"Understood," Tom said heavily.
He glanced down at the list of casualties he'd scribbled down.
Once everyone had reached their evac points they had co-ordinated via radio to find out who was safe and who hadn't made it. The list consisted only of soldiers, all other personnel having evacuated during the start of the attack.
He wished Amy was here.
"Finley, will you be safe?" Tom asked into his radio.
"I'm not sure," he replied.
"Ok. Keep quiet and maybe they won't see a reason to dig through the rubble." Tom advised.
"Roger that."
Tom could hear the heavy emotion. Finley had informed him about Hurst and the likelihood that he was dead. They'd tried radioing him again but there had been no answer.
He looked around. The other scientists were sitting on their beds, either sleeping or just looking idly around. The soldiers that were here were busy organising the living space. They didn't know how long they'd be here.
"What about you guys," it was Finley. "Are the evac points going to be safe?"
"Not if there's more of those creatures out there," Tom replied honestly. "But it'll hold against regular Aliens. That's what it was designed to do."
"Stay safe." Finley said.
"You too," Tom replied.
The evac points had been built to an even stronger standard than the perimeter walls. The Company had wanted to make sure that whatever research and intel gained would be secure for recovery.
He looked over at Santos, who was at the far end of the room. He was still tied to the bed and had been injected with sedative to keep him quiet.
Heather was livid. She had gone to see the irreparable damage to the vehicles for herself. She was standing with Gustav inside the hangar, staring at the unidentifiable mound that should have been the engine of the dropship.
Arthur had sabotaged them, she that knew for sure now. What she didn't know was why.
"We need answers," Heather said out loud.
Gustav stayed quiet, mulling over his own thoughts.
"We're stuck here," he said finally.
Heather responded by walking to the exit.
"I'm going to get some answers," she told him as she left.
Gustav followed her back to the cryogen lab where the scene was the same. Amy was still sat next to Adams. Kra'tak and Tol'din sat quietly having nursed their wounds the best they could. Gustav had brought in their equipment from the APC shortly after discovering the vehicle was now useless.
Heather went up to Amy and called her. There was no response. She grabbed Amy by the shoulders to get her attention. Eventually, Amy broke away from her sobbing and looked at Heather.
"I need you to see if you can get Arthur online," Heather firmly told her.
Her words seemed to barely register.
"Amy!" she said louder and with more force. "Get Arthur online!"
Heather knew Amy had started out working on androids before being stationed at the research base.
Amy nodded tensely. Heather could feel her entire body shaking. She helped Amy up who robotically went through the motion of walking over to Arthurs remains. Heather followed her.
Amy looked at the mess of white liquid, wires and the separated body parts. After a long while of staring, Heather was about to say something when Amy suddenly sat forward on to her knees.
Heather watched as Amy slowly moved Arthurs head to gain access to the neck. She worked slowly at first but after a minute began to become more intensely involved in working on the android.
Heather guessed Amy needed the distraction. She slowly moved back over to Adams and checked his vitals. He was weaker than before.
"We could try the vehicles out there," Hale suggested in the uncomfortable silence of the room.
"No way! I'm not going back out there," Callum ambled into the room. He'd had enough of being alone outside.
"We have no choice if we want to get out of here," Gustav advised him.
"Shit," Callum wasn't one to think of a good argument.
"Get yourselves ready. We go in half hour," Heather instructed.
"Shit!" Callum exclaimed once again. He changed his mind and decided he preferred the fresh air outside and promptly left the room.
"Sys..Sys...Sys.," the sputtering words caught everyones attention, including Kra'tak.
They all looked to see Arthurs head twitching and jolt as Amy worked on the exposed neck.
They watched with mixed emotions as Amy continued to work.
"Amy," Heather called over, "Can you get him online?"
"I think so. It's gonna take some time though." Amy replied.
Heather was glad the distraction was working for her. "We're gonna try to get one of those vehicles out there up and running."
"Ok." Amy confirmed.
