Thing Vs. EXOTROOPERS!

By David N. Brown

2043: Acting Sgt. Zaratustra of the exotrooper corps is out on his first mission, a rescue expedition to the most uninhabitable and inaccessible part of Antarctica. There, a lost expedition's discovery has been rediscovered, unleashing a million-year-old extraterrestrial among an observatory's isolated crew. Sgt. Zed will find that nothing is as it seems, and even holding his own team together may be a trial too great to bear!

• Language: English
• Publisher: David N. Brown
• Release date: Jun 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476273914

David N. Brown

David N. Brown is a nearly lifelong Resident of Mesa, Arizona, with longstanding interests in science and technology,folklore and disability issues. He earned a bachelor's degree in paleontology from Northern Arizona University in 2005. His first books, Worlds of Naughtenny Moore and Walking Dead, were originally published in 2006 and 2007 by Open Page Publishing, a venture with Brandon Willey, Kara Willey Warren and syndicated cartoonist Tony Carillo. In 2009, he began self-publishing through Amazon, and also created the autism resource site www.evilpossum.weebly.com. He has contributed to sites including fanfiction.net, ravendays.org, and leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk. This biography is INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY of the author. Reposting AS IS is permitted. MALICIOUS ADDITION OR ALTERATION WILL BE TREATED AS INFRINGEMENT.

Book preview

THING VS

EXOTROOPERS!

by David N. Brown

Smashwords edition copyright 2012 David N. Brown

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CONTENTS

Prologue

The White Coast

Impact

Chimera

Who’s Who??

Thing 1, Thing 2

Split

Fire On The Ice

Lights Out

Scramble

One And One Is One

Last Being Standing

Loose Endings

Coda

Prologue

1931

If anyone had had a watch to check, it would have shown 3 in the morning, but the skies of Antarctica were as bright as day. Yet, the only warmth came from the blazing ruins of an encampment. There had been a dozen men in the expedition, plus sled dogs and cattle, and even with the men crammed in so tight there was hardly room to swing an elbow, that took a fair amount of lumber to burn.

A figure trudged, almost staggering, out of the camp, with three layers of heavy jackets all open to the cold that already pressed at the bubble of heat. He gave it no heed, actually going a little faster. He whirled at the sound of a crash and an unearthly howl. Something moved in the flames, something that was itself only an amorphous mass of flame, something that had no right to be alive. The man drew a revolver and took aim. Then there was a shrill shriek, rising so high that it began to fade into the ultrasonic, and the shape lurched once more before collapsing, for good. The man's shoulders slumped, and the gun dropped from his limp hands into the snow, and he himself followed after.

It could have been seconds, minutes or the better part of an hour before the man in the snow sat up at the sound of approaching footsteps. The newcomer seemed to coalesce out of a haze of falling snow. It was hard even to discern a human shape under the layers upon layers of arctic gear. The man rose abruptly to a crouch, scrabbling for a weapon. Then a deep tenor voice spoke, Mack!

Donald, said the other warily.

The newcomer shifted a burden carried on one shoulder; it was a large pick ax. All your fires, they warm things up. Won't last long, though. Oughta button up.

'S okay. Guess we lost track of each other.

Guess so.

Did we get 'em all? All of them?

Dunno. Thought I saw someun walkin' out. Prob'ly nothin'. Followed a few paces, but I couldn't find no trail.

Really.

I don' know 'f we gonna make it.

Maybe we shouldn't.

Mebbe not. Donald hunched down. Y'know... when I followed... what I thought I saw... coulda sworn... looked a lot like you, Mack.

If there's any surprises left... I don't think either of us is in any shape to do something about it.

I s'pose you're right. So what do we do?

Just sit here, I guess. Sit... and see what happens.

Yeah. That don't sound too bad. Donald sat down, and after a little while, he took a drink from a flask, and offered it to Mack. The other man smiled as he took it... and with the other hand, he cocked the revolver.

The White Coast

2043

The figure seemed to coalesce out of the snow. It had the shape of a man, but it was formed from pyramids and polyhedra and mechanical servos. The armor was clearly made of solid angled slabs, but the exterior was a covering of fabric and foam, colored pure white. Two wing-like structures came out of the back, and a crown of iron rods ringed the helmet. A rigid steel prosthesis took the place of the third finger of the right hand, clenched in a fist.

This was one of the already-legendary finbacks of Serbia's exotroopers, and this particular individual was the no less legendary Zaratustra, also known as Zed. Born in the South African compound of a neo-Nazi cult and raised in Germany by relatives who tried in vain to lead him from the ways of his father, he had