Ashley raced up to the bridge with Alenia to find the area empty. Pacing around she called out, "Wilcox?"
"Right here," he said crawling out from under the computer console.
"What the hell were you doing under there? I kept trying to call you," Ashley said mostly concerned with his safety.
"Have you seen those things?" he asked in a shaky voice.
Alenia spoke calmly trying to steady the sergeant, "Yes, we've killed several. Were you attacked?"
"They came out of the big air duct over there. I got one then hid under there," said Wilcox picking up his assault rifle, "Where's Giles?"
"I don't know. We lost track of him on deck two," said Ashley looking over her shoulder towards the CIC, "He could still be alive."
"I doubt that," said Alenia keeping close to Ashley.
"We have to make sure," said Ashley, "No one gets left behind."
"Then we should get more help from the Isandlwana," suggested Alenia.
"Forget it," wheezed Wilcox, "They cut communications with us when I fired my weapon. Look outside, they already retracted the umbilical bridge."
Ashley went to the window seeing nothing but empty space between the two ships, "Damn."
"How are we supposed to get back?" asked Alenia now feeling panicked herself.
"Take it easy, I'll think of something," said Ashley opening a channel to call the Isandlwana, "Capt Briggs, can you hear me? This is Chief Williams."
"I told you, they cut off communication with us," said Wilcox falling back into the cockpit chair.
"This is Capt Briggs," the captain's voice crackled over the radio, "I've been waiting to hear from you Chief."
"Sir the situation is fubar," said Ashley dropping all formalities, "We need another team to..."
"No way Chief," said Capt Briggs cutting her off, "I told you you weren't coming back until the situation is under control, not fubar."
"Sir we're going to die if you don't send help now," Ashley gritted her teeth knowing the captain would stick his word.
"Negative. You must find a way to clear the ship," he said unchanging in emotion.
"I've got an idea," said Wilcox bringing up a schematic of the ship on his omni-tool, "We could get out in an escape pod then blow up the ship."
"Sounds good to me," said Ashley, "What do you think Captain?"
"Do it," he said before shutting down the channel.
"So that's it? We blow up the ship and get out on an escape pod? How are we supposed to do that?" asked Alenia.
"Simple, we set a charge on the drive core. Setting up a chain reaction that will result in the ship explodin," said Wilcox.
"Do we have any explosives?" asked Ashley.
"No. But we should find some in the ship's armory. It's on deck three," explained Wilcox.
"What about Giles?" asked Ashley.
"We have to go through most of the ship just to get to the engine room anyway. If we can't find him by then we should just go," said Wilcox.
"We're wasting time, let's get moving," ordered Ashley leading them back down into the lower decks.
Upon reaching deck three Wilcox took the lead since he had the only assault rifle. With the lights on they could see the ship in better detail. Blood stains, acid scars, and bullet holes dotted much of the ship's interior. Half of the crew must have survived long enough to put up a good fight.
"It shouldn't be much further," said Wilcox taking a turn down another narrow hallway.
"I'm surprised we haven't run into any more of those things," said Alenia pulling up her specialized sensor. The screen remained blank as they walked.
"Maybe they're all dead," said Ashley with a hopeful smile, "Would be nice to not have to blow up the ship."
"Here it is," said Wilcox stopping at a large metal door. Immediately he went to work to hack open the door.
"Hey I'm getting something," said Alenia as her sensor began to beep showing several red dots approaching from all sides.
"I spoke too soon," said Ashley looking over Alenia's shoulder at the sensor, "Hurry up sergeant."
"I'm doing it as fast as I can," he said nearly breaking into a sweat as the hack module gave him some trouble, "It's a new model, omni-gel won't work."
"You CAN do it right?" asked Ashley pulling out her pistol to get ready.
"There's so many," said Alenia as the number of dots turned into a couple dozen.
"Hurry the hell up Wilcox," said Ashley knowing the three of them didn't stand a chance without getting into the armory.
"I'm trying damn it!" he spat while furiously tweaking the lock system.
Four aliens came running up the hallway growling and flashing their fearsome teeth. Alenia hit them with a biotic push throwing them end over end. Two more came up the opposite end. Ashley took one out with careful shots to the head. The other leaped pinning her to the ground.
"I got it!" proclaimed Wilcox as the armory door whooshed open. Seeing Ashley immobilized by an alien he reacted without thinking. Firing a few rounds from his assault rifle ripped open the alien's rib cage spilling acid down onto Ashley's chest plate.
The alien screamed rolling over whipping it's limbs around in agony. Smoke broiled up from Ashley's armor as she squirmed to get it off. Alenia grabbed the chief pulling her inside the armory. Wilcox covered them taking down another alien as it tried to attack them.
"Shit, get it off," yelled Ashley fumbling with the armor's metal clasps.
"Hold still," Alenia lay the chief flat on the floor to get a better angle on the armor.
"It's burning me!"
