The Fight

Mission Time: 1000, March 12th, 2154

Lucy's Lament Colonial Operations Management Center

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-=I see you've found my latest victim, Julie. =- Dr. Wyandotte said over the intercom. Julie paused their push down the hall, Jessica hobling along naked next to her.

"You did this?" Julie asked, confused.

-=Well, I helped. I don't think there's a reason to hold secrets from one another anymore, do you? No, I didn't think so. You see, this is a little experiment. There are protocols in place for such a thing, blah blah, but really we are at the point where all that is left is to... Execute. So that is what I'm doing. To see what happens. There is no reason to resist, Julie. As I've told the others, they've won.=-

"Who's won?"

-=Progenitor Rex.=- Dr. Wyandotte answered.

Julie started moving again, bringing the pause to an end. Then she heard airlocks slam shut all around her.

"Fuck you!" She shouted, her voice near deseprate after having avoided the things for so long, having got away, got a gun, helped Jessica.

-=If only you knew how many times I've heard that, and how bad I've wanted to oblige. =- Dr. Wyandotte said.

Then the firealarms went off.

Julie was even more confused as all the lights went out, replaced by red emergency blinkers, and an alarm sounded that was deafening. She squinted. Then the fire suppression system engaged, showering both of them in water. She looked at the way Jessica's skin glimmered red and wet.

The alarms were too loud for her to hear the creatures before she saw them, three, no, four, no, five coming toward her, crawling across the ceiling. She screamed, dropped Jessica, hefted the rifle. She glanced at the motion tracker. Multiple signals, all closing in on their position. They were surrounded.

"Come on!" She said, grabbing Jessica's hand and dragging her form along the floor. Her other hand chicken winged the **** rifle and fired. Multiple creatures fell from the ceiling down the hall. There was an airlock door with a control pad a few dozen feet ahead that if she could get to she may be able to override or... Something.

Jessica moaned, her free hand holding her belly as if she knew what was coming. It stroked the glistening skin, felt along the stretch marks on the side and across her navel and then down between her legs, over her slit.

They reached the door and Julie punched in her security code. Nothing. It didn't work. She was locked out by Dr. Wyandotte, who she could hear laughing over the intercom.

-=I just told you that they have won, Julie. Surrender.=-

"No!" Julie said. She dropped Jessica again, took the rifle in both hands, and fired. The flash of the muzzle suppressor illuminated the hall in bursts like lightning. The first creature fell, then another, and then they were replaced by four more.

There was a metallic clack, and Julie turned to see another creature emerge from a vent on the opposite side of them. They were pinned in at the door, unable to escape. She knew they couldn't win, knew they couldn't get away. She reached out with oen hand while the other gripped the pistol grip of the gun and fired again from the hip. She pulled the face of the control panel off, worked the wires, worked the interior of the mechanism, hoping to short or trip something out. She had overridden plenty of these doors before in their days working salvage on LV-26754, but never under fire, and never in a position where so much was at stake. Her literal ass.

One of the things was barely five feet away. She shot it point-blank in the face. A second replaced it, reached a tentacle for Jessica, who didn't resist. Julie shot that one too. A tentacle wrapped her own foot. Seeing that she couldn't escape or save Jessica either, she gave up on the door and made sure the gun and motion tracker were both strapped well over her shoulder so she couldn't drop it.

And then the creatures grabbed both of them...