Eric didn't yet know it, but everywhere across the land, across the planet: people were beginning to have the same nightmare as he – no one knows it, but it is a warning of things to come
The landscape is black, almost darker then the night sky itself. It has strange features though; where trees and buildings once stood proud, now stands nothing but the all-consuming darkness, those that still stand are covered in the same features that cover the lands. Black, bony-like and hiding unimaginable nightmares.
Humans, various wild-life, Awakened beings and yoma figures alike all appear trapped, being held to the black wall by a slimy black secreted resin with dead spider-like creatures littered across the floor. The creatures that secreted the strange resin remain hidden among the features that cover the whole area. The creatures hidden within watch silently as the last living human perishes; screaming in agony and beginning for help that did not come. The creature emerging from his chest appeared almost like a snake, with the expectation that it had a smaller inner jaw and no eyes. Its bitter, spine-tingling shriek calling out for the hidden creature to come to it. One of the creatures that had been hidden, emerges, but before it can be clearly seen, the darkness ends.
Eric awoke, screaming again. Covered in sweat this time, and scared out of his mind again. He just saw them again, but the landscape looked so different, so much like them.
He hyperventilated for a few minutes, scanning the room to make sure that they weren't in the room with him. Satisfied that it was just him in the room – He decided it would be best to go for a short walk, get some fresh air. Maybe even clear his head a bit. Though right now he wasn't really dressed. But he quickly remembered that one of the claymores had brought him cloths earlier, apparently thanks to the church – another thing that he was grateful to the church for.
Eric inspected them, and liked the new cloths. Though they were basic winter gear due to the recent cold Climate across the lands, they felt comfortable: a wool jacket, pants and boots; all had the outside composed entirely of leather and the inside, of wool to keep the clothes from being torn easily while keeping the wearer warm.
He might as well try them out and go for a walk somewhere, anywhere, somewhere friendlier than there – a room that had blood in it. It reminded Eric too much of them
He prepared to leave the room when he looked back at the room, almost afraid that it was full of them suddenly. Usually, he'd call it paranoia; but he didn't know they even existed up until tonight, when they suddenly appeared and ruined his life.
Opening the door slowly, afraid that any more noise would draw more attention to himself, he didn't want to wake anyone at the moment. He peeked into the hallway, seeing if anyone was present. Appearing to be empty, he slowly left his room. Occasionally clutching at his stitched wound every now and again. He walked slowly but quickly came to a large room, it was large and well-light, as was most of the church he was in. despite all the lighting, it was still somewhat terrifying to be in. so much room, they could very well be in the building and he wouldn't be able to see them.
"Can't sleep?"
The friendly voice of the nun from earlier suddenly speaks up behind him, causing him to stumble over in fright
"Oh dear! I'm so sorry, I dint meant to startle you!"
The nun quickly apologizes, helping Eric to his shaky feet. Eric wouldn't say it to her, but he had had enough of being scared for a night.
"No, it was probably stupid of me to try to sleep at all"
Eric quietly replies, he didn't want to offend her, but he wasn't in the mood for lying to be kind
"Really? And why's tha- oh….right…of course"
The nun seemed rather saddened, there was something about the tone in her voice – If Eric didn't know any better, he'd think it sounded like she was blaming herself for it. But how could she have known about what had happened? More importantly, what could she have done even if she did know? Those things tore through the Yoma like they were nothing. They chased him for longer than anyone else in his village could run for – and still had enough energy to kill anyone else who got in their path along the chase. What could a measly nun have done?
"So…..was your bad dream about…..what happened?"
Galatea felt like a complete idiot for asking that question.
"….sort of…it was slightly different….."
Eric responded, slightly trailing off in his own thoughts. Why DID this dream seem…like that….it was odd? He didn't know.
"Really? How so?"
Galatea was actually somewhat interested now. Somewhat, it was his own business – but he surely needed some form of companion-ship now, after just losing his family.
"Well…I'm positive that it was those…..things….again…but it was different, a different town or something….people I've never seen suffering the same fate as my home…"
It probably wasn't nice to invade or pry him like this, but the more he opened up, perhaps she could help him.
"Can you describe it?"
