ALIEN VS PREDATOR - Lab X12

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Who would've ever thought that my greatest job assignment yet, would be the one to probably cost me my life? Yea, I was thinking the same damn thing "I'm off to go wage in the coastal wars". Nope… I was dead wrong; it turns out after being briefed during the lift to planet LV-427, with a bunch of other faceless men I'd yet to know or care to know at that, that the assignment wasn't signing my soul away, to go fight in some war on earth, but to become part of an unactive assignment on a newly terra-formed planet. The general didn't mean I was being sent on a death mission, he meant that I'd be leaving my life here on earth, to go and partake in a possibly cultural changing event, something that could change the way wars are fought, cures for illnesses like cancer and aids, heh, funny how we have trans-orbital space lifts, drop-ships that can descend from an altitude higher then any mountain, hell, higher then the damn atmosphere, but we can't find a simple remedy to a common illness.

--

Life in the outer planets wasn't as dreamy and majestic as I'd hoped, or wished for it to be; instead it was just a bunch of housework. I lived and worked inside of a huge complex, known as Project 8, one of 8 project buildings that existed on the site, each one about as big as a football field, extending deep within the earth, and about 450 feet tall. Here I thought that they'd found some miracle material or something, a fungus, minerals, anything would've been better then the answer that I got. They were breeding Aliens… Weird, xenomorphic creatures, it was sick what they were doing, bringing in civilians, terra-formers, people off the streets of earth, and then transporting them here. Not sure how many of them there are, nor do I really want to know, but if I had to ball park it, probably 100, maybe 200. I was disgusted with it from day one, but as I was numbed by the screams of the people, the disgust seemed to dissipate, it was still there, but dormant… Like one of them. But what was I supposed to do? I gave up my life, my friends, my girlfriend, my apartment, my taxes. But, I'm a marine, I do my duty when it's needed, and after all, we are expendable.

--

"Hey, throw me the ball Dukes!" someone shouted across the mess hall.

"Yea, yea, I gotcha!" shouted Dukes, back.

"Will you guys just settle down and eat, I'm already a little jumpy today, jeez." Jeffrey proclaimed, although we call him needle-nose because of how his nose points out of his glasses, not sure it bothers him, but then again, he never does stand up for himself, which makes him kind of like the little brother of the project, we all watch out for him.

"Oooohh, what's a matter needle? Afraid one of those creepy Xenomorphs is gunna POP out of your chest!" Whispered Adrian back to Jeffrey, now that I could tell who it was.

"Quit it guys, you saw me kill one of those things last week! When one escaped into the air ducts." Said Jeffrey back to Adrian, with a small sense of distinguished honor and proud ness upon his slightly high pitched voice.

"Oh come on needle-nose, we all know you were yelling for the Sarge after you killed it ha, ha, ha, ha!" Dukes Chuckled as he caught the ball Adrian threw back at him.

It seemed almost inevitable that all of this fooling around and joking would come to an end, such good things, such as friendships all have there sick turns and twists, there ups and downs, and eventually, there cruel, unfair, unshaped, endings.

Returning to my guard duty with Dukes as the opposite side guard, I could feel as if me and Dukes knew today would be different. An Officer approached, as me and Dukes stiffened our backs and saluted her, as she stopped in front, eased us, then continued into the next door.

"Hey man, you ever actually been in that room?" Dukes leaned over to ask.

"Actually, no I haven't, what's it matter anyway."

"Well, for your information, she's not from here, ya get what I'm sayin now? Something isn't right, why would they call an off site officer to come here?" Dukes probed back, suspecting I had the answer, of course of which I didn't.

"Hey, maybe she's here to relieve us off duty! Lighten up, I'm sure it won't have any effect on us." I said back, hoping I was right.

--

"Well, no one in or out for 2 hours, there's gotta be something going on in there man. I mean, even if it's not something as big as I think it is, still makes ya wonder huh?" Said dukes, but unfortunately, I couldn't lie, he was right, something WAS going on.

