The Final Experiment (Chapter 5)

[mizolo]

I don't know how many more I'm going to make, but keep in mind I DO have an end in sight for this little series.

Let's see, we left off Chapter 4 with The Queen and Abetha in the factory, and they heard a piercing wail outside of the factory. Yeah, that's where we were.

Anyway, let us continue.



Chapter 5: The Death Squad and The Child of 2 Types


Blackout stepped out of his drop-pod, shaken, but still alert, and took a look at his surroundings.

"Fuck" He whispered to himself. He was probably dead-smack in the center of the city. At least the 2nd factory in the little town was near, and apparently supposed to be the most fortify-able.

He took out his modified M4RA battle rifle. Suited with modified bullets that could probably pierce a solid inch of titanium, and put a hole through a tank. He heard a series of shrieks and cries from all around him.

Apparently he had made quite the entry. The sound terrified him, they were like the sounds of a mountain lion on Earth.


Except higher in pitch.


And very child-like. He was scared for a moment that he had someone just murdered a bunch of children, but soon saw coming around a couple of buildings, hordes of humans ... no ... not humans ... what the FUCK?!?!?!?

He activated his integrated cloak and dashed for the factory, the ... things ... most likely ran off of sensory triggers, running towards ... their prey?

He pondered what the fuck was going on as he looked at his watch through his HUD.


17 Seconds until his cloak ran out of juice and needed to re-charge. He dashed for the factory door on the far-side of the building, setting his boots to suppress mode through his HUD to silence his footsteps as he ran.

He heard more shrieks and screeches as he approached the door. "SHIT" Blackout said aloud, but the HUD mask silenced him fortunately as he realized his mistake. He had 3 seconds.

He prayed to god that the door didn't creak as he opened it. To his utter surprise the old, rusty door swung open without a sound, and he shut it behind him.


He immediately pointed his M4RA around the room, searching for threats, seeing if there was anyone here, anything to barricade with, any ...

He swallowed ... any-THINGS, that were in here.


He quickly started silently making his way through the factory, and hearing the relieving sound of the shrieks die away. He checked the outside camera of his drop-pod.

It was covered in some sort of white liquid. Like that of a synthetic ... but, different. He cringed and looked at the one on top of the drop-pod.


To his relief he saw them starting to ... settle down? He didn't know WHAT these things were, or if they were doing some sort of ploy. He needed to be careful.

He told his HUD to "smell" the surroundings. It reported back in a monotonous, robotic tone inside of his HUD-suit.

"Smell report according to personal tastes and input: Old Oil, Musty, and perfume."


The HUD smelled ... perfume!?!?!?!? He immediately spun around and had his HUD scan for threats using a soft ping, so high-pitched that no human thing could hear it. He immediately was alarmed, wondering if he had just alerted all of the "Things" back to him. He quickly checked the outside of the factory using the drop-pod cameras.

He was relieved, seeing nothing seemed to be alerted to his presence. However, his HUD detected a possible threat, and a possible civilian.


They were both together, and he hoped they weren't what was outside. He set his HUD to continually pulse up and down a super-high-pitched frequency range, tracking the 2 targets.

He hoped and prayed to god that the civilian wasn't a child that "Turned" or whatever happened to these people that made them look this way.


He was disturbed by the amount of silence, and he didn't like it, usually everyone would report in about now ... he checked his communications headset through his HUD.

"Hello? Buckshot? Ta? Anyone?" He said through his silenced suit.


No response.


He feared the worst. All of them were either dead, injured into critical, or worse.

He continued to track the 2 targets, keeping his HUD scanning while he tried to restore his communications to his squad-members. He prayed to god again that a third option was happening. A communications malfunction or jam.

It was so unlikely you may as well try to win the lottery by not buying a ticket, asking a friend to buy one, him getting the lottery, and you asking for all of the money because "You told him to" or "Suggested it in the first place".

Either the 1st option, which was hopefully not the case, but extremely likely. The 2nd being a comms jam, malfunction, mis-co-ordination, or flat out didn't work.


The equipment was state of the bloody art, not even UPP or CLF could jam the frequency, only monitor it.

One of the contacts came closer, but slowly, as if being cautious. It was the possible civilian, he peeked around the corner with an invisible mirror, but through his HUD, he could see the reflection.

It was a little girl, seemingly unchanged by whatever it was that was seemingly outside the facility. He looked for the other target, it was behind a wall, well out of range.

