Having not heard any updates since being told to return, Heather and her team had decided to speed up. They'd travelled as fast as they could through the rough forest terrain, relying solely on night vision. The group were breathing heavy as they hurried through the destroyed walls back into the base.
They were making their way around the APC when the vehicles door suddenly opened, startling Callum who quickly pointed his weapon towards the entrance.
Gustav reacted immediately, pushing Callums weapon down to the ground and giving him a severe look.
"Amy," Heather called, she hadn't seen Callums action behind her. "What's going on inside?"
"I don't know," Amy worried. She was wearing night vis goggles. "Adams told me to stay in the APC, I left my radio inside."
She was about to climb out of the APC when Heather gestured for her to stop.
"Stay here. Start up the APC," Heather instructed. "We might need to leave in a hurry."
"There's no power. The lights aren't even working," Amy replied.
Heather frowned. "Ok, stay in there for now, we'll be back."
Amy hurriedly nodded and closed the APC door.
"Let's go," Heather ordered her team.
They all followed in formation, the entrance no longer locked due to the power. In the foyer they could make out the red emergency lighting which wasn't bright enough to impair the night vis.
They moved past the foyer into the corridor and turned left towards lab 2.
Heather slowed. She saw Smith leaning against the wall outside the lab. She went up to him, noticing he didn't have his weapon. She crouched as she approached and saw the look of complete terror in his eyes. She called out to him but he was frozen to the spot.
She looked at the others, who all gave her the same worried look that she was feeling. She got up and went to the lab entrance.
Heather entered first.
The scene she saw stopped her in her tracks. The others almost collided into her.
"What the..." Callum trailed off as they all moved into the room and saw the devastation before them.
Heather took it all in in disbelief. Directly in front was Kra'tak sitting awkwardly next to the downed Tol'din whose mask was now removed. In the green of her night vision she could see that Tol'dins face was badly battered, his mangled mask on the floor nearby.
She soon realised why Kra'tak was sitting awkwardly when she saw the spear that was sticking out both sides of his leg. Her gaze moved behind them to see the remains of Specimen 2218, a razor disc stuck in the mangled remnants of its head.
"Adams.." she called worryingly as she saw him to her left. He was lying still, his body bent at an unnatural angle.
She quickly ran over to him, activating her radio. "Amy bring the medi-" she stopped when she realised Amy had no radio.
"Hale, get the medikit from the APC," she ordered as she crouched and began checking over Adams.
Hale was staring at the remains of Arthur in complete shock.
"Hale!" she looked angrily over at him, "I said get the.." she followed his shocked gaze and noticed Arthurs remains.
"What the fuck? What the fuck! What the fuck is going on?! Callum was hysterical.
Gustav put a hand to his shoulder. "Calm down," his voice gave away the fact that he too was in shock.
"HALE!" Heather screamed. "GET THE GODDAMN MEDIKIT NOW!"
Hale jumped at the sudden intensity, tried to shake his head clear and quickly left the room.
Gustav, almost transfixed, slowly made his way towards Arthurs remains.
Heather detected a faint pulse and extremely shallow breathing. Adams was barely alive. She didn't know what to do.
Outside, Amy opened the door to a panicking Hale. "What's-"
"Adams is hurt," Hale explained as he hurried to get the medikit.
"Kra'tak and Tol'din are both hurt too. Arthurs a fucking android." Hale spoke rapidly.
"What?" Amy spoke quietly, unable to register Hales rapid report.
Hale left, medikit in one hand, rifle still in the other. Amy quickly picked up the pistol and torch Adams had passed to her only a short while earlier. She followed Hale inside as dawn began to break.
It'd been twenty minutes since the Aliens began what could only be described as an elaborate dance in the outer half of the clearing. None had tried coming closer to the wall.
Any that had been successfully hit and put out of action had been quickly replaced by more hiding inside the forest.
Shen, Dena and Keitaro had watched helplessly as the autoguns fired thousands of rounds of ammo. The constant clinking of empty ejected shells falling and hitting the concrete on the way down to the ground had only added to the thunderous booming of the powerful guns as they wasted ammo away.
A beeping from his left brought Shens attention to the autogun indicating it was out of ammo. He clutched his rifle tighter and moved closer to the opening.
The three of them noticed the loud din of gunfire that had been echoing around the base starting to die down.
Raul, sitting in the communications centre, watched powerlessly as more and more autogun lights blinked red on his display.
"Guns are running out," Dena commented.
Keitaro set down the missile launcher and picked up his rifle.
"They're coming forward now," he announced in a slight panic.
They all took up aiming positions near each other and watched as a number of Aliens came forward past the halfway point of the clearing. They were heading for the walls now.
"Remember, pick your shots!" Finley shouted over the radio. Assault rifle fire could be heard coming from his turret.
Dena removed her night vis. The light now was enough to see by without needing them. She took aim and fired a short burst. As before, the Alien seemed to know in advance that the bullets were coming and had jumped out of the way.
"Fuckers are psychic!" a soldier yelled over the radio.
"Tactical chatter only!" Finley immediately admonished.
In the confined space of the turret the sound of the three of them firing their assault rifles was deafening. Dena could hear a ringing in her ears. She concentrated on trying to anticipate where an Alien would jump after her first couple of shots and quickly aiming at the new spot to hit them.
It was difficult but she managed a little more success. More Aliens were coming out of the forest now, more than just to replace the ones that were being killed.
"How many are there?!" Shen yelled over the sounds of gunfire.
"Way too many!" Dena admitted as she paused and took another glance at the forest line.
