Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus by Steve Perry & S.D. Perry

Author:Steve Perry & S.D. Perry [Perry, Steve & Perry, S.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan Books
Published: 2016-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

12

“It seems obvious to me,” said Attila the Hun, lying on the bed in a relaxed state.

Machiko Noguchi stopped her pacing. She looked at her android warily. Since that little flying stunt a couple hours before, she was seeing him in an entirely different light.

She knew he’d had a “life” before she’d bought him. She didn’t know about the programs that still existed inside him. What other residues of past talents, past memories, existed? Attila insisted that he had no memory of being able to do what he did—at the time his sensors detected trouble, something had just kicked in, and he’d had access.

This was something they would have to explore. For now, though, there were other matters to attend to.

“I’m glad. Would you care to enlighten me?” she said, hands on hips.

“You’ll have to pardon me, but I’m merely operating on what you tell me about the Hunters—your tales of your experiences with them.”

“Yes, yes, go on.”

“Well, it strikes me that they’ve got a fairly simple game plan. They like to find likely opponents, likely places to perform their rituals of honor. And, frankly, think about it—Blior is perfect. If their lives are the feral art they consider them, then for Predators this must be a masterpiece planet.”

“A what?” Machiko asked.

“Masterpiece planet. It sounds as if Ryushi was being, used as a training ground for young Hunters.”

She nodded. “Blooding.”

“That was their apprentice work, then. Whatever the word has come to mean since then, a ‘masterpiece’ used to be the article a craftsperson made to earn his or her master status. Blior is the place Hunters may earn ‘master’ status, in effect.”

She nodded. “Yes, well, that’s pretty obvious. But go on for a moment. Any other thoughts?”

“Yes. The reason it’s a masterpiece planet is that there’s nothing the Predators like to Hunt better than other hunters. It’s the ultimate challenge, right?”

“That’s right. Unlike our race, they won’t Hunt ‘innocent’ things—except possibly food.”

“A noble breed.” Sardonic twist of phrasing. “Anyway, somehow they discovered the operations on Blior, and they saw what a perfect place to Hunt it would be.”

“But why bring on the bugs as well?”

“A little twist, a little spice. Who can say? Perhaps this was a world where they’d already Hunted bugs before, and they were just returning.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. If there were bugs on this planet before, there would have been a spillage. That’s one of the problems when the Preds play with the things—they get loose and start breeding.”

“Sloppy sorts.”

“Let’s just say that their sense of honor is a bit tunnel-visioned.”

“So they’re here—and they know now that we know they’re here.”

“I think that’s what the lawyer was so excited about And unless my guess is wrong, Evanston’s got a suspicion as well.”

“More than a suspicion. I mean, he has physical evidence!”

“Yes.”

“He somehow seems to know you’re associated with them.”

“I don’t think he knows as much as he strongly suspects.”

“It stands to reason… after what happened…”

She let out a breath, shook her head.

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