AUTHOR'S NOTE: First off, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates for about the past, um… two months. My computer was on its deathbed. But… here I am again (because someone fixed it)!

I would also like to say you guys are the best Readers/Reviewers ever!!

By the way, I went to Wikipedia. And I thought I actually had all the info I would need to accurately recreate the story! Man, I was wrong… Anywho, thanks to Spacefan for the heads-up and thanks to Thug-4-Less for pointing out the inaccuracy to me. I fixed it as best I could. In fact, I just went back and basically redid the whole sentence.

P.S. For your reading pleasure (and to make up for the long time between updates) I've made this chapter nice and long. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: The Battle

"Lieutenant!" Charlotte bellowed as she shook the man's chair. Her eyes were red and bloodshot and puffy. She had been crying so much.

She felt like dragging the lieutenant out of his chair and tying him up somewhere in the back of the APC because right now he wasn't helping any. In fact, he was now staring with a kind of strange repulsion at Dietrich's camera feed, but he remained silent.

Ellen Ripley, on the other hand, watched with utter sadness. Her heart broke for Natalie. It broke for her and all the other colonists who suffered the same fate. Her brows furrowed and her mouth parted slightly, as if she was holding back a line of painful tears.

Everyone in the APC heard the Marines yelling things to each other as they gathered around the cocooned woman.

"Just stay calm. We're going to get you outta here."

"Uh… Sir, we got a survivor here."

"It's going to be alright. Give me a hand! We gotta get her outta here!"

"Hudson… Dietrich. What's going on?"

The Marines continued to ramble to each other on Sublevel 3 until the woman began to convulse violently.

Dietrich yelled to the others. "Convulsion!"

Natalie screamed in uncontrollable agony as her body shook violently. Something awful was happening to her as pain racked her body.

"Dietrich, get back! Get back!" Apone yelled as he pulled the med-tech back.

The center of Natalie's shirt became caked in red as something began to force its way out through her ribcage.

Ripley's fist covered her chest as she stared in horror and pain at the all-too-familiar scene. She remembered how Kane flailed about frantically before birthing the small, revolting creature that terrorized her nightmares.

Charlotte's body shook with hysterical sobs. This wasn't the first time that Charlotte had seen a death like this. So many of her fellow colonists had suffered and died in the same way.

There was nothing that could be done anymore.

The woman took a final agonizing gasp as her head lulled to the side. A small creature had ripped and gnawed its way through her chest. It was, perhaps, no longer than someone's forearm and it was a sickening beige color. Of course, no one could tell though because it was dripping in the woman's blood.

Its teeth looked incredibly sharp and metallic as it opened its mouth and hissed viciously at the Marines, as if daring them to do something about its presence.

"Frost! Flamethrower!" Apone yelled.

"Kill it!" Hudson, in the background, of course, hollered out.

"Get back! Flamethrower! Move!" Apone took the flamethrower from Frost and got down on one knee. He had no idea how it came to this or how that disgusting little fucker got inside of that woman, but he did know that if he saw another one he'd burn the whole goddamn place to the ground.

The creature let out a high-pitched death shriek as it moved wildly around, half in/half out of the dead, cocooned woman. It screamed and hissed just before it slumped over, dead.

As the woman's body continued to smolder and burn, a strange and shrill sound could be heard. It was an angry sound. Dietrich and the Sarge looked to the dark ceiling but saw nothing even as the encrusted walls seemed to vibrate with the noise.

Smoke crawled throughout the quiet chamber and suddenly everything appeared much more dangerous.

Hicks got a sudden and distinct feeling of dread. Something bad was going to happen… something bad and inevitable. He could feel it in every pore of his body.

"Movement!" Hudson yelled out as his tracker began to beep.

Apone immediately stood up from his position and turned to look at Hudson. "What's the position?"

"Uh… can't lock in…" Hudson said as he spun around several times trying to pinpoint the exact location of whatever it was that was sneaking up on them.

