Chapter 4: defending the Shannons
"I need a few hours to a complete post mortum but I can tell you this much already, these men were attacked from above." Elisabeth tells her husband, commander Taylor and Scott.
"I'm thinking tree darters? Those things drop on you by the dozens." Malcom suggests while turning to the commander who leans in the doorframe.
"I've never seen them do anything like this, not to three armed men." Taylor disagrees.
"Yeah, they would have had to have stumbled onto a nest and were taken by surprise." Malcom says.
"Do tree darters have claws?" Jim asks the group.
"Nope." Scott says while Jim retrieves a piece of claw from one of the soldiers' boots.
"Oh, well it's not a tooth." Malcom says inspecting the object with Elisabeth.
"Malcom, I need to know what did this, today!" Taylor orders and leaves after giving his fallen soldiers' a mourning look.
"Hey, wait up, I'm going to need to bunk on your offices' couch tonight." Scott says going after the commander.
"It looks like I'll be here until tonight then, do you think you can handle the kids?" Elisabeth asks her husband.
"Yeah, sure." Jim tells her.
"There is leftovers, make sure Zoey takes a bath, Josh does his homework and remind Maddy to put in her retainer." Elisabeth instructs.
"Yeah, will do. She wears a retainer?" Jim asks her, pausing after his initial confirmation.
"Yeah." Elisabeth replies before going back to work while Jim heads home.
That evening Jim tries to get started on dinner but doesn't know his way around the kitchen and burns his hand on the stove.
"Daddy can I put the plant in my room now?" Zoey asks.
"Not now sweety." Jim replies.
"Dad?" Maddy asks a few seconds later, appearing in the living room.
"I said not now. Oh, I'm sorry Maddy." Jim tells her.
"Can I ask you something?" She asks while Jim is trying to figure out what to do with their leftovers, which are a few vegetables.
"How do you know if a boy likes you?" Maddy asks.
"He can't , he doesn't . What boy? You're only sixteen." Jim tells her shocked.
"Uhh, you know nevermind. Do you want me to get started on dinner?" Maddy offers.
"Yes." Jim accepts, admitting defeat.
"Welcome back to the family dad." Josh remarks from his bed, amused by his fathers' franticly behavior.
An hour or so later Elisabeth arrives at home with Jim drinking the local version of wine while waiting for her.
"Hey." Jim greets her.
"How did it go?" Elisabeth asks him.
"Smooth sailing all the way." Jim tells her.
"Yeah, did Zoey take a bath?" Elisabeth asks before kissing Jim.
"You mean a bath like with soap and water?" Jim asks, obviously having forgotten about it.
"What's this, some kind of wine?" Elisabeth asks him, seeing the drink.
"Did anything new turn up from the autopsy?" Jim asks her.
"The wounds and the claw don't match any known species from our database." Elisabeth informs him.
"It looks like we're dealing with a predator no one's ever seen before in this region." Elisabeth tells him.
"That's a scary thought, you tell Taylor?" He asks her.
"Yeah, Malcom filled him in. You know I still can't get over that. What are the chances of us both coming here." Elisabeth says.
"Well you both did go to that fancy college." Jim says.
"Still the odds." She replies.
"Did you and he, uhh…" Jim says awkwardly.
"Date? Maybe, for half a minute." Elisabeth tells him.
"Ah, you see I knew it." Jim says.
Jim then teases her, asking questions about them breaking up before she leaves to give Zoey a bath, while he gets ready to head to bed himself.
A couple of minutes later the two of them are starting to make out for what has to be the first time in years when they get interrupted by the same screeching they heard yesterday.
Jim heads outside with Josh to drive the bird-like creatures away and Josh throws a rock at them to make them leave, after which they fly at them and attack them with their beaks and talons while Jim and Josh flee into their house.
|the next morning|
Jim is in the command center where Malcom looks at his injury, saying "This certainly looks like a matching bite wound." and sprays something on it, which closes the wound instantaneously.
"These birds where about yey high." Jim explains, showing them that they are around the size of a mans chest to Taylor, Washington, Scott and Malcom.
"Uhm, not birds, they are reptiles." Malcom interrupts him.
