Enemies Revealed
Rasczak was just about to start the search of the second barracks level when Greene called him though the communicator. He answered, "Yes, Corporal?"
Greene's voice was strained. This greatly alarmed Rasczak. What ever they had found must have been earth shattering. The corporal replied, "S-sir, you have got to come down here and look at this."
"Why, what did you find?"
"A lot, sir, and I think this explains what happened here."
"Alright, I'll be right there."
Corporal Vladimir Zametev led his squad of Lancers into the barren wasteland. Looking out across the naked landscape, he wondered how one could just lose an entire platoon in a place where one could see for miles around. Tunnels, perhaps? That would make sense. Those infernal bugs are forever building them. At that moment his scanners picked up a signal. He immediately recognized it. It was a Caleb distress beacon and it was to the southeast of his squad. He ordered his squad to make for the beacon.
Rasczak, Coles and Flores arrived at the surveillance control room where they found the rest of squad Delta there looking rather shaken. Rasczak then asked, "All right, what did you find?"
Higgins replied, "First I'd like to ask Mr. Coles about what really was the purpose of this facility."
Coles answered indignantly, "What do you mean by that?"
Higgins pressed a button and an image was displayed on the wall screen.
Corporal Zametev and his squad found the Caleb. When they saw it, it was obvious that it was dead. Lying in a pool of blood, its belly had been slashed open. Zametev walked up to the corpse. As he examined it, he came across the dog's ID tag: its name was Rex and its master was Private Jake Henry. Actually 'dog' was a misnomer since Calebs or neodogs as they were also called weren't actually dogs. They were artificially mutated symbiotes derived from dog stock and were six times more intelligent than dogs and at about the level of a human moron-only that comparison was unfair to the neo; a moron is defective whereas a neo is a stable genius in its line of work. These neodogs were each assigned to a soldier, and the two made up a K-9 team. The emotional relationship between the two rivaled most marriages which led Zametev to conclude that since the neodog's master would never willingly abandon it, therefore Private Henry must have been captured or killed. Zametev located the video recorder mounted on the Caleb and pulled out the memory card. He called Lieutenant Law on his communicator, "Lieutenant, sir, this is Zametev. I've found a dead neodog, but no sign of its master. The neodog's video memory card seems to be intact so I'm going to transmit its contents to you while I play it," and then he plugged the card into his helmet.
Even Rasczak was taken aback by what he saw. The picture appeared to be that of a man's head, but the Lieutenant couldn't see his face. It was completely covered by a large crab-like creature which had its legs enfolded around the man's head. It had a long spiny tail that was wrapped around the man's throat.
"What in God's name is that?" Rasczak demanded.
Higgins answered, "According to the medical report, it's called a 'face hugger' and apparently if I'm reading these records correctly, this is the animal that this base was studying. Also I've found no reference whatsoever to any kind of bio-toxin research, hence my question to Mr. Coles."
Rasczak and the entire squad turned to face Coles. Visibly agitated, he sighed and said, "A-alright, I'll tell you. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it is obvious now that an outbreak has occurred and I don't have any choice but to tell you all the truth."
Zametev began to play the video file. Rex and his master had landed on the planet without incident and the two had started their reconnaissance. They were by themselves as were the other K-9 teams. Zametev shook his head, No wonder they disappeared so quickly. Isolated teams like that are incredibly easy to be picked off. Nothing seemed to be happening, just the two of them searching the landscape. He fast forwarded the video.
Rasczak and his Roughnecks had their eyes fixed on Coles who proceeded to explain, "What you see there is the second stage of what we call the xenomorph."
Flores asked, "What is a xenomorph? Is it a bug?"
"As far we can tell, no. It appears to be completely unrelated to them. Our first contact with them, as far I know, happened sixty years when one of our mining ships encountered one. There was only one survivor, but no one believed her story until after we lost contact with the terraforming colony established on the planet she claimed to have found it.
Rico then piped in, "Wait a minute, are you talking about the planet LV-426? You mean it wasn't a bug attack that wiped out that colony?"
"No it wasn't. That was just the cover story. My predecessor incidentally lost his life during that disaster. He had been trying to acquire a specimen of this species, but unfortunately he underestimated them. Anyway, three months ago, we sent a team to this planet to scout out potential resources. They found a cache of first stage xenomorphs."
Rasczak asked, "What are they like?"
"Basically, they're eggs of some kind. Those eggs hold the face huggers or second stage xenomorphs. The way they work is as soon as a suitable host comes close enough to the egg, it opens up and the face hugger latches on to the victim."
"What do you mean by 'host'?"
"Once it latches on, it inserts some sort of embryo into the victim. Once it's in the body, the face huggers lets go and dies. When the embryo is mature enough, it bursts out of the host's chest after which it grows into a full adult. Anyway, when we found the eggs, we were keen on studying them, but we were determined to not to repeat our mistakes. Every part of our operation was done in way so as to ensure that an outbreak didn't happen. Now it's obvious that an outbreak did in fact happen, but I don't understand how it could have."
Higgins then said, "Actually, I'm not surprised that you don't, because something happened here that no one could not have predicted."
Zametev was almost to the end of the memory file. Suddenly he saw a dark blur streak across his display and just like that the video ended and the video screen displayed the following message: CALEB REX: KIA. He heard Lieutenant Law ask puzzled, "Corporal what was that?"
Zametev answered, "I don't know, but I'll rewind the video and run it on slow motion."
