Chapter 10
Hunted
"Well this is just great!" groaned Cpl. Yun as he stared at the large wall impeding his progress towards freedom from the deadly hive he was currently trapped in.
He had spent an untold amount of time navigating the deadly maze of tunnels underneath the colony while at the same time avoiding any contact with its denizens. He had been successful so far, following the directions of his HUD marker when all else failed.
But now the marker was pushing him to go forward. Unfortunately forward right now was not an option, as strong as his artificial limbs were he couldn't punch through solid wall.
His only option seemed to be to backtrack and attempt to find another way back to the surface, something he wasn't too inclined to do.
HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Gabriel jumped at the reminder that he was not alone and felt that his reluctance to backtrack was now justified. More than likely the inhabitants of the hive had picked up that there was something besides them in their home and were now tracking it.
"Okay, okay, come on Gabe," he spoke to himself with shallow breaths, "think, how do you get yourself out of this one?"
HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
"Come on! Idea! Right now! Please!" he growled furiously pacing back and forth as though searching for something lost. When he found nothing he angrily kicked his foot into the wall, cursing it for existing. But instead of a solid thump, like he was expecting, something gave way and crumbled beneath his boot.
He kneeled down to examine the area that he had struck and to his surprise, found that a small section of the wall was not as solid as the rest. It was in fact hardened resin like material, similar to the stuff used by the bugs to string up their victims.
Pulling back his fist he punched through the webbing, it shattered and revealed what seemed to be a tunnel. How far it went, Gabriel could not tell. But it was large enough for him to walk through while crouched down or on his hands and knees.
However, he didn't know how much he liked the idea of putting himself in such cramped quarters. If he was attacked he would have few ways to defend himself, at least out here he would be able to better maneuver.
HIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Another one!
This time much closer!
Gabriel decided then that he would take his chances with the tunnel.
With purpose he delved into the darkness and prayed that he wouldn't find anything in it.
###
"Keep up that fire!" ordered a Cerberus Centurion as bullets whistled over the heads of his men. They obeyed and fired their standard issued Harriers at the remaining Alliance hold outs.
They fired back of course but the Cerberus forces suffered no casualties. Instead they retaliated and gunned down two of the marines. At this point it wasn't a fight for control of the ship, now it was a game to see how long the marines would last.
"Haha! Did you see that one bitch I got?" joked one of the Cerberus soldiers, "right through the eye socket!"
"You sure that was you?" asked his comrade,
"Of course it was me!" replied the soldier indignantly,
"Hey! Focus you two!" growled an Engineer "we've still got more of these Alliance dogs to deal with."
"Aw why bother, our reinforcements are coming on board right now. Pretty soon we'll clean them up in seconds."
"They still have guns," argued the Engineer, "they can still shoot us."
"Oh calm down, they're trapped like rats. No way they can fight their way out and no way they can sneak-"
The man's boasting was interrupted by a repetitive metallic thumping that came from the ceiling. All three Cerberus soldiers looked up and saw that the sound was coming from the air ducts.
"They're trying to escape" realized one of the soldiers, "they're trying to escape!"
Immediately all three of them pointed their weapons skyward and opened fire. Bullets pierced the ducts to reach the humans inside.
But still the noises moved along the ceiling until it reached the wall. The Cerberus soldiers in turn began to shoot the air ducts along the wall, unloading entire clips into it.
Then finally, there was silence.
"I think we got them," said one of the soldiers, experimentally tapping the duct.
Suddenly a black spear shot out from the duct and ran the man through the chest. He died quickly, his body went limp but his corpse continued to stand. The spear retracted but did not disappear completely, prevented by the sack of meat still hanging on it.
Once, twice, the spear slammed the body against the wall before it finally dislodged it and vanished. Then the sound of a body crawling through the ducts came again.
"Jesus! What the hell was that?!" asked the Engineer,
"That was one of the XT's! What's one doing on the ship?"
The sound of the xenomorph crawling through the ducts continued.
"Come on! After it!" said the Engineer,
The two followed the sounds of the xenomorph scurrying through the ducts. Eventually the sounds led them to the ship's men's shower room.
They quickly entered, weapons at the ready should the xeno attack them. But they found nothing and that scared them more than if the monster had attacked them outright.
The two Cerberus soldiers turned to each other and both gave a quick nod. They then cautiously stepped into the shower room, split up, and began to search.
Both of them tapped the walls and listened for any sounds of scurrying to try and get an idea of where their prey was.