"Whatever, they were jetblack with white markings and long beaks." Jim informs the group, with Taylor looking outside onto their camp.
"Certainly sounds like a species of tyrannosaur we've not come across." Malcom says interested.
"Yeah well three of my men came across them and we had to bury them this morning so my question to you is, just how are we going to handle this?" Taylor asks Malcom.
Your men probably threatened these saurs in a way and brought this upon themselves." Malcom tells him.
"What about the ones who attacked Shannon and his son?" Taylor questions.
"They were probably scavenging for food and were distracted by the lights. We need to get a science team on this right away to draw up an interaction protocol for us to use." Malcom suggests.
"No protocols today Malcom. Until I know what those things are and why they are attacking my people nobody leaves the compound and get the work details in as soon as possible." Taylor instructs Washington, his second in command.
"Sir, we have research teams…" Malcom disagrees.
"That's enough, you'll get to research another day, discussion over." Taylor tells him harshly, shutting Malcom up and he leaves disappointed.
"Good man but a pain in my ass sometimes, he's always trying to push his own way." Taylor tells Jim after Malcom left.
"Since this meeting is over, do you mind if I talk to you in private Mr. Shannon?" Scott asks, getting up from the couch, taking the former cop with him on a quick stroll.
"What is this about?" Jim asks confused.
"I wanted to check in with you since your daughter seemed interested in learning how defend herself against dinos, now I would only teach her enough so she can survive if push comes to shove and make it clear that she should never go looking to fight them if it can be avoided. She seemed concerned that you wouldn't want her to get taught by me." Scott explains.
"I see, Maddy interested in fighting? Well I'll have to talk to her about it and discuss it with my wife but from my standpoint I have no objections as long as she stays safe and it's only meant as a last line of defense." Jim replies.
"Of course. Take your time there is no rush in deciding this." Scott says, patting the mans shoulder once before leaving, only to get stopped by Jim.
"Say, since I have your ear right now, what is the recruitment process exactly?" Jim asks.
"The department heads hand Taylor a list and he relays that to 2049." Scott explains.
"I see, I was just wondering about my wife." Jim says.
"Malcom must've recruited her." Scott tells him, with a shrug, not giving it much thought.
"Thank you." Jim says, before remembering what Maddy asked him last night.
"And You wouldn't know why Maddy is asking how she can tell if a boy likes her right?" Jim asks him, suspecting he's the one she was talking about.
"You'd have to talk to Mark about that I think, they were getting along pretty well during survival training the other day." Scott says, disappointment evident in his voice. Scott then leaves to go look for Maddy and tell her her fathers decision.
"Oh great. Just what I need, another boy's out for my little girl." Jim sighs worriedly.
|a couple of minutes later - on the marketplace|
Scott took Maddy to the marketplace while telling her of her fathers decision, while he's doing this the other Shannon sibling is hanging out with Skye, trying to get a guitar he found on one of the stands but gives up on it due to the high price.
"Well anyways, that's what your dad decided, so I guess you'll have to talk to them sometime about it." Scott says, finishing relaying the information he got from her father.
"I see. But be honest, do I even have talent for those skills?" Maddy asks.
"Not really, but the training would be so you can defend yourself. I wouldn't want to train you to be a front-line fighter." Scott tells her.
"Why not?" She asks.
"Because it's not safe and…" Scott tells her before his ears perk up, hearing a familiar screeching coming from the fence.
He turns to look at the large amount of bird like saurs having gathered on the fences' planks.
"Stay here and keep your head down." Scott orders Maddy, putting her under one of the close-by stalls' tables.
"What are you doing? What is going on?" Maddy asks him confused and mildly annoyed at being in the dark.
"Trust me please." Scott replies, looking at her with worry evident in his expression. He receives a quick nod positive from Maddy and then tells everyone to take cover quietly. Just as he reaches Josh and Skye the saurs ready themselves for an attack.
"Crap." Scott curses, reaching the two teens.
"Thanks." Skye replies offended, thinking he meant her, still being angry about what happened in the past.
"Both of you, follow me quick!" Scott tells them urgently.
