Chapter 10
"Fuck!" Salazar swore as he wiped his eyes.
Hernandez aimed his gun up at the wall. "Madre de dios!" He exclaimed. "She's gone!" He added.
Haggert was hyperventilating as he began walking backwards. "Ah-ah-ah-ah." He stuttered as he bumped into something.
"Haggert.?" Rita asked as she turned just in time to see a long black arm wrap around him as something shot into the back of his scalp. An elongated glistening head appeared at the man's side. It hissed as the thick perspiration dripped off of its massive eyeless head. Blood oozed out his gaping mouth as the creature turned to look at here.
Rita held up her pulse rifle and fired at the thing, but lost her balance as she was unprepared for the gun's recoil.
***
"Jaeger, this is Blake, do you read me?" He spoke into the com-link as he moved along. "Jaeger, do you read me? Are you there?" He exclaimed. He turned to this team and shook his head. "Where is that woman?" He asked no one in particular.
"Can anyone here over there, this is Sergeant Blake, anyone picking up this transmission answer me!" He yelled into the speaker.
Goldman held up the reader in his hand. ".Blake, Jaeger's Signal is gone." He announced. "And so is Haggert's." He added grimly, just a secant later.
"Oh my god." Blake whispered as he looked down the hall, where it turned in the distance.
Artorus turned his gun's safety off and followed Blake as he ran down the hall, the other marines chased after them.
***
Rita fell backwards, having failed to properly brace herself from the gun's recoil. A spray of 20mm caseless, diamond-tipped rounds tore into the creature. Both its body, and Haggert's fell into the opening in the wall.
Hernandez turned around and opened fire on another one of the aliens as it emerged from the wall. "We got bugs!" He shouted as he took a step back.
Swanson frantically stepped back as he torched on the xenomorphs before it could reach him.
Rita began fumbling to get up onto her feet, when a powerful hand reached down and grabbed hold of her collar and lifted her up. She let out a pained scream as she was turned around, but came face to face with not a black eyeless visage, but a pair of brilliant yellow eyes with green tinted pupils.
"Artorus?" She gasped.
His ears twitched slightly. "Are you alright?" He asked.
She shivered and nodded her head
***
Blake and a few of the others had caught up with the others.
Einrich fell back to guard the rear of the group. "Come on, move it!" The woman exclaimed as she reached up and pulled the targeting lens over her eye to interact with her Smart-Gun.
At that moment, O'Bryan tripped on something and fell onto her stomach. Something latched onto her right ankle. She managed to role onto her stomach, but her rifle was knocked out of her hand as something came down on top of her. At the same time, something shot out into her exposed neck, tearing through the soft flesh like ripe fruit.
Einrich turned back around after hearing a scuffle behind her; just in time to a jet of blood spray straight up into the air from out of O'Bryan's gaping mouth.
"NO!" She screamed, seeing the bloodbath before here as the monster tore into her comrade.
Someone opened fire beside her, it was Harmon. She shivered as he quickly killed the alien, sending showers of highly acidic blood onto O'Bryan's corpse, burning it beyond recognition. He had done what was needed.
The tall man picked up O'Bryan's gun from where it had landed and slid it over his shoulder and then turned to Einrich. "It's time to move." He told her gravely.
She nodded and followed him.
The two of them turned to see that Blake was already gone, and Goldman and Jackson were also nowhere to be seen. "Shit." Both of them swore at the same time.
***
Hernandez was quickly finding himself in a rather tight position. Several of the others were behind him and he was trying to hold up a defensive line of fire. Artorus was back with them, but there were at least six more members of his unit that were not yet back.
He then spotted three figures come running from around the corner. It was Blake, and Goldman and Jackson were with him. "Where the hell are the others?!" He exclaimed.
"Get the door open!" Blake exclaimed to Jackson. He then turned to Goldman. "You go with him!" He yelled. He then turned to Hernandez. "What did you say?" He asked.
"Where the hell are Einrich and the others?" He asked.
"Fuck!" Blake swore. "Hold this point as long as you can." He instructed the heavy-gunner.
"Yes sir." Hernandez replied.
