'Drake! He's down!' cried Vasquez as she saw her friend get sprayed with hot acid across his chest and face. She made towards the car's doorway to help him - they were leaving no one behind, especially Drake. Suddenly, something pulled her back while she struggled and squirmed to get out of the iron grip. Had she been thinking clearer, she would have easily been able to do so, but her mind was filled with the screams of the dying, their pain mingled with hers. And she couldn't accept the fact that Drake was now among them.

'He's gone! Forget it, he's gone!' shouted the voice behind her. But the voice sounded distorted, distant.

It isn't true, thought Vasquez. 'No...No-he's not! He's-' she protested, struggling harder to get out of the car.

Two more pairs of arms were flung around her and she was dragged away from the door. Hicks immediately began to slide the door shut when a curved black claw appeared from the outside, inches away from his hand. He heard a high pitched scream emanate from within the interior of the car, but ignored it as a black head appeared through the space in the doorway, hissing menacingly. My shotgun, he remembered. But his heart sank as he realized that he'd run out of ammunition earlier on and he'd left the laser blaster somewhere inside the car.

'Allow me.' said a voice nearby. He watched in relieved amazement as the butt of another blaster shoved up against the side of the creature's head and went off. He ducked, anticipating a gush of acid to come raining down on him, but there was none.

'A laser shot makes for a clean kill if you do it right,' explained Call as she helped Hicks shut the door. 'Let's go!' she shouted towards the driver of the vehicle who was hidden behind a portion of metal inside. The car jerked to a start and began roaring down the rocky terrain, causing its passengers to grab a hold of anything to steady themselves from the bumpy ride that ensued.

Call looked around for Velko who lay a few yards away from her, hunched over Bohr's limp form. 'How's she doing?' she asked, already aware of his answer.

'She's losing blood. We need to get an IV into her pronto. And once we've reached safer ground, I think we'll need to find a compatible blood donor,' he replied as he placed an improvised version of a tourniquet onto her leg, 'not to mention a fully qualified medic.' Velko muttered to himself.

The vehicle screeched to a sudden halt. Everyone's head jerked upwards, alarmed - only two minutes had elapsed since their escape - surely they couldn't have reached a safe location yet? Then they heard a crash - the sound of breaking glass from the front of the car. Hicks ran towards the noise, alarmed. Just then, the car started moving again, and whatever it was that had crashed through was gone now. The only evidence of its presence was a hole in the windshield and shards of glass on the floor.

Call had stumbled and fallen backwards when the car had stopped. She picked herself up and followed Hicks. She gaped at the windshield hole and then turned to look at the driver, 'Did you get it?' asked Call. The driver nodded, obviously too shaken to say a word. Her face was pale, wisps of sweat-soaked curly hair stuck to the sides of it and her eyes registered nothing but pure fear. But she drove on, flooring the accelerator until they began to hear screeching sounds outside - the sounds of metal scraping against metal. Call looked around her dazed, this was not how she had anticipated their meeting. 'Ripley...' she began.

But Hicks interrupted her, as he eased Ripley's hand back on the throttle lever. 'It's okay...We're clear. We're clear. Ease up.' Ripley continued to look ahead, not acknowledging his words. Hicks spoke again, trying to get through to her. 'Sounds like a blown transaxle. You're just grinding metal.'

The car finally slowed down to a halt when Ripley sprung up, 'Newt! Where's Newt?'

Call turned around with Ripley to find out who Newt was when she saw a girl - no older than eleven or twelve - with disheveled blonde hair sitting hunched and unharmed in corner. I remember someone...a little girl, the words rang in Call's mind. Those were Ripley's last words before Call left her own time. So it was true then. Not that Call had doubted any of it, but hearing the truth and believing it were two entirely different situations. It felt as if she was living a legend, it was a difficult concept to grasp and she struggled internally with it. But now was not the time to succumb to internal turmoil, we need to get this done. I need for this to be over.

                                                             *          *          *

They grouped together inside the vehicle trying to size up their situation. Only Velko remained apart, attending to Bohr in a corner. He watched in silence as the marine - the woman - made for yet another prostate life form with her fist raised. Apparently, the unconscious man was responsible for this mishap, although Velko would hardly call it that. Mass murder sounded more appropriate. But the poor bastard couldn't have anticipated even this.