Talking about it, Galatea wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. She was used to dealing with children, but children that suffered through something horrible? The city hadn't had a Yoma or awakened being sighting in ages. Ever since all those years ago, during the fall of the organization, the awakened beings seemed to just vanish into thin air. And they hadn't been seen or heard from since.
"I could draw it, I'm actually pretty good with drawing things"
So he was a bit of an artist? Though Galatea herself wouldn't be able to make much out of the drawing for…obvious reasons
"That would be splendid, I'm sure it might help you deal with the whole ordeal as well. Perhaps even give the convoy going to inspect the town some indication or warning as to what to look out for"
Galatea said in a slightly happy tone while guiding Eric to the table, brining over a piece of charcoal and a piece of paper for him to draw with
"Yea….warning. If someone does actually go to my home. They won't be coming back"
Eric bitterly replied. They both remained quiet as Eric began to draw, the patter of the falling rain outside and the occasional roar of thunder being the only noise that either of them could hear.
It was a few minutes after Eric had begun to draw that Galatea sensed someone else was in the room with them. She silently turned and smiled. Vincent was standing in the doorway. Dressed in his usually attire, but Galatea could sense that something was wrong: Vincent's presence felt….off, like he was just scared half to death
"Can't sleep either child?"
Vincent's usual friendly voice startled Eric, but he was able to keep his composure.
"No: another nightmare"
Eric flatly replied as he added the finishing touches to his drawing. Taking Vincent slightly by surprise, but not by much.
As if the poor child wouldn't have nightmares after what he's been through
Vincent thought to himself as he approached
"As did I child. Nightmares are always unpleasant, but this one was-"
"-different?"
Galatea interrupted Vincent, who looked at her slightly surprised, but quickly replaced his surprise with a warm happy understanding. She was a claymore, even one who was able to sense if something was off, so it should have come as no surprise that Galatea knew Vincent didn't have a normal nightmare, but then again. What counts as normal for a nightmare?
"Eric was just telling me that he had a….'unique' nightmare as well, I thought it would be best if he drew it. Perhaps you can make something out of it, father?"
Galatea asked as she suggested to Eric's drawing which he had just finished.
Vincent quietly chuckled. There was nothing like helping a child to help calm a priests or nun's nerves
"Well, I suppose I can have a look-"
Vincent stoped midsentence, staring at the picture Eric had drawn. It was the exact same nightmare he had just experienced: a man held to wall by a strange type of resin, his face frozen mid-scream as his chest exploded in a shower of blood as a snake-like creature emerged from his chest.
Vincent felt his heart begin to increase its beating, his breathing had become somewhat rapid, his pupils shrunk to the size of pins.
The EXACT same nightmare that I had experienced, the child had also?! But how is that possible?! Perhaps it's just a coincidence….yes….that's it….just a coincidence…..but the detail is far too familiar….no mistaking that….
"Father Vincent?"
Galatea's concerned voice broke Vincent out of his train of thought and back to reality. Both Eric and Galatea where staring at him worriedly.
"It's…..it's nothing….just….it's quiet the scene is all"
Vincent said, gesturing to the picture Eric had drawn
"Your quiet the artist, Eric"
Vincent said as he gave the picture back to Eric and patted him on the head. But he quickly pulled the picture back
"Actually, can I keep this? Just to see what the other priests are able to make of it?"
Eric simply nodded and looked at the remaining blank piece of paper in front of him. And began to draw again, this time of what he could remember of the creatures.
Galatea followed Vincent to the door, knowing that he was lying to Eric when he told him about why he wanted to keep the picture
"What's wrong, father?"
Galatea trusted Vincent with her life, but she knew when he was lying about something that terrified him
"The picture the boy drew is exactly like the nightmare I just experienced, and he says he had the same nightmare? How is it possible for two people to have the same nightmare? The picture is detailed exactly like the nightmare"
That took Galatea by surprise as well; both Vincent and Eric had the same nightmare?
"What's the boy drawing now?"
Vincent gestured to Eric who was quietly drawing at the table.
"I don't know, perhaps he's drawing something else related to the nightmare?"
Galatea suggested. Vincent was about to approach Eric and ask him himself, but he heard footsteps behind him, he turned and saw Clarice enter, with Miata in tow.
"Ladies"
Vincent politely said as the two claymores entered the room quietly, making sure not to alert Eric to their presence.
