The grays scurried away from the advancing humans. They simply weren't equipped to take out such heavily armed creatures. However, they were able to access many points on the station that were inaccessible to the human marines. Specifically in their department, the bioweapons storage locker.

Several grays gathered to plan.
We shall draw the soldiers away from the bio-weapons, so that you may release them.
Is this a wise choice we are making?
What other purpose would their creation have? We are safe, we have a telepathic link to communicate with the creatures.
Should they run short of prey, we shall be destroyed next.
Then we shall not let them run short of prey.

Six grays nodded and scurried away. Taking back passages they would soon reach their goal. The other 12 or so grays began to make harassing attacks on the humans, both psychically and physically. One or two grays would distract the main force while the rest of them would invade the minds of the humans, increasing various tendencies towards anxiety, rashness, and fatigue, all deadly opponents in a combat situation like this.
Several grays fell to the marines, one by an artful shot around the corner with a mirror. Another gray took too long dashing across a corridor. There was little else they could do...

meanwhile
The six small creatures slipped into the lab. Corpses of their brethren lay on the floor, gunned down as they defended themselves. The six took little notice, and quickly moved to the rear of the lab. A small panel was opened, and a key inserted into the plate. A small door hissed open, and all six grays piled inside.

Six tubes lay against the wall, each containing a black shelled demon. Six feet tall at full height, with a tail at least equal to it's length and tipped with an envenomed stinger for incapacitating prey. Their four-fingered hands were tipped with razor-sharp claws that were capable of tearing through thin armor plating. Fast, agile, and deadly they were bio-engineered to infiltrate and eliminate enemy crews onboard space stations and ships. When a queen was present, these creatures could decimate an entire planet.

The grays shuddered as they gazed at the killing machines. All six grays went to a tube, and opened the glass doors. Six black bodies fell onto the floor, slowly waking from their hibernation. Hissing, they locked their eyeless gaze on the six grays. An unheard communication went between them, and the six creatures dashed off to climb through vents and hallways in search of their prey.

(Yes, it's the Aliens, from Aliens. But they're cool, and fun to shoot at so ha. Didn't we want fun things to shoot at? )

------------------
"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

"Fall in, merc. Glad to have an assist. in Case you noticed, things are getting a little hairy. The main boarding party has managed to evac, but we're still trying to link up with our rearguard and bug out. We are only about five hundred feet from them, but we need to get through the Audemedon redoubt at the security checkpoint up ahead. If we can link up, we may just have a chance to get out alive. I don't know if you noticed, but seven-eight with you, against an entire hostile station are not good odds. Get in line and cover a direction. Particularly up. I don't like these high ceilings. Darkk over there has point. Now let's move."

Bob waved Darkk forward, out of the closet they had ducked into for cover. He checked the hallway in each direction, then moved on quickly and quietly down the hallway, towards the Audemedon strongpoint. As the marines got closer to the Auds, they spread out of their tight column, breaking to find cover.

The Audemedon weapons were calibrated to a very particular maximum effective range, and the drones were conserving energy by not taking pot shots. Bob was using this to his advantage by delaying contact until the last possible moment. Unfortunately, he couldn't wait forever. The Auds would leave their defensive positions if they calculated that he was a risk. He slid smoke shells from his web gear into his hand, loading one into his under-slung grenade launcher and firing, then doing the same with the other two. At the same time, his marines fired flash bangs and grenades and charged forward under suppressing fire, moving up the hallway in pairs, pausing to take cover and give suppressing fire so that another pair could move up. This wouldn't have worked normally, as the approaches to the security strongpoints were totally devoid of cover, fortunately, there were enough trash and empty cases in the corridor that the marines could find protection. The Audemedon drones returned fire fiercely, but the marines moved fast and hit hard. The Audemedons quickly calculated odds, and the moment defeat became probable, they retreated from the redoubt to find a more secure defensive point.

The team pushed on, chasing the Audemedons through the strongpoint and out the other end, but stopped. The station design gave a retreating security force much better cover, and so the Marines stopped to regroup.

There had been a few hits, but no casualties. The suits were armoured enough to deal with the kinlaser fire at medium-long range, and they provided significant protection from fragmentation and concussion. Bob's right knee joint had taken a direct hit, and had siezed up. Without the support of the suits motors, he was now having significant difficulty moving.

He cursed aloud, but quickly rallied the squad to press the assault and rally their backup. He'd have time to do field repairs when they'd linked up.

Three hissing creatures clung to the ceiling, scrambling in the space between the tubing hung from the ceiling and the ceiling itself. Their claws made ominous clicking sounds as they approached.

Lt. Caulfield led his squad forward from cover to cover. Those Aud drones could pack a nasty punch if they caught you in the open. A blackened score on Caulfield's right shoulder bespoke of such strength. Thankfully, he returned the damage in kind, and the armor absorbed nearly all of the impact. He groaned at the thought of how sore he's gonna be in the morning.

"Caulfield, I want your squad to play garbageman. Make sure our behinds are clear." Capt. Bob's voice crackled over the suit headseats. Bob was about 30 meters up ahead in the corridor.
"Roger. Chalk two is keeping the rear." Caulfield turned the rest of his squad. "Alright, we cover the ass end of this parade. Samuels, Jacobs you two take the right hand side. Micheal and Edwardson are on the left. Two motion scanners active. I don't want anything moving behind us." The six marines scurried to their formation, and continued to back the main force moving towards the Aud redoubt up ahead. Caulfield guessed that the Auds were nearly 100 meters away, and around some corners to boot.

