The Gift: Part Three
By: Joel Dao-Zi Kh'as

*NOTE: Joel in the flashback is about 6 years old. Out of the flashback he is 14*
*OTHER NOTE: Hu-an is human, if you haven't guessed when you read the text*


There was terror in the launch bay. The marines had been able to hold off the aliens, but one had escaped through one of the airlocks. The aliens had lost about 3, and the marines had lost 10. It was clearly a losing battle. Personnel was dropping left and right, and preperations to seal off the area were being made. The motion trackers at key intervals in the corridors, etc. had been activated, and the auto-guns paired with them were told to fire on anything non-humanoid and larger than a human being. No one knew what was going to happen, and all they could do was pray...

*Joel's Room, During Flashback*

Joel's parents were in a panic. They didn't know what was going on, but they were going to get off the colony as soon as they could. Mrs. Hodgson owned a private shuttle, but it was all the way on the other end of the colony. Joel didn't know exactly what was happening, but he knew it couldn't be good. The red lights only came on when something terrible was happening, and he was scared enough so that he really didn't care what had happened, as long as he could get away from it. Suddenly, he discovered that he heard something, but it wasn't from outside, it was more like it was going directly into his brain. It really wasn't any connected thing of speech, it was basically a string of, "Must protect queen, get new hosts, must destroy dangers for queen," etc. Joel was doubly scared by this, but he didn't mention it, because his parents were scared enough.

*Alien's POV*

The plan had gone off flawlessly, as the Queen had said it would. The Queen's plan was perfect, because it used one of the Hu-an ships autopilot to get to the nearest colony. In this way, they would get new hosts and the creche would become viable again. But something disturbed the warrior. He thought he had heard one of his brothers talking to him, but it wasn't something one of his kind would say. It had sounded like something the Hu-ans would say. It was something like, "Help me... I'm scared... please don't let me die..." and so on. The warrior was able to track the messages to one of the Hu-an refuges. And so the warrior went on, evading the motion trackers by going slowly, and even if one of the things had attacked him, his shell was too hard to be punctured by those things...

*Curtis's Command Center, or CCC*

"Commander Schwister, we're outnumbered..*snap*-ready lost Pvt. Berganza and Shoji, and *crackle*-eed support soon, and*loud human scream, gunshots* THEY'RE BREAKING THROUGH THE BULKHEAD! EVACUATE TH-AUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHH*Radio Silence except for gunfire and metal tearing sounds*.

"Damn," thought Curtis, "We underestimated those things. Well, time to try to make a last stand, or at least help the people evacuate..."

*RJ Cooper's Quarters*

RJ was even more nervous than before. One of those things had gotten through, and now the barriers were being broken down. "Well, better to flee and survive than die," he thought, as he went to the emergency pod doors and got into the first one. He then went down to the planet surface, unknowingly bringing the alien scourge with him...

END OF PART THREE