"Let me guess, can't sleep?"
Galatea Asked, Clarice nodded
"Nightmare?"
Clarice nodded again.
"And just out of curiosity, did the nightmare look anything like this?"
Vincent asked as he handed the picture Eric drew to Clarice who inspected it for a moment, holding it in the light of the candles in the room so she could get a better look at it. And nearly gasped at what she saw: it was exactly like the nightmare she had, and from what Miata told her, the same one Miata had
Handing it back to Vincent, Clarice quietly asked him
"Yes, that's exactly it, but….how-"
"-did I know? I didn't, Eric drew a picture of a nightmare he just had, and this is the result. It is also the same as the one I had….i used to think it was a coincidence, but for all four of us to have the same nightmare? That's not possible"
Vincent interrupted Clarice. Galatea blushed slightly, but she was actually a bit frightened herself
"I didn't want to say anything, but I also had a nightmare. Strange things happening, the most memorable thing was a man screaming as a creature came out of his chest"
Vincent looked at Galatea and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose
"Make that all five of us"
Clarice looked down at her daughter who was staring at Eric, who appeared to be holding a picture at arm's length; his breathing was rapid and his hands where slightly shaking.
Before Clarice could stop her, Miata had walked over to Eric and gently grabbed his shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise and to fall off the chair and drop his picture on the ground by Miata's feet.
She looked down at it, puzzled by what she saw, then looked at Eric who was getting up off of the floor. She slowly bent down and picked it up. It was a drawing of some kind of monster.
Vincent, Galatea and Clarice slowly approached the small Claymore, who's eyes where darting back between the picture of the creature and the boy. She'd look at the picture, scan it for a while, then look at the boy and scan him for a while.
Clarice looked at the picture and gently took it from Miata, who now solely looked at the boy, scanning every inch of him with her eyes in an almost hungry way.
"What is this? Some kind of yoma?"
Clarice asked no one in particular as she handed the picture to Vincent who looked at the picture with shock: no wonder Eric was terrified of it, it looked horrific. And if this creature existed out there somewhere…
"That's what I remember seeing killing everything, there were other kinds too, some were slightly bigger, and some were slightly smaller. But they all looked roughly like that"
Eric piped up
"You drew that?"
Miata spoke directly to Eric for what was probably the first time, she was embarrassed for some reason she didn't know
"Yea, I've had a lot of practice…..and seeing something like that….is something you don't forget anytime soon"
Eric replied, looking outside at the rain as it fell across the city.
The picture was of an odd looking creature, it had no visible eyes or ears. It appeared to have a second jaw inside its mouth, both had rows of razor sharp teeth. It had a tail twice as long as its body, with a pointed spear-like end. Instead of skin it appeared to have an armoured looking exo-skeleton, as if it was wearing a strange type of human armour that was thrown together out of scraps. Its head was an odd shape, almost identical to that of a banana, the end where a face would be only had the mouth and those sharp teeth. It had muscular looking claws that would put most Yoma to shame, its legs where strong looking, as if it was able to leap distances that would put claymores to shame. It appeared to have some form of fins on its back.
The pose the creature was in, in this picture, was slightly crouched down, but apparently hissing at the viewer, its legs ready to lunge at a moment's notice, and its claws ready to tear through armour, its tail hanging dangerously behind it, as if it was going to impale the viewer with its tail first.
Vincent, Galatea and Clarice all shared concerned glance with one another
"Has a yoma like this ever been seen before?"
Vincent asked the two claymores who both shook their heads
"No, never, some have come slightly close to this, but they were awakened beings, at least from what I can remember of my time in the organization"
Galatea said aloud (Vincent had explained what the picture looked like to her, due to her blindness)
"Huh, so you're a claymore too huh?"
Eric said aloud, indicating that he heard her. Galatea looked both shocked and slightly afraid; now the poor child knew she wasn't human as well, it was bad enough that Vincent had to know, but now a child? Though he dint look horrified or even scared of her in the slightest
Looking around the room to ensure that no one else was there, Vincent said with a slight chuckle
"Yes, apart from you and me, everyone else presently in the room is a claymore"
Eric, however didn't really care, the whole city could be full of claymores and they'd all still suffer the same fate as his family and friends.