They believed themselves to be the ones hunting.
But in fact they were the hunted.
The Engineer carelessly stepped onto a shower drain. The floor suddenly exploded out from beneath him. Then covering shot off, metal screamed as it bended, and a pair of clawed hands reached up and grabbed the man by the legs.
Too stunned to act and too terrified to scream, he was dragged into the drain. His compatriot quickly rushed over and stood over the drain himself.
Immediately he raised his weapon and fired into the drain, hoping to kill the alien with a lucky shot. When silence was all that followed, the soldier began to believe that he had indeed killed the creature.
Then he heard the sharp sound of metal being ripped apart. He whipped around just in time to see a massive black creature, resembling a giant insect, leap out of a drain behind him.
The man tried to raise his weapon but was far too slow. The xeno landed, almost gracefully, right in front of him. It then grabbed by the shoulders, peeled its thin black lips back, and revealed its inner set of teeth.
The miniature jaws shot out.
Too close to set off his armor's kinetic sensors, the man's helmet was pierced and he died instantly.
Two more Cerberus soldiers, attracted by the sound of gun fire, entered through the shower's front door. They immediately spotted the xeno holding the still warm corpse of their comrade and opened fire.
Quicker than their triggers, the xeno dropped its kill and leapt onto the ceiling. It then pounced forward and like missile it crashed into one of the soldiers. But rather than finish him off, it turned its attention to the still standing second soldier.
As the Cerberus trooper attempted to sight down the over insect, it whipped itself around and lash out with its tail. The man was knocked right off his feet and into a shower wall.
The xeno then turned its attention back to the soldier below it. Disoriented, the man was helpless as the alien reached down with its claws and ripped out his throat.
The xeno then moved on to the second man. He scrambled for his weapon but the xeno stuck its bladed tail into his stomach then cruelly dragged it up. The soldier had just enough life left to watch his intestines spill out onto the floor before falling lifelessly to the ground.
The alien screeched in victory before disappearing back down the drain to continue hunting the rest of the crew.
###
Captain Vilmos stood near the cockpit of the SSV Salem, overseeing the transportation of the eggs they had recovered from the colony. Each container was carefully carried onto a new ship.
Two to one and the remaining one to the other.
That way should they be followed and destroyed, the purpose of this mission would not be entirely lost.
Vilmos believed that he could see a promotion in the near future after returning back to Omega. On that note it was a real surprise that the station's previous owner, Aria T'loak, had yet to make a move to reclaim it. Perhaps she would try in the near future?
Vilmos shook the thoughts from his head, now wasn't the time to be thinking of that.
Bringing himself back to the present, he caught sight of a soldier rushing up to him. The man saluted and Vilmos returned it.
"Report!"
"Sir, we're pushing the survivors further into their hole. Soon they'll all be dead."
"Excellent," said Vilmos,
"There is one other thing sir,"
"Hmm?"
"We've had reports of something else, something not human, prowling the ship. We've already lost three squads to it sir."
"Has anyone seen this killer?" asked Vilmos, who was suspicious of its identity.
"Yes sir, they've described it as a large humanoid like insect. They say it has a black exoskeleton, a tail with a stinger, and some sort of proboscis like mouth."
Vilmos recognized those characteristics all too well. "It's a xeno, one of the things that wiped out our forces down on the colony."
"Shall I call for squads to hunt it down sir?"
"No, I have a better idea," smiled the Cerberus Captain. He walked over to the CIC interface and opened a channel with the other two Cerberus controlled ships. "Boys an opportunity has just arisen that could prove very helpful to our cause if you're willing to wait around a little longer. Send teams over with capture equipment, heavy duty, and a cage."
#
The survivors or rather what was left of the survivors, were currently making their glorious retreat via the emergency escape tunnel that their resident Geth had managed to discover.
Though the interiors were nearly unbearably hot in fully armor and the air was breathtakingly thin, each and every one of them was thankful for being inside of that tunnel. Anything was better than being back at city hall fighting an enemy that could not be defeated.
They had been crawling on their hands and knees for nearly ten minutes when the end of the tunnel finally came into view.
Spark, who was at the front of the line, popped the hatch open. Upon scanning the outside with its single vision processor and ensuring that there were no hostiles around, it leapt out.
The rest of the survivors followed after.
Ashley exited last and found that the tunnel had allowed them to enter one of the colony's many warehouses. This one in particular was quite large and filled to the brim with shipping containers and crates of various sizes.