"What do you want?" Skye asks, thinking he's screwing with her.
"Go, go, go." Josh ushers her, taking her hand and hurrying after Scott, who leads them over to the table Maddy and a couple other people are hiding under already.
Moments after he brought them to safety all hell breaks lose when the bird-like creatures fly down, attacking the humans who are panicking and are trying to find cover wherever they can with the few guards who are around trying to shoot the saurs with their sonic weapons but failing to do any real damage.
Scott shifts and grabs his machete and a combat knife out of their respective sheaths before literally jumping into the fray, aiming at the densest gathering of saurs and starts slashing away at whatever creature comes near him. The bird-like saurs get angered by him taking out their comrades and start to focus on attacking him.
Scott manages to hold of the first few saurs focused on him, but he soon gets overrun by them and has no other choice but to flee, he runs for the gate, looking back to make sure most of the creatures are following him. Scott puts away his knifes and starts to run on all four, gaining speed and increasing the distance between him and the saurs. Once he's sure they lost his trail he heads back to Nova to make sure Maddy is alright.
"They were just like the ones from last night but there were hundreds of them, and they just kept swooping down on us." Josh explains to Jim and Taylor, who hurried over after getting news of what happened.
"Even after getting hit by the sonic guns they just kept on coming until they all flew off at once, chasing after something which I think might've been Scott." Skye adds.
"We got 15 wounded, 2 seriously but I've been told they'll survive." Washington informs Taylor, arriving at the group.
"We got lucky this time, any word on Scott?" Taylor asks, getting a headshake no in response.
"Tell the towers to keep an eye on the sky and to boost the frequency of the sonics as well." Taylor orders, making Washington leave to inform them.
"Good thing you three are unharmed." Jim says, giving his daughter a relieved hug.
"Scott got us to safety before they attacked." Maddy explains, looking around the crowd for the missing teen.
"Where are those interaction protocols when you need them huh?" Jim asks Malcom, who gathered a few corpses of the saurs Scott killed in a box.
"I think I may have an idea what's going on here. It's no accident we haven't seen this species in this region before since they are not from this region. They're migrating. The problem is that migration tends to be population wide or even species wide." Malcom replies.
"Meaning what?" Taylor asks.
"Meaning we're fucked." Scott says, going over to the group of three.
"What happened with you?" Jim asks put of by him being bloodied up all over with a large amount of his clothes now only being shreds.
"I lured those things away and lets just say it was a less than graceful display." Scott explains, lifting his arm, showing a deep gash on his side as well as just how shredded his clothes are when the whole left section of his shirt just falls to the floor.
"And this was my favorite shirt." Scott scoffs jokingly, only giving away a quick wince before he sits down on an empty table next to them, the contents having been knocked onto the ground during the panic.
"How many did I get?" Scott asks Malcom.
"8." Malcom replies, looking at Scott weirdly.
"Oh man, I just hope this doesn't go on my track record." Scott says disappointed that he only took out such a small number of attackers.
"Enough talk about that, I'll get Elisabeth to take a look at you." Jim says, fetching his wife, who was looking at another citizen.
"Son, you need to learn to take it easy." Taylor says, worried about Scott overdoing it one day and getting himself killed.
"Easy for you to say, let's not kid ourselves. People look up to you as a leader, I'm only the mutant freak whose only purpose is being a saur repellent." Scott tells him, looking around seeing the stares aimed at their direction, ranging from disgusted to scared shitless.
"Scott! I've been looking for you. What the hell happened to you?" Maddy says worried when she sees his current condition.
"Oh you know, this and that." Scott laughs trying to play it off.
"I'll get…" Maddy says.
"You stay with him and make sure he doesn't walk off again, I'll go see what's taking the doc so long." Taylor stops her, walking off towards the girls mother.
"Why would you leave when you're this hurt?" Maddy asks, fetching a towel and dips it in water to start removing the dirt from around his wounds, having observed her mother once or twice.
"I heal quick. In a day I'd be as good as new, though I guess from the looks of it we won't have a day." Scott tells her.
"Just because you heal quick doesn't make you not feel pain, does it?" Maddy challenges him and cleans a wound with alcohol, getting him to wince.
