FSE

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"I need to find the generator that powers the labs", I said, "can you access the facility schematics and find out where it is?"

"Not from here", Magellan said, "there's a beefy EMP barrier blocking my signal, we have to move inside."

I sighed and started for the building, keeping the FAL on my shoulder and my finger on the trigger. It was getting hotter by the minute and I could feel the heat radiating from the asphalt through the soles of my boots, even with the cooling system. When I got to the front of the building, there was a large utility door that swung open to reveal a foundry type area. There were presses that were pounding out red hot slabs of what looked like the Iron-Lead combination that Confederate troops used in their bullets and there were clay buckets full of molten metal swinging around above my head. I'll be sure to stay away from those. Another feature that I didn't fail to notice was the REEK that the air carried. It smelled like a dead skunk had taken a bath in stink bugs and then rinsed with slag from lead refining process and did it's hair with pureed dead fish.

"Holy SHIT this stinks!", I gagged warping my Shemagh around my mouth and nose, "Magellan, how do we get from the main generator from here? The quicker the better."

"The only way to reach the generator is via the facility's Internal Transport Nexus", Magellan said, "scanning facility schematics...results are inconclusive at this time, however, I did find an active data terminal in the vicinity, updating map coordinates."

I brought up my PDA and got into the maps that I had downloaded form the 300 a few nights ago. I pulled up the map of Ransol Industries and found a little red dot a few rooms down. It didn't look like a big room and not only was it marked with a red dot from Magellan's scan, but it was also marked with a first aid sign, so It would be a good place to find things to bring back to Biosphere. I stuck my PDA back in it's pouch and started on. Just down a stair case from the office type area that I was in, I began to hear a rather high pitched buzzing sound, but couldn't really tell where it was coming from or what was making it. I glanced up at the ceiling, behind me and to both sides, but didn't see anything, so I continued on.

The heat from outside mixed with the smell of the air, not to mention how heavy the air pressure had to be for the refinement of the Iron-Lead alloy, was more than enough to drive anyone to their knees and shut your body down in just a few seconds. It was already trying to knock me out of the game. My gear seemed to get heavier and heavier with each step I took and it hurt to breathe. My heart was beating so fast that I felt like it could explode at any second.

"Magellan", I said crouching to try and catch my breath, "keep tabs on my vitals, I'm in no mode to die from over exertion."

"Will do brother", Magellan said.

As I stood up, the buzzing came much closer and then the next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach with something enormous on top of me. I managed to get my tail around and knock it off just long enough to roll over and come face to face with the biggest Japanese Hornet I'd ever seen. The fucker had to be at least five feet tall and seven feet long and it had a stinger on it that was the size of a 20mm cartridge. It's four pincers were easily a foot and a half long and serrated with inch long pocket knives, that in turn had teeth that would make a Great White jealous. It's eyes were a soulless black and my reflection in their lenses made it seem like I was in a bad, sci fi insect slasher flick like Mansquito.

"Why are people always making bullshit like this!", I half shouted, half groaned as I reached for my Automag, "what could possibly be the upside!?"

The Hornet hissed at me and tried to bite my head off with it's huge pincer. I squirmed out of the way just in time and managed to get my knife into it's neck. I pressed the button and left the blade embedded inside it as I reached into my vest for a new one. I clicked it into place as the hornet lept at me and tried to bury it's massive, spike of a stinger into my chest. I took my feet out from underneath me and dove prone, rolling onto my back as the lethal spike just barely missed the top of my head. I fired another blade into the creatures back and then emptied 7 rounds of .50 Action into it's abdomen, while the other two hit it's right wing. Not wanting to spend the rest of my life loading another clip into my handgun, I grabbed the High-Power off my back and let a shell go, braking the hornet apart and sending green goo everywhere. Panting, I stood up and cracked the High-Power open, the huge .950 Tyrannosaurs shell flew out and left a wisp of smoke coming from the chamber. I stuck another shell into the gun, shouldered it and then picked up my Automag and my knife blades.