"Sir, I'm detecting some movement."
Caulfield snapped his rifle up to his shoulder and keyed his intercom.
"Captain, we have weak contact. Repeat, weak contact." Those damn Auds might be trying to trap us between two forces.
"Roger that Caulfield. Let me know if they get any stronger."
Caulfield looked over at Michael, who was staring intently at the motion tracker. He tapped it a couple of times and glanced down the darkened corridor.
"Sir, these are some mighty odd readings. Contacts are moving rapidly and sporadically. Approximatly 10 to 15 meters that way. " he gestured with an open hand. "Very stop and go sir. They don't seem to be going in a straight line."
"Let me know if they get any closer. Keep moving people!"
The marines continued their slow advancement towards the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, the black shelled creatures clambered along pipes and through air ducts, tracking their prey by sense of smell. Much as a cat will stalk a mouse, waiting for the right moment to pounce, so did they. Hissing, the leader opened it's mouth in anticipation of the kill.

------------------
"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

(I thought your force had gotten out before the forcefield went up, Spamo.
Ah well. I'll concentrate on my group for now.)

Darkk moved through the security room. Only 2 more to go. He'd picked up some demolition charges from a munitions locker, and the hybrids couldn't take those. Darkk was running out, but the computer indicated there weren't very many hybrids left. Only 32 tubes had been present, and Darkk had taken 13 hybrids so far. The auds had got 3, the grays had got 7, and something else had got 4.

Darkk rounded the corner cautiously. Nothing was visible, and scanners reported no grays, but there had been a black blip that appeared once and then not at all. Darkk shruged. Could be a malfunction. He really didn't think that something worse than the grays could...

Something slammed into Darkk hard. He rolled and twisted out of the way of its second attack, a powerful bite that would have severed Darkk's neck. It grabbed Darkk and a savage hand-to-hand fight began, Darkk trying to kick its tail away from his head, and trying to keep it from biting him, AND trying to keep it from getting its clawed hands free, all at the same time.

The creature had cleaverly began to turn the fight into a rolling match, so that Bob and the others could not fire. Darkk realized he was rolling down the corridor, away from his group.

Darkk had to finish the fight soon. He also wasn't nearly as strong as this thing, and probably with much less endurance.

Darkk shifted used the monster's force to propel them both up into the air. They girated in mid air, in a high-ceilinged room that seemed to be in the core's atrium. Darkk used his lightness to force the creature under him.

Then they landed.

With a huge thud.

Darkk stood up. The creature had landed on its head and snapped its neck with its own weight and force. Darkk dropped down in pain. Most of his ribs and one ankle were broken.

Bob and his men rushed up, having cleared the last few security rooms, which had apparanetly been empty. They looked up at the room, at the monster, and at Darkk.

"I killed it ... uh. Tough sucker. Toughest thing I've fought in years."

"Nice job. Here's the gear you dropped when it hit you."

Darkk took the scanner. "Good news. This event's brought us to within 20 meters of the aldus_starr terminal. Unfortunatly, there's an immense cluster of heavy-weapons Auds there. Most likely built-in ASB beams. Unless we find somebody on here that's not vacuum enabled we want to rescue, I'm starting to thing seeing if the carrier can bust it open with a bomb or missile might be a nice option."

"Are you crazy?"

"We got the data. It's a fricking disk. We can punch a hole clear down the center without serious disruptions to hull integrity elsewhere. Reactors are outer-middle. There will still be plenty left."

"Fine. But let's see if we can get the shield to go down first. Let's pay aldus_starr's location a little visit. We can handle its defenses."

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

Nidok glanced around the corridor, trying to peer into its deep, dark crevices. For the past 10 minutes his holo-display had been tracking six unknown life forms, crawling around in the various air vents and shafts of the lab. The layout for the lab had come in very handy, and he was glad he'd taken the time to download it. However, he was growing more and more concerned. He looked over to Capt. Roberts and alerted him.

"Sir, I've been tracking some unkowns for a few minutes now, and I was wondering if I might be at liberty to investigate."

"All right, be very careful, I don't need any men out of commision, and I don't need anyone to slow us up; the odds are just too high here."

"Yes sir."

Nidok activated his cloak, fading from view once again.

He walked back past the last of the men, and on to where his display said that the unkowns were, somewhere above him in the shafts. He shuddered a bit when he peered into the dark void that seemed to be there, but knew that he was the best candidate for the job, no one else had a cloak.

He crouched down and lept for the ceiling. He hit it harder than he wanted, the noise much louder than he had anticipated. He could hear a clanging within the air shaft right next to him, breathing that echoed through its mettalic interior.

The movement and breathing stopped. Suddenly, right through the wall of the shaft a huge claw thrashed out, slashing into his shield, illuminating him and knocking him back to the floor. His shield and exoskeleton fully absorbed the impact of the free-fall, but he was on the floor, still glowing with the energy from that last strike when he saw the alien creature ripping open the shaft and leaping downwards towards him. He grabbed his weapon, and had only raised it slightly when the alien contacted his shield, sending him tumbling ten feet down the corridor, his shield lit up with activity.
The alien was startled too, but gained its feet right about the time Nidok did. Nidok raised his gun, and fired, hitting the alien in what would seem to be the shoulder. It cried out, but continued to come. Nidok tensed, and fired again. This time the alien spring forward, flying towards Nidok. Nidok was on his feet and leapt up to the ceiling. The alien followed. Nidok charged up his weapon, and leapt back to the floor. He jumped sideways as soon as he landed and the alien hit right on the spot where he had been. Right at that moment he pulled back on the trigger of his gun, blasting the enemy, and sending it back down the corridor, sprawling. It gained its feet, phased, cried out and leapt back to the ceiling. Nidok allowed his cloak to come back on and radioed the captain.

