September 23, 2153. 12:43 Earth Time
Mars Scientific Base 27, Barracks
Private Amanda L. Yimins



We're running! I don't know what happened to the trikes, I don't know where the robots or the ship are, I just know that we're running. We stop and hide in a crevice on the side of the canyon that we seem to be inside of.

My friend, Jimmy, turns to me. "Don't move, stay here." He says before running back out into the canyon. I don't know what he's doing here either, I didn't even know he was part of the Mars program. What's going on? I look up and a large black shape covers the sun…and I wake up.

I wake with a gasp and bang my head on the ceiling. "OW!" I yelp as I grab my forehead.
"Whassamater?!" Yells Sam as he pops up in his bed and does the same thing. "OW!"
"Can you guess?" I say, rubbing my head with the back of my hand.

Humanns looks over at me. "You okay?" He asks.

I check my hand for blood. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bad dream." I say and shake my head clear, I'm in a cold sweat. What was that? I look around the room. "Is it dark outside?" I ask.
Sam is closest to the window and looks outside. "Yeah." he says as he turns back to me. "You're sure you're fine? You're sweating."
"Yeah, I noticed, don't worry about me." I take a deep breath, "Just a bad dream." I say insistently as I check the clock on the wall. "Why don't we all get something to eat? We've been asleep for hours."
"Oh, you know how much I look forward to meal times." says Humanns in his sarcastic manner. Of course he's referring to the fact that all of our meals consist of liquid nutrients. Nothing more, nothing less. The government can't afford little conveniences like solids. My teeth are going to be soft by the time I get home. I look at the line of containers that Lonver lined up for us before we went to bed. I find the one labeled Yimins and grab the straw. I take a deep breath before putting the straw in my mouth and sucking in the disgusting white liquid. I swallow it and gag, barely keeping the stuff in my stomach where it belongs. Only me and Lonver have much trouble keeping it down, but the others still hate the taste.
"Jeez, that stuff's gross." says Humunsky, trying to scrape the taste off of his tongue with his teeth. "I want a steak for my birthday." He says.

I laugh, "I'd be happy with some applesauce, anything even remotely solid."
"Nah, if I get something solid I want something good, like a hot dog or something." says Jenkins, swallowing and licking his lips, "Man, that sounds good." He sighs.
"Well, wishing ain't gonna get us there." Says Humanns, "Let's get back to work, I'm gonna go relieve Lonver, you guys should keep checking out that crystal." he says before going through the hatch to the radio room. I look back at the others.
"Well, he's right, let's make ourselves useful until command gets here."
"Command is here." says Lonver as he enters the room. "The ship's entering Mars orbit and is preparing to land."


September 24, 2153. 14:30 Earth Time
On board USS Soulfriend, landing on surface of Mars
Captain Douglas Humus


"Watch your heading," I say to the pilot, "we don't need to implant ourselves into the red dirt. I want to keep this baby clean until we get home."
"Aye, sir." says the pilot as he adjusts the control stick. Of course we have to land on the designated pad anyways, we'll probably crash if we don't; obviously.

We've been called to this dump of an outpost to look at a rock, which I imagine as being all anybody here does. I personally didn't want to come, but I came for the pay. I'm actually getting something like $50,000 just for commanding this ship and getting the fanciest cabin on board. It's a nice deal and I'm the highest paid person on this ship, which is funny because I do almost absolutely nothing besides telling everybody else what to do. I think I've found my dream job.

But I'm actually standing in the control room right now, telling everybody headings and controls that they're all better with than I am. I don't understand the purpose of my job really. I guess I just end up as that all inspiring leader or something, but I don't mind. I look at the forward display screen. I forgot to mention that we can't actually see outside. It's all just cameras and screens because if we had windows this big, we'd all be sucked into the oblivion of space; an experience that I don't want to become familiar with. I look at the main screen and holler, "Isdara, change main screen to lower camera."
"Yes, sir. Changing view screen now." said Private Isdara, one of the many crewmen on the bridge. See, I just have to look like I'm in command, and my job is done. I honestly would consider myself one of the worst candidates for this job. But apparently the situation had been pretty urgent, so they pulled out the first candidate they could find. 'They' being the U.S. government and the rest of the Mars Mission organization.

