YUA: Hello people of peoples! Yes, I know it has been a long time, and hopefully none of you have lost interest in this story. I hope. Answers to your reviews!

Chaos: Thanks a bunch!

Hao: Um, dude, I was describing the Slave. Y'know, with the bands of green and the lightning…?

MikeFS: Yea, I agree. It was short. But I was saving the action for the next scene which is…oh! It's this one! Mwahaha…you'll never guess what they find in the garage…not in a MILLION years.

Blizrun: Hmm…so you don't care either way, huh? Actually, I decided against. All action baby! Like action as in "BLAM! DIE MOTHER &*%^ER!!!!!!"

Secular Anarchy: Whoa! Thanks!

Ok! On with the chapter. Oh, I have a feeling I'll need some rockets for this chapter…

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Half Life: Advanced Generation

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"We're almost there I think." Chad was making his way over a pile of rubble, with blood spattered over every piece. Jack was doing his best to try and keep from vomiting, as most of the blood was still wet.

"I smell something…and it smells horrendous…" Jennifer's nose cringed, and she put on her gas mask once again.

"Probably just another body."

"No…it smells like…I don't know. But trust me, I would know if it was a body. Alien or human, I would know. It…smells like burning…" Jennifer didn't get to finish her sentence before she tripped over a large, blue piece of rubble, or so they thought.

"The hell?" one end of the piece seemed to be torn, as if ripped from a larger entity. Sinew and muscle trailed from the ripped end. The other end was partly open, almost like a crab claw, except the inside edges were not serrated like a saw. Wisps of smoke slowly rose from the opening, and it smelled of a mix between gasoline and something matching the sickening smell of rotting flesh.

"That's no piece of debris…it's a piece from something very big…" Jennifer hastily jumped off of the blue thing, the poked it with her gun. It billowed more smoke, before finally bursting into small flames.

"…That is just screwed up…" Jack stood, hypnotized by the flames, as if a moth attracted to a bright light.

"Jack! C'mon! We've got to keep moving." Jack broke free from his momentary lapse, and caught up with his other two companions.

* * * * *

"Colonel Stalen! I advise immediate retreat! There's too many! We have to pu—AAAAAHHHHH!!!" The soldier didn't have enough time to finish. He was bathed in a stream of fire, slowly falling to the ground as the flames incinerated him. Soon, there was nothing left but ashes.

"Shit! Alright, fall back! Make sure to bring the tank!" How ironic was it, that as soon as he said that, the monstrosity brought it's foot down upon the M1 Abram, crushing it and everyone that was inside.

"Dammit! Fall back!!" Stalen began to cover his teammates as they raced passed him. It was a sea teeming with brown aliens, with seemed to follow the whim of others. Slaves, they were called. And the monstrosity, which was almost like the flagship of the force, was a force to be reckoned with. One of them could take out an entire platoon. After he made sure his whole team was accounted for, he followed suit, still firing behind him, not bothering to look back at the fate that had been bestowed upon his fallen comrades. Then it hit him. It was so obvious.

It was an army, bred for invasion.

* * * * *

"Yes! We're here! The vehicle garage!" Chad ran ahead, too lost in his happiness to keep alert for the surroundings.

Yes! Finally! Anything left?" Jack joined Chad in running, but Jennifer ketp walking, always cautious.

"Yeah, there's one jeep left. I wonder if---"

"There! Over by the jeep!" The gruff voice of a soldier, obviously male, rang out, and bullets flew over head. Jack didn't make it very far out, so he stayed behind the wall, out of the line of sight. Meanwhile, Chad took cover behind the jeep.

[Yes! Some of my buddies! Ha! Now, about that bullet in the head…] Jennifer raised her assault rifle to the back of Jack's head. He was completely oblivious, keeping his attention trained on the soldiers around the corner.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" Jennifer's conscious was stalled, however, as the screams of her comrades echoed throughout the garage.

"Oh my God…" Chad stood up and froze, completely paralyzed by pure terror.

"Chad! Get down!" But Jack's cry fell upon deaf ears. Chad remained where he was.

"FUCK!!!" Jennifer peeked around the corner, and her eyes went wide.

There, in the middle of the garage, was the most hideous thing she had ever seen. The ground beneath it was no longer present, and three tentacles burst forth, causing her two fellow soldiers to fall to their feet. One of the things reared back, and let out an eerie moan. The other two went wild, as if searching for something. Their green bodies oozed with a yellow substance, and each had something resembling a nose, except they were made to be weapons. An axe. More accurately, the scythe of a grim reaper.

"SHOOT---AAAARRRGGHHH!!!" As soon as the words left his mouth, one soldier was speared straight through the chest, and lifted into the air. The man was still alive, screaming as he ascended. The other two tentacles helped their brother scrape the annoyance off its scythe, and the screaming body was tossed into the hole from which the things came from. Sickening noises were heard, and screams that were loud enough to sound throughout the compound radiated from the hole.