"Magellan", I said, "see what you can do to punch a signal through the EMP shield so I can get a call out to James, he needs to know Ransol's been infected with 240 and 12."

"I'll do what I can", Magellan said, "there's some pretty heavy encryption on the controls though, so no promises."

Once I had everything back together I continued through the foundry. At the back of the area there was a chain link wall that separated a small, raised platform from the rest of the foundry. There was a small metal desk with a Toshiba laptop on it and filing cabinets behind it. There were two blue steel doors with signs on them that read "Rail yard" and another that said, "to second floor".

"Magellan", I said, "where do we go once were on the second floor?"

"it will be the first utility door on the left", Magellan said, "it will take us through a decon chamber and then to the terminal. If I'm correct, I should be able to use the computer to pinpoint the Nexus and maybe even reactivate it."

"I hope your right too", I sighed, "I'm gonna die of asphyxiation if I stay in here for much longer. It's getting harder and harder to breathe the further we go."

Magellan didn't answer me as I started up the stair case. The further I climbed, the heavier the pressure seemed to get and I could feel my knees start to buckle underneath what was my 500 pounds nearing a half ton. At the top of the stairs, I slipped and heard my ankle crack. I fell face first into the steel stair case and a surge of pain made me think that I had cracked my visor.

"Son of a....bitch", I panted rolling onto my back. My left foot was slightly bent from the cracked bone. It wasn't much, but I could see and feel it .

"Did you just brake your ankle?", Magellan asked.

"Sprained yes", I corrected, "not broken, but damaged enough that if I take another fall it will, I can't turn back though, how far is the med bay?"

"About twenty five feet from the door", Magellan sighed.

"Hell", I said using the railings to pull myself up, "I can limp that."

"Bullshit you can", Magellan scolded, "you have any idea how heavy the air pressure is outside that door? 45 PSI, that's enough to kill any human."

"I'm not human", I said limping for the door, "I'm a Xenomorph."

"Crazy fucker", Magellan said, "your gonna get us both killed."

"Will you just stop?", I asked, "if I get anyone killed it will be myself, your an AI, you can just download somewhere else."

Magellan sighed, "not how it works Sky."

I put my hand on the door knob and pulled it open. I felt the pressure get heavier quicker than I could snap my fingers. The second floor was what looked like a completely automated fuel condenser. I could smell gasoline on the air and feel the heat from the evaporators and the blow down drums. The top of the room was a giant glass dome that was stained yellow from the years of vapors that had floated to the top. This floor was also ear splitting loud. It was so loud that I was sure the High-Power wouldn't be heard over it. A few feet past the door I saw the green cross symbol that marked the med bay. With the Automag in my hand, I used the wall for support as I limped to the door and pulled it up. I entered the med bay and closed the hatch behind me. Just past the door there was a small chamber with a copper box with a lever on it that said "start and stop". There were six copper valves in the ceiling that connected to copper pipes with gauges on them that looked like air pressure gauges.

"Magellan?", I asked.

"It's a compression chamber", he stated, "I'm detecting that the air pressure in the rest of the building on is at normal pressure."

"Good enough for me", I said pushing the switch to start. There was a loud hiss before a feeling like a weight being lifted off my chest and shoulders overtook me and left me so light headed that I fell over. On a positive note I found that I was able to breathe again. I also noticed that the heat of the foundry and the outside world was null here. There was cold air flowing into the room from some unseen vent that warranted my switching off the suit as I stood up.

"Finally", I gasped, "I can breathe again, air still smells like dead shit though."

