..."Why thank you, little girl," said the Sergeant. He stuck his hand through one of the holes to take a cookie, when suddenly he noticed a flash of light, a reflection from a light in the corridor, flashing off of something. A visor. Out of one of the lower holes proped a sharp tip. With a roar, the Predator rammed the spear out and into the Sergeant, piercing his body. The marines looked on in terror...

And an aparition walked across the corridor, only to vanish behind some overturned tables...

One of the privates just stood there, looking into the thin air where just a moment ago a monster killed his Sergeant. But not Koswolski. He picked up Satchel charge from the floor and through it down the corridor. "Fire in the hole!" he screamed at his comrades.

When the explosion destroyed everything in it path, every one had hit the deck, except the one the one Private that kept looking into emptiness. A metal bar ripped through his head impelling his limb body to the wall.

As the dust and debris from the explosion settled one of the marines, PFC Cheezum, looked up and saw a figure holding his face stumble through the wrecked doorway. It was Bob. They had forgotten all about him and Nicholson after their battle with the xenocs. But where was Nicholson, and what was that on Bob's face? It was too small to be a 'hugger, yet had that unmistakable biomechinical look of something alien. Cheezum was about to get up to aid his comrade when his motion tracker started whining again. A quick glance at the screen showed him it was a very large signal...

"Incoming!!" he cried, slapping a mag of Armour-piercing slugs into the rifle.

They could hear a ‘wind’ coming towards them, but how could that be? Then the force of the air hit them, dozens of drones rushed by, like a herd of spooked horses. A giant black shape followed the herd, a Queen. It stopped, turned its head and simply ‘looked’ at the squad of marines.

“Oh crap” said Jones, just as….

A techie came running from behind a sharp corner.

The woman stopped and gaped at the giant black shape. The Queen's head moved left, right, and her small arms waved in a strange fashion.

Then, without a sound, she galloped away.



The techie swallowed hard and whispered:

"We gotta bget the f*** otta here! The reactor is gonna blow!"

Everyone turned just in time to see Koswolski's chest explode. The force ripped his upper body apart, right from the neck down to his waist. The legs kept standing up, and the head span in the air for what seemed an eternity before hitting the ground and rolling up to the techie's feet. A part of the marines' lung and heart hit Cheezum in the face; everyone was covered in blood and little pieces of the body.

(I kind ‘a left the story at a difficult place to continue, so here, I'm fixing it. Now you should be able to add more...)



"Run!!" was Cheezum's responses.

The techie never got anywhere; two blades appeared out of nowhere. The arm was cut of just below the shoulder, the blades continued deep into the chest, slicing the heart into three distinct pieces...

the woman let out a gasp of horror as blood began pooling under her feet. The alien creature was at least 8 feet tall, and let out a low clicking growl as it lowered it's clawed hand, the techie falling to the floow like a limp rag doll. The creature stared down at its victim...motionless...then turned it's gaze at the escaping Marines. It let out a howling screech of a roar, and began bounding down the coorridor after them...

[ This message was edited by: Predrhone on 2001-11-04 21:33 ]

The first of the marines had reached the steel bulkheads at the end of the corridor and, passing them, began cycling the lock on the other side. The giant doors began to grind shut on their tracks, the hydraulic pumps having difficulty closing the heavy barricade. As the door was closing, the remaining marines still in the corridor ran for their lives, when...

...The Predator reaches them, and leaps through the hydraulic doors. It lets out a howl and a loud *sinkt* as it's jagged blades dart from it's right wrist gauntlet. With an assassin's agility, it dives, impaling Cheezum through the abdomen. It easily lifts him off the ground, and holds him over it's head, the blades dripping lifeblood, gouging through bone and muscle. He keeps crying out " LONG LIVE CHEESE!" and the Pred drops him to the floor. His body hits with a loud, hollow thump. The Pred takes its trophy bag and is about to decapitate the man, when a blood curtling hiss is heard. The Pred spins, to see the hydraulic doors, which had stuck and the machinery is still struggling to restart, open with at least 4 or 5 drones slithering in. they begin bounding towards the hunter, jaws flaring with saliva, and segmented tails curled, ready to lash. The hunter unclasps the combi-at his waist, and extends it to full length. It lets out a battle cry, then in a gutteral voice "Ell'osde pauk!", and it charges towards the drones. They are about to clash, when...

he tripped...

