Turn 6. “The Spiral Remembers”

[Pale Rider]

Screaming in a combination of fear and anger, Paulson shot two bursts of flame into the darkness to Cerberus’ left. The air flashed in that location reflecting not one or two of the T. Ocellus but a quick count shows twenty of them falling from the wall. With three others bursting from the bursts of fire from the flame thrower.
Before Sergeant Soles had an opportunity to answer Private First Class Hooper, the young Marine’s voice can be heard letting a profanity laced tirade as his Pulse Rifle Sprayed in his own form of Spraying and Praying. Unfortunately, his anger causes his aim to miss all but one of the small aliens heading their way.
Paulson drops his Flame Thrower on its strap and begins his own form of spraying and praying. Bullets heading down range, punching big holes in the wall, causing the whole thing to tremble.
Meanwhile, “Cowboy,” fresh to the group realizes that he can step up and helps to focus the group and then fires himself on the incoming parasitic aliens. His calmer approach allows him to shoot down three more of the T. Ocellus.
Marcella moves to the recommended location and opens fire again herself. Breathing deeply and allowing the gun to shoot for her, each stroke of the trigger drops two more of the aliens.
The first shot didn’t sound like panic. It sounded like judgment.
Echo Squad stepped into the dark like they had been there before. No hesitation. No questions. Just clean, controlled violence.
The Eyeballs dropped fast. One burst caught a host mid-lunge and tore it apart in a spray that painted the wall behind it. Another twisted wrong as something precise punched through its soft tissue. They moved like they knew exactly where to aim.
Marrow’s rifle barked in short, disciplined bursts. Glass fired smooth and steady, almost graceful, like she was putting on a show no one asked for. Breaker didn’t waste ammo. Every shot landed heavy, final.

Cerberus felt the pressure lift without anyone saying it.
Targets that had been seconds away were still there . . . . but Cerberus wasn’t alone anymore.

Smoke curled. Bodies hit the floor.

“Cerberus, keep pushing. Don’t stall.”

Marrow’s voice came over the line, calm as still water.

Another Eyeball tried to break from the side corridor. It didn’t take two steps before spraying a viscose carnage on the others coming from the right now.

“We’ve got your flank.”

Glass this time. Light. Certain.
The difference was immediate. Where there had been too many angles, now there were lanes. Where there had been panic creeping in, now there was room to breathe.
Breaker’s voice followed, low and steady.
“Shift’s not over. Move.”
Soles spoke to his team over the radio, ”You heard them, form up and let's get those scumbags before we lose another to them!”

<Tag Cerberus>

[eyeball]

Paulson felt his rising panic ease slightly, finally Echo squad had pulled their finger out and done something, maybe just maybe this could work out.

using short controlled bursts of flame he cleared the lane ahead then progressed into it he could feel the rest of cerberus coming with him, now as long as Echo kept their side of the bargin they could push up and get this shit done.
<fire short area denial blasts>
<move forward>

[LT_Chun]

Henniger found himself in a standard shipboard chow hall and galley. His old, first squad lazed loosely around the plastic tables. Their banter and the cadence of their loud conversations jarred him at first, then gradually calmed him. He laughed at a familiar jape from the squad leader at the smartgunner's expense next to him.
He looked up and saw his old fireteam mate, she was staring at him. She wasn't laughing like the rest. She wasn't smiling. He was about to ask her what was wrong when her left eye twitched. He recoiled when it bulged obscenely. He was on his feet and backing away, his boots squeaking on the decking, when her eye, grotesquely huge, squeezed itself out of her socket and began to climb around on her head. The conversations didn't cease, the raucous laughter continued. The eye crawled down her arm and vanished for a moment before she raised her arm, the eyeball perched like a finch on her fingertips. She was offering it to him.

"No!" He screamed...

His voice hurt his ears within the confines of his combat EVA helmet. The platoon was looking wildly about, someone let loose with an M41.

"Hooper, you got a target fucking kill it then check fire. Cerberus, weapons free if you have a target. Tighten up on me I got the point."

He moved through the formation, gear clunking and armor plates rasping as they rubbed against those of his fellow Marines.

<tag all>

Something had been trying to get him, he remembered trying to relinquish command, then the galley on his old ship. His anger burned hot and cold simultaneously. His resolve hardened.