I stepped out of the chamber and in to the medical bay. The room was a 15 by 15 square with medical beds up against either wall left or right of the door with cabinets above them. There was a hologlass display by each bed and a monitor for X-Rays. The room was painted a baby blue color and floor was stained concrete. In the middle of the room was a large stainless steel platform that looked like a hologram emitter, but...not a hologram emitter at the same time. It was perfectly round and smooth. It came about two and a half feet off the ground and had a key broad and a small computer screen on one side with a small pair of stairs on the other. On top of it was a slab of glowing blue glass that was brightening and dimming with each second.

"Magellan", I said looking it over, "identify object."

"Accessing data base", Magellan said as his computer side took over, "object identified as a Decon platform. They were designed in the year 2100 to interface directly with Mark 2 Chemical suits and remove any toxins in a plant workers system. They were since modified for radiation removal as well as a treatment for cancer."

"But it can't fix my ankle can it?", I asked.

"Sadly no", he answered, "but if your dying of radiation poisoning, this is the place to be."

"Where's that terminal?", I asked.

"Over in the corner", he said.

I spun around to see another hologlass terminal that looked to be fully operational. I walked over to it and held my PDA up to the Data Burst port and two seconds later there was a flash of light and Magellan was in the system.

"I'm in", he said, "the nexus is down the hallway through a set of double utility doors, but it's offline, between here and there is swarming with Ransol's synthetic security as well."

"Is there anyway you can kick start the Nexus from here?", I asked.

"Maybe", he said, "if I can get into their firmware, it's a lot of code written in a way I haven't seen before. The Nexus is running what looks like the bastard child of Windows 8, CHDISK and CAD21, I could screw something up and render our only ticket to the generator to an oversized paper weight. If I can drain the power from the EMP shield, then I can punch a signal to the Cluster 300 and use that beast to write a backdoor for the Nexus."

"Sounds like a long, complicated process", I said, "how long till the shield's down?"

"At most?", he asked, "five minutes."

"Do it", I told him.

I stood guard as Magellan hacked into the EMP Shield and drained it like a leech. There was a very loud humming sound and then a sound like a winding down jet engine. A voice then came over the intercoms.

"EMP Barrier down, any calls to the outside may now go through."

I switched on my radio and tried James back at the lab.

"James", I called, "It's Skyline, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear kid", James answered back, "where's our HAVOC systems? It's getting hotter than the second level of hell up in this toaster oven."

"ETD on HAVOC is less than ten minutes", I told him, "Magellan needs a remote access to the 300 to get the ITN back online though."

"Tell him Tyler will send it his way if you relay the IPI Address to him."

"Magellan", I said, "Tyler needs Ransol's IPI Address for the remote uplink, what is it."

"GHT-345-3ed", Magellan said.

"The Address is GHT-345-3ed", I repeated.

"Got ya", Tyler said, I could tell from the way his voice sounded that he was starting to dehydrate, James was too. Need to move my ass, "Gimme twenty seconds and you'll be in."

In that small amount of time, an alarm began to ring.

"Hostile detected in Medical Bay 65", the robotic voice from the intercom said, "security is authorized to use deadly force on sight."

"Crap", Magellan said, "It locked me out of the Nexus programs."

"Hurry it up and get back in!", I yelled as I dropped prone to engage two synthetics that walked through the door, popping a .308 in each of their skulls.

"Come on 300", Magellan said, "gimme. That. ITN! BOOM! I got it! The Nexus is online!"

"Then haul ass before we suffocate to death would you please?", James asked, "I'm 72 years old and I'd like to live to see birthday 73!"

"On it!", I said retrieving Magellan from the computer and limping the med bay.

In the hallway there were six pillars lining each side of the 100 foot hallway. I could see windows at about the 50 foot mark and something in the way it was lain out made me have a flash back to the final hours I spent on Bespin before X-Day. I could also see five or six security guards armed with FN FAL's hiding behind them. Two of them broke cover to fire at me. The bullets whizzed past my head and one of them nicked my scarf. I ducked behind the pillar and took the scarf off my face.

"Surrender now and your death will be painless", one of the robots said, "you will not be given another warning."

