Nature of the Beast by Richard Fawkes

Author:Richard Fawkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2004-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Watching from what she hoped was a good hiding place, Sue wanted it not to be a trick. A lot of people had gathered here, more than she’d seen in one place for well over a year. Most were her own people, but there were solos and people from other groups as well. The strangers’ promise of hope had put aside caution and distrust.

Some of the gathered Palisandrans were discussing the possibility that these strangers might really be offering liberation, but there was a lot of fear that this was just another trick. Her heart shivered at the hope she heard in their voices when they spoke of liberation. Did they dare nurture that hope?

The newcomers were near. She could hear their vehicles. Big throbbing engines of the sort she hadn’t heard for years.

Soon she’d see them for herself.

She heard the vehicles easily, but it was people on foot, moving ahead of the vehicles, that she saw first. Armored men. At least she assumed they were men. There might be women among them, but the suits hid gender as easily as the visored helmets hid the faces of these strangers.

They were armed, as she had been told, with modern weapons. The aliens ruthlessly destroyed such things, along with anyone daring to wield them. So how were these strangers able to walk freely about with such weapons?

Was it a trick? They didn’t look like the collectors, but that didn’t mean a lot. The aliens could give their pets anything, including battle armor and modern vehicles.

Could the xenos be gone? Could they have been defeated by these newcomers?

No one had seen any sign of the food bugs in days. Nor their xeno masters either. Even collector and xombie patrols had just about stopped. All since the fire in the sky.

For no reason that she could see, the advancing strangers stopped. Their vehicles throttled down, returning the dead city to something like its usual silence. But only something. The recorded voice went on, announcing who these strangers were and claiming liberation, over and over.

If these people from the Interstellar Defense League were friendly, why did they wear battle armor and hold their guns ready?

Professor Murch and Doc Shelly tried to ask questions, but Sue shushed them to silence. This wasn’t the time for talk. Too much was unknown. “We watch for now,” she hissed at them.

Time passed.

Another of the hovercraft arrived and pulled up near the leading vehicle. One of the armored strangers got down off this hovercraft and stepped forward. He didn’t carry a weapon that she could see, but Jesse had warned her that battle armor often had built-in weapons. A sign of peaceful intent or a deception?

Unlike the others, his battle armor was colored the black of deep space. He was a giant, and cut a menacing figure like some deadly black knight in an adventure story. Sue knew the armor was enhancing his stature, and she hoped that his menacing appearance was also something of a sham. Was it

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