Aliens: Defending Terra ... Closed

[AmberStar]

“Lieutenant Olivia Stone!” The Colonel called out my name from a distance that was slightly beyond a normal conversational range. I turn toward him with a quick snap to attention with a hand salute, which I knew it would get under his skin for he always told me when we are alone I didn’t have to be military with my godfather. I always found myself still doing it, not just for the fun of annoying him, but because I respect that bird on his collar in which he earned in his twenty two years of service.

“Yes Sir!” I bellow out, just adding fuel to the annoyance. I find it almost impossible not to smile when his eyes narrow and a scowl forms over his face, “Why do I waste my time being nice to you!” He mutters slightly over the zone of a whisper while he moves closer to me. A thin smile forms over his face upon reaching my personal zone.

I shrug my shoulders, “I don’t know I’m still working on that!” I turn to walk with him down the corridor. My mind still wondering why I was ordered to report to I-core command instead of going to my platoon section. Whatever it was it wasn’t good for nothing ever good comes over the com-check messaging link.

“SO!” My impatient nomenclature raring up. I was never the one that held the luxury of having a lot of patience; it just seemed to waste valuable time, which in most of my cases was time that I needed! However, that didn’t seem to sink into my Godfather or the other upper command puppets that I fell under. (Which still surprises me at times. Go figure!)

The look I got was all I needed to grab a hold of my reins and find that small ounce of patience that was floating around my brain. It was a look that I rarely ever got from him, but when I did it receive this look, the fun and games were over and it was time to get serious. I quickly cleared my throat and put on my professional face as we rounded the corner and entered into the briefing room.

“Colonel Blake, Lieutenant Stone have a seat.” Came the hard tone of the commanding General. His face in it’s familiar cold, unreadable status as he took his seat behind his desk. His eyes scanning over us before reaching over and picking up a black, sturdy back folder. “We have a dire situation on our hands.” He began in his usual urgency tone of voice. A tone of voice that I’m quickly getting to despise.

“Fuck Me!” I push my hand through my sweat beaded bangs once I was out of the office and away from Johnathon and the General. This wasn’t going to be an easy mission, nor was it going to be a casualty free one either. My platoon was the best in the core (Which every platoon commander thinks this!) but this was still even going to test their skills. Most of the older vets of the Corporate war has abandoned the United Armed forces to seek employment with the Corporate armies of today for better pay and benefits.

My pace came to a slower tempo upon seeing the platoon geared up and ready for battle without even knowing the particulars. (Something that they have decided to do on their own. Brave fuckers!) I do respect their gung-ho attitude which comes from their basic training, but I still believe in thinking before jumping in aspect of missions. Yeah, call me a mother hen, but I don’t like losing good soldiers on stupid moves.

My eyes moves over to my recently joined (NCOIC/medic) Master Gunnery Sergeant Scythe. “Ready for inspection.” Her tone of voice was chippy and confident as usual, I wonder if she will feel the same way once she hears what the hell we have been assigned to do! I let my eyes linger upon her for a few moments (allowing her to see the grim look upon my face.) “We have a situation that involves clean up and a hunt. Now before I get into the particulars I want full combat gear analysis and checks for hot, humid, deep jungle incursion with high probability of hostile contact.” I keep my gaze locked upon her for a moment before turning away. “Sarge, come with me.” I voice over my shoulder to her while walking away from the platoon, allowing her to finishing giving the platoon the orders she wants them to do before we depart.

 

[Vixandra]

Call comes from command to go out, nothing to do but get moving on the bounce. Any marine knows that, especially one with the Colonial Marines. Even if she was serving at one of the shittiest postings because she’d refused to sleep with her former commanders in her Special Forces unit and had been transferred to avoid “ruining careers.” I’d kept my rank of Master Sergeant but my reputation had taken a hit when the official reason for my transfer was announced as a “break from combat duty to prevent urban battle fatigue.” Bastards.

So I rolled out of my bed, stripping off my nightshirt and dressing. Sports bra with Kevlar plating (a girl can’t be too careful), panties, short cerulean hair slicked down with a flame-proof gel (don’t ask, only had to learn that lesson once), temp-control body suit, BDU pants and jacket, body armor, tech-filled helmet, a Bowie knife strapped to my left thigh, and a machete like blade strapped to my back for a right hand draw. I loved my guns but bullets run out, a blade’s edge doesn’t. Then it was a dash alongside my squadmates to the armory to finish gearing up. I was the unit’s medic in addition to its NCOIC and I took both roles very seriously. Especially as we were too short handed to have another medic, command not making Earth postings a priority unless it was for FNG’s and troublesome marines like myself. I shrugged into the forty pound bag of medical supplies, including instant-seal and other new technology. In addition to this went the standard twin 9mm exploding round filled Glock on either hip, an automatic rifle that rode over my left shoulder (joys of being ambidextrous) and ammo packs for everything.

There was the usual pre-launch chatter going on, blowing off steam before potential action. Private Owens was ribbing Specialist Hendrix about his hair cut and I couldn’t help but add in my own, “You’re going for hot and falling so short even a blind Andarion wouldn’t fuck you.”

“Ohhhh, Sergeant Scythe with the burn,” Owens added as he moved to start checking Hendrix’s gear while Hendrix did the same. “Even the gal with the spots says you’re beyond hope.”

I let the spots comment slide- I did have them from being a quarter Andarion. The rest of me was human so I was female through and through and other than my rainbow colored spots over my back down to my thighs though my skin held the dusky copper of a human. I moved to the unit’s lieutenant to go over her gear before moving down the line of my people. New to the unit or not, I ran a tight ship, so to speak. After sending a few back for more or less gear, we were ready to go and on the ready line in under ten minutes from the alarm bell sounding in full battle rattle.