Velko looked around him, but these faces, these people, were all a blur. The most information he could register was that there were about six of them - excluding Call, Bohr and himself - all trapped in the middle of nowhere with little ammunition, like sitting ducks in the center of an open lake. He needed a distraction.

He looked back down at Bohr. Her eyelids fluttered, but she'd done that earlier, and he'd given up hoping that she was coming around. Velko squeezed her hand tighter and spoke to her quietly. 'You're doing just fine, kiddo. Keep breathing, just keep breathing. You leave the rest to us. If your granddad can crawl through two miles of crap 'n all, this should be a piece of cake.' Velko spoke as if he was trying to believe his own words. He looked back up at the wall of the car. It was unbelievable how quickly the situation had spiraled beyond their control.

He didn't feel certain of anything; their chances of survival in this hostile place were dropping with each passing minute. He wanted to just give up, surrender arms and wait for the inevitable, but something wouldn't let him.

'Velko.' said Call, suddenly by his side.

He looked up at her as she continued. 'We need to get to General Mills. We need to get Bohr to a medic and we need to get these people out of here.' She spoke quietly, as if she didn't want to be overheard. No chance of that, thought Velko as he listened to the loud din of voices inside the vehicle.

'He's not gonna like it.' Velko couldn't think of anything better to say.

'Given our situation, I don't think his feelings or consequences are an option, do you?'

'What're you gonna tell him?'

'It's not what I'm going to tell. It's what I'm going to do.' she said.

Suddenly, idea started taking shape and form, he felt as if the dense fog in his head was clearing. 'You're thinking mutiny.'

'I'm thinking a lot of things right now...but yeah, this is one of them. We need to subdue Mills, but before we do that we've got to get Ripley and these people away from here. We can take them to Mills' location and demand an immediate evac. Once that has been accomplished, we'll have to get Mills to see things from our point of view.'

'And if he doesn't?'

'You know the rest.' she said, a-matter-of-factly.

And he did.

                                                          *          *          *

Velko and Call turned up their heads sharply at the sound of someone's panicked voice. It was a third marine - Velko realized that he hadn't even noticed his presence throughout the commotion. He looked towards the man, his hand was pointing towards several computer screens. It took Velko a moment to realize that these were monitoring the vital signs of each marine who had gone into the fray just over an hour ago.

'Hey, hey! Look, Crowe and Dietrich aren't dead, man!' cried the marine.

Suddenly everyone was silent. The marine's panic-filled voice echoed around the confined walls of the armored vehicle. Velko watched intently as a tall woman stepped forward. He was surprised to hear her voice, it sounded calm, resolute and yet devoid of hope. 'You can't help them. Right now they're being cocooned just like the others.'

'Well why don't these cowboys here go get them? They're the rescue team, aren't they?' whined the marine, pointing to Call and Velko.

Everyone turned to look at Call and Velko. Velko looked away as Call spoke. 'Yes,' she began, ignoring Velko as he flinched at the lie, 'But she's right.' Call pointed at Ripley before continuing. 'I've seen these things do this before. We can't help your friends. The most we can do right now is help the remaining few who're alive. I know where-'

She was suddenly interrupted by Hicks. 'Hold up, we're not going anywhere except out of here. I'm gonna contact the dropship.'

Vasquez concurred. She looked back at Hicks with fire in her eyes. 'But not without blowing up those things. I'm not leaving without a fight.'

Ripley sighed. 'Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.' She lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, almost desperately.

'Now hold on a minute here,' Velko saw a man - dressed as if he was on vacation - emerge from behind Vasquez. 'I can't authorize that kind of action.' Everyone's attention turned to him as he continued, slightly perturbed by the reaction he was causing. 'Look, I know this is an emotional moment for everyone, but let's not make any snap judgments. This is an important species we're dealing with here; we can't just arbitrarily eliminate them.'

'Watch us.' spoke Vasquez. Her tone meant business.

Ripley spoke up, holding her smoking cigarette in her hand. 'I believe that Corporal Hicks has authority here. This operation has military jurisdiction and Hicks is next in the chain of command. Aren't you?' she said, looking at Hicks.

'Yeah...' he answered.

Burke interrupted. 'Look! This is a multimillion dollar operation! He can't make that kind of a decision - he's just a grunt - no offense,' he said to Hicks.

