Deep inside the Katanga refinery station. Three Colonial Marines fought hard with hard grit to complete their current objective.
To manually overload the station's fusion power core and destroy the Xenomorph hive on board.
Down in the station's core room, the three Marines battled what seemed to be an unending foe, with fire and smoke filling the room.
"What's the holdup!" The team leader in thick heavy marine body armor shouted over the roar of his M41A2 Pulse rifle, firing into a group of Xenos. The man was tall, light-skinned, and athletically built. Showcasing his preferred combat style with age, true grunt work with a rifle in hand. His lightweight helmet may have covered his shaved head but did not cover his stern and focused face. The Gunner finished off a number of them before lobbing a frag grenade into a group of Xeno bursters and killing more. His fire shifted over to the eight-foot warrior drone marching at them. Shooting at its legs stumbled the Xeno onto the floor, making it an easier target to finish off.
His question was directed toward the Technician currently disabling the last of the backup auger safeties to the station's power core. Another light-skinned male in specialist marine variant armor. A deployable turret next to him shot globes of flames at any Xeno that drew near where he worked. His answer came when the Tech Marine hit the last console command and ignited the final sequence. "There? What's next?" The Tech Marine reported as he readied his Kramer .50 Magnum for the next wave.
A Xeno screech echoed in the room before being silenced by multiple explosions. A dozen micro rockets flew through the air before turning a deck crawling with drones into an incendiary mess of parts and acid blood. This destruction came from the last Marine in the group, the only female on the team with caramel skin, wearing worn Marine Corps demolisher armor, a tactical eye set, and a strange violet cloth twisted around her neck. Her shoulder-mounted micro rocket launcher kit retracted back to her shoulder before reading the team's biggest weapon, the L56A3 Smartgun, and auto shooting more Drones coming for them.
"Whatever it is, it better be quick, or we'll suffocate from the smoke before too long!" The Demolisher responded. With more explosions rocketing the station whole.
"Back to the elevator is what! Marines, move!" Their team coordinator, SSGT Herrera ordered over the comm. A countdown timer appeared in their eyepieces.
...140
...139
...138
Without any further motivation, the three hightailed it out of there. The bridge the Marnie's came on collapsed under the rubble and fire, forcing the three to go a long way around. Moving across another catwalk that ran opposite of their exit point. Reaching the end, they met with a whole new monster. Standing over triple the average man's height. Its black armored shell looked thick with its crest headpiece large, complete, and sharply shaped like an exotic crown. This only meant one thing.
The Xenomorph Queen.
"Carajo! Xeno queen!" Herrea called out.
The Demolisher's smart gun spews a stream of hot lead at the queen alien, her companions joining her in adding in their shots. All were in vain as their rounds visibly bounced off or ricocheted off the Queen's royal hide.
"You can't take her out! Just RUN!" Herrea all but pleaded over the comm.
...128
...127
...126
"Fuck it! Make a break for it!" The Technician shouted as he led the way. The Gunner and Demolisher not far behind. They jumped down onto the hallway that circled the room filled with Xeno eggs. The Xeno Queen propped down from above and gave the three more incentives to not linger around. Seeing the three that dared invade her hive run away like cowered, Xeno Queen gave chase.
All around them, eggs started to flap open as the Marines passed by them. The Gunner, however, slipped and stumbled on the slimy floor and sent him tumbling to the ground next to a gaggle of open eggs. The Technician Marine was too far ahead of the others to notice his teammate go down, but the Demolisher did.
"Tom!" The Demolisher reached out in warning.
The Marine Gunner looked up at her just as a face-hugger leapt out of the egg and latched firmly onto Tom's face. Adding another drown to the hive.
The Demolisher saw the Queen upon him with a hiss that sounded like approval. But the heavy weapon user didn't care and reluctantly pulled her handgun out and granted her comrade mercy. The Queen screeched in anger as a bullet went through the Face Hugger and entered the Marines' skull. Seeing the culprit nearby, she charged.
