12-10-2014, 10:02 PM
Well, no one has yelled at me for not having dice rolls and things included, so I'll go ahead with part two!
***
On the Shadow Line, Powers was starting to sweat and his hands trembled. This was the point of no return for him, Puke's hands were dirty for sure, but there was still time for Powers to disengage.
"what's going on ,sir?" The sergeant asked.
"Vassilli is down and we may have positive contact with the xenomorph's reported on Acheron."
"Vassilli?" Powers repeated.
"Sergeant?" Puke said, "we gotta start the plan before they evac to drop ship 2."
Powers thought about the shares he was offered, enough to retire on earth and live comfortably.
"We'll be back in a minute, let me get Val to fire up the drop ship," powers replied.
"Powers-" Einfield began.
"Stow it!" Powers snapped, "A little more time."
***
Nichols came into the room out of breath, his med kit at the ready.
Right away he saw he was too late.
"Fuck," Nichols said.
On a display behind Paris, the readout of a motion tracker started to read movement.
"Patterson? Report," Paris called.
***
In the entry way to the derelict ship, Patterson held up her motion tracker just to verify what she was reading. A single contact barreling toward them
"something moving on the alien ship sir!" She said, "coming our way."
Zane racked a shotgun round into his under barrel attachment.
"fuck this, I don't get paid enough," he said.
"check your fire," Paris instructed, "you are not to fire until you can confirm the target."
"whatever it is, sir, its big, man-sized." Patterson said.
"come on baby, closer now," Zane sighted in his rifle.
They heard it splash through a puddle of sludge. Now a sillouet was visible running toward them.
Patterson let her motion tracker fall and hang by the sling, she raised her own rifle.
"Halt! Identify!" She barked.
The shape fell into her light.
"Romeo?" She asked.
"Don't shoot!" The marine cried, his armor was covered in the same slime as on the floor, his eyes wide in fear. "Help me!"
***
Minutes later, Patterson and Zane escorted the hysterical Romeo back to the galley where Nichols gave him a mild sedative, Zippo also arrived, marking a gathering of the remaining Marines on the Fidanza.
"Start from the beginning, Romeo," Paris said.
The young marine swallowed and stammered for a moment before starting again.
"That damn ship is a maze from your nightmares," he said. "Everything on it is just wrong, angles and twists . . . We weren't sure if we were going in or coming back half the time. Waters said we had to keep going . . ."
Ace shivered as Romeo recounted the tale.
"After a while, they mud have found us-"
"They?" Fall asked.
"Fucking bugs man, or serpents, I don't know what. The fucking things on the ship!" Romeo shouted. "They don't show on infrared, just came out of nowhere.
"It was small at first, Klepacki disappeared, we stopped our search for the salvagers to search for her . . . Then Fairfield screamed and we started getting motion contacts."
Romeo's eyes were watering, but he didn't seem to care or notice.
"Everyone was firing . . . Waters was screaming for us to fallback, but they were everywhere. Some . . . Thing, a parasite got on Sutton. We tried to regroup, but, there were too many and . . ." Romeo trailed off. "Next thing I realizes I was running for my life."
"You left your squad?!" Fall asked.
"you want me to be dead in there with them?!" Romeo shouted back.
Fall had no answer.
"they're all fucked! Those salvagers are fucked, that ship is fucked. This whole mission is fucked!" Romeo shouted, spittle flying.
"Agreed," Paris said. "lets get off this bucket and back to the shadow line to figure out what we can do next."
The Marines said nothing and Paris got on the com. "Mueller, Scrappy, get back here and sit at standby, we're evacing."
The drop ship confirmed.
"Powers, stay on Shadow Line, but send Valkyrie back as an auxiliary."
Powers made no reply.
***
"they want to come back man!" Puke exclaimed. They get on board, there go our shares!"
Powers thought for a moment, "alright he said. "Einfield, do it."
***
A burst of light flashed from Shadow Line's port laser cannon and the second drop ship exploded in a cloud of debris.
Onboard the Fidanza, the com unit squelched suddenly from the electrical discharge on the drop ship.
