January 21st, 2232 1415 hrs
Nayru's Love WY Corp. Compound
"Captain?" tried Mido once more on the comlink, but only received static. "Captain, can you hear me?" More static. "Corporal Link, can you hear me?" Still more static.
"Something's not right," said Shad.
"No way..." said Mido with sarcasm. "They must have run into trouble. We have to go and find them."
Meanwhile, Fi was fiddling with one of the terminals before smiling when she found the plug she needed and inserted it into her forearm.
"I think I can locate them if I manage to link myself to the main computer and bring up the schematics of the compound," she said.
"But how will we locate them if they are underground?" asked Kafei.
"Now that I'm directly patched into the computer, I can override the firewalls that prevented me from manually reactivating the main power generator and hence enabling the internal tracking sensors of the colony," she replied. "Also, each Colonial Marine has a tracking chip implanted. As long as they're alive, I can pinpoint their location and isolate them from any other signature, therefore revealing where they are."
"Can you also locate where are the xenomorphs and the creature that attacked us earlier?" asked Shad.
"As long as they are in movement, the sensors will be able to locate them; however, it is impossible to determine whether the signatures we find are from friends or foes."
"Wait," said Saria. "Every colonist gets a tracking chip implanted too before they are sent into a new settlement. Can you isolate the signals from those tracking chips in order to find the survivors?"
"I'll have to create a remote link with Navi on the Hylia so I can access the corporation's database and get the frequencies for the Nayru's Love colonists."
Mido thought for a moment in silence before speaking again. "If you manage to do that, please try to isolate Ms. Zelda's signal."
"Yes, I will," replied Fi nodding.
Another xenomorph was blasted into tiny bits as the Yautja shot a few rounds of plasma at the small group moving toward him through one of the compound's outer streets. One of the aliens pounded at him and he grabbed it by the tail, swung it in a wide arc and released him upward, blasting him out of the air with his plasma caster. Turning around, he saw two more xenomorphs running his way. He grabbed the two discs on his belt, pressed the button on them and five curved blades popped out around them. As soon as the aliens lunged at him, he tossed the shurikens at the creatures, slicing them in half before he saw them return to him, catching them with ease before placing them back on his belt. Looking around him, he made sure there were no more hostiles nearby, switching his vision modes a few times to verify there were no more trails of heat or other kinds of signatures. As soon as he was sure there was nothing more, he approached a nearby door and, using his long wrist blade, he sliced the door open and entered the compound, activating his cloaking device once more.
The elevator came to a stop and Ichiro exited first, followed closely by Link, Oreana, Malon and Mikau. They had arrived into what seemed to be a large landing pad inside of the compound, surrounded by tall buildings and a large gate all the way across the pad. After they checked that there were no hostiles nearby, the rest of the soldiers exited the elevator. The sun was shining above them, the ground was soaked and slippery because of the recent rain.
"Ok," said Link, turning to look at the rest of the soldiers. "There's twelve of us here, so we have to stick together if we want to survive. So we can work better, we'll split in two toons. Mikau will lead Toon Alpha, which will be conformed by Malon, Aryll, Ichiro and himself. Taglo, you will keep leading your remaining soldiers as you have been doing so far, you'll be Toon B. I want Toon A to stay on the lead, for they have the smart gun, while Toon B will cover the rear. Any questions?"
"Yeah, in which toon will 'you' be... sir?" asked mockingly one of Taglo's soldiers while grinning.
Link approached the soldier and looked at him sternly. "What's your name soldier?"
"Private Sheik, sir," replied the soldier.
"Well, private," replied Link calmly. "I will be my own toon, the one standing at the very front of the group, the one whose bullets will strike down the first xenomorph, the one willing to blow himself up with a grenade to save your ass... Is that a problem?"
Sheik's grin had faded and now everyone was looking at the two of them. Mikau and Taglo approached him and Link looked at them both before speaking up again.
"None of you is worth more than the other; none of you is better than the other; and none of you will be dead weight to the group!" Link spoke with a tone of command that nobody dared to contradict. "We protect each other and we fight for each other! Our mission is to rescue as many survivors as we can and get them the hell out of this rock, and if I see that any of you tries to run away from the mission or comes forth with selfish intentions," he made a pause to create some suspense before finishing, "I'll shoot you myself! Is that clear?"
"SIR, YES SIR!" chorused the rest of the soldiers.
"We must head first to the Command Center so we can retrieve our two senior officers and fellow soldiers safely. Be on your guard, for we know that the xenomorphs are not the only danger that await for us here." He looked at Taglo and Mikau, who nodded at him, and then turned around while adding. "Let's move!"
