//------------------------------//
// 1 - Another Glorious Day in the Corps 
// Story: Bug Hunt 
// by Swamphunter 
//------------------------------//











I had been called to this impromptu "meeting" an hour before my psyche evaluation. It was not much of a meeting room, just a table, a couple of chairs and a large video screen with a typical Wey-Yu logo on it that was calmly spinning. A company man as well as a doctor were the only ones present.

"What you're about to see doesn't officially exist, either for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, or the Colonial Marine Corps. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand."

The shadowed, spectacled figure in the business suit motioned over next to the large video screen in front of me. A grainy, washed out video began to filter in.

"This is just a small snippet from about an hour of footage we managed to recollect from the operation on LV-426. It was all we got before the transmitter stationed on board their APC lost the relay signal. I am showing this to you because you're the only one that is currently enlisted with the Marines that also had family stationed on Acheron. You have the right to know what happened."

I nod, not knowing what to expect. I was in for a surprise...




... the video slightly cleared up now, showing the helmet cam footage from the perspective of another Marine this time. My stomach has finally decided to stop doing loop-the-loops. This Marine is "CPL D. HICKS," the name at the bottom corner tells me. They all had their infrared visors flipped down and their motion trackers out. They were looking out for something after what had just occurred.

"He's right, there's nothing back here!" The Corporal says.

A panicked voice from another Marine responds, "Look, I'm tellin' ya! There's something moving and it ain't us! Tracker's off-scale, man. They're all around us, man! Jesus..."

A female voice suddenly speaks. I later find out that it was their squad's medic.

"Maybe they don't show up on infrared at all..."

The company Medic was suddenly screaming her head off as she was snatched by one of the creatures.
A Private was then caught in the middle of a blast from the Medic's flamethrower that she panic-fired. He collapsed down a stairwell to his death. All of their ammunition, which had been collected into a bag for safe keeping by the now-expired Private had caught fire.

"C'MON!" The company Corporal screamed. Grabbing a Marine by the shoulder, he tried to get two of them away from the fires.
The bag exploded.
I could see them both get thrown by the blast. One of the squad mates standing next to them got a face full of shrapnel.

Everyone, from their Sergeant to their Lieutenant began squawking over the radio demanding answers.

"Jesus Christ, Apone! What is going on?!"
"Wierzbowski and Crowe are down!"
"Dietrich! Frost! Sound off!"

The last words the Corporal screamed was the last name of the Marine he tried to help. That Marine had suddenly vanished, with a voice in the background somewhere yelling in a panic.

"Wierzbowski!? WIERZBOWSKI!?"

The screen suddenly went black, and then back to the spinning Wey-Yu logo. The company man had packed up his materials and was already heading to the door.

"That's all I'm permitted to show you. I'm sorry. Good day, Mister Steedman."







"Rise and shine, Marines!" 

I opened my eyes. I snapped back to reality.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Your pesky little Shih Tzu to bring you your slippers and the morning paper? Come on, let's go. Up and at 'em! Assembly's in briefing room two in thirty mikes!"

The Costaguana.
Right.
I'm still on the Costaguana.  I had left gateway with the rest of the Battalion a month ago.
I motioned my hands up to my face, the first activity they've seen since we were all put to bed as we left the core solar system, and rub the three-week crust off that had accumulated. It was that footage that got me put on IR and taken off of the search and rescue mission for the Sulaco, the ship that was supposed to be taking the remaining survivors home. That's what got me replaced on the mission I was supposed to go on to get some solid answers to just what exactly happened in Hadley's Hope.

“God damn it all...” I mumbled with a croak.

I got up from the hypersleep pod and hung my legs over the side. I fought the urge to vomit, however it was increasingly difficult with the Private across from me hurling into a barf bag. The fluorescent lights slightly flickered above me as I crane my neck up to the ceiling, a small series of pops sounding off along my vertebra as I stretch. I can hear the steps of standard issue boots coming towards my pod. I crane my neck back down slightly until I am face to face with Sergeant Val.

"Steedman."

"Ye-" I stopped mid-word as I coughed loudly, and swallow to clear out my throat. I hadn't spoken in almost a month, after all.