"Sir, we may have a slight problem here..."

------------------
"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy

(This message has been edited by Shrout1 (edited 04-29-2002).)

"Watch for contacts. Large, black, insectoids. They're in the walls, so check every opening, and examine the schematics for any space big enough to crawl through. We could be in trouble if we let them get the drop on us. Get ready to move out, Marines. We're looking for a computer terminal up ahead. Nidoc and Xitell, you're on point with Caulfield. The rest of chalk two will cover Darkk's stretcher bearers and act as a rearguard. Keep alert, and keep those motion sensors up and running. I'll be moving through the line. Keep your spacing, and keep moving; I don't want a single grenade to take out half my team. This is what we train for marines, let's move!"

The marines folded in from the temporary perimeter that had established, and formed up to move. Caulfield's point team was only ten yards ahead of the rest, but directly behind them was a chalk 1 machine gunner, carrying an infrared guided minigun, ready to lay down a wall of lead between anything point found and the medics tending to Darkk's wounds.

Bob was back near Darkk, watching Sergeant Davies examine Darkk's chest. Davies was trained to deal with Human and Ishiman wounded, so Darkk was over his head. He could only administer painkillers and immobilize the injuries. Darkk was drifting in and out of consciousness, but he seemed stable enough, and the Marines carried him easily with their powered armor. Bob just hoped there wouldn't be any more wounded. His men had already taken many hits. His own suit's right leg had lost power, leaving Bob to drag fourty pounds of armor and motors each time he stepped with his right leg. He was now limping, but it was a lot of work, and it was slowing things down. He needed to get to a defensible position, do some quick field repairs on the suits, stabilize any wounded, determine how to drop the station's shields and evac. Moreover, he needed to do it quickly. He was surrounded, and each time his men encountered another squad of greys, things seemed to get more and more dire.

Just then, Caulfield radioed from point.

"We're closing in on the aldous_starr's location. I've sent Nidok to recon the enemy position and report back. Awaiting further orders."

Bob swung his pulse rifle off of his shoulder and moved up to the point team at the corner, while the remaining marines stopped and set up a perimeter.

(looks like chalk 2 didn't make it out with the rest, no worries, 25 marines is a little more interesting than 7 or eight)

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(Yeah, looks like Chalk 2 did get stuck inside with the rest of them. I think there's 25 or so inside, and 7 or 8 on the outside with the two Gray victims. I'm not too up to date on what's going on outside. I think we're still waiting for an ATR pickup?)

Caulfield waved three marines forward. They quickly leapfrogged the Lieutenant and took up guard positions 5 meters in front. This process repeated itself several times over as the party advanced down the hallways. The 20 active marines carried along 5 wounded. Luckily enough, there had yet to be fatalities thanks to the superiour quality of the armor.

"Sir, I'm getting motion again. Two contacts, bearing 034."
"Right, signal stop and ready weapons. Be ready for another..." Caulfield did not get to finish his sentence as one of the deadly creatures burst through a flimsily propped up door some few feet ahead of them. Several marines cried out in shock and began to fire blindly towards the menace. It dodged artfully, almost fluidly as it dashed across the floor and up the opposite wall. It charged towards the left side of the marines, keeping some of the ceiling grating between it and the startled gunfire.
"Take aim dammit! Take aim!" shouted Caulfield. He shouldered his rifle, took careful aim and fired. The kinlaser bolt seared across the space and impacted scant inches from the alien's body. Molten metal hissed and sparked causing the creature to scream in pain and surprise. Caulfield lined up another shot when he was impacted from behind and knocked flat on his face. He raised his head in time to see the second alien pounce on one of the marines laying down covering fire. In a second, talons ripped through the soft neck padding and a razor tailspike tore through the body armor. Blood flew everywhere as the creature eviscerated it's prey. As quick as a wink, the insectoid leapt to the ceiling and disappeared into the morass of tubing above them. A few shots followed after, elicting an uneartly scream.
Maybe we tagged one before it got away thought Caulfield sourly. Already, the team medic was bent over the fallen marine, and the rest of the group had caught up with full battle readiness. Caulfield walked over to the medic to see the condition of his man. The medic looked up and shook her head. "I'm sorry sir, but he's unresponsive. I've stopped the hemmorhaging, but he's in severe shock."
"Damn. Load him on a stretcher."

Another wounded was added to the procession. We've got to get the hell out of here...

------------------
"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

("Impact" isn't a verb. Just so you're aware.)

Xitell's rearguard squad was falling back rapidly under Audemedon assault. The Auds were still deperately trying to access the station's terminals, which Xitell's team dismantled as quickly as possible.

"Hey, 'Tell, we've got UnI.D.'s coming our way."
"From which direction?"
"Above." The soldiers looked up. Scrabbling sounds resounded from the ceiling. Shortly, a ceiling plate fell down on top of one of the Auds, shaking it up a bit. The drones turned their red sensor eyes upward in time to see hideous black things leap down. The Aud drone was punctured through the eye by a long, thin blade appendage. The other drones surrounded the first creature and tore it to pieces with their powerful metal arms, but as more of the things leapt down the Auds were slowly overwhelmed, albeit putting up a very good fight in the process.

