Holly glanced up briefly from tapping at the keyboard with great speed. "Some." She was no prodigy, and had a thinly concealed dislike for weapons, but she could hit a target reasonably well and could avoid having a weapon explode in her face. "Computers are more my thing."

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Carson reloaded the pistol he had been using and the one Michele had handed him.
"Ready?" he asked Michele. With both of them, they could get past the inside doors to the lower levels. A lockdown needed three access codes to open an inside door. (Outside doors, those were a different story.) Carson had two access codes memorized-his own, and another that he wasn't supposed to know. Michele would have her own code. They were set.

*glares* Them's fighting words, LDM!!!!

------

Winter shook his head to try and clear out the bells he could hear ringing somewhere in his skull. Thanfield might think it was fun to set off loud grenades within deafening-range of his superiors, but it decidedly annoyed Winter. So too did the little alien that lunged at him a moment later.

Winter got angry. No need to remind himself not to smile anymore--first he has a grenade go off far too close, and then aliens start snapping at him? It was too much. No fighting chance for these little aliens, not on his watch.

He aimed his autorifle, the bullets effectively ripping the small Bhorki to shreds. He shifted his aim. Thanfield had several aliens attacking him, snapping at him with their too-large jaws, so Winter fired at them, too. If some of the bullets that killed the Bhorki got a little close to Thanfield, well, the man had just set off a grenade by him. He deserved some form of retribution.

He stepped backwards as one of the annoying little creatures tried latching onto his face. Grabbing it by the neck, he squeezed. He was angry. This thing had tried to bite him, and he wasn't even smiling. He squeezed harder. Just when he began to hear bones creaking in the eel-like alien, he came up with a better idea. He shifted his grip and grabbed the thing by the tail. It naturally tried coiling and biting his hand, but he swung it fast enough that the centrifugal force uncoiled it again. Then it hit the wall, with an extremely satisfying thunk. It didn't move again.

_________________

((Hmm... Lesee... AH! There we are...))

Michele nodded with a quick sigh,

"As ready as I'll ever be. Now lets just get out of here before we drown." Michele looked down with a scowl at the water flooding around her waist, "And to think that this is the same water that- Oh, nevermind." With a slightly disgusted shake of her head, she punched in her code number. "Dial 'em up and lets go."

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Winter clutched the tail of the formerly annoying alien, smiling as he looked at the bodies of several others that he had clubbed down with it. It was very satisfying, looking at the corpses. It was even more satisfying swinging the body of the first into the others--it was fun, even, especially if he occasionally hit Thanfield on the backstrokes, which weren't as hard.

It was so much fun, in fact, that he wasn't feeling that angry anymore. Incredible, he thought. The aliens were like little stress-relievers--just grab one and swing it by its tail into various things, and stress just vanished.

"I gotta get me one of these," he muttered, using the commonly-used phrase in an uncommon manner. Hefting the Bhorki, he was just slinging it over his shoulder to take it with him when the station lurched. Standing by the wall, Winter wouldn't have fallen if he hadn't been facing it. With a loud thud, his face collided with the unyielding wall (rats--I can't think of a synonym for wall right now).

He was trying to count the stars around his head when he realized that he was now lying prostrate.

"Disgusting," he muttered as he stood up. He had landed on top of the Bhorki corpse, which not being fully-developed, had split open. Now he had alien guts over the front of his uniform. It looked like he had thrown up. Still, he wasn't planning on taking his girlfriend out on a date today, so it should be fine.

Of course, there was still the matter of something bad happening while he wasn't smiling.

"Sarge, what was that?" he asked, unsure of how he should react, beyond complaining some more about the alien guts all over him.

_________________

As soon as the climax battle heat had abated slightly, Thanfield was methodically brushing himself off and reloading his handgun. He was just in the process of gingerly extracting something that looked like blasted Bhorki lung off his chest, when he happened to glance up.

Something hard and chitinous hit him square in the face, sending him sprawling.

If today had been one of his luckier days he would have been fine with skidding across the smooth titanium floor, but as chances would have it, luck happily booted him across the corridor to contact a hard metal wall. Literally. The splat was quite satisfiying as well. Now if this had really been one his luckier days, he could have gotten to his feet well enough to throw another smirk at Winter.

And then the entire space station lurched, sending his sorry arse right back to the ground.

Cursing soundly, he climbed shakily back to his feet - deciding as he did so that it was bad luck to smirk at Corporal Dafyd Winter - and instead threw him a cheery smile. The taut effect resembled something like a lockjaw. Eyes still riveted on his superior, he tapped his handgun ominously before whipping around and striding over to the console. He opened up perimeter surveillance. "Sergeant," he reported, glancing over at Cortez. "You should have a look at this."

On the screen, the camera panned over the monotonous gray... craters... dust... a tripod... more craters... A tripod? The thing, at least thirty feet tall, came across the camera's field of vision again. It locked its blinking red pincers under the foundations of the station. The station complained with another lurch. Even as the marines watched, the belly of the Bhorki mother ship spawned yet another of the mechanical monsters. Its three feet landed on the dusty terrain with a titanic thud. Its blinking head swiveled around. Locked on the camera.