The main viewing screen changes to a view of the surface of Mars; foolingly smooth from the high elevation but extremely rough once you got down there. It's common thought that Mars is a flat, even face, but it's not. I've heard stories of guys crashing and getting stranded because they hit a hill to hard in their trike or rover. That's why I didn't sign up for actual surface duty. They constantly run around on the surface of Mars, risking their life constantly for…what, science? I would much rather just sit in a control room and stay safe.

I glance at one of the side cameras as we come in for a landing. A huge base sits only half a mile from the landing point. I guess they don't really have to worry about a big fire in an oxygen free atmosphere. I look at the large machine gun turrets that sit by the main door into the complex and think about the few military personnel we have on board. It's not like some other country is just going to come storming over the hill with tanks and aircraft. The few aircraft designed to fly over Mars don't even have weapons. But I guess that doesn't have to apply to the other nations.
"Sir, thirty seconds till touchdown, strap yourself in." says one of my pilots. I sit in the captain's chair and stare at the view screen of the huge scientific base. I know this isn't the base with the rock. It's just a docking station. I still don’t understand why it's so--

Then the base explodes.



September 24, 2153. 14:32 Earth Time
Mars Scientific Base 27, Radio Room
Private Jonathan Humanns

I lunge for the radio, "Humunsky! I just lost contact with Base 4."

I wait a few seconds before he responds with a lazy voice, "What do you mean 'lost contact'?"

I sigh, "I mean, they've completely disappeared from the coms traffic!" I say, trying to bring my urgency to his notice.
"That can't be that big a deal, maybe they've just stopped transmitting." he suggests.
"No way!," I yell into the radio, "I had just been talking to one of their radiomen about the retrieval team. Plus, this is Base 4 we're talking about. They have like…five different radio rooms because of their traffic."
"Well what d'ya want me to do about it?" he asks.
"Take your team and go check it out. Take some guns just in case." I answer in exasperation. "You never know what you might run into."
He scoffs "Yeah, you're tellin' me. I'll get our stuff together and make sure everything's okay. I need you to give me access to the gun safe."
"Roger that, already done." I say as I press the security override for the gun safe. "Take a remote controlled rover too."
"Yeah, whatever you say."
A sudden thought occurs to me. "Can I come with you guys?"
Silence, "Sure, you've got surface and firearms training don't you?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'll, um, get Bryan and come right out." I say. I jump out of my seat and slam the button to call for relief. I turn the airlock for the room and sprint through the various hallways and hatches to the "wardrobe", the place where we keep suits for visitors. I go through the suits and find one that fits me before grabbing an oxygen tank and set of binoculars.

I make sure to run past the gun safe and grab a rifle. Something light, just a standard issue
.38 caliber pistol and a shotgun. Okay, light for me, but these guys don't know what I did before I joined this project.

I run outside and find the other four sitting in their trikes with and open one amongst the group. I can't believe I'm actually going across the surface of Mars. I jump into the cockpit and shut the orange tinted dome behind me before sitting in the 360 degree swivel seat. I press the power key and laugh like a little kid as I hear the hum of the electric powered engine. Oh, boy!
"Here we go, strap yourselves down, we're floorin' it." Says Humunsky before his trike suddenly jumps in front of us. I push my throttle all the way forward and push the trike to its max speed with the others. It's funny, we were always told to never go full speed in the trikes during training. Well, you know what they say, 'Rules are meant to be broken'. I swerve to the right to avoid a boulder and switch from the steering wheel to the joysticks, my preferred method of control. See kids, video games do have benefits. I look at my speedometer, 125. Oh, yeah!
"Humanns, how long a drive is it to Base 4?" asks Yimins.
I feel my palms go sweaty as I hear her voice. "Um…about forty-five miles." I say.
I wait a few seconds before hearing, "Humanns, you there?".
"Oh!", I say as I press the button to activate the radio, "About forty-five miles."
"Okay, then it shouldn't take us much more than twenty minutes." She says, "Right Sam?"
"Hang on a second." he says with obvious strain in his voice, "Yeah, about 21.6 minutes."
"Jeez, Samuel, I never knew you were a math whiz."
"They don't let just anybody into this operation." he says, "Besides, that's an easy formula."
"Whatever you say." I say before turning off my microphone.

