Silence, they had said, was the ultimate killer. The total suspense of not knowing what is lurking where a person's sight cannot reach was more deadly than the thrashing claws of an Alien or the sheer firepower a marine could bear on its targets. Of course, Chaz never trusted what 'they' had always said. Carrying his rifle in his left hand with his motion tracker in his right, he wasn't afraid of anything. The heat of the facility mirrored the desert atmosphere outside. They would have to get the cooling tanks working if they were going to be in the facility for any amount of time. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he continued to monitor the motion tracker's systematic pulses.
They had changed formation since coming across the mutilated corpse. Chaz held the front with Lance, one of the new marines and the replacement weapons expert. Lance walked a small distance out in front of Chaz while brandishing his 60mm smartgun. The smartguns were very reliable weapons to the marines. Though Chaz preferred the mobility of his pulse rifle, the smartgunners were very important assets to any marine platoon. The 60mm rounds could easily penetrate the hide of a drone Xenomorph and tear through the armor plating of a Praetorian, the scaled guardians of a bug hive.
"The command center is through this door," Jeremy pointed out as they came upon the large metal door. 'Command Center 1' was scrawled across the top of the door, indicating they were finally at their destination.
Chaz ran his hand over the door, popping a flare and holding it close to the metal housing.
"What's wrong?" Lance asked, turning on his shoulder lamp to give Chaz more sight.
"This place was attacked," Chaz whispered, running his hand over the groves running along the door. They were Xenomorph claws, he was sure of it. The beasts had made it to the command center. Perhaps the workers had put up a resistance inside. If so, the command center's equipment would probably be smashed, shot, or fused together by Xenomorph blood.
"Form up!" Jeremy made his way to the front, "Motion trackers?"
"Can't read through the bulkhead," Chaz backed away from the door, dropping the flare and checking to make sure his rifle was fully loaded. Lance and two other marines took up covering positions while a fourth opened his hacking device and pried the console panel off.
"Give me two minutes," the marine started running the bypass software.
"Make it one and half," Jeremy ordered.
Chaz turned to their backside, kneeling down to cover their six. The motion tracker was still reading negative, but that could change at any moment with the Xenomorphs. More flares were popped and tossed down the corridor to illuminate the corridor behind them. They had shut the bulkhead behind them, and Chaz wondered if it was a good idea or not to leave it unsealed. Of course sealing it would keep the aliens out in case of an attack, but it would keep them in also. Sealing the doors was a favorite way to create a defense against the Xenomorphs by civilians and panicked marines. The doors were not the main thoroughfare for the Xenomorphs, but the airducts and ventilation shafts of a complex. Realizing this, Chaz popped his second of his four remaining flares and tossed it into the ceiling's ventilation shaft. The sudden light illuminated more of the corridor, making for almost decent visibility.
"Almost there," the marine drew his pistol as the bypass was almost completed, "Done!"
The doors slowly started to open and Chaz felt his heart stop. Shoulder lamps clicked on and guns were locked and pointed into the darkness. It was the moment of truth, Chaz had felt it before. Right before stumbling into a group of waiting aliens, a person's heart skipped a beat and all their senses heightened. Doctors attributed the sensation to increased adrenaline levels, but the soldiers in the field knew different. It was the feeling of death coming to take them to hell in the hands of the Xenomorphs.
"Stand down!" Jeremy shouted suddenly as the room was revealed to them, "It's empty."
All the marines let out a sigh of relief, but Chaz still felt uneasy. He checked his watch; only an hour and fifteen minutes remained before sundown. The marines started to secure the command center, sweeping across the rooms and checking for any signs of intrusion. Chaz and Jeremy headed up the stairwell in the center to the observation deck. Lance followed behind them but stopped before Jeremy and Chaz boarded the elevator heading up.
"Keep this area secure, soldier," Jeremy ordered, "Check for infiltration zones in the vents and ducts and seal them immediately. And see if you can get someone to get the power relays up."
"Sir, yes, sir!" Lance saluted and then disappeared back down onto the base floor.