He did so and when the blur came again he quickly paused the video. What he saw stunned him. It wasn't a bug or at least any bug he had seen before. Whatever it was, it was more grotesque than any than he ever seen before. Although the image of it was still blurry, he could still make out its general features. Its arms and legs were stretched out as it was in mid-jump. It had a long slender head with a prominent mouth but Zametev couldn't find any eyes. Several elongated spikes were protruding from its back. It also had an extensive and boney like tail. Zametev spoke into the communicator, "Lieutenant, do you have any idea what that is?"
There was a pause and finally Law replied, "No, but whatever it is, it certainly isn't friendly. Get back to the base on the double, Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
Coles was confused by what Higgins said and asked, "What do you mean?"
"The answer is what happened in that operating room. Before I play the tape, I need to give a little background. The man that the face hugger grabbed was a colonial marine by the name of Hal Vasser. Somehow he ended up in what the report calls the 'Pit', which I'm assuming is the cache of eggs you talked about."
"That's right, but what was he doing there? Surely he knew about what was in there, didn't he?"
"Whether he did or not doesn't matter, because he wasn't there willingly. Someone or something forced him there. But even then the outbreak didn't occur. Vasser was taken back to the base and they were planning to operate on him in order to not only save his life, but also prevent the xenomorph from escaping."
Flores then asked, "What did they do, cut that crab off his face?"
Coles answered, "That would have been out of the question. The xenomorphs' blood is extremely acidic, capable of eating through your power suits within a second. No, the protocol that was decided upon was to wait until the face hugger released its grip and then immediately operate to remove the embryo before it killed the host. I'm assuming that's what they did, right Higgins?"
Higgins nodded and replied, "Yes, that's right. Actually, I should say tried."
"So, what happened?"
"I'll play the clip."
Just as Zametev was about to start moving his squad back to the base, something occurred to him. The Caleb had died instantly when that creature had attacked. Then how come the distress beacon had switched on? Neodogs' beacons only turned on when the Calebs did it itself. On a hunch, he checked the time of the CALEB REX: KIA screen. It read 8:23. But his scanners had detected the beacon at 8:41. So somehow, the beacon had been turned on twenty minutes after the neodog had died. Suddenly it dawned on Zametev: Someone or something had used the beacon to lure them here. It was a trap!
Coles, Rasczak and Flores were focused on the video screen. The scene was in the operating room, then neat and tidy. Three surgeons were standing around a table upon which lay the prone body of Hal Vasser. His face was now visible, the face hugger having apparently given up the ghost.
The shorter of the surgeons asked, "Is he fully sedated now?"
A female voice came out of the second surgeon, "Yes, doctor. We're ready to begin."
The doctor said, "Good. Time is limited, so we have to work quickly. Dave, hand me the scalpel."
Dave, third surgeon, did so and at that moment, Higgins paused the video and said, "Lieutenant, do you see just to the right of the shorter surgeon, a slight blurriness?"
Rasczak looked and said that he did to which Higgins replied, "Keep an eye on it."
Zametev ordered his squad to be on full alert. An attack from whoever or whatever that had lured them here could literally come from all sides. As he scanned the area around him, he radioed Law, "Lieutenant, I think my squad has been led into a trap."
"What makes you say that?"
"The beacon was activated after the Caleb died, sir."
Law didn't ask how Zametev came to that conclusion. His word was good enough for him; explanations would come later. Law instead asked, "Are you under attack right now?"
"Not yet."
"All right, make your way back to the base. I'll send Squad Charlie to you as backup."
"Yes, sir," answered Zametev and then he said to his squad, "Let's move out and keep your eyes open."
At that moment though, he saw three red dots appear on Private Mason's suit. Arranged as a triangle, they quickly moved up Mason's suit up to his visor. Mason was completely oblivious to them, but Zametev was and for a moment he was puzzled, but then realized what they were.
The short doctor was about to make the incisions in Vasser's chest when the blurry part of the screen suddenly transformed. Where there was once nothing, now stood a horrific creature. Its general build was humanoid, but there the similarities stopped. It had greenish scaly skin and several beaded leathery strands hung behind the mask it wore. It wore light armor over its body and mounted on its shoulder was a small cylinder shaped object.
Coles couldn't believe his eyes and apparently neither did the surgeons who were frozen in horror at the creature towering over them. Suddenly twin blades deployed out of the beast's gauntlet. The three surgeons didn't stand a chance and the creature's blades ripped them apart. Two marines ran into the room, but they were cut down when the cylinder pivoted towards them and fired two blasts of energy. After the slaughter was finished, the creature picked up Hal Vasser's limp body and slung him on its shoulder. It then smashed the room and as it left, it noticed the camera and the shoulder cannon pivoted once again and fired. Static filled the video screen.
There was silence in the control room for a moment before Rasczak broke it, "Looks like I need to tell Jehal and Lt. Law that, as of right now, bugs are the least of our concerns."
Zametev realized too late what the three red dots meant. An energy blast came out of nowhere and hit Manson in the face, killing him instantly and then Private Carter fell victim to another blast. Zametev couldn't see who was shooting so he started to spray the area around him with his rifle, hoping to hit whoever it was. The remaining other two Lancers did the same, but the volley of bullets was in vain. Something jumped between the two troopers. Zametev turned to see the now visible enemy. The hideous masked creature was carrying a five meter long stick of some sort and before Privates Macgregor and Styles knew what was happening, the creature spun the rod around him, slashing into their power suits with fatal results. Zametev immediately opened fire on the creature. It let out a deafening roar and fell, seemingly dead in a pool of its fluorescent green blood. Zametev wasn't taking any chances though, so he continued shoot in order to ensure its demise. Suddenly something struck him from behind, piercing his armor, and he could feel two blades slicing side by side into his body. As he died, he cursed himself for not watching his back.
