USCM
Lv-426 orbital flight
April 2, 2357
20:21:53
The dropship Raven sat prepped and ready over the launch airlock on the U.S.S Sarasota. A squad of ten United States Colonial marines stood in formation in front of an APC. The dark green door of the APC stood open, waiting to recieve the marines. Sergeant Riggs stepped in front of the marines.
" At ease, marines. Now, listen up cause I'm only gonna brief you once," Riggs said, his hoarse voice resounding throughout the hanger. The marines all sat down on pieces of loading equipment and crates of ammunition to listen.
" Ok, you've all heard about the Hadley's Hope incident. It was a marine expedition to the Hadley's Hope colony on LV-426 after the Weyland-Yutani corporation lost contact with the colony. As it turns out, the colonists were sent to check out a grid coordinate and it was there that they came in contact with the xenomorphs. First one colonist was impregnated and to make it short, soon the whole colony was overrun. The marines of the U.S.S Sulaco set down to try to find them, not knowing about the infestation. A highly experienced team was decimated in under forty-eight hours. The facility was destroyed after the reactors overheated and caused a thermonuclear explosion that was thought to have eradicated the alien presence. Contact with the Sulaco was lost after it left the orbit. That was twenty-six years ago. Now we have information that there is another facility, similar to the first, a few clicks away from the first. We just recieved a distress beacon. The first to come from the planet in twenty-six years. It is possible that there are survivors that have been living there, or possibly the crew of a ship that crashed there. But there's a more likely scenario. We just got word that after the explosion that destroyed Hadley's Hope, Weyland-Yutani has been sending scientist there to do undisclosed research. They fear that they are dead, so we're going in to find out. I understand that this whole thing sounds pretty fucked up, but it's our job, so suit up. We leave at 21:00 hours." With this, Riggs went back to his quarters to reread the information on the facility.
The other marines filed off into the equipment room to ready themselves. An air of tension filled the room.
" Goddamn, I'm gonna kill me some aliens!" Private Mason said. He was one of the smartgun operators and he was now getting into the gun's cumbersome harness. Private James looked back at him. She was getting her pulse rifle locked and loaded. Around the room the other eight marines prepped themselves.
Corporal Jenks was screwing the canister of napalm into his flamethrower and checking the pilot flame. He slung the incinerator over his shouler and checked his body armor, then got his pulse rifle, extra ammunition, grenades, and the like all ready on his assault harness.
Private Williams was inserting different types of grenades he would use into their respective drums. Regular, Fragmentary, Incendiary, and Proximity. He was also all ready to go.
Private Martano was screwing the long, black barrel into his M-48 Railgun. The M-48 fired .50 caliber depleted uranium heavy armor piercing slugs. He locked the barrel in place, clipped his 30 power Infrared/Night-vision scope onto the top of the gun, and slide the 40 round magazine into its port. He slid the bolt back and armed the semiautomatic weapon. He check the hydraulic butt-plate that reduced kick and was ready to go.
Corporal Stevens was checking over her technical gear. She was in charge of getting them behind locked doors, hacking into mainframes for information, and pretty much anything else technical or mechanical. She was the best of the best.
Private Drake, a tall, muscular man, armed his A-452 Minigun. He gave the eight barrels a spin with his hand to check their movements to make sure they were fluid and then slapped a 500 round drum into the gun. He put a harness similar to that of the smartgun over his armor and checked the rest of his gear.
Private Valerino, the other smartgun operator, was already prepped and was dozing in the corner of the room, his tactical helmet over his eyes.
The remaing privates, Private Weiler and Private Johnston, were getting their gear ready on the other side of the room. Private Weiler pulled her brown hair back into a ponytail and slung her pulse rifle and flamethrower over her shoulders and Private Johnston was collapsing his SADAR rocket launcher into it's smaller, more compact combat form. The damn thing was almost six feet long fully extended, so he collapsed it into a much more manageable four feet. On his back was a special carrier for the extra rockets, all contained in individual tubes. At five minutes to 21:00, the ten marines stood at attention in front of the APC.
" Come on, Sarge, let's go kick some alien ass, already," Martano said.