Many stacked so high that they reached as high as a two story building and formed the walls of a maze. More importantly it was nice and cool in here, which was a breath of fresh air after being cooped up in a tunnel.
Suddenly the entire building was flooded with low voltage light, Ashley turned to see that Spark had jacked into a console and was now most likely bringing all the systems online.
Sure enough a few seconds later, various machinery came online and began to make a symphony of white noise.
With everyone tired from all the fighting and death, Ashley decided to take count of who was still with them and allow everyone a small reprieve.
Of her squad only Sgt. Johnson, PFC. King, and Spark were left. From the colony, only Lyreel the Turian and Klonc the Krogan were alive. In addition Cpl. Yun was supposedly still in the hive bellow the colony, whether or not he was alive remained in question.
Ashley, weary from this entire ordeal, collapsed against a wall and very nearly fell blacked out right there. The adrenaline of the fight had worn off and in its place was an unbearable lack of energy.
"So," said the flanged voice of Lyreel, bringing Ashley out of her haze, "what's the plan?"
The Spectre sucked in a deep breath, held it, then slowly let it out. Gradually she pushed herself up and composed herself.
"The only thing we can do," she replied, giving her weapon a quick check over, "we can't run, we can't hide, and we can't fight."
She paused and took another deep breath
"There's only one thing we can do. We make our way to the space port and take our chances with a shuttle. Hopefully…hopefully we can stay up in space till the Alliance sends reinforcements or just stay on the surface and wait for Cerberus to leave so we can escape."
Johnson nodded.
Though it was quite clear he would rather stand his ground, he understood the need to warn the Alliance and hopefully prevent another massacre like this.
"Alright then, everyone in agreement?"
"Yes ma'am," said the Sergeant
"We're with you," answered Lyreel for both herself and Klonc
King however, did not announce his agreement with everyone else. Instead he simply stared into the ground under his feet. He stared and he wondered, how deep under had they pulled Octavia? Was she still alive? Was that better than being dead?
The pure thought of her being dragged into their hive
Strung up on a wall
Helpless
Used to breed more of those things
Made him want to fall down
Made him want to stay and make them all pay
A hand touches his shoulder and snaps him out of the haze. He looks up and sees Lt. Williams, his commanding officer.
"King? Are you with us?"
The big man nods, "yes ma'am"
"Alright then, let's start by getting out of this damn building. Then we can start making our way to the space port. If we manage to survive that long, we'll try to find a ship that flies," she announced, "let's get moving before they figure out where we are."
With their patchwork plan together, they began moving through the maze created by the towering walls of crates. All was quiet as they walked, none of them cared to make a sound.
With what they had just been through, with what they had just lost.
Who could truly blame them?
Those who had fought the bugs, the Aliens, were often too busy worrying or their own survival to truly understand their enemy. Darkness was not their greatest weapon, nor was it their tails, claws, or blood. What truly made the Aliens such powerful enemies was their ability to know no fear and to inspire it in others.
The remnants of the Alliance team, hardened soldiers who had fought for their lives on many occasions, knew this fear now.
Spark suddenly halted in its steps.
Ashley who was right behind the synthetic, signaled for everyone to stop. The Geth turned its head, its eye scanning the shipping containers.
"What is it?" asked the Spectre,
"I detected motion five meters from our position but it is now gone," replied the Geth,
The entire group felt a small shiver go down their spines, one thing they had learned was that any unexplained motion was a precursor for chaos.
A full minute passed and nothing happened.
"It was probably nothing," decided Ashley, though she didn't quite believe her own words, "let's keep moving."
In unison the group began moving forward again, though they were now more visible cautious than before.
Johnson stared off to the side and for a brief moment he thought he saw a shadow of movement, "did anyone else see that?"
"See what?" asked Lyreel,
Johnson stared at the same exact spot but saw nothing. He took a quick look around and found no evidence of any other movement.
"Nothing," he finally said, "it was just my imagination."
Spark suddenly came to a halt again and once again started scanning its immediate area. Ashley asked if it detected another pulse of movement, this time three meters away.
The Geth nodded its mechanical head.
Ashley licked her lips and signaled for everyone to keep moving. If it was a bug then staying in a single spot wasn't going to help them.
They continued moving for another five minutes before Spark detected another pulse. This time only two meters away.
Everyone began to scan the surrounding area, their eyes traveling across the walls that surrounded them for any sign of the movement their Geth had detected. But nothing came into view.
No monstrous creature sprang out at them
No menacing hiss moved through the air
The only sound they could hear was their own breathing and the ever present hum of the lights.