"This elevator should take us to the command bunker on the surface," Jeremy opened the panel and pressed the red button calling the elevator, "It's pretty secure from infestation. No vents or anything. Only way in is the elevator. Just hope whoever was here last didn't destroy it."
A moment passed and the yellow light on the panel beeped. The doors opened, the outer door retracting upwards while the inner retracted to Chaz's right. Jeremy was about to take a step onto the elevator when he jumped backwards and yelped. Chaz raised his weapon and flicked on his shoulder lamp. Lying in the floor of the elevator was two halves of the same person. He was ripped at the torso, slightly above the waistline and his intestines and organs were lying in between the two halves covered in a pool of blood.
"Dear God," Jeremy puked.
"Damn it," Chaz leaned his head in and looked up. The lamp on his shoulder barely illuminating the top of the shaft. They were in the elevator, which meant that they had made it to the command bunker. He slowly backed against the far wall of the shaft and continued to monitor the ceiling, "Let's go."
Jeremy wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his BDU and stepped into the elevator. He slung his rifle and pulled the shotgun from Chaz's back.
"What are you doing?" Chaz asked, hitting the button to make the elevator go back up.
"The bunker isn't that big," Jeremy loaded the shotgun with shells from his own ammo belt, "If there's a bug up there, then it's gonna be a CQB. This will give us better odds of hitting it."
"Yeah and spraying more acid blood on us," Chaz felt the rumbling as the elevator started heading into the darkness above them. He popped another flare, leaving him with only two remaining, and dropped it on the floor to keep the shaft somewhat illuminated. The elevator came slowly to a stop at the bunker and the yellow light above the door went off. He gulped as the doors began to retract.
Jeremy loaded a shell into the gun and flipped on his shoulder lamp. The bunker was dark, obviously without power. Its window panels were shut, keeping the natural light out also. The beam from the shoulder lamp panned over the small bunker until it reached the back corner where something caught Chaz's eye.
"Wait, look," he whispered, tapping Jeremy on the shoulder and pointing to where the beam was. It was hard to see, but in the light the unmistakeable reflection off of a Xenomorph's drool was present, "Pan up."
Jeremy panned the lamp upwards to reveal what they both feared the most. A Xenomorph was resting on the ceiling, suspended upside down from one of the large air conditioning units connected to the outside. It was a drone, it's slimy black scales reflecting their sadistic nature in the light from the lamp. Chaz brought his weapon up as Jeremy froze in his place. Chaz took careful aim at the creature's frontal lobe of its oblong head, hoping for a quick and easy kill.
Suddenly, there was a rustling inside the room and the Xenomorph raised its massive head up, spotting the two marines standing in the elevator shaft. It let out a blood-curling scream and leaped out towards them. Jeremy yelled, falling backwards as Chaz squeezed the trigger. The 7.62mm rounds tore through the alien's body, ripping it up and spraying the toxic green go across the bunker. The monster collapsed on the ground and Chaz continued to fire, making sure the beast was dead. Once he was sure it wasn't getting back up, he turned and helped Jeremy to his feet.
"You all right?" Chaz asked.
"Yeah," Jeremy choked out between breaths, his heart racing at nearly twice its normal rate. He was breathing heavily as Chaz walked forward, checking the alien to make sure it was dead.
"Bravo leader!" the radio on Jeremy's helmet echoed, it was Lance downstairs, "What's going on? We heard gunshots, over."
"Situation normal," Jeremy, still trying to catch his breath, brought the comm set up to his mouth, "We encountered a bug, but evrything's fine. Repeat, everything normal, over."
"A bug? Hell!"
"Just get the damn power on, marine!" Jeremy ordered, regaining his composure, "Bravo out."
Chaz sat down at the console and tried rebooting the data systems on the computers. With any luck, they would be able to get power on and the security systems up before the sun set. That would hopefully by them some more time to hook up with Kinneas in the tunnel network. After a moment, the computer system light came back on and the screen flickered to life.
"What are you doing?" Jeremy asked, backing slowly away from the corpse of the alien on the floor.