We spend the next 21.3 minutes riding and swerving around on the surface of Mars, making our way to Mars Base 4, one of five huge communication and shipping bases on Mars that often come closer to Earth than other bases. I just don't see their communications crashing, something must have gone wrong, maybe a ship crashed, or an assault has been launched from another country. It's unlikely, but not impossible. But the base is pretty well fortified. I don't think they would be destroyed before they could send out a distress signal. I don't know what to expect, but I guess that's why we brought guns. We reach the hill about half a mile from the base.
"Guys, stop here." I say before we go over the top. "If there's anybody unfriendly over there, I don't want to meet them."
"Since when were you a military tactician?" asks Jenkins with a scoff.
"Long story, I'll tell you later." I say quickly, I shouldn't have sounded so professional. We all stop before the crest of the hill and get out of the trikes.
I motion everybody over to me. "Okay, everyone turn off your radios, use them only for emergencies," I say as I turn off my own.
"Why?" asks Yimins
"If there are unfriendly individuals over the hill, they could track us using our coms traffic."
"Dude, where do you learn this stuff?" asks Jenkins.
"I already told you, tell you later." I say as my tactical instincts begin to kick in. "Who has binoculars?" I ask. Nobody answers. "Glad I came prepared." I say as I pull my own from the cockpit of my trike. "I want everybody to crawl." I say as I gesture to Humunsky to follow me and turn away from them towards the crest of the hill. I get down on my belly and drag myself across the dirt. I come over the top of the hill and see the world's biggest bonfire. I put the binoculars up to my eyes and look at the scrap pieces of the once superpower of Mars. I can see bodies spread around the wreckage and a large interplanetary transport ship half imbedded in the ground, also on fire.
Humunsky crawls up next to me, "Whoa!"
"Yeah, that about sums it up, but I don't see anybody alive. I wonder what happened?"
"You don't think it could have been a reactor malfunction." suggests Humunsky.
"No."
"Why makes you so sure?" He asks as he turns to face me.
"The reactor is kept underground, in a large structure to contain the explosion if anything happened." I say.
"There could have been something wrong with the-"
"That's not the problem, it's the fact that the reactor is underground, wouldn't there be a huge crater from the explosion." I say with a smirk.
"Oh! Right. What've you got?" he says with a defeated look.
"I think it was a bombing." I answer.
"What, like a terrorist?" he says, perplexed.
"No, idiot, a fly-by, a plane of some sort."
"That can't be right, who stupid enough to break the international peace agreement?"
"Oh, come on!" I exclaim as I turn towards him, "You think that somebody wouldn't attack this place because of a peace agreement."
"They'd be taking one heck of a chance." he says.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Confusion spreads across his face, "Really?"
"Yeah, it's way too much risk just to attack the national equivalent to a fishing dock." I say. He is right, why take the chance. Then I see something move. I quickly bring the binoculars back up to my eyes.
"What do you see?" he asks.
"Wait!" I say as I continue to search for the object. Then I see it; a green, semitransparent figure, walking among the corpses with what appears to be a spear. "Glowing person?"
"What?"
