Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  What has Gone Before…

  1. Liliya

  2. General Mashima

  3. Isa Palant

  4. General Alexander

  5. Gerard Marshall

  6. Beatrix Maloney

  7. Victims

  8. Akoko Halley

  9. Beatrix Maloney

  10. Major Sergei Budanov

  11. Isa Palant

  12. Liliya

  13. Beatrix Maloney

  14. Gerard Marshall

  15. Liliya

  16. Akoko Halley

  17. Gerard Marshall

  18. General Paul Bassett

  19. Liliya

  20. Isa Palant

  21. Major Sergei Budanov

  22. Beatrix Maloney

  23. Akoko Halley

  24. Gerard Marshall

  25. Beatrix Maloney

  26. Isa Palant

  27. Liliya

  28. Jiango Tann

  29. Akoko Halley

  30. Liliya

  31. Gerard Marshall

  32. Survivors

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Also Available from Titan Books

  DON’T MISS A SINGLE INSTALLMENT OF THE RAGE WAR BY TIM LEBBON:

  PREDATOR: INCURSION

  ALIEN: INVASION

  READ ALL OF THE EXCITING ALIEN™ NOVELS FROM TITAN BOOKS

  ALIEN™: OUT OF THE SHADOWS

  ALIEN: SEA OF SORROWS

  ALIEN: RIVER OF PAIN

  THE OFFICIAL MOVIE NOVELIZATIONS by Alan Dean Foster:

  ALIEN

  ALIENS™

  ALIEN3

  ALIEN: RESURRECTION BY A.C. CRISPIN

  THE COMPLETE ALIENS OMNIBUS, VOLUME 1

  BY STEVE AND STEPHANI PERRY

  THE COMPLETE ALIENS OMNIBUS, VOLUME 2

  BY DAVID BISCHOFF AND ROBERT SHECKLEY

  THE COMPLETE ALIENS OMNIBUS, VOLUME 3

  BY SANDY SCHOFIELD AND S.D. PERRY (DECEMBER 2016)

  ALIEN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY

  BY ARCHIE GOODWIN AND WALTER SIMONSON

  ALSO BY TIM LEBBON

  COLDBROOK

  THE SILENCE

  ALIEN VS. PREDATOR™:

  ARMAGEDDON

  Print edition ISBN: 9781783296194

  E-book edition ISBN: 9781783296200

  Published by Titan Books

  A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

  144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

  First edition: September 2016

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ™ & © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

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  This one’s for the NEWTs

  WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE…

  PREDATOR: INCURSION

  When Yautja attacks across the Human Sphere of space grow in frequency, Colonial Marine units are put on high alert. Soon, an invasion is feared.

  Meanwhile Liliya—an android—escapes from the Rage. Originally known as the Founders, the Rage are humans who have fled beyond the Human Sphere over the course of centuries. Now led by Beatrix Maloney, they are on their way back, bearing alien-inspired technology and weapons far exceeding in their power those possessed by the Colonial Marines or Weyland-Yutani. Maloney’s aim is the subjugation and control of the Human Sphere.

  When Liliya flees, she carries with her a sample of their technology that might help humanity fight back. Maloney sends Alexander, one of her best generals, in pursuit.

  Isa Palant is a research scientist fascinated with the Yautja. Slowly learning their language, she is almost killed in a terrorist attack on the base where she is stationed. It’s one of many such attacks instigated by the Rage across the Human Sphere in preparation for their return.

  Johnny Mains is leader of an Excursionist unit, a Colonial Marine outfit created to keep watch on a Yautja habitat beyond the Sphere. When someone—or something—attacks the habitat, Mains and his crew crash-land there. What they discover is beyond belief.

  The Yautja aren’t invading the Human Sphere. They are fleeing an assault by weaponized Xenomorphs.

  This is the army of the Rage.

  At the end of Book One:

  Isa Palant and Major Akoko Halley, the Colonial Marine sent to rescue her, confront the Yautja elder Kalakta and broker an unsteady peace between humans and Yautja.

  Liliya, taken into custody on a Yautja ship and tortured at the hands of the warrior called Hashori, escapes with her captor when the Rage general Alexander closes in and attacks.

  Lieutenant Johnny Mains and the surviving member of his crew, Lieder, are trapped on the Yautja habitat UMF 12. They have witnessed and fought the weaponized Xenomorphs, and a Rage general, Patton, is also aboard, seriously injured. Mains and Lieder have uncovered evidence of ancient human colony ships, returning from the dark depths of unexplored space. They theorize that these could be used as birthing grounds for tens of thousands more Xenomorph soldiers.

  The Rage are coming…

  ALIEN: INVASION

  Johnny Mains and Lieder are rescued by another Excursionist unit, and they send a warning into the Human Sphere—someone or something is launching an attack with weaponized Xenomorphs, using ancient Fiennes ships as nurseries. The Rage invasion has begun.

  As their forces start taking control of dropholes, their ships penetrate further and further into human space. The attacks are brutal, the Colonial Marine defenders stunned by a series of terrible defeats.

