Fire Works

New York is thrown into a state of panic when it is repeatedly attacked by an elusive unidentified terrorist unit.  Racism skyrockets as media moguls announce that they suspect a Middle-Eastern culprit.  While the FBI hones in on the source, the attacks become increasingly severe.  Eventually the terrorist is located, but is killed when SWAT invades his house.  Much to everyone’s surprise, the man was white, and his only motivation was to raise publicity to sell his previously rejected novel manuscript.

Operation Iraqi Landshark

American troops meet with no resistance as they seize the rural Iraqi village of Al-Taneen.  They soon realize that what they thought was an Al Qaeda hideout is actually a desert ghost town.  When American Intelligence loses contact with the unit almost immediately after receiving this intel, they decide to send in an elite team of contract mercenaries to assess the importance of the mysterious city.

            

The Aliens style team of fighters (including an overqualified civilian medic with a background in zoology) feel a mixture of dissatisfaction and relief over what they feel is a throwaway mission meant to keep their controversial practices out of the spotlight.  They soon discover that there are indeed Iraqi rebels hiding out in the city, but these rebels are in no mood to fight.  The rebels are terrified of the abnormal ruts in the desert sand, the strange oil markings on the walls and the sounds that fill the air at night.  But only when the mercenaries begin to disappear, one by one, do they realize that they are in a different kind of enemy territory.

            

So the Iraqis and the Americans must team up to fight the creature beneath the dark fin that swims through the sand, and only once they’ve cornered it against the neighboring mountains do they learn that their mission is more complex than they thought.  A transmission reveals that the CIA suspected the existence of this creature, and that they don’t want it killed.  Their mission is now to capture the ‘sandshark’ and transport it to an American base.  Why?  Because it has evolved a digestive tract that transmutes sand into fossil fuels.  And because it bleeds oil.