Bug Hunt

Chapters

1 - Another Glorious Day in the Corps
2 - Pre-OP Preparations
3 - Combat Drop
4 - Uninvited Guests
Prologue - The USCSS Alhambra files

1 - Another Glorious Day in the Corps

I had been called to this impromptu "meeting" an hour before my psyche evaluation. It was not much of a meeting room, just a table, a couple of chairs and a large video screen with a typical Wey-Yu logo on it that was calmly spinning. A company man as well as a doctor were the only ones present.

"What you're about to see doesn't officially exist, either for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, or the Colonial Marine Corps. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand."

The shadowed, spectacled figure in the business suit motioned over next to the large video screen in front of me. A grainy, washed out video began to filter in.

"This is just a small snippet from about an hour of footage we managed to recollect from the operation on LV-426. It was all we got before the transmitter stationed on board their APC lost the relay signal. I am showing this to you because you're the only one that is currently enlisted with the Marines that also had family stationed on Acheron. You have the right to know what happened."

I nod, not knowing what to expect. I was in for a surprise...

... the video slightly cleared up now, showing the helmet cam footage from the perspective of another Marine this time. My stomach has finally decided to stop doing loop-the-loops. This Marine is "CPL D. HICKS," the name at the bottom corner tells me. They all had their infrared visors flipped down and their motion trackers out. They were looking out for something after what had just occurred.

"He's right, there's nothing back here!" The Corporal says.

A panicked voice from another Marine responds, "Look, I'm tellin' ya! There's something moving and it ain't us! Tracker's off-scale, man. They're all around us, man! Jesus..."

A female voice suddenly speaks. I later find out that it was their squad's medic.

"Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all..."

The company Medic was suddenly screaming her head off as she was snatched by one of the creatures.

A Private was then caught in the middle of a blast from the Medic's flamethrower that she panic-fired. He collapsed down a stairwell to his death. All of their ammunition, which had been collected into a bag for safe keeping by the now-expired Private had caught fire.

"C'MON!" The company Corporal screamed. Grabbing a Marine by the shoulder, he tried to get two of them away from the fires.

The bag exploded.

I could see them both get thrown by the blast. One of the squad mates standing next to them got a face full of shrapnel.

Everyone, from their Sergeant to their Lieutenant began squawking over the radio demanding answers.

"Jesus Christ, Apone! What is going on?!"

"Wierzbowski and Crowe are down!"

"Dietrich! Frost! Sound off!"

The last words the Corporal screamed was the last name of the Marine he tried to help. That Marine had suddenly vanished, with a voice in the background somewhere yelling in a panic.

"Wierzbowski!? WIERZBOWSKI!?"

The screen suddenly went black, and then back to the spinning Wey-Yu logo. The company man had packed up his materials and was already heading to the door.

"That's all I'm permitted to show you. I'm sorry. Good day, Mister Steedman."

"Rise and shine, Marines!"

I opened my eyes. I snapped back to reality.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Your pesky little Shih Tzu to bring you your slippers and the morning paper? Come on, let's go. Up and at 'em! Assembly's in briefing room two in thirty mikes!"

The Costaguana.

Right.

I'm still on the Costaguana. I had left gateway with the rest of the Battalion a month ago.

I motioned my hands up to my face, the first activity they've seen since we were all put to bed as we left the core solar system, and rub the three-week crust off that had accumulated. It was that footage that got me put on IR and taken off of the search and rescue mission for the Sulaco, the ship that was supposed to be taking the remaining survivors home. That's what got me replaced on the mission I was supposed to go on to get some solid answers to just what exactly happened in Hadley's Hope.

“God damn it all...” I mumbled with a croak.

I got up from the hypersleep pod and hung my legs over the side. I fought the urge to vomit, however it was increasingly difficult with the Private across from me hurling into a barf bag. The fluorescent lights slightly flickered above me as I crane my neck up to the ceiling, a small series of pops sounding off along my vertebra as I stretch. I can hear the steps of standard issue boots coming towards my pod. I crane my neck back down slightly until I am face to face with Sergeant Val.

"Steedman."

"Ye-" I stopped mid-word as I coughed loudly, and swallow to clear out my throat. I hadn't spoken in almost a month, after all.

"Yeah Sarge, what's up?" I manage to eke out.

"You gonna sit there all day, or do I have to motivate you to get-a-steppin'? C'mon Marcus, hop to it."

"Sure thing, Sarge."

Val turned and goes back to checking out the others as I get up on to my feet. Walking is a significant challenge at the moment as I stumbled over to my locker. They often describe waking from a long hypersleep as a combination of being hung over and seriously jet lagged. While this isn't my first taste of two or three-week hypersleep, you never seem to get used to it. I approached my locker and flip up the latch on the door. It opens, and I peer inside to the mirror as an unshaven, ghastly mug stared back at me.

I recall back to simpler times, back before I had just the Corps to rely on. I had Sarah McNeil, but she was just your typical Martian valley girl, anyway. Far too interested in wasting money and drinking booze than anything else, like most of Mars' upper class. Just a bunch of spoiled rotten terrans that do nothing but reap the benefits of the terraforming industry that guys like me help keep intact these days.

As I began to get into my BDUs after cleaning up my hair and face, I thought back to that relationship I had with Sarah. It was a fun three months I had on Mars with her and her college buddies. The sex was good at first, but as time went by, I slowly kind of recognized that she was only out to get me to please her daddy, who I heard always wanted a son that would grow up to join the Military. I tried to make the relationship more than just going out to fancy bars and restaurants, and then heading back to my apartment to fuck the night away, but I quickly realized that she had little to no interest in the real me. She wanted the embrace and strength of a soldier, but none of the other baggage that came with it.

I finished getting ready, grab my pack of Marleys, closed my locker and began the trek to the briefing room.

I've got to get into the right mindset again. I've got to get it through my thick skull that what happened on LV-426 stays on LV-426, and move on to the mission at hand. The pressure door to the main corridor opens, and I begin the walk to the conference room.

It's day break in Equestria. After another successful night overseeing the kingdom from the balcony outside her room, Princess Luna stood from her blanket and stretched in a very un-Royal manner. She sighed as her back is relieved from the ever-so slight tension that had been gathering up throughout the evening. Giggling could suddenly be heard behind her as she immediately stood upright and spun around to see who it was that dared to mock her stretching.

Luna stopped herself as she saw her older sister standing in the balcony doorway.

"Hmmhm, another quiet night as usual, little sister?"

"Tia! Please do not do that! We have been so accustomed to the quiet night that any sudden noise can startle us so."

Celestia raises an eyebrow and approaches, "Now Luna, what did we learn about Majestic plurals?"

Luna pauses, "... Oh! Um... that they're outdated and no longer necessary?"

"Precisely."

"Oh, sorry Tia," Luna sighed, "But it's just something we- er, I mean, I need to get re-accustomed to."

Celestia laughed as she joins her sister's side on the balcony, "Well, at least you didn't use the traditional Canterlot voice on me. I'm glad you were able to work out that little issue before more castle servants ended up losing their hearing."

"Now I told you, I already apologized to Chef Tall Order and Scarlett Note for that little, 'misunderstanding.' It was partially your fault, after all."

"And I apologized as well," Celestia stated, "I had no idea that those earmuffs were so effective... and unnoticeable when I placed them around your ears."

Both sisters think back to last month, when Celestia had levitated a set of magically-powered earmuffs onto an unsuspecting Luna as a small joke, who happened to be lounging in her room at the time. Tall Order came into the room to deliver Luna's dinner, and when Luna couldn't hear that Order was telling her a simple, "Bon Appétit," nor that she could hear her own voice, she cranked it up so loud that the entire Northern wing of the castle nearly shook off the foundation. Order was blown out of the room and into the hallway, where Luna's secretary Scarlett Note happened to be walking to her bed chambers for the evening. Scarlett rushed into Luna's chambers, asking what in Equestria was wrong, and was promptly shot out as well.

Both suffered from serious ear damage that was, luckily, treated with old healing solutions left over from when the traditional Canterlot voice was still commonly used. The whole ordeal awoke Shining Armor and Cadance, who were in the completely opposite side of the castle. They rushed over to find Celestia and Luna wrestling each other, with Celestia trying to get the earmuffs off of Luna's head, and Luna practically screaming at her older sister about what this whole thing was about.

Both sisters audibly sighed.

"Luna, what's done is done. Don't worry so much about the past, as you can only make your own fate in the future."

Luna turned to her older sister, "While I understand, lately I have been thinking about my future, and what it entails."

Celestia knelt onto her haunches, motioning Luna to do the same, "Oh?"

"It's just that, I feel like an extra cart wheel around the castle. I don't do much of anything besides raise and lower the moon, and watch over the night. You on the other hand, take care of treaty signings, Hospital visits, your personal teaching sessions at the School for Gifted Unicorns, the tax audits-"

"Luna, it's not like I'm just sitting on my throne all day having a good time. Some of those, well actually, mostly those awful tax audits, are rather tedious jobs that are necessary tasks to keep the country stable. I don't understand, right now you have a life I would beg endlessly for!"

Luna suddenly stood on all fours, "Sister, that's the thing! I don't want this life, I want yours! This life I currently lead is so... so..." Celestia eyed her younger sibling curiously as Luna struggled to find the right word. Finally, Luna exclaimed-

"So BORING! It's so boring I cannot even think of a more clever or colorful adjective to describe it! At least you have things to do besides your given talent." Luna turned and looked out over the kingdom, the sun now in its full stride for its daily trek across the sky, "My stars, the least you could have let me done was fly to the Badlands to see what in Equestria that object was that fell from the sky a month ago."

Celestia sighed, shook her head and stood up with a look of disapproval on her face, "Luna, my dear sister, it's one thing to find something to do to keep yourself entertained. It's another thing to enter the Badlands alone, especially these days following Queen Chrysalis' defeat. I am sure you have read the reports of how completely unruly her armies have become. I have even heard rumors of the changelings being forced to change their diet since the Queen could no longer supply them with the power of love to feast off of."

Luna put a hoof to her chin, thinking back to when Chrysalis and her changeling army managing to invade Canterlot just before the wedding, all for the sole purpose of feeding off of the love that the city generated. She even went as far as to brainwash Shining Armor, kidnap Cadance and then take her place. Chrysalis was a desperate changeling, it showed how bad it was for her kind to survive these days.

"What in the world they were forced to switch to, I dare not think of considering how barren the Badlands are. I cannot allow you to ever go there, no matter what oddities should occur within its borders," stated Celestia, "I lost you once to Nightmare Moon... I cannot bear to lose you again to some unruly, overgrown insects, understand?"

Luna reluctantly nodded, and let out a small yawn. Celestia giggled, "It's past your bedtime, little sister. If you wish to continue this conversation later tonight, you know where to find me."

Luna walked off to her chambers, leaving her older sister to tend to the day. She was right about how the changelings have become such an unknown danger in the matter of six months. They were already a sizable threat, but Luna knows that when something is cornered and out of options, desperate times can call for desperate measures.