  After forging an uneasy alliance with the Yautja, scientist Isa Palant is convalescing… but quickly finds herself drawn into the heart of the conflict.

  Jiango and Yvette Tann, seasoned scientists with a grudge against Weyland-Yutani, find themselves hunted by indies—mercenaries hired by the Company. But the Rage War is bigger than all of them, and when Liliya lands on their space station chased by Rage general Alexander, enemies must join forces to protect her.

  The Rage are sweeping through the Human Sphere, destroying all forces allied against them. Gerard Marshall, a W-Y Company man, proposes an unthinkable option—shut down all dropholes to avoid the Rage penetrating deeper into the Sphere. This will also isolate billions of humans across the frozen void of space.

  It’s a doomsday scenario, but as more time passes, the closer doomsday appears to be.

  At the end of Book Two…

  Isa Palant and the indies are taken on board a Yautja asteroid habitat, where they can study the captured Rage general together.

  Mains and Lieder sacrifice themselves to destroy the Othello, a major blow to Beatrix Maloney and the Rage. But even this might n
ot be enough…

  Because Beatrix Maloney now plans to drop directly into Sol System and take the war to humanity’s home.

  1

  LILIYA

  Space Station Hell

  November 2692 AD

  I can’t run forever.

  Liliya sat on the bridge of the Satan’s Savior, the large Yautja known as Hashori standing beside her, while on a holo screen in front of the viewing window she witnessed a space battle. It took place ten billion miles away, but was all because of her.

  Alexander is coming for me. He follows, and follows, and always finds me again.

  She had fled the Rage ship Macbeth on her own, leaving behind Beatrix Maloney and all her twisted, corrupted aims. Alexander had been sent in pursuit. He and his army had followed her to the edge of the Human Sphere, managing to find her small ship in the infinity of space. After she had submitted herself to the mercy of the Yautja, he had come again.

  Being taken by Hashori, travelling through a drophole, even putting light years between them had not shaken him off.

  Perhaps now really is the time to stand and fight.

  “I need to speak with the Council,” Jiango Tann said. Although not a member of Hell’s governing council, he still had a responsibility to report what he knew.

  “But we’ll be ready to leave within the hour!” Captain Ware said. She was the leader of the small indie unit the Tanns had hired to transport Liliya to the nearest Weyland-Yutani representatives. While they were hard and brash, Liliya also sensed that the indies were very professional and good at their chosen careers.

  They still did not make her feel safe.

  “We can’t leave now,” Liliya said. “If we do, Alexander and his army will simply put a trace on us, and follow. They’re too close for us to outrun them, and even if we could…” She trailed off.

  “Even if we could?” Yvette Tann asked.

  “I’ve outrun him before,” Liliya said. “He always finds me again.”

  Jiango looked her up and down, as if searching for whatever the Rage general might be using to track her through trillions of miles of cold, empty space. But it was nothing visible. She suspected it had something to do with what she had stolen—injecting it into her veins had been the best way to carry the alien-inspired technology away from the Rage. In doing so, perhaps she had doomed herself.

  She saw the Tanns’ shoulders drooping as realization hit home.

  “Here, then,” Jiango said. “This is the best place to stand and fight.”

  “Yes,” Liliya said. “Especially now that the Yautja have arrived.”

  “And who’s to say those fuckers are here to help?” one of the crew said. It was Robo, the woman with the mechanical arm.

  “Hashori does,” Liliya said.

  Robo looked back at the Yautja, dwarfing them all on the ship’s bridge. The mistrust in her eyes was obvious.

  “And how do any of us know what that thing really wants?” Robo asked.

  The indie was right. The Yautja was unreadable. Liliya had suffered terribly beneath Hashori’s hands, and her android skin still bore scars and wounds from that period of sustained, vicious torture.

  Yet Hashori had also saved her, accompanying her to this space station when she knew very well what the reception would be like.

  The Yautja watched Robo, eyes narrowed, tusks flexing slightly as she perceived what might be an enemy. She tightened the grip on her battle spear.

  “We have to trust it,” Jiango said. “You’ve allowed it onto your ship. Do you really want to pick a fight now?”

  “The true fight’s out there,” Liliya said. Her voice was low, but it caught their attention. “The Rage are coming. They’ll be unrelenting, unstoppable, and they perceive me as a threat. Otherwise they’d have never sent Alexander and his army to bring me back. That wasn’t just wounded pride on Maloney’s part. As for the Yautja, they’re here to help. We have to trust that. It won’t be long until Alexander is close enough to launch an attack.”

  “So those are your friend’s companions out there, the Yautja, engaging the enemy in battle ten billion miles away?” Ware asked.

  Liliya asked Hashori, speaking in her native tongue. They all looked at the Yautja warrior, and she nodded. It seemed like an unfamiliar gesture, her effort to use the most basic form of human communication.

  “You’ll be safer on the station,” Jiango said.