A few moments later Elisabeth arrives and takes over, treating him and applying some bandages on the couple of deep wounds he received while fighting.
|30 minutes later – command center|
Taylor, Washington, Malcom and Jim are standing around a screen and Washington pulls up a infra-red picture of the surrounding woods, showing them that there are millions of these creatures out there. They find out that they build Nova on top of the creatures mating grounds, having found countless eggshells while digging for a geothermal well.
After the brief meeting Malcom leaves to confirm if it's the same species while Taylor starts to get everyone to secure the buildings and make sure everyone is safe.
Malcom informs them soon after that it is indeed the same species and suggests that they catch a male and a female alive so they can properly study their physiology to look for a solution.
When everyone gears up to go hunting for the two subjects Scott leaves the hospital, having overheard it from some guards.
"Hey, hope you weren't planning on leaving without me." Scott says, hopping onto the back of Taylors' car.
"You're staying here. I need someone I can trust to keep everything safe and sealed tight." Taylor orders.
"Couldn't you just get Wash. to do it?" Scott whines.
"No!" Taylor says and starts his truck, driving away with Jim, Washington and a few other men to catch their specimen.
|The next day|
"We've got the two specimen, they are on their way to the researchlab. How's the colony?" Taylor asks Taylor.
"Water's sealed and so are the energy grids, also we have an armed man on every building." Washington tells them, having gotten an update from Scott a few minutes ago.
"So far so good." Taylor says.
"What do you think, how long can we last?" Washington asks.
"If we're lucky? Maybe the night." Taylor replies.
"Please tell me that our test subjects turned something up." Taylor tells Elisabeth and Malcom who walk into the command center.
"Pheromones." Elisabeth tells him, holding a vial.
"I was thinking something a bit more lethal doc." Taylor remarks.
"We don't have a way to repel these creatures, but this might be a way to attract them." Elisabeth informs the group.
"And that would be a good thing why?" Taylor questions.
"This is what regulates their spawning instincts. If we can synthesize a concentrated version of their pheromones, we might be able to lure them to another location. Get them to establish a new breeding ground." Elisabeth explains.
"How long will it take to make this stuff?" Jim asks, knowing they don't have much time.
"Couple of hours. And then we still need to find a way to disperse the pheromones." Elisabeth replies.
"You just leave that to me. Shannon you prep a transport, Wash. I want confirmation that this place is locked down, I mean sealed tight." Taylor orders.
|Soon after in the Shannon's hut|
"Stay inside and listen to private Jankins OK?" Elisabeth tells her daughters.
"I'll be fine. There is a soldier on every house." Skye tells Josh, trying to get home.
"I know, but I want you here to help out with my sisters." Josh tells her, coming up with an excuse.
"Under no circumstances open a door or a window." Jim tells them.
"Don't worry about us." Maddy tells them as her parents head outside.
Mark then arrives and switches posts with Jankins.
"What happened with Jankins?" Jim asks, seeing the soldier leave.
"There was a mix-up in the duty roster." Mark tells him.
"Alright then." Jim says, taking his daughter aside and whispers "That's how you know a boy likes you."
The two then head over to the hospital to work on the pheromones while the creatures start their attack.
"A sterile fertilizer drum, this thing'll hold 50 liters, will that be enough?" Taylor asks them, rolling in the drum.
"It'll have to be. At this rate we won't have much more time to synthesize more than that." Elisabeth replies.
"Transport is secure and standing by. How is it coming here?" Jim tells the four people, walking into the lab.
"Not quick enough." Taylor remarks.
"Keep it cool Taylor, let them do their thing." Scott remarks, figuring from Malcom's facial expression that he's getting anxious.
"Have you checked on the kids?" Elisabeth asks worried.
"I'll do it right now." Jim tells her and tries to contact their kids but gets no response.
"Why aren't they answering?" Elisabeth asks worried.
"I'll go make sure they are fine, you finish up with this. Sorry but you'll have to handle this mission without me Taylor, I'd be useless with all that Pheromone flying around anyways, I'd be lucky not to suffocate." Scott tells them and stands up from his seat, securing his knifes before leaving the hospital.
