Turn 3 Remember the Alamo

[Morse]

Though the assault had been halted for the moment, Morse was still incredibly wary. He had never known the creatures to really retreat. They were like harvester ants. They did not care how many were lost, they didn’t care how hurt they were. They just wanted their prey for whatever reason they wanted it for.

Dirk appeared beside Morse and the Smartgunner looked over. He held up his weapon for a moment and whipped some sweat off of his forehead. ”Aint hard to squish bugs.” Morse replied to Dirk’s comment.

When it came to a crisis Morse could go back and forth. He did feel like retreating was their best option, but he did know that the USCM didn’t make weak marines. They were still the most deadly fighting force in the galaxy. Of course at that point he really did wish a Conestoga was waiting in orbit to blow their enemies to hell. But they did not have it, and Morse did not consider it.

Morse shifted to look at Dirk. ”Ems’s runnin’ away.” Morse said to Dirk, trying not to be so loud that his squad would hear. His radio was still live however and he forgot that. ”Aint never seen em do shit like that before. Not that many.” Morse concluded with concern, rather then take bets.

While if they were poised to win from the start he would be very cocky and aggressive towards the enemy, this was a very different issue, which was dangerous to a point that he did not want to under estimate it. Over estimation is what would keep them alive in this case.

<Roll Awareness
<Tag Dirk

[Dirk Pitt]

The creatures started to fall back, and then were gone. The only thing that was left was the destroyed bodys of the one's that the Marinees had killed. Looking at the now e, empty field Dirk was more nervous than relieved. Morse was right, they didn't fall back.

"No, neither have I. I don't like it either. "
<tag Morse>

"LT, are you seeing this? The Xenos are in full retreat, I don't know why. The civi is in your office, waiting for you. Orders?"
<Tag > Quinn

[eyeball]

Eyeball looked out over the terrain, considering how much fire power had just gone down range there were alot less dead things than he would have liked.

" i am asuming from everyones looks and whispers that this is not the usual behavior that these creatures exhibit" eyeball comentted to whisky.

he relaoded his pulse rifle with a new clip and topped up his used magazines from the base supplies all the while watching the tree line. this was weird just weird, no one had told him anything about this kind of stuff before getting her, he made a not on his persoal pda about how they had attacked and fallen back and the lone bigger one that had been mentioned. he downloaded his own helmet cam data and stored that as well, these were very different creatures in the way they looked and acted to anything he had been briefed about.

<tag whisky>
<roll awareness>

[Whisky]

Colson sent a couple of bursts after the retreating xenos he dropped back down from the fire hole and did a quick check of his remaining ammo.

" i am asuming from everyones looks and whispers that this is not the usual behavior that these creatures exhibit" eyeball comentted to whisky.

Colson had also heard Morse through the tac-net. He took a moment before replying.

"I'll be honest with you mate," Coslon said quietly "This is my first encounter with these aliens, so you know as much as I do." He paused. "But the Eights have come across them before and come out alive. Salty as he is I trust Morse and our CO is ex-rank and file, they know the score."

Colson stepped back up to the fire hole and looked out over the clearing. Xeno corpses littering the ground, their acid blood bubbling in pools, the arid smoke rising making Colson grateful for the re-breather he still wore.

"Keep them at a distance and don't get caught with your trousers down." Colson muttered, Mental tricks aside he was having trouble dispelling the after image of the xenos. It was going to take a lot of scotch to burn that out.

<Tag Eyeball
<Roll Awareness

[Pale Rider]

Suddenly the Motion Trackers began to sing out a two point assault began on the Firebase. Twenty five came in at 3 o'clock and twenty five at 9 o'clock. No sounds were made as they rushed the firebase.

[Morse]

In a single sound, modern technology was saving their lives and destroying their sanity. The constant thumps of the motion trackers aloud them to have the constant feeling that they were safe. Even though they were kept safe by some piece of equipment that was always watching, that could see things they couldn’t, they were still forced to hear it when the thing began to shriek with the knowledge something was coming.

Morse did not stand off to look where the targets were. He caught a glimpse of one moving off to his right towards the wall. ”Aw fuck!” He yelled seeing it and hearing the motion tracker.

He began running immediately back, fortunately having refilled the ammunition on what he could argue was their most important weapon. The M56 Smartgun fired a little faster, with a larger round, and pinpoint accuracy up to a thousand yards. There were stories of whole rebel platoons being killed by a single Smartgunner at a good ambush position.

Still these things were different and he had to be extremely careful. ”Back on wall! Em’s commin’ in!” Morse ordered towards his squad.

He came across another of their shooting ports, and began to open up on the creatures that were invading on the 3 oclock side.

< Tag Anyone.
< Roll Smartgun Auto

[eyeball]

Eyeball's motion tracker pinged he looked down at it and then up at Morse, who was just finishing his reload....