Heather took another worried look at Adam, got up and left the room. Together with Gustav she walked past Smith who was still sat where she'd first found him. Hale and Callum joined them outside.
They took up formation and began the trek to the crashed vehicles Kra'tak and Tol'din had found earlier.
They walked in silence, each to their own thought, Callum fidgety, Gustav composed. The sounds of nature that they'd heard since they'd first arrived at the base were completely gone now.
Half way there Hale froze and gestured for the others to do so. They followed his eyeline and to their surprise saw a sleek black Alien standing between some trees further on. They readied their weapons and watched. Gustav stopped Callum from opening fire in a panic and gave him another annoyed look.
The Alien looked almost confused. It paid no attention to them. Just as Heather was about to give the order to shoot, it darted off away from them. In the shadows caused by the sun, they could see it run further into the jungle, until it disappeared from view.
"That was weird," Hale observed.
"Yeah, it was," Heather agreed. "Keep an eye out. Let's move."
They arrived fifteen minutes later at the same crash site. Gustav and Callum took up watch, looking for any signs of the Alien they had seen earlier. Heather already knew the truck was useless so she went to the first APC. She opened the engine hatch. There was some damage where the engine had been shaken up during impact.
Heather went to the second APC. The engine block on this one seemed to have remained unscathed. She went inside and attempted to activate the engine. To her surprise it started up immediately. The displays lit up. She looked in dismay at the battery indicator: it was at eight percent.
"That won't get us far," Hale said, looking at the display from behind her.
"Let's hope the other battery has more," Heather replied as she exited.
"What're you going to do?" Hale asked, following her out.
"Me and you are going to swap the batteries out," Heather explained. "Gustav. You and Callum patrol around the crash site."
Gustav nodded.
"If you see any Aliens, try not to shoot unless you have to. We could do without attracting any attention to ourselves."
"Understood," Gustav said as he grabbed a scared Callum by the arm and quietly gave him stern instructions.
Heather and Hale went to work. It took a couple of hours for them to work around the mangled engine of the first APC and remove the battery. Another twenty minutes for them to quickly swap the batteries around.
Heather once again climbed inside the second APC, Hale followed. She paused and murmured some words under her breath. She pushed the engine start. It immediately started up. She stared at the battery indicator in anticipation. It took a few seconds before it displayed forty-eight percent.
"Bout time something went our way," Hale said.
"You got that right. This'll get us home." Heather agreed.
The four of them climbed into the idling APC. Heather drove. She manoeuvred the APC back and out of the way of the other two vehicles. There was a huge dent in the right side of the APC where it had been hit by the truck. Luckily the APC hadn't gotten trapped by the crash.
She drove back towards the base.
A few hours had passed been since the full evacuation had been called.
"What do you think they're doing out there?" a soldier at evac point Gus 3 asked to no one in particular, as he stood standing and staring at the sealed hatch above him.
A number of soldiers were sat around on the various beds that were laid out in the large room. They were underground along with those in the other two evac points.
Shen, Dena and Keitaro were sat next to each other. Shen was reading a book.
"Any Chinese proverbs that can help us off this rock?" Dena asked, mildly serious.
Shen looked up, deep in thought. "When people work with one mind, they can even remove Mount Taishan."
"What's a mount taishan?" Dena asked.
"Oh right," Shen realised. "It's a mountain on earth."
"Never seen one of those," Dena remarked.
"We lived near one in Japan," Keitaro added, sword still firmly on his back. "I used to love climbing it with family when I was little."
"Hmm, the colony I lived on was just a whole load of flat land in every direction." Dena told them.
She looked back at Shen. "So, if we work together we can get out of here?"
"If we stick together, I hope so," Shen didn't sound so sure.
"Yeah, me too," Keitaro agreed, sounding just as unsure.
Another group of soldiers were having a discussion nearby.
"Did you see if Erran made it?" one asked.
"Sorry man. Soon as that thing crashed into the wall I saw the roof collapse on them all." another replied.
"They should've left soon as the order was given," the first soldier said, upset at this news.