"Talk to me, Hudson!" Apone barked. If something was here with them he wanted to know about it.

Hudson began to get panicky as the beeping on his tracker became steady and frequent. "Uh… multiple signals… they're closing."

"Go to infra-red people. Look sharp." Apone said as he pulled down a small visor that covered his right eye.

In the APC Gorman was fiddling and playing with controls on the monitors before him. "What's happening, Apone? We can't see anything in here."

Ripley's head was level with Gorman's as she looked around at all the screens in front of them. She sensed something was coming. She knew something was coming. "Pull your team out, Gorman."

Charlotte's eyes grew wide and fearful as she heard the piercing sound over the troopers' camera feed. "They're coming," she mumbled quietly as she took a step back from the monitors.

Burke looked over at the woman next to him. "Who is?"

"The adults. The soldiers killed one, and now they're pissed."

The troopers moved along the chamber stealthily, looking for something they couldn't even see.

"I've got signals! I've got readings in front and behind!" Hudson called out as he stared at his tracker. What would normally only be blue dots on the screen were now huge patches reading only meters away.

Frost looked around. "Where, man? I don't see shit."

Hicks continued to look around but came across nothing. And the creepy feeling that was crawling up his spine didn't count. "He's right. There's nothing back here."

Hudson was getting frustrated. His tracker was never off but no one believed him. "Look, I'm tellin' you, somethin's movin' and it ain't us!"

Frost's eyes were darting all over the place when he felt something on his shoulder. He jumped and quickly turned around only to find Dietrich. "Ah shit."

"The tracker's off the scale, man! They're all around us, man! Jesus!" Hudson's voice came over the headsets.

Dietrich moved along slowly past Frost to a little less crowded spot. She held her gun close to her body like a security blanket. Then a frightening thought came to mind as she realized her small little visor across her eye wasn't helping any. "Maybe they don't show up on the infra-red at all…"

She turned her back to the wall as she continued to study her surroundings.

The moment the dark claws locked onto her shoulders and lifted her off the ground she struggled violently. She kicked and screamed and, reflexively, fired her flamethrower.

Frost heard her cries and turned around just in time to see a burst of flames. He yelled out as his body was engulfed. He stumbled backward and fell over a nearby railing, tumbling downward into the belly of the structure.

Dietrich continued to scream as she was pulled upward to the dark ceiling.

"FROST!" Hicks yelled out.

Crowe peered over the railing with wide, frightened eyes.

Hicks had turned around as well but rather than join Crowe at the railing, he looked down with horror in his eyes at the burning satchel of pulse rifle magazines—the very satchel that Frost had been ordered to carry.

Knowing what was coming, Hicks grabbed Crowe and yanked him as hard as he could away from the railing and flaming magazines.

Everything in that moment seemed to move in slow motion for Hicks. The blast was sudden and deafening and catapulted Crowe and himself forward. Hicks hit the ground hard but Crowe wasn't as fortunate. The young man flew head-on into a nearby pillar with a bone-crunching THUD.

Everyone in the APC watched as confusion spread amongst the troopers. They watched as Frost's bio-readouts went flat line. They watched as Crowe's bio-readouts went flat line. And they watched as their monitors filled with static and then blacked out.

"Jesus Christ, Apone! What is going on?" Gorman yelled into his headset as he stared at the monitors in confusion. This shouldn't be happening to him… not on his second drop.

"Crowe is down!"

Charlotte listened to Hicks's voice with empathetic ears. She knew this would come: the massacre she wished to avoid. She wanted to scream for him to come back. She wanted to scream for all of the Marines to come back. She wanted to ask him what his first name was. She wanted to talk to him… even if it was only for a moment.

The atmosphere amongst the Marines became jumbled and messy as they tried to gather themselves and realize what was going on.

"Crowe--"

"Dietrich… Frost, off the board!"

"--sound off! Frost! Frost!"

