Keitaro, in a turret covering one side of the gate quickly hefted his launcher on to his shoulder. Dena picked up the missile and rapidly began loading it. Keitaro silently wished for her to hurry as he watched the giant creature heading straight for the wall.
Missile loaded, Dena moved away as Keitaro pointed the launcher at the creature. A quick three beeps indicated lock on. He pressed the trigger. A loud whining sound was followed by a high pitched whoosh as the missile left the launcher and flew out of the opening in the turret.
The three of them followed the smoke trail and watched in anticipation of the missile hitting the large creature that was now halfway into the clearing.
Shen was the first to notice movement from on top of the large creature. He centred his attention on it and grew shocked as he watched a sleek black Alien launch itself off the top of the big creature.
"What the..!" he exclaimed in disbelief.
The Alien flew several feet through the empty air and, astonishingly, met Keitaros missile head on. The explosion was bright, big and powerful, completely obliterating the Alien.
The sporadic gunfire from nearby turrets momentarily stopped, other soldiers pausing in shock and amazement having just witnessed the same thing.
Keitaro, Shen and Dena watched in horror as the huge creature burst through the rapidly disintegrating cloud of smoke and fire. It was completely unharmed.
All three of them heard a high pitched whine and swoosh come from the turret on the opposite side of the gate where Paolo was stationed.
They followed the missile as it left Paolos turret and headed straight for the creature that was now much closer to the gate.
They looked ahead just in time to see another Alien launch itself off the top of the larger creature. They watched in continued astonishment as this Alien mistimed its jump and, instead of meeting the missile head on, actually landed on the moving missile.
The weight of the Alien forced the missile downwards. Momentum threw the Alien off the missile and it tumbled through the air, flailing helplessly before hitting the ground hard.
The new direction took the missile straight into one of the big creature's stumpy legs. It blew up on impact and immediately the creature lost balance, its forward momentum now falling downwards. As it crashed to the floor a secondary explosion occurred, this one seemingly from within the main body of the creature.
The second explosion had no traces of the traditional orange or fire of human explosives. A huge shower of bright screen acidic blood and dark black body parts rose high into the air.
The three of them continued watching the scene in front of them in frozen silence. The shower of acidic green blood landed over Aliens that were nearby including the one that had unintentionally redirected the missile.
Shen flinched as small spatters of green blood hit the outer concrete walls of the turret.
"Are you seeing this..." Keitaro whispered in astonishment. He'd dropped the now useless launcher on the ground.
Shen brought his attention back to the aftermath of the explosion. The Aliens that had been hit by the green blood of the large creature were now beginning to smoke and sizzle. The blood of the large creature was melting through the Aliens.
"Holy shit.." Dena exclaimed. She activated her radio. "Those creatures are gonna melt right through the steel walls. We have to stop them!"
Finley and Hurst gave each other a quick worried look. They looked back at the now rapidly approaching creature. The missile flew out of the next turret down towards it.
They watched as an Alien launched itself off the top of the large creature and flew straight into the missile. The two exploded in mid-air, leaving the big creature unharmed.
"Oh fuck," Hurst exclaimed, picking up the sniper rifle.
He began unloading powerful shots at the creature. Finley began firing, he was running low on ammo now. Soldiers in neighbouring turrets concentrated their fire on the large creature, ignoring the few Aliens that were running towards the wall. There were a lot of them now digging through the concrete.
The bullets were having little effect on the large creature.
"Negative missile impact! We have negative missile impact on South Wall! Target is gonna hit the wall!" Davis shouted over the radio.
He'd just watched the missile be intercepted by a leaping Alien. The giant creature was heading straight towards impacting the wall to their right. It would hit in just a few seconds.
Finleys firm, controlled voice came over the radio. "Commence full evacuation now. I repeat, full evacuation now."
Numerous confirmations came over the radio as soldiers in various towers grabbed their supply packs and raced down the ladders.
Davis, Johnson, Travis and Megan watched as the huge creature ploughed into the wall. They felt the shudder of the powerful impact as it rippled through their turret. The impact was immediately followed by an almost silent detonation as the creature exploded into a large cascade of burning acidic blood. It began sizzling through the concrete.
Johnson watched transfixed as the force of the impact cracked and broke the concrete supports of the next turret down. He saw the roof of the turret cave in on itself and crush the soldiers inside. They hadn't had enough time after firing the missile to evacuate the turret before the impact.
Davis, having watched the scene from behind Johnson, grabbed his friend by the shoulder and spun him around. Johnsons eyes were staring wide right through him.
"Johnson, we gotta evac now!" Davis implored.
Travis and Megan were already climbing down the ladder. Johnson nodded his head vigorously and quickly made his way to the ladder.
Davis took one last look outside at the clearing and then at the impacted wall. There was a large pool of acidic blood at the base of the wall and chunks of concrete were melting into it. He could hear a shrill sizzling sound and smoke pouring off the now heavily damaged wall and ground. There were a few Aliens heading towards holes that had been dug in to the wall.
Raul had heard Finleys call for full evacuation.
"This is it," he stated nervously.
The three communications operators began the procedure they'd practiced several times before, shutting down systems. They'd just felt a tremor that only added to their tension.
They were almost done when they heard a second thud followed by a tremor; this one felt much closer. A third tremor quickly followed. They felt the building they were in vibrate with the impacts.
"We've got impact on the North wall!" a soldier reported.