"Um?" I lower the binoculars and look at him again, "There's someone down there" I put the binoculars back up to my eyes and see the…no way, "I think it's an alien."
He laughs, "Right. Let me see." He says. But I'm already handing him the binoculars as I attempt to suck some air into my lungs. "Oh!" He says as he lifts his face from the binoculars. "Uh…that's an alien." He says with a quiver of fear in his voice.
"See if you can find anymore." I say. He look back into the binoculars and begins scanning the area.
"I don't see any." he says as he looks back at me, "I think we should call this in."
"No."
"What?" he whimpers, "Why not?"
"Because there's only one."
"But it destroyed-"
"Something bigger destroyed that base." I say, determination in my voice, "From my experience, he's been left behind to look for survivors…and finish them."
"What experience?"
"As Sam said, they don't let just anyone into this operation." I say as I raise my eyebrows.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do you know what I did before I signed up for this crap?" I ask him.
"Do I want to know?"
"I was a hit man."
His jaw drops, "What?"
"Hit man. For the government. I killed people for money." I say, and smile at the surprised look on his face.
He thinks about it for a second, "Are you serious?"
"Dead…"
"Who did you kill?"
My smile broadens, "Terrorists mostly, they were going to send me after the president of France before the international peace agreement."
"And what experience does this give you with that alien down there?"
"Basic strategies and, in this case, terrorists." I answer, and point down at the wreckage, "From what I see here, these guys are either trying to scare us away or completely annihilate us."
"Which means?"
"Which means, that this guy is probably left behind to check for survivors so we don't know who did this.
"So you think we should attack him?" he asks.
"Why not? He's alone and there's a chance there might be survivors…no man left behind."
"Okay, should we get the others?"
"Yeah, crawl back and tell them to come up here. You wouldn't happen to have brought some kind of sniper rifle would you." I ask
"I don't think so, but I'll check." he answers before crawling back to the trikes. I continue to scan the area for more glowing guys. A minute later he and the others crawl up on either side of me and Yimins hands me a scoped sniper rifle. I can't identify the model put it looks pretty dang nice.
"Thanks." I say to her without making eye contact. I put the butt of the rifle into my shoulder and look through the scope at the alien at the bottom of the hill. The zoom on the scope must be about five times or so. Not bad considering it was at our scientific base, but still a tough shot at the range I'm shooting from. I take a deep breath and calculate the distance between us. I'm about to lick my finger to check the wind direction when I realize that I'm wearing a glove and there's no wind on Mars. I also don't know the calculation for the gravity of a trajectory so I just aim lower than I would on Earth, and fire. The rifle is quiet in the thin atmosphere and the speed of the bullet amplified. I see the figure clutch at its side and fall over slowly. One shot, one kill…my typical policy.
"Target down." I say
"Couldn't you just say 'he's dead'?" asks Jenkins.
I look over at him, "No. For two reasons." I put up one finger, "One, I don't know if it's dead, and two," I smile, "I don't know if it's a 'he'." I stand up and gesture towards the bottom of the hill. "Now, let's go check on our guest."