”Back on wall! Em’s commin’ in!”

"confirmed contact, 3 o'clock entering max range in 3,2,1.........." the noise from Morse's smart gun fire blanked out the rest of Eyeballs words.

at this range eyeball had small hope of hitting what he was aiming at , however he may well hit the one next to it even as he missed, Aim, breath, hold, fire, rinse, repeat

"two pronged attack, splitting our fire power...their learning" he sent to Morse.
[b"]hope to god they don't figure out air support"[/b] he added as an after thought.

<roll shooting>
<roll awareness motion tracker>
<tag Morse>

[maxvale76]

When she learned that the Aliens had split into two groups and were attacking from different directions; Samantha immediately ran along the roof of the fort towards the side the xenos were coming from that Morse's squad was NOT covering.

As she got there; she immediately took aim with her launcher and fired a pair of grenades at large groups of the creatures while yelling into her comm. "Obi; I could use some help here! Sarge; can you spare somebody to give us a hand? With Giosso manning the sentry guns; there's just two of us in my squad!"

<Aim for 2 actions; fire grenade; aim for 2 actions; fire grenade>

<Tag O'brien; Tag Dirk>

[Quinn]

When she learned that the Aliens had split into two groups and were attacking from different directions; Samantha immediately ran along the roof of the fort towards the side the xenos were coming from that Morse's squad was NOT covering.

As she got there; she immediately took aim with her launcher and fired a pair of grenades at large groups of the creatures while yelling into her comm. "obi; I could use some help here! Sarge; can you spare somebody to give us a hand? With Giosso manning the sentry guns; there's just two of us in my squad!"

<Aim for 2 actions; fire grenade; aim for 2 actions; fire grenade>

<Tag O'brien; Tag Dirk>

Quinn snarled as the corporate rep sought him out amongst the Marines on the lip defending the habitat. "Not now, dammit! Go wait in the office and we'll talk later!" Once they had some time to breathe, they could hash things out. But with the xenos knocking on their doorstep, things were hairy to say the least.

When they pulled back, the Lieutenant looked out the lip with a puzzled expression. They had never done that before. He replaced the mostly empty fuel canister with a new one, handing the old one off to Dirk. The nearly used one would make a great firebomb when hit by a Pulse Rifle round and trusted that the Sergeant would know what to do with it if he found the opportunity.

When the motion tracker sang out about the two different groups, Quinn turned from puzzlement to confusion. "What the hell are they playing at?" he growled. When he heard Sam's request for more help on the line, he moved immediately for her position. Morse already had the other side with his unit, but Sam's squad was dangerously understrength. He stepped up to the line next to Sam, waiting for a prime opportunity to use the flamer cradled in his hands. When the nightmares got too close, he washed them away with cleansing fire.

<aim until xenos get too close, fire flamer>

[Quicksilver]

“Xenos Incoming!” Mark called out over the comms as the base’s mulitracker picked up the second assault. “Three O’clock and Ten O’clock. Morse, you have no auto-turret cover, unless someone can slap a new box on one.” The second assault had been too quick, there hadn’t been a chance to reload the auto-turret’s magazine, rendering them useless for this assault. Rolling the chair down the desk one console, Giosso quickly logged into another system and started punching in operators for the base and snakefighter’s sensor systems. “Morse, I got your weapon patched into the base sensors. That should give you target lock up to the trees.”

The turrets on the flip side of the base, those that never had angle on the initial horde, still had their full compliments and turned to aid Sam with the second assault. Mark had reset them back to conserving ammunition, so rather than spraying the incoming mass, the turrets fired quick five round bursts before re-evaluating the target’s continued mobility.

About to roll back to his original console, Mark was suddenly reminded of another option. “LT,” he called out, “you want me to paint a mob for the snakefighter?”

<Security Systems>
<Tag Morse>
<Tag Quinn>

[Morse]

This was a special sort of misery that few could comprehend. It was the lot in a marines life to be faced with the most horrifying situations imaginable and still be expected to pull out a victory. And of course if they did not, no one would really know or miss them. No one in the galaxy even knew they were on that planet with the exception of command and perhaps the Naval fleet commander that recognized one of their vessels was still on deployment.

If they died it would amount to the loss of a few dozen firearms, a few hundred tons of bombs and explosive ordinance, food that was not missing, and of course a dozen marines. But with a human population spanning in the billions, it would not be so terribly difficult to replace them.

Hearing Eyeball’s point of the xenomorphs learning, Morse had a certain refusal of believing it. Vocally he said something different. ”Ya, well ems aint learned what fuckin’ hurt is yet!” Morse called back. ”Die fuckers! Die!” Morse continued to yell out at them. The frequent vocalization ironically kept him a bit calm.