Hicks knelt down next to Crowe's body. He flipped the man over and stared at his bloody, bruised face. Crowe was definitely down. 'What the goddamn hell is happening here?!"

Hicks suddenly heard someone yelling behind him. It was a startled, painful yell, like someone had been caught off guard. Hicks recognized the voice and turned his head and stood up, only to find no one behind him anymore. "Wierzbowski! Wierzbowski!"

Ripley felt enormously helpless. There was a battle going on that she couldn't do anything about.

She was leaning forward, hunched over a little and gripping the keyboards tightly as her eyes darted frantically from one monitor to the next. Her face glistened with sweat. She wasn't sure if it was the tension of the situation getting to her or just the heat of all the bodies in the APC.

Wierzbowski's monitor suddenly went to nothing but scratchy static and Ripley's sense of helplessness gripped her even tighter.

Vasquez knew, she just knew she would need her smart-gun. So she was damn glad that she came prepared with extra lithium batteries for herself and Drake.

The woman looked to Drake who stood nearby. They were both thinking the same thing. The others couldn't defend themselves… so they would defend them. And besides, she was antsy to fire her gun anyway.

Vasquez deftly positioned her gun across her abdomen. She gave her roaring battle cry and began to fire. "Let's rooock!"

Drake joined her and soon they were both firing at the dark, moving walls.

Gorman stared with wide, angry eyes. Someone was firing their gun. "Who's firing? Goddamnit!"

Charlotte stared at the monitors in shock. These people were probably going to die… even if they had top-of-the-line weapons and equipment. She knew there was nothing that could stop the brutality or hostility of these creatures.

She had to do something.

Drake and Vasquez continued firing their guns at dark walls and endless ceilings.

"Yeah!" Vasquez barked out. She wasn't so much concentrating on her enemy as she was on the feel of the smooth metal in her hands, the heavy weight of it against her stomach, and the kick she felt every time she pulled the trigger. She loved to fire her gun.

"I ordered a hold fire!"

Gorman's chain of command seemed to be falling apart right in front of his eyes, as was his mental state. No one was listening to him. His orders were not being met. There was mass confusion. He could barely even tell what was going on.

As the last threads of his calm began to fray, he heard Hudson, "They're coming outta the walls!"

"They're coming outta the goddamn walls! Let's book!" Hudson was panicked, to say the least.

The walls seemed to be slithering and moving. Something was closing in on the soldiers.

"On your right, man!"

"Do iiitt!"

Gorman heard the Marines yelling desperately to one another and so he tried to gather the last few bits left of himself. "Apone, I want you to lay down suppressing fire with the incinerators and fall back by squads to the APC, over."

"Vasquez! Drake! Hold your fire goddamnit!" Apone yelled. He tried looking around through the smoke but had trouble even seeing his own two hands in front of him.

He spun around several times looking for whatever his soldiers were shooting at and at the same time trying to listen to Gorman ramble on. He grabbed the earpiece and pushed it closer to his ear. "Say again! All after incinerator!"

Gorman tried to remain as calm as possible. He closed his eyes for a brief second and then repeated his order. "I said I want you to lay down a suppressing fire with the incinerators and fall back by squads to the APC, over."

He tried desperately to keep his voice from cracking.

Apone was isolated in the dense smoke around him. He couldn't see anything. He looked around futilely for a moment as he held his earpiece close to his face once again.

He looked upward for a moment. As one of the giant, black creatures crawled toward him from the ceiling, he tried to aim his flamethrower upward. It was too late. He wasn't fast enough. It swung down and grabbed a hold of him.

Apone's monitor went blindingly white for a moment. He cried out for a brief moment and then his monitor went to nothing but static.

Gorman just stared at the screen. His breathing was heavy and his eyes seemed to be almost popping out of his head. "Apone?" he squeaked out.

The other soldiers soon began to realize their Sarge was no longer around. "Sarge! Sarge!"

