I don't own Aliens, just the characters. However the Alpha and Omega Aliens are my own creation and as such, DO belong to me :) Now read on :)
CHAPTER 6 Maelstrom
Chris and the others dashed into the central hub. They saw everyone running around. Guards were assembling at each section door, ready to repulse the Aliens. Tables, chairs, anything that could provide cover was being placed near the doors for the guards to crouch behind.
The scientists were scared, and had all been hurried into the security office and armoury. Some however, had taken weapons and stood ready with the guards to fight.
It looked like a solid defence, but Chris knew that the Aliens' sheer numbers would eventually overwhelm the stoic defenders. There was also the problem of their acid blood. It would get splashed everywhere and no doubt somebody would get killed by it.
One thing was for sure. If Chris couldn't disable the door override, all the survivors were dead meat.
"Chris!" Schwartz came up, shotgun ready in his hands. "The computer is ready. We just need to break the passcode lock, and the doors will close"
"I'm on it." He looked at his friends. "Good luck, guys"
"Same to you, Chris." replied Marissa, for all of them.
"Chris..." Michelle grabbed his hand.
"Michelle.....if we don't make it......I love you....." Chris stroked Michelle's face. It could be the last time he ever saw her.
"I love you too......" Michelle kissed him.
Chris broke the kiss, and ran off to the computer.
"Right, Lafayette, let's cover the Special door." Samson spoke, in a commanding tone. "That's where most of the suckers'll be coming from." He turned to Michelle and Marissa.
"You two, help guard the noncombatants. No doubt some of them will get through"
"OK..." Michelle nodded, and she and Marissa headed off to where the scientists were.
"Let's give them hell, Samson." grinned Lafayette.
"No." replied his comrade, a look of deadly focus in his eyes. "Let's send them there."
Cusack checked his gun. A SOCOM Mk IV, with plenty of stopping power. There was no way they could survive this fight.
However, Appleyard shouldn't have survived the battle with the Alpha. There was every chance he could defeat the army of specimens too.
If that happened, he'd just have to do the job himself.....
Chris was at the computer, trying to think of the two passwords. They would most likely be connected to something Cusack liked, or thought was important. If he was quick enough, he could stop the Alien attack before it began.
He typed 'XENOMORPHS' and 'ALIENS.
'ACCESS DENIED' flashed up in red on the screen.
"Rats..." Chris breathed. This wasn't going to be over quickly....
Michelle and Marissa stood guard over the scientists in the armoury and security office. Another five guards were there, including the wounded Tsukino.
"Are you sure you're OK, Miyuki?" Marissa asked her comrade.
"I'm fine.....I'd rather fight than hide here anyway." She sounded pained as she spoke. The Omega had given her a very nasty scratch indeed. underneath her uniform a long white bandage was on the large cut on her left side.
Marissa nodded, and turned to Michelle. The young girl looked frightened, but she knew it wasn't for her own safety.
"Michelle......he'll be OK." she said reassuringly.
"I hope you're right........" Michelle looked at her, blinking. "So will Charles"
"I hope you're right too....." Marissa sighed.
Schwartz stood with the wall of guards defending the Planetology door. About 11 or 12 guards were at each door, all poised with their weapons, ready to face the vicious swarm of monsters.
Schwartz admired the bravery of the few scientists that stood with them, armed with whatever guns they could get. However, he knew that most of these men and women would not survive the battle...or perhpas none of them, if Chris couldn't break the passcode lock.
"Sir! We've got incoming!" shouted a guard at the nearby computer screen. "WOAH!!!! At least a hundred from every door"
Within seconds of hearing that, black figures began to appear at each door, crawling up the lift shafts. Some of them crawled along the sides of the walls and the ceiling, while most of them just walked on the floor. A few Facehuggers could be seen wriggling along beside them.
At Schwartz's front, the Aliens looked at the humans. Their teeth flashed, and they hissed menacingly.
Schwartz didn't hesitate. "All groups....FIRE"
The maelstrom began. Shotguns boomed, smartguns and pulse rifles rat-a-tatted, pistols boomed. A massive wall of fire opened up on the Aliens in each doorway. Instantly, the acid blood began to fly. The Aliens started dropping like flies, their heads and limbs being shot to bits by the unending bullets.
Chris' frantic typing was drowned out by the combined noise of guns and screaming Aliens. He still hadn't gotten the passcodes. The defenders could definitely hold the Aliens for a few minutes, but eventually they would succumb to the awesome size of the Alien horde.
'VICTOR' typed Chris, then 'CUSACK'
'ACCESS DENIED'
"Shit."Chris thumped the computer. What the hell were those passcodes?
As he pondered, the Aliens finally decided to hit back. The Physics guards were the first to take their full force. Several Drones jumped into the air, screeching, right down next to the guards, and in seconds three of the guards were slashed to ribbons, before the Drones were iced by their buddies.
The Weapons defenders were suddenly jumped by a group of Facehuggers. They manged to blast all but one, which attached itself to an unfortunate guard's face. Another shot him in the head, knowing it was better than being Chestbursted.