"Fire on the creatures! They're more dangerous than the Auds." Xitell's Zhorl-made beamer spoke once, sending a green beam straight through the thigh of one of the creatures. It hissed and screamed. Other hits scored by the marines wounded the creatures, but only one was killed. Finally the last Aud drone was destroyed, and the odd things turned their (figurative) eyes on the marines.

In two bounds a creature was atop Xitell, tearing at his armor with its claws. Xitell had moments left. He reached behind his back and pulled out a heavy burst pistol given him by an old Phylydion friend. The creature penetrated Xitell's armor but, used to soft targets, its next strike was fairly weak and skittered off of Xitell's exoskeleton. Xitell, held down by the creature's weight, pulled out the pistol and pressed it against the creature's head. A small, white ball of plasma exploded instantly and tore a gaping hole in the thing's head. It reeled back and staggered away. A second shot finished it. Around him, Xitell saw that his mates had also had success, and the aliens had retreated. He felt less disgusted by the creatures than his human companions. After all, he too was somewhat insect, with an exoskeleton and all. And his head was about the same shape too. Granted, he had only two legs, had an eye and a somewhat lighter, less evil look about him.

He gathered his squad together. There seemed less point of a rearguard, so they ran off to join the main group.

------------------
"Parlez-vous jig jig, madam?"
"I must put my pyjamas in the drawer marked pyjamas."
- Under Milk Wood

Darkk could feel the pain get better.
Not that he would try to walk, but at least he could think a little.
Even if talking hurt a lot.

Darkk could vaugely make out the forms of things around him.
One object in particular...

Darkk squinted. Yes. That's it.

"Stop!" Darkk whispered loudly.
The bearer looked at him, and Bob came over.

"Huh? You shouldn't be talking anyway."

"Door... left."

Bob turned. The door on the left was marked in Salrilian lettering.

"It... means... med bay."

"You can read Salrilian?"

"Yes. Go in. Take ...(uh)... the wounded."

Bob checked the motion sensor. A marine breached the door, and they looked in. Nothing on the motion sensors, and nothing visible.

"Device on ... right. Big purple button. Use ... audio translator."

"Darkk, you really are something."

Everyone turned on their autotranslators. A marine punched the button.

What, to a Salrilian, would appear a happy and non-threatening figure similar to the M$ paperclip appeared, and spoke in Salrilian, with a voice that a Salrilian would considere equally cartoonish. The computers in the suits worked out a translation.

"Greetings, servents of the prophets. I am here to repair those you have interrogated or tested. I sense you carry an injured Irthantan with you. Do you wish it repaired? If so, toss it onto the table at my back."

"Yes!" Darkk tried to shout, but it came out almost like a whisper.

Bob looked at Darkk. "You trust this machine?"

"Yes." Darkk was getting more impatient.

Bob and the stretcher bearers lifted Darkk on, and stood back. A gray film that seemed to be made of thousands of little moving bits engulfed Darkk to the neck. It moved and flowed across him for a few minutes, then retraced.

"YES!" said Darkk as he leaped off the table, did a flip in mid air, and made a perfect landing. "Gotta love Salrilian med tech. This bed can do for most injuries that aren't much more serious than mine, but probably can't handle a severe neck wound or serious shock."

"Dang, we've got one of those. Still, I think we can use this on 2 of them."

"Good. I'm gonna go grab a terminal and try to figure out how to get to this aldus_starr guy. In the meantime, this is a secure area. It's supposed to be biohazard slealed and vacuum proof, it's a designated emergency zone, but you blew the door. In any case, that's the only opening. Those walls have no vents, and they're 2 decimeters thick. We can fix some stuff, but let's not stay too long. I don't wanna get pinned in here."

(Hey, it's a Deus Ex Machina, but I really want Darkk up and running for the next bit. Besides, it's commiserate with his skills in using other people's tech.)

Darkk plopped down in front of a terminal. Those creatures had given him an idea. The auds were blocking the door to the lab with aldus_starr's connection, but they WEREN'T blocking the vents. Apparently, they didn't think anyone could get through them.

Darkk looked at the schematics again. The vets were just barely too small for a human. Irthantans were thinner than humans. Darkk could get in from the back, while the marines hit the front. Just might work...

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

Bob was waiting while Davies set up an aidstation. Davies was impressed with the Salrillian machine. The marine's suits were already designed to minimize injury. They automatically constricted around wounds to slow bleeding, secreted enzymes, painkillers, blood plasma, and clotting agents, as well as locking up around broken bones to act as a cast. Too many marines were relying on these systems for their own good. There were five men down, but the number of walking wounded had increased, and many still needed first aid from Davies and the other squad medics.

Bob had opened his repair kit, and was trying to fix his damaged knww joint. Many others were doing the same, while the squad's engineers set up booby traps and tried to barricade the door.

Bob could tell that his marines needed a break. They had been locked in intense combat for three hours. They needed time to repair, rearm, and patch up any holes before they would move again. In any case, Bob needed time to try and plan his assault on Aldus Starr with Darkk.

But first he needed to fix his damn leg joint.

(Just in case you don;t know the movies, Aliens bleed extremely strong acid, explode when shot with Anti-personell rounds(spraying said acid everywhere), and try to take people alive to implant them with baby aliens)

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 04-30-2002).)

