InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kagome! Where are you?! ❯ aliens vs predator part 3 ( Chapter 16 )

Chapter 16 Aliens vs. Predator part 3

{English} in brackets

corrected by Angelica Birmingham.

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Ashley looks at Sesshomaru and Kagome. "Ok. Let's go to the OPS center. That is where I need to be, in case I need to make a flight. When we get there, just stand in a corner and do not do anything. You got that?"

Kagome nods. Sesshomaru growls. "Sshh. Lord Sesshomaru. We are not going to add to their problems." Kagome whispers.

"As soon as the cube is ready, we will leave." he growls.

"No."

He glares at her. She glares back. "I am not going to vanish on them. I, no, we can help them. . . and we will." she whispers.

"This Sesshomaru will not."

Kagome, growls deep in her throat, but twirls around and says to Ashley, "Let's go. We will stay out of your way."

Later . . . at the OPS room. Which is a large room, with about a dozen screens on one wall. Half-a-dozen computer stations face it. A couple of conference rooms are attached to it as well.

Ashley, after telling them to stand in a corner, goes over and starts to help the people in the room.

Noguchi and the people working for her are directing the construction of the barricades and trying to use the security sensors to detect the aliens.

A couple people wearing rancher-type clothes are also in the room. At least one person is staring at Kagome and Sesshomaru at any given moment. Nobody, however, is trying to talk to them, or conceal their suspicions of the two strangers.

"They think we have something to do with this, Sesshomaru, sir. Please, don't do anything to make things worse." Kagome whispers and begs the demon lord.
Later . . .

Noguchi, after a while, leaves the room, with an angry look on her face. Sesshomaru's eyebrows rise in a silent question to Kagome.

"If I understood the English. She told somebody to go to the starship, earlier and nobody has heard from him, since. She's going to investigate."

Later . .

The security screens begin to show activity. Ashley and others in the OPS room direct the second-in-command and a volunteer team, armed with whatever guns they could find, toward the suspicious signals from the cameras.

Then . . . all hell breaks loose on the screens. The party of a dozen or so men are being ambushed by invisible, or at best, partially visible predators.

And they are being massacred on the screen . .

On the security screen showing the ramp to the starship . . . a wave of black alien bugs attack and kill the red-shirted security tech with Noguchi. Just as she's about to be killed, a Predator jumps in front of the alien bugs and begins to attack them, with just a spear and his metal claws . . . he dies, but he does give Noguchi time to escape, unhurt . . .

A few minutes later . .

Noguchi runs into the OPS center. She begins to bark out orders.

"Tell me what she is saying, human." Sesshomaru orders. The fight with the predators finishes up as she tries to talk to her second-in-command. He dies on the screen.

He is staring at the screens where the predators are at. 'Invisible foes.' he thinks. A small smile on his lips, 'a challenge. It's been awhile since the last time I fought invisible foes.'

"Ok, but . . I could get."

"No excuses, tell me."

"She's ordering them to seal all the doors in this building. She's ordering them to get her more ammo for her gun. The suns are interfering with their FTL radio, so they can't call for help."

Noguchi slams down her headset and stalks into one of the conference rooms, slamming the door behind her.

After a couple of minutes the techs start pointing at one of the screens as they enlarge it. The predators are celebrating their victory. They have started a bonfire and are dancing around the fire. There are about a dozen of them. Some are waving the heads of aliens. But others . . . have human heads.

"They are routing that to the screen in the conference room where she went." Kagome whispers. Arguments begin to break out among the people in the room. One of the ranchers, a large pot-bellied man, is apparently the Ackland from the invoice earlier. He is not popular. Apparently the alien bugs are from his herd and he tried to cover it up.

Noguchi stalks out of the room. Everybody goes silent. She was mad and upset before, but something grim and determined is shining in her eyes now.

After a short argument she punches Ackland in the stomach. He folds up and falls the floor. She takes some keys from one of the staffers and leaves.

"She ordered them to wait twenty minutes, and if they don't hear from her, to just keep sealing the doors in front of the aliens and hope they give up." Kagome whispers.

"She's wrong." Sesshomaru states, as he stares at the screen of celebrating predators. "They will not give up."
The techs start talking between themselves and new orders are given.

"While she was in the room, she came up with a plan. She left it in the computer . . . Oh . . . my gods . . . " Kagome whispers, her hand going to cover her mouth as she understands the plan.

"What is this plan?"

"You remember all those animals in pens." Sesshomaru nods.

"She's going to stampede them. Hoping that will kill them all."

He grunts.

"While she's doing that, everybody else in the colony is to be gathered together, put in some of the vehicles and everybody will leave once she has started the stampede. She's hoping that the stampede, even if it doesn't kill all of the aliens, will at least give the rest of the colony a chance to escape."

"I assume we are going to be left behind." he says

"No. She gave orders that we are to be taken along. She wants to save as many lives as possible."