BWOOP BWOOP, BWOOP BWOOP an alarm went off and me and Dukes stood there thinking of what to do, I was wondering if Jeffrey and Adrian had something to do with this like last time by accidentally misfiring, but their shift was over right now, so it was a pretty slim chance it was them.

A few seconds went by and the door opened and the female officer came running out screaming "Breach! Breach!"

Me and Dukes both stumbled over words but came out with something along the lines of "What can we do?"

The officer looked at both of us real quickly with a sturdy glance, and shouted, "Get down to the docking bays! I want that place secured right now!"

Me and Dukes both started to run but then she shouted back, "Wait, you two are going with me, your going to secure my exit out of here, right now!"

--

Heading through several passages of metal tunnel systems throughout the projects, me and Dukes started to wonder which kind of specimen escaped, because there were two unknown life forms caught on the planets surface just a couple of weeks ago.

Suddenly the metal grated ceiling collapsed in the middle of the hallway, steam and other electrical cords flapping about uncontrollably and hissing in the air. I shielded myself quickly and pushed back the officer which we were leading.

Looking to my side I saw Dukes wasn't there, I looked around frantically, searching for him. My eyes stopped abruptly, as I saw Dukes neck sliced halfway in half horizontally. I saw the culprit behind this, a piece of metal piping that probably exploded, causing the ceiling to become unstable and collapse. His last expression was of surprise and bewilderment, mixed with the awful blood that had splattered on the walls and on the side of the female Officer.

"Listen to me, is this the only way to the Docking bays? I need to get out of here." The Officer reached into her pocket and pulled out a small flash drive. "You see this? This information is worth more then your life, more then ANY of your lives, do you understand?!" She said in a sassy and undertone way.

"Lady. Officer. Of course that's more important then my life! I'm expendable!" I shouted back in a cacophony of laughter, partly sinister and partly insane. I just couldn't stand to see Dukes mangled like that and her with such an attitude, such disregard for what had just happened. But I assume that's how all people act when a soldier dies. She was no different. "And no." She looked at me surprised, as if I was referring to the statement she made about all our lives, until I let out the remark, "This isn't the only way to the Docking bays." She had a relieved smile come upon her face but with a same sense of distinct determination to get there and quick.

--

We were now crossing the glass syllabus, glass tubes with metal walk ways leading to other project buildings. We were both very cautious moving over it because of the slight creaking metal. "Don't worry; it does that sometimes, this catwalk can hold up to 2,000 pounds concentrated in one central area and still be fine, nothing to worry about!". We began to walk a little faster and were almost halfway across, when the catwalk trembled beneath our feet, and an explosion deafened our ears. We looked back seeing the very top of Project 8 explode with red, yellow, and even blue fire. Until the small pieces turned into large pieces of falling debris, did we realize that it was going to hit the syllabus. Now both of us were running to the end, panting with fear, looking back every couple seconds to see how close the debris were getting, within 6 seconds of running, the large hunks of building finally hit the glass tunnel, shattering the outside, puncturing the catwalk, but as I continued running, slightly lop sided, I noticed that only I was running. A large hunk of metal had fallen through and wobbled the officer so badly that she had broken her ankle.

"Are you alright? Can you keep moving?" I asked nervously while grabbing her arm.

Another explosion went off. "Here! Take this!" she handed me the flash drive, telling me to get to the docking bay and escape with it.

I reached the other side of the syllabus in less than 5 seconds, leaving me 2 seconds to close the door and look back as a larger piece, hit and broke the catwalk just by grazing the metallic ropes holding each side together. It's funny, no matter how long you know someone; you'll never truly know them till there close to death.

--

As I started my passage through the complex I noticed the alarms here as well, the flashing red lights illuminating the dark and moist facility. I would need to get through this complex, project 6, and move to the center structure, a large very thin building used as an alternate, quicker route from facility 1 – 6, neither 7 or 8 because those are restricted areas for obvious reasons only known to the guards working in those sectors, such as me. Although this was different, I didn't see anyone rushing, I didn't hear anyone screaming, yelling, or crying. It was an odd silence, only the soft resonance of the faint, soft beep of the alarms going off mixed with the rotating red lights. I saw an M41-A pulse rifle, lying on the ground, it would certainly be more over whelming if I came into contact with one of the Xenomorphs, then my standard issue 45. Caliber pistol that I had, holstered on my lower left leg. After picking it up I checked the round count on the side, it read 65, I guess I was going to have to conserve my ammunition.