"I'm trying to get the computers online to open the vents and give us some light," Chaz brought up the bunker's command system. He hit the lighting key and the bunker came to life as the rotary gears started to retract the blinds.
The light from outside flooded in, illuminating the bunker and giving them a more accurate assessment of the damage. There were gunshots and burn marks all along the walls of the bunker. Blood was everywhere and a number of the machines were destroyed. Chaz turned around and took an assessment of the situation with Jeremy.
"What the hell?" Jeremy whispered, "There's no bodies."
"Probably took them back to the hive," Chaz returned to the console.
"No, there should at least be a few, some mutilated or something," Jeremy took his helmet off and wiped his brow again, "This is getting too scary."
"Just stay cool, Blunt," Chaz started typing again, searching through the database to see if there was any way to bring up the power or get contact with the other marines in the complex, "Look at this."
Jeremy leaned over Chaz's shoulder and started looking at the monitor. The computer had a complete layout of the facility on hand and Chaz brought up the section they were in.
"We're here," he pointed to the bunker that was topside, "And this is where Alpha is," he brought up a diagram of the central power core for the station, "Seems the systems were manually shutdown from here. Which means the only way to get power back is to cold reboot down in the core. Alpha team should be there in ten minutes and it'll take us at least thirty to double back."
"How about radio?" Jeremy asked.
"Negative, the core is shielded from interference, which means to let them know where the power station is, we have to get down there."
"Damn it," Jeremy slammed the table, "This isn't getting any easier."
"It's worse," Chaz again brought up the plans, "According to the latest layout, the tunnel network is corroded. It's possible that the hive is located somewhere around here," he pointed to a section of the facility that was close to where Alpha would be passing by.
"Shit!" Jeremy grabbed his helmet, "Let's go!"
Chaz grabbed his rifle and jumped over the alien corpse. It seemed strange to him, the Alien seemed more like it was hiding in the bunker rather than waiting. What could it be hiding from? Chaz found himself staring at the alien corpse intently as the doors to the elevator closed. Jeremy was on the radio trying to get in contact with Alpha team, but it was as useless as Chaz had said.
Why would a Xenomorph be hiding from humans? It did seem surprised when it spotted them. Was there something else that had scared it into taking shelter in the isolated bunker. When the elevator came to a rest at the bottom of the shaft, the other marines were both anxious and relieved to see them come out safely.
"Sir, we can't get power back online from here," Lance reported, "I…"
"Cram it," Jeremy tossed his helmet aside, "Piece of crap. All right, listen up! Alpha's in a lot of trouble. We think the hive is down near the power core. We need to be on the hop to get down there and get them out before they walk right into the nest, understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" the marines echoed as the took up their arms and made for the doors. Chaz followed in the back again, pulling out his motion tracker. He could see it in the marines' eyes when Jeremy broke the news to them. They were scared shitless.
* * *
"Trackers?" Harper asked.
"Nothing, sir," the marine in lead reported.
"Silent," the marine in the rear echoed.
Alpha had made its way down into the center of the complex and was now heading for the core to try and see if they could restart the systems. So far, it was just eerie silence since they left the false comfort of the elevator behind them. Bodies had been encountered, but none were identifiable. The aliens had definitely infested the security deck which scarred all of them.
"Any luck raising Blunt?" Harper asked Jessup who was carrying the radio.
"Nothing, sir," Jessup replied, knocking at his headset, "Radio's been dead since we entered this secure area."
"Sir!" one of the marines near the front called, "I think you better have a look at this."
Harper took his helmet off and kneeled down next to the marine. A large hole was carved into the corner of the floor. Though it was large enough for a man to pass through, it wasn't made by any tools. The edges were jagged and steam was rising off the sides. There was no doubt it was freshly carved.
"It's a bug hole," Harper stood up, "Form up marines, things might get hot!"
As if on cue, the screeching roar of the Xenomorphs could be heard through the hole.
"Movement!" the marine at the front of the squad yelled, bringing his weapon up.
"How many?" Harper grabbed the tracker from the marine.
"Too many to count, sir!" the marine cried, "Shit, we're gonna die!"