The room becomes very busy as people rush to fill the orders.

A few minutes later Ashley and one of the communication techs begin to excitedly talk around on a computer console. The big screen changes. Noguchi and an Indian woman, with a red cross on her clothes, are talking from the cockpit of the helicopter.

"Noguchi and the town's doctor are going to use the helicopter to start the stampede." Kagome pauses. "Apparently they had one of the predators captive in the hospital. There was some sort of fight. They are talking to fast for me to understand. Sorry."

He grunts.

"Ashley is telling Noguchi how to fly the helicopter . . "

An alien bug throws itself on the windscreen of the helicopter. Noguchi's gun rings out. The dead alien falls off the copter.

"What are the weapons they are using?"

"Guns, Sesshomaru. Western inventions. They use Chinese fireworks to propel a piece of lead to very, very fast speeds. When the piece of lead hits, it kills."

"Hmmm. The black powder from the Chinese fireworks."

"Yes. Although, these weapons use something else, that is how it started."

"Interesting. I remember reading about western barbarians and their weapons. They are not this good."

"Many hundreds of years have taken place since then. They have gotten better."

Ashley and the others turn off most of the computers. "{Let's go!}" Ashley yells at Kagome and Sesshomaru. "{We are in the last car!}"

Ashley runs down the corridors leading Kagome and Sesshomaru to the large semi-armored mobile home vehicle. The ranchers use it as a home when they follow the herds. "{We're in. Gun it!!}" Ashley yells as she closes the door.

The engines roar. And the machine moves. "Here, Sesshomaru. Sit down here and I'll strap your seatbelt on." Kagome points him to an empty seat. He sits and allows her to click the seatbelt on him. She sits next to him, also putting on her seatbelt.

A man opens up the roof hatch and takes a pair of night vision binoculars and watches the convoys back trial.

Ashley takes a seat near them. She pulls out a laptop computer and sets it up. Kagome and Sesshomaru can see the screen. Ashley begins to talk to the rest of the convoy, via an earphone. "{I'm set up. Security cams are still broadcasting. We'll be able to see what happens. I'm also launching the remote spy-eye cam.}"

"{Spy-eye cam?}" Kagome asks.

"{Remote operated flying eye. It's got some sensors. Prospecting device, mainly. Not that there was ever anything to find in this wasteland.}"
They watch the stampeding animals overrun the town. The acidic splashes as the animal step on the alien bugs kill a couple of animals for each alien bug killed, but there are hundreds, if not thousands of stampeding animals.

"{Look!}" Ashley points to one scene. Noguchi is flying the helicopter very close to the transmission tower. On the tower is the broken tusked predator from earlier. She is trying to rescue him from the alien bugs that are chasing him up the tower. "{Why?}"

The predator manages the jump to the helicopter, but Noguchi over corrects . . . it crashes into the street, luckily after the stampede has passed them.

"Is she?" Kagome breathes. The screen isn't big, but the predator is unmistakable as he walks from the burning chopper, carrying the doctor. Noguchi approaches and a couple of other men appear.

Ashley yells "{The pilots from the starship!? What the fuck?}"

They all leave the street and enter a building.

"{Shit!" Ashley enlarges another screen. More alien bugs are coming out of the starship. "They must have made a nest in there."}

Time passes . . .

"{Holy! Fuck!}" The man looking out the roof hatch yells. He sticks his head into the vehicle. "Bring that spy-eye up behind the convoy, NOW!}"

Ashley quickly shifts screens and changes the spy-eye to autopilot. A couple of minutes pass . . .
The spy-eye's screen shows a mass of alien bugs following the convoy.

"{How many?}" Somebody whispers.

Ashley shakes her head. "{The sensors aren't that good. Sorry. But . . . some of the sensors are also showing the same abnormalities as those predator aliens cause. So some of them are there too.}"

"{Are... are they catching up with us?}" another woman whispers.

A pause . . .

"{Yes.}"

"{All we have is a couple of shotguns. Three hunting rifles. A couple of pistols and that's it."} somebody says.

"{The Iwa ridge is coming up!}" the driver yells. The machine shifts. The engine strains. It is climbing a steep ridge and slowing down . . .
Kagome reaches back and counts the arrows in her quiver. She unsnaps her safety belt. "{We'll get off now."}

"Unfasten yourself, Lord Sesshomaru. We're going to help these people." she says.

"Why?" he asks, without moving.

"Why? Because we can fight those things and these people can't." She points to the screen. "Don't you want to see who is better, you or one of those invisible predators?"

A small smile appears on Sesshomaru's lips. "You know me well."

Kagome smiles back. 'Inu-yasha or Sesshomaru refusing a challenge. Hell will freeze over first.' she thinks.

"Who says you are leaving?" Ashley asks.

"Lord Sesshomaru. Could you, please in a nonviolent way, show these people that they cannot stop us."