" Ok, girly-man, you talk tough, so lets see what you got," Riggs said, motioning for the marines to load into the APC and secure their weapons. After everyone was seated, Riggs slide the door closed and motioned to the APC driver, Ferrin, to back us into the dropship. The two pilots, Hawk and Higgins, were ready to go. The APC squealed back onto the dropship's ramp and the ramp retracted up into the to body of the ship. Higgins started the flight by initiating the crane to move the dropship down into the open launch airlock. Once down in it, the first doors closed above them and the bottom two opened out into space. The planet's surface reflected back in Hawk's visor as he checked over the navigation systems.
"Prepare to drop, on my mark," Higgins said cooly." Three...two...one..mark."
" Goin' down!" Hawk screamed over the comm and hit the release button. The dropship screamed down through space, hitting the atmosphere at Mach 8. It started to slow down when it hit the atmosphere, flames deflecting off the built in heat shield on the nose and underbelly of the ship. The marines in the APC started screaming and hollering as loud as they could at the excitement of the drop.
" FUCK YEAH, MOTHERFUCKER!! FUCKIN' YEAH!!" Drake kept screaming over and over again. The dropship broke through the atmosphere and the screaming stopped as the whirring of the wings unfolding from the top and bottom of the ship filled the inside of the hull. The wings folded out and locked into place. Two wings rose upwards, in kind of an L shape with the short part of the L facing up and two folder downwards, with the short part of the L facing down. At the end of each short part of the bottom wings were tactical AMREZ missile pods, with about twenty missles per pod. The two top wings held missle pods filled with twenty-five tactical nuclear missles of 20 kilaton yeild each. Under the nose of the dropship, a ten barrel Vulcan Cannon slid out. The Vulcan fired 20 millimeter explosiver tipped rounds.
Higgins did a slow dogleg left and they cameras on the underside of the ship revealed the huge crater of the previous facility. About two miles wide and one mile deep, nothing remained but the blackened earth. The marines in the APC looked at this on the monitor.
" Holy shit," James exclaimed quietly, her voice almost a whisper.
" Yeah, that's a big fucking hole," Stevens added.
" Uh, Sarge," The comm crackled as Higgins keyed his mic.
" Go ahead, Higgins," Riggs said.
" We found the LZ, we're landing right on the outskirts of the compound, on the base landing pad."
" Roger, after we land, do an immediate dustoff and wait 10 clicks north until we radio back. Lock it down tight, don't open anything. Ramps, personnel stairs, nothing. Leave it all closed," Riggs ordered.
" Copy that, sir, dustoff and commence lockdown," Higgin replied. He slowed the dropshit down and eased down to the ground with a thump. The ramp opened and the APC burst out and sped off to the main gates. The dropship immediately pulled off sharply to the left and did as ordered.
Ferrin hit a button on the console and an oldie song came on. Live's song When Dolphins Cry.
"Christ, I haven't heard this in years," Valerino said.
" Yeah, Jesus, I'm not sure I even remember the words. This was recorded, like three hundred years ago," Weiler said. They listened to the song as the pulled up to the gate. They found the gate to be locked.
" Does this mean we can go home, Sarge?" Johnston asked jokingly.
" Smart ass," Riggs said getting up and moving to the front gunner's chair. He hit a button and switched from the dual .50 caliber chainguns on the front to the large EPR on the roof. The dual barreled Exploding Projectile Railgun. He looked through the sights and aimed for the center of the door.
" Oh, shit! Hold on, Sarge went apeshit!" Williams said, grabbing the bars securing him to the bench the marines were sitting on. Riggs pulled the trigger.
Above them, a deafening roar filled the air. The automatic fire of the EPR cut through the night and the explosions of the projectiles blew the door to peices as Riggs swept the fire from left to right. The brakes of the APC hadn't been properly locked and now the whole APC was rocking backwards sharply and continuing to role. Ferrin put it in gear as Riggs shut the EPR down. The APC screamed over the remains of the door, hitting seventy-five miles per hour. It fishtailed in the mud as Ferrin swung a hard right and screeched to a stop in front of the main doors. Everyone stood up and picked up their respective weapons, getting into the deployement formation.