"It won't make any difference…"
Eric said, still not looking away from the downpour outside. He felt like crying now, perhaps his families death was finally starting to sink in
"I shouldn't have run away…. I should have just let them kill me"
Eric said, his tone was slightly quieter now, but still loud enough for those present in the room to hear him.
"No, you shouldn't. Don't talk like that child – "
Vincent said as he walked over to Eric, passing Miata and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder
"– if they killed you too, they would have won. Your death wouldn't help at all. As long as your still alive – "
"– as long as I'm alive….what good can I do even if I do live longer than a few weeks? A measly human can't fight them – hell, the YOMA attacking us at the time were completely massacred, what good can a human do? If you saw them, you'd warn people, claymore or not, to run away, not get close and get eaten"
Eric interrupted him, feeling slightly angry that the old man wasn't listening to him.
So Eric survived, so what? What good was he now? What the hell could he do that his family or ANY human couldn't do? Farming? There were plenty of farmers around. Teacher? Eric dint know shit about teaching. Fighting? If his wound ever healed properly, he hated violence, even though he was probably stronger than most of the kids in the city, he wasn't much of a fighter. Cook? He was no chef, he didn't know how to cook much, barbequing things was really all he knew how to do; but who the hell didn't know how to barbeque? Hold food above fire until it looks ready to eat….it wasn't exactly hard to do.
Then Eric realized something, he'd said 'Hell even the Yoma attacking us got massacared-'
'hell'
In a church. In front of a priest and nun (so she was a claymore so what? She was also a nun)
"oh….im sorry for saying…..uh….'hell'…in a church"
Eric said, blushing slightly earning a chuckle from Vincent
"Ha ha ha ha. I don't know what you know about churches or priests, but I won't drown you in holy water for saying 'hell' in a church. Just don't go praising the devil or anything or the other priests might"
Vincent said as he patted Eric on the shoulder, earning a genuine, happy laugh from Eric. Since meeting, it was also the first time anyone in the room had heard Eric actually laugh.
The door at the opposite end of the room opened and another priest walked in: he still had all his hair, looked to be about half the age of Vincent and had hazel eyes. He was also in his priest attire. Though he looked to be having a rough night, he walked in rubbing his forehead. But stoped walking once he saw the group gathered near one of the windows. He waved to Vincent
"Can't sleep either?"
Vincent asked in his usual friendly manner, he had time to get over his headache and nightmares, but it appeared as though this other priest had only just had his
"Yea, nightmare….it was…aurgh"
The priest seemed at a loss for words to describe his nightmare
Galatea, Vincent and Clarice all cast concerned looks to one another, then to the piece of paper Vincent held in his hands that Eric had drawn of his nightmare.
"Uh….just out of curiosity, did your nightmare….did it look at all like this?"
Vincent asked the other priest as he held it out for the priest to inspect. The other priest seemed slightly irritated by Vincent's question. What a foolish idea, two people having even remotely the same nightmare? In a church none the less!
The priest approached Vincent and took the piece of paper from him, politely, despite wanting to tell him what an idiot he was for thinking of even asking him.
"I don't see how we could have even REMOTLY the same nightmare, Vincent, have you been sleeping we-"
But the preist stoped as soon as he saw the picture: it was EXACTLY like the nightmare he just had
"….but….i…..how-"
"The boy drew it: he had the exact same nightmare as us"
Vincent said as he gestured to the claymores
"Perhaps this is linked to what happened to his home?"
Galatea suggested. The two priests looked at one another, then at Galatea.
"There's….a slim possibility…though I don't see how the creatures – If they do exist – how they could be responsible for us all having the same nightmare"
The other priest replied
"We'll know more when the convoy inspects the scene tomorrow"
The priest simply stated. He noticed Eric seemed to glare at him slightly out of the corner of his eye
"What is it, child?"
The priest asked Eric directly, focusing everyone's attention at him
"You're still sending people to my home? You might as well kill them yourselves – save them the pain"
Vincent and the claymores all seemed to be rather shocked by what Eric said to the other priest.
"If there IS something dangerous there, the convoy will come straight back and warn the church and the rest of the city. There's no need to worry"
The priest replied.
