Authors note: I'm not able to access my email. If you have any questions, comments please send me a PM :)
Jade sat in her darkened apartment, illuminated only by a small fish tank and a tv on low volume. She was thinking through the events of the past day.
She'd attempted to contact Makalo but there had been no answer or reply to her messages. After the man had talked to her, her shift had continued as normal, no indication that her boss or anyone had any suspicion of her.
She got up. It was around this time she would normally go to her favourite restaurant. It was just across the street.
It was raining outside. She crossed the street, avoiding the splashes caused by passing cars and people. As with most places on Earth, it was overcrowded. She always felt too closed in on the streets. That's why she preferred the more open, though still crowded, docks.
She noticed nothing unusual as she entered the busy restaurant and asked for a private table. She sat and ordered a drink and some starters.
As she sipped her drink, and began eating her starters, a man came in and sat down opposite her. Though she knew it wasn't the same man as before, his physical features seemed almost exactly the same.
He placed a small black item on the table. After a while the device made a noise. The man seemed satisfied at this.
He spoke, Jade eyeing him suspiciously. "We are interested in ending the system that has been created ever since the discovery of an Alien species."
He'd answered Jades first question without being asked.
"A system that wastes millions of lives for the benefit of just a few," he continued. "A system that wants to keep itself going just as it is, with no real desire to help any of us."
A pause. She knew the system he was referring to was the Company.
"Makalo?" Jade asked.
"I am sorry to say that he is on the wrong side of that system now," the man answered.
"How will you end this system?" Jade asked, putting Makalo to the back of her mind for now.
"We have been building our capabilities for decades. It has been a long and difficult journey. The system is everywhere. However, we believe we are close to being ready."
"Ready for what?" Jade asked, now more interested.
"Ready to change it all. End the system that will end us all if we don't stop it," the man answered. "You've seen with your own eyes how close we are to losing everything."
Jade knew he was referring to the Aliens making it to Earth. That brought his point home to her. The man could see a change in her eyes.
"You understand," he stated, rather than asked.
"How can I help with all of this?" Jade asked.
"We've looked at your records and have been keeping our own eye on you since you first discovered an Alien egg. We need people like you."
Jade didn't like being told in a matter of fact way that she was being watched. Both by the company and whoever this man said he represented.
"How can I trust you?" Jade bluntly asked.
"I'm afraid, as my earlier colleague informed you, you have no reason to trust us. None that we can provide without risking exposing ourselves."
They both stayed silent for a few moments.
"Ok," Jade said slowly. "If I'm in, what do I do?"
The man looked at Jade. "Go to work as normal. Just like today, at some point soon a transport will arrive to take you elsewhere. If you choose to join us, take the transport. If not, simply inform the driver your work instructions have changed and you have to stay where you are."
Jade thought it through. "Can I take anything with me?"
"Only some small items. Anything else will raise suspicion, especially as they are keeping better watch of you since the events of the last day."
Jade sat, thinking, her drink finished. She had no family on Earth, her only family having travelled off Earth years ago.
"What about-" she began.
"Your family?" the man asked, reading her expression. "We have tried to find them. There are traces here and there, but nothing solid. I am sorry." The man sounded genuinely apologetic.
He got up. "It was good to meet you."
He didn't offer a handshake.
Adams was snoozing. Amy was wide awake; her scientific curiosity as usual took priority over sleeping. She was still busily backing up as much data off the system as she could.
Smith was fast asleep, sitting with his feet up in the small office in the vehicle hangar. Smith had watched Arthur return earlier who was now busy working on the APC.
Suddenly, the operations room went completely dark. The screens Amy had been looking at switching off. The hum of various equipment began to die down.
Amy gasped and froze, afraid of moving in the dark.
"Warning. Main power offline. Systems offline. Critical failure detected." The emotionless female voice from earlier announced.
"What happened?" Adams asked in the pitch dark.
"I'm not sure," Amy replied.
"Did you do anything?" Adams continued, instinctively picking up his rifle from beside him without needing to see it.
"No. I've just been going through logs and backing them up," a confused and slightly scared Amy replied.
"Backup. Power. Online." The female voice said, as the operations room once again glowed in a gloomy red light.
Adams and Amy looked at each other.
"Warning. Backup. Power. At. 15. Percent."
"I'm getting sick of these warnings," Adams grunted as he stood up with his rifle.
"Warning. Specimen Two. Two. One. Eight. Status Red. Disengaging stasis pod three."
Amy looked ominously up at the ceiling where the voice was coming from. She then looked worryingly at Adams who, looking back at her, was thinking the exact same thing.
"Smith, Arthur, meet me at Cryogenics," Adams ordered into the radio.
