Chapter One: Last Man Standing

Everyone in the world is dead.

Or that's the way it seems as you walk the desolate lands of your colony. A few hours ago, the alien xenomorphs that attacked Chau Sara came here. You were out scouting on a prospecting run by yourself—a routine patrol in the wastelands.

One moment there was an endless series of communications, screams, cries for help. And then nothing. You wonder if you are the last person left in this world.

But you don't have time to think about it.

Because while you were scouting, you came across a large number of the creatures. Zerglings, like dogs with scythes for arms, walk the land. And you know, that whatever is happening around you if these are left here, they could kill a lot of people. And if everyone in the world is already dead, as may well be the case, then you ought to try and avenge them.

So you point your gun from the rocks you are hiding behind, take aim, and fire.

The first zergling falls, and the others search for you. The second one dies, and now they begin to scatter. These things move vast, but fortunately, they don't seem to be very intelligent. You manage to kill three more of them, and then you move. They were hurrying on hands and knees through the rocks so that they won't have a chance to identify your position.

Getting close is guaranteed to get you killed.

If you shoot at them from one place long enough, they are guaranteed to find you. Once they find you, they will catch you. But first, they have to find you.

So you move along the cliff face, scanning around for enemies. As you do, you pass a patrol of the things and hold your breath. You can hear them breathing as they scuttle past you, and you do not fire on them. You're not sure you have a way of escape, the way you are going. Once you're backed into a corner, discovery is inevitable.

When they are long gone, you find another shooting range.

Looking down, you see more zerglings patrolling around in plain sight. Drawing your rifle, you repeat the process. You're careful to aim, but you miss one shot, and you curse yourself for it. You have no idea when you'll be able to get a refill on ammunition, and you've been trying to conserve yours.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The zerglings are shot down dead, and you move again. You see that many of them are coming to cluster together as if for an attack. But they don't seem to know where you are, so they can't anyone. It's a tempting target, but you know better than to take the bait.

Instead, you maneuver along the cliffs and head back down into the lowlands. Then you steal south as quickly as you can. By now, the zerg are starting to disperse, expecting the danger to have passed. A terran army would have been working on trying and figuring out which direction they'd shot from.

But these zerg don't seem to know much about sniping.

Not that you're a sniper. You're fifteen years old, with long blonde hair, and your entire family is probably dead. You work or working, running errands for the local militia and scouting things out. But now the local militia is probably dead to last man, and you're alone.

You'd disconnected from yourself for a bit there.

What now?

Vengeance. Vengeance and survival.

So, finding a set of rocks with an easy escape, you train your rifle, check your ammunition and find some targets. You try again, and again you kill still more zerg. You've always been a good shot; most people in the Fringe Worlds are. But now you're running low on ammunition, and you're getting hungry.

So you decide to get while the getting is good.

There were rumors that the Sons of Korhal had an operating in these hills, to the South. They usually went heavily armed and stayed away from major population centers. Maybe you can get help there.

The night is coming on by now, and you have to hide from several more patrols of the creatures. You hope that they are amassing here because they've been repulsed from the Sons of Korhal. Sons of Korhal usually don't operate in any one place for long, so they probably have evac planned.

You are disappointed.

When you find the Sons of Korhal base, it is wrecked. The doors have been torn down, and there are no bodies around. Even so, it's too convenient for your liking, so you aim to downrange and check for anyone. You wonder if these things can think. They seem to have some kind of group instinct going for them.

But if they are intelligent, they might just set an ambush.

What to do?

You won't last long on your own with your meager equipment. But there's probably a lot of stuff you could use out there. Even so, the enemy might be out there. You don't like the idea of getting caught in the dark, far from help.

But, if you stay here, you'll run out of ammunition, and if you aren't killed, you'll starve.

You have to get back to civilization eventually, even if civilization is dead.

You've seen these things burrow into solid rock. But through your binoculars, you can't see any sign of digging.

So, reluctantly, you move toward the base, running as fast as you can. Reaching the door, you turn the light on your gun and look through. Nothing can be seen, and as you walk into the outpost, you see nothing. You wish there was dripping acid or bloodstains everywhere. That would at least tell you something.

But it is empty.

It is clean.

You don't wait anywhere long. After sweeping the inside of a room, you look through it one by one. Eventually, you come to the armor and find marine suits waiting in place. You consider taking one, but no. You can't maneuver as well in those things; they are like a tank. So instead, you just get more ammunition, a lot more.

Once you've filled your bag with that, you also put in plenty more rations. Then, seeing an assault rifle, you take that and swing it around your back. It might be helpful to have some heavier firepower. A few more grenades could prove useful as well. Flashbangs and high-powered grenades. Maybe a few high-grade explosives.

Okay, so you are armed?

What now?

Where do you go? What do you do?

You try raising someone on the radio, but you don't hear anything at all. Instead, you decide to check the facility itself for any plans. A rapid search gets you to where the guy who used to be in command was. Checking through his files, you conclude that he had been looking for a secret facility.