Samson and Lafayette were in the thick of it at the Special door. Two guards were down, but Samson and Lafayette were putting their skills with the smartgun to good use, by aiming for any Facehuggers that showed up.
One Alien got very close to a defender, and he raised his gun.
"NO!" yelled Samson, noticing the bad mistake the guard was about to make.
The guard ignored him and fired, killing the Alien. However, the next moment he was screaming in agony. The Alien's blood had splashed on him, eating through his clothes, his skin and then his internal organs.
Lafayette took aim and shot the poor man in the head. "Better that he didn't suffer!" he shouted to Samson as the maelstrom continued.
"It's getting fierce out there!" shouted Marissa above the roar of gunfire and Aliens. She peeked around the corner, and saw the flurry of fighting.
"AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"came a scream from behind. Marissa span round to see a couple of Aliens behind her. They were crawling out through a vent in the wall.
"Banzai!!!!!" Tsukino issued her war cry, and opened fire, killing three of them outright. Two Facehuggers and four more Drones came through, but the team of guards were ready. However, another Facehugger slinked past them and wrapped itself around a scientist in the armoury.
"I'm sorry....." Michelle took aim nervously with her pistol, and shot the unfortunate man in the head. She felt physically sick right after doing that...killing someone was never easy.
"Damn it! Close that vent!!!!" yelled Marissa. Tsukino obliged and moved forward quickly before any more Aliens surged through. She tried to close the vent, but the grate wouldn't budge. An Alien suddenly appaeared at the opening and it snapped at her, hissing, She backed away from its snarling jaws, just before Michelle fired three rounds into its skull.
"Thanks." she breathed. "I owe you one, Michelle-chan"
"If we don't close that vent, I won't be around to repay the debt." replied Michelle, with new confidence in her voice.
"You will be, don't worry." Marissa stanced again with her gun. "Come to mama, Alien assholes!"
"There's too many of them!!!!" One of the guards echoed the feeling of every one of them there as the Physics front began to collapse in the face of the unending Alien onslaught. It was like they were regenerating or something.
"Hold it together, people!" Schwartz yelled to everyone. "We won't be beaten by a bunch of critters"
Mac backed off from the battle at the Weapons section, and dashed over to Chris. He let loose two full bursts of pulse ammo, taking down four Drones.
"Mate, we're getting fried!" Mac was breathless. "How's the hacking going"
"It's no good!" Sweat dropped down the young scientist's face. Everyone was going to die if he didn't do something.
"Look out"
Mac's cry alerted him to the Facehugger jumping for his face. Chris ducked, and the 'hugger sailed over him. It was toast the next instant, with a well placed burst of fire from Mac's pulse rifle.
"That was way too close...." Chris stopped as he saw what he knew would happen. All the defenders being overwhelmed by the massive horde, and the Aliens had broken their fronts. He had only seconds to figure out the passcodes.
"Come on, Chris...think!!!!"
Schwartz fired his shotgun again. It was hopeless. There was no way they could win this fight.
"Everyone, fall back to the centre!" With that, the troops from each section began to back off to the centre of the lobby, to form a circle and fire on all the incoming Aliens. Schwartz knew however, that they'd be sliced and diced in minutes...or maybe seconds....
The Weapons front were the first to drop back. The Aliens charged right into them, killing a couple, but still the heroic men and women fired. However, the Aliens were pouring in now....a never-ending tide of black thrust its way through the section door.
The Physics front backed off rapidly, having lost the most out of all the fronts. Each man and woman continued to fire, but for every Alien they dropped, another 3 would appear.
Samson and Lafayette continued to spray the area with smartgun fire as the Special front retreated to the centre. Edging back slowly, Lafayette blasted another bunch of Facehuggers, and Samson mowed down a few Drones. However, both of them were low on ammo....
Marissa, Michelle and Tsukino had all their weapons trained on the vent opening, blasting anything that popped its head out. However, three of the other guards were dead, and they were all low on ammo.
Michelle glanced back at Chris over on the computer terminal.
"At least we got to say goodbye....."
Chris' heart was thumping in his head. Mac was right next to him, covering him from any Aliens that strayed from the battle that was now all around the lobby.
In moments, the defenders in the centre would be dead. Then it would be him and Mac, and finally Michelle and all the other survivors behind him.
He closed his eyes, and thought. What hadn't he tried?
All of a sudden, he knew exactly what was important to Cusack.
His heart pounded, and time almsot stopped, as he typed:
'ALPHA' and 'OMEGA'
...........'ACCESS GRANTED'
Chris' heart leapt in relief. "I got it!!!!!" He slammed a button, and all the doors began to close. The vent by the survivors' area also closed.
"Jesus Christ, you did it!" Mac clapped his buddy on the back.
The guards noticed the doors closing, and doubled their attack. the remaining Aliens inside the hub suddenly found themselves full of holes as the defenders became the hunters. In just a matter of seconds, the Aliens were dead.
They had won........
Sorry if it's a bit short, but it was only meant to be about the battle. Chapter 7 is on the way!
Chris the Phoenix Knight