"don't worry, there is no way your kids will be in danger with him guarding them." Taylor tells the couple, getting Elisabeth to focus back on her task.
A couple of minutes later they finish synthesizing the pheromones and fill it into the drum. Taylor and Jim quickly bring the drum to their vehicle and start to lead the creatures away from Nova.
|Meanwhile at the Shannon's house|
Scott arrives shortly after leaving the hospital, having avoided picking a fight with the creatures and simply dodged whatever came at him. When he reaches the Shannon's house he sees Mark running away from it scared while being chased by a few creatures.
Maddy pokes her head outside in that moment with Josh right behind her to make sure she's safe.
"Mark?" She asks, looking for their guard.
"He's taken off that way." Scott tells her, running up to their front door and getting in quickly, slamming the door shut behind himself.
"Phew, man there are a lot of them out there." Scott says relaxing a bit now that he's inside the house.
"The windows and doors are all secure." Maddy tells him.
"Good." Scott says before starting up his radio saying "They're all fine. I've got them so relax and carry out the mission."
"Your parents were worried when they didn't hear back from you." Scott explains.
"Are we going to be OK?" Zoey asks scared, sitting on a table in the living room while the creatures start to fly against their home, looking for a way inside.
"Of course, we are Zoey." Maddy tells her to calm her down.
"Alright, everyone get in that room." Scott tells the others, pointing at Maddy's and Josh's room.
"Why?" Skye asks.
"Shut up and do it!" Scott growls, starting shift. The four teens hurry inside the room with Scott closing the doors behind them, telling Josh "keep the doors closed, no matter what happens."
"I bet you 60 Tarots we don't make it." Skye tells Josh, helping him keep the doors in check.
"What? That's a stupid bet if you can't cash it in." Josh replies.
"If you can, you can get that guitar." She replies.
The four and Scott then hear a clanking sound coming from above them and moments later the four teens, locked in the room hear the creatures break through their air vents and enter their home, flying around and start attacking Scott.
Scott howls at them in reply before getting out his combat knife and elongating the nails on his free hand to fight the creatures.
Scott then starts to fight the flying creatures, slashing wildly at them, taking out a couple, reducing the number of creatures flying around their house one by one while taking on a lot of hits.
Skye and Josh open the door just a small gap and have a saur on them the very next instant, making Zoey cry out in panic.
Scott hears this and sees, now two creatures trying to force their way into the room. He is on them not a second later and grabs one by it's throat, violently ripping it away from the door, breaking it's neck in the process and bites into the other one's neck with his elongated fangs, killing it as well.
"I said keep the doors closed!" Scott shouts in a deep voice and gets hit in the back by two other creatures while his focus was on saving the others, causing him to stumble against the white paneled wall, splattering a trail on it red with his blood.
He shakes his head once to recover from the blow and jumps backwards to the floor with them still hanging on his back, stunning them while he rolls off them and pierces one with his knife, nailing it to the floor while he crushes the other ones' skull with his boot.
Scott continues to fight of the few remaining creatures before all of them fly away.
Scott peaks outside, opening a windows' blinds and sees the creatures flying away from Nova.
"The plan works." Scott says relieved.
"Alright, you can come out now, just watch your step." Scott tells the four teens, looking around to make sure the creatures are all dead.
"What were you thinking opening that door, you endangered both your sisters' lives." Scott berates Josh as the four get out of the room, looking around their place seeing at least a dozen if not more of the creatures lying on the floor.
"Sorry about the mess. Don't worry I'll clean it up. You better take Zoey outside, she doesn't need to see all this." Scott tells them, turning back to normal and starts to remove his knife as well as a few kitchen knifes he threw at the creatures from the creatures corpses while the four teens step outside.
"I guess I owe you 60 Taros." Skye says, stepping outside with Josh, his sisters close behind them with Zoey grasping Maddy's hand tightly.
"Yeah right." Josh laughs it off.
"Seriously, I want you to have it. You can pay me back later, its not like we're going anywhere." Skye tells him.
