Author: Johannes "Jergen[K]" Cruz			Viewing: Chapter 2

Corporal Jergen, United States Colonial Marine Corps, ran for his life. Shielded blast doors hissed open as he tore down passageways towards the Recall Point. The mission, a simple eradication of all alien life forms, had been scrubbed following the compromise of the platoon dropship. A xenomorph had managed to get onboard their ship after they had exited, and in the interim had done enough system's damage to blow the damn thing apart. The problem wasn't in the fact that the ship had been killed, there were more than a dozen backups in orbit nearby, but in the fact that the detonation had gone "hot" as they say, and nuclear weapons do not play nicely with the outer hulls of space stations. Now the space station was beginning to collapse, and the only hope of exit was through the escape pods located in her center. So, using every ounce of speed his bioengineered muscles could produce, he pounded down the hallways of the derelict station. "How is it looking back there Ban?" Jergen called through his helmet mike. In seconds a reply came crackling through to him. "We are clear bro, keep it going, we got less than two mikes before this place becomes a memory, and I don't need a suntan." Ban was a big man, and contrary to the way his voice sounded, a deep bass that matched his immense size, he was one of the quickest in the fleet. Of all the Marines Jergen had fought with Ban was one of the only ones that could keep up with him. "Breaching the outer hall and heading south, contacts fore and aft," bringing his pulse rifle up Jergen tore through the door before him. Three aliens, two drones and a parasite, ran at him from across the room. After nearly two years of constant fighting he was still amazed at their speed. His first burst of ammunition hit the thing in the middle, cutting it in half and spraying acidic blood over the supports of the room. Hardened plasteel sizzled as it melted to form puddles on the floor as the second alien exploded from a 40 mm grenade that had penetrated it's chest. The small parasite, a hand-like thing out of nightmares, took shrapnel from the grenade and flopped harmlessly along the deck. Stepping out from behind the column he had used as cover from the acid spray, Jergen continued his run south. Behind him he could hear the bark of Ban's rifle as he followed closely behind. Zeta spacestations are based on a circular model. This was considered for several reasons, docks to the outside were easy to achieve, gravity was easy to create with rotation and the station could be easily built on a modular design. This series of outpost, the most common design used by the Corporation, dominated almost every explored region of space. As such, Jergen had more experience fighting in these things than most engineers had repairing them. Using this stored knowledge he dropped into an access tunnel that would lead him directly to the pods without having to travel through as many infested areas. The only problem existed in the fact that the drone warriors seemed at home in the small passages whilst he and Ban would have to move more slowly and bent over in a duck-walk like motion. However, it would give them clear fields of fire as the bugs would have to come at them down a straight line and into their weapons. Switching on his shoulder lamp to force back the hazy darkness, Jergen started forward down the passage. Behind him he heard Ban descend the ladder into the tunnel. Once in place Ban tapped him once on the back of the helmet to let him know he was there. As much as these two fought together there was little need for spoken communication. Parasites came flying down the tunnels at them, Jergen blasted them apart as they came, none of them getting close enough to jump. In the small left-eye hud he read the countdown to the Zeta meltdown; 44 seconds. Turning left he could see the escape area. He launched grenades down the tunnel to explode in the area for good measure, watching as the lights in the area faded and winked out from the concussive blasts rupturing the bulbs. He wasn't sure if the aliens used conventional sight, but he liked the dark. Ban called out from behind as a drone errupted from a side tunnel and managed to tear into him. The fight was over very quickly as Ban brought his rifle around and blew the drone's head from it's shoulders. Ban kicked at the thrashing body to get it off of him, taking several deep cuts along his calves for his efforts. Acid smoked on his chest armor, but he had gotten away lucky for the most part. Jergen was not so lucky. Just as he passed through a four-way intersection two drones lept on Jergen from the left and right sides. Feeling the impact of the creatures upon his armor he fired directly into the face of one, blasting it before the deadly second jaws could tear his face off, then slamming it with the butt of his weapon to knock it down the tunnel and away from him. The second creature tore through his shoulder armor and then into the flesh beneath. Sharper than steel, talons ripped meat and bone into pulp as Jergen turned to the assault. He lost his rifle in the twist and pain of injury, and pulled his pistol out with his left hand. Driving the weapon into the beasts' mouth he let go with three rounds. Immidiately the drone began to thrash madly, it's wicked tail-barb nearly impaling Ban from behind as he covered the tunnel to his aft. Jergen kicked away from the creature as acid burned the fingers of his left hand to the bone. The drone continued to screach for a moment, then fell silent as Ban put a shotgun slug through it's head in passing. Ban grabbed Jergen by his uninjured shoulder as they exited the tunnel, and unceremoniously dumped him in an escape capsule. Sensing it's cargo was in place the capsule door closed and the pod was loaded into the ejection tube that would fire it into space. Ban took the next pod, turning to fire another few rounds of ammunition into the charging host of alien creatures, he smiled as he saw the door close on them, and felt the pod accelerate down the tunnel and into space and away from the station. The soft voice of the station's internal computer systems finished the countdown that had begun with the detonation of the nuclear device that had breached her hull. The voice, disturbingly intimate and undeniably female, had been designed by scientific teams that had deduced that a motherly influence was the most compelling they could implant in any system, issued a final warning before Station 144565, Zeta-Class detonated with the fury of a small star. White light, silent in the void of space, appeared in the small portholes of the two escape pods that had managed to exit that doomed place. "Thanks Ban," Jergen said, the sedatives he had injected from his medkits had already begun to take effect, putting him very close to unconciousness. "I owe you another beer."