It comes as no surprise why this fic is so popular. The amazing thing is how we now have a cover for it. Temporary of course until I can get an artist of mine to draw a cover I truly want.

That being said, enjoy this chapter, since the carnage will truly begin.

I enjoy finding out what you think in a review, so please leave one when you're done…

Chapter 11: Carnage

"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game."

-Paul Rodriguez

Ty'kad

The three of them broke off and split up when they left the tower, hoping to bag their own kills on their own.

Ty'kad took his way into the hangar area, walking towards the door that led to the halls. It would be fun trying to get a few more of the Ooman warriors that called themselves 'Marines'.

He opened the door, and could hear the sound of the Kainde Ahmedia all around from above. He was right underneath them, and it would be fun to be able to bag one at close range, like Jic'nya does.

Mission Profile: Hold-Out Fight/Bug Hunt

Time: 1100 Hours

Mission Time: 2400 Hours

Marine Casualty Count: 05

Marine Kill Count: 05

Mission Status: Find The Hive and Wipe Out The Xenos

Nathan

Standing in the lounge with Pelinski and Edwards, he was wondering how he simply led Grimes to his death in there.

He thought that if he'd sent Edwards or Pelinski with him, that things could have turned out differently.

"We're finishing up our sweep" Dyer's voice came in over the com "We're gonna rendezvous in the Hangar area."

"Understood sir" Nathan chimed back.

"We're heading out?" Edwards asked.

"Yeah" Nathan sighed "Let's watch our backs and head to the hangar."

With that, they started to walk down the hall, hearing every sound around them.

They heard some thudding sounds from one of the vents up ahead, a quick pitter-patter against the metal.

"That doesn't sound too good" Edwards admitted

"Probably one of the Xenos." Nathan sighed "Let's prepare for engagement."

There was a THUD and a BANG as one of the ceiling panels hit the floor, Xeno rushing out full speed ahead from less than 5 meters away.]

"Get it!" Nathan yelled.

The three readied their Pulse Rifles for firing, and proceeded to shoot at the black creature.

None of their shots hit though.

"Die you mother-fucker!" Pelinski yelled, pulling back on her pump-action piece to the rifle, launching a grenade.

This proceeded to blow apart the Xeno's head as it was less than two meters away.

"Nice work Pelinski" Nathan complemented. "Let's keep moving. Watch your step though"

They continued to walk forward down the hall, passing to a four-way intersection of a hall.

Nathan raised his fist in the air to indicate to stop moving.

"Let's check the motion tracker" Nathan explained as the two other marines stopped moving.

They checked the motion trackers on their HUDs and looked around. There was beeping to the direct left and the direct right, with at least 5 different signals from the left, and only one from the right.

"What the hell's happening?" Pelinski asked.

"Hold tight for a moment" Nathan ordered "Let's see what's going on."

There was the familiar pitter-patter as the five signals proceeded to approach.

This time however, it was from the floor-boards.

"What the hell's happening man?" Edwards asked.

"Let's check" Nathan replied, lifting up one of the floor panels.

Placing his head inside, this revealed five xenos running along the bottom of the space, only about 3 meters away.

Pelinski

A beep from her motion tracker revealed the one movement on the right approaching less than two meters.

However, a glance to the direction revealed absolutely nothing in the space, simply thin air.

"What the hell's going on here?" she asked aloud, bringing up her Pulse Rifle.

Nathan

He immediately removed his head from the hole and brought his rifle to bear, ready for another close encounter.

The Xenos were already two meters in and counting. He would only have seconds before engagement, not enough time to withdraw Joan from his side, as much as he needed to use the shotgun.

"We've got more of 'em!" he shouted,

BANG!

The floor panels ahead burst up with Xenos jumping out onto the walls, one jumping ahead.

He fired of a short burst, catching the creature right in the chest.

Acid burned and splattered as it passed the three marines, hitting the floor panels behind them only footsteps away.

Ty'kad

At the burst of Acid from when the Ooman Warrior shot the Kainde Ahmedia, he paused in his steps.

He could see the three Oomans standing there, turning around to face the Kainde Ahmedia threat that they could see.

However, he was cloaked currently, and had the upper hand.