"Come straight back? I BARELY got away from them after running, using a horse, then running again, and I was still half dead when I was found wasn't I? I don't know why they dint kill me and anyone else near me, they certainly could have, but I don't think anyone else will be so lucky"
Eric retorted. Vincent and the Claymores where still shocked but said nothing, the priest didn't seem to mind though
"The convoy will be heavily armed, we could even take on a small group of Yoma with the amount of armour and weaponry we'll be taking along. There is nothing to worry about"
The priest said, unnerved by what Eric was telling him, perhaps he was just delusional after seeing a Yoma kill his family? It happened with Yoma attack victims
"If you're so sure of yourself, why don't you go with them?"
Eric finally said, perhaps the priest at least had some common sense
"I will be going with them"
No such luck
"w-w-what?"
Eric stammered. No he didn't want the priest to go too! Oh, he should have just shut his mouth when he could have
"n-n-no! You'll be killed!"
Eric stammered again. But the priest dint seem to listen to Eric. He was just a child, Children often got things wrong or misjudged
"I'll be perfectly fine, child."
The priest replied again, much to Eric's dismay.
But when the priest was heading back towards the door, it opened and more priests came into the room, all of them looking slightly dazed and confused
"Let me guess, nightmares gentlemen?"
Vincent asked the gathered group of priests, who all nodded.
"And….was It anything like this?"
Vincent asked them as they approached and took the piece of paper and inspected it, all gasping once they saw the picture in the light being emitted from the candles and form the random lighting strikes
"It seems its happening to a lot more people than we thought, I don't think we can call it a coincidence anymore"
Vincent said to the priest Eric was talking to, who now appeared to be slightly scared
"But this is IMPOSSIBLE! It CANT be happening, we CANT all have the same nightmare, it's just NOT possible!"
One of the priests said
"So maybe it is linked to them after all…"
Eric muttered, though everyone heard him and focused their attention on him again
"Well no one's had this particular nightmare before tonight right? Then they showed up and suddenly everyone's having the same nightmare"
Eric said. Some of the priests began murmuring amongst themselves, when one spoke up
"Technically, no one has had these nightmares since before the boy showed up"
Vincent immediately tensed and stood defensively between Eric and the gathered group of priests, trying to shied Eric from their view
"DON'T start talking like THAT! He has had NOTHING to do with any of our nightmares. They are just bad dreams. Make all the crazy suggestions you want but leave him OUT of it, he has been through ENOUGH already!"
Vincent almost growled at the gathered priests. Much to everyone's surprise
"But what if they're warnings?"
Another spoke up
"Of what?"
Another voice asked
"Of things to come?"
The other replied
"We can talk about this tomorrow, for now, let us all just; Get something to drink and head back to bed. It's been an eventful enough night already"
Vincent said. The priests all murmured agreements and headed off out of the room. Turning to Face Eric, Vincent saw the boy looked scarred
"w-what if it IS a warning? From them? Maybe they're telling everyone what will happen if they don't get to kill me? To finish what they started?"
Eric said, he sounded scared too. He didn't want to die. He was afraid of dying, it was why he ran away from them in the first place. He dint want them to rip him to shreds like they did to everyone else. But if they only wanted him and him alone then perhaps it was better to suffer, that way no one else would have to suffer the same fate.
"No, child, don't let what they said get to you, you are innocent, you have had nothing to do with any of our bad dreams. And they are just that: bad dreams. Now go on, go try to get some rest"
Vincent said as he gently pushed Eric towards the door. After Eric was safely out of the room, and after waiting a few minutes to make sure he was out of ear-shot. Vincent quietly whispered to Clarice and Miata
"Keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't do anything…..'Rash'. He's frightened, frightened people do things they'd regret later"
The two claymores silently nodded in agreement and headed off back to their own rooms. After waiting a while, and inspecting the picture Eric drew a bit more, Vincent also headed off to bed
Why the children, lord? Why must they suffer?
He quietly thought to himself.
"BISHOP! WHAT! THE! HELL! HAPPENED!?"
Winter shouted to the synthetic human whose expression seemed to be one of slight alarm and confusion.
"i…..i don't know….the ships systems must be fried, they're telling me where in un-charted space. The ship literally has no idea where we are!"
Bishop replied, hammering the various consoles with different commands to try and make sense of their situation.
"WELL FIX IT, GODDAMIT!"