"It was nothing," decided Ashley, "maybe just a rat or something."
"I shall run a software diagnosis of my system," added Spark, "perhaps these unexplained occurences are merely the result of corruption created by the planet's arid climate and dust particles."
"So…a glitch?" asked Lyreel,
"Affirmative, I apologize if I caused you any unnecessary anxiety"
"Its okay Spark, lets just-"
The synthetic's chest suddenly burst open and a massive black blade pierced its back. Sparks flew out from the machine's gaping wound, its eye began to flicker, and its body spasmed erratically. Then, slowly, it was lifted off its legs.
"Error! Error! Error! Error!"spoke Spark, its voice distorted by damage.
The rest of the survivors, too stunned to do much else beyond watch, followed the machine's body up the wall of crates. Till it came to a stop right next to the face of a familiar old foe that had been harassing them since the moment they stepped foot on the planet.
Ugly
The massive alien hissed at the synthetic impaled on its tail. Then without warning, it ripped Spark off its tail and used both hands to rip the Geth in half. The upper torso was then tossed over Ugly's shoulder whil the lower half was allowed to drop back to the ground.
Lyreel was the first to snap back to her senses,
"Run!" she yelled,
Too late
Ugly, perhaps out of recognition or because she was closest, leapt down from the shipping containers. The Turian didn't even have a chance to move as 2000 pounds of mass came crashing down on her spine, squashing the life out of her instantly.
Then, as if to disgrace its prey, the Alien grabbed the lifeless head of the Turian and ripped it clean off the body.
"Run," whispered Ashley, repeating Lyreel's last words.
"Run!" she said again, more forcefully.
"RUN!" this time as a full on shout.
The other two humans were finally knocked out of their stupor and together they ran into the maze.
The Krogan however stood his ground.
His blood boiled at the loss of his comrades, his Krant, and cried out for revenge. He didn't know if he could win and he didn't care.
He welcomed the blood rage.
With a throaty roar of battle he charged head first like any proud Krogan would do. His weapon boomed loudly but was ineffective against Ugly's tough hide.
When his bullets ran out he discarded the useless weapon and resorted to his hands and head.
Ugly's tail came lashing out, intent on spearing the Krogan through. But Klonc sidestepped the attack and came smashing into the bug's chest.
The two combatants were thrown into a stack of shipping containers that gave way under their enormous weight and velocity.
Klonc brought his head back and smashed down onto Ugly, again and again and again he attacked the monster. But the Alien's hide was too touch, too strong, the Krogan's attacks barely left a dent in the armor.
When a lull came in Klonc's barrage, Ugly took his chance and grabbed the Krogan by the throat. With effort it lifted the reptilian being off its feet.
Klonc flailed helplessly in the air, unable to fight back.
The three humans meanwhile, sprinted faster than they ever had their entire lives. They knew that fighting against that monster was futile. Running was the only option they had right now.
So they dived into the man made maze, hoping to lose the monster and escape.
"Is it behind us?!" asked Ashley as they ran,
Johnson chanced a glance back, "I don't see it!"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The massive form of a Krogan suddenly came flying from the right, smashing through a stack of crates and landing in the path of the three humans. Klonc groaned and feebly attempted to pick himself up.
The unearthly screech of his opponent ripped through their ears as it came thundering after the Krogan.
To Klonc's credit, he did not give up.
He rose back to his feet as the humans fled down a different path.
Then he gave one last battle cry and charged the beast.
It was a valiant charge and a shame that it had to be ended in such a horrendous way.
Ugly's tail struck out and speared Klonc right through his chest. With impressive strength and what seemed almost like sadistic pleasure, Ugly lifted Klonc up to its hideous face.
The Krogan coughed up blood as it stared into the empty eyes of the monster. Its thin lips peeled back, its jaws opened, and its inner teeth were revealed.
In a split second, they came flashing out.
Larger than any normal Alien's inner jaws, the teeth bit through the Krogan's flesh and tore off Klonc's entire face. Ugly swallowed all of it, then tossed the Krogan's body away.
Now for the humans
#
Gabriel had spent by his count, fifteen minutes crawling on his hands and knees through the endless tunnels of the hive. For a person who hated enclosed spaces as much as him, fifteen minutes might as well have been fifteen days.
He was starting to wonder if he was lucky for not running into any of the tunnel's residents or cursed to die roaming tunnels instead of a bar surrounded by beautiful women.