"Yeah Sarge, what's up?" I manage to eke out.

"You gonna sit there all day, or do I have to motivate you to get-a-steppin'? C'mon Marcus, hop to it."

"Sure thing, Sarge."

Val turned and goes back to checking out the others as I get up on to my feet. Walking is a significant challenge at the moment as I stumbled over to my locker. They often describe waking from a long hypersleep as a combination of being hung over and seriously jet lagged. While this isn't my first taste of two or three-week hypersleep, you never seem to get used to it. I approached my locker and flip up the latch on the door. It opens, and I peer inside to the mirror as an unshaven, ghastly mug stared back at me. 

I recall back to simpler times, back before I had just the Corps to rely on. I had Sarah McNeil, but she was just your typical Martian valley girl, anyway. Far too interested in wasting money and drinking booze than anything else, like most of Mars' upper class. Just a bunch of spoiled rotten terrans that do nothing but reap the benefits of the terraforming industry that guys like me help keep intact these days.

As I began to get into my BDUs after cleaning up my hair and face, I thought back to that relationship I had with Sarah. It was a fun three months I had on Mars with her and her college buddies. The sex was good at first, but as time went by, I slowly kind of recognized that she was only out to get me to please her daddy, who I heard always wanted a son that would grow up to join the Military. I tried to make the relationship more than just going out to fancy bars and restaurants, and then heading back to my apartment to fuck the night away, but I quickly realized that she had little to no interest in the real me. She wanted the embrace and strength of a soldier, but none of the other baggage that came with it.

I finished getting ready, grab my pack of Marleys, closed my locker and began the trek to the briefing room.

I've got to get into the right mindset again. I've got to get it through my thick skull that what happened on LV-426 stays on LV-426, and move on to the mission at hand. The pressure door to the main corridor opens, and I begin the walk to the conference room.







It's day break in Equestria. After another successful night overseeing the kingdom from the balcony outside her room, Princess Luna stood from her blanket and stretched in a very un-Royal manner. She sighed as her back is relieved from the ever-so slight tension that had been gathering up throughout the evening. Giggling could suddenly be heard behind her as she immediately stood upright and spun around to see who it was that dared to mock her stretching.

Luna stopped herself as she saw her older sister standing in the balcony doorway.

"Hmmhm, another quiet night as usual, little sister?"

"Tia! Please do not do that! We have been so accustomed to the quiet night that any sudden noise can startle us so."

Celestia raises an eyebrow and approaches, "Now Luna, what did we learn about Majestic plurals?"

Luna pauses, "... Oh! Um... that they're outdated and no longer necessary?"

"Precisely."

"Oh, sorry Tia," Luna sighed, "But it's just something we- er, I mean, I need to get re-accustomed to."

Celestia laughed as she joins her sister's side on the balcony, "Well, at least you didn't use the traditional Canterlot voice on me. I'm glad you were able to work out that little issue before more castle servants ended up losing their hearing."

"Now I told you, I already apologized to Chef Tall Order and Scarlett Note for that little, 'misunderstanding.' It was partially your fault, after all."

"And I apologized as well," Celestia stated, "I had no idea that those earmuffs were so effective... and unnoticeable when I placed them around your ears."

Both sisters think back to last month, when Celestia had levitated a set of magically-powered earmuffs onto an unsuspecting Luna as a small joke, who happened to be lounging in her room at the time. Tall Order came into the room to deliver Luna's dinner, and when Luna couldn't hear that Order was telling her a simple, "Bon Appétit," nor that she could hear her own voice, she cranked it up so loud that the entire Northern wing of the castle nearly shook off the foundation. Order was blown out of the room and into the hallway, where Luna's secretary Scarlett Note happened to be walking to her bed chambers for the evening. Scarlett rushed into Luna's chambers, asking what in Equestria was wrong, and was promptly shot out as well.

Both suffered from serious ear damage that was, luckily, treated with old healing solutions left over from when the traditional Canterlot voice was still commonly used. The whole ordeal awoke Shining Armor and Cadance, who were in the completely opposite side of the castle. They rushed over to find Celestia and Luna wrestling each other, with Celestia trying to get the earmuffs off of Luna's head, and Luna practically screaming at her older sister about what this whole thing was about.

Both sisters audibly sighed.

"Luna, what's done is done. Don't worry so much about the past, as you can only make your own fate in the future."

Luna turned to her older sister, "While I understand, lately I have been thinking about my future, and what it entails."

Celestia knelt onto her haunches, motioning Luna to do the same, "Oh?"

"It's just that, I feel like an extra cart wheel around the castle. I don't do much of anything besides raise and lower the moon, and watch over the night. You on the other hand, take care of treaty signings, Hospital visits, your personal teaching sessions at the School for Gifted Unicorns, the tax audits-"

"Luna, it's not like I'm just sitting on my throne all day having a good time. Some of those, well actually, mostly those awful tax audits, are rather tedious jobs that are necessary tasks to keep the country stable. I don't understand, right now you have a life I would beg endlessly for!"

Luna suddenly stood on all fours, "Sister, that's the thing! I don't want this life, I want yours! This life I currently lead is so... so..." Celestia eyed her younger sibling curiously as Luna struggled to find the right word. Finally, Luna exclaimed-

"So BORING! It's so boring I cannot even think of a more clever or colorful adjective to describe it! At least you have things to do besides your given talent." Luna turned and looked out over the kingdom, the sun now in its full stride for its daily trek across the sky, "My stars, the least you could have let me done was fly to the Badlands to see what in Equestria that object was that fell from the sky a month ago."

Celestia sighed, shook her head and stood up with a look of disapproval on her face, "Luna, my dear sister, it's one thing to find something to do to keep yourself entertained. It's another thing to enter the Badlands alone, especially these days following Queen Chrysalis' defeat. I am sure you have read the reports of how completely unruly her armies have become. I have even heard rumors of the changelings being forced to change their diet since the Queen could no longer supply them with the power of love to feast off of."

Luna put a hoof to her chin, thinking back to when Chrysalis and her changeling army managing to invade Canterlot just before the wedding, all for the sole purpose of feeding off of the love that the city generated. She even went as far as to brainwash Shining Armor, kidnap Cadance and then take her place. Chrysalis was a desperate changeling, it showed how bad it was for her kind to survive these days.

"What in the world they were forced to switch to, I dare not think of considering how barren the Badlands are. I cannot allow you to ever go there, no matter what oddities should occur within its borders," stated Celestia, "I lost you once to Nightmare Moon... I cannot bear to lose you again to some unruly, overgrown insects, understand?"

Luna reluctantly nodded, and let out a small yawn. Celestia giggled, "It's past your bedtime, little sister. If you wish to continue this conversation later tonight, you know where to find me."

Luna walked off to her chambers, leaving her older sister to tend to the day. She was right about how the changelings have become such an unknown danger in the matter of six months. They were already a sizable threat, but Luna knows that when something is cornered and out of options, desperate times can call for desperate measures.

She should know. She witnessed it first-hand as Nightmare Moon when she encountered those six that faithful night two years ago.







"Good Morning, Marines."

"GOOD MORNING SIR," the entire conference room echoed back, myself included. Colonel Davis, our CO, stood in the front of the room marveling at the well-oiled machine that is his division, the first division of the 417th Pathfinders of the United States Colonial Marine Corps.

"I trust you all slept well. Welcome to Day 1 of, hopefully, a one day search and rescue. For the fresh replacements here who missed the introduction before we left Gateway, I am Colonel John Davis and you are my crew here on the USS Costaguana.

"We're currently orbiting a planet out just beyond the frontier, designated as LV-1349. LV-1349 is the first planet discovered by Weyland-Yutani that is not only Earth-like, but also astoundingly rich in elements that are all on their Top Ten Most Wanted list."

The entire room was set abuzz with that bit of news. Wey-Yu's "Top Ten list" had become rather infamous in recent years, as it mostly listed elements that became increasingly rare as consumption increased, and were only found in core planets. Most planets were lucky to have two or three that were on the list. Never before did a planet have all ten.