September 24 2153. 15:07 Military Time
Base 4 site
Private Mark Jenkins

I don't understand why Humunsky is so pale, but he is. He's been that way since leaving the hilltop with Humanns. I don't think it was the alien, but what else could shake him like that? What did Humanns say to him on top of the hill?

This all goes through my head as I kick over another piece of metal, half looking for survivors and half looking for more green guys. Yimins volunteered to go back and radio Base 3 for backup. I don't think she was just being generous, her voice was shaky as she volunteered and she seemed a bit dizzy since we'd gone into the valley to look for survivors. I look around at the bodies surrounding me. I guess I can't blame her, this is pretty horrible. We reach the alien on the other side of the base and Humanns bends over the body. The thing's pretty ugly; the face has absolutely no facial features or openings with the exception of two slits that I assume are eyes. the arms are the size of a typical persons at the shoulder, but puff out to an extreme weight lifter size between the elbow and the wrist. The chest seems rather puffed up and there's a hole about the size of my mouth right in the middle…gross. Its body thins to the thickness of my neck around the waist and two muscle loaded legs attach to the upper half. The ankle and knee kind of blend together like an ostrich in the middle of the leg and he has a pair of huge two-toed feet. He's-okay, whatever,-it is semitransparent and green. I can see a bunch of his various internal part, now motionless. Oh, and he's about seven feet tall.
"Dang!" I say as I kick it in the head to check if it's alive, "This sucker's big."
"No blood." says Humanns as he gives a thoughtful 'hmmm'.
"Maybe he doesn't have any." I say
"No, its body might just use some kind of gas; he may just breath into his vessels like lungs. It would be more efficient than blood…but," he puts his finger in the air as if making a point, ",it would also make him extremely susceptible to skin punctures."
"So you're saying he could suffocate through his arm, or something?" asks Humunsky.
"Maybe, you never know." he says as he stands back up and gestures the alien's spear, about five feet away. "Sam, could you get that for me?" has asks as he turns to Samuel.
"Why do I have to get it? You're right-"
"Just do it." insists Humanns. Sam gives an exasperated sigh and walks over to pick up the alien tool. He reaches down, grabs it, and attempts to pick it up…attempts.
"Holy crap!" exclaims Sam as he stands up and looks down at the spear, "That's heavy."
"That's why I had you do it." says Humanns with a matter-of-fact tone, "It's possible that these things are a great deal more physically capable than we are, so we have to be careful; try to hide if you see one of them, we still don't know what that spear thing can do."
"Do you think it can be…long range?" I ask him.
Humanns sighs, "As I said earlier, you never know, this if a first contact scenario. I know the protocol." he gives a nervous chuckle, "Just never thought I'd ever have to remember it."
"There's written protocol for meeting aliens?" I ask
"Yeah." he turns to look at me, "Why? Do you think it's a stupid idea?"
"I would…except for that thing lying on the-"
"So what's protocol?" interrupts Humunsky.
"Well," Humanns chuckles again, "first step is to send a diplomacy team to see if the other life form is hostile." He gestures at the carnage around him, "I don't think we need to do that, so the next step is to inform the nearest command of the results of diplomacy." He takes a deep breath, "Which, in this case, might be problem because of the results of our 'diplomacy'."
"Do you think we'll be able to reach Base 3?" I ask him.
He looks at me and wrinkles his brow behind his visor, "You ask a lot of questions."
I shrug, "I'm a questioning person."
"Good enough for me." he says with a smile and a replying shrug, "And to answer your question, no. Our radios don't have the power to contact as far away as Base 3. So we'll have to travel there in the trikes."
A few seconds of silence follows these words.
"Are you crazy?!" I half yell, "With those," I hesitate as I look and point at the dead being on the ground, "things…out there?
"Yes, with those things out there." says Humanns with insulting emphasis on the word, "We don't have a choice. If we don't we're probably gonna die anyways, so I don't know what you're worried about. Besides, it gives us a reason to leave base for awhile." he finishes as he stretches his arms above him with a satisfied sigh.
"What is your problem, you must be crazy to think that I'm following you out there." I say as I point my finger at him.
"What if you were following me?" says Humunsky from out of the blue.
"What do you mean?" I ask as I turn to him, panic beginning to well up inside of me.
He crosses his arms, "I'm going with him. So you can stay at base and refuse to follow my orders if you want to; but if you do, I'll accuse you of insubordination and you'll probably go to prison."
I fall on my knees and hold my head in my hands, "I'm gonna die." I whisper to myself.


September 24, 2153. 15:30 Military Time
Base 4 site
Private Jonathan Humanns


I didn't think this would be such a problem. I didn't expect anybody to panic, but Amanda's and Jenkins' reactions have seriously complicated things. I wasn't super surprised when Amanda volunteered to go back to base, but when Jenkins had his panic attack…I started worrying.

I don't think I've known any of the surface team people very well, but I didn't expect this from the guy who constantly volunteers to walk around in an atmosphere too thin for human beings. I also didn't expect Humunsky to actually agree with my plan. He seemed rather hesitant about just killing the one alien. The only person I'm worried about now is Amanda. She couldn't even stand going into the valley. Sam isn't a problem, I'm sure he's been through a lot based on the way he reacted to the dozens of bodies around the valley.
I take a few steps away from the dead alien and point at the crashed ship, "Let's start looking for survivors. Check the ship first, there might still be some air tight rooms on board."
"Ten-four." says Humunsky with an air of boredom.
"I'm on it." replies Sam, and they both begin walking towards the ship. I look at Jenkins, who is still on his knees and muttering to himself like a mad man.
I bump him in the shoulder with my fist, "Hey, we're going to be fine. All we have to do is lay low and we won't have any problems."
He looks up with a look of realization spreading across his face, "Didn't you say we shouldn't use our radios?"
"Yeah. Why? Did I just-" I stop as I realize what he means…Amanda.





September 24, 2153. 15:30 Military Time
Base 27, airlock door 6
Private Amanda L. Yimins