She should know. She witnessed it first-hand as Nightmare Moon when she encountered those six that faithful night two years ago.

"Good Morning, Marines."

"GOOD MORNING SIR," the entire conference room echoed back, myself included. Colonel Davis, our CO, stood in the front of the room marveling at the well-oiled machine that is his division, the first division of the 417th Pathfinders of the United States Colonial Marine Corps.

"I trust you all slept well. Welcome to Day 1 of, hopefully, a one day search and rescue. For the fresh replacements here who missed the introduction before we left Gateway, I am Colonel John Davis and you are my crew here on the USS Costaguana.

"We're currently orbiting a planet out just beyond the frontier, designated as LV-1349. LV-1349 is the first planet discovered by Weyland-Yutani that is not only Earth-like, but also astoundingly rich in elements that are all on their Top Ten Most Wanted list."

The entire room was set abuzz with that bit of news. Wey-Yu's "Top Ten list" had become rather infamous in recent years, as it mostly listed elements that became increasingly rare as consumption increased, and were only found in core planets. Most planets were lucky to have two or three that were on the list. Never before did a planet have all ten.

"Now settle down. Because of this discovery, Wey-Yu sent in a ship from their core mining fleet, the USCSS Alhambra. It set down on LV-1349 approximately five weeks ago. They had a successful week of drilling until members of the crew started disappearing. When their dedicated search party also failed to report, the remaining crew, including Captain Michael Reese and Head Science Officer Lindsey Cartwright performed a last-ditch attempt at finding the missing crew. Ultimately, they failed to report back as well."

"Fucking scientists and colonists, man. Don't they know to just stay inside the ship?" The Colonel looked up at my row to the jarhead that spoke out of turn. It was my smartgunner squad mate, Chuck.

"They're miners, not colonists, Corporal Boggs. Might want to update your registry and get up to speed with the rest of us on the situation."

The rest of the conference room softly chuckled as Chuck rebutted, "Miners, colonists, they're all just dumb ass civvies to me, sir."

"Just remember that these civvies pay your checks in taxes. You just do your job and you may be able to buy that new muffler for that rusted old hunk of junk sitting out on your front lawn."

The entire room started having trouble controlling their laughter, made worse by the fact that Chuck really did have an old, beat up muscle car on his front lawn back on Earth that was his own little pride and joy. He loved to shoot the breeze about it whenever things were slow around here.

Chuck responded, "Hell sir, if that's the case, just tell me when and where you want a base of fire, and you got it."

"Alright, knock it off! Don't think for a second I won't assign KP duty to every one of you chuckle-heads." The Sarge to the rescue.

"Thank you Val," The Colonel continued, "Now, Wey-Yu has made it top priority to get that ship and its current payload back to Earth. Not only to give a positive analysis of what the ship dug up, but also to get it off of the surface before the locals realize they were there without permission."

"Wait... 'locals,' sir?" The room was abuzz once again as one of our dropship pilots, Kelly Eubanks, posed the question to our commander, "Is this planet inhabited?"

"Apparently it is, Lieutenant. A seemingly sentient race of quadruped mammals inhabit most of the planet. Wey-Yu got a whiff of what the planet had to provide, and did an unannounced landing far off from any nearby settlements."

"Are they what got the crew of the Alhambra?"

"We have reason to believe that they were not."

"Then sir, what caused the crew to go missing?"

"I believe I can answer that," the entire room craned back to the automatic door to see the figure enter. It was our android synthetic, carrying a data pad down to the floor of the briefing room, "It has been recorded that there is a splinter race of the inhabitants, far more feral and aggressive than the rest of what the Alhambra team surveyed before making its initial landing."

"Ah Bishop," stated the commander, "so glad you can finally join us."

"Sorry sir, there was a server crash on Weyland-Yutani's side. That, coupled with the weak signal from us being so far out from the nearest satellite relay, caused quite the signal delay."

"That's alright. Please, continue with what these creatures are."

"Well, like I said, they're quite aggressive, and rather primitive in intelligence. They're also insect-like in appearance and work very well in numbers. Swarming is their best strategy when attacking, overwhelming their victims and seeking a hole from which to strike their prey at. If what records we have from the Alhambra are correct, then these are most likely what ceased the crew from reporting back."

Chuck raised his hand before speaking, "Hey uh, Bishop? You said, 'insect-like,' does this mean this mission qualifies as a bug hunt?" The rest of the room began mumbling their disapproval at the notion, "Because we've all heard the rumors of what went down on LV-426. That was supposed to just be a bug hunt as well... and whatever the hell those 'bugs' were on that rock killed every single marine sent down to it."

The room lit up with arguments and complaints of varying levels:

"Acheron? Really!? I thought that was all just a bunch of crap they told the scrubs to prevent them from joining up!"

"Isn't there someone here that had a brother or something go on that FUBAR mission?"

"Fucking figures I get put on this mission. I had a two week pass all ready to go."

"Yeah man, how the hell do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?" Brilliant as always, Chuck. Glad to have you here to put the cherry on the shit sundae.

"ENOUGH! Secure that shit, all of you!!" Bellowed out Val over the entire room, "We all have a job to do and I am NOT putting up with this petty bullshit. If anyone wants out, they can have it, out via the main starboard airlock. Anyone wanna volunteer first?"

The room went stone cold silent.

"No? Then you better hurry, find your balls, and suck it up because I DO NOT time or patience for a bunch of pansies flying off the handle." The room settled back down, the Colonel and Bishop looking to their left at a still-fuming Sarge.

"Thank you again, Val," continued the Colonel, "Now Corporal, to actually answer your question: Yes, I guess this mission can be considered a, 'bug hunt,' should we encounter any of these life forms near or inside the ship. It is extremely unlikely we will find any on the inside, however, since all of the doors to the ship were sealed when the remaining crew left, and only the crew can open them back up via a retinal scan. The scan would pose a problem for us, but thankfully we have two of the best hack bypassers here with us that I've ever commanded. Isn't that right, Steedman and Jones?"

Fuck. I felt the entire room turn to look at me. I hate being on the spot like this. A young blonde bounced up from her seat one row below me, proudly stating, "Sir, yes sir! I won't let you down." The entire room attempted to stifle their laughter at her pluckiness. I slowly got up from my seat and simply said, "Yes sir."

"Good. Now then, I want this to go smooth, and by the numbers. We will send one team down to check on the status of the Alhambra. Should this team find the ship in perfect working order, they will then proceed to power up the Alhambra and attempt to take it into orbit. If there are any issues reported in the launch sequence, we will cancel launch and send down a second team along with the engineers, and begin any necessary repairs.

"I want this whole thing to take no more than 36 hours; I want that ship back in orbit and off of LV-1349 before the end of this coming Thursday. The shorter the better, considering the fact that we're basically playing around in someone else's backyard, and the last thing we need is some sort of Intergalactic incident. The first dropship departs in one hour. You're dismissed. Captains Dyke and Mathers, please see me in my office."

The entire room stood up as the Colonel and the two Captains headed out of the room. Val, who was obviously still steamed at the outbursts earlier, quickly got our attention.

"Alright sweethearts, you heard the man! Lieutenant Kay, I want you and Parker to make sure that dropship is ready for departure. Jones, Steedman and Collier, you're on weapons detail." He then glanced over to Chuck, his face as stern as ever, "Boggs, come down here. I am going to tan your stupid southern hide."

Chuck sighed as he stood up, "I'll be back later, guys. The Sarge is gonna chew me out. Again."

As I got up from my seat and made my way to the stairs leading out of the briefing room, I overheard two privates, O'Donnell and Folsom, talking in a hushed tone a couple of rows down from me.

"I don't know, man."

"I'm telling you, Jim, he's the one that had a relative there on LV-426."

"Art, there's no way he'd be on a mission so soon after that disaster. There's no way the Colonel would authorize that."

"Dude, I'm telling you, that's him. She mentioned the name Steedman when I ran into her on Mars for that Weyland shin-dig I got invited to last year."

"What was the her name?"

"Aw shit, um, Alice? No that's not right... oh! Yeah, it's Alexis! Alexis Steedman."

I exit the room, my head dipped low as visions of the footage kept flashing back in my mind...

"Help!"

"What?"

"Top, get over here! We've got a live one!" The Marines stopped their sweep. They immediately headed over to where the Medic was requesting assistance. There was a girl, strapped to the wall, pale and malnourished from being exposed to the elements inside of the Atmospheric processor for so long.

"You're gonna be alright, you're gonna be alright..." the Medic assured her.

"Please... k-kill me..." the girl pleaded. The camera panned to her fatigued face.

I recognized her. It felt like a shot right through my very essence.

"Just stay calm, we're gonna get you outta here."

The girl started groaning.

"Give me a hand! We gotta get her outta here-"

The girl then started shaking.

"What is it, Dietrich?"

"Convulsions!"

The sickening crunch of bone is then heard. The girl screams. I could barely stand to watch this. I was trying to force it all out, but it kept coming back...

"Dietrich, get back! Get back!" The Sergeant pulled the Medic back just in time for his helmet cam to pick up a blood-covered, worm-like creature ripping out from the girl's chest. It initially had trouble getting through the fabric of her filthy tank top, but it eventually broke through, hissing an unearthly hiss in the process.

I stopped watching at this point. I didn't bother watching again until the shit hits the fan. All I could hear is the flamethrower being fired on the creature, as well as the corpse that is still strung up to the wall that used to be my sister, Alexis.

2 - Pre-OP Preparations

"Hey Spike? Spike, ya there?"

A rapping at the front of Golden Oaks Library got the attention of the lone baby dragon present inside. He had spent the day doing the monthly inventory of all the books in the library. As he stepped off of the ladder, he noticed the sun beginning to dip low on the horizon. He lost track of just how long he was stacking books. He opened the front door, and was greeted by the prismatic mane of Ponyville's top flier and weather manager.

"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash. What's up? Did you finish that latest 'Daring Do' you checked out from us?"

"Oh no way, Spike," said the cerulean pegasus, "I'm not even halfway done with it, yet. I came to let you guys know about this massive storm that's been brewing up over the Everfree. I talked it over with the other pegasai, and we all agreed to let this one run its course. I was just gonna let you and Twilight know about it so there isn't any confusion or whatever."

"That's good to know, especially since Twilight's been cooped up on the observation deck since last night."

Rainbow sighed, "Aw great, what is she into now?"

"She apparently saw a UFO last night."

"... a what?"

"A UFO, or 'Unidentified Flying Object,' as she calls it," said Spike, doing air quotes with his claws. "It was some speck of light that flew over us and beyond the horizon. It got her all excited, and now it looks like she's going to pull another 24-hour bender."

"Oh for pete's sake..." groaned Dash, "I'll fly up and try to talk some sense into her."

Spike scoffed, "Heh, good luck with that!"