There was a BING on his Biomask Display, indicating that the Kainde Ahmedia have spotted him with their echolocation.

Not that it mattered otherwise. It simply made the hunt more interesting.

He flipped for his Shoulder Caster to activate, and proceeded to line up a shot.

Nathan

He lined up another shot, hoping to bag another Xeno.
He stepped back, hoping to move out of range.

The creatures were holding onto the wall, pausing a moment before moving along.

He backed into Edwards, who was loading grenades into his Pulse Rifle.

A Xeno ran along the ceiling, before dropping on top of Edwards.

In a flash of light, three laser lines appeared and disappeared, before a bluish bolt hit the Xeno in the head, knocking the creature away in a flash of Acidic fire.

"What the fuck just happened?" Edwards yelled.

"Keep fighting!" Nathan ordered "Fire at will"

Nathan aimed at one along the wall, which was readying itself to pounce on him.

Lining up the shot, he fired away.

In his peripheral, he could see Pelinski dealing with one on the ceiling and Edwards shooting one still in the hole.

They were too preoccupied to notice the one crawl along the floor to Edwards, and tackle him.

Edwards

As he was brought to the ground by a Xeno, he yelled. In the commotion however, his pulse rifle had been knocked out of his hand, and he had only moments as the creature put its head over him, dripping it's sick slime all over him.

He turned over to try and crawl away, as he could see the Xeno open it's mouth to reveal a second set of jaws.

Ty'kad

He could see one of the Oomans being overpowered by one of the Kainde Ahmedia.

Something in the back of his mind said to help the Ooman, and before he knew it, he was lining up another shot, right in the creature's carapace head.

He fired the shoulder caster, as the blast connected with it's target.

Edwards

In a flash of blue light, complete with the famous screech, the Xeno's head became an acidic mess, splattering all along laterally from where he was, only a few drops of acid reaching where he was.

However, Acid was Acid, and some of it connected with his arm. There was smoke as his forearms began to burn, skin starting to melt in burning pain.

He screamed.

Nathan

Finished with his current target, he took a moment to kick the dead Xeno off of Edwards, quick and sure before it could collapse on top of him.

With another one dead, the five were taken care of.

"You alright?" Nathan asked, offering his hand to Edwards, who slapped it away.

"Don't touch me!" the marine vehemently yelled, pulling himself on his feet.

"You've been hit by the acid blood" Pelinski stated "Let me help you with that."

She opened her medical kit and began to fish through for the right tools.

"Hold out your arm" she instructed to Edwards, who promptly did as he was told.

"Acid's stopped penetrating" Pelinski announced "Just to be safe though" she took out her canteen and opened it, pouring some of her water on Edwards' arm.

"GOD DAMN!" Edwards yelled, wincing in pain.

"Hold still" Pelinski sighed.

Ty'kad

From what he could see, the Oomans had finished taking out the Kainde Ahmedia, yet still didn't notice him.

It was strange, especially now, since he could easily have them dead within seconds.

Nathan

As Pelinski was tending to Edwards' burns, he couldn't help but wonder where those blasts that killed two of the Xenos came from.

He remembered that something similar had killed Warren and Egorov, and that if he remembered correctly, the thing must be around there somewhere.

Switching to Infrared, he took a look around the room. He immediately found something that wasn't there before in the space to the right.

Once again, the incredibly tall, relatively cool individual remained standing right there, simply waiting.

For a moment, he couldn't help but stare at it, unsure of whether to attack or not.

"What the hell are you?" he thought to himself, confused as to what he was looking at.

One of Edwards' screams brought him out of his trance.

A quick turnaround and switch to night-vision revealed Pelinski bandaging up Edwards' forearms.

"Will you two shut up and look at this?" He asked, "Take a look with Infrared"

The other two switched to Infrared and looked where he was looking. "Look at what?" Pelinski asked.

"What do you mean?" he inquired, switching back to Infrared.

This revealed nothing at the spot.

Ty'kad

After having crawled into the vents during the Ooman's distraction, he laughed in his biomask.

He was amazed at how the Ooman hadn't attacked him while he had the chance.

This was the second time that particular Ooman had seen him; perhaps the third time he'll catch on and make things interesting.

As a rule, he preferred not to hunt something when it wasn't engaged; it made for some rather boring hunts otherwise.