"I have to go and help hold the escape rout." He explained. "If they don't show up in the next few minutes, then we'll have to leave them." He went on.
Hernandez swore inwardly, but nodded in affirmation.
By this point, it seemed like the aliens had shifted their attention to the area that Hernandez was in, forcing him to continual fire on them to keep them at bay. He hated the fact that it seemed like they were deliberately trying to separate the team, as if they were actually working with a plan.
The smart gun hissed and steam arose from it. The 500 round canister fell out of the chamber and the display showed that the gun was down to only the bullets already in it.
"010" it read.
***
Einrich looked over her shoulder as she and Harmon made their way down the hall. There weren't any aliens in front of them, but there sure was a hell of a lot of them behind them. And the damning was that there was no chance of being able to fire off her smart gun while she was running. It would surely send her flying off her feet!
***
Swanson looked on and saw that Hernandez was practically defenseless. He started to head over to him, so that he could help him load another case into his gun. But suddenly, something burst above him and he looked up to see the ceiling open up and a large pipe fall out of it and blast him with a powerful jet of hot steam, practically burning him. He screamed out and stumbled backwards and fell onto his back.
Hernandez turned around at the sound of the commotion. "Amigo?" He shouted as she saw Swanson lying on his back.
Something blindsided him.
Through his blurred vision he could distinguish something attacking Hernandez. Stinging tears ran down his cheeks from his burning eyes as got up onto his knees. He tore the strap of his helmet and tossed it off.
***
Jackson was busy overriding the emergency lockdown on the door while Goldman stood beside him nervously.
Blake quickly joined them, followed by Artorus and Rita, and then Salazar- who seemed strangely calm.
"I've got it!" Jackson yelled.
The lock to the door suddenly disengaged and the light on the panel turned green.
"We're out of time." Blake remarked. He then turned to Artorus. "Come with me, we have to go get Hernandez and Swanson and get the hell out of here." He instructed him.
***
There was an explosion of chitin-like exoskeleton and acidic blood as Harmon and Einrich blew through a line of xenomorphs.
The two of them saw Swanson propped up against the wall.
"Swanson!" Einrich yelled as the two of them ran over to where he was sitting.
"Oh god. is that you Jess?" He asked as he heard her voice.
"What happened to you?" She asked him, taking his hand as he held it out blindly.
"Something in the ventilation system in the roof broke and a pipe shot me in the face with super-heated steam." He replied in a shaky voice. "I think I'm blind now." His trembling voice added.
"Artorus?!" He cried out.
Harmon looked around. "We have to get out of here, now." He remarked. "I'll carry him out of here." He announced.
Harmon started to approach the wounded soldier, when he heard footsteps. Both he and Einrich turned to see Blake and Artorus come running up.
"Rudy!" Artorus yelled and kneeled down in front of him.
Blake swore out loud. "Damnit, get your ass in gear McNea-" He was saying, when the floor broke underneath him. He could feel something pulling him by the legs as he clung to the edges of the hole.
"Blake!" Artorus screamed.
Blaked looked up at him and pulled a grenade out of his vest. "It's up to get." He called out as he was pulled under, a pillar of flame shot up out of the hole and the ground trembled.
Artorus turned to Einrich and Harmon. "Both of you, get the hell out of here, now!" He exclaimed.
"But, McNealand-" Harmon protested.
"Goddamnit, both of you, get the fuck out of here!" He yelled in an uncharacteristic manner.
Harmon grabbed Einrich by the wrist and pulled her after him as the two of them made their way out.
Artorus turned back to Swanson. "I'm getting you out of here, too." He told him.
Swanson shook his head. "Sorry, buddy, but that's a negative." He replied
"What the hell do you mean?" Artorus asked him.
"Just look at me," He began. "I'm blind!" He shot back. He reached out and placed his hand on Artorus' shoulder. "We stung 'em bad, but they'll be back in a matter of minutes." He explained. ".Hundreds of them." He added. "And you don't need a blind man slowing you down." He added. "Get me my detonator." He instructed Artorus.