Flying to the top of the tree, she noticed the purple unicorn peering through a telescope, aimed low along the horizon. A disheveled stack of books and notepaper sat next to her, obviously thrown together hastily with scribblings written on the notepaper in a very unorganized fashion.

"Hey! Twilight!"

The unicorn jumped away from the Telescope in a fright. Shaking her head, she gathered herself back up and looked over at a hovering Rainbow Dash, starring daggers right at the pegasus. Her eyes were puffy and small red veins could be seen running through the whites. It's obvious that Spike was not lying, Twilight had not slept in a day.

"For Celestia's sake, Rainbow! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Sheesh! Calm down, Twilight!"

"I am trying to prove that what I saw was not just some meteor, and that aliens from space exist! The last thing I need is someone sneaking up on me."

"Look, I'm just here to warn you that there's a big storm heading this way from the Everfree. The other pegasi and I all agreed to let this one be the big downpour that Ponyville needs. Like usual with Everfree storms, if it gets out of hoof, then we'll come in to take care of it. Otherwise-

"A storm? Tonight? Oh, great..." the unicorn groaned, "What if that UFO returns tonight? The cloud cover will prevent me from fully seeing it!"

"I'm sorry about your Universal Floating Whatever, Twilight, but if Ponyville doesn't get this rainfall, it might face another dry season. If that happens, I'll have everypony from Applejack to Golden Harvest getting on my case about their crops not getting enough water. You know how ticked Applejack gets whenever her farm's well is dry."

Twilight sighed and rubbed her temples with her hooves, "Alright, alright, good points... what time is it, anyway? How late is it?"

"Too late for somepony that has been up for almost an entire day. Spike told me that you've been up here since last night. You really should stop with the all-nighters. It can't be healthy."

"Sorry, it's just that what I saw was no meteor! It slowed down as it went over the horizon! No meteor can do that!"

"Look Twilight," said Dash as she landed on the platform, "If it really is creatures from another planet, and they really are looking for some egghead to talk to, chances are they'll be back more than once." Rainbow reassuringly places a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Thanks Dash. If they want to talk, they know where to find us, I guess."

"Yep! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got about fifty other ponies to go warn about the coming storm."

Rainbow Dash took off from the platform and zoomed off into the heart of town. Twilight gathered up her papers and brought them inside. As she locked the double doors to the platform, she could see the wind begin to pick up as the tree branches swayed, and the first raindrops fall on the deck outside.

She suddenly had a chill run down her back. The hairs on her coat stood on end as she tried to shake off the wave of goosebumps that just washed over her. Pondering, she thought back to the last words that Rainbow said in relation to the possibility of otherworldly visitors...

"'The coming storm...' there's no way that they would come here just to harm us... would they?"

"How many more you got, O'Donnell?"

"This is the last one, Sarge!" Yelled O'Donnell over the hydraulic whining of the power loader he was piloting.

"Good. Get out of that suit and head over to the lockers once you're done loading. We're going over troop assignments for the drops."

The missile that was once carried by the power loader is now safely inside the firing pods. Thumping echoed around the hangar as Art gingerly made steps with the bulky suit. Odd. He's normally a pro at using the loader, maybe all the Acheron talk back in briefing got him worried about the drop.

Because what Chuck said at the briefing was true. This does not look like some regular old bug hunt.

A "bug hunt" is an old Colonial Marine term, it is an operation normally requested by Colonial Administration, or even Weyland-Yutani should the need arise, for the Marine Corps to eliminate an infestation of dangerous creatures that is plaguing a colony.

Since Wey-Yu is the Number One name in terraforming these days on distant planets, a lot of "shake-and-bake" colonies that seemingly sprout up overnight often run into the local wildlife crossing the fences and trying to take back the land that was once their home. On pretty much all of the terraformed planets so far, the only inhabitants are large insects, hence the name of the term.

"Hey Marcus, hand me that magazine on your left," my thoughts were interrupted by Collier. I placed the Franchi SPAS-12 that I was loading onto the stocked weapons cart, grabbed the magazine that was in front of me and handed it off to my right, as Andy took it and then slammed it into the mag well of the Armat M41A Pulse Rifle in his arms. He pulled back on the charging handle and the LED readout on the side lit up, showing the digits every Marine loves to see, "95," in bright red numbers.

I looked across the cart where Andrew, Elizabeth and myself had been readying the weapons for the first drop. Lizzy looked preoccupied with figuring out how to load one of the M56 Smartguns.

"You need to pull the bolt back before feeding the belt in, Liz,"

"I know that! I just never use these, that's all. Just gotta pull... back... on... this... and-"

A sudden THWAP echoed off of the stainless steel lockers that surrounded us. The heavy Smartgun clattered to the ground as Elizabeth quickly grasped her hand, her face cringing in pain.

"OW! The damn thing pinched me!"

Andy stood to my right, facing Liz. His face was completely blank.

"It... 'pinched' you."

"Yeah!"

"'Pinched'. You're upset that the slide of a Smartgun, 'pinched,' your hand."

Lizzy's face quickly switched from wincing to confusion, "Y-yeah, it did. So... what?"

"Do you know who you signed up for, girlie!?" Andy exploded, "This AIN'T the fucking Girl Scouts!"

"Andrew, chill," I say, trying to defuse the situation.

"You're complaining about 'pinching' your hand!? I can't wait to see your reaction when you LOSE that hand in combat!"

Liz shrunk back from the dolly, half in embarrassment and half in fear from Andrew's outburst. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, Andy? Time to go take a walk."

"No! Fuck that, Marc! I am NOT going to deal with some green noob rookie bullshit during this op. This shit's embarrassing to the Corps."

Liz took a seat on the bench as the humiliation washed over her. I proceeded to get into Mike's face.

"HEY!" I shout, grabbing Andy by the collar and giving him a short shake, finally getting his attention, "We were all green once. Even YOU. Now take. A. Walk. That's an order."

He used his left hand to push off my right that had him by the collar. He straightened out his BDUs and walked out the large pressure door to the hangar. I walked around the weapons cart and keeled down next to Liz who seemed to be on the brink of tears.

"Aw come on, don't start crying. If the Sarge sees you, he'll be even worse than Andrew was. Here, give me your hand."

Liz sniffed, and rubbed her hand before handing it to me. I proceeded to give her hand a little massage as I inspected it. The wound was nothing serious, there wasn't even any broken skin.

"It just takes some time to get used to things around here," I said, "It's all about tact. Take for instance you hopping up at the briefing. Not the smartest move in the world, I must admit, but it's not that you did anything wrong, it's just that you're new to the company and guys that have seen a ton of experience who see a young, plucky up-and-comer like you automatically assume that you're a newbie who will be nothing but trouble."

"Yeah, yeah. I guess I did get a little out of line thinking back on it."

"Also, while this mission seems rather routine, the... stigma... attached to this sort of mission has some around here on edge. What happened on Acheron a couple months ago has a lot of shrap-heads wanting to be on their A-game. I guarantee that when Andrew comes back, he will have cooled off his stack."

"Thanks Marcus." Liz sniffed again and wiped it with her forearm, "Now...," she looked down, "Are you going to cradle my hand for the rest of the op, or am I allowed to have it back so I can do my job?"

"... Oh." I relinquished her hand and nervously chuckled, "Whoops."

Got carried away. Same thing happened all the time with Sarah. Oh, Sarah...

"Okay Marines! How's the weapon loadouts going?"

Oh, Sarge...

Wait.

Shit.

"Almost done, Sarge! Just got this one Smartgun left."

Liz was already back on her feet as I was still kneeling down. Thinking fast, I grabbed the ammunition box on the ground and handed it up to her.

"Y-yeah Sarge," I sputtered as I shot up from the ground to near-perfect attention, "Just one to go."

"Good. The Captains are coming over shortly to go over assignments. Steedman, just a heads up that you should get prepped ahead of time."

Huh? Why? I normally go with the rest of Iroquois. Wouldn't they get ready as well?

The pumping thuds of the powerloader's steps cut off my train of thought as Art came over next to the large, open pressure door to the locker area. He slowly turned the yellow hulk around, facing out towards the rest of the hangar. He pressed some buttons on one of the control pads next to his left control stick, and the powerloader whined out loudly as it shut down. Art then popped open the front roll cage and unbuckled himself from the safety harness. Jumping down from the seat, he wiped his hands on his BDUs, turned to glance look over at the power loader, then turned back towards me.

"Did they change loaders on me again? This is definitely not my baby. Where's Daisy?"

"You'll have to ask Sarge. I wasn't on board when supplies were being loaded before leaving Gateway," I said, "Maybe the dock workers switched the loaders around."

"Man, if those freakin' container-heads took my Daisy from me, there will be hell to pay. This thing handles like a tanker in a South Pacific monsoon."

Val heard Art's bitching and came over from one of the supply closets, "What's this about Daisy now, O'Donnell?"

"Sarge, did they take my Daisy from me? I sure as hell know that that loader ain't my Daisy."

"Oh no, that's your Daisy alright. If I recall, all of the loaders were re-calibrated right before we left Gateway. A new firmware was released from CAT, and it was installed on all of the powerloaders to make them compatible with the upcoming Bougainville-class transport ships that are going to phase out the Conestoga classes."

"Oh come on! That's practically WORSE than taking her away! Now I gotta do all the fine measurements to her controls all over again, it took me a week to get her feeling right the last time this happened!"

"Oh Jesus, quit with the bitching O'Donnell," chuckled Sarge as he rolled his eyes, "You can do that on your own time, not the corps time."

"Is there a problem here, Sergeant Valparaiso?"

Strolling over from the other side of the hangar was Captain Robert Mathers, the second in command behind Captain Dykes and the Colonel. He is a relatively fresh face who saw his first action in the Arcturian revolution. This is, technically, his second full-fledged operation.

"Oh no, sir. Nothing I can't handle."

"Well, good then. Round them up, I have troop assignments for the first drop."

A couple minutes passed as the entire ship started gathering in the hangar. I did what Val said and got my gear set up ahead of everyone else from I company. I knew where this was heading. They need the skilled hacker up front for this. The group that stood across from me that had gathered their equipment as well was the fresh faces that made up Hotel company.

"COMMANDER ON THE DECK!"

Everyone present straightened up into attention. The Colonel came around into the center of the group.

"At ease, troopers. Now, the group to spearhead this OP will be Captain Mathers and Hotel company. Iroquois will be in standby, Golf and Foxtrot are in reserve."

"Sir, why is Steedman already in his gear?" The punky brunette Lieutenant in the pilot's gear to my left with the rest of my Iroquois compadres poised a good question to everybody else present. "Don't tell me you're breaking up I company."

"I'm sorry Kay, but Hotel will need a good hacker with experience down on the ground. Once we have the Alhambra, Iroquois is more than welcome to hook back up."

The Colonel turned back to the rest of the Batallion, "Outside of Corporal Steedman, company assignments are standard as usual. The general Command call sign for this OP is the usual as well. Call sign: 'Baseplate.' Now move it, people. Let's get this done."