I hesitate before I radio Lemings to open the airlock. Didn't Humanns say not to use the radios? Oh well, he let me come here to radio Base 3, it can't be that big of a problem.
I put my hand to the button to activate the coms, "Lemings, open up airlock six, I need in."
”Is it just you? I don't see anybody else." he asks.
"I'll tell you once I'm inside, just open the door." I half yell into the radio.
"Okay, jeez! I'm opening it now." he says as I hear the hiss of the airlock. I step in and wait for the beep that lets me know that the room is now air tight and filled with oxygen. I take off my helmet and move as fast as I can up to the radio room.
I burst through the door and yell, "Bring up Base 3 on the radio," I take a deep breath, "there's an alien at Base 4."
"What happened to Base-" he starts.
"Doesn't matter right now, just radio Base 3!" I yell into his ear.
His eyes begin to go wide at my sudden hostility, "Okay, I'll try; I'm not sure our radios will reach that far."
"Well, they'd better." I say as I lean in to listen to the call. He types a series of numbers into a control panel and begins talking.
"Base 27 to Base 3, do you read?"…static.
"Base 27 to Base 3, please respond!" he yells into the radio before turning to me, "They're not responding, what's the big-" He's cut off again by a beeping coming from the control panel.
"What's that?" I ask him.
"Just a radar signature, might be the rest of your team." he says as he brings up a three-dimensional hologram of the area around Base 27, "Huh! Doesn't say it's a trike or anything, I'll send out a radio hail."
"No!" I gasp.
He looks at me, confused, "Why not?"
"Because I know what it is. Sound the evacuation alarm and grab a gun."
"What?" he says as he presses a button and stands up, "What's going on?"
"That's some sort of alien ship, we need to get out of here."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just move!" I yell. A half angry, half scared 'jeez' escapes his mouth as he leaves the room. I follow right behind. It takes us about five minutes for him to get suited up and for us to get him a gun. We run outside, quickly cycling the airlocks and following a small group of engineers to the base's cache of trikes. As I open the hatch for my own trike, a small humming sound fills my ears. I look up into the sky and I have to hold back a scream as I see the source of the sound; a huge, green and black ship with tons of animal-like, green spines coming out just about everywhere. Crap! Everybody's heads look to the sky as it passes over us with the horrible screaming sound of a jet engine.

I close my eyes and wait for the whole base to explode,…but it doesn't. I open my eyes just in time to see a dinner glass sized green capsule land at my feet. A small red light begins flashing and I hear a repeating, vibrating sound. A bomb. I pick it up without thinking and throw it away from the base as far as I can. I don't know what its blast radius is, but I hope it isn't too far. It continues to spin through the sky before it disappears in a flash of green and I lose consciousness.



September 24 2153. 15:50 Military Time
Between Base 4 and Base 27
Lieutenant Levi Humunsky

Of course I was surprised when Humanns suddenly gave the 'order' to round up and jump into the trikes. I didn't question him; whatever my rank is, he obviously has more experience in the combat field than I do. We ran to the trikes and he didn't hesitate to push his throttle past the vehicle's safe engine temperature capacity. He seems really stressed about the possibility of base being attacked; something I didn't expect after his obvious calm when we found the only stronghold within about a hundred miles had been turned to dust and burned by another species. I guess he doesn't want to lose any more people.

We get through the hills about three miles from the base and I see something that I really hadn't bet on…smoke. A huge, billowing black cloud smoke rising into the air and spreading quickly into the thin atmosphere; a telltale sign of destruction. We reach the canyon that we always drive the trikes into and reach the elevator after a another minute's drive.