"Why is everything out to kill me this week?", I asked myself as I pulled the pin off one of my grenades and chucked it down the hallway.

"Explosives incoming!", one of the bots yelled, "retreat to a safe distance immediately."

Acknow..", another was cut short as the grenade went off. I heard a few loud thumps against the wall and quickly peeked out from behind the concrete pillar. I saw two bots that had their lower haves blown off. They were gushing hydraulic fluid and other liquids as a bot in red fatigues carrying a shotgun rushed forward. I raised my rifle and cracked off a single round that ripped through his left eye socket, knocking him back, but not killing him. He responded with a shotgun slug that missed me, but buried itself an inch into the concrete pillar I was hiding behind.

"You wanna play a one shot one kill game do you?", I asked myself as I exchanged the FAL for the High-Power and flipping the safety off, "okay, let's play one shot one kill."

I flipped out from behind the pillar and placed the red dot on the forehead of the medic bot. He noticed me and raised his shotgun to fire, but I discharged first. The huge .950 Magnum tore his head clean off and ripped his body into two distinct pieces with a burst of oil and clear hydraulic fluid. A second bot popped out of cover and took aim, but I once again fired first, having a similar effect to the medical bot. I broke open the chamber and let the rounds fly out, braking from the pillar I was hiding behind and limping as quickly as I could to another about 30 feet up the hallway.

"Hostile is closing in on our position", one of the bots said, "call for reinforcements."

"Bullshit", Magellan said.

"Negative", another said, "all communication has been disabled."

"Advance on the hostiles position", the lead bot commanded, "shoot to kill." "Acknowledged", the second bot said.

I heard a heavy boot step and quickly peeked out of cover to see a bot with an FNH P90 leaping over his sandbag wall. I swung my double barrel out and put the dot in his chest, letting the huge round fly down range while he was still in mid air, sheering him into four big pieces and countless smaller ones. As the second bot stepped out, he managed to be just a hair faster on the trigger than I was and get off two rounds that smacked me in the chest and knocked the breath out of me. Taking a deep breath, I managed to get back on target and let the round off, taking the head and left arm as well as most of the bots upper torso clean off. I stuck two fresh rounds into the High-Power and shouldered it for the FAL and then limped down the hall, coming to a stop at the lead bots P90.

It was sporting a carbon fiber stock with a Multicam paint job, a Trijjicon ACOG scope and a suppressor. It was also a bit longer than normal, telling me he was using it with extended mags.

"I'll take that", I said picking it up.

I took the suppressor off and stuck it in my back pack along with the ammo and then continued down the hall to the main Nexus room, what I found was amazing.

The Nexus had to be at least 50 feet wide and the room was no less than 100 feet up. The Nexus had six arms branching of a middle teleportation core that connected to small hyper cores that were each raised and glowing a bright blue. There were grates on all six arms that let me see the complex inner workings of the Nexus, the pipes and the exposed copper wires so full of amperage that I could see little yellow arcs between them and the glass pipes carrying an unidentified blue fluid. I limped to the middle of the Nexus and put the FAL to my side.

"Okay...I never really liked teleporting, makes me sick", Magellan, you sure this is safe?"

"Affirmative", my AI friend said, "even though Ransol is currently only at 23% percent power, these teleporters are designed for emergency use. Event at current power levels odds of failing materialization are lower than one in a trillion."

"That's...good to know", I sighed.

"Initiating teleportation procedure....done....engaging safety protocols...done. Stand by for teleportation."

I heard three loud beeps and then there was a flash of light. Next thing I knew I was face to face with this giant, 20 foot tall...what almost looked like a bio mechanical turret. There were four stacks of three wide 120mm laser cannons on this beast and up top was what looked like a twisted, melted human crossed with a Rhino. Behind it was this web of purple colored, pulsating bio matter that looked like blood vessels. The entire thing was covered in a web of purple and red meat and boy did it sound pissed off that a Xeno had just come knocking.

