Carson caught the pistol and put the belt on. He joined her at the compartment, grabbing more ammo for the guns.
"I haven't heard anything about the aliens." he said. "All I know is what I've seen of them. Communications are down, along with just about everything except life support. It's probably all chaos around here."

(ok, let's see, 'portal room' was kinda boring, so I was calling it the CSEA lab - acronym for something like 'chronotronic systems engineering and analysis lab')

Alanna and the tech pounded up to the door of the CSEA lab, only to find it locked. "Blazes!" The engineer shifted the rack on her shoulder to free a hand, punching in her security codes on the the small keypad by the door. The heavy, reinforced steel swung open, and they carried the weapons rack through. Setting it down, they re-locked the door.

"Morris," Alanna called, not yet noticing the new occupant of the lab, "you've got door duty. The rest of you - yes, you, too, Dr. Yenkovich - gear up. We're not giving my baby up without a fight."

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

"You could have just knocked," said Holly testily, looking up from her mini-computer. "'Holly, open the door, it's Alanna,' and there you go."

She seemed to be in a decidedly bad mood. All her attempts to hack at the rest of the files had been futile. "And since when is the Portal your baby?"

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Alanna looked up from distributing the weapons. She ran an eye over the younger woman ... blonde ponytail, intelligent eyes ... who was she? She'd met her once or twice, she knew.

Ah, yes. Taelor. She didn't know which lab the woman was with - and she looked like she should still be in school. She also seemed to think that they were somewhat familiar. "I'm sorry?" Alanna asked sharply, disliking the hostile tone.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

Oh. Holly seemed to have temporarily forgotten that this was Alanna, who stcrictly speaking had only met her once or twice. "Never mind," she sighed, turning back to the computer and inwardly feeling rather irritated. Yes, she was twenty-one and a biologist on the moon. So what?

Her temporary air of annoyance, however, was dissipated when a message flashed up on screen. Access Granted to CSEA Lab Files. Holly punched the air, now grinning slightly. Major breakthrough here.

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"We should get to the lower levels." Carson said. "That's where Holly's headed, and I don't think as many aliens could get down there."

I'm not getting any creative nudges for this RPG right now, sorry. I'll see about making sure that my next post is nice and long, though.

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Winter crouched in a niche in the wall, across from Thanfield, in the identical niche on the other side. He was still glaring, but it was starting to affect his mood. He wasn't having as much fun. If he couldn't smile, he couldn't enjoy himself as much, yet if he smiled, he definitely wouldn't enjoy himself as much. Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, his glare momentarily changed to an expression of shock.

"What are you doing Thanfield?" he hissed, his expression returning to the glare. The Private had smirked. It wasn't exactly a smile, but it was close enough, maybe. It wasn't worth the risk. "Haven't you caught on, Private?" he asked. "Don't smile, or do anything similar to a smile. If you do, you might as well give yourself up for lost."

Of course, there was always the chance that smiling only affected him and the Bhorki, in which case, Thanfield and Sarge were fine regardless of what they did.

That thought led to another one--if the smiling only affected him and the Bhorki, and not anybody else, why? Was he somehow similar to the ugly insectoid aliens? He knew he wasn't particularly handsome, but he hadn't thought it was that bad.

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At first Thanfield thought he really was doing something wrong, to which the fastidious soldier's heartbeat caught in his throat and he hastily analyzed his recent actions for any breech of procedure. But then Winter mentioning something about a smile jolted him back to earth. Oh. And this advice was coming from the genius who needed a Private to put him back in line?

He broadened his smirk just to mock Winter, then, cocking his plasma gun, settled into the cranny to wait. In came the Bhorki, waddling around the corner with its ducklings in tow. He recognized it by the still-sizzling hole in the middle of its bulky chest. The spawning hadn't benefited its ugly face one bit. Hell, he even made Winter look the part of Prince Charming. (jk, jk ) Muscles tensing, he glanced at Cortez for the signal.

Now.

Just as the alien was about to strut on past, Thanfield's plasma grenade bounced along the floor right in front of it. He tucked himself in for the explosion.

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Alanna ran a quick inventory, wishing that she had actual military experience - or that someone in here did... which they didn't. Everyone in the lab now had a handgun, but that probably wouldn't be enough. There was a limited amount of autorifles - but their use required a certain amount of training. Most of the mid-level occupants of the station - administrators, scientists, engineers - had to undergo a basic orientation in defense before coming on board the program, but how many remembered it was an entirely different question. Alanna had a mild obsession with weapons, but that didn't hold for everyone.

"Hey." The engineer tapped on the desk in front of Holly Taelor, to get her attention. "Do you have rifle training?"

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

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.

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((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.

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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.

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