Chapter 5
Lidia woke with a start. The image of No-Rest faded from her memory, as it became just that, a memory... a second hand account of something. There was always a few seconds of sluggishness as Francesca's identity would ebb away, and she would no longer feel her fear or excitement as her own. It always left a shadow of itself, however, and was stronger each time... even though she had not stood before the creature personally, there was a dull shadow of that fear still in her.
Breathing slowly and closing her eyes again, she calmed herself. "Short session... guessing that's the thing your looking for then. Guys?" When silence was all that followed she opened her eyes and looked around. The hairs stood on the back of her neck as she sat up, cautiously peering around. All seemed still and right...
"Hey, come on, talk to me guys..." She swore under her breath, pushing off and landing on her feet, breath quickening slightly. Something wasn't right... and then she noticed that the observation window had grown dark. It was a black strip, about 15 feet above her, just below the roof. Taking a slow, cautious step, she peered into the cloudy glass.
"Hello? Stop f**king with me..." And then, the speaker rattled, a familiar male voice coming through. It sounded slightly off pitch. "Get onto the Animus Sergeant Dallas" She had relaxed for barely a heartbeat. "There a power problem or something guys?"
The same voice, the same line, repeated. It was eerie. Her hairs were already sticking up, but that might have well sent them skyward. Taking a slow backwards, she reached behind her to feel along the smooth surface of the service tray next to the Animus, looking for something, anything, to pick up...
"Sergeant Dallas..." The pitch fell to a menacing growl, and the busted light finally popped, the small eruption of sparks lighting up the inside of the observation room a few second, the glass smeared with crimson. A tall, broad shouldered silhouette stood out in the weakly flickering light, like a figure behind a wall of paper, lit by a flickering candle. As the light died in earnest, two yellow eyes flashed, and the room echoed with a series of clicks.
Before Lidia could act, a large, scaly green hand came through the glass, and the Predator shouldered through, dropping into a crouch. With lightning speed that something that big shouldn't have possessed, it came for her, almost the millisecond it had landed, like a charging bull.
Crying out, her movements a fusion of ingrained training and panic, eyes wide, she gripped the light metal cart and hurled it side arm. It simply bounced off of him. She might as well have been throwing it before a freight train. In the span of an inhaled breath it had it's fingers around her throat, shoving her back, bending backwards over the Animus. She tried to scream, but it's thick fingers had closed her throat so it could only take in the smallest, slowest of breaths.
Peering down at her was a mask of dark grey metal, flawless and new, the only marks on it two long streaks down one eye. The eyes at first looked like black glass, but she could see they were segmented, like a dragonfly's, complex and intricate. Tube like extensions that she couldn't describe fell down the shoulder of the arm that crushed her, so alike hair, yet she couldn't describe what exactly it was made of... like a fusion of rubber and metal fibres, gold coloured rings along each one at regular, neat intervals.
While it towered a full head over her, she gained the impression that it was young... it was certainly much smaller then No-Rest, and the thick arm that dominated her lower vision was also much leaner, even though it could have crushed her windpipe with a flex. It's armour was also as new as it's mask, at least what she could see of it, though her knee, which was pushed against it's chest, felt the familiar resistance of flesh and muscle. It's throat rattled and clicked, the sound low and ominous.
"Get onto the Animus"