He would rather make things interesting with it than to simply shoot it without realizing.

However, there was always a chance that it may never notice. However, he doubted that was the case. Give it a little time, and it'll realize what's going on.

He continued to crawl through the vents, hoping to stalk the Oomans. He never stalked enough, a true shame.

Nathan

With Edwards patched up, he saw that as a chance to keep going.

"Let's meet up with the others" he announced "This way" he indicated forward with the cock of his head.

They followed him through to the next room, the hangar itself.

There, he saw Dyer, Sussex, and Rosenblatt. They were obviously waiting on them and the others.

"Where's Grimes?" Dyer asked, noticing the three walk up.

"Grimes was killed in the line of fire" Nathan explained.

"So all that's left is Jiminez, and Henley" Rosenblatt explained.

There was a BANG from the far right door, revealing the two Marines having used a detonation charge to open the door.

"What was the meaning of that?" Dyer yelled.

"Door had been welded sir" Henley sighed "We did what we had to do to get through."

Nathan noticed something on his HUD motion tracker. Sixteen signals of movement from all over.

"Sir, there's movement everywhere, and it ain't us" he announced.

"Stay frosty Marines" Dyer shouted "We're gonna kick some ass"

Jic'nya

He watched from on top of one of the craft in the room as the Oomans readied themselves.

They were sitting ducks from up here, easy to get with his plasma-caster. However, that would be too easy.

He knew that the best hunting happened at close range. That was a fact. He would rather bag one that separated from the group up close than to reach it from where he was at.

If he had his way, he'd jump in there and take one of them. Of course, that would be foolish.

He'd seen what those weapons two of them wore could do. The ones attached to their backs, that he'd heard referred to as 'SMART guns', were not worth getting ripped apart by.

He'd much rather watch this, and hope that he could get one of the Oomans alone than to try his methods immediately.

He also noticed Ty'kad approaching, and could see his younger brother crawl along the wall, practicing stalking.

He could only imagine where their sister was. She would miss out on some great hunting if she didn't follow his lead.

On the enhancement, he could hear dozens of Kainde Ahmedia above, making their way to the room, almost ready to drop in on the Oomans.

Nathan

Looking up, he saw dozens of Xenos running along the ceiling, towards the chains.

"Don't fire until you see the segments" Dyer shouted "I don't want any ammo wasted."

The squad gave various confirmations. He knew that this was a major chance to get the Xenos where it hurt.

He saw them drop down, hands wrapped up in the chains.

"Engage!" Dyer shouted.

With that, the squad began to fire upon the Xenos as they dropped down, acid splattering in spots where they were hit.

However, as one would get killed, at least three more would take it's place.

And this time, they began to come from the sides.

"We're being flanked!" Rosenblatt shouted, firing upon one that was running towards her.

Nathan fired a grenade at a group of three that were running towards him.

There was a flash of acidic fire as the grenade blew apart three of the Xenos.

However, more kept coming, and it was beginning to be a struggle to keep them at least four meters away.

"There's too many!" Sussex yelled, having thrown himself to the targeting system and was ripping apart the xenos that came within his range, not pausing for a moment with his fire.

"Yost, get us outta here!" Dyer shouted into the headset, having paused his fire for a moment.

Nathan turned around for a moment, and was powerless to watch as one of the Xenos using the chains grabbed the Sergeant and pulled him up with it.

"GOD DAMMIT!" Dyer shouted, voice fading as he was brought up.

For a brief moment, there was silence from above, before a crunch of bones, and the rain of blood.

Yost

Inside the APC watchbox, she saw that right after Dyer called for pickup, he was grabbed. A look at his monitor showed a very violent act, the ripping apart of him by two of the Xenos.

It would be a bloodbath at this point if she didn't do something.

"Standard!" Yost yelled "Take us in through the Hangar doors. We're pulling them out"

Standard

"On my way" she replied calmly through the headset back to Yost.

She took a moment to pull the APC into reverse, and drive forward a good twenty meters ahead, where the building ended in a corner.

She drove as fast as she could, roughly turning to the right to round the corner.

She saw the doors to the hangars shut completely.

Not a problem to her though.

She fired upon the hangar door with both the frontal gun and the rear overhead.

Thankfully, the sandstorm had started to weaken considerably. It would help to be able to have extraction fly in.

Nathan

There was an explosion from one of the doors as the APC came in, running over Xenos in it's way.

"Marines!" Nathan shouted "We are leaving!"

With that, the APC pulled to a stop, with Yost opening the door.

Jiminez

Standing the furthest away, the man was dealing with about ten Xenos that were running towards him at different spots. This was going on as the APC had pulled in.

He threw to the targeting system, hoping to quickly bag the closes one.

A pull of the knob took out the two on the far left, along the shuttle craft, yet the others kept coming.

He was slowly trying to back away, hoping to lay down surpressing fire.

He completely missed the one from above that came and grabbed him.

With a scream, he was dragged vertically to his death.

Nathan

Standing by the door next to Sussex, he kept firing at the Xenos as his fellow Marines went into the APC.

First Pelinski, then Edwards.

He saw Henley attempt to deal with three that had gotten really close.

Nathan fired a burst at the one nearby, while Henley got the other two.

"Get in here!" Nathan shouted, firing at one about to pounce from a shuttle.

Henley broke and ran to the APC, running inside.

Rosenblatt was currently dealing with a group of five who were trying to pounce on her.

"Come on!" Nathan shouted.

Rosenblatt turned around, and having lost track of two Xenos, was pounced on by them. In a scream, she was gone.

"Let's get outta here Corp!" Sussex yelled.

"Come on you two!" Yost shouted.

"Right away" Nathan yelled back, stepping into the APC.

Sussex backed inside, and within a few seconds, Nathan closed the door.

"Where's Rosenblatt?" Henley yelled.

"Xenos got her" Nathan sighed.

As he stood, he could feel the APC moving in reverse out of the Hangar.

Jic'nya

He watched as the Oomans were leaving towards the door.

He knew that he could lose out on a prime chance if he didn't do something.

He took his grappling hook, and aimed at the beam running along the center.

He fired, and hook met it's target, holding true.

He jumped, swinging himself onto the Ooman vehicle, landing as lightly as possible.

The enhancement picked up no noise of his landing, so he was sure that he was safe.

He crouched low as the vehicle left the room. Outside it seemed that the sandstorm had cleared.

Nathan

He held onto the ceiling of the APC as Standard brought them out and away from the hangar building.

It was a couple of minutes before they'd stopped, probably out in the open away from the building.

He could see the sun shining on the monitors that showed the outside of the APC.

Yost

APC having been brought out of the heat, she sighed.
Once Standard stopped the vehicle, she was sure that things weren't going too well with their current strategy.

She knew that they'd need a different plan of attack, or at least some backup.

Nathan

Thinking to himself, he wondered what they would do next. Or what he'd have to do next.

In the chain of command, squad leadership fell on his shoulders if the sergeant was gone.

"Lieutenant Yost, what's the new plan?" he asked.

"We're going to get extraction" she sighed "Let's call up Falloway and D'Amcio and get out of here"

The Lieutenant took a seat in the Watchbox and thumbed several switches "Yost to Australis, come in Australis"

Yost

She waited for a moment for the call to take it's time to reach the ship. It took at least 30 seconds for the signal to make its way to orbit.

However, there was complete static, the type that would exist if there wasn't any receiving.

"Yost to Australis, come in Australis" she repeated.

There was still no answer.

She took a moment to wait again, yet still heard static.

She tapped the mike, thinking there might be a problem.

However, there was a sound as she tapped it, indicating that it was still working.

"Damn it, they're probably doing it up there" she thought.

"Yost to Australis" she tried again.

Still no answer. This wasn't a good sign.

Usually, there should be an answer at least, a ping indicating signal pickup yet no answer.

There was no such sound though.

She knew this wasn't good.

Nathan

He saw Yost dealing with some trouble trying to raise the Australis. Usually, if someone was up there still, they'd be able to hear the call.

He remembered hearing a distress signal once over the loudspeakers from a few drops ago, back when they were sent to investigate an attack by some Pirates on a shipping colony.

If nobody answered it by now, then there was something up.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Yost stood up, and cleared her throat "I'm afraid I have some bad news." She announced "We're stuck here. The Australis is gone"