"what the hell?" Fall said, and then the ship rocked with debris from the drop ship, the expanding cloud of fragments had lost coherence but maintained direction and velocity.
Ace fell to his knees and then flat on his chest. Alarms blared and smoke began filling the bridge.
In front of him, Alvarez struggled back to his feet. Ace could see the bridge viewport behind Alvarez and watch the tail of the drop ship spiral past, he caught a glimpse of the skull and crossbones on it.
"Are we breached?" Paris asked.
Fall pulled herself to a console and hammered keys, "No, we still have pressure.
Ace and Romeo grabbed extinguishers from wall mounts and fought the flames.
"Powers? What the hell is going on out there?" Paris asked.
***
"We did it!" Puke shouted, seeing the drop ship explode near the Fidanza.
Powers exhaled. "nice work Einfield-" he looked over his shoulder and caught a forearm to the cheek.
Powers spun from the chair and dropped to the floor.
Puke whirled around and saw Einfield hovering over the sergeant. "Christ! What are you doing?"
Einfield knelt over Powers, lifting him up by the collar of his armor and driving his fist into Powers' forehead, again and again.
The sergeant didn't even have time to cry out, on the third bone shattering strike, blood spurted from his nose and his eyes rolled back.
Puke fell over himself trying to back away. Einfield caught sight of him and stalked after him.
"Y-you can't do that!" Puke insisted. "you're a goddam synthetic!"
Einfield said nothing as he picked up Puke by the lapels.
"What about our shares, man?! We did what the company wanted!"
Puke said nothing more when Einfield. thrust the marine's head against the bulkhead with enough force to dislocate a shoulder.
***
There was no reply from the Shadow Line.
Ace pulled himself into a chair and hammered in a series of commands. "That came from our ship!" He exclaimed. "the port side laser destroyed the drop ship." After he said it he looked to the distant dark shape through the Fidanza's viewport.
"I can't raise the ship sir," Fall added from the communications station.
Paris chewed his lip and thought. "Damn," he finally said. "I was worried about this."
"Worried?!" Romeo exclaimed and barked humorless laughter. "Worried we would get torn a new asshole by big ass bugs?! Worried our ship would turn on us?!"
"Watch your tone with the lieutenant," Patterson warned.
"what are you gonna do? Demote me?! My section is fucking dead!" Romeo shouted back.
"I was worried Featherstone would try to establish a contingency plan if we found the ship before them," Paris answered, his tone heated.
Behind both of them, Zippo lit a cigarette with shaking hands and took a long drag.
"You're heartless! We have to get off this ship! Spacewalk to the Shadow Line-" Romeo continued.
"Fuck that!" Alvarez interjected, "If the company paid off Powers or anyone I am not going to go out there and see what a multi-megawatt laser does to a human in a pressure suit!"
"Stay here then and feed the fucking bugs!" Romeo said.
"Hey, come on!" Ace said, standing up and placing himself between the two Marines, we're already fucked up, okay? We gotta stay cohesive."
Alvarez toned down, "You're right Ace."
"I'll do whatever gets me off this ship faster." Romeo said and turn away.
"Alright," Paris started, trying to reassert control of this situation, our first priority is secure this vessel, we have to make sure we can keep those things from getting onboard."
"Detach the umbilical," Patterson said. "We can drift away from the alien ship."
"wait," Ace said, "what if the Shadow Line is only holding its fire because we're attached?"
"We still have maneuvering capability," Fall answered, "we'll just keep the alien ship between us."
"Romeo, are you sure there's no way no one else got away?" Paris asked, "If there's even a chance they are alive-"
"I don't know, okay? I just ran! You weren't there! But if they lived how come they aren't back here?" Romeo asked.
"Alright, we'll begin detach procedures-"
A rhythmic beeping from a console interrupted the discussion. All attention turned to the console.
Ace sat and checked it. "It's the remote motion tracker we set up by the umbilical . . ." He said. "two contacts coming on board."
Paris keyed on his mic, "Is anyone coming on board the Fidanza?"
Silence followed.
"Maybe their headsets are damaged," Patterson suggested.
"Or those things found the ship," Romeo said.
***
On the Shadow Line, Powers was starting to sweat and his hands trembled. This was the point of no return for him, Puke's hands were dirty for sure, but there was still time for Powers to disengage.
"what's going on ,sir?" The sergeant asked.
"Vassilli is down and we may have positive contact with the xenomorph's reported on Acheron."
"Vassilli?" Powers repeated.
"Sergeant?" Puke said, "we gotta start the plan before they evac to drop ship 2."
Powers thought about the shares he was offered, enough to retire on earth and live comfortably.
"We'll be back in a minute, let me get Val to fire up the drop ship," powers replied.
"Powers-" Einfield began.
"Stow it!" Powers snapped, "A little more time."
***
Nichols came into the room out of breath, his med kit at the ready.
Right away he saw he was too late.
"Fuck," Nichols said.
On a display behind Paris, the readout of a motion tracker started to read movement.
"Patterson? Report," Paris called.
***
In the entry way to the derelict ship, Patterson held up her motion tracker just to verify what she was reading. A single contact barreling toward them
"something moving on the alien ship sir!" She said, "coming our way."
Zane racked a shotgun round into his under barrel attachment.
"fuck this, I don't get paid enough," he said.
"check your fire," Paris instructed, "you are not to fire until you can confirm the target."
"whatever it is, sir, its big, man-sized." Patterson said.
"come on baby, closer now," Zane sighted in his rifle.
They heard it splash through a puddle of sludge. Now a sillouet was visible running toward them.
Patterson let her motion tracker fall and hang by the sling, she raised her own rifle.
"Halt! Identify!" She barked.
The shape fell into her light.
"Romeo?" She asked.
"Don't shoot!" The marine cried, his armor was covered in the same slime as on the floor, his eyes wide in fear. "Help me!"
***
Minutes later, Patterson and Zane escorted the hysterical Romeo back to the galley where Nichols gave him a mild sedative, Zippo also arrived, marking a gathering of the remaining Marines on the Fidanza.
"Start from the beginning, Romeo," Paris said.
The young marine swallowed and stammered for a moment before starting again.
"That damn ship is a maze from your nightmares," he said. "Everything on it is just wrong, angles and twists . . . We weren't sure if we were going in or coming back half the time. Waters said we had to keep going . . ."
Ace shivered as Romeo recounted the tale.
"After a while, they mud have found us-"
"They?" Fall asked.
"Fucking bugs man, or serpents, I don't know what. The fucking things on the ship!" Romeo shouted. "They don't show on infrared, just came out of nowhere.
"It was small at first, Klepacki disappeared, we stopped our search for the salvagers to search for her . . . Then Fairfield screamed and we started getting motion contacts."
Romeo's eyes were watering, but he didn't seem to care or notice.
"Everyone was firing . . . Waters was screaming for us to fallback, but they were everywhere. Some . . . Thing, a parasite got on Sutton. We tried to regroup, but, there were too many and . . ." Romeo trailed off. "Next thing I realizes I was running for my life."
"You left your squad?!" Fall asked.
"you want me to be dead in there with them?!" Romeo shouted back.
Fall had no answer.
"they're all fucked! Those salvagers are fucked, that ship is fucked. This whole mission is fucked!" Romeo shouted, spittle flying.
"Agreed," Paris said. "lets get off this bucket and back to the shadow line to figure out what we can do next."
The Marines said nothing and Paris got on the com. "Mueller, Scrappy, get back here and sit at standby, we're evacing."
The drop ship confirmed.
"Powers, stay on Shadow Line, but send Valkyrie back as an auxiliary."
Powers made no reply.
***
"they want to come back man!" Puke exclaimed. They get on board, there go our shares!"
Powers thought for a moment, "alright he said. "Einfield, do it."
***
A burst of light flashed from Shadow Line's port laser cannon and the second drop ship exploded in a cloud of debris.
Onboard the Fidanza, the com unit squelched suddenly from the electrical discharge on the drop ship.
"what the hell?" Fall said, and then the ship rocked with debris from the drop ship, the expanding cloud of fragments had lost coherence but maintained direction and velocity.
Ace fell to his knees and then flat on his chest. Alarms blared and smoke began filling the bridge.
In front of him, Alvarez struggled back to his feet. Ace could see the bridge viewport behind Alvarez and watch the tail of the drop ship spiral past, he caught a glimpse of the skull and crossbones on it.
"Are we breached?" Paris asked.
Fall pulled herself to a console and hammered keys, "No, we still have pressure.
Ace and Romeo grabbed extinguishers from wall mounts and fought the flames.
"Powers? What the hell is going on out there?" Paris asked.
***
"We did it!" Puke shouted, seeing the drop ship explode near the Fidanza.
Powers exhaled. "nice work Einfield-" he looked over his shoulder and caught a forearm to the cheek.
Powers spun from the chair and dropped to the floor.
Puke whirled around and saw Einfield hovering over the sergeant. "Christ! What are you doing?"
Einfield knelt over Powers, lifting him up by the collar of his armor and driving his fist into Powers' forehead, again and again.
The sergeant didn't even have time to cry out, on the third bone shattering strike, blood spurted from his nose and his eyes rolled back.
Puke fell over himself trying to back away. Einfield caught sight of him and stalked after him.
"Y-you can't do that!" Puke insisted. "you're a goddam synthetic!"
Einfield said nothing as he picked up Puke by the lapels.
"What about our shares, man?! We did what the company wanted!"
Puke said nothing more when Einfield. thrust the marine's head against the bulkhead with enough force to dislocate a shoulder.
***
There was no reply from the Shadow Line.
Ace pulled himself into a chair and hammered in a series of commands. "That came from our ship!" He exclaimed. "the port side laser destroyed the drop ship." After he said it he looked to the distant dark shape through the Fidanza's viewport.
"I can't raise the ship sir," Fall added from the communications station.
Paris chewed his lip and thought. "Damn," he finally said. "I was worried about this."
"Worried?!" Romeo exclaimed and barked humorless laughter. "Worried we would get torn a new asshole by big ass bugs?! Worried our ship would turn on us?!"
"Watch your tone with the lieutenant," Patterson warned.
"what are you gonna do? Demote me?! My section is fucking dead!" Romeo shouted back.
"I was worried Featherstone would try to establish a contingency plan if we found the ship before them," Paris answered, his tone heated.
Behind both of them, Zippo lit a cigarette with shaking hands and took a long drag.
"You're heartless! We have to get off this ship! Spacewalk to the Shadow Line-" Romeo continued.
"Fuck that!" Alvarez interjected, "If the company paid off Powers or anyone I am not going to go out there and see what a multi-megawatt laser does to a human in a pressure suit!"
"Stay here then and feed the fucking bugs!" Romeo said.
"Hey, come on!" Ace said, standing up and placing himself between the two Marines, we're already fucked up, okay? We gotta stay cohesive."
Alvarez toned down, "You're right Ace."
"I'll do whatever gets me off this ship faster." Romeo said and turn away.
"Alright," Paris started, trying to reassert control of this situation, our first priority is secure this vessel, we have to make sure we can keep those things from getting onboard."
"Detach the umbilical," Patterson said. "We can drift away from the alien ship."
"wait," Ace said, "what if the Shadow Line is only holding its fire because we're attached?"
"We still have maneuvering capability," Fall answered, "we'll just keep the alien ship between us."
"Romeo, are you sure there's no way no one else got away?" Paris asked, "If there's even a chance they are alive-"
"I don't know, okay? I just ran! You weren't there! But if they lived how come they aren't back here?" Romeo asked.
"Alright, we'll begin detach procedures-"
A rhythmic beeping from a console interrupted the discussion. All attention turned to the console.
Ace sat and checked it. "It's the remote motion tracker we set up by the umbilical . . ." He said. "two contacts coming on board."
Paris keyed on his mic, "Is anyone coming on board the Fidanza?"
Silence followed.
"Maybe their headsets are damaged," Patterson suggested.
"Or those things found the ship," Romeo said.