The other soldier, obviously afraid, began to back up, making small grunts and noises to let the air out of his lungs. The same tentacle, the one with his friends blood smeared on the scythe, turned towards him. He froze. The green thing lowered itself to his level, and stared at him. Those red, beady eyes searching, looking for something. The soldier let out a stifled sob. The tentacle roared, and picked the soldier up, using something like a vacuum suction cup. He was picked up by the head, still sobbing, crying uncontrollably.

"DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!" He let loose with a grenade, which was propelled into the hole, and the tentacle let go of him, letting him fall to the ground. His leg bent the wrong way, and several snaps were heard. His leg had broken, but he was still alive. All three things writhed in pain, and disappeared into the blackness.

The soldier curled up, bringing his good knee to his chest, sobbing, still crying at the loss of his friend.

Jennifer was broken. She had felt the same way before. She had lost many loved ones. She rushed forward, almost to the soldier's side.

All three tentacles boiled forth once more, and one came down onto the crying soldier, the scythe piercing his skull, and going halfway into his body, before pushing itself back up, with the body dangling lifelessly from its scythe. The tentacle shook vigorously, as a shark would to tear off a piece of flesh, and the soldier's body was flung against the wall, on the opposite side of the corner Jack was hiding behind. It bounced off the wall, leaving a splatter of blood where it hit, and fell down onto the pavement. Jack could see the insides of his body, down to his intestines, and his brains leaking out. He became violently sick, he took no time to bend over, letting the bile out of his throat.

This, in turn, caught the attention of the three tentacles, and they turned in the direction the sound of splattering liquid had came from. One of them looked down at Jennifer, who fell to her knees, letting go of her gun.

"Jennifer! Move!" Chad had regained his composure, and begged her to move out of the way. The tentacle reared back, preparing to bring it's blade crashing down onto her. Taking the risk, Chad fired a grenade into the group of tentacles, with Jennifer barely outside of the blast radius. They wretched and moaned, disappearing again into the blackness.

Chad rushed forward, grabbing Jennifer's two hands and dragged her back to the corner where Jack was hiding. Jack was currently on the floor, still spilling his guts.

"Dammit. I'm going to see if the car has the keys. You two stay here." Jack nodded, and Chad carefully went out into plain view. He waved and made all sorts of movement, but no sound at all. None of the tentacles took notice of him.

[Just as I thought. They react only to sound. This is not going to be easy…] He quietly stepped over to the car, and checked for the keys. They were there. He celebrated mentally, but the task now was to make no noise at all. He looked back at Jack, who was watching carefully. He made all sorts of signals, but Jack couldn't understand. Chad pointed to his ears and shook his head. Jack thought he meant they couldn't hear.

"What?!" He yelled. All three of them turned their direction to that part of the garage. Chad nodded to him. Now Jack knew what they would do. They reacted to sound, not sight or smell. He wanted to distract them.

"HEY!! OVER HERE!!! LOOK HERE!!!!" While Jack made as much noise as he could, Chad started the car, but the roar of the engine echoed throughout the garage, and worse, it backfired once. One tentacle came crashing down, but the jeep was just of out reach. Chad smiled devilishly, and was about to get in the drivers seat, when a huge gob of light blue material smothered the jeep, melting it until nothing was left but a pile of blue.

"Uncanny…" Chad looked up to see the same stuff was dripping from the tentacles mouth, and he decided to run back to the hiding spot. He ran as fast as he could, with three gobs of the blue acid barely missing him.

"Godamn! These things are smart! First they have knives for a nose, now they can spit acid stuff?!" Jack cursed under his breath, and Jennifer stood up.

"Leave it to me."

"Uh…Jennifer?" She took a grenade out, one that was supposed to be fired from a gun, except she didn't load into the secondary weapon attachment. Instead, she threw it out to the other side of the garage. It bounced three times, making a clang noise as it did. The attention of the alien turned to that direction and all three humans ran out from cover, stepping softly but going as fast as they could. Chad let one of his feet come down rather loudly, and the aliens looked straight at them. One reached out to slice him in half, but couldn't reach. All three humans were "motivated" to run even faster, now that they had been detected. They dove behind the wall leading to the exit, narrowly dodging another salvo of acid.

"Damn. No more cars. We have to go by foot." Jennifer listened to Chad's remark, but she was busy thinking. That was the second time they had spared her life, or saved her. Perhaps she should team up. They were proving to be valuable allies.

"Jennifer! C'mon!" She looked up, and ran to her companions, heading for the exit, leaving the moans and haunting cries of the alien behind.

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YUA: Hahaha! An excellent chapter! My favorite so far! And yes, I know it's not the same type of tentacle monster, but remember how I said I might introduce my own aliens? Well, let's just say some of the species…uh, "evolved". **evil, EVIL grin** Bwahahaha…