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Alcatraz and I did not sleep at all that night, as most of it was spent in paranoid fear. We could hear Martin's abominations circling us, hiding just out of the influence of our lights and my telekinetic field. There had to be hundreds of them, at least, watching, listening, waiting for us to make one mistake in our patrols that would allow them to flood in and murder us. The light seemed to bother them, so what we ended up doing was cutting sticks and ripping up dead grass to make as many torches as we could. Once we had run out of dead grass, we lit the torches and set them all around the camp. When the torches died about a half hour later, I pulled the 16 hour road flares from my vest and used them, which allowed one of us to sleep and the other to pull guard duty. Ios had about a 20 hour night, but the sun began to rise in the last four, which provided enough light to allow both of us to sleep. In total we each had about 12 hours of sleep, which was good enough for me. That morning we gathered up our things and took down the renaming mile to Biosphere. The front door wasn't unlike any other scene in the lab, dead bodies strewn about, chewed on and disfigured, blood and spent brass littered the grass and concrete guard post by the front door. They were facing the front door primarily, which told me they were trying to escape. The bodies and blood were fresh, victims of Martin's creatures no doubt. Another thing that I didn't quite fail to notice was a suit of what appeared to be X-5 Power Armor, which was some of the best armor money could buy if you were a human, if you were a Xenomorph, you should probably be ready to pay two arms and a tail for it because that shit is not cheap. It was sporting a Biosphere labs Mechanical Digital paint, which if I was honest was some scary looking Camouflage, which was covered in scratches and blood splatters. This armor had seen some action before it went off line, no doubt.

"Wonder who left this behind?", Alcatraz asked as I inspected it.

"I wouldn't know", I said pulling the Alloy Fusion Cell out of it and inspecting it, finding it had been fried, overtaxing probably, "but it's worthless to us, this cell is fried."

"Maybe not", Alcatraz said, "James required all guards with a X-5 on their team to carry two additional Cells, let's search these bodies and see what we can find."

I nodded to him and began to check the guards over. I found a bunch of ammo for the FAL, my Hi-Power and about 40 rounds for it, but no cores."

"I got no cores on this guy", I said.

"I've got two on this guy", Alcatraz said holding up two, foot long red plastic cases with metal end caps.

"Awesome", I said, "lets get this thing powered up, find the others and then pay psycho bitch a visit."

"I'll power up the armor while you find the suit that's meant to be warned underneath it", Alcatraz said, "though I suppose that you could go without it if you don't care for your exoskeleton."

"Noted", I said as I began searching around.

The operator of the suit turned out not to be hard to find. He was a younger guy, I'd say 17 or 18, not that far from Alcatraz. He looked like he had suffered as he died, judging by the Larva that was currently trying to crawl out of his neck. At that moment, I felt a wave of influence from my Primal side saying, "kill it." Never one to ignore my instincts, I reached down and picked up the larva, turning it over and inspecting it as it squirmed in my hand. It was about twice the size of a normal larva and all black as opposed to the normal, tanish color and judging by the scent, was a female. She squirmed, squealed and hissed at me, trying to get free from my grip.

"Your not worthy of life", I growled at it as I dropped it and crushed it under my boot, "burn in hell you mutant fuck."

Returning to the task at hand, I carefully removed the power armor jumper from the dead Xeno, trying my best to disturb the body as little as possible. I had just gotten the suit off and was standing up when a note fell out of a pocket on the suit. I picked it up and when I read it, felt my heart drop.

"Alcatraz",the note read, "they came in the middle of the night, hundreds of them. I barely had time to suit up before I got bit. We managed to fight through them, but not without losing Sam, Cody and David, god knows what happened to Ryley, the took her, somewhere, the tower by my guess. If you find this note, were sorry for what we did to you, we were wrong and we regret it. I don't know how, but I know you'll find this note. When you do, we left a stash of equipment and cores in our hideout, you know where it is. And please Max, don't get bit by the creatures, for the love of god don't get bit. I can feel the larva trying to eat it's way through my body now, I don't have long left, good luck buddy!"