...106
...105
...104
Running for her life with tears flowing from her eye, The Demolisher ran into the corridor they had entered earlier. Weaving right and left passed the hot pipes and seemingly slimed covered walls. She could see her other comrade ahead of her killing a Drone off to the side before moving on. They moved into another service area filled with destroyed Xeno Eggs and old tools. As they ran, the Xeno Queen was relentless in catching the rest of them. Crashing through bulkheads, propping open doors, and tearing apart the hardened slime-caked walls. Ducking under another claw swipe from the Queen bug, When the two Marines reached the stairwell that led to a lift and freedom. Halfway up, another group of Drones dropped in between them.
The Technician Marine kept running, but the Demolisher had to stop and fire at them. She swept her Smartgun back and dealt with them swiftly and efficiently before moving on. But it had cost her precious seconds.
...88
...87
...86
Redoubling her efforts, the Demolisher pushed herself into a sprint up the stairs and into the floor above.
Entering another room filled with opened eggs and dead marines hived to the walls. Along with the Xeno Queen near the door where she needed to go. With no other options available to her, she ran headlong at the Queen. Seeing her enter the room, it screeched and moved against her. The Xeno Queen raised its claw to grab the Marine, but the Demolisher performed a dodge-rolling maneuver to escape its grasp and move to the door. Laying just ahead of her was the lift to her freedom. The Technician was using his hand cannon to fire at the swarm closing in on him. Firing at a Xeno Buster that hung from the cables keeping the lift up. Only after he killed it did the Marine realize what he did. He had just enough time to turn his head to the approaching Demolisher and give her a sorrowful look. The heavy weapons user could only watch in horrified fascination as the cables snapped and the lift fell with her teammate.
"Damn it, that was your ticket out of there! Esther is their alternate route?" Herrera ordered the ship's android.
"There are no other alternative routes that could take the remaining fireteam members to the extraction point fast enough before detonation... I am sorry." The android responded, slight emotion dripping from her tone.
...73
...72
...71
Despair filled her with what this meant. More Xeno screeched behind the Demolisher, making the girl get up and move down a service condor. More so out of fear of being overwhelmed and eaten by Xenos before the station would go up in flames.
Seeing an open door ahead of the Marine took it and closed it behind her with its locking mechanism. The new room she entered appeared to be another lab like the dozens of others her fireteam had been in, and this one was thankfully devoid of Xenomorph slimed walls.
...43
...42
...41
Weariness took hold as the Demolisher class Marine sat in an empty chair.
"Damn it all! I'm sorry, Marine."
"Don't be Sergeant. We all knew there was a possibility this could be a one-way trip. Then came in anyway," the Marine responded. The Lab shook as flames and steam hissed around her. The Lab room doors banged as Xeno's tried to get in. "Someone had to do it. Might as well be us. I'll see you all again at the final rally point."
"Semper Fidelis, Marine."
"Semper Fi, Control, Fireteam Titan signing out," the Marines said before turning her radio off.
...35
...34
...33
She reached into a chest armor pocket to root out some things and pulled out three old photos, an old note page with a strange glyph, and a glass vile. The first showed a middle-aged woman of Dominican descent holding a teenage girl with the same-colored skin in her arms. A happy picture of a mother and her daughter. The next showed the smiling teen from the last photo alongside a much older woman with unwieldy white skin and untamed gray hair, a black fur-horned fox. The last showed two teenagers in dance attire. One was the Dominican teenager wearing a gold and pink crown alongside another girl whose skin was near pail white with green hair showing brown roots. Their arms wrapped around each other.
The door shudders violently as the Xenos literally try to claw their way in.
...25
...24
...23
She held the glyph up and appraised it with a furlong look. Before looking back at the photos. "Mamá, Eda, King...Amity. This looks like it's it for me. Not going to be able to uphold my promises to you all in return after all."