"What the fuck is this bullshit!?", I yelped as the thing growled at me. It's turrets spun around and the meat on the barrels began to pulsate faster.

"Chemical 232 specimen Beta 329", Magellan said, "also known as Atlas. It seems a Chemical 240 treated mutation matter infected a gravity shaft and a security laser turret. Worse off it's blocking our path to the generators. Your gonna have to fight it."

"Of course I have to fight the giant mutated turret!", I yelped looking around for any source of cover before those huge ass laser cannons went off. I found a shallow trench near the back of the room and threw myself into it just as the lethal beams ripped into the concrete wall behind me, leaving a six foot wide, half foot deep hole in the rebar laced stone.

"Mother fucker how am I supposed to fight that monstrosity!?", I cried, "How Magellan! How, how do I kill this nightmare!?"

"I need to run an analysis program to find it's weak spot", Magellan replied frantically, "but my systems are fucked up from that EMP blast."

I looked down the sight of my FAL and found the the red dot was barely visible, not good because I had just changed those batteries which were supposed to last seven years in that sight, running on 11 setting for brightness at 24 hours a day.

"I can't take another hit from that EMP", Magellan said, "if it fires again I'll be reduced to whatever it is that my drives are made of."

"Then tell me how to kill it!", I shouted as I stood up and mag dumped into the body of the beast, doing very little, if any real damage. The creature responded by tossing a basketball sized glob of goo at me that shattered like glass when it hit the ground, spraying what was almost certainly Super Concentrated Chlorine acid all over me. The shit burned through my Chitin exoskeleton like it wasn't even there and made me start bleeding myself.

"Ahh! Shit...!", I winced as I ducked back down and wiped the acid off my face with my scarf, "hurry up Magellan, neither of us can take another hit from this behemoth."

I could hear it spinning it's turrets again, reading for another shot. The low growls mixed with the mechanical grinding and the hum of the lasers reading for discharge scared me more than the splinters of wood and lead had back home. I had to kill this thing, quickly."

"I found it!", Magellan shouted, "I know how to kill this goliath!"

"How?",asked, "fill me in please!"

"Just before it's about to discharge, jump out and fire directly into the cannons with the High-Power, pull both triggers at once, just let it have it, but wait till it's ready to fire before you do or you won't do shit!"

I slapped another magazine into the FAL and exchanged it for the High-Power. I peeked out from the trench and saw that the cannons were ready to fire, but that a laser sight was searching for a target.

I stood up and aimed the SES right at the middle cannon, "Here I am bitch!", I shouted as I let both rounds go. The recoil knocked me flat on my back. The Gravity Shaft let off a pained, angry growl as a large BANG tore throughout the room. I poked my head back out and saw that the middle turret was banana peeled, but the other two hadn't been singed. There was the purple and red bio matter quickly growing over the wound. The turrets spun again and brought in a fresh cannon. Wonderful.

"Well it just brought in a fresh cannon", I said ducking down as I broke open the High-Power's action.

"There must be six cannons a stack", Magellan said, "that means you need forty eight rounds to take it out."

"I've barely got 20", I said sticking the two rounds into the chamber and clicking it closed, "Can I climb to the top and kill what's up there?"

"Only if your not attached to your limbs", Magellan said, "the radiation levels on that thing are high enough to dissolve Chobham armor on the Abrams Main battle tanks."

I groaned, "there must be some other way to put this horror down!"

"I'll keep doing what I can", Magellan said, "just don't let it fire those lasers again if you want to live!"

"Easier said than done!", I shouted as I stood up and waited for the laser sight. When it found me I let the rounds go, banana peeling another turret and ducking back down as Atlas spun his guns to replace the destroyed weapon. The next time I stood up, I found myself being pulled towards the beast as the right cannon charged up. Somehow the left and middle guns were acting as a giant vacuum, it was intending to pull me in and vaporize me.

"Not good!", I squeaked, "not good, not good!"