Just as he was starting to get ready to lay down and just die, a spark of light crossed his vision.
He moved his eyes towards the spark and for the briefest moment he thought he saw another human being. Curiosity peaked, he moved after it.
Now he found himself at a fork in the road, or tunnel as it would be. Even worse, his HUD's arrow would only point forward instead of helpfully telling him which way to go.
Absent mindedly he stared down the right path and unexpectedly saw a flash of movement. This time he saw the cause and very nearly couldn't believe his eyes.
"Alison?" it had looked like her though he had only caught a brief glimpse. Eagerly he began moving down the right path, intent on confirming whether or not it had been her.
As he crawled he noticed that the tunnel was getting less dark than before which could only mean one thing: light.
Hope reached his heart and he crawled with a new sense of purpose. Eventually he reached the source of the light: a shaft, a shaft that went directly upwards. Whether it went up to the colony he didn't care, he just wanted out of this stinking hole.
"Alison?! You up there?!" he shouted,
No response
But she must have climbed, reasoned Gabriel. It's the most logical thing to do and Alison was smart enough to know that.
With the light as his guiding beacon he grasped the uneven walls of the shaft and pulled himself up. The good thing about having fake hands was that he didn't need to worry about pain as he grasped any hand hold he could find.
Gradually, he began gaining momentum and moving closer and closer towards the light.
He could almost feel his elation rising with every inch he moved up.
Then suddenly, the light was gone.
Then it was back.
Then it was gone again.
Gabriel became confused; could it not make up its mind?
Now it returned but it was splotchy, stained with shadows. He turned his eyes skyward and his heart dropped into his stomach. He now saw what was blocking his light.
"No way, my luck is not that bad!"
He now knew he had avoided the denizens of the hive for so long only because they'd been out of the house. Now they were coming back. Gabriel could see dozens upon dozens of them crawling back down the shaft, eager to return home. Somehow he didn't believe that they would appreciate finding him there.
On second thought, they'd probably be delighted. He could help them make a new family member.
While Gabriel enjoyed the act of procreating with any species, these aliens weren't his type. Thinking quickly he removed his feet from his foot holds and flattened the palms of his hands against the walls.
Immediately he began dropping back down the shaft
HIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Gabriel was soon near the bottom of the shaft, calling upon his biotic powers he slowed his descent to a halt and landed neatly back in the tunnel.
HIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS !
The human turned his eyes back up to see that the bugs were not far behind him. They had definitely spotted him and were eager to welcome him into their large family.
No thank you
Quickly he began crawling through the tunnel, he didn't even pause to make sure it was the correct direction. He just knew that he needed to put as much distance as he could between himself and the incoming ocean of highly lethal killing machines.
"God, I bet the others aren't dealing with anything like this."
#
"I bet Yun isn't dealing with anything like this," cursed Johnson as the three humans rushed through the warehouse.
"Did we lose him?" asked Ashley
An ear shattering screech followed by an explosion of smaller crates and the entrance of a massive black form were enough to answer her question.
Ugly moved faster than anything its size had a right to.
It was practically nipping at their heels and gaining.
The humans ran with all their might but still it wasn't enough.
Up ahead Ashley saw a fork in the road, one that couldn't have come at a worse time. With no room to think of a plan, she yelled the first thing that came to her mind.
"Split up! Now!"
Ashley and Johnson went down the left while King went by himself down the right.
Ugly decided to go left.
The two humans ran faster than ever before as the monstrous being gained on them. Now that it was after them Ashley wasn't quite sure what to do next.
They had to find some way to deter the beast or better yet some way to kill it. Bullets were already out of the question, its carapace was simply too strong. Yun seemed to be able to have a chance against it with his biotics but none of them were biotic.
Damn it! This was hopeless!
Her mind working on overtime as she ran, Ashley noticed the hundreds of crates surrounding them. A quick plan formed in her mind and she was even quicker to act on it.
Reaching for her belt, the Spectre unclipped a few grenades and tossed them over her shoulder at the stacks of crates. The explosives detonated soon after and knocked the stacks over like cut down trees.
A great number of them fell on top of Ugly and managed to knock it around a bit but were unable to do any real damage.
In frustration she tossed another grenade, not quite aiming its trajectory this time.
It landed a bit off to the side of Ugly's path but when it exploded he was still caught in the blast. To her surprise, the seemingly invincible Alien screeched as the explosion washed over it.
Ugly actually stumbled as though in pain, it was so surprising that Ashley actually halted her stride to observe.