...18
...17
...16
The glass vile rolled onto her hand, and she examined the contents inside. A rippled straps of cloth soaked in strange blue sustenance. This, along with the photos and herself, were all the proof they needed to travel to other realms. As the substance was Titans Blood, a key ingredient in crossing dimensions.
...10
...9
...8
The Lab's door finally gave way, and a Xenomorph's hand outstretched to pull the door open.
Her head jerked to the door. A wave of anger replaced the sorrow. She shoved the things back in her chest rig while antecedently cracking open the Titan's blood vile and restoring them. Going unnoticed, the blue blood leaks onto the glyph.
...5
Luz Noceda, the first true human witch of the Boiling Isles, Colonial Marine, defeater of Grom, and exterminator of Xenomorphs, readied herself for her final stand with her modified Smartgun in hand as the world around her went up in flames.
"Face me, Monster! I happily greet my brothers in death!" The Demolisher Marine gave one last battle cry as she charged her gun's charging handle as a show of force.
...3
...2
...1
The station shook as its reactors went critical. Its bulkheads broke apart as its hallways filled with fires.
Out in space nearby, the crew of U.A.S. Endeavor watched as the Katanga Refinery went up in flames. Many of the crew cheered at the destruction. The ones in the ships C.I.C. did not, for they stood silent for the fallen warriors lost.
Once upon a time, a human entered the demon realm and walked among the Titan. She uncovered the language of the Titan and sang the songs of love and the harmony of friendship. When the world was in chaos and threatened to turn into discord. She held the light that pierced the darkness. With her strongest spells in hand, she defeated the tyrant that ruled the lands and brought peace to the troubled Isles. But the final battle was costly as the human was nowhere to be found, and her friends hoped that she made it back home.
That wasn't the case. Nor where the human's story ends.
Her strongest spell harmed the portal that led to her home, and when she arrived, it was home yet not the same. Technology, unlike anything she'd seen before in her realm, was abundant and everywhere. Humans were going into space, traveling to distant stars, and colonizing strange new worlds. Science fiction was made real in her eyes, but it wasn't her home. With the portal closed back to the Demon realm, with no family or magic in this world, the human was a stranger in an even more strange land. Her options were limited on how to survive in this new peculiar realm.
And the Colonial Marines answered her plea. With no money or history and at the minimum age to join. The human set out to train with humanity's best warriors to see the stars in the faint hope of finding her friends, family and lost love. The Marines showed her challenges at every turn, and though they brought her to the stars, the stars weren't as beautiful up close. Dangers filled them in the form of Alien life. The Xenomorphs.
The trials she partook in before in the demon realm had prepared her better than others, but none prepared her for the horror the Xeno put in her. With Determination, the willingness to live, and heavy firepower. The human fought an endless battle with the hives that destroyed their colonists. For years she fought and made her last stand against the Xeno.
In the end, her final thoughts were of home, family, and love. With regret knowing she will never see them again in the world of the living.
Or will she? For even in death, the Titan always takes care of its chosen champions.
High above the Boiling Isles, the air was quiet, and its citizens were at peace.
But was quickly disturbed when globes of lightning appeared from nowhere, taking the residents by surprise and fear. A deafening crack sounded through the air, and light flashes drew more panic as the bolts of energy were snaking outward from far above Bonesborough. Some would claim the sky looked like glass being shattered. A hole appeared in the storm's center that the lightning gathered around, and the light show exploding out from it radiated enough of the Isles that the shadows were cast by it instead of the sun. After what seemed like an eternity but lasted a minute barely, the hole closed up, and the lighting disappeared.
Leaving behind a single battered Marine falling to the Titan.
Yeah, I just did this. You all are so welcome. I literally had this idea yesterday while doing some editing to some stories after playing Aliens: Fireteam Elite and couldn't get it out of my head. So I spent the night and morning forcing myself to write this to get it out and onto paper so to speak. I'm expecting some errors in this due to how rushed this was but I can get by with that.
So, what do you all think? Please comment as I love to read them and want to know what you all think and is if it's worth perusing.
Made some slight edits to errors I saw later.