"Command, Cerberus, sitrep. This place can get project itself into our heads, we need to resist it. Break."

"Cerberus on me we're moving."

<tag command, roll reactive gun combat if necessary.

[Cowboy]

"Moving up! On your right, Sarge!"

Cowboy's breath is coming fast and he moves to keep pace with the Sarge, doing his best to stay on his own track instead of clustering up with the rest. He forces his eyes just off the sights so he can keep the tunnel vision at bay but ready to line up the next shot.

[TomDan72]

His voice comes back over comms. "Command copies. Henniger has point." He takes a second to compose himself. "Cerberus, you heard him, tighten on his position. Weapons free on confirmed targets only. No blind fire." Hi is trying to make sense of the chaos. "Check your sectors. Check each other. If something doesn’t make sense, call it."

"We don’t let this place split us up." He looks toward Echo’s position. "Echo, keep feeding us info. Now let’s push." He unholsters his gun.

<tag all>

[SpectralDragon87]

Relieved by having some clear instructions Alvarez hurries to cover Beavs back. This was going to hell in a fucking hand basket but she was gunna decide who delivered it. She loosened her grip on her gun and proceeded to give cover fire.

[LT_Chun]

"Nice and easy." Henniger said over the comm. He noticed the new guy, steady, covering his sector. Good. Alvarez, ready to get this done. Very good.

He stalked on point at the tip of the right wedge formation. They moved through the shaft, shoulder lamps dashing the walls as the Marines swung the muzzles of their weapons where their eyes went.
They'd likely be hitting massed contact at any moment and the anger over the violation of his mind made him coldly eager for it.

[eyeball]

Things began to go a little smoother, cerberus started to reform as a coherant squad not panicing individuals.

Paulson took up his position and kept moving slowly but steadily forwards into the forboading darkness.

[Corporal Hicks]

Private Hooper felt emboldened as the guns fell silent. He inhaled deeply, smelling the rifle smoke and feeling like he was back at the firing range on Earth. It was strange how smells could always take you back in time.

“I think I got some!” Troy said, excitedly. He checked the ammo counter and saw a red 53. That was enough to keep, but he swapped it out for a fresh magazine anyway, shoving the spare into his frame pack. He fist-bumped Paulson. Seeing Marcella’s hands full with the smart-gun, he gave her a wink. “Okay, maybe Echo ain’t completely useless,” he chuckled.
<Tag Cowboy/Marcella>

[SpectralDragon87]

Marcella smiles and winks back. "Don't give them too much credit yet. They have a long way to become decent in my eyes."
<Tag Hooper>

[Pale Rider]

The tunnel closed in around them like a throat that wanted to swallow. Wet walls pulsed faint under the sweep of their lamps. Every step stuck just a little before pulling free with a quiet tearing sound.
Paulson led them straight into it.
Fire washed out ahead of him in short, controlled bursts. Not wild. Not panicking. Clean lanes burned open through the haze, the light reflecting off slick surfaces that shifted when it touched them. Something ahead recoiled from the heat. Something alive.

The Marines moved. Not scattered anymore. Together. Armor brushed armor. Boots fell into rhythm. Breathing steadied, even if it came hard.

Hooper snapped his rifle up first. He saw it before anyone else did. A flicker along the wall that wasn’t shadow. A shape pulling itself loose like it had been hiding inside the flesh of the tunnel. He fired.
The M41 cracked loud in the confined space. The burst hit the center mass. The thing spasmed, then came apart in a wet spray that slapped the wall and slid down in strings.

"Contact front!" someone barked, but the word was already late.

Alvarez stepped into it, smartgun whining as it spun up. Controlled fire. Not wasteful. She stitched the corridor ahead, rounds hammering into movement that tried to gather itself out of the walls. Each impact tore pieces free before they could fully form.
Henniger felt it then. The pressure. The whisper at the edge of thought trying to turn him, trying to drag him somewhere else. The galley. The past. The doubt.
He crushed it.
"Stay with me," he growled.
And they did.

Henninger didn’t slow.
"Push," he said, calm and hard.

Cowboy moved on his right, breathing fast but holding his line. He didn’t bunch. Didn’t freeze. His rifle tracked, caught a second shape dropping from above. Two shots. Clean. It hit the ground and didn’t move again.