He reached into Swanson's pack and pulled out the detonator and placed it firmly in his friend's hands. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, holding back tears.
"Just get the others out of here," He replied. He then reached up to his neck and pulled his dog tags off and offered to Artorus. The wolf took them and tucked them into his jacket. "I'm not setting a timer. and I have it preset the universal frequency that all my bombs work on." He explained. "So I can't promise you much time." He added.
"Goodbye." Artorus spoke to him softly.
"Just go!" Swanson yelled. He reached out and grabbed hold of Artorus' collar. "Tell 'em what I did. but tell them the truth." He demanded. "Don't play me up anymore then what I deserved." He finished.
Artorus took the weapon and stood up and looked down at Swanson. "You are the best friend a guy could ever have." He told him. He then looked to his left and saw a new swarm of aliens emerging from the around the corner.
"I can feel them coming, now get the hell out of here!" Swanson yelled.
The wolf then turned and ran.
Swanson leaned his head down and smiled. "I always wanted to go out with a bang." He remarked. He could hear their footsteps- all of them. They were coming.
He craned his neck around, pretending to look at the crowd of aliens that had encircled him. "Well boys, I'm glad you could all make it." He spoke as he flipped the cover off the top of the detonator with his thumb. "You're just in time for the big show."
***
Salazar turned around just in time to see another xenomorph coming. He opened fire on it, tarring into it with his pulse rifle. He turned to look around to look at the others. "Could you open that fucking door?!" He exclaimed.
The door slid open.
Just then, the ventilation opening near door broke apart and a pair of hands grabbed onto Goldman and pulled him down into it by the legs.
Rita broke out in tears.
Harmon launched a grenade into the shaft, vaporizing Goldman's killer. "Mother-fucking animals!!!" He screamed.
Artorus appeared suddenly- his left sleeve was torn over the upper arm and stained with blood. "Everyone, run like hell!" He exclaimed.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Jackson yelled.
***
Everyone practically went flying into the hall as the entire area was shaken by a massive shockwave created by three-dozen high power explosive detonating simultaneously.
Jackson got up onto his feet and pressed a button on the wall to make the door slide back shut.
Artorus looked up from where he was laying on his stomach; his arm was draped over Rita. He looked over to her and noticed that she was trembling. He stood up and hoisted her up gently.
"They're all dead." Einrich muttered.
Jackson was sitting back on the floor, with his back to the wall, he looked up at her as she spoke, but made no reply.
Harmon and Salazar looked at her and also remained silent.
Jackson took out his portable drive and looked at it. "Six people died for this fucking thing." He remarked and then stuffed it back into his pack.
Artorus stepped forwards and looked at everyone. "They're dead." He remarked. "But we're still alive, and the last thing that Blake said to me was to get us out of here." He announced to the others.
Rita looked on in amazement at how calm he was; she then noticed his wound- which he seemed to be ignoring.
"Lets go get the others and get the hell out of here." He announced.
Salazar stepped forward. "You sure have a lot of nerve to talk like that after what we went through!" He exclaimed.
"Cut it out, Raul!" Harmon yelled as he placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. "He's right," He announced. "We can cry all we want, but it wont bring the others back." He added solemnly.
Salazar backed off and became quiet.
Jackson stood up and looked around. "Fore some reason, there aren't any vents in this area.
"Maybe they're just closed." Harmon offered.
"I don't care; I'm not sticking around to see if they're coming." Einrich suddenly blurted out.
Rita walked up to Artorus and looked at him. "You're bleeding." She commented.
He looked her in the eyes for a moment and then turned to face the way to the way out. "I don't have time to bleed." He replied as he began walking away. Rita followed him
~End of Chapter Ten~
Well, I finally finished the battle scene (well the first one, anyway). I hope everyone that was waiting for it enjoyed it. This chapter took me a while to write, and it turned out to be the longest one to date- at over 7 pages! Well, be sure and drop me some reviews and let me know what you all thought about it.
Thanks,
-Bojack727
P.s. I just bought the Alien Quadrilogy. It's completely awesome and the perfect thing for any true Alien fan. (I bought my copy at Target, which had the lowest price.)