Wondering through the complex some more, only faintly knowing my way through memory and the rare maps that dotted the structure, I could feel as if I was nearing my exit, or nearing something else. I stopped as I came to an intersection, with 4 alternate routes; luckily, there was a facility map on the side of the wall. Following the passages on the map, it turned out I had to take the one exactly on my left from where I just left, to reach the tunnel leading to the central building. As I continued reading I could start to feel unease, as I looked further down the other hallways I saw dead bodies. Now with a cautious sense of awareness, I turned around. Seeing nothing I reclaimed some of my calmness, but not all of it, for within the minor darkness, I could hear the hiss of one of those "Things". Looking around frantically, searching for any signs of it. I then heard something clamor about, now knowing that it was in the upper ceiling grating.

With a furious rage I yelled and emptied approximately 16 rounds into the ceiling where I believed it to be, seeing its acidic blood, drip, I became satisfied. As I began to walk down the tunnel to lead me to the central building, the ceiling collapsed, I then turned around to see 2 others that were hiding up there with it, but now on the floor and I began to start running. Running as far as I could down the tunnel to lead me to the other glass syllabus, pointing the gun behind me firing off a round or two every couple of moments. Now reaching the door to which would lead me to the end of this hunt, I turned around fully and emptied the rest of the clip into the air towards the last one that was following me, I must've taken down the other while I was firing blindly behind me. Seeing it's body torn to shreds by the high heated, soaring projectiles, filled me with a sort of glee, but the ammo counter read differently, because I was out. But at last, I had reached the half way point for me, things now seemed brighter, but I was completely unaware of the obvious fact, that the "Hunt", would only begin.

--

Finally reaching the end of the glass syllabus leading to the central building, I enter the through the door and close it behind me. Catching my breath and looking around, my breathing slowly ends. My eyes widen and an alarm goes off in my mind, now sensing the terrors being witnessed. People hanging by chords from the ceilings, skinned, the sight of red muscle and meat send an electric signal through my brain that tells me, whatever came through here, might still be preying about, somewhere close. Foot by foot I move through the blood soaked room, seeing a rack of M41-A pulse rifles, untouched sends chills up my spine at how unaware they were of the creature when it killed them, and how unaware I could be. Without thinking I grab a rifle from the shelf and eject 2 other clips from other pulse rifles, putting them in the large pockets of my military fatigues.

Now readied, with flares, a pulse rifle, more pistol clips, a few pulse rifle clips, and a flashlight, I head to the controls, seeing that the syllabus to Docking bay 2, the one I need to get to is un-extended, I press the control for it to extend. But wait, the syllabus' are only contracted during emergencies, so they were sealing it off from something. The "Thing" that killed them. Soon enough I hear a sound, a kind of low resonance sonic sound, looking up, 3 red dots begin to lower in on me. I jump out of the way as a loud distorted sound is blared out and I see a large blue cluster of energy or something collide with the wall, melting the surface and causing small sparks to shoot out. I look up to see the origin of these beams and notice an odd kind of camouflage, invisible, yet slightly visible only in a weird way, slightly distorted as well. My mind acts as my body reacts, raising and pointing the rifle at the target, but instead of firing rounds at it, I launch a grenade at it. A large explosion reverberates throughout the small, two level room. I look around and see the creature on the floor 8 feet away from me, 7 feet tall probably. He puts his hand out in front of him, clenched, and two sides of something shoot out, creating a spear form weapon.

Seeing the monster, uncloaked before me, standing as a monolith before the peasant, me the peasant. Do I truly stand any chance against this monster? I guess it would just be easier to accept my fate and let him finish me, struggle for no reason at all. BREEEEEEECCCCKKKK suddenly something unexpected happens, the wall begins to tear as another Xenomorph comes out, but this one is different, it has mandibles for it's mouth, and looks bulkier and with a slight shade of dark green to it, much more muscular and organic looking then how they usually look.

The large Xenomorph stood upright, now standing as tall as the creature I was facing, the one hunting me, the predator. It launches at the predator, causing it to fall on its back, they now become entangled in a flurry of punches, slashes, and tosses. Seeing this as an opportunity, I head over to the door leading to Docking Bay 2, in syllabus 4. I walk through the entry way, closing the door behind me, and looking through the small glass window at the top of the door, seeing the two titans battle it out. I turn and begin to jog down the catwalk.

--

I was almost three fourths to the other side before an explosion goes off, but not from the building in front of me, from the door I just came from. I turn my head, stopping, seeing behind me, the predator walk through the smoke of the destroyed entry, flashing his eyes then cloaking. Now it was time to run, I didn't have the slightest idea at how fast this thing was, nor did I want to find out. Firing off the pulse rifle quickly, I then turned and ran the rest of the distance.

It was a small amount of time in which I had reached the end, closing the way behind me and continuing on through the next corridors. I was now in the building I needed to be, but this one seemed worse, I ran across two men, one of which I didn't know and the other, Adrian. Relieved at seeing his face, and even more by the cocky attitude he always seemed to represent.

"Woooh! Killing these things so much god damn fun man! You ought to try this!" Adrian exclaimed while firing his pulse rifle, from what apparently seemed to be running low on ammo.

"I think I've dealt with more then I want, listen I need to get out of here, the officer gave me this flash drive and really wanted me to get out of here with it." I said, thinking he would at all care.

"Well, sure, were all trying to get the hell out of here!" Adrian said as the pulse rifle fire finally ceased. "Where do you think I'm going? Here, we can tag along, you, me, and this guy."

PSSHHHHHOOORRRKK The wall burst open next to the marine next to Adrian, a Xenomorph flew out and grabbed him then began to pull him through the mess of dangling wires and other sorts of things.

"Ah, shit!" Adrian said as he started firing his pulse rifle into the hole where the creature had come from and taken the marine. "Listen, we just need to head down this corridor, enter the cargo bay, then take a lift down to and were at the docks, now come on!"

--

It seemed a lot longer then Adrian made it seem, the corridor was riddled with poor excuses of small barricades and debris. We killed at least 3 other Xenos, I didn't bother to count. But finally we reached the cargo bay, filled with dead bodies ripped and torn, hanging all over the place, as well as a type of cyst on the walls in several places.

"Jesus man, I aint ever seen shit like this before. Just make sure neither of us gets too far away from each other." said Adrian, actually sounding serious for once, or somewhat.

"Hey look, a flamethrower." I said, as the flamethrower was only a few feet to the side of us. I knelt down and picked it up, but there was this weird sort of slime on the other side. I wiped it off and turned to show Adrian but he was staring at something else. I turn around to look at what he's staring at, and I froze. It had been watching us this entire time, some kind of Xeno, tall, with a larger, wider, head.

Adrian suddenly began firing at it, most of the bullets ricocheting off of the aliens large head, or just chipping its armor. After seeing our machine gun fire wouldn't harm it, we yet again, began to run. It seemed like it was the only thing that ever did do anything to save me, was it the only thing we could do from these things? Run? Why is it that it's the only way out, are we really that inferior to these creatures that it' the only thing that works?

I finally reached the lift with Adrian; he put in the pass code to open the gate which was mainly a steel frame with metal grating and wiring to fill in the rest. I was firing at the closing in Xenos, giving them everything I had, there bodies being ripped and dismembered, parts of them exploding into an acidic storm. Eventually the inevitable click, click of the Pulse rifles expended magazine was a sign to change to firing off grenades. The door was open and Adrian was yelling to me to get it, but time seemed to slow down, the swarming of the aliens all around me just fueled the rage I had inside, the rage of disgust that was dormant in my body but had now broken free. The fiery explosions going off all around me from the environment because of the grenades I was firing off, it all seemed so victorious. I was then yanked into the lift by Adrian, and he slammed the button to close the doors. But it was too late, only for him, as the aliens grabbed his ankles and yanked him outside of the lift. I tried to grab his arms, but he was already on the other side, and they were now whipping him and slashing him with there talons and tails. I felt defeated as the lift lowered, and as his body disappeared amongst the swarms of Alien life forms, a piece of my heart seemed to just crumble away.

--

I don't know how long the ride on the lift was, I felt like it was forever. First Dukes, now Adrian, I could only hope that Jeffrey had made it this far. If he had, I'd have something to live on, something to keep me on my feet, something that would inspire me to keep living.

--

The lift came to a screeching halt as I reached the 3rd floor. There were some dozen marines loading things into the drop ships. Among them I noticed one which stood out; it was the small face of Jeffrey. He had made it, by some unbelievable chance. I walked over to him and asked him how he had made it this far, what had kept him alive.

"I don't know… I, I just got scared; as soon as the alarms went off I headed straight for the docking bay… A couple other marines began to follow me; I knew the safest routes of the whole complex. We didn't even really lose anyone." He said with a slightly stuttering voice.

But my joy was overcome with fear and surprise as the blast doors to the docking bay exploded outwards. And through the smoke, yet again, stepped the predator. He had been following me somehow. Now he had found me, and I wasn't about to run away again, I was going to show him and fate, that a human can do more then just run away from his problems and fears. He raised a sort of cannon and shot at a drop ship, it exploded, killing 4 marines instantly. As soon as that happened everyone began firing at it, but as soon as we had raised our guns, he had already cloaked and ran to the side.

Jeffrey ran into the drop ship behind him, yelling his head off as the other marines that were left, started to form a perimeter and searched for the predator. I discarded the empty magazine and popped in a new, full clip, but soon enough, I turned from a strange gurgling noise I heard and saw one of the marines, with blood all over his chest and two metallic blades, cutting through his abdomen. I shouted "There!" Which signaled all the other marines, but it was too late, as the predator had already shot another marine with his shoulder cannon, also setting off some explosive containers, causing fire to rain down, more pipes were breaking now, more chaos, will it ever change? But no matter how worse things get, they can always get a lot worse. The Xeno from several floors above had gone down the elevator shaft and broke through the elevators ceiling and ripped through the metal fencing and grating. A marine then shouted "Praetorian!" Upon that they all stopped caring about the predator and began to fire at the Praetorian, but it was already up a wall, grabbing a marine with its tail, through his stomach and tossing him off the high second floor into the rest of us.

The predator, losing any concentration on us and now focusing on the Praetorian. Everyone was now hurrying into the drop ship, 6 marines, half of what there approximately was. The praetorian leaped down from the second floor, now on par with the predator. Jeffrey was telling me to get into the drop ship, but I couldn't, I'd be running away. I got off the ship with my pulse rifle in hand, telling them to go without me.

With the drop ship leaving and the Praetorian and the predator facing off, with me in the background, it seemed like the ultimate battle between the 3 distinct races. The predator gave a deep, throaty, yell, and the Praetorian jumped at the predator, the predator moving to the side, grabbing it's tail and throwing it into a pile of metallic crates, then I open fired at the predator, aiming high, but only a couple shots actually hit the flesh of the predator, the rest were deflected by its armor. It gave an ever louder, angrier yell and shot at me. Suddenly I was off my feet, I wasn't bleeding, until I collided with the wall, and heard the retracting of rope, I was in a net. I started firing my pulse rifle within the net, breaking one strand and then a few others. I was now free, and the Praetorian had just delivered a massive blow to the predator, dropping him to the ground, but the predator raised his arm, shooting something at the Praetorian, it seemed like small darts or barbs.

The fire had caused some more explosions, slightly minor. The predator finally got up, while the Praetorian was screeching into the air to assumedly, attract more Aliens. The predator extended its wrist blade and stabbed the Praetorian in the chest, but was then pushed back by the Praetorians tail. Seeing enough, I decided to run straight for them, firing my pulse rifle. Both stared at me in strangeness, the bullets harming neither. I stopped running, aimed at the Praetorian, which then gave me a large hiss, and fired my last grenade at it. Hitting it on its side, the left half of the Praetorian exploded, causing acidic blood to spray and splatter everywhere, and causing the predator to jump out of the way.

It was just me and the predator now, as he got up, he aimed his red dotted sight at me; I decided to throw away my weapon, seeing if he would comply to fight me without weapons. I was surprised to see him respond in the same way, as he dismantled his shoulder cannon, threw away his net gun, his spear, and ripped off his chest plate armor, then readied for something else. He was going to take off his metallic mask. He pulled two chords, which released some sort of gas. Then pulled off his mask with the other hand, revealing the same mandibles that one Xeno had, but with a large moist forehead, and two small beady eyes sunken into his head. Now seeing the creature up close and without fear or worries, I noticed more about him, such as his dreadlocks and how his skin was tan with black dots covering it. He put his arms out in a kind of bear hug way and released a powerful roar.

I proceeded to pull out my combat knife, holding it in a stabbing position. He extended his wrist blade. This was it; this would be the final battle for either me or him. Another large explosion cackled off from the side, releasing more fire to illuminate the Docking bay. I was now tired of waiting and lunged at the predator, slashing to the side, he dodged it, but I managed to skim his bare chest, now returning the opposite way with the knife in a stabbing motion, the predator grabbed my arm, and twisted it so I would flip and fall on my back. He raised his hand up in the air, planning to plummet his wrist blade to the ground through my head, I rolled to the side and back handed his head as his wrist blade met the ground. We both now stood up again, he charged at me this time, tackling me to the ground, but my hands, flailing about behind the predator, stabbed into the predator's back, with the knife puncturing his flesh. He gave a yell of anger and pain as he rolled off of me, now furious the beast plunged his blade yet again at me, I stood up and moved to the side, but he had managed to cut into my leg.

We were yet again both standing, face to face. Both of us now wounded him furious, me, raging with passion. Now thinking, I had remembered the two unknown life forms we brought in, now I see that those might've been some of his team mates, we now had both lost things dear to us, both furious with passion. Now I understood. I gave a smirk, and then dropped my knife waiting for the predator to finish me off. This whole thing started because of the predator's comrades being taken and killed first. He deserved to get revenge, my revenge was with the Xenos, and I had taken it out on them, with the killing of that Praetorian. Now it was his turn. The predator began to raise his wrist blade, but was then struck through the chest by the Praetorians tail, which then gave one last hiss, the predator, dropping to his knees yelled in agony and defeat, then slashed the Praetorians head. He opened his wrist computer, or whatever it may have been, and began to press several buttons, then some sort of counter started. Slowly his growling had turned into laughing, laughing turning into maniacal cackling.

It was a bomb, now realizing this; I ran to the last drop ship, hoping that the auto pilot was still intact. "Computer, do you copy?" I questioned.

"Computer here, what is your order?" It responded.

"Begin flight to space station Omega, orbiting around LV-427."

"Flight pattern being created… Flight pattern recognized and beginning. Please remain in your seat and connect your safety belts."

--

I was no more then 150 yards away before the explosion went off. It started out as a large blue explosion then shot out and expanded, luckily by then I was somewhere between 375 and 450 yards away. I can't believe I survived this. I beat fate, I stood my ground and fought my fears, but at the same time, fate still won, I had ran. The only way to truly defeat your fears is to get so far away from them, you can't even see them. But this image will always remain in my mind, i'll always see it. I'll never escape my fears. Because you can't stop, what won't be forgotten.

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Copyright

This work belongs completely, in it's entirety, to Bud389/Michael Day, anyone taking any content from this peice for their own use without notifying the owner or if they happen to claim ownership of any of this material, will face Legal Prosecution.