"Now settle down. Because of this discovery, Wey-Yu sent in a ship from their core mining fleet, the USCSS Alhambra. It set down on LV-1349 approximately five weeks ago. They had a successful week of drilling until members of the crew started disappearing. When their dedicated search party also failed to report, the remaining crew, including Captain Michael Reese and Head Science Officer Lindsey Cartwright performed a last-ditch attempt at finding the missing crew. Ultimately, they failed to report back as well."

"Fucking scientists and colonists, man. Don't they know to just stay inside the ship?" The Colonel looked up at my row to the jarhead that spoke out of turn. It was my smartgunner squad mate, Chuck.

"They're miners, not colonists, Corporal Boggs. Might want to update your registry and get up to speed with the rest of us on the situation."

The rest of the conference room softly chuckled as Chuck rebutted, "Miners, colonists, they're all just dumb ass civvies to me, sir."

"Just remember that these civvies pay your checks in taxes. You just do your job and you may be able to buy that new muffler for that rusted old hunk of junk sitting out on your front lawn."

The entire room started having trouble controlling their laughter, made worse by the fact that Chuck really did have an old, beat up muscle car on his front lawn back on Earth that was his own little pride and joy. He loved to shoot the breeze about it whenever things were slow around here.

Chuck responded, "Hell sir, if that's the case, just tell me when and where you want a base of fire, and you got it."

"Alright, knock it off! Don't think for a second I won't assign KP duty to every one of you chuckle-heads." The Sarge to the rescue.

"Thank you Val," The Colonel continued, "Now,  Wey-Yu has made it top priority to get that ship and its current payload back to Earth. Not only to give a positive analysis of what the ship dug up, but also to get it off of the surface before the locals realize they were there without permission."

"Wait... 'locals,' sir?" The room was abuzz once again as one of our dropship pilots, Kelly Eubanks, posed the question to our commander, "Is this planet inhabited?"

"Apparently it is, Lieutenant. A seemingly sentient race of quadruped mammals inhabit most of the planet. Wey-Yu got a whiff of what the planet had to provide, and did an unannounced landing far off from any nearby settlements."

"Are they what got the crew of the Alhambra?"

"We have reason to believe that they were not."

"Then sir, what caused the crew to go missing?"

"I believe I can answer that," the entire room craned back to the automatic door to see the figure enter. It was our android synthetic, carrying a data pad down to the floor of the briefing room, "It has been recorded that there is a splinter race of the inhabitants, far more feral and aggressive than the rest of what the Alhambra team surveyed before making its initial landing."

"Ah Bishop," stated the commander, "so glad you can finally join us."

"Sorry sir, there was a server crash on Weyland-Yutani's side. That, coupled with the weak signal from us being so far out from the nearest satellite relay, caused quite the signal delay."

"That's alright. Please, continue with what these creatures are."

"Well, like I said, they're quite aggressive, and rather primitive in intelligence. They're also insect-like in appearance and work very well in numbers. Swarming is their best strategy when attacking, overwhelming their victims and seeking a hole from which to strike their prey at. If what records we have from the Alhambra are correct, then these are most likely what ceased the crew from reporting back."

Chuck raised his hand before speaking, "Hey uh, Bishop? You said, 'insect-like,' does this mean this mission qualifies as a bug hunt?" The rest of the room began mumbling their disapproval at the notion, "Because we've all heard the rumors of what went down on LV-426. That was supposed to just be a bug hunt as well... and whatever the hell those 'bugs' were on that rock killed every single marine sent down to it."

The room lit up with arguments and complaints of varying levels:

"Acheron? Really!? I thought that was all just a bunch of crap they told the scrubs to prevent them from joining up!"

"Isn't there someone here that had a brother or something go on that FUBAR mission?"

"Fucking figures I get put on this mission. I had a two week pass all ready to go."

"Yeah man, how the hell do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?" Brilliant as always, Chuck. Glad to have you here to put the cherry on the shit sundae.

"ENOUGH! Secure that shit, all of you!!" Bellowed out Val over the entire room, "We all have a job to do and I am NOT putting up with this petty bullshit. If anyone wants out, they can have it, out via the main starboard airlock. Anyone wanna volunteer first?"

The room went stone cold silent.

"No? Then you better hurry, find your balls, and suck it up because I DO NOT time or patience for a bunch of pansies flying off the handle." The room settled back down, the Colonel and Bishop looking to their left at a still-fuming Sarge.

"Thank you again, Val," continued the Colonel, "Now Corporal, to actually answer your question: Yes, I guess this mission can be considered a, 'bug hunt,' should we encounter any of these life forms near or inside the ship. It is extremely unlikely we will find any on the inside, however, since all of the doors to the ship were sealed when the remaining crew left, and only the crew can open them back up via a retinal scan. The scan would pose a problem for us, but thankfully we have two of the best hack bypassers here with us that I've ever commanded. Isn't that right, Steedman and Jones?"

Fuck. I felt the entire room turn to look at me. I hate being on the spot like this. A young blonde bounced up from her seat one row below me, proudly stating, "Sir, yes sir! I won't let you down." The entire room attempted to stifle their laughter at her pluckiness. I slowly got up from my seat and simply said, "Yes sir."

"Good. Now then, I want this to go smooth, and by the numbers. We will send one team down to check on the status of the Alhambra. Should this team find the ship in perfect working order, they will then proceed to power up the Alhambra and attempt to take it into orbit. If there are any issues reported in the launch sequence, we will cancel launch and send down a second team along with the engineers, and begin any necessary repairs.

"I want this whole thing to take no more than 36 hours; I want that ship back in orbit and off of LV-1349 before the end of this coming Thursday. The shorter the better, considering the fact that we're basically playing around in someone else's backyard, and the last thing we need is some sort of Intergalactic incident. The first dropship departs in one hour. You're dismissed. Captains Dyke and Mathers, please see me in my office."

The entire room stood up as the Colonel and the two Captains headed out of the room. Val, who was obviously still steamed at the outbursts earlier, quickly got our attention.

"Alright sweethearts, you heard the man! Lieutenant Kay, I want you and Parker to make sure that dropship is ready for departure. Jones, Steedman and Collier, you're on weapons detail." He then glanced over to Chuck, his face as stern as ever, "Boggs, come down here. I am going to tan your stupid southern hide."

Chuck sighed as he stood up, "I'll be back later, guys. The Sarge is gonna chew me out. Again."

As I got up from my seat and made my way to the stairs leading out of the briefing room, I overheard two privates, O'Donnell and Folsom, talking in a hushed tone a couple of rows down from me.

"I don't know, man."

"I'm telling you, Jim, he's the one that had a relative there on LV-426."

"Art, there's no way he'd be on a mission so soon after that disaster. There's no way the Colonel would authorize that."

"Dude, I'm telling you, that's him. She mentioned the name Steedman when I ran into her on Mars for that Weyland shin-dig I got invited to last year."

"What was the her name?"

"Aw shit, um, Alice? No that's not right... oh! Yeah, it's Alexis! Alexis Steedman."

I exit the room, my head dipped low as visions of the footage kept flashing back in my mind...







"Help!"

"What?"

"Top, get over here! We've got a live one!" The Marines stopped their sweep. They immediately headed over to where the Medic was requesting assistance. There was a girl, strapped to the wall, pale and malnourished from being exposed to the elements inside of the Atmospheric processor for so long.

"You're gonna be alright, you're gonna be alright..." the Medic assured her.

"Please... k-kill me..." the girl pleaded. The camera panned to her fatigued face.

I recognized her. It felt like a shot right through my very essence.

"Just stay calm, we're gonna get you outta here."

The girl started groaning.

"Give me a hand! We gotta get her outta here-"

The girl then started shaking.

"What is it, Dietrich?"

"Convulsions!"

The sickening crunch of bone is then heard. The girl screams. I could barely stand to watch this. I was trying to force it all out, but it kept coming back...

"Dietrich, get back! Get back!" The Sergeant pulled the Medic back just in time for his helmet cam to pick up a blood-covered, worm-like creature ripping out from the girl's chest. It initially had trouble getting through the fabric of her filthy tank top, but it eventually broke through, hissing an unearthly hiss in the process.

I stopped watching at this point. I didn't bother watching again until the shit hits the fan. All I could hear is the flamethrower being fired on the creature, as well as the corpse that is still strung up to the wall that used to be my sister, Alexis.