I turned around and sank all 20 of my claws into the steel grate below my feet trying to fight the powerful, supercharged pull that Atlas held, but it was threatening to pull the claws out of my fingers if I held on for too long. There had to be a way to one up this iron colossus, something I could do to win this fight and save my friends!

"It's gonna pull the claws out my fingers Magellan!", I whined, "help me!"

"I got nothing!", He answered, "I can't see any other way to hurt it besides taking out the guns one by one!"

I lowered my body as close to the ground as I could, trying anything I could do to lessen the suction effect of it's air pumps, if it didn't manage to suck me in, it would keep going till there wasn't any air left to breathe. Already I could feel the pressure starting to drop off. The pull worsened as the seconds ticked away. My tail felt like it was about to be ripped away from me and I felt my downpipes starting to bend, a little more of this and I'd be ripped apart like wet tissue paper. It was do or die time and it looked more like die time than it did do time.

"If I'm going then I'm taking a lot of you with me!", I shouted. I put everything I had into my left arm and hand and reached into my vest with my right, pulling out a frag and pulling the pin off with my teeth. I wasn't intending for the grenade to be sucked right out of my hand, but that was what happened. It flew the ten feet from where I was literally clinging to life and flew right down the barrel of the vacuum before exploding. I'll never know what it was that grenade set off, but there was an earsplitting loud BANG as the air rushed back into the room and flung me the 20 feet from where I was and bashed me into the wall. Atlas gave off a loud, angry growl as a secondary explosion rocked the entire plant and the layer of guns fell beneath the grating. Atlas began spinning his second layer of turrets for a counter attack, no way was this Iron juggernaut going down that easy.

"I got you!", I shouted as I let off two rounds from the high power into the charged right turret, producing the banana peel result I'd gotten with the two prior.

"Don't get cocky Sky!", Magellan said, "were dealing with a real steamroller here."

As I stood up to fire at a fourth turret, Atlas quickly canceled it's charge, opting instead to pump out ten more of the glass balls full of acid. What;'s worse is that I wasn't the target of these acidic bombs, my cover was. The balls landed and broke inside the trench, leaving the yellow super acid all over the bottom of my trench, leaving Magellan and I helpless to what ever it was Atlas felt like doing to us.

"Were fucked!", Magellan said.

"Not yet", I said, "I'm still breathing!"

I swear I heard Atlas laugh at me as it charged the right most of it's turrets. The laser sight swept across the room and the lethal beam of radiation followed it. It wasn't until the very last second that I managed to get the shots off and cripple the machine's death ray.

"Too fucking close!", I said as I broke open the High-Power's chamber and put two more rounds in, bringing my count down to 12, "I don't have the ammunition to take this thing down! I have 12 rounds of .950 Tyrannosaurs and two grenades left!"

"Try and get close enough with the grenades to toss them in yourself", Magellan said, "it sounds crazy but it should work!"

"Should is a pretty fucking dangerous word right now don't you think!?", I shouted as Atlas started spinning his guns again, "I don't want should I want "will absolutely blow this thing to kingdom come!"

"Goddammit Sky for once in your fucking life will you just listen to me!", Magellan snapped as Atlas readied another charge, "roll your grenades down the dormant cannons!"

"This is suicidal!", I shouted.

"Atlas will kill you if you don't try something!", Magellan shrieked, sounding scared out of his programming.

