Chapter 14

Last one out get the lights

"This is Preobrazhensky, we've got incoming," Preobrazhensky informed the group on the ground.

"How long?" Katja asked between panting breaths, not stopping her digging. She had borrowed Zaitsev's radio until she could share with Adrien again.

"Hard to say; a few minutes, maybe?" Preobrazhensky estimated.

"Ok, keep me informed,"

Katja said as she attempted to double her work effort. Dirt was flying everywhere; even Alexei had joined them. The ground was mostly frozen, slowing their progress considerably.

"Shouldn't I displace back to you?" Preobrazhensky asked.

"Negative, keep on overwatch. See if you can make any shots," Katja ordered between a couple of stabs at the ground, where the earth was particularly hardened.

"Dammit!" Adrien shouted. Craning her neck, Katja saw him looking at his radio with an enraged expression. It seemed evident he hadn't gotten through to his people.

"Adrien, what's the word?" Katja asked. It was a rhetorical question, really.

"I can't get through. It's like they aren't even there," Adrien answered, his discouragement evident.

"Do you have any other options?" Katja asked. Adrien stood in thought for a moment before he produced a bright yellow satellite phone and began dialing. Katja went back to digging.

"Adrien, how's it going?" Bob Lang answered. Adrien took note of the smugness of his tone. He also noticed that the predator drone was again orbiting above them.

"Peachy, Bob. Listen, why isn't the sub picking up?" Adrien asked as calmly as he could.

"Why, because I recalled them back to base," Bob answered, the arrogance unmistakable. Adrien got a cold feeling, and it certainly wasn't the weather that caused it.

"Why would you do that?" Adrien demanded, maybe a little loudly. Katja glanced over at him from her spot by the developing trench.

"Ah, Adrien, you just had to stumble onto those Weyland mercenaries. I'm not sure if it's your record of bad luck, or your unconventional skill. Had you not, this could've had a happy ending," Bob answered, the fake sorrowful tone evident.

"What are you saying, Bob?" Adrien hissed, a stab of fear embedding itself in his gut.

"I can't have you informing anyone that Weyland is also there to collect species samples for their company. So tragically, you are going to die along with the Russian package you were supposed to deliver," Bob said.

So that was it, then. Adrien and Katja and her men were going to be killed. For nothing more than some sick deal Bob had cut with Weyland. "What do you get out of all of this?" Adrien asked.

"A cut and early retirement. I told you I had my investment portfolio in Weyland," Bob chuckled.

"You sonvabitch! I have a daughter!" Adrien yelled. Vaguely, he noticed Katja in the distance, yanking her earpiece out of her ear and heading his direction. But he was too furious to care.

"Who will miss you dearly, I'm sure," Bob answered simply.

"And my men?" Adrien gritted his teeth.

"They know nothing and saw nothing, life will go on for them," Bob answered more soberly.

Adrien took small solace knowing at least his men would be ok; but still, that wasn't his final word on the matter.

"You'd better pray I die out here Bob, because the next time we talk, it will not be over the phone!" Adrien yelled again. There was a click, and the line went dead.

"Goddammit! You have got to be shittin' me!" Adrien shouted to the sky. For a second, he just stared into the cool grey-blue morning, and didn't even stir when he felt Katja touch his arm.

"You had a hot mic," Katja advised him.

Adrien grumbled before switching it off.

"What happened?" she asked. He looked down at the ground. For some reason, he was reluctant to disappoint her with the news. Maybe because he didn't want to see those big hazel eyes filled with even more dread and disgust after everything he'd already done to her this morning.

"I'll tell you in full, if we survive. But there is no escape plan anymore," Adrien answered, knowing he owed her at least that. "I'm…sorry."

She took one long, deep breath, then spoke. "Okay. Okay. We'll talk later, then. For now, I need your help fortifying our position."

He barely heard her. It didn't really matter if he survived, now. He couldn't go back to the US with a burn notice. And he couldn't be caught by Russia, or he'd likely be sent to a gulag – and knowing his luck, it would be in the middle of Siberia.

Suddenly, he felt Katja's small, gloved hands on each side of his face, and she was turning his head to make him look at her. "Adrien," she said, and he became aware that she'd been repeating his name for some time. "Listen to me. Hey. Listen up. I'm going to help you out. I'm going to get you home to your daughter, okay? But right now, I really need you on this."

"Ok," Adrien answered simply as he grabbed his e-tool and began to follow her. There was literally nothing else to do.

