“Approaching coordinates”

“Thank you Solo.”

Webley turned away from him and walked back to the recovering pack. First he checked on young Conor, resting in the medic bay. Fizo was in the room with him, keeping a close eye on his vitals. The boy looked so fragile laying there.

“How is he doing?”

“I think he’ll pull through, but I feel anxious about leaving him here. Someone should be checking on him incase he takes a turn for the worst.”

“Hmmm, I’d rather not miss anyone of my crew on this last mission. There’s no telling of what will be waiting for us there.” He looked at Conor again. “I’ll have Ozone stay here, I can’t have another young boys life on my conscience today. Inform him of  his duties.”

“Yes sir.”

Walking back to the cargo bay Web was dreading to face his crew.  He’d seen some bad missions, but this one just kept going on, and getting worse. He took a deep breath, and stepped in the room. He was about to say something when he noticed them all standing silently in front of him, suited up an ready to go. No words were needed, they would follow him into any battle without a doubt. He suppressed a smile, and gave a short nod. They took their places and said their prayers in the hopes of a good ending to this epic mission. They were all silent as the ship set in for its landing. The dropship set foot on the ground, and the pack lined up to be on their way again. Packed with ammo, they felt ready for the final round.

“Lets go kick this Doctors ass.”

The hideout was a small bunker, nothing like the giant house of horrors they had burnt to the ground some days earlier. On the walk to the bunker they had encountered some of the alien life forms, but so far nothing they could not handle. The creatures seemed less focused somehow.  They walked up to the entrance of the compound.

“We’re being watched.” Woody pointed up at the surveillance camera’s.

“He always knew we were coming. No need for big surprises. Buzz open this door for us please.”

“Yes sir.” Buzz hooked up his gear and started working on it.

“If he thinks a door will stop us, this doc is even crazier then I thought!” Hemi bellowed. The crew let out a nervous laughter. Webley did not. He feared the reason the bunker was so poorly protected lay inside the bunker itself. Something worse then they had already encountered these past days. But he kept his mouth shut, to hold on to the little bit of moral they had still left.

After fifteen minutes Buzz gave the signal, they were going in.

The doors opened, they moved inside. Webley forced himself inside. It was quiet, nothing to see so far. The only sound was that of their boots on the concrete floor. He signaled them to keep going. When they came to the end of the corridor, Webley signaled them to split up and continue in two groups. Buzz ofcourse led the second group to the left, while Web moved his group to the right. The interior looked trashed, and they could hear noises coming from the room up ahead. One final deep breath, and he pushed away the door.

“Welcome Corporal Webley!”

This must be him. The man who had almost wiped out his entire crew with his crazy experiments. Web felt the rage inside him rise up.

“I am Doctor X.Mus. But you must know this by now. And your artificial life-form has known about me for even longer.” Solo emerged from the group and sided with Web. The doctor had a strange Scandinavian accent which Web could not place.

“Yes, we know about you and your insane experiments. We have come to take you into custody and bring you back with us, were you will be brought to justice.”  

The doctor turned away from them, and Webley pointed his gun at him to make sure he had him covered at all times. X.mus let out a soft laugh.

“Don’t worry Corporal, there are no tricks left up my sleeve.”

“If I learned something from this planet, is that nothing is ever safe.”

“Yes, I had some very big breakthroughs on Hades IV. I learned more then I had imagined about these beautiful creatures. But alas, it was all for nothing. The experiment has failed.”

“What happened to your creation?” Solo’sudden question had Web startled.

“Creation? What do you know about this? And why was I not informed?”

The synthetic looked at him with its expressionless face and answered him.

“Dr.X.Mus has been working on improving the Alien.”

“I imagine the other group has encountered him by now.” X.Mus said.

“Stay here with him!” Web ordered Hemi and Thomas. He stormed out of the room and bolted through the corridor towards Buzz and his men.

Almost triping on his way in, he stopped dead in his tracks at the first sight he got on it. The men stood around it in a circle. A snake like creature, about 3 meters long. Its head resembled that of Xenomorph. It was clearly very deformed, and was not functioning properly. It kept squealing and oozed some kind of liquid from its skin. It could barely move itself forward. They all stood gazing at it in silence. So this was what the doctor had been working on.

Footsteps came rushing down the hall. Woody burst into the room. Not aware of the situation, he took one look at the thing on the floor and reacted on instinct. One burst of his pulserifle and the thing exploded. The liquid that had been oozing from its body sprayed across the entire room, covering them all in it.

“Euuuughhhhh!!!” The sound of disgust filled the oozing room.

“Dammit Woody!!”

Back in the room with X.Mus, Hemi and Thomas tried not to laugh at their dripping teammates.

“The games are over Doctor, lets get moving towards our ship.”

“Oh but I’m not going anywhere.” X.Mus opened up his lab coat and revealed the belt of explosives around his waist.

“Get out of here!!!!” Webley shouted at the top of his lungs. The crew didn’t think twice about following his order, and bolted for the exit. Only Solo and Webley were left in the room with the doctor now. Sweat covered the doctors forehead, as he held the trigger to the explosives in his hand. He suddenly started coughing, drops of blood fell on his chest.

“You’ve got one inside of you.” Solo said. The doctor nodded his head, not able to speak through the coughing. Webley noticed his chest moving beneath his shirt. X.Mus released his grip on the trigger, thereby activating the countdown for the explosion.

“Solo lets get out of here now.” But Solo was fascinated with the transformation of the doctor.

“I order you to get back to the ship right now Solo!” Solo only seemed to be moving closer to the doctor.

“Solo I am leaving!!” There was no time left. Webleys feet moved as fast as they could. He turned the corner, before he knew what was happening he lay flat on the ground. He had slipped on some of the creatures goo. Struggling to get back up, the adrenaline rushed through his veins. Finally he was moving again. He could smell the dampness of the mist outside, when the first explosion sounded behind him. With his last bit of energy he exited the building. The blast catapulted him even further away from it.

Several hours later, the crew stood impatiently around Webleys bed. When he opened his eyes, he couldn’t quite understand what was going on. But he knew it was over.

“How are you feeling?” Fizo asked.

Web grunted. “Send word to Sergeant Shadow, we’re gonna need us a 3.0”