  “She’s safer on the Satan’s Savior!” Ware said. “Who knows what this Alexander character is going to open up with? One direct hit from a big nuke or particle modulator, and the station’s toast. At least on board with us, you’ll stand a chance of getting away.”

  “I need to meet with the Council,” Jiango said again. “Warn them.”

  “Then warn them,” Ware said. She nodded toward Liliya. “You told us how precious she is. Seems to me she’s the priority in all of this.”

  The priority, Liliya thought. She looked at the Tanns, man and wife, and their pain was obvious—because they knew it was true.

  The space station Hell, the place they had called home for so long, might well be doomed, yet it was absolutely essential that Liliya avoid capture.

  “Be back before they arrive,” Ware said to Jiango. “Seriously. I won’t wait for you.”

  “I don’t expect you to,” Jiango said. He stood, still clasping his wife’s hand.

  “Once they attack, there’ll be chaos,” Ware said. She was still watching the battle on the holo screen. Even from this vast distance, their sensors picked up nuclear blooms and dazzling arcs of laser fire. It was difficult to tell who was who—Rage, Yautja, or whoever else might have joined the fight—and impossible to make out any victors. The losers were obvious, however, flowering into brief, dazzling plumes of radioactive gas before fading into the darkness of space. “Confusion. The smoke of battle. That’s when we’ll get away.”

  “Running from a fight, boss?” another of the indies asked.

  Ware glared at him, then smiled. “Probably toward a bigger one, Millard.”

  Probably, Liliya thought. There’s no probably about it.

  “I reckon you’ve got an hour,” Yvette Tann said to her husband. “Make it count.”

  He kissed her cheek, then looked across the bridge at Liliya. His smile was supposed to convey hope, but she saw only pain. That was her fault. She’d come here and caused all of this.

  The true pain hadn’t even begun.

  * * *

  While Jiango was gone, Liliya watched the battle playing out on the holo screen. Hashori remained standing beside her, and Yvette Tann sat on her other side. The indie crew busied themselves preparing for flight and running diagnostics on their weapon systems.

  There was a terrible inevitability to events. While each new explosion or slice of laser fire brought a gasp or comment from one of the crew, Liliya knew what it meant—Alexander was getting closer. Whatever force he had come up against along the way, it would be brushed aside, destroyed, blown to atoms, and then he would storm in closer and bring violence to Hell.

  From the bridge’s port window she could see part of the graceful superstructure of Hell and one of its long docking arms, several ships hanging there like seed pods on a giant stalk. There were so many people here, and all of them were in danger because of her.

  Despite that, she was firm in the belief that she was doing this to save people. She carried knowledge that might combat the Rage. She already knew from Hashori that the Yautja had suffered great losses, and she and Hashori had witnessed first-hand what had become of one drophole and its attendant control station. Its fate must have been echoed across the Sphere, and perhaps even now she was too late.

  In truth, she was not the priority. What she carried was the priority. That was all that mattered.

  The traces of distant battle began to fade from the screen, and Ware and her crew seemed suddenly more anxious than ever.

  Hashori shifted by her side. “I should be out there in my ship,” sh
e said. Five of her Yautja companions were circling Hell several hundred miles out. Their arrival had probably caused the space station to move to combat status, but their attention was aimed outward, not inward. They were readying themselves for the enemy’s arrival. Fresh from battle, the general and his army would be ready for a fight.

  “Thank you for staying with me,” Liliya said.

  “What’s happening?” Yvette asked.

  “Looks like your husband’s got influence,” Ware said. “Hell’s defenses have all gone hot. Nuke drones have launched, several combat craft are firing up. Couple of ships have done a runner, but the bulk of the station is preparing for an attack.”

  “How close are they?” Yvette asked.

  “They might be here within an hour,” Ware said. “Computer’s crunching data, should give us some indication of strength.”

  “One big ship, with associated attack craft,” Liliya said. “Alexander’s flagship is a construct of the Faze, powerful and fast, built for war. His attack ships will be sleeker than the Yautja craft, and more heavily armed.”

  “What’s a Faze?” Yvette asked.

  “It’s…” Liliya trailed off. She had no idea how to explain the things they had found on that faraway alien habitat.

  “Hubby’s back,” Hoot said. Another of the indie crew, he was a short, solid man oozing danger.

  The bridge door whispered open and Jiango entered. Yvette stood, and for a few seconds silence hung heavy as the couple hugged each other. Maybe a part of them had believed they’d never see each other again.

  “So?” Ware asked.

  “They’ve been watching,” Jiango said. “They’re ready to fight.”

  “For me,” Liliya said.

  “No,” Jiango said. “For themselves! They’re defending Hell, and I’ve told them we’ll do everything we can to help.”

  Ware sighed heavily. “Make up your fucking mind, Pops. You want us to run and save her? Stay behind and fight?”

  “I’ve thought of a way we can do both,” Jiango said. He glanced at the holo screen, dark and filled with infinity now that the distant battle was over. Then he looked directly at Hashori, and asked Liliya to translate. “Listen. We don’t have long.”