Humanity Endures

Part 9 - Infiltration | Chapter 6

Velan, in a singular moment, was flooded by an unstoppable combination of shock, sorrow, and terror; every part of his shattered heart yearned to mourn his dead friend, his rational mind struggled to come to terms with reality, and his veins pulsed with the urgency that being surrounded by murderous, disguised aliens afforded. Velan would mourn his friend, but only if he survived; even as his eyes began to fill with tears at the death of his old colleague, Velan began to fight for his survival, and that of all the friends he had left. Alien shrieks echoed throughout the halls, drowning out the confused chatter of the hemmed-in humans, before they were drowned out in turn by the panicked discharge of coil weaponry and the agonizing wails of the shocked, the maimed, and the dying — all parts of the human force simultaneously fell under vicious attack, and the foreboding, bloodied halls of the space station threatened to conceal even more assailants. Velan, his diluvial eyes awash with tears and his movement impeded by the crowded space, struggled to aim his rifle; he was forced to drop to the floor as three of those next to him suddenly sprouted blackened limbs and lashed out in his general direction. With Velan on the ground, these alien weapons found their mark in an unfortunate Kalithiharian just behind him; nearby humans began to return fire, and a melee erupted. While those people and aliens surrounding him threatened to crush the near-prone Velan in their attempts to either escape or fight, Velan, taking aim at the alien nearest him, unloaded a quarter of his weapon's magazine into the creature's legs — while the awkward firing of the weapon battered his shoulder and hurt his weary ears, the hail of bullets shredded through the alien monster's entire lower half. As the beast hastily grew back what was lost, lashing out at those around it while it did so, Velan stood, and, drawing his sidearm with his left hand, discharged whatever ammo his pistol had in it into the squirming alien infiltrator. Once this was done, Velan was forced to duck, as a stray burst of gauss fire from a dying soldier nearly tore through his neck — Velan could not so much as pause, for if he stopped fighting for a moment, he would die. A ripped-open human head soared above him, and the shrieks of nearby aliens, melding with the agonizing screams of his own crew members, provided a grisly status update on the rest of the fight. Many of Velan's people had been so unprepared for the alien assault that they had been slain before they could even draw their weapons; those unfortunate enough to be wielding weapons like sniper rifles or machine guns in close-quarters were easy prey, as they couldn't even raise their guns in such cramped conditions.

Dropping his expended pistol, Velan, igniting his rifle's plasma bayonet, charged into the melee in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the ambush, but his chances were anything but great: the now-alien Dentor and the other aliens in the rear end of the hallway had put every last human there to death, and were now concluding the carnage just a bit further up, where Yelazar and Illtera, both still human, were putting up a ferocious, failing resistance, alongside whatever humans remained. A weapons expert, Yelazar, who had wielded a pair of automatic pistols ever since he had run out of ammunition for his rifle, was a terrifying marksman and exceptional combatant; it was but seconds until he was covered from helmet to boot in black alien blood, though even with this, the aliens were many, and there could be no doubt that they were just as skilled and ferocious as he was. Within mere moments the man's legs had been lacerated, and his arms nearly removed by vicious alien reprisal strikes, while his companion Illtera had similarly suffered grievous injury. Terxah and her force, comprised mostly of Kalithiharian marines and even bolstered by one of the enforcers, was holding admirably against the conventional aliens assaulting them from without, though their engagement left them entirely unable to support the failing human formation behind them, and many of these defenders died all the same. Still, Velan was thankful for how they were occupying the alien attacks from outside the human formation: no doubt the alien infiltrators had intended to synchronize their transformation with the ambush, and had Velan's forces not prevented this simultaneous attack, the battle would have been hopeless. As it was, the battle was almost hopeless. Ralthina and Xandra led a valiant effort in the rear of the chaotic engagement, and as most aliens were concentrated in the front, they actually found some success — even entire sections of hallway were cleared, and these then went to either reinforce the marines keeping a horde of conventional aliens at bay, or to relieve more embattled parts of the main engagement. Among these were Iselviah's main force, which had come under vicious attack to the point where it was on the verge of being liquidated; the other Kalithiharian enforcer and Parivahn fought for their lives here, but despite their skill, the number of aliens — both infiltrators and conventional ones — that assailed them made survival difficult, and dozens of humans were mercilessly cut down after only a minute of fighting. The opening moments of the ambush were decisively favoring the aliens. Golden bolts of alien projectiles sporadically shot through the carnage, immolating human and alien alike, though mostly the former; the humans fought for their lives, but it remained an open question whether or not they would succeed.