But despite its apparent pain for the first time, Ugly quickly shook it off and continued its pursuit.
"Johnson, tell me you saw that!"
"The big bad wolf staggering around like someone kicked him in the ball sack after getting hit by a teeth shaker? Yeah, I saw it!"
"We need explosives, lots of explosives!" said Ashley, she unclipped another grenade and tossed it over her shoulder.
This time the explosive landed directly in Ugly's path but it was weary of the weapons now and managed to pull itself just out of the blast radius before continuing after them.
"Shit! That was my last one!" growled Ashley,
"King's got a boatload of explosives on him!" realized Johnson, "we need to hook back up with him!"
Ugly's thumping feet were getting closer now and before long he would over take them. To slow him down for a few more precious seconds, Ashley whipped around and fired a concussive shot at it.
The explosion wasn't as strong as a grenade but it was enough to make Ugly reel with a temporary disorientation.
"Guys!" yelled a familiar voice, "Over here!"
The two turned to see King standing to what looked like the exit.
"Come on!" he yelled as he typed on a console to unlock the door.
The two need no other encouragement and both booked it over to the door. Johnson exited first as soon as the door opened, King followed him out.
Ashley took one last brief moment to fire another concussive shot at Ugly. She then turned and ran at the still open door.
Ugly screeched as it struggled to regain its own senses.
Before exiting, Ashley aimed her rifle onto the console and filled it full of lead. She then dived through the door before it closed completely and locked itself.
"King do you have any breaching charges?" asked an out of breath Ashley,
"What?! Yeah but…don't we want to keep that thing in?"
"Explosives are the only thing that can harm it," a loud thud suddenly came from the door, indicating that Ugly was now in control of its senses again, "we can't just let this thing continue to pick us off. We need to kill it!"
King, realizing what an opportunity this was, nodded.
"Plant a charge on the door, when we're sure it will be caught in the blast. We'll detonate it and blow the son of bitch back to hell."
King nodded again and immediately began placing the charge. The door shuddered and groaned again as Ugly attempted to chase after them. King however was undaunted and didn't even flinch as he continued his work while the constant threat of Ugly was only a few inches away.
"Charge is set!" announced King,
The humans stepped away from the door, giving it a wide berth.
Another shudder and groan as the door was gradually torn apart.
"Call the shot LT and let me blow that son of a bitch to pieces!"
"Hold on! Not yet," ordered Ashley, "we need to make sure we get him, we've only got one shot at this!"
The door groaned again but this time the center of it gave way to Ugly's attacks. The hole was just large enough for the giant Alien to reaches its thin fingers through and begin to pry the doors open.
Soon the door was open just enough for Ugly to place one foot out onto the planet's surface. It then stuck its hideous face through, spotted the humans, and roared.
"Now!"
King hit the detonator
A second later the charge went off and enveloped the monster in fire. Dust thrown up by the explosion washed over Ashley's faceplate and blinded her to the result of their plan. But judging from the sounds Ugly was making, he was definitely in pain.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" cheered Johnson
"Alright! That was for Octavia you ugly bastard!"
And for a brief moment, the Spectre believed that they had won.
But it was only for a moment.
When another screech broke out and the dust cleared, Ugly stepped out onto the planet. Bruised and wounded, but still very much alive. When it spotted the three puny humans who had caused it so much pain, Ugly it leapt into the air and swooped down upon them.
"RUN!" yelled Ashley,
The marines resumed their fearful sprint, managing to the massive feet that came down where they had just been.
"Jesus H Christ!" cursed Johnson, "what does it take to kill this damn thing!"
#
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
"God damn it! Leave me the hell alone!" growled Gabriel as he furiously crawled for his life.
Throwing a glance back he immediately saw two drones right on his tail, with their superior mobility in these enclosed spaces it was only a matter of time before they'd catch up with him.
"Piss off!" he yelled, calling upon his biotics and throwing a warp at them.
The biotic missile easily struck the first drone in line and ripped it apart. Gabriel resumed crawling while the remaining drones coldly shoved their hive mate's corpse aside.
He really needed to find the exit, in these damn tunnels he couldn't properly defend himself. Plus this was the bugs home turf, there was probably bugs shit all over the place.
A clawed hand suddenly dug into his heel, knocking him out of his thoughts. Turning around he saw that a bug had managed to grab him and quickly kicked it in the face then followed up with a biotic push.
The blue wave sent the bug crashing into its fellow drones, tangling them in a mass of ebony limbs.