Winter yelled at the synthetic human who was trying his utmost best to fix their situation, but in tense situations, mistakes can be made, and winter realized who he was yelling the moment it left his mouth
"….bishop I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's understandable, your human, no offence"
Bishop cut off Winter's apology with an almost sly grin; he was used to getting yelled at. In fact, most synthetics around the galaxy where used to it now-a days: they got subjugated, humiliated, obliterated – But if it was what they were created for, it's what they were created for. Besides, Bishop understood Winter's and the rest of the Colonial marines, predicament. After just going through hell on-earth (or hell on Lv-426 to be accurate) they were now in a Weyland Yutani FTL ship: they didn't exactly have time to check every inch of the ship before take-off. Especially with the queen Xenomorph in the cargo hold with Winter. That was a close one. Bishop only hoped that the remaining employee's on the ship where Scientists and not mercenaries, though bishop had downloaded a full log of employee's working on-board the ship; it was hard to tell who they were and what their occupation was now that the system had been fried. Bishop at least hoped the remaining WY employees and colonial marines weren't infected with Xenomorph embryos, which would be trouble waiting to happen now that they were all so nerve wracked from their experiences and the loss of their captain to the queen.
Odd…now that has never happened before in recorded history even by Weyland Yutani standards
Bishop thought to himself as he examined some of the warnings the ship was giving him
/error: drifting towards unknown planet/approaching planet…/ error: no Weyland Yutani technology found/ please input destination / error: destination unknown planet. Recommend immediate abort: possible hostile planet / warning: navigational controls offline / warning: Crash course imminent / suggest immediate evacuation of FTL space fairing vessel / Error: escape pods damaged / escape pods not responding / all hands brace for impact / activating emergency re-entry protocols / warning: heat shielding damaged! Possible loss of human life in sections: medical bay – armoury – hanger – outer walkways / recommend immediate preparation for crash landing
Bishop slowly turned to Winter and the rest of the gathered Colonial Marines
"Do you want to hear the good news first or the bad news?"
Winter and O'neil looked at each other briefly, then back to Bishop who was mostly focusing the question more on the two marines then the rest of the humans in the room.
"Give us some good news for a change"
O'neil finally stated. Bishop walked over to the control panel and imputed a few commands, activating the ships ship wide-communication system so everyone on board could hear him
"The good news is: we're landing early, and on a habitable planet-"
Bishop waited a while to let the good news sink in, then delivered the bad news
"The bad news is; we're crash landing….and there has yet to be any indication that there is advanced human life on the planet, the ships systems – the ones I was able to fix to some extent and operate – have all come up saying the planet does not have any FTL dry-docks, no major power plants, no atmospheric processor, nothing. Though it did pick up a few odd readings, I'll try to study them further when I get the chance. In the mean-time: a warning to all personnel on-board; the armoury, the medical bay, the hanger and a few of the outer pathways are going to get cooked on the re-entry. If you find yourself in one, evacuate the room immediately, move as much weapons, equipment and medical supplies as you can, away from the affected areas, and to a safer area in the interior of the ship; I'd suggest placing medical supplies in the mess-hall. Moving the weapons into the cryo-sleep storage areas. And securing as many ground based vehicles as possible before we begin re-entry."
Bishop waited a while to let the bad news sink in, then entered a few more commands into the control panel, a red countdown starting at 20
"We've an estimated twenty minutes until re-entry begins, if there are any skilled pilots, please report to the hanger immediately, we'll need all the help we can get when we're down on the planet, follow the FTL ship in the drop-ships until it begins re-entry, then back off and give it some space, then make your way to the landing sight and assist in setting up a perimeter and possible recon duties."
Bishop finished his speech and entered another command into the panel, the panel flicked red momentarily as the ship-wide communication system deactivated
Bishop turned around to look at the colonial marines gathered in the command bridge. They all had mixed expressions. Some were afraid, some were excited. Most of them looked tired however, and this was just going to be more energy consuming. But Bishop couldn't do anything, the ships navigational systems where fried – in fact, nearly all the ships systems where fried, Bishop even felt a little strange. That electrical field from earlier was odd. Almost Alien. What DID happen? Had something happened to the ship? Or the space around the ship?
"Well what are you waiting for?! Christmas?! Move it! You heard Bishop, we don't have long 'till we start re-entry! Move like you got a purpose!"