'None taken.' he replied, although it was obvious that Hicks had taken an instant dislike to the man. He spoke into his radio, he was contacting the dropship. 'Prep for dust-off. We're gonna need an immediate evac. I think we'll take off and nuke this site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.' He looked at Ripley.

'Wait a second, there are more people here - from our team, I mean. We can't nuke this place unless we get everyone off.' Call's voice was urgent. She saw now that the others - except for Burke - functioned as a unit. It would be difficult to explain her situation to them given that she was an outsider. Literally. But she had to try to convince them. 'You'll have to give us time to get the remaining survivors out of here.'

'There are more people here?' questioned Ripley.

'Hold up a second. We don't know who you are or why you're even here.' spoke Hicks. Then quietly, he said, 'You're not the rescue team, are you?'

'No.' said Call. 'Our intentions were the same as his.' she pointed towards Burke. 'To ensure the survival of the organism. But let's just say that we didn't share the same beliefs as our squad did. So we...deserted. Now all we want to do is blow 'em off this planet - as much as you do - but I can't let the rest of our squad die in the process.'

'Screw you guys! No one invited you along for the party! You make your own mess, you clean it up!' shouted the third marine.

'Shut up Hudson.' snapped Hicks. He didn't have the time nor the patience for this bickering. He looked at Call. 'Alright. We'll get Gorman, Ripley, Hudson, Newt and your friend on the dropship. But Vasquez, Bishop and I stay behind to make sure you keep your word. I'm not gonna listen to any more arguments.'

'Fair enough.' replied Call, feeling slightly vindicated.

                                                               *          *          *

They drove to the pickup location and got out of the car. As they got out of the vehicle, Call noticed that the sky was growing darker, if that were even possible. She and Velko laid Bohr along with the other limp form, Gorman, behind a small outcrop of rocks to offer them both meager shelter from the wind.

'Should be here any minute...' said Hicks not to anyone in particular.

Velko bent over and held onto Bohr's wrist, checking for a pulse. 'Call, she's getting weaker.' he said.

Call didn't answer. She looked up at the sky, just as everyone else did, for any sign of the dropship. This is a pretty little situation we've gotten ourselves into, she thought. Some bloody hero I've turned out to be. She looked over at Ripley who was carrying the girl in her arms. At least they'd be on that ship - away from this place. At least they'd both be safe.

Suddenly they heard a deep whine, and saw the approaching ship emerge from the darkening clouds.

'Yeah, man! We're outta here!' someone shouted. Out of the corner of her eye, Call saw Ripley give a slight smile.

But something was wrong.

The ship pitched sharply to one side - as if the pilot had momentarily lost control. It then rolled around for a few seconds before its nose pointed towards the ground, heading straight towards them. The sound grew louder as the dropship grew closer, hurtling towards them speedily.

'Run!'

They all ran away from the crashing ship, diving for cover wherever they could find it. Call helped Velko pick up Bohr as they both ran clumsily along the ground.

                                                             *          *          *

They stood around the crash site in disbelief. The plane had flown straight into their armored vehicle destroying their only means of transport on this barren planet. Flames from the smoking ship danced in the wind, mocking them. Shards and fragments of twisted metal lay around the company. Call heard the marine - she thought his name was Hudson - shout hysterically. She felt like doing the same thing herself. She was looking over at Ripley who was holding Newt and speaking to her when Hicks walked over and grabbed her shoulder.

'You said your squad was here too. We need to get to them.' he spoke.

'How?' said Call. She felt like searching for them now would be a lost cause. 'I don't know where they are.'

'Didn't you come with them? Where's the landing site?'

'No...no, we came alone. Just the three of us.' Her shoulders drooped.

Hicks looked at her questioningly but decided that this was not the time. 'Well, we need to get off this place. And right now it looks like they're our only chance.'

'What about our ship? The one we came in?' spoke Velko, his face suddenly lighting up.

'Do you know where it is?' asked Hicks.

'Yeah, don't think it was too far from the tower.' answered Velko.

'We can't run that risk. That's too close to those things. What about your squad?'

His questions were quick, rapid. It was obvious that his thinking was systematic, he was probably checking off their options off one by one in his head, starting from best to worst, thought Velko. 'If I remember correctly, maybe north, or north-east from the main compound.'