And with that, the entire hangar went back hustling around. Hotel quickly hustled back to the lockers and armory area for final preparation, and I tailed along behind them. Chuck and Kay quickly came up behind and walked along side me.

"What," I smirked, "You guys want to see me off?"

"I just wanted to say that if you don't make it," said Chuck, "Don't worry. I'll tell your folks about what happened for ya."

Well, that's just what I wanted to hear. I turn and stare at Chuck, only to find that he has that familiar dumb, cheesy grin of his plastered across his face.

"Yeah, nice. Real fucking funny, Chuck."

"Yeah come on, Chuck," exclaimed Kay, "He doesn't need that shit right now. He's gotta get into the right mindset for a combat drop here. Last thing he needs is negative waves."

Chuck scoffed at her words, "Pfft, yeah, okay. 'Negative waves.' I seriously don't get you fucking Californians and your hippie voodoo bullshit. Spare me."

"Hey now," I remark, "She's the one from Frisco. I come from the somewhat normal lands to the south."

"Hey!" yells Kay.

"No no no, don't try to weasel out of that one. Cali is Cali, man."

I sighed, "Look, whatever man. We'll argue about Best Coast vs Least Coast later, IN PERSON after the drop. Anyways, thanks Kay. I know what to keep in mind when my number is called."

Kay and Chuck peel off as I reach the armory doors. The familiar cart of weapons that I spent the last few hours working on with Andrew and Liz was waiting to be pilfered by the troopers awaiting the boarding call. I take a seat on a bench along the wall of the lockers, the double doors to the armory to my right. I take off my helmet, double check the camera on the right side to make sure it's powered on, make sure the neck plates on the back are secured, ensure that the headphone and mic ensemble on the left are connected...

'Born to Raise Hell' is lightly stenciled on the upper left. I remember when I first scribbled that onto my helmet when I took part in the drops against the Arcturian revolts. I also remember when I had scratched, "- is a risk taker and a heartbreaker!" just below my last name that is painted in black on my M3 chest piece, right underneath the collar. I did that right after my first combat drop on BG-126.

The revving of engines told me it was time. The M577 APC pulled up outside the lockers. The panel door on the right side opened.

"The tomb awaits," says my own morbid thoughts...

"Alright Marines," said Mathers as he came in with his Armor strapped on, helmet in hand, "You know the drill. We come here, we're gonna conquer, and we're gonna get some. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," said several voices in the locker room. Multiple lockers could be heard slamming shut. The sound of combat boots began thumping towards the armory, near where I sat.

"That's what we're going to do, kiddos, we're gonna get some. Okay Marines! On the ready line!"

Everyone in the lockers began lining up. I stood, gave myself a couple more soft, awakening smacks to the face, threw on my helmet and fell in with the rest of the company.

"Are you lean!?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you mean!?"

"YEAH!"

"What ARE you!?"

"LEAN, MEAN MARINES!"

"Then MOVE IT OUT!"

We begin pulling weapons off of the rack. I grab my personal SPAS-12 shotgun from the right side of the cart, as the rest take their chosen preference of either M41A or M240 Incinerator. I normally would grab a Pulse Rifle, but since this OP is rather simple, I want to go lightweight. Less stuff to carry around.

'Let's go! Get on the ready line! Move it Martz, get hot! Let's go, god damn it!"

Twelve marines now stand next to the APC, myself included.

"Haha, outstanding. Let's pack 'em in! Get on in there!"

We begin boarding the APC, stowing our weapons next to our seats. As I take my seat, I finally take a good gander around at the Marines I am heading in with. I barely recognize any of them. The only one I somewhat recognize is Martz. He was with Iroquois before I got taken off, but he never saw any action. Strictly a backup "In case of Emergency" kind of thing we used him for.

"Ready to get it on?" Speak of the devil. He's apparently been promoted to lock-in duty. He closes down the crossbar, securing myself and another Marine to my right to the seat.

"Heh, you know it, Stevie."

"It's great to ride with you again, Marcus. Let's get this shit done."

'Hell yeah, man."

As the other Marines are getting locked in, Martz closes the APC door. Mathers takes a seat at the command chair. In front of him are multiple video displays, showing our life signs and helmet cam feeds. The Captain taps his mic, getting a thumbs up from Martz. "Okay, Allen, let's go."

"You got it, Cap!" Yells a voice from the front of the APC. The entire vehicle shakes to life as it peels out towards the dropship.

"Baseplate," says Mathers into his com, "What's the status with Goose One?"

"Hotel 1-1, Goose One is ready and awaiting your arrival," it's the Colonel, most likely overlooking all of the progress up in the bridge, "Parker, you there?"

A much more staticy voice chimes in, it's Donald Parker, the pilot of Goose One. "Yes sir, standing by."

"Hotel is en route to you. Lower the ramp and accept incoming convoy."

"Roger."

I could feel the APC pull a three point turn, and then begin backing up into the awaiting dropship. A loud grinding noise could be heard from the outside. This is the loading ramp of the UD-4L Cheyenne closing up with us inside.

"Stand by, cross-locking now. Prelaunch Autocycle engaged."

Various other extraneous mechanical noises emanated throughout the cabin.

"Primary couplers released... hit the internals."

Shaking. The feeling of being dropped. This is the dropship being lowered into the airlock.

We then stopped. A slow groaning could be heard from above.

"Cross lock and drop stations are secured."

"Goose One, Hotel 1-1, this is Baseplate. We're reading some extra vibrations coming from the stations on our end. Do you see or hear anything on your end?"

Mathers looks over his screens, over at us, and then replies, "That's a negative, Baseplate, we're showing all green here. Might be a false positive somewhere between us and the Bridge."

"Understood, we'll keep an eye on it up here. Go ahead and continue with the drop procedure."

"Stand by," continued Parker, "Initiate release sequencer on my mark."

"Hey, Joseph," said the black Marine next to me, asking a question to the one across from him, "What was that saying that the Staff Sergeant said all the time in drop school?"

"'We're on the express elevator to hell,' Barry! 'Going down!'"

"Three, two, one... mark."

The world suddenly seemed to flip upwards as I was thrust around in my seat. The operation was now underway, with us falling straight into the relative unknown.

3 - Combat Drop

"Switching to DCS Ranging..." Parker's voice continued to rattle off the usual pilot speak on the intercom, "2-4-0, nominal to profile."

"Goose One, this is Baseplate. Be advised, we just took some weather scans and we're looking at a rather hairy storm that's smack dab in the middle of your flight path. You'll be in for some chop."

"Understood Baseplate. Rough air ahead, guys! Make sure you're all strapped in."

I was softly buffeted back and forth in my seat. The clattering of my plate armor signified this. I felt the dropship make a slow banking turn as it broke off from the straight away fall. I gaze over to the Captain, who is observing the mountainside through one of the numerous screens on his display panel.

"Coming around for a 709er," buzzed Parker, "Locking in on the Alhambra's beacon. Range: thirty miles... wait a minute... uh, Baseplate, we're seeing some lights along a mountaintop here. I thought that this landing pattern was secure."

"Goose One, what do you mean by, 'lights?'"

"Good evening, Tia."

"Good evening, Luna. Did you sleep well?"

The Princess of the Night approached her older sister on their grand balcony. The sun had set and night had taken its place across the land. The air was brisk as the cover of rainclouds settled across the land as seen from Canterlot Castle. The smell of wet soil was blowing in as the storm can be seen off in the distance.

"I guess. I had been thinking about what we talked about this morning, and I am split on what to do."

"Oh?"

"You're right about going off into the Badlands, especially in light of how aggressive the Changelings have been. However, I still yearn for something out of the ordinary! I tire of the same night-to-night rigmarole. For instance, I already know how your day went."

"Really, now?" said Celestia in a sarcastic tone, "In that case, Luna my dear, how did my day go?"

"Well-"

Luna was cut off by an odd noise that cut through the air and echoed off of the walls of the mountainside. It sounded like it was a combination of the rumbling of a stampede with the whine of machinery. It started off quietly, just barely noticeable, but it continued to gain in volume.

"What in Equus is that noise?" asked Celestia. She and Luna briefly glanced around as the noise seemingly came closer.

Suddenly, the windows all along their balcony began to shake. The shaking increased, cracking several plates of glass that were along the balcony doors. The noise then peaked above them. The regal sisters quickly looked up to see a massive black object soar through the air right over the castle, with two beams of light pointing forward from the front of it. The object itself could best be described as a gigantic, flying seal. The numbers "01" were painted on its side. Two glowing discs were seen on its behind, near its tail as it flew over the rest of Canterlot and off towards Equestria's southeast.

The sound coming off of the object died down as it flew off, and a new sound took its place in Canterlot... the sound of every resident in the city waking up in a fright. For the first time since Discord's reawakening almost a year ago, Celestia was beside herself.

"What WAS that!?"

"Sister, is this some sort of joke of yours?"

"Luna, I have had no hoof in this. I have no idea what that thing was."

Celestia trotted up to the railing and looked below to the rest of the castle. Lights started blinking on in the windows of homes throughout the city. Ponies of all sorts were running out into the streets and bumping into each other in a mad panic. Guards in the courtyard were running from building to building, waking any troops that might have slept through the ruckus that just shook Canterlot to the foundation.

Celestia sighed, "Oh, where is Shining Armor? He needs to get his flank up here right now, and take charge. "

Meanwhile, Luna was piecing together the puzzle of just what that object was.

"Wait... Tia, wait!"

Celestia turned from the balcony back to the inside of the room, "Luna, what is it?"

"It must be another one of those things that landed in the Badlands! It wasn't a meteor or anything like that... it could have been a ship!"

"Luna... No. No, you're not."

"Oh yes, I am. Who is the one that watches over the night? And what just happened to enter Equestria's borders unannounced? This falls under my jurisdiction!"

"'Jurisdiction'? Luna, who knows what that was! I will not allow you to-"

"Your Highness!" Shining Armor practically busted down the large double doors that led into the room. His armor was thrown on in haste, as his helmet appeared lopsided atop his head. He stumbled over himself for a few seconds before recollecting himself and getting into an attentive position and saluting, "Uh, Captain Shining Armor reporting for duty, ma'am."

"Shining Armor, what I need right now is the Royal Guard to stop running around like crazed chickens. Get on that, then await my next order. Right now, crowd control is top priority."

"Understood, your highness... um, any clue on what that thing was?"

"None. Luna seems to think that it was a ship but- wait..." she looked around the room and back to the balcony. Shining raised an eyebrow.

"Where is Luna?"

"HOO-WEE! That was a close one! Y'all having fun back there, flying Parker Airlines?"

"What the fuck was that, Goose One?" said the Colonel in his gruffest, "serious" voice yet.

"Baseplate, I'm just following standard procedure, here. Maybe if you got us into a better landing pattern before initiating the drop, I wouldn't be almost crashing into any mountainside castles now, would I?"