He put his hand out, motioning for the little girl to come to him from behind cover, and the little girl silently did so.


He grabbed her and took her behind his point of cover, the simple cargo container. He then set his HUD to allow his voice to be heard out-side his hermetically sealed suit.

She squealed a little as he suddenly grabbed her with the arm. She didn't scream though, as that would attract the crazies.

Blackout spoke to her quietly "Hey, it's gonna be alright, I have a lot of questions, but I'm going to start with 2." He said quietly to her as his HUD continued to track the supposed threat behind the wall. The wall looked like it was dry-wall, easy to break through for a surprise attack on anyone that passed by.

Blackout continued softly to the girl "Firstly, what's your name?" He asked her, and Abetha spoke softly back "Abetha" she responded. He then checked outside the factory through the drop-pod camera. It was snowing. "Great" He thought to himself. The things would blend in better with the snow around, good thing the pinging didn't attract their attention.

Abetha looked at Blackout, tapping his shoulder "and yours?" she asked innocently.

He didn't turn around, still concentrated on the possible threat, but responded "Well ... Abetha ... I can't tell you my name, but I CAN tell you my code-name. Isn't that cool? It's Blackout." He said to her, hoping to quell her fears and give her a sense of security, and a feel that someone was here to help, though he felt as if she already felt secure here, oddly enough.

"Well, Abetha, I have my second question" Blackout continued "Well ... ok 2 more questions, then I'll let you ask me some more ok?"


Abetha nodded. The man in front of him didn't turn around as he spoke. "Does he know about her?" Abetha wondered privately in her mind. "Ok" she said quietly to him.

He was growing suspicious of Abetha, he wasn't lying to himself there. She seemed too ... too ... what was the word? He wondered, then found it. Calm.


He suddenly had the thought that it was another one of his operatives. He almost called out, but shut his mouth, knowing that doing that might attract attention from the things outside. He instead used what his squad called a "comm ping". A sonic transmission the suit and HUD always heard from all of their suits that audibly pinged a deep hum.

"Second question, Abetha" Blackout continued, trying to keep her name in his mind to make her feel more comfortable "Is there anyone around, with you, or ... in other words is there anyone here?" He asked.

She froze at the question. She had not expected this, and answered accidentally with a question, giving her away "Why?"

Volkov froze. Had this little girl ACTUALLY just lie to him? He was so confused that he answered without thinking about what he said either "Because there might be one of those things behind that dry-wall" He almost face-palmed himself.

How could he be so stupid! Well, if there was someone behind that wall with listening equipment or enhanced audio devices, they just heard him. And heard him the queen did.


He sighed, but before he could ask another question, the little girl spoke "Oh, that's my friend, she's uhhhh" she stopped mid-sentence. Blackout actually turned to face Abetha, incredulous look on his face, though she couldn't see it through the armored and hermetically sealed suit.

He stared at her. "Was she immune or COMMANDING these things?!?!?!" He wondered. The little girl continued.

"Well, she's not a white zombie like those out there" she said. Blackout came to many important realizations at this point.


The first thing he realized was that the creature was MASSIVE, like a small shack massive, at the LEAST 12 feet tall. The second thing he realized was that of what Abetha said ... that being, the white zombies.

"Well, can you get your friend out here, I would like to meet her." He spoke a little more loudly to her, and lowered his weapon a bit. Hopefully giving her comfort being around him enough to introduce him to her 'Friend'.



She turned to him, somehow meeting his eyes. "Can you promise me one thing?" Abetha asked Blackout. He rolled his eyes and said "Yes Abetha what is it?" in his best attempt to have a sweet-talk voice.

Abetha glared at him with her eye-brows raised and said in a serious tone that caught Blackout completely off guard. "You will ... promise me one thing." She said.


Blackout was taken aback. This little girl who went from a shy, innocent little child, to suddenly being serious and somehow commanding him? He paused for a minute, keeping tabs on the contact behind the dry-wall.

"O...K" He said, stuttering, willing to actually hear what she had to say. "You will promise me ... to NOT shoot at whatever comes from behind that dry-wall for at least 10 full seconds, and I WILL count." she said a little harshly to Blackout.



Blackout was stunned by how arrogant this little girl had suddenly become. No ... not arrogant ... protective??? He sighed "Ok, you will count to 10 seconds, and I will not fire at whatever comes out from behind that dry-wall until after the 10 seconds are done." He said to her.