'Maybe...?' asked Hicks. He didn't like the sound of this. 'You don't know for sure? Because if you don't, we can't be running around-'

He was interrupted by Call. 'I remember. It was north-east. That's in that direction.' She pointed to her right.

'All right, let's go. You lead the way.' He turned to the rest of them. 'Vasquez! You take rear guard. Hudson, you take Gorman. Ripley, Newt, Burke stay in the center. Whatever happens, just try to stay together.'

The small company grouped together, and marched quietly and quickly away from the crash site.

                                                               *          *          *

They'd been walking for a good twenty minutes before they found the main compound. They waited outside, huddled together in the cold wind while Hudson and Vasquez went inside and brought out another survivor. Call recognized the man to be an artificial person as well and wondered quietly to herself why he was with them. But she said nothing as they moved on, in silence.

Half an hour later, after losing their sense of direction twice, they saw signs of the presence of people - a large tent lay in a clearing surrounded by overhanging rocks. On closer inspection, what appeared to be a lamp inside the tent turned out to be the flickering light of a small fire. Call left the group despite Velko's shouts and ran up to it. The fire wasn't deliberate, she noticed. She parted the opening of the tent quickly with her hands, and saw boxes and small crates strewn about, as if something had toppled them over. The fire had been caused by a small gasoline lamp that had been knocked down, and it burned with determined resolve lighting up the inside of the tent with an eerie glow. She looked about her, for bodies, expecting the worst. But there weren't any. She closed her eyes, trying to deny everything that she had just seen.

Hicks stepped up behind her and looked around. 'We've found your ship. It's just a bit higher up.' He stared at the fire. 'There's nothing you could've done.'

Opening her eyes, she said, 'They were my men. I was their General, and they were my men. I deserted them...I left them...to let them face this.' She shut her eyes tightly.

'You had your reasons.' He held her arm and began to pull her away. Call let him, walking alongside him dejectedly.

Each one of them looked up the slope towards the dim glow of the ship with cautious hope. Each step they made was painful, and the rocky terrain did nothing to ease the pain on their feet. But they were nearly there - only a few more yards.

As they were climbing the sides of the hill towards the ship, something jumped out from their left. Vasquez swung her gun around and let out a short burst of gunfire that echoed against the rocks walls loudly. Velko turned to look at the cause of their current distress when he recognized the figure. He immediately knocked the gun out of Vasquez's hands before she could open further fire.

'What the-' she began to protest.

'Roche!' shouted Velko.

'Oh my God, man...Is that you?' spoke the figure.

Velko looked Roche over. Vasquez hadn't hit him, he thought, relieved. But he was scared, noticed Velko - and it would have taken a colossal event to scare the pants off Roche. 'Yeah...what happened?'

'We were attacked. Before we even went in. There were hundreds of them, man! Hundreds! They came in last night in swarms. We can't get the ship to take-off, we got twelve men dead, three injured...there's no way off this place...no freakin' way!' his voice quivered and broke as he spoke.

Velko ran up to him and held his shoulders. 'Take it easy, we can work through this...you gotta listen to me, okay? Are they in the ship? Are those things in there?'

'No,'

'Who's in there?'

'Shepards, Janson, Walker, Johans...I don't know, man, I don't know...Are we gonna leave this place?'

'Yes.' answered Velko. 'We're gonna leave.'

Velko walked up to the others, his face grave. 'He says the ship can't take-off. They were attacked last night - we lost...we lost twelve people.'

Ripley stepped up, her jaw set. 'Where's the other ship - the one you three came in?'

'Like I said, it's by the tower.'

'Looks like that's our only choice.' said Ripley. She held onto Newt's hand tightly.

'Did he say that they were attacked at night?' asked Hicks.

'Yeah...' answered Velko, his voice trailing off as he looked up at the black night. The bleak presence of the sun was no longer visible - it had set almost two hours ago.

'We're not moving anywhere until dawn.' said Hicks. He nodded his head towards the ship. 'In there - that's where we're going. Just for tonight.' He looked down at Newt and gave her a slight smile.

'And wait to be slaughtered? That's some reckless call you're making, Corporal.' said Burke.

'When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it.' Hicks looked sharply at Burke and then turned away. 'Let's get in there.'