"Goose One, just get to the Alhambra without scaring the shit out of any more locals."

"Hehe, I'll try my best, Baseplate."

"I mean it, Parker. Mathers, if he pulls something like that again, you can shoot him."

The Captain cradles his head in his hand, rubbing his forehead and chuckling at the Colonel's distress.

"Oh, understood Baseplate. Hotel out."

"Scratch! Claw!"

Two snoring bat pegasi were suddenly awoken from their sleeping in by their princess. They were napping next to Luna's chariot in the castle's pegasi outlook, where they are not only her personal chauffeurs, but her personal guard as well.

"What are you two doing? Didn't you hear the object that flew over Canterlot?"

The one with a scar over his left eye took a hoof and wiped away the sleepiness from it, "Guh... your highness?"

"Scratch, surely you didn't sleep through it."

"Sleep through what, ma'am?"

Luna groaned, and then gave the second guard a poke to the gut.

"Uuh, just five more minutes, mom..."

"'Mom?' Claw, your services are required. Get. Up."

"Mom, I dun wanna go to school today..."

Scratch was about to try and get Claw up himself, but as he saw Luna take a deep breath, he instead backed off and covered his ears. "Oh boy, here we go-"

"CLAW. YOUR PRINCESS ORDERS YOU TO GET UP."

Claw immediately sprung up, his armor about to pop right off of his shocked body. He hated it whenever Luna used the Canterlot Voice, because it normally meant that he screwed up in some way, shape or form.

"YOW! Ma'am, yes ma'am! Just tell us where to go, ma'am!" Scratch said shakily.

"That's better. You two should really get an alarm clock. Such wonderful devices, they are."

"Noted, ma'am."

Scratch hooked himself up the chariot as Claw took his place on his right, "Where to, your highness?"

Luna grabbed her hooded cloak from a rack along the wall and got on the back of the chariot, "To the south. We have something rather, um... extraterrestrial to investigate."

"Mmf... uhh... huh?"

Twilight stirred under her bed sheets. The storm outside had been both something that lulled her to sleep, and something that awoke her several times throughout the evening. This time, an oddity of a sound in the middle of the storm got her attention. She got up from her warm bed and approached the doors to her balcony. She peered through the sheets of rain that were dousing Ponyville, to quickly get a glimpse of a fast moving object that was quite literally out of this world.

"... I knew it."

The object moved through the storm into the territory of the Everfree before it was out of Twilight's sight, getting lost in between the sheets of rainfall and the thick storm clouds. Twilight quickly went over to her roll top desk on the other side of the room, lit a candle, grabbed a quill and pad of paper, and initiated a spell that she was saving for just an occasion...

A memory-to-paper sketch spell.

"Now that's some gnarly bush down there."

The Captain went back to his row of screens and looked at one of them. It was the screen showing the ship's front camera view of the dense forest below. "Yeah, I see it here, Parker. Please do your best to ensure that we don't end up anywhere near it."

"Sure thing, Cap."

"Hotel 1-1, we have a quick weather update for you. That storm you're flying through just reached the valley where the Alhambra is. Hope you all packed the umbrellas."

Various groans could be heard throughout the cabin. I didn't mind, I actually like the rain.

"We're coming up on the valley," said Parker, "Keep your eyes peeled, Captain, I am locked onto the Alhambra's beacon."

The lush green of the forest faded from view on the screen, and was replaced by the brown of rocky terrain. The camera panned around and then locked onto a figure in the far corner of the valley. As the dropship went in closer, the unmistakable outline of an original Weyland-brand FTL ship came into view.

"Now that's a model I haven't seen in a long time," said the Captain, "Baseplate, that is one of the original Weyland Faster-Than-Light ships, correct?"

"You're correct, Captain," squawked the Colonel over the radio, "the USCSS Alhambra, originally commissioned in May of 2100, by Weyland Corp. Only ten other models like her were commissioned, including the originator of the class: the USCSS Prometheus."

"Wait, sir, 'Prometheus'? THE Prometheus?"

"Right again, Captain. The Alhambra spent most of her years as an administration vessel. Then, at around the year 2150 I believe, she was originally going to be decommissioned. However, the colonization of Thedeus changed all that. She was stripped, retrofitted, upgraded with some newer FTL engines, and stocked with the latest in mining utilities. Weyland-Yutani successfully gave her another thirty years of shelf life."

"Let me guess, sir... cost-cutting?"

"Desperate times called for desperate measures, Captain Mathers. The great mines of Thedeus weren't carved out in a day."

The Marine next to me, who I learned goes by the name of Barry Rashaad, asked his friend across from him, who I gathered was named Joseph Brewster, about the Prometheus.

"Nah, never heard about it before, man. Probably just another fancy Wey-Yu expedition."

"You guys never heard about the Prometheus?" I interrupt.

"No... what about it?" inquires Barry.

"It was the last thing that good ol' Peter Weyland was a part of. He died during its last voyage."

The two sat in silence, expecting me to continue.

"The stories say that about a hundred years ago, he funded some expedition to a planet out beyond the range of what the frontier was at the time. He apparently had some scientists that knew where some aliens lived that visited Earth way back in the stone age or something. Once they got there, they got their aliens alright. They apparently killed the crew and Weyland himself."

"Jesus," gasped Joseph.

"Yeah. There was also a rumor attached to that, that one of the scientists and even their synthetic somehow survived, and they're still stuck on the planet. I dunno, that part's all fuzzy. It's all hear-say, anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it."

"Sounds like fun to me," chuckled Barry, "I'd like to see these aliens try that on me!" A couple other Marines in the cabin cheered, and he gave Joseph a fist bump. "None of the uglies are expecting some ten-millimeter slugs heading their way!"

The Captain ignored the cheering and continued observing the outside of the Alhambra from the view screens. The dropship was circling around the ship, doing a once-over on the status of the outer hull.

"Hull looks stable, Captain," said Parker, "But there aren't any running lights. Or any visible lights at all to speak of."

"Yeah, hopefully the core isn't shut down. Okay Parker, go ahead and land when ready, then provide air cover. Allen, get ready to roll."

"Yes sir," said Parker.

"On it, sir!" yelled Allen.

"Alright Marines, gear up and get hot! Get ready to de-board!"

The crossbars unlocked with a loud click and we all proceeded to stand, grabbing onto a grip bar along the roof of the APC.

The dropship panned around before the moaning of the landing skids lowering was heard. The APC's engine was revving up, the smell of burning gas permeated the cabin. Then, the grinding of the ramp returned.

Suddenly, there was a KLUNK noise as everything seemed to stop moving about.

"Down and clear!" yelled Parker over the radio.

The APC then jerked forward, all of us in the cabin holding on tight as the APC jumped out of the dropship and into the rocky valley.

We were finally on LV-1349.

"Ten seconds, Marines! Look sharp!" barked the captain.

We grabbed our weapons. The sound of some charging handles being pulled and slides locking back echoed as I grabbed my shotgun. I extended the folding stock, and pulled back on the slide on the right side, triple-checking to see if I had loaded it already. Inside the chamber, I saw the red plastic of the shell and the quick gleam of light reflecting off of the brass. I closed the slide and threw the sling across my body. I was cocked, locked and ready to rock.

"I want a nice and clean dispersal. Remember your training."

The APC's breaks squealed as it came to a stop. Martz was at the door, and pulled it open.

"Let's go! Move it out!"

Martz led the pack as we filtered out of the APC. Stepping out, I was greeted by the smell of fresh, wet Earth. The rain pattered on my helmet as we formed up into our two squads. Looking around, on our sides was the wide open valley. Behind us was a distant slope leading up and out of the valley. In front of us was the main cargo bay door of the Alhambra, numerous cargo containers and several mining buggies littering the perimeter of the ship. The dropship set us down practically right in front of it.

"First squad, up on line! Steedman, you're up, soldier!"

I took point ahead of the rest. The company fanned out into a half-circle, facing out towards the valley. The APC driver, Dan Allen, was the last out as he grabbed the Smartgun that was mounted right next to the APC door. I got out my ComTech Hacking tool and approached the keypad on the right of the large bay doors. I unhinged the top and pulled down on the front, revealing the wires leading to the buttons on the keypad. I clipped on the two leads and waited for the tool to show a signal. Normally, an LED would light up on the front showing that there was power.

No LEDs were lighting up.

"What's the deal, Steedman?"

"Sir, there's no power. I'm going to try and jumpstart the servo control."

"No power at all?"

"No sir."

I heard the Captain sigh and curse. I understood his feelings. If the doors aren't even powered in the slightest, that means that the ship's core was shut down. That just made our job about five times harder.

Using the tool, I clipped one lead onto a main line cord. I scrolled down the buttons on the tool, and pressed a red button with a yellow lightning bolt on it. The tool whined not unlike a set of chest paddles, and then a thump sounded off in the back of the keypad. I immediately took that other lead, clipped it back onto the keypad, and quickly bypassed the security. A chime then sounded off from both the tool and the keypad as the doors started to groan open.

"Good job Steedman. First squad, take point. Second squad, move up."

The large bay doors finally opened and we took point inside. I reached back and switched on my shoulder lamp, providing some much needed illumination since the overhead lights were not working.

"Ah, feet dry," stated Martz as he walked past.

Allen stomped right behind him. "Oorah, Steve, "he responded.

"Knock it off... oh, h-holy shit," the Captain stuttered. As we gazed upon the cargo bay, we knew why. Inside the bay, were dozens of massive ore hoppers, each about the size of a cargo container. Each one was overflowing with gemstones of various sizes and colors.

Barry was at a loss for words. Joseph was having a hard time containing himself. "Dude, Captain... there must be trillions of dollars worth of gems in here. Wey-Yu was right to drill this rock... this planet is a gold mine."

First squad, along with myself, began walking through the rows of containers, picking up and observing some of the gemstones that have fallen out of the overloaded hoppers. My boot knocked against something on the ground. I looked down and nearly lost my breath. Just sitting there, was a brilliant blue sapphire the size of my fist.

"Hey Joseph, one of these containers could buy a pretty nice summer home on Mars now, could it?"

I reach down and pick up the sapphire. I turn it around in my grip, the light of my shoulder lamp reflecting off of it and illuminating the walls of the hoppers next to me in a blue shade. It's damn near perfect for being uncut. Are all of the stones like this? If that's the case, Weyland has got themselves a real boon here.

"Barry, man, you could probably buy a thousand acres of land on Mars with one of these. Hell, you'll have more than enough to build a mansion with what's left over."

"Alright, cut the chatter!"

I quickly pocket the sapphire in one of the extraneous pouches on my belt.

"Hey, I want to get something out of this beyond regular pay!"

"Nobody touch nothing! Steedman, get over here and check out the door to the rest of the ship."

I double time it to the right of the bay where the pressure door to the heart of the ship is. Second squad stacked up behind us at the door. I give the door the once-over, and turn to the captain.

"Sir, I don't think bypassing it will do any good."

"Why's that, Corporal?"

