written by Tim Kennedy
Chapter 2
"Fuck!" that from Robert again.
"Come on, Captain. We can't waste any time standing here, lets get the hell off this hunk of shit," Lieutenant Jason Patrick suggested.
"Oh, is that right?" Robert asked him. "And you would just leave your comrades in there?"
"Face it, Captain, they're dead," Mallory piped out.
"Bullshit! They're in there, and we're going to get them."
"What?!? Are you fucking crazy?!?" Mallory held up his handgun. "What do you expect us to do with these pieces of crap? Maybe you want us to give them a slap on the wrist, is that is?"
Robert wouldn't mind giving Mallory a slap on the head.
* * *
When Private Howard regained consciousness, he found himself being dragged along the floor. Looking up, he saw an alien drone dragging him to his death, the hive no doubt. Howard tried to reach for his handgun, but found the holster empty. These guys weren't stupid, they knew what the handguns could do if you pulled off a good shot. It was especially smart this time, seeing as Howard was a Marine that had one hell of a good shooting record.
The floor beneath him turned from metal to green organic material. He had arrived.
* * *
Robert and the rest of his marine squad looted the Conistoga for what little weaponry they could find. All that was found were another small number of handguns and one concussion grenade, which Robert took for himself. Give a concussion grenade to one of these guys and they'd probably end up throwing it on your head instead of near an enemy. On the bright side, atleast they found another Motion Tracker. That would come in handy. Now, they were finally assembled back on the deck.
"Okay everyone, we're going to take this nice and slow. Form up, two by two." Robert ordered. His marines obeyed. Let's see what we've got.
The corridor itself was dimly lit. The only illumination came from the red warning lights that blinked on and off every several seconds. The corridor was also extremely quiet considering the aliens that were running around the station. What was that saying? The calm before the storm? Robert tried not to think of that as his marines led the way down the hallway.
"Staff lounge is up ahead," Robert told his squad. Corporal Adam Nesters, his squad co-leader, had the extra motion scanner hanging around his wait. "Nesters, anything on the tracker?"
The Corporal looked down. "No, sir. Everything looks clear."
Yeah, Robert had heard that one before. At any rate, a Motion Tracker was the best device to detect the movement of the Xenomorphs. If a Motion Tracker showed no movement, it was usually safe to proceed. The main word being usually.
"Okay team, move into the lounge keeping point positions, just in case we happen to meet some bugs."
The marines entered the staff lounge keeping perfect positions. Heck, Robert was impressed. Maybe this bunch were good after all. As far as Robert could see it, there was good news and bad news to the current situation. The good news being they didn't run into any bugs inside the lounge, the bad news being Morris was indeed dead and Howard's body was missing. Morris' body had been badly mutilated. One thing seemed peculiar though. There were several dead Xenomorphs scattered around the room, but with the ammo Howard and Morris carried, they couldn't have killed them all.
"Does anyone find a slight problem with the dead human to bug ratio here?" Mallory asked.
The Corporal looked around the room. "How could they have killed all these aliens with two handguns?"
"I don't think they killed them," Robert replied.
"Then who the fuck did?" Mallory blurted back.
"Mallory, watch your language speaking to a superior!" Corporal Patrick raved.
"Well," Robert said to him, bending down over one of the dead alien carcasses, "these aliens weren't killed by gunfire. They were ripped apart."
"Ripped apart? Morris and Howard put up one hell of a fight then."
"Don't fool yourself, Mallory. A human can't rip a Xenomorph apart, not like this anyway. Howard and Morris might have shot some of them, but they didn't do this. Something else did."
Something else. Those words suddenly echoed through Robert's minds. What the heck could do such a thing like this to a Xenomorph? A shadow moved across the ceiling.
"Shit!" Nesters yelled. "There's something on the ceiling!"
All the marines looked up, but the room was so dimly lit, that they couldn't see much. However, what they did see was a big shadow. A shadow to big to be a normal Xenomorph. Robert thought it was the end, that whatever it was, it was going to drop down on them like death from above. But it didn't. It just sat there.
Mallory raised his handgun. "Eat this you piece of shit!"
"Mallory, no!" Robert shouted. Mallory halted his attack. "Everyone out of here on the double! Rash decision: we're getting the hell out of here. Let's get back to the ship."
He didn't have to tell anyone twice. As quick as he ordered them, the squad formed up outside in the corridor and they were heading back the the safety of the ship. Or so Robert thought.
* * *
In the minutes that followed, the alien drone dragging Howard into the hive finally stopped in a small chamber and stuck him on the organic wall. The drone pulled several strands of the green material over Howard's body to keep him from getting away. After the drone was done, it bend down and looked at him. There they both were, starring at each other eye to eye. Howard gathered up enough energy to spit in the alien's face. The alien jumped back in surprise.
"G-got y-ya," Howard mumbled. The drone screamed at him, then proceeded out of the room.
"T-that'll t-teach y-ya."
Howard looked around the chamber. Several eggs had been placed in the middle of the room. Looking at the walls around the chamber, he saw more bodies attached to the walls like he was. In fact, there was a man's body stuck on the wall right beside him. Robert inspected his body. What was this? There was a handgun in the man's holster around his waist. Alien must have missed it. Maybe they weren't as smart as he thought.
Howard reached his hand out. Almost there, just a few more inches. As hard as it was to move when you were stuck to the wall, Howard managed to squeeze his hand out far enough to grip the top of the gun and start to pull it out of the holster. Suddenly, there was an alien barring down on him. In his last desperate attempt, Howard reached out as far as he could and grabbed the gun. Hoping it still had ammo, he pointed the gun towards the alien drone and pulled the trigger. The shot caught the alien square in the chest and stop it on the spot. Unfortunately, that only pissed it off even more. Oh well, Howard thought, better to go down fighting. Howard quickly said a small prayer to himself, then held down the trigger.
* * *
"Is it true?" Robert asked Corporal Nesters as he stepped out of the Conistoga.
"I'm afraid so. When we were gone, something got inside the ship and trashed the controls. Sorry folks," he said to the squad, " we're not going anywhere."
Those bastards. Now Robert was really getting pissed. Those damn bugs had killed two of his men, and to make matters worse, had taken a hay-day inside his ship.
"Is there any chance of repair?" Robert questioned.
"Sure, if you give me about two months. The circuitry's shot to hell and the control panels are smashed. It's one hell of a fucking mess in there. There might be some extra parts inside the station somewhere."
"Yeah, somewhere those aliens are," Mallory added.
"Well, we've got rations in the ship. We'll just have to wait until the demolition squad gets here, that's all," Robert stated.
"Uh, excuse me, but didn't you say that was in three weeks?" Mallory barked out.
"Well, it's either three weeks, or we decide to make this our permanent home."
"God help us," Mallory mumbled to himself. Robert heard that too. God was the only person who could save them now. Heck, maybe wishing for that was even too much. At any rate, they were going to find out.