Sesshomaru reaches out and grabs the knife hanging from the waist of one of the ranchers. He pulls the knife and casually crumples the large Bowie knife in his hand. The twisted mass of metal falls to the floor of the vehicle. His hand is undamaged.

"Weak metal."

"..." Ashley closes her mouth.

Kagome moves to the door and opens it. The vehicle is still climbing the ridge and is going slowly. Kagome flashes a smile at Ashley.

"Do not worry. We'll be fine. We've fought things like this before." She jumps out of the vehicle. She lands on her feet. Sesshomaru exits the vehicle, by walking on air, Kagome's bag slung over his shoulder. He lands, gently beside her.

"Here you'll need this!" somebody from the vehicle calls out and throws out a flare gun. The night is almost over, but dawn is not here yet.

"Thank you!" Kagome yells. The vehicle reaches the top of the ridge and gun the engine, trying to build up speed.

"How long do you think, we have, Lord Sesshomaru?"

A pause.

"A short time."
Back in the vehicle . . .

"{Look. I wasn't going to stop them. You saw the one with the boa crush my knife.}" a rancher stays, pointing to the knife.

Ashley shakes her head. "{Given what has happened in the last couple of days, I don't think it'll matter."} Her computer beeps. She reads the message from Noguchi. She goes white. She whispers.

"{The pilots have given Noguchi the keys to the navigation programs. She's going to crash the orbiting freighter on Prosperity Wells. That will kill everything.}"

"{That's great! They'll be dead!}"

"{No, it's not. All my possessions are in my house!}" Various people yell.

"{Why the long face, Ashley?}"

"{The only transmitter the freighter will recognize is the transmitter in the starship. She has to go into the nest, turn on the transmitter and send the updated program from there.}"

In the quiet of the vehicle somebody whispers,

"{Did she say how she'll escape?}"

"{No. All she said is that she has teamed up with that broken tusked predator. The two of them will attack the alien bug nest alone.}"

Back to Kagome and Sesshomaru . . .

They are at to the top of the ridge and are looking down at the empty plain below.

"Hand me my bag, please, lord Sesshomaru." Kagome asks politely. He raises his eyebrows, but hands her the bag. She opens it and starts to dig through it.

"This is an interesting time to try to locate something in that bag." He says in a dry voice.

"Found it." Kagome pulls out a pad of paper and a pen. "Shush. Sesshomaru. Just give me warning when they are within a couple of bow shots." She starts to write on the paper. He looks over her shoulder. She is drawing a symbol for purity on each page. She, then, rips the page off the pad and ties the paper around the shaft of an arrow.

"Exactly what are you doing human?"

"An idea, Miroku and I talked about, but haven't done yet. Something special for the next time Naraku shows up. Take some of his purifying scrolls and tie them to my purity arrows." She flashes Sesshomaru a quick smile. "I'm not Miroku, so I don't know if this will work, but, I don't think it'll hurt."

He nods. 'She is forcing me to respect her more and more. An unsettling idea. I will enjoy this combat, if for no other reason, than I will not have to think about that. But that is a very interesting idea. And one that will surprise Naraku one day, I'm sure.' he thinks.

He looks around. 'We will be outnumbered. I suppose I should limit the ways that they can approach us.' He pulls Tokijin. He walks about 20 to 30 meters behind them. He waves his sword at the ground.

Back at the convoy . . .

"{What the fuck!}" Ashley cries as she watches Sesshomaru from the flying spy-eye. "{He's destroying the ground and isolating them. How? That's only a sword. All the spy-eye sensors are saying is unknown energy. }"

He moves back to stand next to Kagome. He motions to the plain below. Ashley adjusts the spy-eye to the plain. The horde of alien bugs are at the bottom of the ridge and beginning to climb it.

Kagome grabs an arrow, pulls back on the bow . . . she releases the arrow . . .

It transforms into a streak of white glowing energy. It hits the mass of alien bugs.

Pieces of alien bugs fly dozens of meters into the sky. There is a glowing crater where the arrow struck.

"{How?}" somebody in the vehicle whispers.

"{Unknown energy . . . }" Ashley whispers as she watches Kagome pulls back and releases her second arrow.

****************

An invisible predator at the bottom of the ridge adjusts his shoulder-mounted plasma blaster.

'My sensors don't know what that human is using. She is my kill. I will enjoy showing her skull to my friends and rivals.' he thinks.

The triangle of the aiming laser centers on her chest. 'I don't want to damage her skull.'

He fires . .

The end chapter 16

Authors' notes: Chapter 17 will be rated R for violence . . .

In the novel the convoy gets away clean. Otherwise . . I'm being pretty close to the novel. I've added the spy-eye and adjusted some scenes, but the plot of the novel is being followed. Noguchi & Broken Tusk vs. an Alien Queen is the final battle in the novel, BTW.

Thank you for reading, Jeff Shelton