I jump out of my trike and run to the keypad to punch in the emergency override code for the elevator access. I quickly press the four digit combination and tap the enter button…nothing. I put the code in again, more slowly this time, and press the enter button again…still nothing.
I turn to the others, "I don't think there's any power to the elevators."
Humanns, as typical, smiles as he jumps out of his own trike, "Why don't we use the ladder?"
My head tips back in question, "What ladder?" I ask. He simply points about ten feet to the right of the elevator hatch to the canyon wall. I turn to see a hundred foot, rusty, thin ladder going up to the edge of the canyon. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me?"
Sam jump out of his trike and looks to the top of the ladder, "Well, we'd better start sometime; the aliens might have left another cleanup crew at the base." He turns to me and the tiniest hint of a smile spreads across his face, "I want to see how good those spears work."
Humanns actually laughs, "I would love to see that too, I'll take point. Sam, I want you at the bottom of the ladder covering our rears."
"Yes, sir!" says Sam as he almost salutes. He catches himself as he realizes Humanns isn't even a commanding officer.
"Good, Jenkins, I want you right above Sam on the ladder, try to carry as much first aid equipment as you can; we'll need to treat the wounded."
Jenkins practically falls out of his trike and slowly stands up straight before muttering, "Aye."
Humanns finally turns to me, "Alright boss, time to show us what you're made of." he lets out a nervous chuckle, "And I hope it ain't crap."
I unsling my rifle, "Ladies first."
"Nope, I'll go first." he says as he jump up to the fifth rung in the Mars gravity. I quickly follow while Jenkins and Sam lag behind to bring the medical equipment.
Humanns stops a few rungs from the top and looks down at me, "Wait right there for a second, I'm gonna take a peak." he slowly climbs the last few rungs and looks over the edge of the canyon. He quickly drops back down and curses under his breath.
"What's the problem?" I ask with clear anxiety in my voice, I've got to work on that.
"Aliens, a couple dozen at least." he takes a deep breath, "There're a few busted up trikes nearby, I'll run up and take cover there, you tell Jenkins and Sam to follow, I think I might be able to do some damage here." he climbs over the edge and I hear his heavy footfalls as he sprints to the broken trikes.
I begin pulling some parachute chord out of the pocket on the side of my leg as I wait for Sam and Jenkins to make their way to the top. As Jenkins reaches my heels, I say, "Jenkins tie that stuff to the ladder, you'll need your hands free."
"What for?" asks Jenkins.
"Oh," I hold back chuckle as I attempt to keep Jenkins calm, "we've got a bit of an alien problem over this edge here."
Sam beams, "Toss me the chord." I hand him the length of rope and he quickly ties the medical supplies to the side of the ladder. "Time to clean up."



September 24, 2153. 16:13 Military Time
Base 27
Private Jonathan Humanns

I sprint and crouch behind the trikes, I really hope they didn't see me. I peak through the windshield of one of the trikes and try to get a count on the aliens. Dang! There's a lot of them. I unsling my rifle and set the sites for shorter range; I don't think I'm going to actually have to snipe them, but this is the best I got besides the pump shotgun on my back. I point the gun towards the mess of bodies and wreckage surrounding the base. The base didn't take too much damage, even if it is completely black and the windows are gone. I don't see anyone moving, which could be good, in the fact that someone has the sense to hold still, or bad, which means that they're all dead; which would really suck. I hear a rustling of dirt behind me and I turn to see Humunsky crawling over the edge of the canyon. He quickly crouches and hurries over to sit next to me.
"There are a lot of them." he says. I can hear the fear in his voice and I can tell he's trying to hide it…trying.
I bob my head, "Yeah, if we're smart about it, we might have a chance of killing them without hurting ourselves. We know they're vulnerable to gunfire." I turn as Jenkins crawls over the edge. "Glad you could join the party, keep watch around that corner, don't shoot anything unless it sees you."
He gulps, "Got it."
"As I was saying, we don't need a head shot or an extremely good aim to kill them; you could shoot them in the foot for all I care, just don't miss completely.
Humunsky bobs his head in response, "Right, do you have a real plan?"
"Yes, just wait for-" I stop as Sam comes over the edge, "Oh, good, let's get started." I say before jumping around the edge of our cover and taking aim at the nearest alien…and firing. The creature falls over after grabbing his leg and by the time his body has hit the ground, another round is off. I hear the sound of gunfire to my left and right, no doubt my teammates; but that doesn't matter right now, I just need to focus on my task.

The creatures begin to mass around specific spot and begin to charge at our position.
I lower the barrel of my gun and mutter, "Oh, I would kill for some grenades." No sooner have I said this than a charging alien falls forward from a fatal shot to the arm and two small, ball-shaped, green capsules come tumbling from a black belt around his waist. What are the odds; I didn't even have to do the killing. I pick up one of the little things and look for a pin or button or something. The aliens are within twenty yards now. My hand begins to clench in fear and I hear a click followed by a buzzing sound emanating from the ball in my hand. Oh! So that's how it works.
I yell, "Grenade out!" and throw the little device directly at the lead alien before jumping back behind the trikes and covering my head. My teeth are rattle by the explosion and I feel the trikes shift against my back. I wait for the sudden heat to disappear and look to my right to check on my teammates. I see Jenkins and Humunsky, both looking past me with wide eyes and focusing on something behind me. I silently curse as I turn to see Sam on the ground, wide eyed with fear as he stares into the face of the alien pinning him to the ground.