...sensing the opportunity to strike the drones pounced onto the fallen Hunter. Ingnoring the struggling Predator, the remaining marine open fire on the writhering mass of aliens. Round after round tears through the Xenoc horde sending a lethal rain of acidic blood on the Predator pinned beneath. Seeing his inevitable demise the Hunter uses his last reserves of strength to free his right arm and reach adn open his wrist gauntlet...

but the fingers get torn away by eager jaws and green blood explodes on the walls.



Silence descends....

...and suddenly Bob the marine can be heard shouting, then the clatter of boots coming down the corridor.

"Hey," shouts Bob at the single remaining marine, "We gotta get outta here! The reactor is gonna blow." Turning to the six troopers with him, "Marines! We are leaving!" They turned to head off down the corridor, towards the hangars, when...

the Dropship crew comes onto the frequency.

"mmmmmmm, guys??? we're in a bit of a jam..."

"What??" screams Bob. "What?!?"

"mmm, we're kinda...stuck..."

"You're what?!?" Bob can't containt his distaste.

"The concrete collapsed and our front gear is in some piping or sumthin..."

The sound is cut off suddenly and only a short screech can be heard. Then static.

Bob's face pales as he stares at the radio which is playing the droning of static. He looks to the last remaining marine, whom happens to be pissing his pants. Bob holds his puls rifle up, and peers at the gauge.

"Only 52 rounds left...you?"

The other mainre shivers, and falls to the ground, obviously comatose.

"aw, for the love of..."

Bob slings his rifle over his shoulder, and begins to try and drag his fallen comrade. Bob makes it about ten feet before he hears a clatter. Like the sound of plastic on metal. It appears to be coming from above, and he looks up to see dozens of panels of grating lining the middle of the ceiling. He wipes his brow, and carefully removes one of the step ladders from a wall panel. He slides it open, and begins up. He reaches the ceiling grating, and using the barrel of his rifle, he tips the grating up. He slowly but surely peers down the grating...looking both directions. The smell up there is horrid, like dead fish rotting with compost. He gags, then turns on his shoulder lamp. He unhooks it, and with the powerful stream of light, he can see why it smells so horrendous. Lining the walls of the floor above them, are dozens of people. They're stuck to the walls, with some sort of secreted resin. The greenish black substance lines the entire structure, with an eerie skeletal like formation. The bodies of the people are all near some sort of leathery objects. Eggs or something. they're spread open at the top, almost like the pedals of a flower. He gasps, noticing that all the people are dead...their chests are burst open. Ribs, guts, gore everywhere. He nearly falls off the ladder in spite. He begins his way down, wondering how many people have died so far, when he realizes the other marine is gone. He looks up and down the coorridors, but sees nothing. He then notices the trail: a trail of red...looks like blood...streaking across the floor down the coorridor direction he was headed. He crouches examining it further. He then notices more: a thick mucus...almost like slime...smelling like raw fish, but not putrid. He notices that splotches of this go along the blood trail as well. He then hears a slight shriek...some type of other-worldly scream...down somewhere at the end of the passage. He wipes his face of sweat, unslings his rifle, checks the gauge once more, and trudges forth, cautiously, muttering to himself...

"I'd better be getting extra wages for this..."

[ This message was edited by: Predrhone on 2001-11-06 17:57 ]

He slowly walks forward, the pulse rifle tightly pushed against the shoulder, looking straight down the sights.

"Never look where your weapons isn't pointing" echoed the voice of his Drill' Sergeant from so many years ago.

The little flashback made him almost miss the little object that rolled beneath his feet, a tinny red light blinking ever faster, a grenade.

Bob took three steps back, dived side ways into a small room on his right, a closet.

The force of the explosion 9 feet away knocked the wind out of him, but he was still alive. The wall took the brunt of the explosion, unfortunately the door did not, and it was impaled into the soft inner walls on the closet, 10 inches above the Marine’s head.

“Shit, they certainly don’t pay me enough for this”.

Through all the commotion he never noticed...