Placing her radio back in her ear, Katja knew things were going from bad to worse.

Not only did they not have an evac anymore, but Adrien had – and currently was – demoralizing what was left of her men. He had made the satellite call with a hot mic, and it left both little and a lot to the imagination.

It was clear that no help was coming, and America was now out of the question. Even for Adrien, if his reaction was anything to go by.

The only thing Katja was left wondering was who he was really working for. The betrayal screamed Weyland, possibly at the behest of their board of directors; but Adrien's distaste of the company and somewhat happy demeanor upon finding the mercenaries dead killed that theory. At least, for her.

"Captain, you're out of time. They're gonna be right on top of you," Preobrazhensky advised over the radio.

"Ok! Get into position, everyone! Here they come!" Katja shouted. In the limited time they'd been working, they had been able to move the car sideways, dig two very small trenches on either side of the vehicle, and stack some logs in front as makeshift sandbags.

Adrien wordlessly took Viper's machine gun and rested it on the hood of the car. "Do you have spare tampons?" he suddenly asked. While she was glad he (probably) wasn't in shock, the question was typically weird, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to answer one way or another.

"Why?" She raised an eyebrow. What was it with him and her menstrual cycle?

"Extra ear protection. This thing is really loud," Adrien answered. The scary thing was, he seemed very serious.

"No, I don't," she responded. He just shrugged.

Feeling a child-like tugging on her coat, Katja whirled around to find Alexei looking at her pitifully.

"Jekaterina, give me a gun!" he pleaded.

Katja considered his request. Every active gun was going to mean the difference between life and death, even if it was just her 9mm sidearm. On the other hand… Alexei. Specifically, his lack of firearms safety and training. Giving him one might just mean friendly fire.

"Ok, fine! But I don't want to see that pointed anywhere but that way!" she said as she handed him her Glock 17 and the spare magazines. She waved in the direction she wanted him to aim it instead of bothering with cardinal points, knowing it would only confuse him.

From there, everyone took positions in the trenches on either side of the car – aka, the machine gun nest.

"On the American's signal?" Petrov suggested, looking over at her questioningly.

"On the American's signal," Katja agreed, staring tensely ahead. When Adrien fired the first round, that would be their cue. She hoped Adrien had heard, but if he did, he didn't acknowledge it.
She suddenly felt her braid being tucked carefully into her collar, and she turned to Petrov, who gave her a partial smile as he put his hand back on his gun.

"It seems to be getting in your way lately," he explained. "Shoot straight, Captain. And watch yourself."

"Oh, please. I own your ass on the range, Petrov, and you know it," she joked through the sudden dryness in her mouth. Katja could see the first few of the serpents now, winding down the hill. "Just – watch yourself, you hear?" she added, more seriously. He nodded.

She then leaned over to Alexei for some final advice.

"That pistol doesn't have extreme range. It'll go against every instinct you'll have, but wait until they get close."

Alexei gave a quick bob of his head, face blanched. She wondered if he'd pass out, or even be able to hit anything if he actually got a shot off.

She returned her attention to the enemy to check their progress, and quickly realized that Alexei wouldn't have to aim to hit them. No longer appearing one at a time, the aliens were moving in what seemed like a seething, writhing wall. It was the very definition of a horde, and it was almost upon them.

"Petrov, I'm getting ready to punch that clock," Adrien advised.

"Copy," Petrov acknowledged.

The world seemed to slow for a moment as Katja took it all in. A thousand different scenarios ran through her head, but she realized it didn't matter. There would be no way to predict the final outcome of this fight.

The machine gun began ripping rounds through the air, and equally tearing Katja from her thoughts. Snapping out of her trance, she began tracking targets. Picking one out, she fired two rounds, dropping it instantly. She picked another and shot three rounds, killing it.

Two down, only… a lot to go.

Adrien quickly realized it was a better strategy to cut their legs off, rather than aiming for center mass like a human.

They were running on all fours, so chest shots were next to impossible, anyway. Headshots were easier because of the extra real estate their heads had; but they were so damn skittery, the shot was hard to line up. That left the exposed arms and legs; and though dismemberment didn't kill them, it did slow them significantly.

"Three more on the left!" Zaitsev shouted. Adrien shifted fire left, lined his chevron scope reticule up with the beasts, and fired. The spray severed several limbs, and put the serpents crawling on the ground.