(As for exoskeletons, if you didn't realize it already, Nidok's is a mechanical exoskeleton, like the ones being developed today, just much more higly advanced, you know, myomers and all that great stuff. Xitell's is biological, like an insect's; he essentialy is an insect. Just wanted to make the distinction clear :D)

Nidok scoured the corridors, walking past groups of grays, all scattering for their lives, attempting to escape these new alien threats. He passes groups of Aud robots, some mauled by the aliens, some still fuctioning, their cubic shells hovering above the ground through anti-grav tech, their sensors lit up, all scanning and probing the environment, weapons pointing threateningly outward. His cloak kept him invisible, but he didn't want to move too quickly because he could stumble into rubble or make some kind of a detectable noise; his cloak could only muffle so much.

He looked down at his multi-functional display, it told him that he was nearing the aldus_starr terminal. The Aud bots became increasingly more numerous as he closed in. Finally he got to the door. It was crowded with bots, all waiting for the next unsuspecting victim to walk into their trap. He looked around, there were bots everywhere, hiding in just about every crevice and crack - that's why so many were forced out in the open. He activated his radio, turning the volume down so that it could not escape the sound cancellation field that was active when his cloak was on.

"This is Wolf 9, do you read?"

Darkk responded, "We read Wolf 9, loud and clear, what is the situation?"

"Darkk? What are you doing? I thought you were wounded?" Nidok was puzzled.

"It's a rather long story, what is your status?" Darkk replied.

"I'm outside the main access point to the aldus_starr terminal, it is choked with auds. We are going to need some heavy weaponry to blast through this. I still have 4 plasma grenades left, but with those aliens still lurking, it might be wise to save those." Nidok waited for a response.

"Well, make no actions yet, report back, we are planning to breach the room soon."

Nidok could hear movement in the shafts above him. He looked around and saw that the room was filled not only with functional bots, but also with the shells of what would appear to have been hundreds that were already destroyed.

"Yes sir; I will be back - fast."

------------------
"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy

Darkk crept through the vents. He'd memorized the smell of the aliens from the one he had managed to bring down. No getting taken by surprise this time. He'd also borrowed an additional weapon from a trooper, a high-power railgun. Darkk would pop the vent, wax the auds in the room, and get computer control. After he dropped the shield, he'd take one of two courses. If there was noone to evacuate from the room, he'd just go back to the med bay and have the carrier blast the place open. With the medbay's secondary and tertiary blast doors down, it would serve as a sort of escape pod when the carrier cut loose the surrounding pieces of station.

If there WAS someone to evac, it could get interesting. Darkk looked out the vent grate. 2 Auds, and what looked like a dead human. Suddenly Darkk's gear recieved another burst. "I see you." it read in morse code. Somehow the man was still alive. Darkk took out the railgun and the laser and popped the two auds with it. He then used the laser to weld the door shut against any Auds getting in. Darkk considered. The space behind the vent was big enough for both of them, but they might be attacked by the aliens with no way to retreat. If they stayed in here, the Auds would eventually circumvent Darkk's spot-welds.

"Bob, we've got a caged bird here." Caged bird was a fairly obvious signal, but secrecy wasn't exactly key.

"Right. We're going to work out a plan of getting to you." Bob's voice crackled over the comm.

Darkk welded the grate back on. No sense in letting the aliens burst in.

"Bob, when you get here, I'm going to put a little hole in the door and toss flashbangs. They're not expecting anything from this direction. Get the heck over here."

------------------
"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois

It was obvious now that the Irthantan and his fellow intruders were going to attempt a rescue. But how could they? It certainly didn't feel like they knew about the security defense grid. Shielded behind that, the fortified Audemedons were nearly invulnerable and further aided by a barage of potent anti-personnel kinlasers and stasis fields. Anyone attempting an assault would be stuck dead in their tracks and ripped to shreds.

Maybe, Starr thought, they could have a fighting chance if they were at least aware of the defense grid. The grid sensors functioned by detecting disturbances in a broad range of EM frequencies, including the radio spectrum. Starr had already proved to be able to broadcast radio waves across the station, so it could be possible to focus an eddy just outside the cell. It was more than worth a try; his potential rescuers were as good as dead without it.

Every marine's headset was racked by an earsplittig chromatic whistle, followed immediately by the activation of the security grid. Both Darkk and Nidok felt the tug of the hallways stasis fields and watched in amazement as it filled with white-hot, gossamer thin filimants of laser light. The shields on the fortified Auds shimmered in repsonse and let out a whine as they disipated the energy of the kinlasers.

With luck, the marines could now plan an appropriate assault and have a fighting chance of rescuing Starr and perhaps even escaping with their lives.

------------------
(url="http://"http://www.dissectional.com/swf/index.html") Dig a little deeper (/url)
(url="http://"http://www.axisnet.f2s.com")=Axis Software Integrated=(/url)

(This message has been edited by Sargatanus (edited 05-01-2002).)

Bob peered around the corner with his fiber-optic wand, examining the strong point and the dug in Audemedon warriors. Nidoc was behind him, and most of his marines were at a rally point behind him. Only Sergeant Davies and the critically wounded were back at the medlab, locked up tight.

"There are stasis field generators and a large battery of emplaced guns inside that anteroom. We can't breach that room without getting those things off line first. That is an anteroom. Darkk is in the room immediately behind it."

"Are there any other approaches?"

