Xeno Love

Chapter 1: A Squad of Colonial Marines

It was hard to stay awake.
A hiss... right behind him.
A wave of static ran down his visor, probably because of the giant crack that split across it horizontally.
Footsteps, almost silent, padding beside him.
He stared blankly at his Pulse Rifle lying on the floor metres away from him.
The noises stop suddenly.
A face, terrifying, right in front of his. It’s not human, it’s something else...
The sound of a tail, whooshing from side to side in annoyance.
He groaned and let his head fall to the floor in defeat.

Date: Classified
Year: 2385
Location: Evernus II
Mission Summary:
Two days ago, Evernus II dropped out of contact with the rest of the colonies. A squad of Colonial Marines have been sent in to investigate the planet to try and discover the cause of this.
Mission Time: 00:02

“So Sarge, what do ya think it’ll be this time? Rebels? Lazy mechanics? Power cut? Depressurisation?”

“Marty, do you ever shut up?” Four marines were sitting in the back of a dropship speeding towards the planet.

“No no, let him talk. I bet he’s gonna tell us all the scientific names of all our weapons again,” one of them said, rolling their eyes. His name was Dutch; he was a big, gruff, aged man with grey hair that was turning white in some places. He had a small moustache that was almost against regulations and sharp hazel eyes that hadn’t changed a bit since he was thirteen. He was also the Sergeant, the squad’s leader.

“You mean like this?” Marty, a skinny and rather frail looking ginger who was always underestimated by people who almost always payed for their mistake. His sparkling blue eyes had a playful look to them. He lifted up his Pulse Rifle. “This is an M41A Pulse Rifle, 99 round lightweight standard issue Assault Rifle. Let me know if you want m to keep talking.” The lone female of the group, Tara, who had questioned his ability to shut his mouth earlier rolled her eyes. She had short, brown hair that used to fall past her shoulders before she joined the Colonial Marines. She was taller than everyone in the squad except Dutch. It would be hard to find someone bigger than Dutch.

“It could be Xenomorphs for all we know,” Jacob, an averagely-built young male with spiky blonde hair and inquisitive blue eyes pointed out. Dutch chuckled.

“If only we were so lucky. Man, if we found a nest of those things we would be drowning in money!” Tara smirked and folded her arms.

“We should probably put our helmets on. Don’t wanna leave it behind again, do we Marty?” They were all wearing standard Colonial Marine armour, but had just taken their helmets off for the duration of the ride. Marty grumbled something and jammed he protective gear over his head. The visor instantly flickered to life, giving Marty any detail he would ever or never want to know. The squad dismounted from the vehicle onto the small colony’s landing platform. They swept the room with the torches mounted on their guns. “Sir, what will we do if there are Xenomorphs?” Tara asked in a more serious tone. Dutch shrugged.

“We try to capture them I guess.”

“Are you serious?” Marty practically shrieked. “Have you not heard what happened to Ripley the last four times she encountered them?”

“You’re not scared, are you?” Dutch asked with an evil grin.

“Of course I am. And if you had any sense, you would be too.” Dutch shrugged and kept walking deeper into the building.

Mission Time: 00:17

Dutch sat down at one of the computers that lined the security centre they were in.

“Strange... we haven’t met anyone yet, or seen any bodies. There is definitely something going on here. We’ll use this security centre as our base for now,” he decided, putting aside his M41AE2 variant of the Pulse Rifle. It fitted a 300 round magazine and had an elongated barrel for longer ranged fire. The only downside is the grenade launcher had been removed to be replaced by a bipod. Marty checked his watch.

“We’ve only been here about fifteen minutes Sarge. Besides, we haven’t even checked a quarter of this place yet.”

“Yeah,” Jacob chuckled. “They’re probably having a giant party somewhere.” This made everyone except Marty laugh.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant that we should do some scans and see if we find any Xenomorphs.”

“For fuck’s sake Marty, would you stop being so paranoid? It’s not Xenomorphs, okay?” Dutch grunted, raising an eyebrow at the small person. Marty shook his head and sat down grumpily. “Tara, go out into the hall and see if you can find one of these.” Dutch held out a piece of paper with a picture of some weird wall console thing on it. Tara nodded and walked down the corridor. Jacob started cleaning his gun, polishing it with a rag he produced from somewhere. Marty started tapping away at the computer, trying to find some logs or diary entries. He kept glancing back down the hall at Tara, as if to make sure she hadn’t suddenly collapsed on the floor and died. Something is definitely not right with that kid, Dutch decided, before taking his helmet off and shoving a strip of gum in his mouth.