Apparently, the Sons of Korhal became aware of a facility. One where the Confederacy was doing experiments. It was to the north, within a day or two in terms of walking. Maybe it withstood the zerg invasion.

This is the idea you cling to.

You don't know if anyone will open the doors for you.

They might shoot you on sight as soon as they look at you. Or they might leave you to die.

But, what else are you supposed to do?

Go home.

Home is in ashes, more than likely.

So you head out, hating the Sons of Korhal outpost more than ever. The symbol of a raised fist is distasteful to you. And off you go, taking a map with you.

Only then do you notice something;

The area before you consists almost entirely of loose dirt. A vast wasteland stretching out to the blue horizon. You'd see no sign of disturbed dirt there, and a zerg could ambush you at any time. No, this was a bad idea.

Looking at the map, you see there is another route. You could cross a bridge into a mountainous island. If you go north from there, you could probably get across to harder ground. You'd be able to see if the zerg were tunneling in there, maybe.

It's settled.

So, you begin your journey across the bridge. It's eerie and unpleasant. As you walk, you are exposed from all sides, and you quickly get down on hands and knees and crawl forward. You'd hate to be spotted.

Ruined cars are around you, and you check each one for survivors or zerg. None. There are no corpses either. Where are the bodies?

It doesn't matter.

Soon, however, you come to the edge of the bridge and past the cars, and scan the rocky mountain. There, you see something that disturbs you. A large cluster of zerg, only there are new ones—huge, bulbous flyers above them. There are also many other things, bigger than zerglings but lower. They look like they are mining into the rock and taking what they find into a cave.

The cave looks to be of recent make. As if it were melted out with acid, and many zerg standing by it—a nest.

The zerg have made a nest here.

It must be recent.

You then decide to do something completely reckless. You are already almost certain to die for nothing. So you decide to take aim and gun down one of the drones. It explodes, and the response is instant.

The zerglings rush towards you en masse, and with them come huge slithering things. A whole lot of them come out of the cave as well, and few out from underground.

You flee back into the cars, scampering out of sight and staying low. As they approach, you slip underneath one of the dead cars. You can see the creatures scrambling over, but they overshoot you. The larger ones, meanwhile, slither into place. Many of them are now in front of you. Looking to either side, you realize surrounded except in one place.

The edge of the bridge.

Pulling the pin on a grenade, you rolled it out amongst them, then slip out the back of the car. You vault over the edge of the bridge, the explosion can be heard alongside screeches. Hanging by your gloved hands, you moved a bit down the bridge by them before risking a glimpse up over. The zerg are going ballistic, turning over cars and looking for you.

Quickly you pull yourself over and toss another grenade into their midst. This one is a flash; you took a variety over them and you duck. Again, there is a flash, and you rise up to see them screeching.

Drawing out your rifle, you aim, fire, aim fire. It's second nature by now and with them clustered, you kill one with each shot. Two shots fail to make a killing blow, but you correct them.

By the time they adjust to the flash, you've already whittled them down. One of the zerglings leaps at you, but you shoot it dead. Then you check your ammunition, turn to aim toward the colony. You see, the big zerg hadn't the reports called the drones.

You shoot them dead.

You soon learn why they are called drones. They don't run or anything, just keep mindlessly doing whatever it is they are doing. Pretty soon, you've slaughtered them all, though it spends another clip. And you move forward, wondering what it was that they were doing. You make a mental note that attacking a zerg tends to get all of the others to break cover.

Reaching the cave entrance, you see a fleshy, grayish-purple substance within. It sticks to your boots, and as you move down, you see what it was. Within this place are dozens upon dozens of eggs. Many of them have half-formed zerg within them, some multiple zerg.

The next generation of the colony here, where little zerg would grow up to kill more people and make daddy proud.

No on your watch.

Drawing a grenade, you toss it into the midsts of the eggs, then another. You duck for cover, and the explosion echoes. Looking down, you see splattered eggs everywhere. Then you notice a number of worm-like larvae. You don't know what they are, but you crush them underfoot, one by one. It takes several stamps, but you manage it.

Then you leave the cave, feeling tired. Looking into the distance, you see a large group of flying serpent things coming for you. Running, you find an alcove of rock and hide within as they pass over. They fly around and around, but they do not see you, and before long, they head south.

South to nowhere and nothing.

Still, the huge bulbous things are there still. Drawing your rifle you aim, and fire into one of their heads. Several shots later and it explodes in an orgy of blood. You kill the others, and then you make a run for it.

This time you don't bother with stealth. Whatever it is that you are facing, they'll be searching a lot harder. Reaching the northern bridge, you rush across it and, coming to the edge of the cliff, throw yourself down. Then you lie still as a vast swarm of zerg rush by you over the bridge.

A properly placed gauss-turret could have slaughtered all of them.

But you don't have one of those.

So you stand and continue your journey north, feeling increasingly hopeless. It seems clear now that you'll come to a miserable end. But you don't intend to go down alone, and if there is someone you can help, you want to try and do it.

You dodge and weave around more and more zerg. And you several times consider giving up.

But what else would you do?

The facility awaits. If you have the courage to enter it.