Dozens upon dozens of Aliens were coming pouring out of the forest now.
Hursts head was becoming to feel numb. The constant shifting of aiming, shooting, missing, hitting, acquiring another target, the constant reverberating noise of gunfire repeating over and over was becoming too much for his senses to handle.
He could no longer feel his finger on the trigger. He could barely register the growing pain in his ears and head caused by the pounding noise of each bullet leaving the chamber. He focused on one Alien at a time, oblivious to the larger picture of the countless number that were now running through the clearing trying to make it to the wall.
It took only a couple of minutes before the first of the Aliens made it to the walls. In response grenades were dropped, killing those that did as well as damaging the walls too.
The soldiers had already learnt a few days earlier that if an Alien made it too far into the concrete they wouldn't have an angle to kill them from their positions high up in the turrets. That, or they would be running out of grenades first.
"What happens if they get too far into the wall? Do we evac?" Shen asked hurriedly, between firing bursts.
"They won't be able to dig through the metal," Dena replied.
"We sure about that?" Keitaro followed up. They were having to almost shout to hear each other.
"That's what Tom and Finley agreed on," Dena replied loudly.
They realised that as time passed they were aiming at Aliens that were getting closer and closer. There were too many of them to keep them away from the walls.
Shen stood up from his crouched position to get a bead on an Alien that was almost at the wall. He leaned out the turret, almost losing his balance because he was so focused on stopping his target from reaching the wall.
Dena grabbed him just in time from behind and held on, allowing him to lean forward and fire. The Alien again jumped out of the way and began digging at the wall with its razor sharp claws.
Shen could see chunks of concrete quickly falling out. He unhooked his only grenade and primed it. He counted to three and dropped it towards the Alien. He watched as the grenade exploded just as it hit the ground, obliterating the Alien, sending acidic blood and sleek black remains splattering all over the ground and wall.
He could see the chunk of missing wall.
Dena pulled him back up. He gave her a glum look. "I hope they're right about the wall."
Dena nodded, patted Shen on the shoulder reassuringly and quickly resumed firing at the oncoming rush of Aliens.
Davis, Johnson, Travis and Megan were in turret 4S on the south side of the base. Just as the rest of the base they too had watched the unfolding spectacle and were now engaged in attempting to keep the Aliens from making it to the wall. They were failing.
Davis readied a round into his grenade launcher attachment, leaned out and fired, hitting the Alien that had made it to the wall dead on. The bright explosion was reflected by the sleek black bodies of numerous other Aliens in the clearing that were swarming inwards.
"We can't stop them!" a panicking Johnson shouted to his teammates.
"Calm yourself down!" Davis shouted back.
Travis tapped Megan on the shoulder. She stopped firing and looked over at him questioningly.
"What's that?!" he pointed out towards the forest.
In the now light sky of a dawn that was almost complete, Megan followed his finger out to the forest. She was about to ask why he'd stopped firing when she noticed the tops of the trees further into the forest swaying an unusually vigorous amount.
Her brow creased in confusion.
Davis and Johnson continued firing, oblivious to the swaying tree tops.
"What're you two doing?! Fire your weapons dammit!" Davis ordered.
"Sir, look!" Travis said loudly, pointing at the same spot.
"Look at what! Look down here, the bastards are making it to the walls!" Davis replied angrily, whilst not stopping firing.
Megan shook her head clear, chose to ignore the tree tops and brought her attention back to the targets now close to the wall.
Travis watched as more and more trees began swaying closer to the tree line. He thought he could hear a feint thundering rumble, but wasn't sure. It could've been the grenades going off around the base.
Megan slapped him on his arm. He looked at her as she pointed at the Aliens by the walls. "Shoot those bastards!"
He obliged. He focused on targeting Aliens but it was becoming hopeless. There were too many of them making it to the walls and there were now a number of large holes being dug.
"We're out of grenades. The bastards have made it too far in for us to stop them!" a report came over the radio.
"Don't worry," Finley sounded icy calm. "They can't dig through the metal."
Reports were coming in from all over. Soldiers were out of grenades and the Aliens were digging too far into the walls for the soldiers to stop them.
"What do we do now?" Hurst asked without pausing firing.
"Pick off whatever we can. The steel wall should hold," Finley replied in between bursts.
"We're all gonna be running low on ammo by now," Hurst reminded him.
"I know." Finley replied. He activated his radio on the general frequency. "Listen up, we need to con-"
"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" an alarmed soldier shouted over the radio, cutting Finley off.
"Oh shit, we've got incoming on north side! A huge fucking incoming!" another panicked soldier shouted over the radio.
"What do you see?!" Finley demanded, annoyed at the panicked messages.
"It's those huge creatures from before," a completely calm sounding Paolo reported. "It's heading straight for the gate."
"We've got one on south side too!" Davis reported.
"Use your missiles now! Stop those things from getting to the walls," Finley ordered quickly.
He looked out in to the forest, scanning the tree line.
He watched in awe as a huge creature burst through the tree line and in to the clearing. It had a huge sleek black body and was running on four stumpy legs. Its speed was in sheer contradiction to its size.
It was heading straight for the wall. It wouldn't take long to get there. Both Hurst and Finley watched as the Aliens swarming around the clearing made way for the fast moving creature.
"Oh fuck," an alarmed Hurst exclaimed.
They both stopped firing, their attention pulled away by the sight of the huge creature running straight at the wall. Finley looked over at the next turret down. In the light of the now bright day, he could see them moving fast to ready the missile launcher.
The autoguns all down the wall continued to blink red, completely useless now that they were out of ammo.