Taking advantage of their temporary chaos, Gabriel sped forward with all haste. He had only managed to gain another few feet when…
HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Gabriel literally felt that one right by his ear. He turned his gaze and out of the corner of his eye he recognized a set of sharp silver teeth.
Bad luck
HIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Another, this time on his left ear. He turned his gaze again and spotted another set of teeth just being revealed by black lips.
Really bad luck
Two bugs
Both only centimeters away
Their inner teeth would pierce his skull like a rock through water.
Gabriel acted on instinct.
Both his hands came up and grabbed them by their throats just as their inner jaws came snapping out, both coming up just centimeters short of his face. One of them even managed to smear its thick saliva on his face.
Gabriel cringed, his biotic abilities flared to life and he sent two currents out, one down each arm.
Both bugs were tossed down their respective holes and bowled into their comrades behind them.
With not enough time to appreciate his small victory, Gabriel began crawling again. Much to his surprise he found the exit rather quickly and immediately made a bee line for it.
He reached it quickly and quickly stuck the upper half of his body out, eager to breath fresher air. Then pushed the rest of him out into the hive chamber where he found himself sprawled out on his back, elated with the joy of being out of that claustrophobic death trap.
His joy was quickly turned into fear and adrenaline as a drone suddenly burst out from the tunnel and leapt on top of him. Its claws dug into either side of his head, then its head came down and attempted bite him through the head.
It would have worked too had his hands not grabbed the Alien by the throat and forehead and kept those inner jaws away from his face. Unfortunately, Gabriel had nothing to stop the thing's tail, which he saw being raised up behind its back.
This was going to require some snappy reflexes.
Suddenly
DOWNLOAD INCOMING! PLEASE WAIT!
"What the-"
Gabriel's HUD was suddenly flooded with a single large red box with some stupid message and it was blocking his entire field of vision. He could barely see the xeno three inches from his face, let alone the bladed tail ready to spear him through the eye.
PLEASE WAIT! SYSTEM IS UPDATING YOUR SOFTWARE!
"I don't care! I don't want to update! Get off my god damn screen-whoa!"
The human saw the tip of the blade a fraction of a second before it came down and lodged itself in the ground where his head had been a few seconds ago.
The Alien dislodged its tail and pulled it back, taking it out of Gabriel's vision.
UPDATE IN PROGRESS! PLEASE BE PATIENT!
A bar appeared under the words and slowly started to fill up.
"You have got to be kidding me!"
Gabriel threw his head to the side again, dodging the tail for a second time. If he waited for this damn update to finish then he'd be dead within a minute. He saw the tail being dislodged once again but knew that if he was going to get anywhere, that tail needed to go.
"No you don't!" letting go of the Alien's forehead he grabbed the tail by the base of the blade and lodged right back into the ground.
Unfortunately the Alien was now free to lean its head forward and attempt to use its inner jaws again. Gabriel acted on instinct, he curled up his feet, placed them on the Alien's chest, and kicked them out. The oversized bug went flying off, Gabriel jumped up and began pounding away at the Alien's head with his fists.
The Alien screamed with pain as fist after fist smashed against its blank face.
At this point Yun was almost blindly striking out as the update window had still not decided to go away. He checked the loading bar and saw that it was only half full.
The bug took advantage of the temporary distraction and lashed out with its claws.
Gabriel didn't even see it coming but felt the pain as the sharp edges raked down from jaw all the way to the base of his neck.
"Son of a bitch!" he growled,
Without warning he grabbed the Alien's tail, ripped the blade out from the ground, and shoved it right into its chest. He heard a juicy crunch as the had its heart pierced by its own weapon.
The xeno let out one final screech of pain before finally dying and slouching to the ground.
Gabriel himself slouched to the ground as well, panting hard as the relief of still being alive washed over him. This was definitely not his day.
A strange and sharp smell touched his nostrils and made him cringe. He sniffed the air a few times then looked down at his hand, part of it was sizzling. He must have gotten a bit of the bug's acid blood on his hands during the fight, he hadn't even noticed it, probably never would have since he had no nerves in those limbs.
"Fuck," he muttered,
Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his carton of cigarettes and checked the stash. Only four left, good enough.
He grabbed one with his mouth and replaced the carton in his pocket, then took out his lighter and lit the stick of tobacco. After taking a few huffs, Gabriel felt his nerves calm and his heart return to a nice rhythmic beat.
Gabe briefly took his cigarette out and exhaled a puff of smoke, the loading bar was almost full. He replaced his cigarette and watched it finally end.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! YOUR SOFTWARE IS NOW UP TO DATE!
