CHAPTER 8 Last Breaths
The lift opened on the central hub. Chris was the first one out. He punched the first wall he could see. "Damn it"
"Chris.....there wasn't anything you could do..." Tsukino said to him, trying to console him.
"If we'd stayed, we'd have been turned into a first course meal." added Lafayette, checking his smartgun.
"He bought us time, too...." Michelle rubbed her boyfriend's shoulder. "And he killed that Omega Alien"
Chris sighed, a tear dropping down his face. He took out the pistol that Mac had given him, and then loaded a new clip into it.
"You're on, let's get out of here"
They made for the massive launch bay door, when Schwartz beeped them.
"Chris, the Jupiter ships are here. We're loading the survivors on now. But there's a problem"
"What kind of problem"
"Great, more problems," he thought.
"The launch bay door will not open. We think Cusack may have locked it again, somehow." replied Schwartz gravely.
"We can't escape...." Lafayette's face fell.
"Wait! There's an emergency launch bay on the upper hub. We didn't check for it before....if you can get there, there should be a ship you can use"
"OK....we're on our way." Chris paused. "Thanks for everything, Charles"
"You're the one we should thank, Chris. And I'll be doing it in person when you get out of there. Good luck." Schwartz smiled, and closed the comms.
"OK, guys.....we've got to get to that backup launch bay. It's in the upper hub, and it won't be easy, but I know we can do this." To himself, he added, "I hope"
"Chris.....take this." Tsukino handed Chris a large gun. "I found it back in the Xenomorph Containment. It's a Railgun...I thought we could use it against the Omega, but....well anyway, just keep it. I have a feeling you'll need it." Chris took the weapon from her shoulders. It was heavy, but he could handle the weight.
"Let's blow this joint!" Lafayette yelled, and ran for the upper hub lift. Moments later, the lift took them up to the upper hub.
Outside the station, among the wreckage of the Special section, the Omega crawled up, like a phoenix rising from its ashes. It lacked the intelligence to understand what had happened, but knew one thing. Its target was still alive. It had to kill the target.
It senses locked on to the faint scent of Chris. The target was heading...upwards.
Snarling, it climbed up the side of the station, eager to meet its prey again.
This time, the target would not escape...
The group hurriedly moved through the upper hub. Tsukino felt sick as they saw the bodies of her dead comrades, killed by the Omega.
They engaged several Aliens as they ran through the tight corridors, but resistance was minimal. It was as if the Aliens had all vanished. Maybe their main spawning place had been in the Special section?
"This looks like it." Michelle saw the door. It was unmistakeable, the door led to the emergency launch bay.
Lafayette's sensor rang out. "Make it snappy, madamoiselle!" He raised his smartgun. Chris readied his pistol, and Tsukino aimed her pulse rifle.
The Aliens came quickly, but there were few of them. Lafayette sprayed his smertgun shots wherever he saw a Facehugger, while Chris and Tsukino wasted the Drones.
However, Chris' sights setted on a different kind of Alien. This one had a larger head, and looked somewhat tougher. Casting his mind to Morrissey's report, he identified it as.
"A Praetorian"
Chris opened fire on the Praetorian, but it survived seven bullets. Tsukino and Lafayette joined in, and though it was tough, they managed to bring it down inches from them. The Aliens were stopped, for the moment.
"They'll be regrouping." breathed Tsukino. "I wouldn't fancy being here in a minute"
"It's open!" Michelle pushed open the door, and they ran through before any more Aliens showed up. Lafayette closed the door behind them.
The launch bay was basically a small rectangular area, with markings on the ground, and a lot of metal boxes strewn around. A long launch tunnel was present, leading out into space. A small ship was parked on the rectangular area, and looked big enough to hold all four of them. Chris noticed that the tunnel had a catapult mounted. Those were normally seen on fighter carriers, designed to launch fighters into the air. He wondered why one was needed here, but didn't stop to ponder it. He and the others headed for the ship.