" Ok, I wanted Squad One on the right flank and Squad Two on the left flank. Get out, travel about thirty meters then wait behind cover," Riggs ordered. " First Squad is Drake, Stevens, Johnston, Jenks, and James. Second Squad, you're with me. Valerino, Weiler, Mason, Martano, and Williams. Smartgunners, take point." Drake moved up to the door alongside Valerino. The squads filed in behind them. Ferrin slammed a button and the door rocketed open. Immediately the Drake and Valerino split off in their planned directions. A light rain sprinkled the marines as the ran full tilt across the small clearing to a small clutch of machinery and stopped. Drake's comm clicked.
" Drake, you go up first, move!" Riggs said. Drake didn't reply, but instead ran up the path to the door, the rest of his squad following suit and Squad Two bringing up the rear. They all ran up a long ramp to a heavy steal door. They stopped.
" Ok, motion trackers online," Riggs ordered. Stevens and Weiler shifted their weapons and brought out the trackers. Soon the steady blip blip blip of the tracker filled the air. After a few minutes, Weiler spoke up.
" Nothing, sir. Not a goddamned thing," She said.
" Stevens, verify," Riggs said.
" Verified, sir. This place is dead."
" Ok, opening the door," Riggs said as he hit the button while the marines fanned out. The doors slid up and they entered the hallway, taking in the entire, horrifying sight before them. The various pipes and cables on the ceiling of the corridor had been ripped down. Cables spewed sparks liberally over a wide area, dancing with electricity. Broken pipes hissed steam into the air. Acid burns streaked the walls and floor, creating holes here and there. In this particular corridor, the bodies of xenomorphs and humans littered the floor. The weapons of the fallen humans lay on the ground in pools of their owner's blood. Bodies without heads or limbs reminded the marines of the power of these aliens.
" Holy shit," Mason said quietly.
" Police up all ammunition and key cards. We might need them," Riggs said, struggling to regain his composure. Four marines took up a defensive position, covering all the corridors and the other marines policed up ammunition and key cards. Riggs slipped the twenty key cards that resembled the old credit cards of the 20th century into the front pocket of his fatigues.
" Ok, let's look at the layout of this floor," Riggs said. The marines reached around into a compartment in the back of their body armor and pulled out what looked like a small laptop. The floor they were on was like a grid, with hallways intersecting at regular intervals. Down the main corridor were various offices and rooms.
" Sir, I'm picking up a signal," Stevens said, her face ashen.
" Where?" Riggs asked.
" Right ahead, down the main corridor, about twenty-five meters and closing fast," replied Stevens. The marines all stared down the corridor, searching for the source of the signal.
" Ok, Smartguns up front, switch to auto-tracking. Standard V formation: Minigun up front too, flanked by the Smarties. Everyone else, fill in behind. Stay cool and check your targets," Riggs said. The blip blip blip of the motion trackers reverberated quietly in the Marines' ears.
Drake swung the minigun in an arch, sweeping across the corridor. Mason and Valerino held their weapons at the ready, the Smartgun Monocles over their right eyes searching the dim corridor for them.
" Sir, the signal is twenty meters away. Fifteen meters. Closing steadily," Stevens reported in a slightly shaking voice.
" Weiler, verify," Riggs said.
" Verified, sir. Now at ten meters," Weiler verified, her pulse rifle trembling slightly. The squad remained quiet. Five meters ahead of them was a pressure door. They stopped and the rest of the squad, sans Mason, Drake, and Valerino, crouched on the ground around them, still five meters from the door.
" This is gonna be so fuckin' cool," Mason whispered excitedly. Riggs rolled his eyes, but trained his rifle on the door. His finger clicked the safety off on his pulse rifle and then traveled to rest lightly on the trigger. Second later, the pressure door opened slowly and the Marines aimed their weapons.
The xenomorph was about seven feet tall and jet-black. It's glistening, sort of tubular body was in a crouched position. It rose and moved forward a step, moving with a cat-like, predatorial grace. It stopped, surprised at the humans there. The pheromone signatures they were giving off told the alien it was a good time to feed. It opened it's jaws and prepared to move forward.
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…to be continued. Let me know how it is.