"So that's his name?", I asked myself, "Max?" I sighed, should I give Alcatraz the note? I couldn't help but wonder how he would react to it. I changed out of my fatigues and into the power armor jumper before returning to the entrance of Biosphere where Alcatraz had finished powering up the suit, he looked quite proud of himself.

"How is it?", I asked.

"Good to go", Alcatraz said, "unless some fool with a Fat Man gets lucky, nothing could shut down this thing, this is all Model G X-5, the toughest shit that was ever produced."

"And", I sighed handing him the note, "I think I know who it belongs to."

"What's this?", he asked looking at it.

"I think you should read it", I said.

Alcatraz gave me a funny look, then read it. I saw his face twist in shock. He paced for a few seconds before sitting down, tears streaming down his face.

"I should have guessed", he said, "Bryan never went anywhere without this suit. Explains all the mods, he was particularly proud of it."

"What do you wanna do?", I asked, "I won't take the suit if you don't want me to."

"Take it", Alcatraz said, "if there was one thing Byran wanted, it would be for the suit to continue to kick ass without him, I can foot your gear."

I nodded. I loaded my ammunition into the pouches on the front of the armor and then walked around to the back, turning a valve like knob that opened the back of the suit, revealing even a customized frame. I grabbed at two small handles to balance myself as I climbed in and the armor shut around me.

"Ransol Industries X-5 Mk 4 MJLOINR Powered Assault Armor Software V 1.9.8 starting up", a deep robotic voice said, "Verifying Armor integrity....done, armor integrity at 100%. Verifying Power Core Integrity....done, Cores are fully charged. Verifying user life signs, done. Warning, suit detects termination of previous wearer, syncing new DNA Profiles.....done. Ransol Industries X-5 Mk 4 MJLOINR Powered Assault Armor is fully operational, ready."

"Let's get inside", I said pulling out the Hi-Power. Alcatraz kicked the door in and the two of us entered. The room was fairly large, being what seemed to be a reception area, I could understand why. There were two admin counters, one on each side of the room with a large escalator and two waterfall tubes set in between them There were rec areas consisting of couches and coffee tables all through the room, along with bodies.

But the rooms defining feature? A mass of Martin's creatures at the base of the elevator, looking ready to pounce at the first sign of fear. There was the loud sound of a knob clicking on and Martin's voice came over the speaker.

"So you survived the night and made it back here?", he sneered, "bravo, cheers, high five, slow clap, you got the damn power armor didn't ya? I should have figured it was still a threat, oh well, my friends in the lobby will help you in dying now."

The inter coms clicked off.

I turned to Alcatraz, "kill them."

"With pleasure", Alcatraz said.

I turned back to the creatures and started forward, racking off both the Hi-Power's barrels as quickly as I could, turning a few of martins slugs to goo. The creature's roared and charged at me in retaliation. I put the Hi-Power on my back and raised both my fists, slugging two of them in the face with everything I could muster, sending my steel clad hands crashing through their skulls. Four of them attempted to tackle me, the the armor's hydraulic systems prevented me from losing balance and enabled me to counter. I grabbed two of them by the backs of their necks and slammed them into the floor, tearing their heads from their bodies. The other two managed to get their claws into the seams between the armor plates and poke at me, but Alcatraz shot them off before they could attempt to do any real damage. Alcatraz and managed to ruin the mob in less than a half a minute, and it was as I was dispatching the last of the abominations when the ground started to shake.

'Warning", the suit said, "systems detect a secondary unit of X-5 Mk 4 MJLOINR Powered Assault Armor inbound, ETA in 20 seconds."

"Alcatraz", I shouted, "put the big gun together! Martin's sending Powered Assault Armor after us!"

"Got ya!", he shouted. He crouched down and started putting his 20mm together as I stuck more shells in the Hi-Power. I had just clanked the chamber closed when I heard several mechanical foot steps before the suit leapt off the balcony and crashed into the floor, knocking Alcatraz to his back and taking me slightly off balance. The Xeno then made the stupid mistake of opening his mouth to roar at me, which resulted in him swallowing two, 2,050 grain solid steel slugs, which popped him from inside his armor.

"Ouch", Alcatraz said as he got up and picked up his rifle.

"Patching user into com systems", the suit said, "outside source is requesting open communications lines."