"Impact on the East wall too!"
The three of them made a quick exit for the evacuation point.
Finley and Hurst had just made it to the bottom of their turret when the creature on their side impacted the wall. The ground rippled as if a small earthquake had occurred, shaking them off balance. He could see the top of the turret that was closest to the impact. A huge amount of acidic blood splashed inside. He thought he could hear screaming.
They know exactly what they're doing, Finley thought as he checked his ammo. He only had two clips left. He looked further along the wall and noticed it was heavily pushed in where the creature must've hit. Big chunks of concrete were falling with a feint dull thump off both the turret and from the heavily cracked inner side of the wall. He knew this meant the steel wall had been pushed in too.
He doubted the steel would hold now. The way the Aliens had attacked had been too well coordinated for the big creatures crashing in to the walls to be some sort of last ditch effort.
Having checked their gear, both he and Hurst moved hurriedly away. The sound of gunfire was gone now as soldiers abandoned the turrets to get to the evacuation point. There was a new sound replacing it; a loud hissing that could be heard clearly even as they moved further from the wall.
They both knew what it meant.
Soon into a sprint, Hurst realised Finley wasn't making his way to the evac point. He was going to medical. Hurst sped up to run by his side. Finley looked at him as he caught up. The look on Hursts face told Finley all he needed to know; Hurst was with him no matter what.
Paolo and his team met up with Dena, Shen and Keitaro near the gate. They were all heading for the evacuation point.
"Can you believe that?" Shen asked through quick breaths, incredulous.
"You better believe it, it's what happened," Paolo sounded completely calm in contrast.
"We got lucky," Keitaro added.
"Yeah, did you see how that thing landed on the missile?" one of Paolos group agreed. "If it wasn't for that, we'd be in a whole lot more trouble." The soldier looked grimly back at the still secure gate.
"Unbelievable.." Shen trailed off.
They were nearing evacuation point Gus 3.
"Time to baton down the hatches," one of Paolos group stated.
Davis, Johnson, Travis and Megan were all standing at the base of the damaged wall near where the creature had impacted, watching concrete chunks falling. The hissing sound they could hear through the wall was becoming louder.
"What're we doing, shouldn't we get to evac point?!" Travis urged.
"Not yet. We have to see if they get through the steel," Davis sounded determined.
"We know they're gonna get through. Let's get out of here!" Travis again urged.
"No," Davis replied sternly. "We wait til we know for sure. Then we go."
The others watched and waited. The sound was still getting louder. And closer.
As they approached the medical bay Finley called over to a few soldiers that were hurrying towards evacuation. He recognised them from turret 3C, on the other side from the turret that had been splashed with acidic blood.
"You guys see if 3B made it out alive?" Finley asked.
The lead soldier gave him a harried look. "No man, I went up there. None of them made it." He spoke the last bit in a low whisper.
Finley put a hand on the soldiers arm and gave him a single terse nod. He removed his hand and the soldier took that as permission to leave. Finley watched as the four of them jogged away.
Finley and Hurst entered the medical bay. An injured Knight, his face heavily swollen where his jaw had been broken by Tol'din, was helping an anxious Harlan move equipment.
"What do we do now?" Harlan asked.
Finley looked around. There were no windows into the building. He looked at the only entrance, which they had just come through.
"That doors not gonna hold anything out. We have to block it." Finley replied. "Caleys stable right?"
"Yeah, there's nothing we can do for him except wait," Harlan told him.
"Ok. Harlan, you and Knight get to the evac," Finley was thinking fast. He looked at Hurst, "Me and Hurst will blockade that door and stay here."
Hurst was about to say he agreed when Knight came up to them and motioned animatedly. He couldn't talk because of his jaw but he went up to the door and gestured at certain areas. He then made a movement with his arms that seemed to indicate some sort of collapse.
Finley, trying to understand spoke, "You're saying you can block the door?"
Knight nodded quickly, exaggerating his movement.
"How?" Finley followed up.
Knight went to a desk and began writing on a piece of paper. Hurst briefly wondered why he didn't do this in the first place. He let that thought go as he read what Knight had written.
WITH C4
"Won't the Aliens just dig through the concrete?" Hurst asked.
Knight moved to write something down but Finley stopped him. "There's metal sandwiched in the concrete, just like the outer wall," he explained.
Finley turned to Knight, "You know how to use C4?"
Knight again nodded vigorously, un-strapping his rifle and readying it.
"Hurst, you go with him. Get Harlan to the evac point, get the c4, and get back," Finley ordered.
Hurst gave Finleys shoulder a reassuring pat, looked at him determinedly and quickly left with both Knight and Harlan.
Finley took up position near the medical bay entrance, keeping watch and waiting for them to return.
"We need to hurry," Hurst advised Knight.
Brow glistening with sweat, and through a heavily swollen jaw, Knight gave him a look that Hurst interpreted as I know. The three of them hurried towards their destination, first for a detour to drop Harlan off at evac and then the armoury. Both destinations would bring them closer to the perimeter wall.
There was a silence around the base. Gunfire had stopped since the walls had been impacted by the creatures. The heavy tension radiated off the three of them.
As they hurried, all three of their radios crackled to life.
"Guys, this is Davis at the south wall. We can hear them digging through the walls. They're gonna breach soon." he reported.
Hurst, Knight and Harlan looked at each other, worry on all their faces.
South wall was the direction they were heading.
They sped up.