“Ma’am, squad ready for inspection and orders,” I said, saluting Lieutenant Stone sharply. Upon her request for armament reports and advisory of a jungle crawl, I advised everyone to get into their thermos-gear (which I was already wearing because overkill still ends up with the other guy dead). It would help keep them cool and sweat would be recycled through a filter system for drinking water if necessary. I also sent a few back for flamers and the new plasma-rifle technology. It was a risky tech but could blow up a tank if aimed right. Hendrix was practically a surgeon with the thing and Squad Specialist Iya Tsumari, a ball of tiny Eurasian rage, was fair decent with hers as well. We could possibly cause an explosion if the units overloaded but a new cooling system supposedly took care of that as long as the lines weren’t cut.

“Sarge, come with me.” I followed her, partly because she was my commanding officer giving an order and partly because, well the view was excellent. Once we were alone, I asked, “Lieutenant Stone, I’m new but even I know that isn’t a good look, what’s going on? That punky rebel group in the Amazon being a pest again?”

 

[AmberStar]

Olivia looked upon the Sarge for a few moments, Olivia’s blue orbs bounced side to side quickly as if time was coming to an end and she only had a few seconds to put the Sarge’s face into a mental memory block. Then they seemed to shift sharply out over the right shoulder of the Sarge to the awaiting squads. Her demeanor was still as an officer but with something heavy upon her shoulders. She never did have that ability to mask her emotions, she just had the ability to overcome them and press on.

Olivia took a deep breath, closed her eyes and thought of the calm place where she used to go when she was young and always in trouble. The sound of the waterfall splashing into the lake below seemed to have the ability to sweep all the fear and anxiety away from her back then and now she hoped it would do the same, especially now that so many lives depended on her being that calm, cool and collected combat officer.

She opened her eyes and locked them upon the Sarge’s orbs. “I only wish it was that simple of a mission Sarge.” She broke out a smiling, gruffled scoff, which her hand moved up quickly to cover up. Olivia fought back the fear that was forming in her throat. “Sarge…” She blew out the stress over her lips. Her mind racing over why she had to draw the short straw on this mission. She quickly turned away from the Sarge obvious to those watching her knew something was very heavy on her shoulders.

“Okay, there is no other way but to just say it… We have been assigned to an Xenomorph mission in the Congo alps of Africa. You remember your history about the Sulaco and LV-426? Well apparently it’s all true and some dumb-ass scientists aboard the Auriga somehow cloned Ripley and a Xenomorph Queen. Well, reports indicate that a mishap occurred and the offspring of this Queen got lose and the Auriga was set to collide with the atmosphere of the Earth and be completely destroyed well, that didn’t happen, at least not all of it, so in command’s infinite wisdom we have been ordered to go investigate and eradicate anything that possibly survived.” Olivia looked to the Sarge hoping that she had access to those files and knew what the hell she was talking about.

“So, I’m asking the woman whom has trained them, honed their skills and brought them into a team, are they ready for this?” Olivia’s eyes once again scanned deep into the eyes of the Sarge. “And don’t give me that NCO hype of we are ready for anything! I’m not one of those gung-ho Lt’s that is looking for a fucking medal or a fast promotion track bullshit. I want to protect the people and the lives of my squad. Are we ready for this Sarge?” Olivia held the plead in her eyes that the answer was going to be a true yes.

 

[Vixandra]

MSgt Styx Scythe

I looked at my commanding officer and sighed. I did know the history of the Xenomorphs. So when she asked, "Are we ready for this Sarge?" I had no choice.

"I have enough medals myself, ain’t gunning for more or a promotion either. Ma'am, no one's goram ready for this," I said with brutal honesty in my violet eyes. I pulled off my helmet and ran a hand through my hair to buy a moment for that to sink in. "You know I was Special Forces before being reassigned here six months ago. I've worked with the best of the best and even they wouldn't be ready for this. We’re good, I’ll take it up with anyone who says otherwise, but I know our limits. I sought out the archival video from LV-426 and Fiore after hearing we were experimenting again and it is haunting to say the least. We have a chance so long as we get in there fast enough to prevent a Queen from setting up residence. The warriors or drones are wicked fast, intelligent and have acid for blood. But with a Queen, they're far more cunning with a purpose they'll die for. Good news, they need a mammalian host to my knowledge and the blast from the ship falling should have vaporized anything for miles. Bad news- there are still a few native tribes on Madagascar plus the caretakers of the Egyptian zones and they may have sent over exploratory teams already. Or there could be egg and drone survivors, actually there probably are. Sturdy fuc- creatures.”

My clearances had nearly gotten me transferred to the Auriga instead of Earth and I was grateful for missing that bus to hell after I’d gained access to all the data on the Xenomorphs. One of her words caught me. “Wait- RIPLEY cloned? Did they keep the clone alive and did she make it out?”

“A separate retrieval unit is headed toward her presumed landing point,” Lt. Stone said, the irritation in her voice nearly touchable. “We’re to mop up the Xenomorphs.”

I looked at the weaponry attached to myself and muttered, “Gonna need to swap to explosive rounds and antacid spray everything… shits a bitch to clean out though.” I looked back up at the wry smile on Stone’s lips and couldn’t help match it. “I’ve worked with the spray before when we had to take back a battery factory on Calliope. The workers had rebelled and were using hoses to blast battery acid at us. Spray worked like a charm, dries clear, didn’t jam any weapons buts cleaning it off was a nightmare for the unit. And ours doesn’t have the budget to get new gear as easily instead of tossing all our mission gear. Not sure how well it’ll work on the Xeno blood but any help I’ll take. How much of this are we telling our troopers?”