With both hands, I grasp the side of the sliding door and put up my right foot on the door jamb for leverage. I then pull with some force, and the door slides open with just a whisper.

"If the core is shut down, then the internal locks are all turned off. Standard safety procedures."

" Alright, in that case let's get to the bridge. See if we can turn this baby over."

We proceed into the ship. The air is somewhat stale, with a lingering, foreign stench that isn't strong, but is there just enough to tell you that there's something amiss. Inside, the only illumination beyond our shoulder lamps is the emergency running lights that periodically light up, showing where the walkways are. These always turn on when a ship's core is shut down.

"I want motion trackers out. I don't want to run into any uninvited guests in here."

The ship is like a tomb. The only sound to be heard is the footsteps of our boots, and the sharp thumping of the motion trackers sending out their ultrasound pulses.

We make our way through the living quarters, the beige walls and the matching tables in the galley flank us on both sides. As we get to the double doors leading to the bridge, Barry and Joseph grab each door, and then pull at the same time revealing the bridge to the rest of the squad.

Like the rest of the ship, the bridge was deserted. Rain was seen trailing down the cockpit glass as the storm continued its business outside. The squad fanned out, some walking up to the edge of the cockpit to gaze out upon the rain soaked valley. The Captain looked over the pilot's seat, and then back against the far wall control panels.

"Brewster, see if you can get anything up and running. Baseplate, this is Hotel 1-1. We're at the bridge. Advise, over."

The Colonel responds, his voice being filtered through numerous waves of static. "Hotel 1-1, glad to see -- made it. Is the Al--bra's core compl-- offline?"

This is weird. Normally the shortwave signals are strong enough at this range from the APC. Why is the reception so weak? We turn to Joseph who had been hunched over one of the control consoles, typing away furiously. He then faces us, and nods his head with a frown.

"Yes sir, it is," continued the Captain, "Why would they shut down the entire core? That doesn't make any sense."

"Don't worry abo-- the 'why' --ght now," says the Colonel, "They're offline, so that means we need to s-- down the e--neers, and we can't because we have our own problems up he-- at the moment."

"What problem is that, sir?"

"Remember those --ported vibrations we recorded up here ri--t before your drop?"

"Yes?"

"It turns out that those --brations were the servos in drop stations two and four giving up the ghost. We have crews --king to repair them, but since they're o-- of commission, we cannot launch the second dropship until they are rep--red."

Both squads, including Barry, Joseph and Martz groaned at this news.

"Are you serious, bro?" exclaimed Martz.

"Great," sighed the Captain, taking his helmet off and rubbing the buzz cut fuzz on his head, "Now we gotta wait around in this dead tin can for a couple of hours. Set up a perimeter, and hunker down, I guess."

Sighing, I reach behind my chest piece to my BDUs, feeling around for my left breast pocket. I find it and pull out the pack of Marleys I grabbed from my locker. I pull out a stick and pocket the rest into one of my numerous pouches on my belt. I bring it up to my nose and inhale, taking in the scent of sweet, sticky bud. Putting one end in my mouth, I reach down to my belt and feel around for my lighter.

"Was it in the spare radio pouch? No, that's where I'm keeping that mother of a jewel. Was it in this one on my right? No, that's where I have my M40 grenades. Shit, did I really forget it back on the Constaguana? Maybe I can borrow the pilot flame from one of these guys' M240. It's not they're using it-"

"Sir, I've got something."

Author's Note

I made an introduction blog. Go check it out!
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/121499/introduction-to-bug-hunt

4 - Uninvited Guests

My thoughts and our mulling around inside of the bridge was interrupted by Barry, who is still holding out a motion tracker. The tracker is pinging softly, meaning that there's unidentified movement nearby. The Captain walked over and gazed down at the tracker's screen.

"What's the position, Raashad?"

"One contact, twenty meters to the East. It may be in the Medical lab."

"Alright... Steedman, take Rashaad and Brewster and go check it out." The Captain turned to the rest of the squad, "Private Allen, take Martz and three others and head to Engineering. This tub has to have a black box or flight recorder or something that will tell us why the crew shut down the core. Head down there and grab it."

"Yes sir," responded Allen.

"On it, sir," I responded as well.

We began to head out of the bridge, not before hearing the Captain yell at two Technicians to try and boost the local radio signal. As the group of five went down the middle corridor to engineering, the three of us hung a left at the junction outside of the bridge. Barry led the way with his motion tracker out in front, with Joseph in the middle and me covering the back side as we snaked our way to Medical. The pinging of the motion tracker slowly sharpened in tone, reaching a climax as we reached the pressure door leading into the Medical lab.

Again, Barry and Joseph grabbed each door and pulled them back. My shotgun was seated firmly against my collarbone, ready to fire at a moment's notice. The doors were opened, revealing a dark, dead Med lab. The operating table in front of us was a distressing sight, as it was covered in dried blood and dirty bandages. Our shoulder lamps casting long shadows against the wall as the light passed over the used operating tools left on numerous trays littered about the operating station.

I looked over to Barry, "There's nothing here."

Barry held up his motion tracker, which was still pinging. Turning a dial, he looks up and points to a dressings closet in the left corner. We slowly approach the closet, which was slightly cracked open. As I creep forward towards the door, Barry's motion tracker continues to rise in pitch, indicating that we are right on top of something. Just as I place a hand on the door, something moving inside could be heard. I move to the side as Barry and Joseph take positions right in front of it, Pulse Rifles aimed right at the door.

"Ready?" I whisper.

They both nod. I pull open the door with a yank, and-

"AAAAH! WAIT! DON'T HURT ME! PLEASE!"

Inside, a woman with dirty blonde hair and a messy Alhambra flight jacket was seated, her hands up, covering her face from our shoulder lamps. Her jeans were soiled and ripped, her hands covered with streaks of dried blood.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Barry, "Hotel 1-1, this is 2-3, we just found an Alhambra crew member!"

"Great job 2-3," the Captain buzzed in over the radio in response, "Any idea who it is?"

I step into the closet and grab the woman by the arm, helping her to her feet. She looks frightened as her eyes dart around between the three of us, trying to get a good idea of who we are. I look down to the left side of her jacket and make out the name stitched out on the tag.

"It's Cartwright, sir," I respond, "Lindsey Cartwright. It's the Head Science Officer. She's a bit shaken up but otherwise she seems okay."

"Outstanding. Get her back to the bridge, we need to try and piece this mess together."

We lead Lindsey back to the bridge from Medical. She's slow to get up at first, but she eventually gets her bearings.

"Th-thank you," she responds quietly, "I don't... I wasn't sure if anyone would come."

"Hey, don't worry," I said, "We plan on getting you off this rock."

"Oh thank... thank God."

We reached the bridge. Some of the squad was still hanging out near the cockpit glass when the three of us returned with a fourth. The Captain was all smiles upon seeing her.

"Miss Cartwright, glad to see you somehow stuck it out. Are you alright?"

"Yes... yes, I'm fine."

"Captain," the radio fuzzed, this time with Bishop on the line, "A word with you in private."

The Captain held up a finger to Lindsey, "Um, hold on one sec." He walked over to the far corner of the bridge, motioning for me with a wave of his arm to come over as well. We huddle up and hold out ear pieces close to make sure that this call is as private between Marines as possible.

"Yeah, go ahead Bishop."

"Captain, ask her how she got back on board the Alhambra. From her logs, she was last seen with the rest of the crew in the cave system. If the ship's core was shut down prior to them leaving, then how could she have gotten back on board?"

"Alright Bishop, we'll ask."

We both head back over to Lindsey and begin the impromptu Q&A.

"Miss Cartwright, how did you get back on board the ship? The ship's core is shut down."

"Captain Reese shut down the core when we made it back from the cave system. He and I were the only ones to escape with our lives."

"Why shut down the core anyway?"

Her eyes darted around for a few seconds before answering with a sigh, "The Captain lost his nerve in the caves. Seeing the last of his crew get torn to pieces right in front of him broke him. I tried to stop him from shutting the core down, but he was raving mad at that point. I took shelter in the part of the ship that these men found me at while he went crazy. I don't know where he is now."

The Captain sighed, putting his hands to his hips and looking out the cockpit glass to the valley below. He turned to her and continued, "So do you know if he's alive?"

"I do not know. I've survived these last several weeks on water and granola I scrounged from the medical room, I don't know how he would have survived."

"Captain!!" A panicked voice on the radio yelled, breaking the mood.

"Okay, thank you Miss Cartwright." The Captain turns away and answers the radio call, "Hotel 2-1, Martz? What is it?"

"We are under attack in Engineering! THE BUGS ARE ON BOARD THE SHIP!!" The sound of Pulse Rifles firing peppered his transmission, a distant yell adding a punctuation mark to the end of his call.

"Well. Shit."

"Steedman, take these two and go help out 2-1. Get them out of there. The rest of you! Defensive positions! I want motion trackers out, I don't want a single thing to get in here unnoticed." The rest of the squad mounted up from their relaxed positions around the bridge and took formation.

"Miss Cartwright, you stay with me. I don't want you out of my sight."

As I started moving out with Barry and Joseph, I caught a glimpse of Lindsey's face. The face that has shown at least a bit of fright was now taken by one I least expected in this situation. Anger.

As leave the bridge in a state of upheaval as we quickly make our way to Engineering. The far off sounds of Pulse rounds being fired echo through the empty halls of the ship, only to be broken up by our boots marching double-time down the metal corridors.

We reach the large pressure door to Engineering, already opened by 2-1 as they made their way down here. We stepped into Engineering, and was greeted by a sight that was definitely not something in line for USCSS regulations. Along the walls and across the floor was large piles of, all I can describe as, day-glow superglue.

"Good god," responded Joseph, "What is this shit?"

"Whatever it is, don't go touching it."

I pick up my right leg and stare at the trails of goop that my boot had picked up from the stuff. As I place it back down, I am suddenly greeted with flashes.

Unpleasant flashes. Flashes of that meeting I had with that company man regarding the video of LV-426. I look at a panel to the right that is covered with this... secreted substance. Suddenly, a face appears in it. The face of a malnourished girl.

"Hey... Marcus...."

The face was fucking talking to me.

"Marcus..."

I stepped in, the face slowly emoting my name as it ekes it out. Her eyes shoot open, revealing the glazed over eyes of my sister Alexis.

"MARCUS!"

Something grabbed my left arm. My right, which had my finger on the trigger despite all those years of practicing good trigger discipline, instinctively pulls back on it, letting out the large BANG of a Twelve gauge shell being fired.

"What the fuck dude!?" Yelled Barry, "Why'd you do that?"

"I.. what?" I gasp out.

"You were spacing out on us, man," said Joseph, "Now's not the time for a section eight. You okay?"

"Yeah... yeah I... just thought I saw something."

The mood was broken up again with the continued sound of firing, this time much closer than before.

"Come on, fellas," Joseph said, "Stay frosty. Let's get to 2-1."