"Yes, the door to the lab is at a T-junction. The other two approaches come at right angles to the entrance, so you can get closer, but you won't have a line of fire until you're closer in."

"Show me"

Ten minutes later, Bob was back at the rally point with the Marines. Before him was a pile of all the team's heavy weapons; one heavy surface to surface missile launcher, two light rocket launchers, A few dozen hand grenades, six pounds of Comp-D plastic explosives, ten pre-shaped breaching charges, and three variable trigger anti-personell mines. Also, the armor piercing rounds on the squad's pulse rifles, the 30mm grenades slung beneath the guns, and the two heavy machine guns. It was a lot, but in reality it wasn't much.

"I want the rocket launchers and the machine gunners to come with me on the first approach. I know its a lot of weight, but I want you three with those rockets to bring pulse rifles with 30 mm launchers. Caulfield, take the rest around and move up on the left side. Keep out of the way while we hit them with the rockets, then move up while we lay down suppressing fire. Get in close, and hit them with all the explosives we've got. There is a powerful stasis field generator in that antechamber. Don't get caught in it. We clear the drones, then blast the emplaced guns, then we get Darkk and the prisoner out and back to medlab. This is what we train for, marines. Let's move!"

Bob grabbed a rocket launcher and the extra rockets, as well as a large number of grenades for his launcher. the two machine gunners, and two marines with grenade launchers grabbed the SSM and the other rocket and followed. Caulfield's squad loaded up with the rest, and moved out to their position.

Bob arrived at the corner where he had been just a few minutes ago with Nidoc. The machine gunners were ready, as were the rocket launchers. Just then, Caulfield
radioed in.

"We're in postion"

"Roger. Darkk, get ready with those flashbangs."

He looked at his squad, and gave the go.

At one instant, the two machine gunners slid into position, prone on the floor, using the corners as cover, one diving across to the far side of the junction, the other getting down almost underneath Bob. At that same instant, Bob and the other two marines stepped out, pointed their rocket launchers at the Auds, getting a range and firing before diving back into cover. The machine gunners opened fire, and Bob started reloading his rocket launcher. The rockets flew down the hallway, and the Auds immediately moved out of the way, however, the rockets fuses were set to the ranges, and so exploded nearby anyway. The machine gunners continued to lay down fire as the other marines emptied their rocket launchers into the doorway. As soon as they were out of rockets, they switched to the grenade launchers, and began lobbing them into the door, firing rounds intermittently at the drones that were coming towards them. Then, Bob gave Caulfield the go, and the three marines turned to cover their flanks, in case Aud reinforcements were on the way.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Caulfield saw the signal and waved to his marines. "GO, GO, GO!" as the five marines leapt from their cover and closed the distance between them and the Auds in almost no time. The Aud drones, still reeling from the shattering impacts of the grenades and rockets were caught off guard. At least, as off guard as a drone could be caught.

Caulfield took a knee as two of his marines dashed around him. Samuels was behind him with a heavy battle rifle laying down suppressing fire so the rest could get in close. Caulfield lined up a shot, fired, and placed a DU slug squarely in the optical sensor of an Aud drone moving to engage the advancing marines. The thing twitched and its legs shot out in different directions. An inky pall of smoke leaked from the hole that the bullet had made. Caulfield fired four more times, disabling one Aud drone and putting holes in two others. The marines rushing forward pulled out large chunks of Comp-D explosives prepped to be slapped on a target and then detonated. Their targets were the fortifications that the Aud drones had placed. Parker dodged around one Aud drone who swung with one metallic leg to catch the marine. Instead, Parker made a diving leap towards a fixed bunker emplacement and slapped a wad of Comp-D to the side. Rolling back to a standing position, he whipped out his rifle and engaged the nearby Drones. The other three marines performed similar feats of daring and agility before engaging in melee.

"Captain, we have placed explosives. Detonate on my mark." Caulfield fired twice more, picking off an Aud drone that was flanking Parker. Another marine was overwhelmed by Drones, that eschewed their weaponry for brute force. A scream of pain and fury was cut short as the drones made short work of the pinned marine.
Time to go thought Caulfield.
"Marines, fall back! Fall back!" The three marines moved towards each other, attempting to make good their escape. The Aud drones saw their impending retreat and moved to intercept them.
"Not so damn fast you metal bastards!" cried Samuels. She focused her suppressing gunfire on a squad of advancing auds. The high-velocity slugs plowed into the group, ripping legs from bodies and annihilating sensors and internal systems. Two drones dropped like sacks of dirt, while the other two scrambled for cover. The three remaining marines took advantage of this hole, braving friendly fire to dash to safety. The Auds fired at the retreating marines, burning holes in their armor. One marine shrieked as an Aud bolt burned through her arm, nearly taking it off at the elbow. Caulfield put the offending drone out of its misery.

"We are clear. Detonate now!"

The world exploded with noise.

------------------
"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

While the Auds had been busy dealing with Caulfield's squad, Bob had moved his squad forward, closer to the doorway. As Caulfield's marines pulled clear, the two machine gunners got down behind some large crates, laying their heavy gatling guns on top of the cases and opening fire the second the attacking squad was behind cover.

The chainguns fired several thousand rounds per minute, each round capable of piercing half a foot of steel. The two machine guns sliced up the Aud drones that were not taken out by the charges. The door was clear, but Bob was detecting motion from behind and on the left.

"We've cleared the room. I want your combat engineers working on those guns. Set up a perimeter, we've got company."