She told me what she’d been cleared to tell them without telling me what I couldn’t tell them (officer speak is tricky like that.) “I’ll go get everyone regeared and briefed as we load up. You and Ensign Michaelson flying the hoover? Good, I’ll make sure you’re gear’s ready to go as well.”

She dismissed me with a few additional orders and I saluted then left her office at a respectable pace. Soon as the door was closed, I hit those ugly tiles at a dead run toward my unit’s bay where troopers were pulling their armor back on over the climate control suits. Specialist Tsumari saw me first and called out, “Sarge, what’s going on? Lt. Stone never looks that… concerned.”

“Because we got the lucky end of the stick,” I said with barely concealed sarcasm. “We’ve received orders to deploy to central Africa, Congo region to clean up an experiment gone wrong.”

You could have heard a pin drop when I finished explaining what we were up against before the hanger exploded into action as I shouted orders for gear changes, antacid sprays on everything (including the drop ship, which cleaning was going to be a “much worse” duty later on). Owens, our only scout-recon was ready to roll out first and I pulled him in to help get Stone and Michaelson’s gear in order. The heavy combat armor and weaponry wouldn’t fit when strapped into the hover’s pilot’s seats but we’d gear them both up in a flash soon as we’d landed.

“Bathe in the damn shit,” I barked at a couple of our newest recruits trying to be stingy with the antacid. “It’ll dry clear, get your guns and face shields too- the clear aluminum ones. Yes, I know they’re expensive and for special use only. I’m authorizing it for this mission.”

The clear aluminum shields were expensive but if it’d provide a bit of extra resistance against a face-hugger, I wanted my people to have it, costs be damned. Short of demoting me, what else could the big shots do? I was already stationed on Earth and being possibly sent to my death. In the face of that, a court martial for inappropriate requisitioning of goods was nothing.

It was organized chaos as gear including food, a mobile surgical unit and, extra ammo, guns, armor and gear was being loaded into the hover. The banter had died as the severity of the mission sank in and the unit got down to business, sharp and on the bounce. Soon as the officer’s gear was ready, including weapons with explosive and plasma rounds, I had Owens light those along to their spots on the hoover ship. Everything in its place. We may be going to our deaths but we’ll be damned organized getting there if I have anything to say about it.

As I oversaw the loaders were putting the final pieces inside my second, Assistant Squad Leader Staff Sergeant Arlin Jones came up next to me. “Sarge… Styx, we gonna cross your namesake today?”

I sighed heavily and looked sideways at the other NCO. “I don’t know Arlin and I don’t like it. The higher-ups were playing with fire and we’re gonna get burned. Question is how bad and who’ll be alive to make reports back. Failure isn’t an option, these things cannot be allowed to escape the Auriga’s demolition zone or Earth is a giant graveyard.”

“Make it more of a shithole than it already is, which is saying something,” the sergeant added ruefully. “All right, I’ll go round up the squad.”

His voice changed from the quiet tones of our conversation to the penetratingly deep bass that rang through the hanger. “You have two minutes to have your tails on that ready line for inspection and final gear clear. Move it, Marines, we got a job to do!”

Stone and Michaelson came in as Jones was doing his inspection before I did mine on the unit while I loaded a grip of morphine auto injectors into my own kit. Even in a best case scenario, we weren’t bringing home anyone infected. I’d put them to sleep and if there was time use the surgical unit to remove the Xeno embryo to be incinerated I’d do that. If there wasn’t time, I’d shoot them myself then torch the embryo and marine together. I didn’t like it, it went against the core of what a medic should do for her squadmates but allowing the spread of the Xenomorphs could not be allowed. No matter what the cost.

 

[AmberStar]

Olivia knew she should have informed Karl, Ensign Michaelson, before informing her NCO about the mission, but the Sarge was the top dog when it came to combat readiness and execution. She trusted the vets knowledge and loyalty regardless of what that damn data pad report that command sent her from the Sarges’ last assignment. Yes, Olivia wasn’t a slouch when it come to the same skills, however, the Sarge was with person every minute of the day and knew each and everyone of them all the way down to even what shoe size they wore where as Olivia did not, not that she didn’t want too, but that closeness and teaching was the Sarges area and she respected that too much to go stomping on the woman’s toes.

“Before you give me that Military jargo about you should have been informed first Ensign; I want you to compare your dealings with the squads to that of the Sarges, and then tell me whom do you think could have informed me the strengths and weaknesses of each person and how well they worked with the others. We have to run at the highest peak of performance if we plan on coming home with each marine at our side.” Olivia barked, even though she knew that not all would be coming home alive, she still had to have that hope, that goal so that she doesn’t throw any marine into a wasteful death.

Karl looked up from the intelligence report and orders. “Olivia, I had no inclination of saying that to you. I know why you did what you did, but even if I didn’t, your my commanding officer and have proven yourself to me countless number of times. I know the history of our Master Sergeant and if we were in each others shoes! I would have done the same very damn thing, Ma’am.” Karl’s voice rung true.

“I do have one bitch to discuss with you however, and I want a very good answer!” His face hardened, ‘Why the hell did you turn down the Captain rank that was offered to you for the forth time! . . . And don’t give me the same bullshit answer that you gave me the other three times! There isn’t a single person out there that thinks your uncle would be the one that got you that rank. They know you earned it so fucking take it Olivia! … Ma’am.” Karl eyed her waiting for her answer.

Olivia leaned back in her chair. “Well Karl, Ensign … Then I guess I don’t have an answer to say to you.” Olivia stood up and pushed the chair away from her so she could move away from the desk. She came to a stop at the coffee pot, “Want some?” She held up a cup toward him. Poured it and handed it to him. “I guess I’m just afraid they would take my platoon away Karl.” Olivia looked seriously at him. “I don’t want to lose the best damn squad the Commonwealth has.”