We continued down the goop-filled corridor before hanging a left. There, we see Hotel 2-1 crouched around a large control panel overlooking the main Engineering bay. In the center is the glowing ship's core, but surrounding it is tons upon tons of more of the glowing ooze. We run up to the squad, which has Allen typing away furiously, the small screen on the panel throwing up numerous "Access Denied" messages.

"About god damn time you guys showed up! Marcus, you know how to do this shit, right?"

"Yeah yeah!" I exclaim, "Just leave it to me!"

"All we need is the log data. Get it and then we're bugging the fuck out of here!"

As I take Allen's position, I begin typing away, only to have my attention suddenly be turned towards the violent buzzing noise that is rapidly approaching me. I look up just in time to see the glowing red eyes of a large black, winged creature making a beeline right towards my face.

I step back to bring my SPAS-12 up, but I'm too slow. Suddenly, I am on my back as the creature has mounted me, trying to bite my face off. I throw my hands up and grab the pointed appendage on its forehead, forcing it away from me as it tries to fight forward. I quickly take note of its sharp, inch-long canines that are trying to take a bite out of my flesh.

"Oh shit! One's on Marcus!"

In one swift motion, Allen kicks the creature right in the gut, sending it flying off of my chest and to the other side of the catwalk. Allen pulls up his Smartgun and lets off a long burst. Green blood sprays everywhere as it lets out a guttural scream. The smoke clears, and the creature laid on the catwalk dead, its tongue flopping out of its mouth and its red eyes losing their glow. There are long cracks along its body where it was shot, indicating that it has some sort of natural armor. I see flashes again, this time to those bugs from LV-426. It's fuzzy, as I never did get a good look at those from the video, but the similarities are... disturbing.

"Jesus fuck..." I yell, rubbing my eyes to try and make the flashes go away, "That's what those things are?"

Allen reached down and helps me up, "Yeah man, they've backed off for now, but when we first got here they were wall-to-wall in here! They tried doing that exact same thing to Stevie-"

"LESS TALK, MORE TYPE!!" Screams Martz. He lets off a barrage of Pulse fire before removing the now-empty magazine, "I plan on living past today, God damn it!"

I hurry back to the console and go through the key sequencer. I locate the flight recorder and force it to eject the black box. Immediately, a nine-inch long box is ejected from the console, an LED numbers sequence lit up on top showing that it's in working order.

I hold it up, yelling, "I got it!"

"We got the black box! Alright, 2-1 fall back to the bridge! We're Oscar Mike!" Martz, Barry and Joseph peel out first, the rest of the squad following suit. Allen covers the back with Smartgun fire. As we leave the catwalk overlooking the Bay, my eyes go wide as I see a large wave of black motioning in towards our position, with dots of red peppered throughout, staring at what is most likely their next meal.

"Dan, MOVE!" I scream. He falls back, but his Smartgun suddenly stops firing. He quickly tries clearing the chamber, but he stops cold as he sees the LED readout read "000." He immediately throws down the Smartgun and the headgear, and pulls out his pouch of M40 grenades. We both begin running down the shadowy corridor as those things are undoubtedly right on our asses. We double-time it, our boots thundering down the corridor as the eight Marines head back to the bridge.

As we reach the main corridor to the bridge, Allen suddenly finds himself grabbed from behind. I turn around to see several of the creatures surrounding him, creeping out from the spaces underneath the walkways. As he spins around, holding a grenade in hand, one of the things takes a bite out of his right calf. Screaming, Dan falls to the walkway as the rest of them begin to tear into him.

I begin to open fire at the bugs that aren't too close to him. Shell after shell, pump after pump, I drop four of them before I realize that I need to reload. I stumble backwards onto my ass, fumbling around with the red shells as two of the creatures turn their attention towards me. They slowly stalk forward as I creep back along the walkway.

"Marcus..."

I look past the two bugs to Allen's upside down blood stained face. He still has that grenade in his hand. With his thumb, he popped off the plastic top to reveal the primer button. He smiled sadistically.

"Get going."

He pressed down on the primer. Immediately, I spring to my feet and ran as fast as I could. I didn't turn to face the resulting explosion, instead I found myself propelled by the force of the blast down the corridor near to where the rest of 2-1 was waiting. I landed with a thud, spinning around on my behind to look back from where I came. Nothing remained of either Allen or those creatures that were tearing him apart.

"Okay... shit's officially screwed up here," I breathed out. Barry runs up and helps me to my feet.

"Fuck... was that Dan?"

I nodded.

"Oh... oh god damn it."

We stumbled back into the bridge, where the Captain is standing there waiting.

"You have the box, right?"

I patted down on my left leg pouch on my BDUs. A plastic-sounding thump responded.

"Good, because we're leaving. Lace up anything else of importance, we're bugging out."

I was actually about to ask why, but I stopped when I looked and saw that Barry's motion tracker is screaming out at the massive signal heading right towards the bridge. Forty-plus signals, essentially a massive wall of white dots were at twenty five meters, and closing rapidly. We began the mass excursion back to the cargo bay. Heading through the galley and crew quarters, I am reloading my SPAS-12 as Lindsey walked up next to me.

"Quite ferocious, aren't they?"

I glanced over, eyebrow cocked at her sudden quip. She gave me quite the neutral look.

"Uh, yeah, that's one way of putting it."

Joseph pulled along side, "Fucking pissed off is more like it."

"Cut the bullshit," grumbles the Captain, "Brewster, you've got driver duty."

Joseph sighed, "Yes sir."

The radio buzzes on, "Hotel, this is Goose One. Are you guys on your way back?"

"Almost there, Parker. Baseplate, we are on our way out. We have Cartwright and the flight recorder. Advise over."

"Hotel 1-1, this is Baseplate. Fall back order April. I repeat: fall back order April. Your position is seriously compromised."

"Yeah, no shit, Sir. This ship is crawling with bugs. We already lost one Marine, and I do not plan on losing any more."

"Negative, Captain. We are reading massive heat signatures coming out of the cave system in the valley. Early estimates put us at about two hundred tangos converging on the Alhambra. Get your asses out of there!"

"Two hundred!? Holy Jesus!!" Martz was cracking.

We reach the cargo bay and work our way out through the rows of containers.

"Keep it together!" yelled the Captain, "Goose One, prep for immediate dust off!"

"Roger that, Captain." The dropship is seen making a pass around the Alhambra as it lowered its landing skids. As the squad piles into the APC, I see a familiar and unwelcomed sight: a wave of blackness sweeping down across the valley. Unlike what we saw in Engineering though, this wave was about a hundred times bigger.

"Time to go! Steedman, get your ass in here already!"

I climbed in and the APC door closes shut. Joseph takes the controls and wheels the APC around in a rush. He pulls up to the dropship and backed in rather haphazardly, banging up against the inside of the dropship as he over extends his reverse.

"Easy, guys!" Buzzed Parker, "These things aren't cheap you know!"

"Just get us out of here already!"

"On it! Ramp closing."

The grinding of the ramp is the sound telling us that we're almost out of here. I feel a nudge as the drop ship takes off from the ground and begins its ascent into the stormy sky.

"Holy fuck, look at them all," the Captain gasped. The swarm of black engulfs our landing area and attempts to follow us, but we are pulling away too fast for them to follow. The Captain is so amazed by the swarm, he doesn't notice on the adjacent screen that Parker was heading straight for an open cliff face along a mountain. Parker was too busy looking back at the swarm to concentrate on flying the fucking dropship.

"Parker!" I screamed, "UP FRONT!"

"Huh- OH SHIT!"

Parker swiftly makes a sharp bank away from the mountain spire and corrects his course back to the Constaguana.

"Holy Jesus... sorry about that."

The Captain slumps back into his chair and breathes a heavy sigh of relief, "Parker, your wings are so mine once this is over."

"Hey, I said I'm sorry!"

"You're not wiggling your way out of this one, Lieutenant. I ought to-"

The conversation was cut short as a piercing roar could be heard from outside the dropship. Everyone froze, the only sound being the clattering of random objects in turbulence. Lindsey was the first to speak up.

"Oh great, it's him."

We all turned our attention to the Science Officer, who has taken a seat up near the drivers position past the Captain's post.

"You morons woke him up."

"'Him'?" Questions the Captain "Who's 'him'?"

Another roar, this time much closer than before. Parker broke the tension over the radio.

"Sir, I've got a big fucking radar signature here... and it's heading right for us."

The storm buffeted the chariot side to side as the three continued their search for the mysterious object that shook Canterlot to its foundations. Scratch and Claw flew their hardest to keep the chariot and their Princess level, while Luna peered through the rain for anything that may be out of the ordinary.

"Your Highness!" Scratch yelled over the gusts of cold wind, "Is it wise to continue searching in this weather?"

"We are not stopping until we find that ship!"

"Princess, the Everfree is the densest forest in all of Equestria! If it landed in there, it could be anywhere!"

"Do not worry, it has no business going into the Everfree. I would wager that it has business much farther to the south."

"The South? What, you mean Dodge Junction?"

"Further South, Scratch."

"The Badlands?! What in the world for? You don't think that the Changelings have anything to do with this, do you?"

Luna pondered answering. Before she could, the same noise that the ship emanated as it flew over Canterlot could be heard through the storm. As it grew louder, Luna's proud smile grew as well. The smile vanished as another, unexpected sound pierced the stormy sky. The unmistakable roar of a dragon.

The chariot wheeled around and dropped in altitude as the two specks of light in the front of the object could be seen. The object appeared to be gathering speed, as if trying to evade a predator. Her assumptions would be correct as an orange and red dragon was tearing through the rain-filled sky, heading right for the ship.

The dragon matched the ship's speed, and just as the object appeared to be unfurling what Luna could only describe as arms, the dragon latched onto the side of it with his hind legs, put his forelegs around the "neck," and then to the surprise of not only the Princess but her two guards as well, took a bite out of the "neck."

The "head" went flying off towards the ground, as the rest of it began an uncontrollable spin. The dragon screeched triumphantly as he left the smoking carcass to its fall. The Princess watched in stunned silence as the object spun out of the sky.

Suddenly, a large chunk was separated from it as the main body seemingly opened up. A large box-like object tumbled out of the smoking wreck as both objects began their rapid descent to the surface below. The part that was most likely made to fly crashed in the forest to the West in a massive fireball, while the separate box-like object made a crippling crunching noise as it barreled through countless trees before finally coming to a stop.

The three remained frozen in the rainy night sky, in absolute awe of what they just witnessed. The Princess of the Night broke that silence.

"To answer your question, Scratch... yes. Yes I do believe the Changelings have something to do with this."

Prologue - The USCSS Alhambra files

Launch Corporate Interface<

[user: MC******]
[pass: *******]

[Welcome back!]