"Stay frosty marines!" Harper loaded his weapon, pulling a flare and tossing it down the corridor ahead of them, revealing nothing.
"Behind us now!" another marine shouted, "I got ten maybe more signals at forty feet!"
"Targets closing!"
"Oh shit!"
"Defensive circle, get your weapons ready!" Harper ordered as the marines panicked, "Stay frosty! Keep your eyes open!"
"Damn it!" one of the marines shouted.
"Twenty feet and closing!"
"We should be seeing them!" another shouted.
"What the hell?"
"Ten feet!"
"The ceiling!" Harper shouted, "The ceiling!"
He raised his gun up and started firing. The others followed suit as the whole ceiling seemed to explode in a fury of gunshots and acid blood. Grates burst as the Aliens dropped from the ceiling, their massive bodies looming over the group. Shouts and gunfire could be heard as they swarmed the marines. Harper shot an HE grenade into a group of them, sending body parts everywhere in the aftermath of the explosion.
He spun around to see the marine next to him suddenly have his head torn from his neck as the alien lashed out with its giant claws. Harper brought his weapon up and fired, the acidic blood spraying on his face. He backed over a marine while screaming in pain. The marine shrugged him off only to be knocked backwards by an alien. There were too many of them. They were all gonna die. A flamethrower erupted within the group and several aliens screeched in pain as their bodies burned.
"Shit!"
"Medic!"
"Jones is dead!"
"We gotta get out of here!"
The screams could be heard as Harper tried to fight, but the corrosion on his cheek had eaten into his mouth. He could no longer scream, but grabbed a nearby weapon and brought it up to bear on an alien just as it was about to leap at him.
* * *
"On the double marines!" Jeremy shouted as the sounds of gunfire erupted outside the elevator door. When the doors opened to reveal the security level, the marines took off in a rush towards the sound of gunfire.
Screams echoed through the hallways as they came to a sealed door. Alpha had sealed themselves in. It was clear the sounds were coming from inside the door. A marine started torching the seals with his welding tool as Chaz loaded his weapon with a fresh clip. Jeremy tossed his helmet aside, as it would do little good against the Xenomorph's claws and the others prepared for battle. Suddenly, there was a pounding on the door followed by more high pitched screaming.
"Help us!" it was some of Alpha team banging on the door, "Get us out of here!"
"Faster!" Jeremy ordered to the marine.
"I'm going as fast as it can!" he yelled back.
More screams and the banging on the door stopped. Chaz could feel his heart racing as the marine pulled his torch back and hit the control panel. The door retracted back just as the gunshots and screaming stopped. Everyone froze as the half of the door welded open retracted to reveal absolute carnage. Bodies of marines and the Xenomorphs were littered everywhere on the ground in the corridor. Holes from bullets and acid littered the corridor. Marines puked as they entered the grisly scene, their hearts skipping every other beat as they spread out searching for any other Xenomorphs. The marines that were banging on the door were dead, their skulls smashed and their bodies tossed against the sides of the walls. Another had its arms ripped off and his chest crushed. A trio of Xenomorph corpses burned at the far side of the body heap, a dead marine lying with them.
"It's a massacre," Jeremy shook his head, "If only we were faster."
"It's all right," Chaz patted him on the shoulder, "There was no way we could have known."
"Sir!" one of the marines spoke up, "We got a live one, looks like Harper."
Jeremy and Chaz walked over to where the marines knelt over Harper's wounded body. It was a sickening sight. His entire left half of his face was melted with their blood and his BDU was drenched in his own blood. The armor on his chest appeared to be cracked and his right arm was broken near the elbow.
"Harper, Christ," Jeremy knelt down, "What the hell happened?"
"A…ambu…ambushed," Harper choked out, his body in obvious pain.
"It's okay," Jeremy took ripped a clean part of Harper's BDU off his pant leg and wiped his brow, "Let's get him out of here. Any other survivors?"
"Negative," the marines reported.
"Fall back to the elevator in pairs," Jeremy ordered, "Weapons armed," he turned to the two marines next to Harper, "You two help him."