Abetha nodded. Then, almost as if she queued the queen, the queen came out from behind the dry-wall into view of the surprised marine.

Blackout instantly raised his rifle to fire, but to his astonishment and pure shock, the GIRL knocked the modified rifle out of his hands! He shoved the girl back with more force than he intended, sending her at least 20 feet forward and to the right of the xenomorph.

He reached for his plasma pistol side-arm in his leather quick-draw pouch he loved from serving in the corp, ready to fire on the xenomorph.



To his astonishment, yet extremely suspicious mind, the queen positioned herself OVER the child, as if protecting her. Blackout's finger twitched over the trigger, but didn't pull, waiting for something to happen.

His instincts and mind SCREAMED at him to pull the trigger, as this little girl was likely face-hugged, and the queen was just "Protecting her new-born".


But he didn't pull the trigger despite his instincts. Abetha then groaned. He wanted to rush to her, caring for the child he had accidentally, but literally, just thrown across the cold, hard metaled factory floor against a cargo container.

Abetha got up, and the queen shielded the little girl. Blackout then scanned the little girl for the parasite that he expected would be there.



To his utter confusion, he found no parasite. He scanned twice more to make sure.

No parasite.

He was speechless as she got up slowly, brushing her-self off of dust. Blackout then ran a scan for injury through his HUD, and thanked the heavens for not finding any injuries, besides that of slight bruising of course.


She was now standing on her feet, now un-shielded by the xenomorph queen. "Well" She said "At least you kept your promise".


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ta groaned as she climbed out of the pod. She hated the stupid things. Despite what they said it was a cramped, claustrophobic, uncomfortable, hell-hole. She activated her cloak, taking mind of her surroundings as her training with both worlds had done.

She saw the other ... wait ... there's only 4 drop-pods here. Ta rolled her eyes, she saw everyone else doing the same thing she was. Groaning out of the drop-pods, and taking in the wooded surroundings. She looked at the HUD, identifying her fellow operatives.

"Me ... Omni ... Buckshot ... and Sleepy" She said to herself. She sighed, knowing that Blackout was probably somewhere in the town, or way off fucking course.


They all formed together in a circle, Omni projecting a holo-map of the area. "I don't know HOW the FUCK this is happening, but comms are down" Omni said aloud through the deep, humming frequency of the special sonic transmission that they used for voice communication in the open. Everyone tested their headsets. Omni was right, no comms.

"Well, we still need to move to the rally point Blackout said, he'll be there." Ta said. Everyone nodded and headed out.



Ta was scanning the trees, zooming in towards the rally point, wondering if someone had successfully interrogated Blackout. There was nothing except the tall grass and trees at the rally point on the HUD's.

The group settled down there, waiting for Blackout for about 15 minutes, waiting for him. Finally, one of them spoke up.


"Well, my drone still works, should we fly it to the edge of the town? Maybe hope to spot him?" Asked Sleepy. The group considered the proposition, debating whether to send it, or whether to preserve the drone's power.

It came down to a vote, Sleepy wanted to do it, and Omni supported her initially of course, wanting to do something besides draw in the dirt and play with their HUD's.



However, Buckshot convinced Omni to abstain, saying. "If we use a drone, we run the risk of being discovered by whoever attacked this place" Buckshot reasoned. "I do support taking action and doing something. But on the other hand we also need to stay here in case he comes back."

It was up to Ta to break the tie. Ta sighed, she hating being second in command. She didn't know how Blackout even tolerated such a position, yet did it so efficiently as if he had rehearsed any, and every situation thousands of times before. She regretted not showing up to personal leadership training with Blackout.


"I will go to the edge of the town and look for him from the tree-line." Ta said "I will take an info-drone with me in case I need you for help, or for some other unforeseen reason."


The other 3 stared at her. Ta stared back at them. Omni sighed, obviously annoyed at once again, not getting able to do anything. "Buckshot is now in charge until you encounter either me or Blackout again, understood?" Ta said. All 3 of them nodded.

Before Ta left, she grabbed the info-drone, a simple, silent flying little quad-copter capable of going over 100 kilometers to deliver information. She tapped in the current location as the destination point. Pre-setting the flight-plan for it.


Ta nodded to each member, each nodding back. Ta hopped away, jumping from tree to tree effortlessly. Heading towards the northern tree-line bordering the town.