He hit one of his machine gunners on the shoulder.

"Move it marine! we need to cover the far corridor! The rest of you, move in closer and hold this approach!"

He moved into the center of the T junction. On his right, Caulfield's team was was trying to arrange cover, Behind him, one of his machine gunners and three other marines were waiting behind cover, facing outwards now, to deal with the incoming contacts. Ahead was the simlab, and on his left was an empty corridor. Bob quickly made a pile of audemedon wreckage, and left his machine gunner behind it. He needed a secure perimiter for his combat engineers to work in, the room they were trying to breach was armed with a deadly security system that could tear his team apart.

He looked back over on his right, to Caulfield's team, where the squad medic was trying to stabilize the wounded Marine's arm. Nidoc and Xitell were both there, covering the outside approach, guns ready.

"Lietenant! We need to get this room clear now! Bring those explosves, and the jamming box! Move!"

Just then, audemedon weapons fire streaked down the hallway. Bob dropped to the floor as i whizzed down the corridors from three directions. Almost simultaniously, marines at all three points of the T junction called contact.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

As the marines finished clearing the room and began setting up their fortifications, Bob started thinking ahead. They would most likely stay here until they figured out who/what this "Aldus Starr" was and then make a quick run for the exit. He remembered that the Audemedons were fortifying the exit quite heavily. That would complicate things.

They had used up most of their heavy weaponry taking this room. They wouldn't have nearly enough to make it out. So he quickly sent a message to the carrier.

-------------------------------------

Mag Steelglass was happily sleeping when his computer's incoming message alarm went off. He was startled awake, and sat up quickly, banging his head on the bottom of the bunk above his. He cursed, then grabbed the uncaring computer and pulled it over to his lap, then pulled up the screen.

4:27 A.M.
Incoming Message
Source: Commander Asyrolin
Subject: Marine Operations
Text: Hey, Mag, get the Pegasus going as fast as possible. There's a marine operation that's having some complications, so we're sending you folks in, along with a heavy assault team of ten marines, to help them get out. We'll brief you more thoroughly when you launch.

Mag and the four other crew members of the UNS Pegasus began getting dressed and ready for a mission.

------------------
"Cleanliness is evil. Embrace the mess!"

Franklin activated the jamming net, and held on to the wall tightly as the lasers opened fire and the stasis field tried to haul him in. It took significant effort for him to toss the charge he had duct taped together into the room. It was immediately immediately sucked into the middle, where several things happened at once. The two flashbangs went off, dazzling the sensors as the concussion set off the last pound of Comp-D, which he had squeezed between the two anti-personell mines.

At this point, Jackson discharged his plasma rifle into the room so the EMP would disrupt the stasis field for a moment, just long enough for the hundreds of ball bearings embedded in the explosives of the anti personell mines to be driven outwards by the exploding comp-D and spray into the walls, knocking out many the guns and tearing up a few of the sensor pods. Instantly, jackson was in the room, shooting out the four remaining stasis generator coils. He snapped from one to the next, to the next, dodging the beams before the stasis coils recharged, and the one remaining emitter hauled him through the air into the corner of the room.

The remaining guns opened up, burning into his suit. Bob and Franklin charged into the room after him, shooting out the remaining guns while Jackson screamed in the corner.

"Captain! Get me out of here! Get me out of here! It burns! It burns!"

They finished off the guns before running to the corner and smashing the emitter so that Jackson fell to the floor, limp.

Bob screamed into his mic "MEDIC!!", while he brought up jackson's vital signs on his HUD. Jackson's suit had seven or eight points where it was burned almost through. The armor had barely managed to absorb the energy, and had superheated all over his chest, giving him second and third degree burns. Where Jackson had been hit before, the lasers had burned clean through his suit and into his flesh, burning and cauterizing a deep gash nearly severing his arm. The armor had immediately siezed up, and was administering painkillers. The nanites were resealing the pressure suit around the wound, while grafting skin over it to stop it from getting abraded by the suit. It constricted around his legs and arms to prevent him from going into shock, and then left him there. Bob dragged him to his feet and smacked the side of his helmet.

"You listen to me, Marine! We're moving out, and noone's gonna carry your sorry ass out!! D'ya hear? Get out there and protect the people with real wounds! GO!"

Jackson put his hand to his helmet, seemed to shake his head as if to clear it, looked at his CO, nodded and went back out into the firefight.

Darkk opened the door and looked out. Bob could see Aldus Starr behind him.

"Not another wounded... Get him on a stretcher, let's move! We need to drop that shield and evac NOW. Conserve your ammunition, marines, espescially with those chainguns, we don't have anything heavier anymore. Darkk, Franklin, Xitell and Nidoc, come with me. We're going to drop that shield. Caulfield, take everyone else back to the medlab and rally with Davies. Move out!"

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 05-01-2002).)

Nidok looked down at his multi-function display upon hearing that the carrier was being called in over the radio. He pressed down on the forcefield being projected by it in the spots where buttons were indicated. He accessed his suit function/analysis controls. With a few more presses he had brought up the currently active systems and what their functional levels were. "Comm - 75% efficiency - structuaral intereference", "Exoskeleton - 96% efficiency - joints need biological lubrication", "Bio-hazard field - 98%". His atmospheric containment system had been off, grayed out. He had been using screened air. He switched it on. The super-high compression tanks kicked in, and his suit sealed up. He went back to scanner mode. The men were advancing on the aldus_starr terminal, their positions closer and closer to the room. The greys which had been such a nuisance earlier were increasingly scarce, there were only 3 on the outer edges of his scanning range, however many of the station's previously locked escape pods were now unlocked, and gone. There was one thing disturbing him, however. Once again, lurking in the shafts above, now about 200 meters away, were 3 of the unknowns. He radiod Bob.

"Captain, I am taking Xitell and I am going to try and eliminate these unkowns."

"Oh ****, they're back on sensors! Roger that, slow them down, we don't have the ability to deal with them right now."

"Yes sir, I still have 4 plasma grenades left, sir, I say that's at least one for each of these. Xitell, let's head out - stay cautious, I'll cloak and lead." with that he fizzled out.

Slowly he and Xitell walked down the corridor, keeping radio contact so that Xitell could provide cover. They reached the spot right below the unkowns. The unknowns seemed to stop. Time was at a standstill. Nidok radioed Xitell, "I'm going to send a grenade into that shaft, you get ready for anything that might decide to come out." A hollow, spherical object appeared on the ground, falling from nowhere, and suddenly the section of the corridor was lit up by the flash of Nidok's grenade launcher, and his shield, all lighting up at the same time. With a hollow "thuuuump" a bright orange object streaked towards the ceiling, slamming into the vent and penetrating its hollow walls. There was an explosion, and rubble began raining down. Xitell and Nidok moved out of the way, avoiding contact with any pieces, their guns pointing upwards. Suddenly, three aliens dropped from the ceiling, right in front of them.

"Oh ****, I must have shot too far over - it only hurt that one on the left." Nidok radioed over.

"He's mine." Xitell radioed back, he swiftly raised hiw weapon, and swiiip a bolt shot out of it, contacted the alien right on its chest. The creature was knocked clean to the floor, pushed back about 6 feet. The other two looked on hungrily.

"This still doesn't look so good," Nidok radioed back. The aliens leapt forward.

One landed on Xitell, and another ricocheted off of Nidok's shield, knocking both of them backward. Xitell's super hard exoskeleton warded off the clawings of the alien while he regained his feet. He socked it right in its face, its acidic blood not affecting his hardened shell.

"This time, it's mine," Nidok radioed, right as the grenade threw off its casing and fell into the hopper. He lifted his gun, pointed it at the startled alien, which was regaining its feet, and pulled the trigger. The grenade hit right on its chest, and the resulting flash was blinding. The alien simply disintegrated, splattering all over, its pieces burning up in Nidok's shield and being brushed off by Xitell.

One alien from these three left. It jumped at Xitell, but Nidok leapt straight for it, on a direct intercept course, slamming into it. He regained his feet quickly, grabbed the stunned alien with both arms, lifted it, and using the full power of his bio-mechanical exoskeleton, threw it 20 feet down the hallway. It landed and scampered away, for now.

He radioed Bob, "Sir, the situation has been cleared up, for now, Wolf 9 out."

------------------
"You will find that your device is highly non-functional...." - Bad Guy

Darkk, Bob, and the two escorts ran along. "The main terminal is only 25 meters in this direction. The auds were primarily protecting Aldus Starr, so it's not going to be too defended. I figure we should drop the shield and either run for the exits, or make our own. We can hide somewhere hardened and have the carrier take a crack at knocking a hole or two into this flying deathtrap. I'm starting to go that way.

"But what about the data we're here to get?"

"F*** it. We got dumps on 2/3 of the comps, and Aldus IS the big research project here, so he's more important. I think we'll do whichever's quicker. You can decide that, sir."

Bob was touched. Darkk had finally shown him respect, and agreed to yield to his judgement.

"Ok, I'll decide after we get the shield down and link up with the rest."

They came to the last corridor between them and the Station Administrator's office. Around the corner, guarding the door, were 3 audemedon EVATs. Darkk tossed a flashbang. The auds were blinded by it just long enough to allow the troops to give them a good old fashoned take-down.

Darkk burst into the room and fried the lone aud in the small office before it had gotten the door Darkk had knocked down on it off. Darkk hurriedly logged into the computer with Starr's access code. It was accepted, and Darkk disabled the shield, dumped the primary reactors into space (using emergency damage control protocols) and did the same for the self-destruct system (using the same protocol). Now the station was pretty much inert. Darkk could feel the gravity start to fluctuate. Darkk put on his suit, as the air would start to escape with no shield to hold it in.

Darkk could hear the air escaping even through the suit, the station had been holed pretty bad by the hybrid/gray fight. Darkk hoped the hybrids had all gone down. He began to float, gravity had cut out. Darkk and the EVATs didn't mind at all, they'd trained for this.

Soon they'd made it back to the med bay. Aldus Starr had been placed into an evac bag with a 30 minute air supply, although Darkk wasn't sure he needed any. Darkk brought up station schematics, and an external line to the ATRs. "Ok, ATR pilots listen up. We need out. We're at coordinates <22,3,13> on this map. Cut a path for us. We need out ASAP.

Darkk could hear through the residual atmosphere (1/64nd Earth's atmosphere at sea level) as the massive cutting lasers on the ATRs began burning their way down, helped by all the holes made by the telekinetic fight earlier. Soon, the lasers cut out. "All clear, EVAT team. Fire your thrusters and get out."

Darkk and the team made ready to leave. Everyone hoped nothing would go wrong.

(Let's leave the Aliens aliens here. It was nice to visit, but let's not spend too much time with them.)

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"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois