Predator: Huntress - Alpha

Chapter 3

Crouched by the bushes, Justice eased forward, scanning the terrain around her. Over the large boulders that dotted the landscape between the colony's buildings, she surveyed nooks and crannies along the buildings and every shadowed spot. The sun was going down rapidly, and the wind was picking up speed. Where the serpent aliens feasted, storms always followed.

No one was quite sure how or why the xenomorphs affected the local weather of any planet they terrorized, but it was a known fact that with time even the very atmosphere would begin to cry out as a result of the beasts. Soon the sandy surface of this desert planet would be razed black. No plants, no water source, no living being would survive the killing legion forsaking this place. Narrowing her eyes within her helmet, she scanned the area once more. Moments before, she had removed Larsa from her harness and awkwardly cradled the baby as she changed her diaper without setting her on the ground. Chubby and round, Larsa looked up at her with the most condemning look of consternation Justice had ever seen. Justice would have laughed if this had been any other day; instead, she kissed the baby's pouting little lips and put her back into the harness.

Seeing that her path to the dorm building was all clear, Justice moved. With inhuman speed, she crossed the distance and rushed to the metal ladder gripping the bars on either side. Without missing a beat, Justice seamlessly transitioned from her run to halfway running up the ladder's rungs. She was a quarter of a way up when Larsa finally had enough.

Tiny fists began to beat at her chest, accompanying a loud breathy cry that rent through the still desert air with the same disrupting force of an explosion.

"Oh Larsa, please," Justice moaned, wanting nothing more than to comfort the baby, but with one hand on the ladder's bar and one hand gripping the rifle, Justice had no choice but to endure it.

Unused to being ignored, Larsa's cry grew louder, and Justice paused as she felt the tremor vibrate through her hands and boots.

Jerking her head backward, Justice froze at the black figure hunkered down at the roof's line. Glistening even in the dusk's low light, she could see the glimmer of xenomorph's curled up lips as it bared a cold, deadly smile.

Sensing it before it made a sound, Justice looked down through the space between her arm and body and cursed under her breath as another xenomorph crawled slowly around the building's corner. On all fours, she could see the bunched muscles in its large hindquarters, it was ready to leap at her.

Larsa continued to cry, the sound acting as a beacon on the silent, newly dead planet. She was tired of being in a harness, she wanted attention, she wanted to be cuddled and cooed at as she ate. She wanted a nap in her bed. She was tired of hanging off her mother's chest being ignored and draped in alien carcass parts, and now she wanted to be heard.

"Oh, sweetheart," Justice said in a low measured tone as she kept her gaze bouncing from the alien below her and the alien above her. "I truly understand. I'm quite tired of this shit too."

Possibilities filled Justice's brain as the seconds slowed. The sounds of Larsa's crying muted in her head, and she focused only on the twin pair of seething breathing above and below them. She warred with herself with the decision on what to do. Shooting the one above would cause it to fall. But she had to account for its barbed tail. If there were any last vestiges of life in the creature, it could easily kill them as it fell. Just the thought of that long, black sawtoothed tail striking out at her and puncturing Larsa made Justice's thoughts stutter, and her heart tighten in sheer agony. No, Justice pushed the thought away immediately. She couldn't even consider thinking it. If she shot it, she had to time the slower warp shot perfectly and aim to kill while moving to the side just in time to avoid its bulky body slamming into her as it fell down. Shooting the one below, however, from this angle would prove even more difficult. In the alien's position, it had the advantage, not her. It could see where she was aiming and it without a doubt knew her limited movements hanging off the ladder, especially with its sibling advancing from above.

More hissing noises filled the air, and Larsa lowered her crying to a dull, continuous protests as if even she heard the dire noises. Looking back up, Justice felt herself grow cold at the three other dark shapes that appeared at the roof's edge. Whatever decision she was going to make disintegrated at the sight, leaving her only one choice with very slim margins of survival. She had no choice. Putting her feet on the outside pole of the ladder, Justice loosened her grip on the ladder and began to slide down, aiming her rifle down to the alien that waited.

Her finger didn't move on the trigger as she watched the xenomorph suddenly screech and flail before being yanked violently around the building's corner. Landing with a silent thud onto the sand, Justice did not hesitate. Switching her retinal interface, she took a mental snapshot of the scene as she took off running at full speed, leaving the xenomorphs to scramble down the building after her.

Ignoring her daughter's bouncing cries of protest, Justice pulled up the mental snapshot in one eye and examined it quickly before pulling up a holo-map. Searching the terrain, she veered sixty degrees. She knew what she needed to find. Somewhere not too far. Somewhere elevated, not close to a hive, somewhere that had plenty of room to maneuver in and out without notice.

Sparing one last glance over her shoulder at the dorm building, she looked past the black shapes loping behind her to keep up and envisioned her black case inside her apartment holding everything she had been taught to think she was. Looking back down to the disgruntled infant staring up at her with wailing fury, demanding answers, Justice gave the baby a wan little smile and increased her speed towards the last card Justice had in her deck to play.

What living thing leaves no heat trail? What could be large or strong enough to drag an uninjured sentinel xenomorph by its tail? Or should she say, what in the hell was crazy enough to do it? Oh, she knew exactly what it was. No heat trail, strong, and ballsy--a yautja that's fucking what.