Surveillance crackled, then went black.

_________________

Holly clutched suddenly at the edge of the desk as the station tilted, sending the computer crashing to the floor where it made a fizzling sound in the three inches of water or so that still remained. She muttered something uncomplimentary under her breath and staggered unsteadily to her feet, wristwatch computer beeping urgently.

Holly inspected what the miniature screen showed and her eyes widened. "Our foundations appear to be not quite as strong as we'd though."

_________________

Carson quickly punched in his own code, paused a second to let it register, then entered the second. The doors slid open, and water rushed into the nearly empty hallway.
Suddenly, the entire base shook. Carson stumbled, grabbing a wall to steady himself.

"Well, it'll have to do." Alanna emphatically placed an autorifle in front of Holly, then turned to try and organize some sort of defensive positioning.

She was interrupted by the lab, which groaned and tilted approximately ten degrees toward lunar north.

Decidedly abnormal.

Loose equipment crates slid over the floor, followed ponderously by desks. Fortunately, the room - and presumably station - shifted again, preventing them from doing any harm. For now.

"Back to your places," she called, reaching for a radio that had slid by. Handgun in one hand, radio in the other, she began flipping through the frequencies, hoping that someone, anyone, outside the CSEA lab was still alive. "This is CSEA, I repeat, Chronotronic Systems Engineering and Analysis; is anyone out there? Repeat, come in, come in." She sent the same message several times, trying to discern variations in the heavy static that might indicate a responsive radio.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Still tapping furiously at her keyboard, now a hologram in midair for lack of a sufficiently solid surface to project itself onto, Holly swiftly zoomed through the frequencies herself. Channel five, four radios with unkown signatures. "Five," she reported aloud. "Channel five, four units. Unidentified but originally from Earth, so not alien."

She slung the air rifle's strap over her shoulder, should it be needed in the near future.

_________________

Just as Thanfield reached the bottom of the ramp and began moving to flank Cortez, his radio crackled to life. ""...is CSEA... Systems Engineering and Analysis... anyone out there? ...come in..."

"I read you, CSEA. This is Private Riley Thanfield of TG41B Marine Detachment. Position - at bottom of Ramp D. Wait out." And here he disregarded the radio to get back in sync with Cortez opening fire. The first ranks of brutes, disorganized and disoriented by bloodlust as they were, went down without protest. They hit the knee-deep water with musical splashes, their plasma-inflicted wounds sending iron-tinged steam into the air.

But more Bhorki, enticed by the carnage, were swarming in with every barrage. "Sergeant, we don't have time for this!" Thanfield shouted over the din. "We should make a beeline for it!"

_________________

"I read you.... This is ... Thanfield of TG41B Marine ...Position ...Ramp D. Wait..." The static was thick, and the group of ten techies, engineer, and scientist could barely make out the words. Just before the transmission cut out entirely, there was a burst of crackling that was definitly not static - somebody was doing something to someone else, and it was probably violent.

Alanna bit her lip. "Alright, folks. Flank the door and be ready for whatever tries to get in, but do not fire until I give the word. We don't want to hit friendlies." She fiddled with the radio, trying to improve the channel's reception. Gradually, she got the static to fade to a tolerable murmur.

_________________


<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Carson's radio crackled in his pocket as he and Michele quickly walked down the hallway. He pulled it out and turned it up, in time to hear, "...Analysis. Is anyone...come in..." He caught part of a reply. "There's marines outside." he said to Michele. That was some good news, at least. Into his radio, he said, "This is Carson Reid, scientist. Michele Deriecho, scientist is with me. We're making for your position. Over."

They stormed up the ramp in spearhead formation, Cortez on point, Thanfield and Winter covering sides and rear. Guns blazing the entire way, they blasted aside any dimwit Bhorki with the stupidity to venture out from cover - numbering only around an army or so, taking into consideration their intelligence or lack of it.

They hit the top of the ramp and halted at a corner. Thanfield risked a peek around and was met by a bloodied corridor the Bhorki had decided to convert into a mess hall. The menu special? Human flesh. Swallowing his bile, Thanfield extracted another plasma grenade - he and Winter had stuffed their packs well - and sent it around the corner. It detonated on impact, pretty much destroying the dinner banquet.

Breaking out from cover once again, the marines finished off the stragglers. At the end of the corridor was a single reinforced door labeled "CSEA Lab." Thanfield whipped out his radio. "CSEA, this is Private Thanfield. Preparing to rendezvous. Is your position secure?"

_________________

Alanna heard the messages with relief. "This is CSEA. We copy, Reid. I'd advise you to make it fast. There are two entrances," she added for everyone's benefit. The main entrance, and the fire escape door, which is harder to access. We're secure and armed. Is there anything you need us to do?" Finally, people who knew what they were doing!

_________________


<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Michele sighed in relief, only to be replaced with rushed fear as she heard a crackle on Carson's radio. "I advise you to make it fast." Closing her eyes for a second to catch her breath, Michele headed down the corridor.

"The sooner we leave this soggy, alien infested mess the better. Come on."

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen