Officer Pyotr sat at his desk reading a newspaper as he tried to ignore the snow slurries blowing past the police station windows. His two fellow police officers were wisely staying warm in their station in the town of Belushya Guba, in the freezing cold northern end of Russia.

  “Pyotr,” said Sergeant Viktor, hanging up the telephone and taking a sip of his ‘fortified’ cup of coffee, “Any news on those damn polar bears? Some reporters wanted to know. I told him it was old news and to go away.”

  Pyotr laid down his paper on the desk and sighed, “No. We had the invasion of them a few years ago but they scattered back to the wild outside of town.”

  “Are you sure?” said the Sergeant, pointing down to his communications register, “We keep getting calls every now and then of sightings of large creatures, especially during snow storms when visibility is virtually nothing.”

  Pyotr considered the news, “We never did actually saw them go anywhere. Like you said, visibility was dismal and when the storm ceased, the bears were gone. Problem solved!”

  “Yeah, maybe,” replied Viktor, unconvinced and looked out the window at the swirling snow.

  “Hey Pyotr,” Victor said, “What about your brother? Have you heard from him since he saw those aliens?”

  “Jonathan? He was just visiting Wrangel Island to hunt the reindeer when he saw the aliens just as they disappeared in their blue shimmer,” Pyotr answered, subconsciously touching the bag behind his chair.

  “Must have been scary,” said Viktor, getting up and standing at the window, holding his warm cup, “Those aliens appear out of nowhere and start shooting. What would you do if they came here?”

  “We would have to respond,” said Pyotr, “That’s our job. The people here need to be protected.”

  “Agreed,” said Viktor solemnly, “I’m glad the higher-ups have given us extra fire power, even if it is less than all the larger places.”

  ****

  In a shimmer of blue, three hunters appeared in some trickling water in a brick lined tunnel. Far above them was a grating through which they could see faint light in a dark sky.

  “Where are we?” asked Oscar, a sentient trashcan, brandishing his machine gun menacingly. Of course he had no experience, but his father was annoyed with him just hanging around with his friends and sent him on a hunt to ‘get out of the house and do something’.

  Divad sensed around with his body and hopped a few paces in the thin trickle of water. He was a pot plan that looked like a Dirtling cactus, “No idea. It’s a bit dark down here, but the water is nice.”

  “I can’t see anything!” cried Edward, a furry teddy bear looking creature, “Why is it all black!”

  Before the others could say anything he said, “Oh yeah, it’s these danger glasses.”

  “Throw them away,” said Divad, “They’re useless. If you’re in danger they go black. We’re on Dirt hunting with deadly weapons. Of course they’re black. I threw mine away already.”

  Edward turned them over in his hands, placed them on his head and aid, “I don’t know. They are pretty cool. I’ll keep them ready.”

  Oscar scoffed, “Are you using that stupid word ‘Cool’? You’re so common.”

  Divad laughed, as he put one of his arms in the water, “I won this hunt in a lottery. Now that’s cool!”

  Edward pointed his laser pistol down one end of the tunnel, “Let’s go on a little hunt!”

  The others followed along the tunnel. Other than hearing an occasional skittering and scurrying, they saw nothing other than tunnels until they reached a larger open area with a pool of water of unknown depth surrounded by a two metre ledge with four tunnels leading elsewhere.

  Between two of the tunnels was a closed door in an alcove. The hunters all stood at the edge of the pool pondering their next move.

  ****

  Tomas fitfully slept with his back against the soft fur of the resting polar bear. The large bear snuffled and grunted and moved his arm back to scrunch Tomas in tighter, waking Tomas up.

  “Stop it,” said Tomas as he struggled out of the enveloping arms and stood his full five foot height to stare at the huge bear. The bear ignored the small human, so with a “Hmph” Tomas looked around the large brick covered alcove, and said, “Hey, where’s Oleg?”

  Tomas began to walk down one of the tunnels leading out of the alcove and the bear that had been ignoring Tomas arose and slowly padded behind him. Mikhail, the polar bear that led this band of polar bears, had adopted Tomas some years ago when they had invaded Belushya Guba during a particularly challenging winter. The local humans had tried to drive them off and during a vicious snow storm most of the other bears had retreated, while Mikhail and his clan had discovered the tunnel and sewer system under the town. Also hiding in the system was an abandoned little boy, trying to keep warm out of the snow. The boy knew only a few things. His name was Tomas and his parents had died in a car crash from which he had barely escaped and ended up in the tunnels.

  Mikhail and his clan had adopted him, foraging out in the town on the coldest nights amidst the snow. When the weather warmed they went back out, but these underground systems made a great winter home.

  ****

  “Something’s in the water!” yelled Oscar and fired his machine gun into the shadow moving under the water.

  A huge creature with snarling jaws soared out of the pool and struck Oscar with a paw ending in sharp claws. Oscar flew against one of the walls near the door and fell to the floor with an “Ooof! Ow.”

  Divad lit up his light sword and waved it at the huge head and slavering jaw, “Come on! I’ll have you!” he said, swinging his light sword and merely scratching the thing’s fur.

  Edward tried to open the door. It didn’t swoosh open like a normal door and there was no door opening pad on either side. He pushed and pulled but the stupid door wouldn’t budge. Stepping back, Edward pulled out his laser pistol, set it to five energy units and fired.

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  The door exploded and disintegrated, destroying a sizeable area around the entrance.

  “Let’s go!” yelled Edward and rushed through the gash in the wall.

  They didn’t hear the “Hey!” of a small dirtling as they staggered in to the revealed room that was behind the unlocked door.

  “Stairs!” yelled Edward as he led the way up some stairs, away from the roars of the beast below. The others followed eagerly with Divad swinging his light sword behind him to dissuade any pursuers.

  At the top of the stairs Edward saw another door, raised his laser pistol and fired saying, “I’ve got this!”

  The door survived the onslaught of the five energy unit laser bolt only a millisecond before being disintegrated along with the surrounding walls and part of the ceiling and floor.

  The hunters leapt over the gap in the floor into the new room and then stopped, breathing hard.

  Divad looked around the edge of the hole down the stairs, “I don’t think it’s coming this way.”

  Oscar turned away from the hole and looked into the room, brandishing his machine gun. Along the walls were metal storage units and in the middle was a table and chairs. In the shadows he detected some movement and light from his torch reflected on a lot of little eyes.

  “Arrrr!” he yelled as he fired his machine gun. Bullets ricocheted throughout the room, bouncing off the metal storage units and concrete walls. Oscar and Edward were hit and wounded. There was a flurry of movement from the small hairy things that were the target of Oscar’s attack and then the room was silent.

  Edward looked at Oscar’s metal outside and noticed al the dints.

  Edward said,“Here, let me fix that for you,” and reached inside to pop the dents out from the inside.

  Horrified, Oscar slapped his hands away and said, “Any closer and we’d have to get married!”

  Edward shrugged and tried to replace the stuffing he had lost from the bullets that had pierced him. Embarrassed by his outburst, Oscar said to Edward, “Here, have my first aid kit.”

  Edward opened the kit and applied some of the adhesive bandages to his torn fur, “That should do until we get back to civilised space.”

  Divad, brandishing his light sword said, “I’m going to check on that creature downstairs,” and left the room. Moments later he rushed back in the room, “It’s still there and there’s more of them!”

  At the other end of the room was another door. Edward raised his laser pistol but was interrupted by Oscar, “Wait! Let’s try one of these door charges.”

  Edward sighed and agreed while Oscar placed the door charge on the centre of the door and they stepped back. Divad armed himself with his automatic crossbow and carefully watched at the hole in case the creature and its friends came after them.

  “Boom!” the door exploded open.

  Divad screamed and fired his cross bow down the stairs, “They’re not stopping! Run!”

  The three brave hunters then raced out of the room through the newly opened unlocked door and faced a ladder leading upwards.

  “Do we climb?” asked Oscar. A crash of splintering furniture from the creature smashing through the table in the room they had just left encouraged them to move.

  “There’s a lid at the end of this ladder,” said Oscar as his head bumped against a metal cover. Edward raised his laser pistol, but Oscar put out a hand, “No, let me try my way first.”

  Oscar found a handle and turned it. With a squeal of protesting metal on metal, the handle moved and the hatch opened. It fell onto the ground above with a clang.

  Oscar stepped out and said, “We’re free!” just as the dirtling vehicle hit him and he went flying into a wall.

  ****

  Victor stood up as he replaced the phone handset, “Pyotr, let’s go. We have reports of explosions in the sewer tunnels near the shops on Sovetskaya Street. Could be a gas leak.”

  Pyotr was pretty sure that gas leaks were pretty rare in Belushya Guba, but something was causing the explosions. He grabbed his bag and rushed out to his car. Viktor and the other policeman beat him to their car and rushed off, with Pyotr right behind them. He slowed as he approached the small shopping area. Viktor’s car suddenly screeched as the brakes were pressed hard and Pyotr saw something like a trash can go flying through the air into the wall opposite.

  Viktor stopped the car and the two policemen exited the vehicle to investigate. Pyotr remained in his car using the headlights to illuminate the scene. Occasional flurries of light snow made visibility poor.

  Pyotr’s eyes widened in surprise as something like a large teddy bear stepped out of the hole and raised a weapon to fire at Viktor. Nothing happened and the teddy bear threw away the weapon and reached over his shoulder to raise a weird looking rifle. Viktor dived to the side while the other policemen stood his ground and fired at the teddy bear, hitting it with a number of bullets. The teddy bear fired and a huge blast of light hit the police car and the policeman destroying everything in an explosion of light. Viktor was thrown a dozen meters and lay still on the ground.

  A trash can then moved towards the teddy bear and a green creature inside pointed at Pyotr. Pyotr leapt from his vehicle and through the shattered window of a shop front as the Teddy Bear fired and destroyed his police car. Pyotr fumbled in his bag and grabbed hold of the ball his brother had found on Wrangel Island. “This is a FOP grenade. You never know, you may need it,” his cousin had said as he gave it to him for a Christmas present.

  Praying that it would work, Pyotr pressed the button and threw it at the aliens, ducking behind the wall of the shop.

  A blinding light lit the area for twenty metres. Looking up, Pyotr saw the trash can stagger and fall down the hole left by the open manhole cover. The teddy bear just stayed in position grinning as he somehow wore some dark glasses which must have protected him from the blinding flash.

  Pyotr jumped as he felt a hand press firmly on his shoulder. Looking up he saw the grim face of a soldier. The soldier’s arm had a patch with “ARRG” written on it.

  “Stay down,” he said, “We’ll take it from here. It’s time to make the FOPs go ARRG.”

  ****

  Oscar lay at the bottom of the ladder groaning. He remembered their safety briefing lecture from the HTI representative on the shuttle mentioning something about ‘looking both ways’ but who pays attention to safety briefings?

  “Are you all right?” asked Divad from half way up the ladder. Oscar had barely missed hitting him on the way down, and Divad was unsure whether to go up and help Edward or down and help Oscar.

  With a roar of rage, the creature that had been chasing them raced through the destroyed door and mauled Oscar. Divad dropped a tangle grenade to get the creature and the sticky webs dispersed everywhere within a ten metre radius, enveloping the creature and Oscar as well as catching his legs with a couple of stray strands.

  “Come and join me!” yelled Edward, “There are Dirtlings everywhere up here!”

  Divad tried, but he was caught by the tangle.

  The creature roared and Oscar screamed.

  “Greetings!” came a friendly voice over their communicators, “Would you like to beam up now?”

  “YES!” yelled two voices and they disappeared in a blue shimmer.

  ****

  Once Hendon and Clinton had dealt with the huge Dirtling creature which Clinton later determined was a polar bear, they assisted the returned hunters.

  “Isn’t Oscar someone important?” asked Hendon quietly to Clinton as the shredded, but still alive, Edward was taken to medical, followed by a surprisingly positive Divad.

  Clinton consulted his data pad, and looking down at the creature that looked like a squashed trash can, said, “Yes. His father is one of the important politicians in the faction led by Lord Gubbins. This will mean trouble.”

  ****

  Tomas stood with Mikhail over the body of Oleg, their brother bear. They had reached the room where Oleg had raced in to attack the creatures that dared invade their territory and shoot at them. Oleg had only wanted to swim in the water and catch the creatures that were in there for breakfast. The creatures had shot at him and teased him mercilessly with a laser sword and sharp spikes. In the final battle with the trash can alien, Oleg had disappeared. A short time later he had reappeared in the same place, dead.

  Tomas had heard about these aliens when he accompanied Mikhail on some of their raids. The televisions told about the aliens who appeared randomly and hunted indiscriminately.

  Tomas placed his hand on Mikhail’s nose and looked him in the eyes, “I have to go. I must make those aliens pay.”

  Mikhail saw the determination in his young charge’s eyes and placed both his huge front paws on Tomas’s shoulders and bumped his nose against Tomas’s.

  Tomas climbed the ladder towards the flashing lights showing through the open manhole.

  ****

  “Hey Sergeant!” said one of the ARRG troopers to Sergeant Sergei who was interviewing Pyotr.

  Sergeant Sergei looked over and saw a young lad in his early teens climb out of the open manhole and stand proudly erect. The boy looked at the ARRG soldier in appraisal and then towards Sergeant Sergei.

  “Are you in charge?” Tomas asked, “I must join you to kill these aliens.”