Karl stood up, “Well Olivia, Lieutenant take the damn promotion, then kiss your uncle’s ass and keep the best damn squad the Commonwealth has! … None would blame you for that one!” Karl smiled and nodded. “Time to go to work Ma’am?” he took a deep sip of his coffee.

Olivia nodded with a smile. “Your an ass!” she as she walked out of the office, Karl at her side. “Ensign, We will be using the hover, the Sarge wants me safe and out of the way!” Olivia shook her head, “Talk about a mother hen!” She looked over at Karl and chuckled. “I bet she is wondering where the hell we are at! … She called this secondary inspection fifteen minutes ago!”

Karl grimaced… “Shit!”

Olivia smiled when she seen the final inspections were still being made, “Great we’re not late!” Olivia looked over at the smiling face of Karl, his words of “There is a God after all.” forced her to chuckle.

Her gaze fell over the troops swiftly before coming face to face with the Master Sergeant “As if I need to ask this. Is your troops ready for inspection?” She knew the answer and so didn’t wait for her response before stepping away from the woman, whom seemed to have this pull to her that Olivia has noticed several times of wanting to stay close to her. Maybe it was just the power of confidence that Styx held, she didn’t really know why she felt this way, just that she did.

“At ease, and as you were.” Olivia giving the order to relax, and break formation. She gave the squads a few moments to move back to where and what they were doing before the called inspection. “I know the Sarge has given you the special low down of our mission so I will keep this brief. I want each of everyone of you to come home. I do not want your gung-ho hero shit going on out there. Your all too valuable to me and this Core. If you want medals just come to the office and tell me later and I’ll get them for you, for you all deserve the ones that are available. Now whoever got my gear ready, did you make sure to put the baby power in my necessary regions to keep me nice and dry?” Olivia smiled at the group before turning serious, “Okay, Does anybody have anything that needs to be said or asked?” She knew the answer to this one as well, but she had to ask anyway.

“Okay than, Viper Squad mount up! It’s time to go hunting!” Olivia shot a look at her Master Sergeant but kept that we can do this look to her face but the eye contact told the truth, She was scared. “Master Sergeant, Take charge while the XO and I prep the Hoover with detailed mission landing zones. I will brief you on tact two when we finish to allow you the zone changes based on mission weather convictions or Command changes.” Olivia barked and then moved to the hover, “Time to liftoff, five minutes people!” Olivia barked while moving to the pilot seat.

 

[Vixandra]

MSgt Styx Scythe

I wasn’t close enough to stop Owen’s from answer Stone’s rhetorical question with, “Only with the finest powdered babies available, Ma’am!”

The look on my face must have advised him that wasn’t a wise comment and he fell into line with the rest of the unit for load up. I couldn’t fault the guy, I’d have made the same (or worse) comment myself as a young Marine. Instead I hustled everyone into their places, checking the left side’s straps while Jones checked the right, just like in training before we switched to double check though neither of us ever found anything to correct. It was a pattern, one that had seen us home before. One I prayed would see us home again.

When we were strapped in, I hit the sub-vocal communicator to let the pilots know. “Viper Squad locked and loaded, Ma’am and Sir. Ready for deployment.”

It’s a sign of a good pilot when the lift off and landing of a hover are as smooth as stepping down a stair. Stone and Michaelson were that good, though they did a sweep around the wreckage of the Auriga. The visuals feeding into the HUD on my faceshield were shudder worth. The ship was smoldering wreckage mostly in one pile with a few intact sections. Further out were a few more solid pieces- life boats that had launched just before impact on autopilot about a mile away from the ship itself. Vivid yellow and orange indicators on my visor showed where the core had leaked what little fuel it had crashed with. It wasn’t as much as I would have expected, almost like the ship had been crashed intentionally. The scorched earth, sand turned to glass in areas spread over three miles long and about that many wide, a blot in the thick jungle that had taken over the continent after the Laserna plague had made it uninhabitable a century ago. The plague had a vaccine and a cure now (we’d all be dosed upon deployment to Earth) but it had been nasty. It still popped up now and then in the sparse local populations of natives that had refused to leave or be vaccinated. Some people’s kids.

“Sarge, have you seen these nasties before,” asked Owens. “I mean, your briefing was pretty thorough but have you seen them?”

“Nope,” I said honestly. I had seen skulls of the species before, held in a ship that bore many such trophies but no one here was cleared to hear about that clusterfuck. “I do know they’re fast, mean, have acid for blood, and don’t give a damn for any species other than their own outside of it being food or a spawning point for their disgusting young.”

A distress beacon from one of the escape pods caught my attention, my eyes shifting to the image on my HUD and enlarging it. It seemed mostly intact, a few spars missing but nothing serious. It was sending out the galactic standard SOS with a “quarantine containment breach” notification as well though what containment it didn’t say. Typical government bastards- they’ll tell you something should be quarantined but not what it is or that it’ll eat your face off.

“I’m seeing humanoid life signs on that shuttle,” Stone said over the squad-wide com link. “Setting down near there, standard formation out the door and we’ll take a look around.”

Jones and I were seated at the rear of the hoover, last in, first off while Owens and Hendrix were closest to the cockpit. Their job would be to gear up the officers while the rest of us made sure we had a clear space to bring them into. We’d seal the ship up when we left but I wasn’t leaving anyone behind, not if they were alive. Besides, Stone would probably pull rank if I even suggested she stay out of the action and we needed every gun and set of eyes we could get.

The hover set down with the crackling of scorched brush and the quiet thump of the landing springs making contact with the ash-coated ground. The snarky marine in me knew that between the antacid and ash, clean up was going to be hellactious and I told that little voice to shut the hell up before turning my attention to my unit. “Odds and evens, keep to your battle buddies and no bucking for medals or I’ll put my boot up your ass so far you’ll be able to lick-shine it.”

I heard Stone snort a laugh over the command link but no one else argued. Sergeants needed colorful vocabularies, made the young pups listen more. I was second out into that scorched area, the very air still hot and hissing with smoldering brush fires. I felt the thermal suit slip on, bringing my core temp down even as sweat beaded along the nape of my neck.

How do you describe the desolation of a rich ecosystem? The stench of roasted flesh, burnt trees, earth scorched to glass and the metallic smoke of the ruined ship assailed me as I stepped ankle deep into ash. The rest of the unit followed and fanned out, each doing their job like clockwork. We set up a base perimeter twenty yards from the ship in all directions with no signs of anything living except the distress beacon from the life-boat. From a bottom bay of the hoover Jones pulled out the ATV, a gunmetal gray armored box on wheels with various communications arrays and a pair of gunners turrets on top, two more on either side and a loading ramp that dropped as soon as it was clear of the ship. No point in wasting energy walking through possibly miles of ash when we didn’t have to. “Load it up Vipers, move move move!”

Like they needed extra encouragement to get into the ATV. Owens and Tsumari took the overhead turret positions while Lt. Stone moved up front with Jones to drive. Michaelson and I would be first off when we stopped and the back bay door opened. Presuming something didn’t eat us first. The blood splattered on the inside of the life-boat I saw in my visor didn’t make that thought so unlikely…

 

[AmberStar]

‘Here we go again!’ Olivia spat to herself as she unstrapped herself from the constricting pilot’s seat. This was the fifth time Olivia and her squads have been dropped into the meat grinder in the past two years to clean up the FUBAR experiments that R&D and the weapons department conspire together to develop and test, and when it blows up in their faces their backup plan seems to always be send in the trusted squads of the Vipers to clean it up!

‘This better not be like the mission that took place on LV-742’ Olivia’s mind reminded her of the horror and the lives that were lost. It was the worse loss of life that Olivia had ever commanded, she lost twenty-one soldiers in those two weeks of deployment before command decided to pull them out and send in a battalion of marines to secure the planet, a reoccurring fact that seems to plague the high command, they always underestimate the enemy strength until too many lives were lost.

Olivia took a glance over to Michelson for a brief moment, the look was one that he had seen before and could have went this whole mission without seeing it, but as it was, he too felt the same way, there was just that gut feeling that made you want to go and upchuck somewhere just to get rid of the feeling, however, that would show their troops the wrong side of the coin, they had to be positive. “I know, Olivia,” was all he said as the door slid open granting them access to the troop stations area.

Owens and Hendrix was on top of them before they took the first step into the troop area placing armor in it’s proper place and secured correctly, not as if the officers couldn’t do it themselves but it was always the non-commission soldier’s mentality that they do it better, in which compared to these too, it was a fact. They were trained and drilled by the best and it showed.

The orders from Styx to stay in the back echoed in Olivia’s mind as she stepped off the ramp and looked over the Sarge’s perimeter setup. It was a standard (I don’t trust the information giving to us by command) formation. Olivia slightly scoffed to herself for thinking that there would be any other formation formed. She knew of the Sarge’s content for the upper echelon of command and couldn’t blame her.

Styx’s voice crackled over Olivia’s command com that the perimeter was secured and besides what was obvious by sight, there was nothing else in the area. A type of report that Olivia never got tired of hearing in these situations. She hated the point and go hunt mission that command sends them on constantly. Why can’t they be called into stopping a bunch of protesters against some mega corporation! She would roll over and play fetch for those types of missions, however, the Sarge would get really tired of those types rather quickly.

The cockpit of the ATV was more designed for an armored individual than the tight fit of the hover, which stone enjoyed the roomy nature of the ATV for she didn’t feel like a sardine in a can. She acknowledged her co-pilot when Jones took his seat next to her. She took a quick glance at the teams status on the monitor before gently pushing the control forward sending the ATV into the desolated lands.

The lifeboat, which just had to be one of the luxury class ones, had five rooms not counting the med-pod which had three. It was basically a small house for the upper ranking officers of the Auriga. Olivia wanted to find an officer or scientist alive just to find out what the hell was going on and what in God’s name were they thinking, however, when her blue orbs fell upon the blood at the access door diminished.

“Sarge, I want the rifle team at point instead of the gun team, it’s too much of a close quarters to follow standard formation.” Olivia ordered not liking the feeling in her gut. Why they built the lifeboat corridors smaller than a normal space faring warship was beyond her for it restricted tactical movement, maybe they just considered once a lifeboat ejected the fighting was over for them and didn’t need the fighting room, hell she didn’t know the answer but was going to work on getting that changed.

Several steps into the lifeboat the squad was met with an ear piercing scream. “Were not alone! Stay sharp, keep your spacing, and check all the damn corners!” Olivia moving up closer as she was a rifle bearer and wanted to take point. She didn’t know how many survivors there were but this size of a lifeboat could hold up to eight men for ten years, so they could have crammed many more than that knowing it was only going to be a few days to reach earth. She took a position next to Sarge and Michelson knowing that Sarge wouldn’t like this move at all, however, she was about even to get more uncomfortable. “We need to split up and do a quicker search. I will take first squad to take the Medical and storage areas while Ensign, you and the Sarge will take the bridge and stasis rooms.”

Olivia feel back and looked at Specialist Tsumari. “Iya you and your squad will come with me. We are going to check medical and the cargo hold, while Second squad checks the bridge and stasis rooms.” Olivia informed the second squad leader of the battle plan. She smile when the specialist gave her a thumbs up. She instantly pointed to Demonte and Ramos to take point and move down the smaller length corridor that lead to medical and the hold.

Olivia shot one more glance to the Sarge and Michelson before taking up the rear behind her squad. A tactic to make the Sarge think that she was going to stay behind the squad, as if that was going to happen as she moved up to the front, over riding the Specialists wanting of her to stay back in the rear. There was no way she was going to ask her men to do something if she wasn’t willing to do it herself.

 

[Vixandra]

MSgt Styx Scythe

“Hendrix, Tsumari, you’re on point. Be careful, we don’t know the burst radius of the Xenomorph exposed to plasma-weaponry and I don’t want to burn any of your delicate skin Hendrix,” I said, keeping my tone sharp but with a “we got this” ease. I wasn’t sure who I was trying to fool but I’d act and sound like things were in control no matter what happened. It was my job. “Owens, get your scout-self up behind them and I want your analysis of the blood patterns as soon as we get close to the doors.”

Lt. Stone’s voice rang out as she moved forward up next to Owens, “Were not alone! Stay sharp, keep your spacing, and check all the damn corners!”

I wanted to grab the back of her rig, shake her like a puppy and put her toward the back of the unit. I didn’t because she was one of the few officers in corps that would stand shoulder to shoulder on the front line in the midst of heavy shit without flinching, firing orders and bullets. She had the standard M41A Pulse Rifle with a magazine that Owen’s had “fixed” to carry a fifty bullet magazine just like the rest of ours. Also had the standard two shot grenade launcher, loaded with plasma grenades because if shit it the fan that badly, it had to die.

I had my own similarly modded M41A in my hands with a pair of M4A3 command pistols that had the marks of heavy use but loving care on the grips on either thigh. I wasn’t supposed to have the command pistols but I’d won them in a bet and came back unharmed from every mission I took them on after that. They were my lucky charm of sorts. Superstitious but I knew marines who wore the same, unwashed, undies on every drop, so it could be worse.

“Ensign Michaelson, if you would take up rear guard with Corporal Mitoma, Vrex and Hendrix, you’ve got point,” I said, taking my position behind the point with Owens. As Vrex and Hendrix moved forward, carefully avoiding the blood splatters at the bay, the rest of us kept a look out as Owens did his scout magic.

“Aw, Sarge, we are in trouble,” his voice was an odd mix of joyful and serious. “Looks like we got an escaped humanoid in those POS booties the science drones wear and something non-human outside the pod.”

I looked down at the “non-human” footprints and shuddered as recognition flared through me. I switched to the unit-wide vocal channel. “We have one escaped scientist type and one Xeno outside the ship. I repeat, one human, one Xenomorph outside the ship. Exercise all caution inside the ship and watch your rears, they may come back.”

As we resumed our hall clearing formation, Vrex paused a moment to put a pair of motion trackers on the door, one to either side as an additional warning if anything came in or out of the torn apart hatch door and started making our way toward the bridge and statis rooms, left of where we entered. Vrex also had a few toys of his own, being one of our two techsperts. I’d brought him in a few months ago when he’d been finished with his last assignment. He’d seen the video and had come up with a titanium net coated in antacid that could be launched from what looked like a pipe bomb with a handle and a paper covering on one end. It was a “rough” model but it could shoot a net and incapacitate if needed or tighten upon verbal commands cued to Vrex, myself, Michaelson and Stone into a flesh-tearing death trap if needed. It was a messy way to go.

There were more bloody footprints of both sorts as we moved forward, both human and otherwise. My voice rang out to my squad. “Keep an eye on the ceiling and the floor grates, don’t pick up anything you didn’t drop, and do NOT go off on your own. I will spread-eagle skin the ingrate that goes off alone, even if I have to resurrect your corpse to do it!”

I could see the green laser points of my unit scanning in all directions as I moved in my place in the squad on a swivel. We reached our first door labled, “Stasis Chamber 1” with a blinking light on the panel next to the door stating “two patients in distress in cryotubes 2 and 3. Life signs extinguished in unit 4.”

Guns ready, Vrex opened the door and swore in a collage of languages. “No goram shit pod 4’s life is extinguished, the fucker’s been cracked open like a gamou Yule bird.”

Colorful but correct- pod 4’s glass and occupant had been split open from the inside. From the blood it was a violent eruption. The personnel in pods 2 and 3, a soldier and some kind of scientist respectively were still in hyper-sleep. I reported our findings to Lt. Stone as I pulled out a handheld sonogram scanner and started sweeping it over the pod occupants. Both were alive, which was good for us, but infested with the larval form of the Xenomorph. “Fuck, we’re gonna have to toast them,” I swore over the command link and out loud for my squad to hear. “They’re too far developed for me to remove the embryo with what we got and I won’t risk more of those things getting out. Tibs and Heyes, light the poor bastards up and we’ll move on. Everyone else, odds on the door, evens on that air vent there and that floor vent there.”

The vents were only about six feet square but I wasn’t underestimating anything. The bitter tang of scorched human flesh burned my nose. Over the roar of the flamers, I could hear a scream deeper in the ship, one of rage and vengeance. It was almost feminine, if such a bestial roar could be said to be so.

 

[AmberStar]

Olivia’s fingers curled up into a fist as she raised it up to give the signal for her squad to come to a stop. Her hand pushing the receiver deeper into her ear so that she could hear her the Sergeant clearly. Her gaze dropped to the tinted gray flooring while picturing the report that she was getting from Styx. She could feel her heart beating in her chest as the images of what the hell was going on came to light. ‘Fuck!’ Olivia cursed, for she was hoping that this mission was just going to be a good heavy scouting jig than return to home base. ‘So much for that hope!’ Her mind answering her statement of wishing.

“Sarge, This is my call and mine alone. Fuck this ship and whomever is in here. All hands lost… I repeat all hands lost … Blow this fucking ship up use …, … the reactor!” Olivia knew it would make a creator here, but who fucking cares, she wasn’t going to risk her squads for these dim wit bastards whom brought this upon themselves, besides the threat to the world is already outside. “Our threat and concern is outside, if these things finds a tribe we are fucked. I want everyone outside doing sweeps and ensuring that nothing comes out of this ship before it blows, I want an inward blast! I know it’s going to take more time, but I don’t want a possible infested chest to be blown away from our perimeter.

“Ensign Michelson, I want you in the hover doing aerial patrols while the Sarge and I conduct ground patrols. Lets move our asses, for we have hostiles outside and no idea how long they have been freed. Sarge new team destinations are quartered by clock directions. My squad will take the twelve and three positions.” Olivia shouting in the mic as she moves her squad back down the corridor in which they came.

The scream brought Olivia to a grinding stop. She lowered her head and was debating her orders, there were survivors here, but does she risk her squads in this ship while there have been ones that got away already? She knew the answer and have already given the orders for the correct procedure, they were not a rescue forces they were sent here to exterminate a world wide threat and that was what she was going to do. “Sarge, I know … I know … But my orders stand!” Olivia barked over the com after hearing the scream.

‘May God forgive me.’ Olivia whispered to herself. She was torn in what she had to do, even with her training in which she was expected to make the hard decisions, even the ones that was going to take lives, the mission came first. There were many more innocent lives outside that would be lost if she took the time to clean out this ship. NO! She was right in this call. She would seek forgiveness after this is over.

“Sarge, I want this blast in five minutes so move your asses as if they were on fire and you had to go twelve miles for a fucking puddle of water!” Olivia screamed in her tact while stepping outside of the ship. “Spread out and do a quick three sixty of the area, then Babydoll, I want your sweat ass to take Bates and For’tilla to the three o’clock position, while the rest of us go to the twelve o’clock position. When the ship blows, report in for further orders. Now move it troopers!” Olivia hand signaling her two to follow her.

The sweep of the immediate area was what she thought, nothing just tracks indicating that at least five Xenomorph and one human escaped. This in itself was a severe kick to the head problem. There was tons of beasts and small bands of tribes that were just ripe for the taking. Olivia felt the fear and horror of this fact, it brought a very urgent sense of needing to move to find these things.

“COME ON SARGE, BLOW THE GOD DAMN THING!” She yelled over the tact angrily as the heaviness of the escaped threat took over her tone of voice.

 

[Vixandra]

Her call but my duty and I knew a lost cause when I gave the order to end it. Did I like giving the order for someone’s death- no. I was a medic, giving life was supposed to be my trade but the good of the many must outweigh the needs of the few and these things couldn’t be allowed out. Even if she’d ordered me not to, we’d have torched the bodies and had a communications “glitch” at the same time.

Was kind of wishing for one of those as her voice howled over the general line again, “COME ON SARGE, BLOW THE GOD DAMN THING!”

I scowled as we plunged deeper into the ship toward the engine bay and I hoped it had enough juice to blow itself to kingdom come because we couldn’t get access on any of the remote terminals. I kept hearing things, right at the bottom edge of the audible spectrum, a deep thrumming noise that I’d never heard before but it didn’t sound like it was coming from the ship so while I kept mental tabs on it, I put it from my mind.

I had plenty to occupy it when we rounded the corner to face the doors to the engine bay. Or rather what had been doors and were now peeled back like the top of a canned food relic from the olden days. Owens in front spoke in a soft voice. “Sarge, there’s been multiple sized Xeno footprints in either direction. Some drag marks too.”

“Fuck a duck,” I muttered.

“Screw a kangaroo.”

“Finger-“

“Cut the shit,” I hissed quietly, cutting off the banter. “Can you rig a remote explosive, land it on the reactor and give us enough time to GTFO, Vrex?”

“For you, Sarge, anything,” he said, pulling his pack from his back and started pulling things out and grabbing thing from the outside pockets on Hendrix’s pack as well since they split the tech load. In a few moments he was pulling up…

“A fucking bow and arrow?”

“It’ll hit the reactor, stick without puncturing it and keep the C12 with its timer in place without making a lot of noise. I don’t want to attract any more attention than necessary.”

I just shrugged and stepped forward to get a look into the room. Noise wasn’t my biggest worry but it was a valid concern all the same so I let it go. He could bring down genetically augmented bears with that bow, so if Vrex said it’d work here, I’d trust him. What I didn’t trust was inside that room, crouching in the center of the bay, its distended belly starting swell obscenely as an attendant handed a bloody hunk of meat for it to shovel into its double-mouthed maw. It was smaller than I expected, maybe two and a half meters tall crouching, blood dribbling down its jaws as it grunted to expel an egg. Both attendant and little queen Xeno didn’t seem to notice us as I gave the hand signal for Vrex to go ahead. The twang of the bow echoed strangely through the corridor and the sharp report of the sticky-metal tip hitting the reactor dead on drew their attention.

How to describe ebony death brought to life? Yet the smaller one had almost white markings like stripes across its carapace that reflected strangely in the flickering light as it turned toward us with a hiss.

“We’ve got movement back here,” Heyes shouted before his rifle spoke. The sponges that were built into our communication ear pieces expanded to block the report of gunfire while allowing other noises through but it wasn’t that much help. There was inhuman screaming from behind and Stripes was already moving toward our front while the little queen gave her own trilling screech.

The next few moments were a blur of gunfire, the stench of cordite, blood and acid, screams, howls, hisses, the command line going off with status report requests which I so did not have time to give and the slip-slide effort of keeping one’s footing in a mix of blood, acid, gore and other substances I didn’t pay much attention to as we gave up all pretense of stealth and made our push out.

Stripes got Michaelson with a flash of its tail, the appendage spearing through his upper thigh like a knight’s lance. His screams as he shot the Xeno point blank with the plasma grenade were echoed by Mitoma who’d caught some of the acidic blood spread as the head of the creature burst. Hendrix was in front, laying down surpressing fire with the plasma cannon but he had to be careful not to bring the ship down around us, which hampered his effectiveness but the plasma weaponry could take out the xenos, of which we found two more on our way out, in one hit, instead of multiple rounds like the rifles with less splatter than the grenades.

We had to leave Michaelson behind, horribly burned with acid, bleeding out, shooting at the queen from where he was propped against the wall. We barely made it clear of the main hatch, bodies streaming with acidic blood trying to get through the antacid spray with no success, all of us growling from silent to moderately as droplets of acid ate through thermal suits where armor didn’t cover around throats, hands and the back of the neck.

We hit the ground in a rolling thud, each of us bouncing to our feet, even Mitoma with her new acid marked along her face and tears of rage in her eyes over losing one of her officers. I had no tears as I barked at Vrex over the unit-wide communication channel, “All marines take cover! Blow it, V, hit it!”

We were still running toward the perimeter that Stone’s half of the unit had set up and the ATV when the explosion behind us threw us to the ground, tossing us like rag dolls. I was tossed up onto the hood of the ATV and had a great view of the escape vessel going up in a ball of green and white flames that nothing could live through.

I shook my head to clear it and climbed down from the ATV as Lt. Stone came running up, eyes blazing behind her shield as she took in the acid and blood splattered state of my unit. “Ma’am, we got caught in an ambush,” I said, testing my weight on both feet and was pleased to find no serious injuries. “We lost Michaelson inside to one of the Xenos. Speared him right through his armor like it was tissue paper, Stone. They also had a little queen already, not the size seen in the archival footage.”

I pretended not to notice the gasp or the furious tear that slipped down her cheek unnoticed as I told her. I knew they’d been friends and all I wanted to do was to pull the smaller woman into a hug because losing a friend-in-arms is never easy. But I didn’t because there wasn’t time for it. There wasn’t time for anything resembling comfort other than treating injuries. As I gave the rest of my report I was pulling my people aside to triage and treat their injuries, slathering on antacid cream to burns, setting a broken arm in a quick splint, sealing up a slice to the outer thigh that had gone right through Owen’s armor. He’d avoided a skewering but the instant-seal burned like an SOB so it probably felt like he hadn’t. I gave him a adreno-morphine injection for pain and to keep him moving before moving on. “Given how they got their first queen, I’ll hazard a guess that these new ones will breed at a younger age, even if they are smaller. You said you had traces of five outside the ship?”

 

[AmberStar]

SILENCE! The calm before the storm was something that no commander wanted to happen to them on the battlefield, unfortunately that wasn’t something Olivia Stone was immune too for at this very moment she felt the calm’s gripping fingers around her throat! The pit of her stomach was burning as if she drank a gallon of Hydrofluoric acid treated with a few tums. She wanted to know what was happening, what was going on with her soldiers. Her mind scrambled over several options from yelling for the Sarge to report or send in a recon unit to get her a sit-rep.

Olivia, not hearing any reports from her Sarge, looked over to the two riflemen, whom were manning their haste firing positions. Demonte and Ramos had that look of concern on their faces for they too didn’t like the silence. Their eyes drifted to Olivia whom already felt their concern returned her glare at them. But before she could issue them an order to keep their focus on the perimeter, the squad leader Babydoll was already all over them. “The action is out there not in here, man your stations as you have been trained. The LT has control of what is going on inside!” She barked as she walked toward the Lt. The commands of the Sarge still rattling around in her head to keep the Lt safe.

“Bates and For'tilla are at our three o’clock as directed Lt.” Babydoll informed Olivia whom was still demanding for a field report. “Damn it!” Stone angrily growled over her lips. Her mind making a quick snappy decision to go in herself. “Keep this perimeter up Cpl!” Olivia ordered as she headed for the ship. Babydoll running after her. “LT! Your not going in there!” The Cpl’s voice was drowned out by the blast of combat noise blaring over the com-wave. Olivia looked back at the Cpl. “The hell if I’m not!” Olivia moved toward the ship.

Olivia’s determination to go inside and find her troop was abruptly ended when her eyes focused upon the Sarge’s unit hauling balls out of the ship just moments before it went up. Bodies including hers went flying from the blast of the ship, Olivia with her combat skills executed a perfect hit, roll, stand up move that had her on her feet running toward the Sarge whom was pushing herself off the hood of the ATV.

She stopped when the images of the wounded finally came to her. She let her gaze fall to each one with a concern for their well being expression come to her face, but the devastating news took that expression away rather quickly to one of intense sorrow. Olivia’s head shaking in denial. “No!” She shouted out while she pushed back the rest of her tears. The pain was deep but her duty was slightly deeper, this wasn’t the time for this, which the look on the Sarge’s face confirmed this fact. “We need to get on the move. Sarge is there anyone not able to be moved? If not, we need to get moving, if anyone cant be…. We need to get moving.” Olivia held the painful look about forcing everyone to move regardless of their health, but she didn’t have a choice.

She was relieved when the Sarge broke this moment with the fact about the discovered tracks. “Yes, Babydoll found some at our twelve o’clock heading in a north by northwest direction.” Stone offered the info to the Sarge. Olivia’s eyes focused upon the Sarge, her face showing the hard decision that had to be made. “Load everyone up in the ATV, we need to get ahead of these damn things and eradicate them. I want a walking patrol as well sweeping the area as we move for any infected creatures, humans anything that can be used as a host!” Olivia started walking toward the North. “Sarge gather the foot patrol and send them with me. I want you in the ATV getting everyone stable.”