Michelle was the first in. She sat down in the cockpit, and flicked a bunch of switches. She'd flown a spacecraft before, so this wasn't too difficult for her.
Tsukino and Lafayette checked the engines outside, to make sure the ship was in working order. It also didn't look at all damaged.
"This thing's OK to fly!" Lafayette gave an OK sign to Michelle in the cockpit.
Michelle gave an OK sign back, and switched on the power. The ship roared into life, and lights came on all over the cockpit.
"Hey Chris! Come on, let's go!" called Lafayette.
Chris was walking towards the ship, but he didn't feel right. He felt like he'd forgotten something.....
"ROOOAAARRRR!!!!!"
Chris froze. His lifeform sensor registered a big red dot apparoaching...from the direction of the launch tunnel.
The others caught it too. "Chris!! Get on the ship!!!" yelled Tsukino, waving her arams frantically.
Before he could move, a gold shape dashed from out of the tunnel and jumped upwards, before landing on the launch pad.
Chris recognised it at once. The Omega.
It stood, snarling at him. It looked a lot different now. There were horrible burn marks scorched across its armour and into its skin. Patches of its armour had been removed by the explosions, and it looked slightly wounded. However, it was far from dead.
"Chris!!!!" screamed Michelle. "I can't get on the ship!!! It'll trash it!" yelled Chris, raising his pistol. He stared into the face of his foe....man, was it ugly.
"Still tickin', huh?" he said, as if taunting it.
The Omega roared and pounced, much quicker than the Alpha. Chris dashed to the side, but the edge of one of its scythes raked his face, leaving a horrible cut along the right side of his face.
Chris gritted his teeth. It hurt, but he was going to give it a lot of hurt back.
"What the hell's going on?" Schwartz came over the comms. "Why haven't you taken off"
"The Omega is attacking Chris!" Tsukino replied, her eyes fixed on the battle outside.
"Damn......the Jupiter ships are going to fire on the station!" Everyone gasped in horror. "They've deemed the xenomorphs too much of a threat. They can't wait for you! In three minutes, they're firing! I don't want you to leave him either....but you may have no choice..." The comms closed.
Lafayatte frowned. "Chris! They're going to destroy the station! Mon dieu, you must hurry"
Chris had heard the comms. "Go!!!!" Once again, he dodged the Omega. It swung its blade tail at him, but he leaped over a crate, and it swung harmlessly into it.
"No! I'm not leaving you!" Michelle shouted into the comms.
"Damn it Michi, I can't beat this thing!!! I said go!!!" Chris closed the comms.
Michelle refused to take off. "We leave with him, or we all die"
Lafayette looked agitated, but nodded. "Oui, madamoiselle"
Tsukino put her hand on Michelle's shoulder. "He can do it."
The Omega picked up the crate, and hurled it at Chris with full force. Chris narrowly dodged it, and aimed his pistol.
"Come on, is that all you've got, ugly?" Chris laughed, and fired a whole clip of bullets into the Omega's head. The bullets banged into the armour harmlessly, but set off the electricity again, dropping the Omega to its knees. It howled as it waited for the searing pain to stop.
Chris dashed over to the edge of the launch pad, a good distance away from the fallen Omega. He whipped the Railgun from his back, and aimed the big gun at the Omega, which was just getting to its feet.
"My turn to boogie...." Chris grinned.
The Omega roared in pain and anger, and charged towards Chris.
Michelle, Lafayette and Tsukino watched nervously from the ship's cockpit.
Chris got the Omega dead in his sights, and fired.
The massive re-coil from the Railgun knocked him back as the gun fired a depleted uranium round at a lightning fast speed, leaving a trail of blue in the air as it tore through the launch bay, and straight into the Omega. It screamed as the round slammed into it, sending it flying back and spraying green blood everywhere.
The Omega smashed into the ground, its legs and arms askew. Michelle and the others stared open mouthed.
Chris breathed deeply, gasping for breath. "Did...I get...it"
His answer came a few second later. The behemoth slowly rose to its feet. The four humans frowned and cursed, but Chris noticed that the Omega was moving sluggishly. He'd managed to wound it...it wasn't moving as quickly as before. Plus, there was more than one shot in this thing.
He took aim again. "You just won't quit, will you?" he shouted. "Why don't you go back to whatever hellish place you came from"
The Omega's head snapped forward to look at Chris, and it started bounding towards him again. This time, it jumped into the air, screeching.
Chris aimed upwards and fired once again. The re-coil shook him, and the uranium round blasted the Omega out of the air. It's blood was splattered everywhere yet again. Once again, it hit the ground with a crash.
"I must have gotten it this time...." Sweat dropped down Chris' face. Nothing could survive that....right?
The Omega hissed, and once again, struggled to its feet. Blood was dripping from its body, and the armour was shattered where the two rounds had hit. It faced Chris once again, hissing loudly.
"Oh my God...." Michelle couldn't believe it was still standing after that. "Can't anything stop it"
Chris check the Railgun. A message reading 'Overload' appeared on the small energy count screen. "Out of ammo"
The Omega started running for him again. Now it was angry.
Chris suddenly noticed the launch catapult, and the forcefield on the tunnel exit. It was designed to keep the atmosphere in, but ships could get in and out. Organic matter, however.
Chris dashed towards the catapult, with the Omega in hot pursuit. The clanking of its metal feel was rapid now, and it only be seconds before it pounced on him.
Chris spun round to face the oncoming monster. "Come and get me"
The Omega obliged, jumping straight at him. Chris rolled out of the way at the last second, and the Omega landed right on the small launch catapult.
Moving quickly, Chris ran to the control panle next to the catapult. He slammed the red button on it, and looked at the Omega.
"Bye bye." He waved to it.
The Omega was too late to react. The catpult launched forward, taking the Omega along with it. It screamed in terror as it was flung straight into the forcefield at breakneck speed. It was vaporized instantly.
Chris breathed, trying to catch his breath. "This time, you're not coming back"
He ran over to the ship and jumped inside, to the relief of the others.
"Alright!!!! Monsieur, you kicked his ass!" Lafayette yelled in delight.
"I knew you could beat that thing." smiled Tsukino.
"Chris!!! Thank God you're all right!" Michelle hugged him tightly. "I thought you wouldn't make it"
"I wasn't gonna let that happen...." Chris hugged Michelle just as tight. "We'd better take off"
"Right!" Michelle dashed into the pilots seat, and fired up the engines. The ship rose into the air, and turned around to face the tunnel exit.
"Hold on to your hats!" Michelle put the ship into forward thrust, and it zoomed out of the tunnel.
Chris opened the comms. "We're out! Tell them to fire"
Schwartz, on board one of the rescue ships, nodded, and turned to the ship's captain. "They're clear"
The captain have the order over the comms, to his and the other ships. "FIRE"
Seconds later, the three ships opened fire on the station with their lasers. The station faded after three shots from each ship - the massive power generator did the rest, exploding after being hit. The Atlantis SpaceLab leaned over slightly as explosions rocked it, then it was blown into space dust.
Chris and co. felt the shockwave of the exploding station. After the destruction was over, they looked back. There was nothing left except a few hundred bits of debris, floating in orbit around Jupiter.
"Chris!" Schwartz came over the comms, all smiles. "Great job in there, kid"
"Thanks....." Chris replied, smiling. They'd beaten the most vicious creatures in the universe.....and now, they were extinct forever.
"Chris?" It was Michelle who spoke. She sat next to him, laying her head on his chest. "What are we going to do now"
"Let's go home, back to good old Terra Firma...." Chris answered, stroking her hair.
As the ship headed towards the waiting rescue ships, Chris looked out into the stars. He felt something in his pocket, and reached in. The pistol that Mac had given him was still there, and he took it in his hand.
"That one was for you, old buddy......"
THE END
Alright! My first fanfic completed! Please review, I want to know how I can improve, because I know this isn't that great....thank you in advance, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed through the chapters :)
Chris the Phoenix Knight