The Black Case Book #1

Community College Campus, El Paso, Texas

“Vance this is Siwang, are you sure that this report was right?” Siwang hissed as she sat on a bench outside the technology and robotics lab. “I've talked to some of the students and they haven’t heard of any attacks. Likewise campus security and the janitorial staff didn't know there was a problem involving stabbings.”

“That’s odd but not as odd as what I’m picking over your communications.” Vance answered. “I have a military grade jamming system trying to lock down our radio link.”

”Source?” Siwang asked. “We know Soko has access to ex Yugoslavian military assets and technology.”

“Pfft I doubt that this is twenty year old technology.” Vance snorted. “Source is the building behind you. “The good news is that the components are so fragile that a fist can disrupt them, let alone a bullet or an arrow.” He added as Siwang walked over to the building and walked towards the doors inside only for the wall to explode outwards, masonry and dust showering everything. Coughing and spluttering Siwang removed one of her concussion balls only for something to aim a kick to her chest, the blow sending her flying into a dustbin.

“Siwang: Patron Saint of Crime, we meet again.” A horse metallic sounding voice announced as a figure dressed in matte black armour emerged from the gaping hole in the technology building.

“Do we know each other?” Siwang asked as she threw her concussion ball at the figure, only for it to catch the projectile and crush it with a single hand.

“We fought last night in that parking structure.” The figure announced. “Back then I called myself Danika, now I’m known as Valkyrie, and you…you are my first target.” She added as the rails on her arms slid forward to reveal an under slung two foot combat blade. “Now let’s see how well you shoot a bow with no hands.” She added as she lunged forward, her target ducking under the blow and delivering a kick to the back of the knee. With a chuckle Valkyrie elbowed Siwang in the face and swung round, stabbing down, only for the woman to roll to standing and deliver and open palmed strike to the blade.

“That’s diamond edged titanium.” Valkyrie stated, “No way are you breaking that.” She added as Siwang recoiled in pain. “Let’s see how much you can take?” She announced as the blade retracted whilst a pair of shoulder ports opened up and fired a pair of barbed harpoons into Siwang’s left arm and leg. “Now let’s go for a jog.” She snarled as she ran along the campus path, her hapless prey dragging behind her. With a grunt Siwang grabbed hold of the bench as they passed it, the force slowing down Valkyrie enough for the harpoon points to begin to smoke.

“No running.” Siwang wheezed as Valkyrie snapped the harpoon lines. “You were the one who called.”

“Wrong, turns out Mr Weaver has a few cops in his pocket.” Valkyrie replied as she let Siwang get to her feet. “Oh and go long.” She added as a 40mm grenade streaked through the air towards Siwang, the woman just escaping the blast range, on her crippled leg.

“So Weaver was behind it all.” Siwang grunted as she pulled another concussion ball off her bandolier.

“Not all of it.” Valkyrie purred as she fired another grenade, only to see the concussion ball intercept it mid flight, the projectiles exploding in a cloud of white smoke. “Nice trick.” Valkyrie hissed as she peered through the cover to see her prey missing. “Too bad those harpoons have tracking devices in, wherever you go, I can find you.”

**

“Vance come in.” Siwang wheezed as she sat in the college’s library, her hands wrapped around the harpoon in her leg.

“Siwang what happened, I lost visual after the wall exploded.” Vance asked

“Ambush by the bounty hunter from earlier. Soko was never here.” Siwang grunted as she pulled out the harpoon.

“So kick her ass.” Vance stated. “Whoa, picking up that jamming system again, this time heading towards the library. Whoever it is must have a mobile instillation.”

“It’s in her armour.” Siwang grunted. “Her power armour, a little sci-fi I know but she is the real thing and she is coming for me.”

“I can barley…you.” Vance stated as the link died again. Not that it remained quiet as a hail of gunfire cut through the library windows, the rounds bouncing off the walls, shelves and studying students.