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien noticed Alexei running up with something in hand. He discovered it was a pin-less grenade when the stupid kid slipped and dropped it right at his feet.

Immediately, Adrien grabbed it and threw it toward a group of serpents. He then pushed Alexei back into the trench angrily, right into Katja, throwing off her aim.

"What the hell?!" she demanded, straightening.

"He doesn't get any more grenades!" Adrien roared over the gunfire. He didn't wait for her reply as he mounted the machine gun once more.

"I didn't give him grenades!" she shouted back.

"Well, then he was left unsupervised!" Adrien argued back. Common sense told him this was neither the time nor place; but for once, he wanted to win an argument. He stole a quick glance and saw her address Alexei. A moment later, she spoke again.

"He's sorry and it won't happen again!" Katja yelled over the noise, which was now louder with pained screeches of serpents being killed or mutilated.

"Very reassuring…" Adrien stated sarcastically.

"What?!" Katja asked.

"I said send him up here! The belt keeps getting tangled, I need help feeding it!" Adrien requested.

Vai'dqouulth attempted to double his pace the moment he heard the human weapons firing. They were in danger – which meant little to him; but it did mean his objective was in danger of being destroyed. Human technology was so fragile. And sometimes it even seemed to be deliberately so!

He was frustrated. Why hadn't they stayed at the communal dwelling, and waited for more humans to arrive and rescue them? Why come all the way out here at all? There was no strategic value of displacing; surely, they knew that.

Humans made bad choices, but that didn't make them completely idiotic. They had to have known the hard meats were out here; not to mention himself, hunting them for a purpose unknown to them.

There must've been a reason behind the poor decision – although he would not care, if the choice didn't have such far-reaching effects on him.

Breaking from the tree line, he found his assumption that he'd be coming up on one of their sides, not directly in the line of fire, was correct. From here, he took a moment to observe the unfolding carnage.

Adrien knew they needed breathing space, fast. The only thing that came to mind was the predator drone above.

Bob was probably hoping to record their deaths and sell some sob story to his men, the mysterious benefactor that wanted Katja evac'd, and the superiors above them.

While there was no way Bob would fire the Hellfire missiles from that drone, there might be one person who could.

"Alexei!" Adrien shouted as he continued firing. He couldn't tell if the kid was paying attention or not, but continued anyway as he tossed the drone tablet to him. "Can you do your nerd hacker crap on the drone above us and unlock those missiles?"

He didn't get a reply, but the kid did open his tablet and began working feverishly at it. A moment later, Alexei was pulling on his arm.

"I hope that means you have them. Fire!" Adrien ordered. Leaving Hellfire missiles in Alexei's hands when the enemy was danger-close was an extremely bad idea, but he'd just have to trust the kid wouldn't drop one on himself.

Looking above, he could see a trail of smoke coming from the drone. Shortly later, a missile hit very close to them. So close, Adrien could feel the heat coming off of it.

"What was that?!" Katja demanded. She didn't get a reply as the second missile hit close by again.

"I'll be dammed," Adrien said. The kid came through and thinned them out. And he didn't kill any humans in the process.

It wasn't a second later there was a snap-hiss and a blue streak of light heading toward the predator drone. Adrien recognized it as one of the hunter's weapons.

Vai'dqouulth stared as the human aircraft began descending toward the Earth, a smoke trail in its wake. His mask had been able to track the flight trajectory of the craft, and then it was a simple matter of aiming his plasmacaster appropriately.

He scorned himself for not having seen the aircraft earlier. He didn't know if it had recording capabilities or not, but he certainly wasn't going to give it a chance. He still had to keep his people's existence a secret. Not to mention the primitive but effective firepower it was carrying.

The unfortunate side effect was that all the humans brought their weapons around and began firing on the hill at him, forcing his retreat. He couldn't even cloak because of the sheer volume of fire; every so often, a stray bullet would hit his armor and the cloak would drop away.

His original plan had been to get fully around behind them, and then cloak. With all of the chaos, he thought they'd be too busy to notice him grab the smaller male and drag him off. Perhaps they'd even believe a parasite had gotten ahold of him.

With the appearance of the craft, however, Vai'dqouulth had changed his primary target and thus thoughtlessly gave away his position. They'd be looking for him now, and covert tactics would not be as easy. He'd have to double back and hope the parasites regrouped for a second wave of attack.

Adrien switched back to the field in front of him and began picking off stragglers. The surprise attack of the hunter had not been ideal. Thankfully, Alexei had gotten both missiles fired off before the hunter took the craft down.