Smith, who'd heard the same announcement and was standing in the now completely dark vehicle hangar, called out to Arthur.
"Arthur?"
"I'm here," Arthur said, now standing at the entrance to the office Smith was in, startling him.
"Shit! You have night vision or something?" Smith asked in surprise.
"No," Arthur replied, "I followed your voice."
"Yeah, well, follow me," Smith told him as he turned on his weapons flashlight.
They left the hangar together, Arthur breaking off to get a weapon from the APC at Smiths order.
Heather and her team were gathering supplies from the vehicles. The truck was damaged beyond repair. Heather was sure Arthur could get one of the two armoured transports, one of which had crashed into a tree, operational if need be.
Her radio crackled to life, "Heather, we've lost all power here. We need you back. Meet us at the cryo lab." Adams ordered.
She looked at Kra'tak, who was standing nearby. "Kra'tak, you and Tol'din, get back to Adams?"
"Yes," Kra'tak simply replied before moving off quickly. They heard branches moving as Tol'din, high above, moved off too.
"Shit! How're we gonna get back?!" Callum asked in a panic. It was still dark.
"Calm yourself. We've all got night vis. Stick together, watch all angles," Heather instructed.
The four of them activated night vision and took up formation, Heather at the front, Gustav covering the rear.
"Move fast, and try to keep quiet," Heather ordered.
They began their trek back in a silent hurry, watching for any threats in the dark of the forest.
Adams and Amy entered the Cryogenics room. The red lighting made it hard to see. Specimen 2218s stasis pod glowed the same bright blue as before. The console next to it displayed a countdown. Amy read it.
"It's cooling down. It'll be done in a few minutes," she told Adams.
Adams, looking at the man in the pod, spoke. "He's waking up?"
"Yes," Amy answered tersely.
"Great!" this was Smith, now entering the room followed by Arthur. "What do we do?"
"Can we stop the cooldown?" Adams asked Amy.
In response, she attempted to operate the panel. Nothing happened.
"It's locked out. Nothings working," Amy said, frustrated.
"Operations is down," Adams stated, eyes locked on the huge figure which was now beginning to change from the cool blue of stasis.
"Lock the door?" Smith asked.
"Can't with the power down. Besides, he'd probably break it," Adams answered without looking away from Specimen 2218.
"We just wait?" Smith asked.
There wasn't a need for an answer.
A few tense minutes later both Kra'tak and Tol'din entered.
"Friend or foe?" Kra'tak asked.
"We have no idea," Adams replied. He looked at Kra'tak. "You should take up battle positions."
In response Tol'din cloaked and moved away. In the dark shadowy red emergency lighting it was impossible to see him. Kra'tak moved to make space between him and the stasis pod, readying his spear in one hand and the razor disc in the other. Amy watched as his shoulder mounted canon raised up and pointed towards the pod.
"Almost done," Amy said quietly, though in the silent room everyone heard.
Smith and Arthur stayed near the entrance. Adams motioned to Amy.
"Get back to the APC and wait for the others," he ordered.
She paused for a moment, unsure. Adams passed her his torch and a pistol. She hesitated before taking them.
Adams nodded at her. "Go."
She left, moving past Smith, who put a hand to her shoulder and Arthur who she briefly noted looked odd holding a gun.
"Ok, everyone get ready. We've seen the videos. I don't think he's gonna be friendly," Adams told them as he moved away from the pod and took up position near Smith and Arthur.
The console stopped flashing and briefly turned green before turning off completely. There was a loud hiss as cold air began escaping the now opening stasis pod. They all watched in anticipation.
It took a few moments before the pod fully opened. The large figure of specimen 2218 began falling out. It looked to Adams that the large figure would fall head first straight on to the ground. Nobody moved as the body fell forward, knees giving way and hitting the metal ground with a loud thud.
Just as momentum was about to cause the upper body to follow and hit the floor, Specimen 2218 put its palms flat on the ground in front of it, stopping its descent.
The others watched, unmoving, as the massive figured stayed still in that position. Wispy tendrils of cold smoke rolled off its massive body.
The whitish blue glow of the pod went off, leaving them all bathed in dull red light.
Finley was standing against the sill of Turret 3A, scanning the tree line using night vision, his thoughts elsewhere. This night felt far longer than usual, almost oppressively so, though dawn was just an hour away. He put it down to the uncertainty of the fates of Adams and the others.
The air, as always on this planet, was just right. Not too cold, not too warm. The night was silent, there never having been the sounds of animals one would expect from the nearby forest.