”Rubber bullets, so you want me alive.” Siwang snarled through gritted teeth as the gunfire stopped. “Let’s see your suit deal with this!” She added as she drew her bow, the pain in her arm causing the ‘pull’ on her bowstring to wobble as she waited for the three seconds it took for Valkyrie to step into the room, the students running for her in fear.

“Is that it?” Valkyrie asked sarcastically as she aimed the LMG she was carrying at Siwang, “Take a shot it won’t help you.” She added as Siwang shot the arrow, the projectile going wide and striking the suit’s shoulder. “You missed.” Sedova stated as the strobe lights on her activated. “S**t, Blackbox what happened? Why did that affect me?”

“The arrow caused the reactive armour to prematurely detonate, the strobe intensity controls were right underneath to activate. Since neither you or I told them to the visor auto tint failed to filter it out.” Black Box announced. “Come back so I can fix it.”

“No, Siwang is mine; she’s wounded and can’t achieve anything but a lucky shot.” Valkyrie snarled. “Is still have the tracking system so I can still find her.”

”Which one?” Black Box asked. “One of them is heading east across campus, the other one is heading the other way. Either it’s a glitch, unlikely because I am a genius, or she pulled one or both of them out. Face it we lost the advantage so return to base.”

“No, not yet, if Siwang tries to leave she dies.” Valkyrie announced, “I'm still in charge here!”

“For now.” Black Box answered as Valkyrie ducked back out of the library and returned to the hunt.

**

“Vance can you hear me, I escape again but I can't keep doing this.” Siwang coughed as she staggered towards the western campus exit.

“Can you describe the armour?” Vance asked, “Was their sigel or something?”

“There was an R on the left shoulder.” Siwang replied.

“Okay get back to the Church and I'll see what we can do.” Vance ordered as Siwang walked past a sensor disk mounted on the wall. Unnoticed it sent out an invisible command to the nano capsule mounted on the wall, a snake like strand of wire spreading across the gap at knee height.

“Yeah I can see my bike on the other side of the gate.” Siwang replied as she walked towards the gate. “ETA 10 minutes.”

Earth Orbit

Thin wisps of smoke blew from the red skinned humanoids nostrils as he walked into the cargo hold of the ship, emergency lights flashing and the alarms screaming a warning of immediate destruction.

“Computer this is Privateer Helix, jettison cargo into orbit around the planet and alert the Empire of its location, this ship is destroyed.” Helix ordered as the lights flashed and the entire cargo bay detached. As he was ripped away Helix saw the ship explode, the shockwave slicing him in half and sending the cargo spiralling down towards the blue and green planet below.

**

Forest of Blean, Two Miles North of Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom

Colleen Petra walked down the forest path, her head torch slung over cropped blonde hair cutting a thin beam of light through the darkness. Dressed in a thin red sweater over a black crop shot that matched her pair of cargo pants Colleen was beginning to regret coming out on a Saturday night to complete her dissertation transect. True the conditions were right for bats; with no rain, no wind and a waning crescent moon, but the closeness of the summer solstice would mean that she would get almost no sleep tonight, and very little for the next few nights.

“At least I have a good selection of calls.” Colleen sighed into the digital recorder, as the bat-box she was carrying picked up a signal over the background noise. “Okay that one's new, defiantly not a ‘pip’ or a serrotine, maybe a horseshoe bat but they aren’t found down here.” She added as she stopped and swung the bat box in an arc before locating the general direction of the noise. Slowly she reached in her pocket and removed a battered old mobile, her fingers hovering over the contact labelled as ‘Red’. Was this an emergency though? True the computerised lone worker alert system wouldn’t give a toss if it was disturbed at the dead of night, but was she really in danger.

Taking a deep breath Colleen continued along the path and pushed through a layer of bracken and wretched as a physical wall of smell hit her. The glade resembled an abattoir, with a deer carcass ripped apart, blood and viscera spread everywhere. And if that seemed strange enough, in the centre of the clearing was a steel metallic box, the lid ripped off, thick condensation running down the sides.