"I'm sorry," another soldier replied as he put a comforting hand on the first soldiers arm. They continued to sit in silence.
The ride back in the APC had taken a lot longer than expected. They'd had to keep stopping to clear old fallen logs and large rocks out of the way.
Heather drove through the broken wall back into the base. Avoiding the debris, she parked near the entrance.
"Fourty-four percent," she announced, turning the engine off.
"Enough to get us back home," Hale noted, as they all exited the vehicle.
"It's a clear path so that'll save us some juice," Heather added.
She looked up at the sky. "We're gonna have to wait 'til first light to head out."
"Why can't we go now?" Callum complained.
"Because it is going to be dark soon," Gustav answered. "We don't want to be stuck out there in the dark."
Gustav was growing more impatient with Callums panicky behaviour.
Callum and Gustav took up positions outside the entrance. Hale and Heather walked past the foyer, saw Smith still hadn't moved from the corridor and entered the lab where Kra'tak, Tol'din, a dying Adams and Amy working on Arthurs android head still were.
"Any luck?" Heather asked as she walked straight over to Adams. She crouched and checked his pulse. It was weaker than before. She was surprised he'd lasted this long already. She'd need to change his IV bag soon.
"We need power," Amy replied. Her voice was flat.
The room was still lit by the white light of the torches placed around mixed with the red emergency lighting. Kra'tak was sitting with his back against the wall. Tol'din was sat next to him now.
"Ok .Well there's some good news," Heather said grimly. "We've got a working vehicle. We head back at first light."
"What about Adams?" Amy asked, without looking towards her or Adams unmoving body.
"I don't know if he'll last," Heathers answered heavily.
After a brief silence, Heather spoke again. "I'm going to try and get power online. If i do, I'll need you to work the system and try and get up and running for the night. We could do with some lights and door locks."
"Ok," Amy replied. Heather could see her body shaking with sobs.
She wanted to say something reassuring but didn't know what. Instead, she left the room with Hale.
The two of them looked around each of the rooms until they found a circuit breaker in one of the equipment rooms. The fuses were all lying smashed on the ground.
"Arthur did this," Heather shone her torch on the circuit box. "No damage. He must've been in a hurry to stop us leaving."
She turned to Hale, who started looking through the equipment shelves. A minute later he picked an object up excitedly. It was a spare fuse.
Heather took the fuse and placed it in to the panel.
"Main power. Online. Power at. Thirty. Percent." A female voice announced to the room.
Heather expected the red lighting of the room they were in to switch to the normal lights.
"Warning. Malfunctions in. Circuits. Two. And. Three. Please reboot systems for normal operations."
The emergency lighting hadn't been replaced.
"Probably need to turn it on from the ops room," Hale suggested.
Heather activated her radio. "Amy, meet me in operations. I need you to get the system online."
A pause before Amys shaky voice replied, "O..ok."
Before going to the ops room, Heather stopped by Smith. She held him by the shoulders and looked into his terrified eyes.
"Smith, we're going home in the morning. You'll be back with Caley and Patia in no time."
This seemed to wake him up. He shook his head as if trying to clear it. His eyes focused onto Heathers. "Adams?"
"I'm not sure. He might not make it through the night." She replied.
Smith nodded slightly and made a move to stand up. Heather helped him stand on shaky legs.
"Lets go sit in the control room," she suggested to him.
He nodded and started walking shakily as Hale and Heather helped him. They guided him to a chair in the operations room and joined Amy as she began tapping keys.
The displays kept flashing red as Amy tapped commands into the system.
"Nothings working!" Amy yelled in frustration, banging her fist on the console.
"Amy, calm down," Heather ordered. She pulled Amy towards her and looked at her. "Take a breath."
After a few silent moments, Amy went back to work at the console.
Heather sat back and watched, sighing heavily. The burden of holding the badly hurt and shaken group together was weighing heavily on her. The red flashes of the displays refusing Amy access to the system were starting to give her a headache.