Survivors

The attack happened really fast. Just like at the camp. The Alien’s had obviously massed their forces just out of the range of the bases scanners and when they came they came like a storm. It was like a blitzkrieg. By the time Bretnel and the others had reached the surveillance room, even using cheetah speed to get them there, three massive Alien Crushers were smashing at the main entrance to the base and five Scouts were already moving in along the passage.

“It would appear that we will need to defend ourselves to make good our escape” said Bretnel.

“Escape?” Asked Holly.

“Indeed” replied Bretnel pulling a map out of a draw. “There is a secondary base about seventy miles from here that is as yet undiscovered”. He pointed at a small cross on the map. “Holly, I am entrusting you with this map. Should anything happen to me, or we get split up make your way to this location”.

“But..I..” Stuttered Holly.

“No time for debate” said Bretnel. “We need to make good our escape through the tunnel as the main force appears to be concentrated at our front gate. I will activate the automatic defence systems there as that will hopefully focus the Aliens attention for a while. We will need to encounter and eradicate the Scouts in the tunnel”

“What?” Asked Joe

“We get to kick their butts in the tunnel” said Luke with undisguised relish.

“I suggest” said Bretnel completely ignoring this little exchange, “That you use a blend of fly for the pure reaction speed and a descent compound eye, gorilla for strength and a shell of some description for a little protection. You will of course need to keep your hands mostly human in order to operate your weapons. I shall lead the way. Remember, if the Aliens feel threatened they will shoot to kill, if they don’t feel threatened they will probably shoot to kill anyway! If you are captured you will spend the rest of your lives in a work camp, so we need to make sure that we all get out of here in one piece. Is everybody clear?”

They nodded their agreement, now a little too terrified to speak. Bretnel went over to the control panel and flicked a few switches that turned on the bases auto defences at the main gate.

“Ok” he said “Let’s rock and roll!” He went to walk away and then turned back “You know, I do appreciate the seriousness of our situation, but I’ve always wanted to say that in that ever so slightly macho way” then he smiled a little sheepishly and looked somewhat embarrassed, “Come on”.

They sprinted down towards the tunnel without a second glance at the surveillance screens, which was a real shame because if they had they might have seen two Alien Attack Killers drop heavily into the tunnel as back-up for the Scouts.

As they reached the common room Bretnel held up his hand. They all skidded to a halt. In the silence that followed they could dimly hear the hum of Alien light drives behind the door.

“They’re inside the room” whispered Bretnel “On a count of three I will kick open the door and we shoot anything inside”. They all nodded “One, two..” which was as far as he got because the door suddenly disintegrated as the Aliens inside let rip with their lasers. They all dropped to the floor as fragments of door shattered and flew around them.

As suddenly as it started the shooting stopped to be replaced with an eerie silence. The only sound that could be heard was the usual hum of the Aliens and the odd bit of door that was still burning and dropping to the floor. Then with unbelievable speed Luke was on his feet. He launched himself into the room blasting away with his energy rifle. He sliced the Alien nearest the door almost in half. Before the other four could react he had leapt halfway across the room. Milliseconds later the Aliens lasers blew a hole in the wall behind where Luke had been moments before. Luke was moving and reacting so quickly that even he was barley aware of what he was doing. Without thinking about it and firing from the hip he put a neat hole right through the centre of a second Scout.

By now Bretnel had recovered from his shock and had followed Luke into the room. He immediately took out the third Alien with a controlled blast to it’s back. Slightly confused by the sheer speed of the multiple targets the remaining Aliens tried to retreat towards the tunnel. Both were almost instantly and simutaneously hit by a sustained volley of bolts from Luke. They blew apart showering the room in metal splinters and filling it with thick smoke.

Bretnel began panting and coughing. He knelt down next to one of the shattered Aliens and peered inside the carcass.

“These aren’t just machines you know” he said sadly “These are sentient beings, if only we could learn to communicate with them I’m sure we could sort all this stupidity out”.

“I think we’ve sorted things out pretty well so far today” said Luke bitterly.

“If you live with this much hate all the time it will destroy you” said replied Bretnel with a sad shake of his head, then he shouted “Holly, Joe come on we need to get out of here”.