“Oh goddess what the hell happened here?” Colleen gasped as the sound on her bat box increased until the device exploded. Seconds later Colleen’s head torch flickered and died leaving the woman along in the dark, the only light coming from the feeble moon and stars. Backing the way she had come Colleen tripped and fell to the floor, her body hitting the ground hard as something sticky brushed against her arm.

“S**t, s**t, s**t!” Colleen screeched as the stickiness climbed up her arm, the force gluing it to her side as something worm like was silhouetted against the moon, its body covered in thick spikes. With her freed hand Colleen jabbed at the ‘Red’ contact before her worm like attacker sprayed another jet of sticky webbing at her, this time immobilizing her other arm before being picked up and cocooned, the alien predator hanging her in a tree, with only her face exposed to the open air.

**

Colleen watched for the next few hours as her alien assailant lumbered around the glade, the sounds of helicopters roaring overhead and police sirens sounding as patrols drove along the main paths. So far nobody had come close to finding her but she had got a good look at the ‘worm’ in the early morning light. At eight foot long it was the largest ‘invertebrate’ she had ever seen, it’s black bulky body supported by six thick legs. On the ‘face area’ there was a pair of nozzles flanking a nasty pair of mandibles mounted beneath four unblinking eyes.

“Check along this path!” A voice from just the other side of the glade yelled.

“I'm here, I'm over here.” Colleen croaked, her voice horse from the crushing force of the silk cocoon she was wrapped in.

“Something’s wrong.” Another voice announced as a dog started barking and snarling. At the sound the massive ‘worm’ swung round and lumbered away from the glade towards the path.

“Jesus are they doing felling work round here?” The first voice yelled as his voice was joined by the sound of snapping trees. “Police, we need you to stop…oh c**p what the f**k is that!!” He yelled as the dogs barks turned to whimpers.

“Tug wait.” The second officer yelled. “Dispatch this is Officers Mason and Clare we need firearms up at Bossenden Wood, we are under…” His voice cut off as the sounds of screams radiated from the path followed by an unearthly screech and something heavy hitting the ground. Colleen closed her eyes and listened for the telling thud of her captor returning but was woken instead by something pawing at her.

“Don’t eat me please!” She screamed before opening her eyes to see a German Shepherd pawing at her trapped body, the webbing cracking as the dog dug her free. In just a few minutes Colleen could move again and with a single strong movement ripped herself free. As she stepped onto the ground the dog started whimpering and backing away in fear.

“What’s wrong?” Colleen asked as she reached out to offer a comforting hand to the dog, only to stop as she saw that her arm was covered in thick red biological armour. “Oh no, what the hell did that thing do to me?!” She screamed as she looked down to see her legs covered in the same substance. Shucking her sweater off Colleen saw that her torso had received the same treatment, only with the addition of five black stars running in two lines to form a V-Shape.

“My face, is my face…” Colleen put a hand on her cheek and sighed as she touched soft human skin only to freeze as she moved up, her hair covered in a thick helmet like substance, which covered everything above her nose, including two hard ellipses where her eyes were. “No…no…no.” She cried as the dog cautiously moved forward growling and snarling at her.

”Freeze!!” A voice called behind her, the shock sending a shiver down her back. “Are you Colleen Petra?”

“Y…yes!” Colleen gulped. “I may look…”

“Dispatch we found her, and the two officers that were attacked.” The police officer stated as he walked forward and put a hand on Colleen’s shoulder. “Miss Petra, we need to get you to a hospital and then take your statement, after that you are free to go.

“Free to go?” Colleen repeated as she looked at her hand. “It was…it was so…”

“You may be in shock miss.” The officer announced, “You'll be fine once we get you to hospital and check out those bruises.” He added gesturing to the five star shaped red blotches on her chest. “Rest assured we'll catch the bastard who did this to you.”