"Sir, Zulu Squad reports Sector 4 clear and dandy." Reported Sergeant Trimrack of Zulu squad as his men performed a professional perimeter sweep of the corridor. Inside the Command APC 400 metres away, Colonel Peters watched his men on individual monitor screens. Beside him was his Weapons Officer and another Sergeant, this time from a different platoon - more so an entirely different corps. The stranger was a Blood Beret, on here for some special assignment, and his men sat outside the vehicle whilst Peters’ thirty men searched the abandoned enemy firebase. "Whiskey Squad come in. What is your status?" Asked Peters into the comm-link. The monitor screens changed to show the ten men in Whiskey Squad, with one screen (a corporal’s camera) showing Sergeant Barnes’ grizzled face topped with a standard issue helmet. He glanced up immediately. "Whiskey Squad reports Sector 5 clear. Lot of dead bodies here boss, not because of us you understand." "What kind of bodies Sergeant?" "Look like guardsmen but then again they hardly look human to me. All ripped up." "Barnes, I want you to set up a defensive perimeter and hold tight. Tell me about anything you notice. Anything. Got that?" "Sure boss. See you later." The Blood Beret had moved and was staring intently at a screen, one that showed a heavily mutilated guardsman with no head. "What creature would do this to over twelve men and leave no remains? It hasn’t even eaten them." Asked Peters. The Sergeant didn’t answer but spoke into his own radio. "Hawk, we have got Xenomorphs in the base and it looks like they are live." The reply couldn’t be heard. "Sergeant, just what in hell are Xenomorphs?" "The reason why my squad was sent here in the first place." Replied the Sergeant as he exited the APC to rejoin his men. "I’m taking my squad in. Codename Devil Squad."
"X-Ray Squad please report." No answer. "X-Ray Squad do you copy?" No answer. "Zulu, X-Ray is not replying. Hotfoot it over to sector 3 and check it out. Whiskey, you go cover. Devil Squad …" "We’ll be in sector 3 colonel."
"What the hell, where’s the other four men of X-Ray squad sarge?" asked Johnson, one of the Blood Beret Corporals. He was a menacing figure carrying that M50 machine gun in gyro-mount. Behind him Corporal Hawk was prodding a mutilated X-Ray squaddie with his knife. "Sergeant Tanner, the blood trails lead into this room but it’s locked. Looks like some kind of medical room." Said Private Benson, cradling a Plasma Intruder submachinegun. "Lets get it open then." Replied Tanner detailing Jones and Hatchet to break the lock. Then Private Wang caught his attention. "Multiple traces on the motion detector sarge." "ETA?" "One minute. Hell, they’re fast." Tanner grabbed his radio set. "Colonel Peters, how long until the others reach Sector 3?" "About four and six minutes respectively." "Shit. Jones, get that bloody door open now! Johnson, where does the other end of Sector 3 lead to?" "No where sarge, it’s a dead end." "Johnson set up your gun. Hatchet and Hitman swap places. Yoshito get ready with Benson to jump in on my mark." "Boss, ETA 12 seconds." "How many?" "Maybe nine, ten or eleven. 10 secs." "Jones break the door." Jones applied more pressure with his universal lockpick, his crowbar, whilst Hitman was plying the hinges off one by one, his muscles straining and his forehead gleaming. "8 secs." Tanner motioned and his men fanned themselves out in the corridor in defensive positions. "7 secs." Eight various weapons were all cocked at the same time, the noise sending a fearful crunching sound down the corridor. "6 secs." A clatter as Hitman dropped the pliers. "5 secs." A further clatter as he tried to grab them and missed. "4 secs." Hitman grabbed the pliers. "3 secs." Come on, breathed Tanner, sighting his gun. "2 secs, target visible!" Silence in the corridor, broken only by the half second beeping of the motion detector and Hitmans groaning exertions. "Where are they, they should be visible?" "1 sec. They’re right on top of us!" Nothing happened. Tanner glanced around the empty corridor. His gaze caught with Fiend’s, the veteran soldier lowering his assault rifle to sigh in relief. "Wang you complete bastar…" Fiend began before the ceiling above him - or more correctly the air vent - split apart with a screech and something black and horrible and sharp dropped on Fiend in a swelter of blood which sprayed across the corridor before the soldier’s guns cut out the veteran’s screams and the creature was shredded in a wave of yellow blood that left it thrashing on the ground. "What the hell?" Began Hatchet before the creature’s tail made one last whipping motion and Hatchet died in two pieces. "Xenomorphs boss." Spat Johnson. "Nine more above us." Said Wang nervously. Everyone was glancing up at the ceiling, imagining the things up above them. The silence was broken only as Hitman dropped the pliers and drew his shotgun to blow the door apart. He wasted no time in jumping through, followed by Jones and Yoshito, the Asian gripping his Katana with whitened knuckles. "GO GO GO!!!" Yelled Tanner, spraying the ceiling with his rifle as his squad burst into the room. Something grabbed his arm and he was pulled into the room by a much stronger Johnson. A black insectoid head popped into the room to survey the soldiers before Hitman shoved his shotgun barrel into it’s mouth and blew whatever passed for brains across the room. Yoshito followed suit by neatly decapitating a second alien with his ancestral sword. Acid blood sprayed across the room, catching the unwary. Then Benson had his Plasma Intruder powered up and with a neat click he fired a plasma ball into the doorway. The superheated shot disintegrated alien and doorway alike before exploding and discouraging further pursuit. "Wang find an exit now!" Shouted Tanner before his voice was drowned by the sound of many automatic weapons tearing alien bodies apart as his men opened fire on all accounts. "Boss, we got an grid at floor level. We can get through but only without our armour and larger weapons." "This gets better." Cursed Tanner. "Wang and Yoshito strip down and get in." His concentration was broken for a second as he sprayed a viscious burst into the corridor. "Bensen and Hitman go second. Jones and Hawk next and then me and Johnson take the rear. Get moving."