Alenia pulled a small utility knife from her back pocket slicing off the straps. Finally the breast plate came loose. She tossed it aside as the acid burned a sizeable hole through it. The bottom half of her undershirt had been burned away. A large red blotch formed on Ashley's torso just above the navel.
"I've got some medi-gel," Wilcox said kneeling down beside the chief. Producing a small tube from his back pocket he squeezed the clear jelly-like substance onto the wound. Next he took out a small bandage roll wrapping it around her abdomen.
"I think she's unconscious," said Alenia holding up Ashley's head, "Ash? Can you hear me?"
"She should be okay," said Wilcox. Taking Alenia's hand he placed it over the injury telling her, "I need you apply some light pressure to help the medi-gel bind with the wound."
"I got it," said Alenia putting both hands on the chief's stomach.
"While you do that I'm going to try to make the bomb," said Wilcox grabbing some grenades from a locker.
/
For a couple hours Wilcox worked on his makeshift bomb while Alenia cared for Ashley. At last the chief began to open her eyes to find a blue face staring down at her, "How bad is it?"
"Not too bad," answered Alenia, "We sealed the wound with medi-gel."
"The bomb is almost ready chief," said Wilcox putting on the finishing touches.
"Good, I want to get the hell out of here," said Ashley trying to sit up. The act of bending her torso caused sharp pain to radiate from her injury. Fighting through the pain she managed to stand up.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to help you?" asked Alenia holding her close.
"Just try to find me the top half to some pheonix armor," said Ashley leaning against a wall.
Alenia opened a couple lockers before finding a pheonix set. Bringing it over to Ashley, she said, "Let me help you put it on."
"I can do it myself," said Ashley attempting to take the armor.
"Don't be so difficult," Alenia said holding it away with a smirk.
In no mood to argue about it Ashley subjected to being dressed by the asari. Alenia tweaked the armor to be loose around the abdomen to lessen friction on the wound. She asked, "How does that feel?"
"Fine, you did a good job," said Ashley feeling awkward as Alenia stayed in close proximity. Their eyes locked for a moment prompting Ashley to ask, "What is it?"
"Nothing, just glad that you're okay," said Alenia stepping away.
"It's finished," said Wilcox presenting his crude bomb. Four grenades were wired and taped together, "All of them will go off at once with this single detonator."
"Good work," said Ashley turning towards a weapons locker, "We should load up on what we can find."
They armed themselves with assault rifles, grenades, and shotguns for backup.
"What's next?" asked Alenia.
"We need to prep the escape pod before we go," explained Ashley, "I don't want to get blown up because we're screwing around with the pod."
Wilcox brought up the ship's schematics on his omni-tool saying, "The closest pods are on deck four just below us. It's perfect since we won't have to run far to escape the blast."
"Let's move then, I'll take point," said Ashley opening the armory door.
Expecting an ambush Ashley carefully entered the corridor. Alenia and Wilcox followed closely behind. Keeping a sharp eye on every angle; they made their way to another stairwell. Entering deck four Wilcox directed them towards a passageway with a concave exterior wall.
"The controls must be around here somewhere," said Wilcox searching the wall for a panel. Finding it at the end of the passageway he began firing up the escape pods. The wall collasped downward revealing several pods. The hydraulics whined loudly as the wall lowered into a slot. A resounding popping noise rattled the ship from the mechanism.
"Every fucking alien on the ship must have heard that," said Ashley slamming a clenched fist against the opposite wall.
On cue Alenia's sensor began to pick up a dozen signals closing in fast, "Let's just get out of here."
"We can't until we destroy the ship," said Wilcox pulling out a shotgun.
Aliens began pouring in both ends of the passageway. Ashley opened fire with her assault rifle taking down a few targets. More of the creatures simply crawled over their fallen brethren. Wilcox fired as fast as his shotgun would allow. Each shot blew a decent hole through the hard shell of the creatures. Alenia did the best she could to support them both with her biotic powers.
"There's too many," said Ashley slowly falling back until she was back to back with Wilcox.
"Just keep up your fire," yelled Alenia throwing a singularity towards a group of aliens catching them in a ball of dark matter.
Wilcox killed two more aliens before his thermal clip discharged. While in the process of changing clips a third alien whipped his weapon away with it's tail. Now the creature pounced on it's helpless victim. Before Wilcox could scream the alien caved in his face with it's inner jaws.
"Damn it!" Ashley turned in time to see Wilcox die. In a fit of rage she emptied her thermal clip into the victorious creature.
"We have to leave!" Alenia hit another group of aliens with a biotic push smashing them against the hull.
"Hold on, there's just a few more," said Ashley jumping over a few sizzling bodies in an attempt to reach one end of the passageway. Her progress is stopped short when an alien popped out of an overhead vent grabbing her by the shoulders, "Help me!"
"Ashley!" Alenia ran over grabbing her by the legs. Unfortunately an approaching alien forced Alenia to let go. Too exhausted to use her biotics; she resorted to the assault rifle. A long burst of automatic fire dropped the alien. Looking up at the vent she saw Ashley was gone.