An alarm blared, coinciding with the rhythmic metallic rattle of the airtight door sliding open. Stepping through into a short hallway Garrett sighed, watching the plastic of his face mask fog up. “Just another day on the job.”

Picking up one of the sterilized rifles from its rack along the wall. He continued into the facility proper, ignoring the sterile suit-wearing scientists that split apart like bait fish before a shark. Proceeding deeper into the lab he passed the various containers, freezers and and various samples of both mechanical biological natures. The back third of the room was closed off by a thick glass wall. Approaching the barrier Garrett swiped his card again, causing the door to hiss open. Inside this lab within a lab was the ‘main attraction’ A large featureless sarcophagus lay in the center of the room. Almost perfectly rectangular it’s sides were the same silverish blue as the other metallic oddities though unlike the rest of the items however this one was obviously built to last on account of the extensive burn marks on every side from the box from when it had come tumbling through hundreds of kilometers of atmosphere before embedding itself several meters into the side of a mountain, the government, along with quite a few other powers were rather intrigued to say the least. And because it was of ‘high value’ Garrett was now stuck sitting in an overgrown esky recycling his own breath. Scowling under the mask Garrett assumed his post near the doorway, taking over from the previous guard. The scientists continued unperturbed, moving around in a constant dance of analysis, fiddling and recording. Resigning himself to another shift of adult daycare he leaned back against the wall, letting a sigh slip from his lips

Millions of dollars of cutting-edge equipment and they couldn’t afford a proper clock? It had taken about an hour for Garrett to realize the damn thing was shot, figuratively speaking, but considering the fact that the slippery hand had made him abundantly aware of every single second, he was half tempted to take a potshot at the damn thing as well, not that he actually would, but it was certainly tempting. scanning the room he noted that the scientists had begun acting strange, that is stranger then usual. They had by this point attached half a ozen machines and doohickies to the box. Several of them had crowded around a main monitor and were gesturing excitedly, leaning over Garrett caught a glimpse of the screen which appeared to show a grainy image of the apparently hollow interior, along with its… occupant? Despite the fact the object had no apparent seams or door to allow the figure in or out. As a result, the scientist had apparently taken to attaching the box to a car battery in the hopes of making something happen. Turning his eye back to the hateful clock, he shifted his on the balls of his feet as he tried to find some way to slip out of the boredom, he had found himself in.

Fortunately for Garrett, a distraction came, heralded by the excited babbling of the egg heads along with what sounded like flowing sand. Snapping out of his anti-time piece trance he turned his attention to the scene in front of him where the sarcophagus appeared to be… melting? No, crumbling. As the gathered people watched the walls of the box steadily broke into smaller and smaller pieces that piled on the floor. Unconsciously, Garrett leaned forward, flicking the safety on his rifle as he did. As the freshly disintegrated metal settled the chattering of the scientists died down. Before them lay the occupant of the box, stepping forward Garrett scanned the subject before him. The figure was proportionally quite similar to a human, maybe half a head taller, it’s feminine body was covered in some sort of dark green carapace running from the base of it’s chin and over the rest of its body in a series of overlapping pieces that left no apparent gaps or weaknesses. The alien’s unprotected head was compared to the rest of it extremely strange, where there would have been hair was instead a nest of tendrils that hung to its shoulders, its slender face was a significantly lighter shade of green and the eyes… the burning purple eyes were open! The being threw its hands up and shrieked, and impossibly all near it were thrown backwards, the remains of its container swirling around it in a cyclone of metal particles. Somehow through this Garrett had managed to keep his footing and he immediately levelled his rifle on the alien and loosed a burst of fire. The echo of the gunshots silenced all other sounds in an instant as everyone, the researchers, the assistants, even the reinforcements that had just burst through the door, for a moment Garrett thought he had one, but then he saw his handiwork. The three bullets were hovering mere millimetres from the alien’s face, still spinning. There was a loud ping and Garrett was forced to his knees as all the air was driven out of his chest by the sudden return of his three bullets. Forcing his lungs to expand he glanced up just in time to watch as the woman rose to her feet and reached out. There was an ear-piercing shriek, and the metal plating slowly peeled apart, bolts bursting outwards as the wall parted to reveal the exterior, the sky and the ocean. The whistle of the wind was drowned out by the staccato sound of gunfire as the reinforcements opened fire to similarly little effect, the bullets either curving around their intended target or stopping just short. Ducking his head to avoid the fire above him, he grabbed one of the egg heads who was not moving and started dragging him back through the shattered barrier by his collar. Glancing up, he saw the being turn and glare in his direction, Garrett froze, instinctively grabbing his rifle and levelled it one-handed towards the figure, for a heart-wrenching second, he thought he could feel some invisible hand reaching out to crush him, then it was gone as the alien stepped over the edge and slipped from view. Garrett leapt forward, dashing to the edge and looked over the side. He got to the edge just in time to see her disappear into the spray, grabbing his radio he bellowed: “We’ve got a breakout in the lab, get the fucking birds in the air!” jumping to his feet he began sprinting out of the lab, tearing off the respirator and mask as he did. Taking the stairs two at a time he burst onto the top deck of the container ship that the lab had been hidden on sprinting to the bow of the ship he heard a whine as the helicopter began to spool up commandos having already piled on board, diving into the open doorway he waved to the pilot to take off. The hum of the blades peaked as the chopper lifted off, and turned towards the mainland. Leaning out the side of the aircraft he found himself drawing breath, the escapee was already a good halfway to the shoreline and by the ridiculously large wake behind her, she was making extremely impressive headway powering towards the shoreline at a speed seemingly impossible for her physiology, specifically the chitin armour. His question was quickly answered as the helicopter swooped down until it was speeding mere meters from the water, leaning from the side of the chopper Garrett got an explanation. The waist and legs were wreathed in a froth of bubbles streaking behind her. For a moment Garrett simply sat there, his mind weighing up an incredibly stupid idea, then he acted on said idea and to the shocked yells of the other occupants dove out of the doorway and into the water below. Hitting the water headfirst he forced his eyes to stay open as he slammed into the back of the alien, coiling his arms around it as she bucked trying to eject him. She went almost completely vertical, ploughing into the sea floor, spinning and smashing Garrett into the sand. She then shot upwards towards the surface, blasting clear in a rainbow of sea spray whilst Garrett desperately attempted to draw some breath only to have it be knocked again as soon as they hit the water. For a moment he felt his grip slipping, and then it broke. For a moment he lost his grip, spiraling in the wake, he threw out his arms as he tumbled in the backwash. After several seconds of tumbling, he somehow found himself somewhat not experiencing the inside of a washing machine, spinning around he somewhat managed to right himself and push up towards the surface. Reaching air he began wheezing, coughing up lung fulls of water he spun around trying to find the shoreline through bleary eyes. Finding his bearings he found that he had gotten within a hundred meters of the shore before he had been bucked off, forcing his noticeably aching muscles to drag him towards the shoreline, ahead he could see the alien bursting from the water, the helicopter trailing close behind her. Battling the breakers he scrambled over the slick rocks and onto the grass, rising to his feet he began sprinting in the general direction he had seen his quarry fleeing. Crashing into the undergrowth he quickly picked up a trail of cracked sticks, trampled brush and the odd clawed footprint in the mud. As he continued to sprint through the bushland, he could hear the steady thump of the helicopter and the crackle of rifle fire.

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