The M240B's barrel was red-hot from sustained fire, and the heat coming off it was causing distortion in the air, making it harder to aim. He had thrown some snow on top of it to cover the heat, but it melted right away, though that did give him an idea for the hunter later…

"Preobrazhensky, how are we looking?" Katja asked. Adrien wanted to know, too. After the missiles, the serpents seemed to have dispersed. Assuming the control of a higher intelligence, maybe the queen hadn't counted on that kind of firepower.

"You don't have long; they seem to be regrouping. Nice work with the drone, American," Preobrazhensky complimented.

"You can thank Alexei. He hacked it and fired the missiles," Adrien answered. There was a long pause before Preobrazhensky replied.

"I'm not thanking him."

"Adrien…" Katja trailed off. Adrien turned to the battlefield, now filled with two craters and scattered, sporadic fires. Then he saw what Katja saw.

At first he thought it was 'Spot', from earlier, when they'd been in the BTR. It was roughly the same size, and had a head crest. But this thing was down on all fours, and it looked built to exclusively walk that way.

The head crest was also different. It was fatter and more rounded; shield-like, even. And that was exactly how the new beast used it.

It dropped its head down, creating a barrier for the smaller drones to hide behind.

"It's a chess game," Adrien breathed his thoughts aloud.

"What?" Katja asked. Adrien had said something about a chess game, but she hadn't really been paying attention. She was too focused on the monstrosity that had just shown up.

"It's a chess game. The queen just put her knight in play," Adrien said as he began scrambling to reload the machine gun.

"To what end?" Katja asked. She was well versed in chess, but she wasn't sure what analogy Adrien was getting at.

"Checkmate," Adrien answered, not looking at her as he continued his reload process in a frantic manner.

"Great. Don't we get a queen?" Katja groaned.

"I think I'm looking at her," Adrien said as he both made eye contact with her and slapped the top of the machine gun's receiver down, then proceeded to load a new round in.

The new beast lifted its head and bellowed a screeching roar. The drones behind it scattered and fanned out – flanking, was Katja's bet. Then it got low, and Katja knew it was about to charge.

Adrien began pouring rounds into the monster; but based on the way the tracer rounds ricocheted off its head, he wasn't doing anything to damage it. It alarmed her because those rounds were also armor piercing too.

"Adrien, get down!" Katja ordered. The alien was now lowering its head and adjusting its back legs.

"C'mon! Drop, you sonvabitch!" Adrien yelled, ignoring Katja entirely. She was about to jump up and rip him off the gun, but it was too late. The beast charged, and Adrien continued firing at it.

The creature rammed the car, sending the marine flying with it.

Katja's men, ducking down low in the trenches, had avoided the living battering ram. But now the serpents were charging in.

"Petrov, Zaitsev! To me! Cover fire!" Katja ordered. The big alien, after ramming the car, had continued to run. It appeared to be making a large loop, probably preparing to charge again.

The human group came to Adrien and made a small circle, to cover all angles. "Adrien, you ok?" Katja asked, shaking him. When he didn't respond, she delivered a harsh slap across his face. That got a reaction.

"Ow…" Adrien stated, rubbing his cheek. Katja gave him a quick once over. He seemed ok, just extremely dazed. She'd have to check for a concussion later. Right now, based on the gunfire at the perimeter, the serpents were closing in on them.

"Preobrazhensky, we're coming to you!" Katja yelled into her microphone. Their current position was untenable without the machine gun, which was now curled in a pretzel shape, totally useless. No, they needed height from that charging… rhinoceros-alien thing.

"Copy!" Preobrazhensky said.

"C'mon chief!" Petrov said, hoisting Adrien up.

The trip to the radio tower was slow progress. Petrov was supporting most of Adrien's weight, and now Katja wasn't so sure her earlier optimistic assessment of the American's condition was correct. Adrien could barely move on his own. And of course, the serpents were nipping at their heels the whole trip.

Regardless, if Katja really was the queen of this group, it wouldn't do any good leaving her knight in the field.

"You good to climb?" Katja asked Adrien when they reached the base of the tower.

"Yeah…" Adrien answered distantly. Yep, something wasn't right with him. Of course, that went without saying, but he was worse than normal.

They began scaling the tower, just in time. The charger had returned and now couldn't reach them. It was clearly built for running, not climbing. Something the Russian captain was grateful for.