O'neil shouted at the colonial marines gathered behind him and Winter. He pointed to a third of the marines and shouted
"Go get the guns from the armoury!"
They quickly saluted and scampered off to the armoury, He then pointed to 1/3 of the group that had reminded
"You lot go get the medical supplies!"
Like the others, they saluted and bolted out of the room to carry out their tasks. O'neil was left with at least ten marines, including himself and Winter
"we'll get the hanger, Let's MOVE IT people!"
He shouted as they all ran out of the room leaving Bishop to try and repair what systems he could
20 minutes to Re-entry
The marines had arrived in the armoury and set about grabbing whatever weapons they could get their hands on, it was simple enough but there were so many guns, too many. Some of the guns wouldn't be able to be saved in time. They started with the biggest and heaviest first, they'd want to make an impression if the planet was hostile. Though if it was anything like LV-426, they were in for a rough time.
10 minutes to Re-entry
They had cleared out most of the medical supplies quickly enough, though there were some machines that couldn't be moved, that were bolted to the floor, they had to leave those few behind, but everything else that wasn't nailed down was moved.
5 minutes to Re-entry
Winter, O'neil and the other marines had arrived in the hanger and had prepped the drop-ship as best they could.
The ship had begun to rumble, indicating that they had hit the time limit and had to leave now or they'd be cooked alive when the ship entered the planet's atmosphere.
It wasn't that the FTL ship wasn't armoured enough, it was. But even with all that armour plating and life-support systems for deep-space travel, the ships inhabitants, at least, those on the outer layers of the ship – would hardly survive the ship entering a planet's atmosphere, and then there was the force of the impact.
Though those that retreated to the relative safety of the inner sections of the ship, would be safe. They hoped.
"okay, let's get going! I prefer my skin ON my body!"
O'neil shouted at the pilot as soon as everyone was in the dropship and had strapped in
"Well, technically speaking, the skin would remain on your body. But you'd suffocate when the air is pulled from your body, and a few of your insides, particularly your lungs, would be shredded from the force. It's similar to being in the vacuum of space."
One of the marines: 'Brainy Brawler' Jason, stated. Being the medic for the team that had tagged along with them.
Jason was a strange one. He was larger and more muscular then his other fellow marines, including the smart-gunner O'neil, He looked like he could go toe-to-toe with a Xenomorph, though appearances can be deceiving. Such was proved at one point when he was wrestling a Lurker that had ambushed him during their time on LV-426, if not for O'neil's intervention, the Lurker would have over-powered him and killed him. He was always trying to do things for O'neil to repay him for saving his life.
He was bald. And he was obsessed with keeping it that way, there was no easy way to say it 'no hair; means nothing for someone or something to grab onto, meaning they can't slit your throat' he'd always say.
He had an extremely heavy Russian accent. Other marines would often joke about that 'can't have the Russian accent without the muscle' they'd say. And he didn't mind, he was often described as a 'gentle giant' by other marines, though he was okay with jokes about his accent, after all, they were only words, they weren't stabbing him or shooting at him.
Though, despite his size and strength, he was known as the 'know-it-all' by his peers. It wasn't meant as an insult, it was a fairly accurate nick-name: whenever his peers had a question about something, he usually had the answer for it. Some had given him the nick-name 'brainy-bralwer'. And it seemed to stick.
"Thanks, that's really comforting to know that"
O'neil said with a worried chuckle. A few of the other marine passengers visibly paled, a few grabbing the oxygen masks (standard issue for drop-ships in case of an oxygen leak during space travel) and holding them at close.
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to scare anyone"
Jason said, looking at the frightened marines
"w-well it would be relatively painless right? It'd be over in practically no time if it ever happened right? I mean, no one can survive something like that for long right?"
One of the frightened marines asked Jason. He wore a friendly smile in response
"Oh, of course, you probably wouldn't feel a thing, in-fact, it'd probably be near instantly fatal for humans, and it would be over in seconds"
He then leaned over to Winter and whispered
"Not a chance. It'd be like a cork-screw ripping your insides out and your brain would function just long enough to register everything"
"Good to know"
Winter whispered back
The vessel shook and the occupants were rocked side to side as the drop-ship took off. Now or never.