Morse killed six of the aliens without any issue at all. A slight press on either firing button, a few bullets, and you had a dead alien. But with the sheer number that were in front of them, he was beginning to worry.

He got word from Giosso, who he hadn’t seen the entire fight, telling him his autoturret assistance was down. That meant Giosso was in the operations area controlling them, but it also meant they were in trouble. ”Aw, that’s fuckin’ great!” Morse called back. ”Aint no time fer that shit. Less you wanna run out there n’ fill it, fuck it!” Morse declared blatantly. He would rather use the weapons they had to shoot the creatures now, rather then waste the time reloading the autocannon, which would not have a clear shot by the time it was loaded as the things would be in the perimeter.

Morse’s targeting readout labeled some of the creatures within 15 yards, and they’d close the gap quickly.

Forty five feet! Be ready to move back!” Morse said, knowing that if it came to running he’d rather be ahead of it then behind it.

< Tag Giosso
< Tag 2nd squad
< Roll Smartgun

[Dirk Pitt]

They came at the firebase again, moving across the no man's land on the perimeter like a living wave. Firing his pules rifle into the mass of creatures he watched with satisfaction as the Xenos his rounds found burst apart in a spray of acid and exoskeleton.

When she learned that the Aliens had split into two groups and were attacking from different directions; Samantha immediately ran along the roof of the fort towards the side the xenos were coming from that Morse's squad was NOT covering.
<Tag O'brien; Tag Dirk>

"I'm going over to the other side to support Sam's squad. Hold the line Morse. If even one of those fuckers get's into the base we won't be able to hold it. Good luck." Dirk said with one more blast of his pulse rifle.
<Tag Morse>

Leaping off the wall Dirk struck the ground and rolled to absorb the impact of the fall. Without a moment's hesitation he was up and running at full speed towards the wall that Sam's depleted squad was now making it's stand.

"Snakefighter, this is Pitt. Start strafing runs on the targets in the open. Keep your distance and don't get too close. We can't afford to loose you." Dirk said between breaths as he ran.
<Tag Snakefighter>

He reached the wall in less time than he had thought he would. Holding on to the rails he turned the corner and was up the stairs in one quick movement. At the top he saw that the lack of fire was allowing the enemy to move closer to the wall than he liked. Aiming his M-41A at the closest group of creatures he pulled the trigger. The pulse rifle kicked as flame and 10mm rounds poured from it's barrel.

"If you wanted to get me to come over here you could have just asked instead of staging this attack to get my attention." He joked as he fired his weapon.
<Tag Sam>

Roll..
-Machinegun
-Gun Combat

[eyeball]

”Ya, well ems aint learned what fuckin’ hurt is yet! Die fuckers! Die!”

" i hear that!" eyeball popped up at let loose another burst into the coming tide.

"Morse, you have no auto-turret cover, unless someone can slap a new box on one." ”Aw, that’s fuckin’ great!” . ”Aint no time fer that shit. Less you wanna run out there n’ fill it, fuck it!”

Eyeball looked at the distance, he was very competent in the systems, he could probably change the ammo boxes faster than anyone else, but that was an awful lot of creatures closing far to quickly.

" i could do it corporal, but i am gonna need a hell of a lot more covering fire! Snakebiter?"

Eyeball left the option open, he could do it but would probably rather not, he let off another two controlled bursts into the oncoming rush of creatures.

<roll shooting>
<tag Morse>

[Pale Rider]

The aliens were streaming into the killing zone almost faster than the Marines could respond. When they moved into the kill zone, the one's coming in at the 9 o'clock position were quickly shown just exactly what superior firepower was all about as Quinn, Sam, Dirk, and Mark opened fire with their respective weapons clearing the battlefield of the dark invaders of death.

Meanwhile, over at the 3 o'clock siege the xenos were getting steadily closer coming within 5 yards of the wall. Morse and Eyeball were able to dwindle their number down to twelve remaining Xenos. With a eerie almost, demonic sound a shriek like steam being vented ripped from their mouths as they picked up their rush.

A blood curdling scream echoes over the fire base as Pvt. Eichler screams in pain, one of the Xenos that Morse's Smart Gun had hit had been close enough to the wall that when it exploded from the impact the Xenomorph's blood had arced over the wall and sprayed his right side; the exposed flesh already blackening and smoking!

<ACTIONS>

[Quicksilver]

Mark nearly jumped out of his chair as the private’s scream echoed across the base. He quickly punched up a camera to see exactly what had gone on. It wasn’t looking good at Morse’s position, not by a long shot.

“LT Sir, I’m at half-box, I can hold this flank. The other flank isn’t looking good, acid over the walls, sir.”

There was little else Mark could do at this point, save keep adjusting the sensor and detection system to feed targeting data to the autoturrets, smartguns and the snakefighter.

<Security Systems>
<Tag Quinn>