Unfortunately, that hindrance didn't apply to the serpent drones. They could climb like geckos on a wall. Katja was forced to awkwardly climb with one hand, while using the other to aim and fire her rifle. She was wishing Alexei wasn't currently using her pistol.

Petrov had his Makarov PB in hand, and fired at an approaching serpent. The limp body fell the long distance to the ground below, knocking a couple of its drone companions off the tower on its way down.

Preobrazhensky must have run out of ammo in his rifle, because it suddenly went flying by and smacked a serpent square in the head, causing the alien to lose its grip and plummet.

Katja noticed Adrien had an extremely short shotgun in hand. It had been attached to his pack this whole time, so he must've generally used it as a door breaching tool rather than a weapon. But it seemed the American, though injured, still had some tricks up his sleeve.

He was using Dragon's Breath ammunition in the shotgun. It was an incendiary shot shell, and Katja had never in person seen the impact it truly had. When fired at the serpents, they would catch fire. Interestingly, they seemed particularly vulnerable to this method. With the spread of the shotgun, Adrien seemed to hit multiple targets at once, maximizing the use of each round.

Moving upward, Katja noticed that Alexei had stopped climbing, and was just clinging to the scaffolding.

"Alexei! Move it!" Katja ordered.

"I can't, I'm afraid of heights!" Alexei called back.

"This is no time for vertigo, Alexei!" Katja cried.

"Is he seriously whining right now?" Adrien shouted. "What's his problem?"

"He says he has vertigo!" she said in English.

"You little chickenshit! Get your ass in gear, or vertigo is going to be the least of your problems!"

"I'm scared!" Alexei said.

That's when Preobrazhensky began descending rapidly to Alexei's position. "Listen kid, just keep looking up and think about anything else. We will cover you," Katja heard Preobrazhensky say aloud.

To her relief, Alexei began climbing. "That's it! Good job!" Preobrazhensky encouraged. So wrapped up in watching Alexei, they all failed to notice the parasite spider scurry up the tower and leap onto Preobrazhensky's face. In a panic, the man released his grip to try and tear it off, his thrashing causing misbalance and ultimately, a fall.

"No!" Katja screamed, but it was too late. It had all happened so fast, there had barely been time to sort out exactly what had happened. Preobrazhensky's head hit a cross beam on the way down, and she knew it had to have fractured his skull. And if that by some miracle hadn't killed him, his impact to the ground certainly did.

They didn't get a chance to mourn, as the big bulldozer came back around and lined itself up with one of the tower's support columns. It charged and bashed its head against the structure, causing violent shakes.

"There's no way it has the weight to break this thing, right?" Adrien asked apprehensively. The beast charged and rammed the tower again, the beams noticeably quaking.

"Guess again, American," Zaitsev stated.

"We need to take that thing out," Katja announced, momentarily shoving the emotions of Preobrazhensky's death aside.

"Good idea. You go," Adrien stated. The bashing and shakes continued below.

"As always, you are so helpful, American," Petrov said sarcastically.

"Hey! I just took that thing full force!" Adrien protested.

"Enough! I'll do it. Everyone, pool their hand grenades together in this bag," Katja ordered after filling it with hers. Once the bag was full, Katja took it and began descending – only to be stopped as someone grabbed the strap of the grenade pack.

"I've got this, Captain. You know I grew up on a farm. I was riding my parents' belligerent mule before I was seven. This'll be easy," Petrov said, taking the bag and moving around her.

Panic at the thought of him being trampled seized her, and she reached for his arm. But he was already descending and out of reach. "Come back to me alive, Maksim. That's an order," Katja shouted after him.

He nodded and continued his descent to the rhino-creature.

She watched as her lieutenant waited, poised, for the thing to smash into the tower; then he released his grip to drop and land on its back. It reared up with a screech and began running every which way, trying to buck the soldier off.

Petrov quickly pulled the pin of a grenade and stuffed it back in the bag before pushing the bag into the crevice where the alien's head crest and neck met. He leapt off the creature just before the explosion, rolling quickly to his feet.

When the snow and dirt settled, Katja peered down at the remains of the creature. Its weak point must have been anything that wasn't the armored crest, as its head was practically eviscerated.

Petrov was running back to them full tilt, but it was unneeded, as the serpents were now, finally, retreating.

That didn't mean any of them were about to come down from their perch in the tower.

Author notes: Another Xenomorph variant from the game - Aliens: Colonial Marines