I shouldered the High-Power and pulled the pin off one of my grenades. I ran up to one of the non charged cannons and rolled it right in. I jumped back and hit the ground, digging the claws on my feet and left hand into the grating while I used my right to cover my neck. The explosion soon ripped through the air of the building and the vibrations shook it down to it's foundation. Atlas let off a pissed off growl as I ridded him of another layer of turrets. He was now down to two, and I had one grenade left. I knew there was no way he was going to let the same shit fly for a third time, so now was "get creative or get vaporized" time. As Atlas spun his turrets, I crouched down and reached into my pack for a block of C4 and a detonator. I pulled plastic wrapping off the sticky explosives and jammed a remote detonator into it, flipping it on as I did, I held the .950 out with one hand and held the C4 as if I was going to throw another grenade, Atlas noticed instantly and sealed off his turrets, spitting out two more balls of acid. As it did, I tossed the C4 right on to the bony turret covering and set it off, blowing his shield to pieces. Without hesitation I tossed the grenade right down the hole. The now familiar explosion rocked the entire plant and sent me to my back. Atlas was down to one level of guns now, and I was willing to bet my life he was going to use them while he had them. He began spinning the turrets and charging all three without delay. I waited for the laser sight to find my chest before letting the two rounds go into the middle cannon. Atlas let off a pained wail and fired the other two cannons as he began trying to repair the damaged cannon, rather than spinning around to bring in a fresh one.

"He's trying to repair it!", Magellan squeaked.

I let the High-Power fall and pulled the clip off my last grenade. I tossed it. Time slowed down as it flew through the air. It it the edge of the peeled cannon barrel and rolled in. I dove prone as the two second grenade timer ticked away. This time the explosion was at least twice the size of the ones before it. I felt like the entire planet felt the Earthquake that this boom left behind as it ripped Atlas's final guns out from under him. Once the smoke cleared, I finally got a look at what was controlling this colossal Juggernaut.

It was without a doubt a heavily mutated human. She had to be about her twenties or so and the only way I could tell it was a she was because of the way the face was sculpted and the few strands of long blonde hair she still had left. Her lower half seemed to be dissolved into the Gravity shaft she was using as her defensive weapons. Her torso had no skin left and was just mushy, exposed and damaged muscle. There was a tube of some kind that went up her back that was producing the large, acid filled glass bombs, there was one sitting in the tube at that very second, locked and ready to go. The woman's teeth, or should I say metal fangs, were showing from her lack of lips and her eyes were bright, neon green with what almost looked like copper wires laced through them. Her arms were still clearly visible, and by my guess where what she used to chuck those little presents filled with Chlorine at me. They had metal studs going all up and down them and I could see the bone turned metal from deep gashes in her flesh. My guess that one of her previous victims had managed to throw and incendiary grenade up at her perch and set her on fire, as the texture of the muscle was consistent with that burn scars. It seemed that wounds she sustained remained and didn't heal.

"The juggernaut that damn near killed us not twenty seconds ago was a girl?", Magellan asked.

Atlas hissed at my AI friend's comment and swiped at me. I caught her arm in mid swing and raked my own claws across her face, going straight down to her partially bone, partially metal skull.

"I will...kill you all!", Atlas hissed, "Humans ...are...inferior!"

"I'm not human", I said pulling out the Automag and cocking the slide back, "I'm a Xenomorph, don't you forget it."

I popped a cap in Atlas' chest and she coughed and choked before finally dying. The bio matter melted away, revealing the heavily damaged, but still functioning grav shaft. I climbed up on it and up we went. We came out in a large, L shaped room that had the massive, W-60 Briggs & Straton Power Stroke sitting in the middle, hooked to a massive dynamo by what looked like a 12 speed Automatic.

"This must be the main generator", I said, "Magellan?"

"The generator must be powered manually", he answered, "there should be an access panel on the side of the engine."

I limped to the side of the engine and found the panel. The key was stuck in the ignition so I simply flipped it. The massive Briggs roared to life, revving to 8,000 RPS and sounding like a drag car before making a smooth transmission into second gear.

I sighed.

"Something wrong?", Magellan asked.

"If the Generator has to be operated by hand then that required someone to turn it off in the first place", I said, "Dr. Martin no doubt."

"Let's head back", my friend said, "there's a teleporter back to to the entrance and you need your ankle looked at."

"Not a moment too soon", I said walking for the teleporter, "this place sucks."