"Lyle head for the Exam Centre in Sector 1. It should not be far from where you are at the moment. Meet the other Platoon Members there." The navigation booth fell silent once more. Lyle heaved his rifle back into a combat ready position and set off with a belt of explosives round his waist. The Biosphere was proving to be a bit of a nightmare with almost all the local fauna, and sometimes even flora, wanting to eat him.
As if this was not bad enough most of the inhabitants were bugs. Goddam bugs! He despised bugs they had too many limbs and were persistent as heck. The Biosphere's own varieties were some of the worst he had ever encountered. The swarming Reos with their razor sharp claws? Damned bugs. Venus flytraps that turned out to be not only man-eating, but actually bugs as well and the enormous worms he had seen burrowing through the soft ground were as close to bugs as made no difference to him. Even that harmless fluffy white thing that had at times been following him unsettled him. Thankfully a quick boot to its face had sent it scurrying.
"The sooner we're done here the better" He muttered to himself, blasting a pack of those dratted Reos out of the sky before tossing an explosive into their oozing, fleshy hive. A rustling in the bushes caused him to yet again lose it and he filled the bush with a burst of fire before storming off further into the jungle.
James stared aghast at just how close he had come to being pulverised by Lyle's manic firing. The psycho had peppered the bush with enough fire to kill a Pirate Commando! He had only just managed to dive behind a particularly thick set of tree roots that had shielded him while Lyle tore the bush to pieces. Lyle was obviously on edge so would be all the harder to take down but James had resolved that he needed to die. The Exam Centre had a lot of data stored in it on his employers' operations and at this rate Lyle would get there before James could find a way to wipe the computers and destroy the building itself. Lyle's explosives would suffice the latter but the only way James could get his hands on them was if he killed Lyle. He set off after Lyle, this time with a lot more caution.
Lyle entered a large room that simulated the environment of a field, in the distance was the Exam Centre and to Lyle's relief there was not a bug in sight. Still moving with his weapon up Lyle advanced across the field scanning the environment for a potential assailant. Suddenly he heard footsteps and spun round ready to give hell to whatever was there. "Whoa Lyle, it's me James." Lyle grunted and lowered his weapon. "What you doing here James? You were meant to be exploring the control bridge and fixing our communications."
"I was Lyle but there was nothing to see and nothing to be done about the communications and I should know cos I'm the expert right?" They both flipped up their visors. "Well it's good to see you James, everything here is out to kill me!" Lyle chuckled but James seemed distracted. "What's that over there by that truck?" Lyle spun round "I don't see anything. It's just a broken down vehicle what did you think you s-" Lyle collapsed and fell to the ground an overwhelming chill, freezing his form rigid. He tried to cry out to James for help but the ice had stopped his voice dead. He tried to look round to see his attacker but his neck wouldn't move. Suddenly he was being dragged away across the ground. He tried to struggle free but once again his body wouldn't respond. He was flung into some long grass and flowers and ended up on his back. Looking up he caught site of James approaching. "Thank god" he thought, "he must have killed whatever attacked me". James bent down and pried Lyle's explosives from him, then without a word arose and walked away towards the Exam Centre. Lyle tried to call out but could only just manage a moan. Then the terrible realisation dawned on him.
His seething rage against James was intensified further by some of the feeling returning to his body. The traitor would have wished he'd made sure Lyle was dead when he had finished with him. As Lyle attempted to work feeling into his form he was distracted by another noise, a sort of chirping sound. Unable to twist round and have a look Lyle waited and was greeted by the sight of the fluffy thing from earlier approaching him on its spindly little legs. It hopped up onto his chest and looked down at him with its beady little eyes. Lyle tried to throw it off but he barely managed to lift his arms and they fell uselessly to his sides. A bit of saliva dropped onto Lyle's armour, was it drooling? He managed to gaze into its eyes and was horrified to recognise something all living things experienced; hunger. He tried to shout for help but his vocal chords failed him. Letting out what sounded almost like a laugh the creature bit down hard into his armour its surprisingly sharp fangs penetrating the metal plating. When it rose up again its teeth were tainted with bright red blood. Then letting out an ear-splitting screech the feeding frenzy began. Lyle couldn't even scream as it tore through his armour and ripped into his body tearing huge chunks of flesh away and gulping them down. Soon it had reduced his body into little more than rags leaving only broken armour and a gore splattered mess behind. It was almost completely impossible to tell that the corpse was Lyle's such was the ravaging the beast had caused. Sated with its banquet the little creature staggered behind the truck, sat down and began its transformation.
Inside the Exam Centre James, having deactivated the security drones was hard at work wiping the computer data having successfully planted enough of Lyle's bombs to blow the place sky high when he wished it. With any luck he could take the entire Platoon out in one fell swoop along with that accursed bounty hunter. He could be far away from here when the Platoon arrived. As an added precaution he ordered the computer's CPU to self-destruct wiping all data from it. To prevent any chance of data recovery he decided to actually destroy the hardware itself before leaving the building just in case the detonators failed. He had lowered himself under the desk and had begun breaking into to the computer when he heard someone entering the room. Standing back up he turned to see Samus entering the room. He swore in his head. Now there would be no way of taking the building out without his cover being blown. Forcing a smile he greeted Samus just as the other members of the Platoon, minus the deceased Lyle entered. "Oh well", he thought, "one down and the rest would soon follow."