"Yeah, thanks a lot you stupid computer," he muttered spitefully,
"Greetings Cpl. Yun"
"Whoa!" Gabe jumped to his feet, "Spark? That you?"
"Affirmative"
"Why do you sound…different?"
The Geth's voice seemed to fluctuate between high pitched to bass level deep with every word it said. Almost like some mainstream dub step song.
"I have downloaded my programming into yourheadwear's system. Unfortunately the system was never designed to hold an A.I"
"Uh…why did you download yourself into my new toy?"
"My platform was destroyed in an encounter with the xenomorph designated: Ugly."
"Destroyed? Did you say destroyed?"
"Affirmative"
"Then that means…oh shit! Beautiful! Sarge! The others!" without much thought, Gabriel immediately dived back into the tunnels and resumed his mission to get back to the surface.
"Hold on Beautiful! Knight in shining armor coming right up!"
#
Inhuman screeches chorused from inside the shuttle bay.
The Cerberus capture team had their quarry cornered, literally. The Alien was now striking out at them from a corner of the room. Lashing out at them with hits claws and tail, it had already killed one of them and injured another two.
Nothing could be done about the deceased but the two injured had simply slapped a bit of medi-gel on and gotten back into the field.
Currently three of the team was prodding at the thing with electric spears. Every time it lashed out they would lash back. Two of the team bringing up the back were holding the capture equipment, one had a lasso spear and another had a net gun.
The lasso spear was basically a spear with a rope loop at the end which the user would attempt to get around the animal's neck. Here they would be lucky to loop a limb, keeping it immobilized long enough for the net gun to fire.
The prodders closed in, backing the Alien further and further into its corner.
"Come on you ugly son of a bitch!" whispered one of the prodders,
"To drive it too far, we don't' want it climbing the walls," reminded another,
"Wait for it to strike, then try to loop its wrist," ordered the third,
The first jabbed the Alien in the shoulder, causing it to hiss. When it lashed out the second jabbed it in the stomach, making it recoil. The third gave it an extended shock with his spear, the Alien screamed and recklessly retaliated with a full on charge.
All three prodders worked in unison and struck the Alien with 600 volts of combined electricity. The Alien became temporarily stunned and the trooper with the lasso spear saw his chance and looped grabbed the bug's neck with the noose.
Upon making it secure he signaled to the trooper with the net gun.
The trooper fired and the Alien was caught within a net made of powerful thick wires.
"Bring up the cage! Bring up the cage!"
Two Engineers rolled the cage in while the bearer of the lasso spear attempted to guide the trapped alien towards it. But the thing was crazy strong and nearly threw him around with its violently thrashing. Three from the capture team grabbed the ends of the net and started dragging the prized catch towards the cage.
It struggled harder but in the end it was futile and it found itself behind steel bars.
#
Captain Vilmos paced back and forth on the deck of the CIC, awaiting the report from the capture squad. He was ordinarily a patient man but the prospect of capturing a live specimen was just too good for him to keep his composure. He would have joined the capture team himself if he hadn't remembered that his skills lay in killing and not capture.
"Sir!" a trooper suddenly ran up to him, "Sir! Report from the capture squad!"
Vilmos gave him his undivided attention.
"They've done it sir, the specimen is in custody and awaiting transport."
Vilmos smiled, "good, good! This is a great day men! We've come one step further! One step further towards ensuring humanity's dominance!"
"Ooorah!" cheered the troopers on deck,
BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!
"Uh…incoming call sir,"
"Who's it from?" asked Vilmos,
"Unknown sir,"
Intrigued, Vilmos accepted the call.
"This is Commander Jane Shepard of the SSV Normandy, hailing the SSV Salem. If there is anyone aboard, please respond."
End
A/N
Oh my god it has been a long time!
So yeah, apologies as usual. But I have a job now and making money happens to be more important than my writing, sorry. But I give you all my word, the story will be finished.
For those of you who haven't read my story Predators: Variety of Prey, I uploaded a chapter on that story explaining my intentions for the future. So if nothing else, get over there and check out the last chapter so that I don't have to retype it here.
Also, yeah, Commander Shepard is in the house!
I wanted her to be a bit more of a supporting character in this story than a full on player. That's why she's only appeared now.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep a look out for the next one, cause in that one…epic stuff is going to happen!
So yeah, please leave a review, favorite, or follow, I really appreciate it.
Bye bye