Latro Venator

Drifting slowly through the dark abyss of space, the 9th Colonial Marine Division, slept, frozen, in the bowels of the Messor Lamna. Water vapour crystallised on the outer hull, clouding the insignia of the glorious marine corp. Stars glittered in the distance, the behemoth planets stood proud from the void and still the Lamna slid onward. A deep resonant ringing flooded the chryo-deck of the Lamna. One after an other the smooth, cocoon like pods, haemorrhaged gas and vapour as they eerily slid open. I opened my eyes groggily as the effects of the sleep wore off. Sarge Apone was already out and blaring orders at us grunts, fortunately the chryo-sleep had deadened my senses and his shouting only came through as a faint buzz. Through the searing blaze of the Halo lights, I made out the other troops falling out of their tubes, Toolman, Psijudge and Predkiller to name a few.
A few minutes later I was reminded of another thing I LOVED about the core, the shit food. The white gelatinous mixture oozed from my spoon into the rather unwilling receptacle of my mouth. Halfway through swallowing an almighty blast shook the canteen and warning claxons permeated the atmosphere. Mothers voice came through on the com, the ship is going down, "will the duty pilot please report to the flight deck" in the calm, meticulous way only a computer or synth can achieve. As I was the duty pilot I sprinted down smoke filled corridors, orange stripes flashed across my face form the warning lights. In the cockpit all hell had been let loose, the CPU screens were showing all systems un-operational and the space lane we were meant to be gliding through was miles away. Slipping into the seat I began to frantically pound at the controls to steady the ship and save the crew. No such luck, a planet loomed out of the view-screen as we spiralled into its atmosphere. "Whats going on Hex?" the sarges voice demanded over the intercom, "were goin down sir, theres nothing I can do about it except slow us down, I repeat we are crashing!!" I screamed over the com as I once again began to fight with the giant bulk of the ship. Our synthetic came in, a giant brute named Brecca, the telltale metallic strips around his throat portraying him as a combat droid. "Brecca, take control, Im checking on Mother". Without even a gesture of acknowledgement the droid grabbed the control stick and began to take over. Once again sprinting through the tube like corridors as I headed to Mothers mainframe to find out what happened. I rounded the corner and there it was, Mother in all its glory, sitting down I began to surf through her memory banks to find the anomalous incident that had left us crippled. An other explosion sounded throughout the deck and sparks glittered up towards the roof of the cavernous mainframe. The green words were the only illumination on the deck as they retold the story of the incident.

AT 08.30 hours, A ROGUE COMET COLLIDED WITH THE HULL, CAUSING MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS. MAJOR SYSTEMS WERE TAKEN OFF LINE:
NAVIGATION, WEAPONS, SHIELDS, ENGINES.
MESSOR LAMNA NOW ON COLLISION COURSE WITH LV X12653
--- END OF LINE ---

Now I knew. Fate had left us stranded. With fear I realised that if we survived the crash it would be several weeks before we were reported missing. After reporting to Apone, I walked morosely back to the flight deck to relieve Brecca.
In the cockpit the situation was the same, we were still heading for the planet but Brecca had managed to slow us down. "Sarge, lock down, its gonna be a bumpy landing"
"Roger Hexamine". As we entered the atmosphere flames rushed around the hull and melted our antenna array, we were now officially alone. The clouds and flames parted before the Lamnar as we exited the atmosphere, the ground rushed up to meet us. Brecca was using his artificial strength to straighten us out, but it was no good. I was strapping in. Trying to open the landing gear. Trying to save our lives. "Whats goin on???"
"Not now Sarge, Im busy" BANG. We smashed into the bedrock, bounced, BANG, crashed again. I could hear twisting metal as the engines of the ship were ripped off and exploded. The crash nearly ripped my chair out of its brackets and jarred my teeth. Brecca just sat there in his cool, synth like way. CRASH, as we slammed into a cliff face the last thing I remembered was that cool, calculating look on Breccas face as the darkness surrounded me.

I come to and hear the sound of wind rustling leaves, green light filters through the canopy of leaves and I hear whispered conversation a little way off. Looking down I can see my leg in a sling and I didnt know how it got there. While I was inspecting myself Psijudge wandered over and noticed I was awake, "hey hex, thought wed lost you for a minute there, but my medical genius pulled you through" he said sarcastically. "Why'd you bother, Im in a shit state"
"Its not that bad, just a slight fracture" he reassured me. "I guess youll want to know what happened after your less than text-book landing???"
"Sure why not." I said in a painful grunt. "Well, after the crash the Lamnar was wrecked, you were lucky to survive, Brecca got a rock through him but hes still operational, sort of. In the cargo hold where the rest of us were it was bloody scary, explosions, bits of metal flying around. A shard of glass took Hudsons head off and Dietrich was burnt to death, but the rest of us were fine. We got a camp set up out here and began to salvage what we could from the Lamnar. Sarge announced you dead. He didnt know how wrong he was, he still doesnt now. We only got you out 5 minutes ago. We were near the bridge when we heard Brecca bashing his way out through the blast door. We opened them and found you there, unconscious with a snapped leg. And that brings us to here."
"yes?? you always did have a great ability to char a guy up." i said sarcastically. "I'd better see the sarge then". Walking over i spotted the dominating figure of sarge Apone, sat on a tree trunk casually lighting his cigar on a flamethrower. never known for saying much he asked me, "you allright?"
"yes sir".
"Then move out, we gotta scout the area, go with toolmans squad". And that was that. Over by the wreckage of an APC i saw Brecca handing out armaments. Reaching towards him i grabbed my trusty pulserifle, the barrel scored with so many kill marks it felt like sandpaper. Cocking my pistol i chose the AP rounds. That was me ready to move out, encased in a bulletproof titanium vest, state of the bad ass art.

