_ _Sergeant Orion pov_ _
"Is everything ready for take off?" Was my only question as I turned to the one over seeing everything for me.
"We just need a few more minutes to get everyone ready sir, however we should be all set up and ready within the hour at the most." She mused and I just slowly nodded in response.
(Well that's something at least.) I muttered internally.
"Good, contact me when it's all done." I had a lot of work to do recently, as such I couldn't really afford to stay here for too long. "Oh and tell Jerry to stop cleaning his damn gun and get down here already, he is way too much of a bloody neat freak."
"With pleasure sir." She chuckled, apparently she was looking forward to carrying out that command in particular.
(I'm still not used to being called that.) I sighed, ever since my sudden and rather unexpected promotion I had been given a lot of responsibility to take care of, responsibility that was a little hard to adjust to given everything that was currently going on.
"Well whatever, it's not like I'm not doing the best I can with what I've been given." I yawned as I walked away with a slow shake of my head.
Things had been hectic to say the least, the fact that we didn't know if there were any traitors in our ranks didn't help either, after all that station didn't just bomb itself now did it. Anyway, I had been assigned to monitor the east side of the base, which just so happened to include the gathering point for our expeditions, a fact that made my job quite a bit harder considering all of the crap that I had to manage on a daily basis.
(We need a damn coffee machine.) I grumbled in thought with a slightly tired expression.
Before I could reach my next destination however a voice came over the intercoms. "Sergeant Orion to the command room, I repeat, Sergeant Orion to the command room."
"Seems like I'll have to put that expedition on hold for now." I hummed as I changed the direction I was walking. "Oh well, let's just go and see what they need."
(I'm honestly surprised at how fast we manage to get this place all up and running, Kelly really is a master of her craft.) I thought to myself as I walked through the newly repaired hallways before coming to a stop when someone called out to me.
"Over here."
"Hmmmm?" It took me a second to locate the actual source of the voice in question but after a little while though I did end up noticing my bald friend standing off to the side. "Oh hey."
Taking a moment to look him up and down I could already tell that he was currently in a rather shitty mood, he really, really did not enjoy his new position. In fact while I may have had far more work then him overall, he was far more stressed out then I was at the moment, after all Marcus was not the leadership type. He, in fact, hated being responsible for others in any kind of substantial way, however despite his misgivings over it all he still reluctantly did the job that he had been given, not out of pleasure or enjoyment but because he understood our current situation far too well.
"So you got called over here too?" I asked and he nodded.
"Yep."
"So I'm guessing that you don't know what's going on then either?"
"Not a fucking clue." He responded with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"Fair enough." I mused before grinning slightly and asking. "Soooo...how has the promotion been treating you?"
The annoyed and fed up look that he gave me was enough to get the point across. "That bad?"
"You have no idea..."
With that said we continued on our way in silence for the most part, I did speak up once or twice though when the quiet atmosphere started to get a little awkward. Eventually however we arrived at a large metal door with what looked to be a keypad built into the wall next to it, without much ceremony I typed in the passcode and the door opened to reveal a rather futuristic looking command room.
"So then, why the hell are we here?" Marcus asked as we noticed Ava and Samuel looking up at a hanging monitor.
"We have received a distress signal." Ava mused without looking back at us.
Hearing what he said I couldn't help but get a little curious. "From who exactly?"
"Take a look and see for yourself." Samuel muttered as he nodded towards one of the many command staff that were currently in the room with us.
After a moment a somewhat distorted video began to play. "This is Head Director James Watson of research outpost RC-1681 broadcasting on all accessible frequencies."
"Damn...he is still alive?" Marcus was a little surprised by that fact, not that I could really blame him, after all we all thought that the director had died in the crash along with most of the crew.
"I am broadcasting this message from an active battle zone were I and several dozen survivors are currently fighting for our lives, we are of course requesting immediate assistance from anyone who may be hearin-." The message became momentarily filled with distorted audio for a moment as what I believed to be a grenade went off in the distance, of course the video resumed shortly after though. "Things are...well, hectic to say the least, in fact there should be visual aid attached to this broadcast that I believe would help you understand the dire situation we find ourselves within."
Suddenly the screen that had up until this point been showing a fuzzy and hard to make out image of a person, who I assumed was the director, took a shift. The video now showed a battlefield, marines firing off into the surroundings while those without any weapons ran back and forth carrying ammunition and other such supplies to those that desperately needed them. However though it wasn't the people fighting for their continued survival that truly got my attention, no, no in fact what really pulled most of my focus was the xenomorphs that were viciously slaughtering one another off in the distance.
One side was made of the normal black xenomorphs that we were all so used to seeing at this point and the other side, well, it was made up of dark violet xenomorphs that could have only originated from one being. I honestly had to take a second to fully process the carnage that was being displayed before me.
It was a truly horrific sight indeed, especially when you took into account that neither side seemed to care much at all for their own lives as they ripped each other to pieces limb from limb with their own bare hands. They tore, bit and mangled each other with a ravenous and single minded animalistic fury that proved exactly why certain groups were attempting to weaponize them, however it also showed exactly why most of those plans ended in complete disaster.
"Our mystery bug is still alive it seems..." Marcus muttered, taken aback by what he was looking at, a fact that I could only nod and agree with.
"I can see that..."
"The images that you are currently seeing now are not fake in the slightest, we are in fact currently sandwiched in the middle of two warring xenomorph factions." While we were still in a somewhat dazed state the message continued on without pause in the background.
"Why the heck are the bugs fighting each other?" Someone asked and Ava was the first to answer me.
"I guess the purple one from the station must have escaped somehow and started up a hive as well, they must be rather pissed off about the fact that their grandma kicked them out of the family." She joked half heartedly but her face for the most part was completely serious.
"We are also in possession of crucial information that must be delivered to the top, as such our current coordinates are attached to this message, so please hurr-!" It was around this time that the message blurred once again before cutting out completely.
"Well...shit." I muttered while taking a step backwards.
Things were silent for a little while after that, in fact it was Marcus who spoke up first afterwards. "Can't we just nuke them?"
"First, we don't have any nukes on hand. And second, we clearly have people that are within the area, people we need to save." The boss man in charge answered, a fact that quickly dashed my friend's hopes.
"Such a damn shame..." He sighed causing Ava to chuckle somewhat.
"Oh don't be such a bitch."
(Things are about to get a hell of a lot more interesting it seems...) I thought with a shake of my head.
"Fuck it, let's just get this over with."
I rolled my eyes and smiled at that. "Well if he isn't the walking definition of enthusiasm I don't know what is."
"I know right, I've never seen him this excited before." Ava nodded with a grin.
"Just look at that shining smile." Even Mercer joined in a little. "I might just go blind at this rate."
"Fuck you all..."