"Now you've made a hell of a mess boy", Martin growled, sounding like he was finally at the end of his rope.

"Your next mother fucker!', I growled, "I'm coming for you and your creatures can't stop me!"

"You know what?", he asked in a sneering voice, "they can't, however."

There was a pause as Alcatraz and I started up the staircase.

"Speak!", Martin said.

"I've played a lot of rolls Dr. Martin", Sarah said, "damsel in distress ain't one of them."

I heard Martin growl and what sounded like him smacking Sarah.

"You signed your death warrant now", Tyler laughed in the background.

"Silence human!", Martin yelled, "this is far from over, I still have one trick up my sleeve."

"And what would that be?", I asked bashing down the access to the stairwell.

I heard a click in the background and then CHDISK's familiar voice.

"Self Destruct sequence initiated", it said, "T-Minus 4 minutes to detonation."

"If I don't leave here alive", I said as Alcatraz and I started up the stairs, "you won't either!"

Martin laughed, "you'll never make it up here in time."

"Watch me!", I said, "your going down Martin!"

"Bring it on!", Martin said.

"With pleasure!", I said kicking down the door to the Biome Lab access, finding several juggernauts packing miniguns waiting for me.

"Fire!", one of them shouted.

As their chainguns started spinning up, I put two shots from the high power into one of the guards, killing him before he hit the ground. I quickly shouldered it and let the AI in the armor takeover. With control over itself through my body, the AI closed the distance between myself and the jugs and took up the Minigun, spinning it up and nailing each one in a critically weak point of the armor, all in all, the AI was able to terminate the targets at about the same speed and precision as I could have, but with much less risk and energy on my part, it was almost scary to think about what someone who was actually skilled with X-5 was capable of dishing out.

I tossed aside the mini and pulled the Hi-Power back out. As a flood of information began coming in on the HUD.

"Tactical asset", the suit said, "quickest way to the top of Tower Complex is by wall scaling."

"Up the wall we go", I said shouldering the high power and digging the armor's mechanical claws into the concrete off the tower. Alcatraz followed suit. The climb up the tower took about a minute and a half. Since we were now pushing dangerously deep into the time limit, it was do or die time, find Martin, Kill Martin, get the escape pod and get the hell out.

When we came over the railing of the Tower balcony, Martin was waiting with his hands behind his back, the others tied up behind him, and a suit of K-21 Powered Assault Armor beside him, his by my guess. His transformation was completed by my guess, as he now very closely resembled a K-Class King, a look that made my stomach churn with hatred.

"Welcome boy", Martin grinned, "you've certainly made a mess of things."

"I'm about to make a mess of you", I snarled, "I'll give you one chance to let us go, but please, decline so I can kill you."

"I decline", Martin said quickly entering his armor.

"That's what I thought", I grinned under the armor as I charged him. Martin's K-21 was fast on the draw as far as booting went, but being, "the Swiss army knife" of power armor, was fell short when compared to the X-5 on hydraulic power. My X-5 overpowered his K-21 with very little difficulty and sent him flying across the room.

"Get to the pod!", I shouted, "now! I'll deal with this stain and get there as soon as I can!"

"None of you leave here alive!', Martin shouted grabbing an AR-15 off a table and attempting to turn it on my friends. I quickly reached out and used my telekinesis to size it and toss it out the window. I would have used it to restrain Martin and rip him apart, but the Hydraulics in even the K-21 were far more powerful than any K-Class's telekinetic abilities.

"Your gonna fight like that huh?", Martin asked as fire began to leak out of the seams of his armor.

I grinned under my helmet, the more I got him to use his fire, the more his armor would overheat. If a k-21 gets too hot, the AI will automatically eject it's user and enter a cooldown state, exposing it's Fusion Cell, the perfect time to remove Martin from the genepool.

"Bring it on!", I said sticking to my telekinesis.

Martin formed two balls of fire and tossed them at me, which I was able to easily block with my field. Martin, seeing that wasn't going to work, attempted to hit me with flaming punches, which also failed.

Tick, tick, tick when the SD timer. With 45 seconds remaining, Martin initiated a jet of flame that my armor easily repelled as I started towards him.