As always we walked in single file, scoring the dense jungle with our motion sensors. There were no individuals, just the Unit; we all reacted as one, what one knew all knew. Because of this bond, the sense of uneasiness was insinuated in each man, we all knew something was wrong but we didnt know what. Not yet anyway. Suddenly the man in front of me stopped, looking forward I saw Toolman had stopped dead in the centre of the track with his fist clenched, the signal to stop. After a minute we were still stood there, still as statues. Easing my way forward towards Toolman I could see the fear on everyones faces, we were no longer one, we were a group of scared soldiers, if we were attacked, God knows what would happen. "Hey Toolman", I whispered in his ear, "whats wrong?"
"I saw something Hex". He said, his voice not portraying a hint of emotion. "You cant have, the sensors didnt pick anything up". I reassured him. "Hex. Trust me. I saw something. It looked like. It looked like a. Bug". SHIT!! I swore to myself. Bugs were the worst, fast as lightning and twice as deadly. "Are you sure?? Toolman. ARE YOU SURE??" I asked frantically. He simply replied yes. We were in trouble they were never alone, always a hive, always a Queen, always more. "Right we get back to base, dont tell them what happened the situations bad enough as it is" I suggested, "Agreed" turning around he made his way to the back of the patrol. When he was halfway there, my sensor let out a wail, and in the same instant a drone dived out of the foliage, skewered a marine with its razor sharp claws and took off back into the jungle. It happened so fast we were all in shock at what we had seen. "COME ON SHOOT THE BASTARD!!!" Toolmans voice rang out, tearing me away from my own little world of terror. Plunging into the trees we gave chase. Twigs and leaves were snapping at us. Whipping us like we were prisoners of a torture chamber. Detecting motion on the sensor we all stopped, we were one again; the death of the marine had packed us together. We all knew that if you were alone, you were dead. We all had our own horror stories of xenomorphs. Peering through the undergrowth I could see the alien. The drone was slowly tearing open Gormans chest. His entrails were spilled out on the floor and his legs jerked spasmodically. To my left I heard the tell tale crack of a pulse rifle being cocked. At the sound, the aliens head jerked up and the remains of Gormans thorax dribbled off its face. Disgusted at the sight I charged forward, my pulse rifle blazing as round after round exited the barrel and shattered against the aliens armoured carapace. "Its a praetorian!!!!" the cry rang around the clearing. Hearing this every marine pulled his pistol and began to unleash a volley of AP rounds at the beast. Seeing our numbers the praetorian sprang into the air, tore through two more marines and had it away through the forest. Reaching Gorman, I saw he was still alive, but he was loosing blood fast. He sought to get eye contact with me and in their misty depths I saw his silent plea. Raising my pistol I aimed at his head and fired a single shot through his brain, ending his pain. Toolman came over, "I would of done the same" he said placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, shrugging it off I looked at him, my face a twisted contortion of anger. "I am going to head into that forest, find the son of a bitch alien that did this and put my fist through its head". He looked at me and he saw vengeance on my face and in my eyes. "You go do what you gotta do".

As I watched the rest of my patrol disappear I heard Toolman call out, "remember, we leave no one behind". With that I was alone but those 6 words filled my heart with hope. Turning my back on them I cocked both weapons, pistol and pulse rifle. Tightened my armour. Reset my motion sensor. Looked towards the sky. Offered a prayer to the gods. Looked at Gormans corpse. Felt the anger well up inside me. I ran into the darkness of the forest. Turned my back on the light. Turned my back on my own safety. In the forest my whole perception had to change, I could no longer jump at every sound, freeze at very detection of movement. The aliens tracks were easy to pick up. There were rising clouds of smoke from where its wounds were spilling its acidic blood. Around me animals were running for cover as I crept past. Ahead I could here muffled growling noises. In a tree ahead the bug was resting, hanging upside down from one of the branches. Spying this I snook forward my pulse rifle extended in front of me. As I only had normal rounds I had to be close for them to penetrate its armour. When I was a couple of metres away I could see I had made a fatal mistake. The xenomorphs head snaked towards me and its second mouth slid out of its gullet. When its head was a few inches from mine it reared back to strike. Finally realising what had happened I swung my rifle up and blasted several shots through its chin. As the rounds penetrated its shell green blood shot from the holes as the alien fell to the floor. The noise from the shots rang around the clearing and scared away all the indigenous life. Standing still in shock, the acidic drops fell onto my boot and began to mercilessly eat its way through my toes. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH", screaming in agony I fell to the floor. Looking down at what remained of my foot I knew there was nothing I could do as the chemicals finished their trip through my foot.

As I writhed on the ground I saw a black shape in my peripheral vision. As it got nearer the image swam into perspective. The drones head swung to and fro as it smelt me out. Looking round it spotted the dead carcass of the praetorian and turned, baring its teeth, to me. In mortal dread I tried desperately to reach for my pulse rifle that I had flung away in my agonised throes. Sensing my helplessness the alien seemed to cherish the moment. It seemed to be grinning down at me as its razor edged claws lowered slowly to my head. An almighty crashing spun both mine and the aliens head around. To my everlasting praise, Toolman sprang out of the greenery, the muzzle of his smart gun blazing like the sun as it emptied hundreds of rounds into the aliens body. As the xenomorph fell to the soil, Toolman pulled me to my feet and started to drag me back to the crash site. "Why'd you come back???". I managed to ask. "What did I say marine???"