Behind them, the platoon tightened like a fist. No blind fire now. No chaos. Just targets. Just killing.
Up ahead, the tunnel opened just enough to matter.

And something bigger moved in the dark.
Echo Squad’s voices came over comms, cold and precise. No warning. Timing. The next fight wasn’t coming. It was already here.



Tag All

[LT_Chun]

Henniger had no immediate target but he felt another wave of awful moving toward them, the beams from their shoulder lamps cut deep into the dark. But revealed nothing but more dark. He had his faceplate optics set for thermal on the right half of his view plate, IR white phosphorous feedback on the left. Green phos would have been too confusing to use with thermal.
He didn't catch who called out contact but Alvarez was firing, smooth, in control. Paulson was still bathing parts of the tunnel in liquid fire, the platoon felt right again.
"Keep pushing, sitting still won't help." He commed on all hands. "Nice and easy, engage at will."
<tag all>

He had moved aside to the right wall of the tunnel, still walking point, but Alvarez had a fire lane. He continued forward cautiously, M41 up in his shoulder.

<roll reactive gunfire, roll awareness>

[eyeball]

Whatever they were they were much bigger than eyeballs, on two legs and definately pissed off.

"is evryone else seeing this?" Paulson asked, the corridor had narrowed and the squads had been forced to bunch.

Taking a knee to allow another marine to fire over him Paulson let out a long stream of fire hoping to cover all the targets ahead.

<roll surpression attack>

[LT_Chun]

_look"Yeah I see them bud," he side mouthed to Paulson who was sweeping his flame unit ahead of them in controlled arcs. He and Paulson and Alvarez had ended up in a rough line moving ahead.

"Watch your spacing, someone cover our six."
<tag all>

"Command, Cerberus, large silhouettes ahead, pushing through and engaging. Any idea how far we have to go to the OBJ?"
<tag command>

He flipped his faceplate optics from IR and thermal, which was completely washed out with the flame unit active, to enhanced standard. He tucked his pulse rifle tighter to his shoulder and scanned for targets as the platoon moved on.

Where the hell were Echo?

[Pale Rider]

The corridor became thunder and fire.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the wet dark in savage bursts. Pulse rifles hammered. Smartgun tracers ripped glowing lanes through the tunnel. Flame rolled along the walls in hungry orange sheets that made the organic surfaces recoil and blister.
The two towering Beta forms staggered under the storm.
One of them had once been human. Maybe still remembered how.
Did not matter now.
Its elongated body slammed into the wall as Grim’s smartgun tore fist-sized holes through its torso. Black fluid sprayed across the pulsing membrane behind it. The second creature kept coming even with half its face missing, moving with that horrible puppet-jerk rhythm the T. Ocellus favored.
"KEEP FIRING!" Soles roared.
Echo Squad answered without hesitation.
Marrow advanced through the smoke like he had walked this road before. Controlled bursts. No wasted motion. Whisper's rifle cracked twice and the creature’s knee exploded backward.
The first Beta collapsed.
For half a second everyone thought it was over.
Then its chest moved.
Not breathing.
Opening.
The ribcage split apart with a wet snapping sound.
Something inside pushed outward.
Paulson saw pale tendrils first. Then eyes.
Too many eyes.
"CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT!"
The corpse ruptured.
Four of the fist-sized larvae erupted from the cavity in a storm of screeching movement. Pale translucent bodies. Veined sacs pulsing beneath thin flesh. Tiny grasping tendrils whipping the air as clusters of black ocelli rolled wildly in every direction.
The second Beta detonated moments later.
Its sternum burst outward like a grenade.
More larvae spilled into the corridor floor.
Four more.
The little things moved fast. Horribly fast.
They skittered through pools of blood and burning resin, leaping over corpses and debris with frantic twitching motions. Some slammed into walls and ceilings, clinging there like living tumors before redirecting toward the Marines.
One larva sprung towards Hooper.
Through the chaos Glass spoke calmly over comms.
"They're not offspring."
A burst of gunfire.
"They're deployment vectors."
Then motion trackers began to scream.
Not one contact.
Not three.
But Eight.

<Continue Combat>