"Fuck!" Salazar swore as he wiped his eyes.
Hernandez aimed his gun up at the wall. "Madre de dios!" He exclaimed. "She's gone!" He added.
Haggert was hyperventilating as he began walking backwards. "Ah-ah-ah-ah." He stuttered as he bumped into something.
"Haggert.?" Rita asked as she turned just in time to see a long black arm wrap around him as something shot into the back of his scalp. An elongated glistening head appeared at the man's side. It hissed as the thick perspiration dripped off of its massive eyeless head. Blood oozed out his gaping mouth as the creature turned to look at here.
Rita held up her pulse rifle and fired at the thing, but lost her balance as she was unprepared for the gun's recoil.
***
"Jaeger, this is Blake, do you read me?" He spoke into the com-link as he moved along. "Jaeger, do you read me? Are you there?" He exclaimed. He turned to this team and shook his head. "Where is that woman?" He asked no one in particular.
"Can anyone here over there, this is Sergeant Blake, anyone picking up this transmission answer me!" He yelled into the speaker.
Goldman held up the reader in his hand. ".Blake, Jaeger's Signal is gone." He announced. "And so is Haggert's." He added grimly, just a secant later.
"Oh my god." Blake whispered as he looked down the hall, where it turned in the distance.
Artorus turned his gun's safety off and followed Blake as he ran down the hall, the other marines chased after them.
***
Rita fell backwards, having failed to properly brace herself from the gun's recoil. A spray of 20mm caseless, diamond-tipped rounds tore into the creature. Both its body, and Haggert's fell into the opening in the wall.
Hernandez turned around and opened fire on another one of the aliens as it emerged from the wall. "We got bugs!" He shouted as he took a step back.
Swanson frantically stepped back as he torched on the xenomorphs before it could reach him.
Rita began fumbling to get up onto her feet, when a powerful hand reached down and grabbed hold of her collar and lifted her up. She let out a pained scream as she was turned around, but came face to face with not a black eyeless visage, but a pair of brilliant yellow eyes with green tinted pupils.
"Artorus?" She gasped.
His ears twitched slightly. "Are you alright?" He asked.
She shivered and nodded her head
***
Blake and a few of the others had caught up with the others.
Einrich fell back to guard the rear of the group. "Come on, move it!" The woman exclaimed as she reached up and pulled the targeting lens over her eye to interact with her Smart-Gun.
At that moment, O'Bryan tripped on something and fell onto her stomach. Something latched onto her right ankle. She managed to role onto her stomach, but her rifle was knocked out of her hand as something came down on top of her. At the same time, something shot out into her exposed neck, tearing through the soft flesh like ripe fruit.
Einrich turned back around after hearing a scuffle behind her; just in time to a jet of blood spray straight up into the air from out of O'Bryan's gaping mouth.
"NO!" She screamed, seeing the bloodbath before here as the monster tore into her comrade.
Someone opened fire beside her, it was Harmon. She shivered as he quickly killed the alien, sending showers of highly acidic blood onto O'Bryan's corpse, burning it beyond recognition. He had done what was needed.
The tall man picked up O'Bryan's gun from where it had landed and slid it over his shoulder and then turned to Einrich. "It's time to move." He told her gravely.
She nodded and followed him.
The two of them turned to see that Blake was already gone, and Goldman and Jackson were also nowhere to be seen. "Shit." Both of them swore at the same time.
***
Hernandez was quickly finding himself in a rather tight position. Several of the others were behind him and he was trying to hold up a defensive line of fire. Artorus was back with them, but there were at least six more members of his unit that were not yet back.
He then spotted three figures come running from around the corner. It was Blake, and Goldman and Jackson were with him. "Where the hell are the others?!" He exclaimed.
"Get the door open!" Blake exclaimed to Jackson. He then turned to Goldman. "You go with him!" He yelled. He then turned to Hernandez. "What did you say?" He asked.
"Where the hell are Einrich and the others?" He asked.
"Fuck!" Blake swore. "Hold this point as long as you can." He instructed the heavy-gunner.
"Yes sir." Hernandez replied.
