The Baldie, The Clone, and the Sabre: Chapter 9

[Martzin]

After loading up the marine carcasses onto the pod, the squads reformed and pushed forward.

Garth led his men through the Robotics dome, Reno told to go farther east to cross the bridge.
Some of the fortifications Charlie put up earlier in the op still stood, albeit badly beaten up.

"Hold," Powalski ordered with the swift motion of his hand. "Check the dome for anything useful."
The squad stopped for a moment, before immediately flipping the whole building upside-down. They scoured every crack and crevice for useful objects, taking the smallest coin to the heaviest sheet of metal with them. Some engineers even tore down the walls of rooms for the metal.

Garth made the abrupt order not out of actual thought but rather because he wanted coffee so badly. But still, it wasn't too bad of a call. Luckily for him, he found a still-functioning coffee machine.

He quickly ordered for a cup of coffee, restlessly waiting for it to vend out...
He crouched down and poked his head toward the little slit, noticing it was empty until a metallic dinging rang out from inside the machine.
"No... shit!" Pawolski reached his hand through the slit and began to move it around. He couldn't feel a thing.
"Duluth, help me with this fucking coffee!"
Jeffrey ran over, examining the scene. "Uhh, sarge... Can you move?"
Powalski scooted aside. "I need to get this cup out, Jeffrey! I need it now!"
"Here, let me..." Jeffrey pushed the button designated for the coffee, but it didn't do a thing.
Garth reached his hand deeper in. "Shake it!"
Jeff grasped onto the vending machine and started to rock it. Pawolski continued to wriggle his hand.
"I feel it! I can just barely grasp it..!" he yelled. "Keep at it, Jeffrey!"
The machine continued to rock, each little sway inching the cup closer and closer into Garth's open palms.
And then suddenly, he could feel it tipping over...
"HOLD IT JEFFREY, FUCKING HOLD IT!"
The machine immediately fell on it's side with a loud crash, bringing Garth's arm with it. The coffee spilt onto his hand, causing him to yelp and immediately spring his arm out from the slit.
"MY COFFEE!" Pawolski cried. He peeked through the slit, putting his other arm through it and touched the rim of the cup; it was empty!
He took a look at his other hand, which was now bright red and throbbing from the scalding drink.
"MY FUCKING HAND!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry man, I fucking pushed it too hard!"
Powalski stood and pushed the machine face-up and then began violently stomping the glass, repeatedly yelling harsh curses with each smash until the glass shattered into bits.
"Ah, haha!" Garth swiped a cup out from the machine, and immediately began chugging it down. His throat burnt badly, but over time it died out.
"Ahh! Nice, refreshing cup of coffee..."
Jeff looked at Pawolski dumbfounded. He got his own cup and drank it as well, though more leisurely.
Some other marines walked over and took the contents of the machine, Jools himself grabbing some hot cocoa.
"Ahh, just like a cozy Winter night..."

"If only it was," Jeffrey responded as he continued to sip on his coffee.

Pawolski threw the cup of coffee on the ground once he was done. "Alright Alpha-Bravo, our work's here is done! We got orders to carry out, on me!"

Farther east, the Delta-Charlie squad had arrived at the bridge. Now seeing Hydroponics and the Med-dome, they were an unrecognizable mess. A heap of rubble and scrap, blanketed under a thick veil of parasitic black overgrowth that spread onto the farthest corner of the earth. Remnants of furniture strewn about, dried blood and small depressions on surfaces where alien blood once splattered. There was the occasional piece of Military equipment left behind in the retreat but it was definitely not in working condition. A quick inspection at the walls would reveal thousands of miniscule craters on them, acid blood from the grenade incident back at Hydro sprinkling everywhere.

And of course they found a half-melted sentry stand on the north-side of Hydro, the ammo box tipped over some feet away.
"It's a damn shame," Suro said as she stared at the sentry piece with one hand on her hip and the pulse rifle in the other.

Prevatt lifted open the top of the sentry box with her foot whilst aiming intently. Luckily for her nothing was inside except for used bullet casings. "Phew... Thought one of the crabs woulda jumped at me!"

Ray was squinting at the weeds surrounding him, trying to spot any hiding xenomorphs while hoping to God he found none. He would fidget with his burst-fire toggle as he glared rather idiotically at the roof.

Suro noticed this and yelled at him, "Quit fucking with the thumb selector, Dubi! Pick burst or no burst!"

"Shut the hell up!" he bitterly exclaimed, before continuing on with his patrol.

"Ugh, fuck.." she sighed under her breath and turned around. Then a loud bang rang out and she immediately threw herself to the ground, covering her head.

"Oh, shit." Ray calmly stated, Suro lifting her head and seeing Dubi standing in shock aiming at the ground with his hands squeezing the gun.
"WHO DAFAKK SHOT?!" Reno shouted.

"I stepped on one a fucking crab! It didn't jump at me or nothin', I just stepped on it!"

"You dumb shit, it was already dead! Suro said whilst standing up. "They fucking know where we're at now!"

"It fucking spooked me, you cunt!"

"WE STILL GO! WE'S NOT DONE!" Reno frantically ordered.

Dubi acquiescently lifted his foot off the squished crab, it's acid dripping back from the sole to the flattened specimen. "Okay, let's go..."