Taglo and Mikau started to gather their toons while Link, his heart beating fast, looked at the schematics of the compound on his data pad.
"I found them," said Fi calmly. "They are near the western gate of the compound on landing pad 19."
"Can we contact them?" asked Kafei.
"They're currently out of range," said Fi. "There's too much damage to the antennas and repeaters along the compound to be able comm them."
"Is the way clear?" asked Mido.
"There seems to be no apparent danger," replied Fi. "But I'd keep my guard raised."
"Ok," said Mido, grabbing his assault rifle. "Dotour, you come with me. Castle, you stay here with Fi and Saria. Keep the channels open and let us know if anything comes up."
"Fi will keep track of you so we can alert you of any immediate danger," said Saria.
"Thanks, let's go," replied Mido before he and Kafei exited the Command Center.
The Yautja aimed his plasma caster at a half-open door and blasted it out of the way, gaining access to another corridor. He switched his vision again and detected a trail of xenomorph going around the corner. Grabbing his retractable spear, he sprang it open and stalked the aisle until he reached the crossing and peeked around; the xenomorph trail kept going until it entered one of the vents. He walked up to the vent and crouched to examine it when he started hearing footsteps nearby. Engaging once more his cloaking device, he flashed his mask's eyes before starting to walk slowly toward the source of the sound.
"Fi, are we clear?" asked Mido on the comlink.
"There seemed to be some movement about four blocks away from you, but it's disappeared from the sensors," replied Fi.
"I'd really appreciate if you could turn on the lights, ya' know?" said Mido.
"I've manually initiated the main power generator, yet it's capacity is still not loaded to its hundred percent. As soon as it runs at its maximum capacity I will be able to restart the illumination throughout the compound."
"How far is it loaded?" asked Mido.
"Thirty five percent," replied Fi.
"Shit..." muttered Mido under his breath.
Kafei had walked a few steps ahead when he slipped and fell on his side, slamming his temple against the floor. Sitting up with a groan, he placed his hand on the floor to push himself up and felt a cold, slimy substance under his palm.
"Ugh, what the hell his this?" he asked, lifting his hand to examine it.
"You ok?" asked Mido, approaching and kneeling by him.
"I slipped on this thing," he said, before he felt something cold dripping on his shoulder.
Mido saw as some sort of slime dripped down Kafei's arm before both of them looked up, noticing that they were right beneath an open vent. A screech was then heard and Mido was suddenly pierced through the shoulder by a long, black articulated tail, as the xenomorph hidden inside the vent pulled him in.
"LIEUTENANT!" he yelled, before he heard Mido screaming and some rapid gunfire and Mido's assault rifle fell from the vent, covered in slime and blood. "LIEUTENANT!" yelled Kafei again but there was no response. He quickly reached for his comlink and fumbled trying to press the button on it, but fear took over him as he realized that the antenna had broken when he had fallen. "Shit..." he muttered, as he raised his assault rifle and tried to find his way back.
"Shit..." echoed Kafei's distorted voice. "Shit..."
The Yautja retracted his readied plasma caster and turned his laser aim away from Kafei's back. He thought that it would be better if he could study him and that way learn how they behaved before engaging them in combat. Flashing his mask's eyes again, he followed the human slowly and in silence.
"I can't contact them, sorry," said Fi.
"YOU HAVE TO!" yelled Saria, tears in her eyes while she grabbed Fi by the neck of her jacket.
"Wow! Calm down Sergant!" said Shad, pulling Saria away from the unaffected synthetic. "Maybe their comlinks are broken."
"You were supposed to warn them of any imminent danger!" cried Saria.
"I could only warn them when the enemy was moving," said Fi. "However, this particular enemy seemed to be still, so I wasn't able to detect it."
"Are they alive?" asked Shad.
"Dotour's signature is still on the move," replied Fi. "Apparently he's trying to find his way back here. Lieutenant Woods' signature is moving in a different direction, though." She made a pause, a blank expression on her face, and then spoke again. "Remember that the tracking chip only functions as long as the person has active vital signs, so if I can locate them it means that they're alive."
"We have to find them," said Saria, grabbing Shad's assault rifle from the table.
"Wait!" replied Shad. "We have to wait until the others return." He then turned to Fi. "Have you been tracking the others?" he asked.
"I'm tracking them as they move, but there's something you should know," she replied.
"What is it?" asked Saria.
"Well, for one thing I can't locate Captain Darunia amongst them," replied Fi.
"What?!" said Shad. "The Captain's dead?!"
"It seems to be," said Fi. "However, there are new signatures added to the group. I can count up to twelve people."
Shad sighed in relief. "They must have joined with other surv..." he suddenly fell silent, for the MT on the desk had started to beep.