Chapter 11
Looking down the sights of his pulse rifle, Cpl Hicks led his team down the lonely corridors of the complex. Fingers wrapped tightly around the grip and under-barrel of his firearm, but he consciously relaxed his trigger finger. He was careful to roll his boots as much as he could to dull any noise as he crept around. More seasoned than his team, it grated on his nerves that they didn't do the same.
"Quiet your steps!" he whispered harshly.
Pvt Drake crept beside Hicks, flanking his superior officer with his monstrous SMART gun. It was a heavy weapon, cumbersome in confined spaces and primarily designed for combat in the open. Drake halted outside of a half open door, allowing Pvt Frost and Pvt Dietrich to investigate inside as Hicks fell in beside Drake manning the motion tracker which beeped passively, detecting nothing.
Frost and Dietrich moved in rhythm, Dietrich leading with her flame thrower that would engulf the room and Frost with his pulse rifle to provide supporting firepower if need be. The doorway opened into an office cubicle, sporting a quadrangle of desks with papers, stationary and desk chairs strewn about. The computer at the nearest desk was still open, having lulled into a screensaver showing a cartoonish caricature of a cat bouncing around. Dietrich and Frost spread apart, checking corners, looking under the desk and looking for any other doors or walkways that peeled off and found nothing untoward. However, it was apparent from the mess that some sort of altercation or struggle had occurred. Only one of the six chairs in the room was on its feet.
"Clear."
"Clear."
They moved smoothly out of the office and into the empty corridor where Hicks and Drake moved up to the next doorway. They repeated the process several times, investigating every room and cupboard as they moved up the corridor methodically. Most rooms were relatively clean although indicated a lived in state, such as unmade beds, clothes left on the back of chairs or rubbish bins full of waste paper or desiccated food scraps. In one bedroom they found a blood stain smeared across the wall consistent with an arterial spray. It had become dry and dark brown, indicating it was several days old. The room however didn't smell of death. Faint wafts of fresh cool air indicated the air-conditioning system was still working.
"Sir? You see this?" Hicks asked over his radio mic.
"Affirmative. No body?" Gorman replied from the confines of the APC still parked outside in the rain.
"Confirm no body, sir."
"Alright. Continue sweep."
"Copy that."
Hicks led his squad further up the corridor where it branched off in a four way crossroad.
"Drake, maintain position. Hicks you take the left, Frost and Dietrich pair off to the right." Gorman ordered coolly, viewing everything via their shoulder mounted cameras.
Drake smirked as his squad mates slowly left him in the middle of the crossroad junction. He kept his eyes mainly on the corridor ahead and could see it came to an end about 30 metres down the way with a rather large closed door on the right. He checked back the way they came and squinted in the gloom looking for the stairway they originally emerged from. He check left and right and found that his squadmates had already disappeared through doorways. The passive hum of the air conditioning joined with a distant whine of the wind outside. It was an unsettling sound, but he simply cleared his throat and tightened the grip on his weapon. He shifted his weight on his feet to avoid pins and needles.
Quickly enough, however, his comrades all emerged as before having found nothing in particular and rejoined him. Together they moved down the corridor amongst a tangle of sewerage and gas pipes that led down through the floor and gathered at the closed doorway in flanking positions.
Hicks silently counted to three and disengaged the door lock. Drake stepped into the threshold as the doorway split apart with a robotic drone and scanned the way for threats. It was a large open room filled with banks of wall and desk mounted computers and the ceiling was a large clear window, however the storm shutters blocked any view. The lights were dim and even turned off amongst some desks and so Drake relied on his SMART gun feed to look for unaccounted for movement. Frost and Dietrich quick fell in beside him and checked each desk. Hicks covered their rear with an eye on the motiontracker which still beeped passively, finding nothing.
"Sir." Frost beckoned for Hicks to come over and showed a computer screen still on. A document was open and in the process of being saved and waiting for confirmation. Hicks sat down and cancelled the save request and quickly scanned the document. It was only three lines long.
Day 3 4:34 pm
Longham is dead so it's just myself, Jones and Zhu. We've lost radio contact with O'Gregan in the Storage Lockers on Sub level 2, so we're assuming those things have broken through and got them. Some good news though and we've manag-
"Sir. Room is clear, although I've found a hand..." Dietrich said, gesturing from across the room.
Hicks jogged over as Drake and Frost covered the room's only other exit. Hicks found the severed hand lying on the floor like a crushed huntsman spider. It was the hand of a white woman by the look of the slender shape of the fingers and lengthy fingernails, even taking into account slight decay and covered in crusted brown blood. Strands of flesh and nerves dangled from the mangled stump as he carefully picked it up and lifted it up in front of him for the benefit of Gorman's views through his helmet camera.
"Good God." Burke murmured and Ripley clenched her jaw and kept quiet, trying to swallow down a wave of panic.
Gorman stared at the screen with a strange fascination. "Is that all? Our only human remains?"
"That's all I saw." Dietrich replied as Drake and Frost looked on nervously. Hicks furrowed his brow and turned the handover, dangling it by one of the fingers set in rigour mortis.
"This has been torn. Ripped off. No clean cut." Hicks reported.
"Concur." Bishop agreed sitting next to Gorman and watching intently. "Dietrich, Hicks pan around and look for blood."
"It's on the desk just here." Dietrich gestured behind where she stood. The desk and computer screen was splattered with more crusted brown blood stains and the computer screen was cracked.
"Hey look!" Drake said gruffly, pointing up to a vent in the ceiling. The grating was bent outward at awkward angles from inside as though it has exploded from within.
"They're using the air shafts." Ripley said immediately. "Just like on my ship."
"We haven't sighted one of those things yet." Gorman said.
Burke raised his hand and barred Ripley from launching into him, "Calm down! I think it's pretty safe to say this isn't a simple case of personnel abandoning post or goofing off. We've got a situation."
"Goddamn right." Ripley muttered still straining against Burke's hand.
Gorman began to sweat as his marine contingent listened on. "Apone, you found anything yet?"
"No sir. Continuing our sweep on the ground floor, haven't found anything in particular. No blood or bodies. Not even structural damage. Place is clean so far." Apone replied over the radio.
Gorman swallowed and steadied himself. As leader, he had to remain calm or at least appear to remain calm. Grunts despised nothing more than a lack of spine and cool in their superior officer. If Ripley's monsters had overrun the complex, he needed his men focused and battle-ready. "Alright. For the moment, this doesn't change anything. We still need to sweep the complex and secure a perimeter. Continue on sweep."
"Roger." Apone and Hicks saluted in kind and directed their soldiers onward.
Drake and Frost led the way towards the unopened doorway in the empty control room, with Hicks and Dietrich flanking in behind them. Hicks eyed the motion tracker once again as Frost moved to open the large sliding door. The reading was still blank. He wasn't sure if he should be thankful or not. By Ripley's account, those monsters were cunning and quick. One could be hiding right above him in the air shafts sitting motionless waiting for him to turn his back. But then again, the motion trackers were designed to detect the most minute of lifelike movements, including breathing and blood flow. He reminded himself he was working with state of the art equipment and able squadmates and focused on the job at hand. That's why he was a corporal. He knew how to get the job done and keep his nerve. Tough under pressure and a solid example for his teammates.
"Open it." He whispered.
Frost tapped the mechanism and the doorway opened with a quiet motorised squeak. Drake immediately poured through into a corridor much like the others they had already searched and let his SMART gun scan for immediate threats, finding none. The soldiers fell into line and continued on methodically searching the offices and cubicles that sprouted off from the main corridor. Soon they reached the end of the corridor, coming to a T-intersection. The corridor way on the left was another corridor that fell into pitch black darkness after only 10 or so metres. The lights appeared to be blown out. The other way opened up into a cafeteria hall with chairs tangled into large clusters, strewn about.
"Drake, Frost stay here and guard. I want Drake SMART gun looking into the dark. Dietrich, with me."
Hicks and Dietrich crept off side by side towards the hall, Hicks eyeing the motion tracker.
"Sir." Dietrich whispered sharply and pointed towards the cafeteria kitchen where the provisions freezer door sat ajar. Hicks nodded as they headed towards it, Dietrich focusing on the potential threat as Hicks eyed the other nooks and crannies of the kitchen around them. Keeping their footsteps as silent as possible, they crept amongst the kitchen bench tops and oven as the light dimmed. Hicks noted the globes on the ceiling were destroyed, the steel housings buckled with deep striations carved into the metal.
Scratch marks.
"They've been here. They took out the lights." Hicks whispered into the mic.
"Classic animal behaviour. Watch yourself Hicks." Burke replied.
Dietrich approached the freezer doorway and reached out a hand. Her fingertips brushed the door handle and gently pulled it open. The door swung effortlessly and silently to reveal the freezer within. Shelving lined the walls of the room, packed with food stores, although pizza boxes were scattered amongst the floor in a mess. Otherwise, everything appeared undisturbed.
"Nothing." Dietrich whispered.
Hicks and Dietrich crept back out into the hallway and noted the corridor ended at the end of the hallway. A dead end. They doubled-back looking for other details and saw that some more of the air ducts were frayed and broken like the one back in the control room. Only one appeared to be open without any apparent damage. Hicks shined his torch down the opening and could see nothing but flashes of the steel duct casing disappear into a dark black void. He eyed his motion tracker once again and saw no signals detected.
"Nothing still?" Dietrich queried.
"These sorts of ducts must pass by all sorts of machinery. Fans and pumps. Might be difficult to detect a signal if its deep inside these ducts. But if anything is thinking of coming out, we'll see it before it does." Hicks reflected.
"Damn well hope so." Dietrich sighed as they joined up with Frost and Drake still holding position.
"It's a damn tomb so far." Drake muttered gruffly, adjusting his posture.
"Tomb with no bodies." Frost agreed.
"So far. Stay alert. You know how this works. The sooner you drop your guard the sooner Murphy's law kicks in and shit and the fan start dancing." Hicks cautioned.
"Damn straight." Dietrich agreed.
"Alright, then. Let's go." Drake turned and looked down the sights of his SMART gun display linked through a small visor on his helmet, ready to proceed into the dark. A red dot appeared and dashed across right to left and the weapon tugged in his hands, moved by the housing strapped around his waist to try and aim at the target.
"Signal!" Hicks shouted as his motion tracker sprang to life, whining loudly.