The squad trudged on, crossing the dilapidated and battle-hardened bridge. Soon they set foot on the blood-soaked sand, seeing the occasional rotting body of the last few assaults north.

"Huh, I expected more bodies than this..." stated Suro, looking at a mangled corpse of a marine with half his uniform ripped off, exposing his bruised and bloody chest.

"The aliens drag 'em off, y'know." Kailey responded, pointing at the blood trail leading into a cavern.
"Aw, yis!" Reno suddenly stated. "Thank ye Prevatt, for pointing dah cave thing out!"
Reno pointed his sabre up to the sky. "CHAAAARGE!" he cried as he ran full-sprint into the caves, the squad following in.

They ran in, screaming and shouting wildly to put on a fake mask of courage and readiness amongst the ranks. But this quickly dropped at the first bursting cloud of acid.

They retreated some feet but quickly resumed their valiant march through the winding passages.

Powalski had made it inside too, all of his senses on edge as he attempted to spot the first Xeno that would lead to an entire horde of them...

He could barely make out a group of things moving in the shadows. "Over there!" he pointed.

The faint clump of beings stopped, and yelled back: "Whose there?!"

"What? They're talking!" Powalski muttered in shock.

"It's Reno's squad!" Jools said. "Heeyy!" he followed, "This is Powalski's squad!"

Garth quickly shook his head and smacked himself on the forehead to wipe out the thought that whatever was talking wasn't human.
"Y-Yes, we're regrouping!"

He hesitantly led the squad over, and to his relief it was the other squad.

"Seen anything yet?" he asked Reno.

"Nuh... nope!"

Soon afterwards a spray of toxic acid spewed forth at the men. Everyone immediately ducked and returned fire into the dark.
"THEY'RE HERE!" Ray horrifically cried, as the hordes finally approached!

Powalski got back on his feet and continued to lay down supressive fire, until one of them from above snatched a marine in his line.
His screams were quickly choked when it jabbed it's spiked fingers into his throat, successfully ripping it open and dropping him back onto the ground with a loud thud.

Ray looked up and screamed as it maneuvered across the roof of the cave, and in his haze didn't notice the others that also lurked above...

He managed to shoot one enough that it lost it's grip of the roof and quickly fell down, where another hail of bullets finally ended the monster's life.

Jools bolstered the line with his smart-gun constantly switching back and forth, mowing down any Xeno that dared fray from the darkness and into the firing lines' view.

A wide branch of toxic acid spewed forth from the darkness, splattering right onto Powalski. He screamed in both pain and fear and clutched onto Jools' ankle as he held fast, fighting off the waves that constantly beat down on them.

"MOVE FOWAAAD!!" Reno gloriously yelled as he charged with his sabre, slicing around at the nothing infront of him.

"WAIT, RENO!" Suro yelled back and ran after him. This caused the rest of the line to push up, thinking that they were advancing.

Another scaly and slimy arm reached down into the Marines, and lunged right down onto Ray. In the tumble it jabbed it's tail right into his thigh, causing him to burst out in agonizing screaming. He managed to shoot it in the chest with his shotgun, causing it to eject off him.

Jeff heard Dubi's desperate pleaing for help and turned around, mowing the alien down.

He noticed the gaping red hole in his thigh, the blood gushing out as Ray attempted to put pressure during his violent and gory death throes.
"OH GOD OH GOD MY FUCKING LEG OH GOD!"

"MEDIC!!" Jeff screamed as he ran at him. He pulled out some gauze and began to wrap the wound, hoping to curb the bleeding.

A medic with Charlie's colors ran over. "I got this soldier," he said as while continuing where Jej left off, pulling out a medkit and some tramadol pills.

The squads were still firing wildly, only now noticing that there was no longer any acid balls firing at them.

"Hold fire, hold your fucking fire!" Powalski ordered. "It appears they've retreated... keep marching, marines!"

The line moved up. The medic continued to treat Dubi's torn leg, and later on he would have to be carried back to LZ2 and shipped up to fix the broken femur.

The rest of the men caught up with Reno and Suro, the latter having slipped a backpack off of a bursted host, both stomping helpless larvae grouped up into dozens of cramped cells for hosts. There were already tons of their faces smushed into the ground and more sliced in half, the 2 laughing maniacally during their alien infanticide.

"Fucking nice!" Duluth commented as he joined in, eradicating the many newborns who were unfortunate enough to be too close to the frontline.



The aliens were beaten back on the Sulaco with their queen now dead. Many of their babies have been stomped under boot-soles and they have pulled back, paving the way for Marines to finally swoop in and end this haywire mission.

[Martzin]

So like 2 days ago I actually completed the final chapter of the story, which would be the 11th one.

I admit it was a bit rushed because I just felt like ending the thing but I've been told it's good enough to end the story, so yeah. It's all done now.

[Eenkogneeto]

Gotta loot while the lootins good. They owe me some metal.

[Karmac]

Reno is the man who sold the world, into thinking he's still competent.

Still quality writing even if you did rush it, I'll enjoy re-reading the whole thing once its done.

[KEY]

Very nice story man. Keep up the good work!

[Recounted]

the shotgun always come in handy