Invasion
Chapter 22

The stairs seem endless, the darkness nothelping at all. In their exhausted state, their minds begin to falter as well,playing tricks and whatnot. Amazingly, the flashlight on Sergey’s gun is stillrunning, giving them some illumination,but it doesn’t help much. Takashi tries to point it in front of them, the placewhere they’re going and stepping. After a while and what seems like a longtrek, they appear to reach the bottom. Though they still can’t see what’s belowthat. It leads them to another corridor, a wider one. Except it isn’t… It’s achamber of sorts. Well, they can’t really make out anything in the low lighting,and Sergey’s out of commission for a while, so it’s just guesswork at thispoint. Unfortunately for them, there’s no way out…just a bunch of monitors andcomputers? that’s set in an alien language even, no idea what any of it says. Fora species that’s seemingly feral and instinctual, they actually have some formof civilization and understanding beyond that of just animalistic instincts. “Ohfuck, Liv! What the hell are we supposed to do now?!” he catches his breath. “Wefinish the mission,” Andrei speaks, “for all our fallen comrades”. Takashileans against the wall and slides down to rest. Everything’s still goingthrough his mind, and it has beenthrough the fights and battles. But like Olivia said, it’s just something hehas to shake off. There’s no getting rid of it, only dealing with it.

“You alright, babe?” Hesmiles at her and chuckles, “Just need a little rest.” “Not feeling itanymore?” “Oh, I’m definitely feeling it. But, you know… Hey, where are you going?” Andrei heads to one of thescreens, wanting to try something, anything. Takashi picks himself back up, barely,and heads over to him—he’s still limping a bit. They leave Sergey there to restfor a while. He stares at the screen and at the strange keyboard thing, trying tofigure it out. “Ummm, don’t wanna rush anyone, but we don’t have a lot of time.They’re all still up there,” she tells them. That said, they don’t seem to becoming down yet. Maybe the queen’s still out of commission...it can’t bebecause they don’t know. It’s their ship after all. Or maybe they really don’tknow. “Andrei, what do we do now?” he asks him. “Maybe we can overload system.”He starts pressing buttons, doing random things. The monitor screen startschanging randomly as he does so. “Are you sure we should be doing that?” sheasks. “Well, if you wanna overload something, pressing things randomly would bea good idea,” Takashi says. “I will be right back,” Andrei speaks quickly,running back to the entrance. Takashi takes his place and starts pressingbuttons too. The ship then quickly starts rumbling and shaking, and some sortaalarm system activates. “Looks like you did it,” she tells him. Andrei runsback, bringing with him a now conscious Sergey, though he’s still shaking hishead. “Okay they are coming.” “What??” Do not worry,” he says, telling them hisplan. The aliens’ loud thump can be heard as they reach their level. He pointsthe flashlight, having retrieved Sergey’s gun, towards the entrance to see thatthey’re actually there…and yep, they’re showing their ugly, and quitefrightening, faces. “Come get us,” Andrei holds the detonator in his other hand…andpresses it. Boom! The two explosives he placed on the platform goes off killingsome of them and sending them falling downward. “Now!!!” he shouts.

Oliviagrabs him while Takashi takes Sergey and they fly out and back up to the top. Noticingthe grenade launcher Andrei left behind, Sergey suggests retrieving it, andthey swoop down quickly to grab it. They then carve a way through the remainingaliens and head into the corridors. “Alexandra, do you hear me?? You need tostart the shuttle, now!! We are heading your way!!” he screams to his radio. Realizingwhat’s going on, the cosmonaut quickly rushes to initiate the start-up sequenceand finish up what she can. The queen and her army are right behind them,catching up, following them like insects bundled together in a chase. Thewould-be heroes zip around and fly randomly through the corridors, trying toavoid them. Two of the aliens zip in their direction from the front through theconduits and quickly materialize, to which Takashi tries to quickly respond byramming them, dropping Sergey down, and sending out a an energy blast, but onlysucceeds in getting one. The other successfully clings to Olivia and Andrei andthey fall down. Olivia repels it backwards towards the rest and Sergey quicklyfires a grenade launcher at it, slowing all of them down. She then quicklypicks him back up, and Takashi Andrei, and they continue their escape. “Westill don’t know how to get around here!! How the hell are we supposed to replaceour way back to the shuttle???” she asks him. At least they seem to have lostthem for a while, and they stop at another intersection to rest for a bit,leaning against the right wall. “So what she asked…how the hell do we replace theshuttle??” Takashi asks tired. “Easy, we just follow the ping,” Sergey answersrandomly. “The what??” they both ask at the same time. “Trust me. Let’s go!” Theypick them up and fly off again following his directions. They spend a good fewminutes going around and around, turning left and right through the darknessand the corridor maze. “Are you sure we’re going the right way??” “We arealmost there. Alexandra, what is the status of the shuttle?” “It is as ready asit will ever be,” she sighs, “I have done what I can to fix it. Now I amwaiting for you,” she explains. “Good. I am following the beacon from it toreplace our way back. Do not turn it off,” he says, “and replace a way to open thegate. One more thing, arm yourself. If those things come for you, you have toweaken their shell first using grenades or explosives…then shoot them. Do youunderstand?” “Da, understood. Find a way to open… How does he expect me to dothat??” She grabs an assault rifle from the cabinet armed with an underslunggrenade launcher and heads out to replace the control panels.