A lone sleek black Alien popped out from the tree line. In the greens of night vision it was hard to see them when they were hidden inside the tree line. The movement brought Finley out of his thoughts. The Alien stopped just a single stride into the man made clearing.
A few seconds passed before another Alien popped out of from between the dark shadows of the trees. It too stopped just a step into the clearing. The two were standing still a few metres away from each other.
"This is Paolo, in turret 2E. Got a couple of Aliens standing just inside the clearing," he reported over the radio.
"This is south side. Got a couple here too."
"This is north side, got two, no wait...three now," another soldier added.
"What're they doing?" Raul asked.
"Nothing, just standing there, waiting," the same soldier answered.
Finley watched as a third Alien joined the two already waiting in the clearing. They were keeping the same distance from each other.
Finley broke his gaze and quickly moved to wake Hurst. He had an uncomfortable feeling about this.
Hurst spoke groggily, "What is it?"
He didn't need an answer when he saw the uneasy look on Finleys bandaged face, who gestured for him to follow and look outside.
Hurst stretched and yawned away the grogginess. He took a sip of water from his canteen, picked up his rifle and followed, placing the night vision goggles over his eyes as he moved.
"What are they doing?" he asked, looking out at the unmoving Aliens.
"Don't know," Finley replied tersely.
Hurst shouldered his AM-232 assault rifle and picked up Smiths sniper rifle. Finley looked over and nodded. Hurst rested the sniper on the sill and took aim at the nearest Alien.
Finley activated his radio on the general frequency, "Pick them off," he ordered.
Finley, being the most experienced soldier on the base had tactical command. Multiple confirmations came back from turrets all around the base.
Alien in his sight, Hurst began to squeeze the trigger. In the split second it took for him to finish pressing the trigger and for the shot to leave the sniper, the Alien that he was targeting leapt out of the way. The shot kicked up dirt as it hit the now empty ground.
"Shit!" Hurst exclaimed.
As if in response to his gunshot several more Aliens slinked out of the shadows and into the clearing. They were taking up positions all along the edge of the clearing.
Another couple of shots rang out from other turrets around the base, then another few. Finley recognised them all as sniper rounds.
"These bastards are fast," an annoyed soldier reported.
"You got that right, no hits here either," another replied.
Hurst recognised both voices. They were second and third respectively on the bases highest kills list.
"I got one," reported a voice with a small hint of smugness, though the anxiety was obvious.
There's number one, Hurst thought idly. He readied another shot, fired, and the result was the same. The Alien jumped easily out of the way.
"They reading our minds or what?!" an incredulous voice on the radio asked.
Maybe, Finley thought, watching the Aliens dodge Hurst's shots. He was reminded of Santos and his claims about hearing voices.
"Remember, tactical chatter only," Finley admonished over the radio.
"Sir," the soldier replied apologetically.
Harlans worried voice came over Finleys radio, "Finley, we won't be able to move Caley."
Harlan had heard the radio chatter and was thinking ahead.
Finley activated his radio, "Why not?"
"The equipment isn't portable. If we move him, he won't survive," a nervous Harlan replied.
Shit, Finley cursed. With everything that had happened between Caley being hurt, Arthurs message and now, he hadn't even given that a thought.
After a pause, Finley radioed back, "Ok. Don't worry. I'll take care of it. Just make sure they have everything they need."
He was referring to both Caley and Patia. She hadn't left her sons side since he'd been hurt.
"O..ok," a nervous and now unsure Harlan confirmed.
Finley brought his attention back to the numerous Aliens currently standing just inside the clearing. Hurst tried another shot. He cursed angrily as it too missed.
Dena, Shen and Keitaro stood watching the scene before them. Shen put down the rifle. After his third shot had missed he'd become too frustrated to try again.
Keitaro patted the missile launcher that was leaning against him for reassurance. He didn't like the scene before him. The Aliens were standing at the end of the clearing, almost mocking them.
"The calm before the storm," Shen said softly.
"That's not a Chinese proverb," Dena noted, trying to force her tone light.
Shen chuckled, easing some of his frustration. "Sorry."
"Finley, I think it is time we began stage one evacuation," Tom recommended.
After some thought, Finley answered his radio, "I agree,"
Raul sat in tense anticipation. The comms panel crackled to life with Finleys voice.
"Commence evacuation stage one," Finley ordered.
Raul looked nervously at the other two communication operators.
"Roger that. Commencing evacuation stage one," Raul confirmed.
The three of them began coordinating the evacuation of all civilian and scientific personnel along with a number of soldiers who would stay with these groups at the evacuation points.
The bulk of the soldiers were to regroup at their own evacuation point only if necessary.
No one knew if the Aliens would be able to make it past the huge walls that had protected them for the last two years.