far. Their research into the Xenomorph samples from LV-178 had advanced further than anyone could have imagined, or hoped for. Though the strange species was still an enigma, the information now contained in Liliya’s hard disc shed more light than anything that humans had ever discovered before.
    Soon, the
Evelyn-Tew
would crash into Alpha Centurai. If they weren’t already dead, everyone on board who still retained an inkling of the research would be destroyed.
    Liliya had already confirmed that in their desperation to escape, anyone who might survive in the jettisoned escape pods had not had a chance to take any of the precious research with them. She possessed the last known copy, and she was taking it to Wordsworth.
    Confident now that treating her wound could come later, she examined the escape pod’s computer and assessed its limited flight capabilities. In such a catastrophic situation it was pre-programmed to take her to the nearest planet, moon, or asteroid, but she initiated a manual override. There was still seventy-three percent of an engine burn left, and she estimated that it could get her up to point-oh-four light speed. That was enough. By the time any rescue ships arrived, she would be gone from their scanners. Lost to the void.
    She composed a short, coded message for the Founders, then set it broadcasting on a twenty-hourly loop.
    When she blinked she saw Roberts blasted back against her, Dearing’s head taken apart by the beast. The human part of her—the strongest part, and the side she had been promoting for as long as she could remember—hated what she had done. However human she felt, though, she knew that she had been built to last a long, long while.
    As long as was necessary.
    After repairing the damage in her stomach and sealing the wound, Liliya initiated the burn, then settled down to pass some time.

1

JOHNNY MAINS
    Southgate Station 12, Outer Rim research facility
March 2692 AD
    Lieutenant Johnny Mains never got used to seeing them close-up. Alive or dead, a Yautja was a weird-looking creature. Ostensibly humanoid, yet there was so much about them that was so inhuman that traditional classification systems just didn’t seem adequate.
    Freaky bastard
, he thought. That described it well enough.
    “L-T,” Cotronis said. The corporal stood beside him, close enough for their shoulders to touch. She was still breathing hard. He saw the splash of blood across her bald head. Human blood. He never really got used to seeing that, either.
    Mains raised an eyebrow, but he could see the truth in her eyes.
    “Willis didn’t make it,” she said. She blinked quickly, sweat running into her eyes and tears running out.
    “Probably a good thing,” he said softly. “Messed up like that, Brian wouldn’t have wanted to go on.”
    “You can’t say that,” Cotronis said. In private, with only other VoidLarks in earshot, none of them used formal military speak, and no one pulled rank. They’d been out here together too long to require false monikers to display deep respect.
    “I can,” Mains said. “I’ve known him for a long time. Longer even than you.”
    “And Lizzie?”
    He’d seen Private Lizzie Reynolds go down fighting when she’d taken on the first of the two Yautja. She’d been protecting a man and two young kids, and she’d got a few good shots in with her nano-rifle before the alien took her head.
    “She died well,” Mains said. “She died fighting.”
    “So what now?”
    Mains sighed, then turned away from the dead Yautja. They’d have to put it on ice and send it back with what was left of the station’s crew. The Company rarely got its hands on such a complete specimen, and there was still so little known about this enigmatic species. He couldn’t help admiring their martial abilities. He couldn’t help hating them, either. Willis and Reynolds