                                                             *          *          *

Call heard the ship's doors close with a metallic clang. She walked towards the small group consisting of Ripley, Hicks, and Vasquez. Their voices were hushed yet intense. She didn't want to discuss anything at that moment; the situation was hopeless now, as far as she could see it. Every way off this place seemed to lead to a dead end. What was the point? She wished intently that none of this had ever happened. She wished that she'd never decided to come to this godforsaken place. This place, this place consisted of nothing but everyone's nightmares. In their darkest form. There was no hope. No nothing. Lieutenant Mills was dead. Several of her men were dead. And somewhere, in the back of her mind, she felt as if it were her fault. I could've warned them, I should've done something before all this, she thought. Her guilt kept surging upwards towards the surface and she struggled in vain to suppress it. But would they have listened? Would anyone have listened?

'Call.'

She turned towards the voice. It was Velko. 'What is it?' she asked. But the truth was that she didn't really care to hear.

'Bohr's gonna be alright. I took her to the med tech room. The tourniquet stopped further bleeding and we got an IV into her and some blood too. She's gonna make it.'

But the question is: will we, thought Call? 'That's one piece of good news.' she said instead.

'There's more.' he said, smiling.

'I think we're gonna be able to take-off. I took a look at the auto-pilot take-off procedure. It's somehow screwed up all the manual take-off settings. If we can restore the default settings, we're good to go.'

Her eyes perked up suddenly. 'Do you know how to do that?' she asked cautiously.

'No, but you do. The system requires authorized access - which I can't get.'

'Then let's get to it.' she said. Maybe there was some hope left after all.

As they walked towards the cockpit, several questions took form in Call's mind. The fact that they could take-off was one thing. But it would also mean that she hadn't achieved what she had come out here to do. 'Velko...we need enough explosives - nuclear - when we leave. To blow this place up.'

'That would mean setting it up, wiring it up to the computer and triggering the explosion once we're in the clear.'

'Exactly.'

'I don't think that's going to work. The computer's not functioning properly. Our communication system is down, which means that any system to system line isn't going to work. And we don't have anything here that can create the kind of nuclear power you're looking for. But we do have some contained packages of nitro available instead - they come in the standard sized packs as supplies for every mission.'

'That won't do,' said Call frustrated. 'Dammit! How could we know if the nitro will wipe out those things?'

'We can't.'

She didn't reply. But slowly, as if something was curdling inside of her, she felt dread creep into her mind. If the communication system was down, they would not be able to destroy the aliens. And if they didn't set up the nitro-bombs in the correct place, all their efforts would be in vain. Which would mean that everything would remain as it was. More people would come to get the creatures, and more people would die. It would be a never-ending cycle of death. The answer to her problem was there - all along. Just as she was. She just didn't want to acknowledge it. 'Velko,'

'Yeah?'

'Could we set off the explosion manually?'

He hesitated for a moment. 'What do you mean - manually?'

'If someone used a short timer, and pushed the big red button, would the bomb go off?'

He closed his eyes, knowing exactly what she was thinking. A minute ago, he'd felt his hope surge. He didn't care about whether the creatures lived or died. He was simply grateful that they had survived, and that they were leaving. Leaving! The very thought seemed like a beautiful dream. But now it dissipated as quickly as it had formed. He knew that Call would not ask him to do what she was suggesting. No, she would do it herself. It was what she had set out to do all this while. And he was a part of it too, he couldn't back out now.

Velko swallowed before replying. 'Timers are a thing of the past. But I could make one...not so good, but good enough...we could do it.'

She looked at him and smiled. 'I'm not asking you to come, I can do this alone.'

'Hell yeah, you could. But you need someone to watch your back. Just in case.'

'No...I want you to think about it. This is your chance to get out of here. Take it. I can make it out on the ship we came in. You should leave while you still can.'

'I could,' he looked steadily back at her. 'But I won't. Take the offer while it still stands, Analee.'

She looked down at her shoes. No one had called her that for a long while. Hours before Velko had wanted nothing but to escape - she could see it in his eyes. But now she couldn't read him or his motives. Call didn't want to try, she just took great comfort in the thought that she wouldn't be left alone to take on these demons.

Velko continued. 'What about the others? And your friend, Ripley...what're you going to tell them?'

She looked over to the room that the others were in and breathed in deeply. 'The truth.'

She turned and walked towards them.