Luke moved towards the tunnel entrance. In just one or two fragments of his compound eye he suddenly spotted the Attack Killers moving towards him. There was barely a hundredth of a second between the Killers registering in his brain and his muscles reacting. He sprang backwards instantly, but even so a laser blast flashed across his chest burning through his shell and singeing the flesh beneath. Holly and Joe, who had only just come into the room dived again for the floor and levelled their guns at the door. Bretnel lurched towards Luke and grabbed him. The Killers laser beams kept pulsing into the room splintering, shattering and disintegrating everything they came into contact with. The Aliens knew they weren’t going to hit anything with these shots but this withering suppressing fire would make sure that nobody was able to step into the corridor to take a shot at them.

“Are you okay” yelled Bretnel above the roar of the laser beams and thunder of the exploding furniture.

“I’m fine” replied Luke with a lot less self assurance than he had felt a few moments earlier. “What do we do now, those are Killers down there, they won’t be as easy to deal with as these Scouts?

“I concur, I suggest that we make our way to the main elevator shaft and defenestrate ourselves”

“For gods’ sake” yelled Luke “Just for once say it in simple English!”

“We go to the main elevator, we climb through the access hatch, fly up the shaft and then smash our way through the skylight at the top. Was that simple enough?”

“Perfect! Oi! You two follow us” yelled Luke towards Joe and Holly “And keep your heads down!”

The four of them ran out of the common room and back along the corridor. The lift was somewhere they had hardly ever been as Bretnel had disabled it so it wouldn’t move. As they reached the doors one of Bretnel’s hands turned into a giant claw and he sliced through the metal doors peeling them apart a little like a giant can opener. Inside the lift he suddenly grew to over eight feet tall and smashed open the access hatch in the elevators ceiling.

Dropping back to something more like normal size he said” Right Luke, cover the corridor, Holly you go up first. Fly to the top of the shaft and wait for us there. Don’t smash the glass until we are all ready to go, we need to surprise the Aliens by bursting out and then making an immediate dash for it. I suggest that we head due north, which is exactly the opposite direction of where we want to go. That way we can double back when we have shaken them off. Fly low as this will make it harder for them to target or track you. Do you understand?!”

“Yes” nodded Holly

“Joe? Do you understand!”

Joe just nodded and then said “Well sort of, I didn’t get the bit about due north, but I guess I will just follow Holly”.

“That’s good enough” replied Bretnel. “So let’s get going. Luke and I will join you in a few seconds, good luck, now go”.

First Holly and then Joe disappeared through the hatch and took off. They found that flying vertically is hard, really hard, especially when you don’t have room to really spread your wings properly and are still trying to hang on to a whacking great gun. Half way up Joe got so frustrated that he turned himselfinto a giant spider. He found that it was a lot easier to scramble up the shaft using six of his eight limbs and within a second or two Holly had copied him.

Down below Bretnel said “Luke your turn, I’ll cover you”

Luke took one last glance down the corridor and shot into the lift. He sprang through the hatch and looked up. He couldn’t help a brief smile when he saw the two massive spiders scrabbling away above him. He slung his gun round his neck and turned into an eagle. He grinned as he thought about how shocked Joe and Holly would be as he shot past them. He leapt into the air unfurling his wings.

With ten lung bursting flaps he had almost reached the spiders. He glanced back down the shaft and saw Bretnel standing, motionless in the lift looking up at him. Instantly Luke knew that something was seriously wrong. Rolling in the air he tucked his wings in and dived straight back down the shaft. He crashed onto the roof of the elevator and immediately changed back into his human form. He peered through the hatch. As he’d guessed Bretnel had blacked out. Luke threw himself down onto the elevator roof. He started to change his arm into an octopuses tentacle to make a grab for Bretnel. Then all of a sudden Bretnel blinked and shook his head as he came out of the blackout. Seeing Luke he smiled up at him and seemed about to launch himself through the hatch when his chest suddenly exploded. For a moment he looked surprised before two more laser blasts smashed into his midriff spinning him round splattering blood all over the inside of the lift. The Attack Killers had found them.

Horrified Luke stared at the crumbled mess in the lift below him. Half of him wanted to jump down into the lift to take on the Aliens, but he knew deep down that this would be suicide. Roaring with impotent fury he resprouted his wings and shot upwards. He reached the top of the shaft at about the same time as Holly and Joe. As he approached the glass he blasted at the skylight with his gun which evaporated in a shower of tiny fragments. He shot through the hole and raced off towards the north. Holly and Joe were so shocked that without thinking they changed back into giant eagles and bolted after him.