Chapter 30: Chapter 30 Hold Out
_ _Head Director James Watson_ _
(This is getting out of control...) I muttered as I watched my men fighting for their lives all around me.
"Aaaaaaaah!" A scream broke through the chaotic battlefield as one of the marines that was covering the west side was suddenly impaled through the torso.
The black monstrosity that had wounded him was almost instantly gunned down by someone else as another soldier rushed to pull the injured man back from the front and away from all the fighting. "Cover me!"
"Eat led you fucking bitches!"
We had entrenched ourselves on top of a somewhat jagged hill, a hill that was in the center of a large open field made up mostly of rocks and the occasional plants sticking out of the ground here and there. For the past three or so days we had been under constant sporadic attacks from groups of Xenomorphs, during that time several other groups of survivors had occasionally shown up every now and then. The ones that were actually able to reach us before the xenos ripped them to shreds were quickly pulled into joining our defensive perimeter, unfortunately however we wouldn't be able to last much longer if these constant attacks continued to keep up.
"How are all of the repairs going?" I asked one of the engineers who were currently working on getting our comms back up and working again.
Stopping his tinkering for a moment he turned to me with a somewhat hopeful expression on his face. "Well, I just need a bit longer to fix a few more things and it should be ready."
"Thank god, let's just hope someone will be listening out there." I muttered while trailing off somewhat in thought.
I was about to continue watching the battle going on around me when I was suddenly pulled back to reality. "Watch out!"
"Oh fuck..." Was all that I managed to get out before one of those damn hand-like things jumped at me from out of nowhere.
I barely had time to even register it before the damn thing was flying at me through the air like a bullet, I was honestly a little taken aback by the speed that it managed to achieve just by simply launching itself into the air. Thankfully I was fast enough to grab the bloody thing just as it was about to reach me, this isn't to say I had it easy afterwards, oh no, these little bastards were far stronger than you would expect. In fact I was having a hard time just trying to stop it from breaking free of my grip and latching on to me, however the main problem was its prehensile tail that continuously lashed out at me trying to wrap around my neck.
At this point I was panicking, not that I wasn't freaking out before now but still. Either way though I couldn't hold it back for much longer, my arms were aching at this point after all, but thankfully for my continued existence I wouldn't have to. A hand suddenly reached forward and yanked it away from me just as it was about to slip free of my grasp. By the time I figured out what exactly happened I had just enough time to watch as the female marine who just saved my sorry ass shot the bloody Facehugger dead on the spot before it could come back for round two.
"Thanks for that marine." I hummed as I got to my feet.
"No problem sir." The woman who I believed was called Ashley muttered with a slight nod of her head, however I did get the feeling that she didn't like me very much.
I took a second to quickly regain my composure while also glancing around. "We can't keep this up for much longer..."
"Director." Ashley mused, pulling my attention back to her.
"What is it?"
"We need to get out of here before we are trapped completely, after all the information that we have is too important to lose."
Yes, the information...I hadn't believed it at first when a small group of around five or so had appeared a day ago saying they had vital information that showed Xenomorphs and humans working together, that was until they showed me the video they had taken. Ashley here had been a part of that group, her and two others in the group of five were all marines. I have to admit that the third, Red, or whatever he went by, was one hell of a sharp shooter, it hadn't taken him long to rack up quite the kill count for himself.
As for the information, well, it was rather imperative that we delivered it to the higher ups, after all something like this was unprecedented to say the least. I just couldn't figure it out, how had those idiotic prisoners managed to tame those Xenomorphs when we made no progress. I had known that the purple one was different compared to the others somehow but still, it made no sense to me at all no matter how much I thought about it...
We had been studying them for months with cutting edge technology and yet we had nothing to show for it except for a destroyed space station as well as dozens of dead coworkers. Even the purple one, that had more than likely survived the crash, hadn't shown any signs of following commands, in fact it seemed almost more aggressive then its black cousins at times, especially during testing.
"I know that marine..." I growled with a shake of my head. "But unless you haven't noticed already we are currently surrounded on all sides, we'll be overrun if we try and break through at this point."
"Then what do we do sir?" She asked and I sighed solemnly.
"We hold." I muttered with a distant look in my eyes. "We hold until we can call for help and then we hold until they get here."
That didn't seem to satisfy her, in fact the look on her face had made it clear that she completely disagreed with me but had no better alternative. "And if we can't?"
I knew exactly what would happen if we couldn't hold, the idea terrified me down to my core in fact. "Then...then I recommend you save a bullet marine...and while you're at it...save one for me as well." With that grim note I return to watching the battle play out around me.
I wasn't a combatant, not even close, but I could at least keep an eye on the bigger picture just in case the carnage began to shift in an unexpected way. And so I watched, I watched as men and women held back a seemingly unending tide of black alien bodies, watched as we were slowly pushed back inch by inch and I watched as marines executed their fellows who were unfortunate enough to not notice several Facehuggers hiding within the chaos around them.
"I never truly realized how terrifying they truly were until now." One of the scientists mumbled out while shaking somewhat in fear.
I could only slowly nod my head to that. "In a slight way I agree with you there, however that doesn't mean they aren't without their faults."
"What do you mean?"
"They're just running at our firing lines, sure, they are attacking from different angles but is this really worth it." I explained with a shrug. "How many people are here? Thirty? forty? And yet they are throwing nearly three times that amount at us, honestly they're losing far more than they are potentially gaining." In the end they were nothing but animals reacting on instinct.
"They don't think like us, one hundred deaths to kill one threat to the hive is a completely worthwhile trade in their eyes, even if in reality it really isn't at all."
"What do you think would happen if they did function like us? In some capacity anyway." He asked and I could only stiffen slightly at the mental image that gave me.
"Then god help us all..." I muttered under my breath.
For a moment after that everything fell into a kind of rhythm, the sounds of battle filling the air all around us in a kind of chaotic song, that was until something changed all of that... "We are getting a signal over here!" Someone yelled all of a sudden immediately getting my full attention. "Just a little bit longer and I should be able to broadcast a message."
"Seems we may live through this after all." A marine who overheard that little piece of information spoke up causing a sense of hope to begin to spread outwards to each individual one after the other.
I should have known though, I should have known not to let my emotions get ahead of me like that, after all the galaxy can be a cruel and sadistic place. "Shit!"
"What is it?" I asked as I made my way over to the spotter who had yelped in alarm.
What he said as he looked through a pair of binoculars made my blood run cold. "We have more xenos coming from the southwest!"
"More?! We're barely holding them off as it is!" The man next to him hissed in frustration.
(This isn't good, we'll be completely overrun if this keeps up.) I thought to myself a little taken aback.
"Wait...?"
"What is it now?" I asked and immediately got a somewhat confused sounding answer in return.
"Are...are the bugs usually purple?"
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