I don't know how many people have actually read this far into the story, but I hope you enjoy it!
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There were bodies everywhere and cockroaches scuttling between them. Someone's head was stuck on an Izarian Shock Lance. An Izarian was repeatedly stabbing another man to death.
"Dude, what the hell are you doing?" Another Izarian asked the first one.
"Killing- this- man." The Izarian said in between stabbings.
"Why? We're more civilized than this game makes out you know." The second Izarian queried.
"But the games only fun if we're enemies, so do something scary." The first one said.
"Sure, scary… Uh… Raar?"
"You call that scary?" The first one said. "Make some creepy monkey sounds or something."
Dalton's drop ship descended, and the second Izarian shot at it. It did nothing.
"Run, our crappy Izarian bolts do nothing against his awesome drop ship!" The second one said, while running away.
"Get back here you coward!" The first one said, closely pursuing. By the time the drop ship landed the courtyard was empty.
"I thought I saw some aliens." Dalton said, edgily gripping his CAR. The first thing he noticed is that he couldn't pick the goddam Shock Lance. He went through the ahead door.
"Thank god! Help me!" A man said as he was dragged under a door. Dalton slowly went to the door, and pressed the switch it fizzed with steam. Dalton passed some more corpses. An Izarian ran past him.
"I can't take it!" Dalton whispered, bursting into tears. He collapsed into a heap on the floor. He dropped CAR.
"Dalton! Dalton!" What's happening?!" Aida yelled through the radio.
"So scary…" Dalton sobbed. "All the bodies… Those creatures… Will they eat me..."
Dalton banged his fists on the ground.
"For god's sake, Dalton! No wonder they kicked you out of the marines!!" Aida yelled.
This comment made Dalton angry. "I'll show Drexler!" He strode into the next room where there was someone standing up and swaying gently. "Someone is alive!" Dalton said, running forwards.
Dalton thought the man was going to run over to him, but instead he just collapsed face first into the ground. With sick realisation, Dalton realised the man had been dead all the time, and was just being propped up by an Izarian. About twenty Izarians swarmed over to Dalton, shooting blue laser bolts. Dalton screamed and shot his CAR at anything that moved.
In fact he just shot it at anything and everything because his eyes were closed in fear. When he opened them, he was in a room full of dead Izarians and blue blood. He picked up some of the Shock Lances as a radio activated.
"…get this thing working. I doubt it'll work. I mean come on, who has ever heard of someone broadcasting messages through McDonalds' speakers." Said the voice of the person from the distress call.
"Yes, I can hear you." Dalton replied.
"This reminds me of that time I was eight and I nicked my dad's police helicopter and tried to do a news report on the radio…"
The man was obviously oblivious to the fact he was broadcasting. The system was one way, so he couldn't here Dalton's reply.
"…Then the helicopter blades chopped off my clothes and I was flying stark naked over the city--" The man had just realised he was broadcasting. "Hey wait, I'm broadcasting! Sir! Up here! The camera! I'm watching you on the security network. Oh, and I suppose you heard my childhood story? I can explain, it was a joke! Ha ha! Yes, that didn't really happen to me…"
"Is the system two-way? Can you hear me?" Dalton said.
"Don't bother talking back. The system's only one-way. I won't hear you." The man said on radio.
"Glad we cleared this up." Dalton sighed
"Boy am I glad to see you. TCA, wow! I wasn't sure anyone got my distress call except Ronald McDonald! I'm Danny Miller, level one technician. I hope you're here to rescue me, 'cause there's no way I'm getting out on my own. Everyone I see on the security cameras is dead, except the ones you'll meet later in the level. I'm barricaded in a security office over in the generator building. You'll have to go through the collection plant to get here, though. Hmmm... The main route is blocked. How inconvenient for you! Hold on, I'll open the hatches to the sewer tunnels. It's a short swim. There's a camera on the other side, so I'll see you when you come up."
Two hatches opened. They were full of murky water. Dalton jumped in and swam through. Weird, his breathing seemed to be getting harder, and not just because he was swimming.
"How's your suit pressure?" Aida asked.
"Fine, except my breathing is tricky. Ever heard the expression 'Blood is thicker than water'? Well, it's true." Dalton said as he swam past a corpse.
When Dalton got out the other side of the water he couldn't breath. "Aida… Help!" He gasped. The wannabe marine T shirt was shrinking and squeezing him. Dalton ripped it away and read the label. 'Keep away from water'. By the time Dalton had finished angrily stamping on it, it had shrunk to the size of a pea. "So much for Drexler's present."
"Get away from the camera, you space monkey freaks! Leave it alone! I don't know what these things are, but I hate 'em." Miller said with disgust as two Izarians bashed at the camera. Dalton shot them from behind.
As they died, one said to the other "I told you it was a good idea to run after we couldn't destroy his drop ship, but NO! You had to stop because you were camera shy!"
"Oh shut up." The other said, his blue blood painting the room.
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Dalton struggled through the complex tirelessly.
"I'm real worried about the next stretch." Miller said, genuinely worried. "The cameras are all covered in Izarian crap, so I can't see if anything's in there. Be careful, OK?"
Someone was coming. Dalton hid behind some crates as a Skaarj ran into the elevator. The elevator slowly went down, with the Skaarj inside.
"He's nicked my elevator!" Dalton yelled, jumping down the lift shaft.
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The Skaarj sat in the elevator, listening to the elevator music and tapping his foot impatiently. He needed to check up the Izarians. They were always having custard pie fights and such. Suddenly the elevator stopped. The lights went out one by one. A silent pause.
The Skaarj looked up as someone jumped onto the top of the elevator. He looked like an armoured fiend, barely visible in the darkness. He smashed and hacked at the elevator roof. Fires appeared. The small elevator shook perilously. The Skaarj fell to his knees in horror as the elevator cable broke. He swung his arms over the top of his head.
The elevator stopped at the bottom. The Skaarj opened his eyes. It was quiet again. Smoke poured from the elevator. The Skaarj realised he had wet himself with fear. He walked smartly out of the elevator over to the next room.
"So...? Nothing happened, right, Dalton? That's a relief. Guess I was worried for nothing." A voice said through the one way radio system. Miller obviously hadn't realised that this was Gobbler the fearsome Skaarj (a stupid name, I know) and not Dalton of the TCA.
Gobbler strode forwards where the Izarians were having a custard pie fight. "You lot, stop it!" Gobbler yelled.
"Sorry man, but we can't take a Skaarj who wets himself seriously." The Izarians said, wiping custard out of there eyes.
Back on the top of the lift, Dalton was stuck. When he had set the elevator on fire he had melted the hatch on the top of the elevator's hinges away. Now Dalton could only sit here scratching doodles on the wall while Aida sung folk songs through the radio. "Shut up Aida, do you have to sing folk songs?"
"Yes." Aida said indignantly. "I'm not even broadcasting from the Atlantis anymore, you know that?"
"Then where are you?" Dalton asked.
"Whenever you leave on missions, I leave for my country farm, where I breed Seagoats and Hummers." Aida replied. "Didn't you realise?"
"It would explain all the straw hats in you cabin." Dalton said. Suddenly the floor below him collapsed. The way forwards was no longer blocked. Dalton ran through in a pixie like fashion.