"Speaking of going, I better go check on my housemates." Skye then tells him awkwardly while looking back at the house where she can see a glimpse of the blood covered Scott walking around collecting the bird-like creatures and leaves in a hurry.
"Alright, you can go back inside if you want but you'll have to repaint again and mop the floor, sorry." Scott tells the group, bringing a big bag outside and putting it next to their entrance.
Josh looks after Skye one more time before entering his home, giving Scott a quick thanks.
"Zoey, go with Josh." Maddy tells her sister, ushering her to follow her big brother.
"Thank you." Zoey tells Scott, giving him a hug around his waist due to her height, making him pat her head once unsure of how to reply.
"Thank you. You really saved us today." Maddy thanks Scott giving him a big hug, despite her nervousness.
"I really don't think you should be hugging me. You'll end up covered in blood." Scott remarks with a quiet laugh.
"I don't care right now." She replies, continuing to hug him.
"Oh, how are you anyways? I know a little medicine from my mom. Let me take a look." She tells him hurriedly, realizing he has to be hurt and tries to get him to take off his shirt.
"It's nothing really." He replies, taking her wrists gently, putting them at her sides.
"Are you sure? I could've sworn you got hurt when you protected us when Josh opened the door." Maddy asks doubtfully.
"Yeah, it was nothing. Go take care of your sister." He tells her, a small grin on his face at seeing her so concerned over him. Not having had anyone other than Taylor being worried for him in a while.
Maddy looks at him one more time before she pecks his cheek and goes after her sister.
The three siblings soon fall asleep in the beds in Josh's and Maddy's room while Scott gets back to cleaning up the mess he created.
|4 hours later|
The sun has started to rise not too long ago when Malcom, Elisabeth and Wash see the vehicle with Taylor and Jim return, having waited for them while helping out in front of the command center.
After checking them over and seeing they only have a couple of scrapes while Taylor and Jim fill in the other three what happened everyone decides to call it a day and catch up on their lost sleep.
When they arrive at their house the first thing they are greeted to is a knife being held towards Jim's throat, curtesy of Scott, who obviously took post in front of the entry door.
"Sorry. Habit." Scott apologizes, storing away the knife after seeing that it's the Shannon's.
"How are they?" Elisabeth asks him, stepping inside with Jim.
"Asleep for the last three and a half hours." Scott replies.
"Did everything go OK or was there any trouble?" Jim asks.
"Well Mark got overrun and fled when I got here and these things got into the house through the vents. But I took care of them until you guys managed to lure them away." Scott informs them.
"Thank you." Jim thanks him relieved his children are safe.
"Don't mention it. One thing though, you might have to change your kitchen knives." Scott tells them.
"Why?" Jim asks.
"I used most of them to fight off those things and I'm not sure you'll want to eat with something which was covered in dinosaur blood." Scott explains.
"I see." Elisabeth says and goes further into the house, noticing the floor being remarkably clean.
"I mopped up, you might still want to repaint, but the floor should be fine as it is now." Scott explains, seeing the mothers surprised look.
"Thank you." She says before seeing her children sleeping peacefully in their rooms.
"Anything happen on your end?" Scott asks the two parents.
"Not much." Jim replies.
"So, do you want to stay over?" Elisabeth offers.
"I'll go sleep on the porch, one thing though. Do you mind patching me up?" Scott requests, turning to Elisabeth in particular.
"Oh, you were hurt?" She asks worried and fetches a first aid kit.
"Yeah, happens all the time. I just don't want to bother anyone at the hospital since I'm sure they've got their hands full." Scott replies.
"Alright, let's see what we've got." Elisabeth tells him, readying her equipment while Scott removes his shirt and shows her his back, where he has two large wounds from when the creatures made him tumble against the door.
"That will definitely leave a scar." Elisabeth tells him, sowing him up.
"That's OK." Scott replies calmly.
"I'm sorry you were hurt this bad protecting our children." Elisabeth says, finishing up.
"Thank you for patching me up and don't worry about it. Get some sleep, you look like you could use it." Scott tells them.
"Taylor said the exact same thing." Jim says while Scott makes his way out of their home.
"Great minds and all…" Scott jokes before closing the door behind him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone