Xeno Love

Chapter 2: Is That A...

Jacob shoved his rag back into his pocket and stretched. He glanced over to Dutch.

“Hey Sarge, when we moving out?” he asked.

“When Tara –”

“Tara!” Marty cried. He sprinted out into the corridor and bowled her over.

“Marty! What the hell?” Tara protested. Marty stood up, embarrassed and offered her his hand.

“I thought I saw an Xenomorph,” he admitted.

“For fuck’s sake,” Dutch groaned. Marty turned to him, forgetting that he had been holding his hand out to Tara and causing her to overbalance and fall over.

“It’s a perfectly reasonable excuse,” he explained.

“There are no Xenomorphs here!” Dutch shouted. A large, steel-looking sharp object emerged from the middle of Marty’s chest. He looked down at it, mouth wide open. He let out a little meep of surprise before he was yanked up into the air vents above him. Dutch, Tara and Jacob just stared at the place he had been for a while.

“Shit! Weapons! Get your fucking guns!” Dutch yelled, frantically waving his arms everywhere. He snatched up his Heavy Pulse Rifle and ran out into the corridor. Tara leapt to her feet and grabbed her Pulse Rifle from where it was hanging by the strap around her shoulder. Jacob leapt off his chair and ran after them, spun round, grabbed his gun, then continued following them. He could hear their voices in the distance, but came to an intersection and didn’t know which way to go. He pulled out his radio.

“Sarge I –” Jacob was cut off.

“Jacob!” Dutch shouted into his own radio. “JACOB!” He motioned for Tara to keep following the small dents in the fragile air vents and ran back the way they had come. He skidded to a halt as he found Jacob’s radio lying on the ground, static hissing from the ear piece. “God dammit!” Dutch threw the device at the wall, panting heavily.

“Sarge, the footprints just... stop,” Tara told him. Dutch unclipped his radio from his vest, holding it alongside his gun so he could still sweep the room.

“You lost it?”

“I’m afraid so.” Dutch swore.

“Okay. Head back to intersection Alpha twenty.”

“On my way.” A few minutes later, Dutch heard her soft footsteps echoing down the corridor. “Sarge! Behind you!” Dutch whirled around, firing blindly as soon as he knew he had done a 180. The Xenomorph had thought it would have more time to react, so it was torn to pieces by the heavy-duty gun. What remained of the creature scampered away, screeching its head off. Dutch screwed up his face in disgust at the decapitated tail slowly sinking into the floor in a puddle of acid.

“Thanks,” he said to Tara.

“Wouldn’t want to be alone in this place now would I?” she winked.

“Oh, you wouldn’t be alone,” Dutch joked, with a hint of seriousness. “We should probably get back to the landing pad.” Tara shook her head.

“No, we should look for our friends and hope we find them before they are implanted.” Dutch sighed and nodded.

“You’re right. From memory, the files said they will be most likely to nest in the centre of the colony. We should look there first.” Tara agreed and they set off, side by side, guns raised and fully alert. Tara trailed her hand through some weird slime on the walls.

“We’re getting close,” she murmured. Dutch half-turned towards her, then stopped as he caught a reflection in a window.

“Praetorian!” he yelled, tackling her to the floor to avoid the large and deadly tail. They rolled away from each other and leapt to their feet. Dutch started firing round after round into the Alien’s thick hide, causing acid to spray everywhere. Dutch ducked away from a sizzling wall and continued firing.

“Heads up!” Tara cried. The Praetorian turned its head to see where the noise had come from. Just as Tara had hoped it would, the Praetorian opened its mouth to screech at her. Tara fired her grenade launcher right down its throat. It hissed slightly before Dutch yanked Tara into an adjacent corridor, just managing to avoid the shower of acidic blood that flew everywhere. After Dutch’s ears had stopped ringing from the volume of the explosion, he peeked around the corner. The Praetorian was swaying slightly, then collapsed onto the floor, missing the better half of its head. The walls, floor and roof were all slowly disintegrating from the amount of acid that had landed on them.

“In a few minutes this room is going to become depressurised,” Dutch warned her. They continued to the centre of the colony, leaving the acid to eat away until it reached the vacuum atmosphere of the planet outside.

Mission Time: 00:39

Tara slid down the last stretch of air vent. Dutch had deemed them a safer means of travelling as this particular system was too small for Xenomorphs to fit in. Tara dropped down into the middle of a large chamber and gasped. There were eggs everywhere. And bodies. Men women and children were plastered to the walls, all with their chests ripped open and some with missing limbs. In the distance, Tara caught sight of them feasting on something she preferred not to think about. She scanned the walls and squeaked with joy. She sprinted over to where Jacob was slumped against the wall, yet not stuck to it. He was still unconscious, which was obviously why he hadn’t been stuck up yet. He hadn’t been implanted either from the looks of it. Dutch quickly hauled their squad mate onto his shoulder.

“Any sign of Marty?” he whispered. Tara shook her head.

“Besides, he was stabbed through the heart last we saw him.”

“Yeah, would’ve been nice to have his Dog Tags at the least. I suppose our lives will have to do for now.”

“The only way we can honour him is by living,” Tara agreed. “Now let’s get outta here.” Dutch gave her a boost back into the vents. He handed her Jacob and started to climb up as well. Suddenly, his eyes went wide and he was yanked back down into the chamber below. Tara screamed his name, nut he was flung across the room by his Xenomorph captor seconds later. Tara sobbed and dragged Jacob through the vents.