"I have to go and help hold the escape rout." He explained. "If they don't show up in the next few minutes, then we'll have to leave them." He went on.
Hernandez swore inwardly, but nodded in affirmation.
By this point, it seemed like the aliens had shifted their attention to the area that Hernandez was in, forcing him to continual fire on them to keep them at bay. He hated the fact that it seemed like they were deliberately trying to separate the team, as if they were actually working with a plan.
The smart gun hissed and steam arose from it. The 500 round canister fell out of the chamber and the display showed that the gun was down to only the bullets already in it.
"010" it read.
***
Einrich looked over her shoulder as she and Harmon made their way down the hall. There weren't any aliens in front of them, but there sure was a hell of a lot of them behind them. And the damning was that there was no chance of being able to fire off her smart gun while she was running. It would surely send her flying off her feet!
***
Swanson looked on and saw that Hernandez was practically defenseless. He started to head over to him, so that he could help him load another case into his gun. But suddenly, something burst above him and he looked up to see the ceiling open up and a large pipe fall out of it and blast him with a powerful jet of hot steam, practically burning him. He screamed out and stumbled backwards and fell onto his back.
Hernandez turned around at the sound of the commotion. "Amigo?" He shouted as she saw Swanson lying on his back.
Something blindsided him.
Through his blurred vision he could distinguish something attacking Hernandez. Stinging tears ran down his cheeks from his burning eyes as got up onto his knees. He tore the strap of his helmet and tossed it off.
***
Jackson was busy overriding the emergency lockdown on the door while Goldman stood beside him nervously.
Blake quickly joined them, followed by Artorus and Rita, and then Salazar- who seemed strangely calm.
"I've got it!" Jackson yelled.
The lock to the door suddenly disengaged and the light on the panel turned green.
"We're out of time." Blake remarked. He then turned to Artorus. "Come with me, we have to go get Hernandez and Swanson and get the hell out of here." He instructed him.
***
There was an explosion of chitin-like exoskeleton and acidic blood as Harmon and Einrich blew through a line of xenomorphs.
The two of them saw Swanson propped up against the wall.
"Swanson!" Einrich yelled as the two of them ran over to where he was sitting.
"Oh god. is that you Jess?" He asked as he heard her voice.
"What happened to you?" She asked him, taking his hand as he held it out blindly.
"Something in the ventilation system in the roof broke and a pipe shot me in the face with super-heated steam." He replied in a shaky voice. "I think I'm blind now." His trembling voice added.
"Artorus?!" He cried out.
Harmon looked around. "We have to get out of here, now." He remarked. "I'll carry him out of here." He announced.
Harmon started to approach the wounded soldier, when he heard footsteps. Both he and Einrich turned to see Blake and Artorus come running up.
"Rudy!" Artorus yelled and kneeled down in front of him.
Blake swore out loud. "Damnit, get your ass in gear McNea-" He was saying, when the floor broke underneath him. He could feel something pulling him by the legs as he clung to the edges of the hole.
"Blake!" Artorus screamed.
Blaked looked up at him and pulled a grenade out of his vest. "It's up to get." He called out as he was pulled under, a pillar of flame shot up out of the hole and the ground trembled.
Artorus turned to Einrich and Harmon. "Both of you, get the hell out of here, now!" He exclaimed.
"But, McNealand-" Harmon protested.
"Goddamnit, both of you, get the fuck out of here!" He yelled in an uncharacteristic manner.
Harmon grabbed Einrich by the wrist and pulled her after him as the two of them made their way out.
Artorus turned back to Swanson. "I'm getting you out of here, too." He told him.
Swanson shook his head. "Sorry, buddy, but that's a negative." He replied
"What the hell do you mean?" Artorus asked him.
"Just look at me," He began. "I'm blind!" He shot back. He reached out and placed his hand on Artorus' shoulder. "We stung 'em bad, but they'll be back in a matter of minutes." He explained. ".Hundreds of them." He added. "And you don't need a blind man slowing you down." He added. "Get me my detonator." He instructed Artorus.