"Cool Down initiated", Martin's armor said spiting him out the back and into the wall. I bashed the burning K-21 aside and sized Martin by his shoulder, staring straight into his eyes.

"You fucked with the wrong family", I said as I put all my strength into my arms and began to pull, ripping Martin in half and tossing him aside.

"That", I said, "was for my mother."

"T-Minus 30 seconds to detonation", CHDISK said, "initiating download of backup files and engaging Cluster 300 Defense systems, done. All personal should vacate Biosphere labs as soon as possible."

I took off running as I heard those words. I flung open the door I had seen Alcatraz take the others through and scaled a flight of wooden stairs and up to the roof where Magellan had just managed to get the craft airborne, Alcatraz was hanging off the back.

"Come on Skyline!", he shouted, 'you can make it!"

I ran as fast as I could for his out stretched hand.

"5, 4, 3", CHDISK said as I boarded the craft.

"He's on go!", Sarah shouted.

"2."

"1."

Magellan gunned the ship as fast as the torque converters would spin to get us away from the labs as they disappeared behind us in a bright light.

I stood up and exited the armor.

"Like a stroll through the park huh?", I smiled.

James laughed, 'well, you made good on your end of the deal, now it's my turn."

"No James", I said, "keep your money. This was on the house."

James looked at me like I was batshit crazy.

"II went into this job thinking it was just another bug hunt, some Scientist dude who got careless with his vials and spawned nothing more than some blood thirsty flesh craving fruit fly or a huge snake. I thought it would be in, kill the monster, get paid and then go be my normal lazy self while I waited for the next job to come up. I assumed it was nothing to twist myself over. I was wrong. Dead. Wrong And you know what? I'm happy I was", I said, "why? Because I got to meet you guys."

James smiled, "that means the world coming from you brother."

"Yeah", Jacob said, "glad ya came."

"Well if we can get over that" Magellan said as we entered orbit, there's a problem."

"Which is?", I asked as I leaned against the wall.

"The tank is half full of gasoline", Magellan said, "for normal interplanetary travel, it would be enough, but to escape the pull of the black hole, we need full thrust, and by the time were out, not only are we out of gas, but a lack of warp drive means were drifting for 4 years before we hit the confederate border."

"In 4 years who knows how far Agent 41 has spread", Sarah sighed.

"What do we do then?", Matt asked

I looked at the Cyro tubes on each side of the wall, "well, there's enough for everyone."

No one argued me, they just started undressing, there wasn't a choice.

I stripped off the power armor suit and packed it away in a duffle bag from the storage AFT and locked it up. I went to the pilot seat and looked out over the space in front of us. I located the record button on the dash to record a message. I pressed it and with a sigh, I began.

"This is Skyline Imease. I'm a Xenomorph Hunter working for Black River Contracts. I'm adrift with 6 humans, two Synthetics and a Hybrid deep in the Bogon Galaxy. We have escaped from Biosphere labs which was infested with mutants and subsequent events lead to the destruction of the lab, while madman bent on genocide has infested the rest of the galaxy with a Virus called Agent 41 we have possible blueprints for a cure on broad our ship designated EGS Alloy 441, if your hearing this, please attempt to recover us. Our lack of fuel and the distance to the border puts us on a 4 year course to the Confederate border."

I stopped the recording and leaned back in the seat, cycling through the various genetic modifications I'd made to my body, the ice, the hornets and an enhanced telekinetic field. I couldn't help but think of my Mom and my Dad...and wonder what they would think.

"They would understand", Sarah said walking up behind me.

"You reading my mind or some shit?", I asked.

"Maybe", she sighed, "I'm pretty sure your thinking about your parents. I know I am."

I nodded, "right on the money."

"Come on", she said.

I rose from the chair and followed her over to the freezers.

"Anyone ever been in Cyro freeze before?", Matt asked.

"I have", Alcatraz said, "it was a sort of suspended animation so my synthetic body could be repaired without putting me under a knife."

"Either way let's do it", I said opening the tube. I laid down inside it and attached a few electrodes following a chart on the side of the pod. I covered myself up as the lid closed and ice began to creep unnaturally up the side of the glass. I got gradually colder until with one last deep breath, I went under.