[>connect to: 2100:db10:0:1234:0:567:8:1]

Uplink Established!<
---[CONNECTED TO: USCSS ALHAMBRA]---

[>connect to: 'ALHAMBRA MU-TH-UR 9000 UNIT']

--[BEGIN TRANSMISSION]--
FILE(S) SELECTED: 2

-[FILE 1]-

JOURNAL – DR. LINDSEY CARTWRIGHT
HEAD SCIENCE OFFICER – USCSS ALHAMBRA

Entry date: October 12, 2179
18:32hrs

For two days now, we have been orbiting LV-1349. For two days we have gathered more data than the satellite probes have in the one year they have been orbiting this planet. Unbelievable what we have discovered here... sentient life other than our own. From what we can gather from a distance, they appear to be equines of some sort, generally smaller than our Earthly counterparts, but aside from the height differences there not much else different.

Except living in a society shockingly like our own, that is.

Getting an up close and almost personal view, something the probes could not accomplish, we discover houses, settlements not unlike towns you would see in 19th century Europe. They appear to practice in free trade, such as selling crops and items to others for some sort of monetary value. They are amazingly well-skilled in numerous types of craft, from dress-making to even simple mechanics such as watch making. They even have a rudimentary power grid by way of what appears to be a hydroelectric dam... yet they seem to use candle and firelight as a primary mean of nighttime illumination.

Strange. Perhaps it is an old habit they need to be weaned out of?

But anyway, I am getting off track. What the company originally expected our crew to do was survey LV-1349 for precious ores and minerals, which the planet is almost shockingly abundant in. Having to report to them that we found another sentient species in the universe may be quite the switch from what they were expecting.

Hopefully they don't expect us to land and mine the planet, all the while the indigenous populace stands there and watches us.

What upsets me though, is that I know it wouldn't be beyond what the company would normally order.

Entry date: October 14, 2179
14:18hrs

We've been ordered to drill, but at coordinates thankfully very distant from any nearby equine settlements. Our planned landing grid is deep in the southeastern mountains, past a small town and area that appears to be not unlike the old southern United States. The amount of activity when comparing the location from the massive mountainside city we initially came across shows that the larger one may be a central hub for the smaller neighboring towns, maybe even their capital.

Who knows.

But I am letting the alien equines distract me from my work. Our sensors show that our landing zone will be completely rife with rare ores that we, and by extension the company, need. They're all high up on the company's core wish list, so we may be landing and begin mining as soon as tomorrow.

I've been told by our company contact back on Earth to pay no mind to the indigenous populace. It's apparently not a priority with the company at this time, and that the drilling must come first.

They will send out a company man to do peace talks after our first collection is complete, so if it turns out that the locals do indeed have an issue with our drilling and aren't open to any sort of deal, we will all at least come out with something. Seeing as the entire crew gets shares from what is mined, we of course did not have any objections to this idea.

Entry date: October 14, 2179
20:21hrs

Memo: Planetary orbit appears... off. I noticed this last night, too. I'll recalibrate the gravity sensors to be sure, but it actually appears at first glance that the sun orbits LV-1349. Maybe I'm coming down with cabin fever. It has been over three months since I was last outside of this damn ship.

Entry date: October 15, 2179
11:34hrs

I won't be able to confirm my suspicions of LV-1349's orbit, as we have been cleared to land the Alhambra within the next few hours. Apparently a landing window has opened up and we will be making our way to the planet's surface thankfully before nightfall.

Entry date: October 15, 2179
13:40hrs

We landed, safe and sound. Touchdown took place about thirty minutes ago now. The terrain here is much more barren and desolate than what our equine locals have. Lucky them. The atmosphere is very breathable, practically Earth-like, although our local area is plagued by a layer of smoke that is billowing from a nearby cave opening, which we can only assume is local volcano activity. We are about to begin the process of unloading the gear and getting the loaders ready for drilling.

Entry date: October 15, 2179
17:06hrs

Well, things just got about a thousand times more interesting around here. Turns out that it wasn't a volcano that was creating all of that smoke. It was something that I can only describe as a dragon. The unloading of our vehicles and gear must have woken it up, as we heard a massive roar tear through the sky from the direction of that distant cave opening. The crew outside all turned to look, only to see a gargantuan red lizard unfurl it's wings and take to the smoke-laden sky. They all ran back inside as the creature circled the air above the Alhambra, before flying off to the south.

Perhaps it had other things on its mind?

I'm not sure myself, but the Captain sure as hell nearly pissed himself with its sudden appearance. He ordered our paltry collection of weapons to be loaded and ready in the armory should it come back and cause us any trouble.

Not quite sure what two M240 Incinerators and an M41A with one magazine can do against something THAT big... but it is better than nothing, after all.

Entry date: October 18, 2179
15:10hrs

Outside of drilling, things have been really quiet the last couple days. Our dragon appears to either not care about us or doesn't see us as a threat, seeing as he has been to and from his cave numerous times over the last few days and has yet to bother us in any way, shape or form. Our drilling is on schedule and doing fine though, so barring any run-ins with our distant mountainside neighbor, we should have a full load ready for deployment back to Earth in a week.

It is odd, though. You know that nagging feeling when you think that someone is watching you? I've had that all day.

Entry date: October 20, 2179
10:21hrs

One of the workers disappeared this morning. He was with a group working the northeastern tip of the valley we landed in. A search party will head out around lunchtime.

It would be a shame if our alien equine locals decided to suddenly show hostility all the way out here. This ore load we scored is worth far too much to spill blood over.

That paranoid feeling I have has been growing since yesterday. The events this morning have certainly helped it along, now it almost feels like something is staring right through me into my very core. I've been getting chills whenever I try to think about it. I need to find something more constructive to do.

Entry date: October 20, 2179
22:48hrs

I saw something outside the ship. Something that blurred by my view port like a flash before I could turn the flood lights on. It was a flash of neon green and a blur of rapid movement.

This would not be an issue if it weren't for my paranoia flaring up to an almost unbearable degree the second I saw it. I collapsed onto my bed where I nearly wept before gathering up enough gumption to write this log.

I currently have a great desire to leave this planet, ore or no ore.

Entry date: October 21, 2179
17:03hrs

Two more workers vanished earlier today. The entire ship is on high alert.

The search party yesterday followed some tracks to a cave system that is burrowed deep into the northeastern part of the valley. Doing some quick scans, the search group discovered that the cave network is insanely complex, and with their small party of five, it would take too long to cover the entire network by foot.

After the two workers disappearing today, Captain Reese has ordered everyone to begin wearing Personnel Locators on their wrists so the ship can keep track of where everyone is.

We don't know what is in those tunnels, and frankly I am not so sure that I want to find out.

Entry date: October 22, 2179
21:40hrs

The search party failed to report back tonight. They were going to head into the cave system and try to track down the three missing workers. All five failed to report back at loading bay closing time.

Reese is at his wit's end. He sent a message back to Earth requesting permission to leave the planet with the current ore and mineral load as soon as possible. Some of the crew doesn't want to call it quits yet, they want to find their friends and not leave without them.

Reese pulled me aside earlier this evening. He said that he does not care anymore. He wants to get back home alive.

I find it rather hard to disagree with him.

Entry date: October 23, 2179
18:00hrs

We got our orders. The six remaining crew members of the Alhambra, myself included, are to head into the cave system and get the crew members back. Failure to bring back (or at least document what happened to) the crew will result in a total forfeit of shares, per our company contact Miles Carlyle.

Carlyle said that if LV-1349 is to become a major spot in the mining industry, we need to document any and all possible hostile threats to workers. He argues that all it could be is that they got lost or injured or stuck and just need someone to help them out.

This paranoia, now eating me from the inside out begs to differ. It's been three days. If they're still alive, they're most likely in bad shape, and with that green thing out there somewhere they might not have a lot of time left.

The only weapon left in the armory is the pulse rifle with the one 95 round clip. The search party took the ship's two incinerator units.

Reese will take point while the rest of us head into the cave system. If the search party is still alive and we find them, we can hook up with them and continue on. If not... at least we can take the incinerators for our own.

When I head out, I'll use this head-camera that is used by some members of the Colonial Marines, mostly the smart gunners from what I've read, to try to document our journey into the cave system.

I hope I come back alive. God help me.

[END LOG]
[END LOG]

-[FILE 2]-

A/V RECORDING – DR. LINDSEY CARTWRIGHT
HEAD SCIENCE OFFICER – USCSS ALHAMBRA

RECORD START DATE: 10/23/79 – 19:02:12

-!ATTENTION!-!ATTENTION!-
[This workstation does not support audio playback functionality!]

Do you wish to have the workstation attempt to transcribe audio?<
[YES] NO

[please wait.....]
…
…
[transcription complete! identified crew members will be listed as such]

[PLAY]

Lindsey Cartwright (LC): Fuck, is this thing working now?

Michael Reese (MR): Lindsey, we got bigger things to worry about right now.

Jack Davis (JD): Jesus Christ, man, what happened to those guys? What the hell is this green shit everywhere!?

MR: Cool it, Jack. Eyes forward with that flame unit.

LC: I don't know what killed the search team. It couldn't be that dragon, unless that dragon has skills in the neon green glue department. It's got to be something else.

JD: Like what!?

Mike Shultz (MS): I dunno Jack, maybe those cute lil' mini-horses aren't all they were cracked up to be.

JD: Shut the FUCK up, Mike. There's no way those cute little things are meat eating, radioactive glue-spitting freaks.

MS: Well... then what the fuck are they? Last I checked from the good doctor here, we were the first humans to stumble across those things. Who knows what they have in store for us, they could be maniacal cannibals for all we know.

LC: That's enough, Mike.
MR: Stow it, Mike.

MS: Buncha pansies...

[chittering]
[chittering]

JD: What the fuck-
MR: Movement. Up front.

[chittering]
[chittering]

LC: Oh my god.

UNKNOWN: WHO DARES ENTER OUR LAIR

MR: Holy shit-
MS: What the hell!?

[chittering]
[chittering]
[chittering]
[chittering]

MR: The walls. THE WALLS ARE MOVING.
JD: THEY'RE ALIVE!
MS: Aw mother fuck

[chittering]
[chittering]
[firing]
[firing]

MR: FALL BACK. BACK TO THE SHIP.

JD: Oh Jesus Christ, oh Jesus-

LC: No – oh no – it was you.

UNKNOWN: THESE CREATURES DARE ENTER OUR LAIR. FEAST ON THEM ALL MY CHILDREN.

JD: Oh my GOD NO GET [untranscribable]

MR: Jack!

MS: JACK, NO, YOU FUCKERS.

[firing]
[firing]

MS: [untranscribable]

MR: Mike god damn it!

LC: I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry-

MR: Mike wait! Mike – oh FUCK.

LC: Sorry... so sorry...

UNKNOWN: Sorry... for what my dear?

LC: Oh god... please...

[END RECORDING]
[END RECORDING]

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(C:)
(D:)
[> THUMBS USB (F:)]

[transferring...]
…
[done!]

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--Thank you for using a Weyland-Yutani company database workstation! Goodbye!--

WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP

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"Building Better Worlds"