He reached into Swanson's pack and pulled out the detonator and placed it firmly in his friend's hands. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, holding back tears.
"Just get the others out of here," He replied. He then reached up to his neck and pulled his dog tags off and offered to Artorus. The wolf took them and tucked them into his jacket. "I'm not setting a timer. and I have it preset the universal frequency that all my bombs work on." He explained. "So I can't promise you much time." He added.
"Goodbye." Artorus spoke to him softly.
"Just go!" Swanson yelled. He reached out and grabbed hold of Artorus' collar. "Tell 'em what I did. but tell them the truth." He demanded. "Don't play me up anymore then what I deserved." He finished.
Artorus took the weapon and stood up and looked down at Swanson. "You are the best friend a guy could ever have." He told him. He then looked to his left and saw a new swarm of aliens emerging from the around the corner.
"I can feel them coming, now get the hell out of here!" Swanson yelled.
The wolf then turned and ran.
Swanson leaned his head down and smiled. "I always wanted to go out with a bang." He remarked. He could hear their footsteps- all of them. They were coming.
He craned his neck around, pretending to look at the crowd of aliens that had encircled him. "Well boys, I'm glad you could all make it." He spoke as he flipped the cover off the top of the detonator with his thumb. "You're just in time for the big show."
***
Salazar turned around just in time to see another xenomorph coming. He opened fire on it, tarring into it with his pulse rifle. He turned to look around to look at the others. "Could you open that fucking door?!" He exclaimed.
The door slid open.
Just then, the ventilation opening near door broke apart and a pair of hands grabbed onto Goldman and pulled him down into it by the legs.
Rita broke out in tears.
Harmon launched a grenade into the shaft, vaporizing Goldman's killer. "Mother-fucking animals!!!" He screamed.
Artorus appeared suddenly- his left sleeve was torn over the upper arm and stained with blood. "Everyone, run like hell!" He exclaimed.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Jackson yelled.
***
Everyone practically went flying into the hall as the entire area was shaken by a massive shockwave created by three-dozen high power explosive detonating simultaneously.
Jackson got up onto his feet and pressed a button on the wall to make the door slide back shut.
Artorus looked up from where he was laying on his stomach; his arm was draped over Rita. He looked over to her and noticed that she was trembling. He stood up and hoisted her up gently.
"They're all dead." Einrich muttered.
Jackson was sitting back on the floor, with his back to the wall, he looked up at her as she spoke, but made no reply.
Harmon and Salazar looked at her and also remained silent.
Jackson took out his portable drive and looked at it. "Six people died for this fucking thing." He remarked and then stuffed it back into his pack.
Artorus stepped forwards and looked at everyone. "They're dead." He remarked. "But we're still alive, and the last thing that Blake said to me was to get us out of here." He announced to the others.
Rita looked on in amazement at how calm he was; she then noticed his wound- which he seemed to be ignoring.
"Lets go get the others and get the hell out of here." He announced.
Salazar stepped forward. "You sure have a lot of nerve to talk like that after what we went through!" He exclaimed.
"Cut it out, Raul!" Harmon yelled as he placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. "He's right," He announced. "We can cry all we want, but it wont bring the others back." He added solemnly.
Salazar backed off and became quiet.
Jackson stood up and looked around. "Fore some reason, there aren't any vents in this area.
"Maybe they're just closed." Harmon offered.
"I don't care; I'm not sticking around to see if they're coming." Einrich suddenly blurted out.
Rita walked up to Artorus and looked at him. "You're bleeding." She commented.
He looked her in the eyes for a moment and then turned to face the way to the way out. "I don't have time to bleed." He replied as he began walking away. Rita followed him
~End of Chapter Ten~
Well, I finally finished the battle scene (well the first one, anyway). I hope everyone that was waiting for it enjoyed it. This chapter took me a while to write, and it turned out to be the longest one to date- at over 7 pages! Well, be sure and drop me some reviews and let me know what you all thought about it.
Thanks,
-Bojack727
P.s. I just bought the Alien Quadrilogy. It's completely awesome and the perfect thing for any true Alien fan. (I bought my copy at Target, which had the lowest price.)