Gorman listened to their voices but they all sounded so distant. "Talk to me…" Gorman mumbled to the static-filled screen.

Hudson's voice suddenly filled his head. "He's dead, man!"

And then Hicks. "Top! You copy?"

And then Hudson again. "Ah, man! He's gone!"

Gorman was still lost in his own fearful world. "Apone… talk to me!"

"He's gone!" Ripley barked at him, pulling him out of his disbelieving daze.

Charlotte and Burke stared at all the monitors. Some had gone to static and others just showed the Marines running around and shooting at something that no one in the APC could see.

Ripley began yelling at Gorman. "Get them out of there!"

"Shut up!"

"Do it now!"

"Shut up!"

Ripley snatched one of the headsets off the counter and yelled into it. "Hicks, who's ever left, get the hell out of--!"

Gorman, his calm now completely disintegrated, ripped the headset out of Ripley's hand. "Just shut up!"

"Goddamnit!"

Charlotte continued to stare at the monitors without saying a word. The soldiers were scrambling around, yelling into each others helmet cameras.

Her eyes focused on Hudson's camera feed as Hicks ran up to the panicked com-tech. He almost seemed to be staring right at Charlotte. "Where's Apone?! Where's Apone?!"

Her face contorted with sadness. "He's gone." She whispered to Hicks' face on the screen.

She then looked to Hicks' camera feed. Hudson's face was plastered all over it. "The Sarge is gone! Let's get the fuck outta here!"

Gorman looked as if all the blood had been drained out of his face. "Hudson? Vasquez?"

"Hudson, look out!"

"Get it!"

Everyone watched as Hicks blew away someone unknown creature with his shotgun. It shrieked loudly.

"Hi-Hicks? …I told them to fall back." Gorman didn't know what to do next.

"They're cut off!" Ripley said as she lunged forward and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Do something!"

Gorman's wide eyes were glued to the monitors. She knew he would be of no help now. Not like he ever was, though…

She looked up to see Charlotte next to her. The woman looked… prepared for something. Prepared to help.

Ripley let go of Gorman. She shouldered her way past the others and ran down the aisle of the APC. She knew what she had to do.

And frankly, Charlotte knew too. As Ripley started up the APC, Gorman suddenly came back to life.

"Ripley, what the hell are you doing?!"

Ripley slammed the APC into gear as Gorman jumped up from his seat. Just as he turned around he met face to face with Charlotte. She looked angry and exhausted.

"Get out of my way!"

"Sit down, Gorman." Charlotte said calmly.

"Get the hell outta my way! We're turning this thing around!"

As he tried to push past her, he felt something slam into his face. It was Charlotte's fist. It made contact with his nose and sent him careening to the ground.

"We're doing this our way, Gorman!" Charlotte said as she looked at him.

He seemed to no longer care that Ripley was making her way deeper into the complex, towards the soldiers. He was concentrating now on the blood that was gushing out of his nose. "Y-you hit me!" he said, a little shocked.

"Yeah, I did."

Hicks was holding up a limp Hudson as they moved along. "Come on!" He held his shotgun out in front of him, ready to shoot at anything that popped out at him. Those creatures seemed to be very good at that.

Drake and Vasquez, on the other hand, were still bringing up the rear. They fired with amazing accuracy at the creatures that were not far behind.

"Come on, Drake!" Vasquez yelled out to Drake. He seemed to be lagging behind.

Burke and Charlotte had now made their way to the front of the APC and were standing next to Ripley as she drove along. Gorman was still in the back yelling about his nose.

The APC drove through a big cloud of steam and just as Ripley was able to see clearly again, she realized they were coming up on some sort of wall. A wall that shouldn't be there. It was black and slimy. It was some kind of alien encrustation.

Ripley braced for impact as did Charlotte and Burke. The vehicle shook violently as it slammed into and demolished the wall, sending debris everywhere.

Ripley quickly stopped the APC when she saw the last of the Marines.

There were only four left.